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Free Advertising With Publicity

Publicity is a great way to reach a lot of people with a limited budget. The key is to have a message that is newsworthy, which obviously changes all the time. Years ago it was enough to launch a new website. Nowadays that’s too common. Last year there was a 12-year old girl making news because of an experiment she conducted for her school’s science fair: she had fast-food ice samples tested for bacteria and compared those test results with samples of toilet water from those same fast-food restaurants (about 30% of the ice samples had more bacteria in it than the toilet water).

Besides ordering your next soft drinks sans ice, this illustrates something profoundly important: news sells. You need something fresh. Something the public would want to know about.

So, that being said, let’s explore some ways to get your free publicity.

• Write a Regular Column – Whether in a newspaper, magazine, ezine, or offline newsletter, a regular column is a great way to establish you as an expert in your field. You can also send reprints to your clients and prospects to add proof to your sales letters and promotional materials.
  
  
• Write an Article – Articles can be anything from a short essay on a topic to a feature article in a magazine, newspaper, ezine, newsletter, you name it. Again, article reprints help the selling job in adding proof to your persuasion.
  
  
• Align With a Charity or Other Non-profit Organization – This is a great way to get free publicity. Let’s say you’ve created a course on starting a mail-order business on a shoestring budget. You can hold a free seminar with local low-income families and youths, give a presentation, and then give them all free copies of the course. Be sure to issue press releases with your local newspaper, radio and television stations, and community publications. Stories like these make great humanitarian interest pieces for these media outlets. Who knows? You could be the next guest on Oprah or the Today Show!
  
  
• Issue a Press Release – An oldie, but goodie. The trick is to make sure your press release is a newsworthy event. For example, starting a new newsletter is not necessarily a newsworthy event (but it might in certain niche markets for smaller publications). Issuing a press release about a large donation you are giving, complete with relevant background story might be newsworthy. It all depends on your target audience and the publication(s). Editors pick up press releases if they think there is news for their readers. They do not care about you or your company. Your press release must be framed that way. “What’s in it for me” is very relevant here.
  
  
• Create a Newsworthy Event – Here’s an idea that a local stereo and electronics store did that would qualify for a newsworthy press release:
  


• They arranged a “superstition obstacle course” on Friday the 13th in their parking lot, complete with ladders to walk under, a roaming black cat, mirrors to break, umbrellas to open indoors, etc.
  
  
• They called all the local radio stations and invited their morning personalities to come down and take the obstacle course challenge.
  
  
• One radio station took them up on their offer, and broadcast live from the event.
  
  
• The result was that tons of people came down to their store to watch and take part. And of course pick up some gear or supplies while they were there. And that, of course, not only provided a boost in sales for that day, it brought in new customers and generated lots of “word of mouth” advertising for them.
  
  Any business can do something like this. It doesn't matter whether you’re a conservative lawyer or accountant. The key is to find a theme and run with it. There’s no reason why a jeweler or restaurant couldn’t do something like that for Valentine’s Day. Or a local Irish pub could do for St. Patrick’s Day. Or any retail outlet for Christmas. The list goes on and on
  
  
• Attend Special Events – Watch your local news and constantly be on the lookout for events in your area where you can increase your visibility. As always, the best lead generation methods are those that introduce your products and services by way of something free (in exchange for their contact information, of course).
  
  
• Take Time to Get to Know Your Local Editors and Publishers – It’s a lot easier to pitch a press release or idea if you already know someone on the inside. Years ago I was in the middle of writing a book, and I started shopping for an agent, figuring it was easier to go that route than to approach the publishers directly. My wife managed insurance policies at the time for a Fortune 500 company, and one of her clients was the publishing firm Simon & Schuster. One day she happened to be talking to a prominent editor, and she mentioned my book. The editor told her to have me send it to his VP, at his request. Just like that I was no longer an unsolicited submitter. It was (and to my knowledge still is) Simon & Schuster’s policy to not accept unsolicited manuscripts. That contact alone allowed me to bypass that barrier.
  
  
• Write a Book – With Print on Demand (POD) publishers, nowadays it’s easy and cheap to type up and edit a book in your favorite word processor, upload it to a POD’s server, and have the book available for shipping within weeks or less. Books are also a great way to position yourself as the expert. There’s something almost magical that takes place when you send your clients an autographed copy of your latest book. In their eyes, you instantly gain credibility. Your status becomes elevated. They are more likely to want to do business with you.
  
  There’s little doubt that successful people want to surround themselves with other successful people. And a book shows them that you are successful. It gives you prestige. You are now an author. It’s far easier to dismiss your self-claims in a salesletter than it is from a book. The fact that anyone can have a book printed is irrelevant (at least for now).
  
  If you don’t have the time or patience to write a book, you have several options:
  
  
• You can dictate the book and have it transcribed (Elance and Guru.com are good places to get a transcript done for you, but there are many other places online and offline to have them done as well).
  
  
• You can have someone ghostwrite the book for you. Be sure to check out their previous work, though!
  
  
• You can hold a teleseminar by yourself or with other experts and have it transcribed and edited into a book.
  
  
• You can get together with other experts in your field and each contribute a chapter or two for a book.
  
  
• You can interview other experts and compile it into a book.
  
  
• You can take books that are in the public domain, update it for today, and release it as a book (you may want to consider legal resources to make sure your choice is actually in the public domain…it’s not always straightforward).
  

As you can see, it’s fairly easy to have a book done in very little time and at very little cost. Just be sure the subject and material is relevant and fills a need. Ideally a book can also be used as a selling device for a back-end item or as a lead generation device.

Whatever approach you decide to take, take extra steps to ensure your publicity is newsworthy and relevant. And websites like PR Web can sometimes pick up a press release and run it online or offline. You just might see a nice long-term splike in your business growth.

Do You Neglect This Kind of Testing?

You're probably aware that testing different variations of your sales copy is a good way to let the market decide which of your headlines, guarantees, lead, calls to action, price points, etc. appeals to them the most. And they'll tell you by voting with their wallets.

But there's another kind of testing you must perform that's of paramount importance, and it has nothing to do with your headline or lead. In fact, not performing this testing could cost you sales and existing/future customers, as well as cause a freeze on your merchant account, and even potential legal problems.

I'm talking about testing the end-to-end mechanism of your entire sales process, from order to fulfillment...from support to customer service.

Although this testing is especially important when you have an automated system in place on the Internet, it's not just limited to online sales. In fact, these "gremlins" can affect just about any sales process. But it's especially important to test when you have a mail order or online automated fulfillment system. Things can break, fall through the cracks.

To give an example of what I mean, I just ordered a product online, a software package that required a download upon completion of the order.

I entered my payment information, and was notified that I would receive an email with my download information. If there was any problem receiving the email, I was offered a support link.

So I waited. And waited some more. I checked my email filters. Nope. Not stopping anything.

In the meantime I continued to work and request other information that required fulfillment links to be emailed to me. Got them all fine. But still waiting for my software fulfillment I ordered.

Finally, I clicked on the support link and was taken to a web form. I filled out all of the information, but left the "receipt number" blank, as I hadn't received the product, never mind a receipt number.

Yep. You guessed it. The form would not proceed without the receipt number. So I tried again, typing something into the receipt field. Rejected again. I was told to go back to the order page and purchase the product to get a receipt number before they would talk to me. Hmph!

Now I had to stop and consider how to contact the seller. The sales page was sparse, and had no contact information. However, I knew the seller maintained a blog, so I faced a dilemma. Should I post a comment on the blog pointing out the problem and open it up for all the world to see? I didn't want to do that, because I knew the issue wasn't intentional on the seller's part.

Luckily, I did eventually receive the download link via email nearly an hour later. But...still no receipt number. However, the email included an email address for support.

So being the nice guy I am, I decided to email them just to let them know about the oversight on their part. That way they could fix it and not risk alienating additional customers.

Well, off the email went, and I went on to other things. However, a short time later, I received an automated response to my email: "Please go to [support link] for support." Yeah, it was the same link I tried before. Since I still never received a receipt number, I wasn't going to try that again.

So I let it go. I'm not going to chase this guy all over the place to try to track him down just so I can tell him to fix something he should have tested from the start.

Listen, we all know web servers get bogged down, and emails can take who-knows-how-long to get to their destination at times. Spam filters and other factors can add even more complexities and delays. Look at a company like Microsoft who has fifty-million testers, and the software still gets released with bugs.

No matter how carefully you plan everything, things can still go wrong. Maybe things test successfully at first, but then the server load introduces other factors that are difficult, if not downright impossible to test when the site goes live.

But in my case, the receipt number is not one of those things. It should have been tested and fixed prior to launch. And sadly, this happens more than we'd all like to admit.

They Give Marketers A Bad Rap

A few weeks ago, Dateline NBC revealed a new skin-care product called Moisturol. The product was supposedly developed to keep your skin moist and wrinkle-free. Their USP was the fact that Moisturol came in pill form, which worked from the inside out. Unlike other skin moisturizers, they said, there's no need to apply creme or ointment to your skin.

However, the "company" who marketed Moisturol never revealed that the product was a complete fake. The inventors never conducted any clinical trials to prove that Moisturol would work, because they knew it wouldn't.

In fact, Moisturol was nothing more than a pill filled with Nestle's Quik. As in the powder used to make chocolate milk.

And the "inventor" was actually Dateline NBC, who wanted to test how easily a phony health care product could be sold through an infomercial to an unsuspecting public.

Masquerading as a representative from "Johnston Products," a Dateline reporter contacted a marketing firm and told them up front that he didn't think the product would help many people, and that no clinical trials were run to test its effectiveness.

And what did the marketing firm think? They thought there wouldn't be a problem, as all that was needed was "somebody in a white coat" to give the impression that the product had been scientifically tested. That and a few paid testimonials.

So they got some actresses claiming Moisturol worked wonders and paid $140,000 for an infomercial to be produced. And the marketing firm delivered on their promise to provide the "white coat," who actually turned out to be a real physician. And not just any physician, but a certified Dermatologist.

Her name was Dr. Margaret Olsen, board certified, and at the time Chief of Dermatology at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, CA.

I quote Dr. Olsen: "So in this situation Moisturol would be really helpful for people. Moisturol is one of the new products out that is going to help get rid of lines and wrinkles from the inside out. The idea being is if you can make happier, healthier cells that make better collagen and this is a very innovative way to do it and very practical."

After the fact, Dr. Olsen admitted she had never even seen the product.

So what are consumers supposed to think when a real doctor gives a testimonial and endorsement for a product? In many cases, it overcomes their skepticism. Except when it's revealed often enough, like in this case, that it's a bunch of hogwash.

The bottom line is it hurts reputable marketers dearly.

Doctors like Olsen are paid to sell products. It's anybody's guess as to how many of them actually examine the products they're pitching.

And if you think it's only doctors who do this, I have some prime real estate in North Korea you may be interested in.

Here are some other products that the FTC eventually shut down. But not before the damage was done.

• Omexin, a cure for baldness.
  
  
• A dietary supplement called Coral Calcium Supreme. It was claimed that the product "provided the same amount of bio-available calcium as two gallons of milk, [and] could be absorbed into the body faster than ordinary calcium, and could cure cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, lupus, and other illnesses."
  
  
• The Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet, which the FTC eventually cracked down on for claiming that it relieved sciatic pain, headaches, and sinus problems. The company has been forced to give up the $22.5 million it made from sales of the product and issue $87 million in refunds.
  
  
• Biotape, an adhesive strip sold by the same marketing firm that gave us Coral Calcium Supreme. Biotape was supposed to provide permanent relief from severe back pain, arthritis, sciatica, and migraines.
  
  
• Blue Stuff and Super Blue Stuff, which supposedly provided relief from "excruciating sciatic nerve pain," pain due to "crushed vertebrae, and 'awful' pain due to a brain tumor."

And that's just a small sample. I can only imagine the poor unwitting souls who parted with their hard-earned money in the hopes for a cure or relief from their pain.

However, there will always be scam artists and con men out there to pray on innocent people's wants and desires. Luckily, the good still far outweigh the bad. But I fear that as more of these scams are made public, it will discourage an already suspicious and un-trusting public.

Time will certainly tell.

So what can we as reputable marketers do in the meantime. Well, maintaining a strong standard of ethics is paramount, for starters. Refusing to do business with any of these charlatans is another.

Some people aren't waiting to take broader action.

For instance, my friend and fellow marketer Shel Horowitz recently released a new book of his, entitled "Principled Profit." It's about marketing that puts people first.

In the wake of the Enron and other scandals in the business community, Shel wanted to do something to make a difference. So he created what he calls the "Ethical Business Pledge."And his goal is to get 25,000 business people to sign it.

I signed it. Perhaps you have, too. But if you haven't, I urge you to check out his website to find out more about it:

http://www.principledprofits.com

And if you have your own list of subscribers and marketing partners, I hope you'll pass this along to them as well. It's a noble cause to literally change the world for the better.

You can read more about the Dateline NBC story here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14856571/

Grabber Letters Can Boost Your Response

As a copywriter, I've learned firsthand about the effectiveness of grabbers. What is a grabber? It's simply an item that you attach to the top of a sales letter that "grabs" your reader's immediate attention. It may be a dollar bill or a bill of higher denomination. It could be an "admit one" ticket of some sort, a penny, a foreign coin, a photograph, or just about anything. The key is to make sure it ties in to your letter or offer. It usually replaces the headline (or sometimes supplements it), and it's purpose is the same as the headline: to get your sales letter read.

Don't confuse a grabber with dimensional mail, or "lumpy mail," as it is sometimes called. A lumpy object inside your package is designed to get your package opened, although a lumpy grabber can be affixed to the top of your sales letter to get your letter both opened and read.

If you do any type of direct mail (or write direct mail pieces for your clients), I highly recommend testing both lumpy mail and grabbers, as they can significantly boost response.

To learn more about grabbers, check out this issue of the Gary Halbert Letter:

http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/newsletters/zakk_grabbers.htm

In one of the first direct mail letters I wrote for a client, I used a dollar bill as a grabber. The letter began like this:

-------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr./Ms. LASTNAME,

As you can see, I have attached a crisp $1 bill to the top of this letter. Why have I done this? Actually, there are two reasons:

1. This letter is very important, and I needed some way to make sure it would catch your attention.

2. Since this letter is about making money, I thought using a $1 bill as an “eye-catcher” was a good idea.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Note how I explained the reason for the grabber in the lead, and tied it into the theme of my letter. You don't want them to have to guess why it's there. It's designed to get them to read your letter and advance the sale. Now is not the time to be vague or mention it as an afterthought.

Now compare that to a letter I just received last week, reprinted here (the red circle is my addition):

The small token of appreciation was a crisp dollar bill.

Now aside from the copy used and the offer, I have to give them credit for mailing a dollar letter. But there are a few things that they could have done that wouldn't have added significantly to their costs, but would have likely boosted their response by a decent margin.

• 1) The grabber would have better served them if it was affixed to the top of the letter where it could be seen. As it was, when I opened the letter I didn't see the dollar. It wasn't attached to the letter. It was stuck in the envelope almost as an afterthought. In fact, if I didn't read that last line and know what to look for, I would have probably thrown the bill away with the envelope. The fact that they didn't mention it until the end of the letter is probably not helping them.
  
  
• 2) The dollar was not tied into the offer or theme of the letter in any way. In fact, they don't even mention the fact that the "token of appreciation" is a dollar. While still better than nothing, I have to wonder how many prospects threw the dollar away without realizing it. Or of those that did find the dollar, how many just pocketed it and threw the letter away without even reading it? This has the effect of raising the cost of their mailing, while at the same time lowering their potential response rate.
  
  
• 3) Similar to the first point above, the dollar was not used to entice their prospect to read their letter. That means I'd wager a lot of their prospects opened the letter and simply threw the whole thing--letter, envelope, dollar and all--in the trash. You need a very compelling headline to do the same work as an effective grabber. I don't think their headline qualifies.

The bottom line is grabbers can boost response tremendously if done right. But if they're thrown together haphazardly, they can also cost you a lot in your mailing with little to show for it in return.

Five Great Lessons for Life

As we move through life, we encounter many opportunities to make a difference. Having been thrown some life-changing curve balls as of late, I thought I would share with you some life lessons that I received several years ago from a friend of mine. They are already making a difference for me, my mindset, and overall outlook on life. I hope they present an opportunity for you to stop and think for a moment about what are the most important things in your life.

You see, recently I suffered a few setbacks (we all do sooner or later), and I became more determined than ever to bring my business to the next level. I worked even harder, longer, but in the process stopped doing the very things that meant the most to me.

I started thinking about why I became an entrepreneur. It wasn't just about being self-sufficient or making lots of money. No, the real reason was the financial freedom it could offer so that I can spend more time with my family, friends, and doing the things that are most important to me.

I finally realized that I didn't need lots of money to spend more time with my wife and my family. I could do that right now.

This one difference in my mindset has completely changed me for the better. Now it's not just about profits and the bottom line anymore. Sure, they're important, because we have to eat and pay the bills. But by taking the time to look around and really take notice of everything (things that have been there all along), I feel as if I am seeing them for the first time. It's quite an exciting time for me. My only regret is that I didn't "get" this earlier.

But no matter. I have the rest of my life ahead of me now. And now I'd like to pass along some interesting lessons.

As I've said, a friend sent these to me several years ago. In fact, it was early 2001. And they sat around, just waiting for me to read them again more than 5 years later.

These are not my stories. Nevertheless, I can imagine myself in these situations. Would "the old me" have done the right thing? I don't know. I only know how I would handle them now.

• First Important Lesson
  
  During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one:
  
  "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"
  
  Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.
  
  "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'."
  
  I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned that her name was Dorothy.

• Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain
  
  One night, at 11:30 PM, an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxi cab. She seemed to be in a big hurry but wrote down his address and thanked him.
  
  Seven days went by, and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached. It read:
  
  "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."
  
  Sincerely,
  Mrs. Nat King Cole

• Third Important Lesson- Remember Those Who Serve
  
  In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.
  
  "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.
  
  "Fifty cents," replied the waitress.
  
  The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.
  
  "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.
  
  By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.
  
  "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.
  
  The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.
  
  The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

• Fourth Important Lesson - The Obstacle in Our Path
  
  In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
  
  Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.
  
  The peasant learned what many of us never understand: Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

• Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts
  
  Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."
  
  As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks.
  
  Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"
  
  Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her. You see, after all, understanding and attitude, are everything.
  

Have your own story to share? I'd love to hear about it.

How to Maximize Your Landing Page Conversions

I recently completed a report on landing pages. Entitled, How to Maximize Your Landing Page Conversions, it includes proven techniques to improve your website conversions and add more profits to your bottom line. This works for any kind of landing pages, whether sales letters, opt in squeeze pages, articles, whatever. Any place where you want your visitors to take a specific action. Lots of things worth testing that perhaps you've never thought of.

I would have posted the entire report here, but it's 27 pages long.

I want to give you a link to download the Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the report, so you can put it to use for your websites immediately.

Here's the link:

http://www.marketing-medic.com/pubs/landing_pages.pdf

You'll need either Windows XP, which has its own built-in unzipper, or Winzip, which you can download a free trial version at www.winzip.com.

It's my gift to you, and I hope it results in increased conversions for your landing pages. Please let me know if it helps, or any suggestions you may have for beefing it up even further with your own suggestions and real world tests. Feel free to leave your comments. I welcome them. And don't forget to include a link back to your own site!