Sell Me One Thing At A Time

Ok, this is a big pet peeve of mine.

Just now, I get an email from a well-known Internet Marketer.  Skim it and decide his message is interesting enough for me to find out about more about his offer…

I get to the long copy sales page and start reading the headline, but in less than 10 seconds - the screen darkens and a box slides down from the top telling me to give him my first name and primary email address & he’ll send me an “oh so special” eBook absolutely free.

What’s going on?  He was talking to me about something completely different!

Does this IM master not realize that he just blasted me with a commercial inside a commercial?

He has just asked me to decide which pitch to allow.

Do I want to invest in continuing to read his sales copy knowing that it may or may not be worth my time, but I will definitely be asked to hand over cash in the end - or should I just give him my name and email addy and get my hands on this eBook.  Try a free sample of what he offers to see if what he hands out is even worth my time, let alone my $.

Not to mention the fact that he barely gave me enough time to get sucked in by the first headline and he switches channels on me - who cares if he does own both stations?

I was so bothered, I just closed out of everything and went back to reading emails.

For anyone who doesn’t have a clear understanding of what I mean, think about this…

Your sales page is the Internet’s equivalent of your face-to-face close.  It has to cover all the elements a good in-person close will cover (and then some).

Now imagine you’re pitching in person and, just after you open, a stranger drops down from the sky, puts their hand over your mouth and starts selling your prospects on something completely different.

That is exactly what happens when you try to sell one person on two different outcomes.  Sure, you’ll still have conversions, but certainly less that you would if you closed them without distractions and multiple goals.  And I’m not talking about upsells or add-ons.

So, to that Internet Marketer, I say, “Stop it! Stop trying to make a sale and build a list all at once.  If your sales page and product are great quality, you’ll capture people’s names when they buy.

Set-up a separate funnel for list building or that other product.  Just be grateful you have my attention to listen to one!

OK, and now we return to our regularly scheduled program!

No Recession, No How, No Way!

Well, it is been ages since I posted - my bad!

But the Universe, my clients, and my publisher have been very, very good to me.

I’ve had more work then I can handle.  I’m not bragging - I’m forever grateful and humbled for everything that is coming my way!

Not only have I been swamped, but I’ve been swamped with amazing clients.  The cream of the crop!  Quality people, quality offerings, quality missions.  I recently dubbed myself “Copywriter to the Sexy and Profitable Stars“.  They like it, I like it.  Who’s going to argue?! Ha!

But enough of that - you aren’t here to read about my life, you want to know what I can do for you.

And I respect that…

First off, repeat after me. “There is no recession in my World.”  Repeat it again and again and again.  Repeat it until you believe it!

Because if you don’t, you’re screwed.  Seriously - SCREWED! (And I’m not talking about the fun way either!)

So, now you’re saying to me, “But you don’t know my situation.  I’ve got <blah> <blah> <blah>…” Fill in the blahs with whatever “poor me”-type sob story you want.

If that is what you are saying, then quite frankly, YOU ARE RIGHT!  Pack it up and call it a day because you have just given your power over to someone or something else.  And reading this is a waste of time.

But, you can choose to believe that there really is no recession.  Think about it.  There is no less $ in the world.

As Stuart Wilde says money is energy.  It doesn’t leave the atmosphere. It merely flows somewhere else.  So, if money isn’t flowing to you, go to where the money is flowing.  Change your mindset, change your business model, change your business.

Here’s an interesting business model to study.  This woman has become wildly successful and I only heard about her today.

Here’s her website http://www.flylady.net/index.asp

Her name is Marla Cilley and she is known as the FLYLady.  FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself.

Her store sells her books and cleaning equipment.  (Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?) <grin>

Here’s one of her videos:

Go Shine Your Sink

Now, I get it, but I’m not jumping out of my chair to buy something.

So why am I telling you to model her?

She has a little list.  Well, it isn’t a traditional aweber thing.  She built her list in Yahoo Groups.

Yahoo just recognized her because her little list just logged its 500,000 subscriber.

So, let’s see - no aweber, site ends in .net, sells books and cleaning equipment AND has been able to build a 500K name list of rabid fans .  Hmmm?

So, what are you waiting for?

Definitely no recession in her World.  And I hope there isn’t one in your World either.

xoxo

Did You See This?

Jay Simic, one of the crew, has just launched a November Challenge like none I’ve seen before.  I’d give you the details, but I’m not at liberty to discuss them.

Google “omerta,” and you’ll understand everything.

But let me tell you, he’s one smart copywriter, and when he does something like this, it makes everyone sit up and take notice.  To see more of what this is about, check out his site here.  And go ahead and ask him about his wild-a** November Challenge.

I’ll tell you this much: you won’t be disappointed.

-Kevin Dawson

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Yesterday, I was talking about how you can’t cure stupid.  But I took on a client who didn’t have the brains God gave a tree stump … so I suppose I wasn’t much brighter.

This person was afraid of offending their list and was afraid to try to “sell” to them.   So why bother to have a list?  Running a non-profit agency, are we?

So I’m going to be cool and show this client how to sell.  (Again, to a list that had never been sold to before.)  True to form, the first email that went out got one response that resented how a sales message was being pushed … and the recipient asked to be taken off the list.

My client recoiled in horror.

Well, what did they expect?  If you have a list you never sell to, then you’ve trained them that way.  Now all of a sudden you try to sell to them, you’re likely to get some of them p. o’d.

But what’s the point of having a list if not to sell to them?  And why would you want someone on your list if they are going to resent you for selling to them?  Or are you running a popularity contest, and want to be liked?

To me, one of the best ways  to be liked is to have people give me money.

Now get this … another client actually phoned her.  Sorry, I love the people on my list, but I don’t usually take calls from them.  Anyways, they asked if my client was angry at the affiliate that my client was promoting?   Instead of my client responding with a good-natured chuckle and explaining the letter, the client instead went ballistic.

Yes, my client was so shocked that they immediately stopped all copy from proceeding.   I was fired on the spot.

Good thing.  My client beat me to the punch.

Any marketer with any savvy knows that a list will respond to however you choose to train it.  Train it to ignore or delete your emails because they are boring, or offer no value, and that’s what your list will do.  Offer your people value, and they’ll open and read what you send them.

Entertain, inform, and offer them a good value.  That’s the million dollar formula that I’ve used with great success.

But having a list and NOT selling to it is about the most namby-pamby, wussy thing you can do … and it will severely limit your business growth.  See, you’ve trained them to suck in information free from you, and that’s the basis of your relationship.  Try and change that, and yes, it’ll rock the boat.

Like, try to change the basis of your relationship with your spouse and see what happens.

So, I wasted a lot of hours, trying to educate this client.  I also did not receive a cent from them. I wanted the copy to prove to them its value, since they were shocked at having to actually spend money.  I was going to show them how the copy will pay for itself by taking the risk upfront, not charging until it produced results.  Yep, I was the Boy Scout, out to do my good deed, and not take a cent until clearly earned.

True to form, no good deed goes unpunished.

In the end, they offered to pay me, maybe just to get rid of me.  I refused to accept any money from the client.  The failure was theirs for not having a clue as to what they were getting into, and getting freaked out over one or two negative responses.

If I accept pay from them, it’s almost like I’m complicit in their stupidity.  Hell, I’ve got enough of my own to deal with.

So what I WILL do is accept the responsibility for being just as big of an idiot in my own way … for trying to cure someone’s stupidity.

And no, I don’t mean ignorance.  I mean stupidity.

Someone who is ignorant to the ways of direct response, but asks for it anyway, then drops it like a hot potato at the first sign of someone not liking them, is far beyond ignorant.

But then I knew ahead of time that trying to write for a client and educate them at the same time is a losing proposition.  It’s like trying to teach a pig to sing: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig.

Sure hope I don’t make that mistake again.

-Kevin Dawson

You Can’t Cure Stupid

As a copywriter, you possess awesome powers.  You can take someone who’s tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and make them into a millionaire in a couple of weeks.  You can transform a failing business into a cash generating powerhouse.  You can persuade people to donate to a cause, or vote for a certain political candidate.  You can even  develop a cult-like group of fans who follow your every move, and want to buy any product you put out … just because it’s yours.

But you can’t cure stupid.

I have painfully discovered this for the third time in my career.  A prospective client asks me, “What’s the cost of writing some sales copy for my website?”

That immediately raised a flag.  It’s the classic amateur question from someone who’s probably never used a copywriter before.  I asked back, “What’s your experience with direct marketing?”

“None, really.  I just got your name from someone else.”

Since the potential client seemed very nice, and the source of the referral was a regular, I decided I take on the job, despite my misgivings.

The first sample I sent got a response, “Oh, I could never send something like that to my list.  It doesn’t reflect my personality.”

“Well, of course not.  You tell me you don’t understand direct response, so how could you possibly send out a direct response piece in ‘your personality?’ ”

“Oh, yes.  I see.  Well, I never wanted to do anything tacky like these emails that I see that just try to sell.”

Okay, another red flag.  So to show the client the value of a professionally written email, I asked, “What’s your present open stats and your click-through stats?”

“I don’t track them, because then the links would not look so pretty.”

That should have told me all I needed to know to fire them, right then and there.  But nooooooo, I had to be Mr. Nice Guy, (read: idiot)  and try and help.

Check back tomorrow to find out how no good deed goes unpunished.

Kevin Dawson

The ‘Porno’ actress playing Laura Bush

Did you see the CNN headline Sep 16.

Yep, it’s true.

Elizabeth Banks is going to be playing the First Lady in the new Oliver Stone film…

But what does that have to do with copywriters…?

The headline!

It’s an attention getter.  It got me to look. 

This reminds me of the National Enquirer style headlines.

The job of the headline is to get you reading the story - and it did.  The problem was the next few sentences weren’t as good as the headline so I dropped off pretty quickly.

Let that be a lesson.  As a copywriter it’s your job to get the attention of your reader… and keep it.

Now I know this is a short message and I’ve already gotten my message across, so I won’t bore you. 

Jay Simcic
Freelance Copywriter

Six Figures In A Week…

… Is it possible.

Hell yes!

I’m back from Doc Kilstein’s Six Figures In A Week seminar.  And if you didn’t attend you missed some good stuff.

As a copywriter wanting to push the six figure barrier easily and quickly, Kilstein gives you the map.

All you have to do is listen and take action.

The people who attended where in utter shock at the ideas, strategies, and tactics Kilstein let out of the bag.

Every copywriter should go to his seminars because the stuff that he taught was crazy good and will straight up skyrocket conversion rates.

He did record the seminar but I don’t think he’s selling them.  I’m not 100% sure if he’s giving any deals for you to join his coaching group, you should call him up and ask.

I won’t give away the fact that his coaching group is by far the best program that can happen to almost any copywriter and really catapult your career, I’ll let you determine that on your own.

He grilled us by day with information and pounded us with homework by night.  It was total immersion marketing training with ultra ninja secrets he’s been working on.

I seriously couldn’t believe some of the stuff he is testing.

Only one warning I have, don’t join his coaching group unless you want to take action and drive to six figures.  Because he’ll show you how to get there.

Every copywriter should check it out.

Till my next golf and copywriting metaphor,

I’m out.

Jay Simcic
Copywriter

How An Evening With Tiger Woods Made Me A Better Copywriter

I looked at the number on caller I.D. and didn’t recognize the number… but decided to pick up the call anyway.

“Hello, this is Jay”

“Hi Jay this is Tiger Woods”

Ok, I’m thinking … OMG … Is this a joke…

“Yes”, I said.

“Jay, I was reading your blog posts and really enjoyed them. Would you be willing to meet me tomorrow evening at my home for some dinner and a little chit chat?”

Uh… hmm… LOL

“Yes, I would love to.”, I said.

“Ok, great. I’ll put my agent on and he’ll set everything up for you.”, said Tiger.

Well, now my stomach’s turning. What is Tiger Woods doing reading a lonely little copywriter’s blog posts. I have no idea what’s going on but I’m not going to pass it up.

So let’s fast forward.

I’m at his house. I walk up to the door. It was hot and a little humid (Florida). Nothing I can’t handle. It was absolutely beautiful….

Holy smokes… Tiger answers the door. I can’t believe this…

So as I walk in, there are marble statues along the hall. We walk into a ginormous living room. It’s beautiful. I can’t get over this. As I turn to the left i see out into his backyard and see a par 3 hole with a small pond in the middle.

“Tiger, thank you for asking me over, but what can I do for you?”, I said.

“Jay, I want to teach you how to use power in your golf swing and then show you how that translates into other areas of life including copywriting. I know you’re a copywriter and by leveraging power you put wallop in your letters. It’s mechanical in nature, the same way a golf swing uses proper form and mechanics.”

So on the lesson went. He took me out back in his yard and showed me the mechanics of generating power. The use of hips, torque between the shoulders and hips, along with the fluidity of everything coming together. When I watched him swing it was like a symphony in motion.

I still couldn’t believe I was at Tiger Woods’ house.

Right after he taught me some of the mechanics we went inside to grab some dinner.

It was then that I woke up. Yes, it was all a dream…

I wasn’t really there, but I was in mind and I did learn a lesson.

The power as a copywriter is generating stories that grab attention. It’s about using every technique you’ve learned and applying them in a way that doesn’t show abrupt changes.

A copywriter has to be fluid in the way he presents his case to the prospect. Otherwise they won’t buy.

You must have everything connected and used properly in your letter in order to garner the proper transference of power.

It’s simple as that… and I got it from an evening with Tiger Woods… albeit in my dreams, either way it was fun.

Yours truly,

Jay Simcic
Website Copywriter

P.S.: I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve teamed up with my partner in crime Leah Carson to start Real Estate Marketing Makeover. It’s a real treat to apply marketing and copywriting for the benefit of real estate marketing professionals around the world. Check it out by clicking the link… RealEstatemarketingMakeOver.com

Golf And Copywriters - Another Sports Analogy

Yes, I like to connect copywriting and sports.  I especially enjoy golf and really wanted to tie this in.

What is it about a golfer that parallels a copywriter?

There are so many things to talk about but the first will be rhythm.

Every tour professional golfer, when they swing every club in their bag, has a nice rhythm.

It’s like a symphony of motion.  Every body part works in tandem to produce the music of a great round.

A copywriter is no different.  Each part of a piece of copy must work together.  Each part must compliment the other to work like a world class symphony.

The headline must flow into the deck copy the same way the back swing must flow into the down swing.

The deck copy must compel the prospect to read the first sentence just as the down swing is designed to transfer power into the ball.

They all work together.  A copywriter knows if the letter is a winner just as a golfer knows, at impact, if the ball will fly straight.

The follow through of a golf swing is just like the P.S. of a letter. It’s necessary and there is power lost in both if you leave it out or if it’s weak.

There’s a lot more to it than that and I’ll be getting into these parallels a little deeper over the following weeks.  So if nothing else you should realize that rhythm is important.  In golf, in life, and in copywriting.

In my next post I’ll be talking about power.

Jay Simcic
Website Copywriter

How 3 New Kings of Copywriting Got Started

As you know, the contributors to this blog (well, yeah, they contribute when not snowed under with work from clients) all met in a unique seminar given by Dr. Harlan Kilstein.  They’ve become great friends ever since.  In fact, they stay in contact with nearly all of the intimate group that Harlan arranged to meet in Las Vegas.

Imagine one of the masters of copywriting, personally teaching his secrets for rapid copy development, looking over your shoulder to make sure you have it right, and then teaching you how to position yourself to make six figures.

And he did this in the span of a week.

Even though most of us never wrote a word of copy before, you’d be amazed if I told you the overwhelming percentage of us that are now making a living at this, less than six months later!

Now here’s the strange part … when you crunch the numbers, and figure out how much it cost Doc to put it on, he about broke even.  So why’d he do it?  Spend a week of his time, purposely limiting it to 10 participants, just so they could compete with him?

But competition wasn’t a factor.  Actually, he gave me my very first lead the second day of the seminar.  Yikes!  I nearly swallowed my pen because I was hyperventilating so hard.  Still, why’d he run a seminar for a full week at break-even, when he could have instead made tens of thousands doing his own stuff?

Not too long ago, I ran that question by Anthony Coyne, one of his proteges, and also an up and coming SEO specialist.  Anthony just shrugged his shoulders, and said, “He’s got a big heart.  Look, he had to claw and scratch his way to the top.  When he sees some of the nonsense out there that passes for education, I think it hits a soft spot.  All I know is that I’d be nowhere without him.”

Thinking about how all three of us have gotten to know the old tough-guy since, well… Anthony’s got a point.  In fact, we’ve found the best way to make him happy is to show him our success.  He takes an immense amount of pride whenever one of his students does well.

I actually maxed out my credit card to fly down to Vegas and stay in a hotel.  I was scared silly that I wasn’t going to be good enough to enter the seminar. I tracked down one of his top copywriters and video expert, Leah Carson, to see if I was going to make the cut.  She told me, as delicately as possible, to quit worrying, because between her and Harlan, they’d make sure I was ready to call myself a copywriter … in a week’s time.

I had a personal interview with Harlan first.

Him: “How much experience do you have as a copywriter?”

Me: (in a cold sweat) “Uh, none.  Yet.”

Him: “Good.  Two things: you said yet, which is an excellent sign you’ll succeed.  Second, I’m glad you don’t have any experience.  No bad habits to unlearn.  Either way is fine.  You’ll do great.”

His statements were prophetic for all three of us.  If you have any doubt, just try and get ahold of any of us for a rush job!

Rumor has it that Harlan’s going to be conducting another one of these “6 Figures in a Week” seminars soon.  If so, I’ll have my ear close enough to the ground to let you know.  Last time he ran it, it sold out in less than 24 hours … after all, it has to be small enough for him to give the personal attention that he does … so he only lets 10 people in.

I promise to let you know as soon as this becomes available, but the rest is up to you.  It’s about the fastest way to become a successful copywriter known to man and woman alike.