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These are turbulent times for all businesses - necessitating streamlined marketing processes that are finely honed to mesh with today’s sputtering global economy.

1. Don’t stop advertising because the economy is sluggish - increase it, as many of your competitors are foolishly slowing down and you can grab market share! Look at what Dell has done to Gateway in the last eighteen months - Gateway has lost 10-20% of their market share and are pulling in their horns, while Dell’s slice of the pie has grown bigger.

2. Negotiate aggressively with media sources - its tough right now for online and offline publishers to generate advertising revenue and they are being forced to consider any and all deals. Note the number of “house ads” being run by major portals like Yahoo and Internet.com, 20-30% of their banner ads or sponsorship buttons are promoting their own businesses.

3. It’s no secret that many ecommerce sites look like Amazon.com - it pays to mirror existing market leaders’ web site design. People always resist change and familiarity is one of key reasons why they shop on and offline in the same stores.

4. Niche marketing has almost become a homily - but it enables your company to leverage your marketing expenditures and R&D costs by concentrating on a narrow market segment. ToolLogic, Inc. (www.toollogic.com) is a wonderful example of a company that created/found a niche and then dominated it.

5. What’s unique about your company, services and/or products? When you understand this you’ve just created “brand uniqueness” - make sure you integrate these themes with all of your marketing; customers need to know what’s different about your company versus your competitors. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream (www.benandjerrys.com) did a wonderful job of developing brand uniqueness in a commodity market (ice cream) that enabled them to build a great company.

6. A key attribute for any successful marketing campaign is repetition - your company may not have the marketing resources of an Intel (their “Intel Inside” campaign far exceeded their marketing goals) but you do need to repeat your message and reinforce the branding and market awareness by touching your market segment via multiple reinforcing marketing processes; i.e. search engine ranking, print, opt-in e-mail, radio/TV, sponsorship buttons, newsletter inserts, etc.

7. Make it easy to do business with your company by offering pricing and terms of service that fit your client’s needs - Digit-Net technologies (www.digi-net.com) sells software and or ASP services to its customers by offering them terms of services that can be flexed to fit their needs, not the other way around.

8. Switching costs are high in this challenging market - companies and individuals don’t want to change their habits, as this can cost them more money. So, figure out how you can adapt your products and services to fit their needs to minimize their switching costs. Then, communicate this effectively via all of your marketing processes.

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies.
Lee@intelective.com

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Voice Mail is a classy name for “answer Machine”.
Problem is, people at home had answer machines
long before most businesses. When the answer
machine industry finally figured how work to their
machines into business systems with more than one
extension, they called it “Voice Mail”

This article focuses on what you say TO the voice
mail, not the welcome greeting you might put on
your voice mail. You can leave two types of voice
mail messages. A message to a person you already
have a business relationship with, and a message
to a person you hope to establish a business
relationship with (a cold call).

Most people don’t answer machines or voice mail.
If you have an answer machine at home you have
listened to that recorded silence while the non-
speaking person breathes, then hangs up, having
decided not to leave a message. Most answer
machine message begin with a pause because the
person on the other end was not prepared to leave
a message and does not think on their feet like
you and me. In business, the pause can kill you.
Voice mail can be your buddy. Be prepared to meet
it head on without a moment’s hesitation. Just
like you worked out your one sentence unique
selling proposition and practiced the quick draw
of your business cards for networking, you can be
ready with several canned voice mail message and
not miss a second when the thing beeps at you.
Time is money. You took the time to make the call,
so you should make every effort to make it pay for
off for you. What you say is what makes the
difference.

There is some research that says the average
executive gets over 300 messages (mail, eMail fax
and more) each day, not to mention the bombardment
of advertising messages from billboards, TV,
radio, cable and newspapers. That’s a lot of
clutter to penetrate. And if your message is ho
hum, or starts with a pause… fahgettaboutit!
Your message must attract attention right off or
you go down with the delete button. Leaving
messages for friends and family is a snap, a
spontaneous act. Not so at work. You need to
prepare your message.Be ready before you dial.

What do you say? You have to plan this in advance.
Scripting is not a bad idea. I am not saying you
should read from a script, but if you write and
organize what you are going to say and read the
script out loud enough times, it will sound like a
natural when you recite it to the machine. Just
like you rehearsed your Unique Selling Proposition
(USP) so you don’t have to remember, it just comes
out naturally when someone asks “What do you do?”

I know of one eager saleslady who recorded her
voice mail response on a little cassette machine
hooked to her phone with a Radio Shack interface.
When she gets the tone, she pushes the play button
and sends it down the line. Another sales type,
(let’s call him “Bif”) had a guy at the radio
station do up a fancy 30 second commercial
complete with production effects and music. There
is a line you cross and Bif may have crossed it.
Goals Your message should be targeted at building
credibility, so when you call again and the party
is in the office, you can get through.

How can you build credibility with a voice mail
message? For starts, you don’t leave a lot of
ahhs, gulps, and uuhs. When you begin without
hesitation, in a clear, concise, upbeat manner you
are telegraphing a positive image of knowledge and
confidence, even when you get the “unexpected”
voice mail prompt.

As you deliver your rehearsed script over and
over, take care not to speed though with little or
no emotion in your voice. Remember how you feel
when the place you call is answered by a bored,
unhappy receptionist who speeds through the spiel
with the “I don’t care if you can’t comprehend
what I am saying” attitude. Your Voice mail pitch
must be warm, and slow enough to sound as if it is
coming from your heart, not your recorder on high
speed.

Here are BIG Mike’s Tips for leaving effective
Voice Mail

DON’T BE PREDICTABLE

Everyone leaves the same tired message.You get
tuned out the minutes it starts, Example of same
ol same ol: “Hi this is Bif, we haven’t met but I
thought I’d call to see if you would be interested
in hearing about my new…” UGH! Make your
messages so compelling folks have to call you
back. And don’t drone on and on, make ‘em short
enough to entice, but long enough to incite.

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU

This phrase pops up in every aspect of marketing,
from advertising all the way down to answer
machine and voice mail messages, Its Not About
You.

Take a poll. No one cares about you. No one cares
that your mug shot is 15 feet high on a billboard
across town. No one cares if you are doing your
own radio commercials and sound worse than the
high school announcer. No one cares if your
dealership has sold more cars than all the dealers
in Central Montana. And NO ONE CARES when you
leave a message about you, or your company. Its
not about you. WIIFM.

WIIFM is not a radio station, is the acronym to
remind you they don’t care about you, instead they
ask “What’s In It For Me?” WIIFM??

SELL THE BENEFITS

The key ingredient for successful sales and
marketing works for effective voice mail as well.
What can you say that will lead the listener to
know and believe that you have something of value
for them? Prospects return calls if you convince
them you may have something they want…and, soon.

ASK FOR THE ORDER

Voice mails have been asking callers to “Leave a
message” for years, yet fully three quarters of
those who do respond to the beep only leave name
and phone number.

Your voice mail message gives you a perfect
opportunity to call for action on the part of your
listener (Remember you are competing with 300+
messages and the horrid reputation of telephone
sales pitches (telemarketers).

Go for the close with a call for action. Ask them
to do something. To Call You, To be on the lookout
for a package from FedEx. To check records to see
if you are not right on target. Ask and you’ll
get.

Voice mail response can be an effective sales
tool. Voice mail is one of many tools the
professional uses to get the job done, right

©2005 BIG Mike McDaniel All Rights Reserved
Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.com
BIG Mike is a Professional Speaker and Small
Business Consultant with over 30 years experience,
http://BIGIdeasGroup.com

Subscribe to “BIG Mike’s BIG Ideas” Newsletter
MailTo:subscribe-956603364@ezinedirector.net

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Most businesses target only people “ready-to-buy”. These hot prospects are “Now Buyers” because they’ve been inching closer to a decision for some period of time. They’re just about ready to spend cash. Advertisers target “Now Buyers” because the pressure is on to make sales immediately. And, they know these prospects are most qualified, from a timing standpoint.

The selling situation gets more complicated when similar products or services are offered by competitors. Typically, buyers cannot differentiate one provider from another. So, the
final decision eventually defaults to (lowest) price.

Two problems are operating concurrently:

1. The advertiser has failed to convince the buyer exactly why they should buy from them specifically.

2. The advertiser has failed to understand human nature and the mental process a prospect goes through before making the purchase. Consequently, the marketing approach is too narrowly focused. This results in missed sales opportunities.

Fortunately, both problems are easily solved by a single strategic approach.

Any buying decision follows a series of educational events experienced by the buyer. Depending upon the actual product or service, time-frames can perhaps be as short as a day or two for minor purchases to as long as a couple of years for major purchases. Actual time aside, these milestones are reached before any final purchase. I call this series of educational milestones as Points A to Z Along The Educational Spectrum.

At point A, the prospect gets the first idea to buy what you sell (or to switch vendors). At point Z, the prospect becomes your customer and money changes hands. In between, your prospect goes through an educational process.

As a vendor, you need to participate and facilitate that process. It’s your job to educate your prospect with enough information on an ongoing basis. And, you do this by incorporating, every step of the way, the Marketing Equation, as outlined in other MYM On-Demand newsletters and programs.

With each contact point you make, you attract the attention of your prospects, engage them, then provide them with relevant, important information that builds a case for your product, service, and business. The information should be complimentary, fulfilling the prospect’s response to your risk-free offers.

Education can be presented through letters, post cards, emails, reports, fact sheets, comparisons, newsletters, e-zines, white papers, videos, CDs/DVDs, web sites, seminars, webinars, digital video streaming, personal contact, etc. The important concept to remember is to make these “touch-point contacts” on a periodic basis without fail.

This does several things. It endears the prospect to you because you’re seen to be extremely adept at helping with the decision-making process. Also, you position yourself as the well-informed expert. Most importantly, you’re perceived as someone who truly understands your prospect’s situation.
This means you’re best situated to help solve the problem, fill the need, or meet the desire.

Here’s a question for you. Do you focus on just “Now Buyers”, who account for only 1% to 5% of all prospects, or do you target “All Buyers”?

Don’t abandon the plum tree just because some of the fruit is still green. Nurture your prospects.

After they respond to your ad, make the effort to keep in touch with them, for as long as it takes to convert them to a sale.
Collect their contact information and develop an automated hopper system. Understand that every prospect you meet is somewhere between A and Z along the Educational Spectrum.

It’s your job, as a strategic marketer, to guide them, I like to say, “until they buy or until they die”. Your available target market is bigger than you think. This process will insure that the huge pipeline of “All Buyers” flows right towards your business so you can monopolize your marketplace.

Good luck with your marketing efforts.

Tags: ads, advertiser, advertising, business, marketing, sales, strategic marketing, tactical marketingads, advertiser, advertising, business, marketing, sales, strategic marketing, tactical marketing

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