Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

Archive for August, 2007

How to Increase Repeat Sales…

By Charlie Cook   |   August 30, 2007

When I came back from lunch on Wednesday I found a package waiting for me from a copywriter who does work for me. I wasn’t expecting anything and was intrigued. Eagerly I opened the box to find a heavy gold tinted fountain pen.

I got it! A writer sending a pen as a thank you, but a fountain pen!

I haven’t used a fountain pen in decades. It was a nice thought but it wasn’t something I or anyone I know could use. Given the thousands of dollars I’d paid him it seemed cheap and went straight into the trash.

It’s not that cost is issue with a a thank you present. I’ve received Tiffany crystal from a financial advisor that cost hundreds of dollars. But it didn’t fit in our home and I couldn’t figure out what to do with it.

When you send your client a thank you present – you don’t want it to be outdated, out of place or useless – or they’ll think of you in a similar vein.

Now you know what not to do, what should you do to increase repeat sales?

You just made a sale or finished a project for a client and you’d like to get them to buy from you a second and a third time. You enjoyed working with them and you made some good solid cash and you like to make it happen again.

You know it’s at least 8 times easier to sell an existing client then a new one and you’d like to reduce your marketing costs and increase your profits. So what’s the solution?

When a client buys from you its based on the strength of the relationship. They could have bought a similar product or service from anyone but they picked you because they liked you and trusted you. It’s the strength of your relationship that gives you a competitive advantage.

What can you do to keep this advantage?

Every one likes to be appreciated and saying “Thank You” is one way of letting your clients know they are more than just another dollar to you – but to make it work you need to say thank you in the right way.

When you send a client a thank you present – send them something they want, will keep and can use. Do that and they’ll think highly of you.

For example I had one client that I’d worked with for a couple of years who spends a lot her time sailing with her family. I sent her a gift certificate to the marine supply store in her town. She couldn’t thank me enough.

Similarly a virtual assistant of mine, knowing I did a lot of hiking and skiing, sent me a gift certificate to LL Bean. I was delighted.

When you know your client well it’s easy to think of something they want that you can send them. What do you do if you don’t each client well enough to provide a thank you present tailored to their interests?

After answering a couple of questions over the phone about Blogging for Al, I received a gift pack of the barbeque sauces his company makes. Every one likes food, and thanks to Al’s gift for five minutes of my time, I won’t forget him.

You can also give clients travel certificates such as my client GetUpAndGo.com provides. Every one likes a vacation and the gift will give you permanent shelf space in your client’s minds.

What can I give you as a thank you for being a subscriber that you’ll keep and you can use?

I can give you the secrets you need to transform your web site into a profit center so you have all the money you need to take more vacations. And I’ll give you $100 off if you act before Sept 1st. Use this link to get the details >>

Most web sites don’t even generate a repeat visit much less repeat sales. Want to know how to change that so visitors come back again and again to buy from you over and over? Get the details >>

Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Work

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The Great Apple Rebate Marketing Scam

By Charlie Cook   |   August 29, 2007

Ever buy something that included a rebate so you’d essentially get the product for free or at least with a great discount?

Last fall I purchased a laptop from Apple that include a rebate of over $100. I dutifully cut off the UPC / product serial number tag from the shipping box exactly as directed in the directions and mailed it in with the paper work. Eight weeks later I received a letter saying the rebate was denied because I’d sent them the product serial number / UPC, which in fact I had. Now they wouldn’t accept a photo copy and I’d already sent them the original so what did I get? Nothing.

Think about it when a company offers a $25 or $50 rebate and it involves cutting up the shipping carton, filling in a long form with product numbers, serial numbers, etc what percentage of people will do it? And then if you deny them the rebate months later, it’s too late to take the product back and even though it turned out not to be such a good deal you keep it.

Are rebates like Apples rebate a good marketing idea?

They are one more tool that can increase the perceived value of the offer but in most cases they’re a scam. I got scamed by Apple’s rebate and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

Should you use rebates?

I strongly recommend against them – unless your goal is to get people to spend once and then alienate them as Apple is. If you do use rebates, make sure you honor them. If you do you’ll have happy customers instead of people bad mouthing your company.

What do you think?

– Charlie
Which Marketing Ideas to Use and Not to Use

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What To Do When Business Starts to Dry Up…

By Charlie Cook   |   August 28, 2007

Want to flood your business with more leads and sales?

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Get Attention and Sales

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What’s On My Web Marketing List…

By Charlie Cook   |   August 28, 2007

I’m big on making lists and then using them to guide what I do so I can make the most with the least amount of effort. I’m not lazy, it’s just that I want to get my work done so I can move on to the next project or get out the office door at 5:30 and get in some exercise before dinner.

When I built my first web site back in the late ’90s I had a short Internet marketing list. It included:

* Launch web site
* Get traffic
* Make money.

Look familiar?

I love short lists but if you’ve tried doing the above three things you discovered that there is more to successful web marketing. You can’t just launch your web site and expect to flood your site with traffic. And even if you have a flood of traffic it doesn’t mean your site will generate more than a trickle of sales. Right?

When I launched my first site I knew that traffic was one of the keys to making money but the trickle of visitors my site initially received was painful to watch. So what’d I do?

You guessed it. I made a list. I made a list of the most effective ways to generate traffic. Then item-by-item I went through the list and tested each idea until my site was getting hundreds of thousands of visitors a month.

Want to know how to the same for your site, get hundreds of thousand of visitors each month? Use this link and I’ll show you my web marketing secrets >>

Online traffic is money and I sold my second site within 18 months of launching it for four times the cost of the average home or close to a million.

That was over seven years ago and ever since I’ve been identifying the most effective ways to get traffic to your site and to convert it into cold hard cash. Here’s what’s on my current web marketing list:

1. Give people the products and information they want to market their business online and offline so they become even more successful. I’m not into trying to sell people, but I do like helping people.

2. Build long-term win-win relationships with clients. I don’t want to just sell a customer a one-time solution but to be your long-time marketing go to guru.

3. Use my website to build a massive list of qualified prospects. When I add 20% more people to my list that directly translates into 20% more income or more money I can spend on my family or on ski trips.

4. Stay-in-touch with prospects and clients. I get tons of great feedback from my readers, but what would happen if I stopped emailing you? My sales would fall like a stone.

5. Continue to increase the conversion rates at every step in the web marketing process. Whether you’re a math wiz or not you know that if you add 10% here, 20% there and 15% elsewhere in the process it has a cumulative effect. Multiply these and you can easily increase your sales 50% or more. (One client – tactic by tactic – increased sales by 1500%.)

That’s my short list of web marketing goals.

What’s on your web marketing list?

If you have a list of web marketing goals that’s a start, but goals alone won’t pay for your new car or vacation home. The next step is to move from goals to action and to results. Want to know how to do that online?

To get results online you need to know which traffic and sales generating tactics work and how to apply them. Use this link to find out how which web site marketing tactics work >>

What’s the information you want to grow your online sales?

The questions I get from people fall into the following five groupings. See if these are the ones you’ve been asking yourself.

1. How do I make money with my website?
2. What’s the best way to get tons of traffic to my site?
3. How do I grow my list of qualified prospects like crazy?
4. How can I use email to skyrocket my sales?
5. Once I get people to my site how do I convert prospects to buyers?
6. Who can I trust to help me grow my online sales?

If you’ve been asking yourself one or more of these Use the following link to get the answers to your website marketing >>

Whether you’re a list maker or not, it makes sense to find out what works to grow your business online. When you know which tactics to use you’ll attract more prospects, more buyers and more sales.

Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Get Results

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How to Market Your Small Business in Tough Times

By Charlie Cook   |   August 21, 2007

“My sales are off by 50% from two years ago. In 2005 we sold and installed over $1.2 million worth of audio and video gear in homes in the Chicago area. This year we’ll be lucky if our sales are half that. What do we do?”
– Steve, Home Audio and Video

Even if you’ve been on vacation the last couple of week’s you’ve probably noticed investors in the stock market are starting to run for the door and the real estate market is plunging in parts of the country.

How does this affect your business?

I don’t want to scare you too much, but unless your small business marketing helps you stand out from the competition, selling your products and services is going to get harder in the next few years. How bad is it? Should you be running for shelter with your business?

Absolutely not!

That’d be the worst thing you could do. What’s happening in the stock market and real estate market and elsewhere in the economy are natural corrections – but there is a ripple effect and people are becoming more cautious in their spending.

Should you be concerned?

Yes, but worrying won’t pay the bills. You need a marketing plan to come out on top.

People are still spending money and still need your products and services but they’re becoming more discerning. It’s easily possible to continue to grow your business. You could even double sales in the next 12 months, but to do so you need to stand out from the competition.

Do you want to stand out from the competition? Want to uniquely position your products and services so you can continue to grow your business?

If so, you’ve got the right objectives. Now you need to learn the most powerful secret in marketing, one that can help you double or triple your business within months.

The secret to successful small business marketing is simple; give your prospects the information they want.

I know what you’re saying.

You already do this and you’ve got a list of satisfied clients to prove it. But despite a successful track record you’re still not attracting as many new clients as you want.

I’m sure your products and services are what people want and you’ve got many satisfied clients to prove it. But if you’re not getting all the business you can handle, then your marketing isn’t working hard enough.

Most small business marketing fails because it mistakenly gives prospects information they aren’t interested in and won’t respond to.

Want to stop struggling to succeed with your business? You’ll become highly sought after when you find out how to use your marketing to position your business as the unique solution for your prospects.

When you sign up a new client, your goal is to make them happy by providing the superior service or products. What you are doing when you provide quality services is putting your clients’ interest first, and it pays off in repeat sales and referrals.

The same principle works in marketing. Put your prospects’ interest first in your marketing and you’ll stand out from the competition, become highly sought after and have more clients than you ever imagined.

This sounds incredibly obvious and simple, but the fact is that hardly any businesses actually do it. When you do, you’ll put yourself light years ahead of your competitors.

Ready to attract more clients? Discover exactly what to do to get all the clients you can handle. Use this link to get the details >>

– Charlie
Marketing Ideas for Small Business Owners That Get Results

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How Can You Create A Sense of Urgency With Your Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 17, 2007

What’s one of the biggest obstacles to increasing your sales?

It’s getting people to buy from you now, today, this second. It’s overcoming your prospects’ natural tendency to put off making a decision. Without a sense of urgency they won’t take action, won’t take out their credit card or send you a check and you won’t make as much money as you could.

What keeps your prospects from buying from you today and what can you do about it? Use this link to find out >>

Everyday I look at the list of things I want to do; return calls, writing, coaching, managing the business, biking or kayaking, dinner with the family etc and its chock full with more things than anyone could ever do in a day.

What do I do first? I circle the items on my list that are urgent to my business and to my sanity, the things that are my top priorities for the day. If I complete those items then I take a look at the other items on my list.

But you know what really happens?

Typically other urgent items get added to the top of the list and some tasks wait a long time to get done or simply fall off the list. Sound familiar?

You may have the world’s best product or service and be getting a trickle of orders but if you want to turn it into a torrent you need to prompt your prospects to buy today! Take fifty prospects in any given month and only one of them is likely to buy.

It’s not that they don’t want your product or service. But without any sense of urgency, your prospects don’t take action and your sales stagnate. How frustrating is that?

My son, home for the summer from college, is the same in regards to cleaning his room. It’s low on his list of priorities and the piles of clothes never get cleaned up despite repeated requests. However my wife’s latest threat that she’d start throwing out anything she found on the floor did get his attention.

We all do the same thing – put things off we know we should do. When do hardware stores sell out on flashlights or batteries? When a hurricane is about to hit or the power goes out.

Do you want to keep losing sales because your marketing lacks the urgency it needs to prompt prospects to buy? Want to eliminate obstacles to sales and increase your profits? Use this link to find out >>

How can you create a perception of urgency and increase your sales?

Use FEAR!

No, I’m not suggesting you try and scare your prospects with impeding doom, catastrophe or the threat of random acts of violence. Making your prospects panic isn’t the best way to start or maintain a long-lasting profitable relationship and you’d probably get in trouble with the law.

What I’m talking about is using FEAR OF LOSS as a motivator. Tell someone they’re about to lose a great opportunity and they’ll want it even more.

Does this really work?
Take a look at online auctions. If you’ve followed a few you’ve noticed that a week before an auction ends, there are only a few bidders. Then, boom, in the last few hours or even in the last minute the number of bidders will double and the price people are willing to pay skyrockets. More than once I’ve seen items be auctioned off on Ebay for more than its retail price in stores.

Why? Why does this work so well? No one likes missing out getting something they want.

If you want people to buy from you today you need to put it at the top of their list so its urgent. You can use:

– Time
– Limited supplies
– Offer added benefits

Of course make sure your offers are believable and accurate.

The auction model works particularly well because it combines limited-time and limited-supply to create a sense of urgency. You can do the same with your marketing.

Are you losing 67% or more of potential sales because of obstacles in the marketing and sales process? Want to discover how to stop losing money and easily increase your profits from the same number of prospects?

Find the answer before you lose another sale. Use this link to find out >>

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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If You Could Market Your Business Like the Phone Company…

By Charlie Cook   |   August 17, 2007

You may not have the marketing budget of AT&T or Verizon or Sprint but imagine if you could borrow some of their marketing tactics how much money you could make?

What marketing tactics am I talking about?

When you sign up for cell phone service with the U.S. cell phone service giants you:

– Get a phone for free or almost free but to get it you,
– Can only use phones they sell with their service,
– Have to sign up for 24 months of service at a minimum rate and,
– Pay an activation fee so you can start paying them your monthly fee,
– Pay the minimum monthly fees,
– And if you decide you want to change services you pay a deactivation fee.

Let’s see how you can apply these same six marketing ideas to a few products and services.

You sell ebooks and your customers:

– Get the first chapter to free but,
– Can only read it on a computer you sold them,
– Must sign up to keep the ebook for a minimum of 24 months,
– Have to pay an activation fee to get the password to open the ebook,
– Pay you each month they have your ebook,
– Pay a penalty fee if they decide they don’t want to keep if for the full 24 months.

Sounds absurd doesn’t it!

Continuity marketing, marketing where people sign up for a membership or ongoing service is one of the best ways to bring in a steady cash flow each month but you can take it too far and alienate your clients.

Imagine if you owned a gym, would you force your members to buy all their sneakers and sports gear from you.

Of course not.

While the cell phone companies can force you into service contracts you may not like, as a small business owner you need to more careful about how you apply continuity marketing to make sure your prospects and clients still want to do business with you. There are only a couple of cell phone companies to choose from – but I bet you have lots of competitors.

Which continuity marketing ideas are you using and which could you be using to bring in a steady cash flow and still have your clients love doing business with you?

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results

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What Email Marketing Doesn’t Do

By Charlie Cook   |   August 16, 2007

Many companies have jumped on board with internet and email marketing and now they’re discovering the mistake they made. Take NetFlix, one of the fastest growing companies in the DVD rental niche. Like their competitors they used to provide support solely by email. Now they’ve switched to phone support instead.

Email customer support is quick, cheap and can easily be outsourced offshore. The perfect solution?

Not if you want to do the one thing your marketing should do, build strong relationships with your prospects and customers. Think about it, which is going to keep your U.S. customers coming back and build loyalty better –

– email answers to your questions from someone in India with less than perfect English
or
– a live person on the phone from the U.S. who you can have a conversation with.

Email is a great tool but it tends to be impersonal at best. It’s one of the ways to keep in communication with customers but if you want to stand out from the competition with your marketing phone support is essential.

The ultimate goal of your marketing is to build a strong relationship with your prospects and clients so they start or keep doing business with you. Don’t assume that email is the only tool to use. The phone can be of your best marketing tools too.

– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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What’s Missing From Your Ads – Small Business Marketing Tips

By Charlie Cook   |   August 14, 2007

“We just bought a full-page ad in a consumer magazine promoting our computer sales and repair services, and as far as I can tell we didn’t get a single response. Why didn’t our ad bring in at least one sale?” – Steve, Dallas TX

Want your small business ads to get people’s attention in 15 seconds or less and generate sales?

Who doesn’t?

If you could consistently sell your services or products in 15 seconds or less, imagine how much more money you’d make and how much free time you’d have to enjoy your family and your life.

Is it realistic to expect your small business ad to grab your prospect’s attention, capture their imagination, appeal to their goals and prompt them to buy from you in 15 seconds or less? Of course not. But your ads can get the sales process started – if you know what to include in them.

What’s the key to making your small business ads work so they start the marketing and selling process in 3 to 30 seconds?

It’s the promise you make to your prospects and clients.

If you make the right promise – you’ll have clients streaming in the door, if you don’t include one or make the wrong one, you’d be better off not running your ad – because you’re not going to get the response you want.

Promise? I know you’re probably thinking, “Charlie has gone off his rocker this time, what is he talking about.”

Promises are powerful. Think about it, when someone tells you how great they are or how wonderful their products are, how seriously do you take them but…when they make a promise you pay attention. I’m sure you’ve heard of one of the most often made promises that consists of just two words. If you’ve ever been to a wedding, you know the one I’m talking about, it’s “I do.”

Let me give you a couple more examples of marketing promises:

“Transform Any Ad, Letter or Sales Conversation and See Your Sales Soar” – that’s the promise I provide with the Insider Secrets to 15 Second Marketing. Use this link to claim your copy >>

“Helping You Attract More Clients” – that’s my promise to anyone who buys my products or services.

“30-minutes or free” – was Domino Pizza’s promise and it helped them build a huge business, even though their pizza used to taste like cardboard.

“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight” – is FedEx’s promise to you when you need to make sure your documents or packages get their the next day.

“Leaders Who Participate In My One-Day Action Plan Leadership Talk Session Will Be on Track to Achieve At Least a Combined $50,000 in Results.” – is Brent Filson’s promise.

Whether its your ads, your mailings, your web site or talking face-to-face – it’s the promise that you make that is the key to getting your prospects’ attention and interest. I call it your 15 Second Marketing Message.

When you make a promise, people expect you to keep it or they may want to see if you can, as in the case of Dominos.

Do you have a 15 Second Marketing Message that includes the number one promise you make to prospects? Want to discover how much more business you could be bringing in if your ads worked?

Start by crafting a compelling 15 Second Marketing Message, use it in your ads, on your web site and in your brochures and see your leads and sales triple. Use this link to discover the fastest way to increase leads and sales >>
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Gets Results

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Can You Teach Your Small Business Prospects to Buy?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 9, 2007

Can you teach?

Is there an inner teacher in you that could help grow your business?

I’ve been a teacher ever since I graduated from college – literally and figuratively. My first post-college job was as an elementary school teacher and then I moved on to teaching children with behavior problems as a special education teacher. Later I graduated to working with big kids, with senior executives as a management consultant.

For the last couple of decades I’ve found my true passion as a marketing coach developing marketing ideas. I love providing marketing solutions and helping people transform their businesses.

When you know something that can help someone else it’s satisfying to share that knowledge and it’s good for business too. One of the most effective ways to build credibility with prospects and to help them see how valuable your products and services are is to teach.

You may never have trained formally as a teacher or graded papers but if you’ve been in business for a few years you’re an expert and your clients would be impressed if they realized how much you knew.

One way to convince clients of your expertise is to tell them, “Twenty years in business” or “America’s best”. You could do that but it wouldn’t impress many. Instead you can effectively demonstrate your expertise with articles, newsletters, audios, videos, etc. Do this regularly and your prospects will see you as the go to expert in your field.

You may be asking yourself – “Aren’t there tons of others in my field who know as much as I do or more? How can I differentiate myself from them and stand out from the competition?”

You’re 100% right. In most service professions or product areas, there are lots of competitors, people who have the same amount of experience as you do or more, but there is one difference…

Most small business owners don’t use their marketing to educate their prospects and to capture their loyalty and their business.

Regardless whether you sell advertising, concrete plants, hearing aids, real estate, design, or consulting services, there are tons of ideas you can give away, ideas you can teach your prospects that don’t cost you a dime and make you look smarter and better than your competitors.

If you use this simple strategy you can easily stand out from your competitors and be seen as the expert in your niche. Isn’t that what you want to stand out from your competition and get the greatest share of the business?

If you’ve ever wanted a simple and honest way to market your business and see your profits grow I’ve detailed what to do in the ‘Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing‘. Use this link to claim your copy >>

I’m always teaching whether it’s with my clients or my friends on the ski slope or out sailing and there is a point where you should drawn the line. Don’t try teaching your wife or husband. Even if I know exactly what my wife should be doing to make the perfect ski turn, she’d much rather hear it from a ski instructor. The same goes for your kids once they become teenagers.

Even though your family may not appreciate you as a teacher – your prospects do. They do want to discover the great insights and tips you may take for granted, ones that will help you build a long-term winning relationship with them.

You’ve worked hard to become as wise as you are – now tap your inner teacher and leverage all that effort by marketing your knowledge with the ‘Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing‘ and get all the business you deserve. Use this link to claim your copy >>

You can teach your prospects to buy and grow your business!

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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