FREE 12 Step Marketing Plan: Put More Customers & Cash In Your Business - One Easy Step At A Time!

Grab your FREE copy below (or read online) to discover twelve easy to follow, powerful, and proven steps to guide your success!

2007-10-05T11:14:00.001-07:00

Dear Friend,

This 12 step marketing system is NOT based on theory, but results from some of the most successful marketers of all time.

If you follow these simple, yet comprehensive steps, the possibilities of success are limited only by your imagination.

If you have struggled until now, it will be an honor to help you succeed.

If this system takes you to a higher level of success, may you share and help others to prosper.

Follow your bliss, and may the adventure you choose to embrace be the one you receive!

To your unstoppable success!

Rod Carr
Founder, 12 Step Marketing

P.S. If I can be of further service to your organization, it would be my pleasure to assist. For contact information: Click Here.
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Go to Step 1>>>

Step 1. Identify Your Marketing Strength and Weakness

2007-10-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

One of the harshest realities any business can face is the prospect of devoting enormous amounts of time, energy, and money, creating the very best product or service they can, only to fail to attract enough customers to survive.

Sadly, roughly eight out of every ten new businesses (80%!) will face this reality and be out of business within 5 years.

The reasons why so many small businesses fail are many and varied. However, it is astonishing how many fail to appreciate the fact that no matter what type of business they might think they are in, they are actually in the business of marketing their business!

Truth be known, marketing is said to be responsible for 95% (or more) of the success of any business. In most every type of business competition, it is simply the best marketer who wins!

Developing the best products or services in your field is definately something to strive for. However, knowing how to get your phone ringing or create a lineup of customers at your door is absolutely vital!

Companies who appreciate this fact have the best chance of beating the odds to survive and prosper. While the hopes and dreams of most companies who don't, will be slowly crushed to death.

Therefore, right from the start, one of the most important tasks of any business is to identify what you're doing right, and what you could be doing better and more profitably.

And one of the best ways to accomplish this task is to periodically complete a thorough marketing audit.

While the following three-part questionaire offers an excellent place to start.

As you will see, Part One provides a more personal review of your business and marketing. Part Two provides more specific details about your business marketing. And Part Three provides a system to probe deeply into most any question or topic.

Overall, your answers will provide a valuable new business perspective and, chances are, more then a few surprises!

Note: To help you get the most out of this system, copy and paste each question and answer into a word document to review.

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Marketing Questionaire / Audit

Part One:

1. How did you get started in this business?

2. What do you enjoy most about it?

3. What separates you and your company from your competition?

4. What advice would you give someone just starting out in this business?

5. What one thing would you do with this business if you knew you could not fail?

6. What significant changes have you seen take place in this industry through the years?

7. What do you see as the coming trends in this business?

8. What was the strangest or funniest incident you've experienced in this business?

9. What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?

10. What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?

Part Two

1. How long have you been running this business?

2. What product or service do you sell?

3. What are you really selling?

4. Do people buy this product or service more than once?

5. What is your average revenue per month?

6. What is the average size of each sale?

7. On average how long does a customer stay and do business with you?

8. What is your average gross profit per sale?

9. Do you have a unique sales proposition or message? If so, what is it?

10. Without checking, do you know where 80% of your revenue comes from? If so, what type of customer?

11. Who are you advertising or promoting to?

12. What does your product do for them?

13. Why is it superior to alternative products?

14. How can you prove your case?

15. Where should you advertise to reach your best prospects?

16. When is the best time to reach them?

17. How many active customers do you currently have?

18. How many inactive past customers do you have?

19. Do you ask for referrals? If so, when?

20. How often do you contact your customers? What type of information do you send? (newsletter, tip sheet, product update, other)

21. Is there always an offer or reason to contact you built into each communication that you send?

22. How many inquiries do you generate each month from these communications?

23. How many of these inquiries do you convert to sales?

24. What communications do most of these inquiries come from? (direct mail, referral, Yellow Pages, other)

25. How much do you spend (approx.) on this marketing to generate these inquiries each month?

26. Do you keep track of what marketing generates what inquiries? (i.e. Yellow Pages ad-20 leads, Referrals-12 leads, etc.)

27. Do you offer free information or check ups in relation to your product/service before a prospect has to commit to inquire with you directly? If so, what type?

28. How often do you contact previously non-converted prospect inquiries?

29. Is this communication programmed in to your business routine?

30. What is the biggest marketing problem that you would like to solve?

Part Three

Instructions to probe deeper into any particular question or topic:

A. Review your answer to a particular question from Part Two above.

B. Follow the 5W1H (Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How) question format to develop a new set of six questions to help you probe deeper into your answer to this question.

For example:

Question # 30. What is the biggest marketing problem you would like to solve?

Answer: We would like to reduce our newspaper advertising expeditures and generate more customer referrals

New 5W1H questions:

1. Who should we target to request new customer referrals?
2. What should we offer them as an incentive to send us referrals?
3. Where is the best place to reach them to promote this new offer?
4. Why should we reach them there?
5. When should we make this offer?
6. How many should we contact to test this new offer?

C. Repeat the process with your answer to another question from Part Two above, or to your answer to any one of new 5W1H questions from Part Three B directly above.

For example:

Question # 26. Do you keep track of what marketing generates what inquiries? (i.e. Yellow Pages ad-20 leads, Customer referrals-12 leads, etc.)

Answer: Yes

New 5W1H questions:

1. Who could we target to request more qualified referral leads from?
2. What kind of added benefit could we offer to increase referral leads?
3. Where do these referral leads come from now?
4. Why are we generating 20 Yellow page leads and only 12 referral leads a month?
5. When is the best time to contact new referral lead sources?
6. How should we contact these new referral lead sources?

Take-away points:

With practice you find this system will provide an exceptional way to help you to continually identify areas of marketing strength and weakness, what you are doing well, and more specifically what you could be doing better.

Additional resources:

How do you and your business stack up? If you are up for a rather mind-numbing, yet highly revealing session, take this 87 question self-diagnostic assessment test by marketing wizard Jay Abraham:

Click here

Go to Step 2>>>

Step 2. Focus On Helping Instead of Selling

2007-10-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sales is a process, not an event! A process of determining what your customers are looking for, and leading them to the desired outcome they seek.

To demonstrate, consider the example of a customer that walks into a hardware store looking to buy a new power drill. In a sense, what he is really shopping for is not a new power drill, but holes. He needs, or thinks he needs, a power drill to drill holes. And, the test of a good salesperson is to determine what he is really looking for (holes), what type of holes he needs, or if holes will actually provide the best outcome for what he seeks.

As the story goes, this salesperson asks a number of specific questions and ends up suggesting a set of fasteners to actually solve this customers problem better and cheaper then drilling holes.

As a result, the store may lose the immediate sale of a new power drill. But, by focusing on helping to solve this customers problem (instead of quickly selling him a power drill), and thereby delivering the best possible outcome he seeks, the store stands to gain a loyal customer for life!

Another good point to remember when you are advertising to reach new prospects is the star of your ad is not your product or service, but your customer. And the closer you can tap into his or her interests, and needs, and wants, with your headline and offer, the higher the response to your ad will be!

Incidentally, the name of your company should seldom, if ever (maybe "Lean Cuisine" or "1-800-Contacts" are an exception), be used as a headline for any ad. A good attention-getting headline that tells a prospect 'what's in it for me' is responsible for 70% or more of the success of every ad. Putting your company name out there as a headline will product marginal results at best.

Go to Step 3>>>

Step 3. Establish Goals and Specific Strategies and Tactics To Achieve Them

2007-10-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things any business can do is to simply set goals. As the odds of success are roughly ten times higher for those who commit to achieving specific goals in writing.

The challenge for most companies is how to go about it, and how to get started.

One the best ways to combat this problem is to break goals down into a simple two-step system of:

1.) Establishing goals and specific strategies to:

A. Acquire more customers
B. Increase the average size of each sale
C. Increase the number of repeat customer sales

2.) Establishing specific tactics to achieve them

What is most important to note about this system is that a 10% increase in A, B, and C will increase sales by over 33%, and at 25% your sales will nearly double!

To demonstrate how this works, let's say you have 1,000 customers who spend an average of $20 per sale, 10 times a year, for a total of $200,000 in annual sales.

And, assume you establish a goal to double your sales in one year by achieving a 25% increase in A, B, and C.

To reach this goal you establish specific strategies to:

A. Acquire 250 more customers (roughly 20 a month, or 1 each business day)
B. Increase the average size of each sale from $20, to $25
C. Increase the number of repeat customer sales from 10, to 12.5 times per year

To implement these strategies you decide to pursue the following tactics:

1.) Give a new business referral card to your best customers to give to family and friends.

2.) Mail a special birthday card and offer to your best customers to boost repeat sales and help decrease customer attrition.

3.) Offer a special product up-sell (discount to a combination of products) to every customer at the time of purchase, along with a free gift (purchase premium) for every sale that exceeds $30, to boost the average size of each sale.

4.) Promote a free email rewards program offering special discounts and incentives for customers to join your VIP list, to boost repeat customer sales.

Once implemented, you will need to consistently evaluate and seek ways to improve the results of the strategies and tactics you have selected to achieve your goals, and increase the odds of your long-term success by roughly fold!

Go to Step 4>>>

Step 4. Determine the Lifetime Value (LTV) of Your Customers

2007-10-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

One of the most useful, yet underutilized business concepts is Customer Lifetime Value, or LTV. What LTV means is how much a new customer is worth over the life of their patronage to a business. Or, the average total projected profits to be made from each new customer.

One of the most important functions of LTV is to help determine how much, on average, a business can afford to spend to acquire a new customer, based on how much each customer will actually be worth to them in total profits.

Most companies tend to rely on an arbitrary percentage, such as 5% of total sales, to determine how much to spend on advertising. Or, an industry average of total sales spent on advertising. Or, a set cost per order or sale.

However, the biggest problem with this approach is that it fails to account for the repeat sales potential of each new customer. And, if you fail to account for repeat customer sales then you will also fail to account for how much actually afford to spend to effectively buy more profitable customers. And severely restrict your ability to do so.

To demonstrate, consider the following example.

Let's say you spend $335 to send a sales letter to 500 prospects. From this letter you generate 10 good leads (2%) and 2 new clients that each spend $400 on their first order, for a total of $800 in sales.

If your gross margin is 50%, you will generate a gross profit of $400 (50% of $800) from a mailing that cost $335 to send.

This leaves a gross profit of $65, which doesn't look profitable enough to even try again.

However, when you consider the repeat sales potential of each new customer it would be huge mistake not to continue these mailings.

If you assume that each new customer is worth an LTV of $1000, this same mailing is actually worth $1665 ($1000 x 2 - $335), a return on investment (ROI) of almost fives times.

There are obviously differences in the spending patterns of a diverse customer base. And, it can be a fairly complicated process to arrive at a truly accurate LTV. However, the potential returns from developing an LTV more then justify the effort it may take to get started.

To develop a truly accurate LTV may also require several years of sales records from customers that have completed their business relationship with you. However, in the near-term, most businesses can estimate an effective, worst-case LTV to guide their advertising investment decisions.

One of the easiest ways to calculate a workable LTV is to:

1.) Calculate the average size sale and gross profit you make from each sale.

2.) Calculate how many times your average customer will return to buy from you.

3.) Multiply the average gross profit from each sale by the number of times your average customer will return to buy from you.

For example, if you earn an average of $5 a week from each customer for an average life cycle of three years, each new customer is worth an average of $780 to your business ($5 x 52 weeks x 3 years).

Theoretically, you could look at this value and spend up to $780 to acquire a new customer and still break-even. Realistically, that's probably not a good idea, but can help to demonstrate the flexibility and power of this tool.

If you know with some certainly how much money you stand to make from each new customer, it makes that much more sense to acquire as many new customers as you can, as quickly as you can.

And, when you start to measure your LTV, you can also begin to improve it and, reduce the amount of advertising dollars commonly wasted by companies that do a poor job of tracking the response to their ads.

Finally, any business that can dramatically increase it's marketing budget based on the promise of a much more predictable return, is in a much better position to capitalize on any given opportunity.

To review more information on this topic, along with free program to help calculate your own customer LTV, click on the link below:

Click here

Go to Step 5>>>

Step 5. Develop a Unique Sales Proposition - USP

2007-09-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

A Unique Sales Proposition (U.S.P.) is a statement or set of statements, that clearly define why your customers choose to do business with you. It presents the core benefit of your business to incorporate in all of your marketing activities. And, is likely the most important task any business can complete.

When you develop a strong USP, all of your advertising, direct mail, and other forms of promotion become that much easier to create. Without a USP, any form of marketing is that much more difficult.

Some of the more famous and clear USP's are:

Domino's Pizza - "Fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less -- or it's free."
FedEx - "When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight"
M&M's - "The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand"
Paul Masson Wines - "We sell no wine before their time"
Wonder Bread- "It helps build strong bones 12 ways"
Head & Shoulders - "You get rid of dandruff"
Oil of Olay - "You get younger-looking skin"
iPod - "1000 Songs in Your pocket"
Dove Soap - "Only Dove is one-quarter cleansing cream"

Here's some effective ways to define a strong USP:

1. Ask your employees, customers and friends exactly what it is that sets you apart from your competition and why they choose to do business with you (low prices, store location, quality products, fast service, etc.). List each one in a sentence format and select the most compelling.

2. Identify what it is that compels customers to do business with your company by completing the following sentence:

What most people in this business do is _____, but what we do is _____.

3. Write a short paragraph describing the benefits of your business, then edit this paragraph down to a one or two sentence USP that your customers can immediately identify as the reason they do business with you. For example, "On time printing at guaranteed low prices!"

4. Complete the following question with the biggest problem that prospects in the market for your product or service face: "You know how ...?". Then complete the following statement with the unique solution to this problem that you provide: "Well, what I do is...". Put these two sentences together, then whittle them down to a one or two sentence USP.

After you've created a USP, a good way to tell if you've got a good one is to look at the headlines of any recent ads that you've run (newspaper, yellow pages, postcard, etc.). If any of your competitors can say the exact same thing, you don't have a clear USP and need to revise it until you can pass this test.

When you've got a good one, be sure to include it in every marketing aspect of your business: business cards, newspaper ads, direct mail, phone calls, web site, etc.

And remember to re-affirm your USP with every customer complaint, or request for a refund or replacement, with a letter that expresses your commitment to your USP.

Go to Step 6>>>

Step 6. Target Your Best Customers And Sales Prospects

2007-09-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Any business that attempts to be all things to all people, can easily end up being all things to no one in particular, reduced to competing for business on the basis of whoever has the lowest price.

One of the best ways to avoid this ugly scenario is to focus your efforts, attention, and activities, on your best customers and prospects for sales, to achieve the most cost-effective and profitable results for your business.

And, to follow the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your business profits come from 20% of your customers - your most "recent" and "frequent" buyers. And, to focus on these customers, and attracting others just like them.

Here's some ideas to help you get started:

1. Identify your best customers. Look through your records to see who bought from you most recently, most often, and who spent the most money (referred to as RFM: Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value).

2. Understand your model customer. Develop a list of your customers separated by their various buying patterns and interests. Find out what your best customers have in common and develop propositions geared towards those buying patterns.

3. Find more model customers. Rent mailing lists of people who spend a lot, buy often and have bought most recently (high RFM).

4. Run ads that pre-qualify and only appeal to people seriously interested in making a decision to buy, to reduce the waste of time and money that results from going after unqualified leads. For example, "Let me show you how to save $15,000 over the life of your mortgage", versus an ad inviting you to stop by your bank for a friendly visit.

Two more important targeting tactics to consider are:

1. Geographic targeting - Businesses that rely on in-store traffic, office visits, or sending out sales reps, should restrict their entire marketing efforts to a certain geographic territory. A good example is the real estate agent who "farms" a neighborhood, or small block of neighborhoods, by mailing every home in the area, going door-to-door to introduce himself, distributing a newsletter, sending holiday cards, getting involved in community fund-raisers, giving away free pumpkins at Halloween, sponsoring block parties, etc.

2. Demographic targeting - Businesses that rely on customers that are scattered throughout a community or region, but that fit into a set of demographic characteristics. For example, a Pizza parlor focusing entirely on attracting middle income families with kids.

3. Affinity or Association targeting - Businesses that rely on customers that do not fit into a geographic or particular demographic targeting approach, but whose best prospects and customers are members of an identifiable group or association. For example, a local grade school PTA, local church groups, members of chamber of commerce, AARP members, the national restaurant trade association, etc.

Another important point is to focus your time, energy, and resources on your best products, and, to consider eliminating products which take more of your time but bring in less money then others.

For example, within a few days of opening Dominos Pizza, Tom Monaghan stopped making six-inch pizzas (his biggest seller) to focus on eight and ten inch pizzas. His orders immediately dropped, but his profits immediately increased. Shortly thereafter he implemented perhaps the most famous USP ever - "Fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less -- or it's free" - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Point being, to focus on the most profitable aspects of your business - both customers and products.

Go to Step 7>>>

Step 7. Offer a Better Then Risk-Free Guarantee

2007-09-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

"Give him an offer he can't refuse" is one of the most famous lines in Hollywood history.

It should also be the goal behind every business offer. To position each offer as the only viable option for your prospect or customer to choose.

In effect, to create an irresistible offer which guarantees the outcome and eliminates any financial risk of loss.

One of the best ways to create an irresistible offer is to identify what your prospects or customers want, then do everything you can to guarantee the outcome.

Here's a few steps to consider:

1.) Make a list of any financial, emotional, or other measurable obstacles to purchasing or doing business with your company.

2.) Offer a strong guarantee to address and overcome every obstacle, such as a money-back guarantee, double your money-back guarantee, free trial offer, free product samples, etc.

3.) Put your guarantee in writing (and even frame it like a gift certificate), and put it into action by carefully explaining and showing it to customers prior to completing any sale.

Another point to consider is that some of the most effective guarantees go above and beyond simply eliminating the risk.

For example, an extermination company called Bugs Burger Bug Killers, or BBBK, offered an iron-clad guarantee to hotel and restaurant customers based on the promise of both guaranteed and self-punitive results that made the cost of any mistakes made by BBBK so high that the promised results of their service appear to be the only viable option.

And, they created a formal understanding of this guarantee with every new client that stated:

You don't owe Bugs Burger Bug Killers a penny until all the pests on your premises have been eliminated.
If you are ever dissatisfied with our service, you will receive a refund for up to 12 months of the firms services - plus fees for another exterminator of your choice for the next year.
If a guest spots a pest on the premises, Bugs Burger will pay for the guest's meal or room, send a letter of apology and pay for a future meal or stay.

BBBK charged up to ten times more then their competitors, and even dictated the responsibilities of their clients to uphold the guarantee being offered to them, to effectively build a 44-state operation with 15,000 hotel and restaurant clients and $30 million a year in revenues.

BBBK recognised that follow-up service was far more important to their best clients then price, and created a powerful guarantee reflecting this fact, to 'Give them an offer they can't refuse!'

The only real drawback to a money-back, or even a triple your money-back guarantee with heavy self-punitive results, is the customer still has to fork over some cash to complete the transaction.

However, one of the best ways to address this issue and achieve a strong better then risk-free guarantee is to adopt a "pay later" payment plan. Pay later can take on many forms from 30-90 day billing, to 30-90 day billing and keep the free gift. Most large magazine subscriptions, and may other consumer products are commonly sold on these "pay later" terms.

However, there are risks of non-payment to late payment that need to be covered with this method. So it must be approached with caution and carefully tested.

Another powerful type of "pay later" is the "30-Day Hold" which essentially involves receiving a check or credit card information from customers to hold for 30 days after the sale. What's great about this method is the customer knows they can always stop payment if they want to, so there is no financial risk to them, and the merchant will normally not have to pay to finance these sales with a bank or commercial factor, but can if they need to.

In various forms, "pay later" has been found to consistently increase the response to a good offer by 300% or more, and profits by 100% or more!

Go to Step 8>>>

Step 8. Develop Offers to Acquire New Customers as Quickly and Easily as Possible

2007-09-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Most businesses earn a substantial amount of their profit from repeat sales to each customer over an extended period of time.

Most companies could also do lot more to eliminate the obstacles that stand in the way of acquiring a new customer faster and easier.

One of the best ways to lower or eliminate the obstacles to doing business with your company, and to get customers into your buying stream that much quicker, is to adopt strategies to acquire customers at a break-even cost, or even a small loss.

For example:

Assume that a new customer will result in an average profit of $50 on their first purchase, plus $450 over the remaining life of their business patronage.

To acquire this $450 as quickly and easily as possible you could conceivably:

1.) Reduce your price by $50.

2.) Offer an extra $50 commission as an incentive to your salespeople.

3.) Offer an additional $50 worth of product for the same price.

4.) Spend an extra $50 more on advertising.

5.) Give all or part of this $50 to charity to encourage more sales.

6.) Some combination of the above.

Point being, to focus on how best to leverage part to all (or even more) of the $50 profit from this first sale to acquire this $450 profit.

More specific examples would include a HVAC contractor offering a $19.95 air-conditioning system tune-up that costs $30 to offer, but results in an average $125 service charge. Or, an automotive repair shop offering a free oil change and 27 point system check-up to new town residents that results in an average of $125 in repairs, and a $2500 life time customer value (LTV).

When you approach your marketing from this perspective, the results can be dramatic.

In the previous example, if you were to successfully adopt a mindset to reach a new goal to acquire 10 more customers a week by forsaking 100% of the initial $50 profit, you would essentially be spending an extra $500 a week to acquire an additional $4500 income stream.

When you compare this to the prospect of holding on to this $50 profit, and maintaining the same level of sales, you can see the enormous potential of this approach.

One of the best ways to implement this strategy is to narrow your focus and commit the bulk of your resources to promoting whatever break-even or small loss-based customer acquisition strategy you decide to pursue.

To demonstrate how this can work, consider the following example.

Back in the mid-'90's America Online (AOL) was a relatively small player compared to CompuServe and Prodigy. CompuServe, owned by H&R Block had over one million subscribers, while Prodigy, owned by Sears, IBM, and Trintex, had over 500,000 subscribers and spent over $20 million a year on advertising. AOL had roughly 300,000 subscribers and annual revenues of $40 million.

All three companies were charging to buy their software.

To compete, AOL decided to test what was considered to be a pretty outrageous idea at the time of giving its disks away for free in computer magazines (the same magazines that both CompuServe and Prodigy were advertising in). AOL soon discovered that for every 100 disks they gave away, 10 people became paying subscribers. Based on these results they embarked on a massive campaign to literally bombard consumers with this free trial offer. From magazine to airline peanut bags, to retail stores, and US Post Office take-one displays, AOL distributed roughly 250 million free disks - almost one for every person in the United States - to grow to over 30 million monthly subscribers, and over $300 million dollars in monthly revenue in a few short years.

What is most important to note is that:

1.) Prior to launching this massive free trial offer, AOL was not really considered to be a serious competitor in the market.

2.) They carefully tested, and then narrowed their focus to accomplishing this one task, and made a huge commitment to consistently implement it.

3.) They literally blew their biggest competitors away to capture a majority of the market.

Go to Step 9>>>

Step 9. Develop Ways to Up-sell Your Customers While Providing A Better End Result

2007-09-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

It may appear contradictory to promote a focus on helping instead of selling, and to promote product up-sells as a way of helping customers.

However, both of these strategies put a customers needs first and will boost sales when done properly.

Here's some great ways to do just that:

1.) Observe what your customers do before they buy your product or service, and see if you can provide that to them. For example, a music instructor selling instruments, or personal trainers selling exercise equipment.

2.) Observe what your customers do with your product after they buy it, and offer to do it for them. For example, caterers printing and sending out invitations, Realtors arranging moving services, doctors offering vitamins and books.

3.) See what customers buy to go with your product and make it available to them. For example, a sporting goods store selling fishing licenses, independent guide services, live bait and boat rentals from a nearby lake.

4.) Ask how you could make a customer's end result more complete, and see if you can provide that for them. For example, Disneyland taking and selling pictures of every group coming down the shoot at the end of the log ride.

5.) Let your customers determine how much they would like to buy from you, or how long they would like a service to automatically continue. For example, a bookseller sending over one hundred books on consignment to libraries that may only request twenty, yet most always end up buying more then they requested.

6.) Offer a larger unit of purchase, from one month to a years supply.

7.) After a customer has decided they want to buy, offer them three basic purchase options with an increasingly larger quantity and better price. For example, photographers offering three different wedding packages.

8.) Consider charging customers by the month, instead of by the hour. For example, a music teacher that went from charging $20 an hour to $65 a month to double her work load from an average of two lessons a month per student to four and sometimes five, to triple her profits.

9.) Target a sales figure for one year and offer a discount to customers that reach it.

10.) Offer your product or service on an ongoing, weekly, daily, monthly sales until further notice, with periodic, automatic billings. One classic example is a company called sockscriptions.com that sells ordinary black dress socks on an annual subscription basis.

11.) Offer three times the average volume for two and one half the price.

12.) Package an annual service with quarterly checkups. For example, an optometrist providing exams alone or exams with an annuall supply of contact lenses and solutions or eyeglasses.

13.) Include a promotional flier with every customer purchase, and make it a point to continually remind them of other products and special offers.

14.) Offer your customers the opportunity to purchase combinations or packages of goods or services to obtain the end result they seek. For example, offering three flashlights instead of one for two and a half times the price.

15.) Offer a set of price breaks for each additional family member, or an extended warranty for less money.

Note: The key point to keep in mind with these ideas is the increased profit per sale, and specifically not what you might be giving up on an individual item. Point being, to focus on the bottom line of how to put more customers and cash in your business by the end of the day.

And, remember news of a good deal will often travel fast, serving to attract even more new customers, and negate any loss of profits you may experience on an individual item basis.

Go to Step 10>>>

Step 10. Use Test Marketing to Maximize Sales

2007-09-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

One of the golden rules of marketing is to continually test the effectiveness of your pricing and other contact points seeking to achieve progressively better results.

There is simply no other way to discover what is going to work best until you test.

And, the results of testing can be dramatic as one headline could out pull another by 100%, or even 1500%.

Even the tiniest change to one word in a headline could lead to a huge difference in results. For example:

Put more money in your pocket was reportedly improved 300% by adding one letter to read "Puts" more money in your pocket
Free Trial Request could out pull Order Form by 200%
One higher price could outsell a lower one by 100% or more

Continuous testing and improvement in your advertising copy is one the fastest and easiest ways to build sales.

Here's some effective ways to get started:

1. Run small, inexpensive tests to generate valuable feedback, and lead to progressively better results in every aspect of your business.

2. Test ad headlines, product packaging, pricing, sales presentations, follow-up offers, product guarantees, voice recordings, and virtually every customer contact point.

3. Make offers and analyze the specific responses, traffic, prospects, and resulting sales.

4. Compute the cost per prospect, cost per sale, average conversion per prospect, average sale and profit per sale against your control.

5. Track results between two or more methods, select the better one, then test again to see how high you can go!

Go to Step 11>>>

Step 11. Develop Multiple Points of Sale

2007-09-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Most small business rely on but a few of the most common, and often most expensive, ways to promote and sell their products or services.

All too often, they simply copy the advertising practices of their competitors, or blindly follow the advice of sales reps (who get paid on a commission of what they sell, regardless of the results of what they sell!) to, for example, place a very similar looking ad right next to their competitors in the yellow pages.

Sadly, billions of dollars are wasted by this practice every year.

John Wanamaker, creator of the department store said, “Half the money I spend on advertising budget is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." However, truth be known, most companies today would be thrilled to waste only half their budget, with more realistic estimates ranging from 75-90 percent, or more!

And the problem with mass-market advertising can only get worse. The internet has taken a huge bite out of the effectiveness of yellow page advertising, as more and more consumers begin their search for products and services online. While newspaper and television rates continue to rise as readership and viewing audience numbers fall. Radio is still a very effective solution, but you have to be very careful how you use it.

Most small businesses know there are better options available, but are too busy reacting to business to take control of their own marketing. Whereas, many others just don't really know what else to do, or where to start.

Regardless, what is most important to note, is that no other business investment offers a higher return then an investment in developing effective marketing systems.

And, it doesn't really matter all that much where you start. As long as you remember to test small, before making any large financial commitments. And, to carefully track the results of any media you choose right from the start.

Marketing is not about developing any magic bullets. It is about doing a number of things well, or well enough. And, continuing to carefully test and track results to develop more effective offers and new sales methods.

Hitting the home run ball with a great sales letter or print ad is definitely something to aspire. But, it's usually the combination and cumulative effect of several effective tactics that will produce the best results.

For example:

Mailing a series of sales letters to your best prospects, followed-up with one or more phone calls
Or running a magazine ad offering a free How-To product report, followed-up with a series of more helpful information to advance a prospect further in the buying sequence to an eventual sale
Or submitting a press release to appropriate media editors, followed-up with a quick phone call and a nice thank you letter

Or creating a landing page to distribute a valuable free report to build an email list of prospects to follow-up and send a monthly email newsletter.

Depending on the market you serve, any one or combination of these tactics can work well. However, the cumulative effect of carefully testing and developing several effective systems will offer the best long-term results.

Another key point is to feature your offer up front. Ideally, the very first thing that any prospect will see. Consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising messages, and, as they say, the only radio station they listen to anymore is WIIFM (What's In It For ME). They want to know exactly what they can expect from any offer, and they want know what it is immediately. They sort their mail over a wastebasket, constantly flip TV and radio channels to avoid commercials, and scan headlines in newspapers and magazines in the blink of an eye. Consciously and subsconsciously we have become a society of skilled professionals when it comes to avoiding advertising messages that don't pack a strong WIIFM.

The faster you can grab the attention of a prospect, the better your chance of actually getting them to receive your offer. Therefore, headlines that immediately present a compelling offer represent one of the best ways to succeed. "Loose 10 pounds in 2 weeks" stands a better chance of grabbing the attention of someone looking to lose weight in a hurry, then a headline presenting the name of a business that nobody cares about and doesn't speak to them in any meaningful way, such as "C Street Nutritional Center".

Here's a few more headlines to demonstrate this point:

"Are You Worried About Your Financial Future?"
"We Invite You To Save Money"
"You're Cordially Invited To Our Sales Event."
"Look Younger Instantly!"
"How to Stop Your Cat from Ripping Your Couch and Carpet Apart."
"We Fix $6 Haircuts!"
"Free Home Buying Report: 12 Steps to Buying Your First Home"
"Slice 20 Years Off Your Age!"
"Why Some Foods ‘Explode’ In Your Stomach."
"The 5 Tech Stocks You Must Own NOW."

If you feature the promise of your offer upfront, you've got a much better chance to grab someone's attention. If you feature your company name, you don't.

The same can be said for using a cleaver line, famous quote, or a joke in a headline - an overwhelming majority of prospects will ignore it, and never give it a second thought!

You also want to tell prospects clearly what they can expect from your offer and, how they will specifically benefit from it (more WIIFM). They need to know what to do, and specifically what action you want them to take - pick up the phone and call, go to a website, come in to a business. When you want them to do so. And, what will happen when they do. For example:

"Cut out this coupon and bring it in to any of our locations any day this week from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Take it to the cashier at the counter to get your free pillow case for just coming in. Then feel free to browse through our new selection of down pillows and mattresses. And be sure to take advantage of these great sale prices, and to get another free pillow case with any $30.00 purchase to give to a friend".

Every offer should also include a deadline. We all tend to wait until the last minute to do all sorts of things, and procrastinate about others. So, it is important whenever possible to try to light a fire under your prospects to get them to take action. People see through phony limits and stuff like that. But, if you state a specific deadline backed by a legitimate 'reason why' to explain this deadline, more will respond in a timely manner. For example:

This free consultation is strictly limited to the first 50 people who respond to this offer because we cannot budget anymore staff time to introduce this new service.
Fire sale! 50 percent off everything in our store because of our recent fire.

You also want to make it as easy as possible to respond and, provide multiple ways to respond. If you have ever tried to order something online only to throw your hands up in the air and forget about it after 15 minutes of total frustration. Or, if you have ever gotten lost in a voice mail loop, you can appreciate why. Remember, there is still a huge number of people that refuse to order anything online, but will gladly pick up the phone to order, so the more preferences you can accommodate the better.

Also, consider emphasizing your better then risk-free guarantee as previously detailed in Step 7.

Most importantly, you must know how to avoid the most common and deadly marketing mistakes. Nightmare stories abound of companies that have leaped into an unknown and untested marketplace. For example, Parade magazine offers to reach an audience that numbers in the millions for even a regional edition. And, the bigger the audience the bigger the potential returns, right? Well, lots of companies look at it that way. Thinking, way not just copy the success of a steady advertiser in Parade like the Franklin Mint? Why not just copy something like one of these ads for our own product? They may calculate they can break even with just 5 orders out of every 10,000 readers, and make a bundle if they can get a measly 10. On the surface it looks like a sure thing, so they spend $50,000 (or whatever) and wait for the money to roll in. Unfortunately, it doesn't and won't. Because, what they fail to appreciate, is all of the testing that has gone into creating a successful ad before it ever hits a magazine like Parade.

Companies like this would be so much better off to test and retest small, inexpensive ads to find out what works, then gradually move into testing the larger circulations, which can ultimately result in the rapid growth they seek - if, and only if, they have a proven winner!

Incidentally, a great way to test is to do what's called an A/B split. A/B split testing means to run two different ads at the same time where one ad represents your control, and the other your test piece. The goal is to test specific variations of your control to see what works best. For example, sending one sales letter to half of your mailing list, and a test piece to the other half of the list with a different headline or price.

A/B split testing works with most any media. And, some newspapers and magazines can even print every other copy with a different ad to see which one pulls best in a live situation.

Direct response ads designed to elicit a specific response and more scientific results are definitely the way to go. Versus image ads that are designed to project a certain image to establish a product brand. Branding is said to result in a top-of-mind awareness that will result in sales once a prospect is in the market for your product or service. Both direct response and image advertising work. However, branding can cost a bundle because it usually takes a lot of impressions to achieve any sort of tangible top-of-mind awareness. And, it can still be a huge gamble for businesses that can afford this practice. For example, how much does it cost to fly the Goodyear blimp and, how many tires does it actually sell? Or, how many Super Bowl ads do you ever remember right after the game?

Again, you should specifically target your offer to the audience that you want to reach. And, quality will out pull quantity almost every time. For example, in the preceding "Loose 10 Pounds in 2 Weeks" headline offer, it would likely cost a whole lot more to send this offer to a highly targeted list of prospects desperately trying to lose weight before their high school reunion. Then it would to send it to a general public list. But, the increased ROI could be 1000% or more!

Whatever, given a firm understanding of both the biggest mistakes to avoid and the fundamentals of crafting effective offers, opportunities abound to develop new points of sale.

If you need ideas, here's a sampling of favorites from A to Z:

Advertising Specialties - Giving away free company calendars, mugs, pens, note pads, or other advertising specialties displaying your company name and logo to your best customers and prospects to get low-cost exposure for up to many years.

Affiliate Marketing - Amazon.com sold over a million Harry Potter books in one day through an army of online affiliates. However, what is perhaps equally impressive is the potential that affiliate marketing offers small business to recruit affiliates to sell both online and off. For example, assume you distribute a home security system direct to consumers online and would like to recruit commissioned sales reps to promote your system door-to-door off line statewide. To accomplish this you could, for example, run a small classified ad in the business opportunity section of your statewide weekly newspaper association recruiting opportunity seekers to download and print-out a product flier from your web site to distribute door-to-door. Which includes a unique web address or affiliate link to track every sale from someone who first clicked on that link to visit your site. And, which can be programmed to pay a sales commission on two tiers or levels deep. Which means the person who signed up to distribute your flier door-to-door will get paid for sales tracked directly to their own affiliate link. And, get paid on the next level of sales made by affiliates who signed-up underneath them to do the same thing.

What is amazing about two-tier affiliate programs is the ability to potentially reach a lot of prospects really fast, and really cheap. For example, assume you have a great product for day care providers and parents of small children. And, assume you contact a website with an email list of 100,000 day cares. And, assume they agree to promote your product as an affiliate to these day care providers on their list. Who, in turn, can print-out and distribute a product flier (with their own affiliate link) to all of their parent clients. Well, you can clearly see the potential of a system like this. Especially, with two-tier affiliate programs on the market that can take care of everything you need for less then $50 a month!

Barter - Bartering your products or services to acquire goods and services at substantial cash-free savings, and to pay for business purchases on deferred interest-free payment terms. As one example, Carnival Cruise Lines started with one ship with a lot of empty cabins to fill, and little or no money to advertise. So, they started a program to barter those empty cabins for Radio, TV, and Newspaper Advertising, which grew to include over 100 US cities in ten years, and eventually the largest cruise line in the world.

Blowout Sales – Creating a good reason to have a "blow-out" event for your business. Such as a customer appreciation day, or an anniversary sale, etc. And, taking one and only one of your most popular items and pricing it ridiculously low (large pizza for $1.99, .25 movie rental, .50 hamburger, etc.) for one day, or part of the day.

Billboards - Traditional billboards are big, and usually costly. However, other economical solutions do exist. For example:

Placing smaller directional boards like "Hungry? Try our .99 Burgers! Next Right =>"
Building a large sign to place in the back of a truck parked alongside a busy street
Painting a large sign on the side of a stationary truck next to the road
Painting bright neon signs in empty storefront windows
Towing a large sign behind a bicycle along a busy street

Point being, to be on the lookout for as much free and low-cost outdoor advertising opportunities as you can find!

Bounce-back Certificates - Commonly following up new customer sales by immediately presenting your customer with another special certificate or coupon offer to bring them back into your business for a second time.

Brochures - Designing a brochure to explain the customer benefits of your product/service.

Buddy Passes - Commonly getting members of a club or service business to distribute a special pass that is good for a few introductory visits. Buddy passes can be modified to work for most any type of business, but work especially well for service-oriented businesses such as health clubs, hair salons, warehouse clubs, karate schools, etc. And, when combined with a contest and prizes for whoever brings in the most sales. Buddy passes can be distributed by business employees or customers, but should be distributed by one or the other, and not both at the same time.

Building Signs – Leasing the side of a big building with high visibility and traffic to paint a big sign, or project a night image advertising your business.

Bumper Stickers - Commonly promoting a benefit-laden bumper sticker for your business. Alternatively, paying customers to wear one on their car. For example, recruiting some of your best customers, or advertising for 100 people, to put one on their car for three months for $10. For example:

"Alice's Cafe - 3rd and James - That's Where I'm Going For Strawberry Cheesecake - How About You?
"Enter To Win A FREE iPOD! Visit ElectronicsNW.com Today!"

Business Cards - Commonly given out, then routinely tossed in a droor, lost, or thrown away. Alternatively, adding promotional messages and offers to one or both sides of your card to turn it into an effective direct response ad. Joe Girard, the world's greatest car salesman, used to go to Detroit Lions football games to sit in the upper deck and, whenever the Lions scored he would throw business cards off the top deck onto the expensive seats below. The cards offered a discount on a new car that was only good the following day. Or, consider the Insurance agent who cross-promoted with a local restaurateur. The owner of the restaurant paid for the printing of the insurance agent’s business cards. The cards doubled as a 20% discount coupon for the restaurant and also had a map to the restaurant on the reverse side. The insurance agent gave his cards out at every opportunity. And the cards ended up sitting around in many of the businesses for a long time because they were seen as a valuable discount coupon rather than just another salesman’s business card. Or, the karate instructor who handed out business cards at his son's baseball game that said "First Lesson free with this card." A pet store owner might give out business cards that have an offer for a free goldfish, or 10% off a purchase over $100. You could also approach people like your barber or hairstylist and offer them $1 for every card they pass out to their customers, or a percentage of each sale that comes from a card they pass out. Or, team up with a local non-profit to do the same thing.

Business Tips Marketing - Keeping in regular contact with your prospects and customers is one of the best marketing strategies available to any small business. And, sending short articles about a topic related to your product or service is an ideal way to do so. For example, if you are an accountant you could offer a Tip Sheet like "12 Simple Techniques To Increase Profit." A Financial Adviser could write, "15 Common Mistakes People Make When Choosing Their Pension." Email, postcards, or a monthly print newsletter, are all viable delivery methods.

Car Signs - Commonly placing signs or painted logos on your company vehicle(s). Alternatively, paying other people to paint their cars with your sign or logo, or coming up with ingenious new signs or logos.

Card Decks - Commonly, a shrink-wrapped deck of offers primarily mailed from business to business. Alternatively, most any type of co-operative or shared advertising opportunity. Such as getting a number of complimentary, but non-competitive businesses to join you in a mailing to new town residents, or giving a free deck to each new hotel guest, or day care parents, or any number of other highly targeted prospects. Whereby, you put the deal together and charge the other businesses enough to allow you to advertise for free, or even a small profit!

Charity Tie-ins - Such as offering your products or services as a prize for a local charity raffle, volunteering your time or facilities, sponsoring events or awards, donating a percentage of sales on a certain date or certain time of day for customers that pay full price, offering a special rebate to customers that redeem their ticket-to-event from a local non-profit event that you sponsored, creating a coupon booklet of special offers to your own products or services for non-profits members to sell.

Classified Ads - Advertising in the classified advertising section of your local community newspaper, school newspaper, weekly shopper, or trade magazines, can be a great way to generate qualified leads. Like so may other forms of advertising, the key to success comes from using a benefit laden headline. Providing a free hotline to call to receive a valuable free report is also an exceptional idea.

Cross Promotions - Offering to promote the products and services of another company in return for promoting your own. For example, a used clothing store and a dry cleaner providing discount coupons to each others customers, or a restaurant offering free meals to gas station employees who pass out dinner coupons to customers that buy gas, or a credit union offering a special one free month of rent gift certificate to its members on behalf of a local apartment complex.

Co-operative Advertising - Such as requesting co-operative ad dollars from suppliers that stand to benefit from your success, charging a group of non-competitive advertisers for part to all of the cost to run a direct mailing or newspaper display ad promoting a group of stores in your part of town.

Contests - Promoting a contest or drawing available at your business, neighboring business locations, and/or your web site designed to attract individuals who fit your best customer profile, or new ones that you would like to attract.

Customer Comment Cards – Offering a small bribe for your customers to fill out a short form asking them open-ended questions about your products or services, and requesting them to provide the name and address of people who might also enjoy receiving a special offer from your business. Entering the information collected into an efficient database to merge with pre-formatted letters including the name of the customer who referred them, to send to each referral prospect. For example, a restaurant offering free dessert to customer who fill it out, and a 2 for 1 certificate to send to each referral prospect they provide.

Cell Phone/Cards – Sending a new cell phone or free calling card to a prospect that is hard to reach. Set it up to play a short message from your business before they call out.

Direct Mail - Considering every business contact you make where adding one or more letters or postcards directly before or after each contact could improve sales. Ranking each contact in terms of priority, and beginning to test small mailings to see what a difference it can make.

Display Ad Posters - Essentially copying and enlarging a successful newspaper or magazine ad to re-use as a flyer or larger poster.

Door Hangers - Hanging ads on door knobs can be most effective, especially when combined with other incentives. For example, paying a local nonprofit five cents for each one that they distribute, or a bonus or commission based on how many are actually redeemed.

eBay Auctions - Using “eBay Local Trading” to reach more and more consumers that shop eBay for local products and services. Promoting regular and clearance sale items via auction listings. Using your About Me page to drive more visitors to your web site or store location. Running inexpensive product category ads to expand your reach and take advantage of the huge amount of site traffic.

Elevator Pitch - Crafting a short and simple phrase that presents the essence of your value to your customers in response to the question: "What do you do?" The key to this approach is to "Sell the sizzle, not the steak" by promoting the benefits of what a customer stands to gain. For example, "I help small business to quickly acquire more customers at the lowest possible cost", instead of "I am a marketing consultant."

One way to come up with your own pitch is to imagine riding an elevator next to two people discussing the biggest problem you help customers to solve. Then, imagine one of them expressing how much they wish they could find somebody to help them solve this problem. At this point you tap this person on the shoulder to say, "Excuse me, but I help clients to _____ (solve this problem).

The beauty of this approach is how it can define the value of what you have to offer in a manner which also enables you to also follow-up with more open-ended questions.

Another excellent idea is to imagine the same scenario. And, having a drip campaign consisting of a series of free articles or reports lined up in advance for this prospect to automatically receive via email or direct mail. By presenting them with, for example, this free offer on the back of a business card right after you deliver your elevator pitch.

Email Autoresponders - Creating and sending multiple emails to prospects and customers on a scheduled basis that you define. For example, a bank or mortgage broker offering a free 6-part report, "How to finance a new home or refinance an existing one and save $15,000 over the life of your mortgage". For prospects to receive every other day for 12 days by sharing their email address on your web site, or sending a blank email (no subject) to your autoresponder address.

Employee Benefit or VIP Cards - Distributing special cards to the employees of a particular business or group of businesses offering a special deal. Such as 10% off for 90 days, or a number of specific offers from one company, or a number of offers from a whole group of companies. For example, a Downtown Shoppers Discount Card sent to employees that work within a downtown corridor. You can put together your own card and offer, or one for a group of companies which allows you to advertise for free.

Exotic Picture Postcards - Giving your customers a picture postcard from, for example, Las Vegas, with a headline that reads, "Don't Gamble When You Need _____." Or, one from Disneyland that reads, "Don't Mickey Mouse Around When You Need_____."

Extraordinary Service – Coming up with something completely unexpected to surprise and delight your customers. For example, the owner of a lawn mowing service painting or re-painting the mailbox or street address on the curb or front steps of each new account. Something so completely unexpected his customers go out of there way to tell their friends and neighbors, to the point where it became his trademark and only source of new business.

Fishbowl Contests - Offering a business card drawing to customers when they visit your store or office by placing a fishbowl on your counter. Anybody who comes in can place their business card in there for a chance to win a prize, and to join your mail or email list.

Formal Referral Systems - Rewarding your best customers for each person they refer to your business. For example, providing special referral gift certificates, coupons or buddy passes for them to pass out to friends and relatives. Or, requesting the name and address of prospects from your customers to send a free gift. The best prospect for any business is one that has essentially been pre-sold and referred by an existing satisfied customer. And, when you consider that if each one of your existing customers were to refer 2 new customers a year, your business would grow at a rate of 200 percent per year (minus your attrition rate), you can appreciate what an important role formal referral systems should play in every business.

Free Directory Assistance Advertising - Telephone directory assistance has been around forever, happily dinging consumers to look up numbers for them to the tune of about 8 billion dollars a year. Then along comes a service like 1-800-FREE411 offering the same thing for free. Only catch is you have to listen to a 15 second commercial. But, what is incredible is that 15 second commercial can be for your company. And, you can set it up to play only when somebody requests the number for one of your competitors. And, you can set it up for that hot prospect to connect directly with you instead. Which is about as close as it gets to buying a license to steal. Only problem is if your competition is savvy, they can use it first to steal your very best customers from you.

Free Service or Report - Developing a free service, seminar, clinic, or free report, closely related to what you are selling, to attract the highest quality prospects to your business with the type of information they may require to help convert them to paying customers.

Free Publicity - Sending out press releases to newspapers and other media to announce news regarding your business. The key is to present it as news, even if it isn't exactly news. For example, a headline of "College Money Crisis Not Necessary" and factual 'reason why' article that can be twisted to look like news.

Flyer - Simple flyers can be used in a number of cost-effective and creative ways - passing out, posting on local bulletin boards, placing on store counters, inserting into packages or newspapers, offering an affiliate sales commission for people to download and print out from your web site to distribute as you suggest.

Guest Speaking Engagements - Making yourself available to speak to business and civic organizations about your area of expertise, from which to pass out contact information and make special offers to all attendees.

Internet Marketing - Includes tactics such as:

Optimizing your web site on the main search engines
Linking to and from, and running text ads on key industry directory sites, and other complimentary web sites
Running pay-per-click advertising, such as Google Adwords and Yahoo Overture, allowing you to bid on specific keywords for search engine placement
Running text ads in email newsletters. Sending your own email newsletter to prospects and customers
Creating your own blog
Participating in newsgroups and forums
Offering a sale's commission to drive visitors to your site via your own affiliate program
Adding an e-mail signature file to all your email correspondence
Sponsoring local non-profit web sites

Joint Venture - Such as offering a commission or fee for companies to endorse a special offer from your company to their own customers. Seeking out special offers from other companies to periodically endorse to your own customers to create a new hidden source of income. Looking for ways to develop other seemingly hidden joint venture opportunities. For example, to pay for the cost of buying video holders for a local video rental in exchange for advertising on the back of each holder. Or, paying for the cost to compile a database of the video store customers, in return for being able to mail a special DVD offer to them. Or, offering the manager of a local pizza parlor a commission to let you tape your business flyer on top of every pizza box they deliver.

Old, Inactive Customers - Contacting old, inactive customers who may have stopped doing business with you for no particular reason. Communicating your concern for their well being, inquiring if anything is wrong, and making them a special offer to regain their business such as:

"I miss you. In fact, I miss you so much I'll give you a _____ as my free gift
if you just come into our store this week to say hello".

Local Internet Search - Consumer behavior has changed dramatically with more and more people searching online first to look for local businesses. More than 6 Billion online searches are conducted each month, and roughly 63 % of all internet users perform a local search every month. Thus, making it easier for local consumers to find your company online should be part of most every business marketing. In smaller cities it is really cheap to buy those clicks. In larger cities it can be more expensive and should be used with other optimization techniques. Either way it is becoming much more of a necessity. One of the keys to success is to promote a benefit laden local headline and offer that links directly to a special local landing page for that offer. For example, a restaurant headline and offer that links to a coupon page to print out and bring in, or simply mention when you order.

Loyalty Rewards Cards - Offering customers special discounts, privileges, and incentives based on their purchase history to help boost repeat sales. And, which can also be used to capture valuable customer information.

Membership Cards - Membership cards are a great way for organizations, boards, clubs, and associations to put their information into the hands of their members. They also offer the ability to track data such as expiration dates, activities, or balances due. With bar codes that keep personal information accessible and confidential. Costco and Sam's Club are two prime examples.

Niche Marketing - Birds of a feather flock together, and niche marketing is all about taking advantage of the fact that people do too! It essentially involves boring down into a market to identify and target a more narrow audience or niche to serve. For example, an auto repair shop promoting a special School Teacher tune-up, or a clothing store holding a private AARP appreciation night, or an accountant promoting a Restaurant accounting package, or a Christian singles dating site. Point being, to create offers that appeal specifically to members of a particular group or demographic. And, to become known for serving that particular niche.

Newspaper Advertising – Creating attention-grabbing headlines and compelling direct response offers for newsreaders to respond. Small businesses are often sold newspaper ads that offer a nicely designed image ad with your company name as a headline and maybe your picture. And, told to "get your name out there and give it some time to work". Problem is, this can be very expensive compared to many other alternatives. It is much harder to track the results of an image ad. And, chances are not enough prospects will ever read it to get anything better then marginal results. Image ads are quick and easy to create, while effective direct response ads take a lot more time and skill to produce. But, if you are going to spend that kind of money you should have an ad that works. And, know that one of the most successful devices you could add to any newspaper ad is a coupon.

Participating in Local Parades – For example, renting a flat-bed truck to sponsor and host a local non-profit, or creating a float and putting a big banner on the side of it.

Point of Purchase Displays - Designing a point of purchase display for your product.

Plastic Gift Cards - Durable and convenient plastic gift cards that provide better tracking and control then traditional paper gift certificates. And, which allow you to keep 100% of the gift sales because customers must use the card until the given amount is depleted!

Premiums - Offering a special complimentary product or service as a sales incentive. For example, a running shoe store giving a free six-week health club membership away to their customers with each pair of shoes. Or, a bookstore giving a free audio CD from an interview with the author of new book, for each book purchased at a personal book signing. Or, a timeshare resort offering a restaurant certificate to prospective buyers. Or, a dry cleaner offering a gold-colored clothes hanger with every $25 purchase.

Proposal Marketing - Essentially involves establishing or re-writing sales contracts and proposals in a manner that both leads and affirms the outcome a prospective customers is seeking from a particular product or service, to close more sales.

Radio – Promoting your products or services via radio ad campaigns is likely the most cost-effective local mass-advertising media. Tips to improve your bottom line include negoiating on the basis you are looking for one station buy (to deal with only one station), most likely avoiding the number one (most expensive) station, concentrating more commercials to dominate a shorter time period or particular timeslot, negoiating for live announcer tags (product plugs), and providing your products for on-air giveaways.

Radio Talk Shows - Being a guest speaker on radio talk shows, or better yet, hosting your own, as many local stations are eager to create new programs for their audience.

Sandwich Boards - Commonly placing a sidewalk sign outside your store or office, or hiring someone to pace up and down the street near your store. Alternatively, compelling prospects to call a 24 telephone hotline, or visit your web site landing page, to obtain a valuable free report.

Self-Produced Audio/Video CD’s - Educating prospects about your products or services by sending them a free audio or video CD to build the type of knowledge and trust that will lead them to favor you with their business. Thousands, if not millions of products are sold every day via 30-minute TV videos, and with the affordable technology on the market, the opportunity exists for small businesses to do the same.

Sponsor a Half Court Shot - During half-time or breaks at a local basketball game. Awarding the winner a gift certificate to, for example, a local movie and restaurant. And, commonly requesting movie theatre and restaurant to offset the cost.

Sports Venue Contests – Sponsoring, for example, a contest on a local radio station to give away free passes to watch a professional or college game.

Surveys - Surveys offer a great way to generate leads, or to help you to decide from among a wide variety of products or services which ones to promote and sell. The whole purpose of a survey is to simply ask prospects what they are interested in, then sell them what they have just told you they want.

T-Shirts – For example, sponsoring the t-shirts for a local 5k or 10k race, and hiring a couple of kids to tote a banner around with your company’s name on it. Studies indicate that one t-shirt worn by one person in an average-sized city can be seen by over 100,000 people in its lifetime. Who knows how accurate those statistics really are, but it is possible for 10 high quality t-shirts given to right people to reach one million people in just a few years.

Take-One Boxes and Contest-Entry Boxes - From gym memberships to vacation packages, all kinds of product and service leads can be generated for follow-up via take-one and contest-entry boxes placed in businesses. For example, a restaurant placing ten boxes in a circle of businesses surrounding it promoting a weekend getaway, then mailing every entry a special 2 for 1 certificate with a small copy of their menu included.

Teleconferences - also known as teleseminars are fast becoming one of the most valuable strategies to quickly becoming known as an expert in your field without ever having to leave office or home office.

Telemarketing - Develop a good plan and script to follow-up direct mailings to qualified prospects, or to call ahead of, or just after, a specific sales contact. The key is to develop a strong enough benefit statement to get prospects to ask you to go forward with your presentation. For example, "Hello, I specialize in teaching small businesses how to advertise, promote and increase sales without spending any money," to get them to say, "You're kidding! How do you do that?"

Telephone Hotlines – Capturing the name and address of prospects to follow-up as part of a new marketing or advertising campaign, or to play back a pre-recorded educational or sales message, and/or transfer them to a live person after listening to a message. For example, if you offer a pre-recorded message and a toll free number for prospects to call and to receive free report by mail.

Telephone Inquiry Sheets - Providing receptionists and people that answer the phone in your business with a sheet of survey questions and answers to help them avoid surprises. And, to take control of the conversation and lead callers to setting appointments, offering their name and address, or whatever the particular objective may be.

Testimonial Marketing - Testimonials from your clients and customers are your single most powerful sales tool. Testimonials provide independent, third-party verification of your claims in ways that none of your own "talking" can do. The best time to ask for a testimonial is when your customer is most pleased with your business, and some of the best questions to ask, and testimonials to gather, are ones that answer the objections that you may have listed in developing your better then risk-free guarantee.

Often, the best testimonials can be simple photographs or letters. For example, one story that comes to mind is the car salesman who covers the walls of his sales cubicle with dated pictures of his customers proudly posing next to their new car. Right next to photographs of every other car they, or their kids, or their neighbors, or their friends have ever bought from him. Another is the sales rep for a weight-loss business that carries a life-size poster of herself taken when she was forty five pounds heavier, prior to committing to the program she now sells for a living. And, the lawyer who strips his office waiting area of magazines, coffee, and any other comforts, but leaves a big three-ring binder full of client testimonial letters to read in front of each chair.

Thank-you Notecards - Getting a pile of cards and envelopes, and at the beginning (or end) of each day writing a short three or four line personal thank note to just 5 people. Tom Hopkins, renouned international sales trainer, credits this simple technique for turning his real estate business into a 100% by-referral-only success in just 3 years.

Ticket-to-Event Premiums- Can take the form of a simple card or flyer, to a booklet of special offers from one or more businesses and sponsors, given as an incentive to help promoters sell more tickets to an event. More commonly used at trade shows, but they can be used for most any type of event. For example, an ice cream parlor offering a .25 cent rebate on a high school dance ticket. Or, a pizza parlor offering a free pizza if the local NBA team scores 120 points and wins. Or, a local home and garden show sponsoring a free restaurant appetizer. Or, a local 4-H group selling a coupon flyer outside of a fairgrounds for $2 that includes a $2 discount to the fair and additonal discounts to several food vendors inside.

Trailer Signs - Buying and putting a new coat of paint on an old trailer, and posting a huge sign on the side or top of it in a highly visible location.

Voice Broadcasting - Sending personalized reminders, invitations, and/or verbal coupons directly to your existing customers voice mail before or after a direct mailing, or as a separate offer.

Webinar - Essentially, an online or virtual seminar which allows attendees to login, and to call-in to follow along from the comfort of their office or home.

Write Articles - Writing and submitting articles in your area of expertise to newspapers and other sources (such as article banks online) of benefit to their readers. Including contact information at the end of each article.

Yellow Pages - In many product and service categories (such auto body repair or painting, rental services, florists, attorneys, and contractors) the yellow pages are the primary marketing influence on the consumer. If your business operates in one these categories, an effective direct response yellow page ad should receive serious consideration. Along with a clear understanding that mistakes are definately costly!

Go to Step 12>>>

Step 12. Follow-up and Communicate With Your Customers and Prospects

2007-09-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

One of the costliest marketing mistakes made by a majority of businesses is they fail to follow-up and communicate enough with their best customers and prospects.

Studies have shown that it can take an average of five contacts to convert a prospect to a new customer. And, in some cases, up to fifty or more. For example, one of the more successful gardening supply stores online derives most sales from subscribers to its email newsletter. They send roughly one newsletter a week, and the average time that it takes for a new list subscriber to place their first order with them is just over one year!

On the flip side, studies show that 68% of all customers that leave a business do so because they were never contacted again by them, or for reasons that can only be attributed to an attitude of indifference. In other words, they simply did not feel appreciated!

When you consider one of fastest and easiest ways for any business to double it's sales and profits is to reduce the number of customers they lose every year (the Harvard Business Review once reported that companies could increase profits by up to 85% simply by decreasing customer defections by 5%!) you begin to appreciate the dramatic results that can be achieved by simply helping your customers to feel more appreciated!

And, with all of the extraordinary tools on the market today to help you keep in touch with your customers, helping them to feel more appreciated is one of the easiest and most affordable problems to correct. (Especially when you consider that it is at least 8 times easier to sell an existing client then a new one) .

Here's a few ideas to consider to help you get started:

1. Capture your customer information in an efficient database. You can start with a program like MS Access or Excel.

2. List your customers from active to inactive, and by type of product, frequency and size of purchase.

3. Determine how to contact customers in each category, what you need to create, set-up, or manage to contact them, and who to contact first.

4. Get started on a regular basis to immediately reduce buyers remorse, reinforce customer satisfaction, and generate repeat customer sales and referrals by:

Sending postcards or letters about items and news that might interest them.

Sending useful information in a newsletter.

Surprising them with a gift certificate or bonus offer.

Surprising them by remembering their birthday or anniversary.

Sending them a short thank you note in your own handwriting.

Rewarding them with a frequent buyer program card.

Some combination of the above.