Four keys to a successful marketing campaign

1) You must offer a product or service that people want.

This may seem obvious, and is just another way of saying, “You’ll have a very difficult time selling ice to Eskimos or down parkas to people in Equador.”  

It’s amazing how many business people keep pounding their heads against the wall trying to persuade people to want their wonderful product.  Those businesses are not around long.

The greatest marketing plan and salesmen in the world won’t succeed in selling products people don’t want.  This is why your product development people must also be marketers. 

The product or service you are selling is critical to your marketing.  The #1 rule of successful marketing is: If you offer people what they want, you eliminate the need for salesmanship.
 

2) You must have an attention-getting, compelling message that distinguishes you from your competitors .

People are bombarded all day long with messages—TV ads, radio ads, junk mail ads, and Internet ads.  You must have a message that stands out.  You must have a message that gets the attention of those who would want your product if they knew about it.

People are bombarded all day long with messages—TV ads, radio ads, junk mail ads, and Internet ads.You must have a message that stands out.You must have a message that gets the attention of those who would want your product if they knew about it.
3) You must have a way to find those who want what you are offering.

 If you have no way to systematically and precisely find those who would want your product or service if they knew about it, your business will have a very tough time surviving.  You must match your message to those who will be interested in hearing your message.

You must have a “Message to Market Match.”  This is just another way of saying you need a list of qualified prospects or leads, or you need a way of compiling such a list. 

4) You must have a cost-effective delivery system for your message.

Delivery tools at your disposal for getting your message out include: direct mail, email, radio ads, TV ads, newspaper and magazine ads, ads on the Internet, the telephone, the Yellow Pages, classified ads, seminars, webinars, teleconferences, books, special reports, newsletters, business cards, bulletin boards, signs, and even the door-to-door sales calls (which we want to avoid).  And there are countless variations within these categories. 

You will need to choose  . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

The most cost-effective advertising on earth

Your business card can and should be a powerful marketing tool.

Unfortunately, most business cards are snoresville and make no impression whatsoever. They just get tossed out or thrown in a drawer with everyone else’s business card, never to see the light of day again.

You want your business card to look professional, but turn it into a piece that your prospects will want to keep around and refer to. Include all the basic information: company name, logo, your name, phone numbers, email address and website address.

Make your website address jump out above all else, because the website is today’s brochure. And, because you are now a master marketer, your website is not like other websites. It’s a multi-media PowerPoint presentation.

Be sure to include the toll-free number for your Free Recorded Message, which should also jump out. Your business card might include an ad on the back for a free special report for all who call the toll-free number to listen to the Free Recorded Message.

The point is, don’t make your business card look like everyone else’s card.

We don’t live in the 1950s anymore.  This is the 21st Century. You’ll be giving your business card to your very best leads, people you’ve actually met. Make your business card a piece people won’t throw away or toss in a drawer. 

For some kinds of services and businesses  (carpet cleaning, plumbing, lawn care, handyman work, office products, florists, caterers, pizza delivery, other home delivery services, and many more) consider making your business card a magnet that will stick to a refrigerator. 

Today you can have a business card with a chip that can contain a 30 second recorded message from you. The card includes a printed dot that says “Press Here.” The recorded message will then play. When ordered in quantity, you can have these cards made for about $1 apiece, not a whole lot more expensive than a regular business card — but one that will deliver a whole lot more bang for the marketing dollar spent.

You can also make your business card a fold-over card, a kind of mini-booklet brochure that can contain more information.  What if you combined all these elements in your business card? It’s a card, a fold-over, two-panel mini-brochure, a refrigerator magnet and includes a recorded message.

Don’t worry about looking hokey with such a business card. People will love it and admire you for your ingenuity and creativity.  People will want to do business with someone so smart, interesting and different. You’ll see people playing with your business card, listening to the recorded message on your business card over and over again and showing it to others. 

Very few people will throw away such an unusual talking business card.  Your card will be a novelty, a conversation starter.  It will become the center of attention, passed around at parties.

Your business card should be a stunning attention-getter . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

Understand what you are really selling

You cannot write an effective sales letter or message until you answer one question. This question is: “What am I really selling?”

Am I selling cosmetics?  Or am I selling the hope of the reader becoming irresistible to men? 

Am I selling clothes?  Or am I selling a transformed life that will lead to romance and success?

Am a selling a car?  Or am I selling excitement, comfort, and an image for the driver?

Am I selling refrigerators?  Or am I selling fewer trips to the grocery store because of all the added space, plus dramatically improving the appearance of the kitchen because of the fine cherry wood paneling?

Am I selling vacations?  Or am I selling an experience that the reader and her children will remember for the rest of their lives?

Am I selling gym memberships with treadmills and weights?  Or am I selling a new body that will make male readers attractive to women and give them a longer, healthier life?

Am I selling a seminar?  Or am I selling a way to give those who enroll an advantage over their peers and competitors that will last a lifetime?

Is Starbucks selling coffee?  Or is Starbucks selling an experience, a place to hang out, and even a social life?

Are florists selling roses?  Or the easiest way for a guy to get back on the good side of his wife or girlfriend?

Is the phone company selling communications equipment?  Or a way to stay connected with friends and loved ones?

Understanding exactly what it is you are really selling will improve the results of your  . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart
DirectMarketingInstitute.com

One of the most powerful strategies for finding customers

One way to find out who the steak lovers are is to offer a free steak. 

That’s what Morton’s steak house does. 

Every so often I receive a coupon in the mail from Morton’s offering me a free steak if I bring a guest and order dinner for my guest.  That’s an attractive offer.  Morton’s is one of my favorite restaurants anyway.  So I always take Morton’s up on the offer.  This tactics does several good things for Morton’s. 

First, the offer is only good during the week when Morton’s is not likely to be full anyway, so Morton’s isn’t losing much.  Morton’s also knows I’ll be buying all kinds of things when I go in.  I’ll be buying a full dinner for my guest.  I’ll also buy wine, coffee, desert, and my final bill will still be in excess of $100.  So Morton’s is probably not losing any money on the offer.
 
Morton’s is also finding out who the steak lovers are with this offer.  If you don’t like steak, you’re not going to be impressed with an offer of a free steak. 

Second, Morton’s is doing something nice for its customers.  I have a good feeling about Morton’s because of the free steak.  And I always have a good experience at Morton’s.  I would not have gone on that particular night without the free steak offer.  By going to Morton’s, I am reminded of the good experience I have whenever I go to Morton’s.  The more going to Morton’s becomes a habit for me, the more money Morton’s will make from me.

Offering something free is great bait to attract qualified leads.  On the Internet, you always see free special reports and free books offered.  These are excellent items to offer because special reports and even books are relatively inexpensive to produce and because most people go on the Internet to look for information on subjects, products, or services that interest them, that they want to buy.

Offering a free Buyer’s Guide on __________, a free Consumer’s Report on ________, a free Special Report on ___________, or a free book on ____________, is a highly-effective method of attracting leads on the Internet.  You can do this with banner ads on sites that are of interest to your target audience or with skillful use of Google AdWords or Overture.  With Google AdWords and Overture, you bid on keywords and phrases associated with the ad you are writing.  When the keywords and phrases are typed in, your ad pops up, listed in the same order as your keywords bid.  If you are the tenth highest bidder for that particular keyword or phrase, that’s the order your ad will appear.  I’ll discuss Google AdWords, Overture, and search engine rankings later in this book.  These are all valuable lead generation tools for certain kinds of products and services—the more specialized and niche focused the product is, the better.

You can also offer free special reports, free consumer’s guides, free books, free samples, and free services with ads in the Yellow Pages, newspapers, classified ads, or direct mail.   The main point here is that offering something of value free is great bait for attracting leads.  One reason this is particularly effective on the Internet is that those who find the bait had to be looking specifically for the product or service you are selling.  This makes an Internet-generated lead especially qualified.

Once you’ve hooked your lead . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

The #1 business blunder

I am stunned and amazed at how few businesses pay much attention at all to their existing customers — those who have actually bought something. 

Some businesses don’t even keep a customer list!

But it’s the first sale that’s the toughest. It’s much easier to make a sale to someone who has bought from you before than to someone who has never bought from you, might never have heard of you. The reasons are many and should be obvious.

Your customers bought from you because they like what you are selling. They want what you are selling. They need what you are selling. Your customers would much rather continue to do business and buy from someone they know.  They would prefer not to buy from a stranger.  If your product is any good, selling your customers more of what you know they like should be like shooting fish in a barrel.

For these reasons, it’s far more costly to find a new customer than to keep an old one.

Your customers should be hearing from you all the time: a postal mailing once a month, an email communication a least once a week.  And not every communication should be a sales pitch. Just give your customers a steady stream of valuable useful information.  If you’re selling tires, send your customers tips on how to stay safe on the road by rotating tires, maintaining the correct air pressure, and how to measure the tread. Send objective information on what makes a safe tire.

With all your communications, you goal is to . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

The enormous value of your “multi-buyers”

Your mailings and marketing to your customers who have bought something more than once from you will be at least three times more productive than to those who have only bought something from you once.

If someone bought some exercise equipment from you, you need to be selling more exercise equipment to that person. I am amazed that so many companies only have one product to offer and have only mailed one offer to their customer list. Some businesses actually exist entirely off income from prospecting to cold lists, and have never thought of continuing to offer their list of customers more of the same.  If someone buys a treadmill from you, come back with an offer for a better treadmill, or a weight machine. If a golfer bought a driver from you, offer a revolutionary new sand wedge or your new “deadeye” putter.

You know this buyer is a golfer. So keep selling him golf stuff.

A mature customer list or “housefile” is far more productive than a new housefile for the simple reason that you have identified your core of multi-buyers — your regular faithful customers

In addition, you have stopped mailing regular offers and promotions to most of those who have not bought anything for you in 18 or 24 months, which slashes the cost of your marketing. The older your active customer list, assuming you are mailing regularly (every month or more), the more productive it will be for each letter you mail.

For this reason, I consider the prospect program to really have two parts . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

How to write a successfule ad (part one)

This is the first installment in a five-part series on “How to Write a Successful Ad.”

The headline is the most important element of your ad.

Your ad must have a headline that grabs the attention of your reader. That’s how the National Enquirer and the New York Post sell their newspapers.  These publications are famous for their great headlines.

The job of the headline is to create interest and intrigue so that your prospective customer wants to read the rest of the story to find out what justifies such an fascinating headline.

Next in importance are the sub-heads that help break up the copy.

In direct marketing, where getting orders and causing the phone to ring is your goal, long copy ads perform far better than short-copy ads.  But you must have interesting sub-heads to catch the eye of the reader and break up the small print.

Third in importance are captions under the photos you use.

Readers will read the captions under the photos before they read the rest of the ad.  Captions under photos must summarize the bottom-line point of your ad. 

The same rules basically apply to writing headlines, sub-heads and captions under photos.  If your reader were to read only these three parts of your ad, they should understand what it is you are selling and the main benefits of buying.  These should be stand-alone statements that explain themselves.

Pick up a copy of The National Enquirer and read the ads in there.  Almost all these ads are direct response ads. The world’s greatest direct response copywriters are running ads in The National Enquirer.  One ad that’s been running for as long as I can remember starts with this headline:

“Corns Gone in Five Days or Money Back”

I think this ad has been running in every issue since I was a kid and never changes.  So it must be working fantastically well.

Notice how direct this headline is.  The entire benefit and offer is contained in just eight simple words.   And a money-back guarantee gives credibility to the claim.

Everything you need to know is in the headline.

The claim is also very specific.  The corns are not just going to be gone, they will be “gone in five days or money back.”

Looks pretty simple doesn’t it.

But a headline like this is worth millions of dollars.

Notice also that this headline does not try to be funny or clever. It does not try to impress you with stylish writing.  This headline is simple and direct.

This headline passes what I call the “bumper sticker test.”

You must be able to fit the main benefit of what you are selling on a bumper sticker.

Your reader will give you three seconds, at most, to get your point across.  If you can’t sum up the main benefit of what you are selling in a way that it will fit on a bumper sticker, your ad will fail.

This headline we’re studying here is just eight words.  Your headline should never be longer than 12 words.  If it takes you more than 12 words to sum up the main benefit of what you’re offering, you’ll need to go back to the drawing board.

The next time you’re in the supermarket, pick up a copy of The National Enquirer. 

Don’t laugh in derision.  Direct response marketing is not a field for elitist snobs who look down their noses at average folks. The National Enquirer has more readers than The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal combined. 

Study the “Corns Gone in Five Days” ad . . . and the other ads you see in this tabloid.

Nope, these aren’t the kinds of ads that are created by a Madison Avenue ad agency.  These aren’t the kinds of “image building” and “brand awareness” ads run on prime-time network TV by the Fortune 500 companies.  These ads won’t win awards for cleverness, wit or creativity.

These are direct response ads that bring in millions of dollars in orders.   These are money-making ads, not “brand awareness” or “image building” ads. These ads do one and only one thing — they SELL.

But there’s a lot more to writing a successful direct response ad than just the headlines, sub-heads and photo captions . . .

You must be a trial member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1 to read the rest this series of articles. 

You can do that by [Clicking Here] 

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

The surest path to success in marketing and in business

Focus on helping other people achieve success.

The only way to persuade someone to buy is to offer them what they need or what they are looking for. It’s not about what you want. Success in business and in sales lies in figuring out what others want and how to solve other people’s problems.

One reason I love marketing, sales and business generally is that I am always forced to walk in the shoes of others — to put myself in their place when crafting my sales letters and presentations.

I have to figure out, “What can I do to solve their problem? How can I help them? How can I be of true service? How can I be a Godsend to them?”

Businesses fail because they . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

Make yourself part of your buyer’s regular routine

An iron law of marketing is that people are creatures of habit.

I always buy Crest toothpaste. I don’t know why. I just always have, I guess because my mom bought Crest when I was a kid. I know I need toothpaste. I know this toothpaste works. And Crest is well known because of relentless advertising over many decades. It would take some effort to persuade me to switch to another toothpaste.

Other companies are spending billions of dollars to persuade people to use their toothpaste instead of Crest. But they aren’t having much impact on me because I’m used to Crest. I’m comfortable with that brand.

People who have chosen to buy your product instead of your competitor’s would prefer to stick with you. To switch their allegiance to another comparable product is to  . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart

Be a big fish in a small pond

The easiest way to make money is to have no competitor.

That’s so obvious it’s hardly worth stating.

The easiest way to improve your chances of having no competitor, or very few competitors, is to identify a small market niche that you can dominate. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small, struggling fish in a big pond. In the big pond, you will likely be eaten alive very quickly.

In a small pond, you will live a very happy, nearly stress-free, comfortable life.

Let’s look again at my very first enterprise, The Dartmouth Review. This small conservative renegade and independent student paper was the only source of reporting and commentary on events at Dartmouth, written and produced entirely by students. Talk about a refined and narrow product!

So not only was The Dartmouth Review different, it had staked out a monopoly.  The truth is, the Review could have raised $500,000 a year, $1,000,000 a year or even $10,000,000 a year.

There was almost no limit to the amount of money we, as mere students, could have brought in if we had run the paper like a business instead of as a part-time hobby.

But we were just students. We did not need more than about $150,000 or 200,000 a year to publish the paper and have some money left over for parties. So we just stopped there, sending out a fundraising letter whenever we ran out of money, about four times a year.

So when you think about your product and marketing strategy, think of ways you can give your customers something they can’t get anywhere else.  And it’s best if your market is small and highly specialized, because then the big boys are not as likely to come in and crush you.

Highly specialized information for a niche audience is always great, especially if your niche audience is relatively easy to find.  The more specialized, the smaller your potential audience — but also the more committed your audience, and the more you can charge for you newsletter or magazine.

A newsletter with just one editor can do well with 1,000 or even a few hundred subscribers . . . if the cost of a subscription is $95 a month.  SEMICONDUCTOR NEWS would be a good candidate for such a business model, or maybe get even more specialized than that. Maybe your publication would do best by focusing on a specific kind of semiconductor.  Of course, it’s critically important for the information to be really good, essential insider news that semiconductor manufacturers and developers cannot get anywhere else.

The big mistake businesses make is to  . . .

To read the rest of this article (and a whole lot more), you must be a member of my Inner Circle Roundtable for $1.

But that’s easy to do by [Clicking Here]

Happy Improved Marketing,

Ben Hart