Best Service Is Our Success

Monday, March 25, 2019

Toot Your Own Horn

Whether you get your news online, through broadcast, or in print, I'm sure you have seen articles about various companies, products, or people - the latest technology widget, a TV or movie star and what they think about something, a better mousetrap, or a new service; how a company handled a challenge, a new office opening, or some other newsworthy event. Did you wonder how that information got to you?

While you are pondering that question, realize that very often the same story appears in multiple outlets at the same time... and it isn't a coincidence. It's much the same with a single celebrity story being published in multiple supermarket tabloids.

I can almost guarantee you that a hard-working journalist wasn't out beating the bushes while looking for an interesting story to write. Be assured, it didn't happen by chance. Getting news out about a person, a company, or a public product is both a science and an art form.

Large companies have Public Relations staff or use the services of an agency. Celebrities have publicists. There are also some agencies that work for smaller companies. OK, you are not a celebrity or a powerhouse large company, but still many small companies are successful at "tooting their own horn" through their own persistence and hard work. They don't wait for the media to come to them. They toot their own horn!

They network and find out who to send their news to.
They present their news in a well-written, finished form that the media can use intact or easily put into a readable piece.
They present their story as news rather than an advertisement.
The information is complete with names, addresses, phone numbers, and a person to contact for more information.
They write their story with spin to create curiosity or a unique solution to a known problem or challenge.
Their news is written in plain, but powerful, language without acronyms (unless written for a tech audience).
They create multiple submissions and send them out often because they know that editors are busy and are not sitting and waiting for your release to land in their inbox.

How To Build Your Success Network

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to build my business. And in the tradition of keeping things simple, networking popped into the mix.

What? "network?" That's a scary word especially for us introverts!

For most of us writers (and introverted) types, the very utterance of the word makes us cringe. Yeah, it's that bad.

We'd like to think that we work in a comfy, safe world of solitude but the pure natural fact is...

... We don't! And shouldn't if you want to amp your game a notch or two.

Truth is, I am seriously an introvert and somewhat shy. My nature is to resist the whole notion of networking.

Here's the crazy thing... I've been networking all along and didn't even realize it.

My small network consisted of printers, competitors, colleagues, teachers, friends, heck I even had a few trusted family members in my network.

Each in their own way helped me out of the doldrums and into success early on.

Hey, if the pros in your field network, then maybe you should consider it as well. So, get over your bad-self and get your network groove on. You need this and it's not that bad once you get started.

If nothing else go out and get your bad self a "starter" network. This can consist of folks you're likely never to meet like biz people you admire, authors, bloggers.

The point is you can follow them and learn from them.

Another great to build your network is to start attending various events like masterminds, training events and seminars in your field. This is a great way to meet new people who can help you down the road.

The rule is, however, to give more than you take. Be cool about it for God sakes and not come on like a vulture who wants, wants, wants.

Do these folks a professional courtesy and offer your services for a discount. Be ready to give away some of your time and listen to their problems and help them find a solution. It never ever hurts to lend a hand now and then - especially when you're getting started.

Selfish folks get shunned and ignored so don't be one of "those guys."

So, go out and get yourself a Rolodex (Carlton's favorite way of keeping track of people). Or if you're into the digital tools, track folks this way.

The point of to get started now...

A small network can be powerful and very profitable. Don't believe me?

Here's what John Carlton says:

"I like to remind the skeptics that I made my first small fortune from a network list of around 300 people. It was geyser of good clients, good pals recommending me, and colleagues who watched my back and helped me solve every problem I ever encountered. It's a much larger list now, but those first few hundred were a revelation in the power of networking."

Yours for bigger profits,

Can SMS Marketing Get Profits to Business?

Every business focuses heavily on their marketing department. It is the marketing department which brings those profits to the businesses. The marketing department carries different marketing activities. SMS marketing is one such technique used by many of the businesses. Bulk SMS marketing is comparatively cost effective. Easy to promote and advertising your product or services.

The cell phone is one such thing that every person carries with them without forgetting, along with their purse and vehicle. SMS marketing is now being widely used in the multi-channel marketing. The communication from mobile is also far easier, as compared to the other means. If you are looking for sending SMS in bulk, then you can get many options for as Bulk SMS Provider.

Here, we will look at how Bulk SMS can get Profits to Business:

1. Speed:

Every business tries to speed up their processes. The process of SMS marketing is comparatively very high. The messages can be easily delivered in a short span to the target audience. The speedy process will help you to keep you one step ahead in this highly competitive business world.

2. Short and best messages:

It is true that you can send a limited character limit message to your prospects. You may not be able to tell the description in detail, leading to avoiding that message many times by your prospects. However, the probability of reading short messages is very high, leading to more impact on the prospects. This will bring more sales and profits to the businesses.

3. Cost Effective:

Compared to the other traditional ways of marketing, cost wise sending bulk SMS has a greater advantage. This will cost you very less and you can send the messages to a larger number of people. You will experience a good return on the investments made in the SMS marketing.

4. Increase the customer engagement:

SMS helps tremendously in increasing the engagement of the customers. The customer engagement is an indicator of the fact the customers are more interested and eager to know your product or services.

5. Nice Return On Investment:

The businesses invest heavily in their marketing campaigns, with an expectation of getting more profits. As bulk SMS Service need less investment, the returns given are very fantastic, leading to the greater return on investment.

These are some of the ways how bulk SMS service can get Profits to Business. Many of the businesses have been leveraging the benefits of this technique and increasing their profits. The SMS marketing is a very powerful, effective and efficient technique for bringing the profits to the businesses.

One more way of marketing in affordable cost is Email Marketing. for Email Marketing You need to have email lists.

With the help of email marketing, you are able to control exactly who is able to see your email. Before the conduction of email marketing, you need to select the best place to buy email lists.

Think Newspapers Are Yesterday's News? Think Again

Mark Twain had this famous response when he read about his "death" in the newspaper:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Now the tables have turned. The death of newspapers is being reported when millions of people worldwide are still reading the daily news. Such irony. Saying newspapers are finished is the ultimate fake news.

A single newspaper report is still one of the most powerful drivers of opinion. More powerful than a trending Twitter posting, a viral Facebook post or a top Instagram hashtag. Just ask the unfortunate vacation property owners in and around Playa Del Carmen, a popular resort town on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, otherwise known at the Mexican Riviera.

In February 2018, just weeks from the peak tourist season, they were preparing to welcome thousands of vacationers eager to escape a long, hard winter. The hordes of sun seekers included my wife and myself. We were booked to spend a week in late March at our favorite winter get-away: the Iberostar Grand Paraiso, about thirty minutes by car from Playa Del Carmen.

Then came the shocking news that a tourist ferry in Playa Del Carmen was "bombed" on Feb 22, 2018. The following story, supported by a video, was even more disturbing. Twenty-five people injured! The U.S. Embassy warns travelers to stay away from the ferries and parts of the Caribbean resort city!

Two weeks later, another "bomb-like" device was found on another ferry. It was removed without going off. On March 21, the day we left for our holiday, the U.S. Embassy removed its warning.

So what do you think happened? Did the sun-seekers ignore the news? Did the hotels do their usual booming business? Based on my findings, drawn from an admittedly small sample size, the answer would be a resounding no.

The bad news, once released, trumped everything. It could not be reversed -- no more than you can put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Evidence of the fall-out created by the news report was easy to find, starting from the moment we entered customs at the Cancun Airport and breezed through in record time because there were no lines (Exhibit A).

When we arrived at our resort, virtually nothing was the same as usual: there were fewer guests on the grounds (Exhibit B), several of our favorite specialty restaurants were closed for most of our stay (Exhibit C) and I could get any golf tee time I wanted, and actually had to change my original tee time because there were no other players in that slot (Exhibit D).

Need more? While playing my second round of golf with just one other player (Exhibit E), we adopted a single player (Exhibit F) who was one hole behind us. He turned out to be a friendly fellow from Mexico City who rents an apartment in Playa Del Carmen. "It's normally fully booked at this time," he told us. "This year, nothing." (Exhibit G)

All because of a single news event. Remember that the next time somebody tells you newspapers are yesterday's news.

How To Use A Call to Action for Better Advertising Response

Wouldn't you like a simple but extremely powerful way to pump up sales, get better quality leads, and practically eliminate advertising waste?

Here's an insider tip.

Hey, you and me... we're in the marketing trenches together. Every day. And we've lived to tell about it.

But what may surprise you is that very few business owners employ this simple but powerful "tool" in their advertising.

This tool I'm hinting at is called... tada... a call to action.

What? Yes, it's a call to action.

If you don't ask, then you don't get. Sounds reasonable, right? But very few business owners (or their creative staff) use this simple tactic to boost sales.

All... and I mean all the marketing pieces that I write, and this includes white papers, print ads, landing pages, emails, you name it, includes some sort of call to action.

It's the very core of the type of advertising I use. This is called direct response marketing. And it works... like gangbusters, if done correctly.

Why Use A Call To Action (CTA)?

First of all, it works. It's a great way to move people down the sales funnel.

Second, it measures the effectiveness of your copywriting.

Think about it. The more responses you get directly indicates how compelling your copy must have been. In other words, your copy message is doing its job.

Now that you know the advantages of using a CTA, let's look at a few examples. They're not as difficult to come up with as you may think.

When you think about your "call to action" think about what objective you want the reader to do...

... sign up for a webinar, download some information, visit your store or call now.

Pretty simple, right?

If you're stuck or just can't find good ideas for your call to action, then start an advertising swipe file.

I've talked about this before but as a reminder, a swipe file is a collection of good ads that are producing good results. And how you'll know that these are "good" ads is that you'll see them running over and over again.

Savvy marketers do not like to spend money on advertising that is not producing. It's all about a good ROI (return on investment). And only good direct response marketing gives you this opportunity.

Now while I'm on the subject of putting together your CTA, it's only natural to talk about your writing style. Specifically, the words you choose.

According to social-media-scientist Dan Zarrella, verbs outperform adverbs, adjectives and nouns when eliciting 'shares' on Twitter.

This is true not only for Twitter and other social media but nearly any media outlet.

Here's a few bold verb examples that produce results:

Buy

Download

Donate

These are much better than the plain old vanilla 'click here' and be sure to tell your reader what benefits she's getting, for example...

Download your free copy of our business survival guide

Subscribe to get your free reports

And so on.

Now let's add some urgency to the mix.

We humans sometimes need a bit of pushing sometimes. Adding some sincere urgency to drive the funnel can be just what's needed to get us moving.

Here's a few examples to get your creative juices flowing...

Offer expires

First 50 people only

Hurry, the price goes up at noon today

While supplies last

And one of personal favorites is 'Immediate Download.' It's a great call to action because folks like downloads and they like immediacy. Bam. Here you got both.

Last, let's talk about risk. Actually, let's talk about reducing removal or removing risk from your offer or call to action.

As you can imagine, risk removal or reversal is a powerful marketing tool.

How do we lower the risk?

Oftentimes doing business for the first time with a new company is a scary deal. After all, you know or trust this "new company." And who hasn't been burnt before. Heck, these days trust has flown out the window, right?

So why not start by truly focusing and empathizing with your prospect and clients. Put yourself in their shoes. Again, they do not know you and they don't trust you. Make a point to earn their trust... and keep earning their trust.

Prove that you truly care by showing them you'll shoulder the risk. Communicate this in all your marketing messages.

Here's a few examples...

"Start your no-obligation 30 day free trial"

"You have a no-hassle, no-questions asked, 100% money back guarantee"

"Not Satisfied? No Problem! We're double your money back immediately"

You get the idea.

Use these ideas to create a strong "call to action" in your next advertising pitch.