Put your business under the microscope.
Copyright © Henry Winter
http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com
Focus.
This is what very successful entrepreneur has and what every successful business should have.
Marketing should have a focus too but for many busniesses they don't.
They market themselves in two fateful ways :
- similarity thinking
- to all and sundry.
Any business or business owner/manager needs to make sure they understand EXACTLY who they are marketing too.
Marketing to the famous audience of 1.
Get that right and you would be amazed at how simply focussing a company or a product on the right target can energise sales, invigorate staff, enthuse a stampede of happy buyers.
Don't do what everyone else does, do something different.
Communicate differently, whether that be through the message, through "dimensional mailings" (3d objects in the post) or via audio email, video email, bloggs, pod and nano casting, vidoe business card.
Doing the same gets the same.
Find the hungry target, give them something different. Watch how avidly they feed.
About the Author:
Henry Winter is a business coach to small business owners, author, and marketer.
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Sunday, March 19, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
So what do lots of B2B mailings miss?
A clue was in the headline. It's "So what".
When a lot of businesses write their own (and when some copywriters do too) sales promo's, they list the features and benefits of their product or service but fail to question the value of the benefit they have written about by using the "So what?" test.
"Our blah blah produces lovely graphs" - So? Whats in it for me.
"The feature blah blah allows you to plot data on a map" - So? What's in it for me?
"Ah!" I hear you say, "this is a B2B mailing, we don't need what's in it for me, it does not work in our market". OK, let me ask you a question: Can the person being written for breathe on a mirror and make it mist over?
Yes, great, then the person being written for has emotions, worries, fears, concerns and wants. You need to appeal to those. Why? Because it sells more. It gets better response. Which brings me to another question - who exactly are they writing for? Again, lots of firms treat everyone the same. They are not. What is THE target market, or job function being written too?
A well constructed list of features and benefits will usually pull some response, but if you want to double or even quadruple response, a well written benefit with a "whats in it for me" (WIIFM) conclusion, targetted for the right audience will.
A B2B mailing may not be as effusive, or "hyped" as a letter to an opportunity seeker or consumer, but as long as you link the benefit you have spent years trying to create through your super new product or service to a "Whats in it for me" closing you can illicit better response. Because that means more sales or leads, more money in the bank and more security for you and your family. That's what you want isn't it?
If you need help with establishing what's in it for them, so you get more of what you want, let me know, webmaster@livewirebusiness.com
A clue was in the headline. It's "So what".
When a lot of businesses write their own (and when some copywriters do too) sales promo's, they list the features and benefits of their product or service but fail to question the value of the benefit they have written about by using the "So what?" test.
"Our blah blah produces lovely graphs" - So? Whats in it for me.
"The feature blah blah allows you to plot data on a map" - So? What's in it for me?
"Ah!" I hear you say, "this is a B2B mailing, we don't need what's in it for me, it does not work in our market". OK, let me ask you a question: Can the person being written for breathe on a mirror and make it mist over?
Yes, great, then the person being written for has emotions, worries, fears, concerns and wants. You need to appeal to those. Why? Because it sells more. It gets better response. Which brings me to another question - who exactly are they writing for? Again, lots of firms treat everyone the same. They are not. What is THE target market, or job function being written too?
A well constructed list of features and benefits will usually pull some response, but if you want to double or even quadruple response, a well written benefit with a "whats in it for me" (WIIFM) conclusion, targetted for the right audience will.
A B2B mailing may not be as effusive, or "hyped" as a letter to an opportunity seeker or consumer, but as long as you link the benefit you have spent years trying to create through your super new product or service to a "Whats in it for me" closing you can illicit better response. Because that means more sales or leads, more money in the bank and more security for you and your family. That's what you want isn't it?
If you need help with establishing what's in it for them, so you get more of what you want, let me know, webmaster@livewirebusiness.com
Friday, March 10, 2006
What's small and gets read all over?
Postcards. Are they dead as part of the marketing mix. No way!
They have become an alternative electronic marketing tool as well as an offline one.
Lot's of businesses still use Postcards, via snail mail, as an integral part of their marketing mix. Estate Agents (one of the areas I work in) use them a lot, mostly to good effect. Many other businesses ignore them. I am still amazed why so many do.
Those with poor experience of failed post card campaigns are usually down by poor layout, wrong message and because they are not used sequentially.
If the mailing was not to a known list then, like any direct mail piece, it is reliant on the quality of the list selection. Responses from known lists are often lower than expected if the objective has no been fully clarified or if the response "offer" (read premium or discount) was not good enough. Like any campaign a post card needs careful planning - the key message, the layout, the objective, the timing and what it asks the prospect to do. For many campaigns rarely are they all right.
Postcards can be used to drive additional traffic "offline" to an "online" lead or sales capture "mini site" or sales landing page. As long as the goal is to elicit ONE action and does not try and suggest too many things, the graphics can be targetted and so can the message for better response overall.
If you have any kind of business or venture that can use leads then have a re think about postcards as part of your lead caprutre solution.
If you are short of ideas may be I can help. Just drop an email to webmaster@livewiebusiness.com or visit the web site www.livewirebusiness.com and see the menu.
Postcards. Are they dead as part of the marketing mix. No way!
They have become an alternative electronic marketing tool as well as an offline one.
Lot's of businesses still use Postcards, via snail mail, as an integral part of their marketing mix. Estate Agents (one of the areas I work in) use them a lot, mostly to good effect. Many other businesses ignore them. I am still amazed why so many do.
Those with poor experience of failed post card campaigns are usually down by poor layout, wrong message and because they are not used sequentially.
If the mailing was not to a known list then, like any direct mail piece, it is reliant on the quality of the list selection. Responses from known lists are often lower than expected if the objective has no been fully clarified or if the response "offer" (read premium or discount) was not good enough. Like any campaign a post card needs careful planning - the key message, the layout, the objective, the timing and what it asks the prospect to do. For many campaigns rarely are they all right.
Postcards can be used to drive additional traffic "offline" to an "online" lead or sales capture "mini site" or sales landing page. As long as the goal is to elicit ONE action and does not try and suggest too many things, the graphics can be targetted and so can the message for better response overall.
If you have any kind of business or venture that can use leads then have a re think about postcards as part of your lead caprutre solution.
If you are short of ideas may be I can help. Just drop an email to webmaster@livewiebusiness.com or visit the web site www.livewirebusiness.com and see the menu.
LiveWireBusiness Blogg - mixed media sales and marketing
Exposure. Exposure. Exposure.
Be seen, be heard, be noticed.
Before the web it was direct mail, fax broadcasts, and response premiums like audio cassettes, then CDs, then DVDs.
Now, with all the new web technology it should still be all the above (i.e. no business should leave any stone unturned in its marketing efforts) PLUS, web casts, vcasts, audio email, video email, online meeting rooms, seminar rooms and even pre loaded Ipod nanos with relevant messages and information of choice. And there will be more to come.
Nanocasting, the commercial application of Podcasting is growing, just ask Rodney Rumford!
So, why am I talking about it.
Because all these new media, so ably created by the web techies, can get main stream very quickly. BUT, and it's a big but, it also means that main stream has to apply them the right way but with little application research for the general market. That is by test, trial and error.
Key to all these are the foundations of good marketing - the message. It does not matter which medium is used - if it's poor content, or selling in the wrong way, it won't work.
Companies and business owners need to make sure they choose, use and don't abuse the right words, makes sure they get the right message out the right way.
Lastly, anyone wanting to "reach" a market, needs to decide how each part of their market should be communicated with. For example, a firm selling services in an affluent tech town will probably find they have many, above average, income earners, coupled with higher internet and web tools use.
For them email campaigns and nanocasts, free MP3 downloads of great content and more would be an approach that could work. Whereas, if they are also trying to sell the same product or service to small business owners, likely to be greyer haired and less net savvy, then direct mail and some form of white paper would be better.
Am I suggesting the new media technology is not applicable to general marketing. Absolutely not. All the new technology for marketing and sales promotion is fantastic, after all it helps my clients and I do more, get more, achieve more.
So, is it "off to the races" for marketeers and business owners? It could be, but it's horses for courses and they will miss a beat or too if they have a horse for the flat entered for steeple chase. It's still needs to be the right message, to the right market, delivered in the right way.
Be seen, be heard, be noticed.
Before the web it was direct mail, fax broadcasts, and response premiums like audio cassettes, then CDs, then DVDs.
Now, with all the new web technology it should still be all the above (i.e. no business should leave any stone unturned in its marketing efforts) PLUS, web casts, vcasts, audio email, video email, online meeting rooms, seminar rooms and even pre loaded Ipod nanos with relevant messages and information of choice. And there will be more to come.
Nanocasting, the commercial application of Podcasting is growing, just ask Rodney Rumford!
So, why am I talking about it.
Because all these new media, so ably created by the web techies, can get main stream very quickly. BUT, and it's a big but, it also means that main stream has to apply them the right way but with little application research for the general market. That is by test, trial and error.
Key to all these are the foundations of good marketing - the message. It does not matter which medium is used - if it's poor content, or selling in the wrong way, it won't work.
Companies and business owners need to make sure they choose, use and don't abuse the right words, makes sure they get the right message out the right way.
Lastly, anyone wanting to "reach" a market, needs to decide how each part of their market should be communicated with. For example, a firm selling services in an affluent tech town will probably find they have many, above average, income earners, coupled with higher internet and web tools use.
For them email campaigns and nanocasts, free MP3 downloads of great content and more would be an approach that could work. Whereas, if they are also trying to sell the same product or service to small business owners, likely to be greyer haired and less net savvy, then direct mail and some form of white paper would be better.
Am I suggesting the new media technology is not applicable to general marketing. Absolutely not. All the new technology for marketing and sales promotion is fantastic, after all it helps my clients and I do more, get more, achieve more.
So, is it "off to the races" for marketeers and business owners? It could be, but it's horses for courses and they will miss a beat or too if they have a horse for the flat entered for steeple chase. It's still needs to be the right message, to the right market, delivered in the right way.
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