World's Most Successful Business for his Industry

Sometimes in our rapid pace technology driven world, we miss the most obvious basics that can create a competitive leap.  Now I know you’re NOT in the dry cleaning industry.  But when someone in a crowded industry with 8% of the outlets has 40% of the business, maybe the ‘basics’ have something to teach us ...

Mel Shapiro was a superstar in the crowded US dry cleaning industry (he had 126 competitors across the country!). Even though he had just 8% of the outlets, he managed to secure 40% of the business. 

In fact, his main location did more business than any other single outlet in the WORLD!

So what's the secret to his extraordinary SUCCESS?  It's not the way his factories are run.  It's all about his customer interaction.

Some brief examples. His competitors have their management desk out the back. He places his IN FRONT of the counter. On the CUSTOMER’S side! His competitors' teams make do with casual clothes (consistent with the industry). He wears a suit. 

It's his mindset, and the mindset of his team, that creates success, and it can work for any industry.  He gives four rules of success:

No. 1 KEEP A SMILE ON YOUR FACE.

“Happy people work better. They convey that message to the public. (It’s as if) you are the conductor of an orchestra… What are you conducting? Is it a funeral march? Or is it a happy tune? You must have a positive morale and everything you do must give that feeling…”

No. 2 KEEP YOUR PROMISE.

There’s that “DO-WHAT-YOU-PROMISED-YOU-WOULD-DO” again. Yes, there’s that “DO-WHAT-YOU-PROMISED-YOU-WOULD-DO” again.  By the way, not only should you ‘deliver’ as promised, make sure your clients KNOW you delivered.  That’s a key distinction.  TELL them or how can they value what you’ve done for them?

No. 3 MAKE A GOOD PRESENTATION.

“What does that mean? You have to clean up your stores or office. Your sign programs have to be good. Get rid of that cluttered look. Develop a 'distinctive' look. Hire a graphic artist, and be prepared to PAY for quality…”

No. 4 DO GOOD QUALITY WORK.

“Yes, it’s important,” stresses Shapiro. “But, the difference between one supplier and the next isn’t THAT great. The secret is to capitalise where you can project a dramatic difference.”

What are the messages in all of this?

From an advertising perspective, it’s clear that until ALL these things are in place, the advertising proper can’t do its long term job. As well, it’s evident that, unless you have a particular flair in the area, it pays to call in professionals to look at your image… décor, signature, uniforms… and staff training.

Wouldn’t it be nice to steal the march on your competitors… suddenly appearing one day with a brand new “packaged image and marketing thrust” that’s ten years ahead of them? I don’t know about you. But the idea is irresistible to me.

How to own your market...

Here is a classic example of the power of creating a ‘reason for being’.  This case study is from our archives.  The concepts are as relevant today as then.  The client, of all things, was a grave headstone mason.

He'd approached us with a problem.  His Yellow Pages ad, he felt, did not do justice to his business and his life mission.  His ad was just like all the others ... page after page of sameness in the classification ...  Big logo up the top, the same bullet points as everybody else and a big phone number at the bottom.

It didn’t tell the full story ... his special story.

And when people called, what do you think they focused on?  Not surprisingly they tended to focus on PRICE.  Obvious when you think about it because all the ads were fundamentally the same, so price was the only thing they could focus on ... John Smith (not his real name) was convinced we could help him tell his story so he could break away from the 'price trap'.  And to be honest, the more we probed him about his business, the more fascinating the story became.  Our resulting headline read:

‘When you want a monument to your loved one that’s as special as they were ... speak with John Smith’

This ad created a very special personality around his business.

• It spoke of the fact that his monuments ‘are cut from stone, rather than pre-made blocks’ ...
• That ‘you must be 100% delighted with the finished work or you don’t pay’
• That you get to approve the layout BEFORE work begins ...

Compelling reasons to commission him.

But here’s the interesting part.  Do you think the OTHER stone masons listed in the Yellow Pages cut from stone as opposed to pre-made blocks?  They might …

Do they guarantee their work or does the client take the risk?  Do they let you see the drawings before work begins?  They might …

The point is, their ads DON’T SAY if they do or they don’t!

And what that means ... the one who DOES say these things, ‘owns’ those ‘reasons for being’.  The unique selling proposition of cutting from stone ... and the unique selling proposition of having a 100% delight guarantee.

This ad superbly pre-empted the market ... and positioned this company perfectly in that niche in the market that HE wants to serve.  (Below is a reproduction of the ad.)

 

Two things happened after this ad appeared ... first, the number of calls from the Yellow Pages increased.  Not dramatically, but they did increase.

Second, and FAR more importantly, the people who rang as a result were a different type of person ... they didn’t focus on price.  They simply asked, “When can you start?”.  They had been educated to what this remarkable stonemason is about ... creating beautiful monuments.

How OUTRAGEOUS are you prepared to be in your guarantees?

When a client phoned me, he was obviously frustrated. "We’ve got the world’s best auto security locking system, but our ads barely pay for themselves” was his opening remark.

 

I just happened to have a copy of the magazine he’d advertised in, so I grabbed it. His ad had a good position, right hand page, early in the magazine.

The headline on his ad was ‘STOP THIEF’ (set under a big red stop sign). The copy then opened up with “No longer is your car at risk with the such and such security system”, followed by a list of bullet point features (incidentally I changed the name of the product for reasons you'll see below) …

Fairly standard stuff … features like: Easy to operate, self-locking, etc. But then, ‘hidden’ in the third bullet point was the statement: ‘Ignition suppression which completely and totally makes it impossible to start the car when then system is activated.’

My first reaction was that the client had lost a powerful opportunity to sell his system. He’d fallen into the trap of trotting out a bunch of fairly standard features, while what I saw as his BIG benefit was hidden away in the third bullet point.

Interestingly, while he was on the phone, I started flicking through the other ads in the magazine. Lo and behold … there was another ad a few pages further on … and its headline was ‘STOP THEIF’, and it too had a bunch of bullet points. This second ad was for the much cheaper security device, a steering wheel lock. No comparison to Mike’s high tech solution, but because they both had similar bullet points, appearing to be a competitor.

I challenged him: “Mike, you claim it’s impossible to start the car?”

“ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE!” was his emphatic response.

“OK, here’s the deal”, I responded with my entrepreneurial adrenalin starting to surge through my veins. “I’ll write you an ad FOR NOTHING, and let’s see how it works. You run it and if it beats your old ad, and you continue to run it, then we can talk about a fee.”

It didn’t take more than twenty minutes to write the new ad. There was a man in a suit standing in front of a very expensive sports car … and the headline read:

I was convinced it would absolutely blitz the marketplace. Perhaps get him loads of PR too, as the media picked up on this outrageous guarantee. I was really excited with this ad, and eagerly sent it to Mike.

Now, for the real test. The only place that counts. The market.

So, how did my ad work against his original bland ad? Well, I’d love to tell you my ad with the totally outrageous guarantee statement did create an avalanche of orders. I’d love to tell you that … but I can’t. 

You see, for unspecified reasons … Mike never ran my ad. I’m still trying to figure out why. (I think I really do know!)

Still, this should serve as a challenge to YOU. Are your communications bland? Are your ads making the same ordinary statements that your competitors are making, that keep your great product or service in mediocrity?

Think outside that box! What are your compelling guarantees? What COULD they be that’d set people’s imaginations on fire? What sets your product or service apart that will bring prospects to you in big numbers? What is it about your product or service that takes the focus right off price, and has people knocking at your door, saying “I WANT THAT!”?

Taking advantage of a marketing opportunity...

This blog entry will pick up where the last blog entry in the white paper series left off, and give you one more example analysis to get your 'creative marketing juices' flowing.

Example 4#: A white paper that was created in a matter of days to capture a 'window of opportunity'

I was visiting our UK office just when the Global Financial Crisis was beginning to gather momentum in the media.  Businesses were going into panic mode and yet I knew I could give them very simple, basic ‘survival’ guidelines that would help insulate them from the downward spiral.

So on the flight home, I wrote a special report called the '10 Proven Strategies to Boost Your Sales and Profits (& Recession-Proof Your Business)’.

Essentially the white paper was a temperature check for the prospect's business, with strategies, statistics and case studies that clearly articulated how not only to 'weather' the GFC storm, but to grow and profit despite it.

In reality, this white paper would have probably been a great tool for our prospects at any time, but because of the media attention around the GFC, it really struck a nerve.  We were being inundated with online requests – consistently up to three or four every day in the early days.

After the initial flurry, we stopped actively promoting the white paper. Yet we still get requests coming in, and have over 370 new prospects on our database since we have made the report available. And while I was involved in creating a new venture and not looking for ‘consulting projects’ per se, I think you’ll agree it would have been a very fertile field had I been seeking them.

Here's a sample of the white paper:

This is the final blog entry in the white paper series. If you'd like help with crafting your own red hot lead-generating white paper, call me on (+617) 3300 6909, or simply use our Results Corporation contact form to drop us an email.

You also might want to request our own new white paper - '21 Tips on Creating an Effective White Paper'.

A red hot lead-generating white paper...

In this blog article we'll pick up from where we left off with how to craft a white paper that positions your business as ‘the authority’ and gets qualified prospects to ‘put their hand up’.  If you have not done so already, it might be an idea to read the first blog entry and second blog entry I have done in this series.

Example 3#: A white paper for the ages

As a business owner you'll no doubt identify with the white paper title and content we created for Sheridans Accountants and Financial Planners.  More specifically, the principal of Sheridans created the content. Our task was to help mould it into a ‘marketing tool’.

As you’ll see, the white paper asks the questions business owners are thinking, and gives simple solutions to those questions.  Each of these solutions is then supported with case studies and statistics taken straight from their client files.

Importantly too, the white paper provokes the prospect into thinking about different ways they can increase their profit, grow their business and build their asset base. Or to put that another way, to quantify the things they’re MISSING OUT ON now.

And of course the solutions eloquently showcase Sheridans' unique service and standards WITHOUT being ‘salesy’.

Being able to highlight your strengths through the medium of asking the right questions is a very powerful skill in creating a white paper.

However, a word of warning.  Remember, the white paper must not look like a brochure for your business.  The white paper must be a document designed to be genuinely informative, not simply to try to sell your services.  It is best to imply the wisdom of using your services through your case studies to demonstrate how you do business.  That said, your white paper must still have a call to action at the very end.

In my next blog entry in this series we'll look at one final white paper that netted 374 leads (and counting!).  Make sure you sign up above to ensure you receive all entries in this series.

Two powerful lead-generating examples for your SME

In a previous blog entry I introduced you to the power of a white paper.

Today we will look at two powerful and very different examples of white papers.  As you'll see, white papers can be used for almost every industry, from security providers to industrial waste pumps to professional services.

(Note:  If you didn't have the chance to read the previous blog entry, click here and read it first.  There are subtle distinctions on how to write a white paper that you will not pick up in this blog entry.)


Example 1#: Small newcomer takes on big established brands

Watchdog Security Group is an established and successful business in their ‘local patch’ in New Zealand.  But when they decided to expand their market, and venture into new locations, leads were hard to come by.

The big players in the security industry had all but tied up the market.  Being a 'newcomer' made sales tough.

We created two special reports (white papers) that would educate the market and position them as a true authority on security issues.  One targeted business security and one residential security.  It was a 'soft sell strategy' to get a foot in the door AND importantly, to build a database.

  

In the document, we highlighted the various security weak points that are well known within the industry, but little known to the marketplace.  And of course, in highlighting the weak points and how to overcome them, we had a great opportunity to showcase Watchdog Security's range of solutions WITHOUT coming across like just another brochure.

 

Early feedback on the success of these white papers is very encouraging.  The response from the marketplace is exactly as we predicted, with the company being seen as doing a valuable educative service to the community, while establishing themselves as a trusted supplier.  We’ve also crafted some advertisements to trial to endeavour to actively generate qualified leads through the media, as well as having the white papers featured on the Watchdog website as yet another lead generator opportunity.

Example 2#: 'Zeroing in' on a niche target market

What happens when you have a very specific market with only a relative handful of high end, high value prospects?

That was the case when we were approached by a supplier of heavy duty industrial waste water pumps.  While they could actually identify a number of potential prospects ... municipalities, mines, manufacturers, they knew that there would be many more ‘out there’ that were as yet unidentified.

A white paper strategy was the perfect solution here.  Their prospects were typically engineers and specifiers who had a strong technical understanding of their operational requirements, but often DID NOT know of the special unique features of these particular pumps. 

Consequently, although we still used a me-to-you approach, it was more appropriate to use fairly technical industry languaging, supported by technical diagrams and photos.
 


Promoting the white papers was a fairly straight forward exercise, with half page horizontal ads appearing in various industry specific magazines, as well as ‘pay-per-click’ advertising and SEO strategies. 

'Squeeze Page'

To maximise the requests, and therefore to build a substantial database, we designed what is called a ‘squeeze page’.  In essence, this means that visitors are ‘squeezed’ into one action step.  Requesting the reports.  We also secured a new URL to enhance search engine results – www.pumpfacts.com.au.

And while I can’t give you the actual dollar sales potential of this strategy, I CAN say that with 91 requests for the various reports coming in from specifiers and engineers from all over the country, at $50,000 to $250,000 and beyond per sale, THIS is a very powerful strategy for this application.

In a future blog article we'll look at two more powerful examples, so be sure to subscribe to the blog to make sure you don't miss them!

Until then, start penciling down some ideas for your own white paper. If you'd like us to help you create a white paper and build a promotional strategy around it, give us a call on +617 3300 6909.

Or go to our advertising and marketing website and use the contact form to contact us (don't forget to put 'help with white paper' in the comments section).  

You might also want to include a brief summary of your business, a backgrounding of your industry and marketplace, and what you are hoping to specifically achieve with your white paper.

Sales Letter and Copywriting Clinic

Before I start, let me say this is an example from our archives.  So if the ‘technology’ references seem somewhat archaic, bear with me.

You see, the copy structure and approach is the message.

This was an actual sales letter (left) inviting me to attend the release of a new software product.




You will I trust get value from being an observer to the marketing blunders this company made.

Not surprisingly, I changed the name of the company.  The REAL company is one you’d recognise immediately.

Before you go on, scan the letter they sent out to who knows how many thousand ‘prospects’.

The Curse of Assumption

Okay, so the REAL company is a big brand.  You'll know it.  But does that mean you know as much about their XANADU 3000 as they assume you do?  And will you care?

A huge mistake in writing a sales letter (or any communication) is assuming that the prospect will care about the business, the service or product, or that they'll even stop what they’re doing long enough to try to peak their interest.  They won't!

Your reader is at the wastebasket 

Write your letter picturing the prospect reading your letter by their wastebasket.  Or they have their finger poised on the delete key.  You have to create a letter that makes it impossible for them to discard it.

And DO NOT assume that because you live and breathe your business, and your products and services, that someone ‘out there’ in the marketplace will too.

Most likely, when your prospect woke up this morning, they were NOT thinking about you!  And they’ll go through the day and go to bed at night, and chances are, they won’t have given your business a thought.

Coming at your communications from that perspective, it makes you realise that you have to work many times harder to grab their attention and keep it past those critical first few seconds, and then to motivate them enough to ACT on what you want them to do.

Turn the table on yourself ... 

How many sales letters have you binned?  How many emails have you instantly deleted?

Are your sales letters stopping your prospects in their tracks and commanding their attention?  Or are they rambling on about how good your company is, or that your computer division was established in 1984?

Now, just in case you feel this letter example ISN’T a sales letter, and that it's an invitation … and therefore doesn't need to 'sell' ... rest assured its objective IS to ‘sell’ something.   Its objective is to ‘sell’ the reader on giving up two hours to come to an event, reorganising their diary, and braving the traffic snarls to get there.  It IS a big sales task.  And that's not even the first sale.  The first ‘sale’ is getting your reader to stop and read your first paragraph.  Make sense?

The 'WHO CARES? test'

Whenever you write anything, make sure you give it the ‘WHO CARES? test' first.  If it doesn’t compellingly grab the reader’s attention, hold it with riveting advantages and benefits that demonstrate how you will help them to save money, increase productivity, look younger, feel fitter, get more sales, increase their profits, or whatever, then it WON’T pass the 'who CARES' test.  Don’t waste your time sending it until you’ve re-worked it massively.

How to fix this letter

Here’s the irony.  The XANADU 3000 may indeed be some amazing new innovation that will revolutionise your entire working environment.  It may quadruple your productivity.  It may cut costs by 48%, or enable you to cut three weeks off your delivery schedules ... or any one of a myriad of benefits.

But from that letter, you ’d sure NEVER know it.

The letter suffers from ‘product peddling’.

That is, it is ‘we’ focused.  It’s all about the writer’s fascination with their company and their product, NOT what that product will do for you or me.

As well, the letter suffers from bland generalisation syndrome.

It sounds impressive; ‘… addresses the changing data capture environment by delivering the highest level of applications flexibility, without the usual penalty of performance degradation.’

But what does all that mean?

The key to powerful communication is to be SPECIFIC.

If your product delivers a 48% cost cut, don’t just say it will ‘cut costs’.  Say it will cut costs by 48%.  If customer surveys have shown that it cuts 21 days off delivery times, say so.  And go on to say that, for the average user, this translates into over $40,000 a year in savings from stock control efficiencies.  And that 27 of the users have attributed winning new contracts worth a collective $4.7 million because of their faster delivery times.

Can you see where I’m going with this?  Once you learn how to write in this compelling, benefit oriented way, you’ll truly revolutionise your communications.

You’ll win more business.  You’ll increase your profit margins.  You’ll begin to gain an unassailable hold on your niche market.  And your competitors will wonder what you’re doing.

Does that sound like something you’d like to take on board?  If it's made you feel that way, it’s because I simply did what the letter above failed to do.  I focused on what’s in this ... for YOU.

Simple, isn’t it?

If you want to learn a whole lot more about how to write amazing communication pieces, I've developed a complete writing e-program, 'Write and Design your own Ads, Sales Letters, Brochures, Flyers and Sales Presentations'. 

For more great articles, examples and tips like this, subscribe to this blog.

The Truth About Advertising

For years decades there has been a debate as to whether ads must be kept brief with lots of white space and few words.  The reasoning being that 'people won't read all those words'.   The other side of the debate, advocates insist that ads with a LOT of words, almost no white space and maybe even no photo will work many times more effectively.  So which is right? ...

Well, to answer that, we need to go back to the very basics and ask: What IS advertising?

First, here's what advertising is NOT.  Advertising is NOT 'getting your name in front of the public'.  If anyone tries to tell you that, they're wrong.

Advertising is 'salesmanship'.   It is the act of selling a prospect on what you have to offer.  That 'sale' may be to call your office and make an enquiry.  Or to walk into your business and browse.  Or send off for information.  Or agree to make an appointment.  Whatever the 'sale' is for your business, it IS a sale.  And to achieve that sale, your advertising has to SELL.

Often in my seminars, someone will insist vehemently that the brief copy or 'bullet point' form of advertising is the ONLY way to go.  My response to that is to invite them to the front of the room, and allow them to convince the audience to buy from them.  BUT with one important caveat they must only use 100 words or less.  They simply can't do it.

You see, when we SELL in person, we tell our 'magic story'.  We unfold our benefits, use persuasion, and show passion and enthusiasm for our service or product.  To try to put that passion into 100 words, or clinical bullet points completely stifles the power to communicate.

So why we give ourselves that handicap when we advertise whether in print, in a sales letter, or on a website, or in a brochure?  Especially as these are far less effective and engaging forms of communication than in person.

You know, I've been direct marketing for well over 25 years.  Direct marketing is a discipline where the ONLY 'truths' are the RESULTS.  And I've proven time after time that, when a product or service has to be 'sold' when presented in person, it needs to be sold in an advertisement or other promotional communication.

Not so long ago, I delivered a workshop on advertising, where I invited participants to submit their ads prior to the event, with an offer to re-work them as part of the seminar.  Here one of those 'before' and 'after' examples.



This ad (or flyer in this case) above on the left was submitted by one of the attendees.   It had lots of white space and no 'selling copy' and a giant logo as the 'headline'.  And it wasn't working.

My re-write on the right is copy intensive.  MOST IMPORTANTLY, it has a compelling headline.

Let's get this straight.  Your logo is NOT a headline.  It does absolutely nothing to give a prospect reason to read on.

FACT: The headline you write for your ad can impact the response you get up to 19 TIMES. Look at that another way.  Write a powerful compelling headline and it's like having as many as 18 more placements of your ad.  For FREE.  That is how important your headline is!

And what about the copy intensive copy?  When you read the copy in the re-write, you get absolutely drawn in to the 'story'.  And you feel more and more compelled to do something about avoiding those toxins in your body.  Never ASSUME the reader will KNOW all these things.  They DON'T!  And when they don't have reasons to act, they'll simply flip the page and get on with their lives, oblivious to your 'magic story'.

Now, if you're thinking, "Sure it all sounds good, but I can't write like that. I'm not a copywriter", I've got some good news for you.  I didn't have to write most of this copy either.  I simply went to the A&B Water people's own website, and it was all there!  Hidden away.  When they were gathering and presenting facts on their website, the 'pressure' to write an ad was off them.  And they've written some very compelling copy.

You see, if you know your business, and you have a passion for your product or service, you CAN write compellingly.  It's just that most people TRY TO WRITE AN AD, and freeze.

Here's some of the compelling copy that I 'borrowed' for my re-write ad:

Ironically, in order to kill some of the live micro-organisms in our water before we drink it, even more dangerous chemicals are added.  What may shock you though, is that perhaps the most troublesome is chlorine this potent chemical reacts with organic material in water, such as leaves and other decaying vegetation, to produce hundreds of chemical by-products known as "trihalomethanes," or THMs.

These are suspected of causing birth defects and certain kinds of cancer if consumed regularly in drinking water.  Then there is fluoride.  Fluoride is a very potent poison that is suspect as a factor in bone diseases, including cancer.  New studies are also beginning to surface that seem to indicate that long-term, low-level consumption of fluoride in drinking water may be linked to increased susceptibility to hip fractures in older adults.

Well, you get the picture!   You'll see there is a vast difference between this thought provoking and compelling 'reason why' copy, and the previous brief copy that is passive and does nothing.

When the owners of this company saw how I'd re-done their previously unsuccessful ad flyer, it was an absolute revelation to them.  They couldn't wait to get a copy of my mock-up version.  It had hit them that they had been missing out on communicating their true reasons a prospect should buy.  And that meant they were missing out on a LOT of sales.  Maybe 18 out of every 19.  Who knows?

Click here to discover how Chris Newton can help you with your advertising and marketing.

Are you looking for sales in all the wrong places?

We're all interested in ways to increase profits. But, all too often, business owners look in the wrong places for the answers while an abundance of extra profit is being lost right under their nose. They just don't see it leaking away, day after day. Let me give you a real life example.

Some time back, a client came to see me with a marketing problem. He was the owner of multiple tile showrooms. He said the market was hardening, his competitors were undercutting his prices, and he was starting to lose market share. "Chris, I want you to come up with a new advertising campaign. Something catchy and gimmicky that will get our sales up, and fast".

My response wasn't what he expected. Instead of talking gimmicky ideas, I quietly asked him: "Alan, what's your sales process? How does business come to you now? How much of your business is 'walk-in' traffic, and how much starts as an enquiry over the phone?"

Perplexed as to why I was going down this line of questioning, he told me that the market is extremely price focused, and people typically shop around for prices over the phone before they go into a tile showroom.

I asked another question "What percentage of those enquiry calls actually convert to a visit to your showrooms?"

Well, that question really set him off! "Twenty percent would be being generous!" Their average conversion rate was a real bone of contention he had with his staff.

"Alan, what's YOUR success rate in converting callers to sales?".

He fired back, "Look, I run a twelve million dollar business with multiple stores. I hope you're not suggesting I answer the phones!" I assured him that this was not my intention. But I still pressed him for what happens when he DOES answer the phone. "Well, I reckon I get about 80% coming in to buy. But I've been in the industry for a long time. I know my products backwards. And no one has my knowledge in that area."

Perhaps you can see where I'm going with this. Here was an experienced and intelligent businessperson who'd come to me convinced he needed a 'catchy' new ad campaign. But he was looking in completely the wrong place for a solution! What he really needed was something different altogether. Look at the numbers.

Alan was getting 80% conversion to a sale over the phone. His people were averaging 20%. His team's conversion to sales was haemorrhaging badly. My next question really blew the lid off his problem for BOTH of us "Alan, how many people across all your stores take these sales enquiry calls?"

"FORTY!", he answered. He had forty people taking his phone enquiries at a devastatingly low 20%. It meant every time someone in his team picked up the phone, he was losing 60% of his potential sales.
And HE thought he needed an ad campaign!

By training his people to convert, not at 80%, but just 40% I showed him that he'd immediately add some FIVE to SIX MILLION DOLLARS to his turnover. Without a cent more on advertising.
No matter what your business, there's an indelible lesson to be had here. Review your advertising by all means for increased profit opportunities. In fact, during this course, we'll be showing you exactly how to do that. But always look at your current sales PROCESS first. As yourself these searching questions:

Do you actually know what your average 'conversion rate' is? I don't mean 'guess it'. Do you accurately measure it? Do you measure it for each individual? There's great wisdom in the saying, "What you don't measure, you can't manage". As well, do you have scripts to maximise the success of your individual team members on the phone, and in face-to-face sales situations?

And do you have a follow up system to follow up sales that didn't happen right away? And a system to develop ongoing communications with your prospects? Do you programmed approach to ethically re-selling existing clients?

In each of these seemingly innocuous questions is hidden the potential for an avalanche of new sales and profits. But it IS hidden. You won't see the opportunities unless you dissect your sales process and identify them!

Get more tips like this one by joining 'Chris Newton's Strategy Brief Marketing Course'.




To contact Chris Newton, the author of this blog, go to www.ResultsCorporation.com.au

Why would any salesperson set out to be vague, clever, and brief and then walk away?

The answer is: they wouldn't. Yet time and time again, businesses (and advertising agencies) make the mistake of creating communicational and promotional pieces that do just that.

An effective promotional piece, effective communication, needs to compel action. It needs to tell to your 'magic story', give reasons to buy, and ask for the sale – just as a great salesperson would.

A communication piece with very few words, lots of white space, a big logo, and a clever or vague headline has no chance of achieving those objectives.  And if anyone tells you this is how to do ads, they’re wrong.

But nobody has time to read lots of words, right?

True.  NO ONE will read ‘all those words’... UNLESS those words are relevant to them, and speak to THEIR needs.  Rest assured, being brief won't make people read your ad either if it has no relevance to them!

Just last week, we created an ad for a client of ours.  We’ve done similar ones before, so he was ready for it when all the ‘armchair experts’ told him the ad was too wordy and that nobody would read all those words.

Credit to him.  He ran with the ad. In a matter of days, it had already produced 27 new patients for his chiropractic clinic. In ‘lifetime value’, that equates to over $40,000 in revenue. Not bad for an ad that only cost him less than $2,400.

Want to see his advertisement? Click on the link below:

www.marketinghelponline.com.au/StottAd.pdf

Why you should consistently seek PR...

You may be amazed at how receptive the media is to your story. If you have been performing ‘awesome’ feats for clients, and your clients love you for it, TELL your story to the business magazines and the daily press. Of course, they won't be interested in something that is a straight plug for you. But if it is tied to a theme ... like small business making a success ... winning against the odds ... helping others to succeed ... adding value to others in creative ways ... then that IS news.

When you DO succeed in getting a write-up, you'll get a boost to your profile and to your credibility. ‘If it’s editorial, it must be true!’ But the potential doesn't stop there. With the publisher’s permission and acknowledgement, reproduce the article and use it in every way you can... mail it to your clients, to your prospects, or add it to your testimonial sheet. In short, one simple article can work for you for YEARS.

If you'd like more strategies to bring your business success in these unstable times go to: www.resultscorporation.com.au ... for a free report.

How to mix a 20 TIMES multiplier ingredient into your ads

It’d be fair to say many businesses don’t advertise (especially in tough economic times) because they believe it ‘doesn’t work’. But here’s the rub. In one of our surveys of businesses, almost NO ONE had done any testing of the elements that make an ad WORK. Most especially, they hadn’t tested their headlines or offers.

It’s disconcerting, not only when you consider that running ads is expensive, but because there’s a massive ‘opportunity cost’ of having ads under perform. Especially when testing these elements can MULTIPLY response by 2, 5 or 20 times.

So what’s a ‘great’ headline?

Great headlines are those that GRAB attention, FLAG down a prospect, and COMPEL them to read on. In stark contrast, most ads just say, ‘Here we are, here’s our contact details’. Boring and useless!

DON’T advertise unless you are committed to creating an ad that performs like an ‘engine room for enquiries’. That’s why we spend a LOT of time in Marketing Help Online teaching how to write great headlines.

A quick idea on how to write a good headline

Try studying the ‘mail order’ ads that appear over and over again in the media. (The Sunday supplements are full of them.) If these ads appear often, and they’re genuine ‘direct response ads’, you can be sure they will have been tested to get the most effective headlines, offers and wording.

You’ll quickly see how these advertisers are harnessing the power of a headline, tapping into human nature, and hitting the right ‘nerve’. You’ll get ideas on how your own headline can be improved. And even if your effort doubles your response, or gets 20% more, how bad could that be?

Hit upon the RIGHT headline and your profits go through the roof.

If you'd like more strategies to help you battle the recession, go to www.resultscorporation.com.au

Record your gems!

If we had a dollar for every time a client has called me, or come up to me at a seminar saying, “I can't write a good ad or a sales letter. I just go blank” ... and then, when I ask them what it is they do, they proceed to articulate beautifully a string of powerful selling points about what they do! My usual advice is, go write that down now! There’s your sales presentation right there.

Here’s an even better tip. Grab a friend and a voice recorder. Your friend must be someone who's prepared to listen to your ramblings. Then, with the voice recorder set, proceed to tell them why they should buy from YOU, why your product is better, more efficient, longer lasting, more durable... whatever ... and mention all the extra special things you do that customers love you for.

The point is, you KNOW what sells. It’s just that often we get a mind melt when we try to write it down. Also, record yourself actually selling your product or service, perhaps on the phone. Having done that, you'll have the seeds of brilliant copy!

Sign up to my free strategy briefs for more small business tips.

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Bouncing back to even greater profits.

When you have just delivered a product or service to a client, this is the best time to invite them to buy again. For example, someone who has just had a great time at a resort is hot to re-book. Someone who has just bought landscaping supplies is hot to build a barbecue or a pergola.

People are BEGGING to be led, to have someone show they CARE. And inviting them to again enjoy a purchase is a great way to show you care. It can be as simple as a brochure for your next product inserted with the purchase they’ve just made, or a follow up letter or courtesy phone call.

Hard as it is to accept, the most RECENT purchaser is the most likely to buy again.

Sign up to free Marketing Strategy Briefs like this one, or check out my sample Marketing Articles.

The hidden profits in a Multiple Contact Strategy

At one of our ‘boot camp’ workshops, presenter US marketing guru Jay Abraham had the entire audience stand up. Then he said, “Please sit down if you responded to Results Corporation’s FIRST letter inviting you to be here”. Some 15% of the audience sat down. “If you responded to the SECOND communication, please sit”. Another 10% or so sat.

After he’d repeated this several more times, there was still some 35% of the people standing! What he had so graphically demonstrated was that unless you have a MULTIPLE CONTACT STRATEGY, you are going to MISS OUT on a massive amount of sales. Especially if yours is a high ticket item purchase. (Our boot camps were $4,500+)

Also, vary your communications. One might be a letter … another a letter and CD, another an email … You might include a series of testimonials, samples of your product or special report, an ‘act now’ offer … and so on. You can have a lot of fun with this and you’ll boost your campaign results!

For more great gems like this one, sign up to my free bi-monthly strategy briefs at: http://www.marketinghelponline.com.au/enterprise/3-membership-sign-up-options.html

You can also find some great 'sample' articles on my website: www.marketinghelponline.com.au

Improve your business' conversion rates

This riveting interview reveals how one business owner improved his company’s sales conversion rate from 1 in 19 … to 1 in 4 …

The interview is just over 12 mins in duration, and chock full of profit making insights to have you challenging YOUR sales processes.

Click here to hear it now: www.marketinghelponline.com.au/1.mp3 (12 mins 18 secs)

For more great ideas, sign up to my free small business marketing strategy brief emails.

Also check out the great sample articles at my website: www.marketinghelponline.com

What ONE element in your marketing has the potential to multiply your results 300%?

What ONE element in your marketing has the potential to multiply your results 300%? In a word, your OFFER. But what constitutes an offer?

It can be a myriad of things… a price reduction, a free trial, a discount coupon, a free information kit, an extra strong guarantee, a free survey or consultation, free seminar, easy payment, small gift, creative ‘value add’ …

One swimming pool company once offered ‘An extra 5ft of pool if you buy in the off season’ …

You need to test different offers for different markets. But they are an easy and simple way to get up to 300% more of your prospects to ACT NOW.

Compare ‘50% discount’ with ‘Buy one, get one free’. Same intrinsic value, but the ‘Buy one get one free’ proposition has performed better time after time. Yes, by up to 300%.

But there’s a catch. Even with a seemingly good offer, all too often the initiative underperforms. Why might that be?

Typically, it’s because the value of the offer is not developed correctly. Or more accurately, the perception of value isn’t fully ‘dimensionalised’. If the promotion simply states: ‘Send now for a free information kit’ … there’s no perceived value. However, if the promotion explains that this free information kit has 14 little known ‘trade secrets’ revealed by leading experts, or that it reveals the 8 most vital questions you must to ask before making a buying decision … or whatever … THEN it becomes more desirable.

By painting the picture of its usefulness and value, it’ll have highly qualified prospects beating the door down… eagerly giving their name and a whole lot of other vital information to get hold of the offer. Which means you’ve now got a database to nurture into customers.

In summary, what separates a ‘good’ offer from a poor offer has a great deal to do with PERCEIVED VALUE you build around it. In some instances, I advocate devoting almost as much space to describing the benefits of the free information kit as to the product or service itself. One ad we ran for a client was all about the information kit offer, and boosted responses 3,000%.

You can check out my website for some great sample articles at: www.marketinghelponline.com

For more great ideas, sign up to my free small business marketing strategy brief.