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Direct Mail, A Numbers Game
Seven seconds, one percent, 3000 addresses, thousands of dollars. Direct mail. Itâ€™s a numbers game.

Direct Mail The Numbers Game, part two
In an earlier article, I talked about direct mail and some of what you need to know to be successful at it. In this article we'll take a look at three of the key parts of a direct mail package, the sales letter, response device and brochure.

Learn your Customers Buying Process
Your marketing is ultimately measured by your client. The goal is to meet the client's requirements and expectations in selling your product. There is a tendency to think that marketing means a great looking ad, a great event or a direct mail piece. But a brilliantly designed ad that fails to provide a ROI is well, wasteful?

Printing Gets Personal with VIPs
At a time when doing more with less is the rule of thumb in business marketing, direct marketing strategies are making a comeback. How? …by getting personal with VIPs using VIP technology, otherwise known as Variable Information Printing.

D is for Direct Mail
Direct Mail, otherwise known as sending letters through the post to prospective customers is now pretty much a dying art. By many business owners, sending letters has been replaced by emails – can’t say I blame them really. After all, emails are cheaper, quicker and you can see who has opened it and read it. Why wouldn’t you use emails?

How To Get Prospects Interested In What You're Selling
One of the key challenges in any sales presentation is communicating a message that makes prospects pay attention. Amid all the clutter and noise that exists in the marketplace, how do we get those with whom we most want to do business with, to pay attention to us?

The Good News in Uncertain Times: Marketing Strategies are Working!
Advisors and agents have tried for years to develop successful prospect generating strategies. Some strategies have worked and others have produced disappointing results. Today, it seems everything we’ve known is changing as it relates to marketing. And that’s good news for those who want to grow their business!

It’s a Very Good Thing: Stewart’s Path to Success
“It is within everyone’s grasp to be a CEO,” says Stewart. “You really can do anything.”

Lesson #1: Stretch Your Brand
“It's something that will never be finished,” Disney once said of Disneyland. “Something that I can keep developing and adding to.” Disney was a management mastermind, a pioneer in the field of branding and merchandising. Constantly thinking of how far he could stretch the Disney brand, Disney set new industry standards for his ability to capitalize on his name.

A Mounting Success: How Vernon Reached The Top
“It’s a quality you’re born with, being an entrepreneur,” says Vernon.

Lesson #1: Boldly Go Where No Marketing Has Gone Before
As Jenny Craig centres began to spread throughout America and the rest of the world, Craig began to notice an interesting phenomenon. “The markets where we had the most competition were our best markets,” she says. “I realized why. There was greater awareness of the risks of obesity and a major reason is the advertising we and all the other companies were doing.”

Marketing Your Marketing
Don’t limit your marketing merely to the media you’re using. Market it all over the place. Anything worth promoting is worth cross-promoting.

The Importance of Permission
Sometimes the student becomes the teacher. That's exactly what happened to me when Seth Godin, co-author of three books with me, authored his own "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers." It changed my entire outlook about marketing and can dramatically change the beauty of your bottom line.

100 Marketing Weapons
These guerrilla marketing weapons should all be considered for promoting your product, service or website offline. Notice how more than half of them are free.

Integrated Marketing
Whatever does guerrilla marketing have in common with a boomerang? If you throw a stick, it flies about 30 feet. Frank Donnellan once threw a boomerang 377 feet, longer than football field. A boomerang uses gravity and air resistance to aid its flight. Guerrilla marketing uses other weapons to aid its flight. Single-weapon marketing has nothing to aid its flight.

Guerrilla Credibility
Every guerrilla knows that the number one factor influencing purchase decisions is confidence. The road to confidence is paved with credibility.

Guerrilla Telemarketing
Telemarketing works wonders, but only if you do it right. Guerrillas know exactly how to do it right, and when you read this, you will, too.

Guerrilla Direct Mail
Get your profits off to a rip-roaring start with direct mail. To make every stamp and letter count, follow these seven steps and leave your competitors in the dust.

Guerrilla Headlines
Headlines are used in ads, commercials, telemarketing calls, direct mail letters, websites, sales presentations and more. Can you write great ones?

Shipping and handling
Here's a product sold by a merchant via Amazon that costs about $2.50. Except that the shipping and handling are more than $8. And the item weighs about two ounces.

Top Three Mistakes Made in Selecting Referral Partners
There are thousands of dollars invested every year in creating a compelling brand. Once created, well designed pieces of collateral hit the streets through different venues; email newsletters, direct mail, blogs and videos. All important strategies and tactics for generating qualified opportunities.

Are You Selling What Your Customers Want to Buy?
How to make sure your customers know you have what they need.

THE FOUR MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EMAIL AND DIRECT MAIL
While there are many similarities between email and direct mail copy, there are four key differences to be aware of. Here are four of them:

IT’S TIME WE LEARNED A VALUABLE LESSON FROM ADVERTISING
Here's a valuable lesson direct marketers can learn from the field of advertising.

Social Networking to Turn Social Networking Into a Million Dollar Game Plan
The sheer number of contacts you can generate via online networking today should have you researching social networking marketing ideas and implementing them as soon as possible. Whether you are an individual entrepreneur, a small business owner or a business owner with a multi national determines how important it should be for you to check out social networking marketing ideas.

How to sell new business meetings - the greatest secret revealed
Do you want to know the greatest secret of selling new business meetings for sales prospecting. Its really easy to do and can double or triple your effectiveness overnight. Find out what it is here....

TRADE SHOW FOLLOW-UP: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
Trade shows are great for meeting new prospects and lead generation. But the real value is in the follow-up. But how much is too much? Here are four tips to keep in mind when trying to turn all those business cards into cash.

What kind of MLM leader would you follow?
There are several types of leaders in MLM, but if you really think of the leaders you know, they can be summed up into three categories. As revealed, you can clearly decide which leader you want to follow, and learn from them.

3 basic steps to finding & developing top prospects
1. Prospect Generation: How to develop more good prospects 2. Prospect Qualification: How to identify more REAL prospects 3. Prospect Development: How to cultivate prospects so they'll choose to buy from you

5 Double Readership Path Techniques to Increase The Effectiveness of Your Copy
Double readership paths are essential to appealing to both analytical thinkers/readers and scanners at the same time. This means you can capture the attention of both kinds of readers by using simple formatting tools like bolding, italicizing, highlight, underlining, using all capital letters and incorporating bullet points.

Don’t Go There-6 Small Business Marketing Mistakes to Avoid Like the Plague
Every promotion you do should give people a good reason to want to know more, and an incentive to do it-right now. Fixing even one of the following 6 mistakes is sure to catapult your marketing results.

Boost Your Sales And Enjoy More Free Time With Webinars
If you are looking to generate more sales, a webinar training can help you do that. The conversation ratio on this type of training is incredible. You might be used to getting only a 3% conversation using other strategies. When you use webinars you can expect anywhere from a 10% to 30% conversion rate. Imagine this. You host a webinar, one hundred people get on the line and 10% become customers.

5 Tips to Improve Your Sales Approach When Recognizing Prospects
How do you recognize a prospect or what I prefer to call a potential customer? These 5 tips may help both improve your sales approach and increase sales.

Remember My Company?
We’ve all been to a party where we remember someone’s face, but not their name. Or their name, but not their “story”. Or their “story” but not what they look like. We even have language for it (”good with faces”, etc.).

A Legitimate Work From Home Business Teaches Be, Do, Have
Be, Do, Have. A simple phrase, yet so valuable when looking to operate a legitimate work from home business. Learn more about this interesting phrase as expert author Jeffrey David Nelson dives into the philosophical world of "Be, Do, Have."

Building an Online Business – Four Keys to Success.
There are many aspects of running a successful business. Here are four vital components to building a successful online business.

What NOT to Do When Marketing With Email
E-mail is one of the most powerful marketing inventions ever created, but also one of the most misused.

Top 10 Ways to Make Money with Direct Mail (Don't Laugh, it STILL Works!)

I sent out about 18,000 direct mail pieces last month, and I re-learned a few lessons, just like I always do. Maybe I can save you a few dollars, and a few lessons by sharing some of the most important things I’ve learned over the years about direct mail. And most importantly, if you're not doing any direct mail, now is the time to start! Almost everyone else has backed off of it due to cost, and now you can swoop into people's mailboxes and take new customers!

Cold Calling Tips: Check Your Calling Attitude
Many people want to generate new business in a short space of time but few relish the prospect of using the phone. The main thing holding you back is your own cold calling/telesales attitude. It's costing you business so find out how to deal with it here.

Working Online - - Endless Possibility
Starting an Internet based business has never made more sense. Traditional brick and mortar is quickly becoming a notion of the past as entrepreneurs look at new ways of marketing themselves that get superior results.

Should Social Networking Support the Sales Effort?
Deborah Penta, my guest on this week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts, shed some light on how the relationship between sales and marketing should work. One of the things she said that I really liked was that executives "have an obligation" to market their companies and generate quality leads for their salespeople. An obligation! It doesn't get any better than that.

The Ultimate Sales Tip
The ultimate sales tip has only 3 words. Discover what it is today.

Positioning: The core of corporate communications

Positioning is a lost art in Business Development today. It reached its zenith in the 1980s -- before "1-Minute Management" replaced in-depth analysis and planning. A truly good Positioning Statement will be 12 words or less, and in one forceful sentence state the proven strengths that give you dominance in the markets you want to sell in. Once you have it perfected you can easily develop highly effective Mission Statements, Elevator Pitches, Ad Campaigns, Publicity, Sales Materials and Websites.

9 Steps to Turn Your Website into a Sales Tool and Lead Generator
So many small business owners contact me asking how to get more traffic to their website or wondering why no one is buying or signing up for their mailing list. No wonder they’re fed up. However, a website can be made into a very effective sales tool.

Online Home Business Start up Guide
A brief guide about running a home based business.

The Definitive Guide To Choosing The Right Home Based Business - Part 6 of 6

Around the world, tens of millions of people each year search for a home based business opportunity that will either free them from a job they hate, allow them to retire early, give them more time to spend with their family, divert their poorly performing investment portfolio into a profit generating magnet, or all of the above. Just as there are vast differences of opinion, even amongst friends, there are vast differences in business opportunities. Before you start on your due diligence when hunting for that one home based business opportunity that is right for you, take a moment to understand some differences in business models, their expectations, their commission structure, your current resources, and your personality. The following is Part 6 in a series of six (6) characteristics for choosing the right home based business.

The Definitive Guide To Choosing The Right Home Based Business - Part 5 of 6

Around the world, tens of millions of people each year search for a home based business opportunity that will either free them from a job they hate, allow them to retire early, give them more time to spend with their family, divert their poorly performing investment portfolio into a profit generating magnet, or all of the above. Just as there are vast differences of opinion, even amongst friends, there are vast differences in business opportunities. Before you start on your due diligence when hunting for that one home based business opportunity that is right for you, take a moment to understand some differences in business models, their expectations, their commission structure, your current resources, and your personality. The following is Part 5 in a series of six (6) characteristics for choosing the right home based business.

The Definitive Guide To Choosing The Right Home Based Business - Part 4 of 6

Around the world, tens of millions of people each year search for a home based business opportunity that will either free them from a job they hate, allow them to retire early, give them more time to spend with their family, divert their poorly performing investment portfolio into a profit generating magnet, or all of the above. Just as there are vast differences of opinion, even amongst friends, there are vast differences in business opportunities. Before you start on your due diligence when hunting for that one home based business opportunity that is right for you, take a moment to understand some differences in business models, their expectations, their commission structure, your current resources, and your personality. The following is Part 4 in a series of six (6) characteristics for choosing the right home based business.

The Definitive Guide To Choosing The Right Home Based Business - Part 3 of 6

Around the world, tens of millions of people each year search for a home based business opportunity that will either free them from a job they hate, allow them to retire early, give them more time to spend with their family, divert their poorly performing investment portfolio into a profit generating magnet, or all of the above. Just as there are vast differences of opinion, even amongst friends, there are vast differences in business opportunities. Before you start on your due diligence when hunting for that one home based business opportunity that is right for you, take a moment to understand some differences in business models, their expectations, their commission structure, your current resources, and your personality. The following is Part 3 in a series of six (6) characteristics for choosing the right home based business.

The Definitive Guide To Choosing The Right Home Based Business - Part 2 of 6

Around the world, tens of millions of people each year search for a home based business opportunity that will either free them from a job they hate, allow them to retire early, give them more time to spend with their family, divert their poorly performing investment portfolio into a profit generating magnet, or all of the above. Just as there are vast differences of opinion, even amongst friends, there are vast differences in business opportunities. Before you start on your due diligence when hunting for that one home based business opportunity that is right for you, take a moment to understand some differences in business models, their expectations, their commission structure, your current resources, and your personality. The following is Part 2 in a series of six (6) characteristics for choosing the right home based business.

The Definitive Guide To Choosing The Right Home Based Business - Part 1 of 6

Around the world, tens of millions of people each year search for a home based business opportunity that will either free them from a job they hate, allow them to retire early, give them more time to spend with their family, divert their poorly performing investment portfolio into a profit generating magnet, or all of the above. Just as there are vast differences of opinion, even amongst friends, there are vast differences in business opportunities. Before you start on your due diligence when hunting for that one home based business opportunity that is right for you, take a moment to understand some differences in business models, their expectations, their commission structure, your current resources, and your personality. The following is Part 1 in a series of six (6) characteristics for choosing the right home based business.

DON'T FORGET TO NETWORK!
Improve your marketing while you make friends ... You know that you need to produce a marketing plan and quite happily arrange a schedule for the year which includes PR, advertising, exhibiting and direct mail. But how often do you remember to include networking?

Local E-commerce marketing
Websites and e-commerce take up much of the mindshare around retail these days, but e-commerce still only accounts for about 10% of total retail sales. That means that 90% of purchases are still made IN stores, so if you don't have a great website and shopping cart, you can still compete. Local search tools make it easier than ever to be found by customers who can actually visit your store.

TEN WAYS TO IMPROVE TELEMARKETING
TEN WAYS TO IMPROVE TELEMARKETING

Public Relations 101
Public relations is a strategic marketing discipline that involves equal doses of creativity, persistence, substance and cooperation to influence members of the media to look favorably on an industry, client, company, business or service. The third party credibility is one of the greatest benefits of public relations.

Is Your Sales Message Is Sending the Wrong Message?
Successful selling is all about sending the right message. Are you making this mistake?

The Case for Outsourcing
As virtually every marketing manager will tell you, any marketing program is only as good as its implementation. Whether you're talking promotional or sales programs, effective implementation can make the difference between success and disaster.

Expectations- A Sales Attitude By Any Other Name
Years ago I read something that Zig Ziglar wrote: Attitudes are habits of thought. Pretty simple definition, but incredibly powerful. How many of our thoughts are really sales attitudes including expectations?

Make Your Marketing Personal
It used to be that only big companies could afford to create a marketing message that was highly visible: newspaper ads, direct mail, television, radio, skywriting, sponsorships, etc. But modern technology allows people to create one-offs inexpensively: email blasts, your own ink-jet printer, local digital printing, or even personal 3D fabricators.

The 3 Steps to Building an Online Business on a Budget

In times of economic turmoil, more and more people turn to the internet for home based business opportunities, hoping to put their last $500 to good use, only to find that amount only covers the initial membership fee and some undisclosed, yet important, setup costs such as domain setup, merchant account, auto-responder setup, and so on. By the time their system is all set up and their sponsor or coach tells them they are ready for a direct mail campaign, phone blast campaign, or Google AdWords campaign, they have no money left. What is worse, most lose confidence in the system and quit. Before you start thinking about packing it in, there is good news. There are steps you can take for building your online business on a budget. After these 3 steps are completed, you will be known as an expert in your field and your business will take off.

What to do with a "cold" lead

We have a client who has so many requests for quotes on his desk he is way behind on filling them. At first this seems like a problem we would all like to have. So many leads we canâ€™t get to all of them! But there is a down side to this story. Our client has no way of sorting the leads into those that are â€œhotâ€ and need immediate attention; and those that are â€œcoldâ€. Maybe these cold leads are from qualified people, but who knows when they are going to close.

6 Great Newsletter Article Ideas--When You're Out of Ideas!
Newsletters are a great way to build your list, establish yourself as an expert, and connect with your audience. But what do you do when you run out of ideas?

Faith in Marketing?
Having faith to continue your marketing through a down economy.

INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO INCREASE YOUR DIRECT MAIL EFFECTIVENESS
Innovative approaches to increase your direct mail effectiveness by getting creative.

A Guide to Creating a Direct Mail Campaign incorporating Promotional Products

This article is a practical How to Guide for any businesses looking at doing a Direct Mail Campaign for the first time. I use an example of an Unaddressed Mail campaign that incorporates Promotional Products and discuss each step involved from contacting Australia Post, picking your Promotional Product and submitting your letters for lodgement. Many companies are no longer using Direct Mail and so there is a real opportunity for businesses to dominate with little competition from other businesses. I have used an example that includes promotional products because according to the Promotional Product Association International the inclusion of a Promotional Product to a mail promotion can increase the response rate by 50% (Reference: The Power of Promotional Products – PPAI).

Are You Converting Web Visitors into Customers?
Driving large amounts of targeted traffic to your website is only half the battle. Once people get there, they must be compelled to take action. This article discusses three methods of increasing your website conversion rates.

Three Ways to Start a Conversation and Finish with a Sale
Ditch your elevator pitch. Zap your infomercial. And whatever you do, keep your carefully worded, painstakingly developed, positioning statement to yourself.

Preselling Your Suspects
The goal of a suspect mailing is not to sell. The goal is to build enough trust and confidence to convert that suspect into a prospect. Once a suspect converts to a prospect, you'll stand a much better chance of selling them something.

Evaluating Franchise Marketing Programs
An important part of any franchise system is the marketing program. Is the franchisor able to help you predictably create demand with a proven marketing approach. This article will help you determine if the franchisor is providing real value in regard to marketing programs.

Testing Your Way to Website Profits
Testing your landing pages is the number one way to increase your website conversion rate. This article discusses the two main types of tests and gives a free resource for setting them up on your website.

Making the Phone to Ring
A source of anxiety for most self-employed professionals is that the phone does not ring enough. And it rings, it may not be from potential clients and customers.

The Most Powerful Marketing Strategy You will Ever Learn
Every business owner is looking for that golden marketing strategy that works like magic to grow their business. Well, I hope you’re sitting down because I am going to tell you the most powerful marketing strategy you will ever learn. The strategy is called split testing.

How to correctly use direct mail to generate SaaS leads
To produce the best results for a direct mail program for marketing SaaS, there are several very powerful direct mail strategies you will need to follow to increase your response rate. These strategies will produce great results for all sales letters, not just SaaS...

Dealing With A Difficult Client
We've all run into that client or potential client who represents big dollars, but is absolutely impossible to work with because he or she knows everything. Here are a few simple tips you can use to turn their big ego into your big profits.

THE ART OF STARTING A CONVERSATION
How to converse when it comes to the different media.

Use Two-Step Direct Response Advertising and Stop Wasting Your Ad Money
Have you wondered why some companies continually advertise? It's because they know how to develop direct response advertising. This article will show you how to do it.

Katie Yeakle, Co-Founder of AWAI, Shares What It's Like to Start a Copywriting Company
Intriguing interview with the Co-Founder of American Writers & Artists Inc. (AWAI), Katie Yeakle, on her experience with starting her company.

An anthropological view of marketing
Hunting, Farming or Fishing: What Are You Doing?

Introducing ADSPORT, the lead generation phenomenon that really delivers
If you're in business or sales, you need leads. Leads turn into sales and that means staying alive. How much time and money have you spent in the past, without really knowing what return you got? Worse still, can you remember campaigns that you ran, that delivered NO results? There is an old saying “Together we stand, divided we fall”. Lead generation is no different!

Offline Strategies for Driving Traffic to Your Website
Online business owners are all familiar with the typical online strategies for driving traffic to a website - pay per click marketing, like Google's adwords; article marketing; giving away free gifts to build your database of contacts, etc. But what about the offline marketing strategies that can actually drive traffic to your website?

How Sales Professionals Forget That Sales Are Personal Yet Cannot Be Personal
Do you want to increase sales? Have you tried various marketing techniques from direct mail to cold calling to referrals? Yet, your sales are not where they need to be are they? Why not? Have you considered that the thoughts you have might be keeping your from sales success? Let me explain.

I BELIEVE IN WHAT JOHN CAGE ONCE SAID. “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.”
The most powerful single word in direct marketing is no longer "FREE". It’s "SO?"

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR SINGLE MOST COMPELLING ARGUMENT SHOULD BE TO YOUR PROSPECTS?
It should be your USP.

Website Content - It's All About The Why?

Every week I get asked to look at business websites and tell the owners why they're not getting the results they want. Some of these sites are straightforward brochures, others are e-commerce catalogs, and some are those direct-mail-style pitches reminiscent of old mail-order magazine subscription schemes ported-over to the Web. Some have incorporated do-it-yourself audio and video and some even had this media professionally produced; still the results stink. Why?

The Not Surprising Failure of Corporate Blogging
blogs and brand social network profiles have not gained the trust of traditional information sources such as newspapers, internet portals and personal blogs,

Creating a Talking Logo

Before any other marketing tools like advertising, direct mail, your website or referrals will have an impact on your business, you've got to uncover and communicate how your business is different from every other business that says they do what you do. You've got to get out of the commodity business. You've got to stake your claim on a simple idea or position in the mind of your prospective clients. In other words, you've got to create and bring to life a powerful personal marketing message.

Stop Selling Coaching, Just Let Your Potential Customers Buy You
Are you a business consultant, executive coach or sales coach? Do you have to sell your services before you can deliver them? How is that working for you? Maybe it is time for a different approach that can quickly increase sales.

Don't stop learning
The importance of staying informed about your business

Measuring your Marketing - Which bits work?

These days there are so many creative ways to market your products or services that it's easy to get caught up in trying all sorts of stuff and then never really know which activity gets you the best results. From websites and e-shots, to signs in the window and flyers, they will all have an effect (you hope) and it's time you knew how much of an effect so that you can spend your future budgets wisely.

The One Sales and Marketing Idea That Will Separate You From the Crowd

Direct mail, telephone, e-mail, internet, personal sales, networking, newsletters, articles, press releases, e-newsletters, radio shows, radio ads, TV ads, infomercials, billboards, signage, company cars, posters, letters, blogs. These are all good ways to market your business. Every business that employs these techniques will get a certain amount of results. There are dozens of marketing tools that can be used to promote your business, but none of them will make an enormous difference if they are not partnered with something even more important.

The Art of Attraction Marketing: What Persists, They Can't Resist
What persists, they can’t resist! How to market your business with consistent marketing messages. This isn’t anything new for you hear -- I’m sure. The bigger question is… why? Why aren’t your marketing messages with consistent?

WOM…It’s An Art, It’s Science, It’s Theirs

If you went to/read about SXSW (check Wikipedia) you saw that folks were doing everything for word of mouth (WOM) buzz. They'll do it all the time, every time. Big secret though? Those folks don't have one iota of control over WOM! Nope that belongs to the people we're feeding the messages to. You know "them." Problem is they can turn on you in a heartbeat and gawd it ain't pretty. When that happens it's damage control and you try to save the vital parts...that's when you call the PR folks to blame...not us, them! It can be "managed if you know how to prepare, what to do, when to do it...and you have blind faith!!!!

Three More Marketing Ideas for Client Retention

Your success as a business owner or executive will be largely determined by how many high quality clients you can attract and retain. It is getting more and more difficult to do this because clients have so many service providers to choose from and there are less dollars to go around in a down market. Following are three more sales and marketing techniques that will help you retain your clients, even in a difficult economy like the one we're experiencing right now.

What Recession ? SELL
If you are in the SALES Game you have to adjust your strategy and target markets.

Entrepreneurs – Remember Your Customers So That They Don’t Forget You.
Customers are expensive and difficult to find. Repeat customers are far more profitable than new customer as you have already paid to obtain them. So when you have good customers how do you hold on to them? Here are a few strategies for you.

Achieve Online Home Business Success With Internet Marketing Methods That Work
To achieve online home business success requires that you become an expert at promoting something on the internet. You will need to master basic internet marketing techniques and here we discuss 4 internet marketing methods that successful online business owners use.

How many times should you "touch" your customers?
Here is how a successful retail clothing store "touched" their clients to dominate their market...

How to successfully market a small business
To successfully market a small business, you need to perform the following marketing...

Are Paid Surveys A Legitimate Way To Make Money?
Many people wonder if paid online surveys are really legitimate ways of making money from home. Yes, they are, but you have to know what you are doing and have realistic expectations.

May the best brand win. And he did. - Three Great Branding Lessons from the Campaign Trail
3 Great Branding Lessons from the Campaign Trail

“Pink Spoon” Your Business
How to help your business in a changing economy.

Collecting From Your Customers
Are You Letting Customers Off The Hook And They Owe You Money?? An old sales manager of mine taught me something years ago. It's pretty simple. He said: "It's not a sale until you're paid."

Launching a New Nontraditional Offering
KLA is often introduced to companies that want to launch a new offering outside their traditional suite of products and services. These companies have developed a valuable service, but aren't sure how to generate awareness and drive leads with their customers and prospects.

Million Dollar Get Results Coaching Marketing Plan
How many organizations always forget that the paramount concern of every business is profit? Being an accountant and business advisor in my "past" life, the business side of any transactions always boil down with the "bottom line."

Increase Sales by Demonstrating Appreciation through High Business Ethics
Are you appreciative of your loyal customers and those business interactions that increase sales? Do your customers know that you are appreciative? If you answered yes to the second question, how do you know this to be true?

A Goal Driven Marketing Plan, Sales Plan and Customer Loyalty Plan Must Be United to Increase Sales
Are your sales actions the direct result of pre-determined goals or a lot of flying by the seat of your pants? Learn the 3 questions that you need to answer to increase sales.

Increase Sales Jumpstart Your Lead Generation
Are you getting the sales you need? If not, consider diversifying your lead generation techniques. Cold calling and direct mail are common approaches to lead generation however there are many other ways to make your leads flow.

Creating Your Own Buzz

Almost every business owner, from entrepreneurs who are just starting out to the leaders of large companies, is looking for ways to increase their sales, profits and visibility. Obviously, not everyone can afford a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to get their message out, so they resort to less expensive, guerilla marketing tactics that often can create the same buzz as an expensive ad. Here are some of my favorites:

Get Leads Coming to You and Get Them to Act Now
Rather than dialing for dollars and getting your name out there what you need is a steady stream of highly qualified prospects reaching out to you. This is especially true now when business owners and consumers are guarding their wallets like Fort Knox. You aren’t going to get those wallets open doing what you’re doing now.

A Goal Driven Marketing Plan, Sales Plan and Customer Loyalty Must Be United to Increase Sales
So many times small business owners including service providers such as real estate agents, insurance agents, mortgage brokers to distribution providers including restaurants and retail stores decide to embark on a new marketing message without checking the existing marketing plan and current sales plan. This type of behavior is very dangerous.

Jazz Up and Energize Your Vocabulary To Increase Sales
Do you know who Elmer Wheeler was? And why is he important to you increasing sales? Read on to learn more.

Increase prospecting results by integrating your touches
Connecting with prospects for the first meeting requires persistence, consistency – and simply wearing them down. You can speed your access time by integrating your communication strategy with multiple connection methods without frustrating prospects.

TOP TEN WAYS TO RECESSIONPROOF YOUR BUSINESS
The economy seems to be a topic that’s discussed over and over in our local and national media and at almost every business level in America today. This article contains tips for recession proofing your business.

POWER Points to Ask BEFORE You Write a Single Word of Copy

Do you really know where to start when you're writing promotional copy? When you’re ready to tackle your next copywriting project these POWER Points will help you get focused. Writing is a process and believe it or not there is a method to the madness. Whether you plan to write your own copy or outsource these POWER Points will kick start the process. There are nine key questions I ask before considering any copywriting project. And this is just the beginning of the process. Once a client has invested in my services we go through a deep process of evaluating copy needs with a customized questionnaire. Some clients are even resistant to the process because it really makes you think about your business and direction.

Top Five Rookie Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Launching successful marketing campaigns takes creativity, initiative and perseverance. Although most business owners learn the best ways to market through experience and pain-staking trial and error, there are several common mistakes made by new owners that can easily be avoided with a little foresight and preparation. We highlight these “rookie mistakes” below to help new owners generate effective campaigns that bring in higher returns on investment the first time and every time.

The Self Promotion Piece - Bringing a Graphics Standard into the Business World

All business owners are familiar with the corporate brochure, but rarely is it utilized in the same way by companies in non-creative fields. Most corporate brochures end up serving either as extended ads (too obviously self-serving, unless the ad is the purpose), or dry company profiles (which are, well, dry). I often suggest a more creative approach to my clients… a “show” rather than “tell”.

7 Ways To Improve Direct Mail Response
While print marketing should not be relied upon exclusively in today’s communications world, direct mail campaigns are still an important ingredient in an effective marketing mix.

Discover How “New Marketing” is Required to Survive and Thrive in Today’s Economy
Have you found yourself thinking "Whay is this marketing I'm doing not working like it used to?" What more and more people are realizing is that what used to work in the Old Marketing Age no longer is effective.

Warming Up Cold Calls
In today’s day and age, a cold call telemarketing call is about as smooth as vinegar. To warm up your approach and improve the effectiveness, use a little honey in a warm cup of tea and it will go much farther, and be more effective.

How to Sell Green & Increase Sales
Are you looking at the world around you and discovering ways to increase your sales? If not, why not? You are surrounded by opportunities all day everyday if you’ll just open your eyes and ears and put them to work for you.

The New Marketing
Before the web, companies had to either buy advertising or convince journalists to write about their products or services (many organizations still use this approach). One component of New Marketing focuses on brand journalism - the idea that creating great content will help your small business publish it's way to brand awareness.

Increase Sales By Jazzing Up, Energizing and Limiting the Words You Speak and Write
Do you know who Elmer Wheeler was? And why is he important to you increasing sales? Read on to learn more.

Can’t Afford Customer Relationship Management Program Try Auto Responder to Increase Sales
You understand the importance of customer relationship management, but you can’t afford a customized program. Consider using an auto responder as an affordable substitute.

The following are the most widely used methods to leverage your existing marketing channels without overspending:
Let's not make building your opt-in list too complicated or costly! Why not build it using the traffic and methods you already have in place!

Email Marketing: 5 Reasons You Must Start Doing It Today
Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to your small business. You can achieve outstanding results, while investing only fractions of a penny per email message to your customers and prospects. Combine that with the potential to target messages more precisely than direct mailings, email marketing is a real win for the small business owner.

Prospective Prospects ~ To Mail or Not to Mail, That is THE Question
Dollar for dollar direct mail out-performs and out delivers many traditional media outlets. However, there is a method to the madness and reasons why some DR techniques fail.

Can You Read Me?
This article explains how e-mail marketing campaigns can have a seriously positive impact on your business.

Your Ideal Client Profile & Ways to Best Reach & Connect with Them
Your Ideal Client Profile & Ways to Best Reach & Connect with Them

Tips on Writing Auto-responders with PUNCH!

Auto-responders are a business's best friend. Before we cover tips on writing fantastic auto-responders, here is a quick recap. What exactly is an auto-responder? Think about when you meet someone and you ask them "How are you?" Most times the automatic response is "Fine thanks". People don't even think – the answer just automatically comes out. Now – transfer this to your computer. Most people are aware of the "sorry I am holidays so can't answer your email" type of autoresponder email. You know the person is not there answering their email – the computer does it automatically. This is the most basic sort of autoresponder – one email triggers one response.

Tips on Writing Headlines
Headlines sell. Take a look at any magazine front cover and you will see a stack of headlines enticing you to read further. The evening news bulletin – you hear headlines at the top of the news before they go into content. Direct mail – the headline is the difference between reading and binning your letter. Email – the subject line will determine whether or not your mail gets opened.

Social Media Marketing For Small Business
Where does social media – networking sites, forums, blogs, wikis and the like, fit with your overall marketing strategy? Social media does not replace all of your other marketing – it just changes the mix. When I look at a company's marketing I categorise it into two main areas – Online and Offline. I then break these down into further categories.

Marketing for Small Business - How Successful Was Your Marketing Expense Last Financial Year?

Throw your hats in the air and celebrate – it is end of financial year time again! I love end of financial year as it is a great time to reflect on what worked and what didn't for you and your business in the past year. But ... when you look at how successful was your marketing expense in the past financial year – you need to look your results against a number of definitions of success (and not just the dollars).

Business Letter Writing for Small Business
Think back to when you were a child for a moment – how did you feel when the postal worker delivered a letter addressed just to you? Most kids feel excitement, enjoyment and enthusiasm when they get a letter. It doesn’t matter what the letter contained – the important thing was that it was addressed to them.

10 Tips to More Effective Direct Mail
Direct mail is not sexy or high-tech, but it is a very effective marketing tool for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing. Here are 10 very practical tips that will make it even more cost-effective and more lead-generation-effective!

3 Key Elements of Direct Mail
In this day of Internet marketing, direct mail is still relevant and can be done cost effectively. This article explains how.

BUY BEFORE YOU BUY - GETTING PAID FOR LEAD GENERATION

By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Free is Fine, but Can I Pay Instead? Marketing is expensive. Especially when you sell complex products and services, your investments in brochures, websites, ads, direct mail, and PR can be steep. After all, you need to educate your prospects and seduce them with your solution and its benefits. This is a bit more involved than grabbing people's attention with a free sample for an impulse product like a cube of bubble gum with a gooey surprise in the middle

WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING SERVICES: WE DON'T DO MARKETING
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr As we speak with leaders of professional services firms and ask them, "What do you currently do for marketing?" a certain percentage of them reply, "We don't do marketing." What we find, however, is maybe they do more than they think.

Business Building Tips from a MillionDollar Copywriter
Professional copywriter, Carline Anglade-Cole, offers her advice for building your copywriting business by Guillermo Rubio, AWAI Staff Writer

10 Top Business Assumptions that cause you to lose money
Stop maiking Bad Business Assumptions and your sales & profits will grow

10 Things You Should Know Before Hiring A Freelance Copy Writer
If it's a large project, ask to see a draft of the first piece or section before the writer does any more work. That way if you need to make any major changes you can do it before they get too far along and costs go up.

6 Surefire Ways Copywriting Can Build Your Business
AWAI Wall-of-Famer, Heather Robson, reveals six ways people can use their copywriting skills to get clients.

The Top Five Rookie Marketing Mistakes
By elements for Women

Developing Sales & Marketing Materials for Overseas
You’ve selected a target market overseas, and found a distribution partner, who has now asked you for some sales collateral materials to help him or her market your product or service successfully. As you put together your brochures and sales sheets, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind to ensure that your printed marketing materials are culturally and linguistically correct.

GCD Explains Direct Mail Basics
Women from all over the country recently participated in a marketing conference geared specifically for women who own small businesses. Gail Clanton Diggs, of GCD Writing and Marketing, spoke with the group about the basics of direct mail.

Book Review: Fundraising For Social Change
If you work for (or with) a non-profit, this book is a must-read. Kim Klein (the editor) focuses on key problem all non-profits face: acquiring, retaining, and upgrading donors.

The Top Five Rookie Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Christopher Palumbo began his career as a partner in a real estate development company, where he developed branding concepts for resort communities in South Florida and the Carolina's. From there his business accomplishments grew as he orchestrated the complete turnaround of a failing national real estate developer. Soon after, Christopher changed gears and used his talents to create an award-winning World Gym concept store. Chris utilized his position within the organization to orchestrate a turnaround and capitalization plan for the World Gym™ brand. To date, he has worked with many of the largest and most reputable companies in the fitness and leisure industries, and is frequently featured in industry and national press.

Rule 17 Test Test Test Keep Testing
This is Rule #17 in a series of articles on "21 Ways to increase the Power and Profit of Your Advertising Without Spending an Extra Cent," by Brad Sugars.

Rule 11 Use a Drop Letter
This is Rule #11 in a series of articles on "21 ways to Increase the Power and Profit of Your Advertising Without Spending an Extra Cent," by Brad Sugars.

Practice Effective Marketing
Achieve a virtuous circle for your business of healthy profits, greater customer value and better meeting customer needs. Find out how...

Aid That Franchisors Provide to Franchisees
A review of what type of aid franchisors can offer their franchisees, including training, financial assistance, support, location selection and advertising.

Rule #12: Repeat Your Story in the Coupon or the Closing
This is Rule #12 in a series of articles on "21 ways to Increase the Power and Profit of Your Advertising Without Spending an Extra Cent," by Brad Sugars.

Top Tips for More Effective Marketing Material
These simple guidelines will help you make your letters, brochures, information, corporate profiles, advertisements and other marketing material more effective in what it was designed to do…SELL.

Now You See Me, Now You Don't - Mistakes of a Home Business Owner

Over the last few years I have witnessed home business owners go about advertising their products and services in the wrong way or not at all. Not only are mistakes made in the ways that ads are written but, also, many people have unrealistic expectations of their advertising, especially when an ad campaign has not been put together properly in the first place. Advertising is a natural part of growing and expanding your business. You cannot expect your business to grow to its utmost potential without some sort of advertising involved. This does not mean you need to break the bank to advertise.

What is Your Data Quality Gameplan
This article states importance of having a solid data quality gameplan in place. This way, you're getting the most out of your direct marketing dollars and not wasting valuable budgetary resources.

Is is SPAM or Your Direct Marketing Approach?
This article gets to the heart of how to not be seen as a "Spammer." If you conduct e-marketing campaigns, sometimes it's tough to get your message read. Here are some interesting statistics why this is the case -- and some helpful pointers to utilize e-marketing EFFECTIVELY in your direct marketing plan.

Direct Marketing Case Study
This is an excellent case study from one of the firms that we sometimes partner with, Imago Digital. It features how they were able to help a technical college dramatically increase their enrollment through the use of a personalized direct marketing campaign.

Essential E-Marketing Tips
This is an article on three of the very important elements when creating an e-marketing campaign. These three elements are definitely important in getting your e-mail read and responded to.

How to make an email campaign work
Email campaigns are becoming more and more popular now and are replacing direct mail as a method of contact with potential customers. But what are they and how can you make them work for you?

Complete Sales Freedom in Two Years or Less
Many sales people tend to always be chasing the next customer and worrying about the next paycheck. The good news is that this is unnecessary and can be fixed forever in two years or less. Sales people can eliminate future sales and income anxiety once and for all.

Broaden your marketing efforts
This is another important concept. If you currently run one radio commercial or use only your business cards to market your business, you’ll have limited the number of customers you can reach.

Taking Your Direct Marketing to the Next Level with Segmentation

By now, you probably know our stance on segmentation. We believe in it! RRW specializes in building customized segmentation systems for our clients. In this article, we'd like to highlight a success story by a company who used an off-the-shelf system from Claritas. We think that this may give you some ideas that you can implement within your business. Here's how Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises improved their direct mail response through the use of segmentation.

Getting it Right - A Marketing Formula - Part II, Right Time
RIGHT MESSAGE + RIGHT TIME + RIGHT PEOPLE = SUCCESS There is an irony to this month’s part of our formula. Timing is arguably the most important aspect of the right formula for marketing success, and yet, it is often the most overlooked and the least understood.

The Business Development Tactics that Get the Most “Bang for the Buck” for Coaches, Consultants, and Business Advisors
This article examines the various business development tactics at the professional’s disposal, organized by how much they cost, and how much they get back for you.

"Quality" Franchise Opportunity

If you are interested in a franchise opportunity, with the profitable revenues, spend some time learning about Quality Connections. Quality Connection is a family friendly direct mail publication business started in 1998 and operated out of Colorado Springs, CO. You can run this franchise out of your home with minimal costs. Quality Connections is an excellent franchise opportunity where you can drive your success. Quality Connections is committed to their franchisees and advertisers. Some initial thoughts to consider about Quality Connections franchise are: what you will need to start the franchise opportunity, what the franchise includes, and how committed Quality Connections is to its advertisers.

Things to Know When Marketing Your Franchise
Marketing your franchise opportunity can be an endless task. There are many different avenues to take when marketing your large or small franchise opportunity. There are many potential franchisees and customers up for grabs in the 2008 market. When marketing your franchise keep these principles in the subject:

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT DIRECT MARKETING?
The great thing about direct marketing is that it can be anything you want it to be.

Focus Your Marketing On What You Do Well To Increase Sales While Avoiding the 500 Failure
Do you change your marketing activities in an effort to increase sales without realizing the impact of those changes? Read on to learn why you need to understand what you do well to avoid the 500 Failure.

7 Steps to Internet Marketing Success
Slaying Goliath isn’t the goal of every internet marketer, but competing effectively is near the top of the list. With the seven tips outlined in this article, you can be well on your way to internet marketing success that hopefully helps you to at least play in Goliath’s sandbox at some point.

Using Your Offline Marketing To Grow Online
Can offline marketing help drive your online business? You bet it can. With the help of direct mail, you can increase your website traffic.

Marketing in a Flash
Let’s say that business is slow, so you want to market a new product you’re selling. How can you get the word out “yesterday” and get measurable results?

What To Do When You Dont Have Any Testimonials
"Dan Kennedy always emphasizes testimonials. What if you are new to the business and don't have any?" Although Dan is an old friend of mine and one of the finest Mailorder Marketers alive (second only to myself), like all of us ol'pros, he is always right and always wrong!

Email vs Direct Mail

You can still make a fortune in direct mail without ever selling anything on the Internet - BUT ... You can NOT make any real money on the Internet without using Mailorder Marketing. On the Internet, your customers have to FIND YOU. -- That means you must continually market your web site ... using every trick in the guru's book ... to generate traffic to your site. -- Even then, all you're doing is preaching to the choir. Using known demographic profiling, in the mailorder business, you FIND YOUR CUSTOMERS ... then, tell them what you have and how they can get it from you on the Internet.

How To Make More Money By Helping Local Businesses
Do you want to earn more money but don't have a product to sell? If so becoming a consultant to local businesses could provide the perfect work from home solution for you. There are many ways that you can earn extra income by helping local businesses. Read on to find out more.

Branding & Marketing Defined, and how to fuse them together for maximum results
Simply put, your “brand” or corporate image is the impression formed at every point of contact with your prospects and clients.

Build Your Own Brand!
This article cites several examples of how companies are allowing the customer to design their own product experience from your product line. It's interesting how the customer can become so much more engaged as they become part of the design process for something that they are purchasing.

Direct Marketing and the Economy
This article looks at how the economy is impacting us as direct marketers and the importance of planning for it in 2008.

Has Anyone Ever Called you a Junk-Mail Queen (or King)?
This article discusses the best way to utilize e-mail marketing campaigns so that you can get your business's emails read. There is a lot of competition with SPAM out there -- and there are several things you can do to ensure that your prospective customers are reading your important messages.

Direct Marketing and the Creation of Trust
This article talks to the impact of creating trust through direct marketing, and what the impact is when you aren't truthful.

What is the Most Important Selling Technique?©
Companies spend thousands of dollars on sales skills training and virtually nothing on Prospecting training. Yet what is the only skill that puts a sales person in a position to use all those other selling skils? Prospecting. Most sales professionals will never have a formal Prospecting training in their entire career.

Why Many Website Fail to Deliver
Many websites quietly disappear on the Web, never to be missed by anyone except their owners. Why? With so many site-building tools and web design manuals available on the market, the truth is anyone can build a website. However, building a website that works is a completely different story.

Give the Customer What They Want!
This article talks about how to more effectively direct market to your valuable customers, taking into account HOW they want to be communicated with and through which marketing channel.

Direct Marketing Toolbox
In this article, we highlight some excellent direct marketing resources that any entrepreneur can use to assist them in their direct marketing efforts.

The Keys to Multi-Channel Success
This article reports on a webcast where an executive from Accudata talks about the importance of integrating multi-channel marketing into your overall strategy. If you're interested in learning more about this topic, just email us and we'll send you our whitepaper on Effective Multi-Channel Marketing Techniques. Our general email is info@rrwconsulting.com. Enjoy!

Email Marketing Avoid Becoming Spam
Email is still the best way to reach a mass audience over the Web. However, email filters are becoming a serious problem for legitimate email marketers because they inadvertently label promotional emails as SPAM. These simple guidelines will help avoid having your emails blocked as unwanted mail.

Work is Necessary, Struggle is Optional
Is marketing your business a struggle? It doesn’t have to be so hard. But making the transition from the hard way to the easy way requires the toughest kind of change -- a change in thinking.

Secrets of marketing your business with direct mail
I am a marketing consultant and I was recently asked by a major business publication my advice for how to market a SaaS (software as a service) company using direct mail. Although my answers below are focused on the SaaS company, these direct mail marketing strategies can be used by all businesses.

Use Integrated Marketing to Deliver Results
If you invest in any form of marketing then Integrated marketing can help you improve results. When combining marketing methods the sum is greater than the parts.

Marketing to Generation X and Y
Have you heard of generation X? As one of the most wealthy market segments, generations X and Y should be your target market. Here's how to reach them and sell your products or services.

Internet Users Hbk - Chapter 6d. Various Types and Examples of Internet Scams
Chapter 6d. Various Types and Examples of Internet Scams 6.17 Lead Generation: Direct Mail and Telemarketing Scams: Fraud Victims. Cold calls, Contest Leads, Gold Dust Memo, Land Sales, Sweepstakes Awards, Vacation Offers, Money-Mouch Lists, Elderly victims, Lottery Scams

Advertising For Entrepreneurs - Is Online Marketing Obsolete?
Think about it. If you can reach the right people at the right time in their life or day that they would be keen on your stuff…what in the world do we need “online marketers” for?

Kick Butt Direct Mail Envelopes
Apply the lessons from this article when sending your next direct mail piece so they will get noticed among the pile of other mail that's vying for your prospect's attention

Why You Should Use Direct Mail
With the explosion of the internet and the high cost of postage many businesses have opted not use direct mail. Online marketing is very powerful but if you don't market off-line you are missing a wealth of opportunities. Direct mail is still one of the best ways to reach your target audience.

Three Vital Direct Mail Tips for the Small Business Owner
Direct mail can be a very profitable marketing channel for the small business owner. This article outlines three tips for ensuring your direct mail success.

Direct Mail Is Not For The Faint Of Heart (Nor Weak Budgeted) Network Marketer.
: Direct mail cannot be done cost effectively by the average network marketer. With costs approaching .60 per recipient (when you factor in mailing list rental, label production, printing and postage), and the average consumer receiving over 3,000 advertising messages per day, is it any wonder why direct mail response rates are so low?

Email Marketing Made Easy #04 - Lead Generation
Traditional ways of lead generation is a costly endeavour. For example, if you were to use direct mail to scoop up prospects, you have to pay for the "3 P's" of direct mail...Printing, Paper and Postage and that's a bare minimum, because it doesn't account for the list you must either rent or buy, the labels you must peal and stick, and the time it takes to stuff it all into envelopes.

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