MISTAKE #1: “Being An Advertising Victim.”

It’s real easy to be an Advertising Victim. You see, some advertising sales rep or agency comes in and tells you that you need to advertise because . . . . you need to advertise.  And they want to sell you “institutional” advertising instead of “direct response” advertising. The difference is obvious. In fact, it’s right in the name.  Institutional advertising is advertising like Coca Cola, Dell Computers, or the Goodyear Blimp. This is advertising where you can’t measure your results. I REPEAT…’This is advertising where you can’t measure the results.’  They tell you that when someone is ready for your particular product business service, they will now think of you and pick you to do business with. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little bit impatient.  If you fall victim to this – ‘YOU’LL GO BROKE’. The only companies that can afford this type of advertising are the Coca Colas, the Dell Computers, or the Goodyear’s of the world.

What you want to do and ONLY do is emotional direct response advertising.  That’s advertising where every dollar you spend is measurable and accountable.  Dan taught me that ‘Cost Per Lead’ or ‘Cost Per Appointment’ or ‘Cost Per Sale’  are numbers I must know.  95% of business owners, professionals in practice and salespeople do not have a clue when it comes to these very important numbers.  You must know what they mean, and how to calculate them. I don’t  know about you, but I like predictability when I invest money in anything, especially marketing.  This requires some education and definitely some effort and focus to get it right.

Introduction to the Top 10 Marketing Mistakes

‘The Top Ten MEGA Marketing Mistakes That Business Owners Make And How You Can Avoid Them.’

Introduction:

My goal with this course it to share with you what mistakes Dan Kennedy helped me identify in my own business, and what you can do to avoid them..  Chances are, you are making or have made the same mistakes.  Just knowing AND avoiding them will make a HUGE difference in your bank account balance.  Don’t feel bad if you identify with most of these as I go through them.  I’ve only made one of them…yeah right!  The real key is making necessary adjustments going forward.

Let’s get to it…

Creating an effective offer is a formula

Creating an effective offer is a formula. 

You need to start with something your prospects want, not what you want. 

 Plus, make it attractive and full of value.

 One secret – 10%off is not special. 

 If you have to increase rates to make the discount better – increase your rates.

Surviving history

The most successful companies in history have survived because they knew how to do one thing.  The one thing that makes a company extraordinary instead of ordinary is the company with the ability to create Evangelical-like, loyal customers.

I remember my grandfather would only drive Ford cars.  He believed in the brand and he was loyal to the core.  This type of loyalty is lost over the last 20 years.  And, brand building has been lost.  The loyalty has been lost to the “next shiny object” syndrome.  Because technology is developing faster and faster, loyalty is not tied to a brand but to the next big thing.  If you are not pouring millions of dollars into R&D, or if you have a service based business, how are you supposed to keep customers?

One sure-fire way is to stay in contact with your customers.  AND, make sure when they are ready to buy, you are there.

If you do not have ESP, how are you supposed to know?  And what kind of staffing is required to keep in touch with your customers?

NEW ECONOMY RULE:

Big sales surges are going to come from within your business not from outside of your business.

Why?  People are scared to buy.  They are scared to get duped, to feel like they were wrong.  And to ultimately lose money.   You may be able to get new customers during this new economy but it is harder and harder.

Want further evidence that Retention Marketing works?  Customer service is KING right?  Well part of customer service is properly communicating  to your existing customers.  I like to spend only 30% of my marketing budget on new business and the other 70% on taking care of the customers who have purchased my product or service.

You should spend that 70%, creating a Wowing Welcome Package, thank you gifts and on your monthly newsletter.  Plus, additional upsell, cross sell marketing campaigns to existing customers.

Yikes, I am losing customers…. Should I lower my prices?

Keeping customers for life is not an easy task.  Every day your customers are approached with multiple messages from your competitors trying to take their business from you.  They are offered, cheaper prices, assured better customer service and superior quality.  In your busy day, how can you find new clients, create innovative products and still find time to keep your existing clients.?

Keeping customers for life starts with the first interaction.  If you are not scripting calls, choreographing the sales process or designing a system to bring customer to you when they need your product or service again, you will continue to lose customers.

Now we all know that studies have shown that it is cheaper to keep existing clients than it is to gain new ones.  What are you doing to keep them?

The Problems with trying to improve your own marketing

– Never finding the time to focus on this

– Not having a path and a guide….floundering with too many disconnected

and disorganized ideas

– Takes too much time to pour through hundreds of books and courses

– Change is hard; too easy to fall back into comfortable habits

– Feeling like an “odd duck,”  resistance or criticism from others

First, how about George Doherty?

 A mortgage guy with a true calling for marketing.  He unleashed several of his top secrets

that even made the fajitas go cold.

I will give out one of his most precious nuggets which was

finding a list and sticking with it.  Constant communication

with his list to generate buzz, loan applications and price

resistant clients.

The best thing I heard him say was PRICE RESISTANT buyers.  Are

your potential customers price sensitive?

How funny was it that George hangs up on people who ask him the

best mortgage rate?  Just hangs up! He says that the only ones

who call and ask this are UNINFORMED consumers who have no idea

what to do.  He has a farm or herd group that he consistently

contacts and educates about the mortgage business so You might

think this is arrogant but he only has time for people serious

about hiring him.  He interviews customers not the other way

around.

George gave us his secret to being featured on In Business

(Channel 19) and Fox 5 News.  In the last 3 months he has

appeared over 6 times.  What do you think being on television 6

times would do for your business?

What Dan Kennedy taught me about a MLM….

What Dan Kennedy taught me about a MLM….No Business is Different!

Multi-Level Marketing companies like YTB Travel, World Ventures

Travel, AMWAY, Avon, BareFoot Parties, Pre-paid Legal  are a

“real business” and what can you learn from them?

I will start out by saying that when I say I own a telephone

company people would say oh, like Excel- the Giant MLM?  And I

would get kinda angry and say NO , I put 100 thousand dollars

worth of surety bonds with the Public Utility Commission.  I am

not just a MLM.

But Dan, taught ma a little nugget of info about his early days

at AMWAY, that changed my business and changed my mind about

MLMs altogether…

My father was a top distributor for Jafra and several of my

relatives sell Avon so the concept was not foreign to me BUT, I

just wanted people to know that I originally invested more than

$147.

But what I also learned from Dan about MLMs is that we are crazy

not to use their training opportunity meetings, reward system

in our regular business daily and other ways to recruiting and

keeping a member.  This proving the point once again that no

business is different.

First the one big breakthrough I learned was when Dan described

his early years at AMWAY and the spin off vitamin business.

1, 3,7,13,24,40,62,90

What in the world are these numbers?

They represent follow up steps.  AMWAY did tons of research and

concluded that if the salesman followed up with their buyer on

the days above, they would keep the customer 82% more of the

time.

1.      They would stop by to see the customer on day 3 and leave a

       plastic container with days written on it to make sure that

       they were taking their vitamins

2.      In a week, they would check back with another vitamin related

       gift.

3.      this went on until the 90 days were complete and by that time

       the buyer was feeling better from the continuous vitamins and

       saw how easy it was

Voila – they were ready to reorder their next set.

So after I heard Dan tell this story, I changed my welcome

letter and follow up sequence to my customer.  Dan reminds us

that the marketing should increase AFTER the sale not before.

So I changed how I contacted my customers.

Instead of just one welcome letter with the customer’s account

number and telephone number, I created a sequence up to the

date that they were historically leaving my service  But the

magic happened when I put a customer contact sequence or i.e.

phone call, postcard, email, and letters at the same intervals

that AMWAY told Dan to contact his customers and my retention

rate increased from 3 months of service to 11.5 months.

Let me give you the real numbers – at 3 months my customer value

was $185.50 and at 11.5 months my customer value was $800.00

Do you see the difference?  It increased 400%

What to takeaway from this information?

1.      No business is different – what works in other industries,

       companies will work in yours

2.      Think about how you can use traditional MLM techniques like

       to recruit to find an extended sales force on straight

       commission

3.      Use the “party” concept like Barefoot Parties or Mary Kay

       free facial concept.  For example, get your other business

       owner friends to invite their clients to a party – paid by you,

       then, it allows you to give a short pitch.  He gets a free way

       to tell his clients that he cares, and you get access to his

       clients…WIN WIN situation

Of course there are hundreds of different MLM techniques that

you can adapt into your business.  You just need to pay

attention and by all means, realize that no business is

different.

Spending excessively on obtaining new customers?

I wanted to talk to you today about a mistake I see entrepreneurs making… Spending excessively on obtaining new customers What you say?

Let me share something with you –

When you determine your marketing budget, is there a section for client retention?

One big mistake entrepreneurs make is always being on the hunt.

By that I mean, always chasing new clients instead of determining a way to make sure that their existing customers stay with their service, and buy their products over and over again.

Previously we talked about why Retention Marketing is important but also, how Retention Marketing can generate a huge amount of referrals.  If it seems as if your business is not growing, it may be because you are always chasing new business.