Want more prospects hungry to buy? Want to know the key to keeping quality clients knocking down your door again and again? This year as you indulge in stuffing, cranberry sauce you might be surprised to discover, a marketing genius right in between the gravy and mashed potatoes.

Find out what the noble Turkey knows about marketing and how he (or is it she?) gets a whole country salivating to sit down for dinner year after year.

Discover what Turkeys know about marketing >> Read More

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Ever hit your finger with a hammer when you were hanging a picture on the wall? It hurts! Make this painful mistake once, and you’ll swing more carefully the next time, and try to improve your aim. With practice, you’ll hit the nail on the head and get the job done.

Is your marketing also missing the mark? That will hurt your bottom line. Banging away with the same failing marketing strategy is like hitting your finger over and over, all pain and no gain. Believe it or not, I know many small business owners that do exactly this. 

Ron was one of them. He mailed 5,000 postcards to generate leads for his business. When he only got one response, he tried again, with the same result. 

Ron had a web site that was only bringing in a trickle of leads, so he hired a marketing firm to rewrite and rebuild it at a cost of $40,000. What happened? The new site was even worse than the original one. He stopped getting any leads at all from the web.

Ron was spending more and more and getting fewer and fewer leads and sales. I wish I were making this up, but I’m not. Ron is only one example of many I could tell you about.

Want to avoid making the same marketing mistake?
Use this link to find out how to get results with your small business marketing >>

What was Ron doing wrong?

Ron was missing a lead building marketing strategy, one that converted prospects to clients and instead was focused on the individual marketing tools, postcards, ads, and websites.

A hammer is just a tool and if you don’t know how to aim it you’re going to do damage to your fingers and the wall and maybe even need a bigger picture to cover the hole you’ve made. And, if you’re missing the nail and hitting your fingers, an even bigger sledge hammer isn’t the solution either.

Ads, postcards, websites and any other marketing tool you use only work when you know how to aim them. Ron didn’t have a marketing strategy to help him target his marketing efforts. Worse, the marketing firm he hired took $40,000 of his money and gave him a handful of marketing tools that got even fewer results than the ones he’d had.

If your marketing isn’t generating the results your business needs, the answer isn’t spending more on doing the same thing or just shooting wildly and hoping for the best. That’d be like hammering your fingers again and again.

The answer is finding out what works to get results. To make your marketing bring in more business you need to know the triggers that prompt prospects to respond and the simple steps to take to get them to become buyers.

Have you ever spent money on marketing that didn’t get the results you wanted? Ready to stop wasting your valuable resources and finally find out what works?

Use this link to hit your marketing targets >>

- Charlie

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Did you see these videos yet?

I’m talking about Brian Tracy’s 7 marketing tips to a thriving cash rich business.

These are priceless marketing tactics designed to quickly increase your profits…

… dramatically slash your cost of doing business…

… and transform your operation into the wealth-building machine you always dreamed it could be.

If you haven’t done so, I’d strongly advise you to check this out now.

I’ve arranged for you to get it free >>

Look, MOST entrepreneurs and small business people simply aren’t making anywhere NEAR the kind of money they could be.

And what’s amazing is that it’s often just a few tweaks in their business that can suddenly skyrocket the number of eager prospects and paying customers… and turn trickling cash flow into a fire hose of income.

That’s why millions of business people across the world trust Brian.

For more than 30 years he’s helped turn 10,000+ small and medium sized businesses into healthy, prosperous cash generators.

And now you can get your hands on some of his most priceless business marketing tactics… for NOTHING.

Watch them now >>

But you’d better get there right away. As my friend, Brian has allowed me to give you these marketing tips…

… but only under some tight restrictions.

Which means there’s not much time to jump on this. So get to the hidden web page now and see what all the fuss is about.

You’ll be thrilled with the results.

- Charlie

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

2009 was a big year for social media!  YouTube starting seeing 1 billion hits per day.  Facebook topped the 350 million users mark.  Twitter became the most used word in the English language. And, the big search engines recognized the power of the micro-blog and incorporated this content into their search results.

Watching all of these successes, the message has come through loud and clear that social media/networking/content is now a significant platform on which we, as business owners, must be present.

Social platforms are here to stay, and in 2010, business owners must approach social tools with a plan that sets forth their intentions for embracing these tools and defines how they will accomplish these goals.

As you are thinking about the social media plan for your company, you should consider the following:

• Who are your target clients?  Are they actually using the media platform that you are using?  (For example, if they are all local, are you participating in local networks?) Are they engaged with you or do you need to shake things up a bit this year?
• What do you plan to accomplish by using each tool?  Are you aiming to meet a specific group of people?  Raise brand awareness in general?  Drive sales?  Highlight differentiating features of your product?
• What medium is ideal for you?  Are you educating and using slideshows?  Or, are you demonstrating and using video?

Once you know the answers to these questions, map out the year ahead.  Get your calendar and figure out where your business will be and what it will be doing at each point during the year.

Then, figure out how to maintain an appropriate balance of being social vs. being in sales.  The general guideline for this is that one in 10 posts may be promotional.  So, if you’ve got a big event coming up that you will want to publicize, and you plan to do this using your social tools, you’ll need to pick up your overall usage of social media as you are promoting that.

This means that your time commitment, as it pertains to social tools, may fluctuate throughout the year.  A word of caution though – be part of the social conversation at all times.  Simply pick up the amount you contribute when you’ve got something to promote.

Otherwise, you’ll fall victim to the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality and, when you have something substantial to contribute, fewer people will take note.

In addition to planning for the spikes in your social media usage, you may also need to identify content that will be created throughout 2010.  As you look at each month, brainstorm topics that your audience may find useful or interesting.

Note these and a “due date” on your calendar.  If you do this, you’ll be able to skip over that “I don’t have anything to say” feeling throughout the year:  you’ll be prepared to create that blog post or video or webinar.

When finished with your planning, you should end up with a time line or calendar that identifies what you’ll be doing in social media, alongside what you’ll be doing with your business, in each month.  Stick with this plan and you should be able to meet your goals in 2010.

- Rachel

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Want to make an informed decision about how much to spend on your small marketing, or whether it’s worth spending money on advertising or what retaining a few more clients could do for your bottom line?  Do the math.

I’ve just posted 6 free marketing tool calculators on the site for you to use.

1. Small Business Breakeven Calculator
This marketing tool determine how many sales you need to make to breakeven.

2. Calculate How Much More You Could Be Making
This marketing tool helps see how much more you could be earning with 1 more or 10 more sales.

3. Calculate the Lifetime Value of A Client
Before you spend money on marketing, use this marketing tool to determine how much each client is worth to during their lifetime of buying from you.

4. Calculate the Return on Investment for Your Advertising
Do the math before you spend money on marketing. Use this marketing tool to see how much you need to bring in in revenue to make your advertising campaign pay for itself.

5. Calculate Your Web Site Marketing Conversion Rates
For each page on your site, whether it’s your homepage, a landing page or a sales page, there is only on number that can tell you how well its working. Use this marketing tool to evaluate how well your web site marketing is working.

6. Calculate The Impact Customer Loyality Can Have On Your Bottom Line.
See how much increasing customer loyalty can add profits to your company.

- Charlie

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

If you’ve ever wanted to find out how to be more successful, to make your ads, your sales letters and your website marketing make more money, this is your chance.

Save the date! Thursday 4pm EDT, May 14th.

On Thursday May 14th I’ll be joined by Dan Lok, the master of money-making copywriting, for a one-time only FREE copywriting TeleSeminar to answer your questions about how to consistently convert more prospects into buyers and put more money in the bank.

And I’m giving away my latest 50 page ebook, ‘The 22 Hot Buttons That Get People to Buy’ – FREE – to anyone who registers for the copywriting call.

You should know that it’s filling up fast and if you haven’t done so already and want to get in… you need to sign up in the next few minutes.

Register now >>

On the call Dan will reveal:

*How to grab the interest of prospects who are on-guard against advertising – making skepticism work for you,

*The simple trick to keeping your prospects enthralled and engaged right up to the point that they eagerly pull out their credit card or checkbook,

*A ‘system’ for writing copy that is so powerfully persuasive that no reader could possibly resist – they’ll LOOK for the call to action,

*The most powerful human desire that makes people stop procrastinating and buy – and exactly how to trigger it,

*A surefire way to multiple sales without spending more money,

* How to reposition the product you are selling so that it will trigger one, if not two, of the major hot buttons of recession-stricken prospects,

* … and much more!

Sign-up today to receive my 50 page ebook, the ‘22 Hot Buttons That Get People To Buy’ just for registering!

Use this link to save your space on the call >>

No – you won’t hear Dan promising lazy people instant riches or some such nonsense. He’ll give smart people like you honest and accurate information on ideas you can actually put to use.

This is a unique chance for you to get the truth about how to skyrocket your sales and what to do so you can get all the clients and business you can handle.

Don’t miss this one. Register for one of the remaining places for the copywriting TeleSeminar I’m hosting on Thursday May 14th at 4pm EDT with this link >>

- Charlie

P.S. If you absolutely can’t make the call due to a scheduling conflict, you can still register to be eligible to receive the free 50 page ebook, ‘The Hot Buttons That Get People To Buy.’

Just register and it’s yours >>

P.P.S. My free TeleSeminars sell out in a matter of days… To ensure your spot, reserve in the next few minutes.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

There are two kinds of people: those who panic when things go wrong and those who get a grip and take action to solve the problem.

Which are you?

Who Will Be The Business Marketing Winners In This Economy?

Over a month ago, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport ran into a flock of geese within minutes after takeoff, shutting down both engines. You probably read about it or saw the reports in the news.

The pilot, Captain Sullenberger, kept his wits about him and chose to make a very tricky water landing. He pulled it off, easing his jet down into the middle of the Hudson River without damage, saving everyone on board.

Talk about a winner. It’s an inspirational story, but how did Sullenberger do it? How did he know what to do to save himself, his crew and his passengers?

Captain Sullenberger has years of experience flying, but he credits his training for preparing him to handle a once-in-a-lifetime emergency like this one. He didn’t panic because his training had taught him a set of maneuvers to choose from in extraordinary circumstances.

As a business owner, you may feel like you’re piloting Flight 1549. Just when your business marketing is airborne, a flock of misguided bankers and lenders (turkeys in this case) threatens to bring the whole economy down and your business with it.

It’s bad. Credit is tight and buyers are harder to find. You can panic and watch your company’s profits sink, or you can take your cue from leaders like Sullenberger. The winners in this economy will be business owners — pilots— who take action to save profits and even grow in this economy.

You need to pull your business out of danger and keep pulling in sales. Institute emergency procedures. What are they? Start here >>

How can you save your business and even increase your profits in this economy? There are many ways, and I’ll be discussing them in this and future articles. The first is to…

Create efficiency in key areas. Especially marketing.

Does that sound like strange advice from a marketing coach? It isn’t. You can’t afford marketing that isn’t working.

Marketing is the engine that drives sales and profits. You may have years of experience marketing, but if you aren’t using strategies that run this engine efficiently, you’re losing prospects and sales at a critical time.

In my experience, 90% of potential sales are lost due to poor marketing copy, limited followup, and/or a low percentage of conversions. That’s not a typo; 90% of potential sales are lost due to marketing inefficiency. Institute emergency procedures!

You can improve your marketing efficiency in just a few days and see gains in profits of 400% or more.

How can you improve your marketing efficiency? Find out >>

Most companies are lucky if they’re getting a 1% response to their marketing. Your response rate could be as high as 15%. Think what that would mean for your sales and your income.

1. Lead Generation

Most company’s conversion rates are terribly low, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this if yours weren’t, too. Whether you’re using direct mail, cold calling or a web site to generate leads, a typical response rate is less than a half of one percent. Improve your conversion rate to 1% and you’d have twice as many leads.

Is it possible to get 1% of the people who see your information to contact you? Yes. 10 to 13% is possible!

How can you improve your lead generation? Find out >>

2. Conversion

Once a lead comes in, how many do you convert to sales? Here’s another marketing sinkhole: most companies lose 80% of potential sales from leads due to lack of follow-up.

Emergency procedure; improve your follow-up system. You could be landing five new customers a day, not just one. Or 50 instead of ten. It doesn’t have to be a perfect follow-up system for you to double your revenue.

How can you improve your conversion rates? Find out >>

3. Sales

Use every sale as the stepping-stone to the next one and the one after that. Up-selling and cross-selling can easily double or triple the amount you make from a client. Yet most businesses leave these profits on the table. Is that what you’re doing?

How can you improve your up-sell and cross-sell? Find out >>

Business owners who learn how to market efficiently now will not only survive the recession; they’ll be way ahead of the competition when it’s over. They will be the winners in this economy and the next one.

You’re in the pilot’s seat. You can’t sit back and wait for the economy to improve; you’ve got to take action. But don’t panic. Discover how to make your business marketing efficient and stay in the air. When you do you’ll be able to smooth out the bumpy ride you’ve been experiencing and enjoy the trip.

Ready to be a winner with your marketing?>>

- Charlie

P.S. Can you really afford to keep marketing the way you are now? Want to avoid watching your business crash? Improve the efficiency of your business marketing and you’ll instantly get more leads, more sales and more profits.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Is marketing your business in this economy more of a challenge than ever? Has it gotten harder for you to generate leads, close sales and meet your profit goals? Are you worried that it’s going to get harder in the year ahead? You’re not alone.

No question that the recession has focused our attention. Small business owners like you are looking hard at their marketing strategies and wondering what to do next.

Here are two simple marketing strategies to make your marketing rise to the challenge. Maximize your marketing and you can continue to profit in this economy.

1. Get The Most For Every Dollar You Spend
There I go again, stating the obvious. But too many business owners are resigned to poor returns on their marketing dollars. Don’t be one of them.

Almost every fall, my wife and I drive over the mountain from our Vermont vacation home to a family-owned orchard in Monkton to pick apples. We enjoy choosing different varieties for cooking and eating — and nothing beats the crisp taste of an apple right off the tree.

It’s easy picking, too; the trees typically are heavily laden with apples. The family that works the orchard has been pruning, grafting, and fertilizing so that every branch bears as much fruit as possible so they can maximize their profits.

The same is true with your marketing. You want each of your marketing activities to bear good fruit. Are your ads, mailings and website generating the maximum number of leads and sales? Or are they more like an apple tree, with only one or two apples on it.

Typically, small business owners spend plenty of money on marketing but get only a fraction of the business they could from it.  Look at your website, for example.

- How many visitors do you get per day?
- How many of those visitors contact you?

If the number is anything less than 10%, you’re not getting the results you should from the money you’re spending.

Want to get more return for each dollar you spend on marketing?

Start here >>

2. Take Every Dollar Off The Table
After months of looking for a new bed, my wife and I finally agreed on a cherry bed frame from a craftsman in Maine. When my wife called to place the order, the savvy sales person asked her if we also wanted matching nightstands. He showed her several styles that would complement the bed, explained how easy it is to customize them, and offered free shipping on all the pieces if we decided within a week.

We hadn’t planned to buy night tables, but the logic of getting furniture that matched and the discount persuaded us.

Are you being as smart as this furniture sales person?

Once you have a client ready to make a purchase, they’ve already crossed the purchasing threshold. If you have more than one product or service, this is a good time to sell them more. You can increase the amount you make from each sale by 30% with an effective up-sell or cross-sell strategy.

And that’s only the beginning. With the right follow up marketing strategy, you can get your loyal clients to buy from you again and again.

The goal is to help your clients get not just the product or service they initially asked about but the best complement of products or services you provide. In doing so, you’ll maximize the value of each of your clients. You’ll make 30% to 100% more from each client.

Imagine you were in a meeting with a client and they put $1,300 hundred dollars on the table – money they had available to buy your products or services. Would you take $800 and walk away from the rest? Of course not, but that is what most business owners do every day by not optimizing their cross-sell, up-sell and follow-up strategies.

Want to find out how to take every dollar off the table?
Use this strategy >>
-Charlie
MarketingForSuccess

P.S. Every week I talk to small business owners who are struggling in this economy but haven’t bothered to optimize their marketing to get the most out of every dollar. And they’re leaving money on the table with existing clients.  Are you one of these people?

Find out how to grow your business in this economy >>

P.P.S. Are you one of the few who are succeeding in these tough times? I bet you could be making more. Find out how >>

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Why is it that some entrepreneurs and business owners seem unstoppable, steadily growing their businesses and assets, while others struggle to stay profitable?

Some people have a clear idea of where to focus their marketing and know which marketing activities bring in the bacon and which are just excess fat. The result, successful business owners spend less on marketing and make up to ten times more than their competitors.

I want you to be one of the top ten percent of business owners, one of the people in the winner’s circle. And here’s how you can find out the answers to put your business on the fast track to make an additional $100,000 this year.

Today my Marketing MasterMind Program opens to applications from all of my subscribers and from the general public. As a member I’ll help you discover the #1 wealth-building strategy for you.

Want In?

Use this URL >>

Should You Join?

1. Do you push yourself and your employees to improve every aspect of your business?

2. Are you actively creating new opportunities for success?

3. Do you use your mistakes to create new ways of working?

4. Are you aware of your biggest business marketing weaknesses?

5. Are you currently working with experts who can help you take your business to the next level? If not, are you seeking the help you need to grow your business?

Does this sound like you?

If so, you’d be perfect fit for the MasterMind Program. You are someone ready to really go for it. I’m betting you’re up for the challenge.

If you want expert advice to show you what works, and hold you accountable for getting it done and getting it right, then use the following link to discover if you can get what you want.

http://www.marketingforsuccess.com/mastermind-program.html

-Charlie

P.S. You’re don’t have to do it alone. But you do have to take action now to get in and get answers >>

P.P.S. Space won’t be available for long. So join today.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Building a business that grows steadily in size and profits is like building your dream house. First, you identify what kind of home you want, then you and your architect plan and create blueprints for your house, then you build it, move in and enjoy it.

Now imagine that you didn’t have the time to plan your home but went ahead and hired a builder to get started. How would he or she know what to build?

Without a plan, the result could easily be a post-colonial, modern, victorian mish-mash that would make a trailer home look stylish in comparison. Most likely it wouldn’t your needs and you’d have wasted a lot of time and money.

Everyday I get calls from frustrated business owners like you. Their marketing isn’t helping them generate the steady stream of new clients they want so badly. It’s just not bringing in the revenue that they think they should be making.

My conversation with Ken, from Toronto, was typical. I asked Ken to describe his business and his business goals. I asked him to tell me about his target market and what he is doing attract new clients.

He easily described his technological and design expertise, his Web services and the ads and mailings he was using to promote his business. Then I asked the question that stumps almost everyone who calls me for advice: I asked Ken if he had a marketing plan and what it was. He didn’t have one.

Do you?

You know what your goals are and where you want to take your business. You also know that marketing involves activities such as a website, mailings, advertising and phone calls to prospects. But without a plan tying these efforts together, these activities by themselves may do little to help you achieve your goals.

You need a well thought out blueprint for your marketing, just as you would for your dream home. Here’s how to start putting it together.

1. Identify Your Marketing Goals
What specifically does your marketing need to achieve for your business to grow? You can state this in terms of the number of qualified leads generated each week, the percentage of leads converted to sales, total revenue, and profit.

What are your marketing goals?

2. Define Your Marketing Strategy
This is your overall approach and positioning relative to your goals and your competition. My marketing strategy is an educational one. It is based on giving people ideas and information they can use as a means of getting their attention and demonstrating the value I provide.

What is your small business marketing strategy?

3. Set Up Your Marketing System
Develop a plan of action. To increase sales, your marketing activities and the media you use need to reflect your marketing strategy and work together as one.

What is your marketing system?

4. Map Out Your Marketing Activities
Now flesh out the details. You’ve decided what your marketing activities will be; now for each marketing activity you’ll need to determine who will create and implement it and when.

Who will be responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining your marketing?

5. Sharpen Your Marketing Tools
Each marketing activity involves using one or more marketing tools. These include everything from your web site to your phone scripts to your marketing messages. To cut through the information clutter and get your prospect’s attention you’ll want finely honed tools.

Could you sharpen your marketing tools?

Sound intimidating? It’s not when you have help.

As a member of my Insider’s Marketing Mastermind Program I’ll guide you through the marketing maze. You’ll discover how to create a blueprint for success.

Want to know more about how the MasterMind Program works? I’ll be answering your questions on Thursday in the free Telecall. Use this URL to ask your questions >>

You and I will work together to apply to identify which marketing strategies are best suited to your particular business and how to implement them.

Tomorrow the MasterMind Program goes live. (Note, those people who added themselves to my MasterMind VIP list already have access).

Yes, at 8 o’clock am est. Thursday January 27th the doors open to officially welcome you to my Mastermind Program.

I’ll be sending you the link to get in first thing Tuesday. I suggest that you look for the email and when you get it go and apply right away to be considered.

What’s your plan? You know you could be doing better. You don’t have to miss out. Make sure to apply to the MasterMind Program first thing Tuesday when you access link arrives.

-Charlie

P.S. Remember people who have a plan and take action achieve success while those who sit on the fence wear out the seat of their pants while watching the winners cross the finish line.

Be a winner! Join the Marketing MasterMind Program.

P.P.S Have a question about the MasterMind Program? Please let me know. Use this URL to ask it >>

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..