Sorry I missed last week…I took off last week due to spending
time relaxing and having a great Thanksgiving weekend. I made it to
the Parade here in Houston and then had a chance to help feed
the homeless. I'm not trying to sound Woo-woo but it was
a great feeling to see the people's faces when you put turkey on their
plate. They would just light up. Just made me realize how lucky we really are.
I could carry on and on but I know you want the meat so,
Back to the grind…
I hope these lessons are helping with your business growth.
Remember the key to all of this is taking action.
Don't just learn these strategies and then sit on your hands.
Take at least one action a day to work on your business.
Well on to the lesson…
You don't need me to tell you how difficult today's market place is
because you have everyone talking about it around every corner.
Well actually I'm here to tell you different. It's actually a GREAT
time to put a whooping on your competition, snatch up
tons of clients, and put yourself in a position to be
really profitable now and especially when things start turning
around. The real key is to be smart and use all your
resources properly.
What I am going to share with you are the 3 things you need to
do right now to generate tons of leads in the
most cost effective manner.
1. Market Your Business Online
Of course I would put this one first, but seriously…the Internet
is a huge force and consumers (your potential customers) are relying on it big time.
Consequently, other media like the yellow pages
and newspapers are dying a slow death. If you're still
spending money in either of these media, I hope it's only
because you're already maxing out your Internet marketing
efforts.
You see, with Pay Per Click marketing you create targeted
ads that position you in front of interested, ready-to-buy
prospects at the EXACT moment they're looking for you. Plus,
you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Could you imagine the look on your yellow pages or newspaper
ad reps if you told them you'll only be paying AFTER someone
responds to your ad? Well, that's exactly what happens when
with Pay Per Click marketing.
Now of course that is called "Pay" per click for a reason, you
are spending a lil money to get someone to come to your site.
Another area of online marketing that is more cost effective (FREE!)
is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is the process
of making your website appealing to the search engines so
you get ranked high for certain keywords.
For example, if you're in Pearland, TX and you provide
chiropractor services, you'd want to rank well for
'chiropractor Pearland TX'. If you can get your website onto page
1 of Google, the amount of traffic it could generate could
keep you busy for the next 5 years.
I don't necessarily agree with traditional SEO where you only
rank one page on the first page of Google. I like to dominate
the whole 1st page of Google with my services. To see what
I mean go to google and type in "Sugar Land SEO"
or just click here to see. 7 out of the 10 pages lead back
to my business.
2. Use Highly Targeted Direct Mail
This is another area I've talked about time and time again.
(Read my past blog posts for more specifics on it.)
If you're sending out direct mail, but aren't doing anything
to make sure it's highly targeted, you're wasting both time
and money.
Direct mail is still one of the most effective means of
generating new prospects and clients, but only if done
correctly. Unfortunately, most companies blast out 5,000
postcards to names within a certain area, but they don't
give any thought as to how qualified that 'prospect' truly
is.
To be most effective, I recommend trimming your direct mail
list to somewhere around 1,000-2,500 names, depending on
your budget, and then send them not just one postcard or
letter, but send them a series of letters, once a month or
so over the next 12-18 months.
Yes it seems like a lot, but the results you'll generate
will absolutely blow away the traditional 'blast out 5K
postcards in the Spring and in the Fall'.
3. Create Joint Venture Relationships
This method is one of the most overlooked marketing methods.
I mean the name of the game is "get your sales message in
front of as many qualified prospects as possible", right?
Well, as you no doubt already know, it's an extremely
expensive and time consuming proposition.
But when you partner up with businesses that are already
servicing your ideal client you bypass both the time and
expense part because you're borrowing the trust and
credibility your JV partner has with his client list.
The best way to approach this is to find a group of
non-competitive businesses that are already servicing your
ideal client. Come up with some killer offer you can make
them and tell your new JV partner that you'll let him give
this offer to his clients as a 'gift'.
Your JV partner will send out a letter (or you send it out
on their stationary written like it's from them) telling his
customers about the 'free gift', he gets a bunch of
surprised and satisfied clients, and you get a whole bunch
of new, qualified clients for your business.
Listen John, I'm not going to sugar coat things and
tell you all this economic turmoil is just a bunch of
baloney made up by the news media. Yes, I do believe they
tend to exaggerate things quite a bit, but the problems
we're seeing are very real.
However, it doesn't mean you can't still create a thriving,
profitable business amidst the storm. All it takes is a
little focus, some determination, but most importantly SMART
execution of solid business principles.
I've shared 3 such ideas with you today, so now it's up to
you to put them into effect for your business!
Please leave a comment below or any other questions
you may have or just shoot me an email at john@barryrealmarketing.com.
John Barry
Barry Real Marketing
(281) 627-8828
P.S. Stay tuned I'm working on a short tutorial for finding local
clients on Twitter and all creating a guide for getting your
business on the 1st page of Google.
John, just wanted to say thanks for the great FREE tips you have been sending. They have been really helpful and am looking forward to your report on how I can get my business on the 1st page of the search engines.
Steph