Rev Up Your Sales With Theme-Driven Marketing
Issue #2259
- WEALTHY: Know when to let go (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Another reason you should drink more green tea (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: O.B. Smith on producing sales
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- 27 ways to break out of the "ho-hum" marketing mold (Yanik Silver)
- 5 areas your business must excel in to hit the $100 million mark (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Good to Know… what time it is (anywhere)
- Add "salutary" to your vocabulary
You Already Know Fortunes Are Made from Trading. The Question Is: WHAT Are "They" Trading Most? (And It’s Not Shares or Commodities!)
… Thirty times more trading going on than the stock market and mostly investment banks doing it. Ummm… Maybe "they" know something you don’t? Click here to learn more…
Investing in 2008: Getting Out
I have watched many traders and investors take far greater losses than they should have just because they didn’t get out of a trade at the right time. That’s why I rely on certain drivers not only to give me a reason to get into a trade at a particular time, but also to give me a reason to get out. These drivers are based on my own investment philosophies and my own research.
If the reason you got into a trade is no longer valid, why stay in it? If, for example, you buy a stock because it keeps bouncing off its 200-day moving average and rising 10-20 percent, what do you do if it breaks through that 200-day moving average?
You get out.
The stock may rise again, but if the reason you got in was the support of the 200-day moving average, you have to get out when it breaks through that support point. This type of discipline will help you keep your losses in check.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft, a two-time winner of the "Top Trader" award at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, is a contributor to ETR’s free e-zine, Investor’s Daily Edge . Learn how to protect your portfolio and multiply your money - in any market - by clicking here.]
"Confidence and enthusiasm are the greatest sales producers in any kind of economy."
O.B. Smith
Rev Up Your Sales With Theme-Driven Marketing
By Yanik Silver
Since January marks the start of a profitable new year for your business, let’s work on your marketing calendar for the next 12 months. You see, nearly any event / holiday / celebration / milestone is an excuse for a promotion. And if you’re not taking advantage of that, you’re missing the boat.
Here are just a few ideas:
February: Valentine’s Day
- "Give yourself the ____ you’ll love"
- "We love you and want to do something special for you"
March: St. Patrick’s Day
- "Make your friends green with envy with ____"
- "Your lucky day"
April: April Fools’ Day
- "These discounts are so low, my accountant thought this was an April Fools’ Day joke"
April: Tax Day
- "I need your help to pay for my taxes" (Don’t laugh. This was a promotion my friend, Jeff Walker, used very successfully!)
May: Mother’s Day
- "Mother always said you should ____"
June: Father’s Day
- "As Dad used to say, ____"
June: Graduation
- "Graduate to a new ____"
July: 4th of July
- "Watch fireworks explode when you ____"
- "Celebrate your independence from ____"
August: Dog Days of Summer
- "Beat the heat with ____"
September: Labor Day
- "Give yourself a break with ____"
October: Halloween
- "Treat yourself to ____" (Halloween is a HUGE holiday - one of the best for running a promotion.)
November: Election Day
- "Elect a new ____"
November: Thanksgiving
- "Thank you to our best customers"
December: Winter Holidays
- "Happy holidays - winter sale"
- "Ho ho ho - Can’t beat the fat man, so we’re having a sale"
January: New Year
- "New Year - New You/New Start"
- "Get rid of last year’s inventory"
But even better is to create unexpected "anytime" promotions. As Dan Kennedy says, the number one sin in marketing is being boring. And online, it’s harder than ever to break through the clutter. One way to grab attention is to make up an "event" and really make it fun for your customers/prospects.
I’m talking about the "Any-Reason-Is-a-Good-Reason-for-a-Sale" sale.
This is the perfect way to pump up sales when things are slow, when you’ve hit a milestone in your business, or just because you need to get rid of inventory. There are tons of ways of doing this. A couple off the top of my head:
- "Scratch & Dent" sale…
- "Fire/Flood" sale…
- "Need to pay my taxes" sale…
- "Birthday or Anniversary" sale…
- "My server crashed" sale…
- "It’s raining out" sale… (I’m serious. A local taco place sends out an e-mail anytime it rains - since their foot traffic goes down - offering free chips and queso. Smart!)
- "Boss is away" sale…
And on and on…
You can also use this approach to sell personal items in classified ads or through the Internet.
For example, when my wife and I bought a new house, some items were slightly damaged in the move. I put out a simple "Scratch & Dent" sale e-mail explaining the situation to my subscribers, and we sold everything in just a few days. Then, last year, I tried something a little different: the "Save Yanik’s Marriage Sale." The premise was that Missy, my wife, was really annoyed at me because our basement was overloaded with boxes. (Truthfully, she WAS mad - and made a big stink about it - but I embellished the story a bit.) It was another big success.
I’ve also done well with "personal milestone" sales for my business. I just did one when my first child, Zak, was born. That promotion nearly tripled my expectations. (It made $4.60+ for every visitor to my website.) More important, customers connected with me as a real person. You should have seen the dozens and dozens of "Congratulations!" notes. It was really cool.
There are a few big points I want to make sure you get from all this:
#1: Make your marketing fun.
Make people wonder, "What is this guy/gal going to be up to next?" Fact is, most of your prospects and customers probably lead fairly normal and mundane lives. If you can give them something to get excited about or allow them to live a little bit through what you do - you’ll have "hooked" them.
#2: Don’t let your theme or "fun" idea take away from the sales message.
This is critical! Big advertisers do this all the time, and waste their money. They try to use humor or something clever in their advertising… but ignore salesmanship. The fun or theme aspect of your promotion cannot stand on its own without well-written marketing copy. Bottom line: Don’t confuse being cute or clever with selling. There is a big, BIG difference.
#3: "Reason why" copy works perfectly for most of the events or themes you’ll create.
Most people will accept just about any excuse - even one as weak as a Presidents’ Day sale - for a special deal. However, if you combine the theme of your sale with real, meaningful "reason why" copy, you’ll make more sales… even if the reason is a bit contrived. Telling people the reason why you are doing something is one of the most powerful influencers of human behavior.
I hope this gives you some ammo to start thinking up your own promotions for the coming year and breaking out of the "ho-hum" mold of other marketers.
[Ed. Note: Yanik Silver , an expert on creating money-making websites, reveals one of the most profitable "hidden" Internet income opportunities around in the Secrets of Easy Internet Money series. And make sure you check out his new book, Moonlighting on the Internet: 5 World-Class Experts Reveal Proven Ways to Make an Extra Paycheck Online Each Month.]
You CAN learn to become wealthy!
Success is not encoded in an individual’s DNA and does not transfer from father to son or mother to daughter. It is a process - and learning the process is a major KEY to setting up for success.
Today I’d like to offer you two complimentary reports to help you get started: “How To Get What You Need To Succeed In Life" and "Simple Guidelines for Creating Abundance In Your Life."
There will be many steps you take towards your goals where it will feel like you’re taking two steps forward and one step back. You will have breakthroughs, triumphs, and opportunities to overcome adversity.
But to keep moving forward, you just might need a friendly kick-in-the-pants every once in a while. Here’s how to stay energized towards action and success every day of the year.
- Charlie Byrne
What Every Great Business Needs
Businesses don’t grow big and become profitable by accident. There are reasons why the great ones succeed.
Every marketplace is an environment where hundreds, or even thousands, of competing interests struggle to survive. Imagine a jungle of plants and ferns and flowers and trees, each one trying to get its share of the soil and water and sun. A new business is like a sapling - tender and small. If it doesn’t have the ability to grow quickly, it stands no chance of growing at all. But growing quickly isn’t all there is to it. For a sapling to grow into maturity and eventually become a great and dominant tree, it must be able to set its roots deep, resist pestilence and disease, and send its branches where the sun shines.
For a business to grow into a $100 million or a $300 million enterprise, it must be very good, if not great, in five areas:
- Coming up with new and useful product ideas.
- Selling those products profitably.
- Managing processes and procedures efficiently.
- Finding great employees to do the work.
- Getting people, procedures, products, and promotions going.
To be good or great in each of these important areas, a business needs to be led by a person or people who are very good at getting the jobs done.
In the beginning, only some of these essential skills are absolutely necessary. As the business grows, more come into play. Eventually, they are all in demand.
[Ed. Note: The above is an excerpt from Michael Masterson’s brand-new book, Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat , published with permission of John Wiley & Sons. In the book - which has already hit #1 on Amazon’s list of best-selling books - Michael shows how veteran and rookie entrepreneurs alike can take their businesses to the next level. You’ll learn how to identify and solve the problems that crop up during each stage of a company’s growth… and how to take advantage of profit opportunities along the way. Order your copy of Ready, Fire, Aim now.]
Drink This to Protect Against Parkinson’s
Current treatments for Parkinson’s disease, like most pharmaceuticals, are associated with serious side effects. But researchers at State Key Laboratory of Brain & Cognitive Science in Beijing have found a safe and promising alternative: green tea.
In a new study published in Biological Psychiatry , researchers investigated the effects of green tea polyphenols in an animal model. They found that polyphenols help to protect the dopamine-producing brain cells that are lost as a result of Parkinson’s disease.
Enjoy the brain-saving benefits of green tea every day. Look for organic green tea, which is higher in powerful phytonutrients and grown without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet (www.healinggourmet.com), and is editor-in-chief of the Healing Gourmet book series. Learn more about how simple lifestyle choices can improve your health by reading ETR’s free natural health e-letter.]
It’s Good to Know: What Time It Is… Anywhere
Now there’s no excuse for waking up friends and relatives in the middle of the night when you call them from a different time zone. Google tells you the local time almost anywhere in the world. Simply enter “time” in the search bar, followed by a city, state, or country. Hit enter, and Google will display the local time at that location.
(Source: Lifehacker )
Turn A Single $100 Investment Into A $2,000-A-Week Profit Machine
In the next seven days, 4,589 people will leave their jobs, never go back… and have all the money they will ever need.
I would tell you that these people are “very lucky,” but the fact of the matter is that there is no luck involved.
It’s happening everywhere. Ordinary people - including people who never finished school - starting their own businesses… and making in the neighborhood of $40,000… $60,000… even $100,000 or more a year.
Even though all these people are “ordinary” in some ways, one thing is certainly “out of the ordinary” about them:
Many used the same secret to start a business on less than $100. You can do it, too. Here’s how.
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Salutary
"Salutary" (SAL-yuh-ter-ee) - derived from the Latin - means "beneficial" or "healthful."
Example (as used by Kenneth T. Walsh and Robert Simon in U.S. News ): " Surviving a near-death experience has the salutary effect of concentrating the mind."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008