New Page 1

Sales & Marketing Tips

In this section you'll find practical tips on how you can improve sales and marketing in your business TODAY! What I like about these articles is that they provide information which you can start to implement right away.

We plan to add to this section at least monthly - why not subscribe to the FREE newsletter and we'll let you know when we've updated these articles (no more than two e-mails a week - I promise!). Just send a blank e-mail to subscribe@freetipsplus.com and you'll be kept up-to-date with free tips and hints as well as any special offers.

What would you like to look at now?

Article: Customer Satisfaction Is Your Business
Article: Are You Using All 7 of These Highly Effective Marketing Tactics
Article: Target Marketing Strategy - Find Your Own Niche Market
Article: Top 10 Ways to Keep Your Customers
Article: 13 Best Marketing Tips for Small Business
Article: How to Get More Referrals

Customer Satisfaction Is Your Business

Regardless of what business you are in - you are really in the business of satisfying customers. The degree of customer satisfaction you deliver determines the level of long-term success you will achieve in business. Make Customer Satisfaction Your Top Priority

Don't just make sales. Create customers - satisfied customers. In addition to the immediate profit they provide on the first sale, satisfied customers help you build your business in 2 other important ways: 1. They become a reservoir of repeat buyers. For some businesses that means repeat buyers for more of the same product or service. For every business, it means buyers for additional products and services. 2. They automatically refer more business to you from their friends and business contacts. This is highly profitable business for you because it doesn't cost you any time or money to get it. Never Promise More Than You Deliver Never make any promises you can't (or won't) keep. Nothing alienates customers faster than getting something less than they expect from a business transaction. They won't do business with you again. And they will tell everybody they know about their unhappy experience - causing you to lose future customers.

Tip: Handle customer complaints quickly and with a positive attitude. Strive to preserve your relationship with the complaining customer instead of your immediate profit from them. They will reward you later with more sales and referrals. Always Give Customers More Than They Expect "Over deliver" on quality and service. Always exceed your customers' expectations. You will win their long term loyalty. It also makes it difficult for competitors to steal customers from you - even if they have lower prices. Customers will not risk an uncertain experience with a competitor when they know they will get more than they expect from you. Tip: Surprise your customers with unexpected value. If you sell products, include an "unadvertised bonus" with every order. If you sell services, get into the habit of doing something extra for every customer or client without charging for it. Let Customers Know How Much You Value Them Let your customers know you are always thinking about them. Communicate with them regularly. For example, create some special deals just for your existing customers. And announce new products or services to them before you announce them to the general market. Tip: Convert your customers into publicity agents.

Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper. For example, reward them each time they refer someone who becomes a customer. Your reward can be as simple as a credit toward their next order from you. You are in the business of satisfying customers regardless of what products or services you provide. The satisfied customers you create will help you build your business by becoming repeat buyers and by referring new business to you from their friends and associates.

About the Author:
Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information: Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards" or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

Are You Using All 7 of These Highly Effective Marketing Tactics?

Here are 7 well known, highly effective marketing tactics many small business owners overlook when developing their marketing program. How many have you overlooked?

Be Unique
The best way to beat your competition is to promote a distinct advantage your customers cannot get from a competitor. This is often called your USP (short for Unique Selling Proposition).
If you don't already have a distinct advantage, create one. Add something to your business you're not already doing. One network marketer I know doubled her sign up ratio by providing free sales leads to her new distributors for their first 4 months.
Use Testimonials
Collect and use testimonials. Testimonials from satisfied customers are similar to referrals. Both provide your prospect with evidence that your product or service produced results for other customers just like them.
I've performed many tests using the same messages with and without testimonials. Those with testimonials always increased sales, often by as much as 65% or more.
Don't wait for satisfied customers to volunteer a testimonial. Instead, follow up with some customers soon after completing a transaction.
Ask what they liked best about your product, service or business opportunity. You'll get many flattering compliments. Ask for permission to use them in your promotions.
Make An Upselling Offer
Upselling is a proven technique you can use to get more money at the point of sale. Customers will never be more receptive to an attractive offer from you than when they're paying you money.
Offer your customers or clients the option to upgrade to a better product or service at a special price. Or, offer the option of adding a related item to the sale for a special combination price. Many will accept your offer.
An upselling offer can increase your average sale by 30 percent or more without creating any advertising expense.
Trivialize Your Price
Demonstrate a low cost for your product or service by breaking down the price to its lowest time increment. "$325 per year" frightens many customers away. "Enjoy all of this for less than 90 cents a day" attracts them to the low cost.
Stress Benefits Before Features A feature is what something is. A benefit is what it does. For example, my favorite donuts are now delivered in a re-sealable box. That's a feature. The donuts stay fresh for a week after I first open the box. That's the benefit.
Promote the benefits of your product or service before you promote the features of it. People never buy something to get a feature. They always buy to get the benefit produced by the feature.

Focus On The Headline
Always include a headline with your ad, sales letter or webpage. Include your biggest benefit in the headline to grab your prospect's attention. Otherwise, many prospective customers won't read your promotional material.
When you develop a new promotion, test different headlines to find the most effective one BEFORE you test anything else. After you find the headline that attracts the most readers you can test to find the most motivating copy for them to read.

Include a Powerful Offer
Never advertise without including an offer. An offer provides the reason for prospective customers to respond. The best way to get a big response from your advertising is to make an offer your prospects cannot refuse.

Are you using all 7 of these tactics in your promotions? If not, revise your marketing program to include those you've overlooked. You'll immediately enjoy a big increase in your sales and profits without increasing your expenses.

Target Marketing Strategy - Find Your Own Niche Market

What is your target market? When I ask business owners that question I usually hear something like...

Small Business Owners
Opportunity Seekers
Doctors
Homeowners

Do you define the targeted market for your business similar to one of these? If you do, you're working harder and spending more money than necessary to promote your business. And you're enjoying only a fraction of the sales you should be getting.

Most business owners recognize the value of targeting a market. But when you target a broad audience like those listed above, you're only targeting prospects who CAN use your product or service. You have to narrow your focus if you want to target prospects who are LIKELY to use your product or service. One of the best ways to do this is to find a niche market.

WHAT IS A NICHE MARKET?

A niche market is a narrowly defined group that includes all of the following:

Individuals in the group have the same specialized interests and needs.
They have a strong desire for what you offer.
You have (or you can create) a compelling reason for prospects in the group to do business with you instead of with someone else.
You can easily reach individual prospects within the group.
The group is large enough to produce the volume of business you need.
The group is small enough that your competition is likely to overlook it.

WHY YOU MUST NARROW YOUR FOCUS

A niche market enables you to target your sales messages with great precision. The more narrowly you define your niche market the easier it is to cater to the specifically defined interests of people in that market.

For example, some businesses describe their target market as "opportunity seekers". But this is a broad audience. You cannot cater to specifically defined personal interests of individuals in this group because it may include all of the following:

Executives who want to get out of the corporate environment and start their own business
New mothers who want to start a home based business
Students who want to generate some extra income

Any promotional message to this group would have to be very general. But people don't respond to general talk. They respond only when they feel you are talking directly to them about their individual needs.

SPECIAL ADVANTAGE: A highly defined, small niche market can insulate you from competition. Other small businesses are likely to overlook it. Large businesses will find the market segment too small to bother with.

HOW TO FIND YOUR OWN NICHE MARKET

One way to find a good niche market is to evaluate your existing customers. Can you uncover a segment of customers with similar characteristics?

For example, I recently talked with an MLM distributor for a health products company. About a year ago she noticed that many distributors in her downline were health or physical education teachers. She now has a lot of success targeting a niche market of female physical education teachers who are married, have children and are members of the same professional association.

Another way to find a niche market is to work backward from the benefits you offer. Start by listing all the benefits provided by your product or service. Then list some of the characteristics of prospects whose current situation can be dramatically improved by those benefits. You should begin to see a narrowly defined group emerge as a niche market.

IT'S YOUR BOTTOM LINE

How specific is your target market? Can you develop sales messages so sharply focused your prospects believe you're talking specifically to them? If not, use the information in this article to help you find a niche market of your own. Then tailor your sales messages to the specific interests and needs of that niche market. You'll see an immediate increase in your sales and profits.

Top 10 Ways to Keep Your Customers

1. SAY thank you and smile. Project an image of someone that others will want to do business with. A good attitude is a powerful customer service tool.

2. OFFER a money back guarantee. If you won't guarantee it, why would anyone buy it? Broken promises are a big source of customer dissatisfaction.

3. RESPOND promptly. Even if you don't have the solution to the problem, keep your customers updated on your progress. Nobody wants to be kept guessing about what is going on.

4. LISTEN to the customer. Ask your customers questions. Find out why your customers buy from you. Find out what your customers care about most and what they think of your current service.

5. ANSWER the phone. A prompt answer and a pleasant greeting will start any type of phone call off on the right track. Identify yourself and ask how you can be of assistance to the caller.

6. SHOW customers how to save money using your products or services. Use case histories and let your satisfied customers show others how you helped solve their problems. Your customers need information and your expertise.

7. MAKE IT EASY to do business with you. From accepting payments to shipping orders, keep all customer records computerized and accessible by sales and phone representatives. Make it easy for your employees to take care of issues without having to get back to the customer.

8. WOW your customers. Under promise and over deliver. After your customer has made a purchase send a surprise welcome gift along with a handwritten thank you note. Make them feel good about their decision to buy from you.

9. PERSONALIZE all communication. With all the tools available today, you can easily customize your written correspondence. Customers want to be treated as individuals. Make them feel special.

10. TRAIN your employees. PLEASE! Your customers will appreciate employees who are courteous and knowledgeable. A trained employee will project a confident image to your customers. Teach problem solving skills so that employees are empowered to resolve problems and ultimately delight your customers!

About the Author:
Kate Schultz is the Publisher of E-ZineZ: the E-Zine about E-Zines. Visit E-ZineZ at http://www.e-zinez.com for how-to help for your email newsletter. To subscribe send an email to mailto:join-ezine-tips@sparklist.com with SUBSCRIBE in the BODY

13 Best Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

I've been involved in marketing and direct marketing since… my God! Am I that old already? Anyhow, over the years I've been asked to give tips on marketing along with my specific advice. Here's a short list of some of my best tips.

The most valuable tool in marketing at the lowest cost is a letter. In fact, the most valuable tool in marketing at any cost is a letter. Write one business-getting letter every day.
The best formula for creating headlines in marketing is "New product offers benefit, benefit, benefit." Use this to create the headline of your press releases and advertisements, for envelope teaser copy, and for the beginning lead of your brochure. Example: "New keyboard offers faster typing, greater accuracy, and is less tiring." Use Jeff Dobkin's 100 to 1 Rule: Write 100 lines, go back and pick your best 1.
The most valuable single sheet of paper you can create in marketing is a press release. You should be sending press releases every month.
The most effective trick I've learned in 25 years of copywriting is this: when you are having a tough time writing, just start writing anything, then go back and cross out your first sentence.
Follow up serious inquiries and sales leads with more than one piece of mail.
The 11 most valuable words to get any press release published are "Are you the person I should send this press release to?" Before sending any important press release, call the magazine or newspaper editor and say these 11 words.
Create a letter series - in advance - to get new business. Mail one letter a month. This is the best campaign I can think of, and the basis for one of my books, How To Market A Product For Under $500! Shhh, don't tell anyone this, they won't buy it.
Always acknowledge when something nice is done for you with a thank you letter. No, a call is not the same.
When you start to write any business communication, always write your objective first. Figure out and state in writing what you are trying to accomplish. For example, an ad objective may be to generate maximum direct orders, or get as many leads as possible, or generate retail store traffic. This gives your writing more focus.
If you'd really like a response from a personal letter, include a return envelope in it with a live stamp on it. It'll increase your response or it'll drive them nuts.
Anytime you run a successful long-term direct mail campaign, test the variables in subsequent mailings.
Take your time writing. No one will ever know the one-page letter they received took you three weeks to write. Just make sure when you send it, it's perfect.
In a direct mail solicitation, don't be afraid to ask for the order - several times. If the recipient doesn't call or send an order, the piece fails. For best results, be very explicit and tell the reader exactly what you want him to do - twice in the body copy, and again in the PS.

About the Author:
Jeffrey Dobkin, author of the 400-page marketing manual, How To Market A Product for Under $500 ($29.95), now has a second book, Uncommon Marketing Techniques ($17.95) - 33 of his latest columns on small business marketing, exactly like the one you just read. Both books are available directly from the publisher - 800-234-IDEA. Or visit him at http://www.dobkin.com

How to Get More Referrals

by Wanda Loskot

If you've been in business for a while, you've learned to appreciate the value of word-of-mouth advertising. It costs nothing and brings in high quality prospects, already sold on your product or service.

Aaah, if only it could happen more often...

It can. With a little planning and a slightly different focus in your marketing efforts, you can develop a steady stream of predictable referrals, week after week, month after month. But first let's understand the difference between two different types of referrals.

You see, one of them just happens. The other is orchestrated. Although subtle, the difference is dramatic.

Let's start with the basics first. Where do referrals come from? From satisfied customers, of course! Or, better said, from those customers whose expectations we exceed. Yes, but what are they satisfied with? Heck, that is precisely what you have to figure out.

You have to realize that every business transaction consists of two parts. One is the product/service. Your customers evaluate quality, features, benefits, price, and how this all compares with your competition.

The second part is the experience. Customers will evaluate how easy, how fast, convenient, satisfying and how *pleasurable* the total experience of doing business with you is for them.

Do you know any businesses that deliver an inferior product, yet are able to survive...maybe even do remarkably well? Chances are that what's lost in the quality of product is somehow compensated in the quality of experience. And I'm sure you know some businesses -- maybe even yours-- which deliver superb quality products or service, but somehow are not able to attract as many customers as they could. Quite possibly, the process of buying needs some work.

Imagine what would happen if everyone doing business with you felt compelled to talk to others about your business! To make that happen you'll need a system that delivers...and delivers consistently. For starters, find out how you are doing in the area of quality. Develop a simple survey to measure both, your product and customer's experience. Rate different aspects of them on a scale:

1 - for good,
2 - for excellent
3 - for exceeding expectation

And make sure that you provide space for comments and examples so you know what specifically needs improving. Then ask your customers for evaluation.

To get ongoing referrals you can bank on instead of the occasional lead generated by worth-of-mouth advertising, you need to score consistently "3" in both: product/service and experience.

Don't fret if your first surveys come back with lackluster results. They're sure to point to some areas that need improvement. Make the improvements, then ask your customers for their feedback again. You can try another survey, or better yet a small focus group.

Most likely, your customers will jump at the opportunity to provide you with feedback - they will easily recognize and appreciate your efforts and that counts a lot.

From now on you will be on the roll and to get you started on building your business through referrals.. Good luck!

About the Author:
Wanda Loskot is a professional business coach - are you ready to make more than "just a living" and get paid what you are really worth while doing what you LOVE? - experience http://loska.com Are you tired of prospecting, cold calling, handling objections? Read "Referrals Unlimited" - mailto:newsletter@loska.com