Have you noticed a serious phenomenon these days? There are just too many choices and not enough time! We’ve come a long, long way from back in the days of Henry Ford and automobiles. Back then, if you bought a Ford you could choose any color you wanted—as long as it was black!
Nowadays you can get any color under the sun—and then some! Well, marketing seems to fall into that sinkhole also. You can choose any marketing flavor you want. Problem is most business owners haven’t got a clue what really works and what doesn’t work.
Now let me say, I’m a fan of choices. It’s a beautiful thang. Over four years of my life was spent in the military and like buying a Ford in the early days, you could get any color you wanted—as long as it was military.
Let me ask you a question. . . . Is your marketing efforts really paying off? In not then you may want to pay close attention to this short article.
As you can image your choices for getting the word out about your business are nearly endless. You can advertise in local and nation magazines, trade publications, local “freebie” shoppers and your local newspaper . . . and that just print publications.
Turn the page and you can tape practically an unlimited amount of electronic press. In fact many of the paper versions of the flavors listed above are also available in electronic format.
The key to effective marketing is finding stuff that works. Any business owner, including yours truly, wants the maximum results for the least amount of cost.
Here’s a quick guide to help you get more bang for the buck for your advertising dollars spent.
Let’s start with the basics.
If you are advertising for the sake of advertising, you’re screwing up . . . BIG TIME! Yeah, these are harsh words but so true (you can thank me later). This sort of waste is called traditional or industry advertising.
My plea is simply this: STOP IT RIGHT NOW.
Start using direct response advertising. Why? Because it’s good for you. It helps grow your bottom line swell like a tsunami. What I’m saying is that it does seriously boost your bottom line. Get it right and you’ll soon be smiling all the way to the bank quicker than a speeding bullet.
Simply put direct response advertising is designed to produce an action or a response. Hey, that’s why it’s called direct response (not isn’t that clever).
Here are a few other benefits. You instantly loose the waste and guesswork that is found in traditional advertising. You know with scientific certainty if your marketing efforts pay off or not.
You see, in direct response advertising you typically key your ads. You know what ad ran in what media at what time, hence the word key. And you log your keyed results.
Test time. I know when I was in school I hated tests. Then a funny thing happened . . . later in life . . . much later: I fell in love with tests especially pertaining to my marketing efforts.
I’ve harped on the notion that all and I mean ALL marketers such be testing there advertising. Testing plays a key (there goes that word “key” again) part of the success of any given advertisement or marketing campaign.
So what do you test? You can test nearly every aspect of your marketing campaign or advertising. Test headlines. Test your lead paragraph. Test your close or call to action. Test your offer. Test the media that you are using. Test the time you run your ad. You get the point.
You keep testing until you find that illusive control. And boy when you do find that control beautiful things start to happen (namely profits boost through the roof).
A control in advertising lingo is known as an ad which produces the absolute best of the best results. These results could be a maximum number of new leads obtained, maximum sales directly from the ad, or store or website traffic. You get the idea. But again, the only way you’ll ever find that elusive control is by . . . tah-dah . . . testing.
So there you go. Get your lab coat, notebook and pencil and let the test begin!
Collection efforts. Most mail order companies and smart marketers like you collect the contact information of the leads they get. Hey, after all you’ve invested a lot time, money and effort getting little puppies into your marketing funnel. So, doesn’t it make sense to capture this information?
At an absolute minimum you should get the prospect’s name and mailing address, including email contact if possible.
So what in the world would you want to go to the trouble and time to collect all of this contact info of your prospects and customers? Gold! Yeah, that’s right Gold!
There’s gold in them thar names. You know (or should know) you are not going to sell everyone on the first attempt. So contact them again . . . and again . . . and again!
Consider this fact: Each and every customer you acquire has what’s called a lifetime value. For example, let’s say that your average customer spends on average $125, five times a year and sticks with you for three years.
That makes the lifetime value of your average customer worth approximately $1875. Therefore you could invest up to $1875 to acquire that customer.
We humans are preoccupied with all sorts of stuff going on in our lives . . . Susie has a soccer game, Johnny is wanting to have friend over to spend the night, Wifey wants you to get that “honey do” list completed, then take her out for supper . . . and God only knows what else lurks in your life.
The point is we are busy. So contacting your prospect only once is a total waste of time and money. Again, get the most bang for your buck by touching base at least seven times within an 18 month period.
But if you don’t have their contact information then you’re dead in the water.
Side note: Now if you want to get really fancy start collecting everything you can about your prospect. Find out what they books read, what shows of TV they watch, what are their buying habits, where they live, what political affiliation they belong to, what civic organizations they are members of and so on.
Finding all this stuff out really helps you to fine tune your marketing efforts like you wouldn’t believe . . . and can pay off handsomely. Simply put really knowing your clients and prospects helps you be able to walk in their shoes thus help build rapport and ultimately make sales.
I hope these couple of ideas will fuel your thoughts and help you become a more profitable marketer.
If you have a marketing or advertising questions or project you need help, please drop me a quick email and describe your project. I’ll give you a no cost, no obligation consultation. You are welcomed to contact me at: mailto:[email protected]
Warmly,
Emette