Can you imagine you're ninety years old and
still hiking up mountains with your grandchildren, bench pressing more
than most twenty year olds, and making milli0ns of dollars?
This past week Jack LaLanne, America's first TV fitness guru, turned ninety.
Not only is he still sound of mind, in great shape, he's made milli0ns and is
still earning more. How does he do it?
You know it is important to eat your fruits and veggies, exercise regularly,
avoid drinking and smoking and get enough sleep to stay healthy. To that list
Jack LaLanne would add, set clear goals, exercise with weights twice a week,
avoid eating between meals and keep your mind active.
Of course you can't just eat well and skip the exercise or avoid the drinking
and smoking and skimp on sleep. Jack LaLanne is still going strong at 90 because
he does ALL the things required to stay healthy every day.
Marketing your business requires the same comprehensive, disciplined approach
Jack LaLanne uses to stay healthy at ninety. To attract new clients and retain
existing ones you need to set goals, target a need, get attention, prompt action,
grow your network, establish credibility, provide a solution, follow up, demonstrate
value and stay in touch.
These are the ten essential steps to marketing your business.
Like a staircase, the steps are connected and
you need to put them together in the proper sequence and use each of
them regularly. A common small business marketing mistake is to focus
on just one or two of the above steps and hope for the best.
Joan, who owns a sports facility, called last week about her advertising campaign.
It was costing her significant dollars but wasn't translating into new clients.
What was the problem?
Advertising can help get attention but to be effective it needs to be focused
on clients' needs and prompt them to action. Joan's advertising was focused on
her solution, not on prospects' needs resulting in a disappointing response.
Once she rewrote her ads to target prospects' needs, her response rates and business
revenue increased.
Larry's promotional efforts were working but he wasn't having success translating
all the attention he was getting into dollars and cents. Thanks to top search
engine positioning and hundreds of links to his web site, thousands of people
were visiting his site each day. Yet, on average, only five people per day were
contacting him about his services. Larry was doing a great job of getting attention
but wasn't prompting his prospects to action.
Learn how to use your web site to generate a
steady stream of qualified prospects and revenue with "Creating
Web Sites that Sell".
Your Marketing Fitness
You can have a steady flow of new prospects and clients each month if
you adopt a healthy small business marketing strategy. Here's how.
1. Set Goals
Regularly review your marketing. Assess what's working and what isn't and set
objectives for lead generation, client acquisition and retention.
2. Target a Need
Focus your ads, your elevator speech and your small business marketing
copy on prospects' concerns.
3. Get Attention
Prospects need to know that you exist before they will contact you.
4. Prompt Action
In order to get prospects to give you their contact information, inquire about
your services or buy your products, prompt them to action. Use your marketing
copy and your offers to get prospects to call you, visit your web site or your
store, and buy your products and services.
5. Grow Your Network
The more qualified leads you have, the better.
6. Establish Credibility
You need to demonstrate your competence and convince prospects to trust you before
they'll make a purchase.
7. Follow Up
Old leads are cold leads. Follow up when leads are fresh. When people contact
you, send an immediate email response and give them a call within 24 hours.
8. Provide a Solution
Make sure your products and services are the solution to your
prospects’ problems.
9. Demonstrate Value
If you want someone to buy, they need to understand the benefits.
10. Stay in Touch
Don't let prospects forget you when they need you and are ready to buy.
If you increased the time you spent working out each day and
improved your diet, you'd start to see a difference in a couple
of weeks. You’d be stronger
and healthier.
Small Business marketing is the same. You need to do all the right things
consistently. Start using these ten marketing steps and in a couple of
weeks you'll start to see a change. You'll find more prospects contacting
you and a steady increase in revenue.
Whether you want to be fit and profitable at ninety or not you
can learn from Jack LaLanne’s continued health and prosperity.
It just takes some discipline and knowledge. Apply both to keep
yourself and your business in good health.
Email Charlie Cook Helping you attract more clients
and be more successful
