2009 March

“Mr Martins Gets His Revenge” – The April Fools’ Joke Is On Me”

March 31, 2009 By Kurt Leave a Comment

Hi Everyone

Tomorrow is April 1st and traditionally it’s time to play
a joke on someone.

In my day, many, many moons ago, you could only do this
until midday. Don’t ask me why, you just could.

I grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney and I would
come up with some of the funniest (to me at least) jokes I
could play on my teachers.

I remember Mr Martins my science teacher.

Mr Martins had great plea-sure in introducing the class
to the fine art of dissecting rats.

This skill could be learnt in a one 40 minute period

but – NO…

Mr Martins thought the fine art of rat dissecting should be
learnt over many lessons and many alc*ohol-drenched
preserved rats.

To a class of 14 year old boys, once you have seen one
dead rat you have seen them all.

So, naturally I got bored pretty quickly and I came up with various new methods to, well, let’s say, ‘explore’ them.

Now to this day, I do not remember what the purpose of
rat dissecting is, but I do remember vividly how brightly and
explosively they flare up when the alcohol soaked rat meets the
science classroom bunson-burner.

I also discovered that if you light a strip of magnesium metal
and place it inside the soaked rat with a few selected
chemicals the magnesium continues to burn from the inside
out and eventually ‘poof’ – the rat explodes leaving a frightful
hideous concoction of mattered mess. (this is in the category
of “KIDS, I AM A PROFESSIONAL -
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME”).

So, now it’s time for me to introduce Mr Martins to my new
experiment.

I grabbed his attention when I explained to him my rat was
obviously rotten as when I put my scalpel to it I could not
penetrate the outer fur and skin.

Unbeknown to Mr Martins at the time, the magnesium strip,
fuelled by the chemicals dropped down the rat’s
gullet, was burning brightly inside the poor dead rodent.

and…

as he was prodding, touching and ready to show this
obviously inept 14 year old how to meticulously
dissect a long-tailed-sewer dweller using the hands
of a science teacher-surgeon

the rat …well…um…

yep,

you’ve got it…

all over over him and his well groomed, 15 times an hour,
hand-combed beard.

He looked at me with rodent fragments dripping from his brow.

I looked at him clean and stoic from a position three steps back
(you don’t think I was going to be alongside him do you?)

and I did…

what any honourable 14 year old boy would do in the circumstance,

I said,

“Mr Martins, what have you done to my rat ?!”

“I thought you knew what you were doing ?!”

To this day, “God rest his soul”, Mr Martins was not made aware of
the untimely April’s Fools’ Joke I had orchestrated.

Actually it wasn’t untimely.

It was only the second period and a clear
two hours within the midday cut-off for April Fools’ jokes to occur.

but…

I AM REPENTING.

Tomorrow, I am going to send out an email which
will make me a fool and you a winner…

because…

it’s time for me to take the punishment for playing
that April’s fool joke on Mr Martins many, many years ago.

So come back to this page tomorrow – there will be a special
Aprils Fools’ Day Offer.

It’s Mr Martins’ time to get his revenge.

Cheers and Great Selling

Kurt
Kurt Johansen
“Australia’s Email Marketing Guru”
kurt@johanseninternational.com.au
Direct: 0412 94 77 33
Grab my book “7 Killer Tips To Get Your Emails Read” over
to the right.

PS: The offer will be available ONLY on April’s Fool Day

PPS: Because that’s the rules of Aprils Fools’ Day.

PPPS: And to think I have been carrying this secret with me
for all these years. Good on ya Mr Martins, you deserve your revenge.

New Photo Signature For Outlook Express

March 27, 2009 By Kurt Leave a Comment

Kurt

Kurt Johansen
Australia’s Email Marketing Guru
Grab my free book:
“7 Killer Tips To Get Your Emails Read”
at www.kurtjohansen.com

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas

“Will Social Media Kill The Email Star?”

March 26, 2009 By Kurt Leave a Comment

Loren McDonald asks the question in her post, “Will Social Media Kill The Email Star?” at Media Post Publications.

It is an interesting question because Social Media has become so prominent.

There will always be room for email marketing if you do it right:
Grab my book over to the right to discover how to email market correctly.

Meanwhile, here is the opening paragraph of Loren’s article.

You can read the rest of the email marketing article here .

“Despite the recent Nielsen Online study that claims social networking and blogs are more popular than email, I believe email will survive, especially for commercial and transactional messages.

Social media is having an effect on email, however.

It’s changing our own expectations of email and how we use it to communicate.

This is the issue many marketers are failing to address.
The growth and adoption of social media doesn’t mean email is dead, or that marketers have to abandon everything they’ve done to build a successful program and then start over.

However, companies that don’t understand or respond to this rapid and radical change in expectations will likely see their email programs decline in performance and engagement.
In short, email needs to become even more “social” in its tone, personality, conversational style and relevance.”

Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
kurt@johanseninternational.com.au
Direct: 0412 94 77 33
Grab my book â€œ7 Killer Tips To Get Your Emails Readâ€ over to the right.

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas

“Email Marketing Response Rates For…”

March 17, 2009 By Kurt Leave a Comment

Hi Everyone

“Email Marketing Response Rates For…”

Many people couldn’t resist the temptation.

The curiosity just got to them.

Were they reliving their childhood or was there another compelling
reason to discover which cartoon was voted the
best of all times?

46.27% of people who read my email:
“This cartoon was voted the best of all times…”
clicked on the link to find out what it was.

How do these statistics stack up.

Well…

a 1% -2% click through rate is Ok.

3%- 5% you should be very happy.

6% – 10% you are getting good at this game.

10% – 20% give yourself a great pat on the back and ‘high-fives’, whoooo.

20% – 30% you ARE a master marketer.

But…

46.27% – boy oh boy.

Doesn’t really matter why they did click through though -

* curiosity;
* intrigue;
* a cartoon fan

The fact is they did.

and what this means is…

if you can create enough intrigue and curiosity in your marketing
campaigns to get a 46.27% click through rate -you will be
extremely happy – Like I am.

Email Marketing WORKS and MAKES sense.

Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
kurt@johanseninternational.com.au
Direct: 0412 94 77 33
Grab my book “7 Killer Tips To Get Your Emails Read” over to the right.

PS: If you would like to know more about exploring email marketing
or indeed video marketing – contact me. I can help.

PPS: If you missed out finding out what the cartoon was you can – look below this post and click on the screen

Filed Under: Email Marketing Tagged With: business, Click-through rate, E-mail marketing, email, Internet marketing, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Marketing Services

“This cartoon was voted the best of all times”

March 15, 2009 By Kurt Leave a Comment

Hi Everyone

“This cartoon was voted the best of all times”

“Yes, uno one-o - the best of the best.”

You just have to watch it, “Wu Wascally Wabbit Wu”

and…

well….

make sure you watch it first.

ARE YOU USING VIDEO TO ATTRACT YOUR CUSTOMERS ATTENTION ???

If you aren’t then….

Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
Kurt Johansen

kurt@johanseninternational.com.au
Direct: 0412 94 77 33
Grab my book “7 Killer Tips To Get Your Emails Read” at

PS: If you would like to know more about exploring email marketing
or indeed video marketing - contact me.Â I can help.

PPS: Let me know if you watched the full 6 mins 53 secs.Â Video – Compelling isn’t it?

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Marketing Ideas Tagged With: Animation, Bugs Bunny, Cartoon, Elmer Fudd, Email Marketing, Kurt, Kurt Johansen, What's Opera Doc

“Using Video In Your Email Marketing Campaigns”

March 12, 2009 By Kurt 1 Comment

Hi Everyone

“Do You Use Video In Your Email Marketing ?”

It is an area of marketing which is uncommon but oh
so powerful.

To show your customers exactly what they can obtain from you
in a visual format is just so compelling.

Should you do it or not?

The simple answer is YES.

What I mean if you wish to provide clients with something
extra that your competitors are not doing then you must.

I received many emails back from this post asking, “Kurt -
great idea – but I do not know how to do it.”

And that’s Ok, it’s not their fault. They haven’t been taught.

The simplistic way is to get yourself a digital camera.

Most people have one these days.

You will need one which has the ability to take video. You could
use your phone even, depending on what type you have.

Once you have taken the video you then upload it to your computer.

Get to this stage and let me know. I’ll then help you do something very
special with this video.

Take a look at this video. It’s my good friend Sam Raslan of
Caffe Buorgiorno saying something nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAboc7zcAAY

This took me around 15 minutes to film, upload, edit, place graphics
and publish.

You can get to this stage to after training or get me to do it for you.

Imagine:

If you owned a caryard – how powerful would it be to send
out a marketing email which contains a 2 minute video on:

a recent addition to your stock;
a car just being traded in before it is detailed
(“get this one before the public sees it”);
weekly spec*ials; or
a satisfied customer testimonial.

If you owned any business, how could you use the video
marketing concept?

A restaurant could video their latest meals, monthly spec*ials.

or…

how about capturing on camera when new stock arrives
and send it out to your clients with a message which says,

“The delivery of the new work boots has just arrived.
Order your pair NOW before we put them on shelf and receive a 20% reduction.
Tomorrow the price goes up because we to pay for the storeman’s labour.
ORDER NOW by phoning ………..”

Email marketing, with video, is YOUR message to market
with moving pictures and sound – QUICKLY.

and guess what…?

Your competitors are not doing it !

Bottom line, if you are not using email marketing with video in your
email marketing campaigns you are leaving money on the table.

Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
kurt@johanseninternational.com.au

PS: If you would like to know more about exploring email marketing
or indeed video marketing - contact me. I can help.

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Email Marketing, Marketing Ideas Tagged With: Digital camera, email marekting, Internet marketing, Kurt Johansen, Video

Email Marketing Was Her Key

March 10, 2009 By Kurt Leave a Comment

Janine Allis’s success was aided by Email Marketing.

In my last post I revealed the lady behind Boost Juice and her phenomenal success.

Janine Allis had a background in advertising and marketing as did her husband.

With all this knowledge they used Email Marketing as their prime source of getting their message to their clients.

Janine collected email addresses and constantly informed her target audience of their expanded product range.

Janine also had a passion and a determination to succeed.Â This is crucial in any business venture.

If you have a passion and determination to succeed it is a start.

You also need to have a plan and marketing mechanism to succeed.

Janine Allis used email marketing – it is a key to her success.

For your passion to succeed consider email marketing it is the tool you cannot do without.

Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt

Australiaâ€™s Email Marketing Guru
kurt@johanseninternational.com.au
Direct: 0412 94 77 33

PS: If you wish help with your email marketing, contact me – I would be only too happy to help.

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Email Marketing, Marketing Ideas Tagged With: Advertising, Boost Juice, business, E-mail marketing, Internet marketing, Kurt Johansen, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Target audience

Do You Know Who Janine Allis Is?

March 9, 2009 By Kurt Leave a Comment

Do You Know Who Janine Allis Is?

In Leiza Clarkâ€™s â€œFemale Entrepreneursâ€ – Leading Australian Businesswomen - she interviewedÂ Janine Allis creator of Boost Juice Bars which revealed an interesting insight.

Janine Allis built her business from scratch.

Having a passion, determination and personal attitude towards healthy living she developed the grab-and-go Boost Juice concept after seeing a similar venture in the States when accompanying her husband on a trip.

Janine built a business plan, pitched her ideas to investors and the rest is history. There are over 150 Boost Juice franchises turning over more than 100 million dollars per annum in around 13 countries with a new store opening most days.

You can grab Leiza Clarksâ€™ book from all good bookstores.

In the meantime here is a question on marketing asked to Janine and her answer:

“QUOTE”:

Question:
Did you have a target market?

Answer:
Yes- The target market was females aged 18-35, so we focused on that market.

We did email marketing from the word go.

We opened the door and started sending emails straight away and doing monthly newsletters.

I personally inputted the first 6000 emails â€“ I did everything.

I was running the stores, doing the accounts and marketing and obviously loved every single bit of it.

That puts me in good stead now, because thereâ€™s not one part of this business that I donâ€™t understand.

It hasnâ€™t really changed, only got bigger, but Iâ€™ve had to change in the sense that I canâ€™t be involved in everything all the time.

“UNQUOTE”

In my next post I am going to decipher this paragraph even more, but is interesting because a major success of Janine Allis’s marketing was email marketing.

Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt

Australiaâ€™s Email Marketing Guru
kurt@johanseninternational.com.au
Direct: 0412 94 77 33

PS: If you wish help with your email marketing, contact me – I would be only too happy to help.