Monthly Archives: March 2012

Direct Mail Cheats with Doberman Dan

So, here’s the deal…

Sharon’s dog says I’m officially an idiot, and this time he’s right!

I’ve got 4500+ valuable entrepreneurial BUYERS, and until recently I never sent them a direct mail piece.

My only solace is I know I’m not alone…

Every day I talk to internet marketers who’ve got hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of happy buyers that they’ve never mailed to.

And it’s fricking WEIRD, know why?

Because we’re warriors at heart…

We tackle the most difficult technical hurdles day in and day out…

I mean, did you ever stop to think about how many frickin’ technical things you’ve got to know, and how many companies we have to coordinate just to make a single sale?

For example, I’m about to launch a new membership site (“Make Them Buy” – bi-weekly live group webinars… watch for it please)…

And in order to do so, I have to coordinate ALL the following companies and software:

  • WishList Member to run the membership site
  • ClickBank to process the recurring billing and run the affiliate program
  • Amazon S3 to serve the large files and video recordings
  • LinkLok to secure the S3 locations from theives
  • WordPress, so that I could run WishList Member
  • Aweber, to integrate with the membership email list
  • GoToWebinar to run the webinars themselves
  • And of course, my domain registrar and web host
  • Plus I have to know about 8 software packages and programming languages to put it all together (and  supervise others)…

Now here’s the thing…

I’m doing ALL this to get maybe a 1% conversion from internet prospects.  (Which, by the way,  in order to attract will require that I advertise using several more companies and technical systems)…

But for some reason people like you and I run like the plague from simply writing a letter, licking some stamps, and taking it to the post office to get response rates up 5 to 10 times better!  (Buyer mailings are like that… ask anyone who’s done it)

I dunno, maybe it’s because the lady behind the counter was mean to us when we were little.  (I distinctly remember a heavy set woman with a mustache…)

Or maybe it’s just because the word “office” is in post office, and we’re all totally allergic to anything associated with a traditional work environment.

But whatever the reason…

It’s FRICKIN’ DUMB!

Which is why I’ve been working with Doberman Dan.  He lived with Gary Halbert for 3 months.  He ran a multi-million-dollar business via direct mail.  He’s been at this for years…

And you know what?

Despite his frightening “Doberman Dan” moniker, the guy is really just a pussy cat.

This interview about how to cheat the learning curve in direct mail should really be a paid product.

The only reason it’s not is because both he and I are too busy to put together yet another package…

But I’ll probably get around to it sooner or later, so listen now while it’s free OK?

All my best,

Great Big Hairy Dr. Glenn 🙂
(Yes, I’m in a mood!)

PS –  Download the direct mail piece I sent to my customers here so you can follow along with the interview. (Links to Doberman Dan’s newsletter – www.KillerNewsletter.com — in both the audio and PDF are my  sneaky affiliate links of course)

PPS – How many buyers have you not been sending mail to?

Magical Marketing Math Formula

THIS MAGICAL MARKETING FORMULA CAN LITERALLY MAKE YOU A FORTUNE (And please don’t freak out – I’ll explain it fully in plain English):

——–

So I had a bit of an epiphany today after talking to Perry Marshall.

We were discussing his observation of a natural derivative of the 80/20 principle (which you may have heard him review previously)

If 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers, then 1/5th of your customers should be willing to pay 4 times as much.

For example, if you’ve got 1,000 customers each paying you $100 (1,000 x 100 = $100,000), there are likely 200 customers in that mix who would pay $400 (200 x 400 = $80,000).

So by just adding another level at 4x the price, you should be able to add 80% to your income.

Of course this assumes each level is equally well marketed, copy-written, etc., and that you’re willing and able to deliver the goods at the higher price.

But let’s make that assumption for the purpose of illustration and take this thing deeper down the rabbit hole to see where it leads us…

Because by the same principle, 20% of the 200 should be willing to pay $1600 (40 x $1600 = $64,000)

There should be 8 people (20% of the 40) in the mix who’ll give you $6,400  (8 x $6400 = $51,200)

And quite possibly one or two people willing to give you $25,600.

Adding this all up, you can see how much money you might be leaving on the table by marketing at only one level:

$100,000 + $80,000 + $64,000 + $51,200 = $295,200

In other words, by filling out the funnel with offers at all the reasonable price levels, we could be making $295,000 vs. $100,000 from our fictitious system.

Now here’s how Glenn summarizes it all with the magical marketing math formula:

What this says in English is that the TOTAL amount you COULD be making can be easily predicted by what you’re making with the primary level.   Because every new level–if priced 4x as high as the previous–adds 80% of the previous level in gross income, you can just sum across the number of levels you plan, taking 80% of gross income at every step.

It also gives you a kind of neat way to determine HOW MANY levels make sense for your overall business, and where the point of diminishing returns kicks in. (In the example above, we probably wouldn’t want to go to a fifth level because we’re only likely to attract one or two people at $25,000+ … although if you were operating in a business model where the $25,000 product wasn’t all that hard to make available and deliver if someone wanted it, it still  MIGHT make sense)

My question for you is…

After seeing the money you’re leaving on the table, how many of you now want to smack yourself in the head with a spatula?

Don’t do that.

I’ve got big gaping holes in my own product and service funnel which I’m now passionately working to fill.

Hindsight is 20/20.

OK, now that I know I’m not causing massive brain damage there’s one MORE observation I want to leave you with…

Because before you all jump through your computers to argue with me, let me say that I KNOW the math is far from perfect.  There are LOTS of things that can interfere with these predictions in the real world.  And the model doesn’t account for the fact that you can also go DOWN in price.

For example assuming a large enough prospect list, you should be able to get 5x as many buyers at a price point only 25% of your primary level… so in the example above we’re actually underestimating the value of filling out the funnel by 5,000 x $25 = $125,000…

But let’s not go there.

Because even though the math isn’t perfect, the PRINCIPLE is…

If you’ve got a reasonably sized group of buyers, there’s a good number of them–might be 22%, 18%, or even 10% or 30% in some cases–who’d pay you a LOT more for something at a higher level.

And you can approximately determine whether (and how many) new levels might be worth pursuing by estimating the income with this magical marketing formula.

There… now don’t say I never give you anything!

Onwards and Upwards,

Dr. G 🙂

PS – Here’s a free spreadsheet to help you do the math.

PPS – To attract customers most naturally interested in climbing to the highest levels of your pricing funnel, you absolutely MUST implement the methods I teach in www.HyperResponsiveMarketingSecrets.com

My $500,000 One Click Mistake

So, here’s something which makes me want to smack myself
repeatedly in the head with a spatula…

A $500,000 mistake I could have fixed with ONE click!

That’s right… I literally left a half million dollars on
the table by failing to lift my lazy-ass finger up and
down just one time on the mouse.

About 7 years ago I set up a joint venture with a major player
in the field. I built literally dozens of promotions, audios,
videos, and emails for him to send to his list, program into
his autoresponder system, and basically put on autopilot.

They all pointed to an opt in form in aweber.

And guess friggin what?

I forgot to turn off the double opt in setting. ONE click
on the big-old “OFF” button.

This left the default double-opt-in confirmation message
going out of course, which has ZERO benefits and really
ZERO reason for people to confirm. (I’ve had great success
lately in other systems using double opt in with carefully
crafted confirmation copy AND a stronger ethical bribe)

Just happened to be breezing through aweber settings on all
my list segments (I’ve got about 50 of them in this market)
and saw the problem.

Sales from that partner proceeded to jump by about 80%.

When I did the math on the improvement, it comes to
over $500,000 left on the table because of that one friggin
button!

Can you say “OUCH!!??”

Anyway, here’s the thing.

This is definitely not the first incredibly expensive, stupid,
easy to fix mistake I’ve ever made… it’s kind of part of the
game when you’re moving at the speed of business and constantly
taking massive action.

BUT…

It got me VERY interested in looking for OTHER simple things
I might have ignored in my business.

Like, for example, not sending DIRECT MAIL to my customers.

Direct mail might be difficult to make work with cold prospects,
but once you know someone’s a happy buyer (and you know the
kinds of things they buy), well, the math is decidedly in
your favor.

So in the next few weeks I’m going to do a webinar with
someone who knows quite a bit about the mechanics of direct
mail, especially with customer lists. (He lived with Gary
Halbert for several months)

In fact, what I’ve been learning this year from him actually
has me REPEATEDLY smacking myself in the head with a spatula!

“If only I knew then what I know now…”

Please click here now on my sneaky affiliate link to see what
he’s got to offer…

WARNING: you might want to put on a helmet before you click!

http://www.KillerNewsletter.com

Onwards and Upwards,

Dr. Glenn 🙂

What was Gary Halbert Like? (MP3)

Question for you today… what was Gary Halbert really like?

Well, if there’s one man who might know, it’s “Doberman Dan” Gallapoo!  Why?

Because he’s probably the ONLY protege’ of Gary Halbert to have actually lived with the guy for 3 months!

Dan’s also written copy  for:

  • MuscleMag International…
  • National Association of Professional Martial Artists (NAPMA)…
  • Flex…
  • Success…
  • The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association Trade Magazine (IHRSA)…
  • Muscle & Fitness…
  • Men’s Edge…
  • IronMan…
  • Black Belt Magazine…
  • Muscular Development…
  • Reps!
  • Exercise For Men Only…
  • Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness…
  • Martial Arts Professional Magazine…
  • Small Business Opportunities…
  • Home Business Magazine…
  • The National Enquirer…
  • Weekly World News

AND, he’s made millions in his own direct response business (having nothing to do with the make-money crowd)

Now, you might not really care what Gary Halbert was like drunk.  (I mean heck, he didn’t even have a reputation for being the most normal guy when he was sober, right?)

But you should care what Doberman Dan learned from Gary Halbert.  Things Gary never shared publicly.

And below you’ll find a full length interview with Dan all about things like…

  • The “Potato Box” Secret: Gary’s truly weird way of incubating million dollar ideas…
  • Why Copy Really Isn’t All That Important: amazing but true, and I agreed with him once he explained it…
  • WARNING: Your Response Rate and Refund Rate Don’t Really Matter Either: I agreed with him on this too!…
  • What It Was Really Like Being Tortured by Gary Halbert on a Daily Basis: and why Dan aggressively pursued ever more contact with Gary even though he’s NOT a massochist
  • The “incubation and assimilation” secret to finding the right story and constructing the right offer

Have a listen now while you’re here.

Enjoy,

Dr. G 🙂

PS – Dan writes a PRINT newsletter which is definitely worth reading.  I actually started reading it just to get a sense of the story-telling secrets he picked up from Gary (and also because Dan’s one of the very few people Terry Dean actually talks to in the internet marketing world).  But I KEPT reading it because he not only sucked me in with the stories, he made my head explode with business ideas in ways I wasn’t being stimulated elsewhere.  My sneaky affiliate link for the letter is www.KillerNewsletter.com