Business Growth Strategies

Business Growth Strategies

Take Your Business To The Next Level Section Content Page 59 Improve Your Business Resources, Skills, People and Processes

Page 64 Find New Customers For Your Existing Product Or Service

Page 81 Have Customers Buy More Frequently and Spend More Each Transaction

Page 86 Retain Your Customers Longer

59 1. Improve Your Business Resource, Skills, People Performance and Processes

Contents section from checklist

09 Measure Your Marketing and Sales Results Constantly 10 Do More Of The Things That Work 11 Relentlessly Follow Up 12 Record Everything 13 Set and Publish Sales Targets 14 Differentiate Yourself From The Competition 15 Train People To Use The Telephone Including Yourself 16 Deal With Low Performers 17 Go To Business Networking Events 18 Test, Test and Test Again 19 Get Over The FTI 20 Invite Old Customers Back Again 21 Set Specific Goals For Your Business 22 Focus On USP 23 Control Your Cash 24 Plan For Change

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60 1. Improve Your Business Resource, Skills, People Performance and Processes Many parts of your business will be sound and working well, but extra profit can be found by becoming more efficient.

Here are 18 ways to improve your business performance through people, resources and processes.

Numbers from Business Growth Checklist

09

Measure Your Marketing and Sales Results constantly.(see 10 below)

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Measure response to adverts and articles as part of your daily routine

Set and Publish Sales Targets.

Be ruthless in setting targets for sales force or yourself/ others - Put the performance up on a board that is updated every day - If performance is slipping, take action - Don’t just measure sales – measure activity like no of tele calls – number of appointments - Know your stats – what is the conversion rate of tele calls to appointments - to sales.

- If you are selling on the internet, know all your conversions.

- Code them so a response can be measured - Put separate phone numbers on each promotion or advert.

- Ask every customer where he or she heard about you. Make this part of everyone’s job.

- Use different email addresses for different campaigns.

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Do more of the things that work.

Make a list of all the things that have brought you business in the past.

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Prioritise them and create an action plan to do them again.

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Relentless Follow-up Set up a CRM system and enter every prospect and lead for follow up.

Keep calling until you get an answer, even if it is No – very few prospects will call you.

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Record Everything Set up CRM system for Customers. (see 8 Pillars Part 6) Everyone you ever talk to in your business should be on the CRM.

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Differentiate yourself from your competitors Ties in closely with branding and creating your USP but this deals with a specific niche customer in your business and what you offer more than any competitor.

If you are a mobile phone shop, you’ll have huge competition. But if you stock the widest range of Nokia phone accessories in the country, you have plenty to say to Nokia users about your unique range and specialty.

Train people to use the phone including yourself.

This is still one of the most powerful marketing tools you have although many business owners fight shy of using it effectively.

Make sure it has email system and autoresponder. Keeping records is vital for new campaigns.

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- Set daily targets for number of sales calls - Write a list of people to call and measure the results.

- Offer a special deal, a demo, free consultation - Use the phone more effectively contd...

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Using the telephone as a business tool...

First issue to address is what are you doing to encourage customers to call you - is your number displayed clearly in all your communications including on your website pages and not just on contact us.

- Is it in every email, letter, advertising copy, brochure.

- Have you tested adverts that have the sole purpose of getting people to call you.

Example: You are a tradesman and you advertise in your local paper – putting a mobile number only is not the best way to attract potential customers. It could send out the wrong message. Why not have a friend who is at home with a young child answer for you if noone else can. Why not have an answering service take the call or at worst, set up a really professional message on the answering machine that reflects the importance you place on the call from your customer. Test again and again until you are getting great feedback and results. Don’ forget, you must collect email addresses for each new contact and add them to your CRM.

Are they happy, do they have any needs, is there legislation or changes coming that may affect them, news items that could be of interest.

The attraction is that you care about them, you have taken time out to call, you have useful information in addition and if there is anything they require, you are there to ensure it happens.

If you are not happy calling, then find someone that is and pay them to follow your instructions. If the project is big enough, outsource to a telemarketing company who will work with you to create the final package you require.

If your business is one that depends on winning new customers by presentations or at least a meeting, then use the telephone to setup the appointments.

16 Deal with low performers Introduce a standard disciplinary process across the business.

Consult with a HR expert on poor performers Do not accept poor performance – it takes time to correct peoples behavior.

Second, have you ever considered making telephone marketing a part of your business process.

Become a good recruiter.(Page 48)

We’re not talking about high pressure sales calls or appointing a telemarketing company to harass your potential or existing customers – a simple call to gather information and ensuring that all their needs are being met.

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So if the purpose of the call is to create attraction by offering a value exchange , we should use the formula and find ways we can add value.

Examples of businesses who have started using the phone are dentists who call to remind you of your appointment or ask if you would like one if you’ve not been for 6 months.

Often our customers would welcome contact just to talk over something that happened with an order but didn’t find the time to call or e-mail but don’t treat the call as a social event – plan it well and make it valuable to the customer.

Go to Business Networking Events - Chambers of Commerce - BNI Breakfast meets.

Business networking is an effective low-cost marketing method for developing sales opportunities and contacts, based on referrals and introductions - either face-to-face at meetings and gatherings, or by other contact methods such as phone, email, and increasingly social and business networking websites.

A business network of contacts is both a route to market for you, and a marketing method. Business networking offers a way to reach decision-makers which might otherwise be very difficult to engage with using conventional advertising methods.

In addition, business networking brings with it the added advantage of recommendation and personal introduction, which are always very helpful for developing business opportunities.

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Test,Test and Test again

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Invite old customers back again - Find out why they left you and fix it.

Anything you do in business should be tested and measured – that way you know your ROI and success rates.

- Write, email or call them and let them know what you’ve done that’s new, improved or just different.

How To Do It Formula: - Every month test at least 3 new forms of marketing

- Follow up and put it in your CRM as a new campaign - Use AIDCA for your presentation.

- Never risk more than you can afford to loose - Do it small to start the project

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All your goals should be SMART Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.

(Page 24)

- If it works roll it out larger and larger - If it doesn’t work – stop it.

- If you do this every month, test 2 or 3 and just one is successful each month, you will have 12 at the end of the year that work for you.

Set Specific Goals for your business.

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- Only test in a small way – Small advert and it doesn’t work – it won’t work bigger.

- Once you have decided what to test, start to breakdown the elements that go to make up the technique – telephone calls – test the wording.

Focus on USP Vital to have clear water between you and your competitor otherwise you are in a price war.

If you don’t have one, seriously consider reworking your product or service to achieve the difference.

Every proposition you make to your customer or potential must be one that your competitor either cannot, or does not offer.

- It cannot be trivial – the difference must be very important to the reader.

- If you send out letters, test 2 different ones - Test changes to your website

- Your adverts and your marketing must bear that difference and move masses to buy your product.

- If you advertise, test the headline - As an overall policy, do test your pricing – you may be surprised just what people will pay for your service or product. People rarely buy on price alone – quite often price is the secondary consideration but value is usually primary.

- They must be ATTRACTIVE. - Therefore your USP should be captured in a phrase that is short concise and every word is vital and cannot be changed Examples.

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Get Over the FTI (Failure to Implement) Don’t be Too Busy to run ALL aspects of your business.

Plan each campaign and put it in your Action Plan and use CRM to monitor.

M&M’s say “Melts in your mouth not your hand” Gillette say “The best a man can get” Avis said “We’re Number two. We try harder” L’Oreal “Because I’m worth it” Once you have your USP, all other advertising copy and promotional material will flow.

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Control your cash Before you set up your growth plan, you must check your cash collection process and ensure you have robust terms and conditions and every customer is paying you on time every time. No point in going for growth and leaking cash.

Growth will need cash and quite often, dragging in the cash owed proves enough to finance the package.

- Go to suppliers and tell them about your plans for growth and ask for extended terms. (Page 53)

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Plan for change Your growth plan will call for change and most of it will be documented in your Business Growth Plan Workbook. It will impact on parts of your business in different ways. Draw up a plan of where, who, how, why and when it will affect people and processes and communicate to everyone.

Get Help Astley Bryden Associates specialize in business growth and provide three services to help business owners.

- Free consultancy once you have your plan – Business Growth Consult.

- Specialist services (see what we do www.astleybrydenassociates.com) - Business Growth Advice to see you through the whole process.

Don't give up.

The desire to succeed is the biggest driver in business – if you have it in abundance, you will never give up. If you don’t, then start to rethink your business strategy – sometimes just working through this process helps people refocus and find the enthusiasm that they started with.

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64 2. Find new customers and clients for your existing product or service.

Contents section from checklist

page

25 7 Simple Ways To Attract More Traffic To Your Website 26 Improve The Performance Of Your Written Communications 27 Improve Your Advertising Messsages and Results 28 The 8 Ways to Become A Direct Mail Expert Marketeer 29 Create Powerful Offers To Your Customers 30 The 11 Ways To Get Referrals 31 Remove The Risk From Your Customers 32 5 Ways To Form Joint Ventures 33 Collect and Use Customer Testimonials 34 Improve Your Business Proposals and Presentations 35 Design Your Bidding Process To Win Every Tender 36 Know Your Lifetime Value and Cost To Win A Customer 37 How To Use The Internet To Explode Your Business

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65 2. Find new customers and clients for your existing product or service.

This is by far the most common strategy and the only one if you have no customers or clients yet; it is also the most expensive way to grow and it takes the most effort. Usually it will run in tandem with other strategies in that most businesses will continue to attract new customers and sell more to existing customers.

Here are the 13 most used techniques to get new customers and clients:

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7 Simple Ways To Attract More Traffic To Your Website ( but be clear about what you want visitors to do.)

1.0 Pay Per Click campaigns Targeted adverts – only pay when people visit your site.

Managers of PPC campaigns with small monthly budgets need to be creative at times in order to spend funds as wisely as possible. The list below consists of realistic methods to get the best clicks with a limited budget. By the way, I consider a small budget to be less than £100 a month. It is important to note that these methods are often utilized in campaigns with large budgets, but they become even more necessary with limited funds.

The Fewer Campaigns the Better AdWords accounts can have up to 25 campaigns, but with a small budget, less is more. Say your daily budget is £10 and you have 2 campaigns: Campaign #1 – £6 daily budget Campaign #2 – £4 daily budget When you introduce a third campaign your daily budget is broken out like this: Campaign #1 – £4.75 daily budget Campaign #2 – £2.25 daily budget Campaign #3 – £3 daily budget Adding a campaign to your account decreases the funds allocated to other campaigns, in order to accommodate the £10 daily budget.

Assuming you keep your keyword bids the same, your average CPC will not change, but you will get fewer clicks per campaign. In the era of first page bid estimates lowering your bids is not always a viable option. As your campaign daily budgets decrease so does your threshold for ad impressions. Sometimes smaller accounts have to consist of fewer campaigns for more exposure, which leads to my second point

Bid on More Long-Tailed Keywords Generally, the longer your keyword the less expensive it is going to be due to less competition.

For example, “baseball glove” might have a first page bid estimate of £1 where “first baseman’s baseball glove,” is only £0.50. These long-tailed terms are your friends because they not only cost less but they are better targeted. You will inevitably see fewer impressions for these keywords, but get better quality clicks.

Eliminate Junk Early The ability to test keywords, text ads, and landing pages is important, but campaigns with small budgets do not have the luxury to wait for definitive results.

With a larger budget you might allow a text ad 500 impressions before you make a judgment of how well it is converting compared to other ads. With a smaller budget 500 impressions would take too long to accrue, so you have to make a decision sooner.

Or you might have a keyword that has been clicked 10 times without any conversions vs. a keyword that has been clicked 8 times with 2 conversions. The sample sizes are small, however, so is your budget and you have to spend funds on what is working.

PPC campaigns with small budgets have a lot less margin for error than those with substantial funds.

However, by practicing the right PPC techniques and taking advantage of these three methods, PPC campaigns with smaller budgets can succeed.

2.0 Search engine optimization The science of lifting your website into the top 10 for a given search term.

What is SEO, and why should I care?

SEO is an acronym for “Search Engine optimisation.” It refers to the procedures, efforts and thought processes behind improving a site’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

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A relatively young idea, optimising websites for better visibility in the search engines began to gain momentum in the mid-90s.

As it became clear that sites higher-up in the SERPs reached larger audiences, received more traffic and ultimately made more money, the interest in this new idea was spreading quickly.

By the time Google arrived in 1998, SEO was becoming commonplace in online marketing and continued growing at an amazing rate, year-over-year.

Today, SEO is a multi-billion dollar industry that grows substantially every year. It is also now acknowledged as a necessity for businesses wanting to achieve or build greater online success.

The Basics of SEO The basic ideas behind SEO center on keywords and relevance.

- Visitors go to search engines, and type in queries that use specific keywords.

- The search engines’ algorithms make connections between this search query and websites they have indexed, displaying the most relevant pages in the SERPs. - SEO techniques are used by site owners to make stronger connections between their site and its relevant keywords. When successful, the site will appear higher in the SERPs for these specific search queries.

Can I Ignore SEO? Most businesses with websites should be aware of SEO and optimising their sites – because today, the web plays a much larger role in the daily business routines of most industries.

As more and more people turn to the Internet to search for products and services, even local businesses can’t rely on walk-in traffic they way they used to. Ignoring SEO could prove to be a fatal mistake for a local business today.

Do I need to Hire a Pro? The question of whether or not you need to hire a professional to help with your site’s SEO varies from situation to situation, but more often than not, the answer is “Yes.” SEO is a complex balance of many strategies, and professionals offer the insight to make it all work.

3.0 Article Marketing Write about your industry or business – become an expert whose knowledge people seek out.

Article marketing is a way to drive traffic and get backlinks to your site, which is the first thing you need to understand. Article marketing boils down to submitting your article to article directories.

While this may be true it is only a tiny bit of what article marketing really is. There is no point submitting one article to dozens of directories if that article isn’t going to be read, that backlink won’t mean anything if it’s not optimized and doesn’t have any activities.

A carefully crafted campaign is needed to maximize the contribution article marketing has on the number of visitors to your site and the part it plays on SEO. 4.0 Manage your facebook page Accumulate friends and people who will follow your progress and updates with interest.

- Link it to your Twitter account.

5.0 Join Groups and specialist websites Write responses to postings in groups and on specialist sites relevant to your business/industry 6.0 Advertise with a specialist site.

Choose your advertising partner carefully – if they are not prepared to work with on creating a campaign, don’t waste you money.

- Advertising with Google Adwords and Facebook on Pay Per Click is a specialist subject (see beginning of this section) 7.0 Place Classified ads with appropriate websites.

Your overall strategy when advertising should be well defined before an ad is placed with goals and targets set and remeber that testing is the only way to success

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Improve the performance of your WRITTEN communications (newsletters, PR. Letters, Presentations.

1.0 Written communications. Use the Law Of Attraction Formula (Page 48) - Write powerful headlines that grab attention. *Great News for Curry Lovers” not Bengal Kitchen Restaurant. *Use power words – Free, New, Announcing, Introducing, News, Secrets, Discover.

- Create interest *Write copy that explains the benefits you are offering *Remove I – replace with you.

- Develop Desire *Explain how the benefits improve their life style choices.

- Convince *Add on convincing information like testimonials, test results, stats, examples, case studies, guarantees.

- Create an Action *Explain exactly what your prospect/ customer must do next.

Example1: Purpose: An email to persuade my reader to buy vitamins, by persuading them to click on a webpage.

Hello, <attention> Do your eyes hurt from reading emails?

<desire> This SHS comes in Large (300 pills), Medium (150) and Small (50) bottles, and you can choose what you need! <convince> You are not forced to buy anything you don't want! Also, if you do not feel any improvement in 15 days, send us back the remaining pills for a full refund! <action> Click here to read more about SHS on the World Medical Association Website, or here to visit Dr.Jone's homepage and online store. You don't have to buy if you don't want to, but remember, once you lose your health, you can't buy it back!

Example 2: Purpose: An internal memo to persuade my boss to buy an expresso machine.

I want to make him interested, and agree to talk to me about it.

Dear Sir, <attention> According to a Japanese survey of 245 top firms, the 2nd highest reason for time wasting in the office is going out to buy coffee. <interest> Supposedly, employees take longer lunch breaks to have coffee after lunch. Employees who have coffee in the office however, usually drink it at their desk. The article went on to say that some companies have promoted casual coffee areas, because often employees can talk about complex work issues in a relaxed way. This saves time on having meetings and sending a long list of emails.

<interest> In today's fast-paced and electronics filled world, we put our bodies under so much stress!

There really isn't any time to relax, to properly exercise, to regularly eat balanced meals.

<desire>&<convince> I was at Tesco during the weekend and noticed a 30% discount on a really good expresso machine.

Also, the employee association has agreed that if the company can buy a machine, they will take care of all the coffee, the cups, the reloading and the maintenance fee.

That's why you need Dr. Jones's Super Health Supplements, made from 100% natural products. Eat it with your meals, and it gives you all the vitamins and minerals your body needs!

<action> In summary, I think the office will benefit if we have an expresso machine. Can we meet up later and talk about if the company can buy an expresso machine?

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Example 3: Purpose: Sales letter to attract a customer to our showroom Stewarts Furniture Company London December 4, 20xx <attention> Does your house give the appearance of warmth and make your guest feel welcome? Or does your home shout ―Help—Do Not Enter!? <interest> Now is a very good time for you to visit Stewarts Furniture Company. Every item in our store is reduced 20 percent through the month of December. Our consultants can help you select appropriate matching furniture, rugs, and draperies--and the advice is free. <desire> You will be under no obligation to make your purchases from us, but you can't beat our low prices and large selection anywhere else in London. <convince>In fact, if you find a lower price we’ll nit only match it but guarantee to better it by 5% <action> Please call me at 456-1234. I will be happy to schedule an appointment with you to help you with your redecorating needs.

You can't afford to miss this once-a-year sale of household furniture and furnishings. So to take advantage of expert free advice and substantial savings, please call or come in to see us today.

Sincerely yours, Cheryl Keen - Consultant Example 4: Purpose: Collection Letter Dear Mrs. Kingston, <attention> Can you please help me solve a puzzle? Your account has been overdue for 90 days, yet you have been a preferred customer for many years. <interest> Because of this, we are sending you this letter in an attempt to collect payment past due on your account before we are forced to forward your delinquent account to our collection agency.

<desire) In an effort to avoid tarnishing your outstanding credit and causing permanent damage to your reputation we are offering you this final opportunity to resolve the delinquency to your account. <convince>Please send your payment for £2,138.99 in the enclosed postage paid envelope. <action> If you are unable to pay the full amount immediately please call me to arrange a possible monthly payment option as an alternative. If I do not receive a response by November 30, 20xx, I will have no choice but to refer your account to our collection agency.

Sincerely, Carol Goodwill CEO Example 5: Purpose: Sales Letter April 25, 20xx Ms. Amy Sanders 345 Churchill Street, <attention>SHOPPING MADE EASY! Do you love to shop but are low on time or money?

Have we got news got you! <interest> At Shopper’s Fantasy, we have what you want at prices you will love. Whether you are looking for jewelry, household items, or clothes, we have it all. We sell only the best quality items at the most affordable prices. <desire> Shopper’s Fantasy is a new, fun, and inexpensive way to shop. You can request our monthly catalog and order our products via mail, over the telephone, or even by logging onto our website. <action>Just visit our website and subscribe to our catalog for free! You may also call 0800-324-9685 to subscribe. It is simple and convenient for just about anyone! <convince> As a special bonus to you, we will take 20% off your first purchase!! We provide excellent customer services and if you are not satisfied with your purchase, we guarantee a full refund. So come on, join the many others who have found pleasure and convenience with Shopper’s Fantasy.

We are here to serve you!

For more information or if you have any questions, please call me at 0808 324-2113.

May Clapton – GENERAL MANAGER

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Example 6 Purpose: Proposed Presentation AGENDA to a buyer of a child safety device using Powerpoint (see 8 Pillars Part 4 in sales process) Note: Each section uses the same attraction formula to walk through the presentation.

2.0 PR and Media.

How to get the best out of you using the attraction formula.

<attention> Make Window Blinds Safe – Because Children are worth it. How to prevent more unnecessary deaths and near misses. <interest> Parents are crying out for a safe solution and JLP can be the first to launch this unique, one stop, life changer. <desire> Customers who use it say “why has it taken so long? <convince> The only Universal Solution and the first to offer child safe locking system. <action> Let us tell you more!

Example 7 Purpose: Newsletter. Use the attraction formula to create the newsletter framework – use it again to create the articles and features. <attention> The most powerful methods to skyrocket your leads, sales and profits in the world!” <interest> Customer Service with Style <desire> Three golden rules to have customers spend more and do it more often <convince> or your money back. <action> Join our exclusive CEO Club for success strategies that guarantee massive and sustainable results.

- Journalists and writers are usually pulling their hair out to fill the paper so you must completely understand what it is they are looking for their readers and deliver it. If you are a producer of a 3 hours talk show – 15 hours a week – you need people who are good talkers.

If I come along with a great story, well presented I’ve got a great chance of getting some coverage.

- The biggest mistake that people make when entering the PR arena is they focus on themselves and their business when the story should be one about what their audience really likes and needs to know – approaching PR in this way is very powerful because virtually noone does it this way.

- Therefore there is a great opportunity. What knowledge, fascinating facts or information do you have and what is your business doing that is going to be of interest to the public. – So let’s consider how the law of business attraction works in driving your PR campaign to a level you never thought possible.

- Firstly, you are an expert in your field in your business/industry and some of the knowledge you have the public will want to know about.

This is “Positioning for Influence” in Action - If you run a car business, you know how to look after cars and how to avoid getting ripped off when buying, what cars keep their value, what don’t, what is really popular right now.

- If you’re a dentist, you know how to look after your teeth, what parents should do to look after their children’s teeth.

- If you’re a coach, consultant or therapist, you sell vitamins, or in any of the caring professions, your brain is packed with information on how to improve our lives.

- Business to business – if you are a store fitter you could come up with 5 top tips to fit out your store.

- If you repair computers you know how to get rid or protect against the spyware programs.

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- If you’re in PR or marketing, you’ll know something about how to grow a business.

- Remember, they will be testing you out to learn whether you are a good speaker or at least, you know what you’re talking about and not just a good writer – anyone can write an article but not everyone can talk about it. So you do need to prepare but do it just the same way you do with everything else in your new business. Talk benefits. Prepare well and rehearse.

- What about the most boring product and you employ 50 people; the expertise you have is not making the widget, it is about recruiting and motivation a workforce.

Dealing with stress and conflicts on a production line and how you have created a harmonious atmosphere could make a good piece for the trade press or the business section of one of the nationals.

- So consider carefully, what do you have that will appeal to the readers and editors or producers that will be a great interest..

Now it’s a case of who we target.

Usually, local press are good because you’re there.

National Papers, National Consumer Mags, Business to Business magazines, Radio, TV and Internet.

Media Guide or PR Planners will help you identify the right targets - To contact, first send a letter or press release either by post or by email – then follow up with a phone call.

Journalists are bombarded with a variety of stuff – so when you follow up with a phone call, you determine they have seen what you sent and most of all, you get the chance to attract them with your words posture and expertise.

- The most important way to present yourself is with passion about your subject – not reserved and cowering but sure and enthusiastic.

Press Release The first thing to say, is that you don’t need a PR agency full of expert copywriters to prepare your pitch. However, as with all things, if you are unsure, then talk to one of our associates and take one of the FREE consultations we offer to test whether the costs of employing them are worth it for the project you are launching.

Keep it simple and keep it to one page. You are attracting the journalist to contact you not revealing the whole story, so one page will be enough.

You must have a great headline on your press release but if you follow the formula, the headline will jump out at you. Remember that journalists search through hundreds of these releases meaning you have 3 seconds to attract attention.

One of the best ways to attract attention in a headline is to produce something like…

- Don’t forget the attraction formula. Open up with Attention - create Interest through benefits, what the audience will learn and what’s in it for them; create desire by stating the lifetstyle benefits then why you’re the expert and your background and track record in developing your business or in the industry etc; convince and call to action ends your communication.

- Your approach should always be focused on the readers or listeners and what their interests are and whether what you have to say is for them. I sent the information because I know a good proportion of your listeners might be interested and etc…

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- 5 Top Tips for xxx from leading expert on xxx who reveals how to or the secrets of. Use the top headline resource to help create great and eye catching headlines.

- 5 Top Tips for saving your computer from a killer attack. Leading expert on computer security reveals the secrets of effective computer protection or…

- 5 Secrets for how to make homes safer for life and forget about window blind cords forever.

Leading expert and designer reveals the secrets of effective home safety etc.

- 5 Top Tips for saving money on your new car.

Leading expert on car pricing reveals the secrets of saving thousands. Test the above against the formula and you’ll see it ticks all the boxes.

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- The rules of writing great press releases are to write 2 or 3 simple paragraphs that tells your story or talks about what you are offering simply and succinctly. Use the attraction formula as the foundation template.

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- Your press release must have a clear call to action – as with writing adverts and sales letters, your reader must know what to do next. Remember you are writing to the editor not the audience in this document so put your call to action at the bottom in bold – For More Information or to arrange and interview with ??? call this number or email to

Improve your advertising message and results (newspaper, TV, Adwords, ezine ads, social media, etc). (8 Pillars Part 2 Page P2-1) AIDCA is an acronym that stands for: Attention, Interest, Desire Convince & Action, and is a selling model used for over 80 years. The AIDCA model still holds strong and is still being considered by many as the copywriter’s best friend.

How does this model apply to writing adverts?

Simple! It is enough to link each of this acronym’s letter to one of the five main elements of communication: - Come up with an attention grabbing title; - Write an interest startling introduction; - Proceed to creating desire and motivation in the body part; - Convince by offering proof and guarantees.

- Close with a call to action.

- The key to good PR is simplicity but never forget attraction. So when crafting your release, as with all advertising and communications in business, include all the benefits the customer/consumer will get and turn them into lifestyle benefits.

- PR is a numbers game and even the best written, most appealing and attractive release is unlikely to get 100% take up. But for what it has cost you, any response is money in the bank and well worth the effort. Occasionally, you will hit the jackpot and enjoy massive exposure.

- The aim is to have PR as part of your marketing mix so you could decide to target 20 media outlets every month with a different aspect of your business or service and set up a continuous stream of exposure.

- The other thing to remember is that most media is visually driven, even the local free paper will look for a picture. When Richard Branson launched his Wedding Business, he dressed up in a wedding gown and invited the press to TAKE PICTURES. - Keep a list of great case studies of customers who have used your product or service and have a story to tell. Interview them, take pictures of an interesting aspect of the project – put it together and you have a PR release. When you write the copy, invite the editor or journalist to contact the customer for verification and any questions. This method will get free PR for you customer too.

Writing Ads and your USP. (Page 25) - Take a look at your USP – it should be the central pillar of your adverting message from which you create short snappy PPC ads or longer classified ads.

Purpose<USP>Leading World-Class business growth specialists...

Example.1 <Google Adwords PPC ad> Double Your Net Profits Top Marketing Strategies from World-Class Leading Business Growth Specialists.

Example 2.

Purpose <National Newspaper Ad> Who else wants to double Net Profits next year?

Leading World-Class business growth specialists reveal hidden formula 1% of successful business owners use.

Call 0800 xxx xxxx or register online for detailed guide www.businessgrowthmastered.com

Copyright: Asltey Bryden Associates Ltd 2012 - All Rights Reserved

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Preparing for a presentation or interview. bring it together.

Using your USP and Elevator pitch, craft a presentation about this company.

This section could cover the loneliness of being a business owner and why they would seek out an expert in business growth to help create a business growth plan. [interest section of elevator pitch]

Example {usp} leading World-Class business growth specialists. {elevator pitch} <attention> We firmly believe that business owners and leaders are unsung heroes battling through red tape, searching out new customers and markets, fighting banks for financial support and doing it, in the main ON THIER OWN. It can be a lonely place.

But that has changed recently. <interest> Now everyone in business can use the most modern, proven methods to grow their business without attending courses, meetings, seminars, tele conference calls, webinars or expensive conferences. <convince> Created by Astley Bryden Associates, 11 leading business growth specialists who all run their own independent businesses. <desire> this unique program can benefit any size and type of enterprise and spur them to meet their growth goals year on year and fulfill the owners lifetime ambitions to have zero money worries. <action> To find out more.... (tailor to the situation.)

Do it yourself Growth Plan Build around the modern techniques and the important issue of doing it at home or the business – no outside travel etc. [from convince section of elevator pitch] 11 business professionals – which one do you want to work with?

Build around the benefits of any size and type and meeting the growth goals for the year (from desire section of elevator pitch) Zero Money Worries Ever Again [Action – decide what you want the reader or listener to do and spell it out clearly] Now you can create your presentation by expanding on each heading and tailoring the content to your audience.

How to do it.

• Break each section into a heading – this becomes the Agenda •Build your presentation section by section using the formula again.

Example.

Agenda [presentation title and attention grabber taken from usp] How to get the best from a leading business growth specialist… [sub heading and again an attention grabber from elevator pitch] When entrepreneurs “feel lonely” this is what they do.

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28

The 8 Ways To Become a Direct Mail expert marketer.

*Finally, you can improve the success of your mailing campaign by 100’s of percentages points by following up with a phone call. So test this also and once you find a combination that works, roll it out and keep doing it until it becomes less successful.

No you don’t need to go on a course or spend millions on brochures or adverting copy, you just need to test out a small number of letters or brochures to find out what response you get.

*Testing therefore is the way to build your marketing into many successful channels that are constantly measured and adjusted as one promotion fails and a new one emerges. Whilst it seems like a lot of work, it can be great fun and very rewarding to test out a letter, make the phone call and secure a conversion rate of 10%.

- Don’t be afraid of direct mail.

- Use a list broker to find your niche customers - Test a letter or brochure in small batches before rolling out. *Now here’s the secret of testing small. The results you get from say a 1000 mailing, will be indicative of what you’ll get from 1million so test small and measure.

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*If you have success with a particular brochure, send it out more often because what you should understand is that most customers will open up the mail, put things on one side for later and forget to act. The pile eventually gets’ bigger and hits the bin.

It doesn’t mean that your brochure is poor or that customers don’t like you any more, it’s simply that they misplaced your first communication and will probably act if they see one again. *Test a letter offering something completely new, You will almost certainly have untapped profits in your customer list.

Create powerful offers that appeal to more customers in your target market.

Give away something customers will appreciate.

- Free samples, advice, health-checks, first order discounts, ebooks, white papers.

- Compile FREE “how to” or “did you know” or “special reports” transferring knowledge to your customers.

Find a complimentary product to yours.

Search out Joint Ventures that allow you to cross market special offers.

*But what about winning new customers.

The same principle applies here but you will more likely be using a mailing list from a broker. You can define virtually any type of potential customer from these experts who charge a fee to rent the list to you but again you must test small first and scale up where success is found. *By far the best results come from a niche in your market and by specifying the exact makeup of your list and building your communication directly at them, you will secure a better conversion rate. *A mailing list or list brokers search on the internet will present a whole array of options for you to tap into and they are usually open to discussion and negotiation once you identify your target market.

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11 Ways to Set up a referrals process 30 The (word of mouth marketing) Encourage customers to Tell-A-Friend – Set up a campaign on your website.

Include a leaflet in with your shipping documents Write to existing customers offering an incentive.

Have staff ask customers for referrals each time they talk.

- The words you use are important. Rather than ask closed questions like “if you know anyone” ask “whom do you know who would…

Reward Customers for sending you a referral.

- Wine for the Gents – flowers for the ladies perhaps.

Expect your customers to refer you as part of your relationship.

- Use words like “ I grow my business on personal recommendation from happy clients, so if I do a great job for you I hope you’ll help me by telling your friends and family about me so they can enjoy the same kind of experience. That’s fair, isn’t it?

Buy leads.

- A painter decorator may buy leads from a removal Company or Estate agent who have lists of people moving into the area recently. If you’ve moved home, you know how difficult it can be to find good tradesmen. Word a letter something like this. " Finding reliable local trades people can be difficult.

I understand from xxx Estate agents you’ve just moved into the area so that’s why I said I would call you and take care of at least one task for you. Because you were referred by xxx Estate agents and we have a good relationship, you qualify for a free survey and one free room fully decorated to your specification.

To take advantage of this incredible offer, call…."

Assume.

- Extending the process above, you can write an assumptive letter something like this…

"My name is Mr Garage. Our mutual friend Mrs Scissors the hairdresser mentioned to me you’re the proud owner of a 2005 BMZ. She suggested I write to you. You can see from the testimonials and the free report on “how to choose a specialist BMZ garage without being ripped off’ we’ve been servicing the people of Clydeside for over 40 years and have an exemplary reputation. Since you were referred to us by Mrs Scissors, a good friend, you qualify for a free Winter inspection before the bad weather sets in.

Just call us on 0800 4444" Endorsed Mailing.

- Building on the previous 2 strategies, you can send what’s called an endorsed mailing and is best described in the following example. *The Mechanic and the Plumber join forces in what could turn out to be a Joint Venture. But to test the water, they decide to mail to each others customers. *The mechanic puts together a letter offering a special deal for the plumbers customers. *The plumber includes this with a letter of his own to his customers along the lines of…

"Dear George. This is Mr Pipe, your plumber. You may be wondering why your plumber is writing to you about a mechanic. Well you can imagine if my van was off the road then so is my business.

So let me tell you something about Mr Spanner.

Some weeks ago… go on to tell a true story about how Spanner help you get your vehicle back on the road etc" *Remember, Spanner will be doing the same for Pipe – recommending him to his customers.

Become a Free Consultant.

-Involve yourself with larger businesses in the area and offer to speak to their staff about your specialist subject or offer something free from your business. The idea is to create a free offer that the employees of that business can avail themselves. This could be a session at your gym or a free haircut. In return the business itself agrees to promote your business to its employees. There’s no reason for them not to, since it’s not costing them anything but its making them look good to the staff.

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Speak to Groups - There are dozens of groups, clubs and organizations who will be pleased to have you deliver an interesting and stimulating presentation of your business or product.

Tradesmen can tell their audience “Ten sins of the Cowboy Workman”. Putting the presentation together is easy – just list the top ten things the bad guys do, tell them how to avoid being caught and then tell them these are all things you never do.

Use the Attraction formula and that’s the presentation done.

-Have a robust system in place to handle any enquiry – they are Gold but if they go sour, it could affect the relationship with your customer.

A joint venture can also be very flexible. For example, a joint venture can have a limited life span and only cover part of what you do, thus limiting the commitment for both parties and the business' exposure.

Design irresistible guarantees.

Remove the risk from your customers.

Collect and use customer Testimonials

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Create a campaign to beat your competition.

Creating a formal Joint Venture can be a daunting task and is the subject of a special Astley Bryden Associates Ltd. White Paper – email or call us for access to your copy – here are the contents…

- Meeting the needs of two or more partners - Managing the route to the deal - Choice of organizational form - Selection of managers - Control of the operation - Dealing with variance and divergence - Summary and general remarks

Ask your best customers to be specific about the benefits and facts/figures.

Example: “If you find one on the market that does more than ours, not only will we refund the full purchase price, but we’ll give you £xxx for the inconvenience – No Questions Asked”

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The 5 Ways to Form Joint Ventures and share customer bases.

The extension of Endorsed Mailing above but on a more formal basis when 2 organisations agree to work together for their common good.

A joint venture can help your business grow faster, increase productivity and generate greater profits. A successful joint venture can offer: - access to new markets and distribution networks - increased capacity - sharing of risks and costs with a partner - access to greater resources, including specialised staff, technology and finance Joint ventures often enable growth without having to borrow funds or look for outside investors. You may be able to use your joint venture partner's customer database to market your product, or offer your partner's services and products to your existing customers. Joint venture partners also benefit from being able to join forces in purchasing, research and development.

- Put it on video – then on YouTube - Include a picture - Put it on your website - Name and Company/Area should be included.

How to Get Great Testimonials personally. To make your testimonials into compelling stories, follow the steps below.

- Who to interview *Pick the ones who are most like the ones you want to work with in future. *Make sure they have a compelling story to tell.

If your work for them didn’t have a big impact, their story won’t carry much weight. *If possible, interview “influencers.” These are individuals or businesses who have name recognition or clout with your target market. *Choose people whose stories will highlight the key aspects of your business.

What to ask – Build Your Story on this template!

Stage 1 - The Ordinary World – as it was.

Tell me about life before _______________ What were the issues__________________?

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Stage 2 - The Problem

Stage 11 – The Journey Home

What was it like to________________?

Why did you buy or use____________? how did that make you feel _________?

How is you life different now______________?

How does it feel to be able to_____ instead of having to __________?

Stage 3 – The inciting event

Stage 12 – Sharing the boon

What made you finally say enough is enough and get serious about doing something about this?

What did people say when they first saw you doing________________?

Have you helped others get involved/ solve their problem?

Stage 4 – Crossing The Threshold The very first thing that was tried.?

Stage 5 – Trials and Tribulations The problems that were encounter with x – y – z?

What other options were tried that didn’t work out?

The problems that were encountered on the quest for________________?

Stage 6 – Two steps forward – three steps back Did you ever think of giving up?

How close were you to ________________?

Stage 7 – Escalating Stakes What gave you the courage to keep looking to keep trying?

Stage 8 – The Inner most Cave Describe the lowest point on your journey to finding_________________?

At what point did__________________enter the picture?

Stage 9 – Death and Rebirth What happened when you tried it or introduced it?

What did people say about it?

Stage 10 – The Final Ordeal How long did it take to eradicate the problem?

How to ask Once you have your list of potential contacts (this may be 10 or may be 50, depending on the size of your business and your marketing needs), approach them for permission to share their story.

Set up a time to interview them when you’ll both be comfortable. Practice beforehand so you can keep the interview to 15-20 minutes.

The easiest way to do the interview is to record it using a small handheld digital recorder.

Ask your question and listen carefully to the answer.

Give them a little air. Often we get so wrapped up in trying to have a conversation quickly that we overlook a crucial point.

Finessing the testimonial After you’ve concluded your interview, thank them and retire to your office!

Your summary does not need to be verbatim, since spoken English is far more informal than written English.

Make sure it highlights a key aspect of your business.

Share your written version with your client.

Where to use your testimonials Third-party endorsements help prospective clients decide if you’re the right provider for them so use them on your website, in letters, in presentations.

You might also consider re-formatting the testimonial into a Case Study! These are very powerful and can be used in many promotional activities.

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Following up Once your testimonials have been published, let your clients know so they can check them out.

Thank your clients!

Review your testimonials as your business evolves.

Gather new ones when appropriate and retire outdated ones.

How to get testimonials using other techniques Have an opt-in newsletter.

Offer incentives for feedback from lost sales.

Give away free copies of your product in exchange for product reviews.

Give away copies of your software in exchange for a 30-minute feedback session.

Find a local startup/entrepreneur/user group in town and pitch your product or service.

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Improve your business proposals and presentations The structure of your proposal should follow the AIDCA guidelines irrespective of the category of business. As you pass through each response to the request, use Section headers and paragraph headers as your attention grabbers.

- A listing of key personnel, including resumes and descriptions of each person's responsibility within the proposed project - Summaries of relevant work performed in the past - Information about the company as a whole, showing why the business is the best choice for the job. Include general capabilities, facilities information (if applicable) and relevant assets - Information about consultants or subcontractors (if applicable) - Financial information including overall budget, labor and material costs and other information specified in the solicitation.

Different requests will require different content to be included in the responding proposal. It is important to refer to the request or to the point of contact for the exact requirements for each proposal.

- How to determine the content and style of response. *Get to know the requestor better than your brother or sister and what they are looking for *Your response must contain more detail and contain the right answers to beat your competition *Study the request and question everything you are not sure about â&#x20AC;&#x201C; minor details sometime hold the key to success.

Each section should start with interest, move to desire and complete with action but this is the action you will take not instructions to the requestor.

*Never assume and never propose anything unless you are absolutely sure itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the right answer or solution.

A quality proposal should include (but is not limited to):

*Follow the style of writing from the request and always use simple launguage.

- An Executive summary - A detailed description of the work to be performed - Background of the problem to be solved (if applicable) - A task-based work plan with schedules and milestone

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35

Design your bidding process to win every tender or enquiry.

Background to bid - key issues - It is important to be methodical and rigorous during the process following the checklist below. It will help prepare for most tender invitations.

- We believe that if you are to tender at all and bear the associated costs, then no stone should be left unturned - In bringing competitive advantage to your bid, you must know the customer better than your brother/sister and understand what is going to win the decision in your favor.

Going the extra mile.

- Visits and revisits to the plant or building - Clarification sessions - Private meetings - What do I need to do to win this bid sessions - Entertainment at corporate or local events - Charitable donations - Workshop sessions with their team to fully understand the process and project - They must like you: find the person most likely to win over the customer as front man and appoint - If there are people involved in the bid solution (service industries particularly) make sure you have a team to present in the tender. Try not to use generic solutions, always specific. This is a winner when done properly.

Pre-tender - Have we selected a RED team to test every aspect of the tender and presentation prior to completion and presentation? Their job is to be the customer and critique your response from top to bottom. They should be made responsible for these check lists and ensuring the bid team are meeting the requirements. *Review tender and checklists *Review bid document when in final stages *Receive a full presentation from the team - Have we done everything we can to understand what will be in the tender?

- Are we lacking in competitive knowledge?

- Are we in regular contact with the customer and understand exactly what the criteria is to win - Do we need any specialist teams and are they available.

Tender period - Do we need any specialist team - Thorough reading of tender document - Are we in contact with customer during pretender stages?

- Do we have updated customer organigrammes?

- Do we understand customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; decision making process?

- Do we understand the scope of work - Do we understand the bid evaluation criteria - Have we negotiated to resolve our technical and commercial exclusions?

- Have we obtained information on competition strengths and weaknesses?

- Are we set to conduct brainstorming sessions to define strategy?

- Have we the very best team ready to respond Post Tender - Were we in contact with customer during pretender stages?

- Did we have updated customer organigrammes?

- Did we understand customers decision making process?

- Did we understand the scope of work?

- Did we understand bid evaluation criteria?

- Did we negotiate to resolve our technical and commercial exclusions?

- Were we in possession of competitive knowledge?

- What was price difference between us and lowest bidder?

- What did we overestimate?

- What did we underestimate?

- Conclusion and recommendations.

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36 Lifetime Value versus cost to win.

Very little is taught about this technique and probably only 1% of businesses understand and use the concept – certainly big corporations, particularly in retail have nailed it and have created billions of extra profit.

SME’s can do the same and achieve huge growth in profits by doing very little extra or different they just need to understand the numbers.

- This means Norton know that for every new customer they win, they will make £900 and can therefore decide how much they are prepared to spend on winning new customers.

The cost of £500 will make them 10 customers who will spend £900 making £9000 in revenue against a cost to win of £500.

Your special offer maybe better if you take the long view of securing a new customer for the lifetime value rather than a short term order.

Two for one Pizza.

- May cost you £2.00 for material but perceived value is £14.00 – you make £7.00 per Pizza profit – the margin reduces on your special offer to £5.00 and you’ve won a new customer who may buy 20 times = profit £140 for £2.00 investment Decide how much you are willing to spend to acquire each new customer.

Let’s look at another example.

Norton security offer Website Firewalls and all round protection against most types cyber attack.

- They offer FREE trials for 30 days. They produced the programs on CD originally but with the advent of high speed internet links most are now downloaded. Norton almost certainly lost money to supply the 30 day free trial with the cost of the CD pus the infrastructure behind the programs with servers, technical backup and programmers plus customer support.

- They may have to supply shops with millions of CD’s just to have you try it for a month - But let’s say it cost them £500 to supply 1000 CD’s to the shops and 10 people try out their offer. The potential earnings are £25 per month per customer, therefore a potential income of £250 each month if they all sign up and they do. But not all of them stay on the full program.

- The average time our new user stays with Norton is say 3 years. They spend £25.00/ m for 3 years making £900 total for the 3 years.

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37

How to use the Internet to explode your business.

Attract potential customers to give their contact details and that is all.

By John Astley – founder and CEO

The selling and exchange of money happens later once they know all the benefits of your offering and they’ve learned to trust you.

Unless you are planning to be the next Amazon or you have a business model to beat Ebay and Google, you should not be selling on the internet at all, ever. If you are a traditional business, selling on the internet will deflect you from your primary goal to attract new customers and have them spend more over time.

The internet is bulging with Companies selling every conceivable service or product and for you to stand out and make money selling means you will probably spend a fortune and get it wrong or loose interest once you have tried to understand pay per click, search engine optimization, directory listings and all the other jargon that comes with the internet.

Instead, your strategy should be to ATTRACT people to you and your business without selling a thing. In fact I would say that you should never mention order, buy, offer, discount or any phrase that suggests to potential customers that you are about to entrap them with a clever technique and have them buy from you.

In recent years, I have seen a step change in resistance to even the most sophisticated sales letter because people don’t want to be sold to – they never have. They want the internet to provide them with either FREE advice or relationships that add value to their knowledge base. One more thing – unless they are looking for a personal relationship and want to be part of the lonely hearts club, they don’t want to enter a personal relationship with you or others.

If you want to buy online, then you’ll search a key word and drop straight into the best known supplier – usually a bricks and mortar business you know because you’ve probably learned to trust them. You are attracted because you know the benefits already and they are credible. This has been the case with Ebay where they allow the seller to spell out the benefits on the sales page but the credibility comes from the guarantees ebay offer you. Yes the buyers have profiles and feedback but the real security comes from the name Ebay.

This can take time – as much as 10 contact emails or letters before they buy, so don’t expect miracles from your website and don’t spend a fortune developing a highly sophisticated site either. You need an attractive proposition that will be exchanged for your potential customers email and or address.

Depending on the value you provide and whether it lasts over a period of time, depends how much information they will give you.

Example. You may sell child safety gates and other home safety items in your bricks and mortar shop. If you write a blog about the increasing dangers in the home and how to solve them, with detailed assessments on new products and become an expert who is trusted (don’t even mention your products in your Blog) then when you start to build a trusting relationship through email, they will probably give you their home address.

That helps in that you can direct mail a brochure and letter.

If you are an internet based business and you don’t sell anywhere else, the same principle applies. Build the relationship first and then make an offer.

Someone out there is going to say but what about the Super Sales Letter that sells millions of pounds of products on the internet straight off, without building a relationship. Please tell me where the website is and I’ll take a look. In fact I’ll try and buy it.

The fact is that most successful businesses attract people by using the simple formula we now know to be the best kept business secret.

ATTRACTION=A+I+D+C+A. And unless you have an incredible product, the best sales letter ever written and a price that is so cheap it must be too good to be true, you’ll have to use the internet as a funnel into your prospects and convert them later using the techniques in this program.

So what then do you use the internet for.

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81 3. Have your customers buy more frequently and spend more each transaction.

Contents section from checklist

38 Send Out Customer Only Offers 39 Run Time-Limited or Quantitly-Limited Promotions 40 Sell Additonal Related Value 41 Write Targeted Letter To Your Niche Market 42 Increase Your Prices 43 Introduce A Telesales Programme 44 Organise A Customer Only Event 45 Do A Product Launch Or Relaunch 46 Invent A New Product Or Service 47 15 Ways To Maximise eMail Marketing - Value Exchange

Copyright: Asltey Bryden Associates Ltd 2012 - All Rights Reserved

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82 82 82 82 82 82 82 82 83 83

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82 3. Have your customers buy more frequently and spend more each transaction.

This is probably the simplest and easiest way to grow a business once you have a customer base but is the most under used or misunderstood strategy.

By implementing the following techniques, you can easily grow your business 50% or more within the next few months.

Here are 10 ways to get your customers and clients to buy from you more frequently and spend more often...

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Send out customers-only offers on a weekly or monthly basis

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Write targeted Letter – Niche marketing

Design campaigns that sell more and more often – see email marketing below.

39

Run time-limited or quantity-limited promotions and use scarcity to get customers to act now instead of later.

- Choose the target audience – check database, buy lists, search yellow pages.

- Be very focused on a niche in your customer base.

- Follow letter up with a phone call.

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Limited offer – only 10 in stock, first come first served Offer expires on Friday at Midnight.

Customer only offers – limited by date or number again.

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Set up a process to sell additional, related items.

Determine your true value and what can you add to it - Would you like fries with that.

- Add a free audit that could result in more business for you.

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Introduce a telesales program.

(Page 60)

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Organise a customer only event (Page 91)

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Do a product launch or re-launch.

Customer buys an electric drill - Send specific info on drill bits, which is best for each type of material they may encounter - Or send details of other power drills and attachments.

Reflexology patient calls in for a treatment.

- Have foot treatment cream available to buy at reception.

- Offer a head massage or hand reflexology treatment - Offer an introductory – half price treatment for a friend or family.

Customer brings car in for MOT - Have a special offer available for next service - Enroll them in your customer Loyalty scheme

Increase your prices.

What’s the goal for your launch?

- What do you expect?

- Specifically: when your launch is over how much money do you expect, how much will your list grow, and what do you want?

- Write these goals down before your launch.

- Be specific. Be able to measure your success.

What’s your timeline for the prelaunch, launch and post launch?

- What are the dates of the launch content being distributed?

- When does it go live?

- When do you reach out to your list?

When do you reach out to JVs and affiliates, if you’re doing a big launch? Again, be very specific. Get a calendar out and write down the dates, with actions required and who is responsible, if you have a team.

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Who is your ideal customer?

- Write out a clear description of your customer in terms of annual income, age, gender, habits, hobbies, appearance, and more.

- Have this person clear in your mind. If your customer was sitting at your kitchen table… what would they look like and what would you say?

- What words and phrases matter?

- What would get them excited?

- What keeps them up at night?

- Make sure you have a robust and slick system of capturing the e-mail addresses of anyone coming near your business. This means getting their permission to send them emails.

No spam JUST email communications from your business to them.

What is your main hook? What is your core offer?

- Be specific about the hook… what is the one thing that will grab attention and keep your prospects engaged, thrilled and otherwise mesmerized?

- Be specific about the offer… what are you going to be selling?

- What is the content?

- What is the format?

- What is delivery timeline?

- What is the name of the product?

- What are the bonuses?

- Do this by giving them something simple in return. All business is an exchange of value – you give them your product or service, they give you their money. What has changed in recent years and probably because of the internet, is that the exchange of value happens before money changes hands. The phenomena is known as permission marketing.

- Set Up your whole system to funnel in their email addresses – when they call in to see you, when they go on the webpage, when they telephone you, when you write to them.

- This works on the exchange of value principle in that you offer a valuable item in exchange for an email address – offer it in the shop, on your website, in the communications you have (invoices, letters etc) anywhere a customer is likely to make contact.

Invent a new product or service.

Unless you are prepared to conduct massive market research , product development, testing and all the issues of introducing a brand new product – and you have unlimited financial resources, be innovative and introduce an add on or added value to existing.

If you don’t have one, form a Joint Venture with other Companies and arrange a deal that rewards payment to you for the sale of their products.

- We recommend you use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system with built in Autoresponders – it will allow capture, qualification, emailing, tracking from prospect to customer, development of the relationship and much more.

Here are some examples of value exchange.

Make sure your product is offered to their customer list and you pay them an intro fee.

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15 Ways to Maximise email marketing by Value Exchange and CRM Do you have all your customer email addresses?

- If you don’t, get on the phone and collect their email addresses immediately. If you have to pay someone to do this, it’s about the best investment you will ever make.

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- If you sell a product, you may wish to write a report that tells people how to save money or do things better and cheaper or if you sell a cleaning service, you may write a report on how best to clean stubborn stains like tomato ketchup from a white fabric using natural products.

- The important issue is that your potential customer receives a valuable item from a company they could do business with and in exchange, you gety an email address so they can receive more free information.

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- It really does not matter what business you are in, you have knowledge and expertise that others can benefit from. Giving that out in return for an email address is a great way to start building attraction to you and your business. Remember that attraction is about benefits and what better way to start the attraction process than through a value exchange.

... if you don’t you are off that site fast. So the same thing applies to your emails – your subject line is the first indicator of whether the item is relevant to the reader – if it is then headline or opening sentence reenforces that trust and then the content that is full of benefits will attract the reader to you. If you break the trust at anytime, you’ll loose the customers attention probably for ever.

- If you don’t do this and even if you have the best designed website in the World, you’ll be lucky to have a customer contact you – they just don’t without some sort of exchange they fee is good value. Once again, test test test until you have the right free product or report and it is converting visitors to potential customers.

* Also remember, that your email opt-in, permission marketing system will have a “remove me from this mailing list” link at the bottom so once you have caused a rejection, you loose the ability to attract again and you’ve just wasted the investment you made in getting the customer in the first place. However, if you do this properly, the sales will follow and your customer will be open to special offers and upgrades and will stay with you for many years

- Once you have good system for collecting these email addresses, you can implement a campaign that follows one of your key strategies to increase the value of each order, have them buy more often or for a new business, create new customers to grow your business.

* So think of yourself as being the provider of great knowledge and expertise.

Example:

- Here is another lesson in how attraction works in business. Don’t wait until you have something new or better to email your list – plan a series of emails that build up attraction to you and your business – it’s cheap, very powerful and very successful – so why would you wait and what would you put in the emails? * First, a personal message from you to the person reading it. The CRM system should allow you to presonalise your email so that you are talking directly to the recipient. This makes sure that the reader is comfortable even before he sees the subject line or content. * Second make it relevant. The one big lesson to learn on the internet is that everything is driven by relevance so don’t go off message and ramble. Google have made relevance the basis for rating your online communications and content and so people are getting used to seeing things in these terms – you use a search term – you see a selection of sites that are relevant – you visit those sites and you expect to see relevant articles and information contnd...

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You are a car repair shop so you tell people how to look after their car with a series of tips to prevent body work corrosion and warn them that as winter approaches they need to check antifreeze levels and at the same time that you are offering a FREE service between 1st Oct and 1st Nov to the first 10 owners who book. You also have their MOT diarised to make sure they come back to you each year – keep them up to date with legislation – new rules on insurance and how best to keep your insurance low etc etc. * Within one hour you could plan a whole years email campaign to potential, existing or brand new customers and double the net profit you make because there is no increase in overhead when you set up this type of system.

- But this is not a newsletter – it is a valuable piece of information that extends your attraction by giving more information that shocks, makes them laugh or think, enhances you reputation as an expert or builds your trustworthiness and it has benefits built in for those receiving it.

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Here is what you don’t do – SELL. Your attraction will do the selling – you do the informing and helping.

- If you are a dentist, chiropractor or chiropodist, talk about new innovations in your profession, what your patients can expect in the future, new products that you have decided to stock and why, how they can self treat certain conditions and protect against bad backs or cracked heels and so on. All this builds attraction and your future wealth.

- If you are a manufacturing business, tell your customers about your processes and advances that you are making in becoming greener or all about a new product line you will be launching or a special event you are exhibiting at xxx - The great thing about emails is that you don’t have to be a great copywriter, just be able to write personal messages that follow the law of business attraction.

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Contents section from checklist

48 Bonus Gifts With Every New Purchase 49 Incentives Testimonials 50 Thank Your Customers Personally 51 Over Deliver But Under Promise 52 Implement Customer Loyalty Programs That Work 53 Position Yourself As An Authority 54 A Monthly Newsletter 55 Recognise Your Customers 56 Hold Inviations Only Events That Work

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page

87 87 87 87 88 89 91 91 91

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87 4. Retain your customers longer.

This strategy is important because it is far cheaper to work with an existing customer than win a new one. This is where CRM really comes into itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own.

Here are 7 ways to encourage loyalty and keep your customers and clients for a longer period of time:

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Bonus gifts with every new purchase.

Promotional items with your business name and branding.

Look at the calendar and choose different bonus items for different seasons Choose a gift that will remain in view like a calendar or scrap paper holder.

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Offer incentives for customers to provide testimonials on the ways they found to use the product that are unusual.(Page 75) Testimonials are undoubtedly important. With a website being most businesses' window to the world, it's important to instill confidence in a visitor that you are not a fly by night company and do a good job. If they don't trust you, they will simply move on to your competition.

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If you want your testimonials to do their job, they need to be readable. Try not to have an essay, the testimonial should focus on a specific benefit or positive result based on your service or product.

Especially on websites, people tend to skim read, so it's important the point is put across quickly. By planning ahead, you can have a long testimonial already prepared, which can be appropriately cut down depending on which section you wish to focus on. That way, the same testimonial can be re-used, whilst still staying fresh. Clearly by using the 12 step Story formula, you'll have all the amunition - it just needs to be edited.

Finishing Touch. Photographs can help prove that the testimonials are from real people. Avoid purchasing stock images of models, they almost look too good, and may have visitors questioning the validity of the testimonials. Instead, see if your client is willing to provide a photo, or arrange to visit them with a photographer.

Call your best customers and clients and thank them for their business.

Make a regular note in the diary to call them and update the CRM.

Common Mistakes. When done right, testimonials can be a strong ally in establishing credibility, a vital part of the attraction formula.

Offer them a special integrated deal

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Try to avoid using comments that are overly generic, as this can cast doubt in a visitors mind. A cardinal sin is to not back up a testimonial with the client's name and company.

Ideally, include a job title as it tends to enhance authority. When using testimonials, it's of course important to gain permission to use it, as well as their identifying information.

The last thing you need is an irate client because you published what they intended as a private communiquĂŠ. If your clients are kind enough to provide testimonials without asking, be sure to ask for permission and, ideally, ask them if they are willing to act as a reference. If they say yes, keep the letter or email on file.

Over deliver but under promise.

It is wise to set this strategy in place when you know all about the competition.

When a company decides to under promise and over deliver, there are a number of advantages.

- The first is that when they deliver the finished product early, it pleases the customer, and the customer will speak well of the company in the future.

- The second is that in the event that there is a problem or hiccup in the process, the company has a built in buffer, and it doesn't need to panic; in the example above, it might not be able to deliver by its internal target date of Wednesday, but the consumer will definitely get the project by Friday and never be the wiser.

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Create incentives to encourage customer loyalty

- Dentist – offers you a monthly payment plan in return you get 6 monthly check, free dental hygiene advice from a specialist and 25% off any treatment. You are locked in for at least a year and probably for life.

Every business should have a customer loyalty program. Why? Because it costs five times as much money to find a new customer than it does to get a current customer to come back and do business with you. Yes 5 times the amount! That alone is enough reason to have a customer loyalty program. So here are four examples

- Ebay and Amazon. They provide a platform for millions of sellers to run their businesses with no skill needed (apart from presentation) – once you are locked in, it’s difficult to change.

- Type 1: A Membership Program.

Membership programs are one of the best ways to keep customers coming back.

Most programs provide special incentives to members as part of their membership.

- Private Finance Initiative – (PFI) A Consortia builds a school, hospital or commercial building, maintains and operates it over 25 years for a fixed monthly fee on behalf of the user or owner.

- Type 2: A Rewards Program. Rewards programs provide gifts and perks that are "earned" according to the amount of business your customers do with you. In the many industry sectors, manufacturers have an annual trip that only their most successful dealers/customers get to enjoy.

- Centrica (and others) operate major Government services like Passports, DVLC and provide all the IT and systems.

- Hairdresser visits home twice a week to wash and blow – cuts when needed – they become a part of the family and invited to birthdays and weddings. Leads to many referrals and a strong customer base who are loyal and ambassadors.

* Air miles * Loyalty cards

- Industrial client. Contractor offers a 10 year program with 2 complete repaints of the whole plant ( 1 at the start – 1 at the end) and 2 touch ups over the term for a fixed monthly fee – no competitors get near and they collect all the other plant work including specialist cleaning, car park line painting etc.

- Type 3: Create a Community. Every human has a deep inner need to belong to a community. "Belonging" gives us security and helps us to understand our place in life.

- Type 4: Create Intertwined Business Processes. This is not so much a traditional customer loyalty program...BUT, it's the absolute best way that I know how to GUARANTEE that your customers will keep coming back. Basically, this method consists of positioning your business processes so deep into your client's or customer's business processes that it would financially hurt their business if they were to stop doing business with you. Here are some examples for you to consider – we do recommend you think long and hard about how your business can be adapted to this type of relationship.

As this is one of the most important business issues to address, we have highlighted 8 examples that may help you create your own lock in to customers processes.

- Electrical company offers security lighting, alarms and specialist fencing security, regular testing and inspections, a control room for emergency response for a fixed monthly fee.

The are embedded.

- The local garage offers you MOT and an annual service, tyre management, emergency call out (via a specialist contractor) for a fixed monthly fee.

Summary.

These examples show how integration into the customers’ processes or life can secure a long term relationship and blow your competitors away.

By offering massive added value, you can create this structure in your business too.

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Position yourself as an authority.

In today’s market, positioning and influence are tools that are becoming more important in the marketing mix as there’s less money around and value driven solutions are in abundance.

Steve Jobs, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Sir Richard Branson, Michael O'Leary, Willie Walsh and countless others have become experts at positioning themselves and command respect from their audiences and customers.

How to become an authority in your industry.

Here are 15 ways that you can build your authority and become an influencer in your industry . You may already be an influencer and not even know it – in which case, the steps I’m going to describe here will catapult you into stardom. And if you’re not an influencer, but would like to be, you’ll find this roadmap a helpful start on your strategic plan toward dominating your target market. If you are not a writer appoint someone who is or use services like Elance. There’s no excuse or hiding place.

At first glance, this may seem a daunting task but we’ll show you a series of techniques that will place you in a position to influence your customers and stakeholders.

Start with self-analysis - If you haven't selected a niche yet, these questions might help you hone in on one. A niche, by the way, is a smaller subset of a bigger market. For example, instead of talking or writing about the alternative health market, you could focus on alternative health products for men over age 55. If you already have a niche, laser focus even further by answering: - How do you differ from your competitors?

- What do you offer clients that no one else does quite like you?

- What do clients and peers think you do exceptionally well?

- Think of one unique thing in your background, personal or professional, that brings a unique angle or voice to the work you do. How do you weave this into your presentation and writing?

- Why should a business hire you over someone else who offers the same kind of services? Answer these questions, and you'll have a starting point for establishing your authority.

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- Write Your Story.

Using our 12 stage process to write your “Origins Journey” to establish your position of influence and authority. (Page 47).

- Focus on a very specific topic area (niche).

You MUST find a targeted, focused niche in which to specialize. You will not limit your audience, instead you will attract a very interested audience. Start by brainstorming.

Then do some keyword analysis. You can also go into your own accounts and target the most profitable and fun ones.

- Own the keywords in your area of expertise.

Pick a handful of keywords that you will own.

This means that when people type in this combination of words, your goal is to be at the top of the list. This doesn’t just apply for Google searches – this applies to the image you have with the public in general.

- Blog.

You must blog if you want to be an authority or influence people. You don’t have to blog daily, but you must provide valuable content that is congruent with your keywords and your area of expertise. Blogging is a full page advertisement for who you are and what you promise. Use it well.

- Write guest articles for high traffic blogs.

Target popular high-traffic blogs in your area of interest and send the editor a great article.

Make sure that it will bring traffic to them as well as yourself. Educate their audience, inform them, make it easy for them to take action and learn something. The editor will appreciate the content and you will both appreciate the traffic.

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- Write a book or eBook.

Again this may seem a daunting task but there are plenty of courses and advice to be had on the internet. Write about your niche and find material that will interest your audience - Arrange speaking engagements.

This will be a high investment in time, money and energy, but the payoff may be worth it depending on your presentation skills and your subject matter. Don’t think that your niche is too small, rather focus on the value that you bring to the audience.

- Create and run seminars and/or webinars.

This is similar to live speaking, and yet it’s very different. Running a seminar or a webinar involves your putting in some serious marketing and promoting energy.

The upside is that you can charge for seminars and webinars, so they are a way to promote as well as sell. In addition to this, you can record them more readily and use them over and over.

- Send Press Releases.

Write them as a ready-to-print article so that the people who pick them up don’t have to do too much editing. (Page 69) - Help others succeed.

This is more of a general tip that goes with every strategy that you take on. For each action you take look for ways to partner and co-brand with other experts. When you cross promote with other experts, you get the benefit of being referred to their list and they get referred to your list.

- Do research in your area and own the data.

Another strategy that many experts forget about is doing research or surveys with their audience. With so many free survey tools available it’s a huge waste of opportunity not to start gathering data about your industry and audience. You can use any number of free online survey tools, but also consider learning about mobile research panels. This way you will be able to run shorter surveys and have a conversation with your respondents. It’s the latest trend.

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- Create information products based on your expertise. There are already several information products that I’ve mentioned in this list; seminar, webinars, books and ebooks.

Don’t let any bit of your knowledge go to waste, turn it into articles. Then combine the articles into a book. Take the book and rework it to become a seminar or webinar.

Focus on one area and do a speech on that.

- Have a mission not a label If you have a simplistic label that you identify your brand with – life coach, internet marketer, consultant, whatever – people will see you as part of this great big group that they already have templates for in their mind. And you will not stand out. At all. You don’t need a label – you need a mission. Things you stand for that the rest of your industry doesn’t stand for, or has a painfully weak stance not worth mentioning. Your mission is to bring _______ to your industry. Only you can decide what that is, and once you do, you’ve got to push for it with all you’re worth.

- Prove you’re an expert don’t say it Show it, and do a better job than anyone else.

Word will spread, people will come to your website, and when they see how much content you have talking for you they’ll wonder what is wrong with your lazy competition - Let other people say how good you are not you.

Remember, people don’t believe what you say about you, they believe what other people say about you. So make sure you’re blowing the minds of vocal people so you have plenty of self-promotional ammunition. Do good for others, and they’ll say something good about you. So keep your mouth shut about how great you are and focus on impressing people enough that they’re talking about you all over the place. Then you can spend even more time focusing on blowing people’s minds. It’s an upward spiral.

- Make the conversation don’t just be part of it The sign of a true authority is not that they’re the smartest person in a conversation, it’s that they’re making the conversation. They’re bringing up the things no one else will talk about, they’re asking the questions, they’re putting their slant on the subject by taking a stand. They’re controversial and the market pays attention.

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A Monthly Newsletter.

Conference – a great opportunity to invite clients to an industry conference hosted by you.

Creating a great communication is not as challenging as it may seem. There are many matters you are an expert in and information you can relay, industry news, international developments and new techniques.

Gala Dinner – special events like this create customer loyalty if done properly.

- By email * Unfortunately20% opened is good nowadays so don’t assume that your customer is seeing your emails.

- By hardcopy * An A3 folded to 4 page A4 is easy to produce and will increase the likelihood of customers taking a look - By text * Upto 75% of texts are acted on so text a link to your online version.

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Give your customers and clients public recognition in your newsletter, blog, or ezine.

Case studies are a good way to implement this strategy Praise the length of time they’ve been your customers Praise some of the unique ways they use your product

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Hold a By Invitation Only EVENT. Type of event.

Make them feel special – M&S do an event where their card holders only are invited to a special evening reception Choose a subject customers will love – prelaunch of new product or service with a special offer attached.

JV a special event where two or more businesses bring together their customers and offer special deals for that night/ day only – restaurant customers meet Florist customers and Chiropractic or similar. Be innovative – this is a very powerful way to keep old and attract new. Lawyer customers meet accountants meet financial advisors.

Corporate Hospitality – from a box at the Royal Albert Hall to a small gathering at a local show, your customers will enjoy being pampered and treated to the very best hospitality.

Entertaining and Theming – transform a normal boring event to an extraordinary success by adding special magic.

Party Planning – they excite and leave a lasting impression with clients, providing an atmosphere of relaxation and fun.

Planning and Organising an event.

Here are the key questions that will assist you in creating a strategy for your event.

What are your strategic Aims for the event?

- Why are you having the event?

- Who is the target market?

- What is the mix of that market?

- What is the message?

- How are you going to relay the message/what medium?

- How are you going to measure success?

- What would be success?

- What is the follow up plan to the event?

Roles and Responsibilities - Who is going to champion the event?

- Who within your company is going to make decisions?

- Who is going to coordinate the event?

- Who is going to direct all the different suppliers?

- Who is the leader of the overall event?

Branding and Graphics - Who is managing the design of the brand?

- Who has to be involved with the development of the Brand?

- What branded material is needed for the event?

- What is the budget for branded materials?

- How is this linked with other marketing initiatives?

- What, if any, are your branding guidelines?

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PR/Marketing - What is the message you are trying to convey?

- Who do you wish to see this experience?

- Business to business?

- National press?

- International press?

- Who is to be interviewed?

- Who is leading the whole press campaign?

- What is the positioning of the whole company?

- Live interviews for radio & TV? Who is to do this?

- How does this campaign fit into the existing PR? - What are the challenges that come to mind/ politics of the company?

- What is in the press packs?

Who gets the press packs?

Agree a budget - Venue - Food & drink - Entertainment - Date - Outside suppliers - Follow up marketing Decide on type of event - Seated dinner - Finger buffet - Cocktail party with canapĂŠs - Sporting event - Fun and creative - Includes partners - Includes family - Mix of sexes - City/Country - National/international Format - Formal/informal - Passive/Active - Interactive - Educational - Social - Promotional Attendees - Staff only - Partners - Clients/existing/new - Family - Specific market/sector

Venue - Preferred location - Accessibility - Size of venue required - Cost - Possible theming needs - AV requirements - Unusual venue - Fully functional venue - Create a Venue Timing and Date - Decide date range - Decide dates you cannot do - Decide which days of the week you are prepared to consider - Decide if all your marketing material will be ready - Look at other opportunities around the chosen date - Look at general social calendar e.g. Easter, school holidays, other competing events internal/external Guest List and numbers - Estimate numbers early - Who will be on the guest list?

- Will they all mix at the one event?

- How to coordinate the mix of invited guests?

- Does venue allow for numbers?

- Does budget allow for numbers ?

- How current is the guest list?

Menus - Buffet - Seated - CanapĂŠs - Themed - National/Traditional food Bar - Cash or account and what limit - Type of drinks required - Free bar - Tray served/self serve/bar served Entertainment - Decide live band needs - Decide preferred music style - Decide if speaker is needed - Sporting entertainment - Active entertainment/clients participate - Theatre entertainment - Film/video entertainment - Actors/look-alike - Speakers

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Committee/Board/Shareholders - Elect committee if required - How often does the board meet?

- How often do the Shareholders meet?

- Who is available to lead the project?

- Financial support?

- Event to be sponsored - Budget in place - Budget to be found Summary.

As you may have guessed, we have run many events using this checklist and would welcome the opportunity to advise and help with an event you are planning.