This common marketing mistake just might put you out of business

It’s a marketing question that often comes up from start-up and established business owners:

“What is the one marketing technique that will work best to generate leads and sales for my business?”

Well… first of all… it’s not even the right question to ask.

If you’re serious about growing your business, a better question to ask is:

“What are different things I can do to effectively market my business?”

The difference?

The first question assumes there’s one magic marketing tactic that will generate all the profits you could possibly want, is downright cheap or free, and doesn’t take any of your time to implement.

And why would you want to limit yourself to use only one way to promote your business?

The second question shows you want to explore the many marketing strategies and options available.

The truth about promoting your small business…

Frankly, there is no single magical marketing technique that works like gangbusters for any business, all the time, and is cheap. It just isn’t reality.

There are, however, many different ways to promote your business. Ones that have been proven to work for many businesses.

Just to name a few of the marketing methods your business could use: (Successful businesses typically use several of these at the same time)

• Direct Mail
• Postcard marketing
• Websites
• E-mail marketing
• Social Networking
• Business referral networks (like BNI)
• Radio & TV ads
• Space ads

These can all work for your business – some better than others, depending on your business and who your prospects are.

To get the best results, you need to figure out where your prospects are hanging out, and deliver the right sales message and an irresistible offer to them, using the media they’re most likely to read or hear.

Dan Kennedy, a world-known marketing expert, said it best, when asked what marketing technique he would use to get new clients:

“There’s not one way I would use to get lots of clients, but I know 50 ways that will each get me a few.”

It boils down to this…

When it comes to marketing your small business… there is no right answer… and don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket.

Mix and match several of the techniques, using the ones your ideal prospects are looking at.

What are your thoughts?

If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

Stratham marketing copywriter donates to
Portsmouth breast cancer support group

From now until March 31st, Merrill Clark, owner of Crestview Marketing Services will donate $5 from the sale of each copy of his new book titled “How Your Small Local Business Can Get More Customers on the Internet” to Portsmouth  based My Breast Cancer Support.

My Breast Cancer Support is a wonderful and inspiring non-profit organization that was started and is headed up by Wendy McCoole, a cancer survivor herself.

Their mission is dedicated to supporting breast cancer patients, and helping them overcome many of the challenges and issues they face.

Show your support My Breast Cancer Support and get some valuable online marketing advice for your business, too…

You can click here for more information about Wendy and My Breast Cancer Support.

Oh… if you know someone else who could benefit from Wendy’s group or my book,  please forward this to them!

How to use inexpensive YouTube marketing videos to get more web traffic, more customers, and promote your brand

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Undeniably, Google is the largest search engine in the world… but what you may not know, is based on the number of searches and queries, the second largest search engine isn’t Yahoo or Bing… it’s YouTube.

You know – the video site – and it’s owned by Google … which is pretty convenient.

Dunno about you, but it sounds like a 1…2 winning punch winner to me if you want to get better online results.

Today I want to give you a few ways you can use YouTube videos to promote your business.

The best part… it’s simple and inexpensive, maybe even free if you can do the video yourself.

Plus… online videos have been proven to improve your website’s traffic and boost your search engine results.
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Right from the video expert’s mouth…

I was recently talking with Tim Benoit from Timeless Images & Memories, a video production company about businesses using video, and he gave me some great ideas for me and my clients.

His business is to create short videos for business owners that engage prospects and customers, increase web traffic, and improve online business presence, so he knows his stuff.

And Tim assures me the cost for videos is affordable for any small business owner, and the tiny investment will pay for itself many times over.

You can put ‘em on YouTube, share then on Twitter or Facebook, embed them in your website or blog, and link to them from your e-mail marketing campaigns.
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So – What type of videos can you make?

There are many ways you can use video to market your business, so I’m only going to name a few.

• Create a video testimonial from one of your happy clients, maybe even showing them using your product – People feel much better about doing business with you if they see and hear about other happy customers
• Answer a common question – People crave valuable information about specific topics, and answers to questions from a guru on the subject matter
• Tell your existing customers about a new product or service – a property & casualty insurance rep could make one about adding snowmobile or boat insurance to your insurance policy
• Explain the latest news headlines – A local hearing aid company could create a video explaining: “How the new law forces insurance companies to pay for hearing aids”
• Create a short tutorial – Show how to use your products in a common situation… For example: A computer store could make a video called “How to replace your toner cartridge”, or a personal fitness trainer could create one called: “How to do the perfect crunch”

It’s almost endless how many ways you can use online video to promote your business. The only limitation is you.

And like anything… if you don’t try it or do it… it ain’t likely to work at all.

What are your thoughts?

If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

Let’s say you put an ad in your local newspaper, send out a direct mail campaign or postcard…

What will you use to measure how successful it was?

Actually, there are three common answers you’ll get, depending on who you talk to, so I’m going to talk briefly about each one.

The first answer may be:

“How many eyeballs saw your marketing piece?”

You notice I didn’t say “read it”, or “respond to it”, but saw it. In other words, SUPPOSEDLY, if it was seen by thousands of people, the branding efforts were well worth the money spent. This type of advertising typically doesn’t include any response incentive, or give you any way to track the real success on any level.

Advertising agencies are well known for passing this crap on to their clients. Personally, I think branding style advertising for the sole purpose of getting your name out there, is a waste of money.

I won’t argue the point that your image and your brand is important. I just don’t think it should be your primary marketing goal. (Though I’m sure many graphic designers will disagree).

The second common answer:

Success is often measured by the response rate percentage. What percentage of the people who saw your ad or received your mailing responded to your call-to-action?

This is a more accurate indicator of success for a particular postcard or direct mail campaign, because you can track the response for a particular campaign using a tracking code, or a special phone number. And knowing the percentage is important, and useful in other ways, too.

For example, many studies show the average response rate using direct mail is ½ to 1% response. There are many factors that can sway those numbers though. Things like your mailing list, sales copy, and your irresistible offer can influence results tremendously.

But… it’s not necessarily the best measure of your promo’s success…

The third answer is:

“How much money did you put in your pocket?” You know – your ROI (return on investment).

After you add up all your costs… Copywriting fees, printing, postage, and anything else… what was your profit?

To me, this is the most important measure of a promo’s success because you’re looking a real dollars and cents.

Depending on the price/profit of your product or service – even if your response percentage rate is lower than you’d like, it might take only 1 response that turns into a sale to make an overall profit.

And making a profit is what advertising and marketing is all about.

Think about it… wouldn’t you like to have more profit with lower response rates… than to have higher response rates, but fewer profits?

If you’re like most businesses… yes!

So… every time you want to advertise or send out a direct mail promo or postcard, or whatever, think about “ROI” first, then response rates second.

Once your ROI is positive, then you can tweak and test your sales copy and ads to improve the response percentage, creating even higher ROI.

Talk to me – What are your thoughts?

If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

Should you optimize your website
for your company name?

This is a great SEO question that people ask me about at least once a week.

And like the answer to many other questions about website strategy, the answer is:

“It depends.”

But what does it depend on?

Here’s my take on using your company name as a search phrase.

Generally, you want to optimize (or SEO) your website for keywords and phrases that people are typing into Google and Bing’s search boxes, not company names.

Usually, the right keywords will be for products, services, or specific questions about a problem the searcher has.

Then, if your web pages are optimized properly for those words, those pages will be displayed in the search results page.

For most businesses, those words usually aren’t your company name. Think about it… web searchers usually don’t know your company name… yet.

That’s why most people search on words
that relate to their problem

But… (there always seems to be a but)… there are two exceptions to this.

First exception… If your company name includes the keywords people are searching for in the actual business name – then yes, by all means – optimize it by including it in your title tag, headlines, subheads, and body copy.

Here’s a quick example: People searching Google for “seacoast nh coin dealer”.

Who comes up at the top of the search engine results page, but Seacoast Coin & Jewelry? The home page is optimized for those keywords, and his company name just happens to fit like a glove.

The second exception is this:

If your business has been around since the cavemen times, and has built a solid brand and reputation. People already know about your business, what it does, and what you do. In this case, they’ll search on the business name, and maybe a town or zip code. And you want to be found when they look for your name.

The brand recognition is already huge, and people just want to find specific information on your website – because they already know about you and know who you are.

And if you don’t optimize at least some of your pages for your company name, these particular people will give up looking for you.

This is particularly important for businesses in smaller towns and cities.

What I’m saying is: Unless your company name contains keywords you want to be found for, or is already well known with a long-standing reputation…

Optimize your website and web pages with the keywords and phrases you want searchers to find you with.

Talk to me – What are your thoughts?

If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

What’s that? You’re a business owner and don’t have a marketing plan?

Woaa…Why not?

A marketing plan to generate more qualified leads and sales, or at the very least, an outline of different techniques you should be using to promote your business, is a “must do”.

And even though the 2011 ball dropped almost a month ago, and you’ve been putting it off…

There’s still eleven more months to go in the year for your business to make profits… So chop chop.

Assuming you provide a great product or service, then you’re doing a disservice to possible customers, your employees, and yourself by not planning.

You may have heard this quote, which I like: “Failing to plan is planning to fail” (Source – nobody seems to know for sure).

Yeah… I know. Planning today takes a lot of time and energy, but it’s the guide and roadmap to your future success.

There are so many things you can do, and putting them down in a simple-to-follow plan sure makes it much easier.

You can even create a marketing calendar to help you schedule blog posts, direct mail or advertising campaigns.

Set some marketing goals, then develop and implement the techniques you need to reach them cost-effectively.

But at least get your plan down on paper, no matter how simple or complex it is. Then follow it as close as possible, making any necessary changes as you progress.

If you want me to help you come up with a customized marketing plan for your business, I can do that. I’ve done marketing plans for many types of local businesses including attorneys, CPAs, jewelry stores, restaurants, and others.

My client’s plans aren’t the corporate style  – just easy-to-read and follow recommendations based on your input, past results and tactics, and your own business goals.

You’ll be able to follow it in a step-by-step way, with recommendations and techniques listed in order of highest priority to lowest.

Usually including tactics like a lead-generating website, e-mail marketing, postcards, space ads, social media, and more.

Talk to me – What are your thoughts?

Don’t procrastinate any longer. Give me a call or shoot me an e-mail to get an estimate on your marketing plan, and let’s work together to explode your business profits.

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If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

If your business only tries direct mail one time…

Your response may suck. You see, by mailing one poorly written letter or postcard, sent to a low quality list of uninterested people, it’s entirely possible you won’t get the results you want.

And if you’re like many business owners, you’ll blame direct mail for your lousy results, saying that direct mail just doesn’t work.

But don’t! Direct mail does work. I’ve said it before, and it’s been proven time and time again since well…. almost the beginning of time.

99.9% of the time, the real reason it didn’t work is because:

• Your sales copy doesn’t engage and persuade your readers
• You sent it to the wrong or a low quality list
• Or your offer isn’t strong enough to get people to act

It’s not the fault of direct mail.

That being said – if you’re a mind reader and know exactly what to say, how to convey it in words, know the perfect people to say it to, and offer them the perfect reason to respond, you’ll get some action…

But frankly it doesn’t often work that way. (Unless you’re one of those lucky types who always win on your scratch tickets)

Get better odds when using direct mail

So how can increase your chance of a successful direct mail promo?

Simple. By testing and mailing consistently.

Test your headlines, your copy, and your offer, and send them to people who are perfect prospects.

And mail them something at least 3 times over a short period of time.

You never know which headline or offer will be the “one” that kicks butt, when all the other ones don’t work. Chances are – you’ll have to try several versions before you experience the winner.

Plus, your odds of success will increase significantly if you hire an experienced direct response copywriter to write your copy.

Joe Sugar man, known by many as the greatest mail order advertiser and ad copywriter of all times (remember the Blub locker sunglasses which sold who knows how many millions of pair), commented that he would often test 3 or 4 ads for one product, and sometimes as many as 10 ads, before coming up with a winner.

And Joe’s on of the world’s top copywriters, who charges thousands of dollars to write ads for his clients.

So even though it’s more work, the extra cost and work to come up with a winner will more than offset the cost of ads that didn’t perform well.

That’s the truth. And anyone who tells you otherwise or guarantees one specific ad will be successful isn’t being truthful. There’s just no way to know for sure without testing. And that’s guaranteed!

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If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

One direct mail technique that can improve your marketing results

Historically, direct mail has been proven over and over to be a great way to generate leads, sales, and profits for business owners.

Especially when your direct mail campaigns:

• Target the “right” people – the perfect prospect
• Capture your reader’s attention with a powerful headline
• Are so interesting and emotional that your reader just has to read it
• And you make an offer that your prospect can’t refuse

Many business owners send direct mail to generate leads and sales – and chances are, you’ve even tried using direct mail yourself.

You come up with a great idea, write up a quick letter describing how great it is, send out your letter to everyone you know… and wait for the cash to start rolling in.

Unfortunately, this is rarely successful, mostly because most business owners (especially small businesses) only mail the letter one time.

And the reason it’s a problem (for you anyway) is that most people won’t buy from the first letter they get.

Assuming they are interested in your offer, people will only buy from people they like and trust And you’re probably not going to build up a lot of trust in only one letter.

Another issue is the timing. People have hectic lives, and maybe they put your first letter in a pile, then forget about it. When they get another letter a few days later, they may take the time to take your action then.
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So what’s the secret to direct mail then?

Direct mail will usually get the best response when you mail a multi-step sequence of letters.

At the very least – three letters sent 4-6 days apart. Depending on your product or service, there is no upper limit to how many letters you could send.

There have been companies that get profitable response from the sixth or seventh letter in a direct mail campaign.
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3-step direct mail

Step 1:
Write a letter that gets attention, gets read, and compels your reader to take action now. Make sure it goes to a laser-targeted group of people, and mail it using a live stamp.

Step 2:
If they don’t respond within 4-6 days, send out a second letter. Only this time, change the letter a little bit (e.g. put “Second Notice” at the top), make sure they know the big benefit, and add another bonus or incentive for responding.

Step 3:
For the non-responders, wait another 4-6 days and send out a third letter (again making some minor changes to the copy), and maybe add a payment plan, or something else that can push them over the edge.

If the letter and offer is targeted, this sequence has a much better chance of increasing your results than just sending out one lonely letter and praying for the best.
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My final thought…

Some of my clients have seen great results with this direct mail technique, simply by mailing the 3 letters. With the second and third letters, I just changed the headline and the first paragraph or two from the first letter.
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If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…