Chris Cardell

The last few years has seen a division appear in nearly all discussions about successful Marketing: It’s the distinction between ONLINE and OFFLINE Marketing. Online covers everything internet based (website marketing, pay per click, SEO, Email Marketing etc) Offline covers all the ‘traditional’ marketing methods (direct mail, telephone marketing, traditional advertising, etc.)
It’s an easy and often useful distinction to make between offline and online – and I do it as much as anyone. Even this insert is about ‘Internet’ Profit Strategies. But in case it’s not obvious, let me point out that we shouldn’t really think of offline and online as separate when it comes to the never ending task of acquiring new customers.
The truth is that even the most successful internet companies have discovered that their online efforts become far more profitable when combined with an ‘offline’ strategy.
That’s why the best ‘internet’ companies are using Direct Mail to mail their existing customers. It’s why the big online brands are returning to ‘traditional’ newspaper, magazine and radio advertising.
It’s why many websites no longer try to sell stuff online, instead preferring to use their sites to make compelling free offers to potential customers, in return for those customers’ contact details. Your initial contact with such a business may be on their website. But the follow up, where the sale actually happens, could be on the phone or as a result of a mail insert.
What does all this mean for you? It means that you want to continually work on your online strategy but ALWAYS BE LOOKING AT HOW YOU CAN SUPPLEMENT YOUR ONLINE MARKETING WITH OFFLINE MARKETING.
Some examples include:
When people buy from you online, put them into a sequence of communications for future sales that include direct mail and if feasible, phone calls.
If you use your website to capture email addresses (and you certainly should be) test what happens to the response rate if you also ask for a physical address and phone number. You’ll normally see a decrease in response but those who do respond tend to be much better ‘leads.’
Don’t depend on just online marketing to deliver people to your website. Use offline too, particularly your newspaper and magazine ads and Direct Mail.
Use your website to do everything possible to encourage people to contact you offline, particularly by having your telephone number EVERYWHERE on the site.

In the years ahead, the division between online and offline will blur. Smart Marketers are blurring those divisions now, on a daily basis.

You might not realise it yet, but every page on your website is — or should be — a selling tool.
After all, if it’s not… why do you have it up there?
Now, you might think I’m contradicting myself here because I am so adamant about you giving genuine value before asking for a sale; but I’m not.
The fundamental point is that every page on your website must have a purpose. And interms of your business, that purpose MUST be to move the website visitor towards the sale even if it’s not directly asking for the sale itself.
This is a really important point, because it’s so easy to miss if you’re going down the (entirely correct) route of beginning the relationship by giving and offering free information – and educating your future customers in why they need to be doing business with you instead of someone else.
So, whether you’re writing an autoresponder email, a free report, an informational page on an item, an article for article marketing, a blog post or even a humble paper newsletter… you must always have at the back of your mind the ACTION you next want the reader to take.
Remember the AIDA principle: Attention, Interest, Desire and ACTION!
And every web page page you write must have your desired action in it somewhere(sometimes this is called your Most Desired Response).
You can make it as blatant as a literal call to action (e.g. “click the button below”), or something more subtle (e.g. “fill out the short survey below and tell me 3 ways I can serve you better”).
But no matter what it is, EVERY page MUST have a purpose, and ultimately that purpose MUST be to drive sales.
The harsh truth is that nearly all websites have been created with not attention paid to the purpose of each page. And most web designers still regard them as ‘websites’ while smart internet marketers look at a site as a series of pages – and each page exists for a reason.
So some ACTION for you to take that WILL impact your profits: Look at every page on your website and ask the question: “What’s the purpose of this page?” If it’s not immediately clear and if the visitor is not immediately directed to take that action, change the copy on the page immediately.

It’s essential that when someone visits your website, you at least get an email address and a name so that you can put your website visitors into an autoresponder sequence and start communicating to them.

But once you’re capturing email addresses, it’s time to test the “Holy Grail” which is to also get their physical address too.

Why? Because combining your online email Marketing with offline Marketing, primarily through direct mail is a very powerful marketing strategy for any and every business.

Here’s the challenge: The general rule is that the more information you ask your website visitor for, the fewer people will give it to you.

So here’s one strategy which works very well. You may have to tweak and test it (and you always should be testing anyway), but there’ll be a way of doing this that should very well for you and your business:

Offer something Free that can only be sent through the post. Obvious examples are a CD, DVD, printed report or a physical sample of your product putting substantial money into tried and tested strategies, correct?

Give the “free” item a value. If it’s a CD or a report, you could put a £27.97 (or higher) price label on it, and make sure you mention this value in the copy on the page. You MUST “sell”this free offer in the same way you sell something they’re paying for, because if it’s not worth anything… why would they want it? Also they are giving you something in exchange – their addresses. Free is NOT the same as “worthless”.

Here’s a very cool online Marketing strategy that some of the world’s best use very successfully. Offer something for free that can be downloaded in exchange for just a name and email address. Then on the ‘thank you’ page offer the physical version (CD or DVD) in exchange for the physical address. Why does this work so well? Because the people who are willing to give their physical address will obviously do so.

But you haven’t lost those who do not want to give you their address. You still have their email address. The best of both words.

There are other variations of this. One is asking for the person’s telephone number. Again, that may suppress sign ups BUT the people who are willing to give you the most information are normally good leads. There’s no right or wrong approach, just what’s right for your business.

So the key is to test extensively. Either way, capturing the contact details of people who visit your site must become an essential part of your online Marketing strategy.

Many website owners wring their hands in frustration as they try to optimise their sites and get a handle on SEO (search engine optimisation). Many even throw in the towel and end up paying an SEO company thousands to do the job. Yes you can outsource this job, but YOU still need to know how it works and you always need to be the one directing your SEO efforts.
What is SEO?

SEO is optimising a website both on page and off page to achieve a better organic (free) ranking in search engines and consequently driving more traffic to your website. SEO consists of four main areas: keyword research and selection, site building, on page optimisation, and link building.

Here are some tips to get your SEO off the ground

Let’s look at those four areas….

Keyword Selection – This may seem obvious, but many people forget that selecting the right keywords is the fundamental structure of your SEO campaign. Write down as many keywords as you know about your business. There are many excellent keyword tools you can use including Google Adwords Keyword tool and Word Tracker. Use these to select the most profitable keywords. You’re then going to optimise your pages around these keywords

Site Building – Search engine spiders need to find and index the pages on your site or all the rest of your SEO efforts are a waste of time.
Help them to do this by putting navigational text links on your pages. It’s also very important that you have a sitemap which is linked to and from your home page.

On Page Optimisation – Here you need to do all you can to optimise each page. Use your keyword/s in your page title and headings. Use relevant keywords throughout the text, but don’t overdo it, because you could be penalised.

Link Building – This is the Holy Grail of SEO but Google is getting smarter, so your linking strategy must look natural. Get as many quality links back to your site as you can with article marketing, social bookmarking and forums as a start. VITAL TIP: Make sure that the wording of any link to your website includes your keyword.

In the end, don’t forget to write for your reader/customer first, and the search engines second. If readers don’t enjoy or get value from your content, they will happily click away.

Email marketing is one of the most underused and most misunderstood forms of Internet marketing. Small (and large) fortunes have been made by more than one Internet marketer who has “cracked the code” of email marketing.

But there are some widely believed myths being constantly repeated, and I think it’s time we dispelled them once and for all.

The biggest myth is people don’t want to receive emails because there’s too much spam. This is simply not true.

People don’t want to receive spam, because they don’t want emails from people they have no relationship with; moreover they don’t want boring emails continually trying to sell them stuff they don’t want!

However, they do want interesting, useful emails from people they have a relationship with.

If you use the lead generation model I wrote about last month, where you begin your relationship with visitors to your website by giving, then you can begin sending emails to them which WILL increase your profits if you follow the simple guidelines below.

First, mail more often. Most people don’t send emails frequently enough. If you’re not emailing your customers at least once a week, you’re almost certainly losing out.It is possible to email them too often, but the threshold is much higher than you think. If they really do get fed up with you, they’ll soon tell you. Your job, once youhave their contact details, is to keep sending them stuff until they buy, die, or tell you to stop!

Secondly, forget what you learned about writing “formal” letters in school or college and begin writing like a real flesh-and-blood person. Make emails friendly, personal,and personable. Write as if you were writing to a favourite Aunt or Uncle. Use apostrophes, contractions and — as often as you can — the word “you”.

Finally, keep them simple. You don’t need fancy newsletters – simple plain text is fine (and often better because it gets delivered more reliably and email programs usually display it more consistently). Content is king, despite what graphic-designers tell you!

Superb marketing is the only way to survive recession, and now is not the time for nervousness and indecision: email marketing is a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal. Use it!

Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you’ll ever have at your disposal.

Why?

Because it’s easy to say great things about yourself. Anyone can do that. But with a testimonial, you’ve got someone else doing it. And bear in mind this is someone else the reader can identify with, simply because they are in the same position as the person giving the testimonial was before they bought your product or service.

And virtually everyone who’s studied even the most basic courses on marketing knows this, which is why they’re used so often (although not nearly so often as they ought to be).
Now, one big advantage of having a testimonial on your web-page as opposed to having it just in print is the choice of media you have.

There’s no doubt at all video sells better than anything. This is no big surprise because face-to-face human interaction is the key to persuasion, and video is the next best thing to actually being there – meaning a video testimonial is the next best thing to actually having your past clients and customers sit down with your prospects and tell them how great you are.

And it doesn’t have to be difficult intrusive or expensive: a simple hand-held video camera you can slip into your pocket and plug straight into your computer will cost you less than £100 if you shop around.

Even getting the testimonials doesn’t have to be hard: if you’re running a local business, you can drop in on your customers and clients (by appointment!) or even get them to do it while they’re in your premises or at the sales meeting – wherever you are, it doesn’t matter too much.

Moreover, don’t be afraid to ask… and ask before you’ve done the work or made the sale in the same way as I encourage you to “set the scene” by asking for referrals in advance of the sale, using a form of words like, “I grow my business with testimonials, and if I do a great job for you I hope and expect you’d be willing to say a few lines into the camera here, just so I can help other people just the same way I’ve helped you”. This is a very nonthreatening and low-key way to ask for a testimonial. And because you’ve asked for it upfront, if
you do do a great job for them, then the Rule of Reciprocity, and the Rule of Consistency & Commitment mean they’ll almost always follow through with it.

You can do a similar thing if you’re a solely on-line trader: set up the expectation of a video testimonial in advance, both in your marketing emails or on the sales page or even on the confirmation page with a check-box already ticked. Don’t underestimate the power of Reciprocity and Commitment & Consistency.

Then it’s simply a matter of uploading them to your website and you’re done.

But it gets even better than this: a video testimonial is actually three testimonials in one: you can transcribe it for your static media (along with a still-photo from the video); you can extract the audio (again, with a still-photo); and you, of course, have the video itself.

Video is big… and growing bigger. Video testimonials have the potential to be absolutely huge but as yet, few people are using them.

I strongly encourage you to give it a go before your competitors do.

So you’ve made the sale, you’ve made the profit and all is well with the world. Yes?

No. because if you leave it there, you’ve left money in your customer’s pocket which could easily have now been in yours, IF you’d made the effort to find out what else they want from you.
Let me be clear. This is NOT a recommendation to go out and start pushing the hard-sell on your prospects and customers. That’s a recipe for disaster – you might make a few first-time sales, but you’ll annoy a lot of people and fail to benefit from the real goldmine of repeat business.

An upsell is selling your customer something else, at the point of purchase. When McDonalds offer to ‘super size’ you, that’s an upsell. When Amazon offer you other similar books you’d like, just at the point of ordering, that’s an upsell. So, first let’s see why upsells are so valuable; and then we’ll see why they’re easy to make.

Every sale you make has a cost of sale attached to it – it comprises your marketing, your fixed costs (buildings, staff, cost of manufacture or provision, etc.). Your profit is your selling price less your cost of sale.

Now, if you have made the sale, you’ve just covered your cost of sale. If you can increase the value of that sale, aside from the cost of manufacture or provision, it’s all profit – your marketing costs and your other overheads are already covered. This isn’t immediately obvious, but it’s true – and it’s why even a small increase in your average sale has a disproportionate effect in increasing your profits.

That’s why upsells are so valuable. Now let’s see why they’re so easy.

First, once your customer or client has said “yes” to the sale, you’ve got them in the right frame of mind for giving you money in a totally ethical way. The fact is, you’ve met their needs and they’re happy and confident and they trust you.

The chances of them trusting you enough to spend more with you is very high (research shows us overwhelmingly that once we’ve made a decision we’re irrationally surer it was the right one – this is a classic example of Cialdini’s principle of “commitment and consistency”.

Secondly… you’ve met their needs… but have you met ALL their needs? It’s highly likely their needs don’t just stop where your product or sales end. If you’re a tailor, for example, your customer might need a suit, and that implies he might also need a shirt,tie, and a pair of shoes to go with it. And if YOU don’t offer them to him, he’ll go elsewhere.

OK, so that’s why we do upsells and why they’re so easy. Next month, I’ll show you exactly HOW to do it, too – and why it could increase your profits 20%-50%

Watching the World Cup took me back to 1990 and an amazing couple of weeks at the World Cup of that year in Italy.

I was working for Capital Radio in London at the time, and through a combination of luck, good timing and the generosity of my friends Jonathan Pearce and Mick Lowes (both commentators at the time on Capital) I found myself driving across Italy in the back of a car with Mick, Jonathan and Bobby Moore.

They were covering all the games, Bobby Moore was part of the commentary team and I think I was there to test Bobby’s understanding of the off side rule.

Because the big games were held across Italy, we would go to one of the cities, such as Naples, camp up in a hotel for a couple of days for the big game, then back in the car for the drive to Rome.

If you’d told me growing up that I would spend the best part of a week at the age of 23 crammed into the back of a car with Bobby Moore, I wouldn’t have believed you. Wherever we stopped, we would be mobbed by fans from across the world. He was the ultimate British hero. He was also one of the nicest human beings you could possibly meet. A great loss.

My highlight of the 1990 World Cup? Maybe it was being at the game when Gazza cried. Maybe it was the privilege of watching Linekar take those penalties. Actually, the real answer is it’s a toss up between those 1:00 am conversations in the bar with Mick and Jonathan (I think I owe you both a drink and a hotel room) and my 17^th discussion with Bobby Moore about the offside rule. It’s hard to pick a winner.

So what’s your favourite World Cup moment of all time……post your comments below.

My name is Chris Cardell, and if you’re not mailing existing customers and testing direct mail to potential customers, you could be losing a fortune. Direct Mail works and done well, can be extremely profitable.

The key to successful Direct Mail is to test the different key elements in the mix.

The table below shows the relative importance of different factors in a test. The number next to each factor is a measure of the difference between the best and worst. Eg, the best list was six times better than the worst.

List x 6.0 Offer x 3.0 Timing x 2.0 Creative x1.35 Response method x1.2

Let’s go through these in detail:

1 List. Make sure you talk to the right people. If you have enough budget do a list test. If not, spend as much time as possible making sure that the kind of people you are writing to are as similar as possible to the kind of people who are already your customers. Avoid sending letters addressed to “The Managing Director” or “The Owner”.

2 Offer. Make sure the people you write to want what you offer. The offer you make is a combination of what product/service you are selling, what particular features and benefits you are leading with and any time-based special offers you want to make. Time spent thinking about this area will pay dividends.

3 Timing. Time it right. One of my members spent a whole year testing sending the same mailing pack to 52 segments of the same list. The highest response rate was 6%, the lowest was 0.5%. The best week made him twelve times as much money as the worst.This kind of difference is far more than you would expect from a creative test and yet few people spend time thinking about timing.

4 Creative. Test different content. The biggest tip I can give here is to make it look like it is NOT direct mail. Typically packs which look like promotions perform worse than those that look like they came from someone who knows you. I know of one Entrepreneur who hand writes 350,000 addresses on his letters each year. He gets a great response. Also always start with a simple letter – it is cheap to produce and is frequently hard to beat – if it is well-written.

5 Select the appropriate response method. People often like to be able to respond in a similar way to the one in which they were originally approached. Eg. Make sure you have  areply form and reply paid envelope in your direct mail but also include more immediate forms of response like telephone number. People can get quite hung up about the response method but ultimately if someone wants your product they will find you.

And finally test. Test everything. Take a scientific approach to testing every part of your direct mail programme.

One of the first strategies I recommend to everyone I come into contact with is to start building a list they can begin emailing to. This usually demands a fundamental change in their initial approach to their prospects, clients, and customers.

The aim is to begin the relationship by giving – and then to maximise profits by email-marketing to them, realising our profits over time. This is in direct contrast with the traditional strategy whereby the aim is simply to make a sale right off the bat.

The question now is how do we make best use of our email list, other than simply mailing them more often (which is obvious, but still worth mentioning because it’s virtually certain you aren’t emailing YOUR list often enough).

The key is segmentation. It’s actually easier and more straightforward than it seems, but it does demand you do a little bit more work than simply writing emails and sending them.

When you send an offer to your list you’ll come to know in advance approximately what kind of response you’re going to get. That’s the whole point of doing direct response marketing in the first place.

But what’s not immediately obvious is the 80/20 rule is going to apply: over time you’re going to find the same names keep cropping up, responding to your offers.

Roughly 80% of your sales are going to come from just 20% of your list. What’s more you’re going to find a percentage of these 20% are going to be hyper-responders; that is, they’ll buy the de-luxe version of everything you sell, every time you ask.

This point is crucial: because it’s like they’re waiting to give you money but won’t do it unless you ask them to!

So your first job is to identify these people. It’s not hard and there are several ways you can do it:

Manually tick off names against shipped orders. Only really feasible for small numbers and physically-shipped items.

Use spreadsheets and do some fancy work with data sorting. This is often going to be the easiest way to do it in the short term.

Use the facilities in your email autoresponder to track clicks within the messages. This is useful when it works, but be aware the presence of these links themselves can themselves affect response. So test (as always!).

Now, assuming you have the data, what you’re looking for are those top 20% and the real cream, those incredibly profitable hyper-responders.

Once you’ve identified them, you put them into a new email list, one which you keep exclusively for these highly-profitable names, and then start marketing to it with specially designed high-price offers exclusive to that group only.

What’s more, you should tell them they’re in this special group, and why. People love to belong, and once you’ve given them an elevated status, most of them will work to keep it – by giving you even more money.

By doing this you’ll not only make maximum profits, but you’ll also gather around you a loyal group of raving “fans”.