… it brought $0 in revenue.

Oh my, did that piss me off. I spent hours writing, printing, cutting, stuffing, stamping, and labeling 300 mailers.

The messaging was spot on; the envelopes stood out, the mailing addresses were verified, etc. Everything seemed to be on track.

However, was it really?

After all, the campaign was not successful by traditional standards – it failed to bring in any revenue. – something must have been missing, I told myself.

It’s not a secret that I hate losing and I’m very curious. So, I decided to sign-up to receive as much direct mail as it was humanly possible in my mailbox.

After analyzing and compiling every single mailer I’ve received in the past nine months, I was able to distill highly insightful learnings that allowed me to launch a better campaign that finally brought in revenue (thanks to my amazing sales team here at Solstice).

These insights took my direct mail approach from zero to one and allowed me to uncover a new lead channel here at Solstice.

Useful insights about direct mail are very scarce, so I decided to compile my last nine months of learnings in 14 best practices for direct mail campaigns so that everyone else can benefit from them.

Here we go…

1. Order Well in Advance

We move fast, but not everyone else is the same. When dealing with third-parties, always allocate additional time for things to move along.

With direct mail, there are a ton of parties involved: the data provider, printing shops, envelope suppliers, postcard suppliers, etc. Each one of these parties has a 1-3 week turnaround time to get things done. Allocate enough time so that you don’t stress yourself to death.

2. Compare a Ton of Vendors

Comparison shopping will decrease your costs by a magnitude. Initial quotes drove the total cost for my campaign close to $4K. With better negotiations and vendor research, we managed to get it down with $1.7K.
Shop for as many vendors to get the best deal.

However, remember that shopping takes time, so don’t forget rule #1 – the earlier you start, the more time you’ll have to benefit from “no-rush deals.”

3. Your Targeting Criteria Matters, Tremendously

Choosing the right mailing list can make a significant difference in your overall response rates.

While target audiences are essential on online ads, they are much more critical for direct mail campaigns, since you end up paying per impression (i.e. each mailer) rather than per lead (i.e. response).

Nine months ago, I spent hours stuffing envelopes for a direct mail campaign – everything was spot on, but the target audience targeting was weak. Now, we use much more advanced modeling techniques that allow us to target people with surgical precision.

4. Test Everything

One of the things we did nail, back in December, was the fact that we tested the effectiveness of handwritten envelopes. That was a huge success and led us to implement it again in the next round.

You can test something as small as the sender’s name, all the way down to the specific offer that you attach. Prioritize your tests, track results, and adapt your strategy based on your learnings.

My assumption on the target audience was wrong by in December, but I moved on. It’s (relatively) fine to miss one thing, but don’t make the same mistake twice.

Most companies get good at direct mail through testing. They spent a disgustingly high amount of money testing until they find a sweet spot. Your job is to do it faster and smarter than them, so the money you spent on testing is never more than what’s necessary.

5. Multiple Touchpoints Are Crucial

It takes people about four touchpoints to convert on one of our online ads. It takes three touchpoints to convert someone through on a radio ad. Unsurprisingly, it takes people four touchpoints to convert on a direct mail ad.

The number of people that covert on the first touchpoint is rare… they are like one call conversions. Do not expect to convert 50% of your list on the first (or even second) touchpoint. Face the facts and plan accordingly.

Layer multiple touch points to make the most out of your list, especially since you paid for every single prospect record when you purchased the mailing list.

6. Switch Up Your Creative to Create A Killer Drip

Tagging along with the last point, you are going to need multiple touchpoints to get someone to take action, so treat this as an opportunity rather than an added cost.

Every single touchpoint is a chance for you to tell a different story around why your product is the best, so pitch your product from a new angle every time to help the prospect gain a holistic understanding of your product.

Make the most out of those touchpoints and set them up to make them meaningful for your customer (and your brand).

7. Use Prominent CTAs

Every single touchpoint needs a prominent CTA. Don’t overdo it, however, don’t hide it along with the fine print.

8. Track Everything

Use a different tracking method for every touchpoint so you can run proper attribution. It can be as simple as using a new landing page/email/phone number.

Plenty of ways to track things accurately, there are no excuses

9. Direct Mail is a Great Brand Awareness Tool

A friend of mine told me that his direct mail campaign generated more brand awareness than TV ads.

I was surprised (and slightly skeptical) about his comment, but every prospect I cold-called from the last direct mail campaign was aware & remembered our product.

This level of brand-awareness is unheard of in online ads!

10. Brand Everything

You want people to be able to recognize your brand from wherever they are. Unconsciously, people will start making a connection between your mailers.

Better yet, people will start recognizing your brand wherever they are: a display ad on a random blog, Youtube, social media, fliers, etc.

Make sure your brand can be easily recognizable, this will help your integrated strategy.

11. Direct Mail Performs Better When Integrated to Other Channels

Direct mail by itself is not the best thing in the world, but where coupled with outbound calls, or social advertising to harvest the demand, you’ll make everything sing.

Outbound calls accounted for a significant amount for 50% the conversions of our last campaign. Without them, we would not have closed the project.

You’ll squeeze out a lot more by going outbound, prepare for it ahead of time.

12. Create Urgency

People take their sweet time to answer mail. By adding a deadline, you’ll create urgency and accelerate the turnaround time.

The faster they reply, the faster you can remove them from your mailing list, and the less you spend by re-sending mail.

13. Offer Great Incentive to Increase Response Rates

Adding incentives (i.e. $50 gift card) also creates the same effect as urgency. It gives people an additional reward for taking the action you want them to perform.

From a behavioral angle, an incentive increases the perceived reward in a prospectus mind. The higher the reward, the lower the risk : reward ratio, which then makes your offer attractive to more people.

14. Have Cold Beers and Good Company Around You

Nothing would have happened without my incredible team here at Solstice. You might end up needing your team’s help manning the phones, stuffing envelopes, designing minor flyers.

Your team is your biggest ally, and nothing would be possible without them. If you ever need to organize an envelope -stuffing party, make sure you have plenty of cold beer and a killer playlist.

The post I Analyzed Every Piece Of Mail In My Mailbox And Here’s What I Learned appeared first on Andrew Alayza.

• 50 lbs fruit and sausage platter
• Foam keychain that floats in the water
• Toilet paper with a witty saying on the wrapping
• Getting a kid’s gift without having kids (ha!)

^ These are real stories people have told me! You and I could exchange more of these stories for days…

But as much as we dislike receiving lame gifts, when sending, most of us default to those same ol’ lame gifts.

I was guilty of this myself, but not anymore…

Here are 5 eye-opening facts that changed how I send corporate gifts.

The post 5 Eye-Opening Facts That Changed How I Send Corporate Gifts appeared first on Andrew Alayza.

If you can’t turn yourself into a consumer, you probably shouldn’t be in the advertising business at all.” —Leo Burnett

 

Writing copy that converts should feel like having a conversation with the ideal customer. Good copy understands what the target audience wants, presents them with solutions, answers their objections, and of course, converts them.

Turn traffic into revenue by writing copy that converts with the following 5 tips.

1. List Features Instead Of Benefits

Benefits sell, features don’t. Lay out the benefits and tell your users how your product is going to make their life easier. In the words of Seth Godin, it is all about “Me, me, me. My favorite person: me.” Make sure you are talking to your leads about their favorite subject: themselves.

Remember how Steve Jobs revealed the magic of the iPod? He didn’t bother to talk too much about its technical capacity…he emphasized what customers could do with it by using the punchline “1000 songs in your pocket.”

2. Test Different Headlines

Your headline is the most important thing on your page. Whether it is an AdWords result, or a landing page, the headline is the first thing people see. You need to A/B test different headlines. Don’t be afraid to do so, as long as you are generating enough traffic to get statistically significant results.

Create different test-headlines based on your traffic sources, there is not just one perfect headline. One headline might work better for you on your PPC traffic, but another headline might work better on your organic traffic.

When you write your headline, focus it around your target persona’s pain points and present your perfect solution. And, don’t forget to support your headline message in the body/landing page of your page. Ad relevancy improves your Quality Score, and sends a consistent message to your leads.

3. Always Prove What You Claim

This is especially true for e-commerce/SaaS startups, where their products are less tangible. Trust becomes crucial and can be established using testimonials, proven facts, or leveraging social proof. Studies suggest that with testimonials, participants showed higher levels of trust, in fact, the positive influence of testimonials was significantly more pronounced with more expensive products than cheaper ones.

For example, if you claim that your startup offers the cheapest CRM software, you need to prove it. Add numbers, add figures, or add case studies or client testimonials, anything that will support what you are saying on your copywriting.

4. Be Concise

You want to try to get your point across as fast as possible. As Leonardo Da Vinci said, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Use headers and sub-headers to make it easy for readers to scan through. Ditch the long, winding paragraphs full or jargon; you are not trying to get a literary award here, you are optimizing for conversion.

The team at Crazy Egg has done a great job writing copy that converts. They kept the user in mind by not ‘assaulting’ them with a wall of text online.

Breaking big hunks of information with bullet points (as with headers), makes the copy more readable and less daunting to read.

5. Use Persuasive Language

Persuasiveness is not about what you say, it’s about how you say it. Every marketer knows that the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me” is an outright lie.

The words you use have an incredible amount of power. Always go back to your drafts and identify any phrases or sentences that lack punch or excitement before publishing.

Here’s a long list of persuasive words to get you inspired:

The Big List of 189 Words That Convert

Final Thought

When you are writing your copy, don’t forget to use customer-centric language, this is really the key to copywriting for conversion. Understand exactly who you’re writing for and what makes them tick.

Share your passion, take away their objections, and make them smile. That is the key to writing copy that converts.

Now… start optimizing your copy with these ideas. Practice makes perfect.

The post 5 Must-Have Tips For Writing Copy That Converts appeared first on Andrew Alayza.

How could Apple (during its peak) be more innovative than all other computer technology companies which had access to the same agencies, media, talent, and market conditions? How could the Wright brothers build the first successful airplane when there were better teams with better networks and larger budgets?

There is something else at play here. And hopefully, this post can change the view on how you think the world works and how you operate in it.

There is a pattern. All inspiring leaders and organizations in the world think, act and communicate the exact same way. And it’s the complete opposite as someone else.

Take a look at this diagram, it explains why some leaders/organizations are able to inspire while others aren’t. It has three layers:

• Why: This is the core belief of the business, it is the purpose…it’s why the business exists. Very few know why they do what they do.
• How: This is how the business fulfills that core belief. Some know how they do it…whether that is the value proposition, proprietary process, etc.
• What: Every organization knows what they do. This is what the company does to fulfill that core belief.

The way most communicate is to go from the outside in; from the clearest to the fuzziest. But the most successful communicators communicate from the inside out, they know how to make people care. If Apple was like everybody else, a marketing message from them might sound something like this:

We make great computers, they are beautifully designed, and user friendly…wanna buy one?

This is the way most marketing messages are crafted. We say what we do, how we are different and we expect some kind of behavior.

Turns out Apple has figured this out over the years and knows better. Here is how Apple actually communicates:

Everything we do we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making out products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers…wanna buy one?

Totally different, right?

The only difference between message one and two was the order in which the information was released. People, don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This is why 14% of the world is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple. But this also explains why people are also perfectly comfortable from buying an iPhone, iPad, and iWatch from Apple.

Apple’s competitors are perfectly qualified to make and sell all of the above products. And they have attempted to do so, yet nobody bought one…nobody cared. Dell can make beautifully designed products, but nobody can imagine buying a smartwatch from Dell; a ‘computer company’. But we do it every day! People don’t buy what you do people buy why you do it.

The goal is not to do business with everyone who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. Belief makes people feel something. Only by making people feel something will you make them care, and only if they care will you draw behavior from them i.e. a purchase

You can give somebody all the facts and figures but they still think it doesn’t feel right.

The same logic applies when it comes to attracting top-notch talent. The goal is not to hire people who need a job (that is the what) the goal is to hire someone who believe what you believe (focus on the why). The person you hire because they can do the job will work for money, but when you hire for values/culture, they work for the organization with their blood sweat and tears.

Wether you are an early stage founder, a recruiter at a Fortune 100 company, or a marketer like me, and you are wondering how to make people care, remember that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Start communicating from the inside out.

Purpose generates emotions, and emotions inspire actions.

The post Emotions Inspire Actions appeared first on Andrew Alayza.

Can entrepreneurs learn from musicians? How can two such diverse fields ‘cross-pollinate’ ?

Think for a second. To what extent can the skills for developing great musicians also be the attributes and behaviors found in accomplished entrepreneurs like Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners.

As a bass player myself, here are some of the ways in which playing an instrument prepared me for startup life:

1. Listening Skills

It’s impossible to learn how to play an instrument without learning how to listen first. You simply cannot perform music unless you become a good listener. Whenever you try to learn a new song, you listen to the recording and repeat it as many times as it takes before even trying to play something back.

As an entrepreneur, are you listening to your users? What are their main pain points? What do your users think of your product? What do they think of your competitors? A startup team’s ability to listen to the environment and respond to it is paramount to their success.

2. Collaboration

Playing music on your own is like playing football by yourself (that’s sad, isn’t it?).

You need other people in order to have fun and bounce musical ideas. What would The Beatles be without John, Paul and George? It takes a lot of unified minds to make cool music!

Similarly, it takes many unified minds to run a cool company, and it is up to us to align people from different technical backgrounds around a clear mission and a unified set of values in order to sound as one organization. Playing an instrument teaches you how to draw the best from each person on your team. You learn how to spot promising ideas from unnaparent hints and help team members articulate & develop those ideas into feasible solutions.

3. Go-Getters

Speaking of The Beatles, no one becomes The Beatles by playing it safe—the newly formed quartet embraced a challenge and honed their craft by playing an estimate of 1,200 shows in Hamburg between 1960 and 1962. “They weren’t disciplined onstage at all before that. But when they came back, they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them.”

Startup life is the same; learn from musicians and hit the road. Go and experience the actual lives of the customers you want to affect. Like The Beatles, you might not know how or what to do at first, but dive in and give it a try. Be willing to figure things out and learn by doing. Who knows, if you devote enough time you might will actually learn a thing or two.

4. Improvisation

Jazz values spontaneity. It is not enough just to play the sheet music, you have to be able to improvise using your own sound. Music teaches you to be spontaneous and think quick on your feet. When you are improvising and hit a “wrong note” it depends on what you do next that will dictate whether that note was theoretically right, or wrong. In the words of Mile Davis “It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.”

In startups you have to be nimble and react fast when opportunity comes in your way: be prepared to embrace the opportunity, step up to the challenge, improvise, and learn as you go. You will make mistakes, but mistakes are rarely fatal by themselves, it all comes down to whether you can turn the negative into positive.

5. Tenacity

Asides from Mozart, most people can rarely rely 100% on talent alone. Successful musicians learn how to develop raw talent through grinding practice. They practice the same piece for hours, and hours. They revise their compositions again, and again. They embrace the grind, and see failure as practice.

90% of startups fail. Instead of taking failure personally, use it to sharpen your perspective and strengthen your commitment.

Entrepreneurship is not about admiring failure, like music it is about admiring resilience and the ability to bounce back after having learned where opportunities are (and where they aren’t).

The post 5 Habits Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Musicians appeared first on Andrew Alayza.

Back in  June, 2014 I wrote this to explain how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were going to change the music business. A year ago, cryptocurrencies and music business were words that few people would put together (and those of us who did, were stared at as if we had a third eye).

It’s amazing to know that as of today, there are more than three startups helping musicians unlock new experiences. Kudos to them for believing in this when no one else around them would.

Anyways, this is what I wrote.

Disrupting the Music Industry: Bitcoin

dis·rup·tive 

/disˈrəptiv/
adj
An innovation that creates a new market by applying a different set of values, which ultimately (and unexpectedly) overtakes an existing market.

How will Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies change the Music Business?

• Decreases dependance from banks

Sometimes high interest rates make us feel that we are being ripped off. But I guarantee you that there are plenty of people that would be happy to get ripped off just to have access to a financial system but of not have a chance. There are 4.7 billion adults on Earth but 2.5 billion do not have access to any financial system. Let that sink in for a second. OK, now the cool thing is that 80% of them have access to telephones. With Bitcoin they can have a bank in their pockets.

Let’s take a look at this hypothetical scenario: a young engineer needs $1 million to invest on a new studio but interest rates are so high. (Oh, and a homeless man has better credit than him). The engineer can go to bitcoin lending sites such as BTCJam to get his starting capital and find the lowest interest rate online peers are willing to offer him. The more he uses BTCJam the higher his rating is going to be and thus the lower the interest rates he will be able to have access to. Transparent information from all over the world makes the lending process fast and efficient.

• Artist Coins & Crowdfunding

Artists can have their own cryptocurrencies, called artist coins. These artist coins have the potential to help artists build relationships with their fans who financially back them as they create a prolonged bond. Normally when an artist decides to start a crowdfunding campaign a fan would back the project, get a reward and that would be the end of the story. This was more like a transaction. But artist coins help to make crowdfunding more like a relationship where fans who back an artist may get artist coins in reward, these coins would increase in value as the artist’s career progresses. This will allow the fan to be constantly aware of any of the artists updates. Artist coin holders might be offered a discount over an artist’s music and merchandise or might even be able to access exclusive content.

Adopting cryptocurrencies is a chance for older artists to gain exposure in new markets made up of early adopters of younger demographics eager to use cryptocurrencies.

• Role of the Label

These days labels are depended less and less as a source of capital and with cryptocurrencies that function of the label will further be minimized.

New labels can be started with ‘label coins’, where interested parties invest money and are in turn given a number of ‘label coins’ plus the power to decide which artists to sign. As the label progresses, the label-coins increase in value and everyone benefits. New talent that chooses to join the label can be paid with the new ‘label coins’.

Rhino Coin is a cryptocurrency by a decentralized recording studio which has worked with artists including Kesha and Ellie Goulding. Every month coin holders will vote for an artist who will be backed by the Rhino Community (from preproduction, recording to release of the record). These artists are allowed to keep ownership of their songs, and revenues from the previous month are paid in dividends to coin holders.

• Transaction Fees

The global music industry looses $1.25 billion with transaction fees. Just so you get an idea, with $1.25 billion you could buy Wembley Stadium. Cryptocurrencies will lower transaction fees the same way the Internet lowered the cost of data — it took it, made it open and bought costs down by a magnitude.

When music is bought from online platforms ie. BandCamp. The check-out  process has way too many parties involved in the transaction: an issuing bank, merchant bank, network (Master Card, Visa, etc), payment platform.  I am not even going to get into privacy and identity theft issues but whenever you have so many intermediaries involved your costs shoot up to the sky.

• Micropayments

PayPal defines a micropayment as something less than $12. Credit cards were not designed for the Internet world, what is the last time you have spent less than 99 cents on a credit card? Credit cards will charge at least 15-20 cents per transaction, if your product is less than 50 cents that’s almost half of your revenue out with transaction fees.

A micropayment for Bitcoin is 0.00000001. Yes, One hundred of a millionth of a bitcoin is the smallest amount you can send to someone. Imagine how is that going to change the way in which we get paid in the Music Business? What will happen to streaming services? You could stream by the minute or even by the second! You could try out a streaming service for an hour and then move to another if you wished! Like a post? A Music Business article you like? An artist with great music on Facebook? Scan the code and tip a fraction of a bitcoin!

• Copyrights

There is a difference between bitcoin and Bitcoin. bitcoin refers to the medium of exchange while Bitcoin refers to the blockchain, the technology, the protocol. Think of what the blockchain can do with digital audio, after all, it is responsible for recording transactions and preventing double spending. Imagine a scenario where someone purchases an mp3 file, the blockchain records the transaction and next time someone tries to resend/upload that mp3 file the blockchain labels the action as double spending and blocks it.

From the internet we learned that there is no need to ask for permission to innovate. One thing invented for one purpose ends up serving another (viagra?). The same thing will happen to cryptocurrencies, at the end of the day we might not even use them as currency but as data transfer methods. So, it is worth seeing Bitcoin as the technology and not the currency.

Bitcoin (note the upper case) will disrupt the music business , forcing people to learn about it, start accepting it and thus, creating further change…almost like a vicious cycle. So the point of all this is to create awareness. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities in the Music Business and when you find them, don’t ask for permission, just jump in!

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