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Let Your Customers Do The Talking

12/5/2016

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Remember the old Yellow Pages ads that said, “Let your fingers do the walking?” (Yes, I just aged myself.) The phrase was clever slogan meant to encourage consumers to shop by browsing the yellow phone book page listings for a product or service. In other words, let's allow your customers to do the talking so client and customers do the walking to your website or business to give you the business. So in this blog I'm going to talk about how customers testimonials are very effective to your marketing plan so read on and enjoy!


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What's best for your Business...Strategic or Tactical Marketing?

10/26/2016

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Which would you rather be in your business: Efficient or Effective? If you're like most people, your gut-level response is BOTH of course! And you can be. But.... have you ever stopped to think which one needs to come first? Steven Covey in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People said:

It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at efficiently climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy - very busy - with being very effective"

This is especially true when it comes to marketing. When your busy working on your business most people often make the mistake of "doing something, even if it's wrong", mistaking activity for effectiveness. It's easy to do in the real-time world of social media where everyone is looking for instant gratification in the technology world we live in. They get busy placing adds, buying lead lists, building a web presence, sending out mailers, attending networking events, creating brochures, and so forth. In other words, they get busy doing something and in this blog I'm going to talk about how to be efficient and effective while using both strategic and tactical marketing to your advantage so read on and enjoy!


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What Works Better? Controversy or Contrarianism

9/21/2016

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​In the world of marketing, controversy and contrarianism are often used to gain an audience’s attention or generate media exposure. Many people confuse these two methods as being the same thing. Yet, there is a marked difference between being controversial and being contrarian. And in this blog, I'm going to discuss the differences based on the current issue that has created headlines and a firestorm of emotions from people all across the country. So ready on and enjoy!


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Are You in the 1%?

5/11/2016

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In this blog, we'll be talking about the The Rule of 1%  to increase your ultimate customer experience.  But, before you can do this there are two things you must strive for excellence in or it will never work.  If don't correctly, you experience a huge increase in business over time so read on and enjoy!


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Deliver + 1

12/2/2015

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​In the last post we talked about how to figure out what your customers want
out of a positive shopping experience. Today we’ll talk about the concept of Deliver +1 and how this concept can take your customer service to the next level. I've decided to split up this post so the next one will cover the 1% Rule.


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Do It Like the Big Dawgs!

12/1/2014

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In our blog this week we’ll take a look at how the BIG DAWGS of industry wine, dine and otherwise persuade prospects.
 
Most of successful professionals use a series of information based ads that build emotion and a call to action. These are much more effective than a standard company branding advertisements. The same principles that go into putting together a high impact (and, often, high priced) ad campaign can be adapted to fit your needs with similar results.

Here are some ways to put together and execute a professional, effective ad campaign: 


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PR Equals Free Publicity

11/17/2014

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There are three key areas of public relations you can use to boost your advertising results ten-fold over your paid advertising.
The key to public relations lie in:
  • Public relation or publicity
  • Merchandising
  • Promotions
With a solid plan in place that encompasses all these areas, you’ll have a great approach to use public relations in the best way possible.

Public relations include all that is the media. Don’t limit yourself. The attention of newspapers, television, radio, magazines, bloggers, ezines and more are all equally powerful. Online marketing is just as, if not more, important as conventional media.

Here are the steps to get noticed by the media:


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Telemarketing is NOT the Anti-Christ

10/28/2014

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Today you’ll learn how to use direct mail marketing and, yes, telemarketing to your full advantage. I know, the word “telemarketing” might as well be four letters, but there is a way to help customers feel like they are getting personal attention and keep them from blocking your number!


With the success direct mail marketing has had and the availability of computers, these can be used as a powerful marketing tool for your success. Telemarketing is best for high priced, high margin products/services.

Here are the key steps to putting together a highly effective direct mail marketing program:

  1. List all benefits customers will get from the purchase of your products and services.
  2. Pick the single most powerful benefit out of that list.
  3. Build an attention-getting headline around that benefit. Remember to use emotion-fulfill the desire to be young, wealthy, desired, popular or successful.
  4. Develop a sales letter using the headline you created to grab attention, provide information and motivate customers to act.
  5. Put together supplementary items, such as a brochure, order form, reply envelope or note that encourages them to read the letter.
  6. Rent or purchase a mailing list.
  7. Compare cost of mailing vs. cost per order.
  8. Continue to test and refine your direct mail marketing plan.
You can see how direct mail marketing can help you find a local or even country-wide target market to send letters or postcards to and draw in new clientele and customers. Fine-tuning your marketing campaign will bring better results and therefore lower the overall cost of the campaign. To be successful in telemarketing you need to:

  • Put together a plan, so you know exactly what you want to accomplish during the call.
  • Develop a list of topics to discuss and the questions you want to present around these topics.
  • Input verbiage checking to see if you are calling at a good time.
  • Include enough questions to keep the conversation interesting, but not too many to sound like you are interrogating.
  • Start with broad questions and narrow your focus as the conversation continues.
  • Offer feedback to show them you are paying attention and appreciate their time.
  • Don’t insult their intelligence or manipulate them.
  • Listen first, talk second.
  • Be relaxed and conversational.
Telemarketing doesn’t have to be the trauma it’s made out to be. You can put together an honest, personal and effective telemarketing campaign that is endearing, informative and gets the job done. Think of how you would want to be treated on a marketing call. Ask your friends and family what they hate most about the telemarketing calls they get and work hard to craft your plan in a better way.

“When selling by telephone, you have approximately thirty seconds to convince the customer to listen to you. You need an opening statement that captures their attention, conveys who you are, what you want and why the prospect should listen.”  Jay Abraham

It’s easy to see how direct mail marketing and telemarketing can positively affect your business by bringing in new customers and increasing the level of awareness about your products, services and company branding. 

My complimentary business assessment gives you the resources and tools you need to work through these processes and put together the best marketing plan you can. Connect and let's talk about your business and the direction of your marketing. I promise to increase your leads and sales WITHOUT you spending extra marketing dollars.

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Make it Pop!

10/3/2014

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There are 5 major components to good advertising copy: (The order of these is essential to success)
  • Command Attention
  • Showcase Value of Products/Services (End Result of Product or Service)
  • Prove the Benefits  (Educate)
  • Persuade People to Embrace the Value (What's In it for them to benefit their life)
  • Call to Action

Advertising is sales in print. So, you need to think about the unique benefits your products/services offer and showcase that in a persuasive way. You need to emphasize results, not features.
Let’s take a minute to talk about each of these components:

  1. Command Attention: This is usually accomplished with the headline. You need an attention-getter that makes people want to know more about your products/services. The best headlines give a vivid portrayal of the value or show how a problem can be avoided with your products/services. The headline is the advertisement for the advertisement.
  2. Showcase Value: You have to showcase the value or the end results of your products and services and, more importantly, show how they will solve or prevent a problem. They need to know what’s in it for them. Include useful, factual and clear information to show precisely what the benefits are and how they are going to help the customer. 
  3. Offer Proof: This is where you prove what the advertisement is offering. You need to establish you have a method to deliver. Consider information that establishes credibility and past performance.
  4. Persuade: You need to add compelling reasons for your potential customers to purchase your products/services. Use a hard sell approach and create scarcity. This will enact your potential customers to feel like they have to act now. Which leads into the last component.
  5. Call to Action: You need to compel your potential customers to DO something. They need to check out your site, sign up for your newsletter, purchase your products, contact you about services…something.  Offer a freebie-a booklet, sample, product, bonus, demo, consult, limited time price…the list goes on. There are lots of ways to get potential customers excited about ordering and help them feel like they are getting an amazing deal.
Good advertisements include all of these components and are not complete without any of them. You can sit down and think through any one of these components, then figure out how to best place them together for the most effectiveness, or I can help you with this. Connect with me for a complimentary business assessment and we'll look at your existing marketing material and put together great advertisements to command the attention you want for your business.  

I look forward to connecting with you.


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Direct Response or Bust!

9/24/2014

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Direct response marketing is a marketing that demands a direct response from your potential customers. This type of marketing is used to answer questions, present your branding, products and the reason you do what you do. Customers love this, as they are offered the opportunity to response, whether that be in the way of signing up for a newsletter, posting a comment on your site or blog, or purchasing a product from you. 

So, what does direct response marketing look like? 
 Well, it comes in many forms, including:
  • Direct mail
  • Print ads
  • Radio and TV ads
  • Coupons or other incentives
  • Telemarketing

Some of the advantages of direct marketing are:

  • A great way to use free time during lulls in business
  • Productive way to communicate and empower you to create more relationships
  • Great way to up- and cross-sell to current customers
  • Low cost way to rustle up new business
  • Used as leverage to turn small sales into large sales
  • Supplement your current marketing program
  • Cost-effective way to reach target markets
  • Offers measurable results
  • Reach outside your local area for new business
  • Increase the effectiveness of your sales force

These are all great things that can come from just taking a few simple steps to putting together a direct response marketing plan and executing it. 

“I honestly don’t think you’ll ever find a safer, lower-risk, higher-profit method of increasing your business or profession than direct-response marketing.” Jay Abraham

Direct response marketing is one of the best ways to launch your business on a large scale and reach out to everyone in your target market whether they are in your local area or not. 



Our complimentary business assessment can help you put together a great direct response marketing plan and get you on your way to heightened success.  Call or email and let's get started STRETCHING your business to levels you want to achieve

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Kick Start your Marketing

9/13/2014

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PictureKICKSTART your Marketing with a Complimentary Business Assessment!
Today I’d like to teach you about the three most important start up marketing tools you need to get and keep new customers.

  1. In person: It’s essential you meet with customers/clients in person whenever possible. This shows you respect them and take the time to work with your clients to give personal attention to each of them. 
  2. Follow up letter: Always take a moment to send a follow up letter about what you talked about, new agreements or partnerships made and to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Likewise, you should always send thank you letters or small gifts to partners you find success with.
  3. Phone call: Use a telephone call to follow up with them to talk again about the matters you talked about in your meeting and offer any assistance you can to help their business run smoothly and more successfully.

None of these will work if you don’t have a quality product/service to back you up!
Here are the key steps for putting together your start-up marketing tools:


  1. Research potential customers, buyers, competitors and their preferred methods of distribution.
  2. Talk to potential customers. Take a hard look at your product from a customer’s perspective and see what it needs to be successful.
  3. Follow up with your 3-step process from above.
  4. Develop systems for contact follow through, quality control standards and customer service.
  5. Develop post-sale follow up system to keep lines of communication open is customers and build on your current relationship which increases future purchases.

“Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs” Peter Drucker, management consultant

Here’s another one I love from an icon:


“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company


This lesson has offered you the tools to put together a start-up marketing plan that can be used over and over again to help your customer base and business grow in a manageable way. The tools offered in my complimentary business consultation offer these very same things


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Stop Wasting Your Resources!

9/3/2014

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PictureDon't waste your marketing dollars!
Today you’re going to learn how to find a target market of potential customers so you aren't wasting precious resources on blitz marketing. So, the two questions you have to ask yourself are:

  • What do people really want to buy from me?
  • What related products are they already buying?

Once you figure this out you will know who is more predisposed to purchase your products/services. Then, you find other businesses with the same customer base who you can create a strategic partnership with and customer share. Come up with an incentive and great arrangement to encourage both of your customer bases to shop at both of your stores.
 
The basic concept is this: 
  • You want to find existing businesses who have the customer profile that you are looking for to market your products/services to. 
  • Then strike up a relationship with those business owners to work out an incentive for customers to purchase from both businesses.
  • As a result, you have an audience to market to and they generate an added value from their current base.
So, how do you figure this out? There is a great formula from Jay Abraham you can follow with great success.
  1. LV = (P x F) x N – MC
Here’s what it all means:
  • LV is the life time value of a customer
  • P is the average profit margin from each sale
  • F is the number of times a customer buys each year
  • N is the number of years customers stay with you
  • MC is the marketing cost per customer (total costs/number of customers)
Once you know how much you need to spend to attract a new customer, you will know how much of an incentive you can offer to a business to help attract new customers.


So, here’s your step-by-step process:


  1. Find companies who already have the customer base you are looking for.
  2. Negotiate an incentive for them to share that customer base with you.
  3. Focus your marketing resources to this group of predisposed customers.

If you need help working through this process, ask for a FREE business assessment and consultation to help move your business in the positive direction with the most comprehensive system of marketing tools and resources.


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Educate Your Customers

8/19/2014

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Educate them about what, you may be thinking. Well, consider this, many businesses focus solely on attracting new customers, but you NEED to spend a good chunk of your time retaining current and former customers. These are people you already know to be a good sales potential…they've already bought from you! 

Take the time to market and sell new products to your old customers and less time trying to sell old products to new customers and you will see a drastic change in your sales, customer quality and branding position.


Here are a couple of key elements to use to retain your current customers:
  1. Stay in contact: This means by phone, email, e-newsletter, in person-by pigeon if you have too!
  2. Post-Purchase Assurance: This means you need to follow up with customers. Your customers need to feel like they are being supported for their purchase and with the item they purchased. How many times have you purchased a product, then felt completely abandoned? Something as simple as a Thank You note with your contact or customer service information can go along way in retaining a great customer.
  3. Deals & Guarantees: Always offer your current customers the best deals and guarantees you have. Show them you appreciate their business or even come up with a club specifically to reward loyal customers. You can also do this with a preferred pricing option.
  4. Integrity: Using good business practices and simply upholding integrity, dignity and honesty go along way with customers. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of swindling and crap out there and the safer and more confident you make your customers feel, the more they will trust you and that makes for an amazingly supportive and loyal customer.
There are three cornerstone ideas to a successful business:
  • Quality product/service
  • Offering useful products/services that solve a problem for or enhance the life of a customer
  • Offer subjects your customers find interesting
Use this approach of educating your customers and offering them real information and insight and you will be rewarded with loyalty and success.

Stop wasting all your time on new prospects while your current customers fall by the wayside!


As Jay Abraham says, “Your best prospects are your existing customers. If you’ve been putting all your marketing efforts into acquiring new customers, stop and diverts some of your resources into reselling, upselling, cross-selling to those same customers. In every ways possible – through package inserts, regular mailings, special offers – stay in touch with those customers and get them used to buying from you.”


So, there it is! Remember, my FREE business marketing consultation can help you put together the resources and tools to do exactly that. I can help you educate your customers and you can watch the benefits pay offer many-fold.


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How to STRETCH your Business and Brand WITHOUT being controversial

7/17/2014

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We live in a society where controversy sells.   Know don’t misunderstand me, I just want you to think for a moment.  Just think about Miley Cyrus and her recent ridiculous marketing antics. Our society loves juicy news, shocking revelations, and scandalous topics. 

Most of the biggest TV programs that are on TV right now is based off of mocking established traditions.  SCANDAL to name a few has start followings, viewing sessions, and have trended consistently on social media sites for a while now.  Some of the biggest products and TV programs in the world are predicated on mocking established traditions and social values. For example, you might remember the old MTV reality show, "Jersey Shore," created a firestorm of attention, because so many people were intrigued by the controversy they generated.  Some controversies even fuel religious and political groups to publicly make an outcry about the situations and what to do to ban them from programming and organizations.

I say all of this to ask a question.  And that is; If controversy works so well, does it deserve a place in YOUR marketing plan with your business or brand? No, because there's a better option. Controversy just for the sake of shock value usually produces a detrimental side effect. You may get a lot of attention in the short run, but in the long run you may end up sacrificing your reputation.  Remember, marketing is not a sprint, but a marathon and you don’t want to lose the integrity of your brand with the public because it’s very hard to get it back.  Instead here is a better alternative to use before putting your name or brand on the line:  Be contrarian, rather than controversial. There's a big difference between the two.

You see, controversy is usually based on a self-centered motive to gain attention to yourself. In contrast, a contrarian approach usually centers on helping other people by challenging and STRETCHING the way they think. You attempt to benefit others by stretching them beyond the status quo and offering an unexpected set of ideas. You know you're being contrarian in an effective manner when people respond, "Hmm, I've never heard that before...I haven't thought about it like that...I'll have to give what you said some more thought, creating conversation and engaging your clients, customers, and fans with a different way of thinking and opening them to seeing something in a different like.

Now I know you may think, Ron! These marketing tactics are the same!  They may appear the same in the way they stir and rouse people’s emotions.  But the difference is between helping yourself and helping others.  Controversy leaves a negative taste in everyone’s mouth because it’s almost like your begging for attention, like standing in the middle of rush hour traffic in your birthday suit with a sign saying LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!  In contrast, contrarianism tends to leave a positive feeling with everyone, because people love people who consider their best interests to heart.

Leave controversy to the businesses and brands that are here today and gone tomorrow.  Take a long term view by being a contrarian and create a long standing relationships with your audience that values and respects you today and years from now.



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  • Transform Your Life
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