The Lesson of "Salted" Caramels

Among chocoholics and those with a sweet tooth, there’s a new “star”—salted caramels.

Once a favorite of the culinary elite, these delectable candies have made their way to the masses. They can now be found at Haagen-Dazs in salted caramel ice cream…at Starbucks in salted caramel hot chocolate…and at Wal-Mart as one of their truffle flavors.

Even President Obama swears by these sweet, buttery treats first created in Brittany, France.

Why so popular? Because they give buyers what they want most: a sweet, delicious treat with a sprinkling of salt that makes them irresistible.

As a direct marketer, I must always, always give prospects what they want most. I must never forget to answer this question in the mind of prospects who thinking about buying something I’m selling: “What in it for me?” This is the million dollar question. Answer it well, with layers and layers of reasons why, and you’re on the way to a sale.

How do you know what prospects really want most? You do tons of research on their needs and wants…interview the best prospects or best buyers if possible…review testimonials…and find out as much as you can about them. Then, you position your promotion to give them want they want most.

For example, in a promotion I wrote for a new natural pain relieving product, I knew that pain relief was the #1 need of readers. And when I discovered that the unique ingredient in this new formula gave users more pain relief, I knew I was onto something.

The headline: “The little-known, clinically proven secret that gives you 240% more pain relief than glucosamine and chondroitin!”

This headline promised to give readers want they wanted most: More relief!

Bingo! This headline caught the attention of readers, and the orders poured in!

The lesson is clear: Give prospects what they want most—and they’ll buy and keep buying. Kind of like salted caramels.

Cheesehead for a day: Marketing lessons from the mecca of pro football, Lambeau Field

I’ve heard it’s on some people’s “bucket list”—to see a Packer game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Well, last Sunday night I had the privilege of going to the Packer/Dallas game at this mecca of pro football.

It included tailgating with some serious Packer fans for six hours (wow, those brats were delicious)…getting an on-field pre-game pass to watch the players warm up, close up (yes, they are strong)…visiting the Packer Hall of Fame and getting my photo with the Lombardi Trophy for Super Bowl winners)…and watching an exciting game without freezing.

Long day—left Sunday mroning at 9:00 am…back to hotel at 2:00 am Monday morning! But well worth it.

What I learned: The Green Packers have a hugely successful franchise—and from my short visit, I picked up some important marketing lessons.

One, whatever it is you’re selling, make sure it’s a superior product.

Not mediocre. Not average. But something better. For Green Bay, it’s about putting a winning team on the field each year. In pro football, win, and the fans will come, support and spend money on your team like nothing else. You must have a great product or service to succeed.

Two, make your customers feel part of your “team”.

As you may know, the Green Bay Packers are the only franchise owned by the public.

In 1950, 1,900 local residents each put up $25 a share to buy the team. Green Bay Packers, Inc., has been a publicly owned, non-profit corporation since Aug. 18, 1923, when original articles of incorporation were filed with Wisconsin's secretary of state. A total of 4,750,937 shares is owned by 112,120 stockholders -- none of whom receives any dividend on the initial investment. All money earned goes back to the club.

The Packer fans, many of whom are stockholders, have a vested interest in the team. They wear green, bleed green and have a passion for their team like no other pro football franchise—because they are the owners!

My friend Paul, a diehard Packer fan, owns one share which he bought a few years ago for $300. As a shareholder, he’s invited to special events at Lambeau field.

What are you doing to help your customers feel special, to feel more than just a buyer—but a valued customer? What special deals and/or privileges are you giving your best customers?

Three, give customers every opportunity to buy related products or services.

The Packers have this down pat. They have a HUGE store inside the stadium loaded with Packer gear ranging from jerseys to cheeseheads, from books to hats, from t-shirts to underwear. And an hour before kickoff, the line going into the store was backed up like crazy.

Walk around Lambeau for a Packer game, and it’s a sea of green.

I always tell my clients that their customers may buy from them, but are likely buying similar products from other companies. The goal? To get customers to buy one product from you, then multiple products as well.

What else can you upsell or cross-sell to your customers? How can you make them customers for life.

Four, use the “limited supply” secret to its fullest Season tickets for Packer game are like gold—actually better than gold. They are in such demand, there is a 30-year waiting list! These tickets are so valuable, they are part of divorce settlements and wills. That’s because there is a limited amount of seats (72,500) and no more.

Do you have special products or services for your best customers? How can you put a limit on the number you’ll see to heighten its value? How do you create an “inner circle” limit—an opportunity for only your premiere customers?

The Packers have it right. Sell out after sellout, passionate fans and millions of dollars in sales and profits. It’s a business model with great lessons.



Here I am as a Cheesehead!

Post Mortem of a Failure?

You’ve heard it said that we often learn our best lessons in life when we have setbacks, problems, even failures. We learn more during those times then when everything is going along just fine and dandy.

Same holds true for direct marketing. More often than not, we can learn the big lessons when things don’t go as well as expected.

I’ve had the opportunity to create many hugely successful promotions for my clients—home runs—and many others that were big, big winners as well.

But I’ve also had a few strikeouts—promos that never lived up to expectations.

What went wrong with those promos? Here are a few of my thoughts…

The promo did not have a clear Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of the product.
As you may know, the USP is what makes the product better and more unique than any other product. It’s what fills in the blanks: “Nowhere else will you find______” and “It’s the only widget with _______.”

If the USP is not powerful enough, fix the product so it becomes more unique.

Case in point is nutritional supplements. If a nutrient, supplement or formula is not clearly superior to anything else in its field based on ingredients, processing, mechanisms of action or some other factor, making it a big winner is going to be hard, if not impossible. It must stand out, stand alone, as the #1 choice for prospects.

The promo did not have enough compelling proof to make a persuasive sale of the product.
If you’re not armed with an arsenal of proof elements, it’s going to be hard to sell enough of the product.

For nutritional products, that means loads of clinical studies, scientific research and medical findings that prove that this nutrient or supplement works. It’s not just my word—it’s proven to work by doctors, scientists and researchers. The more proof, the more sales. The less proof, the less sales.

Not enough proof? Dig deeper.

The promo did not have an offer that motivated prospects to buy and buy now.
Direct marketing 101 states that the offer is 40% of the success or failure of a promo. If a promo falls short, one place to take a hard look is the offer.

For nutritional supplements, the offer is vital for success. If the offer is loaded up with FREE bottles of the product with purchase, plus FREE Premiums (usually special reports or books on the subjects), FREE shipping PLUS special savings, you can drive the average order way up.

But if the offer is lacking, the promo may falter, even fail.

In the case of nutritional supplements—products customers buy once and hopefully keep buying—getting the initial offer is more critical than ever. If a client is willing to make a generous offer to get in new customers, it will usually pay off in the long run.

But a short-sighted offer usually leads to poor results.

What to do? Test offers regularly and let the market decide what works best. Then track buyers to see how much they re-purchase.

The promo’s main theme was not on target.
This is one of the most overlooked factors in the success or failure of a direct marketing promo. If the main theme is off track or if it completely misses the prospects’ needs, hurts and problems, the promo will likely fall short.

That’s why it’s vital you learn everything you can about the prospects. Their likes, fears, worries, biggest problems, biggest needs. Read everything you can about them from surveys, testimonials or from anything else.

The main theme needs to hit prospects right between the eyes—so they pay attention and read what you’re writing.

Work extra hard on the right main theme. It’s that important!

The promo did not solve an urgent problem.
People are inundated with marketing and advertising messages all day long. But they always want to know, “What’s in it for me?” This is the question you must answer as you promote a product to customers.

If you fail to answer it well and in a timely manner, you’ve lost them.

But if you address the urgent problem head on, you’ll likely gain a reader and a customer.





This I’ve learned: Any one of these factors can either make or break a promotion. So if I’m not satisfied with any one of them, I need to step back, take a hard look and get what I need before I write the promo.

Putting it another way…the most successful promotions I’ve written in the past 20 years had all of the factors above—and the results proved how vital they were for success.

The Two-Headed Baby

Remember the old Carnival Sideshows? Boy, did they have a way of getting you to STOP and ENTER their tent to see SOMETHING UNUSUAL.

Like this actual transcript from a famous carnival company…

BARKER: “Step right up to see a real two-headed baby, with two perfectly normal heads, four perfectly formed arms and hands, and only two legs and two feet on the single body. Born or normal parents of a normal birth, the same as you and I. Come in now and visit with the baby just as long as you like…”

Gotcha, right? Despite all the distractions of a carnival—the music, the crowds, the foods—you stop, pull out your wallet, pay and go in. You have to see the unusual baby.

Same challenge I face in marketing a product or service and breaking through all the clutter and the distractions.

What can I write that’s just not the same old thing? What can I write that makes the reader say, “I’d better check this out—now.”

Recently, I had to write a promotion for a new resveratrol product. As you may know, resveratrol is the molecule found in the grapes of red wine that helps fight off aging.

One of the biggest challenges was there have been many mailings marketing resveratrol—so it’s not a new story.

Fortunately, the new formula I was marketing included resveratrol and a new, little-known nutrient that works together with resveratrol to give even better anti-aging benefits.

So I came up with this cover copy :

The Next Resveratrol

You’ve heard about red wine resveratrol on 60 Minutes, Oprah, ABC News and CNN. Maybe you’ve taken it, but haven’t gotten the results you want.

But now, is there a better way for you to get the resveratrol you need to help you…
*Outlive your doctors? *Avoid most “old age” ailments?
*Add an extra decade or two of healthy living to your life?

More than 30 clinical studies say, “Absolutely!”

I was able to catch readers attention…

By promising something new, i.e., “The Next”
By piggybacking on something they knew about: Resveratrol
By making a big promise: A better way to get resveratrol

This was a new story, something they’d want to read.

It worked! On initial response, this cover was the winning cover from a three-way test…and well on its way to being a successful mailing.

A question to always ask myself: Am I getting my prospects’ attention and making sure they put down whatever they’re doing to read what I write.

Come one, come all—and see the two headed baby!

The Power of Leverage

In the financial or real estate worlds, the word leverage is defined as “The use of various financial instruments or borrowed capital, such as margin, to increase the potential return of an investment.”

Investors might use leverage for futures trading and homebuyers use leverage for a home mortgage.

But have you ever thought about leveraging your marketing copy to get more bang for your investment?

Let’s say you create a successful direct mail package for a product or service that mails millions of pieces and brings in tens of millions of dollars in sales.

A one-and-done project? Not if you leverage the great copy and graphics.

Here are some examples.

*Covert the direct mail copy and graphics into an online microsite. A microsite sells this one product or service in a focused, easy-to-follow website that showcases the problem(s) this product or service overcomes, the unique features and benefits offered and more.

I’ve had excellent success by leveraging copy I wrote for a thyroid supplement—first for direct mail, then for an online microsite.

*Convert the direct mail copy and graphics into an online landing page. This presents the story in a linear fashion, like a letter with sidebars.

I’ve had a number of very successful direct mail promotions converted to online landing pages—for a continuous stream of sales and profits beyond just mailings.

*Convert the direct mail copy and graphics into a space ad for a newspaper or magazine. The challenge here is you have to cut quite a bit of copy to make this ad cost effective. Best results usually come with a “Risk Free Trial” that motivates readers to call an 800 number where they are given the offers—and ideally, upsold to a bigger offer or automatic shipping plans.

I’ve seen and heard of some great successes, and I’m currently working on a few of these ads myself—soon to be tested.

*Convert the direct mail copy and graphics into back-end promotions to get buyers to buy more of the same product.

I’ve had great success doing this for some nutritional products. I’ve taken some of the key copy points that caused the prospect to buy in the first place and used them for the back-end promos to buy again.

The point is: There are many different ways you can use powerful, proven copy and graphics to leverage your investment and set up additional streams of sales and profits.

The Law of Supply and Demand

I live in Los Angeles, and it’s June—NBA Playoff time. This year, it’s Lakers vs.Celtics…and it’s madness in LA LA Land.

For example, my neighbor who is a TV cameraman who’ll be at Staples for the first game, knows the people who have the four seats next to the Lakers bench.

They sold their tickets for tonight’s Game 1 for $18,000 per ticket! Crazy!

But that’s the Law of Supply and Demand. There are only so many tickets on the floor at Staples…and apparently, some people will pay top dollar to sit next to the Lakers and be seen on worldwide tv.

The same Law of Supply and Demand holds true in direct marketing.

If you have something truly unique to sell…that prospects can only get from you by purchasing direct…you control the supply.

Then, if you create a promotion that sells the “demand” for the product, you have a winner.

Take the case of a successful promotion I wrote to women for a breakthrough natural thyroid supplement.

The hook to attract readership was twofold:

First, a headline that revealed “The surprising truth why so many women can’t seem to lose weight…are tired for no reason…and always have cold hands and feet.”

Second, the cover included a cartoon illustration of a woman looking tired and beat as the BEFORE picture, then dancing with renewed vitality for the AFTER picture.

This painted a picture of how women felt when run down…and how they hope they could feel.

The truth? Many of these health problems are linked to a low or underactive thyroid.

The payoff: A unique, scientifically researched supplement that helped nourish and revitalize a woman’s thyroid.

When I first took on this assignment, I knew there were not many thyroid promotions like this in the mail. The market was wide open.

But by finding an area of great demand (as many as 40% of Americans have a balky thyroid and doctors miss 90% of low thyroid cases)…I was able to tell a story that hasn’t really been told…and supply a unique, doctor-approved solution.

The piece has been very successful both in the mail and online.

Make It Personal

I’ve been fortunate to write promotions that have been mailed, emailed or read or seen by millions and millions of prospects.

But I have always remembered, when I'm writing a promotion to sell a product or service, that it's really like I'm writing to ONE PERSON.

If you focus in on one person, then it forces you to think about that person: Who is he? What are his post urgent problems? What are his biggest needs? And how can the product or service you're selling help him, benefit him and make his business, his life--everything--better.

This is why, one of the first and most important questions I ask my clients is: "Who is your best prospect?"

Get this right, and you've taken a big step to creating a successful promotion.

Take the case of a very successful mailing I wrote for a company that specializes in creating personalized, signature line of hair and skincare poroducts for independent salon owners.

To prepare for writing this promotion, I did research on salon owners, picked the clients' minds, studied testimonials and even talked to a few salon owners.

The whole idea is, offer each salon owner an opportunity to sell top quality products in his/her salon with the salon's name on each bottle. No more selling somebody else's products--but your own.

To make an impact, I created an envelope with a bottle of shampoo with the salon's name "personalized" on the bottle--so the prospect would immediately get the idea that he could offer a line of products like this to his customers.
As you can see, "David Shitman Hair Shack" was imprinted on the bottle. This, of course, matched the same name personalized on the order card.

The promotion included a letter that made clear the challenges of salon owners, explained the many benefits of a private label and motivated prospects to order a sample kit.

It also included "Profit Tips for Salon Owners: 7 ways you can take control--and boost your retail profits."

By showing the possibilities of a private label brand of shampoos and skin care products, this piece generated a lot of attention--and many oders for a sample kit.