When it comes to making sales with your marketing or advertising materials (or even live and in person), a big part of your success hinges on the offer. Because if you don’t offer something people want, they’re not going to buy. And if you don’t give them a good reason to take action now, they probably won’t!

Do you know what the two most important parts of any marketing or advertising piece are?

The first one is easy—the headline. But the second one is tougher. Because unless you’ve studied copywriting, you’d be hard-pressed to guess. Yet it can make or break your entire promotion…

The second most important part of your marketing and advertising is the offer.

Think about it. If you want to tons of sales, you really do have to make people an offer they can’t refuse. Because even the most powerful call to action won’t work unless your offer is practically irresistible.

Let’s look at a few examples…

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Which one is the better offer?
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OFFER A – Sign up for our Free newsletter.

OFFER B – Sign up to receive your Free copy of “The 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins…Are You Guilty?” and have Bright Ideas for building your business sent to your inbox each week.

OFFER A – Call 867-5309 for your complementary consultation.

OFFER B – Be one of the first 10 business to call 867-5309 and receive a no-cost “Smart Business Tax Strategies Review” (a $500 value) that shows exactly how you can save up to $5000 on your federal taxes.

OFFER A – Just click on the button below to buy your very own Garden Mole today.

OFFER B – Try the Garden Mole for FREE. If you’re thrilled with the results, keep it and we’ll bill your credit card. If not, just send it back within 30 days and you won’t be charged a penny.

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Anatomy of an offer they can’t refuse
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Regardless of what you’re selling—and even if you’re giving something away—there are 3 things that go into creating a really effective offer. If your offer doesn’t have any one of
these, chances are it’s not going to generate the results you’re after.

1) You need to offer something your client wants, not just something you think they need (or something that’s easy for you). Keep in mind, of course, that what people want and what they need are rarely the same thing.

2) Prospects must to be able to understand, right away, why they would want it (This is that “What’s In It For Me?” or WIIFM factor us marketers talk about all the time). After all, if there’s no clear benefit to them, why would they bother taking the time or spending the money?

That’s why just offering a free consult or a free newsletter isn’t very effective anymore. We’re all far too busy to go for those generic offers. You need to promise something more compelling (see #1).

Besides, these days most people think ‘free consult’ means ‘time-sucking sales pitch’ anyway. So that offer is pretty much a waste of space.

3) It has to have more value then risk. Part of this is price. But this is also where bonuses, free reports, cost comparisons, free trials, and money-back guarantees come in. They all either add value or reduce the risk. And they’re all part of the offer.

4) They need a good reason to take action now. People are super busy. So if they don’t take action right now, they’re likely to procrastinate then forget all about your offer. That means you need to give folks incentive to act immediately. Think limited availability, limited time offer, early bird rates, special bonuses, emphasizing why waiting would be worse, etc.

Just make sure if you do a promotion with limited availability or a limited time offer that it’s true. If you don’t stick to the promise made in your offer your credibility will go out the window. And the next time you say you only have 5 available it’ll be like the little boy who cried wolf.

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A classic example of a highly effective offer…
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Remember the old Ginsu knives commercials? Those knives seemed like a pretty good deal all on their own…But wait, there’s more. For one low price you also get the knife holder, the sharpener, the insta-chopper, and the kitchen sink.

And, if you act right now, they’ll even throw in a special salad spinner as a special bonus.
As if that wasn’t enough to convince you, they also included a money-back guarantee.

Talk about a lot of value for little risk, and a good reason to act now. If you were in the market for a new set of knives, how could you resist?

So next time you get ready to promote a product or service, don’t just stick your contact info in there and hope for the best. Make ‘em an offer they can’t refuse!

[tags] Marketing, Small Business, writing, offers, copywriting, copy, marketing materials, advertising, effective, Grow, direct mail, new clients, new customers, sales, selling [/tags]

Are you leaving money on the table because you aren’t letting people know about your other products or services? If you own a small business, chances are the answer is yes! Because most small business owners and their employees have yet to master the art of the upsell. Maybe it’s that you don’t know how. Or maybe it’s that upselling (or even selling for that matter) makes you uncomfortable. If so this article is sure to change your mind and give you the tools you need to use totally non-pushy upsells to make your clients happier AND more money.

The other night, my hubby and I were on our way back from one of my speaking engagements, and decided to pick up dinner to go. So we called one of our favorite teriyaki joints (Seattle’s Best, on 1st Ave S), to place an order.

Since it’s a little out of the way for us normally, we hadn’t eaten there in a while. So we were rather excited to have it conveniently located on our route home.

Then life got even better…

The woman who took my husband’s order asked if we’d like brown rice instead of white!

I don’t each much white rice, but I love brown rice! In fact, I’ll order it every time if given the option. So this was a very pleasant surprise. And boy was it good! This place has the yummiest teriyaki sauce and it is divine on rice (white or brown).

As a result we’ll now be going out of our way to eat there more …And I bet we’re not alone.

My husband (a sales guy) and I were very impressed. Because they’re clearly paying attention to changes in people’s eating habits, and changing their menu to suit. And they’re making sure customers know about this new option…

With the simple act of asking if we’d like their newest menu item as a substitute, Seattle’s Best made $1.90 more. And now we’ll be there more often, spending more money each time, to get that fine brown rice.

All they did was let us know this option is now available, and boom, they grew their business. Best of all, I’m thrilled to have spent the extra money.

This was upselling at its finest. And it’s most simple.

What’s interesting is that big companies and chains often train their employees to ask if you want to make it a combo, add fries with that, try their new dessert, etc. Yet it’s rare to see this done in small restaurants (or any small business).

Which is silly. Because it’s one of the easiest things to do and almost any business can do it (not just restaurants!).

When I worked in my parent’s animal hospital as a kid we boarded pets overnight. And we always asked if clients wanted their pets bathed before going home. More than 50% said yes.

Added convenience for them, more revenue for us!

The key here is…We were trained to ask.

All too often small business owners (or their employees) just don’t ask. Maybe because they aren’t comfortable selling…

Or they feel like they don’t have time employees to train in this much detail…

Or don’t know how to get the employees to do it…

Or, even worse, they think the employees are asking, when in reality it’s not happening (When was the last time you had a “secret shopper” call in to see what employees really say when they answer the phone???).

In the last case, the poor business owner is usually left thinking the promotion isn’t working. Or the product or service is a dud. When in reality clients don’t know it exists!

It sounds dead obvious, but you have to let people know about other products or services or you probably won’t sell very many. Thankfully, you don’t even have to be there in person to do an effective upsell.

5 Easy Ways to Upsell Your Products and Services

1) If you sell and ship products, put an ad or coupon for a related product or an upgrade in the bag or box.

2) Send new clients a thank you card with a promotion for one of your other services.

3) Put a sign up in your store or office announcing a new offering or special deal. Just make sure it doesn’t get lost in the clutter. And train your staff to point it out.

4) Send targeted follow-up emails to customers offering them a related product or service (you can do this automatically with a good email autoresponder and shopping cart).

5) On your Website, offer an added discount for buying two products or services together Amazon does a great job of this by always offering a second book on the same subject below your main selection.

Remember, upselling is really just a matter of offering something else your customer is likely to want, based on what they’re buying now. Simple as that.

You’re doing your clients and customers a HUGE disservice if you don’t tell them you have something else they may want or need. And you’re leaving money on the table in your own business.

©2008 SuccessStream. All Rights Reserved. www.success-stream.com

[tags] Marketing, Small Business, Grow, clients, customers, repeat, follow up, sales, upselling, ask for the sale, products, services, make more money, easy ways to upsell, easy ways [/tags]

Are you struggling to constantly reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing and growing your small business? Are you so swamped with running your business you can’t even think about putting together new products? If so, then you need to start following the successful small business owner’s secret of reusing, repurposing, and reducing to get more done with less.

Did you know there’s an easy way to double or triple your output of new products and marketing materials with WAY less effort?

Most small business owners I meet are either killing themselves trying to constantly put together new marketing materials for products and services they already sell. Or they’re so overwhelmed by the idea of having to come up with anything new to say they don’t do hardly any marketing at all. They certainly aren’t regularly launching new products and services.

But you should be doing all of the above. And it doesn’t have to be that hard.

The secret is to follow something very similar to the recycler’s creed of reduce, reuse, recycle. Only I’m not talking about being a green business (though that’s important too).

I’m talking about creating more with less by using my Reuse, Repurpose, Reduce philosophy. Let me explain…

#1 Reuse
A while back I put on a one-day copywriting workshop. To promote it, I created a long-form sales letter for my Website, a few postcard mailers, and a flier complete with registration section. Then I started doing live seminars and teleseminars on the topic.

At one of my live events, someone commented with surprise that the copy on my flier was almost the same as the copy on the Website (minus about 8 pages of content!).

Well of course it was. Both the Website and the flier were promoting the same event. I didn’t need to write all new promo text if what I already had made sense and resonated with my ideal prospect.

In fact, if I had written all new text it might have been confusing to prospects. Because if they’d read the flier, then gone to the Webpage and found completely different info, they might have thought they were in the wrong place.

You can and should reuse key parts of your copy so your message is consistent. People often have to see your same message as many as 8 times before they even notice it—and another 8 times before they decide to take action. The last thing you want to do is change it all the time.

So write your longest promo piece first. And in your initial rough drafts at least, be sure to include every detail, point or argument you can think of. Then use this as the basis for all your other marketing materials.

You might tweak parts and pieces a little to be more effective in a new format, or test a different headline. But the core message can, and should, stay the same.

#2 Repurpose
Finding ways to turn one thing into many is one of my specialties. And it’s something every small business owner should be doing because it’s the next best thing to cloning yourself. All it requires is a little forethought and preparation.

Here are a few examples:

Next time you do a speaking engagement capture your talk on a digital recorder (I use the Olympus DS2). Then turn the recording into an audio product you can give away or sell on your Website.

Have transcripts created from the audio and you’ve got another product you can sell.

Take articles you write for your newsletter and submit them to online article databases to drive traffic to your site. Or post them to your Website or blog.

Then pull together a bunch of articles, transcripts or blog posts you’ve written on one topic, add a table of contents and a little formatting, and Voila! You’ve got another free report or e-book to give away or sell.

The list goes on…

#3 Reduce
If you’re a busy small business owner (is there any other kind?), you don’t have the time or energy to constantly implement new things. You probably also don’t have a lot of extra time to spending learning your way around new technology. So you have to get as much done as possible without doing a ton of extra work.

The key to making this happen is outsourcing everything possible. No matter the size of your business, if you’re doing anything online I can’t recommend hiring an experienced Virtual Assistant (VA) highly enough!

They can help you create products, do online marketing and pr, manage your social networking, build and post to a blot, and generally run the online side of your business (among other things).

When you have articles ready for online submission, need an e-book formatted, or have an audio you’d like to sell, your job is done. Because you can send your materials to your VA and let them do the time consuming grunt work.

Use these three “R” rules in your own business every day, and you’ll amazing how much more you can accomplish in way less time!

©2008 SuccessStream/Stacy Karacostas. All Rights Reserved. www.success-stream.com

[tags] Marketing, creating marketing materials, making more with less, Small Business, Grow, new products, creating ebooks, e-books, virtual assistants, outsourcing [/tags]

It’s sad to say but true…Most of what you learn about starting and running a small business before becoming an entrepreneur is dead wrong! You can spend years figuring this out on your own (like I did), or you can read this article and benefit from my mistakes…

No matter what, you learn more by doing than by just about any other method. And after 12 years of doing the entrepreneur thing in 5 different businesses (naturalist trainer, veterinary software trainer & management consultant, copywriter and marketing consultant, real estate investor, and now SuccessStream) I’ve definitely learned a thing or two.

While I’d rather learn from my success, there’s no doubt I’ve learned the most from my mistakes. So I’d thought I’d save you the struggle and share 10 of my top business-building lessons. Some were told to me, others I learned the hard way. Enjoy!

1) Owning a business and being self-employed are two entirely different things. When you own a business, you make money even when you’re not working. And you can go on vacation without everything grinding to a halt.

When you’re self-employed you’re it. If you aren’t working nothing gets done and you don’t make a dime. It’s more fun, and more secure, to own a business than it is to be self-employed —even if it does take a bit more planning and effort to get there.

2) Do at least one marketing activity each day. And do it at the start of the day so you can be sure it gets done. This could be writing an article or blog post. Calling a client to
check in. Sending a card. Updating your social networking page.

Whatever it is just do it, and you’ll be one more step ahead of most of your competition.

3) Test the market before you create the product or service. Too often people spend months, or even years, perfecting their book, seminar, widget or whatever. Then they launch and discover hardly anyone is interested. In the beginning it’s best to create your promotions first. Then produce on demand if anyone buys.

4) It’s your business, so you make the rules. If you don’t want to work nights and weekends…Don’t. If you don’t like answering phones or emails…Don’t. These days, there are almost as many business models as there are businesses. And with the introduction of Virtual Assistants, you can always hire out the tedious parts without having to actually hire an employee.

5) Change is difficult, but almost always worthwhile. And often the changes that come with bad news or hard times are the most worthwhile ones of all. Just remember, the first time you try something new it’s probably going to be hard, scary and uncomfortable. But it always gets easier.

6) Personally pulling in every client one-by-one is a long, slow road. When I first launched my old copywriting business I didn’t go after clients one at a time (it would’ve taken forever to build a business that way on my budget).

Instead, I connected with other marketing consultants, Web designers and graphic designers because their clients needed my services. That way any one connection might result in 5-10 new clients.

Public speaking and writing/publishing (online or off) are also great ways to attract many prospects with one action.

7) Focus on your strengths. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time trying to work on my weaknesses. And I still do in my personal life. But when it comes to my business it only makes sense to work on what I’m best at and leave the rest to someone else.

8) Outsourcing is like dating…You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. Overall, I’ve found it easier (and cheaper) to hire independent business professionals versus employees. Mainly because their work has a direct impact on their own business success.

That doesn’t mean finding good people is going to be easy, but don’t give up. They’re out there. And when you find someone stellar you’ll be thrilled you didn’t give up the hunt.

9) Never go it alone. It’s much easier to build a business with support. That doesn’t mean you need to bring on a true partner. But strategic partners, mentors, mastermind groups, coaches—even just someone else you can call on the phone periodically for an exchange of ideas—are invaluable.

10) Schedule time to work on your business, or you’ll always end up working in it. Set aside at least one hour per week to work on your marketing, write a business plan, create a promotion, find new service providers…Anything other than putting out fires, answering emails and servicing clients. It’s the only way to move your business forward.

[tags] Marketing, Small Business, mistakes, growing, business-building, self employed, outsourcing, virtual assistants, Grow, attraction, new clients, new customers, repeat, sales, sell, lessons [/tags]

When it comes to marketing and advertising your small business, you need to focus on more than just attracting new customers or clients. In fact, that’s the most expensive and difficult way to grow your business.

Instead try using a mix of these three types of marketing tactics to get new clients and keep them coming back for more…

If you’re like most small business owners the majority of your marketing and advertising is focused on bringing in new business.

Maybe you’re doing a lot of networking…Or placing ads…Or cold calling…Or finding referral partners…Or all of these and more.

I call these “attraction” tactics because they attract new clients and customers. And they can be quite effective.

Entrepreneurs tend to use a lot of attraction tactics because that’s what everyone is most familiar with.

Whether on TV or radio, the sides of buses, or in magazines and newspapers, we’re bombarded with ads that are nothing more than a catchy image and slogan plus a Web address. Pure attraction.

If all those big, successful companies are spending oodles of cash on attraction tactics, you probably should too. Right?

Well, yes and no.

There are actually two other powerful types of tactics. And you need to use all three if you really want your business to grow.

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The problems with attraction
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I’ll be the first to say attraction tactics can be a valuable and effective part of any marketing plan. They get your name out there, create a sense of familiarity, and hopefully make your business memorable.

The problem is that straight attraction tactics are usually the most expensive, and take the longest to generate results (IE sales).

Here’s why…

On average, it takes 7 times more money to get a new customer than keep an existing customer.

Because you’ve got to get in front of people 7-10 times before they notice you. Then another 7 times or more before they even think about taking action (calling, buying, etc.) And that’s assuming you’re getting in front of the right audience.

On top of that, it’s often hard to track results from attraction tactics.

Coke has no idea how many people, if any, buy more soda after watching their Super Bowl commercials. But they can afford to spend a ton of money just building and maintaining brand familiarity. Most small business owners can’t.

rarely recommend my clients even invest in straight attraction tactics. Because the other two kinds of tactics—“conversion” and “retention”—provide far more bang for the buck. Plus, conversion tactics can usually do double duty as attraction tactics anyway.

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The 3 types of marketing tactics every business should use
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To really make your marketing work magic, you need to use a mix of:

1) Attraction tactics to get you noticed, develop brand recognition, and increase familiarity

2) Conversion tactics to get people to take action, call, sign up or buy

3) Retention tactics to keep you in touch with past customers, and ideally turn them into repeat customers and referral sources

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Converting the masses
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Basically, conversion tactics get you to take some kind of action. They convert cold prospects into warm prospects, or prospects into customers.

The best examples are in direct response marketing…

Any letter or postcard that says “Put a sticker here…Send this back in…Order this…Do that.” is engaging in conversion marketing.

An ad that says, “Call now for your free report on…” is looking for you to take action. Conversion again.

Even a link on a Website that says “Click here to learn more about _______” is a conversion tactic.

Effective conversion is a very, very good thing because it weeds out the uninterested, helps you build a list, and often results in sales.

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Don’t forget about retention
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The final category of tactics is retention. This is where most entrepreneurs fail miserably.

It’s easy to spend so much time focused on getting new customers you forget about ones you already have. And before you know it, they’ve forgotten about you too.

Yet retention tactics are usually the easiest, most effective and least expensive to implement. After all, you don’t have to tell past clients who you are, or explain the value of what you offer. If they were happy the first time they did business with you, chances are they’d feel good about coming to you again—or referring someone else.

You just need to follow up by creating a system for staying in touch and top of mind. Send out a regular newsletter…Write thank you cards… Hold special events…Call people personally. Whatever.

The bottom line is, you can’t just advertise and sit back hoping people decide to call or come in. If you want to turbo-charge your business growth, you need to take control with a mix of attraction, conversion and retention marketing tactics. Once you do, your sales will soar.

[tags] Marketing, Small Business, Grow, attraction, conversion, retention, direct mail, new clients, new customers, repeat, follow up, sales [/tags]