We are capturing thousands!

Since we started exclusively using this technique, we have collected in excess of a million names, which produce over $25,000 a month in sales.

But as exciting as that may be, a capture strategy is irrelevant unless you also have a good follow-up strategy. That's how you actually make money - sending follow-up offers to people you have a relationship with.

In this issue, we'll teach you two different, but highly effective, follow-up formulas, review some example sites, and finally, give you some motivation for taking action today, so you can make some extra cash by next month.

Formula 1: The "continuous grind" method

In years past, we recommended delivering a multi-part mini-course or e-zine to subscribers who gave us contact information. You may want to take a look at our issue on sequential autoresponders, which includes sample e-mail sequences for both prospects and buyers.

When this was written back in 2000, it was considered cutting-edge stuff. Thousands of business owners followed our lead and made millions of dollars with this information.

However, it's now 2004, and since we are capturing a much larger percentage of leads, and because the opt-in process is now an integral part of the sales process, we need a new formula. One that ...

• References the end-result of what the prospect wants to accomplish
  
  
• Builds credibility and believability
  
  
• Converts suspects into prospects and prospects into customers
  
  
• Never stops selling
  

You see, the NameSqueeze™ by itself isn't the "be-all, end-all" many think it is. It's simply the piece of the marketing puzzle that attracts interested users to your sales funnel and gets them to fork over their contact information. The real selling is done in the follow-up, not the sales letter.

We have seen sites where the first visit conversion rate is less than 1%. Most marketers would say, "We need to get that percentage up!"

And while that won't hurt, it's equally important to look at opt-in rate and the overall conversion, factoring in sales from your follow-up process.

If your sign-up is good, say 25% - 35% or more (pretty typical for a NameSqueeze™), then the initial conversion figure becomes far less important than overall conversion.

And if you do what I'm about to tell you, you'll be able to double, triple, even quadruple your overall conversion in 6 - 10 weeks· without making a single change to your sales letter. It's simple ...

You create at least 50 pre-written follow-ups

Read that again, 50 follow-ups. That's the big secret!

You may have heard such rumors as ...

• You should never have more than 10 follow-ups since nobody buys after that anyway.
  
  
• Never implement a follow-up system or a NameSqueeze™ for a niche product, it's not worth the time and trouble.
  
• 
  Don't send more than 7 follow-ups for a product that costs less than $50. You'll piss off your users and waste your time.
  
  

Those statements are complete and total BS! In fact, one of the biggest reasons we see businesses fail is because they do not implement a strong follow-up strategy, especially if they have a high opt-in rate.

If you have ever experienced "the continuous grind" method, you know it works like crazy because it's based on a very simple premise ...

When someone goes through the NameSqueeze™ process, giving you their name and e-mail, they are asking you to treat them as a true and qualified prospect, otherwise they wouldn't have offered up their personal information.

And thus, there are only a few logical reasons they don't buy from you on the first visit:

1. They need more convincing
   
   
2. They are distracted by something else
   

The first you can deal with by isolating different parts of your sales letter and creating killer follow-ups detailing all the reasons to buy; great value, limited supply, impending price increases, etc.

But the distraction factor can only be overcome by sheer volume. In other words, you must learn to compete with your prospects' spouse, children, jobs, family, and friends, and only let up after you have made a valiant attempt to generate the sale.

You see, when a prospect doesn't purchase something after a few weeks, the conventional wisdom says to just leave them alone. After all, they probably aren't interested anymore; you took your shot and failed. You don't want to bug them and you certainly don't want to overwhelm them with sales messages.

However, there's a much easier way to tell if they aren't interested ...

They unsubscribe from your list!

Otherwise, you just keep on selling, which means sending what may seem like an unreasonable number of highly targeted follow-up messages, each with multiple reasons to buy. Here's why ...

Let's say your prospect searched for your keyword on Google, and clicked on your AdWords ad, costing you $0.15. They opted in to your list, went to your sales letter, clicked on the order form link, liked what they saw, and right as they were about to enter their credit card number, the phone rang ...

• Or their kids got back from school ...
  
  
• Or they spilled their coffee ...
  
  
• Or the power went out ...
  
  
• Or they had to go to the bathroom ...
  

Or any number of other things happened, and you (and your order form) got pushed to the back of their mind. The window got closed, the computer was shut off, and voila, they are gone. But you want them back, don't you?

Statistics show that 94% of all shopping-carts are abandoned, and fewer than 10% of all clickthroughs to an order form turn into a purchase. Poor order form copy is a contributing factor, but mainly it's due to distraction! Just because a visitor doesn't buy on visit number one, it doesn't mean they aren't still interested.

That's where most marketing gurus get it wrong!

They assume since the thought to buy isn't front and center, it must be dead. But it's not! It lives in the prospect's mind, and when you bring them back to the state they were in when they first visited, opted-in, and decided to buy, they'll want to buy all over again!

But you may not bring them back to that state in 7 follow-ups. Or in 15. Or even in 30. You need a massive amount of communication, a regular dialog actually, to ensure that the right message gets through at the right time. And that can only be accomplished through repetition.

What to write?

When we tell our clients to write 50 follow-ups, they usually balk and say it's impossible. They complain it's too much work and it'll take forever, but that's nonsense.

You see, even if you have to write 50 five-page follow-ups, all in longhand, with a rusty pen, (underwater, for God's sake), it would still be worth your time and energy, and you'd still find it's the best investment you'll ever make.

You see, it can actually be accomplished in just a few hours, especially since ...

• You don't have to write them all at once
  
  
• Some can be short, just a few paragraphs
  
  
• You can repeat the ones that pull best
  
  
• You can take them from your existing sales piece
  
  

Listen, writing follow-ups is simple, you just sit down and put them together using the following formula:

• First follow-up: Thank them for requesting information and give them the URL. (One paragraph.)
  
  
• Second follow-up: Send answers to three common questions people have about product, restate benefits, offer and URL. (Eight paragraphs.)
  
  
• Third follow-up: Send three customer testimonials and URL. (Four paragraphs.)
  
  
• Fourth follow-up: Send answers to three more common questions people have about product, restate guarantee, and give URL. (Eight paragraphs.)
  
  
• Fifth follow-up: Detail the value proposition of your product and URL. (Four paragraphs.)
  
  
• Sixth follow-up: Give a success story of someone who used your product and URL. (Five paragraphs.)
  
  
• Seventh follow-up: Send three more customer testimonials and URL. (Four paragraphs.)
  
  
• Eighth follow-up: Offer special bonuses via link if they buy in set time (deadline) and give URL. (Three paragraphs.)
  
  
• Ninth follow-up: Create scarcity by implying you may stop selling the product after a certain sales volume give URL. (Four paragraphs.)
  
  
• Tenth follow-up: Remind them of the link, and let them know the offer is still active. (Four paragraphs.)
  

Now repeat that sequence five times, and what have you got? 50 follow-ups! You can even send the same 10 follow-ups again and again if you like, though we recommend changing them slightly. (It'll only take a few extra minutes.)

When this process is in place, you get what we call the "creeping conversion rate," meaning that your initial conversion might be 1%, but after a week, it goes to 1.5%. After 2 weeks, it's at 2%. After 3 weeks, it's at 2.5%, and so on and so on.

One of the best-known dating sites online has just a 0.04% initial conversion rate, yet because of the follow-ups, that turns into a 3% - 5% conversion over 6 - 8 weeks. Take a look at:

http://www.doubleyourdating.com/

We have no idea how many follow-ups they send, but we know this ...

• It's over 100 since we have been getting 2 - 3 a week for the past year.
  
  
• This site is reported to make over 5 million dollars a year (that's almost $14,000 a day).
  
  
• The content is outstanding, and is written in a friendly, conversational tone.
  

Another site we recommend looking at is:

http://www.insiderslotsecrets.com

Notice how some of the follow-ups they use are short and sweet, simply a reminder to visit again and buy when ready. Hey, you can do that!

Mailing frequency guidelines

A key part of this process is identifying your optimum mailing frequency for sending follow ups. Send too often and you encourage people to unsubscribe. Send too sporadically and people forget who you are.

The main consideration in how often to mail is whether you are selling to consumers or businesspeople:

Formula 2: The "crescendo" method

The "grind" is great if you are promoting a product or service, since it never stops selling. But what if you are promoting a time-specific event like a teleseminar, workshop, or conference?

In that case, we use what's called the crescendo method. Crescendo is literally defined as: gradually increasing in volume. This strategy allows us to build the excitement over the course of a few weeks, with bigger and better reasons to buy presented each day.

We have used this method several times, and the results were remarkable. For example, when Alex Mandossian and I released our Test and Track Teleseminar last year, we used a NameSqueeze™ page to collect prospects.

We got 600 people to register, and 400 to attend our free preview course. However, much to my dismay, on that first day, we received only 7 paid orders!

Of course, I wasn't too worried, since I understand the power of the follow up, and immediately went into action creating my additional sales pieces. Here are the results:

• Follow-up #1: Day of the preview - 7 sales
  
  
• Follow-up #2: One day following preview - 17 more sales
  
  
• Follow-up #3: Three days following preview - 29 more sales
  
  
• Follow-up #4: Four days following preview - 18 more sales
  
  
• Follow-up #5: Five days following preview - 43 more sales
  
  
• Follow-up #6: Two days following the event - 40 more sales
  

Look at those numbers again: That's 700% more sales on the last day than the first day and over 2100% more sales through the series than just using one follow-up!

You can take a look at the follow-up sequence we sent by clicking here.

Conclusion: How to make $10,000 an hour

Of all the things you can do for your business, the most profitable activity, your "best-highest use" so to speak, is making sales. And there's no better way to make sales than en-masse, using the leverage of direct marketing to deliver a personalized sales message to a large group with little or no incremental cost.

Therefore, your best and highest use is to write as many follow-ups as you possibly can, as soon as possible for delivery to your prospect list. And when you are done, write some more!

Marketers who do this simple activity discover that of all the things they can do for their business, sending targeted messages often pays better than any other activity, as much as $10,000 an hour, which is why some struggle, while others continually succeed!

Aloha.

Respectfully Submitted,


Jonathan Mizel