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Posts Tagged ‘Lead generation’

Hidden Danger In Marketing With Content

September 27th, 2011 No comments
Dear Direct Response Reader; Bob Bly here for Hal Hoadley

One of the easiest – and most effective – ways to generate more
leads and orders from your marketing is to offer, as a bonus, a
free special report.

But be careful of this hidden danger: your prospects already
have too much to read and don’t really want a “report” per se.

What they seek is valuable content that can help them solve a
problem, do their job better, or make more money.

If they think your free report can deliver some of that, they’ll
respond to your e-mail or sales letter just to get their hands
on it.

So how can you transform a ho-hum offer of yet another “free
report” into a compelling free content offer that sends your
response rates soaring?

The most important factor determining the desirability of your
free special report is the topic: does it cover something your
prospects need or want to know?

Great topics for free special reports include tips, predictions,
news, interpretation, analysis, case studies, and discussion of
a controversial issue.

Example: a newsletter publisher found that its most popular
feature was the monthly “You Be the Judge” column summarizing a
court case and challenging the reader to guess the outcome.

Subscription rates skyrocketed when the publisher began offering
a “Best of ‘You Be the Judge’” compilation as a bonus to new
subscribers.

I’ve found that anything having to do with making money works
well as a free information bonus.

For instance, a newsletter published, as part of its subscription,
an annual salary survey of the industry it covered.

When we offered reprints of last year’s salary survey to new
subscribers, orders for new subscriptions increased 25%.

Giving your free report an attractive or compelling title also
helps boost response rates when offering it as a premium.

During the Clinton years, the American Spectator offered a
special report “Inside the Clinton White House” (that may not be
the exact title; it was years ago and memory fades) free to new
subscribers.

Since so many marketers offer free reports, you may stand out by
offering free content in other media; e.g., audio CDs, videos,
software, online tools.

Here’s a way to quickly and easily create an effective
information premium: promote a paid teleconference to your list
and record it.

Then duplicate it on audio CD and offer that as a bonus. If you
charged $79 for the teleconference, you can legitimately say the
CD has a value of $79.

That’s important, because the higher the perceived value of the
free bonus, the greater the demand.

If you use free special reports as information premiums, put a
price in the upper right corner of the front cover of each
report.

Set up a reports library on your website where visitors can
purchase the reports for that price.

That way, when you give them away as free bonuses and specify
the value, you can legitimately say: “This report sells for $29
on our website, but reply today and it’s yours free.”

Here’s a gimmick that works well: instead of using an 8½ by
11-inch page size, make your report digest size (5½ by 8½-inch
page size).

Let’s say the report is tips about leadership. Print the title
on the front cover in large reverse type – white letters on a
black background – and call it “The Little Black Book of
Leadership Secrets.”

Both “secrets” and “little black book” create an aura of
importance and exclusivity that makes people want the booklet.

If you want the free booklet to build your image as a thought
leader in your industry, consider publishing it as a small
paperback book.

Then, when you offer it free in your marketing, you can position
your company as “The Folks Who ‘Wrote the Book’” on Topic X.

If you sell to the federal market, government employees are not
allowed to accept free gifts worth more than $25, so the price
on your free book or report should be $24.97.

Sincerely,

Bob Bly

P.S. For step-by-step instructions on marketing with free
content offers, see my book “How to Create Irresistible Offers”
(AWAI). For more information or to order, click below now:

www.bly.com/IrresistibleOffers

 

Bob Bly
Copywriter / Consultant
590 Delcina Drive
River Vale, NJ 07675
Phone 201-505-9451
Fax 201-573-4094
www.bly.com
Categories: Direct mail, Lead Generation Tags:

How To Stimulate Business In This Economy

August 6th, 2010 No comments

Today we have a guest contributor that wrote on a topic that many small business owners need to know. I first saw Bob Bly at a seminar in Boca Raton, Florida that was sponsored by Rich Schefren. Bob Bly is someone I admire and respect. His insight into direct marketing is excellent.

Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber:
To determine how much they can afford to spend to get a new
customer, many marketers base that figure on the average size of
the first order.

Therefore, if the front-end product or service is $500, they
won’t spend anywhere near that to acquire the customer, for fear
of operating at break-even or even a loss. If they want to double
their money on the promotion, the most they’ll spend to make the
sale is $250.

But savvy marketers know that the amount of money you can spend
to acquire a new customer should be based on the customer’s
lifetime value, not just the revenue from the first order.

Lifetime value refers to how much money your customer is likely
to spend with you during the period he remains a customer of your
business.

For instance, if the average unit of sale is $500, the average
number of purchases per year is two, and the average customer
remains a customer for 5 years, the lifetime customer value is
$500 X 2 X 5 = $5,000.

Based on the average lifetime value, you can see where it would
in fact be well worth spending $500 to acquire a new customer.

The business owner who understands lifetime customer value as it
relates to customer acquisition has a tremendous advantage: He is
willing to spend more to acquire new business, because he knows
its true value.

Example: A company selling books to corporate librarians planned
a marketing campaign to get new corporate accounts to start
ordering books from them.

I asked the owner what he would be willing to spend to get a new
account. He said about $300.

Forget advertising, I advised. Just open up an account for every
company you want as a customer – and put $300 in it!

Send each prospect a personal letter telling them they already
have an account with you — and that it contains $300 they can
use at any time this year.

Instead of a sales or marketing campaign, my client gave the
money he would have spent to generate leads and makes sales calls
directly to his key prospects, so they could try the service at
no cost. It worked like a charm!

Today online trading services use the same tactic. They send you
a letter telling you they have opened an account for you with $75
or so in it. You get the money when you do your first trade.

Need to stimulate business? Calculate lifetime customer value,
decide what percentage of that amount you want to spend on
acquiring new customers (10% is a common figure), and invest that
amount of money to acquire new customers.

It will likely be more than your competitors think they can
spend, giving you a huge edge in winning new business.

Sincerely,
Bob Bly
Copywriter / Consultant
590 Delcina Drive
River Vale, NJ 07675
Phone 201-505-9451
Fax 201-573-4094
www.bly.com

Categories: Continuity, Customer Retention, email marketing Tags: