Marketing Minds Podcast Tom Trush

From a business perspective, aren't you glad December is over? After all, unless you’re in retail, December is typically a slow month.

Right?

The weeks surrounding Christmas and New Year's Day complicate matters. Many entrepreneurs and executives take this time off to see family, which pushes their businesses to the back burner.

This year, I vowed to make sure my December played out different -- and it did. In fact, December would have been my highest-billing month, if it wasn’t for a canceled project right before Christmas.

But I can't take all credit for the sales surge.

You see, the reason for my strong December, in part, came from an idea I swiped from Charlie Gaudet. What's crazy is it only involved mailing a letter to about 12 people.

We discussed the entire strategy on the latest Marketing Minds Podcast.

I recently interviewed Ely Delaney, co-founder and lead trainer of YourMarketingUniversity.com about how to become a follow-up fanatic and turn your casual connections into clients.

During our 46-minute interview, he shares a step-by-step, follow-up system for attracting joint ventures, ideal prospects and raving fans. What’s more, he explains how to make this system work on autopilot using a combination of online and online tactics.

If you regularly attend networking events, pay close attention to Ely’s “slacker” strategy for reactivating old contacts and his Facebook trick for making any message memorable. Also, don’t forget to grab Ely’s free guide that walks you the process for converting connections to clients.

As president of 3D Mail Results, Travis Lee generates huge returns for thousands of businesses each year that use his innovative multi-step marketing approach. His unique, tested methods help add millions of dollars in sales to businesses ranging from "kitchen-table-run" sole proprietors to international businesses mailing millions of pieces a year.

He is the developer of the "Done-for-You 3D Mail Direct Marketing System," through which his company provides specialized direct-mail premiums, enclosures and ready-to-use sales letters to thousands of clients worldwide.

During this 60-minute interview, you'll discover how to create a successful direct-mail campaign, as well as ...

• A simple change you can make to any mailed item that will almost always trigger a higher response.

• Copy samples that make the writing process so easy you can literally create a campaign in minutes -- no matter what you sell.

• Where to find the most powerful (and often neglected) audience of buyers for your first direct-mail package.

• Why response rate is not the best way to determine your mailings' success -- and what factor is a more profitable indicator.

• The single best rule to remember when figuring out the "shelf life" of a direct-mail promotion.

• How to get a master's level education in direct mail without taking a single class or buying any courses.

• A little offer insight that will save you untold money and frustration, while also helping you avoid marketing failures.

• And much more.

For more than 23 years, Drew Eric Whitman has taught businesspeople how to use consumer psychology to boost the effectiveness of their ads, brochures, sales letters, websites and more.

He's created advertising for everything from small retail shops to giant, multi-million dollar organizations, including Day-Timers, Faber-Castell Corp., Texaco, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Automobile Association, Amoco, American Legion and many others.

Drew, who started creating advertising at 11 years old, proclaims he can teach you more about how to create powerfully effective advertising than 99% of your competitors will learn in their entire careers.

During this interview, you’ll discover the secrets of advertising psychology that make selling simple, as well as …

8 ways you can tap into your prospects' biologically programmed desires to boost demand for your product or service.

How to use statistics in your ads so they're nearly impossible to ignore.

The one secret newspaper reps will never tell you about putting together an effective ad -- and pray you'll never discover.

Drew's "million-dollar secret" for getting inside prospects' heads and discovering what they truly want. (You'll be surprised to find out it's never your product or service.)

The missing component in many ads that causes readers to ignore whatever is written -- even if you have the industry’s best product, price, offer and guarantee.

Why some of the best ads ever written received some of the worst responses.

Why ad size rarely matters when it comes to response (and why you should instead focus on the amount of copy).

An extensively tested ad layout that is remembered best by readers -- and what to include so you can gain even greater readership.

And much more.

When Josh Elizetxe started his business, he faced a major obstacle. He was only 12 years old, so he had minimal money. In fact, all he had was $10.

Of course, there was no way he could go to a bank and get approved for a loan. So he turned to trial, error and knowledge gained from books to get his business off the ground.

Four years later, Josh has built and sold websites, dominated whole sectors of MySpace and YouTube, marketed rental properties, generated millions of dollars in revenue, taught online skills across the globe, and mastered the exploding field of cost-per-action online marketing.

During this 70-minute interview, you'll discover how to apply his unconventional marketing tactics to your business, as well as …

The exact formula Josh used to record one video on YouTube that generated roughly $80,000 in profit. By the way, it only took him 10 minutes to create the video, which was for a health product.

Josh's #1 rule for marketing when you're forced to work with a non-existent budget. (Hint: If you share common characteristics found in most business owners, then you break this rule nearly every day.)

The single feature most successful offers share and why greater competition can result in a larger -- and more predictable -- return on your marketing investment.

2 sneaky and perfectly legal tricks for getting more search engine traffic to your offers.

How to properly "bait" prospects so you get them to your website and deliver unmatched value, making it easier to generate sales.

The single most important weapon in Josh's marketing arsenal. You'll be surprised to know you can have one of these by the end of the day and -- in some cases -- it won't cost you a single cent.

Several simple methods for using unusual marketing mediums, such as pizza boxes and gas station pumps, to generate leads and avoid financial risk.

And much more.

Nate Kuiper, my go-to guy for insight into the book printing and publishing industry is a former customer service/sales for Bang Printing, a short- to mid-run book manufacturer headquartered in central Minnesota's Lakes Area.

Nate now operates his own book printing and publishing consultancy called Compass Book. We worked together when I wrote my first book two years, and he continued to serve as a valuable resource as I launched my second book in May.

During this 62-minute interview, you’ll discover the forgotten facts you must never overlook when self-publishing your book, as well as …

The hidden variables that can drag out the book-publishing process, including the step that almost always creates unexpected corrections and delays.

They key question you must ask when determining what publisher would work best for your book's printing and marketing.

Why package pricing can cause you to overpay and get a poor-quality product when printing your book.

The common mistake (especially for first-time authors) that can cause you to lose the rights to your book and not be able to fulfill orders from your customers.

How to determine if your book is too short to publish for e-readers and why the 3 major digital book platforms must play a role in your book’s distribution.

And much more.