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A
Note from Mitch |
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Featured
Article: An Interview With Yanik Silver |
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Tip
of the Week |
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Market
Place |
Dear Subscriber, I
woke up this morning with a commitment to
broadcasting this newsletter today and all
I needed to do was to write the "Notes
from Mitch" section. The problem
was I had no idea what to write about (ever
felt that way?). Fortunately I knew a surefire
solution.
I put on
my workout trunks, grabbed my trusty IPod
and headed to the treadmill in my fitness
center. A few minutes later I had the music
cranking, my body moving and guess what?
The ideas started flowing. (If
you get stuck try this strategy -- it works
for me every time). Here is what came
to mind.
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Most of you
know by now music is my passion. And right
now, in addition to working on my next book,
I am putting together a set of music for
a house concert I am planning.
My standard
choice of tunes to sing and play generally
falls into easy listening, classic rock,
blues and jazz. These are all areas in which
I feel "comfortable" performing.
Yet I am feeling it is time to stretch into
new areas outside of my comfort zone. So
right now I am learning to sing "Smooth"
by Santana. The lead vocal by Rob Thomas
is not pretty, it is pure attitude.
So to pull
this song off meant I would have to step
out of my familiar comfort zone. Something
I have traditionally tended to resist.
"Okay
Mitch I know you are a rock star but what
does this have to do with me and my life?"
Well I was
getting to that...
This week
I was talking to Seth Godin, author The
Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside. He reminded
me of a critical point that bears repeating---
In business if you are not remarkable,
you are invisible.
And I think
this is truer than ever in this cluttered
marketplace.
Think about
it... How much (or little) do you pay attention
to marketers these days? How much
are they paying attention to your marketing?
Which companies are really memorable? Is
yours? Are you willing to step out of your
comfort zone to make a statement?
My guess
is the image of me singing Smooth and playing
a killer guitar solo is more memorable than
me telling you how to make your headlines
compelling.
I want to
add this-- it's not enough to "sing
in the shower" (although it does have
good reverb). You have to take it out into
the world. And with that end in mind I went
to a Karaoke bar last weekend and sang "Smooth"
by Santana. Sure I could have done it in
my home with my backup tracks, but really
putting it out there in front of people
was much high level of risk and reward.
Are you putting
your message out there in a memorable way?
Are you showing some attitude? If
not you just might be invisible.
At least
that is what I was thinking on the treadmill
this morning. I hope you enjoy today's issue!
To Your Success,
Mitch
P.S. We're
always interested in your comments and feedback
on this ezine. If it has stimulated some
thoughts, let
us know.
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Quote For The Day:
"A stumbling block to the pessimist is
a stepping stone to the optimist." - Eleanor Roosevelt
An Interview with Yanik Silver
by
Mitch Meyerson and Yanik Silver (excerpted from Online
M@rketing Superstars)
Can you give us some how-to's on writing
great sales letters?
Yeah, absolutely! This
going to sound a bit unusual, but one of the best ways to learn how to write a
great sales letter is to read a lot of
sales letters by others who promote via direct mail and on the web.
Whenever you see one that really resonates with you, that you really love, and
makes you want to buy, even if you know you can’t afford it, but it makes you
want to buy the product, it’s a winner! If it’s on the web, print it out.
Then,
actually copy it. I mean, get a pad and pen and write it out by hand. As you handwrite several of these winners,
you will start to learn the process for what makes a good sales letter. It is a skill, and you can learn it by doing
it. For
me, writing sales letters is not like writing the next great novel. A great
sales letter is personal salesmanship in print. We want to grab attention so we
do unconventional things; things you wouldn’t necessarily find in great
literature.
Like
a one word paragraph, for instance. We
will also write good sentences that are written for the eye and sentences that
are written for the ear. The
best thing I think I can do for your readers is to give them my 12 part
formula. They will know exactly how I write a sales letter and they can do the
same thing. I will also highlight some of the key points.
Where do we start?
The
first thing you start with is a powerful headline. If you’ve been around
marketing long enough, you’ve heard over and over the importance of a great
headline. It doesn’t matter if it’s in print or on the web.
On
the web it’s especially important because people are literally whizzing by at
the speed of light; clicking everywhere, going from one website to the next. So
your headline has to reach out and grab them. For
instance, on instantsalesletters.com, we have the headline “In Only 2 and a
Half Minutes you Can Quickly and Easily Create a Sales Letter Guaranteed to
Sell Your Product or Service… Without Writing!”
If
you’re working on a sales letter to sell your product or service and you don’t
like to write, don’t want to write, or can’t write, that headline will grab
your attention. The
best thing that you can do is to create a bit of curiosity in your headline,
along with the benefit. My 12 Point Web Formula provides great results - we're
seeing 1 in 32 visitors purchase using this
simple formula.
The
second step is to always put up a website. One thing I do want people to
realize, I use a simple approach to our web marketing: our entire website is a sales letter. That’s
it! And that’s why we spend a lot of time on our headline and sales letter.
People
look at any of our sites and its just one long scrolling letter. Almost like
the same kind of letter you get in the mail. That’s why I say that the web is
much more like direct mail than it is like TV. If
you can simply do what we do, it will cost you a lot less money, than trying to
fill your site with hundreds of pages of content, and then hope someone will
buy something.
We’re
just being very direct. There are three things that people can do when they
come to our site. They can give me their e-mail, they can buy our product, or
they can leave. There is not much else that they can do. That’s the key: you
want to limit what visitors can do so you can maximize your revenue from each
visitor.
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