Sometimes you need to look at your business from a different direction and perspective. To see where you are going with it.
* Where have you positioned yourself in the marketplace?
* How can you increase revenues and profits?
* What can be done to cut costs?
* How do you find new customers? » (Read More)
Struggling to bring in new business? Wish you could generate more leads and clients without having to deplete your cash reserves in this tough economy?
Whether you’re just starting out or have a well-established business, the truth is that some of the most powerful ways to grow your business can be had for free! And these work whether you’re netting $50,000 a year or $10,000,000 a year in business.
Here are three no-cost, high return ideas you can take to the bank in this tough economy:
1. Give Away Something For Free
I use a simple report I wrote to bring in an average of 60 leads a day or over 400 each week. Each week my list of qualified prospects grows. I spent a few days writing the report but after that my lead generation costs went to zero.
Business Week ran an article last year about Chipotle’s successful giveaway marketing strategy. The fast food restaurant chain has handed out tens of thousands of free burritos and tacos as way of building a loyal clientele. In just one day Chipotle gave away 6,000 burritos when they opened a mid-town location in Manhattan.
This customer-satisfying strategy cost them $35,000, just about the same amount they would have spent for a half page black and white ad in The New York Times.
Let your prospects sample your ideas or your products. It’s the fastest way to help people understand the value of what you provide, to trust you and to want to do business with you. Chipotle has leveraged this strategy to become one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the country. Imagine what this marketing strategy could do for you!
Ready to generate more leads and make more money this year >>
2. Create Compelling Offers
In this economy your offers need to grab your prospect’s interest and prompt them to act right away. Special time limited or limited availability offers are what the retail chains are using and you can use too.
People buy your products and services based on their perception of value. Whether you are charging five dollars or five thousand, your prospects need to be convinced that the benefits you provide will outweigh the cost.
To stimulate sales place your offer in the context of your target market’s concerns. Once you’ve clarified how your product or service meets their concerns the value of your offer will be apparent.
Creating a compelling offer is an art and involves blending the following items together to create a sentence or two which will move people to take action, whether it is contacting you or making an immediate purchase.
Include the following items to create an offer that helps sell:
Name – What you are selling
Benefit – The problem it solves
Credibility – Why they should buy from you
Value – How useful it will be to them
Guarantee – Your promise to them
Motivation to Act – A reason to take advantage of your offer today.
Want to know all the secrets to winning more clients and more business >>
3. Get Others to Promote Your Business for You
The goal in marketing is to reach more prospects, get them to trust you and understand the value of your products and services. What’s the fastest and least expensive way to do this?
Get others to promote you.
That’s right. No matter what you’re product or service there are other businesses that offer non-competing products and services to the same target market. Join forces with them and get them to promote your company and you’ve instantly extended your reach, leveraged the trust relationship they have with their list and all you need to do is clarify the value of your service or products.
How do you find other businesses willing to promote yours? Let me give you a few examples.
You’re an athletic trainer. You could partner with someone who provides sports massage or nutrition counseling. Even weekend warriors will benefit from this combination of services. You promote each other and all of you could double your clientele without spending a dime.
Or if you own a web site that sells shoes, you could offer a $25 discount coupon with each sale over $75 that your customers can use at another site that sells socks, and vice a versa. You both generate more sales and make more money without actually spending a penny.
Or if you’re a voice coach working with aspiring executives you could partner with a leadership or sales coach. If you each provide your partner with the marketing collateral they need to promote you, your cost is minimal and you both double your marketing reach.
Each time you partner with a business that has a broad customer base, you’ll dramatically increase your sales and profits. And you’ll do so virtually for free.
There are dozens of other ways to position and expand your business, strategies that work whether you’re just starting out or you’re growing a well-established business.
- Charlie
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The best sales presentation I’ve ever seen wasn’t a sales pitch, but when it was over I was sold for life.
Wouldn’t you like to be able to do the same with your marketing, sell clients for life without a single sales pitch?
I was in high school, attending a mandatory assembly about safe driving. We students were polite, but mostly inattentive until we saw the speaker toss an egg to a volunteer on the stage. By the time we heard “splat!” and saw the egg dripping from his hand, the speaker had our attention.
“That egg is you in a car crash, without a seat belt,” the speaker said. “Its simple physics: when a fragile object in motion stops suddenly, the energy has to go somewhere.”
“Now, let’s see what happens when we protect the egg,” he said, placing another in an empty dozen-size carton. The speaker flung the carton half way back into the auditorium, where a student caught it. On instruction from the speaker he opened the carton, removed the unbroken egg and held it aloft.
We were sold. The benefits of wearing a seat belt were etched permanently on our brains, as my recollection of the moment many years later attests.
Want to sell more of your prospects? Get started here >>
Everybody’s selling something…
The speaker may have been throwing, but he wasn’t pitching. As the egg story shows, there’s more than one-way to sell.
Think you don’t have to sell? Think again.
Everybody sells something – products, services or ideas. The speaker was selling an idea, and we bought it because of the power of his demonstration.
Good selling isn’t about high pressure and fast talk. It’s about providing information that enables buyers to make informed decisions. It’s about presenting ideas in a way that grab their attention, eliminate their objections and demonstrate value. A canned sales pitch is seldom the best way to do that. In other words, you can win without pitching.
Interested? Want to know the secrets to winning without pitching? Start by using this link >>
That being the case, you need to know how to go about communicating with your prospects and clients. First, it helps to start thinking like your clients. Here are four basic guidelines to help you market from your client’s perspective:
*No one likes to be sold, but nearly everyone loves to buy.
*People do things for their own reasons, not yours.
*People buy from you because they know you, like you and trust you.
*People make buying decisions based on emotions, not facts.
With those thoughts as a frame of reference, let’s consider what you should do to help people buy. These suggestions apply to on-line and off-line businesses equally.
*Be a problem solver. Establish your expert credentials by providing high-quality information that helps people solve their problems.
*Use stories and testimonials. People love stories. They help us understand context and let us relate better to a product or service. Testimonials are short stories told about you by your clients. Prospective clients often find it easier to relate to you through the positive experiences of others.
*Be patient. Selling is a lot like dating (yes, we’re all selling something). You wouldn’t think of planting a passionate kiss on someone at the beginning of a first date. It makes no more sense to try to close a product sale too soon. Provide information, build trust.
*Tell the truth and nothing but the truth. Keep in mind a quick search of the Internet probably will provide more than enough factual information to debunk any false claims.
*Use a variety of tools. We’ve already discussed the power of a good demonstration. It doesn’t have to be live – you can do a video demo on YouTube or your own Website. No matter what kind of business you have, a good Website should be a big part of your marketing mix.
Providing useful information helps customers gain confidence in you, which is essential to establishing trust. But at some point you have to close the sale. If you’ve provided good information that leads the customer logically from information consumer to eager buyer, closing the sale should be the natural end result.
If you’d like to attract more clients and generate more sales, discover how much more you could be making by winning without pitching. Take action today >>
To your success,
Charlie
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Many small business owners, entrepreneurs and marketers struggle to be more profitable and overlook simple, effective strategies that could increase their sales by as much as 200%.
Are you one of them? Have you overlooked these marketing opportunities, too?
• Do you have a list of satisfied clients but you’re having trouble increasing your sales?
• Do you send out mailings and get a miniscule rate of return?
• Do you run ads and expect a landslide of new business?
• Do you have a web site that barely pays for itself?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re burning up time and money stretching and straining to increase sales and missing the low-hanging profits you could be taking in.
Have you been to one of those Pick-Your-Own orchards? It’s an annual fall excursion in my family. Each year we drive to our favorite orchard in Monkton, Vermont and pick a few pecks of apples for eating and baking.
If you’ve picked your own apples, you know that it’s a lot easier to grab the ones hanging on the lower branches. The wooden ladders that reach to the top of the trees are heavy, awkward, and never nearby when you need them. Once you’ve located a ladder and wrestled it into position, you’ve got to scramble up without damaging yourself or the brittle branches of the tree.
You can pick five times as many apples in the same amount of time by moving from tree to tree and grabbing the ones within reach. Likewise, there is profit potential within reach if you know how to take advantage of it.
Discover the easiest way to pick up more profits with your business. >>
Small Changes Add Up to Big Profits
Recently my VW dealer sent me an email detailing 4 ways to improve my mileage by 20%; replace filters, change the oil, tune the engine and keep the tires properly inflated. Each is a small, low cost change but making them could add up to significant savings. You can improve sales with similar low cost changes in your marketing and have a big impact on profits.
Here are seven small changes that can yield big results:
1. Replace your marketing message; Increase sales by 20% to 3,000%.
2. Use an automated lead generation system to target your best prospects; Increase sales by 100% to 1,000%.
3. Change your pricing strategy; Increase profits by 20% to 65%.
4. Replace your sales script; Increase closing rates and sales by 50% to 80%
5. Change your sales page headline; Increase your income by 50% to 150%.
6. Include related up-sell offers; Increase profits by 12% to 25%.
7. Use every page on your website to generate leads, instead of just one or two pages; Increase your sales by 15% to 40%.
Ready to discover how and where to increase your profits? Find the easy answers >>
The solution to making more with your business isn’t to look for a magic marketing pill that will solve all your problems instantly. It doesn’t exist. The solution is to pick the low hanging fruit to get 10% and 20% and bigger improvements.
How to Increase Sales by 300%
If you could find a way to increase your profits by 10% every month, you would have more than tripled your income by the end of the year. Harvesting low-hanging profits can do that for your business. Like plucking the apples at arm’s length in an orchard, it’s less work and a whole lot more fruitful.
Interested in harvesting low-hanging profits to grow your sales and your business? Discover how >>
- Charlie
Marketing Ideas that Make YOU Money
P.S. Add a few thousand dollars here and a few there each month and within a few months you’ll be on your way to making an additional $100,000 to $300,000 or more this year.
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A month ago I was approached by someone who wanted to podcast my weekly small business marketing ideas and tips. No charge. He’d do it in return for permission to use them on this site.
We’ve now got 4 small business marketing ideas podcast. Take a listen and let me know what you think.
Listen to my small business marketing ideas >>
- Charlie
Small Business Marketing For Self-Made Millionaires
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What, No Sales Team For Your Small Business?
To listen to the podcast of this blog online, use this link >>
Can you grow your business without a sales team?
Do you need a team of aggressive sales people on the phone calling prospects, closing deals and taking orders?
The short answer is NO. You don’t need a sales team to be successful. And if you have one, you could be feeding them a lot more hungry prospects that are ready to buy.
At MarketingForSuccess.com we don’t have a sales team. The web marketing strategy we use works to bring in 300 to 400 orders a month and that number keeps growing. It’s a proven strategy that attracts 45,000 visitors to the site each month, and. our in-house subscriber list keeps growing at an astonishing rate.
Why is this strategy so successful? Get the details >>
It’s based on the simple idea that you attract qualified prospects and buyers, by giving them the information they need and the value they want. Do that, and instead of having to track down prospects, they’ll come looking for you, ready to do business.
We focus on sharing strategies and real solutions. We give you ideas that you can put to use to grow your business and build mutually beneficial relationships one-by-one.
Don’t you wish you had hundreds of orders and requests for your services pouring in each month without having to make a single phone call or pay for a single salesperson?
Discover how to make your web site sell like crazy.
Find out how before you miss another sale >>
You may already be familiar with some parts of the successful web marketing strategy that we use. But do you have them all in place working for you, bringing in orders and requests for your services?
Here’s the proven business-building strategy we use.
1. Make it easy for prospects to find you online.
Put your site at the top of the search engines listings and you could get over twelve thousand visitors a week, as we do.
2. Focus on helping instead of selling.
Your prospects aren’t looking to be sold; they’re looking for information to help them solve business problems. Give them what they want and they’ll buy from you.
3. Give prospects something for free.
Do you want your prospect to give you his or her contact information for free? Then give them something for free in exchange.
4. Build loyalty.
Demonstrate your expertise and show your prospects that you can help them. Remember that it takes time and many points of contact to win their confidence.
5. Offer complete solutions.
Whatever business they’re in, your prospects are looking for ways to solve their problems. Give them a value-packed solution. For example >>
6. Test and fine-tune key parts of the system.
The only way to know how much you weigh is to step on a scale. The same is true of your marketing. Test each component and then look for ways to improve it.
7. Automate everything.
Don’t do manually what software can do for you, whether it’s managing and coordinating calendars, using a phone forwarding service or automatic order placement system.
8. Develop strong relationships with key sales partners.
It can take forever to grow your business when you add clients one by one. Instead, you bring in new clients by the hundreds through referrals from strategically chosen sales partners.
9. Stay on the lookout for ways to improve your sales system.
You’re already pulling in tons of sales? Why not double that number?
10. Leverage your time to the max.
As the owner or director of marketing at your company, you’re the brains. Don’t waste your time on tasks that you could delegate to specialists or to administrative assistants.
Should you fire your sales team?
Why not improve your marketing so they’re swamped with inquiries from qualified prospects questions and keep them busy closing deals? Combine a turbo-charged web marketing strategy with high-touch personal follow-up from your sales team, and you’ll outsell everyone.
To your success,
Charlie Cook
P.S. Ready to make your web site generate dozens of leads and sales each day? Take action and get the solution >>
To listen to the podcast of this blog online, use this link >>
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At the end of the year some people indulge in making New Year’s resolutions. They promise themselves they’re going to stop digging into the cookies or ice cream before bed, go to the gym more often, get more sleep, close more sales and a whole lot of other stuff.
Have you ever done this? One year later did you keep your resolutions or are you still stuck in the same ruts, wishing you were in better shape, still working too hard and not making as much as you’d like?
Maybe you’re the exception, but hardly anyone I know actually keeps their New Year’s resolutions and the rest don’t make them. Why is this?
Because when you talk about accomplishing something in the future, whether it’s losing weight or closing more sales, it stays in the future in your mind. There is always tomorrow and, as everyone knows, tomorrow never comes.
Want to know a better way to set goals you’ll actually reach in 2008? Use these marketing ideas to ensure your success.
Instead of writing your goals in the future, write them in the past tense, as if you’d already accomplished them. For example:
- “I built my list of qualified prospects to over 5,000.”
- “I increased sales per client by 50%.”
- “I reduced my per lead costs by $50.”
- “I automated my business so I can finally work only 4 days a week.”
See the difference? When you list your goals as accomplishments, you trick your mind into believing you’re already there. Instead of anticipating all the effort required and all the obstacles between you and your goals, visualize yourself already where you want to be. It gives you the mindset you need for success.
What’s the first step to success in 2008?
List the personal and business goals you’ll have reached by this time next year. Be specific. Instead of “I want to make more money” or “I want to work less”, write down goals like, “I increased my take home pay last year by $200,000.” Or “I outsourced all my administrative functions of my business and took 6 weeks of vacation to travel with my wife.”
Do this right now, before you read any further. Make a list of your accomplishments for this coming year. The act of writing them down and sharing them tricks your brain into making a commitment to reach them.
It’s the difference between thinking you’d like to take your spouse on a trip to Hawaii, and actually telling her you’ll be taking her there next December. Once you’ve told your spouse or children you’re taking a vacation together, you’ve made a commitment to them and yourself. The same is true of your business goals.
Now you need an action plan to meet your goals. Start by answering the following questions.
1 – What do you need to do to reach each of your goals?
A faster way of generating leads? >>
A system for growing your business? >>
A web site that converts visitors to buyers? >>
2 – What knowledge and skills are required?
Do you need to discover how to attract more clients, close more sales or finally turn your website into a profit center? Use this link >>
3 – What kind of advice do you need?
Do you need someone to help you organize your marketing and show you how to focus your efforts? Use this link >>
4 – What administrative tasks will you need help with?
Customer support and service, fulfillment, bookkeeping, web maintenance?
If you want 2008 to be more successful than 2007, think differently and plan differently. You may need fresh marketing ideas and different skills; to find new partners or associates, a better ways to organize your business and even a mentor.
Instead of making resolutions for the New Year, implement these marketing ideas and define what you’ll have achieved twelve months from now, and by that time you’ll have reached your goals. A simple strategy, but it works by creating a mindset of success that will last all year long.
Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Work
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What’s the secret to getting your marketing into shape? Do you want to attract more leads each week and grow your sales every month? Get your marketing in shape to achieve your goals.
Find out how in this week’s web marketing article >>
Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results
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Are your marketing habits good for your business?
Bill is a friend of mine who is smart, hard working and dedicated to his management consulting business. His clients love him, but his business is stagnating. He gets referrals occasionally, but considering how good he is at what he does, new clients should be lined up outside his door.
When business slows down and his client list shrinks, Bill blames it on a lack of interest in the marketplace. What’s Bill missing?
He doesn’t have good marketing habits. Actually, he doesn’t have any marketing habits.
Marketing is like your health. If you want to see your business continue to increase its profits year after year you need to have healthy marketing habits.
If you eat three meals a day, get exercise, take some time to relax, brush your teeth and get 7-8 hours of sleep. You have reasonably good health habits. Maybe a few more vegetables instead of cookies, more exercise and some more sleep would help but basically you’re doing the right things to keep yourself in decent shape.
Want to do the same with your marketing to get it in shape?
Ready to discover the simple marketing regimen that can make you rich? Use this link >>
Every day you do at least 4 to 7 tasks to keep your body fueled and functioning well. You eat more or less balanced meals, get a little exercise, brush your teeth, sleep. etc.
But are you doing the 4 to 7 things you need to do every day to keep your business fueled with a steady stream of new clients and profits? If not, don’t panic, but don’t shrug this advice off either. It’s time to adopt healthy marketing habits.
The 3 Most Important Wealth-Building Marketing Habits
1. Take Responsibility for Your Marketing Strategy
Puzzled by what to do to grow your business? You need a proven marketing strategy that’s right for your business.
If you’re serious about growth, it’s time to find out what really works to generate more clients and sales. Use this link to get the details >>
Thinking of hiring a marketing firm to do it all for you? It doesn’t quite work that way. I can’t tell you how many business owners I’ve heard from who’ve hired marketing firms and seen little or no increase in sales. Even if you hire a firm to implement your marketing, you’ve still got to take responsibility for understanding what it takes to develop and maintain a winning marketing strategy.
You may have hired a personal trainer to guide your fitness routine and a full time cook to make delicious, nutritious meals (lucky you!); your health is still your responsibility. The same is true of your company’s marketing.
Discover what works to generate more clients and sales. Use this link to get the details >>
2. Schedule Time For Marketing
If they aren’t locked into your schedule, you won’t get to your marketing tasks and you won’t ever see your marketing strategy kick into gear.
You eat regular meals to keep yourself thriving; likewise – establish regular times to nourish your business by focusing on your marketing. I schedule a morning a week to write newsletters and manage the various on- and off-line tasks that keep traffic coming to my website and convert prospects to clients.
If you haven’t done so already, block out time each day or each week to spend on marketing – a minimum of five hours a week.
3. Use a Proven Marketing Strategy
Most business owners and marketers make the following mistake. They spend money on advertising and then sit back and wait for results. Or they put up a web site and sit back and wonder why so few people are buying from it.
If you wanted to grow your favorite variety of tomatoes, you wouldn’t just throw a handful of seeds onto a patch of soil and expect them to thrive. You’d water and weed and pinch them back and check their progress at least once a week.
In marketing as in gardening, a simple strategy will help those leads turn into clients and you’ll have healthy profits. Without a proven marketing strategy you’ll just end up wasting your time and money.
Ready to discover a proven marketing strategy to grow your business? Use this link to get the details >>
Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Make You Money
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What’s the benefit of using a small business marketing system?
If you live in an area where it rains sporadically but you want to keep your lawn green you may have or have considered installing an automatic sprinkler system. When you have one, your lawn and shrubs get the amount of water they need every week and keep growing.
Your business is the same. Without a small business marketing system the flow of your leads and sales is beyond your control. Install a simple system for growing your business and instead you could have a constant flow of new business every month. Isn’t that what you want?
The Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing gives you a simple system for growing your business so that you generate more leads and sales each month with less wasted effort. Use this link to discover a business building system that works for you >>
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