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CopyDoodles Lunch & Learn 11/2/11 – “Tips From the CopyDoodles Swipe File Vault featuring Mark Madere”

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Lunch & Learn Transcript:

Hello, everyone. If you are watching this CopyDoodles Lunch and Learn at our normal CopyDoodles Lunch and Learn time, then you probably already know, if you attended last week, that I’m on a plane. I’m headed to Atlanta, Georgia to go to the GKIC Info-Summit, where we will be having our CopyDoodles booth. I’m super-excited about it. It should be a ton of fun. Make sure to check out our Facebook because I’m definitely going to be posting updates and pictures, and everything like that so you can feel like you are right there with me.

Today’s CopyDoodles Lunch and Learn is obviously a replay. I just want to really quickly go over our upcoming topic, next week I will be talking about Holiday Doodles and Your Marketing. This should be a ton of fun. I’m going to be talking all about the different holiday Doodles that we have, give you a few tips and ideas for what you can do in your own marketing. That is going to be November 9th at Noon, Eastern.

If you haven’t ever signed up for a CopyDoodles Lunch and Learn, then below, where I have my links, make sure you click on the Link page and you sign up to attend this next Lunch and Learn because it’s completely free and it’s definitely a lot of fun, and I have Q&A at the end. So, you can always ask questions.

Today’s webinar will be tips from the CopyDoodles Swipe Vault, from Mark Madere. It’s really, really helpful and really great. He is a photographer. He’s using CopyDoodles to do a lot of really cool things with his business. You’re definitely going to want to check out his example, it came from the CopyDoodles Swipe File book. So, if you don’t have a CopyDoodles Swipe File, again, the link is at the bottom of the page. It’s www.CopyDoodlesBook.com You can pick one up. You definitely will have ton of great ideas in there. Mark is a really great interview.

I look forward to seeing all of you next week during my live CopyDoodles Lunch and Learn. Have a fabulous week.

Lauren: Hi, I’m here with Mark Madere of SpectaLight Photography. Hi, Mark!

Mark: Hi, Lauren.

Lauren:: So, today Mark is going to talk about one of the success story pieces that he sent into us, but before he does that, Mark, would you kind of talk a little bit about your business and what you do?

Mark: Sure. I have had my photography studio since probably 1980, but I was working a full time job at a hospital the first five years. Then in ‘86 I left the hospital to run my business, my photography studio, full time. I’ve done that for over 23 years. Unfortunately a downturn in the economy and the world of digital photography has had a negative impact on my business where I had to take another job at another hospital doing opthamic [assumed spelling; 0:02:33.6] photography, where I photograph the eye all day long.

Lauren: Oh, wow.

Mark: Yeah, so it’s very technical, very scientific — unfortunately, not very creative. Still trying to maintain what little business I have left in my personal studio. I have looked at doing different projects and using CopyDoodles to help enhance those projects to get more attention.

I guess I should say what type of photography I’m doing — primarily family portraits done outdoors in people’s yards, in the park, in their homes. I’m using their living room or their family room as the setting for their portrait, something a little bit different than the typical studio portrait, although we do offer those. I do a lot of high school seniors, where they come here to the studio or we go outside to do their portraits, wherever they want to have those done.

And photo restoration has become a growing portion of my business that has really been an interesting turn of what I had been doing. It turns out that most people can’t do photo restoration where they think they can do with the other types of photography.

Lauren: Wow, so you do a big spectrum of different types of photography. It’s very interesting.

Mark: Yeah.

Lauren: Let me move onto your piece. It shows a little bit of the types of portraits that you do. You have the photo restoration there, the studio portraits, then the family portraits. So, will you just tell me a little bit about the piece you created, what it is, what you used it for, and then who you sent it out to?

Mark: OK. It is an 8.5” x 11” flyer, obviously in color. CopyDoodles, I think, has really helped enhance the piece, just calling out areas in the piece that I want to draw attention to. Obviously, on the left-hand piece that we’re looking at you see the red arrow pointing out the, “Schedule your portrait session now for a date within 8 weeks,” definitely draws attention to that little box. Down towards the bottom you see the little star next to, “Click Like on our SpectraLight Facebook page for special offers.” Above that you see the CopyDoodles stamp that says, “Call today.” I think that draws attention to the phone number, it makes it a bit more clear what the phone number is.

One thing I’d like to point out too is my logo is towards the very bottom of both pages. I believe that people don’t need to know who your business is at the top of the page, they want to know what your offer is, then hopefully once you’ve got their interest, then you want to capture them with your logo, your contact information at the bottom of the page.

Lauren: Yeah, I think this flyer looks really great. I love the placement of the CopyDoodles and everything. Just for anybody who’s listening, you can see the full size pages of Mark’s flyer on the Pages 58-60 under ‘Success Stories’ in the CopyDoodles Swipe File book, that way you can kind of get more of a feel of what it looks like in person when he sent it out.

So, you sent this flyer out to 800 homes in a development you said
originally — I don’t know if you’ve sent it out to any more since then.

Mark: I have actually sent that twice now to the same development, and the demographics of that development is perfect for my type of photography. It’s basically one story homes that probably people 50 and older live in. They’re in part of their life cycle where they have more disposable income and family portraits tend to be a little bit more important to them at that age — their children, their grandchildren are growing up, and they want to start capturing those in a nice, professional portrait.

I have to really give kudos to my accountant who actually moved into that development a year ago, and at my last appointment says, “Hey, you ought to consider marketing to where I live.” And when he told me where he live I was quite surprised because it’s literally across the street from where I live. I had never gave that a thought, it’s like it can’t be any more convenient and people like convenience. To send this right across the street, and as you can see right across the bottom of the flyer, it says, “We are located directly across the street from the entrance to your development,” just kind of driving home the point that you can’t beat that for convenience.

Lauren: Yeah, that’s simple and easy, and people know that you’re right there, they don’t have to go out of their way to make an appointment with you, schedule it around different times because you’re right there.

Mark: And the other thing too is, one thing I learned years ago in marketing, is that you can’t do a one shot advertising of any kind and expect to get decent results. It’s constant repetitiveness that gets people’s attention. The first time I actually sent that flyer in their newsletter, I actually had zero response, which obviously was kind of disconcerting. I thought, “Well, the demographic is the right demographic, what do I need to do to get a result that I’m looking for?” That’s when I decided I’m going to invest two or three more insertions of this flyer in their next newsletters. Second newsletter generated one family portrait sitting, and one photo restoration assignment, that between the two, I think you have the numbers there, Lauren, that I generated from that.

Lauren: I have that you had a total investment of $225, and you grossed over $2,300 on the time when you set this up.

Mark: Yes, and with a gross of $2,300, gross doesn’t mean anything unless you know how much somebody actually made from it, my net from that was probably about $1,500. For a $200 and some investment, to clear $1,500 after everything was factored in, I think that was a pretty respectable response.

And just kind of coincidentally, I did my third insertion just about four weeks ago, generated another in home family portrait session that I did on Saturday. This morning, that family came in and viewed their portraits and placed an order of $1,400. Again, it’s only one assignment from it, but I have a decent markup on what I do, to make it well worth the investment.

Lauren: I remember when I emailed you about doing the webinar, you were like, “I just got another call.” That was exciting too, it was probably the last family you were just talking about. You are getting good response, people still are calling in and stuff like that, and you’re completely right, you have to be repetitive. Somebody might have been on vacation and not gotten this flyer the first time you sent it out. And they got it the second or third time, just depending on their schedule and what they’re looking at, and when they’re going through their mail.

Mark: And the client who came in today had made the comment that she did get my flyer in the first insertion that I did, and she put it aside, and was going to call me eventually, but she just hadn’t had the right time. Her daughter lives in Chicago and she happened to be in town this past weekend, and that’s why she finally made the call.

Another person that I know in the community, I saw him at a function last week, and he said, “Oh, I got your flyer in our newsletter, and my wife and I have been talking about doing this.” It’s out there, people are saving it, they’re putting it aside, something like a family portrait, especially when they want to include people out of their area, it doesn’t always occur the next day. They sometimes will take a year before they can finally pull it off. I now this flyer is going to generate more business as time goes by and as I do additional insertions into their newsletter.

Lauren: Yeah, that’s great. As I said before, I love the look of your flyer, is there a process you go through when you’re creating pieces like these? I know you’re a photographer, so you already have a creative side to you, you’re artistic. But, is there a process you go through when you’re writing flyers like this and then placing the CopyDoodles on them — thinking about how you choose what CopyDoodles you use, what colors, what you want to write and say, stuff like that, which might be helpful to people who are listening?

Mark: Boy, the process for me is, “Oh gosh the deadline is next week, I’d better sit down and do this right now.” I’m always under the gun, never doing it with enough time, definitely not good planning. Any good marketer will tell you that you should have a calendar with the whole year planned out on what you want to do, when you need to do each part of that process, and do it in the correct way. I never do, and I’m surprised I even get a response sometimes, the way I kind of throw things together.

My wife is a graphic designer, and she just kind of shakes her head when she looks at some of the things I design. She says, “Mark, you put too much crap on your stuff, you just clutter it all together, and it’s just too much for people to look at.” And I’ve heard that sometimes that can be a negative, and then I’ve heard people that have said the more stuff you put on there, it more it gives them to digest. There’s two different side to that story, in this particular case it’s working, perhaps if I had less information on there, maybe it would work better. Maybe that’s a future test I need to try.

Lauren: Exactly, but I think a lot of business owners are just like you, they realize they want to do a promotion, maybe they want to get it out in the next two weeks, so they just pull everything together. With CopyDoodles it makes it easy to just take two seconds and place them on there, to spice up certain areas of you marketing piece. I don’t think you’re the only one that doesn’t plan stuff out, I think that’s how a lot of people create their marketing pieces.

Mark: Right, right. And, then for me it’s just a process of what do I want to convey, just placing a couple of photos on the blank canvas as I am designing it. What copy I want to share, and then like you said, spicing it up with the CopyDoodles just to draw a little interest, to draw a little attention to certain areas where you want to have your calls to action.

Lauren: Yeah, and then I guess just adding in any of your promotions and stuff like that you want to do, you probably know that beforehand, and then create it.

Is there anything else you want to share with the listeners on your marketing piece, or anything that’s going on in your business, or any last minute things you want to add?

Mark: Well, actually, this is totally unsolicited by you or Mike, but I love his 3 on 3 marketing videos that he does every week. When I get his email in my inbox, that’s always one of the first things that I open and look at and go right to his videos. Mike is an amazing marketer, I know he’s associated with
Dan Kennedy who is like the primo marketer in the country, if not the world. I think the membership in CopyDoodles is well worth the money, I will be renewing next year when my membership comes up for renewal — not just because of CopyDoodles, but because of all of the great marketing information that Mike shares.

Lauren: Thanks so much, Mark. I’m so glad you’re watching all the 3 on 3 videos and the CopyDoodles TV, they’re definitely helpful in creating your marketing pieces, like you said, giving you new tips and tricks. And I think what you’ve said today on this call is very helpful to people who are listening, even just looking at your marketing pieces — great for people to get ideas and how to lay things out and place them together, especially seeing that you’ve gotten some really great results just sending this out a few times, and you’re not spending too much on your marketing. You’re getting a good response back.

Thank you so much for joining us, and again, you can find Mark’s flyer in the CopyDoodles Swipe File book, Pages 58-60 under Success Stories. Thanks again.

Mark: You’re welcome, Lauren.