Changing the Channel E-Book

Michael Masterson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2008

Beschreibung

An all-encompassing guide to making the most from multi-channel marketing

Written in a straightforward and accessible style, Changing the Channel offers you a detailed look at twelve of today's most important marketing channels-explaining how each one works individually as well as in conjunction with each other, leveraging the power of your message for explosive profits.

Page by page, you'll become familiar with a variety of approaches, including direct online marketing, social media, public relations, radio and television advertising, direct space ads, event marketing, telesales, telemarketing, joint ventures, affiliate marketing, and direct mail.

• Discusses how to create successful marketing campaigns by using a mix of different marketing channels
• Offers some smart ways to track customer buying habits with a database that covers all marketing channels
• Helps you learn how to develop profitable relationships with your customers through frequent contact and by providing free quality content-not just sales pitches

With this book as your guide, you'll quickly discover how marketing across multiple channels can help develop quality customer relationships and improve the bottom line of your business.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Praise

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

THE NEXT GENERATION BUYS A HOME

THE MULTI-CHANNEL APPROACH

CHAPTER ONE - MARKETING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

THE WAY THE WORLD OF MARKETING LOOKS TODAY

WELCOME TO ADVERTISING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: THE AGE OF MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETING

LEARNING WHAT MAKES INTERNET CUSTOMERS “DIFFERENT”

EXPANDING FROM ONE MARKETING CHANNEL TO TWO ... THREE ... AND A DOZEN

THERE’S NO TURNING BACK

CHAPTER TWO - “DRM” AND “MCM”

WHAT, EXACTLY, IS DIRECT-RESPONSE MARKETING (DRM)?

WHAT ARE CHANNELS?

WHAT IS MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETING (MCM)?

WHAT IS LIFETIME VALUE (LTV)?

CHAPTER THREE - DIRECT-RESPONSE ONLINE MARKETING

THE INTERNET MYTH

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN DIRECT E-MAIL AND DIRECT-MAIL ADVERTISING

PRINCIPLES OF DIRECT E-MAIL ADVERTISING

NOT ALL LISTS ARE CREATED EQUAL

ANATOMY OF AN ENDORSED AD

CHAPTER FOUR - SOCIAL MEDIA

THE PERFECT MARKETING CHANNEL FOR ENTREPRENEURS WHO HAVE MORE TIME THAN MONEY

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS MANY DIMENSIONS

THE BARE MINIMUM

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

ANATOMY OF A SUCCESSFUL BLOG PROMOTION

SOCIAL NETWORKS, SOCIAL BOOKMARKS, AND SOCIAL NEWS WEB SITES

GENERAL ADVERTISING AND DIRECT MARKETING IN SOCIAL MEDIA

CHAPTER FIVE - SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

THE WEB SITE THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU

GETTING STARTED WITH SEM

GETTING YOUR SITE SEEN

CHAPTER SIX - TELECONFERENCES

TELECONFERENCING AS A MARKETING TOOL

PRODUCING A MONEY-MAKING TELECONFERENCE

LEVERAGE IS LIKE GETTING PAID OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN

CHAPTER SEVEN - DIRECT MAIL

DIRECT MAIL CAN BE USED FOR ALMOST ANY PRODUCT

DIRECT MAIL STEP-BY-STEP

WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED IN DIRECT MAIL

PRINCIPLES OF DIRECT-MAIL MARKETING

SELECTING A LIST FOR YOUR PRODUCT

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

THE OFFER: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

THE OFFER MUST BE STRONG

LONG LIVE THE KING

HOW THE COPY PROCESS WORKS

CHAPTER EIGHT - DIRECT PRINT

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

SUCCESS IN DIRECT-PRINT ADVERTISING

BUYING PRINT

LEFTOVERS ARE GOOD!

NEWSPAPERS: DAILY OR WEEKLY

START WITH YOUR ABCS

AND LET’S NOT FORGET ADVERTISING RATES!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER

DIRECT IS DIRECT IS DIRECT!

WHEN TO BEGIN YOUR DIRECT-SPACE CAMPAIGN

CHAPTER NINE - DIRECT-RESPONSE TELEVISION

THE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL THAT BROKE THE MOLD

WHAT CAN BE DONE

ADVERTISING TO YOUR TARGET MARKET

UNDERSTANDING TV ADVERTISING

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE TELEVISION ADVERTISING

MAKING A GREAT COMMERCIAL

DIRECT TV AND YOU

CHAPTER TEN - DIRECT-RESPONSE RADIO

RADIO ADVERTISING EXPLODES

A CASE STUDY IN RADIO INFOMERCIALS

DON’T GET CAUGHT UP IN THE UNKNOWN

RADIO CHANGED THE WORLD

CHAPTER ELEVEN - TELEMARKETING

HOW WE’VE USED TELEMARKETING

TELEMARKETING FOR BACK-END SALES

ONE OF THE SIMPLEST FORMS OF MARKETING

INBOUND, OUTBOUND, AND MONEY-BOUND

FIRST CONTACT WITH TELEMARKETING SERVICE PROVIDERS

AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT WHAT THEY CAN DO . . . AND HOW MUCH IT WILL COST

IS TELEMARKETING RIGHT FOR YOU?

CHAPTER TWELVE - JOINT VENTURES

PERFECT FOR START-UPS AND SMALL BUSINESSES

HOW TO WORK JOINT VENTURES WITH GURUS AND CELEBRITIES

THE PRINCIPLES BEHIND JOINT-VENTURE MARKETING

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL JOINT VENTURES

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH AND OFFER TO TEACH

BEING AN AFFILIATE IS BEING A BUSINESS

JOINT VENTURES AND AFFILIATE MARKETING—MORE SIMILAR THAN DIFFERENT

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - EVENT MARKETING

MAKE IT FUN . . . LOTS OF FUN!

PLAN CAREFULLY TO AVOID UNEXPECTED PROBLEMS

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EVERY MARKETING ACTIVITY

INFORMATION CONFERENCES VERSUS SPONSORED SALES PRESENTATIONS

CONFERENCE FEES: YES? NO? HOW MUCH?

OTHER TYPES OF MARKETING EVENTS

ONE OR ONE MILLION, THE STEPS MUST BE TAKEN

OUR EVENTS ARE BACKED UP BY THE PROMISES WE KEEP

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - PUBLIC RELATIONS

PUBLIC RELATIONS IN ACTION

UNDERSTAND WHAT THE MEDIA IS LOOKING FOR

WHICH NEWS MEDIA DO YOU WANT TO BE IN?

FIGURE OUT HOW YOUR COMPANY OR PRODUCT CAN MEET THAT DEMAND

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE INTERNET

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE INCREDIBLE POWER OF A MULTI-CHANNEL CAMPAIGN

COUNT TO 10 AND GO!

SHOW ME THE MONEY

GET STARTED—NOW

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX - EXAMPLES OF ADS

NOTES

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

INDEX

SPECIAL Free Bonus for Readers of Changing the Channel

Copyright © 2009 by Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Masterson, Michel.

Changing the channel: 12 easy ways to make millions for your business / Michael Masterson, Mary Ellen Tribby.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-45689-7

1. Marketing-Management. 2. Marketing channels.

I. Tribby, Mary Ellen. II. Title. HF5415.13.M3657 2009 658.8-dc22 2008032171

.

To all my partners, protégés, and mentors who have made my career possible. And to my family and friends, who have made my career worth having.

—Michael Masterson

To my wonderful husband Patrick, whose everlasting love and commitment allows me to continually learn, teach, and enjoy life; and to our three miracles: Mikaela, Connor, and Delanie, who make every day a spectacular day.

—MaryEllen Tribby

FOREWORD

In the “good old days,” a lot of lip service was given to the idea that you could make more money in business by being a “multi-channel merchant”—meaning that you sold your product through multiple channels of distribution and promotion instead of only one.

It sounded good in theory. But at that time, in practice, the options for multi-channel marketers were severely limited because there were so few channels. A multi-channel marketer was typically a catalog marketer who also opened a small retail store near his headquarters. Or maybe a restaurant or retail bakery that did a small business selling gourmet food by mail.

But the Internet changed all this. It has created a plethora of new channels for distribution, promotion, and commerce. The challenge today is not whether to be a multi-channel marketer. It’s knowing which channels to select and how to use them to multiply your sales and profits.

In this regard, there are no better teachers of how to use multi-channel marketing to maximize profits than Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby. They have built, individually and as a team, a number of healthy multi-channel businesses with annual revenues of $10 million to $100 million or more. In their newsletters, articles, reports, books, and conferences, they’ve taught thousands of entrepreneurs, both aspiring and experienced, to do the same. In Changing the Channel, the authors offer a unique combination of real-world experience, proven results, and teaching ability unduplicated in any other multi-channel marketing book or course.

Both Michael and MaryEllen originally made names for themselves in old-school direct-response marketing, particularly in direct mail, a field in which they are both famous. Both are masters of the hard-sell and have created mailers generating untold millions of dollars in direct orders—one of the most difficult feats in marketing. (If you can write sales letters that make a lot of money in the mail, most other marketing is a breeze by comparison.)

When the Internet came along, Michael and MaryEllen immediately saw the potential, especially in the Internet’s ability to quickly and repeatedly reach thousands or millions of prospects at minimal cost. Both were early pioneers in making the transition from offline to online direct marketing. And their innovative approach to online marketing, detailed in Chapter 3, helped double or triple their revenues, while dramatically reducing marketing costs.

Unlike many old-school direct marketers, Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby eagerly embraced the new forms of marketing that have emerged in the past half decade or so. But also unlike so many new media evangelists, who serve as cheerleaders for new technology simply because it is new, Michael and MaryEllen put all of the new media they used to the ultimate direct-response test: Does spending a dollar on these new marketing channels generate two dollars or more in sales?

Therefore, in this book, you’ll find a lot of advice on both old and new media. In Chapter 4, the authors cover today’s favorite flavor of the month: social media. In Chapter 12, they explore the now exploding world of joint venturing. And in Chapter 13, they tackle another favorite of the new media evangelists, event marketing.

But Masterson and Tribby discuss all these multiple channels with two important differences from the way you might see these topics treated in other articles and books. First, everything Masterson and Tribby write about is based on extensively tested and measured results. They spend literally millions of dollars each year testing copy and marketing methods for their various companies. Therefore, they remove subjective judgment from the discussion of which tools are best. Their recommendations and strategies are based strictly on the ROMD (return on marketing dollars) that each channel generates, not on whether they think it’s a neat idea or a cool technology.

Second, Michael and MaryEllen are media agnostics. Because they are successful business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs—and not consultants with a vested interest in promoting and selling their expertise in a specific channel (e.g., blogging, podcasts)—Changing the Channel gives you a high degree of objectivity and honesty rarely seen today in books, blogs, and columns written by consulting specialists with an ax to grind and a service or speech to sell.

Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby have no interest in convincing you that e-mail marketing is better than MySpace, or vice versa, because they are not trying to sell you either one. Their sole objective is to help you use multiple marketing channels in your business to turn one dollar into two dollars, as fast as you can, and often as you can.

You have heard the old expression, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” Much of the rah-rah marketing advice I read today, especially concerning new media and other emerging marketing channels, is written by people who teach and “talk the talk,” but who do not “walk the walk.” They may advise clients to invest in their ideas and beliefs about marketing, but that investment is made with the client’s money, not their money. These advisers get paid whether their multi-channel marketing experiments work or not.

Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby are the real deal. They test and refine their ideas in actual marketing campaigns, using their own money to fund the experiments. They understand how important it is for your marketing to make money for you, and how painful it is for your marketing to fail to produce sales. Therefore, this dynamic duo of multi-channel marketing won’t always tell you to use what’s trendiest, coolest, or hippest. But, they will always share with you those multi-channel marketing methods that work best, generating the maximum results with the least risk. That’s what I want. And I assume it’s what you want, too. And in this book, that’s exactly what you get. So if you want your multi-channel marketing to make you more money (regardless of whether it gets you on the cover of Fast Company magazine or wins you a creative award from your local ad club), you’ve come to the right place. Here’s to happy—and profitable—reading!

—BOB BLY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for their help with this book:

Judith Strauss for her efforts, for so many years, to make my sentences clean and comprehensible; Jason Holland for his enthusiastic work tracking down facts and conducting interviews for this book; Suzanne Richardson and Charlie Byrne for their insightful comments; John Forde for his helpful suggestions; and everybody at John Wiley and Sons for their patience and support.

Alex Mandossian, Howie Jacobson, Katie Yeakle, Barbara Perriello, Julia Guth, Myles Norin, Tim Ferriss, Joe Vitale, Clayton Makepeace, Steve Leveen, Yanik Silver, Brent Jones, Rich Schefren, John Phillips, David Cross, and Bob Cox for contributing their expert knowledge.

Bob Bly, for agreeing to be interviewed and for writing the foreword to this book.

Bill Bonner, for his partnership and mentoring.

Joe Fiori, for agreeing to have his business profiled in this book.

All of my business mentors, to whom I will always be grateful.

My coauthor, MaryEllen Tribby, for her enthusiasm and for making the writing of this book an educational experience.

And, last but not least, my wife Kathy, for her constant support during this and all my other writing projects.

—Michael Masterson

I would like to thank the following people:

Jason Holland, who took the bull by the horns to make this book happen; Suzanne Richardson, who is my best editor; Charlie Byrne and Jedd Canty for running the show while I was writing; Wendy Montes de Oca and Alexis Siemon for their input; Nicole Reynolds for always helping out; Jon Herring, Andy Gordon, and Charles Delvalle for their comments; Judith Strauss for her refinement of the manuscript; and the entire Early to Rise team for their support.

Clayton Makepeace, Martin Weiss, and Larry Edelson, for their years of mentorship.

Bob Bly, for always coming through.

Rich Schefren and David Cross, my “go-to” friends and colleagues.

And, most importantly, Michael Masterson, who not only taught me to be a more prolific writer but a more concise thinker, as well.

—MaryEllen Tribby

INTRODUCTION

SHOPPING FOR HOMES

Easier, Faster, Cheaper

By MaryEllen Tribby

My parents bought their first home in 1957—51 years ago. Back then, the only way to buy a home was to look up a real estate agent in the phone book and call them. The real estate agent would come to you and tell you about homes on the market (homebuyers didn’t even have the advantage of browsing through listings). And if a property that the agent knew about sounded close to what you were looking for, you took a ride together on a Sunday afternoon to check it out.

My dad loved to tell me his story about going through this process. He’d told his real estate agent, Margaret, that he wanted a three-bedroom ranch-style home in a nice neighborhood. A good public school system was a must. And he wanted at least one nice park nearby and easy access to shopping. The last thing on his list was very important to him: He did not want his family to be near any type of apartment building.

My father had grown up in a rough neighborhood, near a big apartment complex and with no parks and no convenient shopping. He attended a public school where little girls got shaken down for their lunch money, and he didn’t want that to happen to his daughters.

My parents went house shopping with Margaret. She told them she had found “the perfect house” in a neighborhood they would “love.” Imagine my father’s surprise when Margaret drove them to his old neighborhood! He made her turn around before they even got to the place she had in mind.

When my father asked Margaret what she was thinking, she confessed that she had not actually seen the house or the neighborhood. She had trusted the owner’s word that it met my parent’s criteria.

Since Margaret was the only real estate agent in town, my parents continued to rely on her. These Sunday afternoon debacles went on for months.

Finally, 11 months after their search had started, we moved into a house that my parents were confident they could raise their family in. And their family had already been started. During the house-hunting nightmare, my older sister was born. My parents have always said that it was easier to have a baby than to find the perfect home.

I heard this story dozens of times growing up. So when it was time for my husband and me to buy our first home in 1996, I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

THE NEXT GENERATION BUYS A HOME

We determined the town we wanted to live in by:

• Using the Internet to research schools in the areas we were interested in, and then visiting the ones that looked promising.

• Researching the neighborhood amenities of our target areas. This meant scouring the Internet for parks, shopping, cultural opportunities, and restaurants.

• Driving around the various towns.

• Speaking to friends about what they liked in those towns.

Once we determined the town we wanted to live in, it was time to focus on a specific community. We did this by:

• Going online and plugging in the zip code of each community, along with criteria for the kind of house we wanted.

• Watching local television advertisements for new homes.

• Listening to the radio to find out about local events in the various neighborhoods.

It wasn’t until we’d narrowed down our search to three neighborhoods that I even called a real estate agent. And I found her by:

• Asking friends and colleagues for referrals (word of mouth).

• Researching online to find out which agents had sold the most homes in the communities I was interested in. (I figured they knew those neighborhoods inside and out.)

• Reading the local newspaper.

After selecting Barb as our agent, we worked with her to draw up a list of homes we might want to see. From that, Barb got a good sense of our expectations. After doing some of her own research, she narrowed down our list to several options. We were able to view all of them online. With two of them, we took “virtual” tours.

Exactly 19 days after we started our research, we made an offer on our home.

THE MULTI-CHANNEL APPROACH

For my parents and my husband and me, buying a home was the biggest, most important purchase of our lives. It took my parents 11 months. My husband and I did it in less than three weeks.

The ultimate outcome was the same. We found a dream house in which we could raise our families. But the channels we took to get there were entirely different.

Because my husband and I were house-hunting at the beginning of the Internet Age, we were able to take a multi-channel approach to making our life-changing purchase.

Our multi-channel approach didn’t end when we selected the home we wanted to buy. We used it for almost all aspects of the home-buying process, including finding the right mortgage company, insurance plan, moving company, and furniture.

But unlike the house search, we weren’t doing all the work ourselves to get the information we needed. All sorts of companies were finding us. Furniture companies were e-mailing us about furniture sales. Mortgage companies were sending us mortgage offers in the mail. Insurance agencies were calling us about insurance. And moving companies were hoping to get our attention by placing big ads in our local newspaper.

All these marketing efforts—including the strongest sales pitches—were welcomed by us because we were emotionally, financially, and rationally predisposed to buy what those companies were selling. We were the perfect customers for most of them. We were motivated. We had money. We were prepared to buy. And receiving information about products and services we needed through so many channels made it easier and quicker for us to compare options and make decisions.

The businesses that did the most business with us were those that were relentless, contacting us through various marketing channels. They were smart enough to realize that if we weren’t responsive to a space ad or postal sales letter, we might react to an e-mail promotion. And if an e-mail promotion didn’t work, they could get through to us via the Internet when we did a search by typing in certain keywords. And if that failed, they could try to contact us by phone.

Your best customers are those who are motivated, financially capable of buying from you, and prepared to buy. If you don’t locate and convert those customers through a multi-channel, direct-response advertising campaign, then you are leaving dollars—perhaps millions of dollars—on the table.

There is no reason to do that in this day and age, when there are so many ways to get access to the ideal buyers for your product or service. This book will teach you about the many channels you can use to reach your customers.

CHAPTER ONE

MARKETING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

How Quickly Things Have Changed

Sherwin Cody had a problem. He was a low-paid English teacher, but he harbored a secret desire to become a wealthy man.