How Any Author, Speaker, Teacher, Coach or Other Expert Can Explode Their Income – Step by Step

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

Are you an author, speaker, coach or subject expert looking to woo and win over your target market so easily and thoroughly that you become the unchallenged star of your niche?

Would you like to finally get paid handsomely for all of that amazing advice you have been showering on others for years?

In this post, I’m going to show you EXACTLY, step-by-step how to do it. I’ve done it for myself in 2 other niches and I’m currently doing it for myself in an entirely new niche and have guided OTHERS in doing it as well.

Now, it’s your turn.

Step one… Take an inventory of everything you have that you can possibly sell. Write it all down.

It’ll be easy to write down what you already sell. But, I want to write down everything you could POSSIBLY sell. Example: If you once did a short 4 hour seminar for the Rotary Club and you have the videos on BetaMax write it down – even if you never planned on selling it.

Here’s another example: A short report you wrote on xyz subject which you may or may not be happy with… but, you could be happy with if you applied a little elbow grease… or, you could offer as a “bonus” to someone for purchasing something else.

Write a little project for yourself about how you can get all that stuff into sellable shape. Don’t make it hard on yourself… you will probably use these items as add-ons or bonuses or enticements of some sort.

Got it?

Step two… gather up any who has every contacted you about your services in any way, shape or form. This includes someone who emailed you with a question… even if it was 85 years ago!

You’ll want to get all past clients, current clients and anyone who has every interacted with you in any way into a database of some sort.

Is this starting to sound hard already? Well… the easy part is coming… but rest assured this previous stuff will pay off in spades!

So, no back talk, just get it done.

What you are doing is amassing your “power base” and it IS going to make your life so much easier.

Now, add any one who could be a potential ALLY or contact – even if they aren’t a direct prospect for what you are selling. The reason you are doing this is because they likely do know others which could use you. You want to keep communication lines with these people and you have to have them in your power base before you can HELP them to help you.

Again, it doesn’t matter how long ago this contact was… got an old tattered business card from a conference from 8 years ago? Great! Get it into your database.

Aw hell… I know I’ve lost some of you already. This is sounding like a lot of work. What if I told you that you’d make a bazillion dollars just by spending $25 on Facebook Ads? That while you were sleeping a gazillion facebookers would see your ad and you’d wake up after a good night’s sleep with an email inbox full of CASH!

That more your speed? Fine. Get outta here… The REAL men (and women) are talking real ACTION, real strategy and REAL RESULTS!

And… we are about to get some shit done.

You got those balls rolling? Excellent!

Now let’s start to make some money.

You want to get back in contact with all of those people. For your past customers who haven’t ordered in a while you need to send a non-threatening “get back in touch” email.

Hi Bob!

Haven’t seen you in a while? How’s it going?

I’m still plugging away teaching people about xyz.

Anyways, love to see around again. My blog is getting pretty active and I have a ton of great new stuff on the horizon.

Jason

P.S. My blog is at blahblah.com and I just posted on “How to blah, blah..”

And, those people who you met at seminars, etc? You’ll send them something similar. Don’t worry about whether or not they’ll remember you. They won’t! But I bet quite a few of them will be curious enough to take a look… then, maybe it’ll jog their memory and maybe it won’t. Not important. The thing is now you’ve got some potential influencers reading your blog.

By the way, don’t do this right before you go on a retreat to the forest or go hang out in the Bahamas because you want to actually personally answer all of the emails you get back. This will help you get in tune with the most important people in your market… the ones who are listening and responding!

Is this too small time for you? Mere peanuts, you say?

Just simmer down… I’m laying the all important foundation here.

Now that you’ve started to get the power base together and are warming them up for your all out assault we can really get down to business.

Got a blog? Great! Keep posting sweet content on it. Join a ton of forums. Start posting in them on your niche subject but without promoting anything other than your blog. Have your blog’s url at the bottom. Give a lot of value. You can also look for communities on G+. Make sure your blog is set up for Google Authorship. Real simple instructions here:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986

Mine is here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?url=jasonbedunah.com&html=

If your blog already has a lot of readership and/or an email list you can start capitalizing on it.

Get Fast Cash with an eCoaching Program

One of the best things I’ve seen work is an eCoaching program. I’ve done it in 3 different niches (dating, business networking and self-help). Rarely fails to make $15-20k+ the first time out and it just builds from there. Plus, it takes almost no time at all to get it created. At the minimum you need a paypal account that you can create subscriptions with and an autoresponder service.

eCoaching programs are six email lessons delivered each week with homework assignments and you give email feedback on the homework assignments.

Easy enough right?

I LOVE to do this because short, pithy email lessons are easy to write and they’re more interactive because you can include “homework” assignments to do. You read over the submitted work (only about 30% of the people actually do them to begin with and it declines each week after that so don’t worry about getting overwhelmed.)

This is important: Make the eCoaching program take only 6 weeks. I’ve tried 4 and it was just too short and I did longer than 6 weeks and people just don’t have attention spans that long.

Also, set it up so that they are NOT charged until after the 2nd lesson. I used to make it free to try and then they’d get charged on the 10th day if they had not bowed out. This TRIPLED the number of signups easily. Were there cancellations? Sure. But who cares… even after the cancellations I made 3x the money.

Create A Book The Easy Way – And Get Paid To Do It.

You should also write a book even if you already have one… but do it the easy way. After you’ve done a few eCoaching courses you’ll be extremely tuned in to what your students are really struggling with and what really gets them ‘turned on.’

Write a killer sales letter for your book (or have me write it!)

What book?

The book that you are going to create the easy way.

Here’s how: Ask via your blog and email list what people are having the most trouble with… Now, create a series of 4 teleseminars which shows how to solve those problems. I think you should make them so valuable that you charge for them. I used to charge between $300 and $500 for a 4 week teleseminar course.

Have each teleseminar recorded and transcribed. Take the transcripts and edit/organize to give you the core of your book. Examine what you have and see how much else is needed and see how it matches up to the killer sales letter for your book. Use additional teleseminars to flesh it out more if necessary.

If it has mass appeal (larger niche) then reach out to publishers letting them know about it. Let them know you have xxxxx number on your email list. Your blog numbers, etc.

You’ll have a new book in no time. But, not just any book… it’s a book that is truly in tune with your market.

If it gets picked by a major publisher it’ll be sweet… if not, who cares, you can still have affiliates sell it and sell it to your list and use it as a credibility device.

Also, you now have several audio courses you can now sell to your blog readers, email list and via affiliates. Pretty sweet, huh?

Create STEADY Cash With a Continuity Program

The book, teleseminars, audio programs and eCoaching program should also drive trials to your continuity program. What continuity program? The one you are going to create!

It can be a monthly audio or a monthly newsletter but I suggest that it be PHYSICAL because you can charge more and the physical tangibility cuts way back on cancellations.

The continuity program is for steady cash (yay!) but it is also to keep a communication line to your best clients… They will give you more and more product and course ideas.

Remember all that stuff I had you amass at the beginning of this discourse? Did you think I made you do it just for giggles?

Never! I ALWAYS have a master plan. See… the KEY to selling a continuity program (or anything really) is to build the value up so massively that the person feels almost like they are taking advantage of you!

This is where all that other ‘near sellable’ stuff comes into play. By now, you should’ve gotten it all squared away so that it is not ‘near sellable’ but is KILLER.

What you want to do is assign a value to each piece. Hopefully you can get it in the thousands of dollars. Those are going to be your bonuses for subscribing.

Got it?

Get a Massive Pay Day and Instantly Establish Yourself as THE UNCHALLENGED AUTHORITY In Your Niche

One of the great things about all the previous stuff we’ve done… especially the Continuity Program is it will also be useful in promoting your Event.

What event?

The bad ass event you are going to put on to totally dominate your market and cement your status as the ultimate authority in your niche!

That event!

Does that scare you? Putting on a big event, having speakers, renting hotel rooms, etc?

I understand.

I’ve done a few myself but they were ONLY me. And, only 2.5 days long.

If you are not up to putting on a knockout event the likes of which your niche has never seen don’t fret.

In that case, I DO suggest you start off nice and slow. How about a VIRTUAL seminar?

You’ll still have speakers. You’ll still have an agenda. You can still make it a big deal.

Here’s how it could work: You find the speakers. Make sure they have enough material for an hour or two of ‘lecture’ and then 30-45 minutes of questions. Get them to agree that they can pitch their products on it at the end and it’ll go out to all the attendees via email and the ‘conference’ blog.

Get them to agree that you get the rights to sell the audio/video of the conference as well.  They, of course, can sell it, too and get to keep x%.

Then, pick a date and get all the speakers to promote to their lists. Anyone who signs up through their link they get half of the sale or 3/4ths or whatever.

You are going to have some speaking slots of your own. You are going to get 1/4 to 1/2 of each sign up from the other speakers plus 100% of the income from your own signups. You are getting a list built AND you are getting a product to sell.

Not a bad deal for not even having to leave the house!

And you can sell the audio/video to all the people in your continuity program, your blog, your email list, etc. etc!

With Skype and webconferencing and all that this is not hard to pull off. I’d set it up to start on a Friday night and go all day Saturday and Sunday… I’d also have promoted “Google Hangout” times for networking with the speakers, etc.

After doing a few of those and seeing the dollars POUR in I know one thing for certain…

You Are Going To Be ITCHING To Do A Live One!

Listen to me: If you do all of this you will make a ton of money. You’ll also be indebted to me forever.

How will you ever repay me?

I dunno… it’ll be almost impossible. Maybe you’ll name your next kid after me or something.

Or, maybe… just maybe…

You’ll Hire ME To Help You Do This!

That’d be cool. I am, after all, The Information Marketing Copywriter! We’d both make a ton of money and you could name your kid whatever you want.

Hope this helps,

Jason

P.S. If you are serious about doing any/all of this drop me a line at jason@jasonbedunah.com 

P.P.S. I’m not cheap but… Damn! I am sure worth it!

Posted in Boost Revenue Tactics, Copywriting Instruction and Advice, Generate Leads, Information Marketing | Leave a comment

The Best Copy Has a Thread of Mystery

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

One of my earlier posts covered “How to Hook Your Reader With A Strong Opening Sentence”…

That’ll get you off to a great start. But, there’s something which you MUST do to keep the reader not only buzzing down the page but also feeling the fire of desire build to a frenzy with each line they read.

There’s an easy way to do this which I’ll cover more in-depth later in this post… however, first I want to show you a snippet from a letter I wrote for a Financial Planner which he almost REFUSED to publish… here it is:

These secrets include:

The ONE SECRET I’d reveal if you put a gun to my head and told me to spill the beans, that the top 6% know and use that nobody else is using. (Hint: It’s the reason why the bottom 94% remain stuck there!)

The 3 Deadly Questions you HAVE to know the answers to concerning your investments that will liberate your money for the rest of your life, AND how you can instantly put them to work for you as soon as you leave the seminar

How to withdraw $25,000 EVERY YEAR from your IRA and pay NO Income Taxes

Why leaving your retirement plan with your employer after you retire will force you and your family to LOSE up to 50% of the nest egg you’ve worked your whole life to accumulate

What 2 classified steps you MUST take to pull 41% of your hard-earned savings back from the IRS (Missing one of them alone means the IRS keeps it!)

The undisclosed simple technique to inflation proof your pension

The secret 50% Excise Tax that the IRS is dying to unleash on you, and how you can beat them at their own game

Now, a couple of points… the copy was NOT all italics… that’s how you quote something in WordPress.

What I did there was write a bunch of bullets to get someone to start wondering. In copywriting, a bullet is an implied benefit that makes them wonder, how? in a way that increases their desire.

If for some reason I could choose only ONE copywriting tactic and had to use it exclusively it’d probably be bullets.

Once I felt the desire and mystery had reached high levels, I started attacking their current plan. And, I didn’t hold back as you’ll see below.

The language was so strong my client almost didn’t want to publish it. But, I insisted because it’s my duty to make sure clients get the best results possible.

Here’s what immediately followed:

Furthermore, I’m going to show you that with all of the varying financial and retirement opinions, ideas and strategies bombarding you from all directions, your financial plan is the result of a mishmash of competing strategies instead of the elegant and simple masterminded strategy that it must be if you want a truly fulfilling retirement.

This mishmash of strategies is robbing you of precious dollars.

The benefits of each strategy are likely canceling each other out – leaving you at a fraction of your potential.

Even worse, you could be running “full steam ahead” right towards a financial landmine and not even know it – even though you appear to be doing everything right!

But, I’m getting ahead of myself; first I have to let you in on some background information.

There’s a lot of mystery getting built in those few paragraphs. What strategies are competing? Which are canceling each other out?

What IS my potential? How well could I be doing if my strategies WERE aligned?

Oh God! What’s the landmine? What landmine is he talking about?

Mystery. Mystery. Mystery!

Hey! Listen up! This next line is the ‘thesis’ of this whole post!

It’s the questions you leave UNANSWERED that are going to get the reader to pick up that phone, click that link or fill out that form. 

I even bridge to the next section of copy with MYSTERY: “But, I’m getting ahead of myself; first I have to let you in on some background information.”

Their eyes just keep flying down that page.

They really didn’t have a chance, did they?

Nope.

And, that’s the way I like it.

Jason

P.S. I now have a ‘Mystery’ edit for every piece of copy I write. This is a pass through and edit of the copy with me constantly asking, “How can I really amp up the desire and mystery?”

Posted in Copywriting Instruction and Advice, Improve My Ads | Leave a comment

How to Hook Your Reader From the Opening Sentence (Blog Posts, Email Copy, Landing Page Copy, Etc)

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

Would you be pleased if you could increase the effectiveness of your writings by about 15-20% just by putting a little extra thought into one specific area of your content?

You would, you say?

Good! I have something you’ll love!

After getting the audience and headline right, the opening sentence is the most important piece of any content.

Famed copywriter Eugene Schwartz is rumored to have spent most of his time on the first 50 words of every ad he wrote.

The purpose of your opening line is to keep the curiosity and interest peaking. The headline should’ve let them know the content is for them specifically, told them what they’re gonna get and peaked their curiosity.

Now you keep that momentum going with a curiosity inducing opening line.

I did exactly that in this post. The opening line develops the promise made in the headline (post title) and then starts getting the curiosity peaked by mentioning ‘one specific area of your content?’

See that?

What’s the function of the next two lines? Is that just fluff? Bonus wordage?

No!

Those are there for purpose. They are short so people keep reading, their eyes are just flowing down the post. Easily. No big chunks. Eyes flowing.

There’s also a conversational tone established  by asking the question, “You would, you say?”

And then, we’re off!

So, where do you get ideas for opening lines? My suggestion is to pull them from proven and profitable marketing content.

The line I used in this post was taken from a letter for an investment product:

Dear Friend,

Would you be pleased if you made 50% 
of your portfolio every 12  months? 
Your money would double EVERY two years--
you could start with $10,000 and become 
a millionaire very quickly--13 years to  be exact. 

Start with $100,000 and you're 
there in 7 years.

That was definitely a winner and it’s an awesome, very strong opening paragraph.

Here’s another:

Palmolive Soap furnishes just the 
protection the skin needs by 
keeping it healthy, firm and soft.

This is not a new theory.

It is a fact -- old as the Pyramids. 

When ancient Greece and Rome were 
at the height of their glory, 
palm and olive oils were in daily 
use by the most beautiful women of 
that time.

That one was by Claude Hopkins, the greatest copywriter who ever lived, in my opinion. There’s so much going on in these few lines but I want to point out mainly the first line as forwarding the interest, elaborating on the headline’s promise (headline not shown). Notice the next two lines. Short. Compact. No wasted words. Keeps the eyes flowing right down the page.

Then he starts peaking the curiosity by throwing in Ancient Greece and Rome and most beautiful women of that time. What lady isn’t going to be intrigued by that?

Another thing I love about that opener is the lady really only needs to read the headline and that snippet and they have EVERYTHING they need to know to go and purchase it at the store. The name of the product, what it does, the promise, the curiosity.

Brilliant.

Ok, ready for one more?

Dear Inside Sports reader:

   Did you know that the long-term 
performance of baseball cards beats 
the pants off of stock, T-bills, 
and rare coins?

Really? I gotta know more about this! The opener here is based on a startling fact. No one would’ve guessed this and anyone interested in investing is bound to read it. The marketing content gets read, Mission Accomplished!

UPDATE: Here’s another great one I got literally hours after writing this blog post…

Dear Jason,

I had no idea this “secret” from Bali would be 
so controversial… or cause such a sensation.

But it didn’t start off that way.

When I first went to the exotic island of Bali, 
I traveled there to talk to herbalists and 
traditional healers for a book I’m writing.

Now, aren’t you just dying to know about that? It’s copy from an email from Dr. Al Sears, MD.

Notice how it follows the same format we’ve been discussing?

I hope that gets your creative juices flowing. Focus on those first 50 words like Ol’ Eugene Schwartz and you’ll notice your readership, shares, comments and bank account all growing.

Jason

P.S. If you’ve got an example of a great opening line feel free to share it in the comments.

P.P.S. This post was inspired by a great post on CopyBlogger.com – a great resource.

Posted in Copywriting Instruction and Advice, Generate Leads, Improve My Ads | 1 Comment

Lessons from 10+ Years of Copywriting

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

Hola,

Over the last 10 years of direct response copywriting I’ve gained a lot of experience and insight and I hope to share some of my wisdom with other copywriters and those who work with them.

I’m hoping this will help some newer copywriters and I’d LOVE it if some more veterans chimed in with their own posts. If you know any please let them know about this post and encourage them to chime in!

1. Treat Your Clients Like Kings (even when they act like Jokers). 

This has the danger of being a cliche but I couldn’t be more serious. If you’re not treating your Clients like Kings (Gods, even) then you are just making everything harder on yourself.

All of my clients have my DIRECT personal cell number and my personal email address. (I know Dan Kennedy would have a heart attack.) But, I actually answer the phone and email. I look at it like this… Every business owner I write copy for is worth several hundred thousand dollars to me… not only in fees but also in connections, experiences and clout.

If I can’t answer their calls then who in the world (besides friends/family) would I answer calls from?!?!

I haven’t always been great at this! In fact, I am embarrassed to admit that early on in my career, I thought *I* was the King of the relationship. It didn’t pay off. It seems like quite a few top copywriters have a bloated ego and they teach it to the younger copy cubs.

Don’t adopt this attitude, please. Some business owners might be attracted to it at first, but it is no way to build a real, long term relationship.

(On creating Business Relationships, read “Never Eat Alone” by Ferazzi. It’s dynamite!)

As a copywriter you are creating a relationship. You can’t do anything much more intimate (in business) than be the guy (or gal) who creates the public perception of the business owner and his life’s work.

Plan on keeping every client you have for the rest of your life. Seriously.

Be gracious. Be thankful. Be supportive.

2. Educate Your Client on Copywriting As Much As You Can

It is in both of your best interests that the business owners you work with know as much about copywriting as possible. Do this even if it is taking up a lot of your time and you are not getting paid for it.

In fact, some of the clients I’ve most enjoyed working with (Dr. Tom Orent and Jeff Paul) were much better copywriters than I was when I wrote for them and probably still are…

Don’t think if they learn copywriting they will fire you. They won’t. They will appreciate more fully what you do. They will also increase your quality. Their feedback and ideas will be of a much higher quality. They will not suggest silly things which you have to diplomatically talk them out of.

3. Don’t Get Overly Concerned With Higher Fees

The higher fees will come. But, I wouldn’t worry too much about them. The worst thing for a copywriter is blank space on the calendar. That is a point where you have NO FEES.

If you jump up to higher fees without enough leads coming in you may have blank spots in your calendar. Avoid that as much as possible. This is a business of creation and action. I’d rather be working than not working.

Most of the inflated fees are an ego thing, “Of course I’m an awesome copywriter! The last client paid me $20,000 for a direct mail letter!”

That has NOTHING to do with you being (or not being) an awesome copywriter. What determines your awesomeness is the RESULTS you create for the people who hired you. Full Stop. No other debate!

4. Keep Learning. 

Copywriters must keep learning. The next huge spike for your clients might come from a new twist on an old idea. But, trust me, if it works it WILL be based on an ‘old idea.’ The only copywriting resource you really need is ‘Scientific Advertising’ and your powers of observation.

That’s not a knock on any other courses out there. I love AWAI’s stuff. I love John Carlton’s stuff. I’ve read every issue of The Gary Halbert Letter I can get my hands on several times over.

Also, don’t just go to marketing conferences. If you have a niche you want to go to their conferences. This is actually more important than going to marketing conferences.

What is even more important is to rub elbows with the people you write for… because matching REALITY is the absolute, 100% most important thing you can do to boost copy results. If I’m writing to grandmothers about sewing. I’m going to be smack dab in the middle of  the ‘Grandmothers Sewing Conference’ even if it’s somewhere in Iowa.

And, you can be sure I’m going to have some DEEP conversations with them about what they love about it, what their struggles are, what they want to do but can’t ever seem to pull off…

…and, I’m going to be enjoying every minute of it (from a copy viewpoint).

So, attend workshops and conferences in this order:

1. Those which have high concentrations of the people you write for

2. Those who pay you to write

3. Marketing conferences

5. Become a Master of Surveys and Information Gathering

This one is a little more copy specific but as I alluded to earlier being able to match realities with someone you are writing for is really the most important thing you can do. It is the driver behind appeals, headlines, subheads and opening sentences.

The stunning differences we often see in headline tests are due to better appeals and/or better matched Reality.

Here’s the scale: Realities, Appeals, Headlines, Subheads, Openers.

Notice headlines are third on the list. You’ll often hear someone say that the list you mail to is more important than the headline. This is partially true. It’s actually part of the same phenomena. One list may have worked better because the headline better matched that list’s Reality.

Realities can only be understood via surveys, interviews, reading their literature and rubbing elbows.

A lesser effective way of achieving it is to study what else worked for that group. That is the most common one used by most (average) copywriters. If you’re looking to crush the ball over the fence, you need to get better at those higher on the scale.

What’s a reality? It’s what the person believes to be true, it’s how they look at things, it’s not even really an opinion (to them), it’s a fact. Realities are hard to get at because the person doesn’t so much talk about it as much as have it in the background which everything else (behaviors, beliefs, likes/dislikes) rests.

Once you have Realities of your group you can derive some appeals. The first and best example of Appeals I came across was from Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. He discussed promoting canned beans and how if you were using an appeal touting how your brand was superior to the other brands your appeal was only valid to 4% of the market, those who used canned beans.

He instead went after the core frustrations of the housewives who used beans and showed how using the canned beans handled those frustrations. That appeal had 25x the audience!

Think that could make a difference to the results?

It did… vaulted that brand to #1 almost overnight.

That kind of information is likely only going to be found via surveys, canvassing, interviews. It is not easy to find. It can sometimes take work. And that is why most copywriters avoid it.

Don’t be one of them.

I have found some ‘shortcuts’ to this process. One of them is the brilliant Net Promoter Score Survey. It is only 3 questions and you can learn the entire process by using ‘The Ultimate Question’ by Reichfeld.

6. Don’t Buy A Lambo (yet)

This is mainly for the younger or newer copywriters. (As the older ones will have already gotten bitten, ha!)

Copywriters are experts at bringing in lots of cash quickly. Once they do it for business owners they do it for themselves. Don’t go out and buy a Lambo. First, get a nice cash cushion under you. I know it’s boring. I know you think you’ll never experience a dip.

But being desperate is no fun. Forget about those guys who say they never wrote as well as they did when their back was against the wall because there are 10 to 20 of them who got in that situation and never got out. Now they’re doing something else.

If you wanna be in this for the long haul get a cash cushion and NEVER USE it. And, by never, I mean never.

More to come

That’s all I have for now! But, I’ll keep adding to this list, I’m sure.

I hope you enjoyed it. If you know a copywriter, whether newbie or old grizzled veteran, encourage them to write their own version of this post! It will help all of us out to get this collected wisdom out in the open.

Jason

P.S. Would love to hear your feedback. Questions from new or aspiring copywriters are always welcome.

P.P.S. If there’s a veteran copywriter you’d like to write a post like this let them know about this one and we’ll get some kind of list going that compiles this knowledge all in one place!

Posted in Copywriting Instruction and Advice | Leave a comment

7 Ways to Make Your Facebook Contest a Raving Success

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

Recently, I put together a Facebook contest for ModernGreetings and we had a blast.

The contest did a lot to drive awareness for ModernGreetings.com and they went from a few hundred fans to nearly 8,000 in about 5 weeks. Not bad at all.

I’m sure a few competitors raised their eyebrows as well!

Now that the contest has been over a while and I’ve got some distance from it I have boiled  down what we’ve learned from it as well as a few things to watch out for so you don’t get taken advantage of…

1. When picking a prize go big!

Many companies make the mistake of trying to give away a product or money. I don’t think that is the best option. You want people to become aware of your company so they’ll buy your product. Don’t cheapen it by giving it away.

Also, a product is not something that is going to generate a lot of buzz or make people expend much effort.

 

Think about how they’ll use the product or make a list of people who are interested in the product or service and ask yourself what they would want.

One of the primary segments for ModernGreetings.com is “Soccer Moms.” They are usually married, have one or more kids above 5 years old and live in Suburbia. (I won’t reveal the exact Prizm codes here, sorry!)

We could give away a photobook (yawn) or free birthday invitations for their kid’s next birthday (bigger yawn) or we could ask ourselves what would really move them?

What would get even other people, non-Soccer Moms, to send messages to the Soccer Moms saying, “Hey, did you hear about the contest? You should enter!”

After some brainstorming we came up with an idea… What soccer mom wouldn’t go nuts for a 2nd Honeymoon? It has a direct tie-in to ModernGreetings.com because we also gave away free photobooks to commemorate their 2nd honeymoon. That ties in perfectly.

But, we didn’t stop there… We decided to give one 2nd Honeymoon away every week for 4 weeks.

Each contest would require them to engage in social media activities to get the word out which would continue to build momentum for the contest.

Which brings us to the Second Way…

2. Make Participation Forward Your Social Presence to Get Even More Engagement and Awareness

We really wanted to get the word out, not only on Facebook, but on Twitter and Pinterest as well.

So, we designed contests to have a social component. The first contest was a funniest wedding photo contest where the contestants had to post a photo and get their Facebook friends to vote for it.

On Twitter we had them tweet a short summary of their proposal using the hashtag #MGTakeUsAway.

On Pinterest we had them create a board of their favorite destination and pin pictures of the sights, sounds and food they’d enjoy. We pinned a small infographic describing the contest task.

The last contest was a video of a wedding moment or of them recounting a wedding moment.

Each week we posted a different task. Each week we announced the winner in a recap video. Anyone who didn’t win could also participate in the next task. Many people participated in all four.

3. Give Frequent Updates via Email, Twitter, Facebook and Video Posts

The LAST thing you want someone to do is enter a contest and then forget about it. What you really want is to get them coming to your Facebook page often to check up on their stats, encourage friends to help them and also to see your OTHER non-contest related information.

The best way to do that is with frequent updates. We updated nearly everyday in some way and often several times in a day.

The day before the end of the contest we’d do an update were we highlighted who the top performers were and encouraging everyone to give one last push. This created a nice flurry of extra activity to our SM properties.

By letting people know WHEN we were going to announce we also had quite a bit of extra hits going to check up on the results. They often interacted with non-contest Facebook posts during that time.

4. Get Permission to Reveal the Winners and Use Their Submitted Items in Promotion

One of the interesting things we didn’t expect was a lot of extra commenting and social activity around congratulating winners. By doing a contest recap, revealing the winner and showing the entry that won, we had another opportunity to get in front of all of the contestants and their friends.

5. Give a Prize for EVERYONE Who Enters

While nothing beats the Grand Prize we didn’t want ANYONE to go off empty handed so we gave everyone who entered little prizes here and there. It built good will and resulted in quite a few full price orders for the company.

6. Leave the Final Decision Up To A Panel of Judges in Your Company

Of course, with anything like a contest involving prizes of magnitude you should have an attorney write the rules. I would suggest leaving the final decision up to a panel of judges who pick the winner from a pool of the top contestants. One reason I say this is because there are “voting groups” on Facebook which are organized to all vote for each other. While not technically illegal it is on the scammy side and is NOT what you want. You want real votes and comments from contestants, their friends and family… not organized groups of “you vote for me on this contest, I’ll vote for you on that contest.” If you disallow such things in your rules then if someone uses a voting group you can simply remove them from the pool of top contestants.

7. Make it Fun!

If you make it a blast for people it will spread. We reached over 1.2 million people on Facebook each week for about 5 weeks straight. A ton more people became aware of ModernGreetings.com and we saw email optins and sales increase as a result.

And, if you or your company want to run a Facebook contest, contact me and let’s have some fun!

Jason Bedunah

P.S. Have you ever entered a Facebook contest yourself? Would you? Let me know in the comments below!

Posted in Facebook Advertising | Leave a comment

Free Copy – The Business Owner’s Revenue Report

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

I Made Dr. Orent $392,000 EXTRA in One Month, My 1-Page Ad for Scott Bolan Launched a Profitable Martial Arts Video Company, My 2-Page Ad for Dr. Clifford
Doubled His Business in 30 Days…

Are You Next?

I am looking for a small, yet dedicated group of entrepreneurial business owners who want to seriously expand their businesses.

I’m hoping you’re one of them. And, I’m willing to invest a little time and money to find out.

If you want to:

  • Expand your business like crazy and bring in tons of extra money
  • Or, create an ASSET that you can sell all or part of for top dollar… or turn over for someone else to run while you enjoy life
  • Have your company become known as THE AUTHORITY in your niche
  • and, all while having fun doing it

…then we are on the same page so to speak. In addition to desiring those things you must have three other qualities.

You must:

1. Be an ethical business owner who prides himself on quality

2. Be doing fairly well but feel you could do much better

3. Believe an expert could really help you out

If all of the above is true, I want to send you a FREE report that will not only serve to introduce me and my ideas to you but ALSO start to rev up the revenue engines in your business.

This report is 24 pages and it is packed full of marketing gems. These are ideas, strategies and tactics that can be put into use immediately and create immediate income for your business.

Each of these gems alone could boost income 5%, 10% even 15% –
start using them together and the cumulative effects
create an explosion of much, much more.

Here are just a few of the many gems revealed in this report:

  • The Single Most Important Thing You must start doing now to make sure you get top dollar for your business should you ever decide to sell it.
  • How to make your customers practically immune to competitor’s offers. 
  • How to turn problem (or even lukewarm) customers into your most vocal advocates!
  • Should your company run a Facebook Contest? (Not every company should, here’s how to know)
  • A simple way to get the name and address of every man or woman who’s practically guaranteed to want your product or service for just pennies each.
  • Are your employees inadvertently driving customers away? How to find out and fix it immediately.
  • Are you making it hard for customers to trust you? Use this simple checklist to find out.
  • A simple tool to practically read your market’s mind.
  • The five steps to cause a lead generation explosion.

…and much more. Getting this report is easy. Simply fill out the form below and I’ll mail you a copy for free.

Along with that, I’m going to send you a mysterious piece of metal that is guaranteed to lift response rates for your company should you ever decide to incorporate it in your advertising program.

Looking forward to working with you,

Jason Bedunah

“Yes, Jason! Please send me a FREE copy of ‘The Business Owner’s Revenue Report.’ I understand the report is free and I am under no further obligation of any kind.”













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Posted in Copywriting Instruction and Advice, Generate Leads, Improve My Ads | Leave a comment

Multiply Profits With Fast, Entrepreneurial Copywriting

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

If you’re an Entrepreneur who wants to increase sales and multiply profits I can help.

I work exclusively with Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners providing them with  copy to help boost sales, gain new customers and get current customers to buy more.

Here are just a few of my recent wins:

  • A Facebook page that went from 1,000 to 7,000+ fans in a couple months and extended the Page’s reach to over 1,000,000 highly targeted prospects.
  • An email campaign that set a single day revenue record for a 6 year old company.
  • A sales letter that launched a new product for a dental consultant that resulted in $392,000 in the first month.
  • A simple, yet extremely effective postcard that generated tons of new visitors to online videos and grew an email list like wildfire.

I can write copy for your website, for email campaigns, postcard campaigns, video campaigns, radio ads and direct mail sales letters. Basically if it requires persuasive copy, I can write it so it connects with your customers and highlights the real benefits of your product or service.

As a Direct Response Copywriter I Live and Die By the Results

I don’t write for cuteness. I don’t write so people talk about it. I write so the business owner makes a ton of money, fast.

My 9 years of copywriting experience has allowed me to write at a high level of impact in a short amount of time. Most projects can be turned around in 2-3 days.

Because of that I’m able to charge a very reasonable rate. This reasonable rate also allows me to spend almost NO time in a long sales cycle trying to close business owners for an exorbitant fee. I spend my time writing instead of selling.

The easiest way to get the ball rolling is to Contact Me.

Jason Bedunah

Posted in Copywriting Instruction and Advice, Generate Leads, Improve My Ads | Leave a comment

Increase Sales and Multiply Profits With Entrepreneurial Copywriting

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Jason Bedunah

If you’re an Entrepreneur who wants to increase sales and multiply profits I can help.

I work exclusively with Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners providing them with  copy to help boost sales, gain new customers and get current customers to buy more.

Here are just a few of my recent wins:

  • A Facebook page that went from 1,000 to 7,000+ fans in a couple months and extended the Page’s reach to over 1,000,000 highly targeted prospects.
  • An email campaign that set a single day revenue record for a 6 year old company.
  • A sales letter that launched a new product for a dental consultant that resulted in $392,000 in the first month.
  • A simple, yet extremely effective postcard that generated tons of new visitors to online videos and grew an email list like wildfire.

I can write copy for your website, for email campaigns, postcard campaigns, video campaigns, radio ads and direct mail sales letters. Basically if it requires persuasive copy, I can write it so it connects with your customers and highlights the real benefits of your product or service.

As a Direct Response Copywriter I Live and Die By the Results

I don’t write for cuteness. I don’t write so people talk about it. I write so the business owner makes a ton of money, fast.

My 9 years of copywriting experience has allowed me to write at a high level of impact in a short amount of time. Most projects can be turned around in 2-3 days.

Because of that I’m able to charge a very reasonable rate. This reasonable rate also allows me to spend almost NO time in a long sales cycle trying to close business owners for an exorbitant fee. I spend my time writing instead of selling.

The easiest way to get the ball rolling is to Contact Me.

Jason Bedunah

Posted in Copywriting Instruction and Advice, Generate Leads, Improve My Ads | Leave a comment

A Simple Guide to Marketing Measurements

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Jason Bedunah

A few core measurements can give you TONS of data to use for improvement, not only for your marketing campaigns but, more importantly, the entire business.

In fact, I’d say the main metrics shouldn’t be the standard marketing metrics at all, but should instead focus on what’s happening with the customers. Of course you should still measure your campaigns but WITHOUT these core business metrics you’d could have killer campaigns and STILL find yourself bankrupt.

Here’s a meaningful marketing metrics system I might create for a new restaurant.

1. Number of the party that has been here before.

This could be as simple as the waiter asking, “Who hasn’t been here before?” and noting the number in the party and how many are new like: 5/2 — five in the party, 2 haven’t been before.

2. And, if it’s 5/5 (all new) then you can ask, “How’d you hear about us?” Which will help you understand the source of the new customers. You’d tabulate this as well (newspaper, radio, flyer, word of mouth, drive by). Word of mouth is a great sign as long as #1 continues climbing. This also helps you know if #1 is going down due to increased advertising efforts which would be fine as you’d expect a little bit of a decreased if you were advertising heavily.

3. The number of complaints; the content of the complaints.

Then tabulate the contents so you know if it is food quality or service quality. If a dish needs to be redone it’s a service issue (i.e too cold, wrong order, etc). If the customer doesn’t like it that COULD mean it’s a food quality issue.

The more of #3 you fix the HIGHER #1 should go even WITHOUT more advertising. (Remembering that in retail/restaurant location is a form of advertising in itself).

With just those few measurements you get a ton of information to optimize the customer acquisition engine and keep growing the business.

After a few major improvements in all of those numbers you can be certain that your advertising dollars aren’t going to be wasted on easily fixable issues.

Jason

 

 

Posted in Copywriting Instruction and Advice, Generate Leads, Improve My Ads | Leave a comment

[Short Case Study]: How to Find Hyper Responsive People For Your Facebook Ads

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Jason Bedunah

Howdy,

I’ve started pumping up a new client’s social media efforts and it’s already paying off. The overall strategy is to use FaceBook Ads to drive traffic to the Page and to the email sign up page.

Here’s how… In facebook ads I started off somewhat broad. I targeted females between 18 and 45 in the United States who were engaged, recently married or had children under 12. With this product that’s really as broad as you can get. Anyone else just isn’t going to be interested.

I created about 5 different ads in the campaign. The only thing that was different in this case was the image. I’ve found that the image really makes the most difference, followed by the headline then the body text. (This is amazing to me because I’m a direct response copywriter and we always focus on the headline but given how short fb and ppc headlines are it does make some sense.)

I bid fairly high on CPC because I wanted a lot of action so I can collect data about ad performance quickly.

After a couple hundred clicks I ran the “Responder Demographics” report. You can find it in the ad manager by looking on the left hand side, clicking the ‘Reports’ link and select “Responder Demographics” in the “Report Type” drop down menu.

That report gives you the the age ranges, sex and states where most of your clicks come from. What I look for here is a CTR that is HIGHER than the % of the impressions served. That means that you are selecting those people who are hyper responsive to your ad.

By this time it was also extremely obvious which image ad was the winner by a very large margin.

This gave me females between 18 and 34 in about 10 states in the united states. I then copied the ad to a new campaign with the more specific demographics.

This dropped the cpc and the CTR went way, way up.

The next and final move was to examine the email sign ups to see what times the bulk of the sign ups came. I NEEDED to know this before making my next and final move.

With this super-targeted and effective ad running for a bit as cpc I flipped it to cpm but ONLY running it during the range where it is most likely to convert.

Why did I do this?

I think Facebook prefers CPM. That way they are guaranteed a certain amount of money by expanding your ad as far and as wide as they can (given your demographic settings).

My theory proved out. The cpm version of the ad started getting shown 3-5x more than the cpc version.

Total money spent so far? Less than $500. Not too shabby!

Here are some graphs to show the results…

You’ll notice I have a Twitter graph thrown in there, too. I’ll cover how I increased that in detail including how I tie it all together in the next blog post.

To know when this post comes out just follow this blog.

Hope this helps!

Jason

Posted in Facebook Advertising | 1 Comment