Dear Friend,

You’re gonna get an earful today.

Why?

Because there are people who desperately need to hear what I’ve got to say. (You’re probably one of them.)

But it seems that some people need to get hit upside the head with a 2×4 before they ever “get it.”

This newsletter is that 2×4.

That’s one thing I’ve always liked about Gary Halbert’s newsletter. He’s not afraid to piss anybody off. If he feels you’re one of those stubborn people who just doesn’t “get it” he’ll flat out say, “Look, you little shitweasel, just shut up and do this and you’ll get rich.”

I’ve actually seen him talk to clients like that. And it was the only way to get them to shut up, stop making excuses and do what was best for them.

Hard to believe you have to fight some people to get them to improve their lives, isn’t it?

I’ll probably be nicer about it than Gary. And I probably won’t call you a shitweasel. (Although I do find that pretty funny.)

Don’t get me wrong… if you’re ignorant about something, I can work with that. But if you’re just plain frickin’ bull-headed STUPID about not wanting to do something that can transform your business and your life… I don’t have any tolerance for that.

Sure, I’ll try to show you the way but if you aren’t willing to actually do stuff to improve your life, I’ll drop you so fast it’ll make your head spin.

There are way too many people who really do want to change their lives and are willing to listen. It’s a lot more productive to spend my time with them rather than trying to argue and convince somebody of something they don’t want to believe.

Onward.

A Simple Secret To DOUBLE
Your Sales In 59 Days Or Less!

In this issue I’m going to reveal my biggest secret for…

• Generating consistent and predictable ongoing back end sales…
• Transforming customers into loyal rabid raving fans of your products and services…
• Generating big paydays…
• Building an invisible and impenetrable fence around your “herd” of customers so they don’t even think about switching to a competitor’s products…

In fact, if you aren’t doing this (ESPECIALLY if you have an online business) you’re leaving at least 50% of your potential sales on the table every single month.

But before I reveal this jealously guarded secret, let me share a brief personal story:

In 1996 I started a mail order/Internet business selling information products and nutritional supplements in a small niche market. I started it part time and turned it into a full time gig, which has supported me for years. Some years better than others but I’ve always been able to pay the bills… until December of 2003.

After a bad year and some personal tragedies that caused me to lose most of my earthly possessions, I sat at the kitchen table wondering if I would be able to pay the bills.

Then I had an epiphany…

I had worked for years gaining customers through expensive magazine advertising and online stuff. But most of my efforts were always focused on GETTING new customers. After they bought, they just sat on my list and in most cases never heard from me again.

So I selected 1,000 of the most recent buyers and sent them a very simple sales letter. Nothing fancy… a sales letter written in the “me to you” conversational style like you’re reading right now.

It was really the first time I had ever approached ANY of my customers and asked them to buy something else from me aside from the initial sale.

The results made me kick myself.

A couple weeks later, with calculator in hand, I plopped down on the inflatable mattress on the floor (I had no furniture at the time) and realized…

I had cheated myself out of a MINIMUM of $500,000 in back end sales
over the past five years by not mailing offers to my customer list!

That was a painful lesson for me… but I haven’t looked back since. Direct mail is now the lifeblood of all my businesses. It totally turned my business (and entire life) around in a matter of days.

If you own a business, I hope you understand that your customer list is a GOLD MINE!

If you treat your customers right and continue to offer them additional products and services month after month, your customer list can be an ongoing money machine… supporting you and your family for years.

So why aren’t you using direct mail to make back end sales to your customer list?

There are probably several reasons:

• It can be a pain in the butt to have all the letters and envelopes printed.
• It’s an even bigger pain to fold all those letters and stuff them in the envelopes. Then you have to stick a stamp on all those letters and haul them to the USPS.
• You have no idea how to put together an effective direct mail campaign.
• And last but not least… “I own an Internet business. I send offers via e-mail. Why would I want to go to the time and expense of sending old-fashioned snail mail letters?”

Let me address that last bullet. It’s a HUGE mistake that costs online marketers MILLIONS in lost sales.

In my most humble (but accurate) opinion, direct mail is still king… and e-mail is a prince gradually turning into a pauper.

Here’s why:

The response from e-mail marketing has gotten worse and worse. With all these ISP’s adding spam filters, different e-mail hosting services getting blacklisted and all kinds of other high tech deliverability problems, a large percentage of your messages are never even delivered.

And people no longer put a high priority on e-mail messages. Their inboxes are crammed full every day with all kinds of crap. In most cases, if your message DOES make it past the spam filters, your customer deletes it before it’s even opened.

Heck, people are deleting messages they have SUBSCRIBED to and double-opted in. There’s just too much stuff coming into their inboxes to keep up with… so they scan the sender and subject lines and hit the delete button on anything that doesn’t look urgent and important.

That would explain why you’re getting getting less and less response to your e-mail offers.

I’ve had a chance to meet and work with some heavy hitters in online marketing. The smart ones (of which there are few) have revealed to me their most jealously guarded marketing secret, making them millions of dollars…

Direct Mail!

Many of the big players in online marketing know it’s just too easy these days to delete or ignore an e-mail. But a snail mail letter in the mailbox still carries some priority and importance.

In most cases, a snail mail letter has a much better chance of being opened by your prospects and customers than an e-mail. Especially if you know the secret of “A pile” and “B pile” mail.

So, YES, I’m suggesting you use the humble snail mail letter to send back end offers to your customer list. Keep sending your e-mails but don’t count on e-mail exclusively to reach your customers.

You’ve invested a lot of hard work and money building your customer list and trust me… there’s GOLD in that list. Your list can bring you in a lot of cash month after month, year after year. You simply need to work your back end… and the best way is STILL direct mail.

I got seduced by the Internet back in the late 90’s and started focusing exclusively on it. I gradually dropped my magazine ads since I thought I could replace that media with online stuff.

Big mistake.

Huge mistake…

MONUMENTAL mistake.

Once again, The Prince of Print (Halbert) had to save me from myself.

Gary asked me how much I was making a month selling exclusively online. I told him what my monthly gross sales were, to which he replied…

“Add an extra zero onto that number.
That’s what you COULD be making
if you include offline media in the mix.”

It took a while before I accepted that… but a couple years later I confirmed it. Halbert was right again.

Let me drive my point home.

Let’s say I give you a special gift… a magic table. And I explain that on the first of every month $100,000 in gold coins will magically appear on this table.

But there’s a catch…

Whatever you don’t take off the table disappears in 24 hours and will never reappear again.

So you call me on the first of the month and say, “Dan, this is incredible! The $100,000 in gold coins magically appeared on the table today just like you promised. I took $40,000 and bought a new car.”

“What did you do with the other $60,000?”, I ask.

“I left it on the table”, you reply.

“Are you f#&*^ing stupid? OK, don’t answer that because the answer is obvious! Don’t you realize that the 60 large has disappeared forever?!”

After I calm down, I explain that you dropped the ball this month… but don’t worry because next month another 100 grand in gold coins is going to magically appear on the table.

When next month rolls around, you tell me you only took $50k off the table. Each and every month thereafter you continue to leave half the money on the table.

All you have to do is take the damn money off the table… but you leave it there month after month!

What would you think about a person like that?

If for some reason you didn’t know you were leaving half the money on the table each month, then you’re just ignorant and need educated. But if you knowingly leave half the money on the table… then in my opinion you’re a complete idiot.

Actually, worse than an idiot. You’re a… a…

Oh no, I said I wouldn’t say this but I can’t help myself…

You’re a shitweasel!

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Look, if you didn’t know this, you know it now. Put some trust in your pal, Doberman Dan and start sending back end direct mail offers to your list.

You have no excuses. If you ignore my advice and DON’T send direct mail to your list… well… you know what you are.

All the best,

Doberman Dan

P.S. If you have a brick and mortar business you probably don’t even have a customer list.

MAMMOTH mistake.

Here’s what you need to do about it:

1. Start a customer newsletter sign-up list.

2. Use whatever technique you have to use to capture your customers’ names and addresses.

3. Tell them you’re going to send discount coupons every month… or do a drawing for a free gift every month. Whatever. Just start capturing those names and addresses.

4. Then apply everything you’ve read about in this issue.

The only difference is that you’re going to use direct mail to drive traffic into your store every month.

The owner of a music store in Ohio started doing this on my suggestion and guess what? He doubled his monthly sales. He now never lets a month go by without sending direct mail to promote some kind of event in his store.

P.P.S. Remember this bullet?:

I’m going to reveal my biggest secret for… Building an invisible and impenetrable fence around your “herd” of customers so they don’t even THINK about switching to a competitor’s products.

I didn’t have time to really cover that in this post. I’ll reveal the details next time.

You’ll discover how to you can use this secret to get more sales from your customers and keep them as a customer as long as possible.

If you have a continuity program, you’ll discover how to DOUBLE the average length of time they stay in your program.

And I’ll reveal how to get your customers anxiously awaiting your sales pitch every month, guaranteeing it will get opened and read.

Don’t miss the next post.