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My husband is going to hate this (and love it)

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I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it.

I have a rivalry with my husband over money. Even though he has always made more moolah than me, I still dream of raking in more than he does.

When I told him today that I was offering a package where my clients get daily emails for $1,500 a month he did some quick calculations and said, “Hey! That would mean that I have to go to work for eight hours every day… and yet you could make more than me by writing FOUR lousy EMAILS???”

Yes! I could! (Tee hee).

But listen. When it comes to emails, it doesn’t matter how much time I spend doing them. In fact, the time I put in is completely irrelevant.

Then only thing that matters is how much each email converts. If someone is making sales every day from their emails, this deal makes a lot of sense.

If you or anyone you know is looking for a daily email copywriter, call me.

(It will drive my husband nuts! But he’ll also be thrilled because we’ll be able to get a new mattress. And you’ll be thrilled because of all the sales you’ll be making.)


Talk to you soon!
Mandy
P.S. This week I am running a special on three case studies for only $395. To get this limited time deal, send an email with the subject line “Three case studies” to [email protected] before midnight on Friday, October 6th.  This offer is first come first served.

Have you seen my keys?

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Have you seen my keys?key with Lawrence University keychain

(Just kidding… but not really).

One of my special quirks is that whenever life gets stressful I lock my keys in my car.

The sad truth is that it even happens when that stress is positive. Like last week when I had an interview at a big, well funded and prestigious company. I was in a great mood afterwards, because they said they would start hiring me for writing projects. It was a great opportunity!
I bought a celebratory latte, and put it in the front seat console. While I was downtown, I figured I’d get one more errand done – I was going to scan a bunch of articles so I could put them on my website.
In the process of shuffling my articles, coffee, purse and portfolio I locked my keys in my car!
I called my friends and D&P lock. Ten minutes later they were jimmying the door open and getting my keys back. Then, get this. Less than two hours later I lost my keys again while picking up my kids from school.
I felt so bad about myself for losing my keys that the glow from the new opportunity was gone. All I had was the gloom of lost key induced low self esteem.
I’m telling you this because increasing your income can be stressful. Most people are equipped with all kinds of hang ups and self-limiting beliefs and when you start to make more money, your subconscious will find a way to self-sabotage.

It’s been something that I’ve been learning to deal with since I started my copywriting business. Because copywriting, at it’s core, is all about finding ways to make more money.

When you hire me, you better get an extra set of keys because I’ll be on a mission to increase your income as soon as possible.

Interested? Give me a call at 505-515-7001.

Talk to you soon!
Mandy
P.S. This week I’m getting ready to go to Florida and learn from the best in copywriting business, catch up with friends and colleagues and probably fill my calendar for the rest of the year. (I’ll keep a close watch on my keys, cell phone and wallet… because my income always goes up as a direct result of this conference.)
P.P.S. I found the keys the next day in my daughter’s backpack. I got three copies made. That should hold me for a while.

Here’s how my new client is making his decision

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Last week I was negotiating a contract with a new client.

man contemplating between two points on a mural labelled A and B
My client shared his decision-making thought process with me.

He knows what he wants to accomplish, how much work he thinks he needs, and I’m sure he has a good idea of how much money he can make from his marketing efforts. He knows what he’s doing.

When we were discussing my prices and offerings he rightly wanted to get as clear a picture as he could about how much I will get done if he decides to pay me.

He wants to know what kind of ROI he’ll be getting.

I considered what he needed and pointed him toward one of my packages and committed completing to a certain amount of work.

But he still hadn’t decided.

So I called him again to see what needed to happen before we could move forward.

He said that he wanted to spend a week or two doing some of the work himself just to get an idea of how long it would take him to get it done. He knows what his time is worth, and he knows what else he needs to accomplish.

After doing that he will know how much, and what exactly, he wants to outsource.

That sounded completely fair to me! And if you’re thinking about hiring me, or anyone else for that matter, it might be helpful to try thinking it through like my new client is doing.

Figure out what exactly you might outsource. Ask yourself if you can do it yourself, and find out how long it would take you to do it well.

How much would you pay yourself to do it?

If you can do it better and cheaper and faster on your own, then by all means, do it yourself. But if you realize that you will save time and money and get better results, you should outsource.


Talk to you soon!
Mandy
P.S. This week I am running a special on three case studies for only $395. To get this limited time deal, send an email with the subject line “Three case studies” to [email protected] before midnight on Friday, October 6th.  This offer is first come first served.

Mary Rose Maguire reveals her deepest secrets of market research

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Mary Rose Maguire (also known as “Wildfire Maguire”) is a copywriter who helps accountants gain an unfair advantage in their marketplace, build a successful business in less time, attract better clients and make more profit.

What’s her secret? Understanding your target market.

In this interview she reveals
  1. How to build a buyer persona
  2. Inexpensive ways to do market research
  3. 3 biggest mistakes most businesses make with their marketing

5 ways a business can get to know their target market

 

Listen Here:

Finally revealed-The secret desire of all “housewives”

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I was frantically cleaning my house for a dinner party last weekend when the doorbell rang.

 

A young girl holding a can of air freshener offered to let me spray the air freshener inside and asked if she could show me something and “ask my opinion.”

 

I wasn’t born yesterday. It was obvious that she was was trying to sell me something.

 

The reason I didn’t ask her to leave was I was curious.
I sprayed the apple cinnamon air freshener, and within seconds her partner hustled an enormous vacuum cleaner box down the stairs and into my living room. She swiftly assembled it pushed it across my floor, and after one pass showed me a circular filter covered in dirt from my carpet.
I just bought a vacuum cleaner, and vacuumed my floor ten minutes ago!…  I could tell she was trying to get the hook in… and I could sense that this was going to be an expensive vacuum cleaner… I would have told her to leave, but…
For years I’ve been attending AWAI’s annual Bootcamp, where listened to legendary copywriters like Bill Bonner, Drayton Bird and many others talk about copywriting. Year after year, the more experienced (mostly male) copywriters would come back to how they used to rack their brains trying to figure out what “housewives” really wanted.

 

Because companies were constantly trying to sell things door-to-door to housewives (These days no woman ever calls herself a housewife… but women still buy things from door-to-door salespeople).

 

Things like cookware, detergent that will get the ring around the collar out, and vacuum cleaners. It is the copywriter’s job to figure out what to say, what emotional buttons to push, to close the sale.

Which brings me to a mind-blowing lesson that I learned from Bill Bonner: Housewives were never interested in products. What they truly want is to be admired for having a beautiful home, envied for having their lives in order, and thought of as someone who is doing things the right way.

I know a lot of people who fit that description, even today.

People don’t want to hear about your products. People are trying to accomplish things in life. If a product will help them accomplish their goals, they will get it.
Which brings me back to the $2,500 vacuum cleaner that I didn’t want.
I didn’t want to buy a vacuum cleaner, but I wanted to admired for my clean and plush carpet. I do not want to be the loser who can’t get the chocolate milk stains out of the living room carpet when guests are on the way. I want to be the perfect hostess, and not a frazzled slob, for a change.
Which brings me to the secret and universal desire of every housewife on the planet. (Honestly, I’m surprised that Bill Bonner didn’t mention this secret desire in his speech. My only explanation for his omission is that he’s obviously not in charge of vacuuming his own house.)

 

What is the secret desire? Women all want someone else to vacuum living room floor for a change.

 

Needless to say, I said, “I would love a demonstration!” and pointed my guests to the embarrassing stains.

Sometimes it takes a long time to make a sale ….

Business owners have often told me that they don’t think anyone will read an ad if it’s long. I would argue that if someone is interested in your product or service, they will read as much as they need to before they make a decision.

 

If you’ve ever wondered why some ads and sales letters are so long, it’s because the writer needs to tell you about every feature and every benefit of the product before trying to ask for the sale.

 

The saleslady was determined to show us everything that the vacuum cleaner could do, and insisted o shampooing the entire living room floor before she told us the price. She cleaned my ceiling grates and my piano keys. We could tell that this demonstration was going to take awhile.

 

It took over an hour!

 

There is a very important reason that I allowed this to go on for as long as I did. I was bribed! The promise of having my carpet cleaned FOR FREE was an enticing bribe for me. It was enough of a bribe that I was willing to put up with an hour-long sales pitch.

 

Many sales letters can take a long time to read. Video sales letters have a way of sucking you in for a long time too. So why do people read those letters, and sit through those long videos, when they know they are just going to be sold something?

 

If you are trying to sell one of your products, and you know the sales pitch going to take a long time, find a way to include a bribe.

There are several legal ways you can bribe customers to read on. Here are three ideas.

 
1. Satisfy their curiosity. Use a headline that piques the reader’s curiosity, but doesn’t give all the information. For most people, it is slightly painful to be faced with an unanswered riddle, and they will read a long letter just to get the answer. An example is the headline, “What never to eat on an airplane.”

 

2. Offer a premium. In this case, I got a free carpet cleaning. I’ve sat through cookware demonstrations where I was offered a vacation package, have signed up for checking accounts so that I could get a free teddy bear, opened credit cards in order to score a planket (a pillow that turns into a blanket) at the airport, and bought perfume to get the free lipstick. If you haven’t tried using a premium or a giveaway, experiment with it next time you run an ad campaign.

3. Invite them into your inner circle. People love to belong to exclusive groups that allow them to have privileges that other people cannot have. Is there any way that your business can create an special club? For example, if you own a spa, can you create a monthly pampering package where members get a massage and manicure for a fee? I’ve been reading about creating memberships, and increasing profits by coming up with higher priced premium offers (rather than discounts) in Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent. According to Kennedy, your ability to raise your prices is a matter of the language that you use. He said, “When I began simply calling a subscription to my original marketing newsletter a membership in my inner circle, we saw an increase in response to solicitations and were able to inch up the price.” This concept can be applied to any business.

 

Get a Grip! … and get some REAL self-esteem!

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A few days ago I sent out an email with the subject line “Do I need Botox?”

One of my readers was not impressed.

You see, a little earlier one of my kids pointed out the eleven that appears on my forehead when I forget my sunglasses before a drive down to Albuquerque. He said it makes me look “mad”.

I have to say, it made me feel a little nuts… And made me wonder whether Botox would be in order.

Because I’m not worried about looking old. I’m a late bloomer and people usually guess that I’m younger than I am. But I don’t want to be one of those people with R.B.F. (resting bitch face).

As a copywriter, I’m always interested in what motivates people to buy different things. This was the first time I was even remotely interested in Botox, so I concluded that the fear of looking mad all the time was a bigger push than the fear of looking older. At least where Botox is concerned.

That’s when my reader sent me an email that ended with, “Get a grip. The aging process is not for sissies. It’s never too early to establish REAL self esteem.”

Have you ever noticed that it’s really hard to come up with a snappy comeback when someone accuses you of having low self esteem? I may have retorted, “Well, you know I was just kidding.”

But I wasn’t.

I, like millions of other women, have been obsessing over my wrinkles. We obsess, then buy something, obsess some more, and buy some more. Wanting to look young for as long as possible may very well be a sign of low self esteem. But it’s also a form of self-care.

I know, I really should get a grip. But I won’t. I’m a hot mess of insecurities, irrational phobias, obsessions, grudges and aching desires. And I’m the kind of person who will want to examine and discuss each passing feeling with excruciating detail.

If you don’t like it, don’t sit next to me on the bus.

“Getting a grip” – to me – means not talking about my feelings. If I’m laughing and emailing everyone about my problem areas, things are normal. If I can’t talk or write about my feelings (however irrational or misguided they may seem to others) then I’m really in trouble.