9 steps to out standing market success

8/6/2019 9 Steps to Out Standing Market Success

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Steps

to outstanding market success9

StunningsalesandpromotiontoolsfromyourHPcolorprinter

Oli

verFritschandInesBitsch

Sponsoredby
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Look forward to these exciting topics...

ContentsStep1:Focusing:Whichbusinessareyouin?-Knowingyourskills,experienceandpassion-Defningwhatyousell-Understandingwhichtrendstoride

Step2:Innov

ating:

Howcanyou

turn

yourideasi

nto

products?

-Wheredo

ideas

comefrom?

-Managing

ideas

-Testingne

wideas

-Translating

needs

intofeatures

and

benefts

Step 7: Promoting: Which tools will createawareness for you?

- Marketing for free- Low budget can still be high impact- Creating a direct mail campaign

Step 6: Being found: Where areyour customers looking for you?

- Understanding the new rules

- Getting trafc to your web site- Converting visitors on your landing page

Step 8: Connecting: How can you create a writ-ten proposal that reects your philosophy?

- Making a lasting impression- Creating a yer with a special touch

Step 9:Growing: How can you keep developingyour business?

- Getting referrals and positive word of mouth- Creating customer loyalty- Dealing with rejection

0 / 2iStockphoto.com/GaborIzso/DavorRatkovic

Step3:Prospecting:Whoareyour

customers?

-Managingyoursalesfunnel

-Gettinganappointment

-Succeedingatyourappoint-

ment

Step4:Budgeting:Whatareyour

marketingmixopportunities?

-Selecting promotiontools

-Measuringmarketingeffectiveness

Step5:Branding:Whatdoyou

standfor?

-Creatingabrand

-Growing yourbrand

-Managingyourbrandecosystem
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Put yourself on the path to success...subscribe today!

Foreword

Dear HP Customer,

At HP we are constantly looking for innovative ways to make youmore successful. After all: Your success is our success!

Today, I introduce you to our beautiful Marketing Success eBook.

Every month, we will provide you with a free chapter chock full of in-formation on how you can market your business better, and sell more.

Sign up today athp.com/go/marketingebook to receive an e-mailnotication whenever we have a new chapter available for you todownload.

You can print chapters for your reference with one click using theprint button. If you are as excited about it as we are, tell your friendsand colleagues. Cover it in your blog or click the envelope sign at thebottom of the page to recommend it to a friend from our downloadpage.

Here is to your success!

Kathy Stromberg

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KathyStrombergHPV.P.Marketing
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Lets get started...

About the contributors

Oliver Fritsch (Author)Sales and marketing expert OliverFritsch has been at the forefront ofcustomer-focused innovation man-agement while working forHewlett-Packard Company for morethan 15 years. He is founder andCEO of Cendesic.com, a digitalmarketing agency in Boise, Idaho.Cendesic helps its clients improvetheir customer insights, productinnovation and ndability. InGermany, he authored a best seller

with Alles Anders, a book andweb community to identify andpursue life goals.

Ines Bitsch (Graphic Design)Designer, art director and illustra-tor Ines Bitsch has over 15 yearsexperience in advertising, fashionand interior design. She is founderand CEO of Mood-Management-Ltd.de in Germany. Her mission isto inspire soulful rooms, productsand customer experiences. She alsoteaches fellow female entrepreneurshow to succeed in business.

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krieg-fo

todesign.de/RolandKrieg
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Sell yourself well in bright colors!

Introduction

When you always follow in someones footsteps you will nevermake an impression.

(Unknown)

The trigger for composing this book has been the incredible pricedrops of inkjet and color laser printers. Suddenly a very affordableprinter can produce materials looking worth thousands of dollars.The question we asked ourselves was this: How can it be that so fewprinted materials leaving the average business look really outstanding with so many capable printers sitting in almost every ofce corner

today? We asked more than 480 small business owners during thepreparation of this book for their reasons aforementioned and whatthey need most. Our astonishing insight: producing good lookingmarketing materials usually is the last thing on their mind. Sales comerst. Creating a good-looking sales proposal or brochure often com -petes with spending precious free time with the family after 7 PM. Thisdespite the fact that colorful documents actually sell more becausethey pique the readers interest and leave a memorable impression.

With this book we want to inspire you to make a strong impression.Dont ask an agency to do the work for you because no agency can

capture the spirit of you and your business as well as you yourselfcan. Experiment. Make your pieces move. Break out of boring layouts.Combine new forms, images and elements. Use colors, lots of colors.Surprise yourself. Learn a photo editor like Adobe Photoshop.Grab images from inexpensive stock photo services or use your ownimages. Collect backgrounds and fonts and combine them in new

ways. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

0 / 5iStockphoto.com/ChristineBalderas

iStockphoto.com/DanielStein
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e-Book Terms of UseHP provides this e-book as one source of information and advice you can use to build your companys image

and do self-marketing. HP recommends you complement this material with your own consultants and othersources of expertise and information. If you have acquired this e-book from any source other than (hp.com/go/marketingebook), you have no rights to use it. Visi t (hp.com/go/marketingebook) for an authorized download.You agree and acknowledge that this web site and the e-book is owned and operated by Hewlett-Packard Com-pany and that your access to the web site and/or the e-book is subject to these Terms of Use and the Hewlett-Packard Company Web site - Terms of use and legal restrictions (Web site Terms). We refer to the Terms ofUse and the Web site Terms collectively here as the Terms. By browsing this web site or reviewing this e-book,downloading it, referring to it, or using it in any fashion, you agree to these Terms. When you use this e-book:You promise to respect copyrights and otherwise follow applicable law.You promise not to use the e-book except in accordance with the terms upon which HP supplies it to you.You may view this web site, and the e-book using a web browser. You may download and make a copy of thee-book or portions of the e-book solely for your own personal business use (information, research or study) ifyou do not modify the e-book and if you include all copyright notices appearing in the material you copy in yourcopy.Except for these rights, you promise not to reproduce, copy, share, republish, upload, post, extract, transmit,make available, adapt, modify, frame (by whatever means), link to, forward, create derivative works based upon,distribute, disseminate, sell, publish, sublicense, or in any way commingle any materials on this web site or con-tained in this e-book with other third party content, do any other act of copyright, or otherwise use the e-book.If you contact us, we may, but are not required to, expand these rights under a written agreement.

Where requested, you will provide us with accurate information.You promise to keep the e-book in the form in which it was supplied to you. You promise not to circumvent anymeasures that we have taken to protect the rights in the e-book that we have supplied, including removing thisinformation or otherwise facilitating an infringement of copyright.You promise not to use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper work-ing of the web site or to otherwise interfere with the processes and technology we use to provide this e-book toyou.You may share this e-book with others by directing them to our web site (hp.com/go/marketingebook) wherethe e-book is available for download. You may only provide a link to this e-book in accordance with ourGuidelines for Linking to HPs Web site from a web site provided that you link to the home page (hp.com/go/marketingebook), and use as the linking text HP Marketing Success e-Book.Our disclaimer and liability limits:We provide this e-book on an as is basis. We dont guarantee any results due to use of the material andadvice provided to you in this e-book.HP is not responsible to any entity for any misuse of images.HP reserves the right to terminate your right to use this e-book.See the Web site Terms for the limitations on our liability.The e-book may contain trademarks, service marks, and logos that are the property of third parties. You may notuse these trademarks, service marks or logos without prior written consent of such third parties who own these

marks and service names.TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE E-BOOK IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTYOF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIESOF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Images: iStockphoto.com, Cendesic.comContributors: Oliver Fritsch & Ines BitschProduction and Concept: Cendesic.com 8474857809709

ISBN 978-0-9708474-8-5

53995 >

US $39.95 CAN $50.00

0 / 6

iStockphoto.com/KrisHanke

iStockphoto.com/DanielStein
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Which business are you in?

1step

Have you made a conscious deci-sion about what business you arein?

And do you stick to it?

This is often easier said than done.Sometimes we are happy to take

what we can get: any customer, anywork, any challenge. After all, welike to think about ourselves as be-ing multi-talented and exible. Thechallenge of this approach is clear:How are we ever going to becomeexperts in an area, get to be ef-cient in what we do, and developa great reputation?

The answer: nd a business focus

that matches your strengths.In this rst step you will reect onyour experience and skills and con-nect them with your passion. Next,you will learn how to dene whatyou sell. Finally we will show youhow to tie your business to a trendand gain momentum.

Step 1 / 1

Focusing

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iStockphoto.com/ChristinaHanck


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Look at your personal motivation go deep!

Knowing your

skills, experience and passion

Describe a day in your future

Write down answers to the follow-

ing questions on a separate sheet.Stretch your imagination as far aspossible. Dont compromise youraspirations by limiting them to whatyou think is only possible for youtoday. Dare to visualize the impos-sible and most desirable situationfor you.

What do you see whenyou awake in the morning?Describe your surroundings indetail.

Where are you? Which lan-guage is spoken?

What clothes will you put on?Where will you go? How willyou get there?

What tasks will you perform?What will you do?What kinds of people will yoube reaching and inuencingthrough your work?

What recreation will youenjoy during the evening and

weekends?

How will you grow personallyand spiritually through whatyou do?How will you positively impactthe community in which youlive?How much will you earn?

Find the balance... ...between customerneeds...

Step 1 / 2

It doesnt matter if you start up a new business or plan to expandyour existing business the key question remains the same:

What should I do?

The art of being happy in what you do is to nd the right balancebetween providing a product or service your customers actually need

(or better, crave) and doing something you absolutely love.

But where do you start?

To clarify on your skills, experience and passion, look at your per-sonal wants and needs rst and at your business skills, experienceand contacts second.

Use the questions in the left sidebar on this and the following page tothink through which dreams, attributes and resources you have withinyou.

Create a mental picture of what you will become and what you wantto do.

Later on we will help you select a promising eld of target custom-ers and assist you in matching your passion with the needs of thosecustomers.

...and doingwhat you love.

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Reect on your strengths.

Understanding

your strengths

Match your strengths with promis-ing target customers

The following exercise works on apersonal level and on a business

level.1. Make a list of all your strengths,assign points from 0-100 accordingto how strong you are in each ofthem and sort them, highest rst.2. Think through which markets /customer groups could prot fromyour strengths the most and writethem down.3. To identify the most promisingtarget market or customer group,create a separate table for each ofyour strengths. List your possible

target customers in the rst columnand these criteria in the followingcolumns:

How well your strengths matchHow much added value youcan deliverHow much you would like to

work with this groupHow much access you have tothis groupHow much experience youhave with this groupHow much of this group is inneed of your services

The possible budget of thisgroup

Assign a number of points from0-100 according to how strong youare in each of them. Add up allyour points and focus on the ones

with the highest score.

Focus on yourstrengths... ...forget... ...your weaknesses.

Step 1 / 3

Top athletes train in a single sport to become the best in their eld.The same is true in business: if you want to become a market leader,

you have to concentrate on your strengths and continue to developthem. Dont scatter your efforts and waste time on improving your

weaknesses. Think about your personal and professional assets in astructured manner. Different categories of strengths could be:

Skills: Which special skills do you have?Experience: Which tough customer problems did you alreadysolve and what practical experience have you collected?Customer access: With which customers do you have an estab-lished, trusted relationship?Special insight: Which burning customer needs are you aware of?

You can also ask your friends and existing customers for their opin-ions and compare them with your own views of yourself. You mightdiscover additional strengths you didnt know you had. Next, com-pare your strengths with the ones you think your competitors have.Then pick your strongest attributes and focus on the growth and evolu-tion of them.

iStockphoto.com/ranplett

iStockphoto.com/TammyPeluso


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Think in your customers terms!

Dening

what you sell

7 Important questions about what

you sell

Which business model ts yourprot objectives and lets youearn money?

What services and/or productsdo you sell?How much money do you wantto earn as a company?How much money do you wantto earn personally?

Which clients have moneythey can and want to spend

on you?Who are your key competitorsand in what areas are yousuperior?How do your customers like tothink about what you have tooffer?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Help your customers do... ...what they... ...need to get done.

Step 1 / 4

Dening what you sell isnt as easy as it sounds.Dont invent a product or service rst and then try to sell it. This isusually a costly uphill battle, especially for a small business. A betterapproach is to thoroughly understand the jobs your customers needto get done and then help complete those tasks faster or cheaper.Think about which groups of customers are under-served and why.HP discovered that many customers had trouble printing a map froman internet browser and created a simple mechanism to do just that.Many times, your customers think about your products in differentterms than you do, too. Look behind your product and see what youreally provide. This will help you greatly in your communication ef-

forts. For example, a customer doesnt buy:

A diamond but hopes to obtain the commitment of everlastinglove (Jeweler)

A music CD but a refreshed memory of a beautiful evening (Re-cord Store)

An investment portfolio but achieves peace of mind in prepara-tion for retirement (Financial Consultant)

A house but a safe and beautiful place to raise a family (RealEstate Agent)

A teeth whitening but builds the condence coming from a securesmile (Dentist)

A Color LaserJet but the opportunity to look like a multimilliondollar rm on paper (Hewlett-Packard)

Use the printable value statement tool on the next page to get clarityabout the product you really sell. Brainstorm and collect idea bitesand word fragments and combine them into a Value Statement.

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Step 1 / 5

PrintableValueStatement

Whats your value statement?

When andwhy do your custom-

ers need you?...in an era of oversaturated media

channels.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------

Whoyou are and what

you do.Example: Cendesic.com is the only

digital marketing agency...-------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Howyou do it.

...that writes search-opti-mized eBooks...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whoyou are doing it for.

...for technologycompanies...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------

Whyyou do it.

...who want to increase theirfndability...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

iStockphoto.com/CheMcPherson


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Which trend do you ride?

Understanding

which trends to ride

3 Safe indicators that it may betoo late to hop on a trend

The trend is covered in themainstream pressThe trends product or serviceis produced in a low costcountry and sold at a low pricestoreTeenagers scoff at it

Instead, use social media newsweb sites (Digg.com) and seri-ous business papers (Wall Street

Journal, Economist) to learn aboutnew trends in your own country andabroad.

Pick a trend... ...and run with it... ...or against it!

Step 1 / 6

Small businesses dont always have a lot of money for advertisingor generating awareness, especially if you have created somethingground breaking new or original.

Thats where the power of trends comes in. Trends are importantbecause they create awareness and can condition and prepare your

customers in a favorable way towards your product or service. Un-believably this is done for free! Just ve years ago starting a consult-ing business to help customers gain a top rank on the most popularsearch engines would have earned you a lot of blank stares. Noweverybody understands what it is and its a lot simpler to explain thebenets of your service. At the same time the competition for yourservices is a lot stronger too. In the end it all boils down to these threeoptions:

Swim with a trend: Less up front communication work, but morecompetition and lower marginsSwim against a trend: Find a niche in under served territory, but

build up the market yourselfCreate a trend and stay in front of it: The most desirable option ifyou can afford it and succeed

No matter which one you pick, make sure that it is a conscious deci-sion and prepare yourself for the consequences.

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Innovating

How can you turn your ideas into products?

2step

Step 2 / 1

Innovation distinguishes betweena leader and a follower.

Steve Jobs

How can you come up with newproduct and service ideas for yourbusiness?

Are you looking for tiebreakersthat give your customers a goodreason to choose your product overa competitors product? As moreand more services and productsdegenerate into commodities, yourchallenge will seldom be to comeup with new ideas, but to select the

few precious thoughts that will makea real difference for your customers- and your business. In this chapter

we will show you how to developnew ideas, how to manage thoseideas and, most importantly, how totest them quickly and inexpensively.

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Choose your innovation playing eld.

What kind of

ideas are you looking for?

Step 2 / 2

Questions to challenge yourindustry

Here is an idea to help you developa new break-out business modelfor your trade. Step back and think

about the way things are donecurrently in your industry. Writedown the core aspects on a sheetof paper and then explore how youcan change your industries boundar-ies for your own benet.>> We use Netix(R) as an exampleand compare it with brick and mor-tar video rental stores

Decrease: Which factors can youreduce signicantly in your industrystandard?>> Netix replaced brick and mortarstores with the mailbox of its custom-

ers.Expand:Which factors can youexpand in your industry?>> Netix raised customer satisfac-tion through a recommendationengine that analyzed renters satis-faction with rentals and correlatesthem to the preferences of the wholeuser base.

Remove:Which things can youeliminate completely from yourindustry?>> Netix removed late fees com-

pletely, which was the main protdriver for their competitors.

Build: What can you add that sig-nicantly raises the standards?>>Netix created low tech, low costlogistics systems that ensure DVDdelivery across the country.

Before you get your creative juices owing its a good idea to stop fora moment and think about which area of your business needs the mostimprovement. In other words any time or money spent on innovation activi-ties (research, ideation, development, testing, and implementation) shouldbe applied to the area where you will have the biggest return of investment.For example, a tiny change in the way you purchase your materials couldhave a much larger impact on your bottom line compared to a complete andexpensive redesign of an existing product. Listed in the following are a fewtypical areas that lend themselves to be improved.

What do you want to do? Pick one:

Develop a new business model?Find and conquer a new niche or new market?Improve an existing product or service?Improve your internal processes by innovating along your value

delivery chain (e.g. make improvements around your purchasingmanufacturing, distribution, delivery, or customer service process)?Create a better customer experience along the customerpurchase circle (e.g. help your customer during comparison /selection /purchase / delivery / use / maintenance / disposalactivities of your products)?

Research>>>

Ideati

on>

>>De

ve

lopmen

t>>>

Testi

ng

>>>Im

pleme

ntation

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Collect and harvest ideas from as many sources as possible!

Where do

ideas come from?

Step 2 / 3

Use Web 2.0 ... ...technology to collect... ...new ideas.

How to build your own idea bank!

1. Collect all ideas in a specialfolder or box and include competi-tors new products too

2. Classify and Sort these ideasinto the categories that make sensefor your industry

3. Review the ideas frequently (asdescribed on the next page)

4. Implement the most promisingideas rapidly

Often, the success of small and medium sized businesses depends on com-ing up with product improvements and new service ideas to stay fresh andrelevant. Sporadically, new ideas can come from engineering, marketing, orthe executive team. Many times they can come from the fringes of a compa-ny, where your employees interact with customers, partners, or the market-place. No matter where they come from, it is important that you collect themsystematically. Listed below we show you where and how you can harvestideas easily.

Internal departments: Deploy Wiki software to collect new product ideas onyour intranet website; schedule regular meetings with your sales teams andcustomer support functions; offer rewards for new product ideas that pass apeer review process in your company; encourage your employees to createand register new patents on your companies behalf.

Customers: Set up a blog for your customers; create an open or closedonline community for your customers and moderate it yourself. Set up aquarterly customer advisory council meeting or listen to incoming customersupport calls on your hotline for a week to get started.

Distribution partners: Schedule regular meetings with your channel and

distribution partners to exchange ideas that will better serve your mutualcustomers.

External development partners: If you co-develop your products and ser-vices with external partners, schedule special innovation days to exchangeand share customer insights.

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Create an innovation portfolio!

Managing

new ideas

Step 2 / 4

Select the... ...most compelling ideas... ...for your business.

How to create aProduct Innovation Map

Take the top 10 projects from yourscorecard and map them out ona bubble diagram. Plot the sum oftechnical and commercial feasibilityon the y-axis and the prot expecta-tions on the x-axis. Let the diameterof the bubbles depict the develop-ment cost.

Voil: Projects in the top right quad-: Projects in the top right quad-rant are the most attractive ones topursue.

After you have collected a large number of ideas the big question is howyou can separate the good ideas from the bad ones? Our following simpletools, the New Product Innovation Scorecard and the Product InnovationMap will help you greatly in sorting, managing and evaluating your ideas.

First, list all your ideas in a spreadsheet and apply a score from 1-10 toeach of the following categories:

Strategic t for our company (Does it t with what we do?) Future leverage (What is the potential to propel our business to a new level?) Likelihood of commercial success (Can we sell it?) Technical feasibility (Can we build it?)

Development cost (Can we pay for it?)

Next, add up the scores and re-sort the table in descending order to seeideas with a big potential. These will be the ones that sorted to the top. Youcan use this table to create a Product Innovation Map (see sidebar) that

visualizes your results in a different way.

iStockphoto.com/ElenaElisseeva

iStockphoto.com/GeorgWinkens

Product Innovation Scorecards and ProductInnovation Maps 2008 by Cendesic.com


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Test a new idea for under $100!

Testing

new ideas

Step 2 / 5

Get feedback... ...about your ideas... ...within 24 hours.

How to interpret your test results

Hopefully, you were in luck andhad a good response. However, ifnobody clicked on your ads, thereis a good chance that:

Your market is not ready foryour productYou are marketing to the

wrong people, orYou are marketing with the

wrong message.

In this case try out different word-ings and optimize your messageuntil you nd the level of customerresponse you aspire to.

Once you have reduced all your ideas to a manageable number, it is time totest what they are really worth.

Obviously there are many ways to test a new idea before bringing it to themarket. You can organize live focus groups in different cities or countries and

witness your customers reactions from behind one-way mirrors. Virtuallyyou can do the same in online focus groups with carefully recruited members

who will provide feedback about your concepts within days. You can alsotest market your new ideas locally, do a peer review among colleagues,friends and family, or get feedback from industry experts or friendly presspeople.

If you dont want to wait and seek a cheaper way to test the demand foryour idea (before you make any big investments) use our simple 3-Step rapidtesting method:

Step 1: Create a 1-page micro web site for your product idea. Offer adownloadable free white paper about your innovation, the possibility to signup for additional information or to pre-order your product.

Step 2: Open an advertiser account with one of the top 3 search engines(e.g. Google Adwords) and create a number of inexpensive pay-per-clickads. Your ads should be triggered by keywords which your future customersare most likely to enter if they would search for your product online. Set your

budget at around $100.

Step 3: Wait 24-hours. Then use the tools from your search engine providerto compare the number of times your ad was displayed with the number oftimes it was clicked on or how often something was downloaded from your

website.

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Turn features into benets!

Translating needs

into features andbenets

Step 2 / 6

Include only... ...features that... ...provide clear benefts.

Once you have tested your ideas and found a positive initial re-sponse to your customers needs, you can start translating theminto a product or a service that fullls those needs.

Needs are satised through certain features that your prod-uct has and are perceived by the customer as the benets orvalue of your product. If you discovered more than one need,

start with the most important one. Think about how each needcan be addressed through a feature of your product. Thendescribe the function of your feature and clearly write out howyour customers derive a benet or get a value out of it.

Create a table to crystallize your product idea in your mindand prioritize features, functions and benets.

Here is an example from the Hewlett-Packard Labs:

Smart HP Color LaserJetCustomer Need Feature Function Beneft

HP Color LaserJetcustomer does notwant to run out oftoner during peakprinting times

Smart toner levelmonitor

Analyzes con-con-sumption patternand reorders tonersupplies from theweb before tonerruns out

Worryfreeprinting

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Prospecting

Who are your customers?

3step

When you are a hammer every-thing looks like a nail! (Maslow)

When you have something to sell,everybody should become yourcustomer! Or should they?

Selling a product or service can bea time-consuming affair especial-ly when you try to sell a complexproduct to a large organization.

Thats why its wise to be selectivewhen it comes to choosing yourcustomers. In this third step we

will show you how to select andqualify potential customers, how toapproach and manage them andhow to get an appointment.

Step 3 / 1iStockphoto.com/PhilipSasser

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Selling sounds harder than it is!

Managing yoursales funnel

Closing rate and sales cycleexplained

The difference between the numberof fruitless sales attempts and thenumber of deals you win is calledthe closing rate. The length of timethe process takes for a lead to turninto a real customer is called thesales cycle. Sometimes you mayhave to approach 15 different leadsor more before you make a sale.

Depending on the industry you arein, a sales cycle can last from a fewhours (consumer goods) to years(selling an oil renery.)

Knowing these numbers will helpyou to make a sales forecast andlets you calculate how many salescalls you must make to achieveit. Lets assume you work for 48

weeks per year, your sales cycleis 2 weeks, and every 20th leadturns into a customer. In order to

make 50 sales per year, you needto make 50 * 20 = 1000 sales callsper year or 21 sales calls per weekor 4 calls per day.Use the sales funnel planning toolon the next page to manage yourlead process.

Turn your leads... ...frst into prospects... ...then into customers.

Step 3 / 2

x

x

x

x

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Visualize for a moment that your sales process looks like a big funnel.Imagine that you can feed an unlimited amount of potential custom-ers, or leads into the funnel mouth on the top.

Once they are inside your funnel, you begin listening to them and at-tempt to understand what their needs are.

This is part of the sales process and is often called prospecting.During these conversations you verify if they:

have an urgent need that your company can satisfyhave set aside a budget they are willing to spendare generally interested in doing business with you

Only after you have found satisfactory answers to thesequestions, people qualify to become possible future customers orsales targets of yours.

During the sales call and conversations that follow, you offer, orpropose your products and services. You will nd that not all ofyour targets end up buying from you, but some of them will.

These exit your funnel as customers.


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Step 3 / 3

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2. ProspectFind out if your leads are good prospects:

Date planned / completedReview Website_________________ _________Project sense of urgency___________________

Face to face meeting______________________Verify a possible t_______________________

3. QualifyGood qualication criteria for future customers:

Date planned / completedRequirements known______________________Funding is available______________________Decision maker(s) identied________________Inuencers identied______________________Credit check passed______________________ 4. Propose

Important steps during the selling process:Date planned / completed

Demo conducted__________________________________Inuencers won over_______________________________Pricing calculated_________________________________

Proposal submitted________________________________Objections addressed______________________________Follow up meetings conducted_______________________

5. CloseYou know you have succeeded when the following

points are checked off:Date planned / completed

Open issues satised______________________Order received & booked__________________Delivery completed_______________________Testimonial for web site received_____________Payment received_________________________

Always keep your funnel full!

Friends, relatives, insurance agents, real estate peopleDentists, accountants, business associationsConference and workshop attendees

Annual top lists from the local chamber of commerce

Member lists of industry associationsCompanies where you are a customerCompanies you have worked for in the pastCompetitors/suppliers you have worked withSocial networks (e.g. LinkedIn.com, Xing.com)Business contacts and lead web sites (e.g. Jigsaw.com)List brokers, white pages and other directories

1. Get LeadsCheck these sources to nd leads:

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Nothing happens unless you meet with someone in person.

Gettingan appointment

7 + 1 Ways to sell more

1. Prospect every day

2. Make more calls3. Get through more often4. Get more appointments5. Close more sales6. Get more dollars per sale7. Make ONE more call at the end

of the dayand

8. Make it a goal to get to 100Nos! Why?Not every sales call will lead to a

sale, but imagine for a momentthat for every ve sales calls youmake, you earn four Nos! andone Yes! By the time you havereached your hundredth No!you will also have achieved 20 ad-ditional sales!

Pick up the phone... ...make an appointment... ...meet with your prospect.

Step 3 / 4

Dont you love the promise of your web site as an automated salesmachine?

You would never have to pick up the phone again to make anothersales call. Instead, customers will ock to your web site where they willengage with your carefully crafted web experience, get all the infor-mation they need, convince themselves that you are the right companyto do business with, and click the order button whenever they areready to buy. Right? Right!

Unfortunately this promise remains unfullled for most of us! Manycustomers with a need for your product will never nd you. And if theydid, they still wouldnt buy from you because they dont know or trustyou.Well, how can I get the sale then? you may ask.

The answer is simple: Pick up the phone, make an appointment andmeet with your prospect in person.

A 20 minute face-to-face conversation can replace months of cus-tomer research, weeks of programming your web site and days ofe-mailing and online prospecting. Not only will you learn about theneeds of your prospective customer rst hand, but you will also get achance to ask clarifying questions on the spot.

And, most importantly, you will be able to make a connection on ahuman level and leave a lasting impression.

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Selling is a numbers game!

Sales callmechanics

5 Steps to the perfect sales call

Selling is a numbers game. Notevery call will be successful but:

The more calls you make... The more appointments you will

get... The more sales you will make!

Here are ve steps to make theperfect sales call

1. Get the persons attention2. Identify yourself & your company3. Give a reason for your call

4. Make a qualifying /questioningstatement

5. Set appointment

The more calls you make... ...the more... ...success you will have.

Step 3 / 5

Dealing with the fear of rejection is the hardest part

of making a call. But it really depends on your mind

set: you have no reason to feel bad about offering avaluable service that saves your prospect money or

time.

Use the phone to get an appointment in person.

Dont try to make a sale on the phone.

You will feel less rushed and more condent during aface-to-face meeting.

We suggest writing an initial contact script before

you make your rst call.

Even then, dont stick with it if its easier to go withthe ow.

Good morning Mr./Mrs. (name), this is (your

name) from (your company).

We are a (describe what your company does)

company right here in (name of the city if the same

as your prospect - creates a local connection.)

The reason I am calling you today is to set an

appointment (1 in 12 will do so, just because you

asked!) so I can stop by and tell you how you can(insert your value proposition here, e.g. increase

your sales.)

Our meeting should not take more than 30 min-

utes. We have just completed a project with (insert

name of another local company you have workedwith. Await positive response.)

Thats great Mr./Mrs. (name) - lets get together!

How is Tuesday at 3:00?

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Selling is mostly about listening, not talking!

Succeeding atyour rst appointment

What to do after the appointment?

Send a thank you note (traditionalpostal mail may be better thane-mail depending on your pros-pect) and follow up your visit withanswers to all open questions fromyour meeting.

Use the time between your rstand your second appointment tolearn your customers business, thensubmit a written sales proposal thataddresses your customers painpoints.

Use an agenda... ...to structure your... ...frst meeting.

Step 3 / 6

Dear(insertname)Ilookforwardtoseeingyouon(insertdate)

inyourofceat(insertplace.)Inorderto

prepareforour30-minutemeetingIwould

liketoproposethefollowingagenda:

AgendaProposal(YourcustomerscompanynameLocation,Date,Time)(Yourcustomerscompany)Growthgoals(5Minutes) Pastsuccesses(5Minutes)Currentchallenges(10Minutes)

Overviewof(yourcompanies)capabilities(5Minutes)Nextsteps(5Minutes)

Use your rst appointment to ask questions about yourprospects needs.

Send a meeting agenda ahead of time. It could looklike the one right here:

Important: Put the overview of your company on the

agenda last. This gives you a chance to listen to yourcustomers needs rst.

Resist the temptation to talk too much about you oryour companys products.

Selling is mostly about listening, not talking.

Before you start the meeting thank your cus-tomer for his or her time. Bring a copy of youragenda and ask if anything should be addedor changed. Conrm that you have about 30minutes time and then follow the agenda andlisten, listen, listen. Qualify and understandyour customers pain points immediately.

Arrange for a follow-up meeting to come back, rightthen and there.

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Budgeting

What are your marketing mix opportunities?

4step

Step4 / 1

If you have set aside a marketingbudget, how should you allocateand spend your money?

Do customers beat a path to yourdoor, or, like most businesses, doyou still need to create awarenessfor your products and services?If so, you have more choices thanever. As an overwhelming numberof new online promotion tools (ex-amples are afliate marketing, click-able video ads, and paid search)joined the traditional promotionalmix of yers, Yellow Pages, tradeshows, magazine ads and TV

advertising, the key questions are:What works, and what doesnt?and Which medium gives me thebest customer response for the in-

vestment? Dont take chances andgamble your money away learn

what works on the following pages.

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http://www.hp.com/go/marketingebookhttp://findsearch/http://www.hp.com/go/marketingebook/recommendhttp://print/


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Choose the tool that creates the best response.

Selectingpromotion tools

As a small business on a limited market-ing communications budget, you will want toknow if your money is well spent or not.Thats why the Direct Marketing Associationof America (DMA) and other organizationsfrequently measures response rates ofcustomers for popular media channels.

Depending on your marketing objec-

tive, different channels offer differenttypes of exposure and responses, at a

wide range of costs.

Here are the most common ones, along withtheir customer response rates.

1) Generating leadsIf you want your prospects torequest additional informationregarding your advertised productor service, consider:

producing a TV infomercialmarketing over the phone orsending out direct mail ore-mail

2) Building trafcIf you are interested in increasingtrafc to your web site, store, orrestaurant, send out a catalog viamail. In addition, optimize your

web pages for search engines. Wecover this subject in chapter 6.

3) Getting a direct orderIf you hope to get an order directlyin response to your activity, youmay want to focus on high responsetools such as the telephone, cata-logs or afliate marketing channels(e.g. CJ.com) which sell your prod-ucts on a pay-per-order basis.

Spend your... ...money... ...wisely.

Step4 / 2

1) Generating leads 2) Building trafc 3) Getting a direct order

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2007/2008 Data from Cendesic, DMA, and others

Response Rate in %

TV Infomercial 16.08%

Telephone 8.25%

E-Mail 3.25%

Mail 2.30%

Newspaper 0.26%

Magazine 0.07%

Radio 0.01%

Response Rate in %

Catalogs 9.64%

Search SEOM 6.30%

Telephone 4.64%

Radio 3.36%

E-Mail 1.54%

Newspaper 0.13%

Mail 4.60%

Response Rate in %

Telephone 6.41%

Catalogs 3.24%

Afliate Mktg. 3.10%

E-Mail 2.07%

Magazine 0.27

TV Infomercial 0.22%

Mail 2.20%


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e-Communication tools can be measured easily.

Understandingthe effectiveness of thee-communications playing eldThe e-communications universe continues to expand rapidly, with new busi-ness models invented and tested every day. Some new channels are mostlyhype with no proven value, but some of them are highly effective.

How can you judge which ones are worth a try?

Look at the growth and nancial health of the companies behind these ser-vices to nd out which ones attract the most advertising dollars and grow the

fastest. These businesses are usually the ones that work well, at least for sometime. As of early 2008, e-newsletters, microsites, organic search, consumergenerated content, blogs, and afliate marketing yielded good results forsmall and medium sized businesses.

Before you spend money in anychannel ask yourself: What is mygoal?

Do I want to:

Generate Leads? Build Trafc?

Increase orders and sales? Increase recall and awareness? Improve my brand image?

Stay focused, understand the behav-ior of your customer segment andchoose your channel based on yourobjective.

Step4 / 3

Experiment with thenew tools...

...but pull the plug...

...if they dont work!

Maxium Hype

Proven Value

Minimum Hype

Unproven Value

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Measure everything you do!

MeasuringMarketing EffectivenessThe broad playing eld of Marketing spans all kinds of activities. It ranges from understanding customerneeds to setting a price and then selecting distribution channels all the way to promoting your product orservice. But it has a scientic component too: measuring the effectiveness of your activities. Only if you measureand understand what works can you optimize your budget expenditure over time. Here are four examples:

1. A/B Test:Write two different versions of your e-mail or direct mail copy and send each of them to a smallsample of your prospects. Test different subject lines, calls to action, or where you place your special offers onthe page. Measure the return and send the one that received the better response to the rest of your targets.2. Track: Use web analyzer software to measure the path your visitorstake through your site to see if they even reach the important areasor if they abandon your site too early. If you get a lot of trafc toyour home page but a low conversion to orders (order conver-sion rate), investigate and make changes.

3. Compare: Use Compete.com or Alexa.com to measure webtrafc of your competitors versus your own. Its not an exactscience, but still a very good indicator. You can also look forspikes in their trafc charts to analyze which marketing activi-ties worked well for them and learn from them.4. Measure: Set conversion goals for all your activities. For

example, count the number of calls you make to prospects andthe number of appointments you get as a result. Increase the ratioover time by experimenting and optimizing your conversation with yourcustomers. For direct mail activities create response postcards and count howmany you receive back. For your search engine campaigns (Chapter 6), createspecial landing pages and track your hits. Dont send your visitors to your regularhome page where you cant track your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign effects.

What is your call to action?

For every marketing activity, thinkabout what your customers are sup-posed to dowhen they receive yourmessage. While you could measure

what they think through a survey,its much easier to measure whatthey do by giving them a task andobserving their behavior.

Here are some examples:

For a direct mail: include a

response card they can sendback to youFor your web site: have themsign up for your newsletterFor your ad: have them go toa special web landing page onyour web site or give them aspecial number to call

Step4 / 4

Measuring is... ...an essential part of... ...marketing.

ABCs

of

Marketing

Metrics

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What do you stand for?

step

Young man, make your nameworth something.

(Andrew Carnegie)

Should you try to build up abrand yourself?Or is brand-building a luxury

only multinational corporationscan afford?How can you create a brandthat helps you sell more?

Use our worksheets in this chapterto develop your brand and manageyour brand ecosystem.

Step 5 / 1

Branding

5

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A good brand will get your calls returned!

Creating a brandBrand building is only for bigcompanies.O True O False

False! Brand building is actuallyimportant for everyone.

Individuals, along with small andlarge companies all compete forthe attention of prospects in a seaof rivals.

The goal of branding is that poten-tial customers immediately connectyour name with the value you willdeliver for them.

If you brand yourself successfully,(Me, Inc.), your e-mails get readand your phone calls get returned.If you brand your company success-fully, you will get more new businessand repeat business.

For a good example of success-ful small business branding lookat Starbucks Coffee. In 1971 theystarted with one store, one name,one logo, great service and great

coffee, and grew to 6,000 locationsin 30 countries.

It will take some time before yourbrand or reputation will be built upand fully developed. Have patience,but work on it every day.

What does... ...your brand... ...stand for?

Step 5 / 2

The idea of branding a product with the name of a manufacturerwas originally created by soap makers in the late 19th century.It was a promise to convince prospective buyers that a product madeout of town can be just as good as a locally made product.

Just like today, the objective was to instill trust in a non-local productand convince buyers to choose it over the alternative. As long as themanufacturers backed up and reinforced this promise with a goodproduct, the brand gained value.

It also simplied and accelerated the shopping experience for buyersbecause they could stop comparing the details of different productalternatives every time they needed to stock up.

More than a century later, not much is different. Counter to the opin-ion of many design companies, your brand is not just a combinationof a snazzy logo and a tag line with a million dollar budget to get themessage out.

The value of your brand exists only in the minds of your customersand is determined by how well you interacted with them in the past,how well your product or service works and how recommendable you

are.

When your customers make a purchase decision, brand weighs inas one of many factors and will even win the deal in your favor. Thischapter explores what you should consider as you build up yourbrand.

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It takes time to grow your brand - start today...

Growing yourBrand

Write down the one or two things you want towork on each month to grow your brand.

Growing your Brand

There are only a few factors you cancontrol when it comes to how yourcustomers perceive your brand:

1. Brand Identifers:What arethe visible representations of yourbrand? Logo, fonts, colors, e-mail

signature, trademarks, slogans,packaging, web site, proposals,uniforms?

2. Experiential Customer Touch-points: How can you optimize theexperience your customers have

when they interact with your brand?Does the look and feel of your e-mail messages and your voice mail,the make-up of your sales team, thebehavior of your customer support,along with the return and repairpolicies affect your success?

3. Brand Visibility:Are your cus-tomers in contact with your brandevery day? Do you get quoted inthe press? Do you appear favorablyin shopping reviews, blogs and onsocial networking sites? Do youadvertise?

4. Company Identity and Personal-ity:Whats your company knownfor? How do you conduct yourbusiness? Are you known for highethical standards?

5. Brand Detractors: Many thingscan ruin a good brand. Be pre-pared, if necessary, to neutralizenegative events: Are you in anunpopular business category? Howdo you manage negative word-of-mouth? Do you pay your vendors ontime? Do you take personal respon-sibility for your actions quickly?

Some branding factors... ...you can... ...control directly.

Step 5 / 3

1.Brand Identiers

To Do:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------

2.

ExperientialCustomer Touchpoints

To Do:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------

3.

Brand Visibility

To Do:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------

4.

CompanyIdentity

To Do:------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------

5.Brand

Detractors

To Do:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------

Your brandgrowth factors

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Grow & feed the connections between your Brand Ecosystem.

Managing yourBrand Ecosystem

Whats driving your Brand Ecosys-tem?

Because your brand exists mainlyin the minds of people, there is onlya limited amount of money youcan spend on brand materials andadvertising to promote and buildyour brand itself. Your brand existsin an ecosystem of thoughts andideas. The strength of your brandis proportional to the strength of itsconnections within the ecosystem.This makes the connections betweenyou and your stakeholders impor-

tant drivers for your brand.

So, who are the stakeholders andwhat can you do?

The easy answer: Everybody who istouched by your brand is a possiblestakeholder: customers, non-cus-tomers, enthusiasts, partners, mediarepresentatives, competitors and soforth. No marketing communica-tion budget in the world is going

to change what they think aboutyou. Instead, focus on managingthe connections. Spend time andmoney talking to them. Develop areal interest, get to know them, ndout what moves them and then givethem what they need.

The only thing youcan control...

...in your brandecosystem are the...

..connections betweenthe stakeholders.

Step 5 / 4

1.

My

BrandIts

elf

2.

MyCustomers

3.

My

Po

tenti

al

Cust

om

ers

4.

MyLea

dUsers

5. M

y P

a r t n e r s

6.

MyComplimentors(Enhancers)

7.

MyE

nth

usiasts

En

thusiasts

8.

MyMedia

Infuencers

9.

MyCompetitors

Your Brand Ecosystem

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Where are your customers looking for you?

step

If you build it, they will come(Terence Mann, Field of Dreams)

Or do they? What does your website do for your business?

Remember the feeling of excitementwhen your web site went live for therst time?

Suddenly, every person around theworld could see what you had tooffer. Viewers were able to engageyour business in seconds, turningyour company into the overnightsuccess everyone talks about!

We truly hope that your dreamshave become reality!

Just in case those dreams have notcome to fruition and you sit therelike the rest of us and scratch yourhead wondering where you mighthave dropped the ball, dont worry.Read on.

Step 6 / 1

Being found

6

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Home pages are not as important as they used to be

The new rulesof the web

Search is now... ..the starting point of.. ...most web activities.

Step 6 / 2

Search engines like Google or Yahoo have signicantly changed theway we use the web. Ten years ago, users browsed web sites inthe hope of nding something interesting, going from link to link andpage to page, almost similar to reading a book.

Fast forward to 2008 and you will notice that web behavior has be-come more intentional and goal driven.

After all, who has the time to literally browse billions of pages? Today,most of us use the web to:

Get a job done Answer a question Satisfy a goal, or Learn how to do something

Using search engines to nd needed information, we glance at aresulting page for a few seconds, grab what seems useful to us, andgo away. If you are a site owner this new behavior creates a problem,because most people will never see your home page and learn aboutall the other nice things you have to offer.

Nor will they click on your ads or give you their personal details sothat you can make a follow-up call. This leaves you with two chal-lenges:

1. How can you generate enough trafc to your site?2. How can you turn y-by-night visitors who just want to grab and

go into customers who want to do business with you?

Visits Pre -SearchHome page

Products

About us

Company

Careers

Back then: Visitors enter your sitethrough your home page

Unfortunately, most web sites arestill built to accommodate the pre-search world, hierarchical, with acontent rich home page at the topthat links to a large number of subpages.



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Paid search, organic optimization or both? The choice is yours!

Getting searchtrafc to your web site

Organic optimization... ...saves money... ...in the long run.

Step 6 / 3

Its a fact: More than 70% of all web activities start on a search en-gine. If potential customers enter search terms related to your productsand services, you want to make sure your web site address will belisted among the top ve on the results page.

One option to help achieve this goal is to pay a search enginefor keywords related to your business. As a result, the engine willdisplay your ad in the paid section of the results display and chargeyour credit card according to the amount of money you bid for thiskeyword every time a user clicks on it. Plan on spending between 5cents and up to $100 per click depending on the competition for yourkeywords ($100 words are highly competitive and can be protable,e.g. renance or insurance.) If you have a large budget and want tosee immediate results this is the way to go.

Optimizing and making changes to your web pages so that searchengines pick them up more easily is another option. This is calledorganic Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) in which you donthave to pay for clicks at all. Organic listings enjoy a much highercredibility than paid listings, even though some users dont know thedifference. It takes time, patience and experimentation to achieve a

high ranking organic listing. All it takes is money to get a paid list-ing. Do both if you can afford it.

On the following pages you will rst learn a few tricks about how tomake your web site ndable by search engines in order to get moretrafc. Then we will show you how to morph each page of your siteinto a landing page that converts visitors into customers.

Visits Post -SearchHome page

Product

About us

Company

Careers

Today: Visitors enter your sitesideways, grab what they needand go away

Currently, search engines areattening hierarchical web sitesand are allowing more and more

visitors to enter a web site sidewaysthrough direct and deep links.


Org

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Create your focused key word universe today!

11 Ways tosearch optimize your pagesfor free

Key word picking is... ...half science...half science...science... ...half arthalf artart

Step 6 / 4

Search engines change their algorithms often, so there is no singlebest way to optimize your site, but the following hints will get youstarted:

First: Research and create your own special Key word UniversePut yourself into your customers shoes. Brainstorm which key wordsthey would enter into a search box to nd a product or service like

yours. Use free tools such as Overture or Wordtracker to learn howoften these terms are actually searched for every day. Next, pick highscoring terms and enter them into a search engine yourself. Find out

who competes for the same key words. Analyze their ads and organicsearch results. Find 20-30 word variations and combinations that areequally popular but not as often used by your competitors and writethem on a sheet of paper for later use in your body copy.

Then: Implement1. The more focused a page is written, the more highly it will beranked. Pick 1 or 2 key words for each page and repeat each key

word 3-5 times per page . Next, create key word rich headlines andsub headlines and tag them as H1 and H2 text in the HTML code.

Put your key words into page titles, links, meta tags, image tags, andbody copy.

2. Give your pages relevant page title tags and include your keywords: 54321-yxqzuaw.html is not nearly as effective asLaserJet-Printers.html. Search engines ignore hyphens and pay spe-cial attention to key words in URLs.

Should you pay for search or not?

Lets look at the downsides of pay-ing for a search listing placement.

#1 Fractional customer interest:

As many as 96% of all customersignore sponsored ads. Those whoare interested may not be your most

valuable future customers.#2 Click fraud: Industry analystsestimate that up to 30% of all clickson paid links are fraudulent clicksfrom criminals or competitors whoget paid by draining your daily adbudget.#3 Rising Costs: The average costper click has risen from $0.03 to$0.60 in 5 years, and will continue

to rise. At the same time the conver-sion rates are falling.

When should you pay for keywords?

Because search engines get such alarge number of hits, even a smalltrickle of trafc generated from paidlinks can funnel a large number ofadditional customers to you. Pay perclick (PPC) advertising provides

a quick x and instant gratication- for a price! Every time a customerclicks on your link you have to pay

whether it leads to a sale or not. Butif you are in a hurry to get trafcto your site it may be worth theinvestment.



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Increase your messaging footprint!

11 Ways...(continued)

Search engines will... ...pick up your traces......where ever you leave

them.

Step 6 / 5

3. Create key word rich and added value documents, like Top 10Lists or How-to guides and give them away for free on your site.

Add an e-book, a Power Point presentation, a PDF or a Word docu-ment to your site. This will increase your site ranking because moreindexable and searchable content is available.

4. Pay attention to word order. If you want to target the phrase bigred widgets, use that exact phrase rather than red widgets that arebig.

5. Put special emphasis on the top of your pages, with the under-standing that search engine robots or spiders will do the same.6. Make sure to use ash animations sparingly; stay text based be-cause search engines are best at indexing text.

7. Use a relevant domain name that includes your key word if pos-sible.

8. Update your pages frequently. Frequently updated pages get visitedmore often. If thats too complicated, install a Blog system that you canupdate through a regular browser yourself.

9. Develop a text link to a site map from your home page, so thatsearch engine spiders can crawl from link to link and discover andindex all your pages. Submit your site to search engines directly so

they crawl them faster. Make sure not to rely on fancy java buttonsfor navigation, because search engines cant recognize them as linksmost times.

10. Measure and analyze your trafc frequently and make changesas necessary. Have patience: it can take months for your redesign totake effect.

And, the 11th way to get trafc:The Hnsel and Gretel Strategy

Be resourceful and leave a trail ofbread crumbs (or hooks) leading toyour web site around the web andcreate links back in.

Post meaningful comments onheavily frequented web sites likeCraigslist, Google Maps, Amazon,Del.icio.us, Digg, and others mak-ing sure to include your signatureand web address where allowed.

Create podcasts and videos of yourproducts and services and postthem on music and video sites. Tagthem with appropriate key words.

Also, submit your site to DMOZ.organd as many specialty directoriesas you can nd. This will help thespiders nd you and will createsome relevant inbound links. Usethese methods to enlarge yourmessaging footprint!

ADDYO

URCONTENTTO

:

YourWebsiteTagsDiggs

Wikis Blogs Communi-

tiesForumsFilesharingRSS

Podcastse-booksPower-

PointsLandingPages

E-Newsletters

Video-BlogsPDFs

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Great landing pages sell more!

Convertingvisitors to customers on your landing page

Forget Home Pages... ...instead think of... Landing Pages

Step 6 / 6

Search engines, ads, links from other web sites, and traditional marketing ac-tivities can send visitors to your web site, but how do you get them to convert,and make them do what you want them to do? Typical bounce rates of 80%or more indicates that 80% of unique visitors come and go to and from yourhome page without ever getting deeper into the site. What to do?

1. Set up dedicated landing pages: The biggest mistake would be tosimply send visitors to your home page and let them gure out what they aresupposed to do there by themselves. It is likely that they will bail after 8 secondsor less, especially if your page does not look easy or isnt relevant to theirsearch. Instead, create different landing pages for different audiences depend-

ing on the context in which they are coming from. If you run a law practice andspecialize in car injury cases and you purchase a text ad that says Injured ina car accident? 1-Click, no call thats all! it would be wise to link the text toa landing page that shows a car wreck and a headline that echoes the samesearch words used during search by your visitor.

2. Dene a conversion objective: Dene a single action you want your visi-tors to take when they come to your landing page. Only then can you measureif its successful or not. This action could be making a purchase, downloadinga white paper, submitting a sales lead, or subscribing to a newsletter. If you get1000 visitors to an order page and 5 people buy, you have a conversion rateof 0. 5%. Swap individual page elements such as headlines, images, or buttonsaround to optimize your site until you achieve the conversion rate you want.Special software can automate and measure different variations for you.

3. Create a single call to action and present it at the start and desti-nation point: Remove links and images that interrupt the forward momentumin the ow of a page. Guide the page towards the conversion goal. Use singlecolumn, top to bottom action ows. Provide a short and easy path for the visitorto get the job done. Finally, fulll your promise: Ask your visitor to click and buysomething, then deliver on your promise every time in order to build trust.

Bonus: Three more tips to optimizeyour landing page

1. Look for possible points ofcustomer anxiety and remove them,e.g. long terms and conditions insmall print. Add a trust mark orguarantee stamp instead or provide3rd party credibility through testi-monials.

2. Remove unnecessary naviga-tion elements. Dont give visitorsan excuse to bail by offering toomany choices. If you do, make themsimple and keep them in the samecategory. For example, if you sellinformation, offer a subscribe for3-months, 6-months or 12-monthsbutton but not a subscribe versusa learn more button, which wouldinterrupt the conversion (and sales!)process.

3. Say Thank you after consum-ers have completed the conversionand offer additional gifts or productadd-ons to deepen the relationship.

After they convert, customers aremore ready to continue to engage

with you.



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Promoting

Which tools will create the biggest awareness for you?

7step

Step 7 / 1

How can you create some buzz?

Being ndable (Step 6) is important,but not always sufcient to driveenough customers to your business.

This in turn makes actively promot-

ing your business an important steptowards your future success.

We will rst look at some free waysto gain attention and then help youcreate a direct marketing cam-paign.

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Low budget can still be high impact!

Marketing forfreeEven if you have no dedicated marketing budget available, you can still market your business andspread your message in a number of ways. All you need is some time. Here are some examples:

1. Convince a journalist to write about youBeing covered in an article or news story in the media gives you more credibility than buying anad. To arouse media interest your story needs to be newsworthy, locally relevant, and timely. Everyday, journalists get hundreds of self-serving press releases they dont care about. What they arereally interested in are human interest stories because their audience likes them too.Think like a reporter before you pitch a story idea and learn the journalistsstyle and preferences. Develop a relationship with them. Budget your time

wisely here as well: It may take months to get coverage on TV, a daily

newspaper or a monthly magazine. Although a TV appearance lastsonly for seconds and a newspaper article for a day, a magazine articlemay be available for months.

2. Write an ebook or create a special reportPackage your special expertise into an ebook or a special reportand give it away for free or in exchange for an e-mail address ora customer visit. Post it on your web site to increase your ndabil-ity. Create your own conversation pieces. Writing a real bookcan be fun too if you have the time and dedication it takes to ndand work with a publisher. Count on at least one year from startto nish.

3. Start a blogUse free blogging software and write about your special eld. Updateit frequently, leave comments on other blogs and link your blog toothers through track backs. Be as authentic as possible and dont boreyour readers to death with sanitized messages.

Step 7 / 2

The most effective... ...advertising... ...comes for free.

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Example of a low cost promotionactivity found on a phone at theDenver airport


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Be interesting!

Marketing forfree (continued)4. Create a newsworthy eventHow can you get local television, radio, andpress to cover your business for free, especially

when your business is not really in a spec-tacular category that lends itself to be writtenup all the time?

The answer: create a newsworthy eventby yourself and invite the media to come.Because most media is highly networked andhappens to be owned by a few large compa -

nies, there is a good chance that interestingevents travel further than you expect. Hereare a few ideas to get you started: create anaward, start a contest, do a grand opening,create a survey, start a fund raising event, con-nect with a current event, or offer your product asa prize on the radio.

5. Use big trafc sites to your favorInstead of trying to get people to your web site - which is an increas-ingly difcult task go where people already are and engage with themthere: create and moderate online groups or post your comments.

Important: Always include your e-mail signature with your web site information,blog address and slogan where permitted. Dont spam but contribute and add value.For example, a small book review of a book related to your specialty on Amazon can ex-pose thousands of readers to your expertise - and web address! Social networking and businesscommunity sites like Facebook, Xing, or others provide plenty of posting opportunities. So do letters to theeditor of your local or national newspapers.

Step 7 / 3

Make... ...yourself... ...newsworthy!

Market locally or nationally?

When choosing your promotionalactivities, think about where most of

your target customers are located.

If your business is mostly local,consider; Craigslist, Angies List,local radio, local TV, local news-paper ads, Yellow Page ads, postcards, yers, billboards, localsponsorships, advertising on cars,local chamber of commerce, localbusiness development clubs andassociations, and word of mouthactivities.

If your business is national orinternational, consider; Paid adson search engines, direct mail ande-mail campaigns, and joining na-tional associations and internationalprocurement platforms.

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Keep your letter personal!

Creating adirect mail campaign

Step 7 / 4

Direct mail... ...still performs... ...well!

Cross media marketing increasesthe effectiveness of your campaign

Combine your direct marketingcampaign with activities in otherchannels to increase your responserates. Precede your direct mail witha local radio ad, or launch a directmail campaign after a favorablenewspaper coverage to increase thefrequency with which your cus-tomers are exposed to your name.

If you mail out catalogs, e-mailingto the same list one to two weeksahead of time can increase yourresponse rates by up to 30%. If youhave a web-only business and cus-tomers register on your site, surprisethem by mailing out a nice postcard

with a special offer afterwards toprove that you are real.

Does it still make sense to invest in sending postal mail in the age of email?Many companies think so. In a recent U.S. survey, planned direct mailspending for 2008 was raised sharply, compared to SEO/SEM and emailspending. Think about it, most people still like to get and open real mail,especially compared to managing an overowing email inbox. Neverthe -less, a good mailing can cost as much as $1.50 or more per person, so youshould make sure to make the most of it. Here are the 7 things you need toget started:

1. The customer list:This is the most important piece. Customers like to getmail from people they already know. Build your own customer list over timeand get permission from your customers to send them mail. Buying highlytargeted lists from specialized list brokers is a possibility, but count on alower conversion rate. Select recipients with a common interest and custom-ize your message just for them. Keep your list updated: people move andinterests change. Count on replacing 25% of your list per year.

2. Your offer: Make a clear and compelling offer in your letter one thatyour customers want to react to. Add a little bonus or something specialthat they wouldnt get otherwise. Make responding to your offer worth their

while.

3. Your letter: Direct mail is the most personal type of copyyou can write. Keep your message person-al and use rst personstyle; Use Iinstead of we.Sign your letterpersonally and in ink. In terms of writing,offer the biggest benets rst so yourreader keeps reading.

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Make your letter easy to respond to.

Creating adirect mail campaign (continued)

Step 7 / 5

A nice package... ...complements... ...your offer!

Checklist for the perfect directmailing

The goal of every paragraph is to funnel your customer all the way down toyour call to action. Repeat your offer at the top, in the middle and at thebottom of the letter. Also, add a compelling headline on top and a no riskguarantee at the bottom.

4. Your response mechanism:Add a phone number, a web landing pageURL and a prepaid reply card or envelope to make it easy for your customersto respond.

5. Your package:The job of the envelope is to get opened. Peak the curiosityof your recipients by adding things that rattle or make it thicker. You can also

add a headline or make it look more personal by addressing it by hand andadding a nice, colorful stamp. Add a brochure, a useful mini guide or bookletto explain your offer further. The longer your recipients spend with your mail -ing, the higher the likelihood that they will respond.

6. Your testing insights: Create at least two to three versions with differentoffers and headlines of your mailing and send them out to a small subset ofyour list. Send the one with the most favorable response to the remainder ofyour list. For example, the following three statements convey the same offer,but which one do you think pulled the biggest response in a test mailing?

A) Half price! B) Buy one - get one free! C) 50 percent off!

7. Shipping materials and nice stamps:

Ship your mailingand wait for theresponse.

(Theanswer:B)outperformedA)andC)bymorethan50%)

Create / buy / clean up yourcustom

9 steps to out standing market success

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