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Small Business Marketing

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

Can You Teach Your Small Business Prospects to Buy?

By Charlie Cook | August 9, 2007

Can you teach?

Is there an inner teacher in you that could help grow your business?

I’ve been a teacher ever since I graduated from college – literally and figuratively. My first post-college job was as an elementary school teacher and then I moved on to teaching children with behavior problems as a special education teacher. Later I graduated to working with big kids, with senior executives as a management consultant.

For the last couple of decades I’ve found my true passion as a marketing coach developing marketing ideas. I love providing marketing solutions and helping people transform their businesses.

When you know something that can help someone else it’s satisfying to share that knowledge and it’s good for business too. One of the most effective ways to build credibility with prospects and to help them see how valuable your products and services are is to teach.

You may never have trained formally as a teacher or graded papers but if you’ve been in business for a few years you’re an expert and your clients would be impressed if they realized how much you knew.

One way to convince clients of your expertise is to tell them, “Twenty years in business” or “America’s best”. You could do that but it wouldn’t impress many. Instead you can effectively demonstrate your expertise with articles, newsletters, audios, videos, etc. Do this regularly and your prospects will see you as the go to expert in your field.

You may be asking yourself – “Aren’t there tons of others in my field who know as much as I do or more? How can I differentiate myself from them and stand out from the competition?”

You’re 100% right. In most service professions or product areas, there are lots of competitors, people who have the same amount of experience as you do or more, but there is one difference…

Most small business owners don’t use their marketing to educate their prospects and to capture their loyalty and their business.

Regardless whether you sell advertising, concrete plants, hearing aids, real estate, design, or consulting services, there are tons of ideas you can give away, ideas you can teach your prospects that don’t cost you a dime and make you look smarter and better than your competitors.

If you use this simple strategy you can easily stand out from your competitors and be seen as the expert in your niche. Isn’t that what you want to stand out from your competition and get the greatest share of the business?

If you’ve ever wanted a simple and honest way to market your business and see your profits grow I’ve detailed what to do in the ‘Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing‘. Use this link to claim your copy >>

I’m always teaching whether it’s with my clients or my friends on the ski slope or out sailing and there is a point where you should drawn the line. Don’t try teaching your wife or husband. Even if I know exactly what my wife should be doing to make the perfect ski turn, she’d much rather hear it from a ski instructor. The same goes for your kids once they become teenagers.

Even though your family may not appreciate you as a teacher – your prospects do. They do want to discover the great insights and tips you may take for granted, ones that will help you build a long-term winning relationship with them.

You’ve worked hard to become as wise as you are – now tap your inner teacher and leverage all that effort by marketing your knowledge with the ‘Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing‘ and get all the business you deserve. Use this link to claim your copy >>

You can teach your prospects to buy and grow your business!

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

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.

Growing Your Small Business Faster With Less Effort – Marketing Tips

By Charlie Cook | July 29, 2007

Want to know how to grow your business faster with less effort?

Last Sunday, I was out sailing on Long Island Sound off the coast of Connecticut with my good friend John on his trimaran when my son came out on my trimaran. As soon as my son saw us he headed over for an impromptu race. (Don’t you love competition – especially when its between you and your kids?)

It was clear that my son thought he and his friends could out sail me, his ol’ Dad. He’s younger, has lots more racing experience than I and at 21 knows almost everything. (Actually I wish I was as smart as he is but don’t tell him.)

What do you think happened?

It was windy, blowing 20 mph and gusting to 30 mph. My friend John and I had decided to be prudent and had reefed our sails when we left the harbor. We hadn’t hoisted the sail to the top of the mast and had reduced our sail area to make the boat easier to handle.

There is a little secret that you learn after sailing for over 50 years. Sometimes less sail helps you go faster.

You see with too much sail up on a windy day the boat is always tipping. With a trimaran this pushes one of the hulls deep into the water and slows you down and can tip you over. In high winds, with less sail up, the boat tips less and besides being more comfortable, you sail flatter and faster.

So how much sail did my son have up? You guessed it, he had every square inch of sail up, despite the high winds, hoping to go as fast as possible.

Just as my son thought he was going to go screaming by us – a gust hit his sails almost tipping his (my) boat over. He had to turn the boat into the wind causing him to come to almost a complete stop.

With the strong winds, my son was sailing right on the edge. He and his friends were working hard to keep from tipping over while my friend John and I were relaxing and passing them by.

Your small business marketing is the same. To keep your business growing at top speed you don’t need to know how to set your sails but you do need to know which small business marketing strategies to use and when.
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

P.S. The following have nothing to do with small business marketing but are great fun to watch. Check out the following videos of the type of tri I sail.

And Two Larger Tris Racing

Where Is The Real Potential For Your Business?

By Charlie Cook | July 25, 2007

Are you sitting on a source of untapped revenue?

Most small business owners are but they’re just not accessing it. Take Kathy who has worked hard over the last couple of years to more than double her business but is still struggling to break even. She is sitting on a gold mine, if she could just tap it.

“I spend about $5000 to make $3000 in sales. What can I do?”
Kathy, Therapeutic Massage

I’d consulted with Kathy several years ago on marketing her growing therapeutic massage business. By rethinking her strategy and rewriting her radio spots, her marketing had helped grow her business to employ seven therapists and serve thousands of clients. Now she was back with another problem and another request for marketing advice.

This year she hired a top-notch copywriter and equally good radio talent to create even better ads. Her company’s spots are funny and well written, and are bringing in new business – but not enough to cover the expense of her upgraded advertising. She’s convinced this is the right marketing approach for her business. How to make it pay?

Kathy’s marketing was on the right track, but not enough of her new clients were coming back. Typically, a new client would leave very satisfied with her firm’s services, but rarely return.

Where’s the real profit-potential in your business? The fastest way to grow your business is by helping your clients buy from you again and again.

Kathy knew that to pay for her radio advertising she not only needed to bring in new clients, but she needed to convert those new clients into repeat clients. If and when they signed up for her firm’s services for the second, third and fourth times, she’d be more profitable.

Wish more of your clients bought from you again and again? Keep selling the same way you have been and you’re going to get the same results. Discover exactly what to do to close more sales in Eliminating Obstacles to Sales. Use this link >>

Getting a prospect in the door and getting them to buy is only the first step in the marketing and sales cycle. To grow your business significantly you need with your business you need existing clients to buy again and again.

Clients who have already bought from you – know how great your products and services are. They’re much more likely to buy from you again. In fact it costs 8 to 10 times as much to attract a new client as converting an existing client into a repeat client.

Take a look at the numbers. Say you make a $50, $500 sale or a $5,000 sale and then the customer goes away. You’ve made a bit but how much could you be making?

Now imagine if instead of making just one sale per customer you had 5 – 10 a year, year after year. How much more would you make. As client relationships continued to be added and a few dried up you’d increase your revenue by at least a factor of 5 if not many times more.

Just do the math. Every time you make a sale and the client doesn’t turn into a repeat client who buys from you again and again, you’re losing big time. If instead each new client become a life long client you could easily add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your annual revenue.

Isn’t it time to do something about it?

Find out how to help existing clients to become repeat clients. Discover what works to get clients to buy again and again. Get the solution to closing more sales with this link >>

If your clients aren’t choosing to buy again and again, and you’re confident in the quality of your goods or services, then the problem is that you’re not giving them the right choices.

Kathy knew this but wasn’t having success getting her satisfied clients to come back on a regular basis. She’d been offering a discount to clients who scheduled their next massage right away, but wasn’t getting results from her offer.

Think about it. You’ve just enjoyed a professional therapeutic massage and loved the experience. What would motivate you to come back regularly?

Kathy’s offer missed the mark in that clients didn’t see much value in her offer. I suggested that instead of offering first time customers a discount on their next massage, she offer them a monthly membership with unlimited massages. She loved this idea and immediately saw the potential.

How can you make your sales and profits soar? Build repeat business by offering customers services they want and need, and make the perceived value high.

Imagine if your local gym sold individual workouts instead of annual memberships. What do you think would happen? Given most peoples’ follow through on working out, the health club would be broke.

Memberships, annual maintenance contracts, and special offers to past clients are just three ways you can leverage your initial sale and turn it into regular repeat sales and increase revenue for your business.

Are you missing the chance to increase sales by 50% or more? Do something about it. the Insider Secrets to Eliminating Obstacles to Sales >>

– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

Funny Marketing Ideas #1 The Rowboat

By Charlie Cook | July 24, 2007

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting my latest video marketing ideas – quick clips used to generate leads. There are 5 in all and after just the first couple of weeks they’ve generated over 3,000 views. Take a look at tell me why you think they’re working so well.

Funny Marketing Ideas #1 The Rowboat

Why is this a great marketing idea?
– Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results

I Got No Empathy…

By Charlie Cook | July 19, 2007

Last Friday I injured my left shoulder. I landed smack on the top causing what feels like a minor separated shoulder. Afterwards my shoulder hurt so much I could barely move my left arm, or even get up from a sitting position.

I was in such pain that on Saturday, I skipped my morning 30 mile bike ride and canceled an afternoon sail with one of my best friends despite perfect weather.

If you know me, biking and sailing on the weekend are two of my favorite activities and I have to be in serious pain to pass them up.

If that wasn’t bad enough when I was getting ready to go out for dinner Saturday evening I had to ask my wife to help me get my socks on and tie my shoes. How embarrassing is that?

Still I got no empathy or sympathy from my wife! Instead my son and wife made fun of me.

Why?

When my wife asked how I injured my shoulder I told her I was practicing forward kneeling rolls at the gym, basically a somersault starting with one knee on the ground. I’d been watching a 14-year old perform them with ease and figured I could do them too.

My wife thought I was pretty silly to even be attempting them and reminded me I’m not a kid anymore. (This is a discussion we have frequently.)

Am I looking for empathy? No – but your prospects are.

If you want to be successful at selling – EMPATHY is the key. You need to understand your prospects’ problems and concerns.

Discover how to use empathy to close more sales with this link >>

Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work

My Dog Knows More About Marketing Than Most Gurus…

By Charlie Cook | June 13, 2007

Watch out! There is a lot of marketing information you’ll find on the Internet touted by so called experts that isn’t fit to be feed to your dog. Take a look at the following and you be the judge.

Recently I found a post on a prominent marketing site that said “Every business – large or small – should have a “messaging platform” consisting of the following: A. Corporate positioning statement, B. Supporting key messages, C. Supporting proof points, D. Customer value propositions/statements. The author goes on to say that you shouldn’t leave the office without your messaging platform on a laminated cheat sheet.

Yikes! What a bunch of corporate speak and total crXX. My guess is most small business owners have no idea what a messaging platform is, what their supporting key messages or proof points are. Be honest, do you? Do you have it on a laminated cheat sheet?

If the goal is to make the simple complex and impossible to understand the author has succeeded. Imagine how well this process works to communicate with the prospect.

My dog has taught me more about marketing. Here’s the simple marketing lesson my dog teaches every night.

Each night we put out the usual dried dog food pellets with some canned dog food slime for our pet. Routinely our dog will give it a sniff and look at us with disgust and go lie down outside the kitchen door, leaving her meal untouched. I can’t say as I blame her. I wouldn’t eat that stuff either.

Later at the end of our family meal, my wife or myself will take a scrap from one our plates and add it to her meal. Once our pet sees she is getting the dinner she wants, (the one we are eating) she digs in and eats her whole meal.

What’s the simple lesson my dog teaches us every night?

Give a dog or people what they want to get the response you want.

Now I’m not suggesting that your company’s prospects are the same as dogs, though I know a lot of smart prospects. But, dogs and humans behave the same in certain ways.

If your marketing isn’t getting the response you want, forget all the corporate speak – the positioning statements, proof points, value propositions etc. The problem is your prospects don’t understand how you can help them, you haven’t given them the basic information they need to give you the response you want.

Running a business is complex – don’t make it any harder by buying into the nonsense that marketing is complicated. Marketing is simply about helping your prospects get what they want.

Its about action and response. Want more sales? Discover which actions to take to get the response you want. In most cases the solution is a lot simpler than you think.

Charlie Cook
Marketing That Works

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

Using the Ebay Trick to Improve Your Small Business Marketing…

By Charlie Cook | June 3, 2007

What’s one of the reasons eBay is so successful and how can this simple idea help your small business marketing?

Most items on eBay are sold as auctions that end anywhere from a few days away to a week away. When you find an item you want you know its only available for a limited amount of time. If you don’t do anything someone else will likely buy it.

The limited time frame coupled with the limited availability of the item works to motivate you and others to take action. The closer the deadline the more likely you are to bid on the item and the more your emotions start to take over and the more you want it.

While you may not auction off your products or services, you want to impart a sense of urgency to your marketing. When you put an end date on an offer if prompts people to take action and buy. Everyone tends to procrastinate and put off purchases until the last minute. So make sure to include end dates to promotions and let your prospects know about them.

What happens to the people who decide later they want to buy but missed your marketing campaign? Next time they’ll be more likely to respond.

Are you using the eBay model of limited time offers as a marketing strategy? If not you should be. You’ll generate more sales and get a better response with your marketing.

– Charlie
For Small Business Marketing That Works

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