Tuesday, 9:39 PM
Dear Friend,
I’ve always got my antennae up looking for new opportunities.
You’d be surprised at all the different places I’ve discovered unexploited opportunities. You can find them everywhere… if you keep your eyes and ears open.
Lately, I’ve been most interested in affluent markets.
Why?
Because it takes about the same amount of work and investment to sell a $5,000 product as it does a $30 product… so which would you rather sell?
Anyhoo… check out this article I saw on on Yahoo News the other day.
After I read that, I looked this designer up on Google and found his website here.
The wheels in my head started turning and my greed glands became activated… again.
Can you think of any opportunities here?
I threw this out to my coaching group the other day to see what they could come up with. One of my new proteges, Colin Chung, came up with not one, but TWO ingenious ideas for this market. Either one could make him a small fortune.
But I’m keeping that a secret between me and my proteges for now.
Hey, I’ve got an idea…
Why don’t you scroll down to the comments box and let me know how YOU would capitalize on this affluent market.
The best entry wins a surprise from me that Gary Halbert said no copywriter should be without.
Looking forward to your ideas.
All the best,
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Dan,
I would utilize the age-old exclusivity & scarcity hooks.With the super-rich hiring chaffeurs trained by former Secret Service personnel to fine-tooth combed background checks for domestic help the rich & famous are sparing no expense;who would blame them?
It would be fun to write that sales letter, wouldn't it? In fact, if I were writing it, I would swipe most of what you wrote here!
DD
DD
Hey Dan,
Another sweet post.
I would put together a DVD explaining this guy's defense system and use it as part of a two-step marketing plan to sell these ultra expensive panic rooms.
With the DVD complete, I would write the ad, and raise this guy's prices for a bigger cut of the pie. With his permission of course.
I think simple is best.
I like it, Courtney!
DD
Part 1
Interview the architect, find out what his goals are and what he has already done to find clients (what worked and what didn’t). He may not be interested in a JV, that’s OK the technical stuff can be contracted. We can still compete in the niche.
Focus on who and why. List potential target audience attributes such as:
-The richest person in every town that is the most paranoid of loss.
-They desire to be the last surviving person.
-Takes pride in out-doing peers
-Global high profile politicians
Keyword and long-tail keyword searches
Order advertiser press kits to ultra luxury magazines for demographic info used in copy writing research
Research other ultra high niches such as personal armored cars, private jet owners, arms dealers etc.
Compile a list of the highest corporate salaries and bonus in various countries.
Hire a high profile spokesperson that the niche could relate to, to help build trust from an already paranoid niche.
Setup a 800 # at least to a call center to collect as much info as possible and a web site with a keyword rich domain name.
Part 2
Give away a short report on three home security vulnerabilities that 99% of millionaires leave to chance. Capture their email and send out a dozen more vulnerabilities with video examples on an auto-responder sequence. At the end of the sequence offer a $10,000 home security workshop, and a $25,000 personal evaluation/consultation.
At the personal consultation offer general contractor/project management services for security retrofits, upgrades and new constructions.
This would be best accomplished with a small team of people.
Hey Jeff,
All good stuff. I like your thinking. Good job.
When I first started checking out this company I was a little surprised I've never seen them advertising in the Robb Report and magazines like that. I think he's missing out by not regularly doing some kind of DR ads there offering a free DVD/free report.
DD
Woo Come on there Dan, your a great guy and I love to hear from you. But I first want hear my end of the deal for your greed glans activation, at the expense of my possible ideas. lol : )
If he allows me, I'll share Colin Chung's ideas. They were really good. Better than what I had in mind.
DD
Byron,
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Most of us have a lot more ideas than time to take action on them. You could post your 3 best"make yourself a millionaire" ideas on here, or just about anywhere for that matter, and it wouldn't make a bit of difference. no one would act on them. they'd still be all yours for the doing.
did you see the post on the blog post here about creating a better "ear tuning" system and how to market it better? he spoon fed the readership, and no one's doing it. Dan isn't either. know why? because we all have our own ideas that take up all our time.
and most of us have learned that taking action on our own passions/ideas/dreams is a whole lot more fun than limping along following/working on someone else's dream.
and as for Dan personally "stealing" your million dollar idea… well, he has more, and better ideas than most of us will ever have.
so go ahead and post your best stuff. chances are it'll still be all yours.
ideas are common, the balls to act on those ideas is scarce.
rant over.
– Yost
I would go into competition with him. I would think he has his list of buyers, because he's in the security business and claims to have the best in engineers, etc. I would think he has knowledge of marketing or has hired the best to do it for him.
This is what I would do, because my husband has been in industrial construction all of his life and has friends that matter in this situation. And anything's possible.
I would see a design/planning architect first, with engineering support to research the idea. It would trickle down the line to construction. In other words it should be a EPC/ Engineer Procure and Construct joint venture. Generally in EPC contracts the owner/client furnishes the major components. The engineering and construction group both will be involved procuring equipment and material. The contractor will do all phases of the construction. In the industry it's known as a turnkey project.
Then I would hire Dan to market it aggressively.
Good thinking, Shirley.
I especially liked this part:
"Then I would hire Dan to market it aggressively."
YEAH!
Oops… I may have jumped the gun. I hope you mean ME and not Dan Kennedy!
Actually, either would be a good choice!
Thanks for contributing.
DD
Dan, excellent post! So many opportunities, so little time . . . I'd offer a tailored 25 point (or any number) free security /inspection/consultation to likely prospects based on proven demographics. Once my inspection is complete publish my findings in the way of a nice report.
Well, there's my 2 cents worth.
Warmly,
Emette Massey
P.S. That's just the start . . .sadly I've got to go back to my day job.
Part two . . .
This "report" of course is a comphrensive sales letter that outlines exactly how SAFE can provide the very solution your prospect is looking for. I believe I would strongly consider using FACEBOOK as my lead gen advertising medium at least as a test and carefully select my ideal prospect through Facebook's excellent demographic selections. Your ad would be seen only by the most targeted prospects for mere pennies per click. The SAFE website would be totally made over to use direct reponse principles and capture leads. You could repurpose your report and incorporate that some where on the website along with success stories, case histories, and other selling tools showing how vernurable (can't spell today) your really are. My basic sales model would be similar to the way your family doctor sells (problem-diagnoses-solution).
Good points, Emmette.
I'd even consider charging a fairly hefty sum for this security inspection and report. If the client contracts him for further work, the amount paid for the inspection could be credited toward the fee.
DD
These comments inspired some ideas.
I would first arrange a JV relationship with SAFE where they pay me handsome commissions on a per-lead basis for sending them highly qualified leads.
Then I would setup a security inspection company. I would go through the Robb Report or other similar publications and look for companies that sell to owners of multi-million dollar homes. And I would go to these companies to arrange JVs, where these companies endorse me to their wealthy homeowner clients, in exchange for a percentage of the inspection fees.
The endorsed mailings would work something like this: first the homeowners get a call from the endorser (who they have a prior relationship with) telling them to look out for a package. Then a package gets sent to the homeowner by courier. When they open the package, they see an endorsement letter and a portable DVD player.
The endorsement letter credentializes my company and tells the homeowner to immediately watch the video that is in the portable DVD player. The video is a compelling sales presentation that informs the homeowner about the security risks that most rich homeowners don't find out about until it's too late (when criminals strike and their family is in danger). Then the video persuades them to remedy the situation by immediately calling to speak to a home security officer.
When they call, they are connected to a sales rep who sells them on a security inspection. For the homeowners who don't respond to the endorsed mailing, they get a follow-up phone call a few days later that sells them on the security inspection. And when a homeowner requests a security inspection, I get paid twice – once for the security inspection (which I charge a hefty fee for, and split with the endorsing company), and again when I sell the leads for a princely sum to SAFE. Come to think of it, I could even offer the endorsing company 100% of the profits (after mailing costs) from the security inspection, because the big money is in selling the leads to SAFE.
I LOVE the idea of sending a portable DVD player via courier. What a great way to stand out and get their attention!
Great thinking, Jerry!
DD
Hey Dan,
First, let me take a crack at defining what exactly is the market here. Yes it is the affluent market but from what I can see, it is a specific segment of the affluent market; a segment that has specific emotional concerns and fears.
Specifically, this segment represent the affluent who will go to any length (no cost is too large) to ensure that they (and their families) are completely safe in their homes.
However, (and I think this is key), they still want to be able to enjoy their wealth, still do anything they want to in their homes without having to consistently worry about any impending disaster.
They want to enjoy the benefits & freedom of being wealthy without having to feel that they are prisoners of their own riches. They want to have the total peace of mind knowing that whatever happens, their safety & survival is completely assured.
So, being the astute marketer I am suppose to be, I will create products/services that cater to this specific market want. Whatever it is, the basic foundational idea here is: "the best money can buy".
Some specific ideas I came up with are :
1. A nondescript, undetectable security guard service (by ex elite military personnel). The idea here is not to depend on the police for professional protection.
2. A watch that has a GPS positioning panic function. When this function is activated, a 24-hour, always-on-standby search & rescue service immediately goes into action and deploys to wherever the watch's signal is coming from. It doesn't have to be just a watch too. It could be integrated into anything that the client wears; jewelery, belts, other apparel & accessories, etc.
3. Information training products on self-defense strategies taught by ex green beret, navy seals, CIA operatives, SAS, Sayeret Matkal, Mossad, Shaolin Monks, etc. The backend here would of course be one-on-one 'coaching sessions' with regular follow-up refresher sessions.
4. An around-the-clock emergency evacuation service.
5. A high-end home furnishing service targeted at specifically the SAFE homeowners. Whatever type of rooms they want in their SAFE homes, they can get… home cinema, game room, spa, library, home defense control center ala-bat cave, etc.
That's all I have… for now at least. Money definitely makes my mind work better.
Andy
Yeah, Andy! THAT'S what I'm talking about. You got my gears turning with those ideas. All could be VERY high priced products/services with plenty of snob appeal.
Good "going deep" with your market's emotions and desires, too.
DD
Hi Dan,
Lots of opportunities here for sure.
I think I would try to arrange a joint venture with SAFE… something along the lines of telling them I have a method of connecting with ultra-wealthy clients who would be good candidates for their product, and for every new client I brought them, I would get a cut of the fee for any work done for them.
I would then rent a list of affluent consumers interested in personal safety, and create a personalized Gary Halbert-style salesletter, along with a paperback book that completely described SAFE's services. And then create a direct mail campaign to the wealthy consumers, sending the salesletter and book via FedEx.
Does that sound good?
Being a Protege, I would definitely like to hear the two ideas y'all came up with!
Best,
Daryl Thompson
Sounds good to me, Daryl. Good job!
DD
Has anybody noticed any holes in this guy's back story… or ways you could improve his "guru" status in this niche?
DD
I may be missing this on the website but where did he get his training or experience. What is his track record.
Some detailed testimonials or case studies with specific numbers would be nice. Celebrity testimonials perhaps. And testimonials from other known experts in the field.
Andy
I didn't see that info either. I think it's a big gaping hole in their marketing. He needs to credentialize himself and give us a reason to listen to him.
"Former Bodyguard To The Rich & Famous" or something like that would be cool.
DD
Throwing out a crazy idea: issue an open challenge where anyone (or any team of people) who successfully breaks into his panic room gets a $1 million prize. Provided his product really lives up to its claims, he gets credibility from putting his money where his mouth is.
I love this idea. Reminds me of the bus shelter ad some glass company did recently. They had a few thousand dollars trapped in the ad space at a bus shelter… then proceeded to challenge anyone to break the special security glass and take the money.
Here's my two cents:
First, I'd want to build up a list. So we can go two ways about it.
1. Go to the SRDS and see if there are any existing lists that could be rented in this upscale market and see what they're ALREADY buying.
2. Create a free report on different topics (home security, yacht security, etc) and either put in small ads in luxury magazines like the Robb Report or set up a google Adwords campaign offering the free report and build an email list that way. Or, simply do both and get the best of both worlds.
From there, once we have our list, we can send em all sorts of offers …
Information products, expensive security services, surveillance systems and accessories, high-tech gadgets in the security niche, free consultations to come and see how "secure" their home is and then:
1. offer a wide array of solutions to their unsafe home
2. set up partnerships with companies like SAFE and feed them interested, qualified leads in exchange for a cut
3. K9 training services for their pooch.
4. Self defense training program — learn what to do in the even of a home invasion, etc.
Definitely a LOT of potential. But I'd say the smartest thing to do would first see how well an information product does since it's cheap and inexpensive to create to get started with and get a gauge of how hungry these prospects are. Roll out into all the other ideas once you've got an idea of what hot buttons work, etc.
Nice work, Guillermo!
You said something I didn't see anybody else mention and it REALLY got my greed glands flowing:
"YACHT security!"
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Now we're talking the big bucks. I like the way you think.
What did I do to be so lucky to have some of the sharpest people in the world as subscribers?
Thanks for contributing.
DD
That's a great idea. He could get a lot of publicity out of that, too.
Hey cool… I got mentioned on a Doberman Dan blog post!
I think I've allowed plenty of time for replies… soooooo….
As of today, March 12, 2010 I'm cutting off my offer of giving the best comment a gift Gary Halbert said no copywriter should be without.
I liked these ideas so much that everybody who contributed before today's date is gonna get a prize.
If you contributed a comment to this post, here's what you need to do to claim your prize:
E-mail me your complete name and mailing address. (You can get my e-mail address from the contact page.)
As soon as you do that, I'll mail you your gift via 1st class mail. And I think you're really going to like it.
Thanks for contributing!
DD
P.S. If you contributed comments on this post and you're in my Kitchen Table Business coaching group… sorry but you won't get the prize. I already sent one to you in the mail a couple weeks ago. But don't ruin the surprise for the non-coaching people and tell them what it is!