The Newsletter Pro September 2018

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09.18 208.297.5700 www.thenewsletterpro.com

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

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Clean Up Your Company’s Slop

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What Our Clients Are Saying Are You Creating Your Own Bad Luck? Book Review: ‘The Referral of a Lifetime’

ELON MUSK HOLDS THE KEY TO KILLER MARKETING CAMPAIGNS ACQUIRE NEWCUSTOMERS FOR FREE THE TESLA MODEL 3WAY

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The Key to Great Mobile Ads

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Get to Know Neal Didonna

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Patagonia Is on a Mission-Driven Mission

Have you ever felt like some people simply don’t have to play by the same rules to get ahead? Elon Musk, for example, can get free PR whenever he wants to. And Uber violated laws in hundreds of cities when it first started, and no one got arrested.

profit on them, and then pay a reduced customer acquisition cost. If that sounds good, keep reading.

You’d think that, as a billionaire, his money troubles would go away, but his burn rate is thousands of dollars a minute. Selling more cars was not going to be the solution to the issue, so Musk, being the genius he is, invented a brand-new Tesla Model 3. Although he was years away from being able to build a Model 3, the idea of a $35,000 Tesla was too good for the masses to ignore. Musk knew that if he got his message out to the world, people would flock en masse to reserve one. So Musk flexed his PR muscle, and low and behold, 550,000 people gave him a deposit of $1,000 to reserve a car that was years away from production.

To tell this story properly, I’m going to have to take you back in time a bit.

Us small-business guys make one little mistake, and the world comes down on us like a ton of bricks.

The year was 2016, and Elon Musk needed some cash, which he often does.

It doesn’t seem fair, but that is life, right?

There was a new battery factory in development and a massive burn rate that needed to be fed. “Selling more cars was not going to be the SOLUTION TO THE ISSUE, so Musk, being the genius he is, invented the BRAND- NEW Tesla Model 3.”

So what? You and I can’t get the PR of Musk or risk breaking laws like Uber, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use some of the elite’s tactics to grow our business. One of my favorite tactics is a referral spin on Musk’s Model 3 promotion. Let me first explain what Musk did with his Model 3 promo. To grow Tesla, Musk always needs a massive amount of cash. As just one example, Musk wants to build Gigafactories to build lithium-ion batteries. What is a guy to do when he needs a billion dollars or so to complete a battery factory and doesn’t want to pay interest? He invents the Model 3. That story will show us how we can use a similar tactic to generate customers for nearly free, turn a

That’s $550,000,000 in deposits collected. It really was a stroke of genius.

But it wasn’t only money Musk got. As a suave entrepreneur, Musk realized he had an amazing leads list and that, with a little email marketing, direct mail, and a bunch of salespeople, he could likely upgrade some of those deposits to full paying customers.

Continued on page 2 ...

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... COVER CONTINUED Good news for Musk; he was right, and 8 percent of the people who paid a deposit upgraded to a higher-end Tesla. With a minimum cost per new Model S or X of $75,000, Musk was able to generate another $3.3 billion in sales. Not too shabby. Of course, it isn’t all good news; some people got tired of waiting for their cars and asked for their money back. But according to Musk, that only amounts to 12 percent of customers in the last 28 months. That’s a great attrition rate and a loss of only $66,000,000 — a virtual drop in the bucket compared to the $3.85 billion that has come in from sales and deposits. Of course, now that Model 3s are rolling off the factory line, there are 455,000 people who were willing to pay $39,000 more for a car at some point. Assuming 80 percent of them actually pull the trigger, that would be another 14.2 billion dollars in sales over time. Not too shabby. Now, you and I may not be creating products as high-end as a Tesla and making billions of dollars, but we can use some of the same money math to grow our companies.

to be a part of at TheNewsletterPro.com/tesla. Here’s some background info on the program and the economics behind it. “Of course, it seems SCARY TO GIVE AWAY A CAR and have a $50,000 liability in cash prizes, but when you think about it, this is some of the SAFEST MARKETING EVER.” The program overview: We’re giving away a Tesla Model S or X to someone who sends us a referral who signs up for any of our custom newsletter packages. We’re also giving away $500 cash money to each person who refers or $50,000 once we reach 100 new referrals.

Of course, it seems scary to give away a car and have a $50,000 liability in cash prizes, but when you think about it, this is some of the safest marketing ever. You see, like Musk, we have to invest a little money up front to promote our referral program, and we needed to already have media in place (like this newsletter), but we don’t accrue much expense at all for each new customer until after the new customer gives us money. At that point, we owe $500 to the person who referred the new customer to us. Ultimately, we will have to buy a car, but that is only after we’ve gotten 100 referrals, which we estimate will take around 12 months. We will have had new customers paying us for a year before we have to purchase the vehicle, which allows us to offer a killer prize with minimum risk. We’re doing the same thing Musk is doing, just with referrals instead of product deposits. If we had to buy the car first, the risk would be so high that we’d never take the chance. (The reality is that not all marketing campaigns work, even for me.) But if we don’t have to shell out most of the money until after we already have the customer, it is virtually risk-free for us. If your wheels are spinning on how you can also use these strategies to give away a car or some other killer prize, that’s great. If you want it to be successful, there are two things you must do ASAP: You need to make sure you have media that you own and control (like a newsletter, hint hint), and you need to make sure you’re using that media to build a relationship with your customers and prospects. Ideally, you wouldn’t launch both the referral program and the media/relationship platform at the same time, because you really need the relationship first.

The simplest case study to look at is our Tesla referral program, which you should totally register

If we can help, give us a call at 208-297-5700 . Otherwise, I will see you next month.

–Shaun

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BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

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EVEN THOUGH THE ECONOMY IS GOOD, DON’T MAKE THESE BUSINESS MISTAKES BUSINESS HOW-TO

Great news — the economy is rolling along and all is good. Sales are growing for most businesses, opportunity is around every corner, new customers are becoming easier to acquire, and profits are going up. Gotta love a strong economy. But we all know a strong economy doesn’t last forever. I’ve been hearing the rumblings from the Wall Street pundits that we only have another 12–18 months left in this good economy. While I have no clue how long or short our boom will be, I do know one thing for sure … Tons of businesses are allowing slop to creep into their operations, and when this economy turns, it is only a matter of time until that slop kills a number of small businesses. LET ME SHARE A FEW EXAMPLES: My team and I recently hit a company sales goal. As a reward, I was going to take the whole company (all 60 of us) to pizza, beer, and bowling. We called the nicest bowling center in town, but they wanted us to use their catering option. Unfortunately, that option blew the budget, so I called back and asked to reserve lanes. I was told that wasn’t an option. It wasn’t like I was asking for two lanes. I needed 10 lanes, and I didn’t want to simply walk in and hope they would all be available. Since a reservation wasn’t an option, I asked if I could prepay the per-lane fee of $40 per hour. Again, the answer was no. I even got a manager who told me they didn’t want to reserve the lanes because Fridays in the summer were sometimes busy. I was floored when I heard that. I asked the manager, “Are you slow some Fridays?” and he replied yes. I then explained to him that I was willing to come in and prepay $800 for 10 lanes for two hours and buy pizza and beer, which would guarantee that this Friday would be busy, and that it didn’t make sense for him to not take my guaranteed money over money he hoped would come in. The answer was still no, so we took our business elsewhere.

In a good economy, a company feels comfortable making dumb policies and simply hoping more money will come in; they have enough cash today to pay the bills. All of this is slop. As I write this, I’m on vacation with my family at a lake resort in McCall, Idaho. It’s a small resort town two hours north of my city and one of our favorite spots to get away from it all. We knew we would want to rent Jet-Skis for the day and have fun on the lake, so I called the marina and got voicemail. Getting a business’s voicemail annoys me, but McCall is a small town, so I let it go. I left a message telling them I wanted to rent a pair of Jet-Skis for the day. The next day, I was near the marina and the kids were playing in the lake, so I decided to take the short walk to the marina and reserve those Jet-Skis for the next day. As I was walking, I came across another place that rented Jet-Skis. I stopped, chatted with the kid who was working there, and reserved my Jet-Skis through him. At this point, it had been 24 hours since I called the first company, and I wasn’t expecting a call back. Either way, they missed out on hundreds of dollars in sales, all due to slop. The phones may be one of the single easiest things for any business owner to fix and see massive improvements with quickly. For my mastermind group, I brought in my phone guy, Dave Tester, to do some live calling to each attendee’s business to help them improve. When I buy or invest in a company, one of the first things I do is look at the phones and who answers them. I secret shop the person answering the phones a minimum of five times, and if I can’t salvage the person answering the phones, they are typically the first to go. When the economy is good, the problem of bad front desk people actually magnifies. This is why I want you to pay close attention to this in your business.

and new customers are coming in daily, it can be hard to focus on keeping what you already have. Considering that an existing customer is easier to sell to and more profitable than a new customer — according to every study I’ve ever read on the subject, not to mention my personal experience in business — taking your focus off customer retention is a massive mistake. The business math is always better if you grow and have low attrition. Not to mention the fact that, when the economy turns, you’re likely going to lose a few customers, so wouldn’t it be better to have more customers rather than fewer so the loss hurts less? If, after reading this, you think slop isn’t happening in your business, think again. It happens to everyone to some degree, but if you aren’t paying attention, it happens so much more than you know. Right now is the best time to fix slop. The economy is great, and fixing these areas that are costing you money is a great way to maximize profits so you can continue investing in your company, continue growing it, and make sure the next downturn — whenever it hits — is simply a minor annoyance to you instead of a potential business killer.

–Shaun

Another area of slop that often gets overlooked is customer retention. When the economy is rolling

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MARKETING HOW-TO

CLIENT SUCCESS

ARE YOU CREATING YOUR OWN BAD LUCK?

“I’M GLAD WE INTRODUCED THE NEWSLETTER TO OUR BUSINESS.” “The team at The Newsletter Pro is awesome! I’m glad we introduced the newsletter to our business. We have received a lot of great feedback from our clientele, and our business has been having an increase in referrals. The Newsletter Pro makes the whole process very streamlined and smooth and does not require a lot of time each month. These guys are great!”

– Chris Thomason Eagle Dental Care

I have a few cautionary lessons for you, your employees, and your loved ones to read.

I’ve altered the stories a bit to protect the guilty, but I’ve seen so many people make these mistakes that I figured it was time to write about them. MISTAKE 1: NOT DOING AS YOU SAY YOU’LL DO

I run across this all the time. Promises are made and rarely kept. Excuses seem to rule the day, but so few people realize how much this costs them.

“MY CLIENTS LOVE THE NEWSLETTERS.”

I recently hired a temporary employee (not at The Newsletter Pro), and we set out a work agreement for them for a period of time when they needed some extra cash. The employee did a great job, and I made plans based on the amount of work they were contracted to do and the time frame we had agreed on.

“These guys are so professional and personal that I use them as an example for things to do in my own business to make my clients feel good! They are super attentive to detail and seem to care about really getting to know my business so they can strategize with me on my newsletters. They are always perfectly on time, respond to my emails immediately, and write and design super well. My clients LOVE the newsletters and tell me they’re the highest quality we have ever put out. And I hardly have to do anything. I would recommend these guys to anyone! Go for it!”

OUR BOOKSHELF

REFERRAL MADNESS Find Your ‘Referral of a Lifetime’

– Jessica Schatz Expressions Music Academy

When you do a web search on ways to boost your sales (that actually work), Google will serve up thousands of results telling you one big thing: You need a referral campaign.

And that’s true. Referrals are big for small businesses. When implemented correctly, referrals can become your bread and butter. But that, of course, is the challenge. How do you implement a successful referral campaign that makes sense for your business? This is one question Tim Templeton takes a hard look at in his book, “The Referral of a Lifetime.” Templeton, a renowned business coach, has been helping entrepreneurs and business leaders answer that question for years. He’s getting more referrals through their doors. “The Referral of a Lifetime” dives into one of the most important aspects of referral marketing: building relationships. Not only do you want to foster the relationships with the customers you already have, you want to foster relationships with the people whose business you really want.

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BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

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As Templeton explains, maintaining regular contact with your customers is crucial — if there is any secret to referral success, it’s this. Of course, setting the ball in motion is the real trick. And that’s what Templeton does. Through “The Referral of a Lifetime,” he gives you an outline to get the ball rolling along with what you need to know to keep the momentum going for a long time to come. Templeton makes going after referrals refreshingly simple. He makes it practical. “The Referral of a Lifetime” is a down- to-earth approach to referral marketing, something that is often missing in those thousands of online articles that attempt to explain the process. If you want to unlock the power of your next referral campaign, you need to read this book first. You can learn more about “The Referral of a Lifetime” at thereferralbook. com or find it on Amazon. Now, this side arrangement wasn’t with some random stranger, but with someone I’d known since they were a kid. A few weeks before our work agreement was up, they put in their two weeks’ notice to pursue another opportunity. This left me in a bind for those last two weeks. To my employee, it didn’t seem like a big deal — after all, they gave two weeks’ notice — but to me it was huge. Little will they ever know it cost them big time. Just two days before this person gave notice, I was scheming to help them out. They had done such a good job so far that I wanted to give them a boost in life; I was going to write a check for about $6,000 to pay off their student loans. Unfortunately for them, because they didn’t honor their commitment and they put me in a bind, that extra money is now off the table. I see this kind of miscalculation with CEOs, employees, family, and friends. I’m even guilty of it myself from time to time, but that doesn’t make it right. In my experience, the vast majority of people have an issue keeping their word. If you can and others can’t, it helps you stand out from the crowd. What do you do when life happens and you simply can’t keep a commitment?

When this happens, you need to go to the other party, explain the situation, and make a new deal. Of course, people do this all the time, but it’s typically minutes before the deadline or after the deadline has already passed. Both of those are too late. The best time to make a new deal is the moment you know you can’t meet the terms of the old deal. By living your life in an ethical manner and keeping your word, people will trust you more, and with more trust comes greater opportunity. MISTAKE 2: BEING A BULLY So, you’re going to miss your deadline or you can’t or don’t want to continue a contract or agreement of some kind. Instead of owning their position, I watch people from all walks of life try to bully their way into a better deal. The bullying tactic often works if the other person is weak or simply doesn’t care, but it can cost you dearly in the long run. This mistake is common and can go hand-in-hand with the above mistake.

this happened because I was in no position to argue about whatever terms were thrown my way, but you’d better believe I worked hard to make sure that person couldn’t bully me in the future, and when the timing was right, we were done. In this case, that person was a victim of self-inflicted bad luck. Just because you have the upper hand today doesn’t mean you’ll have it tomorrow, so you should treat people the way you want to be treated. I’ve found that the way people in power (even if the power is going to be short-lived) treat those who are not in power speaks volumes about the person in power’s character. MISTAKE 3: NOT TAKING OWNERSHIP When something goes wrong in life, you have to first be introspective. What did you do wrong? How could you have made this situation go better? I just signed an agreement that now appears to be a bad deal based on bad info I got. I’m not responsible for the >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8

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