The love couch

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I don’t want to brag, but the minute I got home from Bootcamp everyone wanted to cuddle with me.

My dog was first in line, because he was the first to come thundering down the stairs at three in the morning ready to greet me with licks and affectionate doggy lean-ins.

Then came Quinn, ready to cuddle.

When Ella woke up she climbed into my bed and curled up next to me like a baby monkey. Gloria was there in the morning, ready for hugs.

Once we went downstairs Ella insisted that we go straight to the love couch (really our love seat). She considers the love couch a place where we hug and kiss each other.

The whole love-fest reminded me of a point that Perry Belcher

made in his presentation, “How to Put Yourself in the Shoes of Your Avatar, Write Copy That Speaks to them and Generates Sales.”

Now, before I tell you what he said, I will emphasize that Belcher knows exactly how to generates sales – He’s used this method to generate over $200 million in sales of goods and services.

The most important point is that you can sell more by understanding the psyche of buyers.

He pointed out that human beings actually have three brains in one. There’s the “human” brain, full of logic, facts, ideas, and concepts. Then there is the “mammalian” brain, full of feelings and emotions. Then there is the “reptilian” brain, which is all about eating and reproducing.

It’s very difficult to sell to someone up in their “human” brain… because people don’t buy based on logic. People want things that make them feel good on an emotional level. People buy things to get sex.

Part of writing good copy is to get past or around the logical part of the person’s mind and get to those other levels.

He made me laugh when he said, “Unfortunately, we can’t send people a bottle of booze to drink before they read our copy.”

No. Obviously, we can’t. (Can you imagine the shipping costs?)

But we can use our words to put people in a certain mood or state of mind. People react to emotion, nostalgia, and storytelling.

Which is what I do for people.

If your ad copy is only producing a sad trickle of sales, chances are you aren’t tapping into the customer’s emotions and buying triggers.

I can help. I will critique one piece of copy for three people for FREE. (Mostly to celebrate all the amazing advice and wisdom that was poured out on me this last week.)

To take advantage, reply to this email. I’ll give a free critique to the first three people who respond.


Talk to you soon!
Mandy

P.S. I’m settling in after a crazy exciting week, catching up with my regular clients, finishing up projects and following up with new clients.

If you need anything from me, it’s up to you to make an appointment. Send me an email with the subject line “appointment” to [email protected].

It was such a pleasure to meet Cheryl!

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Last week I got an unexpected voicemail from one of my subscribers, Cheryl Riveness. 
Cheryl is a copywriter and a fellow member of the Circle of Success. This was her first time coming out to Bootcamp and she wanted to get together for coffee and say hi.

What she said in her voicemail just blew me away: “I’d love to tell you how much I appreciate your newsletters. I’ve learned so much from you and I feel like because of you I have found my authentic voice.”

I couldn’t have been more pleased to hear that.

When I first got started there were always copywriters that were a couple steps ahead of me, like Monica Day, Marcella Allison and Mindy McHorse. They all published stories, articles, and emails that I read on a daily basis and reading their letters and stories encouraged me so much in the beginning.
It was amazing to hear that my stories made another writer feel encouraged along the way.
Thank you, Cheryl, for reaching out to me. Best of luck here at Bootcamp. I can tell that you will be an outstanding copywriter.

Talk to you soon!
Mandy
P.S. I have a busy few days ahead of me. If you need me to write some copy, the best way to reach me is to send an email at [email protected].

I’m really really excited about this!

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I’ve already told you about five hundred times that I’m going to AWAI’s 2017 FastTrack to Copywriting Success Bootcamp and Job Fair.
 
My plane takes off tomorrow. 🙂  
 
But there is something else that will take off tomorrow. My newest clients, Chris and John Yax (owners of Hot House Yoga) will be sending their first daily email tomorrow.
 
They’ll be using those emails to bring people to their “I Love Yoga” Facebook Page and sell things like yoga retreats, video courses, and training for yoga teachers.
 
I’m just beside myself with excitement. I can’t wait to see the results that they get over the next few months.
 
I have two more spaces in my schedule for daily emails.
Interested? Give me a call at 505-515-7001.

Talk to you soon!
Mandy

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.

Eek! It’s a black widow. Kill it!!!!

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I saw a black widow on the way to my car at the airport on Saturday night.

She walked across a parking space, under a black corvette, across the street to a messy web where she snacked on yesterday’s butterfly.

Ever since I moved to New Mexico I have been terrified of black widows.

One of my husband’s friend’s kids got bit by one in his sleep and ever since I heard that story I’ve been expecting a black widow to jump out of the closet, bite my face and lay eggs in my corpse as it cools on the hallway floor.

So my whole being is screaming “Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!!!!!”

And yet, another part of me is going, “Wait. I can’t. I’ve never seen a spider walk across a parking space before. Where is she going? What’s going to happen next? Is she going to hunt? I want to see THAT and take more pictures.”

(Also, I had new boots and I didn’t want to get black widow guts all over the sole… so for a while I thought about running it over with a Smart Cart that someone had left out)

It reminded me of how you and I approach emails in our inbox. We see an email and think “Delete it! Delete it!” and we want to squash that message until it’s good and dead.

The reason I didn’t kill the spider, and the reason that I don’t delete emails that I wind up reading, is that I was curious. This spider doing something unexpected and I was too curious to kill it. I wanted to keep watching because I was being entertained.

Another reason that I didn’t kill the spider was that she was giving me something valuable… she was giving me something to post on my own timeline.

I was posting pictures of her on my Facebook page and people were commenting on it. Killing her after that seemed a little ungrateful.

Plus, she was just being her bad-ass self.

So listen. A lot of people will tell you to send emails less often, because they won’t get read or they might get deleted or your readers will get made because they’ll think you’re sending too often. Don’t listen to those people! They’re wrong and they’re giving you terrible advice.

Like the black widow, you have butterflies to catch and people to eat. You’re going to have to set the trap and weave a little more of your web every day or you will starve.

Let me know if you need help with your emails. I have an open slot for daily emails. When you do it every day you get the best value.

If your business can benefit from daily emails, call me at 505-515-7001 or send me a message at [email protected].

Talk to you soon!
Mandy
P.S. Daily emails are incredibly valuable. But you have to do it right. You have to pique curiosity, surprises your reader and makes them want to share it with others.

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.

Stuffed mushrooms over the campfire

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Over the weekend my husband and son went camping with the Boy Scouts.

fruit and cheese spread with wine next to a campfire
The scouts were eating gourmet campfire food!

While the boys were out doing god-knows-what in the woods, the parents were pitted against each other in a cooking contest.

The leaders bought an assortment of ingredients. The parents were split into two groups, each team got to take turns choosing ingredients. Then they had one hour to turn those ingredients into a culinary masterpiece.

Several “secret judges” would try the dishes and decide which team made the best meal.

We live in a pretty cosmopolitan community, which means that a lot of the parents hailed from different countries, which means there were some strong opinions about how to slice the onions.

Quinn was on a team with an Italian mom serving as the brains behind the operation. There was also a mom from a country in South America (sorry, I’m not trying to be vague… he couldn’t remember where she was from) offering lots of ideas.

Quinn’s team ended up with roasted vegetables, pasta with a creamy cheese sauce and chicken. Very tasty. The other team busted out with stuffed mushrooms, and a few other impossibly hoi polloi things.

Quinn’s team was getting nervous. How do you compete with stuffed mushrooms?? But there was one small detail that tipped the contest in their favor.

The “secret judges” turned out to be the scouts. (They were so busy with the cooking competition that they forgot all about their picky, carb-guzzling sons). The contest was being judged by eight 12-year-old boys.

And they were like “Stuffed mushrooms, YUCK!”

LOL.

It always helps to know who your audience is before you get to work.

It’s true when you’re cooking a simple meal, and it’s true when you’re putting out marketing materials about your business.

I want to help you get to know your current customers so that you can do a better job reaching out to new customers.

I will interview three of your best customers, and write a case study that you can use on your website, in your emails, and in your sales letters.

I’ll also give you some suggestions on how to leverage these case studies and get the most mileage from them.

The cost of the three case studies is $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.

Talk to you soon!
Mandy

P.S. Why do case studies work so well? … It’s just human nature.

You may have excellent and persuasive sales copy. But when someone is considering buying something, they want to know how much other people liked it.

 

 

Let me take your sales letter with me to Bootcamp

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If you need a sales letter, now is the best time to have me write it.

Next week I’m going to AWAI’s Fast Track to Copywriting Success Bootcamp. I have been going almost every year since 2010 when I joined the Circle of Success. I’ll also be going to the Titanides Live event.

And that is why you should contact me know about your sales copy. I will be spending the week immersed in copywriting, finding out the biggest trends and learning secrets from the best copywriters on the planet, like Clayton Makepeace, Carline Anglade-Cole, Nick Usborne, John Forde, Steve Slaunwhite, and Richard Armstrong to name a few.

I’m totally excited and ready to learn. But more important, I’m ready to use all this information and write some highly effective sales copy.

If you need something now, call me at 505-515-7001.

Talk to you soon!
Mandy
P.S. Every year my writing improves by leaps and bounds when I go to Bootcamp. I want your project to be on my desk when it happens.

I can drink to that!

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Last night I attended a wine dinner at the Pig + Fig Café, featuring the sublime wines from Hourglass.

The wine and the food went so well together. Perfect pairings!

And while I was there I noticed something that The Pig + Fig and Hourglass have in common. They have all the business they need because they have great mailing lists.

Michael Cooperman told the story about how Hourglass got their start.

They were about to release the Cabernet for the first time, the sommelier from Tra Vigne, David Stevens, asked Smith for a taste. He was completely floored by the quality and asked them to join a tasting with famous wines like Screaming Eagle, Bryant Family Wines, and Harlan Estate Wines.

At the tasting, Stevens told the judges that they added a wine from a little upstart winery called Hourglass. He asked that they just give the wines a ranking in order of preference. In a situation where they were competing against the best of the best, the wine that nobody had ever heard of was able to hold it’s own.

The next day their mailing list was filled with names, and they have been able to quickly sell their wines to their subscribers ever since. The people on the list want to buy those wines.

And as many of you know, the Pig + Fig Café also has a great mailing list. Whenever they have a wine dinner or special event, they easily fill the seats because the people on the list want to get reservations for the special events.

That is why I love email marketing so much. It makes it possible for businesses to stay in touch with people who are interested in a cost-effective manner so you don’t have to struggle to make sales.

If you need help writing emails that sell, give me a call at 505-515-7001. Or contact me at [email protected].

Take care!

Mandy