More Clients - the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert MiddletonIn This Week's Issue: Everyone says "content is king" but you need to realize that "packaging is emperor."
Packaging is Emperor
A couple weeks ago I mentioned my encounter with Sean De'Souza the marketing InfoGuru from New Zealand and his idea about "marketing your mistakes." Sean recently shared another idea with me that I find very compelling and that I think has big implications for all Independent Professionals.
Sean says, "If content is king, then packaging is emperor."
In marketing these days, we've heard a lot about content being king. Content for an Independent Professional is the sum total of information that you possess that you can leverage to both attract clients and to offer for sale.
This includes content on your web site, case studies of successful projects, background information on you and your business, articles and white papers both published and unpublished, principles, techniques, and strategies, and even the content of workshops, seminars and teleclasses.
If you have an ever-increasing body of relevant content, you have the building blocks for marketing and selling your services. And building blocks is a good metaphor because, if that content is just sitting there in a big pile, it isn't worth very much.
It's when you start effectively organizing, packaging and presenting your content that you can take your marketing and business to whole new levels, dramatically increasing both your attention value and your net income.
At the simplest level this may be starting with the raw material of information that goes on your web site. Unformatted, it's just a mass of black text on a computer screen. It's hard to read and will actually push people away.
If you repackage that text and use an attractive, readable font, make smaller paragraphs with spaces between them, highlight important concepts in bold text, include subheads for different sections, add some color here and there, and include graphics or illustrations, you pull the reader in.
Attention, interest, involvement and response all go up when you start paying serious attention to packaging.
Since design and the overall look and feel of your marketing materials is perceived and processed in the prospect's mind before the content is read, packaging truly becomes emperor.
If you only focus on this one aspect of packaging, you will dramatically increase the impact of your marketing. But you can take packaging to levels that can transform your entire business.
It's a matter of realizing that those building blocks of content can be built into a one-story ranch home or a sprawling three story mansion worth a fortune. It's all in how you package it.
Let me give you one example.
You have the information and the expertise to help companies improve their leadership ability. Your main service is to provide consulting services to help your clients learn and implement these ideas. Your content, your knowledge is certainly important, but the way it is packaged may be very limited.
When you think of packaging as emperor, you may start to explore the many other ways you could package that same content.
1. Create an article or white paper on "Leadership Practices of Great Companies" as a giveaway to potential clients. Great introduction for new prospects.2. Develop a talk or keynote presentation on the "Eight Deadly Mistakes of Leadership" for business groups. Builds visibility and credibility.
3. Put together an in-depth workshop on "Leadership Practices for High Achievers" to offer in conjunction with your consulting. Increases the size of every project.
4. Assemble a one-year program on "Leadership and Profitability" exclusively for CEOs from different companies. Then sell the program to the executive teams of each of those companies.
5. Write a virtual program on "Leadership in Troubled Times" that is delivered via web and online audio for companies going through transition. Creates passive income which can be offered to an unlimited number of participants.
OK, that took me about five minutes. What could you do if you took an hour or two to explore and brainstorm packaging opportunities for the content you already have?
I discovered a long time ago that clients were only going to buy the packages that I took the time and effort to put together. They weren't going to make them up for me.
And incidentally, creating, marketing and selling these packages brought me income far surpassing any standard consulting I offered, while freeing up my time to come up with even more valuable packages.
And in many cases they were actually a lot easier to market and sell than consulting! It's time to give the power to the Emperor of Packaging and see where it takes your business.
More on "Packaging is Emperor" in Marketing Flashes below.
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Referral Flood TeleSeminar is Today
Packaging your services more effectively won't do you a lot of good unless you have a system of generating consistent word-of-mouth referrals who want to know more about those packages.
I'm co-leading this TeleSeminar with John Jantsch, a long time subscriber to More Clients and an expert on referral marketing. John has created a program called "Referral Flood" and I thought it would be both fun and valuable offering a TeleSeminar with him to my More Clients subscribers.
Date: Tuesday, August 31 (today)
Time: 10 am Pacific time
Fee: $25 (CD price good until Weds, 9/15)For complete details and to reserve your space or order a CD of the program, just click below.
http://www.actionplan.com/referrals.htmlFrustrated that you aren't building your email list fast enough?
Three weeks ago I conducted the TeleSeminar "Inside Secrets to Quickly Growing a Massive, Responsive Email List." This TeleSeminar has had a tremendous response and it's for anyone who wants to get their email newsletter out to more people. It's now available on CD with a Resource Guide.
http://www.actionplan.com/elist.htmlUpcoming TeleSeminar on Selling to Big Companies
Are you mystified about how to get into big companies to sell your services? On Tuesday, September 21st I'll be conducting a TeleSeminar with Jill Konrath on "How to Sell to Big Companies (Without Cold Calling)." I'm really excited about this one. Mark your calendars now (I had published the wrong date last week). I'll announce it officially in mid-September.
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General marketing information just doesn't cut it
There are a boatload of books available on marketing. A new one seems to come out every week. But very few focus on your kind of business - professional services. You want specifics, not generalities, proven strategies, not theories.
You want to know how to get the attention of prospects, how to network in a way that doesn't waste time, how to put together the content of your web site and how to write an eZine that actually gets read and gets response.
You want how-tos and action plans and real-life examples and stories that you can relate to and apply to your business.
What you're looking for is the InfoGuru Marketing Manual.
The manual itself has detailed information on virtually every important marketing strategy an Independent Professional can use to attract new clients with how-to action plans.
It contains over eleven hours of recorded teleclasses that go into the finer points of many of the most often used of these marketing strategies, such how to get attention for your business every time someone asks what you do.
It also Includes a very active, very responsive discussion group called the InfoGuru Support Forum. We've had over 1,000 posts in August alone! If you have a question, want some feedback or are looking for a marketing resource, you'll get it from the Forum.
In short, if you want it, we've got it in the InfoGuru Marketing Manual + Audio Programs + Support Forum. If you haven't got it yet, you just might be missing the answer to that key question that will put your marketing back on track.
For a price so low that I'm embarrassed to print it here. But you can check it out here:
http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marketing Flashes on "Packaging is Emperor"
Packaging tips that increase business.
* Always offer more than one option and price for each package. As Alan Weiss says, instead of giving a choice between yes and no, give a choice between yes and yes.
* Give a name or title to each of your packages as I've done in the the article above. This branding creates an impression of more value and substance. It also makes them more memorable.
* Don't underestimate the power of selling small, inexpensive packages. A teleseminar that sells for $25 will sell a whole lot more units than a workshop that sells for $500 (with a whole lot less effort).
* Conversely, don't assume your prospects won't buy expensive, more in-depth programs. A complete solution that is high priced can be perceived as more affordable than a partial solution at a lower price.
* Packages can evolve into the next package and the next. An article turns into a presentation which becomes a paid teleclass which morphs into a workshop. This continuity builds momentum.
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."
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