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Who To Blame When Your Small Business Marketing Isn’t Working

By Charlie Cook | April 6, 2006

You could blame the poor performance of your small business marketing problems on the economy, the competition, lack of capital, or other variables. Or you could blame yourself and see your sales soar.

Yes accepting blame for poor marketing performance instead of making you look bad, is the first step to making your small business profits look good.

Fiona Lee and Larissa Tiedens of Stamford 2004 research shows that companies that blamed themselves and internal factors for poor performance stock prices were substantial higher one year later. Why is this?

Blaming others and providing excuses for small business marketing strategies that aren’t working is just a way to avoid fixing something that’s broken. The alternative is to demonstrate leadership by acknowledging when your marketing strategy isn’t working or when mistakes were made.

Think about it. Which is more likely to inspire your colleagues and employees? A. Pointing the finger at others or B. Accepting blame and asking for new ideas to improve your business.

While it takes confidence to acknowledge blame, amazing transformations can take place as a result. Publically owning up to marketing mistakes can lead to new ideas, new strategies, and new solutions all of which can propel your small business sales to new highs.

So which is it? Bury you head in the sand and point to others or openly acknowledge what’s not working and start looking for small business marketing ideas that actually work?

Everyone makes mistakes. Research is clear that doing so is the first step to improving your company’s revenue.

A first step is to discover Marketing Ideas that Work >> >>
– Charlie Cook

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,

Where This Small Business Marketing Guru Goes On Vacation

By Charlie Cook | March 29, 2006

I love taking vacations from my small business marketing practice for two reasons. Using the web marketing system I’ve developed over the years, my small business continues to make money when I’m away, often just as much as when I’m in the office. Secondly, while helping small business owners with their marketing is one of my passions, skiing is another.

In mid-March I took a week off with my son, during his college break, to ski in the southern Kootenays, a first for us to these particular mountains and it won’t be the last. We had the most incredible tree and off-piste skiing of our lives. Expect for the first day, it snowed practically all the time providing us with fresh powder like nobodys business. We skied Red Mountain in Rossland (play the video), Whitewater near Nelson B.C. and did two days of cat skiing . Use this link to see more snap shots of our past ski trip to Kicking Horse in Golden B.C. and this year’s trip to the southern Kootenays.

When I returned all I had to do was review the sales figures for my small business marketing manuals . Thanks to readers like you, I had a great week of sales while I was away skiing.
– Charlie Cook, Small Business Marketing Guru – Helping you attract more clients

Avoid Making This Small Business Marketing Mistake With Your Google Ads

By Charlie Cook | March 22, 2006

How can you improve your small business marketing with your Google Ad campaign?

Before you rush into spending money on your Google ads, it pays to understand how they work and their purpose in your small business marketing. With the right verbiage you could create an ad that generated hundreds and thousands of click-throughs to your small business. Would that help your small business marketing?

Maybe – maybe not.

It depends on how many of the people who clicked on your Google ad actually turned into small business clients as a result of your marketing.

You could have the world’s greatest Google ad with a click-through rate of 3-5%, but if the people who click on your ad aren’t buyers then you are just wasting your money and lots of it.

To make sure your ads are not only working to attract prospects, but are also working to generate sales do the following once a month.

On a piece of paper list each of your Google ad campaigns. In the next column to the right, list the amount $ you spent on that campaign. Then in the third column over, list the dollar volume of sales directly attributed to that Google ad campaign.

Here’s what you may find out about marketing your small business. Ads that get the most clicks and bring the most people to your web site aren’t necessarily those that generate the most sales. Other ads that have a lower click-through rate may bring in more bonafide clients. Based on your monthly data analysis you’ll discover which ad campaigns to cut and which to spend more on, resulting in more sales.

Create a monthly advertising ROI spread sheet and you can use the data to improve your small business marketing and see your sales soar. Find out how with this link >>

– Charlie Cook

Should You Use a Long Or Short Sales Letter?

By Charlie Cook | March 6, 2006

“I hate long sales letters. Why don’t you just tell me the price so I can decide whether I can afford it.”
– Sheryl, Long Beach CA

How do you know which to use, a short succinct sales letter or a long one? The answer is without testing you don’t. The only way to really know which type of sales letter works best is to test multiple versions. But keep in mind the following…

Price by itself can be a scary thing. $100 may sound like a lot to your prospect when they don’t know what they are going to get for their money. On the other hand if they fully understand the value of your product or service and all the extras you provide at no cost, $100 may be an incredible bargain.

Present price without the context of value and it will be deterrent. Present it in the context of the value provided and it can be a compelling reason to buy.

Your sales letter needs to:
– Help your prospects understand how your product or service will help them,
– Why they should trust you,
– What the value of your offer is in terms they understand,
and
– Why they need to act now.

It needs to convince them they can’t live without your product or service.

If you can do all of the above in a few words, great. Generally you’ll need 4-10 pages which is why on average long sales letters work better than short.
– Charlie Cook

How Do You Know When Your Marketing Isn’t Working?

By Charlie Cook | March 4, 2006

As the story goes, a Mississippi tug boat company had one key question they asked prospective captains. The owner of the company would ask, “How many times have you gone aground?”

If the person said, “Never”. he knew he was a liar and would dismiss the prospective captain on the spot. Given the twisty nature of the Mississippi and its constantly shifting sand bars, every barge captain has “touched” bottom more than once.

The same is true in marketing your small business. Everyone has made a mistake or two or three. Recently I made yet another one myself. I don’t look forward to making mistakes but each time I discover one, it gives me a chance to make my marketing even better.

The culprit in my case was my new subscriber autoresponder series. It had been working well to convert recent subscribers to clients but I was intent on increasing my conversion rates, so one day I fiddled with the copy of each of the messages in the series.

It would have been a good idea, but some days not every neuron is firing and by mistake I pasted two messages in the series together into one. The top of the message started with Dear so and so, then at the end it started again with Dear so and so, etc.

Of course I didn’t notice this mistake for a couple of weeks because it just goes out automatically each time someone signs up for my marketing newsletter, something that happens almost 500 times per week.

What I did notice was that more people than usual were unsubscribing from the marketing ezine. Hmm! This prompted me to review the individual messages and correct the error. In the process I found a couple more ways to increase my conversion rates and sales.

If you haven’t done so already, sign up and take a look at the autoresponder series. I can’t share the exact numbers with you but let’s say I’ve doubled sales in the last couple of weeks.

Here’s the link to the site’s free marketing stuff page
Free Marketing Resources
and the direct link to sign up for free marketing guide and the autoresponder series
Get the Free Marketing Guide
– Charlie Cook

What Web Site Marketing Strategies Work? Are PopUps a Good Idea?

By Charlie Cook | February 1, 2006

The conventional wisdom in marketing, online or off, is that if you see lots of other people doing something it must have merit. For example you see lots of supposed web marketing gurus using popups on their web sites to prompt you to sign up for an ezine, to give them your email address.

You know the popups I’m talking about. They show up when you visit a site or within a few seconds and then hover over the page blocking the content you where trying to read. They even follow you as you scroll down the page until you click them away or sign up. Yes, they can be annoying but do they work.

Take a look at this popup example I tried on my site to see what I’m talking about.

I’ve heard claims that they can increase your ezine signups by factors of 2 to 10, helping you build your list of qualifed prospects and improve your web site marketing. If they did this shouldn’t you use them?

Wait!

What’s the one thing you should do before you incorporate any change into your web site marketing?

You should test each idea to see if it works!

When I tested this popup I found no significant difference in signups and I was told by a few people how ugly it was. Over the period I tested it only 5 people a day signed up via the popup with a net gain of close to zero. E.g. while a few people signed up via the popup a few less signed up using the other signup forms on the page.

Of course my marketing site has been optimized for sign ups and already brings in 75 or more new subscribers a day.

So what should you do, should you use popups?

Popups are like bandaids. They are a quick fix and while they may work better than nothing to build your list of opt-in prospects, the best solution to your web site marketing is to fix the structure and marketing copy you use in your site. What and how to do it is explained in detail in Creating Web Sites that Sell. Use this link >>
-Charlie Cook

Where Can I Find Out About Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook | January 31, 2006

Every day I get dozens of questions about small business marketing. In order to answer these I’ve set up part of my site to give answers to common small business marketing questions. Here are the links:

Index of Small Business Marketing Questions and Answers

and pages each with dozens of small business marketing answers.

How to Write Your Marketing Plan

How to Get More Attention

How to Generate More Leads

How to Increase Sales

How to Sell More Online

Free Marketing Ideas and Answers

You’ll find hundreds of small business marketing tips to help you grow your business.
– Charlie Cook

6 Things to Do In 2006 To Grow Your Small Business and Improve Your Marketing

By Charlie Cook | January 2, 2006

HERE ARE SIX THINGS TO DO IN 2006 TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL

1. Hire someone to do all the stuff you spend time on that keeps you from having enough time to work on improving your marketing. I use a bevy of Virtual Assistants, web designers and programmers to sort email, submit articles, build web pages and f.ree up my time to develop products and improve my own marketing.

When you stop doing mundane time consuming tasks you’ll have more time for the fun and more rewarding ones. I’ve found some great virtual assistants with these resources.

International Association of Virtual Office Assistants
http://www.iavoa.com

The Virtual Business Group
http://www.virtualbizgroup.com

Canadian Virtual Assistant Connection
http://www.cvac.ca/

2. Listen to Your Prospects and Clients
Each time a prospect or client asks a question, write it down. Review these each week for new product ideas and for informational reports you could provide for free. You can use each client encounter to get ideas on how to even better serve your clients. Use these ideas and your clients will love you and your products and services.

3. Develop New Products by Thinking Outside of the Box
Set aside 10-20% of your time to develop new product and marketing ideas. Identify a problem your clients have and solve it with your products and services. When you do, even more clients will seek you out and you’ll sell more to existing clients. Need help thinking outside of the box? Here are some of my favorite books and sites.

How Customers Think: Essential insights into the mind of the market – Gerald Zlatman

Thinkertoys (A handbook of business creativity) – Michael Michalko

A Whack on the Side of the Head- How you can be more creative – Roger Von Oech

Weird Ideas that Work: 11 1/2 practices for Promoting, Managing and Sustaining Innovation – Robert Sutton

Why Didn’t I Think Of That? Think the unthinkable and achieve creative genius – Charles W. McCoy Jr.

Bill Myers Product Development Resource Center
http://www.bmyers.com/

4. Use Tracking Links to Test Every Variable of Your Marketing
When you make a change to your web site test everything from the words to the background color to where you put pictures on the page to find out whether it reduces or increases response. Using the test results you’ll know what works and what doesn’t.

My favorite testing tool is the ad tracker feature that comes with my shopping/ecommerce software.
https://www.marketingforsuccess.com/shopping.html

5. Get The Small Business Marketing Tools and Resources You Need to Succeed

Small Business Marketing Gold Special

Your Web Site Marketing Road Map

Your Marketing Plan

Your Marketing Message

A Marketing Mentor

6. Work Less and Earn More
Go away more often with your family and/or friends. Every time I take a couple of days off I come back with new ideas for growing my business and with a clear head get twice the work done in half the time. I use an automated online delivery system so I make just as much from product sales when I’m away anyways. You can too.
https://www.marketingforsuccess.com/shopping.html

Best Wishes for a Prosperous 2006,

Charlie Cook
Marketing For Success
www.marketingforsuccess.com
3 West End Avenue
Old Greenwich, CT 06870

/ Helping you get a better response, more clients
and more sales with your small business marketing //

What Santa Knows About Marketing

By Charlie Cook | December 18, 2005

What’s that ringing sound you hear at this time of year? It’s the sound of cash registers ringing up the sales generated by Santa Claus. Just because he’s old, overweight, long haired and unshaven and dresses funny, don’t overlook his marketing success. Santa is a marketing expert and you can become one, too, if you follow his marketing methods.

What’s that you say? You don’t believe in Santa Claus or you don’t celebrate Christmas? It’s true that Santa may be mostly mythical, but ask almost anybody who Santa is and what he does, and they’ll tell you. And there are millions of children who are convinced he’s real. So put your doubts about Santa aside for a moment and take a look at why he’s so good at marketing.

Knows How to Be Unique
Whether it is his trademark red suit, his unconventional transportation, his belly laugh or his occupation, Santa is different. He’s one of a kind, which makes him memorable.

Gets Free Publicity
He’s a master at getting free press. He’s mentioned in the media constantly during the winter holidays. Many songs, movies and books have been written about him.

Discover how to get free publicity for your business with your articles and on the radio. Editors and radio hosts are always looking for content they can use. Here’s the link to Opening Doors with Your Articles and
Getting Free Radio Publicity to grow your business.

Is Customer Focused
While everyone knows about Santa, his marketing isn’t focused on his credentials. He rarely talks about how long he’s been in business nor does he bore people with long discussions of his work processes. Instead, he makes a huge effort to learn what people want. It is estimated that each year over a million letters are sent to Santa.

Santa supplements this effort by appearing in thousands of shopping malls around the country, listening to an average of nine thousand children per mall. He does all this just to learn what his customers want.

Gives Something Away For Free
While most of the presents under the tree are from family, including the annual fruitcake from Aunt Bernice, typically at least one gift bears Santa’s name. How can you not love someone who gives so many presents away each year and whose only expectation is a couple of cookies and a glass of milk?

Knows What He Is Selling
Santa knows what he is selling, and its not just games and toys. Santa sells hope, whether it is for the latest video game, a warm sweater or happiness.

How can you market your business more like Santa Claus does his?

Learn the The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing that make Santa a success. Santa didn’t write this marketing guide, but he could of. I wrote it to detail the marketing strategies that work for small business owners and entrepreneurs like Santa.

Here’s the link to get your copy of The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing manual.

1. Clarify how you and your firm are unique, and what it is that separates you from the crowd. You don’t need to put on a red suit or slide down chimneys. Define yourself by the problems you solve, the expertise you provide and what your customers say about you.

2. Get free publicity for your business, not just during holidays but all year round. Sometimes imaginative stunts like appearing in a sleigh help.

3. Ask your prospects what they want and then provide services and products that give them what they’ve asked for. The better you understand their concerns, the better services or products you’ll provide.

4. Give something away for free. It could be an article, a report, a book or a workshop. Use your free offer to prompt people to contact you and demonstrate your expertise. It works for Santa and it can work for you.

5. Know what you are selling. Your products and services bring in the money, but what do they stand for? What do they represent to your clients? Sell your prospects on achieving their objectives and dreams and deliver with tangible results they can appreciate.

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, market like Santa and you too, can have many happy clients this and every season, without having to squeeze down a single sooty chimney.
– Happy holidays, Charlie Cook

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