Author: Mark Fiorini

30 Low Cost Advertising and Marketing Ideas to get known in the market. 

30 Low Cost Advertising and Marketing Ideas to get known in the market. 

Advertising is expensive.  Especially when done in isolation.

I have included 30 low cost marketing and advertising ideas below to help you engage with your target market more effectively.

You must remember that the definition of low cost has to do with the long term use of the marketing asset as well as the impact on the acquisition cost of a client.  Many small business owners look at the up-front cost and decline to use it.  This neglects the potential of the item.  Take a look at the total cost and choose wisely. Continue reading “30 Low Cost Advertising and Marketing Ideas to get known in the market. “

Effective Content Marketing – Well Worth the Effort

Effective Content Marketing – Well Worth the Effort

An effective content marketing is 126% more effective in getting leads than no content marketing.

Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves creating and sharing of content material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote your business.  However, it is intended to stimulate interest in your niche or industry with the ultimate goal of driving profitable customer actions.

Ultimately, you’ll get more sales, have more loyal customers, and save money on advertising. Continue reading “Effective Content Marketing – Well Worth the Effort”

Public Relations Equals Free Publicity

Public Relations Equals Free Publicity

Are you confused about PR versus Paid Advertising?

This confusion is very common.  Most business owners do not understand PR equals free publicity.  Their biggest question is “How can I get free advertising”.

There are three key areas of public relations you can use to boost your advertising results ten-fold over your paid advertising. Continue reading “Public Relations Equals Free Publicity”

Telemarketing for small businesses is alive and well

Telemarketing for small businesses is alive and well

Telemarketing for small businesses
Calling businesses directly is still very viable if you do it right.

Telemarketing for small businesses is NOT the Anti-Christ

Today you’ll learn how to use direct mail marketing and, yes, telemarketing for small businesses to your full advantage. I know, the word “telemarketing” might as well be four letters.  However, there is a way to help customers feel like they are getting personal attention and keep them from blocking your number!

With the success direct mail marketing has had and the availability of computers, these are used as a powerful marketing tool for your success. Telemarketing is best for high priced, high margin products/services.

Here are the key steps to putting together a highly effective direct mail marketing program for small businesses: Continue reading “Telemarketing for small businesses is alive and well”

Convert more Prospects into Customers Overnight!

Convert more Prospects into Customers Overnight!

Prospect becomes customer

14 Offer Ideas to convert more prospects turn into customers

Today I’d like to talk about how to convert more prospects into customers and retain them for future marketing to. While your marketing is doing its job, you need to be working on converting those prospects into customers. There are a few key ways to draw them in and seal the deal.

You need to be:

  • Inviting
  • Informative
  • Enjoyable

The biggest fear of most new customers is the dreaded buyer’s remorse.

Remember to avoid this at all costs.  This should be mitigated if you’ve provided a quality product/service that delivers on the marketing claims you’ve made.  If you can truly deliver on your value proposition, then there is less chance the customer will regret their purchase. Continue reading “Convert more Prospects into Customers Overnight!”

Make it POP!!

There are 5 major components to good advertising copy: (The order of these is essential
to success)

 Command Attention
 Showcase Benefits of Products/Services
 Prove the Benefits
 Persuade People to Embrace the Benefits
 Call to Action

Advertising is sales in print. So, you need to think about the unique benefits your
products/services offer and showcase that in a persuasive way. You need to emphasize
results, not features.

Let’s take a minute to talk about each of these components:

1. Command Attention: This is usually accomplished with the headline. You need
an attention-getter that makes people want to know more about your
products/services. The best headlines give a vivid portrayal of the benefits or
show how a problem can be avoided with your products/services. The headline
is the advertisement for the advertisement.

2. Showcase Benefits: You have to showcase the benefits of your products and
services and, more importantly, show how they will solve or prevent a problem.
They need to know what’s in it for them. Include useful, factual and clear
information to show precisely what the benefits are and how they are going to
help the customer.

3. Offer Proof: This is where you prove what the advertisement is offering. You
need to establish you have a method to deliver. Consider information that
establishes credibility and past performance.

4. Persuade: You need to add compelling reasons for your potential customers to
purchase your products/services. Use a hard sell approach and create scarcity.
This will enact your potential customers to feel like they have to act now. Which
leads into the last component.

5. Call to Action: You need to compel your potential customers to DO something.
They need to check out your site, sign up for your newsletter, purchase your
products, contact you about services…something. Offer a freebie-a booklet,
sample, product, bonus, demo, consult, limited time price…the list goes on.
There are lots of ways to get potential customers excited about ordering and
help them feel like they are getting an amazing deal.

Good advertisements include all of these components and are not complete without
any of them. You can sit down and think through any one of these components, then
figure out how to best place them together for the most effectiveness. We can help you
with this too.

Try our GUIDED TOUR to learn how to put together great advertisements
from some of the best in the business.

 

Be Well – Be Successful

 

Mark

Direct Response or Bust!

Direct response marketing is a marketing that demands a direct response from your potential customers. This type of marketing is used to answer questions, present your branding, products and the reason you do what you do. Customers love this, as they are offered the opportunity to respond, whether that be in the way of signing up for a newsletter, posting a comment on your site or blog, or purchasing a product from you. 

So, what does direct response marketing look like? Well, it comes in many forms, including:

  • Direct mail
  • Print ads
  • Radio and TV ads
  • Coupons or other incentives
  • Telemarketing

Some of the advantages of direct marketing are:

  • A great way to use free time during lulls in business
  • Productive way to communicate and empower you to create more relationships
  • Great way to up- and cross-sell to current customers
  • Low cost way to rustle up new business
  • Used as leverage to turn small sales into large sales
  • Supplement your current marketing program
  • Cost-effective way to reach target markets
  • Offers measurable results
  • Reach outside your local area for new business
  • Increase the effectiveness of your sales force

These are all great things that can come from just taking a few simple steps to putting together a direct response marketing plan and executing it. 

“I honestly don’t think you’ll ever find a safer, lower-risk, higher-profit method of increasing your business or profession than direct-response marketing.” Jay Abraham

Direct response marketing is one of the best ways to launch your business on a large scale and reach out to everyone in your target market whether they are in your local area or not. Our GUIDED TOUR can help you put together a great direct response marketing plan and get you on your way to heightened success.

 

 Comments Welcome Below

Kick Start Your Marketing

Today I’d like to teach you about the three most important start up marketing tools you need to get and keep new customers.

  1. In person: It’s essential you meet with customers/clients in person whenever possible. This shows you respect them and take the time to work with your clients to give personal attention to each of them.
  2. Follow up letter: Always take a moment to send a follow up letter about what you talked about, new agreements or partnerships made and to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Likewise, you should always send thank you letters or small gifts to partners you find success with.
  3. Phone call: Use a telephone call to follow up with them to talk again about the matters you talked about in your meeting and offer any assistance you can to help their business run smoothly and more successfully.

None of these will work if you don’t have a quality product/service to back you up!

Here are the key steps for putting together your start-up marketing tools:

  1. Research potential customers, buyers, competitors and their preferred methods of distribution.
  2. Talk to potential customers. Take a hard look at your product from a customer’s perspective and see what it needs to be successful.
  3. Follow up with your 3-step process from above.
  4. Develop systems for contact follow through, quality control standards and customer service.
  5. Develop post-sale follow up system to keep lines of communication open is customers and build on your current relationship which increases future purchases.

“Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs” Peter Drucker, management consultant

Here’s another one I love from an icon:

“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

This lesson has offered you the tools to put together a start-up marketing plan that can be used over and over again to help your customer base and business grow in a manageable way.

Stop Wasting Your Resources!

Today you’re going to learn how to find a target market of potential customers so you aren’t wasting precious resources on blitz marketing. So, the two questions you have to ask yourself are:
  • What do people really want to buy from me?
  • What related products are they already buying?
Once you figure this out you will know who is more predisposed to purchase your products/services. Then, you find other businesses with the same customer base who you can customer share with. Come up with an incentive and great arrangement to encourage both of your customer bases to shop at both of your stores. The basic concept is this: You want to find existing businesses who have the customer profile that you are looking for to market your products/services to. Then strike up a relationship with those business owners to work out an incentive for customers to purchase from both businesses. As a result, you have an audience to market to and they generate an added value from their current base. So, how do you figure this out? There is a great formula from Jay Abraham you can follow with great success. LV = (P x F) x N – MC Here’s what it all means:
  • LV is the life time value of a customer
  • P is the average profit margin from each sale
  • F is the number of times a customer buys each year
  • N is the number of years customers stay with you
  • MC is the marketing cost per customer (total costs/number of customers)
Once you know how much you need to spend to attract a new customer, you will know how much of an incentive you can offer to a business to help attract new customers. So, here’s your step-by-step process:
  1. Find companies who already have the customer base you are looking for.
  2. Negotiate an incentive for them to share that customer base with you.
  3. Focus your marketing resources to this group of predisposed customers.
If you need help working through this process, please contact us and we’ll set you up with the most comprehensive system of marketing tools and resources.