Marketing Secrets 101 Interview with MaryEllen Tribby

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Interview with MaryEllen Tribby

MS. JOYCE BONE: Hello. This is Joyce Bone, and I’m excited to share with you all

today a conversation with MaryEllen Tribby who wrote Changing the Channel: 12

Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business. She co-authored it with Michael

Masterson, and she is a master marketer. So, I’d like to welcome MaryEllen to the

call today. Hello, how are you?

MS. MARYELLEN TRIBBY: Great. How are you doing, Joyce?

MS. BONE: I ’m doing wonderful. And I’m really excited to talk to you today because

marketing is one of my favorite subjects. And I think it ’s such a crit ical skill to

have when you’re trying to run a business. I ’m so glad that we got the best of the

best to be on our call. Thank you, MaryEllen. And we’re just going to jump right

into it if you don’t mind. And I’m going to have you explain to the listeners the

difference. What is marketing exactly? Can you explain that in laymen terms?

MS. TRIBBY: Sure can. It ’s really simple. Marketing essentially is the process that’s

associated with promoting the sale of goods or services in exchange for money.

But this is the thing. There are two different kinds of marketing or two main

different kinds of marketing. There’s a real big difference between direct response

and branding. And today hopefully what we’re really going to go into is direct

response marketing because that’s the form of marketing that’s designed to solicit

an immediate response. And that response is specific and it’s quantifiable. And

direct response marketing essentially is dollar out, dollar in. It ’s all about the

ROY, where branding is much more about the image bui lding, or the customer

remembers you next time they may need to buy a pair of sneakers. It ’s a much

broader reach. Direct response marketing has a much more targeted audience.

MS. BONE: Well, that is good to know. Because it seems like most of the time people

just talk in generalit ies. I ’m excited that we’re going to get into the nuts and bolts

of how to turn one dollar into two dollars. Because I think that’s what everybody

who is listening to this call is really all about. We’re trying to grow our businesses.

Trying to add revenue to the bottom line. And I know I recently read a survey from

E Women Network where they interviewed over 3,300 women, and that was their

number one priority was doing an extra great job at marketing and sales.

MS. TRIBBY: Right.

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MS. BONE: To the tune of almost 70 percent. That was their number one concern. This

is a topic that is definitely on top of everybody’s mind given the economy. You

talked about branding in marketing. But marketing and selling is often times

confused as well. Do you have any points on that?

MS. TRIBBY: I do. It ’s really funny because if you actually look up the definition of

selling, it would say virtually the same thing. It would say that it ’s the process

associated with promoting the sale or goods of a service in exchange for money.

But here’s what you need to know. Just think about it. Nobody likes to be sold to,

right? And everybody knows when they’re being sold to. However, everyone likes

to have an authentic conversation about their wants, their needs, their desires,

their problems and how to fix those problems, how to meet those needs, how to

meet those wants, and how to meet those desires. So, good marketing actually

eliminates the need to sell.

MS. BONE: That’s an interesting point, MaryEllen. Because it’s true. You kind of bow

up a litt le bit when you’re feeling like you’re being sold. But when you’re having a

conversation, I think that’s why referral marketing is such a strong tool because

you are having a conversation rather than feeling like somebody’s trying to shove

something down your throat.

MS. TRIBBY: Exactly.

MS. BONE: I ’m glad that you pointed that out. Let me ask you, what advice do you have

for people who aren’t a master marketer like you are? What’s a good way to build

your skills?

MS. TRIBBY: I mean, you really have to dig into it. First of all, you need to

acknowledge the fact that everyone—if you’re running this business and it’s pretty

much only you, then you have got to be a marketer. And everyone in your

organization has to be a marketer. They have to buy into what you’re doing.

Because if they do not, it is total sabotage. The best thing that anybody can do is

learn. Learn the craft of direct response marketing. Go out there, and start

reading al l the great books there are to read on the subject. Direct response

marketing has been around for 100 years. And there are books that were written

80 years ago, 60 years ago from the masters that are essential and still hold true

today. And it doesn’t matter if it ’s online or offline. Direct response marketing is

what you have to learn, and you can apply that anywhere you need to.

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MS. BONE: You think that somebody who doesn’t intuitively get how to market or feel

comfortable in that space can learn enough to be effective, or do you think that

people should outsource that and hire an expert?

MS. TRIBBY: Well, f irst of all even if you’re going to go and outsource, you still need to

understand the value and understand the concepts and what it takes to accomplish

those strategies. You still have to understand that. But it really depends on

where you are and what stage your business is in. New businesses today have a

huge advantage over 20 years ago. If you want to start a publishing company

online today compared to 20 years ago, you can do that. You don’t have to have

the expense of 20 years ago or the expertise or the time. You can go out there

today and test your ideas online for virtually nothing. First, before you go out and

hire anything, understand what your goals are. I mean, you really need to

understand what your goals are. Become semi-competent on it, and give it a try.

And as your business grows, go out and talk to people. Start masterminding with

people. This is the biggest key. And a lot of people don’t do that. They don’t

have a network of people they mastermind with or an accountability partner or

colleagues who they real ly talk about this with.

MS. BONE: I agree. It makes a huge difference to have somebody to bounce ideas off

of. One friend of mine, and she’s in the same field as what I’ve been doing for

quite awhile, and it’s so refreshing to be able to go to her and see the advances

that she’s making knowing that if I do A, B, and C it should work out this way. I

think that’s a good point that you make is to really just have conversations with

people that can help you grow. You talk about the Internet. What are some good

first steps that people can take if they want to test?

MS. TRIBBY: The first thing people really need to do is make sure they understand their

market. Do your competitive intelligence. Do you know what’s going on in the

market that you want to go into? Do you know if there is a demand for that

market? And today we’ve got such easy ways to do this. Go to Google. Go to

Yahoo, and do some keyword searches so you can see how many people are

actually searching for what you have to offer. And the sweet spot there is between

10,000 to 50,000 a month. If it ’s below 10,000 probably not a great market to be

in. If it ’s way over 50,000, well, it may be too saturated already. If it falls

somewhere in between 10,000 to 50,000 a month, that’s probably a good niche.

First of all, make sure the niche is viable. Secondly, then start looking at the

competitors, your competitors, and see what they’re doing. It ’s crazy. People

always want to go into and start reinventing the wheel. Reality, subscribe to one

of your competitors. Subscribe to them. Track everything they do, and then just

start testing off of that.

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MS. BONE: Good points. Is there a website where people can do a keyword search that

you’re aware of? I know there used to be like Overture.

MS. TRIBBY: Right, right. You can just go to Key Compete. You can go to Word

Tracker. Those are the two that come to the top of my head.

MS. BONE: I hadn’t heard of that one. Keycompete.com?

MS. TRIBBY: Yes.

MS. BONE: Learned something new. Love it. What are your top three marketing tips? I

read your book, and there is just so much valuable insight in there that we couldn’t

possibly absorb. It ’s like a book versus a movie. You’re always going to get so

much more out of the book. Are there three marketing tips that you have found

have been really, really helpful in growing your businesses?

MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely. The first thing is, and this is a rule and put this on your wall,

which is ABT. And that stands for always be testing. Every single time you do a

marketing campaign you don’t send one offer out the door or one copy out the

door or use one list. You’re always testing so that you can get data back in of

things that worked better. Never just send a campaign out in one form. At least

two an AB split, and when you test, you test one thing at a time. You don’t test

more than one variable. If you wanted to test price, for example, you’d have the

exact same sales letter. If you were going to go out to 100 people, 50 would get

one price, 50 would get another price. And then you can see the difference that

you have some data now so that when you roll out, which means going out to a

larger audience, you go out with the better responding price. That’s one. Then

while we’re talking about testing, you test things that scream, not whisper, and this

is huge. Let’s use price again as an example. If you’re testing a price point of

$49, you’re not going to test the price $49 versus $50. You’re going to test the

price point of $49 versus $79 and see what happens. You test things that scream,

not whisper. Just remember every time you test you want to get at least a 25 to 50

percent increase in response. So, if you test whispers, you’re never going to make

it. You’re going to test things that scream. And then the third you cut your losses

back. Numbers do not lie. And I say this to everybody. I say this to myself. I say

this when I speak is that you have to assume that you don’t know what the

answer’s going to be. Only the marketplace does. You’re going to test. When

you get your numbers in, you’re not going to make excuses about them and say,

“Well, maybe I sent this out to - - in the day.” The numbers are the numbers. If

there is a loss, you cut it back. Too many people hold onto those losses, and they

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keep going with it thinking they’re going to get a different result, and you don’t.

So, cut the losses back.

MS. BONE: Good to know. You mentioned timing. In marketing is there a better day of

the week to send out emails or marketing a direct mail piece? Is there any rhyme

or reason to that?

MS. TRIBBY: You know what, it ’s really funny. Because it really depends on your

industry and seasonality and what’s going on in the world. But in general from

email, there is no better time. Years ago we heard Sundays were the best day.

Then everybody started mailing on Sundays, and then Sundays were saturated.

You know what the most important thing is is that your customers are bonded with

you and looking forward to your emails. That’s the most important thing is the

content within the emails. And if you have a record of sending useful, actionable

emails, then your customer’s going to open them. It ’s not the day of the week.

We mail on holidays all the time, and people open them because they’re looking

forward to those emails - - involved within those emails. And direct mail is a litt le

different because there’s so many different formats and because there’s so many

different times of year. Christmastime, a holiday season your mail’s going to take

much longer to get to your prospect. That’s a litt le different. If during the year if

you’re going mail a number ten envelope, we always wanted to mail it on a Friday

because it would get there Monday or Tuesday. And we found that in the mail

people tend to open that mail Monday and Tuesday faster. But that, I think, is all

in the book too. There’s a lot. It really depends on your format there. But email,

just start testing. Just start getting it out, and then you wil l f ind it ’s the content

that matters not so much the day.

MS. BONE: I like that. Having a responsive list and then screaming and not whispering

in what you’re testing.

MS. TRIBBY: Yes, always.

MS. BONE: Interesting. And your book, Changing the Channel, is on my bookshelf all

the time so I can go refer to it.

MS. TRIBBY: Good.

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MS. BONE: As a resource. It ’s like one of those books from the library you’re not really

allowed to check out, but it ’s full of contents. A solopreneur when they’re focusing

on marketing you just kind of touched on it. Great copy is important. I personally

feel like it ’s what you said having emails that the people feel like they have a

relationship with you, and they want to see what you’re saying. They want to

open. At the same time there’s such a thing as great copy that we’ve all heard

about. Like make sure you have a certain headline that grabs attention. Do you

feel like that’s really important, or do you think it ’s important to establish joint

ventures with people where they will push your stuff on their list. What do you see

as being helpful in building your list?

MS. TRIBBY: The first thing that everyone needs to know is there’s three components

that make up any successful marketing campaign. To have a successful marketing

campaign is to get your desired your ROY or your desired number of subscribers

or customers in the door. You have to have three things. You have to have a list.

You have to have copy, and you have to have an offer. The list basically means

either your in-house list or the list you’re going out. The copy which is the

message you’re sending them. And then the offer that you’re making them. It ’s

really funny because a lot of people will always say, “Copy is the most important

thing,” which is not true at all. The list is the most important thing. So, the

audience that you’re going to is the most important thing. You could have great,

great copy best copy in the world. If you’re going to the wrong audience, it ’s

useless. Your list is the most important. After that it ’s actually the offer. And this

is why the thing about direct response marketing is so wonderful because two-

thirds of direct response marketing is scient if ic. Your list and your offer is all

scientif ic. There’s a wonderful book called Scientif ic Advertising by Claude

Hopkins. Everybody should read this book. First the list, then offer, then the

copy. The reason great copywriters are in such demand is because it’s more

creative. And the whole idea with copy is to come away with a big idea, and that

can make a huge difference in your campaign. But you can have mediocre copy

go to great list, and get a very good response. You could have great copy go into

the wrong list and get no response. Does that make sense, Joyce?

MS. BONE: Absolutely. It ’s kind of like don’t try to sell f ish to dog lovers.

MS. TRIBBY: Exactly.

MS. BONE: In the dog lover’s club, don’t try to sell them fish.

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MS. TRIBBY: Exactly. I always say birds of a feather flock together. We wil l talk a litt le

bit about joint ventures. When you go out there to make joint ventures, make it’s

sure the right joint venture. Again, you don’t want to waste that opportunity cost

and the person who is in this business. If you’re sel ling dog food, and I’m selling

exotic fish, then I’m not going to run your product to my list - - where it makes

sense.

MS. BONE: With joint ventures when you approach somebody that let’s say you’re in the

dog lovers club and they’re sel ling dog bowls that would make a good fit together,

how is the best way to approach someone if you’ve never done that before?

MS. TRIBBY: The first thing that you have to remember is that the only thing about a

joint venture that has to be consistent and constant is that it ’s a win-win for both

parties. You could have a very win-win situation with somebody with no list and a

product versus somebody with a huge list and all products as well. As long as you

go into this with a win-win attitude for both parties as well as striving for a long

term relationship. I don’t want to do joint ventures. I don’t want to do onesies with

anybody. I want to strive for long term relat ionships every single time I do this.

So, make sure that you’re going into this with a win-win. Are we going to talk with

the scenario that you have no list, but you have a product. What did I just say?

The most important thing for you to do is build your list. You may go to this other

person that has a wonderful list and say, “I’ve got this product, and I’d like to run it

through your list, and I don’t have a list.” You need to be really upfront right away

and say but you take 80 to 100 percent of the revenue. For me, I want to build my

list and collect names. If you’re will ing to do that right off the bat, that’s going to

open a lot of doors.

Say they have an e-letter, and you are very competent about their subject. Well,

offer to write contents for their e-letter. Then you could say, “How about if I write

content.” And I go to your list and now maybe you’ll keep 25 percent of your

revenue but still give them 75 percent. What you’re working for is a lifetime value

of that name. Once you get that name in, then you can go to that name yourself

and keep 100 percent of the money. Too many people think they should get 50

percent of the revenue when they really don’t have anything else to offer. Always

give more than you get. Think of that going out there. If you’re starting out you

need to give more than you get. And the other thing you really need to do is if

you’re going to that list, you need to sell them on why. Why do they want to send

your product to their list. Their list is their most valuable asset. Make sure you

understand the benefits of your product. Why is your dog food better than anyone

else’s dog food? Make sure you have testimonials that you can back this up.

Somebody who said, “My dog was sick until they started eating this, and now he’s

thriving.” Really understand the benefits of your products, and be ready to go

there and tell that to somebody. Also if you have any results, if you’ve mailed this

copy because you’re going to be bringing your copy with you. If you’ve mailed the

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copy before to someone else’s list, go with the results of that and say, “This other

list, their subscribers loved it.” It did this, this, and this is because they want to

make money. It ’s an opportunity cost for them to let you go to their list because

they want to make money. Make sure you are equipped with all that information

before you even make the phone call or send the e-mail.

MS. BONE: Good points. I think those percentages are probably going to shock people.

I thought 50/50 was going to be awesome.

MS. TRIBBY: No. I mean, if I ’ve got a list of 500,000 and you’ve got a list of 500,000,

sure we can do a 50/50 split because we’re both marketing the same thing. Again,

it has to win. What is the benefit to me? If you do not have a list for you to get 50

percent of the revenue plus the name, and I’m getting just 50 percent of the

revenue plus I’ve lost an opportunity cost for my list. You really have to think it

through. Why would I do that?

MS. BONE: Because you’re a nice guy.

MS. TRIBBY: Well, you are. And as you get into a business you will make friends and

partners and people who know you. But in the beginning you’ve got to out there,

and you’ve got to say, “I’m going to give you whatever you want because I know

the value of building my list.”

MS. BONE: I ’ve always heard the gold is in the list.

MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely. I tell this story often. It ’s the story of two jewelers in New

York City side-by-side in the diamond distric t. And one night one jeweler always

put his diamonds in the safe. Jeweler B always put his Rolodex in the safe. One

night they’re both robbed. They come in the next day, and jeweler A has his

diamonds, but he doesn’t have any of his customers. Jeweler B doesn’t have his

diamonds, but he’s got his customers. And guess what? His insurance money

pays for all the diamonds he lost. So, he’s got a business. Jeweler A has lost his

business because his customer list is gone.

MS. BONE: Good point. You have to hear that about self-made millionaires, “Well, you

could take away all my money, and within a year I’ll be back on top.” Because

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they have the knowledge and the list of things it takes to be successful in their

mind.

MS. TRIBBY: And that’s when we were talk ing earlier about what people need to do.

They need to learn this. You need to invest in yourself every single day. Every

single day after doing marketing for 25 years. I ’ve been doing this for 25 years. I

read a marketing or a business book every single day. So, I’ll go through one to

two books a week, but there’s not a single day that goes by that I don’t read

something about marketing and/or business.

MS. BONE: That’s right. You’ve got to keep your saw sharpened.

MS. TRIBBY: You invest in yourself.

MS. BONE: And I do believe you have to give to get. It may sound kind of counter-

intuitive, but it truly is just one of those fundamental things that you have to do.

That means you’re reaching out helping as many people as you can.

MS. TRIBBY: That’s right. I mean, business to me is karma. Everything that goes

around comes around. And you’ll also find whatever niche you’re in it ’s a very

incestuous niche. Everybody knows everybody. You don’t want to be known as

the jerk who tries to get every litt le penny from someone else. You want to be

known as a giver because people are going to want to work with you.

MS. BONE: That’s the truth. Do you typically put a JV relationship in writing, or how do

you handle that end of it?

MS. TRIBBY: I don’t do contracts because what I do is I will. I ’ll outline the deal in

email, say these are the terms. It ’s a - - , but it ’s professional. It ’s concise. The

reason I don’t like to spend time on contacts with these things is because if you

say the word contract, and it usually means lawyers. And lawyers usually means

time and money, and it takes longer to get it done. Literal ly I have done JV deals

where it just worked that we both had a slot. Like in two days from now. If you

were doing contracts you’d still be tied up in legally.

MS. BONE: Yes, real ly.

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MS. TRIBBY: Just put it in email. Like I said, it ’s a very incestuous business, your

niches. You screw over somebody once and probably you’re not going to be in

business for a long time.

MS. BONE: That’s right. Word will get out.

MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely.

MS. BONE: We talked about doing some kind of due diligence. Do some research in

your field. Do you have any other suggestions on how to grow a business

especial ly if you are on a really tight budget?

MS. TRIBBY: Oh, gosh, sure, of course. I mean, if you’re on a really tight budget what

you need to do is you need to put together your marketing plan and your timeline.

A lot of people just have an idea and they through it out there. Like I said, it ’s

good to get your ideas out there quick because you can test them so quickly. But

put together your marketing plan. Put together a timeline. Include assumptions in

there. You’re spending X amount of dollars. What does this need to yield you?

And so you start. You go through your plan. You put out your campaign, and then

you adjust as you go along. Like I said before, people don’t cut their losses. They

think because they put together a marketing plan they have to see it through

fruition. You don’t. It ’s evolving. It ’s a living, breathing thing. It evolves. It

constantly changes. Your plan is there as a guidel ine. So, put together marketing

plan, timeline, assumptions, and then adjust as you go along.

MS. BONE: It ’s that old airplane story that you always hear about how the airplane’s off

track 90 percent of the time. But at the last ten percent they come in.

MS. TRIBBY: Right.

MS. BONE: And that’s the important ten percent. The rest of the time is just feedback.

MS. TRIBBY: Right.

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MS. BONE: That’s great. Are you a bigger believer in organic growth, or do you believe

in doing the pay per click growth on the Internet?

MS. TRIBBY: I think they’re both great ways to build your list. What’s going to happen

with organic, generally it ’s going to take longer, but your names will probably be

more valuable in the end. However, you can get started so quickly, and you can

test constantly, and you can adjust constantly. And you can build a list very

quickly. So, what I’ve generally done in the past is I’ve always done. I’ve never

used one or the other. A couple years ago I built a list from zero to 200,000 in 15

months. That yielded 13 million dollars in 15 months. Probably 60 percent of

those names were formed from PPC. But it ’s really important. People think that if

you just get a name in the door again that you’re done. But you’ve got to follow

through with PPC. You’ve got to understand not just how much that name costs

you to get in the door. What is your break even point? At what point do you make

up the money that you’ve spent to get that name in the door? And at what point

does it start yielding you profit? Generally with a PPC name you want to make

sure you have a break even point within 90 days. If you’re spending a $1.80 or

$1.95 to get the name, 90 days later that name better be worth to you that amount

of money. And then right after that they’ve got to be profitable. You have to keep

an eye on it. But PPC campaigns are great because you can start them right

away. We touch upon PPC in Changing the Channel. But a great book again,

Howie Jacobson’s book, AdWords for Dummies. Great, great book. Highly

recommend it.

MS. BONE: I don’t have that one.

MS. TRIBBY: It ’s great.

MS. BONE: I ’ll have to check that one out for sure.

MS. TRIBBY: And then, of course, Perry Marshall too on both subjects there. Perry

Marshall is a wonderful person to follow.

MS. BONE: I ’m writing all this down. I don’t want to lose any of it. You talked about 12

marketing channels. Do you want to touch briefly on what those are?

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MS. TRIBBY: Sure, let’s do that. Because it’s really fun. The first one that I talk about

is direct response online marketing. So, direct response e-marketing or online

marketing which includes things like dedicated emails either to your list or to a

rented list or to a swap. It also includes things like banner ads or polls or

sponsorships. I ’m going to go through these kind of quickly because there’s 12 of

them. The next one, of course, is social media. And a lot of times people think of

social media as only Facebook or Twitter which, of course, it is. But don’t forget

about things like blogs and videos when you’re using social media and how

effective they are. The next one is SEM or search engine marketing which, of

course, includes PPC campaigns, organic search. Also things like RSS feeds.

Channel number four is the telephone, inbound/outbound. Wonderful channel of

marketing. Teleconferences, of course, what we’re doing right now. A great way

to bond with your clients, bond with your customers, your subscribers. Give them

extreme value. And it’s a wonderful thing to do because you can do it anywhere.

That’s one of my reasons I love teleconferences. You can reach so many people

and do it anywhere. Direct mail, one of my very, very, very favorite channels in

marketing because I’ve been doing this the longest. And I really do believe that

when people understand direct mail, they can do any channel of business

because, of course, direct response marketing all the factors go in there. And

then things like direct print which includes space ads in magazines, newspapers,

catalogues. Number eight is direct response TV. With that you’ve got short

commercials, you’ve got longer commercials, you’ve got infomercials. And you

even have shows like Home Shopping Network and QVC. We’ve got direct

response radio. With the websites today it’s even better because people can

remember web addresses. Radio is even stronger today. A lot of people think

radio is dead. But it ’s funny. Radio is really the one thing that you can never

escape. You could say, “I’m not going to work today. I’m going to the beach.”

But somebody may have a radio there. Or, “I’m going hiking.” Somebody may

have a radio.

MS. BONE: That’s true.

MS. TRIBBY: You can leave your computer at home. You can leave your TV at home.

You can leave all your mail at home. But somebody’s always got a radio

somewhere. It ’s a great source of marketing still. Joint ventures that we talked

about, and one we haven’t talked about yet which is event marketing which I love.

There’s all different kinds of events to do. And, of course, public relations. That’s

the 12 that we cover in the book, and each chapter really goes into detai l on each

one of these.

MS. BONE: And you feel like direct mail is the basis of everything else?

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MS. TRIBBY: Everything.

MS. BONE: You can really become an expert at direct mail. I have done direct mail

before. Not always for myself but in my overall scope of a career have done it. I

know what goes into that. Maybe that might be a good place for people to start so

they don’t feel so overwhelmed. Because there are 12 marketing channels. Do

you have any advice on how to pick the focus for your business?

MS. TRIBBY: Sure.

MS. BONE: And how not to get overwhelmed.

MS. TRIBBY: First, we’ll talk a litt le bit about direct mail. Because the reason that

people who have done direct mail are such great online marketers is because

when you mail to customers, it ’s expensive. It costs you a lot of money. If you

have a list of 100,000 people, and you want to send them your newsletter, it ’s

going to cost you 57 cents. If you want to sell them your product, it ’s going to cost

you 60 cents. Multiply that times your 100,000. That’s why people who have done

direct mail, and these are the people you really need to learn from, are so good

online because they don’t cut corners. They make sure their copy is good. They

make sure they know who their audience is. They make

sure - - that offer. It ’s not somewhere you want to start because it is much more

expensive. Where do you want to start? You want to start with things that are

fast, easy, and cheap. That’s why the Internet is so wonderful. And I call that

kind of starting with your low hanging fruit. That’s why the Internet is so great

because it’s going to virtually cost you nothing to go out there and cast your idea.

Once you’ve done your research it’s not going to cost you anything to start writing

copy. With copy it’s much better to start testing writing copy online than paying 60

cents apiece to talk to 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 people. Do everything online

first and take it into another channel. And add those channels incrementally.

MS. BONE: I was going to ask you if you had $1,000 to spend how would you spend it?

I think you kind of just answered that.

MS. TRIBBY: Right.

MS. BONE: I think you’d be on the Internet.

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MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely. If I had $1,000 to spend I would real ly start with a PPC

campaign. I would spend it on PPC. I would spend it on three great, great books,

and I would spend it on having my copy looked at by an expert copywriter. You’re

not having somebody write your copy. It ’s only going to cost you a couple hundred

bucks for somebody to look at that copy. A lot of expert copywriters won’t even

charge you. Get a book on copywriting and the anatomy because that’s a formula.

Again, it ’s a formula. Get a book on the anatomy of copywriting. Get a book on

lists. Get a book on direct response marketing. Spend your money learning those

things. Then spend your money on PPC campaigns testing your idea. And then

everything else will f low from there.

MS. BONE: Good point. You just mentioned direct response marketing. There’s

another acronym, MCM, that are the two most important acronyms in advertising

today. Can you explain what that is to the listeners in case they’ve never heard

that term before?

MS. TRIBBY: Sure. MCM is multi-channel marketing which just means that you were

talking to your customers in different ways. And the beauty about multi-channel

marketing or talking through different channels is that you’re talking to customers

the way they want to be talked to. In the old days it was all about the advertiser.

Today it’s all about the customer. You’re communicating with them how they like

to be communicated with. And also the other thing about multi-channel marketing

is that you’ve got to be consistent, and you’ve got to be repetitive. And people in

direct response marketing people need to see something three and a half t imes

before they buy it. In the old days you - - sent a direct mail piece three times

before they bought it. Today you might hear an advertisement on the radio. You

might see a TV commercial. Then you might get that same piece online. And

you’ll respond online. But you’ve seen it in all these different channels. So, the

compound effect has made it so much better. Your response rates are so much

better. Because what I said before is there’s three main components. Your list,

your copy, and your offer. You’ve already done the hard work. You’ve already

cracked your message, your copy. You already identified who is your target

audience. You’ve already crafted that offer. So, all you’re doing now is kind of

slicing and dicing. If you have a long email that you’ve sent out, now that email

can go into a PPC campaign. You’re going to pull out your best 140 characters

into a PPC campaign. You’re going to pul l out the best headline for an envelope.

If you’re going to go in the mail for your number ten. You really only do the actual

creative work once. And you just put it into other channels. It ’s a wonderful thing

for people to do. People leave so much money on the table by only marketing

through one channel.

MS. BONE: I mean, you’ve already done the work. Why not slice and dice like you said

and know how to plug it into different areas.

15

MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely. I mean, I’ve done campaigns where we’ve written the copy.

And I’ve used that same copy in an e-mail. I ’ve used the same copy in a direct

mail campaign. And I’ve used the same copy calling people on the phone. I’ve

used all the same benefits.

MS. BONE: Well, it makes sense. And there are so many different approaches that you

can deploy this on.

MS. TRIBBY: You can put out your banner ads. You’ve got the work done. Leverage

the work that you’ve done. It ’s all about the leverage.

MS. BONE: And then in the book you talk about letting your brand develop while you

make money. That’s kind of playing into that, don’t you think?

MS. TRIBBY: And it’s funny because I’m not about branding. That’s not what I’m about.

So many people make the mistake I’m starting a business. Let me get my

business cards done. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Spend all your time and effort writing

that sales letter and bringing in a dollar, right?

MS. BONE: Right.

MS. TRIBBY: Constantly good content going out the door. Your brand develops. You

get known for what you do. That’s how your brand develops. Not by designing a

logo. Your logo is not your brand.

MS. BONE: I hear you. It ’s all about selling and making the cash register ring. I know

I’ve had businesses where I didn’t even consider myself in business until after I

had a contract.

MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely. You don’t have anything until you’ve made that first sale. You

are not in business, as a matter of fact.

MS. BONE: People get caught up in I have to set my office up. I need to get a printer.

16

MS. TRIBBY: Yes.

MS. BONE: They’re just hiding behind busy work. And as all business people know to

be successful, you have to do the important work first.

MS. TRIBBY: That’s - - .

MS. BONE: And getting customers in the door so that you have money to do all the

other stuff.

MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely.

MS. BONE: Just a couple more questions. Telemarketing. Do you have a whole lot of

experience with hir ing people to telemarket for you? What do you think about

that? That is like one area I’ve never really kind of dove into. It ’s just seems like

curiosity to me.

MS. TRIBBY: I have. And telemarketing is a wonderful, wonderful channel. Whether it ’s

inbound or outbound. There’s so many reasons to do telemarketing whether it ’s a

bonding tool. To call somebody up and say, “Thank you for your order.” Or,

“Welcome, welcome to our new club or membership.” It ’s also great for high

priced items. And it’s great for when people have questions. You know, I worked

for PBS very early in my career in New York City. And every year when we did our

huge fund raising campaign I would go out to our vendors, to our telemarketing

centers out in actually Salt Lake City. I ’d fly from New York City out to Salt Lake

and spend two weeks out there with real ly training them on what PDS was about.

What this fundraising campaign meant to the organization. What it meant to public

television. The one thing about telemarketing is is it ’s such an easy thing to

outsource. Right?

MS. BONE: Right.

MS. TRIBBY: You’re starting your business. This is not something you’re going to out

and hire five telemarketers. You don’t if you’re going to have a business. So, it ’s

such an easy thing to outsource, and there’s so many people who do it well.

Again, in the book we really talk about how you outsource this. What your

17

concerns need to be. The questions to ask and how you set up those campaigns.

You’re still in charge, but you’re outsourcing it. And nobody wants to hear your

husband walking in in the middle of the call. Outsource says be professional

about it. At Early to Rise I brought everybody in-house because it was more

effective for me at that point, more cost effective. We knew our products better,

etc., etc., that’s fine. But in the beginning I outsourced telemarketing most of my

career.

MS. BONE: That’s definitely something that I’m going to read more on. Thank you so

much for a part of our call today. You were just such a wealth of information. And

seriously, everybody has to go out and get this book, Changing the Channel, by

MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson because it is just like a litt le marketing

bible for you to follow. And I know I got so much out of reading it. And I refer to it

constantly. But I also want to talk to MaryEllen’s new venture,

workingmomsonly.com. It ’s a site that I think everybody should check out. Do you

want to talk a litt le bit about it, MaryEllen?

MS. TRIBBY: Sure. It ’s called workingmomsonly.com, and it really is for the

empowerment of the working mother so that the working mother can lead a

healthier, a wealthier, more balanced blended lifestyle. So, anyone who fits into

that category or I’m sure most of you at least know people, send them over

because it is probably the best working mom site there is.

MS. BONE: It think this is a good point that you and I are in the same type of field

together, and that we’re working together with our marketing. We are living,

breathing examples of what can happen when motivated, interested, dynamic

people come together to help other people grow. Because both of our business

models are about helping other women grow. I hope that just by listening to the

two of us that everybody has gotten something to take away and realize that the

power is giving to get and that marketing is something that ever single person can

learn about even if it doesn’t come naturally. I know a lot of people don’t really

like to do numbers. And, of course, marketing a lot of it ’s about tracking. But I

think that if you just give it some time and a litt le bit of effort and you see those

numbers going up, all of the sudden you will like tracking the numbers. Right,

MaryEllen?

MS. TRIBBY: Absolutely. The response that you’ve been assuming and beating the

response you’ve been assuming, there’s just not a better feeling.

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MS. BONE: Absolutely. I ’m going to sign off by mentioning your book tit le again,

Changing the Channel, MaryEllen Tribby. I ’m going to let everybody know they

can get my book at joycebonebook.com which is to help entrepreneurial women as

well. And visit our websites at workingmomsonly.com and mill ionairemoms.com.

A thank you all for being a part of our call today, and we wish you the best of luck.

Good-bye.

MS. TRIBBY: Bye-bye.