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What’s Your Favorite Web Site Marketing Tool?

By Charlie Cook | May 7, 2007

I’m always on the lookout for new web tools to add to the extensive list at Marketing For Success, ones that can help small business owners attract leads, track traffic, convert prospects to buyers and manage their web sites.

You can review the tools already on the site at Web Site Marketing and at Advanced Web Site Marketing

Use the comment option below to submit the latest and greatest web tools you’ve recently discovered, ones that could help small business marketers improve their web sites.

- Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing That’s Time Tested and Profit Proven

How To Cash In On Social Media Marketing

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What’s Your Favorite Small Business Marketing Tool?

By Charlie Cook | April 30, 2007

If you could pick only one way to market your business, what small business marketing tool or technique would you pick?

This seems like an easy question to answer, but then when I started to think about having only one tool to recommend to people to market their small businesses it gave me pause. There are a bunch of ways to market your business which would be on the top of my list including:
- Making it rain referrals
- A web site
- Direct mail
- Free seminars
- A free report
etc.

I’m sure you have your own list of small business marketing ideas you use, but is there one that you like above all others?

My hands down favorite is using articles to market my business.

Why do I think articles are the top small business marketing tool.

1. When you write an article it helps to focus your own ideas.

2. The act of writing forces you to think about how to create a conversation with your prosects. If you can get your prospect’s attention in an article, and get a virtual conversation going, when you need to do it in person, it will be easy.

3. Every article your write helps to position you not just as another competitor but as “the expert”.

4. Each time you distribute your article on the internet you generate both traffic and links back to your web site.

5. When others use your articles on their sites or in their publications, it’s like an instant recommendation or your expertise.

6. Compared to advertising writing and distributing articles as part of your small business marketing strategy provides a huge return relative to the cost.

7. It works!

Yes, articles are my top small business marketing strategy, one that I’d recommend to anyone to use to market their business.

- Charlie

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Most Marketing Is Schizoid and Blogs Are One Way To Make It More Normal

By Charlie Cook | March 30, 2007

Why should you take a few minutes a day to write a blog and will it help you market your business?

Take a look at your marketing materials. Do they grab your prospects’ attention and make then laugh or cry? On the scale of dry and boring versus engaging and entertaining an insurance application form would be on the dry and boring side and what one of your impassioned colleagues shouts when he is throwing his coffee cup across the room is on the engaging and entertaining end of the spectrum.

The norm around marketing is that it’s supposed to be dry and “professional”. The result is that most small business marketing is boring as dirt. With blogs, the norm is still being defined. It’s acceptable to include opinions, rants, ideas, commentary and personal stories. The result, many blogs are attention grabbers, interesting and fun to read.

Blogs provide an accepted vehicle for you to make your marketing more personal, more direct and let people see your ideas and personality. Of course you might want to keep your wildest ideas and thoughts to yourself.

Why is this type of communication good for business?

Blogs give people and companies a chance to break out of an out-moded boring model of marketing and market and be more engaging, conversational and personal.

Whether you sell to small or large companies, the end buyer is just another person, someone like you. When they get to know you as a person, a person full of ideas, expertise and passion, they’ll be more likely to relate to you and to want to do business with you.

And then there is the added plus, that Blogs are easy to use and you can publish your ideas instantly without having to build or load a new page to your web site.

Want more prospects and clients to know you, trust you, understand how you can help and keep you front of mind?

Start blogging!

- Charlie

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How Much To Spend On Small Business Marketing

By Charlie Cook | March 31, 2006

Yesterday I was talking with a client, from California, who wanted to know how she could reduce her small business marketing costs. She was sending out 100 free pamphlets each week at $8 a piece or $800 per week. Sounds expensive right?

I told her, before she looked at how to cut this marketing cost, she should take a look at her ROI, return on investment. When I asked her how much business this weekly marketing mailing was bringing in she calculated over $4,000 of weekly revenue that came in as a result of her mailings.

That’s a 500% rate of return on her small business marketing, which is, of course, outstanding.

Once she was able to evaluate the right numbers she came to the obvious conclusion, instead of trying to cut the marketing costs for her small business, the fastest way to increase revenue was to spend more on marketing that was working.
- Charlie Cook,

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When Is The Right Time To Fix Your Marketing to Grow Your Small Business?

By Charlie Cook | December 6, 2005

Last week I attended a concert in NYC by the legendary Bonnie Raitt . Each time I see her perform live I’m amazed that someone who I already thought was superb has gotten even better.

If you aren’t familiar with Bonnie Raitt she spent the first 15 or so years of her career making slow and steady progress in the music world despite being an alcoholic. She has talent and it even shown through the haze of her heavy drinking.

Eighteen years ago she got off the bottle and her career took off. Her many accomplishments include a Grammy. You’d think she could rest on her laurels, but no, each year she looks for new ideas and ways to become an even better performer. I’ve seen her a half dozen times over the last 34 years and last night her performance set a new standard of excellence.

As Bonnie said “Each day gives you a chance to change.”

Whether you are just starting out marketing your small business or you made a million last year. Each day gives you a chance to improve your products, your services and your marketing. If you’re not bringing in a steady stream of business or doubling your lead generation each year, you could be.

What are you waiting for?

Each day gives you a chance stop wasting time and money on old tired ideas that aren’t working and to finally discover what tens of thousands of subscribers and clients have. There is a better way to market your small business.

I can’t sing and I can’t make music like Bonnie Raitt, but I can help you get a better response and a lot more clients with your marketing so you can succeed with your business.

Why not make today the day you change your marketing and start getting all the clients you want? All you need to do is use the marketing ideas , tools and resources you’ll find on this site.
- Charlie Cook

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What Is the Best Way to Reduce Advertising Costs?

By Charlie Cook | October 10, 2005

“Advertising is very expensive for newspapers. Is there a way I can cut this expense. I am advertising for students and teachers.” Lisa Yang Butler, San Gabriel Valley, CA

The best way to reduce advertising costs is to get a better response with your advertising. I.e. if ten times as many people respond each time you run an ad you won’t need to run it as often and you’ll end up saving money.

Learn how to write ads that get a better response with The 15 Second Marketing Guide.
- The Small Business Marketing Response Expert, Charlie Cook

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What’s the Shelf Life of Your Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook | July 24, 2005

Your marketing information is perishable like a loaf of bread. Leave it on the shelf for longer than 7-10 days and its stale as far as the majority of your prospects are concerned.

I was talking with David, a client from Arizona who owns four physical therapy clinics in the Tucson area. I asked him how business has been since we talked two weeks ago. He said three of his clinics were booked solid but the fourth was suffering from a lack of clients.

When I asked him what he thought was the problem, he acknowledged that his sales representatives for that clinic hadn’t been in touch recently with the doctors who refer patients to them. In contrast, the pharmaceutical companies have three reps assigned to visit each of the same doctors’ offices every week.

Even though doctors in the area had used David’s firm’s services in the past, and their patients have a continuing need for these services, without recent contact the doctors had started referring their patients elsewhere.

As David had quickly learned, just because someone knows about your services doesn’t mean they will remember you when they are ready to make a referral or a purchase, even if they were a satisfied customer.

According to a study by e-consultancy.com prospects cool quickly, at an estimated rate of 10% per day. In other words the shelf life of your marketing on average is about the same as a loaf of bread, 7-10 days. Click here to read the rest of this article …

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Who Uses Your Marketing Manuals and Your Marketing Services?

By Charlie Cook | June 7, 2005

I get calls from a huge range of interesting people looking for help with their marketing plan and their marketing strategy, and people interested in my marketing services. In addition to VPs of marketing at Fortune 500 companies, typical types of small business owners, service professionals and marketing professionals, my customers and clients include some of what I think of as unusual occupations. For fun I’ve listed a few here.

If you ever questioned whether the ideas in my marketing manuals and marketing services could you help you grow your business, take a look at the range of people, below, who have used these ideas to grow theirs. Here’s the list:

A bush pilot in Alaska looking for ideas on selling ads during her traffic reports

Santa Claus. A jolly fellow in Utah (no not the one at the North Pole) who looks like Santa and changed his legal name to Santa Claus.

A cemetary plot salesman in Georgia.

A wholesale flower business importing roses and carnations from Columbia by overnight air.

A West Texas agriculture equipment salesman.

A consultant providing drumming workshops for corporate retreats (yes he lives on the west coast).

A kite store owner in Colorado.

The General Manager of an independent resort in Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia.

A fabricator of granite countertops.

A franchise consultant.

… more coming.

Have an unusual business that’s not on this list? Buy one of my manuals or use me as your marketing coach and I’ll add it.

- Charlie Cook

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How Do I Motivate My Sales People to Sell More?

By Charlie Cook | May 25, 2005

“What’s the best way to motivate my sales staff? They’re not making as many calls as they could or making as many sales as I think they could?” – George, Colorado

In my experience the problem is most often not the sales reps or their motivation. The problem is that sales reps are given goals and often incentives but aren’t provided with the marketing strategies or tools they need to get the job done. A carpenter would have a tough time building a house without a hammer, a saw, lumber and nails. Sales reps are the same. They need the right marketing tools to get a prospect to the point of a sale.

The best way to motivate new and experienced sales people to sell more is to give them the tools they need. It’s hard to get excited about selling any service or product when the sales script your using, the company brochure and your other supporting materials don’t help you get the prospect’s attention, interest and their business. It’s no wonder so many sales reps lose motivation and drive. Just telling sales reps to sell more and offering larger incentives isn’t a long-term strategy for increasing sales.

If you want to motivate your sales force, you need to show them how to stop only selling and instead focus on helping their prospects get what they want. Few people I know are interested in being sold, but everyone needs a wide variety of products and services and most will happily pay for things they want.

Here are a three ways to motivate your sales force.

1. Provide you sales reps with a marketing plan and a marketing strategy that gives them with a steady stream of qualified leads.

2. Teach your sales reps how to talk about what your firm does so it prompts interest instead of a yawn with the 15 Second Marketing guide.

3. Show your sales reps how to use questions instead of a sales pitch to start conversations that lead to sales. Support them with marketing materials that will prompt prospects to contact your sales reps. Learn how to apply this proven marketing strategy using More Sales with Less Selling.

Give your sales reps a marketing plan and the marketing tools they need to help your prospects get what they want. You’ll see their motivation and your sales soar. – Charlie Cook

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Where Should I Spend My Marketing Dollars?

By Charlie Cook | April 5, 2005

“Where should I invest my marketing dollars to get the best return?” – Bill Nelson, Chicago

Most people worry about how much to spend on advertising, their web site, or mailings. If you really want to get the most from the money you spend on marketing, start with yourself. Invest in yourself and become a better marketer. Once you know how to market your business, how to get your prospects’ attention, position your firm as the experts and know how to convert prospects to clients you’ll be able to generate far more sales with less effort.

Invest in obtaining the knowledge you need to put your marketing in order so it does what you want it to do which is lead people to make a purchase and become loyal clients. To help you I’ve mapped out what you need to know in a series of marketing manuals, written for people responsible for marketing and attracting more clients. Learn more about the marketing tools you can use to attract all the business you can handle. – Charlie Cook