While d
riving back in the pouring rain from Mike Capuzzi’s Response Boosting Workshop in Philadelphia, it dawned on me that the pounding rain on my windshield was much like all the ads I get bombarded with each and every day online and offline. (The fact that my windshield wiper blade broke in mid trip didn’t really help me see better either! Good thing Philadelphia is only 90 minutes from my house.) It was a fantastic thing, attending Mike’s workshop. Because, I left there with boatloads of information on how to increase my response rate for my marketing.
Since we are being bombarded by ads each and every day, much like the rain pounding on my windshield, as marketers of our business, we have to find a way to get through the rain/clutter and get your message through to your prospect. And it’s not only getting through to them, it’s also then getting them to take that next step, whether it’s to contact you, sign up for you free offer or buy your product.
So how do you get through that clutter and get more people to respond to your marketing efforts?
1) Know your ideal client - This one is huge, you have to really know who you’re communicating to in your marketing. And not just know their age, you need to know what keeps them awake at night. You need to know their challenges, their hopes, their fears, their emotional hot buttons. Then, you need to speak to them in all of your marketing, like when you are writing your copy, your headlines… just about everything. Here are some examples of emotional hot buttons: (These speak to why people buy.)
- Avoid Pain
- Avoid Loss
- Avoid Missing out
- Be Popular
- Be Unique
- Make Money
- Protect Their Reputation
- Save Time
- Gain Attention
2) Looks do Matter - Your copy should be laid out in such a way that it’s attractive for the reader. In fact, your typefaces for online are different than for offline copy.
- Offline Ads, sales letters, cards, etc., to be printed – It’s best to use serif fonts like Garamond, which is the best, then Times Roman. A serif font has things coming off the letters. Most newspapers use Times Roman or Courier.
- Online web copy – Sans serif copy works best and is more readable on the screen. Best fonts are Arial and Verdana, and 12 point size works best.
3) Your Copy Ought to be Personal - This is really big, the more personal your copy is, the more people will open your direct mail, read your emails and response. Some examples of making it personal – always use the readers first name, use a handwriting font to make it look like a personal note, use copy doodles (handwritten drawings that make your copy standout). Also, connect with your audience and share something about yourself. Ask them questions, get to know them, and build a relationship with your prospects BEFORE you try to sell them anything.
4) Why won’t they buy - Do you know your prospects objections to why 
they wouldn’t buy your product? This is really important. The number 1 most overlooked psychological reason why people don’t buy is because they don’t believe in themselves. They don’t believe that they can make whatever your offering work for them. There are many ways to overcome this according to Bill Glazer, President of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle and author of Outrageous Advertising. (This is an awesome book, a must have in your library if you do a lot of advertising, direct mail and want to get your letter opened!) The best one is to write down all the reasons why people won’t buy and focus on your prospects, NOT your product.
5) Build a Relationship - This goes back to number 3, it’s not about so much “selling” your prospects, but it’s about building a relationship and adding value. It’s been proven that people will eventually buy from you over time. So your job is to connect with your prospects at least once a month and be in touch with them on a regular basis, adding value to their lives.
There’s a lot of great ideas in this post, so don’t get overwhelmed, just pick one of these things and do it today. These ideas are proven and they work, so now just go ahead and implement, one, two or maybe even three of them!
Posted by Shannon 
Have you ever heard this phrase before: “Planning Promotes Perfect Performance!” ? I’ve heard this many times from my inspiring and wonderful Executive Coach, Debbie Phillips. Back in my Corporate America days, when I was the Director of Corporate Communications and we did many employee events, it was always incredibly stressful. And when I had my calls with Debbie, she would always remind me of the 4 P’s of planning – Planning Promotes Perfect Performance. Because once you have your plan, the rest will simply fall into place, albeit sometimes you need to have a good team in place to help. Yet sometimes the team is just you, so planning becomes hugely important.
seriously. Why you ask? The reason is when you take the time to put your plan together, you create your own road map, and for me, I call it my Marketing Road Map for my business. It’s everything that needs to be done and it’s split into categories – what needs to be done for my clients, for my two businesses, and for my personal life. I’d totally recommend when writing out your overall plan, to do it in categories that work best for you – your business, your clients, your family, etc. The beauty of this is, after I take the time to write out my plan, I can then get a very clear snapshot on what I will do AND (this is a very important and huge step) what I will OUTSOURCE to others to do FOR ME. Did you get that? Once you have your snapshot of what all needs to be done, than you can CLEARLY see how to break up the tasks and outsource to the best people accordingly.
Posted by Shannon 
It’s fall here in New Jersey and I know that not only because there’s a little chill in the air and the leaves are just now starting to change… I know because now when I go to South Mountain Reservation and walk my rescue dog Lily, she chases after all the chestnuts falling from the trees. The whole scene is actually quite comical, albeit sometimes a little frustrating. We get a pretty good pace going, then all of sudden we come across this huge patch of several hundred chestnuts on the ground and more falling. (In fact, I have to be careful and often dodge those falling from the trees or they get me right on the old noggin.) As soon as Lily sees them, she chases after them, dive bombs the chestnut, picks one right
up and starts to eat it. Ok, she doesn’t swallow them anymore because let’s just say she and chestnuts don’t get along. Yet, she still loves to chase and pick them up (and there are a lot of them now) and chew them and then lets them drop. For those who are visual, like me, I actually took my camera with me to take some snap shots of her. The only bummer was she was too quick to get this on video, maybe tomorrow! So I only have some choice shots of my chestnut chasing dog…
So I got down to brass tacks when I started noticing how my days were not as productive as I’d like. The real crux was reading a few good books on time management (there are many!), getting Eben Pagan’s course on Wake-Up Productive, and having a mastermind group, belonging to two of them really helps keep me on track. The real trick to not going after EVERY “shiny” object that comes across my path is having a big detailed plan of what I want to accomplish. I mean really detailed, like what I will outsource, what skills I need for certain tasks, date it will be completed, etc. The more detailed the merrier. Plus at the start of each day and as I go through my day I’m always asking myself “Is this task going to get me closer to reaching my goal?” “Is this task going to help me create more income?” If the answer is no, then guess what, I’m not doing that task.
Posted by Shannon 
The number of times I’ve gone bowling at an actual bowling alley could be counted on both hands. I went a couple of times when I lived in New Orleans (I grew up there until I moved away after going to LSU for college.) they had this great place called the Mid-City Lanes Rock-N-Bowl on the corner of Carrolton and Tulane. It was this great old bowling alley that was up these really steep stairs and it wasn’t just bowling. They had great Louisiana cuisine, (gumbo, crawfish etouffee, po-boys, etc.) and they had live local bands playing while you bowled. It was so much fun, having a beer, eating great food and bowling. Of course the bowling for me was 
secondary to the music, food and drink. I’ve never been an avid bowler, the game escapes me. I mean it seems so simple. You roll a medium size ball down an alley and try to hit the ten pins at the end of it and knock them over. Yet, to bowl, you really need to learn and practice this skill. And it’s one that I ‘d never quite figured out and just what it would mean to me many years later.
I also went bowling every so often at friends parties and an occasional birthday party for my son Harrison. Then we got the Wii and I got a kick out of the bowling game, it was so real, even though it was just a video game. I kicked butt on the video game.
They made me bowl first, so talk about pressure… I thought, ok, this is going to be fine, I have all that practice from playing on the Wii, I’d be fine. Well the first bowl was a gutter ball, the next, more of the same, then everyone after me starting knocking down pins. I have to say I was getting a bit frustrated about my lack of “bowling” ability. We had 6 of us bowling… Then it hit me as I watched everyone else, it wasn’t about them. I shouldn’t care what they think or even how they bowl. And if I did, I’d have to use that emotion to fuel me t
In my printed newsletter from July,
because we all learn differently, but the fact that we can then use these in our businesses. This is really highly important and crucial information to you and your business, so don’t take this lightly. You’re probably asking yourself right now, “Well why is this important to me?” It’s important because knowing these different learning styles, you can then ensure that they are incorporated in your marketing, advertising and when you write ads, sales letters, create presentations, write a self-help book, when you coach, or even when you create information products. By using these, you”ll be reaching a lot more people because you’ll be appealing to the way they learn, read and understand information. So these are key, especially when you’re creating an information product!
So how can we apply this to your business? If your goal is to get as many people as possible to see what you have to offer, then you must appeal to the masses. And in order to do this, you need to structure all of your copy to meet the needs of every learning type. Here is why you need to do this. Here are the actions you need to take. Here is what it is. Now go and do it. So, make sure you adress these learning styles in your text, in your product, course and on your web site. These 4 learning styles could really help you and your business, so go out now and implement them!
got a fact wrong, or maybe you forgot a word, or had a wrong date and on an on? The worst of it is that you didn’t find it, that one of your prospects, or maybe it was one of your clients took time out to tell you about your error.
my case, because that’s really why I’m writing. I made a pretty good mistake in my last newsletter. I went through the exercise and realized probably the worst thing that could happen is those who read it thought I was a little off my rocker, or couldn’t add, or worst yet, I was lost in time… So let me tell you what my mistake was in my newsletter. (The funny thing is so far only one person caught it and told me about it.) In my main article about my workshop with Jeff Walker, I said how I went to his training 2 years ago in 1997. I’m thinking I was channeling 1997, had some great memories, but the point is I should have said it was back in 2007. So… that was my big mistake. And yes, I do have an editor who looks over my newsletter, among many other things and we still didn’t catch it. Go figure!
Have you ever heard of the information marketing business? It’s a fascinating space that I stumbled upon three years ago. It’s really an interesting niche market, filled with people who sell information. This isn’t any old information though. Most of these folks are amazing experts in their field and hence have created products, courses, newsletters, and membership sites to share with their clients and prospects.
Here’s a great example of a very successful information marketer – Eben Pagan. He has a pen name, David D’Angelo, and created a multi-million dollar information business with his product – 
friend) I wrote a chapter about it for this awesome book by Debbie Phillips (Founder of Women On Fire) Women on Fire, 20 Inspiring Women Share their Life Secrets (and Save you Years of Struggle!). I have the honor of being one of the 20 Inspiring Women who share their life secrets in Debbie Phillips new book, Women On Fire. This book is a heart-stirring and heartwarming anthology of stories written by 20 courageous and powerful women who faced real-life challenges and successfully moved through them to become authentic women on fire. Each woman shares the details of a seemingly insurmountable obstacle and describes how she summoned the strength to overcome it and emerge stronger, healthier, happier, and more deeply fulfilled. The most important part of their message is that you can do the same!
job? It’s unfortunately affecting hundreds, if not thousands of people, right now as I write. And this is no time to jump for joy or make light of your situation. In fact, I hope that I can help you with offering you my own words of wisdom by revealing my 7 secrets to how I was able to survive being let go from my job. This is where I have the honor of being brutally honest with you because, I not only was let go from my corporate job once, but I was let go 4 times in 9 years!
