The Mail The UK’s Number One Direct Mail Publication
WHAT’S INSIDE The UK vs USA What are the key differences I’ve found between marketing to Brits vs Americans p3 How To Sell To Your Subscribers Offline The most effective process for sending high-impact direct mail to your subscribers/prospects p4 Get Juice Out Of Your Sales Person The three key fundamentals we’ve put in place to assist our new sales person (and ensure he’s profitable from day one) p6 Meet This “Dickheadpreneur” Why most “experts” are an embarrassment [Oli’s Rant] p8
The Royal Family, Veganism and Elton John’s Head … Why Morrissey Is The Master of Polarizing His Audience
I
f Morrissey were to take me into a dark room and offer me the opportunity to fumble with his manhood – I’d probably accept. I worship the man. To me, he’s the greatest singer/songwriter that has ever lived. The line "You are repressed but you're remarkably dressed" (about London) just encapsulates my exact thoughts in a way that is much more intelligent and witty than I could ever pen. But what I love most about Morrissey is that I feel we have a connection. I feel that if we were to meet, we’d have the potential to become friends, as we share many of the same views and are on the same wavelength. Of course, Morrissey doesn’t know I exist, nor would he care. But here’s the thing … To the large majority of people, Morrissey is an arsehole. In fact, he must be one of the most hated singers/ artists on the planet. Why? Because he has some VERY strong views on a number of controversial topics and he never pulls his punches, he’s not a music industry puppet, nor does he care for what others think.
(To give you a flavour of what I mean – I’ve included some of his most controversial quotes on the next page.) Now, I find the large majority of what he says hilarious. But for most people, he’s incredibly offensive. You see, what Morrissey has mastered is the art of polarization. He attracts some people and repels others. The people that he attracts LOVE him more, whilst the people he repels HATE him more. In this article, I want to share why polarizing your audience is such a great thing to do from a marketing point of view and share my initial findings from becoming more polarizing with my audience. But before we get started, let me just define what I mean by polarizing your audience. Polarizing your audience essentially means sharing opinions/doing stuff that splits opinions. For example, when Morrissey slags off the Royal Family, people who share his opinion will naturally resonate with him (like myself ), whilst people that disagree with his opinion will naturally feel disconnected/dislike him. The more we feel that we have in common with somebody, the more connected we feel with them and the more we want them to know who we are.
Direct Mail Expert Oli Luke’s, Private Monthly Newsletter
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The Royal Family, Veganism and Elton John’s Head … (cont)
It’s why when a marketer like myself does it, it allows me to really attract some (people that make dream clients) and massively repel others (people who’d be a nightmare to work with). Being myself, sharing my opinions, not caring what people think and being somewhat controversial has been the smartest thing that I’ve done in my marketing. Because the people that love it and share my opinions, are similar to me and are a joy to spend time with … and the people that don’t like it aren’t really my kind of people. It means that the clients that I have today (and the business partners for that matter) are all very similar to me and we get on very well.
So, how do you Polarize Your Audience (and Where’s the Line?) If you’ve been reading my emails and reading these newsletters recently, you’ll notice that I’ve turned the heat up with my polarization. This time 12 months ago, I was a little too nice. Sure, I’d share my love for Morrissey, beer and maybe hint at my dislike for religion – but I was almost scared of upsetting people. Naturally, I’m a nice person that wants to make people happy … … but from the start of January, I decided to start becoming a bit more arsey and stop being so soft. I made this decision for two key reasons. 1.
When I first started sending my daily emails in 2014, hardly anybody was sending them – just speaking in a personality-rich tone was different and it allowed me to stand out – but now, everybody is using this same approach (and it’s becoming difficult to stand out … so being more controversial and crossing a line that most people fear allows me to be interesting).
2.
I found my hook. For the past 24 months, I’ve kind of knocked about, been comfortable, not really had a niche – but in December, I noticed the decline in online marketing and how diversifying your audience and communication
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through direct mail was so key – which now allows me to throw stones at online marketing. The third unwritten thing that allows me to push the boundaries is that I also have two additional companies that provide income streams, so if I really push the boat out and make a “Beatles-esque” statement about being bigger than Jesus that pisses everybody off – then it’s not a complete disaster.
2012: In an open letter to his fan club, Morrissey rips into the "blustering jingoism" of the London Olympics, comparing the mood in the UK to Nazi Germany. "The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hijacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. . . The spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain."
2011: In an interview with Billboard,
So, what has happened since I’ve started polarizing and become aggressive in my content?
Morrissey calls Lady Gaga "nothing new" and says her style is "fraudulent, and the exact opposite of erotic." He also refers to Madonna as "McDonna" and says Michael Bublé is "famous and meaningless."
I’ve ruffled a few feathers. Sure.
2011: Of the Norway massacre in which 77
What Have My Findings Been?
But it’s generated some huge momentum. From being invited on Podcasts, to having people want to work with me … it’s got people’s attention. My open-rates are up. My engagement is up. I’m relevant and people want to know what I’m going to say next. It’s been incredible. Here’s my advice to you. Take your fucking hand-break off and stop being a pussy. If you fear potentially upsetting somebody, then your marketing is going to be incredibly boring and you’ll be losing out on sales/customers because you’re putting your ego ahead of your business. Be yourself and don’t fear sharing your opinion – honestly, it feels great to call out shit and have a public diary … and it works.
Some of Morrissey’s most controversial quotes
2012: Morrissey links the suicide of a London
nurse to the Duchess Kate Middleton. "There's no blame placed at Kate Middleton, who was in the hospital for, as far as I can see, absolutely no reason . . . She feels no shame about the death of this woman. The arrogance of the British royals is staggering, absolutely staggering."
2012: Morrissey has his band wear "We Hate William and Kate" shirts on stage.
people died, Morrissey heralds to a Warsaw crowd, "That is nothing compared to what happens in McDonald's and Kentucky Fried shit every day."
2010: Discussing animal cruelty in China, Morrissey tells The Guardian, "You can't help but feel that the Chinese people are a subspecies."
2009: Morrissey leaves the stage at Coachella, explaining "The smell of burning animals is making me sick. I can smell burning flesh . . . and I hope to God it's human."
2002: From the documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey: "Bring me the head of Elton John . . . which is one instance in which meat would not be murder, if it were served on a plate."
1994: When asked about an incident in which
an Australian student shot a starting pistol at the Prince of Wales, Morrissey responds, "I wish that Prince Charles had been shot. I think it would have made the world a more interesting place."
1992: Morrissey knocks dance music. "It's the
refuge for the mentally deficient. It's made by dull people for dull people."
1985: Morrissey slams the charity group
Band Aid and its co-founder. "Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Band Aid was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music."
Ask Oli A Question Have a question about high-impact direct mail?
Drop us an email at sophie@oliluke.com and you can be featured in our upcoming newsletter.
Since you’ve increased the bad language and aggressiveness of your emails/content – how many unsubscribes have you had? A fair few.
Some people on my email list are soft and easily take offense.
How long does it take you to write these newsletters?
Some have been funnier than others – many have peacefully bowed out and some people have had a whine because they’ve took offense on behalf of their invisible sky-friend.
Half a day usually.
These would never have been good clients – we wouldn’t get on. But the flipside of the unsubscribes has been the responses/love from people that are on my wave-length that I’d enjoy working with.
But I do travel First Class because I’m such a G (so I get wifi and gallons of free coffee).
It’s a win/win and it’s so much fun. The little aggressive voice in my head that has a low tolerance for bullshit or people’s head-shit has been given a platform. I’m still working out where people’s line is – I thought the email where I captioned a picture of Barak Obama busting his nuts would have been the line for some … it wasn’t. So, I’ll try to push the boundaries again and maybe share some views on why 9/11 was an inside job or why footballers deserve to be paid more than soldiers. (That will be sure to push a few buttons.) That said, I really don’t want angry veterans breaking into my house and punching me to death. We’ll see. I feel much safer pushing the boundaries with you – because if you’ve requested this newsletter, then you’re indoctrinated and have a high tolerance.
I’m on the train to London at the moment – which is a solid two hours of coffee and writing.
My “first class” dream is that one day either Morrissey, Ricky Gervais or Russell Brand will be on the train and I can cream my pants whilst trying to convince them why we should be best mates. The reality of First Class is that I’m sat next to some arsehole family with two entitled kids and a mum that is turning her nose up at the member of staff because she put too much milk in her tea. These aren’t my people.
From doing work in both the UK and the USA – what do you see as the biggest differences? The USA is so much better from a business perspective. Here’s the difference … In the UK, we embrace failure – in the US, they embrace and encourage success. American kids get told they’ll be the president, while British kids get told that getting a job is a great success.
There’s also a difference if you sell information. Americans pay for education – they pay hundreds of thousands to simply go to school. In the UK, it’s free. Which means that when Americans are buying information, attending a course or going to a conference, they expect it to be thousands of dollars … whereas we turn our nose up at a full day of training costing more than a couple of hundred pounds. It’s been interesting. I do like the USA, though. (The only strange thing about it is that my house is older than their country.)
Are these questions asked by real people or do you make them up? What do you think I am? Of course they’re made up. I come up with a good piece of advice or something that makes me look funny … I then come up with a fake question in order to set me up. I’m desperate to look smarter/funnier than I am. With that said, I would like to answer your questions. Email them to me at oli@oliluke.com (In order to ensure it avoids my SPAM folder, please use the subject line “Buy Penis Enlargement Pills”.)
Direct Mail Expert Oli Luke’s, Private Monthly Newsletter
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Sending High-Impact Direct Mail to Your Prospect/Customer Lists
Written by Oli Luke and featured in Chris Cardell’s prestigious ‘Business Breakthroughs’ newsletter
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n my previous two articles, I’ve spoken about ways you can win meetings through direct mail and the most common mistakes, but I’m yet to talk about the “lowest hanging fruit”, which is to send direct mail to your current prospects/customers.
These should go without saying – but you’d be surprised how many people forget about these – and they are that unless you have a strong proposition, a reason for people to buy and a clear path to take action, then your direct mail campaign (or any marketing that you run for that matter) will fail.
There are three huge advantages to mailing your current prospects/customers.
As the famous “Market, Message, Media” triangle suggests – unless you have your market and message defined, then you shouldn’t even think about the “Media”.
1.
You may already have their postal details – at the very least, you’ll have their email addresses (and I’ll share a quick way to turn email addresses to postal addresses in a minute).
2.
You already have a relationship with these people – rather than having to write a campaign that overcomes the “who are you?!” objection.
3.
These people should be the most responsive – they know who you are, they have an interest in what you’re selling and if you’ve been doing the right directresponse kind of marketing that Chris teaches, then they’ll already see you as the expert/leader in your marketplace.
These three huge advantages make sending direct mail to your prospect/customers list your highest chance at generating huge returns. In this article, I’m going to share the three-step process of gaining your email subscribers’ postal details, sending them a high-impact direct mail campaign and maximising your results. But before we get started, we need to address the fundamentals.
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This means that unless you know exactly what you’re promoting—the reason the readers should take action and how they take action— then you shouldn’t be thinking about how to contact these people. The number of people that just decide “I’m going to send some direct mail” or “I’m going to setup some Facebook adverts” without any plans or understanding of exactly what they’re promoting is baffling. Have you worked out your offer/proposition and why people should buy from you? Good. Let’s jump into the three-step process to building an effective direct mail campaign to your prospects/customers.
Step One – Acquiring Postal Details You should do what I’m about to share regardless of whether you’re planning on sending direct mail or not – gaining as much of your prospects’/ customers’ data is a smart thing to do. That way, you’re not relying on one marketing channel to communicate with them – you can reach them through numerous routes.
Here’s what you should do. Send a short email series to your email subscribers and offer them something physical for free. This could be a copy of your book, it could be your print newsletter or it could be a brochure/ piece of literature. Drive these people to a simple form where they can give you their address and ensure it integrates with your CRM (to keep the process simple). Sure, you’ll have to dip your hand into your pocket and invest to get your materials to the people that request them – but this can be outsourced and the cost should be marginal. But this achieves two things. Firstly, it gets postal details.
your
subscribers’
But secondly, it shows you who your responsive subscribers are and who has a strong interest in working with/buying from you. It essentially builds you a hot list, as they give you permission to send them stuff through the post.
Step Two – Preparing Your Direct Mail Piece The most effective direct mail piece that you can send is a traditional sales letter. People over-confuse this, they want to overdesign a brochure and insert business cards, fold-out calendars and all sorts of stuff that dilute the reasoning for sending the mail in the first place.
Keep it simple and send them a sales letter that gives them a reason to buy what you’re selling. I don’t want to teach you to suck eggs – but there are three key fundamentals to this letter. Firstly, you want to have an offer or a reason why people should take action straight away. This could be a discount, it could be an additional bonus or it could be something brand new that will naturally pique people’s interest. Secondly, it must have a deadline. This can either be a date/time, it could be limited places or it could be a natural deadline like an event taking place. But having a solid deadline will be a big difference between your campaign succeeding and failing. Thirdly, you must have a simple call-to-action.
Step Three – The Results Are in The Follow-Up I discussed this last month, but I can’t stress its importance. Simply sending your direct mail piece and then sitting back and waiting for the results is a surefire way to leave a lot of cash on the table. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll get a spike of sales when it first lands, but if you follow-up correctly, you’ll get a consistent number of sales during the offer period with another spike at the deadline. From my experience (and we send a lot of campaigns resulting in hundreds of thousands of pieces being sent from our mailing house) – the most effective follow-up consists of a wellwritten email campaign and a phone call. You can “go to town” and have multiple direct mail pieces and remarketing banners – but a direct mail piece, email reminders and a phone call work incredibly well.
You want to make it really easy for people to take action – whether they need to visit a page and fill in an application form or go to make a transaction.
Some Quick Wins
Don’t make them jump through hoops to take action or just put a phone number on there that nobody answers from 5pm to 9am.
Do you have a sales message written anywhere online? Do you drive people to sales pages? Or have an explanation of your proposition?
These three fundamentals, along with a strong proposition of the offer and the reasons why people should buy, will ensure you have an effective sales letter (which will become a major asset to your business).
If so, then you could copy this into a document and send this to the prospects in your pipeline that are yet to buy from you.
That might sound like a lot of work, but there are probably some quick wins that you could take advantage of today.
It’s a case of some copying & pasting, then sending to a mailing house to fulfil.
This doesn’t require much work, but it will almost guarantee that you will make more of an effort than your competitors are. You could even use a company like “Doc-Mail” – we have an intergration which links between our CRM (InfusionSoft) and DocMail – we’re also building one for Scribble Mail – which means that when somebody requests something physical, it can be fulfilled automatically. Doc-Mail are great for cheap basic mailing – so whether people are giving contact details to request a physical lead magnet or whether you want to send “worksheets” ahead of a Webinar, DocMail will do all the work for you (often for less than £1.00 per piece).
“These three fundamentals, along with a strong proposition of the offer and the reasons why people should buy, will ensure you have an effective sales letter ”
Direct Mail Expert Oli Luke’s, Private Monthly Newsletter
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{Advanced Direct Mail Strategies}
Getting The Most Juice Out of Your Sales Staff
(Not an Euphemism … can I say that? This fucking egg-shell walking PC world … it’s a joke. Righ t?!)
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ur first full-time sales person started for our ‘Scribble Mail’ business three weeks ago …
… and after advising you to hire a sales person for a while now, it’s nice for me to eat my own dog food. In this article, I want to share the three key things that we’ve implemented in the business to ensure he’s profitable from day one.
1. The Ten Minute Maximum Call Back Every time that we get a quote come in, somebody fills in a contact form or somebody requests a sample pack … Ian (our sales person) is tasked with calling them immediately. Ideally, they get a call within 30 seconds of clicking the submit button – but we have a 10-minute maximum. Ian can then ask what they’re looking for, best help them and strike whilst they’re hot. You see, we’re in a world where everything is expected to be immediate. The problem is, most businesses take hours or even days to get back to quotes or enquiries (if they get back at all). The scary truth is, you could probably order sex with a stranger online quicker than you can get a reply from most businesses. But the speed of reply massively impacts the chance of whether or not the lead becomes a client. Invoco (who are a brilliant UK telecom company – great for anything from tracking numbers to full telephone services) recently published some interesting stats.
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Scenario
Conversion Rate
Phone enquiries answered first time
83%
Website call back requests/ missed calls returned within 10 minutes
73%
Website call back requests/ missed calls returned within 90 minutes
57%
Website call back requests/ missed calls returned within 4 hours
45%
Website call back requests/ missed calls returned longer than 4 hours
17%
It allows you to manage where all leads are up to with your sales process, which is great for the person chasing the leads and great for you to know where everybody is up to. Here’s a quick screenshot of ours.
Look at the difference in conversion from the calls that were answered immediately/ responded to immediately, compared to those that were replied to just four hours later.
As you can see, we have different pipes.
Seriously, if you currently reply to quotes within four hours, you have the potential to almost double your sales by getting your team to reply within ten minutes.
We then have different categories as we send them the sample, follow-up the sample, quote them, chase quote and have quote accepted.
Yeah, you might have to have an awkward chat with your sales team and they probably won’t like it – but this is the difference between growing a business that can be sold for millions and stumbling along with small profits.
2. Managing Leads Efficiently We purchased a license of a tool called PipeDrive (www.pipedrive.com). It’s seriously good. If you have any form of team that handles sales, then it’s well worth having in place.
We have “Lead In”. (When somebody requests a sample, they’re automatically dropped in here.)
From within here, we can also schedule calls/ appointments, make notes on each individual lead and manage our emails from within. It’s a brilliant piece of kit that allows us to stay on top of where we’re up to and ensures we’re not dropping the ball with any leads and there are no holes in our bucket. I find that a lot of sales people just work from spreadsheets – this keeps everything clean and it costs something stupid like $24.00/month (14day free trial also).
{How To Work With Oli}
Direct Mail Titans
OUT – D L O S Th is is u n t il 2 0 19 y t i il b a il n o ava
The coaching program for cuttingedge marketers that want to utilise high-impact direct mail. On this coaching programme you’ll:
3. Setting Targets We’ve been very clear about our targets for Ian. We could have targeted him based on actions (how many calls he makes, etc.) or how much cash he brings in – we decided on the latter, as it’s the only real important factor.
We’ve set three different targets. 1.
2. 3.
Minimum acceptable standard – this is the bare minimum that he can achieve – anything less than this and we have problems. True target – this is the target that we’re aiming for – we’ll be happy with him if he meets this number. Stretch target – this is a big target, which if he hits, we’re all going to a football game and an evening on the beers. (I hope he hits it for multiple reasons!)
These targets are on a big whiteboard in the office and we have an end-of-month management meeting to discuss/review. That’s it.
•
Acquire postal details from your current email subscribers (to give you more reach and gain more contact information)
•
Build a “Sandwich Page” into your current funnel/lead acquisition process to start effortlessly acquiring postal information (an average of 40% of all new leads will give you this)
•
Monthly newsletter templates and content angles/ideas, allowing you to effortlessly create your monthly print newsletters
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“Client Conversion Kit” templates and training – making it easy for you to build a high-impact sales-increasing box of materials
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Fortnightly group coaching calls where you can ask Oli questions, get input on your direct mail/marketing and rub shoulders with other members
•
Quarterly Mastermind meetings – a full day of high-level training and masterminding as Oli works personally on your business.
Application only £797.00/month 12-Month Commitment
Direct Mail Implementation The done-for-you implementation program to have high-impact direct mail and print newsletters built into your business. As a member of our direct mail implementation program you will have the full resources of the team who will: •
Build an online funnel that will acquire your subscribers’/new leads’ postal information automatically
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Done-for-you monthly 8-page newsletters – including full design, content and print management
•
“Client Conversion Kit” created for you – allowing you to utilise the high-impact sales machine in your business
•
A direct mail campaign personally built and written by Oli Luke (worth £25,000)
•
Direct Voxer access to Oli to ask questions and get personal input on your marketing/business.
Application only £2,997.00/month Minimum 12-month commitment Limited to 10 people More information: www.oliluke.com/implementation
Have Oli Build Your Direct Mail Campaign Oli will personally build you a direct mail campaign, write all your sales copy and manage the entire project. Application only Starts at £25,000 + 10% royalties on all sales More information: Contact sophie@oliluke.com
Direct Mail Expert Oli Luke’s, Private Monthly Newsletter
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{Oli’s Rant}
You’re Not an “Expert”, You’re a Massive Bell End
T
here’s somebody that I follow on Facebook that in the three years that I’ve been “friends” with them, they’ve labelled themselves as a:
•
Because of this, unless he gets incredibly lucky, then he’ll probably never achieve the success he’s obviously craving
•
Social Media Expert
But his big problem is his entire focus is always on the next 30 days, never mind the next 12 months or the next five years …
•
Facebook Expert
… and I get it, people need to earn money.
•
Fitness Expert
•
Life Coach
•
… and now they’re calling themselves “Bitcoinpreneur”
But if this kid would stop buying fancy watches and instagraming his first class travel to try to give the impression that he’s the success that he isn’t – then maybe he wouldn’t need to sell quick shit to people to survive.
You might know who I’m talking about … you might not. But it’s fucking embarrassing. Let me hold my hand up, I’ve jumped around a little bit – I started by niching into direct mail, then I moved into funnels and now I’ve learnt my lessons and reverted back to direct mail …
The internet has given us an immense ability to take our message to our market with ease, make sales and win customers all over the globe … … but it’s also given birth to ego-hungry fuckers that are desperate to prove to their dad that they’re successful and impress the 16-year-old girl that turned them down for the school prom.
… but I’ve always stayed in my lane.
I don’t really know where this rant is going – but this guy really pissed me off with his “bitcoinpreneur” name – what a tool.
Getting results from advanced marketing strategies is my thing … but the guy above is just a cash-chasing lunatic.
I’ve also seen some guy on Instagram calling himself “Knowledgepreneur” – Jesus, do me a favour, mate.
He constantly thinks there’s an easier way to make money so he moves from one thing to another thing …
Horrible, isn’t it?
Here’s the problem. •
He’s not an expert at anything that he’s claimed to be (He’s never given it the time to hone his skills)
•
He seems to move on to the next thing every time something seems like hard work
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2.
The trick is to go further/try more than anybody else in your industry does – the further down the rabbit-hole you go, the more untouchable you become. 3. Never come up with your own “preneur” name thing – it’s embarrassing. If I ever call myself “directmailpreneur” – then I give you permission to shoot me in the face. Focus, my friends. I’ve learnt/learning the hard way that it’s always the answer.
Cheers. Oli The “Rantpreneur” TM ©
What’s the message in this rant? Well, it’s three things. 1.
Stay in your lane, have patience and understand that the shiny light of “easy money” is almost never true.
Drop your ego and focus on building a fucking business rather than giving the impression that you are. Seriously, if people actually just did the work without needing constant gratification – then they’d be much happier/much more successful.
If anything I’ve said has upset you, annoyed you or made you want to unsubscribe from receiving this publication – then firstly, stop being a baby, but secondly, email sophie@oliluke.com to be removed.
Get In Contact www.oliluke.com oli@oliluke.com “Any questions, need any help or just want to chew the fat – then drop me an email”