Monday, June 27, 2016

Ugly Marketing, Beautiful Profits

This marketing tactic is as easy to use as pen and paper.

In fact, it is pen and paper.

Here’s the tactic: Write your next sales letter by hand, with a pen. Then print and mail it.

When you do this, 3 good things happen:

1) You create a promotion that is instantly creative and 100% unique to you

2) Your recipients will appreciate the time you took to write a message “just for them” ... even if the original letter is mass-printed

3) Your recipients are more likely to read and respond to your letter

Here's an example, from one of my clients ...



When the dust settled, he earned $104,000 from $4,038 invested in that handwritten sales letter. 

That's an astounding ROI of 25.76 to 1.

I wrote the copy. He hand-wrote the letter. Then we printed and mailed it.

Why do hand-written letters work so well?

Think about it. Your prospects spend more of their life communicating by computer or smart phone than by pen and paper. Every day, they get credit card offers and bills in the mail. Maybe a catalog or two. But actual handwritten letters? Why, those are so rare, they're treated like gold ...

... which is EXACTLY how you want your sales letter to be treated.

A handwritten letter can work in any B2C or B2B market because markets don’t buy, people do. A person must read your promotion before they can respond to your offer.

And if you're thinking, "My handwriting is terrible!" -- sorry, that's not a valid excuse. Find someone who can write neatly. Start with your family. Do you have a teenager, as I do? Congratulations. You have child labor. And your costs to make a handwritten letter at home will be lower than Nike’s costs to make shoes in China.

Besides, you don’t need stylish handwriting. Ugly can be beautiful.

Case in point: The butt-ugly issue of my newsletter below ...


It was handwritten by me. And it's still the most-talked-about and responded-to issue I ever did. Ugly handwriting can be like a traffic accident -- people slow down to look at it. However, your ugly handwritten message must be relevant to your audience, or they will speed past it.

And here’s another twist: Hand-write your letter in crayon, instead of pen, and make the “author” one of your children or a relative’s child.

That’s what my client Bill Gough did for his insurance agency a few years ago. Take a look below. This is not hard ...


One more thing that should motivate you to try this: Your competition is, quite simply, NOT going to hand-write anything. Prove it to yourself. Answer this question: How many handwritten sales letters or messages of any kind have you seen from your competitors? I thought so. Now, do you see the opportunity?

Remember, when you turn the usual into the unusual, you can make your business remarkable, by creating an atmosphere where your prospects and clients tell others. When others are remarking about you to their friends, family, and co-workers, you are -- literally -- remarkable.  

Now take the next step.

Let's talk by phone about growing your business. I'll give you as many insights as I can fit into 30 minutes -- a micro seminar, if you will :-) No obligation. No sales pressure. Click below ...

Click here to book a call with Kevin Donlin now

Monday, June 6, 2016

The Strange Marketing Power of Chocolate



the strange marketing power of chocolate
Do you love chocolate?

I thought so.

Well, here’s one more reason to love chocolate: It can build your business.

Below is a transcript of a conversation I had with copywriter Tom Trush, from Phoenix, AZ.

Read it to discover the strange secret of how chocolate can boost your profits ... 

Kevin Donlin: "Tom, you had a story and it was kind of prompted from something you read in my Marketing Multipliers program where I often talk about creating new experience for your business using food, specifically, chocolate."

Tom Trush: "I was talking to a client who was definitely frustrated. He had a big deal lined up, so big that he had flown to Denver to meet with the prospect. 

"He thought the meeting went great and he followed up by email and it sounded like it was just a matter of getting the deal signed. But the prospect would not respond. He sent multiple emails over and over."

Kevin: "So, the trail went cold. Lots of emails, but nothing from the prospect?"

Tom: "Right. I know that you are a huge fan of direct mail, and I am, too. So I told him to change the medium from email -- because it’s just so easy to ignore -- and use regular mail.

"I suggested to he should put together a package and take the same information you’re sending by email, but change your format and send it by mail.

"Even better, send it FedEx or UPS. That would show some urgency and show you’re dedicated to this project.

"And I remembered what you suggested, Kevin, about how including a food gift like chocolate is an easy way to turn a direct mail piece into a sensory experience."

Kevin: "So what happened?"

Tom: "He popped some chocolates into the package and sent it off UPS ... and he said within two days he was on a call with the prospect to close the deal."

"Changing the format and delivering it via UPS really helped. But I think the chocolate was a big deal, too. It’s such a little thing, but how can you ignore chocolate? It adds an experience, you eat it and you remember it."

Kevin: "Right on all counts. Whether you send an express letter by UPS or FedEx, it can’t possibly go into a spam folder. It has to be opened. Keep that in mind when you compare the “cost” of email, which is free but increasingly ineffective, vs. the “cost” of an overnight letter.

"Second idea: Chocolate. When you’re eating chocolate, it’s impossible to be unhappy. So when you’re grinning and you’re reading a letter, your brain is making a connection between the two. It’s a powerful sensory experience.

"Compare that to reading an email on a laptop, iPad, or -- worst of all -- a mobile phone. That’s just text on a screen, visible for 3-5 seconds and then, poof! Deleted or achieved. Not nearly in the same league as a tangible letter plus a chocolate gift. And not nearly the same results."

Bottom line: Anyone can execute this idea. Find your best sales message, print it, add a nice gift of chocolate, and send it all FedEx or UPS.

But first, let me drop some science on you. There’s a chemical compound in chocolate, called phenethylamine (PEA).

PEA mimics the chemistry of your brain when you’re in love. Maybe that’s why chocolate is said to be an aphrodisiac. In any case, the chemicals in chocolate make people HAPPY ... and if you can make people HAPPY in business, you can do WELL in business.

 
Now, if you don’t see the value in investing $20 for all this, especially when it could make you back many hundreds or thousands of dollars ... well, you don’t have a business. You have a hobby. And you should stop pretending otherwise.

One more thing. 

If you found this idea helpful … and you want more clients like your best clients ... claim your Free Client Cloning Kit at www.clientcloningsystems.com