Small Business Marketing Tips, what about asking me to return?

What do these three quotes have in common?

1. “But Paul, I don’t want to bother them.”
2. “But Paul, I don’t have the time.”
3. “But Paul, it’s too expensive and they buy from me anyway.”

They are the reasons business owners and sales people give to me for not keeping in touch with their clients.

It’s been proven time and again that the easiest client to sell a product or service to is an existing or past client. It’s also proven that they are the best source of referrals and testimonials. That said, what are you doing to keep in touch with your clients?

Do you:

1. Capture all client names?
2. Follow up with clients to thank them for their business?
3. Keep in touch with phone calls, emails, newsletters, greeting cards?
4. Ask for referrals and have a special offer, discount or gift for anybody who gives you one?
5. Ask for testimonials and get permission to use them in your marketing materials?

If not, start now. If you don’t know how, get in touch with me because I already have these systems designed and can have you trained and using them in a matter of days.

Waiting and delaying is no different than holding the door open for your competition to come in and get the business away from you. One way or another, the level of success in your business can hinge on the outcome.

Cheap Marketing in a Down Economy

I’m constantly amazed at the number of business owners who tell me they don’t contact their clients because they don’t want to bother them or because, “Nobody wants to hear about _____ (fill in the blank product or service).

If they never wanted to hear anything about it, why did they buy it in the first place? Why do people assume nobody wants to hear from them? I think a lot of it is psychological and related to insecurities and fears they may have related to having to “sell themselves.”

Do you have the “Nobody wants to hear from me syndrome?” If so, you need to get over it. Unless you are a real pain in the neck and are bothersome, the issue is not in your client’s mind, it’s in yours.

Just think about it for a minute… Say you buy something or use a companies services and the owner or sales rep calls you and asks if you were satisfied with the purchase. Do you suddenly freak out and scream, “Why are you bothering me?”

Probably not. You tell them what you thought and thank them for calling.

Now imagine this scenario… This same business sends you a card every few months to thank you for your business and asks you to come back. Once again, do you freak out and scream, “THIS DUDE HAS A LOT OF NERVE FOR BOTHERING ME!!!”

Probably not. You look at the card and offer and either keep it or throw it away. One thing that’s likely is that you have a positive attitude about them.

Your clients are the same. If you do a good job and ask them to do business again, it’s likely they’ll be back. If you ignore them because you are afraid of bothering them, there’s a good chance you won’t have the chance to bother them again.

Something to think about!

Small Business Marketing Tips – Most Businesses are Making Money In “This Awful Economy”

I gave a marketing seminar this morning to a group of about 30 business owners this morning that was sponsored by the local Small Business Development Center.  We asked the question, “How many of your businesses are doing well?”  Two thirds of them raised their hands.

Of the hands that didn’t go up, a couple of them were just starting out so nearly everyone in attendance was doing well (or faked it to be in the crowd).  Think about it, the companies that are doing well were at a marketing seminar, learning how to do better!  I should have invited a couple of reporters but I wasn’t planning on sharing any bad news so they probably would have ignored my invite.

Bloomberg reported this morning that retail sales actually ROSE 1% last month!  I wonder if the lead-in story on the national news will cover it tonight.  I don’t watch the news so I guess I’ll miss it but I just did a quick look at abcnewscnncbsnew.coms and none of them mentioned it.

Now, I don’t doubt that a lot of industries are hurting, BIG TIME but it shows there is opportunity.  The worst thing to cut in a recession, marketing, is the first thing way too many companies cut in a recession.  Then their sales suck and they say it’s the economy.

If I were to quit marketing, my sales would suck as well. However, over the past several months, I’ve busted my butt to get new clients and it’s paying off, big time.  A recession is acutally good for my business.  Smart companies realize they need to do smart marketing so they call people like me.

That’s a good note to end this post on.  If you want to increase your sales and are ready to do what it takes, call someone like me. Actually, strike that last remark.  Don’t call someone like me, call me. 513-829-6368.

Writing copy or ads? Don’t be boring!

I think one of the biggest small business marketing mistakes I see is ng copy.  Sales letters, client communications, brochures, web sites and other media are too frequently written in “business speak.”  You know what I mean.  The formal, dry and boring copy that seems to have the goal of putting the reader to sleep.

Look back to your days in school (high school or college) and think of your old history, English and other textbooks. I always thought how amazing it was that they were able to take so many exciting topics and make them so incredibly boring.

I am a student of Revolutionary War history. I think that is in part due to growing up in Connecticut, which was in the cradle of the history of the United States.

Of course we studied state and US history. There were loads of textbooks that took events like the writing of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and made them incredibly dry. There were other books, like Johnny Tremain, that fictionalized the period and made them exciting.

Why was Johnny Tremain exciting?

Well, it was a story, written in easy to understand English, that brought us into the period and the lives of the characters. That is what you want to think of as you are writing copy. What story can you tell that will capture the attention of a prospect and interest them in your product or service.

Remember, the goal is to catch the attention of a potential prospect, engage them, get them interested enough to take action. If nobody takes action, the ad is an expense, not an investment and you should always look at your marketing as an investment! If it is about building your brand, enjoy the wait!

So, how do you start? As marketing guru Dan Kennedy says, “Write like ya talk.” Start by having a conversation with your prospect. Tell them how you understand their problems and pain. Relate to them on an emotional level and show them how your product will improve their lives.

Tell them in the language that they use and understand. Most business sales letters never get read because the first paragraph is so blah that the reader has no interest in reading any further. Take out some of the letters or ads you have written. Read them aloud into a recorder and play them back.

How do they sound? Is it interesting? Be honest with yourself! If you knew nothing about yourself or your product, would you be interested? Be honest!

I”ll write more about this topic in future posts but I do recommend you start thinking about what you are saying and writing. Remember, the purpose is to get your message to your reader, not to get an “A” in grammar and sentence structure from your teacher or professor!

What are you talking about?

Are you writing copy for a newsletter, blog, web site or sales letters?  Do you write your own brochures or business letters?  Do you ever wonder if your message is getting through?  When you proofread your materials, do you stop to wonder if it is even interesting?

What’s my point?  Okay, bear with me and I’ll share a small business marketing tip that can make a huge difference in response rates in the response rate to everything that you send out.  It is a secret of top copywriters and has meant a big difference in my income and that of my clients.

To quote Dan Kennedy, “Write like ya talk.”

That’s right, pretend you are having a conversation with your prospects and clients.  Forget that you are writing anything related to business.  Just pretend you are talking and let it flow like you would in a conversation.  Can’t think of what to write?  Then start talking into a recorder, play it back and take notes about what you’re saying.

Summarize your notes and begin writing.  When you’re done, pull out the recorder and read what you wrote and play it back.  Is it interesting?  Ask someone else to read it aloud to you.  What’s it sound like?  Is it interesting?  Does it catch your attention?  Does it compel you to learn more about your product or service?

If it’s not interesting to you, what makes you think someone else will want to read it?

What’s the lesson here?  If your intention is to communicate an idea to a stranger (which is what you are doing with a brochure, letter or web site) then you want to make it easy to read.  It’s often hard to be interesting when using formal business language.  Try to be conversational when you write and more people will read what you write.

I’ll be writing a lot more about this topic in different blog posts.  If you find what I am writing to be interesting, then you want to do a couple of things.  Learn from my style and try to see how you can weave it into what you are writing.

The other thing to do is to be sure you are signed up for my Marketing Moments e-zine so you get my e-course and the other great bonuses I send to my readers.  You can subscribe by completing the form below.  Have any comments or ideas about what I’m writing?  Then go ahead and comment on my posts. I’d like to get a community going here with input from a lot of great minds like yours!

Understand the business that you are in!

1. You are in the marketing business.  Everything you do
ultimately affects your marketing.
2. Your business or industry is not different.
3. You must build a marketing system using several different
marketing strategies.

Understand the business that you are in.  Regardless of the product
or service that you sell, you are in the business of marketing that
product or service.  Marketing brings you clients and until you
have clients you don’t have a business.  You may have a store, a
profession, a practice, a factory or whatever else your product it
but without clients, you are still in the idea phase.

Management guru Peter Drucker tells us Marketing and Innovation
make money, everything else is a cost.  When you understand you are
in the marketing business, you realize everything about your
business is part of your marketing.  They are either taking you
closer to more sales and profits or moving you away from them.

One of the biggest business marketing mistakes that prevents
businesses from succeeding in the marketing business is to think
their business is “different” and that they are somehow “special.”
They think their profession or industry is different and that the
marketing rules don’t apply to them.  If you happen to have this
mindset, let me ask you these questions:  Are your customers
people?  Do they have emotions?  Do they make emotional decisions.
Do they want to be taken care of and get quality products and
services?  Do they want a better life for themselves, their
families and businesses?   Do they want to be happy and have
fulfilling lives?

If your clients are people and have the above traits, guess what?
Your business is not “different.”  What if your clients are
businesses?  Well, the client may be a business but the the buying
decisions are made by people who are making them based on their
emotions and feelings about the products.  I have personally been
involved in and made buying decisions from as small as the ad
specialty pens to give to clients to multi-million dollar shipments
manufactured overseas and shipped in on containers.  I made those
buying decisions as a person, not as a business.

These business owners also think their industry is different and
they have standards to adhere to.  I am not referring to
professional standards, codes of conduct and behavior or ethics.
These, of course are valuable  standards that may protect the
public and the integrity of your industry.  I’m talking about
marketing standards.  These are not official but have become the
norm.

After many years of experience, I am still astounded by the number
of times an owner shows me a web site, ad or brochure of their
competitors and tell me they want their materials to look the same.
I ask if they are different or better than the competition and the
answer is always a resounding, “Of course!”  I then ask, “If you
are so much better, why do you want to look the same and have the
same message?”

The lesson is this:  Everything you do that potentially impacts
your clients and prospects is part of your marketing.  Your
products, your staff, your policies, your building, your restrooms
and the list is nearly endless.

You must have a marketing system built on multiple pillars (or
strategies).    The exact strategies vary but the key is to use
several.  At the top of the list are strategies to maximize the
value of a client (which we will address in a later chapter) and to
build a long-term relationship with them.  Direct mail, media
advertising, sales representatives, email, fax, a web site,
telemarketing, referals, joint ventures and alliances networking
are all examples.   The key is to never rely on any specific one
strategy because if it fails for any reason, you have problems.