Archive for December, 2007

Do you listen to Critics?

If you’ve ever watched reality shows on TV, you’ll probably agree with me that more emphasis is given to pointing out the embarrassing aspects of the contestants.

The critics are harsh, snarky and downright mean. But we watch them to make ourselves feel better. I want to share a video that came along my way and how moved I was with Paul’s (a mobile sales man from South Whales) performance and his determination to follow his dream… Watch…

But the real takeaway for me is, no matter how small-minded and harsh the critics are, in the respective markets/businesses we are in - push through with passion.

For my friends and clients who do business online, some frustrated and some optimistic - here are my two cents:

“If your gut feeling is that, you’re in the right market and got the determination to push through ‘the dip’ - Pursue it with passion.”

But, if your inner voice says that you should be doing something else, quit now and pursue what feels right to YOU. If you are stuck with the  idea of making it big with the Internet medium - you can still start any business and utilize the power of the Internet anyway.

Critics can come in many forms, your family, your spouse, neighbors, colleagues, even online gurus…

Do not completely believe the predictions of the Gurus that we see & hear so much, especially during the last and the first months of the year. The critics always have something alarming to say - but it’s just to keep you from trying and moving further.

In 2008, be optimistic about your business - and push through with passion. Otherwise find something that you are passionate about and start your business surrounding that.

Have a fun and profitable NEW YEAR!

Sincerely,
Abe Cherian
CEO, Multiple Stream Media, LLC.
http://www.multiplestreammktg.com

P.S. I’ll be launching The Rent-A-List New-Years Special Promotion on January 1st, 12:00 Noon EST. Look out for my updates soon, you wouldn’t want to miss this…

Email Ad Copy 101

I can only assume the reason why most email marketers receive messages from other email marketers, is to learn how to become more successful. Whatever the reason, I have to ask, what do you write about in your ad copy?

Here’s a few tips…

Grab them by the eyeballs: Seize your prospects attention with a powerful, benefit-based, emotionally driven headline.

Support your headline: In a short deck, expand upon your headline with a deck structure that drives it home in a powerful way.

Bribe them to read this: Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Blast-off any value-added information that you’re going to give them for free in the copy.

Get their juices flowing: Open with a powerful, emotionally driven, benefit-based paragraph or two.

Make them believe it: Add credibility elements, a series of paragraphs presenting statistics, expert endorsements, track record info or customer testimonials that prove you really can deliver the benefit.

Get back on track: You’ve demonstrated what you’ve done for others and what others say. Now it’s time to get back to talking about your prospect?s favorite person - YOUR READER.

Repeat your lead benefit and transition into your secondary product benefits, each written in a way that connects with the prospect’s most compelling resident emotions ? their dominant emotions.

If you have room, make each benefit a subhead, followed by two or three paragraphs of copy (or more) that is dimensional. If you’re cramped for space, turn each benefit into a bullet. If you?re somewhere in-between, lead with your strongest benefits as subheads with explanatory copy and bullet the rest.

Make the offer: Repeat your headlined benefit, allude to the others, present your offer, and justify your price.

Relieve risk, add credibility: Add your guarantee and point out that, since the prospect’s delight is a sure thing, they have nothing to lose.

Sum it up: Repeat your main headline benefit, the strongest secondary benefits, justify your price again, remind them of the guarantee and ask for the sale by getting the click!

Abe Cherian
CEO, Multiple Stream Media, LLC.

Baby-Boom Bonanza!

Our family is growing. At the Multiple Stream 2007 Christmas office party, it seemed like there were more babies and kids than adults — they charmed their way, only the way they could, into the hearts and minds of all of our guests — we even forgot to take pictures of the “Multiple Stream Christmas Cake”!

It seems like every body decided to have babies — or expecting. Abe & Martha have 4 (two this year, twins), Kristin has 2 (Twins), Megan (our accountant) has a baby girl, Patty is expecting! 

We’ve more than our business to be thankful for. This was one Christmas party I will never forget.

Enjoy the pictures…. Abe

How To Keep Accurate Email Marketing Records

It is extremely important to keep accurate records in any form of email marketing. It is only through these records that you can determine which ads pull the best, which advertising lead is the most enticing, and how well your product or service is selling.

Good records are the follow-up of good testing!

Keep copies of all ads and conversion material in a spreadsheet or a reliable file. You may also include in that file, or a separate folder, a record of all of the addresses you have used. The separate records per addresses or publication will help you to compare which ads are bringing in the profits.

You may have your own way of filing these ad campaigns. You’ll need a separate document for each ad you place. At the top of the document, place the name of the publication the ad appeared in, the issue number or date, the date the issue was placed on sale, the address, the size and cost of the ad, which ad you used, and the price of the product or service. This will be needed to calculate your profits later.

The main body of the document has two main categories - inquiries and sales.

First, the number of days should be listed in a column at the left. These don’t necessarily coincide with the days of the month, rather, start with the first days responses came in.

The subheads under “inquiries” should be:

- Date Received
- Number Received
- Running Total

The subheads under “sales” should be:

- Number of orders received
- Running total
- Cash sales
- Running total for cash sales

These records will help you figure out the responses to ads, orders from sales copy, and how much money you’re making.

To calculate the cost per inquiry, divide the cost of the ad into the number of inquiries received.

To find the cost per order, add the total of sending the sales copy to the cost of the ad and divide that by the number of orders received.

The ratio of conversion is the number of orders compared to the number of inquiries. For example, if you get twenty orders from one hundred inquiries, the conversion is twenty percent.

How To Calculate Profit

This is total the amount of cash sales. That is your gross profit. Subtract the cost of the product or service, mailing, conversion of the ad. That is your net profit, the one that counts.

Just stick with it and you can watch your profits grow larger with each ad - each conversion - each sale.

Abe Cherian
CEO, Multiple Stream Media, LLC.

How to Segment Your Online Mailing List

Top WorldBuilding a email list for your business should be a top priority. It is the most important marketing tool where you can build a mailing list and segment them according to your geographic, demographics, psychographics and Product benefits for your target market.

No email list is ever going to pull as effectively as your own email list created from thousands of prospects that your business will have the opportunity to market to, as well as the hundreds of customers who have tasted or selected or used one or more of your products or services.

Just names and addresses aren’t enough. You need to segment your prospective client email list like the big mailing houses do.

The way you do this is ask your clients and prospects their preferences. Why they purchased? Their reading habits? Their spending habits? You could ask them where they heard about you? TV? News? Interent? Radio? Paper? Other?

As soon as they become a customer, you record their purchase whether it was this particular product or that product, this service or that service. Track every purchase, every phone call you make to them, and everything else you’ve ever talked to them about on your computer.

You need to know how long they’ve been a customer. Whether they’re current on their payments. Whether they respond to an advertisement. What other subsequent purchases they’ve made? What caused them to make those purchases? Was it a letter you sent, a followup? The list goes on and on.

You want to be able to improve and offer them more things based on the pieces of information you know about them. You can segment your customer file as:

- Calculate the value of your customers. This is the value of every lost name that you don’t capture.

- Capture names through registrations, drawings, coupons, free subscriptions, consultations, charge card verifications, and photocopy their checks.

- Design surveys, registrations, etc. to solicit personal information from your customers regarding those variable, important pieces of information for your business.

Abe Cherian
CEO, Multiple Stream Media, LLC

Going nuts over Christmas for YOU!


Kristin Hilton 
Affiliate Manager, Multiple Stream Media, LLC.

 

 

Going Nuts Over Christmas For YOU!

You can’t wipe the ’smile off my face’ if you wanted to. Christmas has always had that kind of effect on me. You’ll see what I mean in the pictures below.

Oh Boy, How Time Flies…

It’s been about one year since I took over as the Affiliate Manager of Multiple Stream Media, LLC - but it feel’s like yesterday. Oh boy, how time flies…

This time, I want to stay away from the usual structure of this newsletter and go a little crazy - Are you up for it? :-)

Here goes…

I Want To Move Heaven and Earth for you…

There is NO DOUBT about it, our affiliates are our life blood. Without you, growth would’ve been a rough climb up the hill. There isn’t a day that goes by that all of us at Multiple Stream Media, don’t think of our affiliates and do everything we possible can to make it better for you guys.

The core principles, standards and philosophy of our company, Multiple Stream Media, LLC, has been this…

  1. Work at something we enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
  2. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
  3. Persistence, persistence, persistence

With this as our aim, we look forward for many more great services for you in 2008. 

And for now, Look at how much fun we are having… doing the things we love to do for our affiliates…

It’s A Big Undertaking - BUT…

…It’s all worth it. 

For the past 4 years we’ve shown our gratitude to ALL affiliates that we’ve EVER PAID - by sending them Christmas Cards - this year it’s no different. Only that, this year we’ve a big undertaking, we’re sending thousands of Christmas Cards!

You can say that I have waiting for this moment for a long time, where I get to post some fun pictures and to make your day a little brighter - I hope you enjoy, as much as we did!

I’ve Been Waiting For This Moment…

 I hope that this 6th issue of our Affiliate Newsletter finds you in good spirits. As always I am here to help so just let me know what I can do.

 
Affiliate Manager, Multiple Stream Media, LLC.

The Moment Of Surprise!

Dec 5Th, 2007 - on a snowy morning, Kristin Hilton and Paul Robbins traveled all the way from New York to Indiana to deliver the $10,000 check to the Winner, Maryanne Myers.

You may have heard this before, and it’s TRUE! “Pictures Do Talk Louder Than Words!”

I’ve some pictures from the “Moment Of Surprise” to Farewell and Lunch at “Applebees”

Now, C’mon! How would you feel if YOU woke up to a $10,000 Check?

I wish Maryanne and everyone reading this, a Peaceful and Joyful Holiday season!

Abe Cherian
CEO, Multiple Stream Media, LLC.

P.S. During and after the contest we got hundreds of exciting emails from our list. Thank you for keeping this contest fun and rewarding! Thank you Kristin & Paul for going the extra mile (Literally) to make this happen for us.

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