Direct Response

Great News For Advertisers!  LimeLight CRM Just Finished Integrating With ccBill

For the past 6 months I’ve pushed hard, really hard for LimeLight to integrate with ccBill.  Rick Del Rio, owner of LL, is probably laughing his ass off as he reads this.  I was a thorn in his side – until he integrated I wasn’t leaving.

For those of you who don’t know, ccBill is the largest processor in the world for continuity billing.  One of their boarding agents, Dustin Sparman, is the sole sponsor of this blog.  Dustin and I have worked very hard this year to board high volume merchants on ccBill.    Why?

Well, for 2 reason.  1.  We’re making lots of money doing it.  2.  We have both believed for a long time now that ccBill is the only viable solution for online advertisers in the free trial/continuity space.  Unless you have millions of dollars to sink into a vertically integrated operation, chances are you will lose your MIDs if you process trials.

Why’s that?

Well, for starters, there are a myriad of pitfalls to continuity processing.  Most notably:

Chargebacks!  Even if  you run a 100% compliant operation, trial customers that forget to cancel are going to complain.  These complaints come in via refund requests and chargebacks.   If you hit over 100 chargebacks and 1% of total volume, your merchant bank will likely shut you down.  Hence you can’t process credit card transations.  Game over.

Some advertisers have answered these regulations by processing offshore.  Offshore there’s higher chargeback thresholds.

Processing offshore is something that I’m totally against.  If you need to go down that route, then there’s something wrong with your operation.  As a personal choice, I will not work with advertisers that process offshore.  Although there’s zero risk for me as a consultant, I just cannot in good faith advise an advertiser going down that path.

Unless you plan to sink millions of dollars into a vertically integrated operation, there’s only 1 way to successfully run free trial offers:

ccBill

Here’s why.  ccBill is one of the only processors on the planet that’s seasoned in running trial offers.  Heck, for over a decade now, ccBill has been the largest processor for free trials in the adult industry.  Which is interesting.  For some reason ccBill only processed digital products, they did not touch tangible items.

Then came along free content.  Year after year, ccBill has seen its margins shrink.  Porn sites started giving all of their content away for free.  To monetize their traffic, many of these sites now sell ad space to places like Traffic Junky vs. memberships via ccBill.

Sometime last year someone at ccBill had an epiphany: “What if we started processing for online merchants in high risk categories such as health and beauty.  Hmmm, I bet our model would work perfectly for them.”

Duhh.  I still remember researching new merchant processors last year for our rolodex.  Kirsten at Media Whiz noted that our clients should setup a ccBill account.  I told Kirsten that I wished ccBill would process for tangible products, but they stick to digital based products only.  Then Kirsten showed me the backend of a muscle offer she had running on Media Whiz.

NO FUCKING WAY!!  I couldn’t believe my eyes – the checkout page was redirecting to ccBill.

I got psyched up!  My partners couldn’t figure out what I got so excited about.   I explained to them that I had reached out to ccBill multiple times in the past requesting that they process for tangible products.  The benefits they have to offer online merchant are plentiful.  To name a few:

1.  Automatic Unlimited Visa/MC/JCB/Discover Processing For Free Trials.

2.  Advanced Fraud Prevention Software.

3.  ccBill score declines consumers who have a proclivity to charging back.

4.  24/7 Online and Offline Customer Support

5.  Compliance Controls such as required checkout page hosting (rogue advertisers have to properly disclose all terms).

I contacted the main boarding agent for ccBill, Dustin Sparman.  Dustin and I started requesting ccBill to make changes to their program to become more competitive in the space.   To name a few, we’ve installed a chargeback representment process, downsell scripts, and have customized the email receipts and confirmation pages.

Going back to LimeLight, every week Dustin and I would call Rick up, asking him to allow ccBill to integrate with LL.  At the time, I think Rick didn’t believe ccBill was a viable solution for continuity billing.  This makes sense as ccBill had just entered the tangible product vertical.

I kept pushing and pushing and pushing.

Finally it happened.

ccBill recognized the value of integrating with ccBill, and subsequently PAID LimeLight CRM to integrate.  WOW!  They actually paid LimeLight to integrate, not the other way around.

Talk about a power move for ccBill. – they’re definitely astute.  Now ccBill has access to the largest merchants out there.  These merchants are 100% devoted to LimeLight.  i.e. Peter Nguyen is a high volume advertiser in the space. We boarded him on ccBill a few months ago.  The only reason why he isn’t running with them: they didn’t integrate with LimeLight.

Starting this week, Peter can enjoy processing thousands of transactions daily on ccBill – without all the hassle that comes with standards MIDs.

If you’d like to get an account setup on ccBill, reach out to me.  Our team had direct access to ccBill management.  We guarantee your account will get approved within 24 hours.  Additionally our merchants enjoy faster turnaround times on setup and access to things that most merchants don’t.

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

Last week I did a story on how to create a compliant presale page THAT CONVERTS.  The story gained a lot of popularity, and subsequently we received a lot of requests.

1.   Here’s the webinar that our FTC compliance lawyer, Tom Cohn, hosted with Jason Akatiff from Ads4Dough.  

2.  One of Jason’s lawyers pointed out that it costs 50k to get real testimonials.  Not true.  Check out the Informercial Testimonial Group.   The do it for less than 10k.  Tell them you talk to Rich from Direct Response and they’ll take care of you.

The importance of using an independant and certified 3rd party to get testimonials is simple.  They’ll guarantee that there’s no material connection to your offer.   NO MATERIAL CONNECTION.  Those words are key.  In order for testimonials to stand up in court, they have to come from a truely independant 3rd party.   That means:

- The people that gave the testimonials were not compensated.

- There’s no direct relationship to your group.  Sorry guys, you can’t use your mom or employees testimonials.

3.  Here’s some other groups that offer authenticated testimonials:

- http://www.authenticatedtestimonials.com/

- http://www.testimonialdirector.com/

4.   I’m going to release a presale page by one of our clients later this week.  This page is 100% compliant and is crushing it.  Stay tuned.

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

When writing copy for online direct response campaings, I suggest you use Ariel for 12 points and larger.  Use Verdana for 10 points and under.

FACT!  The easier your ad is to read, the more people will read it.

The Software Usability Research Laborabotory conducted a study in 2002 called “A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which Size and Type is Best?”

RESULTS:

1.  The most legible fonts were Arial, Courier, and Verdana.

2.  At 10 points, participants preferred Verdana. Times NewRoman was the least preferred.

3.  At 12 points, Arial was preferred and Times New Romanthe least preferred.

4.  The preferred font overall was Verdana, and Times NewRoman was the least preferred.

BONUS Trick To Online Copy:

Avoid black backgrounds on white text.  i.e.  Go to PPCIan.com…getting the feeling that you don’t want to keep reading.  Nevermind the content, there’s an emphemeral feeling that Ian’s site gives us that makes you want to stop reading.  It comes from the solid black background with white hyperlink texts. 

This type of copy blunder is called Reverse Type.  Reverse type occurs when you have a solid black background with a white font.  Essentially the eyes have to strain to read it, which causes irritation.  Irritation automatically puts a strike against the advertisers copy. 

In the case of PPCIan.com, there’s a combination of a solid black background, white text, white box area, with black text.  The over all effect is vexxing. 

Now jump to ShoeMoney.com.  Feel the automatic difference.  Your eyes are relaxed and you automatically want to checkout the content. 

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

Do you want to know how to get your website to rank quickly? Do you want to know the best way to monetize it once it’s ranked? Do you want me to quit with the foreplay and reveal “The Secret?” Here it is…

TRUST

That’s right T.R.U.S.T. And the faster you can build it, the faster your website can rank. The more trust you earn for your website the better you can monetize it.

Note: Clearly, building trust can be easier in some industries and niches and a whole heck of a lot more difficult in others.

EVERYTHING you do online really has the same goal… build trust.

Let’s take a minute or two to explore my statement and really validate it. Take, for example, the following list of online marketing and advertising activities of which each of us has likely taken an active part.

Website trust building activities:

• Link Building – Touted by SEOs and Affiliates worldwide as being the wholly grail for ranking quickly. Quality links and plenty of them can definitely help your website to rank quickly and rank well. But again, building links… begetting links happens because people like and trust your site enough to want to link to it.
• Social Media Marketing – You talk incessantly about your website on Facebook and Twitter. You tell your awesome story to make people want to engage with it. You are building trust.
• Banner Ad / Text Ad Creation – You spend hours designing banner and text ads to be compelling enough to garner a click from an, at the time, unknown web surfer. Your creative is being built why? Class??? To build enough trust in this unknown web surfer to want to click on your ad and visit your website.
• Creating / Building an Affiliate Program – You spend thousands of dollars in cash and time to set up and market your affiliate program. This includes writing content which is compelling enough to get an affiliate marketer to trust your program enough to join it and then spend hours upon hours of his/her valuable time to promote your goods.
• Landing Page Optimization – You pit one landing page against another in an attempt to learn which landing page or variation of a landing page garners the most visitor trust, ultimately leading to the most number of conversions (sales).

Following, I am of the opinion that the more trust a website has the easier it is to monetize. Regardless of the type of website monetization strategy you pursue, if you have trust you will be able to earn money from your monetization efforts. Seriously, I don’t care if you’ve built a single landing page to promote a teeth whitening offer, a brokerage type of website to farm out insurance leads, or an ecommerce site selling blankets with arm holes, the amount of trust you can garner will directly impact your site’s conversion rate.

Now let’s look at some ways you can monetize your trustworthy and now highly ranked website. In some cases you will want to use a combination of these monetization strategies.

Monetization strategies include:

• Integrate Google AdSense – Embed Google Adsense into your website content, especially if your content is more informational than direct sales based.
• Sell Your Own Product or Service – eCommerce websites can utilize carefully crafted comparison and product pages to sell their own goods and services. Tip: A carefully crafted and well-optimized e-commerce page can rank well organically in the search engines and also be used as a landing page for paid traffic.
• Promote Somebody Else’s Product or Service – Affiliates can build a single landing page, multi-paged “landing experience” or an entire website based upon the promotion of a merchant’s product(s) or service(s) with the promise to be paid a commission for any sales they generate. I am a huge fan of recurring commission based affiliate programs, but that does not mean bounty-based programs (get paid a commission on a new customer’s first purchase) should be ignored.
• Sell Advertising Space – You run a trusted website that ranks well. Offer conditional advertising opportunities that can help those looking to increase brand awareness and those looking for a much more highly targeted set of eyeballs; CHARGE ACCORDINGLY!!!
• Find a Co-registration Partner – You were successful in generating a conversion and now you want to let your customer know about another service (offered by a third party) which is complimentary to their demographic profile. You can receive additional revenue from your co-reg partner for the lead or upon a subsequent purchase at their website. Likewise, you can ask others to run a co-reg for you, perhaps a reciprocal co-reg deal.
• Build an Online Community – Take a look at the communities being built by Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney.com), Aaron Wall (SEOBook.com), Rand Fishkin and the SEOmoz Team (SEOmoz.org), Darren Rose (Problogger.net) and Markus Frind (PlentyOfFish.com). They oooooze trust through experience, knowledge, and by giving away free tools their community simply loves.
• Give Something Away for Free – Giving away something free like an ebook, how to guide, marketing tool, training session or the like is a great hook and a great way to show people you know what you are talking about; earn their trust first and monetize later.
• Sell Leads – You have the trust and the traffic. Ask people to provide/submit their contact information with the promise to share it with a business or businesses who offer a product or service for which they are looking.
• Take Part in a CPA Deal – If you are good at driving highly qualified website traffic, you can pass it along to businesses that will pay you a fixed dollar amount for each acquisition that occurs stemming from the leads you provide to them. Hint: CPA payouts are often much higher compared to a standard lead or affiliate commission.
• Re-targeting – With the right software (code) and the right sales pitch you can convince merchants to let you re-target their visitors where they have not fully completed a web form, or in an eCommerce environment have abandoned their cart. Earn a commission on the conversions you are able to generate.

In closing, I want to reiterate my belief that a well-trusted website ranks better and is easier to monetize (using one or more of the above strategies) than one with very little. So get out there and continue to build trust for your website and brand. TRUST is the secret to ranking quickly and enjoying the fruits of your successful monetization strategy.

Author Bio:

My name is Eric Itzkowitz and I began my Internet Marketing career in 1999. I have acquired a wealth of knowledge spanning all facets of Internet Marketing, especially SEO and PPC for eCommerce businesses. I currently run a successful online calling card company and in my “spare time” enjoy sharing my experience and knowledge with other Internet Marketers and business owners. I also manage to fit in a couple of personal online projects.

The other day I posted a story on why tier-1 advertisers avoid affiliate networks.  One of the responses I received was from Jamie MacMillan, an employee at LinkShare.  Jamie noted:

This caught me by surprise as I have my finger on the pulse of the health and beauty vertical.  Why is it then that I had never seen any of Guthy’s offers on the major media buy channels in the past 6 months?   Moreover, I work with the largest publishers of skin offers, surely a company like Guthy Renker would have caught my eye.

Jamie and I hopped on Skype to discuss LinkShare and Guthy Renker.  For those of you that don’t know, LinkShare has hundreds of thousands of affiliates.  Their model is to create massive distribution through a myriad of channels.  This type of model is one that I am not a fan of whatsoever. 

After all, why have thousands of affiliates when you can have 2 or 3 affiliates that can easily push just as much volume if not more.  As we all know, having thousands of affiliates is one big, gigantic headache.  You spend your entire day policing guys that shouldn’t have access to your offers in the first place. 

So why did Guthy Renker move to LinkShare to host their affiliate program?

My guess is that Guthy Renker wanted full transparency with it’s affiliate program.  LinkShare offers just that.  Guthy can see every one of LinkShare’s affiliates, has full access to reject leads, and has the ability to approve affiliates on a case by case basis.

Hmmmmmm.  Weird, because I reached out to the largest skin care publishers in the industry and asked them if they were running Proactiv.  Nope, no one was running it.  Instead everyone is running offers like Hydroxatone, which pay enormous $45+ CPAs on their trials. 

Jamie emailed me the payouts for Guthy Renker’s Proactiv.  Take a look:

WTF - 7% commissions on products that sell for less than $100 bucks?   Is that some kind of sick joke.  It’s no wonder that none of the big guys are running their offer.  Sure, 1sy 2sy publishers might add  banners  to their low traffic sites, but at that payout it doesn’t matter how branded Proactiv is, it won’t get good distribution online.

Jamie is a smart, straight up dude.  He wanted me to tell it how I see it, there you go.  LinkShare is a huge company and one of the 3 largest affiliate networks out there.  I commend them for their level of transparency and compliance.  Nevertheless, I do not believe in their model.

Guthy Renker ought to retain an online ad agency that focuses on the health and beauty vertical.  I recommend:

1.  Chief Media – The Agency For p90X, Hydroxycut, and Xenadrine

2.  Health Converter – An Affiliate Network turned Ad Agency, Health Converter now exclusively services Inc. 500 Health & Beauty brands online.

Guthy Renker needs new direct response landing pages, creatives, and presale pages.  With the resources Guthy has at it’s finger tips, I could easily hit a few thousand leads a day.  I’d likely bring them to one of the largest ad networks and work out a CPA deal – ad networks will do this with million dollar + deals. 

Fact: Guthy Renker’s products are sold on a continuity basis.

Fact: Skin care products have the highest rebill rates of any product line in the Health & Beauty space.

Fact: Branded products such as Proactiv are so much easier to convert than non-branded products.  If Guthy offered a competitive CPA, they would own the digital market.  Hyperbole aside, Guthy could hit a few hundred million dollars a year online if the tightened up. 

P.S. It goes without saying that CJ, LinkShare, and ShareASale attract a number of tier-1 advertisers.  While these models work for branding purposes, they are certainly not good direct response channels. 

P.S.S.  Online Direct Resposne marketing is awesome for branding.   It is so much easier to engage an audience online than it is offline.  With small budgets you can reach millions of eye balls daily, as I showed you last week with an adwords campaign I’m running that had over 1,000,000 views for $600. 

With a large budget just imagine the level of branding and distribution and advetiser can receive.

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

There’s been a lot of news coverage this week about fake news articles, aka farticles.  The FTC finally brought the hammer down and is on a witch hunt.  The big word floating around the entire online direct response industry is “compliance.” 

Yea yea, you’ve heard it before.  You meet someone that gets the “compliance bug” and starts talking about how they’re going to create a landing page or presale page that is totally compliant.   Then you don’t hear from them for a few months and…

And they’re back with the same old same old you know what.

This time around things are different.  Afiliates, advertisers, and networks have no choice – they’ll need to run compliant presale pages or not run traffic at all.  There’s no pass-go.  If you’re an affiliate, advertiser, or network, this post is critically important to read. 

The great news is that it is super easy to create a compliant presale page that converts!

You may be wondering: Well, if it’s so easy to create a compliant page, then WHY is it that so many affiliates / advertisers have such a hard time creating offers that convert and are compliant at the same time? 

 Well, it’s not that they have ill intentions – rather most either get lazy or just don’t know how.   It takes years of experience in direct response copy and design to really understand the psychology behind good presale pages. 

Follow these 4 tips on creating compliant presale pages and you’ll not only make millions, but you’ll get to keep it:

1.   Write Good Copy

Good copy is everything in online direct response marketing.   When creating a presale page, customers need to clearly see the benefits of the product you’re promoting.   They also need to feel that the source is authoritative.

Advertorials work well because they appear authoritative.  Print advertisers have used advertorials for years.   Here’s some insider tips:

- Use real customer testimonials.  If you don’t have real testimonials, we can show you ways to get them without violating regulations.

- Use an authoritative looking figure (just add the keyword “stock photo” below the photograph).  Here’s how Gary McNelley at Market Health uses “stock photo” http://www.acaiberryselect.com/.  It’s to my understanding that these pages were vetted by Venable LLP.

- Do not use trademarked news logos in a deceptive manner.   Instead, do the legwork and get news sources to review your company.  A great way to get legitimate news sources to pick up a story is through PRweb.com.  Go online and do a press release about the product you’re promoting.  So long as it’s newsworthy (make sure it’s accurate too), places like the USA Today, Yahoo News, etc. will pick it up.  Then you can legitimately say “as seen in.” 

i.e. I did a press release via PRweb about DirectResponse.net.  I had the following publications pick it up:

Yahoo News
USA Today
TMC
PRweb

Now I can legitimately promote to clients that Direct Response was listed in the above news sources (BTW, We don’t actively advertise.  All of our business is reffered to us.  If we did advertise our services, then I’d definitely use the above logos.)

- You can also do paid reviews from authoritative blogs and newssites.  Did you know that most of the news publications that these fake news articles used are actually more than happy to let advertisers use their logos?

Sure thing.  Run an ad online via CNN and ask them to note on your presale page that you’d like to use their logo.  More likely than not they’ll oblige.  Afterall it’s your advertising dollars that keep them in business.   Note: make sure you get their permission in writing to use the logos.  Also, do not use the logos in a deceptive manner.  

2.  Utilize Social Media To Create Trust

- Create a facebook page and add a plugin.

- Hire a company to go out and get you fans.  Make sure the plugin on your presale page is prevalent.

- Hire an independant 3rd party to create an entire social media presence.  Plug this into your presale page so people can see how many other people trust your brand.  The more people that consumers see trust your brand, the lower the risk they’ll feel, as follows your page will convert higher.

3.  Create A Compelling Design

Go all out and have a custom presale page designed.  We have really good design teams we work with that know exactly how to create compliant presales pages that convert.

Don’t use a run-of-the-mill designer.  They’ll waste your time and money.  Retain a designer that is experienced in the direct response space. 

4.  Retain a firm that understands FTC/FDA/Visa/Mastercard compliance.

When it’s all said and done, have your counsel review the page.  This can cost a couple thousand dollars, but it’s worth it.  Do not go off my word, your designer’s word, or anyone elses.   Make sure you have a seasoned attorney review all claims that are made on the page.

I recommend these 2 law firms for FTC compliance reviews:

Venable LLP
Dozier

Remember, any fool can go out and make millions of dollars in the online direct response space.  It takes a wise man to keep it.

Spend the extra time and energy creating a legitimate brand.  Watch the campaign like a hawk.  You will need to optimize the pages many times before you have a perfect model.  Then copy and paste it throughout all of your campaigns.

P.S.

Here’s how you can earn an additional $150,000 on the campaign and make your lawyers fall in love with you.

1.  After you’ve gone through the painstaking and quasi-expensive process of creating a compliant presale page that converts, copyright the design of the page via US Copyright Office.   It’s easier to have a good copyright attorney do it for you.

2.  Register the design via DMCA.

3.  Retain a contingency attorney to go after rogue affiliates/advertisers that copy your design.   Have each infringer prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

You will will receive an automatic $150,000 in statutory damages + attorney fees from each violator.  If they don’t have money you can slap a lean on them and garnish their wages.  That means that after your done suing their ass and they get a job at McDonalds, around 40% of their wages will get kicked back to you

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

Have you ever wondered why tier 1 direct response advertisers such as Guthy Renker, Neutrogena, and Procter & Gamble avoid affiliate networks? 

It’s real simple, they’re smart!

Affiliate marketing is a treacherous game, especially for brands that have millions of dollars at stake.  All it takes is 1 rogue affiliate to bring an FTC suit, get a merchant account terminated, or permanently tarnish a brand. 

 The esoteric nature of “affiliate networks”  makes it impossible for the advertiser to really know who they’re dealing with.  All advertisers receive is a subid number from the networks, which is esentially akin to nothing. 

So how do legitimate businesses like Guthy Renker get approval from their legal departments to advertise with  affiliate networks?  They don’t!  Again, top direct response advertisers avoid affiliate networks.

Earlier this year I was approached by an Inc. 500 Company regarding their online marketing efforts.  We’ll call the group Semtrex  (sorry guys I cannot relinquish their real name).    Semtrex had recently hired James Miller, a Six Sigma that is in charge of Semtrex’s ”digital reorganization.”  James brought to my attention that Semtrex was running on 30 affiliate networks and having some “issues.”

“Issues huh?”  I said.  “Let me guess, you’re receiving fraudulant sales, article marketers are posting false ads about your brands, and there’s flogs/farticles floating around sites like Weather.com.”

“Did you already talk to legal?  How did you know all of this?”  James asked. 

No, I didn’t talk to legal, there was no need to.  Running an offer on 30 networks simulatanously is instant death to a brand. 

Semtrex retained Direct Response to help rebuild its online marketing department.  Here’s an inside look at what we’re doing:

1.  We cancelled the IO with 28 out of the 30 networks running their offers.  I hope to cancel the remaining 2 networks by the next of the month.

2.  We’re redesigning the landing pages & creatives.  This alone will spike conversions by 300%+.

3.  We setup a HasOffers account to board affiliates direct.  With a $27.5 million dollar monthly budget, it’s easy for Semtrex to attract the best traffic out there.  After initial tests on a weekly wire basis, Semtrex is going to prepay its affiliates.  Talk about good terms     Affiliates are loyal to their wallets and their wallets only!!!

4.  We’re building out FTC compliant presale advertorials and blogs.  All affiliates are required to run these pages or direct link to landing pages.  That’s key because an affiliate should never be in charge of creating his own presale page (especially without a thorough legal review).  BTW these compliant presale pages convert even better than the non-compliant ones (which are quickly disappearing).   We’ll have the ability to track the landing pages our affiliates use. 

5.  We’re bringing on less than 5 affiliates.    That way we have full transparency.  Semtrex will have the name, phone number, banking info, and even the ip address of the affiliate running their offer.  These affiliates dominate the display, email, and ppc spaces.     

6.  The rest of the media spend will go direct through the ad networks.  My favorites are Engage, Value Click, and of course, buying direct on high volume websites  

Over the next few years more and more mini-networks will pay heed to regulations.  If you want to attract top tier advertisers you simply cannot turn a blind eye to affiliate false-advertising.   Tier 1 Advertisers require full transparency.  Those that give it to them will enjoy the fruits that come from enormous budgets

P.S.  A lot of affiliate networks are worried that their affiliates will jump ship and work with the advertiser direct.  An easy way around this is to create a non-circumvent agreement with the advertiser.

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

What’s the 1 surefire thing on your mind when:

1.  Someone is talking to you?
2.  You’re watching an advertisement on TV?
3.  You receive a job offer?
4.  Your woman asks you for money?
5.  An employee asks for a raise?

The only thing on your mind is:  What’s in it for me? aka WIIFM.

The WIIFM Principle is simple.  Create more perceived value to the consumer than their money’s value is perceived to them, and you’ll sell them your product.  It’s that easy.

How do you do it?

Ah, even easier.  Here’s how:

1.  Discover what the customer needs. Before you create the presale page, pitch, etc., understand exactly what the customer wants.

2.  Figure out a maximum amount that the customer is willing to spend on the offer. You can do this by analyzing how capital intensive the customer is, how badly they need the offer, and what your competitors are offering the product for.  Once you have a roundabout number, fix your price approximately 20% below their maximum spend.

B2B Pricing Note: For B2B services, identify the spending power of clients you’d like to take on.  For instance, Rick Del Rio at Limelight CRM focuses on medium-large direct response marketers.  He set a barrier to entry of $3,500 to setup an account with a recurring fee of $800 a month.  This pricing point is reasonable for Direct Response advertisers.  I personally would pay $4500 maximum for the initial setup and $1,000 a month.  Rick is on point with his pricing.

B2C Pricing Note: Set a fixed price in this vertical.   i.e. LexingtonLaw.com is in the business of selling credit repair services.   They have different tiered services with fixed prices.  The pricing points are tailored for multiple income brackets.  Good move on Lexington Law’s part.

3.  Highlight in bold what’s in it for them. On your landing page create bullet points, not long drawn out text.   Here are some examples:

A targeted consumer looking to get buffed up for summer would instantly recognize these benefits:

A targeted consumer looking to drop a few pounds over the summer would instantly identify with these benefits:

4.   When you talk to the client, talk exclusively about their interests. “Oh, you’re interested in buildling your business? That’s awesome!  Please tell me more about your business and how you’ve done so well (people love compliments, their egos will soon become reliant on you)?”  Engage people by focusing exclusively on them.  It’s classic Dale Carnegie How To Win Friend and Influence People psychology.  When a client attempts to talk about you, quickly turn the focus of the conversation back on them.  Don’t worry, they’ll happily oblige

Remember the WIIFM Principle next time you have a conversation with a client.  The entire time your speaking to them, they’re wondering 1 thing:

What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

My friend Jeremy Shoemaker, AKA Schoemoney, is a rockstar.  In every vertical the Shoe enters, he quickly becomes #1.  Take a look:

1.  Blogging

Shoemoney.com is arguably the most influential marketing blog on the planet.  Jeremy has created a cult-like following of readers that obey his every word.

i.e.  Jeremy and I did a webinar a few months back.  From the webinar I had a flood of tier 1 advertisers reach out to me.  Six of these advertisers are now building campaigns with our group.   In reverse, look at my friend John Chow.  I placed an ad on JohnChow.com and in return I got a bunch of fuck-you’s your blog sucks.  LMFAO!   In defense of John, his blog is tailored more toward beginner bloggers, not direct response marketers.

i.e. Did anyone catch what Jeremy did to Confusionsoft, oops, I mean Infusionsoft.  Jeremy fucking annihalted them, here’s the post.  The post was tweeted over 80 times, over 100 FB likes, and had 100s of comments from VERY POWERFUL names in the industry.   Infusionsoft freaked out and had a slew of their staff start writing false positive reviews, corporate rebuttals, etc.  I think Jeremy removed the comment section of the post.  Why did you do that bro?

2.  Biz Opp

Every network I work with has reached out asking to run Jeremy’s biz opp.  It’s the best hardsale biz opp I’ve ever seen produced, from the actual value it creates to how well it converts.  Above all Jeremy is turning a profit in the 1st month.

It’s kind of hard to believe how quickly Jeremy’s offer has become the #1 in biz opp vertical.  Wait a sec., it’s really not that hard to believe consider it’s Shoemoney.

3.  Affiliate

Need I even say anything here?  Every vertical Jeremy has targeted has made him millions.

I wanted to write this post because I genuinely respect Shoemoney and look up to him.  Jeremy is a straight up dude and someone that I am humbled to work with on the advertiser side.

What do you think about Shoemoney?

Have you ever wondered where the top direct response players go for video production?  You know, the masters of the direct response vertical: Guthy Renker, L’Oreal, Rogaine, and Neutragena.  They all tap into the same source: Caudill & Associates.

Finding a top quality video production service is no easy feat. I’ve spent the past few years searching for a production service that can:

1.  Delivers TOP quality video tailored for direct response landing pages. Most of the top firms out there focus on TV exclusively.

2.  Is cost effective.

3.  Turns projects around quickly.

Last week my lawyer/friend Tom Cohn introduced us to Bob Caudill, founder of Caudill & Associates.  After a quick review of his website, I knew we had struck paydirt.  The Caudill Portfolio speaks for itself.

I held by breath during my convo with Bob last week - historically I’ve seen larger production companies brush off the notion of working with online direct response marketers.   Refreshingly Bob did not.  Bob noted that he’s personally witnessed the trend in direct response shift more toward the online space.  

We discussed Hungry Fish Media, the online direct response group that introduced Force Factor to the world via internet.   What’s exciting about Force Factor isn’t the fact that it made it to the retail space (GNC, CVS, Walmart), rather it’s how Force Factor made it there.  Almost all of Force Factor’s media spend was online.  In the past, retail wanted an eclectic marketing campaign made up of  TV, Radio, and Print – notice I left out Internet. 

Many large retailers have changed their minds about online marketing in the past few years. With the explosive growth of the web, retailers are now paying close heed to the media dollars spent in branding online.   Think about the reach we have as online marketers.  Yesterday one of my campaigns was viewed by over 1,000,000 people on Google’s display network.  Total cost: $600.  And we targeted premium traffic channels.

 What would it cost to have your ad viewed by 1,000,000 people on premium television network?   Factor in that the online space guarantees people are seeing your impressions whereas other media streams do not.  

Bob noted that all of his production is tailored to the web these days.  Since we’re able to pinpoint target our traffic and pay for performance, it makes perfect sense to invest heavily in our landing pages.   Good video production validifies your offer.  It’s no wonder why so many Fortune 500 Brands invest heavily in video - and of course choose Bob Caudill as their go to producer!

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

At the last affiliate summit in Vegas I was astounded to discover that very few affiliates knew who Dr. Direct Response was, aka  Drew Eric Whitman.  This came as a surprise as a number of these affiliates make millions a year on the net selling other people’s stuff. 

For those of you that are living on another planet (you’re not alone), Dr. Direct Response is arguably the best direct response copywriter alive.   His book Cashvertising has had a very positive impact on my campaigns along with many others’.   

Check out the comments on Dr. Direct Response via Wicked Fire.   When everyone on a place like Wicked Fire personally vouches for a book you know it’s worth reading.  Usually there’s a few fuck sticks that have something stupid to say – not in this case though. 

Here’s the video of Dr. Direct Response from the Summit.  If you follow his advice on headlines, copy, etc. you will make a ton of money.  I used one of his tactics on the title to this post.  Did the headline draw your attention? Check this out:

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Crush Your Competition. Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

In the world of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), two online marketing strategies stand out to be the superstar player in the game.  Search Engine Optimization helps businesses rank organically in the search engines where the clicks are free.  Pay-Per-Click adverting helps businesses that are not ranked organically in the top of the search engine display their ads to their audience for the most relevant keyword or key phrases.  This article will help you select and understand how to effectively pick relevant SEO and PPC keywords.

Picking highly effective key phrases rather than keywords.

Many people over-think the most basic keyword research concept and tend to target keywords that are too broad and way too competitive.  The first question you should ask yourself is “what products or service do I sell?”  If you sell software or dog food, keep in mind the root word should never be selected as a keyword for SEO and PPC.  The keyword “software” and “dog food” is way too broad and expensive.  Ask yourself, “What kind of dog food do I sell?”  If you sell organic dog food, then one of the keyword ad-groups should focus around organic dog food.  Within the “organic dog food” category, you should try to find or logically think what other variations can fit inside this main category (ex: wellness dog food, best dog food, natural dog food, and organic raw dog food).  Same concept applies to “software,” if you sell software that helps telemarketers be more efficient with their time, then find keywords that target your niche.

The Wonder Wheel from Google is, in my opinion, the best little secrete for businesses looking to understand keyword variations and what type of keywords are searched on a daily basis.  The Wonder Wheel can be accessed by doing a search and then selecting the Wonder Wheel link on the left hand side/column of the search result page.  With the Wonder Wheel, you can see a visual representation of what Google and what users search and see grouped together.  This alone can be utilized to develop categories of keywords and stay organized from an ad-group level.

With that said, below are 7 steps to leverage and increase website conversions:

1.  Recognize and identify your conversion goals – most organization will identify their “key performance indicators” (KPI) which is a specific measure of an organization’s performance in some area of its business.  Once this is identified an organization can plan the following next steps.

2.  Define & acquire target markets – this is done by applying the 40/40/20 rule.- 40% on targeted keywords (i.e. finding the right media buy via Google Sponsor Links)- 40% on targeted keywords that provide only hot offers (i.e. discounts or free consultations)

-  20% on web 2.0 creatives.

3.  Optimize website structure – find compelling landing pages and mimic similar ones.  Look at your competitions message and site structure and see if you can optimize that.

4.  Create a compelling message – this will probably take you the longest time to create, but keep it short and simple and get your point across.

5.  Call to action – words that urge the visitor of a sales promotion to take immediate action, such as “Fill Out Our Form for a Free Consultation,” “Call Now,” or “Click Here.”

6.  Optimize shopping cart or lead capture process – make a simple one page checkout for your customer and clients

7.  Test, Test and Test – track all results and measure.

Resources

1. Check out monthly search stats from the invaluable Google Keyword Tool

2. The Wonder Wheel is awesome; a Google engineer walks thru how it can be used here.

3. Wordtracker is a paid but widely used keyword and competitive intelligence tool.

Author

Emin Andreasian
Account Executive | Direct: 310.683.0392
Wpromote Inc. | http://www.wpromote.com
LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/eminandreasian
–
#1 Ranked Integrated Search Firm by TopSEOs
4-Time Inc 500 Honoree
2010 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
PricewaterhouseCoopers Entrepreneurial Award

As promised, here is the insider video from the Ads4Dough Meetup.  Ted Dhanik gives away millions of dollars of media buying trade secrets.  From the media buy king himself:

Ted @ Direct Response from engage:BDR on Vimeo.

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

A few months back I posted a list of highly recommended books for direct response marketers.  In reality, the list was more focused for entrepreneurs and marketers in general.   Today I read a blog post on the article:

I shot Brett and email as well after I posted his comment.  If Brett had a good list of books tailored for direct response marketers, then we want it.  Here was the email I received back:

Brett brought up some really good direct response names, some of which I didn’t know had books.  I knocked the E-Myth off the list and added the best direct response book I’ve read to the list, Cashvertising.  I also updated the old book list.

Here’s the list:

1.  Cashvertising, by Drew Eric Whitman.  Cashvertising shows you how to use more than 100 secrets of ad-agency psychology to make big money selling anything to anyone.  This is my personal favorite direct response marketing book.

2.  Dan Kennedy, Ultimate Sales Letter.  A powerful sales letter is the ultimate marketing tool for all types of business owners, sales reps, and advertising professionals. However, most sales letters end up getting tossed in the junk mail pile. The Ultimate Sales Letter, 3rd Edition shows you how to write letters that get read, generate leads, and make money.Coverage includes:

3.  Ultimate Marketing Plan, by Dan Kennedy.  Find Your Most Promotable Competitive Edge, Turn It into a Powerful Marketing Message, and Deliver It to the Right Prospects

4.  Outrageous Advertising, by Bill Glazer.  Created for the 99% of Small Business Owners Who Are Dissatisfied with the Results They Get.

5.  Magic Words That Bring You Riches, by Ted Nicholas.

6.  The Boron Letters, by Gary Halbert (free).

7.  Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel, by John Carlton.  John Carlton is “The most ripped-off and respected copywriter alive.”

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

For those of you that don’t know, Ted Dhanik is the man behind the #1 KICK ASS Ad Network in the world, Engage BDR.   The top affiliates in health, beauty, and biz opp buy the majority of their traffic from Engage BDR.   If I had to guess, I’d say that 90% of the traffic at networks like Ads Direct, Ads4Dough, and other top affiliate networks comes directly from Ted’s Ad Network.  Sorry guys, the cat is out of the bag

I caught up with Ted yesterday and asked him to write a guest post for Direct Response.  Ted will go all out guys.  He is going to send us his 1hr long speech from the recent Ads4Dough Meetup - which is arguably the most exclusive invite only event in the affiliate marketing world. 

Plus Ted has committed to sharing some of his inside tips on media buying. 

A quick tid-bit on Engage BDR:

1.  Engage BDR is a managed ad network, which means that Ted’s staff sets the placements of your ads.

2.  Engage BDR can easily hit thousands of sales a day.  i.e. Affiliates in the diet vertical often back out at a $9 CPA on Ted’s network – they in return earn a $30-45 CPA from affiliate networks.   Not a bad spread especially when they scale up.

3.  Engage BDR is not cheap.  The barrier to entry is 25k.  If you expect to have success with Engage, you’ll need to have a large budget, preferrably in the $50k+ a week. 

Here’s how it works from the advertiser side. 

1.  Engage BDR gives the advertiser a large number of targeted placements on high traffic sites. 

2.  The advertiser will place a pixel on the confirmation page of their site. 

3.  The advertiser will send all banner creatives to Engage BDR and direct Engage BDR where to link to. 

4.  Ted places the banners and the sales come flying in.

5.   The advertiser watches stats like a hawk minute by minute.  

6.  Engage BDR optimizes the campaign by getting rid of Banners on sites that aren’t performing and increasing the rotation on sites that are performing.

7.  The CPA starts to drop and conversions increase.

8.  Voila!  The advertiser is flooded with sales at a very low CPA. 

NOTE: It is critical that you keep the campaign running.  If you pause the campaign all ad placements will get sold to other advertisers / affiliates. 

NOTE 2:  Make sure you have your shit together before you go live with Engage BDR. 

-  Site Converts Really Well

-  Merchant Processing Can Handle Massive Volume

-  Products and Fulfillment Are Ready To Go.

-  Budget Is Set.

-  Target CPA For Profitability Set.

Ok, I’ll let Ted take over from here.  His post should be live by the end of the week, it’s gonna be a good one

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Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

The world of internet marketing is booming.  These are good times for internet entrepreneurs.  Recession?  Yea, I’ve heard that we have had a recession in this country for quite some time now.  It’s all over the news.  Funny thing is that I have a hard time acknowledging it.   Everywhere I look in the online direct response industry I see people killing it.  At the past Affiliate Summit, we threw a decadent revelry at the ccBill penthouse.  Our friends rented out Club Excess and ran up a $800k bar tab.  That’s right, an $800k bar tab.   Limelight CRM rented out a sky club and had a top shelf open bar.  Recession?

For TV, Radio, and Print, there’s bigger problems than a recession.  Try disruptive technology:

1.  Tivo, Netflix, Zune, and On Demand are killing TV advertising.

2.  Sirius, Pandora, and iTunes have killed radio advertising.

3.  Print is evaporating at unprecedented rates.  The tectonic shifts in media will ultimately destroy 95% of American major metropolitan newspapers.

I take great satisfaction in this collapse.  The above media gatekeepers had made it nearly impossible for small to medium sized businesses to garnish the media exposure they sought.  Moreover, TV, Radio, and Print had a huge barrier to entry.  A medium sized company could get killed if it made 1 bad move.  Performance was solely up to the advertiser.  i.e. In 2004 I placed a full color ad in Redbook.  It cost us $110,000 and totally flopped.  Had I spent $110,000 with a trusted CPA network, we would have received a guaranteed profit.

The advertisers from TV, Radio, and Print are not just going to disappear.  In fact, they are migrating to the online space.  And they have huge budgets.  Moreover, they have no clue as to what they’re doing.

I’m working with a few TV advertisers right now.  These guys are used to spending 5-10 million dollars a month in advertising.  What they’re not used to is having the ability to almost completely hedge themselves from risk of loss.  Unlike TV, Radio, and Print, the Online Space allows your ad dollars to bring in exact match quantifiable results.  Whether it’s CPM, CPC, or CPA, every single penny you spend allows you to get in front of eyeballs.

These are great times.  Having put in over 10,000 hours in this space, online marketing is second nature to me.   There are dozens of campaigns that are “copy and paste.”  With that model, any advertiser we work with saves years of trials and tribulations, guess work, and testing.  It’s too easy – or at least feels that way nowadays.

Nevertheless, I still spend countless hours each week researching new ways to improve our campaigns – from data monetization to traffic sources.  It’s important to never get complacent when you’re doing well, especially in the online space.  What works today won’t necessarily work a year from now.

Online advertising is growing exponentially.  If you have an offer or want to create an offer, reach out to us and we’ll get you started.  Get in while the gettings good!

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Crush Your Competition. Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net

I just wanted to do a quick shout out to both Ian Fernando and Kevin Fleming.  Thank you for dinner the other night in Philly Ian.

For those of your that don’t know Ian Fernando, Ian is a prolific internet marketer and a master at social media.  Last week Mayor Nutter hosted an event for entrepreneurs in the Philadelphia area.  Ian invited Kevin and I out to the event.  It was a total success and it looks like the good mayor is looking into creative ways to attract internet businesses to the Philadelphia area.

As soon as the Mayor finished his speech, the guys looked at me and knew I was about to make a scene.  Ian and Kevin were holding their breath as Mayor Nutter walked through the crowd.   Had we not gone to dinner early, I was going to bring to the Mayor’s attention that the only way to attract successful internet based businesses to the Philadelphia area is to do THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what the city is doing right now:

1.  Philadelphia is the first city in the continental United States to levy a tax on bloggers.  Dumb asses – that’s political suicide as we like to talk more than anyone else on the planet.  Hence we blog.

2.  Subsidies, subsidies, subsidies.  Cities like New York, San Francisco, and Miami got it right a long time ago.  It’s simple: take applications for internet entrepreneurs.  Discover those that have a lot of influence, then give them tax breaks, pay for their offices, and subsidize their growth.   They will in return say so many great things about your city that thousands of businesses will flock to it.

3.  Get rid of all the extra business taxes Philadelphia has imposed that other cities haven’t.

It’s not rocket science.

Mayor Nutter seemed surprisingly eloquent and genuine.  Maybe he’ll actually “get it.”   If he does, guys like Ian, Kevin, and myself will relocate our offices to the city.  Which would be perfect timing as Ian and Kevin are gearing up to start launching their own offers, and they are working with yours faithfully

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Crush Your Competition. Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net