Basic Marketing Dope

Sometimes the simplest data is the best. Marketing is not complex if you know the basics Ц thatТs true with anything by the way. Here are some tools that are brilliantly simple and with them you really wonТt have to sweat the small stuff.

Hot Dope #1) The more that your potential customers see your name in front of them, the more likely they are to call your number (and not someone elseТs) when they need the services you offer.

Many marketing efforts go unrewarded, not because they were off target but simply because they werenТt given enough of an opportunity to work. Showing your TV commercial one time, running an ad in the newspaper once, or doing one mailing of postcards may not be enough to grab and keep the audienceТs attention.

Get your name out there, do it on a regular basis and people will remember you when they need someone in your line of business. Actually, this particular УHot DopeФ cannot be stressed enough Ц and failure to adhere to it is the #1 reason new businesses fail.

You should also know that taking the time to really see which pieces will generate the response you want will pay off. DonТt just totally give up when a response is low Ц persistence is vital.

Hot dope # 2) Measure your Return On Investment (ROI) in terms of actual MONEY not response rate. An advertising vehicle is working when the MONEY that it brings in has more value than the MONEY and time that is spent on the marketing.

DonТt fall into the trap of becoming discouraged by a small number of callers responding to a large number of pieces. If you spend several hundred dollars to be in the view of a few thousand possible leads, it may only take a few customers responding for you to make enough of a profit for this type of marketing to be valuable. The usefulness of any vehicle can only be determined after the amount of income generated by the promotion has been calculated. If you spend 1/5 of what you generate or generate 5 times what you spend, your campaign was successful.

Hot dope #3) It is much easier to "sell" a prospect once you get them to call or come in to your store. In 2-Step Marketing, step 1 is to get them interested; step 2 is having them speak to a representative to get all the details Ц and get УclosedФ by that representative.

Your design must be eye catching and informative, but donТt try to close the sale by explaining all of the details in one piece of advertising. The details of a business transaction often take many more words to explain than the main concept of what is being sold. For example, if your company offers great prices depending on the quantity purchased, there is no need to list the prices for every quantity that you sell. Simply give examples of two or three different quantities and state somewhere in the advertisement that other discounts are available for other quantities. This will prompt them to call to get the rest of the details once you have gotten their interest.

Marketing can be as simple as 1-2-3 when you know the basics. By no means have I given you all the basics here, but by learning and implementing these 3 marketing fundamentals, you are already on your way to marketing success!

Backend Profit Secrets And Viral Marketing

Once you truly understand the power of backend profits, youТll explode your marketing results and create an unstoppable viral machine.

The techniques I will reveal to you have often been taught in many marketing courses and articlesЕbut they are still underutilized because of two words - Уtunnel vision.Ф

Backend profits means the additional income that you earn from a customer. The first purchase from a customer is the front end profits while the second purchase and so forth will be your backend.

The really good marketers understand that the most money will be made on the backend.

Here are a couple reasons why:

You can charge higher prices for backend products because youТve already built a relationship with your customer.

They already know the quality of your product and of your customer service. You no longer have to convince them that youТre credible and that your information is good.

You only have to convince them that your backend product is higher quality than your front end product and that they NEED the backend product.

Trust is one of the single most important components of selling. You can earn that trust by providing a good front end product.

Most marketers do not truly understand the power of the backend and thatТs a fact.

I know because I see very few affiliate programs which pay higher than 50% commission.

Think about this for a minute.

LetТs say you sell your product for $50 and you give 50% commission. You have 5 affiliates who each make 10 sales each.

You pocket $1,250 after paying commissions. You now have 50 customers. Five of them end up purchasing your $100 backend product for a profit of $500. Total profits is $1,750 for you.

Now letТs consider giving away 75% commission to your affiliates.

By giving away higher commissions, you get 10 affiliates instead of the 5. Ten affiliates making 10 sales each at $50 will make you $1,250 - which is the same front end profits as before.

Now you have 100 customers and make 10 backend sales for $1,000 profit.

So how did you end up making more when you increased your affiliate commissions by 25 percent? You made it on the backend.

HereТs what is happening behind the curtain as you increase your commissions.

You gain more affiliates and subscribers as those affiliates send you more traffic to your site.

Those affiliates are happier with their higher paycheck because you gave them higher commissions. Therefore, they will continue to send traffic to your site.

This cycle increases your traffic over time as you gain more customers, more affiliates and more subscribers.

ItТs the ultimate viral marketing machine!

More subscribers equal more profits. More customers equals more profits. More affiliates equals more profits.

So is all that worth a hit on your front end profits?

Yes!

The problem most people have is they canТt stand to see their affiliates making more than them. Tunnel vision keeps them from seeing all the extra subscribers, customers and affiliates which could be theirs.

Please remember one thing about running your affiliate program.

A 75% reduction in profits is better than a 100% reduction, which is the case if the affiliate had not made ANY sale.

In summary, you should create an affiliate program for your front end product which gives away a majority of the profits.

You should also spend your time creating multiple backend products.

If the type of product you're selling requires manual work and it's not worth it for you to give higher commissions then an option for you is to create a different front-end product which will serve as a portal into your product line.

Your main goal in creating an 'intro' product is to use it to gain more traffic to your site. When you get the traffic, you should capture as many prospects as you can into your marketing funnel.

When you have more leads in your marketing funnel, you can control where they go by directing them within your follow-up emails.

A Reality Check On Your Marketing Strategy

The 'Marketing Strategy' is the way we have come up with for achieving our marketing goals and it should include two mandatory elements:

- Which target consumers whom we can reach, hold a viable potential to buy whatever we intend to sell?

- What is the offer (the entire marketing mix) we will be presenting to these consumers in order to appeal to them and thus realize the said potential, given their alternatives?

You must not think of these as two separate questions but rather as two parts of the same idea. Let me clarify. What are "target consumers with a potential to buy"? These are consumers (a sizeable enough group with buying power) likely to desire what you are offering. Why would they want it? That is the potential that you are supposed to identify. There may be several reasons. For example, maybe they are not consumers of your kind of product yet, however, they might be if something happens, or if they are exposed to a certain message. It could be that they have special needs or preferences, which up until today were not catered to by any of your competitors' offers (and don't forget that psychological, social, aesthetic needs are real needs). Maybe they are bored with what they routinely buy. When you identify such a situation, you know that the potential is there.

Identifying potential is only the initial stage of your mission, of course. Your strategy would also have to include something that you are going to offer these consumers that might improve their situation in a certain way, solve a problem, give them more than what they already get for the same price, or open new opportunities for them. In short, something that will motivate them to buy from you and thus materialize the potential.

The 'Marketing Scenario' is a synopsis of the logic of your marketing strategy. In the same breath, it also enables you to make sure that that logic really works. The 'Marketing Scenario' translates the 'Marketing Strategy' to simple everyday language. How will it happen in reality? How will the materialization of marketing goals occur? I don't know whether or not you have already sunk in this fact, but marketing goals are achieved through customer acts. So, let's assume that we install a webcam with enhanced psychological insight capabilities inside the market and that it captures the materialization of our marketing plan, one purchase after another.

What is the 'Marketing Scenario'?

The 'Marketing Scenario' is an amazingly simple tool to use: Only four questions. Are you jotting this down?

1. Who are the people who we believe have the potential of buying what we intend to sell? Yes, these are the same people we so often refer to as the 'Target Consumers'. First, we must define our targets. What do these people have in common that makes them probable prospects (in the sense that they are likely to be particularly interested in our offer)? We could use demographic, socioeconomic, psychographic, as well as lifestyle descriptions. Note that at times, we target not a specific group but a wide almost indefinable group of people in a specific mood, a specific situation, or a specific need or state.
Make room for another possibility. You can target not a defined group of consumers but rather a state of need/desire or a consumption context shared by many diverse consumers at one time or another.

2. What precisely should they be doing (that they are not doing already and will probably not do if we will not intervene), that would direct them to eventually choose our brand specifically? It is, by the way, the first and only objective of branding. What do they have to do so that your marketing plan will materialize (even before the actual purchase)? Do they have to go somewhere? To call? To agree to meet your salesperson? To stop and pick out your product from the shelf? Which activity, which does not occur today, would lead them in the correct path on the way to buying?

3. What is the sound reason that should motivate them to change their behavioral inertia? How will they benefit from that change? Why would you, in their place, buy what you are offering? You can think of it as your differentiating factor (what makes you differentially better?), or as your competitive advantage (what makes you comparatively better?), according to your preference. What could make their situation better compared to their current standing and to the other options available to them in the market?

4. How exactly will they extract the benefit (that which answers question 3) according to your marketing plan? That is not a repeat question. Notice that the third question dealt with the 'why' of the target consumer's planned motivation, and now, we are trying to understand the 'how' of your marketing plan. How are you planning to provide the benefit defined in the answer to question 3? If, for instance, you said before that you are making something more accessible, easy or comfortable for them, now explain how it will become more accessible, easy or comfortable, due to you product.

Let us look at an example: The introduction of Palm Pilot to the market. O.K.? Just the main points:

1. "Residents" of the business community, gadgets fans, who manage a dynamic, constantly changing schedule, and have not yet embraced the electronic organizers, or were disappointed by them because of their being laborious to update and generally unreliable.
2. ... will step into the nearest office equipment store and ask about the Palm Pilot.
3. ... because at last there is an organizer which is not only sophisticated, small and wonderfully shaped, but is also easily kept up to date and preserves the stored data when damaged or when upgrading to a new model
4. ... because the Palm Pilot can 'converse' with the PC, making the updating process a simple task to perform, as well as enabling creation of backups which could be easily transferred on to the next generations of organizers.

That is what the 'Marketing Scenario' is all about. All you have to do is answer the questions. Be precise. Be thorough. Be honest. Do it in writing. Even if you're absolutely sure that the answers are positively clear to you and there's nothing to be gained. Only when your 'Marketing Scenario' is totally translated to a written text, should you go on and proceed with the brand development process. Otherwise, you will get trapped along the way, and don't say I didn't warn you.

A Look at the Marketing Potential of Booklet Printing

Need to advertise your products? Want to communicate your latest services? Businesses often look for ways to advertise their product in the most inexpensive means. Booklet printing is one of the answers to the high cost of brochure printing. Full color booklets are great for pamphlets, product booklets, annual reports, sales catalogs and consumer catalogs among others.

There is no doubt that color adds life to any printed material. It enhances its appearance, thus, making it an effective means of communication. A well chosen color for your booklet can mean the difference between a stirring material and a lousy piece of paper. Remember that your goal is to attract as many customers as possible and the right choice of color can help you do the job. Every time a customer takes hold of your booklet, it brings profit to your business and at the same time promotes your product to a larger audience.

Experts have said that full color increases name recognition and readership compared to black and white prints. The four colors namely cyan, magenta, yellow and black used in color printing creates many color shades that produce attractive print outs. When you use full color printing you may be able to achieve color consistency. The computer controlled inking and chemical mixing technique maintains consistent quality making full color printing the choice of most businesses. Keep in mind though that the more inks you use, the more expensive it is. So before you get a print job done, it is always a good idea to talk to your printer first. They can help you decide how many colors and which one to use in your print job to accomplish your goals.

Color printing can be very inexpensive especially if you use a standard weigh and color paper. Most printers today also have machines that can produce print jobs at faster turnaround time and lower prices. Remember also that the more you print, the lower the cost. So consider bulk buying if you need a lot of copies of your booklets to reduce the printing cost.

Nonetheless, the possibilities that your booklet can give your business are endless. Thus, designing it effectively can help boost your business and increase cash inflows. Whatever your choice of colors and design, with careful planning you will be able to make the most out of your budget.

A Great Logo Is A Marketing Must-Have. But Is It Affordable For Small Business?

And is having a logo really that important? My answer to both of these questions is an emphatic YES!

A logo is a graphic or visual representation of your brand. Your brand is your business, product or service and what it stands for. It's whatever you are out in the marketplace selling.

Why do small businesses need a logo?

Why can't they just market using their company name? Logos are expensive, right? Can a small business owner really afford to get a logo? Or at least a good logo? Lots of questions. Some I'm sure you've pondered yourself at one time or another.

I believe ALL businesses should have a logo

You need a graphic element that captures the essence of your business and communicates an idea to your prospects and customers. A mark that can lead the look and feel of all of your marketing materials.

You only have a split second to grab someone's attention

You need to make the most of that time. A good logo mark can communicate a message or intrigue a prospect to want to find out more.

Before you decide you can't afford a good logo

Let me assure you that is absolutely NOT the case. Look, I've been in the ad agency business for 20 years. During that time I've worked with some of the most talented graphic artists and designers in the business. But even I did not turn to them when I needed a logo for my small business. Why? I couldn't. They were simply too expensive for my small business budget. So what did I do? I found a great alternative that's inexpensive, fast and good.

LogoWorks

For $300 to $500 you'll get a variety of logo designs to choose from and you'll have them within just a few days. Plus you'll get several rounds of revisions to make sure you are completely happy with your final mark.

What I like most about Logoworks

They require you to complete a creative direction worksheet that ensures their designs are strategically on target with your brand. This is KEY if you want your logo to be a good representation of your business. If anyone offers to design a logo for you without some form of creative brief or direction worksheet, don't do it!

Avoiding Marketing Money Pits

Is your business bombarded by sales and other marketing professionals telling you that the products or services they are offering are in the best interest of effective and cost reducing methods to market your organization? Finding your way through the maze of offers, opportunities and avoiding potential money pits highlights the importance for all businesses regardless of size to have a strategic marketing plan that is implemented and followed.

It is a tough market place for any small business and information is the key to making wise marketing decisions and for the survival of any business or organization. The relevance of a strategic marketing plan can not be under stated. It is unfortunate but all to common that people under the disguise of professionals in marketing and sales will boast their products and services as the most effective and cost reducing methods to market your business. Additionally, by writing articles or giving lectures for example, they attempt to give their claims a form of legitimacy. Beware of people making extraordinary claims, a true professional wants to sell you their product or service but also retains the integrity to learn your business and knows when the product or service is not a good fit. The benefit for this type of sales or marketing professional is your loyalty and trust in future business transactions.

A strategic marketing plan helps a business to avoid potential money pits that waste valuable marketing dollars in expenditures that may appear to cost less but have minimal or no measurable results. Simply because something may cost less and other businesses are participating does not make it a solid marketing decision for your organization and certainly does not guarantee successful results. Regardless of the ticket price if it does not produce measurable results and drive business to your establishment it is a money pit.

There are many good examples on the internet of people under the disguise of professionals boasting their products or services as sound marketing advice. One of these claims is that a business could inexpensively build brand recognition through the purchase of low cost promotional items with the organizations name or logo embossed on them; items such as pens, tablets, calendars, magnets, and much more. The problem is that this technique offers minimal to no measurable success in brand building, but more importantly does nothing to draw new customers into the business.

In terms of simple math, if an advertising business were to spend the same money that would be spent on embossed promotional items in traditional media channels such as print, radio, or television for example with an expected 2% rate of return and a minimal exposure of 12,000 individuals gives the advertising business the opportunity for 240 customers for that expenditure. If only 30% of the 2% actually make a purchase that provides the business with 72 new transactions. A business can multiply its average transaction price by 72 to see the real potential income from this one marketing expenditure. Another benefit is brand awareness that would be gained through the advertisement and the opportunity to build customers for life. Furthermore, to entice repeat business and brand loyalty the organization can offer its customers coupons. This method promotes customer appreciation and can be a low cost marketing method.

Moreover, with any marketing expenditure a business should always perform a cost benefit analysis in correlation with its strategic marketing plan. Simply, if it does not offer measurable results, drive new business, and build brand awareness it is a money pit.

Automotive Marketing... The 3 Mistakes Everyone Makes Marketing To Car Dealers

When trying to sell a car dealer your products or services most sales are lost because of these 3 reasons.

The main reason that your sales are not where they should be is because most dealers never receive your message. Unless you are a huge company with an advertising budget in the millions most dealership owners and general managers will never see your message. Car Dealers are constantly bombarded with everything from window decals to water filtration systems and averages state that your prospect will have to see your message at least 7 times before they will have a favorable opinion about your products and services. How many times are your dealers seeing your message?

Another important point that happens in most campaigns is the message is too long. You must have copy that gets right to the point. If your message is 7 pages long and requires the prospect to spend 15 minutes reading it chances are they wont. Take a look at the length and see what points you really need to make. Most marketing and sales agents make the mistake of tyring to sell the prospect with their copy and adding in every little feature and benefit about their product. Instead offer a teaser approach and get them to contact you for additional information. This will allow you to focus on hot prospects while testing your marketing message.

The final reason that most campaign fail is not using enough marketing mediums to contact your prospect. We all know that an appointment with the decision maker offers the best opportunity to sell your product or service, but in the automotive marketing world we all know that is next to impossible. With the phone being the next best followed by direct mail and internet marketing. You must make an effort to use every form to reach your dealers. How many are you currently using?