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"BVFar The Most Imponant Marketing Product"
"Jgot to know this guy. He's from New Jersey, as street smart as
they come, and he has the energy of a shitweasel on amphetamines.
He created a business that generated $100,000,000 in 23-short
months. Vincent did this withjust apen, apad, and a simple idea.]
believe this is by far the most important marketing product ever put
together. In it, he reveals a lot of secrets that even I have never
before revealed to anyone (except a few clients and my closest
friends). If you dare say the information you get from this product
was already known to you or it wasn't worth the money, you are
much more than a shitweasel. You are a stone-cold, unethical liar.
Believe it or not, much of this information is so electrifying; it was
unknown even to me. And I am now using these secrets when I
create advertising for myself orfor my clients. You are beyond all
hope if you do not order "The 12-Month Millionaire"as soon as you
finish reading this message. Your hand should be reaching for your
checkbook or the telephone this very second."
"I Made The DeCision Not To Write Another
Word of COpy Until I Devoured Your Book"
"It is so blazing hot!!! It's so hot- that in between friends from Germany and LA
visiting, 2 hanging deadlines (14 days away), four pages into The 12 Month
Millionaire I made the decision not to write another word of copy until 1
devoured your book. Which ] did in four days flat and I still haven't had time to
go over the pages of notes- but it's in the double digits for sure. So I love the
book! It has inspired roy soul and sparked a couple ofkil1er ideas I'm gearing to
test. With the back-end as the apple of my eye! I will let you know how much
money J make and get to keep over the next year applying the secrets, facts and
hard-nosed insider knowledge your book so easily details."
ALL the Best,
Carlos Duran
Send Your Testimonial To The12Montlu"\1illionaire@yahoo.com
4
Table of Contents
Introduction 7
Chapter One: 13
The Best Business In the World
Chapter Two: 22
Products and Arithmetic
Chapter Three: 36
What It's Like When One
Of These Things Explodes
Chapter Four: 47
All About Mailing Lists
Chapter Five: 56
All About Magazine Advertising
Chapter Six: 66
Creating Your Swipe File
Chapter Seven: 68
The Back End
Chapter Eigh t: 75
Auto ship
Chapter Nine: 81
Lifetime Customer Value (LCV)
Chapter Ten: 85
The Two Step
Chapter Eleven: 95
An Irresistible Offer
)
Chapter Twelve: 103
Guarantee Everything
Chapter Thirteen: 109
Premiums
Chapter Fourteen: 113
Testimonials and Endorsements
Chapter Fifteen: 118
Four Reasons Why People Don't
Buy From Your Sales Letters and
Advertisemen ts
Chapter Sixteen: 130
Hire a Copywriter or Do It Yourself?
Chapter Seventeen: 133
The Mail piece
Chapter Eighteen: 141
Graphics ... Photos and Typography
Chapter Nineteen: 147
Copywriting
Chapter Twenty: 163
Headlines
Chapter Twenty One: 177
Printers
Chapter Twenty Two: 183
Letter shops
Chapter Twenty Three: 189
Postage
Chapter Twenty Four: 193
The Post Office
6
Chapter Twenty Five: 197
How To Test
Chapter Twenty Six: 202
Whispers and Screams
Chapter Twenty Seven: 212
Costs and Steps
Chapter Twenty Eight: 218
Bumping Up The Unit Sale
Chapter Twenty Nine: 222
Response Rates
Chapter Thirty: 226
Refund Rates
Chapter Thirty One: 230
Increasing Response
Chapter Thirty Two: 232
What I Know About Websites
Chapter Thirty Three: 236
Merchant Accounts'
Chapter Thirty Four: 241
Call Centers
Chapter Thirty Five: 245
Telemarketing
Chapter Thirty Six: 247
Television Advertising
Chapter Thirty Seven: 251
Radio Advertising
..,
,I
Chapter Thirty Eight: 253
The "Suck Out"
Chapter Thirty Nine: 257
Employees
Chapter Forty: 266
The Only 3 Ways To Grow
Your Business
Chapter Forty One: 273
Keeping Out of Jail
Chapter Forty Two: 277
Blunders That Cost Me Millions
Chapter Forty Three: 281
Knock-Offs
Chapter Forty Four: 287
In Closing
Bonus Chapter # 1 291
Fishing
Bonus Chapter #2 293
How To Lose $48,000,000 In A Day
Epilogue: 300
The Millionaire's Library
Special Addition Chapter: 305
How You Can Hire Me To PERSONALLY
Coach You For Just $13.70 a Day
8
Introduction To
The i2-Month Millionaire
If you think being educated about a new profession from a guy who
plead guilty to Fraud and Money Laundering is a bad idea ... this is
not your book.
If you think learning how to make millions of dollars from a guy
who almost lost $48 Million in a brutal lawsuit- practically making
him homeless- is a bad idea ... this is not your book.
If you think discovering how to live the "good life" from a guy who
was facing 10 years in prison is a bad idea ... again ... this is not
your book.
But if you are looking for the real ... the genuine ... the no bullshit
way to become filthy rich- and at the same time- avoid any of the
pitfalls massive success comes with ... this will be the most
rewarding book you 11ever read.
You see, I've made over $100 Million in fewer than 10 years using
the very same techniques 111reveal to you in this book. I've also
nearly lost all of my fortune being stupid with my success. I'm
going to teach you how to make tons of money- and just as
importantly ... I'm going to show you how to keep your millions in
your bank by not being stupid like I was.
This is my first major book. I am not an accomplished author, so
this book will have some flaws. Ifyou read for style, or for literary
quality, like I was saying before, this may not be a book for you.
But there are paragraphs in this book- ideas in this book- whole
chapters in this book that I have never had the balls to put down
on paper before! And they will open doors to you- maybe as soon
as tomorrow- that otherwise might have taken a lifetime of waiting
for you to walk through.
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Right now ... I'm sure you're skeptical as hell. You may even be
thinking to yourself that you have bought the diary of a madman.
But let me make you a small promise:
Give me a few days.
Read this book.
You will never be the same again.
Once you learn what I have to teach you ... unless you somehow
lose your entire memory ... it would be impossible for you to ever be
"ordinary" again. It would be impossible for you to not know how to
make tons of money: starting with virtually nothing as I did 10
short years ago.
I hope you'll give me the benefit of the doubt with my promise. If
you do, please read on. But if you can't cast-aside your skepticism,
please do not waste any more of your time reading any further.
Unless you believe in me- this book will be worth nothing to you.
Anyway, before we jump into this thing with both feet... lets get
acquainted. Maybe I should tell you a little about myself, how I
grew up and where I came from.
I was born in northern New Jersey on January 23rd, 1974.
I grew-up poor- single parent household. I think I had some sort of
learning disability, because as a child, 1 could not retain anything I
learned in school. I'd study like hell for an upcoming test ... but as
soon as I finished reading a chapter in my school book. .. I couldn't
remember what Ijust read. It would not penetrate into my brain. It
was extremely discouraging, so 1 gave up. I failed everything ... even
P.E. class.
I finally dropped out in the 10th grade. Nobody seemed to mind.
No matter how hard I tried, it always seemed like I wasn't going to
amount to anything real important in life. And this really sucked
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because I had a passion for the finer things. I wanted the gold
Rolex, the sporty Mercedes, and the Million-Dollar Mega Mansion!
But when I looked in the mirror, 1didn't like what I saw. I was
convinced the good life I wanted was just a dream.
But that was all about to change. Seriously- by the time I was 19, I
had a brand-new Corvette. At 20, I had 2 brand-new Mercedes
Benz automobiles. And at 21, I was the proud owner of a Rolls
Royce Silver Spur!
By the time I turned 28 ... I made over $100 Million in gross sales. I
profited over $50 Million. I owned two homes- one of themwas
14.000 square feet and had a seven-car garage, a billiards room
and a resort-style pool with an underwater bar! And I paid cash for
the home!
In my garage, 1had a red Lamborghini Diablo, a yellow Ferrari 360
Spider, a white Bentley Amage Red Label, about 4 Mercedes, and a
12-passenger Lincoln Town Car Limo!
My checking account had over $10 Million in it. I was earning
$400,000 in pay each and every week. That breaks down to
$80,000 a day ... or $10,000 an hour! And those figures were if I
worked 5 days a week for eight hours a day, which I didn't!
In the year 2002, I made more money than the CEOs of Federal
Express ... eBay ... Amazon.com Time Warner. .. Apple Computer. ..
McDonalds ... Microsoft. .. Nike Yahoo ... Ford Motor Company ...
General Motors ... and Goodyear Tire- COMBINED!
Yes-COMBINED.
In the May 12th, 2003 issue, Forbes Magazine listed their top paid
500 CEOs in America. Of their prominent and prestigious list of
the 500 CEOs, I made more money than 483 of them.
$17,549,000 MORE than the CEO of Starbucks.
$13,030,000 MORE than the CEO of Target.
1 j
$17,225,000 MORE than the CEO of Motorola.
Now, this may all seem like I'm some rich asshole bragging about
how rich I am ... and you're partly correct. I am bragging! But more
importantly, the reason why I'm telling you about all this is that
this book is about getting rich very quickly. If the talk of obscene
money makes you feel uncomfortable, or even angers you, maybe
you do not really want to be rich.
The reason why I'm telling you about all the toys I had when I was
just 28, is to prove to you that if an guy like me ... with a learning
disability ... a bad childhood ... and no formal education can get
filthy rich by the time I was 28 ... you can absolutely follow in my
footsteps and build yourself your very own empire of wealth!
I remember back when I was 18, I was sitting on the steps of my
Aunt's home. A few doors down from her lived a girl I went to High
School with. Anyway, while I was out there sitting on her steps
smoking a Marlboro, I saw a red Mercedes Benz SL500 pull up at
this girl's home.
Some preppy geek got out of the car with his sweater wrapped
around his neck and went to her front door. He was picking her up
for a weekend trip I presumed because she made him carry a small
duffel bag to the trunk of his shiny red Mercedes.
Things were sure different from when we were both in High School
together. Where that girl may have had no problem going out with
me back then ... nowadays her boyfriends had to be financially
accomplished. When I saw that freaking red Mercedes pull away
and drive past me, I remember saying to myself, "I've got to get my
shit together!" And I did. About a year later- I had the very same
model and color Mercedes Benz SL500 in my garage.
How did I get the car? I didn't steal it. I didn't win the lottery. I
sure didn't receive an inheritance from some long lost relative who
just kicked the bucket. I made the money on my own. I started
from scratch with nothing but a pen, a pad, and a crazy idea. I'm
now going to teach you how to do the same.
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Why would 1teach these incredible wealth secrets to total
strangers for the small fee this book sells for? I don't know. Maybe
I like to teach people stuff. Maybe Iwant to be immortal. Maybe!
want to leave something behind on this Earth after I die that will
last forever. Whatever the reason- you're in for a treat.
I named this book THE 12-MONTH MILLIONAIREbecause that's
what it's designed to do. It's designed to make you a full-blown,
certified MILLIONAIREwithin 12 months of reading it.
Stop laughing. I'm being serious. And I'm going to guarantee it. If
this book fails to make you a millionaire within the next 12
months ... serioualy.T want you to send me a letter explaining what
you did in an attempt to get rich ... and I'll send you every dime you
paid for this book.
Maybe you do not want to become a filthy rich millionaire mogul. ..
maybe you just want a better life for your family ... that's alright ...
but Ido have to tell you this ...
It's just as hard to make a "good" income in this business as it is to
become filthy rich- earning millions a year. .. and I do not mean
this in a negative way ... Imean it in the most positive way possible.
It's just as hard to tum one dollar into three dollars one hundred
times as it is to do it one million times, so why not do it to it's
fullest? I sure do.
So anyway, lets get this thing started right away. I'm so excited for
you. I remember when I was first leaming these secrets, piece-by-
piece over 10 years ago. It was like a mental orgasm. I couldn't
stop devouring this stuff from every source I could squeeze it out
of... whether it was spending $10,000 on books dating as far back
as the early 1900's ... or spending $5,000 to go to a single weekend
seminar ... or giving up my entire persona1life from age 19 until
24 ... including women ... just because I was so excited with what I
was discovering.
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Seriously- I envy you. I wish I could experience again what you're
about to learn ... but of course I can't. So I have to settle for the joy
of watching the light bulbs go off in the thousands of people's
minds who read this book.
In my head, this book has been begging me to write it for the past
five years. I finally gave in and did it. Am I happy with the end
result? You bet I am. The very book you hold in your hands is not
just a bunch of paper, ink and glue ... it's literally a roadmap ... a
blueprint ... a formula for getting rich in America today.
These secrets are used equally by the single Mother trying to put
her child in a good private school, to the small businessperson
making a great living ... all the way to guys who are running ONE
BILLION DOLLAR Publicly-Traded Corporations such as The
Sharper Image. These techniques are not Mickey Mouse. They are
powerful. They are life altering. They can even be dangerous if they
are not used properly.
So, I'd like to welcome you to the "Best" of your life. I hope after
you make your millions you still remember this book and tell
everyone you know how it helped you.
Enough already- let's get this party started.
14
Chapter One:
The Best Business In The World
Before you read this chapter, get a pen and a piece of paper.
These are the two main tools you need for this business.
When you add together the pen ... the paper ... this book. .. and a
simple idea for a product or service ... it could literally be worth
hundreds of millions of dollars.
Traditional businesses like retail stores, manufacturing plants,
restaurants, etc. require you to jump into the fire, with both feet,
risking almost all of your money before you earn a dime ... and
what's worse is you will not know if you are going to be a success
until after you've risked most, if not all, of your start-up money ... if
you're even lucky enough to have start-up money.
And still worse, these traditional businesses cannot offer you the
rapid forced growth and wild profits of the wonderful business this
book teaches about.
The business this book speaks of allows you to start small, and
only after you have scientific proof and a valid and profitable idea,
would you then gradually invest more and more of your money. In
most cases, you'll be reinvesting profits.
The business I speak of in this book allows you to get rich even
when 99 out of 100 prospects don't want your product.
The business I speak of in this book is the Direct Response
business. Its a business that allows you to discover very quickly if
you have a hit or a miss ... usually within 30 days. You can also
find out if you have a hit or a miss for cheap ... most of the time
you can find out for $2,000 or less.
15
Another plus is that your "offering" is what gets judged ... not you-
Let me explain .. ,
You can be of any descent and suffer 0% racism.
You can be male or female and suffer 0% sexism.
You can be straight or gay and suffer 0% homophobia.
You can be a midget... a gimp ... bald ... fat ...cock-eyed ... butt-
ugly ... toothless ... have bad breath ... etc. None of this will affect
your chance of success in this business.
You can also live anywhere ... even in a urn-bomber-type cabin in
the middle of BFE ... 'and as long as you can get your letters to a
Post Office and as long as you have access to a phone line ... your
location will not have any effect on your success in this business.
You can be a high-school drop out, like 1was, and with the right
idea you can run circles around the Harvard MBA with the wrong
idea ...
You do not need any specific expertise in the product you plan to
sell. I've manufactured and sold golf clubs while I never played a
round of golf once. I've manufactured and sold vitamins, where I
am not any kind of Scientist or Doctor. That's the beauty of this
business.
And guess what is best about this business? You can be sitting in
your one bedroom, roach infested basement apartment right now ...
but as soon as you craft the right letter, selling the right product,
to the right people, for the right price, and at the right time in his
or her life... you can be in possession of some intellectual property
worth over $100 Million! And it'll take you just 7 to 10 days after
you mail your letters to know what you have. Seriously.
About five years ago, I was between businesses. I was not earning
any money. I was a little discouraged. I created a letter for a
product and I tested it and got 6-times my money back. It cost
16
$600 to mail 1000 letters and I got $3600 back, of which all was
profit, once I subtracted the $600 mailing cost.
Now, what I then knew was that the amount of names I could mail
the letter to allowed me to sell 40,000 new people every month for
$180. That means I'd make $7.2 Million in gross sales every 30
days. It would cost me $1.2 a month to advertise. So when
everything was said and done, ] was looking at $6 Million profit
every month.
Pretty hard to sleep that night knowing I had 4 sheets of paper
that were going to bring me over $70 Million. Twenty months later,
I grossed over $77 Million and netted $48 Million in pure profit
from this single sales letter.
What did it cost me to create this letter? A pen ... a legal pad ... a
good idea ... and the skills and secrets revealed in this very book!
The Direct Response business is not a new business. Ben Franklin
even had a mail order catalog! There are scores of books in
bookstores you can buy for $10 or so that can tell you all about
direct response ... or mail order as some call it. But what 1want to
teach you is how I do it. I do it a little different.
Right now, we're going to focus just on mailing sales messages for
a product to a qualified mailing list. Later, we'll talk more about
magazine advertisements and TV and radio commercials.
In 2000, I had an idea for a dietary supplement. Actually I didn't
even have the idea. I saw a product selling in health food stores for
$60. I thought this was a hot product that was not getting
marketed properly, It was buried on the back shelves of the store ...
so I bought myself a bottle. Its best to sell products you cannot
find in stores ... but since this one was so poorly placed in retail
stores, I felt I could effectively sell it through direct response.
The good thing about dietary supplements is that manufacturers
cannot Patent the ingredients they use. I can come up with a great
blend of herbs and spend hundreds of thousands in clinical
studies and all it takes is someone to read the ingredient list on
--------------------------- ._-_._- .._----
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the side of the bottle- which is required on the bottle by law ... and
they can knock-me-off instantly. So, basically I can take a bottle of
anything I find in the vitamin store or in any catalog and any local
vitamin manufacturer can make the identical pill for $2 a bottle or
so ... even if it is selling for $50 to $60 in stores!
No need for research. No need for clinical studies (if the other
company already sponsored one or there is one in the many
medical journals). You can have your very own brand name dietary
supplement for a few dollars a bottle.
Anyway, back to my dietary supplement.
I was quite amazed when I saw these pills advertised and sold for
$60 when I could make them for $2 ... and even less in larger
quantities!
I made up a name for my "new" product and had labels made for
the bottles through the pill manufacturer. Viola! My very own,
trademarked brand name dietary supplement in less than a week's
time!
So, I crafted a sales letter for this product and located a few
mailing lists to mail the sales letters to. Sometimes it's easier to
come up with a product by looking at the different types of mailing
lists on the market. For example, instead of thinking of a new
product to sell, look at all the different types of mailing lists on the
market and their sizes, and then fit a product to the list.
I'll talk more in great detail about mailing lists later in this book.
Anyway, the pills sold for $60 in my letter, and remember, I made
them for $2. It cost $1.50 to ship them to the customer including
the bubble bag. I charged $6.95 for shipping and handling, so this
fee covered the 1-800 phone bill, the order taker's paycheck, the
shipping fee, the credit card processing charge ... hell it even
covered the cost to make the damn pills themselves!
It's totally legal to do this. That's why it's called a shipping and
handling fee. You can charge whatever you want for "handling" ...
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even if your customer knows it costs just $2 to send his order and
you charged him $5 ... the difference is the handling fee.
So, basically, when a customer would call me and order these pills
for $60, plus $6.95 for the shipping and handling ... all $60 of the
selling price was pure eTO. eTO is short for Contribution To
Overhead.
eTO is what your business will net after you pay for goods sold.
Out of this eTO, you still have to pay for advertising, postage,
employees, etc.
Most people are amazed when I tell them that 50% to 100% of your
CTa may go to the advertising expense to bring in the customer!
Who pays 50% for advertising? In this business, you'd be lucky if
you can pay just 50% of your initial purchase eTO on advertising.
Anyway, when I tested this new supplement on a handful of
mailing lists, Iwas pleasantly surprised. This is what happened:
At the current time I tested this product, postage cost $370 for
every thousand stamps.
It would cost $100 per thousand for names to mail the sales letters
to.
It would cost about $100 per thousand to print and stuff the sales
letter we sent to the names on these lists.
When we're all finished, it's safe to assume it's going to cost $600
to mail 1000 sales letters to qualified groups of prospects.
Being my product sold for $60 ... I got to keep all $60 of it, as the
cost to manufacture the product is covered in the shipping and
handling fee.
Common sense would tell you that when I mail 1000 letters for
$600 ... I need at least 10 orders to break even and get my
advertising dollars back.
]9
Lets say my product was a new diet pill. Not just any diet pill, but
one that actually enlarges in size once it reaches your stomach so
it feels like you are full all the time.
Now, let's say the mailing lists we're mailing our sales letters to are
made up of people who have bought diet pills in the past, so we
know they are prime prospects.
OK- we're mailing our hot, new diet pill to 1000 people who
actually bought someone else's diet pill in the mail recently. Of the
1000, how many do you think would order our pill? Some would
say 250 of the 1000. I'd say that they're crazy. Some would say
100. Again, they're crazy. Let's say that 98% of the people we mail
our letters to, throw, our sales message right in the trash ... Let's
say just 2% of our prospects decide to purchase our new, super
diet pill. Let's do some math.
Two percent of 1000 letters is 20 orders. Remember, I said earlier
that we need at least 10 orders to break even. Sincewe received 20 '
orders, we just doubled our money ... but that's not the best part.
When I sold my supplement, I was amazed when each customer
purchased an average of 4.4 bottles over the next 6 months. This
figure is called LeV or Lifetime Customer VaIue. 1'11tell you all
about it later in this book.
_,.,
Anyway, when a customer thought he was buying a bottle of pills
from me for $60 ... he was actually spending $180 over the next six
months. He didn't know this ... but from statistical data I've
compiled from past customers, I was well aware of what each
customer was worth.
When it was all said and done, each customer was worth $180 in
CTO. Lets go back to the 2% who bought from my sales message.
We've got 20 orders at $180. That's $3600 in CTO for every 1000
sales letters I mail. It costs $600 to mail 1000 letters, so we can
safely say; 111profit $3000 for every 1000 letters I mail. That's $3 a
letter on average. What are you going to do when you get a diet pill
or a wrinkle serum to pull numbers like this when you test the
Victoria'S Secret mailing list that has 900,000 FRESH names a
20
month? Can you really make $2.7 Million from just one list? You
bet your ass!
And that example was for mailing sales letters to just one mailing
list! There are many ways to sell products via Direct Response. You
can sell products through magazine advertisements direct mail
sales letters (like we just spoke about) ... radio spots television
spots ... long format infomercials ... internet search terms ...
telemarketing ... and many more we'll go over in this book.
I used them all ... but only a handful are the ones that really work
well. We'll talk all about magazine ads ... direct mail.,; radio ...
television spots ... and some Internet promotion in this book. These
are the best ways I've discovered to make money in this business.
Basically, your ad or sales letter, or radio ad or TV ad is
salesmanship multiplied. That's all that advertising is.
Salesmanship in print ... or on TV... or on radio ... That's all. Forget
all the fancy stuff Madison Avenue ad agencies may try to tell their
clients. In a head-to-head, dollar-for-dollar competition, direct
response techniques like the ones you 11learn in this book will
always out pull the fancy shit these guys are churning out.
Are you having a hard time believing you can really strike it rich in
this business? Let me give you some examples of what people have
done in the past, and how their lives changed.
Proactiv Skin Care Solution:
Proactiv is an acne treatment you've seen advertised over TV
infomercials since 1997. The product was created by a couple of
Dermatologists and is sold for $39.95. In their prime, they were
selling 30,000 new kits a month. With reorders, I'm sure they were
selling 90,000 kits! I'd guess they gross $50 Million or more in
annual revenue. Do you need to be some Dermatologist to sell this
product? Absolutely not. It does add to their credibility, but for a
few cents on each kit sold, you can sure get your own
Dermatologist to endorse your product.
This skin care product is a good direct response product because
the three bottles of cleanser they sell in the kit could cost $6 or so
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to manufacture, and $2 to ship. A shipping and handling charge of
$7.95 could easily be charged, so the $39.95 selling price is pure
CTO. And this is a consumable product!
Girls Gone Wild:
This guy is in his early 30's and is making close to $100,000,000 a
year. Yes, that's ONE HUNDRED MILLION. He owns two private
jets, Ferraris, numerous homes allover the place ... and from what?
Cheaply shot, cheaply produced videos of drunken college girls
showing their breasts. What this guy does is offer 2 videos for
$9.95 and then a new video every month for the regular price of
$19.95. Now, it probably costs $2 to produce a VHS cassette and
$1 to ship. To charge a $4 shipping and handling fee is realistic, so
the entire $9.95 or $19.95 is 100% pure eTO. And he
automatically sends 'his customers a new video every month!
Carlton Sheets No Money Down Real Estate:
Carlton discovered a way to buy real estate for no money down and
instead of running around himself buying homes using his
techniques, I'm sure he realized it was far easier and far more
profitable to simply make a home study course and sell it via TV
infomercials.
Carlton has been on TV for over 10 years and I'd bet he's made 100
times more money telling others how to buy real estate for no
money down than he has from actually using his own techniques ...
which is fine.
Remember the California gold rush? I'm sure the men selling the
picks, shovels, and overalls made more money than the men who
actually were in the mines trying to find the gold. Levis is still
making jeans ... but all the miners and their fortunes (if they ever
found any) are all long gone.
While information products are great., , it is more of a challenge to
create "back-end" sales ... that is products you can go back and sell
to your customers. When we are selling pills, it's an easy resell. A
video series ... again, an easy resell. Still- information products are
one of the top direct response products because they are cheap to
produce and they can have a limitless perceived value. A simple
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sheet of paper may cost nothing to produce ... but when that
simple sheet of paper is a winning lottery ticket; it can easily be
worth $10 Million and more!
Tae-Bo Videos:
Billy Blanks was a struggling California exercise instructor, as
most exercise instructors are. But what happens when you
videotape your amazing exercise routine and sell it via direct
response? If you were Billy, you'd be looking at selling 5 MILLION
copies of your video and more! I'm sure over $100 Million was
grossed with this amazing product. But did you know this: Billy
was teaching this unique Karate and boxing inspired fitness
techniques for years in Southern California gyms ... it took
someone with directresponse smarts to say, "Hey, let's get a
camera and film this guy. People allover the World would love to
do this in their own homes!"
Can you come up with a million-dollar idea? I hope so. What I'm
here to do is tell you what type of products you need to make for
this business to work for you. And once you have that winning
idea ... there is no better set of tools you can get than this book to
show you how to suck every ounce of money from your idea.
1
23
Chapter Two:
Products and Arithmetic
In this chapter, we're going to talk about the types of products and
services that are best to promote through direct response.
,
I really do not care what I'm selling ... as long as it sells at a profit.
To me, the product I'm offering is just a means to an end. I'm in
this business to make a profit- hopefully a large one. I'm not
married to arty "type" of product or service. If I test a sales letter or
an advertisement for a product and if it fails ... I'll abandon the idea
like a red headed stepchild, and I advise you do the same.
Of course, the best products to sell are your own products. You
need big margins in this business, and selling someone else's
product is never going to allow you to make the large margins
needed to cover your advertising expenses.
It's so much easier to manufacture your own branded product. If
you were to sell dietary supplements or some form of a wrinkle
cream or serum, it's an absolute must the product is your own.
Especially when it is so easy to do so.
If you are seIling information on how to do something, it has to be
your own. Buying someone else's book and trying to market it
through direct response is the kiss of death, before you even .sperid
a dollar testing it.
You must have pretty damn close to 100% profit margins; meaning
the cost of goods has to be made up in the shipping and handling
fees you'll charge your customers.
Let's say that you are involved in some Multi-Level Marketing
company and they have a super-duper diet pill they'll sell to you
for $15 a bottle and you can sell it for $25 or so. If someonewere
to ask me what I thought of a product like this, I'd tell him or her
not to bother. .
24
But if the product is a desired product that could pull 2% or so in
orders from your direct response sales letters, I'd advise you to
copy their blend of ingredients and make the product on your own,
so you can keep all the revenue generated from your customers.
My friend and mentor Gary Halbert says if he were given just one
thing when he is creating a product for sale through direct
response, he'd want a starving crowd.
In order for a direct response product to work well, you have to
have prospects with passion indexes through the roof. Golfers are
nuts ... people who need to lose weight are nuts people who want
to get rich in a certain type of business are nuts .
Also, I've learned that people will not pay a cent for a
preventative ... but they'd give their lives for the cure.
Seriously. Let'spretend you have a product that would prevent
cancer. Your sales would be minimal and probably not large
enough to make a profit. But if you had the cure for cancer and
your prospects believed it ... and the group of people you're
marketing it to all had some form of cancer. they'd pay an entire
year's pay for what you have.
Now, of course, there is no cure for cancer. .. especially one you can
manufacture. I'm just using this as an example.
I like products that lead to continual sales. A consumable product
is excellent, because as you'll discover in this business, it is 10
times easier to get satisfied customers to reorder than it is to keep
attracting new customers, and the huge profits usually come on
the back end ... meaning the continual sales.
I had a product I spent $1.2 Million advertising every month. The
sales from the initial sale resulted in $2.4 Million. Now, if the
business stopped there, I'd make a good living ... but what if the
product could be resold to the same customers month after month
after month? That's where the big money comes in.
25
Lucky for me, the product I was making $2.4 Million a month with
led to $4.8 Million more in back end sales as they reordered every
month.
Here's a quick way you can see if your idea has any chance of
success before you spend an ounce of your time and a cent of your
money testing: .
This business is al1 about arithmetic.
Your product has to sell for more than $50. Nowadays, it's so hard
to make a profit with a unit sale of under $50. Even if you were
selling a video for $19.95 and you got to keep all $19.95. Let's do
some math.
Say you're selling this video for $19.95 through direct response
sales letters. You need $600 in orders for every 1000 letters you
mail. In order to breakeven, you're going to need 3% of your
prospects to buy. In order for you to make some serious money,
you need 6% to buy. Six percent is not likely to respond.
Now, maybe if you can get 3% to buy the video and this video you
are selling is a monthly video, meaning your customers will
automatically receive a new video every month and you'll rebill
their credit cards. Maybe you can get this to work. .. but again, 3%
to buy is a high number.
Most direct response offers get 1% to 2% in orders.
Here's some great numbers I try to shoot for with any project I'm
looking to test. Let's say I've got a pill that I can sell for $59.95 and
all $59.95 is pure eTO. AlII need to get in response (orders) is 1%.
That's realistic. Now, let's say that each customer buys an average
of 4 bottles from you over the next months. Let's say the three
additional bottles they buy will cost $39.95 on an automatic
shipment. Your customer life value would be approximately $180.
If you got 1% to buy, you're looking at spending $60 to "buy" the
customer in advertising expenses. When the customer is worth
26
$180, you're left with a 300% return on your advertising dollar.
This is realistic.
I remember when I had a pill that was getting 2% response. 1
plotted a mathematical equation that would allow me to make
$100,000,000 a year. Here it is:
If I were to get 40,000 fresh customers every month at $60 and if I
could spend no more than $1.2 Million to do so, I had a customer
acquisition cost of $30. Now, I'd automatically enroll these
customers into an automatic shipment club where they'd receive a
fresh supply of my pills every 30 days for a reduced price of
$39.95.
Each customer bought 4 bottles on average. Three bottles at $40
and the initial bottle at $60 would equal $180. If I could bring in
40,000 fresh customers a month, my database of active customers
would peak at 160,000 bottles a month being sold.
Now, as long as 1brought in 40,000 new customers every month to
fill in the 40,000 that would fall off every month ... I could maintain
the database of 160,000 shipments. When you add up the 40,000
people at $180 ] would make $7.2 Million each and every month ...
or $86.4 Million a year. Now, I'm not counting the shipping and
handling fees the customers pay. If I were to include this money,
I'd gross over $100 Million annually.
I got the company to this size in less than 12 months by getting no
more and no less than 2% of my prospects to buy. I needed just
1% to cover advertising cost.
If you need more than 2% of your prospects to buy in order to
breakeven ... I'd forget it.
You should try to promote products that are solutions to problems
your prospects are dying to solve. And when I say dying ... Imean
DYING.
How can you discover the magic product to sell? I like to make a
list. On one side, I like to write down people's desires. On the other
side, Iwrite down problems people have.
If I write down 20 desires and 20 problems, I usually can get
moving in the right direction.
Another tactic you can do is go to your local Library and go to the
reference section and look for a book called the SRDS Direct
Marketing List Source.
This book is the Bible in the direct response business. What this
book is a book that comes out every 60 days and it lists the
mailing lists that are on the market for rent.
This book is the only legitimate place mailing list owners advertise
their lists for use by marketers like you and 1.
This book will have lists that are from other companies ... magazine
subscriber lists ... compiled lists ... etc.
In this book, you'll find the mailing lists of Adam and Eve Catalog
Buyers, Victoria's Secret Catalog Buyers, Subscriber Lists to
almost any magazine, etc.
What you can do is sit yourself down with this giant book and just
go through it. Look at the different types of lists that are available.
It may be easier for you as a beginner to fit a product to a mailing
list or group of mailing lists.
Here's an example. Let's say there's a list of the men who buy from
the Richlee Shoe Company. This is a company that sells Elevator
Shoes. These shoes have a hidden "lift" in them so the men who
wear them appear to be 1"... 2"... even three inches taller.
Now, it's safe to assume, the men who buy these shoes through
this catalog are short. .. or at least they crave to be taller. They
crave to be taller so much; they'll actually buy special shoes to do
so!
Now, I don't know if this company has their customer list on the
market, so let's just use this as an example. Let's say they have
20,000 people buying from their catalog every month. That's a
decent number of fresh prospects each and every month.
Why don't you come up with some sort of product that you think
can make these guys taller? I know there are stretching manuals
out there on the Internet that show men how to stretch their
cartilage and thus, grow taller.
Let's say that there are special amino acids that you can take to
keep your cartilage healthy and dense. What about if you get your
hands on the exercise manual and bring it to a personal trainer
and have him perform the exercise and you have it filmed.
You can burn the video onto a DVD. You can also then make a
dietary supplement that would aid in keeping the cartilage healthy
and dense. You can then create a "system" where for $59.95, the
customercan get the DVD of exercises ... and a bottle of the
"supplement" they need to keep the cartilage healthy.
Now, your sales letter can automatically enroll your customers into
a preferred customer club where they will receive a fresh supply of
pills every month for $39.95.
Let's say each customer lets you ship him or her on average 6
months worth of pills. The first bottle will get you $59.95 and the
remaining 5 will get you $39.95 each. This all comes to $259.70.
Now, when you sell this product, you'll charge a $6.95 shipping
and handling fee. This fee will cover the cost to manufacture the
DVD and the cost to manufacture the bottle of pills ... plus it will
also cover the cost to actually ship the product to them. It should
cost you no more than $2 in postage to get the DVD and the bottle
of pills to the customer's front door. Being you are doing this, the
$59.95 for the DVD and the first bottle of pills is pure eTO. Then
for the additional 5 bottles they1l1et you send them, you'll again
charge the $6.95 shipping and handling fee... so the entire $39.95
for the additional monthly bottles will also be 100% pure eTO.
29
Now, lets say you create a great sales letter with the tips you're
going to master later in this book. It's going to cost you $600 to
mail 1000 sales letters. Being that you are getting $259.70 ... how
many orders do you need to breakeven?
You need just 2.32 orders per 1000 letters to breakeven. Let's say
you get 2% of your prospects to order. .. that's $259.70 multiplied
by 20 orders. This comes to $5194 in CTO.
When you divide this figure by the $600 it cost you to get those
orders, you're looking at a promotion that yields 8.7 times it's cost!
That's a great number!
Now $5194 in CTO minus the $600 to solicit the prospects leaves
you with $4594 in profit for every 1000 letters you mail.
Remember, the mailing list gets 20,000 fresh prospects each and
every month. There's 20 thousands in 20,000, so that means you'll
make 20 times the $4594 you profit per 1000 letters. Do the math.
You'll earn $91,880 each and every month mailing just 20,000
names.
And don't forget, this was just one mailing list. Maybe there are
ot.her mailing list.s for "short" people. I know I've seen a few
clothing catalogs out there for men 5-foot-7 and under. If a man is
compelled to actually buy clothing from a catalog like this ... being
short angers him ... and when you offer him a solution to his
problem ... and if it. really works ... you're going to get filthy rich.
I know some of the people reading this book will say that diet pills
are huge. It seems like everyone is fat nowadays. But, on the flip
side of this ... every other direct marketer also knows of this and
even though diet pills are one hell of a powerful product ... there are
only so many slices of the pie ... and when there are 100 people
mailing to the diet lists offering their products ... your offering for
this type of product is greatly diluted.
This is a business where success or failure is as thin as a razor's
edge. The difference between success and failure is not the
difference of getting 1% to buy versus getting 40% to buy. No. It's
more like getting .5% to buy is failure ... and getting 2% to buy is
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30
massive success. We're all competing for the magic two percent to
buy.
Let's do another example. This one is for a moneymaking
opportunity. Let's say that you have assembled a course on Real
Estate Tax Deed Sales. I don't care if you're not an "expert" on Tax
Deeds ... you can make yourself one by researching the product.
This is one of the largest hurdles people getting started in this
business face. They feel they are not "qualified" to sell certain types
of products. But the last time I checked, if you were to sell a course
on Tax Deeds, I do not recall anyone saying you have to have a
Diploma of Expertise ... because there's no such thing!
Back to the course. It would consist of a few CDs and maybe a
directory of the states that have Tax Deed Sales. To create this
directory, all you have to do is order someone else's course and
copy the information in the directory they offer. I don't think they
"own" the addresses, website addresses, and phone numbers for
the states that offer Tax Deed Sales ... right? Of course.
Now, as for the CDs ... what you can do is order a few different
courses on this subject and simply make notes of the important
issues in each of the courses ... and when you are all done ... just
assemble all the stuff you put together into one super package you
can call your own!
Heck, you can even locate a few "experts" in Tax Deed Sales and
call them and see if they'l11et you buy an hour of their time over
the phone. You'll ask them all the questions you would have if you
were going into this business. Tape record them and simply turn
those cassette tapes into your CDs. Are you providing an expert's
information to your customers? Of course you are. Where the
expert may say he wants $200 for an hour of his time ... and if you
figure you need 4 hours of his time ... for $800 you can create an
excellent product you can then sell to thousands of people for $180
or so.
This course should cost about $8 to manufacture. This will include
the CD duplication, the printing of the directory, and the case to
hold everything in place. What you'd then do is get the mailing lists
1---
31
of opportunity companies and subscriber lists from business
opportunity magazines.
What you'll do next is come up with your offer. A good price for a
course like this would be three credit card payments of $59.95,
plus $9.95 shipping and handling.
The $9.95 will cover the cost to manufacture the CDs, the
directory, the case, and of course- the actual shipping charges to
get the thing delivered to your customer.
Basically, all $59.95 x 3 is yours to keep as eTO. If you got 1% to
buy ... you're doing well. If you got 2% to buy ... you're doing great.
Let's say you learned how to write sales letters from a real pro (ha
ha) ... and you got 2% of your prospects to buy this Real Estate
course. This is realistic because you'll only be targeting people who
subscribe to business magazines ... and people who have shown
they are interested in opportunities because they bought them in
the past.
Two percent buy at $59.95 x 3 ... which is $179.85. You got 20
orders for the 1000 letters you mailed. That equals $3597 in gross
sales. When you minus the $600 it cost you to acquire these 20
orders, you're left with $2997 in pure profit for every 1000 letters
you mailed. Let's say you mailed the ENTREPRENEUR Magazine
subscriber list, which gets 50,000 fresh names a month ... and lets
say you tested two other mailing lists of opportunity buyers for a
grand total of 200,000 prospects to mail this Real Estate letter to.
Now, 200,000 is 200 thousands. You'll make $2997 multiplied by
200. We're talking $599,400 in profit each and every month!
You'11get to keep most of the profit. Costs that eat at your profits
are customer refunds ... which will not exceed 10% in practically all
cases ... You'll have to pay for a few employees to answer the calls ...
you'll pay the electric bill, etc. If you were getting $599,400 in
profit... it's safe to assume you'll get to put around $500,000 in
your pocket to spend as you wish, each and every month!
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32
This Real Estate course did not have a back end to resell... but you
can look at the installment payments as your back end ... because
your prospects will not think they are paying $179.85 for the
course ... their mind tells them they are paying $59.95 ... three
times.
But that shouldn't stop you from still trying back end products.
You can put together a newsletter. .. videotapes of a seminar ... etc.
Another issue you have to take into consideration when looking for
a product is how many ways are out there for you to make money
from. If there is just one mailing list and it has just 2500 fresh
names added to it a month, this product is probably not worth
your time. If there are no lists thathave even the slightest chance
of working for you, there's probably good reason for it- nobody
wants to buy that type of product. If there are no publications, or
publications that are smaller than 50,000 paid circulation every
month or every other month, consider another product.
When it comes to selecting a product to sell, your options are
endless ... as long as the numbers work and as long as there are
people you can promote it to. You have to do your own math. If you
need more than 2% to breakeven and if you do not have a killer
back end ... or if you cannot locate a large mailing list or lists in the
SRDS... forget the idea no matter how much you think it is good.
A friend of mine was telling me about his friend who makes these
"really cool" clocks. He told his friend about me and his friend was
wondering if he could sell his clocks via direct response sales
letters. Let's do the math:
He made these clocks for $15.
It took him three hours to make the clocks.
There are no mailing lists of people hot to buy clocks.
Even if there were, these clocks would have a hard time selling for
more than $50. We have to subtract $15 to make the clocks from
the $50 selling price and we're left with $35. Let's say we can
33
charge $10 for shipping and handling, and let's assume it would
really cost $5 to send the clock. .. so we can add another $5 to the
$35 CTO for a grand total of $40 CTO.
When we mail 1000 sales letters as a test, we'll need 15 orders just
to breakeven. So, lets say we need to do double over.,; which
means we need to make back double what we spent on mailing the
sales letters. That means we'll need 30 orders for this clock.
THREE PERCENT to buy.
Do you really think he's going to get three percent of his prospects
(if there were any) to buy his stupid clock, which he could never
make in large quantities anyway? Are you crazy? Of course not. So,
I had to offend him and tell him "what time it was." Bad product.
Bad, Bad, Bad.
Another thing I look for in a product to market is that it has to be
small and easy and cheap to ship to the consumer. I think
computers are the worst product to sell via direct response. They're
huge. They're heavy. The profit margin on them is next to nothing.
And what's worse than anything is that they depreciate in value by
the minute! I could never be in a business like the computer
business ... but the software business is another story! Microsoft
has the life. It's cheap to copy. It's light to ship. You can sell
upgrades to new versions.
What I would tell you to do is keep your eyes open for products you
have purchased in the past that fit the parameters explained in
this chapter. See if you can create your own version of it. You don't
have to be an expert or have any "qualifications" that you may
have thought you needed. When I first got into the dietary
supplements business, I thought you needed some sort of expertise
in this field ... boy was I wrong. Most vitamin manufacturers have
"house blends" of certain types of products that you can simply
"private label".
All vitamin companies have their own diet pill blends ... their own
arthritis blends ... etc. All it takes is a brand name and a label and
you're in the supplements business.
34
Make your products easy to create. Don't come up with some
robotic vacuum cleaner that will take thousands of dollars in
development. Take the easy road and shoot fish in a barrel.
Here are some ideas:
1. A karate instructor creates a video series showing how even a
wimp can kick some ass.
2. A video course on how to pick up women regardless of your
finances, your looks, or your nationality.
3. A wrinkle serum that fills in wrinkles making you look 10 years
younger in just 60 seconds time.
4. A pill that enlarges a woman's breast size naturally ... without
the risk or expense of implant surgery.
5. A sports handicapper offers $39.95 a month access to his
special website revealing sports "picks".
The sky is the limit ... as long as the mailing list or magazine is
there to advertise in and as long as the mathematics pan out.
If you really feel you have a great product and it'll cost you $75 to
make, and you think you can sell it for $300, plus $25 shipping
and handling- even though it goes against the principles I teach of
in this chapter ... if you feel strongly about it- maybe go for it.
You'll still make $225-$240 in eTO for every order. .. and guess
what? If you get 1% to buy ... you'd earn $2250 to $2400 in eTO
per 1000 letters mailed. When you subtract the $600 for the sales
letters ..l you're still left with $1650 - $1800 per every 1000 letters.
I know a lot of people who wouldn't cry about these numbers. And
we're not even going into talking about the back end this product
mayor may not have.
So, please ... NOTHING IS SET IN STONE. Breakthroughs only
happen when you break rules.
35
Anot.her hurdle you may encounter is fear of not "being good
enough" to create a product and sell it as your own. If you were a
golfer, and you were going to create a few videos about driving and
you're worrying the really "great" golfers will be laughing at you ...
forget it. Over 90% of golfers cannot break 100 and for the most
part are hackers.
Or how about if you create a product you feel is not to your high
standards ... I wouldn't worry too much either, but let me clarify a
little. You should always shoot to sell and/or create the absolute
best product you can make, but sometimes this just cannot
happen.
Reasons may be, in order to hit a certain price point, you have to
skimp on a few key parts ... or use a lower grade. There's only one
person who has the right to tell you your product is crap ... and
that's your customer.
If you're getting more than 10% of your customers asking for their
money back, maybe you should look into what they are
complaining about and see if you can fix it... but even if you
cannot, later in this book, I'll tell you how to retain as many
customers as possible.
Rolls Royce makes one hell of a handcrafted car. Pontiac makes an
affordable car. The Rolls Royce's interior is covered in wood
veneers, wool, leather, and sheepskin. The Pontiac is cheap plastic
that will rattle and fall apart in 50,000 miles. But there are huge
differences in price between the two cars. Pontiac could never sell
as many cars as they do if they were to make the car the absolute
best they can.
Any car manufacturer (even the Americans) can make a car to rival
a Rolls Royce (remember Dusenburgs?) ... but they choose not to as
they cannot do it at a profit,
There's nothing wrong with selling an inferior product and I'll
probably be the only direct marketer with enough balls to tell you
this in writing. Hey, as long as you do not get more than 10% of
your customers to ask for a refund and as long as you are not
36
misleading your customers in your advertisements ... by all means,
sell, sell, sell'
Consider this and remember it:
Those with superior marketing skills will always make millions of
dollars more with an average product than someone with a far
superior product and poor or no advertising skills.
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27
Chapter Three:
What Its Like When One Of
These Things Explodes
In the last two chapters and in the introduction of this book, I have
been "peppering" you with my past successes. And before we go
any further, I think I should take you inside one of my largest
successes ... step-by-step ... and show you only what a few people
on the "inside" experienced.
Since 1994, I've been selling all different types of products through
direct response- wholesale membership clubs for consumer
electronics ... computer software ... how-to books and tapes ...
premium car wax ... you name it, I sold it ... but I had my largest
success in dietary supplements.
Over the years, I've had people try to persuade me to get into
dietary supplements ... but I could never really get excited about
this type of product- unless it was something radically different.
Radically different was on the way when my Fiance toldme about a
product her hairdresser was taking and that all the women in the
salon were hot to try. I'm not going to go into what the product
did ... because that is not important right now.
Anyway, the product she was telling me about claimed to do some
amazing stuff. I was a little skeptical, but when I did some
research on the marketer of this product's website, I saw that they
had performed a clinical study that proved their product delivered
on its claims.
I looked around in several vitamin stores looking for this product
with no success. I had to eventually go to a different state to buy
this stuff! It cost a whopping $60 for a one-month supply.
My Fiance was also very interested in trying this supplement for
herself. This is a plus when deciding on a product to market ... if
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you or your spouse wants to try it with a passion ... there's a good
chance others will feel the same.
So, before I even thought about potentially marketing this type of
product, I had to see with my own eyes that my Fiance received the
desired result the product claimed.
Within a few weeks we both noticed the product did in fact just
what it claimed to do ... and it did just as wen as their clinical study
said it would. This product was getting me more and more excited.
At this point in my life, I never marketed or manufactured dietary
supplements, so I was a little confused about the manufacturing
process. I figured since these things were costing $60 in the store,
they had to cost the manufacturer $8 to $15 to make ... boy was I
ever wrong!
After locating a vitamin manufacturer in our local phone book, I
told the man about the product I wanted to manufacture. Turns
out he knew of the product and even had a "house blend" with the
same ingredients already made. All we had to do is have a graphic
artist create some labels and smack them on the bottles.
But I would still say the best part about this discovery was that
these pills ... the entire one month supply ... in a bottle ... with a
label affixed to it.,; didn't cost the $8 to $15 I thought it would cost
to make ... it cost just $2 a bottle when I bought them in 1000
lots ... and that price would go down even further when we'd order
larger quantities.
Now, this product had four things going for it so far ...
1. It was a consumable product- Our customers would have to re-
order a fresh bottle every month if they wanted to keep seeing the
benefits this product delivered.
2. It was cheap to manufacture, yet had a high perceived value- I
was able to make a full size bottle for two bucks ... and the best
part was that I could sell it for $60. And of that $60, I got to keep
39
1000/<)of it as 1 made the $2 to manufacture the product in the
shipping and handling fee the customer would pay!
3. It was small and cheap to ship. J think at the time, the Post
Office was charging us $1.87 to ship a bottle in a bubble bag. I was
charging $6.95 to cover shipping and handling, so the cost to buy
the bag, the cost of Postage, the cost of the product itself, was all
covered in this fee. And these bottles are small, so they didn't
require a huge warehouse to stock them. You could easily stick
2000 bottles in a one-car garage bay.
4. Women had a huge problem with what this product was to help
them with ... and there was only one other product on the market
at that time offering to help with this problem And like I was saying
before, this other product's marketing was Mickey Mouse. A bunch
of "granola nuts" as I call them who knew everything about herbs
and didn't know a thing about advertising and marketing ... but I
sure as hell did!
So what I did at this point was get my hands on 1000 bottles of my
"new" product. Actually, I didn't "buy" them; I just reserved them
with the supplier.
1 sat at my brand new (at the time) orange iMac and just got
typing. 1wrote a really good sales letter and found three mailing
lists that I thought were worth testing first.
I got 9000 sales letters printed up and I ordered the three mailing
lists. I was going to test 3000 names from each list. You can test
with as little as 1000 letters, but since I was already an established
marketer. .. 3000 is actually being frugal.
One thing to remember: In order for response results from a test to
be valid ... you must receive at least 20 orders. So, if your goal were
to get 1% to buy ... you'd have to mail at least 2000 letters. The key
to this business is testing small and then rolling out in larger
quantities. If you mail 2000 letters and get 2.4% response, you're
looking at 48 orders. That's enough to scientifically sayan a roll
out, you'll get between 2.2% and 2.6%. If you were to mail 500
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.c\O
letters and get 12 orders (sti112.4%) ... the 12 orders are NOT
enough to scientifically gauge a roll out's response percentage.
Let's get back to my story.
I mailed 9000 letters to 3 lists of 3000 names each. All 9000 got
the same exact letter. .. I had a coding device (which 111 talk about
later), which told me which mailing list they ordered from when
they were ordering. The orders started coming in, and I always like
to sit-in on tests ... as they are the very foundation of a million-
dollar promotion. You want to make sure everything is right. I once
deemed a sales letter selling golf clubs a failure because 1didn't get
any orders from a test mailing. Little did I know, we had the wrong
800# on the letter. The letter with the right phone number was a
success. Nowadays I watch every test as if it were a child fresh off
her training wheels.
The first few orders start coming in. I vividly remember a lady
saying how much she identified with the writer of the sales letter. ..
and how it almost made her cry. She busted out her credit card
immediately. Sure, a woman may have signed the letter we sent
out ... but it was written by me ... a burley ... hairy-chested ... Italian
guy. I found this kind of funny. I guess that's when you know you
are a good copywriter. Sure, I got a lot of orders, but the final
response didn't impress me much ...
I was thinking I'd get 2% to buy ... I ended up with a lot less.
List #1 got just 10 orders and I needed 30 for breakeven.
List #2 got just 15 orders and I needed 30 for breakeven.
List #3 got 30 orders and broke even.
This is why you have to test different mailing lists ... you can have a
hit on one list ... and a disaster on another list... even if they are in
theory the same type of people on them! Logic makes no sense in
this business and even seasoned Professionals like me fail to bring
in enough orders from time to time.
41
So we had a list that broke even. Many direct marketers say that
breaking even is 90% if success is 100%. Now you have to do
things to better the promotion.
We tried to up sell the customers to larger quantities of bottles.
Instead of buying just one bottle for $60 right now ... we tried to get
them to order 4 bottles for $139.95 ... but we weren't successful.
In the dietary supplements business, we found it hard to sell
women numerous bottles upfront- even if they are at a reduced
price because they are skeptical if this product will work for
them ... so we went to Plan B.
I was discouraged the up sells didn't work. But I had an idea to
automatically enroll the customers into a Preferred Customer Club
where they would "qualify" for future month's supplies at a $20
discount and I went on to say that they would receive these future
supplies automatically. I worded this like it was all for their
benefit ... while, yes, they got a discount ... but I got an open-ended
contract with them.
If a woman tries a supplement, while she may not want to buy 4
bottles upfront ... when those pills or cream or whatever it is proves
to her that it works, she'll be standing in line, begging you to take
her money for a fresh supply next month.
Here was the wording for my paragraph:
"And if you're one of the first 200 people to order, you'll receive
FREE ENROLLMENT into our Preferred Customer Club where
you'll qualify to receive afull $20 discount on all your future
bottles of (product name). And so you don't go a day without
(product name) in your system, you'll automatically receive a fresh
bottle every 30-days and your credit card will be billed the Club
Member Price of $39.95 plus $6.95 S/H- not the $59.95 fee non-
members have to pay. There are no minimum amounts of bottles to
buy and you can cancel at any time. The number to call is 1-800-
123-4567, and you can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
42
The addition of this paragraph was the only difference between the
initial sales letter that broke even. I ordered another batch of fresh
names from the list broker and had these new letters printed with
the magic paragraph. We mailed out 3000 and kept our fingers
crossed. You see while a back end is a must in this business ... an
"auto-ship" makes the back end 100 times more profitable. Notice
how the paragraph was worded as if I was doing them a favor of
making sure their fresh bottle was there on time. While it is true,
they were getting the auto delivery and a reduced price ... I was the
real winner, because I got to rebill their credit card automatically
every month until they called and told me to stop. This is super
profitable and absolutely legal to do.
Anyway ... lets get back to what happened when Lrernailed the
3000 sales letters with this added paragraph.
I instructed our order takers not to mention the Preferred
Customer Club unless the caller asked about it. In the letter, they
could not have found the 800# had they not read the added
paragraph because I stuck the 800# in that added paragraph. The
reason why I didn't want our order takers to bring up the Preferred
Customer Club was that if someone called to order and didn't ask
any questions about it, my words in the letter did the proper
amount of selling. If this club was a turn off, they would have
never called to order ... or they would have at least asked if they
could opt out of the club, which a small percentage did. And not
only all this, but I sure didn't want an order taker to "uri-sell" what
I did in the letter. When you roll these sales letters out in large
quantities ... you can't answer all the orders yourself. You will have
strangers answering phone who don't know how to talk about
some things as good as you could.
So the new orders started coming in ... and we didn't mention
anything about the Preferred Customer Club. The first caller
placed her order and hung up ... only to call back immediately. I
overheard our order taker saying "Preferred Customer Club" ... and
I thought to myself ... "Ah... she's calling back to opt out of the
club." Once the order taker was off the phone, I went over and
asked her what the lady was caIling back for. I almost hit the floor
when she told me ... the lady called back and said ...
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43
"WAS lONE OF THE FIRST 200 CALLERS? I'M IN THAT
PREFERRED CUSTOMER CLUB, RIGHT?~
These women actually wanted to be in the club! Good, good, good!
Now while this letter may breakeven and bring back just enough
orders to cover the mailing expense ... I automatically reship them
ALL a fresh bottle every 30 days for $40!
After a few months, I checked back to see how many bottles
(months) these women would remain taking my supplement. I was
amazed when I saw they were on this product an average of 4.4
months.
I rounded it off to 4 months. So, they would call and order a $50
bottle initially, then I'd send them 3 more bottles over the next 90
days for $40 each. Since it cost me $50 to bring in the $50 initial
sale (breakeven). _. the three $40 sales added up to $120 ... which
was an over 300% return on my initial advertising dollar. Where
else can you earn a 300% monthly ROl. .. That's an annual 3600%
ROI... and the promotion is just a breakeven ... not even one of my
bigger successes! .
I went on to build an auto ship database of 10,000 women
receiving this product monthly for an annual sales figure of over $5
Million! Had I only tested one mailing list ... I would have not
discovered the one that broke even ... Had I not thought of the
Preferred Customer Club ... I would not have discovered I could still
make 300% ROJ.
I was able to build this product to 10,000 sales a month, by
bringing in just 2500 new customers each month from a mailing
list of 25,000 which I got 1% to buy. The 2500 customers received
an average of 4 bottles total ... so 2500 multiplied by the 4 month
customer life, we came up with 10,000 monthly sales.
While this product was a good one- making me and my 50/50
partner $10,000 in weekly pay for each of us ... it was just a
stepping-stone for my next dietary supplement.
44
The product I just told you about was my first attempt at dietary
supplements and after having a hit with the first product, I was
fascinated with this business. I was hot to come up with my next
success.
This time, 1thought I'd try to do a supplement that men would
buy. After all..; I am a man and maybe 1can write a better letter
because I really know what they are feeling ... where I could only go
off what women told me they felt when I wrote the last letter.
I immediately noticed there were a ton more mailing lists and
magazines to advertise the second supplement. I had my vitamin
manufacturer develop a blend of herbs for me- it cost nothing, as I
would manufacture t,he product through them.
I wrote the sales letter. It was basically the very same offer I had
for the first supplement ... the first bottle for $59.95 plus $6.95
shipping and handling and then they would be automatically
enrolled into my Preferred Customer Club and receive automatic
monthly shipments.
I would have been happy if this product brought in the same
breakeven response the first one for the women did ... as this
product had 10 times more lists to break even on ... thus getting
larger amount of club members on the auto ship.
I mailed the letter to four different lists in quantities of 3000
each ... List # 1: Maxim Magazine, List #2: Playboy Magazine, List
#3: Adam & Eve Catalog Buyers and List 4: Frederick's of
Hollywood "male" Catalog Buyers.
The end results 30 days later were amazing ...
List # 1: We needed 30 orders to breakeven ... we got 60!
List #2: We needed 30 orders to breakeven ... we got 60!
List #3: We needed 30 orders to breakeven ... we got 90!
List #4: We needed 30 orders to breakeven ... we got 90!
-\5
These numbers were phenomenaL.. but the most amazing thing
was that I also got these customers to buy on average 4 bottles
through the Preferred Customer Club! Each customer was worth
$180 to us and each 3000-name test cost us just $1800 to mail!
You do the math.
Naturally, I rolled this promotion out rapidly. Maxim had a mailing
list of 150,000 new names a month. Playboy has the same. Adam
& Eve had 90,000 fresh names every month ... and Frederick's was
less, so we mailed them every once in a while. But just the 3 lists
supplied me with over 390,000 names to mail each and every
month.
So we mailed 390,000 names. It cost us 60 cents each, for a grand
total of $234,000. And we took in on average 2% response at $180
(over 4 months). A whopping 7,800 orders! This came to
$1,404,000 in pure CTO. After I took out the mailing cost ... we
were left with $1,170,000 in profit each and every month- as
faithful as clockwork. After all..; as long as these two magazine
keep getting new subscribers (which they will, and this will even
increase} ... and as long as the catalog company we mail to stays in
business (they've been around for over 25 years already) ... we're
going to make almost $1.2 Million in profit a month!
Now I thought Iwas hot shit ... but this was nothing.
I immediately stuck advertisements in all the men's magazines ...
full page ads ... and they all pulled the same profit ratio as the
direct mail (about 6 times) ... then Iwent to three page ads in each
magazine and they all pulled a sales to ad cost ratio of 600% as
well.
I stuck this product on 60-second radio spots. We were getting a
600% return on our advertisingcost.
I stuck this product on 60-second TV spots. We were getting a
600% return on our advertising cost.
46
We ended up spending $1.25 Million a month on TV, radio,
magazine, Internet, and direct mail advertising. We brought in $7.5
Million in sales ... over $4 Million of it was money my partner and I
split 50/50. Yes, I was making about $24 Million a year. It took
just 24 months to get the company this size. I started it with the
9000 test letters that cost me $5,400 to mai1.
I reinvested my profits. I had no venture capitalists. I sold no
stock. I did not take any money out of my savings to build this
company. It was all self-financed.
We ended up employing 100 people. We were the largest singular
Federal Express shipper. We were the largest customer of our
contract manufacturer- we made up 60% of their sales. These guys
were very young and just getting started in the manufacturing
business. I think when they built their plant, they were
anticipating business to be easier than it was, so they overbuilt
this plant and it was literally empty when I first went to visit them.
Good thing for them I gave them my business. It saved their
company and within a few months, they were driving brand-new
Porsche ragtops and BMWs. Even our Federal Express rep was
making deep 6-figures in commissions- her husband even retired
she was making so much money! It seems as if everyone got rich!
When one of these promotions "pop" ... you'll be amazed at what it
feels like. I'm serious ... like when a TV spot goes off and you look
down at the phone system and you see 200 lights flashing ... these
are callers with their credit cards in hand wanting to GIVE YOU
their money!
I remember being at the office one night and we just picked up a
new channel to run our commercials on. I was there that night
because I was taking delivery of a brand-new Bentley from an out
of state dealership ... so the truck arrived at like 9pm ... and I was
out front in the street watching this $220,000 car come ofTthe
truck as I was on the walkie-talkie with my night manager as she
was saying, "EVERY LINE IS LIT! EVERYONE IS ON THE PHONE
TAKING AN ORDER!" What a nice night. New car. Huge success in
business. This combo- the car and the phones ringing off the hook,
beat sex that night.
47
While you mayor may not wish to have this huge conglomerate
like I built ... I can tell you how to do it better than anyone else can.
I ACTUALLY DID IT. I suffered all the bruises when I messed
things up and got careless. III pass along all my successes and I'll
pass along all of my pains- so you can avoid them (or at least try
to).
As for this company ... it went on to gross $8 Million a month until
the product eventually lost its luster as it matured in the market
as every product does. Would I build another company this big
ever again? I don't know. I really didn't like some of the politics
that started to develop when there are 100 people under one roof ...
but when an opportunity reveals itself to you ... you have to milk
every cent out of it. It's orgasmic ... it feels so good ... you just can't
stop ... until there's no feelings left.
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Chapter Four:
All About Mailing Lists
In this chapter, we're going to be covering probably the most
important part of direct mail success or failure.
A great sales letter, selling a great product, to a poor list wi11never
do as well as a so-so letter, selling a so-so product to a HOT
mailing list.
If you're going to get ripped-off in this business, this is one of the
four places it will happen- on mailing lists (I'll cover all four in
deeper detail later, the other three are: at the letter shop, at the
Post Office, or in unaudited magazine circulation claims). -
Anyway ... we're now talking about mailing lists, so lets move on.
First of all, never consider a mailing list if it is not listed in the
SRDS Direct Mail List Source book. If you're looking to test one of
those mailing list companies advertised in Entrepreneur Magazine
or Small Business Opportunities Magazine ... I'd advise you to save
your money and keep focused in the SRDS book. The mailing lists
advertised in the opportunity magazines are usually compiled very
poorly and trust me- from my experience, I never got one of them
to work, and I don't know of anyone who has.
If you're just getting started in this business, and are still looking
for a product to sell... I'd tell you to spend a few days in the SRDS
book. Flip through the pages and see what types of lists are on the
market. Fit the product to the list. You'll have more success going
this route rather than trying to come up with a product and then
trying to fit the list to the product.
Remember, its better to have a good list with bad writing skills and
a poor product than it is to be the best copywriter in the world,
with a hot product, to the wrong list.
49
This business is not about selling "your" product through the
mail. .. it's more like selling to mailing lists products that would
compliment their past purchases.
Anyway, I like BIG lists. I like BIG HOTLINE lists. When you're
looking through the SRDS book, you'11see the counts for each list.
These counts will be the Universe (all the names on the list,
regardless of how long ago they were added), you'll see the 3, 6, 12
and maybe even the 24 month count- which is pretty easy to
understand ... and you Il see the HOTLINE count.
The HOTLINE count is the one I'm interested in. Because if I have
a hot letter and product that works when mailed to this list ... what
good is it if I run out of names in a few weeks once I mail the 12
month count? Or what about if their HOTLINE count were so
small... it would get wiped out as soon as you test it in small test
quantities?
I don't understand why, but every time I ask for a "reco" from a list
broker, they always send me these data cards for lists that are
5000 12-month names ... what the hell am I going to do with this
list? I'd probably get 4% of it to buy, but even if I got 4% ... its really
not going to make me any money because there's just 5000 names
a year added to the list.
In order to get rich in this business, you need HUGE rollout
potential. But on the flip side, do not get misled by some list just
because it's huge and can make you millions "if only we were able
to get 2% to buy".
Before I go any further, let me explain a little mailing list
terminology .
When you get a mailing list to mail your stuff to ... its called
"renting" ... you're not "buying" the list... you're just "renting" it for
a one-time usage ... unless you pay more or get permission for
unlimited usage.
A LIST BROKER works like a realtor. He is the agent that
represents the BUYER.
f
so
A LIST MANAGER also works like a realtor, except he represents
the SELLER.
If Acme Catalog Company has 50,000 new customers a month
buying from their catalog; they usually put their customer names
on the market. It's a good source of added income and they literally
have to do nothing but fork over the fresh names every month to
their LIST MANAGER.
Now, you are the person who wants to RENT mailing lists to see if
you can sell your stuff to their customers, or their subscribers, etc.
DATA CARDS are the listing for a specific list. Do you know how a
realtor pulls a listing on a home for sale? Well, this is the same
thing. The Data cards are not actually "cards", they are just
listings in the SRDS book or sheets of paper a list broker will send
you.
You can get your hands on the SRDS book yourself and contact
the LIST MANAGER of each list yourself, or you can call a LIST
BROKER and they'll get the same lists for you ... and you won't
have to make 10 to 15 phone calls to different LIST MANAGERS.
LIST BROKERS are also supposed to help guide you to the best
mailing list for your offer. Basically, the way it works is you fax
them a copy of your sales message and they'll use their "expertise"
to locate you all the lists that have people ready to buy your
product.
In fantasyland, this is how this works ... but inthe real world, if the
LIST BROKERS were so good, they sure wouldn't be RENTING lists
to you ... they'd be mailing their own shit to the lists they know
"work" so well.
But still, LIST BROKERS are useful because they don't add any
more money to the lists you rent (the list owner pays his
commissions) ... and they can make all the phone calls for you to
the other list managers ... and best of all, once you start rolling
out... the list broker can extend you 30 day credit terms on all the
lists you rent from numerous list managers.
:) 1
Now, there are different types of mailing lists.
1. There are BUYER lists: These are lists made up of actual people
who bought from the company. Victoria's Secret Catalog Buyers is
a list of all the people who bought from their catalog, and you can
select them by date. The last 12-month names, the last 6-month
names, the last 3-month names, even the HOTLlNES for the past
month's buyers. Buyer Lists are the most powerful mailing lists to
rent.
2. There are SUBSCRIBER lists: These lists are what they say they
are ... subscribers to a magazine ... or to a newsletter. While these
lists are great, and they are some of the bigger lists, they are less
powerful than the actual "buyer" lists ... part of the reason is that
subscriptions are sold numerous ways. Direct mail sold
subscribers Sweepstakes sold subscribers (Publisher's Clearing
House-types) 3-month free trial subscriptions ... Bill-Me-Later
subscriptions, etc. Where a buyer is a buyer is a buyer ...
subscribers can come into the list many different ways. Obviously,
the best subscribers are DIRECT MAIL SOLD subscribers. So, if
you can, sometimes I eliminate all the SWEEPS SOLD subscribers
from the lists I test.
3. There's COMPILED lists: These lists are the least powerful of the
three, but I did get them to work for me sometimes. Compiled lists
are made up of data complied in some way and organized. Year's
ago a company RL POLK (now owned by EQUIFAX) had a compiled
list I tested and it worked for me TWICE on two separate offers.
This list was compiled by way of warranty cards. You know when
you buy a computer and the warranty card has a million and one
questions on it and you feel obligated to fill out each and every
question or else your warranty may be voided ... well, that data
went straight to RL POLK.
There are many different list-compiling companies out there. I'd
stick with the reputable ones like EQUIFAX. But, I wouldn't worry
so much about compiled lists right now. These are the LAST
mailing lists to test.
52
I have somewhat of a systematic approach to mailing list rental.
Here's how I approach it:
I want the big HOTLINES. 1want to know that I can count on a
fresh supply of leads each and every month for my sales letters.
I like to test ONLYfrom companies and/or magazines I've actually
heard of. If the list is from a company you've never heard of... and
it's a rather large list ... don't you think you would have heard of
them since they are so big? Of course you would have. I'm not
saying to forget about testing mailing lists from companies you've
never heard of... I'm saying don't test them first.
I like mailing lists where the customers paid a lot of money to get
on the list ... hopefully more than I'm selling my product for. You'll
see this stat listed on the AVG. UNIT SALE part of the data card.
This is another reason why magazine subscriber lists don't pull as
well as buyer lists ... magazine subscriptions are cheap- usually
under $20.
But I've also made the majority of my money from subscriber lists
and this is for at least two reasons. Magazine subscriber lists are
usually huge. I'd rather earn a dollar on one million names than
earn four dollars on 25,000 names ... wouldn't you agree? There's a
difference between powerful and profitable.
Also, magazine subscriber lists are more creditable to me. 111tell
ya ... probably 90% of the lists in the SRDS book are inflated,
hyped up ... maybe even phonebook names! Who's going to police
it? And if they did ... how would they do it? How can you prove the
name was actually a man who purchased a $400 item ... within the
last 30 days? You can't. That's why there are a bunch of liars out
there. Usuallv the business thev are in reveals the level of their- .
credibility .
I tested a well-known adult video catalog vs. one I never heard of.
One got 3% to buy ... the one I never heard of got less th an a.
quarter of a percent to buy. These are the same type of lists in
theory- adult video buyers ... but if this was really the case, why the
difference in response? Could the unknown list have phonebook
53
names in it so they can scam a lot of money by renting more
names to people who are too stupid to actually track their results
from mailings? You bet.
Something else that pisses me off about subscriber lists, is that
you have to beware of the hotlines. Most, if not all of new
subscriptions are "bill me later". Did you know that 65% to 80%
NEVER PAY UP!
So when the magazine company is saying "Paid Subscribers" ... do
they really mean they are not given a free subscription, but they
have yet to pay up ... or do they mean these are the subscribers
who cut a check? Make sure when you are renting a hotline
subscriber list; always say you want the ones that are actually
PAID UP.
Funny thing. I once tested Weider's MEN'S FITNESS subscriber
list. The data card said "paid subscribers" ... and I told the list
broker clearly I wanted the people who actually got off their lazy
ass and cut a check, even though the data card said they were
paid subscribers ... I had to pay an extra fee to make sure they
were the ones who actually really "paid". Go figure.
Something really good about subscriber lists ... is that if you can
get your letter to pull profitable in themail. .. it'll be a smash
success when you advertise it in the magazine itself.
Jay Abraham, another of my mentors ... and probably the man who
influenced me the most in this business tells a story of some
bodybuilder clients he was working for. They had this manual they
were trying to sell to the subscribers of some of the bodybuilding
magazine and the letter was just breaking even.
What he did was condense the sales letter down to 4 pages and he
struck a deal with the magazine to place his ad. Well, where the
direct mail just broke even ... the print ad version of the sales letter
pulled 200% to 300% over what the advertisement cost to place.
He tells of a similar success with his $5,000 seminar. When he
mailed the Entrepreneur Magazine subscriber list, it just broke
54
even for him. So he got himself a 22-page block of ads and the
damn thing made him a huge profit. This 22-page ad in
Entrepreneur Magazine back in 1995 was the ad I responded to
and bought his $5,000 seminar. Just imagine what will happen
when you get a winner on a subscriber list and then you take it
over to print ads ...
I had a product that was pulling six times cost on the subscriber
list, but when I placed the ad in the magazine on four pages ... I got
not six times our money back. .. we got back nearly ten times our
money!
The point of all this, is if you're interested in advertising in a
certain magazine, but the advertisement will cost a lot of money,
and you're nervous ... before you spend a dime on a space ad ... test
the subscriber list (if its available) ... if it is and you can at least
breakeven ... feel free to go for it (as long as you negotiate a good
rate- more on this later) because if you can breakeven on the
subscriber mailing list you can do very good on the actual pages
with a print ad.
Most books on direct mail will tell you about the RFM guidelines to
keep in mind when you are selecting a mailing list. I think they're
worth going over.
R F M
Recency:
The most important. This means how recent the name is. People
have a habit of buying in surges. You want to get them while
they're in that surge. It may last 30 days ... it may last 6 months.
Obviously, the fresher the better. This is where logicmakes no
sense. You'd think if someone just bought a diet pill last month ...
they wouldn't be ready to try your brand for at least two months.
But it doesn't work this way. The same goes for opportunity
seekers. You'd think if someone bought a book on how to make
money last month ... they wouldn't buy another book on how to
make money for at least a few months ... or until they realize they
don't want to ... or can't do what the product says they have to do.
But it doesn't work this way. If they bought a diet pill last month ...
r
55
you'll have an easier time selling them another pill 4 weeks later
than you would if it were 12 months later.
Frequency:
This is the second most important. Frequency means how many
times this particular customer bought. MULTI-BUYERS are what
they are called in the mailing list world. Multi-buyers are twice as
likely to buy as one-time buyers. So, the more times they bought,
the more powerful they are.
Monetary:
This is the least important of the three, but it is important.
Monetary means how much this customer spent to get on this list.
I was just telling you about this a few pages back. Obviously, you'll
have an easier time trying to sell your $60 product to a list of
customers who all paid $500 to buy something, rather than trying
to sell the same $60 product to a list of people who put out $10 to
buy the product that got them on the mailing list. Maybe they
cannot afford your $60 product, where you know for a fact the list
of the $500 buyers can afford your $60 gizmo.
Now, in the perfect world, you'd rent only mailing lists of people
who bought similar products as yours ... and the last time they
bought it was last month ... and they bought the same thing seven
times in the past ... and they put out five times more money on it
than what your product is being offered to them for.
I've never found a list like this one. If you did, by the time you slice
it down ... you'd be looking at a just few thousand names.
But you should strive for as close to perfection as you think you
can get. You'll never find the perfect list like I was saying before ...
but why not try to get as close as you can to perfection?
Usage Reports:
Something you can request from a list manager or a list broker is
the USAGE REPORT for a particular mailing list you are looking to
rent. This report is broken down in two sections. One is
"Continuations" and the other is "Tests".
Basically, when someone tests a list, the manager should add it to
the report ... when someone is continuing to use the list after a
test ... they get added to the report. Obviously, a continuation only
occurs when a marketer tests a list and it works. So if you get a
usage report for a list you're interested in and it has a huge
amount of Tests and few Continuations ... that should tell you
something. A lot of people test the list ... only to find out it sucks.
I always ask for a usage report before I come to a firm decision.
What I like to do is get a list to work for me and get the usage
report. Then I pull the usage reports for similar companies and see
which reports have the same companies on them as the list that
works well for me.
It really can narrow down some lists to test in the future. But there
are errors in usage reports as well. I remember being a continuing
customer for a certain catalog company. I saw a copy of their usage
report and I was not on it. Not that I even want to be on it ... I like
to operate in silence ... but if I wasn't on it ... how many other
companies are not on it ... and is it even accurate? Everything in
this business has to be questioned numerous times and in
numerous ways, as nothing is as it seems- especially in mailing
lists.
Don't call a list broker until after your sales letter is crafted. Go to
the library and look through the SRDS book yourself and open
your mind. The ideas will just start flying in, one after another!
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Chapter Five:
All About Magazine Advertising
The last chapter, we focused on mailing lists- the different types ...
how to fit products to them ... and how to gauge the "good" ones
from the bad ones.
This chapter is going to focus on magazine advertising. How to
know ahead of time if advertising in a particular magazine is going
to make or lose you money. Basically that's all that matters.
Now, where I told you about selecting a mailing list then fitting a
product to it ... I would not advise doing this with magazine
advertisements. And if you're testing a new product ...
Buying magazine space for testing can be a lot more expensive
than testing a few thousand sales letters in the mail ... and the
response you'll get from the direct mail will come to you a lot faster
than results from a magazine ad, as it'll take three months from
when you send off your artwork 'till you can see your ad on the
magazine racks.
But, I still think magazine advertising is a whole lot easier to get to
"work" than sales letters ... for one simple reason- the mailing list
you select is a huge variable to your success. I'd say there's a 40%
to 50% chance the mailing list you select will cause your test to
fail. It's easier to get ripped off or simply rent the wrong mailing list
than it is to pick a poor publication to advertise in.
It's very possible to send out 3000 sales letters and not receive one
single order! I mailed a test of 4000 letters a few months ago and I
didn't get one single freakin' order!
On the other hand ... as long as you advertise in a magazine that
you can actually find on the news racks ... I'm sure you'll at least
get some orders. The trick is to see if you can get more money in
orders than you have to put out buying the ad.
1
5X
That's another good thing I like about magazine ads is that you
can negotiate your price. In direct mail. .. it's hard to get a huge
discount on printing ... it's hard to get a huge discount on mailing
lists ... and it is IMPOSSIBLE to get any discount on postage.
With magazine ads ... I feel like the publisher is ripping me off if I
can't get at least a 50% discount from their "rate card".
Here's pretty much everything Iknow about magazine ads (in no
particular order):
Stay Away From New Magazines.
If a general circulation magazine is new and has not been on sale
for at least a year, Iwouldn't advertise in it. Now, I say "general
circulation", and that means magazines like FHM, MAXIM,
COSMO, etc.
If you have a product related to a niche market like car stereo and
a new car stereo magazine comes out, I'd say it was worth a test as
that magazine is a "specialized" magazine. The people who picked
it up at the newsstand were probably car stereo nuts. And they
were not ordinary guys picking up a copy of EDGE ... a MAXIM
knockoff.
Magazines have a huge chance of failure in their first few years.
You sure as hell do not want or need to take an unnecessary
gamble on a new publication ... you already have enough to worry
about with your own product's success.
Here are a few examples of new men's magazines that came and
went in less than a few years' time:
GEAR
STUN
EDGE
RAMP
CONTROVERSY
RADAR
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I could go on for an entire page. When you're unsure about your
product's pulling power ... stick ONLYwith ESTABLISHED
magazines, so you can at least put one of the worries out of your
head.
I have tested a few new magazines with great success ... but only
after I knew I had a successful advertisement. I had a car stereo
membership club that I advertised in two new car audio
magazines, CARSOUND and AUTOTRONICS. Both books were new
and both books failed, but I did have great success advertising in
them. The same goes for MIND AND MUSCLE POWER. This was a
magazine by the Publisher of Penthouse. I was in their first issue. I
needed 1000 orders to breakeven, and I ended up with 500!
Unfortunately, MIND AND MUSCLE POWER is also out of
business. Bottom line: NEW MAGAZINES DO NOT MAKE IT TO
YEAR TWO.
Now, if there's something eating at you to test a certain new
magazine ... and you have some indicator from other magazinesthat tell you have a successful ad ... here is the only way to test it:
Tell the advertising rep that you are skeptical as hell because they
are new. Tell them to run your ad for free and if it works, you'll give
them a full 12-month contract. If they are not game ... forget them.
Cost Per Thousand.
All magazine space is sold on a CPM basis. That's how us Pro's
gauge what we're buying space for. I'll tell you ... in the early 90's, I
could buy full-page ads in magazines like MOTOR TREND for $10
per thousand. Nowadays, if you can beat them up and pay $20 to
$30 per thousand, you did well.
Here's how CPM is figured out: Magazines count how many
subscribers and how many newsstand sales they get for a singular
issue. Say they have 500,000 newsstand sales and 500,000
subscribers. That means they have 1 Million paid circulation.
Remember the word PAID CIRCULATION. Anyway, they have a
million people buying the issue. If you were to place a full-page ad
in their magazine, you'd want to pay no more than $20,000 to
$30,000 for every million paid readers.
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If you have a full page ad working very well for you in Publication A
and you are paying $25/M for a full page ad ... when you go to
advertise in Publication B... you'll want to pay $25/M or less.
Always try to pay less. The less you pay, the more cash you get to
keep, and that's the name of this game.
Audited Circulation.
Magazines can lie about their circulation. Many new publications
do. In order for businesses to fairly gauge the different magazines
to advertise in, there are two 3rd party circulation-auditors
magazines hire to validate their readership numbers. ABC is the
one most magazines are audited by.
What this company does is stick their nose in the magazine's
numbers. They check their subscriber counts, the price they're
paying to subscribe, their newsstand sales, the percentages of the
two, the pass-along copies, the free distribution, everything you 11
ever need to see the "inner workings' of a magazine's circulation
figures. When you request a media kit from a magazine, the ABC
audit will be on a pink 11xl 7 sheet of paper. In my opinion, any
magazine saying they have over 250,000 paid circulation should
have an ABC audit done. If they are bragging they have more paid
circulation than 250,000 per issue and they don't have an ABC
audit ... chances are, they're full of shit.
The real important figures you need to look at on the pink audit
sheet are the paid subscribers and the paid newsstand. Add these
two together and then gauge your CPM from this count.
The "Total Readership" Scam.
This scam is a funny one and I hate magazines that try to pull this
one on me. As soon as they do, I tell them to stick their entire
magazine up their ass as if they are going to lie about something
this bad. Here's what it's all about. Magazine A claims to potential
advertisers they have 500,000 readers. The key word is "readers".
Most advertisers would assume the magazine is selling 500,000
copies each issue. WRONG!
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If you're lucky enough to have a magazine tell you about their total
"readers" ... tell them that's nice ... but you are interested in how
many PAID CIRCULATIONthey have each issue. PAID
CIRCULATIONis the only number you care about. When you ask
this question, Magazine A, who was just raving about 500,000
readers will have to tell you they sell 100,000 copies each and
every month, but a survey they performed says their magazines get
read by 4 other people, other than the guy who originally
purchased it. This is also called "pass along" readership.
No matter what name you put on it, it's a scam. If a magazine is
correct, and their survey honestly is true ... that is only to be
viewed as a plus ... but not something to pay additional for. CPM is
to be based ONLYfrom actual paid circulation.
Frequency.
Magazines come out in all different types of frequency. Some come
out every month ... some every two months ... some every quarter ...
some EVERY WEEK! Here's what I can tell you about frequency.
Monthly publications are great. Bimonthly publications are good
and they give you a little more time to make your money before
their next issue comes out. Quarterly publications are not worth
advertising in, and weekly's or biweekly's come out too fast for you
to recoup your advertising dollars from the previous issue.
A magazine ad must bring back a profit before the next issue
comes out. Monthly's and Bi-Monthly's are good. Anything else
either is too fast or too slow to recoup advertising dollars and make
a profit. Enough said about frequency.
Newsstand vs. Subscribers Ratio.
Magazines should have a 50/50 balance between subscribers and
newsstand sales. If a magazine has too many subscribers vs.
newsstand, your ad is going to "burn out" quicker as the
readership is static- subscribers are the same readers every
month, where newsstand may not be ... plus a newsstand buyer
actually has to get off his ass and go and buy the magazine every
month. You can be sure he's going to read the damn thing from
cover-to-cover. A subscriber gets an issue in the mail ... he paid a
lot less for the magazine than the newsstand buyer paid ... the
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subscription could have been a gift from someone else ... hell, he
may not even check his mail for months on end. Newsstand
readers are better quality. Look for 50/50 ... and if there is a higher
percentage of newsstand, that's good. But, just understand if a
magazine is 90% subscribers and 10% newsstand, your ad may
burn out quicker.
RHP and Upfront As Possible.
When you are running an ad, always make sure you get a right
hand page ... and ask to be as up front as you can. But definitely
get yourself a right hand page. If they want extra money for it ...
look for a different publication to advertise in ... that is unless they
are still offering a killer CPM.
You will get better results if you are on the right hand side of the
magazine. It's as simple as that. Many magazines may not want to
guarantee you a right hand page ... but make sure you get your
point across that you want a right hand page. Don't be fooled by
magazines ... they want your business. If you're going to walk away
over which side they put your ad on ... they'll make sure they don't
lose the sale.
I don't even like to mess around with this stuff anymore. Nowadays
I place three pages ads that are right, left, right. I'm guaranteed my
right hand page.
If you are doing an ad smaller than a full page, you 11 still want it
on the right hand page and as far up front as you can get it.
Fractional Advertisements.
Maybe you don't have the big dollars to place full-page ads just yet,
and that's fine. You can place fractional ads. These ads are 1/3
page ... 1/2 page ... 2/3 page ... even 1/12 page.
Here's my theory. I'd rather have a full-page ad in a smaller
circulation magazine than a smaller ad in a bigger publication.
Remember, you have to still sell something in your ad. Most
products need a full page if they are planning on selling right off
the page.
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If you do fractional ads, choose a vertical 1/2 page over a
horizontal 1/2 page ... try to keep the ad to the upper right hand
corner of the page. If you're looking to sell your product right off
the page ... you're going to need at least a 1/2-page ad.
Negotiating Ad Cost.
Here's some proven ways to get the Publisher way down on his
prices. First of all, tell the ad rep you are your own in-house
advertising agency. These words will save you 15% right off the
top. Advertising agencies get 15% commission on all ads. Next,
make sure to tell them you are a direct response advertiser. This
could get you an entirely new rate that will be as much as 25%
lower. The reason for this is simple. Publishers know if you are a
mail order advertiservyou are going to be counting the sales from
your ad. General advertisers do not do this, so the publisher
knows he can gouge them. The general advertiser's ad agency
doesn't care about this too much, because they earn a commission
of 15% for the entirecost of the ad the company runs. The more
the magazine charges, the more the agency makes in commissions.
Ad agencies are useless. In fact, by the time you are finished with
this book, you could probably go to Madison Avenue in Manhattan
and create better ads than 75% of the chumps in their fancy offices
high above the city.
Another technique you can use to get the rate card price down is to
tell them you want the "pre-pay" discount, if they have one. You
can save an additional 3% this way.
Also, tell the advertiser you want the 12-time rate. Obviously, if the
ad works for you, you're going to run more and more magazine
ads, right? If the magazine does not allow you to make enough
sales to cover it's cost, you can call the publisher and renegotiate
your ad rate. If they are stuck and you can't get a better rate, you
don't have to run any more ads- even if you told them you were
going to run 11 more times.
No magazine has ever sued me for breaking a contract ifI failed to
advertise the remainder of my 11 months.
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When you add up and use all these techniques ... you should shave
50% off the one time rate card price,
Spreads Suck!
Spreads are two page ads, one on the left and one on the right.
They look good, and make you feel good because your ad is twice
as large, so it has to be twice as powerful..; but it's not. Let me
explain.
Success in this business, either in direct maiL. or in space ads, is
just getting people to see and read your ad. A spread does not pull
100% more readers to it... yet it costs 100% more. With a spread,
you're lucky to pull 50% more readers- because of its added size ...
but you're still stuck paying 100% more.
If your advertising copy runs over into another page ... put your
first page on the right hand ... then the second page on the back of
the first page. This way, you can attract a potential reader on two
separate page tums ... and if a reader wants to rip out your ad, all
he has to do is rip out the one page and he's got the front and back
of your ad in one rip! By doing your two page ad this way, instead
of a spread, you'd be looking at getting 200% more orders for 200%
more advertising cost ... this you can live with! NEVER, NEVER,
NEVER do a 2-page spread. They never worked for me.
What a Magazine Ad Really is.
A magazine ad is basically your sales letter formatted to look as if
it was an article in the magazine. A magazine ad is not meant to
look fancy. It's not to look at all like an "ad". You want to "borrow"
some credibility from the publication, so make your ad mimic the
editorial format of the publication. And so they don't slam
ADVERTISEMENT across the top of it in 20 point type ... when you
are creating the ad ... have the graphic designer put the word,
"Advertorial" or "Special Advertorial" on the top or on the bottom in
reverse type. If you add these words ahead of time, the publisher
will not have to do it himselL. and do it his way ... which of course,
will be larger than it has to be.
People read and trust magazines. You automatically get some
credibility by just having your ad in the magazine ... but you can
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get extra credibility by having you ad look like a page in the
magazine. This is called "Pub Setting".". setting the art like the
publisher.
It has been proven that 500% more people read editorial-style
advertisements over flashy, glossy, slick advertisements ... and
remember- this business is first and foremost all about getting
prospects to see your message. To get 5 times more people reading
your ad will probably get you five times the orders. Pub Set your ad
for each individual magazine you are advertising in. MIMIC THE
PUBLICATION.
Condensing.
When you are wrtting.your ad, you may run into a little problem
where there is too much text and not enough space. Instead of
buying another page and instead of eliminating potentially
powerful selling copy what I'd advise you to do is shrink the size
of the copy. If you have an interested reader, he'll read 8 point type
if he has to. So, if I had to choose between buying another entire
ad page ... and doubling the cost of my advertisement... or editing
potentially powerful and needed sales copy ... which wi11lose me.
the sale entirely ... or simply shrinking down the copy to fit it all ...
I'd choose the latter. Something funny is that a crammed-looking
ad appears like it has something important to say to the reader.
Controlled Circulation.
Earlier in this chapter we talked about paid circulation. Some
magazines, especially TRADE PUBLICATIONS are what is called
CONTROLLED CIRCULATION. This means that the readers have
not paid for their subscriptions, but they all had to qualify in some
way to receive the magazine. A trade magazine may go to 100,000
CPAs. In order to get this magazine you must be a CPA. If you are
a CPA and if you requested this magazine, you'll get it for free.
Now, advertisers pay a little more for these controlled eire.
magazines as the publisher is not making a dime from their
readers ... their only source of income is from advertisers- so they
have to charge a little more.
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I never had remarkable success advertising in a trade magazine.
Partly because I usually only stick with consumer mass marketing.
I honestly cannot tell you any more about controlled circulation
publications or my successes or failures in them, as 1 have not
explored them too much.
Stick With The Black and White.
Color ads cost more. Black and white ads are cheaper. The initial
job your ad has, is to stick out from the other ads. Black and white
ads stick out, get better response, and cost less. Color is good if
the publisher were throwing it in for free ... otherwise I'd never pay
a cent for a color ad. Also, if you are going to use your "free" color. ..
use it sparingly. Seriously.
Everyone Has Eyes.
One thing 1hate about magazine advertising is that knock-offs and
other scum are looking at your ad and if you are running it month
after month. Trust me, if you're lucky enough to get a winning
advertisement, as soon as you run it three or four times, you may
see some knock-offs copying your idea and running it among the
very same magazine pages. They may even go as far as to pick on
your price, or your offer, or your guarantee and then have the balls
to brag how theirs is superior. So, not only will they steal your
idea ... but also they'll talk shit about you at the same time. Now,
there's numerous ways to deal with knock-offs I'll cover in greater
detail later in this book. While this is a drawback of magazine
advertising ... magazine ads are still extremely powerful and are
needed to succeed in this business.
Going to the bookstore and picking up a magazine on a news rack
with your ad in it sure feels good when you are first getting started.
It's easier to get magazines to "work" for you.
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Chapter Six:
Creating Your Swipe File
Every successful person in the direct response business has what's
called a "Swipe File". A swipe file is a collection of advertisements
and direct mail solicitations that they appreciate.
Even if they do not appreciate a particular sales message, if they
continue to see it advertised in magazines ... or continually receive
it in the mail, they collect them, as they must be working for their
owner's. If these ads and sales letters were not working, their
owners would not keep spending money to run them or to mail
them. Something that works is always worth collecting and
dissecting to see what makes it tick.
If you are selling a particular product, it is a must to collect all
your competitor's sales messages. Try to order them all, and see
what their up sells are ... see what their back end products are.
You're going to make the same offers to your customers.
As you read further in this book, you're going to learn how to be a
master on spotting great advertising. I'm going to show you how to
recognize other marketers with supreme skills. This is not a
business of reinventing the wheel every time.
For example, a skin cream company may be offeringa free 14-day
sample in their ads. All they ask is for their customers to cover a
nominal shipping and handling fee, which has to be paid with a
credit card.
Now, to the blind eye, you may think they are really just giving
away the free sample of their product ... but when you actually call
them and order their sample, they'll have a script the order taker
will read to you. It'll say something like this:
"Your free 14-day sample of (product name) will be shipped out to
you today. Once you get it, use it as directed. If you are not
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absolutely thrilled with what (product name) does to the
appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, simply call us within 14-
days and tell us. But if you are thrilled- looking 10 years younger
with our product, do nothing and a fresh 30-day supply will be
sent to you automatically every month and you'll be billed just
$29.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling for each month's
installment. You can cancel anytime. Again, thank for you for
trying (product name). You should receive your free 14-day sample
tube of (product name) within the next 10 days, so look for it.
Again, thank you for calling!"
Now, had you not responded to your competitor's ad, you would
have never figured out the method behind their madness. An ad
that gives away a sample supply will almost always pull more
orders than if you just tried to sell the customer right off the page.
You have to keep an eye on what others are doing in your related
field.
Great copywriters recognize great copy. You simply have to collect.
A swipe file is also great when you are looking for new ideas or for
great paragraphs to use in your own sales letters or
advertisements.
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Chapter Seven:
The Back End
The back end is where all the real huge profits come in.
I sold a product for $60. I got 40,000 new customers to buy it every
month. I paid $1.2 Million in advertising every month to get those
40,000 people. Had I left well enough along, I would have grossed
$2.4 Million on the $60 sales to 40,000 people. But I never leave
well enough alone.
Before I even decided to test the product I'm talking about, I made
sure it had a strong back end.
Now, in my sales letters and magazine advertisements, I
automatically enrolled my customers into a "Preferred Customer"
club where they would receive a fresh supply every 30-days.
Just this simple paragraph sold four units to every customer
instead of the one they would have originally purchased. Sure, I
had to lower the price on the follow-up units to make being a
member of the "club" something to desire ... but I was able to turn a
$60 sale into a $180 sale on average.
So, where I would have been making $2.4 Million if I was an
inexperienced direct marketer. .. I was instead making $7.2 Million.
Did I spend an extra dollar in advertising? NO. Yet the back end for
this product was worth $4.8 Million EXTRA in sales. Practically all
of that money was pure profit.
Now, you don't have to force your customers into buying as I
usually do with my "clubs". You can simply have two ... three ... five
or more back end products to go back and sell to your customers.
You can sell them while they are on the phone ordering the initial
product, you can include a back end offer in the product's
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shipment, you can go back and mail your customer list every 30-
days ... or every 14-days ... or even every week.
Do you know when you stop mailing? When you stop turning a
profit. Your customers will not get annoyed receiving so much
advertising from you. Remember, they did want your product...
why wouldn't they want additional products to make their initial
purchase better or more rewarding to them?
I sold my first direct response book in 1995. I sold about 20,000
copies myself through magazine ads and sales letters. While sales
were strong, I was just breaking even. For example, if I placed a
$20,000 full page ad ... I would sell $20,000 worth of books. If I
didn't have a strong .back end, there would be no point of running
the initial ads. Most businesses only breakeven on their initial
purchase, so a strong back end is what makes 90% of direct
response businesses profitable.
As for my $20 book, as soon as I got a customer to buy, I first sent
out their book. About a week later, I sent them a sales letter
offering them a product related to the book for $200. I'd get 5%, to
buy. When you do the math, that's $10 on each back end letter I'd
send out. Remember, the initial sale was for just $20, and my first
back end product got another $10 in my pocket.
Then, three weeks later, I'd, send the same names another offer.
Again, it was a $200 product, out a different one from the first
offer. I'd get another 5% to buy. Here's another $10 in my pocket.
At this point, I turned every customer who bought a $20 book into
a $40 customer.
Was I done? Not a chance.
A few weeks later came back end offer #3. Another product for
$200. I again got 5%. Now we're up to $30 on the back end of a
$20 book purchase. We're now at $50.
Another few weeks came offer #4. This time it was a $1000
product. I got 1% ... but since the product was a $1000 product, I
added yet another $10 to my back end profits.
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Now we're at $60 in sales per customer.
And I kept this going and going. When 1finally ran out of related
products, I'd remail the first, the second, the third, etc. offers.
So, when most people would wonder why I was thrilled to sell
$10,000 worth of books from a $10,000 ad ... I would chuckle. I
knew after a few months, that a $20 book buyer would make that
$10,000 ad bring me $40,000 in sales.
Its 10-times easier to get an existing customer to buy again and
again from you. You see, in this business, the # 1 reason why
people do not buy from you is the simple fact that they do not
believe what you are telling them in your ads and sales letters.
Once you sell them your initial product, if they are somewhat
satisfied with what you sent them ... they'll buy again, and again ...
10-times more powerfully because they are familiar with you and
believe you more than a "cold" prospect.
Your customer list is the most valuable asset you'll own. You can
remail it time and time again and it'll never wear out. I don't even
look to market products unless they have a great back end
potential.
Back end sales can come from reselling the identical product you
first sold them. If you were selling a pill or a cream ... this would be
resold to them.
If you sold a book, you can offer an advanced course on the
principles taught in the book, you can put on a seminar for several
thousand of dollars, you can offer your services to your book
buyers in the form of consulting, you can even market other
people's products to your list and split the money with them! My
friend and mentor Jay Abraham calls this "Host Parasite"
marketing. I'll get into this below.
Here's a great back end strategy for a skin care product that
reduces the appearance of wrinkles.
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A sales letter or magazine ad offers customers a free sample of
your product. Better yet, your sales letters actually have a sample
of the product enclosed in a small packet.
The customer tries the sample and orders your product for $60 or
so.
The sales letter the customer responded from also automatically
enrolls them into a "preferred customer" club, where they'll receive
a fresh 30-day supply of your miracle cream every month for a
reduced "club member" price of $40.
Now you have your first back end set up- the automatic
shipments.
While your customers are enjoying the product, you send them a
sales letter for a complete moisturizing and cleansing kit. It has 4
or 5 different products in the kit, that if they were sold separately,
would cost $300 or so ... but you can offer them this "kit" for just
$139.95 plus $10 shipping and handling. If you've been paying
attention, the $10 you charge will cover the entire cost to
manufacture the 4 or 5 bottles and the entire cost to ship the
whole thing to them.
Since your customers love your initial wrinkle cream, theybelieve
your claims for the moisturizing and cleansing kit. You end up
with 5% buying this kit. Five 'percent response adds $7 to the
customer's lifetime value.
You do another "kit" for a different purpose next month ... and
another the next month ... and so on. If you find out your customer
keeps receiving the initial wrinkle cream for six months (or six
shipments), you should make six different "kits" to go along with
the six-month customer life.
When doing back end products, with the exception of an automatic
delivery club where you have to do a reduced price to make it
worth their while ... the back end "kits" should be four to ten times
the price of their initial purchase. Don't mail sales letter offering
customers who initially bought a $60 product a $15 product. You
already won their trust ... so you can hit them for a larger price
point.
Now remember, all this will fall on its face if you are selling your
customers junk. If a customer bought something from you and
they were not satisfied, they are not going to rebuy in a large
percentage as they would if they were at least satisfied with what
you sent them. While your product does not have to change their
lives ... it does have to at least satisfy them somewhat.
Here's another great example of the back end.
A video is sold for $9.95. If you order with a credit card, you'll
receive a bonus video for free. But in order to receive it, a credit
card is needed. No check orders get this 2nd video.
The purpose of this is to gain the credit card numbers, so you can
automatically resend them a new video every month and you don't
have to go through the "bill me" headaches. You simply bill their
credit card. Of course, you have to let your customer know you're
going to do this.
Since the videos you're going to be sending to your customers are
going to be different every month, you can do a low initial purchase
price- just to get as many people in the door as you can. The new
videos you're going to send every month are going to be $19.95
plus shipping and handling.
You can spend $10,000 on an ad and bring in $10,000 worth of
$9.95 sales and be thrilled, because each customer may allow you
to send them 4 videos at $20 a pop. Wow- that's $80 in back end
sales from an initial $10 purchase.
I know a guy who does this and makes $90 Million a year.
When the auto ship product is different every shipment- like the
videos, you can have a lower initial sales price ... but when the
product is the same every shipment- like a bottle of pills ... you
have to offer the lower price on the future shipments because there
will be no advantage to being in the club. If you're selling a bottle
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of pills for $20 to attract a lot of customers and then go to tell them
you'll automatically send a fresh supply every month for $60-
they'll tell you to buzz off and just reorder as they see fit for the
initial $20 fee. They wouldn't do this on the video club ... because
they'd just be ordering the same video every month instead of a
fresh one as the videos are different each shipment. Understand?
It took me a long time to understand that you can get rich very
quickly with a product that leads itself to back end sales ...
especially when the product is a consumable- and you can
automatically reship a fresh supply when the consumable is
finished.
A few minutes ago, I was talking about my mentor Jay Abraham's
"Host Parasite" or "Endorsed Mailing" technique. Let me explain
this in full as it as another powerful back end technique.
Let's pretend I was marketing the sale of this book. I'd rent mailing
lists ... advertisements in magazine ... buy Internet search terms,
etc. But what about if I went to my buddy who has a newsletter
with thousands of readers.
If he allowed me to mail his subscriber list, I'd maybe get the
regular 2% to 4% response I'd get from any targeted list I'd test.
But what if I went to him and said, "Buddy, you ready my book
and you know it's great. Instead of me mailing your subscriber list,
why don't we rewrite my sales letter as if it came from you? You'll
endorse my book to your subscribers and we can do some sort of a
profit split? I'll still cover the entire cost of mailing the sales letters,
so there is no cost out of your pocket and only pure profit for you."
If he says yes, instead of me getting 2% to 4% to buy my book. .. I
may now get something like lO% because he is endorsing it to his
readers. Even giving up the slice of the profits to him, I'll still earn
a Whole lot more money than promoting the book myself.
And this technique works on the flip side as well. Say I sold 20,000
copies of my book through direct mail sales letters and magazine
ads and my buddy wants to get more subscribers for his
newsletter. I can go to him, or he can come to me and we can
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strike UP some form of a deal where either he or 1... or both of us
can cover the marketing expense to mail his sales letter to my list
of 20,000 customers and we'll spit the profits.
I would make money from a product that I don't own ... and he'll
make money from gaining new subscribers with a huge influx of
orders as I wrote the letter to my customers telling them what a
great newsletter my buddy puts out.
If you're a savvy marketer. .. you can do deals like this with 5 or 10
different products and profit share on all of them. Obviously, the
best case would be having the other guy pay for the marketing
expenses ... but this is not always the case ... especially if you are
an unknown. Either vyay, work out some sort of fee arrangement
that allows you both to make a killing.
I don't know how many times I can attempt to drill this in your
head. The back end is where all the real profits are. If your product
or service does not have a huge back end potential ... forget it-
unless your upfront response is huge. It is so much easier to resell
an existing customer than it is to attract a new customer, it'll make
your head spin.
Back end products should always cost more to buy than the initial
product they've purchased- unless it is the same product they are
buying over and over again- like a bottle of pills.
The entire trick to this business is to attract as many customers as
you can for the lowest advertising cost... and then resell the hell
out of them ... more of the same product ... upgraded, more
advanced versions of the same product... related products ... other
people's products ... the sky is the limit. The only bad back end
product is one that fails to bring back more in orders than it took
to mail the sales letters.
Bottom line: Back end products are products you can go back and
sell to your customers after the initial sale. Back end products can
also be sold as up sells or "bumps" while the customer is on the
phone ordering ... but that's an entire chapter on its own we'll cover
later in this book.
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Chapter Eight:
Auto ship
Auto ship is probably the most powerful direct response marketing
technique I discovered my entire 10 years in this business.
It took a company that would have grossed $2.4 Million in sales
monthly to one that grossed $7.2 Million without spending a single
dollar more in advertising.
Only certain types of-product can lead themselves to an automatic
shipment arrangement, but if your product calls for it... you'd be a
fool not to implement it immediately.
Auto ship goes by many titles. "TILLFORBID ... AUTOBILL... AUTO
DELIVERY... etc.
The greatest examples of auto bill are utility companies. You sign
up, and they'll keep your power on and bill you ... 'TILLYOU
FORBID their services- usually when you move.
Auto ship is a favorite for "of-the-month clubs" ... Wine-of-the-
month-clubs ... book-of-the-month-clubs ... etc. YouIl get a fresh
supply or a new supply ... every month ... or every other month ... or
every six weeks ... whatever you want it to be.
I was telling you a story about my pill company a few chapters
back where the product initially broke even ... but then I added a
single paragraph and I was able to get 4 bottlesales out of each
and every customer. If I didn't do an auto ship, I wouldn't have
been in business for long.
Back end sales are great. We talked all about them in a past
chapter. Your customers will rebuy things from you at a rate of 5%
to 25% or so- depending on the product and their satisfaction level.
But auto ship gets every customer to rebuy unless he or she calls
and tells you not to.
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Auto ship will get 90% of your customers to reorder within 30
days. Ten percent will either take you up on your satisfaction
guarantee or simply call and tell you not to send another
shipment. But that 90% who get a 2nd ... a 3rd. a 4th ... etc.
shipment will make you rich very quickly.
When 1do an auto ship promotion, 1 like to phrase it as if the
customer is getting enrolled into a "club" ... a club that sets them
apart from the "regular" customers. A club member qualifies for a
lower price a regular customer off the street cannot get. It is also
wise to enforce they don't have to pick up the phone and order
every month. If you put a spin on it as if all the benefits are for the
customer. .. they'll actually want you to rebill them every month.
Sure, from the customer's point of view ... they'll qualify for a lower
price ... and they'll automatically count on the product arriving in
their mailbox- even when they are far too busy to call you when
they're out of product ... but the real benefit is for you- the
marketer. You11make every $1 in advertising give you $6 worth of
sales ... where it would get you just $2 without the auto ship club.
Are there some drawbacks? Sure. You have to word it properly in
your ads and sales letters. If you fail to word it right, customers
will not know why they are receiving more products every month
and dispute the charge with their credit card companies. Credit
card companies are a pain in the ass on their own. We'll speak
deeply about them in a later chapter.
Furthermore ... if you word the auto ship policy wrong, the
customer will see that you are just looking to get more forced sales
out of him and he'll tell you not to enroll him in the club.
You have to have a certain balance to word the auto ship
paragraph to get it to work. Lucky for you, I'm going to give you the
exact paragraph and even give you permission to use it word-for-
word in your advertising. I consider it a $60,000,000 paragraph.
That's what this paragraph added in annual sales to my company-
without spending a cent additional in advertising.
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Anyway, here it is:
"And if you're one of the first 200 people to order, you'll receive
FREE ENROLLMENTinto our Forever Trim Club where you'll
qualify to receive a full $20 discount on all your future bottles of
(product name). And so you don't go a day without (product name)
in your system- destroying fat, you'll automatically receive a fresh
bottle every 30-days and your credit card will be billed the Club
Member Price of$39.95 plus $6.95 S/H- not the $59.95 fee non-
members have to pay. There are no minimum amounts of bottles to
buy and you can cancel at any time. The number to call is 1-800-
123-4567, and you can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
As you can see ... this paragraph almost makes it sound as if the
customer's will hinder his or her results if they do not have the
product in their system every day. It kind of implies a fear that if
they do not have the product ... they're losing what they gained.
They want to put the delivery logistics in your hands to make sure
they always have enough product on hand to keep their current
results and keep getting more.
This simple paragraph took an ordinary business and skyrocketed
it to 9 -figure status. Use it as you wish.
Some direct marketers don't even reveal the auto ship club in their
sales letters or advertisements. What they do is have a script the
order taker reads to them when they place their orders. I had to do
this when we were running TV and radio spots. You only have 60-
seconds to sell the product itself ... not enough time to sell an auto-
delivery club. So, we didn't speak of it in the commercials ... but
AFTER we got the entire order ... only then did we read the script
word for word.
Did a lot of customers balk about their credit card being billed
automatically? Some did. And for the ones that did, I offered a
special 4-pack of the product they were buying for a great price.
The majority who didn't want the auto-delivery did take the special
4-pack. .. so at least I made more money than the $60 one bottle
sold for.
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It's funny, but I sold 40,000 fresh people a month. The initial bottle
sold for $60. But maybe 5%) of the callers actually got off the phone
with just a $60 sale.
One thing about this .auto ship concept is that it will only work on
customers who buy with a credit card. You cannot rebill a
checking account off a check that was mailed to you.
Now don't get me wrong ... I'm not talking about just rebilling a
customer's credit card without their knowledge. All my customers
were either told in the advertisement, the sales letter, or through a
script read to them on the phone. Even my website told them when
they were ordering.
How are you going to rebill all these credit cards every month? I'm
glad you asked. Later in this book, I'll tell you all about the
software you Iluse to process credit card transactions. The
software provided by the banks will allow you to set up each
customer's account to rebill at any price in any interval ... rebill
every 23 days ... 45 days ... 30 days ... however you work your
promotion. I'd stick with every 30 days.
This auto ship concept worked so well for me that once I saw how
well it worked ... I stopped taking orders for my product with
checks or money orders! I didn't even give the customer an option
to pay this way in our ads. If a customer did want the product I
was selling and said he didn't have a credit card, only then would
we give them an address to send a check to ... but we still made
sure to tell them about the special4-pack offer.
What I liked about the auto ship club was that I didn't have to
drum up sales from scratch every month. What I mean is this. I
was selling 160,000 bottles of pills every month. Since my
customers stayed in the auto ship club for an average of 4
months ... I had 40,000 people canceling their shipments every
month. To remain at the 160,000 mark ... I didn't have to go out
and bust my ass getting 160,000 new sales ... I just had to bring in
the 40,000 that fell off to stay the same size.
so
Let me tell you this. I slept so well at night knowing 1had a
computer file with 160,000 people on it that are going to allow me
to charge their credit cards between $40 and $60 each and every
month- until they call and tell me to stop.
I once sold a dietary supplement to 400,000 people. To these
400,000 people ... I sold I ,600,000 bottles.
Many products can be auto shipped ... or auto billed.
Jr. Chefs Club:
Each month, you'll receive a new video showing your child how to
prepare easy meals that taste great. Each video contains four
snacks, four entrees, -and four desserts. Initial offer: First video
free, just pay $5.95 shipping and handling with your credit card.
First 200 people to join will receive a Jr. Chef's Club apron. Each
month's video is 60 minutes long and costs $19.95 plus $5.95
shipping and handling. Cancel membership anytime.
(Customer life on a promotion like this one can be 4 to 10
shipments or morel)
Girls Gone Wild:
Get first video for $9.95 plus shipping and handling. Order with
your credit card and get bonus video free. Then be the first to
preview future Girls Gone Wild videos for $19.95 each plus
shipping and handling. Cancel anytime. Money back guarantee.
(Customer life can be 3 to 6 shipments or more!)
Proactiv Acne Treatment:
Kit contains 3 or 4 bottles of different types of masks and
cleansers. The "sold separately" price would be $60 or so. Special
offer for kit is $39.95 plus shipping and handling. Every 30 days a
fresh supply will be mailed and you canlock in the low TV price of
$39.95 plus shipping and handling. 60-day money back guarantee.
(Customer life on this product should be good. I kind of have a
problem with the auto ship price being the same as the initial
purchase price. There's really no benefit except for the delivery. If
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this were my promotion, I would try to give the customer an ever
better deal as a club member. Obviously this works for them
because they have been selling this kit allover TV since 1997 and
it's now 2004.)
NOTE:
While we haven't touched on money back guarantees yet ... I would
advise you this: If you're reshipping a product every 30 days ... I'd
make my guarantee for 30 days. This way, you don't get zapped
with a customer looking for two credits at a time ... one for his first
shipment and one for his second. Try to keep your guarantee
period 'till the length of the 2nd delivery.
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Chapter Nine:
Lifetime Customer Value (LeV)
As a direct marketer it is imperative you know the lifetime value of
your customers.
Of course, you will not be able to "know" your lifetime customer
value by guessing it. You can figure out this number only after a
few months ... or even a year of mailing back end offers to your
customers.
It is important to know your LCV to establish how much you can
spend to attract a new customer. By attract, I mean how much you
can spend on advertising for each new customer.
Let me give you an example of a past promotion. I was selling a
bottle of pills for $60 ... and my customer bought an average of
three more bottles in the next three months at $40 each.
Now, my LCV was $180. So I knew I could spend as much as $180
to attract a new customer without losing money. Of course, we're
not in the business of losing money ... or even breaking even. We're
here to make a profit- hopefully a large one. So I was very satisfied
when I was able to bring in 40,000 new customers a month
spending $1.2 Million in advertising every 30-days. If you take
$1,200,000 and divide that by the 40,000 customers I was able to
attract, you'd get $30. That is the cost it took me on average to
acquire a new customer who I knew would spend $180 over the
next 4 or 5 months.
I figured out. my LCV by going back to a panel of customers who
were pretty much not buying anymore. It took about six months to
get a good measure. I went back the six months and measured
how much these customers purchased, and then divided the gross
amount by the number of customers I measured. This was my
average LCV.
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So I had pretty good LVe information when I tracked the orders I
got from a particular advertisement. If it took $45 to attract new
customers ... I would be happy, because I knew I would get $180 in
eTO (contribution to overhead).
As advertisements and sales letters started to decline in response, I
knew I could run the ads until it cost $90 or so to attract a new
customer. Remember, my first sale was for $60 ... so to the average
business owner, it would look as if I was losing money. Which I
was ... on the first sale. But I knew I had $180 coming my way from
each customer on average in the months to come.
Lev is a measurement of the gross sales you will make on the
front end sale ... the ~p sells ... the back end offers ... the automatic
shipments every dime your customer will spend with you over a
six month one year. .. or even two year period.
Now, company's like HBO can spend several thousand dollars to
attract a new subscriber, knowing from their past research, they'll
make several thousands of dollars on your monthly fees in the
years to come. Now, they may be fine with recouping their
acquisition costs 12... 24 ... maybe even 36 months out. But, I do
not advise you to extend yourself past three months or so to
recoup your advertising expenses. I always try my hardest to
recoup and even profit on the first sale. Only companies that are
financially strong can hold out for extended periods of time to
recoup their money and profit.'
Here's another example. Lets say it's costing you $120 to bring in a
customer. Lets say your initial sale is $60, which all $60 is eTO.
So, you're losing $60 on every sale that comes in. If you didn't have
a back end ... you'd be out of business pretty fast right? Oh , yes.
But you do have a back end ... because if you learned anything
from this book so far. .. you need to have additional products to
resell to your customer to really make this business payoff.
I look at it like this. If you have just one product you sell to your
customer. .. you do not own a business ... you own a "promotion". In
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order to own a "business" ... you have to resell to your customers
again ... and again.
Anyway, back to losing $60 on every sale that comes in.
First of all, to operate with these kinds of numbers, you either have
to remain small. .. or have some form of investment money to help
cover expenses until the database of customers really starts
growing.
So, a few weeks after you lose $60 on the initial sale ... you resend
your customers a fresh supply of whatever you were selling for
$40. Now, you're $20 in a hole instead of the $60. Next month,
they get another supply for $40. Now you're $20 in the plus. Next
month you send another and you're up $60 ... the next month
you're up to $100 ... the next month you're up to $140. That's five
shipments after the initial.
The Lev of this type of customer would be $260. If you didn't know
this, when you lost $60 on the initial sale, you may have deemed
this effort a failure ... but if you have enough cash to get you
through the lean months ... you can be on top.
Companies like Nightingale Connant send out thousands of direct
mail sales letters offering a cassette series for $39.95 or so.
Obviously they are losing money on this offer. But they know and
understand an average customer of theirs will spend several
hundreds of dollars on other cassette and CD courses they sell in
the months and years to come.
Sometimes in order to get large ... you have to lose some money on
initial sales. Sure, you may be able to get some smaller mailing
lists and magazine advertisements to profit right off the bat... but
the amount of customers they bring in may be small. In order to
get thousands of customers every month ... you may have to mail to
lists and run advertisements that are not the most profitable right
off the bat.
Like I was saying before ... making upfront profits depends on your
productj service, selecting the right groups of people to advertise
85
to ... and of course- your ability to persuade them with direct
response techniques like the ones I'm teaching you.
The more desired the product... the more you'll be able to profit up
front. Products that are less desirable will cost a little or a lot more
in advertising dollars to attract.
When I was selling my dietary supplements, after six months of
selling, I went back to the people who bought the first month and
measured how many of them were still customers on auto ship ...
how many canceled ... and when. I added up all the money I made
off them all and divided it by the amount of customers I sold that
first month. At the six-month mark ... I figured out from the
customer data that from the first month of sales, 1got an average
of four bottles sold-, which was four months. Three bottles at $40
and the initial at $60 equaled $180. This was my LeV.
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Chapter Ten:
The Two Step
The Two Step ... no, I'm not going to teach you a dance. It's another
way to find targeted customers for your products.
There are certain times you want to use a 2-step approach.
1. When you cannot afford to place large ads in magazines.
2. When you need a lot of space to tell your full story and sales
pitch and it would be unprofitable to run all those pages in a
magazine.
3. When you want to operate in silence ... under the radar of your
competitors and anyone else you want hide your offer from.
4. When there is no mailing list and/or magazine targeted enough
for your product.
5. When your product is veryexpensive- usually over $400 and
where it would be difficult to sell people in one singular shot.
6. When you're just starting out and want to make success as easy
as you possibly can.
Let's go over what a 2-step is ... and then we can go over each of the
examples in great detail.
A 2-step is an advertisement you place in a magazine or a TV or
radio spot that offers prospects a solution to a desire they have in
a free report, video, tape, DVD, etc. they can request by calling a
recorded message on an 800#.
It can also be a TV or radio ad ... or print ad that refers people to
your website for more information. I don't like this approach as
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well... but it is another variation. But what we're going to talk
about now is the ad that offers a free report.
Say you're selling a product that explains to people how to buy
Real Estate at Government Tax Deed Sales. While you can sure
place full page ads for a course like this one in almost any men's
magazine ... and mail it to many mailing lists of business
opportunity seekers ... lets say you want to do the 2-step ad.
So what you'll do is run a small ad in a magazine, usually a
1I 12th page ... 116th page ... 114th page ... or a 1/3rd page ad. The
headline would look to attract everyone looking to make money.
The headline may say something like this ... "Free Report Reveals
How I Bought This $60,000 Home For Just $345.28 Free and
Clear!" '
Now, under the headline, you may have a photo of the house and a
paragraph that will tease the reader. It will NOT spill the beans as
to how or where you were able to buy the home so cheap. You're
going to have to tease like your girlfriend in the 9th grade did.
After you tease them with the paragraph you'd then say
something like, "To claim your free report simply call this
recorded message and tell us where to send it. You can call 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no obligation,"
Now, everyone likes free stuff ... and since they do not have to deal
with any salesperson hounding them when they call..; you'll get
thousands of people requesting this free report... which is
basically ...
YOUR SALES LETTER!
Of course, the report won't be all sales pitch ... you will educate a
little on the Tax Deed process ... but the main thrust of the report
will be ... here's this fabulous opportunity you may not have known
about... here's proof it is really true ... I am an expert ... and I'm the
best person to teach you ... so here's how I can help you make a lot
of money.
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This sales letter jfree report can be a larger format piece ... because
you will not be mailing it to the masses. The people who responded
to your ad will self-qualify themselves as prime prospects.
Here's when and why you should use the 2-step approach:
1. When you cannot afford to place large ads in magazines.
Full-page ads cost a lot of money. If you want to get yourself in a
large magazine but the price is too high for a large enough page to
actually "sell" your product ... go with a smaller ad and 2-step it.
2. When you need a lot of space to tell your full story and sales
pitch and it would be unprofitable to run all those pages in a
magazine. .
Some products- especially new ones sometimes need a lot of space
to tell your entire story. And if your product needs four or five
pages to "sell" itself... that mayor may not be profitable. A 2-step
ad can get you prime prospects and the sales letter/free report you
send them can easily be 12 ... 24 ... 48 pages or more!
3. When you want to operate in silence ... under the radar of your
competitors and anyone else you want hide your offer from.
Knock-offs are a part of this business. People will notice your full-
page ads running month after month after month. As soon as they
see this ... it will take about five or six issues (maybe less) and
you'll start to see copycats sneaking into the magazines you
advertise in. usually trashing your product... cutting your price ...
taking your conservative (and true) claims and doubling them, etc.
It's frustrating. But, if you have a simple 2-step ad ... unless
potential knock-offs are willing to call your 800#and request a free
report ... they will never know what you're up to. Knock-offs are
known to be lazy ... after all; they're too lazy to come up with their
own ideas.
Another reason why a 2-step approach is good, is that you fly
under the radar of anyone looking to critique anything you're
doing ... like the authorities. As long as you're selling something
that is not a total fraud ... you should not have to worry about the
authorities too much. But, this is another reason why some
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89
marketers prefer 2-step ads. Their entire sales pitch and offer and
product claims are not out there in the open for all to see.
4. When there is no mailing list and/or magazine targeted enough
for your product.
Sometimes there is no qualified mailing list to mail to. And
sometimes there is not enough people reading a magazine who'd be
interested in your product. If this is the case, your sales won't be
enough to cover a full-page ad. In a case like this, you have to
build your own mailing Iist.,; and/ or pick the interested prospects
out of the millions of general circulation.
I'm sure you're seeing all these TV commercials for The Inventor's
Help line ... and Inventec ... and others. The commercial usually has
people saying that they thought of ideas before some large
company and if they had a Patent, they'd be rich and so on. These
commercials are looking for people just like this ... people who have
an idea they want to protect.
Now, these commercials offer callers an Inventor's Kit... which is
basically a sales pitch for their company ... which is probably a
bunch of Patent Attorneys. For a few hundred bucks, they'll
protect your idea for you.
Now, the last time I checked, there were no mailing lists for people
with good ideas (and bad ones) who are looking to get protection in
the form of a patent. Well, actually, the commercial says nothing
about a Patent..; but you know what I mean. Being there are no
mailing lists, they went to the largest general circulation media ...
TV and placed these 2-step ads.
The people who call these places probably do have some form of an
idea ... and everyone thinks they have the greatest idea ... so these
company's will feed off this and offer protection so big corporations
will not profit from their ideas first. Even if the inventor does not
wish to market and manufacture their idea ... they feel assured
they are protected with a Patent... hoping a large company will
contact them and look to buy their idea or give them a royalty fee.
Whatever. The would-be inventor gladly shells out $500 or more for
the protection of their idea. A great 2-step example.
90
5. When your product is very expensive- usually over $400 and
where it would be difficult to sell people in one singular shot.
Sometimes the product you are offering costs a lot of money. It's all
right to sell things that cost several thousands of dollars ... in this
business; there in no limits as to how much you can charge for
something. Software programs for $1000 ... financial newsletter
subscriptions for $2000 ... seminars for $5500 ... etc. Now, a ful1-
page ad may not be able to sell such a high priced item. Maybe
even two ... or three ... or even ten pages may not be enough to sell
in one shot. Sometimes your prospect needs to be nursed into a
large purchase like this. That's OK. A 2-step ad is needed. Your ad
would describe the item you are selling and you'd offer them free
information. Nowhere do you tell them about the price in the 2-
step ad.
I'm sure you've seen the Tempurpedic Sleep System. It's a foam-
like mattress that is made out of some high-tech material invented
by NASA.Anyway, these mattresses are several thousands of
dollars ... as most quality mattresses are. What this company does
is run 2-step commercials and infomercials offering free
information and a sample of the mattress material. Basically, you'd
call the 800# and givethem your name and address ... and
probably some other information, like what brand mattress do you
currently own ... when are you looking to purchase a new
mattress ... etc.
They'll then send you the information and the mattress sample ...
and they'll probably remail you sales literature every so many
weeks ... and maybe even call you on the phone. Only in the
information package they send you will there be a price sheet
saying these mattresses cost like $2000.
They built a mailing list of people interested in their mattresses,
where a qualified mailing list did not exist before ... and they eased
potential customers into a purchase of several thousands of
dollars.
Another example of this is Bowflex. I believe the same company
that does the mattresses markets this product. They run 60-
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second commercials for their weight-training contraption and offer
a free video and free information. They'll build a mailing list of
prospects and hope to sell a machine that costs about $1000 and
more.
6. When you're just starting out and want to make success as easy
as you possibly can.
Success with 2-step ads is the easiest way to do direct marketing
right. The 2-step technique is advised for beginners by many direct
marketing pros- including myself. First of all, you're building a
mailing list of prime prospects. The prospects will respond to your
2-step ad should be 10-times as likely to buy your product than
people you'd mail to on a cold mailing list. After all ... they did come
forward and self-qualify themselves as prospects.
Now, there are a few guidelines I would advise you of.
The 2-Step Works Best In Print, on TV, and on Radio.
If you are going to do a 2-step ... do not use this technique in direct
mail. Do not go fishing for prospects in mailing lists. It is best to go
fishing in a huge pond ... like a large circulation magazine or
newspaper. .. on TV... on the Radio ... etc. You're probably just
starting out in this business ... so I'd advise you to stick with the
newspaper or magazine ad. The entire purpose of the 2-step is to
solicit a huge group of people and fish out the interested prospects
efficiently. Direct mailing to request an inquiry is not efficient.
Only Use A Phone-In Response Device.
I would not have your prospects mail in a coupon ... or go to a
website ... in combination with a call-in. Tests have proven that you
can get 300% more people to request your free report or free
information kit by having a phone-in option only. And when you do
this ... make sure to use the words, "FREE RECORDED
MESSAGE". Prospects do not want to be bothered by a sales
person at this point. They are slightly interested ... but in no way
ready to be "sold" anything. Make sure you stress they won't have
to talk with anyone or you'll hurt your response. Also, you can run
one ad with a toll number. .. and one with a toll-free number and
see which one pulls more requests. A toll call will qualify your
prospects even more, because they have to pay for the phone call..;
'--_/
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but you want to make sure it doesn't hinder response too much.
Also, if you can get the toll number to work ... you're saving a ton of
money on the phone bill you're going to have to pay every month.
Price Point Must Be At Least $60.
Don't waste your time with 2-steps if your product is selling for
less than $60. Remember. we're all working on a mathematical
scale. If your selling price is not high enough ... you won't be able to
cover the cost of running the 2-step ad in the first place ... and then
the mailing of all the sales letters. Most 2-step products are $300
or so. But don't let that stop you if you have a $60 product. Here's
an example of a $60 2-step offer.
I was flipping though.a men's magazine the other day and I saw an
ad that gave away a free "Sex Pill Guide" that listed all the top
herbal-Viagra-type pills on the market these days. The product
they were giving away said nothing about this company actually
selling any form of pill themselves. All it said was that they
published a guide and it was free for you to have and it was meant
to help guide you to the best product as they tested them all.
Anyway, I called and got myself the guide, as I wanted to see the
mechanics of this offer. Why would they advertise a free guide?
Where are they making money?
So, I called a recorded message and left my name and address with
a fake middle initial, so I can track everything I receive from this
company in the future ... as I'm sure they're going to mail the hell
out of me.
A guide arrived a few days later. It had a dozen or so products in it,
and of course the # 1 product in their guide also had a stand-alone
ad in their envelope. Obviously, this company made a supplement,
then made-up this guide, which was basically biased as hell to sell
their own $60 bottle of pills ... and they persuaded you to buy the
# 1 rated product ... which said nowhere it was manufactured by
them ... but any experienced direct marketer would know.
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This is a good idea ... not the most ethicaL. but it is good. I'm sure
it works for some products. The secret to success is acquiring
enough leads to justify the advertising cost.
You Have To Attract Enough Leads.
The biggest hurdle with 2-step ads is you have to attract enough
leads to justify the cost of the ad. I'm sure selling the people with
the sales literature you send out is not going to be the biggest
hurdle. Say you place an ad for $1000, the more prospects you get
to request the free info ... the lower your lead cost is.
The secret is to attract enough leads to get the cost per lead way
down ... but you don't want to get too vague in your ad, as you will
attract a lot of leads .._but they will not be as qualified. And you
don't want to hype up things too much as when they receive your
literature, they'll be turned off.
2-Step Math.
Here's how to do the math on a 2-step promotion.
Lets do the math on a 2-step ad I just saw and responded to in •
Entrepreneur Magazine.
This guy ran a 1/2-page ad and it probably cost him $10,000.
Entrepreneur Magazine is a rather large magazine and a 1j2-page
ad for his 2-step was quite big. You'll obviously run a smaller ad ...
maybe in a smaller circulation magazine or newspaper.
Anyway, this 1/2 page ad received 5000 responses. So, he paid $2
a lead.
He then mailed a sales letter/free report, which cost him $1 to
print and mail. Now, he's invested $3 in each prospect. He has
$15,000 invested in the ad and the sales letters/free reports.
His product is selling for $500. He gets to keep all $500 as eTO as
it is an information product.
He needs to sell $15,000 worth of his products to breakeven. He's
got 5000 interested prospects- just 30 people need to buy to
recoup his entire cost. I like these numbers.
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Lets say he gets 250 to buy. That's 5%. He's looking to gross
$125,000. That's 8.3-times his initial $15,000 gamble! Even if he
got just 90 people to buyout of the 5000 ... he still increased his
money by 300% and grossed $45,000!
He can then look to run this ad in numerous other magazines ... as
long as he continues to attract leads at a similar price ... and these
ads can be ran each and every month. He's going to get rich very
quickly with numbers like this.
What is the major task at hand for you to replicate an offer like
this? You have to attract prospects for $2 on average and you have
to sell 5% of them at $500. Selling the 5% is not the biggest
problem ... its getting the 5000 people to request the free
information, the free report and paying $5000 for the ad.
Kill Your Competitors With A 2-Step Approach.
My friend Gary Halbert says if you run a full page ad in a magazine
and get lOOOorders ... the same full page ad offering a free report ...
or a free guide for the type of product you are offering ... will get you
10,000 requests for the free information.
He says you'll get 10-times as many people to request the free
literature as you would to order right off the page. Sounds realistic.
Then he goes on to saythat of that 10,000, you'll get 30% to
actually buy from you. So, effectively, you'll end up with 300%
more orders than if you just ran the one page ad and sold right off
the darn thing.
This approach is great when there are many, many advertisers
selling the same thing in a magazine. Say, it was a diet pill. Instead
of being just another ad, selling another diet pill ... you can offer a
free diet pill guide instead. People will call your phone number and
leave their name and address on the voicemail. You'd then mail
them your sales letter/free guide ... and you will then sell the
customer. .. and your competitors are nowhere to be found.
9S
Let Your Competitors Pay For Your Advertisements.
Here's an idea. If you are acquiring leads for $1. .. go to 4 of your
competitors and get them to each buy the leads from your ads for
25 cents each. You mail the leads first ... then sell them to your
competition. Four guys at 25 cents each gets you $1 per name ...
just what it cost you to acquire them in advertising!
Hey, this chapter on 2-steps got me so excited ... I'm going to create
a hot 2-step otTer for a business opportunity course I'm working
on!
And remember, you can interchange and add other concepts and
techniques I've taught you on top of this 2-step approach ... like the
auto ship ... the back end ... etc.
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Chapter Eleven:
An Irresistible Offer
Before we even consider writing a word of advertising copy, we
have to first decide the best offer to promote.
This book is not going to talk about actually "writing" any sales
copy until the deep chapters. Before we paint our masterpiece ... we
have to have a clear vision of it in our heads.
An offer is the "deal" you're going to make to your prospects in an
effort to get them to part with their hard-earned money for your
idea.
The better the offer. .. the more appealing your sales pitch will be.
Your offer has to also be simple and easy to understand. As soon
as your prospect does not understand what you are trying to give
them ... you lost them forever.
Here are a few examples of offers I have used in the past with great
success:
Free Gift With Purchase:
This is the most obvious. Offer your customer a free gift ... or a free
bonus when they buy. Information products are great for this type
of bonus. They cost next to nothing to make ... and can have a
perceived value of $30 ... all the way up to $200 or more. Most of
the time, you can cover the free bonus in the shipping and
handling fee you charge for your product.
I've been noticing a lot of commercials lately, the merchant is
selling a knife set or whatever ... and they'll double your order for
free ... you just have to pay the shipping on the 2nd set of knives.
What a deal! But in reality, the shipping fee you are going to pay
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for the second set of knives is actually the cost for them to
manufacture/buy the knives and the cost to ship them to you.
Feel free to give away a bonus and ask for the customer to pay a
shipping and handling fee. This fee covers the cost you have to pay
to buy or make the item ... and you can usually include the extra
bonus gift in the shipment the customer is going to get anyway for
no additional cost.
You can offer a free gift that the customer has to claim after he
gets the initial order. For example, if you buy a car wax kit and it
comes with a free bottle of tire dressing ... some companies will
include a coupon in the wax kit that the customer has to send in
to receive the tire dresaing. Not everyone will request the free
bottle, but you can still offer it to everyone. I really haven't done
this one for at least 10 years. With a product I was selling, I offered
a free gift that I requested the customer pay the 8/H on ... but
instead of including it in the initial order, I simply included a
coupon the customer would have to mail with the shipping and
handling fee. Maybe 70% of the customers requested the free
bonus.
$9.95 30-Day In-Home Trial.
This is popular offer nowadays! I'm starting to believe you cannot
sell a product on an infomercial anymore. In order to get a
customer to call you, you may have to offer them an in-home trial
for a nominal fee, plus shipping and handling.
Here's how it works: Let's use Carlton Sheets' Real Estate Course
we've all seen for the past 10+ years on TV as an excellent
example. Nowadays, he's not selling the course like he always was
for several hundreds of dollars off the bat ... he's offering a 3D-day
in-home trial for $9.95 plus a shipping and handling fee. The ad
says nothing about how much the product actually costs.
In order for this to work, you have to take orders only with credit
cards. A customer calls and orders the trial. He pays the $9.95
trial fee and the shipping and handling fee. Carlton will offer you a
rush shipping upgrade, which of course there is a profit for him
on. Then only after they got your credit card number .., only after
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they have your shipping address ... only a few seconds before you'd
say "goodbye"... you hit the caller with a script that goes something
like this, "OK-you qualify for Carlton's $9.95 30-day in-home trial.
Your credit card will be billed just $9.95 plus $x for shipping and
handling. Preview the course for an entire 30-days and if its not
everything you hoped it would be send it back to us within the 30-
day trial period and you'll owe nothing more. Otherwise, if you
decide to keep the course and make money with Real Estate, your
credit card will be billed in four easy monthly installments of
$59.95. Your shipment is going out today and you'll receive it in
about 10 days, so look for it. Thank you for calling!"
Its going to be 10-times easier to get a customer to take a 30-day
trial for under ten bucks. This fee can or cannot be refundable- its
up to you. You can even cover the shipping and handling charge
for your customers ... or not. Either way, you'll get 5 times the
people to order the trial ... and even if you got 50% of the people to
send back the shipment, you're still looking at selling 2.5 times
more product than had you just sold right off the ad or
commercial.
I seriously doubt 50°1<> will send back the course ... maybe you'll get
20% to send it back. .. but even if you get 20%... who cares? The
$9.95 fee is non-refundable ... as is the shipping charge. Youlost
nothing. Resell the course to someone else.
There's a fitness guru promoting an exercise gizmo for a $14.95
30-day in-home trial and $34.95 shipping and handling ... but they
cover the shipping fee. So, for just $14.95, you can try out this
exercise machine for an entire month. But on the flip side... do you
really think people are going to disassemble the darn thing and put
it back in the big box and send it back to the marketer for $30-$50
in UPS fees? Not that many will. This marketer will make increased
sales from skeptical people who only after the trial realized he sold
a good product- so it's a win-win. AND,the marketer will also profit
from the lazy people who may have returned the product but are
too lazy to send it back. .. so their credit cards will get billed in 5
payments of $60.
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We Won't Cash Your Check For 30-Days!
Here's a great example of reversing risk. Offer your customers that
you won't cash their checks or charge their credit cards for 30 or
60 days. You have to be strong to do this. You will not get money
in the door for a month or more if you go this route. What's worse
is you better have a product that costs you next to nothing to
make. If you're trusting people's checks or credit cards to be good
and they are not ... you're going to lose on scumbags. But, if the
product is a book or whatever, that cost just $4 to make and
ship ... you're not at too much of a loss and all the added sales from
using this technique will always cover the extra "deadbeat" losses.
This technique is said to add 300% to the pulling power of an ad or
sales letter. It may be worth a test.
Offer Installments.
Like the trial offer, this offer must be used only with creditcard
customers. You cannot accept checks or money orders with this
type of offer. If you're selling a high-ticket item ... it may make
sense to offer your customer an installment plan. You see this all
over TV nowadays ... "JUST 5 PAYMENTSOF JUST $19.95!"
Breaking up the fee is a surefire way to get more sales. How many
homes would sell if there were no such thing as mortgages? Not too
many, right? The same with new cars? Without financing ... a
dealership will have a tough time selling a high-ticket car. It's no
different here. Ifyou're ..selling a $180 item maybe you can do 3
easy payments of $59.95 ... and better yet maybe you can do a
combo offer... $9.95 for a 30-day in-home trial plus S/H ... and
then you can do 3 payments of $59.95 instead of billing an entire
$180 on the trial offer.
Like I was saying before in a past chapter ... you can combine these
techniques sometimes and multiply their power.
Now, when you offer installments, there are a few risks. First of all,
you do not get all your money upfront. You have to wait for it.,;
sometimes as long as 4 or 5 months! Another thing is credit cards
may go bad ... or they may be declined for a month's billing and you
either have to double up on next month's billing or call them and
get a fresh credit card.
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C.O.D
Cash On Delivery. It is not used too much nowadays. I never used
it. There's really no reason to use it. There's an extra fee. Many
people reject the shipment and you lost the shipping costs and all
the lost time. But if you want to do this, make sure to send your
customer a postcard a few days before they are to receive the
package and tell them that you have included another special free
bonus in their order. This will help make the customer actually
take the C.O.D. when it arrives. Still I think Cash On Delivery is
more of a pain in the ass. If your customer does not have a credit
card ... or at least a debit card- which almost anyone can get..;
maybe you do not want them as a customer.
Bill Me Later.
This is a specialty for magazine publishers for one reason ... if they
had to actually get people to pay up first ... they'd get 50% of the
people they'd get to respond ... probably less. Billing later is risky.
You don't really know the people you are sending your products to.
Nightingale Connant makes their entire business from a "bill me
later" promotion. That's how they attract new customers in the
large quantities they do.
You have to have a billing system set up for you to mail out 'the
invoices. You can include an invoice in the shipment saying when
the money is due. If you're selling a subscription that you can stop
when they don't pay up ... it's better than if your product was a one
shot and they got it all in their possession. Think before you do
this offer. While I'm sure you'll get more orders, it all boils down to
this ... Track how many orders you get when you ask for the money
upfront. Then offer the "bill me later" option and track how many
orders you get... then track how many paid up in 30-days or
whenever the bill was due. If the profits were significantly larger
with the "bill me"... even after you subtract all the lost product
(your hard cost- not the selling price) and all the added time to bill
people- go for it.
101
Example:
Pay upfront offer= ]00 orders at $100
$10,000 in sales
BillMeLater= 400 orders (275 paid up)
125 didn't pay - $1250 loss - $10 each
175 more $100 orders= $17,500
275 orders at $100
$27,500 in sales
$1250 in losses from non-payers
$26, 250 in sales
Ifyou can get your "bill me later" offer to work like this ... it's worth
doing... but again ... you have to wait to get paid- you'd better have
a fewbucks in the bank ahead of time.
First Bottle Free or First Video Free.
Ifyou're doing an automatic shipment product like a monthly
video... or a monthly supply of pills... you can give away the first
bottle or first video... and just ask the customer to pay the
shipping and handling fee of$4.95 or $6.95 with their credit card.
Youcan only do this with a credit card customer. The secret is the
automatic delivery club. If the customer is not satisfied with the
product, they have to call within 30-days to cancel further
shipments. You'd be ~:urprisedwhen 10%or so call and cancel..;
and you get 200% more customers!
Of course there is problems with this type of offer as well. Ifyou
are selling a product like a bottle of pills, where the product will
always be the same ... you have to make sure you do not get the
scammers calling in and ordering a free bottle to one address and
then another address and then another address ... only to cancel all
the shipments the next week after they got 4 or 5 bottles out of
you.
Now,my direct marketing common sense tells me not to worry
about people like this because you did get the shipping and
handling fee out of the person and that did cover the actual
product and the shipping fees so there's no money actually
102
"lost" ... but the bigger problem comes next month when this
person is calling you irate if they didn't call and cancel their auto
delivery in time and they have 5 billings on their credit card for
$40 or so each. The credit card companies may start to think
you're up to some kind of no good and give you heat. Make sure
you say in your ad, "LIMIT ONE BOTTLE PER CUSTOMER AND
PER HOUSEHOLD".
You won't have to worry about this too much if your monthly
product is a different product ... there's really no advantage
scamming additional copies of the same video.
Only Sell One Product At a Time.
I see jokers selling 2 or 3 or 4 different products in a single ad or
sales letter. Fools.
Marketers sometimes think they can justify the high cost of
mailing sales letters ... or running advertisements if they offer
many, many products. They actually think they'll have a better
chance at success this way- but they won't.
Burn these words into your brain- when it comes to creating a
singular sales letter or a singular advertisement ... SELL ONLY ONE
PRODUCT AT A TIME.
Joe Sugarman- the master behind BluBlocker Sunglasses even
tells a story similar to this. Before he had BluBlocker, he had
JS&A (the Sharper Image of the 70's). He was selling Navy Seals
watches. The supplier of these watches wanted him to sell all the
different color versions of this watch ... and the women's sizes. Joe
wanted to sell just the men's black version. The watch
manufacturer was puzzled why he would want to do this. Joe knew
something they didn't.
They really wanted him to sell all the watches at the same time.
Joe offered to do a split test, where one ad would have just the one
black, men's watch and one ad would have all the colors and the
men's and women's sizes. When the sales results came in ... they
chose to run the ad with just the black, men's version of the Navy
Seals watch. Now, this was an extreme example ... the watches
103
were all the same. But definitely, if you're selling a weight loss
pill... do not also offer an herbal-Viagra at the same time!
PEOPLE CAN ONLY BE SOLD ONE THING AT A TIME.
If you want to give an unrelated product away for free with the
purchase of your main product ... that's fme... just don't try to sell
two things at the same time.
]04
Chapter Twelve:
Guarantee Everything
Do you know when a customer decides if he's going to return your
product? When he's buying it.
In the 1980's and 1990's having a satisfaction guarantee could
have given you a competitive edge. Nowadays, It's a requirement ...
and the more "risk" you can take off your customer's backs ... the
better.
If you are greedy andj or petrified to offer your customers a
guarantee ... maybe you are not too confident of what you're selling.
Maybe you are confident ... but are scared a huge percentage of
people will take you up on it. I have two words for you- DON'T
WORRY.
Here's how guarantees work in regards to response. If you did not
offer a guarantee, you may sell 10 people out of 1000. When you
offer a guarantee, you may be looking at 20 orders ... and outof
that 20, two or three will request their money back. Even giving the
money back on two or three people ... you're still looking at 7 to 8
more orders. You'd still be on top.
In this chapter, we're going to be covering the most popular
guarantees I've offered in the past.
Unconditional 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.
This is the standard guarantee your customers will expect. If your
ads don't say that all sales are finaL. you have to offer a standard
3D-day guarantee anyway. Not offering a guarantee makes your
product look shady ... so at the obsolete minimum, you have to
offer a standard 30-day money back guarantee. Feel free to add the
words "Less SjH" ... which means your customer can have their
money back ... less their shipping and handling. Now remember,
your product and all its order processing costs are covered in the
SjH fee you charge. Even when a customer wants his money back,
105
you can keep the fee it cost you to ship the product... create the
product ... take the cal1... etc.
60-Day or 90-Day or Longer Money Back Guarantee.
Also an unconditional guarantee. People work on deadlines. When
do you pay your rent? Your car payment? Your credit card bills?
When do you return movies to the movie store? If I know anything
about people, I'd say you pay the bills and return the movies on
the absolute last day. All people do this. Now, the longer you
stretch the time frame to get their money back. .. the longer it will
take them to actually call and ask for it. As times goes on ... they
forget. So to say that the longer time period you give your
customers to get a refund on your product, the less refunds you '11
actually have to give ,would be absolutely true.
Conditional Guarantees.
This guarantee only permits the customer their money back if a
certain thing does or does not happen as your productj service
claimed. "If my sports picks are not at least 90% accurate for the
next 30 days ... 1'11refund every dime of the money you paid me!"
Now, unless you under-perform and unless your customer actually
calls and takes you up on that guarantee, you don't have to give
money back unconditionally.
Double Your Money Back.
Obviously, this type of guarantee is conditional; otherwise you're
going to be losing some serious money! Entrepreneur Magazine
actually started as a bunch of reports and home study courses on
starting certain types of businesses. From what I've read, when
they first came out, they were plagued with a large percentage of
refunds. To cut down on these unconditional refunds, they decided
to offer DOUBLE your money back. .. but it was conditional. The
buyer of these kits had to show some form of proof they actually
tried stuff taught in the course. Sales soared ... refunds dwindled.
A DOUBLE your money back guarantee for a bodybuilding
supplement- Claim in sales letter: Double your money back in 120-
days if this fails to add 20 pounds of rock hard muscle. Conditions
explained in literature included in shipment: "This product is
guaranteed to add 20 pounds of rock hard ... granite muscle within
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106
the next 120 days or we'll give you DOUBLE your money back!
Simply take 3 photographs, newspaper in hand the very day you
start the program and take 3 more photographs, newspaper in
hand on the 120th day. If you cannot honestly say that you took
this product faithfully, as directed, worked out regularly ... and
didn't see an added 20 pounds of muscle, send the empty bottles
back. We'll send you DOUBLE what you paid."
Do you really think they're going to take three before photos, three
after photos ... a whopping four months later. .. and keep all the
empty bottles? A few will ... but not all. And these are not out of
this world conditions. All you're asking the guy to do is document
his success ... work out... use the product like directed ... and keep
3 or 4 empty bottles.
Keep The Bonus!
Remember you threw-in some free bonuses in your offer?
Remember, these bonuses were paid for in the shipping and
handling fee you charge your customer? Remember, you do not
refund shipping and handling fees? Well, you can offer an
unconditional 30 or 60 or 120 or whatever-day guarantee and let
your customer keep the free bonuses you gave them. My mentor
Jay Abraham calls this a "better-than-risk-free-guarantee". And it
is. Think about it like this: If you gave a few free reports, maybe a
video ... and a cassette tape all as free bonuses, and they had a
"perceived value" of $200 or so. If a customer wants his money
back for the initial product he ordered, you can tell him he'll still
come out with $200 worth of merchandise regardless if he's happy
or not. This is not just "risk-free" ... it's BETTER than risk-free.
Here's a great example. I was selling some really high-end car care
products in 1995. I sold a pint size and a quart size kit. To stir-up
some larger quart size kit sales, I found a supplier of some really
high end looking Orbital Polishers. These things looked like they
cost $100 ... but I was buying them for under $10 in quantity. Now,
the shipping and handling for the all the waxes and the buffer was
$19.95 or something close to it. I covered the cost to ship the
entire kit, the cost to manufacture the waxes, and the cost to buy
the orbital polisher in this $19.95. I told my customers, if they
weren't blown away with the wax products, they could rerur n them
J07
in 30 or 60 days and they can keep the orbital polisher for their
time and faith in my products now. Customers who asked for their
money back actually felt like they were taking advantage of me ...
keeping the polisher that looked like it cost me $100 ... but all the
costs were covered in the shipping and handling fee 1charged them
initially. They were not to get back when they requested a refund.
When I made such a powerful guarantee like this one, prospects
knew this polish had to be something special- otherwise I'd be one
crazy (and bankrupt) guy!
Refund Shipping and Handling.
Sometimes you can even go out on a limb and offer to refund not
only the purchase price ... but also the shipping and handling fee
as well. I sold 1.4 Million bottles of a supplement and I included a
guarantee like this. The reason for it is simple ... Sometimes a
customer will not only want his money back from you, but even
after you give it to him- he still disputes the shipping and handling
fee with Visa or Master Card. Sometimes, you don't want to have
anything from a dissatisfied customer- even a shipping and
handling fee.
Unconditional 100% Money Back Plus 10%.
This is a play on numbers. If your product sold for $69.95 ... and
you ask $6.95 for shipping and handling ... you can refund the
entire thing and instead of saying that you give shipping fees
back as well you can say, "You'll receive a 100% refund of your
purchase price and I'll even throw-in an extra 100/0 for your time
and trouble!" In reality, it's just the shipping fee you're refunding ...
but it sounds better this way.
Bottom Of The Jar Guarantee.
This is used in the supplements business. What it means is use
the entire bottle or jar or tube and if by the time it's finished you
are not thrilled, send the jar or tube or bottle back EVEN IF IT'S
EMPTY... and you'll receive a full and complete refund of your
purchase price. It sounds nice to the customer that the entire
supply can be used up and you'll still give them their money
back. .. and it works well for you because you get them to use the
entire supply and you get them to keep the container ... and they
have to send back the container to you. These are all three
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hurdles. One, they have to use the entire thing. That takes 30-
days. Maybe results will take this long to manifest ... Remember
what I told you about stretching the time frame out in the
beginning in this chapter. Two, they have to remember to hold onto
the container. Many people throw things away by accident. Of
course, if a customer calls you and says they threw the container
away, you're still going to give them a refund ... but you'd be
surprisedhow many will not call just to avoid the confrontation.
And three, they have to send the bottle back to you. That takes a
bag ... postage ... and people are lazy. Of course, if a customer calls
and wants their money back. .. and they do not want to send the
bottle back to you- by all means give the damn refund. But again,
you'd be surprised by how many people will not call.
The Lesson Is On Me.
This is a great way to word a guarantee on a product where they'll
learn something either in a video ... a cassette tape ... a book. .. etc.
Say if it was a golf video that taught how to drive the ball further. ..
the guarantee can say something like this, "Watch the video, and if
John's teachings don't have you driving the golf ball like a
CANNON... adding 50 yards ... and hitting as straight as an arrow ...
as accurate as clockwork ... the golf lesson is on me. Send the video
back for a full refund of you purchase price ... "
This is basically a way to state a guarantee that sounds cool.
You're not buying a video ... you're buying a lesson that just
happens to come on a DVD or a VHS cassette or whatever. The
information is retained in the customer's head. You're just
requesting the physical product (the video) back ... but the memory
of what he learns remains in his head.
We'll Send UPS To Pick It Up For A Refund!
I remember seeing an ad for Malm's Wax where their headline said,
"Discover the liquid camauba wax that will make you car so shiny,
if you don't think it's the absolute deepest shine you've ever seen,
call us and we'll send UPS to pick it up for a refund!" This headline
knocked me on my ass. That's powerful!
But beware; you're going to lose some money here. Call Tags do
cost some money. The shipping charges to come back to you cost
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money. If you word in your ad or sales letter, the guarantee is for
the purchase price and less SjH, you can keep the initial shipping
fee. You11just have to pay for the call tag and the shipping back to
you. So, if you have some money in the initial shipping fee to play
with ... if it is enough to cover the shipping back to you ... maybe
you can offer this. Oh, and one more thing- you better have a
remarkable product ... or your warehouse will be full of boxes from
dissatisfied customers. What I like to do with the Call Tag idea, is
just tell the customer he can keep your product or give it to a
friend he thinks may be interested in it. We'll still give the credit. A
half-used bottle of cream or pills is worth nothing to me.
Some notes on the guarantees listed in these pages: Some of them
mayor may not rub you the wrong way. Some are more ethical
than others ... and it all depends on what makes you feel good. I do
not promote or deter you from using any particular guarantee ...
but one thing I do demand- you must offer some form of a
satisfaction guarantee!
------------------------------ -
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Chapter Thirteen:
Premiums
It's nice to get a free bonus or a free gift when you buy something.
I've taken products that only broke even and added a premium and
saw response greatly lifted.
Premiums must cost you little or nothing out of your profits. Now, I
do not mean premiums should be worthless- they must have some
form of worth in order for them to work.
I've even increased my selling price to offset a free gift I wanted to
include ... and still saw response lift.
I'm going to give you a few examples of free gift offers I've used in
the past and how they helped or didn't help.
Many times, you'll add a premium and you will not see response to
your sales letter or advertisement increase.
For example, I once had a bodybuilding supplement which gave
two additional bottles of different supplements as gifts. I knew the
two extra bottles cost me an additional $4 or so, so I increased the
shipping and handling cost billed to the customer. Response was
the same with or without the premiums. Go figure.
I once sold a car wax kit and gave away an orbital polisher. There
were two versions of the kit ... a pint and a quart size kit. I gave the
polisher with the quart size kit. I was able to get the polishers for
under $14 from a manufacturer. To offset the cost of the polisher, I
had to increase the shipping and handling charges ... and response
for the quart size kits went up. I recall mostly all of the purchases
were for the larger size kit. I benefited two different ways. I first of
all sold a more expensive version of the product ... and secondly I
was able to increase overall response. This is what I call win-win.
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In the information products business, premiums can be extra
reports ... recordings of seminars or interviews with experts in the
field ... etc. These types of premiums can have a high-perceived
value and yet cost you nothing to include.
Premiums can be used to encourage customers to use your
products for a longer period of time. I remember offering a dietary
supplement on an auto ship basis. I told customers I'd give them a
free DVD Player if they were able to do a little survey for me.
Once the customer got the package, they got a diary they had to fill
out as they used my product, and if they can complete the diary in
its entirety ... I'd send them a DVD Player for free! I was getting
these DVD Players for $40 or so. My monthly shipment of pills cost
the customer $40. I got my customers to use the product for an
average of four months. Thesurvey was a six-month study. If the
customer completed the diary I included with their order, they had
to be on the product for six 'entire months. Now, I got two extra
months worth of sales ... one of the month's revenues, 1had to use
to buy the DVD Player- but I still got an entire extra $40 sale as
profit ... plus the diary from my customer- which I could use any
way I wished. The customer got a free DVD Player- for using a
product he enjoyed. This was also win-win for all parties involved.
I used this same offer for a CD-ROM club I had a few years back. I
was getting huge quantitiesof software for $1' each from companies
who needed to clear out the warehouse for the next version of the
software. For example, one of the products we had in the CD-ROM
club was a popular typing software. Version 4 was on store shelves
for $50 ... version 5 was coming out in a few months, so the
manufacturer was selling me the entire remaining version 4
software for $1 or so.
I sent the customer's two software titles a month for $20 ... and
these programs were worth $50 or so each, so it was a good deal
for them. To encourage customer to stay in the club for 6 months ...
I gave them a hot software title I was buying for $20. My customer
data showed me members were in my club for four months. If I
could get them to stay until month six ... I'd give them the $20
bonus program-, which was worth $40+ in stores. Initial response
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from my mailers was increased because of the free software ... and I
got the customer to stay a little longer. I made more money on both
ends- increased members ... who would stay members longer.
I've also used premiums to persuade customers to buy a certain
way. If I'm looking for an increase of customers to pay by check or
money order- over a credit card ... I'd give bonuses when they paid
with a check or money order. If I wanted customers to pay with
their American Express cards over Visa, Master Card or Discover ...
I'd give them the bonus when they used their American Express
card to order. I'd call it the "American Express Cardholder Bonus".
Customers felt special if they had the American Express card and
used it. In reality, I had a cap on my Visa and MasterCard sales
figures ... but no limit for the American Express sales. And since I
was hitting my limit every month, I wanted to sway a portion of my
sales to a credit card in which] had no limit as to how much
business I could run through the account.
I know of several merchants who use a premium to persuade
customers to buy with a credit card over a check or money order. A
good example of this is Girls Gone Wild. Theyoffer one video for
$9.95 and if you use your credit card, they'll give you an extra
video for free! The real reason behind this is Girls Gone Wild wants
to send you automatically a new video every month and rebill your
credit card. They cannot do this with people who order with checks
and money orders, so they'll give you another video- for no
additional charge ... just to get the credit card number.
Many companies will even let you keep the free premium even if
you ask for a refund. And why shouldn't they? The additional cost
to include the premium is usually made up in the shipping and
handling charge they make you pay. And shipping and handling is
usually not a refundable fee.
Magazines like Sports Illustrated are famous for giving away the
football clock ... or whatever with your "paid SUbscription". They
key word is "paid". To get a subscription, you just call the 800# on
the screen or mail in the order card. They'll send you an issue with
a bill for the subscription. When and only when you send them a
check or credit card number is when they'll send you the free
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clock. .. or football phone ... or whatever sports gift they're offering
that particular year.
Premiums can or cannot be relevant to the product you're selling.
What you have to do is test the offer with and without the premium
or with several different premiums. If a premium pans out ... by all
means you should include it.
I'll go more into "testing" in a later chapter, as it is the Holy Grail of
the direct response business.
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Chapter Fourteen:
Testimonials and Endorsements
One of the main four reasons why people won't respond to your
sales letters and your magazine ads or your TV and radio spots ...
is they do not believe what you are saying. Testimonials, when
used correctly can take away some of their skepticism.
I said in the last paragraph, testimonials WHEN USED
CORRECTLYcan take away some of the fears your prospects have.
When used correctly is the key.
Do you know what 1 hate? When I see a paragraph from a satisfied
user that goes something like this, "1 love this product!"- JA, NY.
This testimonial is all wrong. First off all, it is a vague statement-
which does nothing for your sales pitch ... and second, the person's
name is in initials as is his location. When I see testimonials like
this, they say "hullsh it",
Testimonials must have a full name and a full city and state ... and
they must be more in depth than "it's great!"
I like a testimonial like this, "I started using XYZ three months ago.
When I first started using XYZ, my breasts were barely an A cup ...
but now, I am a full B and my breasts no longer disappear when I
put a shirt over them!"- Mary Brown, Houston, Texas.
This is a bare bones testimoniaL I like to add even more data to
prove they are from a real person. Here's a few things you can add
to make them appear more real and genuine:
1. Use a full name-
This is not hard to use at all. Nobody is going to track down the
writer and point to them in the street.
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2. Use the writer's profession-
This adds more credibility to the statement they make. If a
testimonial is from a Police Officer, an Attorney, a Doctor, etc., it
just makes the statement even more powerful.
3. Use the writer's age and sex-
Again, adds to the credibility.
4. Use the writer's phone number and/ or email address-
This is a little trickier. An email address is real easy to use
nowadays ... and they're really not a hassle on the writer. Maybe
they'll get a few people writing them and asking them about the
product... but not many. If you're mailing 1 Million letters, maybe
they'll receive a dozen people writing them. A phone number can go
directly to the writer. .. or you can set-up a voice mail for them in
their state for $10 a month. The user will put a message on the
voicemail that says something like this, "I've been getting a whole
lot of calls regarding my use of XYZ, so I hooked up this voicemail.
Now, Imay not be able to answer everyone's calls, Ican attest the
statements I've made regarding XYZ are my own and are absolutely
true."
5. Use the writer's photograph-
Adds to creditability.
6. Use before and after photos-
This works in cases where your product will give its user some sort
of altering. Weight loss products, age reduction products,
bodybuilding products, etc.
How to get users to give you testimonials:
You do not have to sit and wait for users of your products to decide
if and when they are going to sit down and write you a nice letter.
Wake up. What I like to do is offer your customer a bonus if they
can tell you their candid comments about your product. A few days
after they receive their order ... or right in their order. .. include a
letter saying you are looking for testimonials for your next mailing.
Tell them if they send their testimonial in, you will give them a
bonus. The bonus can be whatever you wish. Then go on to tell
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them if you decide to use their story in your ad, you 11give them
$500 or whatever.
I once sold a book and told my customers if they were to send me a
testimonial about my book, I'd send them a free report. I was
amazed when I was receiving letters from 50% of my customers! I
was sending out 1000's of free reports! The stories I was getting
from some of these people were amazing!
Bill Phillips of EAS did something radical in 1998. EAS was a
company, which made bodybuilding supplements. Bill had a red
Lamborghini he was going to give away to the person who used his
products as recommended and had the greatest transformation
using his products.
He made an entire promotion out of this car giveaway. First of all,
he got more customers to try his products. Second, he got
thousands of before and after photos and stories to use in future
advertisements. Third, he got customers to use his product for a
longer period of time. When you pencil out the numbers, he may
have given away a $150,000 car ... but he probably sold millions
more in product from people wanting to win the car. .. got millions
more in added sales from people who remained faithful to the
regiment of supplements they had to take to enter the contest ...
and finally, he got millions more in sales from the amazing
testimonials and before and after photos.
We'll go in deeper detail in a later chapter about building
believability. That's our # 1 priority. If people really believed all
ads ... people who send out letters saying they have a "plan" that
will make you a millionaire would be swamped with orders from
99% of they people the mail to. But they don't! What, 99% of
people do not want to be rich? Absolutely not. People do want to be
rich ... it's just they do not believe what you are telling them. People
are getting hammered with sales pitches all day long promising
them the world ... you have to gain their trust to get their money.
Testimonials can help this process.
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How to get permission to use Testimonials:
Insert a special form for testimonials. It can ask for all the
information you seek to receive. There should be fields for age,
profession, name, city, state, phone number, etc. Make sure to
include a large box with enough lines for their story. You don't
want these people to write you a book.
On the very bottom, ask for a signature allowing you to use their
story in future advertisements if you choose. Also, I'd put a second
box that they have to check off if they will allow you to use their
phone number and/ or email address. You cannot have prospects
contact them without their signed permission. Now, including a
phone number in the testimonial is extreme, and not a lot of people
do this ... It would be fine for you not to include a contact method
to the user.
I
Celebrity Endorsements.
I once ran commercials on Howard Stern's radio show every
morning. We had a sexy Penthouse Pet do the voice-over and
results were very good. After we ran the commercial for several
months, response dropped and it was no longer profitable to run.
We told the sales rep at the radio stationwe were looking to pull
the ads as they were not pulling for us any longer. Howard didn't
want to lose the business we were giving his network, so he did the
voice-over for our commercial for free. He endorsed the product
and said how he's hearing from users how well it works for them,
etc. I agreed to test his commercial for a few weeks and agreed not
to pull the ads until I got the results. We ran Howard's new spot,
and found it didn't add to the response at all. We did pull the ads
in the end ... but we did put the commercial on our website and the
link said, "Listen to what Howard Stem Says About Our Product!"
The point of all this- Celebrity endorsements don't always add to
response.
Another time, I was mailing a car stereo magazine's subscriber list.
Results were good. In an attempt to increase response, we received
a letter from the Publisher of the magazine saying how great our
product was. I included his letter along with our sales letter, and
response was no better.
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Another time, one of our products received a very favorable write-
up in a leading magazine. We included the review in our ads, but
again ... no measurable increase in response.
Don't misunderstand me. Do not confuse endorsements in your
letter with endorsed mailing or "Host Parasite" offers as we spoke
about in a previous chapter.
Bottom line: Celebrity Endorsements are not cure-alls, They will
not double your response ... but they do add some believability to
your offerings. If you can get them, great. Add them. But don't
think theyll save the promotion from losing money. Testimonials
are a standard-fare to your offer and you should use them.
] 19
Chapter Fifteen;
Four Reasons Why People Don't Buy From
Your Sales Letters and Advertisements
Getting a profitable response from your sales letters and
advertisements can be complicated ... but when you break it down,
there are only four reasons why your prospects won't buy from
you. I'll go over each one of them ... and reveal techniques how to
overcome them.
The Number One Reason-
They Don't Notice Your Sales Pitch.
If you're sending sales letters in the mail, many things can happen
that prevent your prospects from receiving, seeing, and/ or reading
your sales letter.
If you're mailing Standard Mail- which I advise against ... the Post
Office may throw your letter in the trash. The Post Office is not
supposed to throwaway maiL. but time after time we all read
stories of some mailman who gets caught with ten tons of "Junk
Mail" buried in his backyard. His response when he got busted was
something to the effect that "people didn't want this kind of mail
anyway".
A few years ago, in the Bronx, there was an abandoned building
Postal Workers used to dump their advertising mail. Instead of
delivering it, they just dumped it in this building. It wasn't until
the damn building caught on fire that the authorities discovered
what was going on for years! I've dedicated an entire chapter later
in this book on the Post Office and how to ensure your letter gets
delivered.
My Fiance's Father used to work for the Post Office. I remember
when he first got the job, asking him if he knew of any instances
where Postal Workers were throwing advertising mail in the trash.
He looked at me like I had two heads and was like, "What are you
crazy? Of course not!" A few years later, do you want to know what
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his job description at the Post Office was? MAKING SURE NOBODY
THREW ADVERTISING MAILIN THE TRASH~
If you're mailing Standard Mail- your prospect may have moved
and Standard Mail does not forward to his or her new address.
People move around a lot. When you mail First Class Mail-, which I
advise, mail will be forwarded to the new address as long as the
person put in a Forwarding Order. If you mail Standard Rate-,
which used to be known as "Bulk Mail" ... there is no forwarding. If
the guy moved ... the mail piece goes in the trash!
If you're sales letter screams JUNK MAIL, your prospect may throw
it away before ever giving it a chance to get opened. In later
chapters, I'm going to show you how to make your sales letters get
opened by your prospects. I'll tell you this right now; if you send
out a sales letter- or worse a FLIER... even worse, with an
ADDRESS LABEL on it... it's not going to get a second of your
prospect's time. In the garbage it goes ... and you could have been
offering $1 Million FREE inside ... your prospect will never get to
that point because the letter you sent them looks like trash.
You may have the wrong headline on your sales letter or
advertisement that fails to suck your reader into the body copy.
Again, later in this book, I've dedicated an entire chapter to
Headlines alone! If you are not flagging down the proper prospects
for your offer... they will never get to read what you say in the body
copy of your sales letter and/or advertisement. You've simply got to
attract the right people your product is purchased by.
If you are running a magazine ad, your ad may not look appealing
to read, therefore your prospect keeps flipping pages- overlooking
your entire advertisement. I know it sounds like a broken record,
but I've included an entire chapter on crafting magazine ads later
in this book. If you've got a bad ad, laid out wrong ... and not eye-
appealing ... the reader will keep on flipping and flipping until
something does fmally get their attention. If your ad does not go
"against the grain" as far as what an "ad" is supposed to look like,
it won't get all the readers it should be getting.
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The Number Two Reason-
They Don't Want What You're Selling.
Nobody has a product that everyone wants. Even for the most
beautiful women in America, there are men who will not have sex
with them. Not every person you mail to will want your product.
But in this business, we make our money from the 2°;()that do. If
you target the wrong list... or if you run your ad in the wrong
magazine ... or simply have a product that is not that desirable ...
you're going to have a hard time getting enough orders to cover
your advertising costs.
Its simple- You have must have a product that appeals to a large
group of your prospects and you have to make sure you are getting
it in front of the right prospects- and if you're running a magazine
ad, or a TV or radio sport ... you have to do this for the right price.
Pay too much for an ad, and you just made it that much harder to
cover your advertising cost. It is imperative you negotiate the
absolute best media cost when you run an advertisement. If all ads
were free, every product would be a hit.
There will always be someone who wants your product... the trick
is having enough in your prospect list or magazine readership to
buy and bring back more in sales than it cost to promote.
The Number Three Reason-
They Can't Afford What You're Selling.
I know tons of people who would love to own a Ferrari. I'd bet good
money, if they cost $20,000 brand-new, 9 out of 10 people would
pick the Ferrari over a Honda Civic. The reason why the streets are
not littered with these Italian works of art is because only the
richest of the rich can afford them.
The same goes for other products. Sometimes they simply cost too
much. I remember when I was first getting started in direct
response; I wanted to go to a seminar that cost $5500. I didn't
have that kind of money ... nor did I have any kind of asset I could
"hock" to get the money. If there was a scale of 1 to lOon how bad
I wanted to go to this seminar ... I would have rated my desire a 10.
I really wanted to go... badly.
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Now, there were two other options to purchase the seminar. First,
the seminar offered a payment plan. It was like $500 a month for
11 months. And the second option was a home study version of the
seminar. It was basically a tape recording of the seminar before the
one being offered. It cost just $2200 ... and they also offered
payment terms of $200 a month for a few months' time.
If you're selling something over $100 ... it may be wise to testa
payment plan to attract more customers.
Remember I was saying earlier in this book, if there were no
finance companies to give mortgages to people ... no homes would
sell. How many people have enough to buy their home in cash?
Maybe 1%? The installment terms makes people pay their home off
over the course of 30'years or so.
You're a smart person. You can figure ou t other ways to make your
product seem more affordable.
The Number Four Reason-
They Don't Believe You.
I'd probably say this is one of, if not THE most important reason
your prospects will not buy what you are selling. The funny thing
is, when a mailer gets a poor response, they usually think they
didn't sell hard enough, so they inflate their claims and promises
even more. This is counter-productive. The reason why they didn't
order in the first place is because they didn't believe your sales
pitch. Making your claims even more hyped-up is only going to
make them even more skeptical. Response may go up a little ...
from people who are gullible. But the at the cost of the increased
chance of regulatory attention.
Here's what I believe. There are more people who would buy your
product had you made your pitch more believable than people who
would buy if your offer and/or claims were more powerful and
exaggerated. Give it a shot in your next sales letter or ad.
I learned something important about believability and I want to
teach it to you. Right before you make a claim for your product ...
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give a flaw. The admission of a flaw makes your claim seem more
believable. It works like this:
"This is my first major book. I am not an accomplished author, so
this book will have some flaws. If you read for style, or for literary
quality, like I was saying before, this may not be a book for you.
But there are paragraphs in this book- ideas in this book- whole
chapters in this book that I have never had the balls to put down
on paper before! And they will open doors to you- maybe as soon
as tomorrow- that otherwise might have taken a lifetime of waiting
for you to walk through."
Or something like this:
"Our new wrinkle eraser is not a permanent fix. The results you
achieve with this product will only be temporary.
But even if the results last eight to ten hours, this product will
enable you to hide every fine line and wrinkle on your face. The
results this product provides, even if they are temporary, are
absolutely amazing!"
Or something like this:
"But don't think for a second this product will work if you do not
participate in a healthy diet and exercise program. If you sit on the
couch and continue to eat large portions of the wrong food, this
product will do nothing for you.
But on the other hand, a recent clinical study did show this
product could burn 930 extra calories each and every day when
you eat and exercise properly. That's nearly half your caloric intake
for the day ... ZAPPEDl"
Do you see how the admission of the truth ... or a flaw right before
a claim is made makes the claim seem more believable? Here's how
I think of it. If you put a -2 fact right before a +4 claim ... that +4
claim will have the believability power of a +8 claim. Understand?
Good.
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Here's a few more ways you can make your sales pitch more
believable to your prospects:
Increase belief with ...
A STRONG GUARANTEE-
When you can offer them a money back guarantee, they feel you
believe in what you're selling and if you were selling crap, you'd go
broke pretty fast.
DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK GUARANTEE-
Even more powerful than the standard money back guarantee-
Even if it is conditional or tied to a performance claim.
TAX RETURN-
If you're selling something on making money ... its best to prove
you're not full of shit. Include a tax return showing you made over
$2 Million last year. Also, if you're selling some form of a Tax
Reduction service, include a copy of a few tax returns showing the
best savings you had for your clients ... of course with their names
blacked out for privacy!
CPA'S SWORN STATEMENT-
If you're making a claim as to how much money you have or how
much you're worth if you're promoting something of a financial
nature, like a Business Opportunity, this can help.
ENDORSEMENT FROM A MUTUAL FRIEND-
This always helps. If you want to go out with Michelle and
Michelle's friend Jessica not only knows you ... but thinks you're
the greatest guy ... how much faster do you think you can get a
date with Michelle- even if she's never seen you- when her trusted
friend endorses you? Pretty darn quick.
TESTIMONIALS-
People really do read testimonials.
125
TESTIMONIALS WITH A PHONE NUMBER-
Even more powerful and believabJe. And the number of people who
actually have the balls to call the testimonial are small. It's
included more for the fact that if the reader wanted to call, he
could.
CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT-
Especially when the letter actually comes from the celebrity. People
think they know the celebrity they see on TV. If you get a letter
from Jennifer Anniston talking about a new product that she uses
to keep looking younger. .. you're going to read it ... believe it ... and
probably buy it.
FREE TRIAL-
Nothing beats a free trial. The customer can check out what you
are selling for free and only after it lives up to its claims will he
then decide if he's going to buy it or not. This is powerful!
WONT CASH CHECK FOR 30-DAYS-
Simply hold your customer's check or money order. If he sends
back the product within the 30-day trial period, you'1l send him
back the same identical check or money order he sent you. This
puts his mind at ease knowing the money is not out of his account
just yet.
WONT CHARGE CREDIT CARD FOR 30 DAYS-
Again, the same benefit as above ... just with a credit card.
LIST PATENT NUMBER-
If your product is patented, you can include this number and say
something like, "This product is so amazing and unique, the
United States Patent Office even granted us a Patent. The Patent
Number is 1234565644."
USE PAYMENTTERMS OVER TIME-
Not only does this help the customer afford what you are selling, it
tells him you believe in your product or else you'd want all of your
money upfront.
]26
USE A REAL STREET ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER-
In a sales letter or an ad, the worst thing to do is use a PO BOX for
your address. It's so cold, and it almost looks like you're hiding
where you actually are. Now, there are many private Mailbox
companies that actually offer a street address ... or if you wish you
could really use your address and phone number. I've never had
anyone actually come to a location from the address listed in a
sales letter. Its there to give the reader the comfort that he knows
just where you're sitting.
TELL HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT-
Al1products have a history of development. If yours is
remarkable ... use it in your sales copy.
USE SPECIFIC INFO tHAT CAN BE CHECKABLE-
If you're the ReMax #3 Realtor of the year ... it could be real simple
for someone to punch this question in Google and see your name.
NOTARIZED STATEMENT-
If you're willing to put your claims under oath ... it seems more
believable to your prospects.
USE SPECIFIC TEST RESULTS-
If your product has been clinically tested to burn 930 more calories
over doing nothing ... say so ... but tell them how you came up with
the data. "In a 60-person, 60-day, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled
clinical trial performed by Dr. Johansen at the University of
Florida, he found that the ingredients found in XYZ burn 930 more
calories than the people taking the placebo!"
USE A PERSONAL STORY-
Joe Karbo's famous ad for "The Lazy Man's Way To Riches" starts
something like this: "I used to work hard ... real hard. 60 hours a
week. .. just to barely get by. But I didn't start making real money
until I did less ... a lot less ... " A personal story about your pains ...
your angers ... your frustrations you had before you discovered
what you are selling ... and then how you solved your problems
with this product ... and how it can do the same for them.
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USE DATAFROM A MAGAZINE ARTICLE-
If a magazine did an article about your product, get permission
and reuse it in your ad. This data does not even have to be about
your specific product. For example, if you're selling a pill that helps
you stop smoking ... you can go on to tell of an article revealing the
risks of smoking that was published in Lady's Home Journal, etc.
A BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTO-
If you're selling some form of weight loss ... hair restoration ... body
building ... etc. product, before and afters are quite powerful. Make
that EXTREMELY POWERFUL.
A COPY OF A LICENSE-
If you're licensed to practice something, a copy of the license can
add credibility.
PHOTOG RAPHS OF OTHER USERS-
Along with testimonials, it makes it all the more powerful if the
reader can put a face with a story.
REFLECTED GLORY- Past history of successes. If you're revealing
a new product, and you created a huge, popular product in the
past, you can say something to the effect of "I first created XYZ
back in 1999 and over 8 million people swear by it... now I'm just
as excited about this new product!" If you did something huge in
the past, free ride on it!
NUMBER OF SATISFIED USERS-
345,342 Satisfied Users Cannot Be Wrong!
AMOUNT OF PRODUCT SOLD-
And be specific. Don't say "9 Million Sold". Say "9,123,432 SOLD
SO FAR!"
EMPATHY- Push "Me-Too Feelings". "Hey, I was just like you. I was
in my 50's and found it harder and harder to achieve an erection.
It made me feel..;"
WRITING IN THE FIRST PERSON-
You and me.
r
---- --- ---- - -------- --------- ----------------------------
ENCLOSE A FAVORABLE MAGAZINE ARTICLE-
Reprint the entire thing and enclose :--
BETTER-THAN-RISK-FREE GUARANTEE-
This is where the customer will come out ahead ... even if he asks
for a refund. Usually free bonuses they get to keen for free.
NUMBER OF YEARS IN BUSINESS-
Helping Women Lose Weight Since 1983
CV INFO (DDS, ESQ, PhD)-
If you're a PhD, DDS, etc., when signing the sales letter. .. include
your CV info.
AS SEEN IN ...
If your product has been advertised or written about in
Entrepreneur Magazine ... you can say, "as seen in Entrepreneur
Magazine"
TELL HIM HOW TO DEMONSTRATE-
If you can describe in writing how the reader can demonstrate
some result right now ... do it. "Take three buckets. Put warn water
in one; .. room temperature water in the other. .. and cold water in
one. Submerge your right hand in the cool one. Your left hand in
the warm one. Then plunge both hands into the room temperature
bucket. One hand will feel cold and one hand will feel warm ... and
they're in the same temperature water!"
MEMBERSHIP TO THE BBB OR OTHER SOCIETY-
Proud member of the NNFA.
COPY OF BANK STATEMENT-
If you're bragging about a financial product, a big fat bank
statement can be a powerful believability device.
A SAMPLE OF PRODUCT-
Obviously, if a customer can sample the product first... especially if
it is included with the sales letter. .. like a packet of a wrinkle
serum ... before she buys ... that is powerful! But you better make
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sure you're product is good ... or you'1l get less results than if you
left well enough alone!
YOU'LL BILL THEM LATER FOR THE PRODUCT-
Bill Me Later is a powerful believability technique. If your product
is junk. .. they're not going to pay up. And make sure you don't
take too much of a beating if they don't pay up. Don't offer this on
a diamond watch. If you're doing some tapes or CDs, maybe you
can ask them to pay the shipping fee upfront ... which will cover
your hard costs to manufacture and ship the product.
PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS FOR QUESTIONS-
This comforts prospects that if they have a question, you'd be
there. Now, many may email you; so make sure you keep on top of
the responses!
IN-HOME TRlAL-
This is a powerful technique that practically every infomercial
marketer is using nowadays. I explained how it works in an earlier
chapter. Remember?
ADMISSION OF FLAWS-
I was speaking of this earlier in this chapter. People will think if
you have the balls to tell the flaws ... you're not exaggerating or
lying about your positive claims.
PHOTO OF PERSON WRITING LETIER-
Sometimes I advise this ... sometimes I don't. If you're a slick New
Yorker ... the cowboy in Texas may not identity with you. If you look
too young ... the older, wiser man may not believe you. But if you
feel you have the look that may add believability, use it. I like to
use a photo of my little girl and me sometimes. It makes me appear
to be a family man who you can trust.
FREE-STANDING PHOTO-
A replica of a real photo is used sometimes. The way to make fake
photos is to print them and trim them, then on the back, have a
rubber stamp made that says "Acme Photo Labs" or something like
it and stamp each and every fake photo.
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DO NOT EVER USE HUMOR-
No two people think the same comedian is funny. Some people love
Dice Clay ... and some people hate him. What you think is funny ...
someone else may not think is funny. And hey, we're here to sel1. ..
and they're reading to buy. This is serious business. Don't fool
around with humor.
WOW! That was one hell of a chapter! My fingers are on fire from
typing! Again, some of the techniques listed in this chapter, 111go
into greater detail later in this book.
Your success boils down to your ability to persuade strangers to
see things your way. Master and overcome the four reasons why
prospects don't buy. Try to make your offer go with the current and
not get snagged on any of the four reasons.
NOTE: Since writing this book, I have discovered yet another reason
why someone may not respond to your offer. You can cover the 4
main reasons why they don't buy ... but they still may not respond
even if they want your product. They may not want it enough to
exchange the dollar amount you're asking (or it. Sure, they can have
all the money in the world ... but just because they have enough
money- it does not mean they'll pay whatever you ask. For
example ... I had several millions of dollars in the bank, and J
wanted this new Lamborghini. The only thing was that I did not
want to pay the $50,000 over sticker price the dealer was asking for
it because it was such a hot car.
Sure ... your prospect may want your new diet pill ... but if you were
asking $100 a bottle... some people may not want it BAD ENOUGH
to exchange their money for it. You could even price the damn thing
at $30 and there may still be people who will not want to exchange
the $30 in the bankfor these pills. THIS IS WHERE EXCELLENT
COPYWRITINGSKILLS COMEIN. You have to do a goodjob of
convincina them the orice uou're askina is iust a fraction of what he
or she is to gain in RESULTS using yo;;'_rproduct: Make sure to read
the next chapter.
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Chapter Sixteen:
Hire a Copywriter or Do It Yourself?
By this point, you should have an idea of the product or service
you wish to manufacture and market. You should have a full
understanding of the mathematics of direct response products.
You should have an understanding of the back end sales your
product will get. You should know all about mailing lists and
magazine ads. You should know all about offers, guarantees,
premiums, and the reasons why someone won't buy your idea.
At this point, you have enough data to actually start crafting a
sales letter or a magazine ad for your product. You can create your
own sales material or you can hire a Professional Copywriter to do
the job for you.
Now, I look back at my first sales letters and I cringe. No wonder
they didn't work! They were really poorly written ... had poor
layouL. and just didn't know how to "sell".
If course, I didn't have a book like this one to guide me through the
ad creation process ... but you still mayor may not be ready to
actually "write" your own thing.
I guess only you can be the judge. If it were up to me, and if you
had a few thousand extra dollars to have even a low-grade
copywriter create your sales letter or ad, I would advise it.
But on the other hand, if you barely have enough money to put out
a 2,500mail piece test ... or if you're simply a hands-on type of
person who wants to do the entire thing yourself ... you've got to
study the next five chapters that are all about crafting the sales
letter or magazine advertisement.
If you want to go the safest route and hire a copywriter to do the
deed for you ... you can spend anywhere from $500 or so ... all the
way up to $15,000 and more for top-shelf copywriters like myself.
132
If you were to come to me and ask me to craft your sales material ...
if our schedules do not conflict... you're looking at $15,000 plus a
cut of the gross sales if the letter or ad gets rolled-out.
Too much money? To some, yes. To some, no. I'm not trying to
"sell" you into hiring me, so do not get the wrong idea here. But
this is what I think: A full-page ad in Maxim Magazine will cost you
$BO,OOO. Think of this ad as the lot you want to build your dream
home on- it's an oceanfront lot with lBO-degree views of the
Pacific. Are you going to ruin it by parking a trailer on it ... or do
you want to build yourself a mansion?
The cost you spend on advertising- either in magazines or in the
mail costs the same regardless if your "pitch" pulls 100 orders ... or
1,000 orders. Why not get your advertising dollars to work as hard
as they can for you?
I believe 80% of copywriters can produce "good" advertising ... 15%
can create "great" advertising ... and 5% can produce absolutely
"PHENOMENAL" advertising.
While the guys in the top 5% will charge the $10,000 and more ...
you can hire a guy for $500 to $1,000 that will create at least a
"good" sales pitch for you ... and at this moment in time ... you may
not even be able to create a "good" sales pitch. Do you know how to
find out if you're as good as one of the 80% who can create "good"
advertising? Read the next five chapters ... study them ... then write
your own mail piece or advertisement. Are you confident in it
enough to print it and attach 37 cents postage to it? If so, go for it.
If not, this chapter is for you.
But before you hire a copywriter. .. there are some experts in this
field who will give your sales letter or ad a "critique" for a small fee
or even free.
I know Denny Hatch will give a FREE critique. Denny is a direct
response pro. He's a consultant and freelance copywriter, founder
of Inside Direct Mail (a trade newsletter), and he's also the former
editor of TARGET MARKETING-a trade magazine for direct
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133
response professionals- like you now are! In a recent ad, Denny
has agreed to give free critiques. You can email him at
DENNYHATCH@AOL.COMand find out how you can get him to
give you a critique.
Or even better, get in touch with me- since you bought this book. ..
1'11critique your sales letter or advertisement for free as well.
Either way, you'll get a list of the things you're doing right and the
things you're doing wrong- so you can fix them before you spend
any money running or mailing anything. My latest contact
information can be found elsewhere in this book.
But even if you do not want to give "writing" a try- even with a free
professional critique .. : you're left with no choice but to shop for a
copywriter.
Writing great copy comes with experience. Even if you have a little
money to invest, a cheapo copywriter can at least produce "good"
copy ... otherwise, he'd be working at McDonalds.
Here's what you should do if you're looking for a copywriter-
Search the internet ... do a Google search for copywriters ... but
make sure they are DIRECT RESPONSE copywriters- ones that
actually have samples of other sales letters and magazine ads they
can send you to review and judge their skills.
Make sure to ask the copywriter if he or she has had any
experience writing for products similar to yours. If they have, make
sure you get samples! If you like what you see, talk price with
them.
After you read the next few chapters, even if you decide not to write
your first sales letter or ad, you can at the very least have enough
skill to "recognize" good, great, or horrible advertising copy.
If you've got the money and want the best copy ... call on me.
Maybe if you make me feel bad for you, and if I got some space I
need to fill... maybe we can work out some "discounted" deal.
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Chapter Seventeen:
The Mall piece
Before we even think about writing a word, we have to have a
rough idea of the pieces your sales letter will consist of.
First of all..; it's best to start with a standard # 10 package that will
weight 10z. or under ... which will qualify you for 37 cents First
Class postage which is the standard cost to mail a letter at the
current time.
I have two different # to templates I usually use. One is for an offer
that takes orders by way of phone and / or website orders as well as
mail in orders. The second template is for offers that require only a
call in order or a website order. What I mean by this is, for some
offers, you do not want check orders as your product may be an
auto shipped product where you need only credit cards orders ...
and allowing check orders will hurt your back end. Some offers do
not matter if you accept payment in check, money order or credit
card. Anyway ... Here they are:
OFFERS THAT REQUIRE PHONE-IN,
WEBSITE, AND MAIL-IN ORDERS:
This package consists of the following parts:
#10 Envelope: The envelope in which you're going to stuff your
marketing material in. I do not like to use "window" envelopes.
Window envelopes are the envelopes with the clear plastic window
that allows you to see in. I like to use a closed-faced, plain-old,
standard size # 10 envelope.
11"x17" Sales Letter: When this sheet is folded down, you'll have
enough space to fit a 4-page Jetter. This is enough copy to sell most
products ... and is a standard size I always use.
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7"xlO" Brochure: This piece can either be a vertical brochure or a
simple "Questions and Testimonials" piece. It's usually printed on
the same type of paper as the 11"xl?" sales letter.
8.5" x 3.6" Order Card: This is the card the customer will fill out
and mail back to you. It is usually printed on a stiffer cardstock
paper. This sheet will have enough space on it to resell the offer,
capture the shipping information, contact information, credit card
number, etc. This card gets inserted by the customer into the 6
3/4 envelope listed below.
63/4 Response Envelope: This is a smaller envelope that will be
addressed to you- or where you want the orders to go to. Do not
worry about postage being "pre-paid" by you ... you should have
your customer apply his or her own postage stamp. Tests have
shown that there is no lift in response by paying for postage. Some
people do not like receiving direct mail sales letters- some people
will tear-up your sales letter, stuff it in this envelope and mail it
back to you- and you'11get stuck paying for the postage!
This mail piece will weigh less than one ounce and it will have
enough space to do. the entire selling process. Now, let's talk about
the mail piece you'll use when you do not want people to order by
check or money order.
This package consists of the following parts:
# 10 Envelope: This envelope does the same as what the envelope
will do in the first template.
11"x17" Sales Letter: This sales letter will do the same as the
11"x17" in the first template.
8.5"x5.5": This is usually where I'd put all the testimonials.
8.5"x5.5": This is where I'd usually list all of the questions and
answers prospects may have.
8.5"xl1": This piece should be a brief version of the sales letter ...
which goes over the top benefits of your product. It can look like a
]36
full-page magazine ad ... or an editorial write-up. This piece is
basically for the people who do not go directly into the 11"x17"
sales letter, so it has to "sell" on its own ... only quicker than the
main 4-page sales letter.
This mail piece also weighs in less than one ounce. This is a great
template when you do not want mail-in orders. Say you were
selling a pill that you wanted your customersto order with a credit
card for an auto ship program ... if you give customers no other
alternative to order. .. other than the 800#, that's what he'll do. If
you give him two options ... you're going to get a lot more check
orders ... and if you want to reb ill automatically, getting check
orders will kill your chances totally.
Folding:
If you have a choice, you want to "Z-Fold", instead of "letter
folding" your sales pieces that need to be folded. It will not alter
your chances of success at all... but it is easier for the reader to
open your sales material when it is folded in a "Z" technique than a
"letter fold".
Insertion Order:
The order in which your pieces are inserted into your envelope can
actually alter response! This is how I like to have my pieces
inserted in the envelope. All the fronts of the pieces should be
facing the REAR of the # 10 envelope. If you are looking at the back
of the # 10 envelope, this is the insertion pattern for Template
Letter # 1:
From the inside back of the # 10, you should see the 11"xI7" sales
letter facing the rear, behind that, the T'xIO" facing the rear, then
the order card- facing the rear, then the 6 3/4 envelope- facing the
rear. So if you were to stack these four inserts on top of each other
on a table, the 6 3/4 envelope would be on the bottom, front facing
up, and on top would be the 11"xI7" sales letter, facing up ... then
this stack would be inserted in the # 10 facing the rear of the
envelope, so if you were to look through the rear of the #10
envelope, you should read the headline on the 11"x l ?" sales letter,
and the front of the # 10 envelope, where the prospect's name will
be ink-jetted on, should see the rear of the 6 3/4 envelope.
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Template Letter #2:
From the inside back of the # 10, you should see the 11"x17" sales
letter facing the rear, behind that, the 8.S"xS.5"" facing the rear,
then the next 8.5"xS.5"- facing the rear, then the 8.5"xll"- facing
the rear. So if you were to stack these four inserts on top of each
other on a table, the 8.S"x 11" piece would be on the bottom, front
facing up, and on top would be the II"xI7" sales letter, facing up ...
then this stack would be inserted in the # 10 facing the rear of the
envelope, so if you were to look through the rear of the # 10
envelope, you should read the headline on the 11"x17" sales letter,
and the front of the # 10 envelope, where the prospect's name will
be ink-jetted on, should see the rear of the 8.S"xl1» piece.
It is a must that your inserts get inserted the right way. If a
prospect opens your envelope and sees an order card first... or if
the sales letter is upside down ... or if it's backwards ... it will alter
the experience your prospect will have when he opens the
envelope. Everything in this stage of the game is crucial. Insert the
pieces correctly ... and make sure they are all inserted correctly!
You'd be surprised how easy it is to screw this up.
Paper QUality:
Don't be fooled into thinking you need to use high-quality paper.
Just plain-old standard white 20 pound paper. Heavier paper ... or
glossy paper only adds to the cost to print and the cost to mail, as
it is heavier. Stick with standard stuff.
Use of Color and Photographs:
Do you want to know something? My most successful sales letters
have been one color (just black ink), and usually had no
photographs! I can tell you this- my two most successful sales
letters had no photos and were all printed in just black ink!
Getting too elaborate actually can hurt response. Keep it simple.
Graphics:
We're going to go into graphics and layouts in a later chapter. But,
I'll give you a preview of what you'll learn- KISS. This stands for
Keep It Simple Stupid!
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Addressing:
When it comes to addressing your # 10 envelope with your
customer's address and name ... do not use a mailing label. The
trick here is not to make this look like junk mail. You're going to
want to print the addresses right onto your # 10 either through
your computer printer ... or you want a letter shop to ink-jet the
names on for you.
Postage:
The last thing you want to do is prin t a bulk mail permit box on
the upper right corner of your envelope. The second to last thing
you want to do is stamp the mail with a postage meter. What you
want to do is apply a real, live, First Class Stamp. The same ones
you use to mail your phone bill. You're NOT going to do "pre-
sorted" First Class Mail ... you're going to pay FULL PRICE for a
REGULAR First Class Postage Stamp! I'll go more into this in a
later chapter.
Less Is Not Better:
By thinking you can save a few dollars by eliminating certain
pieces of the direct mail package, you're being stupid. If you cut
the sales letter from 4 pages to 2 ... you're going to cut your
response as well. If you leave out the order card in Template # 1...
you're going to hurt response. What the Post Office is allowing us
to do is mail up to one ounce for 37 cents ... and we want our direct
mail piece to weigh-in right at .9 ounces or even one ounce flat.
Maximize what you can send for one ounce!
Before I write even one single word of copy, I have an idea of what
the mail piece is going to look like- meaning its components. Now
that you have an idea of the components, you can start gathering
ideas for headlines gathering questions and answers you think
prospects may have gathering testimonials ... etc.
But before we go on to the use of graphics and typography in the
next chapter. .. let's talk about the first thing your prospect and
Postal Worker are going to see- YOUR MAILING ENVELOPE.
This is a crucial part of your success in direct mail.
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139
The sole purpose of the # 10 carrier envelope is to get it delivered
and get it opened- that's all. It's not there to "sell" ... it's not there to
tell your prospect what you're selling ... it's not there to talk about
price ... it's just used to keep the sales material inside from spilling
out in the gutter.
It should not be fancy. It should not be cute. Here's the only two
ways it should look like:
It can look official. It can look like a letter coming from the IRS or a
Government Agency. It can look like it is a credit card bill. It can
look like a letter from an Attorney ... or a Doctor. .. or a Medical Lab.
or it can be vague, with only a return address in the "cornercard"
and no company name! No other words on the envelope other than
maybe "First Class Mail".
Here are a few great examples of official envelope ideas I've used in
the past with great success. I was selling dietary supplements. I
had the logo of the company in the corner card along with the
address. It said, PharmaCeutic Laboratories in logotype and under
the logo, it had the address: 4055 Industrial Blvd. Lyndhurst, New
Jersey, 07071. I printed this in Process Blue ink, so it looked
medical. In this sales letter, I had results of a clinical study on the
product I was selling, so on the envelope, in the lower left corner of
the envelope, I added the words: "First Class Mail- Important Test
Results Enclosed"
Now, to the Postal Worker handling several thousands of these
letters, he thought it was results of some testing the addressee
needed as soon as possible. It looked important. Now, there were
test results enclosed ... for the product I was selling ... but I need
the sales letter to get delivered and opened. If it said, "Lose 23
Pounds By Summer!" Mr. Postman would have took it as junk mail
and treated it as such ... and the recipient would have looked at it
as junk mail as well- maybe even throwing the entire thing in the
trash without reading a single word of it. Our only goal right now is
to get the damn thing delivered and opened.
-------------------------_ ..__ ....
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It's funny. Sometimes, when you mail in large numbers, the
sealing machine sometimes runs out of water and some envelopes
do not get sealed properly or at alL When this happens, the
contents of the envelope may fall out. I remember some people we
mailed to actually writing us saying they got an empty envelopeand they wanted to see what the test results were! They thought it
might have been about them!
One time, I used an official-looking envelope. It was supposed to
look like a Government envelope. It had just a return address on
the corner card, and a black line under the address. Under the
line, it said, "For Official Use Only, Penalty For Private Use, $300".
This is the same wording the IRS uses and I even went as far as to
copy their layout! I bet this envelope got delivered and opened.
I'm looking for the day when I do some sort of promotion with an
Attorney. Boy am I going to have fun with this one! I know an
Attorney that sells a course on buying Real Estate at Tax Deed
Sales. Wouldn't it be great if he sends out sales letters in his
Attorney envelope? I'm sure every person who gets one of them will
open it as soon as they get it!
An envelope can look personal. A simple plain envelope with a
return address that reveals only the address and not the name ...
either typed in "courier" font or even handwritten ... or simulated
handwritten ... with the prospect's name in the center. The postage
will be a regular stamp. This letter looks like a personal letter you'd
send your Mother or Brother. This is a simple envelope and it
always gets opened. Don't worry about not looking "Professional",
but don't get me wrong- certain types of product may not call for
this personal envelope ... like a diet pill. But then, I gave you such a
great example of a diet pill envelope before, why would you use
anything else?
As for these personal envelopes, I remember mailing a test with
simulated hand-written addressing. I took it even one step further
and had these little green stickers made up that looked like
Certified Mail Stickers ... except mine said "Verified Delivery" and
had a neat little fake number across them. I stuck them right on
the top center of the # 10 envelope with the hand addressing and a
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real stamp. It looked as if it was a Certified letter and 1was sure it
would get great response. Well it did ... but unfortunately, the Post
Office wrote me a letter asking me never to do this again as the
Postal workers were getting fooled into thinking it was Certified
Mail and were asking the recipients for signatures! It clearly said
"Verified Delivery" ... but Postal Workers are not the smartest I
guess.
My friend Gary Halbert says people sort their mail over a trashcan.
If it looks like junk mail. .. with advertising copy allover the
envelope screaming claims ... with a mailing label affixed instead of
a stamp ... sent to them bulk rate ... into the trash it goes. So, make
it look personal... or make it look official.
Later on in years- once you have a winning sales letter, you can
experiment with teaser copy on the envelopes ... but right now, let's
play everything on the safe side. Remember, the # 1 reason why
people will not buy from you, is they do not receive or they do not
notice your sales material. Personal and Official letters always get
delivered by the Post Office- with respect ... and opened by the
recipient!
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Chapter Eighteen:
Graphics ... Photos and Typography
Many people new to this business waste way too much money
when they are at the graphic artist, at the printer, or when running
a magazine advertisement.
Novices think the prettier a sales message looks ... the flashier the
graphics ... the more colorful.. , the glossier the paper ... the better
the response. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I remember once my assistant messed up and told my printer to
use a heavy, glossy paper stock for a test mailer. I wanted a
regular 60-pound offset paper- as I always do. I was a little mad.
After all, this paper blunder was going to knock my mail piece over
the one-ounce mark. .. and that means 23 more cents I'd have to
add on every sales letter!
Regardless of that, 1mailed the test mailer and it did well. When I
rolled-out the mailer in a larger quantity, of course I used the
correct paper. I even took away the 2nd color I used for the
headline, and made it all black ink. Did response suddenly go
down? NO. It was the exact same.
Think about it- when you are offered something you want, are you
going to care if the sales letter was on fancy paper? If anything, the
fanciness of the paper would take your attention away from the
sales message.
Even with magazine ads. I remember I ran an ad that used a
second color and an artistically written headline. The headline was
something like "Make your car vibrate the asphalt for cheap". This
was for an audio membership club I was running. The headline
was all "vibrated"-looking and the graphic artist was very proud of
herself. This was just a year or two after I got into this business, so
I didn't know any better. The ad broke-even and failed to bring me
any type of profit.
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143
A few weeks later I was reading about headlines and I wrote a great
headline for this ad. I went back to the graphic artist and told her
to remove the fancy lettering on top ... knock the colors down to one
(black}... and she looked at me like I was crazy for "uglying" her
beautiful graphics.
The next month when the ad came out... we tripled the results it
got. An ad that broke-even was now bringing in three times its
cost ... and it was uglier ... less colorful... and cheaper to run as it
used one less color! I was happy and learned a very valuable
lesson. The secret is in the message and getting the message
noticed and read- not by looking pretty.
Many copywriters sayrugly works", I believe it. They advise using
ugly color paper stock for inserts and sales letters. I'm not talking
dark, hard to read paper colors ... just weird colors, like mango.
They sure stick out from a sea of white paper. I say you should
worry about getting the sales letter to work first before you start
experimenting with paper colors. Let's keep it safe and use white or
cream-colored paper.
Even with magazines. I do not ever pay for color to be added to my
ad. Actually, for a magazine to charge for a color ad is a scam. The
entire magazine is printed in large "signatures" or groups of pages
at a clip. And nowadays, magazines are all full color. So it's costing
the publisher not a single cent more to run your ad in color. They
just want to charge you for it. Its kind of bullshit. But we shouldn't
care, as we never want to worry about running color ads- even if
the publisher will give us the color for free. Now this may sound
crazy, but the secret to successful advertising in magazines is to
get noticed. If the entire magazine were full color ... if the publisher
is even giving away color to all the other advertisers ... it would be a
great advantage to you to do a black and white ad. You'll have the
"sorest-thumb" in the magazine!
Now as for the actual graphics and the typography, I have a very
strict set of rules about the fonts you use, the sentence length, the
paragraph length, etc. I will go into deeper depth below.
144
Headline Fonts.
When creating headlines, I like to use Ariel..; Helvetica ... Franklin
Gothic ... Eras ... or Times New Roman for the font. Now there's a
difference in fonts- there's Sans Serif... and there's Serif. As you
can see, I wrote Sans Serif in Sans Serif type. This type is missing
the little extender on the ends of letters. There have been studies
that show Serif fonts have a better comprehension level. But for
headlines, where it's just a few simple words, fee free to use SANS
SERIF type. If it were up to me, I'd tell you to stick with Helvetica.
Subhead Fonts:
When creating sub-headline text, you can use the same font as the
headline ... just smaller. .. not as bold ... and maybe in italic type. If
you do not want to use the same font, feel free to use Times New
Roman. .
Body Copy Fonts:
When creating body copy never use a SANS SERIF font. Always use
a serif font such as Times New Roman or Courier. (Courier is to be
used only in sales letters and not in magazines. Magazines should
always use Times New Roman.) Courier is a greatfont that looks
like a typewriter. It's super easy to read ... but it does take up more
space than the Times New Roman font. So, if you've got room ... go
for Courier. If not, Times New Roman is fine.
Paragraph Headers:
For paragraph headers, if you are using Times New Roman for the
body copy, you can use the same font ... just BOLD it. lfyou are
using Courier for the body copy, and you want to use it for the
paragraph headers, you'll want to underline it ... as bolding Courier
is not too pretty in my opinion. I sometimes use Helvetica in bold
for my paragraph headers ... regardless if I'm using Times New
Roman or Courier for my body copy.
Bottom line: Keep it safe. Headlines should be Helvetica ... or Times
New Roman. Body Copy should be Times New Roman or Courier.
(Courier for sales letters only). Subheads and Paragraph Headers
can be any of the three fonts I advise to use.
145
Colors?
I don't know how many times I should say it... but I have never
had a color ad pull it's additional cost for color. I've never even had
a color ad where I got the color upgrade for free out pull the very
same ad in black and white. This is the same for sales letters in
the mail ... or in magazine ads. I think black and white is a great
advantage in magazines ... especially ones with a lot of color ads.
You want to get noticed!
Fancy Graphics?
Now, I do not want you to go and create ugly ads and sales
letters ... but they do not need a top-dollar graphic designer either.
I remember I went to a new graphic designer and had him create
an ad for me from scratch ... just to get a different look than the
ones I've been creating. Do you know what this guy did? First of
all, he used a scan of brushed aluminum and put that behind the
headline. Now the headline cannot be read as easily and it sure
doesn't stick out as well with the background image. Then as a
screen behind the body copy ... he ran TEXT! This ad looked like a
train wreck. He thought it was a piece of art. Do you think The
New York Times worries too much about making articles look like
works of art? Hell no- and either should you. The theory you
should have is that you just want to get your test read and noticed.
That's all. What gets an article read in The New York Times? A
good headline that sucks you into the body copy. Graphic
Designers always want to show-off their skills of making things
look pretty. That's fine. But tell them to use their skill on your
letterheads and business cards- not your advertising!
When it comes to magazines, a trick you should use is to have
your ad "Pub Set". You bring your sales copy to the graphic
designer. .. if you're using one ... and you bring him a copy of the
magazine you are placing your ad in. Replicate the editorial layout
as best as you can. On the bottom of the ad ... make sure to put the
words, "Special Advertorial" in italic ... maybe even in 60% black ...
so it's there ... but not too noticeable. I advise you to put this on
your ad ahead of time because if you leave it up to the magazine ...
they'll smack the words ADVERTISEMENT right in dead center on
top of your ad in huge, bold type. If you beat them to the punch
146
and add these words, but not as boldly as they would ... you may
get away with it.
Whywould you want your ads to look like an article in the
magazine? Well,a magazine's readers trust the magazine they're
reading. That's why they buy it... subscribe to it... and read it.
They trust it. And trust and believability is one of, if not THE
biggest reason people do not buy your product.
It's been proven that 500% more people notice and read "editorial"
style advertisements than pretty, fancy, graphic-overdosed ads.
You're not here to be pretty ... you're here to get attention. Editorial
formats get more attention.
Photos:
Most of my direct mail never has photos. Mymagazine ads usually
have a photo of someone's face in the upper right hand corner with
a caption. A photo could be a great grabber in a magazine ... not so
much in direct mail sales letters.
Here's my opinion of photos of products. Unless it's designed by
Apple Computer ... as sexy as a Powerbook... or an iPod... or a new
G5... I wouldn't include a photo of the product you're selling. Why?
Chances are it's not going to be as pretty as the image your reader
will have of it in his imagination. I once sold a golf driver in a sales
letters. Wedidn't have the image of the actual driver ready when
we were printing the sales letter. .. so we mailed the letter without
the image. The letter pulled good results. When we finally got the
actual driver from the manufacturer, we had it photographed and
made a nice, full-color insert for the sales letter showcasing the
driver. Even though the driver was a good-looking, rather large,
beautiful club... we pulled less orders! We removed the image and
response was back up! We weren't misleading people by not
including a photo of the product ... but we did do better when we let
the advertising copy paint the image of the product in their
imaginations.
Captions:
In magazine ads, the first thing people see is an image, then the
Caption under the photo ... sometimes even before they read the
147
headline! It is a must to have a killer caption under any photo you
use. The caption is a huge part of an ad and 1 laugh when 1see a
caption and it's the damn photographer's name! A caption is the
PS: in a sales letter (I'll talk about this in a later chapter).
Paragraph Length:
111speak more about this in the next chapter. .. but you should
keep your sentences to no more than seven words ... and you
should keep you paragraphs no more than seven lines long.
Americans read at the 6th Grade level. You've got to keep the
sentences short .... seven words or less.
Coupons:
I want my magazine ads to look like articles ... I want my sales
letters to look like actual letters. If my offer does not require a
check or money order payment option and I'm just taking credit
cards, I never coupon. But for some promotions that do take
checks, I use an order card in direct mail ... and in magazine ads,
it's really your call for order coupons. If you're going for the
editorial look ... editorial copy does not have order forms.
148
Chapter Nineteen:
Copywrltlng
So you're going to take the challenge and write your own
advertisement or sales letter? Good for you. That's the way I did
it... unfortunately for me... I was unaware there were tons of books
written long ago that could have told me a lot of the things I had to
figure out on my own.
I've only made a few chapters in this book about writing copy. I've
done this for a reason. The last thing the World needed was
another book about copywriting! What the World needed was a
book that would teach you how to conceptualize, strategize, and
implement techniques you need to sell products and services
through direct response. I'll teach as best as I can about writing
copy in this chapter. .. but if you want to get a super education on
the fine art of writing copy... there are many books that can really
go into depth about the subject. I'll list a few of my favorites
towards the end of this book.
The level of your ability to convince people will tell you how rich
you are going to be ... not only in this business ... but every
business. The entire World goes round on people buying things ...
and people selling things. The people who can sell the best, make
the most sales ... and make the most money. And to sell, you have
to make people see things your way. They have to agree with you.
They have to feel you have their best interest at hand. I'm going to
teach you how to do this.
Before we actually start talking about writing copy, here's a great
example of top-notch copywriting for a bodybuilding supplement
that pulled extremely well.
***
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149
Amazing New Pill. .. Tested and Clinically
Proven In Russia ...
MAKES EVERY WORKOUT GIVE THE
MUSCLE GAINS OF THREE!
Imagine- Every rep ... Every squat... Every press ... giving you the explosive
shirt-rippingresults of three ... outperforming even the most powerful - and
illegal Anabolic Steroids! Don't believe it? The popular bodybuilding
magazines like Muscular Development didn't either ... but after they knew
the facts, they're now saying, "Steroids Are Obsolete!"
Dear Friend,
Is it true? Has modern science finally created a
pill that can make you look like a Professional
Bodybuilder ... without killing yourself in the gym?
My name is Benjamin Bergin. I'm not a
professional ad writer. But what I have to share with
you is so extraordinary and so powerful; I decided to
write you myself. So bear with me a little.
The company I work for, MedEx Laboratories, is
manufacturing a new pill that has just been clinically
proven to increase your muscle mass by 310%- without
investing the usual 3-5 years it takeS the average
bodybuilder to get "burley".
In fact, 1 believe our new pill makes every other
synthetic or natural anabolic steroid on the planet
literally obsolete! I'm so excited about our new
discovery that I have to get this off my chest before
I EXPLODE!
Just imagine this ...
Popping a few easy-to-swallow pills and
experiencing 3 to 5 years of "gym results" in just a
few short months. You'll have arms 3 full inches
beefier ...tearing your shirtsleeves at the seams.
i50
You'll add so many inches to your upper body; you'll
have to give all your suits to the Salvation Army
because they just won't fit anymore! And as for your
leg s...forget about it. They won't squeeze into those
jeans you have- no matter how baggy you wear them!
But what may excite you most is that women will
be lusting after your "beefcake" body ...even if it
currently resembles a flabby "cheesecake" or even
worse, a scrawny "cupcake"! That would be something ...
wouldn't it?
Can One S~ple Pill Ready Do All This
Without Spending As Many Hours In The Gym?
Look- I know what you're reading contradicts
everything you've always thought about building
muscles_ I know it sounds unbelievable ... I didn't
believe it at first either. But all I want you to do
is read this letter and when you're finished, make
your own well-reasoned conclusion. Fair enough?
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University Figure
Out How To Manipulate The GDF8 Gene
(nicknamed the Schwarzenegger Gene)
Through research, we've uncovered the primary
gene in your body that controls muscle size. This gene
makes a protein that prevents muscle growth and
increases fat storage. It's called Growth and
Differentiation Factor 8 or GDF8 for short.
If You Want To Get Ripped-Up and Pack-On Muscle,
GDF8 Is Your Worst Enemy!
GDF8 is the one protein in your body whose sole
purpose is to STOP you from getting H-U-G-E!
Everyone's body produces GDF8 naturally and it's
the primary reason why it is almost impossible to make
dramatic increases in muscle size and performance
naturally. That's because every time you do something
151
that stimulates improvement, your body stops it with a
burst of GDF8!
If You Were Able To Suppress Your Body's GDF8
Production, Your Muscles Would SWELL So Fast, Your
Friends Will Swear You're On Steroids!
Like I was saying before, Scientists at Johns
Hopkins University have discovered suppressing GDF8
production in animals permitted them to achieve
STAGGERING levels of muscularity! Mice that produced
little or no GDF8 were 300% more muscular than normal
mice! And of course, the mice didn't lift weights to
get 300% more muscular!
And now, we're bringing this amazing GDFS
suppressor to the market for humans. It's called
DynaBolics and it seems everyone who is using it is
achieving results that are hard to believe!
DynaBolics is completely safe and natural. Its
main ingredient is actually derived from a rare and
exotic sea algae, which has been shown to bind to the
muscle-fighting GDF8 protein.
It's pretty simple to understand ...In order for
GDF8 to perform its function of limiting muscle'
growth, it must first find it's way to your muscles.
DynaBolics is designed to bind to the GDF8 protein,
preventing it from ever finding its way to your
muscles. When GDF8 is disabled or reduced, there is no
limit to your muscle growth!
In The Past, Bodybuilders and Professional Athletes
Would Have Crawled Across Broken Glass To Get Their
Hands On Such A Radical Supplement ..But Thanks To
Modern Science, DynaBolics Is Just A Phone Call Away!
DynaBolics delivers a muscle-building advantage
never before available to the general public. It's not
just a little better than protein powders, growth
hormone, or anabolic steroids_ it makes them OBSOLETE!
152
Look- even if you're the typical "hard-gainer" or
even if you're already BIG but feel like you've "maxed
out" or even if you never lifted a weight in your life
and want to get H-U-G-E fast, DynaBolics may transform
your body so radically, not even your pets will
recognize you!
Not Only Has A Reduction In GDF8 Shown To Explode
Muscle Size ...It Has Also Shown To Burn Fat Like
Butter Dropped In A Hot Frying Pan!
In studies, a decrease in GDFB resulted in fat
loss of 35% to 50%! This means you may shed body fat
so fast and furious, your skin will literally act as
"Shrink-Wrap" to show-off your bulging muscles.
Is DynaBolics the perfect supplement_. you know
the "magic" pill we've all dreamed about? Some of the
most popular bodybuilding magazines seem to think so.
But here's how you can decide for yourself ...
EXPERIENCE For Yourself Why Muscular Development
Magazine Says ... "Steroids Are Obsolete!"
If you're interested in trying DynaBolics, you're
in for a pleasant surprise_ instead of paying tbe
retail price of $99.95 per bottle; your first 30-day
supply of DynaBolics can be purchased for just $59.95 ...
but only during this unusual promotion. (more on that
later)
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
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153
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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154
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'llbe 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
156
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
---------------------------------------------------------
157
"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
J58
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 urgencytechnique ... 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!"
--r ------
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 ...
J 61
"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
J62
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 their
wallet 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. Dumbpeople 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...
]65
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 GO THROUGH 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 YOURPROFITS
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
171
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."
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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 Wrinkle Cream ...
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 usuallybroken 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-in check 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.
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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 whenyou'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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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
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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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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 off to 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.
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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 samebad 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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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
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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 straight First-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 postagegoes 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.
197
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 to see 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 threeway 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 sayinghow 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, where you 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 theydidn'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 even worth 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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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 thelowest
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".
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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 middle of your sales pitch.
r
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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 theend, if they could sell everything ...
they got $10 in commissions. If they were only able to sell two
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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.
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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 house list 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!
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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 TradeSecrets ... 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 letter had 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 errorand 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.
235
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 knowwhen 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 American banks. 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,