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Sep
21

How Grandpa’s $1,000 bar tab increased prospects by 300%

By | advertising, Direct Marketing, Leads Generation, Marketing Plan, Neighborhood Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Story Selling, Success, Wacky marketing ideas

2 Comments

Who are YOU bribing to get as a customer?

Ethical bribes, but still a bribe.

The hypsters out there will tell you that you don’t need to incent people to buy… they will just be attracted by your positive energy or incredible products and will whip out their credit cards for the pleasure to do business with you.

Realists will show you proof that plan is a sure-fire way to failure.

There was a great article I just read in the Huffington Post about a home owner who got FED UP with their realtor lack of results. Most realtors have that hope, wish and meditate on a sale until it happens BS. That’s why 97% of realtors out there make less than the waitress at your local diner.

…which is exactly the type of realtor this home owner was stuck with.

Since JUNE(!) they have had 3 showings of their home.

Less than one a month. Yikes – that is not how you sell a house.

So instead of listening to the renegade-realtor-who-does-things-oh-so-different, they took things into their own hands.

Right across the street was “Grandpas Bar & Grill” – a favorite watering hole for the neighborhood minglers.

And Grandpas place would be a friendly place to eat and drink for anyone who bought this house for sale.

The frustrated home owner had a brilliant insight and offered out of her own pocket a $1,000 bar tab at Grandpas!

Flipping brilliant.

Did it work?

A 300% increase in showings since her new promotion hit the street!

So it worked – not their wonderfully brilliant realtor just has to do half what they are paid to do…close the deal.

“We live in a place where restaurants and bars come within walking distance so we thought this was a way to cross-promote the neighborhood and our homes.”

How does this relate to you?

I hope you can see where I am going with this… if not, you need more help than I can provide :o )

Here are the lessons to be learned:

* Wishing and praying won’t build your business – YOU have to build your business.

* Look for complimentary businesses, products and services you can bundle in with your own products or services.

* Think outside of the basement here – how often have you seen something like this in your city? I doubt if you have ever seen a $1000 bar tab with home purchase offer before. Why not? It makes sense! Or a $1,000 restaurant gift. Or a $1,0000 maid service. Or a $1,000 credit towards movers. When you are selling a home worth a few hundred thousand dollars, a grand out of your own pocket isn’t going to kill you, or the deal. If you are selling a product or service worth $200 – a $50 gift certificate is worth it (especially when you factor in repeat business from the client once you get them into your marketing funnel – right?)

* The economy is still sluggish and people are not spending like they used to – so you had better think up some very innovative ways to get them to notice you, over the hundreds/thousands of others trying to get inside their wallets also.

* Many realtors are clueless when it comes to marketing your home – so pick and choose wisely. See if you can find one who has at least studied SOME direct marketing. It won’t be easy to find (I’ve looked)…but snag one if you find one.

This was a great example of an average everyday homeowner who got fed up with dismal results and took it into their own hands.

Not only have they tripled their prospects…

…the got MASSIVE media attention from this (Huffington Post, NBC Chicago, Sun Times, to name a few). That alone is worth a fortune for both the home owner and for Grandpa’s bar!

Last – she got over the hoping and praying phase that her realtor would perform for her – and she took ACTION to do it herself.

This is a very recent story, so we will have to wait and see how effective it is… but with 300% more prospects to talk to, odds are VERY good someone will buy soon (and they will have a hell of a good story to tell their friends and family about this home they bought which was in all these newspapers!)

Now get busy.

Troy

PS: We are just getting ready to launch the new and improved Cash Flow Calendar for 2012 – 15 months of done-for-you, pre-written marketing campaigns, and a TON of money making tools that you haven’t seen here before.

Watch for it.

In the meantime, there are a number of solutions here to help you grow your sales if they are slow http://www.blog.smallbusinesscopywriter.com/on-line-store/

Aug
22

Marketing stickiness

By | advertising, Copywriting, Direct Mail, Entrepreneur, Marketing on the web, Neighborhood Marketing

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marketing-clutter

Does your marketing look like it's buried in the clutter?

11  important rules you need to stick to if you want to succeed in your marketing:

1)      The purpose of your marketing is NOT to showcase your brand, your logo, (it does not need

to be for them to buy something, as it can be for them to take some kind of action like visiting a web page to get something for free)

2)      You MUST learn how to create compelling offers that get them to take those actions.

3)      Each of the marketing campaigns you launch will consist of a minimum of 3 steps.  In other words, when communicating with your clients and prospects, you must send at least 3 different pieces to them in order to call it a properly designed campaign (and one that will actually work and help you achieve goal #1 from above)

4)      No more cutesy sayings and vague one-liners that say and do nothing that take you closer to goal #1. Again, a cute radio ad is useless if it doesn’t generate you leads or make you money.

5)      You will learn how to become a more natural writer, and use those skills to further build on goal #1

6)      Your personality in your marketing is your greatest asset. Don’t hide the fact that you are a real live person, like most business owners do. They try and mask the size of their company… pretending to be a big company.  Putting your face and personality front and center in all your marketing will do more for your sales than anything else you do.

7) Effective advertising rarely looks like advertising.

8)      Effective advertising stops your ideal customer in their tracks and literally forces them to start reading your ad.

9)      Effective advertising always has some form of tracking mechanism in place so you know exactly if it is working, or not.

My first few years into copywriting, I had logged 2,000 hours of writing and studying from the masters (I tracked my hours).

Since discovering this thing called copywriting, I have a whole new world in front of me.  I see why most businesses struggle.  I see why people think marketing doesn’t work. I see why most people think advertising is a waste of money. And I see why some companies go on and accomplish amazing things in record time.

I have had the privilege to work with some incredible people, from all over the world. Movie stars. Bestselling authors. Public speakers. Inventors.  Real estate investors and developers.  Information publishers.  All said and done, there are probably 35+ industries I have helped now.  And have made them millions and millions of dollars in short periods of time.

 

Why do I share this with you? Because just 7 years ago I had no idea what marketing was or how it worked.  Today, I am an internationally-known entrepreneur who has helped thousands of people turn their businesses around.  Every week, my articles go out to thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners spanning the globe.  And I absolutely love seeing the look in a client’s eye when they hit their first grand slam in marketing. The pay doesn’t hurt either.

If I can do it, so can you.  I failed English in high school and university.  But I quickly discovered that real marketing doesn’t care about proper grammar.  As you will see in this article, real marketing breaks many of the rules of proper English.

Yet it works… and the results speak for themselves.

 

 

I LOVE your comments… good and bad.  Let me know what I can do to help you grow your business faster and more profitably.

Troy

 

Jun
14

Canada Post’s Secret… Uncovered and Exploited by the USPS

By | calgary, Copywriting, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Leads Generation, Marketing on the web, Neighborhood Marketing, Twitter, Wacky marketing ideas

17 Comments

I have long been preaching the power of using direct mail to complement your online marketing efforts.

Why?

Because ‘everyone’ is NOT online.

Because ‘everyone’ do NOT prefer email to print mail.

Because ‘everyone’ is not on Facebook and Twitter.

There is a huge opportunity to leverage the dinosaurs we call our postal service into your marketing.

And the United States Postal System just figured out one of Canada Post’s little secrets.

Yes, for many years now, astute marketers were using Unaddressed Admail in Canada. Direct to the door mail for 11.9 cents per household.

Fantastic for lead generation!

But until recently, the USPS didn’t have a service that would work like Canada Posts Unaddressed Direct Mail tools.

…Until now…


What it means to everyone is that there are now more options south of the 49th parallel.

And it also means it is TIME to get serious about using this tool.

If you need help – let me know.

If you want a webinar around this – let me know.

This is a fantastic tool for geo targeting of your prospects and clients.

Hope you are using it!!

Let me know your thoughts.

(I also have a product called Direct Mail Detox
that you will find helpful for generating QUALIFIED leads)

Troy

PS: I should also share the fact that I have seen some incredible results using this next-to-free direct mail tool. One client in a very competitive, commodity type business used a flier I did up and we used Unaddressed Admail to businesses – and got an incredible 12:1 return on their investment. Another sold a number of high end home products (average price of each piece if $800) for a whopping $300 investment in mailing and postal services.

This is a great way to find leads and make sales. Definitely worth your time to test.

May
25

Marketing lessons from the master (Master Yu, that is)

By | Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Spirits, Main Content, Neighborhood Marketing, Story Selling, Success, Wacky marketing ideas

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Five Years Ago, I finally got my twin daughters and myself signed up for Tae Kwon Do with Master Yu in Calgary.

I have been active in martial arts for years – but got out of it a number of years prior when I broke an ankle (not broken in martial arts – broke it jumping out of the back of a truck with sandals on – not smart).

Since then, the weight was adding up and I was really missing my martial arts.

But I didn’t want to go back to the place I used to.

Why?

- it was too rough for 6 year olds – it was Kickboxing and Muay Thai which is quite hard for 6 yr olds

- their teachers were more ring fighters than teachers for kids (Team Canada trained there – and they won 90% of their battles across the world as the training was excellent)

- they only offered 1 kids-only class per week

So, off I went in search of a new school.

This time though, the girls (my daughters) got to pick. At that age, it is tough to keep them interested – so I had to make sure the school and teacher were going to be a good fit for them.

The first couple places we went to were awful – nasty teachers with no real concept of being a decent human being towards children. While I understand the need for discipline in martial arts – there is a point where you draw the line and say enough is enough.

Critical, downright nasty statements out of the teacher was enough to scare the girls, and me, away.

Then we found Master Yu.

He has some excellent marketing techniques in use here:

1) by appointment only. No dropping in to see what they are doing – you must book an appointment and stick to your appointment (they called 2 times before to make sure we would be there)

2) must bring kids and myself – not just me as he wanted to meet the kids to see if THEY would be a good fit – turning the tables on us, in essence

3) he let them try some lessons – and made it easy and fun

4) he showed them all the other kids in his regular classes (kids have 4 classes a week – plus 3 family classes they could go to as well). NOTE: he has (on average) 30-35 kids per class – a sign he is doing something right.

5) he explained how they can get different colored belts

6) he refused to let us sign up for less than a year (too easy to quit after a month or two – give it a year and you are hooked)

7) he charges a big premium over others

8 ) has a print monthly newsletter

9) he caters to his ideal client (the kids) – make it comfortable for them and fun – and they are customers for years to come – AND, ultimately, he can get their parents in as well!

And, YES, he did get us all in – and took a sizable donation out of my bank account!

The girls LOVE the class (once they are there anyhow, they give me grief getting there, but once there they have a blast! There are also 2 other identical twin girls in the class about the same age, which definitely helps).

And I love it as well! Lost some weight already… that in itself is great for a month. My classes are great – during the lunch hours there are only a few people in the classes so I end up getting some excellent one-on-one training with blackbelts.

The big lessons I took from his marketing systems:

1) YOU, the business owner, should be the one setting the
rules for your clients – if they want to do business with
you, it is on your terms, not theirs

2) DO NOT make yourself too accessible – make them work to
do business with you (Dan Kennedy preaches this one
religiously)

3) give a test run – something free they can try – then they
can decide if it is for them

4) make the decision hard enough on the price point, but
with ample reasons why a premium price is better

5) constant communication with students (and, in this case,
their parents)

6) explain all the different offerings (belts) and what it
means to you personally

7) definitely NOT competing on price – a no-win battle – the
market for upper end products and services is THE FASTEST
GROWING market segment in North America.

Overall, I am really enjoying the martial arts – and in watching a master marketer at work! And of course, I will be finding a way to offer him additional marketing help in trade (got to always be looking for opportunities!)

Find a few ways to make these lessons work for your business…

Troy

PS: I also wrote and article about my experiences getting my black belt in Tae Kwon Do and you can read that article here (some great business lessons to be learned! this is also the reason for my Marketing Dojang program.)

Apr
19

Cold Calling Mania… and my invaluable College Pro Experience

By | calgary, Entrepreneur, Leads Generation, Neighborhood Marketing

10 Comments

Wayyyy back in High School I started painting houses for some side income.  It was easy work – and the guy I was painting for paid me quite well, for the time.  Don owned around 30 properties in Calgary, where I live… and my job was to go from property to property after school and on weekends to spruce them up with a coat of paint.

At the time, it was great.  Out in the sun all day… making good coin… and no one watching over me (Don usually showed up at the start of the job then the end of it, with instructions for the next one).

Little did I know that this little “side job” would turn in my first sold entrepreneurial experience…

…and one of the BEST sales lessons I ever had the privilege to learn.

After painting houses for the year after graduation, and learning that being the painter wasn’t my life time aspiration… I decided school wasn’t all that bad.

So I squeaked in to the University of Calgary Bachelor of Commerce program (with the dismal grades I had back then – I wouldn’t have a chance these days… probably would have given the admissions staff a good laugh though if I did apply with my 49% in Physics and my 52% in English  (I excelled in Mechanics though, another aspiration I had when I was young – think I had a 89% or something like that in Mechanics – about the minimum overall grade you need now to get into school).

 

During my University days, in between parties, I found myself actually needing to eat (something other than barley). So off I went in search of a job – ugly jobs too.

Then I heard about this company called College Pro Painters.

Painting – I know how to do that! Off I went to their office to see what this was all about.  There I met with the general manager to see what they had to offer me.

college pro painters

This binder made me a bundle!

OWN A FRANCHISE?

I wasn’t thinking along those lines at first – but my dreams of mega riches from my new franchise glittered in my eyes – so I signed up and became a College Pro Painters Franchise Owner.

It was the smartest thing I had ever done!

Fortunately, I didn’t need to learn much about painting – - they even asked me to teach their new painters how to paint properly.

But I did need to learn more about management and door to door sales.

One of the ways we got painting contracts was door knocking.  Selling $2,000+ paintjobs by knocking on peoples doors… what a new world I had opened up!

Cold calling by door knocking was definitely not an easy thing… but damn I got good at it!  I could knock on enough doors on a Saturday to book myself up for a months worth of work.  Then I found out that all the other franchise owners hated door knocking… I smelled opportunity.

They hated it – I loved it – and I was good at it.

So they paid me to go out and get them leads – - – and I could easily make $300 or $400 knocking on doors for a day (back then, this seemed like a small fortune!).

So one day a month I would do my leads – another day I would do leads for them… it worked out great.  Looking back, I have to wonder what amazing things I really could have done in the lead generation field using direct mail.  I could have supplied the entire crew of franchise owners with leads – and not have had to knock on a single door!

That was one of many exceptional lessons I took away from owning a College Pro Franchise

I don’t see them around as much anymore, but they had some incredible systems in place that explain why they got so big so fast.

 

1)   They sold territory-exclusive opportunities for entrepreneurial minded college kids. We each had an area we could sell and paint in – and no one else was allowed to cross the boundary (I busted one other franchise owner painting in my area once – yikes did he get in some serious doo doo).

Question for you: Is there any way you can limit who buys from you based on city, location within the city, line of work they are in, etc?  When you create a more tightly defined niche to sell to, your sales process will be easier (everyone wants what they can’t have… and from the buyers side it is much easier to make a decision when you know they are trying to sell to someone with your experience and knowledge).  What smaller markets can you focus your marketing on?   (note: watch for something along this line that I am going to be discussing in  an upcoming article)

 

2)   They trained us to use systems in everything that we did. We used sales scripts for door knocking (which I modified to suit my style and which got me more leads). We used sales scripts for how we did the quotes. We had systems and forms we used for the actual presentation of the pricing (and a script to follow). We used picture books to show work we had done (proof). We were backed by a major corporation and told everyone that (further proof). We were taught how to pay our crews of painters (I had 8 painters in 4 crews that I managed)… how to teach them to paint… how to manage them… and how to keep them happy.

Question for you: What parts of your business should be scripted more or put into a better system?  I am reorganizing much of my own lead generation system and sales system they go through right now. Have you put yours on paper?  Why not?  It is one of the biggest areas you can see the holes, and implement immediate improvements that grow your business and profits.

 

3)   We used multi-media sales tools for those who answered the door (cold calling) and for those who didn’t. You will see below one of the very friendly forms we used to leave with people.  Note the flow… headline, subheads with explanation, guarantees, specific numbers (95% satisfaction), order form (with the infamous YES! copy),  checkboxes with choices (from best option to worst), a form with ample room to write on, mailing instructions (self-mailer they can instantly pop in the mail to get the requested information).  It does pack a lot in the little space it uses.

Question for you: Are you pulling out all the stops to make sure you stay in front of those who show immediate action, and with those who don’t?  I am revamping my entire sales and marketing funnel right now – when it is taken apart and re-organized – it’s amazing how many holes you will find in the system. One of the best things you could do is draw out on paper your entire sales system from lead to sale, then from sale to repeat sale right through to what you will do when a customer hasn’t bought in XX months.  This is a GREAT time of year to be doing this in planning for the new year.

 

College Pro - Entrepreneurial secrets

The lowly flier... one of my most powerful tools when done right

4)   We had the ‘branded’ look and feel. From the shirts we wore – awful bright yellow things they were(!), to the clipboards we used, to the truck I drove (I have been trying to find some photos I had of that beauty!  Imagine a BRIGHT yellow Toyota pickup with College Pro on the doors, a MONSTER room rack that could hold, and was usually stacked with 10 or 20 ladders, bottoming out on the back from all the paint in the back, and pushing some serious blue smoke everywhere I went (sorry Al Gore).)  All the painters wore the t-shirts – all invoices and business cards were branded. We look real professional – and it paid off in the number of contracts I got signed.

Question for you: Are you consistent in your look and feel?  Do prospects and customers alike know who they are dealing with? Either you as the owner can be the brand you show, or your company name (if designed to tell them what you do right in the name, unless you have a multi-million dollar budget to sell people on a name that means nothing).  This is another piece I am re-inventing for the new year – something too few of us marketing through the internet pay as much attention to as we should.

 

5)   We had FUN!  From the houseboat trips all the franchise owners would take (from what I recall, there were some copious amounts of alcohol drank by all, sitting out on the lake in our houseboat), to the pizza nights with the painters, to the annual awards banquet (I won Most improved Rookie of the year my second year in the franchise).  It was one of the most memorable things I have ever done – and the skills learned there have been invaluable in my future businesses (unlike the skills learned in my University Marketing classes, which are pretty much useless in the real world of small business).

You may even recall my practical joke story I wrote not long ago about my fun days at College Pro?

Question for you: What are you doing to have fun with your clients, your prospects and your employees and partners?  What could you be doing?  For example, this December, I am hosting the Wild West Christmas Bash (www.WildWestChristmasBash.com) – a free nighttime event for clients and prospects to come out, network, have some fun and learn a few things about growing their business.  It is my first annual – so I will let you know how it goes.  The cartoons I have been using for the past year in my marketing of the Wild West Wealth Summit (affiliate link) have been very well received and people comment on them frequently.

 

6)   Direct sales was mandatory. We had to report in on a weekly basis how many cold call leads we had generated – basically forcing us to get off our butts and create sales – or hire someone else to do it for you.  This really made us ger serious – we had to be serious as we had some serious (22%) royalties to pay on sales!

Question for you: When was the last time you picked up the phone and CALLED some customers or prospects?  See firsthand what they are thinking and what is holding them back from buying more and more often.  Many times it takes the simple things in life for the big breakthroughs we all seek.

 

College Pro was a fabulous learning experience for me back then, and it still continues to teach me things as I reflect back on what happened over those summers.

I hope you take note and try a few of the things discussed here.

Troy

PS: You can still snap up my Mother Days Madness special… the weather
still stinks here so the special stands for now

http://www.blog.smallbusinesscopywriter.com/making-the-most-of-unexpected-events-in-business/

Feb
25

Marketing Lessons from the WAWA

By | Entrepreneur, Neighborhood Marketing, Story Selling, Wacky marketing ideas

6 Comments

marketing lessons from the wawaI recently saw a CNBC special on the chain of convenience stores called WAWA. They are experiencing phenomenal success in an industry that, typically, does not have a big brand loyal following.

Except in this case!

People even get married there.

Believe it or not, their clients are so happy with the store and service, they have been married there (granted, they did meet there, but that has to be a first I’ve heard of).

Why are they so successful?

Their motto: “The little convenience store that could”

Some specifics:

• Coffee can’t sit for more than 20 minutes (WHAT? No more sludge?)

• Motivate employees using non-monetary means. They receive average pay, but they mobilize the hearts and heads of employees, and create a true pride in brand.

• Create wawa holics

• Make the customers feel part of the community (that sounds early like they practice good customer service).

• They are more than a convenience store in their customer’s eyes. They are a place where people know their name (from the website – Wawa has been called the “Cheers” of convenience stores by our loyal customers)

• Good service, good foods and drinks

• Its own line of ice cream (most probably a white label brand – which any and every business can do)

• They have sports pools on their websites (that is some rabid fans they are collecting there)

• Their own branded Visa card (plus you get 10% off anything if you use that card)

• Their CEO has a blog! Nothing revolutionary there – but good business practice.

• Celebrities write about them. Erin Hannon, Dunder Mifflin’s receptionist, on the hit NBC television show The Office even wrote an ode to WAWA.

There is an entire marketing lesson both on their website and in thinking about what they have done.

Turning a commodity type service into a leading edge empire is not a simple thing.

But their techniques are quite simple?

How could they apply to your business?

How could their vision apply to what you offer your clients?

Wawa’s vision is “to simplify our customers’ daily lives.”

How can you not only simplify your clients lives, how can you help them share YOUR story with their friends, family and business associates?

Give them a GREAT story to tell… that’s how!

PS: WAWA is actually a funny kind of a name that has a definhite ring to it. Did you know that Wawa is a Native American word for the Canada goose that lives in the Delaware Valley? Me neither… until now.

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