My side gig

For years I’ve felt like I should be doing more with my trumpet.

I love to play, and join local groups when I can. I teach lessons whenever a student shows interest. But I’m in a pretty isolated area and so if I want to grow my career (playing or teaching) I’ll have to do a lot more driving.

Meanwhile I’m constantly learning as much as I can about copywriting, email marketing, and info marketing. Is it possible to bring the two worlds together?

I had to try. Here is what I did.

Step 1. I created a bait piece.

When I made my bait piece I had to figure out what part of “Trumpet playing” that I am particularly good at and what part is especially troublesome to others.

How did I narrow it down? Here’s a quick story that explains it:

It was 1999 and I was auditioning to get accepted into the trumpet performance program at Lawrence University. I played the first movement of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat.

Even though I was completely focused on the task at hand, I could sense the professor leaning forward in his chair slightly when we got to a certain point in the music. I knew what he was thinking. Would she hit the high E-flat?

A lot of trumpet players will struggle to hit that note. They’ll frack it or chicken out and take it down an octave. His face broke out in a grin when I hit it with a clear and effortless sound. I knew at that moment that I made it in.

There are a lot of good trumpet players out there. But I know that one reason that I am successful (I got into college and raked in thousands of dollars in scholarships) is that I can play the high notes. And the reason that I can do that is that I have a secret routine.

I turned that routine into my bait piece. It offers a solution to a problem that trumpet players find very annoying and helps me put my best foot forward. I was able to put the whole routine on a one-page PDF.

Step 2: I created a landing page

My bait piece topic was so specific, so it made the landing page pretty easy to write. (See it here).

I just used a “Do you have this problem? Here’s the solution” style headline.

I put my landing page together using LeadPages. LeadPages made it easy to do because they have templates set up, you can upload your bait piece and they will automatically deliver it to people, and now they added a feature where you can sell products right from the lead page.

Click here to try Lead Pages.

Step 3: I emailed the people who signed up.

When people sign up, start emailing them with useful information and offers.

With my trumpet list, one of the first emails I wrote was a welcome email asking them what they are doing and what problems they were facing. One of my subscribers sent a long and detailed email about the challenges he is facing. That email (and any other piece of correspondence from people on the list) gives me ideas on what my subscribers want to read about.

So those are the three steps. Create a bait piece, put together a landing page, and email your list.

You can use those three steps to build a following for your own business. Call me if you need help with any of those steps.

Thanks in advance!
Mandy

P.S. If you have any kind of project, call me at 505-515-7001 or reply to this email to set things up.

This month, 10% of all of my project fees will go towards a scholarship fund for up and coming female direct response copywriters.

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