Learn How to TRIPLE Conversions of Prospects to Customers

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AppId is over the quota

One of the objections many business owners have about using direct marketing is time. Many say they do not have the time to implement it. Read this post as you will learn that a great deal of this marketing, from lead generation to follow-up, can be completely be automated.

Regardless of what business you are in, what you sell, or how you sell it, making a sale is essentially a multi-step process.

Customers come from leads that are ready to buy and leads come from interested prospects.

If you fully grasp this approach, you will be ready to change your perspective of how much time you spend on your business rather than in your business; meaning that you will quickly find the time to implement marketing technology systems.

Based on a recent 2 year study by Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), if a business uses multiple channels in an effective way to connect in intelligent ways with the right WHO, you can TRIPLE, yes TRIPLE the probability of converting a prospect into a customer.

Based on this discovery, it is clear that all savvy marketers need several automated moneymaking systems. These include:
- Internet Marketing Systems;
- Stay-in-touch Broadcast Messaging Systems;
- Toll-free Recorded Messages; and
- Automated Webinars.

After you capture contact information of a prospect and they are in your leads list, you can use the broadcast messaging, the recorded messages, and the automated webinars to connect in intelligent ways so you can TRIPLE the probability of converting a prospect into a customer.

The rest of this post will provide an overview of automated webinars as they can be your cash machine.

Automated webinars, sometimes called evergreen webinars, are valuable to your marketing because they:

- Increase credibility and price elasticity: automated webinars allow more time to build rapport, share your story, and tell your prospect 'why you' enabling you to sell bigger ticket items.

- Educate prospects: use the automated webinar to do the heavy lifting of educating your prospects which is so key in complex and high-end sales.

- Ratchet up conversions: while a good direct mail, or even online, campaign that generates 1% conversion is considered a success, a well-oiled automated webinar can pull up to a 30% conversion rate.

- Upsell existing clients: automated webinars help maximize the lifetime value of each customer by giving them multiple opportunities to make purchases at higher prices.

- Automate sales: who would not want to have a sales force working for them around the clock making sales and bringing in money?

Here is a simple 3 step formula to follow for automated webinars.

- Conversion: you must have a powerful message that gets people to take action as all the fancy gadgetry and tools in the world will not really help unless you have a powerful message.

- Traffic: all forms of media, both offline and online, can be used to recruit prospects; this includes direct mail, post cards, classified ads, social media, email lists, and joint ventures.

- Automation: having an auto-responder sequence that follows up with each prospect at each step in the sequence through the entire process; this increases your conversions.

You can only make so much money through work so you try to get leverage in order to increase your money making capability. There are three chief leverage opportunities: people; marketing; and technology.

Most business owners do a good job with people in that they have salespeople that sell their products or run their business.

Most business owners can do a better job with marketing as they learn and implement direct response marketing.

Most business owners fall short when it comes to leveraging technology. Hopefully this post has provided insight about how to use technology so you can begin to actually automate your marketing with the right technology for even greater leverage and that you know how to TRIPLE conversion of PROSPECTS to CUSTOMERS.

You need to find an airtight system that condenses the entire sales process - from lead generation, qualification and education to proposing and closing - into one concise and consistent process that works. It does not require finding, hiring, training, and motivating or managing a team of sales reps. The only thing missing is a way to put it on autopilot so youi have more time to enjoy life again.

Webinar technology has been around for years but only recently has it become highly sophisticated, affordable, and completely automated. Today there is not reason why you should not be using some form of automated webinars to simplify and accelerate your sales process. You will be able to reach a much wider audience by offering days and times that fit their schedule - morning, noon, and night - no matter what time zone. And the best part is, you can be sound asleep while they are glued to their computer screen and reaching into their pockets.

I Hope You Enjoy the Article and I Trust You Found It Insightful! Let me Know What You Think.

Until the next time, I invite you to learn more about me and my various activities by checking me out at the links below.

Have a Great Day and More Later,

Mike Farrell

Meet me here: http://www.facebook.com/mifarrell

Join me here: http://www.myaspenibiz.com/

When not traveling for business or pleasure, Mike operates his own internet marketing company and consulting firm from up in the mountains of Colorado.

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Going From Data To Marketing Leads

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AppId is over the quota

Perhaps the reason why business people still take data for granted is because some of them can't see how that data translates into money. One way to explain this is by showing the effects of information on the actions a company would make.

However, this would best illustrate if we use a B2B company as an example. In this case, suppose your company does advertising. Now advertising is an information-dependent industry. Everything from web-banners to TV commercials is supposed to be designed with the target market in mind. With that said, how can you do that when you don't know that market at all?

This is why advertisers do research on the needs as well come up with good reasons why they might want the product they're promotion. It's a common rule in advertising to really speak to your market.

This example only tackles things from the B2C perspective though. On the other hand, how does information get translated into sales in B2B terms?

Again, advertising can stand in as an example. You're not only dependent on information around consumers. Like any other B2B business, it needs information on possible clients: businesses who need advertising for their products. It actually gets trickier for them in this case because they can't use their advertising skills on B2B targets. Why? Obviously because you'll be targeting important decision makers who are far too busy to pay attention to anything unless you can make yourself uniquely relevant to their needs.

By uniquely, you need a large set of information solely dedicated to them. What is their budget? What methods do they prefer? Is their industry catering to particular sub-cultures or demographics? Unlike in regular advertising where you treat consumers as one big group, decision makers can only be impressed if you really did your homework on them as individual corporate entities.

That is how data ends up converting into sales leads. The information you get automatically maximizes your chances of making a sale. You'll now know exactly why your prospect should do business with you.

Finally, this leads you to the question of what method is best used to gather this information or at least establish a connection that will enable a careful exchange. Emails can make for a subtle start but you need something more direct to improve your chances.

Live conversations have this speed and at the same time flexibility. With that in mind, you should try telemarketing for this type of data for generating leads. Outsourcing it is also recommended since you'd normally spend much hiring, training, and equipping your own in-house team. Furthermore, you'll most likely be given a lot of access to their records and their conversations so you'll be knowing exactly what they do anyways. It's hardly that different from having one in-house.

So there you have it. Whether its B2B or B2C, you'll be taking wild swings in the dark if you lack the information that tells you where to hit. Improve the accuracy of your marketing efforts and collect more data!

Kurt Wyatt is a B2B lead generation and appointment setting specialist that aids direct marketing and advertising companies in generating quality sales leads and appointments. Kurt invites you to visit http://www.dmacentral.com/ for more information.

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Are You Creating Compelling Marketing Messages?

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AppId is over the quota

Do you wish your marketing materials were "pulling" clients towards you? Do you wish you could turn more prospects into clients? Do you wonder if your website copy is speaking to your ideal clients? If you answered "yes" to these questions, then you are going to want to spend some time focusing on your marketing message. Having a compelling marketing message is the entire foundation for your ability to attract new clients.

What's a compelling marketing message? It is a way of describing your business in your website copy, in your marketing materials, or on your business card, that when an ideal client sees, hears or reads about you, they will say, "Oh my gosh, I need to work with this person". Or, "Wow, you are exactly what I need, can I get a card?"

Have you ever come across a person's website where it felt like they were talking directly to you? That it described your pain, struggles and challenges to a "t"-and was so on target-it almost made you cry? I certainly have and then I said to myself, "I must work with that person, because they understand me EXACTLY and can solve my problems".

When you can get your clients to self-select and self recognize that you are the person, the ONLY person who can help them solve their problems then you have created a compelling marketing message! People must be able to recognize themselves in your message so they will say, "Oh my gosh, I've GOT to work with her/him".

What are the mistakes your clients are making? Can you describe the mistakes your clients are making? These may be the ones they aren't even aware they are making. Write down the top 20 mistakes your clients are making. This is where you can start to develop messages from this list. I'll guarantee most of your competitor's marketing messages are about themselves and the features they offer to their clients. By creating messages that incorporate the mistakes your ideal clients are making, you are talking about them-your clients rather than about yourself.

Next, you need to get clear on what results they receive when they work with you. Write these down-because it's all about RESULTS. You want to get really specific about what results you get for people. Look back at clients you worked with in the past and identify what results they got from working with you. Or call a couple of your best current clients and let them know you are updating your marketing materials and want to get more great clients like them. Ask them what results they've gotten from working with you.

One of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they look for more clients is to tell people about what they think they do, instead of telling them about the RESULTS they will receive by working with them. Many times, business owners make the mistake of describing "what" they do rather then leading with the solution that they provide.

After you've interviewed current or past clients and come up with a list of results you've provided, you can then begin to create your marketing messages based on the results and solutions that your current clients say you provide. Be sure to write these in the language that your ideal clients used. Don't try to use jargon, or turn it into "prettier" language. If you want to attract more fabulous clients like the ones you interviewed-use their language verbatim!

I challenge you to take a look at your current marketing materials and website and ask yourself: Are your messages all about you and your services, or are they about your client or customers? Because in order to attract clients...it's got to be about them!

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. And who would like to overcome their fear of sales, change their mindset, increase their self-confidence, and create a step-by-step strategy for taking their business to the next level.

Mandy's client's receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own.

Mandy offers one-on-one coaching and consulting, as well as facilitates workshops and teleclasses and speaks on a variety of topics.

Get a copy of her free CD "7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs" at http://www.mandyschumaker.com/. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

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Dealing With the Customer in Field Marketing

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AppId is over the quota

At the centre of any successful business, let alone marketing, is the customer. It is imperative in field marketing- due to the high demand for knowledge of psychology and sociology- that the customers needs are recognised and consistently met.

Within these days of mass production and choice the marketer or entrepreneur must remember to brand. A brand can be marketed and promoted so that the customer becomes familiar with it, bonds with it and will repeat purchases again and again.

The age of the salesperson has gone. Now the consumers' relationship with a brand is far stronger. However it is important that this brand remains human or at least with some aspects of personality and progression.

When dealing with your customers the first thing you must do is identify your customer. Customers are affected by their background, their social or cultural influences and consider matters and think in differing ways. You need to understand your existing and potential customers simultaneously also. You need to find out all about them to serve them better, retain their custom and persuade them to buy more. Not only do you, as a marketer or business manager, need to understand in depth your customer, but every member of your organisation must be briefed so as to communicate effectively in the fashion appropriate to your specific brand.

Once this process is achieved it is time to segment your market. This is sorting all your customers into various classifications so you can better interact with them. This is very useful if each segment has differing patterns of buying. And only necessary if this group of altering psychology would be profitable to pursue. In this instance it is a fantastic idea to store data on your findings so you can reference it in future. Data allow the characteristics of the salesperson to be stored also, so that when there is a requirement to match a particular target audience with appropriate personnel, the right skills are found.

People carry baggage from their culture and social environment from their upbringing, their education and their life experience, and it is easy to make assumptions about how others think and are likely to respond to communications with them. We must remember to accept the fact that the people you are selling to may have a completely different background to yourself. Don't ignore the market research; believe it and act on it.

Here is a simple exercise to help when identifying customers in field marketing; Erase from your mind your own thinking and prejudices. Listen observe and grasp how your target think, communicate and come to conclude. This will help you to learn how the target think and react. This method has been known as 'self-recognition criteria' and will allow you to move on to learn more about them in the future, allowing you to make more informed decisions.

Cosine Field Marketing can help with further field sales solutions and are well known for their professionally with regards to customer analysis. Based in the UK their team is grounded on dedicated field marketing specialists.

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Simple Steps to Marketing

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AppId is over the quota

Marketing is typically ignored with Business Owners suffering from analysis paralysis. Marketing doesn't need to be that difficult, I've outlined some simple but effective steps below to help business owners understand the fundamentals of marketing and implement it within the strategic plan for the business.

So what are the simple steps to marketing?

1. Market Research
2. Identify your customer and what they want
3. Tailoring you product / services to meet the needs of your customer
4. Positioning your product / service to reach your target market
5. Create your value proposition (brand)
6. Promotion

Many people jump straight to step #6 which unfortunately results in wasted time, money and resources marketing to the wrong people with the wrong message and the wrong product or service. I'll go through each step in a little more detail.

Market Research

1. Get an overview of the economy. Are people buying what you're offering? Ten years ago people weren't hiring video or business consultants anywhere nearly as much as they are now - look up localworldstats.com.

2. Competitor analysis. You need to know what your competitors are up to so that you can position yourself and little bit different or package / price your products a little bit different. You'll need to know information such as business name, qualifications (check LinkedIn), products and services offered, mode of delivery, website, who their clients are and which industries they are serving.

3. Price and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) of competitors. What are they charging? What offers to they provide? What is their SCA? How can you do things differently?

4. News and Trends. Find out what's hot and what's not? How can you utilise new technology? Do you have RSS feeds that you check which keep you up to date?

5. Promotional strategies. What are your competitors doing? What are they offering in the way of promotion? Check out their policies on free consultation, social media, testimonials and freebies.

6. SWOT analysis. Work with a coach on an intelligent SWOT analysis, create an action plan on how you can work with your strengths to maximise your opportunities etc. You will need to know what your competitors are doing to know where your opportunities lie.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. Playing safe is risky.

Identify your customer and your ideal customer.

In order to be successful you will need to know your customer, find out information such as:

1. What size of organisation would you prefer to deal with?
2. Typically, how many people will they employ?
3. What market sector(s) do these organisations operate within?
4. Who specifically will be buying your products/services and what are their titles?
5. Where geographically would you like these organisations to be located?
6. What does your organisation offer that is unique? Find out from your customers.
7. What types of organisations will be attracted by this uniqueness?
8. What do your best customers possess that you would like to replicate in others?
9. Which of your existing customers were the easiest and quickest to convert?
10. What similarities do these customers possess?

Knowing this information will tell you where your customers hang out, on and off line and which language / marketing materials to use. There is no point marketing to 60-year-old CEOs via Hootsuite and talking about split testing!

Product strategy - What do they want?

1. Survey, survey, survey. I personally give clients 'what do you expect' survey's pre-consultation, another feedback form during our agreement (a few months in) and then I'll ask for feedback and a testimonial. Find out what they expect, what qualities that you have, what you could do better, what you're doing really well, what other products / services they'd like you to provide.

2. Segment your customers into different test groups, find out what they want, what they need. Find out the emotional desires as well as the product needs e.g. more clients, more profit, more time, focus, less stress, removal from overwhelm, accountability.

3. Qualitative research, have one on one conversations with your customers. Provide what they want, not what you want to give.

Taylor your product

What is your pricing strategy? What is the objective for your pricing? Do you want revenue, profit or business growth? Have you tested different prices on different customer segmentation? I typically test a price for a month or 2 on and offline and then I'll keep increasing it until customers are saying no!

Packaging strategy

This is a combination of both your product and pricing strategies, how can you make it different and how are you measuring the success of each? What different packages or bundles have you tried?

Position your product / service (place strategy)

How will your product get to the end user? Which places of purchase do you offer e.g. shop, website etc?

Often a smaller sale can be made directly from an ad or online but the larger sale won't. Typically a buyer of a larger product or service will have gone through several channels before making the sale. For example, one of my strategies is to run low-cost monthly educational workshops (channel), this lets the customer get to know me and to build a relationship. I then distribute one hour free consultation vouchers (hooks) to attendees which they can then use within a given time frame. If they choose to use this voucher, I will meet with the prospective client and hopefully convert into a contract or at least an introductory product. Other positioning may be a Facebook page which offers a free report which then offers a sample which may result in a sale. How are you positioning your product?

Create your value proposition (and SCA)

First of all, have you created your business statement? This identifies in a single statement what you do, for whom and just importantly what you don't do!!

We provide 'products and services' to 'customers' by 'activities'
What we don't do is: 'xyz'

For example;

Business Reboot fast tracks the success of SME Service Providers, Sales and Marketing Teams and Marketing Executives by providing a consistent set of business tools, proven strategic methodologies and experienced coaching support needed to achieve their sales, marketing and personal development goals. What I don't do is financial planning.

Your value proposition is created from your product / service attributes (features and benefits) plus the image that you want to portray plus the relationship that your customer can expect from doing business with you.

Create a table with four columns and in the first column list of all of your products / services, in the second your features, in the third the advantages and the fourth the benefits. To understand the difference, use the 'so what' test i.e. an advantage of coaching might be 'effective marketing techniques', you can still say so what at the end of this sentence so you haven't reached the benefit yet which is 'saves time and money by making intelligent decisions'.

To create your image, list the five top values that you'd like people to say when talking about your business e.g. integrity, professional, value for money. And then do the same for your relationships, what can you customer expect from your relationship e.g. speed dial, trustworthy advice etc.

Your customers buy benefits rather than products and features so use these benefits along with your company image the relationship that they can expect to create your marketing messages.

Sustainable competitive advantage

It wouldn't be right for me to write about marketing without talking about your sustainable, competitive advantage (SCA) or sometimes known as your unique selling proposition (USP). This is what makes you different to your competitors and is a whole other article but should be identified.

In Marketing SCA is an advantage that one firm has relative to competing firms. To be really effective the advantage must be:

• Sustainable
• Hard to copy
• Unique
• Superior to the competition
• Applicable to multiple situations

Determining the SCA for any organization requires an understanding of the customer's needs and preferences. A competitive advantage arises out of activities which provide high value to the customer and a strong ability to beat competitors. Examples of SCA include factors such as quickest turnaround time, high product quality, low-cost production techniques, patents and copyrights, government protected, extensive contracts and a good reputation.

Measuring
Marketing wouldn't be marketing unless everything was measured else how would you determine what works and what doesn't. Measure and test everything - your SCA, your headlines, your target market, your products, your price and perhaps your patience!

Promotion
There are literally hundreds of promotional activities that you can use, I have listed only a few.. measure, measure, measure!

-ezine articles
-email series
-blog posts
-online forums and blogs
-direct mail
-online ads
-print ads
-t.v.
-radio
-networking events
-monthly teleseminar
-website
-affiliates
-press releases
-social media
-workshops
-educational series - cd / webinar / video
-referral program
-joint venture flushing out the specifics of a new service you're going to offer
-public speaking
-special promotion
-writing a book

Good luck!

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Marketing A to Z: A Fun Read

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AppId is over the quota

Marketing A to Z:

A is for Appreciation - make sure your customers know they are appreciated...send them a card!

B is for Brand - live it breath it believe it

C is for Cool - no matter what your industry there is always room for an element of 'cool'

D is for Deliver - always deliver on your promises!

E is for Excellence - there should be excellence in whatever you do...your customers will recognise you for it

F is for Frank - be frank in all your endeavours, people can usually smell bulls^&% a mile away

G is for Goals - have them, but make sure they're not too lofty...

H is for Home Page - make sure yours is fantastic and drives people to take the action you want them to

I is for Innovation - don't be afraid to innovate, even if your market is conservative. We live in a fast paced world and innovation is key to survival

J is for Jupiter - don't be afraid to be bright - even if you're not the closest planet to the sun.

K is for Kickstart - bring life to a new concept with a kickstart

L is for Listening - with all the talking going on today, how about having a listening strategy

M is for MARKETING - we love it and you should too. Most businesses are made or broken by their marketing efforts

N is for Nimble - Being nimble is essential to getting new business and keeping current business...remember, being nimble means it doesn't hurt so much if you have to stretch yourself!

O is for Organisation - Being organised in your thinking and your actions pays wonderful dividends for you and the recipients of your work

P is for Plan - Big or small, we think planning is pretty important

Q is for Question - Sometimes you need to ask the right question before you can get the right answer

R is for Refresh - sometimes that's all it takes for a strong brand to stay at the top

S is for Strategy - Don't leave home without it or your business might get lost

T is for Timeliness - you might have the best ideas in the world, but if you don't time the launch properly you might be too early or too late...

U is for Uncluttered - make sure your message is clear and uncluttered

V is for Value - You should always provide Massive Value to your customers - they deserve it!

X is for X-Factor - sometimes it helps to have a bit in your kit-bag

Y is for Youth - You and Your Customers are never too old to think like the young

Z is for Zing - be brave and put some zing in your brand...you'll feel great about it

Amy Ward is the founder and director of OnTap Marketing - a Brisbane based marketing and business advisory service for local and international businesses. http://www.ontapmarketing.com/

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