September 25th, 2008 · No Comments
One eternal question in business is, “How can I make more sales with less outlay?” It is only natural to have this desire. Who wouldn’t want to invest less money to have greater sales?
One of the best ways is to sell more to your existing customers.
It takes five to six times more money, time, and effort to sell a given amount of goods or services to a new customer than to a customer you already have.
I know that may sound like a large ratio, an excessive amount, but I assure you it isn’t. Once a person has already “met” you, so to speak, he or she has allowed you to begin the relationship building process, the process of getting to know, like, and trust you. This is the sequence of a successful relationship building effort.
First your customers have to get to know you. Then, they learn to like you. Finally, they develop a trust in you and your advice, products, services, etc. They come to accept whatever you have to say or the products you recommend.
It is VERY important that you NEVER violate this trust! To do so means that it will take up to 10 times the time, energy, effort, and money to recover . . . if in fact, it is ever recoverable.
Remember that the relationship building process is what you are truly in the business of doing regardless of how much we may believe we are in a other businesses.
No matter what you have to offer, first, offer it to your existing customers. Since they have already contacted you or purchased from you, they are somewhere on your “know-like-trust line.” Therefore, they are much more likely to purchase from you.
Imagine the other situation–selling that same amount of goods or services to someone whom you’ve never met.
Let’s simplify the process. You have to reach the potential customer; you must make a sales presentation of some sort, whether in person, by phone, by mail, or via the Internet. That presentation must effectively solve the customer’s problem, and he or she must quickly develop enough trust in you to risk time and money on you and your presentation.
That process takes time, energy, effort, AND money–5 times more of each.
I recommend you begin any marketing effort by presenting it first to your established list, whether they be customers who have previously purchased from you or simply visited your place of business or website, before presenting it to people who don’t yet know of you or your business. It simply makes sense, doesn’t it?
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Copywriting · Internet · Marketing · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online · sales
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September 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Your customers!
Follow the advice of your customers? Yes, your customers!
Let me explain.
If you have done your marketing analysis properly in the beginning . . . or even if you haven’t, you need to keep learning what your customers want from you.
That large group of people know exactly what you should do in and for your business. BUT you must ask them. Yes, you must ask them and do so frequently.
For example, before you add a new line to your offerings, do a survey of your customers, particularly those who have recently purchased similar items, to see whether they would find items in your new line useful and whether they would purchase them if you were to stock them.
Remember, you are in the relationship building business. Part of developing a true and valuable relationship with your customers is to understand and solve their problems.
Another way to get this and other very valuable information is to survey all your customers asking what their biggest problems or questions are relative to your business. In other words, what are the problems they need to solve.
You can organize a preview showing of a product or line. Send out a special announcement via mail, email, printed ads, radio, etc., that you will have limited number of items at your cost or below. In return you will ask every customer to fill out a survey on the product or give a testimonial with permission to use it in your marketing of the product. Explain to them that this is to help you determine if this is a product you should carry–the “reason why” marketing.
Put distinct limits on the preview. Announce that it will last until all the preview products are sold out or until a certain date is reached, whichever occurs first. Always hold to that promise of limits. I say this to deliver the message that you MUST be a person of your word. This is part of your personal and company ethic. Failing to keep your promises damages your brand.
This is a great way to prime your business in difficult economic times.
Frequently ask your customers what they want. They will tell you, and they will love it. If business is slow, stimulate it with a program to involve your customers in the development of your business. The more they contribute to your business, the more allied, involved, and committed to you and your business they will become. How good is that?
By all means follow their advice!
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Business Coaching · Copywriting · Internet · Marketing · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online
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September 10th, 2008 · No Comments
As I have mentioned before, there are occasionally articles and businesses I follow and recommend. Dr. Mani is one of those. Here is an excellent article on email strategies, but it is also a lesson on the importance of developing relationships and follow-up regardless of your type of business. The principles are also applicable to offline businesses with a direct mail program.
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How To Get FIVE Times More Profit From The SAME List of Prospects
By: Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian
It looks impossible - but is really quite simple. You just have to keep following up!
It’s hard to believe this minor twist in your marketing can multiply profits - but it does. I’ve got the numbers to prove it. From one campaign that netted $2,521 in profit, there were 4 emails sent to the same opt-in list of 6,188 subscribers.
Email #1 brought in 43.2% of all orders… but email #2 got 26.7% of them, email #3, 18.1% and email #4 another 11.9%. Almost 60% of orders came from the follow up emails!
How many thousand dollars are YOU leaving on the table?
There’s a major difference between new home based business owners and experienced, more successful one. While beginners try to sell new visitors on their online storefront right away, veterans get them on a mailing list first.
Why? So that they can follow up. Educate visitors about a problem. Show them there’s a solution. Convince them that it’s their product or service. Get them to come back and buy from them - and keep coming back for more.
There’s a reason this approach works a lot better than a quick, one-shot sales pitch. In the moving parade of life, people are not always in the best frame of mind to buy what you offer right away - even if they need it.
They may not have the money ready. Or other priorities may be higher. Or they aren’t able to make a decision instantly. However, the fact remains that they are interested in what you have. They are potential buyers. They can be convinced to buy.
All you need to do is keep trying. Following up. Reminding your prospects about you, your business and your product or service.
To do this, you need to find a way to stay in touch - and then use it. There are some serious benefits of a follow up series of marketing messages.
1. You can tailor your pitch to prospect’s needs. People respond in different ways. The same people who ignored a marketing message presented one way would grab at it when you change its focus.
2. You can ensure your message catches different prospects at their ‘best time’ to buy.
3. You can establish trust and brand yourself as an expert, by giving information that positions you as a specialist in your field.
4. You can harness the powerful force of ‘reciprocity’ - shower your prospects with so much value they feel obligated to do something for you in return.
5. You can build up the value of what you are giving them, allowing it to gently seep into their awareness, growing in intensity and ultimately forcing a sale.
How to follow up with prospects?
There are many ways to stay in touch with your clients and prospects:
* Email auto-responders - set-and-forget email tools to pre-load a series of sales and information messages and deliver them on schedule
* Direct mail - an equally (or more) effective way to deliver your follow-up messages
* Tele-marketing calls - a conversation can make the difference between a buyer and a lost sale.
* Post cards - a powerful, inexpensive system to deliver your messages
* Webinars - Web based seminars are a cool new way to educate and persuade your prospects that your product or service is worth a try
* Live seminars and conferences - Useful for high-ticket items or complex products and services
And remember you can either automate or outsource most of this work - and still have your business enjoy the benefits of staying in touch with customers and following up.
There are other critical elements to the process, such as what you say when you follow up, how often (and for how long) to follow up and how to measure and track effectiveness of your sequential marketing - and improve it.
But at the very least if this article has helped you implement a sequence of follow up messages in your marketing, you will experience wonderful results - and make us both happy!
= = =
About the Author:
Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian runs the “OPTI-BIZ: How To Optimize Your Home Business” website and offers 10 more short free special reports about boosting your home based business profit. Read them at http://www.Opti-Biz.com or get them by email - write to: opti-biz@aweber.com
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To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Conference · Internet · Marketing · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online
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Whether you have a mainly offline (bricks and mortar) business or an online business, the social media are some of the latest and best sources of income. Think of them as another profit center, another way for your business to expand.
Twitter is one of the most important of the social media in the Web 2.0 sphere. It is a microblogging platform designed for networking with other people around the world. The really good news is that you can do it for profit!
Of course, like anything worth having, it requires dedication and diligent work. The business person must be prepared to do it and keep on doing it to ensure the payoff. These media should not be considered get-rich-quick schemes or pushbutton profits. They are very effective, if you are willing to go about the process seriously.
If you are interested to know more about it and how it can be turned into another business or profit center for your current business, go take a look at this.
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Copywriting · Internet · Marketing · Microblogging · Psychology · guerrilla · online
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August 11th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Whether or not you have a web-based business you should know about the value of the "social media" including blogging. In my opinion, you should learn about it and how to use it. It will help any business whether offline or online based.
Here is some of the best information on the subjects, and it’s all free!
Chris Brogan has done an excellent job of giving us all the basics and much more at http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-best-advice-about-blogging/.
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Copywriting · Internet · Marketing · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online
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Actually, a good headline is worth a thousand words–maybe more.
Your headline is the most important element of nearly any piece of marketing writing. This applies to printed material, such as a direct mail piece, an email, or a web page. You should spend at least as much time crafting your headlines as the other portions of your marketing writing.
I have seen the change of a single word in a headline produce ten times more response than the one in the original piece of direct mail. It is easy and quick to see the changes in the headline of a web page by using an A/B split test.
The purpose of a headline is to get the reader’s attention. It is to provoke the reader to read the remainder of the material. A headline should stop the reader’s thought processes and direct them in such a manner that he or she wants to read further in the material you have provided. Good headline technique provokes curiosity, stimulates interest, or challenges the reader to look further.
A headline may be a simple thought-provoking statement; it may be a question; it may be a challenge; or it may be an outlandish statement. It may raise concern, promise youth, weight loss, beauty, attractiveness, wealth, or promise a solution to a vexing problem. Whatever the design, each word in the headline should contribute to the designed process and carry its own weight. In other words, a headline should have a minimum of very well-chosen words.
So, how do you go about writing a killer headline? You MUST do your homework! The better you are at doing the background homework, the better you can easily write compelling headlines. I say "headlines" because you will likely want at least two to use in your A/B split testing.
You must know the product or service you will be presenting very well. Learn all you can about it–every feature, every benefit, every strength, every weakness–and know everything you can learn about the competitive products or services in your market. The more you know about your product and that of your competition, the more precise and compelling your headlines will be.
Next take out your yellow pad and begin writing words and phrases that describe the benefits your product will provide your purchaser. It doesn’t matter if many of your thoughts seem rather simple or silly. You will be the only one reading them.
When you have at least 75–preferably more than 100–you can begin mixing and matching them until your headline begins to take shape. The purpose of this process is to help you distill your words into the most compelling two or three headlines appealing to your readers’ most compelling needs and desires solving their most salient problems.
Why two or three headlines?
You want to have several to test to see which one produces the best result. While formulas are important starting points, no formula will give you real marketplace results like testing will. Always prepare your material so the testing will be easily done. Otherwise you will be tempted to gloss over it.
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Copywriting · Internet · Marketing · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online
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August 3rd, 2008 · 1 Comment
Mr. Jim Rohn is a man with broad ranging experience in business success instruction and motivation. He is described as America’s Foremost Business Philosopher, but he is actually much more.
I have followed his work since I first heard him speak about 30 years ago and have profited greatly from his advice.
Here are some of Jim’s tips.
NINE THINGS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CAPITAL by Jim Rohn
When starting any enterprise or business, whether it is full-time or part-time, we all know the value of having plenty of capital (money). But I bet we both know or at least have heard of people who started with no capital who went on to make fortunes. How?, you may ask.
Well, I believe there are actually some things that are more valuable than capital that can lead to your entrepreneurial success. Let me give you the list.
1. Time.
Time is more valuable than capital. The time you set aside not to be wasted, not to be given away. Time you set aside to be invested in an enterprise that brings value to the marketplace with the hope of making a profit. Now we have capital time.
How valuable is time? Time properly invested is worth a fortune. Time wasted can be devastation. Time invested can perform miracles, so you invest your time.
2. Desperation.
I have a friend Lydia, whose first major investment in her new enterprise was desperation. She said, “My kids are hungry, I gotta make this work. If this doesn’t work, what will I do?” So she invested $1 in her enterprise selling a product she believed in. The $1 was to buy a few fliers so she could make a sale at retail, collect the money and then buy the product wholesale to deliver back to the customer.
My friend Bill Bailey went to Chicago as a teenager after he got out of high school. And the first job he got was as a night janitor. Someone said, “Bill, why would you settle for night janitor?” He said, “Malnutrition.” You work at whatever you can possibly get when you get hungry. You go to work somewhere — night janitor, it doesn’t matter where it is. Years later, now Bill is a recipient of the Horatio Alger award, rich and powerful and one of the great examples of lifestyle that I know. But, his first job – night janitor. Desperation can be a powerful incentive. When you say - I must.
3. Determination.
Determination says I will. First Lydia said, “I must find a customer.” Desperation. Second, she said, “I will find someone before this first day is over.” Sure enough, she found someone. She said, “If it works once, it will work again.” But then the next person said, “No.” Now what must you invest?
4. Courage.
Courage is more valuable than capital. If you’ve only got $1 and a lot of courage, I’m telling you, you’ve got a good future ahead of you. Courage in spite of the circumstances. Humans can do the most incredible things no matter what happens. Haven’t we heard the stories? There are some recent ones from Kosovo that are some of the most classic, unbelievable stories of being in the depths of hell and finally making it out. It’s humans. You can’t sell humans short. Courage in spite of, not because of, but in spite of. Now once Lydia has made 3 or 4 sales and gotten going, here’s what now takes over.
5. Ambition.
“Wow! If I can sell 3, I can sell 33. If I can sell 33, I can sell 103.” Wow. Lydia is now dazzled by her own dreams of the future.
6. Faith.
Now she begins to believe she’s got a good product. This is probably a good company. And she then starts to believe in herself. Lydia, single mother, 2 kids, no job. “My gosh, I’m going to pull it off!” Her self-esteem starts to soar. These are investments that are unmatched. Money can’t touch it. What if you had a million dollars and no faith? You’d be poor. You wouldn’t be rich. Now here is the next one, the reason why she’s a millionaire today.
7. Ingenuity.
Putting your brains to work. Probably up until now, you’ve put about 1/10 of your brainpower to work. What if you employed the other 9/10? You can’t believe what can happen. Humans can come up with the most intriguing things to do. Ingenuity. What’s ingenuity worth? A fortune. It is more valuable than money. All you need is a $1 and plenty of ingenuity. Figuring out a way to make it work, make it work, make it work.
8. Heart and Soul.
What is a substitute for heart and soul? It’s not money. Money can’t buy heart and soul. Heart and soul is more valuable than a million dollars. A million dollars without heart and soul, you have no life. You are ineffective. But, heart and soul is like the unseen magic that moves people, moves people to buy, moves people to make decisions, moves people to act, moves people to respond.
9. Personality.
You’ve just got to spruce up and sharpen up your own personality. You’ve got plenty of personality. Just get it developed to where it is effective every day, it’s effective no matter who you talk to - whether it is a child or whether it is a business person - whether it is a rich person or a poor person. A unique personality that is at home anywhere.
My mentor Bill Bailey taught me, “You’ve got to learn to be just as comfortable, Mr. Rohn, whether it is in a little shack in Kentucky having a beer and watching the fights with Winfred, my old friend or in a Georgian mansion in Washington, DC as the Senator’s guest.” Move with ease whether it is with the rich or whether it is with the poor.
And it makes no difference to you who is rich or who is poor. A chance to have a unique relationship with whomever. The kind of personality that’s comfortable. The kind of personality that’s not bent out of shape.
And lastly, let’s not forget charisma and sophistication. Charisma with a touch of humility. This entire list is more valuable than money. With one dollar and the list I just gave you, the world is yours. It belongs to you, whatever piece of it you desire whatever development you wish for your life. I’ve given you the secret. Capital. The kind of capital that is more valuable than money and that can secure your future and fortune. Remember that you lack not the resources.
Credit Statement to be included in Reprints:
This article was submitted by Jim Rohn, America’s Foremost Business Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine go to www.jimrohn.com.
Copyright © 2001-2006 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Business Coaching · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online
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There are a number of classic copywriting formulas. They are classics because they have proven very effective over time. These formulas work equally well for website work, email, direct mail, brochures, and advertising in many formats and media.
One of these very effective script writing formulas is: fear, fear, solution.
Your focus must be on your customer.
You must understand your customer or prospective customer well. His or her problems and how to solve them should be your main focus. If you don’t solve someone’s problems, nothing sells and nothing happens.
Until you learn and better understand the customer’s problems and the fears he or she has associated with those problems, you will not be very effective in your marketing programs.
Once you do understand those elements, you can look in your group of products or services to develop solutions to solve the problems and relieve fears of the customer.
“Fear, fear, solution” is one formula. Here is the process.
You pose a fear you know the customer has or should have; then, you amplify that one as you pose another; then, you offer the solution to the problem and the relief of those fears, . . . which is your product or service.
Of course, the process is somewhat longer than that, but the thread of the principle is found throughout.
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Copywriting · Internet · Marketing · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online
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DISASTER PLAN: How Lose Customers In A Single Move!
At times it is surprising how easily large corporations make huge errors in judgement!
In this case the company which produces the Absolut Vodka brand produced a TV advertising campaign for airing in Mexico that played on the longstanding rub the Mexicans have had toward the U.S. for having lost the Mexican-American War of 1848.
Absolut Vodka apparently never supposed that people in the U.S. would never even know the TV ad campaign had even run. Has their ad department never heard of the Internet?
Incredible! Check out this article which tells more of the story — http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/05/america/LA-GEN-Mexico-US-Absolut-Ads.php
The marketing lesson? Know your customers — all of them! Understand them very well. Never take them for granted.
Never assume you will be able to target a segment of your customers exclusively–you won’t. Of course, you can target them selectively, but you cannot do so exclusively–avoiding that some for whom the message was not intended will also see it. Keep constantly in mind that your customers are intelligent and they are informed, especially in these days of mass media and the Internet.
Remember, one of The 88 states that, “You should never leave to chance anything over which you can exert some control!” (Get more on this subject by subscribing to “The 88 Marketing Tips That Will Change Your Life!” on this site.)
Profile your customer as precisely as you can. Understand all you can about his or her likes and dislikes. Part of this understanding is the demographics of your average cusotmers–where do they live, what are their ages, incomes, where do they shop for groceries, what do they do for recreation, etc., etc. The more you can know about your customers the more effectively you can present your products or services to them.
In preparing your Disaster Plan be sure it is designed to avoid disasters . . . not create them!
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Internet · Marketing · Mistakes · Psychology · offline
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The marketplace is the sole arbiter of the success of your programs. It alone determines what works and how. Ignore that at the peril of your business.
In spite of the fact you may love your business, product, or service, never allow your love of such things to override the results of your market testing.
Design and pursue an effective process of testing everything. Testing often has the reputation of being too complicated or expensive, but it does not have to be either complicated or expensive.
For example, you can test your advertising programs simply by having your receptionist or salesperson ask where a prospect learned of your business.
While this is very simple and effective, I have been amazed how frequently a business has no formal method to record and analyze the results. Business owners who do this will too often say, “We collect this data.” When I ask to review the results, I am then told, “Well, we simply get a ‘feel’ for it.”
While a “feel” may be reassuring, it is certainly far from scientific and very ineffective for planning or adjusting marketing plans and programs.
If you insist on failing to test, failing to use the data you have at your fingertips, or failing to follow what the marketplace is shouting to you about your business, you invite failure. The more you ignore these things, the more quickly will be your failure.
Another thing to keep in mind as you decide whether you will follow the information the marketplace is providing you is, that if a competitor hires a good marketer, you will have little hope against that competitor.
It is so easy to build an excellent, thriving business with the consistent application of good marketing principles, it is almost sinful to avoid doing so.
I urge you never to allow a complacent attitude toward effective marketing drag your business over the brink of failure. Well, perhaps not failure, but at least limping performance. It that what you really want for your business?
To your business success!
Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog
© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.
Filed Under: Advertising · Business · Copywriting · Internet · Marketing · Mistakes · Psychology · guerrilla · offline · online
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