Client Magnets Official Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing Strategies’

 

Two business owners compete against one another in the same field.

Business Owner #1 has worked in his niche for 30 years; he has a massive list of contacts; his reputation is impeccable; his clients are among some of the most satisfied in the industry.  His expertise is unmatched.  Word of mouth has been a friend to his business, but his niche is very specialized, which means that his name doesn’t come up at many dinner parties.

Business Owner #2 is relatively new to the industry, also working in the same specialty niche.  She’s still in the process of building her contact list; her clients are largely satisfied, but the verbal buzz hasn’t elevated yet…she’s simply too new.

Which business owner do you think has realized the largest profit in the last 12 months?

Would you be surprised to learn that it’s Business Owner #2?

How could that be?

One word:  Marketing

Business Owner #2 invests whatever she can afford to lose in marketing campaigns, while Business Owner #1 simply can’t seem to get past the initial dollar amount of the marketing expenses, and so, simply doesn’t “get the word out”.

As a result, the first business remains steady, but stagnant.  The second soars.

Business Owner #2 possesses a Millionaire Mindset. Here’s what’s going on inside her head:

•    Marketing is an investment.  Even if one campaign costs $4,000 (which is a significant amount of money for her fledging business), she anticipates that just one resulting sale will pay for the ad.

•    She views the campaign as an investment in her most valuable commodity – herself.  Because she has completed the research and knows that there’s a noted demand for her product, she purchases each new ad with a faith that can only come from believing in herself and her business.  She thinks, I’m the best investment I’m ever going to make.

•    She never invests more than she can afford to lose.  Financially, she only invests what her business can survive without.  Emotionally, she only invests what she can lose and still hold on to a sense of hindsight without depression.

•    She doesn’t ruminate over the dollar amount of each marketing endeavor.  Rather, she concentrates on its potential return.  She understands that she’ll realize direct returns, as well as future, residual ones.

•    She knows that she’ll never reach millionaire status by pinching pennies.

•    She understands that by pulling out her cash and throwing it against the wall of cash that has become frozen in this, a stagnant, economy, she’s multiplying her chances of getting a return.  Unless she spends money, the wall of cash will remain rigid, eliminating a large portion of potential profit.

•    Though it was difficult for her to accept the idea of investment versus cost in the beginning, she becomes more willing to spend money with each profitable marketing campaign.  Because of this realization, she has committed to educate her clients about the benefits of marketing, which will contribute to the stimulation of the economy.

Investment and return will never be a chicken and egg debate.  Without investment, there can be no return.  The return will never come first…in fact, it simply won’t come at all.

If you want to find your own millionaire mindset, you must separate yourself from the competition’s aversion to marketing and getting your name out there.

You could spend your disposable income on a new car, or a summer home, or a vacation.  Or…you could invest that cash in an marketing campaign…so you can afford all three.

I’d love to share more about what it takes to Create A Successful Business That Works For YOUR Life, and makes a DIFFERENCE to others.   I’m running a FREE teleseminar series exactly on that topic.   Join me by registering here:   www.clientmagnets.com/successcalls

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Have you ever wondered what your clients are saying about your business? Would you love a direct line into your clients’ minds; to know what they really want and what they’re willing to buy?

Social media is a place where you can really get into the mind of your buyer.  You can dialogue with your clients and listen to what they are saying -  not only to you, but to each other. It’s the perfect place for you to find out what your client’s REALLY want.  And when you discover that, you can go to it – providing it to them!

1.  Identify “Hot Topics”
By listening and engaging in social media conversations you will quickly identify the “hot topics”.  What are your prospects asking?  What do they need help with?

2.  Respond to Demand
Once you have the “hot topics” in mind, it’s time to showcase how you can help your prospects.  Use these hot topics to create the content for your blog and social media updates.   Give your prospects the answers they’re looking for.  Position yourself as someone who is in-the-know who understands popular concerns. Demonstrate your expertise in a way that inspires people to use your business or services.  Give your prospects what they want, when they want it!

3.  Create a “BUZZ”
Social media gives you a ready-made channel to generate buzz about your new content and offerings.  With platforms like Twitter, you can use “hashtags” to incite and track conversations about specific subjects and groups.  There are also search tools available that will enable you to easily track what people are saying about you, your “hot topics” and your content and offerings.

4.  Track and Evaluate Market Response
By tuning into the various social media platforms you make it easy to evaluate the response to your new product, content and business presence.  You can use the information to review the effectiveness of your offerings and continue to craft better-tailored content in the future.  It’s also a way to determine what formats and delivery methods work best to reach your prospects and clients.

Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other social media networks are ready-made tools to help you in the quest to get inside the mind of your buyers. Use social media tools to track what people are talking about, and create timely content to demonstrate your expertise and the fact that you’re ‘in-the-know.’

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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In every marketing effort, your introduction is one of the most important aspects. What are you saying to get your audience’s attention? How can you connect with your audience? What will make them sit up and listen to what you have to say? A winning introduction paves the way to a winning seminar. What are some ideas you can use to create an attention getting introduction?

Here are my top tips for creating a WINNING introduction…

Congratulate Your Audience: In my introductions I like to connect with my audience. There are a few ways in which I do this. One thing I like to do is congratulate my audience.   Take some time to congratulate or encourage your audience. Honor the fact that they have taken time out from their schedule to be there.  Here’s an example …   If I am giving a talk on marketing and my audience is mostly business owners, then I will thank them for taking the time to attend my seminar. I will also congratulate them that they are forward thinkers who want to learn more about marketing their businesses.

This is effective because it reassures the audience that they have made the right decision to be there. Think about it. Most business owners put in long hours at the office. They usually have a variety of responsibilities and numerous demands on their time. Choosing to attend your event means that they could be doing something else, but they chose not to. They chose to learn more about marketing. For that you need to congratulate them. At the same time your introduction can be encouraging. You can affirm that their choice to be there is a good one.

Ask Questions: Another way to engage your audience and really connect with them, is to ask some questions and LISTEN carefully to their comments.    This will help you to gauge the expectations of your audience and adjust your introduction as necessary. This will also help you to stick to the topics that are most relevant to them.

Provide an Outline: Another excellent strategy is to include an outline in your introduction.  Tell your audience what you’ll be sharing during your event or training seminar.  Explain what they can expect.   If you have a big promise, then share it. This helps to get your audience’s attention and know that the time spent with you will be valuable.   It lets them know what they will come away with and also prepares them for your offer.

Keep it Brief: Your introduction sets the tone for the rest of what you have to say. It’s therefore important that you have a strong introduction that will get your audience ready to listen to you. Keep your introduction brief and to the point, spend the bulk of your time on the main content of your talk.

A winning introduction can really boost the success of your event or training seminar. If you have your audience’s attention from the very beginning they will be more engaged with the session. They will also be more open to considering your offer at the end of the seminar.

If you’ve enjoyed this article and want to know how you can make more money from holding your own live events, then check out my  Event Money Machine Series – you can sign up for this FREE online training here:  www.eventmoneymachine.com

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How would you like to earn $100 000 off a single day’s work? Okay it wouldn’t realistically be just one day’s work as there is a lot of preparation and planning involved, but what I am talking about is events or special promotions.  Is there are way that you can create a specific event where there is the potential to earn really large revenues for your business?  For almost every industry across the board, the answer to that can be yes! No matter if you are in the retail or industrial sector, selling products or services, almost every business has the potential to benefit from a big payday strategy.

For my business this is a strategy that has served me really well over the years.  In one year I did three events and each one earned me $250 000. By industry standards this is still fairly conservative as each event was for less than 50 people.  They were not major events, but because I was able to attract clients to these workshops and offer people something of value, I got to enjoy three very big paydays.

A big payday is looking at ways in which you can generate a large amount of revenue in a short amount of time. It could be an event such as a workshop or a seminar. If you are in the retail sector it could be a big sale that is for one day or a single weekend. Generally the planning and setting up of these pay days takes a fair amount of time, but the revenue that you can generate is usually well worth it.

There are many ways in which you can apply this strategy to your business. Another example from my business is tele-seminars. I regularly do seminars that earn me $100 000 a time. To a small business owner these figures might seem mind blowing. But in truth when you get to know the strategies of how to create a big payday, how to attract customers to it, how to attract joint venture partners, and follow up on your clients, it is so simple to implement. Soon you can be benefiting from some nice big paydays too.

Tips for Creating Big Paydays for your Business

•    Have a look at your product offering and think of ways in which you could create a special event or promotion that could translate into a big payday.

•    Look at opportunities for joint ventures with other complimentary businesses so that you can both benefit from the big payday strategy.

•    Think of ways in which you can attract clients to your big payday. How will you invite clients or get the word out there about your event.

•    Think carefully about who you are targeting for your big payday. It could be just one sector of your market, but in doing so you could offer them something special that is of value to them.

•    Don’t rush the process. Plan well in advance and know that generating the interest and getting the logistics sorted out can take some time.

Big paydays can provide a welcome boost to your business. The revenue you generate from these events or promotions can give you capital to work with for other projects. Big paydays are also a way to create a bigger profile for your business. Getting known as a business who has something interesting to say, or who offers something of value gets people’s attention. Often when you have one successful big payday event, simple word of mouth can help you generate interest and fill up your second and third events. Implementing this strategy successfully can add some valuable revenues to your business.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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On this call, Bernadette is joined by Small Business Marketing Coach, James Roche. Together they will show you exactly how to make more money and free up your time using James’ simple and time-tested model.

MARKETING* MASTERMIND Call

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

8:00pm UK Time (3pm EASTERN, 12 noon PACIFIC)

TOPIC:  *How to Attract More Clients and Make Money Online*

Click here to register

Be sure to include this call in your calendar and learn what you need to do in your business today to get immediate results.

• The BEST techniques that will get you clear and focused on your business and programs within minutes (It’s
actually a metaphor that simplifies all your marketing efforts.)…

* A profound map of success that has been used for centuries, but is largely overlooked today in the age of the Internet…

* Techniques to generate countless profitable business ideas for years to come…

* How to attract more of your ideal clients by doing what you love…

* How to grow your business and do more of what you love without exhausting yourself

This call is FREE for my hundreds of Marketing Mastermind and Stepping UP! members. They also get the CD and transcript of this call at no extra charge, plus a tonne of other member benefits – such as access to our online members forum.

Not a member?  Then join the Marketing Mastermind Group today so you can take advantage of this call and all the other member goodies each and every month.

I look forward to “meeting” you on our call.

Best Wishes
Bernadette Doyle
www.clientmagnets.com

PS – Even if you can’t make the call, all Mastermind members receive a FREE CD of the call as well as a digital version of the audio and transcript! Take advantage now.

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No matter how well-written your sales letter, your prospects will have objections. It’s a normal part of the psychology of sales. Your sales materials must not only understand that people will have objections, but what they are and how to overcome them. In order to help you get into the right frame of mind, let’s take a look at some common objections and how to address them. Once you’ve started thinking about objections, it’s relatively simple to anticipate and overcome them!

Why are You Doing This?
If your family is anything like mine, you grew up with the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” In a desire to create a compelling sales letter, many people make their product or event sound too good to be true. This creates an immediate objection for many prospects. If your product or event sounds too good, your prospects may wonder why you’re offering it.

One great example of this that I’ve seen before is a colleague who was offering a real estate seminar about how he made so much money in real estate. His prospects wondered “if you’re making so much money in real estate, why tell me about it? Why not just keep your secret and carry on making money?” He had to overcome this objection in his sales letter. Be mindful of this if you’re offering something that sounds too good to be true.

Why are You Making it So Cheap/Expensive?
Price can trigger major objections. High prices create obvious objections, but low prices can also create objections. For example, if you set a high value to justify your price, and then offer your product or service significantly below your value comparison, your prospects may wonder why you’re offering it so cheap.

Alternately, if your audience thinks it can get something cheaper somewhere else, they may wonder why your product or event is so expensive. It’s your job to recognize what your prospects will think of your price, and overcome any potential objections.

Why Can’t I Get the Same Thing Elsewhere?
Even if you establish that your product or event is wonderful, your prospects may still wonder why they can’t get the same thing somewhere else. If you’re selling a product via mail order, for example, you’ll have to explain to your prospects why they shouldn’t just go pick up something similar at a local shop. The same thing goes for information products or events – you’ve got to differentiate why your product or event is unique.

Why You?
Finally, there’s the common objection about who you are, and why you’re qualified to sell this product or service. If you’re offering a new product or service, or you’re reaching out to prospects who aren’t familiar with your work, you’ve got to establish who you are and demonstrate your expertise. You have to prove that you’re the best person to trust about your product or event. This is particularly a concern if you operate in a competitive field.

Learning to Overcome Objections
Ultimately, your clients may have many different objections about a broad range of topics and concerns. If you want to create effective sales letters, you’ve got to anticipate and overcome these objections. Don’t try to ignore or sidestep potential objections. If you don’t answer these questions in your clients’ heads, you don’t give them a reason to buy your product.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients www.clientmagnets.com.

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In business as well as in society, there’s a growing movement toward a more conscious type of individual. More conscious individuals still want to do business and sell things, but they don’t want to sacrifice their values. The move toward a more conscious society is reflected in the changing face of today’s entrepreneur. This growing segment of the business population requires a different marketing technique than the businessman of yesteryear. Successfully marketing to these individuals enables you to tap into a segment of the business world that is growing quickly and currently under-marketed.

The Changing Consciousness of Our Society
As a society, we’re moving away from the consumable-driven businesses of yesteryear and toward a growing concern with renewability, sustainability and values. A growing number of individuals and businesses are focused on more large-scale things, such as our health, sustainable resources and big-picture concerns. These people consider not only their bottom line, but how doing business is going to impact their community and their world in the future.

In short, we’re moving toward a more conscious type of world, in an individual, societal and business sense. A growing number of successful businesses are run by this type of conscious entrepreneur, and this demographic represents an important target in the business and marketing world.

The Value of the Conscious Entrepreneur
The old mentality was that marketing to this type of conscious entrepreneur was a lost cause. Yesterday’s marketing professionals believed that these individuals have a poverty-mentality, and that they’re unwilling to spend money on events, conferences, classes or courses. The old belief was also that this was an extremely small segment of the population, and it wasn’t worthwhile to try to reach them.

Today’s successful marketing firms are just starting to realize that this segment of people represents a growing portion of our population. Today’s smart businessman does have the money and is willing to spend it on the right event, product or service. Further, these individuals aren’t currently well-marketed, as the old marketing techniques are a turn-off for the conscious entrepreneur. This means that people who master marketing to this demographic have what is essentially a captive audience of people who aren’t being reached by many other techniques, and who are well-qualified prospects for the right product or service.

How to Market to a Conscious Entrepreneur
The key to reaching this type of audience is to avoid the hypey sales-talk type of copy, and instead focus on forming an emotional bond and speaking the language of these individuals. The people in this demographic are concerned with sustainability, renewability and overarching concerns that affect our society as a whole. Marketing your product or service in these contexts is the best way to reach these individuals.

Speak directly to the conscious entrepreneur. Come from a place of heart and sincerity. Show them that you share their values, and demonstrate how your business and you as an individual adhere to those values. When you come from a place of authenticity and speak directly to these individuals, you’ll really be able to connect with this demographic, and that will lead your business to a new level of marketing success.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients. www.clientmagnets.com. Register FREE for instant access to her Stepping Up teleseminar series

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If you have a great website that gets viewed by thousands of potential customers yet your sales do not reflect the same success what’s the problem? Your large volume of enquiries is a great start but unless they translate into sales they don’t mean much. What you need to have a closer look at is ways in which you can convert more of those leads to sales. Here are four simple ways to help you:

Tailor your Copy

Learning to write words that sell is a technique that can make a big difference to your sales conversion rate.  On a website the copy should immediately grab the reader’s attention and make them want to learn more. The copy should resonate with them on a personal level as soon as they arrive on your web page. The copy should also speak directly to the prospective customers needs. It should show them how they can benefit from working with you or using one of your products. Tailoring your copy is a simple yet very effective way to increase your conversion rate of leads to sales.

Capture Visitor Information

A database of customers or potential customers is one of the most valuable assets a business can have.  Every person that visits your website or expresses an interest in your products or services has the potential to become a client. It is therefore important that you have mechanisms in place on your website where you can easily capture the visitor’s information. One way of doing this is by using squeeze pages. Learning how to effectively implement squeeze pages in your website can help you vastly improve your conversion rate.

Different Ways to Follow Up

Traditionally most people think that a follow up is getting on the phone and asking for the sale. While this is true some of the time, there are many other ways that you can follow up with clients without directly calling or asking for the sale. Email has provided a convenient and inexpensive way to keep in touch with prospective customers. Learning to write emails that sell is a great way to improve your conversion rate.

The Power of Teleseminars

Teleseminars are a great way to start interacting with potential customers. They provide prospects with an opportunity to learn more about you, your business and what products or services you offer. It also gives them insight into the value that you offer and how they can benefit from buying from you.  You can use the teleseminar to explain specific items in detail. If customers have any questions you can respond straight away and other prospects can also benefit from hearing the Q & A. As customers get to know you they will be more confident about purchasing from you. Using teleseminars is great way to interact with customers and increase your conversion rate.

This is just a brief overview of four effective ways to increase your customer conversions. Each one of these techniques is covered in more detail in my free teleseminar series ’7 Secrets for Attracting Clients’. Find out how you can have access to the recordings.

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Income streams are essential to building a high six- or seven-figure income. Ultimately, to be that successful, you not only need to determine your income streams, but also the order in which you should do them.

One thing you shouldn’t do is trade your time for money. Even if you charge significant sums of money in exchange for your time, this type of revenue isn’t a steady stream. It doesn’t flow into your business without your physical presence to guide and propel it.

The bulk of your income needs to come from leveraging products, programs, events and other more passive types of income.

My own million-dollar plus business relies on no more than five income streams. I like to keep things simple, and these income streams do the trick.  Here are some tips to help you implement your income streams.

Get really good at planning.

Plan at least one year in advance. Look for the two, three or four projects that will yield the big income – the projects that will take you easily to your income goal and beyond.

Determine which projects you’re going to work on during each quarter, rather than month by month.  You may find that you will be working on only three or four big projects across the entire year, but they will be BIG projects, with big revenue.

Connecting those projects so that one leads naturally to the other will also help to maximize your revenues.

By planning, you’ll know precisely where the revenue will come from, how much you’ll earn from each project, and where to focus your time.

Determine which income streams to implement.

Start by creating a product that requires no fulfillment from you. This cannot be a predominantly time-based product. The idea is to offer a product or program on your website. When the order comes in, the fulfillment house – the company that ships the product – fulfills the order without any further input from you.

Offer a Rolls-Royce program. Designed for your top tier of customers, this program is that extra-something-special that elite clients crave. It’s set at a much higher price point, but they’re willing to invest because of your credibility and the value you bring to the table. It’s never too soon to offer your Rolls-Royce program; in fact, I encourage you to start at the top and actually create that program first.

Offer a continuity, or subscription or membership program. This concept turns a one-time sale into recurring monthly income because people are automatically billed once they sign up for the product or program the first time.  This is actually one of the criteria big companies use to evaluate products sold on infomercials – there needs to be an ongoing element of continuity.

Big paydays are another essential income stream. Plan your year around periodic big paydays, such as live events, teleseminars and talks, which will bring in huge windfalls of cash to boost your income significantly.

If you’re hesitant about these big paydays, allow me to inspire you: my first three-day event, with all the income streams that came from it, was worth more than $375,000. You need to implement all of your income streams so that you make money in many different ways from a single event.   And if you’re looking for more inspiration – be sure to register for the Event Money Machine – it’s your last change to register for my very first telesummit!

Once you determine and implement your income streams, the experience will amaze you. There is nothing quite like that flood of income that comes in on a consistent basis.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

If you’d like to know more about making money with your events, register for her free Event Money Machine Telesummit.

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Why spend unnecessary time and energy marketing your product or event? A strategically designed marketing system can do most of the work for you. Got a killer product or event? Have a genius sales letter guaranteed to convert? It doesn’t matter. Without a good marketing system in place, you’ll have a hard time selling, period. Don’t automatically blame your sales letter if your product or event isn’t selling. Instead, spend some time evaluating your marketing system and make sure you’re reaching your prospects.

Map Out Your Marketing System
At one time, my clients asked me a lot of questions that signaled they needed help creating a marketing system. Mapping out your marketing system is a quick tool to help you evaluate and supplement it, and it’s a step that absolutely warrants attention. Visually mapping out your marketing system can help you understand its flow and determine its effectiveness.

Your marketing system should start with a squeeze page, which then directs people to your online sales page and marketing materials. On either side of that, map out your online and offline marketing avenues. Did you list plenty of avenues, or is one area deficient in marketing opportunities? You may need to add marketing channels to better reach your target audience.

Use a Squeeze Page to Capture Information
One of the most important components of your marketing system is your squeeze page. Your squeeze page is where you capture your prospects’ information before you send them along to your online sales information. By capturing information, you have an avenue to reach out and follow up with your prospects. You can also use a squeeze page to evaluate how many people have viewed your sales letter, and to calculate the conversion rate of your marketing materials.

Create Well-Crafted Materials
A good marketing system is useless without the right marketing materials. You need a comprehensive online sales letter so people can find all of the information they want about your product or event. If people are unable to find information and are forced to call you, they’re less likely to buy your product or register for your event. By making it all available online, you’re removing a barrier to sales and making it even easier for people to take action.

Follow Up with Your Prospects
Once you have everything in place, it’s vital to follow up with your prospects. You can triple your conversion rate – or even improve it by 10 times as many conversions – by following up appropriately with your prospects. People almost never make a decision about something the first time they read a sales letter. They might wait for days or weeks before they’re ready to make a decision, based on things that are going on in their lives or how much commitment your product or event requires.

The best way to ensure they take action is by following up periodically. Remind people that they need to take action. Don’t contact them too frequently, but a gentle nudge every few days can make a huge difference in your conversion rates.

Evaluate Your Marketing System
Once you’ve mapped out your marketing system, evaluate it. Are any areas of your marketing system lacking? Do you need to add a squeeze page, improve your sales letter or follow up with your prospects more frequently? The best products and events in the world won’t sell themselves. With the right marketing system in place, though, you’re a huge step closer to realizing your success!

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

If you’d like to know more about making money with your events, register for her free Event Money Machine Telesummit.

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