Keith Goodrum

Thursday May 8th is my friend Ryan Healy’s birthday. I don’t if you have ever read his blog, but it’s about Business growth, copywriting, ect. Ryan is a top flight marketing consultant & copywriter. He has written for some of the big marketers around. People like Alex Mandossian, Tellman Knudson, Ben Mack, Marc Goldman, Jimmy Sweeney, Pulte Homes & over 60 other clients.

So, why am I telling you all this?

He is giving you a chance to get a book he co-authored titled “Million Dollar Marketing Secrets” for a mere $7… shipping included for residents of U.S., Canada & the U.K. Any one outside of those three countries leave a comment on his blog, and he will get in touch with you privately. This a real book that will be shipped to your door.

I have a copy of this book, and it’s loaded with priceless marketing information. J.P. Maroney got 21 top marketers to each contribute a chapter to the book. Here are a few of the co-authors; Clayton Makepeace, Michel Fortin, Ray Edwards, Ben Mack, Ryan Healy, Jason Moffatt…

Ryan says the chapter by Clayton Makepeace is worth $7 alone… but in my opinion every chapter is worth that and more.

The deadline on this offer is Friday morning May 9th when Ryan wakes up. I’m not sure when Ryan wakes up on Friday mornings… or for that matter any day of the week. So, my suggestion is to head on over there and grab a copy while it still fresh on your mind.

Here is the post at Ryan’s blog: http://www.ryanhealy.com/marketing-book-birthday-gift/. Head on over there scroll down, click on the paypal button and get this book.

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Links of the day.

Whew! That’s a long title…

But I wanted to point out 3 blog posts you might have missed.

Stop Linking To Your Home Page! from Lynn Terry over at Clicknewz. I knew that deep links are something that the search engines like to see. I also know you should add your URL to blog comments because it’s a good way to get backlinks and traffic. The one thing that I haven’t thought of was putting them together. She sums it up perfectly here…

Stop being general, and start being super specific with your links. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that your website has good navigation, and that each individual web page contains a strong Call To Action. Remember: what makes visitors happy, usually makes search engines happy too

One thing… I know the back links don’t work is a blog is no-follow.

Are You Committing This Cardinal Marketing Sin? from James Lee over at Online Business tells you to give your customers what they want… not what they need. What he says here is the tightrope you need to follow marketing to your customers…

A side note - Something important to bring up here is that we don’t simply give our prospects a bunch of flash in the pan products that they will buy, then not accomplish anything with.

As someone who understands the path they are currently on, this would be an abuse of your power. It’s unethical and karmacally unclean.

Instead, it’s up to you to take your prospects and customers by the hand, and gently lead them to what they need through the doorway of what they want.

12 Ways to Be a More Interactive and Accessible Blogger by Darren Rowse over at Problogger makes the point that you need to have a strong line of communication with your readers. I like these tips because they show many different ways to open that line of communication. And you can do this without becoming a slave to your blog…

Today I want to share a few tips on how to remain accessible to readers even when your blog is growing and the demands on your time become greater. By no means am I an expert in this - but here are a few things I’ve learned.

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Simple you just go to his website and put in your name and email. He will then send you a link to his download page. I personally think he’s nuts for giving away this much information about copywriting for free… not sure how long it will be up so you better hurry.

This was something I found a few months ago while looking for copywriting tips. After reading his website, I figured what the heck, and signed up. Trevor then sent me the link to download the copywriting seminar. Here is the link at this time it’s still active… http://www.trevorcrook.com/.

There are 10 mp3s each about an hour long. I downloaded the seminars to my Ipod, and started listening to them. I quickly started taking notes, and was amazed at the stuff he was teaching. And I started implementing the tips and tactics into my sales letters.

Trevor is a copywriter from Australia, and he has written for some of the big guns in direct response marketing. He is also a great copywriting teacher.

He first made this copywriting course as a 10 week teleseminar. Later he packaged this as an info product and sold it for $197.00. About a year ago he started giving it away for free. And believe me this is a true $197.00 value. Personally I can’t believe he is giving it away.

Pay close attention to the marketing lesson here… Trevor got paid multiple times for working once. He made money off the teleseminar, then turned around and sold it as a stand-alone product. Now he’s giving it away to build his list. This should allow him to make backend sales to his list. No bad… getting paid three ways while working only once.

Now, of course you have to give him your name and email address. But, this is not some worthless eBook used to build a list. You are getting a real value for handing over your information.

Here is the link again go and get this today…

http://www.trevorcrook.com/

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Here are 5 blog posts I read this week that I enjoyed and provided some great information:

Are You A Prolific Product Developer?
Terry Dean lists 7 ways to create products. Writing an eBook is not the only way. Bookmark this one for future reference.

You’re Fired!
Robert Plank is a prolific product developer. He has already launched 24 products this year! This post is asking if you were we own employee running your online business, would you fire yourself? I have to admit I didn’t have to fire myself… but I did have to give myself a written warning.

How Not to Advertise
Ryan Healy got an email that tried to be clever, and it backfired. It didn’t even have a call to action?!? Wow!

Copywriting Q&A Answer Time
Stephen Dean answers the copywriting questions that people got to ask him in the comment section of his blog. He answered both of my questions. This post is loaded with good copywriting information.

Create Successful Business Procedures By Using Standardization
Richard Lee give some good advice about establishing systems in your business. He give a detailed layout of how to setup systems. Worth heading over there and checking it out.

Have a good weekend.

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Yesterday marked one year since the passing of Gary Halbert. For those of you who don’t know about him… I won’t try to explain. It wouldn’t do justice to his brilliance.

Instead go to The Gary Halbert Letter, and read all of the newsletters he posted. He started this as an offline newsletter in 1986, and a few year ago he posted the archives online. He started adding a new issue about once a month until he passed.

You could read all these letters, and get a marketing education unparalleled to any product, system or seminar on the market. The headline at the site says it all: The Most Valuable Website On The Entire Internet. Get over there and read every newsletter… you won’t be disappointed.

Many of the top marketers have downloaded these newsletters, locked themselves away and consumed them. The lessons in them are priceless, and just as relevant today as when they were written. Your marketing knowledge will take a quantum leap if you will do the same.

Today I was reading James Lee’s blog The Online Business Freedom, and he told a funny story about meeting Gary. It was classic Gary Halbert.

James went on to say that Gary Halbert’s last Protege; Sam Markowitz, posted a free report in honor of the 1 year anniversary of his mentor’s passing. The report is titled; The Last Protege, and in this report Sam reveals 5 highly effective marketing secrets he learned from Gary while being his protege.

This is a free report, and requires no opt-in or anything else. Head on over there and read the report.

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Copywriter is having another Q&A time on his blog. You can any question about copywriting and sales you want. It should be one sentence long, and you need to go to his blog and ask your questions in his comment section. Here is the link:

http://www.stephensblog.com/?p=288

If you remember he allowed me to ask him questions about copywriting, and I posted it here. An interview with Copywriter Stephen Dean was fun to do, and Stephen gave some really great answers.

I suggest you take advantage of this offer… its not often you get to ask someone of Stephen caliber questions.

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I came across this YouTube video the other day. I really like the way he got over 9700 people to watch a mini-sales letter. It is a very creative take on copywriting.

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Stephen Dean is an outstanding copywriter & marketer. About a week ago on his blog he posted an offer to be interviewed, and you could post it on your blog. Incredibility only 3 people responded!

For me it was a no brainer. Anytime someone with Stephen’s knowledge & experience will allow me to fire 10 questions about their about their specialty… I’m there.

Hope you enjoy the interview, and I highly recommend Stephen products. You’ll get a lot of value out of them no matter what level your copywriting or marketing skills are at.

What do you feel is the most important part of a sales letter?

(Stephen) The most important part, as far as where the most readers are lost, is the headline and deck copy. This is where you have to get their attention by saying something unique, timely, useful and specific.

The headline is well known for being very important, however, so I like to mention proof. Proof is very important in a sales letter,whether it be testimonials, credentials, case studies etc. You need
to have it and many people leave it out.

The long sales letter has taken a beating over the past couple of years in certain circles, do you feel it still has a place in online marketing? Why or Why not?

(Stephen) Yes. And there are other factors to take in to consideration. For example, if you build a great relationship with your blog readers you’re not going to need as much copy to sell to them. The sales process started on your blog, before they got to the sales page. You’ve already provided the proof or credibility that they need to see.

But what about someone who’s never heard of you or your product? They need to go through the sales process too, so you’ve got to start at the beginning.

What is one mistake you see repeated over and over again in most sales letters/web sites?

(Stephen) I see a lot. I created a product based on 7 of the most common mistakes, called “7 Copy Sins”. A big mistake is not demonstrating how you’re different. If your headline could describe 10 different products you’re in trouble.

Another very common mistake is not applying scarcity, or giving the reader a real reason to act immediately. This can be as simple as giving away a valuable bonus to the next 10 customers, but many people don’t do it. That’s why I just released “Digital Scarcity” to give some real examples of how to add this tactic.

You hear people complain about copywriting containing too much hype… How you do write compelling copy while avoiding hype?

(Stephen) Well, a couple of things. You want your copy to be energetic usually, but hype without substance won’t work. You can avoid hype by being specific and backing up every claim you make. Also, you’d probably be best dropping exclamation points except for when you really mean it.

What place does testing hold in your copywriting?

(Stephen) I try to convince all of my clients to add testing to their sales pages. And I stay on to help them do it. I have my own split test software at http://www.easysplittest.com, and I also recommend James Brausch’s Muvar.

And one thing people should probably do more of is testing before they rite the copy. If you can send 1000 visitors to a squeeze page that gives out a free report, you can find a lot of information about which headline or angle will work the best. And that could shape how you write the rest of the copy.

What areas do you like test first, second, third?

(Stephen) The headline is always first. And an extension of that is testing the lead copy, essentially what comes after “Dear Friend” in your typical sales letter. And testing the price is an overlooked gem.

What are the pros & cons regarding people writing their own copy?

Well, a plus is that it’s cheaper initially. And if you’re not getting a lot of traffic, it can be hard to make the leap to paying big dollars for someone like me.

So if you enjoy it, it’s a great skill to learn and apply. But if your skills are lacking it can be very costly to continue to send visitors to a sales page that’s bound to lose sales compared to professionally written copy.

Could you share some of your favorite copywriting tips, or tactics to help boost conversions?

(Stephen) Well here are some things to think about…

Think about what makes your product or service different, and then make sure the difference is very clear in the sales letter. If you’re just more of the same, why would they keep reading?

Consider raising your prices, there’s a good chance a higher price point will actually convert better. In my tests, $97 converts much better than $77. But you do need to test.

Every time you make a claim in your sales letter, immediately back up your claim with proof.

Do you have any tips on writing headlines?

(Stephen) Yes, if you’re a beginner keep it simple. I’d stick to common templates like “How To” and “Discover…”

Then be specific. If it’s “How To Make Money Online.”, change it to “How To Make Money Online In 74 Minutes Or Less.” And better yet, “How You Can Make Up To $253.00 In 74 Minutes Or Less.”

The specifics helps make your product unique. You couldn’t place that last headline on any product. But just think of how many products that first headline could apply to…

What do feel is the best way someone can improve their copywriting?

(Stephen) 3 ways. Read copy, write copy, and read about writing copy. I’ll often track down expert copywriters like Michel Fortin and Gary Halbert and read some of their copy before I start on a project. That’s still a part of my normal routine.

Then, of course, you need to practice. So just writing your own copy by mimicking what you see from the experts is good practice.

But the best way to get direction is through copywriting books and courses. My product at www.2hoursalesletter.com will give you the basics of copywriting extremely fast. And www.7copysins.com is the follow up that attempts to preempt common mistakes you’re likely to
make.

Then I have the advanced courses at www.tappingmichelfortinsbrain.com where I let readers have access to my private conversations with Michel Fortin about copywriting.

And of course I address copywriting tactics often at www.stephensblog.com.

For print books, One of my favorites is “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples. It’s quite affordable at Amazon.com.

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Reading Ryan Healy’s blog post today Do Questions Work As Headlines? got me thinking…

Questions have always been a great sales tool for me over the years. Asking questions allowed me to customize each sales presentation to the customers needs. And of course, if you can show the customer how your product/service meets their needs… The sales is usually a forgone conclusion.

Questions work very well in selling for several reasons. First, Usually the person who asks the questions controls the direction of the conversation. Second, Questions are an important tool to qualify the customer, and gain important information.

Here is what Tom Hopkins says about asking questions:

The most powerful diagnostic tools used by all people in sales are questions. Like a doctor, your use of questions begins with general areas of need. Then, based on the answers you are given, you narrow your questions down to where you can readily determine the right cure or solution for the clients’ needs.

Asking Questions in your copy can usually get the opposite results.

Many of the top copywriting trainers teach that you should avoid asking questions. The idea is that you could get the wrong answer and lose the reader.

Putting a question in your headline is considered risky at best. Ryan Healy confirms this statement in his blog post. However, it’s not always the case. Recently, He tested a question in a headline and he was sure it would lose the split test. However the question headline won. Here is what he said:

Recently, I conducted a headline split-test for an upcoming real estate conference. The headline that won by a long shot was a question: “Would You Like 2008 to Be the Year in Which You Build the Foundations for Long-Term Real Estate Wealth?”

Why do you think this headline won?

I believe this question won for a simple reason. It entered the conversation that was already going on in the prospects mind. Traditionally people have used real estate to build long term wealth. The last year or so, has been rough in the real estate market. So, this is a question that real estate investors are asking themselves a lot lately.

This ultimately proves that there are exceptions to every rule. Don’t be afraid to use questions, but tread lightly.

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April 15th is the perfect example of a powerful deadline. In the USA, we all know this date, the mention of it can raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Of course April 15th is the deadline for filing your taxes.

This time of year brings about two types of filers: the one that rushes to file early because they’re likely owed a fat tax refund; and the other type of filer that drags their feet because they likely owe more taxes or just good at procrastination.

The early filers set a self imposed deadline and get their taxes done. They want their money now (albeit overpaid to the gov’t in the first place) and rush to get it back as quickly as possible.

The procrastinators, who likely owe money, wait until April 15th to file their taxes. The country is buzzing with people rushing around trying to beat the IRS deadline. You can feel the energy in the air…..counting down to midnight, driving up to the one post office in the area that’s still open to provide the all important April 15th postmark….making the deadline.

So why does the IRS impose a deadline?

Because they know if they waited for people to get around to filing, about 80% would put it off indefinitely. Not only has the IRS set a deadline, but they impose stiff penalties if you miss it.

When marketing to my window cleaning customers I was afraid to impose a deadline. I thought it would limit the number of customers that would respond to my offer. I thought a deadline would limit my potential income because there would be customers who missed out.

I Finally Started Using Deadlines… But I Screwed It UP!

I finally put a deadline on my marketing material… But I was a chicken, and had the offer expire in 6 weeks! So, guess what happened?

Well, for the first 5 weeks nothing. Then on the 6th week I would receive a couple of phone calls. But, the last 48 hours the phones got busy. Customers waited for the deadline before they called. I ran the same ad 3 more times, each time with the same 6 week expiration. Finally (18 weeks later) the light bulb switched on… I can be a slow learner.

After reviewing my customer’s response patterns, I realized I had to set a shorter deadline. I couldn’t wait 6 weeks for customers to get around to calling me. I needed to create a sense of urgency that they would miss out on a great deal if they didn’t call me a.s.a.p. I got bold and put a one week deadline on my coupon. I was scared to make a deadline so short, and was convinced it would backfire. Boy was I ever wrong. The flyers went out, and the response was great. The shorter deadline had created a greater sense of urgency.

Of course, I pretended I knew it would work all along. I had found the optimal deadline.

Short deadlines will really put fire into your offers. Don’t be afraid to use them, and it will add a sense of urgency into your offer.

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