Over the last few years, we’ve seen a fundamental shift in how and where people get information. Things have changed and if you’re marketing isn’t changing too, you and your business will be left behind.
For many businesses, it’s already happening. Here’s the top 11 ways things have changed. Read More »
Advertising is like houses. You do a great job of constructing a poorly designed house, but when you’re done, you’ve still got a poorly designed house. It doesn’t matter how good you are with a hammer and a saw when the blueprints themselves are faulty.
Likewise, it doesn’t matter how good you are with Read More »
When people talk about your business, what are they talking about? If you can quickly name the one thing that they’re saying (‘we have the best burgers in town;’ ‘our prices can’t ever be beat;’ ‘our employees are the most helpful in town’) then you have a competitive advantage: you have one thing that sets you apart from your competitors. And that’s great. You can stop reading now.
But chances are, what people are saying about your business is Read More »
In my last appearance at this blog, I talked about getting started with word of mouth marketing and the importance of setting goals, identifying key prospects to deliver your word of mouth marketing message, and how to ask these key people to be part of your program. Now that those people are in place and ready to start talking about your small business, what comes next? Read More »
When you use the same approach everyone else does, your marketing takes on a “me too” look and your prospects have no idea why they should bother doing business with you versus the competition or just not doing anything at all.
Want a better response from your marketing? Want your prospects to actually contact you and buy from you? Read More »
Have you ever seen the musical Jesus Christ Superstar? Remember that song, “What’s the Buzz?” I think that’s when the term buzz first became an important part of popular culture.
Buzz is simply conversations about your business: conversations between you and a customer, among customers, and between customers and non-customers. And every business – large or small, online or offline – wants buzz.
How do you create buzz? Read More »
Which are you, a dreamer or a doer?
If you’re a doer (not a dreamer) I’d like to talk with you and see if you qualify for my small business marketing MasterMind Group, a group of savvy entrepreneurs and small business owners dedicated to helping each other succeed.
It’s crunch time!
As I’m sure you know this recession is one of the worst we’ve had since the Great Depression our parents lived through and it’s going to take a while for things to turn around.
The entrepreneurs and small business owners who are going to come out on top, the ones who will make profits even in the midst of the recession will do so due to one thing.
So if you’re interested in significantly increasing your sales this year, I’d like to talk with you about how to leverage your small business marketing to increase your income.
If you want direct access, up close and personal, to me and my over 20 years of Million Dollar Generating Marketing Know-How…then you’re invited to join me, marketing coach Charlie Cook, and just 26 other success-minded small business owners and entrepreneurs in my small business marketing MasterMind Group.
Interested? Get the details here >>
– Charlie Cook
P.S. This is only for doers, not dreamers. It’s for people who are passionate about their small businesses, their customers and the products and services they provide. People ready to tune up their small business marketing so they can profit from this recession.
P.P.S. My one-on-one coaching program has been sold out for months and currently the only way you can get access to me personally is by joining the small business marketing MasterMind Group.
P.P.P.S. This is only for people who have an existing established business and want to take it to the next level. It’s not for opportunity seekers, newbies, or people who are begging for business.
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Even the smartest people I know make mistakes, really big ones. In fact they make more than most. But they are still very successful in small business — and in life.
What is it that winners do that separates them from people who are always struggling?
One of the smartest people that I know is a doctor who retired just last month. He and his wife, both very experienced sailors, had made plans to spend several weeks cruising the coast of Maine. In preparation, the doctor did a lot of work this spring on their 36-foot sailboat, including taking off and refurbishing the propeller and then putting it back on.
When they launched the boat and started to back it off the trailer, though, the doctor discovered he’d made a major mistake (Marketing Tip: don’t make this mistake). When he shifted the motor into reverse, the engine pushed the boat forward and when he shifted it into forward, the boat went backwards.
He quickly arranged to have the sailboat hauled to the local boat yard and made a point of being there when the repair was made. He wanted the mechanic to show him exactly what he’d done wrong when he reinstalled the propeller.
He wanted to learn how to avoid making the same mistake the next time around, get the boat moving forward when he shifted it into forward gear, and get the cruise underway.
And that’s what winners do.
They don’t hide or ignore mistakes or missteps. They acknowledge them, even celebrate what they learned from the situation, and move on.
Anyone can use this simple, no-cost marketing tip to continually get smarter and make more money.
Over the last few decades I’ve seen hundreds of people double or triple their profits within months, and I’ve seen a handful never get where they want to go.
You’ve seen the same thing. Two smart people from the same school end up in two very different places. One as the CEO pulling in a huge salary with generous stock options, the other struggling to make ends meet.
What’s the single most important difference between winners and losers? It’s not just that they make more marketing mistakes.
Winners are quicker to learn and adjust their course to reach their goals! The difference is…
Marketing Tip: The Speed of Course Correction.
Imagine you are in a canoe race where the objective is to paddle across a lake to the finish line on the far side. You and your fellow competitors all have the same strength, paddling experience and start at the same time.
You’re headed for the finish line and paddling hard when a breeze picks up and begins to push all the canoes sideways. Can you predict who will win the race?
The winners will be the team that notices the change in the conditions and adjusts their course the quickest. They’ll win by being the fastest to make the adjustments that will give the shortest possible route to their destination.
Everyone wants a straight path to success, but obstacles get in the way; competitors, recessions, marketing that doesn’t get a response, the shifting interests of your clients; the list is endless if you see it that way.
The business people who end up on top are quick to acknowledge that things are off course. They continually make the changes necessary to reach their goals.
What’s the fastest way for you to stay in the winners’ lane?
Marketing Tip #1. Learn to Love Mistakes
When I had my first website in the mid ‘90s it cost me $35,000 and it was more or less a flop. It barely made any money.
I could have thrown up my hands and decided that the Internet was a total waste of time. Instead I chose to get the most I could out of my $35,000 blooper.
I took it as a challenge to discover which mistakes I’d made and what to do differently the next time around. I sold my second website a year later for just under a million dollars.
I made a big mistake, learned all I could from it, and turned that knowledge into a big success. You can do the same.
Marketing Tip #2. Acknowledge Mistakes Right Away
I talked to a business owner, a specialty clothing retailer, who told me he’d spent $7,000 on Yellow Page ads. When I asked him how many customers the ads had generated, he said none. The following month he signed up with the Yellow Pages again. What’s wrong with this picture?
If you’re not getting the results you want from your marketing, admit that your current strategy needs to be adjusted, if not totally replaced. Let go of the strategies and tactics that aren’t working and make room for new, more effective ones.
My doctor friend who put his propeller on backwards could have just kept the problem a secret and lived with it for the summer, remembering to put the boat in reverse when he wanted to go forward.
Or he could have tried to fix the propeller himself, hoping he could figure it out on his own the second time around. Instead, he admitted his mistake, sought expert advice, learned from his mistake and set off for a great vacation.
Marketing Tip #3. Be Ready to Change Course
Over and over I hear the same things from small business owners struggling with their marketing. They tell me:
“I’m sure that idea won’t work for me.”
“I know that already.”
“I can’t find anyone to help me.”
“I just want someone to hand me a blueprint.”
These are excuses to keep doing the same thing, even if it isn’t working.
Winners recognize mistakes and grab at new marketing ideas. They put them to the test, track the results and continually fine-tune the ways they market and manage their businesses.
I have many clients who’ve done just that, and more than one who doubled their income last year in the midst of a lousy economy. They jumped on the ideas I gave them and put them into practice.
You can be a winner, too. Your business goals are within reach. To achieve them, be willing to make mistakes; admit them; learn from them and take corrective action, quickly.
Want to get the help you need to get to the top? Start here >>
– Charlie
P.S. Wish you had a clear idea of what works and what to do to generate more leads, close more sales and maximize your profits? Each month I interview one of the top marketing or sales experts or entrepreneurs, all who have made a ton of mistakes and learned what works and doesn’t work.
Find out the fastest ways to grow your business from these interviews. And if that isn’t enough, I take the most important tactic from the conversation and detail exactly how to implement it. It’s practically done for you.
Ready to get more business and increase your profits? Click here >>
“If you don’t make mistakes, if you don’t have failures you’ll never learn…too often I find people, they make a mistake, they don’t take the lessons from that and they make it again and again. So spend the time to figure out what you can learn from it so you don’t ever repeat it.” Indra Nooyi, Pepsico, CEO
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In this economy it seems like everybody has become a skinflint!
Money is tight and a lot of people are worried. While there have always been skinflints out there, it seems like more of your previously free spending buyers have morphed into skinflints.
What can you do to your small business marketing to get skinflints to buy and get your profits back on track in this economy?
Find out how to increase your profits in this economy >>
My Dad The Skinflint
I grew up with a dad who was always looking for ways to cut costs. He’d turn out the lights to save on electricity, often before the rest of us had left the room.
During the winter, he’d turn the heat down to 50 degrees at 9 p.m. and I learned to sleep under piles of blankets.
When gas first hit a dollar a gallon back in the late 1960s my Dad focused on getting the most miles he could out of a gallon of gas. He’d shift into fourth gear at 20 mph. Even before cars like the Prius ever existed he was getting over 30 miles per gallon.
Even when I take my Dad out for a meal, he stills asks for the cheapest beer they’ll serve. Last time I think the waiter must have gone into a storage room and dusted off a Pabst they’d had sitting around for years.
My Dad ascribed his money-saving ways to his Scottish heritage and now your customers are blaming their reluctance to buy on the economy.
What You Should Know
My Dad was a skinflint by nature. It wasn’t that we were perpetually broke or in dire straits. He saw saving money as a game and took great pride in seeing how little he could spend on electricity, heating oil, gas and even beer.
Did that mean he didn’t spend money or spend big on certain items?
Of course not. Over the years my Dad has spent large when he wanted a sailboat, antique furniture, or the latest Toyota Prius with all the bells and whistles.
What you should know is that even people who are skinflints by nature, are happy to spend money when they want something. And that’s just as true for people who are temporary skinflints due to economic worries.
Find out how to overcome your prospects reluctance to buy
Even in today’s recession-racked economy people are buying. Sales of BlackBerries, iPhones and other smart phones are up 25% in 2009. And even people on tight budgets are buying including job seekers.
They’re buying because the connectedness that smart phones provide has a high value for a growing number of people.
How To Get Skinflints To Buy
Are you getting more and more objections when you try and close the sale? Are more and more prospects telling you, price is the problem, it’s not the right time, they’ll need to think about it?
The one thing you need to know is that whenever your prospects seem to be waffling, appear to be morphing into skinflint mode, the problem 9 times out of 10 isn’t that they don’t need or want your product or service.
When prospects take on skinflint characteristics, what they’re telling you is they don’t understand the value of your product or service. And it’s rare that price is the issue either.
If my 90-year old Dad still drove, you couldn’t sell him a top rated Nissan Sentra or a Ford Focus for around $15,000. But you could sell him similar sized gas sipping Toyota Prius for $22,000. That’s $7,000 more!
The small business marketing secret to getting your prospects to spend more
Your Buyers Are The Same
While I think of my Dad as unique, he’s just like your buyers in one way. He’ll spend money on things he wants and perceives have a high value to him.
If you want to generate more sales in this economy, use the same marketing strategies that get skinflints to buy. Appeal to their wants and clarify the value in their terms. Do this and you could easily make this one of your most profitable years ever.
– Charlie
P.S. There is plenty of money to be made in this economy but it’s not going to fall into your lap. To get it you need to change the way you market your small business and how you close the sale.
Find out what works to close more sales in this economy
P.P.S. Visualize more clients buying from you. Imagine more people chasing you, calling you and wanting to work with you.
Sound too good to be true?
All you need to do to make it a reality is take action and discover how to eliminate the obstacles to sales.
Discover what works to bring in more buyers and more profits
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Over 20 years ago, I rented an office in downtown Old Greenwich, Connecticut, across the street from the best sandwich shop in town. The first time I went into the shop, I noticed that the menu was a copy of an original created on a typewriter.
The thing was barely legible and made worse by scratched out prices with new ones scribbled in. The menus hardly reflected the quality of owner Gary’s creative and delicious sandwiches.
The proud owner of a new computer and state of the art laser printer, I took one of his menus back to my office, reformatted it in an easy to read typeface, and printed a stack of them. The next day when I went to order my sandwich, I offered Gary the professional-looking menus as a present.
Gary was so pleased that he made my sandwiches free for two weeks and gives me a $2 discount on every sandwich I buy to this day.
Discover how you can profit from the law of reciprocity marketing strategies >>
My friend John used the same basic law of human behavior to get help.
Ten years ago John bought a 28’ Corsair sailboat, a larger version of the 24’ trimaran that I sail. With limited experience with large sailboats, launching this boat in the spring and hauling it out of the water in the fall was beyond what John could manage on his own.
So John asked if he could help me launch my boat and if I’d help him in return, and we’d get both boats taken care of the same day.
For the last ten years, at the beginning and end of the summer, we’ve helped each other launch and haul our boats. It’s a fair amount of work, but by now we’ve got it down to a science and we enjoy each other’s company and the reciprocity.
I’m sure you use the “law” of reciprocity in your life; now put it to work in your marketing strategies.
Find out the marketing strategies to make more without selling >>
Six Marketing Strategies To Make More Money
It’s simple; when a person does something for you that you value, you feel an obligation to that person. You’d like to repay the good deed.
How can you use this basic — and surprisingly powerful — fact of human behavior to grow your small business and make more money?
You can use it to:
1. Generate leads
Give away a free report or mp3 that has value to your prospects, and they’ll return the favor by giving you their contact information. Then you can start building a relationship with them. Almost every successful Internet marketer uses this marketing strategy, and it works for marketing offline, too.
Want more ideas on generating leads? >>
2. Sign up new clients
I know many consultants who regularly speak for local chambers of commerce or for industry association gatherings. They share their best ideas and, in return, walk away from each talk with a handful of new clients.
Other successful firms attract prospects with free seminars. For example, if you’re an investment advisor you could offer a seminar on wisely managing investments during a recession. One local financial firm used this marketing strategy and added $40 million in new assets within six months — without making a single sales call.
3. Sell more products
I recently offered a free teleseminar on copywriting to my entire mailing list. It took me almost a week to put it together and cost me hundreds of dollars, but I it was well worthwhile.
The comments I got from people who participated were very positive. They loved the content and expressed their interest in large numbers by taking advantage of the one-time trial offer associated with the call.
If you want people to buy from you, start the process by giving them something of value.
Interested in selling more?
4. Build your membership program
Getting people to make a commitment to pay a monthly fee for a year or more is a huge marketing challenge. The easiest way to overcome this is to give prospects the first month or two for free. Then give them relevant and useful content, and they’ll stay in and keep paying.
It’s a simple marketing strategy that most magazine publishers use, because it works!
5. Get more readers for your blog and your tweets
Want more people to read your blog? To get other bloggers to link to your blog, provide a link to theirs on your site. Then contact them and they’ll be much more likely to return the favor.
The same is true with Twitter. If you want more followers, sign up to follow the people you want following you. At least 70% will return the favor and start following your tweets.
6. Get a bigger tip
(I know most of you aren’t working as a waiter or waitress but I just wanted to include this one to show you the power of the law of reciprocity.)
Waitress and waiters increase their tips in two ways in addition to being there when you need them. One tactic is to include a mint or small candy with your check when they bring it at the end of the meal. Research shows that patrons leave 25 to 30% larger tips when candy is included with the check.
Another marketing strategy used in the restaurant industry is to share a “secret”. When you’re ordering, the waitress may whisper to you that the pork dish you wanted isn’t one she would suggest, and then she gives you a couple of personal recommendations.
When the check arrives, patrons who were given the “secret” recommendation leave larger tips.
Discover the most cost-effective marketing strategies to increase profits >>
There are hundreds of ways to use the “law of reciprocity” to persuade prospects to contact you, to buy from and to spend more with you. Use them and see your profits grow.
– Charlie
P.S. If you’re tired of trying to ramp up your profits with selling, try giving away value. Give your prospects something they want and can use right away. In return you’ll get more business than you ever imagined and feel good about it all the way to the bank.
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