Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

Advertising

Where Are The Best Ads for Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook   |   October 23, 2007

If you’ve ever wanted to look for ideas you could use for marketing slogans, radio commercials or video ads – you’ve probably been frustrated. To find the good marketing ideas you have to search through all the trash that’s out there.

Wish you could find one place to go to where someone already had put together the best video commercials, radio as and marketing slogans?

Finally there is a resource you can use to get marketing ideas and advertising ideas for your next marketing campaign. Use this link to check out the best business advertising ideas >>

Charlie
Marketing Ideas That Make You Money

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What’s Missing From Your Ads – Small Business Marketing Tips

By Charlie Cook   |   August 14, 2007

“We just bought a full-page ad in a consumer magazine promoting our computer sales and repair services, and as far as I can tell we didn’t get a single response. Why didn’t our ad bring in at least one sale?” – Steve, Dallas TX

Want your small business ads to get people’s attention in 15 seconds or less and generate sales?

Who doesn’t?

If you could consistently sell your services or products in 15 seconds or less, imagine how much more money you’d make and how much free time you’d have to enjoy your family and your life.

Is it realistic to expect your small business ad to grab your prospect’s attention, capture their imagination, appeal to their goals and prompt them to buy from you in 15 seconds or less? Of course not. But your ads can get the sales process started – if you know what to include in them.

What’s the key to making your small business ads work so they start the marketing and selling process in 3 to 30 seconds?

It’s the promise you make to your prospects and clients.

If you make the right promise – you’ll have clients streaming in the door, if you don’t include one or make the wrong one, you’d be better off not running your ad – because you’re not going to get the response you want.

Promise? I know you’re probably thinking, “Charlie has gone off his rocker this time, what is he talking about.”

Promises are powerful. Think about it, when someone tells you how great they are or how wonderful their products are, how seriously do you take them but…when they make a promise you pay attention. I’m sure you’ve heard of one of the most often made promises that consists of just two words. If you’ve ever been to a wedding, you know the one I’m talking about, it’s “I do.”

Let me give you a couple more examples of marketing promises:

“Transform Any Ad, Letter or Sales Conversation and See Your Sales Soar” – that’s the promise I provide with the Insider Secrets to 15 Second Marketing. Use this link to claim your copy >>

“Helping You Attract More Clients” – that’s my promise to anyone who buys my products or services.

“30-minutes or free” – was Domino Pizza’s promise and it helped them build a huge business, even though their pizza used to taste like cardboard.

“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight” – is FedEx’s promise to you when you need to make sure your documents or packages get their the next day.

“Leaders Who Participate In My One-Day Action Plan Leadership Talk Session Will Be on Track to Achieve At Least a Combined $50,000 in Results.” – is Brent Filson’s promise.

Whether its your ads, your mailings, your web site or talking face-to-face – it’s the promise that you make that is the key to getting your prospects’ attention and interest. I call it your 15 Second Marketing Message.

When you make a promise, people expect you to keep it or they may want to see if you can, as in the case of Dominos.

Do you have a 15 Second Marketing Message that includes the number one promise you make to prospects? Want to discover how much more business you could be bringing in if your ads worked?

Start by crafting a compelling 15 Second Marketing Message, use it in your ads, on your web site and in your brochures and see your leads and sales triple. Use this link to discover the fastest way to increase leads and sales >>
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Gets Results

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Would You Include These Radio Ads In the Top 25?

By Charlie Cook   |   June 14, 2007

Last week I added a page on my site for small business owners to get ideas on radio advertising. The idea was simple – give people examples of the best radio ads to listen to for inspiration so they could create great ones of their own.

I got tons of positive feedback and to make this marketing resource even more helpful, I added 10 additional great radio ads.

There are now over 25 radio commercials to listen to on the page to help you jump start your own radio advertising campaign. Take a listen and let me know which ones you think should stay on this page, which should be removed and what others you’ve heard that should be added.

Here’s where to go listen and get ideas for your own radio marketing campaign. www.radio.marketingforsuccess.com

– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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Two Questions About The Best Radio Ads…

By Charlie Cook   |   June 11, 2007

I received the following two questions last week about the Best Radio Ads I posted.

1. “I love the page of radio ads you posted at MarketingForSuccess. I found one that works perfectly for my business. Can I use it or is it copyrighted?”

Yes radio ads are covered by copyright law and you can’t just “borrow” them to use for your own use. I added them to the site to provide you with ideas and inspiration for your marketing. Just because you can’t actually view the copyright doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The writers and producers went to a lot of effort to come up with just the right marketing copy and idea to get your attention and keep it. Learn from what they created but be careful not to violate copyright law.

2. “Remeber many, many years ago when Chevy ran the “Heart Beat of America” ads? They spent 60 million on it. People loved it, they were singing the jingle all of the time. Chevy lost major market share during that promotion. As I remember it was 8%. How do you know which ads are the best?”

The only way to tell if any ad works, web print or radio is to test it. Run the ad for a limited number or days and see if it generates leads and sales. If it pulls in prospects you know you’ve got a winner and you may want to run it more widely.

If if hardly generates any response, it’s a bad idea to keep spending on it or spend even more.

Of course to make the sale you need to have a product that people want. Even the best ad only works to generate interest, it can’t close the sale.

– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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Where Are The Good Radio Ads Anyways?

By Charlie Cook   |   June 4, 2007

Recently a marketing client asked me to write a radio advertisement for them. Looking for inspiration, (yes this small business marketing guru is always looking for marketing ideas) I Googled ‘best radio ads’ and after a lot of searching found a few, but it wasn’t easy.

I did find some radio ads that were funny and entertaining. To make it easy for anyone who wants to create a winning radio ad to improve their small business marketing, I’ve added a new page of radio advertisements to the site.

Use this link to listen to the growing collection of the best radio ads we found at www.radio.marketingforsuccess.com

– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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What’s The Impact of Advertising on Sales?

By Charlie Cook   |   November 2, 2006

“I am going to be an expert witness on the impact of an ad campaign. The ad has already proven to show a great ROI with testimony that the campaign increased sales by 39% from the Director of Marketing. The problem is that I need general information on what ads should expect to generate as a ROI from high to low. To show the nexus between sales and advertisnig. Any advice?” – Ed

Any ad that can increase business by 39% is a success! Typically most ads bring in far less new business.

What’s the key measurement of ROI?

Cost of sales minus the cost of the ad campaign. If the numbers are positive then the campaign was a success, if negative, it needs rethinking, rewriting and redesign.

Could an ad bring in an even higher ROI than 39%?

Yes it’s possible. I wrote one newspaper ad at the beginning of my career for which I only charged the client $450. In the first 3 weeks the ad generated over $180,000 in sales, tripling the client’s business within a month. I’ve also rewritten clients web sites and increased their sales by 4-15 times.

What’s the nexus between sales and advertising?

A successful advertising campaign pre-sells the prospect minimizing the effort that needs to go into sales. I’ve detailed this approach in ‘Eliminating Obstacles to Sales‘. Use this link to get the details >>

– Charlie Cook, Small Business Marketing That Works

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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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How Do I Get My Web Site Out There So People Find It?

By Charlie Cook   |   August 30, 2005

“I have very little control over my website. What is the best way, for my site, to get on search engines.” – Nancy Brown

If your web site was built with a third party template and is hosted on their site you may have little you can control about the actual site. This puts you at a serious disadvantage in terms of getting people to your site. You can’t make most of the changes you need to help the search engines find your site.

You can promote your site in a number of other ways including using:
– Pay-per-click ads to send traffic to your site
– Articles
– Online press releases
– Links from other sites.

My best recommendation is that you create your own web site, one you can write and set up so the search engines find it.
– Charlie Cook

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What to Advertise to Generate Large Sales From Your Small Business Marketing

By Charlie Cook   |   July 26, 2005

Want to know what to put in your ads to pull in prospects like a magnet?

Think like your prospects. What is important to them?

Do they want to know your company name? (Eventually but that’s not their biggest concern.)

Do they want to know how many years you’ve been in business? (Maybe but its not high on their list.)

What they want to know is how you can help them. Use the limited space in your ads to get to the point, to tell them how you can help them and how they can get what they want.

Do this and you’ll see your sales go through the roof as one of my clients did when he changed his ad. His biggest complaint now is how to handle all the business he’s getting.
– Charlie Cook
Discover what can happen when you have an ad that pulls in prospects and sales

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How Do Prospects Read Your Ads?

By Charlie Cook   |   June 24, 2005

Want to see what your prospects see when they scan your ad or your web site’s homepage in 3-5 seconds in order to determine whether they are going to read the rest of it?

Before you launch an ad campaign pin your ad to the wall and step back, fifteen feet or so until you can barely read the words in the largest type. In the case of your web site moving back seven feet from your screen should suffice.

Which words do you see?

Do you see copy that appeals to what your prospect is looking for?

If you look at most small business web sites or ads, you’ll see the company name as the easiest to read item and then a phrase like “our top three priorities” or “we’re a …. company based in …”.

Most companies lose their prospects in the first 3-5 seconds with their ads and their web sites. Don’t make this small business marketing mistake!

Use your marketing copy, your headline and the words that appear below it to grab your prospect’s attention, get them to understand why they need your products and services and to contact you. Find out how to write a marketing message that gets results or use a business marketing expert to write your marketing copy for you so that your ads and your web site do what you want them to, help you grow your business.

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