News
Was it Something I Said? Winning Promotional
Strategies
By Jeffery Dobkin, marketing
consultant, author, and speaker
You want to get your best prospects to call you?
It’ll cost you $20 a lead, but hey, they’re your
best prospects, right?
Gather a list of your top 100 prospects. What? You
don’t have a ready list of your top 100 prospects?
Shame on you. If I was your boss, and you were one
of the most beautiful women in the world...well, as
long as I was wishing, I thought I’d wish for
something I really, really wanted—and frankly, who
cares about being your boss?
If these top prospects aren’t worth spending $20 to
get them to call you, you need to rethink your list
and your business and revenue models. But for now,
suppose they are and you have this list.
Write a nice letter about how great your service is
and how great your products are. Blah, blah, blah—it
doesn’t matter what you say here, they won’t really
read it. But up in the top right corner, type in the
following:
If this number: 6675657 matches our WINNING NUMBER ~
6675657 ~
You have won a CROSS PEN! You’re a WINNER! Please
call me (610-642-1000) to redeem this letter for
your FREE CROSS PEN. Thanks and congratulations!
No one knows all the numbers are winning numbers,
and they don’t have to know. They’ll just see that
they are a winner. Everyone likes to be a winner,
and everyone likes Cross pens. You can buy them for
about twenty bucks if you shop around.
If possible, print the matching number in the center
of your marketing piece, or in a different typeface
or different color, so it looks like you stamped it
on the page.
We did this as a promotion for a trade show to get
high-end people to stop in my client’s booth. You
could see people perk up at the end of our isle when
they saw our booth! It was easy to tell these folks
from a mile away—they came streaming down the isle
unflinchingly, a big smile on their faces, and
making a beeline for our booth, waving our letter in
their sweaty little hands.
Results: We ran out of pens in the first hour.
Despite buying out all the Cross pens from every
local office supply store in the area before lunch,
we ran out again by 1:30pm. Finally, we had to give
Cross Pen Gift Certificates (a rain check), and send
everyone a pen when we got back. It really was a
great and successful promotion.
Do this right and your own prospects will all be
winners. You’ll be a winner and having your best
prospects calling you. The whole world will be at
peace. Wow, what a nice way to end this article,
with world peace.
---Source: Jeffery Dobkin has written
five books on direct marketing and one on humor, and
over 185 articles that have been published in over
250 magazines. Visit his Web site at
www.dobkin.com.
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