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How to develop a bulletproof Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – Part 4
Convinced You Need A USP?
Part Four of Four
Here’s something I hear fairly often from clients.
“I don’t want a USP because I’m afraid to limit myself.”
I understand. When I started my online lead generation company, I stated that I offered a wide range of services including copywriting, offline marketing services, web design, graphic design, and other marketing and advertising services. Marketing Results can provide all these services today but several years ago, I simplified my USP and focused my website and my marketing on one service that’s vital to small businesses: online lead generation. Two things happened:
- 110% increase in enquiries.
- Much higher quality of lead…fewer tyre-kickers.
You would think that making potential clients aware of all the services you offer would increase the number of leads but precisely the opposite is true, as I discovered. One reason? Potential clients focus on the one service we provide that solves a specific problem: not enough qualified leads. Adjunctive services are not a distraction. This focus makes our marketing significantly easier and it makes the message easier to understand.
To develop this focus, identify a gap in your industry and choose the service you provide that fills this gap. Start by asking these questions.
- What do people currently dislike about our industry?
- What are our competitors’ weaknesses?
- What specific needs are being unmet in the market?
Another client is Loans Approved, a mortgage broker specializing in serving the needs of property investors. The mortgage business is extremely competitive. We worked with the managing director to achieve marketing focus (and a much better USP). Every mortgage broker can handle a simple first home loan application but very few understand how to structure multiple loans for long-term success. Banks will structure loans on their terms unless and it turns out this can handcuff property investors and keep them from buying as many homes as they could.
The tagline for Loans Approved is…
The Property Investor’s Mortgage Broker.
Loans Approved goes well beyond this tagline. The company also provides prospects with the latest education and advice—specifically special reports and newsletters; the information reinforces their place in the market as THE experts in this highly specialized field. Prospects know precisely why it makes more sense for property investors to deal with Loans Approved than a bank or ‘one stop shop.’
Expertise in a specific niche can be a very powerful USP, especially on the Internet. Becoming more focused in a specific niche means you dominate a playing field which is always more successful than trying to secure some turf in a market that’s commoditized.
Sometimes, when I consult with a business to help them improve their online results, the company has a USP. But it’s a “faux USP” or a USP that’s not appealing to the target market. The classic faux USP is the One Stop Shop. For example:
“We’re a one stop shop for anyone interested in building wealth. I’m an accountant and I have a mortgage broker and a financial planner and a conveyancer to whom I can refer clients.”
The one stop shop sounds extremely convenient. Unfortunately, this strategy rarely works for small businesses. Why? There’s no focus and the prospect gets no sense you’re an expert. People will pay for expertise or specialization; in fact, they’ll pay MORE. There’s a reason heart surgeons and brain surgeons are paid much, much more than general doctors. If you went to see a knee specialist, I’m confident you would find it weird if the doctor said,
“I also perform open heart surgery.”
On the Internet, especially with search, prospective clients are looking for specific answers to specific problems. If you’re a small business, trying to solve too many problems is a mistake. Yes, the patient looking for a knee operation might need a new heart; the knee specialist refers the patient to the cardiologist. Yes, the knee doctor can help patients with a variety of ailments but he promotes himself as a specialist with a narrow focus.
Even big companies that offer a wide range of services stick to advertising they offer one solution. Again, take the example of FedEx. They sell themselves as offering just one solution (overnight package delivery) but they offer full logistics services.
Don’t tell anyone, but, at Marketing Results, we’re a one stop shop for lead generation and marketing. But our focus is providing a single solution: online lead generation. We don’t emphasize all the services we offer: AdWords management, conversion rate optimization, and search engine optimization—plus design, copywriting, and more. But the marketing center of gravity in the eyes of the prospect is getting leads through the Internet.
Here’s the real beauty of focus. Once you’ve solved the client’s problem the client trusts you, you can ask for additional business in related fields. Our USP helps us find clients because it’s extremely focused. Here’s the full version.
As Australia’s leading internet lead generation experts,
Marketing Results uses sophisticated web analytics to
precisely understand how visitors are interacting with your
website, then leverage proven traffic and conversion
strategies to cut marketing waste, expand your reach and
effectiveness and boost website profits by 2 to 21 times
(based on over 5 years of documented client results).
Again, we provide all the competencies necessary to help our clients. But the focus is lead generation. Clients don’t care that we offer all the services—all they want is qualified leads!
Final USP Thoughts
Online, a well-built USP plays a vital role keeping visitors on your website and letting prospects know you can solve a problem. When I’m working with clients, the first step is to write a compelling USP then base all the marketing around the USP. And remember, positioning is 50 times more important, and profitable, than branding.
How to develop a bulletproof Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – Part 3
A USP is not a slogan and a slogan is Not a USP…Crafting a Powerful USP and the Qualities of a Successful USP
Part Three of Four
A tagline is a short sentence or phrase that’s often part of, or next to, a logo. Here are some examples of taglines.
- Built Ford Tough
- USAirways: Fly with US
- YouTube: Broadcast Yourself
- Papa John’s: Papa’s in the House
A tagline is NOT the same as a USP. Your tagline is usually too short to communicate your entire USP. However, a great tagline quickly summarizes the full USP and communicates the key selling proposition in one or two seconds. A USP can be a few words or it can be full paragraph. Defining then encapsulating into what makes you different, unique, and desirable is more important than word county.
Remember, the successful USP answers this question: why should a potential client or customer buy from you? When answering this question, promise something special your competitors cannot deliver. Before we create your UPS, take a look at these excellent examples.
- SpeedFedEx: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
- Quality/SelectionWoolworth’s: The Fresh Food People
- GuaranteeCraftsman Tools: If any Craftsman hand tool fails to provide complete
satisfaction, return it for free repair or replacement. Period. The first
Craftsman hand tool we sold back in 1927 is still under warranty today.
Just as some taglines are poor, many USPs are awful. These approaches are too vague plus they are not unique.
- “Good Quality and Low Prices.”
- “Affordable Quality Since 1984.”
- “Service With A Smile.”
- “Excellence In Quality And Service.”
These USPs are commonplace and they scream, THESE COMPANIES KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MARKETING AND ARE DOOMED TO FAIL.
Four steps to creating a bulletproof USP.
STEP ONE. Choose your category. USPs are grouped into one of these:
Price. Quality. Service. Speed. Selection. Convenience. Guarantee. Customisation. Originality. Specialisation.
STEP TWO. Crystallise and communicate your unique strengths by asking yourself these four questions:
- What do you offer your competitors don’t?
- Is #1 important to your customers?
- How easy is it for competitors to copy?
- Can it be communicated easily?
Ask your current clients and customers what they like about your products and services.
STEP THREE. Flesh out the concepts. These concepts are broad. For example, if you choose ‘Service’ as your category, you have to say more and be more specific than “We Give GREAT Service.” This type of cliché will not convince someone to stay on your website.
STEP FOUR. Lay on the proof.
We use these steps with our clients before we take any of the steps necessary to generate leads.
How Would You Like an 800% Increase in Sales?
We built a USP for a client who sells stickers, primarily customized bumper stickers: CustomizedStickers.com; we proved that even a product as seemingly simple as a sticker can benefit from a USP. Here’s how we answered the USP formation questions.
What they offer: Customized Stickers only offers low prices on full colour stickers, but they also include added benefits at no extra charge: a free artwork service, unlimited colours, plus UV-resistant coatings.
Is it important to the customer? Yes. Stickers are a “commodity” item and customers are typically price-sensitive. Many potential customers resent the extra cost and inconvenience of getting artwork designed separately. All-in-one pricing is simpler and more transparent; customers like the ‘no hidden charges’ benefit.
Is it easy for competitors to copy? Competitors could copy these advantages but with great difficulty. Customized Stickers is the first to claim this space and can back up the promise through their unique production process. They can cost-effectively offer the added value of not injecting hidden charges.
Can it be communicated? Yes. The tagline? Full Colour Stickers at a 1-Colour Price. The content on the website augments, enhances, and buttresses the promise.
The result?
Customized Stickers clearly defined their USP and built their traffic generation and conversion around their USP. In 18 months, we helped Customized Stickers boost their online sales by over 800% to more than $2 million.
… to be continued.
How to develop a bulletproof Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – Part 2
A Strong USP is Much More Important (and Profitable) than Branding
Part Two of Four
If you’ve read marketing books, been to conferences, or sat down with a marketing or advertising consultant, you may have heard the word ‘branding.’ For small business owners, it’s an extremely dangerous word: you can quickly waste tens of thousands of dollars on branding at the recommendation of a branding consultant or advertising agency that uses words like ‘brand-centric’ or similar nonsense. Ask a branding agency or a branding consultant about results. Ask them to show the actual revenue their latest ‘branding’ campaign produced. If you’re an owner or a marketing manager at a small or mid-sized business, be extremely wary when you hear amorphous marketing chatter about “building your online brand” and “leveraging brand equity.”
It’s tempting to listen to the branding experts and hand them money. After all, big companies spend money on branding so it must produce an ROI, right? Let’s take a quick look at branding and what it really means. To “brand” a product or service is to imprint your mark on it. Branding started to differentiate items that look similar…like horses and cattle.
The goal of branding is to increase awareness. Companies pour money into branding campaigns because they want to imprint the brand into the mind of the consumer, increase awareness, and create a certain feeling. The hope: when it’s time to make a buying decision, the consumer will recognize the brand, like its associations, remember the funny ad he or she saw on TV last night, remember the ‘certain feeling’ and buy ‘Brand X’ over all the other brands. Although it’s difficult to measure, branding can be effective for large companies that sell a mass-market service or product. And you must have deep, deep pockets to buy TV time and radio spots plus big ads in newspapers and magazines.
In one of his blogs, Dan Kennedy, widely regarded as one the top small business marketing experts (and an excellent marketer himself), writes:
“I do counsel AGAINST investing directly into brand-building, especially with large-company style ‘image’ advertising that cannot be accurately and ruthlessly held accountable.”
Kennedy has a brand called “No B.S. Marketing” but it’s not where Kennedy spends his marketing money. And Dan Kennedy’s brand is Dan Kennedy. Kennedy has a logo with him standing behind a bull. That’s about it for Kennedy’s branding.
Highly successful direct response copywriter and marketing consultant Bob Bly, who is no great fan of branding, wrote a blog titled “Is Madison Avenue a Big Fraud?” In the blog he talks about an advertisement for Six Flags, a chain of American amusement parks. The ad is set in a town where everyone is so busy working they have no time to have fun. Up rolls a Six Flags bus and out pops an old man who starts dancing wildly. All the people in the town get on the bus, go to Six Flags and have a big time. Bly said the ad world acclaimed the ad for its “humor, energy, and cleverness.”
According to Bly, who cites Parade magazine, the ad campaign cost $72 million yet generated no increase in attendance and “not a drop of added revenue.” Look up Six Flags on Wikipedia and you’ll discover the New York Stock Exchange delisted the company in April 2009 and it filed for bankruptcy on June 13 the same year.
If you’re still in doubt about branding, watch a YouTube video comparing direct response (measurable) advertising to general (branding) advertising. The star of the video? David Ogilvy, one of the most famous and successful advertisers in the history of advertising. From the video…
General advertisers know almost nothing for sure because they cannot measure the results of their advertising.
Yes, a branding agency may win awards at advertising awards dinners and a campaign may temporarily (and expensively) build awareness, but it won’t produce what every small business needs: a daily torrent of qualified leads. Branding will not help you get these leads. We spend, and our successful clients spend, every marketing dollar and every ounce of psychic bandwidth generating qualified sales leads instead of building awareness.
Do You Want Customers to “Be Aware” or Do You Want them to Buy?
Instead of branding, start by positioning your product or service in the mind of potential customers.
Positioning begins by answering this question:
Why should I give my business to you, when with one click of a mouse button, or by flipping open the Yellow Pages. I can find 10 other providers who offer the same service?
When my clients answer this question in a compelling way, they start to generate top-quality enquiries and sales leads. And you can achieve this whether you’re a household name on the Internet or your website went live only last week. And when it comes to claiming prime USP real estate, it’s first-come, first-served. Think about the golf course: there may be other courses in the area with excellent greens but Rolling Lakes Country Club claimed the space first.
One of My Favorite USPs
Dilmah Tea is an example of a well-positioned business. I enjoy the tea and also admire the positioning. Founder Merill J. Fernando clearly differentiated his tea by focusing around a single, unique, and appealing idea. Here’s the tagline…The Single Origin Tea. (As I will detail in a minute, a tagline is not a USP and a USP is not a tagline.)
The company fleshes out the tagline in several places.
Each box of Dilmah tea contains a folded insert explaining the care the company takes sourcing, packing, and delivering each cup of their tea. There’s some excellent copy on their website. Here’s an excerpt.
Dilmah is the product of a lifetime devoted to tea. Founder of Dilmah, Merrill J. Fernando embarked on a quest to bring quality back to tea when in the 1950s, he witnessed the concentration of ownership in the tea industry into the hands of a few large corporations and as a result, the ‘commoditisation’ of tea. As one of the first Ceylonese to have the opportunity to be trained in tea, Merrill harboured a dream since his initiation in the world of tea, to launch his own brand of tea, and to offer consumers the choice of something truly different. His dream took over three decades to come true, and in 1988 he launched his own brand – Dilmah, coined from the names of his two sons Dilhan and Malik. Dilmah introduced lovers of fine tea to the concept of tea ‘picked, perfected and packed’ at origin. Being owned and managed by a tea producer, Dilmah is also a role model for producing countries. Merrill pioneered the concept of ‘Single Origin Tea,’ choosing to remain faithful to Ceylon Tea, acknowledged the finest tea on earth.
It’s “About Us” copy but notice how the copywriter wove these strands into a compelling story.
- A lifetime devoted to tea
- Struggling against the corporate hegemony to fulfil a dream
- The family story behind the name
- A model for developing countries
- Remaining faithful to Ceylon Tea
Combined, these elements of the story create a Unique Selling Proposition. And it’s a USP oozing with authenticity so often missing from most marketing.
… to be continued.
How to develop a bulletproof Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – Part 1
How a Bumper Sticker Company Increased Online Sales by over 800%, Starting with a New USP
Part One Of Four
Pizza aficionados might disagree but, when it comes to delivery and ‘mass market’ pizza, there’s not a big difference in quality between the major players. I’m confident a blind taste test would prove my point.
To be successful, a pizza company must differentiate itself from the other pizza companies by positioning themselves as better and different. A small company in the United States faced this differentiation challenge in the 1960s. Tom Monaghan had bought his brother’s share of Domino’s Pizza (for a used Volkswagen Beetle) and was sleeping on a cot in the store. At the time, Domino’s was just another pizza restaurant in Michigan. Monaghan needed to increase revenue and he wanted to grow a franchise. To make Domino’s stand out from the competition, Domino’s came up with a promise:
Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.
In 2009, Domino’s reported $1.4 billion in revenue.
People in the shipping and logistics business might disagree but what’s the difference between the major shipping companies to the average person in the street who wants a package or letter delivered overnight? FedEx recognized this and, like Dominos, came up with a promise.
When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
FedEx went from being a small courier service based in Tennessee to one of the largest companies in the world; its airplanes travel nearly 500,000 miles a day.
When a potential customer decides to order a pizza, they’ve already decided to buy a pizza. The question becomes, “which pizza company?” When somebody needs to ship a package across the country and it has to be there tomorrow, they’ve already decided to ship the package. The question becomes, “which shipping company?”
Domino’s and FedEx succeeded and grew rapidly in part because they made a promise to their customers and kept the promise. In marketing, we call this promise a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
In the mind of a potential client or customer, a USP defines the company’s position in the market. The USP positions a product or service as unique and desirable in the eyes of prospects and customers. The USP is the foundation of a marketing strategy for any company and every company that wants to be successful MUST have a clear USP.
Almost every day, I’m reminded of the importance of how vital a USP is to the success of every marketing project. A great USP with average execution can succeed but a weak USP with superb execution usually fails.
When I ask a prospective client, “what’s your USP?” I usually get this reply.
“What does USP stand for?”
I recently spoke to 165 business owners at an online marketing seminar; fewer than 10 of the attendees were able to state their USP. That’s the bad news. The good news is that each of these 165 business owners could quickly answer these questions:
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?
- Why do repeat clients and customers like you?
- What makes you better than your competitors?
If you can answer these questions, you can develop a USP. You know what makes your company different and better but you must communicate this to prospects. It takes a little time to develop a USP but there’s no cost; the USP is especially important for digital marketing.
Visitors to your website usually arrive through a search engine. Let’s say a man has decided to buy his loved one a diamond necklace. He’s already decided to buy so now the decision becomes, “which jewelry store is going to get my business?” If you’re in the diamond necklace business and you’re one of the sites the man is visiting, your competitors’ sites are just a click away. So it’s vital to differentiate your jewelry store quickly so they choose you and click around your site and ultimately click ‘buy now’ on your website instead of clicking to another site.
Leave Price Wars Behind
One of the major benefits of a strong USP is that it can help you get out of price war. Yes, some people shop purely for price and ‘the absolute lowest prices’ can be a USP but let’s take a look at Domino’s and FedEx. These companies stress a benefit, not price. Yes, price is important but it’s not the only factor in a buying decision.
When you position yourself correctly, you can charge more. For example, let’s say you’re in the public golf course business, which can be extremely competitive. Let’s say you’re in a suburb and there are five golf courses near yours and there’s a brutal price war going on and you’d like to get out of the battle. Golfers always comment on the quality of the greens at your course. A strong USP could be: Rolling Lakes Country Club has The Best Greens in the South Ridgewood area. Golfers value great putting surfaces and would be willing to pay for a course with excellent greens. In the New York City area, where golf can be funereally slow, especially on weekends, a course guarantees “a round of golf in four hours or less or your next greens fee is on us.” It’s a highly successful USP.
… to be continued
How To Send Your Business Broke
I had an interesting experience in the weekend…
I had some time to kill so I stopped for a coffee at a neighbourhood bookshop-cum-cafe.
I sat down for my coffee (flat white, no sugar) and flipped open my Macbook Pro. At that point I noticed that bookshop had wi-fi, so I approached the counter to ask for the password.
The girl behind the counter said their policy was to only give out the password to customers who spend $10 or more, either at the cafe or the bookstore.
Trouble is, I just didn’t feel like any food and I wasn’t in book-buying mode.
I asked for a little flexibility but she stood firm: “store policy”.
So I wandered back to my seat and surveyed the 18 out of 20 seats empty seats, wondering how sane this particular store policy was.
Free wi-fi for customers is in fact one of their hidden weapons. If I know I can have a coffee there and check email, I’m likely to go there more often…maybe even become a “regular” (life time value).
I may even bring friends or business associates (become a centre of influence for them). And I’m likely to gradually deepen my relationship over time and buy a few impulse-purchase books (even if they’re a little more expensive than Amazon.com).
But nope. They had to be tight-assed about the wi-fi policy, which is narrowly focused on earning an extra $6.50 from the transaction at hand, but pissing me off in the process and motivating me to seek other alternatives.
When they go out of business, they’ll say it was Amazon.com and the big chains that did it. They’ll say it’s impossible for the little guy to survive in this world of globalisation.
But the real reason will be, they didn’t capitalise on their greatest assets (a sense of local community and a place to “hang out”) but instead had to go for a the extra few bucks on the initial sale.
Next time I want free wi-fi, I’ll just go to Starbucks.
What policies do you have in place that might be repelling customers?
‘Old school’ marketing resurgence
The great promise of online marketing is, you can sell to an unlimited number of customers wherever they are – simply by shifting electrons around the Internet.
Websites and emails and marketing automation are great. But there’s just one problem…
Humans didn’t evolve in a virtual world. We evolved roaming the plains, chasing down antelope and spearing mammoths.
No matter how convenient the virtual world is, humans still thirst for the tangible, physical world. Probably more so now than ever.
I’m not suggesting you turn your back on virtual marketing – far from it.
But what I AM suggesting, is by incorporating a “physical” dimension into your online lead generation, you’ll enjoy greatly improved results.
A few real-life examples:
1. One MR client sends out a physical “Shock And Awe” pack to each new prospect.
This is a 3-pound pack of DVDs, Special Reports, Sales Letters, Testimonials and other “goodies” that arrives in an Express Post envelope within 24 hours of enquiry. Somewhat harder to ignore than an email!
2. Another client in the finance sector has been quietly publishing a PRINT newsletter every two months.
It has proven to be an outstanding vehicle for driving repeat and referral business. And it gets read more and commented on more than the email equivalent.
A print newsletter becomes a sit-down-and-have-a-cuppa experience for the recipient. And as the sender, you’re not competing with hundreds of other messages in an overcrowded inbox.
3. Then there’s getting out and meeting people.
Several months ago we held a series of small-group events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It was a great opportunity to deliver more in-depth content. Meet subscribers face to face. Get “live feedback” from the marketplace. And of course, it resulted in a lot of new client engagements and project work. All in all, a resounding success.
So there you have it…
The FASTEST way to transition a new prospect into a paying client, or build an iron cage around your existing customer base, is by incorporating a physical dimension into your online lead generation.
I’d be interested to know what your experiences have been with this.
Feel free to leave a comment below…
How To Combine Offline Marketing With Online Marketing
Mastering online marketing and lead generation is one of the highest-return investments your small business can make. But after a while, even the most successful online marketers run into the problem of ‘diminishing returns”.
After all, if your online strategy is heavily dependent on search engine traffic (free and/or paid), your results will hinge on the total number of people searching online for your products and services.
For example, one of our clients operates a gym in a regional centre (Geelong’s Gym). His website occupies 6 out of 10 places on Page 1 of Google for the major search terms. So there is very little “upside” left on the search traffic front. His marketing has to extend elsewhere if he is going to increase new customer volume. (Another effective strategy would be to work on increasing website conversion – but that’s another blog post!)
Combining offline and online is best
And note that I’m not merely suggesting, “if your online marketing hits a growth ceiling, you’re going to have to do more offline marketing”.
Rather, I’m talking about combining the best of both worlds – by taking advantage of the massive reach of “offline” and the superior tracking, automation and relationship-building power of “online”.
When offline traffic makes sense
Here are 3 situations when it’s worthwhile seeking out offline traffic sources:
- When the value of each customer is high. An accountant may be happy to invest $1,000 in advertising to acquire 3 new small business clients, whereas an online candle shop with an average transaction value of $25 may think twice.
- When you “know where your best prospects hang out”. Many offline publications, including magazines and trade journals, can be good places to advertise because of the high density of genuine prospects among the readership. A scaffolder advertising in a major building industry publication knows that many of the 10,000 readers are buyers of scaffolding. The same ad in a major newspaper may be of interest to only 1 in 5,000 readers.
- When online traffic is expensive. In some industries (e.g. financial services), one click from the Pay Per Click search engines may cost you $10 or more. That makes many offline advertising opportunities look cost-effective!
The winning strategy
I’ve already mentioned that the major benefit of this strategy is combining the massive reach of “offline” with the automation power of “online”.
What this means is: you use your offline marketing to drive prospects to your website, then use relationship-building tools such as autoresponder emails to communicate with new prospects and maximise the value of the leads you generate.
Here’s how it works:
Your offline marketing piece (your ad, direct mail letter or insert) promotes valuable information of interest to your prospect, that can only be accessed via your website – like an opt-in Free Report, an Audio CD or DVD.
This information is called your “Lead Magnet”, and the most popular format is a “How-To Report”. An accountant looking for more SME clients could publish a report called “9 Tax Minimisation Strategies No Small Business Owner Should Be Without – All 100% Legal And Approved By The ATO”.
Then on your website (or dedicated landing page), your prospect enters their details (either name and email only, or full address if you plan to send the promised information in the mail).
After that, your automated marketing takes over. First of all, you deliver the information you promised, which of course has to be of high-quality.
Then you use email autoresponders and/or other types of follow-up messages to drive the next stage in the process (e.g. contacting you for an exploratory consultation.)
Remember that follow-up is CRITICAL to the success of this strategy. NOT having at least 5 pre-programmed follow up steps will slash your results by 50 to 70 percent.
Top 3 offline media to test
The 3 most reliable media to test are magazines, trade journals and direct mail.
In each case, the value of response-oriented copy cannot be over-emphasised. If you are not an experienced copywriter, find someone who is – don’t be ‘penny wise, pound foolish’.
You should always remember to track everything down to the last cent. You need to know exactly how many leads, sales and dollars each promotion generates in order to optimise your results.
Here are a few more pointers for making this strategy a success…
Magazines and trade journals:
- Start with the most targeted publication possible (there’s a good list of magazines at isubscribe.com.au)
- Negotiate hard on price. You can often get good discounts for buying ‘remnant space’
- Test a small ad first – e.g. ¼ page
- Your response will tend to FALL when you run the same ad again, not rise. So if your first ad doesn’t work – change it before running it again
Direct mail:
- The quality of your list is paramount
- Lists can be found via the Yellow Pages or list brokers
- Test small and roll out what works
- Postcards work well for promoting free offerings
- Rule of thumb: a sequence of 3 postcards will garner double the response of a single postcard
As Pay Per Click traffic gets more expensive and organic search becomes more competitive, business owners who know how to connect with the right prospects will come out in front.
I urge you to try this strategy, which is likely to work even better if you’re the first person in your industry to use this form of marketing.
A more detailed description of this multi-step marketing strategy is found in the free e-course, “7 Steps To Doubling Your Website Leads”, available here:
www.marketing-results.com.au/7steps
Will Swayne
Connect with me on Twitter! I’m @willswayne
How To Use Print Newsletters As A Killer Customer Retention Tool
Although I focus on using the Internet to set up uber-profitable lead generation pipelines for our small business and corporate clients, there is one “offline” client retention strategy that I endorse above all others:
The monthly newsletter.
I’m not talking about the trite B.S. that passes for most company newsletters (if they publish anything at all), but rather relevant information and advice that your prospects WANT to tear open and absorb the moment they receive it in the mail.
ESPECIALLY if you’re in an “information-centric” industry with a high average transaction value, newsletters can add huge value to clients AND stack up well economically for you.
3 or 4 pages of content, plus relevant article clippings or exhibits of interest to your customers (i.e. leveraging other people’s content) is a simple formula that works.
Yes, putting it together involves an investment of time or money, but the returns can be well worth it. One concept I enlarged upon in one of my print newsletters to a client directly resulted in a $72,000 contract. Maybe I would have got the work anyway, but I would rather have it sooner rather than later 
And once the first copy is complete, the marginal cost of printing and sending each additional copy is marginal — less than $5.
Again, depending on your industry, you can even make the whole process cashflow positive by selling subscriptions to non-clients for, say, $37 per month on a good-till-cancelled basis. As long as you can create enough value to make the subscription price pales in comparison, it’s a goer. 1,000 subscribers @ $37 per month equals a $444,000 annual revenue stream. Sure, getting 1,000 people to sign up to your newsletter isn’t easy — you have to be great at what you do and great at marketing what you do.
But even if you only had enough subscribers to pay for the cost of the mailing, wouldn’t that be worth the value of keeping in touch with customers on a regular basis?
Although it sounds like heresy for an “Internet guy” to say this,Email communication just doesn’t cut it. Email is great for communicating with PROSPECTS, but once a prospect becomes a client the economics can usually support a print version.
Your customers can hold print newsletters in their hands, mark them up and annotate them, circulate them around the office with Post-It notes attached, and most importantly, NOT delete them from their overstuffed email inboxes (although the wastepaper basket is always within easy reach, so you have to be good.)
The best way to test this strategy is to commit to a number of issues (say 6 or 12) and follow through on your commitment. If it’s not worth the effort, there’s no harm done and you can stop doing it (though you’ll have 6 or 12 high-quality autoresponder emails in the can for your trouble.)
If you don’t have the time to co-ordinate this, speak to a copywriting or marketing agency who can handle the whole strategy for you. (I’m even considering offering this as a packaged service to clients, but I’m not actively marketing this at the moment).
Give it a try — I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.
“Blue Ocean Strategy” Book Summary
Blue Ocean Strategy is all about creating UNCONTESTED market space in which you dominate the competition because there IS no competition! It is just as viable (and profitable) on the web as it is offline, and I believe it will become more so.
Right now, many companies (especially small businesses) are “surviving” on the web because of moderate traffic costs (particularly PPC) and competitors who, by and large, don’t really know what they’re doing.
As the competition heats up, “me-too” companies will be eaten alive, leaving only those with a well-executed internet strategy and tight conversion funnel will really prosper.
Click here for a useful Blue Ocean Strategy Summary in Slideshare format.
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