MavenBlog: Marketing Strategies

Small business marketing seems to go one of a couple of ways. Here are two basic definitions of marketing. You can decide for yourself which one you’re using to try and market and grow your business.

1. Marketing is the coordinated and systematic use of strategies and tactics to generate a consistent supply of high-quality leads for your small business.2. Marketing is a two-step process.

It’s a good bet that you’re using definition number two to try and take your own business to the next level. Sorry, you may like the first definition better. But, experience tells me that most small businesses are subscribing to definition number two.

If you are one of those businesses, I can almost guarantee that your results are not what you’d like them to be. They can’t be because the two-step marketing approach just doesn’t work.

Are You Doing The Marketing Two-Step?

Let’s back up for a minute. Just what the heck do I mean by saying “marketing is a two-step process” anyway?

You might remember back in the early 1990’s (early in my own work career) that country music was very popular. Names like Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Clint Black were topping the charts. If these names don’t sound familiar to you, that’s ok, you’ll still get the point.

This popularity of country music introduced a whole generation of people to country dancing. One very well known type of country dancing is the Texas Two-Step. The Texas Two-Step is pretty easy to learn because… well there are really only two steps. God bless Texas for naming the dance so we’d all know what we’re doing.

Unfortunately, way too many small businesses are using a two-step process. It’s the most common approach to marketing across all industries. But incredibly, it’s the most ineffective, time-wasting, energy-wasting, and money-wasting approach available.

How Does The Two-Step Work (I mean NOT work)?

Pick a marketing tool, any marketing tool- an advertisement, a brochure, a direct mail piece, a web site, promotional email, etc. It doesn’t really matter the tool so much as it does the way most small businesses try to use it.

In the two-step process, the marketing tool simply announces the product or service being offered, list a few features (maybe even some benefits), sometimes makes a special introductory or discount offer, and then list the company contact information (usually phone number and/or web site). That’s step one.

Step two is that your prospects or existing clients get so out-of-their-mind excited that they contact your right away to either buy, or they at least ask for more information about it.

Have you ever seen an ad, brochure, direct mail piece, web site, or promotional email like this? Sure you have because everybody is doing it - and there in lies part of the problem.

Back in the early nineties, it seemed like everyone was doing the Texas Two-Step. So if you weren’t learning it, you were out of step. Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.

Why Does Everyone Do It If It Does Not Work?

Most small business owners feel comfortable and safe doing what everyone else is doing. Part of the reasoning seems to be that ‘it must work or everybody else would not be doing it.’ But it doesn’t work. Everyone else is doing it because they’re simply looking to see what everyone else is doing.

It becomes a real vicious cycle of copying ineffective marketing ideas from everyone else. Don’t believe me? Try this little test.

Grab a handful of newspapers, business journals, chamber newsletters, and/or trade publications and scan the ads. Open up the yellow pages and scan the ads. Collect the direct mail pieces or brochures you come across in the next week. Visit a handful of your competitors’ web sites.

I’d be willing to bet that a majority of your research will reveal the company name used as the headline, a list of four or five service offerings, maybe a couple of benefit type statements or a special offer, and number to call for more information.

That’s following the ‘marketing is a two-step process’ definition. And chances are you’re following it as well. If you are, I feel confident in saying that you’re not happy with your marketing results. You simply can’t be because the two-step doesn’t work in marketing.

Make Your Marketing More Than A Two-Step Process.

What you need is a consistent, systematic approach to marketing. That means incorporating and combining the various pieces of your marketing strategies and tactics together for greater impact.

Focus on providing valuable, useful information and resources to your prospective clients that actually help them solve problems and achieve desired outcomes. Yes, I realize that is what you typically expect your clients to pay for. But, what you may not realize is that it is also the best way to attract new clients consistently.

Now realize that this is not simply offering to give away a portion of your products or services for fr~ee. That rarely works.

Allow me to illustrate with an example. Consider the difference between a two-step networking approach and a coordinated, systematic approach to networking. In a two-step approach, you go to an event and give out your card to as many people as you can meet urging them to call to “go to lunch” or “have coffee” sometime.

In a coordinated, systematic approach you go to an event and focus on making a few great connections. You ask other’s for their card and tell them that you have a recent article you’ve written that you’d love to send them. When you send the article, you let them know that if they like the information, they can download another special report off your web site when they subscribe to your fr~ee monthly ezine… I could go on, but I hope you’re beginning to see the difference.

Better Marketing Approach - Better Results.

If you’re not getting the results you crave from your current marketing approach, then it’s time to change your approach. Isn’t a popular definition of insanity ‘doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results?’ Keep doing the marketing two-step and you’ll keep getting the same disappointing results you’ve always gotten.

Don’t be fooled if one of your competitors or some other company you admire appears to be successful despite using the marketing two-step. There is most likely additional coordinated marketing activity going on that you’re simply not aware of.

Also, don’t be fooled by anyone trying to tell you that you just need to keep running your ads again and again so that you build up name recognition and brand awareness. The thought is that the repetitive exposure and awareness will build up so that eventually your target market will know you’re out there and business will start to happen. It’s a myth.

Trust me, it’s more than being persistent and putting your two-step message out there again and again that is keeping anyone from calling. You may get lucky from time to time and strike just when someone is looking for exactly what you offer, but your results won’t be consistent.

By having a coordinated, systematic approach to marketing you’re placing value on obtaining prospects. You’ll be able to generate a constant supply of high-quality leads that you can work on building up interest, credibility, and trust with until they’re ready to say ‘yes’ and begin a conversation about how you might be able to help.

That’s what an effective marketing approach can do for your business. Leave the two-step to dancing at country bars.

About the Author:

Kevin Dervin is the owner of KPD Marketing and creator of the ABCD Growth System. If you find this article useful, you’d probably enjoy Kevin’s FREE monthly eZine called ABCD Grow. To subscribe, just go to http://www.ABCDgrowth.com and follow one of the links to the FREE Stuff page!

Just like you shouldn’t wait until Valentines Day to pamper your loved one, you shouldn’t wait until the next time you’re launching a new product or service before your past and current clients hear from you. The pampering should continue all year long, if you want loyalty and repeat business from them.

A pattern I see again and again is the “keep-attracting-new-clients-and-neglect-old-ones” syndrome.

Considering these facts…

If you’re going to have a successful online information marketing (e-Book) business, you have to have something to market, and usually that something begins in the form of an idea.

Ideas can be like fireflies on a hot summer night. You never know where they’re going to be when they light up, and you can only hope that you’ll be in the right place to catch it when it comes your way. But unlike fireflies, you can greatly improve your odds of catching the random great idea by preparing for it and being ready to catch it at any time.

Once an idea flits through your cranium, you’ve got to do something with it or it will die before it gets out of your head. You may feel like you don’t have enough ideas, or at least that you never have any ideas worth marketing. But realistically, most people have more and better ideas than they give themselves credit for. Usually the problem is that you don’t realize when a usable idea is going through your head. You can’t let any ideas slip by without recording them, because you never know which one will be the big one.

That’s why you have to catch them on the fly as they happen. If you don’t, then they will probably be gone forever. You might think that you can keep them in your head and remember them later, but if you’re like most other humans on this planet, something will come up before the end of the day that will bump that million-dollar idea off the top of the heap. Then before you know it the most important thing rumbling around in your head is your grocery list.

You need a way of harvesting or collecting your ideas as they happen. I usually carry a small notebook around with me wherever I go. Of course you need a pencil or pen too! Or, you could join the 21st century and keep your ideas on a palm or pocket pc or one of the many small electronic devices that’s all the rage these days. Each method has it’s advantages and disadvantages. The benefit of the electronic method is that once you’ve jotted your ideas down you can easily transfer them to your workstation or laptop without having to type them all in again. One word of caution, though…keep your batteries fresh (or charged), and keep your device synced so you won’t lose all those great ideas. The benefit of the paper method is obvious…no batteries, no back-ups, and no operating system to learn. Personally, even though I’m a big fan of technology on my desk and in my home, I’ve found that I’m quite the luddite when it comes to electronics that I have to carry around. So for me at least, it will always be the pen and paper.

Once you get in the habit of jotting down all the ideas that come through your head, you’ll be surprised at how many ideas you actually have. Granted, most of them won’t really end up going anywhere, but like everything, it’s a numbers game…the more you have, the better your chances of coming up with a winner. Even the princess had to kiss a lot of frogs before she found the prince! Sometimes your ideas will come faster than you can jot them down, which is frustrating, but you have to look at the big picture: at least you’re recording some of your ideas now, which is way better than how it used to be.

You’ll find that ideas began to come more easily, because now you’re on the lookout for them. Common everyday occurances that used to just slip by unnoticed can become the catalyst for the next idea that might just be the big one. Plus, once you’re in the habit of paying attention to your creative side, you might find that sometimes multiple ideas will begin to ping-pong around in your head and synthesize into a single winner of an idea.

And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about…catching the million-dollar idea?

Till next time…Success to you!

-Ted

Ted is part of an Internet information marketing group that makes its home at:

http://www.InternetProfitMentor.com

Check it out for some up-to-the-minute info on marketing YOUR information online!

You know that hundreds, if not thousands, of people want and need your products and services. You’re spending good money on advertising and mailings and you have a great looking website up, but you’re still not getting all the clients you want or could handle. Why aren’t more people responding to your marketing?

The most likely reason is your small business marketing materials aren’t answering the questions your prospects are asking about your goods and services.

Imagine you wanted a new car and walked into a dealer’s showroom. You spot the sleek looking model you’re interested in and go over to take a look. It’s at this moment that a salesman walks up to you and introduces himself.

You start asking him questions about what makes this car worth so much, what it’s good for, what features are included, guarantees, etc. Then you ask him if you can take the car for a test drive. now imagine that the salesman responded to each question with a shrug and said, ‘You’ll just have to buy it to find out if it is what you want.’

If the salesperson couldn’t or wouldn’t answer your questions, you’d most likely walk out and head for a car dealer where they could give you detailed answers to all your questions.

You don’t want your prospects to walk away and possibly turn to one of your competitors do you? Of course not. But if your marketing isn’t answering your prospects’ questions you’re going to continue to see most prospects walk away from your marketing materials and look to make their purchase elsewhere.

My small business clients generally report that once they meet with a prospect, they can close 20 to 50% of sales. The problem is getting prospects to contact you or selling services and products without a sales conversation at all, through the Internet or direct mail. Your marketing has to be as good as you are face-to-face. Is it?

Bob and Dennis from Kansas called with just this small business problem. Once they meet with a prospect and present their information, their closing rate is almost 50%. The problem was that despite getting ten thousand visitors to their web site in the last couple of months, only a handful of these had contacted them. You can’t close more sales without qualified leads.

When you’re face-to-face with a prospect, you know how to get a conversation going and to answer all the questions they have about your products and services. Prospects reading a sales letter or your web site or listening to an ad also need their questions answered. No answers, no sales.

Once I explained to Bob and Dennis how to focus their web site marketing and use it to answer their prospects’ questions, and they made the necessary changes to their site, they saw their leads and sales surge.

So what are the questions your small business prospects would ask if you were meeting with them? What do they want to know in order to be convinced you can help them? What are the questions your marketing needs to answer? What information should your marketing materials give prospects in order to make a sale?

Whether you’re marketing a product or a service, your prospects want to know:

- Who is it for?
- What’s the primary problem it solves?
- How will I be better off with it?
- Will it really do what you’re telling me it will?
- What specifically will it do to solve my problem or answer my concern?
- Is this information for real?
- Is it the newest or latest model?
- Who else has bought it? What did they think of it?
- Why should I trust you?
- Is yours the best company to get this item from?
- Is it a fair value?
- I really want it, but how can I justify spending the money?
- Do I really need it now?
- Why should I make this purchase today, or this week?
- How can I make sure I’m not making a mistake?
- Okay, I’m ready to get it, but tell me again why I should want it?
- If I buy it, how complicated will it be to use? What kind of help will I get?
- How long will I have to wait to get it?
- Yes, I made the purchase, tell me again why it was worth all the money I spent?
- I own it, now how can I get the most of out it?Want ten times as many clients? Start by giving your prospects ten times as many reasons to contact you and buy from you and you’ll see your sales soar.

If your small business marketing isn’t generating all the clients you can handle, it’s not giving prospects the information they need to make a decision to contact you or buy.

You can keep using the same small business marketing strategy, the same marketing materials and the same marketing copy and get the same results — or you could discover how to give your prospects the information they want and see your sales skyrocket.

2006 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Strategy eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’ at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

Here are 7 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.

1. Don’t Advertise Like a Big Business

Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can’t afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales …now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

2. Offer a Cheaper Version

Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.

3. Offer a Premium Version

Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service …or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

4. Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods

Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

5. Trim Your Ads

Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.

6. Set up Joint Promotions with Other Small Businesses

Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost.

7. Take Advantage of Your Customers

Your customers already know and trust you. It’s easier to get more business from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Take advantage of this by creating some special deals just for your existing customers …and announce new products and services to them before you announce them to the general market.

Also, convert your customers into publicity agents for your business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper.

Each of these 7 marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for any small business to find customers and generate sales quickly.

Copyright 2005 Bob Leduc http://BobLeduc.com

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards …and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You’ll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

Unless your small business is situated under a rock, you’ve probably heard something about email marketing by now, and you may have even wondered if it’s time for your small business to get into it.

In its simplest terms, email marketing means communicating with consumers through email. But there’s a big difference between trying to talk to consumers who never asked to be talked to in the first place, and talking to your own customers, who at some point have said, “Yes, I’d love to hear from you.”

That’s where permission email marketing comes in. Permission email marketing means giving valuable information to consumers who have requested to receive it. It is the ONLY legitimate way to send an email marketing campaign, and it is the only way your small business can benefit from email marketing.

But how do you get your customers to say “I do”?

If you have an online business, or if your offline business has a website that receives many visitors, compiling subscribers can be as easy as adding a subscription box to your website. You would offer users something valuable, like a periodical newsletter or emails with discount coupons and, in return, your users would subscribe to your mailing list.

Sounds great. But what if your business is primarily offline, and what if you don’t even have a website?

Many businesses think that’s reason enough to step out of email marketing altogether. But what they’re missing here is that compiling a permission email marketing list offline can be as easy, if not easier in some instances, as building a list online.

We have advised many clients on tips to collect email addresses at the point of purchase. Here are some of our favorite tactics:

- Collect business cards, Offer a prize. This is one of the oldest, most proven methods of collecting customer information in-store. Your prize doesn’t even have to be huge. If you own a restaurant, it can be as simple as a free dinner for two. If you own a hair dresser, it can be as easy a 50% off coupon towards their next cut. The beauty here is that customers who submit their business cards have expressed genuine interest in your products or services. So when you contact them by email with further offers, you know you’re talking to people who want to buy what you’re selling.

The one thing to keep in mind here is that you MUST inform users that by submitting their business cards, they are agreeing to receive email communication from you. This can be as simple as adding a sign to the business card drop-off box saying: “We will send you an email to notify you if you have won. We may also send you periodical emails with special offers and announcements. If you do not wish to receive emails from us, please write ‘No Email’ on your business card.”

- Start a V.I.P. Club Many consumers like the idea of belonging to something exclusive, and receiving offers that are extended only to a select group of people. The labor on your part is minimal. It’s as easy as keeping a notebook by the cashier. As a customer comes up to complete a purchase, casually tell them about your businesses’ V.I.P. Club and ask them if they would like to join. Customers will appreciate this if you position it as a rewards club, or a way to say “Thank you, we love to have you around” to your most loyal customers. Of course, you should offer V.I.P. Club membership to any of your consumers, as you may find, once you start emailing them offers, that’s a great way to build your most loyal customers. Make sure the offers you send them are, in fact, exclusive, and that you email V.I.P. Club members often enough, but not too often to become annoying (once or twice a month is usually a good interval).

Again, when you’re collecting customer emails for the V.I.P. Club, make sure your customers know they’re signing up to receive email offers from you.

***
These are just some ideas to get your permission email marketing subscriber list started. The best news here is that compiling a list is actually the toughest part of managing an email marketing campaign. As long as you’re using an email marketing manager program that’s specifically designed for small businesses like yours, the rest of the process is a breeze.

Creating a campaign involves little more than selecting a professionally-designed template, typing text and choosing a few good images. Your campaigns will be scheduled and sent automatically, so you’ll never have to worry about being involved in that part.

What you will get to do (and this is probably the most exciting and most rewarding part of email marketing), is analyze your campaign after it’s been sent. You’ll be able to see how many people opened your email message, how many people clicked on each link within the message and, best of all, exactly who did what. Now that’s what we call accurate, detailed, and immediate consumer research (you actually get to track your consumers’ actions from the exact moment they happen). And while you would previously pay a fortune just to get this research data, today your small business can send professional email marketing campaigns and track detailed consumer behavior for less than it would cost you to print store flyers.

It’s the new age of marketing, and there’s never been a better time for your offline small business to get into the game.

Robert Burko is president and founder of Eliteweb.cc, an Internet portal and suite of Fortune 500 tools designed for the specific needs of small businesses. Eliteweb’s permission email marketing manager is perfect for online or offline small businesses. Click on the link above for a no-commitment 30-day Free trial.

Here are some marketing mistakes that take a heavy toll on small businesses. They have been very harmful to businesses at any stage, but especially harmful for new businesses.

1. Not having a marketing plan.

Studies show that having a marketing plan equates to a 24 to 30% improvement in sales over those without a marketing plan. Writing a comprehensive marketing plan takes time, thought, and rethought, they help a business owner to focus on new products and services. A marketing plan will help someone to determine if the product or service will take too much time, energy, or resources to make it a proper addition to the existing array of products and services.

2. Executing “Hit or Miss” marketing techniques.

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners buy advertising without exploring whether or not the venue is appropriate for them, or if it will appear in a place or manner that potential customers will respond to - or even see. Marketing dollars spent correctly will bring you sales. Marketing dollars spent incorrectly will not only cost you money, but will cost you your business-esteem. All marketing needs to have a “fit” with an overall initiative. They must convey a consistent message. Using advertising for name recognition is felt to be a good move by inexperienced business people. Experience dictates that success is best when even your “name recognition advertising” relates to a common theme.

3. Negative networking.

Networking is one of the most important parts of marketing for the small business person. Many entrepreneurs look to groups such as Chamber of Commerces, Business Network International, and Local Business Network to build business through networking. They attend networking functions and seem to feel that the more business cards they give out, the more business they will get. They are generally disappointed and reject networking as a false prophet. Positive networking takes a different approach. Networking events are an opportunity to find synergies upon which relationships can be built. Successful networking is not how many business cards you give out, it is how many quality business cards you gather. Opportunities such as Catapult allow individuals a networking opportunity to find those synergies while learning business skills.

4. Not seeking appropriate support.

Most entrepreneurs are people that have decided to leave corporate America in search of a better lifestyle with less stress. They find a great product or service and think they have it made. Unfortunately they do not have the focus and motivation they need to survive. In the corporate world they had a boss to continually set deadlines and goals, and to hold them accountable for hitting the deadlines and goals. They also had a boss to mentor and coach them. In the small business and entrepreneurial world, this important need is overlooked. People need accountability partners and/or mentors to keep them on track.

5. Inability to distinguish between being talented and being business savvy.

Too many small business owners and entrepreneurs feel that having talent is sufficient to attain success. They feel that if they are good at what they do, word of mouth advertising will supply a constant stream of customers. Talent may help you find excellent investments, glean out the best mortgage rate, repair the most difficult automotive challenge, or any of numerous other potential examples. However without business savvy in the form of a marketing system, the endless stream of customers will never materialize. You must wrap a marketing program around it to encourage or solicit additional referrals.

To be a success in your business, it is essential to focus on preventing these marketing mistakes. Be sure to make a plan and get the support to validate the plan and help you bring it to fruition.

Rick Weaver is President of Max Impact, a national leadership and organization development company based in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Rick is an accomplished business executive with experience in retail, market analysis, supply chain and project management, team building, and process improvement. He has worked with hundreds of companies to improve sales, processes, and bottom-line results. MaxImpact offers leadership and organizational development services along with employee assessments and background checks. Contact Rick at 248-802-6138 or via email, rick@getmaximpact.com. MaxImpact is on the web at http://www.getmaximpact.com.

None of us have enough time in the day to get everything done, but small business owners and entrepreneurs like you are particularly pressed. You wear so many hats; there is a seemingly infinite list of tasks to accomplish each day, from providing services to clients, managing product distribution and delivery, to keeping accounting in order.

You try to fit in some marketing when you can, but you’re not sure which activities are essential to do each week or each month to build a steady stream of clients. You make some calls, send out a mailing or put up a web site, but you still have that nagging feeling that if you knew which marketing activities translated into the most new business, you could be more successful.

You want more clients or, if not more clients, higher paying clients. So, what are the most important marketing tasks to do in order to attract more of the right type of prospects?

Build and Maintain Relationships with Prospects

Your number one marketing priority should be to build relationships with lots of qualified prospects. It sounds obvious, but remember that the reason to advertise, network or to have a web site is to generate leads, leads you can then convert to sales. Take a look at the number of years you’ve been in business and the size of your prospect list.

If your advertising, networking and web site are working, you should be able to generate new leads and a growing list of qualified prospects each month. A successful website, for example, can generate hundreds, if not thousands, of new leads monthly.

George recently signed up for my coaching services. He has been in business for over ten years, but his prospect list consists of less than 150 names. George should have contact information for thousands of prospects by now. Even without an active web based lead generation strategy, if George had added every prospect and client to his list over ten years his list should contain over a thousand interested people.

How many more sales could you close if twice as many — or ten times as many— people know how you could help them?

The first step is to get prospects’ attention with your marketing message and materials. Then you want prospects to take the next step; to contact you, buy from you right away, or add their name to your mailing list. Offering free, relevant information such as a report or free workshop will prompt your prospects to give you their contact information and increase the results generated by your advertisements and mailings.

How big is your target market? What percentage of this group is on your mailing list?

Your goal is to help as many people in your target market learn what you do and to get them to give you their contact information. Once you have their permission to stay in touch, you can go to work building a relationship with them.

Demonstrate what you do so they understand its value and you establish your credibility. When they know and trust you, they’ll be happy to tell you what they need and to buy your products and services.

So how can you incorporate lead generation and building relationships with prospects into your weekly schedule?

1. Each week reach out to get the attention of people who haven’t heard from you. Do this through your advertising, web site marketing, articles, mailings or cold calls (if you know how to use them). But don’t spend a dime on any of these unless you have a strategy in place for converting this attention into sales and qualified leads.

2. Set aside time each week or at least each month to stay in touch with your list of qualified prospects and past clients. As your list grows, use your time to focus on past clients first and use a mass mailing or email to stay in touch with other prospects. Share an idea your prospects they can use and they’ll be reminded again and again how much you know and why they should buy your products and services.

3. Use your communication with prospects and clients to help them identify what they need and understand how your products and services can help them. You may think that doing this once should be enough, but most people are too busy to read every mailing they get or to remember the details until its pressing or important for them to act on. With regular correspondence you’ll increase the chances of putting your information in front of your prospects when they are ready to buy.

4. Set aside time each day to contact qualified prospects. If someone has sent you an email, left a phone message or otherwise expressed interest in your products, pick up the phone and call them. Quickly identify whether they have the authority and interest to contract with you and either continue the conversation or move on to your next lead.

Get attention; build your list of qualified leads; regularly help prospects with your ideas; and respond to your most qualified prospects promptly when they request services. Do these four things every week and every month and you’ll soon have many more prospects eager to learn how you can help them, eager to buy from you and more new clients than you ever thought possible.

Charlie Cook 2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Plan eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’ at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

You could be generating 50% to 100% more sales with your marketing. How? By working with basic human nature to convert more of your prospects to customers.

Each week 100 or 1000 people visit your web site or read your small business marketing materials but only a handful of those are contacting you. You can double the number of people who buy your products and services and double your profits.

The biggest mistake made by small business owners is that they treat marketing as if it didn’t need to follow basic rules of human nature. It’s like trying to force feed broccoli to someone who hates vegetables or trying to get a vegetarian to eat roast beef. Similarly, it just doesn’t make sense to try and force your prospects to do something they don’t want to do.

I’m amazed at how many people throw away huge sums of money on a marketing strategy that continually frustrates them and doesn’t bring in the sales they need to grow their business.

Here’s the simple truth about small business marketing. If you want to sell to people you need to take into account basic characteristics of human nature. You can’t just get your name out there or get the name of your product out there and expect clients to flock to your door. This marketing strategy doesn’t work for small business owners and it won’t work for you.

The good news is that it’s not complicated or confusing to market your business successfully and close twice as many sales. All you need to do is understand a couple of obvious things about human nature and apply them to marketing your business.

Effective Marketing Is Based On These 3 Rules of Human Nature
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> First Rule Of Human Nature:
People are attracted by solutions to their problems

Your prospects want to know what your product or service will do for them. They want to know if it will help them solve a particular problem.

Your marketing should lead with the product benefit and then go on to explain more about how your products or services help them and you’ll capture their interest. Lead with pricing, obscure product names or too much technical detail and you’ll l0se your prospects. Their overriding concern is how your products or services will help them.

> The Second Rule Of Human Nature:
People forget

Think about your own purchasing behavior. What do you do when you’re looking for a new computer, a new lawyer, a new investment, or a new graphic designer? You may have seen an ad that attracted you or visited a web site that looked helpful, but can you remember where?

Most people take some time to make their decision, often weeks or even months. Even if they’ve read your marketing materials and even if you’ve got the perfect product or service for them, your prospects are most likely going to forget you exist.

80% of potential new business is lost because small business owners don’t have a marketing strategy for following up with prospects. Each time your prospects hear or read about another similar service or product your information gets pushed further down into the recesses of their brain.

Eventually it just gets forgotten and you’ve lost the sale unless you have a strategy that helps them remember your products and services.

> Third Rule of Human Nature:
People want to be confident they are making the right decision

Whether you’re buying a new car, a new computer or l.egal or financial services, you want to know that when you make your purchase you’ll be satisfied with the products or services you buy. Your prospects are the same. So how do you help them trust you and your products and services?

Give them proof!

Prospects want to know if your products or services worked for others and if they’ll work for them. When you use referrals, testimonials and ‘test drives’ you provide proof that helps them feel confident in making their purchase.

Common Sense Small Business Marketing It’s common sense to base your marketing on these three rules of human nature. If you want to increase your sales, you need to give people the information they want and need to buy from you.

2006 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Strategy eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’ at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

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For more small business marketing tips and ideas, visit http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/tips.html

Every successful business campaign begins with a strong, viable marketing plan. To rise above in the internet marketing world, you must be prepared to pull out all the stops in the areas of promotion and advertising. Sound difficult? Think again. The expansion of the World Wide Web has made the complications of internet marketing promotion a thing of the past. With a wide array of promotional avenues to wander, almost anyone can be victorious in the internet marketing game.

Search engines have always been, and still are, the most effective way to generate traffic to your web site. The largest search engines have their own huge databases that contain tons of information that can be discovered through keyword searches. Keywords are an essential factor when dealing with internet marketing. Search engines account for over 80 percent of traffic generated to web sites. In internet marketing, every visitor is a potential customer. The more customers you have, the more money for you.

The mailing list is an excellent internet marketing technique that can be of great help when trying to accomplish your goals. The unique aspect of a mailing list is, while it not only brings recent visitors back to your web site, these visitors will most likely send your newsletter to their acquaintances. To utilize this internet marketing method to the fullest, develop an expansive customer list, and use this list frequently.

Blogs are a new and increasingly popular internet marketing technique designed to educate readers about your product or service. This marketing method is favored because of the ability to create and publish information instantaneously on the web, and receive feedback from its readers. Blogs and blogging have become an excellent source for internet marketing promotion because of the constant content development, as well as, overall popularity. In the internet marketing realm, it’s the web site visitors that make the world go round.

Scott has his own website to help you find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home at http://www.Pennies4You.com

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For more small business marketing tips, ideas, and strategies, visit http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/tips.html