Sales Come First

It’s not often I use the term ‘knucklehead’ but I’m rolling it out for a very special reason.

Sure, I’ve had it DIRECTED at me more times that I can count but today I had to get out the little hammer, break the glass on the case and use it.

It’s because the businesses in my home town have broken me down and FORCED me to do it.

You see, later this year the cycling world championships are going to be held in Geelong. That is…WORLD championships. Not just part of a world championship series, or the world cup. No. The winner will go back to their home country and be lauded as the very best on Earth. No kidding, the actual world championships. The EYES of the world will be on them.

And for the local shops on the actual course the eyes of the world will be on them. Tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of people will be lining the streets for days on end watching the cyclists in action. Walking straight past their shops waiting for something to do until the bikes go wizzing past again.

And all these knuckleheads wanna do is COMPLAIN.

It’s hard to get deliveries. The roads are closed. Where are my customers going to park? Sook, winge and whine. Man it’s gotta be hard to be a business with all those brand new potential customers walking past, wallets in hand looking to spend some money. Why not hold…wait for it…

…a cycling themed promotion of some sort? Why not hold a competition and give away some prize to anyone who comes in and shows an interest in their products?

Or even better, a promotion built around the theme of how hard it’s going to be when the cycling’s on, so I’m holding a big sale now.

An electrical retailer could sell portable radios to visitors so they’d have something to listen to while they watch.

Cafe’s should be jam packed.

There should be a barbeque on every corner! With someone collecting contact details of people so they can sell them their special offers.

You know, there’ll be some kid selling food or badges who will one day write about all the money he made when the greatest show on earth came to his hometown in a booked called ‘The Story Of A Millionaire’. And all the while walking past shops full of business brokers who spent the week moaning about how bad life is.

Actually, just remembered a book you should go find. It’s called Acres Of Diamonds. I read it once and made a few thousand dollars just by applying what I learnt. Google it, it’s free. Perhaps the local council should print out copies and leave it with every business owner…

The point is, there are opportunities everywhere, and we just have to open our eyes and go looking for them.

Next week I’m going to give you a whole bunch of resources. Books to read, courses to get and people to subscribe to. I just gave you one of them (Acres Of Diamonds) and it was free.

All the best,

Hugh

I wanted to talk about an advanced copywriting strategy in this article because it’s something that either gets missed or done incorrectly.

It’s called a repelling strategy. We know you’ve got to attract the right people to you but you also have to repel the wrong ones too. For example, if you run a landscaping business and you only want to do landscaping with native plants and trees only then there are two things we want to do.

First, we want to attract people who want native gardens, and second we want to repel people who want other types of gardens.

You see by repelling people who want non-native gardens you send the message out to them that you don’t want them to call. You don’t talk about their type of garden and you make it clear that you are not the business for them. Not only do you stop them calling, wasting your time but you create an even bigger bond with the people who do have native gardens.

Here’s a simple strategy I saw recently. It was an ad for a builder who referred to themselves as the ‘Steep Block Specialists’. Now, if I had a steep block I’d call these guys for sure.

But if I had a flat block I wouldn’t even bother. And so they don’t get hassled by me, because they aren’t interested in my flat block. So they’re both attracting their ideal client, and repelling the ones they don’t want. They’re not so stupid as to simply hang out a ‘Builder’ sign, and then telling people what they do once they come in. They clearly don’t want to waste time doing this, and want to get their target clients from the start.

The language you use is important too. For example if you want to target people with money you use words like ‘exclusive’ and ‘deserve’ and ‘reassuringly expensive’. People without money will shy away from these words. They prefer words like ‘cheap’ and ‘cut price’ and ‘bargain’. I don’t mean to sound snobby or insensitive here. In fact, I write sales copy using both types of words for different audiences. But these word choices not only bond you with your ideal client, they repel the clients who aren’t your target market too.

To put this into action, write down a list of things you know about your ideal prospect. What motivates them? What are their fears and their dreams? What words and language do they use?

Then write down all the qualities you DON’T want in your prospects. What’s their mentality? Budget? What do they want out of your type of product or service?

Then grab a copy of your marketing materials and see if you’re targeting your ideal prospects while repelling the rest. Make it clear who you want, and who you don’t want.

Another example might be the accountant who specialises in property investors. They could say “We only deal with property investors. Sure, if you haven’t got any investment properties we could still help you, but honestly you’re better off with someone else.”

Next week I’m going to tell you about the World Cycling Championships in my home city, and why a whole lot of businesses who should be seeing dollar signs can’t get over their old, outdated ideas. They’ll lose a lot of money and it’ll be their own fault. It’s a real lesson in good old fashioned marketing.

All the best,

Hugh

www.salescomefirst.com

<Are you looking for a copywriter for your next project? Contact Hugh at www.salescomefirst.com to discuss your needs>

Many business, especially startup ones go about testing and checking their idea by starting their marketing small, seeing who responds and making adjustments slowly along the way.

This is completely wrong. It’s a bad idea and this is why.

In business, and in anything in life for that matter the one thing that is most valuable and can NEVER be replaced is time, right? I mean, if you lose money it’s a bummer but you can make it again.

But time is the most important thing we all have, so we don’t want to waste it. And I’m not saying its important for your business, although it is. It’s also important in your life.

So unless you want to miss out on seeing your kids grow up, or you’re not fussed about moving into your dream house or owning a sports car when you’re 60 (instead of 40) then take this seriously.

OK. So lets take this one step further and accept that we’re going to fail several (possibly many) times before we succeed. That means… …when we fail, we have to fail fast! No point dragging a dead idea around for months and months, letting it get smellier and dirtier looking. If it’s not gonna work then find out straight away and cut it loose. I’m going to explain in copywriting terms because hey, I’m a copywriter and it’s easy for me to explain this way.

So let’s say you’re launching a new product or service. Could be online or offline, doesn’t matter. Now, conventional wisdom is that you write a small sales letter yourself and see if it works. And then you wait a few weeks for some response, maybe dabble in a bit of SEO, get some traffic. And the results are reasonable. Not too bad considering you’re not getting really targeted traffic, your sales copy is average and you haven’t really put much effort into your offer.

So you try again. This time after you’ve made a couple of changes. And things keep looking reasonable but not enough to say it’s defintely a winner.

So you try again…

All of a sudden the leaves have started to fall from the trees and you realised you started this whole thing off when the trees were starting to get green! 6 months are gone and what have you got to show for it?

Probably a product which MIGHT be a go-er. You just need to do a few more tests and changes. But what have you LOST?

For a start you’ve lost a heap of time you COULD have spent working on a winning idea instead of this one which might still turn out to be a flop. And you’ve probably blown more money than you’d care to add up. But just like the casino its “just one more thing” to try. But worse than this, you’ve lost all that time you could have spent with your family, and you’re 6 months older with nothing to show for it.

Wouldn’t you rather spend your time working on a successful project instead of looking for one?

That’s why you need to fail…and fail FAST. Come up with the idea, do everything you can to test it out and see how it goes.

Get a professional website. Get professional sales copy. Get the best product and make up a completely irresistable offer. Because if it fails after you’ve thrown everything at it…

…you’ve got a dud. Forget about it and move on. If your best efforts couldn’t make it work then nothing’s going to help this little sucker.

But if it makes money, then start testing different things and see if you can make it even more profitable.

No point wasting 6 months on a failure when you can try and fail quickly, then do it all over again. Often in the space of a few short weeks.

That’s why the biggest entrepreneurs keep making money. They try out things quickly and if they don’t work that’s too bad. They get the next one going. In fact they could have several ideas on the go at once. Each being tested quickly and rejected just as fast. But the general public only ever hear about the ones that make it, not the dozens that get quickly discarded.

Hope I’ve given you something to think about.

Next week I’m going to tell you why repelling certain prospects is almost as important as attracting other ones. It’s not often discussed but it’s critical if you want to make more money in less time.

All the best,

Hugh

PS If you’d like to run your project past me, you can take me up on my new offer here: http://tinyurl.com/2awsek6

<Are you looking for a copywriter for your next project? Contact Hugh at www.salescomefirst.com to discuss your needs>

A friend of mine used to sit in her office and just stare right ahead.

 “Hugh” she said, “Sometimes I sit and think. Sometimes I just sit”.

Got me thinking that people all over the country are paid a lot of money to sit in offices and DO stuff. As long as you’re banging away at a keyboard or yacking on a phone you’re working. But you can’t actually think while you do this, can you. And since people are surprisingly intelligent I figure businesses are paying a lot of money to smart people…

…and not letting them think.

If you sat there just thinking, you’d probably get your arse hauled into your boss’ office and yelled at for not working. The irony is that most breakthroughts come when you you’re thinking, not trying to write an email while calling someone and doing your internet banking.

As a copywriter thinking is critical. Same goes for anyone in business too. Just a little bit of thought and planning goes a long way.

I write quite a lot of email sequences for clients. And the key to emails is that every email needs a ‘THEME’. There’s got to be a central idea that you build the email around. And that theme has to fit into a sequence. So I thought I’d let you in on my thinking around an email series I wrote for a client for an upcoming product laungh. Once you get the idea you can easily do it yourself.

First, there were 5 emails. So I decided to do 2 pre-launch emails, 1 for the launch and 2 post-launch.

Email 1 – An announcement that the launch is imminent. Tell them the theme of the product, which is if he had someone to teach him what he’s put in his course it would have saved him years. And tell ‘em there’s a limited offer, so watch out for it.

Email 2 – Tell them a story. It’s one of many client success stories, but it’s the most compelling I uncovered. Then tell them that everything he did for the client is in the course being released shortly. And again, remind them of the limited offer.

Email 3 – Launch day. Hit ‘em with other success stories and testimonials. REmind them again that what he did for these clients is the same as what’s in this course, and it’s a fraction of his fees. Remind them of the offer.

Email 4 – A bit of take away selling and attraction strategy. Tell ‘em about a world famous entrepreneur who made it with hard work and the right information. Everyone in business wants to be known as a hard worker, and relates well to this person. This course requires some hard work, but now we’ve made the work atractive. We repel the lazy people, and attract the ones prepared to pull their sleeves up.

Email 5 – FAQs. We tackle the most common objections people have. Again, lots of repel/attraction strategies here. Plus it’s a chance to show the value of the product.

So you see how critical a bit of staring at the walls was? If I just wrote 5 emails without planning them out it’d be a mess and the results would be worse. I’m not sure how sales are going, but I know a good number had been sold in the first few hours of the launch which was earlier this week so it looks really good.

Sure, there is a lot of swiping and re-using ideas in copywriting and marketing. The big breakthroughs come when you stop mindlessly following templates and think about what you’re doing before you start.

Incidentally, his course is an SEO course. I don’t like promoting other people’s products here so if you’re interested in it, let me know.

Next week I’m going to tell you the best way to find out if your ideas have merit. And yep, I’m probably going to completely blow everything you’ve been told out of the water.

All the best,

Hugh

www.salescomefirst.com

<Are you looking for a copywriter for your next project? Contact Hugh at www.salescomefirst.com to discuss your needs>

Don’t you love those hypey sales letters? You know the ones that promise you…

… instant jaw-dropping results that’ll have you astounded and jumping up and down with ecstasy with how brilliantly amazing you are?

Now, truth be told, all this hype does work well for low priced products for newbies in certain markets. Particularly weight loss and making money. It almost feels like a contest to out-hype the next person.

Here, check out this wonderful example. http://buymystupidebook.com/ OK, its an oldie but a goodie.

But step out of this newbie pool, (and it’s a very hotly contested pool) too and start selling something a bit more expensive to a more sophisticated crowd (ie where the real money is) and you’ll get your head cut off pretty fast. Especially if you’re in a conventional business.

Reality is, people want value. They want to spend their money with someone who offers them something that solves a problem for them. And to do this you’ve gotta tell them how you do it. Lots of big, empty-promise words wont do it if that’s all you’ve got.

Problem is, a lot of people are too lazy to dig beneath the surface of their product or service to find out the value that’s hidden in it. So they start throwing around a lot of empty hype to distract their prospects. Hoping that some of it’ll stick.

But let me clarify something here. I am not saying don’t use emotional sales copy. No way. Emotions sell and you have to connect with people on an emotional level to get the sale. What I am saying is to replace any empty hype with something that shows the REAL VALUE you offer. It’ll be far more powerful.  

So here’s a couple of tips to finding out the real value that’s hidden in your product or service.

1. Ask your buyers and customers what THEY got out of it. Often the answers will surprise you. Even ask them for testimonials or success stories.

2. Look for the benefits your products provide. Then pick out the top 3 and feature them prominently. Use the #1 benefit in your headline. Oh, and make sure you rank your benefits on how your customers see them, not how you want them to see them.

3. Go through your product or service in great detail. Write down tons and tons of things about it to spark ideas. If it’s an information product then write down loads of bullet points about everything people will learn. Then use all this to replace any meaningless hype.

4. Spend time understanding your prospect. What do they really want? What problem are they looking to solve? What’s the dominant emotion behind it? Are they angry, lonely, lacking self-esteem? There are plenty of emotions behind their reason to buy. Figure them out and show how your product or service fixes their problems.

Look, this is a good way to improve any advertising you’re running. Too often people don’t realise the gold that’s hidden in their product or service. Funny thing is, I did this recently and updated my own sales page to show the value I offer (and that lots of other copywriters don’t). You can check that out at www.salescomefirst.com and see what I did.

Next week I’m going to tell you about using themes that will underpin each sales message you do. Good lesson here for copywriters and anyone writing their own ads.

All the best,

Hugh