How to "drill down" with the ASK database to uncover your prospects secret desires

From: Jonathan Mizel
Publisher, The Online Marketing Letter


Dear Friend and Subscriber,

In this article, we are going to cover a topic many people asked about. Read on to find out how you can use Alex Mandossian's ASK Database to learn what your prospects really want.

Additionally, we are going to reveal a Cyberwave "twist" to give you a huge advantage in your marketing.

The ASK Database

The ASK Database is a simple online tool that allows you to create custom feedback forms, which you then use as landing pages to query your visitors as to their wants and desires.

Basically, you use these landing pages in place of your sales letters and NameSqueeze^TM pages during the research phase.

You can use either the standard ASK forms (on the ASKDatabase.com domain), or create your own custom ones and integrate them into your own site.

While there are many free survey form scripts you can use, the best thing about this tool is your responses will be organized into an easy-to-manage format, allowing you to spot trends, identify keywords, export results, and utilize the information to tailor your sales message and product for maximum impact.

In addition, with the "drill down" technique you are about to learn, you'll finally know once and for all:

• Which specific segments of your market are most responsive.
  
  
• The underlying motivation driving prospects' curiosity for more information.
  
  
• The keywords and phrases that make them take action.

• Using surveys to get customers to reveal what they want to buy
  
  
• How to increase your profits by reading your prospect's mind

• PPC Search Engines
• E-Mail lists
• Contextual traffic
• Banners
• Pop-ups
• Text links
• Organic Search Engines

The Underachiever Method

You may have heard of a product development technique known as The Underachiever Method. This was popularized by marketer Frank Kern, who used it to create dozens of different niche promotions, from Japanese Rock Gardening to How to teach your bird to talk.

What you may not realize is that The Underachiever Method is based almost entirely on the ASK Database system, and the responses it generates from hot, qualified prospects. In other words, rather than guess what people want to buy, you simply ask.

There's quite a bit of information about The Underachiever Method online, and if you are interested, you can take a look at the following links:

• http://www.effectivemarketingsecrets.com/underachiever.html
  
  
• http://www.web-source.net/etips/issue_174.htm
  
  

• Step one: Pick a niche, any niche.
  
  
• Step two: Choose relevant keywords and launch a Google AdWords campaign.
  
  
• Step three: Drive the traffic into an ASK Database page that says something like, "What's the single most important thing you need to know about {insert niche topic here}."
  
  
• Step four: After 50 - 100 responses, pause the campaign and organize the results in order of the most asked questions first.
  
  
• Step five: Send the results to a copywriter with the instructions to create a sales letter that uses the questions as bullets and sales points, evoking curiosity in the mind of the prospect.
  
  
• Step six: Also send the results to a ghostwriter with the instructions to create a product that answers the questions people want to know.
  
  
• Step seven: When you get the sales letter back, upload it in place of the ASK Database page.
  
  
• Step eight: When you get the book back, convert it in PDF and create a post purchase thank-you page to deliver to buyers who respond to your sales letter.
  
  
• Step nine: Un-pause your Google AdWords campaign and let the traffic resume.
  
  
• Step ten: Party like a rock star while your promotion cranks out cash.

Integrating the Cyberwave "twist"

Regardless of what you are selling (products, information, or services), or which niche you are in, you can use the ASK Database to uncover what your prospects want.

Even if you have been in business for years and are already successful, the intelligence you gather when you ASK can be used to improve both your sales material, and your product.

Over the past 18 months, we have helped dozens of entrepreneurs using our special "twist" to launch scores of products, in niches ranging from Raising Rabbits to Becoming a Vampire (really).

To learn our unique twist, let's explore a marketing challenge facing a client promoting a book on How to learn French.

Drilling down the market!

Before we started on the sales letter, we wanted to figure out who is most interested in a book like this, and are they willing to pay for it (the most important thing). So we decided to use Google to test.

Our initial assumption was this market would consist of students in need of assistance with their schoolwork. But as experience has taught us,the obvious answer isn't always the correct one.

Therefore, we tested a generic ad like this on Google AdWords to determine if there was interest in the market:

Why do you want to learn French?

The results were quite surprising, and we discovered there were in fact four distinct markets for this book:

1. People who live in French speaking countries and want to communicate better: This was by far the most responsive group of all since they were adults (with credit-cards), and they already made the commitment to live in France.
   
   
2. Travelers to French speaking countries: People who visit want to integrate with the locals, and know if they speak the language they'll be able to uncover better deals and enhance their travel experience.
   
   
3. Home-schooled students and their parents: No matter what your personal feelings are about home schooling, you have to admit it's an extremely passionate market, always on the lookout for information on how to learn more quickly and easily.
   
   
4. Students who need help with their schoolwork: A valid market to be sure, but when compared to the above segments, it came in a distant fourth behind the rest.

• Our first breakthrough was identifying a super-hot and previously unknown sub-market of people who want to learn French, expatriates who need additional communication skills.
  
  
• The second breakthrough was learning that the home school market is exploding and there is a lack of quality information in this field.

Therefore, we decided to focus on people living in French speaking countries before the other sub-markets. Then we ran another "drill down" Google Ad similar to this:

What is the single most important reason for
you to learn to speak better French?

And this is where the market research got really fascinating, since the prospects told us things we never would have guessed on our own!

You see, we discovered that within the sub-market of expatriates, there were three primary motivations for their desire to increase their language skills:

1. They wanted to get a job.
   
2. They had a job, but their lack of command over the language was preventing them from advancing.
   
3. They wanted to meet a mate.

• Learn the language quickly, without weeks or months of study.
  
  
• Get good deals on hotels, shopping trips, and meals.
  
  
• Meet interesting people.

• Master basic French, without spending hundreds on a pre-packaged curriculum.
  
  
• Communicate with French speaking people.

• Avoid the costs and time commitment of a private tutor.
  
  
• Pass their tests in school with a B or better.

Drilling down to the end-result!

Since we already knew who was interested, and why they wanted the product, it was time to discover the actual end-result they wanted to achieve, and learn the keywords and phrases that were in their head.

If you can match the language patters (keywords and phrases) of your prospects, you can double, even triple your conversion rate, giving you the edge to make expensive advertising profitable, pay outrageous commissions, and push out competitors vying for your clicks.

Therefore, we created an ad specifically for the expatriate market, starting with people living in France, that looked something like this:

What is the single most important reason you
want to live and work in France?

And by drilling down, we discovered that within the sub-market of expatriates wanting to work in France, there were again three motivations:

1. They wanted to be able to live in France indefinitely.
   
2. They are obsessed with French culture.
   
3. The have a family connection to France.

• Determine different segments of a specific market as well as uncover additional niches we might want to target later (home-schoolers, tourists to France, etc.).
  
  
• Uncover the motivations behind each market's desire (get a job/better job, find love, etc.).
  
  
• See what keywords and phrases people were using in their responses (meet a French girl/guy, work in Paris, become a French chef, etc.).

• Targeting
  
• Keywords
  
• Headlines
  
• Ad Copy
  
• Follow-ups

Conclusion

'Getting inside of the head' of your prospect and gaining insight to their motivations and buying behavior is important work for the smart marketer.

Today's tools make our jobs easier and more productive so use them to make your business better at communicating with prospects and customers and you will naturally make more money.


Sincerely,


Jonathan Mizel