1 Weird Way to Build a Website Business

Last week on my way to Chicago for the Kennedy SuperConference marketing seminar, I ran into an old college buddy in airport security.

We went up to the lounge for a pint of Guinness, and he asked me where I was going.

Me: “Seminar in Chicago.”

Him: “What’s it about?”

Me: “Um, I guess the best description is ‘direct marketing’. Basically shows you how to get more leads and customers. A lot of tips on using direct mail.”

Hmmm, I thought.

The “internet guy” (me) was going to a seminar on how to use snail mail to get more customers.

But then again, I’ve done that in the past.

Let me explain how I used this 1 weird way to build my website business.

Way back in 2007 I held a seminar in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Over a weekend, I taught 53 fitness professionals how to sell fitness information products (i.e. e-books, DVDs, etc.) on the internet. We filmed the seminar and turned it into a DVD home study course.

From there, I purchased half-page ads in a magazine that went out to 25,000 fitness professionals.

The ad offered a free CD explaining how to get started selling info products online.

Readers could respond by internet or mail (and we did have quite a few people who filled out the form in the magazine and mailed in their request).

The CD was shipped to them and it also included a sales letter for the DVD course.

The system worked like a charm.

After deducting my advertising and CD production and shipping costs, my sales gave me a direct 2.5 to 1 return on investment.

(That doesn’t include the sales I made on getting DVD customers to upgrade into my Mastermind Coaching group.)

You really COULD use offline direct marketing to sell a product on how to get started with a website business.

But really, that should come as no surprise, because ALL marketing is about following proven principles, which is what I did.

Here are just some of the proven principles I used, and that YOU could easily use in your marketplace to start getting interested prospects to your site – and eventually turning them into customers.

Who knows, you might even use this system and ABANDON the internet to become a full-time offline direct marketer?

You’ll need:

1. Access to the right people – List selection is one of the most important, but often overlooked, aspects of a successful campaign.

Obviously I chose a magazine that catered to my desired demographic.

I would have lost a lot of money if I had run the same ad in a local newspaper. So choose your audience wisely.

2. A compelling offer to get people to raise their hand and proclaim their interest.

I gave away a free CD. Key word, free. I didn’t ask them to pay shipping and handling. I didn’t worry about covering my costs, because I didn’t want to lose interested prospects by being cheap.

I knew that the real offer – conveyed on the CD and in the accompanying sales letter – would help me make my money back.

3. Great copy – I spent a lot of time on that salesletter, and it paid off. Check out this article for 3 tips on making your copy better:

=> http://internetindependence.com/sales-copy-tips

There’s also a link to a 90-minute teleseminar I did that shows you how to write copy. (It’s free.)

In the salesletter I sent, I had a great headline that compelled them to read on, there were testimonials, a guarantee, and another item that might be the most important of all…

4. A deadline to act – I offered the DVD set at a significant discount, but with a deadline.

And a deadline, as you know, is the #1 thing that gets people to take action.

Make sure that your offer has one.

5. A grabber – If you’re going to do direct mail, you first have to make sure that your mail gets opened.

It was easy for me, because I sent a CD packaged with the salesletter, so when it arrived, there’s no doubt that the recipient was interested – if not excited – to open it up and see what they had “ordered”.

Everyone likes “gifts” that come in the mail.

I still get excited each time I receive an Amazon box, because I always forget what books I’ve ordered.

With your direct mail, you can add any sort of related trinket to your mail package so that your reader receives “lumpy mail”. (That means it’s not just another boring old flat envelope containing junk mail.)

Alright, I’m going to stop there, but I could go on and on about direct marketing and direct mail.

That’s a topic for a more in-depth conversation.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to expand your search for customers.

To your success,

Craig Ballantyne
Blog – http://www.InternetIndependence.com
Facebook – http://www.InternetIndependenceUpdates.com

“Everything you do today should be done with the purpose of selling more pay-per-views.” – Lorenzo Fertitta, CEO of the UFC, demonstrating the importance of focusing on a single goal while instructing his staff on their day-to-day activities.

For a great interview with him and demonstration of persistence, check out this video: