Many of the direct marketing experts sitting in on our conferences publish their own thoughts. They don't simply publish their thoughts ... they make money at it. Much of what you read here for free will cost you when you go to their website or blog. Our contributing expert, Bob Bly is a good example. A lot of our post: All Of Direct Marketing Is An Emotional Medium came from his advice. Just go to: www.copyformulas.com. There you'll find he charges $29 for his information.
So ... how can you do the same thing?
How do you convert your knowledge in business, work experience, hobbies, passions or pastimes into a stream of income? Why not become an "Infopreneur" by starting a thriving online venture?
I posed this idea at our conference table last Wednesday and discovered there are some major barriers that defeat people from converting their knowledge into a thriving business.
Two of them stand out like a "sore thumb" ... The Technical Barriers(HTML, FTP, CGI, SEO, etc.) because most people do not have these skills and it's too expensive for them to hire the people who do. Then there's ... Hype And Outright Fraud. Search the internet for help and you find it over-run with snake oil salesmen selling get-rich-answers.
One of the experts who has a permanent seat at our table is Ken Evoy, Founder & Chairman of SiteSell, Inc. He says, "Online business building can be successful ... real ... and simple." Why not go to his website and find out? You can get there by clicking the URL below.
http://infopublishing.sitesell.com/harsonhill.html
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
BAM … (Brain, Attitude, Motivation)
This blog …Direct Marketing Brainstormers … was started based upon the minds, ideas and secrets of many of direct marketing’s most respected superstars. It has been a lot of fun sitting around our conference table discussing these ideas and bringing them to our readers and blog followers.
The number of readers and followers have grown in leaps and bounds which is really gratifying to all of us. So, we now have a new mission. We must make Direct Marketing Brainstormers be the spark to ignite our reader’s and follower’s creative BAM … (Brain, Attitude, Motivation.)
Our readers and followers include Marketing Managers, Business Owners, Directors of Marketing in both small and large companies, Copywriters, SEO Managers, Internet Marketing Managers …. and that's only a few of the titles. We want to be a reading source that sparks the mind with ideas to take you or your company to the next level.
BAM is important because no real, ongoing business is built overnight. BAM builds the persistence that fuels you through those final extra steps, the steps that all winning ideas take, the ones just beyond the spot where other thinkers stop and give up.
From time to time we will lead you to others in our Direct Marketing Brainstormers group for you to connect with …. here’s one in our group we’ve had a lot of experience with. It was their ideas that contributed to our blog.
When my company, Harsonhill, builds a website for our clients, we use SiteSell. Not only are all of our clients very happy with the traffic and sales they receive, SiteSell was originally built for very non-technical internet brains like me. They have become so good at what they do, today SiteSell is the most taught internet course at colleges and universities around the world, including Pen State, The University of Arizona and The University of Wisconsin.
Many of our readers have a service to sell … or could be. Selling your own or your company’s knowledge and ideas is the most overlooked opportunity on the Net. Anyone of our readers or followers can build an ever growing client base until they can say … “I’m sorry. I am not taking any new clients.”
For more information, go to:
http://service-selling.sitesell.com/harsonhill.html
Please let us know what you think. Direct Marketing Brainstormers is built for you
The number of readers and followers have grown in leaps and bounds which is really gratifying to all of us. So, we now have a new mission. We must make Direct Marketing Brainstormers be the spark to ignite our reader’s and follower’s creative BAM … (Brain, Attitude, Motivation.)
Our readers and followers include Marketing Managers, Business Owners, Directors of Marketing in both small and large companies, Copywriters, SEO Managers, Internet Marketing Managers …. and that's only a few of the titles. We want to be a reading source that sparks the mind with ideas to take you or your company to the next level.
BAM is important because no real, ongoing business is built overnight. BAM builds the persistence that fuels you through those final extra steps, the steps that all winning ideas take, the ones just beyond the spot where other thinkers stop and give up.
From time to time we will lead you to others in our Direct Marketing Brainstormers group for you to connect with …. here’s one in our group we’ve had a lot of experience with. It was their ideas that contributed to our blog.
When my company, Harsonhill, builds a website for our clients, we use SiteSell. Not only are all of our clients very happy with the traffic and sales they receive, SiteSell was originally built for very non-technical internet brains like me. They have become so good at what they do, today SiteSell is the most taught internet course at colleges and universities around the world, including Pen State, The University of Arizona and The University of Wisconsin.
Many of our readers have a service to sell … or could be. Selling your own or your company’s knowledge and ideas is the most overlooked opportunity on the Net. Anyone of our readers or followers can build an ever growing client base until they can say … “I’m sorry. I am not taking any new clients.”
For more information, go to:
http://service-selling.sitesell.com/harsonhill.html
Please let us know what you think. Direct Marketing Brainstormers is built for you
Friday, April 16, 2010
How To Find “Hot Pockets” Of Internet Customers Eagerly Looking For What You Sell.
By now, I am sure you have gathered I am a big fan of Gary Bencivenga. His “Fuzzy Dice” secret for exploding your sales makes a lot of sense.
A master salesman once told him that selling is quite a simple process, unless you go out of your way to make it complicated. He then taught him his greatest secret for keeping it simple. Gary found it worked like a charm in advertising on the internet as well.
Once you apply this principal to your market, you’ll find it will attract customers the way a large magnet draws metal filings. The key is corral customers by intercepting them whenever they are looking for what you are selling. Applied to the internet, it means matching your selling process to the way people search on line.
Gary calls it his “Fuzzy Dice” Secret.
Let’s say that you sell car accessories. Now, you could create a website and a series of Google and banner ads, trumpeting your product line, “Car Accessories”.
Logical enough, right? It’s what most companies would do. Trouble is, people don’t go online searching for a “product line”. Almost nobody searches for “Car Accessories”. That’s way too broad. When you type those words into the search bar, you get more than 49 million results.
People go on line for a single product. For example, Fuzzy Dice. You know those tacky, spongy dice that dangle from the rearview mirror. Or, leather steering wheel covers, car stereo subwoofers or Mercedes replacement hood ornaments.
Since that’s how people search, that’s the way you should sell. Sell the way your prospects buy … with a rifle shot like “Fuzzy Dice”. Not a shotgun approach like “Car Accessories”. Intercept your hot prospects when they are looking for someone like you.
So … don’t sell a stock market newsletter. Sell a report on “three oil stocks that may soar in the next 12 months because of the worsening worldwide oil squeeze. Don’t sell “retirement planning”. That phrase brings up 41 million internet results. Offer a FREE video on How To Retire To Mexico and Live Like Royalty on $500 a Month or Less.
Don’t sell “gourmet foods” … sell Imported Smoked Scottish Salmon and give it the full sales pitch on why it's the best you can buy.
Yes, you might have many other “gourmet foods” in your quiver …. but you create a simple landing page for each of your best selling products. You then follow up with an e-mail campaign introducing the newly found customer to the other products you have in your gourmet foods store.
A master salesman once told him that selling is quite a simple process, unless you go out of your way to make it complicated. He then taught him his greatest secret for keeping it simple. Gary found it worked like a charm in advertising on the internet as well.
Once you apply this principal to your market, you’ll find it will attract customers the way a large magnet draws metal filings. The key is corral customers by intercepting them whenever they are looking for what you are selling. Applied to the internet, it means matching your selling process to the way people search on line.
Gary calls it his “Fuzzy Dice” Secret.
Let’s say that you sell car accessories. Now, you could create a website and a series of Google and banner ads, trumpeting your product line, “Car Accessories”.
Logical enough, right? It’s what most companies would do. Trouble is, people don’t go online searching for a “product line”. Almost nobody searches for “Car Accessories”. That’s way too broad. When you type those words into the search bar, you get more than 49 million results.
People go on line for a single product. For example, Fuzzy Dice. You know those tacky, spongy dice that dangle from the rearview mirror. Or, leather steering wheel covers, car stereo subwoofers or Mercedes replacement hood ornaments.
Since that’s how people search, that’s the way you should sell. Sell the way your prospects buy … with a rifle shot like “Fuzzy Dice”. Not a shotgun approach like “Car Accessories”. Intercept your hot prospects when they are looking for someone like you.
So … don’t sell a stock market newsletter. Sell a report on “three oil stocks that may soar in the next 12 months because of the worsening worldwide oil squeeze. Don’t sell “retirement planning”. That phrase brings up 41 million internet results. Offer a FREE video on How To Retire To Mexico and Live Like Royalty on $500 a Month or Less.
Don’t sell “gourmet foods” … sell Imported Smoked Scottish Salmon and give it the full sales pitch on why it's the best you can buy.
Yes, you might have many other “gourmet foods” in your quiver …. but you create a simple landing page for each of your best selling products. You then follow up with an e-mail campaign introducing the newly found customer to the other products you have in your gourmet foods store.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Proper Use Of Emotion & Senses Is Key In Direct Marketing
It’s a lot of fun sitting at our conference table discussing the keys to successful direct marketing.
Yesterday I recounted a situation with a wholesale company that I found very frustrating.
A candy wholesaler on the west coast does $5MM to $6MM in sales per year. Almost all of their sales come from their website. They do no advertising. They have never sent a follow-up e-mail campaign asking for a reorder. All they do is sit and wait for the next order. They almost do not care whether the next order comes or not. They seem to be fat and happy with the sales they have and rather look forward to being lazy.
What a crime! With the proper Customer Retention Management (CRM) they could easily double their sales with the customer base they have.
Here’s the opportunity:
Candy directly affects one of the senses: TASTE. Candy is also consumed. IT IS USED UP and NEEDS TO BE REPLACED. And, candy can relate to certain periods during the year: CHRISTMAS, THANKSGIVING, EASTER, etc. What an opportunity to sell more to the customer base this company already has. Direct marketing is an emotional sale. When the senses are involved, the emotional side of the sale is enhanced.
Hence, this is why you see such a success with the following in direct marketing:
FLOWERS: They involve smell and vision beauty. They also involve certain days of the year with heightened activity …. Birthdays, Valentines Day, anniversaries, etc.
TRAVEL/RESORTS: They involve the eyes and dreams of pleasure. Here pictures of a South Seas Resort can weave the dream of pleasure.
PERFUME/COSMETICS/HAIR STYLES: These products and services involve the sense of smell and vision of beauty. One very smart marketer used YouTube with a before and after picture to sell their cosmetics.
The big point we were discussing was the opportunity many companies have by properly keeping a complete database of their customers. Particularly if they are able to tie in their products and/or services to the basic senses. It becomes very easy to weave the dream to create additional sales.
Don’t be lazy and wait for sales to come in over the transom. Create a compelling reason for your customers to come back and buy more.
Yesterday I recounted a situation with a wholesale company that I found very frustrating.
A candy wholesaler on the west coast does $5MM to $6MM in sales per year. Almost all of their sales come from their website. They do no advertising. They have never sent a follow-up e-mail campaign asking for a reorder. All they do is sit and wait for the next order. They almost do not care whether the next order comes or not. They seem to be fat and happy with the sales they have and rather look forward to being lazy.
What a crime! With the proper Customer Retention Management (CRM) they could easily double their sales with the customer base they have.
Here’s the opportunity:
Candy directly affects one of the senses: TASTE. Candy is also consumed. IT IS USED UP and NEEDS TO BE REPLACED. And, candy can relate to certain periods during the year: CHRISTMAS, THANKSGIVING, EASTER, etc. What an opportunity to sell more to the customer base this company already has. Direct marketing is an emotional sale. When the senses are involved, the emotional side of the sale is enhanced.
Hence, this is why you see such a success with the following in direct marketing:
FLOWERS: They involve smell and vision beauty. They also involve certain days of the year with heightened activity …. Birthdays, Valentines Day, anniversaries, etc.
TRAVEL/RESORTS: They involve the eyes and dreams of pleasure. Here pictures of a South Seas Resort can weave the dream of pleasure.
PERFUME/COSMETICS/HAIR STYLES: These products and services involve the sense of smell and vision of beauty. One very smart marketer used YouTube with a before and after picture to sell their cosmetics.
The big point we were discussing was the opportunity many companies have by properly keeping a complete database of their customers. Particularly if they are able to tie in their products and/or services to the basic senses. It becomes very easy to weave the dream to create additional sales.
Don’t be lazy and wait for sales to come in over the transom. Create a compelling reason for your customers to come back and buy more.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Pay Attention To What You Learn From A Merge-Purge
Most direct mailers will perform a merge/purge on the prospect lists they rent for a mailing against their customer or donor file. Obviously, the primary reason is they do not want to mail someone who is already their customer.
However, there's a lot to be learned in the merge/purge process. It has been proven over and over again multiple buyers or multiple donors are better responders. They respond at a better rate and they also purchase or donate at a higher amount.
The first thing to decide is the merge/purge hierarchy. List #1 is obviously your own house file. Many mailers will start the merge/purge process with the rental list that gives them the best response. Then proceed from there. When you find a "hit", a name that appears as your customer as well as a customer on the list you are renting, don't throw the name from the rented list away. In their rental agreement, most mailers make sure they have a clause in the agreement that says they reserve the right to mail that name at a later date.
You now have found a name that is not only your customer but a customer also on the list you are renting. That person is a multiple buyer. Mark that person on your customer list as a multiple buyer. Mail multiple buyers from your customer list under a separate code. You will find the response rate and average dollar order is higher than those who are not multiple buyers. Since you have reserved the right to mail that name from the rented list at a later date, a month later mail that name again with a different offer. You will find the response will be at least 50% to 60% of the original mailing.
Now what do you do with names you find on both your customer list and several of the lists you are renting. The same thing as above. These are multiple-multiple buyers. Then how about those names that are multiple buyers on the lists you are renting but do not match any name on your customer list. Code these names as "outside" multiple buyers. You'll find these names respond better than those you rent who are not multiple buyers.
You can learn a lot from paying close attention to your merge/purge process.
Make sure you discuss this and make a solid plan with your list broker and your merge/purge supplier.
However, there's a lot to be learned in the merge/purge process. It has been proven over and over again multiple buyers or multiple donors are better responders. They respond at a better rate and they also purchase or donate at a higher amount.
The first thing to decide is the merge/purge hierarchy. List #1 is obviously your own house file. Many mailers will start the merge/purge process with the rental list that gives them the best response. Then proceed from there. When you find a "hit", a name that appears as your customer as well as a customer on the list you are renting, don't throw the name from the rented list away. In their rental agreement, most mailers make sure they have a clause in the agreement that says they reserve the right to mail that name at a later date.
You now have found a name that is not only your customer but a customer also on the list you are renting. That person is a multiple buyer. Mark that person on your customer list as a multiple buyer. Mail multiple buyers from your customer list under a separate code. You will find the response rate and average dollar order is higher than those who are not multiple buyers. Since you have reserved the right to mail that name from the rented list at a later date, a month later mail that name again with a different offer. You will find the response will be at least 50% to 60% of the original mailing.
Now what do you do with names you find on both your customer list and several of the lists you are renting. The same thing as above. These are multiple-multiple buyers. Then how about those names that are multiple buyers on the lists you are renting but do not match any name on your customer list. Code these names as "outside" multiple buyers. You'll find these names respond better than those you rent who are not multiple buyers.
You can learn a lot from paying close attention to your merge/purge process.
Make sure you discuss this and make a solid plan with your list broker and your merge/purge supplier.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Important Rule Of Belief
Yesterday we had a discussion at our conference table regarding the enormous number of e-mails and web site promotions we get … all badly crafted … promising the world if we purchased the product or service being promoted.
In today’s skeptical, over-marketed world, with our search for more powerful claims, we can forget too easily one very important copywriting rule:
Never make your claim bigger than your proof. Then, always join the claim and proof at the hip in your headline. This allows you to never trumpet one without the other. If you remember this rule, there is no more powerful or consistent way to explode your response. Surround your claims right up front with stronger, bolder proof and watch your response soar. Why? Because you have created belief. This is particularly true if you are building content copy for your website.
The famous copywriter, Gary Bencivenga says, “Whenever you face the question: ‘Which of these headlines or main themes will likely outpull the other?’ One of the most reliable ways to know in advance, without spending a dime or precious time on testing, is to ask: ‘Which headline offers the more compelling proof?’
Your prospects are not morons. They are as savvy as you. They can spot sales hype miles away. Hype your copy and they will stop reading your e-mails and web pages right away. This is why the smartest, most reliable way to get a prospect to read your message and respond is not to crank up the volume on your promise. That just makes it look like a bigger pile of hype and disbelief.
With this in mind, take the following two headlines … which one promises the reader more proof?
Headline (A.) Tension Headache?
Headline (B.) When Doctors Have Tension Headaches, What Do They Do?
When John Caples tested these two headlines, headline “B” won by a fat and happy 71%
Gary is so right …. He says, remember this always:
Almost everyone in the world, in every field of endeavor, is desperately searching for someone to believe in. Belief is today’s most overlooked, most powerful key to boosting response in any medium.
To learn more about copywriting's important rules of belief, go to:
http://netwriting.sitesell.com/harsonhill.html
In today’s skeptical, over-marketed world, with our search for more powerful claims, we can forget too easily one very important copywriting rule:
Never make your claim bigger than your proof. Then, always join the claim and proof at the hip in your headline. This allows you to never trumpet one without the other. If you remember this rule, there is no more powerful or consistent way to explode your response. Surround your claims right up front with stronger, bolder proof and watch your response soar. Why? Because you have created belief. This is particularly true if you are building content copy for your website.
The famous copywriter, Gary Bencivenga says, “Whenever you face the question: ‘Which of these headlines or main themes will likely outpull the other?’ One of the most reliable ways to know in advance, without spending a dime or precious time on testing, is to ask: ‘Which headline offers the more compelling proof?’
Your prospects are not morons. They are as savvy as you. They can spot sales hype miles away. Hype your copy and they will stop reading your e-mails and web pages right away. This is why the smartest, most reliable way to get a prospect to read your message and respond is not to crank up the volume on your promise. That just makes it look like a bigger pile of hype and disbelief.
With this in mind, take the following two headlines … which one promises the reader more proof?
Headline (A.) Tension Headache?
Headline (B.) When Doctors Have Tension Headaches, What Do They Do?
When John Caples tested these two headlines, headline “B” won by a fat and happy 71%
Gary is so right …. He says, remember this always:
Almost everyone in the world, in every field of endeavor, is desperately searching for someone to believe in. Belief is today’s most overlooked, most powerful key to boosting response in any medium.
To learn more about copywriting's important rules of belief, go to:
http://netwriting.sitesell.com/harsonhill.html
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