![]() |
Marketing Information | |
| Domain Names | E Books | Email Marketing | Ezine Marketing | |||
| Internet Marketing | Marketing | PPC Advertising | SEO | |||
| Traffic Building | Web Design | Web Development | Web Hosting | |||
|
| ||||
How Important is Your Marketing?
Bob called last week from Phoenix, Arizona with some stunning news about his web site. He first contacted me in the fall of 2003. He had a web site that was helping him generate a healthy income but he sensed he could be doing even better. He wanted to get more visitors to his web site and get more of them to contact him about his retail liquidation services. Are you interested in getting more prospects to your web site and prompting more of them to contact you? Over the two months I worked with Bob to help him clearly define his target market, identify the problem he solves, and clarify his marketing message. We improved the copy on his web site and the structure of his web pages to prompt more people to contact him. I showed him how to write articles and use them to generate a steady stream of visitors to his site. Bob was happy with the results of these changes, but I wasn't. He was getting more visitors to his site and more inquiries, but I thought there was potential for even more growth. I knew that Bob could be doing better if he would just change his marketing message. Despite my best efforts to persuade, cajole and prompt him to rethink how he talked about what he did, Bob was happy with his existing marketing message. Prior to working with me, Bob had spent ten years regularly experimenting with his marketing message and had found a sentence that generated the best response he'd ever had. It was working; he was keeping busy, making money and didn't want to mess with success. We finished our work together almost a year ago, so I was surprised when Bob called last week. It turns out that he hadn't stopped experimenting. He had taken my advice to heart after all and been fine-tuning his marketing message so that it described the problem he solves for his clients clearly and concisely. With this new marketing message at the top of his web page, Bob is getting 3 times the number of inquiries about his services. That's 300% more people who know the problem he solves and who are contacting him about his services. How much more could you be making if you had 3 times as many people contact you about your products and services? When your prospects are considering a purchase, they are looking to solve a problem. They might want to eliminate back pain, fund their child's college tuition, sell off their excess inventory quickly so they have more operating cash on hand, as in Bob's case. In every case your prospect has a problem or need that prompted their purchase. Your prospects are hoping you can help them. They're hoping you have the solution to making them happier, smarter and richer. They are buying the result you provide. When a prospect meets you or visits your web site, the first item they should see is a statement of the problem you solve. Your prospects then immediately know whether you can help them. Why is your marketing message - your elevator speech - and the way you talk about what you do so important? At ten to twelve words long, your marketing message won't cover all the problems you solve, establish your credibility or the value you provide. But if the first thing you say to a prospect doesn't get their attention, they won't stay at your web site, read the rest of your marketing materials or listen to the rest of what you have to say. Bob spent over a decade experimenting to find a marketing message that helped him generate a steady income and then in a few months discovered he could improve on it by three hundred percent. Don't wait ten years to do the same with your marketing. Write, test and use a problem solving marketing message and more people will contact you about your products and services. 2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. - The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Strategy eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
RELATED ARTICLES
Secret of Strategy - Part 1 A step-by-step guide to creating a growth strategy based on your current situation and future possibilities. I'll bet you think you already have a strategy. Marketing as a Spiritual Practice II: Unearthing Your Potential Marketing as we know it is over. Done. Lessons Learned at the Harvard Business School "If God wanted to create a perfect punishment for a high achiever, then He would have that person manage a professional service firm," says Professor John Gabarro of the Harvard Business School.Gabarro is on the faculty of the Leading Professional Service Firms program, an intensive, one-week executive education program taught twice a year at the Harvard Business School. The 5 Musts of Marketing For most of the small business owners I work with, marketing has become the equivalent of a four-letter word. Inevitably, when I ask the question, "Do you have a marketing plan?" or "What marketing activities do you engage in?" I get the full gamut of responses from the proverbial deer in the headlights stare, to a vociferous, "I hate marketing, it's the least favorite part of my business!"After years of witnessing this reaction, and learning a bit about modern marketing, I'm starting to understand why traditional marketing is perceived and experienced as a necessary evil and avoided like a root canal. Loyalty Cards Systems - Beware, Some Should Be Avoided Recently, I discussed a loyalty card system with a vendor who was selling quite a number of his systems to restaurants. I was shocked to discover the lack of detailed information that this vendor catered for, and the opportunities the system he provided squandered. Marketing Miracles - Do They Just Happen? A simple answer to that is: Yes, Marketing Miracles happen! But, these marketing miracles do not just happen. The process is not instant. 25 Ways To Make Your Next Direct Mail Campaign Work This list contains 25 powerful strategies to improve your direct mail results. It would be wise to use this as a checklist to ensure you've included as many as possible in your advertising. What Your Customers Want Your customers don't know what they want. And to assume otherwise is folly. The Use of Bar Code SMS in Mobile Marketing, Advertising, CRM Anybody that frequents shopping malls are familiar with the bar coding systems used by retailers to ease the line at the pay points. No more long lines at the till as the operator just pulls the product past the scanner and voila - the buyer pays and are on their way. Painless Marketing for People Who Hate to Market Face it?you know you've got to do something to keep a steady stream of clients coming to your professional service firm. But when it comes to the m-word (marketing), you'd rather not. Successful Surveys: 10 Tips for Better Results Why would you use an email or online survey when you could simply call your clients and customers and ask for their input?Lots of reasons.- standardization - easy to get large numbers of responses - easy to tabulate, analyze - easy (and often fun) for your clients and customers - inexpensive - non-intrusive - time-efficient (for you, and for your clients and customers) - protect your customers' anonymity (if important) - professional - no "cold calls" - no answering machines!And have you figured out how long it would take to have 100 fifteen-minute conversations instead? (I don't have to do the math to know that it's WAY too long!)So in this article, I'm going to talk surveys. Wife's Marketing Prowess Helped Edison See the Light It is well known that Thomas Edison was an inventor, a genius, and he never slept. Did you know that Mrs. 4 Ways to Get a Prospects Attention Fast Can you remember the last dozen advertising messages beamed at you today? Can you remember even one of them? Most people can't.This illustrates a major obstacle you need to overcome before you can successfully promote your product or service. Postcards Work What's the fastest, simplest and cheapest way to promote just about any business?The answer is postcards sent by direct mail. You can get your message to a targeted group of prospects or to your existing customers for a cost of about 25 to 30 cents each including postage. Want to Increase Your Business? First You Need to Understand where You are at! Are you having trouble understanding basic situational marekting concepts? Then this article is for you.Alex Margarit shows you a simple step by step way on how to put together a basic situational analysis. Radio Ads That Get Results Radio advertising can be a small business's best friend. It's relatively inexpensive, very effective, and allows you to target your audience pretty specifically. Incentives For Customers? Whats New? Lost & Found for the 21st CenturyHere in the 21st century our lives have become more and more reliant on mobile items. As we go through our days, keeping a mental log of everything we have and where we have it becomes more and more difficult. Eight No Cost Ways to Market Your Business Are you trying to promote your business with a tiny marketing budget? Opportunities are plentiful for low or no cost marketing. Here are a few that won't cost you a cent. Fax Marketing : Reaching a New Niche of Customers Traditional marketing and advertising assumes that all of your customers are traditional people. Even newer technologies like email assume that the best way to reach people is when they are at their computers. Getting Your Marketing Message Across with CD Business Cards CD Business cards allows any type of business that dynamic look. Hand out your business card on disc and see the expression on your clients faces. |
| Domain Names | E Books | Email Marketing | Ezine Marketing | |
| Internet Marketing | Marketing | PPC Advertising | SEO | |
| Traffic Building | Web Design | Web Development | Web Hosting |
|
Home | Site Map | Traffic Building
| Free
Classified Ads | Free-For-All
Ads | Reciprocal
Links | Search
Engines | |
| Copyright © 2006-2007. The Highland Marketing Group. All Rights Reserved. |
|