Direct Response Vitals Checklist

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Response

Vitals

Checklist

Handy cheat-sheet reminder of what

makes Direct Response Marketing (DRM)

the only kind of marketing worth your

hard-earned dollars. (You'll never send

another piece of marketing out the door

that's missing a vital DRM element.)

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Direct Response Vitals

Checklist

Business owner, Entrepreneur or whoever is looking for a little help...this report is for YOU!

But first, Direct Response Marketing (DRM) is too deep a goldmine to ever know its every nook and cranny, or to benefit from all the wealth it offers us as business people. However, the more we learn, the more we can leverage its proven power to make your business successful.

Still, you certainly don't need to spend your valuable time referring to some big, long DRM checklist to make sure you're doing things right...that's our role at Marketing Hospital. Instead, I've prepared this

Direct Response Vitals Checklist to serve as a handy cheat-sheet reminder of what makes Direct Response Marketing the only kind of marketing worth your hard-earned dollars. So be sure to keep this quick and easy checklist in mind (there's even a printable checklist on the last page). That way, you'll never send another piece of marketing out the door that's missing a vital DRM element.

To Healthier Marketing and a Happier You!

Grant Pasay

Marketing Hospital's Chief of Staff MarketingHospital.com

Why Is DRM The Only Kind of Marketing Worth Your Hard-Earned Dollars?

"Advertising is nothing but an expense – not an investment – unless it gets action: the kind of action that will pay a profit."

Victor O. Schwab, How To Write A Good Advertisement

As a smart business owner or entrepreneur, you need to know your numbers. Especially return on investment (ROI). Every businessperson knows that.

But for some bizarre reason, when it comes to marketing, ROI flies out the window far too often. Maybe you know page views, impressions, readership, or number of 'likes'...but that's not ROI.

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Copyright © 2014 MarketingHospital.com (Jampact Business Solutions Incorporated) _{Page 3} That's like paying a salesman to walk around and talk to whoever crosses his path. Sure, he tells you how many people he talked to. But you don't have your vital numbers: conversion rate, leadscaptured, salesmade, improvedresponse after making a certain presentation adjustment...you're flying blind! Why? Because there's only one way you can know ROI. That's by taking the behaviors of your prospects, leads and customers/clients and directly connecting them to specific marketing efforts. And traditional marketing doesn't do that. Never has. Never will.

In contrast, making that connection between your market's actions and your specific marketing campaigns is the specialty of Direct Response Marketing. In other words, unlike all other types of marketing...DRM is accountable! Enough said!

The Three Direct Response Marketing Vitals

As I already said, you don't need to be referring to some big, long DRM checklist to make sure you're doing things right...that's what we do at Marketing Hospital.

And after years of poring over those big, long checklists, three 'vitals' clearly stand out. These are the vitals you need to make sure you have working for you if you're going to have any hope of getting your marketing money's worth:

The arrows in the diagram above show how the three vitals naturally flow into each other to create the truly powerful results Direct Response Marketing offers.

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"Most people are like automobiles. They can be pushed or pulled along, or they can be moved to action by starting their own motive power from within. In either case, you must provide the fuel. And the only fuel that will start the sort of action you want from within is desire. Arousing that desire in your reader is known as the gentle art of exercising persuasion."

Robert Collier, The Robert Collier Letter Book

Sometimes business people are uncomfortable with the idea of persuasion. They think using marketing to motivate people to do things is being manipulative. Or somehow sleazy.

The truth is that, as powerful as it is, Direct Response Marketing can't create desire. It can only fan it. Arouse it. Bring it to the surface. Tease and enhance it.

Which means that persuasion really only involves stoking up those desires your prospects or customers already have...and then linking their desires to your offer.

Persuasion motivates your prospects and customers to want the value you offer. Yes, it can't create desire within them, but it sure can create demand for your product or service.

Which is why it's vital that you ask yourself this question...

VITAL #1: PERSUASION Question To Ask Yourself:

"Does this marketing piece connect the fulfillment of my market's desires with my product or service?"

PRO TIP: If you're not sure if a particular marketing piece is persuasive, simply ask some of your better customers or clients what they think about it. Most people are more than happy to help out when they're being treated as experts. We use this approach all the time at Marketing Hospital!

If you can answer the question above with a hearty YES!, then the persuasiveness of your marketing piece will naturally feed into the next DRM vital: Call To Action(see next page ààà)

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"...the great point is to get immediate action. People are naturally dilatory. They postpone, and a postponed action is too often forgotten. Do

something if possible to get immediate action. Offer some inducement for it. Or tell what delay may cost. Note how many successful selling letters place a limit on an offer. It expires on a certain date. That is all done to get a prompt decision, to overcome the tendency to delay."

Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

Like it or not, without that strong, vital Call To Action (or CTA), your conversion rates simply won't be what they could be...and I know you don't want to leave leads, sales or referrals on the table! Top direct-response copywriter John Carlton recommends imagining your prospect as "a gigantic

somnambulant sloth, spread out on the couch, loathe to move his sleeping bulk, phone just out of reach." The point is that your marketing needs to compel them...provoke them...to move. And to move NOW! Besides, you've already invested in vital #1 (persuasiveness) to stir up your prospects' desires. You've gotten under their skin. Now they're looking to scratch that itch. They WANT you to tell them how to get the relief your offer promises!

VITAL #2: CALL TO ACTION Question To Ask Yourself:

"Does this marketing piece tell my prospects to get my product or service (or offer) right now...and exactly how to do so?"

PRO TIP: Remember that your Call To Action doesn't necessarily have to be about making a purchase. It could be to opt in to a newsletter. Or to fill out a survey. Or comment on a blog post. Or register for a webinar. Whatever your Call To Action is, though, it involves telling your

prospects precisely what they need to do right now to move closer to fulfilling their desires!

If you can answer the question above with a hearty YES!, then your marketing piece's Call To Action will naturally feed into the next DRM vital: Track & Test(see next page ààà)

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"You need real, hard facts and data to make good, intelligent marketing decisions. Making such decisions based on what you or your employees think is happening, feel, guess, have a sense of, etc. is stupid. And you don't want to be stupid, do you?"

Dan Kennedy, No B.S. Direct Marketing

Tracking & Testing bring us right back to why Direct Response Marketing (DRM) is the only kind of marketing worth your hard-earned dollars. Here are the main points again...

• You need to know yournumbers, especially return on investment (ROI)

• Traditional marketing leaves you flying blind when it comes to your vital numbers

• DRM connects your market's actions to your specific marketing campaigns (it's accountable!) Which is why it's vital that you ask yourself this question...

VITAL #3 (part I): TRACKING Question To Ask Yourself:

"Is this marketing system designed so that I know my vital numbers: conversion rate, leads captured, sales made, cost of acquisition, etc.?"

PRO TIP: Be sure to gather ALL the numbers you need to determine if a marketing effort is profitable. For example, you could have a new customer acquisition campaign that costs more money than it generates in sales...so is that an unprofitable marketing effort? It could seem that way if you only look at that campaign's costs and revenues. BUT what if that same campaign gives you customers that make profitable backend purchases? When you include the numbers across your entire customer lifecycle, what originally looked like an unprofitable customer acquisition system could suddenly be one of your most valuable assets in terms of ROI.

If you can answer the question above with a hearty YES!, then your marketing system's Tracking will naturally feed into its vital counterpart: Testing(see next page ààà)

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Copyright © 2014 MarketingHospital.com (Jampact Business Solutions Incorporated) _{Page 7} "The only way to know what really works is to gain experience from many tests. From seeing many results, you can discover human behavior patterns from similar test situations and continuously improve your conversion intuition." Chris Goward, You Should Test That!

The harsh reality is you can't rely on all the 'best practices' you constantly hear about. Why? • Many of them have never been tested themselves for effectiveness

• Those that have been tested often grow outdated, tired or just plain oversaturated

• Just because a 'best practice' works in one market doesn't mean it works for your market But most important of all is this...there could be a far better 'best practice' out there that hasn't been discovered yet...one that would give you a serious competitive advantage...but you'll never know about if you mindlessly follow the Pied Piper's song of best practices.

For example, we did a very simple split test of two versions of a landing page for one of our clients recently. The difference in conversions? Over 9% more opt-ins to their list...with one of those opt-ins converting into an extra $5185.00 in revenue within a little over two weeks. And only more to come! Was that little test worth it? Our client has no doubt it was! Would a 9% boost to your lead capture rate help you make more money? Of course it would!

VITAL #3 (part II): TESTING Question To Ask Yourself:

"Is this marketing system designed to test different versions to see which appeals produce the best results (i.e., testing different versions of your copy, photos, offer, perceived value, price, etc.)?"

PRO TIP: Make sure you test different prices for your products and services. And if you're squeamish about testing what seems to you to be a particularly high price (e.g., 30 to 40% greater than your regular price), simply run a split test where only a MINORITY of your customers see the HIGHER PRICE (e.g., 15% of your traffic sees a 30 to 40% greater price).

If you can answer the question above with a hearty YES!, then your marketing system's Testing will naturally help you have healthier marketing...and a happier you! (print the checklist on next page ààà)

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Below is a printable checklist of the three Direct Response Marketing vitals. Remember, you must have each of these working for you to have any hope of getting your marketing money's worth.

So do yourself a big favor: print this page right now! Then keep it somewhere handy. And then for every piece of your marketing, ask each of the four questions below.

If you can answer each with a hearty YES!, then get it out there, see what it does and how to improve it. But if you can't answer with a hearty yes, thenSTOP! Stop wasting your time and money.

Instead, read the Direct Response Vitals Checklist report again or get some help...hey, that's what we're here for at Marketing Hospital...from marketing strategy to copywriting to project execution!

DRM VITAL #1: Persuasion (Motivate)

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"Does this marketing piece connect the fulfillment of my market's desires with my product or service?"

DRM VITAL #2: Call To Action (Provoke)

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"Does this marketing piece tell my prospects to get my product or service (or offer) right now...and exactly how to do so?"

DRM VITAL #3: Track & Test (Know & Improve)

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"Is this marketing system designed so that I know my vital numbers: conversion rate, leads captured, sales made, cost of acquisition, etc.?"

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"Is this marketing system designed to test different versions to see which appeals produce the best results (i.e., testing different versions of your copy, photos, offer, perceived value, price, etc.)?"