Superior marketing tools squeak loudly.   Their whole intent is to make people stop what they are doing, look and listen.   It makes sense that whoever is using marketing tools that make them squeak the loudest is going to be who is going to be heard the most frequently and most likely in the most clear and direct way.

In order to make all of the marketing tools and tips that we have shared with you squeak and become a shout not a mere whisper in your market – you need to understand the influence of and desire to add authoring and coaching as the final tool in your marketing arsenal.

What is an Author?

We all have ideas of who and what an author is and we picture them as recluse people tucked away in some one room cabin somewhere with an old typewriter pecking away.   We see them as artistic people who fill notebook after notebook with wise things.   We view them as intellectuals tapping on their laptops ready to rid the world of ignorance with this one last helpful piece of knowledge and information.

An author is anyone who wants to establish themselves as an authority in their particular field  by writing down the steps, tips, observations, or “secrets” to their success.   In fact, wanting to “write a book” is one of the most common goals of the average person.

To make being an author an effective marketing tool you have to work within your sphere of influence and tie in your writing to your products and services.

You can:

Create a courses relating to your products

Put your methods into a book to help others in your profession

Develop training courses and materials that teach your clients how to use your products

…and much more!

Books You Write, Co-Author or Have Ghostwritten

Being an author does not always mean that you have to do the writing.   In today’s marketplace you can do all of the writing, some of the writing or none of the writing and still have a book to present to your clients and customers and that will help establish you as an authority in your field or profession.

If you do all the writing – then you are developing the book yourself from start to finish and then will most likely hire an editor to complete the final edits of the book and then you will work on getting the book published.

If you do some of the writing – then you are working with one or more additional authors to help create a final work product.   You are co-authoring a book.  While it is not required that you give the authors credit, often it is to your advantage to expand your sphere of influence by including others so that their marketing groups are included into your overall markets.

If you do none of the writing but still have your name on the book then you have had your book “ghost-written”.   This simply means that another person has taken the idea that you have given them, along with some concepts and/or an outline and has fleshed out the thoughts into the material you need for your book and they are doing this for your benefit and not their own.   Usually ghostwriters are hired on a “work for hire” basis which means that they give up all rights to the material they write and in turn you can use their work as your own.

Another alternative that allows you to get the books and workbooks you need is the private label workbook printing and publishing services offered with your membership.   In addition to receiving complete workbooks in perfect bindings that have YOUR NAME as an author on the cover, you have the option of custom printing and binding as well and book promotion and distribution services.

Overnight, you can become a “published author” by utilizing resources that are already in place and ethically available to you for little expense.

Even New York Times Bestselling authors have contracted ghostwriters to write the complete manuscript for them or to share in a “co-author” role (but still write the complete manuscript or a partial manuscript) in order to make better use of their time and resources.   This is how outsourcing is done in the writing industry.

How Do I Get Published?

Basically there are two ways to get a book or workbook published -

Traditional and Self-Publishing.

Traditional publishing is where you or an agent acting on your behalf submits your unique manuscript to a publishing house for the purpose of them publishing and marketing the book for you and giving you a percentage or a royalty interest in the proceeds from the sale of that book.

In traditional publishing the contracts vary substantially as does the potential of what you can earn per book.   The competition is fierce and no matter what the publishing house they want to see three things:

1.  Quality of Writing

2.  An Established Platform and Market of Potential Buyers

3.  Your Unique Knowledge and Expertise

For most people, getting a book published traditionally is not likely and if you do get a contract the delay between the acceptance of your manuscript and the actual release date of your book can be 18 to 24 months or longer!   Most financial business owners want materials in a shorter time frame than that and for them Self Publishing is a better option.

Self-Publishing Basics

Like traditional publishing, self-publishing does require some work but it accomplishes what you want accomplished – of having a book or workbook – in less time than traditional publishing.

There are many types of self-publishers and each self-publisher has their own options for binding, book size, printing packages, marketing packages and more.   Some of the more popular self-publishers are Xulon Press, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, Tate Publishing, Lightning Source, and Book Surge.

Many traditional publishers or major book resellers like Amazon.com have self-publishing for interested authors or a Print On Demand (POD) service available to authors who have registered as their own “publishing company” with an International Standard Book Numbering or ISBN Agency (isbn.org and bowker.com) to acquire ISBN numbers for their books and materials and who want their books, workbooks or other materials published, for a fee.

The expense of self-publishing is typically covered by the author but is a valid business expense if you are creating a book to use in your speaking, advertising or promotion of your products, services or to establish yourself as an authority in your field or profession.

Having a book of your own is a great marketing tool to utilize when you do public speaking, hold seminars or workshops.

Professional Coaching, Seminars and Workshops

A final stage of marketing and becoming an authority on a particular subject or topic in your profession or field is sharing what you know with others in a way that is meant to teach them how to take what you know and incorporate it into their own businesses, products and services and use those tools of yours to expand the potential of their success.

There are three ways to help facilitate this process of transferring your knowledge to others in a way that is highly effective:

1.    Professional Coaching.

2.     Seminars.

3.     Workshops.

Professional Coaching

Professional coaching has been around since the beginning of time it simply was known by a different name – apprenticeships.   In professional coaching you build a direct relationship with another person or business for the purpose of transferring what you know to them.   The relationship in a professional coaching situation is typically one of a mentor to the mentored.   Most of us have had mentors in our life who have passed along beneficial knowledge or skills necessary to our establishing ourselves as leaders or authorities in our own spheres of influence.    Some of our first mentors were our parents or our teachers or college professors.

When we act as professional coaches we are establishing ourselves as a person who has the answers, is successful in our business and is willing to help others.

Most professional coaches in addition to mentoring one-on-one will also hold broader events in which they are passing along general information to others at the same time through seminars or workshops.

Seminars

A seminar can be any event over the course of a specified time or number of days in which experts (you) get together for the purpose of directly teaching a group of differently-talented and skilled individuals how to do a specific task, acquire certain information or utilize certain resources.

For example, as a tax professional, it would be common for you to hold a multiple day seminar to explain some of the tax law changes and how they impact your clients.    Additionally, if you work in the area of credit management or as a loan officer, a great seminar you could facilitate would be about the basics of getting a loan, identifying the key items that prevent a business owner from getting a loan and how to become more “credit-friendly” and a better candidate for a loan.

When you are creating a seminar it is essential to think of

1.     Location -  You want a location that is user-friendly that centrally-based in an area that the people most interested would like to go to and that offers adequate and secure parking.

2.     Space – Like location, you need to hold a seminar in a place that has enough space for all of the attendees.

3.     Cost – if you are charging for your seminar, you need to make the expense market-friendly and reasonable enough for your clients to participate in while at the same time covering the expenses of hosting the seminar.

4.      Topics – Because life is complex, there is no one seminar that can cover every topic related to business in one day.  Focus on specific areas such as taxes, maximizing profits, executive recruiting strategies and staffing solutions, etc.

When marketing and promoting your seminar – treat it as you would any other product.

1.     Advertise effectively and timely.

2.     Target specific audiences.

3.     Promote efficiently using press releases, media outlets and direct mail marketing tools.

When organizing your seminar  – do not do it alone.   Hire a team of qualified people who can help with the organization of location, products/resources on hand, marketing and promotion, development of schedule and topics, and can even schedule additional speakers.

Workshops

Workshops are seminars taken to a hands-on level.   At a seminar, the material that is presented is often structured in a very academic way.  The attendees are “students” while the expert is the teacher.   There is little interaction or dialogue between the attendees and the expert.   In a workshop the concepts of a seminar are still in place but the attendees are encouraged and expected to participate by bringing specific problems and/or questions that the expert, possibly with the help of the other qualified staff members as well as potential involvement of other attendees help to resolve during the course of the workshop.

As a financial professional, you could hold a budget workshop over the course of several weeks or months in which participants could work on learning the fundamentals for household or business budgeting.

An investment manager could hold a workshop on Stocks, Bonds and Investing in which he/she could teach their clients how to understand the stock symbols and better “swim with the sharks” in the stock market.

By utilizing workshops, you pass on the essential knowledge your clients need to make better use of your products or services.   In the investment training example, if a person knows more about how the stock market works – they are more likely to take a vested interest in trading and this is great news for an investment manager as that client will more likely invest more for substantial goals and gains rather than spending that money on other expenditures such as shopping trips, additional vacations and so on.

By teaching your clients baby steps of your business you are securing their dependence on you as you establish yourself as an authority or a mentor in the areas that matter the most to them.

In Summary

Books that you author or have written for your benefit, as well as seminars and workshops are the crowning achievement of your marketing success.   By having a book to sell at the back of the room during your talks you are creating more of a solid foundation for your business and are establishing yourself as an expert.    Seminars and workshops are both useful tools that allow you to convey broad amounts of information in a way that is direct and personal to a group of people at the same time.   Seminars are lecture-based while workshops are hands-on.   In addition to these forums, professional coaching services allow you to show to others that you have reached the highest level possible of your profession and are ready to share what you know with others to facilitate their success.

All of the tools in the marketing arsenal when used step-by-step and method-by-method combine to create the success in your business and professional life that you have always wanted.   Use these tools in a way to is relevant to your financially-based business and watch the growth and development.   While you’re at it – send us an e-mail and let us know about your success.   We love hearing from you and look forward to seeing you as excited about your business as we are.

In general, public relations is anything you do to establish a relationship and connection with your market or current or potential clients and customers.  Specifically, it is the actions of you promoting your products and services by utilizing specific method and means such as writing articles, submitting press release and speaking in public to facilitate awareness and interest in you, your products and your services.

Writing Articles

As discussed in further detail in Chapter 7, Using a Client Newsletter, writing articles is a great way to get your message out and make clients and potential clients aware of what you offer or will offer for their benefit.   If you never tell people what you offer or what you are going to offer, how will they know?

The odds are very slim that a client or a potential client is going to walk into our office and say “Hey, I am thinking that you might be thinking of offering a new way of keeping my business accounting on track. Can you tell me more about what I think you are thinking about?”

In most cases, we would not even know what they were thinking about what we are thinking because we had not been thinking at all because had we been thinking we would have been talking or writing and getting the word out about or products or services.

Writing articles and reading an article should require a small dedication of time.   Preferably the articles you offer to the public are small (around 1,200 words) and that can be read in 15 minutes or less.   As we mentioned in Chapter 7, it may not take you 15 minutes to write the article, or you may have someone else writing a specific topic article for you or you could even utilize one of services that we offer that provide already-written professional level articles for you that are personalized with your name on them to promote.

The shape of your article should center on the need of your client as it relates to your product or service, the specifics of your product or service and how a potential client can get in touch with you.  Your article at this point will target a specific market generating a buzz or a marketing sensation that will carry clients to your door with questions or that are following your lead and looking to you for answers.

Press Releases

We all have seen press releases and know about them but we may just not realize we know what we know.   A press release is something that basically says “stop life as usual and say something about this”.   When watching the evening news, we are in essence watching a series of press releases.

When our favorite television show is preempted for a breaking story – that is a press release.   When we read a book review or a movie review in a magazine, we are reading a form of  a press release.

A press release is information that is provided to the media (television, newspapers, periodical publications, etc.) for  the specific purpose of providing information to the general population.

A press release allows those in a place and a position to share with others the details of our new products or services the opportunity to know more about our products and services.    Our local news organizations don’t just KNOW about a national story, they actually receive a press release coming across the “wire” through fax machines or e-mail to tell them about breaking news or they are forwarded this information from a source that wants them to share this item of interest with others.

What a Press Release Looks Like

Press releases have a certain format that is uniform across the board.   The structure is the same no matter if you are relaying that a staff member has achieved a special award or recognition, you are now “open for business” or that you are introducing a revolutionary product or service.

Every press release should contain the following:

The Source

Published Date

The Words “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”

A Headline

A Dateline

The Lead Paragraph

The Body

A Company Interest Summary

Contact Information

The Source

Because you are using a press release to establish a legitimate promotion of a product or service and not as a “stealth marketing” technique to mislead – you want to include the source.   A source could be your name, the name of your publicist (in-house or hired for that purpose), or your company.

Published Date

This is the date that you are releasing your press release.

The Words “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”

The best use of a press release is to provide information on a product, service, or business that can be promoted immediately.   If you are not entirely ready to go on a product, service or business, it may be wise to delay your press release date so that the interest that will be generated will have a place to direct immediately and also your press release will not sent in a folder or on a desk and run the risk of being lost or forgotten.

A Headline

This is a summary sentence that provides the key details about what the press release is about.

A Dateline

This is the city, state and the issue date of when you are mailing your release.

The Lead Paragraph

This is your introductory paragraph that is meant to grasp the readers’ attention and convey the most essential information first in an interesting style.   It is important to answer Who, What, When, Where, Why while hooking your audience making them want to read more.

The Body

This is where you present your most important information first.   By outlining the key details and then expanding on those with less essential information you are generating the details and awareness about your products and services that you desire for your readers to have and to know.

A Company Interest Summary

At this point, you would provide a brief company biography about who you are, what you do and what some of your products and services are as well as how long you have been in business, if appropriate.

Contact Information

As this section implies you will provide your name and methods that people can get in touch with you via phone, fax, mail,  or e-mail.

When creating a press release it is essential that you include each point so as to increase the effectiveness of this marketing tool.   A media organization uses this information to get a quick picture of what you are trying to say and this short one-page press release can open more doors for you if done correctly and in a timely manner than what you thought possible.  In order to facilitate this, we offer an automated press release service that gets your message out to the target media with less hassle to you.   You can contact us to find out more about this service and how we can help you in this area.

Additionally, a great way to get your message out is public speaking.

Public Speaking

Right up there with snakes, spiders and dying, public speaking is one of mankind’s greatest fears.  In business and especially when building your marketing arsenal the only thing you have to fear is what will happen if you do not do it.

Public speaking establishes the value of your voice.   It is what allows your message of what you, your products and services and your business is about to be heard.    People cannot hear what you are saying if you are not talking and by creating a platform in which you talk about your products, services and your business – you will generate interest for the same.

What Do You Talk About

When speaking in public, it is important that you define what it is you should talk about.   It is impossible outside of a multi-day seminar to talk about all the essential details of you, your business and your products or services, so for the sake of time and not boring your audience to tears – you must pick something specific to talk about.

Some things you could talk about are:

A new product

A new service

An established product that is your “trade” foundation

An established service that has helped to make you a household name

Where Do You Talk

In the previous chapters when we discussed networking and how to build the foundation for your business we recommended that you work with other professionals and people of influence in a variety of settings.   It is in these settings such as group meetings, breakfast clubs or special events by specific organizations that you would be a featured speaker giving a 15-, 20- or 30 minute talk on a selected topic.  You can also register yourself with a speaker’s bureau that can work with you to contract speaking engagements in which you can present your material.

When Do You Talk

Great marketing is the result of well-timed exposure.   When you are speaking in public a wonderful time to give a talk is around the time that you are releasing a new product or establishing a new service.   While you do not necessarily have to talk about these new things, just refreshing peoples’ minds to who you are and what your company is about is a wonderful way to help generate or renew interest that could benefit the introduction of a new product or service.

Why Do You Talk

All marketing is meant to lead in one direction – success.   While success is defined in different ways for various people, most often when a person is successful they will have established themselves as an authority on whatever subject matter that comprises their business.  If you are an accountant, your area of authority could be tax law impacts on business accounting methods.  If you are an investment manager, you could be establishing yourself as an authority on “Baby Boomer Investment Strategies” or as the go-to person for every parent who wants to properly fund college for their kids without breaking the bank.    In the next section, we will discuss more this final stage of marketing and what you need to do to establish yourself as the “best of the best” in your field or professional and in your sphere of influence.

In Summary

Public relations is more than just simply saying what needs to be said or should be said about your business, it is a specific series of processes that are presented in a pre-determined format and accepted by media outlets that will in turn promote what you want promoted.

The key elements to great public relations are influential and relevant articles,  timely and professional press releases and engaging and informative public talks that help you make the most of marketing momentum.

Tomorrow – Authoring and Coaching – Why Establishing Yourself as an Authority Matters

In marketing there is something called a “buzz.”   The best way to describe this phenomenon is to picture a beehive and the buzzing sound and hundreds of worker bees are busy doing what they need to do to get the job done for the Queen and for the hive.

Your clients and your  community are your worker bees.  While they may not specifically be on your payroll, do not underestimate that fact that people are either working for you and your business or working against you and your business.

Word of Mouth marketing is the passing of information by verbal methods by personal recommendations.   We all have participated in this in one way or another whether we realized it or not.

Someone asks us if we know a great Chinese restaurant – we give a name of a business.   We have just participated in Word of Mouth marketing.    We talk about a new commercial for a vehicle, or an advertisement for deodorant or perhaps dog food that we can’t stand – we have just participated in Word of Mouth marketing as even a negative expression generates interest.

If the person we are talking to has never seen the commercial or advertisement or has never heard of the product we have referenced what is the first thing they are going to do?   They are going to specifically look for that particular commercial, the certain advertisement we have referenced and they are going to watch and listen to see what we have seen and experienced to gauge whether or not they feel the same way as we do.

While many think that controlling or even influencing what people say is impossible this is not true.  As we understand Word of Mouth marketing both in its artificial as well as its naturally-generated forms we can understand better how to make this essential tool work for us and not against us.

Artificial Word of Mouth Marketing

You may not have realized it but not all word of mouth marketing happens spontaneously and without coxing or incentive-based encouragement.    In fact, there are some forms of word of mouth marketing that are carefully and meticulous planned, paid for and promoted using means that some might find unethical.

Regardless of what we believe should be or should not be, the world of marketing is influenced by many forms of artificial Word of Mouth Marketing including:  Stealth Marketing or Astroturfing.

Stealth Marketing

As the name implies – stealth marketing is marketing that a consumer does not know exactly where it came from.   It seemingly comes out of nowhere and the source of its initial promotion is unclear or unknown.  All a potential consumer knows is that someone they admire or respect such as their favorite actor or celebrity is endorsing the product or service.

Think about some of the commercials you have watched on TV for life insurance or diabetes or medical testing supplies that have featured a celebrity on it and in the small print at the bottom you see a disclosure “paid endorsement” or “compensated product endorser.”

What this business is trying to do is eliminate any possibility of being associated with stealth marketing by making you aware that the person saying the positive things about their company is being paid to do so.   A stealth marketing campaign would employ those in positions of influence, pay them to say something nice about a product or service and NOT disclose that information to you.   This is not a consumer-friendly form of marketing as it takes advantage of customer trust and loyalty.

Astroturfing or Green Marketing

How many of us have looked at the reviews for a particular book on Amazon.com or a perhaps what people are saying about a movie, a car, or a new software program and let someone else’s opinion – whether we knew them or not – influence our decision?

If we are honest, we all have.    We want to see what others are saying, how a product helped them or vice versa and we translate their benefits into one thought, “How will this help me?”

Business owners who use astroturfing take advantage of customer trust and loyalty and abuse this falsely paying people to say or write positive things about their product on blogs, message boards, websites, and more to artificially inflate the marketing influence of a product or service.

In light of the reality of artificial word of mouth marketing being utilized – how do we protect ourselves and our clients?

1.     Never pay for people to say nice things about you, your products or your services.

If you have a great product or service – you won’t have to pay anyone to say positive things about you.  They will naturally want to share the details of their “good deal” or “great new product” with their friends and family.   The best things in word of mouth marketing are free – because the authenticity of praise is backed up by a superior product or service that will let you build your business over the long term and facilitate customer loyalty for years to come.

2.     Use common sense in collecting endorsements

If someone has something to gain from saying something positive about your product or service, they may not be entirely truthful or express what needs to be said about your product.   Remember, when you were a kid and your mom or dad could tell when you were lying or not being completely honest?  In Word of Mouth marketing the truth just sounds different, it is presented different and whether a person realizes it or not – they pick up on that and will choose to either ignore what their “gut” is telling them or will listen to their intuition and in turn, you will lose a customer by not being entirely above board in your Word of Mouth marketing.

3.      Be wise in believing endorsements

If something sounds too good to be true; it probably is.   It is wise to be cautious of things presented completely positively as everything has a downside and if a person presents a product or service as something everyone needs either they do not know their product, their true market or they are lying.   Ensure that when you are checking into a new product or service – especially one that you will in turn offer your customers – that you do your homework or “due diligence” which simply means that you take the time and make the effort to test what a person or what a company portrays and projects about their products and services is legit.

Artificial marketing can make a person wealthy, but what it costs in reputation after consumers learn the truth make it not worth it.   In the end, the best investment you can make in your word of mouth marketing strategies is in the encouragement and promotion of  NATURALLY-GENERATED Word of Mouth marketing.

Naturally-Generated Word of Mouth Marketing

The natural form of Word of Mouth marketing is differentiated from the artificial by great products, great services and doing everything you can to reinforce the great things people say.

You don’t pay for it.
You don’t lie for it.
You don’t deceive for it.

You simply offer what your customers need in ways they can afford and you do what you say and you ensure that your products do what they say they will do.

It is this investment in the personal and direct needs of a customer that generates the true buzz that carries volumes in promoting our business.   While artificial forms of Word of Mouth marketing are carefully controlled in the beginning and there is no accountability for the “like wildfire” effect of their influence – naturally-generated Word of Mouth marketing ensures that we are accountable for what is being said in the media, in advertising and within the details of our product line.

Control the Media

We can control the media by controlling what is said about our business and our products through established methods of public relations (which we will discuss in more detail in the next chapter) including press releases, our public relations and more.

Control the Advertising

While we cannot influence every word someone else says, we can watch what we say and ensure that no matter what, we do not make promises we can’t keep or promises that we have no intention of keeping.   While life happens and things can naturally interfere with our daily to-do list, if we are intentionally being dishonest in order to gain popularity or to acquire that artificial buzz – in the long run, its going to hurt our businesses.

We cannot control a lie as a lie will always want to be revealed by the truth – but we can always be ensured that “truth in advertising” leads to greater rewards in truthful Word of Mouth marketing

Control the Product Line

Quality matters.   Quantity is great but in the long run, quality is what counts and produces the positive influence we want in a marketplace.  If we sacrifice quality of product for quantity of customers, we are going to have a higher return rate of NEGATIVE Word of Mouth marketing by the end results not truly satisfying or meeting our customers’ needs.

It is essential that we take the time to study the market, know our clients’ needs and ensure that the products and services we are offering them are of the quality they need and want, not just build the quantity of sales or number of customers we want.

The Big Picture of Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of Mouth Marketing works best in two directions:

1.  From the inside of your business out.

2.  From the outside of your business in.

Inside-Out

By focusing on the internal needs of your business first, you are most likely to build the best Word of Mouth marketing base possible.   This works in many ways but most prominently by allowing you and your staff and employees to take ownership in your organization.

This does not mean that someone besides you owns your business, this means that they care about the success or failure of your business as much as you do and work hard to guarantee the success of your business by providing your clients and customers what they need, when they need and in ways that are meaningful to them.

You generate great Word of Mouth marketing inside to outside of your organization by:

1.  Being a great person to work for

The golden rule of treat others as you want to be treated comes into play here.   By valuing the strengths of your employees and acknowledging even their smallest efforts to do a great thing to build your business – you are reinforcing their sense of worth and their investment in your business.   You can show value and appreciation by bonuses, incentives, compensation packages, special rewards such as gift cards, movie or sports tickets, and more.   The small investment you make in ways to value your employee in by saying “Thank You” and going that extra mile to do little and big things to make your work place a great place to work in – does key thing:  Gives Your Employees Plenty of Great Examples of Why You and Your Company Are Great To Work With.

2.  Offer special classes, training and seminars to your staff

The people who always have something to say and are never boring are those people who never stop learning.   By offering your employees special classes, training and seminars that are paid-for, perhaps providing a “day off” from normal duties, paid lunch or even at a fun location are excellent ways to teach your employees to value others as they themselves are valued.  The truth is, courtesy is not often taught and in a “how does this benefit me” society, true customer service is a lost art.

If you are not sure where to begin in this area – let us help you.  We offer training seminars on site in accounting practices, startup and marketing, payroll practices, marketing building techniques and business consulting startup.    Contact us and let us show you how we can motivate your staff to really work for you by working for themselves and their clients in a mutually-beneficial way.

Outside-In

Similar to how care and consideration from the inside-out of your organization, Outside-In techniques show value of the customer.   The main reason why people do not explore outside of what they know is that they are unsure about the truth of what you are saying, how a product or service could actually benefit them and they are afraid that they will be taken advantage of.

By taking away the “mystery” you have built by advertising, you will improve your Word of Mouth advertising by working from the Outside-In by providing classes and seminars to teach your clients how to use or utilize your products or services.

There are many benefits to one-on-one appointments and meetings especially in the area of personal finances, but on many occasions holding seminars expands our sphere of influence immensely by uniting our customers and clients in a collective movement that allows them to not only empower themselves but each other with our products and services.

By participating in a seminar or training that goes beyond the surface information, we are giving our clients a voice and a platform in which they can express their problems or concerns (that we in turn can respond to and improve where we should) as well as a place where they know that they are not alone, that there are others out their that have similar needs and that by working together we can do great things to improve business and facilitate success for everyone.

In Summary

Word of Mouth marketing is less about what you want people to say about you, your products and your services and more about what you do to ensure that they have plenty of positive things to say about the quality of your products and services.

Tomorrow – The Ins and Outs of Public Relations

All of the marketing tools have been about one thing – presenting you and your services to potential clients.   Presenting the features and benefits of your service in a One-To-One setting with an new prospect is no different.   In fact, One-to-one marketing is a misnamed venue that is actually where you prepare and enter into a situation where you are not certain of the outcome but want to make the effort regardless.

In prior marketing circles, it was assumed the one-to-one marketing would be synonymous with rejection and doors slamming in your face.   With your Marketing Arsenal, you determine how effective one-to-one marketing is going to be for you by what you know and what you do with what you know.

When you know how to use one-to-one marketing techniques effectively you make it possible for you to get your foot in the door in a wide range of companies that can use your financial services and products.

Why Use One-to-one marketing

In addition to developing your sphere of influence, one-to-one marketing allows you to:

1.    Find out more about your target audience.   If those in your potential market believe you are not selling anything, they are more likely to listen to you and especially to talk, allowing you to listen to their needs and formulate a marketing plan that will meet those needs. One-to-one marketing allows you to do instant market research.

2.    Generate new business.   By researching a potential company, you can find out who you need to talk to in order to get in front of them for an interview and establish that you are the best and only person for the job.

3.    Establish and Develop Business Partnerships.  By conversing with others both inside and outside of the financial industries, you can add exponentially to you pool of knowledgeable persons for you to network with.   By developing partnerships, you can build and offer the best possible services to your clients.  This establishes you as an authority in your field and expands the reach of your company without costing you any money.

What One-To-One Marketing Is Not

Historically, one-to-one marketing has been presented by sleazy salespersons that had slick deals and high-pressure sales tactics to swindle and unsuspecting prospect into a deal they would later wish they had not made.

Proper cold-calling techniques are not unethical, illegal, or disrespectful of others.   Effective one-to-one marketing is not about taking advantage of someone else but ensuring that a potential client has the advantages they need to make THEIR business a success – not just be another catalyst for your personal and professional success.

What Makes One-to-one marketing Successful

Anyone, no matter who they are, can be successful at one-to-one marketing.  Five essential facts of one-to-one marketing are that you must

1.     Be Positive.    Positivism is contagious.   Life is so full of negatives that those who are positive are an essential influence on the lives of others.   If you are not positive about who you are, what you sale and what you provide – people are going to know.

2.     Be Prepared!   One-to-one marketing is not about going into a situation uninformed or unprepared.   You must know who you are calling, what they do, how they do it and how they are different from others and most importantly – how what you offer will fit their needs.

3.     Be Yourself.   If you plan on having a long term relationship with a client you must begin working with them by being yourself and continue working with them in a way that they expect.

4.      Not Take Rejection Personally.   A common saying, “It’s not personal, it’s business” applies to the area of cold-calling.   It is certain that you will get rejected.   Take the rejection in stride and learn what you can from that experience.   Your dedication in this area will pay off in the long run and if it doesn’t – change your strategy and figure out what does work or will work.

5.      Ask the Right Questions.    While rambling may seem a logical step to make in conversing with someone, the point of one-to-one marketing is to effectively reach out to others and find out what you need to know about their situation.   Learn what they do and what they need help with.    Ask them about their business and what they do.   As people talk about themselves you are going acquire more information than just a “yes” or a “no” response and in those details you are going to establish the connection you need with your potential client.

How to Make One-to-one marketing a Business Priority

You will never get to a point where you do not need any new business.  In fact, as the saying goes “No new business leads to slow business” and we all know that the a slow business has little to show for it when it comes time to assess profits versus loss.

In order to make one-to-one marketing a priority you could hire someone to work part time or full time to introduce you, your business and your services to potential clients.   While this sounds very telemarketing-like if done correctly, it can be a catalyst to the professional boost you need daily.

If your budget is limited right try setting aside one day or part of a day if making cold calls in person or one hour of each day to work on one-to-one marketing over the phone.   If you do this there are some common things you may want to consider in order to make your call times as effective and productive as they can be.

1.     Do not call right at opening, during lunch hours or right before closing.   Well, that limits the time of day significantly and eliminates based upon a typical 8 am to 6 pm work schedule 7:30 am to 8:30 am, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm and any time after 4 pm.    If you are looking for a key time to make a cold call – 9:00 am to 10:30 am or between 2:00 pm and 3:30 pm are your best times to call.

2.      Consider the day of the week.   Mondays and Fridays are typically not your best days to cold call.  Most businesses on Monday always face some sort of hectic schedule and are dealing with multiple crises that developed over the weekend.  They don’t call Monday “mad” or “manic” without a reason. Come Friday, most everyone is gearing down for the weekend on Fridays and desire to save important details until next week.  Tuesday and Wednesday are your top days to cold call and Thursday can be your “backup” cold call day.

The Script

If you associate one-to-one marketing with your favorite movie or your favorite theater presentation, you are going to discover that one-to-one marketing is as easy as remembering lines of dialogue between your favorite actors.   The beauty about great movies is they mirror life so like actors can practice their lines, you can practice what you will say during a cold call and the timing of what you will say.

The anatomy of a script consists of an introduction and request to speak to owner, offer drop-off piece and if talking to prospect, work to set up a future appointment for a presentation.

Step One:  You will simply walk into the business and then ask the first person you see who looks as if they work there if they are the owner.

If they say no, ask politely to speak to the owner.

If they say yes, introduce yourself, recite your quick pitch you developed in Stage 1 and explain that you are out giving business owners an opportunity to look at the products/services you offer.

Step Two:  Show and give your drop-off interest piece (such as a brochure, flyer or interest-generating flyer) with your business card attached.

Step Three:  After your prospect has some time to look your interest piece and make a comment or potentially show interest, work from what your prospect says and ask if it would be okay to plan to get together so the two of you can go over the details of the service or product that you believe would be beneficial for your prospect.   A great way of doing this is giving your prospect a choice between two days and times.    This encourages a commitment instead of a rejection for a face-to-face appointment.

If after viewing your interest piece your prospective client expresses that they do not have a need in that area or are just not interested, try to get more information and insight into their objection.   Ask a question that requires a detailed answer such as “Is that right? ” and inquire about how the services/products they have are working for them or how long have they been using that particular product or service.

A great lead in to a potential appointment is to ask if they did a lot of research before purchasing the product or making a change to the service they are using.   Follow up with a question like “Are you receiving more benefits now as a result of your transition?   If they say yes,  encourage them to give themselves a chance to receive more benefits by at least – as a minimum – setting up an appointment to discuss your services.

Then, offer the alternate choice of day and time.   This way of presenting an appointment option does not leave a prospect with an easy way out and allows you to have an easier time getting to meet with him/her face-to-face.   Remember, your sole purpose of a cold call is to get an appointment to make a presentation pitch to your potential client.  You do not pitch a product or service in full to your client – you pitch a possibility and try to secure the promise of an appointment with your prospect.

How to Handle the Money Question without Making a Cold-Call Seem Cold

Invariably, a prospect with ask questions that may be “off of your script”.   It is essential that you anticipate these, and plan to respond naturally and relaxed as much as possible.

For example, if your prospective client ask you how much your services or products costs for the most part if you are pitching a services – this will vary according to the needs of the client and the work involved.   Express that to the client and work to establish one of two alternative dates and times to meet to discuss in detail the particulars of your services with your prospect.

If you have a product with a fixed price – resist the urge to pitch and present the project at that time.   Establish with your prospect that it would be better to meet at a later time to discuss the particulars of how beneficial the product will be to them and the particular product you are offering with add value compared to cost involved.

After The Prospect Says “Yes”

Once your prospect agrees to an appointment, give them a business card with the appointment time written on the back and request one of their business cards.    Exchanging business cards will allow the both of you to feel more committed to keeping the appointment.

Thank your prospect for meeting with you and tell them you will look forward to the opportunity of presenting your services/products to them at a later date.

If the Prospect Says “No”

If a prospect says no, there are several options you can try that respect both you and the prospect.

1.     Ask them to look over the drop-off interest materials and mention that you will call them in a few days to get their reaction.  Ask for a business card.

-     If they give you the card, ask what would be the best time for you to call and then write that on the card.  Say “thank you” and that you look forward to talking with them soon.

-    If they do not want you to call, thank the prospect for their time and ask who they know who could potentially use a product/service like what you are offering.

No matter what – Do not take rejection personally.   A prospect saying “no” should be considered as a “not right now”.    In 3, 6…9 months or a year, your prospects situations could change and they could need or know of someone else who needs your services.   Be civil, courteous and confident – even when dealing with a “no”.

2.      Revisit in about six months.   This time around mention clients you service in the area (if possible and there are no privacy laws you would be violating).   On occasion, a prospect will show you the materials you left.  That is very positive.   If that happens mention that obviously they were interested enough to keep your brochure and offer an alternate day/time to get together to discuss the details.

From Cold Calls to Warm Presentations

The point of the cold call is to get an appointment to complete the presentation.   During the presentation it is your job to discover your prospect’s needs in detail and discuss the benefits of your products or services which will fill those needs.

As you work on the steps of your presentation, the more comfortable you feel and you will communicate better the positive connections between your products and services and your prospect’s needs.

During your presentation appointment it is essential that you realize that people make decisions based upon emotions rather than logic.   If  a person likes you, feels comfortable with you, and trusts you – they are more likely to respond favorably to what you say and what you are offering to them.   Because of this – you need feel professional, personal and passionate about the details of your products and services and how you can help your prospective client.

After the introduction, start warming up the presentation by asking your prospect about their business, how they got started, if they could show you around, and ask them to discuss their goals for their business for the near future.

1.     Explain to them what your meeting is going to entail.    Allowing your prospect to know that you are going to ask questions about their business, take notes and discuss how your products/services can help them as well as discuss your fee structure – all of those details sets your prospective client at ease.

2.      Work through the questions  that you have put together PRIOR to your appointment.

3.     Convey the benefits of your products and/or services and work towards the close.

4.      Ask if what you have presented sounds good to your prospect, if it is what they need.  On an affirmative response, establish a mutually-convenient appointment to start implementing the services and/or products you have discussed.

In Summary

One-to-one marketing does not have to be scary or intimidating for you or for a prospective client.   By a little bit of a practice and planning, you can sincerely approach a potential client and offer them your product or your service and know that it is something they need and that could benefit them.   This attention to detail ensures that you tune in to the details of your client and establish the foundational knowledge you need to create the professional relationship you want and the marketing arsenal to guarantee your business success.

Tomorrow – Word of Mouth Marketing

Building the best products and services is not a luxury … it is a necessity in establishing your business as valuable.   Tomorrow I’ll discuss how to build quality within and without of your business with special incentive offerings that take you to the next level and give your clients and potential customers something positive to talk about.

The marketing scope we have today is not the same as what was available ten years ago, one year ago and in some cases even ten minutes ago!

Marketing has been revolutionized by the incorporation of the internet into our common marketing tools.   If you make yourself familiar with electronic marketing and don’t resign yourself to being stuck in the dark ages you are going to find that there are new markets and broader horizons full of potential available to you that you did not know existed.

With electronic marketing you can take your local business and give it regional, national and global exposure all at the same time.

In order to attain and also effective utilize this tool we have to know what electronic marketing is and why it is so essential to our marketing arsenal.

Electronic Marketing is the marketing or promotion of your products or materials by electronic means using a computer and the internet.

With the rise in technology changing the face of our lives it is inconceivable to think that technology will not change the way we do business.   In truth, the likelihood of most of our marketing and promotions moving to an electronic format is increasing and a paradigm shift is occurring as the push continues to evaluate the causal and effectual relationship between man and electronics.

As computers and technology become more advanced and less expensive to make and more people adapt to an electronic way of life, electronic marketing via the internet is going to be essential to business success as it reduces production and printing costs.    Aren’t you glad that you are working now to ensure that you are “light years” ahead of the competition?

How Electronic Marketing Works

At this point most people begin to get intimidated because in the place of English words that are known and familiar are new words that are made up of only letters that represent complex terms and functions in technology.

It is easy to see and understand how the plethora of data and information can be overwhelming – after all our brains although are highly advanced cannot process information at the level and rate of a computer!

Electronic Marketing works by utilizing the internet, which is the vast configuration of larger networks of computers connected to each other creating a “web” that links smaller computers to other smaller computers electronically.

In simplest terms, electronic marketing works because your computer is linked to my computer and they talk to each other.   What a door-to-door salesman was in 20th century, computers and the internet are in the 21st century.

In order for computers to share information there are many working details that help broadcast the presence of a business in the World Wide Web (the global internet) and they are:

1.  Websites,

2.  PPC Lead Generation Software and Services,

3.  Major Search Engine Exposure such as Google Local Business Center,

4.  Content that is “SEO-rich”, and

5.  Co-registration and Partnering through Affiliate Marketing.

Each of these tools makes up the larger tool of Electronic Marketing and each has many elements to them – so many in fact that people go to college to get the training and degrees they need to understand it all.

While this chapter is not meant to provide that extensive knowledge to you, you will have the basics you need to build out in your marketing as you understand what electronic marketing is, how it works and how it can work for you.

Electronic Tool #1 – The Website

A website is your visual calling card on the internet.   In this modern convenience you can create and design the look and feel of your business in a style and manner that is only limited by your imagination.

Visually-speaking, a website is the best investment you can make for your local to global advertising dollars.  There is nothing comparable in print media that can do what a website can do in less time and with less money.

In order to blanket the world with paper versions of advertisements or solicitations of your business you would have to spend a small fortune!

In order to utilize a website you need three things:

1.  A domain name

2.  A web-hosting agreement

3.  A website that meets your needs

When selecting a domain name it is essential that you look for the most simple name that your clients can easily remember.   Think short and memorable.

Shorter domain names are easier to remember and less likely to have common typing mistakes made that can cause your site visitors to get lost, get redirected or get nowhere at all.

Your domain name needs to uniquely represent some aspect of your business.

Like your business name, your slogans and your advertising catchphrases and pitches – your domain needs to be significant enough and unique enough for a domain to be connected to you and your business.

If there is too much similarity in names between you and a competitor you may mistakenly be driving your business to their place of business.

Common domain names you might want to register:

1.  The Name of the Business.

2.     A Key Idea, Product or Service Offered.   (If you own an accounting firm and your business methodology focuses on you being value-driven, having a domain name with the word “value” in it is a possibility for you.)

3.     The Name(s) of Principal Persons in the Business.

4.     Terms associated with the nature of your business.

To get a domain name you have to register it using an online domain name provider.   While there are many resellers of domain names, some of the major domain name providers are GoDaddy.com, Register.com, Yahoo.com, Google.com.

When you access these websites to “purchase” and register a domain name you may be asked to enroll or sign up as a member to allow you to have an account and to establish who you are and who your provider is to satisfy the requirements of ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.   This organization keeps track of who owns what name and requires that you keep the record of who or what entity owns the domain name as well as the contact information for the same up to date.

The internet since it is technology-based does not typically deal in names but in numbers or codes.  A domain name is simply a convenient way for us to remember how to get to a website instead of having to see and remember what a computer sees which is a long string of numbers identifying the specific location of your website on the internet.

A integral part of the electronic marketing tool of domain names is not only selecting a domain name that is memorable, short, represents your business but also ensuring that no one else can select a similar domain to yours by not only registering the .com extension of a domain name but also registering the .net and .org of the same domain name.

If you had “TennesseeBasedAccounting.com” the last thing you would want would be your competition down the street to register and launch a domain at “TennesseeBasedAccounting.net” or “TennesseeBasedAccounting.org”

If the domain you wanted is not available, check into back-ordering the domain name through your registrar.   Business changes rapidly and a person may have registered a domain for one reason and then decided not to use that domain name.

Back-ordering or even utilizing the contact information to get in touch with the owner of the domain to make an offer to buy the domain name from them can often get you the domain name you want for a reasonable expense.

Keep in mind that domain names, like real estate, often have select domain names that are considered “premium” names because of their being related to a branded name, are easy to remember or are “one word” domain names.   These premium domain names often are available for registration but for a premium cost.

Web-Hosting Agreements

In order for you to utilize a domain name you have to have a website designed and connected to the domain name through web hosting.   Web hosting is simply a service provided by a company that puts your website onto the internet.

Think of it as a company that is taking a whole stack one-, two-, three- page flyers for your website in hard copy and tossing them up in the air among a crowd of people.   While there is no paper copy, a web host strategically places your website onto the internet to allow it to be seen by others that are looking for it, you or the area of services that you offer.

Most companies that offer domain registration services also offer economical hosting packages that can include everything from free e-mail, to unlimited storage space, online checkout or shopping cart services and more.

The best way to get the deal you desire is simply to talk to your domain name registrar and ask tell them what you need, what you are planning to do and see how they can custom-fit a hosting package to meet your needs and your budget.

In order to help you get started in your electronic marketing, your IPB membership includes free web hosting during the life of your membership.  Services may vary, but the IPB service is free and solid.  You can sign up for your free account through the IPB membership portal.

Web Design

As technology gets more advanced, software gets developed to help us do the most complex things easily and effortlessly.     There are many easy-to-use web design programs that allow anyone with little to no computer or design experience to learn how to create and set up a web page.

Your IPB membership comes with a selection of professionally designed web templates, including Flash ™ templates if you wish to use them. You can download your starter package through your IPB membership access portal.

Also, domain registrar and web hosts like GoDaddy.com and others offer web page templates which are pre-designed web pages that you only have to add your text to make it yours.

If you want more complex features such as streamline video, flash intros or custom designs that set you apart from the rest there are countless web designers that can provide you with what you need at reasonable prices.

To find a web site designer:

1.     Look on the Web.   Often some of your favorite websites will show towards the bottom who designed the website.  If you like that look, contact that website designer or design firm and see what their rates are to do web design.

2.      Ask around.   If you know of anyone who enjoys working with computers ask them if they or someone they know does web site design.

3. Check your local colleges, universities and trade schools for a college-age web designer who can provide what you need for less.   All computer graphic designers and many of art majors are required to have examples of web-based designs and web pages that they have created.

4. Contact IPB technical services through the electronic marketing section of your IPB membership portal.

Remember when looking for a designer as well as getting prices for web design that simple is less expensive and easier to create.   The more complex the elements are that you desire for your web site the more design time it takes to create which means more expense.

Most websites need an introduction page or a home page, an about us page, a contact page and page that lists what products and services you offer as well as perhaps your hourly or per project rate.

Websites are the #1 Electronic Marketing tool that allows your business presence to be established in your community as well as around the world.   You can use your website as an information portal giving your clients everything they need to find you IRL (in real life) or you can utilize your website as a tool to help you introduce new products, showcase new services or allow your users to check out you and your business without feeling obligated.

Whatever way you decide to utilize your website is up to you the essential fact is – use it! And allow electronic marketing to make informed clients of casual web searches by offering them an explosion of onsite and easily accessible information about you and your business.

Electronic Tool #2 – PPC Lead Generator Software and Services

PPC Lead Generation is “pay per click” services that you pay for as a person clicks on a lead or a link to your website.   A great example of this is when you visit Google.com notice the businesses profiled in a highlighted box on the right-hand of the page or perhaps in the headlining box at the top of the search results.   Those businesses pay a small fee to Google each time a person clicks-through from the Google search engine result page onto their website.

Think of this PPC fee as a referral fee.   You cannot draw in all of the clients you need yourself.   They need to go to a search engine or a central place that would allow them to type in key words, phrases or terms in order to find what they are looking for.   Using “SEO” or Search Engine Optimization that we will discuss shortly, a website is presented as an option for a potential client to select.

Electronic Tool #3 -  Major Search Engine Exposure

As mentioned previously, a search engine is simply a central place or website that a person goes to when they want to be directed to the information they are looking for.   Think of a search engine as a library full of encyclopedias and easily-accessed card catalogues all in one.

The major search engines are:

1. Google (www.google.com)

2. Yahoo (www.yahoo.com)

3. Ask Jeeves (www.askjeeves.com)

4. All The Web (www.alltheweb.com)

5. HotBot (www.hotbot.com)

5. AOL inteernal search (http://aolsearch.aol.com)

6. AOL external search (http://search.aol.com)

7. Teoma (www.teoma.com)

8. AltaVista (www.altavista.com)

9. Gigablast (www.gigablast.com)

10. LookSmart (www.looksmart.com)

11. Lycos (www.lycos.com)

12. MSN Search (http://search.msn.com)

13. Netscape (www.netscape.com)

Each search engine has their own requirements as to how to get listed among the top results but the number one criteria is popularity.   The more popular or the more your site is visited the higher it gets listed in the search engine results.

Each of these search engines have “crawlers”, “bots” or “spiders” which are simply programs that look through all of the material on the web collecting, organizing and storing data so that when someone looks for that item, that person or that business on the search engine they will find what they are looking for.

You can make your website more popular by doing the following:

1.     Exchanging Links.   Link exchange is a fast and friendly way to build your web presence.   Each time a crawler, bot or spider “sees” the link to your webpage it makes note of that and the more sites that link to yours the more visible your website is to the internet.  Visibility equals popularity.

2.     Pay to have your site promoted.   More and more websites are selling advertising space just like what you would find in a magazine or newspaper.  If you secure one of these highly-visible marketing spaces on their website your website is going to rank higher in the search engines.   You can also pay to have your site promoted utilizing the pay-per-click  as well as pay to have certain companies drive your website higher using software that is designed to work around the system and make your site appear more popular than what it actually is.

Popularity is the key to promotion and exposure on major search engines.  Additionally, most search engines have a way that you can list your website with them either on a paid basis or free basis.

Electronic Tool #4 – SEO-rich content

If you wanted to order a pizza you would not look in the phone book for a car dealer.  Instead you would look in the phone book under “pizza” and find your restaurant of choice.   SEO-rich content is search engine optimized content in which the right words are being used to describe you, your business and your website.

For example, if you own an investment firm that specializes in retirement accounts you would use words like “retirement”, “Boomer”, “money”, “savings” and “investment” to describe your website to search engines.

Additionally, to ensure that your site is discovered during a “web crawl” or a “web search” you want to also make certain that key phrases associate with your business are highlighted.

In the example of our Retirement Investment Firm, some key phrases you could utilize are “Retirement Income”, “Baby Boomer”,  “Setting Up a 401K”, “IRA vs. 401K”, “401K penalties” and so on.

A website is described to the major search engines with key words and phrases that the search engine using a crawler, a bot or a spider as mentioned previously will collect and add to its store or database of information.

There are several ways to add SEO-rich content to your website:

1.     Page Text and Content.   Each webpage has paragraphs written that describe your products.  A crawler/bot/spider can distinguish words that are set apart, repeated, bolded, highlighted and conveyed as essential text to your website to give the materials on your page meaning.

2.      Using meta-tags.   When your web page is designed and hosted you can incorporate or have incorporated, key words or key text within the “code” or HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that allow your web page to have header information that is presented to search engine tools that are gathering information.

This is a quick and easy way for search engines to get the big picture of what your website is about in just a few quick and applicable words that you select to help drive traffic to your website.   Many internet hosting and service providers have an easy-to-use form that allows you to enter in your words and then their software programs will convert your text to HTML that the search engines recognize.  You do not need to know how to write code to have your website search engine optimized.

Electronic Tool #5 -  Co-registration and Affiliate Marketing

Co-registration is the practice of one organization, on its own subscription and membership registration forms, of offering subscriptions, memberships or leads to another organization.

Just as in print media, the electronic marketing is full of opportunities to team up and work together in partnerships with complementing (and even competing) organizations.   If you are promoting the services of your insurance company, you may team up with other insurance companies or you may team up with services that are related to yours.   For example, if you sell home insurance you may team up with a restoration service that would come in and clean, repair or replace items within your client’s home that have been damaged by fire, wind or water.

It is not uncommon for an accountant to team up with certain investment firms, insurance agents, and a variety of professional organizations that compliment the services within the accounting field or the needs of the accountant’s clients.

Affiliate Marketing is similar to co-registration, but instead of creating a joint web presence or partnership, the relationship between you and your affiliates is based upon referrals.   If you are participating in an affiliate agreement with a financial newspaper or perhaps Amazon.com, you can offer subscriptions or post links to certain materials such as books, DVD’s or videos that relate to your services.

If you own a credit card servicing company and one of your products is credit card reading machines, you could have affiliates who promote your products to their web-based clients and in return for those leads or referrals you would give them an affiliate commission – which is a small finders fee typically based upon the total amount of services purchase or the total number of click-through activities originating from the link on one website that leads a potential client to your website.

In Summary

Establishing a web presence is the most valuable and least expensive electronic marketing tool you have at your disposal.  With computers becoming portable and built-in to cell phones and personal handheld devices, mobility of your marketing is increasing and building your business depends on you getting your products and services on the information highway and capable of traveling around the world.

Tomorrow – Cold Calling Techniques that Heat Up Your Market.

While there are many ways that you can get the word out about your business and your products or services, nothing beats face to face contact.

Cold calling is one of the things most of us think of when we think of the world’s worst fear – public speaking!   Tomorrow I’ll teach you practical tips that enable you to add another tool to your marketing arsenal and that gives you the face time you need to show exactly why your business is capable of servicing a potential client’s needs.

You have clients; you have built your database of potential (and influential) clients and other professionals; now you need to consistently keep in touch with them and never quit advertising and promoting your products and services.  The truth is no single advertisement is going to bring in every customer you need to keep your business booming and flourishing as you want it to.   In order to generate the success you want you have to use continued advertising effectively.

For many small to medium-sized businesses, the traditional methods of advertising are not in the budget.  If your company is this size most likely you will not have the resources to hire a public relations or advertising firm to promote everything you need to promote.

Additionally, while a newspaper or magazine ad is a more budget-friendly option, this advertising medium often gets lost in the clutter of all the other ads.    While we would like to think otherwise, we literally could run our ad in a newspaper or periodical a thousand times and there would STILL be potential clients that have not seen it!

Even the smallest yellow pages ad costs almost a hundred dollars a month and had even less optimistic results as the newspaper ad!  Television and radio advertising; the spots most businesses could afford are late night / early morning when most of your potential customers are sleeping.

A great tool to have in your marketing arsenal is a client newsletter.  These are direct, personal and highly effective forms of advertising for small to mid-sized companies.

What Exactly Is A Client Newsletter?

While a client newsletter can come in all colors, shapes and sizes, the easiest definition is any printed sheet, pamphlet or small newspaper that contains items of interest to your current clients and potential customers.   If you send several articles to your clients at the same time – that’s a newsletter!   If you send to them a sheet with multiple listings of your products and services, that’s a newsletter!

While just about anything can comprise your client newsletter there are a few standard items that make-up the average newsletter and they are:

1.  Articles.    If you include well-written articles that relate to your products and services, this will encourage your clients to look more carefully at your materials.

2.   Product Descriptions.    If you have a new product coming out or that you will be making available to your clients put this information in a client newsletter.

3.   Services.   Even if you do not have any new services, it is important that you remind your clients of what you do.   Who knows, in the past they may have not needed some of your key services but as we all know, life changes quickly and what they did not need yesterday, they may need today.

Client newsletters are a familiar marketing tool seen in every industry.  While some companies prepare their newsletters in-house using standard desktop publishing software, others will contract with another business such as a print shop or a graphic designer to arrange to have their newsletter created.

Many practitioners utilize our customized client newsletters such as the one that comes free with your IBP membership.   Additionally, IBP offers Direct Mail services, lettershop and list brokerage services that take the work out of making the client newsletter work for you.

There are also several other services that provide what is referred to as “pre-canned” newsletters.   These types of newsletters are pre-printed with only the business names changed from company to company.

No matter what your content or the format you select or whether you design and produce your client newsletter yourself or hire someone else to do this for you – your client newsletter is continued and faithfully-timed message from your company to your customers.

If done well, your client newsletter can be come the cornerstone to your communication with your client.

What Are the Benefits of a Client Newsletter?

While the benefits of the client newsletter vary from business to business, for the us in the financial industry the most pronounced benefit is the one to our budgets.    For most of the client newsletter provides the most economical return on our investment of time and money spent.  For money-minded individuals that cost to benefit ratio is key. If a client newsletter does not produce a benefit to your business that exceeds the cost and effort it took to produce; it is not your best marketing tool.

For most small businesses a newsletter:

1.    Increases sales and adds new customers by keeping your name in front of your customers and prospects.

2.    Presents a professional image of your business by setting you apart from the crowd.    When you send out a newsletter this makes you stand out from the competition in your client’s mind.

3.    Educates your prospects in new ways to take advantage of your services by teaching them or showing them potential ways that they could utilize your services.

4.    Positions you and your company as the experts in your field.   A newsletter allows your reader to see you as knowledgeable and a well-informed resource that is valuable to them.

5.    Shows your clients that you care about them and their needs and that they are more than just a name in your database; they are real people just like you with needs that are very similar to your own.

There is no confusion about the benefits of the client newsletter chiefly being a tool to promote your visibility to your customers and potential clients.    By using a newsletter you will be the first person they remember and think about when they need what you have to offer and they will call you to help them meet their need.

How Effective Is A Client Newsletter?

There is no set in stone method for determining how successful a client newsletter will be for all businesses but a great rule of thumb is that if you have a larger number of potential customers the odds are that your client newsletter is going to be more effective than if you just had a few potential customers.

This fact is why communication with your clients and potential clients is so essential from opportunity to opportunity.    Remember, the client may not have needed the service you offered yesterday, but today their lives are a different story with complex issues that you have the solution for.

Ensure that you are on the short list of the people they know that will meet their need and create a positive business relationship with them that makes you the one they will ask to help them when they need it most.

The effectiveness of client newsletter has been shown to be greater in straight data and numbers than sales letters, company profiles and sometimes, even brochures!  That is very significant information to consider when you are planning and creating your marketing arsenal.

In order to plan for an effective newsletter you want to make certain that your newsletter is informative while at the same time, entertaining.   With so many distractions in life, your client newsletter can become something that your clients actually look forward to reading if it is interesting.

The best newsletters are read, then saved for later us or even better yet – passed around for others to see.    This collective and residual marketing of your client newsletter is what allows your newsletter to bring in much business.

Most clients aren’t going to make a copy of your brochure to and send it out to more prospects, but they will pass around a newsletter.

How Much Does A Client Newsletter Cost?

To reduce the costs of printing a client newsletter you can produce your newsletter in-house, using your computer and laser printer.   Additionally by writing your own articles or using free reprints of articles allows you to keep the expenses at a minimum.

If you are not comfortable with writing and designing your own newsletter, or perhaps you simply do not have the luxury of time to work on this project yourself or with your staff, the best investment you can make is to outsource the project.

You will need the following service providers:

A copywriter

A desktop publisher

A print or copy shop.

There are also many economical preprinted newsletters that sell in bundles of 100 copies or more and allow you to affix your own label and send as well as a single master copy preprinted newsletter that you reprint yourself.

No matter what method you select to get your newsletter marketing tool, always remember that you have to factor in the cost of postage when you are budgeting and planning.

The Proper Look and Form of a Newsletter Article

If you are using a newsletter the wrong way or writing content poorly or displaying it ineffectively – you are wasting your time and your money!   In order for your newsletter to be a big success you need to ensure that your newsletter has the proper look to generate the buzz of interest you desire.

To get that look you need to follow the follow steps:

1.   Write short articles.     If your reader cannot read the article in 15-20 minutes the odds are they are going to ignore what you are saying.

2.    Write directly.   In order to right short, you are going to have to write direct and to the point.   Forget the fluff and flowery phrases and give your reader the key information and then additional information if necessary to produce a more direct and natural conversational style.

Remember that all newsletter articles have these items:

1.    A Title

When creating a title, ensure that the title is catchy and builds curiosity.   Because time is limited most readers will scan material in mere seconds by reading titles to see if something interests them to read further.

2.    An Author

When crediting an author, it is essential to great marketing to make certain that the author’s name and biography are set apart and distinguished from the rest of the text by a box or changes in fonts or typesetting.

3.    The Information

While the title and the author layouts can be formatted to fit into a particular space, the information or the body of the article is going to vary from newsletter to newsletter unless your articles are a set and standard size each time.   The information you provide from article to article needs to be suited for your audience.

If you know that the majority of your readers like longer articles, then format your newsletter to include a longer article that continues from page to page with informative information or advertising sections in between.   Only you will be able to determine what length of article best suits your financial product and your current newsletter topic.

Mailing and Marketing Your Client Newsletter

Before you have your client newsletter completed you have to determine how you are going to mail and market your client newsletter.     IPB offers excellent Direct Mail services that allow you to leave the complicated marketing and the tedious mailing parts of utilizing your newsletter tool up to us.

Ensure that you understand who you want your newsletter to go to and what results you want your newsletter to generate.   Our list brokerage services can help you define who you want your newsletter to go to and we can work with you to help you identify what your main marketing goals and needs are.

For the majority of us it is simply – get more clients and generate more profits.    While newsletters are great for doing those to things they are also a multi-purpose tool that will help you:

Get new clients,

Improve the relationship with your current clients,

Establish your brand,

Provide cross-selling opportunities,

Generate direct fee opportunities that will save clients’ money,

Release press stories,

Build referral network and professional relationships, and

Provide publicity opportunities.

While many of these benefits we will discuss further in upcoming chapters, the real benefit to client newsletters is how it effectively satisfies the purposes you select – no matter what those purposes are.

One Investment Manager I know utilizes his client newsletter to promote direct fee opportunities that allow new and current clients to subscribe to new services at a set fee that not only gives the client a clear definition of costs and expenses but give him a distinct vision of what his revenues will be.

No matter what your goals for your newsletter and the benefit of those goals to you in order to effectively use a client newsletter you need to know your audience, your audience’s needs, and their interests.

Your audience is easy to identify because they are the people who will use your products and services.

Their needs are relayed to you be the feedback you receive from your current clients or what you discover from just observing the general market by reading the newspapers, listening to the news and just think about how a “specific” sort of client would respond to that information and write to that person.

In your article present the current problems that client may be facing and also how you and your financial business are able to meet those needs and resolve the issue.   Make your client newsletter a tool that establishes you as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING

How you utilize a client newsletter in your practice is up to you and depends on your needs and the needs and interests of your clients or potential clients.

Think about your market and the products that are specific to you and your business and produce a well-designed client newsletter that provides articles and product descriptions to will generate the marketing buzz and get people talking to you and about you in effective ways.

Remember to be direct and write shorter articles for bigger impact and only use longer articles for products or services that require more information in order to hook the client.   Think about what you want your client newsletter to accomplish and to create the newsletter you need to generate your success.

Next Stage- Initiating Your Electronic Marketing

With the market changing minute by minute – how do you keep up with the increases in technological advances and trends that pull your potential clients in a multitude of directions?

In the next chapter, learn how to make a website generate leads and rank you among the best in your business using SEO content, Google Local and other tech tools that make the most of your marketing to make the most of your products and services.

One of the oldest tools available for your marketing arsenal is the postcard.  While it may not be the most exciting tool in your marketing arsenal, it is the most versatile, most cost-efficient and budget friendly and one of the most likely to be at least looked at by a potential client.

The fact that the postcard is easy to use, inexpensive and the fastest way to touch base with your clients or potential clients make it a top pick for marketing.   When you want to send out information to your prospect list or to notify your current clients and customers of an upcoming product or promotion it is essential that you use postcards.

While it may seem that postcard marketing is a no-brainer activity there really should be a lot of thought that goes into how you spend your advertising dollars on postcards.   One of the first things you need to consider is:

1.    When do I send my postcards?

It is important to send your postcards on days where mail is typically the lightest.   If you send your postcards out Monday morning, they will arrive in your local clients’ mailboxes on Tuesday or Wednesday, which are known in the industry as the lightest mail days.

Light mail days equal greater opportunity for your postcard to be seen and reviewed by a perspective client.

How to Use the Postcard

1.  Think Simple Message for the Biggest Impact.    Since postcards have limited space, you want to think of a simple and to the point message of what you want your clients to know.

For example, if you are offering free e-filing of their tax return that may be your focus on your postcard.

2.  Make it a point to give instructions.   In addition to your quick, simple message remember to give a potential client something to do such as:

-  Call the office
-  Stop by and see you
-  Respond by mail
-  Attend an event
-  Make a new appointment

A great example of postcards being used in this manner are the “Your Tax Appointment” postcards used by your competitors.

Are All Postcards the Same?

Actually postcards are varied and the opportunities to use them are immense.   The three main categories of postcards are:

1.  Picture Postcards
2.  Personal Message Postcards
3.  Classified Ad Postcards

Picture Postcards

“Wish you were here” – typically this is a statement found on the souvenir postcards that seem to arrive long after the person sending them are back at home, but this phrase is also catchy to you in promotion of your business.

Additionally, there are many other great phrases and picture postcards used for building a financial practice.

While you may not have the touristy or travel agent image of a cruise ship or exotic destination on your picture postcard (although you could!) you could easily incorporate your business logo, or any number of realistic or comical portrayals related to money and finances.

If you are an accountant perhaps a great picture postcard to send out before tax time would be of someone relaxing by ocean with the caption “Don’t you wish your accountant had saved you more money last year?”

On the reverse side you would then put your contact information for interested clients to call you and see how you can work with them to help save them money so that they too can spend some time relaxing on the beach.

With picture cards – think of great ways to draw in people based upon things they would like or appreciate.   If you are an investment manager – a postcard with a carefree couple driving down the road in a convertible sends a powerful message to potential clients who want to experience the kind of lifestyle that you can show them how to obtain.

While there is not much space on a picture postcard for a message it is important to realize that one of the biggest draws to a picture postcard is that a picture can say “a thousand words”.

Personal Message Postcards

While picture postcards are usually more stately and elegant with appealing pictures and images, the personal message postcard is anything but pictorial and designer but for all that it lacks in design it makes up for its simplicity by being a highly functional and versatile postcard.

Personal message postcards are often utilized in prospecting mail as well as response mail.  Instead of including an envelope and letter for a potential client to return, personal message postcards offer and easy and affordable way to get a return on your investment.

When used for prospective clients, the personal message postcard acts much like the picture post cards to draw the reader back to a number where they can reach you, a website where they can find or request more information or a time/location/place where they can connect with you one-on-one to discuss matters important to them.

The personal message postcard has a high rate of visibility.  Often mail will be passed through from one person to another and during that time unlike a sealed letter, a postcard is visible and accessible to others.

Since the personal message postcard provides targeted and relevant information to a particular person or groups of people, it is likely that these postcards will get passed on to others in and also outside of the company.

Just keep in mind that postcards do have limited space but if you plan appropriately you can make a small piece of marketing material make a big difference in your bottom line.

Classified Ad Postcards

Unlike the picture postcards which convey a lot in imagery, or the personal message postcard which is targeted to a specific client or prospective client, the classified ad postcard is more widely and randomly distributed.

When you utilize the classified ad postcard you will want to make sure that you get the right mailing list for your postcard campaign.   Our list brokerage service can help you select the particular market community that you need to promote your financial services effectively.

These postcards work in a method similar to your classified ad pages.  If you have had good return and response to your classified newspaper ad then chances are that publication is viewed by those most likely to be your clientele.

Consider approaching the advertising department for that periodical and see if they sale or rent their readership lists.   This is entirely ethical as long as the readers know that this practice is occurring and have not opted out for these additional services from supporting or sponsoring companies.

Remember, that you may reach new clients from this list who for whatever reason may not read the classifieds – so your information is new information to them!

Be sure that the people you are targeting are specific enough to your product or service to actually have the potential to need the same.  While classified ad postcards are easy to use and inexpensive – you don’t want to waste these advertising dollars on a campaign that has little if any return for your investment.

That’s a lot of information to remember for a little simple postcard, isn’t it?   Well, there is more!  While it may seem that these details are not essential, they are.   You want to use methods that are proven as successful because every cent counts and you want your profits to be a profitable as possible.

Postcards are the minutest and focused marketing tool in your arsenal.   The area you have to work with is small!  The average-sized postcard message has to be contained in an area approximately 4 1/4 by 6 inches.    In this small space you have to:

1.  Make your Message Attract Attention
2.  Develop Interest in Your Message
3.  Create the Desire for the Benefit You Are Offering and
4.  Generate the Need to “Act Now!” in your prospect

Basically, that is the same system used in other marketing tools but the exception is that postcards offer much less space and room for error.  You need to be on target and reach your audience in a way that matters most to them quickly and effectively.

One way to do this is by the materials of the postcard.    The best and least costly cardstock to use is IVORY.   This is possibly the best color choice and offers more printing options.

While this is preferred, some people want to use a colored paper stock.  If you want to use a color other than ivory, stick with pastels such as pale yellow or blue or perhaps a light gray.

Labels vs. Handwriting

If you want your postcard to be more personalized – handwrite the address of the recipient on each card.   If you prefer a crisper, more professional look – use a label maker or your computer to create attractive labels for your postcards.   A great look if you can find someone with this talent is to hire a calligrapher to add a special touch to your postcards to give them an added elegance.

Building Your Postcard Arsenal without Breaking the Bank

Because postcards are simple to create, you can do most of the work yourself using a computer.  You really do not need special skills or equipment.   However, even though simple to create, it may be more cost-efficient and time-efficient for you to let a professional print shop service help you create your postcards as well as mail them to your database.

There are many affordable ways to get your message out there on a postcard at an economical rate per postcard.

1.  Print on plain (no printed lines) 4×6 index cards with a laser or inkjet printer.
2.  Print 4 postcards on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of card stock using a laser or inkjet printer.
3.  Print on a fan-fold 4×6 index cards using a dot matrix printer. (Office supply stores carry these fan-folded 4×6 cards in packs of 500).
4.  Print one 8 x 11 sheet of white paper with 4 postcards on it and take to a quick print shop. (You may want to burn the image file to CD and take with you for improved print time.)
5.  Type or handwrite the words you want for the printed message on your postcard.  Take this to a quick print shop and have them typeset the message and print the copies you need.  Be sure to get and keep the typeset, original copy from the print shop to save on secondary orders.

Make a Visual Statement with Your Postcard By

1.  Never using a print size smaller than 10 pt.  (12 characters per inch)
2.  Use a font that is easy to read such as Standard Courier, Times Roman, Verdana, or Helvetica.
3.  Don’t use borders with postcards.   This de-personalizes your message.   If you have a small classified section / ad you could put a border around that information.
4.  Don’t use labels – Hand write addresses or use a custom font made from your own handwriting.
5.  If you must use labels – use clear, opaque or translucent labels so that they are not as noticeable.   You could also use labels the same color as your card.
6.  Include a sender’s return address sans company name or your name unless it would be recognizable by the prospective client.
7.  Layout your return address as follows:

555  2nd Street #210
Anytown, TX  79123
(234) 555-1515

8.  Keep your message BRIEF.
9.  Personalize your message by including the person’s name or personal descriptions (i.e.  To: The New Business Owner).
10.  Use a real date on your postcards (month/day/year) or use an artificial date such as “Tuesday, 9:10 AM” – the recipient of this card can imagine that you wrote it last Tuesday at 9:10 in the morning.
11.  USE A STAMP.   People respond to a postcard with a stamp on it rather than a metered or special permit postcard.
12.  Include a toll-free number for reader to use for response and offer pre-recorded messages.
13.  Leave 3/4 Inch of Unprinted Space at the bottom to avoid having your information covered up by an automation barcode or white label utilized by the US Postal Service.

BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING

These smallest tools in your marketing arsenal can double if not triple your practice size while not costing you a small fortune to utilize.

As you were reading the ideas on how to use postcards hopefully you were able to think of some of your products or key services that you could market using this mega, yet mini, marketing resource.

Think about your operation and what you do and work to incorporate some of these tips for using postcards into your practice.

Tomorroe – Using a Client Newsletter

You have a captive audience of clients and customers how do you use that to your advantage to create engaging and interactive marketing tools that create the success you desire?   tomorrow I’ll teach you the correct way to use your client newsletter to explode your practice.

When you are thinking about  all of the steps you need to take to grow a successful business aren’t you glad you have someone on your team helping you and telling you what you can do to improve your situation?

Think of how much your life and business will improve if you put into effect at least two of the suggestions that we have given you.

We know how greatly your business will improve if you put in effect all of the suggestions – but for now, just think about two or three.  Why?  Because two or three is typically the number of key products or services any business has to promote.

When you think about how you benefit from help at this exciting, albeit perhaps somewhat scary, time in your life of growing or expanding your financial services, think about how others can benefit from your services at exciting – yet potentially scary – times in their own lives.

A huge mistake many business owners make is thinking that they have enough customers and that they no longer need to advertise.   The most successful business owners never stop advertising no matter how successful they may be.

A great financial planner is not going to sit back and say “Well, I think I have enough clients, I’m just going to stop advertising.”   If at a point you have too much for you to handle alone, perhaps it is time to expand your business or at a minimum refer them to someone qualified in your network!

Growth is not something we just give up on just because we are content with the status quo.   One quick turn of the market, one major disaster could send any business tumbling – but those with more customers are more likely to survive the storms of life that we know that it is not a matter of IF they will come, but when.

But what if you have exhausted your network lists and you have touched base with everyone that you can think of and as far as you know they have touched base with everyone that they can think of and your business is what it is and there doesn’t seem any growth on the horizon.

What do you do then to improve your direct mail marketing?

You consider a new horizon.   There is always a potential for growth if you know where to look and how to look.

Earlier we mentioned lists that could help put you in touch with people who wanted to find out more about your business.  Using our list brokerage service, not only can you get lists to help you expand your influential networking or establish those points of connection to get your breakfast club up and running (See Chapter 2) but there are lists available to you to match you with the people who might be a little bit excited but also scared at some of their recent life events and they may need your help.

People with new situations like having just moved into the area, recently purchased a new home, just got married or recently had a baby – those are the very people who need the financial services that many of us offer!

We all know that with the increasing costs of college that planning must begin even before the baby is born.   By sending out a personalized letter in your own handwritten custom font congratulating them, you are well on your way to establish a relationship with them to be able to help them and their child have the best possible chance for success.

Remember, for it to be direct mail and not junk mail – you’ve got to directly send it to a person (not just an occupant), understand some of their direct needs (not just hope you might be right) and you have to be personal and sincere.

For those of us in investing we have seen what happens when someone fails to plan – we wouldn’t wish that on any family.   The sincerity of those emotions based upon our knowledge are what convey our genuine desire to impact them directly – not just through the mail but face to face over the course of a lifetime.

When sending out “personal” direct marketing mail you want to consider these things:

1.    Color stands out.   Get rid of white envelopes and opt for a designer or decorative colored envelope.

2.    Become an old family friend.   You want your letter to be looked at as a personal message from a friend.  Make the extra effort to have your materials presented on a card that is the same size as a greeting card, or in a handwritten font like what we have mentioned so that the recipient feels extra special.

3.    Use real stamps.   Postage meters equal business mail.   When you use a stamp you are creating the impression of a warm body behind that piece of mail instead of a machine.  Your message becomes alive to the recipient.   The Post Office offers some great designs that are family-friendly, geared toward hobby enthusiasts and much more.

While situations of people just moving into the area provide us great opportunities to help a relocating family and perhaps a home-based business owner find an accountant, or a business advisor, there are many situations in life that are simply difficult with no easy way for a person to ask for help and most of the time they don’t know who to ask.

The local or county courthouses have databases of people who recently have filed for bankruptcy, purchased a new home, refinanced a mortgage, or who perhaps are experiencing the burden of a tax lien or possible foreclosure of their home or business.

By utilizing the contact information from these public records which are open to all, you can help others when they need help immediately.

In cases such as a tax lien or bankruptcy, most people don’t even think to contact a financial advisor or an accountant to help them, even though attorneys who practice in these areas make it clear that they can only advise on matters of law, not matters of finance.

The people who are facing the catastrophic losses of foreclosure or the pressures of tax liens or bankruptcy are the very people who need our help the most.  What we know that they do not know about tax liens and financial management could turn their lives around!

We owe it to them and to ourselves to make an effort to establish those lines of personal communication through direct mail that says that we understand, we know and we are here to help.

We have the resources that they don’t, starting with available lists that tell us how to get in touch with them and that provide us with a basic knowledge of what their felt needs are at that moment in their lives.

As we establish that personal connection by reaching out in a personal way, we are showing the sympathy, care and concern that will allow us to become trusted allies in some of the most difficult moments of a person’s life.

Megan, a C.P.A. in Dallas said that she often felt uncomfortable approaching people who were in a difficult financial situation.  “I have always felt like I was prying into their lives and my offer of help would just bring more pain or embarrassment.”

As Megan found out with a family that she began helping following Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of their home, their way of life and their solid future – she realized that the very people she needed to be direct with were the very people she often felt that she couldn’t be.  “Now, I know that people need me and the services I offer.  I listen to my gut more and just make more of an effort to work with people who just do not see a light in the dark. ” she explains.

Megan learned that it was not her ability to talk as much as it was her ability to listen to her client’s needs that made the difference.  She knew the situation enough having seen it before to be able to perceive the actual problems as well as potential opportunities for her clients.

She diligently worked to dig out areas where she could show empathy while demonstrating problem solving skills that brought genuine benefit to her clients.  With her services, Megan’s clients weathered a rough time in their lives and were able to feel “home, sweet home” in a different place under the new circumstances much sooner than they ever expected.

Because each potential client is different, you need to make your marketing mail different.  There is simply not one system that works for everyone every single time.   The materials of the message prompt different levels of care in creating the perfect personal direct marketing mail materials and tools.    In addition to the personal greeting card style letter some other examples you can use are:

1.    Postcards.  Because most people sort their mail at a desk with a trash can nearby, postcards are a great way to get your message across quickly and efficiently so that the recipient is most likely to pay attention to what you are sending them.   There is no envelope to open so the message is readily available.  If your postcard is oversized it is most likely to be noticed by your recipient and not run the risk of getting caught up in a sales flyer or magazine causing you to miss the opportunity of connecting with a would-be client.

For more information, be sure to check out our next chapter on Postcards.

2.    Magnetic advertising.   From business cards to calendars – magnetic advertising is a great tool to give your client that personal connection between you and them.   Some great examples are sending out a calendar with the game schedule of the local high school or professional sports teams.  In the top right-hand corner, include your photo that shows you with a warm and welcoming smile and have a personal message such as “welcome to the neighborhood” or an inspirational saying at the top.

People use magnets and every time they pass by it – you are creating that “face-to-face” or personal connection with them.

When you think about what methods of marketing work for you and which ones you consider junk mail, that will help you identify what styles of marketing materials are going to attract people who like similar things to what you like and who think like you.

In general most people respond better to:

1.    Mail that looks like it was sent by a person and not a business.

2.    Mail that is on colored materials and not white.

3.    Mail free of business names and business addresses.

4.    Mail that is printed in color not black and white.

5.    Mail that does not look mass-produced but has special attention to detail.

6.    Mail that target their needs specifically.

7.    Mail that offers a relationship and seeks a response.

For some people, a new situation letter from you may just be icing on their celebration cake, for others – that letter may be like a light in the darkness for them and be the very hope they need at that moment.  Regardless of what new situation your letter addresses, one thing for certain is that it will have a direct impact on the people it reaches and very well could create the foundation for a relationship for life with that prospective client.

In the long run, wasn’t that what you were hoping for?

BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING

In order to have the long-term success of your business you have to work to reach clients when they need you, not just when you need them.  Business are built over the long term by relationships that show that you care and that you are there to help your client facilitate positive change in their lives.

Next Stage – Build Out Plans: Postcard Marketing

Inexpensive and effective – the powerful combination for those whose budgets have little room to squeeze, in the next chapter we are going to explore the time-tested success of postcard marketing  and how you can provide a variation on an old tool to bring new life to your business!

By now you should have figured out that one of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal is your ability to establish and maintain working relationships with others that go beyond the professional and tap into the personal.   This doesn’t mean that you have to invite everyone home from Thanksgiving dinner, but it does mean that you work to make your clients feel like they are family.

Some ways you can do this are:

1.    Keep in touch.   It doesn’t have to be daily or even weekly, but at least once every two weeks you need to just touch base with your clients and see how they are doing.  At this point, learn to listen more and talk less.

Make note of what is going on in their life so that you will remember to ask about that the next time.   If the idea of doing this has you cringing in anticipation of being on the phone for an extended period of time listening to them drone on and on about difficulties in their life, set the conversation up with a simple statement that conveys limited time by letting the other person know that “I just had a few minutes between clients and wanted to call and touch base with you and see what’s going on in your life.  So, tell me something that’s good!”

At this point, very few people will bypass something positive and insist on delving into the negative.   Listen and be positive and at the end of a few minutes express how great it was getting to talk to them and then end the call.

2.    Send e-mails.  E-mails are becoming more and more popular and since you can set reminders for yourself in various email programs, you can easily remember to send out an e-mail in regards to a personal or even professional matter.

Often in conversation people will mention in passing things that are going on in their lives – like important Doctor Appointments or upcoming visits with family.

To keep lines of communication open and the relationship working, send a quick e-mail asking how the appointment was or how the visit went.   This allows you the convenience of getting the update and reading it at your leisure and not being torn between work that you have to do and personal calls for updates.

George Sutter, a HR Manager from Atlanta, says that he likes to treat his clients like family.  In fact, he frequently calls women “Sis” and the guys his “brothers”.  After watching him do this for several weeks, a new assistant looked at him and said, “Mr. Sutter, I know you have said that you come from a large family – but are all of those people really your brothers and sisters?”

Of course a general laugh was had by all and that assistant is rarely ever allowed to live down the joke.

But think about it – who would we rather have in our businesses, strangers who we didn’t connect with and who we weren’t interested in their lives, their families and how we can help them or people who we see on some level as familiar as family and who we want to generally help and who we want to be able to facilitate their success?

Of course, if we have been around people enough we know that we like working with people we like and who like us.   We know that in positive relationships, the greater the likelihood of positive things happening!

Direct Marketing taps into those emotions when used in a constructive way.   All of us get the multi-advertiser mail packets delivered once a week or every two weeks -we all know what “junk mail” is and we all know where it goes.   Genuine direct mail is not junk mail.

Direct Mail that is a tool and not trash is mail that is sent out to your networking database at specific times for specific reasons.  It is NOT included with the local fast food joints buy 1, get 1 free coupon in the local “Money Mailer” type of package.

Direct Mail is distinguished from junk mail by only going out to specific people you know, you want to know or who you want to know you.   You have done your homework with direct mail and you know the name and address of the person you are sending mail to.   A direct mail letter is never addressed to “dear occupant” or “The owner at 1234 Anywhere Street”.    That is not direct mail – that is junk mail.

Direct Mail is only effective if it follows these classifications:

1.     Direct Mail is to the point.   This is not a general informational brochure about everything your business offers.   This is detail-specific mail.   You know of a need of a person and you are taking that need.   You know of an event that is going on in their life and you just wanted to send a letter regarding that.

2.    Direct Mail is guide that leads the prospect back to you.   What good is advice that you can’t follow because you don’t know where it comes from?  Because direct mails is specific and person-to-person, it is a map that indicates to the recipient that “they are here” and in order to get out of that place in their lives, or add even more great results to their success – they need to get in touch with you as you have something that could be beneficial to them.

3.    Direct Mail is straightforward, frank, yet classy.   If you are sending a piece of direct mail to an individual it is important to know the basics of their personality and what they would appreciate most.   Some people do not appreciate humor in situations while others find laughter to be the best medicine in life.   As you work to relate with your clients on a one-on-one level, you will begin to build that natural rhythm with them and you can in turn send message that convey exactly what they need to hear in the way that they need to hear it about any situation  – without offending them.

Who Do You Send Direct Mail To?

In Chapters 2 and 3, we discussed your networking database as the people who you know, who you want to know and who you want to know you as well as told you why you needed them, how to get them and how to keep them.

Direct Marketing is another level of network marketing in that it takes your personal approach to business one step further.  With Direct Mail Marketing you take your current database of customers, potential clients and associates and you divide it into various categories or lists, based upon the information you have acquired from these people regarding them, their spouse, their children, their business, their hobbies and interests.

It is important to realize that this information is not acquired all at one time.  Instead, this is information you have gleaned over the course of many conversations, working lunches and just interacting one on one with someone.

People want to talk about their lives and the best business owners know how to listen to what they say because not only is the personal information they share important to building that personal and professional relationship but it also gives you insight into the current needs or changing needs of your service market.

Your goal with Direct Mail is to keep building your ongoing client relationships, while promoting and providing products and services all the while working to enhance and expand what you offer to meet the current and progressive needs of your clients.

You use personalized direct mail sent to your networking lists as a tool to reach this goal.

How Do You Build A List?

Your Direct Mail list as mentioned comes from your networking database.  By separating people based upon their occupations, their income levels, their life situations and so on, you can learn how to target potential clients in relevant ways.  This is important because you want your direct mail to be significant so that needs of your client are met while your advertising and promotional budget is spent wisely.

An example of this is say you are an accountant who wants to set up a side business of teaching teens and college age young adults how to handle personal finances.   To know who you would send direct marketing mail to with this offer; you have to know a little bit about the people on your database.

If you know that Jim Smith has two teenagers, one of whom is about to graduate high school – he would definitely be in this direct mail campaign as you know that potentially Jim would want his kids to learn more about handling money properly.

At the same time, Joyce, a stay at home mom whose husband works as a consultant and you handle their income taxes, has a 3 year old.  Joyce is not going to be an ideal person for you to market your class for teens and college-age young adults, because her kid is into Clifford the Big Red Dog not balancing a check book.

To create your list you analyze your database while thinking about the specific product or services you want to offer.  If a person on your list has no immediate need for that product or service, do not send them direct mail.   Instead, keep them in mind for another time, another product or another service that is most applicable to them.

Personalized Direct Mail

Instead of just sending mail out to your client you are sending personalized mail in your own handwriting for reoccurring events such as anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, etc.     If you only have a few clients and customers it would be no trouble to pick up some nice stationary and to handwrite each personal letter, sign and send.

But most of us know more than a few people and you might be saying “Wait!  My database is over 500 people so far!  I can’t write that many personalized letters in my own handwriting.  That will take me days!  I have a business to run.”

You are right, you can’t do it.

You shouldn’t do it.

We won’t tell you to do it.

You don’t have the time to sit and handwrite, sign and address each letter by hand and unless you have a staff that you can devote to doing that task – you need to pursue other options.  While we won’t tell you to handwrite hundreds if not thousands of letters, we will tell you that when a client or reciprocal business associate only receives mail from you in regard to your projects or services – they are going to feel used and unvalued.  Being valued and useful are two qualities needed to help business associates feel that the relationship between you, them and your respective companies is one to keep and enhance for many years to come.

Who would you value more – a client who only sent you sales letters or a client who sent you letters on your birthday, said congratulations on a promotion, wished you a happy holidays or celebrated the birth of your grandchild through a handwritten, personalized letter?

Most of us would have to admit we would be won over by the person who made the effort to show us that what we were experiencing in life mattered.

But, while we won’t tell you that you need to handwrite all of those thousands of notes, we will tell you that in order for your direct mail marketing to really work you are going to have to market directly to others on a personal level – the great news is your hands won’t cramp with the effort and you won’t be in danger of suffering carpel tunnel syndrome from gripping a pen or pencil.

We can do this because we offer a multitude of customized direct mail services to help you add that special touch to your marketing campaigns to make your direct mail memorable and not simply another piece of junk to pass through the shredder or get tossed in the trashcan.

Using custom font technology our Letter Shop services allow us to take your actual handwriting and create your own font in your own handwriting.   So, instead of typing your “Happy Birthday, Jim”, letter in Times Roman 12 pt.  You can type it in “Gary’s Cursive” 14 pt. And then what you type will look handwriten.

Think of how much better it would be to receive a letter that was not only in relation to something personal and not simply business but also looked as if someone took the time to handwrite it!

In this day and age, like watches being replaced by the convenience of time tracked by cell phones, the art of business writing is becoming obsolete – which makes it all the more special when we receive it because we do not expect to be treated on that level of personalization.

While it should sadden most of us that the days of handwritten notes are a thing of the past and e-mails have often replaced post mail, this is a way to have the best of both worlds and combine new technology with traditional courtesies that still mean a lot in the business world and make an enduring statement to your clients and associates that very well could matter for a lifetime.

How to Write a Personalized Direct Mail Letter

Most of us learned how to write letters by third grade, but with the advent of computers, formal letter writing is becoming a lost art and personal letter writing is corroding just as quickly into an abbreviated form of quick expression acceptable to online communications.

When writing a personalized letter, make sure that you use a greeting that is appropriate but also friendly.   Rory Johnson, Manager of a Tax Preparation Company in Virginia finds that he likes to write out the formal name of his clients and then alter the letter by handwriting in a less formal greeting.

For example, his salutation might say “Dear Dr. Heindel” but then he with a pen will put a diagonal line through the salutation and write in “Mark”.    This is appropriate because he and Mark are golf buddies and while he wants to keep an air of professionalism and respect his friend’s title as a doctor, he also wants to ensure that he sets the tone for a more personalized letter that allows him the opportunity to speak sincerely and directly to Mark/Dr. Heindel not only as Business Owner to Client but as friend to friend.

If you want to, you could just utilize and personalize the information this way:

{Date}

{Firstname Lastname}

{Address}

{City, State Zip}

Dear {Firstname},

By using the Firstname of the individual in the greeting you are establishing a personal connection that you will continue throughout the letter.  In addition to being a “first-name basis” style letter, a personalized direct mail letter will get to the point quickly.

Rory, the manager of the Tax Preparation Company knows that the Doctor is looking for ways to save money on his upcoming filing.   That will be the point presented first in the letter followed by some details and information about new information that the manager has found to help Mark save money.

The summary of this letter will be Mark being provided with the personal contact information of the manager to reach him at a time that is convenient to Mark (since the manager knows that Mark is often on-call and may not be able to keep normal business hours).

Take a look at what our note looks like on the next page …

Dear Mark,

We had discussed recently your desire to incorporate new methods to lower your tax obligations while accelerating the growth of your individual practice.  This week new tax law changes were forwarded to me and I would like to meet with you to discuss those in greater detail.  I believe that in just a 30 minute conversation, together we can plan action steps for optimizing your business expenditures for this year while not infringing upon your overall bottom line, which if things go as last year should be very profitable for you!

Let me know when you have a few moments next week to discuss these issues.  If you would prefer we could talk about this during lunch after we go a few rounds at the country club.   My personal number is 555-374-7575.  Please call me at your convenience as my schedule is more flexible than yours.  I look forward to hearing from you before our golf game this Saturday, if not I will be prepared to share with you more information on how to save you big money this tax season.

Sincerely yours,

Rory Johnson

By using the information Rory has by golfing with Dr. Heindel/Mark as well as having worked with him on a professional level preparing taxes for him,  Rory knows that Mark wants to save money on taxes.

He also knows that Mark’s schedule needs to be taken in consideration and that he needs to make himself available at times more convenient to Mark or simply ask Mark when a convenient time would be for the two of them to get together and maybe even suggest lunch time after a round of golf that upcoming weekend.  With direct mail it is important to make that return path of contact as easy as possible for the other person.

And by receiving a letter from Rory in what appears to be Rory’s own handwriting, Mark accepts the message as personal and trusted.

By using personal information wisely and effectively, you are able to keep your ear to the ground and listen for any new service or product that you may be able to offer your client or perhaps how a current product or service could be enhanced to provide better results.

The Residual Benefits of Direct Mail

Think about why you are in business in the first place – sure you want to have a good life, provide for your family, but you also want to do something that makes a difference to someone.  A lady I know still talks about how when she was a paralegal, assisting counsel for the attorney she worked for at the end of a long and arduous case, set her flowers with a handwritten note thanking her for all of her hard work.

Today, she is a life coach and mentor and she STILL uses that example to tell others the important of business writing, personalized writing and going above and beyond to relate to the people you work with on a professional level in a personal way.  “It made my day”, she often says, “I was a single mom, working full-time and just to have someone acknowledge me in that way for a job well-done meant a world of difference to me.”

She later described how these attorneys out of Colorado that she only worked with briefly for just a few months, sent her a card two years later congratulating her on her marriage.

If someone needs an attorney in Denver, she always sends them to these two attorneys, partners in a prominent law firm up there.   All of that influence from a bunch of flowers, one small handwritten card and a personally signed greeting card telling her congratulations!

She is a paralegal, now she is a life coach with influence over hundreds of people at a time telling people about these two great attorneys that are “real gentlemen”!     That is the kind of results networking combined with personalized direct mail can make.

Like the personalized messages from those two attorneys in Denver, personalized handwritten letters sent directly to your clients on birthdays and anniversaries will set you apart as a consummate professional.  You increase your level of respect by increasing your level of devotion to ensuring that your associates and clients feel valuable to you.

Direct Mail is collateral marketing tools that you use, not to get the sale, or to generate interest but as a genuine action that nails down the commitment to that all-important personal and professional relationship by making an additional effort that few even attempt to make.

You have created a business card that is uniquely you, a logo that is uniquely your company, a pitch specifically designed around your products and services and a network arsenal that starts from who you are and extends to the very people who you want to know, the next step is to be direct in your direct mail and don’t hide behind trash mail, but get personalized and generate marketing mail that makes the difference!

BLUEPRINTS FOR BUILDING

Use personalized custom font services to generate handwritten notes to your clients in half the time but benefit from all of the effort!

Increase client awareness, recognition and respect by making the effort where it counts most – in your personal, not just professional, relationship.

Tomorrow – Hitting the Target

Tomorrow I will teach you how to strike while the iron is hot and reach potential customers when they need you most, not when you need them most.  Learn how to use another level of Direct Mail Marketing for their – and ultimately your benefit!

Previously we discussed why you should network and who you should network with.   While both of those areas provide key information you need to expand your networking arsenal, nothing provides you with the tools you need to network more that instructions on HOW to network.

No matter what level of networking you are building up there is one key fact to remember – relationships matter!   People want to work with others that they like, who they can trust and businesses that they feel value them on a direct level and want to work to meet their needs.   No one likes to be just another client or just another name in a database.  We all want a reciprocal relationship with those we do business with and those we do business with want the same from us.

How do we build that reciprocal relationship?  By creating opportunities to have one-on-one interactions with others or to socialize with them in settings that are not necessarily business related.

Working Lunches

Matthew Jones operates a successful accounting firm in the South and one thing he has learned throughout the years is that business lunches are a great tool to establish that relationship in his networking circle of people he “wants to know”.

During these lunches, he just meets with various business owners that he believes may be a potential asset to his business and he interacts with them.  He doesn’t pitch his products initially, he does not try to establish affiliate marketing with them – he just works on the personal relationship.  He learns about the other person.

Matthew explains that most of his meetings start with just 5 – 10 minutes of general conversation about their families or hobbies, then Matthew will spend time listening to the other person for about 15 – 20 minutes as they discuss their business or answer some of the questions he might ask.  After that, Matthew has about 5 minutes to pitch or to talk about his business.

While the balance of time seems disproportionate and it seems that if your final goal was to get people to talk about your business – why wouldn’t you spend the majority of the time discussing your business instead of listening to theirs?

In Networking, ultimately our goal is to expand our business, but in order to do that – we have to value the businesses and services of others.   As we tap into the resources of like-minded business owners who perhaps we have met through one of our associations or professional memberships, we can learn to offer our services to help expand their business and then in turn, others will naturally want to help us expand ours.

When you invite someone to lunch to find out more about their business for the point of being able to refer their services to others, it is important that you really focus on learning about their business.

Ask this person what their ideal client looks like?   This will help you to know who they like working with and who would be best for you to refer to them.

Ask how you can easily recognize their potential clients?   Often a client is recognizable by situations that define their life at that moment, especially major life transitions such as divorce, marriage, loss of spouse, birth of child, and so on.

Ask what information they would like for you to share with a potential client?  Some possibilities could be name, contact number, website address and key products or services.

This information will be gathered during the majority of 30-minute lunch time.  While it may be tempting, even if they are interested in learning more about your company, resist the urge to extend the lunch date beyond the 30 minutes and instead schedule a time to meet with them at a later date.

This values their business – which is why you invited them to lunch in the first place! – while also giving you more time to think about what aspects of your business would be best and most easily promoted by the other person.

What do you do with the information once you get it?

After awhile you are going to begin to notice that you are getting more and more contacts and more and more people are finding out about you as you utilize your growing network of contacts and referrals from family, friends and other businesses.

It is wise to establish a database or a spreadsheet with key information about every person in your immediate network so that you can complete easy filter searches or glean the specific information you need when you want to promote a new product or service that you believe they or someone they know may be interested in.

Additionally, a great way to build the personal relationship behind the professional one is to think about ways you can provide an ongoing service to the people in your network in addition to the occasional lunch or dinner get-together.

Maybe you would like to offer enrichment training, or host a special monthly meeting inviting a guest speaker to speak on a relevant topic for most business owners such as organization, changes in business tax laws or ways to increase profits through marketing.

While taking charge of that may seem like a monumental task, make the investment into the businesses and the success of others and in return watch your own business and your success grow.  Others will appreciate the time spent on their behalf and your efforts will continue to ensure that you are valuing their business as well as being valued for yours.

Breakfast Clubs

Another great networking tool is to establish a breakfast club.  While that may sound even more difficult that you imagined, can you really build your own breakfast club? Yes!

If you’re still trying to answer the question “How can I get more prospects? I’ve worn out my warm market, and new prospects take months to build a relationship with. What can I do?”

Welcome to the breakfast club concept. I’m going to show you how to easily start your own breakfast club.  Almost anybody can put a breakfast club together and have lots of presold marketing prospects coming to him or her on a weekly basis. It’s a great way to build a business without cold-call prospecting and rejection. In fact, I can’t think of a better way to build strong relationships.

You don’t get just a name or a referral with properly conducted breakfast clubs. You get a presold prospect asking to use your services. That’s every practitioner’s dream. Imagine a presold prospect calling you up and saying, “I’d like to use your payroll services. Could you show me how I could get started?”

You don’t have to be a super salesperson to sign up this kind of presold prospect.

If you are tired of prospecting the old way with rejection, expenses, wasted time and energy . . . well then, you’ll love the efficiency and the fun of building your practice through a breakfast club. All you need to do is learn how to do it.

Now, it would be easy for the president of the local Chamber of Commerce to put together a successful breakfast club. All he would have to do is pick up the telephone and invite a dozen or two of his good buddies. Unfortunately, most of us can’t duplicate that.

So here are the tricks and techniques you need to make your breakfast clubs the best in your home town.

Your Objective

You want to build a breakfast club of entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Why?

Because it’s one of the easiest and best ways to build your professional payroll practice.

Each member of the breakfast club will gladly presell and send you qualified prospects for your payroll service. Imagine that! Instead of looking for cold prospects, you’ll spend your time giving presentations to presold prospects who can’t wait to get started with your service.

Won’t that be a change from your normal prospecting activities?

And the best part is that you’ll never have to worry about rejection or embarrassment. These presold prospects want to use your services. They were presold by your fellow club members. All you have to do is fill in a few details.

That sounds great . . . but why will my breakfast club members send me these hot, presold prospects?

There are three reasons people use your services.

First, because they know you. Prospects only buy from people they know. They don’t buy from strangers.

Your breakfast club members will presell you, your background, and your opportunity to these prospects. When you actually meet the prospects, they will already feel that they know you.

Second, your prospects will instantly like you. Prospects only buy from people they like. They don’t buy from people they dislike. Your breakfast club members presell prospects on what a wonderful, likable person you are. And you are likable, aren’t you?

Third, your prospects will trust you. You don’t buy from people you distrust, do you? Neither will your prospects. Your breakfast club members’ high recommendation of you will give prospects instant trust in you. That’s one of the biggest hurdles in marketing your payroll service. If prospects don’t trust you, they won’t use you.

Breakfast clubs make prospecting easy, fun, and efficient. What more could you ask for in a prospecting method?

The Challenge

Location, Location, Location

The first thing you need to do is find a location for the breakfast club. No room, no meeting, right?

You can start by driving around town surveying restaurants, seeing which are closest to the main streets and had the best parking facilities.

Now you have to go into the restaurants, check out the interiors, and talk to restaurant managers.

How To Find That Right Restaurant

When you decide to start hosting a breakfast club, you will need to determine where to have it. Picking the type of restaurant and area becomes very important. If possible, the restaurant should have a private meeting room. That room must be able to accommodate the group size you would like to establish.

You might find a small restaurant that has just opened and would love to have more business from you hosting a breakfast club. Maybe you’ll find a restaurant that has small crowds for breakfast because they are known as a lunch-and-dinner restaurant. Or, if you’re really lucky, you’ll find the most popular breakfast restaurant in town that happens to have an empty meeting room every Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

If you have problems locating a restaurant, get in touch with the area Chamber of Commerce. They will know or be able to recommend a restaurant you can contact. This is their job. They want to help their member businesses, so don’t be shy about asking your local Chamber of Commerce for help.

Now you can arrange your meetings at the greatest restaurant in the city, but if there are no businesses in the area, it will be a lot more difficult to start your club. It’s too hard to make busy business owners drive extra miles to their breakfast club meetings, so find a location close to your potential members.

Conversely, if there are quite a few businesses in the area, some breakfast groups may already be meeting at that particular location. That’s okay. Most of their members will want to join your club because you don’t charge dues, are non-political, and you insist that members give other members presold, prequalified prospects. More about that later.

The Hunt Is On

Start talking to managers at the smaller restaurants. they’ll be a lot friendlier and might really appreciate the extra business. Plus, there are plenty of small restaurants. When you are building your confidence, it’s easy to start small. It’s easy to eliminate many restaurants. They weren’t open at 7:30 in the morning. Of the remaining restaurants you’ll learn two things:

First, the managers are underpaid and overworked people just like you and me. Most have less self-confidence. They will be a lot nicer than you expect. You don’t get promoted to become a manager if you’re an outright jerk, so your brief visits with the managers will be tolerable.

Second, most managers are afraid to make a decision. I guess they feel that if they never make a decision, then they can never be blamed for a bad decision. Most of your conversations will end with the manager saying, “Oh, I don’t know if we could do that. We have never done something like this before. I’ll get back to you.”

The managers will seldom give an outright “No.” They would rather think it over and never get back to you. They may be training for a corporate position. They certainly don’t run a restaurant like an entrepreneur would.

Some managers have complete control over what happens in their restaurants, while others have to check out every little detail with the owner. By the end of your initial conversation with the restaurant manager, you’ll know which type you are dealing with.  Be persistent about what you want, but don’t overdo it or irritate your potential host. That restaurant manager just might refer you some valuable leads of business people who will want to join your breakfast club!

Well, every restaurant in town won’t turn you down. Some of the restaurants really do want the extra business of professional people meeting for breakfast. The key to a good location though, is that you must really like the manager.

When you first approach the manager, ask, “I see you have a meeting room in the back of the restaurant. Is it busy every day? Is it busy in the mornings? Would you like a group of business people to have breakfast here every week?”

His reply will probably be something like …

“It’s open most of the mornings and Tuesday is our slowest day. I’m not sure we would want to commit the room to you every Tuesday, though. What if your new club doesn’t bring in many people?”

At this point you haven’t even contacted your first prospective breakfast club member yet.

Compromise.

See if you can at least have the room for one month. That’s all the time you need to see if the club is going to be successful.  If it is, the manager will give you the exclusive use of the room forever. If the club isn’t going to be successful, you won’t need the room anyway.

Start With A Small Commitment

When talking to restaurant managers, remember that they hate to make decisions and commitments. Help them feel comfortable by only asking for a small commitment. Ask to use the back room or the back of the restaurant for only one month, or for only two weeks.

If your club is successful, the manager will extend your stay. Even if the manager won’t extend your stay, it’s a simple matter of telling your breakfast club members that you are going to meet at a different restaurant the following week. It will be easy to get space at another restaurant if your club is already established.

What Are The Best Days? The Best Times?

The best days to host a breakfast club are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Weekends are the toughest. Mondays and Fridays are possibilities, but the mid-week days bring the fewest objections from your potential members.

However, don’t be discouraged if you have to negotiate a day that might not be convenient for some types of businesses. I know one Monday group which has over 20 active members!

Keep your meetings only one hour in length, and meet from 7:30 to 8:30 in the mornings. That’s not too early and you can always finish in plenty of time for the members to be at work by 9 o’clock. This gives you plenty of time to have your official meeting, eat breakfast, visit and network.

Now, let’s move on to the next step in organizing your breakfast club, getting some members.

The Membership Drive

With a one-month restaurant commitment under your belt, you are now ready to get your club’s first members.

You have your restaurant lined up, the meeting day is locked in, and now you are ready to start locating members for your club.

How Not To Find Members

Calling people from the Yellow Pages is not a good idea. However, if you enjoy a tremendous amount of rejection, then you have just found the ideal way to build your breakfast club.

The only positive side in using the Yellow Pages is that it eliminates all the driving around your city, looking for business cards on community bulletin boards.

Take the local Yellow Pages for the part of the city you live in and started calling the listed businesses. Logically, you may start with the letter “A.” You’ll call accountants, then the attorneys, and even move on to the bankers before you discover the response to be more than underwhelming. You’ll discover that all the hardest and most unfriendly businesses at the beginning of the alphabet.

Ask yourself, “What are the easiest professions to get interested in a breakfast club?”

That’s going to be insurance agents. They are always looking for prospects any way that they can get them.

Seriously though, most professions are good candidates for joining your breakfast club. It just depends on how you approach them and how many you approach. And your approach can be in two steps.

Step one might be the original telephone call or letter of introduction.

Step two might be an actual visit to the business owner to answer questions or just to let him see that there is an honest, sincere person promoting the breakfast club.

How Many Ways Can A Small Business Owner Say “No”?

Many small business owners don’t see and realize the potential benefits of networking with other small business owners.

Have realistic expectations. You will have some businesses say “Yes” (far-sighted deep thinkers, wanting and needing business) and quite a few businesses saying “No.”

There are some things in life most business people will not be interested in. One of those things is being the first person to join a new breakfast club.

Here are some of the responses you’ll receive:

* “That’s sounds interesting. Give me some time and I will think about it.”

* “So, what’s in this for me?”

* “I have way too much business right now.” (Yeah, I really believed that one.)

* “I don’t even like that restaurant’s food.”

* “Does anybody really get up that early?”

It will be especially hard if you learn that only a few people have ever heard of a breakfast club. Then you have to start from the beginning to explain what a breakfast club is before you can even talk about the benefits of joining. You’ll meet plenty of glazed-eyed, bored business owners before you get halfway through your presentation.

An Easier Way To Find Members

Watch your mailbox.  One day you’ll receive a “money mailer” in the mail.  What’s a “money mailer”?

Money mailer ad packs are packages of advertising brochures from some of the small businesses around your local area. In your area they might be called something else such as a card deck or value pack. Or maybe you have an advertising medium that’s a bit different in your area. Maybe you have a special newspaper or magazine that advertises local businesses that want more customers.

Every advertiser in the “money mailer” that you will receive paid to be there. These advertisers spend their hard-earned money looking for new customers. They want more business. They want more business now. These people may want to join your breakfast club.

Think about it. You may find a chiropractor or a florist from one ad pack.

The chiropractor? It may take a few weeks of coaxing to get him to even come to the breakfast club. When he does, he may bring a friend with him. Probably a friend who is also looking for a breakfast club.

You will find this will happen frequently. Someone will come to your breakfast and brings a friend along. Maybe it’s the safety in numbers thinking. Or, possibly people are afraid that no one will talk with them so they’ll bring along a conversation partner. No matter what the reason for bringing a friend, it makes your job easier.

The visitors see the low-key fun atmosphere of your breakfast clubs – and they join.Some advertisers will promise to be there the following week. Usually the ones who have just opened their business and want to join a club to promote their services.

These people will actually thank you for calling and inviting them to your breakfast club.

Look For Members Who Want New Customers Now

If a small businessman or professional actively advertises for more customers, they will want to join your breakfast club. Your next strategy should be to check out advertising boards where people place their business cards.

Have you ever been in the local supermarket and noticed the community bulletin board? Many small business entrepreneurs will have their card thumbtacked to the board.  Maybe they’ll even post a nice little ad.

You can find these bulletin boards everywhere. If you go to a graphic supply house, many printers, artists, designers and other related professions will have their business cards prominently displayed on that bulletin board.

Sometimes even a restaurant will have a bulletin board. The restaurant is happy to offer this free advertising to the small business entrepreneurs and professionals who eat at their establishment. Almost any retail business can have a bulletin board, usually at the store entrance.

Bulletin boards are a virtual gold mine of people who are looking for business. These business owners and salespeople went to the trouble of distributing their business cards. A lot of them will gladly check out a new way to get business, your breakfast club.

All business entrepreneurs and professionals are interested in a low-cost business campaign. When you explain to a small business owner or commissioned sales person that it is a free club (the only expense is his breakfast) he will usually make a visit to see if the club can work for him.

Never remove the business card from the bulletin board. You don’t want to be accused of trashing someone’s advertising campaign.

Simply take a pad of paper with you and write down the name and telephone number from the business cards that look interesting.If you develop a brochure or any printed material that describes your breakfast club, you could mail it.  This is an easy way to build your breakfast club.

Next, start calling the people from the business cards posted on the various bulletin boards. Most of these people will be genuinely thrilled to hear of your idea of generating presold prospects at a weekly breakfast club. What a difference you’ll experience when you call someone who deliberately leaves business cards around town and wants more business now.

You may also go to the Chamber of Commerce and get their membership list. If you invite people from the Chamber to your breakfast club, remember this. Chamber members might have a Chamber of Commerce breakfast one day a month. If this falls on your breakfast morning, you are apt to have a few missing members.

Chamber of Commerce members already trade leads among themselves. They are pre-trained and don’t need much explanation about your breakfast club and your benefits. However, they have been trading cold leads, just names and phone numbers. And these types of leads are barely more qualified than a cold call.

Your breakfast club needs to trade presold prospects. There’s a big difference. These are ready to buy, ready to join prospects. They are looking forward to your call. The selling has already been done. This fact will thrill Chamber of Commerce members who have been wasting their time following up unqualified leads. More about these presold leads later.

Finally, Chamber of Commerce members are only interested in one thing: their business. So, when you contact Chamber of Commerce members, simply talk about the breakfast club. Later on they’ll discover that your business is a payroll service, but then it will be okay.

At the breakfast club they’ll learn that you aren’t meeting to do business with each other. You are meeting to do business with each other’s warm market.

Later on, you’ll find many more ways to locate new members. However, you probably won’t have to expand your marketing much further beyond these three techniques:

1. “Money mailers” and small newspaper and magazine ads.

2. Bulletin Boards.

3. Chamber of Commerce.

These three markets will get your initial members. Once you have some initial members . . . magic happens.

First, many other small businesses hear about your free breakfast club. They want to join.

Second, other restaurant patrons will question the manager about your meeting. If they have a small business or profession, they’ll ask you if they can join.

And third, once your group gets settled, the members will recommend their fellow business contacts with just a bit of prompting from you. Yes, your members will fill up your breakfast club for you. More about that later too.

The Approach

In the beginning, I would tell the business owner or sales person, “I’m starting a breakfast club and you can be one of the charter members.”

If you enjoy eating breakfast alone, and you want to grow your breakfast very, very slowly, you can go this route. No one wants to be the first member.

It won’t take you long to change your approach. Start telling prospective members that your breakfast club is already up, active, and running. That one change in your presentation will reduce your initial no-shows from 99% down to only 20% right away.

What To Say On The Telephone When You Invite Prospective Members To Your Breakfast Club

The first thing you want to do is organize the business cards or names of businesses that you have collected. Let’s say that you have the names and telephone numbers of a banker, a florist, an insurance sales person, and a printer.

Pick up the telephone and call the banker and say, “We have a free breakfast club that meets every Tuesday morning from 7:30 to 8:30 at the Hard Biscuit Cafe. There are no membership dues. All you do is pay for your own breakfast. It’s a great place to network and get new, presold customers for your business. I’d like to invite you to come join the printer, the insurance salesman, the florist and myself next Tuesday morning.”

The banker thinks, “Hmmm. Maybe I can get some new customers and business contacts from the printer, the insurance salesman, and the florist. Plus, I have to eat some breakfast anyway. Maybe I’ll meet some interesting people. Sure beats grabbing a quick Egg McMuffin(tm) from McDonald’s.”

Next, you telephone the printer and say, “We have a free breakfast club that meets every Tuesday morning from 7:30 to 8:30 at the Hard Biscuit Cafe. There are no membership dues. All you do is pay for your own breakfast. It’s a great place to network and get new, presold customers for your business. I’d like to invite you to come join the banker, the insurance salesman, the florist and myself next Tuesday morning.”

The printer thinks, “Wow! Maybe I can get to know the banker on a personal level. That sure would help me if I needed a loan to expand my business and buy more presses. Sounds like a great idea to me. And that insurance salesman probably needs new business cards too.”

Then, you telephone the insurance salesperson and say, “We have a free breakfast club that meets every Tuesday morning from 7:30 to 8:30 at the Hard Biscuit Cafe. There are no membership dues. All you do is pay for your own breakfast. It’s a great place to network and get new, presold customers for your business. I’d like to invite you to come join the banker, the printer, the florist and myself next Tuesday morning.”

The insurance salesperson thinks, “Hey, hey, hey! Three or four hot prospects at one meal. It doesn’t get any better than this. These are qualified prospects with money. They’re business people. And I bet I can get a lot of referrals from them too!”

Finally, you telephone the florist and say, “We have a free breakfast club that meets every Tuesday morning from 7:30 to 8:30 at the Hard Biscuit Cafe. There are no membership dues. All you do is pay for your own breakfast. It’s a great place to network and get new, presold customers for your business. I’d like to invite you to come join the banker, the insurance salesman, the printer and myself next Tuesday morning.”

The florist thinks, “Hey, I’d like to get that fresh flower account at the bank. And I’m sure the life insurance agent needs to send flowers to all the funerals of his policyholders. Sounds like a great way to get some more business.”

You get the idea. Nobody wants to be alone. Your members will want to come to your breakfast club because of the other members they’ll meet. Let them know in your invitation about the different types of businesses that are represented.

Of course, not every member or every person you invite can show up that Tuesday morning. People realize business people have busy and conflicting schedules. However, your members won’t mind that many people are absent. In fact, they don’t even know how many people you invited. Your members are only concerned about the friendship and networking with the people who are present.

So, invite a lot of different businesses. The more you invite the larger the attendance. And, if you invite plenty of people, you won’t even miss the no-shows because you’ll be busy helping the members who are present.

The Reminder Call

If your breakfast club meets on Tuesday morning, guess what you’ll be doing on Monday. You’re right. Making those reminder telephone calls.

Busy business owners really appreciate that you remind them about tomorrow’s club meeting for the first few times. Your breakfast club is not their number one priority. So many things happen between the time of your initial invitation and Tuesday morning, that it will almost take a miracle for the new businessperson to remember about your club meeting.

So be kind and considerate and give each businessperson a quick reminder call on Monday. Once your members have attended a few meetings, you won’t have to give them reminder calls. Your breakfast club meeting will already have become an important part of their weekly schedule and marketing campaign.

And lastly, you will want to know just how many business people plan to attend tomorrow’s breakfast club meeting. You can get an approximate count of tomorrow’s attendance through these dual purpose reminder calls. If your response is underwhelming, there’s still time to jump on the telephone and invite a whole new group of prospective members.

“So Why Are You Doing This? What’s In It For You?”

On your first contact with your prospective members, expect them to be a bit skeptical or distrustful of your intentions. It’s a natural sales-resistant gene that all business people have.

Some of the questions you’ll hear on your first contact are: “You mean there are no membership dues? Then what’s in it for you? Why are you organizing and running this breakfast club? What’s the catch?”

I always answer, “I own my own marketing business. I get pre-sold prospects just like the rest of our members.” This seems to satisfy most people.

If you are brave (and masochistic), you can say, “I’m in the payroll processing business and it’s a great way to get more clients.” This answer will increase your no-shows at your next breakfast club meeting to almost 100%.

The people that you contact with this approach will naturally assume that you really want them to become your customers. Let me suggest that you do not use this approach. Instead, explain that breakfast clubs are an excellent way to get new customers, and everyone gets the exact same thing that you get from it: presold pre-qualified prospects.

Busy business people want to come to your breakfast club to further their business interests, to get presold prospects for their business, and to make networking contacts for their business. They do not attend so that they can listen to a dozen marketing presentations complete with an easel and product display. Save your marketing presentation until it is your turn to be the guest speaker at the breakfast club.”

That Sounds Pretty Good, But Just Mail Me Your Brochure.

“If your prospect is really skeptical, but still wants to be polite, he’ll say, “That sounds pretty good, but just mail me your brochure. I’ll read it and get back to you.”You don’t have to be a sales trainer to recognize that your prospect is putting you off. Your prospect is just looking for a nice way to say “No” without hurting your feelings and prolonging the conversation.

That’s okay. Not every person you contact has to join your breakfast club. In fact, you’ll only accept one person in each business or profession. So don’t worry about the skeptics.

Instead, concentrate on those prospects who jump at the chance to join. These are the enthusiastic and active people that you want. It’s not a matter of how many members you have in your club it’s the quality that counts. You’ll have a great breakfast club with eight members who consistently provide presold prospects each Tuesday morning. You’ll have a worthless breakfast club if you have 20 members who never provide a single presold prospect.

They also will ask you the name of your breakfast club, and they will want to have some written information on it.

So should you send the skeptical prospects a brochure describing your breakfast club?

Sure. Be polite. Maybe the businessperson just had a bad day or a bad experience in the past.

You can create your own brochure that focuses on your breakfast club’s benefits. I like the question and answer approach in the brochure as most people have a lot of questions about these breakfast club meetings.

You can start your breakfast club much faster if you already have a brochure. Why?

Here are a few reasons:

* It’s something to give a businessperson when you make a personal call. It adds credibility to your morning meeting.

* It’s perfect to stuff into an envelope as a follow-up to a telephone invitation to a prospective member.

* It answers the questions of a new member. It tells them what the club really does and what they can expect.

* Your present members can pass out this brochure to get additional members for your club. You’ll find a sample brochure at the end of this section.  You may use it as is or use it as a guide to help you create your own personal breakfast club brochure.

Last Thoughts About Your Brochure

If you had carry a brochure with you when calling on breakfast club prospects, here is what you should say when the business owner is interrupted with a customer:

“Looks like more business for you, so let me leave this brochure with you so that you can read it at your leisure. I’ll give you a call back in a day or two and see if you have any questions about how we’re going to help you get even more business, okay?”

The owner will appreciate your courtesy and have all the pertinent details to look at later. This isn’t, by any means, a high-pressure, force-somebody-to-join club. It’s a club for volunteers, business people who want more business and who are willing to trade presold prospects.

Your First Breakfast Club Meeting

It is only after you learned how to approach people, and what to say that other members will begin to attend your breakfast club.

When you get your first full meeting, you’ll be really excited. You’ll be confident and know that this breakfast club idea will work.

And best of all, the other new members will be glad to be there. After you explain what the breakfast club can mean to their business, they will literally thank you for the opportunity to join me for breakfast. Small businesses spend fortunes in advertising and promotion to attract just a few new customers. This breakfast club could get them more and better-qualified customers for the price of a single breakfast.

Now things were looking up, you’re on your way.Wrong.

Next, the restaurant manager will call and say, “You can’t have your breakfast club meetings here any more. I need your room for a larger group.”Oh well, so much for the manager’s part of the commitment.

So move the breakfast club. The next morning have your breakfast club meeting in the main dining area. You’ll have some new people, and lose some of the old ones, but you’re on your way!

Do you know what? The members don’t really care where you meet. They are more interested in the fact that you meet. So, moving to another restaurant is easy. The members just wanted to meet. Find a new location.

You’ll probably be able to get a new restaurant location for the following week easily because your breakfast club is already established and has active members.

Simply tell the new restaurant manager, “Our breakfast club meets every Wednesday. We need a private room. Last week eight of our members voted to get a new location, so I thought I would talk to you first in case you wanted the extra business.”

The Holidays

Your core group will grow but then break up for the holidays. Tell the group that you will meet again the second week of January.The day before the breakfast club is to resume (after the holidays) call to remind every member about tomorrow’s breakfast club meeting. Some people will respond that they might bring a guest, and some will say that they are too busy to continue.

The upshot, a bigger and better group. Here’s what happens.

Many of your new attendees will have been invited before the holidays. Since the holidays are hectic for most businesses, those people choose not to attend until after the holidays. But then, they are ready to join the club, and they simply show up!

The Holiday Lesson

The new members in attendance should really get you thinking. Don’t write off the people who tell you “No” or “I’ll think about it.” Don’t just assume that their decision was final. Not so. Don’t write off the people that you have invited if they don’t show up immediately. Sometimes the timing isn’t right for them. Maybe they are just busy, or cautious. Some business people will carefully monitor your breakfast club to see if it continues to meet regularly. Once they are convinced you are dedicated and stable, they’ll join.

The Co-Ownership Lesson

As your breakfast club grows, you’ll discover that the club means more to some members than it does to others. Some members couldn’t imagine living without a weekly breakfast club. They enjoy meeting other business people and talking about the challenges they face. It’s lonely out there if you’re an entrepreneur. These members look forward to the networking and trading of presold prospects. This breakfast club will mean a lot to them.

Sure, you will put the breakfast club together and guide the direction of the club. In the begiining you’ll run the weekly meeting. Even though all the members realize that this is your breakfast club, it will reach a point that you won’t even have to show up and the breakfast club meeting will proceed just fine without you. Dedicated club members will continue to network, share, and conduct business without you.

Making Your Breakfast Meeting A True Co-Op Effort

You want to always encourage your breakfast club members to invite new guests. The fresh new faces make every breakfast meeting more exciting. It’s hard for a guest to attend and not want to join. So let your present members feel like they are a part of your club and continuously remind them to bring a friend to the next meeting. You are effectively turning over your membership drive duties to your club. Your job gets easier and easier.

When asking members to invite a friend, remind them of your one member per business category rule. If you already have a printer who is a member, you don’t want anyone to bring a printer as a guest. Only one printer per club, only one life insurance agent per club, etc. Plus, inviting another printer would be unfair to the guest. The guest would see the wonderful benefits of the breakfast club, but could not join.

What do you do when a breakfast club member brings a guest that duplicates another member’s business? After the meeting, talk with the guest and thank him for coming. If the guest wishes to join, tell him you will put him on a waiting list and he will have first option to join when your present member quits.

Or better yet, if you have already started another breakfast club on a different day, maybe there will be an opening for the guest at your other club.  Interesting growth potential isn’t it?

Something Special for Friends and Family

While it is true that most of your networking will involve those who are not part of your core networking group – the group that helped you to get where you are at, it is essential to not let success interfere with you friends and family.   A great way to do this is incorporate them into the celebrations of your life at times other than major holidays!

There are many easy ways you can do this using formats that are already in place and successful, the first way is host a party!

Whether you have been in business for several years with little success, are launching a new product, or just opening your doors, a celebration with your family and friends for a Grand Opening or a Grand Re-opening is just what you – and they – need to keep the relationship growing for all involved.

With close friends and family, a great tool to use is to invite them over for dinner and conversation, host a backyard BBQ or host a good old-fashioned ice cream social and board games night.   Food, Fun and Fellowship are key ways to let the people you know realize that you appreciate their contributions to your success.

When you plan your networking social for your family and friends, make it special!  Have a printer design specialty products with your logo on them and give these items out to the people in your core networking group.   Think outside of the box of mugs, pencils and magnets – add items like t-shirts, bumper stickers or window decals, sport bottles – of these items are mobile marketing tools that allow your closest network of friends and family become walking advertisements for your businesses while just adding another level of fun and conversation to the evening.

Envision your nephew walking around with a shirt that says “I know the answer!” on the front and on the back has your website address.   The first question anyone is going to ask when they see your nephew is “What is it that you know the answer to?”  Of course his answer will be to show them your web address and says “What you need for your business!”  How about a shirt for the most outgoing friend of yours that says something like “If you think I look great, you should see my bottom line.” – followed by your website address.

Think of your products and services and get creative with the marketing tools you give to those in your core group.

Virginia Ranger might have a “dedicated service for your payroll needs” but she also has a catchy t-shirt for her friends and family that says “Get Paid” followed by her web address.   She even took her idea on step further and presented a year long challenge to her nieces and nephews.

For every referral they were able to generate, she put their name on a slip of paper and added it to a box.  At the end of the year, she drew a name and gave that person $1500!   Talk about an incentive to tell someone about your aunt’s business!

The Changing Needs of Marketing

Marketing has changed over the last decade with the boom of the internet and rise of rss feeds, blogs and podcasts, making every business have the potential for easy accessibility. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, don’t worry, in a few more chapters we will discuss electronic marketing and you will be speaking the latest marketing lingo like a pro!)

Like marketing, we also are moving fast and changing quickly with busy schedules full of more and more things vying for our attention.  If we want to succeed at what we do, we have think creatively in our marketing and networking and look for ways to meet the needs of others.

By taking the time to network and listen to others and value what they are doing we are establishing ourselves as someone who is also valuable and worth listening to.   As we continue to grow and establish our place of influence and leadership in our community and in our careers, we will use the feedback we receive from networking in a productive way.

We will keep adding to our networking tools so that we can keep pace with the changes of life, continue to connect with our family and friends and ensure that others and their businesses in our networking arsenal remain our greatest asset to our business success.

BLUEPRINTS FOR BUILDING:

Create a breakfast club or establish business lunches to help facilitate your ability to reach other businesses and their owners to generate a reciprocal relationship to help improve their business and yours.

Don’t forget your core network of family and friends!  Remember to host special celebrations throughout the year to share with them some of the rewards and fun of your success!

Tomorrow -  How Direct Are You?

Direct Mail is often a marketing tool that we take for granted.  Tomorrow in part 1 of 2 on direct mail marketing tools, I will show you key services that you can utilize to impact the bottom line of your financial business and provide you with the boost you need!