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pbknight | February 2, 2012
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Direct Marketing is it still working?

Many of us don’t use direct marketing because many believe it is not effective or dosen’t results in many sales. While everything is electronic, many small business don’t use direct marketing because of the cost. Using electonic marketing is inexpensive and instant. There is great satisfaction in seeing your results instant. So therefore direct marketing gets ignored with the small entrepreneur.

Now don’t get me wrong I believe that electronic marketing is faster, inexpensive and instant gratification and I use it daily. But I also have discovered that if you target your audience carefully, direct marketing can really be a good thing.

Recently I took a small segment of my niche and marketed directly to them about a new workshop that was coming up. To my surprise my targeted market  responded overwhelming around 90%. That was a shocker and it was a wonderful use of my time and resource. I  am now a believer and will use direct marketing as one other piece of my marketing.

Using direct marketing as been a real eye opener and if you target correctly you will find direct marketing is very beneficial and very profitable.

Here are some of the tips I learned from the master of direct marketing Dan Kennedy.

  • There will always be an offer
  • There will be reason to respond right now
  • Have clear instructions as to what you prospect to do
  • Make sure you track and measure your results
  • Branding your productm be very patient
  • Always follow up
  • Make sure your content is strong
  • Embrace the results (sales)
  • Be disciplined and keep your marketing on a strict diet

So direct marketing is alive and well worth the effort if you plan accordingly. Use it wisely and target your audience who you believe will be receptive to your message.

Small businesses don’t be afraid to use direct marketing. Just keep it simple, direct and targeted. Amen

Category: Small Biz Info |
pbknight | January 27, 2012
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Positioning, Not Prospecting

 

Plan Your Move

Plan Your Move

Have you  noticed that the weakest link in the selling chain for most sales people is prospecting? Many people can do at least an adequate job of presenting their products or services, if there are some interested prospects in front of them.  But most people I know simply hate prospecting. Most of the time they avoid it and only do it when absolutely necessary and when they do, do it poorly.  To me there is nothing worse than spending time talking to people who are not interested or not qualified to say yes even if they could say yes.

What you need to do is to focus on positioning. By positioning yourself, you attract qualified prospects who want to find out about you and seek you out to obtain your expert assistance in solving their problems. That is important because when you go to prospects and present yourself, many times they have their guard up or don’t want to listen to what you have to say.  However, when somebody discovers you and takes the initiative to seek you out for your expert assistance, then that person could possibly be a potential customer.

Category: Small Biz Info | Tags: , , , , ,
pbknight | January 11, 2012
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Marketing Tips For the Emerging Small Business

Smart Marketing Tips Into Action

Business People

Let's Get This Party Started

As a small business, sometimes you need to break some of the rules. For example, put your web site onto everything. Mention your advertising in your direct mail. Get some T-shirts and put your website on that. Use the front and back of your business cards to promote yourself. Remember to plants the seeds of your offering with various kinds of marketing.

Here are some low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.

1. Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can’t afford to do that.

2. Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Offer various packages so that no one is left out.

3. Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service.

4. Wear a name tag that will that describes a benefit that you offer so the prospective customer will ask more questions about your service.

As you know prospects are like you except that they’re probably doing business with one of your competitors. And in order to compete with your competitor, you most follow up because your competitor’s most likely don’t know the meaning of follow-up, and that’s where you get your biggest advantage. By not following up most customers feel ignored after the sale. I have seen it happened and I have felt it as well when sales get low.

Remember your customers are your best prospects. That’s why being a maverick marketer you should identify your ideal client and then begin the relationship process. It is a relationship building process with that in mind, you can transform them into customers.

Category: Marketing Articles | Tags: , , , ,
pbknight | December 22, 2011
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Do You Have A Marketing & Product Funnel?

Let’s start the new year off right with understanding what you need to do to generate more income besides working directly with clients.

So let’s look at having a funnel a marketing and product funnel. If you look at a funnel, it’s wide and open at the top, and tiny and narrow at the bottom. At the top of the funnel is where you want to get many prospects in as possible. At the bottom of the funnel are your highest priced and most exclusisve servics/products. And in the middle are in-between levels of services/products and prices.

So as you go down the funnel, the products are priced higher and higher, and the idea is to keep people flowing down from the top to bottom.

So here goes:

  • Attract as many people into your funnel as you can so you can market to one-to-many.
  • Offer something for free (such a free report, an e-zine, or tele-class)
  •  Ask for their information even their physical address
  •  Send direct mail
  • Have middle prices so people can afford you and you can convert them
  •  Offer Info products such as: Books, E-books, Special Reports, or Manuals, Workbooks, or Journals, Audio (downloads or CDs), Video (downloads or DVDs) or something like a Home Study or Tutorial

Selling these products on your website gives you passive income. That is money coming in automatically. Here is the best part. It doesn’t require your working X hours for Y dollars. Sales come in 24/7, and you don’t even have to be there.

Don’t feel like you have to come up with 50 different products to have a jam-packed funnel right away. If you don’t have a lead generator for the top of your funnel (such as an e-zine), then start at the Top. That’s the first step.

Now let’s get busy.

 

 

Category: Marketing Articles | Tags: , , ,
pbknight | November 9, 2011
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INVITE AN AUDIENCE

This audio blog was done back in 2008 and It still applies now. Everyone wants to excite an audience, get them into the mood of buying their product or services. How do you invite an audience to get excited about about buying your product or services? What are the things that will make you stand out to get that audience attention. Listen to this audio that was done in 2008 it still is relevant now. Enjoy!

Business People

Let's Get This Party Started

Listen an audio blog tip that teaches you how to “Invite an Audience”.
invite-an-audience

Category: Marketing Articles, Product Reviews, Small Biz Info, Success Tips & Info | Tags: , , , , , , ,
pbknight | October 24, 2011
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Identifying The Perfect Market

Recently I received a couple of emails on how you should identify your target market. I recorded this audio brief about 2 years ago. I thought this might help if you are looking for that target audience.

Pam Knight, Small Business Marketing Coach

Pam Knight, Small Business Marketing Coach


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