HOW I GOT TOO HIGH-TECH AND LEFT MY INSTINCTS BEHIND: Marketing Lessons I Just Learned The Hard Way

As you’ve probably noticed, this is a “radio”-oriented blog. But I’m writing this post both for my regular readers and for a number of Internet marketing folks whom I suspect will be dropping by to hear about my screw-ups.

If you’re a radio or advertising person, stick with me through this story and you’ll find a $399 gift awaiting you. (Yeah, with strings attached. But if you’re the right person, you’ll love it.)

Background: In 2006, I launched my 3-day Radio Copywriting Masters class (held in January, 2007). Limited to just 12 people, with me doing every minute of the teaching.

It hardly seemed worth the effort to put up a Web page where prospects could read the “sales pitch” (uh, “valuable information to help them make an informed decision”) and also could register.

Instead, I used one of the techniques I teach my copywriting students: I simply wrote a letter. I explained what I was doing, why I was doing it, who should sign up — all the details. And the last page was the Registration Form, which people were to fill in and fax to me.

I sent an e-mail to my customers and subscribers, along with a link to download the PDF letter.

Pretty low-tech, huh?

But it sold out quickly. In fact, it sold out so fast that most of the world never even heard about the class.

2007: Same thing. No Web page. Just one e-mail to my customers and subscribers, and we sold out.

But Things Changed In 2008.

One Change: I started to hang around (or simply swap a few e-mails) with a number of really smart, super-successful Internet marketing gurus. I mean, some really big names. I listened, I watched, I read…and I realized how much good stuff I wasn’t doing that I should be doing.

Another Change: I added Web Guy #2 (Gustavo) to my staff.

Since going online in 1997, I’ve relied on one extremely good part-time webmaster (Web Guy #1). Part-time because he gets paid big bucks in his Day Job, working for a well-known Internet solutions company. (How we came together is another long story.) In fact, now I’m his only freelance client.

Web Guy #1 is a terrific person, and he’s really good at making things work with limited resources. (And what he doesn’t know, he researches — and refuses to charge me for the time spent researching, because he feels whatever new things he learns will be marketable to others in the future.)

But Web Guy #1 simply doesn’t have time to implement my every online whim immediately. Usually he does stuff for me on weekends. That’s given me a great excuse to keep my site looking really, really good…for 1997.

Web Guy #2, however, is a full-time freelancer. He loves to work, he works fast, and he knows how to do a whole bunch of stuff. I’ve been keeping him busy virtually full-time for several months now.

Here’s Some Of What I Learned About What I Should Have Been Doing.

1. From observing my Internet marketing friends, I realized it was lame to promote my Radio Copywriting Masters class with a PDF letter that people had to download. It made more sense for me to do the work for them, to put it all up there online.

They could click on a link, read the sales page, and if this event was right for them they could register instantly. No more printing out a Registration Page and faxing it to me.

2. Rather than keeping the registration period open-ended, as I did the first two years (it stayed open until 12 people registered), combining scarcity of seats (only 12) with scarcity of time to register would force people to jump off the fence and take action.

As one guy I met this year likes to say, “Acting is easy. Deciding is hard.” Adding the time limit makes it easier for people to decide, because they must decide now.

So I held the registration period open for only 3 days.

3. I was announcing the event too far in advance. Who can commit to traveling to L.A. for 3 days when it’s 3 months away? (I did include a 100% refund for anyone who needed to cancel at least 2 weeks prior to the event, to help ease that worry.) I know people who sell out very high-priced seminars with just 4 weeks’ notice. Plus —

— I fell way behind in my schedule of Stuff I Absolutely Have To Get Done Right Now. That combined with Lesson #3 to result in my waiting until December 10 to announce the Radio Copywriting Masters class for January 16 – 18, 2009.

But at last I was working smarter.

What was the response from my customers and subscribers?

1. “I need something to print out, so I can read it when & where it’s convenient for me. Like…a PDF file!”

2. “I need something to print out — like a PDF file — to show my boss, whom I’ll need to convince to send me to the class. No way can I get him to sit in front of my computer and read your fascinating-but-longish class description.”

3. “I need more than 3 days to decide! Have you forgotten how crazed it is inside a radio station or ad agency in December?”

The Result?

A number of people did rush to sign up as soon as the registration period began. That was good.

But at the end of the 3 days, I still had a few seats left unsold. That was not so good (and a little embarrassing).

So Here Is What I’ve Done.

A) Re-opened Registration. And I’ll keep it open until all 12 seats are sold. (Hopefully that won’t be long, but still…)

B) PDF file for you to download, read, print, distribute to the neighbors…Go nuts!

C) Extended cancellation date to January 2 — two full weeks before the Radio Copywriting Masters Class begins. So if you register now and an emergency arises before January 2, you can cancel with a 100% refund.

D) In addition to the PDF letter, you still can register online.

And The Biggie:

E) Everyone who attends the class also will receive their own copy of How To Create Maximum Impact Radio Advertising — my 7-hour, 6-CD audio package that sells for $399. So after you’ve returned home, overflowing with ideas for producing much greater results for your advertisers and eager to “convert” the rest of your staff —

— Rather than saying, “Gee, I wish you could’ve heard this one example Dan played” or “Dan explained this concept so well, I wish you’d been there…”

…You’ll say, “Here. Listen. Learn. And return these to me, ’cause they’re worth 400 bucks!”

What Lessons Did I Learn?

1. For online registrations, give people a choice of response mechanisms. (This, of course, contradicts what I teach for radio advertising. A good radio commercial has only one Call To Action.)

2. Give my constituency more time to consider making such a big investment of time & money. I know that the “limited availability + limited time to decide” has worked marvelously for other markets. I’m not knocking the concept. It just didn’t work for me in this instance.

3. Try Not To Be So Stupid, Dan. I had January 16 – 18 reserved months ago. I should’ve “opened the doors” 30 or even 60 days earlier. But I was, y’know, busy with other stuff. Kept procrastinating. Not smart of me.

If You’re An Internet Marketer, How Can You Profit From All This?

Try new methods, but don’t assume everything that works for Very Successful, Smart People will work for you.

If You Create Radio Advertising or Imaging, How Can You Profit From All This?

Join us in January. You can download the oh-so-easy-to-read PDF letter here, or you can go right to the Radio Copywriting Masters Web page. (There’s another very cool bonus offered, both in the PDF and on the website.)