The Hard-Working Words Blog

Hey {!name},

Whew. I got a *lot* of responses to my email last week . . .

I asked “What’s the biggest question you’ve got about surviving the
recession?”

And the responses came *flooding* in . . .

Obviously, folks are nervous about the current economy and how
they’re going to get through it.

But enough preamble . . . let’s dive in. Any one of these questions
could fill a whole issue of HWW by themselves, but I’m going to try
to keep my answers brief so that we can cover as much ground as
possible.

============================
Carrie Lanza asks . . . “Chris . . . How do I start out as a
freelancer during the recession?”
============================

Hi Carrie,

First off, congrats. Going out on your own can seem scary at first,
but once you get your feet under you, you’ll wonder how you ever
got by before.

Some key points of advice:

1. Live Below Your Means (and then grow your means.)

The sad fact of the matter (and one of the big reasons that we’re
in this financial mess) is that most Americans spend way, way WAY
more than they actually make. As a freelancer and small business
owner, you just can’t afford to do that. You’ve got to cut your
expenses, your luxuries and even your long term investments to the
BONE and build up as much of a cash cushion as you can. Get as
close to “starving college student” living as you can.

2. Forget Your Passion . . . Give The Market What It Wants.

Remember that old adage “Do what you love and the money will
follow?” It’s great if you’re writing greeting cards or trying to
inspire a room full of passionate Ukelelee players . . . but it’s
utterly worthless when it comes to doing business in hard times.

Instead, you’ve got to focus on what you’re good at, what you don’t
*hate* doing, and what people are actually still willing to pay
good money for.

Which means you’ve got to help them *make* money (which is what
marketing consultants and copywriters do) . . . help them *save*
money (by doing a job they used to do themselves or in house, but
cheaper) or that shows another simple and tangible return on
investment.

3. Be Shameless In Your Self Promotion . . .Make Big Promises AND
KEEP THEM.

Here’s the big one. You didn’t mention what you wanted to go
freelance *as* in your email, but no matter what it is you’ve got
to be ready, willing and able to *sell yourself.”

As I’ve said for years,  “Marketing is the art of making a promise
and keeping it.”

When talking to potential clients you’ve got to be aggressive (but
not obnoxious) and lay out in exacting detail what kind of results
you can get for them.  Make big promises . . . and then drastically
exceed the results you promised.

=========================================
Robert Landis asks . . . “One sure way to increase market share or
number of clients, is to reduce prices during a recession. However,
we are already a “low cost provider” by many of our competitors
standards, only charging $95.00 per hour. In addition, we have
business booked until late January 09. One attempt we have made to
address this issue is offer Search Engine Marketing services for a
small flat monthly fee plus a 10% commission on sales from the
campaigns. Any other creative ideas?”
=========================================

Hi Robert,

I’d actually disagree with your initial statement. If you’re
selling widgets or a commodity, then yes, lowering prices can ramp
up your business. But for a service-based small business like
yours, lowering prices is often akin to corporate suicide. It
slashes your margins and, in some cases, actually scares away
customers who think “If you’re that cheap, you can’t be very good
at what you do.”

But let’s get to the other part of your question . . .

Commission-based work is great.

A few other ideas I’d recommend:

1. Keep your prices where you are, but make bigger promises and add
more value. (Man, I say that word a lot.) What’s unique about you?
What do you do that no one else does? Can you offer some for of
guarantee or maintenance schedule at no additional cost? Do you
have services that are really cheap for you to perform but that are
worth a ton to your customer? Throw those in for free as “Bonuses”
for your clients. The problem I see with a lot of web dev houses is
that they “Commoditize” themselves. They all sell themselves based
on time units and offer very little to stand out.

2. Become an authority in your niche. Start sending out a
newsletter or doing webinars or teleseminars on topics that are
important to your customers and that are done in language they
understand. Give away your absolute best advice for free. You’ll be
shocked how many folks then call you up and ask you to work for them.

But no matter what, you’ve got to start finding a way to
differentiate yourself from the competition. Web Dev houses are a
dime a dozen. What makes you DIFFERENT?

=========================================
Elizabeth asks “What can a person who is inherently lazy do to
become less lazy about marketing themselves? Well, not so much lazy
as shy.”
=========================================

Hey Elizabeth,

I had some friends not so long ago ask me for some marketing
advice. They asked me how they could quickly promote their small
business and get some more customers.

And I laid out a pretty simple plan that I think would have worked
quite well. They listened patiently and at the end said “That
sounds like a lot of work. We don’t want to do that.”

And I said “Well, then go out of business.”

Personally, I’m a pretty lazy guy (and am secretly pretty shy) so I
can empathize . . . but if you’re going to survive in tough times,
you’ve got to beat that out of yourself. Like I told Carrie, you’ve
got to be willing to go out and make big promises and follow
through on them.

You’ve got a simple choice: You can kick yourself in the pants and
go out and *sell* yourself properly now . . . or you can wait until
the money’s gone dry and try to do it then. Not pretty. Not fun.
But necessary.

Sorry I don’t have a magic bullet for you. But shy people don’t
tend to do well as entrepreneurs. (Unless they learn how to hide
that shyness behind a mask of frightening confidence. Not that I
would know anything about that.)

===================================
Howard Howell asks “How do I interest biz owners and pro service
providers in investing in their own education by attending my paid
workshops on entrepreneurial sales and profits?”
===================================

You scare them.

Scare the bejeeezus out of them, actually.

And I’m not really kidding.

Howard, honestly, you’re in one of the easier niches to sell in
this kind of economy. The “learn how to make more money” niche. The
key is, you’ve got to outline in exact detail the huge BENEFITS of
learning your system.

* How much more *money* will I make if I attend your training?
* What *huge problems* will you solve for me?
* What *massive regrets* will I have if I *don’t* come to your
seminar?
* What *ridiculously generous* guarantee will you give me that your
workshop is worth my time?

I’d also start tying the bad state of the economy directly into
your marketing. Bring up the crumbling economy and tell your
prospects that you’ve got the system to beat it.

Whew. And I think that’s all we have room for today.

I’ve still got a ton of questions stacked up in my inbox. What I’ll
probably do is pick a few to highlight on the blog. So if you don’t
see your question answered here, don’t panic. I’ll try and get to
it as soon as I can.

You can find the blog at Haddadink.com/blog

And you can get in touch with me just by replying to this email.

Later skaters,

Chris

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Hey folks,

If you’ve been following me on twitter you know that I spent the weekend down in Las Vegas at Ken Mcarthur’s JV Alert Live Seminar . . .

Or, well, I spent the weekend near Las Vegas anyway.

For some reason or other Ken decided to have the seminar at the Montelago Village Resort and Casino . . . which is a weird and worrisome not-quite-a-ghost-town-but-close megaresort about 17 miles from the Las Vegas strip.

The place is downright creepy . . . and would probably be a great setting for a zombie movie.

On the upside, the resort has a man-made lake and is within spitting distance of Celine Dion’s house.

On the downside, the Montelago is suffering a slow and depressing death and is 17 MILES FROM THE STRIP. (Oh grand vision of Las Vegas, why must you tempt me so.)

As for the Seminar itself, I’d give it an A- for networking and a solid C for actual content and value. I met some amazing people in my 4 days at the Montelago, solidified some existing relationships and cooked up quite a few evil schemes that will pay off in the future.

But I didn’t learn a thing.

One by one the speakers clambered up onto the stage, told their life stories and launched into a pitch without delivering anything close to actual value.

Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Eben Pagan, but these days I expect to actually get some value for my hard earned cash.

Even Joe Sugarman, who I was greatly looking forward to meeting, completely failed to deliver. His talk was titled something like “How To Improve Your Copy In 3 Easy Steps” but he spent 2 hours talking about Batman Credit cards and failed ads and then tried to sell us skin cream.

It was surreal.

I still love the whole JV Alert crowd. They’re all warm, passionate people and I consider many of them to be good friends, but if you’re going to go, go for the networking and skip the pitchfest in the room.

Over on Orcas Island this weekend I had the following conversation with the lovely mid-fiftieswoman who ran the resort we were at:

Me: “Is it a nice room?”

Her: “Oh, it’s a very nice room.”

Me: “Really?”

Her: “I like this room so much that if you don’t like it you can go down to the water, grab a piece of driftwood and come back here and  beat me with it.”

Pretty great guarantee, huh?
I bet there’s a whole newsletter in there somewhere, but I already covered a lot of this stuff in the last issue.

Hi folks,

Welcome back to the all new, all different Hard Working Words Newsletter.

In just a moment I’m going to let you in on the “secret” that top copywriters and marketers rely on to make their offers absolutely irresistible and to blow sales through the roof . . . .

But first a little housekeeping . . .

=================
Surgery Schmurgery
=================

As many of you know, I went in for back surgery two Fridays ago. I was nervous as hell before going under the knife, but so far the results have been absolutely miraculous. For the first time in four years I feel like I can stand up straight and walk like a man. I’ve still got some tingle in my right foot and I need to get back to stretching and taking care of myself, but so far so good. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, especially you folks who have been following me on Twitter.

===========================
I Wish I Could Wear A Suit To Work
===========================

Most days I wear yoga pants and an old T-shirt to work (and, lately, a mustache. It’s temporary. I promise.) but sometimes I yearn for the days when you had to wear a suit to work and 5 martini lunches were the norm. And when that happens, I watch “Mad Men.” You’ve probably heard of this show (it’s about Madison Ave. Ad guys in 1960) but if you haven’t, check it out. Awesome stuff.

And now for the main event . . .

====================
I Want You To *Rip Me Off*
====================

It happens over and over and over . . .

As a high fallutin’ marketing consultant and copywriter I’ve got a *lot* of people calling me up and asking me to help them with their copy.

I mean a *lot.* Mountains . . .

Unfortunately, most of the business folk who call me up need help with more than just their copy. They need a fundamental readjustment of how they look at their business and what the heck it is that they’re actually offering.

After all, as I’ve said before, your copy really is only the *third* most important part of your marketing.

First is your list . . . how hot and ready to buy are the people you’re selling to?

Second is your offer . . . what the heck are you actually selling them and why is it a screaming deal?

And then third you’ve got your copy . . . the actual words on the page that create romance and mystery and seal the deal.

The bad news is that most business people have had *no idea* how to put together a truly compelling offer.

So let me just lay it on the table . . .

=============================
The Secret To Truly “Kick Ass” Offers
=============================

What’s the secret to a truly “kick ass” offer?

Simple: When your prospect reads (or hears about) your offer, it should appear to be so compelling and so utterly generous that they feel like they’re RIPPING YOU OFF.

When your prospect takes out their credit card and buys what you’ve got to sell, they should feel like they’re not just getting the better end of the deal . . . they should feel like they’re taking advantage of you, stealing your lunch money and leaving you wheeping and shivering in the hallway wondering what the hell went wrong.

This is something I actually learned from marketing great Jeff Paul. When I’ve worked with Jeff in the past, he’s always pushed me to figure out how to pump up the offer and make it an absolute no brainer that your prospects will KICK THEMSELVES if they miss out on it.

======================================
So How Do You Turn Your Offer Into A True “Rip Off?”
======================================

Good question . . . .

1. Be Generous.

Way too many marketers and business folk out there are stingy in what they give out. They either don’t include bonuses at all, or they pack their products with untargeted BS bonuses that nobody actually wants.

Ask yourself, what do my prospects truly want that I can give them at low or no cost that will skyrocket the VALUE of my product? And then give it away.

2. Sell A Kick Butt Package with high perceived Value.

There’s that V word again. A good offer needs to have multiple components, all of which resonate with the core desires of your audience. Which is just a fancy way of saying, “You’ve got to give your prospects what they really want and give it to them at a price they think is a STEAL.”

Now, that doesn’t mean you have to be “cheap.” I’ve sold packages for $5k or $6k that had a “real value” in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The key is that you’ve got to spend the time really laying out what your product and its components are WORTH and compare it to the tiny, tiny amount of money you’re asking your prospect to pay.

3. Be Creative.

Uh oh. Among Direct Marketers, creativity is a dirty word. But when you’re crafting your offer is one of the few times you’re really allowed to let your creativity shine. How creative can you be in your payment terms to make it as easy as possible for your prospect to buy from you . . . and still make money?

Can you cover shipping? Can you send them the package for 30 days for free to try out? Anything you can do to “grease the chute” will make your offer sing.

4. Think long term.

This is the biggie. Remember, you’re not trying to make just one sale; you’re trying to get a customer for life. If that means making LESS profit up front, go for it. Be generous. Put yourself out there. Put yourself at the mercy of your customers. And once you’ve got your prospect hooked on what you’ve got to sell, reel em in again and again.

Got it? Good.

Now I’m going to go enjoy my brand spanking new back. =-)