Last year whenever we looked at our beautiful plum tree, we tasted bitterness – not the sweet taste of plums we had hoped for . . .

A late spring frost had taken out most of our crop. Thousands of promising little orbs that we had been celebrating in May just blackened and fell off.

Our neighbor up the road, who makes a living off of his orchard, noted this unseasonable chill was a tough blow to his fruit business.

And he wasn’t the only one hit by the late chill. Our friend, Wendy, with whom we partner in raising pigs told us she had lost a hundred or so chicks to the late drop in temperature.

And this was on top of losing almost a full litter of piglets when the mother pig rolled over on them as they snuggled close. Wendy confessed she had literally broken down in tears at this event.

However, as bad as each of these small tragedies were, each of us had backup plans that compensated a bit. Our friend with the orchard had a stellar peach crop (the blossoms came a bit later).

Wendy had a good herd of beef cattle growing fat on her pasture.

And while the plums didn’t come through, we had some nice strawberries and our pear tree stunned us with its heavy load.

Farming teaches you one thing in stark terms – diversify or fall prey to nature’s whims.

Marketing isn’t much different . . .

3 Benefits Of Multichannel Marketing

In marketing, too, you’ll fare better if you don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. (Surely a bit of wisdom coined by some farmer who didn’t see the rock in his path!)

When you diversify, you create a stronger safety net for your business, bottom line. But there’s more to diversifying into other channels than just safety. Diversifying your marketing can also bring you stronger results and more credibility.

Over the past few months I’ve written magalog copy, print newsletters, online ezines, website pages, SEO copy, social media copy, autoresponders, sales letters and video scripts.

My clients are eliciting response through a variety of formats.

For the record, the web hasn’t taken over. Email is not dead. And yes, people still read a solid letter they can hold in their hands.

Why Go Through The Expense Of Direct Mail Marketing?

As MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson write in their rich book, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways To Make Millions For Your Business,

If you embrace multi-channel marketing, you will see improvements in your business almost immediately. And those improvements will continue at lightning speed, transforming your business into something much greater than it is now. How big and how fast it grows is up to you.
- MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson, Changing the Channel

The trend is huge. The time is right. Your future is unlimited.

If you’re doing pretty well online, why go through the challenge and expense of print? Because many marketers I know who focus on print find they just can’t make the same money they make in the mail when they shift to online. Sure, it takes testing, precision and refinement. But when done well, it works.

As marketing expert Dan Kennedy explains, one disadvantage of online is that it’s so easy to compare you with someone else . . . and then forget about you as they click away into oblivion.

Offline, your sales letter sits there on the counter, tucked into a pile, nagging them to take a look. It might even take a trip in a totebag to soccer games or the office. And unless there’s been a strange mail quirk, your letter isn’t usually sitting right next to one of your direct competitors.

Boost Your Credibility By Being Everywhere

In addition to diversifying your reach, multi-channel marketing solidifies your credibility.

Your landing page becomes that much more potent when your prospect also hears one of your radio ads and then finds a special mailing from you in their mailbox.

It’s like volume in geometry – it takes 3 different dimensions to describe volume (length, width and height). When you market in multi-dimensions you make your company feel 3-dimensional. Certainly – people tend to subconsciously reason – if you’re advertising both here and there, you must be real enough to make the investment. You must be a solid company.

3 Ways To Diversify

So without further ado, here are a few ways to diversify your marketing.

And please note, each new form of marketing comes with its own special bonuses as well . . .

If you’re busy optimizing your site for search engines . . . dive into social media.

Social media can
· Bring you another source of free traffic
· Boost your search engine rankings
· Provide you with a wonderful place to test headlines for online and offline promotions
· Help you research your market.

If you’re working your email list but would like to see some stronger response . . . try a snail mail piece – a printed free report, bookalog or CD.

As much as kindles and online are all the rage, people still hold onto these tangible mediums if done well. If you craft your free piece with good information skillfully interwoven with the right sales messaging, a hard copy free report . . .

· Feels even more like a free gift to your prospects, solidifying your position as a trusted resource
· Sits on the counter, coffee table or on your desk staying top of mind with your prospect
· Is easy to lend to a visitor, friend or family member and harder to get lost like electronic files do.

If you’re busy working the mail but feel like your website isn’t keeping up . . . consider a site content audit and build your site to keep up. A good website can complement your offline business. It can . . .

· Bring in markets you hadn’t tapped before. With a nice mix of social media and SEO you can find people looking for your exact solution who are not on the mailing lists you tend to rent.
· Strengthen your relationship with your current customers. While a strong acquisition piece may build your customer base, easy access to information and shopping online may help you make them more frequent buyers.
· Strengthen your marketing by making it easier for customers to leave testimonials and easier for you to test headlines and offers

Obviously this exercise can go on and on and on . . .

Oh yes, and a little warning: Don’t make this an exercise in trying to keep up with the constant stream of what’s hot in marketing. You’ll very quickly start to feel overwhelmed by the new arrivals on the scene.

Every day there are new reports, new data and new innovations.

The point of this is not to bite off more than you can chew. Nor is it to fret that you’re not doing the latest and best thing that everyone else seems to be doing.

The latest is not always the best. In my last post I talked about a tried-and-true marketing method that has been used for eons and can work both offline and online.

The point here is to diversify. Carefully choose one or two new arenas to add to your marketing mix and then start integrating them into your marketing.

Don’t worry if they’re the best ones.

Don’t worry that you’re not doing everything the next guy seems to be doing . . .

Just worry about trying a few new forms of marketing, integrating them into your current marketing mix and making the most out of them.

Because there’s a second lesson that fits with both farming and marketing . . . it can sometimes take a few tries, refining your process through testing and experience, to fully enjoy a good harvest.

Last year was a devastating blow to us plum-eaters here at Surprise Farm Hill . . .

But we didn’t give up. This year we pruned aggressively, gave them some beautiful manure and a nice mulch of chipped wood.

As summer rolled around we carefully tended them with two organic sprays to control for fungal disease and the plum curculio.

And when July rolled around, our sturdy little tree was literally dripping with plums. We ate steadily and still couldn’t keep up with the harvest.

My freezer is filled with plum sauce ready to grace our yogurt and pork chops this winter. Now that’s a lesson I thoroughly enjoyed!

Want a whole bunch of ideas for diversifying your marketing so you can beat this bad economy? Check you my free report, 18 Ways To Beat The Bad Economy With Strategic Health Copywriting And Marketing.

Just sign up here and you’ll get it delivered to your inbox:

The majority of B2B websites in the nutrition industry make a deal-killing mistake right on their home page. It’s rampant. And it’s deadly.

It squashes leads. And it can rob your outstanding business of its distinction, tossing you and your sales team back into the morass of websites and businesses vying for your prospect’s attention.

What is it?

It’s that little button on the top right hand side of most websites that says, “Request a Quote.” Sometimes it appears in the only slightly less destructive form of “Speak To A Sales Representative”.

Why This Button Devalues Your B2B Nutraceutical Business

Seemingly innocuous, these little options are stealing your business away from you.

How could that be? Isn’t this what most prospective customers want when they come to your website? Isn’t this the best way to get them to contact your sales team?

Yes . . . and no.

Yes, it’s true that many of your prospects are interested in getting a bunch of quotes and comparing them to decide who to go with.

However, you don’t want to let this become the game.

And ultimately, your prospects don’t really either.

See, by putting this button on your website, you’re letting your quote define who your business is in your prospect’s mind. You’re letting your business be reduced to just another number. And you’re letting the value of your business – all your products and/or services – be defined by the cost of your goods and services.

When you let this happen you’ve already lost the online game. Because ultimately someone else online will probably offer goods and services for a better price.

And by making this the only incentive for getting in touch with your sales team, you’re letting price become the center of the whole lead nurturing and negotiation process.

Furthermore, you’re only inviting people who are close enough in their purchasing research stages to ask for a price to get in touch with you.  B2B sales cycles are tremendously long and only getting longer. By only focusing on people who are ready to get a quote, you’re missing out on the majority of your leads.

How This Button Hurts Your Prospects Too

For your prospects, this button does them a disservice because in reality, they want a lot more than just a price. They want help in making a decision.

It’s a rare major purchase decision that hinges only on numbers. Your prospects are interested in issues like quality, service, availability, and supportive research. They are worried about missing important considerations that factor into their decision. They are nervous about proposing a solution to decision-makers at their company without all the bases covered.

However, you can change the whole setup and become a super hero in the process.

You can change your business from being defined by price. And instead make your prospect value your business based on a much richer set of criteria.

You can even make price become a somewhat tangential factor in whether your prospect decides to pursue working with you further.

And you can position your business as a valuable partner in problem-solving way before price becomes even a part of the conversation.

Instead of inviting your prospect to get in touch with your sales team to get a quote, offer to help solve your prospects’ problem and help them in their decision-making.

How do you do this?

The Alternative That Will Bring Leads Who Value You

Replace that troublesome Request-A-Quote button with a compelling white paper offer.

Something like:

“6 Questions You Should Always Ask When Deciding On A Contract Manufacturer”

Or “Four Ways To Make Your Superfruit Product A Success”

(Actual white paper titles I’ve used for clients.)

Right on the top right-hand side of your home page (where the request a quote button usually lurks), advertise your white paper and ask your prospect to opt in so you can send them this valuable information.

Essentially, offer to help your prospect solve their problems instead of focusing on the sale and the price.

I’ve done this for my clients with rewarding results. In this troubled economy, one of my clients just reported an increase in leads of 20%. And especially nice, these leads were already pre-sold on my clients’ services.

You can do the same.

Avoid the price war and price discussion. Get rid of the quote-request button.

Use a white paper offer to get into the meat of the conversation – how you can help solve a prospective client’s business problems.

When you make that the hub of your interaction, you help your clients solve their business problems. And as a consequence you help your business grow.

Take this advice and use it to create a recession-busting dynamic duo using your white paper and website. Find out exactly how to do this in my free report, “How To Turn Your Website And White Papers Into A Recession-Busting Dynamic Duo”.

Sign up right here to request it:

As you may already know, we raise pigs.  And, just to warn anyone who is a little uncomfortable about the reality of meat – we raise them to eat them.  This article refers to this hard fact of my life.

See for first the 6 months or so on our farm, our pigs enjoy days filled with mud lolling, acorn chewing, sumac leaf noshing, and simply sleeping in the sun.  But when fall comes around, this carefree life ends.

It’s time to bring the pigs to the butcher.

To take them to their place of reckoning, we have to get them loaded on a trailer.  And here’s where the trickiness comes in.

Pigs are smart and perceptive.  Getting them onto a trailer is tough enough as it is because it’s completely outside of their normal piggie routine.

But woe upon you should you be thinking of bacon when trying to lure them on.

It’s farmer’s lore, but I certainly think there’s something to it.  If you’ve got pork chops on your mind, the pigs will pick up on this.  And instead of an easy transition, you’re left trying to move over 200 pounds of pork with 2 tons worth of will power somewhere it doesn’t want to go.

So when this day arrives, we’re careful to keep our minds strictly on the business on hand.

What does this have to do with copywriting and marketing?

Several things . . .

Bacon Breath Rule #1: Don’t Set Off The Ad Alarm

Hard hitting copy still works. There’s still a place in marketing for unabashed sales copy.

But you can’t always put it out there first thing.  Consumers have their ad radars up more then ever. With tighter budgets and ads flying at them from every direction, you’ve got to work harder to get their attention . . . and trust.

That’s why it’s ever so essential to strike up a conversation with them before they feel like you’re selling to them. Start the communication by introducing yourself, addressing a problem, gaining their interest. And then build a relationship. Eventually, you’ll be in a good position to make them an offer. And they’ll be more receptive to listening to you.

Good articles, white papers and autoresponder series can get you invited to take a seat at their table. If done right not only do these marketing matchmakers build a rapport between you and your prospect, but they also subtly sell your solution to them.

By the time you’re ready to make the full offer in a sales letter, you’ve got their attention, their trust and their interest in what you can do for them.

Bacon Breath Rule #2: You Can’t Pretend

It’s just about impossible to effectively promote a product you don’t believe in. Just like the pigs, your prospects can tell if something is amiss.

So to really promote a product, get passionate about it.

Get to know what the product does. Get to know what your prospects are struggling with. Understand how frustrated they are. And how eager they are for your solution.

Fortunately I’m in pretty good health. But every time I get hit by something – even something as minor as a cold – I take note of my misery. And translate it a bit into how it would feel to face this same discomfort day in and day out.

I use this understanding to help me understand – albeit somewhat imperfectly – what it’s like for someone facing a chronic illness.

So when I write about the solution I’m offering to my prospects I can address their skepticism and their desperate need for some relief.

This fuels me emotionally as I research and write. It fuels my copy. And it keeps me writing sales copy that rings true with the people I’m trying to connect with.

Copywriter Bob Bly just talked about this in one of his recent ezine articles. As he explains, it’s why some copywriters can be so effective writing what others consider hypey copy:

If you believe in what you’re saying . . . if you feel enthusiasm for your solution welling up inside of you so that you can’t help but crow like a rooster . . .

Your copy sounds passionate – not hollow. And your prospects can tell the difference.

Bacon Breath Rule #3: Reduce The Risk

Now obviously I can’t do this for my pigs. There’s no way of getting around their fate.

But your prospects are different. They are rightfully worried about being taken advantage of – fleeced, burnt, scammed.

They are rightfully worried that you could very well take their money and disappear with it. And they’ll be left with nothing to show for it.

When it comes to health, this can be even more of an issue. Many of your potential customers have been whipped around until they’re dizzy by conventional medicine’s merry go round of side effects and more drugs. With their money flying out of their pockets.

While a natural alternative looks appealing, new alternative health consumers have very few reference points for verifying your claims are true. They may not have yet accessed literature and experts that support your claims.

Meanwhile, they’re flooded with all kinds of negative press about supplements and alternative health care. Every time a miscreant spikes their product with Viagra, the press jumps on it as an example of how the whole industry is dangerous and corrupt.

For this reason, the more you can strengthen your credibility and reduce their risk the better. Use a spokesperson and expand on their credentials. Reference well-known media or experts in your copy where possible.

And always offer a good guarantee. A guarantee tells your customers that you stand behind your product. And that you understand how important it is for them to see for themselves whether your product will work.

Understand Your Prospect’s Fear And Skepticism

Now, don’t misunderstand me . . . I’m not for thinking about your customers like they’re lambs ready for the slaughter (or pigs).

But the mental exercise I go through each butchering day on the pig farm here translates well into similar mental gymnastics I use for building effective lead generation campaigns and sales funnels that sell.

Understand your customers are distrustful and skittish. They’ve probably been burnt by a few bad sales experiences. And this economy just makes it worse.

However, they still need you and your solutions. You just need to find the right way to approach them.

You need to mentally put yourself in a spot where you understand your prospects’ concerns, genuinely care about helping them and fully believe that the product you’re writing about offers a viable solution.

In other words – as us pig farmers say – Keep your mind on tofu and the job at hand.

I’ve been trying to get my kids to put their dishes in the dishwasher.

Like most things I try to establish here, it took a few months of me calling out, “A., come get your bowl.” Or “O., is this your plate on the table?”

Too often I’d just pick up the stray dishes myself, grumbling all the way to the kitchen . . . Only to reprimand myself once I arrived that I was just keeping the problem going.

And then I’d go back to hollering.

If you’re a parent you know part of your job is to teach your children well.

But while we could have a huge discussion about what to teach your children, what rules we want them to live by, there’s one thing most parents can agree on . . .

It takes consistency.

The lessons we learn in life . . . the ideas that we grasp and hold onto and keep close in our pockets . . . the ones that we act on . . . are ones we hear again and again.

And the actions we take are more often than not something that comes as a result of lots of reminders.

This is true for even things we want to do. Not just putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

I wanted to go to peach picking at a nearby orchard. But it took several conversations and several false starts to finally get us on our bikes and head on over.

As marketers we’ve got to put this understanding into our marketing plans.

Especially in this economy . .

Marketing To The Natural Health Crowd: No Longer A One-Shot Deal

See, part of my job as a copywriter is to write a sales letter that grabs my prospect “by the eyeballs” as Clayton Makepeace would say and gets them to buy in one fell swoop.

But while this will happen for maybe 2% of your prospects who read your sales piece for the first time, it won’t work for a truly sizeable majority.

But that doesn’t mean that they don’t want what you’re selling.

It doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to buy what you’re selling.

It only means that they weren’t ready to move right at that second when they first got through your sales letter.

As marketer Bill Glazer explains, most of your customers are sitting on the fence.  In other words, huge profits are sitting on the fence.

And this economy, this is especially true.

Whereas a few years back, people would whip out their credit card with a nonchalant, “What the heck!” and buy something that piques their interest.

Now, each purchasing decision requires deliberation.

And unfortunately, your sales piece isn’t the only thing that’s weighing on their mind . . .

Within a matter of days, hours – no minutes! – your sales piece can be easily forgotten. Dust in the wind.

Unless you do something about it . . .

The Follow Up Autoresponder Follows Your Customers Even When They Might Forget About You

That’s where the autoresponder email comes in.

I love autoresponders. They’re fun to write. And they’re powerful.

An autoresponder series is a set of emails programmed to go out over an established interval to people who have demonstrated some interest in your product and provided you with their email address.

Usually they’ve opted in to watch a video or download a report or gotten a free sample in the mail.

They’re interested. Their eyeballs have been grabbed.  But their heart is still indecisive.

By sending out a series of emails you can continue to nurture your relationship with them and keep their mind on what you offer.

What A Good Follow Up Autoresponder Does

A good autoresponder doesn’t just sell. A good autoresponder . . .

• Builds a relationship. By using storytelling and telling more about yourself and your business, you help people to get to know you. And by finding ways to speak to their interests and experiences, you demonstrate that you understand them.

• Reminds them that you have a solution for them that they’ll like.

• Reinforces some of the concepts in your initial report or video and then gets them to the sales letter to see more.

• Reinforces the message of the sales letter, helping to move them off the fence in your direction.

• Gets them in the habit of opening your emails and clicking onto your links. Leads them to other content you have on your website.  Ultimately it gets them used to your presence in their inbox.

So don’t sell yourself short with single-shot sales letters.

Don’t do your potential customers a disservice by dropping them cold when they still need convincing, have questions. And don’t want to forget your solution.

Set up an autoresponder series.

This is an essential tool for both B2B and B2C companies who don’t want to leave money on the table.

Oh yeah, and when it comes to dirty dishes? Finally, I’m seeing the results. My daughter just walked straight from the dinner table and loaded her plate in the dishwasher where it belongs.

It took a bit of reminding – but it’s working!

Crazy costumes.  Green body paint on shaved heads.  Wild cheering, waves and mascots.

If you looked around the stadium you could have sworn you were at some sporting event.

But this high energy, fan fever was not generated by people throwing balls.

This frenzy was generated by ball-throwing robots. And not even good ball-throwing robots at that . . .

This was event was in a whole other league – the NH regional FIRST Robotics competition, created by Segway inventor Dean Kamen.

Forty-seven high school teams – including a few from Canada and one from Australia – were putting months of team sweat on the line as they tested their robot models against each other.

I’ll confess, the action wasn’t that riveting.  Quite a few robots spent much of the time stuck in a corner or upside down with wheels spinning. And a 5-year-old could beat most of the robots in a pitching competition.

But to the crowd gathered there, it was like watching a playoffs game between the LA Lakers and the Miami Heat.

That excitement got even me cheering as a robot managed to get 8 balls in the designated spot.

And here’s what this taught me as a marketer and copywriter.  The key to selling is finding your fan club, capturing their attention and turning that excitement onto overdrive.

Now you may have heard this before.  Seth Godin talks about tribes, SEO experts talk about niche marketing – it’s all over the place.

In this article on niche marketing, I’m going to talk about . . .
·    Using fans specifically in the realm of health marketing;
·    Two specific ways you can identify your fans;
·    Some specific ways to locate them and talk to them.

Using Fans In Natural Health Marketing

It’s one thing to talk an energy drink on the world stage and try to sell it.  It’s another thing to offer it to a mom who has a tearful toddler by one hand and is trying to make it through the supermarket before her 2-year-old time bomb goes off.

Yes, everyone wants energy.  But you’re not going to capture everyone’s attention the same way.  When you develop a headline and lead, you’re not trying to sell to everyone, or even everyone who wants an energy drink.

You’ve got to sell it to the mom who’s desperate to make it through the evening tasks . . .
A nurse who’s working the night shift and doesn’t like the caffeine jitters . . .
A rock climber who wants something that keeps him going but doesn’t undermine the careful work he’s done to build up his body’s abilities . . .

You’re trying to sell it to someone who will sit up and poke the person next to them and say, “Hey, they’re talking to me!”

Clayton Makepeace, one of the most successful copywriters puts it in dire terms.  He explains that you’re looking for the people who are desperately looking for what you’re selling.  The people for whom to buy or not to buy is almost a life or death decision.

Marketing guru, Mark Joyner, describes it as finding the people who are red hot for your product. He advises, don’t waste time marketing to the people who are so so on it.

As both masters point out, sure it lowers the size of your market, but the size of your market is not as important as your market’s burning desire for the solution you’re selling.

In one scenario, you may spend a lot of time and money to get in front of millions of people but only a few thousands will buy it.  You may think – hey, let’s go for the biggest market with this product that has the broadest appeal.

Having a huge list is not necessarily what will bring you the most revenue.  Having a responsive list is what will.

Two Kinds Of Fan Bases

Instead, build your fan base in two ways:

1.    Focus on your products that are really special. Your big sellers, the ones that distinguish you, the ones your customers say they wouldn’t go anywhere else for it.

Or simply choose a product for which there is less competition. It may be potentially a smaller market.  But a market that is desperate for a solution that you offer.

And then

2.    Sell your products to the specific fan base you’re trying to cultivate. Eventually you may add more niche markets to your list. But start off with a really clear specific prospect.

For example, sell your energy drink to nurses. Or focus your new skin cream on avid outdoorswomen in their 40′s and older.

You may only get the attention of a few tens of thousands. But not only will they pay anything for your product, they’ll talk about it to their friends and keep buying it from you . . . as well as anything else you have to sell them.

And then, better yet, you can sell your products that don’t have groupies (like your good ole Vitamin D) to all these excited niche markets after they’re hooked on the solution you offer they can’t find anywhere else.

How To Find And Talk To Your Fans

Here are a few ideas for helping you find your tribe and market to them:

Look at your web analytics
·    Are there keywords you’re doing well on that you never really focused on?
·    Are you getting traffic for articles or product pages you didn’t expect?
·    Extend this by doing additional keyword research and look for keywords that fit within your market that have low competition but relatively high search volume.
·    I use Market Samurai’s keyword research tool to help me with this

Go to ezines to advertise.
·    Ezines tend to be even more niched than offline publications since their publishers can use the reach of the internet. Many of them have great followings who open, hang on the publisher’s recommendations and click through.
·    Better yet – many ezines have very affordable advertising rates.
·    Just make sure you do a little sleuthing to get a sense of how active the subscribers are.
·    One of my favorite resources for hunting down ezines is The Directory of Ezines.
·    Oh yeah, and blogs work for this as well.

Develop a targeted Twitter following by seeking out specific influencers.
·    Use Klout.com or Listorious.com.
·    Identify people who might have fans like the fans you’re looking for
·    Then see how you can start to connect with these fans by connecting with them through social media.

I know this is somewhat rudimentary but often overlooked – look at your sales figures.
·    What product is really one of your best sellers?
·    Which product really garners lots of love letter testimonials.

Survey your customers and prospects on your house lists.
·    Ask them what they like about you, what products they like, which ones they’d recommend without hesitation.
·    Find out more about them too so you can look for similar folks through list rentals or other means.

These are just a few of many ways to identify and nurture your tribe.

Remember, there are people out there who are looking for your specific solution. When they discover you they will feel like their life has changed.

They’ve been looking for help and couldn’t find it anywhere. You came to the rescue.

Become their hero. Become their partner in problem solving.

Now isn’t that an exciting way to sell?

What are your strategies for building a fan club – and what have been the rewards? Please share!

"I do"

These words may are so simple. Only two words and as short as anything.

Yet when I said them to my husband years ago, they set the course for a lifetime of decisions.

They helped chart my path as I hit many forks in the road, impacting actions I’ve taken for years afterwards.

For when you declare yourself . . . and most noticeably to someone else – you hold yourself to that promise. And you’re more likely to take actions consistent with that promise.

Now, marriage is one thing.  But the funny thing is, buying a box of cereal can be part of the same phenomenon.

This same mechanism for following through with an initial action and promise holds true for even everyday activities like shopping.

There are two things operating here:

1. When people actively and publicly make a commitment, they are more likely to follow through with it.
2. When people take one action, they are more likely to take a second action consistent with the first one.

In one of my favorite marketing books, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Cialdini, Goldstein, and Martin, the authors talk about a great example of how this functions . . .

A couple of social scientists asked some college students to help on a volunteer project.  They signed them up using two methods.  One set of students actively signed up by filling out a form.  The other group signed up in a more passive manner.  They just left the form blank where it had an option to say, "I will not be volunteering".

According to the researchers neither signup method impacted the number of signups.

What was different – however – was how many students from each group actually showed up to volunteer. Of the passive group, only 17% showed up.  With the active group, a whopping 49% showed up.

The same thing works for fitness.

Canadian family fitness challenge winner, Nicole Wetsch, said that keeping a family blog that was instrumental in helping them follow through with their initial commitment to increasing their activity. Just putting their intentions out there for friends and family to read made them stick to it.

The same thing is true with marketing.  It’s why retail stores insist that layaway customers fill out their lay away agreement forms instead of the clerks.

It’s why so many direct mail packages get better response rates when they have the prospect stick a sticker on the response form.

When prospective customers take some kind of action – however small – it increases their level of commitment to the purchase in the long run.

So how does this work out when it comes to increasing online sales?

Here are a few examples of how I’ve seen it applied:

Ø      Internet marketer Mark Joyner coined the term "integrated marketing".  And if you purchase any of his products online, you’ll know what it means.

As soon as you commit to downloading a free offer or purchasing a product, you are presented to another offer that is consistent with your first commitment.

For example, if you initially purchase an ebook on a single topic, he offers you a steep discount for purchasing the entire set of workbooks that are "essential" complements to the initial ebook.

Ø      Jigsaw Health uses this when they sell their customers supplements.  After you’ve made your initial purchase, you are offered a second bottle of one of the items you purchased for close to a 20% discount.

Both companies intensify the push to follow through with your initial commitment by adding some other pressure element.  Mark Joyner let’s you know that this is the only time you’ll get this offer of the complete set at this discount.

And Jigsaw Health tells you that you only have 10 seconds to decide on adding the second bottle to your purchase. A timer ticks down as you debate whether to add the additional bottle to your order.

Ø      Jeff Walker uses this in his Product Launch Formula when he’s building up his pre-launch excitement.

He finds he can get tremendous testimonials when he tags them onto the end of a survey.  When people have already gone through the effort to fill out survey questions, they are more willing to go one step further and provide testimonials and contact information.  Even when it’s been made clear that they had finished the survey before being asked to provide a testimonial.

Key to making this commitment thing work is this:

1. Start with a small and easy commitment and build on it.  Get your prospects over the initial hump as easily as possible.
2. Connect the dots. Remind them why taking the second action is consistent with their first action.  Encourage that thought flow by pointing out the connection.  Even if it seems obvious to you.
3. Provide reference points. Just like Amazon.com does, remind them of previous purchases or declared interests that indicate something you’re suggesting might be perfect for them.  BTW, this is another good reason for segmenting your list for better response rates.
4. Make it active or public.  Have them check a box at the beginning of a sales letter.  Reward them when they "like" your fan page.

As you plan your marketing campaigns, think about how you can get your prospects to commit to something up front.  And how you can build on that initial commitment for a deeper, more lasting relationship.

Let me know how you’ve seen this work in your own campaigns – or where you think it could work. I’d love to find more ways to "marry" prospects to the purchase . . .

What can frozen carrots teach you about direct response marketing?  Read on and find out . . .

The below-freezing temperatures of early November put me in a bind.  Lulled into a false sense of security by a late warm spell, I’d left my carrots in the ground instead of harvesting them promptly.  And the icy weather made my attempts at digging them out of the rock-hard frozen earth look ludicrous.

Every day as I went about my morning chores, I grumbled as I passed the garden.

And then my son made me reconsider my perspective.

One afternoon, instead of tromping up from the bus drop-off to the kitchen door, he bounded off in the opposite direction.  I watched as his orange-coated figure weaved through the trees and headed to the pond.

“It’s frozen solid!” he announced with a grin when he finally burst through the door, cold air wrapping around him.  All he could think about was the ice-skating to come.

Another lesson in perspective:  One person’s nightmare is another person’s boon.

It’s the same thing with copywriting.

Know your prospect so you can really speak to their perspective. Because just like my son and I when it came to freezing weather, different people have different reactions to the same situation – sometimes even polar opposite ones.

Here are three examples more specific to the health marketplace:

1. In a sales letter advertising an alternative health book on cancer treatments, the copywriter described the experience of a patient beating cancer at an alternative clinic.  In listing the great results he added  – “and he even lost weight!”

While this may work for some readers, it also raised a red flag to me. So many people dealing with cancer struggle to maintain weight.  It may not be the best benefit to emphasize given the audience.

1. Statistics tell us that middle-aged women are the primary purchasers of nutritional supplements.  In fact they are often the ones buying for their husbands or fathers as well.  So if you’re selling a supplement for men – a multivitamin or prostate support – consider finding ways to speak directly to this audience.

Write a liftnote, from wife to wife.  Or make an effort to include testimonials from women who purchased the supplement for the men in their life.

3.      With flu season coming on, who wouldn’t want an immune booster?  I didn’t give this a second thought until I started writing copy for one of my clients this year.  Many of the people on her list suffer from auto-immune disorders.  When you’re battling your own immune system, a gung-ho immune system boost is not necessarily on your wish-list.

To make sure you’re not missing the perspective of your target audience, research your prospect . . .

• Examine your data cards carefully and check your assumptions.
• Go to online reviews and forums.  See what people are really talking about and how they talk about it.  I like Amazon.com for reviews and Healthtalk.com for forum discussions.
• Ask customer service – maybe even tap into a few conversations and listen intently to what people are saying.
• Test and look at the results.  Is the headline you thought would work the best, not performing?
• Eavesdrop discretely in supermarkets, at the gym, waiting for the doctor.

Get to know your prospects well and apply your detailed knowledge to create copy that hits home with them.

Post Script:  Lucky for me, the weather got a bit milder for a day or two.  My ice-loving son and I dug up the carrots, washed them and stowed them away in our root cellar.  And as a bonus, the frost had sweetened them up even more.  Now I can truly look forward to ice-skating!

In this economy, getting the right perspective is more important than ever. Find out how to position your health product for today’s consumer mindset with my free report “17 Health Copywriting Tactics for a Tough Economy”.

WHAM!  My husband, C, hit the floor with a resounding thump. 

Before he could even recover he found himself trapped between his assailant’s legs, his windpipe and the arteries to his brain only a few muscle clenches away from a deadly squeeze.  His face was contorted with the effort of resisting, his deep brown skin taking on a slightly maroon tone as the blood rushed to his head.

 And then with a tap of his hand, it was over. 

 Quickly disentangling her legs, his ruthless opponent leaped lightly to her feet and grinned down at him as he lay there recovering,

 ”Dad . . . ” chortled my daughter as she took in the full extent of her victory.

 Now my husband is no pushover.  He’s a rock-solid 180 pounds.  He easily benches 350 and uses his 18-inch biceps to chop cords of wood, move feedbags and wrestle pigs on a regular basis. 

How could this 12-year-old girl – barely 100 pounds – topple her dad so easily and then with a few deft moves put him at her mercy?

Keep reading and I’ll tell you how.  But not only that, I’ll show you how this works in copywriting and marketing as well.

Jiu Jitsu and Marketing – It’s Not About Muscle

Okay, without question it takes some muscle to do these moves.  But if muscle were the deciding factor, my husband would never be in the position he was.  (He’s not one to placate – he never lets our kids win at cardgames!)

When my daughter brought him to the ground, she used moves from one of the most effect martial arts – jiu jitsu.  She did three things:

1. She got close to him by stepping forward and pulling him into her . . .
2. She angled him just the right way . . .
3. And finally, the best of all, she called on gravity and used his weight against him.

 When she puts these three elements together, all of C’s mass, bulk, and power meant nothing – in fact they even worked against him.

To win your prospect over, you have to do the same thing in your copywriting and overall marketing plan.  Here’s how:

Marketing Jiu Jitsu Move #1: Get Them Close To You

The first thing you need to get from your prospects before they give you their money is their trust. 

Trust can be earned in a number of ways, from putting your house up as collateral to spitting on your palm and shaking hands.  However, a more practical alternative – and more socially acceptable than spitting – is simply by building familiarity.  Allow people to get to know you.

And for this, the recipe is simple:

1)      Communicate a lot and

2)      Communicate as a real person.

It’s why I’m trying to write to you more often.  Why I’m working on my blog and twittering (something I thought I’d never do!).

It’s the kind of marketing referred to in Copyblogger’s seminal blog The Harpoon and The Net about the difference between a one-time shot of a sales letter and the gradual build-up of relationship-marketing. 

Rather than coming out of nowhere, grabbing someone’s hand in a firm handshake and opening up your spiel about how you’d like to sell something to them, you start slow.  You start by introducing yourself and sharing your thoughts, stories from your life, some useful insights, etc.

You invite the other person to share as well: Ask them in your blog to comment, use surveys in your email campaigns or create a forum.

You get to know each other.

Even in a one-shot sales letter or landing page, you reveal yourself up front to build credibility.  Perhaps you refer to some vulnerabilities, let it get a little personal. 

Let your prospect get to know you.  Get close.

I can’t count the number of business transactions I do with a business simply because I’m familiar with them. 

People buy familiar brands.  You take your car to the guy you know down the road because he’s always done right by you.  And you know he’s a good guy because he coaches your kid in soccer. 

You buy your piglets each spring from your friend because you trust each other and you know the friendship insures that you’ll each do right be each other . . .

Okay, we’re not all buying piglets.  But you know what I mean. 

 Jiu Jitsu Marketing Move #2:  Angle Them Just The Right Way

Okay, as nice as the first part sounds, you’re still wearing the salesman jacket – even if it’s stuffed down beneath the fuzzy pink sweater of relationship-building you put on over it.

You need to have a plan with your relationship-building communication.  Because, sure, it would be nice to hang out and muse about the weather all day.  But you’ve got a business to run.  And truth be told, your prospects have needs, problems, desires that need to be taken care of.   Urgently.  They can’t stay and chat either.

So you angle the conversation – you direct it.  You talk about your prospects’ worries and desires and focus the discussion on solving that problem. 

You draw their attention to that wonderful solution you present.  Address their questions and doubts.  And keep them focused on how much your solution will help them.

You put the your finely honed jiu-jitsu skills to work.  You know just where to push and where to pull so that with the right move your prospect is ready to topple over into a sale.

Jiu Jitsu Marketing Move #3:  Use The Weight of Their Desire to Close the Sale

I had plenty of reservations about getting into marketing.  As a skinflint, I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of pushing people to buy stuff.

But then I realized I wasn’t going to be twisting people’s arms and manipulating them to buy something they’ll never use.

No, marketing a good product is making sure that the people who are desperately looking for a solution like the one you offer can find it. 

We all have problems.  And the desire to fix them can chew at your insides mercilessly. 

So when you build up that momentum to close a sale in your marketing process, you’re not pushing your prospect up a mountain as they’re flailing away at you and yelling, “Help!”.

Au contraire.  Once you’ve angled them right and established some trust – if you develop the rest of your sales process right – they’ll almost be pulling you along.  They will be so anxious to get this solution that will change their lives.

How do you do this?  Focus on the benefits of your product.  Focus in particular on the deeper benefits, the ones that really transform their lives. 

Not the way that a bone-health supplement will strengthen their bones.  No, talk about how they can keep biking and ice-skating without worrying about a fracture taking them out from out of nowhere.

With your supplement, they don’t have to worry and give up the activities they love to do.

Paint a vivid picture of the benefits.  Describe the scene of their problem solved so they can really envision a tangible reality in their future if they choose your project.

And make that picture even more real by providing ample evidence that your product can bring them there.

By the time you finish painting the picture of the benefits your product brings.  Once you make it feel realistic, close, possible by providing good support for your promise, your prospects’ desire for your product becomes a powerful force.

It is now their own hope for a solution to a problem combined with their own belief that you can provide it that brings them to order page.  You’ve just set it in motion.  But the weight of their desire drives that conversion.

My daughter didn’t have to struggle to lay my husband out flat.

And you shouldn’t be struggling with your prospects to get them to buy.

It’s a simple 1,2,3 move.  Performed right, you easily bring your prospect toppling over to the “Order Now” button.

1. Get close.
2. Angle.
3. Use their weight against them.

Now -  for the marketing lesson in the windpipe-squeezing triangle hold that my daughter finished off with  –  hmm.  I’ll have to give that some more thought and get into that another time. 

So what do you think?  Any markeing jiu jitsu moves to share?

Health Marketing Success:  FAIL!

Let me tell you about Manny Pacquiao.  If you’re a boxing fan, you know who this guy is.  If you’re not, listen – his story is a story for more than just boxers.  It’s a great story for marketers.

Today, Filipino boxing phenom Manny Pacquiao is considered one of the top boxers . . . perhaps ever. 

Said ESPN boxing commentator, Dan Rafael, about the decisive victory Pacquiao had over Ricky Hatton that crowned him king: “With one thunderous left hand, Manny Pacquiao smashed his way into boxing immortality.”

“Anyone doubt his pound-for-pound No. 1 perch now? Shoot, anyone doubt his place as one of boxing’s best ever?” demanded Rafael.

Pacquiao’s slated for the boxing Hall of Fame and boxing fans are salivating to see him lined up with all-time great former WBC welterweight champion “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather who’s never lost a fight.

But what not a lot of fans know is that in his first two fights, Pacquiao was knocked out cold.  Twice in a row.  Even the guys in his corner were shaking their heads, advising him to get out of fighting professionally.  Telling him, this isn’t for you.

But did Pacquiao take that advice?  No, instead he took those two knockouts as lessons to apply.  He applied them well and developed consummate focus, quick defense, determination not to get punched out again . . . and a mean left hand that is feared around the world.

There are two lessons here:  One, don’t take failure at face value.  It can teach you and spur you to do better.

And two, fail fast and early.  Failures are not only lessons, but the best lessons ever.

When I started copywriting, I was thrilled to rope in a major client within my first year.  But instead of a project that I could crow about, I ended up with just a kill-fee.  After reviewing the 8-page letter that I had labored over, the client told me, “Maybe copywriting isn’t for you – you need to go back and study letter-writing.”

I had stuck in every fact and figure I could find and left out the craft. 

Now, I could have taken his advice. However, instead I let those words resonate with me.  I had thought I was a good writer.  But I had just been soundly knocked out in my opening round.  I had to recheck my perspective and work even harder to learn the particular ins and outs of copywriting.

I pored over that failing letter over and over again.  And studied a slew of master copywriters with even more intensity. 

And I wrote and I wrote and I wrote.  I used that early failure to get even better.

As successful marketers from Michael Masterson to Gary Scott will tell you, the best thing you can do to succeed is to fail.  Fail a lot, fast and early on.

Failure is going to teach you.  For direct response marketers it’s an easy lesson.  With the attention to response rates and testing, you can tear those failures apart and use each dismal run to learn and improve.

In fact it’s one of the questions I ask my clients when starting on a new project:  What pieces have not done so well? What marketing pieces do you not like?  Why? 

And there’s another reason to get comfortable with some failure – it gets you unstuck.

I know from experience how easy it is to get trapped in reading every single book, blog and PDF on a topic.  Musing.  Ruminating.  Worried about making the wrong move, doing the wrong thing.

No, rarely are you going to get success right out of the gate.  The point is to get experience.  And only by getting into the thick of things can you get some. 

Because really, consider this: If you’re so busy developing your unique selling proposition, how can you fit into everyone else’s marketing plan and observations?  By getting out there and trying things out with your specific product, your specific market, you’ll get feedback on what works specifically for your business.

Sure – study, read, look around.  That’s only smart.  But get out there and do something.  Fail!  Fail a lot and fast.  Fail in small, smart increments.  And then learn from your failures and go on to succeed.

Manny Pacquiao did . . . I’m working on it – building success off of my failures every day.

How about you?