Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Monday, October 15, 2007

Articulating Offers Powerfully

Hey there,

I got an unexpected email last week from my
friend Tom.

I've talked about him before.

I've pasted the email below as it's contents
could honestly be exactly what you need to
take your marketing to the next level.

No joke.

But do me a favour and don't skip ahead. Just
keep reading because . . .

MY response led to HIM sending me another
email.

THAT email led to me calling him a
'sonnovab*tch'.

No joke.

But more on that in just a second . . .

This email has an awfully irresistible offer
in it. I think you should take advantage of
it.

It's at the bottom (don't peek yet!).

Here's your main lesson (and then more about
Tom) about Irresistible Offers for this week.

The first key to crafting irresistible offers
is coming up with the idea. The second part is
ARTICULATING it in a way that people immediately
'get it'.

Let me put this to you: you may ALREADY have
an irresistible offer - but be articulating it
in the wrong way.

As Dan Kennedy talked about last week - clarity
is key.

You can articulate the SAME idea in many
different ways - some ways will have more impact
than others.

Here's an example from marketing guru Jay
Abraham (read it carefully) . . .

* * *

"Here, I'll give you a couple of examples.
Years ago, I worked with a brokerage firm
that was selling precious metals. They ran
ads in the Wall Street Journal and happened
to have a relationship with a bank that was
bank-financed.

They ran ads for bank-financed purchases of
silver and gold. Their headline said,

"Two-Thirds Bank Financing on Silver and
Gold."

When they ran the ads, they pulled okay.

They brought back a profit, the sales people
made commissions adequate enough to stay,
the owners made salaries, the overhead was
paid and they had money left over to keep
running the ads. They were happy. But they
hadn't questioned, "How high is high?"

This company had never tested headlines.
They were doing great -- or so they thought.
I said, "Let's try three other permutations
of our offer."

We tested three small headline changes. One
did a little bit better, about 10%.

One did about the same -- the improvement
was negligible.

**And one improved the yield of the ad they
were running by five times -- or 500 %.**

This was back when gold was not selling very
high. The market price for gold was about
$300 an ounce and about $6 for silver.

Remember, their headline read,

"Two-Thirds Bank Financing on Silver and
Gold."

Keep in mind, my question is always,
"What does that mean to me as the customer?"

That headline meant nothing -- so I changed
it. All I said was,

"If Gold Is Selling for $300 an Ounce, Send
Us Just $100 an Ounce and We'll Buy You All
the Gold You Want."

And I had one for silver also.

"If Silver is Selling for $6 an Ounce, Send
Us Just $2 an Ounce and We'll Send You All
the Silver You Want."

It was the same statement, but more powerfully
denominated in the context of what's in it
for the ultimate consumer. That one simple
change -- of all about 12 words made in the
same amount of space they were already buying
and using, and the same body copy (which was
90% of the ad) increased their pull by 500%.

* * *

Back to my friend Tom.

The sonnovab*tch.

Here's the story . . .

My good pal (and Toronto's resident marketing
wizard) Tom St. Louis received the offer for a
90 minute pay what you can consultation (the
same one that hit your email inbox on October
4th).

Well he loved it.

He asked permission to use it.

I told him he was far too gracious - and of
course he could.

Then he emails me HIS articulation of it.

And I, frankly think he did a better job than
me at articulating the whole pay what you can
thing.

Sonnova . . .

Mine's here: http://tadhargrave.com/consulting

His offer is below - is his articulation
better than mine?

You decide.

Warmest,
Tad

p.s. You CAN'T book a PWYC session with me
right now. I'm going on the road for two months.
In fact, I had to push two I'd already booked
for today to happen in December because I'm so
busy.

He was only offering this to his own list but
I asked him if it would be okay to send it to
my list as well and he agreed.

If you're wanting up to $1000 of to-die-for
marketing handholding from a real marketing
genius - for whatever you want to pay -
well you should keep reading.

Yes. You should.

p.p.s. Tom, you're a sonnovab*tch.

* * *



FROM THE DESK OF: Tom St. Louis.

Special "BUSKING OFFER"
for Marketing From the Heart Subscribers ONLY

Get up to $1,000 worth of Live, In-Person,
One on One Marketing Consulting . . .
For Whatever YOU Decide to Pay

Dear Tad:

A lot of people commented on my recently related
adventures busking in the streets of New Orleans. (If
you missed that installment, see it here: http://www.zerald.com/downandoutinneworleans.doc )

Definition: "Busking" is the act of providing a service
without a fee agreement in place. After performing the
service -- like singing a song for a stranger on the
streets of the French Quarter, for instance -- the
customer pays whatever THEY think it is worth.

What I liked about remembering my busking
days -- and I have busked in many places including
Montreal, Toronto, Amsterdam, Paris, Vancouver
and New Orleans -- is that if I didn’t perform well,
I DIDN’T GET PAID!!!

I found that I performed very well with my feet to
the fire.

So today, I’m going to make you the most
provocative and potentially profitable proposition
you’ve received all year -- maybe ever. I have my
friend Tad Hargrave to thank for the idea. A day or
two after sending you the most recent Marketing
From the Heart, I saw Tad making a "Pay What
You Can" offer to his database, and I thought,
"What a great idea!"

So I got permission from Tad to make a similar
offer to you.

This is your chance -- perhaps your only one --
to get a better than guaranteed consultation up
front even before you decide what you want to
pay for it.

Here’s the bottom line:

You will get a 90 minute breakthrough marketing
coaching session with me on a "pay what you can"
(PWYC) basis. You decide AFTER the consultation
what it was worth to YOU. I will accept whatever
you decide it was worth, with no hassles and no
guilt trips.

That’s it! I will go ahead with this for the first ten subscribers who let me know they are interested.

"YES! I want to Book a Session!"
Send an e-mail to:
moistlotus@gmail.com and let me know
what it is you want me to help you with.

THE 7 STEP PROCESS:
Here’s exactly what will happen, step by step

1) After receiving word from you, we will
schedule a call at a mutually convenient time.

2) You will immediately receive my marketing
consultation questionnaire. This allows me to
examine all the major dynamics in your
marketing and messaging. And, answering
the questions will help you get totally focused
on your marketing challenges and aspirations.

This process was created for delivering Marketing
Audits for larger organizations, but I promise you
will find the process illuminating.

3) You will e-mail me any and all materials
pertinent to our discussion. They could be ads,
scripts, presentations, web pages, copy to
improve -- you name it. I will spend up to 30
minutes reviewing your materials prior to our
call.

4) You will receive 60-90 minutes of my time
in a coaching call by telephone. We will address
your greatest challenges and create concise action
sequences to help you get to where you want to go.

5) Within 24 hours of your consultation you will
receive the full audio from the call to review as
many times as you’d like to get every last drop
of value from the call. You can download this
to your computer, iPod, burn it to a CD etc. and
listen to it whenever you want. Remember: You
get all of this before I receive a penny from you.
It’s in my best interest of course to provide
phenomenal value -- to hold nothing back
-- because what I’m paid depends on it!!!

6) Within 48 hours you will receive a follow up
email that will include my reflections and guidance
on next steps. It may also include additional materials
and resources that I think could be useful.

7) On the day you receive your e-mail
recommendations from me, you will indicate to me
via e-mail what you have decided to pay me. I will
then send you a bill via pay pal for half of what
you are committed to paying. The balance will
be paid in 30 days. And, again, this is based on
the value you have received ñ from your own
perspective -- and what you feel you can afford.

"YES! I want to Book a Session!"
Send an e-mail to:
moistlotus@gmail.com and let me know
what it is you want me to help you with.


Let Me Be Very Clear on What This
Consultation Could Be Worth For You.

First of all, many marketing consultants charge
between $200-$5000 per hour for their
consultations. When I do consultations by the
hour, which is rare, I charge $300 an hour with
a four hour minimum.

When you consider how many business owners
have attributed huge revenue and profit
breakthroughs to the advice they have received
from me in these sessions, you will realize that
it is a steal. Remember, you only pay what YOU
think it’s worth to you! All the others had to pay
in advance based on what I wanted to receive.
This offer is based on what you want to pay but
only AFTER you get all the value.

7 Reasons Why You Should
Jump on This Offer Right Now
With Both Feet

1. You will receive your own, one on one,
intensely focused coaching session from me
to you when the heat is on -- and I love to perform
when the heat is on! This is very different from a
seminar where you are only one person in a large
group. In these calls, everything is focused
towards your needs and challenges.

2. You get $500+ worth of my time (30 minutes
of my time prepping for the call and 90 minutes
on the call itself) with no obligation to pay me a
penny more than you can based on what you
thought it was worth.

3. You will receive a full audio of our consultation.
You can listen to it in your car or in your office or
wherever you want. You will discover that when
you get me "in state", I am able to articulate your
key messages very powerfully. The value of this
"hot copy" could easily be worth a serious multiple
of what you decide to pay.

4. You will get clear answers to your toughest and
most intractable marketing problems.

5. You will get specific, explicit step by step
directions from me on EXACTLY what you
need to do to flatten your challenges and increase
YOUR cash flow and attract more clients.

6. You get to pick my brain about any marketing
or positioning or messaging issue and take
"ethical advantage" of me for an hour and a
half. In fact, forget the ethical part. You will
be able to steal me blind if you want to. I’m
betting that you will pay me at least a fraction
of the value you receive.

7. You get the chance to try me out at my risk.
I have never made an offer like this before and
may never do so again. Frankly, before I saw
Tad’s offer, I’d never heard of or thought of a
Marketing Busker offer -- and when I first saw it,
I thought it was a bit loony. But upon reflection,
it just made sense. The bottom line is you pay what
YOU think it’s worth. And I promise to accept your
assessment of the value of what I have delivered to
you.

"YES! I want to Book a Session!"
Send an e-mail to:
moistlotus@gmail.com and let me know
what it is you want me to help you with.

The Catch.

You have to honestly tell me what you think the
session is worth to you and PAY that. This is not
free. You cannot take and not give back. I only ask
that you pay what you think it was worth to you.

If you wish, you can pay in two installments -- one
on the day you received your report and the second
thirty days later.

* * *