Are you willing to revamp your advertising and marketing campaigns to achieve success? Well, more than likely, your answer to this question should be a resounding “yes.” However, if you’re not currently seeing the results you had hoped for in your business, then it’s time to look at your marketing pieces.
If you’re relying on brand advertising to give your website some awareness, then you should know that this model of marketing your business is totally ineffective. Let the huge corporations worry about branding. You focus on attracting prospects to you with something called “direct response marketing”.
What is direct response marketing, you ask? Well, it’s simple. Direct response is a method of advertising that’s solely focused on generating a response. Unlike brand advertising, you hold your marketing and advertising efforts accountable. You see, with brand advertising, you don’t know what the response is like for your ads. But with a direct response ad, you know right away if the ad was a success. And you know it by the number of phone calls and new website visitors that you get.
Always follow direct response advertising methods. If anyone ever tells you that it takes “exposure” to market your business successfully, then know that this is a load of crap. If you want to earn money in your business the smart way, use direct response marketing only.
So now, if you’re interested in direct response, you’re probably wondering how you can put it into practice for your business. The answer to this is that you can run a direct response ad in any targeted publications and see whether or not the ad is working for you. Even if an advertising rep for a magazine tries to hit you with a lot of industry jargon, tell them that all you want to do is run a direct response ad and not the kind of advertising they will advise of you.
The bottom line is that advertising reps are in the business of making money for their company. So if you have success with your ad, then great. If not, the reps could care less. You would think that if they wanted you to do more repeat business that they would try to work with you in any way they could, they would do it for you. But the fact of the matter is that this is just not true. They’re in it for the money, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.
When running your ad, be sure not to attempt to sell your prospect on your ad. Lead them to a 1-800 number or a website where they can request more information. You see your prospects aren’t ready to buy right away when they read your ad. They have a lot of questions and want to make sure that they’re making the right decision. So offer lots of helpful information in your subsequent contacts with this prospect.
Marketing strategies that can make your business more profitable
Are you looking for ways to improve your offline business starting right away? Hopefully, you are, and I intend to show you how to do so. Marketing is a complicated process, and some business owners just don’t know how to get it done. But once you take a look at all the marketing techniques at your disposal, you should know that only a handful of these techniques will work for you.
The first thing you will want to do when it comes to advertising is generating a lead. You will have far more success generating a lead than promoting your products or services in an ad. When you generate a lead, you gain their contact information. Use their information to send out quality reports or another free offer that they can take advantage of. This is the first step to advertising success.
The next thing that you will want to do is carve out a niche for yourself. If you own a bakery, carve out a niche and cater to those customers who love cupcakes. If you’re an auto-mechanic, instead of servicing all kinds of cars, serve only Honda vehicles. Because the people who only drive Hondas will flock to your place of business. Because of this niche and affinity to the marketplace, you can charge more for your services because you have virtually no competition.
Once you’ve carved out a niche for yourself, it’s time to market your product or service. One proven medium that’s been proven to work for many business owners is the Yellow Pages. Even though the Yellow Pages is filled with blocks of crammed ads, you should still structure your efforts of generating a lead and following upon them.
With the Yellow Pages, you still have to advertise your business effectively, so don’t forget the tips in this article. First, use a free offer to entice your prospects, gather their contact information, and send out the report or free offer that they requested. If you can follow this technique, you’ll see endless profits.
The last thing that I would like to share with you is to use a different array of marketing techniques to get your message out to the masses. Don’t just do paid advertising. Instead, implement free marketing techniques that can help lower the cost of making a sale. A great tool that you can use is the Internet. There are many ways to market your business online, and I suggest you take
advantage of them today.
What to do if your ad isn’t working?
When you write an ad, how can you tell that it’s working or not? Well, the most obvious way to tell is by looking at the number of phone calls or website signups that you get (that is, assuming that you’re using direct response marketing). But if your ad isn’t generating any kind of response, then it’s time to analyze it.
The first that you should check on is the headline. Your headline can either make or break your ad. It takes a true pro to write an effective headline, but it’s a skill that you can learn how to do also. If you want to write a compelling headline, the best thing that you can do is to get out a sheet of paper and a pencil and write out the headlines of world-famous ads. This will give you an idea of what the copywriter thought when he wrote that ad.
One thing to check for in your headline is whether it’s relevant. Your headline should focus on the wants and needs of your prospects, and they should be able to understand what you’re saying immediately. This can be tough if you’ve never studied copywriting, but it’s something that you can learn how to do.
Make sure your headline pokes at the fact that what you’re offering your prospect is extremely beneficial. Next, research your target market and structure your headline around the biggest complaint that people in your niche say. This part of the process is easy. You can easily find others in your target market in forums on the internet.
No matter how you find your prospect, be sure to proceed with your best effort. You don’t want to waste your prospect’s time with a lousy offer. Instead, give them something for free in exchange for their contact info. After you’ve gotten their info, you can follow up on your lead with a complete sales pitch.
If you can, in your ad, show them the benefits of responding to you. Tell them that their free offer will be mailed out to them within the next 24 hours and that they should be able to receive it soon in the mail. Give them the benefits of your free offer and how your free report can help them to achieve their goals.
This is how you will receive a receptive ear and will be looked upon as someone helpful. People will continue to want to do business with you, and this is how you will make more money in your business. Whatever you do, don’t try to sell your offer in the ad itself. These are known as 1-step ads and they are highly ineffective for your business.
If you want to have the most success with your ads, simply follow the tips listed in this article. Make sure your headline is capable of turning on-lookers into warm prospects. This is the only way to market your business, and I can assure you that it will be more than profitable if you generate a lead first. Make sure your headline speaks to the hearts and minds of your readers, and you will gain a “liking” in the marketplace.
Which marketing strategy allows you to kick back and relax?
Are you looking for ways to stop spending a lot of time on marketing so that you can sit back and enjoy your business profits? I’m sure you do because the purpose of being in business is to have free time and enjoy life with your friends and family.
I can remember when I first started; I spent so much time marketing the business that I had little to no time to have fun. And then, on top of that, the marketing that I was doing was ineffective!
Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure you enjoy your business and life so that you don’t grow miserable in the process. To help you do that, I want to share with you some of my favorite offline marketing strategies that can help to boost your business into the stratosphere. Let’s look at strategy number 1.
Joint ventures
Do you know what a joint venture (or JV) is? A joint venture is simply a partnership where two businesses come together and promote each other’s products and services to their list. The best news about joint ventures are that they’re free, and you get access to a mailing list that you never would have discovered without the partnership.
The bottom line is that people engage in joint ventures every day. Even if you think you don’t have a product or list that could be of any more use to you – you can strike up easy partnerships just by mailing out a simple letter. Yes, it all begins with a proposal letter, and this letter must captivate and make your potential partner exciting.
Let’s take a look at another strategy that you can use to lighten your marketing chores.
Newspaper advertising
Newspaper advertising comes in 2 forms. The first one is the hard-hitting, straight to the print ad. And the other way is the advertorial. Of course, each has its pros and cons, but if you know how and when to use both techniques, you can get a lot more foot traffic into your business than you currently have now.
I like running display ads in newspapers because you can get many responses when you do it right. The trick is to focus on response. Don’t do advertising that tries to get your name out there. Instead, offer a 1-800 number that your prospects can call for your free offer, or lead them to your website for more information.
These are just two tactics out of many that can earn you more money in your business. Make it a point to research more advertising sources and how they can make you even more profitable.
I highly recommend you use these two techniques in your business. You should incorporate a bit of internet marketing in your business also. Marketing online allows you to get leads for free, and it will help lower your average cost of acquiring a customer.
An internet lead is incredibly good – because they have to jump through hoops just to get on your list. So make good use of these leads so that you can earn more while doing less.
