Successful Marketing Strategies For Any Business

Genius is sometimes defined as the ability to make the complex simple. Certainly, “marketing” is a complex subject; so complex it’s very difficult for many business people to ever get a handle on it. Its complexity is intimidating. After years in “marketing”, I’ve finally found a definition of “marketing” that reflects the genius of simplicity. Marketing is simply making the right presentation of the right message to the right people.

With that simple definition as a guide, just about every businessperson can clearly see his past errors, and do a more effective job of marketing in the future.

Let’s talk about the right people first. Many salespeople and business owners have dramatically unsuccessful experiences with direct-mail and with telemarketing for this simple reason: they’re mailing to or calling the wrong people! Who are the right people? Prospects who most closely match the demographics of your good, established customers and/or your desirable customers. “Demographics” refers to statistical, lifestyle and preference information about people.

The best way to explain it is through example, that you'll have to wait for later in the week, until then.

www.3DMailResults.com

Change how you Think of Testing

Let me switch gears and talk briefly about another aspect of “testing”. This is actually how all highly successful entrepreneurs view everything they do...as testing. They do NOT see things in the context of “success” or “failure” like ordinary people do, and as a result they do not become “de-motivated” like most people do. See, most people drain all the vitality, courage, optimism and git-up-n-go out of themselves by focusing on all the things they do that don’t work out well, as a compilation of failures.

But successful people understand the powerful impact of that negative reinforcement on their own self-image (somewhat akin to the impact of pouring a gallon of toxic waste into a pint of clear water, drinking the result, and wondering why the stomach backs up into the esophagus).

Instead, they carefully organize the things they do into a series or sequence of experiments, testing options, and focusing on the ones they find that work. And they fully expect to go through any number of experiments that don’t pan out before walking away from the lab with a winner.

This not only has practical relevance, it has profound psychological ramifications. Just like a little tweak in thinking can make a big difference in the results of say, an ad or a flyer, a little tweak in thinking can make a giant difference in the life results experienced by an individual.

Edison said it perfectly when he was asked about his failings in creating the light bulb, "I did not fail a thousand times, I just found a thousand ways not to build a light bulb.”

Testing Your Mails Hot Buttons

If I’m trying to beat a control, here are the “hot” variables I’ll look at closely, to see if there’s room for improvement:

1. The offer
2. The guarantee(s)
3. The urgency of response
4. The big idea or big promise
5. The overcoming of skepticism ie. credibility and believability
6. The style or tone of the writing itself
7. The look of the piece

By the way, little, very testable things DO sometimes make very big differences. Recently I saw an example in a marketing newsletter of a guy who just added four rubber-stamped words to the outside of his envelope, and beat his control by 300%.

I've also seen a TV infomercial come back from the dead by raising the price of the product. Gary Halbert saved the Pearl Cream advertising by adding a particular bonus. A dentist in Sacramento changed five words on his Val-Pak coupon and went from getting two or three new patients a month to 15 to 20. This is the sort of thing that makes direct-response advertising as frustrating as golf.

Obviously, you can’t test if you can’t, won’t or don’t collect accurate data. You have to code every offer, and track where every ounce of business comes from. If you have employees who are lax about this, you must educate them about the importance, discipline them if they goof it up, and ultimately can’em if they won’t do it right 100% of the time.

I confess that I fly by the seat of my pants in my business more than I should, but I can’t fire me, God knows there are days I should. Anyway, I can assure you: the clients I have with the best profits and incomes possess the best information about where their business comes from.

Next week I've got a doozie of a post. It will change the way you think about direct mail forever. I'll see you next time.

www.3DMailResults.com

Test And Grow Rich

I'm going to start a topic now for about 2 weeks that is CRITICAL to any successful marketing campaign, but is of utmost importance when it comes to 3D mail.

“Testing” is an ugly topic. Why? Because testing variables in advertising direct mail, phone scripts and sales presentations requires discipline, diligence and patience. To get it right, you can only test one variable at a time. This means that if you change a headline, you can’t change anything else. Plus you have to make sure all other variables remain the same, like the mailing day or a war breaking out that has everybody watching CNN day and night or the current economic crisis, or a hurricane hitting, or a... you get the idea.

Frankly, most business people will just not go through the “detailitis” required to test - which is why it’s a very good idea to model proven promotions. And in some cases where you’re only going to use something once or twice or you’re dealing with a very small number, it’s just not worth testing; instead, you take your best shot. But let’s assume you’re working on something you intend to use over and over and over again in some significant quantity, so that it’s worth real effort to fine-tune it.

Later in the week I'll discuss the different ways you can test your next 3D mailing. Until then.

www.3DMailResults.com