Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

Marketing Tools

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 Do You Need to Know About Creating Links to Your Web Site?

By Charlie Cook   |   September 18, 2005

Here’s a blog to check out on the top 4 things you need to know about getting links to your site by William Royal. Read it at http://www.royallmedia.blogspot.com/ – Charlie Cook, The Small Business Marketing Response Expert
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How to Solve the Web Site Marketing Puzzle

By Charlie Cook   |   September 15, 2005

For most people marketing online can be a puzzle. The first step is to understand the pieces. Here’s a roadmap of the key elements.

1. Getting People to Your Site
– Search Engine Listings
– Pay-per-click ads
– PR
– Article Distribution
– Linking Strategy

Whether it’s the description that appears in the search engines, your google ad, or the blurb you include with your articles, you’ll need a killer marketing message that gets your prospects to stop what they are doing and click through to your web site. I explain exactly how to do this in the 15 Second Marketing guide.

2. Getting People to Read Your Web Copy
Once visitors arrive at your site you want them to instantly discover why they need your products or services then you want them to contact you or buy from you. I explain the web strategies and ideas that work to do this in Creating Web Sites that Sell .

3. Getting People to Buy Again and Again
Remember the first sale should be just the beginning. Once a site visitor has made a purchase quickly leverage their interest and convert them into regular buyers.
– Charlie Cook

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How to Get Your Prospects to Buy and Increase Small Business Sales

By Charlie Cook   |   September 1, 2005

Everyone wants to increase sales, but few small business owners do anything about it. What can you do to increase your sales?

Stop talking about your firm and your product.

Instead give your prospects a reason to read your marketing materials and then …

… give them a reason to buy.

Include specifics about what your product can do and support these with testimonials from clients.

Discover the best way to get your prospects to buy with The 15 Second Marketing Guide.
– 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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What’s the Best Day of the Week to Market My Business?

By Charlie Cook   |   July 8, 2005

“I want to pick one evening a week to devote to telemarketing for my home improvement business. Without making hundreds of calls on each night how can I find out which is the best night to devote to making marketing calls?” – Steve C.

It’s true you’ll get a highly variable response to your marketing depending on the day of the week and the product or service you are marketing. Few people are looking for small business marketing solutions on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Of course, the opposite may be true for your home improvement business.

The best time to market your business is, …

when your prospects are searching for the solution you provide.

How can you find out when this is? As you indicated, making hundreds of calls would be costly. Instead you can put up a Google AdWords ad and track the number of page views and click-throughs you get. I show you how to do this in Creating Web Sites that Sell. Use the page view and click-through statistics to determine the best day of the week to devote to making your marketing calls. When you market on the days of the week people are looking for a solution, you’ll generate more leads and more business.- Charlie Cook

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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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Is All This Marketing Information Free?

By Charlie Cook   |   May 24, 2005

“Is this all free? If so, how come? What’s in it for you?” – Neva

Yes, the marketing blog, the marketing guide “7 Steps to Attract More Clients and Grow Your Business” the marketing articles on this site and my marketing newsletter “More Business” are all free.

Why?

I want to help you grow your business. My goal is to help as many marketers and business owners improve their marketing so they’ll be more successful.

What’s in it for me?

Every time I share an idea with you that helps you attract more attention, improve the response to your marketing efforts and get more clients I’ve shown you how I can help you. Each time you read an idea of mine, try it and find out that it works I consider it a success. Why?

At some point you’ll get serious about your marketing and want more than just a tip here and there, you’ll want a better marketing message or better networking strategy, you’ll want to create a marketing plan that helps you build your business, or you’ll want an online lead generation strategy that works to increase your sales. Or you may want to work with me directly to show you how to grow your business .

When you do get serious about growing your business, if you enjoyed my free marketing guide and weekly marketing tips, there is a good chance you seek out the marketing resources I provide.

Does this give to get marketing strategy work?

Each month I have more subscribers to my marketing ezine, more sales of my marketing manuals and more marketing coaching clients. The more ideas I share, the more my readers buy my marketing manuals. – Charlie Cook

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How Do I Get Leads for My Network Marketing Business?

By Charlie Cook   |   May 10, 2005

“I know you don’t favor networking marketing but I was hoping you could give me some advice. My partner and I are marketing a great product but we just can’t seem to get enough leads, what do we do?” – Don

Most network marketing companies sound to good to be true. They have a good looking product, they’ve developed all the marketing materials and all you need to do is close the sales and make a fortune with only a couple of thousand dollars of start-up costs. Why wouldn’t you want to do it?

Maybe some people are making millions with their network marketing and I’m only hearing from the people who aren’t succeeding, but I get a ton of requests from people who’ve signed up and aren’t. They’ve invested their money in the networking marketing program, are willing to work hard, can sell, but just don’t have enough leads.

The problem isn’t the hard working committed people who sign up, it is the way the networking marketing firms structure they’re marketing. In most cases it doesn’t follow the steps needed to get a prospect’s attention, demonstrate value and credibility nor prompt prospects to contact them. In brief, most networking marketing companies are designed to do a good job of getting people to sign up but do a poor job of giving these people the marketing tools they need to succeed.

I can’t change your company’s marketing for you but I can show you how to market get attention for yourself with your marketing messages and your marketing plan. To get started take a look at the 15 Second Marketing guide and The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing manual.- 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

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