Say nothing, get nothing ( plus...90-page sales letter making money, hand over fist)‏

I thought this was smart.

To put up a single webpage of copy to advertise my writing services with the following headline;

Yes, A Writer With Not Much To Write!

I then went on to say why, if you're looking for a writer, you don't want to be burdened with information overload, and so that's why I'm keeping this short.

All in all, if you were to print the webpage out, it would be less than a single A4 page of copy.  

The result?

Nothing.

I mean, literally - NO THING.

For months.

Deathly silence.

We all experiment.

And that one was bad.... really BAD.

And out of those experiments, we either carry on doing what we think is good (based on ego and wanting to look good) or... we adjust because things aren't working.

Since that time, I've learned that the kind of people I attract and whom I'm interested in working with and sharing my ideas with, are those businesses and entrepreneurs who want solid information... who want to dive deep into something they're interested in... who have an expansive brain and want to go over (re-read) things - once, twice, several times.

You'll rarely get a few lines of copy from me.

Why?
Because I've things to say and share.

And... I make sure that what I'm saying has some kind of actionable usefulness to you and... that what I write isn't boring, or a chore for you to read.

Some of my emails have been 3 to 4 solid pages of text.

But I've seen that they're getting opened, read and hopefully for them, has them taking some kind of action based on what's written in the emails. 

For a writer, silence (take that to mean being skimpy with words and explanations) is the kiss of death. (See the stark difference between one ad that has minimal words, and... my Honda CRV ad that's packed to the rafters with interesting, fact based copy) 

For a business, sending out the same kind of communications an audience is used to seeing -- because every other business is sending them the same versions of neutral, plain Jane offers, promotions and information - is pretty much the same as being silent. 

Majority of your audience will glance, dust their hands off together, and pass it by.

Your business can't afford to keep doing that.

"Oh, but I can't write all that copy, no-one's going to read all that... they're going to be bored and turn away from it all... my audience is different"

Of course, we ALL turn away from anything, if it's boring. Short copy. Long copy. Doesn't matter. 

If there's one thing we can't stand, it's being bored to death.

Ed Miliband - ex Labour Party leader, was absolved of all blame for the Labor Party's recent UK election collapse, according to a recent Labour Party investigation into what happened.

Unfortunately for the deluded souls who led that investigation and came to the conclusions they did, Ed Miliband is the most boring politician you could meet - visually, verbally and in all other ways.

Lack of inspiration, lack of leadership, lack of like-ability - he WAS the number one reason Labour failed. Yet, his business (his party) could not see it, still cannot see it.

Many were bored with Miliband's brand of consistent boring-ness.

Want to know about a sales letter that's 90 pages in length that's selling a business product that has tens of thousands of buyers and made the company millions a year... and... it ISN'T boring?

And something else, has genuine, sincere fans of the product because it's turned their lives around?

What you need to know about the letter is it contains everything a person needs to know before making a purchase.

There's no question that's not answered.

There's no lack of proof that'll have you quizzical or befuddled.

And get this, there's NO hard sell going on, though... it sells.

Zen like?

No.

The business has done a MASTERFUL job in selecting and qualifying their particular client and making the best, most irresistible proposition they can.

It's copywriting and sales story creation at its best. And it's really only for serious students of the craft of direct response communications and who are growth obsessed, who'll benefit from looking at it.  

Why aren't I leading you to the page and having you go make up your own mind about it?

Because if you're not already putting out the kind of communication and information that your audience and customers love, then this'll be too dramatic a shift for you. (If the letter is of interest to you, get in touch) 

And exactly who'll buy from that sales page?

Those who read it and raise their hands to buy.

The other 99.999% of people on the planet - it won't even reach their eyeballs.

Where are YOU being silent in your communications? 

How OFTEN are you showing up silent and blank, again and again and again?

If you want to fix that, then there are options.

Here's one of them.

-- don't forget - say nothing, you get nothing... say nothing different, you get nothing different. 




www.RajaHireker.com

How to Drive More Cash-flow Into Your Business Without Spending Any Additional Money on Advertising

"SPEND SPEND SPEND on more advertising to drive more cashflow into your business!" 

No!

You don't do any of that.

You can drive more cash flow into your business without spending any additional money on advertising.

How is it done?
Stick around, I'll show you how to do it.

1. First way; gather all those names of people who have inquired about your business or service but, haven't yet bought. 

Then, what you do with the names is send those people a communication and ask them what you can do to help them. They raised their hands for a reason in the first place, but it doesn't mean they've had their problem solved. It doesn't mean they're still not interested. It doesn't mean that they've found a provider they're happy with.

You don't know any of that.

Find out. There's plenty of money to be made in those who've enquired but didn't buy.

What else?

2. Those past customers of your who haven't bought in x months or x years. Send them a 'we miss you'... 'we want you back' reactivation letter.
We don't necessarily go back to a place of business, and it's because of a few reasons.

However, if we're contacted or communicated to about a special deal and the communication is sincere and it's respectful and it's from the heart, we'll more than likely check out what's on offer. 

Same is true for your business and services. You've got past clients and customers who haven't been in touch with you because... you've not been in touch. 

Get back in touch. Fast. You'll be surprised at what happens.

3. Done great work for your existing clients or customers? 

Then don't you want the same kind of customers as those, the kind you've already helped and served? 

If you've agreed, then put a formalised, systematised referral system in process. 

There's a ton of money waiting for you inside the relationships associations and connections of your existing customers. Tap it.Work it. You'll get more business.

4. Already spending fixed cost money on advertising and marketing?
Then don't spend anymore. Just fix your current advertising and written communications and you'll get better results.

What should you look for when making those changes? 

Begin with the following;

>>> Does a potential customer know the ad or communication is targeted to them? If not, ensure your target prospect is precisely mentioned in the  pre-headline, headline or sub-headline. 

>>> What's the biggest benefit your customers will get? Specify, demonstrate, put that in your ads.

>>> How stilted, stunted and jargonified are your words in your ads and promotions? Very? Then change them. Use simple clear words and your communications will connect better with your reader and in turn, lead to a better response in terms of sales and profits.

>>> Prospects know explicitly what to do to make an order? If not, spell out the ABC steps. Be clear. Be specific. Be unambiguous. 

5. What other, non-competing business has your specific customer as their customers, also?   

Make a list. Send the owner of the other business a communication about a possible joint venture between you and them where you get to access their existing customer database. 

They've already done the hard work. They've built their business. They've got the customers who are perfect prospects for your products or services - and - for the cost of an email (zero cost) or a letter (very little cost) you'll have the opportunity to access a new pool of customers, a number of whom will turn out to be new paying customers of yours.

Let me repeat again; 

You do NOT need to spend heaps and heaps on getting new customers and spending MORE money to get them. (You will however, find an increasing number of consultants and agencies who'll tell you anything to get you spend spend spend on new advertising... anything.)    

When you begin employing the above, low to zero cost strategies, you'll see how you can grow your business, get more cash flowing in... all with a little bit of action, agility and ingenuity.

And, importantly, you can do it all without you ever needing to break the bank.

Don't simply read about these strategies - employ them - they'll make you money and in turn, I'll get to hear from you.

www.rajahireker.com/whythehell.pdf 

What's wrong with this ad?

What's wrong with this ad?

Well, nothing. If I'm selling white space, this ad is perfect for that.

Oh, but see, there's some teeny tiny image and something in the right hand corner.

Now we're selling, baby!

Now we're getting our message out there.   

Now we're getting traction.

Now the money is going to roll in.

And, our marketing and ad people, well... we can't say enough about them.

Just like this ad, really.

Can't say enough because there isn't enough in the ad to talk about it!

Sheer utter madness.

Yet, professional 'marketing and ad' people (educated people?) are being employed to create such masterpieces... people (decision makers in the ad agency or marketing consultancy) are agreeing and signing off this drivel, giving reasonable and justifiable explanations for such ludicrous foolishness.

How different the dynamic would be if the ad agency were (GASP!) on paid on results and... if they were put their own money up first to test their whacky-filled ideas and unproven nonsense.

You can see it now, most marketing pros would be jostling on the unemployment scrap heap, trying to get anyone to give them another shot at their invented, white-space foolishness.  

Yet, look around, you'll see big brand advertising as well as...no brand advertising... many having their adverts with splashings and lashings of free white space (or... any other colour, really).

If your business life depended on it, (and many businesses do depend on their ads and marketing) would you want oodles of white space to sell for you... or... would you want curious, interesting, fascinating facts and pictures and stories and happy delighted customers singing your product or service's praises.... would you want THAT to sell for you...if your business life and your company and your family economics depended on it? 

www.rajahireker.com/neverblank.html

Oh, and if you're looking for an advertising writer who loves white space rather than content and information, then you won't like the ad I've written below.

If you want to CONNECT with a potential customer, try not being fascinated with your own self-importance!

I received a yawnfully boring communication from a company 

wanting me to switch over to their insurance services.

 

There was the usual mention of a commitment to caring, an unrivaled 

service, we're cheaper, we're blah blah blah.

 

The typical, nonsensical, waste-of-money communications.  

 

And how was it signed?

 

The Customer Acquisition and Brand Manager.

 

Oooh la bloody la.

 

Instead of bonding, connecting, finding out more about me and 

how important I was as a potential customer, the egomaniac here was 

intent in advertising her fascination with her own importance.

 

The big desk with the big title does NOTHING for the customer.

 

Because, how exactly was I being SERVED here?

 

With heaped helpings of bombast and self-importance.

 

I wasn't given any kind of demonstration as to how I would benefit,

how I could sample the service. Reasons as to why it was in my best

interest to switch.

 

All I received was a demonstration and sampling of hierarchal 

superiority and jargon filled insanity that obviously meant much

more to the company and to the person signing the letter, than it did to me. I'm only a

possible customer who has now been forever turned off by the pomp, the preening and

deliberate show of self consumed importance.

 

Oh dear.

 

How much monetary waste can be tracked back by such foolishness

across the land, is a project that doesn't need much thinking about.

 

Look in your post box, your email inbox, the ads in the magazines,

newspapers and publications everywhere and you'll get your answer;

 

MAMMOTH AMOUNTS of waste!!

 

This bragadocios, self-importance communication disease, is...

EVERYWHERE... across the breadth and depth of the land,

across almost all businesses, industries and categories.

 

Across almost all professions, leaders, communicators and marketers.

 

When you break it down, the customer doesn't really give two hoots

about your credentials or your certificates or your ability to

please and impress.

 

Here's the one question your customer or potential customer

wants to know - "...can you or your product or service

help me solve my problem and bring me the promised benefits that accrue

because of solving it! "

 

What's beautiful about that question is that it leaves no room for 

one being fascinated about themselves and who they are.

 

 

www.rajahireker.com/personal.pdf 

 

(No pompous, self-important or big desk title, here. Just a simple -- would you like

my communications to help make you more money and have you

connect more with your existing clients?)

What if your 50k Customers, PAID newsletter subscribers or members, were ZAPPED?

How would your life be if you had 50 thousand PAID subscribers to your publication, subscription services or membership?

With huge deposits of cash pouring in each and every month.

Absolutely like clockwork.

Life would be pretty rosy, right?

But, what happens if your subscriber rate, tanks, crumbles, suffers a heart attack... what then?

More...

And what happens if you resurrect the publication, but now, the subscriber rate and the publication is perceived as just another commodity amongst a bunch of commodity publications?

Bummer.

The Rosengarten Report had, in it's peak to 2008, over fifty thousand paid subscribers to its restaurant and food guide publication.

FIFTY THOUSAND!

It was the bees knees.

The publication was hailed by James Beard (Google him) as the best written food publication in the world.   

If you were lured into the publication, you'd want to eat it the page it was printed on.

The publication was THAT good.

But why?

Here's the secret ingredient.

The recipe for their success.

Now I'm not 100% sure of this but much of the content was written by Gary Bencivenga, the best copywriter (salesman in print) in the world at that time - he's retired now.

Some of his special reports and written pieces for the company were devastating masterpieces in persuasion, gluing you to the spot, making your tummy rumble and your taste buds drool. 

David Rosengarten suffered major health problems and the publication closed down for a number of years.

The RETURN;

Now, with health of the owner better, there's an online version of the non paid for newsletter.

It came out late 2012.

Sadly, It's NOTHING like the original publication.

It's weak.

It's lacklustre.

For me, it's instantly throw-away-able.

How so?

The writer.

They've gone cheap.


They've slayed the golden goose and have not replaced it with the same money producing, customer attention readership magic that a communication-in-print-specialist like Bencivenga could create.

Instead, they've hired some 3rd or 4th rate communicator whose skill is in creating a 'so so' experience for the reader. 

What tells us the experience isn't a great one? 

A few examples; 

I'm not raving about it.

I'm not hailing the positives.

I'm not drooling over the screen, not googling the recipes, not hunting down the recommended suppliers, not becoming a member, not itching and eager to to wait for the free online newsletter publication version to drop into my inbox. 

And look, we all know good writing, incredible persuasive and compelling writing when we read it.

The difference in the quality of writing in this newsletter probably amounted to some really sizeable numbers.

The Rosengarten people didn't do much except hire mediocrity with a CAPITAL M.

What kind of written communicators have you engaged? 


www.RajaHireker.com 

TomTom Twittery & Tomfoolery

Seen or heard the incredibly dumb ads for TOMTOM's navigation systems?

There's around 30-45 seconds of stupid, soap opera type drama, which has NOTHING to do with the TOMTOM system. The call to action, the response mechanism for the listener to make the next move, is woefully inept, pathetic in fact.

Now let's watch the sequence at play here;

Company hires ad agency to create the ads and promotions.

Ad agency has their creative bods let loose on the deliverables.

The 'creative' gets done.

It has to get signed off.

And that's either the client has to agree everything or agency is given license and authority to create, deliver and SEND without any other conversation.

So, the ad piece, the script, the promo piece has had to have gone through the fingers and brains of a number of people BEFORE it gets the green light go-ahead and within earshot of the prospective customer.

Oh dear.

There doesn't seem to be any kind of standards being adhered to here, except BAD ones, by many in the people chain.

It's a mystery as to what kind of 'checklist' questions the ad agency creatives, go through.

Here are a few checklist questions to help those hapless souls; (and others who may be in that same situation)

BEFORE THE CREATIVE PIECE GETS CREATED 
1. What do we want this communication to do? (what is our most wanted response?)  

AFTER THE CREATIVE PIECE GETS CREATED
2. Does the communication piece do that? (Does it fall in line with the answer to question 1?)
3. What in the communication piece do we need to chop that doesn't match up to question 1?

Those 3 simple questions will help create much cash-flow and SAVE many a promotion from being an almighty, fatal flop. (Of course, this'll only be true for those with open ears and having the ability to adopt, adapt and apply what works)   
 
(It can also MAKE and SAVE, jobs!)

www.rajahireker.com/personal.pdf       

How to Fix Tesco's Royal Screw Up

If you know how to fix the problems in your OWN Biz, you'll carve out stealth like money solutions for Tesco, also.

 

Far fetched?

 

No, not really.

 

Because what is Tesco?

 

Nothing more than a provider of goods and services to people who buy them. Though, done on a grander scale than most businesses.

 

If you switched on your favourite media news source today - June 4th 2014 - you may have heard that Tesco has tossed away around 25 million in sales...EVERY WEEK... for the last quarter!

 

No eye adjustments needed.

 

There are 1 million LESS visits to Tesco a week than compared to last quarter.

 

They've got Aldi chomping up a section of the market.

 

So, what is Philip Clarke, Tesco MD, to do?

 

Well, first, he's got to do away with the numbskull' advisers' he depends on to fix the problems.

 

Because, what reportedly came out of Clarke's mouth today, couldn't have been of his own making. (Or could it!)

 

He says Tesco is going to increase the ante to promote and sell a whole lot of other items; insurance, banking, clothes, music, eyewear, techno gizmos - the whole shebang. 

He intends to... sell everything, to everyone.

 

Oh dear.

 

Marketing 101, out of the window.

 

If you try to be all things to everyone, you'll be seen as nothing to no-one.

 

And so it's proved.

 

Especially because, Tesco does not know WHO their customer is.

 

And, even if they THINK they know WHO their customer is, their LOYALTY card system isn't doing its job.

 

Because look, the proof is in the fact that there are 1 million LESS visits to Tesco stores a week.

 

That equates to £25 per customer that's danced out of the stores.

 

The problem with Tesco is they're trying to be an Amazon equivalent, though with no personality behind the whole experience.

 

Sure, we may not know Jeff Bozos personally, though we do have more of an affinity with Amazon than we

may with a Tesco.

 

The name of the game is making the experience a really good one for a customer.

 

>>> It's having the customer feel inside; I like this place and I'm committed to this being my local retail hangout.

 

>>> It's about having shop floor staff being unprecedentedly AMAZING in their commitment to help and serve the customer.

 

>>> It's about CREATING amazing offers that aren't necessarily based on 'lowest price in town' as is the case with Morrisson's and their promotions about being cheap cheap cheap... which in turn, brings on many other problems

 

>>> It's about listening to a customer and finding out what's having them NOT come into the stores.

 

>>> It's about creating a USP that distinctly differentiates Tesco from all other players in the same market space.

 

>>> It's about creating infectious, personality driven marketing, communications, adverts.

 

The above will help Tesco.

 

Maybe if this mail gets to the head honchos in Tesco HQ, they'll think about employing these strategies and 

will in turn, want to hire me to help them strategise and implement!

 

Importantly for YOU;

 

What can you take from here and employ into your business to fix what Tesco, hasn't yet?

 

www.RajaHireker.com/bleeding.pdf 

 

P.S Did you know that it's reported one of the biggest drops in revenue for a business is by staff, STEALING?  With Tesco, being the mammoth Goliath it is, it wouldn't surprise anyone if there's mucho currency being shoveled into the pocketsof Tesco employees by way of produce.