Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

Archive for August, 2007

Is Your Small Business Marketing Message Locking You Out?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 8, 2007

Are you losing business because of your small business marketing message?

Ever misplace an important key and get locked out?

It was the first summer weekend we’d owned our vacation home in the mountains of Vermont when I returned from a hike to discover my wife, who was off doing errands with my in-laws, had the key. We didn’t have a spare and the place was locked up and I couldn’t get in.

Fortunately it was a pleasant summer day and after a half-hour of waiting, my wife returned and I got in. (Yup, I made a spare the next chance I could.)

Your marketing message is like a key. With the the right one, you can unlock doors to new business and start the process of converting them to clients. If you don’t have the right one or the one you have is the wrong size or poorly crafted you’ll be locked out in the cold, wondering why your business isn’t growing faster.

While I felt foolish when I got locked out of my VT. vacation home, it didn’t cost me a dime. When you get locked out of new business because your marketing message doesn’t open the door, you’re losing big bucks, especially if it happens again and again.

Unfortunately too many independent professionals and small business owners market with marketing messages that just don’t work. They may be too long, too short, too common, too dull, or too self laudatory. The result is they don’t open enough doors to new business.

Your marketing message needs to be irresistible to your prospects to open doors. This idea may seem like a small part of your marketing effort, but in fact it is one of the most important elements and costs the least to fix.

If your marketing message helps your prospects understand how you can help them, you are in business. If it doesn’t then you’ll never reach your revenue potential.

Interested in opening more doors to new business? Ue this link >>

Want an Irresistible Marketing Message to Attract Clients?

Whether you are talking to someone in person or in your marketing materials, your objective is to engage them, to get them thinking about their needs and wants. Do this successfully and they’ll soon be wondering how they can’t live without your products or services.

Your marketing message should be the catalyst to conversation. When you use it a connection should be made between your services and your prospect’s needs. If you had a brilliant marketing message that resonated with your prospects wants and needs you’d have more and more qualified prospects contacting you and more and more business.

Want to discover the fastest way to grow your business? Use this link >>

Does your current marketing message:
• Tell people what you do?

• Start a conversation?

• Create a perception of need?

My marketing message is, “helping small business owners attract more clients and be more successful”. When I use it I get one of two responses. If I’m talking to someone who isn’t a small business owner, they usually want to know how I do what I do. If the person is a small business owner they want to know how I can help them and I’m on my way to converting a prospect into a client.

If you want to attract more prospects and grow your business, the first step is to create a brilliant marketing message, one you can use in the elevator, on your business card, on your web site and in your voice mail message.

It is not easy to describe all you do in a sentence or two. Capture the essence of who you serve, the problems you solve and the solutions you provide and you’ll have a brilliant marketing message.

Don’t let your current marketing message hold you back. Make sure you have one that works as a key to attracting attention, engaging prospects and opening the door to new business.

Ready to find out how to get more attention and generate more business? Use this link >>

Don’t get locked out with the wrong marketing message. Discover instead, how to create one that works like a master key, opening every door in sight and see your business take off.

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Are You Using the Right Bait to Hook New Clients with Your Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 6, 2007

Is your marketing bait working?

Funny Marketing Ideas #1 The Goldfish
This is one of the 5 ideas I had for a marketing lead generator video.
– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results

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Who Has The Keys to Your Web Site?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 1, 2007

Most small business owners have the keys to their office even if a secretary is there and opens the door before them. It makes sense, you pay the rent, it’s your company, you should have a set of keys to the building. Right?

The same is true of your business website. You paid to have it built, you pay to run it and you own it.

Do you have the login information for your site? Your web site login information is like the keys to your office or your car.

Do you have a backup of your site on your computer in case something happens to your web site hosting company?

Recently I’ve gotten a number of calls from small business website owners who wanted help revising their under performing sites but in far too many cases they didn’t have the login information so they couldn’t access their own sites. That’s a big problem and makes it impossible to fix your site.

Ted was one of those who called. He had a real estate site that was getting lots of traffic, a couple hundred visitors each day, but wasn’t generating any leads. He’d called me and wanted to know what changes to make to convert all the visitors he was getting into leads and sales but he didn’t have the login information for his site.

His previous web designers had the login information and Ted felt awkward getting it from them. They insisted they had done a create job for him even though the site wasn’t doing what he wanted it to do, bring him qualified leads. It was like having a new car in the driveway that he didn’t have keys to and couldn’t drive anywhere.

Do you have a website that’s been built for you but not helping you move your business forward? If you do, why aren’t you doing something about it? It’s just a matter of getting the keys and discovering how to convert visitors to buyers >>

If you own a web site you are entitled to the login information and to set and change the password any time you want. That way if you’re unhappy with the results of your site and want someone else to take over, you have the keys to the site.

If you haven’t done so already:

1. Get and keep a copy of the login information for your site.
2. Track the performance of your site, the number of weekly visitors and leads generated.
3. If you’re not getting results – take the keys away from the firm that is wasting you money and losing you business.
4. Find someone who can help you improve your web marketing strategy and work with them to turn your site into a gold mine.

In case you don’t have it already get the Insider Secrets to Creating Web Sites That Sell >>

– Charlie
Web Marketing Ideas You Can Bank On

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