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  #11  
Old July 12, 2007, 07:35 PM
MichaelRoss
 
Posts: n/a
Default Quick thought on effective marketing that's cheap

Millard,

Thanks for taking action.

Just remembered something that could help.

A business wanted to run a marketing campaign cheaply. Here's what they did...

www.PrescottWeddings.com. Everything you need to say "I do."

Just the name of the business and the slogan - the name in large type and the tagline much smaller.

Other businesses did well on the Name & Slogan thing. Dominos - pizza delivered in 30 minutes or its free. Paypal. FedEx. And so on.

Apply the above...

www.GrubbMarketing.com Everything you need to increase your business.

Michael Ross
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  #12  
Old July 13, 2007, 12:45 AM
Goldblogger
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: You'll Pee Your Pants With Glee! :)

Aloha Phil!

No. I relocated to the Pacific Northwest -- just south of the Canadian border. It is close to my family in Canada and a lot closer to my daughter in Hawaii, than Georgia was...

Now I have an airport within 45 minutes (Abbotsford BC) that offers direct service to Honolulu and the Big Island of Hawaii.

I am still getting settled -- although I have been here since December.

Aloha,

Jason
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  #13  
Old July 13, 2007, 05:17 AM
Phil
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Getting to Business Owners Cheaply

Here's one more idea on Coffee shop networking/marketing that I've used in some businesses...

Free Monthly office space in Coffee shops by arranging a monthly Coffee club account...

In exchange I purchased volume Coffee & treats at Great prices bringing in a nice flow of New customers...

Free coffee as a Marketing tool... It's a Great Affordable giveaway...

Excellent place to Do business, meet people and have small meetings/mini seminars...

A Win-Win situation... Afterall who turns down a Good Latte...

Used the same Formula for Ice Cream... And have also received 1,000's of Free ice cream cones in exchange for bringing in New customers...

I Scream Marketing...

The Kids and their Families Love it & Always keep going back for Lots more...

Twist coffee & ice cream into your Marketing plans and/or Make a business out of it...

Bartering and Cross Promotions... You'll be Surprised at the Results...

Phil
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  #14  
Old July 13, 2007, 09:16 AM
Millard Grubb
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Getting to Business Owners Cheaply

Phil,

I suppose you mean that I promise to buy a certain amount of Lattes or coffees in trade for using the coffee shop for a business meeting?

I have a friend who suggested that I have a light lunch (sandwiches) to encourage business owners to attend....

What I am trying to do is what you are talking about....JVs and barter.... I've spent plenty of money in the past to get people in the door.... as another friend told me.... When you get a referral coming to you, you're not really selling, you're helping them to see how you can be a benefit to their company....

Again, as I mentioned, I plan to give GOOD STUFF AWAY and TELL THEM how good it is, by example, so they will think.... WOW! THIS is his FREE stuff?

Millard
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  #15  
Old July 13, 2007, 05:10 PM
Phil
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Getting to Business Owners Cheaply

Millard,

Actually, I was just Tossing out the idea (for all) that Coffee shops are a Great place to use in all kinds of Creative ways...

They're in a very Competitive marketplace, which opens up all kinds of interesting Possibilities...

Including getting www.followupsecrets.com on all those take away Coffee cups etc...

A Big Trend now is to Get into Consignment Brokering for Artists and Yes! use Coffee shops to Do small exhibitions...

There are people making Big Bucks Promoting Artists in Coffee shops...

Because Artists have absolutely No idea on how to Market themselves...

Just an idea...

Phil
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  #16  
Old July 13, 2007, 09:46 PM
MichaelWinicki
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Getting to Business Owners Cheaply

Millard,

Not to rain on your parade but I'm going to play a little "devil's advocate"-- OK?

The small business market (5 or fewer employees with sales of less than $500,000 per year) is in my opinion the "fool's gold" of information marketers.

I'm tried my hand at the market at least fours different times, once as an employee of a non-profit corporation hired to put on seminars for small business owners and the other three times on my own.

I felt like you and a number of marketers have felt-- these folks need some serious marketing help!

The problems with that perspective are as follows:

1. Most do not think they need marketing help-- you may find that difficult to believe but after working or attempting to work with over 2,000 of them that is the honest to God's truth. Most are ignorant to their own situations. Sure it's easy for us, who've studied all the masters from Hopkins to Abraham to Kennedy to look at a yellow page ad for a local pizza shop and say, "Boy that's a lousy ad-- I know I could create one that does 5x the business".

The trouble is the business owner won't believe it. You'll be talking a different language than what they understand. They'll look at you like you're from outer space-- or maybe even worse-- France.

You may not believe this but it's true and the amount of time it will take you to convince them otherwise will ultimately drive you to other business opportunities. And if this was just the only challenge when dealing with small business owners things would be bad enough... but my friend it gets worse.

2. While you may think they have loads of money to invest in marketing the opposite is more the reality of the situation. These folks view marketing as an expense-- pure & simple. You suggest to them that they should be doubling their marketing dollars and they'll either laugh in your face or will show you the red ink of where they've been "stealing" sales tax dollars over the last 4 quarters to bolster their bottom line and keep their kids and other relatives employed. Yeah, you could spend time educating them-- but you'll never, ever recoup the investment.

3. They have no ability to put in place any of the suggestions that you'll have. They don't have the time, the patience or the management ability. So they won't even bother to attend any seminars because it their mismanaged world their time is already fully committed without considering some newfangled marketing ideas. And if you think they'll pay you to put these concepts in place-- guess again! You're a needless expense! You're "advertising". These people get all of their business from "word of mouth", which is "free". At least according to them it is. Yeah you can educate them but by this point I hope you've come to realize the foolishness of that.

Millard if you want to spend some time trying to help some small business owners get ahead? Fine go ahead and do that just don't plan on this being some sort of money-machine that is going to pump 6-figures into your pocket. You don't have enough time or patience to deal with these folks.

I finally quit doing seminars and wrote my book, "Killer Techniques To Succeed With Newspaper, Magazine and Yellow Page Advertising" which is basically my seminar in a print format.

A couple quick stories...

About three years ago Dan Kennedy offered to do a free teleseminar for the national association of independent booksellers-- in other words these are all the stores that aren't affiliated with a franchise. Dan Kennedy is big on reading and was a huge champion of independently owned bookshops-- you know "mom & pop" bookshop owners-- the type of businesses you want to target.

Anyway the national association put some real effort into marketing this event. And this was a legit thing. Kennedy was going to give them some terrific information.

There are thousands of these bookshop across the country... you know how many participated?










35.


Yep. 35.

Kennedy was livid and said that he would never step foot in another independently owned book shop again.


Just a few months ago Dan was doing a teleminar and towards the end they allowed a few questions. Some guy said that he wanted to do exactly what you want to do Millard-- essentially help small businesses market better. Dan basically said that he'd go broke trying. His exact words were, "You can't help people that don't want to be helped."

I wouldn't waste me time if I were you but you're not me so go forth give it a go and the bottom line is that you can't say that you weren't warned.
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  #17  
Old July 14, 2007, 10:10 AM
ThePromotionalGuy.com
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Getting to Business Owners Cheaply

Millard,

I have to echo Mike W. sentiments. I see small business owners everyday. It is very discouraging to listen to their excuses and why they believe they are right and you don't know what you are talking about. Their perception of marketing and advertising is that it is a necessary evil. They do not view it as a way to generate more business.

Also they don't like someone else telling them how to advertise. You can have all the proof in the world, that shows them how to effectively take their business to the next level, but they will always come back with, "That may work in other businesses, but our industry is different."

Most just want to rely on their location, yellow page ads, word-of-mouth, and putting a sign out in front of their business. If it's more than that then it's an expense. It's astonishing the amount of business owners that don't believe they should thank their customers for doing business with them. As though they are doing the consumer a favor by being in business.

What I see that you are wanting to do is great, but you are chasing rabbits if you go after small business owners. They will eat up your time, resources and expect you to consult them for FREE and then complain because your advise did not give them the instant success that they think they deserve.

Target larger businesses in your area if you can. They see the value of a consultant/workshops. If you want to go after the smaller business owner, I would recommend that you prequalify them first. That way you reduce wasted time on those just looking for something for FREE.

Here is a little secret, I will let you in on. In every industry there is always a small percentage of successful business owners. Target them. They are all about growing their business and expanding.

I hate it that we have to get picky even with workshops or informal meetings, but in today's economy you only want to help others that truly see a benefit to your expertise.

Woody Quiñones
The Promotional Guy
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  #18  
Old July 14, 2007, 10:20 AM
sandy
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Getting to Business Owners Cheaply

Michael you have just confirmed what I believed. However, I only believed it after helping a few friends with marketing and discussing the possibilities. They saw it as a waste of time also; I couldn't figure out what was going on. Another area of marketing they didn't quite get was: Public Relations. Many of them need PR coverage but for some reason don't want to pay for it. I think one of the problems is the lack of business tools and knowledge of how to measure the effectiveness of different marketing strategies. If you won't take the time to talk to your customers(either face to face or in some format) and find out how they found your business and or if they heard you on some type of media outlet: what good would a PR Plan do you? I've found many small business people may "enjoy what they do" but do not "enjoy becoming successful in business through the use of sales and marketing strategies".

Now here is my question to you: Let's take real estate for example. Do you think the larger entities: big name real estate companies take their marketing and sales strategies more seriously than the small realtors(realtors with 5 salespeople or less)? I'm asking because do you think there are certain industries which are resistant to marketing efforts or it's the size of the industry.

Let me give you an example: when I go online I see zillions of realtor websites: most of them are aimed at people who are searching for listings, and other realtors checking out the competition. But the blog/websites I see do not give you a sense of who you will be doing business with and the reason I should do business with them. So the average person will browse 17 or so realtor websites and may even find themselves,after doing so, going to a simple platform as "craigslist.org" to find homes. Why? what is it about craigslist? why does a site without the frills etc. draw so many?

Anyway, I've digressed and thank you for the post which was stimulating.
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  #19  
Old July 14, 2007, 11:58 AM
ThePromotionalGuy.com
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Getting to Business Owners Cheaply

Sandy,

I'm not Mike, but I would like to address your question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandy View Post
Now here is my question to you: Let's take real estate for example. Do you think the larger entities: big name real estate companies take their marketing and sales strategies more seriously than the small realtors(realtors with 5 salespeople or less)?

Yes and that's why they have large advertising budgets. They recognize that constant exposure builds recognition. The more I'm seen by the public, the more legitimate I'm considered. That thinking plays to human nature.

You are more likely to do business with those you know, then those you don't or don't know much about. Advertising conditions the consumer to believe a product, service or company are reliable and reputable, because they see it all the time.

For example: Walmart is known for low prices, because they say so on their television ads. So the consumer goes to see the prices and buys, now they are convinced and believes Walmart's adverting more.

But if you go into other places such as Target or Kmart, which will have the same product as Walmart, you will find that their prices are as low or even lower than Walmart.

How's that possible? Because Walmart has been telling us for years and we are conditioned to believe their ads, especially after you have made a purchase.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandy View Post
I'm asking because do you think there are certain industries which are resistant to marketing efforts or it's the size of the industry.

If an industry has a lot of competition, then those who want to stay on top will advertise and market aggressively. If an industry has little competition then there is no threat to their customer base so advertising and marketing are not persued has intensely.

Then there are industries, that are very successful that don't need to market or advertise because their product or service is in such a demand advertising and marketing are not needed. Example: Citrus, Cattle, Mines & anything that's apart of the agricultural industry.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandy View Post
Why? what is it about craigslist? why does a site without the frills etc. draw so many?

Sites like craigslist draw people that are looking for the cheapest route to go. That's not necessarily bad, but with the skyrocketing home prices, consumers are holding onto their money tighter.

Big name companies represent additional expenses to the home buyer that may have limited income and if they can shave off some expenses and still get what they want, then in their minds they are a winner.

However, they do give up necessary services that could prevent them from making a huge financial blunder. Items such title searches, contacting multiple owners on a deed, undisclosed liens, possible right of way issues, variances they are not aware of & so on.

Woody Quiñones
The Promotional Guy
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  #20  
Old July 14, 2007, 12:19 PM
Biztips
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Magic and Publicity

Interesting discussion and I agree that many times the people who need help the most are the least open to the idea that they need it...

A couple of things caught my attention.

You said you were a magician? A young magician I know is one of the most creative marketers I've ever seen, especially in his use of business cards. I give away an interview with him (and a video illustration of how to do a business card magic trick) with sign-ups to my Business Card Bulletin newsletter...

But it's the publicity angle that I wanted to focus on. Just did a lot of research on that for a new book - had gotten some great publicity for an ebook release last year and that kind of free promotion is wonderful - people are much more likely to believe someone who's presented as an expert or who is mentioned in the news.

It's not difficult at all to get local publicity - radio, TV, newspaper - if you're creative in your story idea, and it sounds as if you could be. I think the hook that you're a magician can probably be used, right off the bat, since that professional is inherently intriguing.

Best of all, it doesn't cost you a CENT!

Diana Ratliff, Author
The Publicity Traffic System, http://www.PublicityTrafficSystem.com
For free business card marketing report, magic trick video, and business card discount, send a blank email to: [email protected]
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