The fortune is in the list.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that said, well, I’d already have a fortune! 
However “broken-recordish” it may sound, it is a truthful statement. The fortune REALLY IS in the list.
Fact is, if you possess the knowledge of how to grow and profit from opt-in lists, you can pretty much write your own ticket.
And, if you’ll read the remainder of this article, I’ll pass that knowledge right on to ya.
It comes down to getting folks to do four things…
1. REQUEST.
First things first, you need to convince people to “opt-in” to your list. That is, get them to join your list of their own free will.
Usually, this involves giving away a mini-course, report or newsletter from your web site. All you need is..
- An Attention Grabbing Title. (I could have chosen “4 Keys to Successful Email Promotions” for this article, but is that as attention-grabbing as “How to Pull in As Much Profit As Your Wallet Will Hold From Opt-In Lists”?)
- A Handful of Bulleted Benefits. (A short list of 4-6 desirable things subscribers will learn if they join your list. Think “what’s in it for me?”)
- An Opt-In Submission Form. (Your autoresponder system will provide this for you.)
NOTE: The BEST way to get folks to join is to embed the above mentioned items DIRECTLY in the most prominent place you have your site visitors’ attention. Usually this is 3-5 paragraphs into your sales letter or 1/3 of the way into an ezine article.
2. RECEIVE.
After visitors to your site have “requested” information by joining your list, it’s critical that your emails be delivered successfully to their inbox. With all of the filters in place (among other hazards) this can be quite a chore.
One thing you’ll want to do for certain is check your SPAM rating to make certain it’s in an acceptable range. Again, most of the better autoresponder services offer this feature for you.
You can also do things like…
- Get your subscribers to “approve” mailings from you.
- Authenticate yourself as a legitimate mailer when you receive a “response challenge” from protection services such as Spam Arrest.
- Use alternative formats of your email messages such as “downloadable email messages” in PDF format.
3. READ.
When your emails successfully arrive at the inboxes of your subscribers, another task awaits - getting them to actually open your message and read it.
This is going to depend upon your “subject line”. It is paramount that your subject line be intriguing enough to convince your readers to stop what they are doing and take a look inside.
One way to get this done is to create a swipe file of email subject lines that have convinced YOU to read the messages and then modify those subject lines for your own use.
Ex. I received an email that had the subject line of “This affiliate tip is almost too easy” that caught my attention and forced me to read the associated message.
This subject line could easily be used in a variety of different niches…
- This dieting tip is almost too easy
- This time management tip is almost too easy
- This marriage saving tip is almost too easy
4. RESPOND.
When you have convinced your subscribers to open your email message and read its contents, the only remaining “task” is to get them to respond.
You want them to take action. Click a link. Go somewhere. Ultimately, spend money with you.
The only way you’ll be able to do this is follow a simple catch phrase I’ve been teaching for years: “useful, but incomplete”.
It simply means this: your messages must provide content that is useful to your subscribers (otherwise, they’ll unsubscribe faster than you can say “oops”!), but is also “incomplete” in that there is some additional offer that could enhance or maximize that content.
Ex. You might write an article that shares “7 Ways to Profit With Autoresponders” to send to your list. That’s “useful” information to those who are interested in that particular topic. It’s also “incomplete” because they need an autoresponder service to put the information into action. That’s your cue to promote your recommended autoresponder service.
See how it works?
If you want to pad your wallet with profits by using opt-in lists, this is how you do it:
Get people to do these four things
- Request
- Receive
- Read
- Respond
This is a system that has never failed, will never fail. I’ve used it. Others have used it.
Now, it’s your turn to use it.
Until next time…
Heather
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For the first time, ever, Jimmy D. Brown is sharing his simple, yet powerful 6-step system that will show you how to grow your list, provide your readers with the content they crave and start making more money than you ever expected from your list. Do I have your attention yet? Then visit http://www.heatherjacobson.com/listprofits to get your copy of the List Profit System today.
Permalink 2 CommentsAre you wondering how you can write better sales copy? Do you want to know how to get the most out of your sales copy?
Jim Edwards will tell you with a short video that will also give you an UNFAIR advantage in your sales copy!
I’ve watched it myself and found it to be great information and worth listening to…
Click here to find out what those “Bad Words” are… http://www.IGottaTellYou.com/5BadWords.html
Until next time,
Heather
Permalink 9 CommentsI came across a GREAT article today about business cards and the importance of throwing them away and getting new ones if something changes (i.e. an email address, phone number, etc.) He talks about a book that he read that listed what to do with outdated business cards and I’ll tell you what I do with them!
I keep a stack in my visor in the car. It’s a quick place to write when I need to jot something down. I give them to my kids and they use them as appointment cards when they are pretending to run a doctor’s office. I keep them by my desk and take notes on them. I use them for mini grocery lists — you know, when you have to run to the store for a few items.
Those are just a few ideas, but take Big Mike’s advice — if they’re outdated, the cost of a new box of cards outweighs the image of old cards with corrent information handwritten on them!
On to the article….
Throw Away Your Business Cards
more about advertising from BIG Mike McDaniel
In the Northwest Airlines Terminal building at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a clever worker has patched the terrazzo floor. Since I am not there every day (although it seems like it the traveling I do), I don’t know the reason for the patch. But nonetheless, it is a patch. You can see it 12 gates away.
The workmanship is fine and perhaps in time it will age and blend with the floor around it some. A patch was probably the right choice, given the hundreds of thousands of square feet of floor to replace to make it all the same. So I give ‘em that. Too expensive to replace the whole floor, so patch it and make it a really good patch.
But I can’t abide by their tightwad that spends an hour carefully marking out the email address on a stack of business cards and painstakingly pencilling in the new address. Yuk!
What’s it gonna cost to buy a new box of cards? Not much, but even if it was really expensive, I venture to predict the negative impression of the “mark-out, pencil-in” change will cost more than a new box of cards in future business.
Would you opt for any medical anything in a hospital that used duck tape to hold on a broken door handle? Of course not. The fix on the cheap route doesn’t work for people in business, especially if they need to make a favorable impression. Business cards are like that. They can make, or break, the impression you and your business make.
If one itty bitty snippet of information on your card changes, the cards are obsolete and should be pitched and new ones printed, pronto. There is no excuse for keeping old cards around. I read a chapter in a book someone had written that listed 29 things to do with outdated business cards. One of them was to glue them together and give them to Gramma so she could prop up the kitchen table and get her New Testament back.
A crisp, clean, professional looking business card printed on white glossy stock, with no errors or changes is the best foot you can put forward in your business.
To learn more about how to make your business card the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal, visit http://bigideasgroup.com/html/business_cards.html
©2006 BIG Mike McDaniel, All Rights Reserved
http://BIGIdeasGroup.com
BIG Mike is a Business Consultant and Professional Speaker. His BIG Ideas Group helps business grow with promotions, special reports, mastermind groups, seminars and consulting. Subscribe to “BIG Ideas for Small Business” Newsletter
MailTo:SignUp@BigIdeasGroup.com
Cold Beginnings on Cold Calling
By: Dale Noles
“Cold Calling.” Those two little words strike fear and anxiety in most people. One might wonder why that it is the case. Is it related to speaking with someone that they do not know? Potentially. Is it “phone-a-phobia”? Not likely. You would probably spend countless hours on the phone with an old friend or your mother. Why then does cold calling make your heart beat fast and your hands sweat?
The problem can stem from the fear of rejection. Growing up, if you ever dated anyone, you probably experienced anxiety over asking someone out on a date for fear that they would say no. Well, this is not high school. This is the real world. You can live your entire life and never face the fear of asking someone out, but if you want to survive in business, cold calls must be made!
1. Knowing Your Target Market
To get started with cold calling, your first step is getting familiar with who you want your clients to be. What does that mean? Determine the professionals or types of individuals your product and or service appeals to. Who wants what you have? This is your market.
Then take it a step further and determine within that market who the specific professionals or types of individuals are any why they will most likely to buy from you. This becomes your target market. It sounds much harder than it really is, but keep your focus and you will do fine.
2. Knowing Your Services and Relating Their Core Benefits
The next step to consider is familiarizing yourself with your business. At first glance, this step seems easy, but it isn’t as easy as you might think. You have to think outside of the box. What do you want to offer to your target market? If your target market is Real Estate Professionals (REPs) do you want to handle their direct mailings, entering and updating listings, produce flyers and sell sheets or handle transaction coordination?
3. Top Five Features of Services
You need to assume that your target market doesn’t know anything about the virtual assistance industry, which may be the case. You have to consider your client’s needs and address them head on. Why do they need a virtual assistant? So you can save them time, so what? Why should they care? They will care because you care enough about what they want not just what they need. Think about what your client can do with the time that you can provide them with.
4. Planning Your Script
Every successful cold caller needs to have a script. Why? When you make cold calls, you control the direction of the call. You need to get your point across quickly and clearly. You have about ten seconds to gain their interest. You want to be sure to include your name, your company’s name, what you do, why you have what they need and any objections that you can think of. Be sure that your message is upbeat. Use words that you are comfortable with. Make it sound conversational. This is not the time to try out five-dollar words.
5. Practice
This is key to making a good presentation. After you have written your script, review it. Does it flow? Are you tripping over words? If you are, you need to revise it. Remember to continue to practice until you feel comfortable with the script.
6. Role Playing
Find a partner that you are comfortable with and ask them to be a role-playing partner. Ask them to get into the mindset of your target market. Start by pretending to make the actual call from the pickup through the close. Ask your partner to come up with objections. Use what you wrote to overcome the objections. If you come across an objection that you do not know how to get around, rewrite the script to incorporate the objection as a selling point in the script. The best objection is one that is answered before it is asked! That tells the other person on the phone that you understand what they want, not just what they need.
7. Test the Water
Pick up the phone and start calling your target market. If you don’t call, you should not expect to do much business, this rings true in most every business with a few exceptions. Stick to your script. Measure your results. How far did you get on your script before you were stopped? Does it flow naturally? Do you sound intelligent? Are you covering all the objections?
8. Re-Examine
After about twenty calls, you will know if you need to rewrite any part of your script. Look at your measured results and see where the objections come and determine how to overcome them before they are asked. It may be necessary to rewrite the script completely and go through the steps again. You may need to change your script a few times until you find the one that works for you.
9. Perfect Your Techniques
Once you have found a script that works, memorize it. Memorize all the objections and how to overcome them. You should be affluent with your script. The person you are calling should not be able to tell that you had a script to begin with. Keep your script close by, in case your brain has a meltdown. The last thing you want it to say is…ah…um…ah.
10. Negative or Positive
Cold calling is a numbers game, the more people that you talk to, the greater your chances are of reaching someone who is interested in what you have. Expect to hear, NO! It is inevitable. Someone will say it. Expect to hear, YES! It is inevitable. Someone will say it. If someone decides that they want to buy from you, be prepared to sell them what they want. A good rule of thumb is to expect a three percent return for your efforts. Think of a negative response as one more “No” out of the way and one more “Yes” is coming soon.
With all of that said, you are well on your way to great business success. You may have heard the saying, “Use the right tool for the right job.” Cold calling is a phenomenal tool and like any tool if you do not use it, your job is harder to do. Keep your chin up and your ear to the receiver and you will do fine.
© 2004, Virtual Accuracy
About the Author
Dale Noles is the President of Virtual Accuracy, Assistance For Coaches and VA Training. His areas of expertise include complex database creation, marketing, website design and coaching. For more information visit www.VirtualAccuracy.com or www.VirtualAccuracy.com or www.AssistanceForCoaches.com
This article can be reprinted as long as it is kept intact, about the author is used in its entirety (with hyperlinks) and an email notification is sent to VA@VirtualAccuracy.com.
Permalink 1 CommentDon’t Let Your Business Bleed to Death
By John Stafford
There it is….
YOUR business lying cold on the ground, another company killed before it even began..
Today we are going to cover three fatal wounds to your business and what you can do to stop them.
Wound Number One: Buying too many products
Do you find yourself buying the newest wiz bang super duper explode your profits product all too often?
I know, I know, It had a slick salesletter promising you money to the moon and so many bonuses you just couldn’t resist. 30 day money back guarantee you say? What do you have to lose???
Plenty. How do I know??
Well I WAS you not so long ago, 40 bucks here, 70 dollars there Gold package this, upgrade that just $25 more??? Before you know it whats left of your business startup money?
Not much. Hey look, on the bright side you got some Great new ebooks
What do we do?? STOP. Stop right now. Go through your inventory of ebooks, courses, tape sets and read them. Huh?? Read them??? Yep. Apply and take notes on what you can and return what you can’t use. Most products worth their salt have a return policy and if not, chalk it up as learning experience.
Wound Number Two: Subscribing to multiple paid sites and newsletters
They’re sprouting up like wildfire now, Paid sites… just 27 bucks a month for instant access.. to this secret, insider, members only masterpiece.
All you need to take your business to the next level blah blah HYPE.
As many famous marketers chant: FORGET THE HYPE! Become members of even a few and that could mean a good chunk of change to the new guy with limited funds.
Paid newletters fall into the same boat in my opinion and starting out you should steer clear of these. As far as free newsletters go, there are so many out there now that its hard to say whats useful.
My solution is to close this cut fast and choose just one that you like, where there’s quality content thats updated often. Subscribe to newletters as long as you have time to read them. Don’t be a “ezine junkie” Your time is precious, use it wisely.
Wound Number Three: Doing nothing
I often hear “95% of all businesses on the net fail” Why do you think that is?? While the two reasons above contribute nothing kills like this last one.
Now I know I’m not the only one whos got that folder of ebooks on my hard drive rotting or those 3 ring binder courses gathering dust. Its so easy to get caught up in the rush of life. Especially when you’re working at home.
Putting things off and being lazy feels good sometimes, don’t I know it 
But time passes fast and if you don’t act now when will you?
I’m not here to be your motivation but I can share somethings that have worked for me and can work for you also so pay attention.
1. Take notes when you’re reading something be it an ebook or article and use a highlighter often on parts that interest you. Keep your notes by your computer so you’re reminded often and its harder to put off.
2. Start a project list - I personally use index cards but you can use whatever you like. Do one and only one project at a time and break it up in parts so its easier to work through.
3. Focus on why - I know you’ve probably heard this alot but it bears repeating. Why do you want a business? Is it money you want or more free time with your family?
To tell your boss where to go and how to get there? Well if you don’t know, figure that out and think on it often, visualize how you’ll feel.
You might think I’m crazy but it works. With the odds of failure being what they are, I say we need all the help we can get.
So keep this stuff in mind and… See you in the top 5!
© 2005 by John Stafford
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John Stafford is the author of: “Your Money Is In The List - Learn How To Quickly And Easily Build Your Own Hyper
Responsive Opt-In Mailing List And Milk It For Everything Its Worth… Even On A Shoestring Budget”
http://www.listsecrets.com