What can you learn about marketing from a two year old?
Quite a lot actually.
Two year olds are humans and will show you exactly how
they will react to a situation without any false ideals
or actions to mask their true feelings.
My own two year old responds to emotions, so I figured
that so would my customers in my business. When I need
her to do something, my daughter will stubbornly refuse,
but I can often remind her of the fun she had last time
we done it, and she will happily go along.
If you can setup a similar emotional response in your
customer, they will be more likely to purchase your
products. Try to remind them of something you know
will bring out a positive response in most people, a
time when they were young and enjoying a ball game
or when they first succeeded in riding a two wheel
bicycle. Relate this to your products effect on their
life.
My toddler doesn’t like having her hair washed, to
convince her to have it done we use a bribe we know
she will want to have. A sweet, or a story book
usually does the trick.
Our potential customers like to think they’re way
beyond the antics of a two year old, but how many
will resist this old marketing ploy of a free gift?
There is a potential flaw here, my daughter has learnt
to try to checkout the goods being offered first
before she agrees to the bribe, and your customer
will need some kind of assurance that the gift is
worth whatever effort you ask in return, whether it
is to entice them to your site or get them to sign
up to your email list.
Make your bribe more than worth the required task
for your customer.
Stories draw in my little girl like nothing else
(except maybe television but I digress) and
her attention can be held for quite a long time
by an involving tale.
But our customers won’t be interested in stories
right?
Wrong, by painting a picture in words of how your
product came about, or why your ebook was written
you will involve your potential buyer more in your
copy. Making the story descriptive, and emotive will
gain your customers trust, and empathy.
If they can relate the story to their own problem
(perceived or real) then they will be more prone
to buy.
My daughter also likes to feel special, using
her name will draw a smile and a response every
time. She can never ignore us when we call her
name out whatever she is doing. Her attention
is gained even when she hears her name on the TV
and she will look around.
Yep you guessed it, using your customers name
will gain their attention too. In an email subject
they will pick out their own name readily among
all the other subjects. Using the name within the
email also develops a feeling of one on one chat
and intimacy which will gain their trust. It’s
a little more difficult on a webpage, but can be
done still, using a script to request the name
and then personalise the page for the potential
buyer.
As you can see my two year olds actions and reactions
mirror the results we will see in all of human life, and
can be used in our marketing efforts to increase our
sales.
Try using some of these ideas in your marketing, and
thank my toddler if you see your sales rising.
Douglas Titchmarsh also publishes a newsletter
which you can subscribe to at
http://www.cashinonline.info/giveaway.htm
where you will also get over $247 in free
software.
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Well not really a 101, but you can employ a “Silent Partner” for pennies a day and give your business the sound of a Fortune 500 Company!
With a Next Generation Toll Free VoiceMail System you can setup surveys to find out if that idea you have to market is really needed with simple questions and answers. Let the market tell you what they want.
Setup the system to allow callers to request documentation, price ranges of homes, boats, automobiles any type of grouped listing to be faxed back to their fax machine with Fax-On-Demand.
Realtors could have multiple listings, by price, location, size, bedrooms any grouping desired. Home buyer calls in and is greeted with a short message telling them that they can receive a faxed listing of homes under $100,000 by pressing 01, $100,000 to $200,000 by pressing 02, latest listings press 10 and so on.
Automobile/Boat dealers, for this weeks special press 99, used vehicles priced $5,000 to $10,000 press 2, credit application press 44.
Are you out of the office most of the time? Follow-Me-Calling will forward calls to any number(s) you desire. When the number reaches you, caller ID allows you to decide to answer or have voicemail pick it up. System would capture all phone numbers that call in for future callbacks.
Have a downline? Just add more mailboxes and broadcast messages quickly. Like to market? Become a distributor and sell systems to your downline. Network marketers need an industrial strength and powerful system that will allow contacts to call in, hear a brief introduction directing them to whichever program they are interested in, pressing the given number, hearing another brief message and then selecting Fax-On-Demand documentation, connect with the representative or leave a message.
Churches need to connect with in/out of town parishioners and visitors. One might call in, hear a brief message and be directed to select the pastors’ message press 1, directions press 3, the weeks events press 5, upcoming events press 6 and any special messages that the church might want to give to a caller.
Pet stores can offer tips on caring for different animals as well as any special sales they may have going on. Caller calls the pet store and hears a short greeting that directs them to select from an assortment of Fax-On-Demand documents that pertain to the care of rabbits, birds, hamsters, snakes and more. Documents would also contain price list of cages, feed and supplies.
Should the caller not have access to a fax they would be instructed to press # and leave their name, address and phone number for mailing. Lead capture.
Sometimes having a vanity number can make your business stand out from the rest, like 800-COOLCAR, 800-MYHOUSE, you can request it.
No matter what type of business you are in this “Silent Partner” will surely quietly and purposely work 24 hours a day 7 days a week, never complain, be late or ask for a raise.
FreedomVOICE Systems has provided the most advanced toll free service available since 1996. Create an image of professionalism with virtual office system services that allow you to enjoy far greater efficiency in running your business. For as low as $9.95 a month and 5.5 cents a minute you can have 5 mailboxes and superior services listed on our web site http://freedomvoice.com/04190 to take your business to a higher level. 1-888-267-1383
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If you have a business or a product that you would like to promote, where should you spend your money to advertise it? I bounced ideas back and forth with my TOP marketing friends for hours before coming up with my top five. There are literally dozens of effective ways to promote your website. However, I wanted to save you time and money, so I’m giving you the 5 most profitable marketing methods.
Here are my top five:
#5) Adwords - Google Adwords is a solid place to advertise. People who are looking for a specific product or service turn to Google. They type in certain keywords and if you’ve paid for your ad to appear for those specific keywords, then your ad appears on the right-hand page of their search results. Your goal is to convert these visitors to buyers, but your website must meet three essential elements: PRICE, PRODUCT, and EASY ORDERING. When customers visit you from Adwords, you get about 8 seconds to show them these three things so they can fork their money over to you OR move on to the next ad.
#4) Autoresponders - If you have a product or service, then you must have a newsletter or opt-in form somewhere on your website. If you do not, then you could be losing out on potential future customers as well as missing the opportunity to capitalize on those customers visiting your site right now. Aweber says that your product must be seen FIVE times before a customer will make a decision to buy. By consistently emailing these potential customers, you increase your changes of turning a visitor into a buyer.
#3) Teleseminars - This is starting to take off big time in the marketing world. There are places that offer FREE 800 numbers for people to dial in and listen to you speak. There are two ways to capitalize. If you have a product or service, you can host your own free or low-cost teleseminar and hold an hour telephone call promoting your product or service. If you want to make money as an affiliate for a specific product then interview the creator of that product and direct people on the phone to your affiliate webpage (add the affiliate link to the product).
#2) Magazines - Write article after article after article. At the end of the article, add a “Resource Box” that will direct customers to your product or service. RSS Feeds and Search Engines are picking up these articles and that equals free advertising for the life of the article. Your article can be picked up by hundreds of websites - and be seen and read for many years.
#1) Joint Ventures - Don’t do all the work, let your other business owners push your product. Let’s say that you are working day and night making about 10 sales per week at $10. You pocket $100 a week. If there were 20 people pushing your product at 1 sale per person, then you pocket $200 but you really didn’t do anything. Now, if those 20 people made the same 10 sales, then you pocket $2,000. Subtract their fees, and you have made some decent money. Add about 100 people to your sales force, and think of the possibilities. The easiest way to do joint ventures is to set up an affiliate program on your website.
Kit Elliott, The Traffic Toolchest, is a business development consultant, speaker, author, and copywriter. Kit also teaches marketing strategies and professional selling and has teamed up with big name markerters to bring the Ultimate Search Promotion and The Million Dollar Round Table http://www.zmillion.com. He is also the author of a free book titled: The Traffic Toolchest (which can be obtained free)Kit Elliott’s products and services are availabe from his web site http://www.thetraffictoolchest.com
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It’s interesting to see how resourceful people become when starting their own business. Especially when budget is tight, creative juices go into high gear. I recall my days in corporate marketing when every event, whether it be a sales conference, partner summit or tradeshow had to have tchotchkes. (”Tchotchke” is Yiddish for those corporate giveaways you see at tradeshows, usually small trinkets branded with the company’s logo. If the tchotchkes are really cool, some people even call them “swag” or “schwag.”)
It is not uncommon for marketing managers to spend upwards of $20,000 per event for straight swag. For some of the higher-end swag, it could cost up to $30 per product when you’re dealing with custom branded USB drives, mini-mice and golf gear. All in the name of brand awareness - an unquantifiable, zero-ROI marketing expense. So why do they do it? Because they can.
But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and small business owners excel at finding the best resources under desperate measures. Ever since I’ve started my own company, I’ve become more skilled and more disciplined at making my marketing dollars stretch. When I wanted to create my own branded tchotchkes, someone had introduced me a vendor that could set up a store front for my branded products, manage the inventory, fulfillment, returns/exchanges, payment and customer support all with no upfront costs. The best part was that there was no minimum when I had been used to buying into minimum quantity requirements of 500 units. The vendor is Cafepress (www.cafepress.com) - a 6 year old start-up in Foster City that is backed by Sequoia Ventures. You can brand various items with your artwork to use as tchotchkes or set up an online store and sell your branded products. I didn’t see any mini-mice or USB drives, but you can get started with your basic apparel, mugs and office accessories, to name a few. If you decide to sell your products, Cafepress mails you a monthly check with your earnings.
As I come across these types of resources and tools, I will continue to publish them to my small and medium business (SMB) community, SMBxchange, Inc. To share best practices, get your business featured on the site, and learn about new technologies, products and resources, join www.smbxchange.com
Betty Liang, spent most of her professional career in various marketing management positions with companies such as Ricoh, Cisco, and Oracle. She is now focused on her own small business helping other small and medium businesses advance their technology capabilities through exchange opportunities.
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Your direct mail package clears a major hurdle as your prospect opens the envelope. One hand reaches in and pulls out the letter while the other sets the envelope aside. Unfolded now and in full view, the reader glances down at the first couple of lines.
The moment of truth has arrived and you are — in the form of your letter — face-to-face with your prospect. Your fate is in their hands. And the next three to five seconds will largely determine whether your marketing effort succeeds or fails. Because it’s during these critical first few seconds that your prospect decides whether or not to continue reading.
That’s why the foremost objective of your opening is to capture the prospect’s attention. Every competent sales person knows that this is step one in the selling process, for without attention there can be no -
Interest
Conviction
Desire
Close
“OK. Show Me What You’ve Got.”
Have you ever had this happen to you in a face-to-face sales presentation? You’re escorted into your prospect’s office. And no sooner than you shake hands and settle into your chair the prospect, arms folded across his chest, stares across the desk at you and says: “OK. Show me what you’ve got.”
While this type of “show me what you’ve got” reception is rare in face-to-face sales presentations, speaking from experience I can tell you it does happen. On the other hand, “show me what you’ve got” is likely to be the prevalent attitude you encounter when “selling on paper.” Keep this fact firmly in mind as you craft your letter opening and you’ll avoid the type of dull and irrelevant openers we all see way too much of in our mailboxes. Most important, you’ll make the most of those critical first few seconds when your prospect focuses on your letter.
Three Effective Ways To Open A Sales Letter
There are literally hundreds of effective, attention-grabbing ways to open a sales letter. Here are three that I have found to be particularly profitable, all of which are easily adaptable to any number of direct mail marketing situations:
1. Ask a question - A good question is immediately reader involving; it provokes thought and will draw the reader into your message. Here are a few examples from my client files:
If I could show you a way to slash your health insurance costs by 40% — and still get top-quality care…would you be interested?
A similar version of the same opening:
Fed up with the high cost and burdening state mandates of ordinary health insurance plans?
And here’s another question-asking opening. One nicely set up with a provocative lead in:
You may regard this as “none of my business.” But I’d appreciate your digesting this information before reaching that conclusion.
Here’s the question: Are you paying too much for payroll services? And getting short-changed on service?
2. Be Direct and To The Point - In many cases you’re likely to be writing to the classic, type A, dominant-driver personalities that make up a majority of the world’s business owners and top executives. One effective approach with this audience is to open your letter in a very direct and to the point manner such as -
You’ve got enough people trying to waste your time with products and services you don’t really want or need. I’m not one of those people.
Or…
Right off the bat I want you to know one thing. I won’t waste your time.
This letter - every word of it - is about how my company can help your company make more money and be more competitive.
Are you selling an award-winning product with good reviews? If so, here’s another way you can put your positive press to good use…with this straightforward opening that cuts to the chase and gets right down to business:
Windows User Magazine voted it the Best Windows Utility of 2004.
PC Magazine says it’s “…essential…hard to imagine running Windows without it…”
PC Computing says it’s “…a lean and mean program-launching machine that should be found on every Windows user’s computer…”
This is what legendary copywriter and direct marketing Pro Herschell Gordon Lewis calls the “here’s what the experts say” opening and no lead-in is needed. Immediately after the salutation you launch right into it by quoting the favorable comments of industry experts.
3.Build Rapport - As you know, in the beginning of every sales presentation you make a concerted effort to build a rapport with your prospect. You try to find common ground. Interests that the two of you share. You look for opportunities to pay sincere compliments.
Starting your sales letter off in a similar fashion can be a good way to capture the favorable attention of your prospect. For example, you’re a tour guide and your specialty is scuba diving expeditions. You target a list of known scuba divers and this is how your letter opens:
You and I are part of a remarkable group.
Someone who’s never been on a scuba dive could never understand it.
See how the writer creates an immediate rapport with the prospect? The core message here is, “you and I are part of a very exclusive and very cool group.” What if the writer had started off instead by saying, “You are part of a remarkable group.” The impact wouldn’t have been nearly as strong, would it? That’s because “You and I” infuses the line with the magical element of rapport.
Here’s another example from a B-to-B mailing:
If you’re like I am, before you make a big decision you make sure you have all the facts. Just logical, isn’t it? When the stakes are high, there’s no such thing as “too much information.” (But too often we get too little information.)
The subtext here is, “You and I are smart guys. Before we make a big decision, we do our homework.”
Paying someone a sincere compliment can also be an excellent rapport builder and letter-starting technique. Just be sure there’s some basis for the compliment. (This speaks to the importance of good list selection.)
Here are a couple of examples, the first from a subscription solicitation letter for Bon Appetit Magazine:
Congratulations!
You know more about sound nutrition and smart consumer shopping than any generation before. You cook with more imagination. You serve with more style.
The next example comes from a letter sent out by a collision repair shop to build new referring relationships with insurance agents.
You didn’t get to be as successful as you are by accident. Far from it. You got there by knowing your business. And by knowing what’s important to your clients.
Before you write your sales letter think long and hard about what type of opening will work best. Because surviving your moment of truth — when your prospect is at point blank range with you and your company — will determine whether -
checks come in
the phone rings
your follow-up phone call gets through.
About the author
Ernest Nicastro, a direct marketing consultant, copywriter and lead-generation specialist, heads up Positive Response, an award-winning marketing firm specializing in B-to-B marketing and lead-generation. For your FREE copy of the Positive Response Special Report, 77 Sure-Fire Marketing Tips Guaranteed To Boost Results, email Ernest (subject line Tips) at ENicastro@positiveresponse.com. Or, contact him by phone at 614.747.2256. For more information visit http://www.positiveresponse.com.
© 2006 Ernest Nicastro
You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the “About the author” message).
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When we first encounter God in the Bible, He is immersed in the act ofcreation. It is an act that provides pleasure and self-satisfaction.”God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good.” (Gen1:31) We who are made in God’s image are also meant to create, toco-create with God. We are His instruments here on Earth. God’s ideastake shape in our ideas and become the work of our hands.
It sometimes seems as though the world is divided into two camps -those who are “creative” and those who are not. Nothing could befurther from the truth. We are all born with innate creative ability.Young children automatically create. They do not need to be shown howto express themselves creatively. They build with blocks, scribblewith crayons, explore with clay and paint, sing and dance with glee,and they do so with both abandon and determination. It is an act ofjoy. While having a definite purpose in mind, they create purely tocreate. The results have a freshness and spontaneity to them that manyadults attempt to capture in their own creative endeavors.
At some point, however, we begin to attempt a more realistic approachto our creative projects. We begin to feel that there is a “right” wayfor our pictures to look, our songs to sound, our dance steps to be.Perhaps some well-meaning adult told us to color in the lines, or wesimply began to observe other adult’s creativity at work. Regardless,we begin to judge our work, and decide it doesn’t measure up to ourown or other’s expectations. We forget the joy of creating and insteadfocus on the outcome.
It is possible, however, to reclaim that lost joy and nurture thecreativity within us. Julia Cameron in “The Artist’s Way” (G.P.Putnam’s Sons) tells us that “when we open ourselves to ourcreativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within usand our lives.” She goes on to say that we must give ourselvespermission to be bad at our creative endeavors, because the fear ofbeing bad is often the only thing keeping us from being good. We needto send our inner judge away for the duration and allow ourselves tobe beginners, to create for the pure joy of creating. Cameronemphasizes the fact that we alone do not do the creating. God worksthrough us. As she states in the artist’s prayer: “Great Creator, Iwill take care of the quantity. You take care of the quality.” We mustopen ourselves up to the flow that is within us.
Exploring our creativity also gives us another opportunity to get toknow ourselves. In the words of T. Byram Karasu in “The Art ofSerenity”, artistic acts “intensify emotions, heighten the sense ofexistence, and invite contemplation. One need not be a fine artist.Woodworking, gardening, writing letters, weaving, or knitting couldserve as a prism.” Just as we can come to know much about God throughGod’s creation, so the works that we create (with God’s assistance)can tell us much about ourselves. The act of creating can also be verytherapeutic in that we can release emotions that might otherwiseremain buried inside.
10 Ways to Nurture Your Creativity
1)Pay attention to the world around you - engage your senses. What arethe sights, smells, and sounds that you encounter each day?2)Indulge a passion that you have left behind, a hobby or sport that you used to enjoy.3)Try something that you have always wanted to do.4)Play a game - allow yourself to have fun.5)Write a letter to a friend.6)Take a crayon and some paper and scribble.7)Encounter nature - work in a garden or go for a walk.8)Daydream9)Cut out an inspiring quote from a book and stick it to yourrefrigerator.10)Don’t worry about the outcome - enjoy the process!
Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur is editor of “The Spiritual WomanNewsletter” http://www.spiritualwoman.net and author of “Letters toMary from a Young Mother” (iUniverse, 2004). She has a Master of ArtsDegree in Applied Theology from Elms College and is married with twoyoung sons.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur is editor of “The Spiritual Woman Newsletter” http://www.spiritualwoman.net and author of “Letters to Mary from a Young Mother” (iUniverse, 2004). She has a Master of Arts Degree in Applied Theology from Elms College and is married with two young sons.
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In Part 1, I discussed how traditional marketing is no longer
working the way it used to. This is happening for a variety of
reasons — people have too many mass media choices,
they’re bombarded with way too many marketing messages,
the Internet is adding accountability to advertising, etc.
So if traditional marketing is no longer effective, then how
will you get the word out about your products or services?
What Internet Marketer Seth Godin, author of the book
Permission Marketing, calls permission marketing.
Permission marketing is when your customers give you
permission to market to them. This is opposite from
traditional marketing, also known as interruption marketing
(another term coined by Godin).
Interruption marketing works by interrupting you. Nobody
watches television for the commercials. Nobody flips
through a magazine for the ads. But that’s how interruption
marketing gets you to buy something.
Permission marketing is completely different. With
permission marketing, customers look forward to hearing
from you. They LIKE receiving information about your
products and services. That’s because they’ve agreed to
enter into a relationship with you. And if permission
marketing is done correctly, you’ll eventually develop a
stronger relationship with your customers than you ever
would have with interruption marketing. (But that doesn’t
mean interruption marketing doesn’t have its place. More on
that later.)
Permission marketing isn’t new. In fact, it’s older than
interruption marketing. Back before there was mass media,
business owners routinely developed long-term
relationships with their customers. And customers expected
to be involved with the selling process from the beginning.
Now, of course, we no longer need to be dependent on
building relationships face-to-face. With the Internet, we
have a whole host of low-cost options available to us, which
makes permission marketing easier now than it was
before.
Here’s how it works. You start by developing something that
your customers find valuable enough to give you permission
to contact them on a regular basis. E-newsletters or e-zines,
which are e-mail newsletters, are popular and so are Web
blogs. Web blogs are like online journals. For a fun sample,
check out http://www.boingboing.net Or Seth Godin has his
own blog — http://www.sethgodin.com
But e-zines and Web blogs aren’t the only things of value
people sign up for — you can offer them classes delivered
via e-mail or tips or contests or points programs or special
offers or whatever your creativity can come up with.
While it is possible to develop a relationship with customers
using only offline techniques (for instance, a printed
newsletter you mail to your customers) it’s less expensive
and more effective to use the Internet. It’s quick and easy for
your customers to sign up via your Web site and it’s cheap
for you to send it out via e-mail.
However, in order to get people to sign up, you first need to
tell them about it. That’s where interruption marketing
comes in. You still need to get the word out about what
you’re offering. Then once they sign up, you can start
building the relationship.
Is this a lot of work? Yes. Is it more work than interruption
marketing? Yes again. But is it more effective than
interruption marketing? It can be. Especially since
interruption marketing isn’t working the way it used to.
I feel that permission marketing favors small business
owners. That’s because permission marketing only works
when customers and businesses form a relationship, and
customers prefer forming relationships with people rather
than entities. Customers want to know the person behind
the business, not just the business itself.
But that doesn’t mean big corporations can’t employ
permission marketing techniques. They just need to get
creative about it. Perhaps developing a spokesperson or a
business “personality” or a forum or group of people.
The important thing is to start thinking about how marketing
is changing and what you can do about it.
(Resource for article: Seth Godin, Permission Marketing)
Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and
Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She
offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine
their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting
principles to become more successful at attracting new
clients, selling products and services and boosting
business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.com
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If you were a carpenter, you would need a hammer and nails, right?
Well, since you’re an Internet Marketer, there are certain tools you need as well. If you are serious about making the big bucks, you need to be as familiar with the following “tools” as a carpenter is with a hammer…
Why not take this little quiz to see if you are a Master, Intermediate, or Novice Marketer?
Ad-Trackers
a. Software that writes ads for you
b. Software that counts how many clicks or sales you’ve made
c. People that you pay to watch your Alexa ratings
Autoresponders
a. Automatic email messages
b. Car parts
c. Books about Internet Success
Brandible Ebooks
a. Western Books
b. Books about Branding Your Business Name
c. Electronic books that can be branded with your business name and info
Ecovers
a. Electric blankets
b. Pictures of boxes and books that don’t exist
c. The name of a popular search engine
Pay-per-clicks
a. Search engines that you agree to pay money to for advertising
b. Money you receive when someone buys your product
c. A new phone service
The answers are in this order: b, a, c, b, a-So, how did you do?
0-1 Novice: You need help-but don’t despair, keep reading!
2-3 Intermediate - Not bad, but you could use a bit of training to be even more successful
4-5 Hey, you’re pretty good! You must be one of those Life-Long Learners!
Everything above, which is not the exhaustive list by far, is important to know about to getting started in the very competitive field of Internet Marketing.
If you want to know more about this exciting opportunity to make real money with on the Internet, go to www.internetmarketingoasis.com.
Dirk Wagner is the CEO of http://www.internetmarketingoasis.com a powerful resource for needed marketing tools and creator of the #1 IMO Marketing Toolbar. He also is the publisher of a free home business online course at http://www.team4success.biz.
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