A typical, but unfortunately not uncommon example: I get a call from a member who used one of the letters I have on the site and is perplexed because it didn’t pull one response. He’s using the methods I teach EXCEPT he cut the letter down to two pages because “no one reads long letters”, EXCEPT that he modified the headline because he thought it was “too unprofessional”, EXCEPT that he modified the offer because he thought that the 2 free hours of support would attract the “wrong” type of customer.
Other than THAT, he’s doing everything I’m telling him to do and wants to know why the heck he’s not getting customers lined up at the door.
This is like stealing an award- winning chocolate cake recipe but leaving out one of the eggs, substituting the baking soda for salt, and baking it half the time and wondering why it didn’t come out right.
The truth is, we all need to work on this. Getting a marketing formula exactly right is no easy task because there are a million moving parts. At times, even I make mistakes and overlook a tiny, yet critical piece of the puzzle and pay for it.
Recently I ran a marketing campaign for my Tool Kit and failed to put a time-sensitive offer on it for urgency. Only after I received zero orders did I realize my mistake.
This is why I give away 2 marketing piece makeovers to my Master Mind members; it is always a good idea to have someone unrelated to your company or your services to review your marketing campaigns before you send them. It’s very difficult to see the holes when you are the author.
Important Note: don’t let just anyone review and critique your marketing campaigns. You’ll inevitably hear things like, no one would read a letter that long, it is too ‘unprofessional’, or it needs to be in full, glossy, color, or whatever. The world is full of people who want to give you marketing advice that couldn’t sell their way out of a wet paper bag. Smile, nod, and go on your merry way.
Final Thought: All too often I hear people say to me, I KNOW that I need a unique selling proposition, or I KNOW that
I need to have testimonials, or I KNOW that I need to market my business better.
My argument back is that they DON’T know. To know something and not do it is to not know it at all. The only REAL way you can come to know something is by doing it.
What they are saying is that, theoretically, they understand that it would be a good idea to work on their marketing, but what they DON’T get is the importance of it. If they did, they would lock themselves up in their office with the phone on forward and not leave UNTIL they got it done. The other piece of the success pie that they don’t “know” is that you can’t just work on your marketing once and be done with it. It really does take an on-going, dedicated effort of constantly testing, revising, measuring, and improving before you see any progress. That is probably the main reason why so many people are so bad at marketing; they give up way too early.
Bottom line is that none of the gems I’ve delivered to you this month will matter a hill of beans if you don’t get it going NOW. We all know how easy an hour turns into a day, a day turns into a month, and before you know it, a whole year has flown by.
If learning about success was all that it took to do great things with your life, then your success would be guaranteed. Fact is, the best advice in the world will only help if you can discipline yourself to take continuous, persistent action in the direction of your goals. The most important question for your future year ahead now is, WILL YOU DO what you have resolved TO do?
