Sales Come First

Are you REALLY getting the response you deserve?

I’m sure you’d appreciate it if I’m blunt. You see, I bet you’re NOT getting anywhere near the response from your advertising that you SHOULD be.

OK, I’m sure people DO respond to your ads, but whenever you place an ad somewhere, I reckon its probably seen by thousands of people. And yet if you’re lucky, only 1 or 2 will actually respond.

Do you have a yellow pages ad? It’s a good example. Every time somebody goes to the section where your ad is, your ad is right there in front of them. But of the thousands that see it, how many call?

I bet you only get a few calls out of the many thousands that see your ad. Yes, I’ll concede that you DO get calls. But only because of the shotgun approach, where if enough people see your ad, someone’s BOUND to call at some time. Problem is, what happened to all the other people who saw your ad and decided NOT to call?

You see, to get your phone ringing red-hot, you need a full system for getting your prospect from looking for someone to do business with, to getting them as a full customer.

OK, now most people run yellow pages ads with their business name, logo and contact details. But what that ad is asking is that people make the decision there and then that your business is the one they want to do business with (or at least on a shortlist).

That’s a big ask. So, here’s a different alternative.

Why not just offer them something for free. No obligation, nothing. Just something for free. A good example for an accountant might be a free report on the “7 Ways To Rip Off The Tax Department…Legally”. So, while you’re not asking your prospect to become a client, you’ve offered them good free information….
…and so they take up the offer. The nice thing here is they’ve got something of value, and you’ve done it in a way that wont make them feel threatened.

In the report (or should I say content-rich sales letter) you offer them an audit of their last year’s tax return absolutely free. And they can take your results and get the tax department to give you even more back. So, there’s some incentive there!

Once you’ve done the audit, your audit contains another offer, this time to get the prospect to commit to using your services. It might be a free consultation, or a percentage off their next tax return. And because you’ve proven your ability with the audit, they’d be mad NOT to take your offer up and become a client.

Sounding better so far?

Well, we can bolt on a few more things here, because we can pick up clients through newspaper ads, or your website.

And then, we should be sending out follow up letters as well.

So now we’ve got a simple yet effective marketing funnel.

Here it is, drawn out.

Of course it gets bigger than this. You could have lots more steps in it to include referrals, pay-per-click campaigns, up-sells into different services and so on. I’ve seen marketing plans with over 30 different steps including phone calls and faxes, and especially emails, depending on where people come in to your business. I put together a basic one the other week which could grow to include upsells to different products, boxes of products, affiliate programs and so on.

Hang on, did I say ‘affiliate program’? Sure did. This applies to the online world as well. In fact, you can use any number of tools to automate this whole thing for an online business, so depending on where your prospect first comes in contact with your business, you can roll out an entire marketing funnel to them over weeks, without lifting a finger.

Look, even as a tradesperson you can use a marketing funnel to do the exact same thing. It might start with leads coming from various sources such as the yellow pages, local newspapers, the internet, direct mail, referrals and so on. Then leads to free information, or a free audit of their needs, to writing up a proposal (giving you the chance to sell other services) and once you’re done, you can offer cleaning products or matching decor, depending on what business you’re in. And dont forget to promote your referral service, and give your customer an incentive to refer other people on.

Give it a go with your own business. Grab a whiteboard and go nuts. You’ll be amazed at how many ideas you can come up with to get heaps of new customers, and how to lead them through the process to becoming a buyer.

One last though here…the value of a business is in its systems. A business with a solid, PROVEN method for getting customers and getting more out of your relationship with them is worth MUCH more than the business without any of this.

OK, next week its we’re going to fast forward to the very end of any piece of marketing…the Order Form. If you think they’re just a few boxes to fill in to get payment details then think again. They’re a real artform in themselves.

All the best,

Hugh
www.salescomefirst.com

Wow folks,

I’ve been writing these articles now since the end of September in 2008. I remember that date because I was at Alan Forrest Smith’s MasterClass that weekend, and it was the weekend Hawthorn beat Geelong in the AFL Grand Final. And I didnt really care, because I don’t even barrack for Geelong (even though I live there!)

But I think in that time I’ve delivered some pretty hard hitting topics and unlike MOST blogs and articles on the internet, I’ve filled these ones up with useable content and solid examples YOU can use in your business.

Anyway, I get emails from time to time but hey, I’d love to hear from my readers more often. If you want to agree with me…let me know! And if you want to argue then let me know that too. In fact, if you’ve got more questions about an article, let me know your question. In fact, if you’ve got any burning questions, or you’d just like to know more about something you’re trying to do in your business then get in touch with me.

Just shoot me an email at hugh@salescomefirst.com.

OK, now onto the REAL topic for today.

And that is how newsletters can play an important role in your business.

OK. Now, lets get one thing straight. A lot of people think marketing is all about getting new customers. But that thinking is a bit wide of the mark. The most important thing in your marketing system is customer retention. That’s because its much easier to retain customers and clients than to get new ones.

Any business gets some level of churn, ie customers leaving and customers coming. But because its so much easier to retain customers, you’re far better off concentrating on keeping your existing customer base rather than having them leave while you pursue NEW customers. Imagine if you could get your churn rate down so low that the only people leaving you were the ones that died, retired or closed down.

And then imagine if you could charge them much more.

You’d hardly need any new customers at all. In fact, if you do everything right you can easily grow your business just by retaining your customer base and having a good referral system in place.

And that’s where newsletters come in. If you’re in the service business, such as a mortgage broker, financial planner, gardener etc then newsletters have a really important place in your marketing. You see, newsletters let you keep in touch with your client, so they’re an essential part of your customer retention strategy.

One of the most basic human needs is the need to belong. So newsletters keep people feeling as though they’re important to you. Not only that, but you get to showcase your knowledge and results over and over again. And this re-enforces what your business is all about to your customers.

If you’re in a business where you regularly work for your client, then your newsletter will stop them considering another provider. If you’re giving them what they want each month then the wont want to give this up.

But even if you’re in a business where you work for them infrequently, newsletters are still critical. And that’s because when they want your services again, your business will be their #1 choice.
Accountants, mortgage brokers and financial planners are great examples of this.

Just think, you can print a newsletter and post it for as little as $1. So for $12 a year you can be your client’s #1 choice every single time. And for every client you retain by doing this, you save a lot of time and money NOT having to acquire a replacement.

The most important thing to remember about writing a newsletter is to get MAXIMUM readership. So make sure you keep it light and conversational in tone, and make sure people want to read it.

With that in mind let me give you the most important components of ANY newsletter.

- From the editor – your thoughts and opinions. Keep it personal and conversational, not formal.
- Some articles – keep them short and easy to understand, and make sure you convey benefits for your reader.
- Tips – People love these!
- Joke Corner – Again, remember its all about keeping readership
- Inspirational quotes – same as with jokes, its all about giving people something they’ll appreciate.
- Success stories – basically testimonials, but you can use them as little articles
- Q&A – let people ask you questions. People just love reading the answers.
- Special offers – these can be in the form of a competition as well.

And dont forget to remind them about your referral system. If you dont have one…GET ONE!

I recently did a sample newsletter for a large financial planning firm. They already had a newsletter but quite frankly it was very dry and I imagine it would have been a tough read. So make sure you keep it simple and enjoyable for people. After all, what use is it if people dont want to read it?

Next week I want to go through something that people dont often write about. But I think its very important to understand in a formal sense. So next week I’ll be looking at marketing funnels.

If you’ve got any questions about newsletters, or any feedback feel free to add a comment or email me.

All the best

Hugh Thyer

PS I recently did a sample  newsletter for a client and that client will be incorporating a lot of my suggestions to make their newsletter really work for them! If you’d like a makeover done on your newsletter, or a sample drawn up from scratch, please contact me at hugh@salescomefirst.com to discuss it.

If you want to put more money in your pocket this year, DESPITE the recession then there’s all sorts of ways you can do it easily. Today I reveal another way you can laugh at the recession and grow your business while all your competitors are panicking (the worst thing to do).

This strategy is quite simple. And its incredibuly powerful too, because you’ve got an opportunity to do something that a) WORKS like crazy and b) your competitors (for whatever reason) DONT want to do.

Not only that, but with so many of your competitors going bust at the moment, there are probably MORE potential clients coming flooding into your marketplace right now just looking for someone to work with.

I’m talking about giving away information FOR FREE!

I bet you’ve seen ads and websites where someone offers you a Free Report or Audio CD. That’s exactly what I’m telling you to do. Here are the main reasons it works so well.

1. You get to showcase your knowledge. Just because you’ve got a mountain of knowledge in your industry, doesnt mean your customers know this. But putting some of this knowledge down on paper shows people that you ‘know your stuff’, and they’ll be far more confident in you. After all, who’s going to get the new client? Someone who puts down 50 words in a yellow pages ad, or someone who write pages and pages of thorough, usable information in a report.

2. The law of reciprocity. If you havent heard of this, it basically says that if you do something for someone they’re far more likely to do something for you. So if you give them free advice, they’re more likely  to give you their business, or at least an opportunity to try for it.

3. People LOVE anything for free. In fact, one of the most powerful advertising words is simply ‘FREE’. So simply putting this word prominently in your advertising will get people to respond to your ad straight away.

4. You get people’s contact details which give you a database of people who are interested. And this is great because you dont just have a list of people who are ready for you now, you also get the details of people who are thinking about you, but are not ready to make a decision. And if you keep in contact with people, you’re in the #1 spot when they ARE ready to make a decision.

In fact, more than anything, a free report is actually a sales letter. Its job is to sell, so it should be written with all the basics of a sales letter in there. In fact, you’re telling people the most important things that they need, and (funnily enough) you can do all of them.

OK. Here are some practical pointers for you to put this into action.

First, you can have either a Free Report or a Free Audio CD. I wont go into the audio CD right here, but its another alternative. (If you want to know more, let me know and I’ll let you know more about it.)

• You must give your free report a title. Think of it as a headline, which it is. Have a look for my other posts on headlines, and follow the rules  in there.

• Keep it lively and conversational. If its hard to read, people just wont bother. But dont waffle on. Keep it to the point, and dont get bogged down in details. The details are for the PAYING customers.

• The best format is the “7 Secrets” format. It might be the “7 Secrets to taking years off your appearance” or “7 ways to rip the tax office off legally”. What about the “7 things to watch out for when choosing a financial planner”.

• Dont forget the next step. What do you want people to do once they’ve read your report? At the end of your report you need (in a very big font) some sort of offer. It could be a free audit of their needs, or a reduced price service or something along these lines. I’m writing a free report right for a prominent financial planner which offers a free 1 hour consultation. Others have included free consultations, audits and bonuses.

• Push your report hard. Make it a prominent part of your ads, whether its a newspaper ad, yellow pages ad or an online PPC campaign. Put it on your business card and your website. When people talk to you, tell them to go to your website and get a copy.

• And my last and most important point here is to TAKE ACTION! If you’re comfortable writing your own sales letters, then set aside an hour a day until its done. If not, get someone to do it for you. But don’t put it in the two hard basket or this powerful opportunity to get new clients will pass you by, straight into the hands of your competitors. Especially right now when your competitors are closing their doors and their old customers and clients are looking for someone else to do business with. Seriously, I can’t stress this enough.
  

Next month I’m going to talk about something I mentioned way back in October last year, and that is newsletters. Unlike free reports which are there to get NEW customers, newsletters help you retain your clients and charge higher prices. In fact, since its way more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, you should be doing everything in your power to keep the ones you’ve got. This in depth article on newsletters will be a real eye opener.

There you go! Two weeks, two articles and two great ways to get an unfair advantage over your competition!

All the best,

Hugh Thyer

www.salescomefirst.com

So you’re writing an ad or a sales letter. You want it to be something original, something creative. Right?

BUZZZZ. WRONG Answer!

Rosser Reeves, brother in law of legendary ad-man David Ogilvy often said “Originality is the most dangerous word in the advertiser’s lexicon”.

And he was right.

But why is this?

I think its because a lot of people think it takes something different and daring to get people’s attention. And on the surface that seems reasonable.

But let me put it another way.

There are advertisements and sales letters out there that have literally made millions of dollars. These are proven controls which other people have tried to beat…and failed. They’re some of the best advertisements you’ll ever see. And in a lot of cases, these sales pieces have been modelled and changed to create OTHER advertisements which have, in turn, gone on to make millions more.

In fact, many top copywriters will tell you they haven’t had an original idea in years, and they’re simply not interested in coming up with one.

And why would they. They’ve got an arsenal of winning ideas and hooks that have worked spectacularly for decades in all sorts of different markets. They know what works, how to structure it, what’s going to get inside their reader’s minds and get them to buy. What’s more important is to take WINNING ideas  and put them together to create an ad with a far higher probability of success.

It would take you years and years of learning and practice to be able to develop something completely different that got you spectacular results. Odds are you’d keep coming up with something similar to the great ads that are already there.

Unfortunately those who want to be different will most likely fail. They do so at the expense of proven, sound and profitable ideas.

Lets take the Wall Street Journal ad written by Martin Conroy. It’s sold over a BILLION dollars of Wall Street Journal subscriptions over 28 years. And smart marketers have recycled the key themes from it for years. They’re using something they know works already, so are miles ahead of a sitting there with a blank piece of paper determined to be different.

So if you want to be original, well, good luck to you.

But if you want to make money then listen up. Here’s what you’ve got to do.

Go and find the top people in your industry and go and grab their ads. Then, when you write your own ads, use these ads as templates. Copy the emotional hooks. Modify their headlines. Create your own closing statements the same way they did.

Or, if you want a BIG shortcut, go and buy some swipe files from some of the masters. I know Pete Godfrey has great swipes in his copywriting manual. Alan Forrest Smith has a whole heap in his too. Dan Kennedy has some products with a collection of hugely successful ads as well. Go and grab them.

Other names to check out too include Gary Bencivenga, John Carlton and Michael Fortin.

And if you want a great FREE source… go to http://www.hardtofindads.com

And here’s the best source of all for writing ads…http://thegaryhalbertletter.com

Next week I’m going to move away from specific copywriting information and tackle a marketing issue…free information, such as free reports, audio CDS etc. If you want to get new clients, this is a MUST read article.

All the best,

PS If you’re in a very specific industry and you’d like to know where to find successful ads you can use as models, shoot me an email at hugh@salescomefirst.com and I’ll point you in the right direction.