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!

Have you been drawn to the Dark Side of the Web?

The Dark Side of your site? Is Paul on another Rock and Roll theme using Pink Floyd to make a point? Well, those of you that know me remember my penchant for weaving album themes into my notes but this time, it’s all about YOUR web site and how easy it is to read. We’re talking about readability.

You can have the best copy writers in the world write your copy but if the font and background colors or graphics distract from your sales or marketing message, you will lose potential prospects by the thousands.

If your site is a commercial site promoting your business, you must make it easy for your prospect to read. Your goal is not to be creative, cute or pretty. The goal is to interest a prospect in your product or service so you can get them interested enough to take a step towards buying. That said, every element of the site or ad should be created with that specific goal in mind.

What is the Dark Side? Well, it is called reverse printing, which is white or other light color print on a dark background. You may think it looks very cool but remember, the goal is not to look cool, it is to generate sales.

I have seen many sites with a great message destroyed by reverse printing. A facebook friend recently directed me to a site with red type on a purple background. I literally could not read a word of it. You see, like 10% of males, I am color-blind. I see colors but certain combinations are difficult to see. It was like trying to understand a Grateful Dead album cover. I was a prospect for the service but I clicked away because I couldn’t read it.

The force can be with you

Think of a few of the major players on the internet. Take a minute to look at Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Amazon or other top sites.

How many are written with a reverse type font? None.

Now, go to your library and pull out any book. How many use black paper and white ink? None.

Now, look at your newspapers and magazines. How many use black paper and white ink? None.

Do you notice a common thread here? Dark print on a light background is easy to read. If it is hard to read, a lot of your prospects will click away.

Light print on a dark background is hard to read.

Let’s return to the goal of your site. If it is to generate revenue, make it easy for your audience to read your message. If your web designer tells you otherwise, get a new designer. If your ad agency tells you otherwise, get a new agency.

You could have Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, Yanik Silver and the spirit of Gary Halbert collaborate to create the most powerful sales letter in history. If it is hard to read because of the selection of type and ink, you just wasted a fortune.

If you are compelled to use reverse type, at least test it against a non-reverse control. Track how much time a visitor spends on the page. Track sign-ups to your newsletter. If the reverse pulls better for your niche, by all means stick with it. However, I think you’ll find the Dark Side is limiting your sales.

Now Luke, defeat the Dark Side. Let the Force be with you and… make it easy for the everybody in the Empire to read. Dark print on a light background is the way of the Jedi. Our message must spread across the galaxy and the citizens must not struggle to read it. Only you can help spread the message!

Oh no!!! Imperial Storm Troopers are outside of my office, I must find Master Yoda. He has a message I must get to the resistance and I am out of white paper and black ink. Curses!!! I can only hope that the Staples on the planet Alderon is open at this late hour!

Wish me luck and may the force be with you!

Signed,
Jedi Master Paul Flood

PS -  A lot of people disagree with me on this point and say there are situations that call for reverse printing or graphic intensive sites.  Others say brand consistency is important.  I look at a web site as a marketing investment.  As such, it’s purpose is to increase sales.

My small business clients hire me to make them money, not build a brand so I look at a site as any other marketing piece and ask the question, “Will this lead to a sale or a prospect wanting to buy the product?”

In print ads, reverse printing reduces readability and sales.  Statistics and studies have proven this repeatedly.  I’m applying the same rules and will continue to advise against reverse until research proves otherwise.

Can you hear me now?

As a hobby, I am a woodworker.  I have learned to build fine furniture, jewelry boxes and a wide variety of other wood projects. I’ve even done some custom commission work and made decent money for doing so.  Someday I’ll get some pictures of my work on my site so you can take a look at my work.

Yesterday, I was down in my shop working on a shelf for the patio and took a look at my tools and other things in the shop and wondered which were the most valuable.  I actually have several thousand dollars worth of woodworking machinery and hand tools.  I’m pretty proud of my collection.  I couldn’t decide between the top two so it ended up being a tie for first place.

What would you guess I chose?  Was it my cabinet saw, router, planer, workbench or any of my hand tools?    My cabinet saw is definitely what I use them most and if you were to survey woodworkers about the most valuable tool, the cabinet saw would win, hands down.   What But that’s not the case for me.
The two items have a combined value of $30.  One is my safety glasses and the other are my hearing protectors.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I believe the two most important selling and marketing tools are closely related to my choice of shop tools.  In sales and marketing, your eyes and ears are the most important tools.

A 1972 UCLA study concluded that the words we say account for 7% of our overall communication!  The other 93% of our communication is non-verbal and consist of body language and voice quality.  Now you can see why I chose the tools that protect my eyes and ears!

Your eyes allow you to read the body language and emotions of your customer.  You can see if you are connecting with them or if you are boring them.  Are they engaged with you or just being polite?   Your ears allow you to hear voice inflection and tone.

Can you read or have you ever studied body language?  Crossed arms and legs reveal the other person is closed to your comments or you.  A person leaning back with arms behind the head is saying “Oh really, prove it!” Someone leaning forward is engaged and interested in what you are saying.

Entire books have been written about the topic and can help you, not only in sales and marketing, but also in personal relationships.

Understanding body language can mean a huge difference in your sales.  The scope of this issue goes way beyond this newsletter but if you would like to know about some of my recommended resources, give me a call or send me an email.

We’ve all heard the cliche that God gave us one mouth and two ears so we can listen twice as much as we talk.  Well, there’s a reason it’s a cliche – it’s true, particularly in sales. You will only know what benefits to stress when you understand your client’s needs.  How can you propose a solution if you’ve done all of the talking?

Listening is an art.  A key listening skill is to avoid formulating a response until you finish listening to what your client is saying.  Notice I said listening, not hearing.  Ask your client or prospect to clarify and elaborate be sure you are answering the question they asked.  Avoid interrupting, unless it enhances or clarifies the topic.

Think of how frustrating it is for you when someone interrupts you in the middle of a sentence or answers your question with an irrelevant answer.

Remember the E.F. Hutton commercial years ago?  Their USP was that when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen, inferring their advice was more valuable than you could get elsewhere.  Just think about that, their sales soared because they said YOU should listen to THEM!

Dean Whitter countered with Dean Whitter grows one client at a time, meaning they took the time to listen and take care of you before they moved on to the next client.

As you look to improve your selling skills and learn new methodologies or new concepts, remember that the things that can make the biggest difference is how effectively you read the body language of your client, how effectively you use your own body language and finally, how well you listen.

Rock & Roll Marketing Lessons From The Who

See Me
……Feel Me
…………Touch Me
…………………Heal Me

• The place: London England
• The band: The Who
• The story: Tommy
• The year: 1969

In 1969, The Who released Tommy

The first rock opera. The story of a young deaf, dumb and blind boy named Tommy. It was banned by the BBC and several US radio stations because of its dark theme and references to religion, child abuse and drugs.

The album was a smash hit and the chorus “See Me, Feel Me, Touch, Me Heal Me” became part of our culture. Tommy was released to “My Generation” but continues to resonate with the generations that have followed me and my fellow baby boomers. When I saw The Who, chills ran up and down my spine. For me, it was not a concert but an emotional and almost spiritual experience.

Tommy was written by Pete Townsend, who poured his emotions and life story lives onto a sheet of paper and then expressed through his music. He and many other artists may say that they don’t write the music and songs, it just comes out of them. It’s as if they were simply storing something that HAD to be expressed through lyrics and music.

What does all this have to do with marketing?

When you’re writing ads, scripts, copy or sales letters, you want to connect emotionally with your prospect. Your prospect and client have a want or need and your product or service is what they will fill it for them.

See Me

It’s not about you. It’s about your prospect and their needs. You want to see them so you can be communicating with one person at a time.

Feel Me

You want to understand their needs so you can connect on an emotional level, one person at a time. Write to one person, not to “a niche.” A niche is not buying from you, a person is.

Touch Me

Use all the senses in your communications. Connect with your prospect. Reach out and touch them with your words and pictures.

Heal Me

Show how your product or service solves their problem and will heal the pain they have.

It’s a Boy Mrs. Walker, It’s a Boy

When you communicate to your prospects, do so in language and imagery that reaches out directly to you specific target market. Give them reasons why they will want to business with you.

There’s a Doctor I’ve Found Who Can Cure the Boy

Use testimonials and social proof to show your client that you are credible and your product does what you claim. If you are telling me I’m going to be healed or be able to live my dreams because of what you are offering, then prove it.

Go to the Mirror Boy

Before you put your message out to the world, read it aloud, show it to others and play it back to yourself. Does it make sense? Is your message clear? Are you talking about yourself or your prospect?

We’re not Gonna Take It!

Be emotional and use words carefully but don’t manipulate your prospect with a bunch of empty hype. Your words must ring true and your product must have the value and worth you claim it does. If you’re selling a dream and asking someone to part with their hard-earned money, then you owe it to them to be the real deal.

We Won’t Get Fooled Again (OK – Different album but a fit with my story)

In the age of the internet and social media, word gets around very quickly. If you are full of empty promises and hype, if you see others as money in your pocket instead of as individuals with lives, desires and needs you can fulfill, you will never connect and rarely have repeat business. You’ll be seen as an empty promise, forever doomed to the end of days wondering where your next customer is coming from. You may be living in Tommy’s Holiday Camp – but remember his disciples tore it down.

Tommy Can You Hear Me?

Great music and art are the emotions of an artist, often telling us epic tales with a few words or images that are forever burned into our psyche. The lesson of my story here is for you to take a moment to think of your marketing messages and materials. Are you moving your prospect using emotional triggers that connect, on a one-to-one level so they want to hear and listen to your message? Music, images, pictures, words all help you make the connection. Combined artistically, they are marketing gold.

Pinball Wizard… From afar you’ll see me, I’m a sensation…

Connect with your client. Provide phenomenal service and products and you can be the next marketing sensation, known near and far as someone we want to know and do business with. You’ll be the Pinball Wizard of your industry.

Long Live Rock!

Obama and McCain Grilled By Media for Giving Away Free Money!

Free money???

Well, if you’re a marketer, the campaigns are giving away the next best thing… Free marketing lessons!

As crazy as it sounds, the next U.S. President, whether it’s Obama or McCain,is planning to give you free marketing  lessons. He is also going to have some of the highest paid and most talented direct response talents in the country show you how to appeal to your prospects strongest buying emotions.

He will also show you some very effective social media marketing strategies.

“Oh really Paul?”  “How’s that going to happen?”

No seriously. Read this post for the complete scoop. It’s really some pretty good stuff!

Well, it’s election time again in the U.S. You folks Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and are also hearing a lot about it.

The candidates are bringing out the big guns so it’s a good time to talk the marketing of a President.

There’s a lot YOU can learn from this year’s election that
can show you the path to selling more of your products and services.

Isn’t it kind of strange that the most prestigious job in the U.S. comes down to one thing –

MARKETING

If you took marketing in college or read some books, they tell you about the four P’s – product, price, promotion and place (or distribution). The academics make it a bit more difficult to understand than necessary.

I need to make it a bit simpler.  You see, marketing is about selecting markets for your service, get the attention of a prospect, turn them into a client and then service the heck out of them so they buy from you and tell otheres to do so as well.

Bottom line:  Study a market and appeal to it so they buy from you.  That’s what marketing is about. I’ll be a lot of A lot of people who teach marketing don’t even get that.

If you’re in business, You are a marketer.  Who is in the market for your products or services?  Find out what’s important to them, tell them how your product is the solution is the answer and get them to buy, and do so frequently.

Let’s get back to the election.

The candidates are products being sold to diffferent markets.  What are the markets?

Hunters, gays, lesbians, Christians, Muslims, men, women, soldiers, artists, factory workers, office workers, millionaires, the elderly, the retired, the about to retire.

You will hear each candidtate talk directly to each of these groups and make a promise about how he is going to make their life better.

The promise is the headline: “I’ll take on big Oil.”  “I’ll end the Iraq war.”  “I’ll give all working people $1,000.”  “I’ll stop global warming!”  “I’ll support Israel!”  “I’ll open talks with Iran!”

Each of these sound bites is a carefully crafted headline written to appeal to a deep emotion.  Whether you like it or not, it works!  Think of how frustrating it is to watch a campaign commercial.  Sometimes you want to scream at the TV “YOU IDIOT!!!”  and other times you want to yell out the window “Finally somebody GETS IT!!!”

What they’re doing is appealing to powerful emotions.  Think of your reaction.  Whether you like or dislike the message, as a marketer you can learn from it.  You see, the candidates and campaigns are real good at hitting your emotions with a powerful PROMISE of a BIG BENEFIT.

The media picks it up and spends days analyzing and condemning the statement.   What’s that?  Free PUBLICITY to a target market.

Do you really think they are running around the country wearing holes in their shoes because they like PTA meetings, hot dogs and factories?

NO!  They do it to get free publicity.  If they come to your town, it’s in the headlines and is the lead story on the local news.  That’s called PR!  If they make some ridiculous promise or major goof, the comment is on the national media!

They also use all the possible media:  TV,radio, direct mail, telephones, the internet, billboards and newspaper.

They even offer joint ventures, strategic alliances and affilitiate programs.  “Elect me and I’ll send pork barrel projects out your way or I may even get you some cushy job!”

What’s the free marketing lesson?

Identify your market, target your group with the right product and message.  Make a bold promise and use free media to get it circulated.  Follow up and keep them happy.

Now that you can see how the people who are living and dying by the marketing message, can you see how you should be doing it as well?

This is Paul Flood and I approved this message.

P.S. In you want a crash course in marketing and promotions, take a look at this http://tinyurl.com/6plgf3.  I’m using it myself and am blown away by the program!

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.

You are in the Marketing Business

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?”  What I really want to say is “What the hell are you thinking?”

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, referrals, 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.

Can meat loaf spoil your advertising?

As I watch the Olympics, I love watching the ads because my brain never leaves the marketing mode. I am constantly amazed at the technology used, the creativity and the frequent waste of money by many advertisers. How often do you watch an ad and have no idea what product or company is being sold?

Advertising is always a gamble. You can never be sure an ad will work until it runs. However, you can increase likelihood of good results by learning a marketing lesson from one of the largest companies in the world. It’s a great lesson what not to do for small business owners who are thinking about using media advertising.

Meat Loaf in Advertising

I have some observations on an ad that I really enjoyed watching. It features rock icon Meat Loaf (born Michael Lee Aday)? His album Bat Out of Hell, released in 1977, has sold close to 40,000,000 copies and was on the charts for over 9 years. He is the guy playing the dad in this commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7MG-FU43a4.

You see Meat Loaf as a dad whose son is singing a ballad to him to get him a cell phone and promising that he won’t run up the minutes. I personally like Meat Loaf and his music a real lot and I think the commercial is pretty cool with a very catchy tune that pulls some great lyrics and riffs from Meat Loaf’s song Paradise By The Dashboard Light.

What the heck is this commercial about?

The other afternoon, I heard the commercial and started singing the tune in my head and realized I had seen it several times and could not think of the company or brand of the phone! I know this was a pretty pricey production because in addition to Meat Loaf, Tiffany is in the commercial and they are definitely fairly expensive talent to hire.

I did an informal survey of friends and also asked subscribers to my Marketing Moments e-zine if they recalled the ad, which they did, and if they recalled the product, which they didn’t. People recalled the chorus of the song “I’ll love you to the end of time” but not Go Phone.

After all of the effort and money that went into the commercial, I couldn’t relate a brand or a product to the ad! I kept an eye out for the next airing and saw it was for the AT&T Go Phone. Think of all the resources that went into creating the spot. That doesn’t even include the price of prime time airings of the spots.

Why did they waste so much money?

They got a lot of things right like using celebrity endorsements, a good tune and an entertaining production. But it really made me wonder, why couldn’t I think of the company or the product? What was the point of the ad? We can probably assume it was to “build the brand” of the phone but it failed miserably in building anything I would even remember. That is the core message for you, brands don’t make you money, customers do.

What could they have done differently? What would you have done, particularly if you had some real creative ad folks in front of you doing a big sell job? Would you select this type of ad or an ad that has less glitz but does a better job of selling your product.

How could this ad be improved?

To improve the ad, you would focus more on the product instead of the production. For another, you would want to add a special offer with a deadline to buy the phone or direct consumers to a Web site to download the video and a special offer coupon.

What if they included a toll free number, 1-800-MeatLoaf, to call and get a special offer and find out how to download the song to iTunes or even the ring-tone? What about a contest where the winner wins a dinner with Meat Loaf? The marketing folks could track response and the ROI on the ad. Other winners could get the phone and a Bat Out of Hell CD.

Creativity was more important than response

But instead, the focus was all on creativity and entertainment. I’d bet the ad will even win an award but I still think an ad should be written to sell your products now, not build a brand or win awards. My guess is that you can’t afford Meat Loaf in your ads but remember, when you do advertise, remember it’s about making money, not building your brand.

Brands don’t put food on the table, sales do. When you spend money on marketing, you should work with someone who’s goal is to make you money, not just earn a commission by selling you creativity and air time.

Your marketing should do three things
1. Get clients
2. Retain clients
3. Service clients

Go ahead and think about branding but in the context of the above three rules. However, make the strength of your brand be a result of your reputation of providing phenomenal products and services. Build your brand using marketing that creates sales, leads, referrals and testimonials. It is just as costly to get your name out there with a compelling offer and reason for a client to buy from you now as it is to only focus on getting your name out there with no results for your investment.

The bottom line difference is the ROI. The Meat Loaf commercial offers no way to measure the ROI. Your small businesses can’t afford to throw scarce marketing dollars up against the wall and guess at the ROI. It may seem obvious but the essence of this marketing tip is that your ads should deliver sales or leads. Any benefits beyond those (like branding) are icing on the cake.

Change the way you look at advertising

Here is a powerful tip when it comes to a brand-building: Change the way you view your ads. See them as an investment instead of as an expense. If your financial planner came to you with an idea to spend $10,000 on an investment, you’d think, “What’s the potential return?” because she is your financial planner.

Use the same standards when you are talking to marketing, advertising and media reps. Ask the question: “What is my projected return and how does it compare to other marketing investments?” If they tell you your return is x-thousands of impressions, ask them which impression will put money in your pocket? How much of your target market are they reaching. In the case of the Meat Loaf ad, there’s an impression, but of what and to whom?

If they have to explain what it means to you, your prospect won’t get it either!
If an agency or media rep gives you an advertising concept and has to explain what it means, then your prospects won’t get it either. If they tell you it will get your name out there, lock your checkbook in the safe.

Are media ads one of your small business marketing tools? If so, make sure they make you money and that you can measure results. If the results are good, build on your success. If they are poor, then make changes but don’t ever fall into the trap of thinking it was a success because you got your name out there! Your name doesn’t generate buying emotions or desires, your benefits do (Speaking of buying emotions, I strongly recommend the book Motivational Marketing by Robert Imbraile as a resource on buying emotions).

Now, back to the headline – Meat Loaf can be a great way to advertise!

How would you use Meat Loaf in your marketing? What do you think about the ad? Am I off base with my analysis? Should it have run like it was? Whichever way you feel, I hope I got you thinking a bit differently about the purpose of media marketing.

Marketing has changed from one-to-many to One-to-One

Over the last several years, there’s been a fundamental shift in marketing and advertising.  The growth of
advertising has come to a stop as the mass-market has splintered into hundreds, and thousands of smaller niche  markets.

Mass-market advertising has lost impact as savvy business owners have implemented better strategies for communicating to their prospects, instead of the entire market.

In the 60’s and 70’s, Budweiser was the King of Beers, Alka-Seltzer was the cure-all for stomach ailments and the  Pepsi Generation chose Pepsi as their soft-drink of choice.  Maxwell House coffee was good to last drop and if you wanted, McDonald’s was your main choice.  While these brands still exist,each of the mass-markets they appealed to became a myriad of sub-markets.

The micro-brews appeal to the different tastes of beer drinkers.  There are dozens of cures for stomach ailments,  depending on your symptoms.  There are soft-drinks for every taste, diet and activity level.  The coffee options changed from regular or decaf to a taste for every palate and fast food has gone from burgers and fries to healthy sandwiches and a myriad of ethnic choices.

Society, our economy and consumer preferences have changed dramatically.  Cable TV,the internet and other technologies seem to give us limitless choices and they are forever expanding.
The list of changes is endless and growing daily.  Unfortunately, many small (and large) businesses follow the old model of marketing to the masses, paying to communicate to everybody, rather than their niche clientele.   They are frustrated with wasting their dollars on marketing that doesn’t deliver profits.

What does this mean to you and your business?  In a word – OPPORTUNITY!  Countless businesses and entrepreneurs are making incredible profits by adopting the marketing strategies we implement for our clients.

They look at their businesses, their clients and themselves in a new way.  Their clients aren’t a single
transaction.  They see a lifetime relationship that’s worth thousands, even tens of thousands in profits  and referrals.

In this Small Business Marketing Guide we will divulge the insider secrets and strategies our clients pay us handsomely to teach them and implement in their businesses.  As you read through these posts, I’m pretty sure a light bulb will flash in your head as you realize the incredible power of mymarketing system and how it can easily work in your business.

Welcome to The Small Business Marketing Guide

Small business marketing seems to be a mystery to so many business owners.  You open your door or “hang out your shingle” and wait for clients, customers or patients to flock to you.  Things are slow and you
start to wonder what is happening.

Don’t they know you have the best products, a degree from a great school, a certification and incredible credentials?  You know your better than the rest and you can really help people.  Now – welcome to
the real world!

People don’t care what you do or how great you are.  They care about what you will do for them.  You need to let them know and you need to get them to pay you for your product or service.  The thing that makes that happen is marketing.

In school they taught the 4 P’s of marketing.  Product, price, place and promotion are the core elements of marketing.  Knowing this is about as helpful to your growth as what you learned in accounting – debits on the left and credits on the right.  What they should have taught you in school is that “everything that you do in your business is marketing.”

There is no other business discipline that affects every area of your business as your marketing.
Unless you have paying customers, you only have an idea.  The longer it takes to get them, the more stressed out you become.  You buy books and tapes, you run ads and send our post cards hoping to get clients.  The bills pile up and the stress increases.

I’m here to help you, the small business owner, by teaching you the concepts behind my Hidden Marketing Assets System.  You will learn the key fundamental strategies as well as loads of proven  tools, tips and
ideas to help you build a marketing system that will bring you the profits you have so long pursued.

I hope you learn and I hope to learn from you.  Please comment on my posts and also feel free to share your experiences with others.   If I can help you succeed, I will have succeeded.  Tell others about this
blog and be sure to help spread the word that there is hope!

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