I'm putting together a multi-step sales process for yellow pages ads, and the first step is a lead generator with a dollar grabber.

The leads are then sent either to my website or to an 800 voice mailbox. There they can request a free report on how to improve their ads along with a free CD explaining how to use adwords for local advertising. Both the report and the CD strongly imply that they may want to turn this over to a professional, as it will be easier and better executed if they do. This will also serve to generate leads for copywriting services.

But, I want to attract only good clients, not bargain hunters, and I expect to get both. Any suggestions on how to get rid of cheapskates?

I'm thinking about:
- Putting a small price on the report and CD.
- Stating something like "After you've seen what I'm sending you, I think you'll agree that improving your ads will be a great investment. For every dollar spent improving your ad just once, you'll get back X more dollars this year and every year after that. Since I'm experienced in this, I'm betting that you'll hire me to get the job done right."

Any other ideas?

I'm going to test EVERYTHING to see what works. Perhaps I'm concerned over nothing.

Thanks.

Burton

My suggestion is you take the cheapskates for what they are. Give them the freebie and never hear from them again. Factor it all into the price of getting leads.

Thanks, Vin,

Good point and you're probably right. I'm going to test and see what works.

Burton

Oops. Some people might not know what the above means in plain english:

I'm sending a sales letter to get possible clients to raise their hands. Then I'll send them something else (a report and CD) to get them to select themselves as a potential customer.

A dollar grabber refers to attaching a dollar bill to the sales letter to "grab" the reader's attention.

Burton

I would never buy a CD, I'd expect you to provide a downloadable mp3 for free, if you were expecting to establish credibility with me.

I won't even pay for lead-gen CDs from well-known famous people, much less someone I've never heard from. There's too much free content already available in whatever your niche is on the 'net, so it would be very difficult to get someone to buy your CD, even on ebay at .99 + $1 shipping, if you're not famous etc.

Ken

Personally Burton if you find a small business owner that has enough sense to even ASK for a cd I'd give them two of them for cripe-sakes!

Most of the folks that comprise your target market don't even know that their advertising sucks!

They usually feel it's because no one "reads" (or listens or hears) their ads-- no matter what media they're in. They feel it's the media that sucks and not their advertising.

Trust me-- you aren't going to get a "wind-fall" of response unless you mail to a hundreds of thousands of businesses at a crack-- these people (your prospects) are not that sophisticated about this stuff.

If you had 5 people out of 100 request the free cd/report I'd be shocked.

The fact is that you're targeting yellow-page advertisers which inherently aren't at the top of the food chain when it comes to being top-quality clients for any copywriter.

I tend to agree with Ken and Michael's comments ... I periodically send a thousand or so "free information report" offers to my lists of business owners and marketing executives with only a few responses trickling in even months after the mailing.

My letter works, just works best when prospects have a real "ready to buy" pain. Of the 10 to 20 responses most all buy, but it really only takes one to pay for my time, margin, and promotion. With follow-up 90% buy, so why would I want to suppress leads?

If I'm going to offer a "just pay S&H" CD offer it will be on a teleseminar or large e-mail list where I haven't been able to pre-qualify. It's more important to create multiple contacts to catch the prospect when they need you most.

Switch up between letters, free offers, and even pre-paid "mail in critiques." Send them to your website to download samples, listen to audio, and to get them involved. Use things you mail to capture postal addresses from your e-mail lists.

I wouldn't lead with a dollar-bill letter either -- instead invest that money in a second step or mailing a larger list, or renting a more qualified list.

Self liquidating lead generation (having the prospect cover some of your costs in marketing them) is usually reserved for unqualified lists, low dollar price points, or suppressing response for only the truly qualified.

You can be sure to get good leads by having a good list.

Best,

Justin

Justin,

I'm pre-qualifying my leads by finding yellow page ads where the ad sucks. That doesn't pre-qualify them as being ready to hire a copywriter though, just pre-qualifying them as needing my services.

Any suggestions for where I might find a pre-qualified list?

Thanks.

Burton

P.S. Thanks, Vin, Ken, Michael and Justin for your responses... I don't think I'll try charging for the CD.

The only list of "pre-qualified" prospects I could think of would be a traditional list of mail order/catalog companies.

When it comes to "main street" type businesses I know of no such list... I mean a list of ones that would be pre-desposed to some sort of copy-writing assistance.

The fact is most lists of small businesses is rather nebulous-- they constantly are going in and out of business. You could get one of those cd's like Info USA puts out with 8-zillion small business addresses for $10-- granted many of the addresses will be useless but it would be a start.

If it were me I would spend the money and get a Dun & Bradstreet list of businesses in your area that had more than 1 employee and were in business for a minimum of 2 years-- at least you would have a fighting chance of prospecting to businesses that had a little cash flow and had survived for a brief time.

Burton,

Choose your targets carefully.

Yellow Pages advertisers in general are not
your best bet. Instead target specific markets
within the Yellow Pages who run high transaction
businesses. In other words, dentists, chiropractors
and other such businesses.

Put together a customized promotion for these
people.

When you target market (not by medium but by
industry) you will get a better response.

I know one copywriter who mails 1,000 lead gen
postcards per month to alternative health pros.
The postcard leads to a webpage with an optin.
He get gigs on a consistent basis doing this.

So the lesson is simple...

Target specific markets by industry.
Go after high transaction businesses. They have money.
Offer either a free report or free critique.
Follow up.