Listerine has a pretty neat history, and it also has a really neat marketing lesson built into it.

A lot of people don’t know that it was invented in the 1860′s…

It was packaged up as a surgical antiseptic, a floor cleaner, a treatment for sore throats and even… A cure for gonorrhea!

But it wasn’t until they marketed it as a cure for “chronic halitosis” in the 1920′s that Listerine really took off…

“Chronic halitosis” was invented by their marketing team. But it worked. Even today Listerine is available in almost every grocery store and pharmacy in the US.

Listerine turned “bad breath” into a “disease”…

From something people weren’t really concerned with to a freakin’ disease… Meaning something is medically wrong with you – But the cure is cheap and you can buy it right now.

So how can you apply this to your own marketing?

I mean, we don’t really have the liberty of “inventing” a disease that we can cure with our products…

The real lesson here is in positioning.

There are literally hundreds of ways to position any product. And you’ll need to experiment in order to find that “sweet spot” that makes your product a home run.

Take any given diet product…

With the right tweaking to the product, it could be positioned as a diet for new mothers, or a diet for athletes trying to cut weight, a diet for men in their 40′s to get back into shape, or a shortcut to six-pack abs, toned muscles…

There are thousands of ways to take it.

But nail that positioning, and you can take your product from a floor cleaner that few people want to buy to a “must have” cure to a pressing problem that EVERYONE in your market wants to buy.

Sometimes you’ll get it right the first time.

Other times, you’ll need to experiment. You’ll want to try all kinds of different hooks and angles…

And the results can be truly amazing.

If you have a product you’re having a hard time selling, start thinking about new ways to position it, new appeals to bring it into your market… And you might just end up with a best seller on your hands.

Take care,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below, share on Twitter or Facebook and DEFINITELY sign up for free updates so you’re never left out of the loop!

Price conditioning…

It’s rarely talked about but one of the most important elements in your copy.

There are no hard and fast rules, but the idea is to make whatever you’re selling seem like a tremendous, absolute no-brainer value to your prospects.

And you do this through price conditioning.

No matter what you’re selling, you NEVER want to seem like the “bargain bin” alternative to your competitors…

Because unless you’re selling a commodity (like a toaster) competing on price is a business you DON’T want to be in.

Here’s How To Do It…

1. Be more than worth it. I’m not the world’s cheapest copywriter, but I do have a track record, most of the ads I write have been winners, I have experience and you’ll always get 110%…

You wouldn’t believe how many times clients have been shocked by my price quotes and hired me regardless, even though the next guy may be charging thousands of dollars less.

But think about it, this is direct marketing,  this business is cut-throat no matter the niche or medium. If they’ve put together a real product and expect enough prospects to see the offer to do 6 figures or more,  they want to be confident they’re hiring someone who knows what they’re doing with the copy…

And that applies to ANY service (we’ll talk about products next)…

Designers, lawyers, Doctors and even landscapers… If you’re in the service industry, and position yourself as the “cheapest” you’ll always be struggling. But if you’re “the best”, and have an effective marketing funnel, you’ll have people lined up and begging to pay you a premium to work with them.

2. For products, unless your price is a selling point (incredibly low), it’s best to not mention it until AFTER you’ve conditioned the buyer.

What do I mean by “condition”?

I mean build up the perceived value so high that when they see the actual price tag it’s a bargain…

And there are a million different ways to do this, but I’ll give you a couple of examples.

Tie REAL value into the products and bonuses…

For example…

“This course regularly sells for $97 everyday, but it’s yours FREE when you try out x product today”… Make sure this is actually a product that does sell for $97.

Or if I were selling a paid webinar…

“Tickets to this live seminar have sold for $1,997 EACH (our last presentation in San Diego was standing room only with over 250 in attendance)…

And this is your ONLY shot at accessing the same information without shelling out $2,000 for your ticket, and spending money on airfare and a hotel room…

We’ve decided to do a ONE TIME webinar, and you’ll also be receiving the DVD set (to be sold for $497 in the future) absolutely free…

We only have 50 spots left, and we expect them to sell out within 24 hours.

You can get in right now for only $197, and remember, if you aren’t absolutely blown away by the information presented…

If you don’t feel that the techniques you learn will be worth 10-100x the price of admission after the webinar, simply let us know within 60 days for a full refund.”

Notice how I’m tying real value in with everything here?

Assuming this was a real world project, and the seminar really did sell out at $1,997, this would seem like a steal for any prospect interested in the subject matter…

They save $1,997 on a ticket, yet they’re getting the same information.

They’re probably saving another $1,000 on airfare and hotel…

And they get the information before the DVD’s are released to the public, and they get it now instead of waiting and paying $497 for the course…

If this was on a subject you were interested in with speakers that you want to hear from, after all of the expensive stuff you don’t have to pay for, you’d think $197 (relatively high priced for an info product) would seem like a drop in the bucket…

Final note…

You can do this with almost any product. A lot of times I’ll use benefits as conditioning points…

“When you start seeing 100 or even 1,000 new visitors coming to your site every single day, you’ll agree that this software would easily be worth $497 or more…

But if you act now, you get immediate  the software PLUS the $297 in FREE bonuses just for taking it for a 60-Day test drive…”

This is a subject that is beyond a single blog post, so I’ll talk about it again in the future…

In the mean time, do you have any specific questions about price conditioning that you need answers to?

Let me know in the comments.

Thanks!

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. If you’re charging low prices, you need to justify that too. But that’s another post for another day.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for the late Gary Halbert…

If you’re reading this and don’t know who he is, you’d be well served to go The Gary Halbert Letter right now and prepare to get schooled in the world of copywriting and direct response marketing…

But do you know WHY he was the best?

Sure, he could deliver the goods. Very few marketers would dispute that Gary was at least ONE of the greatest of all time, if not THE greatest…

I was lucky enough to interview a Halbert protégé, Craig Garber, a few months ago…

(You can listen to the interview here)

And one of the many things that Craig said on that call that REALLY stuck with me was a conversation with Halbert that he had…

It went…

Gary: Craig, do you know why I’m the world’s greatest copywriter?

Craig: No Gary, why?

Gary: Because it says so right there on my website.

And it’s TRUE!

Yes, Gary could back that claim up with mountains of proof…

But there’s a HUGE positioning lesson there.

No one ever appointed Gary the “right” to be the best. There wasn’t some marketing meeting that gave Gary permission to call himself “the best”…

He believed he was the best, and he let the world know.

Do you know what kind of balls it takes to call yourself “the greatest of all time” at ANYTHING?

I mean, even if people had never heard of Gary, once they see himself calling himself the world’s greatest copywriter they’re going to think “this guy has some balls” and at least be curious enough to check him out…

And when they did check him out, and saw the mountains of PROOF that he was indeed world class – They’d flock to him in droves and BEG him to work with them…

Gary probably wouldn’t be remembered as “The Best” unless he took that title for himself. And he did.

This can be applied to selling ANYTHING though…

It doesn’t matter if people are buying products or services, they’ll generally want to buy “the best”…

Whether that means the best martial arts training course on the planet…

Or the best internet home study course on the planet…

Or working with the world’s greatest copywriter.

It’s like the old RC Cola Vs. Coke comparison…

Not a lot of difference in taste. But there’s a reason Coke sells billions more every year than RC, they’ve positioned themselves as the best…

And no matter what you sell, if you believe it’s the best, you MUST position it as the best…

Because no one wants to buy a $97 course that’s just “okay”, when people are shelling out hard earned money, they always want the BEST value for their money.

So ask yourself, how can you position yourself and your products to be “the best” in your niche?

Something to think about.

-Scott Murdaugh

(The best living copywriter under 30 who plays recreational poker, has blue eyes and owns a website with “Make” and “Sell” in the title of it ;P)

Don't Be This Guy.

This is CRITICAL to effectively selling anything…

And it’s one of the biggest mistakes I see marketers, both newbies and veteran guys alike make.

When I worked in sales jobs, a lot of the older sales guys I worked with were “old school”, they talked about all of those selling concepts like…

- “ABC, Always be closing.”

-”Be aggressive, don’t let them leave without a commitment.”

-”Dial for dollars, it’s a numbers game.”

The classic “used car” selling tricks are a waste of time and energy. I’m not saying they don’t work, they do, but ultimately you’re working much harder than you need to in order to close the deal.

And I see these same tactics being used online. People focusing on a one-off sale as opposed to building relationships.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a marketing consultant and copywriter.

I don’t go out begging for work. I don’t manipulate my clients into hiring me when I’m on the phone with them for the first time.

I have my whole business set up so that I don’t need to cold call, or chase down potential clients.

I’ve positioned myself so that clients come to me… And when they do I make sure to do everything I possibly can to make them clients for life.

I could cold call. I could spend my days hunting down potential clients. But that’s a massive time suck, and selling is A LOT more fun when you don’t need to sell at all…

When your potential customers want to buy what you’re offering, and you position yourself as the best place to purchase whatever it is they’re looking for, there’s zero resistance.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, you can apply this to your business…

Gary Vaynerchuck sells millions of dollars worth of wine, books and speaking gigs every year using nothing but his personality.

If you’re an affiliate, you can do the same thing. Go beyond direct linking. If you’re selling weight loss try setting up a blog, forum and newsletter with entertaining/informative content. Give people what they want. Keep them coming back with awesome content, and when they’re ready to buy they’ll buy from you.

Positioning yourself as “the best” in your industry does a TON of things to make your life easier and make you more money…

1. It immediately makes your business competition proof. If you’re an authority in the fitness vertical, and you have a loyal fan base who listens to everything you say, you’re 100x as likely to land the sale for that new supplement than some affiliate testing the niche for the first time.

2. It builds a lifetime business. The first sale is ALWAYS the most expensive. People who buy from you in the past are VERY likely to buy from you again in the future. If you’re going for a one-off sale instead of creating customers for life, you’re 100% leaving money on the table.

3. It forces you to provide real value. If you’re promoting garbage products, yes, you can make a lot of money very fast. But not one of those people you ripped off is ever going to spend another penny with you.

4. It allows you to charge premium prices. If you’re known as “the best”, at whatever you do or sell, you separate yourself from selling a “commodity”, people will pay a premium to work with and buy from the best.

And it’s ALL about positioning…

Think about it. Say you wanted to start a consulting business…

Would you rather be the guy doing $100 web design or the guy doing $20k/month contracts? They both exist, and what they charge is entirely their decision.

How can you be the best in your niche?

How can you position yourself so that instead of chasing customers down and hard selling them, they line up ready to pay premium prices to buy from you?

It starts with great content. It starts with giving people what they want.

It’s about building communities. Building relationships.

It’s about knowing what people want, and positioning yourself/your company as the obvious choice to buy from.

That’s what separates the boys from the men in this business.

Something to think about.

Now go hustle,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. If you enjoyed this post I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

Don't Murder Your Marketing.

I field quite a few inquiries every week.

This week I’ve had 5 people contact me saying “this is my website, it’s not converting well. How much would you charge to fix it?”

If that’s the first question you ask me or any copywriter, then we’re probably not meant to be.

It’s bad business for both parties involved, this is why…

I’ve Been Shot… How Much Do You Charge?

A man calls up the hospital, says “I’ve been shot, how much do you charge?”… What do you think the answer is going to be?

It’s definitely NOT going to be a number. It’s going to be “We’ll rush an ambulance over” or “where were you shot?”

Now, if I’m the doctor operating on you… It’s going to depend on a lot of factors. But a small flesh wound on the arm that just needs patched up is going to cost a lot less than a chest wound…

Dozens of factors will come into play… How do I stop the pain? Will surgery be required? How much blood did you lose? Will you be in the hospital for an hour or a few months?

And in some cases, the damage will be too much for the doctor to do anything at all.

It’s The Exact Same Thing With Marketing…

Every single client a copywriter takes on has different needs.

Some clients are launching a brand new product and they need help with positioning, branding, marketing funnels, traffic and plenty of other things.

Other clients have positioned their products all wrong and need a complete overhaul.

Sometimes the problem lies more in the traffic sources than the copy…

My past clients are much more likely to get a smaller upfront fee with the majority paid in the back, or even a 100% royalty deal (more of a partnership) than some guy I’ve never talked to… In fact, if I don’t know you extremely well the latter is very unlikely.

And to be blunt again, If that’s the first question out of your mouth when you contact me I’ll probably either point you to this blog post or send you a short email saying I’ll have to pass (my old solution)…

Why? Because…

Price Shopping When It Comes To Your Marketing Is A Terrible Business Model.

If you take a bullet the first question out of your mouth isn’t going to have anything to do with price.

Now, I’m not saying that your marketing is as critical as taking a bullet, but it’s still very serious. If you take your business seriously, you need to take your marketing seriously.

Because it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you’re not in ANY business until you’re in the marketing business.

Let’s talk copywriting and marketing…

Do you think the guy who knows what he’s doing, who delivers results… Who really understands direct response marketing and copywriting… Is he going to give you the lowest quote? Hell no.

The guy out there taking any and every job he can get… Advertising $200 sales letters before he even knows your product or market, do you think he’s a better choice? Could be, but you’ve got to be lucky.

Because if that guy has any clue about marketing and positioning, he’s not going to quote you ANYTHING, much less $200, before he knows exactly what your needs are and IF he thinks your product is even marketable.

So if you’re “price shopping” when it comes to marketing and copywriting…

You’re Shooting Your Marketing In The Chest.

So you hire a guy for $200 and save quite a bit of money on your upfront marketing… NICE.

Except that your new marketing campaign is bleeding money. And depending on how much traffic you’re getting every single lost buyer due to poor copy is bleeding cash right out of your bank account.

Could you spend 5 figures on a copywriter and have a flopped product? It’s possible. There’s nothing certain in this business.

But it does pay to put the law of statistics in your corner… And chances are that if you hire someone with a track record of results, someone who won’t beg to let you write for any product, even if there’s no market for it, someone who has experience and can predict what will work and what won’t work with reasonable certainty… You can stack the odds in your favor.

I’m not saying I’m the go to guy for any and every product. I’m not.

With very few exceptions, I’ll generally choose to avoid working with anyone who asks “how much” before they ask “what can you do for me?”

Because if that’s the first question out of your mouth it sets off a big red flag.

One, you think of what I do as a commodity rather than a potentially valuable business partner and that tells me immediately that you’re either inexperienced or just not the kind of person I want to do business with.

My favorite clients in the past have also been my most successful clients… And they’re the guys that want to know “why should I work with you” before price is an issue. They have products that they want to be extremely successful…

They have gung ho can’t fail attitudes… And they realize that “cheap” and “results” rarely cross paths.

Cheap traffic rarely converts, cheap hosting generally sucks, and cheap service providers usually  (not always) have crappy work or customer service…  And cheap copywriting and marketing rarely produces any results.

You generally get what you pay for…

So Here’s My New Answer.

It’s impossible for me to quote you a price without taking a long hard look at exactly what I can do to help you…

And I’ve been out of the “chasing down” clients game for quite a while,  I’m at a point now where I get to pick and choose my jobs and spend more time working on my own stuff.

The index page of ResultsCopywriting.com is about to be completely revamped (it’s passed due anyways) and sometime this week it’ll be completely different.

Since I need to spend about an hour with potential clients anyway, I’ll be charging a flat fee for a 1 hour consultation.

It’ll be 100% risk free, it will be a consultation, not a sales pitch, and if you do decide to hire me after the fact I’ll apply the total to the final fee.

My time is valuable, I don’t have time to field every inquiry I get now, so this way I can filter out who’s serious from who’s not, and help you with some of the “big idea” stuff without you needing to pay my full copywriting fees.

This will save me time, allow me to work on my own stuff, and only work with people who’ve shown that they’re serious about making their product and marketing campaign a success.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. I didn’t write this post to offend anyone… “How much do you charge” IS a valid question. It’s just not the best question to ask upfront, for either party involved.

Here’s a video for the copywriters out there… Pretty simple, yet if you pull it off it’s highly effective. I’ll write down some additional tips after the video.

I kind of mumbled a little bit in the beginning, anyway I said “This isn’t something I invented”… Not vice versa…

Here’s a few more quick tips on selling your services…

• Stand out. They’ll be getting a lot of inquiries from bad writers and good writers… If you can appeal to what they REALLY want (a money making campaign) and show them previous success on similar projects, it goes a long way.

• If they ask “how much” don’t answer… Say “I need a better understanding of your project first. How much traffic do you get/how many pieces are you mailing/etc… Show that you care about the project and you know how this business works.

• Pre-qualify them.  There are a lot of bargain hunters on Craigslist… It’s a waste of time trying to educate them. Seek out the companies that are looking for results and understand the value, you’ll save yourself a lot of time.

• Get them on the phone. It’s a lot easier to build rapport on the telephone than it is through email. Talk to them about the project, offer ideas, tell them exactly what you think you can bring to the table.

• Don’t sell words, sell the value that you provide through higher conversion rates, more money, etc.

I rarely use Craigslist anymore, but it serves as an excellent way to get directly in touch with potential clients from all over the world.

If you ever find yourself in a hurting for work, get on there and start marketing yourself… You’d be surprised how much work is available out there.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

Back when I left my sales job a few years ago, I was on the lookout for products that I could purchase and resell myself on the internet.

I was browsing Digital Point (a webmaster forum) and saw a thread selling a brand new script that allowed people to build a custom MP3 Search Engine for $15 a pop.

The sales copy, as is pretty normal for these types of threads, was horrible. So I decided to contact the creator and ask how he was doing….

His thread had been live for a week… And he’d made a whopping 2 sales for a total of $30. I talked with him for awhile, he offered to sell me exclusive rights to the script for $500, which might SEEM like the smart move to take, but it wasn’t , and I’ll tell you why in a moment.

Instead, I proposed a partnership. Let me handle all of the marketing and we’d split the profits 50/50.

Here’s what I did:

• Told him to IMMEDIATELY take the listing off of Digital Point.
• Completely reinvented the product… Instead of selling the scripts, I hired a designer and started having the “script” turned into full blown websites with unique designs.
• Created and promoted one of the sites on my own… This would serve as proof of concept when I brought the sites to market.
• Created a long form sales page for the product, talking about every benefit of ownership, how it’s the perfect turnkey business, ect.
• I put a limit on the number of sites to be sold… Both to conserve the integrity of the product and to build a sense of urgency.
• Wrote up a “How To Promote A Website For The Complete Beginner” type of guide and included it in every sale… This served to both reassure customers that ANYONE can promote these and significantly cut down on after sale support.
• Listed the sites on Ebay using several of the upgraded features and set an extremely low reserve price.

The result? For over a month straight we averaged 3-4 sales per day (average bidding ended at $500). I hired people to handle most of the work involved in putting the sites together, and after paying for all of the outsourced work, my partner and I were left with an average of $1k-$2k per day.

Eventually competitors caught on and flooded the marketplace with similar sites… When sales started to dwindle, even though it was still profitable, I decided to move on to other things.

There are a few lessons to take away from this.

1. How people perceive your product GREATLY influences how much you can sell it for… In this case the market was dictating the price, and since it was a complete custom website instead of a script the market decided $500 was a fair price.
2. The market you target is extremely important… The forum he was selling on is used to buying $15 scripts… They aren’t keen on buying brand new websites for $500 though.
3. You have to provide VALUE. I sold these as a long term investment strategy, and explained that there would be work involved to turn a profit on these sites… I received 100% positive feedback and numerous emails thanking me for selling them the sites.
4. Expanding on the last point, I offered a bonus that taught the basics of promoting the websites… This bonus was extremely relevant and directly contributed to the sales totals.
5. I also offered a “60 day 100% satisfaction or I’ll by it back” guarantee. Out of countless sites sold, I received 1 refund request. But because of the guarantee we probably sold 10x as many sites than we would have without one.
6. Long copy does work… I wish I still had the letter I was using (I don’t) but we were killing our competitors who were just using a few lines explaining the products.

Remember when I said that buying the programmer out would have been the smart idea? It wasn’t…

Turns out, he’s an excellent programmer and we teamed up and went on to sell tens of thousands of dollars in different products… So instead of a one off investment of $500 I formed a partnership that’s going to be worth a fortune to me throughout the rest of my life.

And that leads me to the final point… Positioning and your market is KEY.  Is your product positioned as a $15 piece of code or a $500 low risk/high reward investment?

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S.  If you want an IMMEDIATE boost in your conversion rates check out my FREE guide “How To Increase Your Sales By 300% Or More In Less Than 5 Minutes”… You can grab it at the top right hand side of this page.

P.P.S. Do you  need an instant boost to your income? Head over to ResultsCopywriting.com for a FREE marketing consultation, you’ll be amazed at how much an outside perspective can completely transform your income and your life.