Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category

Tiger Woods & Rich Schefren Know This Victory Secret. Do You?

By: Darcy Juarez on: June 13th, 2013 No Comments

What do Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant, Drew Brees and David Beckham have in common?

They are the world’s highest paid athletes according to Forbes Magazine, with Tiger Woods topping the list at $78.1 Million in winnings and endorsement deals according to calculations made in June 2013.

Tiger is not only the highest paid, but he is the youngest golfer to win 50 tournaments on tour.

Ranked the number one golfer in the world, he has an impressive list of achievements including being awarded the PGA Player of the Year a record ten times.  Plus he has more career major wins than any other active golfer.  He’s also the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam (winning all the golf’s major championships in the same calendar year.)

Whether it’s in sports, the arts, or business, what leads people to greatness? What makes them the best in the world?

Being a successful volleyball athlete myself and now working closely with top entrepreneurs such as Rich Schefren, Ryan Deiss, and Yanik Silver, I’ve discovered a common ingredient—not only in athletes, but in entrepreneurs.

I’m not talking about drive and ambition, although that is important to succeed and will lead to a certain level of success, it is not what leads to the highest level of achievement.

Writing down your goals and having a plan is another element often referenced for high accomplishment. While I highly recommend having your end-game defined and a plan written down to achieve it, it too is not the missing, secret ingredient that gets you to the top.

Passion for what they do? Again, that will definitely help you out and keep you driving forward during times when you are struggling, but is not the one missing ingredient.

So what is it?

They seek out and work with the best coaches in the world.

Every one of the highest paid athletes on the Forbes list works with the best and (not surprisingly) highest paid coaches.

Rich Schefren, Yanik Silver, Ryan Deiss, Frank Kern…all turned to the best coach they could find.

But you might ask yourself, if you are at the top of your game, why you would need a coach…

I mean Tiger Woods is the number one golfer in the world earning serious money, why on earth would he work with a coach?

Or why would the most successful entrepreneurs already at the top of the ladder need coaching?

Because it accelerates success and keeps them at the top of their game.

A great coach will guide you in what you need to do to win.

A great coach will be knowledgeable of the most effective techniques, methods and strategies required for success.

A great coach will get to know what pushes your buttons so she or he can motivate you and keep you on course when you start to stray in the wrong direction.

A great coach will introduce you to the greatest leaders—whether it’s through mastermind groups or simply telling you what you should read or in the case of an athlete putting you with a team or workout partners.  He puts these people in your path so that you can be surrounded by successful people that will help you expand your thinking and knowledge and push you even further.

So if you want to accelerate your success and reach (and stay at) the top of your game, crowd your path with successful people and the best coaching you can find.

NOTE: Yanik Silver, Rich Schefren, Frank Kern…names you’ve undoubtedly heard. They are some of the top Internet Marketing Gurus…and continue to be. What do they have in common? They all enlisted Dan Kennedy and knew he was THE top guy who could help them accelerate their success online.

For the first time ever, Dan Kennedy will reveal to you his insights about Online Marketing which have been responsible for more money being made selling things online than most of the names you associate with the Internet. Things which were previously only shared with a rare few premium private clients who invested serious cash to find out what he had to say.

Even more rare, is the fact that you will be getting this information FREE. I’m not big on that, in fact I sometimes charge people to have lunch with me, but this is critical information our GKIC members need right now. So you have the unique opportunity to join in and find out:

  • The constructive and productive ways to think about the Internet and online media—and how it can provide you with a legitimate portfolio of opportunities.
  • Key principles and ideas you need to understand to streamline your success. There is enormous amount of B.S. about online, I’ll help you sort this out, so you can focus on what truly works.
  • The marketing and selling principles valid with every media, including online media.

There is very limited space available for this LIVECAST event. If you want this unheard of FREE access to Dan Kennedy’s coaching, you’ll want to register at the link below, immediately.

Click here now to register www.dankennedy.com/internetsecrets

P.P.S. If you’re still thinking about this and haven’t registered, let me ask you a question. If you decided you wanted to learn to play golf like Tiger, who would you go to for help? Tiger Woods…or his coach?

My guess is you’d go to his coach. Because if the person is a successful coach, it’s pretty much guaranteed they know how to convey what they know to others with clarity and precision.

If you want to earn money and gain the independence like Rich Schefren, Tim Ferris (author of the 4-hr work week) and others like them, then you’ll want to go to their coach…Dan Kennedy and find out what he has to say.  Register here now or go to www.dankennedy.com/internetsecrets

Six Strategies To Stop Online Visitors From Abandoning Your Website?

By: Dave Dee on: June 11th, 2013 2 Comments

The other day I overheard a story all too familiar…

A businessman was complaining that he’d spent thousands of dollars on his website, yet only 1% to 2% of prospects were actually responding.

Understandably the man wanted to know how to reach the other 98%.

It’s a pretty common problem…

Yet many business owners don’t even know they are “losing” 98% of the visitors to their site.

But here’s the thing. It doesn’t have to be that way.

And, as a small business, if you set up your website right, you actually can do something that in the past was impossible to do:

You can compete against big business.

Because on the web you have the same amount of real estate space as the “big boys.” Think about it…your web page is the same size as the next guy’s, no matter how big a company they are.

In fact, when you apply the secrets we share with you here at GKIC, you may even have an advantage over larger companies.

Today I’ll give you six tips for making your website reach more than the all-too-typical 1 to 2%:

Six easy tips to help your website convert better:

1)      Make it clear what you want people to do.  On every page you should make it clear what you want people to do. Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? Get more information about your product? Contact you? Buy your product? Tell them exactly what you want them to do and you’ll improve your odds of them doing it.

2)      Use the same language on your navigation buttons as you do in your copy. For example, if you use “white paper” in your copy don’t use the word “report” on your navigation button.  This is confusing to readers and makes them think they are in the wrong place.

3)      Use links in your copy to help people move to the next page. When you reference a product, service, event, article, etc. found on your own website, be sure to link to it. This way you make it easy for your potential consumer to find what they are looking for without having to scroll or waste time searching for something.

4)      Carefully choose what you actively promote on your home page.  When offering multiple products or services, don’t try to give equal space on your home page to everything you offer.  This is confusing and overwhelming.  Plus, by giving readers only a few choices, you are clear on what you want your customer to do.

For example, an appliance repair company might service a variety of types of appliances and brands of appliances. Rather than trying to list every single type of appliance from a washing machine to a dryer to a stove to a refrigerator to a dishwasher, etc. you might want to focus on the appliance most frequently repaired. Let’s say 65% of your repairs are to refrigerators and brings in the bulk of your income. By devoting more of your home page space on refrigerator repairs, it’s easier to instantly see you provide that service, raising your relevancy to that 65% who visits your website.

5)      Use direct response copy. Your website should have all the elements of good direct response copy. Don’t forget to use headlines, sub-heads, offers, proof, guarantees, etc. to sell your products and services.  Not sure what is meant by “direct response?”  Then you need to check out Magnetic Marketing (test it here for 30 Days for just $1)

6)      Make your copy front and center. Don’t let graphics and design push your professionally crafted selling copy to the side. The most successful websites rake in sales by making sure their copy is front and center.

Make these simple changes and instead of 98% of your prospects abandoning your website with little to no chance of returning, you’ll get them to take some action, putting you one step closer to converting them to a paying customer.

NOTE: You’re invited to a very unique and unusual online event with Dan Kennedy. (Even better it’s FREE) This is a rare opportunity because the information Dan will share, up until now, has only been shared with a few of his premium clients. Come behind closed doors as Dan holds a LIVE training in front of a studio audience where he’ll reveal his secret online strategies. No that wasn’t a typo—I said his online strategies – the secret ones!.

You see, although Dan mostly “pleads the fifth” when it comes to the internet, he devises strategies and crafts entire websites for clients. In fact, the “Who’s Who” of Internet marketing such as Yanik Silver, Frank Kern, and Rich Schefren credit Dan for the major influence on their methods and success.

There is very limited space. So if you want to find out the same big money-making secrets Dan gives his premium clients including the top Internet Gurus, and want your website to convert better and to experience your own online success, be sure to sign up and be in attendance.

Click here to sign up now or go to www.dankennedy.com/internetsecrets

There is no charge for this and you can watch conveniently from your home.

3 Internet Marketing Truths You Should Know To Make Money Online

By: Dan Kennedy on: June 7th, 2013 2 Comments

When it comes to the internet, I mostly “plead the Fifth”, but I work with it as marketing media just about every day. Not directly: it is absolutely true that I am not connected to it, never use it personally, never go look, meander or play.

The way I order a book from Amazon is by scribbling the title on a scrap of paper for Vicky. But I write tons of copy for it, devise integrated offline-online strategies, craft entire web sites, develop online video, and work with clients large and small who make millions of dollars with MY online strategies and suggestions. The “Who’s Who” of internet marketing gurus and experts all credit me for major influence on their methods and success, from Yanik Silver to Frank Kern and Rich Schefren and, well, you name somebody.

But much more importantly, I guide clients and GKI members in diverse businesses, in REAL businesses to treasure on the internet. I’m not selling “get rich on the internet”, but I certainly help a lot of people in doing exactly that.

In the past 12 months alone, I have BUILT successful marketing involving online media for a high-end financial advisor targeting 55 to 70 year old clientele, a group of health care practices, a non-profit, and, of course, a number of info-marketers.

There are also a number of enduring, on-going online selling sites I’ve created or consulted with clients on – one, notably, has been producing no less than $50,000.00 a month for almost 4 years. Truth is, I’m probably responsible for more money being made online (selling things other than: how to make money online) than most if not all of the names you associate with the internet.

The legitimate leaders of the field hold me in high regard. I have a note from Yanik Silver that includes “thank you for being one of the three people I credit with my achieving financial independence.”

Tim Ferris, best known for his mega-bestseller “The 4-Hour Workweek,” says he found one of my books when he was in high school(!) and has read it 5 times since – he called it “steroids for your entrepreneurial cortex.” He also credits me as one of the two authors who “completely changed the way I think about work and enabled me to create a life of adventure and meaning.” I understand that he very recently wrote about me in one of his blog posts.

I know such quotes reference big, broad things, not the micro-mechanics, try to use and do everything that can be used and done, and lose sight of WHY you are doing them and what the stardards for choosing an measuring results should be. You can fall down a rabbit-hole into a wonderland of media and tools and activities – and be trapped there.

There are Three Internet Marketing Truths You Should Know To Make Money Online:

  • First, there are marketing and selling principles valid with every media including all online media.
  • Two, there is an ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF B.S. about online floated about and popularized by people who do not understand the essential principles and IDEAS they speak of as if facts – these “online is unique,” new metrics, online only folks are just the same as the Amish, except they have iPads instead of horses and buggies; they live in their own little world.
  • Three, there is a constructive, productive way to think about the internet and online media. It is not a new god to be worshiped. It’s not a wizardly magic wand. But it does provide a portfolio of legitimate opportunities.

These are the three things I’ll be talking about during my LIVE internet video session being broadcast on Monday, July 1st from 11AM to 3PM ET

Click HERE to Sign Up Now…or got to www.dankennedy.com/internetsecrets

This is stuff I’ve previously ONLY shared with a rare few of my premium Private Clients…who invested serious change to let me bend their
ears with this information.

It’s definitely NOT in my comfort zone to share these insights on the cheap… let alone for FREE like this webinar will be… but I’m setting better judgment aside as I’ve been told by my compadres at GKIC that this info is crucially required by their members at this point in time.

They want to make this our gift to you.

So be it. I suggest you take full advantage by registering now.

Click HERE to Sign Up Now

 

Three Ways To Increase Your Clicks & Revenues Online

By: Dave Dee on: April 23rd, 2013 7 Comments

Recently I heard sad news about a small business that has been an industry giant for decades.

I’ll refrain from using their name as it is one you would undoubtedly recognize. Their products are fantastic and have helped hundreds of thousands of people.

The company has done a great job building their subscription list. They send out emails and hold free webinars with formidable guests. They engage in social media and have hundreds of thousands of followers. Their posts are shared, liked, and commented on. They have even been successful generating viral activity.

And selling is, if not their top strength, close to it.

The thing is…unfortunately, this company is struggling and I’m afraid might not survive.

Why? It’s the same problem many small businesses suffer from…

Not only did they eliminate almost all of their direct mail activities and move the majority of their marketing online, they failed to use direct response concepts in ALL of their online marketing.

You see they didn’t quite understand that while it’s cool to have a big list and necessary to engage with people online…it’s really important that every aspect of online marketing is about hardnosed direct response marketing.

When you engage with a prospect, there must be a purpose behind it. Every time you…

  • send an email
  • write a blog post
  • direct someone to a page on your web site
  • make a post on social media…

…you should be thinking about how you can generate more clicks to your sales pages.

This does NOT mean you should be “selling” or promoting in every online activity. Let me say that again in a different way, because it’s really important. It’s not always about making a sale, but rather about “selling the click.”

For example, let’s say you have an event coming up that costs $500 to attend. You can’t sell someone on a $500 event in a 140 character tweet; however you could send them to a sales letter.

Even better though, you could send people to an opt-in box to get a free video, a free booklet, or attend a free teleseminar that relates to a topic you’ll be talking about at your event. Not only will you get more people to click through to something that is free, but now you’ve captured their email address and can market to them about your event (and your products and services and future event.) This means that instead of getting one chance to get them to click through to your sales page, you have multiple chances.

When you start focusing on how to use direct response in everything you do online, you’ll increase clicks.  And when you increase clicks, you’ll convert more clicks into sales. Just imagine increasing your conversion rate from 5% to 10%. If you did that consistently you would double your revenues.

Here are three ways you can use direct response to increase your clicks…

1) Use Active Verbs. Many businesses will create a link and write something like, “This week’s specials” or “Calendar of Events”. Instead trying putting an action verb at the beginning…”Find out what this week’s specials are here” and “Explore our calendar of events.”

2) Add urgency. Give them a reason to respond right now. While you don’t want every email or social media post to be promotional, using urgency when you are doing a promotion is really effective. You can accomplish this in many ways including using a limited-time offer, scarcity, or a fast action bonus.

3) Make offers. One of Dan Kennedy’s Direct Response Rules is to always make offers.  Look at ways you can incorporate offers into more of your online activities. Offer the first ten people that post a comment on your blog post a copy of the template you mention in your post. Or offer a free webinar on the topic you discussed in your email in your P.S.

If you don’t have a plan that includes how you will insert links that click through to a sales page, your time is wasted. Even worse, you could be the next small business that “bites the dust” because you didn’t put enough focus on how to get people to take a specific action.

Study direct response and start looking for more ways you can implement direct response marketing into your e-newsletters, emails, blog posts and social media. When you do, you’ll see an increase in clicks, which will lead to more sales.

How do you regularly use direct response in your online activities? Share your ideas in the comments below.

NOTE: Do You Want To Discover The 8 Steps To Growing Your Business By 25% to 75% in Just 48 Hours?

Then come to one of GKIC’s Fast Implementation Boot Camps where you’ll walk away with the blueprint in hand of what you need to do to grow your business and see results almost immediately!  This event is totally FREE to GKIC Insider’s Circle Members.  Simply go to www.dankennedy.com/bootcamp to reserve your spot now.

Not a member?  Take GKIC’s FREE Trial Membership by going to www.dankennedy.com/incrediblegift now and get access to thousands and money-making strategies, this FREE two day workshop and best of all…full access to the GKIC Insiders Circle area online.

Send Emails, Cash Checks

By: Darcy Juarez on: October 18th, 2012 4 Comments

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about building a lead generation machine. A key marketing ingredient if you want to stop worrying about where your next customer will come from…

But here’s the thing…

Once you have those leads, they will expect you to sell them something.

There are different vehicles you can use, such as direct mail, email, on the phone or in person, to sell your products and services to these newly acquired leads. I hope that you are using them all.

However, today I want to talk about one specifically…

Selling through email.

Because if you aren’t using it—or if you aren’t making money from your emails, then you are leaving boatloads of money on the table.

Case in point, members of our Expert Advisory Board. The emails they’ve sent have generated millions and millions and millions in sales.

Email marketing can have a huge impact on your business. In fact, Ogilvy Inc. reports that people who subscribe to your email lists and receive email-marketing messages from your company will purchase 167 percent more than people in your marketing database who are not receiving your emails.

Here are three ways you can use email to increase your revenue:

1)     Set up trigger campaigns to improve response.

On top of being cost-effective, email can help you reduce costs in other areas such as lost customer revenue. Set up a trigger campaign that automatically sends emails to welcome new subscribers, follow up on important dates, events, or campaigns or when a customer responds in a certain way or takes a certain action in your campaign.

For example, let’s say you send a postcard to your customers driving them to a landing page advertising an upcoming event. A portion of your customers won’t sign up on that first visit to your landing page. That means you need a way to drive them back to your page or you’ve short-changed your effort. (Especially since 80% of sales are made on or after the 5th contact.)

Setting up a trigger email campaign that has a sequence of messages that address different objections your prospect might have and then driving them back to your event landing page in the right frame of mind can significantly increase your response to that event. In fact, using this type of follow-up email sequence has been shown to double, triple and even quadruple your initial response.

2)     Use email to get valuable information.

These days everybody is crunching numbers to ensure they are being extremely effective and efficient with their marketing dollars.  And understandably so.

Some of the most valuable statistics are the response numbers that roll in after an email campaign is sent out.

Reviewing your numbers will help you spot effective offers, stand out content or subscribers who’d likely respond well to follow up.

Use this information to see what messages are working and incorporate them into your other marketing.

3)     Use email to build brand loyalty.

In today’s down economy, it’s more important than ever to keep your customers happy and engaged.  Consistent emails with interesting and relevant content give you an easy, friendly way to remind your subscribers why they love you.

Plus you can use your email to highlight your company’s best qualities, reward your most loyal customers, convert leads into customers and turn your one-time buyers into repeat customers.

Now that you know some ways you can use email to increase your profits, let me tell you how you can actually end up decreasing your profits with email.

To enjoy the same success as our Expert Advisory Board members, when you want to sell something to your email subscribers, you want to create emails that don’t diminish your reputation…

Because your subscribers are the people who volunteered their email address virtually saying…”Yes, I want to know more about your products and services.”

In other words, they are your best and most valuable prospects.

Unfortunately, many sales emails are so poorly written that they can actually make it more difficult to sell.

You see, marketers tend to view their subscriber list as “property” instead of the valuable asset it is. So they blast their list with emails not thinking about the massive competition for their customer’s attention.

Like you, they’ve signed up for all different kinds of e-newsletters. They may not be completely loyal or only slightly interested in what you offer. So if you aren’t taking care to write your sales emails in the right way, you can end up disappointing them and losing them forever.

A great example of this is from a friend of mine who told me she stopped shopping at one of her favorite clothing stores, Coldwater Creek.

When asked why she stopped shopping there, she told me it was because of the emails she received from them. Pressed further, she said that while she expected to receive emails selling her stuff, she didn’t expect that every email she received from them would be a discount sales flyer.

She told me she had always thought of them as more upscale than that and the emails changed her perception of them.

There are some important points you can take from this, the first of which is that she expected them to sell to her through email and the second is that the way they did it damaged their reputation.

So while a good marketing plan will continue to use a variety of marketing channels, using email is a cost-effective way to leverage your subscriber behavior and use the data to target consumers making your mailings more effective and, most importantly, more profitable.

Plus, it can be used as an influencer to drive more sales while reducing your operating costs.

But remember, the content has to be killer or you can damage your reputation and lose your customers, even loyal ones, forever.

NOTE: If you would like to know how to send e-mails to your list that generate sales instead of damaging your reputation, tune in tonight, October 18, 2012 at 8:00 PM ET to hear Dave Dee reveal “How to Write Subliminally Persuasive Emails that Generate Sales Like Magic in 9 Minutes or Less!” Sign up here.

Get Your Marketing Ready For Those Most Likely To Vote YES

By: Dave Dee on: October 16th, 2012 5 Comments

Last week I read a funny cartoon about the election …

“The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” cartoon shows Orville Edison running for the White House.

An assistant tells him he has a call from Mr. Jones from the industrial polluters association. Edison takes the call and says, “Bob, for a small campaign contribution we’ll see to it that the EPA leaves polluters alone when we take office.”

Edison hangs up the phone and his assistant says, “Oops…sorry. Mister Jones is on line two. That was the Sierra Club.”

Oops is right. That’s a costly mistake—and while the cartoon is funny, businesses often make a similar mistake when creating lead generation campaigns.

At GKIC, we teach the marketing triangle. This system is based on the three components of marketing—market, media, and message—for anything, anywhere, and at any time, at any price, under any conditions. (More about this in Dan Kennedy’s  The Ultimate Marketing Plan and in your Income Explosion Guide that comes with your Most Incredible Free Gift Ever package.)

Matching the right message with the right market is powerful and can elicit a much stronger response when you get the “who” right.  And while my Orville Edison cartoon example seems so obvious, somehow, sadly when it comes to lead generation, businesses often get the “who” wrong – and it can be extremely costly.

It’s what Dan Kennedy calls “Blind Archery.” It’s when you simply shoot your message out to a lot of people and hope it will reach enough of your ideal customers to make it worthwhile.

Here are five steps you can do to get your marketing ready so that more prospects say “yes” to what you have to offer while avoiding this costly mistake:

 

1)     Identify your WHO. In our cartoon example, Orville failed to accurately identify who he was talking to. Don’t make the same error. Before you write a word of copy or pick out your media, take time answer the following questions:

  • Who do you want to respond to your message?
  • Who is your ideal customer?
  • Who is your current customer? (If you can’t answer who your current customer is, then do some research to find out.)

The more accurate you are at identifying your ideal prospect, the more impact your marketing will have.

 

2)     Find out what’s important to your reader.  When Orville answered the phone, he was thinking about his priorities—to raise money for his campaign and get votes—not his constituents.

Too often businesses have this same failing. Ask yourself, if you were in your prospect’s shoes, what would make you buy, give money, sign up, respond to, etc. whatever it is you are offering.

If you do not fit your customer profile in your niche, you will need to do some work to understand your prospect and customer’s desires, fears, and motivations. You can do this by doing things such as reading industry publications and visiting forums. (For a full list of how to get inside the mind of your customer when you are an outsider, take a look at page 19-20 in The Ultimate Sales Letter.)

 

3)     Ask your list broker for the data card. If you are renting mailing lists from a list broker, you can ask to see the data card. This will provide you with information about your prospect’s age, gender and types of products they’ve purchased in the past.

For example, if you are selling financial services you might ask for a list of people who have previously bought financial programs, magazines, or newsletters or other financial services through the mail.

 

4)     Use your product or service as a consumer would.  Take your product or service and use it exactly as a consumer would. Open your packaging, read the instructions and labels. Use it as instructed. Test it. Take it apart and put it back together. If you provide services and it’s difficult to use your own service, consider hiring a secret shopper to give you feed back.

 

5)     Examine what has “sold” in the past. Do you have a promotion that was particularly successful or is there something you say in face-to-face sales that works well and has a good closing ratio? Studying what has worked well in actual selling situations will help you avoid making incorrect assumptions about your WHO.

Unlike Orville Edison who had the advantage of knowing exactly who he was talking to—had he asked—when you are sending direct mail out, you can’t speak with your prospect to get direct feedback from him or her. However, when you take the time to use these five steps to get to know WHO your customer is, you’ll not only create a more successful campaign that connects with your prospects giving you better results, but you’ll make prospects want to be your customer—and a loyal customer at that.

How To Cook Up More Sales Williams-Sonoma Style…

By: Dave Dee on: September 6th, 2012 8 Comments

What better way to end the summer than with a cookout…and a sale!

This past weekend in addition to the backyard barbecues and pool closing parties, retail stores were in full force with Labor Day sales.

Among them, U.S. gourmet cookware store Williams-Sonoma was offering some good deals…but even more impressive was their check-out procedure.

The sales person at the cash register was taking customers through a series of questions, all designed to create more sales…

“Did you mean to get the single ice-pop maker or did you want the one that makes three at one-time?”

“Would you like extra reusable plastic pop sticks with that?”

“Did you see the great specials we are having today like the pie-maker that is 50% off or the table top sale in the back?”

The sales person was actually doing something that most business don’t even think to do.  Through friendly suggestions, she was trying to prompt the customer to increase the size of their purchase.

You see even though in traditional sales training a lot of time is spent on the close, once the sale is closed, many businesses end the conversation instead of continuing it.

A mistake that costs mucho “DEE-nero”.

Even a good salesperson might only close one in four people. And an average sales person is probably more like one in eight.

That means that for every one sale made three to seven people are walking out empty handed.

If your average sale is $100, then for every one sale you make, you’ve lost potentially $300-$700 (or more) in sales.

There are ways to recapture these lost opportunities and, without a whole lot of effort, increase your sales substantially.

Using Williams Sonoma as an inspiration, here are some of the best ways you can sell more:

Go for an immediate upsell. Hardly any businesses go for the immediate upsell, but when you do, twenty percent of your prospects will say “YES.” Not only did the Williams-Sonoma sales person rattle off several questions in search of the upsell, she collected customer information to follow up.  Within a few days, Williams-Sonoma sends the customer an email thanking them for their purchase, offering them free shipping, recipes, entertaining ideas, new items available, and, of course, another sales offer.

Using recipes as an example, they feature a different product with each recipe and highlight more information about the product.

Obviously coming up with your own list of upsell questions will give you the opportunity to offer an immediate upsell directly after a consumer purchases from you, but you should go even further.  Add a follow-up email campaign to keep the conversation going with your customer.  But don’t just rely on emails. Create a system for gathering your customers’ addresses so you can send them direct mail too.

For instance, you could offer to mail a free CD or DVD of a live presentation you did which compliments your product or service or that demonstrates how to use your product or service. Then include an upsell offer with the free item.

Go for a back-end sale. Williams-Sonoma uses direct mail catalogs for back-end sales. This is a great way to sell your product because people tend to be in a more relaxed state of mind when looking at your catalog versus looking online. They have fewer distractions and are more likely to spend more time looking at and devouring information about your products and services.

When looking online, people tend to be more in a search mode, wanting to get information quickly.

Plus, because consumers don’t have to go online to see it, they can use your catalog anywhere—like while relaxing in their easy chair or waiting for an appointment.

Catalogs work exceptionally well too. According to the Direct Mailing Association (DMA), more than 89.6 million Americans bought an item from a catalog last year. The DMA also said that when retailers tried cutting back on the use of catalogs a couple of years ago, their “sales plummeted.”

If you’ve never used a catalog, consider adding one. It doesn’t have to be a big thick book. Create a catalog that targets a specific audience.  Or try tailoring your catalog for a specific event you are holding.

If you don’t think a catalog will work for your business, other forms of direct mail are still a good option for making a back-end sale. This is because direct mail will still give you the advantage of catching consumers in a more laid back state causing them to spend more time looking at your ad.

Build their list. If someone comes to your place of business, they are a prospect in the market for whatever you are selling. Instead of letting people leave the store empty handed, why not have an employee standing at the door giving out a free gift to shoppers who don’t buy in exchange for their address?

Using direct mail you could immediately send a message within a few days to get them back in the buying mode for your products and services.

For example, you could send an irresistible offer with a deadline such as a sale, freemium with purchase by a certain date, a limited-edition item or limited-time offer.  Offer special purchase terms like three payments over time instead of one immediately.

This does two things. It brings people back to your business that you might have otherwise lost and it puts more good prospects in front of your sales people making it easier for them to sell stuff.

This technique is exactly what got me to buy Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing program all those years ago. And it’s what will help you sell more in your business too.

The reason this works so well is that it gives you an opportunity to continue your sales pitch and send prospects into a follow-up sequence where you can test different offers, up the ante or change the terms of your offer.

Use these lessons from Williams-Sonoma in your business to increase your sales. And remember to use a combination of both online sales tools and direct mail to get the biggest response. Because while using one or the other will definitely improve your bottom line, the real power comes when you combine them both.

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Discover How Others Will Buy A Product From You That They Create!

By: Darcy Juarez on: August 28th, 2012 4 Comments

Earlier today, many GKIC members took advantage of the FREE training by GKIC Expert and Advisory Board member, Jeff Walker.

The creator of the Product Launch Formula, Jeff is considered THE guy to go to when you want to launch a product or service…

ANY kind of product or service.

You could be selling guitar lessons or teaching how to carve wooden Santas…the formula works gangbusters for any product.

In fact, his formula has generated millions and millions and millions in sales for his students.

During his tele-seminar today, Jeff told his story of how he discovered his formula and revealed the EXACT process he used to create his initial Product Launch Formula–which generated $600,000 in its first week.

In a minute, I’ll give you five tips Jeff shared during his call, but first, I want to tell you a little more about how Jeff got started. You’ll want to pay close attention to his story, because in it there is a secret to how you can raise yourself to expert status in your field.

When Jeff Walker started in information marketing, he wasn’t anywhere close to being a guru. In fact, back in 1996, he started an information marketing business out of desperation…

A stay-at-home dad, he was looking for something to do that would bring him in income from home.

He says he didn’t have a clue about information marketing. He didn’t know anything about how to sell. He was even afraid to ask for the sale because he thought nobody would buy from him. And he didn’t know much about marketing either.

On a shoestring budget, without knowing anything about what he was doing, he made $10,000 in his first year.

What he discovered, after repeating his process again and again, was that his fear of asking for the sale had resulted in a powerful selling formula.   As he fine-tuned his approach, sales rose dramatically.

He then attended an Internet Marketing conference where he shared what he was doing. It was there he realized no one else in this industry was consistently generating the kind of sales he was getting.

What happened next was even more interesting. A few people he met at the conference followed Jeff’s advice, launching their own products. These launches not only created huge sales, but set the “launchers” up as gurus in their industry.  (You might even recognize some of them such as Ryan Deiss and Frank Kern to name two.)

After these new gurus experienced success, they urged Jeff to create and launch his Product Launch Formula.  The problem was that Jeff hadn’t created anything to sell. So he used what he calls a “Seed Launch” to create his product.

Since then, Jeff has taught others how to successfully create and launch products using his Product Launch Formula. To date, his formula has generated more than half of a billion dollars in sales for his students and launched not only Jeff’s expert status, but his student’s expert status too.

These days, Jeff enjoys waking up to orders in his in-box along with the freedom that provides him.

Sound like something you could learn to live with too?

Well, if you’ve ever wanted to get into Internet marketing but were stopped because:

1)      You don’t have a clue about what to sell online;

2)      You only have a few hours to spare;

3)      You only have a few dollars to start with…

Then you’ll want to carefully follow the tips Jeff revealed in today’s call. He not only shows you exactly how to quickly and easily create content…but how to figure out what your product should be. As you will soon see, his process is neither time-consuming nor expensive to do.

As I mentioned earlier, Jeff’s big secret is to do a “Seed Launch”. This works whether you have a list or don’t have a list, and whether you have a product idea or not.  It costs very little to do because all you really need is a free conference line, a way for people to opt-in, and a way to send emails.

Five tips Jeff gave during our call about doing a “Seed Launch” were:

1)  Figure out your topic. Often people have a general idea about what they could teach someone, but aren’t sure what type of product they should create. What do you know a lot about? What are you passionate about?  For example, maybe you know a lot about gardening or accounting or exercise.  Picking a topic you know about and enjoy will make it easy to talk about and help you create a successful product.

2)  Create initial emails.  You don’t have to sell anything here. Just be yourself in these emails to help attract like-minded people who will be interested in your topic.  And remember that people will be more likely to read your emails if you write more like you are telling a story about your topic to a close friend.

3)  Determine if you will charge or not. The most important thing in a “Seed Launch” is to get people who want to sign up to hear about
your topic. Jeff suggests you base your price on what your topic is along with what assets you have, such as your list size.

4)  Create a conversation with your audience. By creating a conversation about your topic with your audience, you can discover what material you should cover; what objections prospective buyers have and how to answer them; how to create a perfectly tuned product from your seed launch; and how to create a great product that will help you enjoy long-term success.

5)  Set yourself up for subsequent sales. The key to getting subsequent sales is to give really great content plus a little extra bonus for your first product. This lays the foundation for a long-term relationship with your prospects and customers.

If you missed today’s call and want to hear more of what Jeff had to say, all members can listen to the replay by accessing your brand NEW GKIC Success Club.

A new tool which makes available all your tools and resources in one place while combining a best-in-class social media platform that you can customize, please note that ALL members can access the GKIC Success Club by going to social.dankennedy.com.

Not a member? No problem, we’ve made it drop-dead easy for you to get access to the replay too.

CLICK HERE for a FREE Trial Membership and recieve $633.91 in money-making marketing strategies, tools and resources.

ALSO…Don’t miss tomorrow as we continue our week of killer FREE training with another GKIC Expert Advisory Board member and INFO-summit presenter…The call starts promptly at 1 PM Central Time… watch your inbox tomorrow morning for call in details.

If you’re not currently a member and want access to the NEW GKIC Success Club and other GKIC member-only resources,  go here to get your FREE trial now

 

Eight Simple Tips That Make A Big Difference With This “Retro” Marketing Idea…

By: Darcy Juarez on: August 21st, 2012 2 Comments

The other day a piece of mail with a stamp featuring a once very important business tool caught my eye…

The stamp, which featured a typewriter (remember those?) is one in a new series of commemorative stamps that focus on designers of Machine Age products, a style that emerged during the Depression.

The “Machine Age style” attracted customers with its futuristic materials such as aluminum, chrome and Bakelite (one of the first plastics made from synthetic components.)

Because it was meant for mass manufacturing, the designers opted for a more streamlined style instead of the then popular Art Deco style.

This made me think about how many businesses have been wooed by Internet marketing over direct mail marketing during recent years, much like consumers were wooed by the Machine Age products.

The thing is, unlike decorating styles where choosing multiple styles and using them together doesn’t often work well, using multiple “styles” when it comes to marketing actually works better.

Businesses that use only the Internet to promote their business lose out on marketing to consumers in a way that hits them in a more relaxed atmosphere and with much less competition.

You see as I’m sure you know, with Internet marketing you only have a few seconds to grab your prospect’s attention before they move onto something else.  With direct mail, once your prospect starts reading your letter there are generally less distractions.  Potential buyers are able to focus squarely on your marketing message at their own leisurely pace.

Plus with most companies no longer using direct mail, there is less competition for your prospect’s time and your letter is more likely to stand out and be read.

To increase your sales even more, here are eight tips you can use that can make a big difference in your results when using direct mail:

1) Put a stamp on it.  Using a traditional stamp instead of the bulk indicia is proven to bump response.  If you’re not convinced, do your own test.  The next time you send out a mailing, send half out using stamps and the other half using the indicia.  ”Yes” it takes a little more time, but if it bumps up your open rate even half a percentage, it’s well worth it.

2) Make your stamp stand out. Use unique stamps such as the commemorative stamps or special issue stamps. It doesn’t cost you any more to use them and makes your mail look more personal.  This has also shown to increase response. Again, you can do your own test using half first class stamps and half special issue stamps to see the difference for yourself.

3) Use bulk rate stamps vs. First Class stamps. If you mail bulk rate, use bulk rate stamps. It’s often difficult to tell the difference between a regular first class mail and bulk rate mail when it has a stamp on it. Plus, the post office sometimes confuses bulk rate stamps with first class stamps and delivers your mail as first class. This can help you save money while retaining a similar bump in response.

4) Include handwritten notes. Use handwriting on your envelope and in the margins of your letter. Handwritten notes give a personal feeling and help you draw attention to important points in your copy.

Some examples of short phrases and words that will work well include “free gift”, “save now”, and “limited-time special”.

5) Make your handwriting consistent. Make sure you use the same color pen, same handwriting, and same thickness of the pen when doing handwritten notes. This maintains consistency, making your message more believable and therefore increases your credibility.

6) Include a photo in your letter. Pictures consistently draw the attention of readers. Especially if it’s an interesting photo. Pictures are a great opportunity to draw attention to something you want your reader to know.

7) Caption every photo. Never include a photo without a caption. You want to capitalize on the fact that most everyone will look at your picture by including a caption that tells your reader important information, a benefit to using your product or service or a call to action. Be sure to include a caption even if it’s a picture you think your reader will recognize. For example, let’s say the picture is of you. You could include your name along with your offer by saying something like, “To celebrate the opening of his second location, Chef Tom Dorn is offering a free entre with the purchase of a second entre from now through September 7, 2012.”

8) Liberally use subheads. Subheads break up copy and make it easier for the reader to consume your message.   Sometimes the reader will first scan your subheads to determine if they are going to read your letter.  Treat them like mini-headlines and you will bump up the number of people who read your letter from start to finish.

If you’re not currently using mail in your marketing line-up, trying going “retro” and pull out the postage stamp for your next campaign. Using these eight tips will make a big difference and help you increase your marketing reach and boost your sales.

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What You Can Learn From The Artist Wyland About How To Create Your Business Masterpiece

By: Dave Dee on: August 16th, 2012 3 Comments

The other day an article about the artist Wyland got me thinking about how one becomes a master of something…

If you’re not familiar with Wyland, he created the “Whaling Walls.”  The Whaling Walls is a series of 100 large outdoor murals featuring images of life-size whales and other sea life.  The murals sprung from Wyland’s dream of sharing his love of marine life with 100 communities around the world.

His goal was to bring awareness to marine life conservation. It took him 27 years to complete—finishing the last one in 2008. It’s estimated that his murals are seen by more than a billion people each year.

This made me think about what it takes to be able to create something of that size and magnitude.

Obviously an artist doesn’t start out creating pieces of art to that scale.

In fact, no matter the media nor the many years of experience that most everyone receives in public and high school drawing, painting and using color to create artwork, art instructors always begin with core elements.

For example, painters work with just three primary colors…yellow, blue and red. They learn to combine those colors to make a full spectrum of hues like purples, oranges and greens.

When learning to draw figures, you don’t draw a “person” or a “horse” or whatever. You draw basic shapes like circles, ovals, squares and rectangles and learn how to put those together to make the figure you want.

It’s only after mastering the basics that artists move on to more advanced techniques and even then those original fundamentals are used in every creation.

Much like an artist strives to put those basic elements together to create a masterpiece…as a business owner, you combine core elements to create your ideal business.

There are several lessons you can learn from an artist’s process so that, like Wyland, you can reach your desired goals.

1)      No matter your experience level, you can’t create your business masterpiece without the basics. Just like an artist can’t draw a figure without understanding and using basic shapes like circles and squares, as a business owner, you need to use the basic marketing building blocks to successfully sell each and every product or service you offer.

2)      Even though you may have experience creating marketing, it’s necessary to break things down to the core elements and master those in order to create campaigns that get people’s attention. For example, most likely you have a lot of experience writing emails.

However, despite your experience, it’s important to break down each core element of an email such as the subject line, the opening line and the P.S. to get the best results. Really understanding things like what makes an email subject line effective at getting opened and or the components of a strong P.S. read can double, triple and even quadruple your chances of selling your product or service.

3)      You don’t need fancy tools to create a successful campaign. Blending three primary colors to create the full spectrum of hues is a distinctive way to create stunning and original paintings. In fact, many artists routinely only paint with three to six colors.

Like artists, some of the most successful businesses use a simple formula which can be repeated over and over again. For example, at GKIC we use the “Girgio” letter campaign described in Magnetic Marketing with continued success.

Or the “Lost Customer” Reactivation Blueprint which  is a simple to implement plan that consistently adds thousands of dollars to  GKIC members bottom lines.

Take the time to go back and inspect the core marketing elements that make businesses successful. Master these marketing basics and you will create the business masterpiece of your dreams, even if like Wyland, that includes getting your message out to a billion people.

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