“Let’s write a swimming pool.”
In February 1990, Paul McCartney busted a big Beatles myth. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he said…
“Somebody said to me, ‘But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.’ That’s a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, ‘Now let’s write a swimming pool.’ We said it out of innocence. Out of normal, fucking working-class glee that we were able to write a ‘swimming pool.’ For the first time in our lives, we could actually do something and earn money.”
They realized something that’s since been repeated by many direct marketers — online and off.
The Beatles had HUGE moneymaking potential by combining two assets…
— The AUDIENCE asset of a rabid fan base who’d be happy to buy whatever they put out.
— The SKILL asset of being able to write something that would stimulate that buying behavior.
Now, I’m not Paul or John (or even George or Ringo).
And neither are you.
But we have the potential to do the very same thing.
We can sit down and “write ourselves a swimming pool.”
Or, a new car. Or college education for our kids. Or a new kitchen. Or a new iPad. Or whatever we want.
And depending on the size of our audience, it has the potential to be much more than that.
Here’s your guide to practical “manifestation” through marketing…
And I say manifestation very intentionally, acknowledging its many meanings. While recognizing that this is very practical, tactical, and tangible in a way that most teachings on the topic are not.
Okay, so this assumes you have a LIST.
That is, a list of reasonably-qualified prospects for whatever offer you have.
It doesn’t have to be your list. If you work with clients, it could be their list.
And traditionally, this might have been a direct mail list. But today, it’s easier (and cheaper, and faster) than ever with an email list.
This is your AUDIENCE asset.
You also need a reasonably-decent OFFER to send to that list.
The Beatles sold songs. But you are probably selling something else. What you’re selling, and at what price, is your offer.
I think I’ll write more about good offers tomorrow. But for today, let’s say that you simply need a product or service with a much higher perceived value than price, some advantageous and temporary pricing or packaging, and a deadline.
So, here you are with a group of people who want something, and you have that something to sell to them, for a good and limited-time deal.
Now it’s time to write some fast cash into existence!
Here’s where the SKILL asset of persuasive writing comes in. The core of what I share here at Breakthrough Marketing Secrets, and through my BTMSinsiders training.
Basically, you need to sit down and plan out a campaign to introduce your offer to your audience, and encourage them to take action.
Typically, you’re going to start with the deadline, and work backwards.
You want the promotion to last a week? Then set the deadline out at least a week (more if you want to prepare everything ahead of time).
Plan to send a couple emails about the deadline on that day.
Emails leading up to the deadline that are increasing in urgency.
And, working backwards, emails that introduce and justify the offer in the first couple of days.
Then, sit down and crank them out!
(A note about the length of campaigns: A week is usually about the longest I’d recommend today. A couple days can actually lead to more sales. Anything more than 2 weeks is probably way too long.)
I’ve done this over and over again…
I’m not always so transparent.
The best of these campaigns look, from the prospect side, like a window in time to get a good deal, with a good reason.
Just like the Beatles’ songs looked like good pop music.
But for the most part, it’s a thousand different ways of “writing a swimming pool.”
For example, when my house was broken into in April 2016, the robber got away with a bruised up shoulder and our old iPad. (Which, as I think of it, I’d gotten from AWAI for doing some copywriting work for them.)
Within hours, I turned that story into a sale on my copy review services… Sent out to my email list.
And almost as soon as the sale started, I had raised more than enough cash to replace the iPad with a brand new model, buy a bunch of accessories, and still have cash in the bank.
(A more complete version of that story here.)
When I wanted to buy the laptop I’m currently typing on, I didn’t just go out and buy it. I didn’t feel like spending cash I already had. So I ran an email campaign, with a special sale, that generated well over the amount of cash I’d need to pick up the laptop and all the mods I wanted for it.
You can get a lot more than laptops, too…
The bigger your list or client list, and the higher-profit the offer, the more you can buy.
I’ve written many client campaigns that have generated well into the hundreds of thousands, into the millions in sales.
In just a few weeks.
And it’s all following the same principles, the same foundational methods.
The bigger the AUDIENCE, the more valuable the OFFER, and the better the persuasive SKILL of connecting the two…
The more fast cash you can collect.
In fact, I know many copywriters who have specialized in this basic type of campaign.
They work with a client to identify a simple offer. They don’t worry too much about super-long sales pages, or they select offers that don’t need a ton of new copy.
They set everything up for a great limited-time deal that will be highly-appealing to at least a big chunk of the client’s audience — aka. Email list.
Then they write a quick campaign to make the offer to the list.
BAM.
Fast cash flow. Money for the client. And royalties or bonus money for the copywriters, for generating the results.
You can get 15 perspectives on how you can “write a swimming pool” using your own or clients’ email lists — FREE…
I was recently interviewed by Jake Hoffberg and Mike Becker for their Make Email Great Again virtual conference.
Basically, they got together 15 marketers — including ME — and laid out the scenario above…
You have to make a bunch of money, and you have to make it quickly — using only your email list, and a simple ecommerce system.
How would you do it?
What, specifically, would you do to design and implement an email campaign to generate rapid cash flow?
They recorded the interviews, then turned around and turned them into action plans.
And now they’re going to GIVE IT ALL AWAY, FREE.
For 5 days, you’ll be able to watch every interview.
You can review the action plans.
You can learn it all, and start planning your next “swimming pool” campaign.
And you’re under no obligation by signing up and watching everything for free.
At the very least, catch my interview. Because they relentlessly dug deeper with questions, as I laid out everything above. How I’d go from a sudden situation where email was my only option to generate fast cash, to the point where I’m walking away with that cash in hand.
The virtual conference starts February 17th.
Pre-register now so you’ll get the full 5-days free.
I’m SO looking forward to diving into these interviews alongside you!
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
