MarketingBurn

How Grants Work and How To Use the grants.gov Website

2010-09-27T00:02:00.000-06:00

When People Need Your Help... Help Them

2010-01-18T13:03:00.003-07:00

Most of us have needed help at one time or another, life makes sure it keeps us humble.

I've needed help in my life and have been eternally grateful when someone was there to give me a hand up.

Well the people in Haiti are desperate for help right now and you can help.

My daughters have started a Help Haiti campaign using their personal blogs and Facebook accounts. You can either join in their effort, start your own or give to a reputable organization.

Check it out what my daughters are doing...

http://www.mosslifeisgood.blogspot.com/

I found a link on MSNBC that lists the organizations that are helping and how you can contact them.

MSNBC list of charitable organizations helping Haiti.

Whatever, you do don't let this opportunity to serve pass you by, every little bit helps and there are people that need your help.

Perfection at the Plate

2009-12-18T11:33:00.005-07:00

By Steven Weisenburger

The Holidays are great. I get to eat turkey dinner on Thanksgiving and Christmas but more importantly I love to bask in the "spirit" of the Holiday season -- it makes me feel good.

If you're lucky and can find your way around the commercial clatter of Black Friday, Internet Monday, Santa Claus and presents under the tree you may even catch a glimpse of the true spirit of Christmas too.

For me the Holiday spirit is the beacon on the hill, providing us with important bearings so we don't get lost.

During this special time of the year we give of ourselves, extend a helping hand up to others, and express our love and appreciation to loved ones friends and sometimes even to strangers. I don't know about you but I like how this makes me feel. So why give it up once the Holiday season is over? Don't we need these bearing all year long? I say yes.

If I may, I'd like to do my part in helping you catch that spirit. The following true story is from Rabbi Paysach Krohn's book, Echoes of the Maggid. This amazing little story shows how the true spirit of the Holidays can even show up on a baseball field in the middle of the summer.

Perfection at the Plate

In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning-disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school careers, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs. There are a few children who attend Chush for most of the week and go to a regular school on Sundays.

At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, “Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything that Hashem does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is Hashem’s perfection?” The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father’s anguish and stilled by his piercing query.

“I believe,” the father answered, “that when Hashem brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that He seeks is in the way people react to this child.”

He then told the following story about his son Shaya.

Shaya attends Chush throughout the week and Yeshivah Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway on Sundays. One Sunday afternoon, Shaya and his father came to Darchei Torah as his classmates were playing baseball. The game was in progress and as Shaya and his father made their way towards the ball field, Shaya said, “Do you think you could get me into the game?”

Shaya’s father knew his son was not at all athletic, and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya’s father understood that if his son was chosen in, it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.

Shaya’s father approached one of the boys in the field and asked, “Do you think my Shaya could get into the game?”

The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, “We are losing by six runs and the game is already in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.”

Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field, a position that exists only in softball. There were no protests from the opposing team, which would now be hitting with an extra man in the outfield.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya’s team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded and the potential winning runs on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shaya was told to take a bat and try to get a hit. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible, for Shaya didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so that Shaya should at least be able to make contact.

The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shaya.

As the next pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.

Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far and wide beyond the first baseman’s reach. Everyone started yelling, “Shaya, run to first! Shaya, run to first!” Never in his life had Shaya run to first.

He scampered down the baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman’s head, as everyone yelled, “Shaya, run to second! Shaya, run to second.”

Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran towards him, turned him towards the direction of third base and shouted “Shaya, run to third!”

As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, “Shaya, run home! Shaya, run home!”

Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit the “grand slam” and won the game for his team.

“That day,” said the father who now had tears rolling down his face, “those 18 boys reached their level of perfection. They showed that it is not only those who are talented that should be recognized, but also those who have less talent. They too are human beings, they too have feelings and emotions, they too are people, they too want to feel important.”

* * *

Happy Holidays... all year long!

What To Do When Your Radio Advertising Sucks

2009-11-04T19:48:00.003-07:00

by Steven Weisenburger

Nothing is more stressful for an entrepreneur than to be tied into a long term advertising contract and have the ads fall flat on their face. It creates a desperate situation. And radio advertising can be one of the most draining marketing expenses when it your spots aren't working.

But it doesn't have to be that way

Radio advertising is like a tornado – when control, it’s like this giant invisible power vac sweeping across the marketing landscape rending listening prospects powerless to resist, and sucking all the cash out of their pockets and filling yours.

However, if you don’t know how to control it, it will viciously turn on you and you’ll end up like the cow the tornado has sucked off the ground, legs flailing, bellowing fearfully, and puzzled as to the source of havoc being wreaked upon your life.

Gina, the owner of a greenhouse and nursery, was beside herself because of her radio advertising – the radio station had her on a full “rotational” campaign, running spots throughout the day and night. You know the “branding” campaign – if customers hear your name enough times they will eventually choose you over your competitor when the time comes to buy.

Have you ever felt this pain before

Well, her intense discomfort came from the fact that, for each of the past 9 months she had been shelling out $4,000 and the effort was simply not delivering a return-on-investment (R.O.I.). She didn’t plan on renewing her contract ever again.

Since there were three months left on the contract she wanted to know if there was anything she could do to salvage the disaster. How could she fix her radios spots?

How would you feel if you were in Gina’s position?

Her radio spots were appalling 15 and 30-second “funny” quips about her store -- about half of them mentioned a product but none offered a reason to come in buy something right now... you know like a sale, bonus, discount, some sort of compelling offer.

Fixing this problem is easy and quick

Listen up. There are lots of ways of fixing her problem -- here’s the quick fix approach I recommended in this situation.

There were two critical marketing steps I had her take immediately.

1^st – I had her think in terms of giving prospective customers a reason why they should come into the store right now. Have your commercials make some sort of offer.

2^nd – I had her switch from 30 sec spots to 60’s and throw out the funny drivel and use the “live radio show host call-in” format strategy. These are commercials where you call in your spot to the radio show host and he/she gets to grill you about what’s going on down at your store. And even if it’s not really a live spot, you call in and record it with the host as if it were.

It might go something like this...

Radio Host: We have the owner of Gina’s Greenhouse and Nursery on the line. Tell us Gina what’s going on down there today?

Gina: Well Dick right now we’re unloading a semi truck full of Royal Empress Trees, the fastest growing tree in the country.

Radio Host: The fastest growing tree Gina? Just how fast do they grow?

Gina: The Royal Empress grows 10 to 15 feet a year and are 40 to 50 feet tall within three years. Plus, it has the most fragrant and gorgeous purple bloom.

Radio Host: So Gina you said you had a truckload of them?

Gina: Yes, Dick we are unloading 200 of them right now. I bought them from a nursery up North that was going out of business. And best of all Dick I got them at an unbelievable low price -- 70% off, and I’m passing the savings on to all of your listeners that come in this weekend... Yada yada yada...

Anyway you get the idea.

Did it work?

Well, I’m happy to report that Gina renewed her advertising contract with the radio station for another year!

Article Marketing:Two Simple Tips To Retain Higher Readership

2009-10-12T15:50:00.008-06:00

One key to successful a Article Marketing campaign is have an article that holds your reader attention. Weak copy gives the readers mind the opportunity to wander and quickly lose interest in your article.

I want to show you two simple tips for spicing up your article and holding your readers attention.

To begin this lesson I'm going to use an perfectly acceptable article one of my students submitted for critique. Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with this article -- the writer could have submitted this article as is and done just fine. But I'm going to do a before and after demonstration.

The unedited article is as follows.

Dogs are cute, cuddly and lovable when you bring them home, until their first accident. That is when you realize you have to do more than feed them, walk them, pet them and love them. You have to train them.

Follow these three dog training tricks to quickly and successfully potty train your new four legged best friend. Older dogs are easily trained in 2 days if you are diligent and consistent.

Trick 1 to Potty Train Your Dog - Be consistent with all activities, especially eating. Dogs will typically need to be let out or taken for a walk 20-30 minutes after they eat. Decide if you are going to feed your dog once or twice a day. Twice a day is preferred. Whatever times you pick, be consistent. If you decide to feed your dog before you go to work and when you come home, be sure you keep the same schedule on the weekends or days you are not working. Leave the food out a fixed period of time. Your dog will learn very quickly that they must eat when the food is there or they will not get any. Until they are trained, do not give your dog water 3-4 hours before bed. Make sure you take them out one last time before going to bed.

Trick 2 to Potty Train your Dog - When you take your dog out, always take them to the same place until they understand that they are to do their business outside. If you are using your backyard, take them to the same spot and give them a specific encouraging command. I use "Go - Go - Go - Go." Whatever word or words you choose, be consistent. They will learn to associate the sound of that word with the action you want. This also applies if you are walking them instead of taking them in your yard. Always stop at the same place when you first take them out and use your command word.

Trick 3 to Potty Train your Dog - At night and when you are leaving, keep your dog in a crate or enclosed area. Most people think that putting their dog in a crate is cruel but this is not true. In fact, most dogs feel safe in their crate or their "area" and will often go there just to nap. Dogs very rarely go potty where they sleep. As soon as you get up in the morning or come back after leaving, lead your dog from the crate directly to the designated potty area and give them your command word. Do not let them wander or get sidetracked on the way.

Most important with anything you teach your dog, always praise and use positive reinforcement. Dogs want their owner's approval. Praising, petting and rewarding them makes it easy for them to figure out what they have to do to get your approval. Dog training is easy but it takes effort and commitment on your part to be successful.

Now the "After" version of the article:

Dogs are cute, cuddly and lovable when you bring them home, until the first time they do their “business” on the carpet. Now as you’re retching uncontrollably while cleaning up the “accident” you wonder why the call them “mans best friend”.

It suddenly dawns on you there is more to owning a pet than feeding, walking, petting and loving them...

You have to train them too.

Listen, no need to be overcome with anxiety. And you can dismiss that image of being forced by your spouse and friends into dropping off your new “stinky” little buddy at the dog pound.

Simply follow these three dog training tricks to quickly and successfully house break your new little four legged best friend. Older dogs are easily trained in 2 days if you are diligent and consistent – younger dogs may take up to 7 to 10 days, but it’s a small price to pay for waking up to cuddly cuteness every day.
Trick 1 to Potty Train Your Dog - Be consistent with all activities, especially eating. Dogs will typically need to be let out or taken for a walk 20-30 minutes after they eat. Decide if you are going to feed your dog once or twice a day. Twice a day is preferred. Whatever times you pick, be consistent. If you decide to feed your dog before you go to work and when you come home, be sure you keep the same schedule on the weekends or days you are not working. Leave the food out a fixed period of time. Your dog will learn very quickly that they must eat when the food is there or they will not get any. Until they are trained, do not give your dog water 3-4 hours before bed. Make sure you take them out one last time before going to bed.
Trick 2 to Potty Train your Dog - When you take your dog out, always take them to the same place until they understand that they are to do their business outside. If you are using your backyard, take them to the same spot and give them a specific encouraging command. I use "Go - Go - Go - Go." Whatever word or words you choose, be consistent. They will learn to associate the sound of that word with the action you want. This also applies if you are walking them instead of taking them in your yard. Always stop at the same place when you first take them out and use your command word.
Trick 3 to Potty Train your Dog - At night and when you are leaving, keep your dog in a crate or enclosed area. Most people think that putting their dog in a crate is cruel but this is not true. In fact, most dogs feel safe in their crate or their "area" and will often go there just to nap. Dogs very rarely go potty where they sleep. As soon as you get up in the morning or come back after leaving, lead your dog from the crate directly to the designated potty area and give them your command word. Do not let them wander or get sidetracked on the way.
Most important with anything you teach your dog, always praise and use positive reinforcement. As you know, dogs crave their owner's approval. Praising, petting and rewarding them makes it easy for them to figure out what they have to do to get your approval. Dog training is easy however, as a pet owner you’ll need to add a few simple routines to your life to ensure an enjoyable relationship with your pet.

Steve’s Handy Writing Tips:

1- Thesaurus Dictionary.com

It’s easy to make your copy more interesting by spicing up just a few words. You can simply keep and eye out for opportunities do so and add more interesting word that pop into your head or use a thesaurus.

Here’s an example from the copy above. The word “want” has been changed to “crave” to spice up the copy. Small changes like in this example make the copy resonate a bit more and thus hold the readers attention.

Dogs want their owner's approval.

Dogs crave their owner's approval.

I recommend that you use what I call $3 dollar words and avoid using $10 dollar words.

For an example of a $10 word I’ve used retching in the copy above. Retching is not what I call a “common” word in the normal persons vocabulary, so I would avoid it. With the use of a thesaurus I’ve come up with replacement words that a broader audience would relate to.

Retching -

Synonyms: be sick, discharge, lose one's lunch, regurgitate, retch, spew, throw up, upchuck

2 – Idioms

The dictionary defines idioms as:

an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics.

Using common phrases in your copy gives your reader a "comfortable" feeling. Readers will quickly identify with the author as regular person just like they are. And these common phrases hold the readers attention as well.

Spread the Word in Blog Directories

2009-09-21T11:03:00.003-06:00

Writing the most awesome blog content know to mankind is not enough to get you plastered all of the Internet... OK, maybe for some it can be, but for the rest of us using Blog Directories is just another free tool to get the word out.

The goal is to obviously have our pearls of wisdom we have so feverishly slaved over to be found and read. Once read, of course to change the readers life forever and thus to live in blogger immortality.

So here are a few Blog Directories for you to consider...

Blog Directory

Blogging Fusion

Blogville

Please comment and let our readers know about the other Blog Directories that you find out there.

Until next time, keep on bloggin'!

The Second Most Widely Committed Sin In Advertising

2009-07-28T13:31:00.005-06:00

by Steven Weisenburger

Failure to "sell the benefits" is the second most widely committed sin in advertising. Almost everyone focuses on the features of their product or service, rather than the benefits. And it’s the benefit that give your prospect the reason to buy.

What's the difference? Simple. Features are what you like about your product. Benefits are what your customer likes about your product.

Another way to say this is that a feature is “attached” to your product. It exists as part of or an attribute of the product, regardless of whether the product is ever sold, or used by a customer. Example, “The car is red”.

A benefit, on the other hand, is “attached” to the customer. It is not inherent in the product, it is inherent in people. It is the result of the product’s use by somebody. A benefit doesn’t “happen,” then, until somebody takes the product or service home and uses it. Example, “I look sexy, in my new red car.”

Can you tell the difference between a feature & benefit? Here's a quiz.

• "push-button controls," is a… ______________.

• "ease of use," is a… ______________.

• "21 Investment strategies," is a… ______________.

• "get rich 21 ways," is a… ______________.

• " wool suit coat," is a ... ______________.

• " the suit is warm," is a... ______________.

WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)

That’s what benefits are all about. Customers always want to know “What’s in it for me?” Why should I do business with you?” “What do I get out of this deal?” A feature simply does not answer this question for your customer.

So as you develop your advertising, you should always be thinking, “What’s in it for you, dear prospect?”

People buy to satisfy their needs. They may not always be cognizant of their needs, but needs motivate their buying behaviors just the same. Their need may be pleasure-based (I want that) or pain-based (I want to avoid that). Either way their needs drive their buying choices.

Ultimately, you’ve got to be able to trace your advertising statements back through the advertising motivation to the need it fulfills. Even though the prospect may not be able to do this, you must. That’s because you must understand what it is about your advertising or marketing copy that will compel your prospect to buy.

If you don’t understand these things, your marketing efforts will always be hit and miss. That’s okay when you’re testing everything, but it makes the testing process longer and more expensive. When you understand the buyer’s motivations and can write copy that appeals to those motivations, you can come up with the right combinations more quickly and you are more likely to hit winners faster.

The five basic needs are...

Survival -- We have a basic need to survive. We need food, shelter, clothing, transportation and a job. Once these things are covered, our need to survive takes a back seat to the other needs. But it is, none the less, always there. We may be motivated by security issues that are related to survival. And, of course, if ever our life or health is threatened, by either outside forces or illness, our need to survive quickly rises back to the top of the list.
To love and to be loved -- Not a lot of explanation needed on this one. As you know, both men and women have attempted to move heaven and earth; they have done things they would never have considered doing, if not for the motivation to love and be loved. Love is perhaps the strongest of all human needs, and it can have an incredible impact on our buying decisions.
To feel important -- Akin to our need for love is our need to feel important. Why do you think golfers try to get better at the game. (No, it’s not just to save money on lost golf balls.) It’s because they want the admiration of their golfing buddies, or at least they want to avoid being joked about by their golfing buddies. This need to feel important is close in weight to the need to be loved for most people. Indeed, many people value respect above love. This is a huge human need that demands fulfillment and motivates many buying decisions.
Variety -- True, we are creatures of habit, but we don’t like thinking of ourselves that way, or having others think of us that way. That’s why “variety is the spice of life.” It really is. It is reflected in our tastes and our choices, the clothes we wear, the things we do, our likes and dislikes. Our need to be different motivates our buying decisions.
The LAZ Factor -- We all want our lives to be easier. We don’t want hassle, trouble or even inconvenience. Especially given the fast pace of today’s society, we’re all looking for ways to simplify our lives. This isn’t bad. We may be lazy, but the LAZ Factor is responsible for every technological advance ever invented. And while not all of them worked out the way originally envisioned, making life easier is the aim. It is particularly important in the fast-paced lives we live today. Make life easier or more simple for your prospects, and they’ll buy what you have to offer.

Benefits can be stated in either Pleasure or Pain contexts.

• "Take strokes off your game"(2 &/or 3)

• "Never again be the target of everybody's golf humor" (2 or 3)

Don’t hesitate to use the pain context in your feature/benefit statements. Many times people will act more quickly to avoid a negative than to acquire a positive.

Features are statements of product attributes. They may be seen as desirable only if they are connected to a benefit, either by the ad or the customer himself.

"This car has a 2.3 liter engine" (Pure feature.)
"This car's 2.3 liter engine is the most powerful in its class" (This is a typical attempt to put a feature in benefit language.)
"Feel the exhilaration of acceleration behind the class's most powerful 2.3 liter engine"(Appeals first to the need (4) then backs the promise up with the feature.)
"Feel like the 'King of the Road' behind a 2.3 liter powerhouse that leads the class" (Appeals to more than one need --3 &4, maybe even 1 & 2.)

Benefits vs. Compelling Benefits;
Features vs. Compelling Features

There are all kinds of features and benefits. But the ones that count are the compelling features and benefits -- the ones that make people want to buy.

Not all benefits will motivate the prospect to make a decision now. Not that all benefits don’t contribute to that decision, but in most cases, there is one, or several key benefits that touch the primary buying motivation, and several others that may act to “seal the deal.”

Features work the same way. Some are “big deal” features. Others may be nice “icing on the cake” things that people like and that help them take the final steps toward deciding to buy.

Your job is to determine which are the compelling features and benefits and focus your attention on them, without ignoring the less compelling features and benefits.

Remember, people buy with their hearts, they buy with their guts -- those are the benefits. But once they make the emotional decision, they need the features to justify the decision with their heads.

Develop a list of all the features of your product or service, then develop a list of all the benefits.

As you develop your feature and benefit lists, you will find that you can immediately think of a few of each. Those are the easy ones, but they may not be the most compelling. Once you get past the easy list, begin to dig. Look at the details. Really search for what’s important about your product or service. This is worth the time investment because it will enable you to write more powerful advertising and marketing materials.

Be exhaustive with these lists. Think of all the features and benefits you can.

There are three ways to generate your feature and benefits lists.

Simply brainstorm all the features and benefits you can think of
Think of a single feature and then think of all the benefits it might generate
Think of a single benefit and then think of all the features that cause that result

Combine your features and benefits into powerful advertising statements

Once you have a comprehensive list of features and benefits. (And every feature should be linked with at least one benefit.) The next step is to combine features and benefits into advertising statements.

Your tendency will probably be to write the feature and then tell what the feature does for the prospect… the benefit. That’s fine for your first draft. But then take many of those feature/benefit statements and reverse them, so the benefit leads off, followed by the feature that delivers it.

Examples:

This Dyson Vacuum steers with ball technology, so you can easily maneuver around furniture.
You’ll maneuver easily around furniture and up close to baseboards, with this vacuum's ball technology steering feature.
This course contains over 101 ways to promote your website for free, so you’ll always
have a fresh link-building strategy to choose from.
You’ll never have to worry about coming up with a new link building strategies, since this course has 101 of them ready to go, for you to instantly choose from.

Finally, list your advertising statements in as compelling language as possible. It’s one thing to talk about ease of use, but it’s far more compelling to say “turns on a dime with no loss of suction!”

When Your Website Ain't Generating Sales

2009-06-30T12:47:00.004-06:00

I have a friend that is new to the Internet Marketing world and has a genuine desire to serve others with the products he sales.

He got his site up and started running traffic to it using pay per click (PPC) ads. He really did an excellent job writing his PPC ad -- he was driving 50+ people to his site per day. However, he has a big problem... no one is staying and buying.

So being a smart guy he started changing the site up. As I watched each new version I was impressed with all the work he was doing. After he went through six or seven revisions he emailed me and asked for some input.

I immediately was interested in the information that his analytics was giving him. You can imagine my shock when he said he was not using any - not even Google Analytics which is free.

Listen, this is such a common mistake for so many Internet Marketing newbies that I decided to write about it here, even though when I Google "analytics mistakes" there are 1.5 million references.

I believe the biggest reason new Internet Marketers don't use analytics is because they are also new to the direct response world -- which relys on testing and tracking as the only road to real success.

So my friend had taken his site through 7 revisions based only on his gut feeling of what he should change and had never once done an a/b test.

Are we on the same page?

Just so we are all on the same page, let me explain an a/b test. Let's say you wanted to test one headline against another to see which one kept your traffic on the page instead of bouncing off. What you do is create two web pages exactly the same with the exception of the headline. Then you rotate the traffic that's coming in to every other site and measure the response to both. You will quickly discover which headline has the "sticking" power. One headline will always be better than the other -- fewer visitors will leave.

Now you do that same a/b test with each component of your page, graphics, type fonts, colors, layout, etc.

The Eternal Marketing Task

After each test you will gradually increase the performace of your site and you'll wind up with your "control". Then once you have a "control" you try and knock it off with even better performance. Thus, you are forever trying to increase your response and sales -- this is a marketing task that has no end. Sure, you may reduce the frequency of the tests because you have the desired results but you'll always want to see if you can knock off the control.

This is actually the fun part of Internet Marketing, at least for me. I like because it gives me the power to scientifically create success -- I'm able to make changes based on what the customer tells me they like -- and it means each time I discover something that works better I make more money! Not a bad deal at all.

I'll leave you with this final thought...

Test and track for ever increasing success.

Put Your Prospects In The Mood To Buy

2009-06-15T13:27:00.007-06:00

by Steven Weisenburger

Direct response marketer, and living legend, Joe Sugarman recently address a small group of elite Internet marketers and I was lucky enough to be in the room.

Just in case you don't know who Joe Sugarman is, let me remind you of the BluBlocker Sunglasses fame. He took a product someone was going to give up on and took it to Marketing Hall of Fame mega monster hit. First infomercials, then on to the home shopping networks and eventually world wide markets.

His topic was How to Put Your Prospect in the Mood To Buy. And as it turns out his presentation was live example of how it work. At the end of presentation everybody in the room bought something from Joe and I have three of his books to prove it.

To think that I could even come close to capturing the physiological selling journey Joe took us through that day would be folly on my part. There simply is no way -- plain and simple, you had to be there. So if you ever get a chance to hear him speak do whatever it takes to get there... and don't forget your wallet.

Here are my notes from the meeting:

Selling Trigger #1: Objection Raising and Objection Resolution

When a consumer looks at a product, there's always skeptisim or some point about the product that isn’t quite settled in his/her mind.

Maybe it needs installation or they aren't sure if it will fit in their pocket. If you sense an objection, you MUST raise that objection in your copy. Then you have to overcome the objection and explain why it isn't that significant.

Joe did this in his classic ad about the 'ugly' thermostat. In fact, he beat up the product so badly before he ever started to sell it, people kept reading the copy just to find out why he hated the thing so much. It sold like crazy.

Selling Trigger #2: Storytelling

Another powerful selling trigger is storytelling. Everybody loves a good story. It's a great way to get into a product.

Here's how Joe opened his long copy ad for BluBlocker Sunglasses.

"I am about to tell you a true story, if you believe me, you will be well rewarded. If you don't believe me, I'll make it worth your while to change your mind..."

That story launched a company that, 20 million pairs of sunglasses later, is still going strong!

Selling Trigger #3: Honesty

The strongest selling trigger is honesty. If you are honest in all that you do and you express that honesty, customers will trust you.

How do you do this in an ad? It's simple, share a flaw. Tell them a few bad things about the product. It sounds crazy, but admitting a few flaws will actually increase your sales.

Selling Trigger #4: Satisfaction Conviction

Joe has doubled or tripled response by upping the satisfaction conviction. What is satisfaction conviction? It's more than a trial period. It's more than a 30-day guarantee. It's saying,

"Hey, buy these sunglasses and if you aren't happy a year from now, then send them back and we'll give you a new pair."

Your guarantee has to be so strong that your reader thinks, "Boy if this product isn't good, these people are going to get ripped off."

Selling Trigger #5: Simplicity

One of the hardest triggers for marketers to remember is simplicity.

If you are selling a single product, don't offer different versions of that product. Don't give people too many options in a print ad, it creates confusion. Don't complicate the approach.

One of the big problems on the Internet is people offer too much. If you force your prospect to choose between A, B, and C, -- it makes your client pause in his buy process – he freezes up... and you've lost the sale.

All good tips and I can say I've used them all with success.

Joe Sugarman is one of the direct response marketing greats. Studying and modeling his success will help you in achieving your success.

Quickly and Inexpensively Build a List With Safelists

2009-04-25T11:45:00.001-06:00

by Steven Weisenburger

"The money is in the list."

In one of my online coaching sessions I was telling my students about a webinar I had attended. The presentation was conducted by mega success Agora Publishing. In just 7 years they’ve mushroomed into a $400+ million dollar a year Internet marketing giant. So, I guess you can say it's Christmas everyday for them!

In that webinar they revealed the seeds to their miraculous success. One seed was building a database of opt-in subscribers to their free Early-to-Rise newsletter.

They started out very small database of their own and built it up to 20,000+ names and it took off from there. And now they have hundreds of thousands of email address they send to on a daily basis -- and what's really amazing is that their subscribers, like little kids anticipating Santa, they can hardly wait until tomorrow to get the next one.

Well, with visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads like sugarplums, several of the students eagerly asked me, “How do you quickly build up your own database/subscriber list to market to?”

There are many ways of building your own database/subscriber list, however, I’m going to show you ONE technique in this article. I selected it because one marketer I know of used this method to take his subscriber base of 2,000 to over 60,000 names in just 6 weeks.

How did he accomplish such a feat? Safelists.

A Safelist is a form of e-mail marketing and advertising where the members have agreed to receive each other’s messages. Types of safelists include paid, credit based, and free. Thus, as everyone has opted -in, it is “safe” to send promotional material to each other.

Anyone can join and market their products and service with email advertising -- there is no “good old boys” network you have to be connected with to get in the door.

Some Safelists are free to advertise to and others require a fee. But the fee is a pint-sized fraction of what companies charge to mail to traditional rented opt-in e-lists -- which can run $200 to $400 per thousand.

What works in promotions targeted to Safelists?

If your marketing mindset is wrapped around “lead generation” then smartlists are going to work best for you. Free offers tend to pull well in Safelists.

So by offering a free report or some other "gift" in your marketing promotion, you establish credibility with the Safelist subscribers and encourage them to investigate the source of the ad -- which is you of course -- not Santa!

Some Safelists permit only text ads; others allow either text or HTML. Some experts claim HTML ads pull better on Safelists. As always, I default to the tried and true marketing principle of testing all your marketing efforts -- its the only way to know for certain.

Where does one finds Safelists?

When you google it, you'll find 444,000 results. But let me save you a little time.

There are several online directories that contain Safelist listings, including www.mailpro-network.com, www.megasubmitters.com, which require a small fee to join, plus FREE list sites such as www.101-websitetraffic.com and www.businessworldlist.com .

Quantity vs Quality

Like anything else, there are pro’s and cons to Safelists.

The Pros are:

you can generate a large list rather quickly and at a very low cost.
no fear of being penalized for spamming
you know the results of your ad immediately – a great way to test and tweak for success
email to thousands – for free or small amount – even a 1% -2% response can be profitable

The Çon is:

the unsubscribe rate for Safelist-aquired names is going to be many times higher than people who subscribe to your free report or ezine because they a.) either know you b.) signed up from an article submission c.) found you via a search engine search or d.) came to your internet site -- www.yoursite.com.

5 SafeList Marketing Tips

Select a targeted list – if you are targeting Internet Marketers, then don’t subscribe to lists that are contain pet owners. The more niched the list, the higher response rate you’re going to get.
Use a benefit-laden headline in your ad – you’ve got to reach out and grab the reader by the throat in the first 3 seconds or they vanish into thin air.
Use a follow-up strategy – direct customers from your ad to your website or use a sequential autoresponder. It often takes up to 6 -7 times for users to see your ad before they respond to your offer. A newbie Internet marketer will cease their marketing efforts after one attempt – huge mistake. Follow up every few days with a variation of your offer. This will dramatically increase your chances of making the sale.
Tracking and Testing – the number one marketing mistake you can make is the failure to test and track. Test multiple ads and track the response rate -- one will most assuredly out pull the rest. You can then test which headline pulls the best. After a one-month subscription, you will have some idea if the safelist is worth staying with -- if not, unsubscribe!

If you are getting a good response from the free lists, then pay the monthly subscription fee, so you can send your ad more often. You will also benefit from all the features they provide.
Use several safe lists – subscribe as a free member to several paid lists. Test which safelist gives you the best resonse. As you can imagine, paid safelists are of higher quality than the ones that are free.

There you go, another marketing quick fix -- a place to start to build that list. Don't forget... just like Santa, who is making a list and checking it twice... so should you! It's true, the money is in the list.
pulls the best response. As you

Copywriting Secrets - 3 Tips For Filling Your Swipe File With Ads That Sell

2009-04-15T14:21:00.001-06:00

by Steven Weisenburger

I wanted to answer a question that has come in from one of the members of our elite little band of Internet marketers.

Maggi and Ken from the UK had a good question:

"You mentioned in your CopyLab webinar that one of the best ways to
learn about copy is to collect a swipe file of good copy. But, how do you know what is good copy, and what has been successful?"

Answer:
Once you graduate from the CopyLab, not only will you be writing advertising copy that sells, but you'll also recognize good copy when you see it. Plus, I am going to give you a couple of hundred ads from my personal swipe file to get you started. And to top that off, you'll also receive some of the pieces I've written that were winners.

3 quick tips for finding great ads to include in your swipe file.

First: Direct mail that you receive via snail mail (US Postal Service here in the USA or the UK Post Office) and see more than once is going to be someone’s control piece. You see in the direct response world, it doesn't get sent out again if it didn't work the first time.

Second: Long copy format ads or ads that require the reader to take action that you find in publications like the Wall Street Journal, USA Today or even The National Enquirer and other publications, that you see over and over again are someone's controls. When I see these repeated ads I snatch them up faster than a paparazzi can snap a shot of Paris Hilton.

Just in case you're new to the Direct Response world, a "control" piece means the ad works for someone. They have measured the response and tested it against other copy and it has won the day and makes money for the company sending it.

Third: However, I have tons of ads in my swipe file that are most definitely NOT controls. The reasons for adding them to my swipe file are many. For example, if its got an attention grabbing headline then I want it in my file -- I keep my eyes peel for interesting and unusual offers -- perhaps a unique way of saying something caught my eye -- or the ad triggered an idea for me.

So the ads that end up in your swipe file will come from many sources for many personal reasons.

Then, when it comes time for you to write a winning promotional advertising piece, you well have at your finger tips a wealth of resources to draw on to make your job a lot easier and to ensure you have advertising that really works.

Kick Your Competitors To the Curb With This Excellent Marketing Princliple

2009-04-15T14:17:00.000-06:00

by Steven Weisenburger

Regardless of the industry you're in, the battle for sales is fierce. With competitors around every corner, lying in wait to steal your customers, take your profits and bury you as deep as they can with superior advertising and marketing tactics. What's your battle plan to defeat the enemy?

h Alexander the Great was never defeated in battle, that's why they called him Great. The rest of us should be so lucky, but I don't know anyone that hasn't lost a few battles in the marketing war.

So what was Alexanders secret to success and can that secret be used today?

Let's take a brief look at Alexanders life and some of legendary feats he accomplished.

First off, it's important to give Alexander's dad, King Phillip II of Macedon, some credit. When Alexander was 13 years old his dad hired Aristotle as his sons teacher. Aristotle hung out with Socrates and Plato and was noted as one of the greatest young minds of his time.

Obviously, his father knew the importance of exercising the mind as well as the body, because Aristotle became the headmaster of the military school Alexanders father built for his son, along with some of his son's buddies, to attend.

After hanging out with Aristotle, Alexander became a pretty sharp guy himself. Aristotle taught Alexander how to think. It's been said that thinking is the hardest act we can ever do -- so true.

So being well prepared, his dad put him in charge of the Army and turned him loose. His conquests were of epic proportion - he essentially went out and conquered the then known world.

One of the earliest examples revealing Alexanders ability to think was the story of how he won his horse, Bucephalus, when he was just 12. No one could mount the horse, but Alexander noticed that the horse feared his own shadow. When Alexander turned the horse into the sun so he could not see his shadow, he became docile and to the wonderment of all let Alexander mount him.

The fortress of Tyre was on an island, and thus, unapproachable by infantry since they can't walk on water. Tyre had indeed proven itself invincible. As Alexander approached this problem he had to do some pretty heavy thinking. How do you defeat an invincible city if your solders cannot march upon it?

Since Tyre was and island, the obvious tactic was to put a blockade thus cutting off vital supply lines. After a seven month blockade yielded no results, and having plenty of time on his hands to think, Alexander decided to change the rules -- he altered the geography by building a causeway from the mainland to Tyre. He marched his soldiers right over and battered down the gate and the fortress fell, and the causeway is still there today.

In another incident, an Indian noble had a castle on a mountain, and Alexander wanted him to submit. The noble said, "Unless you have men with wings, you'll never take this fortress!" Alexander sent some mountaineers up the mountain at night (about 90 percent survived) with orders to wave white cloths from the top. He then told the noble, "There are your winged men!" The man was so overcome with surprise that he gave in, although it is doubtful that Alexander could have beaten him.

pan·o·ply [pan-uh-plee]

1.	a wide-ranging and impressive array or display: the dazzling panoply of the maharaja's procession; the panoply of European history.

2.	a complete suit of armor.

Marketing Guys Aren't Programers - Doh!

2009-03-19T10:30:00.000-06:00

OK, I admit it. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer with it comes to tech stuff. And most of the time I'd rather face the hounds of hell than figure out a tech problem. But I'm a lucky guy, because I have a tech buddy, his name is Steve Oliphant, and he's a tech wizard. Whenever I come across the Dark Magic Powers of tech issues he takes care of it for me.

However, as a direct response marketing guy I do confess I envy those who know how to use html code. If I knew how to code myself I'd be putting up sales offers all day long. (I'd be testing and tracking them of course.)

The other day my buddy Steve taught me a simple html code that I could use to embed a url address into text or images -- thus creating a link. Wow, I can program html! Yipee and Yahoo!

Now I want to empower you all with this handy little marketing tool. Heres the code and how to use it....
So there it and this is how simple it is to use.

All you have to do to create a clickable link out of text is copy the url address you want to embed. Now notice the two quotation marks in the code above... go ahead take a look and find them... I'll wait for you. There you go, not so hard was it -- even marketing guys know what quotation marks look like. (We often use quotation marks on headlines to draw attention to them, even when the headline isn't a real quote.) Opps, sorry, I digress.

Once you have the url copied you simply use your mouse to carefully position the curser in between the quotation marks and paste it! Yeeeehaaawww! Hold on, don't get too excited, you're only half way home.

So now, I want you to find the the two greater and lesser than symbols that are nosed together... they look like this ><.... did you find them? Go ahead, take your time... I'll wait.

Found them didn't you? I know, that's was a harder problem to solve for us marketing guys. So now take your mouse and position the curser in between the two greater and lesser than signs, and type the text you want to turn into a link.

That's it! You're done!

Braggin' time! Now you can tell your friends, business associates, family members, strangers in a bar... whoever will listen!

Now, just incase my written instructions don't do the trick for you "special needs" entrepreneurs, I'm going to follow this post up with a video my friend Steve did to demonstrate step-by-step how to employee this fantastic little sales and marketing tool, so don't miss the next installment.

Until then, go tell someone you care about that you love them -- they may already know it but it's always good to hear it.

What To Do When Your Radio Ads Suck

2009-02-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

I often talk with entrepreneurs desperate to get out of their annual radio advertising contract because it’s sucking thousands of dollars a month out of their bank account yet the promised flood of ravenous customers crashing down their door have not materialized.

Maybe you're been there, done that.

Listen, radio advertising is like a tornado – if you figure out how to control it, it’s like this giant invisible vacuum sweeping across the marketing landscape rending listening prospects powerless to resist, and sucking all the cash out of their pockets and filling yours.

Don't Wind Up Like the Bellowing Cow

However, the flip side is having no control -- the radio tornado can viciously turn on you and you’ll end up like the cow that’s been sucked off the ground, legs flailing, bellowing fearfully, and puzzled at life's betrayal and the source of havoc being wreaked upon its life.

Gina, the owner of a greenhouse and nursery, was feeling more than a little like the cow. She told me she was locked into a $4,000 a month annual radio advertising contract and had little to nothing to show for it.

She wanted to know if I could fix her spots?

Her radio advertising was out of control -- it was no far from break even there wasn't even a twinkle of a profitable ROI in her eye. Obviously, she wasn't planing on renewing the contract, she was even bitter. Heck, who could blame her -- how many small businesses do you now that can take a $4,000 monthly hit with no return.

Sorry, But the Branding Answer is a Dodge

Sure, she complained to her account rep wanting some solution but all she got was the old standby "branding" answer...

"It's a 'branding' campaign - over time, by dominating the airwaves your business becomes "top of mind" in its category and consumers will remember you when they have a need for your product."

I had to agree with Gina, after nine months of a full “rotational” campaign running spots throughout the day and night, a 50,000 population community should be well branded and some results should visible.

In this case, it's my less than humble opinion that the branding answer is a shady dodge to avoid any responsibility for no results.

A Radio Advertising Diagnostic and Prescription

Her commercials were appalling 15 and 30-second “funny” quips about her store -- about half of them mentioned a product they carried but none of them gave a reason why they should come in buy something right now... you know like a sale, discount, some sort of offer.

Listen, there are lots of ways of fixing her problem -- too bad the radio guys don’t know how to do it. Here’s the direct response marketing approach I advised in this situation.

There were two critical things I had her do immediately.

1st – I had her think in terms of giving prospective customers a reason why they should come to the store right now. Have your commercials make some sort of offer.

2nd – I had her switch from 30 sec spots to 60’s and throw out the funny sh... er... a... stuff and use the “live radio show host call-in format.” These are commercials where you call in your spot to the radio show host and he/she gets to grill you about what’s going on down at your store. And even if it’s not really a live spot, you call in and record it with the host as if it were.

The spot might go something like this...

Radio Host: We have the owner of Gina’s Greenhouse and Nursery on the line. Tell us Gina what’s going on down there today?

Gina: Well Dick right now we’re unloading a semi truck full of Royal Empress Trees, the fastest growing tree in the country.

Radio Host: The fastest growing tree Gina? Just how fast do they grow?

Gina: The Royal Empress grows 10 to 15 feet a year and are 40 to 50 feet tall within three years. Plus, it has the most fragrant and gorgeous purple bloom.

Radio Host: So Gina you said you had a truckload of them?

Gina: Yes, Dick they are unloading 200 of them right now. I bought them from a nursery that was going out of business and had them shipped in. And best of all Dick I got them at an unbelievable low price. Less than 50% off, and I’m passing the savings on to all of your listeners that come in this week. Yada yada yada...

Anyway you get the idea.

Did it work?

Well, I know that Gina renewed her radio advertising contract for the following year!

The sales and marketing anchor principle for this story is test, test, test. You have to test all of your media advertising. Will it sale? Is it going to make your business a profit? Will the ROI fund your next round of business promotions?

Look, don't lock yourself into a long term media contract until you know your advertising works. Yes that means you're going to have to pay rack rates for your spots but frankly, it's a lot cheaper and more profitable in the end.