Dan S. Kennedy's Blog, page 27

Want Customers For Life? 3 Things You MUST Do

Fortunately, early on I realized that a business’s most important asset is its customers. When you get them, by God don’t let them slip away.

I also learned early on that you will not keep them for life based on the value of what you are selling. Sure you’ll keep them for maybe a couple of years, but value alone won’t keep them hanging around.

If you look around the room at any one of my events, you’ll find people who have been with me for five, ten, even twenty years or more. GKIC’s own Dave Dee is a perfect example of someone who has been following me for nearly twenty years.

As a result throughout the years, I’ve been fortunate to have had customers spend $100,000 or more with me.

We don’t do it anymore, but there was a time where I had clients’ credit cards on file with permission to swipe their card and automatically send them product whenever I came out with something new.

And I can reliably predict sales when I send an email out that sells something.

You don’t get to this position by blind folly. But having said that, you can get to this position using somewhat less-than-obvious techniques.

Which brings me to series fiction. If you want to build customers for life, series fiction is a good model to study. To demonstrate, here are three things series fiction author Rex Stout did that created a desire for his new books so bad that even in death people didn’t want to let go. These are things which you too should apply to your business to keep people coming back for more…

Make readers eager for the next installment. Author Rex Stout (1886-1975) published Fer-de-Lance in 1934. It was his first book in which his Nero detective character Wolfe appeared.

People loved this character so much they couldn’t wait to get the next book about him. This love for the Nero Wolfe character continued for the rest of Stout’s life. He wrote more than seventy Nero Wolfe books and stories.

The Nero Wolfe character and his adventures was so enduring that Stout’s family found another writer to continue to write the novels after Stout’s death. People continued to love Wolfe so much there was even a TV show created around the Nero Wolfe character and his right-hand man, Archie Goodwin—25 years after Stout died.

Create that same eagerness in your customers—that desire to hear what you are going to do next. Build that excitement and anticipation to open and read whatever you send them. Every time. Week after week. Year after year.

Get “famous” with your target audience. Stout began his writing career in 1910 and didn’t become a full-time writer until seventeen years later. Although he published three novels which received favorable reviews before his first Nero Wolfe book, none of them were best sellers.

It took him 24 years to figure out how to create a character that would get and more importantly—keep—people interested. It was the “keeping them interested” part that ultimately made him famous with his audience.

Look at any of the big celebrities in sports and entertainment and in the information marketing world such as Jimmy Fallon and Frank Kern. They’ve found ways to hold people’s interest which in turn has built their celebrity.

Stout discovered that you have to deliberately and strategically create, develop, and use personality to build your celebrity—and your following.

Keep your customers involved, active, and responsive. Next week in New York City, the 37th annual Black Orchid Banquet will be held. The event includes speakers discussing Nero Wolfe and Rex Stout topics, song parodies, toasts, themed quizzes, etc. to celebrate Rex Stout’s legacy.

This is just one of many offerings that keep Wolfe fans engaged. For instance, for a fee—you can also subscribe to a Newsletter that explores Wolfe’s life and/or become a Wolfe Pack Member.

Keeping a relationship going like this is not a common thing. How long do your customers stick around? One year? Two years? Five years? Twenty?

This does not happen by accident. And in the business world you’ll find very few people that have customers who stay with them for life. You have to think about how you keep people interested enough to stay for life (and beyond even.)

If you’d like to know about the principles I use that has allowed me to keep customers for decades while boosting lifetime customer value, customer retention, and overall profits…and how you can too, then click here now.

Also, now through Monday, December 1, 2014 as a one-time only deal, GKIC has a limited time offer that includes receiving the MP3 download of a closed-door 2-day seminar I held called “Copywriting Seminar In-A-Box”. The course reveals all of my most prized, most powerful, and most profitable copywriting techniques. I took this course off the market years ago, but I am bringing it back for just one time when you take action right now.

Six Reasons I’m Thankful For You

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” –Willie Nelson

Today in the U.S. we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day. A national holiday, it is a day that is traditionally dedicated to serving turkey, eating too much, football, and family moments.

It is also a day for giving thanks.

While everyone at GKIC is enjoying the day with their families and friends, we did want to drop a quick email to let you know how fortunate we feel to have you as a member of our GKIC community.

In fact, we wanted to take time to let you know how truly thankful we are for YOU.

Which is why today’s email is dedicated to six reasons we are grateful to have you as one of our GKIC faithful.

We are thankful for you because you…

Are a remarkable person.The caliber of our GKIC members is spectacular. Smart, funny, deep-thinking, creative, thought-leaders are just a few of the words that come to mind when I think of the people we meet day in, day out when speaking with GKIC members. 




Encourage us to be our best. Because you demand and expect the best of us (as you should,) this helps push us to be better. To always strive to improve. To deliver better content, better programs, and better results.




“Get it.” Let’s face it. As a business owner, not everyone in your life gets what you do or why you push so hard. It’s great to be around people who get it. So thanks for striving to be your best and understanding why we at GKIC do the same.  




Said “yes.” We know it takes a lot these days to put your trust in a business. Especially because there is so much misinformation about what really works. We appreciate that you continue to put your trust in us…  




Stick around. We’ve had a lot of members who have been with us for years. And others who, while they haven’t been members as long, have stuck around beyond their first online event, live event, or purchase. That means a lot to us. Without you, we would never be able to continue doing what we do.  




Share your great ideas and successes with us and other GKIC members. Every day we receive emails, letters, and packages sharing results you received from a campaign. Or ideas about how you adapted a strategy you read in one of our newsletters, and so on. This coming together to share ideas –of what is working—and what isn’t working—is what helps make ALL of us more successful.

Three Tools I Use To Protect The Only Asset That Can’t Ever Be Replaced

Customers: replaceable. Money: replaceable. The ONLY thing you can’t replace is the minute you just used.

It’s gone. Gone forever. You cannot ever get it back. It can’t be replenished or replaced.

Time should be a top priority. How are you spending yours? Are you spending it the way you want? Are you getting everything done and able to enjoy doing the things you love to do?

It is not uncommon for a client or GKIC member to express awe at all that I get done in a day. They envy that I can finish so much work and still be at the racetrack by four in the afternoon. They marvel that I am not interrupted during the day. Not even once.

They often say things such as, “I wish I could do that.”

The truth is they can and you can too. You can extinguish interruptions and have absolute control over your time so you can accomplish and do everything you want.

I don’t mess around when it comes to time. And my practices have helped me and my clients how to get a lot more done in a lot less time. Which has meant making more money in less time and, most importantly, having more time to enjoy it.

You need good tools to be productive and spend your time wisely. While this isn’t my entire list, here are a few productivity tips and tools I find useful:

Time Saving Tools: Some people think I’m anti-technology, a Luddite. Actually I’m not. But I’m only interested in tools and technology that genuinely save time with nominal side effects.

For example, the PC qualifies, but each application and use of it has to be judged separately.

The FAX qualifies. It’s my preferred form of communication because while it’s fast, it’s not so easy and instant that it encourages thoughtless communication.

In comparison, the side effects of unrestricted access through cell phones and email creates a lot of pressure and expectation for an instant response. You may be reached at inappropriate times and/or places with no advance notice. This means no time to think which causes hurried responses. It can cause you to agree to things you shouldn’t and wouldn’t if you gave the matter appropriate thought.

Instant, anytime access is not the same as productive and is certainly not the most effective.

The biggest “fly in the ointment” of all the communications technology is the terrible levels of stress it has caused by dramatically accelerating the speed at which everybody can make demands and expect responses from everybody else. When considering time-saving technology, it’s very important to refuse to be stampeded or pressured by this.

Psychological Triggers. Mindset, behaviors, and attitudes are critical when it comes to time management and goals.

You need visual and environmental devices to remind your subconscious of what it’s supposed to be doing to motivate and keep it interested and engaged. Or it can easily be distracted away from what you are supposed to be doing.

For instance, the subconscious mind works in pictures, so if you can create your target in visual terms, you get much better, faster results.

A plan. The orderly organization of work conserves both mental and physical energy, so “working a plan” is important.

I notice that many people in corporate environments go into their offices every day and “react” to each person and thing brought to them—this is no way to be productive.

There’s an old rule: a minute of planning is worth an hour of work. That has validity. On the other hand, planning can be carried too far; excess planning is paralyzing. I tend to plan my day the evening before.

For long range planning, at the risk of stating the obvious, I believe it’s smart to have a truthful and accurate view. I develop a complete list of known and potential obstacles between day one and the goal achievement and then develop strategies to counter them. Always plan for the best, but think through and try to safeguard against the worst so you don’t end up in a mess, stalled because you didn’t plan for it.

You must be diligent about your time. Over the past 40 years in business, I’ve created my own system for getting things done. Things that work in the entrepreneurial world. If you’d like to discover more about how I get more done in an hour than most people get done in a day…and how you can too, then click here now for a more detailed explanation.

And if you’d like to know about the mindset, behaviors, and attitudes I deem important to time management and life in general, then click here.

Now through Monday, November 24, 2014, GKIC is making available a confidential audio of Dave Dee interviewing me on these exact mindset and goal-setting secrets. Get more information on how you can get this free now.