Month: August 2019

Are you making this GRAVE marketing mistake?

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Once upon a time…

I was tasked to write a JV email for a client.

If you don’t know, JV stands for “joint venture”.  It’s a sort mutual email admiration society where two complementary but non-competitive businesses essentially pimp each other out to their respective lists.  Back to regularly scheduled programming…

The JV partner was a women’s fitness expert.

As I looked at her promo page, I discovered something interesting.  She was a former fitness competitor who’d suffered a stroke while still in her thirties.  This opened her eyes to how years of extreme diets and hard core working out was destroying her health.

So she went back to school to become a holistic nutritionist.

Now, she uses this knowledge (and her experience) to help women regain control of their bodies…the healthy way.   She teaches them a balanced, fun, and wellbeing-enhancing way to lose weight while leaving behind the crash diets and other foolishness.

Now if you were a woman who’d struggled with her weight and ridden the highs and lows that go along with yo-yo dieting, wouldn’t that get your attention?  Wouldn’t you want to read more?

That’s a heck of a story.

Yet if I hadn’t scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page, I would’ve missed it.

It was practically a footnote.

The grave marketing mistake I alluded to in my subject?  Not leading with stories in your marketing.  This could be stories of clients you’ve helped, stories about the business, stories about your industry, or a story about you.

Stories create DESIRE for your product or service.

That’s because they provide vision and context.

As such, they’re valuable marketing assets.

Throughout the 8 years or so that I ran my personal training business, my own story of transformation (and ditching my fat suit) was at the heart of any marketing we did.  It was front and center on my website and I’d lead with it in all my public speeches.  My “before and after” pics graced our brochures and postcards.  And I’d often meet people as much as five or even ten years later who’d tell me, “I never forgot your story.”

If you have a good one too (or even a plain one you can soup up) you’d have to be either a fool or not batting on a full wicket to not to use it at every opportunity.  It’s in our DNA to be persuaded by stories.  Stories form the core of how we’ve communicated as a species since scratching on the walls of prehistoric caves.

Entire fortunes have been built off the back of one good story.

And if you’ve really been paying attention, you may have noticed I started all this pontificating with…yep, a story.

Have I made my point yet? 🙂

One of the first questions I ask any new client is:

Why did you start the business? 

The reason is I’m looking for the client’s “origin story”.  I want to know how it is they became the superhero they are today that wears a cape and beats the crap out of bad guys to help their clients…so I can spin it to their profit.   And this type of story naturally invites curiosity.

What’s your origin story?

And could you be leveraging it more?

Good one to chew on.

If you’d rather I chew on it for you…and translate such mastication into done-for-you emails and sales pages that entice and sell your best prospects on doing business with you…then you can look forward to a truly exciting conclusion to today’s tale by going here:

http://calendly.com/conorkel/emailincome

Happy Story-Time,

Conor Kelly

a.k.a The Muscle @ Marketing Muscle

 

“The most engaging marketing email I ever received.”

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A client just forwarded me this reply from one of his subscribers (in response to our latest broadcast email):

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“Hands down, this is the most clever and engaging marketing email that I have ever received. With the concise provision of useful free advice and the great humorous theme, it bespeaks a business that is competent and ready to help.”

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I’ve been trying to tell you…

This stuff ain’t just fake news.

If you do emails the way I teach you’ll get responses like this too.  And before you go “but this wouldn’t work in MY industry”, I’ve done something similar in about 12 different industries now.  This particular client does computer repair.

Now let’s say for the sake of argument he got zero sales from this email.

Even if that were the case, a very small percentage of people ever reply to broadcasts.  That means if this gentleman felt that way, you can bet others liked it too.  There’s enormous marketing capital in that.  It’s a deposit into the “bank balance” of the relationship.

Always remember:

Marketing is a process, not an event.

Just because they didn’t buy today doesn’t mean we should assume they won’t buy later.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say if they haven’t unsubscribed it is your duty as a marketer to follow up, follow up, follow up until they “buy or die”.

You don’t know what’s going on in their life right now.

They could buy in six months.

Two years even.

Funny enough, the same client did a run of similarly “clever and engaging” ads in local movie theaters a while back.  The ads no longer run but new customers still mention them today as their reason for coming in.  All of the above is why it’s risky to spurn this kind of feedback and also a sure fire way to discount your future bank balance.

Bottom line:

Be anything you want to be.

Just be memorable.

Anyway, such are my ravings for today.

If you’d like done-for-you emails that entertain, engage, and sell your product or service, catch a dope cyber wave and surf here to get your no-fuss Free Brainstorm Call:

http://calendly.com/conorkel/emailincome

I’m booking projects for mid-September now.

As a first step, find out if yours is a fit.

Happy Engaging,

Conor Kelly

a.k.a. The Muscle @ Marketing Muscle

The little-known email secret of the richest man in history

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It’s estimated that, at one point, John D. Rockefeller’s fortune exceeded $300 Billion.

Move over, baby Gates.

In fact, that’s enough to buy Bill Gates AND Warren Buffet several times over.

At 53, Rockefeller controlled most of the world’s oil.  But his health was failing.  He developed alopecia and shed all his hair.  Eyebrows.  Everything.

He could barely eat.

In a matter of months he’d lost 50 pounds from an already thin frame, and cut a gaunt, ghostly figure.  His doctors made it clear that if he didn’t retire now, he wouldn’t be around much longer.

See, John D. was a ball of anxiety.  He was slowly crumbling under the burden of his enormous wealth.  He once said, “I never put my head on the pillow at night without reminding myself I could lose it all tomorrow.”

Imagine the stress that caused.

So here are the instructions his doctor gave him:

1. Never worry about anything. Ever.
2. Always stop eating when you’re still a bit hungry.
3. Spend more time outside engaging in light activity.

Well, John D. took this advice to heart.

The senior Mr. Rockefeller was a different chap.

He never worried again.  Even when his life’s work, Standard Oil, was being picked apart by politicians for anti-trust reasons, Rockefeller stayed out of the office.

In his latter years he became the colorful, soundbite-worthy old codger he’s remembered as…the guy who, when asked by his driver why his son tips so much better than he does, replied, “he’s got a rich father.”

Alright, and secret #4 in this longevity protocol?

He started giving all his money away.

Medicine, science, education…so much of the progress we enjoy today can be traced back to Rockefeller’s generosity.  The result?  From one foot in the grave at 53, he lived to be 98.  That’s 45 years on borrowed time.  Not too shabby, wouldn’t you say?

Here’s what I’d like you take away from this:

(1) #’s 1-3 is pretty damn good advice.  If more doctors doled that out these days instead of anti-depressants, we’d be a much healthier society.

AND

(2) GIVE.  John D. Rockefeller spent the first half of his life trying to get, but wasn’t truly happy until he dedicated himself to giving.

This has everything to do with your marketing, btw.

And anything else you want out of life.

Tony Robbins famously said, “the reason you’re suffering is you’re focused on yourself.”  Giving shifts your focus away from you.  It allows you to be immersed in what you’re doing, in contribution, without the fears, doubts and anxieties that creep in when you’re overly self-conscious.  And most people are so busy trying to GET the result they want, they never fully GIVE themselves to the process involved.

Not coincidentally, the first principle of my email marketing system is lead with a giving hand.  If you’ll just keep what’s good for your best prospect at the top of your list you’ll never go too far from the mark.  That doesn’t mean you give away your secrets for free; what’s best for them is to hire you and solve their problem.  Get 100% clear on that.  Then, it’s about doing everything you can ethically do, using every tool in your arsenal to bring them into the fold….including engaging them with emails that combine content with promotion.

Bottom line:

Ask not what your customers can do for you, ask what you can do for your customers.

Damn.

A lot of value right there.

Hope you caught it.

I just told you WHAT to do.

For more on HOW to do it, go here:

http://calendly.com/conorkel/emailincome

Live Long and Prosper,

Conor Kelly

P.S. One of my favorite books on this idea is The Go-Giver.  It’s a brief parable (you can read it in a single sitting), but it will re-frame how you do business.  I used to have it as mandatory reading for all my employees.

And to sweeten the deal, if you book your Free Brainstorm Call before tomorrow (Friday) at 11:53AM EST (serious inquiries only), I’ll send you a free copy of the book.  Here’s that exalted link again:

http://calendly.com/conorkel/emailincome

Consensual marketing

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I was recently interviewed for Your 20-Minute Podcast with host David Brower and he asked me to compare and contrast email marketing v. Facebook marketing.  I said the key difference is your email subscribers have agreed to get promotional offers from you.  In that sense, it’s “consensual”.

Both parties are in on the dance.

On Facebook, you’re INTERRUPTING whatever else it is they’re there to do.  Thus, folks are less likely to be open to it.  We’ve all been the subject of unwelcome marketing advances, be they ads invading our social media feeds, spam, or telemarketing.

Being a welcome guest in your prospect’s inbox is another beast altogether.  It flips the sales conversation.  Puts you in the driver’s seat.  When they’re ready to buy, you get fewer objections and a lot less price resistance.  At that point, it’s more of a question of “fit”.

Here a few more tasty morsels that dropped in this interview:

*The amazing true story about the time I discovered the transformational power of email marketing (2:30)

*Why you should NEVER attempt any marketing without doing this first (12:10)

*The simplest way to attract the exact type of clients you want to work with (5:29)

*A weird (but effective) tip for attracting more referrals (11:10)

*The single most-important “mindset shift” that almost guarantees you’ll be successful with your email marketing (9:21)

*An almost fool-proof way to make writing emails (and any other form of promotion) about a 100 times easier (13:33)

*The #1 mistake professionals like chiropractors, personal trainers, and dentists make with email (14:58)

*And more!

Enjoy them as Tapas, or devour the entire 19.36-minute enchilada here:

https://www.davidbrowervo.com/275-conor-kelly-an-email-marketing-expert/

And if you’d like your customers to warmly receive your entreaties to do business with you, learn more about all the weapons of mass persuasion I’ve got by requesting your “no fuss” Free Brainstorm Call here:

http://calendly.com/conorkel/emailincome

Happy Listening,

Conor Kelly

a.k.a.  The Muscle @ Marketing Muscle

 

When stars like Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio crap the bed

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Behold:

During my brief YouTube career I was known as the “one-take wonder”.  Alright fine.  I gave myself that nickname.  But STILL, many of the charming videos you’d find on my channel were captured in their full glory on the very first take – with no rehearsal.

There was, of course, one very notable exception ten years ago.

On this day, it took me a full 90 minutes to capture a 4-minute intro video to our Fitness Bootcamp.

I just couldn’t get the words out.

I was a total mess.

Why do I bring this up?

I recently saw a clip of Brad Pitt, Leo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie where each of these great actors copped to the same thing happening to them at one point in their career…except with a hundred people on set, a famous director, and one day’s production budget on the line.

Yeesh.

Point being if it can happen to them…

It can happen to anyone.

Nothing to do at that point except “re-up” and try again.

The lesson?

When things go wrong, don’t go with ‘em.  You can let it get you down…or you can shake your head, get a self-entertaining smirk, go wow that was bad…and write an email to your list about it that makes you sales.

Exhibit A: About a week after my case of verbal constipation we put it on display by releasing a mighty humorous blooper reel that both got attention and garnered a new sign up.  Also, note that here I am not so subtly going back to that well once more.

As the saying goes, “nothing bad ever happens to a writer.”  Indeed, anything “bad” that happens to you can be turned into a story that sells your product or service.  You can also use others’ when-things-went-wrong anecdotes, per my shout out to the esteemed thespians above.

These types of stories are inherently interesting.

If you’d like some help with this, get your “no fuss” Free Brainstorm Call here:

http://calendly.com/conorkel/emailincome

Tell The Muscle your troubles…

I’ll immortalize them in tales that win you profits.

And THAT’S turning a frog into a prince.

Happy Mistaking,

Conor Kelly

a.k.a. The Muscle @ Marketing Muscle