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Marketing Ideas

What Do I Do Now For My Small Business Marketing

By Charlie Cook   |   July 21st, 2009

“What do I do now?”

Is that a question you’ve asked yourself recently about your business?

For most entrepreneurs and small business owners, the past 18 months have been tough. It doesn’t matter how smart you are or how great your products and services are, in the midst of a recession it can be easy to get bogged down and watch while your profits plummet.

Most summers for the last 50 plus years, I’ve spent a week or more on the coast of Maine. And much of that time has been spent in boats: rowboats, canoes, kayaks, sailboats and small motorboats.

When the sun shines and the sky is blue, it’s easy to go for a picnic or motor across to the nearest store to pick up groceries. But when the Maine fog rolls in and blankets the bay, it’s easy to get disoriented and lost.

The current recession is just like a big, damp, cold fog bank for most businesses. It’s disorienting and many people are panicking and losing sales and money.

What can you do?

Discover what works even in a recession

Years ago, I discovered that with a few simple skills I could navigate through the thickest fog and magically get where I wanted to go, most of the time, much to the surprise of my friends. Now with a GPS it’s so easy anyone can do it.

The same is true with your small business marketing. Once you know how to stay focused and navigate through this recession you’ll amaze yourself as you see profits pouring in.

Use the following five steps:

1.  Begin with an urgent and compelling goal. Pick a goal that’s vital to the success of your business. It could be lead generation, referrals, increasing repeat sales, customer retention, etc.  But whatever you pick, it should be so important that it motivates you to follow through.

2.  Pick something you can accomplish within a few weeks, a month at most. If your goal is to write a book, identify a short-term sub goal, such as completing the first chapter.

Or if you want to get referrals, you could start by writing the sequence of questions you’d use to get existing clients to tell you how much they love your products or services and than to get them to give you 1-2 names of people they’ll help you contact.

3.  Pick something you can measure. Improving customer service is a nice idea, but you need a specific sub goal you can measure. Increasing repeat sales this month would be a good measureable goal.

4.  Make sure the larger goal and the sub-goal you have picked is one that everyone on your team can commit to. If half your team doesn’t agree that it’s urgent, it won’t happen.

If everyone can agree, for example, that they’ll focus on adding one more sales partner each month, it’s more likely to happen.

5.  Pick a goal you can accomplish with the people and resources you have. That way you’re not dependent on additional funds or new resources.

That’s it. Now get started.

Pick an urgent small business marketing goal, stay focused and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Anyone with motivation and determination can bring in more sales this way.

- Charlie

P.S. Remember, that to change the behavior of your prospects, to get more people buying, you first need to change your own behavior.

P.P.S. Ready to stop struggling and start profiting from your small business marketing in this recession?

Get a team of experts working for you

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Want A Shortcut? – From Charlie Cook

By Charlie Cook   |   July 16th, 2009

Which are you, a dreamer or a doer?

If you’re a doer (not a dreamer) I’d like to talk with you and see if you qualify for my MasterMind Group, a group of savvy entrepreneurs and business owners dedicated to helping each other succeed.

It’s crunch time!

As I’m sure you know this recession is one of the worst we’ve had since the Great Depression our parents lived through and it’s going to take a while for things to turn around.

The entrepreneurs and business owners who are going to come out on top, the ones who will make profits even in the midst of the recession will do so due to one thing.

Marketing!

So if you’re interested in significantly increasing your sales this year, I’d like to talk with you about how to leverage your marketing to increase your income.

If you want direct access, up close and personal, to me and my over 20 years of Million Dollar Generating Marketing Know-How…then you’re invited to join me, Charlie Cook,  and just 26 other success-minded small business owners and entrepreneurs in my MasterMind Group.

Interested? Get the details here >>

- Charlie Cook

P.S. This is only for doers, not dreamers. It’s for people who are passionate about their businesses, their customers and the products and services they provide. People ready to tune up their marketing so they can profit from this recession.

Take a look >>

P.P.S. My one-on-one coaching program has been sold out for months and currently the only way you can get access to me personally is by joining the MasterMind Group.

Want in >>

P.P.P.S. This is only for people who have an existing established business and want to take it to the next level. It’s not for opportunity seekers, newbies, or people who are begging for business.

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What Winners Do

By Charlie Cook   |   July 14th, 2009

Even the smartest people I know make mistakes, really big ones. In fact they make more than most. But they are still very successful in business — and in life.

What is it that winners do that separates them from people who are always struggling?

One of the smartest people that I know is a doctor who retired just last month. He and his wife, both very experienced sailors, had made plans to spend several weeks cruising the coast of Maine. In preparation, the doctor did a lot of work this spring on their 36-foot sailboat, including taking off and refurbishing the propeller and then putting it back on.

When they launched the boat and started to back it off the trailer, though, the doctor discovered he’d made a major mistake. When he shifted the motor into reverse, the engine pushed the boat forward and when he shifted it into forward, the boat went backwards.

He quickly arranged to have the sailboat hauled to the local boat yard and made a point of being there when the repair was made. He wanted the mechanic to show him exactly what he’d done wrong when he reinstalled the propeller.

He wanted to learn how to avoid making the same mistake the next time around, get the boat moving forward when he shifted it into forward gear, and get the cruise underway.

And that’s what winners do.

They don’t hide or ignore mistakes or missteps. They acknowledge them, even celebrate what they learned from the situation, and move on.

Anyone can use this simple, no-cost marketing tip to continually get smarter and make more money.

Over the last few decades I’ve seen hundreds of people double or triple their profits within months, and I’ve seen a handful never get where they want to go.

You’ve seen the same thing. Two smart people from the same school end up in two very different places. One as the CEO pulling in a huge salary with generous stock options, the other struggling to make ends meet.

What’s the single most important difference between winners and losers? It’s not just that they make more mistakes.

Winners are quicker to learn and adjust their course to reach their goals! The difference is…

The Speed of Course Correction.

Imagine you are in a canoe race where the objective is to paddle across a lake to the finish line on the far side. You and your fellow competitors all have the same strength, paddling experience and start at the same time.

You’re headed for the finish line and paddling hard when a breeze picks up and begins to push all the canoes sideways. Can you predict who will win the race?

The winners will be the team that notices the change in the conditions and adjusts their course the quickest. They’ll win by being the fastest to make the adjustments that will give the shortest possible route to their destination.

Everyone wants a straight path to success, but obstacles get in the way; competitors, recessions, marketing that doesn’t get a response, the shifting interests of your clients; the list is endless if you see it that way.

The business people who end up on top are quick to acknowledge that things are off course. They continually make the changes necessary to reach their goals.

What’s the fastest way for you to stay in the winners’ lane?

1. Learn to Love Mistakes
When I had my first website in the mid ‘90s it cost me $35,000 and it was more or less a flop. It barely made any money.

I could have thrown up my hands and decided that the Internet was a total waste of time. Instead I chose to get the most I could out of my $35,000 blooper.

I took it as a challenge to discover which mistakes I’d made and what to do differently the next time around. I sold my second website a year later for just under a million dollars.

I made a big mistake, learned all I could from it, and turned that knowledge into a big success. You can do the same.

2. Acknowledge Mistakes Right Away
I talked to a business owner, a specialty clothing retailer, who told me he’d spent $7,000 on Yellow Page ads. When I asked him how many customers the ads had generated, he said none. The following month he signed up with the Yellow Pages again. What’s wrong with this picture?

If you’re not getting the results you want from your marketing, admit that your current strategy needs to be adjusted, if not totally replaced. Let go of the strategies and tactics that aren’t working and make room for new, more effective ones.

My doctor friend who put his propeller on backwards could have just kept the problem a secret and lived with it for the summer, remembering to put the boat in reverse when he wanted to go forward.

Or he could have tried to fix the propeller himself, hoping he could figure it out on his own the second time around. Instead, he admitted his mistake, sought expert advice, learned from his mistake and set off for a great vacation.

3. Be Ready to Change Course
Over and over I hear the same things from small business owners struggling with their marketing. They tell me:

“I’m sure that idea won’t work for me.”
“I know that already.”
“I can’t find anyone to help me.”
“I just want someone to hand me a blueprint.”

These are excuses to keep doing the same thing, even if it isn’t working.

Winners recognize mistakes and grab at new marketing ideas. They put them to the test, track the results and continually fine-tune the ways they market and manage their businesses.

I have many clients who’ve done just that, and more than one who doubled their income last year in the midst of a lousy economy. They jumped on the ideas I gave them and put them into practice.

You can be a winner, too. Your business goals are within reach. To achieve them, be willing to make mistakes; admit them; learn from them and take corrective action, quickly.

Want to get the help you need to get to the top? Start here >>

- Charlie

P.S. Wish you had a clear idea of what works and what to do to generate more leads, close more sales and maximize your profits? Each month I interview one of the top marketing or sales experts or entrepreneurs, all who have made a ton of mistakes and learned what works and doesn’t work.

Find out the fastest ways to grow your business from these interviews. And if that isn’t enough, I take the most important tactic from the conversation and detail exactly how to implement it. It’s practically done for you.

Ready to get more business and increase your profits? Click here >>

“If you don’t make mistakes, if you don’t have failures you’ll never learn…too often I find people, they make a mistake, they don’t take the lessons from that and they make it again and again. So spend the time to figure out what you can learn from it so you don’t ever repeat it.” Indra Nooyi, Pepsico, CEO

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Is It A Business Or A Hobby?

By Charlie Cook   |   June 30th, 2009

“Can I make this business profitable?” Jim from Kansas City, Kansas asked me a few weeks ago.

Jim installs glass into existing steel or fiberglass front doors, bringing much needed light into homes and increasing their resale value. He has a steady stream of customers and has increased his customer base each of the 8 years he’s been in business.

Yet he was just breaking even before the recession and is now losing money.

What’s the problem?

Any small business marketing that is built around selling just one product or service is going to struggle. In Jim’s case, his only opportunity to resell to past customers is when — or if— they move into a new home. He has to find a new customer to make almost every sale.

BIG MISTAKE!

Finding new prospects and converting them to customers is the hardest part of growing your business.

Once you have a satisfied customer you can sell to them again and again. To run a profitable business, you want to offer a number of related products or services or a service or product that people need more than one time.

Once you have a satisfied customer, you can sell to them again and again. It’s ten times easier to sell an existing customer than to start from scratch with a new one.

Discover the easiest way to attract a steady stream of profits >>

I asked my barber what his life would be like if he had to find sixteen new customers every day. He looked at me as if I were crazy. He only needs to attract new customers periodically when an existing customer moves away or goes bald.

Jim simply does not have a profitable business model. Instead of using each sale to a new customer to generate additional sales, he’s stuck on a permanent treadmill, constantly needing to find new customers and trying to close the next first sale.

Is It A Hobby?
If you only have one product or service to sell and it’s not something people need over and over, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby. There is no way to grow your business and your income. You’ll always be struggling to make a profit.

Ready to stop working so hard, and make more with less effort? >>

To be profitable, you need to attract first time customers and then sell them multiple products and services or help them buy again and again.

Here’s the sequence that generates profits:

1.    Attract prospects to your mailing list
2.    First time sale
3.    Up-sell or cross-sell a higher price point product,
4.    Sign them up for an on-going service and help them
5.    Create customers for life (well at least for a year at a time).

Of course there are many variations, but the goal is the same; leverage the first sale into additional revenue so you maximize the value of each customer.

That’s what my trainer did when he signed me for an annual season pass to the gym. That’s what my HVAC company did when they signed us up for an annual maintenance contract.

That’s what the phone company does too. They get you in the funnel with an incredible deal on a cell phone and then sign you up for a two-year contract.

WalMart uses the same strategy. They put the lowest, practically free item at the end of the aisle to get you in to the store. Most people buy a higher priced more feature-laden version, and pick up a handful of other items while they are in the store.

Without a marketing funnel, a way of up-selling or cross-selling – you’ll be permanently frustrated and perpetually broke.

Want to stop being frustrated and start making more with your small business marketing? Start here >>

Is there anything Jim can do to turn his “hobby” into a business?

Absolutely.  Jim could expand the services and products he offers to meet more of his customers’ needs. He could offer replacement windows and window washing, for example, and have sales partnerships with people who clean carpets, refinish floors, and do home renovations.

By offering just a few of these related services he could easily double his income within a month or two and have a wildly profitable business. But he didn’t want to change his business model. Last I heard he was headed for bankruptcy instead.

If you just want to be busy, get a hobby.

If you want to make money, your business model needs to systematically help first time customers buy from you again and again so that you make more with less effort. It’s not complicated, and you can easily increase your income by 50% or more within weeks.

- Charlie

P.S. Tired of just being busy? Want to find how to find out the proven formula for attracting clients and profits?

Use this small business marketing blueprint to get the profits you want >>

P.P.S. I’ve known people who worked 50 to 80 hours a week just to make ends meet, when they had an untapped goldmine in their hands. Find out how easy it is to get all the business you want and see your income grow.

Get started >>

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How To Increase Your Profits Without Selling

By Charlie Cook   |   June 16th, 2009

Over 20 years ago, I rented an office in downtown Old Greenwich, Connecticut, across the street from the best sandwich shop in town. The first time I went into the shop, I noticed that the menu was a copy of an original created on a typewriter.

The thing was barely legible and made worse by scratched out prices with new ones scribbled in. The menus hardly reflected the quality of owner Gary’s creative and delicious sandwiches.

The proud owner of a new computer and state of the art laser printer, I took one of his menus back to my office, reformatted it in an easy to read typeface, and printed a stack of them. The next day when I went to order my sandwich, I offered Gary the professional-looking menus as a present.

Gary was so pleased that he made my sandwiches free for two weeks and gives me a $2 discount on every sandwich I buy to this day.

Discover how you can profit from the law of reciprocity marketing strategies >>

My friend John used the same basic law of human behavior to get help.

Ten years ago John bought a 28’ Corsair sailboat, a larger version of the 24’ trimaran that I sail. With limited experience with large sailboats, launching this boat in the spring and hauling it out of the water in the fall was beyond what John could manage on his own.

So John asked if he could help me launch my boat and if I’d help him in return, and we’d get both boats taken care of the same day

For the last ten years, at the beginning and end of the summer, we’ve helped each other launch and haul our boats. It’s a fair amount of work, but by now we’ve got it down to a science and we enjoy each other’s company and the reciprocity.

I’m sure you use the “law” of reciprocity in your life; now put it to work in your marketing strategies.

Find out how to make more without selling >>

Six Easy Ways To Make More Money
It’s simple; when a person does something for you that you value, you feel an obligation to that person. You’d like to repay the good deed.

How can you use this basic — and surprisingly powerful — fact of human behavior to grow your business and make more money?

You can use it to:

1. Generate leads
Give away a free report or mp3 that has value to your prospects, and they’ll return the favor by giving you their contact information. Then you can start building a relationship with them. Almost every successful Internet marketer uses this strategy, and it works for marketing offline, too.

Want more ideas on generating leads? >>

2. Sign up new clients
I know many consultants who regularly speak for local chambers of commerce or for industry association gatherings. They share their best ideas and, in return, walk away from each talk with a handful of new clients.

Other successful firms attract prospects with free seminars. For example, if you’re an investment advisor you could offer a seminar on wisely managing investments during a recession. One local financial firm used this approach and added $40 million in new assets within six months — without making a single sales call.

Sign up more clients >>

3.  Sell more products
I recently offered a free teleseminar on copywriting to my entire mailing list. It took me almost a week to put it together and cost me hundreds of dollars, but I it was well worthwhile.

The comments I got from people who participated were very positive. They loved the content and expressed their interest in large numbers by taking advantage of the one-time trial offer associated with the call.

If you want people to buy from you, start the process by giving them something of value.

Interested in selling more?

4. Build your membership program
Getting people to make a commitment to pay a monthly fee for a year or more is a huge marketing challenge. The easiest way to overcome this is to give prospects the first month or two for free. Then give them relevant and useful content, and they’ll stay in and keep paying.

It’s a simple strategy that most magazine publishers use, because it works!

5. Get more readers for your blog and your tweets
Want more people to read your blog? To get other bloggers to link to your blog, provide a link to theirs on your site. Then contact them and they’ll be much more likely to return the favor.

The same is true with Twitter. If you want more followers, sign up to follow the people you want following you. At least 70% will return the favor and start following your tweets.

6. Get a bigger tip
(I know most of you aren’t working as a waiter or waitress but I just wanted to include this one to show you the power of the law of reciprocity.)

Waitress and waiters increase their tips in two ways in addition to being there when you need them. One tactic is to include a mint or small candy with your check when they bring it at the end of the meal. Research shows that patrons leave 25 to 30% larger tips when candy is included with the check.

Another strategy used in the restaurant industry is to share a “secret”. When you’re ordering, the waitress may whisper to you that the pork dish you wanted isn’t one she would suggest, and then she gives you a couple of personal recommendations.

When the check arrives, patrons who were given the “secret” recommendation leave larger tips.

Discover the most cost-effective marketing strategies to increase profits >>

There are hundreds of ways to use the “law of reciprocity” to persuade prospects to contact you, to buy from and to spend more with you. Use them and see your profits grow.

- Charlie

P.S. If you’re tired of trying to ramp up your profits with selling, try giving away value. Give your prospects something they want and can use right away. In return you’ll get more business than you ever imagined and feel good about it all the way to the bank.

Find out how >>

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The Fastest Way To Make The Sale

By Charlie Cook   |   March 31st, 2009

Have you ever had a prospect walk away from a sale just when you thought you were about to close?

Of course you have. It happens all the time. And more and more small business owners tell me that in this economy, their prospects are even more price sensitive. They’re finding it harder than ever to close as many sales as they want to.

Are you closing all the sales as you want to? Discover how to close more sales here >>

Before I tell you the easy way to bring in more sales, I want to clear up some confusion about marketing in this recession.

Price Is Not The Problem
While finances are very tight for some people, the majority actually have money to spend. In fact individual savings rates have almost doubled in recent months and many people have even more money in the bank than a year ago.

No question that everyone is looking for a deal, and hoping to get the same kind of discounts that we’ve been seeing for the last 4 months, what they really want is value. But it’s not the price that closes the sale. You’ll make the sale when your prospect feels certain that they are getting the best value for their money.

Want more sales? Use this proven strategy >>

Focus On Selling and Kill the Sale
I was talking with Sam, a coaching client who recently went on a shopping spree. His business grew enough last year that he not only had money to spend on his home in New York, but he purchased a second home in Florida.

Sam and his wife needed a new dishwasher for their home in New York. They went to three appliance stores. In the first two, the salespeople asked a couple of questions and then launched into hard sell presentations about the benefits of various models on the floor.

Sam and his wife walked out of both stores. They didn’t want to be sold, and the salespeople were so focused on making their pitches that they drove these prospects away.

The salesperson at the third appliance store took the time to ask them about their home, their cooking and entertaining habits, and their budget. Then he showed them two dishwashers that would suit their needs. One was within their budget but didn’t have everything they were looking for, and one cost more than they had planned to spend, but had all the features they wanted.

Have you guessed the outcome? Right. Sam and his wife bought the higher priced machine because it was a good value for them. They bought from the salesperson who took the time to ask a few questions, listen to their answers and then offer them two good solutions.

Want to make more sales? Start here >>

Focus on the Customer and Make the Sale
Sam had a similar experience house hunting in Florida. He and his wife got in touch with a realtor who’d been referred to them and described what they were looking for in detail before they headed south.

When they arrived in sunny Florida, the real estate agent took them on a whirlwind tour. She had 15 houses she wanted to show them in one day. After seeing the first five, Sam and his wife called it quits.

The realtor hadn’t listened to them. She was showing them homes that didn’t match what they’d told her they wanted, and they were frustrated looking at homes they had no interest in. The remaining 10 houses on the realtors list were just more of the same.

On a return trip a few weeks later, Sam and his wife met with a new realtor. This one asked them detailed questions and then showed them just 3 houses, one of which they now own.

You get the picture. Focus on the customer’s needs and make the sale.

Want to avoid losing customers and close more sales? Use this proven strategy >>

Diagnosis Before Prescribing
When you’re in your doctor’s office describing the pain in your back that’s been killing you for two weeks, you want her to hear the whole story. You don’t want her making a diagnosis before she has all the information about when and where you feel pain and how it all started. There’s a diagnostic side to sales, too.

Before you present a solution to a client, before you try to get them to spend a dime, help them define the problem they are trying to solve. Ask your prospects questions to find out what their needs are. Then use the information they provide to advise them about the best solutions.

People aren’t looking to be sold. They’re looking for help buying what they want. Help them, and you’ll make a lot more money.

It sounds incredibly simple, but over 60% of the salespeople Sam encountered weren’t using this simple strategy to succeed. Most small business owners, marketers and salespeople don’t ask the key questions that will help convert their prospects to clients

I know you’re smarter than most, which is why I’d like to show you marketing tips for the fastest way to close more sales >>

- Charlie

P.S. Want to know which questions to ask your prospects and which to avoid? This important topic was covered in detail on this month’s Monthly Marketing Membership Program. If you’re not a member yet, sign up today to get the insider strategies that will help you succeed this year.

Interested? >>

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Marketing Ideas – Where To Start In This Economy…

By Charlie Cook   |   March 24th, 2009

Even some of the most successful small business owners are seeing their sales slow down in this economy. As a smart entrepreneur, you know that marketing is the key to successful selling. It’s the engine that drives your profits.

Has your marketing stalled?

How can you get things running again and get your sales and profits back on track?

Discover how to power up your marketing ideas in this economy >>

I was at my grandmother’s place in Maine with my roommate Rex one summer during college. She had offered us the use of her aging 1949 Jeep while we were there.  We thought it would be a blast to take it for a spin. There was only one problem.

After a winter of neglect, the old rusty Jeep wouldn’t start. I had no idea what to do. I was about to give up and walk away when Rex stopped me. “It’s not that complicated to get one of these engines running again. It’s either a fuel problem or an electrical problem. We just have to figure out which it is and then we can fix it ourselves.”

With that mindset, we checked the battery, spark plugs, fuel lines, and fuel pump. We finally traced the problem to a dirty carburetor. Once Rex showed me how to approach the problem, with some basic tools we were able to get the Jeep running again.

Troubleshoot your marketing the same way. If you’re not getting all the sales you want, the problem is either leads (the fuel) or conversions (the spark that turns leads into profits).

Not reaching your sales goals? You need to fix your leads or your conversions.

Discover how to get your marketing up to top speed >>

Ready to repair your marketing problems and get your marketing engine running again? Start with these basic diagnostic questions:

Leads
1. Do you use a free offer to get qualified prospects to contact you?

2. Is your free offer compelling? Do at least 1 out of 20 people who are exposed to it contact you?

3. Do you feature your free offer prominently on your web site so that 10% of visitors to your site contact you?

4. Are you using a client-focused marketing message that explains in 10 or 12 words what benefit you provide?

5. Do you have a no-cost referral strategy for extending your reach and helping more people learn how you can help them?

Want more leads and sales? Start here >>

Conversions
1. Do you have an automated follow-up process in place to convert leads to sales?

2. Are your sales processes, your sales conversations and sales copy structured around product features or your prospects’ problems? If you’re focusing on product or service features, you’re doing it wrong.

3. When you get a prospect to the point of purchase are you using an up-sell strategy to maximize your profits?

4. Do you have a system for cross-selling clients to maximize the dollar value of each client?

5. Are you currently testing ways to increase your conversion rates? If you’re not, you may be leaving a large portion of your profits on the table.

Interested in converting more prospects and closing more sales? Find out how >>

If you answered no to any of the above, your marketing is missing key parts. Add them to get your profits pouring in.

Like your car engine, marketing is a system. If it’s not bringing in the level of profits you want, the fastest way to restart it and get it up to top speed is to figure out what part of the system isn’t working.

Start by determining whether it’s a problem with leads or conversions. Once you know that you can identify whether the problem is your offer, your marketing message, or your closing process. And often, just by fixing one element of your marketing, you can get the whole system running and easily double your income.

Don’t let this economy slow you down >>

- Charlie

P.S. Current car engines are a lot more complicated than the 1949 Jeep that Rex and I got running again. But don’t let new technologies distract you from the basics. You can still diagnose your marketing engine and fix it. Need a hand?

Discover the simple system for maximizing your leads, conversions and profits >>

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Who Will Be The Business Marketing Winners In This Economy?

By Charlie Cook   |   March 10th, 2009

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.

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3 Ways To Succeed In This Economy

By Charlie Cook   |   February 24th, 2009

What’s the number one thing to realize about 2009? It was true in 2008 but by now it should be sinking in.

What’s different about doing business this year and last?

The rules have changed!

For 95% of businesses, you can’t keep growing or making a profit using boom marketing strategies. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that they don’t work. That you can’t make as much as you were much less reach your growth goals if you keep doing the same things you used to do to grow your business.

What are your 5 options for dealing with this economy?

1.    Use denial
Tell yourself everything is fine and pretend that the recession will just go away. Denial is one of the first lines of defense. It’s your reaction to news you don’t want to hear. We all use it, but it’s only a temporary way to block out bad news and no matter how long you stay in denial it doesn’t make anything better.

2.    Be angry
If your growth plans are on the shelf and your profits are shrinking you can look for someone to blame. I can think of a few financial wizards, who are morally bankrupt, to be mad at. But ultimately being angry won’t make you rich.

3.    Get depressed
If you read the news, see how many people are losing their jobs, or take a look at your profits, it’s easy to get depressed. You could just give up and ask yourself, “Why bother with anything?” It’s natural to feel this way but at some point if you want to start attracting more clients and making more money you’ll need to move beyond depression to…

4.    Accept the situation
The few smart economists who predicted this recession tell us that you and I are going to be dealing with it for five to eight years. If you accept this and can move beyond denial, anger and depression then you’ll accept that the rules have changed and you can…

5.    Do something about it
Change the way you market your business. If you want different results you’re going to need to change the way you generate leads, and find out how to close more sales and generate more revenue from each client.

No one likes to be forced to change but if you want your business to survive much less prosper – it’s time. Don’t worry it’s easier than you think.

3 Ways to Succeed In This Economy
Last year, in early 2008, just when this recession was really kicking in, I got a call from Mary Ellen and Ed, a pair of therapists in California who were struggling to attract new clients and build a profitable practice. They were at a break even point but needed 50% more clients to reach their goals.

Here are the 3 simple strategies I showed them.

A. Create A Top Converting Lead Generation Website
When we started working together, their web site was closer to an online brochure and it wasn’t working to generate leads.

I showed them how to replace boring copy with the key phrases they needed to use to keep people reading and which elements to include on the page to prompt people to contact them.

The result? They’re now getting two to three times the leads and the ones they are getting are more qualified and closer to the ideal clients they want.

Interested in making your site more profitable too? Start here >>

B. Replace Expensive Online Advertising With Top Search Engine Placement
In an effort to drive traffic to their site, Mary Ellen and Ed had been spending thousands of dollars each month on pay per click ads. With a site that wasn’t working to convert visitors to valuable prospects this was a waste of money and killing their profits.

Instead of costly advertising, I showed them a few key SEO strategies that ramped up their traffic making it possible to cut back on the expense of pay-per-click ads and increasing their profits.

Want to know how to get all the traffic you need to be more profitable? Go here >>

C. Improve Follow-up To Increase Prospect to Client Conversions
Ed had been writing a newsletter but it seemed like no one was reading it much less picking up the phone to talk to him or Mary Ellen about their services.

I showed Ed how to make a small shift in focus and content and turn the newsletters into a proactive conversion tool, increasing calls and clients.

Ready to improve your follow-up and close more online sales? Use this >>

3 simple changes – done right – the result?

Last year in 2008 Mary Ellen and Ed more than doubled their business and now in early 2009 have reached their goals. They have all the clients they can handle.

Let me ask you three questions.

1.    Do you want help reaching your goals?
2.    Would you like to have all the clients you can handle?
3.    Want to make more this year?

If you answered yes to any of these, then it’s time to move beyond, denial, anger, depression and acceptance and take action to find out how like Mary Ellen and Ed, you can put your business on top in this economy.

- Charlie

P.S. Most business owners are in denial about their websites. They don’t work, so they give up on them. Don’t make this mistake. With a few quick fixes you can easily use your site to double or triple your income.

Interested in making more with your website? Find out what to do >>

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There Is Something You Can Do In This Economy

By Charlie Cook   |   February 18th, 2009

Tired of watching your sales and profits slip in these tough financial times?

While it’s true the wizards of Wall Street, left to their own, have certainly played havoc with our financial system and made making a living, much less realizing your dream, a lot harder – there is something you should know.

You can do something about your web marketing.

No, I’m not talking about writing your Congressperson, waiting for the bailout to take hold, or playing the lottery. What I’m talking about is using one of the simplest and most profitable marketing strategies on the planet and the one that most business owners ignore.

What is it? What’s the solution to making higher profits and to being successful in this economy?

Before I tell you the simple solution, let me tell you the mistake that most business owners make. Most business owners make the mistake of trying to be everything to everybody. They labor under the illusion that higher profits come from web marketing the broadest range of services and products to the most number of people.

Are you doing this?

Are you trying to appeal to multiple target markets?

If you are, you’re on the wrong track and you’re missing out on huge profits. Yes, I know some people want everyone to like them and I have one thing to tell those people. Get over it if you want to make money.

You’ll be much more successful if you focus your business and your marketing on a specific set of products and services and prospects. When you try to appeal to everyone, no one will see you as the go-to expert, or the perfect provider.

Find out the fastest way to increase your profits >>

The solution?

Focus your business on a profitable niche!

I know this sounds obvious but 98% of all business owners I talk to are trying to appeal to too many people. They are trying to do too much and as a result aren’t getting the loyalty and business of their primary target market.

You’re marketing should both attract and repel. If it’s so general that it doesn’t repel anyone then it won’t do a very good job of attracting qualified prospects.

Want to discover how to attract higher profits >>

Imagine you wanted to open a restaurant that everyone would like. What would you serve? Well after you made your entrees low salt, low sugar, low fat, non-meat to satisfy the vegetarians, and non-spicy to meet the needs of people with sensitive stomachs, what you’d be left with would be tasteless gruel. It wouldn’t appeal to anyone and you’d go broke or be stuck selling it to hospitals.

Now imagine instead you only wanted to be the best restaurant for a specific niche. That’s what the “Gun Barrel” does, a restaurant my son and I ate at on ski trip to Jackson Hole this month. The “Gun Barrel” serves mammoth beef and bison steaks, as well as elk, and venison. The elk I ordered arrived practically dripping with blood and I’d asked for it medium rare, the most they cook their meats.

No, the “Gun Barrel” isn’t for everyone and it’s definitely going to repel vegetarians, vegans and the like. But if you’re a full-fledged carnivore, you’re going to love it. And while I’m sure some people avoid ever setting foot inside, it was packed with meat lovers and doing a brisk business.

Interested in packing your business with loyal clients >>

Is your business focused on a specific target market? Most people will say of course, but before you do take the following test.

If you asked five people to describe what you do – would they all give the same answer?

In the case of the “Gun Barrel” I’m sure you would. They’ve targeted a specific niche, providing steak and game, and hit it dead center in order to maximize their profits.

Could you focus your business more and increase your profits?

In the past few years, homebuilders have seen a huge drop in sales. As a group, they’ve taken a beating and most of the ones I talk to tell me there isn’t anything they can do – the problem is the banks.

I’d agree that Wall Street and the banks in this country have royally screwed things up, but I’d also say that most builders have it wrong. There is something they can do – they can go from being generalists to specialists. They can focus their business on where the money is in this market. And you can too.

Want to know how to focus your business to make more this year >>

Yesterday I talked to one smart builder in Georgia who had done just this. He’s focused his business on first time home-buyers and on empty nesters. He’s got a 2400 square foot design that is built to be expandable. It’s built with an unfinished second floor that’s ready to be completed. That way people pay for what they can afford, then when they have the money they can expand. Smart builder!

By specializing, focusing your business, you too can become the go-to expert in your industry. No you won’t appeal to everyone but you’ll attract a lot more qualified prospects, the people who will become ideal clients.

And there is a secondary benefit to specializing, to focusing your business. You’ll make more!

Think about – who drives a fancier car, who brings in the most money? The local doctor, the general practitioner or the specialist, the surgeon? In every case it’s the specialist who makes more money.

Interested in making more this year? Start here >>

-Charlie

P.S. One of the most common questions I get from people is how can I make more without spending a fortune. Focusing your business costs you nothing and can easily double or triple your profits.

Discover the secret to cost effective marketing >>

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