Direct Marketing Site to Check Out...

I have found a great site for anyone interested in marketing and direct response over at Bob Serlings 'Direct Marketing Insider' http://www.directmarketinginsider.com/index.html

I highly reccomend signing up to his newsletter it is packed full of top information - You would pay for some of this stuff but he does it free....

Past Issues Include-:

How to Create Powerful Headlines — In Just 10 Minutes http://www.directmarketinginsider.com/issue1.html

Changing the Way You Change Your Customer's Mind
http://www.directmarketinginsider.com/issue9.html

I get nothing from this I am reccomending it because I think it is great stuff that subscribers of this BLOG would like to know about - So do yourself a favour and go to http://www.directmarketinginsider.com/index.html

Perhaps leave a comment with your views in the comments section for us all to enjoy.

Be Your Best - Laura

Positioning for Profit

Positioning is the best plan that any business can implement.

Positioning is putting yourself in the right place in the eyes of your market. You get your market to know you as an expert that can be trusted. You get looked on as a reliable resource for information.

Positioning is easy to do. Just give free information of interest to your market. Your market is the people who would be likely to buy the services or products you offer.

Let's say your market is people who like to fish. What they buy are reels, poles, lure...things they need to fish with. You could tell them the Best Ways To Fish For Salmon, Bass, Trout...The Fine Art Of Fly-Tying...How To Cast For The Best Catch...How To Find The Best Fishing Spots...Cleaning And Cooking Fish In A Snap. If you sell reels, poles, lure, etc. - then such reports will attract readership from your target market - the people most likely to buy from you.

Chances are if those readers found something useful in your report, then they would be interested in reading more. Give it to them - have them sign up on your list.

That is how positioning works, and the reward is great. Having a list built up of targeted, loyal, and responsive prospects is the very best thing a business can have.

Not only can you tell them how to catch more fish with the least possible effort, but also how your products can help them to do it even more so. Since you are an expert, it's only natural that you would have the greatest tools and tackle.

There is a special thing about having a list, so treat it special. Consider it for what it will be - the marketing life-blood of your business.

Most businesses, if they keep lists, just have lists of customers who bought from them, and yet do not even send them as much as a Thank You Note or Christmas Card.

The people on your list will have a more connected relationship with you. You are not just a seller to them, and they are not just a customer to you. They will look forward to contact from an expert giving out the latest fishing tips and you will be ready for any questions they might bring you. Your answer will most likely be of interest with your whole list, so share it with all of them.

The more you can make the people feel privileged to be on your list the better. You can give your list exclusive deals, free offers, deep discounts, holiday specials, even the chance to sign-up for a paid subscription service where they get the meanest down and dirty underground secrets of fishing success where the fish don't stand a chance in Neptune.

This works for any marketing niche you happen to be in, not just fish. Positioning is the very best way to 'fish' for prospects in your market. Lure them with the knowledge and service you provide, and soon you have your own stocked pond full of hungry fish that you can catch over and over again.

It pays to know as much about your market as you can. Communicate with your market about the ups and downs, advantages and disadvantages, progress and problems associated with it. Do what they do, read what they read, know their likes and dislikes, search and study resources.

Above all, look for answers and innovations. Then find a way to use them in your marketing and advertising. People will always be interested in new and better things and are drawn to those who have them.

This will not only help in positioning yourself as an expert, but also in finding ways to position your products or service as having unique benefits. You do this by finding unsolved needs and thinking up solutions. Being the first at something also affirms you as an expert par excellence.

If you do these things, you and your business will be positioned. You will have the MARKETING EDGE.

Be Your Best - Laura

Improve Sales

This BLOG talks a lot about developing the material and the words used to help you sell more...

Let us take a little side step from there for this post and actually look at 5 general ways to make your sales go up.

1.Use testimonials anywhere and everywhere. They will give your business credibility and you'll gain peoples trust. It's important to include the person's full name and location/business with the testimonial.

2.When sales are low and you want to get a quick flow of cashinjected into your business develop a campaign with a deadline to order. Tell people if they order by X date they will get a discount or free bonuses. This will create a sense of urgency so they don'tput off buying. The tip is though it has to be a valuable perceived incentive if you use bonuses. A great way to do this is through cross promotion, get a bonus from an alliance or partner so you both benefit, you from the urgent offer and them from the exposure to your customer base. In doing this your free bonus to your customer soon becomes free or very low cost to your business.

3.Divide your price over a period of time to make it sound less. Offer a payment plan or show the per day price.For example my consulting company D.Y.B Strategies (www.dybstrategies.com) runs business development sessions that will transform your business for "Only $2.60 per day!" that is less than a cup of coffee. Use this tactic in your marketing campaigns a powerful price headline is perfect for grabbing your target audience attention.

4.When using direct marketing use more than one P.S. in your adcopy. It is one of the most read parts of any ad, so why not use two or three of them instead of one.

5.Educate yourself with new strategies to increase your sales. You could take classes, subscribe to e-zines and magazines, read books or e-books, get coaching and of course keep reading this BLOG ;-)

That is it for today.

Be Your Best!

Laura

PS - Welcome and a sincere Thank you to all new subscribers who have signed up to this BLOG recently I appreciate you letting me into your Inbox and allowing me to share some of your precious time, I hope you enjoy.

Why do your customers buy?

We talk a lot about copy and how to create marketing materials but lets take step back and learn about why people buy?

Do you know why your clients buy? Seems like a pretty simple question, right? Not really, when you dig deeper under the surface. How you answer is critical to the success of your business.

To begin, understand one simple fact: prospects and clients buy for their reasons, not yours. They could care less about your company and your mission statement or the long list of product features you so skillfully articulate.

They only care about the outcome your offer provides them. They want the benefit, the impact, the improvement, the comfort, or the security it will deliver. Most small business marketing fails to address these crucial client needs directly. Instead, they focus on the greatness of their product or service and miss what is important.

Small business marketers are often their own worst enemies. Frequently, they are not communicating on the buyer's level of motivation. They are too busy figuring out how to "sell" the product than finding out the reasons the client "buys".

The problem comes down to the marketing strategy that is employed. Are you pushing your product or are you pulling the client through the marketing process?

There is a very important distinction here. Since buyers only care about their needs and take action for their personal reasons, why should they pay attention to why you think your product is so great?

When you push your products, you are essentially telling the client that they should buy from you because of your reasons. With this egocentric approach you often run into a stone wall of objections and delays. Pushing the product forces them out of their comfort zone and places unnecessary pressure on their decision making process. A relentless assault of closing techniques pushes them away from a purchasing decision on their terms.

Pulling a buyer through the purchasing process is much more effective. When you pull you are leading them to the purchase like leading a horse to water. You gently guide them through your features and benefits and come to a decision on their terms. If they resist you have not educated them enough with information to motivate them or you haven't addressed their objections sufficiently.

The buyer will only make a decision when they are comfortably satisfied your offer has met all of their purchasing criteria. As a seller, you must pull them through the process and always let them stay within the limits of their comfort zone. It's by staying within these boundaries that trust is established and a long term relationship is built with the client.

Also remember that the purchasing process is completely rooted in the perceptions of the buyer. They have ultimate control over the process, not you. Your job as a marketer is to develop all your communications to make them comfortable and lead them to the best outcome...purchasing your product or service.

Always be aware of which method you are using - push or pull - and adopt it to the buyer's personal reasons for purchasing and you will enjoy continuous success.

Be Your Best!

Laura
Marketing Freak

Marketing Swipe File

Use and build a swipe file to carve your way to the top of the marketing tree...

Direct marketing's a tough way to make a living but if you can master certain skills it can be extremely lucrative. It takes on many different forms, some of which are easily translatable to the web.

Although the term may bring to mind door to door salesmen pushing their wares to housewives in robes and curlers, it also has roots in print ads such as classifieds and space ads and direct mail.

The internet has created a massive opportunity for the skilled direct marketer to thrive without doing the customary legwork and engaging in personal contact with their prospects, basically expanding on the concept of direct mail.

So what skills do you need to hone in order to succeed at direct marketing? The top priority of anyone interested in making money on the internet should be their copywriting skills. This is simply putting your sales message into words. Since the face to face encounter has been eliminated you need to be able to convey your pitch through the words on the pages that your prospects are reading.

A great way to polish your copywriting skills, even if you've never written a single word of ad copy before, is to create a swipe file. This is just a file of already successful ad campaigns. Swipe files are incredibly useful tools. Every major player in direct marketing keeps a swipe file and for good reason. Everybody gets stuck for words and ideas at some point. When this happens it's good to have an example of past successes to go to and freshen your creative juices and get the words flowing again.

What should your file consist of? You should gather any material that has spurred you to action, whether its purpose was to get you to buy something or just leave your name and email address. Copy the good stuff and study it. Realise what was in the ad that made you act on the offer. Look for layout designs (bulleted lists are a big direct marketing tactic), action words, headlines and sub heads. You'll notice certain words popping up along with questions and statements that are all fairly alike but are tailored to specific products and services. That's the key to a good swipe file.

Gather a wide array of different styles and mold the message to your particular target audience. Study the material and write out many different versions of the same ad. Practice your art and perfect it.

A word of caution though... Never copy an ad word for word. That's plagiarism and it's illegal. Use your swipe file as an aid only, to sharpen your copywriting skills and make you better at direct marketing.

Be Your Best!

Laura
Marketing Freak
Business Development Consultant and Professional Copywriter, Laura will make your businesses goals go from dreams to reality!
Owner and Principal Consultant of D.Y.B Strategies
Visit us http://www.dybstrategies.com/

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Be Your Best!
Laura
Marketing Freak
Business Development Consultant and Professional Copywriter, Laura will make your businesses goals go from dreams to reality!
Owner and Principal Consultant
D.Y.B Strategies Visit us www.dybstrategies.com

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7 Email Subject Lines that Get Opened

What is the point of having great content in your emails with the most powerful, awe inspiring offer ever created if no one ever opens them.

Like anything your headline is critical and in email marketing the subject line is your headline so here are 7 that you can use and adapt for your campaigns.....

- Here is something I think your going to love

- A personal Message from

- I couldn't sleep at night if you missed this

- Special VIP Sneak Peek for you

- Can you help me?

- Free gift with every referral

- Check this out and let me know what you think

Well there it is I will post more in this series during ensuing weeks.

If you have any you like post them in the comments section so we can all learn from them.

Until Next Time - Be Your Best!

Laura
Marketing Freak
Business Development Consultant and Professional Copywriter, Laura will make your businesses goals go from dreams to reality!
Owner and Principal Consultant
D.Y.B Strategies
Visit us www.dybstrategies.com

10 Ways To Get Your Ads Or Messages Noticed

Do you post to message boards, e-mail discussion lists, classified ads sites, FFA sites or newsgroups?

People will usually read the subject line before they read your ad or message, so it's important they get noticed. Below are ten simple, but powerful tips to get your ads or messages noticed.


1. Use extra white space creatively in your subject line. You can add extra blank spaces between your words or letters.

2. Combine capital letters with lower case letters. Use all capital letters in every other word or use a capital letter between every other lower case letter.

3. Add text symbols in your subject line. You could use them between words and letters. Start and end your subject with a text symbol. ( *, $, >,{,] )

4. Begin your subject line with the word "STOP!". People have been trained their whole life to stop what they are doing when they see that word.

5. Ask people a question in your subject line. We all went to school and were repetitively branded to answer questions.

6. Use the word "FREE" in your subject line. Your offer should be attractive to your target audience. It could be free information, software, trials, etc...

7. Begin your subject line with an "online smile :)". People use smiles offline to gain people's attention and to win their trust, why not use them online too.

8. Don't use unbelievable claims in your subject line. People have or know some who has been ripped off and trained themselves to ignore those claims. (The internet has been the worse for this, we have all seen them get rich quick sitting in your PJ's doing nothing and you will earn $$$)

9. Don't use all capital letters in your subject line. It is hard to read, looks unprofessional, and on the internet it's considered a symbol for shouting.

10. Test different subject lines to see which ones draws the most traffic to your web site. Also, read the FAQ before posting a message or ad anywhere.

So there they are try some out and see what happens.

Until Next Time - Be Your Best!

Laura
Marketing Freak
Business Development Consultant and Professional Copywriter, Laura will make your businesses goals go from dreams to reality!