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Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

In my direct response print and Yellow Page ad design business, I offer a FREE 60 point ad audit at my website www.InstantYellowPageProfits.com. Of all of the hundreds of ads I audit each year, most include the same 3 profit killing mistakes.

The first profit killing mistake I see in small business advertising is having a weak headline. The weakest headline you can usually have is the business name which normally contains no benefit for the consumer. Imagine you are a consumer with a leaking pipe and you go to the Yellow Pages under “Plumbers” to find someone to fix your leak.

You review ads under the heading, and the first 2 have the following headlines. Let’s say ad example #1 has “Joe’s Plumbing” and ad example #2 has, “Get Your Leak Fixed In 60 Minutes or Less!”?” Which ad would you read and reply to? It is obvious that the only thing you learn in the “Joe’s Plumbing” headline is that Joe has a big ego. That fails to be a benefit to your prospects. Your prospect will be attracted to the headline benefit of getting their leak fixed in just 60 minutes.

So when you are writing your headlines, ask yourself, “What is the greatest benefit I can offer my prospects, and what is their greatest desire when they are viewing my ad?” If you take those most sought after benefits and include them in your headline you will dramatically increase response to ALL your advertising.

The second profit killing mistake is to have no offer. If you want to increase your response to any advertising, I recommend you add a compelling offer. You kill your advertising response and profits when you fail to include an offer.

So what is the best type of offer to include in your advertising? Including a offer for your new customers is what I recommend. A “dollars off” offer or an additional bonus on thier first service is a good welcome offer for new clients. Most ads do not include an offer, so you can make your ad stand out and outperform your competition with a well crafted offer.

The third profit killing mistake is to not include a guarantee. A guarantee is something all small businesses need to include in their advertising. Small business advertisers find that adding by a 100% Moneyback Guarantee they increase ad response by removing the risk of a new client trying your business. I know what you’re thinking, “If I offer a 100% Moneyback Guarantee like Larry says, everyone will ask for their Moneyback and rip me off!”

I know how you feel, because I felt the same way before I included a 100% Moneyback Guarantee in my advertising. My concern was that my prospects would rip me off, but when I tested the guarantee I saw positive results. My guarantee more than DOUBLED response to my advertising. I was shocked that in 7 years of having a Moneyback Guarantee, there were only 2 clients that requested a refund. In both cases, things did not go according to plan and these clients deserved and got their moneyback. If I had not given them their Moneyback, I would have had 2 lawsuits that would have exceeded the price of my refund. This moneyback guarantee did double duty by increasing my advertising response and profits while simultaneously removing legal liability when unusual things happened.

Businesses that can not have a 100% money back guarantee, can guarantee a portion or part of the first purchase even if this means limiting what services you provide on their first purchase. The best guarantees reduce or remove the new client’s risk of trying your product or service.

So you can see that having doubled my business from the same size ad and having only 2 (deserved) refunds in 7 years and over 1500 jobs is a tremendous financial gain.

So upgrade your print and Yellow Page advertising by having a great headline, a money back guarantee and a new client offer. This gives you a long-term competitive advantage because when you get 200% response, you are getting new clients at only 50% of what your competition has to pay.

Larry Conn’s personal experience in advertsing and direct response marketing has been built over the last 34 years. He is celebrated world-wide as a top direct response marketing expert, copywriter, speaker and author. Top direct response marketing experts recommend Larry in their books and products for creating profitable marketing strategies, and writing copy for high ROI print and Yellow Page ad design. At his website www.InstantYellowPageProfits.com  Larry offers a FREE 60 point Advertising Audit worth $150.00.

Do you use many types of marketing and are never exactly sure if anything has worked for you?  Spending on different advertising streams without having some means to determine the sales they produce is like pouring cash down the drain and is one of the big differences between successful firms and the also-rans.  And that means you can’t understand what’s working for you and what’s not.  For example, if you choose a radio campaign that costs you ,000 concurrently with a leaflet drop for ,000 and in total make ,000 return, you need to know which has worked the best in order to know where to spend another time.

Working with somebody from Cambridgeshire business coach will bring the facts about your marketing to the surface.The secret to marketing success is to keep track of your results.

That’s why you must take the time to figure this out, and you’ll soon realise that advertising that works brings in more money than it costs.  Great advertising is the same as putting £100 in the bank and getting £200 back, since it’s basically a license to print money.  Understanding which campaigns and tactics generate the most sales gives you the edge against your rivals – an edge that most companies simply don’t understand even though you can do it for free.

Instructions For Testing & Measuring

How you measure your results depends very much upon the strategies used. Use the ideas below to inspire you in other creative ways to test and assess your marketing efforts.Use a simple tally chart, with a line for each advertising promotion; then simply place a mark when a customer comes in from each source.Use different telephone lines for each lead source, so that when you get a call from TV adverts, the radio and the local paper a different phone rings; count the calls per line and you’ve got a great measure for enquiries.  A voucher is one more method of calibrating the effectiveness of your campaigns – you just need to add the number of coupons returned in a given period and you’ll know the number of leads it generated for you.

Another very neat method for measuring enquiries is to get your customers to ask for anybody by name.  One business sent out leaflets advertising home repairs and told people to call and ask for David.  They added 1 to the score  each time anybody mentioned David and found it worked exceptionally well.

If you’ve got a website, you can ask the customer where they heard of you.  Another great way to track customer sources is to use statistical analysis on your website, often called analytics, to monitor what keywords people have used to find you, or what sites they’ve come from.

With a bit of luck this has given you some inspiration and enthusiasm to get cracking and create your own monitoring program of some kind for your marketing. 

And of course, if you need some help to get going, you can always consider business coaching uk.

Are you just simply buried by the sheer volume of IM information there is online?You have lots of company.In reality, that’s the most common complaint voiced by budding entrepreneurs trying to create a meaningful income online.

Today, we are going to discuss a few of the best ways to stay focused and cut through all the noise.

First, it’s absolutely critical to realize that “internet marketing” is a truly vast term.  So vast that, in essence, it really becomes meaningless.

You must break it down.You must specialize.To start with, let’s delve-into a sub-niche of the enormous internet marketing pie: Affiliate Marketing.  Granted this sub-niche is still MASSIVE, but we’re beginning to get more manageable.  

What is the next thing to do?

Well, if you are a promising affiliate marketer just getting-started consider obtaining specialized help from an reputable Affiliate Assassin.

But, even before this crucial step of soliciting expert advice ask yourself these basic probing questions, and make sure that you can answer them all clearly and succinctly.

What is Your Prospect Really Looking For?

If you don’t know the answer to this before you start you are basically just wasting your time.

You need to identify with your clients and deliver real value. Otherwise you will ultimately not succeed.

Assuming that you have the prospects underlying best interests at heart, what then?

In order to be able to become viable and, hence, be able to stay in business and continue to provide worthwhile value to your customers you must get a tiny bit self-centered for just a moment as well.

Ask yourself the following question:
What is the Purpose of This Particular Affiliate Offering?

This is the core of your profitability, because your entire marketing strategy relies on it.

Allow me to illucidate, if your chosen affiliate offering is essentially a lead in to obtain clients for, say, consulting, speaking or different business ventures down the line, you do not need to worry too much about the preliminary affiliate product’s price.

However, if selling the affiliate offering is your central revenue center, you need to sweat the pricing level details much more intensely in order to max-out your earnings.

  That leads us to the next logical step.

What Other Products That You Can Sell Will Provide Additional Value To Your Clients?
This is really important because in the vast majority of cases, “affiliates” do not make a lot of money on their first sale.

  Often, Up-sells and Continuity Programs are where the real money lies.
Therefore, developing a portfolio related to your initial offering is a critical step in making your affiliate venture viable for the long-haul.

Remember, ultimately, your affiliate success depends on completely understanding the answers to the above questions.

If you can get these questions answered right at the very beginning, you are well on your way to being able to maintain your long-haul profitability.However, if you ignore them you will certainly leave a lot of revenue on the table and, maybe, even more critically you’ll be accidentally short changing your buyers as well.

At the end of the day, putting together the whole team and affiliate pieces – initially – are key elements in attaining affiliate longevity!

The human body is over 70% water, and supports all of our physical functions. It regulates temperature, in addition to dissolving and ridding your body of a wide range of impurities and toxins.Nothing else you consume can clean and hydrate your body like pure spring water. Important? It’s the most crucial fluid you can drink.

Water originating in an underground spring and flowing to the surface is considered natural spring water. Natural spring water retains all of its minerals. Bottled spring water is better suited for human hydration, and that is vital for your good health. Such water is free of the sugar, salt, flavors, impurities and toxins found in most water.

This has led to the biggest new fad– bottled water. Predictably, the first two pages of any Google search on bottled water lists multiple websites promoting water from pure springs all over the United States, each claiming to be the purest and best tasting. This leads to the newest and most popular way to get your brand, logo and slogan into the marketplace. It’s bottled natural spring water– bearing your company’s logo or trade mark on custom made labels. This type of marketing is known as private labeling.

Custom bottled water is now available as an advertising and marketing device on many websites on the Internet. This way to market your company name, logo, or message to your customers is fun, clever, and affordable. Looking for something new and creative in the marketing industry? Custom labeled bottled waters or sparkling waters are a pouplar innovation, especially with the new health fad of always carrying drinking water with you. Sparkling waters can also be flavored with aromas.

Proactive public relations teams everywhere are thinking of all kinds of ways to capitalize on this trend. A creative PR consultant will find it almost impossible to run out of ideas. Politics, business, charities, churches, sports, and even family events are just some of the possible areas for this new PR tool.

The most unusual form of branding that I found was private label bottled water for wedding guests. You can have custom labels made for weddings, cocktail parties, engagement parties and outdoor events, all with private labels with the name of the bride and groom, the wedding date, etc.The label can even match the napkins and other items that one might order for weddings. One can even make private labels– instantly and for free– at freelabelmaker.

I guess you could even use this fun gimmick to announce the birth of your first son – private labeled bottled water named after the baby. I am sure, given enough time, I can think of thousands of additional ways to promote private labeled bottled water, but I am sure you already get the idea .

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Increased competition and the recent economic downturn have combined to make effective marketing increasingly difficult. The advent of guerilla marketing tactics, as well as many other unconventional techniques can intimidate even the most adroit marketing professional. The “fighting fire with fire” adage is cliched, but true nonetheless. If you’re looking to separate your product or service from the seemingly infinite number of competitors in the marketplace today, you have to use increasingly unorthodox approaches to marketing.

One of the most effective ways of selling yoru product or service is first getting it past the media gatekeepers. One way this can be accomplished is through extreme thinking. Look in the Guinness Book of World Records and try to find something in it related to your product or service. Next, you can attempt to break this record in some type of public forum. Such a bold move will certainly garner attention and, as long as you avoid making a spectacle of yourself, attract positive publicity from at least a few media hounds that gather to witness the event. Another strategy would be to sponsor a local sports team or event. The coverage the team or event draws will provide your company name with publicity.

Along the same vain, you may want to support a local charity or philanthropic group that in some way applies to what you are trying to sell. If you do not have the capital to make a straight donation to such a cause, try giving out a percentage of yoru monthly sales as part of a promotion. This will give customers added incentive to buy your product. If possible, you can then advertise your generosity by placing informationa about the charity on your product.

Another way to get your product known is to send out a bi-monthly or monthly form of literature to serve as advertisement for your business. Given the continuing trend toward visual communication with respect to marketing, try sending out a photo book in lieu of the traditional flyer or newsletter. Promoting your business through photo books can be a very effective way of displaying your products as well as distinguishing yourself from the crowded marketplace. Online photo book sites such as MemoryEscape.com allow you to upload images, select distinctive templates and backgrounds, and choose a personalized cover – all in a matter of minutes. A retailer, for example, may include photos of their newest products, and even add some copy mentioning coupons or promotions. If your business provides a service rather than a product (e.g. hair salon, photography studio, etc), a photo book is a great way of informing your customers of updates while providing them with visual images that stand out from the rest. If you are finding it difficult to come up with ideas, MemoryEscape.com has an entire page devoted to ways one can use photo books to promote one’s business.

With the advent of social networking sites, it behooves the savvy business owner to encourage open dialogue between the company and its customers. Your website can serve as an ideal forum for such dialogue. By creating an area specifically for customer feedback and comment, you can show your commitment to your customers and learn new ways in which you can improve your business. This should be a type of forum where customers can ask you questions as well as interact with one another.

While new forms of marketing continue to emerge and others are replaced, one technique that will never become obsolte is giving away free products/services to customers. Such items range can range from pens to hats – virtually any free merchandise will work as long as your company name and information are printed on it. It is vital, however, to make sure the item will be useful to your customer. Also, try to make the object something relevant to your company. For example, it you own a hair salon, give away combs, brushes, or samples of hair styling products.

In a time short world we’re always looking for just the right fast fix of relevant information; having it at hand when we most need it. Need was in search of a solution….

The information providers required their message under consumer’s noses and consumers hoped for that easy access to a fast fix for their next problem – the fridge magnets were giving those solutions.

Arrive the fridge magnet – an easily imprintable medium to get images on the family fridge. Discovered in the 1970’s the fridge magnet has grown ever more to occupy the sacred advertising space on the home fridge. This piece of advertising real estate is now home to information on your local plumber, electrician, fast food pizza shop, takeaways, local politicians and so on and so on.

The might of a humble fridge magnet relies in the reality that an average fridge is visited – read viewed – some 17 times each day. That’s a lot of exposure. 

Hot on the heels of the fridge magnet is the fridge magnet marketing card. They have a magnetic patch on a small portion on the card’s obverse side. The principal benefits of the magnetic marketing card are its lower cost and its lower weight and hence lower distribution cost. 

For many companies needing to get a larger than average message onto the family fridge, they are a brilliant choice.

A further extension of the fridge magnet has been the manufacture of even thicker material suitable for car magnets.  So these car magnets offer never seen before flexibility, to businesses, to utilize their vehicles as moving billboard. 

A recent marketing innovation is to invite passers-by your car, take a fridge magnet off the vehicle; combining the promotion of the company’s message and products with their means of contacting the company. This is a novel use of fridge and car magnet to the benefit of company and consumer.  

25 years ago, opening a retail store was a much simpler undertaking. Consumers were regularly buying staple items they required. Businesses were not difficult to run and business was good. Store owners often saw themselves as shining examples of individuals living the American dream. A time when neighborhood kids knew if they ever needed a job, they could look to one of the many neighborhood stores; candy store, drug store or local women’s shoes store business. Some of these stores had been operated by the same family for generations. However, in today’s economy most of these mom and pop enterprises are closing their doors. They are losing the struggle to just keep their businesses afloat.

See also:  comfort footwear

Over the years, most of these local businesses had survived competition by large department store chains. They managed to compete because they provided great customer service. They were able to maintain a steady flow of loyal customers. For example; your neighborhood shoe store would let customers return a pair of shoes without a receipt, a gesture based on personal acquaintance with the customer and had faith that they would be back in the future. Sometimes developing strong good customer service bonds are better than mere bargain sales and discounts. The ability to offer this type of personal customer service was one of the main tactics small retail outlets used to gain the advantage over large department stores.

Since the development of the internet, small retail stores find themselves striving to keep up not only with their local competitors, but they now have to compete with online stores. The impact from online stores was slow at first, however, as more and more people started to use the internet, they started making more purchases online; i.e., online shoe stores. Instead of going to your neighborhood shoe store; people started buying shoes online. As online retail stores started to see an increase in business, local vendors started to see a sharp decline. While this is convenient for customers, it has begun to take a toll on once-prosperous local shops.

In today’s economy, small merchants face an even bigger challenge in order to stay in business. With the banks in their current state, they’ve tightened the reins by decreasing merchant’s line of credit. This credit crunch has cause local merchants to turn to drastic measures. For instance; your local comfortable mens shoes store owner has had to dip into his retirement fund to purchase inventory or funding their marketing budget. The merchant simply doesn’t have a large funding base to draw on. However, with banks decreasing credit limits, the business owner have fewer financial options. And with the decline in business compels him to consider the strong possibility of a completely restructured life.

It is probable that you will find related stories by using EzineArticles or using Technorati.       

25 years ago, starting a retail store was much easier. Consumers regularly purchased staple items they required. stores were not difficult to run and the economy was booming. Proprietors often saw themselves as shining examples of individuals living the American dream. A time when neighborhood kids understood that if they ever needed a job, they could look to one of the many neighborhood establishments: candy store, drug store or local shoe shop business. Some of the shops have been operated by the same family for generations. However, in today’s economy most of these mom and pop stores are closing their doors. They are struggling to just keep their businesses afloat.

Related:  comfortable women’s shoes

Over the years, most of these local businesses succeeded in the face of competition by large department store chains. They managed to compete because they offered individual customer service. They were able to establish a constant flow of loyal customers. The neighborhood shoe store, for example, would let customers return a pair of shoes without a receipt, a gesture based on personal acquaintance with the customer and the assurance of a continuing relationship with him. Sometimes developing strong good customer service bonds are better than just offering a 10% off coupon. Customer service is one of the main tactics small retail outlets were able to use to gain leverage over and compete with large department stores.

Since the development of the internet, small retail stores find themselves striving to keep up not only with their local department store chains, but also with a multitude of online stores. The impact from online stores was slow at first, however, as more and more people started to use the internet, they started making more purchases online; i.e., online shoe stores. There’s no more going to your local shoe store; people started buying shoes online. As online retail stores flourished, your local merchants started to see a sharp decline. While this is convenient for customers, it has begun to take a toll on local neighborhood stores.

In today’s economy, small merchants face an even bigger challenge in order to stay in business. With the banks in their current state, they’ve in turn pressured local businesses, decreasing the lines of credit that merchants depend upon. This has cause local merchants to turn to drastic measures. For instance; your local comfort footwear store owner may have to dip into his retirement fund to purchase inventory or fund the marketing campaign. They don’t have a large funding base to rely on. However, with banks lowering credit limits, they have fewer funds to work with. The overall decline in business compels him to consider the strong possibility of a completely restructured life.

A search using The Washington Post and by searching within AOL might result in related data.       

The current recession is causing a definite shift in consumer behaviour. During the boom years of the past decade, we saw a huge number of small startup businesses trying to compete with the big boys. Many of these websites have gone local to global in a very short space of time, thanks to their prices. Then consumers were used to choice and less demanding of reliability in their brands, they wanted the cheapest items and they wanted them now. Things have changed however and hundreds of website companies are going under, the fall out of which is a growing lack of customer confidence. What this means is that people are going back to preferring known and recognisable brands, even if it means spending a little more.

Although in times such as these when people are worried for their jobs or loosing them, some start to consider their dream business online and of being their own boss. Research from Barclays last year showed that there were 98,000 start-ups created in the UK within a three month period, despite the credit crunch. It can be a thankless route to success. When you take into account that around 80,000 new businesses failed during the same time period, kind of puts it into perspective doesn’t it!

I believe that most new online business fails due to bad branding. When a customer hits your website, what does your logo say about your business. It’s crucial to what people use to judge whether you are trustworthy or not. But it’s so often the case that startup owners put off paying professional logo design in the initial stages. All to often its “Lets see how many customers we can get before we think about branding”.Then they design one themselves in photoshop and thinking that looks fine, load it up to the site. Many go for free clipart template business cards and stationery design from somewhere like vista print.

This isn’t acceptable for a Brand. All web business now more than ever, need to look much bigger and much more capable via good marketing, to retain customers and encourage new ones.  In these anxious times the image of stability and reliability is more crucial than ever. Very small businesses need to look like a much bigger business, its possible. As i have mentioned, consumers are now more then ever going to the big brands for what they need. So basically, these days users care more about who a brand is and less about what they are, a good brand is much more likely to be recommended to friends than one that consumers are less sure about.

The bottom line is this. Bankruptcy will hit around half small business very early on in their life, usually within two to three years. Many experts say that one of the top causes of business failure online is bad marketing. A custom logo design helps you create the right image for this marketing to succeed. So do yourself a favour – start looking at some sample logos in your industry and see what the successful ones have in common.Finding yourself a talented graphic designer is key to your business, not only surviving but thriving in this current climate.

By conducting effective market research what you can learn?

Know your customers – Market research will help you better understand your customers in a number of ways including demographic information such as their age, gender and geographic spread. The better you know your customer the easier it is to target your marketing and fine tune your product or service.

Know your target market – Who exactly are your existing customers and where do they live? Does your service or product appeal to specific age groups? Who are your potential customers and where do they live?

Know your competition – Market Research will help you measure your service compared to others. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your organization and are you improving in the right areas?

Products and services – Do you have the products or services that people want? Is what you offer value for money? How do your services and products compare to that of your competitors? If you have a product can you, do you, should you deliver directly to your customer?

Ease of doing business – Do your customers find it easy to deal with you and when they visit your store and/or website do they find what they want? Is there enough good advice and assistance on hand? Do people find it easy to buy from you? Are your staff properly trained, knowledgeable, helpful and available?

Marketing – Is your marketing reaching the right people and is the marketing message clear and effective. What marketing channels are available to you, which ones should you focus on and which, if any, should you drop?

Do people understand your marketing message? Does the marketing material properly represent your brand? Do you advertise through the right channels? Are you reaching the right people?

With the power of the Internet it is now very easy to conduct market research using one of the many online survey software sites that make conducting surveys and collating good market research intelligence quick, easy and extremely cost effective.