Bond Halbert's Badass Blog
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Good news!

Marketing Movie Night is a working model.

It is also a hit but it is far more important to be a working model than a sensation.

When you hear marketers talk about failing fast and getting on with mistakes, they are saying test your business models as fast as humanly possible.

Time really is your most precious commodity and if it takes ten attempts to get a hit, let’s get on with it.

In my last, post I talked about all the mistakes that were made with the very first Marketing Movie Night event here in Los Angeles.

After reevaluating and adjusting the model, we relaunched it as on online version and we hosted our first event to test the model.

Now remember, the idea is we allow people to preview the best courses made by marketing experts with various areas of expertise.

We charge a small fee to keep the level of discussion serious.

There is a live Q&A between clips and only after getting a lot of solid content, do people hear a short and sweet pitch.

Then everyone still on the conference gets…

A Free Gift Just For Attending!

Now I’m going to do something few marketers ever do, which is I’m going to tell you exactly the angles I see to sell people just like you, all kinds of marketing related products and service.

First, I have to explain the current plan and the phases of this operation.

The first phase of this test was to see if people would like the content, get used to the format and test out everything from broken links to unforseen issues.

The results are already good enough to ensure we will continue with testing all the way through phase three.

Now we can use clips from the video to this really is NOT like any ole seminar.

Not only is is all solid content and meat, but once they see the video with all of interaction, they will want to be there live next time.

They will also see that there was chat going on and think “hey if I was in there I’d ask this or say that”

And just when they are at the peak of jealousy, they will see that we shoved out two cool free gifts and they will hear me explain why only those who attended live will get those free gifts.

You see they are ethical bribes. The gifts go great with the topic at hand and they are valuable. Yet, those watching the replay won’t feel the replay was incomplete.

The reason I need to make these ethical bribes is, the more bodies I get in the room, the easier it will be to get all the big dogs to come out and play.

For the test we decided to donate the gate money to a good cause and charged $5.

We raised over $600 to help a fellow marketer in need and the sales funnel worked!

It’s still too early to call this a big winner but it’s all good so far and feedback has been awesome.

We will make some adjustments and then comes phase two.

Our first choice of marketing experts was Jimmy Curley for a few reasons.

First and most important, he REALLY knows his shit.

If the first night had some clown wannabe and folks didn’t feel they got anything of value, we would have nothing to build on.

No feedback. No great clips. No base audience. Nothing.

But, I must admit that Jimmy Curley’s name is not as well known as many of the other experts we are bringing on the show which is a blessing for me and him.

See I know he is great and slowly people are figuring out how good Jimmy is. His show on the replay channel will rightfully lump him in with other true experts.

Inviting Jimmy first allowed me to ensure absolutely top level advice from a marketing master who draws a perfect crowd to test.

Now, I’m going to work on ironing out the technical kinks and I will set up the next show with John Carlton.

John will bring in a larger crowd and since with the clips from the first MMN, it will be easier to sell the second show.

Having a living legend like John on the show will help me on all kinds of levels but the best thing it will do is, help us get other big names.

Big name marketers need to avoid wasting time. They want to know all kinds of infor before agreeint to speak at events but show them a list of superstar names and they will practically pay to be on that stage.

Life is so much like high school isn’t it?

I’m not really worried about getting big names in marketing. Heck, I already have agreements with some of the biggest and best names in the business. But seeing a heavy hitter like John puts their minds at ease that I’m not going to damage their reputation.

With the clips from John’s show, it will be even easier to sell out the third night where we will air…

Jay Abraham’s Most Expensive Course

Which Nobody Can Buy!

It’s only seen by the people who pay tons of money to consult with Jay.

By this time, when people go check out what MMN is all about, they will see the whole model because there will be a replay library they can pay to access.

Once you see part of the replay, you will also understand why we have real scarcity. There is no way we could handle questions from hundreds of people.

Once we easily fill the room with folks who just want to be able to ask the experts for solutions, we will then make sure even reruns get the same free gifts.

Now comes the evil plan or phase 3.

Once you see what a genius these guys are, you will become interested in more info about them.

I will then send an email which basically says.

Some people will unsubscribe once they figure out I am conspiring to commit capitalism and actually want to make money and that is exactly who I want to unsubscribe.

I want a room full of people who are more than happy to pay for good marketing material if it looks like it will help them.

Now let’s talk about what I learned from phase one.

What we got right

We got the concept right. The video clips were the right length. Too long and you lose the time to interact with Jimmy.

Too short and people feel like you didn’t provide enough of a peek at the material.

It looks like about 5 minutes per clip was perfect

The open chat was a hit.

This really allowed us to deliver the solutions the audience was looking for and not guess.

The tech support was awesome. Brian McLeod, Lawton Chiles and George Sepich helped us keep everything on track and rolling along smoothly.

What we got wrong

Most of these things make you say duh, but there is always a lot of stuff involved with anything new and you just can’t think of everything until you have done one.

We failed to state a set of rules which explain the booting process.

You can always attract a troll or an opportunist trying to post affiliate links. It’s easy enough to block and boot these people but I really need to make sure they know that is what we are going to do.

We should have offered a special discount as well as a bonus.

This was actually my bad.

I know how to motivate people to buy, I was just so worried about everyone being happy and everything going smoothly, I didn’t even think about closing.

My mind was focused on making attedees happy and we sure did that.

We also ironed out all the kinks in getting a replay out to those who bought a ticket, so next time we will be able to serve up the replay much faster.

Other ways to improve.

We will poll the list to see what they would like to see from the course.

We also found a way for three way discussion which is much more interactive.

Again, we are far from calling this a blockbuster hit, but making any profit on the first night is a good sign and I know many tricks to multiply sales.

Now I want to point out something very important.

Why do you think I’m willing to tell you who might be my future customer all of this?

The answer is because my plan is far from evil. It is in fact the best deal in the whole business of selling marketing information.

The price tag to check out the material is petty cash by everyone’s standard.

The info you and everyone gets is invaluable.

I only make money if I sell you something which you can see will help you make money.

This is all win win win.

You see, I don’t want to just sell food to a starving crowd. I want to sell a starving crowd the exact ly what it craves most.

I also want that crowd to know they are getting the best ingredients too.

This is all part of my overall plan to create the types of events, products and services I would like to attend use and buy.

Well that’s it for now

Take care,

Bond

PS I’m now working on a product which explains how to write a great PS

Not long ago I had an idea I call Marketing Movie Night.

The basic concept was to charge people a small fee to sample content from three high end courses and make a special offer to give away a great Gary Halbert product as a bonus for anyone interested in buying any of the previewed courses.

Well… all in all…… my little project has been a total disaster which is 100% my fault and I have learned something about myself which is crucial to my future.

So, sit back and I’ll tell you…

The Story Of My COLOSSAL Failure!

And, how you can…

Take Advantage Of My Many Blunders!

I have to admit the most costly mistake I made, was a rookie mistake and it’s a good thing for me, I have been around so long, that I have not only had my share of mistakes but I have seen a lot of rookie mistakes made by far better men than me.

I’d be deeply ashamed if the costly misstep didn’t get etched in my brain in such a way to ensure I will never make the same mistake again.

You see, the rookie mistake I made was… not going through my campaign like a potential prospect.

This one mistake prevented me from recognizing several more mistakes and like an airplane crash, it was the confluence of events which caused me to…

Screw The Proverbial Pooch, Lay An Egg, Bomb and
Otherwise Fail Miserably!

First, I didn’t visit the website from several browsers. The campaign had been live for a whole week before I was told the website didn’t work if your internet browser was Internet Explorer and god knows the first week of a campaign is the most critical.

By using only Firefox to check the website, I didn’t realize the problem in time to pull the campaign out of the dumper.

The only good thing to come of this glitch was I learned that Internet Explorer is one of the more temperamental browsers and if a website shows up well in Internet Explorer it will probably show up well in the others. This is the first lesson to come from my foul ups.

Second, the shopping cart had a $300 product listed and not the $20 offer I was telling everyone about. I don’t set up the shopping cart but again, I could have had the problem corrected if I knew about it but like an idiot, I didn’t go through every step the process as if I was a prospect.

Third, the email launch went out with a broken link.

Now usually, I just write up emails and shoot them off to Kevin who loads them in Awebber (the ting a ma jig which sends my words out into the wonderland that is the internet.)

I could simply blame this on Kevin but in all honesty, this was my project, I’m responsible and not checking it thoroughly, was my bad.

All of these mishaps were compounded by the worst rookie mistake of all…letting my emotions slow me down. I have to admit I was bummed when it looked like only a few people liked the idea of marketing movie night.

I was so bummed out, I didn’t really have the heart to immediately dissect my failure.

Failure to investigate the situation right away is the mistake I’m really ashamed of because I was taught to treat marketing campaigns like a military operation and do a mental after action report in order to learn from my mistakes. I did reassess the situation but by the time I did, it was just too late.

If I checked my stats earlier, I would have noticed something statistically impossible.

You see, when you get hundreds and thousands of email opens and NOBODY clicks through, you have a problem with the link.

I guess since some people were signing up anyway, I didn’t suspect a mechanical failure like a broken link.

Eventually I sent a test email to myself and sure enough, the link for all the details was broken.

Needless to say I have since mastered our email program Aweber.

After figuring all of this out, I was left with the decision to send out another email invite last minute or muddle through with about 17 attendees who already signed up.

Since my luck was running low, I decided it was best to over deliver and just stumble through one night and see what other disasters awaited me.

I stopped marketing the event and I made no more mailings.

Thank god I made that decision!

We had major sound issues and most important of all…we had the wrong concept.

This is not a mistake I am ashamed of.

In fact getting the concept wrong is a mistake I expect to happen from time to time.

Kevin and I thought the offer would be more enticing if we let the attendees vote on which disc to play and if we played an entire disc from each of three courses.

As it turns out, this was just WAAAAAY too much.

What everyone really wanted was about twenty minutes of very meaty material from one course , selected by us and a good Q&A session afterwards.

The Silver Lining…

The good news in all of this was we still had several folks come out. To do so meant they had to overcome some serious obstacles. They had to use a browser other than Internet Explorer and they had to ignore the $300 price, and manually type in www.marketingmovienight.com to find the website.

Getting just one person to go through so many hoops would have been a miracle…let alone a dozen or so.

The fact that anyone was willing to go through all that and still show up was a sign the passion for marketing was alive and well among readers of The Gary Halbert Letter.

This means the idea still had legs the whole mess was just poor execution on my part.

I really take solace in knowing that even when it looked darkest, my plan was to make the best of it and move onward with other projects.

This is going to sound egotistical, but I haven’t had a brutal failure in business and it used to stop me from just ripping out project after project, but not anymore.

You see, I always focus on giving people what they really, really want so I may fail to spread the word enough or I might be slow to market but when I make offers, it is rare that I completely bomb and this is a mistake.

So far, I have been very lucky or well trained according to my pop. My first product sold millions of dollars. The first two companies I created did very well. My ventures in deal making went even better and nothing I have written up until this point could be called a colossal failure.

This may sound like bragging but the truth is I wasn’t doing enough.

The old adage “if you are not failing, you are not trying hard enough” is 100% true and even though I know that, there is always some piece of me that wants to keep a high batting average so every time I stepped up to the plate I felt like I had even more to lose than the last time. It made me wonder if this will be the time my winning streak ends and I’m not going to lie, it was hard not to care.

But not anymore!

I have been waiting for such a disaster to test my mettle and this made me feel that way which is a great thing. Now, I’m ready to swing for the fences and I don’t care one iota about my batting average. In this way, my failure is very liberating.

Perseverance is the number one quality all successful marketers have and I needed to know I’m not just lucky and I do have the fortitude to trudge on when things have gone bad.

The fact that the project is alive and well now, is good news, but not nearly as good as knowing I can take an emotional hit, shrug it off and go at it again.

I also learned something really cool which did not come from my mistake but just putting the project together.

And, this is…

By Far The Coolest Discovery I Made All Year!

While I was asking a few of my buddies in marketing if they would allow me to preview their content, several of them said Marketing Movie Night was a great idea and asked why I don’t do an online version.

My response to them was always “I didn’t think you would let me.”

As it turns out they were very cool with the idea so today I am launching…

Marketing Movie Night Online!

Basically for way less than the price of a movie you can sample high end courses from some of the biggest names in Direct Marketing.

Plus there will be a great Q&A session after each video clip.

If you took the price of these courses and divided the price by the number of minutes, you would realize the price is also a massive discount.

These proven marketing superstars get paid thousands of dollars per hour for their time and this would allow everyone to peek inside the actual course content so many people have said changed their lives.

Signing up for email alerts is free but hurry.

When we sent out the invite for the local event we got emails form all over the world asking if we would consider an online version so I know this is going to be a hot event.

The software we use allows you to watch silently or you can chat, ask questions and join the conversation during the show. It also allows us to play videos and show powerpoint presentations.

Because the software does all that, only a very limited number of people can be on at one time. Don’t delay in signing up for the announcement list because we will be sending out the invitations to everyone in batches in the same order they signed up.

If you are interested be sure to submit the email address you check most often so you can respond to the invite in time to reserve your seat.

To check out what we have going on, visit:
MarketingMovieNight.com

Look forward to seeing you there.

Wish me luck,
Bond

PS We already got Jay Abraham, John Carlton Ed Dale, James Schramko and a few other legends to let us show real content form their best material.

Erica Douglas filled in for me on my internet show on TMN. Word is she did great…

A lot of people are asking where beginners should start and I don’t hear a lot of good answers so let’s see if my suggestions make any sense.

There is no one right answer to the question of where to begin but I am going to give you some tips I think will help a lot.

But first, I want to make something crystal clear. The answer depends on your goal.

If you are looking to learn the mechanics of blogging, wordpress, Google analytics etc. you should stick with building websites about your favorite hobby just so you will stick with it.

Learning how to publish a blog is really boring unless you want to talk about something you love. When you really like a website or project keeping it going is a lot easier. I did exactly this and because my hobby blog is about a subject I really dig I stayed with it to learn. My hobby blog is now profitable which was the secondary goal but the whole project was worth it just because of what I have learned so far.

Once you feel like you know enough, you will look to market products with the highest prices or the largest appeal.

Don’t aim to be mediocre. Direct marketing is hit or miss with most people getting more misses. The savvy players make sure they can milk the hits for a ton of cash.

Besides, you might as well practice for mass appeal or deep pockets from the get go because you are practicing for the big leagues.

As soon as you think you have mastered the mechanics, I suggest you create an info product to start because they are inexpensive to produce, have a lot of profit in each sale and can be put together quickly.

Now the next question is how does a beginner come up with an info product?

Here is a little lesson my father taught me to find a viable niche.

The best place to start is to look at the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list.

The key here will be to write an info product quickly and skillfully.

Get a hold of several other books on a similar subject and read them. Don’t study them like a textbook but quickly get their main points.

If after reading several books on any subject, you can’t come up with your own unique twist, you are in the wrong business.

If you break out with your own unique twist, you can build a solid reputation and stand out which is easier to build on.

Here is the list from today:

1. HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. (Thomas Nelson.) A father recounts his 3-year-old son’s encounter with Jesus and the angels during an emergency appendectomy.
2. UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand. (Random House.) An Olympic runner’s story of survival as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II.
3. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Rebecca Skloot. (Crown.) The story of a woman whose cancer cells were extensively cultured without her permission in 1951
4. RED, by Sammy Hagar. (HarperCollins.) Hagar tells of his tear through rock, from his first break with Montrose to his role as the front man of Van Halen.
5. MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN, by Joshua Foer. (Penguin Group.) A journalist who covered a mnemonics championship tries competing himself.
6. THE SOCIAL ANIMAL, by David Brooks. (Random House.) Brooks creates two imaginary people, Harold and Erica, to illustrate his understanding of the human mind, the wellsprings of action and the causes of success and failure. 2
7. DECISION POINTS, by George W. Bush. (Crown.) The former president’s memoir discusses his Christianity and the end of his drinking; his relationships with members of his family; and critical White House decisions on 9/11, Iraq and Katrina.
8. JESUS OF NAZARETH, by Joseph Ratzinger. (Ignatius Press.) Pope Benedict XVI challenges readers to grapple with the meaning of Jesus’ life.
9. PHYSICS OF THE FUTURE, by Michio Kaku. (Knopf Doubleday.) An examination of innovative developments in medicine, computers, quantum physics and space travel.
10. CLEOPATRA, by Stacy Schiff. (Little, Brown.) This biography portrays the Macedonian-Egyptian queen in all her ambition, audacity and formidable intelligence.
11. INSIDE OF A DOG, by Alexandra Horowitz. (Simon & Schuster.) What the world is like from a dog’s point of view.
12. THE GLASS CASTLE, by Jeannette Walls. (Simon & Schuster.) The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were constantly moved from place to place.
13. BLOOD, BONES, AND BUTTER, by Gabrielle Hamilton. (Random House.) A memoir by the chef and owner of the Manhattan restaurant Prune.
14. THE BIG SHORT, by Michael Lewis. (Norton.) The people who saw the real estate crash coming and made billions from their foresight.
15. THE THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. (HarperCollins.) An unlikely Afghan entrepreneur who mobilized her community under the Taliban.

Now let’s do a little honest reverse engineering. Yeah, I just said that. To me, the term reverse engineering is just Japanese Kiretsu speak for intellectual property theft.

But what we can do without proving to be an uncreative troll is break down the list to the base emotional offering.

Let’s take them one by one…

1. HEAVEN IS FOR REAL- This is about religious epiphany
2. UNBROKEN- Inspirational story
3. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS- Cancer
4. RED- Memoir of aging rock star
5. MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN- Historical figure.
6. THE SOCIAL ANIMAL- A look into how to unlock potential
7. DECISION POINTS- Politics and history.
8. JESUS OF NAZARETH Religious history
9. PHYSICS OF THE FUTURE, Medical technology and its future
10. CLEOPATRA History
11. INSIDE OF A DOG Dog lover book (proof humans have too much time on their hands)
12. THE GLASS CASTLE- Success story
13. BLOOD, BONES, AND BUTTER- Bio by successful chef
14. THE BIG SHORT- How they got rich
15. THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA- Inspirational survival story

Now, what are some of the trends you see in these books? The obvious ones are religion, inspiration and history but who is buying these books?

The answer is older folks. Baby boomers are retiring and they are all at the age where religion, medicine and history become more important.

They also have more time on their hands to read and take a greater interest in all of these topics.

Nobody twenty is reading any of this stuff.

Now what could we write which would really appeal to them and be right up their alley?

Well, off the top of my head, I’d say a collection of true and inspirational stories of people who found that adopting Jesus Christ as their lord and savior brought them back from the brink and helped them attain happiness, wealth and health using examples of famous people in history. Maybe even a modern tale or two from cancer survivors who credit Jesus as well.

Sound wicked or like we’d be taking advantage of aging folks who are looking to relive the past and to feel at ease with mortality?

Not at all. This is EXACTLY what they WANT. We are just going to give it to them.

Now you say to yourself, “self, I’m not even religious so how can I write such a book?”

The answer is simple. Go to a seminary school and ask around for such inspirational tales. Go to Priests and Ministers and seek out exactly those kinds of stories.

I always say great marketing is about creating good hooks and offers. The rest is coming up with simple solutions to problems which stop you from moving forward.

You must have a can-do mindset to make projects happen because nobody is out to help you in the beginning. Once you have a winner or two under your belt, everyone and their mother will offer to help but until then you have to be able to look past what others say can’t be done.

So endith the lesson.

Peace,

Bond

PS The exercise above is geared for those who have no idea what to create. In my next post, Ill explain where I look for new product and promotion ideas.

PPS If you haven’t already done so, check out my brother Kevin’s TMN show on Thursdays at 9pm EST. Just go to www.talkmarketingnow.com enter any name you make up and hit enter. You can ignore the rest of the fields like password and catch the show.