In this inspiring episode, John Dwyer, Owner of The Institute Of Wow, shares how you can break through revenue plateaus with bold, ‘wow’ marketing experiences that attract leads and drive massive sales growth. If you’re struggling to scale your revenue despite early wins, or if you feel stuck managing every detail of your business, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
- How to think bigger with incentives to break your revenue stall
- What five-step formula attracts leads fast without daily grind
- Why collecting customer data scales sales without extra workload
This episode is ideal for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 3 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz
With over 30 years of experience, John Dwyer helped businesses of all sizes achieve remarkable success by focusing on creating unforgettable “WOW” moments. John is passionate about showing business owners how to cut through the noise with bold, results-driven campaigns that lead to measurable growth. He aims to teach others how to craft marketing that genuinely surprises and delights customers, ensuring long-term profitability and brand loyalty. John offers resources, coaching, and insights at The Institute of WOW to help entrepreneurs differentiate their businesses and create powerful customer experiences that turn heads and drive results.
Want to learn more about John Dwyer's work at The Institute Of Wow? Check out his website at https://theinstituteofwow.com/
To learn more about Scott, visit https://www.scattritzheimer.com.
To get help scaling your own business or nonprofit, visit https://www.scalearchitects.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Take the Founder's Evolution Quiz Today
If you’re a Founder, business owner, or CEO who feels overworked by the business you lead and underwhelmed by the results, you’re doing it wrong. Succeeding as a founder all comes down to doing the right one or two things right now. Take the quiz today at foundersquiz.com, and in just ten questions, you can figure out what stage you are in, so you can focus on what is going to work and say goodbye to everything else.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello, hello and welcome.
Welcome once again to the Start, Scale and Succeed podcast, the only podcast that growswith you through all seven stages of your journey as a founder.
And today's guest is John Dwyer.
He's here with us today to talk about what Seinfeld sales and an avalanche of new leadsall have to do in common for your business.
(00:23):
With over 30 years of experience, JD has helped businesses of all sizes achieve remarkablesuccess by focusing on creating unforgettable wow.
moments.
He's passionate about showing business owners how to cut through the noise with bold,results-driven campaigns that lead to measurable growth.
JD aims to teach others how to craft marketing that genuinely surprises and delights theircustomers, ensuring long-term profitability and brand loyalty.
(00:51):
JD offers resources, coaching, and insights at the Institute of WoW to help entrepreneursdifferentiate their businesses and create powerful customer experiences.
that turn heads and drive results.
He's here with us today.
JD, welcome to the show.
Thanks for calling from the other side, the way other side of not only the pond, but theworld.
Tell us, I wanted to like bury this a little bit.
(01:15):
Well, we just have to start with the big story here, which jumped out as I was researchingfor the episode, what do Seinfeld, how does this happen?
Tell us what happened with Seinfeld and in particular,
What fascinated me about the story in the context of the work that you do was not only theresults, which are remarkable and speak for themselves, but the way that you approached
(01:39):
the process of bringing Seinfeld in, helping your client put together the campaign andultimately making it a success.
So take us from the beginning.
How did that idea hit and walk us through how you brought it to fruition?
Scotty, I'm glad you brought that up.
I thought you'd never get around to bringing up the Seinfeld thing.
It's the number one thing you brought up.
I'm so glad of that.
(02:00):
Yes, I was lucky enough to get Jerry Seinfeld to be the spokesperson for one of my clientsdown under about 10 or 11 years ago.
And I have not let anyone forget that since, okay?
I've milked the absolute crap out of it.
Okay.
And when anybody says to me, look, when are you going to stop pushing that?
said, never.
I mean, you know, if you've got something like that, it's like, yeah, just milk it.
(02:24):
What it was, Scott, is that we're a direct response marketing agency, which is verydifferent from a marketing agency.
Okay, so if you go to a marketing agency, there's a good chance they're going to tell youthat you should get people to fall in love with your brand so that they will taste your
product.
We flip that, we get them to taste your product so they'll fall in love with your brand.
And most of the clients that we have,
(02:47):
cannot afford to sponsor the Olympics or gridiron team, or even put their face on the sideof the bus.
They want results tomorrow from their transport campaign today.
And one such client was the 250th biggest business in Australia, as you can tell from myaccent, I'm down under.
And this particular building society called The Greater, it had a working class audience,that's who they were after.
(03:09):
And they were up against the big four banks in Australia.
In other words, the banks like the Wells Fargo.
And I kept on saying to them, look, you are a challenger brand.
You're not going to beat those guys on interest rates.
So why don't you do things differently?
And as it turned out, we launched a campaign, which was get a home loan and get a freevacation.
And it went nuts.
We basically paid for the vacation by just stopping the honeymoon rate.
(03:31):
And Scott, I'm sure that you guys in America have exactly the same thing.
When the bank gives you a home loan, they normally give you a break for the first 12months.
They call that a honeymoon rate.
And then after they've got you in for 12 months, of course, the interest rate goes back upagain.
And so all I did is I introduced the bank to a travel company I was doing some advertisingfor and it was a wholesale travel company.
They gave them cheap vacations.
(03:52):
And so therefore, instead of giving that honeymoon rate, they came on television and said,get a home loan and get a free vacation.
The thing went nuts, absolute nuts.
And about three or four years into it, we took it to another level because I got Seinfeldto become the spokesperson.
yeah, I mean, really when people say to me, look, why did that happen?
wasn't a fan of Seinfeld.
(04:13):
didn't watch, I mean, I've seen the show, but I didn't watch it religiously like so manyothers.
But our research told us that if we were looking for a cheeky ambassador, then you couldgo no further than someone like Jim Carrey or Jerry Seinfeld.
And I was hoping that the research would probably give me a name of a lesser known star inAustralia, but no, those names popped up.
And so I put it to Jerry's management, a guy called George Shapiro.
(04:36):
And after six months with the backwards and forwards, it wasn't easy.
was harder to get to than the Pope.
But after six months of going backwards and forwards and flying backwards and forwards toYork, we scored it.
so Jerry came on board to be the spokesman for the bank.
And basically he came on television in Australia and said, get a home loan, get a freevacation.
And the results were absolutely crazy.
(04:58):
And I'm an idiot because I was charging a consultancy fee to the bank instead of apercentage of the increase in the home loans.
It's amazing.
There's so much about that story that's a blast.
The commercials are really funny too.
A lot of his best bits are in there.
I nerded out on several of them getting ready for this episode.
But there's a couple of things that stand out to me.
(05:20):
One is just that they were big by some standards, but in the game that they were playing,they were the underdog, right?
And I think that's so important to what you do with folks.
And regardless of how big you are,
or how small you are, should say, there's an advantage that's available to you.
There's a message, there's that wow experience that we're gonna dive into here in amoment.
(05:46):
And one of the ways that you do that could almost get lost in this story, but that homevacations are really, really clever approach.
And I saw that through a lot of your case studies and even website examples.
What is it about these offers or maybe even better yet, how do you construct these offersto really resonate with
the audience that you're trying to reach.
(06:07):
Yeah, Scott, it's called Message to Market Match.
So I'm a baby boomer.
If I was to walk into a menswear shop and buy a sports jacket, something like this, andthey offered me a skateboard as a incentive, then they're idiots.
I'm not going to be on a skateboard.
therefore, however, if they said to me, look, he's a dining voucher.
Yeah, okay, that would suit my profile.
(06:29):
And so it's all about Message to Market Match.
And really having done this for a thousand years, I kicked this business off in the 1800s,then really there are only a number of things that are appealing to both sections and all
ages.
And number one is vacation.
Number two are movie vouchers.
Number three is a dining voucher.
(06:51):
outside, and probably number four would be fuel discounts as in gas discounts at the gasstation.
We've tried everything else.
We've tried microwave ovens, we've tried skateboards and bicycles and all sorts of things.
And by far, absolutely by far, the number one incentive to get people off the fence is avacation.
And the thing is, is that as a result of that being so successful and having Seinfeld,men, you can't keep it a secret.
(07:16):
I was contacted just before COVID by International Travel Company and they've given usaccess to unsold hotel rooms around the world.
So what we do now,
is that that exact promotion that we gave to the Greater Building Society, we now give tobusinesses in America, Australia, Europe, all sorts of places.
And effectively, we give them a voucher for $50.
(07:36):
And they use that voucher.
It's a three to seven night vacation.
Las Vegas, New York, San Diego, Grand Canyon, you name it, all the hotspots, Cancun,Mexico.
Basically, that voucher is worth about $1,000 because it's a three to seven nightvacation.
And they...
they being business owners, give it to people when they buy their product or service.
(07:56):
And that is the Happy Meal toy from heaven.
Wow, wow.
And what also struck me about it was it didn't have to relate directly to whatever theline of work that you do.
I think one, you'll have to correct me on this because I saw a few, but you were givingbeers to someone along the way, if I remember that right.
What was that story?
Yeah, real quick one.
(08:17):
It's a turf farm as in grass.
So they're selling grass, the stuff in the front yard and backyard, not the other type.
And so I visited them.
They'd come to one of my seminars and they said, look, you know, can you visit us?
And as it turned out, they were not far away from where I live on the Gold Coast inAustralia.
So I visited them and he pointed out he had two miles worth of turf grass, okay?
(08:37):
And he said, look, we've got to move it.
But he said, the trouble is, that we charge, let's say $6 per square meter.
He said, the guy down the road drops his price to $5.80 per square meter, then we have todrop to 550 and across the usual race to the bottom.
And I said, okay, well, who are your target audience?
And he said, well, not mum and dads because they would just buy a front yards with thegrass or backyards with the grass.
(08:59):
He said, our target audience are landscapers.
They'll buy two or three homes at a time.
I said, okay, what do you think they like?
Because 99.9 % of them are men.
And he said, I don't know, you tell me you're the marketing guy.
And I said, I reckon they would like prestige beer.
They normally drink a working man's beer, but why don't we give them the prestige beer,which in Australia is called Crown Lager.
It's the beer that you only drink if you're wearing a suit.
(09:21):
And so that's what we did.
We put a campaign out, both e-mail and snail mail, because a lot of these guys are nottech savvy.
And we just said, look for every homes worth of grass that you buy from Outer Farm versussomeone else, we will give you a carton of this prestige beer.
He rings me up six days into the promotion and said, JD, we have a problem.
I said, God, here we go, Houston.
(09:43):
And I said, what's the issue?
And he said, we've got no more grass.
We've run out of two miles worth of grass because of the offer of the free carton of beer.
And I said to him, what?
He said, look, I've got one guy who was the biggest pain in the backside on price.
He'd always ring me and say, look, I can get it down the road cheaper.
He rang me and said, could he get 18 homes worth of grass by Friday?
(10:04):
Sorry, 18 homes worth of grass.
He said, I don't care when the grass gets here.
I need the beer by Friday.
I've got a party.
That's amazing.
So JD, help us kind of bring this back to, to some extent back to Earth for folkslistening.
How can they sit down and start to construct their wow approach to marketing?
(10:29):
Yeah, look, first of all, to recognise direct response is very different from overallmarketing.
Okay, so most of the businesses that we have these days on board are doing south of amillion dollars.
There's a few doing five and 10 million.
I've got one on board doing 23 million, but you the vast majority of, well, 96 % ofbusinesses in America are doing under a million dollars turnover.
(10:51):
And so therefore, they don't have an advertising agency.
They don't have a marketing manager.
running nine to five, in fact, that's silly, probably nine to eight at night, just, youknow, keeping the head above water.
And so therefore what they don't want, what they're not looking for is a brand buildingcampaign.
They just don't have the money to keep that going.
What they want is to be able to advertise on social media today or television or radio,whatever it might be today and get a result tomorrow.
(11:16):
And the best way to do that is to follow the five components of direct response marketing.
And they are number one, highlight the audience's problem.
Number two, aggravate that problem.
Number three, provide the solution, which is not being by my product.
Number four, provide proof, which is normally testimonials.
And then number five is a strong CTA, which is called to action.
(11:37):
if you want to condense that down to two things, it's problem, solution, marketing.
And so if you're a weight loss company, you would identify the problem by saying, look,are you overweight and not feeling good about yourself?
Number two, you'd aggravate it by saying, look, know, someone's just around the corner.
Don't you want to look good in your swimsuit?
Number three, provide the solution, come onto my dietary program and you'll look like MissWorld within a month.
(11:59):
And then number four, normally testimonials, that's proof.
And then number five, of course, you know, come to jennicraig.com or whatever it might be.
So it really is just problem solution marketing that they need to get into their headsbecause you haven't got the budget to put a brand campaign out there.
Yeah, I love that.
And I think the thing that we tend to do is get like one or two of those pieces, but notall of them.
(12:24):
I think we're just running in so many directions.
We're trying so many things.
So what's your take on where we should be doing this?
Should we be doing it everywhere?
Should we be doing it on all channels?
Or is there a right target or a right way to target our activity?
Yeah, I mean, obviously, all of us are looking for as least wastage as possible andZuckerberg moves the goalposts just about every week.
(12:50):
So therefore, you know, it makes it more difficult for, you know, Facebook and Instagramto work as well as it did the week before.
Let me give you what I think is a pretty clever hack that we've come up with and said, ifyou're going to be advertising on Facebook and you know, most small businesses are dabbled
in that.
then rather than just put your product there as a video or an image and then you've gotyour copy on top of it, we've got something that we call the Facebook contest formula.
(13:18):
And how it works is that we suggest to businesses give away your product or service as aprize.
Keep in mind, I've done all the big scratch bingos with Murdoch newspapers around theworld and the monopoly style promotions with McDonald's and the KFCs and 7-Elevens.
And I've done a lot of all that big sweepstakes stuff.
So contest is my middle name.
And what we suggest to people is that, just give away your product or service on Facebook.
(13:42):
And so if you're a lawn mowing company, you give away lawn mowing services.
You know, if you're selling lownsweet, you give away lownsweet.
And what happens is that whoever enters that contest clearly wants your product.
And so they've just glowed in the dark as being a warm prospect, not a prospect, a warmprospect.
And to give you an idea of how that works, we have a dentist practice just last month.
(14:02):
We actually said to him, okay,
why don't you give away the Invisalign braces?
So for kids these days, they don't want the metal in their teeth, they want the invisiblebraces.
And they're worth about four or $5,000, they don't cost him that.
So we ran a contest and said, listen, to parents, if you've got a child with crookedteeth, then you might like to win these invisible braces.
Guess what?
He got just under a, he went for this, he spent $30 a day, that's all it was, $30 a day.
(14:27):
So multiply that by seven in a week and you got just over $200 expenditure.
He got just under 1000 entries into that in a week for less than $210, whatever it was.
He gave one away, but he's got 999 parents who gloated in the dark and said, my child hascrooked teeth.
You don't get a warm elucidate that.
(14:48):
And so, yeah, that's a bit of a hack.
If people want to consider doing that, you don't need my help, you can do it yourself.
Obviously, you know, we do help if people want it, but.
That idea in itself can be a game changer for any business to attract massive leads for alow cost.
That's brilliant.
That's brilliant.
There's some folks who want to know how they can get in touch with you and we'll get therein just a second.
(15:08):
Before we do, I've got one more question for you, JD, and I ask this of all my guests.
What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn't a secret at all?
What's that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Yep, two things.
Biggest secret that most business owners in my experience don't use and that is that theysell on price.
(15:31):
You should never ever sell on price because at the end of the day, the guy down the roadis going to beat you pretty easily if it's just price that you're offering.
You offer someone an incentive and that is buy my product and you get a free vacation.
He can't copy that in a hurry.
He just can't.
Or, you know, buy my product, get movie passes.
The fact of the matter is, the very, you know, when most business owners went touniversity or college, they got taught how to be a good technician, whatever that might
(15:58):
be, whether it's, you know, landscaping or whether it's a doctor or dentist, no one evertaught them how to attract customers.
That's why you'll see a lot of medical centers empty because they're very, very smart IQwise, but no one at the doctors Institute ever taught them how to get customers, you know?
And the other thing that I have to say to you is that if I was talking on stage and I dothat quite often,
(16:18):
just collect data.
There's a company out there called Amazon that proves that that works.
And yet I can tell you, you can go to any restaurant.
I'm only picking this industry as an example, because it's a classic.
You can go to any restaurant in the US tonight and you can spend whatever you like andthey'll let you leave and not know who the hell you are.
It is insane.
And you know, when you say, well they're small, no McDonald's don't collect data.
(16:43):
Yeah, they'll have a QR code or an app sitting on the counter that if you really workhard, might leave your name with someone.
But just the crazy part about it is that businesses do not collect data.
And the restaurant game and the cafe game is the classic of all time.
I was in a restaurant only last night with my wife and the guy made the mistake of askingwhat I do for a living.
(17:05):
And that's just my wife just rolls her eyes and goes, know he's going to tell everyonewhat to do with their business.
And I said that to him, I said, look, we're going to spend $150 here tonight, we're goingto get up and leave and you won't know who we are.
And he went, oh, how stupid am I?
And so he patted me on the back and said, that's a great idea.
Guess what?
Do you think he collected our data before we left?
(17:28):
And by the way, Scott, just to give you how, to demonstrate how powerful that is, we havea restaurant in Melbourne, Australia called the Lobster Cave and it's an upmarket
restaurant that nobody lives.
It's $204 a couple is the average, okay?
So it's a reasonably expensive restaurant.
And a few years ago, we joined my program and I said to him, look, stop the 750,000 you'respending on TV and Facebook and everything else and just give your waitress 50 cents for
(17:53):
every name and contact details that they get.
So when there's four businessmen having lunch or dinner, the waitress walks up and puts alittle bit of paper about the size of an iPhone in front of them.
And it just says, win dinner for 10 of your friends at the end of the month, gives youname and your email and your phone number.
It's the phone number we're after.
And then of an afternoon at three o'clock when he checks his 150 seat restaurant is onlyhalf full, he tells his secretary to send out one of my text messages.
(18:16):
And it would say something like, Chef Pierre would like to invite you and your wife tocome along tonight for a special lobster tail meal for two.
That's $79.
Okay.
Now they're not going to leave listening to you under the bottle of water is 25 bucks inthis place, right?
So I shouldn't say bait and switch, it's a seafood restaurant.
anyway, therefore, so therefore that goes out to only probably 500 people on his list.
(18:39):
And she comes in 10 minutes later to his office and says, we are all booked out within 10minutes.
And that's the power of having someone's phone number that you can text and offer to themevery afternoon and fill your business.
yeah, it's remarkable.
JD, there's some folks, this is exactly what they need.
They've loved the stories, but they want to know how they can put it to use in theirworld.
They wanna know more about the work you do.
(19:01):
Where can they find out?
I look, I'm so rich, have my own private island, Scott, so I don't give out any contactdetails these days.
I wish that was true.
I wish that was true.
Yes, look, none of this info at rubbish just sent me an email, john at the institute ofwow.com.
So my website is the Institute of wow.
(19:22):
That's wo w.com.
But if you wanted to have a chat with me about anything, yeah, john at the Institute ofwow.com.
Fantastic.
Head on over to the Institute of WoW.com as well.
You'll have a great time and you will learn a ton as well.
JD, thanks so much for being on the show today.
It's just a privilege and honor having you here.
I really appreciate it.
(19:42):
And for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean theworld to us.
I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to seeyou next time.
Take care.
Hello, hello and welcome.
Welcome once again to the Start, Scale and Succeed podcast, the only podcast that growswith you through all seven stages of your journey as a founder.
And today's guest is John Dwyer.
He's here with us today to talk about what Seinfeld sales and an avalanche of new leadsall have to do in common for your business.
(00:23):
With over 30 years of experience, JD has helped businesses of all sizes achieve remarkablesuccess by focusing on creating unforgettable wow.
moments.
He's passionate about showing business owners how to cut through the noise with bold,results-driven campaigns that lead to measurable growth.
JD aims to teach others how to craft marketing that genuinely surprises and delights theircustomers, ensuring long-term profitability and brand loyalty.
(00:51):
JD offers resources, coaching, and insights at the Institute of WoW to help entrepreneursdifferentiate their businesses and create powerful customer experiences.
that turn heads and drive results.
He's here with us today.
JD, welcome to the show.
Thanks for calling from the other side, the way other side of not only the pond, but theworld.
Tell us, I wanted to like bury this a little bit.
(01:15):
Well, we just have to start with the big story here, which jumped out as I was researchingfor the episode, what do Seinfeld, how does this happen?
Tell us what happened with Seinfeld and in particular,
What fascinated me about the story in the context of the work that you do was not only theresults, which are remarkable and speak for themselves, but the way that you approached
(01:39):
the process of bringing Seinfeld in, helping your client put together the campaign andultimately making it a success.
So take us from the beginning.
How did that idea hit and walk us through how you brought it to fruition?
Scotty, I'm glad you brought that up.
I thought you'd never get around to bringing up the Seinfeld thing.
It's the number one thing you brought up.
I'm so glad of that.
(02:00):
Yes, I was lucky enough to get Jerry Seinfeld to be the spokesperson for one of my clientsdown under about 10 or 11 years ago.
And I have not let anyone forget that since, okay?
I've milked the absolute crap out of it.
Okay.
And when anybody says to me, look, when are you going to stop pushing that?
said, never.
I mean, you know, if you've got something like that, it's like, yeah, just milk it.
(02:24):
What it was, Scott, is that we're a direct response marketing agency, which is verydifferent from a marketing agency.
Okay, so if you go to a marketing agency, there's a good chance they're going to tell youthat you should get people to fall in love with your brand so that they will taste your
product.
We flip that, we get them to taste your product so they'll fall in love with your brand.
And most of the clients that we have,
(02:47):
cannot afford to sponsor the Olympics or gridiron team, or even put their face on the sideof the bus.
They want results tomorrow from their transport campaign today.
And one such client was the 250th biggest business in Australia, as you can tell from myaccent, I'm down under.
And this particular building society called The Greater, it had a working class audience,that's who they were after.
(03:09):
And they were up against the big four banks in Australia.
In other words, the banks like the Wells Fargo.
And I kept on saying to them, look, you are a challenger brand.
You're not going to beat those guys on interest rates.
So why don't you do things differently?
And as it turned out, we launched a campaign, which was get a home loan and get a freevacation.
And it went nuts.
We basically paid for the vacation by just stopping the honeymoon rate.
(03:31):
And Scott, I'm sure that you guys in America have exactly the same thing.
When the bank gives you a home loan, they normally give you a break for the first 12months.
They call that a honeymoon rate.
And then after they've got you in for 12 months, of course, the interest rate goes back upagain.
And so all I did is I introduced the bank to a travel company I was doing some advertisingfor and it was a wholesale travel company.
They gave them cheap vacations.
(03:52):
And so therefore, instead of giving that honeymoon rate, they came on television and said,get a home loan and get a free vacation.
The thing went nuts, absolute nuts.
And about three or four years into it, we took it to another level because I got Seinfeldto become the spokesperson.
yeah, I mean, really when people say to me, look, why did that happen?
wasn't a fan of Seinfeld.
(04:13):
didn't watch, I mean, I've seen the show, but I didn't watch it religiously like so manyothers.
But our research told us that if we were looking for a cheeky ambassador, then you couldgo no further than someone like Jim Carrey or Jerry Seinfeld.
And I was hoping that the research would probably give me a name of a lesser known star inAustralia, but no, those names popped up.
And so I put it to Jerry's management, a guy called George Shapiro.
(04:36):
And after six months with the backwards and forwards, it wasn't easy.
was harder to get to than the Pope.
But after six months of going backwards and forwards and flying backwards and forwards toYork, we scored it.
so Jerry came on board to be the spokesman for the bank.
And basically he came on television in Australia and said, get a home loan, get a freevacation.
And the results were absolutely crazy.
(04:58):
And I'm an idiot because I was charging a consultancy fee to the bank instead of apercentage of the increase in the home loans.
It's amazing.
There's so much about that story that's a blast.
The commercials are really funny too.
A lot of his best bits are in there.
I nerded out on several of them getting ready for this episode.
But there's a couple of things that stand out to me.
(05:20):
One is just that they were big by some standards, but in the game that they were playing,they were the underdog, right?
And I think that's so important to what you do with folks.
And regardless of how big you are,
or how small you are, should say, there's an advantage that's available to you.
There's a message, there's that wow experience that we're gonna dive into here in amoment.
(05:46):
And one of the ways that you do that could almost get lost in this story, but that homevacations are really, really clever approach.
And I saw that through a lot of your case studies and even website examples.
What is it about these offers or maybe even better yet, how do you construct these offersto really resonate with
the audience that you're trying to reach.
(06:07):
Yeah, Scott, it's called Message to Market Match.
So I'm a baby boomer.
If I was to walk into a menswear shop and buy a sports jacket, something like this, andthey offered me a skateboard as a incentive, then they're idiots.
I'm not going to be on a skateboard.
therefore, however, if they said to me, look, he's a dining voucher.
Yeah, okay, that would suit my profile.
(06:29):
And so it's all about Message to Market Match.
And really having done this for a thousand years, I kicked this business off in the 1800s,then really there are only a number of things that are appealing to both sections and all
ages.
And number one is vacation.
Number two are movie vouchers.
Number three is a dining voucher.
(06:51):
outside, and probably number four would be fuel discounts as in gas discounts at the gasstation.
We've tried everything else.
We've tried microwave ovens, we've tried skateboards and bicycles and all sorts of things.
And by far, absolutely by far, the number one incentive to get people off the fence is avacation.
And the thing is, is that as a result of that being so successful and having Seinfeld,men, you can't keep it a secret.
(07:16):
I was contacted just before COVID by International Travel Company and they've given usaccess to unsold hotel rooms around the world.
So what we do now,
is that that exact promotion that we gave to the Greater Building Society, we now give tobusinesses in America, Australia, Europe, all sorts of places.
And effectively, we give them a voucher for $50.
(07:36):
And they use that voucher.
It's a three to seven night vacation.
Las Vegas, New York, San Diego, Grand Canyon, you name it, all the hotspots, Cancun,Mexico.
Basically, that voucher is worth about $1,000 because it's a three to seven nightvacation.
And they...
they being business owners, give it to people when they buy their product or service.
(07:56):
And that is the Happy Meal toy from heaven.
Wow, wow.
And what also struck me about it was it didn't have to relate directly to whatever theline of work that you do.
I think one, you'll have to correct me on this because I saw a few, but you were givingbeers to someone along the way, if I remember that right.
What was that story?
Yeah, real quick one.
(08:17):
It's a turf farm as in grass.
So they're selling grass, the stuff in the front yard and backyard, not the other type.
And so I visited them.
They'd come to one of my seminars and they said, look, you know, can you visit us?
And as it turned out, they were not far away from where I live on the Gold Coast inAustralia.
So I visited them and he pointed out he had two miles worth of turf grass, okay?
(08:37):
And he said, look, we've got to move it.
But he said, the trouble is, that we charge, let's say $6 per square meter.
He said, the guy down the road drops his price to $5.80 per square meter, then we have todrop to 550 and across the usual race to the bottom.
And I said, okay, well, who are your target audience?
And he said, well, not mum and dads because they would just buy a front yards with thegrass or backyards with the grass.
(08:59):
He said, our target audience are landscapers.
They'll buy two or three homes at a time.
I said, okay, what do you think they like?
Because 99.9 % of them are men.
And he said, I don't know, you tell me you're the marketing guy.
And I said, I reckon they would like prestige beer.
They normally drink a working man's beer, but why don't we give them the prestige beer,which in Australia is called Crown Lager.
It's the beer that you only drink if you're wearing a suit.
(09:21):
And so that's what we did.
We put a campaign out, both e-mail and snail mail, because a lot of these guys are nottech savvy.
And we just said, look for every homes worth of grass that you buy from Outer Farm versussomeone else, we will give you a carton of this prestige beer.
He rings me up six days into the promotion and said, JD, we have a problem.
I said, God, here we go, Houston.
(09:43):
And I said, what's the issue?
And he said, we've got no more grass.
We've run out of two miles worth of grass because of the offer of the free carton of beer.
And I said to him, what?
He said, look, I've got one guy who was the biggest pain in the backside on price.
He'd always ring me and say, look, I can get it down the road cheaper.
He rang me and said, could he get 18 homes worth of grass by Friday?
(10:04):
Sorry, 18 homes worth of grass.
He said, I don't care when the grass gets here.
I need the beer by Friday.
I've got a party.
That's amazing.
So JD, help us kind of bring this back to, to some extent back to Earth for folkslistening.
How can they sit down and start to construct their wow approach to marketing?
(10:29):
Yeah, look, first of all, to recognise direct response is very different from overallmarketing.
Okay, so most of the businesses that we have these days on board are doing south of amillion dollars.
There's a few doing five and 10 million.
I've got one on board doing 23 million, but you the vast majority of, well, 96 % ofbusinesses in America are doing under a million dollars turnover.
(10:51):
And so therefore, they don't have an advertising agency.
They don't have a marketing manager.
running nine to five, in fact, that's silly, probably nine to eight at night, just, youknow, keeping the head above water.
And so therefore what they don't want, what they're not looking for is a brand buildingcampaign.
They just don't have the money to keep that going.
What they want is to be able to advertise on social media today or television or radio,whatever it might be today and get a result tomorrow.
(11:16):
And the best way to do that is to follow the five components of direct response marketing.
And they are number one, highlight the audience's problem.
Number two, aggravate that problem.
Number three, provide the solution, which is not being by my product.
Number four, provide proof, which is normally testimonials.
And then number five is a strong CTA, which is called to action.
(11:37):
if you want to condense that down to two things, it's problem, solution, marketing.
And so if you're a weight loss company, you would identify the problem by saying, look,are you overweight and not feeling good about yourself?
Number two, you'd aggravate it by saying, look, know, someone's just around the corner.
Don't you want to look good in your swimsuit?
Number three, provide the solution, come onto my dietary program and you'll look like MissWorld within a month.
(11:59):
And then number four, normally testimonials, that's proof.
And then number five, of course, you know, come to jennicraig.com or whatever it might be.
So it really is just problem solution marketing that they need to get into their headsbecause you haven't got the budget to put a brand campaign out there.
Yeah, I love that.
And I think the thing that we tend to do is get like one or two of those pieces, but notall of them.
(12:24):
I think we're just running in so many directions.
We're trying so many things.
So what's your take on where we should be doing this?
Should we be doing it everywhere?
Should we be doing it on all channels?
Or is there a right target or a right way to target our activity?
Yeah, I mean, obviously, all of us are looking for as least wastage as possible andZuckerberg moves the goalposts just about every week.
(12:50):
So therefore, you know, it makes it more difficult for, you know, Facebook and Instagramto work as well as it did the week before.
Let me give you what I think is a pretty clever hack that we've come up with and said, ifyou're going to be advertising on Facebook and you know, most small businesses are dabbled
in that.
then rather than just put your product there as a video or an image and then you've gotyour copy on top of it, we've got something that we call the Facebook contest formula.
(13:18):
And how it works is that we suggest to businesses give away your product or service as aprize.
Keep in mind, I've done all the big scratch bingos with Murdoch newspapers around theworld and the monopoly style promotions with McDonald's and the KFCs and 7-Elevens.
And I've done a lot of all that big sweepstakes stuff.
So contest is my middle name.
And what we suggest to people is that, just give away your product or service on Facebook.
(13:42):
And so if you're a lawn mowing company, you give away lawn mowing services.
You know, if you're selling lownsweet, you give away lownsweet.
And what happens is that whoever enters that contest clearly wants your product.
And so they've just glowed in the dark as being a warm prospect, not a prospect, a warmprospect.
And to give you an idea of how that works, we have a dentist practice just last month.
(14:02):
We actually said to him, okay,
why don't you give away the Invisalign braces?
So for kids these days, they don't want the metal in their teeth, they want the invisiblebraces.
And they're worth about four or $5,000, they don't cost him that.
So we ran a contest and said, listen, to parents, if you've got a child with crookedteeth, then you might like to win these invisible braces.
Guess what?
He got just under a, he went for this, he spent $30 a day, that's all it was, $30 a day.
(14:27):
So multiply that by seven in a week and you got just over $200 expenditure.
He got just under 1000 entries into that in a week for less than $210, whatever it was.
He gave one away, but he's got 999 parents who gloated in the dark and said, my child hascrooked teeth.
You don't get a warm elucidate that.
(14:48):
And so, yeah, that's a bit of a hack.
If people want to consider doing that, you don't need my help, you can do it yourself.
Obviously, you know, we do help if people want it, but.
That idea in itself can be a game changer for any business to attract massive leads for alow cost.
That's brilliant.
That's brilliant.
There's some folks who want to know how they can get in touch with you and we'll get therein just a second.
(15:08):
Before we do, I've got one more question for you, JD, and I ask this of all my guests.
What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn't a secret at all?
What's that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Yep, two things.
Biggest secret that most business owners in my experience don't use and that is that theysell on price.
(15:31):
You should never ever sell on price because at the end of the day, the guy down the roadis going to beat you pretty easily if it's just price that you're offering.
You offer someone an incentive and that is buy my product and you get a free vacation.
He can't copy that in a hurry.
He just can't.
Or, you know, buy my product, get movie passes.
The fact of the matter is, the very, you know, when most business owners went touniversity or college, they got taught how to be a good technician, whatever that might
(15:58):
be, whether it's, you know, landscaping or whether it's a doctor or dentist, no one evertaught them how to attract customers.
That's why you'll see a lot of medical centers empty because they're very, very smart IQwise, but no one at the doctors Institute ever taught them how to get customers, you know?
And the other thing that I have to say to you is that if I was talking on stage and I dothat quite often,
(16:18):
just collect data.
There's a company out there called Amazon that proves that that works.
And yet I can tell you, you can go to any restaurant.
I'm only picking this industry as an example, because it's a classic.
You can go to any restaurant in the US tonight and you can spend whatever you like andthey'll let you leave and not know who the hell you are.
It is insane.
And you know, when you say, well they're small, no McDonald's don't collect data.
(16:43):
Yeah, they'll have a QR code or an app sitting on the counter that if you really workhard, might leave your name with someone.
But just the crazy part about it is that businesses do not collect data.
And the restaurant game and the cafe game is the classic of all time.
I was in a restaurant only last night with my wife and the guy made the mistake of askingwhat I do for a living.
(17:05):
And that's just my wife just rolls her eyes and goes, know he's going to tell everyonewhat to do with their business.
And I said that to him, I said, look, we're going to spend $150 here tonight, we're goingto get up and leave and you won't know who we are.
And he went, oh, how stupid am I?
And so he patted me on the back and said, that's a great idea.
Guess what?
Do you think he collected our data before we left?
(17:28):
And by the way, Scott, just to give you how, to demonstrate how powerful that is, we havea restaurant in Melbourne, Australia called the Lobster Cave and it's an upmarket
restaurant that nobody lives.
It's $204 a couple is the average, okay?
So it's a reasonably expensive restaurant.
And a few years ago, we joined my program and I said to him, look, stop the 750,000 you'respending on TV and Facebook and everything else and just give your waitress 50 cents for
(17:53):
every name and contact details that they get.
So when there's four businessmen having lunch or dinner, the waitress walks up and puts alittle bit of paper about the size of an iPhone in front of them.
And it just says, win dinner for 10 of your friends at the end of the month, gives youname and your email and your phone number.
It's the phone number we're after.
And then of an afternoon at three o'clock when he checks his 150 seat restaurant is onlyhalf full, he tells his secretary to send out one of my text messages.
(18:16):
And it would say something like, Chef Pierre would like to invite you and your wife tocome along tonight for a special lobster tail meal for two.
That's $79.
Okay.
Now they're not going to leave listening to you under the bottle of water is 25 bucks inthis place, right?
So I shouldn't say bait and switch, it's a seafood restaurant.
anyway, therefore, so therefore that goes out to only probably 500 people on his list.
(18:39):
And she comes in 10 minutes later to his office and says, we are all booked out within 10minutes.
And that's the power of having someone's phone number that you can text and offer to themevery afternoon and fill your business.
yeah, it's remarkable.
JD, there's some folks, this is exactly what they need.
They've loved the stories, but they want to know how they can put it to use in theirworld.
They wanna know more about the work you do.
(19:01):
Where can they find out?
I look, I'm so rich, have my own private island, Scott, so I don't give out any contactdetails these days.
I wish that was true.
I wish that was true.
Yes, look, none of this info at rubbish just sent me an email, john at the institute ofwow.com.
So my website is the Institute of wow.
(19:22):
That's wo w.com.
But if you wanted to have a chat with me about anything, yeah, john at the Institute ofwow.com.
Fantastic.
Head on over to the Institute of WoW.com as well.
You'll have a great time and you will learn a ton as well.
JD, thanks so much for being on the show today.
It's just a privilege and honor having you here.
I really appreciate it.
(19:42):
And for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean theworld to us.
I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to seeyou next time.
Take care.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.