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More Clients - the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert MiddletonIn This Week's Issue: How to increase the likelihood that
your marketing will actually produce the results you intend.
Improving Your Aim
Imagine taking aim at a target with a rifle. You take a shot
and you miss by a few feet. Undeterred, you keep shooting in
exactly the same direction and keep missing.Your drill sergeant comes up to you and says, "Soldier, why do
you keep shooting three feet to the left of the target?" And you
answer, "I was hoping somebody would move the target!"As silly as that sounds, it's not too different from what many
Independent Professionals do when putting out a marketing message.They shoot at the target with their message, they get no response
or a poor response, and then wonder what's wrong with marketing.
They fail to look at the target, notice that the results were less than
optimal and try another shot with a better aim.Is there a good way to adjust your aim? Yes, there are actually
several ways I know of that will improve your aim dramatically and
result in you hitting the target much more often. Here are three:Talk to the Target.
Yes, talk to the people you are trying to sell to. They won't bite, and
often they'll be very cooperative. For instance, if you're trying to sell
a training program to a corporation, get on the phone - not to sell -
but to do research.Find out who in the corporation usually makes decisions about
training. Ask what their buying process is. Ask what kind of
materials they'd like to get from you and if they are responsive
to a complimentary, sample training program.If you approach them, in a friendly, persistent manner and ask for
some help, you'll be surprised what doors open for you. Get your
target to teach you the ropes of getting in and selling to them.
Follow directions to the letter and you're likely to hit your aim a
whole lot more often.Once you've fumbled through this process several times, you'll start
to get the hang of it and you won't have to ask so much; you'll just
start to approach your target with the right aim from the first shot.Learn From Competitors.
Somebody has been there before you and knows the ropes. And,
believe it or not, they're often quite open to sharing the tricks of
the trade. Perhaps you know someone who offers professional
services to the same market as yourself, but you are non-competitive.
Buy them lunch and pick their brain about how they've succeeded
in that market.Can't find anyone local that can help you? Find the yellow pages
from another city and call a few other businesses like yours. Ask
them if they'd be willing to share some of their successful
marketing strategies. Assure them you are not competitive. It's
amazing that many people will take time out of their busy day to
help someone.Why? People naturally like to contribute.
In addition, study the businesses and marketing of your competitors.
It again amazes me that this is ignored so often. I call it the "House
of Nanking Effect." The House of Nanking is a very popular Chinese
restaurant in San Francisco. They always have a line outside their
door. Their dishes are made from very fresh ingredients (nothing
canned) and everything is highly savory.But then look at the neighboring restaurants. They all serve the
same old tired Chinese cuisine that is served everywhere else.
Nothing distinguishes them. Why don't owners of the other
restaurants wake up and start putting more exciting things on their
menus? Beats me. But don't YOU make this mistake!Determining the Best Strategy
What if you're approached to invest some of your money in a
marketing activity? Perhaps a directory listing or membership in
a networking group. Many times, I've seen clients agonize over this.
What should they do? How do they know this is a good decision?But it's really very simple...
Before you decide, pick up the phone and call several people who
list in the directory or who belong to the organization. Ask point
blank if their investment has paid off for them. If you don't get a
universally positive response, don't waste your time and money.
On the other hand, if you get a mostly positive response, give it a try.Don't Resort to Guesswork
You don't have to. If you try to be smarter than the marketplace,
you'll almost always fail. Instead, tune into what the marketplace
is telling you and adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.There is a whole world of resources available for you to tap
into to improve your marketing aim. And, of course, check out the
various marketing products and services offered by Action Plan
Marketing that are designed exclusively for Independent Professionals
to help you improve your aim.More on "Improving Your Aim" in Marketing Flashes below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The InfoGuru Marketing Manual
This comprehensive marketing manual for Independent Professionals
is the flagship product of Action Plan Marketing. Written by Robert
Middleton over several years, it contains the accumulated wisdom of
over twenty years on how to attract clients with less struggle.Why is the InfoGuru Manual for you?
- It was developed exclusively for Independent Professionals such
as consultants, coaches, trainers and other service professionals
who are great at what they do but have a hard time consistently
attracting clients to their businesses.- The manual is based on a few powerful marketing principles that,
once you understand them, might seem obvious but are missed by
almost everyone (and implemented by even fewer).- The marketing principles contained will help you: increase interest
in your services, build trust and credibility with prospects, get prospects
wanting to learn more about what you do and create a steady stream of
word-of-mouth business.- It goes way beyond theory, vague generalizations or concepts and
contains hundreds of hands-on marketing strategies and action plans
that are easy to implement, even if you have no marketing experience.- Includes foundational marketing information on things like creating
an attention-getting marketing message and then goes into depth on the
most recent marketing techniques of web marketing and eZines.- You can read it like a book, you can go through it slowly and do
the exercises like a home-study course or you can refer to it whenever
you have a question about marketing your business.- It comes with a boatload of extras, including audio files, articles,
and the InfoGuru Support Forum, where you can get any question
about marketing answered for free.- The Support Forum can be used to answer questions, provide
resources, review marketing materials, web sites, proposals and
sales letters, as well as explore the more complex and confusing
aspects of attracting clients to your business.- It will help remove the mystery and struggle about marketing
and selling that so many Independent Professionals experience and
will help you realize that marketing can actually be fun.- It comes with my unconditional guarantee. Get it and try it. If you
don't think it's worth much more than what you paid, tell me and I'll
refund 100% of your purchase price.- Unlike most marketing information sold on the web, the manual is not
only available in digital form (pdf file) for immediate download, but for
just a few dollars more you can get a printed manual as well.- The InfoGuru Marketing Manual was published in February of 2001
and it's just as relevant today as I add to it regularly with updates of
the manual that can be downloaded repeatedly at no additional cost.- If you are looking for one tool that will help you attract clients with
an approach and methodology that is highly effective but doesn't
compromise your integrity, you've found it!For complete details and to order online go to:
http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marketing Flashes on "Improving Your Aim"
* Know What you're going for in the first place. You can't
improve your aim and adjust your marketing if you haven't defined
an acceptable marketing result. Do you want to get a response,
a referral, an appointment or a sale? What is reasonable to expect?
Aim for that.* Understand your target's triggers. That is, know how your
prospect responds. What are their problems, concerns, issues and
challenges? What are they thinking about and worried about? What
do they want to accomplish? Make sure to address these triggers
in your marketing.* Start measuring your marketing. It sounds boring, but when
you get into the swing of it, you can learn amazingly valuable things.
For instance, start measuring exactly what pages people go to on
your web site. Then make subtle changes to get them to go where
you'd prefer.* Make incremental changes. If you're not getting results and
you make a lot of changes, how are you going to know which change
made the difference? Was it the headline or body copy on your web
page? Was it the report you're offering or where you placed the
order form? Change, measure, change.* Run with what works. Nothing will hurt you more than discovering
what works in your marketing and then failing to implement. Turn
what works into a formula that you can use for years to come. Keep
an eye on things and make changes as you get feedback from the
marketplace.Until next week, all the best,
Robert Middleton
ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Helping Independent Professionals Attract More Clients~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790© 2004 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You are free
to use material from the More Clients eZine in whole or in part,
as long as you include complete attribution, including live web
site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.
The attribution should read:"By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit
Robert's web site at http://www.actionplan.com for additional
marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional
service businesses."* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
