| 1.
Stop Doing the One-Step.
95% of the advertising used by small business owners is based on the
One-Step strategy.
The marketing piece tries to sell the product or service in one, quick
and easy step. There's a description of the product, perhaps a picture of
the owner, with a brief description of the product. There may be a few
bursts about how long they've been in business, how many awards they've won,
etc. At the bottom of the ad, flyer, e-mail or letter is a phone number with
the line 'call for more information.'
Few people respond to these types of One-Step ads. They are huge money
wasters. If you're doing the one-step, you already know they don't work --
stop using them immediately.
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2.
Do the Two-Step:
People buy things they want from people they know, like and trust. You can't
get people to know, like and trust you in a One-Step ad.
Instead, use the Two-Step strategy.
- Step One, attract hundreds, even thousands, of prospects by offering free
information. In other words, use your initial marketing as a lead generator,
not a sales generator.
- Step Two, build a Prospect List of follow-up information -- name,
address, phone, e-mail, etc. -- from all of the prospects that responded to
your first step, and follow up with them repeatedly with enticing offers.
It sounds like a simple idea, and it is. But while it is the most
powerful marketing technique available, few business owners use it.
With just this one technique we have helped our clients double, triple
even quadruple the size of their businesses.
This simple tactic has helped us grow our home-based, Internet business
from nothing just two years ago, to well over $100,000 a year. Our goal of
$200,000 per year will probably be achieved over the next 12 months. And it
has all been done on a shoestring budget!
There's no reason why you can't do the same thing. Maybe your goal isn't
to make a hundred thousand a year from your small business. That's okay.
Perhaps you just want to make a few hundred extra dollars each month. You
can use these step-by-step systems to make any amount you want.
It doesn't matter what kind of business you have. The simple strategy and
systems work for service businesses, product based businesses, home-based
businesses, Internet businesses, even traditional brick and mortar
businesses.
3.
Re-Instate Past Customers:
One of our clients had lost hundreds of customers over the years. They just
stopped coming back. We helped him write a simple, one-page letter telling
his past customers that he missed serving them and would really like to have
them back. He included an Appreciation Gift Certificate. Within 4 weeks, 20%
were coming back to his business regularly again. It didn't take much -- he
just let them know that their business was important to him.
4.
Do a Joint Venture:
Team up with someone who has the same types of customers as you, and do a
joint venture. We helped a real estate agent put on a Home-Buying workshop
with a banker, and they both generated new customers through the effort.
You could do a joint mailing with another business to share the costs. If
you both have a customer list, she could endorse your products or services
to her customers, and you could do the same for her. You both would gain new
customers from each others lists.
5.
Follow Up Multiple Times with your Prospects:
We have had many clients that were throwing away thousands of dollars a year
in sales by simply failing to follow up with their prospects.
They assumed that if their prospects didn't buy the first day they called
for information, that they weren't worth any more of their time and effort.
What a waste!
We taught one client how to capture the names and addresses of her
prospects who called for information about her service, and put them into a
computer database.
Then every month, she printed labels from her database and sent all of
her prospects a flyer telling them about her latest offers. Her sales went
through the roof!
She learned a powerful lesson about people. We are not all ready to buy
at the same time. Some prospects buy immediately. Some need to be reminded
of your product or service offers two or three times, and still others may
not be ready to buy until you have followed up with them 8-10 times!
If you give up after the first contact, you are losing up to 80% of your
potential sales. And you're not just losing the value of their initial
sales, but you're also losing the combined value of their future sales!
We enter every one of our Prospects into our database -- that's over
45,000 prospects so far -- and we follow up with them all, several times a
month with our free newsletters. Some of our prospects become customers
after just a few follow-up newsletters, but most buy after receiving 8 or
more. If we didn't follow up over and over again with our prospects, our
sales would be a fraction of what they are.
Don't ever throw away prospect names and addresses, because they haven't
purchased after one or two follow- ups. When they are ready to become
customers, you want to be sure that you are uppermost in their minds.
6.
Attract New Customers with Free Samples.
Free samples are everywhere. When you watch a preview of a new movie, you're
receiving a free sample of that movie. Imagine Hollywood trying to sell
movie tickets without providing us with those free sample scenes!
A local popcorn vendor gives away small sample bags of his caramel
popcorn at summer festivals -- 60% of the samplers turn around and get in
line to pay for the full size bag!
A dental restoration client of ours was hesitant when we recommended that
he give away a free $100 dental restoration to prospective dentists. But
since we knew that his restorations were superior to his competitors, we
knew that many of those dentists would switch to his company as their
primary restoration supplier, after sampling his work. He made the offers,
and they loved his work. He tripled his business in 9 months.
These are marketing tactics that any business can begin to apply
immediately. Make a commitment to start growing your business today, and you
may be amazed at where it will be a year from now.
About the Author:
Joe & Maria Gracia,
of Give to Get Marketing at http://www.givetogetmarketing.com
.
Get your Free Marketing Idea-Kit, plus hundreds of free marketing tips,
articles and case studies to help you grow your business at the Give to Get
Marketing Web site.
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