www.narvinta.com

1) Customer Base - Under the assumption that you are an existing business and have repeat business from the same customers:

A) you want to ensure that they stay loyal in each opportunity to buy from somebody;

B) you want to offer them additional products/services.

“A” is best done with mailings, e-mailings and telemarketing (or all) to this prized, expensively acquired select market. You need to show your continued “added value” over the competitors as well as your “special treatment” of the customer base. When somebody buys a business and pays extra for “goodwill”, that is supposedly represented by loyalty due to that special treatment of customers. Make sure that you inform them that the same condition still exists. Telemarketing follow-up, if practical, to your customer base is a way to ensure loyalty and to sell “after-market” products/services.

Still, face-to-face remains the best method to sell anything! It’s cheaper and more effective than letters or phone calls. If your business puts you at their place, develop additional products/services to offer. It’s about 1/5 the cost of getting new customers. This is the most important single effort that your company will make! It’s called “locking the back door” before the cows get out! This also means that any additional increase in sales is just that, an increase, not replacing lost market share. If the customers come to your place, point-of-purchase displays or flyers for the taking are an inexpensive way to promote additional products/services. Again, if you are paying extra for retail space, maximize the income potential. Have you ever bought something on impulse, off a rack, while standing in line? Some of the most productive retail space is set aside for impulse buying, especially for a captive audience (those waiting to check out). I worked in a department store in my youth. I’d likely be restocking a table when the loudspeaker would announce, “attention, ladies - there is a 1/2 off sale in linens.” I would have to dive out of the way to avoid the stampede.

2. Yellow Pages - For almost any business, I can give a rational argument for anything from no ad to 1/3 of a page ad. I know of service companies that are not in the yellow pages at all that grow at a rate of 20% per year. These companies mail and phone exclusively, and include good offerings face-to-face. Also, a full-page ad is very expensive. As long as you can get noticed, it’s the message, and not the size. Make your yellow page ad an ad, not a “me-too” announcement. Every piece of information that is displayed to the public must be your best ad, be it a business card, truck, flyer or incoming phone call. If you want to think that you need yellow page exposure, make it your best shot using your best ‘Value added” message. I know also of service companies that are for sale and not likely to be purchased because of $18,000 per month yellow page expenses. For $18,000 a month, I can do a lot of direct, controlled marketing that can be changed, cancelled or increased at a moment’s notice. There are also competitive service companies that you couldn’t buy that are not in the yellow pages. If you use yellow pages, make it roar to the point that the only rational response is, “I’d be nuts not to call this company.”

3. Location - If you offer retail products and you are in a decent traffic location, you are paying extra for that high traffic. Look at it as marketing costs. So, make the most of your opportunities to be noticed by a lot of people. Use “headline grabber” type statements on signs to attract them into your den or to your web site. The message, “SALE”, only has impact if they are predisposed to buy your product. Don’t wait for them to accidentally stumble into your store. Put your most exotic, mysterious and irresistibly provocative benefits and products in the window. The front of the store’s main role in life is to get them into the store. Contractors pay as much as $85 for a new customer. Look at it as the carnival barker - you must inspire them to enter.

Daniel Wadleigh is a nationally published marketing consultant and has programs for start-up and existing businesses including effective web sites, e-mail/database, other non-internet ways to drive them to your website, and low cost ways to get more new customers.

Go to: http://www.more-new-customers.com to get free copy of “Marketing to Men vs. Women- the 8 different responses” and a Free copy of “Market Research- 7 Questions to Ask to Start-up and 7 to Ask to Improve Any Business.”

Share This

Besides the ever-loathsome (to me) “image enhancing” ads, there are two other kinds of ads, both of which bring direct response. When you are dangling a stimulus to which you want a response, it must be noted that if you aren’t able to inspire them, affordably, from a radio, e-mail, newspaper or whatever ad, then the goal is to get them to seek more information, be it by enticing them to walk into your place of business or simply call for more information.

If the product/service is a commodity (a “known” value), you may be able to inspire action with your irresistible offer of superior value and risk-free status. But, if it’s not a commodity, test a small provocative ad that will get enough people to inquire for more details. In this case, to say merely “keep it simple” will not be strong enough to prevent a number of you from wasting advertising dollars and time. You need only to talk benefits, not the details of “how” you are going to deliver these benefits.

If you give them too much information, they will make a decision based on that particular presentation.

If it takes a lot of words to properly tell the story, giving them enough information to make the right decision, and you can’t or won’t spend that much money, the problem is they want to know what you are trying to sell them.

The perfect response for an inquiry ad is, “I’d be nuts not to try to get that information flyer.”

Daniel Wadleigh is a nationally published marketing consultant and has programs for start-up and existing businesses including effective web sites, e-mail/database, other non-internet ways to drive them to your website, and low cost ways to get more new customers.

Go to: http://www.more-new-customers.com to get free copy of “Marketing to Men vs. Women- the 8 different responses” and a Free copy of “Market Research- 7 Questions to Ask to Start-up and 7 to Ask to Improve Any Business.”

Share This

There is another set of options regarding the style of writing ads. With the understanding that there are basically two kinds of ads:

1) Direct Response, meaning that you are directing an immediate response,

2) Image Enhancing ads, meaning that you are trying to instill an image of irresistibility that will be remembered when they are ready to act on your product.

There are even two basic ways to style these two kinds of ad writing. The first we’ll call “Slam Bam”. This is the “meat and potatoes”, “here’s what’s in it for you” style approach that gets right to the point. There is no fat, no build-up and no impressive style points- eg. “If you want to get the girls, you gotta get a Porsche!” (from the movie “Crazy People”) This style appeals to those of us who like to cut to the chase; they want the rational argument, not manipulation; they want to get their entertainment and amusement on their own terms. They prefer the “bottom line”. This kind of ad is what you would tell your father if he asked you what you sold. There are a lot of people who appreciate the respect that these kinds of ads represent towards them, the customer.

The second we’ll call “literary”. These are the one half to one-minute commercials or the multi- page direct mail pieces that go into the old song and dance. Understand that there is a place for these ads, if you know how to write them! The pros will forever be hitting you with the:

1) claim of the benefits,

2) the documentation of the claims,

3) why their product is superior, and

4) the irresistible and/or risk free call to action (with a free bonus throw-in).

These ads do work because they know how to constantly keep telling you “what’s in it for you” and documenting each claim. If you aren’t comfortable with the lengthy type of ad, consider the meat and potatoes style. You should be able to know which works best for you because you now know how to measure the results of any effort. However, if the style points are good for the image that you wish to protect and nurture, then consider creating both kinds and alternate them.

Daniel Wadleigh is a nationally published marketing consultant and has programs for start-up and existing businesses including effective web sites, e-mail/database, other non-internet ways to drive them to your website, and low cost ways to get more new customers.

Go to: http://www.more-new-customers.com to get free copy of “Marketing to Men vs. Women- the 8 different responses” and a Free copy of “Market Research- 7 Questions to Ask to Start-up and 7 to Ask to Improve Any Business.”

Share This