 |
|
|---|
Marketing For Profits
Sexy Business Makes More Money
January 25, 2011
n
Here’s How To Sexy-Up Your Business & Increase Your Traffic & Conversions In The Process…
Using sex in advertising is probably THE oldest trick in the marketing & advertising book.
If you Google the term “sexy ad” you’ll find over 125 Million link search results, over 13.5 Million pictures, and over 10,000 videos.
Companies have used sex in their advertising for over a century and they probably will do so for a few more. Trillions of dollars worth of revenue have been generated because of this advertising strategy.The main reason for it all is actually very simple… It works.
Human beings are very sophisticated creatures yet we are so simple in so many ways. One in specific is our hard-wired desire for wanting to mate.
The mating process is engraved in our subconscious and everything that we do in our modern lives, in one way shape or form… is to help us find a quality mate.
How does this relate to advertising?
Simple.
Put a hot girl in your cologne ad, and more men will buy your cologne because they want that hot girl. In their subconscious, they’re thinking that if they buy that cologne they’re going to get that girl.
It also works the same way for women.
I remember seeing this commercial for women’s perfume where as soon as she sprays the perfume on her neck, a good looking guy comes up to her and kisses her.
So the subconscious thought in any woman viewer’s mind is that in order to get the good looking guy, she needs to wear that perfume.
You can apply this concept to ALMOST any business or product.
However there ARE some products that this will NOT work for…
For example, you can’t have a girl in sexy lingerie holding a toddler’s toy and trying to sell it for you. That will most likely backfire in your face and you may even get a few complaints.
So you have to be careful exactly where you are applying this idea… but for the most part, you really can’t go wrong with it.
Do some research on sexy ads to see if you can find one for your specific niche or product. You may want to start by Google-ing … “sexy ad for ____” and the blank would be your industry or product.
And sort through your results to see who did the sexiest AND classiest job… and just model them.
The beautiful thing about business is you DON’T have to be a marketing genius… you just have to be good at copying the geniuses. 
Leave all comments and questions below… and of course, share with your peeps.
Much love,
Arman Vakili
Thanks For Visiting www.How-Do-I-Start-My-Own-Business.com
Posted in Marketing For Profits | 
Tags: how do i start my own business, sexual advertising, sexy ad, sexy ads, sexy advertising, sexy marketing | 
2 Comments »
Top 10 Successful Marketing Stunts – Part 2
January 16, 2011
This is Part 2 of our most successful marketing stunts series, and it’s JUST as good as part 1, if not better.
So I’m not going to waste any time telling you why this is SO crucial for your learning experience… and I’m just going to start the list:
Stunt #6
Company: D.C. Comics
Year of the Stunt: 1993
The Stunt: Whether we’re talking art or not, D.C. Comics is–yes–a business, generating approximately $40 billion in revenue each year. So it’s not surprising that many people felt that releasing a comic book called The Death of Superman was a marketing stunt, given that nobody with half a brain really, truly thought this company was going to stop producing its most popular title, a hit since the Superman character was born in 1938. (According to a recent estimate published in Entertainment Weekly, since that time, Superman has generated some $4 billion in revenue.)
What Happened Next: The news media covered this development extensively, not quite as if a head of state had passed away, but seriously enough, and the comic book featuring his death sold out on the first day. As more issues were published, they kept selling out. In fact, millions of readers purchased not just The Death of Superman issue but numerous others that followed, including Funeral for a Friend and eventually–who would have guessed?–The Return of Superman.
Lesson Learned: If you have a popular product but feel that sales are stagnant or your customers’ excitement toward the brand is weaning, it may not be a bad idea to tinker with it. “Well, not so fast,” you’re probably thinking. “Jump into a time machine and see how people felt about New Coke in 1985.” But that wasn’t a marketing stunt–it was a colossal business mistake that offered numerous marketing challenges, which Coke eventually conquered, by reverting back to its original formula. Businesses revamp their products all the time, whether it’s coming out with a “new and improved” formula that truly is new and improved (unlike Coca-Cola’s 1985 misfire). But more often than not, instead of replacing the product, companies now just add new varieties to their line. What Superman and other beloved brands can teach us is that if you can create some drama around your product–and tug at your consumers’ emotions–you may just find that your potential for bringing in a profit is, well, super.
Stunt #7
Company: Maui Beverages
Year of the Stunt: 2005
The Stunt: Because Maui Beverages isn’t very well known, their PR department suggested something splashy to let people know how fun this company was. First, they changed the founding executive titles–from Chief Executive Officer to Chief Entertainment Officer–and the Chief TechnologyOfficer to Chief Tasting Officer–giving their company a more lighthearted appeal. Then they set out to prove that they really were fun. Maui Beverages’ PR company sent the founders, Mark Mahoney and Al Williams, to be hosts at an annual conference of food and beverage trade writers. They threw a huge party with a Jimmy Buffett-type “Caribbean island” theme and gave out lots of free sunglasses–as well as free samples of their product.
What Happened Next: Sure enough, after the title changes and the party, the company started getting a lot of positive press, which is directly affecting their bottom line: Their annual sales have gone from $6 million in 2004 to a projected $10 million by the end of this year.
Lesson Learned: A marketing stunt doesn’t have to be something that nobody’s ever done before, but you should “keep it fresh and exciting,” says founder Mahoney. Maui Beverages wasn’t the first company to throw a party–or to throw it for a group of people who could help get the word out about them. But what they did was creative and a much better strategy than hoping your company’s silent and under-the-radar personality will somehow get people to notice you anyway.
Stunt #8
Company: Del Monte Foods
Year of the Stunt: 2006
The Stunt: This ongoing stunt is part of a larger trend called advertainment–pure entertainment wrapped around a product with hopes of convincing consumers to purchase said product. Del Monte is currently airing a reality show for cats on Animal Planet. They’ve put up a Meow Mix House withwebcams for people to look in and watch these cats in one room–from 10 shelters around the country–where they hang out and have various visitors (think Big Brother, but for felines). Every Friday, on Animal Planet, Meow Mix announces which cat has been “voted out,” but in this case, that means being put up for adoption and receiving a year’s supply of Meow Mix.
What Happened Next: So far, so good. Meow Mix’s marketing director has been doing tons of interviews, and the brand is being associated with a worthy cause: cat adoption.
The Lesson: If you’re going to look for inspiration for a marketing idea, why not borrow from popular culture?
Stunt #9
Company: Half.com
Year of the Stunt: 1999
The Stunt: Half.com, a retail website known for having sharply discounted items, paid Halfway, Oregon, to adopt the name Half.com for their town for a year. In exchange, Halfway received $100,000, 20 new computers for the local school and other financial subsidies.
What Happened Next: The media picked up on it, Half.com became very well known, and in 2000, five months after the IPO, eBay bought the company for $300 million. Halfway, Oregon, was a little less fortunate. According to Halfway, Oregon’s official website, “Half.com made many promises. Some of which were honored and others not.”
The Lesson: Creativity works, and you can apparently talk anyone into anything, if you show them the money. It also helped that Halfway, Oregon, felt it was a winning situation for them, too, beyond the monetary reward: They were the first dotcom town in the nation–though not the first community to change their name to a brand name. That distinction goes to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, which changed its name from Hot Springs in 1950, when radio personality Ralph Edwards was hosting a popular radio show called “Truth or Consequences.” He’d said he wished a town loved the show enough to rename itself after the program–and if one would, he’d air a live program from the community. Hot Springs, anxious to shed its name, anyway, since people confused it with the town in Arkansas, jumped at the chance.
Stunt #10
Companies: PokerShare.com and CasinoShare.com
Year of the Stunt: 2006
The Stunt: Another casino, unable to advertise in traditional media; another amazing marketing stunt. Over Memorial Day weekend this year, with gas prices hovering around $3 a gallon, PokerShare.com and its newly launched CasinoShare.com gave away more than 8,000 gallons of gasoline to hundreds of New Yorkers. In a long, snaking line of traffic, New Yorkers lined up to receive $40 of free gas while free food was distributed and music blared.
What Happened Next: Before the morning rush hour had ended, the New York City Police Department shut down the stunt because the lines were wrecking havoc with traffic flow. Many people–including off-duty police officers and government officials–left empty-handed. But PokerShare.com and CasinoShare.com could hardly call their efforts a failure. The free gas stunt, conceived by Popular Culture PR, was popular enough to be held again in Los Angeles several weeks later.
Lesson Learned: Generosity is a selling point in a marketing stunt, but you have to tap into human nature and, if possible, current events. If the same company had given away $40 in PokerShare.com gift certificates, it’s likely the media wouldn’t even have noticed since coupon giveaways aren’t exactly a breaking news item. And if PokerShare had handed out $40 in cash to just anybody on the street, they might have warranted a story from some local media outlet but, save a mugging or mobs, probably not generated a mention on the national evening news. But free gas when the headlines these days are all about the rising price of gas? This marketing gimmick wasn’t just covered by the evening news, but also by Fox News, The New York Times, theWashington Post and other media outlets, reaching more than 9 million people.
So there you go… that’s all folks.
I hope you enjoyed our Top 10 Successful Marketing Stunts. I’m sure that there is at least one idea here that you can learn from and implement into your business.
Share with your peeps… sharing is caring. 
Talk soon,
Arman Vakili
Thanks For Visiting: www.How-Do-I-Start-My-Own-Business.com
Top 10 Successful Marketing Stunts – Part 1
January 14, 2011
Have you ever wondered what the value of an idea is? How much it’s worth?
Depends on the idea, right?
Well, in marketing… there are a LOT of ideas that are thrown on the table… 90% of which are complete garbage and the other 10% have a potential for some kind of return.
Having the idea is just half the battle though. You have to be able to execute the idea to the same level & specifics of how it looks in the guy’s mind who came up with it.
But if its done correctly, an idea can be worth BILLIONS. Not just in sales, but in the amount of PR that your business gets, free advertising, etc.
I always think it to be a good idea to learn from what others have done before me. You can learn a lot from what other people have done, the mistakes they’ve made, the lessons they’ve learned.
So this post is going to be Part 1 of a 2 part series all about the most successful marketing stunts that have been tried. You’ll get the idea that was used, the aftermaths of the idea, and the lessons that should be learned from that idea.
I’m excited.
So take out your pen & paper… it’s time to take some notes…
Stunt #1:
Company: Taco Bell Corp.
Year of the Stunt: 1996
The Stunt: In the morning, an ad appeared in The New York Times with a headline that read: “Taco Bell Buys the Liberty Bell.” The ad copy explained that Taco Bell was “pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country’s most historic treasures. It will now be called the ‘Taco Liberty Bell’ and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country’s debt.” It sounded logical, if distasteful. In another press release, Taco Bell helpfully explained that people had been “adopting” highways for years and that purchasing a national treasure was just a way of furthering that idea.
What Happened Next: Thousands of people called in their complaints to the home of the Liberty Bell, the National Historic Park in Philadelphia, but by noon, Taco Bell admitted what many people suspected, since the day was, after all, April 1. The Taco Bell ad was an April Fool’s joke, and the media and public ate it up (no pun intended). More than 650 print media outlets and 400 broadcast outlets covered the prank, reaching more than 70 million Americans, according to Taco Bell’s marketing department. The company’s revenue increased by $500,000 that day, and by $600,000 more the following day, compared to the previous week’s sales. Even then-White House spokesperson Mike McCurry, when asked about the Taco Liberty Bell, got inspired to reveal that the Lincoln Memorial had been sold and would from now on be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
Lesson Learned: It can pay to have a sense of humor about your business.
Stunt #2:
Company: ProShade
Year of the Stunt: 2006
The Stunt: ProShade is a company that makes a 3-in-1 gadget that combines a visor, sunglasses and a lanyard–which is a cord and a hook that allows you to carry something on them, like keys or a pocketknife or what have you. Proshade made an intriguing offer to the National Park Service earlier this year when they proposed to give $4 million to Mount Rushmore in exchange for getting to put a logo visor on each of the presidents’ heads. The company explained in a news release, “The National Park Service needs more support in preserving Mount Rushmore. There’s a dearth of funding in the budget to provide the national landmark with the facelift it needs. If they accept, we’d like this to go toward preservation efforts-including a much-needed pressurized wash.”
What Happened Next: Although the National Park Service didn’t take them up on their offer and despite the fact that any decent journalist knew they were being taken, the company received a fair amount of publicity for their outlandish offer. One writer for Adweek summed it up best in a column about ProShade’s concern for Mount Rushmore when he said, “This obviously smacks of a blatant publicity stunt, as I can’t conceive of anyone agreeing to this offer (especially at such a low price). But I’ll write about it, anyway.”
Lesson Learned: Journalists are human, too–they love a good story. Give it to them, and they just may take you up on writing about it.
Stunt #3:
Company: GoldenPalace.com
Year of the Stunt: 2004
The Stunt: Because they’re legally restricted from advertising in traditional media, online casino GoldenPalace.com, based in the Caribbean, has devised many marketing stunts to grab the public’s attention, from paying people to tattoo their logo on body parts to–earlier this year–purchasing William Shatner’s kidney stone for $25,000, so they could auction it off for charity. But their most famous marketing stunt took place a few years back when they bought a partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich for $28,000. But it wasn’t just any sandwich: It looked like the likeness of the Virgin Mary had been burned into the bread.
What Happened Next: The casino received worldwide attention for their purchase, getting media exposure in everything from USA Today to the BBC to China Daily. CNN, FOX and MSNBC all covered it, as did the evening newsnetworks. The casino likely saw the $28,000 as a bargain, considering that not only did it buy them a lot of media exposure, they were able to milk it for quite awhile. They later generated a few more headlines for buying the pan that the revered grilled cheese sandwich was cooked on, they still sell T-shirts emblazoned with the image of the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich, and they took the blessed food on a world tour, displaying it in places like the Hard Rock Caf� in Las Vegas. They even organized the Goldenpalace.com World Grilled Cheese Eating Championship in early 2005, in which world competitive eaters came to Venice, California, to eat as many grilled cheese sandwiches as possible–and to win $10,000.
Lesson Learned: Even the most outlandish marketing stunts–including those involving the often-dicey topic of religion–can work to a company’s advantage. The important thing to remember is that the marketing stunt should fit into the character of the business. You could definitely argue that any marketing stunt in the name of charity is only going to make an online gambling casino look better, especially when it’s located on an island outside the United States’ reach. And if the public’s expectations of your business are low to begin with, it’s harder for a marketing stunt to blow up in your face.
Stunt #4:
Company: Burger King
Year of the Stunt: 1998
The Stunt: Obviously inspired by the good folks at Taco Bell, Burger King put out an ad in USA Today, stating that they’d re-engineered their most famous sandwich in order to benefit 32 million Americans, and now they were ready to present . . . the Left-Handed Whopper. They offered details of how the sandwich had been designed to fit more comfortably in the left hand, including rotating the condiments and redistributing the weight of the toppings.
What Happened Next: This one didn’t go over quite as well as they’d hoped, since some of those 32 million Americans came into the restaurant and were annoyed to discover they couldn’t actually order the Left-Handed Whopper. Still, there was no real backlash when the restaurant chain admitted it had been an April Fool’s stunt, and since the ad brought in customers, including many who requested that they receive a right-handed burger, it should be called a success.
Lesson Learned: No harm in being inspired by successful marketing stunts that have come before, as long as you provide your own twist. The newspaper ad on April Fool’s Day had already been done, but otherwise, it was a creative gag. Certainly, Burger King was encouraged by the prank: They’ve continued to have a sense of humor when it comes to their marketing, their latest gag being the website, www.subservientchicken.com , which was unleashed on the internet without much fanfare–only a few friends of people who worked for Burger King’s ad agency were told about it–allowing word-of-mouth to spread and customers to discover it for themselves. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s a video of somebody in a chicken suit who will fulfill (almost) any command you type in for it. In the past several months, the site has received nearly 20 million hits, and web surfers spend an average of six minutes playing the game. Seems it never hurts to have a sense of humor.
Stunt #5:
Company: SonicYoga.com
Year of the Stunt: 2002
The Stunt: Soon after launching his Manhattan-based yoga school in 2001, owner Jonathan Fields teamed up with Adelphi University to run the first-ever study on determining how many calories yoga burns. Knowing that the idea had media appeal–in fact, Fields also owns a marketing firm called Creative Vibe which he started in 2003–he sent a note to several top fitness magazine editors in New York City, explaining the concept of the study and offering an exclusive to whatever editor reached him first and agreed to do a story on the study. Within a week, Self magazine committed–and even asked to be in the study.
What Happened Next: After the article was written, an editor at Self called Fields and mentioned that it was a shame the studio didn’t have a yoga instruction video to go with the article. Fields instinctively said, “Oh, we do have a video. It’s in post-production, and it’ll be out by the publication date.” He quickly made up a name for the video and a price so the editor could add that information to the article, then he hung up and turned to his partner and said, “We need to make a yoga video very quickly.” They put together a video, which sold out after the magazine hit the shelves. Since then, they’ve made four more videos.
Lesson Learned: There’s something to be said for thinking big and on the fly. Fields could have been extremely embarrassed had he not been able to quickly produce a workout video that actually was generally well reviewed. And certainly another lesson to take away from this is that when you’re small, teaming up with big names–Adelphi University, Self magazine–can make you seem bigger to the public than you really are. But maybe the best lesson is to emulate Fields’ confidence. As Fields puts it, “If you want to be in the news, make news. You don’t need connections, you don’t need a publicist, but you do need to think way outside the box.” Having said that, Fields cautions, “Even in the throes of wild creativity, there’s a sound business reason, beyond publicity, to do what you want people to notice. Integrity is paramount.”
Alright so that’s it for the first half of this series. There were a lot of great lessons in these examples so review them a bit before you get out of here. And of course, share with your peeps.
Arman Vakili
Thanks For Visiting: www.How-Do-I-Start-My-Own-Business.com
How To Get More Business & Increase Your ROI For Free
January 7, 2011
The first time I heard about this skill was from a gentleman by the name of Mike Dillard. He called it the Million Dollar skill and the more and more I studied about it, the more I realized that it truly IS the Million Dollar skill.
If you learn and master this skill, you can sell ANYTHING… and that makes you a VERY valuable resource not only to your own business but to any other business owner who wants to increase their Return On Investment (ROI).
You can use this skill to generate thousands of leads, sales, & referrals by just doing the work ONCE.
If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m talking about learning how to write sales copy.
NOTHING in business happens until the sales copy is written. Whether it’s a sales letter, lead capture page, promotional video, audio, or any other mode of communication… NOTHING happens until the sales copy is written.
Think about it…
The Wall Street Journal is a very well known newspaper. They have sold hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars worth of subscriptions by simply mailing out a 2 page sales letter that was written for them. That’s it!
Here is a copy of the letter if you want to look at it: The WallStreet Journal Sales Letter
Rolls Royce even had a sales letter for their 1958 model written by one of the best advertisers in the world… David Ogilvy.
If you learn this skill – which I HIGHLY recommend you do – you will then become a Million Dollar Person. Businesses will pay you tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds, to write a sales letter for them. And a lot of times, if you’re good enough, you’ll get the opportunity to get commission from the sales that your letter generates.
That’s freakin’ awesome!
Fortunately for you, it actually isn’t a hard skill to learn. It’s not one of those things that you have to be born knowing. With some hard work, patience, and dedicated effort… you too can become a great Million Dollar copywriter.
How?
That was actually a question that was on my mind for a long time when I was first starting out. I did some research on the subject and found out that copywriter courses go for literally thousands of dollars… and I really didn’t have that kind of money to spend at the time.
So I did the next best thing… I copied.
Don’t get me wrong here… I didn’t use someone else’s sales letter as my own. That never works.
What I did was this… I looked for proven sales letters. For example the Wall Street Journal Sales letter amongst many others. I looked for proven copywriters… John Carlton, Yanik Silver, Eben Pagan, David Ogilvy… just to name a few.
And I found all of the sales letters that they had written, printed them out, and copied one every night by hand.
After 30 days of doing this, the philosophies behind writing effective sales copy were internalized.
So try that… and let me know what your results are after the 30 days are over. You can always come back to this blog and post any questions or comments you may have.
Also, I’m going to be listing different web resources on this post when I find the good ones… so make sure to come back and check them out.
Here they are:
- web copywriting
- Copy Blogger
- Ink Thinker (Good one!)
- Grok Dot – A Marketing Optimization Blog
- Bob Bly’s Copywriting Blog
- Peter Stone’s Copy Blog – One Sales Letter Away From Wealth
- Dianna Huff’s Business-to-Business Blog
- Dynamic Copywriting by Charles Brown
- Good Copywriting – Copy That Sells
- John Carlton’s Marketing Rebel Rant – MUST Visit this site. This guy’s a freakin’ genius… for real.
- Michael Masterson’s Blog
- Michael Stelzner’s Writing White Paper Blog
- The Copywriter Underground
- January & McTighe’s American Copywriter
- David Garfinkle’s World Copywriting Blog
I’ll make more updates in the upcoming days and weeks…
Talk soon,
Arman Vakili
Thanks For Visiting: www.How-D0-I-Start-My-Own-Business.com
How To Combine Email & Social Media Marketing For Mass Exposure
January 4, 2011
If there is one thing people in Los Angeles understand, it’s the fact that you can never have TOO MUCH exposure for you or your business.
It kind of goes back to the old saying, “there’s no such thing as bad press”.
But we are in a pretty crazy time right now as far as marketing methods for the modern era. With the arrival of all these different social media sites, and the roles that they play in people’s lives… the consumer marketplace has turned into a very open conversation amongst all of our potential customers.
I am always in search of information that can help me expand my reach and market-share, and today I ran across an article on Entrepreneur.com that helped me do just that. The specific columnist that is responsible for this article is Gail Goodman.
She is a frequent contributor to several leading business sites, and has a VERY good grasp of what she’s talking about. Check out what she has to say about the role that email & social media marketing will play in your own business in 2011.
****
For email marketers, there only appeared to be one major trend that mattered in 2010. It’s a game changer that presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses to connect with customers. You guessed it: It’s the impact of social media. You can’t just “talk at” customers anymore. They now expect to be part of the conversation and part of your business story. Social media has irrevocably changed the email marketing landscape.
Persuading readers to share the content of your email content is the key here. This is accomplished by providing content that demonstrates you’re in touch with what’s important to customers and you provide information that not only solves their problems, but also entertains them and asks for their feedback and participation.
Email marketing and social media are complementary. While email offers a way to directly contact your customers via their inboxes, social media provides new ways to share your content and engage in conversations with networks of people. One without the other is an incomplete solution to your marketing needs.
As you plan your email marketing campaigns for 2011, take advantage of the opportunities to reach new prospects, revive existing customer relationships and recruit new fans who can spread the word about your business.
Here are five things you can do to create a more social e-mail experience in the new year:
- Make every message shareable. Include a Like/Tweet button or a social share bar in every email newsletter. The “Forward to a Friend” feature lets subscribers share your newsletter with another person by email. But by adding social icons at the top of your e-mail, those same people can now share it with their entire Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networks. That extends your reach to a highly qualified audience of prospects.
- Kick-start your social presence using your email marketing list. Invite e-mail subscribers to connect with you on social networks. Include links to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages in your e-mail marketing communications. Don’t forget to provide reasons why subscribers should join you on social media destinations — and how that experience will be different from your email communications.
- Include a “social call to action” in every email newsletter. Don’t rely solely on social media icons and buttons to get readers to visit your social media outposts. Entice readers with a link to a hot conversation you want to continue on Twitter (or another discussion destination), or to an exclusive contest or survey you’re featuring on Facebook.
- Solicit feedback and find newsletter content. Use crowdsourcing on social media sites to find out what topics are trending with your customers. Invite questions and feedback, and join the conversation. Then use the frequently asked questions and the feedback gathered as material for newsletter content. At the same time, spark a conversation and continue it via email and social media. Don’t forget to include and encourage social media feedback in every issue of your newsletter.
- Cross-post to all your communication channels. Always post your newsletter content on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Keep conversations going by re-posting different snippets across social media channels. Even better, fan the discussion flames by sending out a separate email letting readers know about conversations happening on social media and inviting them to participate.
You may find one social media channel works better than others for sharing content and sparking conversation, depending on where your customers spend time. But you won’t find out until you dive in, test the waters and monitor your results.
Email marketing has undergone some major changes since I first started working with small businesses, nonprofits and entrepreneurs many years ago. Today’s opportunities for email marketers to share content and reach customers on social media were unimaginable back then. Now they’re here — so let’s all take advantage and get the party started.
Here’s to a happy, prosperous and social 2011.
****
Told you it was an awesome article, didn’t I?
Before I leave, just wanted to give you a last reminder to share this information with all your friends on Facebook & Twitter that can use this stuff. You can use any of the buttons below or you can even “like” us at the top of this post.
Talk soon!
The Best Way To Get Free Traffic… Forever.
December 27, 2010
I know, I know… you’ve heard that phrase before over, and over, and over… and over.
I get it.
But hear me out for a sec.
The idea of getting free traffic has turned into this “impossible mission” because of all the information that’s being thrown out into the market. And it really ISN’T that complicated.
Let me explain…
If you want to get free traffic long term , you need to become the person that can handle such a task. There are certain skills you need to learn, but more so, there are certain philosophies that you need to learn… about business, marketing, and success in these fields long term.
I’ll give you a big hint though… 90% of your success at creating never-ending traffic will come from the mindsets and the philosophies that you learn and apply to your business. 10% is the actual technical skills that you’ll learn.
Let me try to explain that in a different way for you…
There is an old philosophy in business that says DELIVER REAL VALUE. There is another philosophy that says deliver value in LARGE QUANTITIES.
The large quantities part is all about the skills you learn. But the real value part is all about the quality of your products/services/content, etc.
If you focus on creating quality content, quality products, or quality services… and you keep doing just that… creating MORE quality content, MORE quality products, and MORE quality services… then that’s what you’ll be KNOWN FOR.
Creating QUALITY stuff.
So if anyone thinks abouts getting a “review for carpet cleaning services” or a “review for _________” (fill in the blank)… they’ll find a link to a review from one of your super happy customers and they’ll most likely come to your website or call you.
That’s what you ultimately want.
Not to do all of the marketing for your business by yourself… but for your actual customers and the people that have dealt with you to do your marketing FOR you.
You want the easiest way to SEO your business?
Create some REALLY HIGH QUALITY content for your market, post it on your blog, send it to your friends and ask them to send it out to their friends, so on and so on.
AS LONG AS THE CONTENT IS HIGH QUALITY… it WILL get passed around.
I don’t care what anyone says. We may have a lot of new technologies available for developing business, but none of it is going to mean anything if you are building from weak business philosophies. Your business won’t last long term if you aren’t focused on providing real value to your market place.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… people aren’t stupid. They know when something sounds fake… or like you are promising something that you can’t deliver on.
Anyone can set up a blog with some articles and get a bunch of links to it… but if the QUALITY of the content on the blog sucks, nothing is going to happen. You’ll get a bunch of traffic but none of it will convert. You’ll have a lot of activity happening, but no productivity. And if Google sees that all the people who come to your site actually don’t do anything (opt in, submit RSS, share, buy, etc) then you’ll start to lose your rankings in the engines… GUARANTEED.
So if you want to get free traffic for your business, forever… create blogs, write content, get links, use social media… do all of that BUT keep your standards for delivering value HIGH. Make sure you put time, effort, patience, and care into the content/products/services you create.
You’ll be VERY glad you did.
Arman Vakili
How To “Win Over” Your Target Market
December 13, 2010
In my opinion, business has actually gotten a lot simpler over the last few years.
I mean, sure… the technology and the actual strategies may have advanced and gotten a bit more complicated but business , as a whole, has actually gotten simpler.
Before, you had to be a clever marketer. You had to be able to “sell ice to an eskimo”… which requires a lot of skill AND the ability to NOT care about lying or blowing things out of proportion.
With enough hype, CAPITAL, Bold, and Italics, you could sell anything. But that doesn’t mean that you are actually doing your customer a good service. If you are knowingly screwing your customers over by selling them junk, then you are setting yourself up to fail long term.
Because an angry customer will tell virtually EVERYONE they know about you and to never buy from you. And their friends will warn their friends, and so on and so on… not a good place to be in.
But not it’s a bit different. Ever since the invention of the review site, the average consumer has easier access to other people’s opinions about you or your product. So before they buy from you, they will probably “Google” you to see what results come up.
And if there is ONE bad review about you, that is enough to lose the customer.
So here is my personal checklist for developing and maintaining a healthy relationship with my prospects for the long haul:
- Don’t Lie. This is pretty basic but SO important. Imagine that every single one of your prospects have these invisible antenna’s coming out of their heads and these antenna’s are meant to detect bullshit. So as soon as your ad sounds like you’re lying about what your product does, or it sounds a bit TOO hyped up, the alarms will go off and your prospect will automatically think, “This is bull… “
- When It Comes To Hype, Choose The Road Less Traveled. This is actually something I learned when I was building my first Network Marketing business. The Network Marketing industry is filled with people who will use hype to sell their opportunities. It still works, but here is the problem with selling stuff purely based on hype…
About a week after your prospect has joined your business/bought your product, they’ll start thinking about what it is that they actually just did. Their close friends will ask them about what it is that they bought and they won’t have a good enough answer… and THAT is when they’ll think, “I should give this thing back”. And you just lost your customer.
Not only did you lose your customer, but again, you just created a bad relationship. That ex-customer will not tell everyone they know about you and what you did to them and no one within that circle will want to touch you with a twenty foot pole.
- Give Them More Than They Expected. There is something in business that is called the “Wow” factor.
Here is a really simple example. There is a chain of fast-food burger joints called In ‘N Out Burger. When you go to In ‘N Out and you order your meal, the employees will actually cut around your straw for you and place it in your cup. At the tip of the straw, there is still some paper covering up the entrance so it doesn’t get dirty and all you have to do is just simply pull that piece of paper off to enjoy your drink.
You may think that it’s not a big deal, but none of the other chains do it. So in its own unique little way, it ads a “Wow” factor to the In N Out experience.
Here is another one… if you are in a business where you have to actually ship your products out to your customers, upgrade their shipping for free without telling them. For example, tell them that it will arrive in 2-3 business days and overnight the package so it gets there early. And you can even attach a note to it to say that you did that so they can enjoy the benefits of your product sooner.
I guarantee that your customer will say “Wow” out loud when they see that note.
When you do things like this to make sure that your customers are satisfied, they will not go to anyone else for that particular service anymore. You will be their “go to guy” in that arena… and that is EXACTLY where you want to be.
It’s the exact opposite of the angry prospect. If your customer is completely satisfied with the experience that they had when they bought from you, they will tell EVERYONE they know about your Wow-ing service. And that is all just free advertising for your business.
One last thing about winning over your target market… Try as much as you can to understand your target market. Find out what they like to do for fun, what gets them mad, what makes them laugh, etc.
Sometimes it is very difficult to do something like that but it’s not impossible. When you find these things out, it becomes a lot easier to design a marketing campaign that will convert higher or just build a much deeper relationship with your prospects.
Alright, leave your comments below and let me know what you think.
Looking forward to reading them,
Arman Vakili
Posted in What Is Marketing? | Tags: how to target a market, target market, target marketing | 1 Comment »
How To Turn $20 Into Millions – Learning From The Facebook Guy
December 6, 2010
We’ve all read the different “rags to riches” stories in story books as we grew up. Then the books turned into movies and TV shows… but story line was always the same.
Some young kid, who no one expected to succeed, ended up getting super rich super fast and bought up the entire town… or something crazy like that.
And in every story, it seems that the main character had always come from nothing… started with very little… and turned it into a huge empire. The classic underdog.
One story recently caught my attention and it inspired me to write this post. It’s the story of Mark Zuckerberg… the guy who invented facebook. (I just saw the movie last week)
I really don’t want to get into the grim details of the story and how it all progressed – I’ll leave that for you to go and actually watch the movie – but one thing in particular that I want to point out goes hand in hand with the biggest lesson taught in business.
The Money Is In The list.
If you haven’t seen the movie, I’m not going to spoil it for you… I just want to share something about the “idea” behind facebook.
Even though facebook has all these cool applications, features, and games on it that makes it what it is… those things are NOT the reason why facebook made Mark Zuckerberg so rich. It’s actually a lot more basic than that.
When you think about it, facebook was just another idea to create a BIG LIST.
The 500 Million members of the facebook community provide something that ALL business owners need. Something that many different business owners are paying Zuckerberg for…
Traffic.
Anyone who is anyone in business will tell you the same thing… if you really want to make it big in business, you have to have a BIG LIST of prospects that you can constantly promote to.
The current statistic is that over 175 Million people visit facebook every single day. THAT… is considered an active list.
And if you really think about it, Zuckerberg bought the domain name www.facebook.com for $10! And that site has turned out to be a Billion dollar project for him.
He never paid a single penny for advertising… the members of facebook referred other members to the site.
And he never had to worry about providing the site with content… because the members took care of that, as well.
Pretty brilliant, no?
So how does this apply to you?
There are many lessons to be learned from facebook’s success.
The main thing that catches my eye is this… facebook started out as being just cool. Now it’s turned to this “thing” that people can’t live without. I’ve even caught myself checking my facebook profile several times within 10 minutes to see what the update is.
If you want to build a profitable business that is going to last through the test of time… focus on your offer. Focus on your actual product.
I’m not saying that the product is the most important thing… it is, and it isn’t.
You can still make some good money if you don’t have the greatest product in the world… but chances are, you’ll have to make up for it by investing more money in advertising and marketing.
If you create a product that “sells itself”… something that is TRULY cool… something that people can’t see themselves living without… then you don’t really have to worry about marketing or advertising.
Since someone already came up with the idea of facebook, you really can’t use that anymore. But what you CAN do is take advantage of the huge market reach that facebook has.
And I’m not talking about using facebook ads (which are super powerful, too… but that’s a whole different conversation)
I’m talking about combining the power of your cool product with facebook and its huge member base. If you can get ONE of your friends on facebook to “like” your new product/website/offer, etc… then your product will show up on that friend’s wall and every one of THEIR friends will see your offer… and if just ONE more person from that list “likes” your product… the cycle goes on and on.
But it all goes back to creating that cool offer or product… in order for you to actually be cool, you have to be unique… you have to offer something that no one else in your competitive market is offering.
Which makes us ask “How?”
HOW do I create such a cool product that everyone will love and will share with everyone they know?
Well… you just started the process.
It all starts with that one question…
How do I create such a cool product that everyone will love and will share with everyone they know?
As long as you believe that the universe will send you the answer to that question, then you WILL get your answer…
It may happen a week from now… it may happen a month from now… or it may happen a year from now. But it WILL happen… as long as you keep faith.
You can even go a step further and ask… how do I create such a product in [name of market] that everyone will love…?
If you already have an idea of where you want to start… post your idea in the comments section below and let’s see if we can all bounce our ideas around to find something for each other.
I’m excited about this one!
Looking forward to reading your feedback…
Arman Vakili
How To Master The Art Of Follow Up
December 1, 2010
The Fortune Is In The Follow-Up
80% of all business that you close… 80% of all your clients are going to come from the people who DID NOT buy from you the first time they saw your ad.
Interesting, isn’t it?
There are countless courses… countless CD’s and Seminars that all say the same thing… The Fortune Is In The Follow-Up.
There are so many reasons why that statement is an actual fact. Let’s explore some of the more common ones:
- A lot of times, people don’t buy simply because you called them at a bad time. The person might have been in a really bad argument with his/her spouse and you caught them right in the middle.
- Your prospect might not have the funds available to make the purchase right then and there… and they might be waiting to save up enough money to make the investment.
- Your prospect might not have experienced enough pain/frustration from their situation to really want to buy your product.
- Your prospect might have hidden, subconscious fears about looking like an idiot in front of their piers… and they don’t want to be embarrassed for making the wrong buying decision… so they WON’T make the decision and they WON’T buy your product.
There are more reasons for why someone will NOT buy from you the first time they see your ad and it all depends on your product, market, and sales pitch. But here’s the main reason why I am even pointing this out…
I don’t want you to lose out on the money you COULD HAVE made if you did proper follow up with your prospects. As long as you stay persistent and diligent with your follow up process… you WILL get the sale. Whether it’s a week from now, a month from now, or a year.
I’ve literally followed up with a prospect every week for six months straight and he ended up buying from me simply because I was so persistent. He actually said, and I quote… “I really appreciate the fact that you’re so persistent… let’s meet up and talk about this a little further”
Your prospects will respect you when they know that you’re serious about your business… and the best way for you to prove your seriousness is NOT by saying you’re serious, but by showing it. If you follow up consistently, your prospect will subconsciously get the message that you’re serious about your business, therefore they will take you and your offer much more seriously.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way… what’s the best way to actually follow up with your prospect?
Allow me to proudly introduce… The Auto-Responder.
The auto-responder is a neat “little” tool that was invented to make the follow-up process a little bit easier.
In traditional business if you had a list of 5,000 customers and you wanted to do a follow up correspondence, you would need to do one of two things: One, make 5,000 phone calls… Two, send out 5,000 post cards.
The phone calls would probably take you a few months to get done… so the time investment is pretty heavy. The post cards will cost you a pretty penny to send out… so that’s a pretty big monetary investment.
Now, let’s look at our auto-responder strategy.
There are a few auto-responder services that will allow you to start with them for zero start up investment. And the one’s that do charge, start with less than twenty bucks per month.
Here’s what you’ll get with the whole deal though…
Your auto-responder will allow you to set up a series of automated follow up messages – hence the name auto-responder – and you can schedule these messages to be sent out every few days to every new prospect that enters your marketing funnel.
I know people that have literally 3oo auto-responder messages set up and these things go out every other day to each new prospect that enters the funnel. Which means that each new prospect will be automatically followed up with for almost 2 years straight.
Imagine if you’ve set up all of your emails to include some kind of promotion in them… you have an AUTOMATED follow up system that delivers the same, perfect sales pitch every single time to every single prospect.
And to make it even sweeter… with the click of a button, you can email ALL of your prospects at any time you want. This is called a broadcast.
It’s the best way to share the most recent promotion that you ran across… or to just share what’s on your mind. Either way, you will be able to follow up with your prospect easily, effectively and best of all for dirt cheap.
The only thing that you really have to work on at this point is to develop the habit of consistent follow up and make sure that you do it with EVERY SINGLE prospect that enters your sales funnel.
If you are using the internet for your marketing efforts, then the auto-responder should be something that you MUST use. And if you are doing an offline business, I still think that you can get a lot of value from using an auto-responder service to follow up with your prospects… just make sure you get their email address during your first contact with them.
You can learn exactly WHAT TO SAY in your auto-responder messages in our free Business Building Checklist. There is a full chapter dedicated to the art of follow up and there is a LOT of great information in there. You can download the checklist by clicking on the clipboard at the top-right of this page.
And please leave any questions or comments that you may have in the comments section below…
I look forward to reading your comments,
Arman Vakili
P.S. The most popular auto-responder services right now are Aweber & GetResponse. Go review their offer pages to see which one suits your taste best.
How To Develop A Million Dollar Sales Funnel
November 30, 2010
So let’s talk sales.
Before you write any sales copy or even create a product… you REALLY need to understand the sales funnel concept and how it works for your business.
Imagine a funnel that has five different filters in it, with the fifth filter covering the very entrance of the funnel.
Now as you pour your “traffic” into the funnel, the group of people who pass through the first funnel at the entrance are your new prospects… leads. These are actual contact information of people who are interested in the product or service you’re offering.
To pass through the next filter, your prospect would need to buy a fairly inexpensive product from you. This is called the Self Liquidating Offer (SLO). Usually the SLO goes for $17 – $67… and the price really determines what you’re offering and how much value it has.
A little side note about the SLO… it really doesn’t matter what the customer ends up paying towards the beginning. The money IS NOT in the SLO. The SLO is there for 2 reasons only: 1st to offset your advertising costs, but 2nd and more importantly… to set in effect one of the most powerful laws of selling:
It is 5 times easier to someone who has already bought from you, than it is to sell to a brand new prospect.
And the person doesn’t necessarily even need to buy something… as long as they actually PAY money for something, it has the same effect. Here’s what I mean…
I have seen several examples where someone is giving away a “Free CD” or a “Free Video” and “all you have to do is pay for shipping and handling”.
So in the eyes of the prospect, they’re not actually buying the product… they’re just paying for the shipping, which they can live with.
But for you, it doesn’t really matter… the whole point is that they actually use some of their money to pay for something that YOU are sending them.
Now, you can actually sell them a low-priced eBook… or you can send them a “free” bracelet to introduce your brand of jewelry to them. Either way… you win.
The next series of filters are going to offer MORE value to your prospect, for a higher price. For every filter that your prospect passes through, the price to pass through the next one will be higher.
And of course, the value of your product must be higher.
Here’s an example of this in the information product world:
- 1st Filter – eBook download. (Free)
- 2nd Filter (SLO) - Audio Download. ($17)
- 3rd Filter (UpSell 1) – CD – ($27)
- 4th Filter (US 2) – DVD – ($37)
- 5th Filter (US 3) – Seminar – ($97)
- 6th Filter (US 4) – Personal Consulting – ($197)
The easiest way I know how to do this with information products is to start at a “big picture” point of view. Your free product explains the big picture to your prospect and WHAT they need to do. The SLO is the fundamental steps of the HOW-TO… and each UpSell after that is the specifics of the different steps they need to take.
You can do this also with physical products.
My friend makes home-made jewelry and her “free offer” is 3 bracelets of your choice for free… just pay for the shipping and handling. And she has bigger packages for sale later on in her funnel.
You can apply this concept to any business. All that you have to do is brainstorm ideas for different products that you can add to your product line.
There really is no limit to how far you want to go with this. Your sales funnel doesn’t really have to end with your products. You can use other people’s products as affiliate promotions and always add them to your sales funnel. As long as you have a list of interested prospects that you can go to, you can offer as many products as your heart desires.
Pretty cool, huh?
Try out these ideas to see how many different products you come up with. If you have any comments or questions, you can post them below.
Looking forward to reading your feedback,
Arman Vakili