And just in case you did miss that article, a webinar is typically a live video and audio presentation where attendees can see your computer screen and hear you talk as you navigate through a presentation, “how to” demonstration or anything else you’re showing on your computer. They also provide a rich participation environment and give you the flexibility to provide:

• Handouts before or after the webinar
• the ability for attendees to ask questions during the presentation
• live chat with the organizer or other participants
• live attendee polls for getting instant feedback
• automatic follow-up marketing to attendees and even non-attendees

Today’s webinar technology allows you to host LIVE webinars or RECORDED webinars that can be played on-demand or on some type of pre-determined schedule. And before you think you cannot use webinars in your business or think they are too complicated, I want you to know neither of these thoughts is correct and to prove my point, I’m going to describe four ways, four different types of online business owners can use webinars to generate or reinforce their business relationships and create more sales. Think about your own business and how you might be able to use webinars as you read through these scenarios.

Scenario #1: Diet & Health Author – Selling Digital Cookbooks Online
An ebook author could use webinars in several different ways to promote her ebooks. She could host virtual cooking classes for a fee where they show attendees how to make healthy meals. In this scenario, they could show videos or photos of how the food is prepared. She could allow real-time interaction and questions and answers from her paid attendees.

Scenario #2: SEO Expert – Lead Generation and Training Course
An SEO expert could use webinars in several different ways. He could host free, live lead generation webinars to show people how to do keyword research and then offer the opportunity to work with him as a consultant. He could also develop a 10-part course, with each part consisting of a webinar session showing a specific SEO topic. He could sell seats to the live webinars, record them and then use them in a webinar replay system that offers the 10 webinars over the course of 10 weeks in order to get additional sales.

Scenario #3: Internet/Affiliate Marketer – Promoting & Selling Products
An Internet/Affiliate Marketer could easily add webinars to drive new sales to large groups of attendees. Imagine a weekly webinar where she hosts affiliate partners on a content-rich webinar and then offers their product at the end of the webinar. Software demos and Power Point presentations work great as webinar content and are easily created.

Scenario #4: Information Marketer - Product Creation
Webinars provide a great way to create content that could be used to create print or electronic products that can be sold. An info-marketer could host a number of paid or free webinars and on each he is interviewing a guest expert on a specific topic. These webinars could be recorded and turned into videos, DVDs, books and courses.

So there you have four ideas I came up with for different types of online business owners. I know there are many others out there and the use of webinars in your business is only limited by your creativity and imagination.

To help business owners get started using webinars, I’ve created a great product called How to Boost Your Business with P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Webinars! I’ve been using webinars since 2004 and How to Boost Your Business with P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Webinars contains all the strategies, tools and techniques to create hugely profitable webinars, including my proven 7 step strategy to Plan & Promote, Engage, Record, Follow-up, Edit, Convert, and Turn a webinar into a cash machine for your business!

Start creating webinars in your business today!

A webinar is typically a live video and audio presentation where attendees can see your computer screen and hear you talk as you navigate through a presentation, “how to” demonstration or anything else you’re showing on your computer. They also provide a rich participation environment and give you the flexibility to provide:

• Handouts before or after the webinar
• The ability for attendees to ask questions during the presentation
• Live chat with the organizer or other participants
• Live attendee polls for getting instant feedback
• Automatic follow-up marketing to attendees and even non-attendees

The other good news is if you can use a computer - you can host webinars - and I cannot think of a single type of business owner who could not figure out how to host either live or recorded webinars and help strengthen their relationship with their customers, clients and prospects either in a small, 1:1 webinar or a large-scale group webinar.

Today’s webinar technology allows you to host LIVE webinars or RECORDED webinars that can be played on-demand or on some type of pre-determined schedule. And before you think you cannot use webinars in your business or think they are too complicated, I want you to know neither of these thoughts is correct and to prove my point, I’m going to describe four ways, four different types of business owners can use webinars to generate or reinforce their business relationships. Think about your own business and how you might be able to use webinars as you read through these scenarios.

Scenario #1: Restaurant Owner – Online Classes
A smart restaurant owner could use webinars in several different ways. They could host virtual cooking classes for a fee where they show attendees how to make their signature dishes. In this scenario, they could show videos or photos of how the food is prepared. Another way a restaurant owner could use webinars is to create short webinar presentations that showcase the ingredients and how carefully their signature dishes are prepared.

Scenario #2: Estate Planning Lawyer – How to Presentation
Having personally just gone through this experience and having to attend several in-office meetings to go through forms, I can envision an estate planning lawyer using webinars to walk their clients through complicated legal forms and outline the entire estate planning process either live on a monthly basis or via a webinar replay.

Scenario #3 - Real Estate Agent – Virtual Tours
In the ultra-competitive world of real estate agents, rising above the mediocre masses is critical. Imagine a forward-thinking agent who offers her clients the opportunity to learn about a number of homes without hours of driving around. A personalized presentation could be given to a client and then after they’ve narrowed down their preferences, property visits could be made.

Scenario #4: Software/Technology Sales Professional – Software Demos
The smart technology sales professional could use webinars to generate leads for their products and services. Direct mail, email marketing and social media marketing could all funnel leads into a webinar presentation quickly and easily and without ever having to jump on a plane. Software demos and Power Point presentations work great as webinar content.

So there you have four ideas I came up with for different types of offline business owners. I know there are many others out there and the use of webinars in your business is only limited by your creativity and imagination.

Stay tuned for next week's article where I'll discuss different ways online business owners can profit using webinars!

To help business owners get started using webinars, I’ve created a great product called How to Boost Your Business with P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Webinars! I’ve been using webinars since 2004 and How to Boost Your Business with P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Webinars contains all the strategies, tools and techniques to create hugely profitable webinars, including my proven 7 step strategy to Plan & Promote, Engage, Record, Follow-up, Edit, Convert, and Turn a webinar into a cash machine for your business!

Start creating webinars in your business today!

Below, I’m going to share three easy, yet effective strategies anybody can use to write better copy.

The first technique is to create a survey for your customers to fill out and ask specific open-ended questions about your product or service. Then you want to go through all the responses and look for valuable “copy nuggets”, which are gems of copy, written by your customers in their language, as they describe your product or service. You want to look for recurring themes and unique descriptions that you can later use as you write your own copy.

A great way to create surveys is through Survey Monkey (non-affiliate link). Survey Monkey allows you to create any length survey and it will host it online so you can direct prospective or current customers, clients, and patients directly to the survey where you can then analyze the results of, online. You can even embed the surveys into your web page, email them, or more!

What you can do when analyzing your survey results, is to browse through for interesting copy nuggets. Just looking in my own account with surveys I've done I've found some great items such as, "saves me time," "keeps the reader engaged," "quick to use."

You can also dump all of your survey results out into a report so you can view all of the answers at once and browse through for customer-written open ended responses you can pull copy writing nuggets from to use in your copy.

Another unique way to write better copy is to review comments on Amazon.com (non-affiliate link).

Here’s how this works:

The first thing you want to do is search for books on your topic. Let’s use copy writing as an example.

Recently I went into Amazon.com and just searched for the keyword "copy writing." When I clicked on the first  book that came up I was able to see all  of the reviews from customers and pull out words, phrases, and triggers I could use in my marketing copy. I always find some great phrases that I may not be thinking of, but customers are.

Just looking at the first review I recently came across, the word, "indispensable" stuck out for me. This isn't a word I would normally use, but it is a great word to add to my marketing and I can write about how CopyDoodles are indispensable for copy writers.

My last easy copy writing tip is the easiest of the three to use immediately. It has to do with writing email subject lines for your business.

Most of us are doing some sort of email marketing in our businesses and as we write these emails, often times we have our marketer/sales hat on and not our me to you, "I’m a friend" hat on.

The result can be a very corporate and impersonal sounding email and subject line and if your subject line doesn’t get attention, the email isn’t going to get opened.

What you want to do is go through your personal sent emails to friends and family and identify the difference in the way you write these subject lines versus the way you write your business subject lines. Chances are there’s a difference, not only in the words themselves, but also in how they look.

Next time you write a business email subject line, picture your best friend as you craft it, write in that style and see the difference it can make in your open rates.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these easy copy writing tips. Start implementing today to start seeing great results.

I'd love to  hear your easy copy writing tips, too so please leave them below!

Hopefully you know who Dan Kennedy is and if you don’t, and you’re an entrepreneur of any sort, you’re missing on his extraordinary wisdom and business insights.  I suggest you seek out a few of his books on amazon.com.

If you’re familiar with Dan and his genius, you already know about the positive influence he’s had on thousands of business owners around the world over the past several decades.

Given Dan’s current consulting day rate is $18,800, you’ll immediately recognize this is no small decision and I one I prepared for days prior to our meeting.

To say the day was amazingly powerful, would be an understatement and while I cannot go over everything I received that day, I thought I would share three important takeaways that are applicable to all entrepreneurs.

Takeaway #1

I went to Cleveland focused on the business of CopyDoodles®, and Dan made it abundantly clear to grow my business, the passport (as he called it) is not about the thing (in my case CopyDoodles), but instead about me, my years of experience in helping entrepreneurs and the relationship I have with my CopyDoodles members.

As a matter of fact Dan said and I quote, “Your growth will have less to do with your talent, your skill, your expertise or your deliverables than it will your ability and willingness to create and exploit your own status.”

To some that may sound offensive, but if you truly understand what Dan is saying, it’s a truth to amazing income breakthroughs.

Takeaway #2

The second gem Dan Kennedy helped me see was the need for a price strategy that consistently yields a high-quality “who.”

You see one of my questions was about creating a low-priced front end offer for CopyDoodles membership and Dan made it crystal clear why he thought this would be a mistake for my business.

I realize for many folks, in the current economic environment, it’s a natural reaction to lower the barrier of entry to do business with you, but if you consider the potential ramifications (like I did), you’ll see there are better ways to grow your business.

On a side note, I would recommend reading Dan’s recent book he co-authored with Jason Marrs on pricing strategy.

Takeaway #3

The final kick in the pants I want to share is important for any entrepreneur who relies on email and the web as a primary media for their marketing.

Dan was insistent for me to figure out a way to start using offline marketing for both new business and keeping current members longer.

Yes, email and online marketing is cheap and easy, but if you talk to anybody who does a lot of online marketing you will see that it’s becoming very challenging get people to open and read their emails.

I am going to start using direct mail immediately and current CopyDoodles Access Club members are in for a big treat in the coming months so stay tuned!

Bottom line, make sure you’re doing offline marketing!

So there you have it… a brief glimpse into a consulting day with one of the living legends of direct response marketing.  With over 15 pages of jam-packed notes, the investment in a consulting day with Dan Kennedy is going to pay off for years to come!

I love books!

Ever since I was a young child I’ve been a voracious reader. Probably came from my grandmother who had a huge library of her own and was constantly recommending and giving me books as a child.

Over the years I’ve developed quite a library of books and as ebooks and Kindle-like things grow in popularity, I remain steadfast and love the heft and feel of a “real book.” I’ve tried my wife’s Kindle and other than a few quick attempts at using it, I remain a traditionalist when it comes to books.

As a matter of fact just this week, I learned that the 4th edition of Dan Kennedy’s The Ultimate Sales Letter hit the book shelves. I immediately jumped online and rather than download the e-version, I bought the real thing and drove several miles to a local bookstore to pick it up. Here's a non-affiliate link to Amazon.com:

One of the reasons I simply had to have this 4th edition (I currently own the first and third editions) was due to the fact I am one of only two guest contributors in Dan’s book.

Last summer, Dan asked me to rewrite the chapter on adding graphic enhancements to improve the readability and response of copywriting. The result is a completely updated and enhanced look at “copy cosmetics” and how you can use them to improve your copy. I wrote from pages 133 – 148, so grab a copy of The Ultimate Sales Letter 4th Edition and check it out!

My passion for books was further illustrated on a recent episode of Mike Capuzzi's 3 in 3 where I shared a few contemporary books I believe entrepreneurs should all read and based on the number of comments left, it appears most success-oriented entrepreneurs share my love of books. If you haven’t checked it out, visit http://www.mikecapuzzi.tv/must-read-books.

However as much as I love modern books, my real passion is searching for and collecting rare and first edition business-oriented books; the same books that have paved the way for so many of today’s successful entrepreneurs and business owners. Authors like Napoleon Hill, John Caples, David Ogilvy are a few that immediately come to mind.

Recently, I bought a book about famous copywriter, John Caples and it was signed by the author and Caples. Having never had the opportunity to meet John Caples while he was alive, the book is something I will treasure.

I believe every entrepreneur should have his or her own success library. In case you are looking for new additions, or need a reminder of what you may already own, I want to share a list of 70 books that have my personal recommendation for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to learn from the very best.

You’ll notice this list leans towards many of the classic books that you’ve may have already read, which is further evidence that “success leaves tracks”. The most successful entrepreneurs I know all have read the classic books listed below.

In the event you have not read these classics, I suggest you seek them out immediately.

You’ll also see I’ve listed certain authors multiple times and other authors only once (even though there may be other books from them I would recommend). Again this only comes from necessity to keep this list manageable and relatively short.

I hope this list generates some new, must-read books for you or reminds you of a few dusty books sitting on your shelves you may want to pull off and re-read. I would also love to hear your comments and additions to this list, so leave a comment below!

1. Jay Abraham  -  Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got

2. Richard Bayan - More Words That Sell

3. Richard Bayan -  Words That Sell

4. Harry Beckwith -  Selling the Invisible

5. Harry Beckwith -  The Invisible Touch

6. Harry Beckwith -  What Clients Love

7. Richard Benson -  Secrets of Successful Direct Mail (Classic)

8. Drayton Bird -   Common Sense Direct Marketing

9. Robert Bly  -  Business to Business Direct Marketing

10. Robert Bly -  Copywriters Handbook

11. Bob Burg -  The Go Giver

12. John Caples -  How to Make Your Advertising Make Money (Classic)

13. John Caples  -  Tested Advertising Methods (4th Edition) (Classic)

14. Robert Cialdini  -   Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

15. Robert Cialdini  -  Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

16. Robert Collier  -  The Robert Collier Letter Book (Classic)

17. Jim Collins -  Good to Great

18. T. Harv Eker  -  Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

19. Michael Gerber  -   The E-Myth Revisited

20. Jeffrey Gitomer  -  Little Red Book of Selling

21. Jeffrey Gitomer  -  The Sales Bible

22. Malcolm Gladwell   -  Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

23. Malcolm Gladwell  -  The Tipping Point

24. Bill Glazer  -  Outrageous Advertsing That’s Outrageously Successful

25. Rene Gnam  - Direct Mail Workshop

26. Seth Godin -  All Marketers Are Liars

27. Seth Godin  -  Permission Marketing

28. Seth Godin  -  Purple Cow

29. Herschell Gordon Lewis -  Sales Letters That Sizzle

30. E. Haldeman-Julius -  The First Hundred Million (Classic)

31. Denny Hatch -   2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success

32. Denny Hatch -   Method Marketing

33. Denny Hatch  -   Million Dollar Mailings

34. Napoleon Hill -   Grow Rich With Peace of Mind

35. Napoleon Hill -   The Laws of Success (Classic)

36. Napoleon Hill -  Think and Grow Rich (Classic)

37. Richard Hodgson -   The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of All Time

38. Claude Hopkins -   Scientific Advertising (Classic)

39. Joe Karbo   -   The Lazy Man's Way to Riches (Classic)

40. Dan Kennedy  -   No B.S. Guide to Business Success

41. Dan Kennedy  -   No B.S. Guide to Sales Success

42. Dan Kennedy  -  No B.S. Guide to Time Management

43. Dan Kennedy  -  The Ultimate Marketing Plan

44. Dan Kennedy -  The Ultimate Sales Letter, 4^th Edition

45. Robert Kiyosaki -  Rich Dad, Poor Dad

46. Julian Lewis Watkins  - The 100 Greatest Ads (Classic)

47. Michael Masterson -  Ready, Fire, Aim

48. Geoffrey Moore  - Crossing the Chasm

49. Ted Nicholas  - Billion Dollar Marketing Secrets

50. Ted Nicholas -  How to Turn Words Into Money

51. Ted Nicholas -  Magic Words That Bring You Riches

52. David Ogilvy  - Confessions of an Advertising Man (Classic)

53. David Ogilvy - Ogilvy on Advertising (Classic)

54. Raleigh Pinskey -  101 Ways to Promote Yourself

55. Steven Pressfield -  The War of Art

56. Nido Qubein -   Stairway to Success

57. Rosser Reeves  -   Reality in Advertising (Classic)

58. Robert Ringer -  Action!: Nothing Happens Until Something Moves

59. Robert Ringer  - Winning Through Intimidation

60. Jim Rohn - The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn

61. Maxwell Sackheim -   Billion Dollar Marketing (Classic)

62. Maxwell Sackheim -  My First Sixty Years in Advertising (Classic)

63. Victor Schwab -   How to Write a Good Advertisement (Classic)

64. Eugene Schwartz -   Breakthrough Advertising (Classic)

65. Steven K. Scott  -  Mentored By a Millionaire

66. Bob Stone  -  Successful Direct Marketing Methods (Classic)

67. Joe Sugerman  -  Advertising Secrets of the Written Word

68. Joe Sugerman -  Triggers

69. Donald Trump -  Think Like a Champion

70. Zig Ziglar  -   Secrets of Closing the Sale

I don’t know about you, but lately it seems many people forget just how fortunate we are to be entrepreneurs who are able to add value to our customers’ and clients’ lives.  Regardless of the “new economy”, there’s no excuse not to be mindful and appreciative of those around us, especially our customers, clients and patients.

I want to share with you a business strategy that by itself, can have a dramatic and positive effect on your business.  And get this, EVERYBODY reading this can immediately   implement and use in their business… EVERY BODY!!!

It’s the power of the simple, handwritten business thank you letter or card.  Just today, I received three such cards in the mail, including this one from my Elite Experience Mastermind member, Nina Hershberger.

I know business owners that use thank you cards as a primary marketing strategy and their results are phenomenal!   Here’s what my friend and master marketer Michael McLean has to say about his use of handwritten thank you cards.

"Since leaving professional sports and joining my fathers insurance agency in 2003 we were able to TRIPLE in size ($3.4 Million - $11.1 Million) in 36 short months - writing handwritten personalized 'Thank You Cards' has been the  # 1 secret to our MASSIVE business building results.

I have been personally writing and mailing 4-5 ‘thank you cards' per day since 2003 (over 1,125 cards per year). Thank you cards are an investment in client retention, drive quality referrals, end my business day on a POSITIVE note and create a true WOW experience for our clients. Little hinges do swing BIG doors."

Michael McLean
President of McLean Insurance & Renegade Insurance Marketing

Think about it… who doesn’t like to be appreciated and thought of?  This is an extremely powerful emotion you should be tapping into regularly and to help you consider when to send thank you cards, here’s a list of opportunities:

• When you get a new client/customer

• When an existing client/customer who gives you a new project

• When someone who makes a referral to your company

• When a peer who gives you helpful advice

• As a follow-up after a meeting or phone call

• For a job well done by an employee, vendor, or associate

When someone shows you a kindness

On the next episode of CopyDoodles TV, I am going to show you how I use handwritten thank you cards in my business and give you valuable design tips for creating your own unique thank you card.  I am also going to show off a number of cards I’ve created and that I have received from grateful colleagues.  Don’t miss it!

As you consider the gratitude in your own life and business, I highly recommend reading or rereading the book, “The GoGiver.”  Check out the site at www.thegogiver.com.

Finally, if you have a unique business thank you letter you send out, send me a JPEG or PDF of it and I may include it in the next episode of CopyDoodles TV.

As 2010 winds down, the smart entrepreneur automatically starts thinking about starting off 2011 with new and powerful initiatives.  I myself have spent a number of hours recently with my team thinking about creating even more value for my customers and clients.

This is a question you should be pondering too.  How can you create even more value for your customers, clients, or patients?

I have a number of new things to help business owners and entrepreneurs get more juice out of their marketing in 2011 and beyond.  Here's a list of the biggies and you can watch the video above to learn even more about each of these (and maybe get a few ideas for your business too!).

1. Former customer (and creator of the Lauren Edition of CopyDoodles), now marketing director, Lauren Wuscher has joined our team and will be focused on spreading the gospel of CopyDoodles.

2. Lauren will be publishing a CopyDoodles Access Club Members-only e-newsletter that will be chock-full of cool ideas to polish the look of your copy.  It's called CopyBling and the first issue is will be sent to Members later this week!

3. If you're heading to the Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle InfoSummit, make sure you stop by the CopyDoodles booth and say “Hi” to Lauren.  While you're there, she has a special, valuable gift for all attendees, so make sure you grab your Copy Cosmetics tip sheet in Baltimore!

4. We’ve updated our CopyDoodles Affiliate Program and are actively looking for the right Affiliates to help promote CopyDoodles.  We are also looking for Joint Venture partners to create industry niche editions. Let us know if either of these opportunities might be right for you.

5. I am starting a new Web TV network with two shows on it.  The first show is CopyDoodles TV, which is back in production for the third year.  Each month, I plan on releasing two valuable episodes to show you innovative ways to increase the attention-grabbing power of your marketing with CopyDoodles and everything else found in the CopyDoodles Access Club.

I am also producing a brand new Web TV show.  It's called Mike Capuzzi's 3 in 3 and you're gonna love it.  Each episode is only 3 minutes long and will contain 3 unique ideas, resources or tips to help you and your business.  It's very cool and our first episode is scheduled to debut on Tuesday, November 2, 2010!

6. Hundreds of folks have attended my CopyDoodles Success Webinars and based on the positive response, we'll keep bringing these to you.  These LIVE webinars will feature some of the smartest marketers and entrepreneurs I know in a content-rich, no-pitch monthly webinar.

7.In 2011, I will be hosting my second year of my Elite Experience Mastermind Group.  I am hosting an introductory webinar on November 4, 2010.  Details at:

http://www.mikecapuzzi.com/webinars/mastermind

8. And finally, I’ve spent the last year working on a very unique, very powerful "personalized marketing" software system that I plan on opening up to the world in early 2011.  Early adopters love it and it has the potential to change the way bricks and mortar business owners create marketing campaigns.

So that's what we are up to.  I hope each of these initiatives can help you build an even more profitable business in 2011!

These days few things stand out on many business web sites and it's as if many sites come from the same cookie-cutter mold.  Business owners and entrepreneurs are missing out on relationship-building and income-producing opportunities, simply because their web sites fail to grab the attention of viewers.

Smart marketers use a collection of proven response-boosting web strategies to grab the attention of these potentially valuable eyeballs and while there is no one, single "killer" strategy, adding the uniqueness of handwriting and hand drawn doodles to your web site is a proven response booster.

I suppose it's the jolt of seeing something so personal and hand-made on something that is computer-generated that shocks the eyes and brain to take a pause and try to register what in fact you're seeing.  Regardless it works and done right, can yield big bumps in response.

As a matter of fact, copywriter Mike Humphreys constantly split-tests elements on his various web sites and found that by adding a single CopyDoodle next to an optin box, he received a 297% bump in the number of people who opted in versus without the CopyDoodle.  Click here to read Mike's own article on his split test results.

Unfortunately, unless you were an HTML guru, adding CopyDoodles to web sites was limited to placing them around and next to things and being able to "write on top" of your web pages was next to impossible.

UNTIL NOW!

With the release of my CopyDoodles® Access Club, members will be able to quickly and easily "drag and drop" CopyDoodles, CopyFlash and CopyStamps ON TOP of their web pages to create a super realistic effect of literally handwriting on your site.

Check out videos where I show you how simple we've made this under "Demos" on the site:

http://www.copydoodles.com

Now just about anybody who can drag and drop and cut and paste code can add these proven response-boosting CopyDoodles and more to their web pages.  One beta tester called it a "game changer."

See for yourself and watch my CopyDoodles Access Club demo videos at:

http://www.copydoodles.com

My fax back was short and to the point… HELL YEAH!!!

I own the very first edition (1990) of The Ultimate Sales Letter and it was the book that introduced me to Dan Kennedy and his powerful marketing strategies.  To be asked personally by Dan to contribute to the 2011 edition of this book is an honor and shows how important Dan considers the topic of “copy cosmetics.”

As a matter of fact, back in May, I was the guest of Dan at his Business of Copywriting Academy where I discussed the topic of copy cosmetics and the critical relationship between HOW your copy looks and the response it gets.

Over the past few years, I’ve immersed myself in the study of copy cosmetic techniques and strategies.  One of these techniques includes the use of handwritten margin notes and doodles, which triggered the idea for CopyDoodles® first for my own client work and most recently for thousands of business owners around the world.

Copy cosmetics are an often overlooked, but critically important topic for any direct response marketer or copywriter.  Their proper use allows you to create attention-grabbing marketing that is easy (and fun) to read and makes an emotional connection with the reader.  Plus they set you apart from the 97% of marketers who don’t use them.

Plain Vanilla Letter

Letter Using Several Copy Cosmetic Strategies!

I’ve already started working on the chapter outline and I’ve identified 27 unique copy cosmetic strategies everybody should be using when crafting their copy (online or offline – it doesn’t matter).

Just today I was interviewed by restaurant marketing expert Rory Fatt, on how independent restaurant owners can use these techniques (if you would like a copy of this interview along with a cheat sheet of 27 techniques I will be writing about in the next edition of The Ultimate Sales Letter, simply share your copy cosmetic thoughts below and I will make sure we email it to you when it’s ready).

So I was pleasantly surprised while having dinner the other day with my business partner at a local restaurant. This restaurant is owned by an entrepreneur who “get’s it.”

I know for the fact the owner is a consummate marketer and his success is evident at the large number of restaurants he owns.  As a matter of fact, he just published his first book, which was available for purchase as we entered the restaurant.

But this is not the smart strategy I am referring to.  The smart strategy, and one you can steal for your business, is what happened at the conclusion of our dinner.

When the waitress appeared with our check, she also handed both of us, two pieces of paper (notice she didn’t give us just one set, but two – one for each of us).

The first was a “business card” giving us a 20% discount at a future visit.  This is an extremely smart strategy to study for several reasons.

•    First, it was presented as a “thank you gift” for visiting that evening.  Who doesn’t want to be thanked and acknowledged for their patronage?

•    Second, the discount was substantial enough to get my attention.  Had it been a 5% discount – the card wouldn’t have mattered.  But a 20% discount is worth holding onto.

•    Third, the owner understands that consumers are funny and while they may enjoy dinner at his restaurant, it doesn’t mean they’re coming back.  By offering a substantial future discount, he tapped into human nature knowing that few of us can pass up saving money while enjoying a nice meal.

The only improvement I would suggest to him is putting a deadline on the card so that it forces me to use it by a certain date.  It could be a generic “Must Use Within 30 Days” or he could leave room for the waitress to stamp a date based on my visit date.

The other piece of paper was an invitation to join his VIP Club.  Again this example is worthy of study for several reasons.

•    First and foremost, he’s making a serious effort to get my attention and contact information.  I am sure he has an impressive marketing follow-up strategy by both email and direct mail.  I wonder what I will receive on my birthday and anniversary?

•    Second, he’s giving me several reasons to give him my contact information, including lunch at a 50% discount, giveaways, event specials, etc.

•    Finally, he’s reassuring me that my information is safe.

If you’re a bricks and mortar business owner – how can you use these two strategies in your business?

If you’re allowing people to visit your location and not giving them a BIG reason to want to return and be contacted by you in the future, you’re leaving large amounts of money on the table.  Study the Doc Magrogan example and use it in your business to improve your marketing!