Benar, kata - kata orang . sekalipun kita sudah berusaha mencari apa namanya kebebasan , tapi sebenarnya kita belum mutalk bebas... mengertikah kau wahai teman bahwa hidup ini dipersulit oleh kesusahan financial , sehingga banyak yang tidak bebas dan leluasa menjalani hidup ini , terkekang dan terbentur masalah tersebut ...
dalam hal ini saya pun merasakan secara umum, bahwa selalu kerja,kerja dan kerja , namun hasilnya hanya pas-pasan , hampir-hampir gak ada .
tak luput hari ini saya terus mencari jalan keluarnya , search di om google ,tentang passive income , tapi timbul keraguan ... disebabkan mana mungkin mrk berbagi rahasianya ? terus apakah cuma trik aja yah mereka jual ebook ttg cara-cara meraih passive income ? kalau saya tidak tertarik dengan MLM , karena semua itu hanya menguntungkan sepihak .dan emang saya juga gak ada bakat mencari rekan-rekan untuk gabung sebagai downline saya ...
nah, hari ini aku sdg memutuskan tuk mengambil keputusan mengikuti salah satu trik passive income seharga Rp.125.000,-, dan katanya setelah mencoba ACTION mengikuti cara2x yang disampaikan di CD program yang mereka tawarkan aku akan terbebas dari belenggu kekurangan didalam hidup ini.. moga -moga yah !
You’ve heard it before: when advertising your product, stress features instead of
benefits. But it’s a little more complicated than that. To be accurate, product factsaren’t just divided into one of two categories features or benefits. Experienced
marketers know that there are four levels of production description.These are
features, advantages, benefits, and ultimate benefits. The more you understand
and use all four levels and not just benefits in your advertising,
the more effective your advertising will be. Let’s look at these four levels….
The lowest level is features. A “feature” is what a product is or has the literal
physical description of the product.For instance, a feature of a tire is that it is steel‐belted. Another might be that it is double ply.
Often, despite what experts tell you about “stress benefits, not features,” a featu
re can be a selling point…even if the prospect doesn’t know what it is! For in
stance, when I was a kid, brochures for the new car models coming out would
boast about “rack and pinion” steering. The car makers hyped it so much, every
one asked dealers, “Does the car have rack and pinion steering?
Yet I bet not one buyer in a hundred really knew what rack and pinion steering was.
I still don’t, to this day.
Next, there are advantages.
An “advantage” is a feature that your product has that competitive pro
ducts don’t have. You know that to get consumers interested in your
product, you must show how your product is different than competing
products.
The advantage is that point of differentiation….
For our tire example, that might be that our tire is the only steel‐belted
radial tire that also has double ply.
Moving up the hierarchy, the next level of product description is benefits.
A “benefit” is what the product does…and how the consumer comes out ahead
as a result of this capability. Going back to our tire example, again, the benefit of a steel‐belted double ply radial might be that the tire grips the road tighter and in
creases safety while driving.Or that it can drive for another 100 miles even after
being punctured before you have to change it. At the top of the product descrip
tion hierarchy is what I call ultimate benefits. An “ultimate benefit” is “the benefit of the benefit”…the most important way in
which the product improves the user’s life. Ultimate benefits include saving mo
ney…saving time…making money…success…self‐esteem…security…safety…
joy…pleasure…happiness. Remember the TV commercial for the tire showing a
baby sitting in the middle of a tire? That’s an example of showing the ultimate be
nefit…which simply put is, “If you buy our tires, you won’t kill your baby.”
In business‐to‐business marketing, a benefit might be “reduces energy costs.”
The ultimate benefit is often “makes you a hero within your company”…
Meaning if you achieve the benefit by purchasing the product, senior manage
ment will look upon you favorably. To make your copy richer, deeper, and more
credible, don’t just talk about benefits. Instead, use all four levels of product des
cription: features, advantages, benefits, and ultimate benefits. For instance, ulti
mate benefits are powerful, they are too generic…not specific enough.
To give your advertising specificity, state the specific benefit (e.g., “reduces ener
gy costs 50%”) that delivers the ultimate benefit (“you’ll be the hero of your com
pany”). To differentiate your product from others that deliver a similar benefit,
you need to explain the advantages
how your product is different from or better than the competition.
Finally, there are the features….Lots of marketing seminars urge you to stress be
nefits instead of features…but you should use both.
Why?
People are skeptical that your product can deliver the benefits you promise…
because everyone is promising those same benefits.
When you show how a particular feature delivers the benefit, it becomes more
believable to the prospect.
For instance, if you tell the buyer your computer system never loses data, he
thinks, “How can that be?”
But when you describe the feature
that there is a built‐in tape drive…and that the system automatically backs up tothat tape drive daily then your claim becomes more believable. Believe it or not.
A huge number of direct marketers who sell online have a regularly published
e‐newsletter they distribute to their e‐list.
But the most profitable e‐mails you can send are your solo e‐mails marketing
messages promoting specific products.
Those of us who generate direct sales by sending e‐mail marketing messages to
our house file know that the more solo e‐mails we send, the more money we
make.
Then why don’t we send e‐mails all the time? Because too‐frequent e‐mailing can
produce a spike in our opt‐out rate which in turn causes our most valuable asset,
our e‐list, to evaporate.
As a rule of thumb, the frequency of solo e‐mail marketing blasts to your e‐list
depends, to a large extent, on how often you distribute the e‐newsletter they
subscribed to.
A marketer with a daily online newsletter can probably send a solo e‐mail to his
list at least daily.
But if a marketer with a quarterly e‐zine starts bombarding his list with daily
e‐mail sales pitches, they’ll jump ship fast.
The best way to find the optimal schedule of e‐newsletters and solo e‐mail blasts,
of course, is to test.
“There is a point of sending too much, yes, but it varies based on the niche, the
relationship, and the content of the dedicated mailings,” says online marketing
consultant Andrew Palmer. “If the offer is relevant to the list, and can be seen as
helpful, and a good relationship exists already with the subscribers, then you can
be more aggressive.
“But if the e‐newsletter is monthly, the relationship is not as strong. So sending a
solo sales e‐mail every day is out. Even once a week might be a bit too aggressi
ve. Twice a month is more reasonable.”
To create more slots for solo e‐mails each month, Andrew advises clients to pu
blish their e‐newsletter weekly rather than monthly.
E‐newsletter frequency, of course, depends on two factors. First, can you do it?
Do you have the time and resources to write two, four, or more issues per month
instead of the single issue you do now?
Second, does your topic merit increased frequency? A daily e‐newsletter on preci
ous metals prices makes sense. But do you really want daily e‐mails on leader
ship or time management?
“You can e‐mail information in the form of a newsletter every day, as long as the
content can support this frequency,” says Dwayne Jewarski of Strategic Profits.
He notes that for a monthly online newsletter, not e‐mailing to the list for a few
days prior to distribution increases readership.
Jewarski lets opt‐out rates tell him whether he is e‐mailing too frequently. If the
opt‐out rate spikes above 30 unsubscribe requests per thousand, he knows he’s
e‐mailing too much. “There should always be a call to action, or a reward for
receiving the e‐mail,” he adds. “The recipient should always see value in the
message, and every message should have a purpose.” Michelle Feit of e‐list
broker ePost Direct says that you can e‐mail your list daily if you can provide
them with must‐have information. If your purpose is to maintain contact or ge
nerate sales, then five to six times a month is plenty. “The monthly newsletters
I manage vary from 800 to 4,600 opt‐in subscribers,” says Bob Martel of JMB Mar
keting Group. “We usually send private‐offer, limited‐time solo e‐mails for vari
ous products or services, with some seasonal, some inventory sales, and some
cross‐selling efforts.”
Adds Martel: “You have to poke at it to find the point of annoyance and in
effectiveness, then back off a few turns. If it’s an opt‐in e‐list, and the solo piece
has a high perceived value, as evidenced by the subject line and the history of
past value‐building solo e‐mails, then I think there is a higher tolerance.”
“Frequency of e‐mail marketing messages is the million‐dollar question,” says
Katie Yeakle of the American Writers and Artists, Inc. She notes that some sub
scribers would prefer that you never e‐mail them sales messages, while others
appreciate you more for keeping them informed about things that are of interest
to them.
“The more offers we send out, the more profitable we are. We haven’t crossed
the line…and we keep testing to see where that line is.”
Copywriter and site optimization expert Nick Usborne says, “I think that if your
e‐list is accustomed to receiving a newsletter once a month, it is hard to sudden
ly start e‐mailing them a few times a week. You’d get a lot of unsubscribe
requests.” He suggests that if you want to maximize frequency of e‐mail sales
messages, clearly state up front, when the user first subscribes, how many e‐mail
messages he can expect each week or month.
Here are a few rules of thumb that can help you optimize e‐newsletter and e‐mail
marketing distribution schedules for maximum revenues:
•If you have a monthly e‐newsletter, you can send a solo e‐mail marketing
message once a week. If people complain and unsubscribe, cut back to every
other week. If they seem receptive, you might consider testing twice weekly.
•If you have a weekly e‐newsletter, you can safely send a second, sales‐oriented
e‐mail, in addition to the newsletter, to your subscribers each week.
•If you have a daily e‐newsletter, you can send subscribers at least two e‐mails
every day: the e‐newsletter plus a second e‐mail with a marketing message.
Another strategy that works: say you want to increase e‐mail revenues, but your
e‐list complains when you increase the frequency of sales messages.
Solution: alternate your straight e‐mail sales messages with “editorial” e‐mails.
These are e‐mails that ostensibly contain content. But here the content in the e‐
mail relates to, and leads to the sale of, a specific product.
Example: you write an opinion piece on how many entrepreneurs waste time,
and give them a few time management tips. At the close of the e‐mail, you men
tion your new time management seminar on DVD, and place a link to the pro
duct page.
You can, in your subject line, position the editorial e‐mail as a “supplement” to
the subscriber’s regular e‐zine subscription. The regular issues look and read like a content‐driven e‐newsletter, with articles. The editorial sup
plement can read more like a personal communication from the editor to his
reader.
This works especially well if the regular e‐zine issues focus on your regular con
tent, such as news, tips, and advice, with the editorial supplement being more in
the nature of personal opinion and advice from the guru to the subscriber.
Section 8 In Copywriting, a Lot of Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing
Years ago, I hired a gray‐haired tile guy to tile our bathroom.
My wife—a lover of home improvement projects objected. “I can do it myself
,” she volunteered knowing I had neither the time nor inclination to do
the project with her. I hired the tile guy.
As she watched him work, she became distressed. Apparently she did not think
he was using proper technique. When she told him how she thought it ought to
be done, he asked: “Who told you that?” “I saw it done on This Old House,” she
told him. He stopped working, sighed, turned, looked her in the eye, and said:
“Miss, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” But in my profession, copywrit
ing, the opposite can also hold true and a lot of knowledge can be a dangerous
thing. This is especially true when selling a technical or complicated product to a lay au
dience. Say you are marketing a course “Getting Started in Options Trading” to
people who have never traded options before. You are a copywriter. You know
financial products. But you are not an options trader. Your client is an experienced
options trader. He has been trading options for over a decade, and he wrote the
course you are selling. Therefore, he has a better understanding of how to sell his
course, right?
Not necessarily.
Product knowledge is important. Copywriters probably spend up to half their time
on a project doing research. The client already has more product knowledge than
the copywriter ever will.
But more important than product knowledge is prospect knowledge: understand
ing the potential buyers for the product: their worries, concerns, fears, problems,
desires, hopes, and dreams.
In the case of our options course, the market is people who have never traded op
tions before.
The course author, an experienced trader, is not a member of the target audience.
He is a veteran trader. As such, he knows a lot about options trading. But the
copywriter is a member of the target audience. He is an average investor who
might consider options trading, tempted by the promise of big profits, but hesitant
because he perceives options trading to be difficult and risky.
The client possesses a lot of knowledge about options trading, but in a promotion
aimed at newbie traders, that can be a dangerous thing, creating an inability to re
late to the mindset of a rank novice. The copywriter has the advantage of being in the same boat as the prospect: per
haps learning about how to trade options according to the client’s system for the
first time—and therefore better able to address concerns and questions in his copy.
My colleague Don Hauptman says the key to copywriting is to start with the
prospect, not the product. Therefore, while product and prospect knowledge are
both important, understanding the prospect is the more important of the two.
But what if you are not a member of the target market? Just as you research pro
duct facts, there are shortcuts you can take to get up to speed on the beliefs, desi
res, and emotions of your buyers.
1.In business‐to‐business marketing, subscribe to the one or two top trade jour
nals serving your target market. You don’t have to read every article. The most useful feature to read: letters to the editor. These letters show you what people in
the industry care about, what the hot buttons are.
2.In consumer marketing, order a product or two from each of the major direct
marketers in that niche. Doing so will get your name on every list, and you will
begin to receive a huge volume of promotions. Save the most interesting promo
tions in a swipe file, and mark those you receive multiple times. You know the
ones mailed repeatedly are strong controls. There is no better way of understand
ding what’s working in a particular market than to study the controls.
3.Attend trade shows and consumer expos that prospects in your target market
attend. You can see first‐hand how they react to different products, and hear the
way they talk about their business or passion, whether it’s information technolo
gy or gardening.
4.When writing direct mail, study the data cards for the lists your package is be
ing mailed to. Pay particular attention to the average order size. If the average or
der size is $100 and your product costs $50, you know you are in a price range
comfortable for your prospects. On the other hand, if the average order is $100,
and you are selling a $500 offer, you must work hard to overcome price resistant.
Two ways to do it: write powerful copy showing why the price is a drop in the
bucket compared to the value the product delivers, and stress your unconditio
nal money‐back guarantee.
that different marketers often get wildly different results, making it difficult to
establish definitive rules.
For instance, I recently did an informal survey asking top e‐mail marketers this
simple question: what day of the week, and time of day, should we send e‐mail
marketing messages to our list to get the best click‐through and conversion rates?
“Different people will give you different answers to this question,” says online
copywriter and site optimization specialist Nick Usborne. “But in truth, there is
no ‘best’ day of the week for e‐mailing. Itʹs something of an urban myth.
Individual e‐mailers need to find the answer by testing.”
According to the MarketingSherpa E‐mail Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007, the
volume of daily e‐mail traffic, from busiest day of the week to least busy, is as
follows: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday, Sunday, and
Saturday. Stefan Tornquist of Marketing Sherpa adds, “When we periodically
check this, it’s usually a horserace for first between Tuesday and Wednesday,
with Thursday falling just behind them.”
“The most popular and busiest day of the week for e‐mail is Tuesday,” says
Nick. “But some argue that this is a bad day, simply because your e‐mail has so
much competition for attention from other e‐mailers. “The least busy day is
Saturday. So some would say itʹs a great day to send your e‐mail. But itʹs the
least busy day for a reason: millions of people are out
shopping, spending time with their kids, enjoying life, and not checking their
email.
“As for best time of day, I have never come across any data on that. But intuitive
ly, I would start by sending B2B e‐mails at the beginning of the work day, and B2
C e‐mails when people have gotten home from work.
“But thatʹs just intuition. The only way to find out for a particular list is by
testing open rates and conversion rates at different times of day. Also, keep in
mind that when you e‐mail your list at 9am EST in New York City, itʹs 6am in
Los Angeles, and 2pm in London.”
“We have tested different days of the week and have found that Tuesday
performs best for us,” says Josef Katz of Trump University. “Weekends did not
perform well, though we thought they might.
“Thursdays are not bad either but Tuesday seems to work best for our business.
We try to get our e‐mail out early in the day but have not tested day parts in our
efforts. Naturally, we always room to improve and test.”
Ivan Levison, a copywriter in the software industry, comments: “I donʹt send
marketing e‐mails out on Monday. People are back from the weekend and get
ing back in gear. Iʹm not a fan of Friday either, because they are thinking about
wrapping up for the weekend, and I believe are less prone to take action or take
the decision to others.
His favorite days for sending marketing e‐mails: Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday. As for time of day, the California‐based Levison says, “Not first thing.
By 10:30am PST, every one on the West coast is in and has gone through their
e‐mail already, and on the East coast theyʹre just back from lunch. I think this
makes sense, though I have no test results to back this up.”
“We’ve found that the best schedule for us is to send stand alone efforts on
Tuesday mornings, and then a quick ‘in case you missed this’ kind of follow‐up
note on Fridays at mid‐day,” says Katie Yeakle, director of the American Writers
and Artists, Inc.
“Our assumption is that Tuesdays are good, because Mondays are typically such
busy e‐mail days for most people. Fridays are good, because most of us like to
clear out our in‐boxes, and tie up loose ends, before the weekend starts.”
For Patrick Coffey at Early to Rise (ETR), Friday e‐mails actually outperform
Tuesday. Sales start to trend upward on Thursday and top with Friday, then
drop off on Sunday.
“In the past, we thought the best day for mailing to our list was Tuesday mid
morning,” says Patrick. “However, after reviewing our ad sales over the past
year, we discovered that Friday is actually our best day. This definitely shows
you why you need to be constantly evaluating and re‐evaluating.”
Here are ETR’s daily sales shown as a percentage of the total weekly revenues:
•Monday—14.3%.
•Tuesday—13.2%.
•Wednesday—13.8%.
•Thursday—16.6%.
•Friday—23.1%.
•Saturday—13.6%.
•Sunday—5.4%.
“I do have some theories as to why this happens,” he says. “As we start to ap
proach the weekend, people become less focused at work and need a break. So
they’ll take the time to read a personal e‐mail or browse the Web.
“On the other hand Sunday is clearly our worst day. I believe this is caused by
Sunday being a day for people to spend time with their family and run errands.
Another factor could be that fact that many of our Christian readers are attend
ing mass when our message hits their inbox on Snday mornings.”
“I typically send my e‐mails out at 2pm EST on Thursdays or Sundays,” says In
ternet marketer Paul Hartunian. “My rationale is that if I send out at 2pm on
Thursday, people on the East coast get them at 2pm and on the West coast at 11
am, both well within the work day. So the people are not inundated with early
morning e‐mail or wanting to wrap up the day and get out of the office. On
Sundays, the same applies, but people are more at leisure.”
Robert Skrob, director of membership services at the Information Marketing Association
(IMA), is an exception to the “no Mondays” rule.
“Our marketing e‐mails go out on Mondays,” he says. “If I get busy, I donʹt
mind sending them out on a Tuesday. However, I donʹt bother sending anyth
ing on Thursdays and Fridays, my response is minimal on those days.”
These e‐mails are distributed in the afternoon—
after 2pm EST and 11am PT. “I hate having my messages lumped in with the
overnight spam deluge,” he says. “That way, everyone has an opportunity to get
their e‐mail box cleaned out and get into transactional mode. Our e‐mails arrive
at a time when the recipient is dealing with important issues of the day.” One
exception: when sending prospects to a landing page to hear an audio presenta
tion over the Internet, Skrob has found that Sunday mornings get a 3 times high
er opt‐in rate. “Iʹm guessing my prospects have more leisure time to review their
e‐mail, and listening to my presentation is a nice diversion for their day,” he
notes. “The ratio of listeners to buyers stays consistent, so more opt‐ins on Sun
days has meant more sales.” Bob Martel of JMB Marketing Group says: “Iam
sure that in some industries minutes matter and timing is crucial. I manage several
Constant Contact e-mail campaigns for clients and, in general, we schedule e-mails for
Tuesday or Wednesday delivery, after 10am EST in most cases.
“Time limited, direct response special offers to a house list work at all hours any day of
the week. A lot depends on who you are trying to reach, consumers or people in the
workplace, and the overall purpose of the communication. Is there a time sensitive call to action?”
Martel notes that the Internet is a 24/7 environment, even for the 9-5 employee. “I find
that while it used to be true that marketing-driven e-mails needed to be very carefully timed, or so we thought, people are reading e-mails at all hours of the day and late into
the night,” he says. “Sunday nights are very active, as telecommuters clean the slate for
the upcoming work week.”
Michelle Feit of list broker ePost Direct says she focuses on the times within
each day when the marketer is most likely to find the executive receptive, un
cluttered, and at their desk. Her guidelines for B2B e‐mail distribution:
•Donʹt be in the inbox first thing in the morning or after lunch when most of the
e‐mail clutter exists.
•Stay away from major vacation weeks when people will most likely be out of
the office—Christmas week, July 4th week, etc.
•Fridayʹs are fine except afternoon in the summer.
•Avoid Monday mornings. People are trying to finish up last week’s tasks, and
weekends create the most e‐mail clutter.
“Best practices say to e-mail Tuesdays or Wednesdays, early in the morning, for
marketing messages,” says Dwain Jeworski, Marketing Director, Strategic Profits
“But we send later in the day, and on any day, as our audience is worldwide.
“Saturdays have become a great day for us, as people have time on the weekend to read
what we are sending, and also because the e-mail market follows the best practice rule of
weekday mornings except Friday—leaving the weekend quiet for e-mail.”
Conclusions: Best days for e‐mail marketing are Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday, in that order. Time of day is not as critical as day of the week, especial
ly with an audience in multiple time zones. But e‐mailing around the lunch hour
East coast USA time seems safe.
When using e‐mail marketing to drive traffic to landing pages with long audio or
video messages, test e‐mailing on the weekend. Test alternate times and days,
weekends include, for your other e‐mail marketing campaigns as well.
business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐mail marketing. But I take what most of them say
with a grain of salt.
From long experience, we know that in traditional direct mail, there simply is no
“silver bullet”no magic rules that apply all of the time to virtually guarantee a
winner.
Logic follows that there are no silver bullets in any kind of marketing, including
TV commercials, print ads, and e‐mail marketing. But the gurus and experts keep
trying to formulate silver bullets—or at least, best practices—nonetheless.
First up is the question: when is the best day of the week to send a B2B e‐mail
marketing message? According to a new survey by eROI, Inc., high‐level execu
tives read most of their e‐mail messages on Mondays and Tuesdays. And the best
time to send messages on those days is during lunch hour.
Next up, subject lines: a study from e‐mail services provider Silverpop showed
that B2B e‐mail open rates are 20% when the subject line does not mention the
brand, company, or product, and 32% when the brand or company name
appears in the subject line.
That’s a 60% lift in open rates just from adding either the brand or the company
name to the subject line. But beware of using both: the study found that open
rates fall to only 24% when both the company name and the product name are in
the same subject line.
The debate about which is better—text or HTML e‐mailrages on in business
to‐consumer marketing. But overwhelmingly, the vast majority of B2B e‐mail
marketers send HTML messages which, one would suppose, means HTML
works best. Or does it?
“The majority of e‐mail campaigns for our B2B clients are HTML,” says freelance
copywriter Alan Sharpe. “This is partly because of aesthetics and the need to pro
ject and protect the brand, and partly because we can only measure open rates
when we design in HTML.”
But other marketers are defying the best practice of using HTML for B2B e‐mail
marketing with good results. “For most of the B2B clients I have worked with
recently, plain text formatted effectivelyhas worked better than
HTML,” says copywriter Steve Slaunwhite. “I suspect this is because of the many
issues that plague HTML, such as deliverability and blocked images.”
Adds Steve: “I think plain text works better in e‐mail because it looks like perso
nal communications. Think about it. When you send me an e‐mail, do you dress
it up with fancy formatting and graphics? Or do you just write a simple e‐mail?
Software copywriter Ed Gandia also finds that text can outperform HTML in B2B
e‐mail marketing. “When a conversational tone and approach would work
better, text seems to be outpulling HTML,” says Ed. “Also, since most B2B
marketers use HTML, text e‐mails are different, stand out, and therefore get
more attention and higher click‐through rates.
So, if it’s not true that HTML is universally better than text for B2B e‐mail mar
keting, are there any legitimate B2B e‐mail marketing best practices rules
that stand up in the real world, and that you ignore at your peril?
I can only think of three. First, the most important part of the e‐mail marketing
message is the “from” line. If the e‐mail is from a source the reader knows, such
as a trusted vendor or an online newsletter he subscribes to, he’s more likely to
open it.
The second most important part of the message is the subject line. Even though
the subject line is only 40 characters or so of text, tests conclusively prove that
a simple change in subject line can increase click‐through rates by 25% to 50% or
more.
Third, in writing B2B e‐mail or any other marketing materials, avoid the common
copywriting mistake of focusing on the product instead of the prospect a sin
committed perhaps more frequently in B2B than B2C.
Many B2B e‐mails I see start with the product. But the reader, your prospect,
doesn’t care about you, your company, your product, or your technology. The
reader cares, first and foremost, about himself his needs, fears, concerns,
problems, challenges, and desires.
The more you answer the primary question readers ask when they see your
e‐mail—“What’s in it for me?”
the greater your click‐through and conversion rates will be.
I’m not a smart guy, but I know a lot of smart people. So when I’m writing these
articles for DM News, my research methodology often consists of e‐mailing
some of the folks in my address book who have knowledge about the topic
worth sharing and asking them for a contribution.
In this week’s article, I’m going to share with you some renewal strategies and
tactics that have worked for others—and therefore, that might work for you too.
I began by asking Doug Hill, marketing director at KCI, a publisher of financial
newsletters, to tell me about his best renewal mailing.
“Itʹs a renewal we call ‘Oops, we goofed,’” says Doug. “Back when I was
Personal Finance product manager, we were increasing the price. But before we
did so, we were allowing subscribers to renew at the current pricing.
“In one of the efforts there were two efforts initially, but it worked so well we
extended it to six I said, ‘This offer is good until February 30.
Yeah, I know. It was a real oversight. But we got lots of mail about it. So I rolled
out another effort with the ‘Oops’ headline. It killed.”
Years ago, I wrote a blanket renewal—sometimes called an advance renewal
for an investment newsletter. In this case, the newsletter was switching from 8 to
12 pages, but the publisher was not increasing the price. I decided to focus on
that in my headline, which read something like: “We are increasing from 8 to 12
pages, which means our printing costs will go up 50 percent…but we won’t
charge you even one dime more!” I don’t have the numbers any more, but the
publisher told me it was an extremely successful mailing.
“In my 38 years of circulation experience, Renewal‐at‐Birth is one of my
favorites to write,” says circulation promotion expert Dr. Andrew Linick
(www.AndrewLinickDirectmarketing.com). Why? Because before the
subscriber gets that first magazine, you can mail out a renewal notice with toned
down copy for a very special, low‐keyed offer.
The perception of an excellent publication where the benefits outweigh the price
is the number one factor in making a renewal ecision. While we’re talking about
response, realize that it’s easier to increase the average dollar amount of a
renewal than it is to increase the percent of response.
You are asking subs to renew when their emotions of excitement and anticipa
tion are at the highest right after they’ve signed up for a new subscription. You can ask them to renew
for a specified period of time at the full rate or at a discount but you should offer
a valuable preium tied into the theme of the publication. If the premium offered outweighs the price of the renewal you’ll increase your percentage of renewals
substantially.
By creating an irresistible up‐sell offer way in advance, you’ll save a ton of
money in later renewal effort costs. How you get the sub to take out a longer
term of service is key and requires creative brainstorming. The more options you
can offer on the renewal order form (e.g. 4 months, 7 months, 12 months, 2‐years,3‐years the better the response you’ll get. If you tie in a good, better, best
premium (for the three year renewal) to each term and save the most expensive
premium you can afford for the 3‐year term, you’ll get more paid renewals at thelonger term.
This is one of the most difficult mailings to write. The tone of your copy is key
here. Serious mistakes can creep into your copy and turn off the subscriber if
you are too eager by asking for money again after shes just paid for a new sub.
Your copy should suggest you are doing your subscriber a big favor by inviting
her to renew NOW. Plus by renewing NOW, she’ll be protected against future
subscription rate increases and won’t miss out on the bonus 450‐page double issue listing the Who’s Who in her industry by state including e‐mail and Web
addresses. Or if you must go for a ‘best deal’ discount offer, i.e., save 71% off the
cover price and renew for two full years for only $28. (When printing on
recycled paper add a line that you printed on recycled paper—that’s a plus!)
For newsletters, you can increase renewal rates by offering a special renewal pre
mium. Heather Downey of The Oxford Club says, “I have seen a noted increase
in response when I offer a special premium with the auto‐renew offer. These
have been anything from a 40‐page booklet on investing in China to a 16‐page
premium with a single stock pick. Iʹve used these most effectively in e‐mail
which allows me to make changes as needed.”
I have always shied away from giving merchandise premiums for renewals. But
a number of publishers report good results with them. Bill Dugan, general mana
ger of the Pohly Company, told me, “One of the best renewal promotions
I’ve ever done was a blanket renewal offer offering an executive pen and letter
opener set—very profitable and easy to implement.”
Sometimes a lift in renewal rates can come not from a bribe or discount offer, but
from the messaging. Copywriter Herschell Gordon Lewis says, “My most
successful strategy is ridiculing the idea that the subscriber wonʹt renew,
coupled with a timely, specific reminder of what outsiders will miss.”
Graphics and offer can also increase renewal rates. Copywriter Clayton Make
peace reports success using simulated invoices, simulated final notices, and
sweepstakes.
Another way to lift response to your renewal series is to use more than one
medium. “When sending out your renewal letters, use more than one avenue to
reach your subscribers,” says Craig Simpson of Simpson Direct. “Send an e‐mail,
postcard, and if you really want to bump your renewal rates, give the subscriber
a call.”
According to Simpson, the most effective way to generate renewals is by using
an auto‐billing renewal system. This means that when you initially sell the sub
scription, you let the subscriber know that they’ll automatically be renewed.
For example: “The cost for a quarterly subscription is $X per quarter and will be
conveniently billed to your credit card each quarter. You may cancel at any time
for a pro‐rated refund.” This type of auto‐billing offer generates an 80 to 93 per
cent renewal rate, says Simpson.
For advance renewals, always place the renewal effort within the issue envelope,
advises consultant Jeff Greenberg.
“Advance renewals more than double your regular renewal efforts,” says Green
berg. “It also brings in tomorrowʹs cash today and dramatically increases
renewal rates. Donʹt worry about having renewal expires out a few years; these
subscribers are more likely to renew again before anyone else.”
Circulation consultant Paul Goldberg says that a key to renewals is not to make
the offer more generous as the renewal series roceeds.
“Always give your renewal prospects the best offer on your first effort,” says
Goldberg. “For example, offer two extra issues or a premium for renewing on
the first effort.”
Adds Goldberg: “If you have e‐mail addresses, an e‐mail blast before the first
effort is usually very effective. If you are using telephone, I find it more effective
in the middle of the renewal series rather than at the end, where most publishers
use it at a reduced rate.” Also, be careful about stepping up your rates too
quickly from introductory prices on conversions, advises Goldberg: “A two‐step
and sometimes a three‐step route to full price is more desirable.”
Copywriter Mike Pavlish agrees that the offer should never be made more
generous in the later renewals than it is in the firsteffort. His renewal letters
typically state, “This is the lowest price you will ever be offered—guaranteed
so make it easy and respond now while itʹs in front of you!”
“Whenever Iʹve tested this language against not having it in the renewal, it has
increased renewal rates significantly,” says Pavlish. “If you donʹt push this,
many people will wait, thinking they will be offered a lower price later.”
Not only should the later efforts in the renewal series not make a more generous
offer than the first effort, but the offer should gradually become less desirable,
i.e., discounts are lessened and some bonuses are removed.
“I like to make several efforts a ‘last chance’ to get something,” says Marlene
Jensen, CEO, Pricing Strategy Associates. “For example, ‘Last chance to get this
bonus,’ ‘Your subscription expires next issue,’ or ‘Last chance at this low rate.’”
“I find raising the price—actually, itʹs reducing the discountworks great to
pull in laggards, especially those that hold on to the notice just to see if I really
do raise it, then quickly send it in when they see the higher price,” says Jensen. “
And, I still get a number of subscribers later, with the higher price apparently no
problem. And the extra cash is just a nice little bonus from these obviously not‐price‐sensitive subscribers.”
One of the most effective and popular marketing techniques being used today,
both online and offline, is the free content offer. You know how it works: to
generate a lead or an order, you offer the prospect some valuable free content in
exchange for an inquiry or a purchase.
The free content can take many different forms: booklets, special reports, white
papers, article reprints, manuals, even books. These items are called “bait pieces
,” because they are used to “bait the hook” when you go “fishing” for a lead or
sale.
The process of building marketing campaigns around free content offers is
called “educational marketing” or “edu‐marketing,” because it generates sales
by educating prospects about your product or service—or the problem it solves.
Today, the bait piece is often electronic, not print. For online marketing, white
papers and reports are offered as downloadable PDF documents. The advantage
is that the prospect gets instant delivery of the bait piece, which costs you no
thing in printing and postage. Bait pieces don’t have to be documents. You can
offer software, DVDs, videos, or CDs. The advantage is that the prospect is for
ced to give you his snail mail address, because otherwise, you can’t ship the
physical item to him.
I am constantly urging clients to use the bait piece strategyfree content offers
to increase response rates to lead‐generating and one‐step promotions. But to
my dismay, many don’t follow my suggestion. Why not? The three biggest
objections these marketers have to the bait piece strategy revolve around the
creation of the bait piece itslf. They are:
1. I can’t write.
2. I don’t have time to write it.
3. I don’t have the budget to hire a writer and designer to produce the bait piece.
If any of these are stopping you from offering free content, I have some good
news for you: now you can get “ready‐made” bait pieces from Uncle Sam. And
most won’t cost you a nickel. How? Many people don’t realize that the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO) is one of the largest publishers in the country.
They also aren’t aware that many of the U.S. GPO publications are not copyright
edmeaning they are yours to reprint, distribute, and use however you want (the
government does ask that you credit them as the source, as a courtesy).
Years ago, when radon was in the news, I responded to a newspaper ad for a
radar inspection service because they offered a free “consumer awareness guide
to radon.” When I got it, I realized they had taken a GPO publication and just
imprinted it with their name and address.
You can find a selection of GPO reports and booklets at the Federal Citizen Infor
mation Center (FCIC). Before the Internet, FCIC used to advertise their free
publications catalog aggressively on TVremember those commercials urging
you to call or write “Pueblo, Colorado”?
Now, you can find the FCIC online at www.pueblo.gsa.gov, where you can
download and print dozens of publications for free. Or you can call them toll‐
free at 888‐878‐3256 for a free copy of their catalog of publications.
How might a marketer take advantage of this rich treasure trove of free content
from Uncle Sam?
Well, one of the publications I found on the site is “Stop, Think, Click: 7 Practices
for Safer Computing.” This 12‐page report “helps protect your information, your
computer, even yourself…[against] online scammers, hackers, and identity
thieves.”
Could you imagine a high‐tech firm selling firewalls, anti‐virus software, Inter
net monitoring programs, or content filters offering this as a free report in their
ads or online? Of course: it’s a natural fit. And they wouldn’t have to write
a word; they could just put their logo and contact information on the front and
back pages of the existing report.
Another report I downloaded for free at the FCIC Website was “Taking Control
of Your Finances.” This 12‐page document had sections on common mistakes
people make with money, how to protect yourself against financial fraud, and
five things you should know about credit cards. Any financial planner could get
more leads by offering this free bulletin to potential customers interested in
saving and makig money.
The library of free content available at www.pueblo.gsa/gov is quality material:
the federal government pays writers and designers good money to produce these
publications, which are almost universally well written and attractively designed
So if you want to offer free content, but you don’t have the time, skill, or
resources to create your own bait pieces, that’s no longer a valid excuse for igno
ring the bait‐piece strategy. Your tax dollars have already been spent creating
a wealth of content you can offer your prospects as a bait piece. And it’s yours
free for the taking.
One additional tip: another good source of content is books in the “public
domain”that is, books on which copyright protection has expired. Most non
fiction books published before 1923 fit into this category. Of course, the draw
back here is that much of this content is dated—but not all.
Note: I am not an attorney. So I can’t give you legal advice. Therefore, you
should check with your attorney before using previously published material
from any source, other than your own company, in your marketing programs.
Section 2 Yours Free: 4 Steps to Selecting a Winning Premium
If you’ve been in direct marketing for more than a few weeks, you know that
offering a premium can significantly increase response rates. Well, in my
opinion, the four most important factors to consider when choosing a premium
are: value, novelty, relevance, and desirability.
1.Perceived value. A good premium either (a) has a high perceived value or (b)
has a value that the reader cannot determine.
The worst premium is an item that the prospect sees as having a low value.
Example: a well‐known financial newsletter publisher did a series of blanket re
newals with each offering a different premium for early renewal. One of the
bestperforming premiums was a video of the editor giving financial advice. The
promotion positioned it as a free financial consultation with the editor in the
privacy of your own home.
One of the worst‐performing premiums was a pack of playing cards with the
editor’s picture on each card. Why didn’t playing cards work well as
a premium?
One reason is low perceived value. You can buy a deck of playing cards in any
drug store or stationery store for a dollar or so. Therefore, the perceived value
of the playing card deck premium was about a dollar.
The video, by comparison, has a much higher perceived value: videos can sell
for anywhere from $19 to $79 or even higher.
And since the editor was a highly paid investment advisor, positioning the
video as a free one‐hour “consultation” with him boosted the perceived value
even higher.
Readers knew such a consultation would cost several thousand dollars, if the
editor would even agree to it.
2. Novelty. As a rule of thumb, unique premiums generally—but not always
pull better than “me‐too” or commodity premiums. Newsletter and magazine
publishers know that an exclusive special report, written by the editor on a topic
of interest, is an effective premium because it is a unique item: the reader can’t
get it anywhere else.
On the other hand, offering best‐selling books as subscription premiums has
generally not worked well, because the item is so readily available: if the
premium is a best‐seller, there is an excellent chance the reader already has it
and if not, he can just pop into a bookstore and pick one up, without subscribing
to your publication.
One subscription premium that did extremely well was a coffee mug for Adver
tising Age. Of course, coffee mugs are about as ordinary an item as you can get.
But here was the gimmick: the artwork on the mug looked like a faux front page
of Advertising Age. Each mug was laser‐imprinted with the subscriber’s name
incorporated into a headline, e.g., “Jane Smith wins Advertising Age’s ‘Adverti
sing Genius’ award.”
3. Relevance. Many consumer marketers have found that premiums having
little or no relationship to the product have worked extremely well. Examples
include free telephones, tote bags, and solar calculators.
On the other hand, many other consumer marketers, and a large number of
business‐to‐business marketers, have found that they get a better lead or custom
mer when they offer a premium that’s relevant to the product.
Years ago, Weka Publishing mailed a package offering a loose‐leaf service on
managing Novell networks. When they tested the control against a version offe
ring a disk with 5 free utility and shareware programs for Novell, orders
doubled.
4. Desirability. The more desirable the free gift, the greater the number of pros
pects who will respond to your promotion to get it. One of the best premiums
I’ve ever seen was for the Sovereign Society, a financial newsletter focusing on
offshore asset protection.
The premium? If you subscribed to the newsletter, the publisher would open a
Swiss bank account for you! Offering the Swiss bank account as a premium
meets all four criteria with flying colors:
•Perceived value. How much should it cost to open a Swiss bank account?
Ihave no idea, and probably, neither did the subscriber. But prospects knew that
Swiss bank accounts were something rich people generally had“NOT just for
millionaires anymore” the headline exclaimedand so the perceived value by
logical extension was probably high.
•Novelty. Most financial newsletters offer special reports as premiums.
The idea of offering a free Swiss bank account was clever and unique.
•Relevant. Offering a free Swiss bank account as the premium is directly rele
vant to the newsletter’s core proposition of helping readersprotect their assets
offshore.
•Desirability. High. Even if you don’t have a lot of assets you need to hide off
shore, it’s a status thing: casually mentioning your “Swiss bank
account” to neighbors impresses the heck out of them giving the customer
immense pleasure and satisfying the need for exclusivity.
Section 1 What Works Best a Letter, Self mailer, or Postcard?
In his book Secrets of Successful Direct Mail (Bottom Line Books), the late mail order co
nsultant Dick Benson says: “Self‐mailers almost never work.” “Testing has consistently
proven a one‐page letter with a compelling offer outperforms a glossy mailer [in business
to business lead generation] by 100 percent,” says Liz Taylor of Liz Taylor Marketing.
And in a recent issue of his e‐newsletter, copywriter Alan Sharpe says, “In business
to business direct mail lead generation, letters invariably outpull self‐mailers, including
postcards.” As a copywriter, I’ve always been prejudiced in favor of sales letters, because
it’s my favorite form to write. But obviously, a sales letter is not always better than apost
card or other self‐mailerand in recent years, I’ve come to love postcards for the
results they can produce for marketers on a budget.
Consider subscription promotion for magazines, where double postcards and vouchers
routinely outperform traditional letter packages on an ROI basis. For more than a deca
de, Medical Economics tested all sorts of letter packages against a snap‐pack control for
Physician’s Desk Reference.None of them could beat the selfmailer. And look at the out
rageous success of the magalog a long‐copy self‐mailer format in selling nutritional
supplements and consumer newsletters.
The copywriters I talked to were split. A few, like Ivan Levison and Herschell Gordon
Lewis, praised self‐mailers and said they can work well. Others, such as Sharpe and
Jeffrey Dobkin, are clearly fans of sales letters.
“On a dollar‐for‐dollar basis, self‐mailers can outperform a closed‐face envelope
in b‐to‐b mailings,” says copywriter Herschell Gordon Lewis. “No, you can’t
get mailed credit card information. But more and more, when the pitch is for a
phone call or online response, a quick look gets read where a classic mailing
seems ponderous. “Closed‐face means either a two‐way match‐up or an unim
printed response device, both of which kick costs upward. Windows scream,
‘This is a bulk mailing.’” “The great advantage of the self‐mailer is that it’s
cheap,” says Ivan Levison, a copywriter specializing in software. “It’s also easy
for the prospect to unfold a selfmailer. There’s no envelope to tear open, so you
know that you stand a good chance of getting the reader into your message.
“The self‐mailer is a good choice for making noisy announcements, which is
why retailers use them at sales time. If you have a simple, clear story to tell,
a self‐mailer can make a great deal of sense.”
A lot of copywriters, ad agencies, and marketing consultants like packages
better than self‐mailers because they can charge the client more for them, and
because they find writing and designing letter packages more fun and reward
ing creatively. Not a good reason to use them, of course, as Jeffrey Dobkin
admits. “When clients ask me what is the most effective piece we can send
I always say a letter,” says Dobkin. “And it’s not just because letters are my
specialty or that I charge so much for them. I do think letters are the most
effective you can be with the understanding that this is in most instances.
There are exceptions. “A personal‐looking letter is almost always opened.
I like the teaser ‘Gift Certificate Enclosed’ on anything that looks commercial:
the open rate is exceptional.”
“In certain situations, letters may outperform self‐mailers,” says copywriter
Joan Damico. “In business‐to‐business direct mail, getting through the corporate
mail room may be better served with a #10 letter package. “It also depends on
what stage in the buying cycle the prospect is receiving the mailing. A prospect
in the awareness phase may respond better to a colorful self‐mailer, while
a customer in the loyalty phase may respond better to a #10 letter package.
” Here are a few rules of thumb that can help you select the right formatTradi
tional letter package, self‐mailer, or postcard for your next mailing:
•Postcards can work well when the primary response you seek is a visit to a
Web URL or a call to your toll‐free number.
•When your story is detailed and complex, a traditional letter package is likely
to work best.
•Study your market. See what formats are being used in your competitors’
controls. Use the same formats for your mailings at least to begin with.
•When you are generating leads with a free bait piece offer such as
a white paper, catalog, or brochure use a one‐page letter in an envelope
with a business reply card.
Of course, the ultimate strategy for format selection is to split test and let
consumers vote with their responses.
Advertising
is very costly for businesses. Large companies spend millions of dollars in advertising to ensure that the public will patronize and use their products. However, for small and start up businesses, advertising may not apply to them because surely, they do not have millions of dollars to spend like large companies do.This notion is incorrect. Small business, even established business take advantage of free advertising. Now, what is free advertising and how can a product or service take advantage of free advertising?
Before you go searching for an automobile insurance policy, you need to know what they are looking for. As a purchaser of insurance, you will need to know what benefits are available to you, how the insurance company will evaluate you, and how you can get the best policy premium.The best way to go about attaining auto insurance is to shop around. An easy way to do this is to go online. You can literally get 15 car insurance quotes in about 30 minutes to an hour. Not bad considering it could save you big money. As a general rule, I would shy away from those sites that offer getting insurance rates by the boat load. As an automobile owner, I want to make sure my car is being insured by a reputable company. Many of those sites that offer many quotes at once will turn up companies you and I have never heard of, making it very sketchy on if they would actually be able to cover costs if I were ever to get into an accident. The best way to make sure a company is reputable is by doing some general research. You will know in about 5 minutes if a certain insurance carrier would be the type of company you would trust to do business with.What Will the Insurance Companies be Looking For?It is definitely standard and required that an insurance company pulls your driving record. This gives a very good and accurate snapshot on your abilities as a driver. If you have a clean driving record, you will get the best rate available. If you have a severely marred record including accidents, speeding tickets and violations, you will get a very high premium.Some insurance companies will pull your credit report. Although this is not customary, some pull it. There reason for pulling a credit report is to ensure that you, as a policy holder, will be able to pay your premiums. Not only that, but it also gives another snapshot on the type of person you are regarding actions. A person with good credit will generally be assumed as a responsible person. Someone with many late payments on their records or collections would be viewed as someone irresponsible.Another requirement they will be looking for is that you are properly registered legally. They check to see if your car is registered. If your car is not registered, you will not be insured. Along with this, they will want to observe your car and note any marks, problems or cosmetic defect to your car prior to insuring.How Can I Get the best Premium Possible?There are many things you can do to get a good premium and get the most out of your discounts. You need to be aware of all the discounts you are eligible for before going into the insurance company's office.
