The More Clients Blog

Anatomy of a Promotion

What's the difference between marketing and a promotion?

You might think of marketing as all of the activities that ultimately attract clients to your business. A promotion is a specific activity designed to stimulate action to buy your products or services.

On August 1, 1984 I launched my business. And it's now become a tradition this time of year to do a special promotion for my anniversary. As of tomorrow I'll have been in business 23 years!

There are two purposes for today's eZine. One is to launch the anniversary promotion and the other is to share some ideas on how to make promotions work for your business.

Here are a few things I've learned:

Have a Reason

A promotion always needs to be associated with a reason for the promotion. It might be an anniversary such as this one; it could be on a specific holiday or upon a significant event in your business such as the launch of a new service or product.

The truth is, reasons are somewhat arbitrary. But have one anyway. A promotion based on "...just because we feel like it," doesn't work to well. It ought to be tied to something positive.

Offer a Discount or Special

Your promotion needs to give a reason to take action now, not later. And the best way to do that is to offer a time limited discount or special. If you don't offer a good deal that needs to be taken advantage of now, people won't act.

The discount or special that I'm offering is a 25% discount on any of the Action Plan Marketing products or services listed on my web site. This includes the InfoGuru Marketing Manual, the Web Site ToolKit and all my recorded TeleClasses.

Offer a Bonus

This is something extra on top of the discount or special. You can offer one or several. Just don't make it confusing. And make it something that is relevant to your business. Often this bonus can be more compelling that the discount or offer itself.

The bonus I'm offering is the recording of an Interview with Pamela Slim on "Secrets of Promoting Your Business Through Blogging." Pamela has developed a successful blog that is now the source of ALL her new clients. Pam will share her blogging techniques that have gotten great results.

Make the Promotion Time Limited

Your promotion can't go on forever, it has to have a beginning date and ending date. This creates a sense of urgency. Ever pass a business that always has a "For Sale" sign in the window? Not a good idea, as it cheapens your image.

My Anniversary Promotion starts today (July 31) and ends on Friday, August 3 at midnight Eastern time. After that the discount ends.

Remind People of the Value

If you're offering a good deal, spell it out for people. Don't assume they will calculate the value for themselves.

In my Anniversary Promotion, 25% off my major products (all are $79) means you'll be only paying $59.25, an almost $20 saving per product. Plus the bonus interview on blogging which will be sold later for $29. So that's a saving of almost $49.

Promotions for Services

This Anniversary Promotion is simple because it's based on products, not services. But you may be asking, "What promotion could I do if I don't sell products?" Good question, as a promotion where you gave 25% off your consulting or coaching services may not be as effective.

I recommend doing a promotion based on an event. One of my most successful was held a few years ago when I launched the InfoGuru Marketing Manual. I held a free one-day workshop and about 180 people showed up.

I gave away a lot of value that day, but I also introduced the Manual and launched the first version of my Marketing Action Groups. Both of these formed the foundation for my business for many years to come.

Tell People What to Do

Never assume people will do what you intend unless you direct them. Too many offers are confusing when they could be designed to be very simple.

To take advantage of my Anniversary Promotion with 25% off all my products, just click on the link below. You'll be taken to a page where you can order the products and get the discount.

The link is:

Anniversary Promotion

Remember, the Action Plan Marketing 23rd Anniversary Promotion starts today and ends on Friday, August 3.

What promotion will you do for your business?

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The More Clients bottom line: If you want to get fast results with your marketing, hold an occasional promotion that offers real value for a limited time. It's a great way to gently nudge prospective clients and customers to take action.

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What promotions have worked for your business? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Passionate Affiliations

I was speaking with someone today about marketing niches.

She had just given a presentation at a real estate office on creating a marketing niche, and told me how she encouraged people in attendance to market to a niche that they were familiar with or even passionate about.

She gave the following example:

One of the real estate people in the audience was into classic cars. She asked if he spent any time doing business networking with other classic car collectors. She suggested that this would be an ideal marketing niche.

Ideal Niche = Passionate Affiliation

Your very first marketing step is to create affiliations, and then get attention and build familiarity within that affiliation. Because you have that affiliation, you're no longer a stranger.

We often think of the obvious affiliations, such as the chamber of commerce, a leads group or professional associations. But in today's eZine, let's look at less obvious (and more passionate) affiliations.

Start by making an inventory of the following things:

What are your hobbies?
What are you already involved in?
What are you truly passionate about?
What are you an expert at (outside of business)?
What charity do you support?
What would you spend your time doing if you retired?

Now do a little research and make a list of clubs, organizations, activities, etc. that are associated with your top interest.

Say you're the guy who collects classic cars.

Is there a club in your area? Do they have shows or special events? Do they do any charity work? Do they feature these cars in parades? What about suppliers for these kind of cars?

Before too long you've tracked down several possible affiliations.

Once you've found an affiliation, joined a group, spent some time and gotten involved, an amazing thing happens: You start to develop relationships. People become familiar with you. They feel comfortable with you. They like and trust you. You're one of them. And this paves the way to market yourself.

People will always ask you what you do.

Now if our car nut says what most real estate people say when people ask them what they do, he'll say, "I sell real estate" or "I help you find the home of your dreams." Yawn.

No, you need to tie-in and leverage your affiliation/passion.

Let's start again: What do you do? "I specialize in real estate for people who don't have enough space for their classic car collection."

Now that's interesting.

It's interesting because you have something special to offer people who collect classic cars. After all, they have special needs for real estate. And since you're also into classic cars, you understand those needs.

You can find a way to do this with any affiliation, with any business. Identify what you're interested in or even passionate about, and then customize a service for just these kind of people.

If you're a financial planner and you're involved in the local food bank, say that, "I specialize in financial plans for people who are committed to giving back to the community."

If you're a results coach and are into local jazz events, say that, "I work with people to increase their income so that they can spend more time visiting jazz festivals." (I'm waiting for someone to say that to me!)

Yes, it may take a little while to find the right groups and affiliations to fit both your passion and business, but these kind of efforts can yield big returns. I promise you, it's better than spending time at generic networking events where everyone is using the same old tired messages.

Find your passion and plug it into your business.

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The More Clients bottom line: Creating affiliations (that you have a passion about) is the starting point for every marketing plan. If you can creatively tie that affiliation into your business, you'll not only get more business, you'll have more fun doing it.

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What passionate affiliations have you been able to leverage in your business? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

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The Art of Follow-Up

What's the most important marketing skill? You might be surprised at the answer.

It's not having a great marketing message, powerful marketing materials and a bullet-proof marketing plan. All of those are certainly important but not as important as...

***Follow-up***

In my teleclasses and talks, I joke how people are looking for a "killer marketing message" that will make people jump up and down with excitement when they hear it. Sorry, but that's as much of a myth as unicorns or a balanced national budget.

But people want to believe that myth, so they spend forever trying to perfect their message. Look, all your message can get you is some initial attention. That's all.

And virtually every single marketing action after that is follow-up.

When someone shows some interest in your services (when you deliver a decent, but not mythical, marketing message), you need to follow-up with some more information.

Once they've read that information, you need to follow-up to determine if there's a deeper interest. And if there's a deeper interest, then you need to follow-up to set up an appointment.

But it doesn't end there.

Once you have an appointment, you need to follow-up to confirm that appointment (yes, people flake out). And once you've had the appointment you need to follow-up with a proposal or to close the sale. Follow-up never ends.

Follow-Up Secrets

Here are some follow-up secrets I've learned over the years that are important to understand and master if you're going to attract more clients.

1. Know where you are in the game

When you follow-up with someone, the purpose is to move the prospect from one base in the marketing game to the next base. If you try to jump bases (or move too fast), you tend to get rejected by the prospect. If you move too slow with your follow-up, you loose the interest you've generated up to that point.

2. Don't move too fast

When you get someone's interest (say at a networking meeting) and then say you'd like to call back to talk with them, that's fine. But when you make that call and immediately try to set up an appointment, you'll likely get some resistance.

Remember, people want more familiarity and some information before they meet with you. So your follow-up system needs to build that in. One way to do this is with pre-written emails and links to articles or to your web sites.

3. Don't move too slow

If you give a talk and get cards from people who are interested in knowing more about your services, how soon should you follow-up? The very next day. For each day you don't follow-up, interest wanes. If you have only a few follow-ups, use the phone. If you have many, send an email to set up a time to talk in the upcoming week.

Stale follow-ups are just that. They've forgotten what interested them in the first place, so when you call back after several weeks it's like starting all over again.

4. Balance fast and slow

The key to effective follow-up is balancing the fast and the slow. Fast to get back to someone when they show interest; slow to get to know them. Fast to provide information requested; slow to discuss what this information means to their business. Fast to get a proposal in the mail; slow to discuss the details of that proposal.

5. Watch your assumptions

What if someone doesn't get back to you? You've followed up promptly and you don't hear back right away. What does this mean? Only one answer: Who knows? It could be anything.

But we are quick to jump to the conclusion that it's bad news. Not always. They might be very busy with a big priority or could even be out on vacation. So don't jump to conclusions. Just keep following up. Just watch that you don't sound desperate!

6. When to stop following-up

Let's say you have a prospect you've either met with or done a proposal for. You thought everything was going well, but they aren't returning your calls. Do you keep leaving messages or do you give up? What I recommend is leaving one last message that goes like this:

"Hi John, I've been trying to get back to you about the project but haven't heard from you for a couple weeks. I don't want to keep pestering you, so if I don't hear back from you, I'll assume you don't want to move ahead. I'll leave the ball in your court. Please call if you want to take the next steps, but this is the last message I'll be leaving. Hope to hear from you. My number is ..."

This approach works. If they actually are interested, they'll call you back. If they don't, well there's your answer. It's time to move on.

7. Create follow-up systems

To streamline your follow-up, create systems you can use over and over again. A follow-up system consists of specific steps you take each step of the way.

It might work something like this:

a) prospect learns about your service and visits web site
b) prospect fills out form on the web requesting more information
c) prospect receives an automated email from you with web link
d) you send out personalized email requesting an appointment
e) you follow-up by email until appointment is set
f) you meet with prospect by phone
g) after phone appointment you send agreement
h) after a few days you send another email
i) after a few more days you leave a phone message
j) prospect ultimately gets back to you with a yes or no

Once your follow-up system is designed and fine-tuned, you can use it reliably to turn many prospects into clients. This is exactly how I built my business. It didn't happen by chance.

I invite you to use it to build yours.

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The More Clients bottom line: The skill of follow-up is the glue that holds all of your marketing together. It's what bridges the gaps between initial connections, information, meetings and proposals. Make it a priority to master this skill as soon as possible.

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Got a follow-up story that won you a client? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Win/Win Marketing

One of the hardest things in business is to turn down a sale.

But if you rarely do this, you'll never really build a solid foundation for your business. As Stephen Covey says in his Sixth Habit: "Win/win or no deal." And sometimes if you make a sale, it will be win/lose, lose/win or lose/lose.

I just turned down a sale today. I talked to someone who wanted to be in my Certification Program and I recommended that he take a different course of action.

He really wanted to get into marketing coaching but his current business and financial situation were less than ideal. He was about to go into a full time job and then wanted to transition into being a marketing coach.

I won't go into all the details, but bottom line, I turned him down because his likelihood of succeeding at this point was not high.

And anytime you accept a client or project where the chances of success are not good, it's a set-up for a lose/lose situation. Your client would lose because they wouldn't get the result they contracted for and you would lose by damaging your reputation.

When you are engaged in the selling process and negotiating the terms of the deal, unfortunately, it's easy to lose sight of this. And as you know, it's all too common to use some kind of manipulation to get the business. That's a "you win/client loses deal."

On the other hand, if you put yourself in a position where you feel you are begging for the business and make all kinds of concessions, then it can end up as a "you lose/client wins deal."

Only a win/win deal should be acceptable.

How do you create a foundation for win/win deals? Two very simple but powerful things:

1. Results-Oriented Services

Make sure your services are designed to produce results when performed under normal conditions. This might sound funny to you, but the truth is, many services are structured to only produce results under perfect conditions. And since conditions are rarely perfect, you'll end up with a lot of disappointed clients.

For instance lot of programs are presented like this: "If your people are motivated, and if the management provides the support, and if you follow our advice to the letter, you will get results with this program."

That's a lot of ifs, and it's easy to underplay them and focus on the potential results (which are rarely produced).

Instead, you need to offer a service that removes the ifs and substitutes "requirements of the engagement." For instance, in my Certification Program you must participate in all sessions for a full year in order to get certified. There are no ifs.

Design your own requirements for engagement and stick to them.

2. Well-Qualified Clients

Clearly define an ideal, qualified client for your services. If you're willing to sell to anyone who can pay your bill, the chances of success plummet. You need to have a list of qualifications and stick to them. Actually communicate these qualifications in detail on your web site: "Clients who succeed with us are..."

Spend as much time as you need qualifying your prospects. And in every conversation with a prospect, emphasize that "We work with clients who..." You'll waste a lot less time trying to sell to prospects who are not right for you, and you'll get out of the self-destructive begging mindset.

Start by listing: a) the problems and challenges of an idea client, b) the aspirations of this client and c) any other qualifications required to increase your clients' chances of success.

Sure, you still need to implement marketing-oriented outreach activities that increase your visibility and educate your prospects about what you do, but if you don't build this solid win/win foundation first, your business will never take off.

It all starts with this question: "What do I need to do to consistently create win/wins with my clients?"

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The More Clients bottom line: If you make it a priority to deliver a results-oriented service and carefully qualify your prospects, your success rate will go up dramatically. You'll then get testimonials, develop case studies and generate more word-of-mouth business.

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How do you make sure all your deals are win/win? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Ending the Writing Struggle

There are a lot of misconceptions about marketing.

And one of them is that "marketing is about convincing strangers to do business with me." Not true. It's about developing relationships with people who you can serve. Quite a difference.

Another misconception:

"Marketing is difficult because it's hard to explain what I do so that people understand." Again, a myth. Marketing is easy because it's really about educating people about the results you produce for your clients.

Yes, marketing is primarily about relationships and education.

And a great way to build relationships and educate prospective clients is through writing. For instance, for the past ten years I've been building my business though writing this eZine.

As you read More Clients, you get to know me better - relationship; and as I provide ideas in More Clients, you start to understand what I do - education.

It really is that simple.

But then we hit another misconception - "Writing is hard!"

Although you understand intuitively that if you communicate with your prospects you'll be building relationships and educating them about your work, you're not sure how to go about this.

The biggest complaint I get about writing is "I don't know what to write." And, as you know, when we believe what we think, we act in alignment with that thought. So we simply avoid writing.

Is it true you don't know what to write? Are you sure? Let's see...

What are your clients interested in?

My observation is that everyone is interested in solving their problems and learning how to do something better. So that's what you write about.

And the process is easy.

Make a list of ten or more problems your clients have. It could be anything they struggle with or don't know how to do. If you've worked with a few clients you should know what those things are.

Just finish these sentences:

My clients struggle with...

A common mistake my clients make is...

I wish my clients would learn how to...

If only my clients had this resource...

Doing this costs my clients money...

I bet you could fill in five or more sentences for each of these problems, right? OK, guess what? Those exact issues become the topics of your marketing writing.

What you do is turn topics into titles and you have the beginning of an article. For instance, this article started with the topic of marketing being a struggle for Independent Professionals. I was having this discussion on a teleconference last week. I know it's a real issue, as I've heard it many times before.

The title emerged: "Ending the Writing Struggle"

And then the article developed from there. All I've done in this article is started by discussing the misconceptions that many Independent Professionals have when it comes to marketing their businesses.

Then I showed how writing is central to marketing and offered a simple methodology to address that problem. If you look back over my eZines you'll notice that this exactly is what I do in all of them. And you can do the same.

Once you understand and duplicate this basic approach to writing, an amazing thing happens: Writing becomes a whole lot easier.

Here's my formula:

A situation becomes a topic; a topic gets turned into a title; the article starts with the problem and then you solve the problem in the article with a step-by-step how-to.

If you're not writing in your business (everything from eZine articles like this, to articles for publication, to content for your web site), you're failing to build relationships and educate your prospects.

Time to start writing, don't you think?

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The More Clients bottom line: Writing is Marketing. When you give up the story that writing is hard, you may discover that you have more ideas to write about that you have time to write! (And finding the time... well, that's another eZine article!)

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How have you made writing easier for yourself in your business? Please share on the More Clients Blog.