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Selling Information By Mail

Okay…back to our series on selling information. Let’s get straight into Sales Letters. You know how to start. You make a list of every feature of your product, and then you turn them into benefits. Then you write your offer, then your order form. On this page is a great order form you can use as a template…

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Example:   REPRINT RIGHTS MADE EASY! 10Day LIMITED Free Offer

Yes Pete, I want to take advantage of your fantastic offer and discover for myself just how easy it is to create high-profit information products from my CD. I realize I’m completely covered by my NoRisk Six-Month Guarantee. If at any stage within six months of my purchase I’m not completely happy with my guide, I can return it to you for a full refund. I also realise, even if I do ask for my money back, I still get to keep my FREE copies of my newsletter and my advertising report. On that understanding, I wish to order Reprint Rights Made Easy for a low price of $57.00

  I’m ordering within 10 days so please include my FREE BONUSES valued at $130.00

FREE BONUS #1- Lifetime Reprint Rights to The Report "How to Get Paid For Your Advertising-A Unique Twist on Two-Step Marketing!"

FREE BONUS #2- Three Big Back Issues of DOLLARS & SENSE Newsletter.

MY Details are:

First Names: ___________________________________________________________________________________

Surname:______________________________________________________________________________________

Address:_______________________________________________________________________________________

State:________________________________Post Code____________Email:________________________________

Phone:_______________________________Fax:_________________Mobile:________________________________

Payment Details:

*Enclosed is my cheque/money order for $87 made payable to xxxx Marketing, or………..

*Please charge $87 to my mastercard/Visa/Bankcard  (please circle one)

Card Number:________/_________/__________/__________Expiry Date:________/________CV No:_____________

Name on Card:__________________________________________________________________________________

Signature of cardholder:___________________________________

Three Easy Ways To Order!

Call (00) 24681012

FAX THIS COUPON to : (00) 1357911

MAIL TO: xyz Marketing P.O. Box xxx,  XXXXXXXXX

To reeive all your FREE bonuses you must order by____________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Fundementals of a Successful Order Form

1. Attention Grabbing Headline
2. A No-Risk Offer
3. Guarantee
4. Call to action
5. Customer’s Information Details
6. Payment Details
7. Your Contact Details
8. Layout & Graphics
9. Other Attention Grabbers (Called Bells & Whistles in this country)

Last issue we covered the first five points above. Now let’s look at the remaining four.

6 & 7: Payment Details & Your Contact Details

Make it easy and don’t confuse. I can’t stress this too much. Confused prospects don’t buy. Have a look at the form on the previous page to get a good idea. With your contact details, put as many as you can. Can they order by post, by phone, by fax? The more ways a person can order the better the result.

8: Layout & Graphics

Black ink on yellow paper works for me and many others. The yellow paper only adds an extra cent to my printing costs but it does stand out…it does call attention. Also, your order form can’t be cluttered; it’s got to be pleasing on the eye. That’s why I always use a full-page order form. It gives me the room for what I want to include. Some marketers try to save a couple of cents on the printing costs and make the order form a half-page document, tacked to the end of the sales letter. I’m not saying you can’t do this. It’s just with a full-page order form you have the room to get your message across, and it looks clean and uncluttered. The choice is yours.

9: Other Attention Grabbers.

One item I do include is my Australian Business Number at the bottom of all my order forms. It lets my prospects know that I’m running a real business. Other devices you can use are guarantees in their own blocks of type. This reassures the prospect. You may wish to include a powerful testimonial as well. Pick the best one you’ve got to add credibilty to your offer.

Before We Begin…

Okay, let’s take stock of what we’ve got so far. You now have a list of benefits that your product provides, you have created a powerful offer, and you have your order form all ready. So what’s next? Yep…it’s time to write your sales letter.

There have been countless books and manuals written on this subject. I’ve spent thousands of dollars over the years myself, and I know for certain, the money has been well spent. It has helped my business grow, and I believe, in fact I know for certain…

If you can master the craft of writing copy that sells…well the sky’s the limit !

But there’s so much to learn, so many areas to delve into that will increase your knowledge. From writing dynamite headlines to human psychology…it all adds to your skills of writing hot selling copy. I’m always learning something new. And even the old pros of advertising will tell you they are still learning their craft.

So this subject is big. And I’m not so conceited that I will tell you that I can teach you everything about sales letters. It’s an ongoing process. It’s not my intention here to write a full course on writing copy…besides, to cover all the details; I would need hundreds of pages. I’ll leave the four tome classics to the masters. But I have learnt that I want to share with you…

Simple stuff, that once mastered, will make you money !

I’ve had some successes, and yes, on occasions I have bombed. But I persist and I get results. And sometimes the results blow me away. (Like a letter I wrote one Saturday afternoon that’s getting 20% response rate ! When this happens I thank my lucky stars that I’m in Mail Order.)

So I’m going to show you what works for me…and the best way to do that is with examples. So we’re going to go behind the scenes of a current campaign and see why this letter is working, why it is pulling orders like crazy. I’m going to lay in  on the line and give it to you like it is.

So over the next few series of posts I’m going to reveal to you some powerful ways to increase your response rate on every letter you mail. Big call? Maybe…but I guarantee you, you will get ideas that you can turn into money in your Mail Order business.

Or if you are dead set on wanting to get your hands on business building startegies for your home business NOW then you could go staright to my website  www.workingfromhomeriches.com and for a mere $47 get all the tips, tricks and strategies delivered to your computer in an instant.

And it’s going to take a while to get through writing this sales letter segment. I don’t want to leave anything out. I want you to cash in on what I have learnt and what I have experienced in this industry.

So you’ll have to be patient with this one. It’s going to take a few posts to cover the ground…but It’ll be worth it I assure you !  So whether you’re new to Mail Order, or maybe you’re like some others already in the industry…doesn’t matter….

YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW…AND THAT’S A PROMISE !

And don’t be overwhelmed by your lack of experience and start thinking you’ll never be able to write your own letters. You can ! Just be aware there is so much to learn…and the learning never stops.

And different books you read on this subject will reveal a different viewpoint, one or two more revelations that are new to you, maybe a key suggestion that will shed light on what you are doing. The old: "Aha, I get it !" experience.

Take what you need, add your own personal stamp to it, and then apply it to your letter.

You can of course, get others to write your piece for you. Many marketers do this. They hire the best and get results. But this article isn’t about getting others to do it.

It’s about doing it yourself.

And frankly, when I started, I could barely afford to post a few letters, let alone hire a professional copywriter. So I had to learn…and fast. I would get a sale, process the order, and then invest the money into mailing more letters…especially follow-up mailings to past enquiries.

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SUCCESS TIP:  With my first mailing to a prospect I find I get the best response. They are the prospects who saw your ad and couldn’t wait to call your message bank and get more info. They get your letter and they are immediately attracted to your offer…and they buy straight away. But not every prospect will jump straight to the phone with credit card in hand. Some are only semi-interested, some are pre-occupied with certain issues going on in their lives, and others simply haven’t got the money at that particular time. So you’ve got to follow-up. I’ve found the second and third  mailing, when responses are added together, are equal to the first mailing. Motto to the story? Always follow-up on your prospects. If you don’t, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

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So basically, I studied like mad. I’de write out successful sales letters by hand…over and over until I could feel the right words to use. And then I would write some more.

It’s not easy but you can learn the fundementals that will make the difference to your letters.

You can learn to…

Attract the attention and single out your chosen market, and you can learn to create interest in your piece. You can develop and master the art of creating desire in what you are selling. And you can learn the steps you need to take in order to bring forth a response from your prospects.

And I know I keep saying this but you must do it if you’re going to write effective copy. You’ve got to have a swipe file, a collection of successful sales pieces. You can see how others are doing it. What words they are using. You can use them to mould your own style of writing. Now I don’t mean for you to copy them word for word. Just use them as guidelines to follow when cerating your own piece.

Go one step further and write them in your own handwriting, or even on your keyboard…just write them out until you start to feel what the writer is trying to accomplish.

Now there is one critical element that you must be aware of if you are going to have a successful campaign. It doesn’t matter if your sales letter is written by Gary Halbert himself, it will still bomb if you don’t get this one right. What is it?

The audience. Those who recieve your letter…let me explain.

Three Elements of a Successful Direct Mail Campaign.

With any Direct Mail, whether it is lead generated prospects you are mailing to, or names that have been purchased from a list, there are three important elements that make a campaign successful

1. Audience (Target market)
2. Offer (What the customer gets)
3. Creative (What’s in your sales package)

They are the big three…the audience is the most critical part of the equation. Then the offer, and then the creative comes a poor third.

An example of bad targeting would be doing a Direct Mailing to a rented list. Let’s say for this example that you own a lawn mowing business.

So you buy a list of residents in your area. You do your mailing and half of your letters wind up in the apartments of high-rises. Now that’s bad targeting and your responses would reflect this point. Wouldn’t matter how good your letter was…half the people who recieved it cannot use your service.

Now when this happens most people blame the copywriter who wrote the letter. But they should be looking at the list.

The list of names you send your offer to is the most important element…period !

Now that’s an extreme case but it does illustrate my point. So that’s why it’s critical you know exactly who your target market is, what they read, and how you can reach them affordably.

And that’s why your advertisement has got to narrow in and target only those that would be interested in your offer.

With two-step adv ertising, the ad brings you the leads. It’s the sales letter’s job to get the sale. So if one ad brings in 100 enquiries, and the other ad brings in 50 enquiries, which one would be the better ad ?

The 100 one?

Maybe. But if that ad was bringing in 100 people that were "sought of" interested in your offer, and the other ad was bringing in people who were…

• Absolutely thrilled about your kind of product
• Had recently bought a similar item through the mail and were happy with thier purchase

Which would be the better ad? You see what I mean?

It’s all about testing and measuring your audience.

You need to test your advertising until you come up with an ad that brings highly targeted prospects that are pre-sold on what you’re offering. Remember also, every audience is different in their tastes. lies and dislikes. In their wants, needs and desires.

Only by testing each audience will you discover what each one prefers.

The audience is the critical factor that determines your success. Then the offer, followed by the creative. So if you have pinpointed your buying market precisely, and your offer is spot-on and contains one or more premiums of interest, then you can get away with an average letter and still make a profit. Keep that in mind…now let’s get started.

Next post I’ll go over how to write a compelling, benefited-filled sales letter. In the meantime if you are looking for real down to earth strategies and tips on how to create a business from home go to my website www.workingfromhomeriches.com and purchase my e’book for only $47.00.

Till next time,

Peter Tonks.

www.workingfromhomeriches.com

Gidday,

Now over the past months I have been giving you various lessons on how to create information products, publish them and sell them for a profit. And I will continue to add to these posts in the future. However, let’s just digress a moment and think about what we have covered so far and gather our thoughts and summarize what we have learnt and how we can apply the same strategies to creating a home based service business in almost any industry you want.

Here we go:

MAKING MONEY WITHOUT MONEY.

To make it in this world of ours you need to do one of two things. Sell a product, or to sell a service. For someone starting out, who needs money quickly, selling a product is just not feasable. You won’t have the money to purchase stock, or the funds to promote your product. This means if you have little money and you need cash now you must: sell a service…or to be more precise…you must ask yourself three questions.

• What service will I provide?
• Who will be my customers?
• How do I reach my customers?

Consider this: The service industry is growing at an incredible rate. Many fortunes have been made and will continue to be made in this "boom" industry. A good many of these success stories started small, and as a home business, so don’t be discouraged, there is plenty of room for the part-timers. And who knows, demand for your service may grow to such an extent that it will lead to a full-time business.

The important thing is to actually do it. You’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain. What with the economic and financial crisis looming ever so great in front of us more and more people will be looking to earning an income from home. And the cheapest way of starting your own home based income is to offer a service. Okay, so now we will go through these three important points.

#1: WHAT SERVICE WILL I PROVIDE?

There are so many services you can begin now, right at this moment that it is difficult to know where to start. Lawn Mowing, House Cleaning, Domestic Duties, Shopping For The Elderly, Rubbish Removal, Window Cleaning and the list just goes on. The only limit is your imagination and the amount of enthusiasm you possess to make extra cash.

You may not like these services, but please realise it is not forever. These jobs can give you the money to do what you really want. Or you might find that your service grows so much that you end up hiring other people to do the work while you remain in the office, organizing more jobs and counting the money. This is the pay-off for all the hard work in the beginning.

I once owned and ran a laundromat. I purchased it brand new and started offerering an ironing & washing service. Well it wasn’t long before I needed to employ staff, and eventually I had a thriving business with lots of people every day dropping off their washing and ironing and picking it up on their way home at night.

I actually had plans to further expand on the idea of having more laundrettes and each one running with a manager and I was going to be driving around picking up and delivering people’s washing & ironing. However, one of my staff members realising I was on a good thing purchased the business from me and I went on to ‘greener pastures’

One of my Laundry customers though had a great home business which was making him mega dollars. He had a cleaning and maintenance business and operated all over the country from home. How did he do this from his home you ask.

Well he had originally set up his cleaning/maintenance business and then went all over the country interviewing tradesman and handiman people in each area or town. Once he had signed up a tradesman he would place an advertisement in the local Yellow Pages for that area. He then went back home and sat by his computer and phone waiting for people to call him. And call him they did.

Basically it went like this. Mary Kerfoops in Tim Buck Too needed her lawn mowed and so upon reading his ad in the yellow pages would phone him. He would simply get her details and say something like…"no worries Mrs Kerfoops I’ll be right over" .  Then of course he would ring the particular guy he had previously signed up in that town and got him to go over and mow Mrs Kerfoops’s lawn, taking a percentage of whatever the lawn mowing guy charged.

Now this doesn’t seem much of an income. But when you take into consideration that he was receiving hundreds of calls per week from all over the country it soon added up to a very nice income for sitting at home in his undies. Yes in his undies because it’s ‘bloody hot’ in North Queensland, Australia… let me tell you!

So, just think on this for a few minutes. No matter what service or industry you choose by thinking outside the square and going that little bit extra then you can create a fantastic business out of almost nothing.

When thinking of what service you will provide choose one that requires repeat business. For example, think of lawn mowing. In the summer months you’ll be seeing your customers quite often, maybe every week. Remember the following statement, as it could bring you wealth, more than you’ve ever dreamed.

DO FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY DO NOT HAVE TIME TO DO FOR THEMSELVES.

So if you need money quickly, provide a service that people have not got the time or inclination to do themselves. There are heaps of so-called dirty jobs out there that people detest doing. I mean, who likes cleaning ovens? Or fixing blocked drains? As mentioned earlier, this doesn’t have to be a career for you. But these so-called dirty jobs can make you money.

#2: WHO WILL BE MY CUSTOMERS?

When considering your customers, think about what is known as the "Baby Boomers", people born between 1945 to 1965. This group of people represent the best opportunity for you to attain wealth. The Baby Boomers will earn more and spend more than any group of people in the history of mankind. And all of this is happening now ! Think about it. What an amazing opportunity ! Look at the potential the Baby Boomers offer you, if you "do for them what they do not have the time to do themselves". To make money from this explosion in business you must understand the needs, desires, and frustrations of this substantial group of people. Solve their problems and they will solve your (money) problems.

These people have the money to pay you handsomely for your service. The one thing they do lack is time. So when you’re thinking about your customers will be, keep in mind the Baby-Boomers and develope a service to meet their needs. Your business will thank you for it.

#3: HOW DO I REACH MY CUSTOMERS?

There’s no getting around it, you’ll have to advertrise. No business big or small can remain viable without advertising. This doesn’t mean splashing your money around in this paper and that paper with no clear thought of your objective. It doesn’t  have to cost much at all. And because we are discussing ways to make money without much money, I will only be dealing with inexpensive ways to reach your prospective customers.

The following is a sure way to have customers rushing to call you…for under $30.

First off you need to plan your promotion. These are three main factors you’ll have to sort out.

1. Be clear on what you provide…what your service is, and what it can do for a customer.

2. How much time has been allocated for your project…part-time or fulltime?  How much effort are you willing to put in developing and building your service ?

3. From these answers be clear on how much money you want to make.

By now you’ve got a good idea of what you do and hopefully you have a good idea of who your prospective customers are…your target market. Now, wouldn’t it be nice if these people seek you out instead of madley rushing around town trying to drum up business? Or worst still, the dreaded cold calling of potential customers. Well there is an answer and it’s called:

Two-Step Marketing…or Lead Generation Marketing.

Here’s how it works. You place a small classified advertisement in a publication your target market needs. In your advertisemnt offer a free report. The beauty of this approach is that it is so inexpensive. You are not trying to sell anything at this point. What you are doing is gathering names of future, highly targeted prospects. When they responde to your ad, send out your free report along with a cover letter. And that’s basically it. Here’s how to do it.

What is a free report?

A free report is basically a step-by-step guide produced by an expert for the benefit of someone who wishes to achieve a specific result or goal.

Why do I need a free report?

It creates credibility in the eyes of your prospective customers. They see your ad offering free information on a topic they are interested in. You provide them with relevant information; maybe you slove a problem. Youi have educated them. You have established yourself as a knowledgeable professional.

Can you see how easier it is now to turn these people into customers? At the bottom of your report you have your contact details;  basically a call to action. Maybe even a discount for responding early.

Based on a twenty percent response rate to your reports, if you mail out 50 reports you’ll have 10 new customers on the phone calling you.

To recap, the objective of your FREE Report is to position you and your service as knowledgeable, reliable experts in your field. As Mal Emery, one of Australia’s top marketing experts says: "I advocate POSITIONING, not prospecting. Prospecting involves talking to people who usually don’t want to talk to you. POSITIONING involves talking to highly qualified, interested prospects who are eager to talk to you". If it’s good enough for Mal, it’s good enough for you and me. So go for it !

Cheers for now.

Peter Tonks

www.workingfromhomeriches.com

Selling Information By Mail.

Well, we have come a long way so far. We’ve covered finding your niche and developing a package to suit. We’ve looked at advertising your product, and now we’re on to the exciting part of developing your sales pack. It’s been a long journey, and many of you have been with me from the start. So let’s move on.

Okay, if you have followed the advice from my last post you know the best way to get a sales letter done is to go through your package and list every feature, and then turn those features into benefits.

Then we looked at offers and discovered how the right offer can dramatically increase your sales. I also stated you should write your offer first, while you’re nice and fresh.

Now, you can take this tip on board or not; basically it’s up to you. But I will say one thing. This procedure is used by Brian Voiles; he’s one of the living legends of copywriting. These are the steps he follows. He turns features into benefits, then he does his offer, then staright to the order form. If it’s good enough for Brian, I thought I would give it a try. So now this is what I do for all my projects and I’ve got to tell you, it works for me. So just give it a go and see for yourself.

So this month we’re going to look at order forms. They are often overlooked by infopreneurs but they are a valuable sales tool as you’ll soon discover. And you should write your order form even before you start your sales letter.

You see most order forms I see are boring. It’s like the person who did the sales letter wanted it all to be over and by the time she got to the order form she just rushed through it! "PHEW!  Glad that’s over !" That type of thing.

What this person doesn’t realise is many people who get her letter go staright to the order page and check out the price and what’s on offer. So this is a golden opportunity for a smart marketer to use this form not only to get the customer’s details, but more importantly, to sell the prospect on the product being offered!

And in this article, I’m going to show you what the real Mail Order Pros use in their order forms. If you follow the guidelines in this article, your order form will sizzle, be exciting, and above all, get the orders. Let’s begin.

A successful order form comprises many different elements that work together to make it a winner. I’m going to go through the different elements to let you know what they are, but more importantly, how you can inject them into your piece.

The Fundementals of a Successful Order Form.

1. Attention Grabbing Headline
2. A No-Risk Offer
3. Guarantee
4. Call to Action
5. Customer’s Information Details
6. Payment Details
7. Your Contact Details
8. Layout & Graphics
9. Other Attention Grabbers (Called Bells & Whistles in this industry)

Right, let’s go through our list so you can see how every element interrelates with the other to form the complete sales vehicle. You’ll soon see that if you want to have a winning order form you must include most, if not all of these elements. Let’s move on.

1. Attention Grabbing Headline.

A headline on an order form? Exactly! And most times I don’t even call it an order form. If I’ve got a ten-day limit on the bonuses I,m offering I’ll have a headline like the one below on the form…

 Ten-Day Limited Offer!

Now headlines come in many different forms so I’ll give you a few examples on some proven winners. See if you can adapt some of the ideas to your own order page.

Membership Application.

 FREE 30-Day Trial

Send No Money Now, FREE Bonuses If You Order Within Ten Days! 100% Guaranteed Way To (Add Your Main Benefit)

Are you starting to get the idea? I mean, anyone can have "ORDER FORM" on top of their page…but will it increase sales? Remember, every element of your sales package must work together to maximise your chances of a sale. A strong headline on your order form will help…no doubt about it!

2. A No-Risk Offer.

Right, the no-risk offer is next on our list. And it means what it says…no risk involved for ordering your product. You take the load; you take the risk from your prospect’s shoulders and carry this load yourself. Without the no-risk offer you will lose sales. So include it, it’s that simple.

I try to word the no risk statement in the first person, as if my prospect is talking. Something like this…

"Yes Pete! I want to take advantage of your fantastic offer and start…(results they will achieve and the benefits they are getting.) I’m ordering within ten days so please include all my FREE Bonuses valued at $190.00. I realise if I’m not totally happy with your product I’m covered by my 6 months Money Back Guarantee and even if I do return the product I can still keep my free bonuses valued at $190.00! On that understanding, here’s my $60."

This is what you should be aimimg for. See how it is worded as an affirmation in the prospect’s own voice? This is a powerful method to use and one that I’m sticking by. There are many ways to word this type of offer but as long as you make it no-risk for your prospects you are on the right track.

3. Guarantee.

Now your guarantee can be included in your no-risk offer like above but you can also have it in a seperate block of type to make sure the prospect is absolutely convinced and aware of your guarantee. You might think this is going overboard but I can’t stress this point too much. MAKE SURE YOUR GUARANTEE IS PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED ON YOUR ORDER FORM. If it appears twice, so be it.

4. Call To Action

Your call to action must be very clear. Make it simple and do not confuse your prospects. Confused prospects don’t order, so you’ve got to aim for clarity. If your prospects can order three different ways then say so clearly.

You’ll notice above in the "No-Risk Segment" that I have actually included a call to action. It’s the line: "Im ordering within ten days so please include all of my FREE Bonuses…"  You can do this too if you want as it really motivates the prospect to take action.

I go a step further and date stamp my order form. This shows my prospects I’m serious about my deadline. Here’s my example…

To Receive All Your FREE BOnuses You Must Order By: 23 July 2002.

Try it out yourself; it works!

5. Customer Information Details.

Make it easy to order. I can’t stress this point too much! Here’s a sample below…

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

My Details are:

First Name:——————————

Surname:——————————–

Address:——————————–

State:———————————-Post Code:____________________________Phone:————————————-

Fax:————————————E-Mail:—————————————————————————————————–

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

See how easy it is to fill out? Notice also you are asking for phone, fax, and email details from your customers. This is important. You must be able to contact them in case you have problems shipping the order.

Some marketers go as far as filling in the customer’s details for them. And I can see the point here but as yet I have not tried it for myself. It’ll be something to test in the future. Just remember to keep it simple, easy to understand, and you won’t confuse your prospects and you will increase your sales!

Selling Information By Mail

Now it’s time to create the sales letter for your info product. According to Gary Halbert and Brian Keith Voiles, arguably two of the best copywriters ever, the first thing you’ve got to do is to create a fact sheet, or feature sheet, whatever you want to call it.

This is where so many so-called copywriters come unstuck. They’re in too much of a hurry to write their masterpiece and ignore the most fundamentally important task of all…

Getting to know your product inside out and turning every single feature into mouth-watering, irresistible benefits!

So how do you do this? It’s simple.

What you’ve got to do is go through and list every fact you can find. Good or bad just write ‘em down. Now you are going to turn these facts into benefits. It’s easy once you get started. You want to be able to pile on benefit after benefit, one irrestistible reason to buy after another. Right, here’s an example to get you going…

FEATURE: Your manual has 120 pages.

BENEFIT: You don’t just get an overview in your manual. With 120 pages of tightly edited copy your manual fully covers the topic on hand. Information thatis easy to learn, simple to use, and provides fast results.

See how easy it is? Now if you just said your manual has 120 pages, well this isn’t going to stir much emotion in your prospect. (A sales letter that doesn’t evoke emotion is a complete waste of time…it’s a dud. Remember, people buy on emotion not logic. Sure they use logic, but that is after the sale has been made. They use logic to reassure themselves on making a wise decision in purchasing.)

So you use your benefits, explaining how in your manual you go into detail to fully explain the subject on hand and how they can then use this info immediately to get the results they are looking for. Then you list those results that can be achieved. Now is that emotive? You better believe it! And that’s what sells.

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SUCCESS TIP: When writing your sales letter, if you ever get stuck when trying to list your benefits, take heed of this advice by top ad writer Brian Voiles. Brian says the best way to lead into your benefits is to just say…You get….

Then list all the benefits. You get this and that, plus you’ll also discover that, and you get this and this and this. And if you order within ten days you get this etc. Get the idea? This method is so easy yet so powerful! By using the "You get" method you are totally focused on your prospect, not on your product. Because as you know, the prospect doesn’t care about your product as yet, all she wants to know is what does she get out of it. Using "You get" when listing your benefits, you’re automatically focusing on the prospect, not the product !

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EMOTIVE COPY SELLS !

And you can’t write this type of copy with just features, you’ve gotta list the benefits.

One of the best examples I’ve seen on turning features into benefits comes from Ross Hancock. Now Ross is a master salesman, with many successful years of selling behind him. A few years ago he was speaking at a marketing conference on the Gold Coast.

By using an ashtray as an example, Ross effectively revealed the methods used to gather benefits from features. He also clearly demonstrated that one ordinary feature of a product, can be turned into many compelling benefits. We’ll have a quick look at the humble ashtry so you can see my point.

PRODUCT: Ashtray.

FEATURE: Has a groove in the side to place your cigarette.

ADVANTAGE: Cigarette won’t fall out when placed in the groove.

BENEFITS:

• You won’t have ash everywhere all over your carpets.
• You won’t burn the carpets
• You won’t waste much of your cigarette as it burns more slowly when placed in the groove.
• Piece of mind-your house won’t burn down.

As you can see, there are many benefits to this one single feature. Now your main benefit will be the piece of mind benefit; that is your house won’t burn down. This the benefit you would highlight in your sales letter. But that doesn’t mean you discard the rest ! What you do is present as many benefits as you can find, one benefit piled on top of another, overwhelming your prospects with "reasons why" they’ve got to get your product !

Too many sales letters, and salespeople for that matter, don’t do a good job on selling the benefits. They rely on the features, figuring the prospect will fill in the blanks for them.

Well I’m here to tell you they won’t !   You’ve got to tell them. When it comes to selling, one classic old line sums it up…

THE MORE YOU TELL THE MORE YOU SELL !

And here’s another one you may have heard…

YOUR COPY CAN NEVER BE TOO LONG… ONLY TOO BORING !

When writing your copy, or selling face-to-face, Ross Hancock has a great method he uses. First he starts with his FEATURE and then he thinks " So What?"  Because that’s what your prospects are thinking. "So what’s in it for me?" This is the "bridge" that leads to the ADVANTAGE> Ross uses this line: "Which means to you Mr Prospect …."  Which then naturally leads to the BENEFITS.

So it looks like this…

FEATURE—"so what?"

This leads to…

ADVANTAGE—"which means to you Mr Prospect."

This leads to…

BENEFITS

If you keep asking yourself as you write:  "So What?"—your copy will sizzle. I mean it. You won’t and can’t just list features when using this method. Your  "So What?"  question will lierally force you to reveal the benefits. See what I mean? You can’t say  "So What?"  to a benefit–only to features. Keep this in mind whilst writing your sales letter and you’re on your way to a successful piece.

So your first two steps in creating your sales material are…

1. Make a fact sheet on your product

2. Turn those facts into benefits

So when you have finished your fact sheet, go through them all, one by one, and ask "So What?"—this will lead you to your benefits. If you end up with five or six pages of benefits it’s going to be easy to write a sales letter for your product. Now all you do is list them in order of importance. Now when this is completed you can then move on to the next step.

The Offer

Now that we’ve got a list of all your features and benefits it’s time for the offer. In sales letters, your offer is the "DEAL".  This is where you either get a sale or you don’t. So you must be able to write compelling offers if you want to succeed and I’m going to do my best at showing you how. And you should write your offer first, while you’re fresh, before going on to start your letter.

But first I want you to realise the importance of the offer. This step is critical. The best copy in the world will get few orders if you have a weak offer. But more importantly…

A strong offer can succeed in getting the sale even if the copy is weak !

So if that’s the case, writing compelling offers is what you should be concentrating on. All the info I’m going to reveal to you in the months ahead on writing good copy will be useless if you skip over this section. And the best way to write good offers is by…

• Studying good examples of direct mail letters you recieve
• And copying the offers out time and time again.

By writing out good offers your subconscious mind will start to think this way. You are conditioning yourself, programming yourself to write good copy. Remember back at school how you were made to repeat the times table over and over until that info became imbedded into your mind? It’s the same with writing good copy and offers. If you study the masters, then write their letters out over and over, your mind will start to think along those lines; your writing will automatically begin to improve, and so will the response rate of your letters. Okay let’s have a quick look at offers. An ordinary offer or deal will look like this…

"Send $99 and you’ll get my new manual !"

Okay, that doesn’t inspire much enthusiasm does it? Same with:

"Give me $20 and I’ll mow your lawn"   or "Give me $25 and I’ll wash your car"

Boring!  These are all boring weak offers.

You have to start thinking like your prospect is. How would you like to be offered your product? By way of a FREE trial? or maybe a FREE Bonus? or maybe with Multiple payment options?

"Send $99 within the next ten days and get my new manual plus $199 worth of FREE bonuses. Plus you have a full year to decide if my manual is for you. If you’re not completely happy within the first year of purchase you get your money back plus you can keep all the free bonuses. So basically you’ll be $199 ahead just for trying out my manual !"

How’s that …better or what? 

Or what about this one…

"Send no money ! You have thirty days to make sure my manual is right for you. After thirty days we will bill your credit card $99. If you’re not happy, just send the manual back withion thirty days and you won’t pay a cent plus you can keep the $199 worth of free bonuses. So call now and don’t pay a thing for thirty full days !"

Now we’re on the right track. This is what you must do. Write as many offers down as you can then go back over them and edit your work. Find the best elements of each offer and combine them together into a tightly edited deal. So between now and june, start writing down their letters in your own handwriting. Keep this up. You’ll soon start to get the idea. This is when you start thinking like a copywriter, thinking of the benefits, thinking in terms of what the prospect gets and not what you’ve got to sell.

Cheers,

Peter Tonks.   www.workingfromhomeriches.com

Selling Information By Mail

In this issue I’m going to show you how to get paoid for your advertising. And we’re going to use the same two-step advertising approach as explained in the last issue. Only this time, instead of using a free report to capture the names of your prospects, you are going to charge a small fee for this information. If you get a big enough response, this system will not only pay you for your advertisememnt, it’ll pay for printing and postage of your report.

Self Liquidating Lead Generation .

Okay, it sounds like a fancy name but don’t let this fool you. It can work, and it does for some. About a year ago I tested this strategy myself with a low priced booklet. The results weren’t too bad, but in hindsight I realize the ad was probably a bit small, and my asking price too high.

Let’s see how this works. We’ll take a look at an ad from the last issue, where we used a free report. Below this ad, is the Self Liquidating ad, asking for a small fee

                                                 "Does Your Household Budget Cover All The Bills?"

                      Chances are, if you’re like most Aussie families, your budget is not nearly enough to cover the never-ending array of bills that your family has to deal with. Fortunately, there is an answer. A powerful FREE REPORT titled:

        "6 Easy, Powerful Ways to Save up to $132 Every Week From Around Your Home!"

 You’ll discover the number one money leak that literally sucks money out of your household budget. Find out how to plug this hole for good. Plus you’ll get 5 more easy ways to save a bundle. To get your hands on this money saving Free Report call:

  FREECALL 1800-123 456 24hr rec message

 And stop wasting your hard-earned cash!

 or write to xyz marketing P.O. Box xxx

——————————–

                 "Does Your Household Budget Cover All the Bills?"

 Chances are, if you’re like most Aussie famalies, your budget is not nearly enough to cover-ending array of bills that your family has to deal with. Fortunately, there is an answer. A powerful NEW REPORT titled:

               "6 Easy, Powerful Ways to Save up to $132 Every Week From Around Your Home!"

 You’ll discover the number one money leak that literally sucks money out of your household budget. Find out how to plug this hole for good. Plus you’ll get 5 more easy ways to save a bundle. To get yourself a copy of this money saving report send $5.00 to cover printing & postage to: XYZ Marketing, P.O. Box xxx  or call 12345678910. BONUS REPORT: Order in the next fourteen days & get a FREE Bonus Report: "7 Easy Ways to Make $100 Tomorrow!"

Basically, as you can see, there are three important differences…

• You’re asking for five dollars for the report
• You’re number is not FREECALL
• You’ve added a bonus.

There are many variations that you can try but one thing is for certain: With this system you will get fewer responses…but is getting more respeonses really  what you’re after?  Let me explain.

Qualifying Your Responses

With Self-Liquidating Lead Generation Ad you will get fewer responses. Simple as that. If people have to pay five dollars for your report, well many won’t bother. But now for the good news. The people who have responded are more qualified. They have spent money with you.  They are still on what I call "The outer circle of your influence," but they are 100% more qualified to purchase your main product than someone who has just rang up for a freebie. Believe me…you’ll find many people who just want the freebie and who have no intention in buying your main product.

              By using a normal STD Number instead of a FREECALL number you have further qualified your prospects.

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SUCCESS TIP: When asking for money from an ad you must have live operators answering the calls you recieve. People won’t leave their credit cards details on a message. When you’re starting out (and even when you’re established), this may mean taking the calls yourself. After hours you just switch your line over to an answering machine. Don’t ask for your prospects credit card details on your message. Just ask for their name and number and you return the call.

Important point: There are many order taking services in Australia that will take calls for you 24 hours a day. Contact me and I’ll send you the details. There are other companies who will process credit card orders for you. This is important..you must be able to accept credit cards otherwise you’ll lose a good percentage of orders. Once again, contact me and I’ll send you the details.

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So your response to your main package should be high. They have paid for a report and they have paid for the phone call. With a good report, and a top sales letter, you could and should do well with such a highly selescted list. In mail order, there is nothing more valuable than this type of highly qualified, targeted list. Treat them like gold, and start building a relationship.

Test and Monitor.

My personal opinion when starting out is to keep your costs as low as possible. (Please ignore this section if you’re filthy rich) So stick with a normal STD number. If it proves successful by all means include a FREECALL number in your ad.

Even with a free call your prospects will still be qualified as they are paying for your report. So if and when you can afford it, test your ad with a FREECALL number; my bet is your responses will improve.

An Added Bonus.

The most important part of any advertisement is the headline, followed by the offer.  By adding a bonus report you have added value and have craeted a very powerful offer. This will add more incentive to call and you will get more responses than without a free bonus.

An example of a powerful bonus.

Target Market: Infopreneurs

Main Product: "How to make $1,000 a week selling low-cost, high-profit information products."

$5 Report: "What the mail order pros won’t tell you! Two direct marketing secrets revealed!"

Bonus Report: "7 easy steps to mail order success !"

Your $5 report will be based on your main product. It could even be a chapter of your main product. This is the method used by some of today’s top marketers. They take a chapter from their book and use this. Or you could take a few of the main points and rewrite them. It doesn’t really matter which method you use, as long as the information is good, if they have benefited from the information, there’s no doubt they’ll be thinking:

"Gee, the main product must be special."

Your bonus report must be related to your $5 report. With some products it could simply be a list of suppliers, a list of magazines, or even a tip sheet. It won’t take much brainstorming to find ideas.

Covering All Your Costs.

By using the $5 report method, you’ll cover some of your costs. But unless you get a huge response, it probably won’t pay for all expenses: Advertising cost, postage and printing, credit card processing fees. But it’s still better than giving everything away…you still get to recover some of your money. But what if you want to recover all of your costs? Is there a way to do this?

Well there is, but you’ll have to charge more…at least $9.95, preferably $19.95. To do this you are going to need a bigger ad. Which means more money and higher risks.

You’ll need a bigger ad because you simply haven’t the room to fully cover the benefits of your report in a very small display ad.

For a magazine, I’de say you would need a sixth page, preferably a quarter or half page advertisement, to effectively sell your report for $9.95. If you’re going to ask for $19.95, anything under a half page will almost certainly be a waste of time.

Re-Packaging Your Report.

So now you’ve got a quarter page ad that’s asking for ten dollars for a report. Now, to someone who doesn’t know you, who doesn’t know the value of your information, ten dollars will probably sound too much. So what to do?

Take a look at your report. Is it worth ten dollars? Of course it is. It contains quality, hard to find information that’s in demand. So it’s worth ten dollars. Right, good…we’ve settled that one. But does it look like it’s worth ten?

Maybe re-packaging the report is the answer. Remember, everything has a "perceived"  value. And you want your report to look valuable; you want it to look ten dollars. Better yet, you want your report looking so damn good your prospect feels as if she’s got a bargain. You want it to look like it’s worth 20 or 30 dollars. So how?

I would package it up to an A5 sized booklet. Coloured cardboard cover, stitched stapled in the middle. Or, if you want to spend a little more, you could have it tape bound. This gives it a real quality book appearance…but it will add to your cost. The choice is yours.

As with the $5 report technique, add a bonus report. This can simply be four A4 pages, stapled once in the top left hand corner. Price for this little extra will be 20cents, but it will add percieved value.

Be Happy If You Cover Your Adfvertising Costs

If you use this method, be happy if you cover the cost of the ad and be extremely happy if you cover your printing and postage costs as well. As I’ve said before, it is next to impossible to make money on a ten- dollar product.  By mail anyway…I know with the Internet, with instant download and no hard costs, you can make money this way. But not by mail. But remember what the objective here is.

                                                                                  Your objective isn’t to make money !

Your goal is to build a highly qualified database. Your main product is where you begin to show a profit, and sometimes only a small one at that. The real profits come with your "back-end sales", the products you sell to your customers in the months ahead.

So what’s the answer for you ?

Well, I’ve given you a few options in the last couple of issues so I’ll quickly outline the pros and cons of each to clarify the points covered.

                                                                       Free Report And FREECALL Number.

PROS: Maximum response. Make sure you have plenty of reports and sales letters printed. It’s so easy to just pick up the phone and get a freebie especially when the call doesn’t cost a penny. Have a good supply of stamps and envelopes on hand. With a good ad, in a well-chosen publication, you’re going to need them.

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SUCCESS TIP: Add another bonus report and you’re respnses will go through the roof. Put a time limit on your offer. Example: The first 20 callers will recieve etc etc….

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————

CONS: depending on where in Australia your prospects are ringing from, it could cost a few dollars for each call. The quality of prospects will not be as high. The only thing that has qualified them is they picked up the phone and called. So they may be vaguely interested in what you offer. Expect your response rate to your sales letter to be lower than other more qualified lists.

In saying all this, many mail order pros wouldn’t dream of running an ad without a free report and a FREECALL number. They know their sales letter is first rate, and the more responses they get the more orders they will eventually recieve.

And a good point to remember is many of their prospects are priced in the hundreds of dollars. Who cares about a few dollars when your main product is $550 and you have an arsenal of back-end products just waiting to be utilized?   So as always, test as you go and use a system that suits you best.

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SUCCESS TIP:  My personal opinion is you can’t beat a good free report with a strong sales letter enclosed. Most of the time if I’m running an ad in a magazine I’ll have a free report with a normal STD number. I’ve got calls from Perth, Singapore, and even New Zealand using this method…so I know they are interested and I follow up accordingly. For classified ads in the papers, I use a FREECALL number. I have tested both methods constantly over the last two years. I’ve found with classified ads in the papers, by using a normal STD number my responses have dropped…I mean nose-dived. So now I always use my FREECALL number.

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                                                       $5 report and STD number and free bonus report offer

PROS: Highly qualified prospects. Usually you will get a higher response rate to your main package.

CONS: Fewer responses. If maximum response is your goal, don’t try this method, although your "free bonus report" will help to increase responses.

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SUCCESS TIP:  To increase your response rate I would use a FREECALL number. They will still be qualified leads as they have paid for your report. If you can afford it, use a FREECALL number. With a FREECALL number and an extra bonus report, you may find your responses don’t drop significantly…great news as you will be getting paid $5 for every lead you get. You’re getting paid to build a database !

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$9.95 report and FREECALL and free bonus report offer

PROS: Highly qualified prospects who are eager for the information you supply. You should get good responses to your main package.

CONS: Fewer responses. Increased advertising costs as you will need a bigger ad. Increased postage cost because your report is now a booklet. Increased oprinting costs plus you’re paying for the call.

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SUCCESS TIP:  If you use a normal STD number with this method your responses will decrease dramatically. So make sure you use a FREECALL number with this technique. Check with your phone company. They can attach a 1800 number to your business line…a good investment to make.

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This two-step approach to selling works on-line as well. You simply place lead generating solo, sponsored, or classified ads in targeted e-zines with an offer of a free report or free e-book. Instead of directing your prospects to your voice mail message, you place a link to your website.

Although I have not got a website as yet I’m an avid student on the techniques being used on the net. And one thing I have found though is that there is so much hype and absolute BS out there being sprouted by people claiming to be experts. They try to bamboozle the novice with BS. This is how they operate.

What I’m saying is to keep in mind the basic marketing principals as they all apply to the net. Two-step marketing is no different. The people who have made the real money on the net are all former mail order pros who have cut their teeth in the real world. So master the two-step technique, and you will not only prosper offline, but online as well.

In the coming weeks I will be discussing the sales letter for your package. I’m going to try to cover the main points you need to incorporate into your sales letter. It’s a detailed subject area…many books have been written on this subject…so I’ll do my best to summarise your product without spending a fortune. The name of the game is publicity, getting you and your product known…this is the way to bring a flood of orders.

Talk soon.

Peter Tonks.   www.workingfromhomeriches.com

Selling Information By Mail

Right now it’s time to sell the mini-package you have created. And by this stage you’re already head and shoulders above most budding infopreneurs. Why? Well, they’ve taken the dumb route. They’ve put together a package and have no idea who their market is or how to reach them.

You however, know the six fundementals of selling information by mail. Before you even started you covered the first two fundementals…

1. You determined there was a market for your product

2. You found low-cost media to promote your product.

And then you covered the third fundemental: You customised your product for a specific market. So you have given yourself the best possible chance of success, so now it’s time to advertise. In this article I’m going to show you one system of selling by mail; there are many other ways you can go about it, but the system I will show you is one of the best, and more importantly it works !  It is also a cost effective way to advertise…you can basically start on a shoestring budget.

With this sytem in place you can begin your package for a slittle as $200 or even less!

First up we’ll look at setting you up with a powerful Lead Generating System (LGS) that will target your chosen prospects and get them wanting to know more about your offer.

This way your target market, the people interested in your offer, come chasing you. You’re not running around blindly chasing customers. They’re coming to you and that’s a powerful system to have on hand, don’t you think?

So what’s a LGS?

A Lead Generating System consists of two or more basic elements that link together in order to provide you with the names and addresses of people interested in your product. And that’s it. This system’s job is not to sell…that’s the job of your sales package. A LGS gets you the leads, the names of qualified prospects that have raised their hand for more info…you then mail the prospects your sales package.

The Two Basic Elements Of A LGS

1. Classified or display ad appearing in well-chosen publications. (That is publications you’re target market reads, and just as importantly, publications that carry similar ads…this proves others are making money from this publication. As the old saying goes: Fish where the fishing’s good.

2. 24 hour recorded message to capture the names of prospects.

And that’s basically it. In this article I’m going to deal with small display ads to target your prospects.

The following advice is a step-by-step guide to writing an ad specifically for information products. The ideas work, and because we will be dealing with small display ads, as opposed to full or half page ads, it is a cost-effective method to gather enquiries. Larger display ads require a lot more detail, especially if they are selling straight from the page. To begin with, leave this type of advertising to the Pros. Stick with small ads and make sure they are frquently placed. Now we’ll have a look at the two steps to an effective LGS.

Step one: How to Write Small, Lead Generating Display Ads.

The one point you have to keep in mind when writing a lead generating display ad is that your ad has only one purpose. And that is…

To get qualified prospects to call and listen to your recorded message!

That’s it, nothing more. So design your ads to accomplish this one goal. And one of the best ways to achieve a high response is to offer something FREE. In your case, you’ll be using a FREE REPORT. Now, as you know…

The most important part of your ad is your headline.

This is where you win or lose. If you’re headline doesn’t grab the reader’s attention, and make them want to read the rest of the ad, you’ve already lost. As you’ve discovered in previous newsletters, there are many different types of headlines you can use. But there are also two different angles you can take.

The powerful promise: "Are you ready to become a millionaire in just 18 months?"

The Warning or Fear Approach: "Do you make these mistakes in English?"

Many mail order Pros say the warning or fear approach is the best to use. Their reasoning is based on the sound Psychological principal that states: "The fear of loss is always greater than the promise of gain"  In the end it’s up to you. And as I’ve said so many times in the past, TEST as you go and monitor your results.

In the two examples above, the headlines ask a question. Headlines of this kind attract the reader’s attention; they are drawn to the ad like moths to a candle. Once the prospect sees the question, she just can’t help herself, she’s got to find out what it’s all about. She then reads the ad, finds out she has to call a number, and BINGO…one more name recorded, who then get sent your sales pack.

The best response-pulling ad will have a powerful FREE offer. This can be included in the headline as in the example on the ad below; or you could run with a different headline and have the FREE offer in the copy, as in the second example below.

                                                                                     FREE Report Reveals

                        "6 Easy, Powerful Ways You Can Save Up To $132 Every Week From Around Your Home!"

Find out…

The number one money leak that literally sucks money out of your household budget. Find out how you can plug the hole forever, saving yourself up to $48 each and every week. You’ll be surprised just how much money you’re wasting and how easy it is to fix. Plus you’ll get 5 more money saving tips that will save you 100’s of dollars each year. So call now and get your FREE REPORT on:

                                FREECALL 1800 123 456 24hr rec message  And stop wasting your hard earned cash !

  Or write to:  xxxxxxxx

  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

                                   "Does Your Household Budget Cover All The Bills?"

Chances are, if you’re like most Aussie families, your budget is not nearly enough to cover the never-ending array of bills that your family has to deal with. Fortunately, there is an answer. A powerful FREE REPORT titled:                                           

                        "6 Easy, Powerful Ways to Save Up To $132 Every Week From Around Your Home !"

You’ll discover the number one money leak that literally sucks money out of your household budget. Find out how to plug this hole for good. Plus you’ll get 5 more easy ways to save a bundle. To get your hands on this money saving Free Report call:

                                                            FREECALL 1800 123-456 24 hr recorded message.

                                                        And stop wasting your hard-earned cash !

                                                Or write to:  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Okay, these two ads are quick examples for you to learn from. Keep in mind when you write ads you must first get to know your product and target market inside and out…their desires, wants, what they buy and read etc. Because that’s what it takes to write a good ad. You must know and empathise with your market. In other words, you’ve gotta know where they’re coming from.

But the ads do illustrate the two points covered. The first has a promise headline with the free report included in the headline itself. The second has the fear or warning approach, with the free report offer in the copy. Think about which angle and type of ad will suit your product.

Even in small display ads you must tell the reader what’s in it for them.

You must tell the reader what your Free Report can do for them. Plus you have to tell them to take action, to call a number to recieve what they desire. The two ads effectively accomplish these points. They are both basic templates that you can adapt and use for your products as they both incorporate the AIDA Principal.

A = ATTENTION  This is the job of the headline. To grab the reader’s attention. compelling them to read the rest of the ad.

I = INTEREST     Your copy must arouse interest. To effectively do this you must know your target market inside out.

D = DESIRE  Your copy must arouse desire for what’s on offer.

A = ACTION  You must tell your prospect to take action now by calling your message.

Now that’s the basic formula you must follow for your ads to be effective. Start practising writing ads for different products. Start thinking in terms of what the customer gets. A good exercise would be to improve the two ads on the previous page. See how you could improve them and send me the results. I’de be happy to have a look at your work.

And never forget the basic rule of advertising copywriting:

"If the ad is not read, it won’t stimulate any sales; if it is not seen, it cannot be read, and if it does not command or grab the attention of the reader, it will not be seen."

Step two:  How to record your voice mail message.

I believe this step in your LGS is just as important as your ad. You see, what you say in your message ultimately affects the amount of people who will leave their names. If they don’t leave their name, you’ve lost. Even with a great message you will still get a percentage of "hang-ups".  Your job is to record your best possible message that will get a high percentage of callers leaving their details. The ad has done it’s part, directing prospects to your message, now it’s time to collect some names. Remember, your message has only one purpose. And that is…

To get the prospect to leave their name and address.

To do this you must maintain the prospect’s curiosity, just like you did in your ad. In advertising talk this is called:    "Selling the sizzle not the sausage!"

Right, let’s have a look at a message for the ads listed earlier. Here’s what I would not say:

"Gidday, my name is Peter Tonks and I’ve just finished a great new book called "101 ways to save and make money from home. And the good news is it will only cost you $39.00…."

HOLD IT !  This type of message will scare off most of your prospects. Way too much information. This is what I would aim for…

" Hello, and thanks for calling the Money Savers Hotline. If you’re struggling to make your dollar go further, and you would like to learn the secrets to saving thousands of dollars a year from your household budget…then our free report will show you how you can easily save up to $132 each week. You’ll read about the number one money leak in your budget and how you can plug the hole for good. Plus you’ll discover 5 more easy ways to save a bundle. To get your free, no obligation report, simply leave your name and address after the tone. Your phone number is optional, however it may help in case of difficulties. Please speak slowly and spell any uncommon names. Thanks once again, we appreciate your call."

Now that’s more like it. This is what you should be aiming for. Don’t scare them away. Keep them curious, this will fuel their desire and compel them to leave their details. Now, why ask for the phone numbers of your prospects? Isn’t the address enough?

Well the address is good, but from my own experience I have proven that a follow-up phone call one week after posting your sales letter dramatically increases sales. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve closed a sale simply by phoning the prospect. When buying anything through the mail, most people are sceptical about you and your offer. A simple phone call can cut through this resistance; it’s reassuring to your prospect to hear a real voice.

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SUCCESS TIP: Now some of my colleagues believe asking for the prospect’s phone number on your recorded message is going too far. They believe you will increase the "hang-up" rate. But in my experience I have noticed it is better to do so. And I do know the power of follow-up calls. They do increase sales, simple as that. So why would’t you ask for their number? Why give up a certain percentage of sales? To me it doesn’t make sense. The bottom line is sales…no sales means no business. So do yourself a favour and ask for the phone numbers.

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Testing Your Offer

Go back and have a look at the two display ads. See how everything is free? Free Report, Free Phone Call. This type of ad will pull the most orders. But here’s the downside. Your prospects won’t be as qualified. The trick here is to qualify your responses. You can do this by making them pay for the phone call. Simply have an ordinary STD number connected to your message bank. This way your prospects have to pay for the call. This shows you they they are actually interested in your offer, not just responding to yet another freebie.

This is something you’ll have to test yourself. If you’ve got a dynamite sales package that pulls the orders like crazy, well then maybe it doesn’t matter. You may then want to have more inquiries and let your sales package do it’s job. Or you may want more qualified responses but less of them. The choice is yours. I use both methods. In most cases, when I’m running classified ads in the daily papers, I will use a 1800 number. The choice is entirely yours but this is something you must get straight from the start.

Placing Your Ad.

Let’s recap a little here, back to the start of this series of articles when you learned the six fundementals of selling information. We’ll have a look at them again…

1. There must be a demand for your product.

2. There must be low-cost media in which to promote your product.

3. Your product must be custimised for a specific market.

4. Your product must be easy to learn.

5. Your product must be simple to use.

6. Your product must provide fast results.

Okay, so your product has been deliberately designed for a specific market, and that’s good. You’re on the right track. After carefully researching your market you also know there is a demand for your product, great news ! Remember, the process of buying and selling has always been MARKET driven, not PRODUCT driven.  Plus you know of low-cost publications that are suited to your ad. They seem the right type of publication. But what is the right publication.?

What do I mean? Well, let’s go back to the "rose growing manual" we’ve talked about in previous issues. Now you could place your ad in a general gardening magazine that runs similiar ads and you will get responses. But you’ll do even better in a magazine for rose growing enthusiasts. Same thing for a dog book. Don’t just go for a pet magazine, go for a dog one.!

The More Targeted You Are With Your Choice Of Publications The Better!

And make sure the publications you choose run similiar mail order ads. Don’t be tempted to test unchartered waters. Those waters are littered with the shattered dreams of more than one budding infropreneur. So fish where the fishing’s good. Place small ads frequently in highly targeted publications and you will egt reponses.

Cheers for now.

Peter Tonks. www.workingfromhomeriches.com

Hi

Did you all have a great holiday? Now it’s back to work eh. I thought today as you would all be settling back into ‘the grind’ to just keep this post short.

Business Cards.

You know business people the world spend a fortune on their business cards and despite this very few business cards succeed in getting much business. Why is this so.

Well the reason is because despite the bright colours or the fancy design most cards do not  tell the prospective customer "what’s in it for them"

95% of business cards simply have the name of the business and contact details. Even the reverse in most cases is left blank. Even more devastating to any marketing expert like myself is that most business cards do not have an "Offer"

Just imagine you are at a networking meeting and you go around the room chatting to a number of people and collect a business card off each person. Now, if the meeting is for a specific niche market then every attendee will be offering similiar products. The question is which person will you choose to deal with.

The next day you dig out all the business cards you have collected and set them out on your desk. Every card except one has the name of the business as the headline and have no offers. Only one has a headline that appeals to you and an offer of a FREE consultation. So which business would you choose?  Yes, you would naturally choose the one that has a beneficial headline (instead  of the business name) and an offer of a first consultation FREE.

Working from home is no different from having business premises. You still must have a business card. So why not use Your card to it’s maximum effectiveness. After all it’s the cheapest form of advertising and can be the most lucrative. After all when you stop and think about it, the little ole business card is about the only marketing tool which you get to literally place into the hands of a prospective customer. You are right there talking to a hot prospect. So why not give them a real reason to remember you by and to want to contact you the next day.

So before you do anything else sit down and design your business card. Remember, the headline is to get their attention. So make sure it is a major benefit of dealing with you. Then make an offer to ensure they get back to you. On the reverse you could put your contact details.

More on business cards later, but this will be sufficient to help you create a money-making business card for your home business.

Talk soon.

Peter Tonks.  www.workingfromhomeriches.com

Hi,

Some of you may have already tried to obtain the free gift. However I have been advised by my webmaster a problem existed. But the problem is now OK and we are now ‘on air’ so to speak. So I invite everyone to go and get your FREE Gift.

I have been talking lately about how to make money from home selling information products. You can either create your own product or purchase the reprint rights to someone else’s product. The best way is to create your own product, however buying the rights to a great product in a popular niche market can also be very lucrative. My Free Gift to you is an audio of Mal Emery, one of Australia’s leading mail order and reprint rights specialists. Enjoy !

Peter Tonks.

www.workingfromhomeriches.com

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and New Year celebration. I went up to North Queensland and spent my holidays in Townsville, Mission Beach & Cairns. It was simply fantastic and I reccommend everyone should visit North Queensland, Australia at least once in their life.

You have’nt seen a true Paradise until you have been to Nth Qld. It has everything from miles of tropical beaches, and sundrenched tropical islands with coconut palms hugging the coastline, as well as a host of accomodation places and restaurants of all different standards up to five star rating. Hundreds of islands dot the coast and are easily accessible by "tinnie". (That’s Aussie for a little tin boat with an outboard on it.). Some of the bigger islands have resorts on where you get all levels of accomodation. In my opinion Dunk Island is the best. What’s more it has the most natural tropical vegetation and lonely tropical beaches where you can escape with that partner and forget your troubles. So, for your next vacation make it Mission Beach (half way between Cairns and Townsville, nth Qld, Australia). From Mission Beach it is only a short boat trip across to Dunk Island and the type of holiday you only ever seem to dream about.

So stop dreaming and just do it!  Get your home business up and running well so that your dreams become a reality. Write down on a piece of paper the words ‘Dunk Island, Australia 2009"  and stick to the front door of your fridge as a constant reminder of your goal. To holiday in the unspoilt natural beauty of tropical North Queensland, Australia where the locals don’t even know what the word bulldozer means.

Now back to…

Selling Information By Mail.

Right, in this issue on creating a home income by selling information, we’re going to go through the steps to getting your booklet published. But first, when your booklet is completed, there are a few things to check before printing it out and taking it off to the printers to be photocopied, bound, and published.

Your checklist

• Make sure you have thoroughly edited your work. This includes spelling errors, nonsense sentences, errors in grammar, puntuation etc.
• Check to see if your booklet flows in a logical order, that it makes sense.
• Check all facts used for accuracy.
• Have you covered all your sub-headings? Have you ommitted any important info? Is it complete?

You may find when you have put your booklet through this checklist that you have left out a piece of info that should be included. That’s OK; just insert the required info where appropriate. When you are satisfied you have covered everything it’s time for the next step.

Layout

My suggestion is to stick with standard sizes for your booklet. A4 is the best size. This format matches every convenient form of postage, layout and design. Lay it sideways and fold it in half, and the A5 booklet appears. Folded this way and stapled, it becomes a handy desk-sized product. But for your booklet, stick to A4. I will discuss the uses for the A5 size booklet later on under "packaging"

Binding

Okay, you now have 30 A4 pages of quality information and now you have a few decisions to make concerning how to put it together.

One way is to have it printed on both sides, then stapled once in the top left hand corner, or with two staples along the left hand side. This will be the most inexpensive way of doing it. Plus your postage will be reduced as you could fold your booklet into three so it fits snugly inside a business size envelope (DL). Cost of postage 45 cents.

If you want to do it this way that’s fine. All up, your printing and postage costs should be no more than about $3.00. But please realise the price you can realistically charge will be reduced. Later on, under "packaging", I’ll show you a system that will triple your asking price, while adding only a few dollars total to your hard costs of printing and postage.

Typesetting.

Getting your manuscript professionally typeset is expensive, and these days with modern computers, unnecessary. Good desktop publishing software, like MS Publisher, or even MS Word, will do the job for you.

There are many desktop publishing businesses out there, many are part time operations, so if you don’t have a computer with the appropriate software, get in contact with a few of these outfits and get some quotes. It won’t cost much for thirty pages. Have them put your work on a disk…you can then take the disk to your printer and have them print off a ‘master copy’, ready for photocopying.

A good point to remember is to not get carried away with fancy typefaces. Times Roman for your booklet is all you need. Make your su-headings a different font, like Arial; this will give your booklet a special touch.

Packaging Your Product…Trade Secrets Revealed !

The aim of this section is to dramatically increase the asking price of your booklet. You see, you need at least a 500% mark-up, preferably 1000%, on your hard costs, to remain viable in this industry. Advertising costs will be your main expense, you’ll also have printing and postage expenses; not only on your product, but also on your sales material…you must have a high profit margin on your product to meet these expenses while still making a profit. Now, how can you do this?

First up, from now on, your booklet will now be called a manual. To do this you will have to look at the binding of your material. Here are the steps to turn your booklet into an expensive manual.

1) Bind your manual with a plastic comb. (This is a common and popular method of binding a manual. If your printer hasn’t heard of this method, get another printer as the one you have chosen is living in the dark ages.)

2) Print on one side of the paper only…this will "bulk-up" your product.

3) Add a cover page with title etc. This will be printed on heavier paper and covered with a plastic sheet.

And that’s basically it. You now have an expensive looking, quality manual that can command a fair price. Discuss these points in detail with your printer.

Okay, you’ve got a good-looking manual, but now your production price has soared. Depending on your printer, and how many copies you have printed at one time (I suggest as few as possible, 10 at the most), you will be paying around $5.00 for one copy. So now you must ask at least $25 to $50 for your manual to make a profit. And you will, cause I’m going to show you exactly how to do it !

Turn Your Manual Into A Complete Package !

Now, it’s very hard to sell just a manual. You need to turn your product into something more…a complete package. And this is the secret to making money selling information. You combine products together to form a package.

Okay, so how do you make your manual a package? Simply write two reports, on a subject related to, but not necessarily specific to, the subject covered by your manual.

Now, regarding related topics for ‘back-end products. The same applies to your reports. To stick with the ‘Rose-Growing’ theme, one of your reports could be titled: "The Ten Best Rose Varieties To Grow In Australia Today"

You then do the research and list the ten varieties of roses, where they are best grown, the pros and cons of each type etc. This is just one example. The subjects are many…it only takes imagination and enthusiasm to think up more ideas you can turn into reports.

For an extra dollar or two, and a little bit of work, you could confidently ask anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars for your package. Your product has now become much more valuable in the eyes of potential customers.

How To Add Even More Value !

To make your package look even more valuable, turn one of your reports into an A5 booklet, say 20 pages in length, printed on both sides, stapled in the middle, and with a coloured cardboard cover. This method will cost you around one dollar to produce. And remember those twenty pages are in fact only ten A4 pages, so it won’t be a huge project.

Your second report can be smaller, say four to six A4 pages, printed on one side of the paper only, and stapled in the top left hand corner. Price with stapling will be around forty cents. Your whole package will cost about seven dollars to produce and about three dollars to post; a total of ten dollars.

But now you can ask at least $50 and more for your product…that’s what you want; it’s extremely hard to market anything under $50 and still make a profit. Some of my colleagues won’t touch anything under $100 unless they are absolutely certain of high back-end sales from the original product.

A Few Words On Printers.

Just like everything in life, no two printers are the same. Before you choose someone to print your manual, I want you to get at least five quotes from different printers. This will you a ‘ballpark’ figure on what you are likely to pay. And please, don’t just choose the cheapest.

You’ve got to be able to work with this person. Take my printer for example. Now he is not the cheapest printer in town, nor is he the dearest, but we have developed a good working relationship. Most times I don’t even go to his shop, I simply email him, with the appropriate files attached, and he takes it from there. Plus he realises sometimes I need things in a hurry; like when you have ten orders for a manual but none are printed.

So you’ll have to work this one out for yourself and don’t be afraid to be upfront and ask questions; don’t be afraid to tell this person exactly what you want.

Till next time,

Peter Tonks.   www.workingfromhomeriches.com

Selling Information By Mail.

This month we are going to look at preparing your product. We’ll stick with the idea that your product will be a booklet, or guide, say 30 pages long. You can be more ambitious if you like although I think it is wise to start on a small scale and as your reputation and expertise grows you can branch out into more ambitious projects. Okay, as we learned one of this article, our product must meet and incorporate the six fundementals of selling information; which are…

1. There must be a demaand for your product.
2. There must be low-cost media in which to promote your material
3. Your product must be customised for a specific market
4. Easy to learn
5. Simple to use
6. Provide fast results.

By the time you sit down to prepare your product your research should have already covered the first two principals. Number one:

That there is demand for your product.

Number two:

You have identified a variety of low-cost media in which to advertise your product.

So, the first step is now to choose the title.

#1. Choosing a title.

A good title can make or break your project. Like a good headline it must specifically target your chosen prospects. In fact a good title can and should be used as a headline for the ad you create to sell the book. So it is extremely important to find the right title for your booklet. And I’m going to make it easy for you. I’m going to show you "the secret code" used by all the great advertising copywriters. It’s so easy and it practically sells the product itself. Before we go any further, have a look at the title below, by Dale Carnegie, I’m sure you have heard of it.

 "How to Win Friends And Influence People"

This book sold 15 million copies and it is no accident it uses the formula in "the secret code". Those words were also the headline of a mail order ad that sold the book. The ad ran successfully for many years and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Now this is a very powerful title and the book itself is good, but do you think it would have sold 15 million copies if the title was: "How To Remember People’s Names and Control Your desire To Argue" ?

I don’t think so. But this is what the book is about. Why is the headline such a poor substitute? Because the benefit it states is boring, it’s not going to stop people in their tracks before they turn the page. Let’s compare the two headlines to give you a better idea.

How To Win Friends (strong benefit)

How To remember People’s Names (boring weak benefit)

See how much better it is to state your number one attention grabbing benefit? I mean remembering people’s names is a good traitto possess, but what’s in it for the reader?  Winning friends of course! And this is part of "the secret code" to writting powerful titles. It’s actually a proven formula that looks like this:

How to (add your benefit) and (add your benefit/feature/results)

Yep, it’s that easy. I suggest you try to write at least 50 articles based on this formula and show your closest friends, family, and see if you acn come up with one that stands out. without this formula the chances of your project being successful are slim. I’ll give you some examples to get you going.

How to get a bigger job and make more money.

How to stay fit and protect your family.

How to make $5,000.00 from home and create a better lifestyle for yourself.

#2. Getting it together.

Right, by now you have a dynamite title/headline that’s going to sell your booklet like hotcakes. Now it’s time for that dreaded word, research. Presumeably, you will already know a great deal about your subject but to fully cover it and do justice to your readers you must do the research. Check and double-check all facts that you use to make sure they are not only correct, but also up-to-date. Collect all your materials, articles, books etc and have them nearby. Now you are ready to write your booklet.

#3. Writing Your Booklet.

You may find you have so many different ideas running around inside your head that it is difficult to know where to begin. For a booklet of this size you won’t need chapters to cover the topics but you will need sub-headings. And this is a good place to start. Write down all the different topics you want to see covered in your booklet.

Now organise them into what appears to be the most logical sequence. These topics will be your sub-headings, just like the ones you see in this newsletter. This achieves two main purposes. One, all the main points you wish to cover are listed and you can easily see if anything is missing. Two, the task ahead of you will seem less daunting. You’ve broken up a large project into a series of small steps. After completing each sub-heading you are one step closer to reaching your goal; this will give you the encouragement to continue.

Okay, so now pick a subject heading and start writing. Don’t worry if it is not the first on your list, the most important thing now is to write. And this is where most people get stuck. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. The easiest way I can think of to share with you is this:

Pretend that you are writing a letter to a friend telling him/her all about your topic. Your friend is very interested in this topic but has limited knowledge of the subject and is keen to hear what you have to say.

Just write as you speak and let the words flow. And remember, the quickest way to write is to not edit your words as you go. This is a fatal trap. The writers who get the job done are the ones who keep writing, they forget about spelling, grammar etc on this first attempt and they just keep hammering away at the keyboard. When you write quickly like this you will discover new thoughts, new inspirations that come to you. You will feel a tremendous amount of satisfaction as you realise your goal of writing a saleable booklet is in reach. If you edit every sentence as you go this kind of inspiration will never be felt.

When you have covered completely your sub-heading it is time to edit your manuscript, checking spelling, punctuation etc and maybe even adding different points and topics of interest. We all have our own personal way of doing things but this is the way that works best for me.

1. I write as fast as I can on a given subject.

2. I then go back and edit/add until it is ready to print.

Some writers like to get the whole book completed then go back and try to get it in order, and that’s fine. You’ll find your own way, but please, whatever you do, DON"T EDIT AS YOU WRITE!

If you are serious about your writing it may pay to do a course. There are many good writing courses around and you’ll have no trouble locating one that will suit your particular needs. When writing your booklet keep in mind the six principals of selling information. You can even write them down and have them on the desk with you. This will keep yo focused and you will avoid digressing from your main subject. Remember, your booklet is being written with a specific market in mind, so you will customise your booklet to fit this market precisely.

As you are writing try to anticipate any questions that may arise and answer then in detail. You don’t want to leave your readers guessing, or worst still, feeling they don’t get their monies worth. By anticipating, then answering questions, you will go a long way in ensuring your readers are happy and satisfied. Aand after all, that is what you are striving for and what will make your booklet successful.

When you have finished writing, edit your work as best you can, then give it to a trusted friend to have a look at. It’s easy to get too close to your project…a fresh pair of eyes will pick out most mistakes. Correct these mistakes then put your project on hold for a few days or even a week.

You can then go over it again, this time slowly, making sure everything is clear, concise, without any erros. It is now time to have your booklet printed and in the next issue I’ll give you some useful tips on choosing the right printer and how to get your booklet printed in  the most cost-effective way.

Good luck and start writing. If you get stuck, get in contact with me and have a chat, I’ll do my best to help spark your enthusiasm.

Peter Tonks.  www.workingfromhomeriches.com