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Inner Circle Roundtable of 21st Century Marketers |
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Chapter Thirty-One Be a List Building Maniac
By Ben Hart
Your most valuable asset is your list of qualified leads and happy customers.
A poorly written sales letter can work to the right list. But the best written sales letter in the world will not work to the wrong list.
This is as true in offline direct marketing as it is in on the Internet.
Knowing how to build a list of qualified leads is like having the combination to the vault at Fort Knox. Once you have your list, you will be able to bring money in the door whenever you want.
But if you have no way to build a list of people who are interested in what you are selling, you have no business because you have no way to consistently sell your products and services.
Most of this book is about list building.
I first got seriously into the list building business in early 1990s – in the offline world, before the age of the Internet.
I first truly understood the power of having a list when I worked as a direct mail copywriter for Richard Viguerie’s agency from 1988-1991 -- after which I went off on my own to build my own agency.
Richard was one of the great pioneers of direct mail marketing. In fact, he was so influential in the field of direct mail marketing that Time magazine put Richard on the list of the 100 most influential figures of the 20th Century. Richard’s direct mail programs built the conservative movement and are credited by many with making the Presidency of Ronald Reagan possible.
One day Richard asked me: “Ben, what business would you say we are in?”
I paused. I knew it was probably a trick question. But I gave the obvious answer. “We’re in the direct mail fundraising and advertising business,” I said.
“Nope,” said Richard. “We are in the list building business. We are in the name and address collecting business. Everything we do here is about building lists. You write direct mail packages, so that we have something to mail that people can respond to, who we then add to our database. It’s all about building our list. There’s nothing we can’t do if we have a big list. There’s nothing we can do if we have no list.”
When I went off on my own to build by company, I decided I would focus on building a big list of Christians. I was not exactly sure what I would do with this list. But I thought if I had a big list of millions of Christians, I’d be able to do all kinds of things with this list.
I had written a book titled Faith & Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty – which sold very well in bookstores.
I owned the rights to this book. I insisted on signing a contract with the publisher allowed me to do whatever I wanted with the book. I could print my own copies if I wanted.
By the way, never sign away your rights to anything you create.
What I did was take out small ads in Christian publications offering a free copy of the book to anyone who answered the ad.
Many thought I was nuts. “You can sell the book,” they would say. “Why give it away free?”
Because I knew the value of acquiring a name. I knew the value of building a list. And I knew I could build my list of Christian conservatives tens times bigger and ten times faster by giving the book away instead of selling it.
In fact, I could build a list probably 100 times faster this way – by giving away my book.
Hardly anyone thinks this way. But I learned from Richard Viguerie the value of list building. My ads said this:
Get Your Free Book Faith & Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty Just Call 1-000-000-0000
This 354-page book documents the strong Christian faith of America’s founding fathers. More than that, this book proves that the source of America’s heritage of liberty is the Bible and Christian theology.
This book refutes the myth promoted by the ACLU that Christianity is the enemy of freedom and proves that Christianity is the source of our civil liberties
This ad also had a little photo of my book. And notice that the word “Free” was in red. This was small ad -- about 3 1/2 inches by 2 inches.
Nothing at all fancy about it. Super basic.
I ran this little ad in Christian magazines and publications. And I built a very large mailing list this way.
In fact, I used this list to help me build the Christian Coalition, which grew into one of the most powerful political organizations of that decade, with 2,000,000 members and supporters. This list generated more than $27 million dollars a year for the Christian Coalition.
Plus, I used (and continue to use) this list to market all kinds of books, products and causes that are of intense interest to Christians.
This list has generated tens of millions of dollars in donations and sales over the last 15 years or so.
Now let’s check on the economics on what a lead generated this way can be worth.
Let’s say it costs me $500 to run the ad. I then would receive 1,000 requests for the book. So it cost me about 50 cents a lead, factoring in just the cost of the ad.
But I had some other costs as well.
I did not use a toll-free number, so I did not have that cost. But, once the volume of calls got too heavy, I paid a service bureau $1.50 to capture the name, address and contact information of each caller.
It also cost me $3.50 to fulfill on the request because there was the cost of the printing the book, the book-rate postage, envelope and cover note.
So the total cost of generating the lead was about $5.50.
But look at all the ways I was able to use this lead.
I could market all kinds of similar products to this name. I sold, for example, a video series on America’s Christian heritage for $97.
With follow up sales letters, I was able to persuade about 20% of these names to buy this video series.
I was able to build a big part of the 2,000,000-member Christian Coalition with these names. I was able to rent these names to other Christian organizations and businesses about once a week for 10-15 cents a name.
In all, I calculated the one-year value of each of these names to be about $50.
In other words, I would pay $5.50 for the lead. And on average this lead would return $50 in profit to me during the course of the next 12 months.
Over time, each of these names would return on average about $100 in profit to me. So that’s a pretty good way to invest $5.50.
$5.50 turns into $50 in 12 months, and $100 eventually. Actually, a lot more than that, but I stopped calculating.
That’s a whole lot better return than I ever got by investing in a stock. Mutual fund managers boast when they can return 15% a year on their investments.
So that’s the classic way lead generation programs work in direct marketing.
And, by the way, this still works just as well today.
Now, think about this.
Suppose you use this exact same approach, but you remove the $3.50 it costs to fulfill on the book . . . because you fulfill the book electronically over the internet.
Instead of delivering a printed book by way of snail mail, you deliver it in the form of an ebook over the Internet.
So now, instead of your lead costing $5.50, your lead costs only $2.00 – the cost of the ad plus the cost of capturing the name over the phone.
But now, let’s say you eliminate the cost of the phone answering service and instead send your lead to a landing page on the Internet that you have built specifically for this purpose.
So now, instead of a lead costing you $5.50 each – a lead costs you 50 cents each.
Now – even at $5.50, these leads are extraordinarily profitable. But at 50 cents a lead . . . well, you can do the math.
Your lead is now just one-tenth the cost it used to be in the old days, before we had the internet.
Can you see why online marketing is so lucrative and frankly, so easy?
Now, the one cost you really can’t get away from is the advertising.
You have to pay for that – whether it’s with print ads, or online advertising, or with direct mail . . . or with sweat equity building a website that’s attractive to search engines, or doing PR campaigns to generate free media coverage, or whatever.
The point is, you’ll have to pay one way or the other to generate your leads – either with paid advertising or with hard work..
But once you’ve figured out how to capture the names, addresses and contact information of your qualified leads cost-effectively (just like I described), you now have a near limitless resource for future profit. You now have a business that can grow almost infinitely.
Now this is essential.
You need to keep offering your qualified leads products that are very similar to whatever the free product was that brought them in to start with.
Okay, now let’s go back to my little ad that offered my book for free – FAITH & FREEDOM: The Christian Roots of American Liberty.
Let’s look at what it is that made these leads work for just about any Christian product or cause that I wanted to sell to these leads.
Specifically, let’s look at what we know about people who answer an ad like this:
1) We know these names are committed Christians because I am running this ad only in publications that are read by committed Christians.
2) We know that they are responsive to direct marketing offers because they have just answered my direct marketing offer.
3) We know that this is a new name. Remember, your strongest names are always your most recent names – those who have responded to an offer recently.
4) We know they have bought something through the mail because that’s how Christian magazine subscriptions are sold. They are sold by direct mail.
5) We know they wanted my book because they just went to the trouble of picking up the phone and ordering it, or they just spent time to go to a computer and landing page and have filled out the form, giving me their contact information.
6) We know that their address and contact information is accurate because they want to receive my book.
In other words, these are just about the most qualified leads you can get if you are selling information products aimed at Christians. And it turns out these names were also great for building the membership list of the Christian Coalition . . . and for many other Christian organizations as well.
Plus, I did not need to rent a lists. In direct mail, listing building is mostly about renting lists of people who have bought similar products to what you are selling.
But renting lists can be pretty hazardous. Unless you have a lot of experience, it’s difficult to really know what it is you are renting.
You can get burned by renting lists if you’re not an expert.
So this method of building your list of super-qualified leads is just about the safest system for building your list known to man. It’s pretty simple and easy, as you can see.
I don’t think life gets a whole lot simpler and easier than this.
Okay, so how do you start out if you don’t have a big advertising budget – which most of us don’t when we are first starting out?
And what businesses might this method work well for?
Well, let’s say you are an attorney, or an accountant, or a realtor, or a dentist.
Let’s say you put an ad in the Yellow Pages where all your competitors are running their ads.
By the way, one of the best ways to figure out where to run your ad is to find out where your competitors are running their ads.
You then run your ad there.
This allows you not to have to re-invent the wheel. Your competitors are running ads in those places because their ads are probably working.
So now your market research is basically done.
For the purpose of this illustration, we’ll say you are going to run your ad in the Yellow Pages – right where all your competitors are running their ads.
But your ad is not going to look like an ad that’s run by your competitors. And your ad is not going to look like all those high-design ads that are produced by ad agencies. Those ads do not work very well.
Your ad is going to say something like this:
The Nine Most Common Costly Mistakes People Make When Hiring An Attorney
To get your FREE special report, go to:
And that’s it.
Now you know the following things for certain about people who answer an ad like this:
1) They are actively interested in finding a lawyer.
2) They probably need to find a lawyer right now.
3) You now know how to reach this person.
You can now get on the phone with this person and start a conversation. You can also put this person on your email list and postal mail list to receive your newsletters that will be packed with useful information on how to avoid costly legal problems.
Now, your ad will be even more effective if it zeros in more precisely on exactly what it is your searcher is looking for.
Most people are not just looking for just any lawyer, they are trying to solve a particular legal problem.
So if you’re are a divorce lawyer, and if you only want to hear from people who need a divorce lawyer, then the headline of your ad should say . . .
The Nine Most Common Costly Mistakes People Make When Hiring a Divorce Attorney
Something like that.
By the way, your competitors are going to hate you for running ads like this because they will interpret these ads as criticizing them.
But who cares?
An ad like this will pull at least five times better than all those other ads for attorneys you see around it. If you’re a realtor, the headline on your ad would be . . .
The Nine Most Common Costly Mistakes People Make When Hiring a Realtor
And you should test this headline against . . .
The Nine Most Common Costly Mistakes People Make When Buying a House
To get your FREE special report, go to:
The reason you'll want to test these two headlines is that "people buy results, not features." They don't by drills, they buy the holes that drills make.
So, yes, people do look for realtors, but only because they want to buy or sell a house.
Notice that there are really only two things that matter in these ads: 1) The attention-getting headline and 2) The offer of the Free report.
“Free” is just about the most powerful word in advertising and marketing.
If people are looking for the information you are offering, free is the right price for everyone. That’s how you build your list of super-qualified leads.
To be successful in business, you need to be a list-building maniac.
So here are some ways to build your email list – your list of leads. Just pick the methods that apply to your business.
Google AdWords and Pay-Per-Click Advertising
This is my #1 method of building my list of leads.
I’m not going to cover this here because I cover this subject extensively in the chapter on “How to Use Google AdWords to Build Your Business.”
Ads on Ezines, Blogs and Websites that are read by your target market
Just go to Google and type “ezine [market niche]” and “blog [market niche]”. But don’t put quotation marks around your search terms. All kinds of ezines and blogs that cater to your target market will come up in the search results.
Subscribe to the blogs and ezines that look to be high quality. The ones you want to subscribe to are high-traffic sites, which are free. It will be quickly obvious which are the high quality ezines and blogs.
Technorati.com is a search engine for blogs. The Ezine Directory at http://www.ezine-dir.com is a search engine for ezines. And you can check a site’s traffic ranking by going to www.Alexa.com and plugging the URL of the site into the field.
Contact the ezines and blogs that look right for you and ask about advertising rates. Most are super cheap. Many will allow you to pay-per-lead you collect from the ad. I like pay-for-performance deals – which is why I like PPC advertising so much.
Affiliate Marketing
This is one of the most powerful listing-building strategies there is – paying affiliates a generous commission to bring you leads. This is covered extensively in the chapter in this book on “Affiliate Marketing.”
So I won’t cover this subject here.
Join Ventures
Offer to partner with those who have a big email list of people in your target market. You can do this with your “friendly competitors.”
Because I write books, my fellow business and marketing coaches who also conduct podcasts and seminars often want me as a guest or a speaker. I will ask them to send a link to my “free book” offer landing page when promoting the event. I will also promote the free book offer during the event, and ask the host to do the same.
I add a ton of lot of triple-A grade names to my email list this way.
Joint ventures can be used in all kinds of ways – such as filling a seminar. Everyone who is part of the joint venture promotes the seminar to their list and receive compensation according to how many on their list sign-up.
The key to making joint ventures work is to have good joint venture partners who have big loyal email lists who share an intense interest in your topic. Joint ventures work best if the partners are of roughly equal stature. Bill Gates is not likely to want to joint venture with most of us, but he is in a joint venture with Warren Buffet. Birds of a feather tend to flock together.
Write Articles for Ezines
This is a terrific free way to build your list.
Write articles for quality ezines that your target market reads. Be sure to include a link to the landing page offering your valuable free item as part of the tagline at the end of the article.
That’s the main reason you are writing the article – to have that link to your free offer in the tagline.
The tagline I use at the end of articles that I write read something like this:
Ben Hart’s letters, ads and marketing programs have generated more than $500,000,000 in sales over the last 20 years. Pick up a free copy of his bestselling book Automatic Marketing by going here: www.URL
PRWeb
When you have published a new article, a new ebook, are holding a seminar or launching a new product, write a press release and put it on www.PRWeb.com
PRWeb allows you to target your press release by subject matter – so that your press release on your new bolt does not go to fly fishermen.
This is a great way to generate interest for what you are doing with journalists who write for your target market.
There are few better ways to promote your site than to get articles written about you and your site – especially that appear in industry publications read by those in your field or industry.
Most articles that mention your website (as a result of a press release blast) will add the hyperlink to your company name, which then brings traffic to your site. An article about your site or your company will have 10 times the impact of a paid advertisement, because an article or new story is considered objective information. People want to read articles on their topic of interest much more than they want to read promotional ads.
Journalists are always on the look-out for article ideas. They scour PRWeb for material.
If my press release is about a new article I’ve written, it will link to the article and grant publishers permission to print my article free if they include that all-important tagline at the bottom of my article with the link that directs readers to my free book offer.
I am amazed at how many ezines and sites I had never heard of will pick up the article. With the near-infinite number of media channels on the Internet, there is a dearth of content. Ezines are desperate for content.
For proof of this, look at the home page of AOL, which repeats articles over and over again. AOL seems to have about one week’s worth of articles that it rotates through its home page. It’s news articles are taken from the Associated Press. It’s embarrassing. Yahoo has a bigger resevoir of articles. But you’ll see the same articles repeated all the time also on Yahoo. There’s just not enough content to fill up the Internet.
If you can be a content provider, it’s almost impossible not to get rich on the Internet.
Not only do I build my list with all these new readers rushing to my landing page to get their free book, but I now have an increasing number of in-bound links pointing to my site. Search engines like to see lots of inbound links. The more inbound links you have, the more traffic you will get, and the more search engines will assume that this must be a good site.
Create an eBook Virus
Instead of charging for your ebook, give it away free. Include ads and links (sometimes banners) strategically placed throughout your ebook for your landing page and sign-up form – which, of course, offers something of value free as incentive for readers of your ebook to sign-up and get on your list.
If you are recommending vendors and products in your ebook, be sure you have signed up as an affiliate marketer for all companies you recommend. Include links to these products. Be sure your affiliate code is embedded in your links so that you get a commission whenever someone clicks on a link in your ebook and buys from the vendor you recommend.
Many website owners are looking for a valuable “ethical bribe” they can give away to get people to sign-up on their landing pages, but they don’t have the time or ability to write their own book. Offer to let these sites use your ebook as their free offer. But make them sign an agreement to leave all your links intact.
Encourage everyone on your list to forward your ebook free to their friends and colleagues.
If your ebook is great, your ebook will spread like a prairie fire across the World Wide Web. People love to pass on interesting, valuable and useful information to their friends – all the more impressive if it’s an entire book. This is a great way to create a powerful marketing virus that will make you a lot of money fast.
The great ebook viruses have created not just thousands of free readers, but millions of free readers – many of whom will sign-up to get on the list of the author.
So this is more free traffic for your site and more free super-qualified leads added to your list – not to mention all the commissions you’ll get from readers of your ebook clicking on all your affiliate links that scattered throughout the text of your ebook.
For more on this, read the chapter titled “How to Make a Fortune in Publishing, Writing and Information Marketing.”
Create a Blog or Ezine that Makes Readers Desperate for More
One of the best examples of how this is done is Dr. Ralph Wilson’s Web Marketing Today ezine at www.WilsonWeb.com.
There are three levels of reader of Web Marketing Today.
1) You can read parts of articles for free if you don’t sign-up on the form or buy anything.
2) If you fill out the form which signs you up for the free subscription, you can read all of some articles free, but only parts of other articles (the best articles). You also receive three ebooks on Internet marketing just by signing up for your free subscription.
3) To have full access to all articles on the site, you must pay a $49 annual subscription. You can then login as a “Premium Subscriber.” For that, you get 12 more ebooks on Internet marketing (which are all very good). This is well worth the $49 annual subscription. Wilson’s site is packed with great content.
“Forward to a Friend”
At the bottom of all your promotional emails, be sure to include a “Forward to a Friend” link.
All good email broadcast marketing services include this feature.
I continue to be surprised by how many new email addresses and buyers I add to my list everyday by including this at the end of every email promotion.
It’s important to promote your “Forward to a Friend” link.
Right above this link, write something along these lines: “If you have friends who would like this, use the link below.”
Just a very simple instruction is all it takes. Just put the thought in your reader’s mind. Don’t assume your reader will think of it on her own.
Your Email Signature
Email services allow you to create what’s called a “signature” that’s automatically added to end of every message you write. Your automatically-added signature can include any text you want. It can be just your name, or might also include your phone number, fax number and a physical address.
This is a great place to have your “free offer.”
The “free offer” here should be more general in content – since these are emails that are going out to your closer-knit circles of business contacts, not your giant opt-in email list.
Your “free offer” here should not be on a super-technical or narrow subject. One free offer I’ve used for my signature file is a downloadable MP3 of an audio-seminar titled “The Six-Part Formula That Ensures Your Business and Professional Success.”
It’s a seminar that would interest almost anyone I am writing to as part of my personal correspondence. Since I give lectures and conduct seminars all the time, I will change the offer on my signature file about once a week, just to keep it interesting and new.
The purpose here is not so much to build an enormous opt-in list, but to find out who in your circle of business contacts, friends and relative have a real interest in what you are doing.
Most of my consulting business comes from people in this circle – from personal relationships I have developed over the years. Offer something of value at the end of your email that your business contacts can grab adds interest to your email, makes your email worth opening (especially if you regularly change the offer), and is great for relationship building.
Quite often I’ll get a call from a business owner saying, “Ben, I just listened to that seminar you gave me the link to. I wonder if you might consider give that same talk to my staff.”
Or I’ll get contacted by someone new, who will say: “Mr. Hart, Bill Jones just sent me that great seminar you did on ____________________________. I wonder if you would be able to help my company do __________________________________.”
This happens all the time as a direct result of including a free offer as part of my signature file on my personal emails.
Forums and Discussion Boards
Find the good forums and discussion boards that are of interest to your market niche. Get involved in those forums and discussion boards.
When appropriate, mention the ebook or “white paper” you’ve written that’s exactly on the subject of the discussion. Provide the link to your landing page for participants to pick up their free copy. Don’t do this in a spammy way.
Just offer it when appropriate, when your ebook or “white paper” actually answers a question someone in the discussion has asked. Say something like this: “I wrote an [article/white paper/ebook] that answers your question. You’ll find it at www.URL.”
This might seem like a slow way to build a list.
It’s certainly not the quickest, but its free. Plus people who go to forums and discussion groups on a subject are people who are intensely interested in the subject of the forum.
Take a subject like stamp collecting. Stamp collectors tend to be fanatical about stamp collecting. But stamp collectors who participate in discussion groups on the Internet on stamp collecting are super fanatics.
So if you have a product designed for stamp collectors, that where your buyers are.
To know if forums and discussion groups makes economic sense, you need to know the average value of a lead from the source. You need to know this number about every source of leads you have.
If you find that the average long-term-value of a lead collected from a forum is $20 (because of future sales you will make to these leads) and if you are able to collect 50 leads a day from discussion groups, then you are making $1,000 a day.
For me, I find that a lead that I collect from forums on marketing that I sometimes go to are worth about $30 each on average. I’ll often do this while also watching a pro football game on TV.
I figure, why just watch football? Why not also do something productive while watching the game – such as hang out in a discussion group on my subject to gather leads?
I can easily collect 50 good leads from marketing discussion groups while watching a pro football game.
If a lead is worth $30 each on average, that translates into a $1,500 for me in three hours, while doing something I’d be doing anyway.
Nothing wrong with that. This is a great way to build a business without spending a penny on advertising. Life can’t get much easier than this.
Yup, there really is no excuse for failure on the Internet.
Plus, I enjoy the discussions. These forums help me learn what my target market is talking about, what it’s interested in. They act like focus groups that help me improve my information products on marketing.
I have often made many adjustments to my information products based on what I have seen people talking about in forums, and have even created products in direct response to what participants in a forum seemed most interested in.
So this is yet another way to conduct some super cheap, super accurate market research. Listen to what people in a forum want, then create a product to meet the demand.
How I Use eBay
I use eBay primarily for collecting leads. I will offer a digital version of my book for $1 – How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters.
Now, I’ll offer this free on my pay-per-click ads – such as with Google AdWords. But on eBay you have to charge something. You need to have a transaction because that’s how eBay makes money – by taking its cut.
That’s the only way to capture the lead, or in this case the customer.
Most people don’t think of eBay as a tool for building a list of leads. They think of eBay s a way to sell – sort of like a giant flea market. That’s how most people use eBay. They are not there to capture leads. They are just there to sell their stuff.
Nothing at all wrong with that. That’s what most people do. But I use eBay primarily as a list building tool. I want to find people – entrepreneurs specifically – who are interested in growing their businesses with improved marketing.
Anyone who plunks down $1 for a digital version of How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters is either an entrepreneur or a commissioned sales person who is looking to increase sales and therefore could benefit from my $38 per month Inner Circle program and other information products on marketing.
I also know that anyone who goes to the trouble to get their credit card out and plunk down $1 is motivated and is therefore a super-hot prospect.
How to Make Banner Ads Work
We hear a lot these days about the decline in effectiveness of banner ads.
Banner ads are small ads you buy and place on web sites. These ads are similar to billboards you see on highways. The goal of a banner ad is to get your interest so that you click. You are then taken to a Web page (“landing page”) that contains the full-blown offer in a letter or display ad form, with all the details.
My answer to complaints about banner ads is “of course their effectiveness has declined” since the 1990s when they were a new form of advertising. It was not uncommon then for 10 percent of “eyeballs” that ran across a banner ad to click it. Back then a banner ad campaign was essentially a license to print money.
But internet advertising is more competitive now. People are used to it. So, like all advertising methods, its effectiveness declines over time.
Now, an effective banner ad might attract a 1% or .5% response (note the decimal point, that’s half of one percent). But that does not mean banner ads are not effective.
The cost of banner ads has also come down. As with everything else, supply and demand determine prices.
Are banner ads still effective?
To answer this, just go to a high-traffic website (say, AOL or Yahoo) and count the banner ads you see. You would not see so many if they were not effective.
Of course they are effective. The issue is not whether banner ads still effective?
The correct question is, “Will running a banner ad campaign bring me a good return on investment?’
The answer (as with all forms of advertising) is “of course” . . . IF the ads are good, the offer is good and the marketing strategy is the right one for the ad and the offer.
Today, banner ads are not a panacea or the solution to all your marketing problems. They are just another advertising medium we have at our disposal to market our products and services.
Here some important tips to improve the odds that your banner ad campaign will be successful:
1) Use the words “Click Here.”
Otherwise, how will your reader know this is not just another graphic? The only way for your reader to know this is a link to another page with a more detailed description of what you’re offering is if you tell your reader exactly what to do . . . and that’s “Click Here”.
Readers are not going to spend any time trying to figure out what you want them to do. Always tell them. This is termed a “call-to-action” in marketing jargon. There is no more important phrase than “Click Here” in internet marketing. Variations include “Click Here To Order” and “Click Here for Your FREE Report.” Just having “FREE REPORT” on the link is not a call-to-action. That’s the offer. “Click Here” tells your reader what to do to get the “FREE REPORT.”
I don’t like the words “Enter” or “Order” that I often see on banner ads and other internet pages. What’s that mean? “Click Here To Enter” or “Click Here to Order” is fine. The key is “Click Here.” Every reader will understand that.
2) Offer something FREE.
“Free” has always been one of the most powerful words in advertising and marketing. People want a free sample of what you do before they are willing to buy. People want free information. People want free stuff. If it’s free, lots of people will “Click Here” to get it just because it’s free, just out of curiosity. Free report, free e-book, free ezine, free consultation, free sample, free trial are just some ideas for what you might offer free.
3) Place your banner ad only on sites that are exactly in line with what you are selling.
Think of banner ads as a lot like classified ads or ads in the Yellow Pages. Your classified ad listing an apartment for rent won’t do well if it appears in the “Help Wanted” section. It needs to appear in the “Apartments for Rent” section. The same holds true for your Yellow Pages ad. You don’t want your ad promoting your lawn care service to appear in the exercise equipment section. Your banner ads must follow the same principle. Run your banner ads in places where you know people are looking for the service or product you are selling. Fish where you know the fish are.
4) Avoid paying for banner ads when possible.
Negotiate a “pay per order” or “pay per inquiry” deal. Lots of Web site owners are willing to do this. That, in a nutshell, is exactly what the Google AdSense program is. You allow Google to place customer ads on your website and then you get paid every time someone clicks on the ad. The large established Web sites will require you to pay for a banner ad. You will quickly know whether it’s worth it by the number of inquiries or orders that come in from your banner ad.
5) No need for a lot of graphics.
The techies and graphic artists love to create spinning banner ads and ads that jump around and flash. Some of these ads are gorgeous works of art. But this is no way to sell anything.
Simple text works best in direct marketing. It’s copy, not graphics that sell. I will often make my banner ads look like exactly like articles with the blue underline text that indicates it’s a link. People click to read articles if it’s on a subject they are interested in . The Drudge Report and Yahoo are enormously successful Web sites. People go to these places for information and news. People are surfing the internet looking for information, not ads. Consider making your banner ad look more like a link to an article than an ad. This is a lot like in direct mail marketing, where the plain envelope will almost always perform better than an envelope with a big headline on it, an envelope that screams “junk mail.” Don’t make your banner ads look like junk mail. Make your banner ads look like a link to an article, or at least a link to serious information.
6) Don’t misunderstand rule #5
I’m not suggesting no graphics to grab attention, only that the tendency is to go with too much graphics that might dazzle the eyes but obscure your message. Sometimes a flashing arrow pointing to your headline works well. You should also employ some graphic devices to make your headline jump out, without giving your ad the “junk” look. A blue border, and different background color from the rest of the page are a few graphic devices to test. And test big and small-type headlines. Sometimes small-type attracts more clicks than big type. But it’s headlines and copy, not graphics, that sell.
7) Make your banner ad easy to load.
The other downside of intensive graphics in banner ads is it takes up lots of memory and makes it difficult for many computers to load. The average time a viewer spends on any one Web page is about 20 seconds. This is not enough time for a graphics heavy banner ad to load. You want your banner ad to be one of the first items that pops up on the screen, not one of the last. You don’t want your banner ad popping up after your viewers have left the page. Keep your banners under 10 KB. This will be almost impossible if you are using animation, which does not help you sell anyway. Most of my banner ads are 3-4 KB, or less.
8) Don’t focus your banner ad on your logo or your company?
Focus your banner on what your reader is going to get by clicking.
Fascinating free information on the subject that is of intense interest to your reader is usually the best offer. Your banner ad is not the place to build awareness of your brand or your company. The goal is to capture the email address and other contact information so you can start marketing your products and services to that person with a steady stream of follow-up “conversion” email offers. Remember, banner writing is essentially the same as the science of headline writing. Your task is to create an intriguing headline that generates interest and prompts viewers to click.
9) A blue border around your ad can boost response.
The color blue on the internet just seems to work—I think because people associate blue with a link to something. So use blue (the same blue as a link color blue) to reinforce the message that you are asking your reader to “Click Here.”
10) Change your banner ads frequently.
11) Keep it super simple (KISS)
Banner ads are small anyway. You don’t have much space. Your banner has just one mission. Get viewers to click so they will see your entire ad. Once they “click through” to your landing page, you’ll have an unlimited amount of time and space to sell your prospect. You entice readers to click with a simple clear headline that makes a simple clear offer. Here’s the idea:
“Six steps you can take now to cut your taxes.” “Ten ways to escape an IRS audit “The seven most common mistakes people make when buying real estate.” “I learned to play the piano in two weeks”
Get it? And never forget to tell your readers to “Click Here.”
12) Consider using reverse psychology in your ads.
For example, you might say: “Don’t click here if you are happy with your income.” Reverse psychology is often a very effective way to induce the action you want. “Don’t laugh at my haircut.” “Don’t think about a pink elephant.”
13) Ballots, surveys and multiple choice
A ballot question can be an effective way to get people to click through. I do a lot of work for political candidates and issue groups. Ballots not only help me identify which side of the fence the clicker is on, but people love to register their opinions. They love to vote. And people love to fill out surveys and quizes. I’m sure you’ve seen the ad asking you to participate in a “Free I.Q. Test.” This is an enormously successful campaign. You have to fill out the information form so the company can send you your results.
IMPORTANT TIP: Make your ballot or survey questions look and sound serious. Your questions should not be biased. They should look and sound like a Gallup poll. Don’t waste people’s time with poll questions that’s obviously loaded or biased. Don’t make your poll look like another marketing gimmick. Make it look like serious public opinion research.
Track and calculate how much it’s costing you to bring a visitor to your landing page, who then registers to receive your free offer. Also track how many of your “free offer” sign-ups become paying customers, and over what period of time. For example, if a Web site charges you $20 per thousand impressions ($20/CPM) for your banner, and if 1% click through and register for your free offer by filling out your form, it’s costing you $2 to acquire a name.
If over the next 30 days you succeed in converting 5% of your registered guests into buyers of your $50 product, your banner ad is profitable.
By using “cookies” and other Web technology, you can track where your readers found your link, how much you spent to bring in your lead and which banners and Web sites produced not just the most leads, but the most “convertible” leads— buyers—for each penny you invested in your ad.
A banner ad is like an envelope in direct mail, in “snail mail” marketing. Your first battle in a direct mail campaign is to entice your reader to open your envelope. Then the battle for the sale begins. Your first battle with your banner ad is getting the “click.” Then your goal is to capture the email address and name of your prospect. Once that’s done, the battle for the sale begins with an ongoing series of email sales letters, or email messages that contain links to sales letters. So your banner ad might be doing it’s job—getting the clicks. But the success of your campaign will also depend on the strength of your offer and follow-up conversion messages.
Standard banner sizes (in pixels)
468 x 60 Full Banner 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle 250 x 250 Square Pop-up 240 x 400 Vertical Rectangle 336 x 280 Large Rectangle 180 x 150 Rectangle 234 x 60 Half Banner 88 x 31 Micro Bar 120 x 90 Button 1 120 x 60 Button 2 120 x 240 Vertical Banner 125 x 125 Square Button 160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper 120 x 600 Skyscraper
Co-Registration
A tactic called “co-registration” can be a tremendous way to build you opt-in email list.
Here’s how it works.
Coregistration involves placing a short advertisement (usually two or three lines of text) for your company on high traffic websites alongside ads for similar newsletters. The short advertisement allows readers to request additional information about your product or service by simply checking the box next to your ad without having to go through the bother of entering in their contact information again. With the check of a box, you as a marketer, have permission to communicate with the coregistered subscriber who has requested information about your product or service.
Coregistration allows clients to build targeted list of qualified leads. The information captured by the coregistration process usually includes the name and email address at a minimum, perhaps other information as well.
The co-registration company that I use most for my co-registration lead generation program is called Simpler Leads. You’ll find it at www.simplerleads.com
Other good companies that provide co-registration services are:
www.listopt.com www.newsletternetwork.com www.newsletter-directory.com www.innovationads.com/coregistration.htm
You can also approach newsletter publishers directly to see if they would be interested in a co-registration arrangement. What’s essential, of course, is that you make sure you are getting quality email addresses. You will want to make sure that your enewsletter or ezine subscription offer is placed alongside the newsletters and ezines that target your market. If your newsletter is on the subject of fiber optics, you don’t want your co-registration ad to appear on sites for plumbing supplies or grouped with newsletters on golf equipment.
But if your newsletter subscription offer is included alongside another newsletter offer on the same subject, or nearly the same subject, you will often see 50 percent or more of subscribers to the other newsletter also opt-in to receive your newsletter or ezine.
The most valuable FREE advertising space
Are you taking full advantage of the world’s most valuable FREE advertising space?
“And what is that?” you ask.
Well . . . it’s the back of your business card.
The back of your business card is one of the powerful lead generation tools you have in you marketing tool chest. But the back of 99.9% of business cards I collect are blank. There’s nothing there.
The back of your business card is like a billboard that’s screaming at you: “Advertise Here For FREE.” As you might have guessed, here’s what’s on the back of my business card:
Get your FREE copy of my bestselling book . . . How to Write Blockbuster Sales Letters Go to:
The link takes them to the landing page where they must fill out a form to get their free book. Then presto, they are on my email list.
These people then become highly qualified leads.
I’m then able to turn 32% of these leads into buyers. These are the most responsive leads I have ever seen. They become Inner Circle members. Or they buy one or more of my information products. Or they become a client.
I have calculated the average value to me of one of these leads to be well over $400. So these leads are 5-to-10 times more valuable than leads I get from my best advertising sources. Some are worth zero, but some are worth many thousands of dollars to me – while most are somewhere in the middle.
There is no more cost-effective advertising known to man than this – that is, using the back of your business card as a lead generation tool.
And you do that by making an offer – usually something of value that’s free.
How do I distribute my business card?
Well, I just hand them out to people I meet. I make sure I have a big stack of business cards in my pocket wherever I go.
When I give a speech or lecture, I make sure I put a stack of them on the table, which is usually at the back of the room, or the front of the room.
I then invite people to pick up the business card. I hold up a copy of the book during my talk and I draw attention to the FREE book offer on the back of my business card.
Now this gets a near-100% response rate. Just about everyone in the room will pick up my card to get their free book.
I also attend a lot of conferences, seminars, business meetings and trade shows. I hand my business card out to everyone I meet – which is always just about everyone in the room.
I use these networking opportunities as a key link in my lead generation program primarily for selling my information products.
To use this strategy effectively, you need to be a master networker.
You need to have a plan to make sure you are at the conferences, meetings, seminars, coaching programs and trade shows -- anywhere you know your prospects are. That’s how you become a name-and-address collecting machine.
I have collected thousands of ultra-qualified leads this way.
Billboards and the Side of Your Car
Turn your car into a rolling advertisement. If buses do it, why not you?
The Internet has been tremendous for billboard advertising.
You just need a memorable domain name and a super-simple offer that people can understand and remember at glance.
One of the great examples of powerful billboard advertising was the famous GoDaddy.com Super Bowl ad.
In this case, the billboard was the tee-shirt of an enormous-chested blonde woman.
The ad was little more than the domain name GoDaddy.com emblazoned across her enormous chest and her saying “Godaddy.com”
That was basically it.
At that time, the Internet was in its infancy and fw people knew what GoDaddy.com.
Like just about everyone else (especially males watching the Super Bowl) I went to my computer to find out what GoDaddy.com is. I could not get in because, no doubt, millions of people were doing exactly what I was doing.
This ad propelled GoDaddy.com to instant stratospheric success. Everyone in America knew what GoDaddy.com was after that legendary Super Bowl ad.
Though the GoDaddy.com ad was not technically a billboard, the ad functioned exactly like a billboard.
Super Bowl ads are enormously expensive. In a 30-second ad, there’s no space to make a sales pitch. All you can do is get attention and create curiosity – so that lots of people want to go to the site to find out what this is about.
The GoDaddy.com ad certainly achieved that – which is what you want to do with your billboards – whether along the road, the side of your car, those billboard-style ads you see on movie screens in theaters before a movie starts, ads on park benches and the side of buses.
Billboards are often dirt cheap – and can be very effective.
The key is to generate curiosity and intrigue with your billboard.
But just creating intrigue is not usually enough. It worked for GoDaddy, but intrigue alone is not likely to work for you.
Be certain to include a valuable free offer. Make your free offer the focus of your billboard – just like it should be the focus of your banner ad, your pay-per-click ad, your classifed ad, your Yellow Pages ad, your postcard, your radio ad – all your short-format advertising aimed at capturing leads.
It’s best if your free offer is right in the domain name, so your billboard can say FreeCreditReport.com or FreeSalesLetterBook.com or FreeCoffee.com
Having a domain name that’s easy to remember and that clearly states your offer is essential to the success of all your offline advertising.
Radio
Radio advertising is also cheap. See if this gives you some ideas. Here’s a radio ad I’ve been running all across America to build my list:
Hi, this is Ben Hart
The most valuable skill you can have for growing your business is knowing how to write a great sales letter. I’d like to give you a free copy of my bestselling book, “How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters.”
Just head on over to FreeSalesletterBook.com to pick up your free book.
That’s FreeSalesletterBook.com
My letters have generated more than $500 MILLION DOLLARS in sales. And I’d like to show you exactly how I do it by giving you free my 236-page book. This book contains all my sales letter writing secrets that will ensure your success. All I ask in return is that you promise to read the book.
If you do, your sales will explode and your business will grow exponentially. And this book contains plenty of model sales letters you can just take and adapt to your own selling purposes.
No strings attached. The book is free. To pick up your free book, just head on over to FreeSalesletterBook.com
Never make another sales call. Let your letters do all your selling. Go to FreesalesLetterBook.com That’s FreeSalesletterBook.com
I’m getting ready also to put this ad on TV. A big key here is the domain name. It’s easy to remember and says exactly what the offer is.
I also own the plural version of the domain name, FreeSaleslettersBook.com. So if people hear the domain name wrong or don’t get it exactly right, they’ll still end up on my landing page. The plural version of the domain is just forwarded to FreeSalesLetterBook.com.
List Sources for Direct Mail
The quality of your lists will determine the success of your direct marketing campaign. 80% of your marketing battle is getting the right lists.
The best source for mailing lists for rent is the SRDS at www.SRDS.com.
This is the Holy Grail of the direct marketing industry. This is an enormous 1600-page catalogue of every list for rent. More than 30,000 lists for rent care catalogued and described in the SRDS List Directory. You really are not serious about marketing if you are not regularly using the SRDS List Directory. You should also be able to find the SRDS List Directory at your local library if you'd like to save the roughly $700 you would have to pay to subscribe to SRDS.
This is the single most valuable resource for anyone in the business of direct marketing . . . or, frankly, for just about anyone in business.
I will often sit for hours reading the SRDS List Directory.
I find it to be very exciting reading, more exciting to me even than a James Bond movie (and I love James Bond movies). The reason I find the SRDS List Directory so exciting is that it provides me all kinds of ideas for new products to launch.
The SRDS groups lists by category. You’ll find hundreds of categories in there – all the categories you’d expect, plus many very odd categories -- including trackers of UFOs, people who hunt for buried treasure, people who like to ski in the nude, and people interested in human skull deformities.
If you can’t find lists of people in the SRDS List Directory who have bought a product similar to what you are trying to sell, you should probably not bother to try to sell it because there is probably no market for it.
When deciding whether to launch a product or a marketing campaign, I often find it’s easier just to browse through the SRDS List Directory than to use Wordtracker to do keyword research. It’s good to do both. But the SRDS List Directory will show how many people are buying a product you are considering selling, not just searching for it.
I also often use the SRDS Directory of Business Publications. You need to become familiar with all the direct marketing list and media resources catalogued by the SRDS.
Writers Market at www.WritersMarket.com is a catalogue of thousands of specialty and niche publications (with their subscription and circulation numbers). Many of these publications will rent their list to you for a one-time use for your mailing. And all will sell you space ads.
The other big reference directory you should become familiar with at your local public library is the Standard Periodicals Directory. This is a listing of all the magazines and periodicals that are out there -- again, grouped by category. You need to know what magazines and journals are serving your target market so you can advertise in those publications and rent there lists.
Another good list resource is Melissa Data at www.MelissaData.com. You will want to enlist their help as you plan your next direct marketing campaign. You should be able to find just about any list you'll need for your marketing campaign by going through Melissa Data. And they'll help you avoid making costly list mistakes.
For commissioned sales people, take a look at www.SalesGenie.com. I have not used this particular service, but a number of Inner Circle members report very good results -- especially if you are a seller of financial services. The parent company is www.InfoUSA.com which I have used successfully for many years for my mass-mail program.
Harris InfoSource at http://www.harrisinfo.com/HarrisInfo/Home.aspx is a good list company for your B2B marketing campaigns. Melissa Data is better for marketing campaigns to consumers.
You also need a list broker. My list broker is Barb Godwin. She has been doing my list work for many years. You can email her at Stratamarklists@aol.com. A good list broker (advisor) is worth her weight in gold. List brokers are paid 20% commission. Their commission is built into the price of the list.
When you rent lists, you want to make sure you are renting only “recent” buyers and “frequent” buyers. These are your best prospects. I don’t like to rent lists of buyers who have not bought anything from the company I’m renting from within the most recent 12 months. I also want “multi-buyers.”
As you brainstorm your listing building strategy, ask yourself these questions:
Are there lists you can rent of people who have bought products that are similar to yours? Are there publications that are read by your target market? Are there popular websites that are read by your target market? Are people using search engines to find what you are selling? Are there marketers with big lists you can joint venture with to reach your target market?
How I Use Craigslist and Classified Ads.
People ask me if classified ads work on the Internet. They had read my article on how I use old fashioned print classified ads to build my direct mail marketing lists.
My answer is “yes” classified ads work on the Internet. In fact, they work better than in print because they are so cheap on the Internet – much cheaper than in newspapers.
Classified ads are bigger than ever on the Internet, and getting bigger everyday.
Classified ads on Craigslist.org are free.
That’s one of the biggest classified ad services on the Web. Classified ads on the job seeker sites like Monster.com are free for those looking for a job.
Employers pay, but ads by job seekers are free. Monster.com and the big job seeker and job posting sites make their money from the employers and personnel recruiters.
So most classified ads on the Internet are free these days – which is driving the daily newspapers nuts because they are rapidly losing the classified ads business.
So how do you use classified ads to build your list of super hot, ready to buy prospects?
Well, you do it exactly the same way you always build a list.
You offer something of value free – something that is exactly in line with what you business is primarily selling.
Books are great “bait” for building your list. You build your list with your irresistible free offer. I continue to build enormous lists with classified ads – both with online and offline classified ads.
The key to success with classified ads is to look for categories that fit well into your market niche and then just offer something of obvious value for free.
What I usually do in my classified ad is offer a free book. Here is one example:
FREE BOOK - “How to Write Great Sales Letters” One of America’s top mail-order copywriters reveals all his secrets in this 236-page book. Go here to get your free copy:
And that’s it.
I run this ad in the “Business Opportunities” section of Entrepreneur magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Inc, Fast Company and other similar publications. I also run an Internet variation of this ad on Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and other pay-per-click programs on the Internet. Google Adwords ads are really just like classified ads.
I have built lists of hundreds of thousands of super-qualified leads by using this exact approach over and over again for two decades.
A big portion of these leads became buyers – have, in fact, bought tens of millions of dollars in books and other products from me over the last 20-plus years. And classified ads are super cheap.
There continues to be a unique fascination with classified ads.
People love reading them.
People read them even if they are not looking for anything specific. People will read a classified ad before they will read a big display ad run by a department store, produced by a big ad agency.
I think people like reading classified ads because these ads are written mostly by real people – average folks – not ad agencies (and also by some direct marketers like me who understand how to use classified ads).
It’s sort of like the “Letters-to-the-Editor” section of the newspaper.
Many people will read the “Letters-to-the-Editor” before they will read the articles.
The “Letters-to-the-Editor” section is one of the most popular sections of any newspaper because people like to read letters written by average folks (real people) who are not professional writers.
Same with so-called “reality” shows on TV.
People prefer to watch real people rather than actors and slickly-produced, highly-scripted shows.
I think that’s part of what’s going on with classified ads.
Most classified ads are written by amateurs. So people like to read them. And the classifieds are broken down by category. So readers can go directly to the category that interests them.
There’s really no easier way to build a huge list of super-qualified leads than by using classified ads exactly as I have described here.
And there’s no easier way to make money.
The Yellow Pages operate basically the same way. So you can often adapt a successful classified ad campaign for the Yellow Pages.
By the way, eBay is really just a jazzed up classified ads service.
That’s all it is.
All those programs you see advertised about how to make money on eBay are almost exactly the same as how to make money with classified ads.
In fact, that’s what the entire Internet is. It’s just a big classified ads listing service.
People type in keywords and keyword phrases into search engine browsers that best describe what they are looking for. Those are your categories.
It’s no different in principle than the old fashioned classified ads or Yellow pages – just a whole lot more efficient, targeted and detailed.
So start thinking of your Internet marketing that way – like a gigantic classified ads service – classified ads on super-steroids.
But don’t forget about good old fashioned print for your classified ad lead-generation and marketing campaign.
Remember, advertising that’s printed on paper still has far more impact than digital advertising – I think because print is still just more real to people.
Here are the keys to making classified ads work for your list-building:
STEP #1 Start studying the classified ad sections in magazines, publications and websites that reach your target audience – the more targeted the publication or site, the better.
STEP #2 Study the categories to see if any category fits your product niche. Or (even better) study the categories to figure out what product you should consider selling. That’s what I prefer to do. I prefer to figure out first if there’s a market for my product before I go to the trouble and expense of developing it.
STEP #3 Look for categories that have lots of ads. When you see lots of ads selling the same kinds of products, that means the ads are working and these kinds of products sell well.
STEP #4 Select a category in a niche that you love doing anyway. If you love golf, consider selling golf stuff. You won’t have much fun or success if you are not selling something dealing with a subject that you don’t love, or at least like a lot. Sell something that you are passionate about and that you believe in – not something just because you think you can make money selling it.
STEP #5 Go to your public library and ask for the Standard Rates and Data Services Directory of Trade Publications. If it’s a decent sized library, they will have it. Here you will find all the business and industry publications in existence broken down by category. Focus on the trade and industry publications that most suit your market niche.
STEP #6 Make sure you are able to deliver your promised product the instant people call . . . or who fill out your form on your site’s “landing page.” Those who request your free product will be skeptical of your ad’s claims. You want to exceed expectations by a huge margin. If you do that, you’ll have no trouble making subsequent sales with your follow-up communications.
STEP #7 Be sure to track the performance of your ads. You’ll find that ads will perform much better on some sites and in some publications than others. And the headline on your ad can make a 1,000% difference in your response. Each ad should have it’s own landing page so you can track an ad’s performance. For your offline advertising, use domain names that are easy to remember.
STEP #8 But don’t worry so much about the tracking mechanics when you first start out. Just start running your ads. When you find one that works, then start testing different ads and tracking results precisely. But just get started.
STEP #9 Don’t be discouraged by ads that fail. You probably will fail at first. It takes some trial and error to get the hang of it. But classified ads are super cheap, so failure is no big deal. All you need is for one ad to work and you’re off to the races. If 10 ads fail and one works, you’re far better off than if you win the lottery.
STEP #10 Once you find an ad that’s working, keep running it until it stops working . . . which might be never. That is, a successful classified ad can often run profitably forever.
STEP #11 Once you achieve success with a classified ad campaign, experiment with direct response display ads that follow the same theme – just more detail. So the display ad version offering the free book would include a picture of the book and more bullet items on the big benefits of getting this free book.
STEP #12 Test the same offer using different media – direct mail, radio, even TV (if you hit a home run). Very often a successful classified ad campaign transfers over to other advertising media.
Experimenting with classified ads is a great way to launch your education in direct marketing for very low risk – and can even be the start of a big new career for you in direct marketing.
In a big publication with hundreds of thousands of readers, your 25-word ad might cost $35. A 25-word classified ad in the Washington Post will cost you about $65, with its million-reader circulation. It gets cheaper if you run the ad for a week or a month . . . or perpetually until you decide to stop it.
So you don’t need many responses for your ad to pay off.
Your classified ads will usually work best in specialty publications that specifically target your niche market.
Will classified ads work for any product or service?
Nope. No advertising medium will work for everything.
A saw is a great tool, but not if you want to hammer a nail into a piece of wood.
But classified ads are a great tool for the right product.
Not all classified ad sections are alike. The classified ad section in the Washington Post will be very different from the classified ads section in Popular Mechanics.
You will find entirely different categories of products being sold in different publications and sites targeting different audiences.
How to Use Postcards
One of the very best ways to generate a steady avalanche leads is with a postcard – and including your postcard in what is called a card deck or co-op mailing.
I’m sure you have seen these mailings show up in your mailbox.
These are envelopes that are packed full of postcards, coupons and inserts produced by advertisers.
The best known companies that do this are ADVO, MoneyMailer and Val-Pak.
Of all the co-op formats available, I like the card decks.
A card deck is a stack of 15-30 postcards from different businesses that arrive in one envelope or wrapped in plastic shrink wrap.
The huge advantage to you of mailing this way is cost.
For example, if you were to mass-mail a stand-alone postcard, this might cost you 50 or 60 cents each – maybe more.
Put you can put your postcard in an ADVO co-op mailer for 2 to 5 cents each, depending on quantity . . . because you are sharing the cost of the mailing with other businesses that are also including their ads in this same envelope.
So that means your cost per postcard mailed is 10 to 20 times less in an ADVO co-op mailer than it would be if you just mail the postcard – which means you can now reach 10 to 20 times more people with your advertising message for the same cost.
This is absolutely key.
All advertising works if you can just get the cost down low enough. That’s the genius of the co-op mailing.
For direct mail, the biggest cost of any mailing is postage. The next big cost is list rental and mailshop. In a co-op mailing, all these costs are shared by participants in the mailing.
So instead of paying 50 or 60 cents per postcard mailed, you are now paying 2 to 5 cents per postcard.
Now, this is important.
Always use over-sized postcards. The bigger the better. Big gets attention.
The maximum size for a postcard allowed by the post office without getting hit with extra postage is 11” x 5 3/4”. Bigger always wins in the mailbox.
Also, no need for a lot of fancy graphics. Your postcard should be and look like a mini-letter. Maybe have a photo of you and maybe a picture of your free offer. That’s it for graphics.
And sign your postcard in blue ink . . . because it’s a mini-letter. That will also help make your postcard stand out from all those other postcards that are designed by ad agencies – all those postcards that look like junk mail with the starburst graphics that say 20% off and other advertising type graphics.
So no need to pay money for an expensive graphic artist. Just make your postcard look like a mini letter and it will pull 300% better than all those other post cards in the card deck mailing that are designed by ad agencies.
Now, your next big challenge is to get your postcard noticed in that big package that’s now full of other postcards and ads competing for attention.
Well, that’s no problem for you if you’ve been reading my material on how to write successful sales letters and ads.
But, in case you haven’t, let me briefly recap . . . because what’s one your postcard will determine your success or failure.
Now let’s say you’re in the real estate business. All you do is print up your postcards and you write something like:
Dear Friend:
Would you like to learn an amazing secret that will allow you to buy property for 20% below what everyone else is paying?
If so, all you have to do is go to www.xyz.com to pick up xxxxxxxx and hear my audio report.
Sincerely,
John Smith
Then what you do is you write out an audio script, record it and put it on your site. A good cheap audio service that will help you do this is www.Audiogenerator.com.
Your audio will say something like this.
“I’m glad you found your way to this page. My name is John Smith and I’d like to show you a few properties I have available that are being sold by people who are moving out of the area and so they absolutely must sell right away, no matter what. One property must be sold by next Wednesday. Another property I have must be sold by the following Tuesday, July 13th. I have some other fantastic properties in prime locations in the San Diego area that must be sold by certain dates as well because the owners are moving out of the region.
If you’d like to learn more, just fill out the form you see on this page and I will email you the property list with photos and descriptions of the properties. Of if you prefer, give me a call on my cell phone at 000-000-0000. I’d be happy to talk to you about these properties.”
You would also include a text version of this message on the web page because people absorb messages by hearing and by reading.
Or there might be other reasons you have for why you’re able to offer these properties at rock-bottom prices. My point here is not to give you your reasons or to write your script for you, but to show you the formula. You’ll have your own story to tell, your own reasons and your own deals to offer.
And this message can be pretty long if you have a lot of interesting things to say. Some of my recorded messages run 10 minutes or more. It just depends. Sometimes short and sweet is best. Sometimes longer is good, if what you have to say is super interesting. Better short and sweet than long and boring. You want to create interest and intrigue so they fill out your form to get the property list, or call you. Don’t give them all the details.
Give them just enough, so they’ll want to find out more. But give them enough detail so that they believe you.
And that’s a big part of effective copywriting and marketing. Tell an interesting story. The story should be about why you are able to offer your prospect such a great deal. That's what makes you credible.
So once you’ve recorded your message, you then mail your postcards and wait for leads to come in. Your prospects will always be interested in getting a bargain -- something at a great price. The job of your script -- and the story you tell on your recorded message -- is to persuade your caller, your listener, that:
1) You really are offering a great price, a bargain they can’t get elsewhere; and
2) You only have a few properties (or whatever you are selling) that fit this special situation criteria. Once the properties (or items) are gone, so is the special one-time opportunity.
So here’s why this simple strategy works so well:
#1 You are offering free insider information on what you know your prospect is interested in.
#2 Your prospect is more likely to call if it’s just a recorded message than if she thinks she's about to be collared by a high-pressure salesman. The prospect knows she can just hang up on the recorded message. So she’s much more likely to call.
#3 When your prospect calls your recorded message hotline, she sees that you are a good guy because you actually delivered what you promised -- information on how to buy some great properties at rock-bottom prices. And your friendly, casual voice further reassures your caller and puts her at ease.
#4 And you really have shown your prospect that you have a great opportunity for her -- but one she’ll miss if she does not act now.
And, by the way, the tone of your recorded message is key. Just tell the story and state the facts. You should not yell or scream into the phone or the recorder. You should not sound like a street-corner huckster. Just the story. Just the facts. Just the opportunity you are offering. Very matter of fact. Very calm, reassuring and friendly.
I picked real estate as my example. But this formula works for any business.
If you are a plastic surgeon, here’s some sample copy you might try for your postcard:
Dear Friend,
I’m using a new procedure that can make you look 15 years younger for a lot less than you probably think. Plastic surgery used to cost a small fortune.
But now almost anyone can afford it. And it’s very safe. And there's hardly any recovery time.
If you would like to learn more, just go to www.xyz.com to pick up your free copy of a new “white paper” I’ve just written about this revolutionary new procedure. I also have an audio message waiting for you.
Or if you’d like to come in for a free evaluation, just call my assistant Janice to schedule an appointment at xxx.xxx.xxxx
Sincerely,
Dr. John Smith, MD
See the pattern? I often use old-fashioned courier typewriter font for my postcard. It’s more personal looking, more friendly, looks more like a letter, and is more attention-getting. My tests show that courier still works better than Times Roman or the other desktop publishing fonts.
Here are a few more examples (just the first lines) to get you thinking in the right direction:
** “Would you like to learn how to play the piano in a week?”
** “It takes the schools two years to teach algebra. Would you like it if your child could learn the same material in just two months?”
** “I have a way to get you very high-quality diamonds for less than a jeweler would pay for them?”
Think of your postcard as a teaser, as similar to headline. If you have knack for writing great, attention-getting, intriguing headlines, you can write great postcards that will bring a lot of traffic to your website and generate lots of inquiries. It's all about emphasizing the big benefit to your reader. What's the big payoff for going to your website, hearing your message and picking up your report or “white paper”?
You can follow this same formula with all your advertising, not just postcards. You can run ads like this in the classifieds, in the Yellow Pages, and in little newspaper ads. And tiny ads like these are super cheap to buy, unlike full-page display ads. And you can put text like this on fliers you distribute -- even on your business cards, or on signs and billboards. And you can use this formula with your email marketing.
The one and only goal of your postcard is to get people to go to your landing page and fill out your sign-up form.
You get your postcard noticed by having a compelling free offer – or an offer that is so good, frankly, only an idiot would say no to it.
That’s how you get you postcard noticed. And that’s how you get people to answer your postcard.
That’s how you build your list of qualified leads.
The big mistake people make with their postcard is to make a sales pitch – to use the postcard to sell their main product.
That’s an incorrect use of a postcard.
A postcard allows you more space than a classified ad. But there is still not enough space on a postcard – even a large postcard – to make a full-blown sales pitch. Plus you have not established the necessary rapport or relationship with your prospect – which is an essential precondition for making a sale.
People are not going to buy from you until they know more about you. The job of your postcard is to get people to go to your website, fill out your sign-up form and get on your list so that you can follow up.
How To Use These Strategies If You Are A Local Business
So how might this apply to you if you are a local business – say a local store owner?
Well, the strategy I’ve outlined for you in the “How to Use Postcards” section above should give you some clues.
So let’s press onward.
Let’s say you own gourmet grocery store. We have a Gourmet Giant near where I live, so we’ll just use that as an example.
Well, surely a mailing to local subscribers of Gourmet magazine, Bon Appetite and food-lovers magazines like that could bring these people to your gourmet food store.
Send readers of your postcard to your website to pick up a free cook book – titled something like The 60-Second Gourmet Chef.
That’s how you build your list of gourmet food buyers in your local trading area. You are then able to email them coupons for discounts at your store that they can print off from their computer.
I know the owner of the owner of a big golf equipment store here in Northern Virginia. I asked him what kind of advertising they were doing.
They were running some radio ads, he said.
“How are they doing?” I asked.
“Not that well,” he said.
Well, of course not . . . because with a radio ad he is paying to reach mostly people who don’t play golf.
I encouraged him to rent the subscribers to Golf Digest who live in the local area.
So he did exactly that.
Not only did he generate a flood of traffic into his store from just about every golf fanatic in the local area, he followed my advice and captured their email address, name and contact information so that he could follow-up with a weekly golf tips that arrive by email and, of course, more golf offers – such as discounts on golf balls and golf equipment.
He told reported to me that this strategy doubleds business within 30 days.. And he’s stopped his radio ads. He’s putting his advertising money into targeted mailings to known golfers in the region. He’s become a list building maniac.
Why waste adverting dollars by using broadcast advertising to hit mostly people who have zero interest in golf?
If you are a golf store, spend your money selling to golfers and golfers only. You do that with direct mail. Try the co-operative postcard mailing strategy described above.
Make A Specific Offer In All Your Advertising
The other day, I walked in my bank and I saw a big sign in there for a local realtor.
This realtor had made an arrangement with the bank to have her big sign right there in the lobby, standing up in sandwich-board fashion.
The headline on the sign said “Spotlighting Our Local Realtor.”
Underneath this headline was a photo of the nice looking realtor, some fliers advertising her business, some other fliers featuring properties, and a stack of her business cards – each of these items in their own compartment.
It was all very nice looking and professional.
I thought, this is very industrious on her part.
She is doing about 98% of her marketing right. This puts her miles ahead of most of her competitors already.
She has a partnership of some kind with the bank. And she has this big display standing there in the middle of the lobby. It all looked great.
I was impressed.
But, this impressive display was missing one key element.
What do you think that element was?
It was missing a specific offer.
It was missing giving me a strong reason to call her right now . . . or go to her website get something free – something that I would want if I was remotely interested in buying property in the area.
And, of course, if I were to call her office or go to her website to get her free offer she would then have my name and my contact information. She would have had a hot lead with whom she could then follow up.
Her display ad, her exhibit sitting there in the middle of the lobby of the bank was very impressive, very professional.
But the only reason I would call her is if I was looking to buy property right now, at that moment. Otherwise, I would just say, that was a neat looking display and walk away, and never contact her.
And then, if six months or a year later I was on looking to buy property, I would probably have forgotten her name or how to contact her.
What she needed to do with her display (her ad) is give me a reason to get on her email and postal mail list even if I don’t want to buy right now . . . so that she can start sending me her useful informative enewsletter (as well as her physical printed monthly newsletter); and so she can follow up with me in various ways -- so she can put me in her cultivation program.
So what she might offer is a free “white paper” on Property Appreciation Trends in Northern Virginia -- something like that for people in her local trading area who call or who go to her website and fill out the sign up form.
You’ve got to give people a strong reason to get on your list. To do that, you have to give them something of value free that’s exactly in line with what you do.
That’s what you must do with all your adverting – you must give those who see your ad a reason to contact you . . . aside from the reason being that they want to buy from you right now, right on the spot.
Most people don’t want to buy what you are selling right now. But they might want to buy in the future – when the time is right for them. That’s why building your list of qualified leads is so critical for your business.
You need their name and contact information so you can constantly remind them who you are and what you do . . . so that when the time is right, they think of you first.
Most ads contain no offer – no strong reason to call or go to a website right now.
When I go into local stores, I often ask if they keep a list of their customers. 95% do not. Their customers are just whoever happens to walk in.
I’m amazed they can stay in business at all with that approach.
All these stores could be ten times more profitable if they diligently maintained a customer and visitor list and communicated even just occasionally with their list – at least once a week to give them reasons to come back into the store.
Quality is Far More Important Than Quantity
What matters is not so much how big your list is.
What matters most is how targeted your list is, and how loyal it is. I would much rather have a list of 1,000 people who have bought something from me and love reading my emails and articles than a list of 500,000 people I know nothing about and who know nothing about me.
For example, my list of 2,200 Inner Circle members (as of this writing) generates about $800,000 in sales for me per year. And that number goes up everyday. My Inner Circle members pay $38 per month to be in the program so they can participate in my online seminars and read my articles and books on marketing. Plus they are buying my other products and programs.
So that’s what a list of the right people can do for you. I’ll take my list of 2,200 Inner Circle members over a list of 1,000,000 I know nothing about any day.
Now let me illustrate this point another way by asking you a question.
If I am selling a marketing seminar program aimed a cosmetic surgeons, which list will allow me to bring in more sales?
a) A list of 1,000,000 folks who subscribed to receive a daily joke b) A list of 40,000 subscribers to an ezine on Internet marketing c) A list of 385 cosmetic surgeons
You should be able to guess the answer if you’ve been paying attention.
The list of 485 cosmetic surgeons will generate 30 times more money than the other lists. The list of 1,000,000 subscribers to receive a daily joke will generate zero for this kind of offer – unless there happen to be one or two cosmetic surgeons on that list. I know for a fact this is true because I tested this exact offer to these three lists.
The most important principle in direct marketing – whether you are marketing online or offline – is to achieve a “message to market match.” That is, to be successful your marketing message (including your product) must match the interest of the people to who you are sending your message.
“Narrow is the gate” to paradise in marketing and in business.
Also, the more narrow and refined your product, the more you can charge for it.
Here are some actual examples for my business.
I can charge $38 per month for my general Inner Circle program on marketing for entrepreneurs.
But I can charge $98 per month for my Inner Circle marketing program for realtors, and $995 per month for my Inner Circle marketing program aimed at cosmetic surgeons.
I have not launched these programs yet as I write this chapter. But I have tested this hypothesis. So I will be launching specialized programs along these lines shortly. The more specialized your product, the more you can charge for it.
The price you can charge increases geometrically the more specialized your product is.
Understanding the science of list building is how you get rich on the Internet.
The Value of Data
FreeCreditReport.com is a near-diabolical list building scheme.
FreeCreditReport.com is really the product of a criminal mind in my opinion.
What they are doing is getting you to give them permission to go into your credit history and compile a data base on you based on your buying patterns, net-worth, creditworthiness, etc.
Professional marketers understand that value of collecting data on people – for building a buying history profile that will allow marketers to make increasingly targeted sales offers.
When you go to the supermarket, I’m sure you’ve used a bar-coded discount card the store has given you – perhaps if you shop at Giant, or Safeway or Food Lion or Jewel or just about any other big store these days.
All the stores want you using your bar-coded discount card. Why?
Well, in addition to giving you a reason to keep coming back to the store to get your discounts, they are also building an database on you and your buying patterns so that you will now get more targeted offers in the mail.
You will get coupons and sales offers that are more precisely on target with your interests – which they now know because of your buying history.
I’m actually a bit of a privacy freak, so I don’t use these bar-coded discount cards at stores. I don’t want marketers like me tracking my every activity.
But it’s pretty difficult to get away from the data collectors and list builders anymore.
If you rent movies from Blockbuster or NetFlix, a data base is being built on you of the movies you are renting. Amazon is doing this as well as any business out there.
I remember in the 1990s how a lot of the business writers for the Wall Street Journal and Business Week were very critical of Amazon’s business model.
They said this business won’t work because books are a low-margin product. It’s hard to make much money selling books for $20 apiece.
But I thought at the time, no . . . this is brilliant.
The money is not so in the book sales. They money is in the data Amazon is collecting on our interests, as indicated by out purchases of books.
So now Amazon has a gigantic database on what our interests are. Amazon is now selling not just books, but just about everything else under the sun. It’s selling movies, electronics, clothing, jewelry and will bring in $12 billion in sales this year.
The most valuable asset these companies have are not the books and movies they are selling. It’s the huge data base of information they are building on their customers, on our buying patterns, and on our interests.
Professional marketers know the value of this data. We know how to use this data to more precisely achieve that all-important message-to-market match.
If you know who your golfers are, you now know who to sell your golf stuff to. If you know who your horror movie buffs are, you now have a highly cost-effective way to sell your horror movies.
Cost effective marketing is as much about weeding people out as it is knowing who to market to. The more you can weed out those who are not interested in what you are selling, the more cost-effective your marketing will be – often by a factor of 1,000 or more.
Cost-effective marketing is about knowing how to find those who have a history of buying products that are exactly in line with what you are selling.
I would much rather have a list of 1,000 people who have bought from me before than a list of 1,000,000 names of people I know very little about.
It’s about knowing people’s buying patterns and what their interests are. It’s about list building and data compiling.
A list of “frequent buyers” of what you are selling is like a vault full of money that you can access at any time.
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