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Our hope is that it will help you overcome obstacles on your business journey. If you’re a new business owner, I wrote this short report with you in mind. We don’t think there is an industry out there that couldn’t use this information in some profitable way.

“When Your Advertising Is Ineffective, Who Do You Turn To?”

How Many Times Have You Found Yourself Saying, I Need More Customers Now?

I’m going to show you, how to uncover the vast fortune that lays waiting for you in your advertising dollar$. RIGHT NOW.

Every Business Owner Every Marketing Director Every CEO Every Sales Manager And Every Person who is directly responsible for the sales curve GOING UP

You need to know and understand what you are about to read.

“It cost the same amount of money for a bad marketing plan, as it does for a good one. The difference is that a good marketing plan will make you more money, for the same amount of money spent.” FACT.

How important is having a well thought out plan? How valuable will that be to your company? How much more money will you make this year?

IF,

The same ads you place, the same postcard campaigns you mail out, the same emails you make, the same sales materials you leave behind, the same phone scripts you use and your website, and any other marketing avenues you advertise with could…

GET BETTER RESULTS?

Would you be amazed to find out that what you said and how you said it were the 2 main things that made the difference?

Read On and Pay Attention.

What you are about to discover will change the way you do your advertising forever. It will change the way you MAKE MONEY forever.

Introduction

To All of You Who Have Just Started A Business. Or you are trying to get a foundation underneath one, you owe it to yourself to read on.

I wrote this short book with the new business owner AND the experienced business owner in mind. The purpose is to give you eager business owners out there the chance to leap over the trials and tribulations associated with getting your advertising and marketing up, running and constantly growing your business.

Who am I to give you this knowledge?

We the marketing directors of an advertising agency, the owner of a printing company, a market consultant for mid-sized businesses and an aspiring entrepreneur, just like you. We have seen literally millions of mail pieces fly out our doors in a year. I oversee multiple projects at once, including ad placements, design, storyboards, website promotions, pay-per-click advertising, e-mail campaigns, content writing and overall analysis of monthly efforts. For both my companies and a few hand-picked businesses that we feel have something to brag about.

We speak with these business owners, marketing directors and sales managers everyday. We ask them all the time. “How well did this last piece work for you? How many sales did you get from that last mailing. Which headlines pulled the best? How many visitors are you getting to your site?”

The point is, I know what works. I know what doesn’t. I’m not perfect. I can’t guess winners or pick the lottery numbers. What I can do is give you a step by step guide to speeding up the process of learning how to market your company correctly. Without learning the hard way and loosing money figuring it out

What are you going to discover by reading this short book?

1. Research -- How to research your competition but not focus on your competition. How to research your customers, for who they are and who you should be selling to. How to research your industry and stay ahead of the curve. And how to find all of the evidence you need to set your company apart from any competition out there and BE COMPETITIONLESS. 2. Strategy -- How to write. That’s right. How to write marketing content for your sales materials that does the selling for you and compels your potential customers to buy from you. Or at least think of you when the time is right to buy, when they are ripe for the picking. 3. Testing -- Which sales materials to produce (print brochures, postcards, web, e-mails, sales scripts), when to give them to whom, why and how. 4. Your Controls -- How to test & measure your efforts and get better ROI’s. (Returns On “your advertising” Investments) This is where I teach you something we call “marketing leverage”.

Each step must be completed before the next will even make sense. I hope this book produces much fruit for you in your business endeavors. Please contact me personally with any advice, testimonials, questions or comments, or if you would like to speak with me directly for a one-on-one FREE Marketing Evaluation. In our evaluation, we’ll discover together what your business goals are and devise a plan to achieve them as quickly as possible. Scott Elvis Caron, scott@ScottCaron.ws 727-520-3900

What is Marketing?

Marketing - mar•ket•ing, (Noun) – 1.) Selling of products or services. The business activity of presenting products or services to potential customers IN A WAY THAT MAKES THEM “WANT” TO BUY FROM “YOU”.

Advertising - ad•ver•tis•ing, (Noun) – 1.) Public promotion of something. The promotion through public announcements in newspapers or on the radio, television, or Internet of something such as a product, service, event, or vacancy in order to attract or increase interest in it. 2.) The business of producing advertisements. Not necessarily selling products and services.

There’s a huge difference. Most people in the business world are confused about this. Marketing is a collection of advertisements and the advertisements are just a part of the overall plan, or also known as the marketing campaign. A System of Selling. So that you make the potential customer “want” to buy from you.

Example: You are not in the business of being the best electrician. You are in the business of marketing electric reliability. Over and over again. Until your business is overflowing with business.

If you place an ad in the yellow pages and it cost you $1,000 per month. And your average sale makes you $100 in profit. You will need an average of 10 sales a month to break even. What if that ad receives 100 calls per month and you secure 20 sales. That’s an average of $2,000 per month. You’re making at least $1,000 in profit, after your advertising expenses, right? But not very profitable.

But what if? Just because of the way you word your advertising, you could get that phone to ring 500 times per month and the people calling are twice as qualified? Meaning, they are the exact customer you are looking for, and they need no more selling to facilitate the order, just take their order information. That translates into 80 or more sales, or an average of $8,000 or more profit per month for the same $1,000 spent. Of course you may have to hire on a few more electricians at that point. But hey, that’s a good problem to have right?

This is what I call “Marketing Leverage”. There is no other more powerful force that can grow your company, than a results orientated marketing strategy.

That’s the importance of having a well though out marketing plan.

So, where do you get started on an effective marketing plan designed specifically for YOU, in YOUR INDUSTRY and for YOUR COMPANY?

In my personal EXPERIENCE (and experience is everything in marketing) there are really only 4 parts to establishing and maintaining a custom marketing plan. I’ve broken it up into only 4 parts because it makes it super-simple for a new business owner to understand and work on. The 4th step is what you need to know to continue experiencing your new business growth.

Please e-mail me your questions, comments, advice, testimonials or requests for help to me, Scott Elvis Caron at scott@ScottCaron.ws 727-520-3900

What I Expect From You?

Improvements. Im-prove-ment (noun) 1.) getting or making better, the process of making something better or of becoming better. An improvement on your past performance. 2.) change or addition that makes something better. 3.) change that adds value, especially to real estate. 4.) advance in value, an increase in value.

Innovation. In-no-va-tion (noun) – 1.) origination, the act or process of inventing or introducing something new. 2.) new idea or method, something newly invented or a new way of doing things

It was Rosser Reeves who said, “You must make the product interesting, not just make the ad different. And that's what too many of the copywriters in the U.S. today don't yet understand.”

It was also Rosser Reeves who said, “Unless a product becomes outmoded, a great campaign will not wear itself out.”

This is still true today.

You can’t just make your ads better, you have to have a great reason to brag about yourself.

I can help your company only so far, but ultimately, your company has to innovate, and then keep improving on those innovations, and stay ahead of your competition. The key is finding ways to show your customers that there is no company that can say what you say and do what you do. If this statement is true, then you have made yourself, COMPETITIONLESS.

Here are the 4 parts of your marketing plan.

Part 1) Research – Customer Survey – Competitor Survey – Internal Innovations & Improvements – Gather all of your Evidence and Proof

Part 2) Strategy – Your Advertising Copy (text) Writing and What to Write About – Your Great Sales Debate - Headlines – Body Copy – Call to Action - Content Evaluations

Part 3) Testing – Which mediums to use & The System – Graphics – Printing – ALL Sales Processes lead to control over your marketing efforts.

Part 4) Your Controls – Tracking – Analyzing – Maximizing

Now, I’ve broken it down into these four parts because it is easier for you to digest and remember the main points of interest. Each part needs to be completed one part after another in order to get good results. However, after you’ve familiarized yourself with these 4 parts, you can work on them separately. If you’re satisfied with your results, but have no time to handle all the little details involved, that’s what my marketing company is here for. Call on me and I’ll answer back with results, email Scott Caron at scott@ScottCaron.ws 727-520-3900

Part 1: Research & Evidence

What are your competitors saying in their ads? Best service, best price, quality parts, quickest turnarounds, and easiest terms. Look in the Yellow Pages. Doesn’t everyone make these same exact claims? Can you put your company logo and information in their ad and make it yours? If so, you have a problem. How could anyone tell which business to choose to give their money to? I guess they will have to go with the lowest price. But what if you don’t have the lowest price? Or, don’t want to just have the lowest price? Here is what you need to do.

1st conduct a customer survey.

Here are the questions you need answered:

1. Who is your target market? Or, who would be your best customers? Really think hard on this one. Here are a set of guidelines to stick to:

Geographic Variables – Region of the world or country. Country size. Climate. Demographic Variables -- age gender sexual orientation family size family life cycle income occupation education socioeconomic status religion nationality Psychographic Variables -- personality life-style values attitudes Behavioral Variables -- benefit sought product usage rate brand loyalty product end use readiness-to-buy stage decision making unit 2. Who do you actually “WANT” your customers to be? That’s your target market. The more you segment them into target groups, the more you can tailor your ad copy writing to your customer’s needs and wants. Knowing your target markets will ensure that you don’t make the pitch to the marketing director, when the only person who will sign the check is the CEO. You may be pitching someone that still has to pitch someone else. In that case you will lose the sale, because how can you be assured that the person you pitch is going to have the same enthusiasm about your product or service as you do?

3. You should also know all those involved in the decision process and those affected by the product or service. Plus, in what way are they affected?

4. Extremely Important. What is it that gets your customers to start thinking about what you sell? What circumstance must take place? This question will uncover the hot buttons that you will use in your ads. They are usually emotional words and phases that evoke feelings of fear, of loss, feeling great, succeeding, becoming more intelligent, being famous, looking cool, bigger something, making someone rich, easing a pain or motivating them.

5. What problems and frustrations do they go through when buying what you sell and what could make these problems go away? This question can easily help you find a new service or product strategy. There are certain things that may be important to them when they buy. What are they?

6. What things do they want to stay away from? If you had to give your mom or sister advice on buying your products or services, what advice would you give?

7. There are certain things that are relevant to your customer that they may not know about. What are those things that you wish all of your customers understood or had awareness of? Again, what should they look out for?

8. Are there a couple of things that you wish you could change about your industry? Would they make you more money? Are there legal, ethical and moral ways around it?

9. What are the key reasons customers end up doing business with you now? The next step is finding out what you could change about the internal truths of your company that would create repeat business?

10. Then, what could you change to create more referral business? Look at these questions from the customer’s standpoint. If you were a customer of yours, what would your company need to do to get you to willingly, openly, and aggressively refer business your way? Or make you come back again and again for more?

Remember, these are discovery questions. The things you learn from this section will help you in the next section. You may even form your own questions that need to be answered.

2nd, Conduct a Competitive Survey.

Gather all of your competitor’s advertisements that you can. And write down what they say into 4 sections like this:

Marketing Strategies – What promotions are they using? What’s the catch? Is it information about marketing? Is there 100 FREE Postcards, no strings attached? (Most of the time, there is no promotion or marketing strategy. This is a good thing, for you)

Product Strategies – The features of their products/services, plus the benefits/advantages it gives to the user. (Example: Our New ergonomic handle design with patent pending technology used by astronuats(? Feature) means you’ll never have a handle break on you again.(? Benefit)

Service Strategies – Is there a certain way that the customer gets the product? Is their extra? Is there curbside service? Is it FREE bumber2bumper maintenance for 5 years? 2 FREE ad copy critiques to make sure your ads make you money?

Customer Relations Strategies – How do they make the process easier on the client? How do they keep the customers coming back? How do they stay in touch? Do they even stay in touch at all? Do they somehow use the information they glean from the customer to make the relationship more beneficial? Or is their relationship with their customer a helpful one? Like if two companies of complimenting interest, but not competitive, joined forces to give you a better deal. That’s a joint venture, but it is also a customer relations strategy.

In summary.

1st, What you need to do is make a list of all of the things that your competition says. Then, you need to take a tally of how many times you hear the same thing over and over again. Don’t say all of the same stuff in your ads. And look out for good stuff too. You may hear something from competitors that you really like. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Just remember, the focus isn’t on the competitors but their customers.

2nd, you can try calling around to your competitors to get literature sent to you. Or maybe calling businesses in your industry that are in the yellow pages and asking how many calls they get from their ads. If they ask why you want to know, then tell them you are running a marketing satisfaction study. And don’t ask for the marketing person they will grill you with questions. Just ask the person who picks up. If they say the don’t know how many calls they get, give them an estimated choice of 5, 50, or 500 per month. They will pick one and you can move on. This will show you how well their marketing is doing.

3rd, You can even anonymously call and see how well your company stacks up. How quickly do you get information? Would it make you buy? Does your company stack up to the competition?

You can break this down into segments for direct and indirect competitors as well.

3rd Internal Innovations

Innovation. In-no-va-tion (noun) – 1.) origination, the act or process of inventing or introducing something new. 2.) new idea or method, something newly invented or a new way of doing things

Improvements. Im-prove-ment (noun) 1.) getting or making better, the process of making something better or of becoming better. An improvement on your past performance. 2.) change or addition that makes something better. 3.) change that adds value, especially to real estate. 4.) advance in value.

Remember we said:

It was Rosser Reeves who said, “You must make the product interesting, not just make the ad different. And that's what too many of the copywriters in the U.S. today don't yet understand.”

It was also Rosser Reeves who said, “Unless a product becomes outmoded, a great campaign will not wear itself out.”

This is still true today and will always be a guiding factor in the marketing of ANY business. Everyone has heard the phrase “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink”. If you do your marketing right, saying what you should be saying, to the right people at the right time. And you do it enough times, in a manner they feel comfortable listening to, even the weakest links in your sales chain can make sales. All it takes is delivering a compelling marketing piece. If it’s given to the right person, at the right time, delivered with the right deal for that product or service, you stand a great chance at winning the deal.

There are a great number of factors that can become stumbling blocks. Through testing and measuring your efforts, you can make progress. There is no sure-fired-silver-bullet out there.

I feel, investing in your marketing leverage is one of the smartest things you can do. So far, you have expressed interest enough to read this far. That says to me that you have already fulfilled what I expect from you. A desire to be innovative and improve on your innovations. Until you reach a desired amount of profit from each of your marketing efforts.

List the four strategies again.

Marketing Strategies - Product Strategies – Service Strategies – Customer Relations Strategies

There are few things in each of these categories that neither your competition nor your company is doing that could set you apart from your competition. So, write down each of these categories and then write down what your competition is doing in each one. Then ask yourself, “ What could you do to be as competitive as your competition in these areas?”. Write these answers down as well. Then lastly, what would it take to blow the competition’s doors right off? Can you afford that? Can you afford not too?

This portion is very vague, because only you know your business and industry better than anyone else. This is the part of your marketing that gives you the edge on your competition. Are you willing to make sacrifices/innovations to be the best deal? Not just the best price. Are you willing to change some things about your business internally if you find that there is nothing to DIFFERENTIATE you from your competition? MAKING YOU COMPETITIONLESS?

*Another thing to pay attention to is what other companies use these strategies for. If you see a great use of one of these strategies in a company unrelated to yours, try and figure out how to incorporate it into your company. This is a cross-pollinating technique.

4th Gathering of Evidence.

You need to find ALL of the supporting evidence that you can find in magazines, industry reports, websites, and newspapers that supports your claims. Here is a list of things to look for:

Before and after photos. Videos of your product or service in action. Statistics and Case Studies that prove your company is the best deal. Laboratory tests that show scientifically that your product or service is accurate. Quotes from influential people or other industry leaders. Authority Endorsements They don’t have to say your name, just back up your claims and show that you are who you say you are. Compliance regulations / Are you the only ISO 9000 Compliant company in a 50 mile radius? Find Out! Charts, Graphs and Graphics that illustrate and back up your claims. Awards received that show your competency in your given field. Lists of BIG Clients. This is proof that you can come through for the little guys. Memberships with Associations and what they mean to your ability to exceed their expectations.. Books, websites and articles that are on related subjects that back up your claims. Celebrity Endorsements. Who uses your product? Testimonials that can be verified. With names and phone numbers so they can be checked up on. Revenue Reports. Prove your worth. Demos or Trials. Giving your potential customers a realistic, hands-on, no purchase necessary, way of trying your company out before they buy. Letting them convince themselves.

Really work hard on Section 1. It is the basis for which ALL parts of your content will come from. This will give you a really great start to writing the bulk of your advertisements in a way that makes it believable. Since you are just starting out in your new business venture it is a good idea to try and borrow from the credibility of others.

A Preponderance of Proof is what you need. Dig deep for information that you can use to your company’s benefit. Any one of the kinds of proof above will loan you credibility. A preponderance of proof means, that it is all of the evidence and more, making the customer feel they have made their own decision without feeling like they were sold. Part 2: Strategy

1st, Advertising Copy Writing and What to Write About.

In the 1960’s Rosser Reeves wrote a book called “Reality in Advertising”. The basic concept was that there is nothing stronger than a USP. A Unique Selling Proposition. Customers will COME TO YOU, if you have one.

The first thing your USP had to do was say, ”When you buy our product, you will receive this specific benefit or advantage”.

Secondly, your competition CAN NOT be able to make the same claim. Making it unique. Making you competitionless.

Thirdly, your proposition must be so strong that it moves the masses to come to you.

Reeves used this strategy to build billion dollar companies. M&M’s, melt in your mouth not in your hands. Colgate, cleans your breath while it cleans your teeth. Anicin, the pain reliever doctors recommend most. And Wonder Bread, helps build bodies in eight ways. What are the biggest concerns your prospect has?

What do you do to solve their problems? And what do they need to know in order to make a decision? Make your solution instantly evident in your USP.

I own a printing company. I know that most people in charge of ordering printing are not helped much by the printers that sell them on printing products. They want to know that the piece they are printing will make them money, but never say it. They want to know that it will make the phone ring, the store traffic increase and the web site to almost overload with hits. But 95% of all printers do not care enough or do not know enough about what makes a winning print piece. Plus, let’s be honest, a printer really wants you to think you need to print twice as many prints to make twice as many sales. So, I changed my core competence from just plain printing to print marketing as our specialty. That’s what differentiates us from our competition. And that is a good thing for you. I not only can print it, but I can show you how to turn it into money. That’s my strategy. My USP. Unique Selling Proposition. We Print Winning Marketing Pieces!

So I ask you, what is your customer’s hot buttons? What gets them to begin to entertain the thought of buying what you sell? For you it is more sales, right? What problems do your customers encounter and what do you do to solve their problems?

2nd, Your Great Sales Debate.

Now, Write down ALL of your reasons and evidence you’ve gathered why you are different and better than your competition and put it on paper. This a compilation of all of the answers to all of your potential customers’ questions. Some call this a master letter.

You’re going to take as much room as it takes to write it all out here.

First, write all of the problems your customers face when dealing with your industry. (this may take a while, nobody said this would be easy).

Second, what are the aggravations and frustrations that take place? Think from the customers point of view.

Thirdly, what expertise and evidence do you have that shows you are the number one solution to them all?

This is your Great Sales Debate! Remember, don’t leave anything out. Tell it all, but remember this quote from O’l Billy Shakespeare “Brevity is the soul of wit”. In other words, say what you need to say, then stop.

List all of the evidence and proof you can show that you are the number one choice your customer should make when even thinking of what it is you do. When you have more than enough proof, you will have a preponderance of proof. And that’s what you need to make a potential buyer feel they are making their decision on their own, not being sold. No person I’ve ever met wants to be “sold” anything. Do you?

3rd, Headlines.

Ads for Ads????

They are the most important part of your advertising. Why? Because they are the advertisements for your advertising. They are what help make the decision for your customer whether or not they should read on.

If your headlines are not effective, your potential customers will not read on to the rest of your sales pitch, and they most certainly will not read your call to action. Basically, you do not get a second chance to make a first impression. That’s why headlines are so important.

Most of the information I will give you on the topic of testing will have to do with headlines. Once you have found effective headlines, you can begin to test the other 2 parts of your advertising. Body copy and call to action.

The only way I know of that actually works is to touch on your customer’s hot buttons. Hot buttons are emotional tag words that make you customers think about a problem, aggravation or solution they have come across and ties it to your products or services, instantly without them having to associate it on their own. In other words, it really pushes their buttons, ya know?

So what makes a great headline? Well, maybe it’s easier to just show you some examples of great headlines and you can change them to fit your business situations. We could ramble on and on about headlines, and there are literally mega-books on the subject. Read them, they will do you good, but even better, just start testing out some ideas and go with the best response rate.

Here are 25 examples:

How To Cram Sixteen Hours Of Classroom Marketing Training Into One Easy 90-Minute Session...At Your Home Or Office

Innovative Print Marketing System Makes Products “Fly Off The Shelf”

There’s Only 2 Ways To Buy Your Corporate Identity: From A Printing Shop, Or From Their Source... The Wholesaler.

The Only Thing We’ve Left Off Our Printing, Is The Ridiculous Price

How Much Should You Pay For A Logo Design?

Of Course You’ve Heard Of Marketing Consultants. But Have You Heard Of AFFORDABLE Marketing Consultants?

Profits That Lie Hidden In Your Advertising

7 Fast Ways To Increase Sales...That Cost You Nothing, But Could Cost You EVERYTHING

Learn To Correctly Market Your Company In 7 Days Or Your Money Back

Entrepreneurs Who 'Know It All' Are Not Invited To Read This Page

Protect Yourself From Being BURNED By Print Companies Who Over-Represent Their Skill Level.

Save Money By Knowing How Printers Trick You Into Buying More Printing

The 4 Grim Facts Of Life About Printing: Don't Go Into Business Until You Memorize Them ALL

The Most Common Printing Mistakes (You're Probably Making Them Now)

They Laughed When I Started My Business -- But When I Started To Make Money!

Whose Fault Is It When Your Advertising Doesn’t Work?

When Printers Print Their Own Marketing Pieces, This Is What They Do

Advice To Business Owners About Printing -- By A Printer

What Nobody Will Ever Tell You About Printing.

What Your Printers Don’t Want You To Know

Six Closely Guarded Secrets Of The Printing Industry... Revealed At Last

5 Ways Even Good Printers Steal From Clients

Three Fairy Tales You'll Hear From Printers... Even Honest Ones

The #1 Most Common Goof In Buying Printing

The Biggest Problems You’ll Have With Most Printers…And How Our Customers Overcome Them All.

Make sure to start all of your content writing with as many headlines as you can, they set the tone for the rest of your content writing.

4th, Body Copy.

The bulk of your content (text) in your advertising is called the body copy. It comes between the Headline and your Call to Action.

The body copy is basically the evidence and proof you have that you are the best choice when buying what it is that you sell. And you should follow one of these 2 outlines.

(one) Problems(hot button), then aggravations, then solutions.

Or

(two) Get Their Attention, Inform, then educate, then ask.

The 1st is simply the problems a customer associates with your products/service, then briefly the aggravations that occur when they don’t have your products/services, and lastly the solution you offer with your products/services.

The 2nd is simply to inform your potential customer of an important subject about your products/services, then to educate them on ALL of the relevant issues they need to know in order to make an educated decision when buying your products/services, then to ask them to buy your products/services, because you are the only logical choice.

This brings us to the 5th point in your strategy.

5th, Call to Action.

You see, the real reason and goal you should have in mind when advertising your products/services is to make your potential customer feel you are the ONLY logical choice. That is the definition of effective marketing.

And you should do this BEFORE asking for the order.

But, none the less, most (and I mean 95% of all marketers fail to recognize this) fall short of even ASKING for the order. Can you believe that?!!!!

What would be the point of going on a drive to meet a potential customer and spend money on gas, time, and effort to sit and give a half hour speech about your product/services and then NEVER EVEN ASK FOR THE ORDER?

I don’t know the answer to that one either, but it happens all of the time. Just look at a bunch of advertisements and decide whether or not they are even asking anything from you.

I once worked for a high powered telemarketing company, selling ad space to fortune 1000 companies, where we were ONLY allowed to speak to the CEO. I must have called over 200 phone calls a day and spoke to 5-12 CEO’s a day. I had one chance to make a one-call-close for $30,000 ad spaces. This is a tough thing to do, as you can imagine. I wasn’t making any sales and my manager brought me to the back of the office and had a talk with me. He said, “I know why you aren’t making any sales. When you’re out for the hunt, you aren’t bringing home your pound of flesh”. At first, this sounds a little gruesome, but think about that last statement for a few seconds.

If you had to hunt for your food, would you shoot at everything, or would you only shoot at the perfect looking shots? The smart thing to do would be to shoot at everything that moved and hope you at least brought home one kill, even if it only equaled a pound of flesh. At least your family ate for the night, right?

It’s the same in sales with every business. Sure there will be good days you’ll shoot the moose, but if you were smart, you’d shoot at everything, everyday and bring home more than your fair share.

Point is, don’t waste a single dollar on advertising unless you are willing to ask for your pound of flesh. Ask for something. Even if it is their contact information, so that you can advertise to them over and over again until they finally buy. But ask for something, even if it is a NO! At least you got a no and can move on to the next potential customer. Otherwise, they may keep leading you on saying call me in a week, then the same in the next week, and so on. Just wasting your time.

6th, Content Evaluations.

AFTER, you have written your headlines, body copy and calls to actions, then you should look over these content evaluations to see if what you have written fits a description of great marketing.

These evaluations are not the end, they are just the beginning.

• Is there a headline? • Are you hitting your customer’s hot buttons? • Write at a 9th grade level, that’s how most people read. • Use short sentences. Break them up rather than combining them. • Use shorter words. Not everyone can understand a 15 syllable word. You’re looking to make sales, not win spelling bees. • Can you use the word you some more. Basically, we are all selfish people and love to hear about ourselves. In some of the best advertising content ever written, the word “you” was used the most. • Use verbs. Get crazy, get attention. Reach out and touch your prospects. Make them listen. • Use bolds, underlines and italics. They help you emphasize important words and phrases. • Cute ads don’t sell very well. Unless you have a huge amount of money to blow on super bowl ads, don’t waste your money. • Be as specifics as you can. Instead of saying, “Comes with extra widgets” say, ”Your package comes with 193 extra widgets, enough to finish off 4 more jobs” • FREE is the best word you can use in advertising. Learn to use it correctly. • Try not to use the word price, or cost. Try using the words investment or venture, or even speak about the price in terms of the savings received. And when you do use these words in your content, make sure to follow up with the benefits and be sure to show the value in what they are getting for their money. Reiterate EVRYTHING they are getting for the price you’ve given them and make sure to explain it in a way that makes it look as if they are getting the better deal here. Getting MORE for their money. • Long copy will always beat short copy. But, just say what you need to and stop. • Are you trying to capture your pound of flesh? Did you ask the reader for something? If it is your first contact, don’t ask for the sale, just make sure you peak their interest and they let you know they’re interested. • Remember who you’re writing for. (1) Getting new customers (2) Getting customers to come back again, or (3) Increasing their purchases when they do buy. • Test and measure in small amounts BEFORE going to large campaigns.

That’s really it. There are more evaluations you can check, but I feel these are the most important. If you feel a little overwhelmed at this point and need help, just ask. My services are perfect for the business owner who understands these concepts and is willing to invest in a marketing director that can implement them for him/her. I take every situation on a case-by-case basis. Call me, Scott Elvis Caron directly at 727-520-3900 or email me at scott@ScottCaron.ws. I will gladly give you a FREE 30 minute Marketing Evaluation, where we can define a strategic plan and my team will have it running in days, not weeks or months. And I guarantee my work or the monetary investment you make for consulting is on me.

Now, we are ready to test your writing skills and make some money!

Part 3: Testing

The TESTING phase is basically “running” your marketing campaign. After your strategies have been written down, and content has been written and re-written, this is the stage where the rubber meets the road. You need to create the graphics, get the print and web production done and blast your message at will. (of course in small numbers) In Part 4, you will measure your results, find the strategies, headlines, body copy and calls to action that worked the best. Then, test them against each other (some call this A/B testing) until you can’t get any better results from each advertisement.

Here is a small outline of the main modes you have at your disposal for delivering your message to the masses and the main things to remember if you want a decent response rate.

Web: The internet changes every second of every day. To keep up with everything is virtually impossible. However, if you feel you’re fairly savvy and can implement a full we marketing campaign, I’ve listed the main parts associated with a web marketing campaign below. On the other hand, if you feel you would like the help of an experienced marketer, just simply email me, scott@ScottCaron.ws and we can have a fully trackable, results orientated complete online marketing system up, running and pulling in leads and cranking out sales in a matter of days in most cases.

1. Pay-per-click Advertising – There are many things you need to do if you want to succeed at pay per click. For starters, you must bid on AS MANY PHRASES as you can. Most of your competition will bid on a handful of major phrases and bid as high as they can afford. You must bid on more and you can bid less. A great rule of thumb is that for every 100 visitors to your site you should receive 1-2 sales or leads. You have to build in-bound links from websites that get traffic related to what you sell, but not in direct competition with you. You have to create in-bound links from live search directories (where actual humans are the ones checking your site submissions). You have to place extremely relevant meta-descriptions in the html of your site pages that accurately describe the content of your site. All of which will increase your rankings when you do start your pay-per-click campaigns. And most importantly, you must be more relevant (in content) than your competition on the landing pages for you PPC advertisements.

2. Email Campaigns – Think of email campaigns as being very similar to traditional direct mail postcard campaigns. I recommend using direct mail postcards AFTER you have found ideas that work on the web first. That way you do not waste your money on postage. That stuff is like $.41 a piece right now. The big trick with email list is this: (1) Capture as many email addresses as you can, opt-in. Meaning they request more information from you, and you have their permission to send them emails. You do not want to SPAM someone. (2) you want to contact everyone on that list as often as you can without irritating them. Or they will opt-out.

3. Vertical Portals – These are like very small search engines that specialize in one main subject. They are usually categorized by alphabetical order, so write your ad copy accordingly. Being listed in these smaller search engines, in which your site is very relevant to the subject matter, will both boost your rankings in the search engines hearts, but it will also drive FREE qualified traffic to your site as well. It also can establish you as a credible guru in your field if you learn to network within your industry’s community and offer your services in some way to them.

4. Online classifieds – An excellent lead generator. There are free classifieds and paid for classifieds. Obviously, in the beginning you should use all of the help you can get. So start with the free ones and once you have exhausted all that you can, pay for what you can. The trick here is to use the 2 step method. Place the ad asking your potential customer to request more free information that can help them make a more informed decision before buying. Then, once they have given their contact info to you send them your sales letter with the things they should know. All the content in your sales materials should point out how your company is the best solution, and back up your claims. Again, all of your leads from this list should be followed up on until they become your customers.

5. Inbound Links – This is as easy as simply asking for someone to link their website to yours. They usually want you to link back to them as well, so set up a “links” page and put there links on that page. The trick with inbound links is to have as many as you can, with non-competing websites that are in the same or relative industry. Just not your competitors. The more inbound links of this sort, the more favorable the search engines will look at your sites as “relevant”.

6. Relevancy Search Engine Submission – In a nutshell, if you submit to the search engines, it could take between a month and 10 months to show up. But, if you have enough inbound links, they will find YOU. The more inbound links and the more relevant your site is to the subject matter of your services and/or products, the higher you will rank in their results. That’s it. Really.

7. Live Directories – Like vertical portals, but “live” people check your website and submit them. If you are listed in these directories, other search engines will find you. It’s another way to create inbound links, and even free traffic.

8. Link Trading – Just Ask. If you find another website that is NOT in direct competition with your site, ASK if they will link to you. As I said before, they will most likely ask you to link back to them.

9. Online newsletters – Much cheaper than sending a paper stock newsletter. These are great ways to build credibility within your market. If you can create a large number of subscribers, you can create a large number of referrals. If your readers see you as an expert, they will probably tell others about your newsletters and your loyal following will grow. Of course, as in any type of media, your purpose is to sell. So, don’t send out a single newsletter without mentioning your services and products somewhere. But, don’t make the subject about YOU. Make sure the information in your newsletters are timely, relevant and chocked full of information your readers need and want. Also, one more thing, keep an article archive on your site. Get all the relevancy you can get in the text on your site.

10. Webrings – Basically link trading again.

11. Blogs – Create a user friendliness for your website viewers that repeates your relevancy and keeps your site timely and fresh in content. The main reason search engines like blogs though, is that it creates user interactivity.

12. Banners – Like an ad in a sponsored search within a search engine, a banner ad is just another advertisement. The big difference is that it is a full color ad that can contain flash design. (animation)

Print:

1. Business cards – The backbone of business. Simply put, you must have one to hand out. As a matter of fact, you should always give out more than one at a time. If you give only one, how will the person you gave it to give your business card to someone else that they think may be in need of your services?

2. Brochures – Give you a chance to explain your services and products in full. When you have a lot to explain, say it in a brochure. If you have more information that needs to be explained, create booklets and catalogs.

3. Postcards/Door Hangers – Please, please, please use the 2-step method when using these forms of media. (I personally LOVE the two-step method, can you tell?) You want to ask the reader of your postcards to “ask you” for more information. Then you give it to them. The best information to give them is info that places “your” company at the top of their list when buying what you sell.

4. Posters – If you have a physical location, these can be a great way to explain your wares to potential window shoppers. When you are too busy speaking with your customers, your posters can do the work for you.

5. Magazine/Newspaper Ads – Again, use the 2-step method. Why? Because you want to get as many “interested” people to contact you as you can. They are screaming, “I want more information, please continue advertise to me, I’m in the market for what you sell”. FACT: For every 2 buyers you get from an ad, there are 20 more that are in the market, but haven’t made their decision yet. Get them to give you their contact information and you can essentially market to them over, and over and over again until they either ask your to stop sending them information, it gets too expensive to keep sending info OR THEY BECOME YOUR CUSTOMER. Which would you prefer, 2 sales from your ad, or 2 sales from your ad and 18 more interested prospects that you spend just a few more dollars on and get another 3-4 sales out of? I guess that’s a no-brainer, huh?

Networking:

Elevator Speech – In 30 seconds or less, explain what you do, who your best customer is, what their main aggravations are when buying your services and how you are their solution. Your elevator speech is best used when in a situation that you only have a short period of time to win a potential customer. Usually a networking even of some kind. Your elevator speech is more effective when you give a business card that reiterates the main points of your elevator speech, making an instant connection when they read your business cards later and remember their chance encounter with you.

Referral Marketing – This is one of the best forms of advertising. Give your customers a real reason to promote you and you will have a constant and growing stream of orders that cost you NOTHING to advertise. Either give your customers some kind of rewards for promoting you (they have become a serious sales force for you) or be so good at what you do for them that they would feel bad for not telling others about you.

Networking Groups – These are groups of business owners and sales people in different industries that you can meet with on a regular basis, that pass referrals. When staring a new business these are great networks to have. Mainly because you can meet once a week and almost always walk away from these meetings with leads to potential customers. Provided that you (1) follow up with them, and (2) you aggressively promote the others in your networking group. If you pass qualified leads to them, they will pass them back to you as well.

Big White Elephant List (list of the biggest co’s you wish you could land) – Make a list of your biggest potential customers. You aren’t going to get them right away. Most likely you’re not going to land all of them. But as you proceed through your business journey, you’ll come across business associates that are associated with these potential customers. Don’t “abuse” them, but “use” them. Without “using” them. Be sincere. Be honest. And keep your eyes and ears open, you’ll sooner or later nock that list down and finally find that hard to find and capture White Elephant.

Telemarketing:

Inbound Phone Scripts – Direct the person on the other end to where YOU want them to go. Don’t let the person on the other end tell you. One big problem I’ve seen in businesses without inbound phone scripting is lack of productivity. The reason is because sales people from other companies tend to be able to stop managers, owners and directors of the company to pitch them and that slows down their productivity for the day. Some times it is called having a “gate keeper” when you have someone that directs callers to the right department and asks would be sales callers to direct their information or pitch through the correct channels first.

Outbound Phone Scripts – I hate making cold calls. You probably do too. There are however, some types of businesses that HAVE TO USE THEM. For instance, magazine ad sales. How else could you get to pitch the person who writes the check if you can’t get them to set up a face to face meeting with you? In this case, the outbound phone script is only used to set an appointment, not pitch them for an order.

TV: Always use the 2-step method here unless you have money to blow on campaigns that fail. Plain and simple, a professional television commercial cost serious money to make and serious money to advertise. Radio: Use a 2-step method here as well. Since you can’t tell if someone was interested in your ad, unless you are telepathic, how will you follow up with those that are on the fence? Radio works great. Just make sure you get the most from your advertisement.

There are many other ways to put you message out there. The point here is to try things on a small scale before jumping in over your head with large advertising campaigns. This is the part I call “Test and Measure”.

If you’ve done everything correctly, at this point, you’ve written all of your content ahead of time. All you need to do now is try out the best ideas you think you have in small numbers.

Sometimes you may need to create marketing that works in steps. Meaning, you may need to place an ad in a newspaper/magazine that asks the reader to call you for a FREE brochure about the biggest fears they have when buying your type of product/service. Then have a phone script to get their contact info. Then send the brochure. And if they don’t buy, have a systematic series of mailers that educate them on more issues until they do buy from you.

The main thing to realize here is that graphics, web design and production of marketing materials is always second to content. Most business owners don’t realize this and that is their number one advertising killer.

I’m going to go ahead and quote Rosser Reeves again, and this should put it all into perspective. He was once quoted as joking with his graphic design staff that if they received any awards, they would be fired. That might be going a little overboard, but the fact is, you are out to make money, not awards for design. So focus on testing content over everything else.

Design is important. And it should be taken seriously. I have a team of designers at my disposal that understand all of the details in this book. If you are in need of professional graphic design services from a well informed marketing team, please feel free to contact me and I’ll have my experts work on your design job. Scott Caron, 727-520-3900 or email scott@ScottCaron.ws. We will form a design a custom package that affords you the chance to have multiple lines of content management so that you can test and measure each headline and strategy we design for your business. Most design firms and advertising agencies charge separately for each piece you have designed from them. We will give you a simple and cost effective package for all of it.

Part 4: Controls

Lastly, you should be testing everything in a way that gives you feedback on your results. This is where your efforts should lead to better control over your advertising. Keep detailed notes on the effectiveness of your campaigns. If you do, you’ll never make another advertising mistake again. Learn from your mistakes.

If you are using postcards, put tracking codes somewhere on them and KEEP A TRACKING SYSTEM for them. Have customers bring them in, ask which one they received or target them by zip code or something.

Once you know the numbers it becomes a numbers game for you. If you a having great luck at converting ads to leads and leads to sales, you can take advantage of other forms of marketing leverage, like joint ventures with other successful companies that aren’t in direct competition with you, but have the same target clients. Co-Oping with other businesses can increase your customer base and even double it in some cases.

The main thing to keep in mind when it comes to controlling your marketing efforts is that if it works, don’t try and fix it. Too many times have I seen someone say, “his ad has worked really well, but I think it’s getting old, I think I’ll try a new ad”, WHY??? Maybe test something against it to see if you can bring up the conversion of sales, but don’t completely change a campaign that is making money for you.

Lastly. After you’ve begun to see the sales results soar. Start to focus on the other 2 methods of selling. Back end sales and upselling.

Back-end sales and upselling are simply asking for the sale of something else your client may need, after they have first bought from you already. They are more receptive to your other offers, if they’ve been happy with their first orders.

Having a simple PLAN for back-end sales and upselling can increase your gross profits tremendously. Just keep in mind all of the other things you’ve read so far in this book and implement them in these sales efforts too.

In conclusion:

Create separate headlines, body copy and calls to action. Then test them against each other. ONLY CHANGE ONE THING AT A TIME. How will you know what change created the desired results? It sounds simple, and it is. This is the key to getting better results and creating a winning marketing piece. It won’t happen over night, however it will happen with a persistent and consistent orderly effort.

Thank you and I know this e-book will help you if you just DO what it says. When it does, I kindly ask that you contact me at scott@ScottCaron.ws 727-520-3900 with any testimonials you can. Please include any detailed information on the results you got and the methods you used so I can include them in my case studies for the future.