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Dear Friend, 

This week we’re going to carry on the conversation we’ve been having over the past several weeks. 

If you’re following along, we’ve talked about choosing a target market, about writing a great headline we can use for a Free Report to offer in a direct response ad. 

Now, if you’ve done all that…one of two things will usually happen. 

People will see me and either say: 

Help! I ran one of those direct response ads and I didn’t get any calls. 

Or, they’ll say: 

Help! I ran one of those direct response ads and I got swamped with calls…what do I do now? 

Let’s talk about BOTH of those situations right now… 

First…if you ran an ad and didn’t get ANY response…here’s how to figure out why… 
 
Lot’s of times I hear from people on the “ad clinics” or at the “Main Events” who tell me “I ran one of those direct response ads and I didn’t get any calls.” When I hear that I immediately go through this checklist with them, and we’re able to figure out why.

Who is your target market?

Many times an ad will be directed to too many people at once, casting as wide a net as possible so as not to leave anybody out. If you are not getting any calls it may be because your ad is not speaking to anyone in particular, but to anyone who is “thinking of buying or selling…”

When you write your ad, write it to one very specific segment of the market. Think in terms of renters who are paying more than $750 a month in rent and living in the Oakbridge Apartment Complex, or homeowners living in the Bridgeview Subdivision in a 2-bedroom home who want to move up to a 3 or 4 bedroom home. The more specifically you can identify your target market, the easier it will be for you to create offers that will be appealing to them.

What is your offer?

A lot of times, I’ll ask people what their offer is and they won’t be able to tell me exactly. They’ll say things like “Well, I just want to get the word out about my services”, or “To let people know that I will treat them special”.

If you don’t have an offer, you need to go back to the drawing board and think of something you can give your prospects. Something that will make them want to take action now. Something like a free recorded message on how to use their rent money to buy a home or a free list of homes they can buy within a 3 mile radius of their apartment with zero downpayment and monthly payments the same as they are paying in rent.

Does your headline tell the complete story?

One of the first things I check on the ads that people show me is the headline. I’m looking to see whether I can understand what the ad is about just by reading the headline alone. A good headline is going to tell me everything I need to know to decide if this ad is for me. The headline is the ad for the ad. Here’s a good way to think about it. Pretend that you are writing a 3-line classified ad for the same offer you are making in your ad. If you can get the whole point across in those three lines, try using ad as the headline for your ad.

Does it look like an ad?

Here is where a lot of people go astray in using direct response advertising. When I look at their ad they have a big balloon in it, or a rock or a glamour shot of them.

Your ad should look exactly like a story in the newspaper. This is maybe the most common mistake I see. There is a good chance that your ad is not working because it looks like an ad and people just pass over it. Here’s the test – go out and get a copy of USA Today and find an article that is the same size as the ad you are running.

Does your ad look exactly like the article? What about the big bold headline that’s aligned to the left and not centered? What about the Times New Roman font they use for the body copy and the columns of print? Does your ad have those things? Do everything you can to make your ad match exactly the layout of the newspaper.

Are you talking to them like you would talk to them one on one?

When you write the copy for your ad, you need to pretend that you are talking to one person at a time.

Even though your ad is going to be read by thousands of people – it’s going to be read one person at a time. You need to consider your ad your one opportunity to speak directly with your prospect for less than two minutes. What would you say to them if you had the chance to sit down with them one on one and tell them about your offer?

Try to create a mental picture in your mind of sitting down across the table from one of your ideal prospects and write your copy just like you would talk to them. You’ll find that your copy is going to be more conversational, more understandable and get more people to take action on your offer.

Is it absolutely clear what you are asking them to do?

This is the point where you have got your prospect really wanting what you have to offer, now you have to make it crystal clear that they are to pick up the phone and dial one specific phone number to get what you are offering. Many times I’ll see ads that have an office number, a toll free number, a cellular number and a pager number.

The feeling that this gives people is that they are going to have to track you down. They don’t know which is the right number to call, or what is going to happen when they call you. You need to be very specific and eliminate all confusion from your offer to them.
Have you made it easy, easy, easy to respond?

This is one of the most important things you can do in your ad. Make it easy to respond.

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Now….what if you have exactly the opposite problem, and you’re saying “HELP! I ran a direct response ad that got 100 calls — Now what?” 
 
Here’s what to do to maximize your results using a direct response advertising system
The second biggest complaint I hear from people who are new to direct response is “I ran one of those direct response ads and got 100 calls but none of them were any good.” Most of the time what they are really saying is, “I ran an ad, I wasn’t prepared for all the response, I sent out the reports and nobody called me back, and I haven’t done anything else.”

When you are using direct response advertising with free reports, it’s just another pillar in your business and you have to know what your outcome is before you even start using it. Remember, marketing is a process, not an event.

It’s not about running an ad one time and sending out a hundred free reports. You are using direct response advertising as a way to generate an extra 2 or 3 or more transactions every month, consistently and predictably. Most of the time, when people are having trouble making direct response ads work for them, it’s because they are treating it as an event and not as a process.

Here are the 3 key elements you need to make it a successful process

1. An Informative Free Report

The first thing you need to make sure of is that the report you are sending your prospects really does deliver on the promise you made in your ad. If you are getting good response to your ad, it’s because you’ve written compelling copy and they really want what you are offering.

One of the surest ways to not get any responses is to send out a free report that is weak and doesn’t give them the information that you promised. A piece that comes off like you’re a salesperson and not a consultant, or a report that is just not informative or well thought out.

You need to think of your free report as your chance to sit down with one of your best prospects and give them a 15 minute consultation on what they need to do next, and how to get the benefit you are offering.

2. A Clear and Compelling Next Step

The second most common mistake is telling too much information in the report and not having a clear and compelling next step. What does that mean? It means that the only purpose of your free report is to educate and motivate your prospect to want to meet you. That’s it.

If nobody is calling you back after you send out your free report it’s because you haven’t given them enough of a reason to do it. You haven’t motivated them with benefit after benefit for calling you. You may have given them the impression that the only way you could help them is if they are ready to buy or sell their house today or at the latest this weekend.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to find people who are going to do something right now, but the big advantage of using direct response advertising is that you can make contact with people who are just getting started in the process of buying or selling a home. You have identified them before anyone else, before they are calling on property ads or calling for rates, before they are actively looking at homes or putting their own house on the market.

When you send out your free report, it needs to be very clear to them what the next step is. If you are offering a free automated homefinder service, you need to be very clear on what they need to do to take advantage of it. If you are offering a free seminar on how to buy a home and get the perfect mortgage, you need to be very clear that they should call this 800# to get free tickets for the seminar.

3. An Organized And Systematic Follow-up System

One of the biggest sources of frustration in direct response advertising is the fact that a lot of the people who call are not ready to do something right now. Of course there will be people who respond to your ads who are ready, willing and able to do something right now, but the biggest advantage of using a direct response system is to build a pipeline of prospects who will consistently convert to shoppers in the next 3-6 months.

Now you may be saying, “I don’t want to wait 3-6 months! I want people who are going to buy, sell or get a mortgage right now!” Well, that will happen when you use a direct response system, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. The real gold mine is in the people who are going to be doing something in the future.

Think about it. You have identified someone who has raised their hand to tell you that they are interested in more information about something that will lead them to buy, sell or get a mortgage. Now it’s up to you to identify who the real prospects are out of this group and be able to help them get what they’ve told you they want.

In order to do this you need to have a systematic way to continue to follow up with people until they are ready.

Here’s How It Works

One of the best things you can do to keep in touch with your prospects is to send them evidence of success cards every time you help someone get the benefit they contacted you about. For example, let’s say someone contacted you about your free report on how to sell your house for top dollar fast. You sent them the free report, but they didn’t respond. Does that mean they are not interested in selling their house for top dollar fast? Probably not. They just aren’t interested in selling their house for top dollar fast right now.

Instead of dropping that person, writing them off as no-good-tire-kickers and not doing anything else with them, send them an evidence of success card every time you sell someone’s house for top dollar fast.

Keep offering them the next step, which may be an over the phone market evaluation, or a list of homes in the area they are considering. Whatever you do, keep offering these people evidence that you are ready, willing and able to help them – whenever they are ready.

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Make My Life Better: 

This week, I want to share an idea with you that will definitely make your life better if you embrace it. 

In fact — I think you may really like this idea and want to put it in to action right away. 

I call this idea “Super-Happy-Fun-Day”. 

It already sounds like something you want to hear more about doesn’t it? 

Here’s how it works: 

First – you need to pick a day when you can clear your calendar completely of anything work related. 

An entire day — from sun-up to sun-down. 

the purpose of this day is exactly what the title implies…a day completely dedicated to Super-Happy FUN. 

Now, the name may seem a little over the top — but that’s because it IS a little over the top. 

It’s not just a day off…or a day where you kind of take it easy. 

It’s about a day completely packed with your favorite things to do…planned out with a very detailed itinerary. 

I promise — a Super-Happy-Fun-Day is going to give you the stress-relief and glow of an entire long weekend in just one day. 

Let me give you an example. 

I’ve had two Super-Happy-Fun-Days in the last week. One with my wife Sony, and on Tuesday…one with my friend Glen who was visiting from Canada. 

So, here’s what we did. 

First, we woke up and went over to my favorite cafe — Cafe Latte at Orchid Springs here in Winter Haven, and had a great breakfast to fueled up for the day. 

From there, we went over to Downtown Disney and looked around, listened to music and read books over at Virgin Records. 

At 11am we went to Disney Quest and played video games and took a drawing class on how to draw Mickey Mouse. 

At 1 pm we went for lunch at Wolfgang Puck and then went to a matinee movie at 1:45. 

After the movie, we went over to Celebration and had a Toffee-Nut Americano and a snack at Starbucks. We walked around Celebration for awhile…looking at all the shops and hung out in the lobby at the Celebration Hotel for a few minutes. 

Then we went back to Downtown Disney for another movie and after the movie we went back to Disney Quest for more video games. 

At about 10pm…we decided to head back home — hopped in the hot-tub to reflect on the day — and then it was off to bed. 

Rested. Relaxed. Rejuvinated. 

How quickly can you fit a Super-Happy-Fun-Day into your schedule? 

If you think you can’t do it….you’re wrong. 

The world isn’t going to fall apart without you for ONE day. 

The less you can think about anything outside the “bubble” of Super-Happy-Fun-Day…and the less contact you can have with the real world…the better. 

Arrange it ahead of time if you have to…or just DISAPPEAR for a day. 

it’s great to plan with your significant other….or a friend you don’t get to see that often…even if they live in the same town. 

Somebody is probably coming to mind right now. 

Just think about what would make a Super-Happy-Fun-Day for you… 

A nice relaxed Breakfast at your favorite place

A couple of hours at the bookstore

Shopping at your favorite mall

A matinee movie

Ice cream

A massage and pedicure

Dinner and a concert 

That sounds fun. 

No rules really — just wall to wall Super-Happy-Fun! 

THESE will be the days you remember crystal-clearly because of the PEAK level happiness they bring. 

Can you say that about any of the plain old Tuesdays you’ve had in the last six months? 

Give it a try. 

I can’t wait to hear what YOU do. 

Don’t forget to take pictures! 

 

PS – After talking about getting your mental to-do list out of your head and on to paper last week, I found out my friend (and frequent Super-Happy-Fun-Day companion) John Reese had recorded a video called “Reboot Your Brain” that goes in to this concept MUCH deeper. 

He agreed to let me share this video with you..so here’s the link: 

Reboot Your Brain

Check it out. It’s awesome! 

(Thanks John) 

PPS – I’m doing ONE last Getting Listings class on December 7th…all the details are at http://www.gettinglistings.com 

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