Simply put, its marketing that provides you with direct and measurable results. And both of those points are important…

First of all, if you are not measuring all of your marketing activity, whether its your website’s effectiveness, emails, direct mail, referrals, etc., then HOW do you REALLY know what’s working?

And if you know you’re investing in activity that is NOT working, you stop, right?

And direct simply means you get your prospect to take some sort of action. Its not about a HARD sell, not at all. But about moving them further up the ladder, so you’ve not wasted your money.

What Many Businesses Are Doing Instead

I won’t ramble on too much about this, but there is a popular form of marketing called ‘Image’ or ‘Brand’ marketing.

This often involves witty strap lines or ‘clever’ images, like a row of pencils where they’re all black except one that’s red. Unfortunately witty does not sell or educate your prospects.

And sadly, while this type of marketing may appear visually appealing and might win the designer an award, it won’t actually make you any money.

Isn’t that THE aim of marketing or advertising?

But to many, marketing that is proven, predictable and systematic is boring – even though it produces positive results that you can measure, test and improve.

Ok, it may not win me any awards, but then that’s not why I do what I do. Its to make you more profitable and grow.
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Well first off, I’m hoping you gave this some thought before the end of last year.

If you didn’t, well you need to get thinking… and fast.

But to kick off 2011 I thought that a word of cautionary advice would interest you. It emphasises that knowing what NOT to do is just as important as knowing what you should be doing.

And whilst you may read the next couple of paragraphs and think it is not relevant to you, it IS. Do not think it is not, as this lesson applies to ALL businesses, large and small.

And this example comes from of all sources, the mighty corporation that is McDonalds…

So here goes …

Facebook has a game as part of its site called “Farmville” – basically where real people spend real money buying and running fake farms, looking after fake livestock and meeting at fake farm markets.

You get the picture.

Well, an agency called Appsavvy was employed by McDonalds to work with the creators of Farmville, which incidentally has 18 million real people playing the game.

Sounds good so far you’d think?

But what Appsavvy did was to create the idea of a “game within the game” where you could win NOT vouchers that you could redeem at your local McDonalds, NOT McChicken Sandwiches or Chicken Nuggets and NOT even toys for your kids.

Nope, you could win points to be used at the fake Farmville/McDonalds store (in the game itself) where you could buy hot air ballons and fake trucks that had the McDonalds logo on it.

Yep, thats it. Nothing whatsoever that is going to encourage someone to get off their bums and buy a Big Mac with fries and a shake. Nothing that incentivises someone to visit their local ‘restaurant’.

But what Appsavvy claim it did was to create “brand awareness“.

First off, is there anyone out there that HAS NOT heard of McDonalds? And secondly, the exercise they did achieved nothing for increasing sales for McDonalds.

So how does this relate to you?

Well, any marketing that you do for you business should do one of 2 things…

1) It should be measureable/trackable, so you know exactly how many people responded to it and how well you did.

2) It should give your prospects a reason to contact you – so have an obvious benefit for them.

The whole purpose of advertising and marketing is to generate leads which in turn give you sales. Anything else is costing you money.

If you did know that then you may want to read my previous post about the importance of headlines.

It never ceases to amaze me how many websites and advertisements I see that don’t have headlines. Does yours?

All adverts should have a headline. And a website, flier, brochure – anything you use to market your business is effectively an advert.

So let me show you 5 rules you can follow when writing headlines. You’ll also learn some different types of headlines you can use, and some proven words to use in headlines.

Rules to follow when writing headlines:

1. Your headline must appeal to your reader’s self interest. You should communicate the strongest benefit (or benefits) of your product/service.

Everyone’s favourite radio station is “WIIFM” – What’s In It For Me? Your headline should answer this important question.

2. You must attract the attention of your prospect. If your headline doesn’t it has failed. Your headline must reach out to them and want them to find out more about you. Don’t forget we’re all bombarded by hundreds of messages every day, and YOU need to stand out amongst your competition (and everyone else too).

3. Your headline must deliver a clear message to your audience. Think of how people read newspapers – most only read the headlines.  That’s because we’re all short on time. Because of this, your headline must make a complete statement and compel your prospect to continue reading the rest of your message – the body copy.

4. Including words such as “quick”, “easy”, “guaranteed” can increase readership. People react to emotional words that have a benefit to a problem or challenge that they have. You need to tap in to that.

5. You should use specifics in your headlines, not generalities. For example, “Grow your investment by at least 12.75% in 12 months” is a better headline than “Make Money Fast”. Specifics are more believable. Of course, your body copy can then add an caveats or terms and conditions.

So this is somewhat of a whistle stop tour about how you can use headlines to increase the readership of your message. Of course your body copy also needs to have a similar affect on your audience, but I’ll cover this for you in future posts.

So why is this? Why is it that important?

Well, a headline is really an advert for an advert. Given the function of all your advertising and marketing (including your website, leaflets, brochures, etc.) is to sell your product or service, its pretty important don’t you agree?

And since a headline is an advert for an advert, wouldn’t you also agree writing a good headline is the most important element in copywriting?

After all, the headline gets your reader to continue reading your message. If they stop reading at the headline, you’ve likely lost them as a potential client. The only purpose of your headline is to get your prospect to continue reading your advert, website, sales letter, etc.  It must get your reader’s attention and it must pull them into wanting to know more about you and your business.

You Can Have the Best Product/Service Out There, But …

It doesn’t make a difference because if your headline isn’t any good, your full marketing message won’t get read.
Here’s what two legendary copywriters say about the importance of good headlines:

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.  If you haven’t done some selling in your headline, you have wasted 80 percent of your money.  The wickedest of all sins is to run an advertisement without a headline.”

- David Olgilvy

“Advice to copywriters: When you are assigned to write an ad, write a lot of headlines first.  Spend hours writing headlines — or days if necessary. If you can come up with a good headline, you are almost sure to have a good ad.  But even the greatest writer can’t save an ad with a poor headline.”

- John Caples

If you’re unfamiliar with both of the above characters, you should Google their names… they’re widely regarded as two of the best copywriters ever.

So now you know just how important headlines are in any marketing communication you have. In my next post I’ll give you some ideas on how you can write better, more effective headlines. This will get more people reading more of your message and wanting to find out more about how you can help them.

Testing is the keystone of successful marketing. Those that do it properly will flourish and those that don’t do it often lose a lot of money.

So why is it that almost no one does it?

Well, it may not at first glance appear to be the most ’sexy’ of things. It takes time, and often as business owners we’re looking for that quick fix, that ’silver bullet’ aren’t we?

Do you implement a marketing strategy (it could be your website, a direct mailing, some Google Adwords perhaps) and wonder to yourself  “is this going to work?”.

You’re not alone.

Even I Do Not Have A Crystal Ball

In fact I have business owners that ask me “Do you think this will work?” and “What about Google Adwords, should I do it?” and “What do you think about Direct Mail, does it work?”

And the short answer is “I don’t know – I cannot predict the future”.  I can often tell you if you’ve done something really stupid with an advert or a website or a Direct Mail piece..

But as far as predicting how your target market is going to react to your strategy then neither me or anyone else can tell you. This is why you need to test.

This Could Cost YOU Thousands…

So, why don’t more business owners do it then?

Well, in my experience it’s because they don’t know that they should be. They also don’t understand the implications of NOT testing either, which is scary.

I’ve also come across businesses that worry if they test a Direct Mail piece or a headline on their website and it fails miserably that they’ll do their business some damage, or will have wasted a load of cash.

This is utter rubbish.

Even if a strategy doesn’t work, all you’ll do is lose a few potential clients. But then that is why you TEST, because another Direct Mail piece (for example) may get those that didn’t buy before, to buy this time around.

Testing is NOT like changing the direction of your business FOREVER: you CAN change your mind, you can tweak it and possibly revert to how things were.

If You Want to be Successful

When you look at businesses with successful marketing systems you may just assume that they struck it lucky, or that they got some system “out of a box”.

I can tell you they didn’t.

Their systems were put together over a period of time, with plenty of effort and trials and tribulations, and there would have been mistakes along the way, no doubt about it.

But the scary truth is, if you aren’t testing ALL of your marketing, you are potentially throwing money down the drain, as well as limiting your income.

Vilfredo Pareto’s principal finding, whether you’ve heard of him or not, is an important factor in YOUR business, just as it is in mine.

So I’ll explain who is to you, shall I?…

Well it dates back to 1906 when Pareto, an Italian economist, observed that 80% of the land in Italy belonged to 20% of the population.

Aha, I hear you say! Now you know what I’m talking about…

So in terms of your business this means that:

> 80% of your sales come from just 20% of your marketing efforts.

> 80% of your sales come from just 20% of your clients or customers.

> 80% of your profits come from just 20% of your products or services.

> 80% of your problems come from just 20% of your clients or customers.

You get the point…

“Yes, but my business is different…”

Now of course the numbers in your business won’t necessarily be exactly as above, but it may be 65/35 or 70/30 or even 90/10, but this principal DOES work. In EVERY business, including yours.

This is relevant because it highlights to you where you should be concentrating your efforts more. That’s not to say that you exclude the under performing areas entirely, but invest more time, money and energy in those that are producing the best results.

This applies whether its clients, adverts, keywords or Joint Venture partners.

“If you’re going to lose, it is better to lose quickly”. My friend thought that sounded a little negative, a tad defeatist even.

The fact is it’s not, not at all.

Most Businesses Make this Fatal Mistake

You see there are many business owners who will cling on to a dead or dying lead or like a dog to a bone. I am all for being persistent and proactive, and I teach my clients that they should always follow up with their prospects (as well as clients).

But there really does come a point when you need to let go. So you should not be afraid of the word “no”.

That way you can put that prospect to bed (so to speak). You could possibly put them into a much less labour-intensive follow-up sequence, perhaps by sending them emails from time to time.

This means you can then invest your all important time more productively with those prospects who might still say “yes” to your products or services.

If They’ve Not Said “No” Why Not Still Chase Them?

Well, its part of human nature to not like to tell people “no”. And so very often we fob people off instead of telling them the truth. So sometimes YOU have to go with your gut feeling. After all, its YOUR time and energy.

I guess it boils down to this:

Don’t be afraid to ask your prospect for a decision. If you done all you can in educating them about your products and services, then get them to take action. Give them an offer.

Of they’re interested they’ll tell you. If they don’t take you up on the offer then revert to what you’ve seen in the post.

I know it sounds simple. But it’s the most effective way to move forward. Don’t waste time chasing potentially dead wood.

And if you haven’t, you really ought to.

The changes could have a profound affect for all businesses. Google announced these changes on 27.10.2010 stating that “Place Search” will give searchers a “faster, easier way to find local information”.

It’s hard to know right now what the end result will be. All I know is that local search on Google will never be the same again.

I have already seen one client that occupied position A. in the “7 pack” Local listing go down to position D.

Initial Impressions Are This…

My initial findings are telling me that the new “Place Search” (as Google are calling it) is focusing on both the local element of the business as well as their organic Google listing.

This means that what used to work will no longer work, and the you’ll need to reassess your SEO efforts to ensure your listing doesn’t suffer.

The listings have also moved. Previously the map that appeared on Google with the red pins and the 7 listings would appear in the top left hand corner. Now it appears on the right-hand side.

Experts that I have been speaking with believe that things will settle down soon and a clearer picture will be evident of exactly what Google is aiming for with these changes.

At the moment all we know is, things are a changing.

Your prospects’ PERCEPTION of you is critical to the success of you and your business – even more so than the actual TRUTH in fact.

How they see and perceive you is vitally important. based upon this they will choose to want to do business with you, or not. So there is a lot hinging on this, isn’t there?

I have recorded a short video for you that highlights 3 KEY reasons why your perception is critical to your business:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So why are testimonials so useful? And how can they be used to their absolute advantage? … To YOUR absolute advantage?…

They should be used in ALL of your marketing materials. So your website (if you have one, if not you should have one), your leaflets, pamphlets and brochures…. and even in your newspaper, magazine or Yellow Pages adverts.

And if you have an office – use them there too. Have them on your wall, in a folder or book so that prospects can read them.

Why this Works so Well

Testimonials help you in 3 main ways:

1) They set you apart from your competition, who may not use testimonials at all, or if they do they use them the wrong way. By using them effectively you will LOOK different, meaning you must BE different, right?

2) If your business offers slightly different services that your competitors do not, your customers can highlight this in their testimonials. THEY will appreciate why you’re different to everyone else. And spelling this out in a testimonial will be hugely powerful for you.

3) This is THE most important aspect. Testimonials will allow you to use your marketing to your advantage. They will allow you to be able to eliminate the argument of price, because prospects will see YOU as a clear EXPERT in your field.

Why believe YOU?

Testimonials use something called ’social proof’ (something I write about in my book, which you can see here) and this is extremely powerful. But why?

Well, the main reason is that its all well and good YOU telling people that you are good at what you do. But when a third party (someone else) says it for you, it has a lot more influence.

Imagine a friend or someone you know recommending a restaurant to you. You may have passed this restaurant a few times before and thought to yourself that it looks like a nice place to go and have a meal.

But when someone else says it too, it carries so much more weight. So much so that you’d probably give it a try based upon their recommendation.

So this is why they work, and why using them EFFECTIVELY is another key to the success of your business. And also do not be afraid of asking for them either, as people are often more than happy to oblige.

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