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My writing services must make you money or you don’t pay

Hi, I’m Michael Low, an Australian direct response copywriter.

I write ads, email marketing and sales pages on a performance basis.

This means you can’t hire me by paying me a fee. Most copywriters take a fee, usually paid 50% at the start of a project then 50% on completion. I don’t. I only take a fee when the ads, emails, or sales pages I write for you make you money. And the fee I get is a percentage of the sales I generate. This is called a pay-for-performance or partnership model.

I am very picky about who I work with. I ONLY enter a project agreement when I KNOW I can make you money.

If this sounds interesting to you, contact me here.

#1 Introvert friendly secret for using email to sell your ideas

To the many introverts who wrote in asking about my secrets to writing emails (so they can avoid selling in person)…

The number one lesson or secret is this:

You don’t have to be a perfect writer… but… you DO need to consider yourself a writer.

I know, I know, you can get AI programs like Chat GPTLQR or whatever to do a lot of the heavy lifting on the writing side for you…

But hark unto me… writing is thinking on paper (or on the computer screen) so don’t rely on AI alone.

In fact, if I were coaching you and we were working one-on-one… and the purpose of our time together was to help you sell more products or services with email… I would force — yes, FORCE! — you to spend the time in my coaching program writing from your own thoughts and NOT using AI at all.

This does NOT mean you have to write with pen and paper, even though it would be a good idea to pull out a legal pad and pen and scribble down your thoughts from time to time, especially if your desire is to become a truly outstanding writer.

However, you do not need to become a truly outstanding writer to write emails that make the cash register or online shopping card “ring”.

But you do need to consider yourself, at the very least, a part-time writer or a reasonably competent writer.

There is no way around this for reasons I’ll explain later.

But for now, just know this:

If you aren’t willing (or don’t want) to invest time to improve your writing skills (assuming you’re not already competent in this area) you should not take on the role of writing emails for your company… and.. you should instead hire someone to do it for you.

For more insights on writing emails that get or keep clients, you can join my email list here.

The sheer drudgery of work… and why you should work from home

One of the cool things about working from home is…

You can get up from your desk or workstation anytime you like and take a walk.

For anyone with ADHD you know how important this is.

Being tied to a desk, under the watchful eye of a manager, or being “on the clock” is sheer drudgery (the abattoir of the human soul, as I once “herd” it described).

Nothing constrains your creative powers more than getting forced into the 9-5 routine.

Although I will say, I was fortunate enough during my corporate career to have managers and bosses that noticed I had a different, out-of-the-box, way of looking at things… and… so… they granted me some slack, giving me a little more freedom to do things “my way” than was granted the other robots (I mean employees), much to the chagrin of my fellow workers who noticed I was getting special “privileges”, perhaps a story for another day.

Anyway, there’s a lady down the street from me who literally yells at her kid every day.

Today I overheard her say “You’re 2 now so you should know better!” These words were screamed while scolding the child over goodness knows what. She also has a dog that needs some training because, like most dogs that live in the suburbs, this dog has anxiety and barks like a dork every time you accidently sneak up on it.

But you probably wouldn’t notice these goings-on in your neighborhood if you work at an office all day.

So there’s that.

To other news:

I’m writing a book about persuasion for introverts.

I don’t have a title yet, but I’ll let you know what the title is after the book is half written.

Now, you might be asking, “There’s already a bunch of sales books out there for introverts, do we really need another one?”

Listen. This isn’t going to be a sales book. At least, not in the typical sense. This is a book about how to use the written word to do your selling for you.

Not theory.

It’ll be a book of practical steps you can take to sell your creations (ideas, products, or services) that are well within the reach of every introvert on the planet, even if you’re so introverted you can’t even stand hanging out with family photographs.

So stay posted for more news about that.

And if you have questions about online persuasion you can send your questions to me via email. If your question is good and the answer is even better I’ll include it in the book and give you credit for the question.

Best way to send your question is to join my email list here

Peace.

Mike Low

how to use advertising to solve problems

At the Macworld expo in 1999, Steve Jobs gave a great example of using advertising to solve problems.

He said:

Well, I gotta tell you – we don’t do it because it goes down well or not. We have a problem, and our problem was that people had forgotten what Apple stands for. As a matter of fact, a lot of our employees have forgotten what Apple stands for. And so we needed a way to communicate what the heck Apple’s all about. And we thought, how do you tell somebody what you are, who you are, what you care about? And the best way we could think of was, you know, if you know who somebody’s heroes are, that tells you a lot about them. So we thought we are going to tell people who our heroes are, and that’s what the “Think Different” campaign is all about. It’s about telling people who we admire, who we think are the heroes of this century. And – some people will like us, and some people won’t like us.

What problems are you facing in business right now?

Could advertising solve those problems?

 

What the banks really think about your mortgage rate increase

To other news, interest rate hikes are working out pretty well for the banks…

According to news.com.au:

On Wednesday, the nation’s largest bank announced its largest ever cash profit of $10.2 billion in 2022-23, with the 6 per cent increase driven by expanding profit margins after soaring interest rates pushed the bank to hike variable mortgage repayments 10 times in that period.

I’m sure they’re just keeping pace with inflation.

And making sure they can offer better banking services for all Australians in the future.

Right?

Actually, I don’t think the banks care about their customers.

Only profits.

Which is fine. They’re not a charity.

What saddens me is that the top-level execs are probably laughing about it behind closed doors.

Mdr Lmao GIFfrom Mdr GIFs

Oh well, at least the CBA did something good with all that extra cash…

They paid CEO Matt Comyn nearly $8 million in bonuses, according to news.com.au:

Mr Comyn received an eye-watering $10.4 million pay packet, which included nearly $8 million in bonuses.

He probably deserved it.

Unlike the 7402 CBA employees who were getting underpaid since 2010, despite repeated requests to fix the unlawful employee agreements used by CBA.

And despite senior management misleading staff and the workplace umpire by claiming it was fully compliant with the law.

They got busted in the end. And finally fessed up:

AFR reported back in April that:

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has admitted to knowingly underpaying 7402 staff more than $16 million through mass use of individual agreements that unlawfully undercut union agreements.

Of course, the $16 million the CBA admits to withholding only accounts for their 2015 – 2021 wage scam. The 4 years of underpaying employees from 2010 to 2014 is protected by the statute of limitations.

Mdr Lmao GIFfrom Mdr GIFs

Strange habit makes your emails stronger

Every day I read what’s in my inbox… looking for lessons I can use to make my emails stronger…

Here are the 7 lessons I learned from reading emails on the 4th of this month:

  1. Can you introduce news that concerns the reader?
  2. Does your subject line have an element of curiosity – if not, chuck it out.
  3. Promise news or useful information or both.
  4. Your idea must be fresh, or feel fresh.
  5. Never let the reader think: “I’ve seen this before” because she’ll immediately think, “I don’t need to read this”. 
  6. When we read we look for relevance. If at any point the reader thinks your message is NOT relevant or they think they know what you’re going to say next, or they know the thing you’re teasing about, they won’t read and they won’t click through.
  7. Create curiosity loops or knowledge gaps. We read to discover information we need or want to know.

I have a document filled with hundreds of lessons like this.

Write better marketing emails

If it’s your job to write marketing emails…

I know 2 things about you:

1) there are days when you struggle to come up with ideas to write about. And…

2) when you have something to write about, you’re often unsure how to express it.

If that sounds like you…

There’s a simple solution.

Stop writing emails.

Seriously though, there is a way to get a never-ending flow of email ideas for your business.

And no, you don’t need to resort to using AI.

And you don’t need to read dozens of books about email marketing.

In fact, you can learn almost everything you need to know about writing great emails (and have a good laugh at the same time) by…

Watching comedy!

But not just any comedy.

I’m talking about watching a comedian who hosted a top-rated TV show from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

Unfortunately, the comedian is no longer with us.

He passed away in 2005 aged 68.

But his humor and wit live on… on youtube… where you can catch the reruns.

Here’s one to get you started:

I might explain some of the lessons tomorrow.

 

Why email campaigns beat email blasts

The great direct marketing teacher and direct response copywriter, Dan Kennedy, once taught that to get results you must have impact AND repetition.

And therein lies the issue with one-shot email blasts.

They have very little impact, only being seen by a small percentage of your list.

And they have no repetition – by their very nature a one-shot email blast has no repetition built into it.

A campaign, on the other hand, consists of multiple copy pieces. From the multiple emails based on the same topic to the landing page that is unique to the campaign and the retargeting emails and ads on Facebook and Google.

A campaign has repetition. A campaign — if done right — has impact.

For these reasons alone you should always think in terms of campaigns.

And yet I’m on dozens of email lists whose owners talk about a different topic every time they send an email — never capitalizing fully, or going deep enough, on any one topic to have the impact and get the response they desire.

A quick fix:

Every time you write an email, ask yourself:

“What else could I say about this?”

“What unanswered questions does this email raise?”

“What commonly held beliefs do my readers hold about this topic?”

And so on.

Questions like these will produce ideas for subsequent emails on the same topic.

Next, instead of jumping from topic to topic, spend a week or two writing only about that one topic.

Then spend another week or two on your next topic.

After 6 months of doing this you will have covered 12 topics in greater depth than most of your competitors…

…and the people on your email list will see you as an expert on the topics you write about.

After 6 months… review the topics that struck the deepest cord (and made the most sales). Repeat those topics in the next 6 months.

Drop the topics that didn’t sell any product.

It’s a simple shift in thinking.

And can make a huge difference to your results.

The 12 words that increase email ROI

Q. Mike, I’m hearing a lot of talk about email marketing. For example, I’m told email marketing delivers $30 or more for every dollar spent. Is that true? Or just a bunch of hype from marketers and agencies trying to flog their products or services?

–Brian

A. Hey Brian, you’re right. There’s alotta crazy talk about email marketing on the web right now.

It’s a hot topic.

And for good reason —

Email marketing is outperforming all other digital channels by at least 3 to 1. And in some cases, yes, it’s even returning $30 to every dollar invested.

But to say everyone who spends time and money on email marketing will get back $30 for every dollar they put in… is an exaggeration.

And creates a false expectation.

The truth is your numbers will be unique to you and your situation.

Your results could actually outperform the average.

So don’t limit yourself by what others say.

And don’t get disappointed if your results don’t live up to a standard set by someone else.

Speaking of standards…

Here’s something you CAN do to give yourself the best possible shot at email marketing success:

It’s really simple.

All you have to do is act on this 12 word sentence that improves your email marketing return on investment:

“Send the right message with the right offer to the right audience.”

If you line those three things up — message, offer, audience — you’ll have an unfailing formula for success.

But get even one of those elements wrong… and your email marketing will fall flat.

Remember: Start with your audience. Make sure your email messages are on point. Then make offers they can’t refuse.

Focus on that and the numbers will take care of themselves.

Hope this helps.

–Mike

Check out my quick report titled: The #1 Website & Email Marketing Mistake That Could Cost You Millions!

It’s important that you follow the advice in the report BEFORE you try to implement the perfect selling system.

Downloading the report will add you to my email list where I’ll send you one or two tips each week to grow your coaching or consulting business.