Are you caught in the “IN” trap?

“I’m caught in a trap…I can’t walk out…”

When Mark James aka Francis Zambon wrote those lyrics in 1968 as part of Suspicious Minds, I doubt he had us in mind. I’m sure Elvis didn’t.

But those words ring true for many business owners struggling today trying to maintain margins. 

They are mired working IN their business leaving little time to work ON their business.

But are they really trapped?

Or are they just more comfortable with the devil they know (12 hour days) than the devil they don’t (finding more efficient ways to generate profits and freeing them up to do other things)?

Let’s face it…learning new things takes us out of our comfort zone. But in order to maintain our success in today’s noisy and crowded marketplace – complete with economic downturns and new competitors springing up all over the place – we need to keep up with times.

And that means a willingness to venture into the unknown.

Otherwise, we`ll be left behind. Maybe not today. But eventually. The days of reaction are over. As business owners, we need to be out in front if we want to making sure our businesses continue to thrive.

Especially when it comes to marketing.

For many business owners, marketing is a mysterious, money and time sucking black hole that is to be avoided at every opportunity.

Why? Because for some, the few, unconnected marketing tactics they’ve used have produced little in the way of profitable results. 

And that’s the problem. Marketing is not series of one-shot deals. It should be an organized system that constantly being monitored for effectiveness.

At the end of the day, as a business owner, you are really in the marketing business – not the business of delivering the product or service that delivers benfits to your clients and customers.

Perhaps  you`ve never thought of it that way.

Although the reasons for making marketing a priority are many, here’s one that supercedes all the others.

Without a focused effort on creating a marketing system now – many business owners won`t be working one-hour days – forget 12 – as they find themselves losing ground to competitors who embrace the need for a marketing system

These savvy marketers understand the importance of implementing strategies and processes that automate their marketing efforts and equip them with the modern marketing weapons they they need to attract the attention of prospects, keep them “warm” until they’re ready to buy.

Many business owners are leaving tons of money on the table by not addressing three common marketing leverage points:

• They are trying to one-step prospects into buying. This is probably responsible for more lost selling opportunities than any other marketing mistake.
• They lack an automated, easy-to-implement and manage follow up system. The fortune is in the follow-up. Very few people buy friom us the first time they come across our offering. It’s the back end where the profit lies.
• They have no organized system in place for upselling or cross selling. This is a win-win situation and yet very few business owners do it. Clients who have already indicated they WANT the value the business owner can offer want to know more ways they can  benefit. It’s up to us to tell them.

And a marketing system isn`t simply for attracting new clients. You can use it to inform, educate and manage your current stable of clients and customers thereby reducing the time you spend on the phone or writing emails.   

If you`re tired of hacking your way through the marketplace jungle with a dull butter knife, try implementing some simple, inexpensive systems that will address the three leverage points above.

You`ll probably be able to cut your 12-hour day in half – and have plenty more profit to show for your efforts.

Gerry Black is a marketing writer based in Toronto, Canada who works with clients in the U.S. and Canada.

 6 “Easy-to-Implement” Marketing Mindsets

1. Think and act like an effective marketer

Often, we spend too much time fussing about little things when we should be concentrating on the bigger picture. Focus on making a difference with your ideas instead of thinking about all the reasons something might not work. Think like the master marketers. Their mindset is simple: My services are valuable. I will do whatever it takes to get the attention and interest of my prospects until they see the value as well.

2. Look at marketing as a game

Part of playing any game is making mistakes. It happens. You miss the shot. Drop the ball. And what happens? No biggee. You just keep playing the best you can. The mistake many business owners make when it comes to marketing is they don’t play the game at all. They try to get everything just perfect. Sure, they avoid making mistakes, but they never have a chance to win.

3. Tell ‘em what they want to hear how they want to hear it

The key to effective marketing is communicating the right thing at the right time to the right audience. One common trap is getting caught up with trying to find exactly the right words. Instead, think about who your target customer is, what’s important to him/her, the problems you help solve and then, the solutions you offer. Do that and the words will take care of themselves.

4. Create and use a compelling marketing message

Work hard to develop a powerful marketing message. Something that instantly communicates to your target audience what value you offer. When you get it to a point where you think it hits the mark, “take it to the streets” like the Doobie Brothers did. That’s an effective way to get valuable feedback. Try out your marketing message on 25 people and you’ll get a sense of know if whether or not your message is working.

5. Create a marketing strategy, make a plan and get going!

Guess what? There is no perfect strategy. Many marketers get so caught up trying to figure out the best way to market their business, they don’t act. Do SOMETHING. Pick a strategy that you think would be effective, roll up your sleeves and dive in. A big challenge for many business owners is trying to figure the perfect to market their business. What usually ends up happening is – nothing.

6. Follow a written marketing plan

When you think about promoting your business, did you ever notice how the same ideas tend to pop into your mind over and over again? The ones you know you should act on but never seem to find the time to do so? Until you actually write it out so you can see the action items, it will continue to be “something you know you should do” instead of a game plan that will help you grow your business. You don’t have to noodle out your whole plan and then write it down. Just start getting some ideas down. During the process, your plan will become clearer and clearer.

Wrap your mind around the things effective marketers do and before long, you’ll be right there along side them.

Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.

 Titanic Disaster Marketing Lessons

The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.

Shortly before midnight on 14 April 1912, four days into the ship’s maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

How could that happen?  

Afterall, the Titanic was designed by some of the most experienced engineers, and used some of the most advanced technology available at the time. It was popularly believed to have been unsinkable. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features, the Titanic sank.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression “that’s just the tip of the iceberg”. Well, the Titanic’s fate was sealed by what the captain and crew couldn’t see.

While they were focused on the visible part of the iceberg,  it was other 90% of the iceberg lying below the surface of the water -hidden from view – that created the irresistible force that responsible for a lot of the damage.

So what does this have to do with marketing?

Simply this.

An effective marketing plan – one that produces leads and profits – is like an iceberg. Your web site. Your email sales messages. Your pay-per-click ads. These form the “tip” of your marketing iceberg.

But over time, your marketing program should be silently expanding below the “surface” -out of sight from your prospects and clients - as you add on additional strategies and systems that gradually transform your marketing into a powerful force that stops your prospects and results in an outcome that benefits both parties.

Here’s why this is critical:

The sales resistance your prospects have built up as they steam through a sea of daily sales messages  - some studies say upwards of 1,600 – is like the hull of the Titanic.

It has been so hardened by countless cheesy come-ons, unmet expectations and failures to deliver that it easily allows new prospects to deflect one-time sales messages from your website, periodic emails and the odd PPC campaign.

This is called one-step marketing and rarely results in producing consistent results.

In fact, a high percentage of sales are lost with this one-time “here’s what I got” approach. And the reason is simple. No one proposes on the first date.  And that’s exactly what we’re attempting to do if we simply use a series of unconnected tactics to try to sell services or products to someone who doesn’t know us.

This just doesn’t allow for the connection needed to move your prospect from interested prospect to satisfied buyer.

That takes time and repeated connections with your prospect.   Which is why developing a marketing iceberg is effective for attracting qualified prospects and converting them into profitable sales. Marketing is a multi-step process and the systems and strategies we need to eventually “stop” our prospects so they will consider our offer form a powerful out-of-sight foundation that gets bigger and bigger as our marketing system expands.  

How well is your marketing iceberg equipped to break through the sales resistance armor you prospect suits up in every day? 

Do you have:

A compelling sales message? This is what gets your prospects to notice you in the first place. Does your marketing message stand out? Is it clear to your prospects what they get if they stick around and investigate your offering a bit more?

An automatic way to build a list of  interested buyers? The simple, inexpensive sales lead generation systems available today allow you to easily create an audience of people who want to know how your services and products can help them.

A system to eliminate possible sales resistance?  80% of sales are lost due to lack of follow up. 80%! That’s incredible. Understable back in the day when following up was a tedious. But today, creating an effective follow up system is easyand effective in generating faster, higher profits. By anticipating potential questions and concerns in advance and using an automated sequence of emails to address them, you can effectively pre-sell your prospects and help them enjoy the benefits you offer.

A reason for your prospect to take action? Everyone procrastinates. Especially potential buyers.  It’s human nature. They may need or want your services but just don’t see a need to act today. You need to give them one.

A way to make more with each sale? 90% of businesses don’t use this simple strategy. There is no better time to cross-sell or upsell than when your prospect has made a decision to buy from you. Why not try to help them with their needs even further? Afterall, we’re in business to help people. If you have additional services or products that create value for them, it’s your duty to make sure they know about it. We all have heard ( it’s never actually happened to us, of course!) the stories about clients and customers buying add-on products and services elsewhere because they didn’t know they could get them from the source where they bought the original product or service.  

A system for generating repeat sales? It’s 8 times more costly and more difficult to attract a new client that it is to sell an existing one again. If you have a client base of any size, you are sitting on a potential goldmine. You simply have to implement a repeat sales strategy system.   

Okay, so, how’d you do? Iceberg or ice cube? Don’t worry. Many business owners have 8-10 leverage points they are not tapping into to easily increase their sales results. And most of them have to do with implementing simple and effective marketing strategies.

If you have decided to make 2010 the year you take action to start building a marketing iceberg that pierces your prospect’s invincable hull of sales resistance so they are able to clearly understand the value you offer, great.

 You can ease in or dive right into the deep end. The important thing is to do something to start creating a marketing system instead of relying on disconnected tactices that aren’t delivering the results you want – and need – to grow your business.

Remember, the iceberg that sunk the Titanic was a powerful force. But it started out somewhere as an ice cube and grew gradually.

Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.

 How Does Your Marketing Stack Up?

Standing out in a crowded marketplace is actually very simple.

If you know what to do. And if you actually make a point to do it.

I was reminded of this over the holidays as I was browsing through my “Old-Fashioned Ideas” Library that sits above my desk on THE SHELF. The books and tapes that make it to THE SHELF have to earn their way by virtue of the fact that they offer timeless truths.

Too often, as marketers, we find ourselves distracted by The Next Shiny Thing. Some guru pontificating about how he/she has discovered a new way to …whatever.

Bottom line: The basics never change. And if you put them in place, you will see the results you want – as this little story points out.

I was reading Ultimate Marketing Plan by Dan Kennedy, one of my old-fashioned (and extremely wealthy) mentors.

He tells the story about a trip to Montreal where he stayed at a hotel called The Lord Berri. (I know exactly where it is too because I grew up in Montreal.)

Next to the hotel is a parking lot. There’s nothing distinctive about it. And it’s not the kind of place where you’d expect anything above minimal service.

One evening, Dan and some associates decided to go out for dinner and went to the lot to get their rental car to go out in search of a good restaurant.

On the stool, leaning against a hut: an overweight guy with a beer, wearing a T-shirt. The Parking Lot Guy.

Nothing distinctive about him either. In fact, the kinda guy you might run into in any North American parking lot.

But this Parking Lot Guy is an exciting reminder that you dare not judge all books by their covers.

As they approached the attendant, he said, “Where do you gentlemen want to go with your car tonight?” Kennedy and his associates explained they were headed for an Italian restaurant they’d found advertised in a magazine.

“No,” he told them, “you do not want to go there. There are much better Italian restaurants much closer, even within walking distance.”

When’s the last time YOU had this kind of interest from someone. (Important point to remember here: The Parking Lot Guy already had their business.)

A 15-minute conversation ensued during which The Parking Lot Guy asked about the group’s preferences, he got out a telephone directory and called several restaurants to determine how late they were serving, what their specials were, even what wine they had in stock. Once the group decided on a restaurant, he drew them a map and gave them directions.

The Parking Lot Guy – for $7 a day – was taking better care of the group than the staffs at most of the hotels they stayed in at $100, $150 or even $200 a day! (This event took place 15 years ago but think about how timeless his response below is when the group thanked him for being so polite, concerned, friendly and knowledgeable.)

He said:

That’s my business; that’s what I sell. I’m in the service business. If I can help a person or make friends with a person when he brings his car here for the first time, then the next time he has to park his car downtown, he’ll remember me and my place. He may even tell somebody else to park their car here. If he comes back a number of times, then I’m building a stable business. Then he’s not worth a few dollars to me, he may be worth a hundred dollars to me in a year. In my lifetime, he could pay to send one of my kids to college for a year. If I have enough of that kind of customer, then I have a truly valuable business. You can’t do that just by parking cars. There are hundreds of car lots. They’ve all got parking spaces. We have to give service.

The Parking Lot Guy gives us a solid foundation around which to build our marketing stories.

Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.