Sunday, January 31, 2010

Thank You Joel! "I was so proud of you at your event..." Joel Bauer : http://ping.fm/enqO8

Thursday, January 28, 2010

What's the Best Type of Advertising for Small Biz?

The type of advertising that is really effective for small business is known as Direct Response Marketing. This technique serves two useful purposes. It targets your ideal client and requires them to take some form of action NOW, such as buy something NOW (by a deadline), make contact for more information (and get a bonus for doing so), make a donation, or some other form of action.

This technique is great because it also provides statistical information to enable you to know which ad format works best, which form of media, etc. In turn, this enables you to tweak and hone your ad until it works perfectly. You can also grow your database by collecting (with their permission) email addresses, phone numbers, and so on. No more wasted dollars on advertising that doesn't work and an easy way to grow your list, all in one.

Naturally, to really work, you MUST know who your target audience is. This type of advertising is not something you waste on the public at large. Place your ad where your ideal clients are likely to read it. If your ideal client is an outdoors type into hiking, hunting and fishing, you'd be wasting your time placing an ad in "Good Housekeeping" magazine. Also don't waste a brilliant direct response campaign on something ordinary and everyday. Your offer must be extraordinary.

A direct response advertisement, as with other advertisements, requires a catchy headline that will stop people and make them read more. The body will describe the benefits and it will finish with required action the reader takes next.

Compare this with a normal advert that displays little more than a company logo, a brief "aren't we great" type message and maybe a phone number. It doesn't require the reader to take any action or make any response. The most popular advertising in this area is by companies who want to establish brand image or keep their company "in your face". Both have benefits for their specific purposes – think of the large insurance companies and brands like Coke cola. For small businesses and one man operations, however, this type of advertising would be a waste of money.

If you need help getting your advertising and marketing campaigns off the ground, or maybe you don't even know where to start and want "from scratch" help, check out my program here: http://ping.fm/ElyXB Actually, why don't you take it for a "test drive"- that way you get to dip your toe in to test the waters without actually having to jump in! You can take it for at test drive HERE.

Until next time…
Terri
Stop wasting your resources: http://ping.fm/G5Nlz

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Fundraising for young RSD victim & helping small biz at the same time: http://ping.fm/TfMlN

Special Invitation for Business Owners only!

Join us for a FREE * one day Business and Marketing Seminar.

Thursday, March 11, 2010
9:00am - 5:00pm
Talamore Country Club
723 Talamore Drive
Ambler, PA

Is your business struggling...
• ineffective website?
• not enough leads?
• want more sales?
• are your competitors doing well while your business struggles?
• are you confused about how best to market your business?

Terri Levine, Strategic Sales and Marketing Expert, International Speaker, and Best Selling Author invites you to join her to learn how to recession proof your business, and market with little or no money.

Terri Levine is the Founder of Comprehensive Coaching U and has created businesses from scratch and dominated her market. Hundreds of business owners, in the last 12 months alone, have benefited from her ingenious business building strategies.

==> Learn how to quickly get more of the right prospects.
==> Create a process to easily convert prospects to paying customers.
==> Learn how to create a website that brings you a flood of new customers.

Attendees will learn to vastly improve the marketing of their business and can possibly double or triple their profits in the process. The seminar is no nonsense and is filled with tactics that work for any business.

Learn the mindset of successful business owners and discover the precise strategies that work in this economy.

You get a full day of Terri Levine's expertise for nothing as a way of introducing ourselves to you.

Terri is giving away 25 free tickets* and asks that you simply pay the per person $50 delegate fee which also covers your lunch. We reiterate – we are not collecting a fee for this event ourselves… Instead, we are donating100% of the delegate fee (which includes lunch) to Through the Fire Foundation for Tabitha – a girl who suffers from Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy, and whose life we are trying to save.

If you're ready to control your marketing destiny and watch your profits soar, register now.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW : http://tinyurl.com/ybbuxzq

Note: Priority will be given to business owners who have not attended a Comprehensive Coaching U event before. Those who have already attended are welcome to join the waiting list.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Penniless Coach Interview with Terri Levine: http://ping.fm/ODaKl
Join us for a FREE one day Business and Marketing Seminar. More info here: http://ping.fm/7YBuY

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Driving on the Entrepreneurial Blogging Highway, Part 1: http://ping.fm/AsFbU

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Educate Your Customers: http://ping.fm/krHdj
Join us for a FREE one day Business and Marketing Seminar. Thursday, March 11, 2010 http://tinyurl.com/yb59fqr

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Free marketing ecourse for you from Terri Levine: http://ping.fm/8evVJ
VIP Coaching & mentoring – do you qualify? http://ping.fm/kfD5G
Free marketing course from Terri Levine: http://ping.fm/AiXdW
Free 1 day marketing/business course for Philadelphia businesses. Details: http://ping.fm/ZGAit

Friday, January 15, 2010

How Not to Become a Marketing White Pointer

You may be wondering what marketing has to do with "Jaws". Plenty, if your customer hunting methods make you more of man-eater than a man-helper. Let me explain.

A common mistake businesses (this includes small businesses and SOHOs) make is to market desperately and ruthlessly in their attempt to attract new customers. You see their large advertisements with a large color photo of themselves and a wide toothy smile or an expression worthy of your college professor. Next to this is a description of how great they are, how long they've been in business, where they were educated, how great their service is, and so on.

I don't know about you but I'd have thought this type of self-promotion was more at home in the dating columns because if I'm looking for a handyman to clear up the fall leaves in my garden, I'm looking for someone who advertises that they have a leaf blower that will clean my garden saving me time and money as opposed to how clever they think they are.

Lose the bite: You are selling your service or product, not yourself. Remember to focus on what your customer wants and needs – write about the benefits of your service/product and how it helps them. Your customers don't care if your widget is brand new and polka dotted – they want to know how it will improve their lives, save them time or money, etc.

Another bad habit of white pointer marketers is putting the focus on themselves. Sure, you want to sell stuff because making money is what it is all about… but if you are focused on yourself and not your customers, why should they be interested in doing business with you?

Lose the bite: When you're marketing are you more interested in yourself or your customer? A white pointer is interested only in making money. Sure, they believe in providing excellent customer service – but only because it might make them more money – they don't really care about the customer. They look like they're doing all the right things but their motives are self-serving, bit like the white pointer waiting for the baby seals to fatten up so they have more meat on them when they eat them! You need to focus on your customers because you really do want to help them and it is this honest focus on servicing their needs that will attract them back to you time and time again.

A more serious habit of white pointer marketers is their propensity for stretching the truth or disguising less satisfactory aspects of their product or service in a way that fools the customer into thinking the product is X when it is really Y.

Lose the bite: If your product or service is as good as you believe it is, it will sell itself and it will do so more easily if you present it in an open and honest manner. Think of the new FTC rules… you can't use a testimonial now that presents what could be an outlandish claim without also including a disclaimer that says the results are not typical.

The moral to this article is success lies in focusing on your customer and not on yourself and the more successful you are at doing this, the more you will benefit.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

8 Ways You Scare Away Your Readers

Some bloggers write authentically, straight from the heart; some write eloquently with a Thesaurus open on their lap; some write with the aim to dazzle with their witty turn of phrase, and others send you to sleep.

But you know what? Doesn't matter what style bloggers aim for… certain bloggers are successful and some are not and it has nothing to do with their vocabulary, turn of phrase, witty repartee, or subject matter… in many instances, it comes down to personality. That's right. It can be as simple as "do I like this person, or not?"

Now think about certain personalities that grate on your nerves or you just don't like their style… imagine them writing to you… imagine them blogging. Or maybe you suspect you might be one of these bloggers, or maybe you are not sure.

To lessen the confusion, here are 8 ways you may be frightening your readers away:

1. Yawn! You send them to sleep. You are so boring you send insomniacs to sleep! You write in a boring manner and/or you 'waffle'. Nobody has time to read a whole page of something that could have been conveyed in one sentence. Your readers are bombarded daily with a plethora of emails, blogs and instant messages, some of which are much more interesting than your offering. If your writing is dull and boring it is going to get lost in the abundant competition.
What to do: UP the mood. Be zippy and creative. Make your writing informative and fun. Use active voice, not passive voice, and if you don't understand that, Google the terms plus "grammar" and get a quick online lesson! Your writing must entertain, inform and motivate because people are too busy to waste time reading boring rubbish that leads them nowhere.

2. You are "full of it". Do you think all your readers are gullible or stupid? Do you not realize they can see through your outrageous claims and statements and this is the hugest turn-off of the century for them?
What to do: It's time to be honest. Recently there have been too many businesses ripping people off with lies… don't join them if you want to be successful. People can spot a phony a mile away.

3. You are "so" important that only your voice counts! Hmmm…if the good news is there is a time and a place for everything, the bad news is there is never a time or place for arrogance. Your readers could care less how clever or important you are… they just want to know how you can help them.
What to do: Stop trying to prove how important you think you are. Nobody likes or trusts a "big head". Your focus should be on your customer's needs and wants and not on yourself.

4. Not only are you arrogant, you're heavy-handed. Pushy, pushy, pushy! You are overbearing and full of self-importance and it comes across loud and clear in your copy which is pure heavy-sell in nature..
What to do: Nobody likes a pushy salesman. You may know all there is to know about your subject but instead of pushing how fantastic and clever you or your product is, how about sharing your knowledge with your readers and let them decide if it is right for them and if so, how far they want to take it. Don't shove it down their throats.

5. You are trying too hard to impress. This harks back to trying to be too clever with fancy words and phrases. Do you want people to think, "Wow, what a fancy vocabulary… too fancy for me!"or "Wow, this person knows a lot and is prepared to share it with me so I want to follow them!"?
What to do: Don't use jargon or "buzz words" in an attempt to impress. Keep it "real". Be honest and transparent and trustworthy if you want your customers to trust you and take it seriously. If your service or product is as good as you say it is, you don't have to bend over backwards to prove it – it will prove itself.

6. Oops, Wrong Market! Are you wasting words and effort on an audience who could care less? Have you attracted a readership with one line of thought only to switch on them halfway?
What to do: Aiming your blog/marketing message to all and sundry is like shooting in the dark. You can't hit anything because you can't take aim and you can't take aim because it's black and you can't see. Don't target your marketing willy-nilly – take aim and fire with accuracy.

7. You're shallow and can't follow through. You start off well with wisdom to share but after a few months you have less wisdom to share… folks aren’t buying and when the going gets tough you get going… in the other direction.
What to do: Why waste anybody's time? Rome wasn't built overnight – sorry, tired saying, but still true. Either leave or re-focus. Realize you don't just have to rely on your blog to promote your business – there is other social media networking, articles, joint ventures… research your product or service. You must have believed in it once to have started this!

8. Not Taking Care… If you have been reading that correct spelling and grammar doesn't matter, then you are reading the hard-sell of an uneducated person desperate to make a sale to someone he thinks he can fool. Let me repeat, people are not stupid but they may think you are if you cannot spell!
What to do: Spell check and review your writing before posting. The odd mistake folks will forgive – but not regular frequent errors – that will just make you look stupid and nobody will trust you or what you have to say.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Planning for 2010

With the advent of social media networking, some of the more traditional marketing methods are being left by the wayside as more and more businesses find interactive communication with their customers more financially viable and much more effective.

From 2010 onwards, marketing is taking on a personal role in that we are getting up close and personal with our customers. Compare Yellow Pages listings or newspaper advertising with Facebook and Twitter. The predicted trend for 2010 is to create relationships with your customers through social media networking – growing your list through sites such as twitter and Facebook, just to name two.

There are two trains of thought regarding social media marketing. There are those who believe in using it for business and marketing, and those who want to treat it much like a virtual water cooler around which to gossip (although why you'd want to replace face to face, meaningful interaction with other humans with anonymous, distant internet messaging and waste time just chatting for the sake of chatting, I don't know.)

There are those who say you must establish close relationships with would-be customers first before marketing to them, and those who are more upfront with their intentions. Personally, I know which side of the fence I'm on. I believe in being transparent and totally honest right from the start. I don't see anything honest and real in pretending to want to get to know and be friends with a whole bunch of strangers just so I can sneak up on them later somehow and hit them with marketing. That's not my style and my techniques continue to bring in interest to my websites and services so I must be doing something right.

Having said that, there are people who may be more responsive after getting to know me first. So, in order to cater to everybody and their "preferences", I combine marketing with chit chat and find it is the combination of the two that works very well.

Of course, when I think modern marketing, I'm not just thinking the likes of Twitter and Facebook… marketing to mobiles via SMS is not new but it is becoming more popular. Businesses have been using it to send their customers reminders and invitations but more and more businesses are using it to send advertising, which you can opt out of if you find it annoying, and let's face it, with all the spam we face in our email, most of us definitely do not want it clogging up our mobile phones!

However, it is a useful method to keep your customers up to date with your events and new offerings and something you can consider – but make sure you have their permission first and keep your messages short.

We're keeping on keeping on with loyalty programs for our customers in 2010 as a proven marketing process that not only attracts new customers but is an excellent method of retaining existing customers.

Apart from that we need to keep in mind that after the recent financial crisis, we are marketing to a group of savvier customers who want value for their dollar and don't want their time wasted on frivolous or irrelevant marketing. Dishonest marketing or advertising that hides the whole truth will not go down with 2010's audience. People are fed up with deceit. So in 2010 we are keeping it real!

We are also marketing to another generation who are more interested in products and services that are environmentally friendly. Just research the number of articles alone on the internet about greening your office and you'll see what I mean.

As always, it comes down to knowing your target market and keeping up with trends.

Happy marketing,
Terri
Retire me, Terri! http://ping.fm/45ogJ
How do bloggers follow the FTC endorsements? http://ping.fm/T3Sis

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

If a picture paints a thousand words, my face had a lot to say in 2009! http://ping.fm/j3Lgo
Blog Traffic – Web 2.0 Traffic Tactics
http://ping.fm/6t5VO
How a hardware store owner increased his profits by 30%: http://marketingwithterrilevine.com/blog/success-stories-from-people-like-you/

Monday, January 11, 2010

Minimizing costs and maximizing margins: http://ping.fm/pAp4Z

Saturday, January 09, 2010

You Can Simply Laugh At Business Worries if You Follow This Simple Plan http://ping.fm/NRggi
Bra colors sweep Facebook in awareness push - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com http://ping.fm/TOhWH
ConsumerMan: Credit card law coming soon - ConsumerMan- msnbc.com http://ping.fm/6vCmA

Friday, January 08, 2010

Woe is us - bad grammar permeates language - Nightly News- msnbc.com http://ping.fm/AhWgJ
Question for coaches - or those who want to be: http://ping.fm/JphSJ?gid=253450231680
Question for coaches - or those who want to be: http://ping.fm/QmdyT?gid=253450231680

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Don't forget I offer biz owners free profit producing, wealth attraction resources: http://ping.fm/mg9EV
Don't forget I offer biz owners free profit producing, wealth attraction resources: http://ping.fm/eXDNE
Comprehensive Coaching is running full day conferences for business owners. http://ping.fm/qwyNL
Comprehensive Coaching is running full day conferences for business owners. http://ping.fm/h8bzS
What is blogging exactly? Can there be money to be made? http://ping.fm/EJvlV
What is blogging exactly? Can there be money to be made? http://ping.fm/pTqno
A lesson in risk reversal for you: http://ping.fm/TEDrE
A lesson in risk reversal for you: http://ping.fm/5aCA8

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

A look at the Cost of a Customer to you: http://ping.fm/AEeU4
A look at the Cost of a Customer to you: http://ping.fm/kdw3l

Monday, January 04, 2010

Excerpt of one of my training seminars: http://ping.fm/eORGA
Excerpt of one of my training seminars: http://ping.fm/dYIQV
Where better to hold a biz seminar right now than sunny LA! Register here: http://ping.fm/cyZHh
Sunshine! Warm weather! Getting closer! Can't wait to see you in LA at the seminar! http://ping.fm/Jppqj

Friday, January 01, 2010

Melissa Evans comments on training session: http://ping.fm/JWVh8
Melissa Evans comments on training session: http://ping.fm/bCnIc
I'm looking forward to meeting some of you in sunny LA soon... who's coming to my seminar? http://ping.fm/HU0jG
I'm looking forward to meeting some of you in sunny LA soon... who's coming to my seminar? http://ping.fm/EnAyU
I wish all my friends and associates and contacts a very happy, healthy and successful New Year!
- Terri Levine (www.marketingwithterrilevine.com)
I wish all my friends and associates and contacts a very happy, healthy and successful New Year!
- Terri Levine (www.marketingwithterrilevine.com)