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Can you learn to paint like Rembrandt without experiencing how Rembrandt did it? The same goes for learning marketing and sales techniques that work.

I’m always amazed by the responses I get from many of my business coaching clients, and sales and marketing clients when I ask them to keep copies of the best and the worst ads and websites they’ve seen. I don’t think I’ve ever found a client that had been doing it before. And when asked them to start keeping copies and learn from what they see they are afraid of “copying.”

Let me take you back to my childhood. I can remember setting through art class year after year, and never getting any better. I never felt I had learned anything.

For the most part, I tried to learn from scratch, to do everything uniquely. That is what the art teacher kept telling me. However, one day I was watching TV and saw a program that was teaching how to copy some really good prints. They taught how to duplicate the strokes exactly as was on the print. We learned how to do a tree, a house, the grass, mountains, in “that style.” The next week we started with another print and another style.

Before that I was taught to never copy. I had a total fear of having anyone think I might be doing something like someone else. Once I broke through that fear, I started using a light table, tracing over the original prints. Suddenly I was able to understand what kinds of strokes and colors worked. Only then was I able draw and paint, and not too bad at that. This progress happened in a matter of weeks. It had taken me years to get to this point, but weeks once I caught on.

The best way to learn to paint, or to write good ads and marketing material is to study the masters. And the best way to do that is to learn to copy them first. Once you understand what it takes to make something look somewhat similar to their style, and understand why they have done it that way, only then can you start to develop your own unique style.

Even the best marketing experts and copywriters keep a SWIPE file. They save copies of the best and the worst examples, sometimes with notes on them helping them understand why they filed it. Some are filed by the marketing style, some by an industry. When they get ready to write their own marketing copy they go back to the files to remind themselves what the best of the best looked like, and what they should avoid among the worst.

As you build your own SWIPE file you will discover that you will be finding better and better copy, and probably will start to throw poor copy out and keep only the best. That’s how you’ll learn to get better. As you get better and start learning the intricacies of what makes good copy you’ll see that some of the copy you saved wasn’t really that good, but now you’ll be looking for copy that meets that new standard to replace the existing stuff.

Here are some quick guidelines for choosing good copy:

1)It must be presenting benefits, not product, services, or the person.

2)It should identify the target audience. (This should be the first thing you see)

3)It should have a measurable “grabber” line, bold, highlighted if not at the top, very near the top. (This should be the 2nd thing you see).

4)It should identify the key objections their audience has and deal with them.

5)It should have some testimonials. The testimonials should

a) backup the measurable benefit in the grabber line
b)overcome the objections

6)It should downplay or not use graphics. Graphics should only be used to support the grabber line. Far too often, the graphic becomes the center of attention instead of the grabber line. Graphics doesn’t sell, words do.

7)Make a very clear offer, and ASK for an action, don’t assume an action.

8)Have ONLY one clear action to be taken, not multiple. The more choices your reader has the less likely he will choose any one of them. You’ll actually lower your response rate.

9)Develop a sense or urgency around your offer. People are procrastinators. Give them a chance to say “Yes, I need to respond to this, but I’ll put it on my desk and answer it tomorrow,” and it will get lost in the pile and never answered.

Give them an offer they can’t refuse and tell them it is good for only … days, or for the first 10, etc. I hear the rumbling from the peanut gallery whenever I say that. Everyone fears that they are reducing their responses by not letting everyone have time. Let me say it again, “People are procrastinators.” They will put it down to do it tomorrow and never do it. Your response will be low to nil.

Use “Call me TODAY I will only take X number. Last month we filled in 3-4 days. SO CALL NOW!” and that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It will be gone in 3-4 days. Just make sure to live up to your limit or people won’t believe you next time.

Use these guidelines to review the ads and websites for your SWIPE file. Start keeping the best and the worst. Then use the ideas it generates to write your own ads and your own website the next time.

Alan Boyer, President/CEO of The Leader’s Perspective, LLC is considered one of the world’s leading breakthrough specialists. He has worked with some of the worlds largest companies, on projects in the multi-billion dollar area, and with single proprietor companies. He has worked on many hundreds of projects with companies that have resulted in multi-$100 million savings or gains.

With over 35 years of business, quality, and process experience, he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some have doubled and some have jumped 10 times. He claims the key to that is:

Let me get right to the point. The single most powerful small business marketing tool on the planet is a marketing system.

But when I talk about a marketing system I am not referring to those academic exercises found in college marketing books.

A marketing system by my way of thinking is a simple (in many cases one page) document that specifically answers who you are, what you do, who needs it, how you plan to grab them by the throat, when you plan to do it and how you plan to pay for itin a way that everyone in your organization, network, and client base can clearly understand.

So, let’s break it down into some simple steps.

1) Narrow Your Focus - create a description of your ideal client. Describe them as though they are sitting across the desk from your at this moment. Define only the market that you know needs what you offer and values what you have to offer. It is just as important to understand who you don’t want as a client.

2) Find and Communicate Your Core Difference - Even if your make it up, you’ve got to find something that makes your business stand out from the pack. Once you do, you’ve got to build your entire marketing program around this difference. Is it red trucks, is it an unheard of guarantee, is it a very specific market niche. You can’t stand out trying to be all things to all people.

3) Package Your Business - Look for ways to build your unique difference into the experience your client or prospect has with your firm. Everything about your firm should communicate and deliver your unique promise. Package your services as products, communicate your unique process, name your service offerings.

4) Educate - Throw away the sales brochures and create marketing materials and web site content that clearly speaks to your ideal client and gives proof that your indeed uniquely qualified to solve their problems. Create case studies, testimonial sheets, client lists, process description, service descriptions, the story of why you started your business.

5) Install the Lead Generation Trio - Advertising that generates permission, public relations that provide proof and referral systems that guarantee trust. Each of these three lead generating tactics works hand in hand to create a non stop flow of highly qualified leads.

6) Automate and Dominate - Once you start to create a flow of leads let technology do the heavy qualifying and selling for you. Ezines, email, blogs, web sites, white paper delivery, subscription lists - all must be automated in order to most effectively communicate as consistently as is necessary in today’s advertising message onslaught.

7) Live by a Calendar - Create the system and then work the system. Do whatever you must to make sure that you do at least one marketing activity every single day. Create a monthly calendar and give each month a marketing system theme. Get everyone in your organization involved - put the calendar in a very public place.

Copyright 2005 John Jantsch

John Jantsch is a marketing coach and creator of Duct Tape Marketing. You can find out more about the Ultimate Marketing System at: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/Ultimate-Marketing-System.htm

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Five years ago I started my first business. My background and training were in manufacturing, chemistry and management. The management experience was certainly helpful in launching a new business, but the other areas really didn’t lend much to helping me get done everything I needed to do.

As the owner, I was responsible for hiring, firing, billing, marketing, following up on sales leads, managing & training my employees, scheduling, submitting all of the proper paperwork for payroll, bookkeeping, accounting, etc… This can be very overwhelming for a person who is launching a business for the first time with very few resources. To manage all of these tasks, I immediately outsourced the day-to-day bookkeeping tasks, hired an accountant, and outsourced the payroll administration. These were all things that I was not adequately skilled to do and knew that it would be well worth my time to pay for outsourcing.

I have never had a job in the sales field, so the next BIG hurdle for me was to find a way to generate leads and turn those leads into clients. My company is a small cleaning service that started with me and one employee. My intent was always to be the manager of the company — not the cleaning lady! So, I had to develop skills that did not come naturally to me. I also had to develop a strategy.

My first attempt at developing leads was a total and utter flop. I engaged in a $4000 direct mail campaign. Direct mail can range in price from $1500 to tens of thousands of dollars for a professionally executed campaign. The company that I contacted to help me in this quest developed my logo and created the mail pieces that would go out to specific demographics. My call back rate on this mailer was less than 1% and the number of resulting clients I could count on one hand. Needless to say, I was very disappointed and a little bit desperate, because this was my entire advertising budget.

Since then I have learned a lot. First, to get your business name recognized, you will need to have a presence in the community. It may take a while to brand your product or service, but in the long run it pays off. In the beginning of my first business I did this by joining networking groups. You can check your local papers in the business section to see what is available in your area. Some groups charge annual fees or dues, others charge per the function. What worked for me was the type of networking group in which you developed relationships and those who were in those groups felt comfortable giving you referrals. Please note I did say referrals. Unlike the direct mail piece where the callers were looking for a bargain, the relationship referrals were people who wanted someone they could trust. My closing rate on referrals was about 90%. And the referrals almost always continued using our service on a long-term basis.

As I said, it took me a while to brand my business. I used the logo that was developed for me because it was very well done and memorable. I kept the colors that were used in my original direct mail campaign - black and gold. Down the road, I developed a website and about 6 months ago I hired a firm to redevelop my website that did a fantastic job utilizing my branding strategy. Eventually, I bought uniform shirts, aprons, bags with our name and logo. All of our print material displays our logo. I meet more people at networking meetings that remember meeting me because of my striking business card. So the effect is apparent what a good branding campaign can do for your.

Another wonderful way to create a presence in the community is to promote your business through PR announcements. You can do this yourself by looking at the different announcements you see in your local business news or you can hire a PR firm to do this for you. A lot of professionals in sales and business owners read that information because they like to be informed about what is going on in their business community.

If your business has employees, consider sponsoring an event. Some events want monetary sponsors, but some events need workers which they will consider as an in-kind sponsorship. There are always schools, professional associations, and other non-profit groups looking for this type of relationship with business. A business associate of mine owns a senior care business. Each year she sponsors “Senior Santa” program which provides personal care and non-prescription health products to the Senior Citizens in the area. This is a wonderful way to give to the community plus the local papers pick up the story free of charge to help promote the event.

If print advertising seems to be the best route for you, check out some of the new or smaller local magazines instead of the newspaper. I have placed business card sized ads in a fairly well distributed magazine for just over $100 a month. Always check to see if the publication requires a certain commitment (3 months, 6 months, 1 year) before making a decision. If you’re on a budget, you can get a better price by going for a longer term sometimes, but it may be better for you to go month to month if you are unsure about your available budget. The publication I advertised in had prices ranging from $125 - $95 per month. I got a mid-rate for a 3 month commitment which fit in my budget well.

The last thing I would recommend for new businesses is to get a web presence as soon as possible. My first company is a cleaning company and for about the first year, I kept telling people “I don’t need a website because I don’t sell anything on the web.” That was a true statement, but what I was overlooking was the fact that people like to know something about a company before they use them and just about everyone will go to the computer and punch in your company name to visit your website if they are considering doing business with you. Having a website lends credibility to any business. It shows prospective customers that you want to share your company information with them.

A professionally developed website can be big bucks and well out of budget for the start-up business. There are many services available that offer templates and affordable hosting. Do a web search for website development or internet hosting or websites. My cleaning company has a professionally developed website. My newest venture - well - I did the website - because my budget did not allow for that expense right now. I must say I am very satisfied with my newest site www.welcomecharlotte.info

Denise Cagan is the owner of DiCi Services, Inc. http://www.diciservices.com a residential / commercial cleaning service in Charlotte, NC. She is also starting a second company Welcome Charlotte, Inc. http://www.welcomecharlotte.info which will help emerging businesses market to new homeowners and newcomers to the Charlotte, NC area.
She graduated from James Madison University and worked with Coca-Cola for ten years. Denise has been a board member for National Association of Women Business Owner’s Charlotte Chapter for the past two years and was the recipient of the 2006 Team Builder Award.

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