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More Clients - the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert MiddletonIn This Week's Issue: If you want to understand the one thing
that will make you a better marketer, read on!
Pumping Marketing Iron
In our "instant" society we're always looking for simple solutions
that will address all our problems. You might call it the "one pill
and you're cured" syndrome, or the "magic bullet" syndrome.And although nothing is quite that simple, we're still looking for the
one thing that will make the biggest difference. For instance, if there
was one thing you could do to be a better marketer, what would it
be? Is there such a thing?Well, yes actually. I call it pumping marketing iron.
Imagine you're an athlete and you want to get better at what you
do. Whether you're a football or baseball player, a tennis player
or a golfer, there's one thing you can do to get better - build your
overall strength. And pumping iron is one way to do that.So what's the equivalent of pumping iron for an Independent
Professional who wants to be a better marketer? To make this
clearer, let's look at all the marketing activities an InfoGuru
marketer might do:- Develop a clear and compelling marketing message- Put together persuasive marketing materials
- Assemble an information-oriented web site
- Publish a regular eZine with informative articles
- Give memorable talks and presentations
- Craft letters that introduce you and your services
- Script an effective sales approach
- Outline your solutions in a detailed proposal
- Create a web site letter that results in online sales
The single common denominator of all of these essential marketing
activities is writing. For Independent Professionals, becoming a
better writer is "pumping marketing iron."No other skill is more important to a marketer than writing. In
fact, it's the "master skill" of marketing. Claude Hopkins, the
legendary copywriter of the 1920s, called marketing writing
"salesmanship in print."Just think of it. Newspaper, magazines, TV, radio, direct mail
advertising and promotion all start with writing. And it's really no
different if you're a self-employed professional.But this is where just about everyone goes blank! What
should I write? How should I write it? Where should I start? It
can be pretty overwhelming. But if you're going to grow your
business, like an athlete grows muscles, write you must.As I've pointed out above, there are numerous things to write as
an Independent Professional. Each one has its own form and rules.
But that's not the hard part.What's tricky is the approach to writing itself. How do you keep
people interested? How do you keep them reading? How do you
persuade in print? What will get them to take action?Let me share with you one very powerful strategy to persuasive
writing that I learned several years ago from a copywriting legend.This is what he explained in a nutshell...
Take whatever it is that you are selling and build a case from every
conceivable angle.Your service might be a training program that helps managers be
better leaders. Write simple, two- to three-sentence paragraphs that
give a benefit, advantage or reason for prospects to be interested
in what you have to offer.Build your case paragraph by paragraph....
Build your case by explaining who it's for:
"This program was developed exclusively for managers who were
promoted quickly into leadership positions, and who are now having
problems getting cooperation from those they manage."Build your case by explaining what will happen if they do it:
"Managers who attend our leadership program start seeing major
changes in the cooperation they receive. Those they manage start
to work as a team, and productivity increases dramatically."Build your case by showing how it works:
"Our leadership development program works because we don't just
tell participants what to do; instead, we show them through very
specific case studies and demonstrations. We then show them how
to apply these skills to their everyday work situation."But don't stop there...
Build a case by outlining what is included in the program.Build a case by telling who else has used it.
Build a case by relating success stories.
Build a case by explaining specific benefits.
Build a case by offering a guarantee.
That's just a few angles you can use to build a case. Keep
going with ten, twenty, even fifty specific reasons your program is
valuable. Just write down every reason or argument you can
possibly think of that might persuade a potential client.Then take everything you've written and arrange it in a logical order,
making sure that it flows easily from one point to the other. Rewrite
and fine-tune your writing, so that your language is simple and easy
to understand.You now have the foundation to integrate your ideas into marketing
materials and web copy, sales letters, telephone scripts, talks and
presentations, proposals and just about any other marketing activity.It's time to start pumping marketing iron today!
A little caveat: Many of you would prefer not to write at all and
delegate your writing to someone else. Is that something you should
consider? Yes. But there's nothing like taking the time to dump out
all your main ideas using the process above.Don't worry about style. Then give that material to a professional
writer and they'll turn it into pure gold. They'll be able to create all
kinds of marketing materials for you from your first drafts. And you'll
save a lot of time and money by avoiding long interviews.More about "Pumping Marketing Iron" 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 more than 20 years of
accumulated wisdom 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 in the manual 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.- It 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, and get "peer-review" of 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, because 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 "Pumping Marketing Iron"
* Do a complete workout. You can never know for sure what feature,
benefit, advantage or reason will persuade any particular person. So
be sure to include every single argument you can come up with in your
writing. It's like working on every single muscle group.* Keep it simple. Good marketing writing is done at a seventh grade
level. If a seventh grader is confused by your writing, you're going to
have problems. Stick to simple, everyday language. After all, you're
pumping marketing iron, not doing Pilates or Yoga.* Go for the burn. Write until you are tired and then write a little
more. Then go over it again and rewrite. There's a saying that there
are no great writers, only great re-writers. You're working on both
bulk and definition.* Go the distance. It's only done when it's done. Don't sell out on
yourself. If you don't build a solid case from every conceivable angle
with the clearest language, your prospects are going to find reasons
not to respond. The championship goes to the persistent.* Jump in the sauna. Once you're done with your writing, take a good,
long break and give it a rest. Don't look at it for a day or two. Then
come back to it with fresh eyes. When you're pumping marketing iron
and you don't rest, you can burn yourself out.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."* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
