The Amazing Power of Using Negative Triggers

by Matt Bacak

Recently, I did a webinar with a good friend of mine, Michael Hauge. Michael’s the go-to guy for creating compelling stories having worked with top screenwriters, Hollywood A-list actors and the like to craft blockbuster hits year after year. Using persuasive stories in your copy gives you a huge advantage over your competitors. Using the right story with the right triggers activates an emotional response that motivates someone to purchase your product.

There are all kinds of triggers you can use in your copy to motivate someone to take the desired action, like buying a product, clicking a link, becoming a subscriber, etc. But one thing that most people don’t realize is that negative triggers can have positive results, often catapulting your sales figures into outer space.

So what do I mean by negative trigger?

Say for instance you were selling a weight loss product. A positive trigger would be something like, imagine the feeling of putting on your wedding dress after twenty years and having it not fit because it’s too big. You could weave a story that focuses on the positive aspects of losing weight like increased energy, increased sex drive, feeling more confident, whatever. The goal is to create a positive feeling in the reader or buyer’s mind.

If we’re still using the weight loss product as an example, a negative trigger could be something along the lines of a woman wanting to lose weight to show up the people who teased her in high school for being overweight at a twenty year reunion. Instead of playing up the positive side of losing weight, you would accentuate the negative side of being out of shape or like in the example above, being a chubby kid. Your copy might look something like, remember how it felt as a teenager to be the laughingstock of your whole school, all because you couldn’t lose the weight? For years, you’ve struggled to keep your weight in check but you keep packing on the pounds, year after year. And now a school reunion is coming up and you desperately want to seize this chance to show all those girls up. This is your chance to show them that you’re not the same person you were in high school.

The reason negative triggers often work better than positive triggers is because a lot of times it’s easier for people to resonate with pain than it is with pleasure. Or another way of looking at it (and I’m paraphrasing) is what Tony Robbins had a habit of saying- we seek pleasure and avoid pain. Personally, I find that more people are concerned with avoiding pain than they are with seeking pleasure.

Now I’m not saying to use negative triggers every single time because that’s not going to work and it won’t work for every single person. Part of excelling at copywriting is knowing when to use certain strategies. But keep in mind that using negative triggers at the right time for the right piece of copy can pack just the right punch you need to make the sales you want. It’s a powerful tool that many experts use and now you can use it, too.

 

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5 Marketing Lessons From A Reluctant Lemonade Salesman

by Matt Bacak

School just started back here in Georgia. The day before it started, my kids decided they wanted to do a lemonade stand. I told them before I would help them, they had to make a sign, find all the stuff to make the stand including a chair for me to sit in and I told them they needed to find a location. After they had done all that I asked them to do, we set out for the main drag in our neighborhood and set up shop.

The first thing they did right was waving at each and every person who passed by. Acknowledging each person you come across isn’t that hard but goes a long way towards building a relationship. When you begin building a relationship with someone, you inspire trust. Someone who doesn’t trust you won’t buy from you

The second they did right was doing the assumptive close. My son would ask them for the money and my daughter would make the lemonades. I didn’t even coach him on this. He just automatically asked each person, “How many lemonades would you like?” It wasn’t “Do you want a lemonade?” It was just a simple, “How many would you like?”

Now quite a few people said that they didn’t have any cash on them and they would return once they got the cash. I told my kids that whenever someone said they’d be back, tell them, “Can’t wait to see you when you get back.” Instead of just brushing them off, it’s important to tell people you’re expecting them to come back when they say they will. When you do this, people are more likely to return because it’s like they’ve made a promise to you to do so.

Another thing I told my kids to do was to thank the customer. When we finished with the first batch of lemonade, we made a sign that said, “Thank you. Sold out.” I had my daughter hold out the sign as people drove by. Then we made some more lemonade and sold out in about twenty minutes. After we sold out the second time, we stuck the signs in the ground near where their stand was so everyone would know we appreciated their business.

The cool thing is in about a couple of hours, my kids made $81 just from selling homemade lemonade. My daughter was hooked and after my son and I went outside, she actually made another batch of lemonade and went out with her mom to sell it.

The big lesson here, the lesson I want you to remember, is that once something works, do it again. A lot of times people think that when you do something once, that’s it. You’re done. But that’s not the case. People also think that you can’t make money where everyone else is making money because the market is oversaturated. That’s not true! If you find a market that’s making money, jump on it. If you find a product, create something, sell a webinar and it makes money, keep doing it. Keep doing it until it doesn’t make you money anymore. If you don’t, you’re missing out on easy cash.

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7 Tips For Mastering Facebook

by Matt Bacak

Let’s face facts. Facebook reports that there are over 1.28 BILLION monthly active Facebook users. That’s an insane number that should get you excited. And if you’re not using Facebook to your advantage, you’re wasting a precious resource.

These following tips can help you on your way to mastering Facebook.

Tip #1: Stay focused. Whatever your niche is, stay in that niche. You must have a laser-like focus on what you and your business is all about. If you stray too far from the center of your business, your audience will become confused. A confused mind never buys.

Tip #2: Include pictures. This is a simple trick that brings about the best response and engages the most people. We are visual beings but a lot of marketers forget that by only posting written content. I’m guilty of it myself. However, if possible, add a picture to your content. People will be drawn to it.

Tip #3: Pay attention to the day. Fridays are proven to the best day to post on social media sites, Facebook included. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by to grab attention from your fans.

Tip #4: Ask questions. Facebook and other sites like it are all about engagement. People want to feel like they are part of a community. Also, people love to talk about themselves. Ask a simple question that they can answer in a sentence or less. This way, it’s almost just too easy to respond to you. For instance, if you have a Facebook fan page about turtles, ask your fans, “What’s your turtle’s name?”

Tip #5: Create contests. Contests are a great way to get people participating on your Facebook page. Everyone loves contests. The contest can be for a free prize, recognition, money, anything you can think of. Make sure that the rules of the contest are clear so that’s there’s no confusion as to what your fans are winning and how.

Tip #6: Incentivize to get fans. Think of it this way- what does your Facebook provide to your target audience? Your goal should be to find what motivates your target consumer. Once you know what motivates them, you can incentivize your page to grab their attention and readership.

Tip #7: Be emotional. Eliciting an emotional response is one of the fastest way to get someone to purchase a product and it’s also a great way to get people engaged. Often, businesses discount the emotional response portion of marketing, thinking that having a good product is enough. Sometimes, it is but they’re missing out on a lot of people buying their product and talking about it because they haven’t given them a reason why they should care. Don’t be a nameless entity. Let your readers know who you are and what you’re all about. That will tell them why your business matters.

Bottom line is this: you’ll never get anywhere with internet marketing unless you take action today. One of the best and biggest steps you can take to further your fan base, your reputation and your bank account is by using Facebook to your advantage. So go get started!

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4 Strategies I Learned From Oreo’s Super Bowl Tweet

by Matt Bacak

If you aren’t familiar with the story of Oreo’s famous Super Bowl tweet, let me give a quick rundown of what happened.

The date was February 3, 2013. The teams were the Ravens and the 49ers. I can’t remember how the Super Bowl ended or even any of the few funny commercials that played during that time. But I do remember that the power went out and I also remember Oreo because of the genius of Oreo’s advertising company.

Oreo tweeted a simple message during the power outage, “Power out? No problem.”  They also used an image with the simple message, which you can view here: https://twitter.com/Oreo/status/298246571718483968/photo/1 and the words, “You can still dunk in the dark.”

So the million dollar question is why am I still talking about Oreo in 2014?

Oreo’s tweet during the Super Bowl of 2013 is a great reminder for internet marketers about seizing opportunities and capitalizing on social media. Building your brand is no longer a long, drawn-out process that requires millions of dollars and lots of manpower. In minutes, you can have your message and your brand out there to the public, to a huge audience for consumption. All it takes is a little diligence and creativity.

Let’s dissect Oreo’s approach and see what they did right:

They responded quickly. By responding to the power outage while it was happening, they became a current event, instead of past news.

They kept it short. Keeping the message super short made it super easy to share and retweet. This caused their message to keep expanding in Twitter to more and more people.

They included an image. Images are powerful tools all marketers should be using in their campaigns. We are trained to pay attention to images. An image stands out in someone’s mind versus just a worded tweet.

They explored all their options. Oreo actually had an ad running during the Super Bowl. It was a commercial like any other commercial that they spent a lot of money on. But they weren’t content to just sit back and let the commercial do all the talking for them. In today’s world, you must have the ability to have your hand in all the pies, so to speak.

We could all take some notes from Oreo and be better marketers. I think the key thing to take away from all of this is to stay relevant, keep it simple, keep it visual and be engaging. When you’re creating content, writing a Facebook post or a tweet, crafting an email or selling a product, find ways to engage your audience just like Oreo did with their Super Bowl tweet heard around the world.
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Pissing Off Your Subscribers: A How-To Guide

Pissing Off Your Subscribers: A How-To Guide

by Matt Bacak

 
I’ve been an internet marketer since 1999. Throughout the years, I’ve learned how to make my subscribers happy by learning first what pisses them off. I didn’t learn this information from a guru. I didn’t buy this information from a friend. I earned this information straight from the source- my list. Take a good long look at these following mistakes before you become just another bad taste in somebody’s mouth.

Mistake #1: Confusing Subject Lines. I want to be clear here because I think there is an important distinction I must make for some of you reading this article. There have been times where I’ve sent out an email with a subject line that may have confused my reader, initially, before opening said email. Once they opened the email, however, the subject line should have suddenly made sense. What I mean by confusing subject lines is when you have a subject line that is a complete mismatch to your message. If subject line A reads, See Pictures of Pineapples, then there’d better be some dang pineapples pictures in my email. If I don’t include pictures of pineapples, I’m setting myself up for failure because not only do I look dishonest but whoever was excited to see those pictures is going to be pretty pissed off.

Mistake #2: Keeping Unsubscribes On Your List. This is a big, big mistake. Not only is this ILLEGAL but it’s also infuriating. Have you ever unsubscribed from an email newsletter only to keep getting that newsletter in your box every day? Talk about frustration! The fact is that an unhappy customer is way more likely to speak out against you than a happy customer is to speak out for you. And an unsubscribe still getting emails from you is going to be one unhappy customer.

Mistake #3: Forgetting About Mobile Devices. Huge mistake that a lot of older marketers don’t realize they are doing. Everyone is on their phones these days whether it’s waiting in line at the store, sitting a doctor’s office or even laying in bed. Not only are people on phones but they’re on tablets of various shapes and sizes a lot more often than they’re on their desktop or laptop computer. So take that into consideration when you’re drafting up your emails. Think about how your email will be viewed on a mobile device. If your emails aren’t mobile-device friendly or especially optimized to recognize the type of device viewing it, you could be losing sales and subscribers.

Mistake #4: Focusing On The Sales. I know a lot of you just said, “What?!” It’s good to focus on the numbers you want. I do that every single day. But, you can’t focus all your attention on sales because if you do, you aren’t going to make any money. Listen, consumers don’t care about whether or not you make money, am I right? I know I’m right. Consumers care about themselves and you should care about them, too. When you care about your subscribers, listening to their problems and what they need, you are building long-lasting relationships with them and you are building trust. And yes, you are also building your wealth. So focus on the sales but not ONLY on the sales.

Mistake #5: Writing Sales-y Emails. What do I mean by that? I mean writing emails that aren’t personable. I mean writing emails that sound like you’re a car salesman in a bad, third-rate movie. People are going to recognize if you aren’t being sincere and if you’re not being yourself. They won’t like it, won’t respond to it and won’t buy from you. So don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. You aren’t Zig Ziglar so don’t act like him! Be yourself.

Recognizing these mistakes when you do them and hopefully before you do them will go a long way for your business. I think the golden rule of thumb here is to ask yourself, would this be irritating to me? If the answer is yes, then don’t do it. It’s really that simple.

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5 Essential Skills Every Internet Marketer Should Learn

5 Essential Skills Every

Internet Marketer Should Learn

by Matt Bacak

 

My main focus as an internet marketer is building my list. Day in and day out, I’m focusing on getting more subscribers, getting more clicks and building a list of buyers. Over many years of email marketing, I’ve learned what it takes to be successful and the good news is that the skills needed to do just that are easy to learn and easy to implement.

Essential Skill #1: Build a relationship with your subscribers. This is a vital key element to building a successful list. Many entrepreneurs think that email marketing is all about making money. And in a way, it is BUT your main goal in to serve your customers. If you are serving your customers, treating them respectfully and growing a relationship with them, the money will follow.

Essential Skill #2: Know Your Customers’ Problems. Every day, I ask Dave, who handles all my customer support, what’s going on in the customer support box? I want to know what my subscribers are saying. When they send an email, describing a issue they’re having with my products, my emails or just anything at all, I want to know so that I can one, give them the support they need and two, find a way to fix that problem for other people before they have it. Sometimes all it takes to fix an issue is to mention it in the email I’m sending out or in the sales letter of the product.

Essential Skill #3: Track your numbers. If you aren’t tracking your numbers, you’re not running a business. In my office, we have a board where we track everything from the size of our list to daily clicks, daily EPC and the amount of money we made each day. When I make a new product, I split test everything to see what will get me the best results. Everything I do, I track the numbers so I know what’s making me money, what’s losing me money and what can be done better.

Essential Skill #4: Create content that’s meant to be shared. It’s so incredibly easy to share content these days. People are on multiple social media sites, have their cell phones on them at all times, play on their tablets at the end of the day, surf the web during their lunch break, etc. So when creating your content, whether it’s an email or a blog post, ask yourself if it’s worth sharing. Is it relevant? It is easy to consume? It is easy to share? Is it interesting? Take into consideration what people share, where they share it and to whom.

Essential Skill #5: Play to your strengths. When I first started out in internet marketing, I had a newsletter where I had conversations with millionaires. I didn’t claim to be a millionaire, because I wasn’t. I sat down and had conversations with millionaires in the business that I aspired to be like. Now, after several years of experience, some people consider me to be a guru. That’s cool with me but the important thing is, I haven’t changed who I am. Yes, I have a lot of experience but I’m still Matt. I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not. When I get on stage at an event and speak about my business, I get up there in my shorts and a t-shirt. Most of the time, a cuss word will slip out here and there. And people love it because I’m not afraid to be who I am, just a regular guy who knows how to make money online.
 
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7 Myths About Mobile Marketing

7 Myths About Mobile Marketing

 

By Matt Bacak

The fact is, more and more people are using their mobile devices to surf the web, check their emails, play on Facebook, view content, etc. than ever before. The goal of any internet marketer is to be as widely available as possible and if you’re following these myths below, then you’re losing out on cold hard cash.

Myth #1: Mobile marketing is a fad. You’re simply an idiot if you think mobile marketing is not here to stay.

Myth #2: You don’t need to change your website for mobile users. Of course you do! A consumer’s experience on your website should be rewarding. Your content should be easy to view and your website should be easy to navigate. A person who visits your site should be able to find what they’re looking for fairly quickly, within a couple clicks. If they aren’t able to do that, they won’t waste their time. They will quickly jump to another site that’s easier to use.

Myth #3: You don’t need an email capture box. This is just downright blasphemy. Every single website you own, even your personal website, should have a lead capture spot on it that’s easy to spot and downright hard to ignore. Compel people to sign up for your email list by promising good quality content they’re interested in and then deliver.

Myth #4: Personalization doesn’t matter. If someone is coming to your site for the second time, is their experience different than the first time they came? It should be. Recognizing returning visitors is a way to build a relationship with them, by giving them discounts, showing them saved pages, etc. Look at it as an opportunity to deepen their trust of your and/or your brand.

Myth #5: You must have a lot of content. It’s true that content is king but it’s easy to overwhelm customers, especially mobile device users, with too much content. It’s best to give them snippets of the content so they can read a little and then decide whether or not to go further and pursue that information. But, here’s a warning- if the main purpose of your website is to sell to customers, then you want that to be evident and obvious that they are going there to purchase, not to explore. So keep that in mind when choosing what to display on your website.

Myth #6: Nobody’s going to share this stuff. You never know. Many people see something and while they may not be interested in that product or your site, they may know someone who is interesting and ready to buy. So make everything on your website easy to share on various sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.

Myth #7: I don’t need to go out of my way to create an app. While this may be true, if you have the resources available to you and the clientele to back it up, consider creating an app. Lots of users enjoy the ease of using an app versus having to go to a website and log in.

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7 Tips To Success No Matter Your Industry

7 Tips To Success No Matter Your Industry

By Matt Bacak

 

I recently held a 2 day event at my country club for some clients. I started out the weekend by sharing 47 tips I’ve learned from experience to be successful and in this article, I’d like to share some of the highlights of that conversation.

Tip #1: If you follow an idiot and/or surround yourself with idiots, you’re an idiot. One of the biggest reasons I moved into my current neighborhood was because I was sick and tired of walking out of my house and having the guy next door ask me for a job as I was going to get my mail. That neighborhood was filled with people just like him. Now I live in a place where I’m surrounded by successful entrepreneurs and business-minded individuals. I’m no longer surrounded by idiots.

Tip #2: Don’t follow egos, follow bank accounts. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a guru, isn’t it? There are times when you may be tricked by a “guru” claiming that they are a god. That’s not the person you want to follow. You want to follow someone who can prove to you that they are who they say they are. Don’t just look at their testimonials because it’s easy to pay someone to write a testimonial for you. Dig deeper and find out the truth.

Tip #3: Don’t fake it, make it. The first list I ever built was called Millionaire Minutes. When I started that list, I never said I was a millionaire because I wasn’t. It was all about having conversations with millionaires. I didn’t pretend to be something I wasn’t and I think that’s really important because a lot of times, with people just starting out in IM, they get caught up and think they have to be this certain type of thing to be successful. It’s not true. You will only be successful when you’re true to yourself.

Tip #4: Go where you’re celebrated, not where you’re tolerated. Have you ever been around a group of people where you felt as if you were the third wheel? Maybe you’ve even felt this way in business. If you have, it’s time to say goodbye. I think a lot of people don’t realize that you have the opportunity to leave and go some place different, a place where you will be celebrated for your unique outlook. This is the reason I left ClickBank. I achieved the highest Gravity ever on ClickBank and I was never celebrated there for my accomplishment. That’s when I went over to Warrior Forum and I’ve been received so differently there.

Tip #5: Don’t buy golden turds. The internet is full of things that sound too good to be true and if it sounds that way, it probably is. You’ve really got to be careful. There are tons of shady people out there that only care about getting money out of your bank account.

Tip #6: Don’t be afraid to fail. Fail fast. My wife flew to an event once where some of the guys from Google were speaking. One of the owners of Google said the biggest thing they tell everybody is that the reason they are where they are today is because they fail faster than everyone else. Failure is inevitable, really. But you take that failure and you use it to build yourself up to a better version of you or a better version of your product or a better version of your business.

Tip #7: Understand opportunity cost. If a hotel doesn’t rent out a room for an evening and that room is left vacant for the night, there’s no way they can pick up that money that they lost because of that room being empty. It’s the opportunity cost that was lost. Same thing with an email list (and you can apply this to any business), every time you don’t mail out, you’re missing that opportunity to make money.

 

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5 Essential Reputation Management Habits

5 Essential Reputation Management Habits

 By Matt Bacak

Reputation management means managing or controlling your online reputation, i.e. how you are seen by the public on the web. When you search for your name or company name on a search engine, what results pop up? Are the negative or positive? Just because you find negative results doesn’t mean your career is over but it does mean you are losing valuable sales. And even if you find positive results, that doesn’t mean that you have nothing to improve upon.

Here are 5 essential reputation management habits you must start using right now so you can stop losing customers, money and respect:

1. Learn SEO or hire an SEO expert. If you don’t have the time, find someone who can help explain to you the steps needed to make sure the results coming up for your name or business are relevant and prominent.

2. Utilize social media for branding and keeping customers happy. This is the age of social media and if you aren’t making yourself known out in the social media world, you are missing out on a lot of great thing, including reputation management. Consumers today are constantly checking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and all sorts of other sites like them to see what companies are doing. They go on these sites to get their customer support questions answered and to interact with other like-minded people. This is your opportunity to get involved and make you/your company look good.

3. Think across the board. If you’re using many platforms to get the message out about your business then you need to make sure that your messages are in harmony with each other. No matter where someone finds you, whether it’s on your Facebook fan page or your blog, they should get the same excellent experience and information.

4. Be available. If you’re a small business, it’s hard to be available all the time but with the competition for people’s attention being so tough, you have to be. Now if you’re just a one man show, you’re thinking, how the heck am I going to be available all the time? There are several programs you can use that will alert you to when someone is speaking to you, no matter through what medium. Take advantage of what’s out there so you aren’t missing out on chances to interact with your consumers.

5. Don’t outsource. I know how it feels like you don’t have extra time to maintain your reputation online but it’s important. It’s so important that I don’t think you should give it away to someone else to take care of. No matter who you find to take over answering questions, writing blog posts or updating your Facebook wall, the problem is they’re not you. They don’t know your company like you do. And when you have the opportunity to speak one on one with your customers, you learn a lot of really valuable information about how to do your business better. That can only lead to more money in your wallet and a better online reputation.

The bottom line is if you don’t know how you are perceived online, you’re missing out on a lot of things that can increase your business. I’ve given you some tips to get started but you have to take the first step and make it a priority.

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Why A Disorganized List Can Kill Your Profits

Why A Disorganized List Can Kill Your Profits

 

by Matt Bacak

 

Email marketing is my main source of income. That might surprise a lot of people that I make most of my money by sending out emails to a list of subscribers when most people are struggling just to make a little extra by doing the same thing. So why am I still succeeding when others are failing?

A lot has changed over the 15 years I’ve been an internet marketer and it continues to change to this day but instead of getting upset about it and throwing up my hands in the air, I’ve learned to adapt to the new ones. This is the reason I still make money with email marketing. I stay up to date on what’s going on in the online community I’m a part of and I make the necessary adjustments so that I don’t get left behind.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making when sending out emails is by having a disorganized list. What do I mean by that? A disorganized list is one where you have consumers who fall into all types of different categories. If I had a list of 30 people (trust me, my list is actually much, much bigger) and it was a disorganized list, the breakdown might look something like this-

Number of people – Category

5 – Weight Loss

5 – Education

5 – Parenting

5 – Financial

4 – Make Money Online

4 – Dogs

2 – Remodeling

That’s crazy! Your list needs to be organized. Every person on your list should have a clear goal in mind, whether it’s vintage baseball cards or losing weight. To effectively market to your subscribers, you must have them focused into one list with one definitive purpose in mind.

After you’ve determined that every single person is on your list for the same reason, you can market to them but before you do, take a moment and consider this – what do you want from your subscribers? Most of you answered, make money, right? That’s the simple answer. The long answer is something you need to figure out before you can get the results you want.

Part of the reason I keep making money after all these years is because I have a vision. My vision is for each person in my autoresponder to go through a very specific cycle. From the beginning, when I first capture their name and email address on my opt-in page to when they decide to unsubscribe, I know what steps I want them to take. Because I know exactly how my customer goes through my sales funnel and my autoresponder sequence, I know how to market to them to get the best results.

So if you haven’t already done so, sit down and take the time to map out your customer’s journey, from start to finish. Get to know each stage intimately and pay close attention to what goal your subscriber hopes to achieve by being on your list. Once you know these things, not only will you be organized but so will your list and you’ll see a tremendous change in the responses you’re getting.

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