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!

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The big lesson for today is understanding how to create marketing that crosses the goal line.  What I mean is, in many cases marketing will get somebody to a certain point in the process and then not create the final and necessary steps to score (a.k.a. get the prospect to take action).

Using a football metaphor, it’s similar to getting to the five yard line and then not being able to get a touchdown.  All the work to get them to a certain point has been done, but not the necessary final push to score.

In my pile of mail today, I received a direct mail advertisement that exemplifies this short-coming.  Let’s walk through both the letter and the envelope it came in. The blue notes are my notes to you to illustrate the good and bad points

When I received this direct mail advertisement envelope, it looked very personal (except for the indicia) which gave it away as business mail.  The direct mail advertisement was hand-written in real handwriting, taking it to the 5 yard line, but then the company used an indicia versus a live stamp, which prevented the score. Even though this was a mistake the marketer receives a B+ for effort.  Now let’s look at the letter.

This direct mail advertisement letter is a classic example of doing a few good things, but several really dumb things that negate all the good work.  First the good things:

• Personalization increases response and increases conversion.

• Hand-signed signature conveys a real “me to you” letter so it appears to be coming from a real person.

Unfortunately, that’s about it for good techniques.  Now for the bad…

• Logo at top of letter tells me right way this is not personal correspondence (I wonder why they can afford a color logo, but not “real” printing for the envelope?)

• Copy is very weak and is classic, corporate-style copy.  It’s all about them and not my pains and concerns.  When writing copy, always keep your prospect and his pains in mind.  Remember, your reader is always thinking W.I.I.F.M – “what’s in it for me?”

• This direct mail advertisement has no strong call to action.  No urgency.  All he is doing is warning me that he’s going to call.  It would have been much better if he gave me the opportunity to raise my hand and request information from him.

• Telling me to visit their Web site without giving me a reason to visit is worthless and a waste of prime copy real estate.

• Other side of the direct mail advertisement letter was completely blank and could have been used for testimonials, etc.

So there you have it.  A business to business direct mail advertisement letter that had the makings of a pretty decent direct mail package that fails to cross the goal line.

If you’re going to do the hard work of marketing your product or service, make sure you go follow through and create marketing that grabs attention and converts.

Remember, getting all the way to the five yard line, regardless of how you got there, doesn’t count for anything!

Click on the link to download a PDF of this direct mail advertisement envelope and letter example.

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