| It's a direct-marketing technique that's been around since that industry was born. And with the Internet, it's only gotten more effective and produces results even faster. Google AdWords expert Howie Jacobson gives you the scoop in today's essay. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- What a Difference 14 Cents a Day Can Make What is it that you would like to accomplish in 2010? How about this... -
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"[Internet marketing] done right is all about being wrong. Experimentation is the only way. No one really knows whether that page will rank #1 in Google; no one really knows which paid search copy will get the highest click rate. Even experts can't tell you which content will attract the most links. You just have to try it and see." Mike Moran, IBM How AdWords Could Have Gotten Me a Date in 1978
By Howie Jacobson This one time, in 1978, I tried to get a date for the 8th grade Valentine's Day dance at my junior high school. Acting like the marketer I would become, I first selected my target market of girls I was interested in, based mainly on their demonstrated ability to spend 20 minutes in my company without getting grossed out or offended. Having narrowed my market, I next chose my medium. Face to face was out of the question, as the only way to get one of those girls alone would have been to shove her in a janitor's closet. So the medium would be the telephone. One night, about two weeks before the dance, I purloined the corded phone in my parents' bedroom, locked myself in my room with a phonebook, and prepared for my first foray into outbound telemarketing. It wasn't going to be pretty. I was cursed with limited sales experience and a rather dubious product: three hours with me in a school cafeteria doing the Bump and the Hustle to what we knew even then was some of the worst music ever created. Not to mention the obligatory slow dances. So I knew I would have to practice. Luckily, I had expanded my prospect list to include several dozen girls who barely knew I existed and, therefore, could be counted on not to have any predisposition to say no to my suggestion of a date. I found the phone number of the first one and tried to dial. As my shaking finger punched the last digit, I realized with a shudder that I had forgotten the name of the girl I was calling. A man's voice answered, "Hello?" "Urggly," I said. "Hello?" he repeated. I began to panic. I had to do something. "Um, hi, is there an 8th grade girl at this location?" I stammered through the asthma I had just mysteriously acquired. "Who is this?" the voice demanded, in a somewhat hostile tone, I thought. As I hung up, I remember feeling distinctly grateful that Caller ID would not be invented for another decade or so. I obviously needed a plan. So I wrote a script, complete with openings crafted for any eventuality: phone answered by prospect, by prospect's parent, by prospect's sibling, by answering machine, by random burglar, etc. I practiced that script in the mirror for several hours. Then I returned to the phone and started dialing. This time, I took note of the name of my prospect -- Ilene, a girl who went to my Hebrew school and was, therefore, morally obliged to pretend to tolerate me, at least when her parents were watching. I dialed six digits and then hung up before I could consummate the call, certain that my opening line of, "Hello, is Ilene there?" was going to be a total bomb. I crossed it out and wrote, "Hi, may I speak with Ilene please?" But that seemed too formal. "Hi, is Ilene there?" seemed to convey the right tone, but I didn't approve of the cadence. And so on... Long story, short (well, not so short, but not as long as it could have been), I didn't make a single call. I procrastinated by drinking water, doing my social studies essay three days early, brushing my teeth several times, and even gargling once. I think I might have actually practiced my violin at one point. Finally, exhausted and ashamed, I returned the phone to my parents' room, caught the 11:00 p.m. rerun of M*A*S*H, and went to bed. This brings me -- in a rather roundabout way -- to what I want to talk about today: testing and tracking, a key strategy for marketing success. You see, no matter what your online conversion rate, the success of your telephone close, or the effectiveness of your newspaper advertising, if you aren't routinely testing different approaches and measuring results, you are leaving the lion's share of business on the table. Mail-order companies have known about testing and tracking for almost a hundred years. But it was a well-kept secret, largely because it was a tremendously difficult endeavor. If you wanted to test two different headlines in a newspaper ad, you had to figure out a way to get half of the papers to show one headline and the other half to show the second headline. Major logistical nightmare. And then you needed a way to determine which customer saw which ad. Also not easy. And then you had to keep track of the results by using a paper spreadsheet or ancient punch-card-eating mainframe. In the old days, testing was for the big boys only. And those who did it accumulated unbeatable advantages over their competitors. Their major task was to beat their "control," to discover a new approach that was even better than their current best one. For example, here are two headlines for a correspondence course in English grammar: 1. The Man Who Simplified English
2. Do You Make These Mistakes in English? Headline #1 was a failure, while Headline #2 was a smash hit. Interesting, huh? (This example, and the one that follows, is from John Caples's book Tested Advertising Methods, 4th Edition.) How about this pair, for a hair-growth tonic? 1. 60 Days Ago They Called Me "Baldy"
2. If I Can't Grow Hair for You in 30 Days You Get This Check Which one did better, #1 or #2? Before you answer, consider that both headlines were considered strong enough to run by some of the smartest, most experienced, highest paid advertising copywriters in the world. (Keep reading for the answer.) If those copywriters couldn't tell for sure which one would be best, then how can you or I expect to find the perfect headline, offer, photo, story, price, guarantee, proof, testimonial, etc. to sell our goods and services? There's no way, unless... unless... unless we can find a way to run our own tests and figure out the results. And for those of us who do our marketing online, that's not a problem. Enter (trumpets blaring) Google AdWords. With AdWords, you can test in minutes or days what used to take months. You can figure out for dimes what used to cost tens of thousands of dollars. You can test ads, landing pages, order forms, e-mail sequences -- everything about your online sales process. And it's easier than calling Ilene on the phone and asking for a date (in my experience). That awkward segue brings me back to my Valentine's Day Dance Sales Failure. I failed not because I called 45 girls and they all told me to get lost. No. I failed because I didn't call any of them. I was prepared with several approaches, and it's certainly possible that at least one of them would have worked. But because I didn't try anything, I didn't learn anything. So when the 9th grade talent show/social rolled around the following year, I was no better equipped to get a date than I had been the year before. The point is, if you're just serving one Web page to all your visitors, you're not learning. You're not improving. And if you're standing still online, you're falling back. So... which one of those headlines for the hair-growth tonic do you think did better? Turns out that Headline #1 (60 Days Ago They Called Me "Baldy") did much better than Headline #2 (If I Can't Grow Hair for You in 30 Days You Get This Check). In the old days, a lot of time and money had to be spent to get the answer. But nowadays, give me a Google account and $10, and I can give you a headline that can double your sales almost instantly. [Ed. Note: Testing is the only way you can determine whether your marketing efforts are working -- or draining your coffers. And you can make money a lot faster with insider secrets for testing your product. The good news is you have the opportunity to get "mentored" by a team of business-building and marketing experts at our Information Marketing Bootcamp in November. Bootcamp won't be officially offered for several months. But you can reserve your spot -- and get VIP seating, access to speakers, and more -- today. Make sure you don't miss out on this sure-to-sell-out event. Get all the details here. Howie Jacobson is an Internet marketing expert specializing in pay-per-click advertising. To discover why most AdWords campaigns fail and how to make yours succeed, download Howie's free AdWords Emergency Room Report at www.askhowie.com.] -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- The Greatest Dirty Little Secret of the Internet To make money as an entrepreneur, you've got to constantly scour the earth for high-quality, in-demand products. You could create new ones. But that can be expensive. Time-consuming. And after all the work... you might wind up with nothing. But a few of the Internet's top marketers have found a way around this problem. They don't spend time (or money) on products that may or may not sell. Instead, they pluck moneymakers from a reserve of pre-made products and sales promotions. A martial arts expert from Florida has turned this strategy into a small fortune. He estimates that one "pre-made product" made over $20,000 in one month... Another has gone on to pull in over $332,250. Discover how he found these moneymakers... And learn how you could use this secret to make anywhere from a few hundred bucks a month to a few hundred thousand bucks a year right here.
The Right Way to Ask For, and Get, Referrals By Pete Savage Asking a client for a referral is no big deal. Provided the timing is right, there's no reason to worry that you'll look pushy, presumptuous, or out of place. To boost your chances of success, however, it's important to know just how to ask. For example, if you just blurt out "Do you know anyone who could use my services?" with all the sensitivity of a masochistic game show host, what answer are you likely to get? "Ohhh... mmmmm... no." Asking the question in that manner puts your client on the spot. It makes her brain lock up. End of conversation. Instead, ease into it. Use very casual, but courteous, language to make a very specific request. Something like this: "Referrals are the primary way I grow my business. And since you're happy with the way this project has turned out, I wonder if I can ask you for the names of three people who might have a need for my services, either now or sometime in the future. Would that be okay?" Every happy client will say "Certainly." And then you ask for the three names. You may only get two names, or one, but consider this: If you ask 15 people for three names, and you get an average of two names each time, that's 30 potentially warm prospects placed right in your lap! [Ed Note: This great tip comes from Pete Savage's new book, The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle, which Michael Masterson describes as "... chock full of useful, profitable ideas. Written by pros, this book is an excellent tool for anyone who wants better clients and a higher income." Buy The Wealthy Freelancer this week and you can get up to $300 worth of FREE bonus videos, teleseminar recordings, and ebooks to help you take your freelance or consulting business to the next level. These handpicked instructional materials normally sell for up to $97 each. Pete's giving them away FREE -- but only if you buy The Wealthy Freelancer by Friday. Don't miss this special offer! Click here to grab the book and bonus materials today.]
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Today's Words That Work: Purloin To purloin (per-LOIN) -- from the French for "to remove" -- is to steal/take dishonestly. Example (as used by Howie Jacobson today): "One night, about two weeks before the dance, I purloined the corded phone in my parents' bedroom, locked myself in my room with a phonebook, and prepared for my first foray into outbound telemarketing."
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