Archives - Marketing Power Concepts

5 Simple Strategies to Boost Your Advertising Results
It is often said that writing and advertisement or a direct mail piece is nothing more than salesmanship in print or whatever medium you choose.

5 Tips To Double Your Sales
If you want to know how to double your sales in 6 months and send your sales sky-rocketing you must do the 5 things in this article.

6 Simple Rules to Increase Your Direct Mail Response Rate
It almost doesn't matter what business you are in, direct mail properly executed works. Sometimes it may not be very economical if you sell a low priced item, but a well crafted letter can get a prospect to take action.

10 Marketing Realities That Will Change Your Business For Ever
10 short simple marketing realities that will change the way you think about your business.

10 Steps to Gaining Credibility in Your Field
Bob Blye gives 10 short tips to help you become a "Most Trusted Advisor" to your clients and prospects.

11 Profoundly Fast Ways To Fix A Website
The following article was written by John Forde. He publishes the COPYWRITER'S ROUNDTABLE. This is a great newsletter with many very practical tips and always a great read. The simple techniques that follow are ones that especially apply to websites that feature a sales promo.

11 Quick Steps to Gaining Credibility in Your Field
Here are 11 quick steps that you can take to ensure that you are the recognized expert in your industry and thus resulting in converting more prospects into clients.

196 Words of Wisdom That Have Turned Businesses Around
Remember that the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interest or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising.

A Few Of My Favourite Outsourcing Sites. NEW
Here is a list of a number of sites where you can find outsourcing for many different tasks, such as virtual assistants, web site design and development, programming, copywriting, graphic design, training design and ghost writing.

A Foolproof Way to Evaluate Marketing Advice
From time to time, we have all been disappointed by someone selling marketing advice and services, who it turns out has no business doing so. Mostly you only find out once you have engaged them and spent the money. Here is a way I have always protected myself from people like this.

A Quick Source Of New Revenue
When you think of growing your business or of increasing your profits, do you immediately think of finding new clients. If so you are not alone. Obviously if you are a start-up, bringing in new clients is likely to be a preoccupation for you. However, StreetSmart Marketers know that bringing in new customers is a most time consuming and expensive way for any organization to increase their profits. They look for ways to grow without spending gobs of money on expensive marketing campaigns.

A Smart and Simple Referral System Anyone Can Use
This morning I received an e-mail from a very successful sales person I know. He was inviting me to attend an interesting tradeshow and event in Florida next month. It was a great invitation, but I am unable to attend, however I was more intrigued with the way he signed-off than anything else.

A Website That Works
I am participating in a conference for successful entrepreneurs. My job is to deliver a presentation and then to work one on one with of the 20 business owners to help them develop a strategy to grow their businesses and become more successful. As part of my preparation, I spent time reviewing each company’s web site.

Although Some Things Change Rapidly In Business, Other Things Never Change.
The frequency that people view advertisements produces certain results. Thomas Smith of London wrote this quite some time ago, see how relevant it still is today.

Are You a Giver Company or a Taker Company
As a StreetSmart Marketer, you know there are giver companies and there are taker companies, just like there are people who are givers and there are people who are takers. We are attracted to people and to companies who are givers, so it is a good idea to build this into the way you market.

Are You Revealing Your Price Too Soon?
A common mistake made by copywriters and advertisers is to start by making a big promise in your headline or at the beginning of your copy, and then follow with "for only $499.95!" Bringing up price is wrong at this point.

Be Your Own Customer
There is a story that when Apple was developing its early products, Steve Jobs made sure he checked out the design of the packaging and the product himself before it ever went to customers. He felt that he needed to understand how a customer felt to receive and open what Apple was selling.

Become A Recognized Expert In Your Industry
StreetSmart Marketers know that one of the best lead generators is the free publicity generated when you are perceived to be a recognized expert in your industry. It doesn’t matter what field of business you are in. It can be in carpet cleaning, auto repair, gardening or quantum physics. If your clients and the media perceive you to be an expert, they will seek you out for advice...

Contact Campaigns: Part One: The Antidote To Low Response Rates
If you are tired of sending out too many direct marketing pieces and getting too few responses, read what our guest author, Stu Heinecke has to say about converting over 80% of your responses.

Contact Campaigns: Part Two: Contact Campaign Basics
Now that you have learned the fundamentals of direct marketing, Stu Heinecke, our guest author will teach you the critical elements to get your marketing piece ready to send.

Contact Campaigns: Part Three: Contact Campaign Gallery
Now that you have learned the fundamentals of direct marketing, Stu Heinecke, our guest author shows you some examples of award winning and simply terrific campaigns.

Customers are Not as Gullible as They Once Were
Consumer confidence in media has declined dramatically. So what can the average business owner do to combat this? Here are 6 streetsmart ways to use marketing that will show your prospects that you are not just full of hype.

Could It Be You Are Afraid of Marketing?
It doesn't matter how long you have been in business, sometimes you need help when you are stuck. To be an effective marketer there are certain questions you need to ask yourself.

Do You Blame Your Prospects When Your Products Or Services Are Not Selling As Well As You Would Like?
Many firms get it backwards. They fall in love with their products instead of their customers. It's not your customers' responsibility to understand what you sell and how it could help them, it's yours. This is one of the most fundamental principles of marketing.

Do You Remember The Great Vision You Had When You Started Your Business?
At this time of the year, when we are making New Year’s resolutions and setting goals, it is useful to look back at that great vision and reflect. Not from a glass half-empty perspective, that serves no one. But from a perspective that says “Whatever I can conceive, I can achieve!”

Do You Want To Improve The Effectiveness Of Your Web Site?
When it comes to websites, most business owners make the mistake of confusing glitz with effectiveness. If your primary objective is to sell, then the single most important issue is text. Not graphics and definitely not fancy flash technology.

Does Your Belief in This Myth Prevent You From Generating More Sales?
One of the most pervasive myths is that you should write short copy because people won’t read long copy. In test after test this has been proven wrong and yet the myth prevails. The truth is that people read whatever interests them…

Ensure Your Product Or Service is a Winner in the Market
A simple fact of life; everybody is in competition with everybody else. This means unless you are better than your competition or at least equal to them you are in a dangerous position and you should probably get out of the business.

Fire yourself and fix your business
When you run your own business, it is sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. However we often look at other people’s businesses and know immediately what we would do if we were running their business.

Fresh Hot Pizza Delivered To Your Door In Under 30 Minutes Or Its Free! Guaranteed.
Don’t limit yourself or your business with a fear of lawsuits. Build and grow your business with integrity and ethics, make sure that your value system leaves your clients and prospects in better shape than when you found them.

Getting Emotion Into Your Business Marketing
In an earlier issue I talked about remembering that business prospects are people too and that they make purchases for emotional reasons. When marketing to business prospects, remember the following emotional appeals, and include them either in your sales pitches and in your copy.

Getting Paid to Prospects
"If your phones aren't ringing in, then you'd better be ringing out!" So, ...if you don't like cold calling for any reason, here's a simple way to get people to call you. If you do it right, you can even get paid to attract new prospects who will call you for help.

Great Recovery......the key to customer problems
Much of what I have covered in past newsletters has been about how to get new customers. An equally important part of marketing is keeping the customers you have. Today I want to give you a simple but very practical 4 step process for dealing with customer problems.

How Much is Failing To Communicate Regularly With Your Existing Customers Costing You?
If you are an established business, how much time, resources and energy do you spend on marketing. StreetSmart Marketers have numbers that look like: 10% of their time and energy to the total market, 30% to ideal prospects and 60% to their existing customers.

How Often Should You Repeat a Mailing?
Here are some specific results that illustrate the impact of multiple impressions of the same advertisement to a single list.

How Newsletters Help You Stay In Touch
Many business owners worry about how to stay in touch with a growing customer base. They know when you build relationships, you build sales, but worry about the cost of person to person contact. One of the most common responses is to start a newsletter.

How Testing Your Market Can Improve Your Bottom Line
No one knows for sure if any marketing idea is going to work until they try it, yet many business owners get an idea and implement it. While taking action is an important contributor to success, this approach can be costly.

How The Most Successful Business Owners Will Use Leverage to Dramatically Grow Profits in ‘08 NEW
As part of your annual business plan, include a marketing calendar that will help you grow your business. Use leverage in order to increase your clients, your sales and your response rate for mailing pieces.

How to Avoid B.S. From Your Marketing Consultant
Don't just take the advice of an expert, use your own intuition and you can save money and achieve greater results in your business. Look for someone who is willing to be paid on results and is not looking for a quick fix solution for your business.

How To Beat Spam Filters And Get Your E-mails Read
Clayton Makepeace, America's highest paid copywriter has a list of questions that you should ask yourself while writing your headline for an advertisement, direct mail, an email or web page

How To Cost Effectively Double Your Client Base
Imagine having access to a marketing strategy so powerful, it could add tens or hundreds of thousands to your bottom line overnight… but few people ever do it because it seems too simple!

How To Double Or Triple The Response From Your Promotions
Clayton Makepeace, America's highest paid copywriter has a list of questions that you should ask yourself while writing your headline for an advertisement, direct mail, an email or web page

How to Figure Out Where You Should be Spending Your Scarce Marketing Dollars, Even if You Don't Spend Money on Marketing!
Don't rely on referrals and networking to sustain your stream of new prospects. Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth books says, "Lead generation is a nonstop endeavor…"

How To Generate Leads From Your Advertising
I received a call the other day from a consultant, whose specialty is improving the performance of corporate web sites. He told me he had been advertising his services in two magazines and that the results had been disappointing to say the least. He wanted to know how to generate more leads from his advertising.

How To Get Great Testimonials
As customers become more cautious and more skeptical, so does the need for great testimonials become more critical. Most of us have a few testimonials, but almost no one has a process for systematically going after them as a strategic priority. Social proof is one of the most powerful selling tools available and StreetSmart Marketers make it a priority to obtain it and provide it to prospects.

How To Get More Out Of Your Networking
Networking is the marketing tool of choice for many business owners, but many are only mildly effective at it, resulting in a huge wasted opportunity. StreetSmart Marketers constantly find ways to optimize every marketing dollar and every marketing activity. Here's how you can optimize your networking.

How To Get More Out Of Your Web Marketing
Many of us build web sites in the hope that they will drive our business growth. Instead what happens, is that not very much happens!

How To Recession Proof Your Business NEW
With the USA in an economic recession, Canadians will feel the squeeze as well. You will need to market harder and wiser in order to stay on top.

How To Turn a Request for a Discount to Your Advantage
When a prospect asks for a discount, what do you do? Many of us simply give it and accept a lower profit on the sale. This is fine if you have a clear reason for giving it. Perhaps you wanted to keep a competitor out, or you never intended to charge the full price you asked for, but what do you do if you don't want to give the prospect a discount and do it simply because you fear losing the sale?

Insider Secrets on Big Ticket Selling
Subscribe to Graham MacGregor’s “The Big Ticket Selling Report” and receive strategies and techniques that produce remarkable big ticket sales ideas to rapidly increase your big ticket sales.

Interview with Biz Link Radio
Michael Hepworth speaks with Biz Link Radio, listen in to this amazing podcast.

Invest Time In Working With Your Staff
Where are we going? What's expected of me? What's in it for me? Where do I go when I need help? If your staff, particularly the customer-facing ones, don't know the answers to these four simple questions, they may be moving your organization in directions you don't want to go.

Is Business To Business Marketing, Different Than Business To Consumer?
Last week while discussing marketing with a number of consultants, one mentioned that he though my ideas were fantastic for consumer marketing and advertising, but that business to business marketing was different. He declared it had to be more factual, down to earth, logical and feature rich. I think these are alternative words for boring.

Is Fear Of Marketing Strangling Your Business?
Always make marketing a priority in your business practice, learn from what your clients say about why they bought from you in order to help you build your confidence in marketing.

Keep Your Marketing At The Leading Edge in 2005
If you want to continuously create marketing that delivers, you should tune up your marketing engine at least once a year. I like to do it early in each new year.

Knowing Means Doing NEW
You may know the things that you need to do in order to be successful in your business, but are you doing them? There are times when a good coach can make all the difference in your business.

Marketing Clutter Is Making Every Business Owner's Life Much Tougher
According to marketing authority Chet Holmes, decision makers are now exposed to 30,000 commercial messages daily, as compared to only 3,000 ten years ago. Similarly, the cost of selling has almost tripled over the past decade.

Marketing Moron
Do you know any marketing morons? I recently received a brochure in the mail from a landscaper. It must be something to do with spring! The cover of the black and white brochure, had a picture of a park like garden and the words: "Welcome to my world!"

May The Force Be With You! Leverage Is Everywhere You Look.
" Leverage is like 'Star Wars' 'The Force': It's what entrepreneurs do to become successful, it's all around us, but we don't recognize it as such. But if you understand it and learn its power, then you are able to make much more consistent, strategic and proactive use of it."

Monkey Trap Marketing
As a kid growing up in the bush in what’s now Zimbabwe, I was always fascinated by how the local tribesmen lived off the land. I learned early on that monkeys are considered food, but of course are both hard to catch or kill with traditional weapons. When you are hungry, your mind works overtime and so they developed a simple but ingenious way to catch monkeys.

Never Cold Call Again, Ensure That All Your Sales Calls Are Inbound Sales Calls, pt 1
Stop struggling as a business owner by making endless amounts of outbound calls when you can learn the marketing process that will guarantee to make your phone ring with prospect's calls

Never Cold Call Again, Getting Publicity for Your Bait Piece, pt 2
Use your written article or press release as a "bait piece" to draw in more prosepective clients. Once you have made contact learn how to nurture these prospects so that they understand that you are an expert in your field.

People Buy What They Want And Not What They Need! NEW
To attract new prospects and clients you need to be more than just a business. See the 5 steps Louisa Nedkov took to become an indespensable expert in her business.

People Search the Internet to Solve a Problem, Not to Buy! NEW
Have you built a website that is not producing the resutls you want, learn the 2 most important questions you need to answer to keep prospects at your website once they have found it.

Personalized Cartoons As Response Engines
Guest article by Stu Heinecke. Want to wow your prospects? Here is a new and fascinating way to use personalized cartoons in direct response mailings that is sure to generate winning campaigns. It is fun too.

Podcasting: The New Marketing Powerhouse. Guest article by Blue Melnick of Virtual Tape Drive
Learn how to send out the right message in the right way to attrack the right type of prospects to your business with the cutting edge technology of podcasting

Putting Your Guarantee Where Your Money Is
The following article appeared in the Globe and Mail on 17/03/05. It covers a topic we have addressed before, but it remains valid and powerful if you act on it. Timothy Eaton had it right 120 years ago. His slogan - “Goods satisfactory of money refunded” revolutionized Canadian business.

Quick Low Cost Method To Test The Effectiveness Of Your Headline
Having an effective headline is critical to getting your message across to your target audience. If the headline doesn’t catch their attention and pique their interest, they will not read the rest of your information.

Reduce Risk And Increase Sales
From time to time I meet people whose work impresses me as being valuable, practical and worth sharing with my readers. This guest essay is one of those. I recently met Graham McGregor at a conference in San Diego. What he says is worth reading. "The problem with what I was selling was that even though it looked good (and was certainly far cheaper), it was perceived as being risky by the buying committee..."

Richard Branson's Wisdom
I have always believed that marketing starts with the product, not what you say about it. If you develop an excellent product with value that is right for your customers, then marketing it should not be difficult.

Risk Reversal
Bringing in new customers is expensive and often difficult. Here is one effective but frequently overlooked way to reduce the difficulty. The difference in attitude is subtle, but will have a huge impact on your customers' readiness to do business with you.

Romance Your Customer By Making The Easy Sale First
When dealing with your customers, are you trying to close a sale that is hard to make? If you are advertising or selling to people who have never heard of you and you start off asking for a relatively big commitment, the answer is almost certainly yes.

Set Client Expectations to Make The Sales Process Easier NEW
An example of how an experienced and competent entrepreneur can prove himself and get more business.

Simple Strategy For Getting Past Voice Mail When Cold Calling
Many people are frustrated with voice mail. It seems like an impenetrable wall between you and your prospects. It often seems the harder you try, the more voice mail you get to. Leaving a meaningful message when you hit voicemail, for my money is the preferred strategy. We all have to learn to deal with voice mail. It is a fact of life.

So You've Got a New Web Site; Does Your Customer Care?
The excitement of announcing a new website without telling people how it will help them can be like shooting yourself in the foot.

Successfully Recruiting Top Sales People
The difference in knowing how to grow your business and actually aquiring new customers can be as simple as finding the right sales people to help you sell your product. It does not require huge sums of money or marketing.

The "7" Musts Of Marketing
Marketing works if you do it consistently. It takes effort to do this but it's definitely not a one time thing. There are 7 things that need to be in place for marketing to really produce results.

The 21 Deadliest Spam Filter Violations That Prevent Your email From Getting Through
It is important to know that 40% to 70% of all e-mail, that includes legitimate ones, is getting blocked by spam filters before anyone has the opportunity to read it, according to a recent article in Time Magazine.

The Dangers Of Humour In Advertising
Driving along the highway to my next client appointment this morning, I was stuck behind a huge dump truck for a while, as the traffic inched along. The truck was carrying a large load of fresh garden soil, probably top soil destined for the flower beds of one of the large condo developments along that part of the highway. On the back of the truck was the name of the company, along with a telephone number and the slogan "Soil Yourself!".

The Key To Winning Marketing
If you merely describe what you do like most advertisers, you do nothing to create interest. Unless people actually need what you do right now, this kind of marketing simply flips the listeners “off”switch and they move onto more interesting things.

The Kiss Of Death For Yellow Pages Advertising
If you want to continually improve the performance of advertising without increasing cost. Here is some extraordinary research that has relevance for Yellow Pages Advertising, but also for anyone who advertises to a local market.

The Power of PR, Make Yourself Newsworthy
PR is a critical ingredient for success in a small business. Generally its free, you get into media you could not afford to advertise in and if done right can drive many prospects into your business.

The Power of Thank You Notes
At one time it was common practice to send hand written thank you notes for almost everything. It was simply considered good manners. Sadly this has died out over the years, to the point where it is relatively rare to receive a hand written thank you note

The Power Of The Human Mind
The key in marketing communications is conveying your message as simply and as clearly as possible. I believe we need to invest more time in making sure our message is clear.

The Role of The Small Business CEO as an Allocator of Resources
The primary job of a business owner is to continually look for ways to increase the rate of return on the equity in their business. This is true if you are a sole practitioner or the head of a large multi-national. As owners of small businesses we don't always realize this.

The Secret That Makes Millionaires
What is the difference between you and a millionaire, not much more than a few simple skills that are easy to put into action.

The Secret To Achieving Success In Any Business
I meet many people during the course of my work who go into business for themselves, simply because they are good at what they do. Take Susan, a physiotherapist who loves what she does. She worked in a multi-disciplinary clinic for some years before branching out on her own. Because she was good and she was in demand at the clinic, she believed the same would be true if she went out on her own.

The Value Of Great Ideas
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
- George Bernard Shaw
I believe there is an old Chinese proverb that asks; "When is the best time to plant a tree?" The answer is "Twenty Years ago!" The truth is that if you only plant a tree when you need it, you never get what you need, until it is too late.

There Are Only 3 Reasons a Prospect Won’t Buy From You! NEW
There are 3 reasons your prospects won't buy from you but 10 actions you can take to establish credibility with them. Learn how to build a lasting and sustainable relationship with your ideal prospect.

Use E-Mail Marketing To Increase Your Bottom Line
Over the next few months you will see more direct-marketing companies running and launching e-mail advertising campaigns. The reason; they have discovered that it works! You can discover this too, for almost no cost and low risk -- A hallmark of most of my marketing ideas.

Use Service To Open Doors To New Prospects
Kim Armstrong has a successful screen printing business. She focuses on large national firms that buy screen printing in big volumes. Her business has slowed considerably over the last 3 years and her biggest challenge has been getting targeted new prospects to see her.

Very Few Business Problems Cannot Be Solved By Adding A Few More Profitable Sales
If you have more business than you can handle, you're lucky. But don't let that stop you from always marketing your business. It is easier to handle more clients than you need than too few.

What I Learned From a Granddad Doing Magic Tricks
While waiting for a plane back home at San Diego airport, I watched a granddad entertain his grandson with a few simple magic tricks. I have always been fascinated by magic. I know it’s not magic and I always try to figure out how it is done. Sometimes I am pretty sure I know the answers, but it still fascinates me. Watching the two having fun together, got me thinking; magic and marketing are in some ways very similar.

What Makes A Business Successful
For years business owners have told me that the answer is access to timely, quality information. They've said that their ability to make important decisions is based upon experience, top advisors and information.

What To Do When a Customer Says No
Most entrepreneurs I know hate rejection and sometimes even take a customer turn down personally. There is a way of creating a positive outcome from these situations.

What's The Best Day To Send An Email
Bob Blye let's us know when the best time to reach high level CEO's by email.

What's The Difference Between Traditional Marketing and StreetSmart Marketing
Almost everyone in marketing dreams of a never-ending flow of qualified leads streaming into their business. This has been a lifelong quest for me. It has been a strange and exhilarating journey. Along the way, I have built four businesses and learned many valuable lessons; many of them the hard way, bumping my head as I went.

When Information is Abundant, Attention is Scarce
I am not sure who said it, but the above line is certainly true when it comes to marketing. As mentioned in my last newsletter, people are bombarded with marketing messages. This means if you want to make appointments with decision makers and get heard, you need to develop superior access vehicles. Telephone prospecting, using the same old type of messages won't cut it, nor will the traditional one page introductory letter accompanied by a brochure.

Why Business Seminars Don’t Work!
People don't want to waste their time seeing the same presentation or hearing the same advice. But you can not advance in your business unless you actually implement what you learn.

Why Falling In Love With Your Product Can Be Dangerous To Your Wealth!
"I have a great idea, no one is even thinking of it, there are no competitors. I just know I can make a lot of money if I can get it to market! Will you help me market it?" Twice in the last week I have had requests like this from budding entrepreneurs who are starting businesses with this view in mind

Why Simple Advice Is Sometimes The Best Advice
Don’t reject learning or advice, simply because it seems simple. The secrets to building a successful business lie not in exotic new ideas, but in consistently implementing straight forward rules and ideas that have changed little over time.

Whether You Acknowledge It or Not, Your Business Buys Customers!
Do you have plenty of clients and business but would like to upgrade your clients to ones who will spend more money and spend more frequently. If you get better at marketing than your competitors, then it becomes cheaper for you to acquire each customer than it does for your competitors and the more customers you get. What's more you can become more selective in the type of customers you acquire.

You Marketing Versus Me Marketing
During the course of a week I usually meet several people who hope to sell me something. What astonishes me is how few of these people ask questions to find out what I am interested in or worried about. Most usually start with a pitch that is aimed at impressing me with their success. I hear about all the amazing customers they have, many of whom have no bearing on what I am doing and even less on what I am interested in.