December 2004 Edition
Save Dollars: Test Your Advertising
You’ve probably heard the saying ‘Only half of
advertising works – the trouble is, no one knows which half’. Well, you may
never find out which half works – but there are ways to test the market so
that you direct your dollars into the most effective advertising.
Let’s suppose you want your clients to come along to a seminar on buying an
investment property so how do you find out what kind of advertising will
work the best? Well quite simply you test a couple of ideas and measure
which of those ideas produce the best results.
Split your clients into two groups. Send a letter to one of the groups that
is chock-a-block full of compelling reasons why they should be there. And
add a handwritten PS, giving an extra sizzling reason or benefit for them to
come along.
Send a postcard to the other group of clients. You don’t have a lot of space
on a post card, so make every one of your words count. Tell them why they
should come in as compelling a way as possible.
You can measure which of these methods produces the best response from your
clients and use it in your future marketing. Of course, if both methods work
equally well, that’s a real bonus because it increases the options you have
for your future marketing activity.
Now it would be a good idea to test what response you can get from the
general public too. To do this, write a small advertisement (say 2 columns
by 2 cm) for your local paper designed to ‘grab’ attention, such as: “Make
money! Free recorded message tells how to buy investment real estate at dirt
cheap prices! Call 1234 5678 anytime, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” Set up
an answering machine with say a 90 second message giving a taste of the
seminar secrets just to whet their appetite. Include details of the seminar
and invite them to leave their name and number after the tone if they want
to attend then follow them up for a booking.
Use the three methods – letter, postcard, and advertisement – and then sit
down and work out which method got the best response. Its the testing and measuring that’s so important because next time
you’ll know exactly where best to spend your dollars.
Great Photographs
It's amazing what you find on the net. Here's a picture from a collage of great photographs of 2003. There are a few more and if you ask Kim she'll email them to you.
A Newsletter Clients Will Love
Even in
these days of e-mailing there’s nothing that works as well as a good
old printed-paper newsletter. I often remind clients how beneficial it is
to send one out to their database. You can fill it
with tips to help them work better, play better and save money. Here are two
ideas for your newsletter.
One: Write answers to the twenty most-asked questions from clients,
customers or patients and feature them as an article. (Later, you might even like to develop this
information into a special brochure.)
Two: Each edition, offer two of your clients the chance
to advertise their business in your newsletter (or have a great story
written about them). All they have to do is contribute to the mailing costs.
This offer has a two-fold benefit. It helps some of your business clients
generate extra business that is always welcome and, equally importantly,
makes all of your clients feel part of a club.
Woman Advertises for Husband!
When
other methods of finding a husband failed a Sydney woman spent $5000 for a
super sized billboard for a month. This novel idea gave her national media
coverage and probably helped her generate hundreds of responses from which
to choose the right mate.
Great Christmas Ideas
If you're looking for Christmas Gifts for clients, team members or friends there's nothing better than giving someone a gift that will work for them long after the gift giving season is over. Here are some suggestions:
How to motivate manage & market yourself
Getting Business to Come to You
Business Marketing Audio Subscription
Make the Most of the "Business Next Door"
If you drive
some distance from job to job, here’s a way to make those kilometres count whether you are a plumber, an
electrician, a cleaner or soft drink vendor.
Take a look at the location of your customers. Let’s imagine there is a
kilometre between two jobs. Here are some strategies to build your customer
base:
-
Knock on doors nearby, tell people that you are working in the area and offer to do an appraisal of their premises for any needed repairs (plumbing, electrical, painting, gardening etc.)
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Send a letter to other people in the area. Let them know when you’ll be in their street and that you’ll be calling in to see if they’d like your products home-delivered. You’ll be amazed at how positively people respond to you bothering to do this.
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If you have some lead time before you’re due to do a job, write a letter to the immediate neighbours around where you’ll be working offering your services when you are in the area. This almost always produces an extra job and, if you follow your letter up with a phone call often two jobs result.
ADVANCE NOTICE:
TELE-SEMINAR!!!
"How To Find And Hire Fantastic Team Members"
Recruitment whiz Nathan Chanesman and I will be presenting this seminar early February 2005 and you can listen in by phone from anywhere. If you want to know how to get great people to work for you then get further information here!
A Moment of Truth for Your Business
Years ago, when he was President of Scandinavian
Airlines, Jan Carlson wrote a best-selling book called Moments of Truth. The
premise was simple: a brief moment of contact between a customer and an
employee gives an instant, powerful impression of how the business is run.
Based on a single encounter of fifteen seconds, a customer may decide
whether a business cares about customers or not.
These ‘moments of truth’, as Carlson dubbed them, can make or break your
business. If you have heaps of customers getting a good impression, your
reputation and profit soars. On the other hand, if you have heaps of
customers getting a bad impression, your business can hit the skids so fast
you’ll find yourself bankrupt before you have time to wonder how it
happened.
You get only a few moments of truth so make them work!
A Revolutionary Word
‘Revolutionary’ is a word that gets noticed. It tells people that here is something new, something that hasn’t been tried before, something that will put them ahead of the pack. Use it as a grabber in sentences like “This revolutionary idea will save you heaps” or “A revolutionary way to slash heating costs” or “A revolutionary new idea will help your child soar through school.” Use the word ‘revolutionary’, and it will grab the attention of your potential clients who will expect something dynamic, interesting and new. Then make sure you deliver!
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