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| MarketingIdeaShop
BRAINY Tidbits
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Issue
#65
August
17,
2004
Circulation: 1,425 |
| The
ezine with brainy ideas & resources
for marketers & small businesses
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This
newsletter brought
to
you each week by
Lois Carter Fay & Marketing Idea Shop
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1. Lessons
from the Second Florida "Hurricane"
I was glad I wasn't in Florida last week when the hurricane
came through. I hope you came through it without problems
if you live in Florida.
Even
though I wasn't there, the hurricane created problems for
me because I was waiting to receive information from John
Reese, now fairly well known as "Florida's
Second Hurricane." [Keep reading. I'll explain
in a few minutes.]
If you read my ezine last week, you know I wrote about John
Reese and his new "Traffic Secrets"
program. Well, some time ago he announced that he would
release his new program at 9:00 AM, Tuesday, August 17,
and then the hurricane hit Florida where
John lives. It knocked out his electric and Internet services,
so he had to pack up his materials, leave his office and
complete the project without the comfort of his normal tools.
But—miracle of miracles—he did it.
If you have ever written an ebook, created an instructional
CD or DVD, or prepared for an important presentation, I'm
sure you know what goes into such a venture—especially
if you're working to meet a specific deadline. Something
is always bound to go wrong. You proofread it a million
times, and then you find a typo. You duplicate 50 CDs before
you find out your CD writer isn't working so you have to
check every single one of them to see if they recorded properly.
I'm sure you see what I mean.
Imagine doing this without the tools and comforts of your
office and equipment. Well, that's what John had to do.
And his launch partners (including me!) had to wait to get
our affiliate codes (to allow us to track our referrals
for commissions) and promotional materials until John finished
the project. But he got it done.
And we sent our ezines and email promotions to our subscribers.
If you get multiple marketing ezines, you probably received
multiple mailings about this revolutionary new product.
I think I received about 10 of them from other marketers.
[And, as you may recall, I was on vacation last week so
I had to do my ezine early in order to get it ready to send
on Tuesday. At the very last minute, however, I received
the information to insert in the ezine. [A
big thank you is due all of you who clicked on the link
to check it out.]
Anyway, John (and the rest of us) got through the Florida
hurricane. And then John created his own hurricane.
He sold $1,000,000
of product in 24 hours! [Yup. That's what
I said, a million dollars.]
And now he's created a free special report
to tell you how he did it. You
can get it here.
I know you'll be excited when you read it. But I ask you
one favor. If you decide to order John's new Traffic Secrets
program, please
use this link to buy it so I can get credit
for the sale.
But I digress. I'm supposed to
be explaining the lessons learned from this product
launch. Here we go:
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Help Others and Give First
John Reese has been making a living on the Internet for
over 14 years, and for the past two years he says, "I
have been attending Internet marketing seminars (which I
highly recommend you do if you have never attended one)
and I have met many great people and built wonderful relationships
and friendships." He not only attends, but he also
offers ideas and helps others freely with their business
issues--sometimes by talking to them until 3 in the morning!
He also writes a newsletter called Marketing Secrets which
he uses to teach others the principles that have brought
him success. He firmly believes that if he gives something
away, it comes back to him in abundance.
-
Test, Tweak, Test
This Traffic Secrets program is the compilation of John's
14 years of learning about Internet marketing. He has tried
many marketing ideas and been successful with some and a
failure with others. When something doesn't work exactly
as he hopes it will, he modifies it and tries again, always
testing and tweaking until he finds a winner.
-
Know
Your Stuff
It would be hard to create a product that is this comprehensive
if he didn't know what he was doing. If he wasn't an expert,
why would his fellow marketers (who already make a bundle
of money) pay him to teach them his tricks and techniques?
And they did that in March when John presented his program
to a sold-out crowd for $4,500 a person. If you know your
business and others recognize you for it, a product launch
like this is, of course, much easier to pull off.
-
Create Excitement and Anticipation
John used many methods to create excitement and a buzz about
his products. He spoke to his buddies, clients and associates.
He wrote a 17-page newsletter that was FILLED with benefits
and reasons why to buy. He wrote about it in his blog. And
he set an exact time to launch the product. The cool thing
is: "Anticipation increases response."
[Say that
out loud 10 times.]
-
Create Controversy
There's always someone who will be your naysayer and write
about you if you are trying to do something unusual or prove
a point. That's okay. Sometimes any publicity is good publicity.
If there's controversy, more people will be curious. In
John's case, there were several folks who wrote things like, "Who is John Reese, anyway?" "What makes
him so smart?" [I
wonder what they are saying now?]
-
Use the Scarcity Rule
Downloadable products are hardly scarce. So how can something
be scarce if it's mostly electrons? And saving something
to CD and DVD is pretty easy these days, isn't it? Well,
yes, that's true. But John created a desire to have the
ORIGINAL printing of the product because he said up front
that there were a couple of ideas he included in the first
printing that he was a bit sorry he included. (He didn't
want EVERYONE to do it, or pretty soon the technique wouldn't
work, and he wanted to save a couple of good ideas for himself.
That's only reasonable, isn't it?)
-
Stick to Your Plans
Despite the hurricane and the fact that the immense amount
of traffic to his site caused slow connection speeds, John
launched his product at the appointed time. I'm sure many
people begged him to let them get it sooner, but he decided
to follow through on the original plans. Doing what you
say you are going to do is VERY important in business.
-
Enlist the Help of Others
It's hard to do everything yourself. So, like John, look
for launch partners who can get the word out--people with
large subscriber lists and lots of contacts. If you find
people who admire you and your products, they will tell
everyone they know. Ask for testimonials to post on your
website and for people to talk about it on your blog. Blogs
are amazingly powerful tools that are spidered and found
by blog readers (see resources below) when people search
by topics or experts.
-
Be Generous
When people help you sell your products, you should reward
them generously. Without them, you wouldn't have as many
sales. A generous commission will excite them and get them
working for you even more! John not only offered generous
commissions, but he also sent each launch partner the product
for free and even paid to ship it overnight
to them (to the tune of about $70 each for many of them).
-
Always Over Deliver
Well, of course you have to do what you say you will do.
That's a given. But isn't that like getting a "C" in school? If you just do the minimum, you don't get rave
reviews. And you want the rave reviews. So always over deliver
and people will rush to buy from you. If you give lots of
terrific information away in your newsletters, won't your
readers wonder what they would get if they PAID for the
information you offer for sale?
-
Use All Your Tools
John used his websites, blog, ezine, and personal contacts
to promote the launch. You can also use your media contacts
and other offline methods to promote a product launch. The
wider the distribution, the more buzz.
-
Be Confident
Doubt is the devil in disguise. If you know your stuff and
you've done the work, have faith. Your launch will turn
out great...even if it's not perfect. What you put out to
the universe is what you receive. If you believe you will
be successful, you will be. It is, however, helpful to have
people around you who support your dreams. [So
keep the support staff and dump the naysayers.]
-
Did you know?
You can still get
your own copy of Traffic Secrets and
pay the full price upfront or choose the 3-payments option.
But I don't know how long it will be available, so
rush now here and get your copy now.
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2. Titles,
Take Two
A
couple of weeks ago I asked you what company titles you
find interesting or fun. Here's a response from Kate
Green that I just had to share with you:
"My favorite company title is 'The Ezine Queen', Alexandria
Brown's title for her website and business running amazingly
effective seminars on how to do an ezine. She is The Queen!" says Kate.
I agree. The
Ezine Queen is a very apt title for someone
who teaches others how to use ezines successfully to grow
their business. Other titles that succinctly describe what
someone does include Joan Stewart, The
Publicity Hound, John Reese, The
Traffic Master, and Jim Edwards, The
Net Reporter.
I also think Kate's title is in the running for most interesting.
Read what Kate has to say about that...
"I am known locally as The Shamama for my coaching
style, which is both spiritual and humorous. And my Chihuahua,
who helps with every session, is the Shamawa. But I'm just
about to take the next step in my international practice
with the handle 'The Phone Crone,' which I love. Come to
think of it, my coaching school, 'The Wild Woman's Coaching
and Mystery School,' has quite the name, too! I created
it when it took me a hundred years to find a coaching school
founded by a woman and, therefore, seeded with women's wise
and lovely ways. And speaking of a hundred, there's also
my novel, THE HUNDREDTH WOMAN, the title of which puts a
new spin on the hundredth monkey theory and puts the idea
right out there that it's women who will create the shifts
that turn this crazy, wonderful world around.
"So it seems I'm submitting myself, as well as Ali.
For both of us, I think that creative is far more effective
than traditional. For Ali, it puts what she does right out
there with an unforgettable brand she consistently lives
up to.
For me, I hope my new title will attract the kind of client
I most want to work with: spunky, fun-loving, and imaginative
women who know that when the there's work to be done, the
thing to do is get down with another woman. I wanted to
distinguish myself immediately from the more "serious" types. Of course nearly 35 years of experience under my
belt, I can also be pretty serious and considered calling
myself the 'Queen of the Deep' because I've gone there,
all the way there, with myself AND my clients. But hey,
'The Phone Crone' will just have to tell people that in
person, won't she?"
Kate Green is the author of THE
HUNDREDTH WOMAN, the book that will wrap you up in its
irresistible rhythms of hope and love, then set you on fire
to offer your own dream to the world. Kate is also a transformational
life coach specializing in helping women live their dreams,
and founder of The Wild Women's Coaching and Mystery School.
Learn more about
her here.
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3.
Quote of the Week
"Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them
are priceless."
Mary Kay Ash
Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
1918-2001
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND NOW, A MESSAGE
FROM OUR SPONSORS...
What's your definition of success?
Email your comments to me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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-
-
eWomenNetwork "Accelerated Networking" Luncheon event,
Wednesday, August 25, 11:30-1:30, at The Tower Club
in Tyson's Corner, VA, $55. To register visit
or find out more about the organization here.
-
How
to Web Biz Ezine
Andre Chaperon, one of the moderators for the "Turning
Ideas into Dollars" forum offers an
excellent email newsletter called "HowToWebBiz." It is packed with information to help you with your
business. Check
it out here.
-
George McKenzie's Publicity Goldmine Ezine
George McKenzie is well known for his hard-working publicity
ideas and advice. His ezine is published weekly and
he sends out a couple of additional emails each week
with offers and ideas. It's easy to subscribe and equally
as easy to get off the list. I suggest you give it a
try by visiting
here
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5. A
Little Fun
It's extremely difficult to stand out during networking
events when doing personal introductions. Since it's election
time, I now introduce myself and my business (boomer/senior
website), ending with, "I'm Sharon Cutler
with MatureResources.org
and I approve this message." It gets some laughs, but
everyone remembers me and my company!
Sharon Cutler
Certified Senior Advisor
http://www.MatureResources.org
Help
keep the smiles coming ... please send me your marketing,
PR or sales jokes. I'll be happy to give you credit and
list your website! Email
me.
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6
. Smell the Coffee...
Vacation
was fun...and tiring. (I need a nap.) I came back to 650
emails since I had only checked my email a couple of times
during the vacation. I spent most of yesterday dealing with
them.
Although we arrived home on Sunday evening, we didn't pick
up our dog Lulu until mid-afternoon yesterday. My cat Abelgirk
cried most of the night and all day yesterday until Lulu
came home. Isn't that sweet? I guess Abe missed Lulu.
The girls are back in school today. They were so excited,
they left the house a half hour early to catch the bus.
Wouldn't it be nice if that enthusiasm continued? Maybe
this year...
If you haven't already done so, please sign up for my new
"Success Secrets of Women Business Owners"
ezine, coming in September. Send a blank email to mailto:carterfay-75523@autocontactor.com
. It's a "double opt in" list so you will receive a
return email and you'll have to confirm your desire to join
the list. So don't
forget!
Lois
Back to Top
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Published by:
Lois Carter Fay,
APR
Marketing Guru, Marketing
Idea Shop, LLC
411 Rainier Road, Massanutten, VA USA 22840
Voice 540.289.3840 or 800.203.8660
Visit
our blog.
©
2004 Marketing Idea Shop. All rights reserved.
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