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| Promoter vs. Marketer |
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Here is a quick quiz: 1) Do your marketing campaigns typically have one step? 2) Do you frequently move from one marketing tactic to another? 3) Do you frequently wonder why that email, postcard, or fax blast didn’t produce any results? If so, you might be a promoter. There is a big difference between the two. Here’s why… Your prospects are bombarded daily with marketing and advertising messages. Me too promotional sales and one shot pony campaigns don’t work, and they don’t generate results. Educating your prospects, taking the long term view of cultivating a relationship and truly differentiating yourself is critical. Especially with social network and the ADD induced state most of your prospects find themselves in… They can’t pay attention to the road while texting, let alone long enough to pay attention to your one time promotion… It isn’t quite as easy building a true marketing strategy, but well worth the results. You have a choice. Build a proven marketing system that works, or continue being a promoter wondering why you can’t generate more revenue for your small business. Sometimes a little straight talk is called for…:) To your success, Matt |
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Tags: | Creative “Tip” To Generate More Referrals |
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Committed? Ok, good… This is a lead generation tip I picked up recently from The Referral Engine by John Jantsch. I believe this tip is so powerful every business needs to add this to their marketing system. Here are the steps: 1) Write a quick letter to your top 10-15 clients, and tell them you are starting a professional referral network. You have selected them as the 10-15 you trust to refer business. Let them know that to participate they need to refer 10 professionals they trust as well to join the network. 2) Create a referral page on your blog or website. Add all of the contacts and links on your referral page for everyone to participate. An email inviting everyone to do the same on their websites or blogs would be even more powerful. 3) The last step is marketing to your customers. The best way to get leads flowing your way is to give first. I would send an email out to your customer base announcing your “trusted” referral network if they are looking for professionals in your area. Imagine if you had 100 people in your referral network. Powerful! Even if you are in an existing referral group like LeTip or BNI, this is an extremely powerful addition to your network. After reading this tip, I have already sent my letters and will be building my resource page as well of professionals I trust to refer business. If you want to be in my referral network, let me know. Have a great day! ~Matt |
| Marketing Tip: Market Research Using Yelp |
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The beauty of Yelp.com and other social search websites is that you can read real authentic reviews from prospects just like yours. Why is that important you say? Well, first off you can find out potentially what customers are saying about your competitors. Do a search and find out. If you can’t find your competitors, search lateral markets and get a sense of what consumers like and dislike. If you find that your competitor is getting beat up for always being late, guess what…You may want to focus on responsiveness and timeliness. If you are a plumber, and the complaints are about leaving messes to clean up. Guess what…Again, focus on how your crew is the cleanest in town. By all means don’t just go out there saying you do stuff and don’t actually follow through. If you have to tweak your operations first, it may be required. But you get my point…Here’s the real nugget. What I want you to do is start searching using keywords from your industry. Open up a text editor on your computer and start reading, copying and pasting the comments and reviews from Yelp or other Social Search sites. After you have compiled a good set of information, (both good and bad reviews) you are ready to dive a little deeper. Make a list of the things they like and dislike. If Bob the landscaper is always on time, note down timeliness. But more importantly, highlight the EXACT phrase they use to describe what they like or don’t like. This is the nugget. When you are marketing to your suspects and prospects you need to use THEIR language to describe their problem and the solution. NOT your words. Yelp and other sites are perfect for this because you can literally use the words right out of their mouth to create your headlines, blog copy, direct mail, and even email campaigns. With the power of Social Media, you have enough market research ammo in Yelp alone to keep you busy for a bit. So get out there and…Target, Attack, and Profit! Cheers, Matt |
| 3 Tips To Jumpstart Your Referral Engine |
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If you are like most small business owners I speak with, one of their primary sources of leads is word-of-mouth and referrals. After studying the main differences in those businesses that excel at word-of-mouth, I have come up with some conclusions that will more than likely help you business as well. Here are three (3) tips to Jumpstart your referral engine: Tip # 1 – Expect Referrals – If you do such an insanely good job for your clients, why wouldn’t you expect them to refer you? I am shocked how little business owners ask for a referral. If you start expecting referrals as a component of doing business with you, I think you will be surprised with the results. A little “law of attraction” never hurts. Tip # 2 – Create A Referral System – I think one problem we all run into is that we don’t integrate referrals into our overall marketing and sales process. This includes making statements like, “My job is to make you so excited about the job I did, that you will refer 3 others that need my product or service”. Or, you may have an ongoing internal marketing campaign highlighting recent work you did, then ask if they know of any others that might need your assistance as well. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive. Your clients are busy. Many times it takes a gentle nudge to remind them you exist and how you can assist others. Tip # 3 – Give First! – One powerful referral tactic is to focus on being the “connector”. If you aren’t part of an existing networking group, start your own database of those you can refer business. When you find a prospect or client that needs another businesses product or service give a referral. By taking the first step and referring business, you will build good will and reciprocity when the opportunity arrives to refer you business. You can also use this technique if you desire a relationship with a potential partner. Seek out opportunities for THEM, then open the conversation talking about how you can help them with their efforts FIRST. Then, start building the relationship to feed your referral engine. Have a great weekend! Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
| Less Marketing = More Leads (really?) |
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As Americans we like to subscribe to the theory of bigger is better, but that isn’t always true when it comes to marketing. Especially today, in the age of Social Media and total transparency. You can’t just hit a button and SPAM someone with 50 Tweets, or 10 emails in a week and expect the leads and sales to roll in. It just doesn’t work that way. I see this time and time again. The tools are so efficient, that is is almost TOO EASY to post the comment, send the email, blast the Tweets, and business owners forget about the best interest of their prospect. They only think of their own need, before putting their prospects and their needs first. Where less is actually more… What if, you actually gave your best stuff away. All your secrets, pulled out all the stops and just gave it away. This is often referred to as moving the “Free Line”. Basically to say that when marketing to your ideal client, you should be giving them the best content you have. Help them solve their biggest and hairiest problem. Maybe it through an email, your blog, or maybe you crank a quick video out. But help them solve their biggest problem related to your product or service, or your industry. Wait a second, that’s my “secret sauce” you say… I know, it seems counterintuive but that’s hwo you build trust. You want your ideal client to say Holy Cow, if they are GIVING this kind of content away, I wonder what it would be like to be a client. And that’s where you build your authority and position yourself as an expert. So, back to less marketing… Don’t stop marketing, but make sure every interaction, post, and piece of content is the best stuff you have. Do a quick inventory of all the marketing you do and make sure it solves a problem. One key warning sign is if all of your marketing talks about YOU and not your prospect. Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
| Does Your Marketing Suck? |
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I have heard this many times from friends and other small business owners. “My Marketing sucks but…”. But what? The problem I have with that statement is that I have a firm belief we are all marketing businesses at the core. Regardless of what you sell, or service you deliver. You could be an accountant, technician, or caterer…Doesn’t matter in my book, we are all marketing businesses. So what happens when you declare and then dismiss that your marketing sucks? In my book, you are making a very bold statement to yourself and your employees that you don’t take the growth of your business seriously. You may have a desire to grow your business, but your actions aren’t congruent with your marketing efforts. When I hear this statement, what I now hear is that the business owner doesn’t have time. That they are too busy. There are so many tactics that they don’t know where to start. They start one tactic after another without a strategy behind their efforts. This has never been more true with Internet marketing, Social Media, and all the other bright and shiny marketing tactics available to us. If you are stuck, and maybe even paralyzed in the “marketing sucks” mode, here are three (3) tips that might just get you out of it. 1) Find The Path – Take 30 minutes and write down all of the paths your current customers took to find you. This will do two things. One, it will help you identify those efforts that don’t suck and are working now. Two, it will help you focus on the 20% of your effort that is getting you 80% of your results. If you are a new business, this might not take you very long but it is still worth the exercise. 2) Create A Simple One Month Plan – While I do recommend you create a complete marketing plan, one good way to jump start your efforts is a simple one month plan. Chart out one thing you can do consistently in the next month to market your business. An example is make a habit to write in your blog and promote it once a week. Start getting some momentum and build on it. You will be surprised how fast this can build and kick you out of the “my marketing sucks” mode. Remember, what you focus on expands… 3) Create Habits – Make marketing a habit. Build on the success in your first month, and make it a habit in your marketing system. Focus on adding one habit at a time. In one year, you will have a system. Many of the smaller tactics when done consistently will surprise you. One blog post, one sales letter, one newsletter at a time. Break it into small manageable pieces, and you will see results. Us Entrepreneurs have a tough time sometimes with the marathon. Remember that the only way to eat an Elephant is one piece at a time… Have a successful week! ~Matt |
| What Is vs. What Should Be |
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Not to mention balancing family life. I know you can relate… We often times get stuck in the “What Should Be” vs. “What Is” mode. We start looking at things through rose colored glasses, especially when it comes to our marketing efforts. Many small businesses stop measuring and just sit back and assume that leads will pour in. Sound familiar? You launch a one off promotional effort, then wonder why the heck you aren’t getting any leads. The copy was killer, the graphics were spectacular, and still little or nothing in return. When you start looking at “What Is” you start doing things like measuring your results. You look at how each marketing dollar is returning value to your bottom line. You stop “wishing” that leads would come in, and you start actively getting on with testing, tweaking, and seeing results. You stop doing one time promotional efforts, and you build a marketing plan and marketing system. Marketing is a contact sport. You have prospects that you have to move into motion and take action from a dead stop most times. You need to capture their interest, create desire, and then get them off their a@@ to take the next step with your product our service. I’m gonna bet that you are spending time or money in areas that are promotional that you aren’t getting any results from. You keep “wishing” (there’s that word again) that some day that ad will yield results. Again, What Should be vs. What Is. I am as optimistic as you, and quite honestly don’t enjoy what is all the time. But quite frankly there really isn’t a choice. “Should” isn’t going to help you reach your dreams and your goals in your business. Now… Go Target, Attack, and Profit.
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