12 Months James

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safety is on the line, your brute strength is all you
have to survive., If you were H-U-G-E, do you really
think it's going to be easy for men to kick sand in
your face? I don't think so!
It sure would be worth it if you were a businessman-
especially if you have to negotiate high-stakes deals.
Trust me-- you'll always dominate the deaL. leaving the
conference room with everything you want. Those
pencil-neck geeks would be too scared to tell you
"no" ...They'll think you'd hit them over the head with
one of your cannons!
Just imagine how good you'd look if you had 15 to
25 more pounds of rock-hard, USDA Prime Filet muscle?
And a L the same time, was much leaner...Women will
SWARM around you ...You'll instill FEAR and INTIMIDATION
in the hearts of every man you come in contact with-
both personally and professionally!
DynaBolics was designed to totally change the way
people "see" you in their eyes!
Who Else Wants To Start Experiencing Mind-Boggling
Growth In Just A Few Weeks?
DynaBolics may work so fast, .in just a few weeks,
you may start noticing your shirt sleeves and pant
legs getting tighter, and the longer you use
DynaBolics, the BIGGER and B-I-G-G-E-R you may get!
I'd bet you'd want to continue taking DynaBolics for
years ...Why would any sane man want to discontinue its
use? DynaBolics is probably the most amazing
innovation to ever hit the bodybuilding world!
Instant Muscle For Couch Potatoes?
DynaBolics is designed to bind to GDF8, which
keeps your muscles small. Most users are not
bodybuilders. But like anything in life, the more you
put into this, the more results you'll experience. If
you are "into" working out...your results will only be
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faster. It's possible to gain championship size in
about 12 to 16 weeks- instead of the 3 to 5 years it
usually takes!
Imagine What You May Look Like In Just A Few Months ...
Week by week ...you'll be standing in the mirror,
tape measure in hand- with a smile on your face that
just won't go away. Arms, chest, and stomach so ripped
up, you'll think it's not really "your" body ...You'll
have to pinch yourself to prove its really "All You"!
DynaBolics Was Created To DOUBLE Your Current
Strength ...DOUBLE Your Current Size ...and Can Make Your
Definition So We~l Chiseled; You'll Look Like A Greek
Statue!
Take DynaBolics for 16 weeks and if you don't
"FEEL" your arms growing ...don't "FEEL" your strength
increasing ...and don't "SEE" fat starting to evaporate ...
send the empty bottles back for a DOUBLE YOUR MONEY
BACK refund of your purchase price. I can offer you
such a no-risk guarantee because I KNOW an
overwhelming number of men who are using this product
are experiencing results that almost defy belief! I
challenge you to tell us these pills do not change
your life.
So what you should do right now is order
DynaBolics. We're currently having a special where you
can get your first months supply for just $59.95 a
bottle. So, have your credit card ready and call 1-
800-123-4567 or send it in the mail. The address is
7500 West Lake Mead Blvd., Suite 9-482, Las Vegas,
Nevada 89128. Supplies are limited, and every day that
goes by is just one more day you'll have to wait to
have that muscular, strong, sexy body you've always
craved! And remember, you'll get DOUBLE YOUR MONEY
BACK if DynaBolics fails to impress you after 120
days.
I55
But you got to hurry- I only have 2384 bottles in
stock- that's enough of a supply to last me 7 days or
so. And at this low price (65% off), they'll surely be
gone in a week. Plus, so you don't get stuck paying
our $99.95 retail price on future bottles (if you can
even get your hands on them because our supply is so
limited), you'll receive FREE membership into our
Preferred Customer Club- usually reserved for
Professional Bodybuilders, where you'll save $60 on
all your future month's supplies. And so you don't go
a day without DynaBolics in your system- even when our
supplies are sold out to the general public, you're
GUARANTEED a fresh 30-day supply every month- sent
automatically and you'll pay just $39.95 plus $7
shipping/handling. Cancel shipments anytime .
....-,
Id~)~1)~
Benjamin Bergin for MedEx Laboratories
To Order Call: 1-800-123-4567
ps: What man wouldn't want DynaBolics? Just a few
pills a day and in minimal time you may "OWN" those
muscles that were always too darned hard to build-
without countless hours in the gym! The bottom line ...
if you block the effects of GDF8 long enough, you
may literally attain a muscular physique so enormous,
it was once impossible to obtain- but The Future Has
Arrived!
pps: The active ingredient in DynaBolics is a rare sea
algae called Cystoseria Canariensis, which was first
discovered by researchers at Las Palmas University in
Spain. Production of this ingredient is impossible
without the use of a precisely controlled, hydroponic
farm Lo maintain ideal growing conditions. This means
only a small amount of this ingredient can be produced
at a time. So to guarantee you'll be able to reserve
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DynaBolics, you'd better order now. Once we are sold
out of DynaBolics we'll be forced to turn away new
customers until the next batch is available which may
be 120 days from now. So again, our phone number is 1-
800-123-4567 or if you can send your card info in the
mail. Our address is 7500 West Lake Mead Blvd., Suite
9-482, Las Vegas, Nevada 89128. And don't forget-
you're protected by a full 120-Day DOUBLE YOUR MONEY
BACK GUARANTEE. ..so there J s no risk on your part! You
have nothing to lose ... it's that plain and simple.
PPPS: Make sure to read the CLINICAL STUDY RESULTS
from Zakir Ramazanov, PhD, Musa Abidov, MD, and Miguel
Jimenez del Rio, PhD. It's SOLID PROOF this is REAL.
***
Let me ask you a question ... after reading this, even if you weren't
a bodybuilder ... did it stir you up a bit? This was a great example
of some killer copy. You should want all your sales letters to sound
this compelling.
There are a couple of things I want to cover that are "golden rules"
of writing copy.
YOU... not WE.
Do you know what pisses me off? When I get letters in the mail
from a company that sounds like this, "We're so pleased to
announce our new facility. We pride ourselves on having the best
service, best prices, and widest selection. We feel our customers
are very important to us, and we treat them like family, we, we, we,
we, we, yadda ... yadda ... yadda ... snore ... snore ... "- then in the
trash it goes.
You cannot write copy like this. The reader does not care about
you and your plant ... or what you feel..; "we" is as bad as saying
FUCK in your sales letters.
The right way to write copy is from the reader's viewpoint. You're
going to want to say "You" a lot ... and for every 5 times you say
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"you", it's all right to say "1". Here's an example from the sales
letter I've reprinted for you earlier:
Is A New, Muscular, and Hulk-Like
Body Worth $59.95 To You?
It sure would be worth it if you're single and after taking
DynaBolics, you start to attract beautiful women, twice as hot as
your previous lovers. Could you imagine the new sex-life that is
waiting for you?
It sure would be worth it if you were ever in a violent confrontation
with one or more men. When your safety is on the line, your brute
strength is all you have to survive. If you were H-U-G-E, do you
really think it's going to be easy for men to kick sand in your face?
I don't think so!
It sure would be worth it if you were a businessman- especially if
you have to negotiate high-stakes deals. Trust me- you'll always
dominate the deal ... leaving the conference room with everything
you want. Those pencil-neck geeks would be too scared to tell you
"no"... They'll think you'd hit them over the head with one of your
cannons!
Do you see how the entire thing was focused on the reader of the
letter? Nowhere does it say "we", or "us" ... it's all about the reader.
Write In The First Person.
This is pretty easy to understand.Write in plain-old conversational
talk as if you were really talking to the person you are writing to.
Just as if it were a script you were going to read out loud ... you
must write in the first person ... the way this entire book was
written ... the way the sales letter I've reprinted was written.
Urgency.
When you get to the "close" of your letter. .. you're going to want to
get them to order right now. If you allow them to put the letter
down and think about it later. .. or even order later ... there's a
chance they'll forget to ever order! You want to compel them to
order on the spot ... as if they are lucky they received your sales
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letter or read your ad in enough time to "get-in" on this deal! If you
have a limited quantity, say so. If your price is going to go up ... say
so ... If the special free bonuses are only for the first 250 people to
order ... say so. But most importantly, make sure it's believable.
Give them a reason why it's a rare product... and the quantity is
limited ... like I did in the sales letter I've reprinted earlier in this
chapter. Here's it is again for you to review:
The active ingredient in DynaBolics is a rare sea algae called
Cystoseria Canariensis, which was first discovered by researchers
at Las Palmas University in Spain. Production of this ingredient is
impossible without the use of a precisely controlled, hydroponic
farm to maintain ideal growing conditions. This means only a small
amount of this ingredient can be produced at a time. So to
guarantee you'll be able to reserve DynaBolics, you'd better order
now. Once we are sold out of DynaBolics we'll be forced to tum
away new customers until the next batch is available which may
be 120 days from now.
Do you see how we made it believable that this ingredient was
rare? I had a story behind it. It makes sense to the reader.
Even if you have to "manufacture" your urgency technique ... Gary
Halbert told me about a furniture sale promotion he was working
on with a client. He actually went to the warehouse with his client
and put a hole in the roof of the warehouse, then did an ad saying
all the furniture must be sold- even at a loss, because the store
owner's wife had the truck put a delivery in the wrong warehouse.
Since it's going to rain in a few days ... and since the warehouse
has a hole in the roof ... everything has to go- even if they lose
money on the sale ... or else the furniture is worthless! Did they
really make a hole in the roof? Who knows ... but you get the
"point" I'm trying to imply.
The "IFjTHEN" First Sentence.
A proven way to open a sales letter is to use the If/Then first
sentence. It goes something like this, "If you're looking to pack on
19.7 pounds of rock-hard USDA Prime muscle within the next 30
days ... then this will be the most important letter you'll read all
week!"
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159
I use all different kinds of opening sentences ... but this version is
proven to work ... and at this point in your writing career. .. you
want to play it on the safe, proven, reliable side ... right?
Captions.
If you are using a photograph ... you absolutely must use a caption
under the image. In a magazine ad, the first thing a reader sees is
the image ... the second thing he does is read the caption ...
sometimes even before he sees or reads the damn headline!
ALWAYSUSE A CAPTION UNDER A PHOTO IF YOU ARE USING A
PHOTO!
The -r.s.'
The PS is the second .most read thing in a sales letter. The first
thing they read is the headline, then they go right for the PS. It
would be wise to restate the entire offer in a nutshell for the PS of
any sales letter. Pretend the PS is being read all by itself- without
the sales letter. .. you want to get the entire offer across to your
reader.
The Length Of Copy.
The amount of copy to write can be compared to a woman's dress.
Short enough to keep your interest. Long enough to cover all the
essentials. Usually a full page in a magazine ... four pages in a sales
letter. .. unless you're selling a product everyone already knows
about- like Microsoft Office software. A simple postcard advertising
a price break will out pull a 4-page letter talking all about how
Microsoft created it.
The 6 Parts Of a Sales Pitch In Your Sales Letter or Ad:
1. The Headline or Opening Thrust.
The headline is the most important part of your sales letter or
advertisement. David Ogilvy said it was, "The ticket on the meat",
in his book "Ogilvy On Advertising". Five times more people will
read your headline than will read your body copy. I've seen a
headline out pull another headline by 300% to as much as 1900%.
Same copy ... Same product ... Same price ... Same media ... the only
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difference was the headline. The next chapter is going to teach you
all about headlines and how to write them. Eugene Schwartz's
book, "Breakthrough Advertising" spent an entire 50% of the book-
the entire first half of the book on teaching how to find and write
the headline! It's that important!
2. The Basic Story or Pitch.
This is where you're going to write about your frustration, the
pains of it, how you dissolved it, what you dissolved it with, and
how it works.
3. The Proposition.
This is where you're going to go into how the product can help the
reader, and why he or she should use it.
4. The Exact Offer.
This is where you're going to talk about price and what he is going
to get for his money ... what does the purchase come with ... and
free bonuses ... etc.
5. The Guarantee.
This is where you are going to remove all of the risks your prospect
is scared of. Anything that may leave him thinking there's a chance
he Il lose his money if this does not turn out to be what you said it
was going to be. You got to get rid of this feeling. You got to assure
him in a powerful way, he is not at any financial risk for going with
his gut and ordering this thing through the mail- from a total
stranger- without even seeing it!
6. The Call To Action.
This is where you tell him how to order. What numbers to call ...
where to send a check or money order. And maybe even a little
push. Here's a version of one I "copied" from a Joe Karbo ad, I love
it to this day ...
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"Look-30-days from now you can be nothing more than a month
older, or you can be on your way to financial freedom. You decide.
You have nothing to fear, because you're protected by a full 30-day
DOUBLEYOURMONEYBACKGUARANTEE.So, have your credit
card handy and call1-800-123-4567 right now, before the limited
supply of 327 are sold out forever."
I fit this closing to almost every product I'm selling.
The 5 Components Of a Winning Ad or Sales Letter:
1. Command Attention.
You need a strong visual appeal to your ad or sales letter. Akiller
headline ... a photograph ... an appealing layout that does not
"blend" with other magazine ads in the magazine.
2. Show People The Advantage Of Using Your Product.
The body copy will show the prospect why your product exists.
Why people are buying it. What it is going to do for the person who
uses it.
3. Prove That What You Are Saying Has An Advantage.
There are tons of weight loss aids. But the one you are selling has
been clinically proven to burn as many as 930 calories in a given
day's time. That's nearly half a woman's 2000 caloric intake for a
day's time. This study result has to back up your claims ...
otherwise the claim will go in one ear and out the other as all
direct response product claims automatically get discounted 50%
from your reader- and that's at a minimum.
4. Persuade People To Grasp That Advantage.
You're going to have to tell your prospect why he should grasp the
advantage your product delivers. You already got his attention. You
already told him what your product could do for its users. You
then proved it was true. Nowyou have to persuade him to grasp
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this advantage. You can entice him with a great price ... a great
guarantee ... BOTH. The sky is the limit.
5. Make a Call To Action.
Now you have to close the thing up and get them to reach for theirwallet and call you right now. If you have a poor closing ... he may
put the letter down and go on with his life. You have to close
correctly. Here are 4 steps 1use to ask for the cash:
A. Create an offer no sane person could refuse.
Pile it on. All the bonuses you can include. Make it such an
awesome offering; he_'dbe a total jerk not to grasp it.
B. Erase all the risks from your customer's mind.
People are scared they're going to lose their money. Scammers are
allover the place. You're not the first sales letter or advertisement
he's read in his life. He's seen it alL. and read it all before. He's
been ripped off in the past. He knows your sales copy is probably
full of hyperbole. Put him in a position where he "thinks" he'd
really fuck you up if he wanted his money back.
C. Light a big, fat fire under his ass.
If your prospect procrastinates ... you lost an order. He's got to
order right now! Right this very second! No thinking about it! And
the way to do this is to let him know if he snoozes ... he's not going
to get the free video ... he's not going to get the low price ... he's not
going to even be able to get his hands on the product.
You see this on infomercials all the time ... "Order within the next
14 minutes and you'll receive John's Quick Start video- where
you'lllearn step-by-step ... yada ... yada ... yada ... a $30 value- yours
absolutely free!" Of course, the order takers are not sitting there
with a stopwatch ... counting the minutes ... or counting until the
250th order comes in ... but it is a technique that works ... as long
2.~ you make sure it's believable. Obviously, if you're writing this in
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a sales letter or a magazine ad, you're not going to say "14
minutes" ... you'd say 5 days ... first 250 people ... etc.
D. Make it as simple as possible to order.
Some people love to make things complicated. Dumb people make
simple things complicated. And smart people make complicated
things simple. Placing an order should not be hard to do ... but
you'd be amazed by how many marketers really mess it up.
Simple. Simple. Simple. An 800# ... 24 hours a day ... 7 days a
week. .. even if you have an answering machine on! A simple order
form to fill out ... an easy to use response envelope to stick the
order card in and mail. SIMPLE. Keep it SIMPLE.
I go to websites, that before I can view anything, they want me to
register. .. or they want me to download some sort of software I do
not have ... or do not have the latest version of. Stupid. Stupid.
Stupid. I go to another website.
Chapter Twenty:
Headlines
In his book, "Breakthrough Advertising", Eugene Schwartz
dedicated the full first half of his book. .. an entire 50% of it.,; tc
creating the most powerful headline for your advertisement.
Why would he do this? The answer is simple. When you pick up a
newspaper and you're browsing through the pages ... the only thing
that makes you read a particular article is the headline. If the
headline does not do it's job of attracting the proper audience ... the
ad will fail. '
Do you know what's even funnier than having the wrong headline?
Having NO HEADLINE. Most advertisers use either a poor
headline ... or no headline at all. This is why they fail. This is why
they say, "Advertising Don't Work".
Now, you don't always have to re-invent the wheel when it comes
to creating headlines. Once you get better at direct response
writing, you may want to explore creating more original
headlines ... but like I keep saying throughout this book- let's keep
it safe. We're going to mold our new headlines off old headlines
that have been proven to work. .. time and time again over the past
decades- selling millions of products and services.
1have a few guidelines when creating headlines-
1. Try not to use negatives ...
2. Avoid humor at all costs ...
3. Avoid trying to be cute ...
4. Always try to have the reader's self-interest in the headline ...
5. State your products most valuable benefit...
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One headline tested against another can result in increased orders
by many, many multiples. Here's an example Jay Abraham tells
about a simple headline swap that tripled an ad's pulling power.
Jay was doing consultation work for a financing company for gold
and silver. This company was offering 2/3rds bank financing on
gold and silver as long as they got to hold the actual gold or silver.
They were running huge ads in newspapers and their headline
was ...
"2j3rds Bank Financing On All Silver and Gold"
Now, their ads were breaking even at this point. The ad was
brining in enough sales to cover running the ads ... paying the
commissions to the salespeople ... and basically keeping the lights
on. This company called upon Jay and within a few minutes he
changed the headline to this:
"If Gold Is Selling For $300 An Ounce, Send Us Just $100 and
We'll Buy You All The Gold You Want"
This simple headline swap resulted in an immediate 300% increase
in the selling power of their advertisements. And this company had
another headline for Silver ...
"If Silver Is Selling For $6 An Ounce, Send Us Just $2 and We'll
Buy You All The Silver You Want"
Jay's new headlines were saying the same things ... it was just
making it more clear and telling the reader how the 2j3rds
financing benefited him.
I swapped a headline and saw an ad increase in pulling power by
300%. Others claim they have seen as much as a 1900% increase
in sales from one headline to another.
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The point of this chapter right now is not to talk about testing
headlines against each other. .. but how to create the best headline
for your ad or sales letter off the bat.
I'm going to list over one hundred of my favorite headlines. When
you go to write your headline ... simply insert your product and/ or
offer into them. Here's an example:
The old, classic headline:
"They All Laughed When I Sat At The Piano ... But When I Started
To Play!"
Your new version:
"They All Laughed When I Said I Was Going To Lose 37 Pounds In
30-Days ... But When.They Saw Me Four Weeks Later!"
This was just a quick, off the cuff exarnple. .. but for you to insert
your own product is not too hard to do- even for a beginner.
Here's this list of my favorite headlines you can adapt to fit your
own products or services:
1. THE SECRET OF MAKING PEOPLE LIKE YOU
2. A LITTLE MISTAKE THAT COST A FARMER $3,000 A YEAR
3. ADVICE TO WIVES WHOSE HUSBANDS DON'T SAVE MONEY --
BY A WIFE
4. THE CHILD WHO WON THE HEARTS OF ALL
5. ARE YOU EVER TONGUE-TIED AT A PARTY
6. HOW A NEW DISCOVERY MADE A PLAIN GIRL BEAUTIFUL
7. HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
8. THE LAST TWO HOURS ARE THE LONGEST -- AND THOSE
ARE THE TWO HOURS YOU SAVE
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9. WHO ELSE WANTS A SCREEN STAR FIGURE?
10. DO YOU MAKE THESE MISTAKES IN ENGLISH?
11. WHY SOME FOODS "EXPLODE" IN YOUR STOMACH
12. HANDS THAT LOOK LOVELIER IN 24 HOURS -- OR YOUR
MONEY BACK
13. YOU CAN LAUGH AT MONEY WORRIES -- IF YOU FOLLOW
THIS SIMPLE PLAN
14. WHY SOME PEOPLE ALMOST ALWAYS MAKE MONEY IN THE
STOCK MARKET
15. WHEN DOCTORS "FEEL ROTTEN" THIS IS WHAT THEY DO
16. IT SEEMS INCREDIBLE THAT YOU CAN OFFER THESE
SIGNED ORIGINAL ETCHINGS -- FOR ONLY $5 EACH
17. FIVE FAMILIAR SKIN TROUBLES -- WHICH DO YOU WANT TO
OVERCOME?
18. WHICH OF THESE $2.50 TO $5 BEST SELLERS DO YOU
WANT -- FOR ONLY $1 EACH?
19. WHO EVER HEARD OF A WOMAN LOSING WEIGHT -- AND
ENJOYING 3 DELICIOUS MEALS AT THE SAME TIME?
20. HOW I IMPROVED MY MEMORY IN ONE EVENING
21. DISCOVER THE FORTUNE THAT LIES HIDDEN IN YOUR
SALARY
22. DOCTORS PROVE TWO OUT OF THREE WOMEN CAN HAVE
MORE BEAUTIFUL SKIN IN 14 DAYS
23. HOW I MADE A FORTUNE WITH A "FOOL IDEA"
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24. HOW OFTEN DO YO HEAR YOURSELF SAYING, "NO, 1
HAVENT READ IT: I'VE BEEN MEANING TO!"
25. THOUSANDS HAVE THIS PRICELESS GIFT -- BUT NEVER
DISCOVER IT!
26. WHOSE FAULT WHEN CHILDREN DISOBEY?
27. HOW A "FOOL STUNT" MADE ME A STAR SALESPERSON:
28. HAVE YOU THESE SYMPTOMS OF NERVE EXHAUSTION?
29. GUARANTEED TO GOTHROUGH ICE, MUD, OR SNOW -- OR
WE PAY THE TOW!
30. HAVE YOU A "WORRY" STOCK?
31. HOW A NEW KIND OF CLAY IMPROVED MY COMPLEXION IN
30 MINUTES
32. 161 NEW WAYS TO A MAN'S HEART -- IN THIS FASCINATING
BOOK FOR COOKS.
33. PROFITS THAT LIE HIDDEN IN YOUR FARM
34. IS THE LIFE OF A CHILD WORTH $1 TO YOU?
35. EVERYWHERE WOMEN ARE RAVING ABOUT THIS AMAZING
NEW SHAMPOO!
36. DO YOU DO ANY OF THESE TEN EMBARRASSING THINGS?
37. SIX TYPES OF INVESTORS -- WHICH TYPE ARE YOU?
38. HOW TO TAKE OUT STAINS ... USE (product name) AND
FOLLOW THESE EASY DIRECTIONS
39. TODAY ... ADD $10,000 TO YOUR ESTATE -- FOR THE PRICE
OF A NEW HAT
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40. DOES YOUR CHILD EVER EMBARRASS YOU?
41. IS YOUR HOME PICTURE-POOR?
42. HOW TO GIVE YOUR CHILDREN EXTRA IRON -- THESE 3
DELICIOUS WAYS
43. TO PEOPLE WHO WANT TO WRITE -- BUT CAN'T GET
STARTED
44. THIS ALMOST-MAGICAL LAMP LIGHTS HALLWAY TURNS
BEFORE YOU MAKE THEM
45. THE CRIMES WE COMMIT AGAINST OUR STOMACHS
46. THE MAN WITH THE "GRASSHOPPER MIND"
47. THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAT DOWN AT THE PIANO -- BUT
WHEN I STARTED TO PLAY!
48. THROW AWAY YOUR OARS!
49. HOW TO DO WONDERS WITH A LITTLE LAND
50. WHO ELSE WANTS LIGHTER CAKE -- IN HALF THE MIXING
TIME?
51. LITTLE LEAKS THAT KEEP MEN POOR
52. PIERCED BY 301 NAILS ... RETAINS FULL AIR PRESSURE
53. NO MORE BACK-BREAKING GARDEN CHORES FOR ME --
YET OURS IS NOW THE SHOWPLACE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD!
54. OFTEN A BRIDESMAID, NEVER A BRIDE
55. HOW MUCH IS "WORKER TENSION" COSTING YOUR
COMPANY?
56. TO MEN WHO WANT TO QUIT WORK SOMEDAY
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57. HOW TO PLAY YOUR HOUSE TO SUIT YOURSELF
58. BUY NO DESK -- UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN THIS SENSATION OF
THE BUSINESS SHOW
59. CALL BACK THESE GREAT MOMENTS AT THE OPERA
60. "I LOST MY BULGES ... AND SAVED MONEY TOO!"
61. WHY (brand name) BULBS GIVE MORE LIGHT THIS YEAR
62. RIGHT AND WRONG FARMING METHODS -- AND LITTLE
POINTERS THAT WILL INCREASE YOUR PROFITS
63. NEW CAKE-IMPROVER GETS YOU COMPLIMENTS GALORE!
64. IMAGINE ME ... HOLDING AN AUDIENCE SPELLBOUND FOR
30 MINUTES
65. THIS IS MARIE ANTOINETTE -- RIDING TO HER DEATH
66. DID YOU EVER SEE A "TELEGRAM" FROM YOUR HEART?
67. HOW ANY AUTO REPAIR JOB CAN BE "DUCK SOUP" FOR
YOU
68. NEW SHAMPOO LEAVES YOUR HAIR SMOOTHER -- EASIER
TO MANAGE
69. IT'S A SHAME FOR YOU NOT TO MAKE GOOD MONEY --
WHEN THESE MEN DO IT SO EASILY
70. YOU NEVER SAW SUCH LETTERS AS HARRY AND I GOT
ABOUT OUT PEARS
71. THOUSANDS NOW PLAY WHO NEVER THOUGHT THEY
COULD
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72. GREAT NEW DISCOVERY KILLS KITCHEN ODORS QUICK! --
MAKES INDOOR AIR "COUNTRY -FRESH"
73. MAKE THIS ONE-MINUTE TEST -- OF AN AMAZING NEW
KIND OF SHAVING CREAM
74. ANNOUNCING ... THE NEW EDITION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
THAT MAKES IT FUN TO LEARN THINGS
75. AGAIN SHE ORDERS ... "A CHICKEN SALAD, PLEASE"
76. FOR THE WOMAN WHO IS OLDER THAN SHE LOOKS
77. WHERE CAN YOU GO IN A GOOD USED CAR
78. CHECK THE KIND OF BODY YOU WANT
79. "YOU KILL THAT STORE -- OR I'LL RUN YOU OUT OF THE
STATE!
80. HERE'S A QUICK WAY TO BREAK-UP A COLD
81. THERE'S ANOTHER WOMAN WAITING FOR EVERY MAN --
AND SHE'S TOO SMART TO HAVE "MORNING MOUTH"
82. THIS PEN "BURPS" BEFORE IT DRINKS -- BUT NEVER
AFTERWARDS!
83. IF YOU WERE GIVEN $20,000 TO SPEND -- ISNT THIS THE
(type of product. but not product name) YOU'D BUILD?
84. "LAST FRIDAY ... I WAS SCARED! -- MY BOSS ALMOST FIRED
1\.,.'[;',"
85. 76 REASONS WHY IT WOULD HAVE PAID YOU TO ANSWER
OUR AD A FEW MONTHS AGO
86. SUPPOSE THIS HAPPENED ON YOUR WEDDING DAY
87. DON'T LET ATHLETE'S FOOT "LAY YOU UP'
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172
88. ARE THEY BEING PROMOTED RIGHT OVER YOUR HEAD?
89. ARE WE A NATION OF LOW-BROWS?
90. A WONDERFUL TWO YEARS' TRIP AT FULL PAY -- BUT ONLY
MEN WITH IMAGINATION CAN TAKE IT
91. WHAT EVERYBODY OUGHT TO KNOW ABOUT THE STOCK
AND BOND BUSINESS
92. MONEY-SAVING BARGAINS FROM AMERICA'S OLDEST
DIAMOND DISCOUNT STORE
93. FORMER BARBER EARNS $8,000 IN FOUR MONTHS AS A
REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST
94. FREE BOOK -- TELLS YOU TWELVE SECRETS OF BETTER
LAWN CARE
95. GREATEST GOLD-MINE OF EASY "THINGS TO MAKE" EVER
CRAMMED INTO ONE BOOK
96. $80,000 IN PRIZES! HELP US FIND THE NAME FOR THESE
NEW KITCHENS
97. NOW! OWN FLORIDA LAND THE EASY WAY... $10 DOWN AND
$10 A MONTH
98. TAKE ANY THREE OF THESE KITCHEN APPLIANCES -- FOR
ONLY $8.95 (VALUES UP TO $15.45)
99. SAVE TWENTY CENTS ON TWO CANS OF CRANBERRY
SAUCE -- LIMITED OFFER
100. ONE PLACE-SETTING FREE FOR EVERY THREE YOU BUY!
101. IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL TO MAKE MONEY THIS EASILY!
173
102. IF YOU'VE PURCHASED A NEW CAR IN THE PAST 12
MONTHS ... DON'T READ THIS. IT'LL BREAK YOUR HEART!
103. WHERE THE MONEY IS, AND HOW TO GET IT
104. WHO ELSE WANTS TO MAKE BIG MONEY IN
ELECTRONICS?
105. THE AMAZING DIET SECRET OF A FRUSTRATED
CLEVELAND HOUSEWIFE
106. HOW TO BURN-OFF BODY FAT ... HOUR BY HOUR
107. AN OPEN LETTER TO EVERY OVERWEIGHT PERSON IN
PORTLAND
108. FINANCIAL COLUMNIST MAKES UNIQUE DISCOVERY
109. HOW THE EXPERTS BUY GOLD AND SILVER
110. THE AMAZING FACELIFT IN A JAR USED BY HOLLYWOOD
STARS WHO DON'T WANT PLASTIC SURGERY
111. WHICH OF THESE 5 SKIN TROUBLES WOULD YOU LIKE TO
END?
112. THE MACHINE THAT PEELS-OFF POUNDS WHILE YOU SIT
BACK AND ENJOY IT
113. HOW TO WAKE-UP THE FINANCIAL GENIUS INSIDE YOU
114. HERE'S HOW TO FIND OUT IF YOUR BANK IS ABOUT TO GO
BANKRUPT
115. THE AMAZING BEVERLY HILLS WRINKLE ERASER
DISCOVERED BY TOP ORIENTAL CHEMIST.
116. IS NOT HAVING YOUR HIGH-SCHOOL DIPLOMA KEEPING
YOU FROM MAKING THE MONEY YOU WANT?
174
117. IS YOUR HAIR-LOSS PREVENTING WOMEN FROM
DISCOVERING WHAT A GREAT GUY YOU ARE?
118. WHAT DO WOMEN SECRETLY SAY BEHIND THEIR LOVER'S
BACK?
119. IMPORTANT NEWS FOR WOMAN WITH SMALL BREASTS
120. RECENT FDA STUDY ON BREAST IMPLANTS REVEALS
SHOCKING INFORMATION
121. MEN- BE TALLER!
122. AMAZING NEW DIET PILL BURNS MORE CALORIES THAN
RUNNING 3 HOURS ON A TREADMILL!
123. HOW TO WIPE 10 YEARS OFF YOUR FACE IN 60 SECONDS
OR LESS:
124. WE'RE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO WRITE CHILDREN'S
BOOKS
125. THIS IS THE AD WE HAD TO CANCEL LAST MONTH
BECAUSE WE SOLD-OUT SO FAST
Quotation Marks.
When you add quotation marks arourid a headline it increases
its pulling power. So when you get the opportunity use the quote
marks.
"They All Laughed When I Said I Created a Pill That Burned 930
Calories a Day ... But Now They're All Asking Me For Samples!"
Johnson Box.
A Johnson Box is a box placed around a headline to make it stand
out more. Give it a try in your sales letters and see how it looks. I
wouldn't use one in magazine ads.
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Proven Starters.
"HOW TO" headlines:
How to make $2,000 a week ... without leaving the house:
How to win friends and influence people:
How to make every work-out give the results of thrp.f':
"WHO ELSE" headlines:
Who else wants a whiter wash ... without hard work?
Who else wants a screen start figure?
Who else wants to drive a Ferrari ... for $340 a month?
Two Most Powerful Words In a Headline.
FREE and NEW
Questions In Headlines.
I really do not like to ask questions ... unless they are 99% sure
going to get me the answer I want.
How Many Words To A Headline?
The New York University School of Retailing did a test and found
that headlines with over 10 words usually sold more product than
headlines with less than 10 words. Basically, there is not limit. I've
seen headlines with 3 or 4 words work. .. I've seen 10 words work ...
I've seen 17 words work.
Grabbers.
Grabbers are a specialty of my friend and direct response guru,
Gary Halbert. Instead of a headline ... hell stick a dollar bill to the
top of a sales letter. The letter will open like this ...
"Dear Friend,
Why did I attach a genuine, US Currency $1 bill to the top of this
letter? The answer is simple.
What I'm writing to you about concerns a lot of additional money
your restaurant can start making as soon as today ... and I thought
a little financial eye-catcher would get your attention."
176
And the sales letter will go into the sales pitch.
Grabbers can be almost anything ...
Band-Aids ...
Photos ...
Currency From Another Country ...
A Sample Packet of a WrinkleCream ...
Here's how the "packet" grabber would work ...
"Dear Friend,
Why did I attach a little packet to the top of this letter? The answer
is simple. Enclosed in that packet is $3 worth of our most
advanced 2-Minute Fine Line and Wrinkle Filler.
Ifyou've been noticing a few fines lines and wrinkles ... and want to
keep them a secret- I believe this product can help you in less than
2 minutes time.
Here's what you should do right now. Remove the packet from this
letter. Tear it open and apply a small drop of the clear serum to
your index finger. Go to the nearest mirror and apply a small
amount of the serum to the right side of your face where you want
to hide a wrinkle or fine line. DO NOT APPLYTO THE LEFT SIDE!
Leave the mirror.
Now, remain still and give this amazing formula 60 seconds to dry.
Then go back to the mirror... Amazing isn't it? Wrinkles and fine
lines are gone!"
Now you'd go on to your sales copy and sell a ton of this stuff.
Sometimes a grabber can be a great visual attractant ... even better
than a wordy headline ... but it does cause other problems such as
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how are you going to attach thousands of these things when you
are rolling-out? Ifyou're using $1 bills... you almost tripled your
mailing costs ... are you sure it's worth it? You got to test different
ideas as you go.
There are many books on copywriting and headline writing ... I
think you should read them all. I've done a pretty good job here ...
but there are tons of other books that are dedicated only to writing
copy and headlines.
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Chapter Twenty One:
Printers
If you're going to be in the direct response business and if you were
going to be using direct mail... you'd better get familiar with using
printers. After all, this is a "paper" business.
All direct mail pro's should have a network of printers to submit
their printing needs to for bids. Printers are usually broken down
into two different categories ... Big Roll-Outs and Small Testers.
The big printers you're going to worry about only after you have a
winner in the mail. The larger print houses usually cannot do
smaller jobs at a good price- nor do they want to. They're all about
large multi-hundred-thousand piece print runs.
The smaller guys could never handle the larger jobs ... even if they
say they can ... but they are needed when you have to print small
test jobs 0[2,000-10,000 sales letters.
Since I usually use the same format for my mailers, I do not have
to go and get it re-quoted every time I do a new letter. But if I do
something different for a particular mailer ... I always get it quoted
out from three or four different printers. You'd be amazed how
different their prices are ... sometimes 50% cheaper than their
competitors!
Even if I have my favorite printer, I still get quotes- even from a
printer I do not like ... because if the guy I don't like is cheaper, I'll
make my guy bring his price down. And they'll usually do it for me.
To get bids, simply prepare a simple one-page sheet and put across
the top of it, "Quote Needed A.S.A.P" and fax it to each printer.
Within a few days, I'll start getting phone calls with the prices.
One thing I like to do is tell the printer how much I'm looking to
spend on a particular print job on the fax. Of course, it's a price
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I'm looking to pay ... minus a few bucks- just in case I'm a little
high and can squeeze a few bucks out of them.
In my area, I pay about $700 to $800 to print 2,000 complete sales
packages and $1,200 for 4,000 ... and $2,000 for 8,000. Now, this
is for the complete "mail-in" package as I described earlier. If I'm
just doing the "phone-in" mail package, my price will be a few
hundred dollars less as the 6 3/4 return envelopes are quite
expensive. This is the ballpark of prices in current day. This price
does include the folding ... but not the inserting.
When you are looking for printers, do not go through your graphic
designer. If you're using a graphic artist, he'll try to get you to get
your printing done through him. All he's doing is bidding out your
job and tacking on unnecessary money. Do it yourself... but if you
want to ... you can let him quote the job if he asks. Who knows?
Maybe he can get a lower or at least an equal price and it's easier
to keep everything under one roof.
But if you contract your own printing ... make sure the designer
doesn't try to hit you for some bulls hit pre-press charge or some
kind of massive "collect for output" and "disc burning" charges.
People will try to get money out of you in some of the craziest ways
when they feel you don't know what you're talking about. And
you'll soon learn not too many people even know what they're
talking about!
Anyway, here are some terms you're going to need to understand
when dealing with printers ...
The standard paper weight is 20-pound. Basically, you want the
plain old "photocopy-grade" paper.
Printing is described in "overs". What 1 mean by this is if you were
printing a single-sided sheet with one color ink ... it would be called
1/0. If you were printing on both sides, it would be 1/ l. If you
were printing 2 colors on the front and one color on the back. .. it
would be 2/1. Four color on one side and one color on the other
would be 4/1.
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One color= 1
Two colors= 2
Three colors= 3
Four colors= 4
Here are some common terms:
Bleed: This is when the ink goes right over the edge of the paper.
Most of my pieces do not have bleeds.
Screen: This is when a solid color is screened over a white sheet of
paper. For example, if you're doing the 7"xlO" brochure I talked
about in an earlier chapter and you want the inside of it to be blue
ink on the white paper. ... and the outside you want full covered in
blue ink ... with black words ... it would be a 2/1 sheet ... with the 2-
color side screened blue. Most of my jobs do not involve screens ...
but they do look coolon the brochure.
Monarch: This is the term for a 7"x 10" sheet.
Lift Note: This is a little folded note that sometimes gets included
in a sales package. It basically says something like "Read This Only
If You're Skeptical" on the outside and then the reader would lift it
open and read the inside ... which would be additional text, usually
going over the guarantee or another free bonus on top of the stuff
you offered in the main sales letter. I usually do not use lift notes.
Buck Slip: This is an 8.S"x3.66" sheet that is basically a 1/3" sheet
of regular size paper. I used to use a lot of these slips as you can fit
three of these sheets in a sales package and it'll take up no more
than one single sheet in weight ... yet you can have three totally
separate sales messages on them. I really do not use them any
longer now that I have two templates.
Here's some things that add to the price of printing that you do not
really need ...
You do not need glossy paper stock.
You do not need flashy 4-color photos.
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You do not need custom-sized envelopes or paper.
When you are looking for a printer, here is the quote you need to
send to them for each of the packages I spoke about in an earlier
chapter:
Template for offers that require mail-in orders as well as phone-in
orders:
***************
(Your Name)
(Your Address)
(Your Phone Number)
QUOTE NEEDED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Dear (name),
Please quote this job and get back to me no later than (insert date
here). When you are finished with the quote, or if you have any
questions ... my number to call is (000) 000-0000. If you have the
quote and you get my voice mail, please leave the breakdown on
my voice mail.,; or fax the entire thing to me at (000) 000-0000.
Thank You,
(your name)
QUANTITYOF EACH: (insert quantity)
1. 11x17 std. white stock. 1/1, z-fold to fit # 10
2. 7x 10 std. white stock, white stock, 1/1, letter fold
3. # 10 std. envelope, 1/0
4.63/4 envelope, 1/0
5. 8.5x6 order card, I/O (on decent grade card stock)
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***************
Now here's the bid sheet you'll use for the "phone-in" only mail
package, that will not permit the mail-incheck orders as described
in an earlier chapter.
(Your Name)
(Your Address)
(Your Phone Number)
QUOTE NEEDED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Dear (name),
Please quote this job and get back to me no later than (insert date
here). When you are finished with the quote, or if you have any
questions ... my number to call is (000) 000-0000. If you have the
quote and you get my voice mail, please leave the breakdown on
my voice mail..; or fax the entire thing to me at (000) 000-0000.
Thank You,
(your name)
QUANTITYOF EACH: (insert quantity)
1. 11x17 std. white stock. 1/1, z-fold to fit # 10
2. 8.5x5.5 std. white stock, 1/0, letter fold
3. 8.5x5.5 std. white stock, 1/0 letter fold
4. 8.5xll std. 601b. offset, white stock, I/O, letter fold
5. #10 std. envelope, I/O
***************
Maybe your sales letter will need to have one or more of the
8.5x5.5 sheets printed on both sides ... or mavbe the 8.5xll will be
printed on both sides ... as I have stated above, it's just for one-
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sided printing. If you were to have any of them printed on two
sides ... you'll simply change them from 1/0 to 1/1 in the
description above.
Another thing your printer may be concerned with is how they are
to receive the graphics. Most printers prefer it on a CD-ROM in a
program called Quark Xpress. That's the industry standard. Check
with the graphic designer as to what format he'll be providing the
artwork on. Make sure the printer as well as the designer have the
same formats for easy transferring.
We spoke more than enough on printers.
184
Chapter Twenty Two;
Letter shops
Letter shops ... or mail houses are very important to large mailers-,
which you will hopefully be very soon.
What a letter shop is, is a separate company that's job is to stuff,
seal, address, apply postage ... and actually deliver your letters to
the Post Office.
Sure, you can do all this work yourself... but when you're mailing
100,000 pieces each and every week. .. you're probably not going to
be able to handle it. And for the price a letter shop charges ... it's
worth it.
Letter shops usually charge one cent or less for each time they
have to "touch" your sales material. For example, if they have to
stuff four pieces in your envelope, that's four cents ... then apply
the address of your prospect... that's another penny. One more
penny to seal the thing. If you're going to have them apply the
postage ... that's another penny.
Here's what I like to do. I like to get a quote from several elders hips
making them think they are going to do everything for me- even
drop the letters at the Post Office after they've applied the postage
I'll provide them with. I'll make sure to have them breakdown each
and every fee... the insertion ... the addressing ... the postage
application ... etc.
Then, I'll back out the fee to apply the postage.
Why do I do this? Simple. To avoid getting ripped-off.
If you let them think they're doing the entire job, they'll sometimes
quote the job low, just to get the job ... and then they'll "steal" a
little of my postage on every job. That's where they'll make the
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185
difference of the money they had to lose to get the job in the first
place.
You see, it's next to impossible to prove in a court of law that a
letter shop stole a percentage of your postage. When the letter gets
mailed, and you get 30% less response than you thought you were
going to get from the initial test results ... there's so many things it
can be blamed on, you can never prove the letter shop did it.
And that's a huge scam letter shops do. It's just too tempting to
steal some of the postage.
And if you 1et the letter shop know ahead of time that they are not
going to be applying postage, your quote will be much higher
because they know they can't steal any of it.
So I let them think they're going to get the entire job. After 1 get the
quote, only then do I tell them I'm going to be applying the postage
and dropping off at the post office. If they do not want to honor the
quoted price ... find another letter shop because this one is a bunch
of scurnbags.
One person can apply 10,000 stamps in a given eight-hour shift if
he's quick. What I like to do is have the letter shop deliver to me
the stuffed, sealed, and addressed letters. I'll then have one of my
guys apply the postage that I bought and we'll stick it all in the
.'back of a pick-up truck and drop it at the Post Office ourselves.
Trust me- this is the way you want to do this.
You may be thinking how can the letter shop rip you off if they
have to show you a postage receipt directly from the Post Office?
Trust me ... to dummy a postage receipt is easy ... and they have
numerous ways of doing it.
If your sales letter is a standard # 10 envelope and it is under one
ounce, the letter shop can mail 75,000 of your letters instead of
the 100,000 you paid them to do ... and stick another company's
25,000 pieces in your mail trays. The Post Office guy on the
loading dock is not going to look through every tray and make sure
all the envelopes are yours ... and even if he did notice there are
186
two or three different types of envelopes ... he's not going to know if
there's any funny business going on.
I can tell you numerous horror stories about acts like this
happening.
I remember back when I first started in direct mail, I trusted a
letter shop to do the entire job for me- including applying the
postage. Before I did the large letter shop roll-out, I did test the
letter in smaller quantities in-house and got 2% ... then when I did
the roll-out using the letter shop ... I got just 1.5% and sometimes
even less.
I thought this was normal because a roll-aut's response wi11be
slightly different from the test results. I suspected the list broker
sold me better names for the test to reel-me-in ... and then fed me
the real names on the roll-outs. I assumed that was the case and
left it at that.
But, when I noticed this little letter shop's owner had a nice, shiny,
new Mercedes Benz ... Igot thinking there was something going on.
Ihad him then do everything for me-except apply the postage. He
got squirmy but dropped the letters off at my office without the
postage. I applied the postage and dropped the letters off at the
Post Office myself ... and wouldn't you know ... back to 2%! Once I
found this out, Icalled the letter shop's owner and told him what I
thought was going on. Of course, he denied it. I did owe him about
$30,000 from past letter shop jobs ... and Ididn't pay him. Did he
sue me? No. Why not? He knew Iknew what he was doing. If he
were honestly applying all the postage Ibought for him to apply, he
would have sued my ass for the 30-1arge.
Ever since then, I'll have the letter shops do all the work, except
the postage application.
I do this not only for the stolen postage ... but also for the simple
fact that I can drop all the pieces myself in the same day. It is
important to drop all the letters the same day ... I'll tell you why in
a later chapter ... but they all have to drop in the same day.
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187
Many letter shops are lazy and take their time dropping your
letters at the Post Office in small quantities over a few days' time ...
even when they tell you they are all sent.
They'll drop 12,000 one day ... 15,000 the next day ... and so on. It's
easier for them to do it this way ... and they do not understand why
you want to drop all in one day. But trust me, you have to drop in
one single day.
I think on top of the lazy factor, letter shops do not want to drop in
one single day, because your response will be staggered allover the
place and you will not be able to gauge the "flow" of orders a few
days later.
Another reason why I like to have everything delivered to me, is
that I get to see all the pieces one last time, before I apply 37 cents
to each one. You'd be amazed how many letters are not stuffed
properly ... how many are missing important pieces- sometimes
even the main sales letter! You want to be the "final filter" before
they are actually sent offto your prospects.
One time I dropped 200,000 letters and I had the letter shop drop
off the letters to me. I was looking at the envelope and noticed all
the pieces were inserted upside down and backwards. It was too
late to reprint the entire thing ... nor would they eat the cost to redo
it ... all they would do is credit me the few thousand dollars they
charged to do the inserting.
Had I not inspected the pieces, I would have never known of this
error.
If you're dead set against applying postage to thousands of
letters what you can do is have the letter shop apply all the
postage but you better make sure you are on the loading dock at
the Post Office when they are delivering the letters. Inspect each
and every tray. Make sure it's all your sales letters ... make sure
they are inserted correctly ... make sure the drop is complete and
has all the total count being dropped in the one singular day.
188
Let me tell you about a horror 1had with a letter shop in 1997. I
was doing a 500,000 letter mailing. 1 was doing 250,000 one
week. .. and 250,000 the next week. Mailing one went out, and
initial response was great- just as the test told me. Then came
week two and the next drop was getting no orders. What the hell
was going on?
Then, some of the people who were ordering were asking why we
sent them two sales letters a few weeks apart. I let the first few
calls go- thinking there were a few duplicate names on the mailing
list we got from the broker. Then we started getting more and more
calls. By this point, Iknew something was horribly wrong.
In one of the back rooms I had unoccupied in my office, I started
playing a match game' of sales letters. What we were doing was
getting all the letters that came back to us for not having a valid
address-, which is normal. As we got new letters back, we started
laying them on the floor. A few days later, we were getting the same
bad addressed sales letter again. In the end, we had two bad
addresses for almost each of the letters that came back.
The first thing we did was look at the disk of names the list broker
sent us. They were fine. No duplicates at all.
What happened was the letter shop fucked up big time. The guy
they had addressing the envelopes, who probably couldn't speak
English ... did the first 250,000 envelopes week one ... and then on
week two, instead of remembering where he left off (at 250,000)
and starting at 250,001. .. he addresses the same 250,000 names
again!
Multiply 60 cents by 250,000 pieces. That's what we lost- just in
our hard costs ... forget about the 2% in orders we never got ...
which was about $1.20 for every letter. This mess-up cost us
$150,000 right out of our pockets and $300,000 in lost sales!
Do you want to know the funniest thing? The damn letter shop
thought they-were going to get paid the $40,000 we owed them for
the stuffing the 500,000 pieces at 8 cents each!
If you know me by now, I surely didn't pay them a cent. I ate the
loss, and never used them again. What really sucked was the sales
rep I used at this letter shop was a friend of mine. We went out to
dinner. .. to the movies ... and to the bars a few times. It was a
shame they didn't want to make good for their error. .. but they
knew they couldn't... it would take literally millions of letters they
would have to stuff for me for free to make the loss back to me.
Unfortunately, it would be really hard for this not to happen again.
What I now do is send the letter shop only the names they are to
mail that particular drop. If I got a list of 500,000 names and I was
going to mail 250,000 this week. .. and the rest next week. They'll
get just the 250,000 we're going to mail now ... and the next
250,000 when I'm ready to mail again.
This letter shop error would bury most businessmen ... I pray
nothing like this ever happens to you. 1guess a good rule, is to
make sure you're using a professional letter shop ... and not the
guy in his garage with an inserting machine.
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190
Chapter Twenty Three:
Postage
Do we really need an entire chapter on postage? Yes we do.
As a friend, 1always advise you to use a straight First Class stamp.
The same stamp you apply to your mortgage payment ... your credit
card bill ... your Birthday card to your Mother.
I do not like Pre-Sorted First Class ... I do not like metered
postage ... I do not like Standard Rate postage ... I only use a real,
genuine First Class stamp.
This is what I've leamed. If I'm getting $1.20 in sales back from a
mailer that cost me 60 cents to mail out with a First Class stamp ...
I'd get back just $1.00 in sales ifI Pre-Sort my postage and save a
dime ... paying 50 cents.
You get what you put into this. If you're going to double your
money you're still going to double it when you Pre-Sort your
postage but you're going to get less orders.
I laugh when I hear novice direct mailers think they're going to
save a ton of money by mailing their sales letter Standard Rate or
even Pre-Sorted First Class. Sure, you're going to save money ...
maybe even a lot of money if you are going to use Standard Rate
postage ... but you're also going to get a lot less orders. It's just not
worth it.
Let me tell you a funny story about a Pre-Sorted mailer I once did.
What Pre-Sorted postage is is when the letter shop puts the zip
codes in order by carrier route for the Post Office. The letter shop
will do a little of the Post Office's work and in return the Post Office
will give you a few cents off the postage.
First off all, letter shops will not do this for free ... they'll charge a
few cents to Pre-Sort. You may save 7 cents or so ... but you're
191
paying the letter shop 2 cents to do it ... and you're not going to get
as many orders as you would if you were mailing First Class with a
First Class stamp.
Well, the letter shop Pre-Sorted my letter and then combined my
mailing with a few other mailer's jobs ... effectively sorting the mail
even further- saving a few more cents which they like to keep for
themselves. There's entire businesses that do nothing more than
compile many business's mail and Pre-Sort them and put them in
order for the Post Office as one very large group of sales letters.
They charge money for this and save businesses a few cents per
letter they mail.
I actually had a letter shop who had enough balls to offer me the
first level of Pre-Sort postage pricing ... only to Pre-Sort it deeper
with other mailers ... and where they were charging me 27 cents
postage, they were actually paying something like 22 cents! Oh
sure, you can have a nickel for every letter I want to mail. I don't
think so.
I told you before; I did save a few pennies by Pre-Sorting my mail.
But when the orders came in, I got less orders.
If you can put 60 cents into something and make $1.20 ... would
you rather put 50 cents into it instead to recoup $1.00? I sure
wouldn't.
This is the same as getting good results from your sales letter and
thinking you can save money by cramming the entire offer on a
post card and mailing it instead of the costly sales letter. It's not
going to happen. If you're doubling-over on 60 cents mailing the
letter ... you may double over the 40 cents it'll cost to mail the post
card- if you're lucky. Don't do it.
If you got a sales letter to pull good response ... don't think of
cheapening the cost to mail-it- either in postage costs ... or in the
actual letter's size. What you should test is this. If a # 10 sales
package is getting you $1.20 in orders for every 60 cents it costs to
maiL. you should try turning the sales letter into a 9"x12"
package ... adding a few extra sales pieces as your letter can now
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weigh more. See if you can get a $1.00 sales letter to get you back
$2.00 in orders. You should always try to go up the ladder ...
spending more and not going down the ladder.ithinking you could
save money.
Now don't get confused. I do not mean increase the sales letter's
paper quality or color or graphics ... I mean keep the postage
always at the best it can be- a straightFirst-Class stamp. I also
mean, if you are getting a 200°/0 financial return on a standard # 10
package ... up it to a 9"xI2" package and see if you can retain the
200% return on your investment. Do not try to go down to a post
card in an effort to save money. That's a prescription for disaster.
I remember in a past chapter- the one about mail pieces ... I told
you to keep your initial test package to a standard # 10 size
envelope and I told you to keep it at or under one ounce. This is
absolutely true. Once and only once this # 10, one ounce package
pulls great numbers ... like doubling its cost to me ... then and only
then should you experiment with testing upping the package to a
9"xI2" package and seeing if your profit percentage remains the
same as it did for the # 10 package.
But until this happens, keep the package in a # 10 envelope ... and
keep it at or under one ounce. Period.
Why should all of your mailers have a real, live First Class stamp
on them? You need the respect of the Post Office for one. When'
Postal workers see bulk, or Standard Rate mail, they know its junk
mail and they treat it as that. They feel they do not need to rush it
out as fast as First Class mail. You do not need this unnecessary
headache.
Of course, this is only my opinion. I do not know for a fact or have
solid proof the Post Office respects real stamps more than metered
mail. .. or printed permit number boxes.
I have never, ever had a mailer's response go up or even stay the
same when I thought I could save a few pennies using a Pre-Sort
technique ... or using Standard Rate postage.
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J hate Standard Rate postage for several reasons. One, is it takes
longer to arrive in your prospect's mailbox. And two, Standard Rate
postage does not get forwarded to your prospect if they move. Sure,
the prospect can put in a change of address with the Post Office,
but Standard Rate postage goes in the garbage- even if the Post
Office has a new address for the prospect. Trust me, there's a
trade-off for a savings when it comes to postage, and you don't
want any of them.
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Chapter Twenty Four:
The Post Office
One of your main business partners in direct response is the Post
Office. Unfortunately, they are not the most pleasant of people to
deal with. This chapter is going to teach you to get the most out of
the Post Office and how to avoid potential problems.
First off all, the Postal worker on the loading docks is not your
friend. He usually hates his job ... hates his life... and surely hates
you when he see all the "crap" you're bringing him to sort and
mail. .
When I'm doing a drop, if it's a test or if it's a roll-out, I always
drop the mailers at the main hub. If you drop the mailers at a
smaller sub-station, you may be adding an entire day 'till your
prospect gets your offer.
When you drop it off at the main hub, make sure a Postal worker
sees what you're dropping off, so it doesn't sit out on the dock.
I tell you many times in this book, your biggest priority is getting
you're mailer's envelope respected and delivered by the Post Office.
You do not earn any respect with teaser copy printed all over the
front of the envelope. You do not get any respect with mailing
labels instead of typed or hand-written addresses.
Your envelope must look either official or personal. It cannot look
like junk mail. If it does, it loses any respect as a First Class
document ... and thus loses First Class treatment.
Another thing you absolutely have to do is "seed" your drops.
You've got to mail a few letters to your friends in different states ...
the same state ... and mail even yourselfl This will prove the Post
Office is actually mailing the stuff. If you do a drop and seed the
mailing with five "seed" names and you do not get any of them ..,
there's a big problem.
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I did a 40,000 piece test a few months ago where J seeded the drop
with four dummy names ... three friends ... and my own home
address. Wouldn't you know ... the three seeds got their letters and
I never received my letter in the mail! My own seed!
You absolutely have to keep a few seeds in the mailings. I'd say at
least one seed letter for every 10,000 you mail..; and if you're
testing a few thousand ... like 5,000- and it is a test, stick five or so
seeds in there. Tests are important. The last thing you want to
have is a winning sales letter- but you'11never discover it because
your letters were never mailed.
My Fiance's Father is a retired Professor who now works for the
Post Office. When I first met him, I was jokingly asking him if he
and his co-workers throw direct mail in the garbage. He looked at
me like I was crazy and goes into some speech saying every piece of
mail has to go out by the end of the day and how every piece gets
delivered.
If this were true ... where was my seed I mailed to myself?
A few years after I joked about this with him, guess what his job
duty now is at the Post Office? To make sure nobody throws the
damn mail in the garbage!
Seriously it happens! That is why you need to have a smart
envelope a real First Class stamp ... addressed correctly ... and
delivered at the main station and not a local sub-station that's
closer to your home. Everything else is out of your hands ... so you
have to then seed the mailing.
Another thing I cannot figure out to this day ... after ten years in
this business ... is how I get better response mailing from certain
states and worse from others.
What I mean is this. I had a business in Nevada. I was mailing a
sales letter and I was getting 1.6%. This was very good. It was a
promotion that was getting me six-times my mailing cost. I then
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moved the company to Arizona, and when I mailed the same letter,
just in Arizona this time ... I got just 1.2% response.
I lost .4% just mailing it from a different state. And it wasn't just
one time ... it was every time I mailed this letter. I had to hire a
letter shop in Nevada and have friends see the drops at the Post
Office for me. Response went back to 1.6% in no time.
I mailed out of California with great results ... Upstate New York
with great results ... but mailing from Arizona always pulled less
results. I can't figure it out.
Also, the Post Office can change their mind at any time. Once I was
mailing my IRS-Style envelope successfully 2 million times. I was
sending out 400,000 pieces every few weeks and they never gave
me a problem ... then all of a sudden, I was dropping off 250,000
pieces and the jerk on the loading dock gave me a problem.
They were actually refusing to deliver the 250,000 sales letters
because of the envelope! I had 60 cents tied into every one of these
250,000 pieces. That's $150,000 just in paper, printing, mailing
list, and postage! And that was just the cost for me to mail the
stuff. If we were talking about how much money it was to bring my
company, we'd be talking over $300,000.
The 250;000 letters had to sit on the loading dock 'urrtil we came to
some form of a resolution. I finally got them to understand this
was $150,000 worth of mailers they were messing around with and
I did in fact mail it over 2 million times before- without problems.
Why now?
Anyway, they made me agree in writing that I was never going to
use that particular envelope design ever again and they agreed to
deliver the 250,000 pieces. I simply signed their letter and used a
different Post Office and mailed the letters with the IRS-style
envelope for many, many years.
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I probably got some guy on the dock who had a fight with his 300-
pound, bald wife that morning and he wanted to give a hassle to
everyone and anyone who gave him a reason to.
Or maybe it was because my envelope actually tricked them into
doing their jobs and they didn't want to be tricked into doing their
jobs. If I clearly made my direct mail envelopes look like junk mail,
they could identify it easier as junk mail so they wouldn't have to
deliver it ... or deliver it with such priority!
If you have an envelope in question ... make sure tosee the Post
Master and get him to approve it. You never know what may
happen.
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Chapter Twenty Five:
How To Test
Testing is the Holy Grail of the direct response business.
Testing is needed to find the most powerful version of your sales
message or media selection.
You can test prices-
I once did a three-way test of three different prices for a software
program I was sellin g..I used the same mailing list ... I used the
same graphics and wording. I mailed the three different sales
letters at the same time at the same Post Office. The only different
between these three different priced offers was the part in the letter
where it revealed the price to pay. Everything else was the same.
I tested these prices- $149.95 ... $169.95 and $179.95. The lowest
price pulled 30 orders. The middle price pulled 30 orders as well.
The high price pulled just 15 orders. Had I not tested the different
prices ... and went with the $179.95 price ... 1would have left a lot
of money on the table I could have harvested had I just not been so
greedy.
Now, the higher price may pull more orders sometimes. This is a
win-win foryou! More orders and at a higher price. How could you
go wrong there? You can't.
Sometimes people measure a product's quality and performance by
its price. When this is the case, maybe a higher price will out pull a
cheaper price.
Other times, when you test price, you may pull 30 orders at $10
and 10 orders at $30.
Sometimes, the lower you can sell something for, the more orders
you get. Sometimes, it's the middle price like I experienced with the
software program I price tested.
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Seriously, if you got an offer to work for you ... wouldn't it be great
if you can double your orders by simply taking $10 less ... or $10
more? You bet it would. And that's why after you get a mailer to at
least break even in sales response ... you have to do a two or three
way price test.
Simply change the price in the three different versions of the
letter ... code them somehow ... mail them to the same list all at the
same time ... and see what you get. It's crazy and almost magical ...
but if you get more orders at a higher price ... you'11be grateful you
tested.
I've heard stories about people selling financial newsletters. They
tested $69.95 versus $79.95 and the higher price doubled the
response.
You can test media selections-
This is especially true in direct mail. An offer on a list can be a
smash winner and on another list be a total bomb ... even if the
description of the mailing list on the data card is practically
identical!
Magazines will vary only a little in pound-for-pound response as
long as they are all quality publications that meet or exceed what I
told you to look for in the chapter on magazine ads. Mailing lists
are a totally different story.
I once tested an herbal supplement for male potency. It did great
on one company's customer me. It was a list of adult video buyers.
I figured this product I was selling would do great on all adult
video-buyer lists. I was wrong. Where one video mailing list would
yield a 2% response ... others would get a half a percent to one
percent ... and one list even got three percent. They were all
basically the same in description ... but their quality and
responsiveness was worlds apart.
Why is this? Many list owners fabricate the actual numbers of
customers on his list to sell more names and the names you're
mailing are fake. Maybe the quality of the names or the way they
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are handled and compiled are different. Maybe the buyer of each of
the companies is different. Who knows? The answer to 9 out of 10
questions in the direct mail business is "TEST".
You can test offers-
A different offer can make huge differences in response. I was once
mailing a sales letter for a consumer electronics membership club.
I was selling the membership for $40 or so and was breaking even.
I then upped the cost of the membership to $60 and included a
really killer free bonus. I immediately quadrupled response ...
yielding a fat profit- even at the higher price I had to charge to
cover the free bonus.
You can test headlines-
As we spoke all about in the chapter on headlines ... a headline is
the ticket on the meat. A headline is the single most important
item used to flag down your prospect. If the headline is wrong ... or
if it doesn't attract enough prospects or it attracts the wrong
prospects for what the copy is saying you will fail.
But, on the other hand, if you have a killer headline, one modeled
after the 125 or so I've listed for you in the headlines chapter. .. you
can triple ... quadruple ... or increase your orders even more. You'd
simply mail one group of letters with the one headline and one
group of equal quantity with the other. What you experience may
amaze you.
In 1995, I ran a magazine ad and it broke even. I swapped out the
headline and it tripled its results. The only difference was the
headline. I never saw such dramatic results from one simple
change.
You can test envelopes-
One envelope can be an official-looking one and the other can be a
hand-addressed personal-looking envelope. Mail equal quantities
and see which one works best. Maybe you can even experiment
with some teaser copy once you get a little better at writing
advertising copy.
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You can test guarantees-
Sometimes offering a DOUBLEYOURMONEYBACKguarantee
that is conditional will increase response.
Testing variables is what makes us professionals come up with an
absolute killer sales letter or advertisement- sometimes 300% or
400% more responsive than the one we first came up with.
There are several main rules you have to abide by when testing-
Test only one thing at a time...
Make sure test quantities are equal ...
Make sure test mailings are mailed all at the same time ...
Test only profound things like prices and headlines and lists. Do
not waste your time testing blue paper vs. white paper.
And here's how to obtain valid results from testing:
1. You can use a different phone number and have the prospects
for each different variation call a unique phone number.
2. You can use different extension numbers on your phone. Did
you ever see ads that say, "Call 1-800-000-000 and ask for
extension 45"? The extension number is the way they are testing a
variable.
3. You can code coupons customers have to mail in. If I'm doing a
price test ... I sometimes leave the main sales letter alone and
simply insert coupons for different amounts of money off. The sales
letter will say to include this coupon to receive $X off their
purchase. For phone orders, you can put a bogus code number on
your coupon and ask the caller for the coupon code. If it's
CJ2081. .. than can mean it's a coupon for the $20 off promotion.
4. You can have different printed color 6 3/4 response envelopes. I
usually print the return address in black ink for my response
envelopes ... but you can print one red... and one blue and one
black for a three-way test.
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5. You can have the caller ask for a certain Promotion Number.
You can say something in the letter like, "Just call 1-800-000-000
and tell the operator you're calling for Promotion #23 and he'l1...".
Even if the customer does not mention the promotion number. ..
you can ask him for it. Just make it easy for him to find... like
where the letter was signed by the author of it.
6. If a customer cannot give you anything to tell you what offer or
list he is responding from... keep your database of mailing names
on your computer close by. Ask the caller how his or her name
appears on his envelope and look him up in each file. If you're
testing two different lists ... you'll find him 9 times out of 10 by
simply plugging his name in and hitting the "find" key.
The great thing about testing variables in your sales efforts... is
once you find the winning headline ... you can then find the
winning price ... then the winning offer... etc. You can keep
perfecting your offering and the more you test, the more responsive
it is going to be.If you better the response with a new headline by
20%... then another 20% with a better offer... then another 20%
with a better guarantee ... and on and on. The difference between a
package that was breaking even may now be doing triple its
advertising cost!
I've gotten to the point where the only things I can test with radical
differences in results are prices and mailing lists. I don't know
what it is. I can do two totally different sales letters ... or two totally
different headlines ... or two totally different offers ... I always seem
to pull the same amount of orders +/ - a few orders. 1 guess this
means I have gotten so good at crafting copy and sales letters, I
suck out all the people who would buy my product. The only way I
can entice more people to buy is by using a better mailing list or a
different price.
In the next' chapter, we're going to talk about differences in your
offers that either whisper and ones that scream. You're only going
to want to really test the ones that scream.
Chapter Twenty Six:
Whispers and Screams
There are many factors, which will affect the response of your sales
letters or advertisements. Some whisper. .. and some scream. 1:-.
this chapter, you '11 learn what these response factors are ... and if
they're worth testing or not.
Screams
I would classify a scream as something that will make a huge
difference in the response of your sales letters or advertisements.
These screams-which are listed in no particular order of
importance ... are the first things you should test to increase the
pulling power ofyour sales letter or advertisements.
Copy:
The copy in your sales letter will make a huge difference in the
pulling power ofyour promotions. Myfriend Gary Halbert makes
all his seminar attendees perform this exercise before they get
going. He makes his attendees write two different letters to their
Mothers. One starts off saying how great she is, and how she has
been so good to them ... and the second letter says how she is a
wrinkled old bitch, and how she makes them miserable ... and that
she should drop dead!
Now, the attendee gets nervous when Gary makes them actually
address and apply postage to these two letters. He makes them
actually send them out ... but to their own homes (not their
Mother's)... and they are to serve as reminders as to how powerful
copy can be and how a letter that costs the same to mail and the
same to produce, can have such a radically different effect on its
reader.
The sales copy in your ads and sales letters can have wildly
different effects on its readers. One approach can make you
millions and one approach can make you go out of business. It is
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the copywriter's job to find the right approach and get the selling
job done.
Mailing Lists:
If I had to say what the strongest, most powerful part of your direct
mail success is, I would say it was the mailing list or lists you are
going to mail to. I've had offers that made me over $8 Million in a
month's time flop on many, many mailing lists. Seriously, I could
be rolling-in 600% returns from certain direct mail lists ... then I'd
go to test another list- even a list that appears to be identical-
absolutely flop. Sometimes not even getting more than three orders
on a 5,000 piece test!
I look back at many of my successes, and if I didn't test a certain
list, I would have never found out I had a winner. For example, I
did a three-way test ... three lists ... three thousand pieces each.
Two lost money and one profited. If I didn't get lucky and test that
particular third list... I may have deemed the product a failure and
dropped it. This very same product later went on to make me $5
Million in sales a year.
I'll say it now... I'll say it later ... I'll say it one hundred times; the
mailing list is the most powerful variable to your success in this
business.
If I had a choice to have a great product with great copy or a
decent list ... or a marginal product, with so-so copy on a hot list...
I'd choose the latter every time!
Prices:
Aside from mailing lists, once an offer shows some form of life...
meaning it brings in at least close to break even... the next most
important thing to do is test pricing. I remember a fewyears back,
I was waiting for a new software program to market and when it
first came out... my price was a little high, so I had to offer the
product at $199.95. My results we not too great- I simply broke
even.
I then put this offer on the shelf and forgot about it for six months
or so. A few months later, I re-tested the offer with three different
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prices. I was a little too high on the initial offer price ... so I came
down a bit. I ended up turning this promotion into a $2,000,000 a
year paycheck. 1would have never discovered this had I not priced
tested. This $2 Million bought me a new Bentley ... a second home
in the Desert ... and a shiny, new $100,000 Rolex. Good thing I
price tested.
Headlines:
Headlines are pretty powerful as well. I'd say they are the third
most important factor to your direct marketing success. I'm sure
many direct marketers would disagree with me and say the
headline is more important than prices and mailing lists ... but I
haven't had this proven to me. That's what this book is all about-
not what I learned in other marketing books ... it's about what I
learned doing this business myself for over 10 years.
I'd say that headline testing is more important in magazine
advertisements where a headline needs to flag down prospects
from the millions of people flipping past it. It's not so much true
with direct mail sales letters. I have honestly never had one
headline out pull another headline in a direct response sales letter.
If some pro wants to argue this with me, it's probably because he
cannot create powerful headlines.
If you're running magazine ads, the headline test is a must ... but
not so much so for a direct mail sales letter. Now this does not
mean use a weak headline in your sales letters. Always shoot for
the best possible.
Magazines and Magazines CPM:
You cannot always assume a magazine publisher is totally honest.
They may lie about the number of readers or subscribers ... or
newsstand sales etc. I know I've placed ads in 250,000 circulation
magazines and got phenomenal results ... then I'd place an ad in a
similar magazine with similar readership ... and even pay the same
price ... only to get 1/3rd the results. Why? Many reasons. The
magazine may have a different kind of reader- one may be a casual
reader and one may be a hard core reader. The magazine's
subscribers can be compiled differently and thus their quality is
worlds apart. Most of the time, the publishers are lying about their
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readership numbers. This is why I like to have ABCaudit
information before placing ads and I like to deal only with
magazines I've heard of for at least a year's time.
Offers:
What you're offering can also make a huge difference with
response. Many direct mail pros would say, if you want to increase
your response ... increase your offer!It's true. I always like to offer
as much as I can without upping the shipping fees too much.
Remember, I like the shipping and handling fees I charge my
customer to cover the entire cost of the package and the postage.
How much can you get the shipping up to before the customer
starts to balk? I had 4 bottles of pills and it was $15. Some people
complained, but it isriot really as steep as Carlton Sheet's Real
Estate course.
They have a $9.95 30-day trial offer plus shipping and handling.
They conceal the shipping and handling fee until the prospect calls
and orders. Do you know how much this guy is charging to deliver
13 CDs... 4 or 5 VHS cassettes and a few booklets and plastic CD
case?
He gets $24.95! And then he goes on to say it'll take 2 to 4 weeks
to get the course. And of course those callers are hot to get their
hands on this course as soon as possible, so when they hear 4
weeks... they want it quicker. The company then pitches their rush
delivery service, whereyou can get the course in about a week's
time ... for an additional $15! So, if you want to get this course
within a week... you'll have to pay $40 on top of the $9.95 trial
price. Now if you have learned anything from this book, you know
Carlton is covering his cost to manufacture the CDs, the videos,
the shipping, etc. in his shipping and handling fee of $24.95 to
$40.
You can increase your offer's pulling power by adding bonuses to
it. To cover the added expense, add a few bucks to the shipping
and handling fee you charge.
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Premiums:
This goes back to the offer. This is not rocket science. The better
the offer ... the better the gifts ... the more compelling the reason to
order ... the better your results will be. I had promotions that broke
even when I tested them, only to pull thousands in profits once I
added a killer premium.
I did this with my car wax company- I included a free orbital
polisher with a quart size purchase.
I did this with a car stereo membership club- the customer got a
free car alarm when he joined the club.
Postage:
Now, your offer will riot profit or fail based on the type of postage
you use ... whether it be Pre-Sorted ... or straight First-Class ... or
even Standard Rate. But your results will be greatly different. I find
the better the quality of postage ... the better the quality of the
delivery. The better the delivery, the better the results. In my
experience, if you think you're going to get a deal with the Post
Office... you're going to pay for it on another end.
Product:
The product is king. If you have a great product mailed to the right
people ... even if it has bad copy ... you will pull in orders. This is
why the opportunity for knockoff-artists is so lucrative. They do
not have to know how to create the best ads ... hell; they can copy
and borrow a lot from yours. It's the product that makes them -
survive. If they didn't have a hot product to steal from someone ..
they'd be out of business. I genuinely believe ... no matter how well
you know how to create advertising ... if you have a bad product...
your results will be bad. I snicker when I hear a lot of direct mail
pros saying that the product really doesn't even matter. They like
to sell some story that their copywriting will make anything sell. I
don't believe this to be true. 1do believe you need a product that
has some use to its users ... and the amount of users has to be
large.
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Back End:
This is huge. If I didn't add my auto ship paragraph to the end of
one of my sales letters ... it would have cost me over $5 Million a
month. Can it be true that a paragraph that costs absolutely
nothing to add can be worth $5 Million a month? The answer is
ABSOLUTELYl
Many, many direct mail professionals are thrilled to break even on
their sales letter and ads because they know they are going to sell
these customers a shitload of goods in the months and years to
come. They know, from past experience that these customers may
buy $100 or $500 or $1,000 worth of goods and services from
them.
Businesses that simply break even cannot survive in this world
without having a back end business. And having a back end
should just not be used for businesses that break even. All
businesses, even if they are making 5 times their advertising cost
back on the initial purchase should still have a strong back end
business.
Guarantees:
Your prospects want to be assured they are not going to be at any
financial risk buying your product or service. You have to take
away any risk of loss they may have in their minds. Some
guarantees will add or take from your response. Sometimes you
may find that a conditional, double-the-money-back guarantee will .
out pull a traditional guarantee. Test this stuff out when the time
is right.
Who's Answering The Phones?:
This is something a lot of business-owners don't even think about.
Yeah, sure, the prospect may call the toll-free number and look to
order. .. but if you've got some illiterate answer the calls ... you may
lose some orders.
This happened to me on two different occasions. 111tell you about
both off them. First, I was selling a dietary supplement. These
types of products are naturally more complex than people ordering
a book or a video. After all, the people buying these pills actually
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have to ingest them and there may be side effects or allergic
reactions ... so they are going to want to have some of their
questions and concerns answered before they buy.
I hired a huge call center in Omaha, Nebraska called West. These
guys are huge and employ tens of thousands of people and they
actually answer about 90% of the infomercial 800#s you see on TV
all night.
But their size killed the sales for us. Sure, this company has
created elaborate scripts the order takers can read from, but when
a customer is ordering a complex product, he does not want
important answers to be read off a screen! If he was ordering a
pasta maker. .. maybe he'd be fine ... but for an ingestible product...
or even any complicated product for that matter, he may need an
experienced order taker to assist him.
When my calls were at West, I'd look at the sheer volume of calls
my advertisements would bring in ... but the ratio of sales they
actually were able to capture from all these calls was shit.
I'm serious. I was running TV spots and West was answering the
calls for me. I was getting 250 to 500 calls per 60-second spot.
How many orders did they get from these callers? Maybe three or
four! I pulled my account as soon as possible and brought the calls
in house. Response went up immediately.
I think about all the TV infomercial companies that can make
200% ... 300% ... or more in added sales by just taking their calls in
house. Order takers that do not know you ... do not care about your
product ... and do not care about you, are not going to project a
positive attitude to your callers. It's that simple.
When you are testing a sales letter or an advertisement. .. make
sure you answer the phones yourself... or at least have someone
you know answer the phones you can trust... but always make
sure you are right there watching over everything.
2]0
Whispers
I would classify a whisper as something not really worth too much
of your time when it comes to testing variables. I'd advise you to
test some whispers only after you got a successful ad or sales letter
and you have tested all the factors that scream.
Paper Color:
Don't waste time thinking your sales letter can pull more orders if
you use a fancy, colorful paper you've had your eye on. Fancy
paper ... glossy paper. .. color printing and the like will have
absolutely no effect on your sales letter's response. Your prospects
do not care if an offer was or was not on a good quality paper. Do
you ever remember yourself saying, "I was going to order this
product, but since they printed their sales letter on regular paper. ..
I'm not going to go for it." or "1was not really interested in their
product ... but since they printed it on such a nice paper stock. ..
and since it was such a nice color ... I'm compelled to buy right
now!" This does not happen- Period.
Toll-Free vs. Toll Lines:
A toll-free order line for your customers to order from is nice ... and
it may increase your response a little ... but it's not something that
will turn a loser into a winner. I think you should test a toll-free
line at first, then and only then, if the response is good and you
want to continue ... maybe you can test using a toll line and seeing
if response stays the same. With the advent of cellular phones ...
there is no such thing as long distance anymore for a lot of people.
If you can prove through testing that customers will still order in
the same quantity, even if you have a toll line ... you just saved
yourself a huge phone bill every month. Some direct marketers
actually think the use of an 800# makes you look like some large
corporation and that is not a good thing. Whatever. I'd first go with
the toll-free and then if your letter is evenworth anything to you,
then test a toll line to see if you can save a few bucks.
Additional Order Forms:
I've heard this from several direct mail pros but have yet to see it
pan out for me. These direct mail pros seem to think that if your
sales letter had 2 or 3 or 4 order coupons instead of just one, you11
pull more orders. I guess they figure the customer would hand out
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order forms to others and encourage them to order as well. I don't
know. I know many magazines do not include just one
subscription card in their magazines- they usually stuff five or six
into each issue. Does this work in direct mail? Some say it does. I
have yet to have it pan out for me and I've tested it twice. Again-
once you get a successful sales letter and if it is a promotion that
takes mail-in sales, and if you can afford the extra weight in your
piece and still remain under or at one ounce ... give it a shot and
see if it helps you.
Z-Folding vs. Letter-folding:
This is when your letter shop folds your sales letters. I like to have
them fold them in a z-pattern so it is easy to come open to full size.
When you fold in letter-fold style, the one fold is tucked and has to
be un-rolled to unfold completely. The difference is not going to
make a whole world of difference between each other. 1sure
wouldn't test folds... but since you have your choice... z-fold the
sales letter. It costs no more.
Fancy Art vs. Plain Art:
Fancy artwork will actually take away from your offer and actually
get you fewer orders! Graphic artists are huge on showing off their
talents. Don't let them do this. Plain old artwork will always out
pull fancy, slick artwork.
....•_.'
Now, there is a difference between looking appealing and being
fancy. I always advise your artwork to look appealing to the eye.
Short paragraphs. Short sentences. Paragraphs broken-up to make
it look easier to read.
In closing: This is my opinion. Make the best sales letter or ad you
can make right off the bat. If you get promising results ... or
successful results ... then test a few screamers. Every question can
be answered quickly, and inexpensively by a simple split-run test.
Ifyou're wondering what the best price to sell your product at is ...
test a fewprices. Ifyou're wondering what the best mailing list is
for your sales letters ... test a fewlists. Ifyou're wondering if you
can get more orders by using a premium ... you have to test it.
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Testing is what makes direct response the best business in the
World. Once you find the best price for your product ... you can
then take this increased response and test offers. Once you then
have an increase in orders from the better price ... and then again a
boost from finding the best offer. You can just keep adding to the
profitability week by week.
Even when I'm rolling-out a successful sales letter or magazine ad,
I'll keep running the "control" package while I am testing in the
back room. As soon as 1 get a better answer as to how to do
something, 111update the "control" package.
The "control" package is the best package you have. As you test
variables, and find better ways to do things that add to more
money for you, update the "control" package with the new price ...
or the new offer ... or the new guarantee.
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Chapter Twenty Seven:
Costs and Steps
One of the first questions I'm always asked by people first getting
started in this business is, What's it gonna cost to start up?"- I've
got the answers for you right here.
The cost to Incorporate- OPTIONAL FOR TESTING
$400-$500
It's wise to incorporate in Nevada or Delaware for tax reasons. I am
not a financial advisor, so I think you should contact one of the
many corporation companies to get your business official. Do not
use an Attomeyl Google search "incorporating in Nevada or
Delaware" and find who can do it for the lowest price.
Getting an EIN Number and Resale License-
Under $100 (only if you incorporate now)
Once you get your corporation formed, you 11 have the paperwork
needed to get an EIN# and resale license (if you need one). The
corporation company will have all the info you need to obtain these
two items. You need the EIN number to open a bank account.
Opening a Bank Account- OPTIONAL FOR TESTING
Usually a $100 opening deposit
You're going to need a business banking account. Once you get
your EIN Number you can go and open one.
The cost for the phone line and 800#
Varies
Get the phone company to hook up a phone line and add an 800#
to it. You may just want to add an 800# to your home phone and
take the order calls that way. Just make sure, if you have any
"privacy block" on your phone ... remove it.
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Printing Cost to print test quantities
$700 for 2,000 sales letters
You're going to need to print your sales letters. The letters should
cost about $700 for 2,000.
The Letter shop fees to stuff the test mailers
$140 Orso per 2,000
(you can do this yourself and save the money)
I like to stuff my own sales letters for the test quantity. You may
need the letter shop to address your envelopes if you cannot do it
yourself from your home computer.
Postage to mail your letters
$370 per 1,000 letters
This is the current price the Post Officecharges for First Class
postage.
Start-Up Supply of Product
This mayor may not be needed
You may want to "dry test" your initial sales letters. This means
you take the orders as if you are going to ship the product, but if
you do not get a good response or enough orders to justify actually
producing the product, you simply send the customer's check
back. .. or send them a letter saying you are not going to charge
their credit card as the product is no longer available or not
available at this time. If you get three orders from your sales letter,
I'm sure you'd rather send the three people back their money than
create a test batch of product. If you have an info product, and you
can produce them in quantities of fewer than 10, go for it. But if
your product is a dietary supplement where you have to make
2,000 bottles ... you may want to "dry test".
Graphic Design
Under $200
If you are handy with Quark Xpress ... you may be able to layout
your own sales letters or ad. If not, go see a graphic artist- but
make sure you keep them in your control. Nothing fancy. Give him
a few examples of what other winning sales letters and ads look
like.
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215
List Rental
$550-$650 per list in test quantities
Mailing lists have to be rented in minimum quantities of 5,000
names- even if you are going to mail just 1,000 to 2,000 letters.
Website Creation- OPTIONAL FOR TESTING
$500 to $1,000
I usually add a website to my sales letters once the letter proves to
be responsive. The entire point of web sites is to take some of the
load off the telephones. Testing does not get much phone call
traffic. Test without a website. Roll-out with a website added.
Magazine Advertisement- OPTIONAL
$2,000-$75,000+
I advise most people to start in this business with either a 2-step
ad and a direct mail follow-up or a direct mail test to a few lists.
Magazine ads to sell from can get expensive- so I wouldn't advise
it. .. unless you're financially able to risk it.
Merchant Account- OPTIONAL FOR TESTING
$200-$700
Depending on your offer, you mayor may not want to actually
fulfill on your initial test orders. If you are simply "buying
information", you're probably not going to need a merchant
account. But if you do want to get the merchant account hooked
up, I've included a future chapter on merchant accounts.
Most people can get this thing started for $2,000 to mail 2,000
letters to $3,500 to mail 4,000 letters. You can get away with just
printing the sales letter, stuffing it yourself and mailing it yourself.
You can answer your own calls. A mailing list or two needs to be
rented. The sales letter can be "dry tested".
Step-By-Step
From An Idea To A Test Mailing
STEP ONE- EVALUATE PRODUCT IDEA:
Is the product a valid product? Would people really want to buy it?
Does this product really serve a need or fill a desire?Are there
other people marketing it? How many? If so, how long has the
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product been out on the market? Does this product lead itself to
back end sales and maybe even automatic deliveries?
STEP TWO- EVALUATE COST TO PRODUCT AND SHIP: Can the
product be produced and shipped in the shipping and handling fee
you can charge your customer? If not, how much will I cost to ship
and make? Is it small and easy to warehouse? Can it be produced
in small quantities?
STEP THREE- EVALUATE LISTS AND MAGAZINES: Are there
many magazines and mailing lists out there you can test?
STEP FOUR- PUT TOGETHER OVERALL "OFFER": Put together on
paper the price, the guarantee, the premium, the back end sales
offers, etc. .
(if you are hiring a professional copywriter, skip STEP FIVE)
STEP FIVE- CRAFT SALES MATERIAL: Get out your pen and pad ...
or go to your computer and give it your best. Then let it simmer
and cool-off for a few days. Go back to the letter and edit and make
changes.
STEP SIX- MAKE A SMALL TEST SUPPLY: If you plan on fulfilling
on your test quantity orders, you have to make a small test supply
of your product.
STEP SEVEN- BUILD A WEBSITE: If you want, you can create a
website for your product and insert the web address in your sales
letter, but I really do not advise the additional cost to create the
web site. The only reason why I use web sites is to take some of the
stress off my toll-free order lines. When testing, you're lucky to get
three or four orders a day.
STEP EIGHT- LAYOUT SALES LETTER: Bring a copy of a winning
sales letter layout to your graphic designer. Do not allow him to get
all fancy on you and do not be afraid to tell him what you want.
Sometimes these people think they are the "designer" so they can
do what they want. They sure can- but with their own money and
with their own projects.
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STEP NINE- PRINT SALES LETTER: Shop around for the lowest
price you can get for printing your sales letters. There are many
variables from printer to printer and their prices reflect this. We're
trying to get the lowest price.
STEP TEN- OBTAIN MAILINGLIST: Order the mailing list last. The
last thing you need is a list getting stale sitting on your computer's
hard drive waiting for the damn printer to get you the test sales
letters.
STEP TWELVE-MAIL 2,500-5,000 LETTERS: If you're going to do
the stuffing, sealing, addressing and mailing, great. If you want to
hire someone ... that's also fine. Just make sure they are inserting
the pieces properly. Make sure the envelopes are sealed properly.
Make sure the sales .letters are addressed properly. And remember,
even if it is a 2,000 quantity test- always apply your own postage
and drop off at the Post office yourself. Or at worst case, have the
letter shop affix the postage, but have them deliver the letters to
you so you can drop them off yourself at the Post Office.
STEP THIRTEEN- MEASURE RESPONSE: This is the way I
evaluate results. I give my sales letters 30 days from the first day
they brought in an order. That 30th day is my cut-off day. The
percentage I get on this 30th day of response is the results you're
going to get. Here's a little tip that is worth the entire cost of this
book. Drop your sales letters. Wait for a few days to get the first
order. If it takes you three days to get your first order, make a note
of this. Then count 7 days from the first order. By this 7th day, if
you broke even by this date ... it's safe to assume you're going to do
double over by the 30th day. This is a winning sales letter! And if
you use this technique, you can get a good idea if you're holding a
winner just 7 days into this ... instead of waiting the entire month.
When you are mailing thousands of sales letters every week, you
do not have the ability to wait the entire month to see if the last
week's mailers are doing well and keeping their response
percentage. You need to use this 7-day trick. Drop 100,000 sales
letters, by day 7 as long as you broke even, drop the next
100,000 ... then wait another 7 days ... you should have double the
2JR
amount you had on the 7th day ... if so, drop the third 100,000 and
so on.
STEP FOURTEEN- EVALUATE RESULTS: If you broke even and
want to better the results ... you need to test the things that
scream. If the thing is a smash hit... you may want to start rolling-
out right now and test variables on the side. If results are horrible,
you may want to see if there is another reason why the letter failed.
Was the phone hooked up? Were the letters delivered? A few
chapters ahead, I did an entire thing about bettering response.
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Chapter Twenty Eight
Bumping Up The Unit Sale
When a customer calls you and buys your product, he is in the
"buy" mode ... and that's a perfect time to see if he wants to buy
something else from you.
Let me tell you a funny little story. A few years back, I was doing a
large-scale promotion that was beginning to lose its pulling power
at the cash register. I was getting less and less response. This
happens at the end of a product's life cycle.
Ihad tons of employees and didn't want to lay anyone off, so I had
to figure ways to get more money out of the advertisements and
sales letters I spent money on.
My average unit of sale was originally $69.95. This is the straight
cost of the product J was selling, and of course, all $69.95 was
eTO (contribution to overhead). By writing a few up sell scripts ... I
was able to boost the $69.95 average sale price all the way up to
$100 without spending a cent on more advertising. Here's how I
did it:
The customers were calling to join an annual club for $69.95 or a
two-year club for $129.95. We asked the caller his name, address,
phone number, credit card info, and then we'd ask him if he
wanted to join for two years or one? If he said "two" that was fine ...
but if he said "one" ... we'd then offer him the two year at a
discounted price of $119.95. Many would take us up on this- just
to save $10. An additional year cost us nothing to give the
customer.
Regardless of what they said, we then went on to the next up sell.
We then asked them if they wanted to use their membership status
today and purchase a $500 piece of software we were selling for
just $50. We paid just $5 for this program. A large amount said
"yes".
220
Regardless of what they said, we then went on to the third offer, a
CD-ROM that had an entire set of encyclopedias on them. This was
back in 1996, so this was an amazing thing to imagine ... and
encyclopedias cost several hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
We were selling it for $40. It cost us $2. A large percentage took us
up on this deal.
We then went on to offer the customer membership into a different
annual club where they were able to buy a different type of product
at severe discounts. It sold for $39.95 ... cost us a few quarters for
a catalog, and lots of people joined this club as well.
This was four up sells. Did some customers get annoyed? Yes. Did
a lot buy? Oh yes ... More than enough in added sales to put up
with the occasional guy we annoyed.
A few things to remember:
Test out your bumps and up sells one at a time on groups of 20 to
30 calls all with the same order taker and see what offers are the
most powerful. You will then put the scripts in the pattern from
the best selling to the least selling.
You want to use the same order taker for this test.
You're going to need to commission the sales people- or else you're
not going to get a high percentage of "sells" ... unless your
employees really like you. I've seen things sell at a 20% rate go to
80% with a commission added.
Another thing is to make sure you get the customer's name,
address, phone number and credit card information before you
start selling additional stuff. For one, you have to sell what they
were calling for first... and second, if you hammer the customer
without having his information first, he may be more prone to
hang-up. If you have a lot of his info ... like ALL of it..; he's not
going to hang up in the middleof your sales pitch.
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221
And after you sold him a few additional things, you can then say,
"OK, you will receive your order in about 10-14 working days. Do
you want to upgrade to express shipping for $5 extra to receive
everything in 5 days or less?"
You can make the rush delivery charge anything you want.
Regardless of what the delivery costs from the shipping company ...
you still have to pull his name out of the regular line up of orders
and give it special treatment. This means you have every right to
charge whatever you wish to do this.
Carlton Sheets charges an additional $15 for rush shipping and it
still takes a week to get to you! He's making $120 Million and more
every year- these techniques work.
Anyway, I was able to save my company for a period of time. I was
able to keep employees happy with the commissions. The customer
got a good deal on other products and services.
And it's amazing how much the sales percentage will vary
depending on the person answering the phone. Our night order-
taking service couldn't up sell for their lives. Maybe 10%.
Ordinary order-takers could sell at a percentage of 30% to 40% of
the orders they took.
My fiance and Mother (who both worked for me) could up sell 90%
and 96% of their orders respectively. They liked me the most, so
they did the best.
Also, if you are not going to give the order-takers a little prize for
selling people ... you're going to feel it in lost sales. Give them
something. I gave my order takers $2.50 for each up sell they could
sell. If they got a customer to take a 2-year at the reduced price ...
they'd get $2.50. If they got the customer to buy the CD-ROM. for
$50 ... they got $2.50. If they got the customer to buy the
encyclopedia CD for $40 ... they got $2.50. If they got the customer
to enroll in the second discount buying club for $39.95 ... the order
taker got another $2.50. In the end, if they could sell everything ...
they got $10 in commissions. If they were only able to sell two
222
things ... they got $5. This was in addition to their hourly pay of
$10 or $11... and they could sell $20 worth of up sells (8 up sells)
in an hour easily. Order-takers off the street were making $1200
and more a week in pay.
I even had the phones ring in a row. Line one ... and if line one was
busy ... line two ... and so on. I put the # 1 up seller in position one ...
the second in position number two. This way, 1was able to extract
the maximum out of all our callers by using the best performing
reps first. If you couldn't up sell ... you got the last phone on the
list. And they didn't care ... they took a lot less calls. They got paid
to sit there and do nothing!
I'd limit the up sells to three or four at a time. More will annoy the
callers. But trust me ... none will tell you to forget their entire
order. That's a fear most marketers have.
Just recently, I did a 4-pack up sell to customers. Callers would
call in for a bottle of pills at $60. I knew I'd make $180 off them in
the months to come with the automatic shipments ... but we were
in a little cash crunch, so I offered 4 full month bottles'for $139.95
plus $15 shipping and handling. We were able to up sell 40% to
50% and get some much-needed cash in the door.
When up selling, it has to be done by a well-crafted script.
223
Chapter Twenty Nine:
Response Rates
I giggle when I hear novice marketers say something like this, "This
magazine has 2 million readers, .. I think I can get 4% of the
readers to buy from seeing my ad!" or ... "When I mail my sales
letter, I think 1 can get 20% of the people to buy off my sales
letter!" ... If it were only that easy.
Here's the deal. In direct maiL. I do not like to go by percentages. I
like to gauge success of a promotion in a "times-cost" ratio. For
example if a letter costs me 60 cents to mail..; of $600 per
thousand I want to get $1,200 in eTO when I mail 1,000 sales
letters ... or 2-times my cost.
Depending on the price of your product, this can mean a 2%
response- if the product was $60 ... of it can mean .2% if the
product you are selling is $600. Response rate really means
nothing ... its the multiple of your cost to mail.
As for magazine ads, we do not use percentages either. We go by
"times-cost". If a magazine ad costs $2,000 ... and you get $4,000
in eTO ... you did "double-over".
You can still make a fortune if you bring back just what you spent
as long as you have a huge back end.
You can make millions of dollars when you double your initial
advertising cost as long as you have a strong back end. I did.
I had a pill that I was selling for $60. I needed 1% in orders from
my sales letters to break even. I got 2%. So, I was profiting 60
cents from each letter I mailed. This is good. But the real profits
came in when the automatic shipments kicked in a few months
later. I got an average of 4 bottles. sold to each customer. This
brought my gross eTO to $180. Remember, it cost me just $30 in
advertising costs to attract a new customer. That's six-times cost! I
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was able to do this to 40,000 new customers a month ... 1got rich
real quick.
The same for magazines. I knew I could double my money if I
bought magazine advertisements for $20 CPM. This CPM figure
represents the COST PER ONE THOUSAND PAID READERS. If a
magazine had 1 million actual, paid readers ... I'd gladly pay the
publisher $20,000 for a full-page advertisement in his magazine.
If I bought my ads right ... I was able to maintain this 6-times cost
ratio even on my print ads. Which I did.
Here's how to figure out the cost to acquire a customer: If you're
mailing 1,000 sales letters or 2,000 sales letters, measure how
many orders you get: If you get 40 orders mailing 2,000 sales
letters, you'd divide the cost to mail the 2,000 letters by 40 and
come up with $30.
To mail 2,000 letters, it'll cost $1,200 ($600 per thousand). As long
as your product has a $30 or higher CTO, you're going to make a
profit.
The same thing with magazines. If a magazine costs $20,000 to
place an ad in and you get 2,000 orders ... divide $20,000 by 2,000
and get $10. As long as you have a higher CTO from each sale that
exceeds $10 ... you're going to make a profit.
Good initial response rates should be l x- ·i.f you have a killer back
end ...
Response of 2x cost can make you rich if you have a strong back
end.
Response of 3x cost is even better ... especially if your back end is
strong.
When all is said and done with back end sales ... you're looking to
achieve 3x to 6x cost. I made $100 Million with 6x cost.
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If you mail a sales letter and it breaks even, you should be happy.
Now resell the shit out of these customers with other offers! Mail
these customer every freakin' week if you can. Mail and mail and
mail until the list is no longer bringing more back in sales than it
costs to mail.
Here's how I gauge if I'm going to be successful within a few days ...
where others wait for weeks:
I only mail First Class, as you should. When I mail First Class, I
wait for two or three days to get my first order, then I count how
many days it takes me to break even and make back the money I
just spent mailing the sales letters. Let's say, it cost me $1,200 to
mail 2,000 letters. My product sells for $60 plus S/H. I need 20
sales to recoup the initial mailing cost. If I can get these 20 orders
by the 7th day of response, I'll do 2x cost by the 30th day of
response. This has proven itself to me many, many times and is
what I go by to see within 7 days what takes others 30 days to
figure out.
As for magazines ... if I can break even within one week of it being
on the racks ... I'll do 2x over by the time the next issue comes out.
Magazines are printed way in advance, so you don't get enough
time to evaluate your first issue ... as a second one comes out when
you just get your 30 day results. If you break even within the first
week of seeing the book on the news racks ... youlI double over by
the time the next issue comes out.
House File.
Your house file or houselist is the list of customers you sold your
products to. This is the most powerful mailing list you will ever
possess. No other group of names will be more responsive than the
list you compile.
Would you believe, I sometimes hear from marketers that they do
not retain the names of the customers who buy from them? Are
they crazy? My house file can pull 5x cost for new products I'd be
testing while an outside list would get l x cost.
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If you want to be smart in the direct response business ... you have
to build a customer me. This is a gold mine for additional sales.
My friend and mentor, Jay Abraham used to make a fortune by
simply going to businesses that did not know anything about
mailing their customer list. He'd say to them, for every dollar I
bring you in sales, Iwant a quarter. Iknew he got very rich doing
this.
The bottom line is this: You want to gage how well you are doing in
this business by a times-cost ratio. If you're pulling 2x cost...
you're doing well. Anything more than that ... and consider yourself
King!
227
Chapter Thirty:
Refund Rates
No matter how great your product or service is ... you have to offer
your customers a money-back guarantee ... and no matter how
good your product or service is ... people will take you up on your
guarantee.
Don't take it personal. You know the saying, "You can please all of
the people sometimes ... or some of the people all the time ... but
never all of the people all of the time." I think that's how it goes.
But anyway ...
You11always have people ... some correct ... and some insane ... who
felt your corporation and your product have wronged them. I'm
sure there will be people who bought this book that will absolutely
love it- probably 95%. And there's going to be 5%)who think I'm
wasting trees. You cannot take it personal.
I remember back in 1995 when I published my first book, Direct
Mail Trade Secrets ... I got one reader to write me and demand his
money back as he said he found better information in his library.
You can never satisfy everyone- and you don't.
That's right ... YOU DO NOT WAN'I"TOSATISFY EVERYONE! If you
satisfy every one ... even if you could ... it means you're not selling
hard enough in your ads and sales letters.
You actually want 5% or 7% of your customers to ask for their
money back. And this 5% to 7% is what you can expect in refunds.
I've been involved with products that have had 10% ask for a
refund and we still made millions of dollars ... so as long as you're
not giving back over 10% ... you're probably doing a great job at
selling ... and you're still satisfying 90% of your customers- which
is a lot more people than the 50% the President of the United
States satisfies.
.228
Here's my rule of thumb: If you're getting less than 10% to ask for
their money back ... you're not selling hard enough. If you're
getting more than 10%, you're overselling your product. Try to
keep it around 7% and you'1l be fine.
You'll get five times more credit card buyers to ask for a refund
than people who ordered with a check or money order. I've noticed
this for the past few years. I guess the credit card buyers see their
credit card bill later and feel the money "gone" a few weeks after
the check orders. The check orders feel the money gone the instant
they mail their order to you. Also, credit card buyers know they
have certain levels of protection with Visa or Master Card or
whatever they used.
When you do get a refund request, make sure you resolve all
legitimate refund requests within 30 days ... or as soon as you can.
I was running a $100 Million company with a half of a million
customers ... and I was just 5 to 7 days behind on consumer
credits. You should have no problem offering credits the same day
they are requested. But do make sure the credits are legitimate.
Customers can cause you some real headaches. If a guy is 15 days
over his refund period ... still give him the refund. If a customer has
4 bottles of your product he's received over the past few months
and didn't call and stop his automatic deliveries ... and now he
wants all his money back. .. I'd give him the damn money back. It's
your call, you can do as you wish ... but if you're making thousands
of sales each and every month ... you can afford to lose a dozen or
so unreasonable requests.
If you're finding that you have a lot of refund requests but you
want to continue to sell the product as you are because response is
so good ... or the people who are returning the product are losers ...
here's some stuff you can do:
In the last paragraph, I said, "If the customer is a loser" ... yes,
customers can be losers. When the founder of Entrepreneur
Magazine was first getting started in the publishing business ... he
sold these "kits" on how to open certain types of businesses. They
still have these kits in the back pages of Entrepreneur Magazine.
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Anyway, opportunity seekers purchased these kits. And
opportunity seekers are usually money-for-nothing ... get-rich-
quick ... lazy people. At least a good majority of them are.
That's why get-rich ads selling books or courses should hide the
"money-making-technique" in the ad. The secret has to be in the
course or book. You'll sell more by concealing the actual "task" as
it's sure to turn some people off, as opportunity seekers hate to do
"work".
Anyway, the founder of Entrepreneur Magazine was selling these
kits before he started the magazine and these kits were plagued by
high percentages of refunds.
To keep promoting these kits, as they were profitable ... he
introduced a "conditional guarantee". He offered to give the
customer double their money back if the kits he sold them could
not get him in the business he wanted to be in and do well at it or
whatever.
Now, the customer had to prove he actually tried doing something
taught in the kit to get double his money back ... or any of his
money back for that matter.
They ended up selling more kits, as the guarantee was super
strong ... and they got less people to ask for their money back, as
they had to prove to the publisher that they actually did something
with the information in the kit. .
The people who were killing this company earlier with the high
refund requests were lazy and they didn't even want to read the
information in the kit. The info in the kit was of quality and could
help someone looking to get in that particular business. If they
wanted their money back, they had to prove the publisher was
selling junk- which they couldn't. And those that could ... were so
little, he'd gratefully give them 200% their money back.
There are tons of hurdles you can put refund requesters through ...
you can tell them to call and ask for a RA# (return authorization
number) before sending back any product. Some companies will
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refuse shipments without this RA# on them! You can make
customers send back the empty bottle if it is a supplement you are
selling. Not so much because people throwaway empty bottles ...
but because people are lazy to ship back an empty bottle. It's
pointless for the marketer to have an empty bottle ... but there's a
reason for it.
Your customer service reps can have some kind of retention script
they can use to try to get your customer to keep the product. I
know dietary supplements sometimes do not go to work on the
body within the 30 day guarantee period ... so, I used to have my
reps offer to extend the guarantee for another 30 days to go to 60
days and a minimum of 50% of the people who would have asked
for a refund would agree. Their results would come in the next few
weeks and they were-glad they gave the pills more time to work for
them.
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Chapter Thirty One:
Increasing Response
So you mailed out your sales letters or you placed your
advertisement and you got your results. Were they better than you
expected? Worse then you expected? Right where you expected?
Regardless- you're going to want to improve them, right? And
here's how:
If your results were poor:
1. Make sure your ad' or sales letterhad a correct phone number
and address for customers to respond to.
2. Make sure your sales letters got delivered to your prospects.
3. Make sure the mailing list broker sent you the right list and
didn't send you another one in error.
If all this checked out, try these tactics:
1. You can lower the price you're charging.
2. You can raise the price you're charging.
3. You can add a premium.
4. You can add an expensive premium and raise the price.
5. Test a different mailing list, as this would be the # 1 reason why
a direct mail promotion would fail.
6. If you ran a magazine ad and you want it to make more money,
you can call the publisher and renegotiate your ad cost. Tell them
you cannot run the ad every month if the price cannot be lowered.
If they want to keep you in their magazine every month ... they'll
find it in their hearts to eat a little less.
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7. Test a different magazine to run your ad in.
8. Maybe your product is just a poor idea that nobody wants. Don't
take this too personaL You cannot find winners and you cannot
create breakthrough products unless you gamble a little. I try
brand-new products all the time that either fail miserably ... or
become huge national successes. If I played it safe all the time ... I'd
be a lot poorer.
Now this does not mean market anything you can think of. You're
just starting out. Let's try to stick with winning types of products.
And always remember; fix only one thing at a time. You cannot try
to test a different price with a different mailing list. One at a time!
Otherwise the test is useless.
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Chapter Thirty Two:
What I Know About Websites
Websites are great to assist my order takers.
Ifl'm taking 1,500 orders a day ... for one, I've got to hire an
employee, which costs money. Two, I have to have the phone lines
and pay for the 800#. Three, with each caller there is a chance of
human error and a loss of a sale.
When orders are being taken over my website, I do not have to hire
an employee to take the order. I can take orders all day long ... all
night long ... in any weather. I do not have to worry about phone
lines being busy ... and I don't have to worry about employees
saying the wrong stuff to the prospects and losing the order.
But of course, you cannot have just a website to place orders. And
you cannot handle all of the orders yourself if you get large
enough.
People seem to think the Internet is a cure-all that totally replaces
direct response ordering through the mail or through the phone.
That's not true. Websites are an aid.
Before websites, I used to take orders through the phone and
through the fax. I used to have customers fax us their orders. But
since the introduction of the web ... I got rid of the fax-in option and
replaced it with a website.
And as for the website itself ... it's nothing more than a sales letter
on a screen. Graphics that take forever to load ... forget them.
Special Flash Players or other software that is required to see the
site ... get rid of them. People are not going to go and download
software to view your site.
I usually breakdown the site to five pages or so. This helps in the
search engines as well. The pages are as follows:
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1. Home page-, which is basically a teaser. It usually states the
headline to my offer with a click here to continue button.
2. More Info page- this is the page the home page will go to when
the viewer clicks on it. It will have the entire body copy of my sales
letter.
3. Frequently Asked Questions page- this is a carbon copy of the
questions 111 include in my sales letter.
4. Testimonial/Validation page- this page will have results of
studies ... articles ... testimonials ... any kind of proof the viewer can
click on to help him make his decision to try my product.
5. Order page- this is a page that asks for all the information
needed to place an order. This can all be inputted into a shopping
cart for processing.
These five pages and what they are to have on them is all you need
to know about websites. The fonts ... the headlines ... the paragraph
lengths ... the sentence lengths ... everything I taught you about
writing copy is the same on the screen of a computer.
Here's ways to promote your website:
Web banners ... forget about them. Enough said.
Spam ... forget about it. It got us sued three times from people we
sent it to!
Paid search ... do it. It works best for the trademarked name of your
product ... or of your competitors. If you're selling a product that
has a huge competitor. .. free ride off his trademark. Try to buy
search terms that have your competitor's product name in them.
Everyone that clicks on his trade name ... you can get your
product's name in front of him or her as well. Free advertising!
I remember I was having a huge knock-off problem. These guys
were free riding off my trademark on paid search engines like
Overture and the like.
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I complained to Overture. They came up with some loophole that
permitted these knock-offs to still buy my trademarked product
name ... but they had to say "Compare XYZ to Product Name" in
their headline.
XYZwas their product name and Product Name was our product's
name. This trick allowed the knock-offs to piggyback on my $1.2
Million I spent a month in print, radio and TV advertising. When
people forgot my domain name ... or wanted to do a little research
on my product ... they were bombarded with people saying their
product was better and cheaper than mine. Some customers were
fooled ... but many were brand loyal and wanted the real thing.
I hated these knock-offs when they free rode like this ... but If I was
the small guy ... like you are going to be ... free ride your ass off
buddy!
I think paid search is a great idea. People have to bid on certain
search terms. The highest bidder gets the top positions ... and thus,
gets more clicks. I know there are guys paying $6 per click for
search terms like Viagra! Crazy! But they are not going to be
paying $6 each and every time a different computer clicks on their
search result ... they've got to be making money.
I remember with one of the products I created, I used to bid on
search terms. I was paying 7 cents for my product's trademarked
name. Once I got up and going and making millions of dollars ...
people were paying $3.50 to $4.00 for each and every time
someone entered my trademark and they clicked on their link.
I never really had any success with affiliate programs. There are
thousands of people that say these programs work. .. and I'm sure
what their vision of "works" is different than mine. Mine is making
$10,000,000 a year ... theirs is making $600 a week. Do affiliate
programs work? I'm sure they make several hundred bucks for
their owners ... but are they going to make you $5 Million next
year? I don't think so.
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Websites are also great for keeping in touch with customers and
prospects. If you can find a way to capture an email address and a
name ... you can send offers to these people, as many times as you
wish and you pay nothing.
Web marketers are doing this with newsletters. You go to their site
and subscribe to a newsletter. You write a few pages of text and
send it to them every week. .. or month ... or whenever. You can also
send them offers for other products as you see fit.
1remember back in 1998 or 1999, I was selling computer software
and I had a pretty big email list of my customers. Every time a
customer would order over the web, I'd ask his email address. I
had something like 20,,000 addresses. I went to Office Max and
bought a program that would send an email to my email list at the
rate of one every 5 or 10 seconds.
This program cost me $10. I sent out the emails offering a great
deal on a new software program I was selling. I recall getting phone
calls to place orders within 30 minutes of emailing. 1don't even
know if you can do this anymore. But the point is, websites are
great as tools for direct response- they are not the be-all, end-all as
many wished they would become.
NOTE:Here's something I may have forgot to include in this chapter.
When you are designing a website ... especially the Home Page...
make sure you do not make your body copy in HTML and your
headline in a JPEG.
The reason for this is simple ... if your customer has a dial-up
connection ... your body copy will load before your headline. This is
BAD. Make your headline HTML... just like the body copy.
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Chapter Thirty Three:
Merchant Accounts
In order to survive in direct response mail order in this day and
age, you have to be able to accept credit cards as payment for your
goods or services.
] think you need to take credit cards in any business. Just
yesterday, I stumbled upon an Italian bakery I wanted to check
out. I had the girl behind the counter put together a one-pound
box of cookies, but when I handed her my credit card, she said
they didn't accept them.
I usually don't carry cash, so I asked her where was an ATM. She
pointed to a Wal-Mart across the parking lost. I got in my car and
went over to the crowded Wal-Mart. I got so disgusted; I just drove
away- leaving the cookies behind.
There's two different ways to get a merchant account. One is the
traditional way going through companies like Cardservice
International. They claim they'll approve 99% of their applicants.
Look in your phonebook to find a local branch office.
The second w_ayis through third party Payment Solution
companies like PayPal ... or CCBill ... or Multicards International.
These companies are easier to get set-up than a traditional
merchant account. The only thing that is different is that they
usually charge a higher percentage of your sales, and your
company name will not appear on the "descriptor" ... which is what
appears on the customer's credit card statement. It'll say for
example, if you were using Multicards ... Buy Secure, LLC.
This is fine. I'd just let my customer know when you're getting off
the phone with him that he will see a charge on his credit card
billed as "whatever". This will eliminate any confusion.
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I've used both types of merchant accounts in the past. The ones
directly from the bank are great... but they take longer to get. .. and
they are a little harder to get. You have to show them some good
paperwork. .. tax returns ... and other stuff.
The third party guys don't really care for all of that. Guys like
Multicards will hold your money for three weeks where regular
banks deposit daily into your bank.
What I would do is try to get a merchant account through
Card service Intemational or another traditional credit card
processor. If they are taking too long ... or if you are denied service,
go to one of the third party people. Anyone selling something on
eBay can get themselves a merchant account through Paypal ...
and they can get set up in a few minutes. Hopefully traditional
credit card processors will loosen-up their procedures and make it
easier for entrepreneurs to process credit cards.
Here's some terminology you need to know dealing with merchant
accounts:
Discount Rate:
This is the fee the credit card company will charge for you to
process your orders. I wouldn't pay anything over 3% if you were
dealing with a traditional bank. Fees for the third party providers
can be 5.9% ... all the way up to 15%. Don't pay anything more
than 6%. On many businesses, the owners are lucky to make 10%
of gross sales ... and they got to bust their Asses for it! Why would
anyone give this much to some guy who is doing nothing but
processing your credit card order?
Reserve:
This is a fee the merchant mayor may not want to collect. This is
an insurance policy the bank will hold in case your company goes
belly-up. This fee is refundable 180 days after you terminate your
account with that bank. This reserve can be collected as a "rolling"
reserve, which is usually 5% or worse, 10%. This means the bank
will collect an additional 5% of your gross sales and put them in a
non-interest bearing account in case they are ever financially
harmed by your company.
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I think of it as a forced savings. These accounts can sometimes
add up to big bucks ... I had $2 Million in one once!
Sometimes you can get away without having a reserve on your
account... but if the bank wants one ... what are you to do?
Negotiate. Try to get it down. Try to make it a six-month reserve,
where they collect the money only for six months ... or until a
certain dollar value is reached ... instead of being a forever rolling
reserve. This reserve fee is also known as a holdback.
Charge backs:
A charge back is when a customer contests the charge you put on
his or her credit card. This usually happens when a customer does
not recognize the charge or what he ordered ... sometimes the
customer was not happy with the product and it is easier for them
to call the 800# on their credit card statement than it is to dig-up
your phone number. Maybe you placed a charge on your
customer's credit card without their permission and they are
pissed off. Maybe the customer knows you sent him your product
without requiring him to sign for it at the door. All he has to do is
say to the credit card company that he never received the product.
The merchant account will ask for you to provide them with proof
the customer got the order. .. and you don't have anything ... so you
have to give them back their money. A very few people will do this,
so it may not be worth getting signatures for every package you
deliver. To obtain signatures, it may cost an extra $3 or $5 per
order. If you got one person out of 100 ripping you off... it's
cheaper than adding $3 to $5 on top of every order to get
signatures.
You can fight a lot of charge back requests with the credit card
company. Before they actually suck the money out of your
account, they usually give you the opportunity to speak your end
of the story. This is called a "retrieval". 111talk about them next.
Retrievals:
This is when a customer contests a charge on his credit card and
before the credit card company charges back the purchase, they
sometimes give you the opportunity to fight the charge back.
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I advise you to contest each one, as if you let them go, sometimes
the bank will take this as some form of guilt. And you'd be
surprised, you can win many of them.
If you got a signature at the door from your customer. .. make sure
you show this to the bank. As soon as they see you got a signature,
they'll usually rule in your favor. But like I was saying before, it
may not be financially smart to get a signature from every
customer. And you also run the risk of the customer not signing
for the order and it comes back to you and you have to credit the
purchase.
TMF.
This is the black list. You're dead if you're on this list. TMF stands
for Terminated Merchant File. You're supposed to get listed on this
list when you commit some kind of fraud or if a bank gets beat. By
fraud, I mean you went crazy with your customer's credit card
numbers and took-off never to be heard from again. But this is not
always the case, if your charge back percentages exceed 1% for
more than three months ... the bank can and will terminate your
merchant account and you may even get placed on the TMF.
If you're a business owner and get placed on the TMF... you have
to have a partner or silent partner in order to get merchant
accounts ever again. So be careful and make sure you do not
exceed 1% in charge backs.
In certain circumstances, you're going to hit 1% charge backs. Say
you get .75% and in December you get 25% less orders, you're
going to hit the 1% mark for that month. What you need to do is
make sure you bump a lot of your sales that month to a higher
unit of sale. You need to send out sales letters to your customer
base and get additional sales that month. The added revenue that
month will offset the less sales you'll get and you will not hit the
1%.
I've heard that a merchant account hooked-up through a Canadian
bank. .. like Surefire ... gives a 2% charge back limit ... which is
double the Americanbanks. This is something to look at. If I had
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my choice, I'd go through a Canadian bank. Everything is
processed through your computer nowadays ... so the damn bank
can be in the Bahamas and you'd never know.
Limits.
Sometimes, especially on new accounts, the bank will put a cap or
a limit on how much you can charge. This is usually fine when you
are just starting up. I remember many times when we had an $8
Million limit and we were bumping it every month! We had to put
more money in reserve to get the limit increased.
Look- if you get a bad deal from a traditional "bank" merchant
account, you can take their deal and work with them for three
months. Once you have three months worth of charging
statements, you can go to any bank and you'll have a much easier
time and a much better deal. So, if you have to take a high
discount percentage fee, take the damn thing and shop for a new
one in three months.
Discover and American Express credit card processing will not
come from the same place you '11get your Visa and Mastercard
account. For the Discover and American Express, you '11have to go
through them directly. And these guys are a lot easier to work
with. I know American Express does not give you a limit on how
much you can charge like Visa and Mastercard may. If I had a
$100,000 charging capability with Visa and Mastercard and I was
getting $150,000 in sales ... I used to give my customer a free
bonus for using his American Express card to sway some
customers to use that card if they had one.
I'm sure this will probably be the first chapter to get outdated in
this book. So this information is current at the time of writing,
which is June 2004.
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Chapter Thirty Four:
Call Centers
When you finally get a winning sales letter or advertisement you
have to make the decision to use caller cen ters or not.
I'm going to tell you what I feel about these services, my
experiences with them, and how to decide if you want to use one or
not.
First of all, there are large caller centers like West in Omaha,
Nebraska ...and then there are smaller ones you can find in your
local phone book. Let's talk about large call centers first.
I once tried to outsource the headache of employees and hired a
huge call center in Nebraska. I went to visit them and they were
huge. It looked like they employed most of the town.
As I walked around one of the phone rooms, I saw they were
handling calls for most of the infomercials on TV at the time. They
were doing Carlton Sheets ... Ronco... The Ab Rocker. Their client
roster was impressive.
I figured if this call center can handle these company's order calls,
they could sure handle ours- an herbal supplement I was doing
some consulting work for. I was wrong.
This large company had over 10,000 people answering the phone.
With all order takers, they get better the more familiar they get
with the product. When there are 10,000 people answering the
phones ... in order for a rep to get their second call for your
product, you'd have to sell 10,000 people! The reps at these large
companies will never get familiar with your product. So if it's a
high-tech product or a supplement, where customers may have a
lot of questions, a large call center may not be the best fit for you.
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Another thing that bothers me about call centers is that they are
horrible on their up sell percentages. If you can up sell 40% of your
customers when you're using your own employees ... chances are
you'll get just 5% from a call center. The reps just don't care. And
they sound too obvious they are reading a script. Again- because
they cannot get familiar with your products.
Another thing that annoys me about large call centers is that you
cannot "see" the people answering your calls. I want to see with my
own eyes what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.
You cannot do this with a large call center where the client is not
allowed in the call rooms.
I remember getting several hundred calls when we'd run a TV spot
and I'd be so mad when we got under five orders from all those
calls!
Nowthere are some pros about using a call center. They have reps
ready to answer your calls 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You
don't have to worry about who cannot find a baby sitter. .. who is
sick. .. whose Mother just died. That's the call center's problem.
Another thing that is good is that if the phone lines are not busy,
you don't have to pay an hourly wage. If you were to take calls in-
house, you'll have to pay for your employees even if they are sitting
doing nothing.
Also, if you are running TV spots, it's pretty costly for you to get
100 phone lines in your building. That's how many people call in at
once when a TV spot hits the air. When you are using a large call
center, they have thousands of lines. They can take 1,000 calls for
your product at the same time.
You could never take 1,000 calls at once. And even if you did, what
happens for the next half hour until the next commercial comes
on? Nothing- your people just sit and get paid for doing nothing.
Large call centers like WEST actually pay for the toll-charges
through the 800# they'll give you. All you have to pay them is 80
cents or so a minute. For some it will work out cheaper than hiring-
your own employees ... for some it1l cost a few dollars more.
Something WEST did for us was credit us $2 for every order call
that came in. Remember, they were charging us around 80 cents a
minute. And if we would allow them to "Ditch" our callers with 3-
issue trial magazine subscriptions, they'd pay us $2 per pitch
regardless if they sold the customer or not. This worked out OK
and offset some of the costs.
Then there is smaller, local call centers- usually known as
Answering Services.
They are a little smaller, so their reps can and will get used to what
your product does and what the up sell script is going to read like.
They'll get more of the callers to buy and they'll get a higher
percentage of callers to up sell to something else. Again- because
they are going to get more familiar with your offer.
Then there's a flip side to the smaller call centers. They usually are
understaffed. The owners want to maximize their profit margins
and if they run lean, they'll do better. What they don't realize is
that a call may now sit on hold until the order rep gets off the
phone with his last order. A lot of people will just hang up ... even if
it an 800# they are calling.
If Ihad to give you my honest advise, here it is:
Large call centers are great if you are running ads, letters, or
commercials that are capturing caller's addresses to send them
information ... like a free report or info package. They kind of suck
when it comes time to sell something. And they really suck when
the product you are selling is complicated and may lead to many
questions being asked by the caller.
I remember calling the large call center and asking them a
question about my own product- Iwas pretending 1 was a
customer. They gave me another 800#- this time for my customer
service department. It was actually still the call center as they
handled my customer service as well. The customer service rep
r
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couldn't answer my generic: questions either. They gave me the
phone number of our acti d.~ 'ruilding. The question I asked was an
easy, no-brainer question ... and they lost the order.
I could only imagine how many orders they were losing.
Like I was saying before, if you are just having customers ask for
an info kit or a free report, a large call center should work just fine.
If you're rurming national TV spots, a large call center may be
needed as well to handle all the call volume.
This is what I used to do. I used to have a small call center answer
my calls over night and on the weekends. During regular business
hours, we'd answer our calls in-house. Once our company grew,
we took our calls all day and all night ... we'd open at Sam and
close at 1am.
If you are looking to build a list using TV spots to request
information ... you can usea large call center, as they do not have
to actually "sell" for you.
I
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Chapter Thirty Five:
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is when a marketer calls his prospects and verbally
pitches his offering... instead of soliciting through the mail, .. or in
a magazine ... or on TV or radio.
In these days, there's "do not call" lists where consumers add their
names and numbers to national lists and if a marketer calls these
people, he can be in some serious problems.
In certain states like Arizona, telemarketing is practically illegal. I
know of a lady who works at a mortgage company in Arizona that
offers mortgages through telemarketing. The sales people are
working on cell phones from different locations every few weeks.
While telemarketing is annoying to its prospects ... is it really a
crime? Now, this does not mean I like telemarketing. Actually I
hate it. I tried it once to a cold prospect list a few years ago and the
results were horrible.
The only way you may be able to get telemarketing to work for you
is if you have an offer and you want to call your customer list and
offer it to them. That's fine. Trying to get cold prospects that are
not your customers to buy though the phone has never worked for
me- ever.
But what has worked for me was outbound calls to my existing
customers offering them something related to the product or
products they've bought from me in the past.
Probably the most profound revelation I've ever had with
telemarketing was when 1did follow-up calls to my new customers.
Let me explain how this works.
For a while we were using an answering service to take our order
calls overnight and on weekends. Now, since they were so bad at
247
up selling products, I asked them not to offer my customers any
more up sells. So the answering service simply took the straight
orders.
What I then did the next morning was have my best up seller call
each and every new customer from the previous night and say they
were calling to "verify" their information. My up seller would go
over their name, the spelling, their address, their phone number,
their credit card information, etc. The customer was impressed to
think we were taking the time to call him and verify all his
information. And right before our up seller was going to hang up ...
they'd say, "let me tell you about a few of our specials we have
going on right now..." and they'd go right into the scripts.
Guess what. Callers that could not have been sold anything if I let
the answering service do it the night before, were now buying like
crazed animals when we'd simply "verify" their information.
Other than these two ways ... I've never had any form of
telemarketing actually produce profitable results for me. I'm sure
there's millions of businesses making telemarketing work ...
otherwise the Feds wouldn't make "do not call" lists. I never was
able to figure it out.
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Chapter Thirty Six:
Television Advertising
I create 60-second TV spots the same way I create 60-second radio
spots. I write a script, which sells the product as hard as I can.
I make sure to add an 800# and website address early enough in
the spot to make sure the prospect has enough time to get the
number.
What I've been noticing now is that companies are using a wide-
screen format commercial, where they have black space on the top
of the commercial and black space on the bottom.
This is the perfect place to place an 800# and website address
throughout the entire 60-second spot. I keep referring to 60-
second spots because I have never felt a 30-second spot gives you
enough time to do some form of a selling job.
In a 60-second spot, you want to have the phone number and/or
website address displayed for at least IS-seconds before the end.
Now,TVspots are just salesmanship which came to life where a
sales letter or advertisement is salesmanship in print. They are
really the same.
The commercial has to open up with a headline ... or an opening
thrust. Then once the opening statement or statement is said and
gets the attention of the watchers who are prospects, you'd go into
your body copy- but instead of it being in paragraph form... it's
read to them.
TVis a very powerful medium. Put it this way... I was bringing in
40,000 new customers a month. To get this volume, I was
advertising in dozens of magazines. But when I advertised on the
Howard Stern Show on the E! channel I took in 10,000 of those
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40,000 monthly orders in just one hour a night... six nights a
week!
TV is very, very powerful. I was selling a really hot product a few
years back. I remember my commercial was to appear on the
Howard Stern Show on a Tuesday for the first time. I was so
nervous to see how TV would do for me. It just so happens the
Tuesday my commercial was to break ... two crazy terrorists
smashed two 767s into the Word Trade Center towers.
Thinking of the company was the last thing on my mind ... I was
wondering if this was the end of the world- as most of America was
thinking. But wouldn't you know ... when the Howard Stern Show
aired that night ... and my commercial was run two times ... I
actually broke even. lwas thinking, "Are these people crazy?
They're worrying about buying my damn supplement when we
suffered the attacks this moming?!"
TV advertising is powerfuL. very powerful. You just want to make
sure you are not advertising with local cable ... and you are
advertising Nationally with channels like Spike ... CNN... Comedy
Central ... E!... etc. It's not as expensive as you think. A 60-second
spot on the Howard Stern Show ran Nationally was running us
$2500 each spot- maybe even less.
And then there are infomercials.
Infomercials are 28.5 minutes long. They are long-form
commercials that are basically little "shows" selling different
products.
Infomercials usually run on cable channels starting at midnight or
so. They are not as expensive as you think. I know of people paying
$2,000 - $4,000 for the entire half-hour.
A good infomercial with a good product should get 1,000 people to
call on average. The order takers should be able to sell about half
of these people.
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An infomercial can bring in 500 orders. If you're running one every
night ... on four or five different channels ... that's 2,000 to 2,500
orders. I brought in on average 1,500 orders a day at a measly
$59.95 and had an auto-delivery program every customer was
enrolled into. I made $100 Million a year.
TV is powerful. Very powerful.
One thing that is different about TV is that it takes a week or so to
get the spots fully ramped up ... where they need a little repetition.
That is not true with print ads or sales letter. The more you run
them, the response does not get better.
With TV spots this is true ... and not so much as true with
infomercials, Infomercials bring in a lot of their response the first
time they are ran. The short form 60-second spots need to run a
few times for the watcher to get his pen handy and actually get the
phone number down.
.----
Producing the spot or infomercial is where some big bills come in.
I've shot 60-second spots for $14,000 and I've shot 60-second
spots for $114,000. The differences in response were no different .
One commercial, I shot in video (which is cheaper than film), and it
was a woman on a lounge chair at poolside reciting a script.
The expensive commercial was a western. We rented the
Paramount Studios western town set for two days- this was the set
Dr. Quinn and Bonanza were filmed on and we sure spent some
serious money on production ... we had cameras attached to cranes
for overhead shots ... we had genuine cowboy actors that appeared
in Tombstone and the Wild Bunch.
The commercial looked great ... but did it pull more orders for me
than the cheap $14,000 spot did? Nope.
This business, whether it be in print... or in the mail. .. or on TV
does not depend on how fancy your message is. This business is
not about having the prettiest letterhead or brochure. Hell, I didn't
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get business cards made until I was making$50 Million and felt
stupid when people were asking me for a card.
If I had my choice when producing a short form commerciaJ, I'd
made it a script read by an attractive man or woman. That's it.
1nfomercials are a different story and way beyond the scope of this
book and surely this chapter. There are many formats for
infomerciaJs ... there's talk show format, which is the cheapest to
produce and may cost $25,000 ... then there's the high-dollar
productions that can cost as much as $200,000!
Do you know what is funniest? When the infomercial appears to be
a live talk show when they clearly are not... and they are taking
callers! "Bob from Dallas is on line one. Hi Bob, what can we do for
you?" and Bob actually asks a question about the product!
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Chapter Thirty Seven:
Radio Advertising
Radio advertising is the same as TV advertising- just without the
images. The way I create radio and TV advertising is basically the
same ... the same script ... the same offer. .. the same wording ...
everything is the same.
I like my TV spots to actually be radio spots just with a visual
added. If the watcher is not in front of the TV, he can still get the
entire offer. I laugh when J see TV commercials with no voice ... just
music.
If you place radio spots ... do not get upset with the results from the
first three or four days. Radio spots do take a few days to get up to
full speed. They need repetition to start generating the orders.
I remember when I first started a radio campaign and the first few
days the results we less than impressive. 1had to go on a trip to
New York and a day or two after I left, I got a call from one of our
managers saying the radio spots were generating orders like crazy.
I'm talking 400 orders in a single day from a single radio show!
Now, when it comes time for radio spots ... I like to advertise on talk
shows and not so much music stations. If I'm having great success
on certain talk show stations, then I can try some music stations ...
but the last time I tried the music stations, I did not do so well.
In radio, a vanity 800# may be good, so listeners can remember my
number easily. "Simply call }-800-ABCDEFG", Simply call, 1-800-
MATTRESS and leave the last S off for savings!"
You want to advertise during drive times ... this is when most of the
listeners are in their cars. That's when people really listen to the
radio ... not so much at work or at home.
r
Radio stations are tough to hold to particular time slots. I
remember bickering with stations that wanted to give me S spots a
day on rotation. Some spots would run a Sam and my office was
not fully staffed until 7am. Scheduling was a pain in the ass. This
is why I like to stick to certain shows that I know !Lm at a certain
time on certain days.
Usually the radio station will do the voice-over commercial for you.
They already have the personalities with great radio voices and
they have the full-blown studio to record the thing in. But if you're
looking to run commercials on different stations, the one station is
not going to give you a copy of the spot to run on a competitor's
station.
I did very little radio advertising in my heyday ... and while I was
successfuL. I'm not a know-it-all as I am with direct mail and
print. So, if you're looking to place advertisements on the radio ... It
may be wise for you to go and seek further education on this topic
in other books or consultants.
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Chapter Thirty Eight;
The "Suck Out"
Before I attempt to tell you what the "suck out" is, I want to
illustrate two different stories for you.
Both stories deal with running magazine advertisements ... but they
can just as easily be TV ads or radio ads.
I was once running ads in large magazines selling some expensive
car waxes. I was advertising in leading automotive magazines and
was doing quite well.
The first time I ran the ad ... it did great. .. the second time ... it did
well.,; the third time I ran the ad ... it did okay ... the fourth time, it
broke even. Any ad placed after that lost money.
A few years later I was running an ad in a bodybuilding magazine,
which had 150,000 paid copies, sold every month.
I had three pages of advertisements in that magazine and they
were bringing me 1,500 orders! That's 1% of the magazine's
readership ordering my product every issue. Trust me- a
percentage this high will never happen for any other direct
marketer. But this cannot last forever. If I were to get this 1% to
respond each and every month, after a year, I'd have 12% of the
magazine as customers. That's pretty dam near to impossible.
After five or six months of advertising in this bodybuilding
magazine the ad that bought me 1,500 orders was now brining me
250 order. What happened?
My advertising was too good.
What happened was the magazine delivered only a certain amount
of "new" readers a month ... and my magazine ads were pulling
more in orders than they were generating new customers. So in
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other words, my ads would go great for a few months ... but once 1
sucked out all the hot buyers ... if the magazine didn't replenish
their readership with fresh names fast enough- my ads would soon
be worthless.
Gary Halbert says the same thing. He makes ads that were so
powerful; they'd only work once or twice. Sure, they worked great
once or twice ... but they pulled every potential customer out of the
readership in one or two insertions. This is not a bad problem.
Many ads have to be run month after month for a customer to
finally decide to buy from it. But when excellent advertising is
created, it may suck out more customers than the magazine can
replenish.
This happens especially when you run large multi-page
advertisements. Sure a 1/ 8th page ad, if it is profitable in a large
magazine can pull orders forever and never lose it's pulling power.
After all, a small ad like this is not sucking out as many new
readers as the magazine is generating.
And then you have guys like me who, once their one page ad pulls
like mad ... I then go to 3 or even 4 page ads and suck out every
single freaking prospect interested in my product.
Of course, if you say you wouldn't mind making the steady orders
for years placing small ads instead of larger ads that suck out too
fast... you may get knocked-off by a larger competitor and he11
place larger one page ads and steal all your profits ... or even run
you out of business.
But on the other hand, if you got a winning advertisement, and
you place full page and multi-page advertisements, you may take
orders like crazy and profit like mad ... only to burn-out your ad in
three or four insertions.
Obviously if you asked me what you should do- run the smaller
ads that may last longer or run the larger ads that may burn-out
quicker ... I'm going to tell you to run the larger ads.
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Here's what to do when your ad starts to lose its magnetic
customer-pulling ability:
First, you can you run your main ad for a few months and once it
starts to decline, you can run an alternative ad that sells its
customers from a different point of view to attract different
customers. When you are creating this new ad with a new slant,
make sure you do not borrow much from your first ad.
Now, run this new slant ad and it should bring in new customers
that are turned on by different claims and different desires. Run
this ad one month; run your first ad the next month, and so on. Or
you can run your first ad until it pulls no more then run the
second ad until it pulls no more and then go back to the first ad. If
the response is restored, great. If it's not ... you have to create a
third ad with another slant.
If you can get away with this and keep recharging your product
with new ads, you're in a great position.
The second thing you can do is instead of running your ad each
and every month (which I advise you to do when you have a
winner); you can place your ad every other month.
If your ad is a break even when you run it every 30-days ... what
would it do if you ran it every 60 days? Your adswill always have
"1ag"-which is sales that come in after the ad is stopped. If you
were getting 1,500 orders a month from your ad when it was
fresh ... and after three insertions, it was pulling just 500 ... and
you needed that 500 orders to break even ... and if you're not
making a killing on the back end ... maybe you can pull the ad and
run it every other month. Now, you'll get 500 orders when this
issue is still out ... and once the next issue comes out- without you
in it ... you may get 250 or 300 orders.
I'd rather have the first situation work for me, when I just recreate
the ad with a new slant ... instead of the advertisement running
every other month.
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Obviously, if you are running radio spots or TV spots or
infomercials and they start to slide in response ... the techniques in
this chapter are to be used the same- re-do the commercial with a
new slant to attract new customers ... or run it less often hoping
some fresh prospects will grow in the time you take off, so when
you return, you reap all of them again until they're all gone. Then
repeat again ... and again ...
There are other ways to boost the sales of an old or worn ad ... look
in the past chapter that talks about improving your response by
improving your offer. Maybe you can do a new ad with a
premium ... or a gift ... or adding some up sells ... or increasing your
back end.
What a marketer does when his ads no longer pull as well as they
did shows his true character. You have to be innovative. You must
get the response back to where it was. In this business, you're
either growing or dying.
1
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Chapter Thirty Nine:
Employees
Once your company grows you're going to need some employees.
You may need some help immediately ... right after you get positive
results from your tests.
The thing I'd tell you to do is first find some family members that
can help you out. I'm sure you're nervous to actually hire a
stranger and be someone's "boss" so quickly. And another thing is
you probably don't want to go and rent office space just yet. It'll be
kind of uncomfortable-for strangers to come and work from your
kitchen with you.
When I first got started in this business in 1994, my Uncle was a
partner with me. We handled our own calls, shipped our own
product, basically did everything ourselves.
It was easy, because we weren't all that good at this business at
the time, so the business remained small.
In 1995, we moved into our first office complex. It was a small
office- 3,000 square feet, 2,000 of it was office, the other 1,000 was
warehouse. I remember I didn't have anything to put in the
warehouse,' so that's where I parked my car!
Our first employee was a lady named Joyce and we hired her from
a temp. agency. I remember getting my first employee ... boy was it
strange ... especially since she was in her mid-40s and I was a 21-
year-old high-school drop out!
As I got better at writing direct mail sales letters and magazine ads,
we hired Leah ... our second employee ... then Marcia ... our third
employee. I had two of these three ladies working for me until
1999, when I was doing several millions in revenue and had 25
employees.
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Here's all I learned about employees in my lO years ... employing
and firing over 500 people:
1. Keep It Professional.
I don't mean you have to be a robot. But try to keep the wall there
between employee and employer. Do not go to happy hour with
them. Do not ask them to go to the movies with you. They cannot
be your friends outside of the office.
I remember there was a kid working for me named Tom. I went to
the clubs with Tom on the weekends. I always told him, if he
fucked up at the office or ever embarrassed me, I'd still fire him,
and he understood. Things were fine until he showed up once late
and I guess he wanted to show-off to a pretty girl sitting next to
him. She said, "You're late again? You're going to get fired!" and he
said to her, "I'm friends with the boss I can show up late and he
won't fire me." Now this put me in a very compromising position.
The rumor of what he said flew around the customer service
department in a few hours. Everyone was looking at what I was
going to do. Had I kept him, nobody would have respected me and
the office would slowly turn into Anarchy. But if I fired him, I may
have lost a friend ... and even if we were still to hang out ... it would
never be the same. I remember my Grandmother's words, "You
don't shit where you eat." I fired him and while we still did hang
out, it was never the same and he always asked me if he could
come back. I never rehired him.
Another time, one of the married women in the office was asking
me what bar I hung out at on the weekends. Remember, I was in
my early 20's! I told her, and she said, "Oh! My friends and me are
going there tonight! Maybe we'll see you!" I thought nothing of it.
What she was really doing was stalking me. I saw her at the club
that night ... I didn't see any of her friends. I had a couple of drinks
in me and was fairly loose. A few moments later, she came and sat
at my table ... and was talking in my ear because the music was so
loud. Would you believe this girl started kissing me? I pulled back-
even though she wasn't bad looking ... and the next day around the
office... I heard the rumor. .. "She and Vince were at a club making
out! And she says he's a good kisser!" Talk about embarrassing.
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Just remember this: There's a wall between you and your
employees. It's invisible and you set it as high or as low as you
choose when you first hire them. How you treat them is how they'll
treat you. Treat them professional- and they'll be professional. Be
friendly, and they'll be friendly- which is fine ... but if you get to be
chums ... they'll be chums ... and when you need to go back to
professional mode ... they won't be able to. Once the wall is broken
down ... it never goes back up.
2. Don't Show Off:
Sure, once you get successful, it's hard to keep "new money" quiet.
I was once "new money" and I wore the diamond Rolex to the office
and I drove my Rolls Royce to the office- it was a mistake.
The people working for you may become seriously jealous. Jealous
employees are cancer, and they affect the entire work force. Look-
the people working for you, unless you are commissioning them in
some way, are stuck at the job they are in. They are there to either
answer your orders or take your customer service calls or ship
your orders. The key word they see is YOURS. They think
everything is yours. They think if you get 300 orders a day at
$100 ... all the $30,000 is yours to keep and you're at home in
some mansion lighting up cigars with some of those hundreds.
Trust me- they are not happy for you. They are happy they have a
job to pay their bills. And if you ever fire them, all they'll remember
is how rich you are and how they can destroy you.
3. Make Them Sign Non-Disclosures and Non-Competes.
This is if you have a product that can be knocked-off or if the
employees see a lot of intellectual property that they can either
steal from you and start their own business or bring to a
competitor. I usually have all the employees sign an agreement
saying they cannot go into a business or work for a business
dealing with a related product for a period of years after their
termination or the demise of the company.
I've had one employee quit and his friend still worked for me. His
friend was working overtime one night and made a copy of our
entire database of customers. They stole 500,000 customers and
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261
we knew it when our customers were calling us and asking why we
sold their names to a competing company. When we asked the
customer to fax us a copy of the sales material they received, we
traced it down and saw it was the former employees! The sales
letter had an address on it that was just a few moments from the
office, so I had someone sit at the Mail Boxes Etc. and see if they
saw any former employees going into the place ... sure enough ... the
one who quit went in there andgot his mail! We fired his friend
immediately and made all employees sign non-competes and non-
disclosures.
4. Fire Cancer At Once:
I was saying a few paragraphs ago, when you have a bad employee,
they are like cancer. And when a body has cancer what do we do
with it? We cut it out before it spreads and if we leave it unnoticed
too long, we're dead. I think of my business as a finely tuned
engine. If I had a bad piston ring on that engine ... what am I going
to do drive around with poor performance because I like the bad
piston or am I going to go to the dealership and have a new
piston replaced at once? I'm going to get the engine fixed. What
makes your business any different? Fix the damn thing and cut
out the cancer because it does spread ... and if you wait too long,
you may be firing three or four people or even more. lance had to
[ire an entire night shift of people. The supervisor was a friend with
all the workers before she worked for us. She kept it a secret.
When we fired three or four of the workers ... the entire room had
an attitude because they were all friends- including the supervisor.
I had to literally fire 9 out of 10 people on that night shift and re-
hire everyone.
And if you keep cancer working for you- they'll cause you huge
problems the longer you wait. What they do is wait and wait for
you to slip up and once they have something on you ... you're dead.
I remember I had a woman who was begging for additional hours
to work, as she needed money. Our company did not offer overtime
because I'd have to pay them time and a half. She went on to say
that she would forfeit any rights to time and a half and she just
wanted straight pay. I was not involved in this decision. We ended
up giving her the extra hours at her flat pay. A few months went by
and this lady turned into cancer. She must have been on drugs.
262
Her performance was slipping. And when she was fired eventually.
she was vindictive and went to the Labor Board and complained
she was working past 40 hours and never got overtime pay. All
those hours we gave her out of the kindness of our hearts, we had
to go back and pay her the half time. It was like $2,000.
5. Don't Favor Anyone!
We had a rather large shipping room. Fourteen employees
dedicated to just shipping out orders to customers. We were
shipping 7,000 orders a day. We were getting behind. For some
reason, they could not get the orders out in a day's time. And I
knew this was bullshit because I knew one person could easily get
out 1,000 orders as I didn't hire my 2nd shipping room employee
until after I hit 1,000 orders a day.
Fourteen people should be able to ship 14,000 orders ... and they
couldn't even get out 7,000 ... and were realistically shipping just
5,000 or less! What was going on?
Well as it turns out, my partner had an affinity for one of the
employees in the shipping room. He had him doing personal tasks
for him ... like going to the pharmacy for him ... putting up
Christmas trees for him at his home and at the office ... and other
things- like picking up lunch for the owners. He was obviously
favored. While my partner just saw the shipping room as one man
down ... which was already bad as we were backed up on getting
the orders out... but the entire room had an attitude.
They felt why were they going to work hard or work fast when this
guy is getting everyone's lunch and doing personal favors?
Remember, this was the shipping room ... not the laboratory ... to
the employees in this department; this was a big deal to them.
What made it worse was this favored kid would go and show-off to
his co-workers. When my partner made him pick up a prescription
from the drugstore, he gave him his debit card to pay. Well, this
kid went to all his co-workers and showed them the credit card
and told them that my partner actually gave him a credit card and
he can buy anything he wishes. Of course, these workers saw the
name on the credit card and became jealous.
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Performance just suffered ... and suffered ... and suffered. We were
getting further and further behind on shipping. I wanted to fire this
kid but he was my partner's friend. It was just a wreck. Don't favor
anyone- even your girlfriend if she works for you.
6. Check References:
We had to hire people so fast; we didn't get to check their
references all the time. You've got to do this. Most of the references
on what turned out to be bad employees were bogus. And a simple
phone call or two to the references would have helped us before we
hired this employee. I even wanted to give my new hires drug
tests ... but so many people were on drugs, we'd have no
employees.
7. Avoid Hiring Friends and Family Members:
I mean this two different ways. First, I have no problem hiring your
own family members. Sometimes they're the only people you can
trust and you can cuss them out when they fuck up and not worry
about them suing you.
I advise against hiring your personal friends, because their
employment may last just a few months ... and he won't be your
employee and he won't be your friend any longer. Trust me.
But what I mostly mean by this #7 entry is not to hire employees
that are friends or family members prior to working for you. If you
hired Jim and Jim is a good worker and he wants you to hire Jack,
his brother. .. and if you hire Jack and his work ethic is shit and
you fire him, Jim, that once great employee will resent you.
Also, if you hire Paul who refers three or four of his friends to come
and apply, if they tell you they are friends of Paul, you should not
hire them. When Paul is with his friends, he thinks he's rolling
deep and is more prone to becoming a bad employee. When you
fire Paul, .. you lose the three friends as well and nobody is there to
answer your orders! And even if his three friends stick around,
their performance will be shit because every day they'll be hearing
it from Paul, saying I got you that job ... it's a shit job ... fuck them ...
264
you should quit. Even if he doesn't quit, he'll think it is a bad thing
to come to work for you. You don't need this.
Say if you hired Paul's Mother and she messed something up. It's
going to be weird bringing it to her attention, and what's worse, if
she's a disaster, and you fire her, Paul's feelings will be hurt.
One time I had an employee AI. He was an all right guy. He said
his brother-in-law needed a job badly and we hired him. This was
way back in 1998 before I had my "rules". Al turned into a bad
seed and was looking to attempt to take-over the company by
stealing its clients along with another employee. We fired him
immediately as we did his friend. Now, Eddy, AI's brother-in-law
still worked for us because he was a good worker and he did need
the money- he had a little girl to take care of. But his sister, AI's
wife was giving him shit ... and Al was giving him shit ... and I saw it
in Eddy's eyes ... it was killing him. He didn't want to quit. He
needed the money. But his family forced him to quit. It was a
mess.
Make it clear up front. WE DO NOT HIRE FRIENDS AND
RELATIVES OF CURRENT EMPLOYEES!
8. Never Talk About Personal or Important
Business News In Front Of Them:
I remember I once had a problem with a merchant processor and
they were cutting off our service. My partner and I were speaking of
this too loudly and it got out to the workers. While this was no big
deal to us, we got a new processor in a day or two; the employees
were in a panic. This panic came through on their voices as we got
less orders for a few days and we got a lot lower up sell
percentages. Ordinary workers cannot be privy to core business
news and issues. They cannot handle it. And they should not be
privy to anything outside the scope of their job. They are hired to
answer order calls- that's all they should know about.
9. Let Them Think You're Poor or Just Getting By:
I never like my employees to think I am wealthy. I like them to
think I am a hard worker and I work so hard, that they don't even
want my life. They'd rather work bythe hour and get paid by the
265
hour because at Spm, they don't have to think about work until
tomorrow.
If an employee ever makes a comment about how you must be
rolling in money, make sure to defuse it. Make sure to say
something like, "Yeah, once I pay back my investors, I'm left with
less than you make in a week." or something like that. If they say,
"Wow, that's a nice Mercedes.", You say something like, "Yeah, and
the lease payment is more than my rent!" or something like, "I live
in a dump so 1can have a decent car."
1O. Respect Your Product or Service-
If you Don't, They Won't:
Always make sure you never speak down about your products or
service in front of your' employees. Even if you think the product is
bad, keep it quiet. The second they hear you mocking your
product; they'll think it's okay to think less of it. If they are
answering your order calls, this will show through to the callers
and you're going to get less and less orders. Your product is the
best for the price you ask.
11. Monitor Your Phone Orders:
I remember I was selling a product on an auto ship basis. I was
checking the orders from the previous day and I was noticing a
large percentage of the customers were not being placed on the
auto-delivery club. 1looked deeper and found all the non-auto ship
orders were coming from our TV spots. I called the Supervisor in
that department and asked him why his department was having a
hard time keeping TV callers on the auto-delivery package. He was
like, "What Auto-Delivery Package"? Now, this was the new
Supervisor and the new crew I hired after I cleared house as I
spoke about a few pages back. It turns out, the Office Manager
who trained him forgot to tell him about a script to read to the
people who placed orders off our TV ad. This script was the auto-
delivery script. He knew nothing about it, so he didn't have his
employees read it. It was the office manager's fault. Had I not kept
an eye on more than just how many orders came in the previous
day ... but how many of them came from each source and how
many opted-out of the automatic-deliveries ... I would have never
discovered this costly mistake.
20ti
Always make sure your order takers are reading their scripts
properly and monitor every thing they do.
When companies get to a certain size they need employees. I once
had over 100 at one time. It's sometimes frustrating- especially
when you have partners- like I did who wanted to voice their own
opinions (which will usually be wrong) and you have to fight him
on firing certain "bad seeds" because he liked them as friends.
Kill cancer before it spreads. Check references and make sure
you're not hiring any axe murders. Do not hire friends of
employees or their Mother's ... and make sure they cannot rip off
what you created.
Employees can be a much-needed asset as long as you know how
to train them right and keep them in line. They are like wild
animals in a way. If you're a poor trainer, they'll run wild and fuck
up your entire place. If you have a friendly, but firm hand ... and
treat people right ... and try not to be an asshole ... they'll work hard
for you.
If you treat them badly. If you treat them unfairly. If you make
them jealous of you ... they'll look for any way to bring down your
business ... with either hate websites slamming your company ...
complaints to government agencies ... or even worse.
This is why many business owners go to call centers, so they don't
have to put up with this shit. These business owners ship their
products through mail houses so they don't have shipping rooms.
While this is all nice in theory, the quality of your response and the
quality of your customer service will suffer.
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Chapter Forty'
The Only 3 Ways To Grow Your Business
I'm not gonna take credit for this chapter. My Mentor Jay Abraham
broke it down so beautifully- There's just three and only three
ways to grow any business. We're going to go over the three
methods and dig deeper into different tactics in each of the three
methods.
First, You can get more new customers to buy.
Second, You can get customers to buy at a higher price.
Third, You can get customers to buy more often.
That's it! Go ahead; think of another one as hard as you can ...
you're not going to discover another method.
Here's some ways you can get more new customers in the door to
buy your product or service:
1. Referral Systems:
You can put into play referral systems where your existing
customers can refer new customers to you for a bonus. Let's say if
you send a letter in your orders ... or if you send a letter to all your
existing customers and tell them for every customer they can refer
to you, you'll send them $30 or so. All they have to do is have their
friend call this special 800# to order. When the guy calls to place
an order, you ask him who referred him to you. You take note and
send the guy the $30 or whatever you promised him.
2. Acquire Customers at
Break-Even and Profit On The Back-End:
I was selling a pill a few years back that made money on some lists
and broke-even on some larger lists. Sure, I could make some good
money mailing the smaller lists and actually make a decent profit
on the front end ... but the sheer volume I needed was if I used the
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lists that broke-even. These lists were much larger ... but I was not
able to make a profit on the initial sale. But since I knew
customers would buy a certain amount of times on the back-end, I
was able to acquire these new customers at break-even and bank
on the fact they'll buy a lot of product from me on the back-end.
Jay Abraham tells a story about a company that was selling "fluid
transmission" goods- like PVC. The company would have sales
people calling on others to make sales. The initial sale had a profit
of $250 or so and they gave the sales people 10% of that. The
company owners knew that these new customers would buy a lot
more over the course of the year and they would be worth about
$1,000 more in profit over the next year. What Jay advised this
owner to do is instead of commissioning just 10% to his
salespeople ... he should give them 100% of the profit on the first
purchase. The company owner would really fire-up the sales staff
and the owner would make 3 or 4 times the profit on the back end
sales because he'd have 3 or 4 times as many new customers!
3. Guaranteeing Purchases With Money-Back Guarantees:
I've told you numerous times in this book, you cannot sell
anything direct response mail order without offering your customer
a money back guarantee. It's the industry standard and people are
expecting some form of a satisfaction promise nowadays. But if you
insist you do not want to offer a money back guarantee ... and
you're looking for a way to grow your new customer intake ... this is
one method to help.
4. Host Relationships:
I talked about this is in a past chapter. A Host-Parasite
Relationship is where you can have other businesses solicit their
customers on your behalf and split the proceeds. Let's say you
owned a film company and you knew of a guy who owned a camera
company. What you can set up is a deal where he solicits his
customers and tells them all about how great your film company
is. And since his customers need film, as they are all camera
customers ... it's a shoe-in and response should be great. Now, you
would normally pay postage and printing in circumstances like
this, and you'd probably split the profits 50/50. Nothing is set in
stone ... you can alter this offer any way you and your host wish.
269
Sure, you may be able to rent his customer list ... but the response
will be many, many times more powerful when the sales letter is
coming from the camera guy to his customers endorsing you.
There's a big difference than you mailing them yourself.
5. Advertising in Magazine, on TV, on Radio:
If you're mailing sales letters only and if they are profitable, maybe
you should look into doing some space ads ... or radio or TV spots.
Maybe even an infomercial!
6. Doing DirectMail:
The same as above ... if you're placing ads in magazines, on TV, or
on the Radio ... you can increase the amount of new customers by
doing some direct mail.
7. Increase Perceived Value of Your Product By Educating:
I'm so tired of telling this story, because every direct marketer tells
it. But its example is so powerful, 111 tell the story to you. Many
years ago, advertising pioneer Claude Hopkins was hired by Schlitz
beer to increase their sales. We're talking the 1920's. Claude
Hopkins went to the Schlitz beer factory and saw some remarkable
things. First, the bottles had to be steam cleaned several times
before beer was to be inserted in them. They had several
techniques they had to do before their beer was bottled. Claude
asked the beer maker why don't they talk about all these steps in
their advertisements. And they replied, they're nothing special... all
beer makers have to do the same things. But the customer didn't
know this. So what Claude did was create new advertisements for
Schlitz explaining all the amazing steps their beer had to go
through before it reached the lips of the consumer. Even though
these steps were all standard-practice amongst all beer
manufacturers, the consumer didn't know this. So, when the
consumer read all about these amazing triple-cleaned bottles and
the such, they had a higher value of the Schlitz product. Sales
skyrocketed.
Rolls Royce, for example can do this by explaining how their
Connelly Leather Hides inside the car are nothing like the leather
the consumer would find in Mercedes or BMW. The Connelly
leather is actually raised without being fenced in by barbed wire
270
like other cattle. The end result is flawless hides that do not have
markings in them from when the cattle bump against the barbed
wire.
If your dietary supplement uses a super-potent extract that is
above and beyond the ordinary ingredients you can use ... tell them
all about how the ingredients you use are better.
8. Increasing Your Offer:
This is as simple as adding a better premium ... adding more
bonuses ... basically giving the customer more when he places an
order. Just make sure it does not cut too much into your eTO.
(contribution to overhead).
Here's some ways you can get your
customers to buy more on average:
1. Up sells:
We just talked about up sells and bumps a few chapters ago, so
this should all still be fresh on your mind. I was able to jump the
average unit of sale from $70 to over $100 just by adding some up
sells and commissioning my salespeople to sell, sell, sell! Going
from $70 to $100 on an initial average unit of sale is an over 40%
increase in average unit of sale. Later, I'm going to show you how
to explode your business, just getting a 20% increase on each of
the three growth methods.
2. Improve Your Team's Up selling Skill:
Up sells are great, but if you have bad or un-motivated salespeople
answering the calls and doing the script reading ... it's useless. Bad
salespeople are bad for business. You would not have a business if
it were not for "selling" stuff. I get a kick out of people who say they
want to be in business, but are bad at selling stuff. Even if you are
writing sales letters, you are selling! A way to increase the up sell
percentages, is to commission your salespeople ... if that only
produces a few superstars ... fire the deadbeats or give them non-
sales positions in your business and have nothing but up sell
superstars on the phones!
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3. Offer Larger or Greater Units:
When we sold our car waxes, we offered a pint size kit and we
offered a quart size kit. Same product... just more of it at a
discount. Companies like Costco and other warehouse clubs make
a billion-dollar business out of selling consumers larger quantities
for a better pound-for-pound price. Think of it this way, you may
never sell the customer again ... so get as much as you can on the
first sale.
4. Raise Your Price:
Even a small bump in shipping and handling fees. Sometimes you
can raise your price and not effect the order quantity. If you're
selling a $60 product ... you may try to get $3 extra. That's 5%.
This is probably the last and least popular method I've used in the
past.
Here's some ways you can get your
existing customers to buy more often:
1. Have a Strong Back-End So You Can Go Back and Re-Sell:
I was teaching you from the first chapter in this book ... if you do
not have a strong back-end to go and re-sell over and over and over
again ... I'd look at different products. I've had a strong back-end
make the difference between a $2.4 Million a month company and
a $7.2 Million a month company. And all of the added millions over
$2.4 were basically all profit, as I did not need to spend a dollar on
additional advertising. $4.8 Million in pure profit a month from
simply having a kick-ass back-end is what makes this the best
business in the world. .
2. Endorse Other People's Products To Your List:
This is the same as the Host-Parasite Relationship I was speaking
of earlier. .. but on the flip side. Instead of getting businesses to
endorse your products to their list ... you're going to endorse other
people's products to your customer list.
What you'll have to do is go to other companies and see if they
want to do a deal like this. Obviously, if companies are coming to
you, you can get them to pay the entire postage and printing fees
to solicit your database ... but if you're looking for them, you're
2~')
I~
lucky to get a 50/50 ... and maybe you'll end up paying the entire
postage and printing. If this is the case, don't cut them in on the
profits ... See what they want to sell their product to you on a
wholesale basis for. You'll know what it needs to be. If it's lower to
get the product at wholesale than it is to split profits ... go the most
profitable route. This is a powerful marketing concept and win-win
for the other business ... but you'd be surprised how many
businesses will not be interested in doing this with you!
3. Program Customers To Buy At Certain Time Intervals:
Before all this Free Scheduled Maintenance carmakers are offering
these days ... remember when they wanted you to come in every 3
months or 3,000 miles for an oil change? Now, you really may not
have needed an oil change that often ... but they were programming
you to come in every 3 months or 3,000 miles. Dentists have
check-ups that may be annual ... or quarterly ... or whatever. If
there's some way you can try to program customers to buy again ...
that's always a plus ... unless it's less often than they would re-buy
on their own.
4. Offer Price or Bonus Inducements For Frequency:
The Smoothie store by my house does this excellently. When you
buy a smoothie they stamp a card with 10 boxes on it. Every time
I go in with this card, they stamp it once. If I forget the card, I get a
fresh card stamped, as they'll accept 10 stamps even if they are on
numerous cards. Anyway, once the card has 10 stamps on it, you
get a free smoothie. I've seen this done at car washes ... coffee
houses ... and a few other places. If there is some way you can use
this on your direct sales ... you're doing well.
You can also offer a free bonus with a certain purchase frequency.
Remember I was saying about the free DVD players when a
customer stayed on my product for six months? I was making $40
each and every month they took my herbal supplement ... I was
getting four months on average. I could buy DVD players for $40 ...
and I would give one to the customer once they took the product
for 6 months. Now, the 6th month's revenue paid for the DVD
player in full., , and I got the fifth month's revenue, when I wouldn't
have gotten it as I had a 4 month customer life. When you're
selling 40,000 people a month, that extra 40,000 people buying at
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273
$40 for the fifth month is $1.6 Million in free cash every month.
The sixth month's revenue of $1.6 Million went right to buying the
DVD player. And I didrr't ju.st-serid the DVD player automatically to
the customer. They had to remember theywere on the product for
6 months and they had to call and request it. A good 30% never
took us up on the DVD player because that was not the reason
they were taking our product. Had they requested it, it was theirs.
If they didn't, we profited even more.
Now if you can get a 20% increase on the first method ... a 20%
increase on your second method ... and a 20% increase on the third
method ... you're going to blow the door off your business.
Lets go back to my las~ company.
I was bringing in 40,000 customers at $60. Then each customer
bought three more times at $40 each time. That was it. This
brought-in $7.2 Million a month. $2.4 Million from new
customers ... then $4.8 Million from the back-end sales over the
next 3 months.
Now, if I was to increase the 40,000 orders by a humble 20% and
bring-in 48,000 and instead of the $60 unit of sale ... if I was able
to up sell them 20% to a $72 unit of sale ... I'm not looking at $2.4
Million anymore. I'm now looking at $3,456,000 in sales. Then
instead of these customers buying three more times. at $40 ... lets
say they're buying 20% more at the sarne $40. Now we've got
$6,912,000 instead of the $4.8 Million. When you add up the 20%
increase in sales ... at a 20% higher unit of sale ... and the customer
buys 20% more often on the back end ... we're looking at
$10,368,000 in monthly sales versus $7,200,000. And we'd get
this extra $3.16 Million by increasing each of the three growth
methods by a humble 20%.
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Chapter Forty One:
Keeping Out of Jail
If you do not know what you are doing ... you can end up pissing off
an Attorney General ... the Federal Trade Commission ... the Postal
Inspectors ... or any of the other numerous Government "alphabet"
agencies. Here's how to avoid the most common business mistakes
that get direct marketers in trouble:
Rule One:
Ship Products Within ,30 Days Or Sooner!
From the very day you charge the customer's credit card, or from
the very day their personal check clears the bank ... you have 30-
days to get them their order. Most customers will caIl and bicker
within two weeks if they have yet to receive their order. So if the
product is going to take the full 30-days to get to your customer,
make sure to tell them when they are on the phone placing an
order.
Now, you can ship products later than 30 days as long as you let
the customer know. That's why you see some commercials saying,
"allow 3 to 6 weeks for delivery" ... and sometimes even longer! If
you cannot deliver the product within 30 days, make sure you tell
the customer when they order. I like to ship my orders within 4 or
5 days max. Sometimes things are out of your control, like when
you have a spike in orders and run out of pills or whatever, and
the manufacturer says they're going to need 4 weeks to fill your
purchase order.
If this happens and it is after you spoke to a customer on the
phone ... what you're supposed to do is send your customers a post
card letting them know their order is going to be delayed a little bit
and tell them you'1l give them a free bonus or something for their
patience once you ship their order. This will keep many people
from canceling. And on this post card, you have to give the
customer the option to cancel his or her order.
r
This oost card is to be used for what we call "back orders". It1J
read something like trus-
"I'm sorry, but it's going to take a little longer than I anticipate to
ship your order of (product name). It seems we've had a massive
sales spike, and we sold out faster than we thought. Our supplier
is telling us the earliest he can have more product to us is (date).
So, to make up for this delay, once we ship your order on (date),
I'm going to include a free bonus worth (price). Here's what it is:
(paragraph about free bonus). Of course, if you simply cannot wait
until (date) to get your order, you can call us at (phone) and we'll
issue a credit immediately. Again, I'm sorry for the delay. I
understand you're anxious to get (product name)."
Sounds good? You canuse those words if you ever need to.
Rule Two:
Give All Legitimate Credits Within 15 Days!
Now, the key word is "legitimate". If someone is trying to rip you
off, you can make your own judgment call. Most of the time, it's
better just to give the money back- even if it's past the guarantee
period by a few days.
Trust me- if you're being too strict with credits and most of your
customers place their order with credit cards, you're only asking
for charge backs from the credit card company. And remember, if
you jump over 1% in charge backs, there's a good chance you can
lose the merchant account and where are you going to then
process your orders?
My advice ... Don't be a dick. .. but don't be a fool.
Rule Three:
Don't Lie To Your Prospects!
If you hype your product in your ad- that's fine. If you use
hyperbole ... that's fine. If you lie ... you're screwed.
276
Sure, you may be able to get away with it for a little while ... but
once an alphabet agency is sticking their nose all in your
business ... it's nothing but a headache.
Sometimes you may just be enthusiastic or over-enthusiastic when
writing your ad ... and that's something all direct marketers do.
Just don't push it too far.
I got a new rule for myself. Unless I can get an expert such as a
Doctor to say my product can do what I said it can ... and unless
this Doctor can be a total stranger ... and would be able to go on a
stand in a courtroom and tell the prosecution what I say is true ...
I'll refrain from saying it.
And if you want to make some crazy claims, make sure you get the
back-up proof ahead of time. Ifyou're saying this cream reduces
cellulite by 36% ... you'd better find some scientific data to prove
this ... and keep copies of it in a safe place other than your home or
office.
Key words to remember: An Ounce Of Prevention is Worth a Pound
Of Cure. Get it ahead of time ... it's so much easier to get proof
earlier than it is to get it later.
Rule Four:
Sell Products You Know Will Work As Claimed!
Or at least real close to how you claim. I once read a story in a
book by Joe Sugarman about a very popular infomercial marketer
who once wanted to sell one of his products through Sugraman's
company.
Joe said fine but wanted to actually try the product to see how
good it works. The popular infomercial marketer didn't want Joe to
test the product and he told Joe about a story that I found funny:
It was about this father and son. The father had all these cans of
tuna and they were trying to sell the tuna- the only thing was the
tuna was expired. They bought the tuna from someone else, and
now they were trying to "unload" it on someone else. The kid said
277
to his father, why don't we just eat the tuna?. and the father told
the son, that an't eatin' tuna ... that's sellin' tuna.
Joe declined to sell the product ... but the story is funny. Carlton
Sheet's Real Estate program is sellin' tuna ... not eatin' tuna. If it
were eatin' tuna ... he would not be selling the information ... he'd
be using it to buy real estate. Most product I see on the market are
what I call "sellin' tuna". Try to sell only what you feel at least
works somewhat. Remember, your opinion of the product is your
opinion. What matter is can you get in trouble for selling what
you're selling? And do more than 10% of your customers ask for
their money back. If you can honestly answer NO to those two
questions, you should be fine.
Of course, I'm no Attorney and in no shape to give you any legal
advise, so I'd advise you to have an Attorney look at anything you
may have questions or concerns about doing or selling.
Also, if there are any "skeletons" in your closet ... make sure no
employee, vendor, or customer ever knows of them ... because if
there comes a time when you piss them off... or even if you don't...
they can and will use this "skeleton" against you- and in some
cases ... it can ruin you.
278
Chapter Forty Two:
Blunders That Cost Me Millions
In this chapter, I'm going to tellyou some of the top blunders that
we've had over the past 10 years ... some which cost me MILLIONS
of dollars. You1l make the same mistakes if you're not careful, so
read this chapter and make sure you do not mess-up like I did.
Having the wrong 800# on a direct mailer or ad:
I remember once I was coming off a bad business, which lost me
much of my fortune, and I tested a new sales letter than brought in
great results. When I went to roll it out in a large quantity of
150,000 letters, either I misunderstood ... or my partner gave me
the wrong 800# to put on these sales letters.
We printed and mailed the letters and were wondering why four
days after we dropped, we had just a few orders. It wasn't until one
of the order takers came to me and said a lot of people were saying
the 800# on the letter was wrong, so they had to call the 800#
directory to get our correct number!
When she came to me and said that, I knew that was what's
wrong. I called the 800# in the sales letter and it went to some
carpet cleaner's answering machine.
Now you got to understand, if this mailer lost me money, I would
be finished and out of business at least for a little while. I had to
get it to work.
One of the guys who worked for me got the carpet cleaner's 800# to
forward to our lines. We were getting orders. What did he do? Did
he cut some kind of a deal with these carpet cleaners?
Turns out he called the phone company and simply forwarded the
800# to our number. This was wrong, and I'm not even sure if that
was what he did ... but it got the orders coming back to my phones
and while results were not as great as they should have been ... at
279
least we made a little money and were able to come back and play
another day. We fixed the 800# and my partner and I used to joke
about this every time he was to give me a new phone number to
add to a sales letter or advertisement.
The carpet cleaner ended up finding out we took his 800# and was
kind of pissed off. We made him feel better when we gave him
$5,000 for the 30-day usage of his number plus pay his phone bill-
which we did. We also gave him a bunch of software to donate to
the church he was a member of. Turns out the carpet cleaning
business was out of business ... so we were lucky. Had it have been
a thriving business, he would have told us to screw-off.
When you have an 800#, or phone service, or electric company
accounts for your business ... make sure to add a password, which
is needed in order to make any changes. Competitors can call the
phone company and pretend they're you. They'll shut the phone
lines off and you11 be wondering where all the orders went.
Can this really happen? Yes. I even once had a competitor cut into
the phone junction box in front of our building complex and pull
our phone wires out of the connector! It took the phone company
hours to figure out what was going on! We lost a ton of calls!
Website Down:
When we started using a website to aid in order taking, I had a big
fear of these large companies offering hosting. I thought we'd have
better up time hosting the site with our computer programmer. But
was I wrong. There were many times the site would go down and
I'd have to call him to reboot the server. One time, he lost power
and instead of having a generator, he thought the server would be
okay on the back-up battery. When that went dead a few hours
later, I insisted he go and get a generator. He did, but not without
cursing me out behind my back.
I really didn't understand too much about web hosting back then ...
and I wanted a single server to handle my website alone ... so I had
my programmer put just my site on it's own server with it's own Tl
line. So here we are paying $1,000 to host a simple 5-page site ...
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and we had so much down time, this guy lost me easily $200,000
in sales. Bottom line- only deal with professionals. If some one
sucks, either a vendor or a customer. .. take the lesson and get rid
of them.
Phone Lines and/ or Phone System Down:
When you get large, you're not going to simply have a few phone
lines in an office. You're going to have a major phone system. Ours
cost over $100,000 ... closer to $150,000. Now, I remember a few
times when this big black box went on the fritz and no servicemen
were available to come immediately. I'd have 50 order takers and
30 customer service reps looking at me with nothing to do ...
knowing every secon~ that went by I was losing money.
Seriously, I could take an easy $180,000 in one day's time from
phone orders only.
Call Centers That Don't Care:
I once hired a call center in New Jersey. They promised me they
were fully staffed and were able to handle my order calls overnight
while we were closed.
The first night they had the phones forwarded to them, I got 1/2
the orders I usually get. They were telling us that's all that called
and I just remember thinking to myself, "Don't these assholes
know how many orders I get? The next night I called and some
"ignant" woman hung up on me after ringing the phone 8 or 9
times ... then when I went to call back, it was off the hook for at
least an hour. I never saw anything like it. We immediately took
our calls away from these jokers and they actually wanted to get
paid for their time!
Make Sure The Call Center Is Hooked Up Right!
I remember I once tested a golf club and left all the calls at the call
center. I was wondering why we didn't get any orders a week later.
I called the num ber listed on my letter and nobody answered the
phone! I called the call center and nobody in my office alerted them
281
to look for calls on this number I used in the sales letter. My office
screwed this up.
You have to nip blunders in the bud. If you don't catch them fast
enough ... they can run you out of business. If your phone lines are
down... the customers are not going to call you back. If you're
lucky, you'll get 40%. The same with the website. If it's down ...
you're losing orders forever. Do not deal with unprofessional call
centers or website hosting companies. The first sign of shit with
them ... get rid of them.
Also beware of these computer people. They like to put passwords
on things in the system and they like to hold those passwords as a
sense ofJob security. Fuck this. If they want to get paid ... they
have to hand over all the passwords.
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Chapter Forty Three:
Knock-Offs
Once you run an advertisement a few times or run an infomercial a
few times ... it's a sign to other marketers that you have a winner.
Many direct marketers do not come up with their own ideas ... they
steal other's winning ideas.
One direct marketing pro told me once you see an infomercial run
two weekends in a row ... it's a sign that it's a profitable show and
other direct marketers will soon steal the idea.
Now, I've had about a half dozen huge successes in direct
marketing over the last 10 years. I've been knocked-off at least four
times. One guy who stole one of my products makes over $200
Million and even is the majority sponsor of a Nascar!
Another knock-off brags in his infomercial that he's sold a quarter
of a billion dollars worth of "his" product. Good for him. May he
choke and die.
But I really cannot hate them for what they've done. My fiancee
Suzanne gets so mad when she sees one of the knock-off's TV
commercial on TV. I tell her this:
Say we were broke or doing poorly. If we saw this product that
someone else was marketing that was making him millions. If we
can copy that identical product and market it ourselves and make
ourselves millions, so we can buy the mansions ... the Ferraris ...
the dream vacations ... would her morality keep her from doing it?
It takes her about a second to say she'd do it. I then say, well how
can we be mad at someone who'd do the same thing we'd do?
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Maybe I'm fooling myself with this bullshit. .. but it does sure work
to calm me down. It's a form of a compliment right? Well, lets not
push it.
If you're selling a dietary supplement, it can be knocked-off in a
few minutes.A book on a particular subject? Sure, you can
copyright the book, but if I know the "topic" is hot, I can just create
my own book.
But while it may be impossible to prevent knock-offs from stealing
your ideas on most products, you can try to prevent them from
succeeding. This chapter is going to tell you how I held some of
these copycats on the ground, while I rocketed to the moon.
Direct Mail Is Most Secret:
When you advertise in magazines or run TV commercials, they are
for everyone's eyes to see. When you have letters in the mail.Tt is
very secretive. But, if you have a hot promotion in direct mail, why
should you hold yourself back and not run magazine ads? You
shouldn,'t. What I like to do is build-up enough money in direct
mail that I can ron-out on a big scale in magazines. It would take a
knock-off months to catch up and gain the market-share 1 have
established. This of course comes with some risks. You'd better
pick quality magazines and you better not pay too much. Direct
Mail is much harder to get to work than magazine advertisements.
So, if you're making money on direct mail, it's pretty safe to
assume you can make money in print ads as long as they are in
quality magazines and you do not pay too much. Remember,
$20/M to $30jM for full-page advertisements- that's all. And if you
can get them cheaper- do so!
Magazine Ads Awake Knock-Offs In 3 to 4 Issues:
As soon as I see an advertisement running in a publication 3 or 4
times, especially if it is a full page ad ... and especially if it is an
expensive magazine ... I'll know the damn thing is working for
them. Your competitors will come to the same assumption. What
they don't know is how much you are paying for the ad ... so you've
got to get ads for the lowest price you can. I'm sure there are direct
marketing pros reading this book who think I'm crazy to buy space
for $20 per thousand paid readers. If they can buy space for
f
2R4
cheaper, maybe they should contact me and become my media
buyer because I can't get it any less.
EXCLUSIVES:
This is a tactic I've used for years and it's worked like a charm. I
pissed off all my knock-offs with this tactic ... and I loved every
second of it. What I do once I know I have a winner in direct mail
and want to expand into magazines is get exclusives.
An exclusive is when you go to a magazine and first negotiate a
price. Then tell them you want to be the only marketer of whatever
you're selling to be allowed to advertise in that magazine. Now, this
is not going to work if the magazine already has advertisers selling
similar products. This is meant for original products.
The magazine may have no problem with this because they are not
being flooded with marketers wanting to place ads for the same
products you're selling at the time. But the key words are "at the
time". Once you get going and the knock-offs come out of the
woodwork. .. they'll be hounding every magazine you advertise in.
You've already done the research and proved that magazine works.
If you wait to try to get exclusives until after knock-offs are
flooding the magazine, it's going to be a lot harder. .. a lot more
expensive ... or damn near impossible. Why would the publisher cut
revenue from his business just to help you? He's not.
So, if you've got a hit and want to expand to magazine ads, get
exclusives right after you negotiate price. If the magazine wants
you to pay $21,000 and you want to pay $20,000 ... the dealmaker
for them could be the exclusive.
I remember I placed ads in Maxim Magazine a few years back.
Maybe you remember me ... I was giving away a Lamborghini?
Anyway, I got Maxim down to $50,000 per page in black and white.
They had 2.5 Million paid copies sold ... so that's $20 per thousand
paid copies sold. Good!
Then I wanted an exclusive to keep knock-offs from coming in the
same pages I ran. They said they wanted $10,000 extra per page.
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That's a 20% premium ... but since I was getting the pages for
$20jM or $20 CPM... 1budged ... but made them throw-in full
color. .. which I used sparingly just to mimic their layout.
Did competitors hate it? You betcha! Did I keep them out? Yup.
Sure, they could have copied my product very easily ... but if they
couldn't solicit large volumes of customers like I could ... they stood
no chance.
Some magazines would not offer me an exclusive and I found out I
really didn't need them in some situations. Like FHM ... They would
not offer an exclusive to me, and let 3 or 4 of my competitors in the
pages with me.
Month after month, they all fell out. Within three months, they
were no longer advertising in FHM. But this would have not been
the case if these marketers were good at creating advertisements.
Lucky for me, they weren't. The publisher should have taken the
exclusive.
You Can Negotiate Position When Renting Lists:
Say you're renting a certain mailing list and it's working good for
you. Let's say there are four other marketers mailing this list with
similar offers as you have. You can increase your response by
going to the mailing list manager and telling them you 11 pay a
premium to get the monthly hotline names before ariyone else.
Check this out ... if someone stole or "copied" my sales letter and
got their hands on the lists I rent before I do ... I'll get horrible
response when I go to mail my letter to this list. If you want to try
to get the list first, get a relationship with the manager and ask
them if they can call you the very day the list is updated ... and see
if they can rent you first- without paying. If they want to make a
little extra money ... grease them ... as long as it's more profitable to
you.
In magazines, if you do not get an exclusive, do you know what the
publisher or advertising rep is going to do as soon as he gets your
ad? If there's a lot of people selling similar products as yours ...
He's going to call all your competitors and tell them, "Look, Vince
just gave us 4 pages! You should get in here as well. We can offer
286
you a better deal!". The deal is no better you can be sure of that ...
but they will call your competitors and try to egg-them-on to run
ads. Keep in mind, they're a business.
Remember ... the answer to 9 out of 10 questions is MONEY. you
can always get what you want for enough money.
2-Steps vs. I-Steps:
If you run 2-step advertisements in magazines instead of I-steps ...
you can keep a lot of the "workings" to your offer in the dark.
Remember like I was saying in a previous chapter, knock-offs are
usually lazy. They do not have it in them to go through all the
steps of your advertisements to see if there is something behind it
all. A 2-step ad can keep your "secret" a secret a little longer.
Sue If You Have a Case:
Ifyou have a case, like when someone totally violates your
businesses advertisements, trademarks, etc., try to resolve your
differences between yourselves before you hire an Attorney. But if
that goes nowhere, and it usually will not go anywhere, go and see
an Attorney. But make sure the Attorney is not telling you that
there is a case there just to create some work for himself.
Attorneys are scumbags and I haven't met one I like. Milking
money from misery scumbags. But if you need to use one ... you
need to use one. Just make sure you don't get milked too much.
Don't Slump To The Knock-Offs Level In Print:
Do you know what's funny? Knock-Offs steal your idea and
probably 50% of your ad ... just hyping the claims a little. You say
66% ... they'll say 67%. But what's worse than anything, is that
they'll actually talk shit about you and your product in their ad!
Maybe they'll even call themselves the original! To the new reader
of the magazine ... what does he know? He didn't see your ad first.
What I usually do is go to the publisher and tell them I was an
advertiser for a long time and see if they can get the advertiser to
refrain from talking shit in their ads. If the publisher helps, great.
If he doesn't, what are you going to do ... pull your ad and leave all
the revenue to thisknock-off? If you do, he's got everything he
wanted!
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Now, an inexperienced direct marketer may look to immediately
slam the other advertiser back in his ads. Don't do this. The
consumer does not care about your pis sing fight with this knock-
off. Take the higher road. Seriously. When the consumer sees this
guy slamming you and talking all this shit, while your ad piles on
creditability ... the customer is going to call you.
Maybe the knock-off comes in with a lower price. That's their
specialty. Who cares? Do not lower your price to meet theirs. What
you need to do is add creditability to your ad. More testimonials ...
a larger ad favorable magazine articles ... better guarantees ... a
free bonus an endorsement ... etc. You want to be more creditable
and you'll win.
Don't Let Web Marketers Free Ride On Your Trademark!:
Keep an intellectual property person on this. If your product is
www.Skinceuticals.com, they'll register www.Skinceuticals.net ...
and www.buySkinceuticals.com. These pages will just forward to
their pages with their products. Once you get large enough ... if
you're lucky enough to get large enough ... fighting off scum will be
a full time job. Just don't make it yours. Hire someone. You must
keep focused!
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Chapter Forty Four:
In Closing
I cannot believe I was able to squeeze this book out in 17 short
days! I sure hope it doesn't read like it took 17 days. I hope it was
an experience you'll never forget for the rest of your life.
I hope I was able to alter your life at least in a small way. Hopefully
you become a multi-millionaire! I sure gave you all the tools I used
to get there 48-times_ over!
This book may take a few times to read for everything to absorb
into your brain. 111tell you one thing ... it's easier for this
information to be understood if you have an idea for a product in
mind while you are reading it.
Trust me. People have copied what I've done and made themselves
$200 Million empires ... and they were not taught like you were in
this book.
There's no reason why you cannot make your dreams come to
reality with this book. If you're having a hard time changing the
way you think ... go and get Napoleon Hill or Bob Proctor's book as
I talk about in the epilogue. What they teach, you cannot put a
price on. The basis of their work is this: •
Your mind has two parts. The conscious and the sub-conscious.
Ask yourself to create an idea of your "dream" life. No matter how
crazy some of the things sound, write them down in bullet-form. I
don't care if you'd wish you'd own a Rolls Royce and a $20 Million
Estate ... and you're famous and you're going out with a beautiful
celebrity ... whatever you dream- write it down. Pretend you still
have the wild imagination of a child. That imagination we used to
have was God's greatest gift to us and our teachers, our parents,
our friends all told us to "kill" it. How stupid they were!
289
Now vou have this list of 20 things or so you wish you'd have in
you; life. Now, write them down in present tense as if you already
have them. So, it won't be, "1 want a Rolls Royce Phantom" ... it'll be
"I own a Rolls Royce Phantom. It's black with a red leather
interior."
Now make a list of the good things in life you want and write them
in present tense. This is called your list of affirmations.
Now, write down your perfect life... , which would include many, if
not all of the things you've listed, you already "had".
It should take a page or two.
On the top of this page, write the date in which you want the goal
to materialize. Don't set it too close ... but don't set it 10 years away
either. Maybe six months away ... maybe a year away like this
book's title, "The 12-Month Millionaire".
Now, everyday ... sometimes twice a day ... sometimes three times a
day, rewrite the perfect life over and over again. The more
"impressions" you make on your sub-conscious mind, the quicker
these results will materialize for you.
I'm being serious.
This is the "secret" of the rich and famous. This is the "secret"
they've used to build their fortunes. Now you can use it yourself.
Does it work? Let me tell you a personal story of what I wanted
back in 1994, when r was just 20 years old ... without a business ...
or riches of any kind. Look at what I dreamed ... and look what I
got-
I wanted a black Rolls Royce. Black with a black Everflex roof and
a cream interior- under 20,000 miles and it had to be a 1991 or
newer.
I ended up with a 1991, black Rolls Royce, Cream interior, Black
Everflex roof. 17,000 miles, 1991 model year.
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1wanted a business that was clean and long lasting that grossed
over $20,000 a week in gross sales.
Within 60 days of doing this, I had a $20,000 a week business that
was clean and long lasting. It eventually made me $40,000 a week.
I wanted to have a funny personality and be a "good talker". I
currently was out of the loop for a few years studying and lost my
"personality" .
I was immediately funny, ou tgoing and was meeting women almost
instantly, where I had a dry spell for three years while I studied.
] wanted my Mother who has a terminal disease to be healthier.
She used to live in New Jersey and always called me telling me how
she didn't feel so good.
She ended up moving out west with us a few years later and her
health is good.
I wanted a $500,000 home with a maid to take care of me.
When I wrote this, I lived with my Uncle. A few years later, I had a
$4 Million Home and a $2 Million Home at the same time and I had
full time maids that kept the place clean and picked up my child
from school and even babysitted on the weekends if we needed her.
I could go on ... I listed a few more things that all came true. And
while they may not seem like big deals to me right now, they were
written in 1994 ... and in 1994 I didn't have too much. This stuff
was HUGE for me to be thinking about back then. But they all
came true.
Trust me HILL... PROCTOR. .. KARBO. You need to read these
books.
This stuff sounds freaky ... and it is. But this is the way we were
wired as humans. This is how we get ahead in life. When we have a
success, we do some of the stuff these guys teach ... it's just we
291
didn't know we were doing it. Once you know how to do it at will ...
the World is yours!
Once you plant the stuff you want into your mind ... the mind
makes your body change its vibrations. And everything you want in
life is attracted to you through the law of vibration.
You've got the best book on direct response ... the best book that
can teach you how people make millions of dollars- fast ... now
you've got to go out and get one, two, or all three of these self-help
books I've listed in this book.
If you ever need to contact me, my contact information is listed in
this book. Feel free to email me.
Let's get going! You've got to be a millionaire within the next year ...
or else I'm a fraud. Get cracking! Good luck, my friend.
THE BEGINNING
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BONUS CHAPTER ONE:
Fishing.
I am a fisherman. But not in the ordinary way. J do not go on a
boat with a fishing rod. I send direct mail sales letters to pools of
prospects and wait to see how many "bites" I get.
Now, the "product" I'm selling is just a means to an end. It's the
"bait" on my hook, so to speak.
I really do not care what I'm sel1ing as long as it makes the fish
bite ... and bite well. .
You'd never hear a Professional fisherman saying, I'm not using a
particular type of bait because I'm not "interested" in it. .. or it's
"gross"... or I'm "embarrassed" by it. NO. As long as the bait
makes the damn fish bite ... it could be anything.
I feel the same way about products. You shouldn't care so much
about what they are, as long as they pull in the orders.
And that's what this entire business revolves around ... you having
strong enough bait to pull more revenue in orders than what it cost
you to mail the sales letters in the first place.
You also have to make sure you're fishing in the right pool of
water. If you're looking for a certaintype of fish, and they are not
known to be in the stream you're fishing in ... get the hell out of it!
111repeat it again. Forget everything about copy ... guarantees ...
headlines ... etc. These are just things that make your selling job
more powerful. What it's all about is having the right product, with
the right appeal. .. to the right group of people.
You could be the greatest copywriter in the world, and that is not
going to guarantee you'1l make millions every time you mail a new
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letter for a new product. If that were true, I sure as hell wouldn't
waste my time writing this book, I'd be writing sales letters!
The right product will come to you. You just have to keep your eyes
and ears open. Listen to everyone. By listening to other people ...
you'd be amazed what you pick up. Read everything. All types of
magazines ... all types of books ... newspapers, etc.
Try to find a huge wave and ride the damn thing. If you're seeing
that low-carb stuff is in, make some sort of product that
piggybacks off the demand for low carb stuff... a low carb diet
newsletter ... a carb-blocker diet pill.,; etc.
Look for these waves and ride them. Look at the iPod from Apple.
Do you see how much money these after market accessories
manufacturers are making?
You want the best bait. In order to find it ... find a huge need or
desire or pain and make it all better for your prospect. You can
find and create hot products by riding the waves.
294
BONUS CHAPTER TWO:
How To Lose $48,000,000 In a Day
In the first paragraph of this book, I asked you if learning a new
business from a guy who pleads guilty to horrible crimes, lost
millions of dollars, and was even facing jail time was a bad idea.
Remember?
Well, I knew you wouldn't let me finish off this book without
explaining what the hell Iwas talking about.
I'm sure a lot of people reading this book said, "Why the hell would
this nut start his book with a paragraph like that?" The answer is
simple.
1don't fucking care.
I'm not embarrassed by anything that has happened to me in the
past. Why? Because I was a victim of corrupt Government.
Look- I wouldn't want to learn anything from a guy who has lived
the pampered life. I want to learn from the guy who has seen the
top of the mountain ... as well as the basement of the jail. That's
the guy who has the "right" information for me.
You see ... I was pretty darned successful. I had over $10 Million in
my checking account alone. 1had mansions allover the place.
Dream cars. Everything.
What people do not realize is that once a product is successful and
you're mailing letters or running ads in large quantity ... you have
to keep an eye on every aspect to make sure you keep your aircraft
"floating" .
For some, running the business and keeping it "floating" is a huge
responsibility. As it was for me.
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295
Anyway, here I'm worried only about running the business and
keeping the numbers right. I'm not focused on being a "target".
My business partner had some sort of an altercation with one of
the employees- a limo driver. Anyway, I knew nothing about any
friction between these two guys until it was too late.
So, the limo driver ended up getting fired or quitting- I don't know.
He was so pissed at my partner for whatever reason, and instead of
just letting it go, he went to the local Police Department and said
my partner fondled his son!
Yes.
So, the Detective had to investigate this serious allegation, and he
did. And it went nowhere. The Detective told the limo driver to buzz
off.
Was the ex-limo driver satisfied yet? Not in a million years.
What this guy then did, was go to the Attorney General of the state
Iwas operating my business in. He went in and told the
prosecutors a story about how my partner and Iwere in the mob
and how we were paying off the mob ... and how we laughed at the
customers who bought our products, because they were bogus ...
and how we never gave customers credits, etc.
Nice guy.
I thought the saying was a "woman" scorned ... not a limo driver. So
anyway ...
Instead of the State doing a little research into this guy, his false
"fondling" story and maybe even giving us an opportunity to
respond to these allegations ... they created Forfeiture for Seizure
Warrant and got a Judge to actually "help" them polish it!
So, one day my partner and I was at the bank and the Manager of
the branch (who wanted to work for us) comes over and asks, "Why
are all your accounts frozen?" We looked at him like he was crazy,
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296
so we rushed back to the office to call our Attorney. Well, wouldn't
you know ... as we were pulling up. tons of men with shields and
guns blazing were storming our building. I kept driving. 1 had to
get to the Attorney to see what the hell was going on.
Turns out, the State with their "witness" are suing us for fraud and
money laundering and a list of other horrible things. That was fine.
But what they did was forfeiture. A forfeiture is when the State
comes in and takes all your assets- your cars- your homes- your
bank accounts- even the engagement ring off my Fiance's finger!
Now, how the hell can you fight a case with no resources? In a
way, Iwish Iwere doing something wrong when they seized
everything. If Iwere doing something wrong, Iwould have stashed
millions of dollars and had Passports ready to flee. But I had just
$2000 in my pocket and a Rolex on my arm.
Igot a friend to lend me $]00,000 for the Attorney. The Attorney
ate through this in two or three months. Gary Halbert says it
best ... You're innocent until oroven broke.
The State locked up all our records so we couldn't review Merchant
Statements that would have shown we fully gave credits. They
withheld so much information, and fought so unfairly. my Jewish
friend said, "It's Nazi Germany!"
On top of taking all your money and assets, they also stack
Criminal charges sky-high. But they never file them ... they just
threaten you with them.
Why did they do this? They wanted the $48 Million my partner and
I had.
Let me tell you, when you're being threatened with 10 or 20 years
in prison, .. even if you are 100% innocent, there's still some
element of risk. Especially, when you have no money to hire a good
Attorney.
Not only that, but who's going to pay for all those experts you have
to hire? They do not work for free.
297
The State knows if YOLl cannot afford to fight the case, and if they
stack the threat of Criminal charges deep enough, you'll probably
just forfeit all your assets to them and go away. A windfall.
You see, when they seize all your assets, the only way they can
actually "keep" them is to have you sign them over (usually in
some sort of a plea bargain deal) ... or if you get convicted at trial.
And then of course, your ass is going to jail as well.
1always had the belief you can make money, and you cannot make
time. But I was not ready to give up just yet.
But maybe 1should have ... because the State started looping in
other people into the criminal charges. My Fiance, who was
nothing more than a girl who handled payroll and Human
Resources. The State was looking for me to buckle. They could
charge whomever they wanted, and the charges mayor may not
stick. .. but the punishment is in the process.
All the pressure took its tali a year into this. My partner and I
struck a plea deal where we'd forfeit $47 Million in cash and assets
and plead guilty to money laundering and fraud schemes. In
return, we'd put this behind us, and keep family members out of
the hot seat we were in. The State just wanted the money.
So, the lesson to be learned here: If you make a ton of money in
this business ... or in any business ... keep it protected. Do not have
visible, seizable assets.
The Government will rob your ass.
What to know something funny? After we entered our pleas, that
ex-limo driver called our Attorney and told him he wanted to talk.
Turns out the investigators told him when they first met him that
they would give him as much as 10% of what they seize from us.That would have been like $4.8 Million. Hell, T know people who'll
make up shit about people they like for the chance at $4.8
Million ... let along some guy who hates us!
The reason why he came forward? The State never paid h im l And
he was pissed and wanted to get back at them the same way he
wanted to get back at us.
But it was too late. We erite red the plea already and the .Judge
wouldn't let us out of the piea!
I'm not going to reveal the state J was in ... but 1will ten you that it
is a "good old boy" state and it is very corrupt.
I ended up getting sentenced to 6 months in ja ii... as did my
former partner.
The $48 Million the State seized was s'uppo sed to go to all the
victims we created with our products. While 1 was in the joint, I
was reading a newspaper article about us. The State claimed they
received just over 5000 requests for refunds from our customers.
Our products sold for $50. Do the math. That's $250,000 in
refunds ... which is just what we would have given back in two
week's time. But Vi/hat is the State going to do with the other
$47,750,000 they seized from us? Windfall profits!
Hell, even the building our business was in ... it was supposed to be
liquidated for the "victims". Well, The US Customs Office is in it.
They just decided, "Hey, we like this building ... lets take it."
It's really that easy for these guys.
Don't have seizable assets. If you have nothing for them to take,
they do not care about putting you in jail. All they are after is the
money.
And your Lawyer will make back office trades with your money!
Theyll make deals with the State where theyl1 make sure you give
the State all your seized assets in exchange for the State going
light on one of their "Violent" criminal clients. Believe me ... It's
true.
299
One of our Attorneys has a friend, who had a son. This son got into
an argument with someone and while the guy was walking away.
the kid shot the guy in the back!
Now, two bad t h irigs here: One- the guy was walking away ... and
two, the gunshot was above the waste! The guy was almost dead ...
but pulled through.
Somehow, our Attorney got this kid got off with just six years of
probation! And I went to jail! Go figure.
if I could go back in time, this is how I would have prepared for
this better:
1. i would have had two million dollars in cash buried somewhere
other than my house or my office.
2. I would have had clinical studies for any dietary supplement I
sold. I would have had all the experts saying how well it worked,
before it required them to say it in a court of law.
3.1 would have never had any of my assets seizable . My house. my
cars, my bank accounts. My bank accounts would have had a little
money in them ... but all the real "pot of gold" would have been
protected - pro ba bly in some other country.
4. i would have had Passports for all my family involved. It's easier
for you to negotiate when you are not under US law.
5. I would have looked over each one of my ads with a magnifying
glass. I would have had the ads critiqued by an Attorney. I would
have made sure I have solid proof of every claim, and I would have
kept all this solid proof off site. Not in my home or office.
Somewhere hidden.
6. This was out of my control, but 1would never make an employee
quit or get fired mad. Now, when this guy cannot get a new job and
is having financial problems, the fir st thing he wants to do is make
you have financial problems.
3UO
7. Have a back-up copy of your complete database on one of those
new flash memory key chains. jf things get horrible, you can
always count on making a ton of money with your house file. If 1
had mine, 1could have reaped an easy $4 Million. Keep the
database on your key chain.
8. Try to lease at least one of your cars and make sure you have
enough money hidden away to pay the entire time of the lease. For
example, a $] 000 a month lease for rhree years- Have $36,000
buried. And don't forget about insurancei The Government cannot
seize "leased" assets. Maybe do the sa-me for your home.
i mention the guy who created Girls Gone Wild a few times in this
book. He recently ran into a problem in Florida. Agents seized his
Ferrari and his private jet. But they had to return the jet as it was
leased! In the long run, he beat the case and all charges were
dropped. But the jet did come back to him immediately.
9. I would have had copies of all Merchant Statements and other
important documents in a location other than my home or my
office. important information you need to prove your innocence will
be "lost" by Prosecutors. Always have your own copies.
These 9 things are worth a million bucks. Over a million bucks. If
you see yourself getting huge ... make sure to listen to them. Don't
learn the hard way like I had to.
Politicians, Prosecutors, and ALMOST EVERY GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEE are scurnbags. You have to be a certain type of person
to do these jobs. You have to be a scumbag.
Seriousiy, had 1obeyed these 9 things 1 had to learn the hard
way ... I'd be sitting on an extra $40,000,000 and more.
There are probably only a handful of direct marketers that can tell
you as much as I can. I've seen it all. The good ... the bad ... the
ugly. When you make your millions, make sure to protect them.
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E·piingUA''IV "'_
Ttle rYiillionaire's Library
Tested Advertising Methods- John Caples
This is a great and classic book that really taught me about testing
advertising. I think this book is a must-read!
The Lazy Man's Way To Riches- Joe Karbo
Joe is the man. His book was one of the first books I've read on
direct response. The first half of the book teaches about Dyna-
Psych. The first few chapters of this book changed my life for the
better and a more powerful and profound level than just learning
how to do mail ord er , It taught me how 1 can rely on myself to get
anything in life I need or want. Once you're finished with my book
you should go and read Joe's as soon as you can!
Breakthrough Advertising- Eugene Schwartz
1 looked for this book for over eight years! it was fir st published in
1966 and then again in 1984. And finally again in 2004. When it
was first published in 1966, the author claims it sold only a few
thousand copies! The new publisher of it said he brought this book
hack to the rnar ket because he found an older copy selling for $900
on the Internet! Was this book worth the eight years it took me to
finally find it? Yes. Eugene taught me many things. One of them is
that if I put a potential drawback or negative claims before a
positive claim, it Blakes the positive claim four to ten times as
powerful as the claim presented by itself. And where most
marketers add hype to their ads and sales letters when they do not
work ... and get no better results ... when the real reason why the ad
failed is that the prospect didn't believe the claims. Hyping the
claims in the second attempt does not make it better. Maybe going
in the opposite direction will produce better results ... water down
some claims ... or add some negative facts about the product to
make the good stuff seem more believable. This book was written
r
302
by a scientist more than a copywriter. Schwartz was Doth. it's not a
light read and requires two or three readings or more to grasp what
he is saying.
Scientific Advertising/My Life in Advertising- Claude Hopkins
This is the classic book which David Ogilvy said that nobody
should have anything to do with advertising until he has read this
book 7 times. I believe it. Hopkins was one of the first guys to
teach about advertising techniques being scientific- meaning they
can be based on scientific principles. This is an old book. .. but it is
a must read.
Ogilvy On Advertising- David Ogilvy
I like David Ogilvy. 1was upset when right after he died a few years
ago, I saw his most recent book on the "deep-discount" table in
Barnes and Noble. You can learn a lot about his two layout
formulas- which I have borrowed many times.
2239 Test Secrets For Direct MarketingSuccess- Denny Hatch and
Don Jackson
if 1had just one book to advise you buy regarding direct marketing
success ... I'd say for you to buy this one. It's really not a "book" ...
but more a listing of many) many expert's opinions regarding
different aspects of direct marketing success. Want info on
envelopes? Flip to the envelope chapter and read what a few dozen
professionals have to say. It lists all their opinions. Seriously-
Denny Hatch and Don Jackson put together one hell of a book
here. I've had a copy sitting on my coffee table since 1999 and I
refer to it almost weekly. You've got to get this book now!
Think and Grow Rick- Napoleon Hill
I envy people who do not know about Hili's teachings and are
about to learn it for the first time. Hill changed my life. I was able
to figure out how people are successful. This is a classic book. A
must read!
Money Making Secrets Of Jay Abraham and Other Marketing
Wizards- Jay Abraham
1 first got this large 400-page book in 1995. 1 still have it within five
feet of me right as I'm typing this. Jay Abraham was probably one
of, if not THE biggest consultants who inspired me the most. I
remember first learning some of the stuff in this book and j was
floored. It'11set you back <3 few hundred ... I thin k like $400 .._hut if
you have it ten years later and can still refer to it, it's a good
investment.
The Robert Collier Letter Book- Robert Collier
I looked for this book for years. I finally got a copy from TWI Press
when they re-issued it. A great book that really explains how to
write copy and how to make copy seem "real". Your copywritirig
ability will be greatly improved after you read this rather large
book. A gold mirie!
How to Win Friends and Influence People- Dale Carnegie
This classic teaches you how to get what you want by giving others
what they want. Not really about mail order, or direct response
selling ... but it is a must read for anyone looking to "sell" either in
person or through print media.
You Were Born Rich Seminar Tapes- Bob Proctor
I love Bob. Seriously, when I'm feeling down or in a bad place, I
always pop on Bob's VHS cassettes of this seminar from the late
1980's and it turns my life around every time! Bob basically
teaches what guys like Karbo and Hill teach, but he does it in a
current-day way. Bob Proctor has worked with many famous
corporations and to learn what he has to teach is a blessing to the
way you think for the rest of your life. You've got to understand,
once you learn what Proctor teaches ... you can never be the same.
You'll have the "blueprint" for success. These tapes are priced
around $600 ... but again, worth every penny.
You Were Born I.(_ich-Bob Proctor
if the seminar tapes cost too much, you can get his book that
inspired the seminar. The book will run under $20 and it's a
powerhouse!
The Gary Halbert Letter- www.thegaryhalberttetter.com
This is a free site of my pal and mentor Gary Halbert. He's the self-
proclaimed "Best Copywriter In The World" who's made hundreds
of millions for the people he's worked with over the years. This site
is basically copies of his famous newsletter dating back to 1986.
It's free and it's a must read. You're going to want to get on his list
so you can get alerte~ every time he posts a fresh newsletter.
Advertising Secrets of the Written Word- Joe Sugarman
Marketing Secrets of a Mail-Order Maverick- Joe Sugarman
Triggers- Joe Sugarman
All three of these books are great. in my opinion, The Sharper
Image would not exist today if it were not for Joe. Joe also created
Blu Blocker sunglasses. You've got to read all three of these books.
Joe is a fabulous marketer for 30 years!
How To Write A Good Advertisement- Vic Schwab
This book is published by Wilshire Books. Many direct response
professionals say if there is just one book to read ... this is the one.
I'd definitelv sav this book is MUST READ and vou will be smarter~ ~ ~
after reading it.
_)l):i
"How You Can Hire Me- a One-MHtion-DoHar-
Per-Year rViarketing Expert (to PERSONALLY
coach you through every step towards
massive success) ... For Just $1.3.70 a Day:"
People ask me <:lJlthf_: time" how much it wo uld cost for rnr: to CUITIe
and work for their company and help them sec their way to
.~n~t.ssiveStlc:cess,
f tell them 1wouldrit eve n consider it for a cent under a million
dollars per year. .. and that may still not be enough!
, .. B.nd. E.t· \/0 I_I ive' re.allv read- -
the thing and got this far. .. you know I am one of (if not) "The" best
direct marketer s ou t rigrlt n ow.
But no matter how good i am", I have fl. strtaH problem:
I've kind of realized something a few years ago. I really do not care
for "running" a business. The day-to-day shit is not for me. What I
do love to do 1'5 think up riew profit strategies". create killer copy ...
and maximize profits.
Also- I've made more than my fair share of millions of dollars in
this business. For me, I now get my kicks helping other marketers
to makc themselves R fortune.
80- considering what I've discovered about myself ... and.
considering how much of a value I could be to an Entrepreneur
like yourself who cannot round-up an extra million bucks to pav
me ... I think I have created a solution that can add millions to your
bottom line and still keen me inter-ested in hFininp' V()\ 1- t-'vFn
.l- - -- - - - - - - - r ---G _. _F ~~~ -.~. --
considering its really small dollar amount.
Like I was saying above." I'd demand H million bucks in annual
pay to sit under your roof..; in an office ... and to be there for every
question or concern your pretty little mind may have about YOU.!
business.
In realitv- even if yo u D.':l.id me that million bucks. you'd probably
speak with me maybe once a week. .. twice tops. So Igot thinking.
What I did was come up wit h '.1 m.unber. This number was the
amount of clients or projects I can handle if Iwere a consultant for
hire, I'd nul myself H "Hired. Gun". The number I carrie up with \vB.S
200.
So that m ean s I can handle 200 different clients at a time and still
be able to answer every phone call. .. every email... and every letter
with mind-boggling, p rofit-eh att ering answers,
\VhRt J rh en did wes divide S 1,000,000 hy that 200. I came IIp with
$5,000. That would be the fee I would need to be paid by 200
clients to make ITl.Yerie mil1i8I1 do llar s in arirrual pa:,".
Five grand is a pittance- especially when you consider marketing
experts such as .Jay Abraham charge $5000 for one sing1e hour ...
and I think you may have to book him in 2-hour blocks. That's
TEN GRAND for 2 hours.
Even R novice dircct ma rket ing expert would chnrgf' $500 TO $1000
an hour to te1l you stuff you may already know ... or even worse ...
that may be abaol'utcly INCORRECT!
!want JUST S5000 for the whole frl$:r~in' year.. ~ -
For this $5000 ... YO'Ll'!! receive 8. "special" business card ..
Here's what this card has listed on it ...
1. j'1/fy office nurnber.i , connects you right into my office phone
2..Af!! home nurnber.. . corinecte you right into my residence
3. l'vly cellular number to get a hold uf me uihereuer I am ... arid
,Ii
4. 1;1l1.1:)c·r.~:()n(Il crnud (.!Jlclress reserved f?_-:(c-.luslur.:-lI.:,f for ttLe 2()()
clients ... This way ... before uie actually speak- you can shoot me an
etriai! first if you cfwusc urid then I can loo): ouer eueruthiruj and
think about it for a second and [hen i can call you back with the
answer,S.
This entire thing is a re al good id.e~_.
You get to pester me- pro bably the best direct marketer in the
county right now- with all of your questions. 1 can help you guide
your business ariu firw_nces to the etratosrihere!- - - - - -. . .._
Seriously- could. you image how successful you would be with ME
in YOUR corner? What about if I found a way to guide you to a 100
Million Dollar idea? 1've done it before.
The best parr about this is you're going to get rvlE in \'OUR corner
for under $14 a day. FOURTEEN FUCKING DOLLARS!
1don't mean to cuss right there ... but thatis how much of a
opportunity this is for you. You can have me as your personal
marketing slave ... as long as I'm not currently working with 200
clients already. If I am, you'll be placed on a waiting list.
Every year ... you can renew if you wish.
Now here's how this thing works:
If you have questions or need. advise regarding anything for your
business whether is be a direct mail letter ... an ad ... a script ... a
headline pricing ... etc., just call or email me and I'll give you my
personal opinion and consult you on what Iwould do.
It's like having a $] OO-Million-DoJ1Br ma rket ing guru by you r side-
guiding you all the way to success ... basically getting a million
dollars worth of expertiee each and eVery year. .. and you're paying
just $13.70 a day. I spend more on my daily cigar.
Hold your horses ... there are f01J, terms you have to ag-ree to:
1, Payment is due in full upfront-
The fee I'm asking for is so small considering what you are to gain
and also I do not want to deal with wan nabe s. 1do not want your
mortgage money ... or the money your family needs to use for
dinner tonight. I ill going to need real players who can afford all the
money upfront.
2. There is no morrey back guarantee on my services-
If you are still skeptical even after reading this 300+ page book. ..
do not even consider contacting me. If you don't kriow 'by now that
I can be worth my weight on gold to you ... you're too stupid of a
person for me to work with. Th)8 book is the ultimate res urrie.
3. Your volume of calla and/or emails to me must be within
reason and not border on harassment-
I'm talking 5 calls ur erna.ils a week tops. If we're working on
something ... obviously we may exceed 5 calls andjor emails-,
which is fine. But if you're some weirdo who is going to call me In
times a day and wake me out of bed at night to talk about some
half-cooked idea ... again do not consider contacting me.
4. You can only qualify for a slot if you+re one of the first 200
astute business owners to grasp this opportunity-
I feel 200 people is just enough to keep me busy and at the same
time- make me the million bucks J need to keep "interested".
200 is the limit! If I took in more than 200 clients, I may be biting
off more than I can chew ... and Idon't want to do that.
So ... ifyou feel it is worth $13.70 a day to have ME at YOUR beck
and calL. shoot me an email at:
MrVincr':nt\.Jame!".((~iVahon.com
(this email address is different that the one for comments
regarding this book I've listed on page two.
r
WhRt I ,)}il1de; ie, r hr.n r1')l ynl1 where to send The ('heck fo r $5000
and who to make it out to. Maybe I'1iask a few questions about
~iC'UT bu sin ess arid yOUI' goals.
If I'rn under 200 and. h ave the room ... and as long as YOLtr check
clears the bank ... 111 send you out the secret business card with all
the cr itical contact inform atiori to reach me
Another thing thnt you may like.,. is that for all 200 clients who
join this "club" ... you can receive 50%) off any copywriting work you
m av decide to hire me for in the future.
I'm cu rr-enr ly charging S;! :=1;000for ::1 f11]i-b!own SRleS p8ckage or
advertisement (incrudirig artwork in Quark on CD-ROM). You can
do the math and See your savings.
Also- my 200 clients will receive email updates for FREE ACCESS
whenever I'm doing a Tele-aerninar with other experts I feel you can
learn something from,
In case you're not familiar with Tele-Serninars , this is what they
are: basically you'll call a number and input a special "code" that'll
patch yon into a call between myself and one or two other
marketing experts. You (and 199 others) will be able to listen in on
every word we say. Sometimes I'll even do questions and answers
with listeners.
Like Iwas saying before- after reading this book, unless vou're
brain dead ... you can see that Iam well worth the $13.70 a day I
ask,
To sign up- send me an email at MrVincent. Jarnp~a)vahoo.rom and
111send you the address for you to send your $5000 check or
money order. Remember- more than 200 people are smart enouch
to pay me $13.70 a day for my expertise. wui one of them be yo~?
Thanks!
Vincent .Jarries
Author, Direct Marketer, Consultant, Copywriter
So there vou have it
To some ... this book is nothing more than 9'2..625 word s ... 408.210
characters ... 2,473 paragraphs ... or 5,564 sentences. To some, this
will be a life-changing experience.
IT ALL DEPENDS ON HO\V YOU "(.ISS rr.
Don't discount for a second the teachirig in this book- as some of
them are really simple. They have made many men and women
MILLIONAIRE. AND MULTl-TvIILLlONAIRES- EVEN BILLIONAIRES.
A man from Ohio named Steve has "borrowed" one of my product
ideas, applied my teachings, and in less than 36-months, built a
QUARTER OF A BILLl()N DOLLAR business with 900 employees.
HOW BIG AN EIvlPIRE ARE YOU GOING TO BU1LD?
Good Luck.
Vincent James
March 29th, 2005
8:59 PM
Las Vegas, Nevada