What I’m gonna say might sound strange, silly, maybe even crazy.
But if you market online, it could make a BIG difference in your bottom line.
Listen:
One of the coolest lessons in my copywriting book is about something many of us find rather…
… unsexy.
I know I did until I learned it.
And very few people are teaching this online.
But in Appendix 2, I interviewed Doberman Dan Gallapoo — an extremely savvy marketer who worked side-by-side with the late (great) copywriting & marketing genius Gary Halbert.
DD learned many cool tips and secrets from Gary.
One of which made an exceptionally big difference in his bottom line, but that he had to learn the “hard way”.
Here’s what happened:
It was Christmas many years ago.
Sales were low, and Doberman Dan was down to his last “bullet.”
In fact, sales were so bad, he literally wondered how he was going to put food on the table.
True, he had a big email list for his supplement business.
But the response was extremely weak for whatever reason.
So there he was — with the wolves howling at the door — wondering what to do, when he remembered something Sir Gary of Halbert taught him.
Something that’s FAR from “sexy”.
Something that, frankly, DD did not want to do.
But since his back was to the wall, he figured he had no choice.
So he went into his files and pulled the names of his most recent 1,000 buyers.
But he did not pull their email addresses.
He pulled their SNAIL MAIL addresses.
You remember snail mail, right?
I had almost forgotten about it myself until DD told me his story.
Anyway, so he cranked out a sales letter, sat at his kitchen table and started hand addressing envelopes.
Then, with his last bit of money, he had them printed and mailed.
What happened?
Would you believe a “Christmas Miracle”?
Hey, it happened.
Because just by snail mailing his 1,000 most recent customers, he got FLOODED with orders.
He was just blown away.
So he did it again the next month.
Again, the orders poured in.
Frankly, the moolah came so fast, he broke out his calculator and did some figurin’.
Lo and behold…
Doberman Dan discovered if he’d been snail mailing his most recent customers for the past several years, he would’ve made an extra $100k per YEAR.
And that was a conservative estimate.
Anyway, here’s the point:
If you have a lot of customers and are only using email, you could be leaving a ton of moolah on the table.
I’m dabbling with snail mail myself and in future emails I’ll let you know how it goes.
I once heard Dan Kennedy say (paraphrased): “The best thing that’s happened to email is direct mail.”
With these snail-mailer numbers, that’s pretty hard to dispute.
And by the way, speaking of offline marketing…
Here’s a comment from a pro copywriter about another appendix in The Copywriting Grab Bag:
Ben,
Mike Winicki’s interview ALONE was worth the book price.
Few people understand the power of offline media… fewer know how to use it… let alone give away all those RESOURCES in that interview.
Until I read that interview I was on this wavelength: Yeah, I understand offline is powerful… but HOW do you actually use it step-by-step?
After I read that interview, light bulbs lit up… OH…. THAT’S where you find celebrities and cheap media buys. I wrote to Mike after I read that interview. I HAD to say thank you for all that value.
-Colin Y.J. Chung
Freelance Marketing Strategist
BEN: I hear ya. In some ways Mike’s is the most valuable interview in the book.
He may have zero name recognition, but he’s just a FOUNTAIN of info.
In fact, I remember wanting to just keep asking him questions 😉
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m raising the price next week. So if you want the ‘grab bag, grab it while the grabbin’s good:
Ben Settle
