TheBusinessCommandos.com

The enemy of the entrepreneur is clutter, we are all bombarded by marketing material everyday, don’t quote me on it, but I believe the number is around 4,000 messages per day we’re exposed to.

Attention is what everyone is fighting for today. Your job as an entrepreneur is to attract the Attention of your market place to Stop them in their tracks and take notice of what you have to offer.

Some of the basics includes your USP, what makes you unique in your market and with your marketing pieces your Attention grabbing headline. Depending how far you want to go and how bold you want to be, you could pull stand out stunts like the great Richard Branson, they certainly get everyone’s attention.

Maybe you have some stand out achievements to display or you’ve partnered with celebrities that your market place respect or speaking from the platform is a great media for gaining the attention of your audience.

Crazy guarantees, stand out track records and even authoring your own book are all effective attention grabbers.

Attention is the new currency, in Japan they have vending machines where you can get free drinks or snacks just for watching some advertisements. So the advertisers are paying for your attention

A good strategy in direct mail is to use Lumpy Mail to get your prospects attention, which is covered in detail in my ATTENTION Marketing Program, which will be released for the first time very soon, so stay tuned.

Don’t fall for the plain vanilla, ‘me-too’ strategy, focus on what you can do to stand out and own the Attention of your audience.

Yours in success,

Aaron Parsons

www.TheBusinessCommandos.com

www.BusinessGrowthGuru.com

Stealth marketing otherwise known as ‘the sneak up’ approach is an effective strategy to employ when moving into a cold market.

The first step is to write an editorial style advertisement, that is written in third party context where it reads as if someone else has written the article about you. Then we are going to use this as what’s called in the direct response marketing industry a tear sheet, so it’s like an article that has been written about you in the paper that you’ve literally torn out.

Then you simply stick a yellow Post-It note on the article with a brief note saying something like; “Thought this would be of interest to you - J”. Note that it’s just a brief message and signed off with an initial, which J is the most popular, because most people know someone in their life that can be referred to as J.

When the prospect gets this piece in the mail, they think that a friend has sent it to them, which brings down resistance and sparks curiosity to what it is all about. And if you’re done a good job writing your ad and included a clear call-to-action that directs them to visit a website to download a free report or enter their details to be sent out a DVD, you’ll be on a winner.

Remember with this approach all you are after is to get them to request further information so you can start building the relationship with them over a series of contacts and earn the sale.

If you get an article written about you in the newspaper or magazine you can use the same tear sheet approach. Just run off copies, stick on your Post-It note and send it out.

Stealth marketing is another strategy to include in your marketing arsenal to build your client base.

In Marketing today it is crucial to focus on building the relationship with your clients and prospects. I was reading recently that when running advertisements to attract new clients, on average it would be effective after 4 times, where as today it is more like 8 or 9 times for people to warm to you.

You must be consistent with your marketing and ensure you stay in touch with your clients and prospects to maintain the all important ‘Top-Of-Mind’ awareness so that when they are ready to buy you are the first person they think of. Remember most people won’t be ready to buy when you first come into contact with them, so consistent marketing efforts on your part is imperative.

The crucial point with staying in contact and adding value to your clients and prospects with good quality information to help them get more of what they want is that you are earning the right to get the sale. Building up that level of trust is a major factor in today’s market place.

Plus with staying in contact through passing on quality information also helps with positioning you as the expert in your field. Don’t be scared to give away great information for free. Remember the more you help people get what they want the more you will get what you want.

People are so skeptical today because they are hearing all sorts of weird and wonderful promises out there in the crowed market place and the good news for you is that most businesses don’t bother to stay in contact to build the relationship, which makes your job even more effective in getting their Attention.

And there are no excuses with modern technology you can use email auto-responders to stay in touch for the majority, however the most effective is to use several forms of media. If they’re not responsive to email, you may be able to get through with direct mail or SMS or even through sending them a DVD.

Just be prepared to be persistent, consistent and flexible with your approach and you’re sure to be kicking goals with your marketing in no time!!

When it comes to direct response mail, a pretty postcard or an
attractive envelope may look good, but it alone is not going to
persuade anyone to buy from you.
It’s important that the message contained in the letter or on the
postcard is just as attractive as the cover itself.

That said, think big. You want a big idea for your direct response
mailer. What’s the point behind what you’re sending? Is it to
introduce your product? Give a special price? Highlight your unique
guarantee? Drive traffic to your website?

Your postcard or letter should contain an idea that makes
customers think to themselves, “WOW, I have to do that right now!”
Remember, direct response marketing is all about giving people a way
to take action right away. However, you alone are responsible for
giving them the reason that makes them want to take action.

Without your big idea, you’ve spent possibly thousands of dollars on a
pretty design and attractive packaging. Most businesses don’t have that
kind of money to waste.

Remember the higher the response you get from your marketing, the more
profits you can re-invest to grow faster or support a better lifestyle.
And it all starts with you getting their ATTENTION!!

I find it alarming today the number of businesses who aren’t focusing on building a database and taking advantage of the ‘Back-End’.

There are countless examples of the value in building a database, including Google buying Youtube for $1.6 Billion. It is imperative to maintain and update your client data base to keep them informed of what is going on with your business and about any special offerings or promotions they may be interested in and keep that all important ‘top-of-mind-awareness’.

Having a database of clients that you have formed a good relationship with is one of the most valuable assets you can have in business today.

All of the money is generally made in the ‘Back-End’ of a business, not the ‘Front-End’ where most business owners focus on.

Your database allows you to market to your clients for life, offering new products from your product range to make their life easier and further grow your business. It’s simply a process of continuing to add value to your clients to help them get more and more of what they want.

It’s extremely important to know your metrics, to take full advantage of the ‘Back-End’ business strategy…

For example one of my mentors in the States used to manage a leading car dealership and they would buy Toyota Camry’s for $18,399 and sell them for $17,999, which was a $400 loss on the ‘Front-End’, whilst their closest competitor was selling Camry’s for $18,999 making a $600 profit on the ‘Front-End’.All of the competitors were complaining to the factory that my mentor’s dealership must have been getting the cars cheaper than they were and they were loosing all of their customers.

Here’s how it was possible, my mentors dealership knew their metrics and understood the business ‘Back-End’ strategy and they knew that on average every new car they sold people would spend on average an extra $1,400 in extras, so what looked like a $400 loss was in reality a $1,000 profit.

See the other key strategy they employed was to offer a value package with every vehicle, which would include things like, security system, insurance, sports add-ons, etc, which was made up of high margin items, so the retail price of the package was say $3,000 and customers could get it for $1,400 if they purchased now, plus if they took the value pack option they would get their finance for 4% instead of 6% making it an absolute no-brainer of a deal.

This is just one example of the power of knowing your metrics and ‘Back-End’.

Join the successful minority today, build your database and focus on your Back-End!!

Aaron Parsons.