Direct Response

Every now and then somebody gets a lucky break when a bone gets thrown their way.  If you’re waiting for your lucky bone, wait no more.   Focus on the exact bone you’re looking for, zero in on it, and then go for it.  Fail!  Fail!  Fail!  And keep failing with pride.  Get blocked out of the VIP party, lose your shirt, and fail again.   Learn from each failure.  Take notes.  Then fail again.

One of the greatest fears we have as humans is failure.  The funny thing is that most of our lives problems are solved through trial and error.  Many people never undertake the trial because they fear the error.    IMPORTANT: Error is normal.  Error is good – so long as we learn from it.  Without error we cannot have success.

“I have not failed 10000 times. I have successfully found 10000 ways that will not work.”  Thomas Edison.  Indeed!  I find great solace in Edison’s famous quote.

Take for instance the traffic game.  I run traffic to a number of offers we own and some of our client’s offers.  The traffic game is VERY difficult to master.  There’s really no one out there that’s mastered the traffic game that’s going to ”show” you how to do it.  There’s all types of coaches, most are frauds and the ones that aren’t sure as hell won’t show you their main traffic sources.  There’s too much money for them to lose.

Today I enjoyed backing out at a $12 CPA on an offer that pays $44.  That’s a $32 profit per lead.  Did I mention that our power was out all day from the hurricane and I didn’t log on to my computer until now?  The turnkey campaign I built is cranking day in and day out.

What I didn’t mention was that it cost me thousands of dollars in failed traffic sources and creatives to find the right combination.  Here’s the trick:  The point where most people give up is the point where you need to keep chugging forward.

Mind you it’s important to know when to call it quits.  In this case I knew the campaign had the potential to succeed based on having the right advertiser, offers, and market.  Key point:  You need to know what you’re getting yourself into before you start investing you time in it.  If you have zero experience in running traffic then you better start with a realistic expectation such as “goal #1: not to lose my ass”    From there it can only get better.

I’ve personally experienced some monumental failures in my lifetime.   At many points most people would have given up.  Luckily giving up is just not in my blood.

So take it from a guy that has failed many times that you should embrace failure.  The day will come when people start walking up to you and ask: “How did you do that?  How could you make that work when no one else could.  You make it look so easy.”  Turnaround, smile, and reply “I found failure.  Have you?”

Yo!!!!!  The sales Bazookas are out and we’re getting some massive direct responses from this week’s Affiliate Summit!!

Every time I attend a conference I walk away with a huge surge in business.  I can’t believe that I used to discount trade shows.  See the thing is that no matter how technologically advanced our world is today, face-to-face meetings are irreplaceble.  High-Tech/High-Touch.

Here’s a hint: the diamond deals are not going to happen inside the actual conference   No sir, that’s where most of the newbies float around creating wasteful noise.  You want to make power moves. Here’s 9 ways hustlers win big business at trade shows:

1.  Clearly Identify A Few Goals

Time is a limited commodity at trade shows.  Figure out your top 1-2 goals you seek to accomplish.  Ink it up and then get lazer FOCUSED.

What’s most important to your business?  Is your goal realistic.  Don’t suffer from delusions of grandeur.  If you’re a new advertiser don’t expect to find a “magical” publisher that will push 1,000 orders a day to your page.  Instead aim to get your foot in the door with a couple good pubs and eventually work your way up from there.

2.  Identify Key After Parties and Get In NO MATTER WHAT

The best advertisers, affiliates, and ad networks in the world are very suspicious of people they don’t know OR DON’T COME WITH A STAMP OF APPROVAL from someone they trust.  You need to find out where these guys are having their private parties.  Often they’ll advertise it through their corporate websites or promote through blogs.  Lie Cheat And Steal to get on the list.

3.  Avoid Riff Raff Like The Black Plague

There’s a shitload of talkers in our industry.  Quickly size up who you’re talking to.  Who have you seen them talking to?  Are they reserved – meaning that they won’t engage in an indepth conversation with you until you’ve been qualified?

Ask them qualifier questions such as: “What company are you with?”  “Oh yea, what do you do over there.”  Make it as non-chalant as possible.

If you find yourself spending time with someone that is not going to help you accomplish your core 1-2 goals, then quickly find an exit.  Shake their hand and say “Awesome – nice to meet you.  Good luck with the show.”  Whatever you do MAKE SURE you get away from them as fast as possible.  You don’t want to get labeled as Riff Raff by hanging out with Riff Raff.

4.  Strategically Align Yourself With The Players

Find out who the biggest industry figures are at the party.  Then make a bee line straight to them.  Tell them that you know who they are, and that you have to leave in 2 minutes, but wanted to say hi.  Then flatter them a little and ask to get a picture with them.  Promote the shit out of that picture on your blog etc.  Affiliation is huge.   Also, peeps at the party will see you talking to “the boss.”   Since no one knows you, everyone will think you’re important.  After all you are…it’s just that no one knows it yet

Then when people start asking you “how do you know that guy,” what you’re not going to do is say “we just met tonight.”  Instead you’re going to peak interest with a really vague answer like “oh that dude.  He’s cool.  We do some stuff together.”  That could mean ANYTHING.  And your little secret is the “stuff” you do together is just a 5 minute convo about whatever.  People respect people that hold secrets close to the vest.

5.  Don’t Get Wasted

This is a BIG ONE!   How you handle yourself at the conferences is a direct reflection of how you handle yourself in your business.   Ask yourself this question:  would you feel more comfortable giving someone your money in business that dresses neatly and opts out of drinking at parties?  Or would you go with the guy that spends $10,000 on a bar tab each night getting shit-faced?

Remember your goals.  You didn’t come to the trade show to make an ass out of yourself.  You came to get business done.  Show people the best you.  If you are just dying to party, then get to the conference a day early and get it all out of you.

Every moment of these parties people are watching and judging you.  How do you want them to see you?

6.  Don’t Try To Impress By Lavishness

This year we rolled up to a private lounge where a dude we know got bottle service.  His tab at the end of the evening was $140,000.00.  No hyperbole!!!   The only impression this left with me was that he was a careless spender and someone I wouldn’t want to do business with.

People that engage in your services expect you to spend wisely.  You don’t need to prove to people that you’re big time by thowing a wasteful event.

The LimeLight CRM party this year – which was a totally awesome event – cost very little to put together.  Everyone there was making moves.  And best of all, more million dollar deals were closed there than anywhere else at the show.  It didn’t take outrageous opulence .

7.  If You Have Something To Say About Another Company, Make It Good

Don’t shit talk people you’ve had a bad experience with.  This will just make other people think that you’ll shit talk them if something goes wrong, which we all know is bound to happen in at least 1 deal throughout the course of your career.

Try to say something good about everyone.   It’s good karma!

8.  Set Up Private Meetings In Advance

If you fail to plan then plan to fail.  Approximately 3 weeks prior to the show starting, make sure you setup your key meetings.  Leave enough time in your schedule for impromptu meetings.

9.  Bring Your Office To The Show

Maximize your trip by bringing your office to the show.   At every event I enjoy zero downtime.  Here’s my setup at The London in NYC:

P.S. Attending the following trade shows is a MUST if you’re an online direct response marketer: Affiliate Summit, Ad Tech, ERA, and LeadsCon.

How would you like to have full control of your destiny in the online direct response space?

To put it bluntly, chances are you’ll never get to enjoy that.  99% of advertisers fail at vertical integration.  For the lucky few of us that make it work, there’s 2 words that come to mind: ABSOLUTE FREEDOM!!

See the beginning stages of running your own offer involves outsourcing the bulk of the work.  Manufacturing, fulfillment, customer support, traffic, monetization, etc. etc.  Every company you outsource to is making a margin.  Those margins wear down your bottom line.

Once you start figuring out how your vendors operate, start vertically integrating 1 area at a time.   Start with what’s easiest and work your way backward.  Don’t make the mistake of trying to vertically integrate everything at once.  Instead master 1 facet at a time.

When your run into road blocks reach out to other people in the industry and ask for help.  One of the greatest ways to start building contacts is to attend as many trade shows as you can.  All relationships and deals are made at the parties.  Find those parties and focus on building a few key relationships.

i.e.  Last night a group of bankers, affiliates, and advertisers I’ve known for awhile rented out the VIP section of a prestigious lounge.  It was there we bounced ideas off of each other and sought feedback from one another.  This is where ideas come from.

P.S.  Some random wannabe thugs tried to jump Rob and I on the way back to the hotel.  What they weren’t expecting is that Rob directly responded with “alright, let’s step off over to this ally vs. the street cause we’re gonna fu*k you up.”  The dude that tried Rob looked like he saw a ghost and literally took off.  AWESOME Rob!!

Optimization – it’s key in this competitive and cut-throat market.  Merchants optimize media buys, messaging, creative and landing pages but surprisingly, many don’t focus any attention on testing customer service interactions.  It’s often an overlooked yet important component of profitability.  In a few words, don’t rely on Peggy and you could be 75% more profitable!

In this business, most people associate Customer Service with words such as “headache”, “hassle” and “costly”.  Many call centers are disorganized, non-responsive and are usually located in developing countries where reps are hard to understand and refunds flow like wine.  Don’t cut corners with your customer service strategy; every touch point with customers can have huge positive or negative consequences to your success and survival as a business.  Testing and optimizing your customer service interactions is important in determining the right messaging, save sale price points and optimal way to handle interactions to boost profits, cut refunds, lower customer service expenses and slash chargebacks.  Using a proven IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and Web platform with split-testing capabilities for inbound customer service inquiries get optimal results quickly.

Merchants need to ask themselves:

1)      Am I placing the same emphasis on customer service optimization as I do landing page or media buying optimization?

2)      Is my customer service solution available all the time: 24/7 – 365 days a year?

3)      Am I efficiently testing inbound customer service calls and web inquiries?

4)      How long are my hold times and what’s my call abandon rate?

5)      How much more profitable can I be with a better solution?

If reading these questions makes you feel a bit queasy, don’t worry; you’re not alone.  Take a swig of Pepto-Bismol and relax; there’s a solution out there just for you! Optimized Customer Outcome™ (OCO™) by RevGuard is a patent-pending IVR and Web-based profitability engine developed over the course of five years by merchants, for merchants.

Plus, with RevGuard you’re never alone!  RevGuard has a dedicated analytics team that works with merchants on an individual basis to review metrics during weekly optimization calls and provides ongoing recommendations for continuous testing to provide significant lifts to profitability while driving down risky refunds and chargebacks.

CASE IN POINT:  A Snapshot of a Merchant OCO Test

RevGuard approached a merchant that has been running free trial programs for over seven years.  They had been through it all, seen it all and thought they had the best solution to maximize profitability and manage chargebacks – but, they were open to testing a new technology and admitted they hadn’t spent much time optimizing their customer service interactions.

RevGuard ran a 50/50 split test on their weight loss offer with 50% of the calls routed through RevGuard’s OCO platform first and the other 50% routed directly to their existing call center. The client was able to keep their existing 800# and simply redirect the calls to the IVR, so the test was launched quickly with little risk.

Over the course of the 60 day test, over 17,000 customers went through the system. Here are the results:

OCO slashed customer service costs by 44.18%
OCO reduced refund expenses by 47.12%
OCO lowered chargebacks and related costs by 26.70%

OVERALL: After the cost of the solution, OCO added $49,970 PER MONTH ($600,000 A YEAR) in profitability – a jump of 78%!  Best of all, they made these improvements after just the first test, so there is more money to be found as optimization continues!

This client quickly decided to use OCO to handle 100% of customer interactions and is looking forward to additional optimization to continue to scale and crush the competition.

So, if you’re tired of Peggy handling your customer service and you want to increase your profitability and create a sustainable business model, contact RevGuard and see how they can help you take your business to a whole new level.  Get in touch with them now – before your competition beats you to it.

About the Author

Walter Long has been in the online marketing space since 1999 and helped launch RevGuard.net.  He’s currently working closely with DirectResponse.net members Rick Del Rio and Peter Nguyen providing OCO support to their clients.  If you’re in the space, you should know Walter – hit him up at walter@revguard.net.

I’m looking for your insight on the best cloaker out there and why…

Tracking 202?

LinkTrackr?

Or custom?

A lot of guys have asked me what the best tool is to get ads approved on Google, FB, etc.  and keep track of multiple campaigns.  Please provide your feedback.

Hey guys, please take a moment to welcome the newest member of the Direct Response team – Peter Nguyen!!!

Peter has contributed several outstanding posts to Direct Response, most notably:

SUPER ADVERTISER: The Future of Affiliate Marketing

Peter Nguyen – $499,934.32 Total Sales in 2 Days

Here’s a brief  bio on Peter:

Peter Nguyen began building his own products and services online over ten years ago. It wasn’t until the past several years, during the growing affiliate boom, when one of his breakthrough products generated millions of dollars in the first four months. He has since built dozens of other successful CPA campaigns in just about every major niche and is one of the foremost authorities in the Internet marketing space.

There’s more to Peter than just a super advertiser.  Peter has also partnered with one of the fastest growing CPA networks and mobile advertisers.  Peter completely understands the affiliate side and is partners with the biggest pubs in the space.  Peter is credited with building  a coreg company that now generates over six figures in leads daily.  Peter is also widely praised for his first info product launch, Advertiser360.

Last week I received a call from one of my partners.  He asked me “So, was just wondering, exactly how much money are you spending on these media buys?”

I answered “less than we were spending last week, the only difference is that I’ve spent the past 2 days optimizing all of the placements.”

My partner replied “that would explain it Rich. For the past few hours the phones have been ringing off the hook.”

For an online direct response marketer, hearing that your campaign is killing it makes it feel like Christmas.  For the past 2 days I’ve focused exclusively on a campaign that I have direct ownership in.   Using an integrated approach, I’m in the process of optimizing our search, display, and email campaigns.

The sudden flurry of traffic primarily came from display.  After Ron created a new set of banners, I loaded WhatRunsWhere and started outbidding the placements of our competitors.  Our CTR doubled that of our closest competitor, and the conversion rate is undoubtedly double theirs as well.  Nothing is more fun than categorically outbidding your competition’s ”sweet spots.”

Media buying is one of the easiest ways to flood customers through the gates.  It’s also my favorite way to advertise online.  With the click of a button, you can literally pour in leads.  Here’s a few tricks to blowing up an offer via media buys:

1.  Create multiple variations of ads.  The goal is to get the highest CTR possible.  My partner Ron builds all of our banners.  One trick he uses is adding a clear button on each banner for people to click on.  Using the word “FREE” on the button always helps improve CTR.

Only keep the banners with the highest CTR.

2.  Create multiple variatons of presale pages.  Don’t make the mistake of putting all your eggs into 1 presale page.

A client of mine spent all of last month creating a presale page.  After turning it into a legal brief, they scratched their heads on why it didn’t convert…  Without multiple variations, they ran into a deadend.  Now they have to go back to the drawing board while their competitors enjoy volume.

3.  If you have a general product in the heallth or beauty vertical, test a lot of placements, but not all at once.   Then as you find winning placements scale the impressions.  Cut the bad placements out of the equation.

These are pretty basic tips and are intended for people that are new to media buying.  As far as the traffic sources, I list a few of the top sources here.  There’s a lot more sources out there, but hey, can’t give it all away

Have you ever found yourself tiring out halfway through the day?

You may have walked to the kitchen and chugged a Red Bull or a Monster Energy drink.  What were the effects?  An instant surge of energy!  A few hours of focus!

Then what?  A crash followed by the need for…more.  More Red Bull, more Monster Energy, more double shots.  Then the need for…more.

The biggest problem with energy expedients like Red Bull is that they take you 1 step forward and then 2 steps backward.  Eventually your body will gain resistance to them and need more.  The more you take, the more you need.  In order to get out of states of fatigue, you’ll need…more.

I know from first hand experience.  A while back I got really busy with work and found myself pulling 18 hour days 7 days a week.  It got to the point where I needed energy drinks just to make it through midday.  By the end of the night I was pounding them left and right.

Through a lot of research I discovered ways to get sustainable energy without all of the unhealthy quick-fixes.  Today I can make it through vigorous workdays without any fatigue.  Here’s how:

1.  Animal Pak Vitamins - Animal Pak vitamins come in big jars with separate plastic packs filled with your daily vitamin dosage.  This is perfect for guys in the industry because we don’t have the time to pick up 11 different bottles that we have to take vitamins from each day.  In each Animal Pak come with 11 vitamins, each of which provides a different benefit.

2.  Clif Builder’s Protein Bars – Clif Protein Bars are the first protein bars that I’ve tasted that are both delicious and good for you.  When you’re too busy to make it to lunch, Clif Builders come in handy.  Filled with 20 grams of protein, your muscles get the nurishment they need to grow.

3.  Cases of FiJi Water – Staying hydrated throughout the day is key.  FiJi water is the best water on the planet, so reward your body with the best nutrients.  I suggest that you drink 5-6 bottles of FiJi a day.   If you’re on the go save money by ordering FiJi by the caseload off of their site FiJi Bulk Orders.   

4.  Personal Trainer – Most readers of this blog are insanely busy and capital intensive.  Everything in our lives needs to have structure.  We plan our meetings, phone calls, trips, assignments, and projects.

We shouldn’t waste our time planning out extensive workouts when we can have a professional do it for us.  I strongly recommend that you hire a personal trainer that will  put you into a solid program and push you to succeed.  After your first session you’ll never go back to the drudgery of working out alone or with one of your friends – it’s just not the same.

If you’re not ready for a personal trainer then I suggest you join a CrossFit class.  You’ll notice that everyone in the CrossFit classes that have consistenly trained for 3+ months is ripped.  CrossFit specializes in not specializing.  CrossFit makes you well-rounded in your fitness by gaining competence in the 10 components of fitness:  endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.

CrossFit prepares your body to adapt to the unknown and the unknowable. If you make a commitment to this method you will achieve results. You will make a positive change in your body composition and you will gain confidence in your physical abilities. This confidence will carry over into other facets of your life.

5.  Proper Diet - If you can afford it, have your meals cooked in advance for you by a professional chef.  High protein low card organic diets are the best way to go.  I try to do most of my shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joes.  Just about everything in those stores is good for you to eat.

Yes, it’s more expensive.  A good friend of mine pointed out “you’re either gonna pay now or you’re gonna pay later.”   Ain’t that the truth!

By implementing these 5 tricks into your life you’re mental and physical stamina will significantly improve.  You’ll have the ability to sit through long work stretches without falling victim to fatigue.  With greater focus and energy you will improve you overall productivity.  Good luck!!!

P.S.  You should still stock the Red Bulls and Double Shot energies for emergencies.  I order 5 Hour Energy by the case for those rare days where external factors weight down my work product.