#94 Secret of Successful Email Marketing

ISSUE #94 — Tuesday, May 19, 2020

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/05/94-secret-of-successful-email-marketing.html

Posted by Denny Hatch

The Secret of Successful Email
Marketing: Think Lede-gen.

Note: The word “lead” is also pronounced led—as in the toy soldiers of my childhood. As of 1950s the new spelling of “lead” relating to texts—as in lead paragraph—is “lede.” It’s a homophone. No question about how it is pronounced. I like it. —DH

About Today’s Blog Post

Last Monday a.m. I went into my Yahoo in-box. I clicked on a Washington Post newsletter I subscribe to and started scanning the contents. In the middle of the copy I  saw an intriguing little ad—maybe 2"x3". I clicked on it.

Immediately my iMac screen was completely dominated by the image above.

https://pro.rickardsreports.com/p/AWN_GreatDepression_0420/PAWNW406/?&s1=Dianomi&s2=w8chnsiui5k6msvuhj555msk&h=true

Whereupon I started watching Jim Rickards deliver a 45-minute jaw-dropping, fact-filled lecture on the Coronavirus catastrophe and the coming consequences:

"Look, I’m about to show you undeniable proof this current economic shutdown could trigger another Great Depression… Something 10 times worse than what happened in 2008. And that’s why I'm writing to you today… To show you the five steps you need to take to protect your family and your wealth from this looming unprecedented catastrophe. These are the same steps I’m taking to protect my loved ones."

Rickards’ Unfortunate Delivery

Rickards speaks in a flat monotone with no energy, no emphasis, no warmth, no anger, no excitement. He drones on and on and on, punctuating his delivery with photos, newspaper headlines and poignant quotes. Through much of his pitch I wanted to slash my wrists.

The only fun, diverting element is the occasional appearances of a grey cat in the background doing cute cattish things.

At first I had no idea what the hell Rickards was selling. But, boy he’d done a ton of research and was convincing.

In that first 35 minutes I began fret that this guy might be a high-powered consultant who was looking for an investment from me of several hundred dollars or more. Being a pensioner, I was not about to spend this kind of money.

I was about to jump off the train when he began revealing some specifics of his philosophy and products—books, special reports, and actions to take. Among them:

• Make sure you have enough water, basic food, and toiletries to last at least 3 months.

• Buy gold—what Goldman Sachs calls it the “currency of last resort.”

• Invest in a boutique silver mine whose shares are going for just $3. (“It just needs to go up another $3 for you to double your money.”)

• The best way to hedge against potential market losses is to buy crash contracts.

• Beware the Ticking Time Bombs in your portfolio.

Okay. I recognized Jim Rickards for what he is. He’s one of those fear-mongering survivalist gold bug types that showed up once a year in the ‘80s and ‘90s at Howard Penn Hudson's annual Newsletter Association conferences in Washington, D.C.’s Mayflower Hotel. Hardly an original thinker. But—given his personality limitations—a pretty good salesman.

After roughly a rough 45 minutes of his mesmerizing tedium, Rickards finally made me an offer:

“You can take a look at my research and receive everything I’ve mentioned so far, at no risk to yourself. Simply take a risk-free trial subscription to Strategic Intelligence, and aside from your 12 monthly issues, I will immediately send you…”

"So today you can take a risk-free trial for half of the normal rate. In other words, take this $261 value for only $49 for the entire year."

Takeaways to Consider 

• Think of email marketing as lede generation marketing. 

• Lede-gen marketing was a mail order technique for selling really expensive products or services where you didn’t want mention price at the outset. For example: homesites on a Jack Nicklaus golf course in Georgia or executive jets.

• "If you spend too much on step one—the initial contact—you'll lose money. Guaranteed." 
—Bob Hacker, Seattle Marketing guru
 
 • In pre-Internet days you sent a cheap-o lede generation postcard or simple mailing with a powerful irresistible message to a list of relevant prospects. Or you ran ads in relevant publications. You didn’t talk price. You spewed benefits, benefits, benefits and promised no risk. Your response mechanism was a simple, “Yes, I’m interested!”

• You followed up with a series of steps via mail or phone. The point of each step was to get the person to say yes to the next step. It was essential never to say anything that would give a reason to say "no" anywhere in the sequence.

• In this digital age you send an email that costs virtually nothing or buy a small ad like the one I saw in my Washington Post e-newsletter.

• Instead of “Yes, I’m interested” the response is an instantaneous click on the face of the l'il ad.

• Unlike old-fashioned lede-gen marketing, where the sales cycle can go on for weeks or months, Rickards had this fish in his net a nanosecond later. He fed my desire for instant gratification with his fascinating, tortuous follow-up. He compressed possible weeks of a sales cycle into a 45-minute orgy of information.

• Whether a product or service, consumer or business, it is essential to have a powerful sales presentation that hypes the 7 key copy drivers—the emotional hot buttons that make people act:

Fear - Greed - Guilt - Anger - Exclusivity - Salvation - Flattery

• "If your copy isn't positively dripping with one or more of these, tear it up and start over." —Bob Hacker

• Rickards uses all of these.

• The online infomercial follow-up to the lede can use expensive razzle-dazzle film wizardry or engaging, believable salespersons giving an intimate and captivating tour of the features and benefits.

• I would use a warm, enthusiastic Ron Popeil or Billy Mays rather than the lugubrious Jim Rickards.

• At one point Rickards referred to himself as a "trusted economist." I suddenly remembered the definition of "economist"— a guy who'd marry Linda Lovelace for her money.

• How long should it be? As long as it takes to tell the story and get a positive response.

• Remember, length is not an issue. With e-marketing you are not spending big dollars on advertising space in publications or buying airtime on TV. You own this presentation and you are bringing prospects and customers into your world to view it in the privacy of their home or office on a desktop computer, iPad or smartphone.

• For example, a 30-second commercial on the 2020 Super Bowl required a huge production budget plus $5.2 million for each 30 seconds of airtime. Meanwhile—in that 30 seconds—millions of prospects were in the loo or deep in discussions of the action they just witnessed on TV.

• Email marketing gives you privacy and the viewer’s undivided attention.

• Send brief, powerhouse emails—or take small ads in relevant e-publications—with a Click Here response mechanism. 

• Do multiple split tests on your lede-gen emails and mini-ads. Constantly try to beat your control. 

• For example, here are three Jim Rickards mini-ads running in Washington Post and The New York Times online. I clicked on the ad at right. The ads have been running daily, so the promotion is obviously profitable. 

• Which was the winner? Only Rickards knows.

• Once prospects click through, they are in your world. You own them.

• Two interesting elements:

1)    There was no way I could speed up Rickards’ interminable pitch. I had to sit through the entire thing. I was getting bored and damn near bailed out early.

2)    However, if I clicked to stop the show, I was immediately given the opportunity to either continue watching or click to see the 8,415-word transcript—a veritable tome.

• All the old proven direct mail order form elements are in play:
   —Make it easy to order.
   —A bunch of free premiums.
   —Massively-discounted price.
   —If dissatisfied for any reason, call to cancel.
   —Full refund if you cancel.

   —And keep everything you received as a subscriber.

• THE ARITHMETIC:  Jim Rickards is a member of Bill Bonner’s sprawling Agora worldwide financial services conglomerate with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.  Bonner presides over 120+ newsletters and nearly 300 books that serve 1 million readers that reportedly generate revenues of roughly $500 million a year. According to the Washington Post’s rep Jacquelyn Cameron, the small lede-gen ads appear in the Post’s Daily 202 digital newsletters with a circulation of roughly 500,000. The cost of the ads is $65,000 for a one week “exclusive” sponsorship.

• I believe the Rickards/Agora digital marketing technique—mini-lede-gen ad placements (or short simple emails) with click-thru to a smashing landing page and elaborate sales pitch—can work for any product or service, business or consumer, for-profit, nonprofit or fundraising.

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