Music Teacher's Helper Blog

Catchy headline, no? It also happens to be the title of a marketing book written by Mark Joyner that I found to be invaluable when it comes to designing your marketing materials.

You’re probably having the same skeptical reaction I did when I initially saw the headline.  Three seconds? Who are you kidding? That’s barely enough time to say “Hi i’m….” before the window of opportunity snaps shut.

The reference to 3 seconds is the average amount of time someone will spend scanning your mailing piece before it hits the circular file. That puts everything in a new perspective, doesn’t it? Not to mention the other pieces of mail crowding their mailbox at the same time with bright colors, interesting shapes, and screaming headlines that are also competing for their attention.

It’s similar to someone standing in the TV department at Best Buy with each TV tuned to a different channel and blaring at full volume. The overload can be deafening. Which TV would you turn to and watch?

Probably the one that had a re-run of King Of Queens on (your favorite show) or one that was showing your favorite Olympic event (bobsledding) or something that appealed to your personal interests.

Duh, you’re probably saying. Of course people are interested only in what appeals to their personal interests.

But it’s surprising how many mailing pieces don’t appeal to the interests of the reader. They are designed to talk about the person sending the piece more than the person reading it. And the person sifting through their mail can identify that self-interest in 3 seconds or less.

Thunk! goes the mail piece in the garbage.

This book throws an interesting concept at you. The Irresistible Offer. This isn’t a book jam packed with ideas that will take you months to sift through and one that you will use as a reference for years to come. It’s basically built on one idea and it can be read in an afternoon. But the one idea it presents is worth the money (or the trip to the library).

In a nutshell, you absolutely must appeal to the self interests of the reader and then present them with an offer that, to paraphrase the Godfather, they cannot refuse. To the point that they will put the rest of the mail down on the spot and take your mailing piece to the internet or telephone and act on it immediately.

The book goes into detail on making that offer better than I can, but in a nutshell, you have to make an offer that makes you shift in your seat uncomfortably and sweat a little bit. Not the Take 10% Off When Spend $100!! kind of offer. Something that, if everyone responded to it, might hurt you a little.

The rationale is that not everyone will respond, not enough to hurt you, and even if they did – if you take the long term customer value into account (what is this customer worth to me financially over one year? two? three?) vs. the offer that makes you sweat, you’re still ahead of the game.

I put this into practice and sent out a mailing to 2000 people from a list I bought from a list broker using criteria that would identify them as being in the general demographic of someone that might take guitar lessons. Then I made an offer of a giveaway for an electric guitar and 4 free guitar lessons. No strings attached, no sales offer, no spam. Just the offer. They had to go to my website and put their information in and wait for the deadline (which I made only 4-6 weeks away so they were motivated to act quickly).

I received a near 2% response rate on that mailing. That sounds like a weak response to someone that doesn’t do any marketing but direct mail marketing statistics state that anything under 1% is weak and needs fine tuning, 1-1.5% is a successful mailing, and 2% is a home run.

So 2000 people I mailed to times 2% is 20 potential students that are highly qualified prospects and basically raised their hand to tell you that they are open to taking guitar lessons. If you can convert fifteen of them (you can expect a few that just wanted a free guitar and won’t respond) you’re talking $375 a week at $25 per lesson per student. $19,500 a year extra from a mailing that cost roughly $400 for postage, postcards, and a mailing list.

Would you pay $400 if you could get $19,500 back in return? You just might. What if the students stay on with you for two years? $39,000 from a one time $400 expense. Not bad.

The guitar offer made me sweat. What if people just wanted the guitar and never intended to take lessons from me? Sure, there will be a few. What if only two people respond and I have to give away a guitar and a month of lessons without getting any new prospects? Could happen. But it didn’t.

The key is making an offer that they can’t refuse. This book can help you do so. I tried it out and it worked for me. Give it a try!