Posts Tagged ‘copywriting’

Can Barbra Streisand And Seth Rogen Turn You Into An Electrifying Salesperson?

By: Dave Dee on: May 16th, 2013 2 Comments

Have you seen the movie “The Guilt Trip”?

It’s the one starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen where Rogen plays the inventor son who takes his nagging mother on a cross country trip while he tries to sell his invention.

Rogen’s character, Andy, has invented this cleaner which is so safe you can get it on your skin, in your eyes, even drink it and it won’t hurt you.

It took him five years to come up with the formula. He spent his entire life savings manufacturing tons of product (before he sold it.) And then set up appointments with major retailers like Costco and K-Mart to see if they would be willing to carry his product in their stores.

Besides the obvious big lesson here of testing to see if anyone is interested in your product or service before you invest tons of time and money in developing it, there is a great sales lesson in this movie.

You see, watching Andy’s pitch is painful—and while it is exaggeratingly bad, it gives some great clues about what not to do and what to watch for during your own sales presentations.

The reaction of the people Andy pitched his product to reveal clues as to what you should look for to determine if you’re on the wrong track when pitching your own products and services to your clients, customers and patients.  Things such as…

  • Shuffling in their seat
  • Checking their phone for emails
  • Staring at someplace other than you

What made Andy so bad? Well he spent all of his time on the scientific facts of the product—which was pretty boring. In other words, he focused on what HE thought was interesting instead of what his audience would find interesting.

Plus he didn’t emotionally hook his audience.

Once again Andy was focused on what he thought was important instead of what was important to his audience.

For example, Andy thought it was interesting that he was able to find the exact natural ingredients to create a cleaner that was not only safe, but didn’t contain any chemicals. While this is why his product worked, this wasn’t the first thing Andy needed to focus on.

Plus, he failed to find out or ask his prospective clients if they had pets or children that might get a hold of a cleaning solution in their own homes. Can you see how making his prospect think about his or her own pet or child may be in grave danger would hit a hot button?

In the end, with a suggestion from his mother, Andy is able to capture the audience’s attention and truly captivate the Home Shopping Network.

What made the difference?

Andy discovers that the person doing the screening test with him has a pet and a young child. So he shows her a familiar cleaner and asks if she uses something like that in her home, to which she replies “yes.”

Then Andy takes the cleaner he invented, takes the cap off and takes a swig of it right there on camera, asking if she could see the cleaning company whose product she uses doing that with their cleaner.

Would that get your attention?

I know it’d get mine!

The problem is that we don’t always do live pitches right? In fact, for some businesses, you may do all of your business online and may never even engage in live interaction at all.

So how do you look for the signs that you are boring your customers?

Well, tracking the time visitors spend on your web site and watching your videos can give you some indicators for starters.

But there is actually a much better way—something that you can use to make sure you never bore your audience and ensure they connect with you every time.

In fact, it’s the explanation behind why certain entrepreneurs get clients to buy and believe while others are often forgotten and ignored.  And best of all, it’s simple to do, once you understand it.

What’s cool about this is that rather than trying to convince someone your product or service is cool or interesting or superior, it automatically gets your audience to drop their barriers, stop being skeptical, believe what you say and trust your opinion.

In essence, it does what Andy did when he drank his cleaning solution: It taps on a hot button so powerful in your audience’s brain—in a predictable way—that people instantly focus on your message.

And that’s what you want people to do, right?

The reason this is important is because it no longer is enough to have the best product or service.  While fictional, Andy’s invention is a classic example. Who wouldn’t want a solution like Andy’s? One that wouldn’t kill you or make you blind if you happened to ingest it or get it in your eye.

Yet, no one and I mean no one, cared about Andy’s product…until…

Andy identified the way to capture 100 percent of his audience’s attention.

And that is step one.  You need to identify what will capture 100 percent of your audience’s attention. Because in today’s instant gratification society your battling shortened attention spans and an increasingly crowded message marketplace.

As he leaves the presentation, Andy and his mother discuss other ways they can capture 100 percent of his audiences’ attention in the future.

And that my friend is step two. You see, once Andy understood how he could get people to focus on him, he could replicate that and make his sales predictable in the future.  In order to succeed, you need a predictable, replicable way to immediately make a powerful connection with your audience, no matter what new products or services you introduce.

Recently I took a test that helped me to understand how I personally captivate people.  In essence, it helped me to better understand what I bring to the table naturally that helps me earn people’s attention so they want to stay focused on what I’m saying instead of heading to the next shiny object.

I discovered the exact things that make me be able to generate $300,000 in sales in a 90 minute presentation…so I can do these things each and every time—making sales predictable. (Take the test here to find out how you capture 100 percent of people’s attention here.)

In a distracted world, if nobody hears you, notices you, and remembers you, then they won’t be taking action on your message. If people aren’t buying your products or services the way you believe they should be, then take the time to find out what people find interesting about you so you can communicate this more consistently and predictably in order to get them to focus 100 percent of their attention on you.

NOTE:  If you want to identify how you can capture 100 percent of your audience’s attention in a way that isn’t uncomfortable, doesn’t require you to change who you are, and comes naturally, then click here and spend five minutes taking this simple test.

I’ve even arranged for you to get this for FREE. Plus you’ll receive a written report with your results so you can immediately start making every presentation you do—online and offline—focused on the hot button that grabs attention like Andy drinking cleaning solution.

Click here now to find out what makes you fascinating to your audience.

What Tim Tebow Can Teach You About Marketing…

By: Dan Kennedy on: May 9th, 2013 17 Comments

Lately, the recently waived NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has the media discussing where his next job should be.

He’s one of the most talked about players in the NFL. And whether you love him or hate him, you’ve probably talked about him too.

What’s interesting is how this player who has shown less than spectacular results in his NFL career, is one of the most popular players, not only in the NFL, but perhaps in the history of the NFL.

When Tebow arrived in New York, there was plenty of fanfare. There were billboards that welcomed him. Sandwiches were named after him.  And his jersey was one of the top sellers in the league before he even made his first snap in the NFL.

The question is why?

Over the past decade or longer, there certainly have been football players and coaches that have had far more success who never made it to the spotlight…and the money, the way Tebow has.

To prove my point, yesterday a football coach by the name of Larry Kehres stepped down as the head coach of Mount Union college. During his 27 year career, he has coached 359 games.  His record is three games ending in a tie,  24 games ending in a loss, and an incredible 332 games resulting in wins. And he won 11 Division III national championships.

He is the most successful football coach of all time, yet most people have never heard of him.

There is a lesson here if you look for it. What made Tebow into such a media sensation? What has made him one of the most talked about players of all time? And what has kept Kehres relatively abscure and unknown?

He’s an underdog. He’s likeable. He has a personality that is consistent and unwaivering.

One comment from a writer sums it up, “In America we love the story about the little guy. The guy who people believed couldn’t get the job done and then finds his way to do just that, and in dramatic fashion.” And this is what makes Tebow so memorable.

It’s an important point and one that Dave Dee made at SuperConference this past week.

If you tuned in to SuperConference via the web Saturday or were at the event itself, you heard Dave reveal the precise steps to take to dominate your market and transform your business.

You may have missed it when Dave revealed this secret during his presentation…

It came right at the beginning of Dave’s talk when discussing my number one recommendation for client retention – the print newsletter.

During his discussion of newsletters, Dave shared GKIC reader’s favorite part of the No B.S. newsletter.  You love to read the stories and political rants I write at the beginning of the newsletter… about what “pisses me off.” (I believe those are the words Dave used.)

This “reader favorite” is what has allowed me to keep customers hanging around for years.

Here’s the thing. The information you provide your customers won’t keep them for life. But the clue I’ve given you here is what keeps people coming back again and again and gives your business longevity.

In fact, adding a consistent personality to your copy is my number one copywriting secret that most marketers will never know.  It’s provided me with the privilege of keeping  customers for decades.

But it’s not just in your copy where you will benefit from capitalizing on your personality.

If you want to make your products and services more memorable and add longevity to your business, you have to inject it into everything you do.

In Florida there is a deckhand on a ferry boat named BJ Hart. Hart is a real character. He jokes with passengers, salutes people, sings, dances and is in my mind a big reason why the ferry, which is in danger of going under, is still operating. People ride the ferry just to see this guy.

Now I’m not saying you have to be the underdog like Tebow or sing like Hart or go on a political rant like I do, but you do need to develop consistent  interesting character.

Because if you’re going to go to the trouble of getting a customer, you want to keep them for life. And if you don’t inject personality into your business, then you’ll keep customers, clients and patients for maybe a couple of years. But if you want to keep them for life, you better figure out what Tim Tebow already knows—that to be memorable requires personality.

NOTE: Personally, after being in business all these years, not much gets my attention. I’m not easily impressed and it’s rare for me to proactively push myself into collaboration with someone. However next week, you’ll have the chance to see something new that was so different and memorable that I took the initiative to get involved.

Watch your inbox next week for a free video series that will show you how to use your personality to stand out, intrigue, attract, and be memorable. It’s something I believe you’ll find as intriguing and interesting to talk about as Tim Tebow.  Which is saying something.  And a good reason why you should tune in.

Six Pro Copywriter Tips To Make Your Copy As Strong As Possible

By: Darcy Juarez on: April 25th, 2013 25 Comments

What is good copy? What is bad copy? And how do you tell the difference?

This past year, I attended the American Writer’s and Artist’s Inc. (AWAI) copywriting boot camp.

AWAI is best known for training professional copywriters. Which is why I went to scout out copywriters at AWAI’s Job Fair. While there, I spoke with AWAI’s co-managing partners Katie Yeakle and Rebecca Matter.

One of the things I learned was some great tips for how they review the copy they receive from writers to help make the copy they receive even better.

Because let’s face it, whether you write your own copy or hire someone else to do it, you want to make sure it’s the strongest it can be.

So here are some tips I learned from Katie and Rebecca about how to review your copy:

1)     Read the copy out loud.  When reading your copy out loud, if you find a place that you stumble, inevitably this is where your reader will stumble too.  This is a great indicator that there is something wrong that needs to be fixed.

2)     Read for one type of edit at a time.  When editing, there are really different types of editing you should do. One type of editing involves looking for spelling and grammar errors, missed words such as “not”, or misused words such as “they’re, their, or there”.

The second type of editing involves looking for clarity and accuracy in the copy. Is the come clear? Does it get your message across clearly? Are there better word choices that could make your copy stronger or places where an example might help to clarify?

By reading through copy more than once, focusing on only one specific type of editing task each time, you’ll be able to zero in on places that may need work. Some editors suggest you narrow down your focus even further, for example, looking for places where you can use action verbs instead of passive ones for example.

3)      Use the CUBA method.  This is a great method that anyone can use. In fact, you can have your family, your staff, etc. use this to help make your copy stronger.

The idea is to give the content to several people to read. As they read through, have them identify any areas where they find the copy confusing, unbelievable, boring or awkward. To indicate these areas, have them mark a C, U, B, or A (Confusing, Unbelievable, Boring, Awkward) directly on the copy.

4)     Use track changes and comments.  Having several reviews/editors with different comments can get confusing for anyone. If you want to make sure all of your edits are addressed, using the “track changes” and “comments” under your review section in WORD is one of the best ways to send edits back to a writer.

5)     Check for readability. When proofing your document in Word, you can check “show readability statistics” under your preferences for Spelling and Grammar.

When Word has completed checking your spelling and grammar, it will show a screen that gives your Readability score. This measures three things:

The first is your percentage of passive sentences. Reducing passive sentences makes your document stronger.

The next measure is something called the Flesch reading ease. You’ll find the best copywriters keep this around 80% or better, although this can be difficult and may not be achieved when there are technical terms involved.

The last score is the Flesch-Kincaid grade level. This rates your text on a U.S. school grade level. Ideally you want your level to fall around a sixth grade level, no matter how intelligent your audience is because it makes your message easier to read.

6)     Print it out.  It is easier to catch mistakes on a printed page than on a computer screen.  This is especially true if you do your own writing and don’t hire someone else to write your copy for you.

What methods do you use to help make your copy stronger? I’d love to hear them in the comments below.

NOTE: Knowing that you are looking at reasonably good copy and understanding why it’s good will help you make better decisions, hire better copywriters and get better results. Inside “The 7 Key Questions Every Copywriter You Hire MUST Be Able to Answer To Write Killer Direct Response Copy and Create Marketing Campaigns That Will Outsell The Pants Off Your Competition!”  is what every business owner should ask before hiring a copywriter.

So if you plan to hire a copywriter to give you an advantage, be sure to get GKIC’s FREE report here.

Begging For Change To Millionaire In One Year. His Secret Revealed…

By: Darcy Juarez on: March 26th, 2013 1 Comment

He was abused and started drinking as a teenager.

Ending up homeless, he begged on the streets for change in order to survive.

Today Toronto Canada native Francis O’Dea is a multi-millionaire.

O’Dea says, “One year I was broke, the next year I was a millionaire.”

What is his secret?

He says for six months he lived on the streets with no clue as to what he wanted or how to get out of his current situation.

He changed his circumstance by changing his focus. 

He got a job and focused on turning his life around.  Later, with a friend, he opened a little coffee shop naming it, “Second Cup.”

Today, Second Cup is Canada’s largest Canadian-based specialty coffee retailer with more than 360 cafes across Canada.  Although, O’Dea sold his shares in Second Cup in 1988 when they had 150 locations, he went on to enjoy an extremely successful business career, receiving the Order of Canada in 2004.

While sometimes it’s a lack of focus on what we want that causes us to stay stuck, other times it’s caused by getting too comfortable in our routine and not knowing how to change our situation.

By just shifting your focus, even slightly, you can create big wins.

Here are some simple ideas for where you can shift your focus to improve your business and your income:

Sharpen your marketing. If your marketing isn’t working the way the way it used to, a quick way to correct the problem is to consider hiring a professional copywriter to audit your copy. While it may make more sense to start fresh, sometimes an audit of an existing piece of copy or funnel can identify slight changes and quick fixes that will make your marketing fresh and profitable again.

Before you hire a copywriter, be sure to read our FREE report:  The 7 Key Questions Every Copywriter You Hire MUST Be Able to Answer To Write Killer Direct Response Copy and Create Marketing Campaigns That Will Outsell The Pants Off Your Competition.

Check your client-attraction system. If you aren’t earning the income you desire, focus on doing one thing every day towards getting more and better clients.  Fine-tune your approach, learn how to identify and attract clients who can pay you big money right now. (Dan Kennedy will introduce and present his new “Specific –Customer-Focus Process® at SuperConference May 2nd –May 4th)

Specialize in a niche. Narrowing your focus in your industry can quickly increase your income.  If you’ve already picked a niche, see if there are courses or certifications which can further qualify you as an expert in your chosen specialty.

Identify a gap. Look for an area which is not being covered well or is in big demand.  For example, Mike Capuzzi of CopyDoodles saw a need in the copy cosmetics field as there were no real options other than to hire a graphic artist or to individually mark up your copy and try to photo copy it. By creating a product to fill that gap, he quickly rose to the expert in his field. Concentrate your effort on identifying and filling a need.

Focusing on the most important activities which keep your business growing is what separates the most successful businesses in the world from the businesses that spend their entire shelf life wondering why nothing they do seems to work.

So if you’re wondering how to bring your business up a notch, look at how you’re spending your time—you might just need a slight focus adjustment.

NOTE: Just a quick reminder that Dan Kennedy will be presenting a very special and rare Internet Webinar with Infusionsoft TODAY – Tuesday March 26th – at 2 pm EST. It’s on the crucial topic commonly referred to as “Lifecycle Marketing”… the real-world “Survive and Thrive” principles Dan has identified based on the many years of research he’s spent looking at the “what works/what doesn’t” marketing efforts of over 10,000 small businesses. When you attend this webinar, you’ll discover:

  • How to fix “follow-up failure”… the devastating death spiral a business experiences when leads wander off into the weeds to disappear forever… without wasting endless hours of your valuable time!
  • Discovering your company’s own unique WOW – the powerful, emotional experience that only YOU bring to the table – and the easiest way imaginable to deliver it to the surprise and delight of your satisfied customers
  • A ferociously simple trick that you can do RIGHT NOW that will enable you to quickly and easily attract, capture and nurture WAY more leads!
  • The crippling disease of multiple system madness… how it’s killing your profits without you even knowing it… and clear steps to take NOW to put you on the vital path to thrive in your business.

And MUCH MORE Besides! Dan doesn’t do these kinds of presentations very often and this one is particularly near and dear to how he thinks about running a successful business. Register for this FREE, rare webinar here.

Doubles Your Sales In 20 Minutes Using These E-mail Secrets

By: Dave Dee on: March 7th, 2013 3 Comments

Recently I was speaking with a busy, small business owner and Internet marketer who confided he wasn’t doing what he coached other businesses to do.

He said, “I know I should be doing this for my own business too, but sometimes I act like the cobbler with holes in his shoes that spends so much time repairing others shoes that he doesn’t have time to repair his own.”

He added that what makes it worse is it’s the one thing he knows he really needs to be doing.

In a tough economy every penny counts and not doing this is like leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table.

What was he neglecting?

He wasn’t giving his prospects and customers a second (and third and fourth…) chance to do business with him.

A costly mistake in any economy.

You see, according to market researchers, 98-99% of your website visitors won’t make a purchase on their first visit.

Converting even just 1-2% of those lost visitors could make a significant difference to your bottom line.

For example, if 6,000 people visit your website each month, a 2% bump in your conversion rate translates into 120 additional customers. Times that by the gross profit you make per sale and, I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s something that deserves your attention.

So how do you go about converting that additional 2%?

Email marketing.

In fact, according to Ogilvy who are cited as pioneers in the interactive marketing industry, “People who are registered to receive email marketing messages from your company will purchase an average of 167 percent more than those people in your marketing database who are not receiving email.”

Email marketing allows you to keep in touch with prospects as well as current and past customers, clients and patients.

It helps you drive traffic back to your website, sales pages and promotions.

It gives you the opportunity to educate your customers so they can be more successful in their business.

You can position yourself as a go-to resource.

You can cross-sell and up-sell your products and services to existing clients.

And win customers back.

This business owner knew all this, but still wasn’t doing it.

Like you, me and everyone, he’s busy.

But the reason he wasn’t doing it went beyond that.

He wasn’t doing it because he was worried about what many businesses are concerned about when they start thinking about doing email marketing …

Creating content.

Writing relevant content that’s both interesting and helpful to your readers is a real concern.  Plus the fear it will suck up all your time.

Another concern this entrepreneur worried about was that his emails might alienate some of his customers, damaging his reputation.

If you have any of these concerns, here are four tips that will help you write emails FAST and build a solid relationship with your readers.

1) Invite your customer in. Be transparent and personal in your messages. Give your customers a sneak peek inside your home, your business, your leisure time.  Tell them about something you read, a movie you watched, or something funny or spectacular that your kids did. Tell them about where you travelled or what a customer said to you.

Not only is it easier and faster to write about what you know, but it’s more interesting too. Plus, it helps you to build more of a relationship with your customers by helping them feel like you trust them like a friend.

Some of my most successful (and profitable) emails have revolved around a personal event from my life. When you put your trust in your readers with details of your personal life, they’ll be more likely to trust you back.

2) Stick to one topic. Decide on one topic you want to talk about before you start writing…and stick to it. Often when people don’t decide what they want to write about first, they ramble on to different topics.  This is like you giving your reader an invitation to stop reading.  It’s important that you focus your email on one idea.  Do this upfront and you’ll save a lot of editing time later.  Plus your emails will be more effective because your audience will only need to remember one big idea per email.

3) Brevity. Keep your messages to 500 words or less. This will make it easier for prospects to finish and faster for you to write.

4) Write conversationally. GKIC member, Matt Furey writes email messages to his list every day…bringing him $10,000+ per email. It only takes him about 20 minutes a day. He recommends writing like you speak. In fact, he often “speaks” his message into a transcription device. You can even buy devices that attach to your computer with a microphone that type what you speak.

 

Email is still one of the most effective strategies for doubling and tripling your sales. Using these tips will not only help you write faster, but will help you strengthen the bond between you and your readers, making your emails more effective.

By the way, the marketer I spoke of earlier is now doing email marketing. He says it has:

  • Re-engaged prospects and past customers making them once again interested in his services.
  • Brought inquiries about other services he offers.
  • Driven more traffic to his website.
  • Educated people on how he can help them.
  • Converted more of his prospects into paying customers.

You don’t have to spend a ton of time creating emails to get these kind of results. And the time spent will be well worth it.

NOTE: On Friday, March 8, 2013 at 9:30AM I’ll be doing a LIVE FREE TRAINING: “E-Mail Marketing Made Easy.  How One Quick E-mail Strategy Brought In $5,000 From Dead Leads”

During my live VIDEO Training I’ll reveal:

  • My proven e-mail templates that not only get your
    e-mails read…but also move dead leads to buy
  • The recipe to my “Secret Sauce” on exactly what to do
    and what to say to achieve maximum engagement with
    your list
  • A powerhouse follow-up system that will triple your
    profits from using these types of e-mails.
  • And lots more!

You Don’t Need To Sign Up Or Register, just Click Here …and join me for the most profitable breakfast you may ever have this Friday, at 9:30 am Eastern.

Do you want even more fast and easy tactics for your business? Be sure to sign up for our very special “Discovery Day” on May 5, 2013. Discovery Day will be focused on newer, cutting edge ways to get more leads in your business from different sources so you can get more clients, customers and patients on a local level.

These are tactics your competitors aren’t using. They will be taught by experts who’ve done it, helped clients do it, coached others to do it and do it daily. This day will not be recorded, therefore it will never be available again.

How To Get Rich, Especially If You Hate Selling

By: Dave Dee on: February 28th, 2013 4 Comments

“I hate selling.”

I’ve heard that hundreds of times from entrepreneurs. The problem is the success of your business depends on sales. You need to be good at pitching your products or services. If not, you’ll not only lose revenue, but you could lose your business.

There is a lot of advice out there about what to do if you don’t like selling…

Like “change your attitude about selling” or “get over it.”

That’s NOT what you’ll hear from me today.

Today I want to give you a different way to sell that makes it possible to make more in one hour than many professionals make in a whole year.

You won’t have to worry about being shy or feeling awkward because it doesn’t involve public speaking.

It doesn’t involve live coaching or consulting either.

In fact, of all selling methods this type of selling has the lowest amount of personal interaction with buyers. In many cases, you’ll have no interaction with buyers at all.

You won’t even have to face rejection.

What’s more, you can do it without even leaving your home. Plus you can leverage what you already know and use the things you are most passionate about to make it easier and more enjoyable.

The best part?

You can do work once and get paid forever.

Sound too good to be true? It’s not.

I’m talking about copywriting. Putting words on paper that encourage people to send you money.

Now obviously you’ve heard the term “copywriting” before. But here is something you may not know about it…

It’s the highest paid skill in the world. And it gives you tremendous leverage. Because once you get the right words on the paper, all you have to do is use the right media to deliver the message to the right person.  And then you simply “rinse and repeat.”

Let me tell you a story about a man named Gary. Gary was an encyclopedia salesman who wanted to get into information publishing. He was a very good salesman, but he hated the long days, and hated the rejection.

He made a lot of money, but he hated seeing people face to face. Hated it.

The reason Gary wanted to get into information publishing was so that he never had to do face-to-face selling and telephone prospecting again.

The idea of sending out a letter in the mail, and having money come back without ever seeing his customers or even talking to them on the phone appealed greatly to Gary.

Plus he could have a printer print up all his letters and the post office deliver them so that he would never have to do any “leg work.” Write the letter, have others send it out. Gary is, of his own admission, a somewhat lazy fellow, so you can see why the information business appealed to him.

So, Gary used what he had learned while he was selling encyclopedias to write a letter. He took all the elements of his sales presentation, and put it in print. So now, instead of giving a sales presentation one on one, he could deliver it to millions of people at the same time.

What was the bottom line? Simply this: Gary was soon able to mail so many letters, that he brought in over 20,000 checks per DAY!

What was Gary selling? It doesn’t matter! See, the magic was not in the product – it was in the letter!

People were sending Gary money because of the words contained in the letter. And, the neat part was, Gary only had to write the letter one time – once it worked all he had to do was mail it again and again.

That’s the power of good copywriting and a great way to sell.

In fact, whenever top marketers want to make more money, they just write, or hire someone else to write, a killer sales letter. Once they put it in the mail, the money starts to roll in.

Copywriting truly is the best way to go for the person who doesn’t like to sell. The truth is though that it takes a lot of work, study and trial and error to learn how to do it. However, if you don’t like to sell and don’t want to spend time mastering copywriting, then you do have another option.

You can hire a copywriter to write sales letters for you.

Even with paying a professional copywriter’s fees, it’ll be well worth it. You won’t have to sell your products or services yourself and if you hire a good copywriter, you only have to pay them to write the letter once, then you can use it to sell your products or services and collect checks from it forever (or at least a very long time.)

NOTE: If you’re interested in hiring a copywriter, be sure to read our FREE report, “The 7 Key Questions Every Copywriter You Hire MUST Be Able to Answer To Write Killer Direct Response Copy and Create Marketing Campaigns That Will Outsell The Pants Off Your Competition!”

This report reveals critical information average copywriters don’t want you to know. However, the good ones won’t mind a bit. Plus, you’ll be better off, and make more money. Beware though, you’ll probably have to pay more to get a good copywriter. Worth it though when you consider that bad copy wastes precious dollars and costs you sales.

So the question to ask yourself now is would you rather save a few minutes by not looking at this report? Or would you like to set yourself up to make millions?  Remember there is no charge for this.

Click here to get your FREE report!

If you’d like GKIC’s best selling copy-writing course for 33% off, click here now.

ONE MORE THING: Be on the look out TOMORROW…Dan Kennedy is releasing a Brand New FREE course on New Success Thinking. This is completely written by Dan and there is no cost, no obligation. BUT, the only way to get this is to let Dan know you want it by registering. So you don’t miss out, check your email tomorrow and look for the special registration link.

Small Things That Provide BIG Impact

By: Dave Dee on: January 31st, 2013 No Comments

In this month’s issue of Success Magazine, best-selling author and keynote speaker Jason Dorsey says people fail because they set too big of goals.

Not that you shouldn’t set big goals…

Dorsey says,

“Most people never reach their biggest goals because they can’t stick to them in the beginning.”

He says the “all-important first 30 or 60 days” is when the “magic” happens.

So what stops people from experiencing “the magic?”

A major success obstacle is people simply can’t break their bad habits and replace them with new habits.

The simplest way to understand this is to think about losing weight. You may have to break bad eating habits and/or start exercising. That means you need to not only get rid of an old habit (eating fully loaded hamburgers at lunch) but form a new, better habit (eating salad for lunch instead.)

This happens in business too. Say you want to increase your income. You may have a set way of doing business that you need to change. Fears you have to overcome. Or organization and productivity habits that need to be re-aligned.

The solution?

Dorsey suggests that you set smaller goals. He says that way you can “achieve goals on your list right away, “see yourself making progress every day,” and “gain the courage necessary to pursue bigger goals.”

Great suggestion. But that’s not all you can do.

Here’s some other “small things” that can provide a BIG impact on your business this year:

Focus on one instead of many. Sometimes it’s not that you have too big of a goal, it’s that you have too many goals. Choose one thing that you are going to succeed at and put all your energy into that.

For example, if you want to double your business, maybe it’s that you should focus all your energy into getting more clients, customers or patients.  Once you achieve that goal then move on to your second most pressing issue.

Realize small changes can equal big gains. Last year, we started offering copy critiques from our professional GKIC copywriters to those who subscribe to Copy Confidential. Often times a suggestion from our copywriters to make a small change to the language or to use one copywriting strategy meant a huge change in results of a campaign.

I also remember Dan Kennedy telling a story about getting paid I believe it was $100,000 to add just a few words to a sales letter. The letter had worked well for a long time, but sales had slowed. The company hired Dan to get the sales letter to work again. By adding a few words to the headline, the sales letter began selling like gangbusters again.

Think about what small changes you can make that will have a big impact. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Adding copy cosmetics to guide your reader, making your copy easier to read as discussed in  Chapter 8 in the Ultimate Sales Letter Book.
  • Unlocking The Secrets of Direct Mail is full of small changes that make a big impact. For instance, instead of sending the same message to everyone, segment your audience and customize your message to consumers. This is easier than you think. Using software like Infusionsoft, you can tag and segment your audience automatically. Sometimes it’s just a matter  of changing a few words, an offer, or a headline to match each specific audience.  It heightens the connection between you and your prospects which can make a big difference in bottom line sales.
  • Shift your focus in selling. Instead of focusing on how many sales presentations you can make or how many sales you can close, shift your thinking to focus on making yourself into the authority on whatever it is you are selling.

 

Think of it this way. If you go to the dentist and she tells you that you need to get a filling, you’re going to get your tooth filled, right? You don’t question it or think about it, you just do it because she says you need to.

By becoming the authority in your market, when it comes time to close a sale, the customer will buy from you because you are the expert and they are going to do what the experts tell them.  (For more on how to become an authority, check out Sales & Persuasion Strategies.)

Dedicate a small, focused time each day. Dan Kennedy’s “an hour a day” success tip Tuesday was “Take an hour a day, every day, and invest it in any one thing: writing, physical fitness, creating publicity, becoming an expert at something, whatever, and you’ll be “world class” in that very fast.”

Time and time again, I’ve witnessed people shift to focusing on just one thing and as a result, rise quickly in their chosen field.

Small but mighty. There’s an old quote, “The mighty Oak was once a little nut that stood its ground.”

Whether it’s setting smaller goals, focusing on one goal instead of many, or carefully choosing the small changes you will make, don’t be afraid to think small. Often “small” makes a BIG and lasting impact that can turn your business into the “giant oak” you’ve been dreaming of.

NOTE: Want something that can dramatically improve your earning power with a lot less stress and strain? Want to stop floundering? Devote just 2 days at our next Fast Implementation Bootcamp. You’ll complete a fully loaded marketing campaign, ready to launch the minute you get home. This is NOT about giving you more knowledge and more information. It’s about making a change in your business today so you can start getting results tomorrow.

Find out why people are raving about this FREE bootcamp. Discover what people are saying and how you can register for our next bootcamp now.

The 3 Biggest Mistakes To Avoid When Creating Info-Products

By: Dave Dee on: January 10th, 2013 3 Comments

“Anyone who never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”—Albert Einstein

Recently I was reading about some of the top mistakes made in 2012.

From political campaign miscues to Apple’s Public Relations nightmare with their new mapping service to Facebook’s mobile strategy which relied too heavily on one type of technology…companies talked about what they did wrong.

Mistakes are inevitable when you are out there giving it your all to create the business and life you want. I know I’ve made my fair share of them and my guess is you have too.

There are two things about not getting it right: Don’t be afraid to mess up. Failures, mistakes happen more often to those who are most successful. So it goes to follow that the more mistakes you make, the more successful you will be.

Secondly, whenever possible learn from others’ mistakes so you don’t have to repeat them.

So here are three of the most common mistakes made when creating Info-products (and how to avoid them).

1) You create a product your clients, customers or patients don’t want.  Sometimes, especially when starting out in info-marketing, businesses create a product that their target audience doesn’t want. In fact, this happens more often than you think.  You have a great idea for a product, but it turns out that your clients have no interest in it. Or maybe they don’t like the format it’s delivered in. For example, you create a set of videos or an audio program when your customers would prefer something they can read and write notes on instead.

How to avoid: Find out if your new product or service will be successful BEFORE you create it.

With the help of computer-generated imagery, you can design a virtual product and showcase it on a web page. You can test colors, the price of your product, the benefits of using it and more before you ever actually create the product. Then, take orders and with sales already in hand, create the product.

Using Pay Per Click (PPC) is one of the quickest and cheapest ways to gather information about key points such as pricing, features that are most important to your potential consumers, who your target audience is, offers, guarantees and more.

Focus on things that will make the biggest difference, such as your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), the benefits of your product or service, pricing and things that make your product different.

You can also write a sales letter for your product and see if your target audience will buy it. If they do, then create the product, and try mailing to a larger segment of your target audience. Remember to start small when testing, using a small geographic area to test first.

What to do if you’ve already created the product and it didn’t sell? This doesn’t mean it’s a bad product. It might just mean you need to market to a different audience. Test different audience segments to see if the product will sell in a different market.

2) A weak guarantee. Two facts you have to get used to with the info-marketing business are that there will be returns and there will be people that try to cheat you. However, most people won’t cheat you and as Dan Kennedy says, if you aren’t getting at least 10% asking for a refund, you aren’t selling hard enough.

How to avoid: Because people are afraid of refunds and being cheated, often times the guarantee is weak, if there even is one. You will sell far more with a strong guarantee, even with refunds, when you have a guarantee that removes all the risk from your customer making a purchase.

The instinct here is to have a short money-back guarantee. A week, two weeks, maybe a month. However testing has shown that a longer guarantee, 90 days or a year, out pulls the shorter guarantee.

3) You take too long to create your info-product. Of course, if you follow my advice to not create your product until after you know there is a demand for it, you’ll have no choice but to create your product quickly, because you’ll have orders waiting. However, if you don’t follow my advice, you may fall into this category.  Keep in mind that the longer you take, the less money you will make. Plus, if you have a great idea and take too long to bring it to market, there is a chance someone else will start marketing an info-product based on your idea before you do. Get it done and out there.

How to avoid: Instead of waiting for the perfect version, plan to create new versions with updated or improved material. Or, if you’re having trouble, invest in whatever you need to get it done, whether that is a ghost writer or resources that hand you shortcuts to creating an info-product. For instance, Dan Kennedy’s Info-Product Recipe includes the ingredients and how to’s for developing an enduring, successful million dollar info-product that cannot fail.

Adding info-products to your business is one of the smartest (and most lucrative) business decisions you can make. Don’t let the fear of making mistakes stop you. But avoid them whenever possible. And remember every day you wait is another day you aren’t making money on your idea.

NOTE:  Make this the year you reach an incredible new level of success with new info-products. And if you really want to avoid making mistakes and create the most profitable info-marketing business possible,  plan to sign up for Dan Kennedy’s A- Z Info-Biz Blueprints Re-boot in April. No one has guided more people to millions through info-marketing than Dan. Spending three days with him you will quickly get the most complete and detailed and valuable training on this subject that he has ever created. [Link]

Four Strategies To Bring You Six (And Maybe Even Seven) Figures In 2013

By: Dave Dee on: December 24th, 2012 5 Comments

What are your goals for 2013?

I’m betting one of them is to make more money.

Grant it, I’m not going out on a limb here as I don’t think I’ve ever met an entrepreneur whose goal was to make less money than they did the year before.

Of course, this year getting customers, selling at decent profits and holding onto income will present new challenges.

Tax increases, regulatory fees and full-time jobs being converted to part-time jobs threaten to dampen or eliminate untold amounts of consumer spending.

This means new strategies, more appealing offers, and targeted compelling copy will be crucial to reach your monetary goals.

Today I’m going to give you four strategies that can add an extra $100,000 or more (I’ve seen businesses add $1 million or more using these.)

Add speaking to your business plan: Last Thursday, Dan wrote about the importance of gaining knowledge. No matter what your business, you know about something that others don’t. You can easily earn $5,000 to $10,000 or more per speech for a sixty to ninety minute talk. Plus you can often sell your product, add people to your herd and more.

Become a coach or consultant: One of the most lucrative streams of income is in coaching and consulting. In fact, many businesses end up making more money from coaching and consultant than they do from their initial business. You can add from $100,000 to $1 million per year as a coach or consultant.

Create an info-product to sell. Developing a profitable information marketing product to sell such as a newsletter, e-book, videos, book, etc. can transform an existing business into a six or seven figure business. Not only that, information products can be sold 24/7, meaning you’re not trading hours for dollars.

Make money with affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a $7 billion dollar industry. There are two ways you can make money with affiliate marketing. You can build your own affiliate army to promote your products, services and launches. Or you don’t even need your own product or service to sell. You can add zeros to your bottom line by simply promoting other people’s products or services for them.

Each day this week we’ll drill down on each of these strategies and share the benefits of adding one or more of these to your business  and how each one can bring you an extra $100,000 to $1 million next year.

NOTE: If you are considering adding one of these strategies or if you already are using one or more of them, but aren’t getting the results you want, I have good news for you. No-one has guided more people to million dollar businesses in info-marketing than Dan Kennedy. So in April of 2013, you have the opportunity to get Dan’s most complete and detailed training on all aspects of Info-marketing that Dan has ever given in The A-Z Info-Biz Blueprint Re-boot.

How To Sell Better, Even If You Aren’t A Skilled Copywriter

By: Dan Kennedy on: December 11th, 2012

A recent encounter at Info-Summit reminded me of a powerful technique you can use to multiply your income…

You can use this whether you are experienced or not, have skill or not, or know very little or a lot about your industry. In fact, even if you consider yourself an amateur copywriter, you can use this to out-perform an experienced pro.

It’s a rare secret advantage far too few businesses use. It’s revealed in a story about a young baseball player…

The year was 1907.

Frank Bettger was fired from Johnstown Pennsylvania, Triple State baseball team.

Shocked, he went to his manager and asked him

Frank Bettger was fired from Johnstown Pennsylvania, Triple State baseball team.

Shocked, he went to his manager and asked him why.

His manager told him that he was lazy and told him he dragged himself around the field. Believing himself ambitious and wanting to get to the top, that was the last thing Bettger expected to hear.

His manager’s parting words, “Wake yourself up, and put some life and enthusiasm into your work!”

Bettger reported to his new team in Chester, Pennsylvania where he took a pay cut from $175 per month to just $25 a month.

Bettger says, “Well, I couldn’t feel very enthusiastic on that kind of money, but I began to act enthusiastic.”

His new enthusiasm gained him a trial at a team in New Haven, Connecticut. Inspired, he made up his mind to establish himself as “the most enthusiastic ball player they’d ever seen.”

It paid off. In just ten days he raised his salary 700%, from $25 per month to $185 per month..

Within two years he was playing third base for the St. Louis Cardinals, multiplying his income thirty times.  Bettger says, “I got this stupendous increase in salary not because I couldn’t throw a ball better—or catch or hit better, not because I had any more ability as a ball player…Enthusiasm alone did it.”

Later, after a bad accident forced Bettger to give up baseball entirely, he returned home and began selling insurance.

After ten months of miserably failing as an insurance salesman, Bettger believed he was no good at selling and would never succeed.

Remember the lesson he’d learned from his manager in baseball, Bettger decided he would put enthusiasm into selling insurance. He soon discovered that he could make up for a lack of experience, a lack of skill, and a lack of know-how in selling with sufficient enthusiasm—but that no amount of skill and know-how can make up for the absence of enthusiasm. Using enthusiasm he turned his life and income around, becoming one of the highest paid salesmen in America.  Frank Bettger reveals that “enthusiasm makes a difference” in his book,  How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success in Selling and observes:

“Enthusiasm is by far the highest paid quality on earth, probably because it is one of the rarest; yet it is one of the most contagious.”

Enthusiasm is just as important in print as in face to face selling.  Infusing your sales letter or advertisement with sincere yet intense enthusiasm is one of the ways an “amateur” copywriter can beat the efforts of an experienced pro.

This is why you can’t just sit down and write your ads, sales letters, and brochures “on command” like you can sit down and do bookkeeping. You have to work up some enthusiasm for the task as well as for the proposition you’ll be putting across.

Imagine your own reaction when you are in a store with someone obviously eager to help you, who looks you in the eye and shows genuine excitement that you are there. Versus someone who acts like you’re interrupting what they are doing or as if they don’t care whether you buy something or not. Written copy can have the same effect.

If I’m going to write first thing in the morning, as I often do, I try to set my subconscious mind working on that particular project while I sleep. Sometimes I wake up with the “big idea” I need. Other times, I wake up with ideas and a readiness to write.

I don’t think you should force yourself to “grind out” direct-response copy when you don’t really feel like it; the result will be flat and mechanically assembled; it may be technically correct in that it has a headline, subheads, bullet points, an offer, a P.S., etc., but it will lack spirit.

However, forcing yourself to be enthusiastic works. Bettger said that when he forced himself to act enthusiastic, he soon found himself enthusiastic.

The person who is genuinely enthusiastic about what he is selling definitely has an advantage. If you feel you could use a boost in enthusiasm, try recording the sales pitch from your most enthusiastic salesperson, and transfer it to paper.

Never underestimate the power of enthusiasm and the advantage it can give you. Over the years, the clients I’ve done the best work for and have been the most successful with have been passionate and enthusiastic about what they sell.

NOTE: If you plan to hire a copywriter to give you an advantage, be sure to read GKIC’s free report, “The 7 Key Questions Every Copywriter You Hire MUST Be Able to Answer To Write Killer Direct Response Copy and Create Marketing Campaigns That Will Outsell The Pants Off Your Competition!” Get your FREE copy here