Category Archives for Marketing

Are You Tracking Your Results?

Are You Tracking Your Results?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

Why you must track your results:

If you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, you’ll have no way to increase your business.

Things aren’t always as they seem. You can’t guess whether something is working or not. You must keep track of the numbers and let them tell you.

Ad A: This is a Val-Pak type ad. You advertised a “computer tune-up”. It costs $350.00 to run it. It goes to 10,000 prospects. You get 30 clients from it.

Ad B: This is a direct mail piece. It costs $400.00 to send it to 500 prospects. You get 11 new clients.

Which is better? At first it may seem that A is better, but look at the rest of the numbers.

Ad A: The 30 clients generated, had an average ticket of $59.00. Twenty four out of 30 complained that your prices were too high. Three of them rescheduled another service appointment in 6 months.

Ad B: The 11 clients generated had an average ticket of $137.00. Zero of them complained about the price. Nine of them rescheduled in 6 months. And 7 of them bought other products and services you offer. Eight of them referred at least one client to you within 1 month of their visit.

As you can see, you made $750.00 ($25.00 x 30) off the front end of A. Ad A cost you $350.00. That’s $400.00 left. The backend isn’t very big, two clients in 6 weeks. – another $50.00 if they keep appointments.

Ad B on the other hand generated $1,507.00 on the front end ($137.00 x 11). The back end is even bigger with all those referrals, pre-booked appointments, etc. The coast of ad B was $400.00, so that’s $1,107 left- that’s more than ad a generated after the costs of the ad!

We hope now you can see why you must keep close track of your numbers. Some methods may be misleading where you think you are doing great but really you aren’t.

Don’t have an ‘idea’ whether something is working well. Know your numbers and know for sure!

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

How To Get Your Yellow Page Ad To Your Target Market Without Paying The Yellow Page Company

How To Get Your Yellow Page Ad To Your Target Market Without Paying The Yellow Page Company

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

There is a separate booklet that came with your program that covers all the things you should be doing to MAXIMIZE your response to your yellow page advertising.

BUT there is another, very effective way to get your yellow page to your target market WITHOUT giving the yellow page company a ton of money every month.

This strategy to this will SHOCK you.

Are you ready?

DON’T ADVERTISE IN THE YELLOW PAGES

Waite a minute Bob, how are local customers supposed to find me? All my competitors are in the yellow pages. Now I think you have totally lost your mind – it must be the heat! Right?

Wrong!

We are going to show you right now how to get in the book without paying. And multiply your response results up to 20 times all for a fraction of the cost of a yellow page ad.

By the way the last time we looked into yellow page advertising in our town it was $50,000 for a full page ad, FIFTY GRAND, that’s a lot of green backs.

Before we tell you this one little strategy that can transform your bank account I want to clear up some realities about yellow page advertising, OK?

Most yellow page advertising does NOT work because it is missing all the elements of a successful ad. An ad in the yellow pages is NO different than any type of print ad. The paper it is printed on is yellow, that’s it.
Yellow page ad reps don’t know squat about advertising. All they want you to do is buy the biggest ad because then their commissions are bigger.
Most “big” companies have their advertising agency’s design their yellow page ad. Advertising reps don’t know squat about effective track-able advertising. The first question and adverting company will ask you is “what is your advertising budget?” You tell them and they proceed to spent it all with little tangible results.

Here is the strategy.

Design your ad like we show you how in your “Reinventing Your Yellow Page Ad System” (a full page ad). Get it printed on yellow newspaper just like a full page ad in a yellow page book and MAIL it to your surrounding area with a letter like the one we give you.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Are you sending out a newsletter each month? If not, you’re losing big sales.

Are you sending out a newsletter each month? If not, you’re losing big sales.

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

Mailing a newsletter to your client base each month will always more than pay for itself in increased sales. We see a spike in business the week the newsletter hits our client’s mailbox. Emailing your newsletter is not as effective as mailing it in the regular mail but it is better than doing nothing.

It takes a lot of work to put together a decent newsletter and we are NOT suggesting that you research topics and write your own newsletter each month to your clients. It is not the best use of your time. We have a “Business Newsletter” service where we do everything for you for a small monthly fee.

The way this works is every month you will get from us an email with a 4-page newsletter on it. All you have to do is fill in your specific information in a certain sections we have set aside for you. Then you print and have the newsletter mailed to your client list. You can also have copies in your store to give your clients.

This is a great way to keep your name and business in front of your clients. It is also a great way to announce information you want them to know. They will think that you personally sat down and wrote the newsletter. They will think you spent a lot of time putting it together. They will thank you for all the neat information.

Please send an email to our office if you are interested in finding out the details of our newsletter program.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Is Your Marketing Diversified?

Is Your Marketing Diversified?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

Diversity equals stability.

If you have one marketing strategy which is pulling in $10,000.00 a month (which is entirely possible), it can be tempting to not do anything else.

This is a mistake. This makes you very vulnerable.

It is like putting all your eggs in one basket.

If for some reason that strategy starts only pulling in half as much, only $5,000.00, you’re in trouble

Yes, yes, we keep telling you that these strategies are systems. That they get consistent results. This is all true but…There could always be some sort of change in one system. Over time these things are bound to happen.

If you have 10 different strategies to get new clients each month, that’s better than 1. The more reliable systems you have bringing in a steady flow of new clients, the more stable you will be.

For example if you have 10 different strategies bringing in $10,000.00 a month and one stops working, you’ll still be fine.

But if you only have one and it stops working, you have BIG trouble.

I’m telling you this because these strategies are extremely powerful. One strategy could easily bring in $20,000.00 or more a month. It’ll be tempting just to do that one but don’t.

Diversify.

Your business will be bigger, better and much more stable.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Headline Tips Guaranteed To Work

Headline Tips Guaranteed To Work

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.


As we discussed in the past the headline is the most important part of your ad. Without a good headline, you will lose prospective clients instantly and your ads will bomb.



Here are 7 quick headline tips that can double or triple your response rates:  



1. “How To” is a tested and proven winning way to begin a headline.


2. Another “can’t go wrong” headline technique is to use the word FREE somewhere in your headline. It’s still one of the most powerful words in advertising.


3. ‘New’ is yet one more proven response boosting word that you can test in your headlines.


4. Try to use “You” in your headline whenever possible. Tests have shown that it alone can boost response.


5. Another surefire way to create a good headline is to ask a question that evokes a “Yes” answer.


6. Guarantee. Using a guarantee in your headline can double response or more. People don’t want to feel like their going to get stuck with a lemon, and they have been ripped off too many times.


7. Everyone wants to know a ‘Secret’. Use it in your headline and watch response rates soar!



Combine some or all of these like I did in the headline at the top of this page for a very powerful headline, and test different headlines. The difference between an average headline and a good one can be the difference between getting two or three clients and dozens of them calling you and driving across town to come to you store if you have one.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Your mail will never get opened… Unless you do this

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

When most people get their mail they divide it into 3 piles:

Pile A: Personal mail.

Pile B: Bills.

Pile C: Everything else, AKA junk mail.

And you know what happens to junk mail… It goes in the trash without ever being opened.

If you want your letter to get opened, then you can’t send out the same stuff most businesses do. Instead of going for a “professional, polished” look, you have to make your letter look like it’s personal mail; like it is coming from their little old grandmother.

You do this by hand writing the address, using a stamp, (not metered,) and using colors. More people will open your letter if it looks personal than if it looks like something automated and from a business.

Think about yourself when you open your own mail; wouldn’t you be more likely to open something that looks like a note from a friend rather than just another flyer for a local business? If you send a letter and nobody opens it, then your marketing effort, (and TIME, and MONEY,) was totally wasted!

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or are interested in talking about other ways to make the most of your marketing budget, please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Did You Know That Direct Mail Is The Cheapest Methods To Get Customers?

Did You Know That Direct Mail Is The Cheapest Methods To Get Customers?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

Direct mail is one of the most powerful ways to market your business that there is.

This year there will be $32.4 billion spent on direct mail. Barely $11 billion will be spent on cable TV advertising for the top 6 TV networks. These statistics are according to a study directed by McCann-Erickson.

There wouldn’t be that much money spent on direct mail if it didn’t work.

So why do most small businesses, especially businesses, think of direct mail as a waste?

They don’t know how to use it. They’ve never had any instruction on how to use it.

They send a flier- as you know by now, 99.9% of fliers don’t cut it
they send it to a ‘bad’ list. The list, the people who you send your letter to, is just as important as the letter itself.

Many people overlook this.

One business owner had written a sales letter. It was pretty good, not great but pretty good.

She was getting zero response, not low, not one but zero. Zilch. Nada.

Who was she sending her letters to?

She didn’t know. She had bought a zip code zone.

Finally she went to look at the houses in the zip code she purchased.

Let us describe it for you:

Run-down. Tiny houses with broken down porches- at least one plank of wood was missing. Junk strewn across the front yard. In the driveway there was a car on cement blocks with half the engine removed. Both the husband and the wife were wearing stained t-shirts.

Are these the types of people most likely to buy your services?

Do they even own a computer? If they do, would they pay to get it cleaned?

These people are not good prospects for you.

The List is very important.

To recap, here is why most It business owners fail at direct mail:

No direct mail expertise.
Bad sales letter
Bad list.

How To Do Successful Direct Mail

Have an irresistible offer. The more enticing your offer the better you will sell.

Attention getting headline. Your headline is really an ad for your sales letters.

Create Interest. The first paragraph should emphasize the benefit to the reader, this gets your prospect interested enough to read the rest of the letter.

Create desire. Make your prospect really want what you’re offering.

Call to action. You must have an irresistible offer.

You must tell the prospect to respond and have a deadline. If you don’t tell the person to call today and don’t have an expiration date creating a “sense of urgency” you don’t have a direct response.

In our program there are lots of ready to use direct mail letters. Use them as-is or modify them. Learn from them and start writing your own!

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Does Your Message Match Your Market?

Does Your Message Match Your Market?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

In the strategy before this we talked about how important and critical to your success it is to have a Unique Selling Points (USP). Your USP is your specific message.

Now we will talk about how important it is to make sure your message (your USP) matches your market. What I mean about this is that the greatest message in the world is useless if it goes to people who don’t care because they will not “hear it”. You have to be communicating to the right people. This is called “Message to Market Match.”

For example – If your market is homeowners you would NOT want a message like “If your computers go down we’ll get them up fast so you don’t loose any transactions”. That may be OK for small business owners but not for homeowners.

Who is your ideal client?_______________________________

What is their age?____________________________________

What is their income?__________________________________

Where do they live?___________________________________

What else do you know about them?______________________________

So you have to have a strong message and a good market match to be right on target in your marketing.

Now you have the two things that MOST business owners never even thinks about and that’s one of the reason they are struggling.

A USP
Your Message Matches your Market

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Are You Being Sucked In By The Advertising “Blind Archery Trap”?

Are You Being Sucked In By The Advertising “Blind Archery Trap”?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

This strategy is about hitting the “business marketing bull’s eye” and the steps you need to take to get away from the “Blind Archery Trap”. Most business owners run their advertising and marketing as if they were shooting at an archery target with a blindfold on trying to hit the bull’s eye.

In order to avoid the blind archery trap (diagram on next page) you have to target your marketing and concentrate only on marketing that is tractable and measurable. And you want to structure your marketing so that you are not running around looking for potential clients. You want them to come to you.

What is Unconventional Marketing?

Unconventional marketing is a series of automatic systems that deliver to your business pre-interested; pre-motivated and pre-qualified potential clients who want to buy your services and products. It is predictable and dependable and brings you the right amount of potential clients when you want them. All this is done automatically with out much manual labor on your part.

Unconventional Marketing is NOT?

Getting your name out there. Building your image. Running ads in magazines that are not tractable. Begging people for referrals, passing out your business card. Taking people out to lunch. Giving coffee mugs away with your logo on them. Giving out your web site address. Handing out your brochure and price list. Hoping and wishing for people to call you.

So how do you actually sell your computer services and products? How do you communicate it to your potential clients properly? How do you deliver it in a way so that it is enjoyable so people want to do business with you and you don’t come across as a pushy computer geek?

You have to change your positioning so that they are coming to you and you are NOT going after them. We will show you how to structure your marketing so that they are coming to you.

Now we have just flipped the positioning and now you have all the leverage.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Did You Know… No One Cares Who You Are Until They Know How You Can Help Them?

Did You Know… No One Cares Who You Are Until They Know How You Can Help Them?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

That simple idea changed our lives and it can change yours too.

 If you want to get people’s attention — in a few words tell them how you can help them — then they’ll want to talk with you.

Once people know how you can help them, they’ll be hungry to hear from you, eager to talk with you. Getting the conversation started is the most important step to being successful. 

Without an easy way to get that initial conversation going, you’ll always be frustrated, no matter how smart or capable you are. That applies to everything from getting a response to emails, web marketing, direct marketing, and any other way you reach out and try to stimulate a response.

 WIIFM

What is WIIFM?

Every human being is tuned into their own little radio station in their head and when confronted with a decision to make, that little voice asks “What’s In It For Me”.

So all your marketing and advertising MUST be geared to WIIFM because they don’t care about anything else.

Pretty selfish Hugh?

Its human nature, don’t fight it- use it to your advantage.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton