MarketingMoment

Let’s say you’ve just spent the best part of your month creating and fine-tuning your core marketing message. How do you REALLY know whether it is likely to be of any interest to your target market? The research you will have carried out (oh, you didn’t — OK, straight back to the start! Do not pass ‘Go’ and do not collect £200!) is inextricably linked, but so is testing. But there is another, much simpler way to gauge its success . . . just ask yourself: “Would it be possible for anyone to say the opposite of this?”

Here’s an example of what I am getting at:

* Your message: “We firmly believe in always putting our clients first.”

* The opposite: “We don’t firmly believe in always putting our clients first.”

* Conclusion: No one would say the opposite (unless they were intent on committing business suicide!). So this gives a fairly good indication that your message is no-goer. Apart from being meaningless, it isn’t going to rub well with your prospective clients.

OK, let’s try a different message:

* Your message: “Our support team is ready to help you at all times.” 

* The opposite: “Our help desk closes at 11pm.”

* Conclusion: You could certainly say that your help desk isn’t always open. Not everyone can provide a 24/7 service. So your message is worth trying out. 

Of course, the more specific you are, the better the message. And the more you show how you differ from the competition, the greater the chances of your marketing’s success.

Try it and see — and DO let me know of any successes!

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include.

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us     

You may have heard that “direct mail is dead.” Especially in the world of Web 2.0. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Quick statistic: According to Target Marketing’s survey on direct response, 34% of respondents said direct mail delivers the healthiest ROI for customer acquisition. (Email came in at a respectable 24%.)

Does that mean that YOU should use direct mail as a client acquisition marketing method? Not necessarily. 

• If you don’t yet have a product or defined service or indeed anything to promote, then direct mail is unlikely to benefit you right now. 
• It’s certainly not right for you if you don’t have a defined target audience.
• If you think of spending £10–£20 on postage as an expense, rather than an investment, then direct mail is not for you.
• If you want to develop a strong referral campaign, then direct mail might prove to be very beneficial.
• If you’re launching a new publication, then direct mail can be the springboard to its success.
• If you’re thinking of reaching your customers because your emails keep bouncing, then direct mail is likely to work for you.
• If you can see the benefit of combining offline promotion with online advertising, then direct mail will be right up your street. 

To get the most out of your direct mail campaign, I’d certainly suggest reading the works of David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and Claude Hopkins. Many of their books will be available at your local library. You can borrow and review them without spending a penny.

Another way to gain F.R.E.E. insight into the aspects of success in direct-response marketing and other strong marketing performers is to sign up to receive my newsletter Communiqué for Success!

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us   

Holding a competition is a great marketing tool, giving you:

• brand recognition
• positioning in the marketplace
• goodwill in the community
• publicity
• the ability to fish for product name ideas
• leads
• new customers and/or sales

It needn’t be complicated or costly to set up, either.

If you’re looking to build your customer base, then a simple ’send-in-and-win’ tear-off reply coupon is sufficient. You can do the same via email (”Send the answer to the following question to contest@yourdomain.com”). 

You can also get ideas for a new product or service. For example one of my colleagues is giving away $1,000 (approx £550) for the person to come up with the best title for his forthcoming book. This is all being done via social media. 

If you’re a life coach with a local client base, you can ask your clients and prospects to choose their best restaurant, doctor, supermarket checkout assistant, bus driver, milkman or postman and give away six months of coaching to the winner. 

If you’re a gardener, hold a “name that tree” competition, and then donate a tree or two to the local park in both your names. You can do the same if you’re a carpenter, only donate a bench instead… 

The ideas are endless. You just need to get a bit creative. 

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us  

I heard on the news (BBC) this morning that supermarkets are spending more on advertising and less on branding, in an attempt to lure shoppers and defeat the credit-crunch fallout.

Does this mean that you should follow suit?

Advertising – whether it’s advertising in magazines, newspapers, the trade press or online – CAN be yield a good return on business. But it’s generally more appropriate for larger brands with the advertising budget to match their size.

That said, advertising DOES work, and it can work for you . . . providing you advertise the right things to the right people in the right places and in the right way.  

If you do wish to dip your toe in the advertising arena, then I would suggest spending your budget very carefully to ensure you receive maximum returns for your expenditure.  

My step-by-step, lead-generation system High-Powered Ads that Generate Sales reveals where to place your ad – and where NOT to advertise – as well as how to triple the results of ANY ad you write . . . guaranteed! For more information, point your browser to: http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#HPA 

But back to the question of whether you should ditch your branding efforts. I think not. Branding is crucial to any business – at any time and regardless of the state of the economy.

It can reinforce your image so that you stay in your existing customers mind, as well as grab the curiosity of potential new customers. 

Central to effective branding is the concept of consistency. No matter what you do, you absolutely MUST be consistent with your core marketing message. That’s because you want your business image and brand to be easily recognisable, and you want your prospects to conclude that your company is a confident, credible and stable one.

To really strengthen your brand image, as well as being consistent, you should be educating your potential customers about WHY they should buy your product or service (no one likes to be sold, right?). The use of case studies and testimonials is a great way to achieve this. You’ll find plenty of other ideas in posts here on MarketingMoment.

So what about you? How are you educating your customers to increase sales?

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include.

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us  

Perfect for testing an idea before making a commitment, a mini or condensed version of the standard marketing plan can prove valuable in a number of ways. Not least to analyse the year before, review where you are now and focus on what you wish to achieve over the next six months.

Start by heading over to this handy page where you can download a variety of one-page marketing plan templates – F.R.E.E. of charge.

By putting it in writing, you will identify tactics and strategies to help you with your business goals. 

Psssst . . . Not sure where to start? As well as offering worksheets and home-study tools, I can give you profit-multiplying advice and pointers on things you can do straight away to attract new business with my Powerfully Effective Marketing sessions.  

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include.

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us     

The subject line is one of THE most powerful weapons in your internet-marketing arsenal. Yet it’s one of the most overlooked. So how do you get your emails recognised, opened AND acted upon? Easy, sign up to my newsletter and you’ll receive a ‘hidden’ link to the article I ran on this very topic in last week’s issue.

================================ 
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include at the end.

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us        

Top web advertisers and marketers favour search and email marketing, according to a recent survey carried out by industry leaders ad:tech and MarketingSherpa. The annual survey is a good indicator of what’s working online and what’s to come.

Behaviorally-targeted ads rated higher than any other online performer. The advertisers and marketers questioned plan to invest more in PPC and behavioral ads this year, and move away from poorly-targeted display ads.

Other top tactics include:

- House email lists.

- Testing. Marketers are measuring, testing and split-testing more than ever in almost all categories surveyed.

- Search engine optimisation (SEO) is delivering a strong return on investment.

- Agencies are urging marketers to explore viral marketing and advertising in mobile phones, online video sites and virtual worlds.

The latter reflects the changing landscape of the online advertising world. 

================================ 

Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include at the end. 

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us    

If you read copy written by someone other than a copywriter, chances are it will scream Features! Features! Features! OK, features are a very good thing indeed and, yes, readers do need to know about them. But not all of them. And NOT right up front. 

Instead, you need to do what every good copywriter 
MUST do in order to educate or make the sale: turn features into benefits, and put those benefits at the beginning of your copy. 

These benefits must be tied into your readers’ desires, needs and wants. So, when you solve your readers’ problems, they’ll go looking for the features — meaning they WILLl bother to read the rest of your marketing message. 

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include at the end of the article.

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us       

There you are sitting at your desk sneaking in a quick game of WordTwist on FaceBook. You know you should be writing content for your first email newsletter. But somehow you just can’t get motivated. That blank screen beckons. Another game? Help!

Don’t panic!

There are a number of ways – ranging from the ridiculously easy and quick solutions, to the more involved.

One of the first options is to start with what you have to hand. 
Have you kept any interesting emails – either from customers, quizzes, quotes, competitions or even junk mail? How about questions from clients, prospects, colleagues, friends, etc?

Think about what came through the door today – is there anything you can share with your readers? What about industry news, statistics or trends? Perhaps you have new products or services to offer. You can write about those. How about a ‘subscriber only’ special? An interview with your marketing director or an industry leader?

All these nuggets – and more like them – will form great fodder for your newsletter. They could take the form of articles, news, events, competitions, ads, interviews, tips, and so on. I’ve written pieces on how social media impacts on business, the secret to turning a postage stamp into a stampede of customers, the significance of proofreading a business document, how to write good headlines and so on.

Excerpt from ’Newsletters that Build Customer Relations AND Fill Your Inbox with Orders‘ – my step-by-step  MasterClass home-study system shows you just how easy-peasy it can be to create or polish a so-so newsletter that reflects your business in the best light. Chock-full with useful tools and specific examples on how to set-up, write and send out your business-building newsletter, it really does remove the pain from newsletter publishing. Get the full scoop here.  

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include at the end of the article.

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us       

Many businesses are suffering from ‘credit crunch fallout’. But what if you mimic those companies who have swam the rough seas of an economic downturn in years gone by, and survived to reach a fairer shore?

The following steps should help you turn the current downturn into an opportunity to give your business the competitive edge it needs:

•  Be honest about your company’s position and the steps you need to take in the short term to shore it up economically.
• Plan for the future before you reach rock bottom. That is the point at which you should implement your marketing ‘recovery’ plan, NOT when you start thinking about what it should be.
• Look for ways you can outdo the competition.
• Increase, not decrease, your marketing spend.

An organisation that builds confidence in adverse conditions will emerge far more strongly than one which collapses under the pressure and starts sacrificing marketing budgets.

================================
Add my RSS feed to your reader now so you never have to miss a post.
================================

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include at the end of the article.

Digg This :: Email This :: Add to del.icio.us