The short answer? Because it works. But to answer that question more fully, let me tell you how this system came to be.
I didn’t invent the core concepts. The system is based on proven marketing principles honed over the course of time by successful entrepreneurs…the doers, the testers, and the business builders. They are the ones who’ve built their businesses from scratch and lead the way to turn these businesses into multi-million dollar empires.
One of my first jobs out of college was working for the Hardware Division of Emhart Corporation. Some of the products Emhart manufactured and sold were electronic magnetic keycard locking systems for large hotels all over the world. I worked in the Marketing Department, and I got to see firsthand how they prepared their marketing campaigns, proofs and paste-ups for ads and printing, and brand building.
When I ventured out on my own to create an IT consulting business, I was a bit perplexed on how to go about my marketing, since I didn’t have the deep pockets of large corporations like Emhart. I started reading about successful entrepreneurs who built their businesses from the ground up, and I was especially interested in some of the creative ways they marketed in the early days on a shoestring budget.
In particular, I was fascinated by direct response marketing, especially in the mail order industry. Here were ads for products that you couldn’t pick-up, touch, or examine, yet people would send checks off to far away places, only to wait several weeks to receive the goods they ordered.
Now mail order certainly wasn’t new to me. I grew up reading Boy’s Life and other magazines that carried lots of direct mail ads, and companies like the Johnson Smith Company were a household name to me. Ben Settle and other notable copywriters at the time had a virtual monopoly on my eyeballs. And as I grew older, it was a major event when Drew Kaplan’s DAK catalog arrived in the mail.
So while mail order itself wasn’t new, I was looking at it from a different perspective. As I read more about mail order and direct response, I realized that seasoned direct marketers would make better mentors to me than big business marketing departments or ad agencies. The seasoned pros have been through the trenches. They’ve seen what worked extremely well and what didn’t work. They rolled out their successes and learned from their failures. They carefully measured their results to the penny. Anyone without this real-world experience can only guess at what’s going to work. And naturally I wanted my business to be successful. Guessing was simply not an option for me.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but by adapting the premise of a two-step ad (where someone gives you their name and address to request more information about your product—the first step—and you then follow-up by sending your marketing materials—the second step), I was well on my way to establishing my first lead generating system. At the time (nearly 20 years ago), this was a big breakthrough for me. But it was just the start.
A few years later, I started learning from a fellow by the name of Lawrence Tabak, who was a student of Gary Halbert at the time. In particular, I admired Lawrence’s “no nonsense” style and his ability to show in a straightforward manner how easy it was to sell a product via mail order in the most efficient and cost-effective way. I also began to learn how to write compelling direct response copy.
That year I launched my first mail order product, which was a “how to” book on quitting smoking naturally. It wasn’t a bad campaign for my first. I made a slight profit, but more importantly I learned a lot from actually doing it, rather than just studying it. I learned firsthand about list brokers and rented my first lists. I learned about testing and tracking my campaigns. And I learned about copywriting and creating info-products.
I’m also a little embarrassed to say that I used a two-step ad in some places where a one-step ad was really warranted, plus other mistakes, but that was part of the learning process.
I dabbled a little more in mail order, but eventually focused my efforts back on my IT consulting business (which really wasn’t even called “IT” back then). The business was doing quite well, and I was making a good living from it. I continued to study successful entrepreneurs and adapt their best strategies in my business. As a result, my business grew at a steady clip and continued to grow for many years.
Fast forward to the present. I continued to build and adapt my system over the years and used it successfully to land clients such as CIGNA, United Technologies Corp., Duracell, Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, and many smaller firms. I had a web design business for while, and eventually turned to marketing consulting. I discovered that many of my clients had no real marketing system in place and flew by the seat of their pants (you might be surprised at how many).
So a big part of the value I provided was helping them to put a solid marketing system in place that let them focus on the core aspects of their business. At the same time this system would help to reveal underexploited profit centers and encourage the growth of their business.
Best of all, it can easily do the same for you.
- It’s based on other systems that have been proven to work for their respective businesses…systems that are quietly making their owners fortunes in profits and business growth.
- It’s been crafted to work for practically any business.
- It’s adaptable. You’ll be able to insert your own steps, as well as the methods used by your coaches and mentors.
- It contains little known strategies and tactics used by the top moneymaking doers.
- It’s designed so you can focus more on the methods that give you the best results.
- You can start getting results right away, while still employing strategies for long-term growth.
- You can start it on a shoestring budget or a larger investment (plus use the ‘ol time versus money tradeoff).
The system itself is fairly straightforward, but it’s how you get leads, how you follow-up, how you sell that’s really going to make the difference between barely making it work or a windfall of profits and growth. And I’ll take you step-by-step through this process.
Is this the “best” system or the only system you should use? That’s a highly personal choice, and a decision you’ll have to make. I wouldn’t think of it in those terms, but rather once you have a chance to put it to the test, ask yourself: “Is it working for me?” I would say keep an open mind to everything, but keep only those methods that you or someone trustworthy has personally tested and found to be successful. As President Reagan used to say, “Trust, but verify.”
Renowned dealmaker and business growth consultant Jay Abraham had a client in the construction business. This company would deliberately breakeven on the first job they performed for a new client. And they made sure the client knew that fact. It was their way of showing their quality and performance. As a result, 80 percent of those clients hired them again, adding $50 million a year to their bottom line.
Another of Jay’s clients brings in $6 million a year performing maintenance and repair work for air-conditioning and heating. Twice a year that company does a mailing to all their clients, and they also advertise a $19.95 tune-up and cleaning service. Although it actually costs them $30.00 to perform the service, they end up making money instead of losing it. That’s because about half the people they visit end up having an immediate problem that needs to be repaired—a problem they weren’t aware existed. And that problem adds a minimum $125.00 profitable service charge that they collect right there and then. So even though they lose about $10.00 on the initial service, they know before even heading out to perform the service calls that they’ll make a nice profit overall.
On top of that, 50 percent of their new clients having the service performed for the first time end up being regular customers, bringing in an additional $2.5 million a year.
Do you think there are opportunities to sell one of your entry products or services at a loss or breakeven to make even more on the back end?
Legendary copywriter John Caples once tested the following two headlines of an ad to see which one gave the greater response. Can you guess which one was the winner?
“What Would Become of Your Wife If Something Happened to You?”
“Get Rid of Money Worries for Good!”
You see, no matter how experienced a marketer you are, it’s nearly impossible to precisely guess what the market wants or will respond to without testing. John knew this, hence his test. By the way, the second headline out pulled the first, even though an advertising jury (think professional focus group) favored the first to win.
The famous New York merchant John Wanamaker once quipped, “I know 50 percent of all my advertising is being wasted, I just don’t know which half!” With testing and tracking, he would have known.
Do you want to know which of your ads are earning their keep and which ones you should ditch? Would you like to learn the right way to test?
Online marketers John Reese and Yanik Silver have both mastered building customer loyalty. In fact, if you’ve spent any time marketing online, you’re probably well aware of John’s record-breaking $1.08 million in sales within the first day when he sold his Traffic Secrets course in 2004.
Yanik has had equally great success with his courses, seminars, and other products. John and Yanik both use many secrets to maximize their profits, but I think one of the biggest reasons for their success has been the way they developed their customer loyalty and built social proof around their brand identities (i.e. themselves). And they have a solid system for duplicating that success in all of their endeavors.
Plus—and here’s a big one—neither of them restrict their marketing efforts to online only. That’s an important distinction between most Internet marketers and these pros. And one of the reasons they’re so successful.
Would you like to build that kind of customer loyalty and social proof? Do you think your business will benefit from both online and offline marketing…a form of hybrid marketing that contributes more as a whole than either one could alone?
Joe Sugarman may be famous for his BluBlocker sunglasses line, but long before he entered the retail market, Joe was a veteran of direct response and the mail order business, selling gadgets and high-tech products to the mainstream. Joe applied his tested direct marketing methods to the infomercial media, and he was also among the first to use toll-free numbers to take orders via credit cards. His competitors, of course, imitated his methods whenever they could because they worked. Given the opportunity, why do you think they copied Joe instead of some high-priced MBA consultant or ad agency?
These are all real examples of marketing veterans in the trenches making billions for themselves and their clients. Does this mean every attempt was a success for them? Did everything they touched turn to gold? Of course not. They all had their share of disappointing results and failures too. All the more reason for you and me to learn from them and ethically “steal” their ideas.
So with that said, let’s progress to the fundamental concepts of this marketing system: the 80/20 Rule and the marketing funnel.
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