How Can I Get Them To Look At It?

Just one small tip: I don't think having them download a file is the best idea. They probably get tons of e-mails like yours; and downloading a file from a random e-mail you just got, not very likely to happen IMO. So just host the video somewhere, like YouTube and send them a link instead so they can just stream. I don't know whether or not you can embed a video in an e-mail, but that would probably be an option as well.

Hello and thanks for the response

>> Just one small tip: I don't think having them download a file is the best idea.
Agreed. I had installed wordpress and have since place a mp4 plug-in that was part of it. It is on a website now but as a .wmf file. I had bought this horrible software ppt2video to convert powerpoint files (mine has animations) to some kind of format that could be ran as a video - I could only manage wmf (which requires some kind of download).

Does the title of my email sound OK? I made icons pointing to the videos in my email. I suppose I could send another email with pointers to swf files (I found some info on net on converting wmf to swf) and try again ...

Cold calling is really tough - you need to be persistent and very thick skinned.
Like all marketing it's a numbers game.
Just finding 'suspects' who could use your product or service and contacting them, you'll be doing well if 1% respond.
Then you may turn 10% of these 'suspects' into real 'prospects' who are interested but not yet buyers.
You should then be building an ongoing relationship with your prospects - so they get to know and trust you and hopefully eventually buy and get transferred into a list of buyers you should treasure and keep for life.

Your mindset and expectations are so important.
Getting upset with the majoirty of 'suspects' who ignore you doesn't help.
Understanding that you need to cold call 100 'suspects' to find 1 prospect helps when you are on your 99th unsucessful call knowing that you are well on your way to getting another real prospect is much more productive.

My suggestions - be persistent but keep the time you spend on unintersted 'suspects' to a minimum. Then just make sure you make your planned number of contacts with new suspects, prospects and customers.
Follow a plan, record numbers and results - and you will succeed.

I used to do cold calling and I would never ever like to do that again. It just takes all of my energy OUT of me.

You would just need a HUGE number of calls - that`s what I`ve learned - to get results.

A little story,

I was happy with the insurance agent who was taking care of all my insurance when I receive a cold call from a fellow named Brian asking if he could take care of my insurance needs.

I said, "No thank you," and thought that was the end of it. However, Brian began calling me once a month - every month.

Two years later, the insurance agent retired, someone else took over his business, but I didn't click with the new guy. Guess who happened to call me that month? Brian. And Brian has handled all my insurance for the past 15 years.

He was persistant.

Master salesman Tom Hopkins put a little diagram in his first book. It looked like a drawing of two balloons touching each other. You only saw half of each balloon - the parts that were touching. Above them was the number 20.

He said this diagram is the key to success in selling. What it represents is seeing 20 people a day, belly to belly.

You are not reaching out to enough business owners for a long enough period of time.

Other things that come to mind are:

-If you emailed to them, they probably deleted it as spam, or it went into their junk folder.
-Your headline (title of video) is not compelling. It doesn't answer their question of "What's in it for me?"
-Business owners are very busy. A cold call in person or by telephone is an interruption they don't like.
-They don't have time to watch a video.
-They will take the time only if you present a totally compelling reason for them to watch.
-Most would rather read about it first, then if they want more they may watch a video.
-You probably have not shown them what their competition is doing so they can do it better.

Try using a screen capture of Google Places if their competition is listed, but they are not

If they are listed "lower" on Google than are their competition, show them a screen capture.

My all time favorite mailing technique it to use full color postcards with a headline that speaks to the thoughts already going on in the client's head. Postcard even get read as they are tossing the card in the trash. If your message grabs them, they will stop to read it.

The back of the postcard gets read first because the mail carrier places it on the desk address side up.. Yes, the back is the more important side.

Use postcards to warm up the client, so when you do cold call they know who you are.

It also will take multiple mailings to the same business owners to get their attention. It's like Brian calling me month after month.

Maria Guldeis and Tina Williams are running their Ultimate Social Challenge right now. It is in its 3rd week with a couple hours of webinar every day. It is all about selling socal media services to offline businesses. I suspect the the recorded version of the webinars are/will be available. Google it.

During one of the sessions Jason Fladlein was talking about how he walks into a business with a large print out of a QR code that contains a sales message for the business. He sets it on the counter in front of the owner, and says nothing. This get the business owner curious, and opens a dialog.

:-Don

Yes some great info here.

I have cold called many times. Probably I got 1 in 10 bites.

I really don't think your headline is offering that much, it's too suggestive. I would not look twice at it in my mail box.

You need something controversial, attention grabbing that shouts out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can front them up with a free gift to get going with your name and contact details within it. Letting them know who you are is very important. When you do make the call they will remember you.

Ask yourself what is the real value you are giving them - get them to see the value and they will be curious and want to take the next step.

Persistence is the key with this business too. Also, it's good to have script of what your going to say when you get in touch with them. Be ready with load of confidence in what you have to offer them.

That's all I have for now.

Give it !00% and don't become despondent else that will be your biggest restraint of all.

Some great tips there Don. I absolutely despise cold calling but you are 100% right. If you can be persistent without pissing people off you are on the right track.

I need to put some of this into action myself!

thanks for all of the info

@seafrontsteve
Getting upset with the majoirty of 'suspects' who ignore you doesn't help.

I hope that I did not sound as though I was upset with my 2 prospects - just wondering why - after acknowledging the receipt of my email, I felt that they were somewhat excited about what they saw - then attempts to contact them yielded were not succeeding.


@Don Schenk
If you emailed to them, they probably deleted it as spam, or it went into their junk folder.

I had done a follo-up call after sending the emails. They both said they saw the emails. One of them sent a response to me saying:
"Thanks for your attention ..." I did a follow up call to the other and she said "Oh yes, I saw that". She even said "I can look at it and then we can get together to discuss it". This was a decision-maker.

They will take the time only if you present a totally compelling reason for them to watch

What kinds of reasons would compell folks to watch. As mentioned before, they both acknowledged that they got the email when I did the follow-up call.

Maria Guldeis and Tina Williams are running their Ultimate Social Challenge right now. It is in its 3rd week with a couple hours of webinar every day. It is all about selling socal media services to offline businesses. I suspect the the recorded version of the webinars are/will be available. Google it.

OK thanks will do so


It doesn't answer their question of "What's in it for me?"
I told them (in the headline) that they could increase customer membership and open a new channel for income.

I am not selling them websites or advertising. Just services. I was neglecting to tell them what I was offering as - from what I have heard from someone who was a VP in the industry, she indicated that there were problems with the technology out there now and that the problem looked as though it was "not easy to solve". The approach I want to take is different and less error-prone.

She also gave me another idea to use my service in a way that would "get them excited" about it because it would give the adopter of a technology "would have a competitive advantage". So, I did it.

This is all explained in the video. That was why I titled it the way I did. I thought I was being honest. I did not want to use fear in the title but give information, give them a hint that I could help and then let them make the final decision.


@marcus100
I really don't think your headline is offering that much, it's too suggestive.

Can you provide examples of better ones? Would be grateful for some examples!

Thanks again for all of the responses

All I can really say is that the heading needs to hit the bulls eye.

Tell the biggest sure benefit you can provide them, think about how magazines and newspapers use headlines to pull in the reader.

Cant really tell you what the exact text should be.

Good luck

OK - found out what happened in one case. I had sent the original email with pointers to wmv files (to run on Windows viewers). When I did not get a response, I sent the same email 1 week later (just in case the first one got mixed up with SPAM mail) and just did a copy/paste of the original email.

The first icon had a mistake in it (due to the copy/paste) and did not point to the video. The domain name was wiped out. My thoughts were that the other prospect came across the same issue as well. @*#(! I did not know! I apologized to the first prospect and she said she would look for another email from me with a pointers to working videos (which will be .swf file most likely hosted using Amazon S3).

This was all I wanted tho- feedback - so I could make corrections and try again ...

Could you find more prospects maybe? Instead of just focusing on two leads that dont seem to interested how about you find more people who would be thrilled to do business with you.

Re: Ultimate Social Challenge

I had some challenges at first with them but they got their act together. I also go the 30 Day Trial for the Expert Coaching but it wasn't much good for me because I'm too busy on my projects, the regular training is just awesome and for $7 is just way too cheap. I also got the OTO which is great too, but the training for $7 is just unbelievable! There's a lot of pitching so you need $s to make the most of that, which I don't have but you get training enough to make the $s.
But I tell you some thing that just totally floored me, I mean just blew me away. I unsubscribed to the $97 a month VIP Coaching and they just gave it to me!!! Now I have never had that happen in IM. Sure I've gotten some good bonuses but never been given coaching for unsubscribing!!!
The site is a bit of problem. You need to re-label all your downloads as the downloads are not labelled as they are on the site, if you don't relabel them you'll get all confused as there are so many and so many extras.
Here's another awesome thing I got FREE; a skype mastermind with Jason Fladlien and Wilson Mattos!
Talk about over deliver!!!

Hello! For most users, downloading a file that you just received is much too risky and very stupid. Why not try uploading your videos on hosting sites like youtube and then send out the link so they'll just have to click it and open the file on a browser right away? I hope that helped you in a way or so. Best of Luck!