Newsletters Made For You- Exceptional Living

He was happily chattering away at the breakfast table, yakking about something in great detail.

His wife was behind him, looking at him with that 1000 yard stare. She reaches over, picks up a frying pan, and belts him with it in back of the head.

Then she sits down to eat her breakfast… presumably in peace.

This was the opening scene of a TV show called “Six Feet Under.” Each episode started with a death (yeah I know, a bit macabre). The show was about a family-run funeral home, so it kind of makes sense.

And this relates to you because…

Most entrepreneurs’ marketing is REALLY boring. And you don’t have a clue that it is.

Of course, your biggest worry isn’t getting smacked in the head with a skillet.

It should be wasting your marketing dollars. Blowing cash on ads that never get noticed, read and – even worse – are unresponsive because they’re boringly ineffective.

This is precisely why Exceptional Living works so well. It’s a 6 page company newsletter that gets read, passed around to others and acted upon.

Why? Because it’s fun to read! There is nothing boring about it. There are lots of graphics, contests, trivia and great articles.

Case in point: I had an email yesterday from Richard. He asked if 6 pages of content was too much to read.

Sure it is… if it’s BORING! Heck, two pages are too much if it doesn’t capture and keep the attention of your readers.

Let me prove to Exceptional Living is different. Here are two ways:

1. Click here and I’ll send you three samples of Exceptional Living, the ultimate relationship marketing tool out there today.

2. Or, click here to activate your free account. There is zero obligation to buy anything! You can preview the newsletter or even start creating and customizing one for your company.

BTW: We just made the May issue of Exceptional Living available. Check it out at WebToPrintIQ.com.

A company newsletter should be the foundation of your business. But if you send one that bores your clients to tears, watch out.

There may not be a frying pan in your future… but you can bet they’ll never open a company newsletter from you again.

Aren’t you glad that we have newsletter ideas that work?

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS: At just a $1.49 each, what’s holding you back???

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http://www.WebToPrintIQ.com

About David Gruttadaurio

David Gruttadaurio is widely recognized as the expert in print newsletter marketing and relationship-based marketing.

David now has clients from around the world who are successfully using his products.

He is the editor of Exceptional living newsletter and a published author in print and online magazines and blogs.

David and his family live in the small town of Princeton, Indiana.

Copyright 2010

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Have you ever been someone’s regular customer and then stopped doing business with them? Anyone ever ask why you stopped?

Probably not.

The average company loses up to 40 percent of their clients every year. And they don’t come back.
Sure, we all lose customers.

But here’s the REAL problem: Most businesses blame the customer for going AWOL.

The truth is, only 5% boycott your biz because they were unhappy with you. The vast majority (95%) of customers had a pleasant experience with your company.

So the fault belongs to YOU. The customer didn’t come back because they were ignored.

Reclaiming a lost customer is actually easier than gaining a new customer.

Studies show a 60-70% success rate selling to a current customer; a 20-40% chance of winning back a former customer; but only a 5-20% chance of turning prospects into customers.

The IPA client is the easiest one to rescue.

An Intentionally Pushed Away customer (IPA) was neglected, ignored or simply fell through the client contact cracks. He or she was profitable. But they were not pursued (or romanced) after the initial sale.

Your best chance of regaining an IPA’s business is through regular client communication and better customer service.

Note: Lost customers do not live in a vacuum. If they aren’t doing business with your, they’ll be doing business with somebody.

These two simple steps can get them back:

1. Ask the customer, “What can we do to win back your business?”  Listen closely to what they tell you.

This takes courage.

No one likes to be criticized. And most likely the IPA customer isn’t going to take the blame for not coming back to you. Whatever reason they give, being ‘defensive’ negates the reason for asking them in the first place.

Just listen patiently… and learn.

2. Stay in touch with the lost customer; earn his or her business every day.

This takes discipline.

Finding them and keeping them are two different things. You have to be committed to maintaining constant client contact.

Customer loyalty today is nearly nonexistent. Earning it requires vigilance, dedication and determination.

Who knows, one day an IPA customer could turn out to be one of your top clients.

Brett and I can lend a hand. Click here to get help.

Taking action just feel right.

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

Copyright 2010

This post is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any portion of this email is strictly prohibited without the express written consent of David Gruttadaurio

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I had an ‘aha’ moment.  Boy, if Oprah finds out…

Here’s the skinny: Several month ago, Ms. Multibillionaire sued Mutual of Omaha.  The insurance company started a marketing campaign called “the official sponsor of the aha moment.” They also trademarked the phrase.

Oprah was miffed.  Winfrey thinks she owns the phrase – apparently she says it a lot – although she’s never tried to trademark it.

Anyway, they settled out of court. No one really knows how it ended.

So… I guess I’ll just have to take my chances.

This is how my ‘aha moment’ happened.

One of my clients called to thank me for sending her the ‘magazine’ this month.

Magazine???  My mind was racing… did I send someone my Sports Illustrated by mistake?  No, no, no… she  sounded HAPPY to get it.

Then it hit me. She was talking about Exceptional Living customer newsletter – but she called it a magazine!

Huh… I never thought of it as a magazine before.  But I can see why she would think that.

After all, it’s printed in full, edge-to-edge-color; and it does have six pages. Perhaps ‘newsmagazine’ could work, too… hmmm.

My ‘aha moment’ was sealed.

Want to know when YOUR ‘aha moment’ will be?

The day your customers start calling YOU about the great ‘magazine’ you  sent them. Then you’ll finally believe:

-  Exceptional Living is really easy to create -  97% of the work is done for you with our newsletter template that’s made for you.

-  Exceptional Living really does bring in more sales from existing clients.

-  Exceptional Living really gets passed around and generates more referrals for your company.

Create your own ‘aha moment’.  Get started here.

And don’t worry about Oprah; I won’t tell her.

Taking action just feel right.

-  David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS: You have plenty of time to get your March newsletter in your customer’s mailboxes. Our turnaround time is awesome!

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Do you think history repeats itself?

Roy H. Williams (The Monday Morning Memo guy) commented today on a book called ‘Generations’.

The authors went back over 400 years and identified four 20 year cycles mankind seems to revert to, over and over again. Each cycle appears like clockwork. Right now, we are seven years into the current cycle.

To prove his point, Roy then looked at the life of Moses as an example.  Bible buffs will find this incredibly fascinating.

While we cannot predict the future, we can predict the trends that drive us towards certain mindsets. These mindsets govern many aspects of our lives… including how we spend our money.

Marketing lesson: We need to be agile and fast-moving with our marketing message. Constant client contact enables you to adapt to the moods that drive your sales.

And there is no better way to maintain a relationship with your clients then with a monthly customer newsletter.

And I have one waiting for you.

The March issue of Exceptional Living is locked and loaded here.

Activate your free account if you haven’t done so yet.

Taking action just feels right.

-David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS: You can read Roy’s Memo here.

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Mastermind #4: Rising From The Ashes

I just spent two very full days (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) with 15 extremely sharp and savvy entrepreneurs in the Andrew Lock Magical Mastermind group.

As promised, this is the 4th of 5 marketing strategies you can use in your own business.

Who knew the doc was selling Oxycontin on the side?

The owners of the Multi-Specialty Clinic where he worked sure didn’t know.

But that didn’t stop the insurance company from withholding $4.5 million from them… which was NEVER paid even when they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Poof… $4.5 million gone. Money they expected. Money they needed. Money they never saw.

That’s the story of one of the members in my mastermind group.

Of course, they went bankrupt.

What would you do at that point? Here’s what they did.

First, they vowed never to be at the mercy of an insurance company again. Then they started over. They also began teaching other doctors how to shift their practice to a cash-only business.

Now they hold seminars that people pay $4000 a pop to attend.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Our greatest glory is NOT in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”

In their case, they were burned to the ground… but rose up from the ashes.

BIG TAKE AWAY:  Sometimes it ain’t easy being an entrepreneur. But that’s what makes YOU so special.

Honestly, who else will do what you do? Most people are content to work for a paycheck. And that’s cool… for them.

But you and me are cut from a different cloth. We work without a net We are risk-takers.

So, the next time your back is to the wall; and it looks like it’s all crashing down around you; remember this story.

Also remember Winston Churchill’s words: “Never, never, never give up!”

And never forget that you are my hero.

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

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I just spent two very full days (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) with 15 extremely sharp and savvy entrepreneurs in Andrew Lock’s Magical Mastermind group.

As promised, this is 1 of 5 marketing strategies you can use in your own business.

Most businesses consider customer service to be a necessary evil. Who wants to hear people gripe about their stuff, right?

I’ve talked about Zappos before. Check out this blog post to get caught up. They excel at customer service… it’s legendary… it’s the gold standard.

Zappos considers customer service THE most important thing they do.

One of the guys in our group runs a multimillion dollar online nutritional supplement company.

So he’s telling a story about a REALLY unhappy customer. She was furious with the company. And she posted all of this fury on their Facebook page!

Here’s what they do when they have a real thorny problem:  They ask, “What would Zappos do?”

This is the kind of company Zappos is:

The nutritional supplement company actually called Zappos customer service. They wanted to know how Zappos would handle this customer.

Guess what?

Zappos’ customer service rep spent 30 minutes helping them work out a solution for their problem customer.

And then she cheerfully tells them, “Call us any time!”

BIG TAKE AWAY: Customer service is an attitude. And to be honest, I have a hard time with it in my service businesses.

But when I hear TRUE stories like this about Zappos, it always makes me rethink my customer service mentality. It makes me want to aspire to the Zappos standard.

What do you think about this?

How do YOU handle difficult customer services issues?

Leave a comment – I’d love to hear your thoughts about customer service.

-David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS: If you haven’t requested your three free samples of Exceptional Living, click here now.

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Really… are you sure?

Because the last time I checked, ALL businesses:

1. Have competitors.
2. Must advertise or somehow get people to know about them.
3. Must convince people to buy.
4. Must hang on to their customers.
5. Must attempt to avoid failure while on the path to profitability, wealth and success.

Consumers are just like me and you. They have the same emotions and tendencies as everyone else on the planet.

So how the heck is YOUR business different?

Thinking this way creates a massive roadblock to making any real progress.

Take client newsletters.

You want (need, actually) to keep your clients from wandering off. Plus, you want your customers to buy more – and to buy often.

A company newsletters will accomplish all of that. It’s the highest form of relationship marketing.

And it doesn’t matter what business you are in.

I don’t care if you have a restaurant, sell insurance, pump gas or dig ditches. It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or a small town.

All businesses either make stuff or they do some stuff. We keep score by how much stuff we sell at the end of the day.

So don’t rip yourself off by allowing this excuse to let you off the hook from actually trying a customer newsletter.

Remember, you are selling to humans, not Vulcans – humans have emotions, and use them to make decisions, no matter what they are buying.  So yes, Exceptional Living Newsletter WILL work in your business.

If you haven’t taken me up on my offer, click here to have me send you three cross-industry samples for free.

We have newsletter ideas that work.

-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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Used to be, back in the day – your father’s day – customer loyalty was pretty much a given.

For example, if you were an ‘Oldsmobile’ man, you bought Oldsmobile vehicles until the day you died.

Brand loyalty ran deep.  It was taught to children; and then passed on to the grandchildren.

When I was a kid, we used to go to the same neighborhood restaurant every Sunday like clockwork. If we missed a week, the owner would call to make sure we were ok.

He did it because he was really concerned about us, not because he didn’t get our money that week.

But that was then… and this is now.

Consumers today will desert you at the drop of a hat.

These new rules cut across entire industries and into the big cities and small towns.

A marketing plan from 1980 just doesn’t work anymore.

This is what has NOT changed:

75% of all buying decisions are STILL based on relationships.

Today we just have to work much harder now to earn (and keep) the loyalty of our clients.

Communication is the starting point of all relationships.  A client newsletter is the most powerful way to communicate to your customers.

Here’s why customer newsletters work:

Every time your client gets your newsletter, it’s another chance to get to know you better. And the better they know you, the more they will like you.

Consumers will buy over and over from people they like. Don’t you?  It’s becomes an enjoyable, pleasant and likable experience. It makes you feel good about your buying decision.

A customer newsletter sent regularly (key word) and that is interesting (another key word) has the marketing magic to accomplish this. If done properly, it can create relationships that last a lifetime.

If you haven’t looked at Exceptional Living lately, perhaps it’s time to add it to your marketing arsenal.

It’s how you can dominate your market.

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS:  Click here to have me send you three free samples of Exceptional Living today.

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Romancing the client is a lot like a real romance.

Both relationships require a bunch of effort to be successful.

Both also need good communication skills.

When a customer relationship is cultivated, it grows stronger. Just like a real romance, it can last a lifetime.

Most entrepreneurs don’t bother with this. They think it’s a waste of time and money. So, they’re constantly prowling around for new customers.

That’s a really, really dumb thing to do.

Here’s why…

When you ignore your clients, they tend to ignore you.  And if your clients feel that you’ve forgotten about them, they WILL forget you.

BTW: Every business needs new clients – just not at the expense of overlooking your existing customers.

Did you know it costs 6 times more to get a new prospect to buy your stuff than it does a current client?

What does this tell you?

When a client relationship is ‘romanced’, it continues to be productive, long-lasting and (most importantly) very profitable. Yep… even in a recession.

Marketing relentlessly to them isn’t a business cost – it’s an investment.

Look at your return on investment ROI). NEVER look at just the ‘cost’.

For example, would you spend $1000 to make $10,000?

A 10-to-1 ROI? It’s a no-brainer.

That’s how you should look at relationship marketing – as a smart investment.

A customer newsletter – or a patient newsletter – has the marketing magic to easily accomplish this for you.

Try Exceptional Living for free – the first month is on me.

Your clients will ADORE you for it.

Taking action just feel right.

- David Gruttadaurio
“The Print Newsletter Expert”

PS: Wanna get touchy, feely with Exceptional Living? Click here and I’ll send you three free issues to check out.

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