Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category

How To Do Effective Marketing

Saturday, May 28th, 2022

marketing strategy

 

Most business owners don’t how to do effective marketing.

The purpose of this post is to outline this process in a simple way and show how we do this for our clients.  There are 5 steps.

1. Understand your Customer and their Needs

This means verifying your assumptions about your customer’s hot button needs by talking to actual customers.  You want to find out the most important things they want when buying what you sell.

For example, a home improvement contractor’s customers usually want these things: they want you to show up on time, they want you to charge what you promised, to do quality work, stand behind that work with a guarantee and keep their workplace clean and not leave trash all over.

What do your customers want?  Do you know?

2. Determine whether Innovation is necessary

How do you deliver on your customer’s needs?  Are you demonstrably better than your competitors or not? If you are just the same as everyone else you compete with, then you need to innovate the make yourself better.

This process of actually being better than your competitors is necessary so you will have something good to say in your marketing.  Marketing that just uses platitudes and says what everyone else says is a waste of money.

The key to effective marketing is to “Have something good to say”, “Say it well”, and “Say it often”.

Innovation can create that something good to say.

We have a systematic process that we use to help our clients do this so you do innovation on the issues that matter to your customers.

3.  Create your Strategic Marketing Plan

Strategy comes before tactics.  In marketing, this means developing what you say, how you say it and who you say it to.  You need to do this before creating any ads, web pages or marketing communications.

“What you say” means how you communicate your superior ability to deliver on your customers hot button needs (that you just developed by innovating as needed in the previous step).

“How you say it” is copywriting that needs to clearly and persuasively communicate why you are the best choice and . . .

“who you say it to” is your target market.

4.  Create your Tactical Marketing Plan

This has three sections – Lead Generators (include ads, landing pages, social media pages and ads, direct mail campaigns, lead magnets, referral programs, emails, etc) that bring prospects into your marketing funnel.

Marketing Tools (brochures, web sites, scripts, signage, audio content, video content, newsletters, white papers, reports, and more) further educate your prospects once they are in your funnel.  Then,

Follow-Up Systems (sequential follow up systems using email, direct mail, telemarketing, and any other multi-step follow up sequences).  Follow up sequences are intended to stay in touch with prospects by providing helpful and welcomed information over time so that when a prospect is ready to buy they will choose you.

All the components of your tactical plan educate the prospect as to how to buy what you sell and how to make the best decision for their needs whether it is you or not.

When you help people make the best decision for them, this builds goodwill and trust so that when the time comes to make a buying decision, you are the only logical choice.

5.  Create the Sales Plan

The goal here is to “franchise” your sales system by systemizing the process using marketing tools.

This will make sure you get the optimum results every time. We want to turn your company into a selling machine that doesn’t have to rely on superstar sales people but improves the performance of all.

This process does the sifting and sorting of prospects to deliver the best prospects to sales staff and also includes the creation of “knock-down” lists of key target accounts and the plans to get them closed.

Maximize & Optimize Strategies

Think of these as bonus strategies but also critically important.

– Perpetual Selling Strategies are designed to get customers to come back over and over again to provide a steady stream of sales and profits

– Joint Ventures leverage other companies customers and relationships for your mutual advantage.

– Upselling and Cross-Selling increase the profits of each sale.  You can consider including products and services that you do not provide yourself but that your JV partners offer.

– Referral Systems – we have over 30 different systems we can incorporate into your business.  Most businesses believe referrals are their absolute best prospects so don’t leave getting referrals up to chance, proactively install systems to create them!

Contact me at joemcvoy@gmail.com or by phone/text at 303-884-0859 for information on how we can help you to do all this for your business.

 

Does Your Marketing Suck? Take These Quick 3 Evaluations To Find Out . . .

Sunday, May 22nd, 2022

 

Most marketing totally sucks and does not differentiate the advertiser from their competitors at all.

This short post will give you three evaluations to apply to your own advertising or marketing pieces to see for yourself if it’s any good or not.  Almost all marketing out there uses only platitudes – in other words, words and phrases that are meaningless.

Does yours?  Let’s see . . .

Evaluation # 1“I would hope so . . .”

Are the statements in your marketing or advertising just stating the obvious?  If you you repair cars, do you say things like we fix any make or model of car – well, I would hope so – that’s what you do, right?

Any statements just stating what your business does do not set you apart from any competitors, they just state the obvious.

A CPA that says they do personal and business taxes, we find all the deductions you are entitled for, we file electronically on time every time.  That’s exactly what every other CPA on the planet does . . .  very unremarkable and a waste of your money saying it.

Evaluation # 2“Who Else Can Say That” 

Does your marketing or advertising say things like “in business 30 years, best service, top quality work, free estimates, customer service always available, best service after the sale, etc, etc, etc.

Who else can say that – actually every one of your competitors can and does – these platitudes do not set you apart from anyone.

To be clear, the point is not who else can do it but who can say it.

A competitor may suck at delivering what they claim but that’s not the point, – this evaluation is about who else can and does say it not whether they can deliver.

Evaluation # 3“Scratch Out, Write In Test” 

Take one of your ads or brochures – scratch out your name and write in your competitor’s name – is the ad/brochure still valid?

Now, do it the other way, take a competitor’s ad, brochure or marketing piece and scratch out their name and write in yours – still valid claims?

You fail!

No matter how good your inside reality may be, it is not being communicated to your prospects and customers if your materials fail these three evaluations.

In order to have something good to say in your marketing, it may require you do some innovation in your business to make sure you have something good to say.

We help companies do that by first determining what your customers want and need, what their hot buttons are, what their frustrations are surrounding buying whatever it is that you sell and then fixing those problems.

Once that is done, we have something good to say your competitors can’t say and you get much more business as a result!

The steps explaining the innovation process are the subject of a different post but just know we have to make sure you are in fact better than your competitors before doing any advertising and promotion!

Call 303-884-0859 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com to find out how we can help you make your marketing effective instead of sucking!

 

 

How To Make Your Competitor’s Ads Invisible

Tuesday, May 17th, 2022

blank billboard

 

Wouldn’t you like it if you could make your competitor’s advertising and marketing invisible? It would be much easier to get sales then, wouldn’t it?

With all the advertising exposures we’re exposed to every day, our brains deal with it by ignoring anything that isn’t important and relevant to us at that time. Here’s an example you can probably relate to.

Think back to the last time you were getting ready to buy a car. You probably noticed all the TV ads, newspaper ads, Auto Trader magazines and everywhere else car advertising appears. You were in the market to buy a car, so all those advertising messages were important and relevant to you.

What happened after you bought the car? Did you notice any more car ads? You weren’t in the market any more so the ads became invisible to you.

So what does this have to do with making your competitor’s ads invisible?

Lots.

If you can develop a trusting relationship with your customers so that they already know where they’ll go next time they need your product or service, then they won’t even notice any of your competitor’s advertising or marketing.

So how do you do this?

By doing the thing you’re probably not doing now – keeping in touch with your customers to build and strengthen your relationship with them. Did you know the biggest reason people or businesses change suppliers is not the product quality, price or even service, it’s because they don’t feel appreciated?

You can show appreciation for your customers by sending them birthday cards, holiday cards, and making personal contact on the phone. When was the last time any business you do business with communicated with you personally?

In all the years I’ve been doing marketing consulting, I’ve never seen any client who understood this or kept in touch with their customers anywhere near as often as they should. They typically only think about getting new customers and spend all their money there, ignoring the customers they already have, and losing them along the way.

Whenever I tell clients to do this, the objection I always get is that it’s too time consuming and although business owners understand the need to keep in touch with their customers, they just don’t do it.

The good news is that there is now technology that can do this for you. You can send out handwritten greeting cards with your own message and signature automatically to your customers for only a dollar or two – and that includes the stamp.

To learn the details, email me at joemcvoy@gmail.com

Should You Be Using Google AdWords?

Wednesday, October 14th, 2015

adwords logo
For many businesses, Google AdWords can be their most productive source of new leads and customers.

But how do you know in advance if it has a chance of working for you or not?

It can be expensive to hire someone to do it for you and you then you have their management fee along with your actual ad spend you pay Google.

Facebook vs Google

Before getting into the details of how you can tell, I want to make sure you understand the different types of online advertising.

Facebook is the hot thing these days, but you need to understand people do not go onto Facebook or social media to look for stuff to buy from you!

They go on it to avoid work, not do work . . .

It is the equivalent of having a billboard on a busy highway. There may be lots of people going by, but that doesn’t mean they are prospects.

Even if you use all of Facebook’s targeting capabilities, you may be putting your billboard on a road only your target people drive down, but they are still not there looking for you.

So, you have to “interrupt” them from doing what they are doing with some sort of enticing offer.

Google is totally different.

In the Google search network – called Google AdWords, you are bidding on key words and phrases so your ad shows up when someone is actually searching for what you have.

Big difference.

Trying to interrupt someone who is trying to avoid work vs being found when someone is actively searching for what you offer.

How Google Search Works

I think this is very interesting. Here’s what happens 3.5 Billion times per day when people do a search on Google.

Their algorithm decides which web sites should show up based on your location and prior search history.

Then they figure out which ad should be on top, which one # 2 and which # 3 at the top of the page and then which order should the ads be on the side of the page.
2015-10-14_1313

This is essentially an auction held every time someone does a search – 3.5 Billion times per day!

You place your bids on what you re willing to pay for a click and how much you are willing to spend per day and Google combines your bid with your “Quality Score” to determine where your ad shows up – if at all.

Quality score is essentially how likely someone is to click on your ad. If you have a high quality score, you can actually pay less per click than someone else with a low quality score in the same spot.

Google doesn’t explain it this way, but it’s really just a way for Google to maximize their income.

Say you bid $20/click and 10% of the people who see your ad click on it . . .

and you have a competitor whose ad is not as appealing as yours and they are bidding $40/click. Only 1% of the people who see their ad click on it.

Your ad with the $20 bid will be placed above your competitor who bid $40. Here’s why.

For 100 searches, at 10%, that means 10 people click on your ad making Google $200.

Your competitor bidding $40 only gets 1 click (1% of 100) so Google only makes $40.

Now, it becomes pretty obvious why Google puts your ad on top – $200 is more than $40!

Google goes through all these calculations 3.5 Billion times per day – I think that’s absolutely incredible . . .

Will Google AdWords Work For You?

Here’s how you can get a good idea:

1. What is a customer worth to you?

You may sell a variety of products and services, but whether this will work for you is all about the numbers. What will you have to pay for a click? What percent of those people who do click end up buying?

If you are selling a $29 book, and you have no other products and services to sell that customer, there is no chance.

If you had to pay $10/click, and 1/3 people who clicked, bought, you still lose money.

On the other hand, if you do kitchen remodeling with an average ticket of $50,000, you can pay $100/click and do great.

2. Importance of lifetime customer value

Back to the book example. If you had a high end coaching program people pay $10,000/year for, you might be using the book as a loss leader to get prospects.

So, understanding what a customer is really worth is what you need to consider, not just what the initial sale is for.

3. What does Your Competition Do?

If you are in an industry where all your competitors are advertising, that’s a hint that it might work for you too.

But be careful, in the book example, if you didn’t know someone paying for clicks to sell a $29 book, had a “back-end” $10,000 offer, you could end up losing money.

There are online tools that I use for my clients that show me what people are paying for clicks, what keyword phrases they bid on, and how well their ads are working.

You still have to actually try it and do testing to know for sure.

4. Are you a local business?

Google loves local businesses and advertising locally only is much cheaper than advertising nationally.

Google has many targeting options so you can even do things like only advertise to people within 10 miles of your office.

How To Get Help

I do AdWords campaigns for clients and if you are running Google ads now and they are not working well, or if you want to consider doing ads, get in touch.

I will do a free AdWords audit of any existing campaigns or help you set up a totally new campaign.

Call me at 720-890-8760 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com

Simple Craigslist Strategy

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Would you like a simple craigslist strategy to get you free leads for whatever business you have?

Watch the video linked to below to hear Mike Hobbs explain how to use craigslist properly to avoid being flagged and also how to post in other cities than the one where you live.

simple craigslist strategy

If you have heard about needing verified phone numbers and different IPs being needed to post outside your home city, that is correct.  In the video Mike gives you the inexpensive sources he uses.

Mike gets 50 – 100 leads from each ad he places, so if you need leads, watch this video, follow the craigslist strategy, and you will learn how to get as many leads as you want very inexpensively.

This training is part of our Prosperity Team in Empower.  There is much, much more available, all for free if you have joined Empower Network on our team.  It only costs $25.  Join here.

Would you be interested in strategies to dominate Facebook?  Did you know there is a way to get mass exposure through the creating events feature?  Do you know about the super simple way to use Twitter to build your FB followers?  All this and more is inside our Empower Network Prosperity Team.

If you want to make money online, you NEED this training and you can access it for FREE once you are on our team – even at the $25 level!  Join here.  Do it NOW!

Are You Leaving Money On The Table?

Monday, August 15th, 2011

If you do not have follow up systems set up in your business, you are missing out on the easiest sales you will ever get.  There are a lot of different automated systems and ways to stay in touch with your prospects until they are ready to buy.  Here are a few  (assuming they have opted in to receive your messages). We can help you with these. . .

* email autoresponders & broadcasting – can send prewritten messages to unlimited people for years

* voice broadcasting – you can call 2,000 businesses per hour with the latest technology

* fax broadcasting – still a great way to follow up with prospects and customers

* direct mail automation – just like email autoresponders but done with handwritten notes and cards

* social media – when set up right, you can reach thousands or millions of people through their networks

* mobile marketing – SMS messages get a 98% open rate vs >10% open rate for emails

* RSS feeds – you do have a blog, don’t you?  You do have a way for readers to subscribe to your posts, right?

Get in touch if you would like help with any of these.