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3 Keys To Kick-Start Your Business

Skills For Success

3 Keys To Kick-Start Your Business

In The Next 24 Hours

By Jimmy D. Brown of http://www.SixFigureFormula.com

Want to hear something that is VERY ironic?

The one thing that most internet marketers want the MOST is
what they need the LEAST.

Most internet marketers are actively looking for a new
marketing tactic or tool.

Their days are spent trying this idea and that idea, giving
this new thing a chance and that new thing a chance.

They try a few list-building things. They try a few traffic
generation things. They try a few affiliate marketing things.

They do the SEO “trick” they heard about on the forum. They
write a gazillion ezine articles ‘cuz they heard that works.
They move on to videos. Yeah, videos — that’s the answer
because it’s new for now.

30 days later, 6 months later, 3 years later … they’re
singing a new verse of the same song.

They are actively looking for a new marketing tactic or tool.

In the process what they’ve been spending money instead of
making it. They’ve been wasting time instead of freeing it
up.

What’s the problem? Is it all smoke and mirrors? Is it all
one big scam?

The problem is the ironic and sad reality: most internet
marketers never see huge success because they constantly
pursue things they WANT instead of things they NEED.

We’ll get back to that in just a moment. HOld that thought.

What I’m going to share with you in the remainder of this
article will be a paradigm shift for a few who “get it”.

Some will skeptically say, “Jimmy is just trying to sell
something.” Some will say, “Ah, what does he know?” Some
will say, “I’m sure that’s right, but it’s not as sexy as
all this other 3-ring circus stuff the gurus are doing”.

Whatever.

Take it for what it is. I’ve been doing this for ten
years. I make a lot of money. I spend a whole lot more
time traveling and playing tennis and going on mission
trips that I do on my business.

I must know something. It may not be flashy. But it’s
like novocaine, folks. Give it enough time and it
always works.

Someone out there will read this. And they’ll get that
what I’m telling you is legit. For that person, it’s
time for a new song.

For the rest of you. Come back in 30 days. Or 6 months.
Or 3 years. And read this post. Maybe then it will
sink in.

Here are 3 keys to kick-starting your business in the
next 24 hours…

————— SIDEBAR ——————–
I’m offering my 4-week coaching program ONE FINAL TIME
before I permanently retire it. If you’d like me to
personally work with you one-on-one to build YOUR
internet business in just 3 hours per day, visit
http://www.SixFigureFormula.com immediately. There
are only 50 spots available and this is the LAST TIME
I will be conducting the class
—————- SIDEBAR ——————-

1. STREAMLINE.

The first order of business is to bring some order to
your business! You’ve got to streamline. And what I
mean by that is simply this: do one thing and do it
well.

You need to “decide what you want to be when you grow up”.
That is, what business model do you want to follow? What
is the ONE primary thing you’re going to do to make money?

Are you going to create information products? Be an
affiliate marketer? Sell items on eBay? Create and flip
websites? Provide a service? Coach?

Resist the temptation to try it all. Resist the temptation
to dabble. Dabbling is a horrible, horrible thing for the
average internet marketer. Trying a little bit of many
things almost certainly will mean you won’t do anything
well.

Decide right now what the ONE PRIMARY method of generating
cash for your business will be. Don’t proceed until
you’ve streamlined your business.

Then…

2. SYSTEMIZE.

Internet marketing is too big in and of itself. Imagine
someone saying, “Now go do health” or “get out there and
be a traveler” or “start parenting”.

Regardless of what your ONE revenue path is, there will
be many parts. You’ve got to systemize your business
into manageable chunks. You’ve got to break everything
down into a daily, weekly and monthly schedule of action
steps.

For me, I keep it very simple. I have three parts to
my business…

* Offer creation.
* List marketing.
* Traffic generation.

I create a new offer. I market it to my list. I drive
traffic to the offer site.

End of story.

I have a system I use to create a new offer. I have a
system I use to write and send mailings. I have a
system I use for getting visitors to my site.

It’s the same system I’ve been using since 2000.
Novocaine, folks. Always works.

Create a checklist of action steps for ONE kind of offer.
Create a checklist of action steps for ONE way to build
a monetize a list. Create a checklist of action steps
for ONE method of generating website traffic.

Don’t try a bunch of things and do them average or poorly.
Find ONE method and do it WELL.

You want to UNcomplicate things. You want a MINIMAL set
of action steps. You want to do the very least amount of
different things as possible to achieve your goal.

You’ve got to systemize your business into manageable
chunks.

Then…

3. STICK.

Perhaps the most devastating thing in the life of the 95%
of those who fail is this: they don’t stick to it.

Seriously, that’s what failure is … it’s NOT DOING
SOMETHING. It’s quitting. It’s coming up short of the
finish line. It’s NOT DOING SOMETHING.

When you narrow things down to ONE way of making money
and then create a simple checklist of MINIMAL ACTION
STEPS to make money, you absolutely must STICK TO IT.

Don’t quit. Don’t quit. Don’t quit.

Despite me saying this, most reading it will quit anyway.

A “new” offer of the week will come along and they’ll
get distracted. Someone well respected in the industry
will convince them that the latest trick is the “most
important thing you’ll ever do” (Talk about a new verse
of the same song!) Things won’t happen instantly,
overnight like other people promise.

Listen, you can rationalize the decision to quit in a
thousand different ways. You can make excuses for why
you should move on and try something else.

Label it whatever you want, but just below the surface
you’ll see this word tattoed on your being in permanent
ink … failure. If you quit, it’s all the same … it’s
NOT DOING SOMETHING.

I know it’s hard to stick to things when there LITERALLY
is a new offer in your face every single day. Most people
just can’t resist that temptation.

So, do this: find yourself one mentor that you trust
and believe and remove yourself from everyone else’s list.
Just cut that temptation off at the root.

At the end of the day, I can tell you this. I’m about
to celebrate 10 years online. I make more money than
ever and work less than ever. I promise you, I know
what I’m talking about here.

If you want to do well online, you’ve got to STREAMLINE,
SYSTEMIZE and STICK.

You can stop reading right now and apply what I’ve told
you so far and you’ll be right on target in six months.
Pay attention to what I’m saying. You don’t need what
I’m about to offer you. I know that’s contradictory to
most people’s sales pitch. I’m supposed to convince you
to buy something from me right now. And it’s true that
I do have an offer for you. But I’m telling you up
front, you can do everything I’ve told you above and
be fine on your own. You don’t need my offer.

Now, for those who want some hand-holding and some
specifics for the three keys above, I can help you.

I can personally (one-on-one) answer your questions,
help you create a daily schedule and give you some
specific action steps to take each week to build a
streamlined, systemized and sticked plan of action.

All the details are at http://www.SixFigureFormula.com

Due to the personal interaction with me, there are only
50 spots available. Once they are sold out, they are
gone. I can only take 50 students since I’ll be
personally interacting with you EVERY DAY for four
weeks.

Check it out at http://www.SixFigureFormula.com

WARNING: This is the FINAL time I will be offering this
coaching program. I am permanently retiring it after
this last class, so join now or miss out forever.

Regardless of whether we create a plan together or if
you do it independently, it’s time for you to sing a
new song. Good luck!

Best regards,
Jimmy D. Brown

P.S. If you have any questions, please contact my
support desk at http://www.Infoprofitcare.com

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Marlon says: Tweak Those Headlines

Skills For Success

Marlon Sanders shares his insights and examples about the importance of getting the headline wording right.  And he should know… he’s done it 122x already.  Read the whole article for some great/interesting/inspiring insights and ideas.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Is Your Headline Missing The Two Most Important Words?

“How to tweak your headlines and possibly pull in thousands extra in sales” ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I just launched a new product. If you want to refer to the
sales letter as you read this article, it’s at:
http://www.marlonsanders.com/writerssecret

I made a mistake on the product title and headline and
quickly fixed it by changing just TWO WORDS.

I want to share these two words with you. Because maybe
YOUR headlines are missing these two words.

Let me explain.

First of all, if you’re new to all this, your headline is
the most important part of your sales page because it’s the
ad for the ad.

It determines whether or not the people who land on your
web page read anything else or immediately bounce. If you
get it wrong, you can kill your sales.

In fact, Michael Masterson says 80% of your sales are the
result of your headline and lead. The lead is the opening
of your sales letter.

Your headline needs to accomplish multiple objectives.

1. Get the message across that your product isn’t the same
old, same old.

In marketing we call this the USP or Unique Selling Proposition.
It’s a bit of a challenge to do this in extremely over-marketed
markets like Internet marketing.

People have pretty much seen it all and heard it all. So you
really have to put some brainpower into finding a unique angle.

2. Get across specifics

In general, specifics outpull generalities. They sound more
believable.

3. Communicate a crystal clear benefit or wifm — what’s in it
for me.

Now, if you leave OUT any of those elements, you can wreck your
results.

Change just a few words and you can spike your results.

My pal Daegan Smith is one of my “go to” guys when I need to
change or tweak a marketing process. You may have heard my
interview with Daegan in Promo Dashboard. If you didn’t, and
you have the product, you’ll find his interview on the “bonuses”
tab.

Great, great interview.

So anyway, as you hopefully know, I launched a new product this
week. When I say launched, I mean to my own list. I haven’t
even rolled it out to affiliates yet.

I wanted to make sure I had my letter tweaked and selling before
I gave my affiliates the opportunity to tell their folks about
it.

I try to treat my affiliates right. The same way I’d want to be
treated.

My letter wasn’t converting as good as I wanted. And we’d
had technical issues on the launch due to installing a new upsell
script and a few other things. Normally, things run like clockwork.
But Murphy (Murphy’s law) decided to pay us a visit.

So my copywriting brain wasn’t running at full speed. I decided to
use my “lifeline” option and call Daegan. My other lifeline “go to”
guy is Jason Fadlien or “Flads” as my pal Jit and I call him. But
Flads was nowhere to be found.

Lucky me, I had Daegan on the horn.

“Daegan, dog, what do you think of this headline?”

The headline originally read:

////////////////////////////////
Secrets of Making GGGGGGG
Anyplace Anytime Anywhere
Just By Writing On Your Laptop
And Selling Your Words
Over and Over and Over Again!
////////////////////////////////

The word “money” goes where the G’s are. I had to do that to
prevent this ezine from getting filtered to your forbidden box.

Anyway, that headline converted pretty mediocre. You’ll notice
there’s not a strong uniqueness about it. The uniqueness was in the
product title: “The Writer’s Secret.”

I felt that was a bit of an angle or idea people hadn’t heard
before.

But when it didn’t convert as I wanted, I changed it to:

////////////////////////////////////////
On December 3, 1998, I Discovered A
“Cookie Cutter” Secret That I’ve
Repeated 122 Times — And You Can
Use This Same Secret Starting
2 Hours and 58 Minutes From Right Now!
////////////////////////////////////////

I added specifics with the date and numbers. This sometimes helps.
And I changed the concept a bit.

But it still wasn’t rocking and rolling dollars into my account the
way I wanted. Sales weren’t just pouring in. They were coming in
but a bit slow for my tastes.

So I used my lifeline and called Daegan. Or maybe he called me.
I think he called me.

Anyway, Daegan shared with me how he already has his membership site
up to doing 70 g’s a month and he doesn’t even have his OTO (one
time offers” in place yet.

That boy can do pay-per-click and media buying like nobody’s
business. He’s just very thorough and systematic about sticking to
his guns.

My thing is the affiliate program. We’re on different marketing
models. But the same basics apply.

Anyway, Daegan said, “Marlon, I saw your email but I read the title
‘The Writer’s Secret’ and I thought ‘Even though I write every day,
I don’t want tips on how to write.’”

Of course, the product is NOT about how to write. It’s about the
exact model and system I’ve used since December 3, 1998 to bring in
money every month, month in and month out to the tune of millions of
dollars.

With small tweaks and differences, I’ve used pretty much the same
formula. I’ve added a few things to the mix and had to modify a part
here or there. But it’s an evergreen formula that has stood the test
of time.

I IMMEDIATELY saw what Daegan was talking about.

He said, “Your headline doesn’t give me a benefit. So what if it’s
a cookie cutter system? What will it do for me?”

I said, “Dog, I get it. I see it.” He fired back, “If I’m giving
copy advice to the great Marlon Sanders, I must be getting pretty
good at this.”

“Yeah, dog, you are,” I spit back.

You got to understand…I’m a copywriter by trade. And a darned
good one. But I don’t write for clients anymore. I do my thing and
that’s it.

Last year, I only produced one major product and several webinars.
So I’m out of practice in writing sales letters. I’m rusty. And
actually, this is one of the huge insights I got that allowed me to
articulate the concepts in “The Writer’s Secret.”

You know, any idiot can write things and make them complex. It
takes a lot of distilling, practice, mistakes and “boiling down” to
get just to the heart of something.

And say, “forget all the other noise, and just focus on THESE few
things.” It’s the 80/20 rule where 20% of the things get you 80% of
the results. But you gotta know what those 20% of things are.

I obviously know to have the WIFM (what’s in it for me) in the
headline. To have the big benefit in there.

But we had so many other factors in motion…moving servers…
installing a new affiliate software…all these other factors in
motion that I just couldn’t focus in on the sales letter.

When Daegan said that, I saw it immediately.

“Yeah dog, I get it,” I fired back to him. Then, to repay him for
his great insight, I explained to him my theory of “selling around
the edges.” A concept I’ve never heard anyone talk about. I try to
always give back the same or more to others than they give me.

Then, after getting off the phone, I read over the headline and
said, “How can I get THE BENEFIT in here?”

You need to be asking the SAME questions about your headline.

1. Does it project a unique idea that doesn’t sound like the same
old, same old?

2. Does it CONFUSE people?

In my case, “The Writer’s Secret” wasn’t the best title. It makes
it sound like it’s a product about how to write. So what could I
say to change that perception in the headline?

I scratched my head a bit.

3. Does it convey a crystal clear benefit?

I re-read my headline. I’d just finished watching the Frank Kern
video thingy he sent out. Frank is fond of using this term called
“money getting.” He’s the first person I heard use it and really,
it’s one heck of a phrase.

The reason I say that is that what MOST people do is use numbers or
claims that really push a gray line legally. I try to be very
conservative legally.

So I refuse to put blatant money claims in headlines and do the
things most marketers do. I’ve been around this Game 10X longer
than most. And that’s why I’m conservative.

The money isn’t yours if you don’t get to keep it because the gov’t
takes it away.

This also puts me at a bit of a disadvantage. I won’t say the
things others say. I have to imply or hint or communicate a
desirable benefit without being blatant about it.

Here is the headline I needed to tweak:

////////////////////////////////////////
On December 3, 1998, I Discovered A
“Cookie Cutter” Secret That I’ve
Repeated 122 Times — And You Can
Use This Same Secret Starting
2 Hours and 58 Minutes From Right Now!
////////////////////////////////////////

I zeroed in on those two words “cookie cutter.” There really isn’t
a clear benefit. I like the term. But what’s the benefit of a
cookie cutter? By implication it’s something you repeat over
and over.

But what’s the benefit of THAT?

Obviously it’s that you GET money. Enter Frank Kern.

I replaced those two words with “Money Getting” The new headline
became:

////////////////////////////////////////
On December 3, 1998, I Discovered A
“Cookie Cutter” Secret That I’ve
Repeated 122 Times — And You Can
Use This Same Secret Starting
2 Hours and 58 Minutes From Right Now!
////////////////////////////////////////

Now, I could have used many other words or ideas there. That’s
just what I came up with on the spur of the moment. And it
immediately and dramatically
increased sales.

The POINT of this is NOT to use those exact two words. If that’s
what you think, you totally and completely miss the point of what
I’m writing about.

The two words are NOT “money getting” The two words ARE whatever
the BIG BENEFIT for your buyer.

These are the two magic words: “big benefit”

The wifm has gotta be in your headline and gotta be crystal clear.

Here’s the point:

1. Does your headline spell out a crystal clear WIFM for the
reader?

2. Is there an element of uniqueness to your headline, so it
doesn’t sound like the same old, same old? In other words, do you
have any sort of USP (Unique Selling Proposition) in it?

3. Does your headline or product title CONFUSE the reader?

You can see what the new headline looks like at:

http://www.marlonsanders.com/writerssecret

Now, if you clicked on that link more than 48 hours ago, you’ll see
a different headline because I have a special “limited time offer”
script set up so I can automatically remove bonuses.

I forget to remove bonuses or change things. So I’m automating it
now. I’m going to add a bonus to Writer’s Secret that explains what
this script is and how to use it.

The OTHER thing I did to my sales letter was re-wrote the LEAD or
opening paragraphs to clarify a bit what the Writer’s Secret was
about. To make it clear it wasn’t “how to write” but that it was
about “money getting” or basically my exact formula for making a
living online that I’ve done
at least 122X since December 3, 1998.

If you read the letter, you’ll see 3 things:

1. Benefit — Money getting strategy

2. Proof — Used 122x since December 3, 1998

3. Uniqueness — Not what others are teaching

You’ll see those themes repeated multiple times in the headline and
the body copy.

I plan on releasing this to affiliates next week now that it’s
tweaked. I hope this inside look at the headline tweaks gives you
ideas about how to tweak your own headlines and sales letters.

Marlon Sanders
The King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing and
“The Ambassador of Old School Marketing”

=======================================================
Marlon Sanders helps people with hopes and dreams figure
out how to turn those into reality by selling stuff on
the Internet. http://www.marlonsanders.com/writerssecret

//////////////////////

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Go Back To Go Forward with Backlinks

Skills For Success

There has been much written about the importance of having backlinks on your blog to increase your SE rankings.  This has been a time consuming project in the past but now we can move forward quickly.

Matt Garrett from SEO UK.com will backlink you with 20+ sites and all you have to do is input the url you wish to have the backlinks go to.  A very simple task for quick forward movement of your site/blog.

Matt is also available to answer your SEO questions @  http://askmattg.com

One of the most important things to be aware of in online business is our ability, but more important, our willingness, to be open minded enough to accept and use what is new.  New SE parameters, new FTC rulings, new traffic generation techniques, new thought patterns to improve our success probability are among just some of the areas in which we must be prepared to make the necessary changes to our mindset and our strategies.

Life is change and like the seasons change so we must change to keep up and keep growing.

That’s all for today

Till next time

To Your Success

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George McKenzie interviews Frank Garon

Skills For Success

He was only making $14.25 per hour.  He had no list, no product and no website.  He began by selling other people’s stuff for 5 years and then became above-average in his income and his lifestyle.

Who is he?  Frank Garon – the ex-truck driver

If you don’t know how to build a list right now,
if you don’t know how to get free publicity right now,
if you don’t know how to build rapport with people right now, that’s not a problem.
They’re all things that can be learned.
What George and I can’t teach somebody is how to pick themselves up and dust themselves off.
We can’t teach people listening to this tape how to believe in themselves and how to master some very basic business information that one needs to be able to do.

That’s just a little of what you can read about in this eye-opening interview.

Common Sense With Chrome Trim

Hope you enjoy it!  And if you do feel free to leave a comment below.

No Comments

New Faux Blog Format Sells Lights Out

Skills For Success

Two New Conversion Formats You Can Use To Promote Affiliate Offers Or Your Own Products
By
Marlon Sanders

So you have that affiliate product you want to sell via pay-per-click, to your list or with ezine ads.
Or you have your own product that you’ve hammered your list with but still need to SUCK out more sales.
Or you want to sell something that is already being sold by a boatload of affiliates.
Or you want to BOOST conversions on an existing offer.
Or you want to give your affiliates and easy way to do a new presell hardly anyone else is using.

I want to present TWO ideas for you that are”Tipping Point” good. You ORIS (Ockham’s Razor Income System) folks will understand the importance of that.

METHOD 1: New Faux Blog Format
Go to http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DV181&m=KQgIKYEV1Dr&b=vH97fWcACOdifjb3da7_0A
Scroll to the Google Adwords ads at the bottom of the page.
You’ll see ads similar to these:
Rachael Ray’s Diet Recipe I lost 47 lbs in 3 Months Using The Rachael Ray Diet. Find Out How .www.RachelRaysGift.com

Oprah’s Flat Stomach Diet Revealed
Eliminate 2 Lbs of Stomach Flab a Week by Obeying 1 Simple Rule.
LorriesWeightLoss.com

1 Flat Stomach Rule: Obey
I Cut Down 6 lbs of Stomach Fat Per Week by Obeying this 1 Simple Rule
HelensDiet.com/Secret

These ads are called “Faux Blogs”. Check ‘em out. They appear to be blogs. But really, they’re presell pages for affiliate offers. Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll see lots of these. Mostly for weight loss offers. But I see no reason the format won’t work for other categories.

This is cutting edge. This is tipping point. Now, we could debate whether or not this is ethical, moral or transparent marketing.
My opinion is that people KNOW they’re clicking on an ad.
They KNOW they’re seeing commercial speech. But I could certainly understand someone who sees it differently.

What I CAN tell you is this relatively new format has been killing it in terms of conversions of offers. If you sell affiliate products, you can create one of these faux blogs in an hour or two. A lot of them are html and don’t even SAY they are blogs.They just LOOK like it. Some have the word BLOG in their url.

The cool thing is you’re basically writing a presell. It just seems more PERSONAL and less salesy than a regular presell page. That is the reason it works.

I think this is a dynamite method to try out with Google PPC. Google will see it isn’t a blatant squeeze. It adds value. What’s NOT for them to like about it?

You can also run it on the content network and roll it out to banners. There’s a LOT to like about this method right now. Of course,the results will fade with time. Then the NEXT innovation will kick in.

But this is a great example of what I teach in ORIS. A very nice example of ORIS applied to promotion.

METHOD 2: The Multi-Page Report
This is a method I used last week.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DV181&m=KQgIKYEV1Dr&b=iSG1Njij_tWNsIb4aL8X3w
What you do is create a report and make it a multi-page ordeal. Now, I have NOT split tested this yet vs:
a. A PDF report.
b. Having the report on one very long page.

Normally, I’d rather make people scroll than click. That is why you have to WORK to make sure you give people a really compelling reason to CLICK to the next page.

You’ll notice on the URL I just gave you that at the bottom of each page, I have a really strong HOOK to get you to the next page. But the overall concept here applies whether you use a PDF, multi-page format or one long page. I like the multi-page format because you don’t see it a lot. PDF’s and long sales pages are a dime a dozen.

This format is fresh. The idea is that you HOOK people in with very compelling information that pulls them DEEPER into your topic.
You set the hook REALLY deep.
THEN…you make the transition to your sales page using a direct or stealth approach. I initially tried a Stealth approach by putting the links I wanted clicked at the BOTTOM of pages 4 and 5. Look at the bottom of this page:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DV181&m=KQgIKYEV1Dr&b=graWwZbHsFrF3RDoNktdgA

Now, to be honest, I think we ended up with too many links there. It would be better if there were only a couple. I may go back and change that today. Then on the last page, I just signed off with my name and had a link to my “money” page (sales page) after my name.

That wasn’t working so well. Although in theory it does. It appeals to people who would rather discover than be sold. However, I gave in after 250 clicks and just put a big honking link on page 5 to my money page. However, I worded it as another content page. http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DV181&m=KQgIKYEV1Dr&b=mDJPlfb1W4BFMT.l3OXAAg

The link says: “How to Find and Promote Tipping Point Products” That sounds like a continuation of the report. You’ll also notice I added a VIRAL component where I asked people to agree to tell 2 of their friends if I did accurately predict their future. The “prediction” angle is an indirect lead that doesn’t let you know you are being sold. That is so you can sink your hook or hooks in deep before you make that transition. The other thing about the prediction lead is my prediction is about the reader.

There is ONE thing we all love reading about guaranteed.. Ourselves! That’s the sum total of theory behind that. I modelled my multi-page format after two people.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DV181&m=KQgIKYEV1Dr&b=SmFdrwBI0fEZ2UfUbIm5IA
Notice the small links at the bottom. One of them goes to another long multi-page report.

Andre is friends with Brent Jones who I believe originally came up with this format. NOT that multi-page sales letters are unique. Here is one of Brent’s works. I don’t think all the links in it work anymore. Not sure what happened there. But you’ll see it’s a VERY compelling report. http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DV181&m=KQgIKYEV1Dr&b=afc06YkAzdkvwJOn2jJS1Q

His opening page is more compelling than mine. Notice how that page REALLY sucks you in! Beautiful. And to those doubters and skeptics who say people won’t read long reports or copy, I BET you do!
It ALL hinges on how well you tap into the feelings, emotions and desires of your audience.

Who ELSE brings you cutting edge info like this weekly? Why not take a moment to TELL 2 friends? Hit a few people up on your Facebook or Myspace. Or post in a forum. Or just tell a few of your friends ’bout me over the phone.

A lot of my subscribers come organically. From friends telling friends.

Here’s my blog. Scroll to the bottom and you can post your comments.
I personally read and respond.
Marlon’s Marketing Minute
Marlon Sanders
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Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula ThatSells Products Like Crazy.”
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How Half the Battle is Won

Skills For Success

How Half the Battle is Won

Here’s a surprising quote from well-respected

copywriter and marketing guru, Dan Kennedy:

“I’m going to tell you a secret that virtually no

other high-priced copywriter will ever admit: At least

half the battle is won via selection, not “creative” ie.

message, copy, offer, etc.”

Think about that.

What would you think of a hunter who shoots at

anything and everything? Doesn’t aim – just waves the

gun around and keeps pulling the trigger. Not very

impressive. Not likely to bring home dinner or a trophy.

The hunter needs a target. He identifies it. He

recognizes it. He aims at it carefully. That’s all he

wants to hit – just the target, nothing else.

That’s what you must do. Determine who your target

is. Take aim. That’s all you want to reach with your

sales letter – just that person, no one else.

Your research is how you identify that target. It’s

how you know what your target looks like, how he

behaves, how he feels. Your research is how you know

what kind of bullet will be most effective in taking him

down!

Your target can’t be EVERYONE. It can’t even be ALL

WOMEN or ALL MEN. It needs to be very specific. Why?

Because people want to feel special. They want to feel

unique.

Let’s say your ad says, “If you eat, you need this!”

You might think that’s a great target. “Everybody eats,

so everyone needs my product. I’ll be rich!” But,

there’s a problem. Most people who see that headline

will think, “Sure, I eat. But, I’m special. I’m not like

everyone else. That ad is for the common person. It’s

for everyone else. It’s not for me. I’m looking for

something that’s just for me.”

Think about it. If every single person in your

neighborhood owned the same exact car. Even if it was a

really NICE car, how excited would you be to buy one,

too? Probably not very. You don’t want to be like

everyone else. You want a car that shows you are unique.

You want people to say, “Wow! Nice car. I wish I had one

like that.” People won’t say that if it’s the same car

that they and everyone else they know owns.

Your sales letter needs to do that for people – Make

them feel unique.

Again, that means research. What questions do you

need to ask and answer in order to identify your target

clearly and specifically?

Now, you might be saying, “But, my target really IS

that big, it IS that generic. It really IS any one who

eats!” That’s fine. But, here’s the trick: Break the big

target down into smaller segments. And target all the

smaller segments separately.

You might target:

  • Lovers of Italian Food

  • People who prefer to eat at home
  • People who eat at restaurants 3 or more times a

    week

  • Women who love to cook their own food
  • Men who love to eat but hate to cook
  • Teenagers who want to only eat junk food

The idea is to find something unique that allows you

to say, “Hey, I understand you. I realize that you are

unique — special. This is not for everyone. It is just

for you.

Then, you craft individualized offers for each of

your segmented targets.

Marlon Sanders, in his excellent book, “The Amazing

Formula That Sells Products like Crazy!”, compares your

target market to fishing in a pond. He explains that

catching fish is easy as long as you find a pond with

hungry fish and you use bait that the fish really love.

That makes perfect sense. If the fish aren’t hungry

or they don’t like your bait, they won’t bite.

Don’t assume you know what motivates your

prospects. Find out! Keep researching until you

know!

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