Carl Galletti Internet Marketing Super Conference Photos

?… before you do anything, you’ve got to evaluate your numbers… test your pricing models… and figure out what kind of response you need to make your promotion work.
Today, I’m going to help you out with all this planning, by giving you an instant “edge”.

There’s a famous line from one of my favorite movies, “The Graduate”… when Mr. Robinson says to Benjamin Braddock (played by a young Dustin Hoffman), during Benjamin’s graduation party… “Ben, I have one word for you… “Plastics.”

Do you remember that scene?

Well even if you don’t, or in case you haven’t seen that movie, one thing’s for sure… Mr. Robinson was right on track, even today, 37 years later: Because this year alone, over 50 Million tons of plastics will be produced!

And here’s something else you’ll be surprised to hear: You know the “hot chocolate” and candy bar company, Nestle’s?

Oddly enough, less than 3% of Nestle’s gross sales are actually related to chocolate!

It?s true!

Most of their income comes from baby foods… dairy products (like Carnation instant milk powder)… breakfast cereals… bottled water (like Deer Park, Perrier and Zephyrhills)… and a whole host of other products, sold world-wide.

And still another “global” piece of information you should be storing in your mental “inbox” is this:

You share your birthday with
at least 9 million other people around the world!

And that’s important for you to realize, because most people have a very hard time understanding “where” all the people are, who want to buy your product.

You see, just because you can’t visualize them… and just because they don’t live around the corner from you… and just because you won’t be bumping into them at the mall this weekend, doesn’t mean they’re not out there!

Remember, you’re not selling your products to you!

You Are NOT Your Customer!

So where am I going with all this… and what’t the “bottom line” in this week’s tip?

Simple:

You Must Know Your Numbers!

For example, I was having a conversation with a client yesterday and he suggested using direct mail to promote one of his products.

After all, he’s got a very good product… he’s in a marketplace that’s excited and passionate… he’s sold to them before (rather easily)… and, he’s well-known in his sector.

So on the surface, you’d think direct mail sounds like a pretty good way to go, no?

But it’s not.

See, the problem is, even at the high-end of his price range, after we’ve added in a bunch of bonuses and done a few other things to increase the perceived value of his product, this particular product doesn’t sell for enough money to make a direct-mail promotion worth-while, unless you’re assuming a very high response rate.

And in my books, that’s a risky assumption to make.

It’s much better to know ahead of time , you’ve got a promotion that’s going to make you some cold hard cash, even using conservative numbers. This way, there’s no downside.

As opposed to running your promotion, and then “hoping” you’re going to make a bundle, assuming some kind of aggressive, but perhaps far-fetched response rate.

This way, you’re only got upside (and more money) to look forward to, instead of a downside filled with painful surprises and unrealistic expectations that end up getting blown away, like leaves during a gust of autumn wind.

The bottom line is, before you do anything… and before you roll out any project… you’ve got to evaluate your numbers… test your pricing models… and figure out what kind of response you need, to make your promotion work.

“Knowing your numbers” will often be the difference between overwhelming success and the trappings of wealth that come with it, and… dismal (but predictable in advance) failure.

Gosh, I knew that CPA certificate I earned way back when, would come in handy some day!

And right now I’m going to help you out with all of this, by giving you an instant “edge”.

I’ve developed an excel spreadsheet you’re going to find invaluable when trying to figure out how to price any of your projects you may be selling online.

You can download this spreadsheet, by placing your mouse on the picture of it right below, and then clicking on it.

It’s yours for FREE, but you’ll have to figure out how to save it on your computer, and how to use it, by yourself.

Here’s the file, along with a brief explanation of how it works. Once you click on it, it’ll automatically download itself straight onto your PC, inside a zipped file.

O.K., so let me walk you through this thing.

Let’s take a good hard look at the 4 moving parts to this spreadsheet:

A – As you can see, the title of this spreadsheet reads “To break even, you must sell 1 item in “#” of clicks at a price point of”… and so let me tell you what this means:

Basically, this spreadsheet’s designed to help you figure out how many sales of your product you must make, in order to break even… giving consideration to the selling price of your product, and… how much you’re spending on pay-per-click advertising.

If you’re not familiar with pay-per-click advertising, then this isn’t going to make much sense to you, so either skip this information, or try and follow along, and maybe things’ll fall into place for you.

Also, if you’re selling anything other than information, these numbers aren’t so cut-and-dried, because you’re going to have to consider the hard costs of your products as well.

B – Column A shows how much you’re paying for online advertising, which is usually expressed in terms of your “cost per click.”

On your spreadsheet, you can change these amounts and enter whatever amount you want.

C – This number represents the price of your item. In this example, I’m using a price of $24.95.

You can change this price to whatever you want, and as you can see, the spreadsheet is designed to compare 4 independent sets of pricing and pay-per-click costs, across the board.

If you’re good with Microsoft Excel, you should have no problem copying these formulas across, horizontally (and vertically as well, for that matter), so you can compare as many independent sets of data as you want.

Underneath the price, is data that’s automatically calculated for you. These numbers represent the total number of clicks you can afford to get, and only make ONE sale, yet still break even with your project.

Why is this number useful?

Simple. Let’s look at row 11 for example.

In row 11, it assumes you’re paying 30 cents a click on Google… or on Overture… or on any other pay-per-click system.

At a $24.95 price point, it says you need to make one sale out of every 83 clicks, for you to break even.

Looking at the next column in row 11, this translates into a response rate of 1.2% (1 divided by 83), as shown in the column marked ?D?.

If you keep on moving across the row to your right, you’ll see, raising your price by $5 dollars, to $29.95… lowers the response rate you need to break even, from 1 response every 83 clicks, to 1 response every 100 clicks, or from 1.2% to 1%.

And, if you go completely across to the very end of the spreadsheet, you’ll see… at a price point of $37 dollars, you only need to sell 1 unit every 123 clicks, a 0.81% response rate, for you to break even.

It’s important you start using this spreadsheet as soon as possible. This way, you can make well thought-out and educated “guesses” about how successful your project is going to be, before you start rolling it out, and also, so you have some kind of method of determining how much you should be charging for your products.

Obviously, you can use this spreadsheet for larger projects — all you need to do is plug in your pricing numbers as you see fit. I just used the smaller numbers here, for illustration purposes, and so you could get a “sense” of how this thing works and what you can use it for.

P.S. I hope you had as much fun over Thanksgiving as I did, and that you got to spend some free time with the people you love. Here’s a little picture of just some of what I was doing over my holiday:

I caught this bass (a 3-pounder, “plus”) over in Tampa, while visiting a friend of mine, who also happens to be a client.

In fact, I’ll be telling you more about this client soon, because if my “gut feelings” are right… the 72-page sales letter I just finished writing for him may easily be…

The deadliest sales letter… ever… written!

I’ll let you know either way, soon!

P.P.S. Next week, I’ll show you how you can build an “instant” swipe file… how you can legally and ethically “cheat” in your marketing, regardless of what industry you’re in, and… a quick, easy, and proven way to put your hands on literally hundreds of marketing pieces you can start using in your own business, almost immediately.

Send them to me by scooting over to the contact form on my “Here’s How To Contact Craig” page, and maybe I’ll publish them next time. I appreciate your feedback!

And if you haven ‘t already done so, go ahead and click here right now to sign up for my FREE Tip Of The Week – it’s the Number One Direct-Response Marketing And Copywriting Newsletter for independent business-owners.

?Craig Garber is America’s Top Direct-Response Copywriter. You’ll find hundreds of marketing tips to increase your sales, and his insanely popular FREE Direct-Response Marketing Tip Of The Week, on his website, www.KingOfCopy.com. Copyright ? Craig Garber. All rights reserved.?