Copywriting Shortcuts from Jay Abraham

This video gives a priceless copywriting tip from the legendary marketer Jay Abraham.  Many of us in the marketing, copywriting and adversiting business know there’s a goldmine of information in ads, sales letters and other media written by other copywriters.

We have massive swipe files (c0llections of ads) stored away to use when we work on a project. For me, my swipe file is often gives me the mental boost I need to get through writer’s block and crank out a great letter or ad.  In this video,jay shares a great strategy and a free resource for copy help.  You GOTTA see this one!  Enjoy…

Google Friend Connect Additional Features to Leverage Your Social Networking

I’ve been spending a lot of time expanding my knowledge of social media and social networking.  As I mentioned in a couple of earlier posts, Google has some pretty cool tools in the Google Friend Connect products.

The latest tool I’ve added is the social bar, which is what you see at the bottom of my pages.  At first I was thinking, “Is this going to take away from the look or be distracting?”  Then I figured the benefits would far outweigh any minor design issues.  After all, you are visiting me because of my content, not for my artistic abilities.

Another thing is at the purpose of my blog is to tell you about the different marketing tools available.  While I haven’t completely figured out how all the intricacies of Google Friend Connect, I know for a fact that Google is setting a lot of web standards. In addition, social media is definitely the wave of the future and if there are free tools that put me at the forefront, I’m going to use them and learn how to profit from them as quickly as possible.

The toobar I just added is at the bottom of my pages.  It’s very easy to install.  For instructions, go to Google Friend Connect and follow the directions.

Have fun!

Is Google Friend Connect Worthwhile?

Is Google Friend Connect worthwhile?  Well, it depends if any of the following are attractive to you:

• Having some valuable and pretty cool features added to your site
• Having additional valuable content and applications on yoru site.
• Having your website potentially linked to thousands of THOUSANDS of sites on the web
• Having your visitors, users and subscribers invite THEIR friends from all over the world to your site. You can tap into their contact lists, their social networks, their clients and their friends.  When a friend recommends your site, it is an implied endorsement of you.
• Being one of the first to add a valuable application to your site
• Having your site go viral

Well, you get all of this with Google Friend Connect.  It’s free, easy to install and is definitely the newest must have feature for your site or blog.  This is VERY new and few people outside of the social media gurus are aware of it.  By the way, it’s also free!

Why am I telling you about it?  Well, just so you can get on board and take advantage of the benefits while it’s new and hot.  Of course, you want to add me to your network and invite me as a friend as well.

To learn more, go here – http://www.google.com/friendconnect

Spread the word!

Using Google Friend Connect To Build Your Business

Google Friend Connect is a pretty cool new application from Google that allows you to add social networking features to your site.  It is a quick and easy way to add a pretty cool social tool to your sites. The technology is new, it’s hot and, in my opinion,  it’s a must have.

Look at the home page of this blog, the Small Business Marketing Guide.  See the box with friends listed?  That is where my visitors and friends are adding their google profile to my blog site.  With this application or gadget, as Google calls it, friends can connect  and communicate across sites.

Friends can join and visit each other as well as read and post comments together.  Google makes the installation pretty simple.  You do need some basic knowledge about using ftp to post code to your site but you don’t need to be a techie to make it happen.

You do need a Google account and profile to take advantage of the service.  If  you have a Google account, first be sure that you are connected with me on the Small Business Marketing Guide.

Once you have your account, go to Google Friend Connect and follow the step-by-step instructions to add it to your site or blog.  After you’re done, send me an email with your site and ask me to connect with you.

Should You be on Facebook? Special Event February 18, 2009!

I get a lot of questions from my clients about social media.  The most common questions are about being on  facebook and LinkedIn. For the types of companies I typically work with, the answer is, “Absolutely.”

Social networking is revolutionizing the internet and how a lot of people are doing business.  What social media delivers that was lacking in the earlier days of the internet is the creation of communities of “Friends.” We like to do business with people we trust, people like us.  We love to buy but hate to be sold. We also prefer to buy from friends or friends of friends (those we trust).

Getting involved in social media is actually quite simple and there are a lot of tips and “secrets”  to building a social media presence.  Making money involves more than simply building a “presence.” You want to approach it strategically. How do you do that?

Learn from someone who has been successful, follow their model and implement their system.  When it comes to social media marketing, there are few people who can match the expertise of Brian Campbell,  a friend I met on facebook.  Few people have had the success Brian has had. Those of you who have been following me for any length of time know I am stingy with my endorsements but I have one for you today that you have to follow!

You have the chance to learn Brian Campbell’s Social Media Marketing System.

I strongly recommend you rush over to www.socialmediasource.com and start learning from the master!

I hop you will be there with me when Brian launches
Social Media Mania on
Wednesday, February 18 at 8:00 am.

A Twenty-Four hour event I know I will not miss!

Top Small Business Marketing Tips – Spend Less to Make More

With the economy slowing, business owners are contacting me more frequently asking what they can do that is is new or different to spur on their business and turn things around.

“Paul, do you think I need a web site?”

“Should I advertise on TV or the radio?”

“Should I join BNI or another networking group?”

“I need something really kick-ass to get people buying more.”

These are all things that I am hearing.  Whether the economy is slow or not doesn’t impact my response.  It still comes down to the basics:

1. Set yourself apart from your competition and give your prospects and clients a good reason to buy from you now with a powerful Unique Selling Proposition. Here’s mine – I’ll increase your sales 20% or more in as little as 90 days, guaranteed.  That’s unique and it gets me business.
2. Be sure that every staff member who is in contact with a client understands basic selling skills. Each of them must kn0w and be given incentive to cross-sell and up-sell.  Focus on increasing the value of the transaction.  I’ve increased client sales by over 10% in 30 days just teaching this one!
3. Get a database program and develop a relationship with your clients.  Communicate with them monthly and ask them to buy from you again.  Ask for testimonials and referrals. Have a strategy to work the referrals.  Add a newsletter and start sending birthday cards and other greeting cards.  This can easily result in another 10% increase in your sales.
4. Get a few joint venture partners with whom you can share lists and market to each others clients.  You endorse them and they endorse you.  It’s that simple. Last year, I made over $24,000 in sales from joint venture referrals.  My total cost was less than $400.  If you aren’t doing joint ventures, you ar leaving a fortune on the table.

There you go.  4 strategies that can easily increase your sales by 25% or more this year. The key is to act now.  It’s smart marketing that can make you an absolute fortune and will save you an absolute fortune in advertising fees.

The reason I guarantee my work is that I implement the above 4 marketing pillars in my clients.  If you are wondering if I can do the same in your business, be sure to drop me an email or give me a call at 513-829-6368.

Small business marketing tips to profit in ANY economy

Quote from Mr. or Mrs. faltering business owner, “Oh no, the economy is “bad” I better not buy anything. I better cut back on my marketing. I think I should save my money just in case the “bad” economy cuts into my cash flow.”

Does this sound familiar? Let’s move forward 6 months and ask Mr. or Mrs. faltering (soon to be failing) business owner, “How’s business?” They will reply “Oh this economy is killing me. Sales are way down. I’m not getting any new customers and I hear from fewer old customers than I used to.”

I say, “Hmmm, Mr. Owner lets look at a few other factors. Last year in the first quarter, you spent $10,000 on marketing and this year, $1,500. Last year, you sent your newsletter out monthly and this year, you cut it from the budget. Last year, you conducted sales training every week but this year, you decided the trainer was too expensive. Last year, you sent every client a thank you card for visiting the store and also sent out birthday cards. This year, you cut it from the budget.

Now, let’s look for the underlying cause of your sales shortfall. Because the media telling you the economy is bad and people are not buying, you slashed your budget on strategies that brought you clients, sales and profits.”

Hey, I’m a realist! I’m aware that the economy is faltering but the worst thing you can do is to stop marketing. If you are going to cut marketing, cut the marketing that is not delivering a measurable, positive return. If you don’t know your return, you need to calculate it. Drop useless image advertising that doesn’t deliver clients or prospects.

Learn and implement direct response marketing. That’s the marketing you see that has an offer and tells the prospect to act. If it’s good, you get a response and make money on it. If it’s not good, nothing happens and you lose money on it. Set a system to measure and track results. Determine your ROI and remember client lifetime value. If you break-even or lose on the initial transaction but know the client will be highly profitable over the next year, that’s good!

The lesson here is simple. A down economy is a bad reason to cut good marketing and a good reason to cut bad marketing!

The strangest secret by Earl Nightingale

Shortly after graduating from college in 1982, my brother-in-law gave me a cassette tape to listen to. It was by a man, I’d not heard of before. His name, Earl Nightingale. I quickly became a raving fan of the man and subscribed to his monthly cassette audio program, Insight.

He taught me about goal setting and introduced me to a concept that has since guided my life. Earl called it the strangest secret. Since then, I’ve heard the secret expressed in many ways but this is still my favorite. Enjoy the video

Small Business Marketing to Up Your Profits in a Down Economy with Marketing Systems

One of the single biggest marketing problems I see with small businesses is the lack of a marketing system. Every thing they do is tactical and is rarely planned, budgeted, tracked or measured.

A media rep comes into the business and says, “You need my product to get clients.” TV, radio, newspaper, Yellow Pages or an agency. The thing is that they all have compelling stories and loads of statistics on impressions, market awareness, branding and loads of other marketing terms. Which do you choose?

Most businesses are in a “trial” mode and will keep trying whatever is sold to them, hoping that one of them will be the magis bullet. Worse yet, they continue running an ad without knowing if it is generating the results they need. They think, “Hey, I’m getting my name out there.” When somebody needs me, they’ll give me a ring.

As the spider webs gather on the phone, the owner gets frustrated, the ad rep tells them they need to run a larger ad or run it longer. That’s a bunch of garbage. If you had an investment that was tanking and your broker told you to wait or invest more, you’d find a new broker.

Before you advertise, you need to think of how you are going to systematize your marketing. The advantage of the marketing system is that you can actually plan on results. Wouldn’t it be nice to know if you implement a certain element of your marketing system, you will most likely make a fairly predictable amount of profit?

Companies all over the world are doing it everyday. The owner knows what business is coming in and where it is coming from. Once I set up a system in a business and test my materials, the owner knows that if they send out a certain mailing to their clients, they will make a predictable return. If they run a particular ad with a particular offer, they know it will make them a predictable amount of money.

You can do the same in your business. In my previous posts, I talked about leverage. Now we are into the systems and the types of systems that you can build in your business. I make money and get referrals through the success of my clients, not due to the size or frequency of their media buys. Stick with me and I you will learn the basic elements of implementing my powerful and guaranteed Hidden Asset Marketing System in your business.

Small Business Marketing to Up Your Profits in a Down Economy

In my last post, I introduced the concept of LEVERAGE and the impact it will have on your business when you understand and integrate the concept into EVERYTHING you do. I wrote about leveraging every contact and individual in your business and network for to maximize the benefit to them and the profits to you.

This post is about leveraging and systematizing communications. When you prepare any client or prospect communication, think beyond using it for that individual and instead create it as a template for a communication you will be using repeatedly. Whether it is a thank you note, collection letter, sales letter or proposal letter, you can use it again. Create it as a mail merge document so you can maximize efficiency.

Does your staff send out personal communications? They should be sending out the same materials so you have control of the message and content as well as to improve their efficiency. Think of it like this: Do you want an employee who is having a bad day or is planning on leaving you to be writing to your clients and prospects without your oversight?

Do you want a sales rep who should be in front of clients and prospects to be spending hours or days preparing communications and proposals? Remember that it is human nature to find activities to fill the time available and many feel as long as they are doing something, anything, they are working, irregardless if it is actually productive.

Do you have an online or offline newsletter, autoresponder, ezine, blog, Web site or participate in social marketing sites like facebook? If so, you have massive opportunities to leverage and create a system in which one communication can be used for each of the marketing tactics.

If you properly structure all of these communications, you will have the materials required to prepare special reports to use as an incentive to get clients to sign up for your newsletter. If you combine the special reports, you have the material for a book or information product!

The majority of the materials and posts you read that I write are either from a special report that I’ve already written or are being compiled for a future report and book.

Leveraging and systematizing your marketing and business are so important that I will devote a lot of posts and notes to them. After all, I need materials for my book, don’t I?

Next Page »