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The #1 Small Business Marketing Tip for Outrageous Profits

By Charlie Cook | January 5, 2009

How can I generate more leads, more sales and make more money?

That’s the one marketing tip I hear struggling entrepreneurs and small business owners asking for. Do you know the answer?

The answer is simple. Give your prospects a chance to test out your expertise, your products and your services. This is the fastest way to demonstrate the value you offer and to develop the trust you need from a prospect to make a sale.

Say you’re in the market for a new car (lucky you, in this economic climate!). You walk into a car showroom – in my case it’d be the Audi dealer’s – and what do you want to do before you make any decision to buy?

You want to take at least one car out for a test drive, see how it handles, check out the leather seats to see how comfortable they are and even test the GPS, and the other bells and whistles.

Now imagine that when you walked into the showroom, the sales associate told you you couldn’t touch the car, get in it or take it for a test drive; all you could do was look at it.

What would you do? You’d leave and go find a dealer that had their head screwed on right. It’s hard to imagine a salesperson that wouldn’t let you test out a product or service.

Yet that’s what most business owners do: they try to sell their products and services without giving prospects a free test.

Too often business owners worry so much about their profits they they lose sight of the face that profits come when their prospects experience the benefits of their product or service. Big mistake!

In fact, the more you give away to prospects the more money you’ll make in return.

Now I’m not talking about giving away your products. I’m talking about giving your prospects a taste of your knowledge or your services so they can get to know you and trust you.

For example, you’re getting this newsletter because I gave you a free ebook. And it wasn’t something I just threw together; it represents some of my best ideas. This simple giving strategy has prompted over 40,000 people to add their names to my mailing list.

You may use an initial free offer simply to build your database of prospects like I do, but at some point you’re going to want to prompt your prospects to buy. What kind of offer will motivate people to buy?

Again, give away something for free or for practically free:

* Oreck successfully sold one of it’s vacuums by offering it free for the first 30 days along witha $130 iron as a gift.

* Time magazine’s online offer is: “Subscribe to TIME! Plus, get 6 months more for 1 cent!”

* Cingular offers “Free Camera Phones” when you sign up for a 2 year agreement. Other phone services “give away” free minutes when you sign up.

* Send people a check. AT&T mailed out 200 million checks to former customers and 10 million became clients again. By cashing the check, prospects agreed to sign on with AT&T.

* A local Stamford, Connecticut investment adviser gave away a free workshop and grew their assets by $20 million.

* Google gives away its top quality search services in order to attract viewers for the unobtrusive ad space they sell.

* Charles Schwab gives away access to its select list of mutual funds.

* As a skier, this is one of my favorite offers; Andes Tower, a small ski area in Kensington, Minnesota, started a free after-school program three evenings a week that included transportation to the hill, equipment and lift tickets for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. In other words, they gave away everything and then some. The benefit? Their ski shop immediately sold out of every piece of junior equipment (for 7th-12th
graders).

The long term benefit is that they’re grooming a generation of kids who love skiing. They’ll be back with their parents to buy more gear as they grow. And who knows? Down the road they may be back with children of their own.

Want to supercharge your small business marketing and your profits?

The more you give away in terms of perceived value, the more money you’ll make.

Give something away that your prospects need. Give away ideas your prospects can use and help them understand when and how to use your products and services. It’s the best-kept secret to success.

This year I gave away more free ebooks than every before. The result? 2008 has been my most
successful ever.

Give to Get! That’s the core marketing tip. Put it into practice and you’ll see your profits soar, too.

What is your Give to Get strategy?

-Charlie

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35 Profit Building Giveaways

By Charlie Cook | December 1, 2008

This has been a tough year for many small business owners, but I’m feeling great. Why? There are 3 reasons. I’ve had my best year ever, with sales growing each month right through November. Second, my clients are experiencing similar results. Last but not least, it’s snowing in Vermont.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my work and work comes first, but skiing is my second passion. The mountain where I ski has already gotten 35 inches of snow. I’m stoked and feeling generous.

So generous that I’ve decided to help you put your marketing and your profits on track with my Monthly Marketing Mentoring Program. To get you started, I’m going to give away 35 new member bundles at 20% off.

That’s one new member bundle for each inch of snow that has fallen so far this ski season at Sugarbush in Vermont, where I’ll be found carving turns any day now.

I’ve only set aside 35 new member bundles, each worth over $1,024, for this holiday snow special and I’m giving them away for just $39.95. But to get one, you need to take action right away.>>

When you test-drive this membership program you’ll discover:

- How to Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever
- How to Close the Sale and Make $20,000 More Next Month
- How to Think Like a Winner
- Which Mistakes 95% of Small Business Owners Make and How to Avoid Them
- 4 Easy Ways to Sell More
- How to Fix Your Web Site in One Week or Less

And I’ll include:
- The Essential Marketing Checklist
- The Ultimate Copywriting Checklist

And if that’s not enough, I’ll send it to you free if you claim your copy today.

Let it snow,

-Charlie

P.S. If Sugarbush gets more snow before December 20th, I’ll release an additional copy at this ridiculously low price for each inch of new snow. Otherwise, once the first 35 copies are gone, this special will be sold out. So unless you know how to make it snow, take action in the next few minutes before this offer sells out >>

P.P.S. Here’s what Rob Calabrese, from Sydney, Nova Scotia had to say about the monthly marketing mentoring program:

“Using just one idea from this program, I landed a new client in 40 minutes. These monthly CDs are full of small steps you can put to use immediately to get results with your marketing.”

Want to find out what he did to land a new client in 40 minutes?
Sign up >>

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3 Steps To Attracting Buyers In This Economy

By Charlie Cook | November 20, 2008

What’s happened to your sales this past year? Are sales increasing or are you struggling to find buyers?

The temperatures have turned cold here in New England, and there have already been two snowfalls in the mountains. In Vermont, where I ski, the bears have hunkered down for the winter.

Does it look like your buyers are hibernating, too?
Are you thinking of pulling back on your marketing because of it?

Your answer to the first question may be “Yes”, but your answer to the second should be “No.” While your prospects may be more reluctant to make a purchase, there are still plenty of buyers out there. Cutting back on your marketing is a surefire way to lose even more sales and money.

Want to make money this year instead?

Take these three steps to keep your business on track and make next year your most profitable:

1. Stay Confident
The biggest mistake you can make is to lose confidence in your products and your services. Start to doubt your unique competitive advantage and your ability to improve your marketing, and you’ve lost the race before the start. Like a bear smells fear, your customers will notice your hesitancy and they’ll buy from a competitor who appears confident of success. They’ll steer clear of you and you’ll lose even more business.

Unless you compete directly with huge corporations on the scale of a Microsoft, there are plenty of people buying. What you need to do is attract more of them.

Ready to find out how to attract more clients? Start here >>

2. Focus On Your Core Strengths
Obviously, we’re doing business in a very different economic climate than we were a few years or even a few months ago. The marketing strategies that may have helped you stay afloat in the past could easily sink your business this year.

To succeed in this economy, your small business needs to be more focused and specialized. Companies like Circuit City that sold a bit of everything are closing their doors, but I see this happening to small businesses as well. Small companies that try to provide too many products or services are struggling. And for good reason; prospects can’t figure out what they excel at.

On the other hand, businesses that target a specific service or product are holding their own. I’m hearing that business is holding steady and, in some cases, growing from a whole host of people including: voice and data technology providers, and even from some real estate developers. Online, many niche services and products are growing too, including online bookkeeping, online virtual assistants and niche information products.

Discover how to grow your business this year >>

One of my clients is an organization that has been in business for two years providing innovative treatment to people with alcohol problems. Using the website strategies I showed them, they had their best week ever last week. This is a surprise since I’d think the economic news would be driving people to drink instead of to a cure.

Over a decade ago management guru Tom Peters advised business leaders to “stick to your knitting.” Finding the thing you do best and sticking to it is still one of the keys to success. For example, while many banks are struggling because they took big risks with subprime mortgages, the First National Bank in Orwell, Vermont is thriving. They stuck to what they knew well, only providing loans to people who they were confident could pay them back. The result? They maintained a positive cash flow and now more customers are flocking to their doors. This year loans are up 22.6% and deposits up 7%.

Even in the abysmal real estate market there are success stories. Everest Development in Denver offered 135 luxury condos for sale at prices ranging from $500,000 to $2 million and sold 90% of the properties earlier this year. Of course location and amenities were key, but these people knew their market.

You, too, can succeed by focusing on your strengths. Discover how >>

3. Find Out How To Attract More Buyers
At the risk of being redundant, I’m going to say it once more. There are plenty of buyers out there. All you need to do is attract a few more.

The first step to increasing your profits in the next 12 months is to find out how to:

• Attract more prospects
• Clarify the value of your products and services.
• Gain prospects’ confidence.
• Motivate prospects to buy, and buy today.

To make it easier, I’ve created the lowest cost way to access the strategies you need to maximize your profits in less time this year. I’ve put together a monthly mentoring program to show you exactly what works and how to do it.

Interested in making more money this year? Find out how to do it >>

On average, most small businesses will see their profits decline this year. Your business doesn’t have to be one of them.

You’re more ambitious than the average business owner and smart enough to look for ways to take advantage of the situation. Small businesses with the best marketing win every time; be a winner in this economy by finding out what works.

Stay confident, focus on what you do best and find out the fastest ways to attract prospects and convert them to buyers, and you’ll maximize your profits this year.

-Charlie
Small Business Marketing in any Economy

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