Glengarry Glen Ross speech by Alec Baldwin

…in mp3 format.  Download to your computer or mobile device and listen to anytime.

Enjoy,

Tim

What is a good email open rate? What is a good click-through rate?

A fascinating article posted by MailChimp, answers this question exactly. They scanned more than 570 million emails delivered by their system, broken down by industry, to reveal that open rates vary from 13% – 29%, and click-through rates of 1% – 8%.

I think it’s important to remember that the key factor to whether an email gets opened or not is the subject line. This isn’t depdendent on industry or email marketing provider (MailChimp, AWeber, Infusionsoft, etc.), but rather by the skill of the copywriter that is writing the subject line in the first place.

How do your open-rates and click-through rates compare? See the specific results of the MailChimp reserach here: Email Marketing Benchmarks By Industry.

Enjoy,

Tim

Heard this absolutely sparking excerpt from Perry Marshall, and I just HAD to share it…

Enjoy,

Tim

Using a Guarantee in Your Marketing and Business

(for example: “Corns gone in 7 days or your money back.”)

Perry Marshall speaking…

What it comes down to is this… either you’re taking a risk or your customer is.  SOMEBODY is taking the risk.  And if you won’t take the risk, why do you think your customer should take the risk?

THAT IS THE ISSUE.

Somebody’s takin’ it, so it might as well be YOU, and you might as well be the risk manager because successful risk managers make a lot of money.

(Food for thought! – TF)

A question from my client…

I’ve been approached to advertise in Yellow Pages for $XXX/mo…. should I do it?

Some people make print media work like crazy, some don’t.  Some people make billboards work, and others blow money on it and lose money hand-over-fist.

What I would try to determine is how much business comes from it.  By that I mean hard numbers on how many calls come in per month from it.  (ask others in your office, industry, profession how it’s worked for them)

If I feel like I’ve got 70% information (not necessarily 100%), and I feel 70% confident (not 100%), that I will make more than $XXX/mo (the expense) from it, then I would consider moving forward.

What if my budget is tiny, and I can’t afford a mistake?

If I was trying to decide how to spend my first $XXX/mo on advertising, I would do a Google Adwords campaign.

For example, I’m doing this with another client of mine and we are discovering that one of the ads pulls like 10x compared to the next closest ad.

WOW.

We are also discovering that of the 320 keywords I identified for them, the top-2 keywords (YES – only TWO!) of them pull 72% of all clicks.  And just the top-FIVE keywords represent 100% of all clicks so far.

Yes the campaign is still very young, but we are already seeing the 80-20 Rule emerge, and possibly even more harsh than that… we’re currently on track for 100-2.

Cut the Fat!  Eliminate what isn’t working ASAP, then Crank Up What IS…

And with Google Adwords we are able to tweak on the fly…whereas with YPG you’re STUCK for a whole year… if your ad isn’t converting anyone into calls or customers, there is *nothing* you can do for a full year…. oops!

Using this improve-on-the-fly approach to Google Adwords to review and improve week after week, we’re doing well so far… a click-through rate of 1-5% is generally considered quite good, and so far click-through rate is around 8%….

Over the next 12 months, as we test and refine the ads week-in, and week-out, and create new ads to try and “beat the control”, that number (over time) is only going to climb.

Use What is PROVEN to Compel People to Action

Furthermore, what we discover on Google Adwords – e.g. the headlines that work, the keywords we’re being search for, the landing pages that work, etc – we can then turn around and use those same ideas and headlines in all the other areas of marketing….

• subject lines of emails sent to the database
• headlines for websites
• facebook posts
• blog posts
• topics for videos
• description and tags on YouTube
• …and – yes – even headlines of print campaigns (including YPG if you want!).

Are There Any Conditions to Purchase YPG advertising?

If I only had $XXX/mo to invest into only ONE form of advertising (or perhaps just a few), would I do YPG?

No… for the reasons above…. I would start with G.AdW.  Much more mileage out of it.

If you have your heart set on YPG, and if you have reason to believe that YPG will make you more than you’re spending on it per month (i.e. numbers to show you that it’s making the phone ring), then I would at least consider it.

(After all, anything that makes more money than it spends is worth considering!)

At the end of the day, it’s your call…

Isn’t it great getting to call the shots? LOL.

Tim

A presentation that I delivered in French, in Edmonton, at The Business Link, on Sept 22 2011.

Enregistrement du séance

Click here to view the embedded video.

Affiche

Ressources & Liens…

• Automatisation de email marketing – Aweber (essai pour $1 pour 30 jours)
• Automatisation de email marketing AVANCÉE – Infusionsoft (essai gratuit pour 14 jours)
• Explication plus avancée de marketing automatisée avec email
• Créer des vidéos sans limite, pour moins que $500, dans moins que 60 minutes par video
• Trinité de conversion – discussion avec Bryan Eisenberg

Mon premier atelier de marketing en français! / My first-ever marketing seminar in French!

Pour regarder a l’enregistrement du séance, cliquez ici: http://www.modernbusinessowner.com/blog/marketing-comment-se-demarquer/

Ressources…

• Automatisation de email marketing – Aweber (essai pour $1 pour 30 jours)
• Automatisation de email marketing AVANCÉE – Infusionsoft (essai gratuit pour 14 jours)
• Explication plus avancée de marketing automatisée avec email
• Créer des vidéos sans limite, pour moins que $500, dans moins que 60 minutes par video
• Trinité de conversion – discussion avec Bryan Eisenberg

The more these 5 items are present, the more likely you are to making a sale…

Thank-you Perry Marshall for making me aware of this…

Tim

The Five Power Disqualifiers.

article by Perry Marshall

John Paul Mendocha has reduced the sales process to five essential requirements that are always present when a sale is made. I know of no one else who has distilled sales and marketing to such a small number of fundamentals:

1. Do They Have The Money?

Some markets consist of people who have no money.

Sometimes the very market itself is defined as a herd of moneyless people. Doesn’t mean you can’t make a buck selling rent-to-own furniture, but know ahead of time there’s going to be an Art Factor in getting blood out of them stones.

2. Big Benefit Statement

Do they buy into your Big Benefit Statement? If you’re just going into a market, the question is, what kind of Big Benefit will they buy into? What kind of deal would they snatch up in a hot second? What Big Benefit are the other guys not promising?

3. Do they have a bleeding neck?

If you wanna make the big bucks, your product has to deal with something that involves one or both of the following: (a) Pain and suffering, and / or (b) some craving that borders on the irrational. Intense pain, intense pleasure.

Stuff that hits really close to the jugular. Serious money is always found in those places.

And before you ease the pain, you must intensify it. The guy says to you, “It hurts really bad, right here.” You point to it and say “You mean here?” and you smash it with a hammer, real hard. He yelps and sees stars for a moment. He nods and takes a big gulp, choking back tears. Yup. Good market for you to go into. What’s the biggest, nastiest problem you’ve ever solved in your life? That’s a real good start, right there.

4. Can You Reach The Decision Maker?

Can you affordably reach the decision maker? Many markets pass the other tests but fail #4. I’ve got a friend who lost a big bundle trying to sell a seminar to MD’s awhile back. They had the money, they bought into his Big Benefit Statement, they had a bleeding neck, but… it was almost impossible to get a piece of mail into their hands.

Once they get out of school, most MD’s stop reading. They have their staff sort all their mail, and what Helga thinks is a bleeding-neck issue and what makes the Doc’s neck bleed, two different things. If you’re a keyword jockey, Search Engine Marketing has its own set of limitations: You can only cater to a problem people know they have. If you’re trying to sell something that is somewhat generic but you want to specifically target doctors, buying clicks probably won’t work very well. Maybe you can commission a Pharmaceutical Rep to bird dog some leads for you.

5. Do You Fit In Their Plans?

Does what you sell fit in with their overall plans? If your service requires major brain surgery on the part of the customer, he ain’t gonna take your offer unless brain surgery is literally a lot less painful than the alternative. Whatever you sell needs to harmonize with natural, existing forces – both on the inside and outside of your prospect’s world. My dentist’s online Yellow Pages listing says, “Introducing the New MicroPrep Air Abrasion Cavity Preparation System with Gentle, Drill-Free Technology”. As an enticement for getting new patients, I think that sentence leaves a lot to be desired. But the Marketing Maniac notices something else: Dentists are “into” buying expensive pieces of equipment like this. Such purchases are considered vital to a practice’s business strategy, and believed to be effective for attracting customers. A good business for somebody to be in, maybe you.

The most important thing John Mendocha would tell you about the 5 Power Disqualifiers is you want to plow through them as fast as humanly possible. Sales is, first and foremost, a disqualification process, not a ‘convincing people’ process. John’s style: Shoot the sick and the lame early in the game, and only deal with the healthy ones left standing. Test fast. Fail fast.

Move on. Next, next, next.

Click PLAY to watch this heart-felt speech written specifically for YOU, my fellow entrepreneur…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Connect with me….

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/modernbusinessowner
Twitter: @TimothyJFrancis
Podcast on iTunes: http://bit.ly/if319P

Tim@ModernBusinessOwner.com

Gameplan to follow to setup a great automated email marketing campaign…

(excerpted from a real email I sent to a client I’m helping)

The client owns Crossfit Lazarus, a gym located in Edmonton, Canada.

Enjoy,

Tim

P.S. Thanks to Perry Marshall for helping me understand (and build) this strategy….

- – - – - – -

Email Marketing Blueprint

Alright, Richard, you asked for it, LOL!

Here’s my review of your strategy for follow-up sequences and such….

- “From” should be a real human being… perhaps “Richard @ Crossfit”

- Know that a significant number of users are using Gmail or Google Apps accounts that might block images… I know mine does… so make sure that your email templates still make sense even without images… for example, if your alt text is “img_039.jpg”, some people might see that… instead do something like “click here to see this video”… or “Great Abs Workout At CrossFit”

Strategically…

Understand that people will be at different interest levels when they come to your site…

• 0/3: some people will come to your site and be 0/3 about buying… they won’t do anything
• 3/3: others will be 3/3… they are looking for a phone number to call and buy right away
• 2/3: others will be 2/3… they are the ones that will want to come try a free workout
• 1/3: others will be 1/3… they won’t come in for a free workout today, but perhaps in 6 months from now

….seeing an issue here?  if you only offer a free workout as your giveaway, then you are missing out on all of the 1/3 people… and, in fact, that is probably one of the biggest opportunities for you to do a nurture sequence with…. people that are willing to see you online (yet not in person yet).

I Suggest…

PART 1

Super Basic Copywriting Tips…

Next Steps…?

I know this is a TON of info.  What I would do if I were you…

• Draft copy for 5-day Get Fit Fast email course, using the tips I’ve shared, in an auto-saving document (I don’t think Infusion autosaves – although I could be wrong – I just don’t want you to spend an hour writing an email and then the power cuts out or something!)
• Setup Infusion Templates for these 5 days, using the intervals I’ve suggested above; consider possibly using a text-only format for some of your emails…. maybe the later emails… HTML all the time isn’t natural
• Setup Infusion Sequence for the 5-day course
• Setup Infusion Webform for 5-day course
• Ask Pete to embed this form for you, as well as handle any graphics improvements in your header image
• Write any copy you might need for the Free Week-Long Pass offer (email & webpage copy)
• Setup Email Templates for Free Week-Long Pass offer – make sure you’ve got enough to cover a few weeks (whatever that means)
• Setup Sequence for Free Week-Long Pass offer
• Setup Webform for Free Week-Long Pass offer
• Have Pete create and embed the big button for Free Week-Long PAss offer
• Have Pete create the page for the free week-long pass offer
• have Pete embed your webpage copy and embed your form for the Free Week-Long Pass offer
• go back to long-term nurture sequence for 5-day course… start writing copy for emails that come *after* the 5-day course is complete
• create email templates for those emails
• add to 5-day course sequence
• if necessary, go back to Free week-long pass offer, and add any necessary copy, email templates, sequence steps

….and now you’re in business for some automated lead generation and sales follow-up!  In two ways!!!  And you’re officially swinging with the BIGS.

Now that I’ve just prescribed a zillion items for your to-do list, aren’t you glad that you asked for my critique?

LOL

Tim

Have you ever built a list of people, got out of touch with them, then hopelessly felt that you had thrown away a great marketing asset?

Maybe you’ve compiled these people from a past:

- webinar
- live event
- seminar you’ve given
- past customers
- ….something else?

It can be kind of gut-wrenching to sit there and watch the list do NOTHING for you, yet wish there was something that you could do.

Here’s a solution…

1. Segment your list into the following categories:

a) people you’ve spoken with recently (less than 90 days)

- specific commonality #1… e.g. networking group
- specific commonality #2… e.g. friends from New York
- specific commonality #3… e.g. past customer
- etc….

b) people you haven’t spoken with for a long time (3 months or longer)

- specific commonality #1… e.g. networking group
- specific commonality #2… e.g. friends from New York
- specific commonality #3… e.g. past customer
- etc…

2) Based on each segment, send a really personalized message.

…in all situations, you really, really want people to feel as though you are speaking directly to them. If someone fits two categories, i.e. networking group member *and* past customer, I’m guessing that the “past customer” list would likely be the most intimate level that you could speak with someone at… so speaking to them from that perspective.

Notes:

1) Keep in mind you’ll be lucky to get 25% to re-activate, although 25% is better than 0%!

2) For those that are interested, that you have recently chatted with, it’s probably okay to add them more directly to your autoresponders, etc… won’t require incentivizing them as hard.  Might even feel impersonal if you do… in a few rare cases, you might even add them directly to your list.

3) For those that are over 90 days since you’ve chatted last, you most *definitely* want to send them an intermediary, reminder-of-who-I-am-and-what-I-can-do-for-you type of email. Likely with some kind of incentive to re-engage. You must be valuable and interesting to them.

4) Also, remember that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) usually get a little freaked out when they see 50 or more emails flooding through at the same time… they might flag your message as spam if you have any one segment larger than 50 people and you do a mass mail-merged broadcast to them (through Outlook or something like that).

Onwards and Upwards!

Tim