Thisis one of the most important posts you'll ever read!!!

Dear friend and subscriber:

This is my fourth blog post
today.

If you're reading this, you're
going to learn something I usally
don't tell people.

So...

Read this carefully and don't share
it with anyone.

This is our little secret.

Today is Thursday, July 22, 2011.

It's now 9:52 am

Let's see how long it takes me to
write and rewrite this.

I'm just going to put it out there.

What you do with it is up to you.

There are endless debates -

and numerous formulas -

designed to tell YOU which
parts of marketing are most
important.

So with that said,...

By most important, I mean which parts
have the greatest effect on your income.

You know... your MONEY.

I have my own opinion about the most
important part of marketing, and it may
surprise you.

To begin with, it's not the LIST, as so
many goo roos claim.

The list is vitally important.

Don't get me wrong.

YOU have it and you should use it,
but hey, you can have a long, and big
list and still not make any money.

But there are plenty of lists you can
rent or mail to through joint ventures -

and through testing, you can determine which
will work for you.

Having your own list -

your house file -

is also crucial.

But with patience, money, and effort,
you can build a respectable house list -

especially online, where it costs less
than offline, but if you're a D.C., you
already have a house list so to speak.

If you've been in another business, you
have a house list. You're not using it
though, that's the problem.

Lots of people say the most important
part of marketing is the offer.

I'll tell you this. The offer can make a
huge difference in your response rates.

Let me give you an example:

Hi Doc,

Most everyone has received a Detention for one reason
or another. Surely, you were late for class sometime
and got a Tardy Slip.

Well, that's the basis of our newest OUTRAGEOUS SYSTEM.

This is a two Step system that is an actual
Giant Tardy Slip followed by a Giant Detention Slip.

Each is delivered to your client/prospect in a mail tube.

This 2 Step system can be used as a stand alone Marketing
System or as a smaller piece to a large complicated
Marketing Funnel.

The way MR. X and Jeff envisioned using it when we
created it was as a follow up sequence to a previously
stated OFFER.

Something like

"You're getting this Tardy Slip because
you haven't responded to my offer for
a FREE evaluation..."

You get the idea.

So, the first 10 people to REPLY to this
email with a description of exactly how
they would use the Tardy/Detention in their
business will get a FREE copy of the complete
system mailed to them.

Anyway, you can check it out by clicking on
this link, but REPLY and tell me how you would
use it FIRST.

http://www.OutrageousChiropracticMarketing.com

To your OUTRAGEOUS Success,

XXXXXX XXXXXXX

You see how that works.

That example was a real offer sent to me via
the internet and I liked it and I actually sent
them back an example.

So it works.

But, like lists, there are a finite number of
offer options.

And once you test them, you know which offer
works best for you.

As you've probably guessed, COPY is important -
but NOT the most important element in marketing.

I mean think about this.

What about YouTube.

You can now put a video on YouTube and you don't
have to write any copy, if you don't want to.

Unlike lists and offers, which are finite, the
copy variations that can be written for a promotion
are virtually limitless.

However, copy's (the handwritten letter or
salesletter if you will) ability to lift response
is somewhat limited {especially if someone who is not
a copywriter, doesn't write it}.

New copy can beat the control by 25% ... 50% ...
even 100% -- but rarely much more than that.

Changes in GRAPHICS can lift response even less
than copy can,in most cases, so design is clearly
NOT the most important part of marketing.

So what's left?

Price is pretty important, but it's not the
#1 factor determining YOUR marketing success.

Price is really part of offer.

And like lists and offer, the optimal price can
quickly be determined through testing.

Is distribution the missing key?

For 80% of businesses, distribution is fairly straight
forward: get an order, ship it out.

Or invite people to your store or showroom.

In some product categories (e.g., those sold
through dealers, reps, or agents), distribution
channels are trickier. But these situations are
the exception, not the rule.

So what's the
most important part of marketing?

It's the product.

By that, I don't mean the physical product.

I mean what the product can do for the customer ...

the benefits it delivers ...

the functions it performs ...

the problems it solves ... the needs it fills.

Are you offering to your customers
and patients something that they truly
want or need?

And is it an urgently felt need,
rather than one that isn't that
important or immediate?

Do the people in your market niche desire or
require what you are selling today?

Will buying it make a huge improvement
in the quality of their lives?

If the answer is 'YES', your marketing
will be fairly successful - even if the price,
offer, list, copy, and graphics are not
perfect.

On the other hand, what if you have not found a
great product or service that meets your prospect's
urgent needs or solves her most pressing problems?

Then she or he will NOT buy, no matter how persuasive
the copy, eye-catching the graphics, appealing the offer,
or reasonable the price.

There is an old saying in marketing:

A great product will sell even if the promotion is poor,
but a great promotion cannot sell a bad product or
SERVICE.

It isn't always true, but the fact remains that the most
important factor in marketing is whether your product or
service is a good fit with the needs, concerns, wants and
desires of your customers and patients.

In other words... is it valuable to THEM?

But how do you know what those customers and patients really
WANT?

Madison Avenue advertising agencies and packaged goods
marketers would answer: market research.

Direct marketers would answer: testing.

However, the fact is this:

No matter how much research you do - or how well you
know your target market - deciding what products
or services to offer them - comes largely down to guesswork.

When you guess correctly, the promotion for your new product or
service is a smash success, with the orders - and money -
flying like snow.

That happens a LOT, thank goodness.

But when you guess wrong, you end up offering to your
patients, clients and customers something they don't want
or need - and have little interest in.

Your marketing campaign, no matter how brilliant, does not move
them to buy - and that week, the phones don't ring, and you
will get very few orders, or new patients.

So what should you do?

My best advice is for you to continually plan and test new
products and services.

Find out through TESTING... what they want.

Spend a lot of time thinking about and talking to your
customers, clients and patients. Ask them what they want,
need, hope, dream, fear, and desire.

Create a handout that is a questionnaire.

Find out.

Then find or create products or services that address
those wants, needs, dreams, and desires.

Offer these new products or services to your customers
or patients in limited marketing tests conducted at
reasonable cost.

Then analyze the results.

Keep promoting your winners -- and cut your losses on the
losers early.

No biggie. Everytime you fail, you're just ONE STEP closer
to becoming a SUCCESS... GUARANTEED!

By the way, one of the biggest marketing mistakes is to do the
opposite: pour good money after bad in a desperate attempt to
get your prospects to buy a product or service YOU think they
should want, desire, and need.

Your customers and clients and patients know far better than
you what they are interested in - and what they are indifferent
to, and basically what they WANT.

Just listen to them, and you'll make a handsome living for as
long as you're in business.

If you argue with them ... and offer them what you think they
should buy, instead of what they WANT to buy ... you'll soon be out of business.

That's it for today.

Sincerely,

Dr. Carney

P.S. For more direct marketing secrets, keep this blog
bookmarked, so you can check it... at least once a week.

Like I said in previous posts, I write at least every
Monday, Wednesday and Friday at a minimum. Like today I'm
writing four posts. Go figure. I don't know why I'm doing it,
just that I'm doing it.