Marketing - It doesn't matter whether you are a business owner or an entrepreneur. You need to be able to be good at marketing and advertising because without them you will not be successful.
Marketing and advertising are such vital cogs to the success of any enterprise and yet are an area where consistently businesses fail or flounder. There is this perception that marketing is difficult, hard, and only should be tackled by "experts". This is I think a rumour that was started by the "experts" themselves because it is in their best interests to try and keep the world of marketing and advertising shrouded in a dark mystical cloud as if it's some kind of dark art form.
However, marketing and advertising is not a dark art form at all. There are a certain number of things you need to do but once you understand the process then you can just repeat it every time. And with each repeat of the process so you can improve it slightly.
The important thing to remember is that although every one of your businesses are different they all rely on one thing - customers. And to get a customer you need to have advertising and marketing.
When someone visits your website get them to sign up for a Free Offer. This can typically generate leads from 10-20% of your website visitors. The higher the perceived value of what you are offering the higher the conversions. So a free video is likely to get more sign ups than a free report.
Following on with that theme here are some do's and don'ts surrounding a Free Offer.
Newsletters
Do not use these. Newsletters I am afraid are old hat. They are perceived as being rather boring and dull. Think outside the box and take the information that you were going to publish in the newsletter and rename it as for example, Weekly Top Tips.
Weekly Top Tips
Put together a short yet informative email with a great tip on your area of expertise. This will be pulled out of what would have been your newsletter.
Free Report/Article
Entitle it such as "The 7 Secrets of xxx" or "The 4 Top Tips To Avoid yyy". This kind of report will work exceptionally well.
Audio
Get someone to carry out an interview with you and have it recorded, where you give tips and information for potential customers. The subject matter should be mainly about helping your potential customer, not just talking about your product or service. At the end of the interview promote your offer.
Video
The one big advantage that video has over everything else is that they have a very high perceived value compared to their actual cost. If you would like your potential customer's mailing address send them a DVD or CD. If you're happy with their name and email address you can offer the video online as a download which will substantially reduce your costs. Obviously this is dependent on the type of product that you are selling in terms of its price e.g. a high ticket item could justify a posted DVD whereas a low ticket item wouldn't. The interview format is perfect for video and the video production doesn't have to be Oscar nominated quality. < Marketing >
Product Samples
If you are in a position to be able to offer free samples or trials of what you sell, then do so as this will increase conversions.
Note to the above
Just because you are giving away something to your customer or potential customer for free, it still means that you have to put as much effort into the advertising copy as you would if you were selling it. You will still need to explain the benefits and make sure that you have a clear call to action. < Marketing >
By Nigel Tuck
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