Posted by AndyM on August 24, 2010 under Business Growth | 
Often it is easy to assume that getting more of something requires spending more money. Luckily, that is not always true. When working with a company that would like to generate more leads, I start by reviewing what they are already doing. In almost every case, there are a number of improvements we can make without spending a penny more.
Here is a short list of places we can all look for “free” leads that saw our bait but just didn’t bite. These tips can apply to websites, brochures, advertisements, emails, and even our business cards.
Headline. Almost everything in marketing starts with a headline — the subject line of an e-mail, the top of a datasheet, the header of a website and more. How are your headlines? The best ones connect with the underlying, burning issue that our best prospects face at an emotional level (be sure to check out my prior post on Breaking the Preoccupation Barrier) . We can also think of a headline as a “promise.” To what new state we can deliver our clients with our product or service? Paint the picture of the place they want to go in the headline and we have a winner.
What they get, not what we do. With a headline that grabs attention, the content of our message (be it a video, text and an advertisement or e-mail, images, etc.) will produce better results for us if it describes the benefits our clients get, not the content of what we do or the methods of how we do it.
Testimonials. “Social proof” is a powerful force. No one wants to be the “sucker” who experimented with an unproven product or service and got burned. Demonstrate that we have helped others get what they wanted or where they wanted to go, and new prospects will feel more comfortable. Have our happy clients or customers tout the benefits of doing business with us, and we will have even better results. Testimonials about our product or service can go on the home page of our web site, on a brochure, in an email newsletter, even in our email signature.
Next topic, taking advantage of these principles with an effective call-to-action.
Posted by AndyM on August 10, 2010 under Business Growth |
People are busy. We’re all preoccupied with our own stuff. When trying to get the attention of our market, we first have to break them out of what they are currently thinking about. We can’t get them to listen to what we have to say if they (figuratively speaking) have their headphones on with the music blaring, right?
Our challenge is to get them from where they currently, past the neutral zone and into a more receptive frame of mind concerning what we want to communicate to them. When we interrupt people from what they’re engaged in, whether verbally or in print, they automatically and subconsciously ask themselves these four questions:
- Why are you bothering me?
- So what? Who cares?
- Why should I believe you? In other words, “What’s in it for me?”
- Why should I do something about this now?
If we can’t give good answers to those questions, and do it very quickly, our chance of getting them to give us any more than a cursory look or listen will rapidly vanish. A proven way to dramatically increase our chances of getting and holding the attention of our best prospects is to connect with what they desire (that we can help them with, of course) at an emotional level. Facts, figures, and features usually don’t cut it. So what do I mean by an emotional level? I personally find the breakdown of seven emotions provided by Denny Hatch in his book “Method Marketing” to help considerably:
- Greed — getting more of something
- Exclusivity — being one of the few that own something or belong to something
- Salvation — being saved or rescued from something negative or harmful
- Fear — being afraid of missing out on something or having something negative happen
- Guilt — feeling remorseful about doing or not doing something
- Anger — being upset, irritated or mad about something happening or not happening
- Flattery — made to feel good about something you did or you have
So take a look at your marketing, are you successfully breaking the preoccupation barrier by connecting with your audience on the “wavelength” of one of the above emotions? If you’re not sure, I encourage you to request a copy of “The Seven Levers of Profit Growth” (to the right of this post) for more ideas.
Next post, generating more leads without spending a dime!
Posted by AndyM on June 21, 2010 under Business Growth |
- Provide a “wow” experience: we do a lot of work behind the scenes to provide our service, create or deliver our products, and help our clients and customers succeed. Our clients cannot be fully aware of this effort — they only know what they experience in brief interactions, engagement with our staff or (God forbid) navigating our pre-recorded telephone tree. Jan Carlzon, former CEO of SAS Airlines, aptly named this dynamic in his book Moments of Truth. We can all benefit from looking at our company through our clients’ eyes. Where can you transform a blah experience into a wow? More “wows” = more customers interested in referring their friends, relatives, clients, and colleagues to you.
- Be specific: just like defining our target audience, articulating specifically who can benefit from talking with us will yield much better results than trying to be all things to all people.
- Ask for one and you’ll get many: try this experiment — think of “anyone” who is a sports fan. Do you have a strong reaction? I’m looking for sports fans, is there anyone you want to refer to me? Now try this — who is the most fanatical baseball fan you know? Now does someone come to mind? When someone asks us to think of the most, the best, the tallest, the oldest, the largest, etc. our brains take it as a challenge. There is an answer to that question and we feel compelled to find it. If my target audience were baseball fans, guess what I would ask after securing the most fanatical fan in someone’s life? “Who is the second most fanatical…?”
- Talk about the benefit of contacting you, not of hiring you or your company: as we’ve discussed before, sales is a dating process. What both the referrer and the person you hope to meet need to know is how he or she will be better off after simply meeting or talking with us. We get better results by selling the meeting, not the value of doing business with us.
- Teach them how: when we succeed in describing who would benefit from speaking with us, trigger the most likely person to have a problem we can solve, and make it clear how a simple conversation will help him or her, our referral partner will be eager to contribute. It stands to reason that we will be doing him or her a service by making it easy to refer. Have a plan about how you would like that introduction to go and make sure it’s easy for him or her to execute.
Posted by AndyM on June 9, 2010 under Business Growth |
I would guess that most of you reading this post would place “increasing profits” as a high priority in your business right now. Great! If we throw in “not work harder” as a parallel goal to “increase profits,” I submit that what you are really asking for is a business that consistently attracts new prospects and converts a high percentage of them into profitable customers…like a machine.
The “specifications” of this machine: it brings good prospects to you, makes the job of converting them into customers easier, and tells you what needs “tuning” over time.
- Contact Management Infrastructure — processes and information systems that allow you to: capture new prospect contact information quickly, categorize them, and ensure that proper follow up will happen. This same system should allow you to easily see how healthy your prospect flow, conversion rate, and profitability per client is.
- A Refined Target — ask yourself, who can benefit the most from my product or service? You should also consider surveying past clients to learn why they decided to buy from you over their other options and focus on people who may have that same need or want.
- Communicate the “Ultimate Result” — for marketing that gets attention, focus on the results you can help people achieve. When in doubt, think about marketing of diet programs and weight loss products. They get your attention with “Lose 20 Pounds in 20 Days” not “We’ve got the best diet, excercise, and nutrition products around.” When trying to get the attention of your target audience, forget about how you do what you do — talk about what results they’ll get…period.
- An “Irresistible Offer” as a Call-to-Action — when your marketing successfully gets the attention of someone in your target audience, give them a “no brainer” reason to contact you. Read carefully — not to do business with you. I call this a “first date” call-to-action. What information, advice, product sample can you offer that any reasonable person in your target audience would say “of course!” to?
- Follow-up Plan — with a compelling call to action, you must have a foolproof and thorough follow up strategy. Worried about feeling like a nuisance? Ever hear the phrase “the marketing is the product?” Many people have a negative reaction to that phrase, as if it means there’s no there there when someone becomes a client. Think of it this way, what if simply by participating in your marketing and your follow up, your prospects will get closer to the ultimate result that they want, and that you can help them reach faster if they become a client? Create a follow up plan that keeps your business in the forefront of your prospects minds while also offering them value.
- Present Options — by offering multiple ways, levels, packages, bundles…through which your prospects can become your client, you give them more power in the buying process. Offer a single product, price point, or solution and you’re basically telling them to “take it or leave it.” And guess what, more of them will “leave it” than you would like!
For more ideas and examples to help you build your client attraction and conversion machine, simply click the “Seven Levers of Profit Growth” link to the right to request your free copy of our eBook.
Posted by AndyM on April 19, 2010 under Business Growth |
Ah, the cocktail party question. How well do you do with it? Ever wish you had a better answer at that chamber mixer or networking lunch? There is lots of good advice out there to help you, and I encourage you to soak it all up. There is nothing more important than answering that simple question.
In fact, I contend that your internal and external answers to that question form the basis of all of your marketing and selling success — it is that fundamental. There is a simple reason we all stumble over that question…
It’s the wrong question!
Don’t be fooled, it’s a trap. A perfectly innocent trap laid by well-intentioned people, but a trap nonetheless. As I have talked about in this blog many times, we should not focus our message on the products or services we provide (what we do), but should instead focus on the benefits our clients realize by working with us (what they get). Answer the question “what do you do?” and you end up right where you don’t what to be.
Here is the question you wish they’d ask:
“What is the ultimate result your clients experience by doing business with you?”
So what can you do about it? Don’t answer the actual question…pretend he or she asked the other one. Here is an illustration using my own business:
Innocent conversationalist: “So, what do you do?”
Andy: “I develop marketing and selling strategies for small business owners.” Or even worse “I’m a marketing consultant.”
Innocent conversationalist: “{silent groan} Oh, I think I hear someone calling me. Nice to meet you Alfred.”
So here is another scenario:
Innocent conversationalist: “So, what do you do?”
Andy: {silently translates question to be “What is the ultimate result your clients experience by doing business with you?”} “I help business owners create more profitable companies that require less of their time, energy and stress.”
Innocent conversationalist: “Really, how do you do that?”
Not only is it a more powerful way to answer the question, it starts a conversation by making it natural for the other person to ask “how?” Another way to think about this situation is to not talk about what you do and how you do it. Instead, talk about what your clients get and why they’re excited about it.
Posted by AndyM on March 3, 2010 under Business Growth |
With all the buzz about social media (justifiable as it may be), some useful, traditional marketing activities can get overshadowed. Take this post as a reminder that a simple press release can be a valuable tactic.
Moreover, when submitted for online distribution, it helps your web presence as well. Include some links to your web site in your release and voila — you have backlinks from reputable web sites that post it, adding “juice” to your SEO efforts. A few keys to developing a successful press release:
- Make it newsworthy. As much as your new product or service excites you, is it relevant and exciting to others? An important aim of your press release is to get some attention from writers (traditional news and blogs alike). Be sure to test your message on friends, clients, advisers, etc. Does your “news” help people resolve a problem? Is it related to a “current” issue? Bottom line, think like a reporter.
- Get it out. Simply posting your press release to your web site may help you stay positioned as a viable, active business to your existing visitors, but it doesn’t help you get additional exposure and traffic. Submit your release to relevant sites, or use a service like PRNewswire or Free Press Release to get it out there.
- Follow up. You can’t make someone write about the topic of your release. If you’re calling writers and professional bloggers, they have busy schedules, deadlines, etc., and pestering them will only guarantee your position at the bottom of their pile. However, you can use their busy-ness to your advantage — outline the potential “angle” for an article they could write and leave a short message on voicemail and a brief email. Don’t keep after them, just drop that suggestion and only work with the responses you get. You may hit the right person at the right time who is happy to have a story idea handed to them.
I have put together a simple report to help you create the right message and get your business the exposure you’d like via a press release. This includes a MS Word template and samples of well-written press releases. If you’d like it, just drop your email in the form below and I will send you a copy. Not sure if a press release is right for you? Check the box for a free consultation, and we’ll set up a time to talk about your circumstance. I’ll help you figure out the right plan for you.
Send Me the FREE Press Release Report
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