10 Surefire Ways to Add Sizzle to Your Brochures
August 31, 2010
Businesses rely on brochures as their front line in communicating their products or services. Yet according to Shannon Cherry, APR, many find them not as successful because they underestimate the skills and resources necessary to publish attractive and effective materials.
"Most people forget a brochure is important because it represents you to the world and reflects your image," says Cherry, president of Cherry Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that helps businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations be heard.
"But the best brochures do more than impress," she says. "Effective copy and design can intrigue, inform, convince and capture customer business just as an effective salesperson does. Brochure effectiveness is linked to an audience-appropriate marketing strategy that drives the design process."
Cherry shares the following top ten list of hints can help your brochure put its best foot forward:
1. Keep headlines short. According to studies, headlines with fewer than ten words get more readership.
2. Focus your headline on your target audience. Show a picture of your target group and make sure the headline has the groups description in it. For example: If you are targeting moms, uses a headline like, "Moms Know Best."
Sowing and Growing Your Network
August 27, 2010
The N-word! We all know the value of networking and we feel we should be doing more of it. Unfortunately, for too many of us the very thought of attending an event where we have to mix and mingle with total strangers is enough to drive us into hiding until it’s all over! What a pity we often force ourselves to go to a potentially great conference, but we’re so busy worrying about the networking part that we forget to enjoy the event!
But networking is like so many other activities in life-it’s easy when you know how. I call the process “Sowing and Growing Your Network” because it has two distinct, but equally important, parts.
Sowing Your Network
Over the years, people have often told me they don’t “do” networking any more because it doesn’t work. When I hear this, I know that person has committed at least one, and perhaps all three, of what I call the three cardinal sins of networking.
Marketing Quandaries
August 24, 2010
Being in a quandary prevents you from moving forward in developing and marketing your business. When we’re in a quandary, we are in a state of perplexity and doubt. We don’t know how to move forward to accomplish those things that are crucial to attracting clients and growing our business. One of the first things we need to recognize about being in a quandary is that we are, in fact, in one! There are a number of easy, simple things that you can start doing today to get yourself out of that place of being stuck.
1. Craft a business plan and review it quarterly. A business plan is your strategy for guiding your business towards the success you envision. It is a roadmap. It will serve to guide you from where you are today to where you want to be. It includes important items like defining your business niche and target market, your marketing plan, financial projections, staffing, investments, as well as the benefits and features of your products and services. If you don’t have a plan to follow, your chances of achieving success are greatly diminished. Plans remind us of what we are doing and why. They help to keep us on track and provide a benchmark to which we can compare our actual progress.
7 Ways a Copywriter Can Help Your Business Succeed
August 22, 2010
Think you can’t afford to hire a copywriter? Think again. Here are seven ways a copywriter can contribute to the success of your business.
#1 ? Save you time. Chances are, you have more than enough things to fill your day with other than writing brochure copy or freshening your Web site or getting that pesky newsletter article off your desk. When you hire a professional copywriter, not only are you getting one more thing off your to-do list, but also it will probably get done faster than you could do it.
#2 ? Find the right words. What’s the purpose of copywriting? To sell your business, your image, your products or your services. Obvious, right? But what’s key here is "sell." The words chosen to represent your business, your image, your products or your services need to be doing their job ? selling what you need sold. That’s where a copywriter shines (the great ones anyway). Making sure those words are out there selling to your target audience.
#3 ? Cut through the chaos. Every day, Americans are hit with over 3,000 attempts to snag their attention. The right words can help your message stand out and be noticed rather than getting overlooked.
Quiz: Where is Your Marketing Message?
August 17, 2010
Wondering if your marketing message is dancing in the spotlight right in front of your target market or is busy cowering by the punch table nowhere near your customer base? Take this quiz and find out.
1. Overall, you would describe your marketing as:
A. Going strong. You consistently get lots of good leads and sales from your marketing efforts. B. Getting better. You’re seeing some positive results, but you’re always looking for ways to improve. C. Flat. Your sales are neither growing nor shrinking. D. Don’t ask. E. You don’t do much marketing. Or any marketing for that matter. Customers pretty much find you.
2. Your last marketing campaign was:
A. A huge success. It exceeded your expectations. B. No complaints. You’re pleased with your results. C. Not sure. You didn’t notice much change with your sales. D. A waste of good money. E. You can’t remember your last campaign. In fact, you don’t think you’ve ever had one.
3. At the last Chamber of Commerce meeting, you bumped into a woman who you felt would be your ideal customer. Her response after you introduce yourself is:
Future of Marketing Part 2
August 15, 2010
In Part 1, I discussed how traditional marketing is no longer working the way it used to. This is happening for a variety of reasons — people have too many mass media choices, they’re bombarded with way too many marketing messages, the Internet is adding accountability to advertising, etc.
So if traditional marketing is no longer effective, then how will you get the word out about your products or services?
What Internet Marketer Seth Godin, author of the book Permission Marketing, calls permission marketing.
Permission marketing is when your customers give you permission to market to them. This is opposite from traditional marketing, also known as interruption marketing (another term coined by Godin).
Interruption marketing works by interrupting you. Nobody watches television for the commercials. Nobody flips through a magazine for the ads. But that’s how interruption marketing gets you to buy something.
Permission marketing is completely different. With permission marketing, customers look forward to hearing from you. They LIKE receiving information about your products and services. That’s because they’ve agreed to enter into a relationship with you. And if permission marketing is done correctly, you’ll eventually develop a stronger relationship with your customers than you ever would have with interruption marketing. (But that doesn’t mean interruption marketing doesn’t have its place. More on that later.)
The Future of Marketing Part 1
August 12, 2010
It used to be if you were a small business, you were at a distinct disadvantage with your marketing compared to the bigger companies.
No more. Small business owners will actually have an edge over bigger companies thanks to the emerging marketing model.
Yes, you heard right. Emerging marketing model. The old ways of marketing are dying. And a new regime is coming of age.
To understand how marketing is changing, it’s important to start with a bit of history. The image most of us have of marketing is based on an old communications model, one that was popular in, say, the 1970s. That was when we had three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC — no FOX either) a public station, one newspaper and a handful of magazines and radio stations. Trade magazines and newsletters were few and far between, we had no Internet and no e-mail.
Because consumers had so few choices, it was fairly easy to market to them. Chances were pretty good they were watching, reading or listening to one of a handful of mass media sources.
In fact, to be successful in this marketing model, all you really needed was money.
A Different Perspective On The No-Call List
August 8, 2010
The other day I received an e-mail from an internet marketer who was bemoaning the fact that calling people on the no-call list is now illegal and that puts such limits on marketing. He is far and away not the only one with that viewpoint; I find it almost everywhere I look. In fact, it is almost universal among marketers. You know what? I frankly don’t understand why they feel that way.
If there is one marketing perspective that is more universal than hatred for the no-call list, it is that in order to be successful in the world of marketing, you have to focus. Focus on your customer. Focus on your target audience. Focus on your target niche. Focus, focus, focus. So why would you want to waste your time and energy and money and every other imaginable resource spraying your message out to people that are guaranteed NOT to want your product or service, no matter how wonderful you just KNOW it is?
Fertilizer For Your Grassroots Marketing
August 4, 2010
Looking for a great way to drive traffic to your business? No million dollar ad budget last time you checked? The solution may be to harness the power of grassroots marketing.
Grassroots marketing is simply taking the unconventional approach to getting people interested in what you offer. It’s driven by creativity and energy-the stuff we entrepreneurs have a lot of. And it doesn’t require a lot of money-the stuff we have the least of!
To get started with grassroots marketing, consider these three ideas:
1. Get trendsetters to be customers, even if you have to offer freebies. When everyday people see the “cool” people buying in, it can transform them into customers. Reach out to performers, celebrities and athletes. Depending upon your product or service, identify local people who are high profile-like the popular kids, the “early adopters” who have all the latest gadgets, or fashionable women who others copy.
2. Sponsor local events where the audience is strategic for you. Buy a big banner and make sure it’s hanging in full view at the events. Studies show that familiarity alone can positively influence people’s buying decisions.
50 Unbelievable Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing
August 2, 2010
What Is A Joint Venture?
A joint venture is an agreement in which two or more businesses work on a project for a set period of time. Joint ventures can be long-term, like promoting a product together, or some can be short-term, like bartering (trading) products and services. Joint venture ideas are virtually endless.
The Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing
1. You can build long lasting business
relationships.
2. You can increase your credibility by teaming up
with other reputable, branded businesses.
3. You can get f.ree products and services.
4. You can construct most joint venture deals with
little or no money.
5. You can gain new leads and customers.
6. You can get discounts on products and services.
7. You can save m.oney on business operating
costs.
8. You can beat your competition.
9. You can gain referrals from other businesses.
10. You can solve your business problems.
11. You can save valuable time.
12. You can get f.ree and low cost advertising.
13. You can o.ffer your customers new products and
services.
14. You can survive a depression, recession or a
