You are free to use the material from these articles in whole or in part on your web site or eZine (email newsletter) as long as you include the attribution below and also let me know where the article will appear. "This article is by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Robert's web site is a comprehensive resource on marketing for Independent Professionals. For free marketing resources and valuable marketing tools visit http://www.actionplan.com"		The Zeigarnik Effect. The Secret weapon Used By The Best Direct Marketers If you're reading this article, you fall into one of three categories: 1. You own the InfoGuru Marketing Manual and have read and used the principles and strategies contained in it to dramatically improve your marketing effectiveness. You get interest when you speak about your business, you are developing a name for yourself, you get more appointments with qualified prospects and you are obtaining more clients with less effort. Congratulations. You'll find this brief article below of great interest and you'll see how to use the technique it outlines in many marketing situations. 2. You own the InfoGuru Marketing Manual and have read some or all of it but haven't yet applied much of it yet to your marketing. You see the possibilities but haven't seen many results yet. You'll find this information interesting as well. However, if you haven't consistently implemented marketing in your business, you may find it hard to see how to apply this advanced technique. Get more into the Manual and you'll better understand exactly how you can apply it with excellent results. 3. You're a subscriber to More Clients but as of yet don't have the InfoGuru Manual. Perhaps you're a brand new subscriber or maybe you're a long time subscriber. You're looking for solid marketing ideas to help you attract more clients. The technique you'll learn below is a powerful strategy, but good marketing is much more than a strategy, it's a way of thinking. The InfoGuru Marketing Manual goes beyond techniques and strategies and explains the principles and practices that make marketing work. It will give you the foundation to attract all the clients you can handle. You can order it here. Now, the article on the Zeigarnik Effect Experiments done in 1927 by Bluma Zeigarnik showed that we remember interrupted tasks best. The reason for this is that the tension created by unfinished tasks helps us to remember; it is not just the most rewarding experiences that we remember best. I'm not sure who first made the connection between this principle and marketing, but I learned about it in articles by marketing consultants Joe Vitale and Mark Joyner. It's actually something that you're very familiar with but have likely not yet used in your own marketing. It can best be described by the following scenario: You're watching the news and you hear an announcement like the following, "Today, man bites dog. More on that story later but first..." Don't you find yourself glued to the news, waiting to hear about that man biting that dog? And they end up airing that story last. But what it did was keep you you watching the whole newscast. That's an effective use of the Zeigarnik effect. The "interrupted task" is the news item that is incomplete. You can't forget it until the story is complete. And since we hate things to be incomplete, we wait until we get the "rest of the story" (as Paul Harvey says). This technique is also one reason the TV series "24" was such a hit. It left you hanging every week. In marketing and direct mail we can take great advantage of the Zeigarnik Effect. We can leave people hanging, wanting to know more, simply by not telling them everything. If we leave our message incomplete, they are literally compelled to take action to find out more. And your direct mail response can go through the roof. No kidding. I've done it for myself and for my clients. For instance, in your direct mail letter, you can promise a report that... "reveals the single biggest mistake managers make that almost ensures that teams will fail, no matter how many perks you offer." Now don't you have to have that report to find out what that mistake it? Exactly. Or if you're offering a presentation or teleclass you can let your readers know that... "In this presentation we'll make public for the very first time the results of a nationwide survey that shows the one sales technique that the top 1% of real estate agents use but that is virtually ignored by the other 99%." Compelling isn't it? The simple, direct way to use the Zeigarnik effect is to promise to reveal certain information if the reader takes a very specific action. And you need to set it up so that your reader can't lose by checking out this information and will benefit greatly by learning what you have to offer. The Zeigarnik Effect can even be used in headlines that compel a reader to read the information they're pointing to. For instance, in this month's issue of Inc. Magazine, the lead story in a headline on the cover reads: The Heart of a Company How an Ordinary Guy Became an Extraordinary Entrepreneur Pretty good, don't you think? Doesn't it make you want to know more? How DID he become extraordinary (and how can I too)? That's the hidden power of the Zeigarnik Effect. Are you starting to see that you'd be crazy not to find ways to use this technique in as many places as possible? By the way, you can't fool your readers. They may take the bait once but not twice if you don't offer something of real value. I use the Zeigarnik Effect all the time to get my subscribers to read more. And here you are reading and hopefully getting a lot of value. This really does work. If you follow the points I made in this week's issue of More Clients and add the Zeigarnik effect, you can start getting results with your direct mail (and other marketing activities and practices) that will amaze you. But where do you start? Here's how to take the best advantage of the Zeigarnik Effect: Go to the InfoGuru Manual. If you're an owner, just click here and enter your username and password (If you've lost them, just email me) or locate the pdf of the Manual on your computer hard drive, or open up your hard copy. Then go to Chapter 16 on Direct Outreach or Direct Mail (Pg. 193 in the 2nd Edition) and read it over carefully. And also read the sample direct mail letter on page 281 I used with a client who increased his direct mail response from 6 to 175 and successfully launched his business. You can adapt this exact letter to your business without a lot of effort. After reading all of this, then work at incorporating the Zeigarnik Effect in your direct mail for even better results. Who knows, you might find that direct mail becomes one of your most effective marketing tools. Again, if you don't have the InfoGuru Marketing Manual, you can get it by clicking here. All the best, Robert Middleton
Action Plan Marketing 831-338-7790 contact by email