Proof of a simple technique that grows your business by 30%

This morning I took one of our vehicles in to get a flat tired fixed. Luckily, the place is real close – and I knew exactly where to go. This time I had an ulterior motive, besides getting the tire fixed.

 

I walked in and saw the stack of papers on the front desk that I wanted to ask about.

 
After looking after the details of the tire repair, I asked… “are your print newsletters the work of Ron Ipach?” 
 

Brian, the owner, came out and looked quite amazed that I knew who Ipach was. After explaining to him that I work in the direct marketing industry, and that I also send print newsletters to my clients, I asked him how the print newsletters work for him.
 

I love this part! 
 

“Well, this summer we stopped running them to see if it wqould impact our sales numbers. After looking at the before and after numbers, we figured it cost us anywhere from 30-45% of our potential revenues for the summer!”

 

All from a simple 4 page print newsletter that goes out to their clients once a month – and THEY DON’T EVEN WRITE IT. Ron Ipach’s group does this for the automotive repair business - - they write it, and send it to you customized for your business (name and logo throughout). 
 

THAT, is the power of simple print newsletters – similar results that I get. 
 

If you are in my database, having bought any of my products in the past, you would have seen my own print newsletter which ranges from 4 to 8 pages (the November edition is 8 pages – packed with tips and techniques to grow your business). 
 

If you want to see an immediate 30% boost in your sales numbers, pick up a copy of the Wild West Wealth DVD Bundle (http://www.WildWestWealth.com) and you will actually receive the exact same template of the newsletter I use – the same once that typically returns to me $5 - $8 for every $1 I invest in my newsletter. Some months, much more. I will also give you the exact places to look for free content to fill much of your newsletter.
 

Look, if you are like me, email can be overwhelming – and your customers are no different. They appreciate you taking the time to put together a print publication and send it to them - - and they will reciprocate with additional sales you may have never received.
 

If you want 2008 to be a kick @ss year – let me show you how to easily grow your business. The fast action bonuses are gone – but the value is still immense. 
 

Have a look for yourself…

http://www.WildWestWealth.com
 

To your success, 

Troy White
 

PS: Also, if you are anywhere in the close proximity to Calgary, you are crazy to miss out on the amazing lineup of speakers I have at the Wild West Wealth Christmas Party on December 5^th (billions of dollars worth of knowledge being shared that day – http://www.WildWestChristmasParty.com) – if you can’t make the day, the evening is also an amazing time to network with success-minded entrepreneurs like yourself.

Myths about direct response marketing – online and off

Skepticism is a part of life – and business.  People don’t trust
you at face value – it is completely up to you to earn their
trust.  With my services, I hear it ALL THE TIME.  Excuses why
it won’t work for them… because their business is “different”.
They tried it before and it failed – so there is no way it will
work now.

“Direct Marketing doesn’t work”

There is really 2 forms of marketing at play… measurable results
marketing… and non-measurable results marketing. 

The kind you cannot directly measure (in terms of dollars
generated from a specific campaign or marketing action) is
commonly called image or brand marketing. The point behind those
kinds of campaigns is to build general awareness of your
offering and your message… and not about specific results on a
day-by-day basis. There have been many multi-million (and
billion) dollar empires built exclusively on this form of
marketing (firms that have never used direct marketing
techniques).

BUT… the average entrepreneur doesn’t have deep enough
pockets to sustain imagine-only advertising.

They need to know right now what ad is working or sales letter
is pulling in clients – and which aren’t.  Without this
knowledge – they will quickly go broke.

When they know which ad, placed in which media publication or
website, works and makes them money – they then have a system
they can repeat until it stops working.  They can measure
exactly what each new lead costs them to generate – and how much
they need to invest in each real lead to convert them to a
paying customer – and then how much to convert each one-time
customer to a repeat buyer.

This knowledge is pure gold when you know it.

And yes, direct marketing DOES work – and can be proven right
down to the penny how well it does work.  You cannot say that
about image or brand awareness campaigns (the exact amount It
made for the business can never be measured as they have no way
of measuring it).

“No one will read all those words – people are different now
and don’t read as much”

There is truth in that people are increasingly lazy and
illiterate. BUT, and this is a big but, are your clients in that
group? If you are trying to sell to a bunch of ADD 13-somethings
– then long copy sales letters with zero graphics probably won’t
work all that well.  But, it you are trying to sell to the
boomer or senior market – they want to know what they are buying
and will research what you are selling until their fears are
alleviated (that is assuming you kept their attention throughout
the copy).

The key is to balance the copy with supporting visuals. And then
to match this balance with your exact target market.

Lots of people (including myself) are testing shorter copy
websites that have people clicking through to specific things
they want to see – rather than asking them to scroll down
through a 25 page sales letter.

People won’t read all those words if they are boring… or if they
are not the right target market… or if the visual appeal is
downright hideous… or if the offer makes no sense or the claim
sounds ridiculous.

You have to test and find out what the balance should be between
words…graphics… message/market match… and the offer.

Only through testing will you know what the right amount of
words is.

And assuming you know is the surest way to kill your marketing
results.  You don’t know what your clients want – until you ask
them (through marketing tests). They will often tell you they
want one thing, but will show different responses when tested.

It is completely up to you to find the perfect match.

“There is a magical percentage conversion rate”

This is quite common.  “I need a 2% conversion rate – anything
below that is unacceptable.” My question to them is “WHY?” Any
person familiar with marketing 101 knows that the real money is
in the backend products and services you sell to your clients.
If you are selling a $25 book – you will never get rich without
something to sell. You MUST have something else – at a much
higher price point – to sell. 

And if you know that 10% of your book buyers will buy your
$1,000 backend offer – who cares if you lose money or break even
on the book sale.

In other words – concern yourself less about the conversion rate
– and start worrying about the PROFIT you make.  If you don’t
have a system in place to up the profit you make after the
initial sale (to a new client) then a 3% conversion rate (which
is very good on it’s own) means nothing other than the fact you
are going broke fast selling your $25 book.

Do you honestly think that a company selling million dollar,
ocean front, gated community homes is concerned about a 1%
response rate to their mailer?  They are more concerned with the
quality of people they attract and the follow up system they use
to make sure the lead buys.

They may only get a 0.1% response rate to their mailer – but it
makes them a million dollars. 

“Hiring a professional marketer or copywriter is guaranteed to
make you a million dollars first time you run the promo”

HA! If you were guaranteed to make a million from a simple
letter campaign – do you think any sane copywriter would price
his services below… say…. $500,000 per letter campaign?

Of course not.

The only guarantees you can expect from your copywriter or
marketer is that they will find the approach that works best
with your clients and your offer. They should be willing to
stick with you, and rewrite, until the perfect combination of
client – offer – and media is found.

Also, if there was a “magic” guarantee and formula that worked
every time – there would only be need for one book or training
course on it – right?

The guarantee is more about the persistence of your team members
to do whatever they need to do to make the promotion work.

Direct marketing is a field few understand – and those who don’t
understand it like to bash it.  Remember, many people use direct
marketing in their business and see exceptional results – and it
can work for you too if you give it a chance and some patience.
The perfect combination of message – market – media and you will
have a winner. But to find the combination, it may take time,
money – and lots of patience.

Direct marketing DOES work… if you know how to work it.

What do you do when it just ain’t working?

A classic problem that every business will face.

You slave away – hours and hours of blood sweat and tears put
into your marketing campaign.

The big day comes… and a good old WHACK upside the head! It just
isn’t doing what it supposed to do.

I ran into this recently with a client of mine.  A very unique
product that helps you lose weight while you sleep – not with
magic pills – or fad diets – or slaughterhouse exercise
routines… but with something much more subtle… and long lasting.

Right from the start, I knew the challenges are:

1)  Major competition. Some of the biggest players out there sell
into this billion dollar marketplace. They have budgets up the
yazoo. They have entire departments focused in on each
advertising campaign.
2)  Skepticism.  For good reason.  With all the diet books –
plans – foods – fads and pills out there – everyone has the
magic cure… or so they say. People who are concerned with their
weight have probably tried some of these plans – a select group
has tried most of them. Chances are with dismal results.
3)  Believability of the ability to lose weight while you sleep.
It is the perfect diet plan right?  But it sounds too good to be
true.

With that in mind we went about some smaller tests with the
campaign I wrote.  It did ok – nothing stellar – but a 3% order
rate is not too bad… could be better though.

So we try some new approaches – and this goes up a little.

And we test more new ideas… and it goes up again.

We are still trying new ideas to help people see that this IS
the real deal and does work. It worked for me – and it has
worked for many others.

The key though for you to take away…

…never give up trying to improve results!

We changed and tested:

-  believability – using more industry statistics – proof that it
delivers – more testimonials
-  order options – we tested pricing – payment options – and
bonuses
-  use of video and audio to improve the personal feel to it

Each one of these played into the believability. And will for
you too.

Always remember though… there are 3 factors you need to consider
in your marketing success.

1)  the message – which is the copy and the way you describe what
is being offered (responsible for approximately 25% of the
success of your campaign)
2)  the media – how you get the message out to your market.
Emails, print letters, postcards, teleseminars, print
advertisements, banner ads – or a combination of them all.
(responsible for approximately 25% of the success of your
campaign)
3) the market – the group of people you know are your best
buyers.  Being that this is responsible for 50% of the success –
it is THE most important factor to consider (although you must
also pay very close attention to the other 2).  You must know
who they are – where they live – what they love – what they fear
– what they read – and every little nuance that makes them who
they are. This BY FAR is the most neglected of the 3.

When you have all 3 in perfect order – your success is much more
likely. Miss one of them – and you could have a failure on your
hands.

Test multiple approaches – know the 3 success factors inside and
out – and find the optimal combination that gets the right
message out, using the correct media, to the right market. Then
you have a winner.

If you are interested in seeing more about the Sleep Slim
solution – have a look here.  Let me know your thoughts. Troy

Are you a new generation marketer?

Denis Waitley wrote - 'Unless you join the generation
of the future, you will be relegated to living in the
past.

That could never be more true with regards to your marketing
and advertising efforts!

You now have an amazing assortment of marketing tools at
your disposal:

- websites
- magazine advertising
- newspapers
- emails
- autoresponders
- podcasting
- blogging
- vlogging
- plogging
- postcards
- direct mail
- dimensional mail
- print on demand books
- voice broadcasting
- fax broadcasting
- vehicle displays
- social networking sites
- chat rooms and forums
- word of mouth
- radio
- television
- yellow pages

...and probably a hundred and fifty other ones I could list
if I put more time into it.

The point is not the tools you have, but how you use them.
PLUS how you integrate them to all work as one.

A tool is just that... a tool. You can use the ones you are
comfortable with - or make do without. Lots of weekend
handymen (or handywomen) can do amazing things with the
tools they have. They don't have all the best, expensive
tools - but they can make do and get a decent output.

Then you have the pros: They have ALL the tools... and they
know how to use them all. When they work - it is like a
ballet... every step of the way looks carefully
choreographed... and the output always is a masterpiece.

It is no different in your marketing. You can make do with
what you know now... and with tools you have at your
immediate disposal.

Or you can hire it out to the pros... where you get more
done... in much less time... with a much greater output.

Or... you can do some yourself and hire some out to the
others.

My point is: The generation of the future will learn how to
use multiple tools and make them work together. Not all -
but enough to cover online AND offline marketing. Enough to
build long-term customer trust... AND to create massive cash
flow surges and new client acquisition programs.

The tools are there... are you learning how to use any new
ones?

What's YOUR backup plan?

The one negative/funny experience that my wife Kari and I
had in San Fran happened to be our "romantic dinner night".

We were highly recommended to dine at Cafe Kati in the
Pacific Heights Area.

A quaint litter restaurant with eclectic taste, narrow
hallways, dark exotic walls and the faint aromas of
delectable dishes.  We even got the best table, with the
best view, thanks to reserving online.  We ordered a nice
bottle of Merlot, some peanut crusted prawns for appetizers
and I ordered the miso glazed black bass in a dashi broth
for my main course.

Yum!

Watching the other dinners come out and be delivered to the
other guests was purely teasing... and only builds the
hunger pains.

The wine was excellent, and the prawns were to die for.

NOW we were really looking forward to the main course.

Until...

BANG! CLANG, CLATTER, BANG

Pots and pans went a flying in the kitchen area, someone
could be heard screaming in frustration.  Something BIG was
up.

Not quite sure what was happening, we kept enjoying our wine
until I noticed a mass exodus of our fellow patrons.  Just
then the waitress comes over and says...

"you have to leave NOW! Our chef/owner is having a really
bad day and is closing up for the night."

Then she gave us the bill for the wine and appetizers!

So we had to guzzle our $50 bottle of wine - and walk out in
search of some dinner.

Not impressed.

Now, what happens to a business that has no backup plan in
this kind of situation?

#1 - someone like myself goes online and tells the world
about our bad experience - remember - www.cafekati.com - who
knows how many people may read this, or hear of this from
others.

#2 - they have received a formal complaint from us

#3 - I have told everyone we know this story... yes, it is
funny, but I would never go there again

#4 - 10 tables x 2 at each table = 20 people who each tell
10 people = now you have 200 people at a minimum who know
the chef at this place is a flake!

and...

#5 - the person who recommended me there (all the way from
Calgary Canada) now knows and will never tell anyone else
again about this place. And he knows a lot of people!

Total damage done = massive.

What could they have done?

They should have had a backup plan in place.  Backup staff,
chefs, whatever... find a way to keep the doors open and
serve your guests. And NEVER ask them to pay for the crappy
service you gave them. You should bribe them to come back
not charge them for abusing them.

What do YOU have in place for your business for backup?

What would happen if your computers disappeared over night?

What would happen if you fell ill for 3 months?

You must think about your backup plan - if you don't the
damage can be massive and take you years to overcome.

Think about what COULD happen... then make sure it doesn't!

Do internet marketers think too small?

Yes, they do. And it's truly sad.

Don't get me wrong - the internet is a wonderful tool to
have in your toolkit. I run a number of sites that make me
an ongoing income so I can't speak negatively about the
internet.

I personally think that most of them have it ALL wrong
though when it comes to building a long term, sustainable
business.

Not all of them, as there are some great marketers online
that quietly do offline marketing as well.  But most
"internet" marketers are putting themselves in danger.

Why?

Well - number 1 reason is your database.  You've probably
heard it a thousand times... "the gold is in the list" -
which is true.

>> But, "the gold is in an email address" is NOT true. <<

With the massive amounts of sp@m going around (not so funny
now how legislation has made it worse!) it is only the
matter of time before those emails will be taxed for every
email you send them - or will be under such tight scrutiny
from government controls that you won't be able to send
emails the same way you do today.

There are some people making very good incomes with online
only marketing... but they think too small.

If they started putting 10-20% of their efforts (to start)
into collecting offline names and addresses and sending THE
EXACT SAME marketing messages to them in print - the proof
shows they would get 5 - 10 X the response.

This is based on my own numbers - based on any one of the
big offline marketers that tests their same marketing
online.

At the recent Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Info Marketing Summit
- Porter Stansbury revealed the dramatic differences between
their online and offline response.

Dan Kennedy just wrote in his Perilous Times report
"if you rely on any one media for more than 20% of
your income, you have an inbalanced, poorly run,
exceptionally fragile and vulnerable business."

(the internet is only one media channel if many
others you can choose from - direct mail, radio,
telemarketing, etc...)

Number 2: The Google boys are not stupid either.

The little games the online marketers are playing to beat
the search engines - they work for a while then google
catches them and they lose all their sites (and their
income) - then they start all over again rebuilding their
business... is that the way YOU want to run your business?

The only reason people are making money with online only
marketing is that there is almost zero cost to doing it
online... but it will not stay that way.

When the costs to run your online marketing efforts are
equal to the offline efforts - you will see a lot less of
the junk in your mailbox and the quality of the content will
be higher as well.

Number 3: People still love to hold paper in their hands and
will sit down with a long copy sales letter or report and
read it - much tougher to get people to do that from their
computer screen (have you ever tried to read a 200 page
ebook? Painful - but print it off - and it's much easier.)

For 2006, start finding ways to collect physical addresses
from your internet efforts. You will have doubled the number
of ways you can communicate with your clients and prospects
- and you WILL experience a dramatic boost to your responses
and offers.

Now, I have an offer for you (I would hope so after an
article like this!) .  I would like to ship you a few things
to start your 2006 off right.

** First, DVD recording of my Marketing ESP formula (people
paid $97 to be at the seminar)

** Second, 3 Ways To Grow Your Business Report

** Third, Creative Marketing Tips Booklet - hot off the
press

** Fourth, "Whatever It Takes!" color vision board for your
desk to keep you focused on what's important

I would love to send all of this to you for fre.e... but I
do need to charge a paltry $4.95 for shipping and handling
of this. That's peanuts though!

An hour long training video - 2 booklets that will show you
what you need to do to make 2006 your best year ever - and a
great poster to put up on your desk to keep you focused.

All that - for $4.95 - call me crazy - but it's the holiday
season.

Tell you what, invest in this package and I will also throw
in a teleseminar class for mid-December on "How To Make 2006
Your Best, and Most Profitable EVER!".

http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=178628

A very fair deal, I'd think.

So make sure you move your online business offline - and get
ready for your best year ever!

To your success, Troy D White

PS - where else can you find these kind of tools, training,
and support - for less than the price of a large cappuccino,
frothmaster, carmel-machiato-freeze-my-brain, chocolate
fudge sunday supreme from Starbucks?

http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=178628

7 Steps To Make Your Promotions Work... and Make Money

1) Look at your promotional pieces like your recipients will
see them.  Pretend you are them... get in their shoes, feel
their fears, doubts and skepticism.  Would you read and take
action on your promotions if you were them?

2) Are you asking them to take some form of action? If not, you
are throwing away your money. You must ask them to order,
request more information, ask for a free report, refer a
friend, upgrade, trade-in, or whatever it is you want them
to do. If you don't ask them - they won't do anything.

3) Do your top 3 benefits hit them between the eyes? Your
biggest benefits (to the clients) should be front and center
in your promotions... and they should make your customers
say "wow, this is me - exactly what I was
feeling/thinking/scared of!"

4) If your promotional piece written to them? Does it talk
about them? Count the mentions of "you or yours" and then
count the mention of "I, me, or we". If your promotions do
not mention "you or yours" at least 5 times more than the
other - rewrite it until it does.

5) Do you use proof? Testimonials, before and after photos,
case studies, specific proof and numbers. They will not
believe you until you do - so make sure you have ample proof
of your claims. Would you buy what you're selling based on
the information that is in your promotional piece?

6) Have you made your very best offer? More bonuses, better
payment options, stronger guarantees, bundled with other
products or services, time lines or deadlines? Do you give
them a reason to take action NOW?

7) Do you make it easy to take action now? Multiple ways they
can order or contact you? The easier you make it the more
they will respond.

If you are not doing the above - why not? How can you
honestly expect them to take action if you wouldn't? 

Extra effort at the front will ALWAYS pay off in the end.

Marketing Makeovers By 5 Yr Old Twins

Wow - where in the heck does time go?

5 years ago my twin daughters Katrina and Hailey were born.  They were actually
born in another province and had already been on 2 learjet airplanes by the time
they were 2 weeks old - but that's for another story.

Their birthday is on Monday and boy, am I feeling old... and eternally grateful.

In honor of their birthday, I let them give me a makeover a while back (yes -
complete with hair clips and makeup unfortunately).

The great thing was that out of my own makeover came some fantastic marketing
results...

http://www.smallbusinesscopywriter.com/makeover.htm

** Complete with pictures - very scary - I'm warning you now.

Have a look for yourself - there is a valuable lesson in there - and some
incriminating photos as well.

Troy

http://www.smallbusinesscopywriter.com/makeover.htm

The Power of Incremental Improvement

In all your marketing efforts you must start measuring results, and testing changes.  You need to measure specific results to know if it works - or not. Measure sales, phone calls, emails, signups, measure anything and everything possible. 

This sounds simple - but are you doing it? 

Keep a simple spreadsheet by your side - nothing fancy - just something to tell you if what you are doing is working - and what must be done to improve results.

Once you have results measured (which is now called your control statistics) - you can start making changes to see if you can improve on the results you've already measured.  You can change (and measure the results): headlines, body copy, the offer, the guarantee, the bonuses, the graphic look of your site, the fonts used, the order form, the product promise, the main benefit lead... you name it... you can change and test it. 

BUT, only test one change at a time so you can get results that are legitimate comparisons to your old control.

This also applies to any training classes or events you put on.

Try new approaches, new content, new deliver and follow up programs. Find out what people respond to.

Just recently, I tested this with my Calgary Marketing Clinic. It have been holding the clinics for 2 years now and just recently made some massive changes to the content.  It is still a 2 day intensive clinic that is designed to completely rework the way you look at, and do, your marketing.

I have added in a 2 month follow up program AFTER the clinic so entrepreneurs can learn about better marketing, write better marketing pieces - and then have me there to kick their butts and get them testing the new marketing materials we created.

The clinic that just wrapped up had my best reviews ever (from the feedback forms - one type of testing and measuring). 

Here's what one client said...

"Dear Troy

Thanks so much for delivering on your Marketing Clinic.

I don't think I've ever walked away from a two day workshop with so many practical tools. Not only did you tell us about the process, we experienced it first hand and learned how to apply it to our own personal business.

I totally enjoyed it and learned more than I probably realize right now."

Fenna Schaapman
www.solidgroundenenergetics.ca

A fine testimonial like that will work wonders for my marketing! And is proof that my changes were appropriate.

Start making changes in your marketing efforts now. Try one thing at a time, and make sure you measure every little change. The differences may astound you!

And if you want help in your marketing - The Calgary Marketing Clinic will be held again October 27-28. Join me and I will guarantee you get the results you want in your marketing.

Entrepreneurs Without a Clue...

Recently I got tired of the local resources available to small business owners - so I took it into my own hands.  Calgary, where I live, has well over 100,000 businesses - yet has no decent educational offerings for entrepreneurs who are out on the street. Sure, there are basic courses on what marketing is - but nothing for people who already are out there marketing and want better results.

So I partnered up with a local business leader, Mandie Crawford who runs Roaring Women. We have created The Business Burst which is a very inexpensive breakfast meeting that is designed to help educate entrepreneurs with practical tips and techniques to grow their business.

Today was our first meeting... the problem?

Entrepreneurs without a clue!

Half the people registered didn't even show up.  That in itself says everything I need to know about the way they run their businesses.

90% of success is in just showing up - these people don't get it. They complain about poor cash flow, lack of clients, problem clients, or name your issue to whine about here.

Despite people willing to show them the way - they refuse to listen.

Or they just don't get it... "my business is different, marketing doesn't work for _____ types of business, I already know this, etc - businesses are all the same in one thing - they ALL deal with people. Learn how to deal with people and you can increase your sales. Marketing does work when you know what type of marketing to do. And if they already knew it, they would be successful already!

Sorry about the rant, but there is a lesson here. 

Everyone can learn something new about growing your business. The most successful people in the world invest tens of thousands of dollars a year in additional training - yet those that are struggling "know it already". 

There are always things to learn - test and tweak in your business. And if you aren't even willing to show up and try new things... you will never get what you want.

Harsh but true!

If you want a serious way to show up and test your marketing online - try this free tool for testing - test your headlines, copy, order forms etc.  You just have to love free tools like this.

Show up - and get serious about your business. Your clients will thank you!