Newsletters Made For You- Exceptional Living

I was talking yesterday with Jeff . He’s the guy that built WebToPrintIQ.com… from blank sheet of paper.

Saying Jeff is good with computers is like saying Leonardo was an OK painter.

Anyway, he was telling me that some of our clients don’t know what VDP is all about.

So here’s the scoop:

VDP isn’t quite a miracle. But it does have magical powers. Plus… it’s just plain cool.

It stands for Variable Data Printing. It’s a fancy phrase to say we can personalize everything we print and mail for you with the first name (and/or last name) of your customer somewhere on the marketing piece.

It allows you to get very personal with your customers.

Personalization has power!

Research shows that VDP does amazing things to response rates for direct mailings. In fact, VDP mailings response rates are four to six times higher than direct mailings without this technology.

And the more you customize direct mail to your recipient, the more likely the response rate will be higher.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you send out 500 Exceptional Living client newsletters next month. Each one will have each customer’s name four times throughout the 6 pages.

Imagine the power a personalized company newsletter like that will have with your customers.

Yep, VDP is very cool.

It’s also something most of the other guys (that attempt to ‘do’ newsletters) cannot offer you.

Just one more reason why you want your company newsletter to be from me and Brett.

BTW: The sample pack has three newsletters with examples of VDP on each of them.

Click here to have me send them to you.

Taking action just feel right.

-  David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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… but there are tons of people who will.  And they’re happy do so.

Here’s the skinny:

Evian sells mineral water. You can buy it in any supermarket.

But Evian also sells premium bottles of the same water in fancy restaurants for 20 bucks a pop, “for a true luxury water experience.” Really… that’s how they describe it.

Same stuff…just in a stylishly elegant bottle.

It gets better.

You can also buy Evian’s Facial Spray. It’s sold everywhere for $15, from upscale Nordstrom’s to Target. It’s an ultra fine, pure mist of… water.

This is why you should care:

IT’S JUST WATER!  Yet, people willingly pay a lot of bucks for what is generally free in your home.

Why? Because it’s been ‘premium-ized.’ I think that’s a word…

Evian (and others) has marketed water as a luxury product. They do this by the look and feel of their ads and how the product is packaged.

They get away doing this because 20% of consumers will only buy what they perceive to be the best.

It doesn’t matter what it is.  If there’s a more expensive option, they’ll take it. And this rule applies to ANY market.

If they can do it with water, you can do it with your products and services.

Give this some thought: What could YOU offer that’s a higher-end alternative for those customers that just want the best?

Think hard on how you can premium-ize what you already sell. Heck, they can sell water as a luxury…

Exceptional Living can help you ‘package’ your business to solidly create a premium look and feel.

Imagine your customer’s faces when they open their mail box and see a full, edge-to-edge color, 6 page newsletter (or is it a magazine?) from you!

Honestly, it will have a huge impact on them… and their view of you, while building a stronger relationship with them.

Let me send you three free cross industry samples. Click here and tell me where to send them.

Taking action just feels right,

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS:  Did you know that Evian spelled backwards is ‘naïve’…

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We went to the movies this past weekend.

We had already seen Avatar. But judging by the lines to see it in 3D, a whole bunch of people hadn’t yet.

As we walked past them to our theater, we heard them gripping about the 25 minute wait they had to endure… but no one was budging.  Plus, they paid twice what the ‘normal’ movies cost.

Wanna know why?

The heard the buzz.  So had everyone else on the planet, it seems.  Avatar’s haul just cracked the $1 billion mark… in just 21 days.

Those folks thought paying double the price to stand in line was worth it.  They heard buzz about the movie.

Create some buzz in your biz. Get people talking about you. You can get that buzz going by sending them a winning customer newsletter. Like Exceptional Living.

Click here to have me send you three free samples today.

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS: Only 6% of entrepreneurs follow through on their New Year’s Resolutions. You are in that 6%!

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As entrepreneurs, our job is really pretty simple: We try to get people to do what we want.

Some guys make this look easy.

Everyone knows at least one person who can persuade anyone on just about anything.

You know what I mean… he’s guy (or gal) who can “sell iceboxes to Eskimos.”

Would having this ability would be good for your business?

Well, here’s the big secret…

“Enter the conversation already taking place in your customer’s mind.”

In other words: The easiest way to persuade someone is with whatever is ALREADY influencing them.

If you get in synch with them… they WILL listen to what you have to say.

Take the economy as an example. Here’s what a survey recently revealed about the American people:

– 87% are worried about the future of the country.

– 61% feel that they “did everything right and still lost”.

– And 65% “can’t believe this happened to us today in America.”

So, what’s the conversation going on in most people’s heads?

Disbelief, Fear and Anger

So begin collecting the words, phrases and ideas your market uses. Speak back to them with their own words.

Pay attention to what’s being discussed in the newspapers, on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Think about how you can solve their problems…quickly… easily… and simply.

When your marketing strikes this kind of chord with your clients, they will be nodding their heads, slapping the table top, and saying, “Yes! That’s exactly how I feel!”

And when that happens, they will do anything you ask.

Because whatever you ask is going to be exactly aligned with what they already want.

Then, use your new-found magical persuasive power in ALL of your marketing… postcards, letters and of course, your monthly client newsletter.

But only use your powers for good… like increasing profits and winning clients for life.

Let’s get to work,

-David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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Ever say, “I’m just looking” after being stalked by a salesperson?

Probably. It just rolls off your tongue. Your customers say it all of the time.

More often than not, it REALLY means: “I’m not ready to buy yet. But I will be later.”

So, when they are ready to buy… will YOU be the one they call?

Maybe…

You see, there’s this thing called ‘top of consciousness.’

Think of it as a mental sweet spot. It’s when you’re already in your customer’s mind when they decide to buy what you sell.

If you aren’t at top of consciousness, then you go back to square one. You must battle your competition all over again for your client’s attention.

If your client has to go to the Yellow Pages; look on the Internet; or ask someone for a reference, the company with the deepest pockets – the most advertising dollars – usually wins.

That’s why you need to contact your clients often and regularly.

Did you know…

95% of businesses spend nearly all of their time and money on chasing NEW clients.

But it’s 8 times easier to sell to an active customer.

But here’s the tricky part: Doing it (maintaining client contact) in a way that doesn’t come across like a blatant sales pitch.

Here is a real-world example: I just sold $273 of services to customer. I hadn’t heard from her in FOUR YEARS. During that time, it cost me $96.00 to send her a monthly client newsletter.

When the time was right… when she wasn’t ‘just looking’ anymore… I was the one she called after FOUR years.

I was in that sweet mental sweet spot.

This was the BEST part: She also referred me to two new clients and they each gave me 6 referrals.

Do you see how this works? Relentless client contact is crazy profitable!

Exceptional Living Newsletter makes constant client contact fast, easy, painless, and profitable. Our newsletter template is online and 97% Done For You.

Click here to tell me where to send your 3 sample issues of Exceptional Living, if you haven’t requested them yet.

Let’s get to work,

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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I found a plastic bag at the end of our driveway on Monday. It was the annual delivery of the Yellow Page books.

Things have changed since the famous, “Let Your Fingers Do The Walking” ad from the 1960’s. I thought about their significance in today’s marketing world. I also thought how I haven’t opened one in years.

As I walked into my garage, I dropped the bag of books into the trash can.

As fate would have it, I got a call later that day from the Yellow Pages people.  There was real desperation in her voice as she tried to convince me to use their product.

The Center for Media Research recently confirmed what my gut has been telling me for the past three years.

It showed 57% use traditional Yellow Page directories while 47% use Internet Yellow Pages. The real difference is they claim a whopping 82% use search engines to locate products and services.

Here’s why the yellow pages are an endangered marketing species:

Have you ever Googled a product or service and been directed by the search engine to an online Yellow Pages listing for a company?

Me either.

Search engines reward positioning by which links are clicked most often.  So if people were using the digital Yellow Pages, those online Yellow Page ads would rank really high on Google and the other search engines.

But the ads don’t rank high on Google because most people never use them.

What do YOU think about Yellow Pages – any variety (there must be a dozen) – and their associated websites? Do you think money spent there is well spent or wasted?

My opinion: Money spent in the Yellow Pages (and their website versions) is basically wasted.

I’m fairly certain my position will generate a firestorm of emails from people who feel passionately that I’m wrong. But there are others who will know I’m right.

Tell me what you think – leave a comment.

Let’s get to work,

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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One of my businesses is a service company.

I got a call last Friday from one of my clients. Her name is Betty.

She called to answer the trivia question in the December newsletter.

Customers will usually leave their answers in voicemail or email to me. I recognized her name on Caller ID, so I picked up.

After Betty gave me the correct answer, we talked for a few minutes. It was nice chatting with her… I enjoy my customers a lot.

Then she literally shocked me speechless.

Betty was telling me how much she loved reading Exceptional Living (that wasn’t the shock).

Then…

She referred to a little story I told in the monthly “My Corner’ column. It was about texting and how a clerk was texting the entire time we were checking out at the register.

Anyway, while we talked, Betty related this story back to me like she had just read it…

… but I wrote it FOUR MONTHS ago. It was in the August newsletter.

Either she still remembered the story or she had saved the newsletter and read it again recently.

I think it was the former. Betty simply remembered my story from way back in August.

BIG marketing lesson:  Include stories in your marketing ’cause stories get remembered and make you memorable.

Why is that? Psychologists tell us stories form the basis of how we think, organize, and remember information.

Telling a compelling story is an art. But don’t worry about being an expert. I’m not. I discovered telling ANY story is better than no story at all.

Give it try in your marketing – be a story teller – become memorable.

BTW: I almost forgot. Betty got her December Exceptional Living 2 ½ weeks ago… and saved it. Kinda interesting, huh? Do your customers save YOUR stuff?

Taking action just feels right,

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS: Click here to tell me where to send your 3 sample issues of Exceptional Living… if you’re one of the few that haven’t requested them.

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Can one word REALLY transform your business forever? It did for Legos.

Their product was great. But the marketing message was off… by one word.

Here’s the story:

Legos is a Danish company that’s been around forever. But it didn’t get into what we know it for until the late 1940’s.

Europe was a small market in those days. Legos needed to expand into the U.S. market.

So, in the early 1950’s, the company used their same marketing message for the U.S. launch.

It failed miserably.

It tried two more runs at the American market. They ended the same way

Legos finally hired an outside marketing consultant.

He brought Danish children into the company; then he watched as they were given a box of Legos. Here’s what they would do:

They carefully unpacked the box…they confirmed all parts shown in the booklet were there…then they built the few samples in the manual exactly as shown.

Then some American kids were brought in.  Guess what they did?

They ripped open the box…tossed the instruction booklet aside…dumped everything in a pile and started experimenting.

So the problem wasn’t the product.  The product was great. All they had to do was change just one word in the marketing message.

Here’s why…

In Denmark, the Legos’ marketing message was: This toy will encourage your child’s inclination for engineering – something they excel at as a nation.

But in the United States, parents were told something different. This toy would encourage their child’s creativity.

Creativity vs. Engineering. The two words are similar… but different enough to stall a national marketing campaign.

As you know, Legos went on to become wildly successful in the U.S.

The BIG marketing lesson:

Sometimes you gotta change your message. Sometimes it might be just one word.

Awhile back I wrote, “How One Simple Phrase Can Kick Your Competitor’s Butt” (click here to read).

THAT’S what I’m talking about. Get a killer USP.

It can rock your business.

So can my killer newsletter.  Let me send you 3 FREE samples. Just tell me where to send them. (Tell David)

Taking action just feels right,

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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I’ll bet this rolls off your tongue when you see a salesperson stalking you in a department store.

True, it can mean “go away and leave me alone.” But a lot of times it REALLY means:  “I’m not ready to buy yet.  But I will be later.”

Here’s the real question: When they’re finally ready to buy… will YOU be the one they call?

If it’s in the next 24 hours… yeah, they probably will call you. But after that, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

There’s this thing called ‘top of consciousness.’

Top of consciousness is when you are already in your customer’s mind when they decide they need your services. Think of it as a mental sweet spot.

If you aren’t at in that mental sweet spot when they need what you offer, then you go back to square one. You have to battle competitors all over again for your client’s attention.

If your client has to go to the Yellow Pages, look on the Internet or ask someone for a reference, the company with the deepest pockets – the most money to spend on advertising – usually wins.

When you market smart, you get directly to your customers often and regularly.

It sounds like it’s expensive to market this way – but it’s not.

Did you know…

1.  Acquiring new customers costs 5 to 7 times more than retaining a current one.

2.  It’s 8 times easier to sell to an active customer

3.  A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%.

4.  78% of your customers are lost after six months of no contact with them.

And yet, 95% of businesses spend nearly all of their time, money and energy on chasing new clients.

They do nothing to retain existing customers.

What should this tell you? Staying at the top of consciousness is just smart marketing.

But here’s the tricky part: Doing it (maintaining client contact) in a fun and informative way, NOT with a blatant sales pitch.

A real-world example: I just sold $273 of services to customer I hadn’t heard from in four years. During that time, it cost me $96.00 to send her a monthly client newsletter.

When the time was right… when she wasn’t ‘just looking’ anymore… I was the one she called after FOUR years.

This was the BEST part: She referred me to two other new clients and they each gave me 6 referrals.

Do you see how this works? Relentless client contact crazy profitable!

Exceptional Living Newsletter makes sending a print newsletter fast, easy, painless, and profitable. Our newsletter template is online and 97% Done For You.

I do all of the heavy lifting for you.  Click here now to activate your FREE account.

Taking action just feels right.

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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It doesn’t seem to make any sense, does it?  Prevention doesn’t sell.  Not even if you have a ton of it.

This is what sells:

People care a lot more about the CURE.   If you have a cure… NOW you have their attention, interest and dollars.

Uber-marketer Perry Marshall talked about this recently.  He mentioned a video created back in the late 80’s to help keep kids off drugs.

Noble and worthwhile, to say the least.

Nancy Reagan, Hollywood and top shelf copywriters all got involved. A beautiful and moving video was produced. It was then sold on a truly inspiring infomercial.

And remember, this was created to help keep your kids off drugs.  It was truly a *must have* product.

Guess how many they sold?  Zero… nada… zilch.

Prevention, even in the form of virtue and goodness, is just a tough sell.  This may sound cynical, but it’s part of human nature.

Stroll through the aisles of Barnes and Noble and you’ll see what I mean.  Every other novel is about murder and mayhem, passion and deceit.  Not too many books about goodness, virtue and faith.

BIG marketing lesson:  Create ‘cure-themed’ marketing as opposed to selling ‘prevention.’  But if prevention is what you really sell, then bundle it as part of the cure.

Exceptional Living client newsletter follows this principle as well.

“5 Secrets For The Perfect Black Friday Battle Plan” is the feature article this month. Check it out here.

I could have featured, “5 Ways to Prevent When Holiday Shopping.” But not only is it boring, it’s prevention-driven, too.

Read the article and you’ll see what I mean. Click here.

Taking action just feels right,

-  David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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