Suzanne Sommers does over $50 million a year in all the products she’s done. Alex has played a part in that. Ronco? We’ve all heard of Ronco? Ronco with Ron Peal. Players Club International. That was Telly Savalis for those of us who remember Telly. Topsy Tale Contour Pillow. Ray Stevens Comedy Video Classics. The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies. Wild Animal Video Series. Just a zillion other things, so it’s my pleasure to introduce Alex Mandossian. Alex: Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. That’s quite an introduction. I’m ready to dive into content whenever you are, Lorrie. Lorrie: Let’s go for it! Alex: You want to start with strategies? Okay. We have identified 7 strategies and in copy what I find is, it’s more than just about words. It’s about feelings. It’s about connecting a hidden desire or an expressed desire in a market, a target market. It could be about losing weight. It could be about making money in real estate. It could be making money through writing copy. But there is an expressed desire in a collective group of minds that are out there. And you have to identify where those minds are, find them and then connect with them. And I’m a big stickler on writing copy and I don’t consider myself a Copywriter really. I consider myself a Marketer who expresses what I want to sell through words, through sound, color, movement, interactive actions. Measuring those things and then improving them continuously. So it’s not about the creativity of the words. Oh, all the creativity really is in the market. They will tell you what they want. David Oglesby, who is one of the greatest Copywriters who ever lived. He bought a castle in Scotland because of all the money he made for Oglesby & Mather. He first thought of a headline that didn’t come from his mind. It came from an engineer at the Rolls Royce factory who told him. “You know, David, the loudest
noise from this Rolls Royce comes from the clock.” In other words, the clock on the dashboard at 60 miles an hour. Now that’s what he told David Oglesby and David Oglesby made a connection. Because, man, this engineer must know something because he’s constantly in the flow about changes and revisions and all the changes that are happening with the Rolls Royce. So David goes back and he writes the headline. At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise you’ll hear from this Rolls Royce is the electric clock. That’s pretty compelling but David didn’t think about it. He didn’t make it up. It wasn’t his headline. It wasn’t his thing. It was the engineer’s thing. So he did his research and made a connection. And that’s what copy is really. It’s making connections between what the target market wants and expressing those through words. Now, I’m going to introduce it with 7 motivators to get people to read more copy and hopefully buy more product from you whether it’s a service, a piece of software, or a physical product faster, better, and with less effort than anything else you’ve ever tried before. Without spending a single nickel more on advertising. Lorrie, you know, you can write 2 ads and you can spend the same amount of advertising whether it’s pay-per-click traffic or space ads for newspapers or classified ads. Or just getting traffic from affiliates and one ad, I call them ads. It could be a webpage. I like small words so I’m going to call them ads. One page may out pull the other one by 3 to 1, 4 to 1, 5 to1 and it costs you the same amount of money to get them there. Isn’t that amazing?! All that changed were the words! Well, I like to think of them as more than just words. And I like to think of them as principles. So these are 7 principles. I call them tips, principles, strategies, but there are 7 principles that fuel copywriting so that you can convince people faster, better, and with less effort. And don’t spend an extra penny more on advertising and make more money. And you don’t have to be a copywriter to do it. That’s the best part. You can hire someone out and teach them these 7 strategies. They’re certainly not exhaustive. There are many, many more, but they are
motivators. They are mind motivators. So let me give you Number 1. Let’s write this down:
• The number 1 motivator is STORY. Read the sentence, Lorrie, ‘cause you have it in front of you.
Lorrie: Use ‘Blank’ to get your readers to read more of your sales copy. And that’s using ‘Story’. Alex: Use stories. Or story. People use the word ‘story’ as plural sometimes. Use story. Why story? Well, that’s one great motivator to create memories and more sales because the story has a beginning. It has a middle. And it has an end. It has a moral. Right? The moral of the story is the point. And sometimes the story can convince without even selling. You don’t have to tell them to buy. Just logically they’ll want to buy. And it’s memorable because it has a beginning. It has a middle. It has an end. And that’s how people in oral traditions in ancient times used to pass on the proverbs of the time. They told stories. Lorrie: I was just going to interject that, Alex. We’re a story telling society. We do pass stories on. Over and over again even in religious sects, or in different groups. That’s how history lives on is through stories, because we really relate as humans to hearing a story. A beginning, a middle, and an end. It really connects with us. Alex: That’s right. And so in your notes, after you write the word “story” in the blank, I want you to write down the Wall Street Journal ad. Because there is a Wall Street Journal ad that has been running for 25 years, even more, maybe 30 years. And it starts like this. “On a beautiful late spring afternoon 25 years ago 2 young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these 2 men. They both had been better than average students in school. For both were personable and both were as college graduates are, filled with dreams of the future. Recently, the 2 men returned to college for their 25th Reunion. They were both
very much alike. Both were happily married, both had 3 children, and both as it turned out had gone to work for the same Midwestern manufacturing company after graduating. And both are still there. But there was one difference. One of the men was a manager of a small department of that company. And the other one was the president.” Okay. That’s the way this particular direct mail piece opened. Is that captivating? Does that bring you into something that you’re very familiar with, maybe? Like 2 people starting the same way and one becomes a super success and the other one doesn’t. Bottom line is, you’re going to read that story and they’re going to tell you that one reads the Wall Street Journal and the other one doesn’t. And how the Wall Street Journal, they are going to imply or insinuate or seduce you to think which I’m sure is true. It has a huge impact on someone. Okay? So the story does the selling for you. You don’t as the copywriter. The story does the selling. You want a great tip? You can write this down in the Notes Section: “Tell a story into a recorder.” It can be a digital recorder. It can be an audio tape recorder. Put that story in writing and give that story to a transcriptionist. Let that transcriptionist transcribe your audio words. There’s very little writer’s block when you speak. Right? There’s a lot of writer’s block when it comes through your fingertips because it has to come from your brain and all the way down to your shoulders, through your elbows, all the way down to your fingertips. And you’re using 2 hands to complicate matters. But when it comes down through your mouth, and you just talk, it’s easy. Plus, it’s conversational. This is a product right now that we’re creating. Yet it’s a story. And stories are the Number 1 Principle that we’re talking about that makes good copy, great copy. Make more sales with a few small tweaks. This is one of them. So if you can start with a story, every product has a story.
Another story is with Joe Sugarman with Blublocker Sunglasses. That was an infomercial product. I don’t know if anyone remembers it, but heck, I do. I was involved in it. And the way the ad starts in print, it says:
“I’m going to tell you a story. The story I’m about to tell you is absolutely true. If you believe me, you will be well rewarded. If you don’t believe me, I will make it worth your while and change your mind. Let me explain.”
And he goes along to talk about how his friend, Lynn, gave him a pair of sunglasses that changed his life. And that was Blublocker. Again, it starts with a story just like the Wall Street Journal article. Does it work? Yes it does! Because we’re used to stories and it’s not something unfamiliar to us. And so in your notes write down “Blublocker ad”. Write down “Wall Street Journal ad”. These ads have been working for in Blublocker’s case about 20 years. The Wall Street Journal ad’s case about 35 years. That’s a long time. That means it works. How to Win Friends and Influence People. That’s a book by Dale Carnegie. Isn’t that’s nothing more than a bunch of stories? So in writing copy, if you write with a story then you will capture readers attention. Your reader. And every product has a story. If your product doesn’t have a story then I would recommend that you change the product. (laughter) Lorrie: I have a question or should I save mine for the end as well? Alex: I’ll just give one example of the way a websites starts and it’s very, very successful. And it’s called Mind Motivators. 1st Sentence: “Dear Colleague, the first email came in at 6:58 a.m. It was Dave, a long-term mutual friend of ours. And desperate is the only way to describe his message.”
That’s the way it begins. I wrote it. And it’s very, very simple. It’s about an email that we got from Dave who couldn’t make the teleconference and wanted the contents of the 21 Mind Motivators. And as it turned out, that becomes my sales letter throughout the piece. So if you go there and just copy it and read it and copy the methodology to get you to opt-in. To show you the importance of some of the motivators then you can use it in your own copywriting endeavors. That’s www.MindMotivators.com. So that’s the 1st strategy. It’s called Stories and I hope you took some notes about it. Go ahead, Lo, and let’s get some insights on it. Lorrie: Well, first of all, I have to say please go to MindMotivators.com. Alex is saying he’s not a quote, unquote Copywriter. But that’s just bull. Alex is one of the best copywriters that I’ve ever read. But what I wanted to ask you, Alex, is when do you include the Story in the copy? Do you like to open with a Story? Or do like to have it unfold later. Alex: You can do both. I use stories to open with because when I speak publicly it’s the easiest way to get someone’s attention. I don’t say, ‘Hi. My name is Alex Mandossian (snicker, snicker) and I’m up here and I’m a pretty good web traffic conversion strategist. I don’t do that. I just gave a speech about 2 ½ hours ago and this is how I started. Did you see what I just did? I was silent for 3 seconds. I start that way. I get all the energy. And then I say “It was a warm spring morning in March of 1973. I was a cub scout and my feet were dangling on the chair listening to my troop master talking about some fund raiser about selling chocolate bars.” Okay. Now what has that have to do with web traffic conversion? Everything, as the Story goes. But it grabs people’s attention, so I like to always start and hit ‘em between the eyes with a story because it’s interesting. But they want to know what the moral of the Story is and they can relate to it.
Other times I use a story is in the middle of copy. And I don’t call that Story. I call that the 6th Principle which is Case Studies. A Case Study is a Story and I’m going to get to that in a little bit. So as far as a Story goes, I always start with a Story because AIDA, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. That’s a 4 step formula that’s still valid today. People think it’s overused. Heck no! It still works. People are people. The fastest, easiest, most reliable way to bet attention is to start with a Story. Even if you’re, you know, giving a fact or giving a quote. It really is a Story, because people want to know, ‘Hey, what’s the Story?’ When someone goes to apply for a loan, if we have any mortgage people on or real estate people on. You know, if someone gets their Fica score and their Fica score is low and the mortgage score is low and the mortgage broker comes up to you and says “You know, you have a low Fica score, but I don’t want you to get penalized for that. So what’s your story? Why is it low?” So your credit may not be bad, you might just be highly leveraged ‘cause you use your credit cards for business, you may have a low Fica score. So the Story there is absolutely important to get a good interest rate on a home which a lot of people want. So Story edifies. It credentializes. And it draws people in. And that’s why my son, Gabriel, and my daughter, Brianna, want to hear a Story before they go to bed. Because that’s something that’s interesting to them and in that case I’m putting them to sleep. In this case, we want to awaken people and Story will do that. It’’’ bring them into copy. Lorrie: Very connecting. I agree. Alex: So the only way to convince someone about something that they’re unfamiliar with is the first proof that you’re an authority about something that they aren’t familiar with. Let me repeat that. The only way to convince someone about something that they are unfamiliar with is first convince them that you are an authority on something that they are familiar with. And a Story about 2 young men, one of them making it and the other one not making it is a familiar story. It could be 2 young women. You know, it could be 2 high school graduates, not college
graduates. It’s a very familiar topic. So Story is the 1st of 7 Strategies. Any final comments on that, Lo? Lorrie: Thanks. I’m thinking frantically myself. Great. Alex: Well, let’s go to Number 2. Remember that these aren’t specifics of how to write, but this is how your writing is going to be fueled, because I want you to be a copywriter. Meaning you copy what I’m teaching you now. Just copy it. Originality is the most dangerous word in advertising and copywriting. That’s what Rosser Reeves said. He invented the unique selling proposition. Don’t be creative. All the creativity is in your market. Be connected. Channel the demand by them telling you what they want and then you giving it to them. Story is one of the things that you know they want. Otherwise it wouldn’t be around for this long. Lorrie: Have you heard that if writer’s write, then do copywriters copy? Have you heard that? Alex: I have. And I hope everyone does copy because you know copying, not plagiarizing, but copying a methodology, just like David Oglesby did. He copied that engineer, right? That’s a darn good way to increase pulling copy power without spending one red cent more on advertising. Now the 2nd Strategy. The 2nd Principle to make good copy great. Okay. Good copy can always be made better. Is SPECIFICITY. Go ahead and fill that in. Lo, go ahead and read the sentence. Lorrie: The sentence is “Use Specificity to add more credibility to add more credibility to each of your claims.” Alex: It’s going to encourage credibility and believability. Let me go ahead and give you a very simple and age old example in American advertising. 99½% pure. 99½% pure. You know who did that? Ivory Soap. It’s a heck of lot more powerful than 100% pure, even 99% pure. That ¼% makes a huge difference. You see? When you’re specific about something people aren’t really
even going to question you. Because they’re going to say, ‘Why in the heck is this person saying this?’ Let me give you a Case Study. Go to InstantInternetProfits.com. This is Yanic Silver. Let me read you his claims, okay? He says, ‘My name is Yanic Silver. Yep. That’s me in that silly Hawaiian shirt my wife hates.’ There’s a picture of him out there. So he’s connecting already and he’s doing it with a ‘I love starting with one sentence’. Or a very short sentence because copy has to be consumable. You don’t want to create indigestion with your readers just like food. Then why give them an 8 course meal. Give them a snack. Give them some sorbet, you know. One sentence, a few words. Man they’ll love it. And then the whole point of the 1st sentence is to get them to do what?? (Lorrie states: Read the next sentence.) You got it! You get ‘em down the greased chute. But some people like to razor wire along that greased chute so that people are like sliding down going ‘Oh, oh, ouch, oh’. People wonder why they don’t read copy because, my gosh, you gotta start it out slow. You know, it’s like asking for marriage on the 1st date. It won’t happen often. And if it does, boy, you better look at that 1st date and say “Do I have a stalker on my hands?” Okay so. Here’s the sentence. “It’s only a few short months, I’ve achieved the ultimate Internet fantasy of making a lot of money from a simple, almost primitive website, that runs itself virtually on complete autopilot. Starting from scratch, I banked over $51,351.94 my 1st 6 ½ months online. Not 6 months, 6 ½ months online just working part-time out of the corner of my living room.” Okay. Now let me read that sentence again another way. “Starting from scratch I banked over $50,000 my 1st 6 months online.” Is that believable? No! It is not. What’s more believable? Listen to this. “Starting from scratch I banked over $51,351.94 my 1st 6 ½ months online.” That is more believable. Without knowing the person because why in the heck would someone be that specific?
Lorrie: Yes. It’s like they’ve done their homework, right? They’ve researched it. Alex: Yes. Let me give you another tip that you can put under the Notes. Odd numbers seem more specific than even numbers. I don’t know why but 51 seems more specific than 50, would you agree? (Lorrie agrees). It’s wild. That’s why I have only 353 teleslots available. If you go to JustAskBrian.com/teleseminar there’s a sales letter that just went up and at the bottom it says only 353 teleslots available. That is absolutely true. I could’ve said 350 but there’s a moderator, there’s me and there’s Brian. So that’s 353. That’s a heck of a lot more believable because it’s specific. So look at the example at InstantInternetProfits. Check that out and remember the Ivory Soap ad. 99 ¼% pure. Lorrie: Is there a place to find these ads? Is there a website that has them collected that you know about off-hand? Alex: Well, there’s some books like 100 World’s Greatest Advertising Ads of All Time. I think if you go to twkpress.com you’ll see some old books there. (Lorrie affirms that she knows of them.) There’s one up about that, The 100 Best Ads Ever Written. And that was written by a guy named Watkins. He just collected all the old ads. And the Ivory Soap ad is there. Specificity is key. I think you can also find it in Tested Advertising Methods. It’s a very important book. But specificity, isn’t it good? It’s very, very good. But just be specific. It is so easy. You don’t have to be a world class copywriter. Turn 50,000 into 49, 238. Even better 237. Lorrie: Yes. You’re not saying people should lie obviously. You’re saying if you’re rounding a number, why not be specific with it. Alex: Well. I think you should be underclaiming. If you have $50,000 in sales, why not say $48,923? Okay. You’re underclaiming and that’s more believable than $50,000. Even though $50,000 is more.
Lorrie: That’s really true. Actually some copy I wrote earlier this year generated $31,497. I was going to say it generated about $30 grand. But that doesn’t sound as real. It doesn’t sound like a have the real numbers (Alex agrees saying ‘No!’) Even though it’s just a little bit over $1,000 more than that. It just has so much more impact. Alex: It has much more impact and people don’t think about it. You see when you write copy, and I’m going to be very clear about this. You don’t want someone to say, you know literary copy is different than sales copy. You don’t want to say, “Gee, Lo. I love the ring of that sentence.” Or “That passage was beautiful.” Uh, Uh. That’s not what you want them to say. You want them to say, “My God! Am I in that much danger?!” Or you want them to say, “Can I really write world class copy in 30 minutes or less?” You want them to feel the feeling. You, as a copywriter are like a window showcase on 5th Avenue. The window is your copy, but it must be transparent. You must not write so that you capture attention as a writer. Your job is to get them straight to the feeling. The window showcase on 5th Avenue. Let’s say Sachs 5th Avenue has a product behind it, it your product. If the window has a fingerprint on it. If the window has a reflection on it then it is capturing attention and your product is not being seen clearly. You are the copywriter. Your job is to have a clean window. No reflection so they can look right through your copy. Get straight to the feeling and then buy your product. Lorrie interjects: Alex. That is a great analogy! I love that. It’s like your copy disappears. Alex: That’s right!! Now what did I just do. I proved Strategy Number 1. That’s a Story. It’s a very special story called a metaphor. Can anyone use this? Absolutely! Well. Can Lorrie use it? I hope she does in the future. It’s a very powerful way to express what copy should do. It should not call attention to itself. It’s a very lonely business, folks. We ask a lot of questions and we don’t get credit, especially when we’re ghost writers. So
if you want to get credit for your writing, do literary copy. If you want to make thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars, some people millions, write sales copy. It will work for you but you cannot call attention to yourself. And these little motivators take attention away from your copy and instead they increase the emotion so that people are going to buy from you logically because they believe in you. Credibly because they believe you. And emotionally because they are feeling the feeling of losing out if they don’t have it. Or gaining what you’re offering. Does that make sense? Lorrie: It does make sense. And we truly do buy emotionally. Mark Twain said there’s 2 reasons why we buy. The reason we tell our wife and the real reason. Alex: Exactly. So far we have Story and Specificity. And if you put that into your copy very, very simply. And anyone can do it. You will gain more traction meaning you will make more sales without spending an extra dime on advertising. That’s my theme. That’s what I’ll be burning and cementing into your minds throughout the presentation. Let’s move on. Number 3. Number 3 is Risk Reversal. Lo, read the sentence for it. Lorrie: So it’s “Use Risk Reversal to strengthen your guarantee.” Alex: Okay. I’m going to make a claim and it may be controversial. But whether you believe it or not it is true. It has been found true and I’ve done millions of dollars of advertising with companies like Time Life, Rodelle Press, and some of the biggest players anywhere. If, and here’s the question. Because I don’t want you to buy into this just because I’m saying it or Lorrie’s saying it. But I’m going to ask Lorrie, “If you knew that 5% of your customers were going to return the product no matter what. They’re just going to return it, right?
Here’s the question: Do you put more pressure on them to return it if your guarantee is for 30 days or if it is for 90 days? Where they can hold on to it longer and not worry about it. What do you put more pressure on? The less time they have or the more time they have? (Lorrie replies: the less time.) Exactly. There’s so much more pressure for 30 days versus 90. So let me ask another question. Do you put more pressure on them to return it if they were going to return it anyway between 90 days or one year. (Lorrie: The shorter term because they forget about it the longer they have it.) They can forget about it, and why not hold their money if they’re going to return it anyway for a longer period. The more risk you bear on your shoulders the longer the guarantee. Here’s the kicker, you get less of them. You get less refunded orders, refund requests the longer the guarantee. Because you are letting people off the hook. You are tipping the scales in your corner. Let’s take an example. Nancy Quan. Gee, I don’t know if people remember this, but she used to have a skin cream and she had her guarantee on her jar and the guarantee was this. “If your friends don’t actually accuse you of having a facelift send this back for a full refund even if you have an empty jar. We’ll refund you. Guaranteed!” Lorrie: That’s the Life Force empty jar. Wasn’t that one of the ones they made famous? Alex: I was just going to mention that. Life Force has a 45 day empty bottle guarantee. Okay? Lorrie: It’s still a little short isn’t it? Alex: Well, empty bottle is cool though. It says, go ahead and use my product. Right? So here’s the thing. You know Maxwell Sackheim who invented the Book of the Month Club. He said why do I offer you this new kind of pipe for $20 bucks? Here’s the guarantee. If you’re not completely satisfied after a 10 day trial, break the pipe, send me the pieces and you will owe me nothing.
What’s a pipe? A thing that you smoke. It’s a smoking pipe. So he’s saying if you’re not entirely satisfied with it, break it. Send it back. Send me the pieces back and you’ll owe me nothing. There’s an absurd guarantee that actually puts all the burden on the seller. The longer the guarantee the better. If you go to MarketingPostcards.com and you look at the guarantee, it’s an old picture of me, but the guarantee is still new and alive. I have a lifetime guarantee. “If for any reason you are dissatisfied with the content in this manual, no obligation, no commitment, no further expectations. Return it. I will keep your shipping and handling but you get the money back.” Lorrie: That’s if they stuffed in their closet. I mean if they used it they obviously aren’t going to return it. Alex: Again. The longer the better. There’s an audio guarantee at AudioGenerator.com. One that I wrote for Armand Moore. And it says, If you don’t think AudioGenerator is, and it goes over the benefit, just say so and we’ll write you a refund check on the spot. So AudioGenerator.com, MarketingwithPostCards.com. Lorrie, I’m sure you have many, many case studies. Those are 2 sites where you can check out a guarantee. The longer the better. On all of my AccessToLeaders calls. If you go to AccesstoLeaders.com you’ll just see a picture of me and hear me. And Access to Leaders is just giving people private access to top business leaders like Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen, Stephen Covey, and etcetera. What will happen, if they don’t like the content to that teleseminar, 365 days after that call I will refund them the $39.95 they paid. It says my famous 365 day guarantee. That’s called Risk Reversal. I hope you use it and I hope you understand that the longer it is the better off you’ll be because you will sell more product. Okay. Do you have any questions about that, Lo?
Lorrie: I was just going to say, if you take the risk off of the buyer, if they’re on the fence why not just get them to try the product. Of course, you gotta have a quality product behind it. You have junk and you have a great guarantee, you’re still going to get returns. But if you’ve got a really good product, I agree with you. The longer the better. And I have to say I love your new picture that Access to Leaders took! (Laughing) Thank goodness you got new pictures. (Alex says “Yea! You were very kind before. So that’s cool.” Alex: So those are the 1st 3, Stories, Specificity, Risk Reversal. These are principles. They are enduring. They will last forever. Use them. Here’s the 4th. Surveys. Okay, read the sentence, Lorrie. Lorrie: Use surveys to take the guesswork out of what your readers want. Alex: Do you want to know what your readers want? Ask them! Now let me take you back 2,500 years. There was an Athenian who used to walk in sandals in the streets of Athens. He didn’t pontificate meaning he didn’t give speeches, or tell people what to do as most philosophers did of his day. In fact, he used to be a sculptor, his father was a sculptor. He was born about 7 or 8 years after the death of Confucius. His student was Plato who’s student was Aristotle who’s student was Alexander the Great. So he comes from a great lineage but he was the starting point. His name was Socrates and he was put to death because he had too much influence over kids. And the reason he had such influence over kids was simply asking questions. You would walk up to Socrates and say, ‘Socrates, what is beauty?’ And he would say, ‘What does beauty mean to you?’ And the person would ask the question would end up answering the question which is the fastest and easiest way to dialogue like we’re doing right now. Dialogue is much more powerful than monologue, I hope you agree. But secondly, when people find the answers themselves, then the copy is transparent and the product is purchased. And I don’t know about you but I’d rather have more money in my
wallet than for someone to say how great the ring of my sentence was. So I don’t mind if people don’t know who wrote it as long as the money comes in my direction. I hope many people listening feel the same way. Now what do you do for surveys? Well, the surveys that we use dump into a program that we call the Ask Database. That’s a completely different teleseminar by itself, but the point I’m making is to ask the question. So here’s a very simple formula. You put up a webpage and I’ll give you some examples. You put up a webpage and ask ‘What’s the single most important question you have about (blank)?’ What’s blank? That’s your topic of expertise. If you’re a conversion strategist like me, you would say ‘about converting more traffic into cash’. If you write Red Hot Copy that sells more product with words you say, ‘increasing the pulling power of your sales copy’. That would be for Lorrie. If you are a real estate investor, you would say, ‘buy and sell more real estate even if other programs have failed me’. Only because a lot of people have sold real estate courses. You find your topic of expertise and that’s all you need to know. And go purchase a webpage. ‘Ask’ and then your name. AskAlexMandossian.com. There’s some others. AskStephenCovey.com. He wrote 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. AskBillClinton. AskTonyRobins. AskLesBrown. I know you were on that call, Lo. And the one I’m doing right now is JustAskBrian and that’s for Brian Tracy. The reason it’s JustAskBrian because someoneelse had AskBrianTracy. So if someone else has your name put ‘justask’ and then your first name. Lorrie: I have that, by the way. It’s not ‘justask’ but I have AskLo.com because Lorrie Morgan is a famous country singer and no one can spell my whole name. They just get the 1st part of the Ferrero wrong. Alex: Yeah! That’s awesome because what happens is when they ask you the question AskLo it’s like your branding yourself.
I’ve been calling you Lo and you know maybe people listening may not know what that meant. But Lo’s your nickname so I usually call you Lo because it’s a smaller, shorter word than Lorrie. And we’re friends. So if it’s AskLo then you’re dialoguing with someone with your nickname while you sleep. Powerful. So what I do with copy is I put up an Ask Page and here’s a quick Case Study. Actually I’ll give you the one that I just put up for Brian. You go to JustAskBrian.com and then you look at the question. Don’t ask a question because it’s too late. But there it is. If you want to go through the process, go right ahead. AskAlexMandossian.com is there too. Okay? You can go up and check it out. And then you can go to one that already happened. AskLesBrown. So you go to AskLesBrown.com and you see a very simple webpage. No if you go to AskLesBrown.com/teleseminar you will see a sales page. And that’s a similar sales page I’m doing for Brian Tracy of which Lorrie is an affiliate. So you’ll probably see some presentation about it coming from Lorrie. So what happens is, you go to AskLesBrown.com/teleseminar and you see a bunch of bullets. Those benefits were not written by me. They were written by the target market. And the reason they were written by the target market is that they told me that they wanted to hear more about stage fright. Or how to uncover their topic. Or all the number of things that you see there. I didn’t write those. They did. The people who ask the questions. So as a copywriter it goes back to connecting. You target market is telling you something and you’re connecting those ideas with your product. And in this case it was nothing more than teleconference. When you get the offer from Lorrie I hope you go and you get on the call because it’s guaranteed for how long, Lo? 365 days! There’s no risk. I’m going to refund you. Me. If you don’t like what you’ve heard or the transcripts aren’t want you paid, it’s worth 365 days. It’s compelling for me telling you at the same time I’m teaching. That’s how powerful it is. You can use this to your favor when you write. So it’s not only writing, it’s about communicating. Surveys is the 4th Principle. And AskLesBrown.com is the 1st page and AskLesBrown.com/teleseminars is the next page. And you’ll see the one for Brian Tracy shortly when you get an email
from Lorrie. So those are the 4 Strategies so far. Story, Specificity, Risk Reversal, and Surveys! Any comments so far? Lorrie: Yes. I want to make a comment about the Ask Database again. My affiliate link is at AskDatabase.net so they know you came from me. But a love this program because you actually use the verbage that the people put in. That the target market puts in. And can you just tell us a little bit more abut key word sorting and powerful that is? Alex: Sure. If you go into a search engine, let’s say Google. And you type in the word paintball which is a search term which is often searched online like over half a million people look for the word ‘paintball’. Well, that’s a game. But if websites came up about ‘couple’s therapy’ after typing in ‘paintball’ you wouldn’t use Google very long. Lo, would you? It would not be relevant, right? So what we’re looking for is relevance and the Ask Database is the worlds 1st and only search engine for survey data. So when you get people to respond to the surveys. They can give you answers. They can give you questions. It’s a search engine. For example, if I typed in the word, public speaking, into the database. And I had all these questions that came into Ask through AskLesBrown. Every response that had the word, public speaking, in it would show up. And then I would see all the words that had public speaking. If I had typed in the word, stage fright, then all the words or all the questions that had the word combination, stage fright, which is a key word phrase would be in those responses. That’s very powerful because you’re not writing any more. Your target market is. (Lorrie says “You’re giving it back to them, aren’t you?”) All you’re doing is, you’re mirroring back to them. That’s all you’re doing. So that’s the power of it and like I say. That’s a whole teleconference by itself and there are many teleconferences. If you decide to use it, and you can use it for $1 I think for 21 days through Lorrie, it’s very, very powerful. And you will once and for all find the genetic code for how your market thinks and speaks. Because they tell you. It’s the DNA of your copy what your market is telling you. Like sucking out the information from their brains. Okay?
The next one is Number 5 and then, by the way these are not exhaustive, these are 7 because we have time for 7 during an hour. They’re literally hundreds. (Lorrie says, ‘Right!) Okay? Sometimes they’re 21, sometimes they’re 52. You could just coach people on these 7 if you had students yourself. And you could do a 7-week program and end it with a teleconference. There’s a lot of product that you can come up just with these Principles if, like Lorrie, you teach about copy to your own niches. Let’s say you teach writing copy to the real estate market or if you don’t want to write your own copy, you can just hand this information to your copywriter. Then you’ve done yourself a favor. Lorrie already knows these, so if she’s writing copy for you, you’re set. Now the next strategy is Contrasts. So read the sentence. Lorrie: Use the Law of Contrasts to hypnotically upsell your reader. Alex: Okay. Let me demonstrate the power of Contrasts. Picture yourself walking into a department store. Let’s say you walk into a Sears and you’re in the business of buying a refrigerator. You meet me. I greet you and I say ‘Hi. Good evening, madam. Are you looking for a refrigerator?’ And you say, ‘Yes, I am.’ Then I say, ‘Let me show you the top of the line. This is the Kenmore. It’s $2,496. It is the best. It has everything in it. It has the icemaker. It has the water purifier. It’s even talk back to your kids.’ Well, you tell me, ‘That’s too expensive. Show me something else.’ So I say, ‘Let’s go over here. This is another Kenmore brand however this one is $1,100. Now it doesn’t talk back to your kids, but it does have the feature where it purifies the water and has the icemaker and everything else and it’s a side-by-side.’ So you say, ‘Well, what else do got?’ I say, ‘Well, I got this. It’s the bottom of the line. It’s only $450. It doesn’t make ice. It doesn’t talk to your kids. It doesn’t have a freezer, but it does chill food. And if you’re looking to chill food, this is perfect.’ Now here’s the Law of Contrast. People like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. It’s not too hot. It’s not too cold. It’s just right.
People hate extremes. They have an aversion to it. It’s called the Principle of Aversion to Extremes. You can write that in the Notes. It’s a very complicated sentence that says one thing. I hate extremes! I hate ‘em! I want to be in the middle. So if you start with the highest one first then go to the lowest one, you’re contrasting. And so by doing so what you’re doing is you are selling the middle one by starting up high. See if you start low. You say, ‘Look. I want to show you something. Here’s this $450 refrigerator.’ And she says, ‘What else do you got?’ You say, ‘Well, I got this $1,100 one.’ So she says, ‘Well, what else do you got?’ And I say, ‘Well. I got this $2,500 one.’ See. You’re never going to sell the $1,100 one. But if you start at the $2,400 one and you go down to $1,100 and then to $450, just in the way that you introduce your different products. Maybe the bronze, silver, or gold version. Or the silver, gold, and platinum version. Whatever you call them, always, always, always offer the top, the most expensive one first. You will sell more of the middle by doing it. Now, does that sound powerful? This is so, so simple because people hate to give up features. They hate to give up features! And they are giving up features when they are going down. They’re not giving up features when they’re going up. What they’re doing is they’re paying more money. But their focus is on giving up features when they are going down. A great example is if you go to 1ShoppingCart.com and you look at the way the Order Page is structured. Their most expensive, professional version, I have written first. Then I have the Basic Version and then I have the Beginner’s Version. And then I have the Trial at the very bottom. Lorrie: Alex, is the 1ShoppingCart is it spelled out or is it the number? Alex: It’s the Number 1. So you write “1” then shoppingcart.com. There’s multiple versions of it. So let’s say you go to 1shoppingcart.com and you land on the page and you see a picture of me in the lower left hand corner and then you
click the Start Now button with the woman in glasses. I got. Anyway, she’s looking at that and you click it and you will see that there are packages. The Pro Package is $69 a month or $699 a year. The Basic Package is $39 bucks or $399 a year. And the Starter Package is just $19 a month or $199 a year. And then you’ve got the Autoresponder Package and the Trial Package. It starts with the most expensive and goes to the least expensive. That’s the Law of Contrasts. Some people call it the Appliance Salesperson’s Close, which I did with you. And it’s through downselling. Now if you go to Instant Sales Letters with Yanik Silver you’ll find that he uses a lot of Contrast copy and saying, ‘Hey, if you wrote these letters on your own, it may cost you $1,500, $2,500 bucks with a copywriter. Because I have these instant sales letters it costs you less.’ If you don’t have the exact verbiage, does it mean that much to you? If it doesn’t, then maybe you can buy this product for whatever it is he charges these days. So that’s how he uses contrasts to generate sales. So let’s say if Lorrie had templates of her best headlines. And she said ‘Look you have a choice. You can hire me for X number of thousand dollars if I’m able to write for you. Or you can purchase that I’ve found over the years that work with my clients like Tom Antion, Mark Victor Hansen, John Childers, Les Brown, etc, etc. You can use the same words that I use and just use them for your own copy and it will cost you $97.’ That’s the Law of Contrast because you have a choice. You can hire for thousands which many people do. Or buy her product for $97 bucks. Now isn’t that a great contrast? And that’s a pretty decent idea, so it’s time that you did something like that, Lorrie. I think it will be awesome. So the Law of Contrasts, it can be used in many different ways. I use them as an Exit Pop-up. ‘If you don’t buy my $247 course, you can get the $147 one that’s not a 3-ring binder, but it’s a CD Rom.’ And the CD Rom costs me less. So you can buy it for $147. A lot of people purchase it. It’s called a downsell. That’s the Law of Contrast. Start high and end up low.
Lorrie: Well, you added your reason why it was cheaper as well. It’s because it’s cheaper for you to make. Alex: You gotta tell the truth. If you go to MarketingBrainDump.com you have a choice to get the resale rights for $147. You have the choice to purchase just the digital download and the transcript for I think it’s $47. Or you can listen to the whole thing free if you sit in front of your computer for 5 ½ hours on streaming. You know what I’m saying? But I’m starting with the resale rights at $147, then $47, then Free. What a great model! So always start with the highest number. That is the Law of Contrast. Quick recap. Principal Number 1. Use STORY. Number 2. Use SPECIFICITY. Number 3. RISK REVERSAL. Number 4, Use SURVEYS so you tap into the minds of your prospects, not your own. Listen there’s only one marketing genius. It is not you or I. It is our customer. It’s the customer. And then the 5th one is the LAW OF CONTRASTS. Okay. Let’s move on to CASE STUDIES. Case Studies. That is the 6th Principle. Read the sentence please. Lorrie: Principle Number 6. Use Case Studies to make your claims more believable. Alex: Okay. I’m going to give everyone a formula for their notes. And this is a formula that I don’t know if I created it our not. I’m never seen it anywhere else. I’ve just been using it for a long, long time. And I’ll give you an example of the website which I’ve already given you the address to. You can go back and check it out. It’s called the PAR Formula. Problem, Action, Result. What was the problem? What’s the action they took? And what’s the result they got? Well I’ve got news for you. You want to be more credible? Don’t always give a positive result. Okay. When I speak publicly I will always talk about a beautiful failure that I had. Now I don’t know which one. I have a lot of them. But I talk
about a failure because it makes me more human. And I deliberately talk about the result not working. And it typically is a result that everyone thought was going to work and it didn’t. So they become like me. They thought it was going to work, but it didn’t. Kind of takes me off the hook. If you go to MarketingWithPostcards.com I call them Case Histories there. And you will see actual Case Studies with the formula that I’m talking about. Part of the reason I have them there is so that I can have a call like this and teach by having people going to a website. So if you scroll down the page you will see these little sections that say Case History. And if you read those Case Histories they’re pretty interesting. One of them says ‘color postcards make whitening toothpaste the Number 1 brand in day spas and salons worldwide’. Problem. A manufacturer and distributor of a high end whitening toothpaste experienced margin erosion once the sales from it’s infomercial, TV Home Shopping and Space ad because it began to dwindle. The media rates increased and the profits dropped from 38% to 5%. There is not one manufacturer that doesn’t know what that problem feels like. So I’m relating to them. Action! The company launched a 12 month post card campaign to 2,600 day spas revealing the products whitening ability with 4 color before and after pictures. The offer urged spa owners to trade in their own toothpaste brand in exchange for the company’s whitening brand. When someone sends you a toothpaste for theirs because they want your product for free. Is that a darn good lead, or what? People were Fedexing these things. Results! So Problem, Action, Result. Over 810 day spa owners participated in the brand swapping program. That is a bad number. I should have said 809. Over 809 day spa owners participated in the brand swapping program and by year’s end the whitener became the Number 1 toothpaste brand sold in day spas. In 16 months distribution in the US and Europe increased from just 32 doors to over 430 doors and counting. That is a story. It is in the middle of my webpage and it is powerful
because anyone who has a personal care product will use postcards to sell those things. And that’s why I put it there. So as I said at the beginning of this a Case Study is kind of like a story, but I put them in the middle of my page. There is your example. I’ll give you another website you can write down and read later. The-whole-truth.com that’s by Stephen Pierce. Check out the way he uses Case Studies. It’s awesome! So don’t forget. Take a look at the way people tell stories about case studies. They will always make them a happy story. Don’t always make them a happy story because you become more believable if you do. One thing, when you start your copy with a story, always give it a happy ending! Never end with an uh! That’s the worst thing you can do. So that’s Case Studies. And remember the PAR Formula. Problem. Action. Result. Let’s go on to the 7th and final strategy or principle. What’s it called? Lorrie: The CONSUMPTION MATRIX. Use the Consumption Matrix to help your readers visualize using your products or service. Alex: That’s right. What’s a Consumption Matrix? That’s such a complicated sounding term. It’s really, really easy. Here’s what it is. I want everyone to write these 4 words.
• What! That’s what you’re selling. So whatever it is write down the what.
• When! When is your product consumed? If it’s an information product can it be consumed on a plane? Right? Can it be consumed in rush hour traffic in a car? If you have a skin care product, can it be consumed in the bathroom? You’ve got to get your user to visualize when it’s being consumed. So what is it? When is it being consumed and you have all these different situations. So you want to make these rows. When? And then write down all the ‘whens’. Why is it being
consumed? Well, let’s say that you have Anthony Robbins Personal Power. It’s going to be consumed in the car during rush hour traffic to make use of dead time.
• And then after you have the Why you ask the question ‘How?’ If you have an information product it can be DVD. It can be a CD. It can be MP3 online. It can be an audio cassette. Look at all the upsell possibilities.
So just write down what your product is. And then write 3 columns. When, Why and How. And each row is a different situation. So here’s an example. Imagine looking in your audio cassette of Anthony Robbins Personal Power and in your car during rush hour traffic. You are stuck in traffic and you don’t care. You know why? Because you’re using this dead time in producing all the motivation that you need to get to work. And ‘how’ are you doing it? You’re just doing it with an audio cassette. And in 12 minutes you’ll be more pumped up so when you see your boss’s face, you’ll no longer get angry. You will smile. That’s copy. And that’s using the Consumption Matrix for copy. So here are the 7. STORY, SPECIFICITY, RISK REVERSAL, SURVEYS, CONTRASTS, CASE STUDIES, and CONSUMPTION. You gotta know the way your people consume your product no matter what it is. It could be a stick of deodorant. It could be Arm & Hammer Baking Soda that teaches you to throw it down the drain. They teach you to throw away their product so you’re sink tastes better. Remember that for your copy. Lorrie: Right! Michael was about to ask a question, but since you’re on. If you wouldn’t mind. Take it away. Michael: Oh. It’s a simple question, I think. With respect to Risk Reversal. Does it make a difference say if you’ve giving 365 day guarantee or lifetime? Alex: Well that’s a good question. Let me tell you why I like 365 days. Let me ask you a question. Does 365 days sound more compelling, more dramatic than a 1 year guarantee?
Michael: Yes. Alex: Right. 365 days is like 365 of those chances to return it versus 1 year even though it’s the same time period. Sounds like one. So it’s almost like, you know the definition of creativity? Creativity in my mind is the truth made fascinating, so 365 days is more fascinating than 1 year. So I use that. So what is lifetime. I mean is it as long as I live or as long as you live? You know what I mean? So I am really looking at 365 days as my ongoing guarantee because I think even though lifetime is longer, 365 days is more effective. And I’m even going to a guarantee that is conditional. I have people who I consider to be ‘tire kickers’. And tire kickers are those people who I don’t begrudge for tire kicking, but you know they buy the product and they don’t use the product and then they ask for a refund later. Now that’s fine. But the problem is why should I or you give a refund for someone who decides to change their mind afterwards. Because maybe their funds are low at a particular time and period and so they ask for a refund. Now I’ve been there and other people have been there. I just never as for refunds from people who have sold product that’s because I kept a product just because it’s not a nice thing to do. I want a refund if I don’t get the value from the product, not if I didn’t use it. So here’s the way I handle that. I have now what’s called a conditional guarantee. If you use 3 of the secrets that I teach you in this course and after 365 days you haven’t made 10 times what you paid me to purchase this course. And sometimes that course is $1,800, then write me and I’ll send you a refund check on the spot. That’s my conditional guarantee. If you can’t live by that, don’t buy it. So sometimes a conditional guarantee creates a boundary, so we’re not a doormat to our customers. And I’m sure like many personal development coaches that are on the line right now are
nodding their heads, yes. Yeah, why should we put ourselves on the hook if somebody’s not going to open the box? So I like a conditional guaranteed these days. The 365 days will put a lot of risk on your shoulders, but by making it a condition, if you sell as much product as I do. Some people will ask for a refund just because they had a bad month at work, you know. And they want to find a way that they can bring in that extra $1,800 bucks. Some of my products are higher ticket so that ask for a refund. I tell them, well, I’d love to give you one. Tell me what 3 strategies you used? And I put them on the hook because I refuse to sell to people who ask for a refund. It is not a resentment I have for them. It is my personal philosophy. I give so much content in a regular presentation that’s free. (Lorrie states ‘Hello?’) They’re insane if they’re going to return something. I mean that’s my belief system. Now right, wrong or indifferent, I believe that. Now the only time I will take a refund and not feel bad about it is when someone asks for a refund for Marketing with Postcards who’s an advanced direct marketer. That course is for beginners and intermediate. And say a Dan Kennedy graduate or a Jay Abraham graduate or a Ted Nicholas graduate purchase that course. You know what I do? I call them up and I say, how long have you been marketing? They tell me and you know what, this course is not for you. Let me not let it go through the credit card process. And I’ll nab it right there because by not selling him or her that course I’m salvaging an asset and a relationship where all my other advance courses I have to sell to those people. And that’s another strategy by the way. That’s called a take away which we can put as a bonus. Take away the ability to buy it if they are not willing to deal. And you will respect me if you are an Advanced Post Card marketer and I tell you I don’t want you to buy the course. I just don’t because you may just ask for a refund. I don’t want you to think ill of me because it’s an intermediate course. So that is a very powerful way to add on to the guarantee question and at the same time make more money faster, better, with less effort using different words without spending an extra dime on advertising. Now that’s a long winded
answer, but did that make sense? (Michael says yes. Thank you.) You’re welcome. Lorrie: Does anybody else have any questions? I know Cathy had a question for Alex? Cathy: I always have questions, Lorrie. I want to your strategies, your stories. I’m giving a teleclass. My business is that I help mid-career, mid-life professionals move to a second career. And I have these stories about how I worked with people and they succeeded. What would be the way I could use non-success story for credibility without making myself look dumb? Alex: Okay. First of all, you teach people how to make that change, correct? So if it didn’t work, it had very little to do with you if the principles you teach work. For example, if you use what I’m teaching right now incorrectly, they may not work for you but that’s not my fault. You know, that’s not the principle’s fault. The principle meaning the strategy. That may be the fault of the implementer. So what you want to do is you want to tell a story of how they used your strategy, how they thought to the tee. Like they thought they were dotting every I and crossing every t and it failed. And it devastated you. And you wanted to learn more, why did it fail? You can’t believe it failed because this has never failed before. You see the story and how it’s developing? And you wonder, how could this be so you dug deeper, and deeper, and deeper and you drilled deeper and you asked and you found out that they made one glaringly obvious mistake that you had not caught. They had not caught and it failed. And that was because they didn’t put their 800 number down. Or whatever the case may be. Or whatever the mistake they made it had nothing to do with you, it had to do with them executing improperly. When you make a cake if you leave out the butter it’s going to taste differently. If you melt the butter it’ll taste differently. So the recipe calls for certain things to be put into place in sequence and in a certain way. I never knew that if you melted butter it
would change the way it tastes but it does because if you change the consistency chemically of the ingredients. Well, your strategies probably have the same level and dimensions as ingredients because you’ve got to do things a certain way and they will work. If they don’t, then there was something wrong with the way the formula was implemented. If that’s true. So find something that didn’t work and find why it didn’t work and use that to close people who are on the fence. I’ll give you a great example and I’m talking about a shortcoming in selling more wine than anyone else at a restaurant in a restaurant. I was a waiter in college. And it was a French restaurant and we always had 2 specials every single day. One was called salmon au la curette which was a salmon in a crusted shell. It was for $21. And there was another one which was called poulette la brouche which was chicken on a skewer with a saffron sauce. And that was $16.95. so people would come up to me and they would say I’d like the salmon please. Now my goal was to sell wine because I knew that when you sell wine chances are that there may be a 2nd bottle sold. When there’s a 2nd bottle sold chances are you get a better tip ‘cause people are happy. So I was going after a tip but I didn’t want an integrity breach. I didn’t want to have a breach of integrity. I wanted to tell the truth. So I did. So they said ‘I want the salmon’. So you know what I did? I looked over my right shoulder and I looked over my right shoulder. That was drama, I’ll admit it. But it was very effective. And I said, you know what, the salmon is not fresh, it’s fresh frozen. I would highly recommend you get the poulette la brouche for $16.95 which is delectable, which it was. But what did I just do? I went against my own interests. I went against the $21 sale and went down to the $16.95. Are you with me so far? After that happened I came back and I said okay would you like wine with the meal? They said we’d like the Mondavi from Napa Valley. And I’d look over my right shoulder and I’d look over my left shoulder and I’d say, you know what? For $3 more you can have the Private Reserve Mondavi. It’s so much better. The wood and the oak
from that wine will make the poulette a la brouche so much better. Which is true. And I sold that wine. I sold more wine than anyone else because I went against my own interests initially which you can too by talking about a shortcoming. And then selling more of it because I would sell 2 bottles instead of one because after someone purchases the 1st bottle and you’re pretty good at what you do they’re happy and they’ll buy a 2nd one. But no one ever buys 2 bottles initially. They’ll buy one and then they’ll buy 2 afterward. So going that process. Going against your own self interests upfront and having no integrity breach. Absolutely telling the true will make you more money faster, better and will less effort. So given you’re instance, you look for a student who didn’t have the success story that you want and hopefully made one small tweak, one small change to have a success story. If that exists that’s the best species of failure you can find. Because you can say, aha! Here’s what can happen if you overlook this. And then it has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with your formula and for him to pay close attention. To follow it step by step. Because that’s what you want them to do. You’re insinuating and selling that formula subconsciously to the listener or the reader just by telling the story. Does that make sense? Cathy: Yeah. But just one thing. it says you use a flaw like the melted butter which let’s say they didn’t do something. You’d say oh, they didn’t do it and we never expected anyone to do this. I learned along with the client. Alex: Exactly! Because if you’re learning along with the client, you are more like them. Yes? That’s what they want to hear. Let me give you an example I just did. I love closing from the platform. And I’m pretty good at it. What I do is I talk about indecision so when I’m talking about indecision I say look. There was a storyteller named Aesop. He’s one of the oldest storytellers of all time. He talked about the ass or back then they called it an ass. Today they call it a donkey. Okay? It’s inthe Bible. Now this particular donkey. Now what did I just put in
there? I put in donkey, ass, you know a donkey is not a horse. It doesn’t have a positive image. Right? Sometimes people look at a donkey and it’s like not smart. Which is not true but that’s how they see the donkey. So I’m not saying that. I’m just talking about being decisive. Buying my product or not buying it, but decide. Don’t be indecisive. That’ll kill ya’. So here’s what I tell them. I tell the story and the story is making the point. I am not. Actually, Aesop is making the point so here’s what I said. Now Aesop talks about this donkey who is indecisive and this donkey was starving and this donkey looked beneath him and he saw an apple on the right side of him and a pear on the left. So next to his 2 hoofs on the left there was pear on the right there was an apple. Okay? All of a sudden, he was starving and he says ‘Which one shall I eat?’ So he’s looking at the apple and the pear and the pear and the apple and then he collapses and starves to death because he can’t make a decision. How many of you in this room sometimes feel like that donkey? After seeing what you saw from me today, how many of you are either going to take the apple or the pear? See how I’m making a point through the story? But I’m not telling them that they are donkeys, for lack of a better term if they don’t decide. All I want is a decision. Take it or don’t take it, but decide. Don’t be indecisive. So a story is wonderful because just through a little chunk of copy or in this case verbal story telling you can make a point without ever talking directly to them. And hopefully when you talk about the mistake that was made you can make the point that now I’ve learned and maybe you can learn with me too. And they’ll let you off the hook if it doesn’t work for them. That’s the beauty of it. You’ll have fewer returns if it doesn’t work for them because you told them a story in advance. There’s a possibility of it now working. Hope that makes sense. Lorrie: Does anyone else have a question? I know we only have Alex for a few more minutes.
Female Caller: I have a quick question. This is Amy. My question regarding the surveys, if you create this Askwhoever.com how do you drive traffic to that site? Alex: 2 ways. If you have a list whether it’s a 100 people or if it’s 100,000 people you would send an email to them and you would say. ‘Look. I am’, what is your area of expertise? (Amy responds: I work with a professional speaker.) Okay. And you work with this professional speaker to do what? (Amy says: She speaks on customer service in the leisure industry?) So what’s your most important question as a leisure industry person? What is your single most important question on how to do what? (Amy says, ‘How to deliver good customers.’) Okay. Deliver good customer service in the leisure industry. So she sends the email to her list if she has one. If she doesn’t, she writes to trade organizations within the leisure industry and she says, ‘Hey, I want to conduct a survey? I want to know what the most important question your list has about improving customer service.’ And the person says, okay, let’s do it. So you send out an email. It goes to her Askwhatever page, whatever her full name is. And then it dumps itself into the Ask Database and then here’s what you do. You have a teleconference. You can invite people to it. It can be fee or free, doesn’t matter. You record it, you transcribe it and now you have a new product. (Amy says Thanks. Love it.) Lorrie: Alright. Anybody else want to ask Alex while we’ve got him? Michael: I’ve got one more if I could have a chance to ask it? Alex: Fire away. I’m now good until 3:00. I made a motion to my wife who opened the door and said, ‘Are you coming?’ I said, No. Give me 10 more minutes. (Lorrie interjects: Say thanks to Amy from me.) I will. Michael: We’re very fortunate to have you, Alex. Thank you. Another thing I don’t hear a lot of people talk about is about copy. Long Sales Page copy and the design element. We talked a
little bit about this last month, but it struck me again when we went to Yanik’s site, InstantInternetProfits. You know, obviously he knows what he’s doing and the page looks (Alex completes the sentence: “ugly?”) Yeah, ugly and, ugly is not necessarily the right word. It looks like somebody that really doesn’t know computers and has sort of learned a little bit about html and popped something up there. Now do you think he’s choosing this particular style because of very specifically who he’s targeting? He’s trying to target people who are not computer experts? Alex: What do you think? (Michael: I would say, yes.) He’s saying that he’s a techo moron. And so that’s why he believes in ugly. Here’s another thing. Who’s his target market? His target market are information marketers and opportunity seekers. (Michael says: Right. Who don’t have experience.) They don’t need a corporate site. They’re used to long sales copy. By the way it’s not the more you tell, the more you sell. That’s not the original quote from Claude Hopkins, who’s the father of direct marketing. It really is or was and this is a direct quote, “If you tell, you’ll sell.” In other words, if you tell the complete story, you’ll sell. You know, if you have 4,000 words and none of them are interesting, they’re gone after the first 250. So you got to make sure that the more you tell the more you sell isn’t always true. Always having long copy doesn’t mean it’s going to sell. It’s having interesting copy that’s long. That tells a complete story. That’s what works! Michael: Is there anywhere you’d recommend to learn more about the design aspects of long sales letter copy? Alex: Well. I can give you a few case studies because there aren’t many books written about it because as something works someone copies it and then it becomes antiquated and then they move on to something else. But I’ll give you some good examples of some things that have worked, and more importantly, made money.
So I already gave you MarketingWithPostcards.com. MarketingWithPostcards.com is a good example because it has a lot of words, but it also has an audio message at the very top that says ‘Click here to find out why Bill Gates won’t read your email.’ Well, that’s pretty interesting, don’t you think? And yet that audio message keeps people on the site for about 2 minutes. That’s a long time. The more they stay, the more they’ll pay. Right? So just like a grocery store, the longer they can keep someone in the store, the more likely they’re going to extract more cash out of their wallet. The same thing is true for the website. So check out MarketingWithPostcards.com where you see very narrowly it’s long copy, but it’s easy to read. It’s chunked. The first sentence is the topic sentences. And the beginning of each line are bolded and it works very, very well with a very few number of visitors. Another one is someone who both Lorrie and I have been mentored by and that is John Childers, SpeakingWithJohn.com. And there I wrote a piece that has a new methodology which is having a letter, it looks like it’s a piece of stationary. And then there’s a little Post-It note on the upper left hand corner with anchor tags, which means you click those links and it dives you back into the letter, but into this very specific part where you wanted to read whatever interested you. So whatever you vote for is most interesting. It takes you directly there. I don’t want fluff. I don’t want anything to get in the way of this greased chute. No razor wire. Straight there. So that’s another format. And if you want another one that is more corporate, then Ask Database is more corporate. That has Flash and it’s a heck of a lot more corporate looking. So it all depends on the type of website that you want and the type of website that you think your target is more versed on. It doesn’t always have to be long, but I do recommend long versus short because how can you tell a story in 100 words. It’s almost impossible. As long as it’s interesting, they’ll read it. So just remember that. You’re job is to find out what’s most interesting to your market.
Lorrie: If I could make a suggestion. This is something I’ve done is create a Swipe File of online copy as well. I have bookmarks. That’s called Copywriting Swipe and these are under there. The one’s you’ve listed. I use a lot of your in my swipe file, Alex. (He responds: Cool.) Just so you know. And I go there just to get stimulated just before I write my own copy. So we’ve talked about collecting direct mail and making a swipe file. But you might actually print some of these things out and bookmark them on your Internet. Alex: Yeah. You know, I do swipe files as well. And it’s really the best way to learn because you see anyone who’s written a book. That’s really only their experience. What you want to do is make it your experience. So be a researcher and research about an hour every week. And just take note of certain webpages and designs that you feel works. Like I wrote and designed the MegamarketingMagic.com for Mark Victor Hansen and you’ll see that there’s a lot of moving pieces there. There’s some anchor tags at the top. It’s just a good seminar page because it’s an event and we want to get them to attend. And many times when you want them to attend something, they want to see who’s speaking. So if they click the link that says faculty then ‘boom’ you go straight to Dan Kennedy. Why is he 1st? Because he’s the best known. Even though I helped write it, I’m at the very bottom because I’m not very well-known. So it’s not a matter of who should go 1st and who shouldn’t, if someone has a lot of PR ability they should be up front 1st and you should get people there as fast as possible and that anchor tag at the top. You click faculty and ‘boom’ you’ll go straight there. So just make sure that you know what type of website that you need. And know that every website is different and every website has a different target market. There is no one size fits all. That’s what makes this so fascinating. Isn’t that your experience, Lo? Lorrie: Yeah. It really is. It’s constantly evolving and changing. Even though there are some principles like the 7 that you
brought up that do stay consistent. It’s fun. I mean you get out of bed every morning and go there’s so many different things I could attack the problem with. That’s what I love about it. Alex: And it’s exciting! So if you use 10% of what you learned today you will make more money without spending an extra dime more on advertising. That was my goal. Lorrie: Alex, I appreciate it. Would you tell us about how people can find you in the future? I know that you have the AccessToLeaders.com which is coming up very soon. Want to give us a few things where we can find you in the future? Alex: Yeah. Access to Leaders really is my baby and that’s how I like people to find me. If you go to AccesstoLeaders.com, the whole concept is what Peter Lowe did back in the early ‘90’s where he had these huge, meaningful seminars and was very, very expensive to put these things together. Well, what if you could put a stadium full of people in a teleconference and get very high profile people. Give people private access to them and listen to what they teach? And so that’s what I’m doing. I’m taking the role as the reporter instead of the content provider which I love doing. But I love the reporting part of it. It’s a lot of fun. So as a result this Access to Leaders concept has been born. If you want to see the product that was one of the 1st to make 5 figures online with less than 100 visitors a day still. Still does. You know 5 figures cash profit month after month, and that is MarketingWithPostcards.com. All of this deals with one thing, psychology. So if I had a 2 word definition for copy or offline copy here it is. Behavior Modification. All you’re trying to do is channel the demand or the behavior somewhere else for the need for our product and channeling it to you by having a more persuasive sequence or string of words on a webpage, in a letter, in a postcard, whatever it is. It’s the simplest thing. And it may take an hour to learn, but it will take a lifetime to master. I hope
you’ll at least put the time into it and certainly you’re in good hands with Lorrie. Lorrie: Thank you, Alex. And thanks for joining us and for sharing all that information with us so freely. It was wonderful stuff. And like Dan mentioned before you got on the phone, between the calls, every time we hear you, we learn something new. And that speaks a lot about you. So thank you. Alex: And thank you. You know I’ll do anything for you. And what I love about Lorrie is that she delivers. You deliver content! And you don’t hold back. That’s something I really believe in. Some people don’t. Some people hold back and the product is the content. But Lorrie delivers before, during and after. And that’s something that I can really support. So this is why it’s no problem to say, ‘Okay, I’ll gamble in half an hour, not right away. I’m in Las Vegas right now and so you probably saved me some money by being on this call. Thank you. Lorrie: You let me know. I want a report. Laughter. Alex: Thank you everybody. Goodbye. Lorrie: Thank you and everybody else please stay on the call except for Alex. You’re excused. Alright, Dan. I’m breathing hard. That was so exciting. Can you wrap up what we’ve just gone through a little bit? Dan: Well. I’ll do my best. We did get a chance to do a Q&A. And we all have ways to get hold of Alex now. He’s very open and he usually responds in a very timely manner. So I highly encourage you to do that. The other thing is, Lorrie, you wanted to give an update on things that are happening with the Copywriting Intensive in terms of the copywriting forum and things like that.
Lorrie: We’ve gone through The 10 Commandments of Writing, the Target Marketing, the Headlines, and Long Copy Sales Letters so there’s been a lot and now today, Psychological Triggers. So that should really jet your copy up from just good copy to great copy. Those are just some of the little things that make a huge difference in your conversion rate.
Lorrie is one of the most sought after copywriting experts in the country. A freelance writer and journalist for over 25 years, Lorrie attributes her creative background as an actress with helping to develop her signature style of conversational writing coupled with sales persuasion techniques that make her clients thousands of dollars. Her words have sold products in a variety of industries including, nutritional supplements, professional speaking, seminar business, hypnosis, health & fitness, biz op, real estate and entrepreneurial services. Her top shelf list of clients includes Mark Victor Hansen, Les Brown, Loral Langemeier, John Childers, Alexandria Brown, Kim Castle and Tom Antion, among many others. In 2004 Lorrie’s copy for one speaking seminar generated $31,497 in just 6 days. She is the author of the highly acclaimed workbook, Red Hot Copy to Woo Your Target Market and coaches the Copywriting Intensive teleseminar, (www.copywritingintensive.com). Bi-weekly she distributes a highly acclaimed newsletter called “Copywriting TNT - Tips N Tactics”. (Are you signed up yet? If not visit, www.red-hot-copy.com/ezine.htm). Learn more about her products and services at www.Red-Hot-Copy.com
