The Newsletter Pro - May 2017

The Newsletter Pro - May 2017

#343 in the 2016 INC. 500 | #120 in the 2015 INC. 500 | 2014 Marketer of the Year | 24K Club Winner

05.17 208.297.5700 www.thenewsletterpro.com

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

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Getting Referrals When You Can’t (or Don’t Want to) Incentivize for Them Confessions of an Entrepreneur How Google Boosts Your Workflow Spotlighting Bert Kelly Why Your Marketing Doesn’t Work and What to Do About It The Sheer Power of Storytelling Inbound Marketing Can’t Replace Your Sales Team Testimonial Good News

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THE TRUTH ABOUT BRITNEY SPEARS AND MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS THAT NO ONE WILL TELL YOU

A quick Google search told me that, rumor is, Britney is having a hard time selling out her shows. My own ticket search seemed to confirm that. The question is, why? Why would Britney Spears, a mega superstar (despite what you think of her music), have a hard time selling out a town like Vegas with 40 million visitors a year and only 4,600 seats per day in the venue? Why does she need 1 ½ times (my estimate) the local (on the strip) advertising of anyone else? Here are the truths about marketing that no one talks about. IT IS VERY HARD — EVEN FOR SUPERSTARS — TO GET PEOPLE TO STOP AND PAY ATTENTION. The world we live in is more distracting than ever. There are ads everywhere — especially in Vegas. It takes so much more time, and even shock value, to get someone’s attention. This means you must be

different. You must show up where your competitors aren’t and do things they are unwilling to do to get new customers and to keep your existing customers. What are you doing that is different than your competitors, and is it enough? YOU WILL GET SOME BUSINESS FOR SIMPLY EXISTING. It is true that if you build it, and tell a few people about it, you will get some business — but it isn’t enough to survive. You must do marketing on a daily/ weekly basis. Every month, you should have a plan for how much marketing you’re doing that month. NOT EVERYONE WILL BUY RIGHT AWAY. The marketing you’re going to do today will affect the next 90 days of new business, at a minimum. For us, 29 percent of the new business we are going to get this month will come from marketing we did 365- plus days ago. You have to fill the pipe, and you can’t

Last week, I was in Las Vegas for the trip our customers won for sending us referrals. (I’ll go into more details on the successes and lessons learned from this referral promo in another article in this newsletter.) When I’m on vacation, it takes two or three days before I can get out of work mode and move into vacation mode. But by Saturday, I was no longer in work mode. A funny thing happens when I’m not worried so much about the day-to- day aspects of work. I start to think differently. I start to see opportunities. I focus more on strategy, notice more good ideas, and see patterns. Once this happened in Vegas, I started to really enjoy all the advertising that was all around me. There was advertising for shows, but not all the advertising was equal. Britney Spears had ads everywhere — on billboards, on taxis, in hotels, in the mall — hundreds of ads. When my wife, Mariah, and I were looking for something to do, I looked up to see if they had tickets available, and sure enough, they did. Luckily for me, Mariah didn’t want to go.

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KILLER REFERRAL STRATEGIES

GETTING REFERRALS WHEN YOU CAN’T (OR DON’T WANT TO) INCENTIVIZE FOR THEM

Referrals are the best type of new customers. Every study I’ve ever read says they are worth more, easier to sell, have a higher lifetime value, and make the person who referred them more loyal. Most businesses (incorrectly) use incentives (e.g. free services, $25 gift cards, etc.) to get new referrals. But what happens if your industry won’t let you use an incentive to get more referrals? How do you entice people to talk about you and share your services without risking losing your license or business, or even getting jail time in some cases? The good news is, all is not lost. The even better news is, once done correctly, you can actually end up getting referrals for less per new customer then some of the best incentive programs. The bad news is, this isn’t easy. Sorry. The first place to start is with information. I don’t know of a single industry that can’t give out information as a lead magnet to get a referral. Here is how this works. Let’s assume you’re referrals. You can hold seminars (which is a great idea and totally works), or you could offer an incentive in the form of information, for example, “7 Home Remedies to Relieve Lower Back Pain.” This could be a DVD, online video series, or eight-page workbook. Once you’ve created your content and a landing page or mechanism for people to request the information (free recorded message lines also still work), you now need to promote the offer. The best way to promote this offer is in a newsletter (if I do say so myself), but emails also work, as well as postcards to clients past and present offering the info, or even simple business cards that you pass out to everyone you treat that day. a physical therapist and you accept Medicare, which basically means you have limited options for gifts for new

three of the seven exercises in the content and still have pain

more than twice a week.

You’ll have even greater success if you add follow-up to each opt-in. The follow-up should be useful, but push to an appointment or a phone call that pushes to an appointment. There should be no cost for this first appointment. The goal is to examine them, not necessarily to treat them. Once you get that working, you’ll have another problem. You won’t be able to keep using back pain as the lead magnet month in and month out. Once you get the first one working, you’ll have to move on to the next alignment and create the front end all over again. When you have five or six different front- end lead magnets, you can simply rotate which one you’re promoting each month. At the start of the article, I told you it wouldn’t be easy. But once you put this in place, you’ll have a great system for kicking out massive referrals — all without breaking any rules.

The goal here is for you to make the information available and have one or two things happen. Either your current patients raise their hands for the service, or they give your information to someone they know who has a lower back problem and could benefit from “7 Home Remedies for Lower Back Pain.” Once the information is passed on, you have the beginning of a referral. Once someone claims your information, you now need a mechanism to get that person on the phone or in your office. One simple way to do this is to include a section that encourages the prospect to come in for a complimentary consultation if they try

– Shaun

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COVER CONTINUED ...

only look at today. Last year, we had a campaign that, on the surface, was kind of a flop. We spent $20,000 in marketing, and our immediate return was below our minimum number needed to redo that campaign. But within 90 days of the campaign, we had picked up not one, but two larger clients, and ended up with nearly $1 million in new annual revenue, with more new business still coming in from that campaign nearly eight months later. So many businesses leave tens of thousands to millions of dollars on the table because they simply will not invest money in follow-up. YOU CAN DO SOME MARKETING THAT IS STRICTLY DIRECT RESPONSE AND SEE GROWTH, BUT YOU HAVE TO ALSO NURTURE (AKA BRAND BUILDING). Branding is a negative word for many, but when you are nurturing, that is exactly what you are doing — advertising and not expecting a direct ROI. Nurturing/branding are part of business, and you need those components if you want to grow. If you insist only on direct response, you will hit a cap on your business and be unable to grow any larger. This cap comes much faster if you’re a local business. YOU HAVE TO CONSISTENTLY ADD AND TRY NEW MARKETING. In marketing, you build on the successes, tweak the failures, and you’re always on the lookout for something new. But NEVER cancel successful If you’ve ever studied copywriting, you’ll know that fear is a powerful motivator. People are always looking to avoid pain. The gurus tell you that when you’re trying to sell to someone, you’ll get a better response if you focus on people’s fears over their desires to gain. Humans are more likely to buy something if it helps them get rid of a pain point than if it simply gets them more of a positive outcome they’ve already experienced. This is why you see so many presentations that are doom and gloom. If that was my selling style, I may tell you, “If you don’t get a newsletter now, you’ll lose all your customers and be bankrupt!” If I could make you believe that (and, of course, the above statement is totally true, and you should BUSINESS TOOLBOX

your competitors are not interacting with them). If you generate the lead offline, you need to get all the info and also interact with them online. This is the multimedia strategy that is working right now. All the largest and most successful companies are using it. Amazon is now sending postcards and has physical locations. Facebook and Google both do direct mail and exhibit at tradeshows. Everyone who is having success on any kind of scale uses this strategy. Why aren’t you?

marketing to try something new. If you don’t have the budget to test the new thing without canceling even a moderately successful old thing, find another expense to cut that isn’t in marketing. If you have a campaign that isn’t working, and after tweaking it still doesn’t work, then you cancel and try something new. Never cancel because the next shiny thing or good salesperson is doing their job and closing you. WE LIVE IN AN ONLINE AND OFFLINE WORLD So many people are way too caught up with online- only marketing. They think it is cheap, easy, and the answer to their prayers. That is all BS. If you want to succeed, you need to have an O2O strategy, which stands for online to offline and offline to online. Simply put, if you generate the lead online, your goal should be to get all the info you need to also interact with them offline (in a vacuum where

You don’t have to listen to me, but ignore this at your own peril. If you don’t adjust to the truth about marketing as it sits today, someone is going to come in and kick your butt, or best- case scenario, you will tread water. Business won’t go down much, but it also won’t grow much.

– Shaun

CONFESSIONS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

enough to get you to drop everything and beat a path to my door.

drop everything to get a newsletter started, so that you’re still in business next week), you’d do just about anything to get started with us and not lose your business, wouldn’t you?

The amount of power that fear has in our decision-making process is crazy, but I don’t want this to be a copywriting article. Instead, I have a serious question for you. If fear is

controlling much of what we buy outside of the norm, what else does it control in your life?

If I told you that you should get a newsletter

because it will get you more referrals, despite the fact that virtually 100 percent of business owners

This is applicable both personally and professionally, but I’ll focus on the professional perspective.

Seriously, think about it. What big decisions are you allowing

say they want more referrals, that isn’t

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PAGE 3 CONTINUED ...

RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

BOOST YOUR WORKFLOW 2 Google Features to Streamline Your Day

your fear to make for you? What are you not doing because you’re scared?

I’ve found that it is helpful to write down your fears. Once you have defined the fear, answer these next four questions.

1. Why are you scared? Be real here. You’re the only one who is going to read this.

download the Google Tasks extension in the Chrome web browser for functionality outside of Gmail. Plus, if you use Google services on multiple devices (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) and your account is synced across these devices, you’ll have access to Tasks wherever you are. Your lists stay updated regardless of which device you use. KEEP YOURSELF REMINDED If you regularly use Google Calendar, Reminders is a breeze to use. It works much like a typical calendar event. Set a reminder for a single or repeating time. When you click a time on the calendar, click Reminder at the top of the event box. Once the reminder is set, it will stay on the calendar until you mark it as done. Additionally, an alert will pop up a few minutes before a scheduled reminder, ensuring you don’t forget a thing. The Reminders feature is ideal for keeping you apprised of calls, meetings, and just about everything you need to accomplish during the day. Much like Tasks, any reminders you create

Google is all about features. Their services, from Gmail to Drive, are packed with so many features, many users aren’t even aware of the full scope of options at their fingertips. Take, for example, two such features: Reminders and Tasks. Both are designed to boost workflow by keeping you on task and productive throughout the day. But did you know these features existed? STAY ON TASK Let’s take a look at Tasks . In Gmail, quickly access Tasks in the menu under Mail by clicking the down arrow. Click Tasks and a task list will appear in the window, allowing you to add tasks and make lists as needed. You can include due dates, notes, and create multiple lists for different purposes. Make a to-do list of the week’s projects, list off the people you need to call or email, or create a list of supplies you need for the office. Having a list right next to your email keeps everything in one convenient place so you don’t have to jump between windows. You can also

2. What impact is this fear currently having on your life or business?

3. Reality check: Is this fear justified, or are you blowing things out of proportion?

4. What will life be like 10 or 20 years from now if you don’t confront this fear and overcome it?

I’ll give you a personal example.

The Fear: I’m scared that I’ll one day lose everything I’ve built and be poor again.

Why? I was very poor growing up, and as a teenage dad, I wasn’t exactly swimming in cash. Despite owning businesses, I went through phases during most of my 20s where I had money, and then other times was totally broke and couldn’t afford bread and milk. The thought of struggling like that again makes me very fiscally conservative. The Reality: The odds of being broke like that again are slim. I can outwork most challenges, and the connections I’ve made along my entrepreneurial journey can’t be taken away. The Impact: As I always say, if you’re not growing in business, you’re moving backward. If I don’t invest and take calculated risks, I’ll increase my chances of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy five or 10 years from now.

A Newsletter Pro Original The first thing you should know about Bert is that he’s a dad to two great kids — an 8-year-old son named Landon, and a 5-year-old daughter named Adalayne. They keep him busy with their activities — school, baseball, and soccer — and he wouldn’t trade it for the world. bag that the final issue came in.” Bert still loves to read comic books and graphic novels, a passion he now shares with his own son. Bert is also passionate about running and is an avid marathoner. “It keeps me motivated in life,” Bert says. “If I’m training, I know I need to get the run in. If I apply this dedication to other things, I know I can accomplish them too.” BERT KELLY

Typically, I’d go even deeper in my analysis, but for the sake of space I’ll leave it at that.

One of the most important things for your own personal development is to be introspective. If you’re not clear on who you are and why you’re making the decisions you’re making, you’ll increase the odds of making a bad choice, which may justify the fear and keep you stuck in an endless loop of fear and failure.

Bert talks about his own childhood in the Detroit area, riding his bike to 7/11 to get Slurpees. Then he’d hit the comic store across the street. “The ‘Death of Superman’ story arc happened in 1992 when I was 12 years old,” he says. “I’ll never forget seeing that red bloody ‘S’ on the sealed black plastic

He’s applied that dedication to a lot of things, including woodworking. He learned this skill from his grandfather. “He really loved woodworking, and I spent a lot of time with him when I was a kid. When I work on something, it’s like putting a puzzle

Work today to identify your fears and tackle them head on. Don’t let them steer your ship.

– Shaun

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TESTIMONIALS

"... WE'LL KEEP WORKING WITH THEM FOR YEARS TO COME!"

are synced across all of your devices. If you’re away from your desk or on the road, but you have your smartphone with you, you’ll receive a notification for the corresponding reminder — that is, if your Google calendar synced to your device. You’ll have no excuse to miss a call ever again! When it comes down to it, Reminders and Tasks are great ways stay on top of everything that goes on throughout your day, at home, at work, and on the road. If you aren’t using these features, give them a try. It won’t be long before they’re a part of your daily routine.

“We've been using The Newsletter Pro for more than a year now, and we are really happy with their work. The communication is excellent (our project manager is Kenzie; she's super friendly, she always makes sure we are happy with our newsletter content, and she always replies to emails right away), our questions are always answered, and our newsletter is always sent on time. We've had plenty of clients tell us that they love the newsletter, and new clients have booked our services because they've received the newsletter. They're doing an awesome job, and we just signed up for a second year. I'm sure we'll keep working with them for the years to come!” – Eric Gordon, president and founder of Beyond Times Square

Have You Heard The Good News?

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 — Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. Matthew 23:12 — For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Mark 11:24-25 — Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

together, one piece at a time, until I have a finished product.” Bert applies this same methodology to creative window displays he designs for stores in town, including a recent display at Urban Outfitters that was themed for the local Treefort Music Fest. As for the next woodshop purchase? “I’d love a planer,” Bert says. “After that, definitely a biscuit joiner.” We can’t wait to see what he does once he gets them!

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Building Relationships That Matter. Personal. Professional. Powerful.

208.297.5700

MARKETING TOOLBOX

WHY YOUR MARKETING DOESN’T WORK AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Have you ever had a marketing campaign fail? I know I have many times, and it sucks. All that time and money invested goes up in smoke. There are dozens of reasons that campaigns don’t work, and I could write an article going over things like the offer, media choice, etc., but I don’t think that’ll be super helpful. Instead, I want to focus more on you and your business and what is happening internally that could be causing your campaigns to fail. My hope is that this will be a new way for you to evaluate campaign success and failures. A dentist called us recently and told us a new- homeowner direct-mail campaign we were doing for their office wasn’t working. I asked why, and they didn’t know. So I asked for permission to mystery call his office. A few hours later, I grabbed the phone and called the office, and I got their voicemail. I hung up, waited 2 minutes, and tried again. On the fourth call, someone finally answered, and when I asked for an appointment as a new patient, she couldn’t get me in for three weeks. No wonder the marketing wasn’t working — they were understaffed at the front desk, and the receptionist was poorly trained. Most businesses live and die by the phones, but do nearly zero training for the employees on phone skills. They also typically don’t pay the people who answer the phones very well, which is one of the reasons they don’t get employees with phone skills. This is a huge mistake. You must have scripting for your phones. If you make appointments or sales, you need to pay those people a good wage or commission and give them training, not just throw them to the wolves on day one. The next issue I see on a regular basis is that people are not clear about the goals for their campaigns. Let me use a newsletter example for this point. If you want more referrals, simply sending a newsletter will get the vast majority of businesses more referrals. Newsletters give you top-of-mind awareness and have pass-around value. But if you want 25 more referrals per month, simply sending a newsletter won’t do the trick. You need to promote referrals in the newsletter and

climbing if you want to get more and more fruit. You have to do the same thing with marketing. Today you may be able to get 10 new customers for $100 each, but if you want to get 20 new customers, you may have to spend $135 each for customers 11–15, and $157 each for customers 16–20. For the first 10 customers, you may be able to close all of them via the internet and email, but for the next 10, you’ll have to get on the phone. It simply gets more and more difficult as you want to get more and more customers. This is why so many settle and stop trying to grow. I know none of what I just told you is likely to be what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth. And right now, these three areas are holding many people back from achieving their dreams. The question is, are these areas going to hold you back? Are you willing to do the work and make changes to how you run your business? Will you stop blaming the marketing for all the failures and, instead, look at internal issues that may be causing them? Only time will tell.

ask for them when you’re talking to customers. Best-case scenario, you should have a referral promo or contest. If you can’t do that, you have to create a referral culture and offer information that is valuable to help get more referrals. Unless you’re clear on the goals you want (and for the record, saying, “I want more customers” is not being clear), how can anyone help you achieve these goals? Finally, most people vastly underestimate how difficult it is to grow. It’s hard to get a new customer today, and it’s expensive. All of this new media is actually making it more expensive and difficult for the vast majority of businesses. Far too many people get their business going, start marketing, find some success, and then expect to get customers for the same amount of money and effort they are spending today — and that simply isn’t reality. As you scale, you have to spend more money to continue getting the same results. It’s like picking fruit from a tree. At first, it’s easy, but eventually you have to grab a ladder and start

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