AdvertisingSolution.info

The marketing field is flooded with sources and experts. How does a business owner weed through these sources - and all their advice - to find someone who can help grow businesses effectively and affordably? Smart business owners always advertise with two things in mind: 1. The Ten Commandments of Marketing; 2. The Ten Commandments of the Bible.

The Ten Commandments of Marketing

1. Get a marketing plan. Even the simplest of plans can help business owners avoid wasting literally thousands of dollars and sometimes years of lost business growth.
2. A business owner’s main focus should be on growing business. Hire consultants to handle accounting, taxes, marketing or any other tasks that may distract from growing business.
3. Business owners should know their customers. Their customer is not they or their spouse or their best friend. They should constantly talk to real customers and test their message on them.
4. Pick a niche. No one is going to believe that one business or product is the best, the fastest and the cheapest. Pick one. And stick with it.
5. Advertise products’ benefits - not their features. Customers don’t care about the 786-megawatt superconductor. They just want to know how it’s going to save them time, make them money or improve their image.
6. Specialized products should be advertised through direct media channels. Products offering something for everyone should be advertised through mass media channels.
7, Keep words to a minimum. Enough said.
8. Generally, prospects need to hear or see a message at least nine times. Generally, prospects need to hear or see a message at least nine times. Generally…
9. Stay ahead of customers. Stick with what works, but watch sales trends.
If trends start changing, products and/or marketing mix may need a change.
10. Free advertising is the best kind. If something is really newsworthy, let the media know.

The Ten Commandments of the Bible

Being aware of the Ten Commandments of the Bible will help business owners select a good marketing specialist. Most marketing specialists probably can’t recite the Commandments. But they should know they frown on stealing, lying, cheating, and a few other things.

A good marketing specialist will ask a lot of questions; they’ll give some free advice; they’ll provide a very close estimate and guarantee to work within the estimated boundaries. In short, they don’t lie, cheat or steal.

Smart business owners listen to their gut instincts to find a good marketing consultant. A good one will ask a lot of questions about the specific business, its history, its successes and failures. They’ll ask where the owner thinks the business should go; they’ll give some free advice; they’ll provide a very close estimate for the work they recommend; they’ll guarantee to work within the estimated boundaries. In short, they’ll care about the Client. If they don’t, move on. This sounds like simple advice, but it’s surprising how many business owners throw out these rules and don’t listen to their gut instincts.

By following the Ten Commandments of Marketing and the Ten Commandments of the Holy Bible, success will come easier. All business owners seem to do a lot of praying when it comes to the state of their business anyway, so it just seems fitting to tie the two together.

Holly George, Award-Winning Advertising Expert & Marketing Spitfire, shows small business owners how to blast their business to the next level of success. Find out more at http://www.boostyourbottomline.com

Share This

The human brain is an amazing instrument. It is great at filtering out what it perceives as irrelevant. This is why a person who lives near a railway isn’t aware of the passing train. It is also why people don’t take notice of most of the advertisements they encounter.

You need to design your ads to get noticed. You want them to be read. To do this you want the consumer to perceive the ad as relevant to them. You can achieve this by using the copywriting principle referred to as AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

Whether you are writing an advertisement for a brochure, your local newspaper, a direct mail flyer or even your website, the method is the same. Although it can be a challenge, it is important to follow the AIDA principle even for a miniscule ad, such as Google Adwords. You may not be able to list much information in a small ad but you still need to get the reader’s attention, whet their appetite and direct them to where they can get more information.

The first thing you want your ad to do is attract ATTENTION. You do this with an exciting benefit driven headline that entices the reader to stop and read more. If you don’t get the headline right, you have wasted your advertising money because no one will read the ad.

To develop a great headline you need to understand the benefits you product delivers. What is a benefit? It is the problem you product solves. It is the improvement the buyer will experience with your product. It is not the features of the product. Customers don’t care about features. What they want is to know what’s in it for them.

Use the headline to focus on one outstanding benefit of your product. Add hypnotic power words such as “how to” or “discover” and you have a headline that will attract.

Now that you have the reader’s attention, you need to use words to create emotion and INTEREST. This should tie into your headline. Love, fear, guilt, and pride are emotional factors that directly affect buying decisions. Keep these in mind when describing the benefits. Building interest in this way will create DESIRE.

The next step is to make an offer so irresistible that the customer can’t say no. How do you do this? Add value with a guarantee, time limited discounts, additional bonuses to act immediately.
All you need to do now is to tell them exactly what ACTION they need to take, making it simple for them to take advantage of your offer. “Phone 000 111 222 now to order” or “Click here to buy now”. Include contact details and exact instructions.

Using AIDA along with an understanding of the benefits of your product will help your ads stand out in the marketplace.

Ritchie Hale is founder and owner of ELAH Group Pty Ltd. As a consultant he has shown large, global corporations how to gain leverage in the areas of Marketing and IT. As a personal coach he has turned small business owners and individuals in to goal getters. Ritchie is dedicated to helping small business owners grow their business. Visit http://www.elahgroup.com

Share This

You may use this article for reprint, as long as it
remains unaltered and the resource box and author
information are included. - Isaiah Hull

Why You Cannot Afford to Be An Anti-Social Internet
Marketer

Anti-social internet marketing is a critical flaw that
will destroy even the best, most creative sales strategies.
If you do not build relationships and follow up on them
–through personal interaction and automation–you will
spend most of your time either a) repeating trivial tasks
that can either be completed exponentially faster with the
help of other people or b) plodding away on a course
that will never result in sales conversions.

Building and maintaining marketing relationships will
help you do the following:

1. Avoid wasting time and money on outdated products
and services that are no longer valid in the internet
marketing world.

2. Create massive contact lists of people who trust you
and want to buy your products and follow your advice.

3. Diversify and maximize your sources and quantities
of leads.

4. Setup joint ventures that will generate immediate
sales for you and add potential buyers to your long-term
customer database.

5. Explode your backend sales from follow-ups.

6. Increase your credibility with potential buyers.

Many internet marketers fail to realize that personal
interaction is in fact the catalyst that allows internet
businesses to make that jump from expensive to profitable.
Rather than seeking this medium to boost their sales, they
assure themselves that the internet is an isolated,
anti-social medium, where people do not need connections
to succeed.

Again, this is a critically-flawed system of thinking.
Without personal connections, you will not succeed with
any internet business.

Here are some ways you can increase your sales conversion
numbers by integrating personal interactions into your
marketing strategy (you may already use some of these):

1. Keep your reciprocal links directory–but also actively
seek links for your main page and your other content
pages. You can do this by finding related websites
on search engines and then personally emailing the
webmasters. Explain what you like about the website–and
how your link would fit in with what they sell. Also
include where you plan to link back to their site.

Make sure all of your emails are personal. Do not make it
look like you sent out some spam robot to hammer every
webmaster with flattering, form-letter reciprocal link
requests. This will not work.

One prominent link from a high-PR, high-traffic website
can potentially reap more sales conversions for you
than 100 reciprocal links that are locked away with
thousands of other link prisoners in the dark depths of
some website’s dungeon of a directory. Just
think of the time you could save! So do not be stingy.
offer partner sites good link positions. If your sales
copy is good enough to pull profits, then you do not
need to worry about links stealing potential sales
from you.

In addition to getting you more productive
reciprocal links, this strategy will also allow you to
develop important relationships that can later result in
profitable joint ventures or even free product exchanges.

2. Encourage your database of customers or mailing list–
or whatever you use to contact potential or previous
customers–to interact with you on a personal level when
you market a product or service to them. You need
to be very honest with your customers if you want them
to trust you. It is fair to say that people are generally
dissatisfied with programs they opt-in to and information
they purchase over the internet. If you have a product
that has actual value, then you should have no problem
explaining any questions they might have, which will
relieve the general queasiness related with internet
purchases. If you do not believe in the product you
are selling enough to field questions about it, then
find or make one you have enough confidence in before
you apply the ideas outlined in this article.

Scientific marketing tests have repeatedly proven that
an increase in contact (and therefore trust) correlates
with an increase sales. The more you personally contact
and talk to your potential customers, the better chance
you will have to make a sale. In the process, you will
also help people who are in your database by giving them
more information about the product or service you are
providing.

3. Join a large internet marketing community and
participate in the discussions. This is hands-down
the most effective way to shape a marketing plan.
You will get the chance to discuss important issues
with people who have succeeded and failed trying
the same exact plans you want to use. You will also
be able to quickly find out what methods are outdated
and which are still valid–which is direly important to
know when you own a business in the most dynamic market
place in the world.

In addition to this, you will be able to generate sales
by attaching a signature with a link to your website or
affiliate gateway below each of your posts.

Again, interacting with other marketers–whether it be
through emails or forums–can get you involved in
joint ventures and free product exchanges, which
will cut back your advertising costs and boost
your sales. Forums are one of the best places
to do this.

So, to reiterate:

1. You greatly inhibit your success by limiting personal
contact with other marketers and potential customers.

2. There are three major ways to improve your marketing
methods and results through personal contact: personally-
emailing webmasters for mainpage links; encouraging your
database to contact you–and then following up with
any questions they have; and joining a large internet
marketing community.

If you follow these simple steps to increase your
personal contact with buyers and marketers, you will
see an increase in growth and sales. I use these
methods to make money–and I encourage all my affiliates
to do the same.

Isaiah Hull is the CEO of an internet marketing and
business-building business. He is also the publisher
of Home Business Tips Newsletter and a member of the
top Internet Marketing Group in the world, the Internet
Warriors. To receive step-by-step training, a free
profit-pulling website, and a membership to the
Internet Warriors, click here to learn how you can begin
working for yourself by working with Isaiah:
http://www.workathomerightnow.net

Share This