More Leads and Customers | Small Business Marketing

In the spirit of a happy marriage, sometimes we do things we don’t want to do. For me, this was saying “yes” to my wife about a show she wants to see. Normally I’m keen to check out what’s happening in Sydney’s theatrical scene. We’ve even flown interstate for shows that really tickle our fancy. But, this time, I wanted to say “no”. Why? Well, as my wife “sold” it to me “Babe, it’s a show about horses!” Horses? Really? Sure, they’re beautiful animals… but a show about horses? Argghh… But then… A few days later I was driving to a café and I saw a billboard advertising this show. But this time, within seconds, I was sold! Hooked, I tell ya. Now I’m hanging to check this show out. What did this billboard say? How did it turn me around in a split second? And how did it do a much better job of persuading me than my dear wife? Simple… The billboard used 3 magic words that have years of positive emotional associations for me. These words were… Cirque de Soleil. Specifically, the billboard said… “Cavalia: From a co-founder of Cirque de Soleil.” I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge fan of Cirque de Soleil. I love the music. I love the costumes. I love the acrobatics. Which is why I had a visceral response to the billboard. A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS POORER So just, like that, we’ve forked over a few hundred bucks. I didn’t need a long copy sales letter to be sold. I didn’t need to see a video sales letter. And I didn’t need to speak to a sales rep. Why? Because of all my built-in emotional associations with Cirque de Soleil. This billboard is a brilliant selling piece because my mind instantly super imposed… … all the fun … all the joy … and all the hypnotism of Cirque onto Cavalia This billboard bypassed all my logical filters. This is the art of split second persuasion. TWO LESSONS 1. Lead with your strongest proof – in this example “from a co-founder of Cirque de Soleil” is spectacular proof. 2. Take advantage of highly emotive words, images or brands your prospect already has an association to… and use it as a bridge to your product. Do so and you’ll be using one of the most effective and persuasive sales techniques known to man. Until next time, Alexi       If you want to learn more, check out this cool page...

If you've created a "special report" for lead generation, stay glued to the screen. In this article I'm going to show you a 3 step process I used to snag a client a 1,100% return on his marketing dollar. In other words... Whenever he spends $100 he gets $1,100 in return. It's like a license to print money. This particular client is in a highly competitive industry. The cost of traffic is sky high. And there are some sharp operators he's competing against. Yet this process thrives... and it does so in a big way. Once you see this process you'll be able to get awesome results, too. As far as I know I'm the only one in the world that applies this process. Why? Because I invented it. Nobody taught it to me. I didn't read it in a book somewhere. And it works like clockwork. You can apply it to ANY business or industry to get hot leads and customers. Just like I have dozens of times. Here's how it works... If you've studied direct response marketing for a while, you've probably been told that one of the best lead generation offers is a special report. The benefits of offering special reports are numerous: 1. They differentiate your business from your competition 2. They educate (and thus, are a great example of demonstration proof) 3. They're low risk for your prospect (and therefore lead to massive response) 4. They're cost effective to produce 5. They're ideal for establishing a relationship with your prospect Like I said earlier, I've crafted literally dozens of reports for clients in a variety of industries. And over the years I've designed a 3 step process to create really, REALLY hard hitting special reports that get prospects to take action. STEP #1: COLLECT AT LEAST 5 OF YOUR BEST CLIENT CASE STUDIES I'm not talking about testimonials. I'm talking about detail. Highly emotional, very specific case studies that paint word pictures in your prospect's mind. You see, most of my marketing colleagues lead with dry content when they create special reports for clients. Not me! I lead with the proof. And one of the strongest proof elements you can use is a client case study. So I get my clients to pull together 5 of their best as a starting point. STEP #2: WRAP A LESSON AROUND EACH CASE STUDY An example will suffice at this point... Let's say your core business is financial planning. And let's say one of your case studies talks about a client who saved a bucket load in tax because you set up a self managed super fund for him. So, first I'd tell the story. This is so this part of the report is engaging. And then, after I've told the story, I routinely connect it to a "takeaway". I might have the subhead "The Lesson You Must Know". At which point I educate the prospective client about what they need to know in relation to self managed super funds. Maybe I'll highlight the tax benefits. Or that you're never really too old to start stashing cash away into your super fund. Or that self-managed super funds afford investors great latitude in how they manage their financial affairs. Whatever. The point is... Once I have their attention with an engaging story, I demonstrate my client's knowledge and skill with awesome content. So, if my client gives me 5 awesome case studies (5 is my minimum), it means the reader is also exposed to 5 great content pieces, too. The format may go something like this... Tip #1: Secure Your Future With a Self-Managed Super Fund First I insert the client story, making sure it's highly emotional and engaging. Then I share content, making sure it's snappy... to the point and shares something that the reader hasn't heard before. Then I move onto the next tip. And the tip after that. All using the same basic structure. Until I have 5 tips that share a story and content. STEP #3: TITLE, TABLE OF CONTENTS, CLOSE AND SIDEBARS

It's fun working with fast growing companies. There's an energy and dynamic about them that I love. One of those dynamics is the leadership team can be highly creative. Lots of ideas abound. This is both good and bad. It's bad because each idea has to fight for its own attention. It's good because there's so much damn possibility! BUT... We need to make decisions, right? We can't just keep thinking of ideas without implementing. So which creative ideas should have resources allocated to it and which should NOT? Here's how: 1. SOME DECISIONS ARE OBVIOUS Really, they are. I was talking to a client the other day about profiling his best customers. Without giving too much away, he found that 70%-80% of his customers... ... Live a certain distance away ... Make a certain income ... Are in relationship. That's it. Just 3 qualities that the majority of them meet. How does this help? Well, it's obvious dear reader. If a sales rep for a new magazine... or billboard company... or website calls him for advertising space my client can make a rational decision. Does the publication help him reach potential clients that meet the 3 criteria above? If yes, then it warrants further discussion. If not, then it's a clear "no". I have another client who owns two fantastic restaurants. She gets decent traffic numbers to her website. She also has thousands of people per month through her restaurants. When we first started chatting we discussed the virtues of scaling UP the website traffic component. And while it has merit there was a much easier decision on the table (excuse the pun!). That decision was... ... doing more with her existing customers. Just a few simple moves she's making are going to be worth hundreds of thousands to her business in the next year. And those moves are almost cost free and risk free. So, like I said, some decisions are obvious. This brings me to my second insight... 2. THE HUMBLE MARKETING TEST I live in the real world. I "get" why companies don't test more. I "get" that it can be a pain in the butt. That resources need to be set up in advance - in the form of designers, technical people etc., - for tests to take place. Especially on the Internet. And it can be hard to put those resources in place while you're busy running a business. Right? But still, as I see it, that's really a convenient excuse. Because I've found whether you test or not is more a consequence of culture than resources such as money or people. So, my question is... "What culture do you cultivate in your organisation?" Another question... "Do you foster a culture of experimentation and exploration?" Because if you answer "yes" to question #2 I bet ya that your business is doing well. Testing does NOT have to be a complicated process. It could be a few phone calls. Let me give you an example... I had a meeting Monday afternoon with two savvy operators. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a live event that we may be holding. A truly exciting event that'll be a huge, huge success. Partly because of the celebrity we're trying to bring over. Partly because we may be holding the gig at the headquarters of one of the most admired companies in the tech world. However... We are faced with a few genuine challenges. So, during the meeting, we were brainstorming ideas about how to overcome the challenges and I said this (and I'm paraphrasing to leave out a few confidential specifics): "Guys, I have a thought. Contact at least 10 JV partners you know. Tell them that we're in discussions with Admired Tech Company A about holding it in their auditorium at HQ. Also tell them we're looking to have Famous Celebrity B be as a keynote speaker. Ask them would they mail about this gig if they kept most of the ticket price?" Voila! A test.

Right now I'm working on a stack of projects. These include: * A property development launch for my property marketing company. * The launch of a new home study program on women's health issues - by a PHD on such issues. * Complete marketing strategy for an air conditioning company wishing to access the building market. * Complete marketing strategy and sales copy for a seminar tour. * Over 10 one on one clients who work with me personally on their strategy. * And a slew of "background" miscellaneous stuff to keep our businesses going. One of those is producing content for you! So, in this article, I thought it would be valuable if I covered a few essential ground rules. Call it the "Busy Person's Guide to Being Productive Without Losing Your Marbles": 1. Follow the 3D's - Do it, Delegate it, Dump It. Whenever something new comes across your desk or inbox, you have to make a decision - what to do with it? My first inclination is always to dump it. That means not responding to emails... SMS's and even phone calls. I know it can sound rude not to return calls (and I don't always ignore phone calls) but it's a viable way to handle a busy work schedule. If I can't dump it, delegation is the next option. This is an area where I can definitely improve. The best business people are absolute masters of delegation! Finally, do it myself. Almost always it will go into my schedule to be actioned at an appropriate time. 2. Unplug - I've taken email off my phone and off my iPad. Same with Facebook. Why? To manage my mental bandwidth. Like you, I only have a limited number of productive hours in a day. And I found that having email and Facebook on my phone led me to constantly checking them both. Not good! Because each time I'd chip away at my mental focus. I could never really recharge. 3. Think - I have a regular practice of brainstorming and mind mapping what I'm working on. This forces me to think through the implications of a decision - before I make the decision. By doing this, I anticipate problems before they arise. Of course, I am not perfect at this. And of course, I do fail to anticipate every problem. But many a problem has been prevented because I've taken the time to think things through. 4. Work to blocks of time. Let's face it: your list of "to dos" is probably infinite. There's always something to work on. And frankly, it can get overwhelming, right? I feel your pain. Which is why I work in blocks of time. This takes my focus OFF the endless items I'm working on... and onto a simple metric - time. I work in blocks of 60 minutes. 50 minutes of that block is work. 10 minutes is rest. I take my break for lunch so I can recharge and renew. Then, in the afternoon, I will usually get another block of 60 minutes. Most days this leads to working 6 quality hours. Since my focus is ONLY what I'm working on during each time block, it means I keep the overwhelm demons at bay. You should try it. Experience it for yourself. Then shoot me an email with your thoughts or post your comments below. MARKETING BLITZ UPDATE Almost half the spots are taken for Marketing Blitz. I'm really looking forward to this gig. It's the first time I've done a one day program for so few people. Especially at such a low investment - only $997 for the day. Marketing Blitz If you've been thinking of joining us but haven't decided, you'll want to check out the short info video I've put together. In this video I cover all the essential points of what the day is about... what I'm going to be covering... and what you can expect to get out of it. Marketing Blitz If you have any questions about Marketing Blitz - or if you want to give me feedback on the content I send you - please post your comments below or shoot me an email at support@moreleadsandcustomers.com. I check all emails and comments myself. And I respond to them all, too. Warmly Alexi

I have something extraordinary for you today. Honestly, a really, REALLY big marketing lesson. Give yourself the gift of the next few minutes and read this post. Because I'm going to give you a perspective on marketing almost nobody has ever given you before. If you'd like to know how to build a database valued at over $500,000 - and how to do it for FREE - follow this case study closely. The back story... The other day I was speaking to a client and friend. While we were talking I discovered something as valuable as all the gold in Solomon's vault (well, maybe not THAT valuable... but sure close). The business we're talking about is a restaurant. In fact, it's two restaurants. They are successful restaurants. Again, I'm not gonna tell you the names of the business... or the name of my friend out respect for her privacy. But know this... On a monthly basis the two restaurants do about 5,000 covers (for non-foodies this means 5,000 customers). The average spend is approx $60 per head. So there's good traffic and volume. Plus the restaurants even have brand value (the importance of this will be highlighted in a moment). Anyway, we were chatting the other day and I queried her about her database building. In my unusual direct way I probed about the opt in % of her website. I asked about the numbers of customers on record. And how often she emails and mails them. And then I asked... "Do you try to get the personal details of everybody dining in your restaurants?" She responded with "We don't do anything in the restaurant." "Hmmm...", I thought. "There's a really cool opportunity here... sitting right under our noses". I told her this... and she agreed. So we chatted for a little longer... trying to find an easy way to get the personal details of everybody on the table. Because I've covered this ground sooo many times with businesses, coming up with ideas was easy. We settled on a birthday offer. So customers who fill in the voucher details with their name, email address, mobile number and birthday date are invited to return for a complimentary dinner. Simple. Easy. Yes, obvious. But look at these numbers... If just 40% of people on the table give their details, it equates to 2000 names going into the system per month. That's 6,000 in 3 months... 12,000 in 6 months and so on. The cost on that? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Why? Two reasons: 1. These are customers who are already in the restaurants. We haven't had to pay to get them in through advertising. 2. We're using existing staff to manually enter the data into the system i.e. no extra wages. Is a 40% uptake rate realistic on the offer? Yes, I think it is. That's because we're going to get her awesome staff to push the offer, too. We may even incentivise them - the staff member who gets the most names might win a set of movie tickets or whatever. LET'S TAKE A BREATHER Let's look at these numbers. Ask any marketer how much it costs to get a high quality email address, phone number and name into your database and you'll hear "minimum $5 an opt in... but most likely $10... $15 ... even $20". So, let's be conservative and say building the database by 2000 names per month has a nominal value of $20,000 (2000 names multiplied by $10). I know, "value" is another subjective term. And there are many ways to slice it and dice it. But lay off me, you savvy marketer you. I want to keep the math simple so we don't miss the forest for the trees here. There's a bigger lesson! So the value is $20,000 per month for this exercise. Over 6 months its value is $120,000. That means if she was to spend money on advertising - to get these people to opt into her system - she'd easily spend 6 figures. Agreed? Great. There's more. Because, my friend, that was only the starter (I couldn't help the pun!). Why?

On Monday I flew up to the Gold Coast for a planning session with a good friend, client and business partner. Let's call him "S" (that's his first initial. But, for fun, let's just call him "Superman"). Anyway, during our planning session, Superman and I were talking about many things... including one of the businesses he owns exclusively. This business is a fantastic lifestyle business. And I'm very proud to say that my sales copy had a heavy hand in getting it to the point where it is now. Where is it now? And what sort of business is it? It's a membership program. It has nothing to do with information products. It's more conventional than that. (I can't reveal the details because Superman is a private kinda guy). He has 220 or so members... with each member worth a profit stream of approximately $2,600 per year. That's $572,000 in profit (not sales). Here's the best part... When I asked Superman how much time he spends on the business he said "not long... only a few hours per week." Now THAT'S a lifestyle business! Yeah, I know, the other day I said that there's virtually no such thing as a lifestyle business. Well, my dear reader, this is one of those times when they do exist! I can vouch from first hand experience this is true. Anyway, over the next minute or so I want to give you an inside peek as to what it's taken Superman to get to this point: 1. Longish road It's taken 6 years to get the business to this stage. Lots of work in the beginning. He had to shell out a 5 figure sum to get me to write the copy. Cut loads and loads of deals with suppliers. Sell a vision to his boss - his wife. But now the business is on auto-pilot... and it's all because Superman had the clarity of vision to stick with all the challenges. 2. First in market Superman saw a gap in the market... and then filled it! More than that, he was first in market and he is by far the dominant player. Because he's in a relatively small niche his business even has brand value - gold, baby! 3. Savvy marketer Superman is an anomaly in his industry because he's a sharp direct marketer. In fact, he'd easily be the sharpest direct marketer in his game. He thinks so differently from others in his field that they literally have NO chance competing against him. 4. Lifetime income streams He's obsessed with doing the work today and being paid for that work for years and years. As you know, his average member earns him $2,600 per year in profit. Well, Superman's best estimate is the average member lasts 4 years - over $10,000 in profit. Huge numbers with virtually no ongoing effort to retain as a member. 5. Master salesman When I asked how long it takes to sell a potential new member he said "All I need to do is speak with them for 15 minutes on the phone and they will buy". When I asked how many people he converts, "If I speak to 10 leads I will convert 3 of them into membership inside of 15 minutes". Look at those numbers: Let's say it takes him 5 hours to get through 10 leads (including missed calls... messages... call backs etc.,) we're talking $30,000 in residual income over 4 years for... ... only 5 hours work. That's $6,000 per hour just for speaking to people on Skype. Awesome right? But remember, it's taken 6 years to get to this point. THE LESSON 1. Lifestyle businesses "almost" don't exist. 2. Stick with your vision. Don't let the naysayers get you down 3. It is possible to earn massive amounts of money with the right education and knowledge. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT How would you like to spend a full day with me tweaking and refining the marketing of your business? Engineering innovative concepts for your offers? Creating and pioneering breakthrough directions for your website? And the best part... How would you like to get a discount of 92% on my hourly rate? If so, this is for you... As you know,

As you may know, I recently attended the Ryan Deiss Internet Marketing event. On stage for most of the weekend with Ryan was his business partner, Perry Belcher. I'm personally not much of a fan of Perry. But during the weekend he did say something insightful. And that is... The idea of a lifestyle business is a pipe dream! His thinking... While his competitors are jet setting about the world, he's taking their customers. While his competitors are kicking it back in general, their business is shrinking and his is growing. I have to be honest. There's an element of truth in this. At least in my experience. I worked with many a highly successful entrepreneur and one thing they all have in common is... ... they work their butts off! Even when they're at home they're working. Why? Because they're creating. They're innovating. They're pushing the boundaries. So their minds are always working on... something. It never really disconnects. Not to say that lifestyle businesses don't EVER exist. They do. But they are the exception, not the rule. I know of one person who sold a chunk of his business for $100 million. But it took him 3 years to find a replacement to run the company. 3 years! So... let's get realistic. Let's get pragmatic. Darn it... let's be real. If you own a business you're probably selling your time for money. I know, I know. The business gurus will tell you... "There's great leverage in business" "It's better to have 1% of 100 people's income than 100% of your own". And I agree with them. But reality is simply this... Unless your business is under management - and it's under highly skilled management and not retards - you're still selling time for money. This is true even if you have a huge team of people that leverage your efforts. It's true even if you have guys like me creating kick ass marketing strategy and sales copy. Just think about all the pressures on your mind about cashflow. Making payroll. Dealing with lawyers and accountants. It all piles up, slowly but surely. Anyway, the maths are simple to work out your hourly rate as a business owner... It's five calculations: Step #1: How much did your business net last year? Step #2: How much did you take out as a wage? Step #3: Add up this total. Step #4: How many hours last year did you work on average per week? Step #5: Multiply that number by the number of weeks you worked. Voila - your hourly rate! WHAT'S MY POINT? This is NOT necessarily bad news... if... you're vigilant with managing your energy and time. If you can get your "hourly rate" up and up and up. Ideally to the thousands upon thousands per hour. Yes, per hour. This means you're pocketing i.e. net profit of at least 7 figures per year. But hopefully more. AWESOME APP THAT I'VE STARTED USING I have three businesses. A traditional time for money business with my consulting. Two other businesses that are on the road to giving my wife and I bucket loads of near passive income. While I tell myself on a daily basis that I'm building enduring income streams, it's a #%$ load of work! That's why the other week I got real about the effort I'm putting into these businesses. Since I am a huge believer in only improving what one measures, I downloaded an app onto my iPhone. This app is called Hours Tracker. I've been using it religiously for a few weeks. Many interesting findings have come out of it... Like, for example, how LITTLE I actually work on a day by day basis. See, I already knew that I can only write for 3-4 hours per day. But since I do so much other stuff in addition to writing copy, I THOUGHT I did 12-hour days. At least it felt like it. Holy moly. It's nowhere near it. For last week... Taking into account ALL my client meetings... checking my emails...

Normally my weekly blog posts get to a point rather quick. This one is an exception. Which is unusual. That's why I want you to do one thing for me... Stay focused on the story I'm about to tell for 50 seconds. Just 50 seconds. There is a hugely important lesson for you. Then, after that, I have a special announcement. If you like what I do and follow my work, you'll want to hear it. Last weekend was one of the most remarkable - and enjoyable - of my life. Here's why: Because I held my first ever Instant Sales Roundtable. And I have to be honest. I was nervous. Because for 3 solid days I had to perform. Be on my game, so to speak. Since I take my work so seriously, I was committed to making this workshop the best investment each of the attendees have made in a long, long time. So I prepared and prepared and yes, prepared - weeks in advance. The result? If feedback from my attendees is anything to go by, it was a home run winner! Take for example "Bob"... Bob owns a niche business that's already doing well. In fact, he's already achieved incredible goals by opening up an entirely new market for himself. The level of depth and understanding he has about what makes his market buy is truly impressive. But as well as his business is doing, there's room to do better. Much better. I'm sure he'll agree that after the workshop he's got the groundwork to at least double sales. In fact, just one outcome I am helping him with is easily going to double the number of leads his sales team will speak. Double! And it's probably only going to take me a few hours to make that happen for him. And probably even less for him to implement it. Such is the opportunity that exists! Unfortunately, until the Instant Sales Roundtable, he didn't fully see the opportunity before him. Why? To borrow a term from Bob, he was "scatoma-d". What's scatoma? Well, you know when you get so close to something that you don't "see" it? Say, for example, when you've been writing an article and a typo is glaring straight at you? Or when you're stuck with a problem in your business that you can't get passed... but then someone external casually sees the solution that was staring in your face? My friend, that's scatoma. And it's an insidious condition that affects us all. What's the way around it? 3 recommendations: 1. Ask people to "break" what you're doing - apply a scientific process to every aspect of your marketing. Be open minded enough - and lack the ego - to have others disprove your hypothesis. Apply this to your landing pages... emails... sales letters... face-to-face scripts... - EVERYTHING that you do. Be willing to break it apart and reassemble it better than ever before. 2. Read, study and learn - be voracious. Soak up insights. Be a sponge. But be sure to study things totally outside your field of expertise. This way you break out of your own patterns. Personally, I spend lots of time on a blog aggregator called www.alltop.com. I randomly read blog posts on anything and everything. One day I could be reading something on pet grooming (I don't have a pet)... another day on The Big Bang (I know enough only to hurt myself)... and yet another day on celebrity gossip (which I truly loathe!).But I do it to gain different perspectives and trigger creative insight. 3. Seek expert counsel. All the richest and most successful people I have worked with and know have this trait in common - they hire experts to advise them in their businesses. They hire the best lawyers... the best accountants... the best sales managers... and yes, the best marketing experts. Of course, you may not be able to afford the absolute best for every area of your business but you should never, ever skimp on expert counsel. As the saying goes, "Pinch a penny today, pay a pound tomorrow".

  Full Transcription Hi! This is Alexi Neocleous. Today, I have a confession to make. Whenever I shave… and hopefully that's as infrequent as possible… I use my wife's pink razors. Now, I know it sounds like a silly way to open up a marketing video but stick with me because there's a reason why I am opening up this video like this. I shave with my wife’s razors, there are couple of reasons. The functional benefits that I get are very clear. First up, the razors shave much more closely. Secondly, they actually run along my face much more smoothly and… Third, I get a better result. But the truth is… Every time I use them I feel like an idiot. I feel actually quite embarrassed using it … much less talking about this on camera right now. But, the reason why I am telling you about this is because there are some marketing lessons here. And it’s simply this... Why do I feel so silly using her pink razors to shave my face? That's because every product that we buy have inbuilt deeper level benefits. They speak to our character roles and our achievement roles… These are different roles in our lives that we perceive ourselves to be playing. Let me give you an example. Let's talk about the middle-aged man who buys a Ferrari. Now, practically speaking, this person does not need to get a Ferrari to get around, especially in a city like Sydney or New York or Paris. There's a lot of traffic. So, why does this man buy a Ferrari? He’ll tell his friends that it’s the speed or it’s the beautiful colour or whatever… but there are other reasons much deeper. One of those is a status… as a symbol of his success. Another is… as a sign of his virility. Or it could be as an alpha male… a symbol of being an alpha male and leader. These are much deeper benefits that Ferrari never really speak about directly in their advertising. But they do allude to them through their imagery, through their stories and their narratives. Now, here's another example. Getting VIP treatment, say at restaurants or airlines. For example, getting VIP treatment by American Express. They have certain levels of service that they give with their Platinum and their Black card members. One of those being champagne on arrival… whenever you use your card to book into certain restaurants on their list. Why do they do that? Because of the status. About being perceived as a special, successful individual. Take as another example and this is the final example - Apple products. I'm an Apple fan. I love Apple's functional benefits. But let's be honest here… there are many other benefits that Apple delivers. One of those is being perceived to be cool or hip or creative. Comparing Mac products to PC, people that use Apple products tend to be more artistic. That (the product) speaks to various roles in their lives. So, with your products, think about that. Think about the deeper benefits that your products deliver over and above the functional benefits. Now, I want to talk about the one-on-one coaching. I’ve had a massive response to it. I did allocate two spots. They are all gone. Now, what I've done is... I’ve had a look at my schedule and I’ve opened up a few more spots… only a couple. So, if you've been contemplating about speaking to me or working with me one-on-one… Now is the time to do it, for two reasons: a) When these next spots get filled up, that will be end because I can't possibly fit anymore in the schedule. b) Prices will definitely go up by the next time you hear about this. Now, I don't plan on talking about it again for many, many months. Right now, the investment is $2k per month for two meetings a month including email access. When you hear about this again, which will be in many months’ time, like I said, it will be at least two and a half grand, most likely three grand a month. So,

You know how motivational books say... “To succeed you must have self confidence." … and “you can’t just believe you can do it, you must KNOW you can do it.” And so on. And yes, while these statements have a level of truth… In my opinion self help books focus way too much on the virtues of winning and nowhere near enough on the value of losing. Here’s an example… During my copywriting mastermind call last week, the group and I were talking about the mindset of a certain world-class copywriter. Like many “top shelf” advertising pros, he’s read almost every book on the subject. He’s an awesome writer. And a great lateral thinker. But then I heard about how he approaches the criticism of his sales copy. I was surprised to discover that he is very insecure. Yes. Insecure... about his work! This is vastly different than most copywriters. Because most copywriters think they’re God’s gift to the written word. So when their work is critiqued they usually just want to hear how great their copy is. (I know I’m generalising but this has been my experience critiquing many copywriters' work) If you don’t believe me, give a copywriter “negative” feedback and see what happens. Anyway, this world-class copywriter is insecure about his copy… but it’s a healthy insecurity. That’s the rub. Because his mind stays open to notice the feedback. With this open mind, he objectively assesses the merits of this feedback. That is, whether this feedback is useful or not. Just like a great scientist, he puts his own emotions and biases to the side. Funnily enough, this is a trait I’ve found in many highly successful person. For example… Over the years, I’ve known more than a few professional gamblers – poker and blackjack players and stock traders. And this objectivity is a trait that ALL the greats have. This objectivity is the product of many reasons, but one of them is this… Like the world of human psychology, professional gambling means making decisions based on possessing less than all the facts. This is what making an educated guess is all about. But this educated guess scares the living crap out of them because they know they don’t have ALL the information. Worse than that, they know their own biases are skewing their thinking! (Ever wondered why so few people make money in the stock market?) Here are the main reasons! Copywriting is the same. It’s impossible to know everything about your market and your product. It’s impossible to write a perfect piece of sales copy every single time. If only... Because we miss the trees for the forest! We do NOT see the details. This is why it’s so important to research, research and research. And it’s so important to escape your biases and use the value of other people’s perspectives So if you’re struggling in any area of your business (doesn’t matter what it is), get the perspective of someone whose opinion you value and trust. Go for it… today! Then send me an email about your results. Until next time, Alexi   If you want to learn more, check out this cool page...  

Lately, I've been running an experiment. Every night, before I go to sleep, I do 2 things: 1. I attach a weird looking strap to my head 2. I activate an app on my phone. The app is called Zeo and it monitors my sleep patterns during the night. I've only used it for about a week but already I am discerning interesting patterns. Patterns that have helped improve my quality of sleep. For example... With Zeo I've found that... ... I fall asleep within 30 minutes ... I am at my deepest sleep at 2am. ... I wake up at least once per night And... I average 2 hours of REM sleep each night, too. Why is this important? And what does this have to do with your marketing... your sales and your business? Simply this... You can only improve what you measure. For example... I always knew that a heavy meal before bed destroys my quality of sleep. Well, this week, I monitored that. Specifically, I had a heavy meal before bed and my sleep was extremely restless. I woke up at least 5 times during the night. Felt groggy in the morning. And had less than average REM sleep. Lesson: don't eat late at night! Of course, I already knew this. After all, I'm near on my 38th birthday which means I've had almost 13,870 sleeps. So, this isn't news. BUT... Seeing the data and the graphs gave this a new level of meaning. It helped me "get" the value of eating light at night which means it's instantly changed my behaviour. Business metrics are the same. You might "think" you know what your average $ sale is. Or how many people go from visitors into sales. Or what % of your traffic opt in to your database. But until you see actual numbers -and you analyse those numbers within a broader time frame and context - you're really only guessing. Think of it this way... Not having all your key metrics is akin to playing Murder In The Dark. You have a rough idea where your friends are hiding but you're not really sure. If, however, the lights flick on... you instantly and precisely know where they're hiding. Well, knowing your metrics is like turning on the lights. And the new found profit opportunities are akin to spotting the hiding place of your friends. So, go out and find your "friends"!     My Strange Sleep Experiment and What It Has To Do With Your Business… Your Sales and Your Marketing   check out this cool page...  

Full Transcription Hi! This is Alexi Neocleous. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You go to a seminar and you see a whole range of speakers sharing a whole bunch of great ideas. You walked out and you say, "I'm going to implement all these things." One idea has something to do with SEO and another one has something to do with social media (say Twitter). Then… you get another idea. You’re going to do something with your email. And then, you see someone, like me, who will tell you that video sales letters are the greatest way to monetize online. And so, you try to execute all these things but you don't really get very far. You get confused and overwhelmed. You get stressed. All these ideas are far too much for you that you don't know what to really implement… one at a time. So, now let me tell you about my client - Bob. The other day, I spoke about Bob in an email about some of the wonderful things that he's doing and hopefully, with my support, we're going to do even greater things. Lately, since we started working together, already we are noticing a good increase in the leads that are coming through to his sales team. It's still in its early stages but we’re already noticing some great things. Now, what's really important about this is that we're chaining our wins together. Now, what the heck does that mean? Well, everything that we are doing together form a path towards one conversion funnel. So… instead of doing something like SEO, playing with email and then fussing about the banners… Or doing some sort of unrelated things. What we are doing with Bob, is we are working on increasing his opt-in to his landing page, improving the email sequence that's linked to that landing page and, then, improving his follow-up process to his sales team. So, they are speaking to better quality leads. Why is all of this important? Well, when you optimize and improve a chain of events, it leads to geometric growth. Let me now throw some numbers at you. Let's say, there are three parts on the funnel. Three parts. Let’s say, you get someone like me to come along and help you improve that funnel. And we improved the first part by 10% and the second part by 10% and the third part by 10%. Now, how much is the business growing by? Well, you may not realize it but the business or, at least, that funnel has grown by 33%. That's because, we've had compound growth take place. Let's look at another scenario. Instead of having three steps in the funnel. You get someone like me to play with your banner advertisement at step 1. Then, the landing page. That's step 2. Then, the video sales letter. That's step 3. Then, the email sequence that your prospect gets overtime. That's step 4. Then, the checkout page. That's step 5. We improve each one of those by 10%. Something like 63-64% improvement now. It's not 10% plus 10% plus 10%. It's 10% multiplied by 10% multiplied by 10% multiplied by 10% and so on. This is geometric growth. Now, look at this again. If we were to improve each segment of that funnel. Each of those 5 parts by 20%. So 20% of the banner, 20% of the landing page and so on. Where does that lead to… after all these have been set and done? Well, the net result is an increase of about 140%. So, to answer your question that may be on your mind... What do you improve? What do you work on? The answer is… You work on optimizing funnels. You start with your most successful right now. The one that you get the most traction with. Ideally, you get someone like me... Or, if you're really skilled, you do it yourself. And that's fine. To optimize each section by just 10% or 15% or 20%. You chain those little wins together and, before you know it, you’ve doubled or tripled your sales. This is why it is so important to get coaching. Now, the other day,

Years ago, I flew over to the U.S. to get a certification in PhotoReading. PhotoReading is a technique that lets you absorb information 3 times... 5 times... 10 times faster than normal. One of the ways I learned to get into the reading state is to read with "soft eyes". This slows down your brain waves almost instantly (I've been hooked up to an EEG while doing it so I know it's true). But how does one get into "soft eyes"? How do you get into "state"? The quickest way to get into the state when you're reading is to focus on the white space on a page - NOT the printed words. This takes a bit of getting used to but very easy to do before long. Anyway, I have been doing it for years to read much faster and retain much more. But then, yesterday morning, I was free writing in my journal - clarifying thoughts and ideas for the businesses etc., - then it occurred to me... "Well, if I can read faster by focusing on white spaces, can I be more creative by focusing on the white spaces when I write, too?" So I tried it. And I did. In fact, the results are instantaneous. If you do this, you'll find calm descend over you. This leads to the chattering brain silencing to all but a whisper. This is important, as you probably know because now that the chattering is not getting in the way, it sparks undiscovered brilliance. Give it a shot. Then click reply and shoot me an email with your feedback. I'm curious. Warmly Alexi       To learn more about Creativity and Productivity "Hack" I Discovered Yesterday, check out this cool page...  

Yesterday, I was chatting to the Chief Operating Officer for a client that does about $25 million per year. We were chatting about the latest round of testing that we're doing on the video sales letters... checked out pages... email funnels and so on. Our goal is to take the company to $100 million. So, as we were talking, I was pleasantly satisfied with the testing results because they were going up and up. The future looks very bright. BUT... As sharp as this COO is (along with me not being too shabby in the marketing arena) there were a lot of questions neither of us had the answer to. And so I started thinking about how common this is in marketing. In fact, I remember a quote by Warren Buffett... "I'd rather be approximately right than precisely wrong." As marketers, we like to think testing is an exact process. That we can define A/B split tests (and even multivariate tests) to attain precise outcomes. And sometimes it's true. But often it's B.S. Often marketers (like myself and this COO) have no idea why something happens. We have no idea about the consequences of a certain decision. We have no idea how the market will react to a particular offer. THE LESSON Here's a truism about marketing... and probably about life in general: The less someone knows about something, the more vocal they are in their opinion. So, beware of an "expert" on ANY subject who professes to know the answer to every dilemma that ails you. Especially in the area of your marketing. Marketing is NOT an exact science... Here's a metaphor to convey my point... Recently I purchased a bow and arrow. Not like the kind you see in Robin Hood. But the kind used by professional archers. It's a beauty. When I first started firing it, I was way off target. That's partly because I need to ramp up my skill set. But it's also because the sights were off. So, for the first few dozens shots, I had to re-align the sights. The process... 1. I'd mark my distance (say 10 metres from target) 2. I'd shoot 3. I'd mark how far off target I was and then re-align my sights 4. I'd shoot again 5. I'd mark how far off target I was and then re-align my sights yet again I kept doing this at the 10-metre mark until I consistently flirted with the bulls eye. Then I'd repeat the process at 20 metres from the target. Then 30 metres from target. And so on. Until I knew that any divergence off-target was due to my own lacking skill and little to do with the bow and arrow. Marketing is the same. It's a process of hit and miss. Hit. And. Miss. Of slowly and gradually and consistently zeroing in on target. So that, once you're consistent in your results, it's a matter of upping the stakes. This is where growth comes in. You buy new traffic sources. You spend more on marketing. You try different ideas. (This is akin to moving from 10 metres to 20 metres). Of course, just like shooting the bow and arrow, you go "off target". Some ideas work and some do not. That's normal. And it's not a problem. In fact, all that remains is the following question... "How quickly can you realign your business at the higher level?" Because companies that realign the fastest - and use this feedback - dominate their industry. My best advice... ... use the feedback from your arrows veering off target. REGISTRATIONS CLOSED Registrations for the Instant Sales Roundtable are now closed. If you were planning on joining us, I'm sorry to say you missed the boat. I don't have any official dates on when the next one will be. But if you've been watching the emails about it and thought to yourself "maybe one day I'll do it" then jump into our VIP notification list. Just email Sophy at sophym@marketingbump.com Don't worry: it won't obligate you to attend.

Just yesterday, I was chatting to a good friend and Internet marketer about one of my businesses. During our chat, we started talking about his business. As always, he's busy. But then he told me "I've been too busy. I know that sounds unusual, but it feels like I'm doing too much without getting big results". I said to him "Don't beat yourself up, man. This happens to all of us. I've been in your position before many times. I've found that staying on target is an ongoing - almost daily process - of revision". We chatted for a few more minutes about some of the things I do on a daily basis to stay on point. Then I said to him, "Mate, at any rate, if you want to find out what the direction of your company should be, it's really easy to find the answer. Just do two things: Step #1: Review your profits and sales for the last 1-3 years, then ask yourself "What made me the most money?" Step #2: As you're reviewing the last 1-3 years then ask yourself "What do I LOVE working on most?" Then, simply focus your energy from this day forth on where those two intersect. Simple." He went silent for a few seconds. Thinking. Then he said, "Hmmm... I think I already know the answer. It's running high level coaching programs. I love it plus I make loads of money". "Great", I responded. PROFOUND INSIGHTS ARISE WITH THE RIGHT QUESTIONS When I work with clients - whether it's designing marketing campaigns or critiquing a video sales letter - I am always asking lots of questions. That's because I know the answer already exists... somewhere. To focus attention on the answer first requires asking the right question. Questions such as... Who in our industry is growing while the economy is slowing down? What are they doing differently? Who are our biggest, spending, highest margin customers? What are we doing to strengthen their loyalty? What's already working now in our business and marketing that we can improve? What's consuming much of my focus and energy for little - if any - gain? And so on... In 2 weeks time I'm holding the Instant Sales Roundtable in Sydney. It runs for 3 days and I fully expect to be asking questions for almost the entire time! My skill - as a marketing strategist and copywriter - is NOT having all the answers. It's in knowing the right questions. And the smart cookies joining me at the Instant Sales Roundtable will experience that first hand. On that note... I still have a few spots available. If you've been watching my emails about it and have been on the fence, time is running out! I've prepared this short information video about it: Instant Sales Roundtable If it sounds like something you're ready for, then just email my wife Sophy at sophym at marketingbump.com and she'll organise for us to have a chat. Until then, Alexi   To know the World's Most Profitable 2 Questions to Ask Yourself,   check out this cool page...