Posts from — February 2009

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How to Resurrect “Dead” Customers…

One of the easiest (and most economical) ways to get a boost in cash flow is to reactivate customers who haven’t ordered in a while. But, you can’t just send them a new pitch and hope they’ll buy. You need to tell them you’ve noticed they haven’t ordered in a while, ask them if there is something you can fix and THEN make a special offer.

Here’s an email I recently sent out to customers in one of my niche markets.

Hi [firstname],

I want to thank you for being a Member of “The xxxxx Mastermind.”

However, I noticed that you haven’t purchased in quite a while. I was hoping I could find out why.

Perhaps, I did something wrong. If so, I’d like to know so I can try to fix it. Or, at the very least, make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else in the future.

If you’ve just been too busy or you’re not in the market for this type of training anymore, I’d like to know that, too.

Will you let me know what’s going on?

Jason

P.S. In case everything is cool and you are still interested in doing business, I’ve arranged a special offer for you here [hyperlink].

Simple. You are showing real concern. You DO want to know if you’ve messed up somehow because if you did it to them, you’ve probably done it to tons of others and not even known it. This way you can put a process in place to fix it and you’ll come away with a stronger company.

Most of the time, people simply forget to do business with you. Might be because you didn’t follow-up enough… or, they tried someone else… or, whatever. BUT, I can almost guarantee they never received an email or letter like that one in their lives. No companies do it. Strange to me because it is basically free money!

Will you do this exercise? Then, email me or post a comment and let me know how much you made?

Jason

P.S. If you know other business owners could you let them know about this blog?

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Here’s a two-page advertorial I wrote for a Dentist. I wrote it in May of 2007. It cost him $840 per insertion and yielded an increase of $32,000 the first month, $41,000 the second month and $34,000 the third month, which is when I received the email quoted below.

That means it brought back $42 in gross for every $1 spent!

Ridiculous.

Not only that, it made him semi-famous in his community.

Here’s what this dentist said about the ad…

Sorry I’ve been so slow to respond. Before running the ad we were averaging $45,000 to $55,000 per month. The initial insert, one time in our local paper, resulted in over $20,000 of new mini implant and denture business. Since then we have run the piece as a two page ad in a magazine called “Today’s Senior” in black and white. This costs us only $840 per month. In the next three months after this ad appeared our monthly income was $82,000, $91,000, and $84,000.

Anyway Jason, the results have been beyond my expectations. Everyone on my staff says I’ve never run a more effective ad at any time. People tell me all the time they “read that article about me” in the magazine. Fantastic results. If I change anything for the next run I would try to put at least a hint about the price so I don’t get so many calls from people who absolutely can’t afford it.

– Ken Clifford,  DDS, CA

You can view the front here: Copywriter Writes Dentist an Ad That Yields $42 for every $1 spent! (page 1)

And, the back here: Copywriter Writes Dentist an Ad That Yields $42 for every $1 spent! (page 2)

That’s not too shabby a bit of writing for a guy who doesn’t know squat about dentistry, eh?

I believe he paid me around $4,000 to write that ad and it took me about 2 weeks of brainstorming and about 2-3 days of actual writing.

Would you like to make a ton of money? Probably not.

But, just in the off chance there is someone out there who likes lots of money, maybe we should chat.

Jason

P.S. You don’t have to be a dentist. I’ve written for Martial Artists, Real Estate Agents, Guys who go around picking up women, a guy who fixes air conditioners, etc, etc.

P.P.S. You can call me at 817-734-6609 between 9 am and 8 pm CST (leave a message, I never answer the phone while writing.)

P. S. #3 Maybe you are crazy and have a thing against money and aren’t in the market for such a thing… BUT, I’m sure you know someone who is… Could you let them know about this? Thanks.

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Every now and then I like to take a shower, put on some of my best clothes, do up my hair and drive to Best Buy for my quarterly “Electronics Dream Fest!”

That’s where I go and make a gigantic list of all the electronic stuff I wish to acquire.

This last time I was salivating over one of those new Rectangular TVs (I still have a square one).

As I salivated, an ingenuous bit of advertising by the Geek Squad caught my eye. (They offer an add-on service to come out to your house and set up the rectangular tv and fancy sound boxes.)

They were using what I have now officially dubbed, “The Terrify Them Into Submission Tactic.”

Exhibit A: The headline says, “Would you know what to do with this?” Hmm… Actually, no! I haven’t a clue! What I normally do is just start plugging stuff in where it fits while peering around the edge of the TV until a picture comes on.

But, I HAVE set up a TV with VCRs and dvd players and a blu-ray PlayStation3 so MAYBE, given enough TIME, beer and patience I could have it set up in a week.

Just as I’m thinking I might be able to pull it off…

They hit me with THIS!

Exhibit B: The headline says, “Tools Needed for an Installation.” (Shit.)

Ain’t no way. I have a hammer and a few screw drivers.

Exhibit C: Ok, Ok… You’re right. I don’t want the pain… I want those guys to do it.

What do you suppose their response rate is when they ask someone, “Would you like us to come out to your house and get this all set up?”

I’d bet it’s pretty high.

Jason

P.S. I’ll have the Rectangular TV in just another week or so… and, THEY’LL be installing it.

P.P.S. Showing someone how much work it is to NOT do business with you could help boost your response.

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