THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO MARKETING WITH TOLL-FREE NUMBERS
Want to Locate Prospects and Close Sales Without Spending Thousands of Dollars? Now You Can Learn From Some Common Mistakes.
By Dean Garrison
Sometimes the most important thing that you can teach people is "what not to do." The following is a true experience and I hate to admit that I'm the person who inspired the "Idiot" methods in question. Live and learn, right, folks?
I want you to read over this article thoroughly and maybe twice. Why? Well, let's just say that I recently ran more than $5,000 worth of advertising with an 800 number voice-mail line. We received 2,000 leads and closed a total of 20 (a whopping one percent close ratio). When you count the cost of the voice mail, follow-up packages and everything else, it was more than a bitter disappointment. It cost us thousands.
With good follow up, we will recoup some of that money over time, but I want to use this as a learning tool for all of us. So please, read this to avoid making the same mistakes I did.
MISTAKE #1--I Failed to Qualify My Prospects
I am my own worst enemy sometimes. My problem is that sometimes I write really good ads and really good headlines. So why is that a problem? The problem is that the ads are to "gimmicky" or vague. The problem is that I can write an ad that will pull a huge response but that doesn't mean a thing when it comes to the number of people that actually purchase.
I took some bad advice from a friend who told me to "get as many leads as you possibly can and then worry about sorting them on the back end." I don't blame my friend for this but let me tell you what I learned.
Sorting through leads costs money!!!
My ad was set up to build my network marketing business. However, my ad just offered a FREE REPORT. It didn't say anything about MLM or the $75 personal monthly requirement or even the products. What did it say?
Basically, the ad just said, "Hey, you, I'm going to show you how to make the big bucks in my free report." That's not exactly what it said but I can't quote any of the real ad because I don't own the copyright. The company that helped me design the ad owns that copyright. Anyway, that's a whole other issue.
So my vague ad basically offered people some FREE INSIDE SECRETS if they called a FREE PHONE NUMBER and requested a FREE REPORT. Geez Louise, that proved a heck of a lot, didn't it?
The ad generated 1,500 tire kickers and about 500 real prospects in my estimation. To date we have closed about four percent of the real prospects and we're working on closing more.
Just know this--If I would have added a few qualifiers like the commitment level, the fact that it was MLM and the fact that it was nutritional products, I WOULD HAVE RECEIVED ONLY A FEW HUNDRED RESPONSES TO THE AD.
But that's not bad. Because in my mind, we still would have closed 20 or more people and--WE WOULD HAVE SAVED OURSELVES ABOUT $7,500 THAT WE SPENT ON MAILING PACKAGES TO "TIRE KICKERS." So doesn't it make more sense to qualify your prospects?
It's hard to see that when you are struggling to get any leads at all, but when you get 2,000, it's a lesson you'll learn quickly. But that wasn't the only thing I learned from this experience.
MISTAKE #2--A Bad Mailing List Can, in Some Cases, Give You More Responses than a Good List.
You might think I've flipped my lid and I can't blame you. But please just hear me out. I have learned some things about mailing lists and I want to share one of those things with you.
The list that my ad was mailed to was a list of people who responded to an 800 number. And what I'm about to tell you will prevent this article from getting printed in certain publications, but I'm going to try anyway. Here goes:
LISTS THAT ARE GENERATED BY USING 800 NUMBERS CAN BE SOME OF THE MOST WORTHLESS LISTS AROUND.
Why? Because there's a very large percentage of the population that does nothing but call 800 numbers and request all the free stuff they can get. Period. How in the world has this person even qualified themselves to be on a mailing list? They have called a FREE NUMBER in response to a FREE OFFER in hope of getting more and more FREEBIES.
Did they request a free magazine about networking? Or a free report? Or a free sample of a certain something? The key word is FREE. For we all know these people may not even have a phone, let alone any spendable cash. I mean, they could be calling from a pay phone, right?
Let me stop right here and tell you that there is definitely a place for 800 numbers in your marketing efforts. Just try not to be as naive about it as I was because it can cost you lots of money. But, even if you mess up like I did, there is always a positive. We learn and grow stronger. For what it's worth, if I had to write that ad again, it might read something like:
"Tight Wad Sponsor, who refuses to give you an 800# to call, wants you to join his team. You must care about your health enough to take our products. You must care about your finances enough to go out and retail products and recruit people. You won't get any spillover. You will have to meet minimum requirements of $75 personal volume each month and...It will take another $200 a month to build your business. The good news is that it will only take a year before your expenses are less than your monthly check. Call me at 417-xxx-xxxx."
Maybe I've gone from one extreme to the other. I probably wouldn't get many takers on this deal. But if I did, they would probably be either a big time leader or a psychopath. Either way, it has to be more interesting than the previous 2000. One last thing. The next time you lose $50-$100 on a bad recruiting strategy, remember me. Trial and error hurts sometimes, but winners never, ever quit!
Dean Garrison is a network marketer/publisher. Readers can take advantage of a FREE three-month subscription to REVOLUTION, Dean's training newsletter, by writing to:
FREEREV P.O. Box 347 Monett, MO 65708
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