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If
you took a diary and during ONE DAY, recorded the amount of
times someone or some company wanted to sell you something,
you'd realize 2 important things.
One, if you kept very good notes
on every TV commercial, every radio commercial, every
billboard to and from work/home, the in-store signage in the
grocery store, all the emails in your inbox, the print ads in
your magazines and on and on - you'd have a very hefty,
lengthy list of people and companies trying to divide you from
the cash in your wallet or purse.
And then two, you'd notice the
vast majority of these attempts to sell you something either
are asking you to buy something right then, OR they tell you
FOR MORE INFORMATION call 1-800-such-and-such or go to our
website at www.so-and-so.com OR they make no offer at all but
to tell you where they are and what they do.
From a consumer's standpoint you
realize there are dozens if not hundreds of advertising
messages coming at you every day. Some studies clock
this number at over 3,000 per day. One 10th of that
number is still staggering.
Blah, Blah, Blah ... Yada, Yada,
Yada
To compensate or survive, you
and I ignore, disregard and tune out these advertising
messages to the degree they sound like background noise to our
brains. Think of it this way. What if you HAD TO
pay attention to every ad you saw and respond to it?
Answer, you couldn't because you don't have the mental
capacity to deal with each one. Again so you ignore,
tune out, etc.
 Now
put your business hat back on. This situation is your
worst nightmare. Your potential customers are out there
ignoring your advertising along with dozens or hundreds of
other ads. Your hard earned advertising dollars
literally falling on deaf ears.
So how do you stand out from the
crowded advertising market? How do you make your
prospect see or hear your ad while they tune out everyone elses? Remember that you have maybe 3 SECONDS, if that
long, to grab their attention either visually or audibly,
before their brain categorizes your ad as just background
noise.
Employ These 3 Marketing Strategies
Number 1. If everyone else
in your market is chasing after customers, there is value in
NOT CHASING after them. Specifically in advertising, if
everyone else in their ads is asking for the sale or for
people to call them for "more information", you should do the
opposite.
 Give them
something.
Something of value. Something for free. Just for
listening to your ad. Make it easy for them to get your
something from you.
In his book, Think and Grow
Rich, Napoleon Hill found that the Fords, Rockefellers,
Schwabs and Carnegies of the early 1900's built their business
empires & fortunes using this form of faith - give before you
try to get.
Number 2. What do I give them
you might ask? Give them something that helps them solve
a problem, reduces their pain or guides them towards their
goals. Give them a sample. A taste. A piece.
A session. A chapter. A gift.
If you sell services (no
tangible product) you have even more opportunity in what you
give. Your best bet is to provide useful information.
A helpful guide. A checklist. A special report.
A how-to manual. A whitepaper. A glossary of
terms.
 Something that teaches them how to be an informed
buyer of what you sell. Don't make the mistake of
talking about your product or service. Think about the
pains, questions and problems in their minds and talk about
those issues.
You can print out your
information and mail it
to them or email it to people in a Word or PDF file. If
you use audio you can burn it on to a CD. VHS video
tapes still work and DVDs are now very easy to produce.
Number 3. Before you deliver
your free something, create a series of follow-up letters,
emails, faxes, postcards, or whatever makes sense in your
business, that you'll use to continue to build your case with
your new prospect.
 Use these follow-up
opportunities to continue to teach and educate your prospect
about the products and services you sell. And give them
opportunities to contact you to ask questions get more
information or simply buy what you sell.
Be patient with your new found
prospects. If your average cycle is 6 months from when
your prospect starts thinking about what you buy to actually
trading cash for product or services, it may take that long or
more for them to respond to your follow-up messages.
 The
sheer number of advertising messages your customers receive
every day is staggering and unmanageable. The human mind
compensates by ignoring the vast majority of these
messages unless in the first 3 seconds of your ad you grab
their attention.
 Most
ads jump from not knowing you at all to asking you to buy a
product or service in less than 60 seconds. To generate
more leads try giving before you ask. Give
something of value to your probable buyers.
 In
a mall restaurants will offer free samples to try
before you buy. You can do this too regardless of your
industry, product or service. A good B2B example is a
free report that can be mailed or emailed to your
prospect. Use it to build a case for how to buy what you
sell.
 Plan
on doing follow up with these people for a long time after
they respond to your ad. Although you may have your
goals and sales cycle their buying cycle is probably
longer. Pre determine your follow up messages
before you start so you don't play catch up.
NEXT WEEK - Having trouble
generating leads for your business? We'll
take a look at new client of mine that has over 17,000
competitors and is using new methods for finding people
who need what he sells. You can use this same strategy
too.
Until then keep Growing Your
Business!
Jeff Bell,
www.Growing-Your-Business.com
Do you have a marketing question?
I have an answer.
Click here and go to
www.AskJeffBell.com
Turn on your SPEAKERS to hear my
message.
Jeff Bell
Sales and Marketing RESULTS
PO Box 267
Noblesville, IN 46061
317-774-3787
www.Growing-Your-Business.com
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