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Several years ago, a clothing retailer in Baltimore figured out how to save his family-owned store from the big giants like Wal-Mart that were moving into the neighborhood. What did he do?

He wrote a letter. By hand. He wrote it on a yellow legal pad, embellished it with circles and asterisks, underlined key sentences for more emphasis, and drew in some cute little coupons.

Then he ran off a few hundred photocopies, on the same yellow legal pad paper, and sent them to his best customers.

Marketing under the radar

This funky letter did the trick. Loyal customers flocked into his store the following weekend, and his immediate cash-flow problems were solved.

After that he instructed his employees to gather the name and address of everyone who bought anything in his store. Now he regularly sends out interesting, creative mail to his list–not just for the holidays and new seasons, but practically every month. At least.

His business is thriving, even did well during the past 12 months when so many businesses have been hurting.

His name is Bill Glazer, and you can look up his book on Amazon, Outrageous Advertising, if you want to read more about how he did it and see a copy of the fateful yellow letter. But there’s another point I want to make.

We’re in the digital age, and you should be putting some effort into making Twitter, FaceBook, websites and email work for you. But you’re a fool if that’s all you do. Here’s why.

Everyone gets mail, and at the very least they have to physically handle it in some manner before it ends up in the recycle pile. I can’t think of a better way to come in under the radar, and get right up in front of potential clients while everyone else is fighting for attention in cyberspace.

Get this right one time, and you’re set for the rest of the year

If you can come up with an eye-catching, creative mailing, you’re going to reach your prospects in a way that many of your competitors aren’t even trying to do.

And the beauty of it is that you only have to do it once. You don’t need to post a Tweet every half hour and spend your evenings on FaceBook. You don’t need to come up with a new blog post every day. Once you have a proven mailing campaign, you can tweak it a little and send it out month after month, possibly for years.

Now I’d like to introduce you to the man who can help you.

My friend Gonzalo Tapia runs A Plus Mailing, a family business that has been around for more than a quarter of a century. Gonzalo’s company has survived multiple recessions, and he’s helped other businesses do well when the economy wasn’t.

Gonzalo knows his stuff, from how to do a mailing that gets results to saving a few bucks on printing and postage. And now he’s put together a special guide so you can be direct-mail savvy, too.

You can’t find this anywhere on the Internet today, but we might give you a free copy. If you ask nicely.

There’s a good chance you’ll be able to get the guide from his website in the future, but in the meantime Gonzalo is doing me (and you!) a great favor. He’s giving me permission to offer a draft of his book to select friends and readers.

This isn’t something you can just download off a website. This is strictly a friends and family deal. It won’t cost you anything for now, but you have to ask for it. Call me or send an email with “direct mail guide” in the subject line if you want a copy.

Here’s a question you should ask yourself: If you could be really, really good at one thing, what would it be?

Over the years I keep hearing a little factoid cited by a lot of different people–you need to spend 10,000 hours doing something before you get really good at it.

This used to leave me dismayed. If you spend 3 hours a day, say, studying a language or playing a guitar, you’ll need close to a decade to master it. But there’s a bright side to this.

You probably spend way more than 3 hours a day on some things. You probably spend 6-8 hours or more selling, strategizing, tinkering and inventing, counseling, chiropracting or whatever else you do to earn an income.

When I lived in Italy, I lived with Italian roommates, and dated an Italian woman who didn’t (or wouldn’t) speak English. I read books and magazines during the 45-minute commute to work each day, and usually managed to squeeze in another hour or so of studying Italian. Around my 3rd year there, I was practically bilingual, I had dreams in Italian, and all kinds of opportunities were open to me in teaching, tourism, and sales.

Now take it to the next level. Your clients pay you because you spend hours doing something that they’ve only dabbled in, at best.

You can become a master by deliberately ramping up your hours on one particular skill. There are lots of realtors, but suppose you spend a few extra hours a day studying old buildings or a historical district. If you’re managing an IT company, you could become a master at a specific type of programming.

Likewise, 10,000 hours of selling is an investment that will pay you back ten thousand times in almost any industry or career.

And there’s one more aspect to this. Most people actually don’t reach the 10,000 hour level until late in their career, if at all. You could play a decent golf game after just 2,000 hours, but 10,000 hours is the Tiger Woods level. If you had to spend 10,000 hours mastering something, what would you want it to be?

Outside of your career, progress is slow, but not impossible. I put in about half an hour a day drawing and cutting with the katana. I’m not going to become a great swordsman anytime soon. But when most people are getting old and crackly, I’ll be like Gandalf.

Meanwhile, I’ll just keep writing for 8-9 hours a day, and maybe I’ll be able to retire a little sooner and have more time to practice.

Over the last two weeks, I wrote seventeen drafts for this post. I couldn’t find the right words to convey what I want to say, so I’m just going to spill it out and hope you’ll agree.

You know we’re in tough times economically, and I hope you’re not feeling the squeeze as badly as people who have lost their homes or their jobs.

I could go on and on about the importance of “giving back.” A bad economy must be much worse for non-profit organizations, and unbearable for the people, animals, and ecosystems that rely on them.

I could remind you of what Zig Ziglar said: “The only thing you need to do to get what you want is help enough other people to get what they want.”

But you know all this, and I believe you want more or less the same thing I want: To make money and do some good in the world. So let’s work together.

Ambition, Abundance, and Action

I’m trying something new this summer. Any writing I do for you in July or August, I’ll give 10% of your payment to the charity of your choice. I’ll even do it in your name, so you can get the tax deduction and the good karma. Plus, if it’s a big project you’ll get a big discount.

And of course you’ll get a lot more out of this than just a thank-you card.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably not 100% satisfied with the wealth your business brings in. But my readers are a step above that.

I’m betting that you’re actually willing to do something about it. You know that results-driven content on your website brings more sales. You get better SEO when you have copy written for that purpose.

You bring in more clients from a targeted, direct response campaign.

If you’re letting your prospects see content that’s boring or unfocused, you know that you can do better. And in this current economic climate, you have to do better, or you’re not going to make it.

There’s never been a better time to spruce up your website, create content that prospective customers will truly read, and just do some good, honest marketing. I’m trying to make it easy for you to advance your business and support your favorite cause.

So what I propose is this. I’ll write fresh, new, results-driven copy for your website, brochures, or a marketing campaign. And just as I promised, I’ll donate 10% of the bill to the charity of your choice. In your name. You’ll get the credit, the glory, and the tax deduction.

Not to mention a discount.

Normally a large project would cost you $1500 to $3000 or even more. But for the entire month of July I’m putting a ceiling on every project at $750, which is only half, or even a fourth, of what you would normally pay.

If you want, you can also give the money you’ll save to a charity. Or you can add it to your coffers, and use it to build your business and enjoy yourself.

Coaxing the world back to life

I said that this was an experiment. I’m giving up my usual vacation time to do this, because I need to see if it can work. I’m hoping this offer will set an example for other businesses, and they’ll follow suit. Imagine when a thousand businesses do this!

Coffers will overflow. Good works will be done, and all the while you’ll be pumping the heart of the economy, blowing on the coals, coaxing the world back to life.

There are trees to be planted, hungry people to be fed, kids waiting eagerly for guidance and direction, or just a chance for some fun. Stray and wild animals need rescuing, homes, and habitat. Beaches and parks need to be cleaned up.

Very few people get to live at a crossroads like the one we’re in right now. I challenge you to think like a mountain and live like a rainstorm.

If this seems like a good idea, pass it on. Maybe you’re happy with your copy right now, and there’s no need to change. If so, forward this to someone else who can benefit.

This isn’t just about the writing, but the idea. Steal it yourself, if you want. More businesses giving away 10% of their earnings to their customers’ charities can’t be a bad thing.

So I’m asking you to take at least one of these two steps:

1. Call (213-427-92880 or email me (Jacob@jacobbear.com) to get your discounted, world-improving, wealth-attracting project off the ground.

2. Pass this ezine on to anyone you think could use a marketing boost.

This is red, the neighborhood cat. Last week he showed up on my porch with a huge infected gash across his face. The veterinarian drained the wound and sewed him up, and now I need to keep him inside while he heals.

He’s a fiercely independent outdoor cat, and I’m afraid he’s already bored with my silly words and amateur YouTube videos. So I gave him a toy on the end of the sting. He ignored the toy, but almost instantly fell in love with the string.

Your clients may do this from time to time, so it’s important to understand what your “string” really is.

One of the books that made my shortlist for best marketing books of 2008 was Waiting for Your Cat to Bark. There’s nothing really new or earth-shaking in the book, but they presented an important concept in a creative way: Your prospect is a cat, but you might be treating her like a dog.

In other words, if the way you’re selling and presenting doesn’t fit the needs and personality of your client, then buying is actually against their nature. It’s like expecting a cat to bark. Or selling them the toy when what they really want is the string it’s tied to.

Your job is to find the string in your business, and dangle it in front of the right cats. I had a weird experience with this last month.

Towards the end of May, I started making offers to a fresh list of prospects in a new industry. When I wrote about sales and marketing, very few of them seemed interested. But as soon as I describe copywriting in connection with social media, and suggested things like rewriting their case studies and press releases as blog posts, they were all ears.

I had assumed the social media aspect was a given, something that would automatically go with any writing I did for them. But really, this was the string that got the cat’s attention.

So how do you find the string? I stumbled on it by accident, but there are questions you should be asking yourself.

First, what are all the benefits of doing business with you? You should have an exhaustive list, and even get a little bit creative. Then look at that list and find the benefits you haven’t really stressed in your marketing. Test these out, and if your clients pounce, you know you’ve found your string.

Red is supposed to get his stitches out in a week. I’ll let you know if he starts barking.

This is the economic stimulus you’ve been waiting for. I’ve been thinking and thinking about how I can offer you a FREE version of the workbook and templates I’m putting together for “do-it-yourself” copywriting. I’ve decide just to go for it, tell you how I would do it, and then you can set up your own marketing campaign.

So, here it is:

Getting Your Money’s Worth: 4 Secrets to Inspired Web Content and Follow-up that get Explosive Results in any Economy

This powerful little booklet is based on the 37-Minute Marketing Campaign that I offer my clients. You won’t be able to do it on your own in just 37 minutes, but you will learn some of my best secrets, including:

• 3 essential elements your website must have!
• The heavy-lifting power tool that drives conversion
• Million-dollar advertising on a hundred-dollar budget
• The single, most important element that can destroy your advertising efforts if you get it wrong

…and much more!

I’ve pulled out all the stops this time. I hope you’ll download this, work it, use every step again and again as customers beat down the door to do business with you.

To download your copy, simply fill out the form:

I was about to give up on this.

For the last few weeks I’ve been toying with the idea of writing an e-book on bike rides around Los Angeles and selling it on my bike blog.

But when I went out on my favorite local ride, thinking about this more and more, I decided that most of the people I could reach probably already knew the routes better than me.

Then a spandex-covered, gloved and helmeted, racing-fit biker in a yellow jersey pulled up next to me on a pricey carbon frame decked out with halogen lights and a GPS odometer and clock.

We talked shop for a while. He was from the neighborhood, and was out on an after-work ride. From his outfit and his talk I knew this was the ideal customer, and I assumed by his garb that he already had a lot more knowledge and expertise than me.

But when I told him I was doing the “Mission Triangle” that roughly goes from my home in Silverlake to the San Gabriel Mission, across to San Fernando and back home, he asked a lot of questions about the route. He wanted to know the distances involved, the difficulty of the ride, and so on.

Clearly I had something to teach him.

You’re smarter than you think you are. If you spend time and effort studying (or better yet, doing) just about anything at all, you’re going to acquire knowledge that others don’t have.

In the information age, your most valuable resource is–well, information. You can set yourself up as an expert by posting a good blog, publishing a newsletter, giving out (or selling) ebooks, or best of all, writing a book.

In our information-heavy age, people are used to finding what they need, and almost nobody falls for the cheesy commercials that drew money from our grandparents’ wallets. You have to build trust and authority, and the best way to do this is by sharing your knowledge.

All you have to do is get over your terminal modesty and remember that you do have knowledge worth sharing.

I can say that for the past two years at least, all the really good clients I’ve acquired came to me because of the copywriting tips and marketing ideas I’ve shared in my newsletter and on my blog.

In those rare times when business has gotten a little slow, I’ve always just responded by giving away ideas for free, telling people what I was doing to get more work and urging them to do the same, sharing stories, posting more tips… and always the work has come back.

There was a time when I told myself, “My clients are successful business people. I don’t need to share this with them. Surely they already know.”

I though about that as I huffed and puffed alongside my fellow roadie, whose far superior rig (and probably better conditioning) made me struggle to keep up.

“Where are you headed now?” he asked.

I told him the street name, and he shook his head. “Never heard of it.”

The next left turn, there it was. I turned away down the street a local biker had never heard of. As I said goodbye, he asked me, “You ever thought of writing a guidebook?”

You know more than you think you do.

It doesn’t get any easier than this. If you know you can spend $100 and get $1,000 back, you’ll make that trade with every $100 bill you can lay your hands on.

Welcome to the world of direct marketing. If you have a list of a thousand prospects who are likely to need your service, and you send out a postcard to each one, you’ll know exactly who responded and who didn’t. That’s the kindergarten level.

The split-test is how you ramp up your results. Let’s say you have that same list, and you split it in half. The first 500 get your basic postcard, the next 500 get the same card with a different headline. If one card brings in 12 sales and the other brings in 50, it’s a pretty good guess that the headline that brought in 50 sales is better for selling to that group.

Now here’s where you add the habanera to your chili. Put your winning headline on all your postcards the next time around, and this time split-test some other aspect of the card–the offer you make, the color, the photo, and so on.

After you’ve done these split tests a few times, 2 things should be happening:

1. You’re making more profit on every marketing campaign, so you have more money to invest in the next one.
2. You’re getting a detailed picture of what works with your prospects, and the results of every marketing campaign become more predictable.

When you’ve reached this stage, it’s like you know how to exchange $100 bills for $1,000 bills. You can know, with reasonable certainty, that if you spend x dollars on a marketing campaign, you’ll get y dollars in sales.

Once you’ve done this, you can risk bigger bucks on more expensive media that will reach higher audiences. Instead of trading you $100 bill for $1,000, you can swap out the $1,000 bills and make millions.

Some of the most successful marketers are doing just that. In fact, Response Magazine did a story a while back on how some big-name advertisers usually run radio spots before they spring for a TV ad.

The basic tip: Use cheap media to test your content. Use your proven highest-selling content for the expensive ads.

This is a picture of my “to do list” a year ago:

I followed a suggestion by time management expert Lee Milteer, who recommends you divide a bulletin board into columns for each project, goal, or problem you’re working on. Fill the board with notecards and post-its for your ideas and tasks, and tack up any relevant articles, pictures, or other material.

Right away, a lot of the clutter I was carrying around in my head went up on the wall. But my, how these things accumulate!

Soon the bulletin board became a dumping ground for anything I didn’t want to deal with right away.

When things got too cluttered, I made a commitment to go through one column every week. I was surprised to find that many tasks had become irrelevant. Either I had already taken care of them, or I had replaced them with something bigger and better.

If it’s important but not urgent, will it ever get done?

Imagine the joy of prying out all those thumb tacks and popping bags of paper scraps into the recycle bin. But the real benefit came from finding gems in my to do list.

They were action items that are important, but not urgent. These are the tasks that Steven Covey puts in “Quadrant II” in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Things like marketing, learning new skills that will help you become more successful, efforts that will grow your business but aren’t necessary to maintain it.

Ultimately, these are the things that will transform your life. But since they’re not a part of our daily routine, and never a part of the fires we put out all the time, most people never do them.

How this will affect your marketing

If you don’t go out and promote yourself today, there probably won’t be any immediate consequences. If you don’t do it tomorrow, you’ll feel just fine. But if you neglect it until the pipeline of future business dries up, you’ll be in trouble.

Sales and marketing are never urgent but always critical. Make time for them, and if necessary use this system.

Put all your ideas, concerns, and “to do” items up on the wall. Then just let them sit there for a while. It’s like compost for the garden of your life. You’ll feel calmer for having addressed them, and your mind will be more focused on the present.

Later, when you’re ready, take down the litter and return it to the earth from whence it came. But pick out the diamonds in the pile, and make time in your schedule (no matter how little) to work on them.

If none of your marketing tasks are on your diamond list, I’m going to send you a big bag of compost in the mail!

One more thing before we both get back to work. Once you’ve scheduled your important, non-urgent tasks, keep the commitments you make to yourself as firmly and unfailingly as you keep your word to other people.

Ho hum. Welcome to Bored Words, where a dull, baldheaded man lectures you on how to run your business–into the ground.

It’s April 1st, the day that some fool realized that your prospects don’t get enough sleep. So I’m going to give you ten proven tactics guaranteed to induce a comatose state as soon as you try to sell anything. Yawn…

Remember to blink every now and then as you read this. Try not to let your eyes glaze over.

How to virtually ensure mediocre profits and results every time

1. Look at what the majority of people are doing in your industry, and try to copy them as closely as possible. Strive to be just like everybody else.

2. Issue a press release announcing your website’s “new look.” Upload it to PRweb.com and check back every 2 hours to see if any major media companies have picked it up.

3. Avoid doing anything that might build a relationship with existing clients.

4. Ensure that passive verbs are used as frequently as can be done throughout your copy. See to it that clichés are sought after and maximized in their use. These state-of-the-art fossils should be implemented in all your web copy and literature as if they’re going out of style. They provide a full-service text solution for all your marketing needs. Use big, dense paragraphs that are filled with long, wandering sentences heavily encumbered with multiple dependent clauses and prepositional phrases in every line.

5. Offer a “Free Consultation” to anyone with enough spare time to spend 90 minutes at your office or the nearest Starbucks.

6. Demand an up-front investment of precious time (not money, which can be recovered) before you offer or divulge anything of value to a qualified prospect.

7. Cold-call large companies and give your best sales pitch to the gatekeeper, or leave a message that’s all about you in the general voicemail box. Don’t waste time on silly things like researching the company to find out about their true needs.

8. Send a postcard to everyone in the Yellow Pages without providing an offer, a Unique Selling Proposition, or any reason for them to contact you.

Don’t worry about targeting a demographic that might be more inclined to do business with you. If you even bother to follow up, wait at least 6 months for them to completely forget you.

9. Send the same generic email to every address you can get your hands on, with or without permission. Use the copy from your postcard in #8, above. Don’t spend too much time worrying about the subject line. And stay away from scammers who tell you to segment your list or track and measure your results.

10. Ignore the advice of cult figures like Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, John Caples, Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham, Ali Brown, Robert Collier, Seth Godin, Chris Marlow, John Forde, Clayton Makepeace, Napoleon Hill, Bob Bly, and Michael Masterson. They’re just a bunch of rich people.

Okay, okay, put out your torches and set the pitchfork down. It’s a joke! April Fools!

Or maybe not.

You see, I’ve been a fool. In fact, I’ve been guilty of almost all the counterproductive actions and attitudes listed above.

But worse than that, I’ve seen a lot of these foolish marketing mistakes become the norm in many industries. (It puts the whole recession thing in perspective, doesn’t it?) Maybe even you have committed some of these doozies.

Before you go on with the follies of the day, think seriously abut what you’re doing (or more importantly, what you’re not doing) to promote yourself.

Study some of the “rich people” I mentioned above. It’s no accident that all of them are (or were) rich.

All right, end of the sermon. I hope you got something useful out of this, at least a good laugh, and maybe an uncomfortable moment that will prove profitable later on.

Now go on out there and play a trick on someone.

I was putting the finishing touches on a sales letter, and almost didn’t use my  “secret ingredient.” But I’m glad I did. Let me share it with you. Read more…