Neighborhood Marketing - Marketing techniques for results driven entrepreneurs

Feb

Marketing to the Affluent

By Troy | Main Content, Marketing Calendar, Marketing Plan, Neighborhood Marketing

According to Pamela Danzinger (Affluent research expert):

“A new survey among 1,237 affluents shoppers about their online shopping habits found that gift ideas and gift shopping is the second most popular reason they turn to the internet.”

and…

“The affluent shopper are the heavy lifters in the consumer economy. They make up only 20 percent of households, but account for more than 40 percent of all consumer purchases and more than 50 percent of all income and earnings. Where they shop, what they buy, how much they spend is critically important for marketers targeting customers at all price ranges at retail,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the upcoming book entitled Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury (Paramount Market Publishing, early 2011).

Affluent clients can improve your business profitability fast, but you have to know what you are doing.

Using the age-old technique of ‘faking-it-till-you-make-it’ doesn’t work here.

You must know exactly who you are selling to, and how best to sell to them (meaning they stay clients for years, even decades, to come – and they refer all their best contacts to you as well).

This is a specific area of interest to me as I am working for clients in a couple different niches that target the affluent.

2 other great resources I am reading, and recommend you do as well are:

- The Art of Selling to the Affluent, by Matt Oechsli
- Mass Affluence, by Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson

First, don’t over complicate this… the principles of marketing to the affluent are, in many ways, no different than marketing to the general population.

One of the best sources of tips and techniques for treating people right is the class, How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (also the headline of his blockbuster advertisement).

Here are just 3 of the principles from his book that apply to anyone you converse with, market to, or want to get to know:

* First, arouse in the person an eager want. He who can do this has the whole world with him. He who cannot walks a lonely way.

* Always talk in terms of the other persons interests

* Make the other person happy to do what you suggest

Not exactly rocket science, but so little focus is put on this by most of the businesses and sales people you see out there today.

In order to sell and market to the affluent, here are a few principles to run your business by:

(1) Don’t tell them about your product or service (and how great it is) – SHOW THEM. This is one demographic that will hold you VERY accountable to your promises and claims. So do not try and impress them with your big words or name-dropping… they don’t care.

What they care about the proof that you deliver on what they want. They care about the help you give them (before the sale), they care about your attention to details, and they care about the way you carry yourself in your business.

(2) If you run a service type of business, or they come to visit you in your office… practice your hospitality skills. Do not make them wait (pretending you are too busy to see them). Great them at the door (yes you, not your receptionist). Offer them tea – and do NOT serve it in a Styrofoam cup. Do not tell crass jokes or show off all the war-wounds you got at the rock concert you were at last night – be a professional.

Yes it sounds simple, but you’d be amazed how few people practice the simple things!

(3) One-stop-shopping. Never pass the buck to others when you are dealing with affluent clients. Always be the front person for anything and everything they need (within reason, of course). Put together a response team that fulfills the things you need done – but have you as the person that fields the requests from them. If you cannot do it yourself, make sure you have a top notch team in place that understands how to deal with the affluent, and how to be a professional on the phone.

[Note: in many cases, additional services should be provided free to your clients, unless it was agreed on early in your dealings. Few, if any, will take real advantage of you – rather the opposite – they will gladly send their friends to you if they know you are there for them, no matter what]

(4) Provide Ritz-Carlton Service with FedEx Efficiency (a phrase coined in Richistan). They want you to pamper them – every single time they see you. Explain to them every nuance of your business, how you deal with your clients, what they can expect from you, and what you expect from them. They will want to know how you make your money, and what they get in return for paying you the big dollars.
Now, how do you actually get to the affluent prospects you so dearly want as clients?

At times they will find you – but don’t count your livelihood on that.

1) You CAN find, and market, to them via advertisements, direct mail, and targeted prospecting. The numbers of those who fall into the definition of ‘affluent’ is growing. Depending on the source, ‘affluent’ typically starts with a minimum liquid net worth of $1 million dollars (not counting primary real estate holdings).

That said, the absolute best way to get to, and win over, the affluent client is through networking and word of mouth. You must do your research and find out where they frequent (private golf clubs, spas, private fitness clubs, associations, philanthropic events, theatre, etc.)

2) Plan your week properly. Marketing is a numbers game – the more marketing you do, the faster you grow your business. Every Sunday night, plan out exactly how many affluent prospects you need to meet, and then plan out exactly how you are going to do that this week.

Remember, when you are out meeting prospects, you are not there to sell them anything, other than to show them you are a genuine person, and that their best interests are front and centre.

3) Set up your prospecting plan. Design a 3 and 6 month marketing calendar that will lead you down the right path to meeting your objectives. Be specific here, and reasonable. If you cannot commit to 3 networking functions a week – don’t put it on your plan. Leverage all your team members as much as possible to make sure your marketing tools get implemented on time, and on budget.

4) Design your web page to appeal to this demographic. Not the place for a plane jane website with a white background and text only. What should you have on your site, and how should it look?

First thing you need to do is get busy on your research – which sites do your ideal affluent clients frequent? What parts are common among the top 5 sites they frequent? Make sure you look like you belong in the same league as the others they are used to visiting.

Some of the things that you need to cover on your site: no fancy, blinking lights type of sites, instant connection to customer service, ease of ordering (or next step, like filling out a simple request form – again, not asking too much of them the first point of contact), and make sure you have a secure site for their information – AND that they know it is a secure site for their personal information (one of their biggest concerns online).

Some things you can consider when designing your new marketing strategies for this market:

• How would you describe your ideal customer or client? Age, sex, work, family, hobbies, etc?
• Thinking ahead, what is the ideal relationship you have with your clients? How do you communicate with them? How often? How do they approach you? Remember, plan this for your ideal business… then build your business to match your goals.
• What do your ideal clients (or should they) value most about what you sell, and how you sell it?
• What do they value most that you do not presently offer to them? How could you offer it to them? What changes do you need to make?
• If you wanted someone else to act as your front-person, how would they describe your business to your ideal client? What, exactly, would they say? How would they describe the value you provide? How would your ideal client describe the value you provide to their friends and associates?

Some facts for you to consider (The Art of Selling to The Affluent):

- 72.2 percent of the affluent are married with children (either still at home or moved out).
- On average they work 60 hours a week
- 22.4% worked their way into the affluent group through their own business, 25.9% are self-employed professionals, and 44.9% come from the salaried or commissioned employee role (with only 0.6% of them coming from inherited money)
- Only 20.4% said that their bank was helpful with their cash management needs.
- 65.5% said that opinions of immediate family members and trusted friends had significant impact on where they start looking and researching their purchase.

Lots to consider here… but the end results are well worth it.

Plan your strategies to target more of an affluent client. Design your business around them, and what they want. Then implement on a massive scale.

The numbers are there – and they are more than willing to spend their money with you (remember, price is the least important decision making factor in this demographic). This is one of the fastest and easiest way to build your long-term profitability.

By living, playing and working with the affluent – it only makes sense that you too become one of them… right?

So get busy!

To your success,

Troy White

PS: I am compiling a new report on marketing to the affluent. If you sell to upper income people, please let me know, I would love to interview you. If you know others who sell to the affluent, please leave a comment below so I can interview them as well. Thx.

PPS: If you want to get much better at marketing to the affluent and writing with a passion, here is a brand new Monster Mailman Bundle for you:

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Have a great weekend and keep on writing!

Troy

Dec

Cat poop coffee and Holy Crap cereal… wacky marketing that works

By Troy | advertising, Email Marketing, Entrepreneur, Leads Generation, Marketing on the web, Neighborhood Marketing, Story Selling

3 Comments

Sometimes you just have to look to the most unusual of places for interesting marketing ideas to help build your business.

A couple quick examples show why stories are so important to build into your marketing:

A young couple from Canada had developed a very healthy cereal with a combination of chia, hulled hemp seeds, buckwheat, apples, cranberries, raisins and cinnamon.

Who doesn’t need a good healthy start to the day… right?

Well… it sounds good in theory… but what they quickly found was that rational reasons to buy weren’t enough.

They originally called their cereal HapiFoods… not exactly a sexy sounding name… but they still sold 10 bags or so online the first day in business.

As soon as people started receiving and trying their cereal, they noticed a trend that changed everything.

“… people were calling and saying, ‘Holy crap, this is great’” said Corin Mullins, one of the founders. Brian, the other partner involved picked up on this and made a quick decision… “let’s change the name to Holy Crap for the summer and see what happens”.
“We put it online and the first day it was Holy Crap, I sold over 100 bags,” said Corin. “It was the exact same recipe.”

1,000% increase in sales with changing the name

So they are off to the races and were put on the Dragons Den show in Canada (same as the Sharks Den in the US). Their flavorful cereal was snapped up by one of the Dragons immediately, and their sales went through the roof:

The deal was the fastest struck in the history of Dragons’ Den, said producer Molly Duignan. “[Jim Treliving] hadn’t even finished sampling the product and he basically made an offer.”

Orders for the cereal have been rolling in, jumping from an average of 10 a day to 10 every minute.

Over 5,800 online orders have been placed since Dragons Den, said Corin Mullins. Demand has been so great that the Mullinses hired five new employees. They even had to turn down NBC’s Today Show as the demand would have crippled their ability to supply.

Lesson learned?

Change your name!!

If a product isn’t moving as well as it should – try a new, more exciting name. In this case their customers handed them the perfect name on a silver platter. Other times it isn’t quite so easy. Sometimes you should be testing new names and new niche marketing ideas for products that DO already sell well.

Never know when you’ll find a winner.

But a product name is no different than a headline – a good name can and will see substantially more products or services. An attendee at one of my workshops told me she renamed her massage service to a 61 Minute Vacation and her sales immediately went through the roof. Same service – new name – HUGE boost in sales.

Try it out and test a new name out for a month or two. Market it to new people and see what the demand is like. You never know when you will find a winner and see a 1,000% increase in sales with a simple re-branding.

How about some cat poop with your coffee?

Did you see the movie… the Bucket List with Jack Nicholson? Well, one of the to-do items on the list was a drink of Kopi Luwak coffee. Cat poop coffee is basically what it is – and it is a HOT seller (steaming hot? Kidding).

The Wild Cicvik in Thailand is where the ‘beans’ come from for this coffee and it is an extremely rare (and expensive) type of coffee.

The Cicvik eats a certain type of wild cherry, passes it through, and the seeds are pulled out of the remains and used as the basis for this coffee.

Dubbed the most expensive coffee in the world, it recently arrived in Calgary, where I live. The coffee shop selling it loves the media attention this new addition is getting. They are almost sold out of the $25 a cup delight… and the residual business they are gaining by this will help them pay their bills for months, maybe years to come.

Notice something though?

In both of these cases, they have an interesting story that people want to hear.

They find their most important story (or title… or headline).

They master their story.

They share their story.

Sometimes they have to try new names, headlines, promises or guarantees to find the signature story.

Other times they have to look outside for new, innovative or controversial products they can sell as part of their story mix.

Both work… and both are just as feasible for you and I.

A new year is almost upon us, and there has never been a better time to step up and try doing more things that position you differently, more controversial, or just more weird.

People LOVE a good story… and are willing to pay for it.

If people are lining up to pay $25 to drink Cat Poop coffee… don’t you think there might be some kind of product or service out there that you can add to your marketing mix and position yourself as THE business to watch?

Of course!

For the new year (and even your holiday promotions), try bundling your products differently with a unique new name, and try adding in something that bumps your price up, and gives your customers a GREAT story they can share with their friends and family.

Never know when it will be your next big winner!

To your success,

Troy White

PS: This was originally written for Clayton Makepeace‘s blog, which I write the Small Business Mastery column every Thursday

Dec

16 steps to a lead generation magnet (and one short cut)

By Troy | Copywriting, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Spirits, Leads Generation, Neighborhood Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Story Selling, Wacky marketing ideas

1 Comment

Yet again, a simple four-hour project has returned major rewards in just a few weeks.

This simple strategy works in every possible industry and country imaginable.

It will boost your credibility.

You will experience an influx of high-quality prospects, which are typically ready to buy at higher prices.

It adds an immediate cash flow stream.

It builds your database.

And it will most definitely make you one of the most credible in your niche.

What is it?

The simple printed book.

Before you go running off complaining about how you have no time to write a book, hear me out. The type of book I am talking about will take a small amount of your time, and is easy to put together.

…My first experience in this world began six years ago. I met a gentleman named Steven E. at an event and first heard his idea of
co-authoring a book with him. All I had to do was contribute a single chapter in the book telling my story.

This was the second time he had done this, and this one was going to be their first best-seller.

It was an honor to have my name listed next to Dr. Wayne Dyer, Mark Victor Hanson, John Assaraf … even Lou Ferrigno of “Incredible Hulk” fame.

The book was compiled and printed in what seemed like record time. We did the Amazon campaign that got the Wake Up… Live The Life You Love book #1 in a number of categories and my new life as an author began.

============================
My next experience began on a call
with the legendary Ted Nicholas.
============================

I was fortunate to get the chance to work with him on a few projects and learned an incredible amount from a man that has sold billions using direct response marketing.

On one of our conference calls, someone asked Ted a question that caused him to hesitate. What he said next inspired me to create
my own book. Ted mentioned one thing that he credited with his success, yet said that he didn’t like to talk about it much.

To me … this was GOLD.

Something so powerful it was responsible for his success, yet he didn’t want to talk about it? I knew there was something big
here.

============================
So I hatched a plan for my own book …
and Entrepreneurial Spirits was born.
============================

Based on the conversation with Ted, I knew this was something other successful people had in common, and I was determined to
bring it out into print.

So I developed a series of 5 questions and started asking people I already knew.

Ted Nicholas agreed to be in the book.

Joe Sugarman agreed.

John Assaraf agreed.

Joe Vitale agreed.

It took on a life of its own and, next thing I knew, 52 successful people from all over the world had agreed to contribute to the book.

Entrepreneurial Spirits was compiled quickly and put in print in the matter of a couple months … and I continue to reap the rewards from that simple idea.

============================
a couple years ago … it happened again.
============================

I was asked to be in a book called Money Making Marketing For Canadian$. There was no hesitation at all … I knew how simple it was and how powerful it worked.

So I invested four, maybe five hours on my chapter and sent it in.

The book came out not long after.

Surprise surprise … I quickly landed a very nice five-figure consulting contract with someone who had never heard of me before reading my chapter in the book.

As he said … “You were in a book, so I just knew you must be the real deal”.

Once again, this tool has paid itself back to me many times over.

============================
And here’s how it can do the same for you …
============================

1. Pick the niche you want to be known in.

2. Decide if you want to have a book with complimentary
authors, or competitors (both methods work … the one I was just
in was all competitors in the book). Let’s say you are a
plumber. You could create a book with all plumbers … or a book
with a single plumber, a carpenter, a roofer, a painter, etc.
This method is easier to do (and to convince the other authors to
contribute).

3. Pick a sexy title for your book. Use the formulas given
here on The Total Package for headline creation … and find one
that could easily be used as a book title. Alternatively, go to
Amazon and look at the best-sellers in similar categories. Use
the same formula the best-sellers use in your own title.

4. Put together a pitch letter you can send to the
contributing authors you want.

5. Give them guidance on what questions to answer in their
chapter, or what format you want to stick with (stories about how
they got started, or about the best tips for their area of
expertise, or the dumbest things people do when they hire a
______). Each author gets a set number of words they can
contribute, along with a bio listing their contact information.

============================
if you want to fast track it…
join me in the next Entrepreneurial Spirits book, details at http://www.entrepreneurialspirits.com
============================

6. Make it really easy for them to write the chapter (show
yours as an example). Give them guidance and ideas. And give
them a solid deadline to have their chapter in by.

7. And get busy going after your dream authors. Once you have
gotten the ok from the number of authors you want (10-20 is
perfect, 53 in mine was too much … almost Chicken Soup like).

8. Make sure you keep in touch with them during the writing
phase and make sure they are committed to the deadline.

9. Send it to a professional editor and cover designer.

10. Make sure YOUR name is the most prominent one on the cover
and spine.

11. I would suggest printing your first book in the standard 6″
x 9″ format … it is easier for the printer and the cost per book
is less.

12. Don’t worry about making it perfect! You are going to use
print-on-demand, so you can always get more printed if you find
something that needs fixing. The best part with a print-on-demand
company is that they can do small runs of 50, or 500 … and you
don’t end up with a garage full of unsold books (which happens
95% of the time with authors).

13. Print extra copies for your contributing authors. If they
are paying you to be a part of the book, give them 20+ copies.

14. Create an affiliate program so that your contributing
authors can sell the book through your program, or they can sell
them direct, as long as they buy them from you at $X per copy.

15. Write your winning sales letter using the tips on my
blog.

16. Get busy promoting the book! Use it as a business card.
Mail it out to your clients and prospects. Use it as a bonus
with your product shipments. Do everything possible to get your
book to distributors, catalog houses, on Amazon, and in the hands
of other entrepreneurs who want to bonus your book with their
product shipments. (Book promotions are a whole other subject,
one that I can’t cover here … even needing an entire course
around the subject!)

This is a simplified version of the entire process … but it can be done quickly and efficiently using this formula.

============================
Don’t overcomplicate it …
this formula WORKS.

If you want to fast track it…
join me in the next Entrepreneurial Spirits book,
details at http://www.entrepreneurialspirits.com
============================

The books you now have are the PERFECT promotional tool.

They will enhance your image and will attract your perfect clients. A single chapter made me five figures in a month since its release … imagine what it will do over the next few years.

And don’t cheap out and go for strictly the e-book version.

I love e-books … especially selling them. But there is something different about a physical book that you cannot match with a PDF. If you start now, you can have this done for early in the New Year Entrepreneurial Spirits

I would love to hear your ideas.

Thanks again.

To your success,

Troy White

PS: If you want to fast track it…
join me in the next Entrepreneurial Spirits book,
details at http://www.entrepreneurialspirits.com

PPS: This is the ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS PRESENT for the entrepreneurs in your life! If you are giving it as a gift, let me know and I will package up something special for under the tree.

The Perfect Christmas Gift for Entrepreneurs

Nov

Stephen Duckett and Cookiegate 2010

By Troy | Neighborhood Marketing, Success

1 Comment

Cookiegate 2010

…and the rapid demise of a CEO.

One of my best friends works with the Calgary Health Authority. At the top of the chain was their CEO, Stephen Duckett. They are both numbers geeks. They LOVE crunching numbers, looking at statistics – and analyzing hidden trends that the numbers reveal.

But, Stephen got fired this week.

And it really was his own fault.

All from one stupid mistake.

The Health Authority is under mass scrutiny right now and the Alberta Health system is in serious trouble.

Not because of Stephen… but because of some serious slashing and burning the previous government (and bureaucrats) had done to the health authority.

It left them short in doctors, operating rooms, nurses, beds…

…and it gained them 8-12 hour wait times in emergency departments across the province.

Stephen was brought in to fix the mess others had left him.

Pretty well an impossible task…

…especially when the the bumbling government morons get involved.

Set up to fail.

Recently, the Heath Authority decided to give the media what it wanted and it published the up-to-date statistics that showed the real status of wait times in emergency.

At least they would have a baseline to work from…right?

Well – it was just further fuel to the fire and all the ‘geniuses’ in government decided that they are brilliant enough to fix the entire problem in a couple weeks – so why can’t the executives in charge do it?

If the bureaucrats had their way they would wave their dainty little Harry Potter magic wands and the problem would fix itself overnight, with a little help from some magic fairy dust conjured up by the opposing government officials.

“We can fix it easily!”

…a $14 billion dollar organization completely redesigned and repaired overnight.

…nothing wrong with this fantasy, is there?

So the media was ALL OVER Duckett lately.

Which is their job.

Duckett’s mistake that cost him his career: “Dissing the media”.

Not a smart idea.

There was a big meeting taking place with all senior level people, and the media wanted to know what happened.

They found Stephen coming out of the meeting and started asking questions.

All Stephen could say was “there is a press meeting in 30 minutes – can I please finish my cookie?” (he was eating a cookie at the time).

The media kept after him, asking more questions – trying to get some answers and ignoring his request for a few minutes of privacy.

He kept repeating the “I’m eating my cookie” as the films rolled and the reporter persisted.

At the end of the day, Stephen looked very, very unprofessional on film. Within hours the videos were up on Youtube and the media outlets informed.

This was all on November 19th at 5pm.

By Saturday, “Cookiegate” was PLASTERED all over the news. Youtube had seen thousands of views (now over 200,000) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DxeCK5Ne_Q

By end of day Wednesday, November 24th, Stephen Duckett was relieved of his position as CEO.

I am not writing this to debate Stephen’s leadership with the Alberta Health System. I am not writing this to debate whether or not Stephen could turn the system around.

Everyone has their own opinions on all of that.

…And we all know what they say about opinions )

But what is VERY important to note here: if the media is hounding you for an answer – give them one. Especially a high profile guy like Stephen – it’s part of his job.

All he had to do was take 2 minutes – give some brief answers to their questions – and say he would answer all of their remaining questions at the press conference scheduled in 30 minutes.

All he had to do was give them something they could use.

…Then he could have eaten his cookie.

But he chose to shut them out and treat them like a nuisance. They were doing their job and asking for some little tidbit they could publish.

Never ever treat a media personality like that – nothing good will ever come of it.

His refusal to work with them cost him his job… and every ounce of dignity or respect he once had.

All by one stupid mistake.

We all mistakes – but only some learn from them and make sure it doesn’t happen again – or to them.

Media attention can be a GREAT thing – but it can also destroy your life, reputation and business if you do it poorly.

This was unfortunately a very visible example on what can happen when you do it wrong.

Please learn from it. I did. And I would hope I never do something like that when given the chance to be in front of the media!

Troy

PS: There are 10 spots open for the Entrepreneurial Spirits book… are YOU ready to be an author? Nothing beats having your name in a print book for credibility boosting. The perfect marketing tool and the ultimate lead generation companion. Details are at Entrepreneurial Spirits

Nov