What is Guerrilla Marketing?
by Mark Joyner

History is full of stories where tiny, unadvanced armies have
handily defeated better equipped and much larger armies.

The history of these battles is the history of guerrilla
warfare.

There are similar stories in business.

One example is that of the “Marlboro Man”. Before the Marlboro
Man, the Marlboro brand of cigarettes was ranked 31st - almost
rock bottom.

After the introduction of the Marlboro Man, and the guerrilla
branding campaign to promote it, Marlboro became the #1 brand in
a multi-billion dollar industry.

It may shock you how many of the “big business” names (that are
now household words) started out as struggling small businesses.

The history of the ascent of these icons is the history of
guerrilla marketing…

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Why Some Ads Fail Miserably While Others Succeed Wonderfully
by David Garfinkel - Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich

The voice on the other end of the phone was tense and impatient.
It was a prospective client calling. After we introduced
ourselves, he got right to the point: “Our advertising isn’t
working and we need some help.”

Who I was talking to doesn’t matter very much, because it could
have been almost any of my prospects before they start working
with me. That’s because, statistically, most advertising doesn’t
work — if by “work” you mean, bring in new business. Think
about your own ads. Even if they already generate leads or
create sales for you, don’t you have the sneakin’ suspicion they
could be working a lot better?

Here are two reasons why most ads don’t work at all — or if
they work, why they deliver far less business than they could:

Read the rest of this entry

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If your a Aweber Customer, you should realize you have one of the greatest e-mail marketing tools you could ever ask for.

What is it?

Unsubscribe Feedback. By simply enabling Notifications on the List Settings Page:

When a lead unsubscribes they can leave feedback or a reason why. This feedback could be worth more than losing a lead. Of course not every one will leave a comment, but the ones that do are leaving gold for you. Chances are it will not be positive, but thats a good thing, you’ll know what your doing wrong and change it.

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Guerrilla Insights Into Direct Response
by Jay Conrad Levinson

Direct response marketing is a lot different from indirect
response marketing, although guerrillas like it best when the
two are teamed up. The first is geared to obtain orders right
here and right now. The second is geared to obtain orders
eventually. Although a fair amount of standard, indirect
marketing often is necessary to set the stage, to make prospects
ready to buy, and to separate your company from strangers, it’s
when you initiate direct marketing that you first taste blood.

As you well know, we are living in the Age of Information, most
of it very easy to obtain. But information is hardly enough for
a guerrilla. And information is not insight. It’s the
combination of information and thought that leads to insight and
it’s insight that’s going to make you a stand-out in the direct
response arena.

The first insight for you to absorb is that direct response
marketing either works immediately or not at all. Unlike
standard marketing which changes attitudes slowly and ultimately
leads to a sale if you go about things right, guerrilla direct
response marketing changes minds and attitudes instantly and
leads to a sale instantly if you go about things right.

When it works, you know it. You don’t have to sit around and
wonder. You don’t have to wait months and months for your
message to penetrate the mind of your prospect. Your time-dated
direct marketing offer either results in a sale right now — or
it doesn’t.

To succeed with direct marketing in any medium, remember always:

1. Your offer is omnipotent. The best presentation in the
world has a major uphill battle if you make a weak or ordinary
offer.

2. The market to whom you direct your message can make or break
your campaign. Saying the right thing to the wrong people
results in no sale.

3. What you say and how you say it is easily as important as to
whom you say it. Talk in terms of your prospects and how your
offer benefits them.

4. Carefully planning every cent of your campaign for maximum
profits requires as much creativity as your message. Guerrillas
excel at this.

5. The more that people have been exposed to your other
marketing, the more readily they’ll accept what you offer with
your direct marketing.

Some principles of indirect marketing apply to direct
marketing. You must still talk of the prospect, not yourself,
and you must make a clear and cogent offer. But from that
point on, direct marketing is a whole new ballgame. And its one
that you can win with the insights of the guerrilla.

Stupid mistakes in horrid abundance have been made by otherwise
bright companies when testing the direct response waters.
Fortunately, guerrillas can learn from these blunders, making
those waters a bit safer. Listing them would take an endless
series of books, but it’s worth your time if I make a start by
providing insight into ten of the most notable:

* Failure to attract attention at the outset dooms many
brilliant campaigns before they have a chance to shine.
Envelopes, opening lines, mail subject lines and first
impressions are the gates to your offer. Open them wide.

* Not facing the reality of a direct marketing explosion
relegates your attempt to the ordinary, which means the ignored.
Guerrillas say things to rise above the din, to be noticed and
desired in a sea of marketers.

* Focusing your message on yourself instead of your prospect
will usually send your effort to oblivion. Prospects care far
more about themselves than they care about you. So talk to them
about themselves.

* Not knowing precisely who your market is will send you into
the wrong direction. Research into pinpointing that market will
be some of the most valuable time you devote to your direct
marketing campaign.

* Mailing or telephoning to other than honest prospects wastes
your time and money. If you make your offer to people who don’t
really have a need for your offering, they’ll be an incredibly
tough sale.

* Initiating direct response marketing without specific
objectives gives you too hazy a target for bullseyes. Begin by
creating the response method for your prospects so you’ll know
what your message should say.

* Featuring your price before you stress your benefit will be
telling people what they don’t want to know yet. First, your
job is to make them want what you are offering, then you can
tell them the price.

* Concentrating on your price before your offer is wasting a
powerful selling point. Even if your price is the lowest,
people care more about how they’ll gain from purchasing. Give
your low price at the right time.

* Failing to test all that can be tested is a goof-off of the
highest order. Test your price points, opening lines, subject
lines, envelope teaser lines, benefits to stress, contact times
and mailing lists to know the real winners.

* Setting the wrong price means you’ve failed in your testing
and your research. Guerrillas are sensitive to their market and
their competition, testing prices and constantly subjecting them
to the litmus test of profits.

As direct response vehicles become more sophisticated and
prolific, guerrillas have the insight to zero in on the exact
people to contact, so as not to waste time or money on
strangers. Successful mailings to strangers net as high as two
percent response rates. Successful mailings to customers and
qualified prospects net up to ten percent. Precision leads to
profits.

Jay Conrad Levinson is the creator of the Guerrilla Marketing
series of books - the best selling series of business books in
history. He is also responsible for some of the most successful
ad campaigns in history, including *the* most successful in
history: The Marlboro Man. Jay is responsible for countless
small businesses becoming huge household names. Learn how he
does this in his latest book: “Guerrilla Marketing for the New Millennium“

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Maybe I am jaded or completely off base, but I was raised to keep my promises.

So why do so many marketers drop the ball? If you say your going to do something, do it! It’s not a hard concept to understand.

I know of at least two products I’ve purchased in the past where the marketer said they were going to update the members area. It’s been over six months and nothing updated.

Now hang on, I realize we all get busy, too busy at times. All I am saying is stick to your promises or don’t make them in the first place.

I am not writing this as a complaining customer, but to impress apon you the importance.

To the customer it looks as though.. “You got my Money, guess thats all that Counts”. We know a great passive income can be created from backend and repeat sales, a very nice place to be.

Question is, if you don’t live up to your promises, how many of those golden sales are you going to see? As they say, finish what you started.

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Nothing today but wishing you and your family a Wonderful Christmas!

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How to Close More Online Sales Through the Magic of Questions
by Brian Tracy - 24 Techniques for Closing the Sale

No one can deny that sales closing techniques are absolutely
vital in face-to-face selling. But often, people ask me if they
can apply my powerful closing techniques to online marketing. My
answer is an unequivocal, “Yes!”

Of course, there are some closing techniques that are more
applicable to the Web than others — but I’ll show you magical
closing secrets that can dramatically increase your web sales,
and rapidly increase your online income. This works best on
direct response websites - i.e., those that focus on getting an
immediate response in the form of an order or lead.

Before we get started, I must emphasize that much of the sale is
made in the presentation. The close is largely determined by how
well you’ve presented the product to the prospect. Your
objective, then, is to take the prospect smoothly past the point
of closing, making it easy for him or her to come to a buying
decision. You can accomplish this with the strategic use of
questions.

The All-Important Opening Question

When you’re selling online, you don’t have the benefit of
interacting with your prospect the way you would in face-to-face
selling. Therefore, the first thing you say in your web copy has
to be something that breaks preoccupation, grabs attention, and
points to the result or benefit of the your product.

At any given moment, your prospect’s mind is preoccupied with
dozens of things. Therefore, a well-crafted question will cause
the prospect’s thinking to be directed to what you have to say.

Your opening question must be aimed at something that is
relevant and important, and at something that your prospect
needs or wants. What do sales managers, for instance, sit around
and think about all day long? Increasing sales! Therefore, if
your target market consists of sales managers, here’s an example
of a question you can use as a headline or as the first part of
your copy: “How would you like to see a method that would enable
you to increase your sales by 20% to 30% over the next 12
months?”

When you ask such a question, the first thing that pops into the
mind of the prospect should be, “What is it?” - whereupon you’ve
captured his or her attention, and you can then begin to
articulate how your product or service can solve the need posed
by the question.

Plan your opening question carefully. If your opening question
fails to break your prospect’s preoccupation and grab his
attention, he will click away before giving you the opportunity
to present your product or service.

Questions That Keep Them Involved

Questions are equally vital during the presentation, i.e., in
the body of your web copy, for clearly explaining how your
product or service solves your prospect’s problem in an easy,
fast, or cost-effective way. Therefore, install questions
within your sales copy that capture attention. Keep your
prospect involved, and keep his mind from wandering off in a
different direction by using intriguing questions that grab his
lapels and jerk him toward you. For the length of time that it
takes a prospect to answer a question in his mind, you have his
total attention. The prospect is drawn more and more into the
sales process as your questioning proceeds. If your questions
are logical, orderly and sequential, you can lead the prospect
forward toward the inevitable conclusion to purchase your
product or service.

Tip: Never say something if you can ask it instead! Think of how
you can phrase your key selling points as questions. The person
who asks questions has control!

Closing Questions that Presume the Sale

Just as questions are important at the beginning and the body of
your web copy, they are even more vital at the end in gaining a
commitment to action.

The key to asking a closing question is confident expectation.
You must skillfully craft your question to convey that you
confidently expect the prospect to say, “Yes” or to agree to the
sale.

For example, you can pose the following question in your web
copy: “When would you like to start using HERE> to multiply your profits?” In other words, you don’t ask
if they want to buy your product, but when. This way, you’re
asking for the sale expectantly, and the more confidently you
expect to sell, the more likely it is that you will sell.

Tip: In crafting your closing question, include the benefit that
your prospect will get from your product.

When you ask a compelling closing question, you diffuse the
tension that normally creeps up on your prospect at the “moment
of truth.” A prospect’s tension leads to the hesitance that
kills so many sales - both online and offline.

To be truly persuasive in the selling process, learn to use
questions judiciously throughout your web copy. Instead of
trying to overwhelm your prospects with reasons and rationales
for doing what you want them to do, ask strategic questions
instead. When you take the time to plan the wording of your
questions, your prospect will become more interested in your
product — and consequently, you will make more sales.

Brian Tracy is a million-dollar master of peak sales performance
and personal success strategies. As the world-renowned creator
of 300 video and audio learning programs, and the best-selling
author of 16 books, his ideas and approaches are used by most of
the big money makers and the superstars of selling. In his
RealVideo course, “24 Techniques for Closing the Sale,” Brian
shows you powerful tactics that can double or triple your sales
closing rate — and teach you how to sell 50% to 100% of all
prospects that you come in contact with — all in just 63
minutes.

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What do People Want Online? It’s not what you think it is.
by Jay Conrad Levinson - Marketing on Steroids

What people want online is a question guerrillas ask themselves
a lot. Whether it’s for fun or work or something else,
understanding a consumer’s motives once he or she logs on is a
necessity. But the experts don’t seem to agree on what people
want.

Some folks see the web as a vast, new field for advertising
messages, assuming that while people may want to do something
else, if we can entice them with flash, we can sort of trick them
into paying attention to our products and services.

Guess what. That’s not gonna happen.

Other folks seem to subscribe to the notion that people online
are looking for entertainment on the Internet, and therefore they
construct messages aimed at persuading while playing. And,
in other cases, the time-honored direct-response model wins out:
Grab people when you can, get ‘em to take an action, and then
market, market, market. The answer may be that the consumer has
and wants a lot more control than we give him/her credit for.

Today, webmeisters are in control. Sort of. In a perfect
cyberworld, people will be in control. Sort of.

Two recent studies shed light upon this dilemma. One was
conducted by Zatso. The other was conducted by the Pew Research
Center. Zatso and Pew. (Those guys didn’t spend much time
reading “how-to-name-your-company” books, I guess.) Still, both
of their studies illuminated the answer as to what people want
to do online.

The answer, as most answers, is very utilitarian: People want to
accomplish something online. They’re not aimless surfers hoping
to discover a cybertreasure. Instead, the average Net user turns
out to be a goal-oriented person interested in finding
information and communicating with others — in doing something
he or she set out to do.

Look at the Zatso study. “A View of the 21st Century News
Consumer” looked at people’s news reading habits on the web. It
revealed that reading and getting news was the most popular
online activity after email. The guerrilla thinks, “That means
email is number one. How might I capitalize on that?”

One out of three respondents reported that they read news online
every day, with their interests expanding geographically –
local news was of the most interest, U.S. news the least.

Personalization was seen as a benefit, too. Seventy-five percent
of respondents said that they wanted news on demand and nearly
two out of three wanted personalized news. The subjects surveyed
liked the idea that they, not some media outlet, controlled the
news they saw. They feel they’re better equipped to select what
they want to see than a professional editor. Again, control
seems to be the issue. Again, guerrillas think of ways to market
by putting the prospect in control.

The Pew Research Center study revealed that regular net users
were more connected with their friends and family than those who
didn’t use the Internet on a regular basis.

Almost two-thirds of the 3,500 respondents said they felt that
email brought them closer to family and friends — significant
when combined with the fact that 91% of them used email on a
regular basis. That’s 91%. It took VCRs 25 years to achieve such
market penetration.

What did people in this study seem to be doing online when they
weren’t doing email? Half were going online regularly to
purchase products and services, and nearly 75 percent were going
online to search for information about their hobbies or
purchases they were planning to make. Sixty-four percent of
respondents visited travel sites, and 62 percent visited
weather-related sites. Over half did educational research, and
54 percent were hunting for data about health and medicine.

A surprising 47 percent regularly visited government web sites,
and 38 percent researched job opportunities. Instant messaging
was used by 45 percent of these users, and a third of them
played games online. Even with all the hype in the media, only
12 percent said they traded stocks online.

What does this mean to e-marketers? It means that if you’re
constructing a site for goal-oriented consumers, you’d better
make sure you can help facilitate their seeking. Rather than
focus on entertainment, flash, and useless splash screens, the
most effective sites are those that help people get the
information they want when they need it. Straightforward data,
information that invites comparison, and straight talk are going
to win the day.

A client buddy of mine showed me his website which heralds his
retail location and attempts to sell nothing online. He said it
has been the biggest moneymaker in the history of his
35-year-old company. Then he apologized for its lack of glitter
and special effects. He asked how his site could be so
successful even though it lacked anything to add razzmatazz and
dipsydazzle.

Now, you know the answer.

======================

Jay Conrad Levinson is probably the most respected marketer in
the world. He is the inventor of “Guerrilla Marketing” and is
responsible for some of the most outrageous marketing campaigns
in history — including the “Marlboro Man” — the most
successful ad campaign in history. In his latest book, “Put
Your Internet Marketing on Steroids” Jay reveals how you can
use marketing steroids legally to make your business insanely
profitable with Marketing on Steroids.

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“The 10 Laws for Writing Letters that Get Results.”
By Joe Vitale

The following is a letter in response to a question about
how to write sales letters. This is something you could
model in layout, tone, and ideas, to write your own letters.
By the way, this is where your letterhead should go.

Dear Fellow Chicago Seminar Attendees,

Jerry Jenkins asked me to tell you how to write letters that
get read and get results. That’s a tall order! Well, here’s
what I think the “laws” are:

1. Know what’s in it for your reader.

Get out of your ego and into your reader’s ego. Complete
this sentence: “Get my book so that you can…(fill in the
blank).” Your book (or whatever you are selling) is the
feature. What people get as a result of having your book is
the benefit. Focus on benefits. Always! Without this, your
letter will bomb.

2. Write a headline that telegraphs the key benefit to your
reader.

ALWAYS use a headline. There is only ONE exception to this
rule. When you personalize your letter, the “Dear (whoever)”
opening becomes your headline. There are few headlines more
powerful than the reader’s own name. The headline is THE
most important part of your letter! Spend nearly all of your
time on it.

3. Be brief.

Say what you have to say in terms of the reader’s self
interest and shut up. This does NOT necessarily mean a short
letter. If you are trying to make a sale, and the reader has
never heard of you or your item for sale, you may have to
write four or more pages to get your message across. If all
you want is a return call, a one page letter may do. Don’ be
afraid of length. People will read any length of copy AS
LONG AS IT’S INTERESTING!

4. Always use a PS.

Always. Why do copywriters who charge upwards to $15,000 to
write a sales letter and have weeks to draft it always use a
PS? They are always read. Always.

5. Look good.

Visual attractiveness accounts for 70% of your letter’s
impact. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, bulleted
points, indented paragraphs, subheads, etc. Some people will
just skim your letter, so engaging subheads and bulleted
points help reach them instantly.

6. Outline first.

Use a planning tool to help you think through your message.
Or talk to a friend. Or to a tape recorder. Or to yourself.
This also helps you get comfortable with speaking your
letter rather than writing it.

7. Write first, edit last.

Turn your inner editor off. You can rewrite later. For now,
write spontaneously and quickly to get your ideas on paper.

8. Ask for something.

Why are you writing? You want a call. Or an order.
Something. Say so!

9. Get a reader.

Find one person to read your letter OUT LOUD in front of
you. If he (or she) has trouble reading your letter, if he
wrinkles his brow or stops to reread a sentence, rewrite
those places. Don’t skip this step! It’s the secret of many
professional writers.

10. Rewrite your letter again.

Is it the best you can do? Be honest! If not, throw it away
and call the person instead. Or hire a copywriter to write
it for you. Why waste your time or your reader’s with
something that doesn’t communicate in a persuasive and
interesting way? (I rewrote this letter 24 times!)

Well, there you have it. Of course, there are more rules,
laws, ideas and suggestions for writing letters that get
results. You should always guarantee whatever you are
selling, for example, and always offer proof for all of your
claims. But the above will get you rolling.

Sincerely,

Joe Vitale Hypnotic Writing

(ALWAYS Identify yourself. People look here to see who the
letter is from.)

PS — Notice that you read this PS?

PPS — Notice that you read this one, too?

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I Almost Flunked English But Went On To Make Millions of
Dollars Writing Sales Copy
By Joe Sugarman - Psychological Triggers

The Guinness Book of World Records listed Joe Girard as the
“World’s Greatest Retail Salesman” for 12 consecutive years. He
holds the singular distinction of having sold an average of six
cars a day over his career. Recently, Joe Girard told me:

“Joe, I can sell in person to individuals in a personal way - in
fact, I can sell more cars per day than anyone else. Yet, I
can’t do what you do — you sell millions of products to masses
of people through the sheer power of print.”

Salesmanship in Print

When you look at it from Joe Girard’s perspective, it’s hard to
deny the awesome power of writing good sales copy - which I call
“salesmanship in print” — a power that anyone can take
advantage of. You don’t need good looks, a charming personality
or even great intelligence. In fact, you don’t even have to
pass English.

This is why it baffles me when people desperately rack their
brains trying to find ways to make money — when the greatest
opportunity is staring them right in the face. What’s even more
mystifying is that those very same people, when presented with
ingenious approaches to writing copy that sells, take the skill
for granted and don’t use it to make personal fortunes for
themselves.

Flunking English

Not many people know this, but I almost flunked English back in
high school. In addition, I don’t know many big words, unlike
the rest of my advertising and marketing colleagues — and my
writing style is quite unsophisticated to boot. Yet, by learning
to incorporate into my sales copy all the things about how the
human mind reacts to certain words and phrases that I’ve learned
over the years, I have made millions of dollars for myself.

The most important lesson you must remember is this: If you
learn nothing else but the proper use of psychological
principles in writing sales copy, you will always make more
money than you’ll ever need.

The Million-Dollar Grapefruit Farmer

If you’re one of those people who believes that you’re not a
good enough writer — and that you couldn’t possibly learn to
write ad copy that sells — I want to tell you the story of a
man who attended one of my seminars. This man was a grapefruit
farmer who had never written sales copy prior to attending my
copywriting seminar. In fact, he expressed his doubts that he
would get anything at all from the copywriting lessons he
learned. Yet, by the end of the seminar, he was able to write
direct mail copy to sell grapefruit by mail which, over a period
of ten years, has earned him millions of dollars.

Success Leaves Clues

For many years I specialized in “space-age” products, and my
claim to fame was in building and selling “the better mousetrap”
– from state-of-the art smoke detectors to chess computers to
new-fangled calculators — and more recently — to BluBlocker®
sunglasses.

But you don’t need a space-age product to make a million
dollars. In fact, that is the downfall of most people who enter
the marketing field. They find a product, fall in love with it,
and try to get the market to buy it. With an unproven product,
you could lose a lot of money in the process.

Instead what you should do is find a product that’s already
selling well — and use compelling copy to sell it better.

Harmonize with the Marketplace

One of the psychological principles I describe in my book,
“Triggers,” is simply this: Your product needs to harmonize with
the marketplace.

Here’s a tip that you would definitely find useful: When you’re
looking for a product to sell, go to the library and flip
through the back issues of magazines — particularly the
tabloids. Note those mail order ads that are running week after
week, month after month. There’s only one reason why those ads
keep running — they’re making money. Those products are
already proven to sell well — they’ve demonstrated that they
harmonize with the marketplace.

Even if there are many companies that are already competing in
those product categories (example: weight loss, hair
restoration, and wrinkle products, etc.), don’t worry. If you
apply good copywriting guidelines, your marketing efforts will
fare better than those who are making money, despite their poor
sales copy.

“Splish Splash I Was Takin’ A Bath”

Take a clue from Bobby Darin, a popular singer of the ’50s.
Darin was a young singer in New York who, for a long time, tried
unsuccessfully to break into the music business. He would go
from record company to record company trying to convince them to
make an album of him singing popular jazz oldies. He was
rejected.

So one day, Darin sat down and wrote a song that fitted or
“harmonized” with what the public was buying at the time. What
was popular at the time was good old rock and roll sung by black
artists — it was called the Motown sound.

The song he wrote was called “Splish Splash” and the words
started out, “Splish splash, I was takin’ a bath/ ‘Round about a
Saturday night.” It had a good old Motown rock and roll sound –
and it became a smash hit, selling millions of copies.

Darin recognized what the market wanted, and he created
something that harmonized perfectly with the prevailing
market. From his earnings, he himself produced a record in the
music genre that he really loved — popular jazz oldies. His
song, “Mack the Knife” went on to become a multimillion-selling
single and made Bobby Darin famous.

To summarize, you must first have a product that harmonizes with
your market. If you haven’t made a substantial amount of money
from your marketing efforts yet, sell only products or services
that have a ready market — this is the path of least
resistance. Afterwards, with the money you make, you can blaze
new trails with other products of your own preference.

—————————————————————-
Joe Sugarman, the best-selling author and top copywriter who has
achieved legendary fame in direct marketing, is best known for
his highly successful mail-order catalog company, JS&A, and his
hit product, BluBlocker Sunglasses. Joe’s new breakthrough
book, “Psychological Triggers“, reveals 30 powerful psychological triggers
that influence people to buy what you’re selling.

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Killer Copy: Words That Are Like Magnets to Money
by David Garfinkel - Killer Copy Tactics

I’ll never forget what my accountant said five years ago when he
saw the ad I wrote for my services: “How many scotches did you
drink before you wrote this?”

He was kidding about the scotch. But he just couldn’t believe
anyone in their right mind would write such a bold and
outrageous ad for their own writing, consulting and speaking
services, as I had.

Well, I spent $300 on that ad — $200 to run it in a local trade
association directory, and $100 to have it reprinted as a flyer.

The following year, that $300 ad turned into $12,341 in new
business for me. And $12,341 was just a tiny fraction of my
total business that year.

Why did I make so much money myself while there were so many
thousands of “starving writers” in the world? The answer may
surprise you. You see, it’s not because I’m a better writer.
It’s not my schooling. Not my resume. Not any talent I was
born with.

It’s all because I learned how to write “killer copy.”

How do you write killer copy?

You start your killer copy with an emotion-packed opening
statement that will get the attention of your reader. This
opening statement may be:

* a headline
* an opening sentence
* a subject line on an email
* the header on a Web page

… or for that matter, the opening words in a telemarketing
script, radio commercial, or TV spot. What’s important is that
you understand - your first words count for everything - because
you must captivate peoples’ imagination with those words in
order to keep their attention.

Here are examples of opening statements from actual successful
marketing pieces:

a) “Take the luxury vacation of your dreams at a reduced cost
because of this special offer” (from a travel agency’s letter to
business owners.)

b) “How to stop overwhelm before it stops you” (from a personal
coach’s ad aimed at stressed-out overachievers)

c) “Why almost every financial statement in family court may not
disclose the full net worth of the opposing spouse” (from an
investigator’s sales letter to divorce lawyers.)

Then, after your emotion-packed opening statement, you just
a) Make a promise
b) Back it up with convincing proof and
c) Ask for action

Let’s look at how you do each of those three techniques.

1. Make a promise. The letter about luxury vacations starts
with these words:

“Imagine taking your winter vacation knowing you aren’t
spending a penny more than you have to - secure that you have
a team of travel experts making sure every little detail of
your vacation goes smoothly. “Here’s how you can have that
vacation right now: Take advantage of an unusual promotion our
company is doing. Let me explain.”

Pretty exciting, right? Even if you don’t think so, the people
who got the letter did - because the letter produced an amazing
$5 million in sales for the travel agency.

2. Back it up with convincing proof. The personal coach’s ad
for stressed-out overachievers, the one that begins “How to stop
overwhelm before it stops you,” contains this proof:

* 3 case studies,
* 3 testimonials,
* detailed credentials of the coach
* and a money-back guarantee.

Despite its stunningly bold claims, the ad comes across as very
believable and has generated a record-breaking parade of new
clients.

3. Ask for action. The investigator’s sales letter to divorce
lawyers, beginning “Why almost every financial statement in
family court may not disclose the full net worth of the opposing
spouse,” ends this way:

“I would like to meet with you at no charge to show you how I
can be of service to you and your clients in future family law
cases.

“Please call me at your convenience so we can set up a meeting
to discuss further how I can assist your clients recover their
fair share of assets. Call me directly at xxx - xxx-xxxx.”

Killer copy always asks for action in the most powerful way
possible. Notice how the above words spell out exactly what to
do, and even make a big promise - that the lawyer reading the
letter will recover more money in court for their clients (and,
therefore, get more money themselves).

As you can see, a few words of killer copy can lead to massive
amounts of money. In fact, many people say writing killer copy
is the single most valuable money-making skill in the world.

And recently, writing copy was named as one of the top 10
emerging professions for the new century.

It doesn’t surprise me. In the age of the Internet, the old
style of advertising copy — saying something clever, and hoping
people remember - just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Besides, these days, with business-to-business advertising
growing so fast, the traditional advertising industry is feeling
a lot of pressure for ads that really produce results. Why?
Because, old-style advertising that entertains, but does not
sell, is not cost-effective enough for many companies in today’s
hyper-competitive market.

Recently I heard from my former accountant. (A few years ago,
he left accounting to start a new business.)

He asked me if I wouldn’t mind sharing some ideas on how he
could write killer copy for his own business.

I said sure. And now he’s on his way to doing the same thing
that I do, for himself.

Funny thing about the conversation we had the other day. Unlike
the conversation we had back in 1995, he didn’t kid me about
drinking scotch, or anything else. Maybe he finally realized
that when it comes to increasing your income, killer copy is
serious business.

- - - -

© 2000 David Garfinkel. All rights reserved. David Garfinkel
is widely recognized by many “marketing gurus” as their secret
weapon. That is, he is known as “The World’s Greatest
Copywriting Coach”; because, he can, like no other, teach you
how to turn words into cash. David is also the author and
narrator of Killer Copy Tactics, the Web’s first and only
totally interactive audio/visual learning system for writing
killer sales copy. You can learn more about this course at: Killer Copy Tactics

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The E-Factor: Two Ways to Instantly Get More Back from Every
Promotion - by David Garfinkel - Killer Copy Tactics

Allow me to introduce you to the mysterious “E-Factor.” It’s
mysterious because it has two meanings.

Both meanings will help you get more business from any promotion
you do. So without further ado, here’s how you can use the
“E-Factor” to make more money:

- Put “E-Factor” in your testimonials and copy

Did you realize the very best source of new business is almost
always a prospect who has been referred to you by a friend or
trusted business advisor? It is. Think about this in your own
life. When you need an accountant, or an attorney, or a doctor,
or for that matter a hardware store in a new town, you’ll
probably turn to someone you know, whose judgment you trust, to
refer you to the service or product provider you’re looking for.

OK. But what does that have to do with direct mail and Web
promotions?

A lot. People are always on the lookout for sources of advice
they can trust. However, since you can’t always rely on giving
every prospect for your business personal recommendations from
the prospect’s friends, neighbors and advisor’s they actually
know and trust, you do the next best thing: You give them copy
with recommendations from people who seem like the people they
know and trust.

How? By putting testimonials and case studies in your copy
involving people who will fill the role of trusted friends and
advisor’s.

Many marketers do this but they don’t get the desired effect.
Why? Because they haven’t put enough productive effort into the
research that pays off. This is in-person research - especially
one-on-one “casual” research, as opposed to formal focus-group
research - with their actual customers, and people who are a lot
like their customers.

This high-payoff research gives you in-depth working
understanding of how your prospects think and act in the world -
and how they look at things and make decisions. When you have
this understanding and you weave it into the language of your
descriptive copy and your testimonial quotes, it’s called
“empathy.”

“Empathy” - that’s the first meaning of “The E-Factor.”
Increase empathy in your copy and you’ll increase sales.

- Profit from the second meaning of the “E-Factor” as well

There’s another, equally important meaning. Before I tell you
what it is, let me give you a big, fat hint. In his book The
Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces Are Transforming
Our Lives, author Michael J. Wolfe points out that American
consumers put 8.4% - about one dollar out of every 12 - into
some form of entertainment. Currently, that adds up to $480
billion a year.

As a side note, Hollywood productions - films and TV shows -
bring in the second largest amount of money from overseas back
into the U.S. economy, after aircraft sales.

Yes, the other meaning of the “E-Factor” is entertainment. It’s
huge. And it applies to marketing and selling. As the late
(and great) David Ogilvy reminded us, “People will not be bored
into buying.”

But beware. Many a copywriter less talented and, more
importantly, less thoughtful than Mr. Ogilvy has made the fatal
error including humor, fantasy, drama or thrills in a promotion
in such a way as to not specifically move the sales process
forward.

And that’s dangerous. Even deadly, sometimes. Here’s why: When
you include entertainment, people’s attention will invariably be
drawn to it over anything else. And when entertainment does not
directly support moving the sale forward, then it automatically
detracts from the sale.

There are dozens of examples. The lying Isuzu salesman. Sales
went down. “Plop-plop, Fizz-fizz.” Sales went down. I’m sure
you have your favorites of entertaining ad campaigns that
bombed. Now you know why.

Entertainment isn’t bad. But not painstakingly linking the
entertainment to the forward motion of the sale is bad. Very
bad.

So, how do you add entertainment value in such a way as to
increase the sales effectiveness of your promotion? Several
ways:

- Tell a dramatic story where your product is the hero and
saves the day for the human involved. My favorite example of
this is the newspaper ad for Joe Karbo’s legendary book “The
Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.”

In the ad, Mr. Karbo talks about his “Lazy Man’s Way” which he
promises to reveal in the book he’s selling. He tells how,
before he knew the “Lazy Man’s Way,” he used to work 18-hour
days, 7-day weeks and was still perpetually in debt. But after
he learned the “Lazy Man’s Way,” he became financially
independent by working less and in fact became very wealthy.

This incredible ad combines drama with sales power in an
unbeatable way. And it worked! The ad sold 3 million books by
mail order!

- Use humor that adds emphasis to the value of your product or
service. When you get past the laughter, most humor in ads just
shows off the cleverness of the creative team who created the
ad. (You might say it also shows off their lack of concern for
creating sales.) A positive example, where the humor shows how
the product is so worthwhile, is the old (and very successful)
series of Seinfeld commercials for the American Express Card.

- Use exciting, colorful language in testimonials when
customers are talking about the virtues of your product. But
make sure it’s believable. And don’t make fun of the fact that
you’re selling something, any more than you would go to target
practice and fire the first shot into your own foot. At all
times, keep your eye on the target - increased sales!

So let’s review. How can you use this information to make more
sales in every promotion? Take stock of its Empathy and
Entertainment Value. Be single-minded. Take out everything
that takes away from the sale, and keep in - or boost and
strengthen - everything that furthers the sale. Build the
strongest possible promotion at every point along the way - and
watch your response rate soar!

© 2000 David Garfinkel. All rights reserved. David Garfinkel
is widely recognized by many “marketing gurus” as their secret
weapon. That is, he is known as “The World’s Greatest
Copywriting Coach”; because, he can, like no other, teach you
how to turn words into cash. David is also the author and
narrator of Killer Copy Tactics, the Web’s first and only
totally interactive audio/visual learning system for writing
Killer Copy Tactics.

You can learn more about this course at: Killer Copy Tactics

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Have you been Elfed yet? Luckily I’ve escaped so far, though my wife and Kid have suffered the laughter. Wondering if I’ll be next.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I might be a little surprised. A major retail box put up a very interesting web site for Christmas. It is interesting when it relates to Internet Marketing because it is one of the best forms of viral marketing I’ve seen in quite some time.

The web site is a flash animation of Elfs dancing, but thats not the best part. The best part is that you can upload your own pictures, faces that are placed on the faces of the dancing Elf’s. I didn’t think to much of it when my wife’s friend told her about it. Naturally our kids were my wifes first victims. I do have to admit, it is very cute (are guys suppose to say that?).

It really hit when I received an e-mail from a marketer who’s list I am a subscriber. He has a whole family of of cute dancing Elves.

And here I go adding to the viral nature, because it is an incredible example: Elf Yourself

I can’t imagine how many time it’s already be passed around, and it deserves it.

This could be done for any business. What about yours?

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