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Lots of people like to talk about the good old days. This is it! I think right now there are
more opportunities online for moonlighters to multi-national corporations if done right. To me, there's
no better time to be direct marketers than today - and I'll prove to you why you should
love it too...
Reason #1 - Direct Response: The Internet is a direct response medium and the exact same
techniques and strategies used in mail order, infomercials and direct mail apply here on the Web with
only minor tweaks. People don't get on the Internet and start acting like Martians. Sales
copy is still the King of the Internet. I don't care what your brilliant web designer says about pretty
pictures and graphics - it's still the words that sells. (Hmm...sound familiar?)
** Side note **
If you haven't yet checked out my comprehensive Internet copywriting course - you're missing out.
This thing is massive and gives you everything you need create sales generating copy for anything you
do online. Over 1579 written pages tabbed and indexed for you.
http://www.UltimateCopyWritingWorkshop.com
* * *
More, than anything else it's usually simple tweaks from the proven offline tactics that make
the web work. For instance, in direct mail Kennedy would use a lift note with a caption like "Please
read this only if you're undecided". Well, the same thing can be used brilliantly on the Web.
You could use the P.S. on your sales letter with the wording, "Please c1ick here if you're still
undecided".
Then that's a pop-up or another page just like a lift-note.
Easy.
Reason #2 - Testing is super fast: Unlike traditional offline media it's takes a lot of
time to test different headlines and ads. It could be months from lead time to release. Well, on the
Internet we can get nearly instant results using Google Ad Words. Google Ad Words are the
little boxes you see to the right anytime you do a search on Google. (You can learn more about this
from Perry Marshall who wrote the definitive work on this -
www.AdwordsToolkit.com). Now the absolute best thing about using Google Ad Words is that in about 15
minutes we have be split testing 2 different ads. You can be testing your headline or parts or different
appeals literally in minutes. So before you run an expensive ad you could test $10 of Google Traffic to
see what works better.
Of course, split testing can also be used brilliantly on your own web page. If you are getting
a good deal of traffic you can be split-testing different headlines, offers, prices, call-to-actions,
etc for come up with the ideal sales copy. Then your best control can then be exploited in all kinds
of other more expensive mediums.
Reason #3 - Instant Response! With the power of email marketing you can literally come up
with an idea in the morning and test it during the day to see if people buy from your site. So if you
need money to pay for your kid's "sweet sixteen" party - you just simply email out a special
offer to your list. My friend, Jeff Walker, who is also speaking at the Underground Seminar said he
doesn't have a college fund for his kids - he has a list. :)
Reason #4 - Lead generation: Originally everything was free online - but now the smart
people are stepping forward and making the free stuff come with a price. That price is capturing at
bare minimum name and email. Though the real money comes from getting all the data - I'm talking full
name, full address, phone#, fax#, etc. That way we can keep following up on prospects until they buy
or until they die!
Email only is not going to cut it. You could be using a free report, book, tape, CD, whitepaper, etc -
do whatever you can to capture the full information because there's a whole lot of money in the follow-up.
Which brings us to reason #5...
Reason #5 - Auto Pilot Follow-up: It's even easier to follow-up online using
autoresponders than anything else.
You can be out on the beach, skiing in the Rockies or just sleeping and a little automatic email
"robot" will be working for you day and night. You simply need to do the work once to program
a series of messages and you have a different sequence or "curriculum" for customers (depending
on what they bought), prospects, etc. Most people never follow-up enough - it's not too hard to even add
offline customers to online autoresponders with 2 seconds of data entry. My absolute #1 recommended
resource for following-up is
http://autoresponder2.yanikrecommends.com
Reason #6 - Personalization: Online you really have the opportunity to personalize a whole
lot easier than offline.
Even simple things from having a person's name appear on the website. If you promoting to your own list -
there are simple scripts you can use that will automatically add a person's first name to your web page.
That's easy.
Or another way is if you are using an "name capture" before they get to your sales
message - why not use the data they give to personalize the next web page they are taken to. Ask any
techno geek - this is simple stuff and powerful. I've seen documented results of major increases
simply from personalizing sales letters. Why not do it online, too? If you want see a really interesting
way I'm using this check out these 2 sites:
http://www.undergroundonlineseminar.com
This one is a fun way of getting their info
http://www.ultimatecopywritingworkshop.com
This one is a bribe that then creates a personalization on the page (scroll all the way down).
Reason #7 - Niche, niche, niche: I can't even count the times my marketing mentor, Dan
Kennedy has harped to me that you should be niching your products. About a zillion and counting! Well,
with the Internet, targeting a precise message to market match is much, much easier.
Let's say you're a mortgage broker. Now instead of just selling your services to every home
owner the exact same way - you can actually create specific "landing" pages for specific
marketplaces. So if are advertising to doctors - your sales page only has testimonials and examples of
doctors saving money on their mortgage. But that's not good enough; if you really want to thoroughly
target - you can even go further. You could target individual specialties. So by placing ads where
cardiologists will see it online - you can direct them to a landing page with a headline
"Mortgages Just for Cardiologists", etc. etc..
Fact is, with a little techno wizardry - you could have your page dynamically change based on
where people come from. It is a simple variable that any "techie" can make work for you. So
for example, if the headline is "If You're A _<variable>_ You Can Saave Up To 57% On Your Home
Mortgage". That variable would be inserted into your letter depending on where people clicked from.
Reason #8 - Locating a responsive niche: Not only can you match the message to more
specific markets but you can also quickly and easily find niches that are nearly impossible
to find offline.
One of the best things about the Internet is that people have already grouped themselves into
niches. If you go to http://groups.google.com - you can find a
group for some pretty obscure topics. Or go to the regular Google.com and type in "whatever
subject" + discussion forum or message board - you'll be amazed.
Two quick examples to really bring this home to you....
First, I have a 19-year old student, Nathan, who is selling to a tiny, tiny group of interested
car buffs. These guys are interested in swapping out the engines from their Honda Accords into a Honda
Prelude body because a Prelude is lighter and they want more speed. He's selling them instruction on how
to do an "engine swap" the right way without blowing up the motor. Last I heard, this kid is
making over $2000/month very part-time from his college dorm room.
Next, I have another student, Abby Rohrer, one of my Apprentices, and she is selling an ebook on
how to stop obsessive hair pulling. She's already sold hundreds of copies of her ebook at $39/pop in just
a few months and she's just getting started.
The big thing I want to make sure you get is that without the Internet it would be nearly
impossible to find these "micro niches". Plus, by crafting a message exactly for this niche
group - they believe the product is just for them and they are more likely to buy.
Reason #10 - Tracking is superior: Every single click on your web page can be monitored,
tracked and recorded. You can see exactly how a visitor traveled through your site, which pages they
clicked on, how long they stayed. Yep, this is one of the greatest strengths of the web and we can
easily see which links are getting people to click (or not click depending on the case).
Just this one point is like being a mind reader and you can figure which Call-To-Action made
your visitors order.
Or how about this one? You can even find out how far visitors got in your sales letter. It's
true, a software called Clickalyzer will
actually figure out the x/y coordinates of how far a prospect scrolled down in your sales letter or web
page so you can extrapolate where they are bailing out. (There are probably others as well.)
With direct mail or print ads - there's never, ever been a way to do that. But on the web - with
the magic of technology - you can. Another point for the Internet :)
Reason #11- Instant Feedback! Want to know why your page isn't selling? Want to find out
why your offer flopped?
Simple - just ask. Just imagine if at the moment a prospect threw your direct mail piece into the
trashcan - you could stop them and ask why they aren't buying. This simply can't happen offline.
But online you can engineer just such an event. One way is to have a pop-up on your site that
only comes up after the person is trying to leave your site. Obviously they aren't buying - so this is
an opportune time to ask them for advice. Your pop-up bribes your prospect with something for free in
exchange for their honest feedback. This is also another great way for figuring out additional objectives
that might be hindering your sale.
* Advanced Strategy * If you're really sneaky you can use their objectives and counter it
directly in a follow-up email. If you've been using an "advice" exit pop-up for a little while
you'll obviously see common answers. What you do is put those common objectives into a pull down menu.
Then that would trigger an autoresponder message which especially mentions and counters their objective.
And our final reason....(drum roll please)...
Reason #12 - Fixed cost per sale: Would you pay me a quarter or fifty cents for every
dollar I brought in of sales for sale? How about if you only paid me after the sale was made and money
was deposited in your bank account? Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well, essentially I'm
talking about an affiliate program.
As the merchant you can run your own Affiliate/Associate/Reseller program and pay affiliates
only after they've made sales for you. That means you have a fixed cost per sale no matter what. You
don't have to worry that your advertising expenditure isn't going to cover your sales. There's almost
no way to lose on this. My affiliate program pays out 45% on our digital products. So I know my fixed
cost per sales on a $39.97 sale is $17.99. I make money on the front end and even more money on the
back-end.
All these reasons and more - make the Internet more and more profitable for savvy marketers...even
if you're a complete computer "dunce" like I am.
Copyright Yanik Silver
Just 31-years old, Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on creating automatic, moneymaking
web sites...and he's only been online full time since February 2000! Yanik is a highly sought after
speaker and attendees regularly pay up to $4,995.00 per person to hear his secrets.
He is the author, co-author or publisher of several best-selling online marketing books and tools,
which can be found at www.SurefireMarketing.com
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