9

Steps
to outstanding market success

ales a n

d pro motio n too ls fro

m yo ur H P

Sponsored by

colo r pr inte r

Oliver Fritsch and Ines Bitsch

Stunning s

Contents
g: vatin : Inno n tep 2 n you tur S w ca s into Ho idea your ts? roduc o ideas p ere d - Wh from? as ome c g ide nagin ideas - Ma ew ing n ds - Test g nee slatin and Tran es eatur into f ts fi bene

Step 1: Focusing: Wh ich business are you in? - Knowing your skills, experience and passion - Defining what you sell - Understanding wh ich trends to ride

Step 6: Being found: Where are your customers looking for you? - Understanding the new rules - Getting traffic to your web site - Converting visitors on your landing page
Step 3: Prospecting: Who are your customers? - Managing your sales funnel - Getting an appointment - Succeeding at your appointment Step 4: Budgeting: What are your marketing mix opportunities? - Selecting promotion tools ess - Measuring marketing effectiven Step 5: Branding: What do you stand for? - Creating a brand - Growing your brand - Managing your brand ecosystem

Step 7: Promoting: Which tools will create awareness for you? - Marketing for free - Low budget can still be high impact - Creating a direct mail campaign Step 8: Connecting: How can you create a written proposal that reflects your philosophy? - Making a lasting impression - Creating a flyer with a special touch Step 9: Growing: How can you keep developing your business? - Getting referrals and positive word of mouth - Creating customer loyalty - Dealing with rejection

iStockphoto.com/Gabor Izso/Davor Ratkovic

Look forward to these exciting topics... 0/2

Foreword
Dear HP Customer,
Kathy HP V.P Stromberg . Ma rketin g

At HP we are constantly looking for innovative ways to make you more successful. After all: Your success is our success! Today, I introduce you to our beautiful Marketing Success eBook. Every month, we will provide you with a free chapter chock full of information on how you can market your business better, and sell more. Sign up today at hp.com/go/marketingebook to receive an e-mail notification whenever we have a new chapter available for you to download. You can print chapters for your reference with one click using the print button. If you are as excited about it as we are, tell your friends and colleagues. Cover it in your blog or click the envelope sign at the bottom of the page to recommend it to a friend from our download page. Here is to your success!
iStockphoto.com/Angel Manuel Herrero iStockphoto.com/Benjamin Goode

Kathy Stromberg

Put yourself on the path to success...subscribe today! 0/3

About the contributors

Oliver Fritsch (Author) Sales and marketing expert Oliver Fritsch has been at the forefront of customer-focused innovation management while working for Hewlett-Packard Company for more than 15 years. He is founder and CEO of Cendesic.com, a digital marketing agency in Boise, Idaho. Cendesic helps its clients improve their customer insights, product innovation and findability. In Germany, he authored a best seller with Alles Anders, a book and web community to identify and pursue life goals. Ines Bitsch (Graphic Design) Designer, art director and illustrator Ines Bitsch has over 15 years experience in advertising, fashion and interior design. She is founder and CEO of Mood-ManagementLtd.de in Germany. Her mission is to inspire soulful rooms, products and customer experiences. She also teaches fellow female entrepreneurs how to succeed in business.

krieg-fotodesign.de/Roland Krieg

Lets get started... 0/4

Introduction
When you always follow in someones footsteps you will never make an impression. (Unknown) The trigger for composing this book has been the incredible price drops of inkjet and color laser printers. Suddenly a very affordable printer can produce materials looking worth thousands of dollars. The question we asked ourselves was this: How can it be that so few printed materials leaving the average business look really outstanding with so many capable printers sitting in almost every office corner today? We asked more than 480 small business owners during the preparation of this book for their reasons aforementioned and what they need most. Our astonishing insight: producing good looking marketing materials usually is the last thing on their mind. Sales come first. Creating a good-looking sales proposal or brochure often competes with spending precious free time with the family after 7 PM. This despite the fact that colorful documents actually sell more because they pique the readers interest and leave a memorable impression. With this book we want to inspire you to make a strong impression. Dont ask an agency to do the work for you because no agency can capture the spirit of you and your business as well as you yourself can. Experiment. Make your pieces move. Break out of boring layouts. Combine new forms, images and elements. Use colors, lots of colors. Surprise yourself. Learn a photo editor like Adobe Photoshop. Grab images from inexpensive stock photo services or use your own images. Collect backgrounds and fonts and combine them in new ways. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

iStockphoto.com/Christine Balderas

iStockphoto.com/Daniel Stein

Sell yourself well in bright colors! 0/5

e-Book Terms of Use

HP provides this e-book as one source of information and advice you can use to build your companys image and do self-marketing. HP recommends you complement this material with your own consultants and other sources of expertise and information. If you have acquired this e-book from any source other than (hp.com/go/ marketingebook), you have no rights to use it. Visit (hp.com/go/marketingebook) for an authorized download. You agree and acknowledge that this web site and the e-book is owned and operated by Hewlett-Packard Company and that your access to the web site and/or the e-book is subject to these Terms of Use and the HewlettPackard Company Web site - Terms of use and legal restrictions (Web site Terms). We refer to the Terms of Use and the Web site Terms collectively here as the Terms. By browsing this web site or reviewing this e-book, downloading it, referring to it, or using it in any fashion, you agree to these Terms. When you use this e-book: You promise to respect copyrights and otherwise follow applicable law. You promise not to use the e-book except in accordance with the terms upon which HP supplies it to you. You may view this web site, and the e-book using a web browser. You may download and make a copy of the e-book or portions of the e-book solely for your own personal business use (information, research or study) if you do not modify the e-book and if you include all copyright notices appearing in the material you copy in your copy. Except for these rights, you promise not to reproduce, copy, share, republish, upload, post, extract, transmit, make available, adapt, modify, frame (by whatever means), link to, forward, create derivative works based upon, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish, sublicense, or in any way commingle any materials on this web site or contained in this e-book with other third party content, do any other act of copyright, or otherwise use the e-book. If you contact us, we may, but are not required to, expand these rights under a written agreement. Where requested, you will provide us with accurate information. You promise to keep the e-book in the form in which it was supplied to you. You promise not to circumvent any measures that we have taken to protect the rights in the e-book that we have supplied, including removing this information or otherwise facilitating an infringement of copyright. You promise not to use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the web site or to otherwise interfere with the processes and technology we use to provide this e-book to you. You may share this e-book with others by directing them to our web site (hp.com/go/marketingebook) where the e-book is available for download. You may only provide a link to this e-book in accordance with our Guidelines for Linking to HPs Web site from a web site provided that you link to the home page (hp.com/go/ marketingebook), and use as the linking text HP Marketing Success e-Book. Our disclaimer and liability limits: We provide this e-book on an as is basis. We dont guarantee any results due to use of the material and advice provided to you in this e-book. HP is not responsible to any entity for any misuse of images. HP reserves the right to terminate your right to use this e-book. See the Web site Terms for the limitations on our liability. The e-book may contain trademarks, service marks, and logos that are the property of third parties. You may not use these trademarks, service marks or logos without prior written consent of such third parties who own these marks and service names. TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE E-BOOK IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

ISBN 978-0-9708474-8-5

53995 >

iStockphoto.com/Daniel Stein

iStockphoto.com/Kris Hanke

Images: iStockphoto.com, Cendesic.com Contributors: Oliver Fritsch & Ines Bitsch Production and Concept: Cendesic.com

9 780970 847485
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step

Focusing

Have you made a conscious decision about what business you are in? And do you stick to it? This is often easier said than done. Sometimes we are happy to take what we can get: any customer, any work, any challenge. After all, we like to think about ourselves as being multi-talented and flexible. The challenge of this approach is clear: How are we ever going to become experts in an area, get to be efficient in what we do, and develop a great reputation? The answer: find a business focus that matches your strengths. In this first step you will reflect on your experience and skills and connect them with your passion. Next, you will learn how to define what you sell. Finally we will show you how to tie your business to a trend and gain momentum.

iStockphoto.com/Christina Hanck

iStockphoto.com/ooyoo

Which business are you in?

Step 1 / 1

Describe a day in your future Write down answers to the following questions on a separate sheet. Stretch your imagination as far as possible. Dont compromise your aspirations by limiting them to what you think is only possible for you today. Dare to visualize the impossible and most desirable situation for you. What do you see when you awake in the morning? Describe your surroundings in detail. Where are you? Which language is spoken? What clothes will you put on? Where will you go? How will you get there? What tasks will you perform? What will you do? What kinds of people will you be reaching and influencing through your work? What recreation will you enjoy during the evening and weekends? How will you grow personally and spiritually through what you do? How will you positively impact the community in which you live? How much will you earn?
iStockphoto.com

Knowing your skills, experience and passion

Find the balance...

...between customer needs...

...and doing what you love.

It doesnt matter if you start up a new business or plan to expand your existing business the key question remains the same: What should I do? The art of being happy in what you do is to find the right balance between providing a product or service your customers actually need (or better, crave) and doing something you absolutely love. But where do you start? To clarify on your skills, experience and passion, look at your personal wants and needs first and at your business skills, experience and contacts second. Use the questions in the left sidebar on this and the following page to think through which dreams, attributes and resources you have within you. Create a mental picture of what you will become and what you want to do. Later on we will help you select a promising field of target customers and assist you in matching your passion with the needs of those customers.

iStockphoto.com/Silvia Boratti

Look at your personal motivation go deep!

Step 1 / 2

Match your strengths with promising target customers The following exercise works on a personal level and on a business level. 1. Make a list of all your strengths, assign points from 0-100 according to how strong you are in each of them and sort them, highest first. 2. Think through which markets / customer groups could profit from your strengths the most and write them down. 3. To identify the most promising target market or customer group, create a separate table for each of your strengths. List your possible target customers in the first column and these criteria in the following columns: How well your strengths match How much added value you can deliver How much you would like to work with this group How much access you have to this group How much experience you have with this group How much of this group is in need of your services The possible budget of this group Assign a number of points from 0-100 according to how strong you are in each of them. Add up all your points and focus on the ones with the highest score.

Understanding your strengths

Focus on your strengths...

...forget...

...your weaknesses.

Top athletes train in a single sport to become the best in their field. The same is true in business: if you want to become a market leader, you have to concentrate on your strengths and continue to develop them. Dont scatter your efforts and waste time on improving your weaknesses. Think about your personal and professional assets in a structured manner. Different categories of strengths could be: Skills: Which special skills do you have? Experience: Which tough customer problems did you already solve and what practical experience have you collected? Customer access: With which customers do you have an established, trusted relationship? Special insight: Which burning customer needs are you aware of?

iStockphoto.com/Tammy Peluso

iStockphoto.com/ranplett

You can also ask your friends and existing customers for their opinions and compare them with your own views of yourself. You might discover additional strengths you didnt know you had. Next, compare your strengths with the ones you think your competitors have. Then pick your strongest attributes and focus on the growth and evolution of them.

Reflect on your strengths.

Step 1 / 3

Defining what you sell

Help your customers do...

...what they...

...need to get done.

7 Important questions about what you sell 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Which business model fits your profit objectives and lets you earn money? What services and/or products do you sell? How much money do you want to earn as a company? How much money do you want to earn personally? Which clients have money they can and want to spend on you? Who are your key competitors and in what areas are you superior? How do your customers like to think about what you have to offer?

Defining what you sell isnt as easy as it sounds. Dont invent a product or service first and then try to sell it. This is usually a costly uphill battle, especially for a small business. A better approach is to thoroughly understand the jobs your customers need to get done and then help complete those tasks faster or cheaper. Think about which groups of customers are under-served and why. HP discovered that many customers had trouble printing a map from an internet browser and created a simple mechanism to do just that. Many times, your customers think about your products in different terms than you do, too. Look behind your product and see what you really provide. This will help you greatly in your communication efforts. For example, a customer doesnt buy: A diamond but hopes to obtain the commitment of everlasting love (Jeweler) A music CD but a refreshed memory of a beautiful evening (Record Store) An investment portfolio but achieves peace of mind in preparation for retirement (Financial Consultant) A house but a safe and beautiful place to raise a family (Real Estate Agent) A teeth whitening but builds the confidence coming from a secure smile (Dentist) A Color LaserJet but the opportunity to look like a multimillion dollar firm on paper (Hewlett-Packard)

iStockphoto.com/Ivan Dinev

iStockphoto.com/Slyadnev

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

Think in your customers terms!

Step 1 / 4

Who Who you are doing it for. you are and what ...for technology you do. companies... Example: Cendesic.com is the only ---------------------------------------------------digital marketing agency... Why ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------you do it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...who want to increase their How ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------findability... you do it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...that writes search-opti- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------mized eBooks... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Printab le

Value

State ment

When and why do your customers need you? ...in an era of oversaturated media channels. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whats your value statement?

Step 1 / 5

iStockphoto.com/Che McPherson

Understanding which trends to ride

Pick a trend...

...and run with it...

...or against it!

Small businesses dont always have a lot of money for advertising or generating awareness, especially if you have created something ground breaking new or original. Thats where the power of trends comes in. Trends are important because they create awareness and can condition and prepare your customers in a favorable way towards your product or service. Unbelievably this is done for free! Just five years ago starting a consulting business to help customers gain a top rank on the most popular search engines would have earned you a lot of blank stares. Now everybody understands what it is and its a lot simpler to explain the benefits of your service. At the same time the competition for your services is a lot stronger too. In the end it all boils down to these three options:
iStockphoto.com/Selahattin Bayram

3 Safe indicators that it may be too late to hop on a trend The trend is covered in the mainstream press The trends product or service is produced in a low cost country and sold at a low price store Teenagers scoff at it

iStockphoto.com/Fernando Soares

Instead, use social media news web sites (Digg.com) and serious business papers (Wall Street Journal, Economist) to learn about new trends in your own country and abroad.

Swim with a trend: Less up front communication work, but more competition and lower margins Swim against a trend: Find a niche in under served territory, but build up the market yourself Create a trend and stay in front of it: The most desirable option if you can afford it and succeed

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

Which trend do you ride?

Step 1 / 6

step

Innovating

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Steve Jobs How can you come up with new product and service ideas for your business? Are you looking for tiebreakers that give your customers a good reason to choose your product over a competitors product? As more and more services and products degenerate into commodities, your challenge will seldom be to come up with new ideas, but to select the few precious thoughts that will make a real difference for your customers - and your business. In this chapter we will show you how to develop new ideas, how to manage those ideas and, most importantly, how to test them quickly and inexpensively.

iStockphoto.com/ David Luscombe

How can you turn your ideas into products?

Step 2 / 1

Questions to challenge your industry Here is an idea to help you develop a new break-out business model for your trade. Step back and think about the way things are done currently in your industry. Write down the core aspects on a sheet of paper and then explore how you can change your industries boundaries for your own benefit. >> We use Netflix(R) as an example and compare it with brick and mortar video rental stores Decrease: Which factors can you reduce significantly in your industry standard? >> Netflix replaced brick and mortar stores with the mailbox of its customers. Expand: Which factors can you expand in your industry? >> Netflix raised customer satisfaction through a recommendation engine that analyzed renters satisfaction with rentals and correlates them to the preferences of the whole user base. Remove: Which things can you eliminate completely from your industry? >> Netflix removed late fees completely, which was the main profit driver for their competitors. Build: What can you add that significantly raises the standards? >>Netflix created low tech, low cost logistics systems that ensure DVD delivery across the country.

What kind of ideas are you looking for?

opment >>> T Devel esti ng > >>

What do you want to do? Pick one: Develop a new business model? Find and conquer a new niche or new market? Improve an existing product or service? Improve your internal processes by innovating along your value delivery chain (e.g. make improvements around your purchasing manufacturing, distribution, delivery, or customer service process)? Create a better customer experience along the customer purchase circle (e.g. help your customer during comparison / selection /purchase / delivery / use / maintenance / disposal activities of your products)?

iStockphoto.com/Andrea Gingerich

iStockphoto.com/gocosmonaut

Choose your innovation playing field.

Step 2 / 2

Resear ch

>>> I

de

on a ti

Before you get your creative juices flowing its a good idea to stop for a moment and think about which area of your business needs the most improvement. In other words any time or money spent on innovation activities (research, ideation, development, testing, and implementation) should be applied to the area where you will have the biggest return of investment. For example, a tiny change in the way you purchase your materials could have a much larger impact on your bottom line compared to a complete and expensive redesign of an existing product. Listed in the following are a few typical areas that lend themselves to be improved.

>>

>

Im

enta em pl

tion

Where do ideas come from?

Use Web 2.0 ...

...technology to collect...

...new ideas.

Often, the success of small and medium sized businesses depends on coming up with product improvements and new service ideas to stay fresh and relevant. Sporadically, new ideas can come from engineering, marketing, or the executive team. Many times they can come from the fringes of a company, where your employees interact with customers, partners, or the marketplace. No matter where they come from, it is important that you collect them systematically. Listed below we show you where and how you can harvest ideas easily. Internal departments: Deploy Wiki software to collect new product ideas on your intranet website; schedule regular meetings with your sales teams and customer support functions; offer rewards for new product ideas that pass a peer review process in your company; encourage your employees to create and register new patents on your companies behalf. Customers: Set up a blog for your customers; create an open or closed online community for your customers and moderate it yourself. Set up a quarterly customer advisory council meeting or listen to incoming customer support calls on your hotline for a week to get started. Distribution partners: Schedule regular meetings with your channel and distribution partners to exchange ideas that will better serve your mutual customers. External development partners: If you co-develop your products and services with external partners, schedule special innovation days to exchange and share customer insights.
iStockphoto.com/Pali Rao

How to build your own idea bank! 1. Collect all ideas in a special folder or box and include competitors new products too 2. Classify and Sort these ideas into the categories that make sense for your industry 3. Review the ideas frequently (as described on the next page) 4. Implement the most promising ideas rapidly

iStockphoto.com/Ian Hamilton

Collect and harvest ideas from as many sources as possible!

Step 2 / 3

Managing new ideas

Select the...

...most compelling ideas...

...for your business.

After you have collected a large number of ideas the big question is how you can separate the good ideas from the bad ones? Our following simple tools, the New Product Innovation Scorecard and the Product Innovation Map will help you greatly in sorting, managing and evaluating your ideas. First, list all your ideas in a spreadsheet and apply a score from 1-10 to each of the following categories: Strategic fit for our company (Does it fit with what we do?) Future leverage (What is the potential to propel our business to a new level?) Likelihood of commercial success (Can we sell it?) Technical feasibility (Can we build it?) Development cost (Can we pay for it?) Next, add up the scores and re-sort the table in descending order to see ideas with a big potential. These will be the ones that sorted to the top. You can use this table to create a Product Innovation Map (see sidebar) that visualizes your results in a different way.

How to create a Product Innovation Map Take the top 10 projects from your scorecard and map them out on a bubble diagram. Plot the sum of technical and commercial feasibility on the y-axis and the profit expectations on the x-axis. Let the diameter of the bubbles depict the development cost. Voil: Projects in the top right quad: rant are the most attractive ones to pursue.

iStockphoto.com/Georg Winkens

Product Innovation Scorecards and Product Innovation Maps 2008 by Cendesic.com

iStockphoto.com/Elena Elisseeva

Create an innovation portfolio!

Step 2 / 4

Testing new ideas

Get feedback...

...about your ideas...

...within 24 hours.

Once you have reduced all your ideas to a manageable number, it is time to test what they are really worth. Obviously there are many ways to test a new idea before bringing it to the market. You can organize live focus groups in different cities or countries and witness your customers reactions from behind one-way mirrors. Virtually you can do the same in online focus groups with carefully recruited members who will provide feedback about your concepts within days. You can also test market your new ideas locally, do a peer review among colleagues, friends and family, or get feedback from industry experts or friendly press people.
How to interpret your test results Hopefully, you were in luck and had a good response. However, if nobody clicked on your ads, there is a good chance that: Your market is not ready for your product You are marketing to the wrong people, or You are marketing with the wrong message.

If you dont want to wait and seek a cheaper way to test the demand for your idea (before you make any big investments) use our simple 3-Step rapid testing method: Step 1: Create a 1-page micro web site for your product idea. Offer a downloadable free white paper about your innovation, the possibility to sign up for additional information or to pre-order your product. Step 2: Open an advertiser account with one of the top 3 search engines (e.g. Google Adwords) and create a number of inexpensive pay-per-click ads. Your ads should be triggered by keywords which your future customers are most likely to enter if they would search for your product online. Set your budget at around $100. Step 3: Wait 24-hours. Then use the tools from your search engine provider to compare the number of times your ad was displayed with the number of times it was clicked on or how often something was downloaded from your website.

iStockphoto.com/Elemental Imaging

iStockphoto.com/Kameleon007

In this case try out different wordings and optimize your message until you find the level of customer response you aspire to.

Test a new idea for under $100!

Step 2 / 5

Translating needs into features and benefits

Include only...

...features that...

...provide clear benefits.

Once you have tested your ideas and found a positive initial response to your customers needs, you can start translating them into a product or a service that fulfills those needs. Needs are satisfied through certain features that your product has and are perceived by the customer as the benefits or value of your product. If you discovered more than one need, start with the most important one. Think about how each need can be addressed through a feature of your product. Then describe the function of your feature and clearly write out how your customers derive a benefit or get a value out of it. Create a table to crystallize your product idea in your mind and prioritize features, functions and benefits. Here is an example from the Hewlett-Packard Labs: Smart HP Color LaserJet
Customer Need HP Color LaserJet customer does not want to run out of toner during peak printing times Feature Smart toner level monitor Function Analyzes consumption pattern and reorders toner supplies from the web before toner runs out Benefit Worry free printing

iStockphoto.com/000003312030

iStockphoto.com/Jeff Chiasson

Turn features into benefits!

Step 2 / 6

step

Prospecting

When you are a hammer everything looks like a nail! (Maslow) When you have something to sell, everybody should become your customer! Or should they? Selling a product or service can be a time-consuming affair especially when you try to sell a complex product to a large organization. Thats why its wise to be selective when it comes to choosing your customers. In this third step we will show you how to select and qualify potential customers, how to approach and manage them and how to get an appointment.

iStockphoto.com/Nicholas Belton

iStockphoto.com/Philip Sasser

Who are your customers?

Step 3 / 1

Managing your sales funnel

Closing rate and sales cycle explained The difference between the number of fruitless sales attempts and the number of deals you win is called the closing rate. The length of time the process takes for a lead to turn into a real customer is called the sales cycle. Sometimes you may have to approach 15 different leads or more before you make a sale. Depending on the industry you are in, a sales cycle can last from a few hours (consumer goods) to years (selling an oil refinery.) Knowing these numbers will help you to make a sales forecast and lets you calculate how many sales calls you must make to achieve it. Lets assume you work for 48 weeks per year, your sales cycle is 2 weeks, and every 20th lead turns into a customer. In order to make 50 sales per year, you need to make 50 * 20 = 1000 sales calls per year or 21 sales calls per week or 4 calls per day. Use the sales funnel planning tool on the next page to manage your lead process.

Turn your leads...

...first into prospects...

...then into customers.

Visualize for a moment that your sales process looks like a big funnel. Imagine that you can feed an unlimited amount of potential customers, or leads into the funnel mouth on the top. Once they are inside your funnel, you begin listening to them and attempt to understand what their needs are. This is part of the sales process and is often called prospecting. During these conversations you verify if they: have an urgent need that your company can satisfy have set aside a budget they are willing to spend are generally interested in doing business with you

Only after you have found satisfactory answers to these questions, people qualify to become possible future customers or sales targets of yours.

During the sales call and conversations that follow, you offer, or propose your products and services. You will find that not all of your targets end up buying from you, but some of them will.
Cendesic.com/Oliver Fritsch

These exit your funnel as customers.

iStockphoto.com

Selling sounds harder than it is!

Step 3 / 2

2. Prospect Find out if your leads are good prospects: Date planned / completed Review Website__________________________ Project sense of urgency___________________ Face to face meeting______________________ Verify a possible fit_______________________

3. Qualify Good qualification criteria for future customers: Date planned / completed Requirements known______________________ Funding is available______________________ Decision maker(s) identified________________ Influencers identified______________________ Credit check passed______________________

1. Get Leads Check these sources to find leads: Friends, relatives, insurance agents, real estate people Dentists, accountants, business associations Conference and workshop attendees Annual top lists from the local chamber of commerce Member lists of industry associations Companies where you are a customer Companies you have worked for in the past Competitors/suppliers you have worked with Social networks (e.g. LinkedIn.com, Xing.com) Business contacts and lead web sites (e.g. Jigsaw.com) List brokers, white pages and other directories

a el ch funn table prin tep 5-S

rt
4. Propose Important steps during the selling process: Date planned / completed Demo conducted__________________________________ Influencers won over_______________________________ Pricing calculated_________________________________ Proposal submitted________________________________ Objections addressed______________________________ Follow up meetings conducted_______________________

5. Close You know you have succeeded when the following points are checked off: Date planned / completed Open issues satisfied______________________ Order received & booked__________________ Delivery completed_______________________ Testimonial for web site received_____________ Payment received_________________________
iStockphoto.com/Che McPherson

Always keep your funnel full!

Step 3 / 3

Getting an appointment

Pick up the phone...

...make an appointment...

...meet with your prospect.

Dont you love the promise of your web site as an automated sales machine? You would never have to pick up the phone again to make another sales call. Instead, customers will flock to your web site where they will engage with your carefully crafted web experience, get all the information they need, convince themselves that you are the right company to do business with, and click the order button whenever they are ready to buy. Right? Right! Unfortunately this promise remains unfulfilled for most of us! Many customers with a need for your product will never find you. And if they did, they still wouldnt buy from you because they dont know or trust you. Well, how can I get the sale then? you may ask. The answer is simple: Pick up the phone, make an appointment and meet with your prospect in person. A 20 minute face-to-face conversation can replace months of customer research, weeks of programming your web site and days of e-mailing and online prospecting. Not only will you learn about the needs of your prospective customer first hand, but you will also get a chance to ask clarifying questions on the spot.
iStockphoto.com/Alistair Scott

7 + 1 Ways to sell more 1. Prospect every day 2. Make more calls 3. Get through more often 4. Get more appointments 5. Close more sales 6. Get more dollars per sale 7. Make ONE more call at the end of the day and 8. Make it a goal to get to 100 Nos! Why? Not every sales call will lead to a sale, but imagine for a moment that for every five sales calls you make, you earn four Nos! and one Yes! By the time you have reached your hundredth No! you will also have achieved 20 additional sales!

iStockphoto.com/Achim Prill

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

Nothing happens unless you meet with someone in person.

Step 3 / 4

Sales call mechanics

The more calls you make...

...the more...

...success you will have.

Dealing with the fear of rejection is the hardest part of making a call. But it really depends on your mind set: you have no reason to feel bad about offering a valuable service that saves your prospect money or time.
5 Steps to the perfect sales call Selling is a numbers game. Not every call will be successful but: The more calls you make... The more appointments you will get... The more sales you will make! Here are five steps to make the perfect sales call 1. Get the persons attention 2. Identify yourself & your company 3. Give a reason for your call 4. Make a qualifying /questioning statement 5. Set appointment

Good morning Mr./Mrs. (name), this is (your name) from (your company). We are a (describe what your company does) company right here in (name of the city if the same as your prospect - creates a local connection.) The reason I am calling you today is to set an appointment (1 in 12 will do so, just because you asked!) so I can stop by and tell you how you can (insert your value proposition here, e.g. increase your sales.) Our meeting should not take more than 30 minutes. We have just completed a project with (insert name of another local company you have worked with. Await positive response.) Thats great Mr./Mrs. (name) - lets get together! How is Tuesday at 3:00?

Use the phone to get an appointment in person. Dont try to make a sale on the phone. You will feel less rushed and more confident during a face-to-face meeting. We suggest writing an initial contact script before you make your first call. Even then, dont stick with it if its easier to go with the flow.

iStockphoto.com/Michael Kempf

iStockphoto.com/Steve Snyder

Selling is a numbers game!

Step 3 / 5

Succeeding at your first appointment

Use an agenda...

...to structure your...

...first meeting.

Use your first appointment to ask questions about your prospects needs. Send a meeting agenda ahead of time. It could look like the one right here: Important: Put the overview of your company on the agenda last. This gives you a chance to listen to your customers needs first. Resist the temptation to talk too much about you or your companys products. Selling is mostly about listening, not talking. Before you start the meeting thank your customer for his or her time. Bring a copy of your agenda and ask if anything should be added or changed. Confirm that you have about 30 minutes time and then follow the agenda and listen, listen, listen. Qualify and understand your customers pain points immediately.
iStockphoto.com/Martine Affre

What to do after the appointment? Send a thank you note (traditional postal mail may be better than e-mail depending on your prospect) and follow up your visit with answers to all open questions from your meeting. Use the time between your first and your second appointment to learn your customers business, then submit a written sales proposal that addresses your customers pain points.

Dear (i nsert na me) I look fo rw in your o ard to seeing yo u ffi prepare ce at (insert pla on (insert date) ce for our 3 0 - minu .) In order to like to p te ropose th e follow meeting I would ing age nda: Agenda Proposa (Your cu l stomers compan Location y name , Date, T ime) (Your cu stomers compan y (5 Minu ) Growth goals tes) Past suc cesses (5 Curre Minutes ) Overvie nt challenges (1 w of (yo ur comp 0 Minutes) anies) c apabilitie (5 M s Next ste inutes) ps (5 M inutes)

iStockphoto.com/blackred

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

Selling is mostly about listening, not talking!

Step 3 / 6

step

Budgeting

If you have set aside a marketing budget, how should you allocate and spend your money? Do customers beat a path to your door, or, like most businesses, do you still need to create awareness for your products and services? If so, you have more choices than ever. As an overwhelming number of new online promotion tools (examples are affiliate marketing, clickable video ads, and paid search) joined the traditional promotional mix of flyers, Yellow Pages, trade shows, magazine ads and TV advertising, the key questions are: What works, and what doesnt? and Which medium gives me the best customer response for the investment? Dont take chances and gamble your money away learn what works on the following pages.

iStockphoto.com/Terraxplorer

What are your marketing mix opportunities?

Step 4 / 1

Selecting promotion tools

As a small business on a limited marketing communications budget, you will want to know if your money is well spent or not. Thats why the Direct Marketing Association of America (DMA) and other organizations frequently measures response rates of customers for popular media channels. Depending on your marketing objective, different channels offer different types of exposure and responses, at a wide range of costs. Here are the most common ones, along with their customer response rates.

Spend your...

...money...

...wisely.

1) Generating leads If you want your prospects to request additional information regarding your advertised product or service, consider: producing a TV infomercial marketing over the phone or sending out direct mail or e-mail 2) Building traffic If you are interested in increasing traffic to your web site, store, or restaurant, send out a catalog via mail. In addition, optimize your web pages for search engines. We cover this subject in chapter 6. 3) Getting a direct order If you hope to get an order directly in response to your activity, you may want to focus on high response tools such as the telephone, catalogs or affiliate marketing channels (e.g. CJ.com) which sell your products on a pay-per-order basis.

1) Generating leads
Response Rate in % TV Infomercial Telephone E-Mail Mail
iStockphoto.com/Gustaf Brundin iStockphoto.com/Kameleon007

2) Building traffic
Response Rate in % 16.08% 8.25% Catalogs Search SEOM Telephone Mail Radio 4.64% 4.60% 3.36% 9.64% 6.30%

3) Getting a direct order

Response Rate in % Telephone Catalogs Affiliate Mktg. Mail E-Mail Magazine TV Infomercial 0.27 0.22% 3.24% 3.10% 2.20% 2.07% 6.41%

3.25% 2.30%

Newspaper 0.26% Magazine 0.07% Radio 0.01%

2007/2008 Data from Cendesic, DMA, and others

E-Mail 1.54% Newspaper 0.13%

Choose the tool that creates the best response.

Step 4 / 2

Understanding the effectiveness of the e-communications playing field

Experiment with the new tools...

...but pull the plug...

...if they dont work!

The e-communications universe continues to expand rapidly, with new business models invented and tested every day. Some new channels are mostly hype with no proven value, but some of them are highly effective. How can you judge which ones are worth a try? Look at the growth and financial health of the companies behind these services to find out which ones attract the most advertising dollars and grow the fastest. These businesses are usually the ones that work well, at least for some time. As of early 2008, e-newsletters, microsites, organic search, consumer generated content, blogs, and affiliate marketing yielded good results for small and medium sized businesses.
Before you spend money in any channel ask yourself: What is my goal? Do I want to: Generate Leads? Build Traffic? Increase orders and sales? Increase recall and awareness? Improve my brand image?
iStockphoto.com/Christoph Hhnel

Maxium Hype

Unproven Value

Proven Value

iStockphoto.com/Matthew Scherf

Stay focused, understand the behavior of your customer segment and choose your channel based on your objective.

Minimum Hype

e-Communication tools can be measured easily.

Step 4 / 3

Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

ABCs of Marketing Metrics

Measuring is...

...an essential part of...

...marketing.

The broad playing field of Marketing spans all kinds of activities. It ranges from understanding customer needs to setting a price and then selecting distribution channels all the way to promoting your product or service. But it has a scientific component too: measuring the effectiveness of your activities. Only if you measure and understand what works can you optimize your budget expenditure over time. Here are four examples: 1. A/B Test: Write two different versions of your e-mail or direct mail copy and send each of them to a small sample of your prospects. Test different subject lines, calls to action, or where you place your special offers on the page. Measure the return and send the one that received the better response to the rest of your targets. 2. Track: Use web analyzer software to measure the path your visitors take through your site to see if they even reach the important areas or if they abandon your site too early. If you get a lot of traffic to your home page but a low conversion to orders (order conversion rate), investigate and make changes. 3. Compare: Use Compete.com or Alexa.com to measure web traffic of your competitors versus your own. Its not an exact science, but still a very good indicator. You can also look for spikes in their traffic charts to analyze which marketing activities worked well for them and learn from them. 4. Measure: Set conversion goals for all your activities. For example, count the number of calls you make to prospects and the number of appointments you get as a result. Increase the ratio over time by experimenting and optimizing your conversation with your customers. For direct mail activities create response postcards and count how many you receive back. For your search engine campaigns (Chapter 6), create special landing pages and track your hits. Dont send your visitors to your regular home page where you cant track your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign effects.

What is your call to action? For every marketing activity, think about what your customers are supposed to do when they receive your message. While you could measure what they think through a survey, its much easier to measure what they do by giving them a task and observing their behavior. Here are some examples: For a direct mail: include a response card they can send back to you For your web site: have them sign up for your newsletter For your ad: have them go to a special web landing page on your web site or give them a special number to call

iStockphoto.com/Marcela Barsse

iStockphoto.com/Onur Dngel

Measure everything you do!

Step 4 / 4

step

Branding

Young man, make your name worth something. (Andrew Carnegie) Should you try to build up a brand yourself? Or is brand-building a luxury only multinational corporations can afford? How can you create a brand that helps you sell more?
iStockphoto.com/Josef Kubicek iStockphoto.com/Anne Clark

Use our worksheets in this chapter to develop your brand and manage your brand ecosystem.

What do you stand for?

Step 5 / 1

Brand building is only for big companies. O True O False False! Brand building is actually important for everyone. Individuals, along with small and large companies all compete for the attention of prospects in a sea of rivals. The goal of branding is that potential customers immediately connect your name with the value you will deliver for them. If you brand yourself successfully, (Me, Inc.), your e-mails get read and your phone calls get returned. If you brand your company successfully, you will get more new business and repeat business. For a good example of successful small business branding look at Starbucks Coffee. In 1971 they started with one store, one name, one logo, great service and great coffee, and grew to 6,000 locations in 30 countries. It will take some time before your brand or reputation will be built up and fully developed. Have patience, but work on it every day.

Creating a brand

What does...

...your brand...

...stand for?

The idea of branding a product with the name of a manufacturer was originally created by soap makers in the late 19th century. It was a promise to convince prospective buyers that a product made out of town can be just as good as a locally made product. Just like today, the objective was to instill trust in a non-local product and convince buyers to choose it over the alternative. As long as the manufacturers backed up and reinforced this promise with a good product, the brand gained value. It also simplified and accelerated the shopping experience for buyers because they could stop comparing the details of different product alternatives every time they needed to stock up. More than a century later, not much is different. Counter to the opinion of many design companies, your brand is not just a combination of a snazzy logo and a tag line with a million dollar budget to get the message out. The value of your brand exists only in the minds of your customers and is determined by how well you interacted with them in the past, how well your product or service works and how recommendable you are. When your customers make a purchase decision, brand weighs in as one of many factors and will even win the deal in your favor. This chapter explores what you should consider as you build up your brand.

iStockphoto.com/Melvin Migin

iStockphoto.com/Martina Berg

A good brand will get your calls returned!

Step 5 / 2

Growing your Brand There are only a few factors you can control when it comes to how your customers perceive your brand: 1. Brand Identifiers: What are the visible representations of your brand? Logo, fonts, colors, e-mail signature, trademarks, slogans, packaging, web site, proposals, uniforms? 2. Experiential Customer Touchpoints: How can you optimize the experience your customers have when they interact with your brand? Does the look and feel of your email messages and your voice mail, the make-up of your sales team, the behavior of your customer support, along with the return and repair policies affect your success? 3. Brand Visibility: Are your customers in contact with your brand every day? Do you get quoted in the press? Do you appear favorably in shopping reviews, blogs and on social networking sites? Do you advertise? 4. Company Identity and Personality: Whats your company known for? How do you conduct your business? Are you known for high ethical standards? 5. Brand Detractors: Many things can ruin a good brand. Be prepared, if necessary, to neutralize negative events: Are you in an unpopular business category? How do you manage negative word-ofmouth? Do you pay your vendors on time? Do you take personal responsibility for your actions quickly?

Growing your Brand

Write down the one or two things you want to work on each month to grow your brand.
5. Brand Detractors
To Do: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some branding factors...

...you can...

...control directly.

1. Brand Identifiers
To Do: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your brand growth factors

Experiential Customer Touchpoints

To Do: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.

2.

Company Identity
To Do: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.

Brand Visibility
To Do: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

iStockphoto.com/Lisa Fletcher

iStockphoto.com/Ryan Burke

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

Step 5 / 3

Whats driving your Brand Ecosystem? Because your brand exists mainly in the minds of people, there is only a limited amount of money you can spend on brand materials and advertising to promote and build your brand itself. Your brand exists in an ecosystem of thoughts and ideas. The strength of your brand is proportional to the strength of its connections within the ecosystem. This makes the connections between you and your stakeholders important drivers for your brand. So, who are the stakeholders and what can you do? The easy answer: Everybody who is touched by your brand is a possible stakeholder: customers, non-customers, enthusiasts, partners, media representatives, competitors and so forth. No marketing communication budget in the world is going to change what they think about you. Instead, focus on managing the connections. Spend time and money talking to them. Develop a real interest, get to know them, find out what moves them and then give them what they need.

Managing your Brand Ecosystem

The only thing you can control...

...in your brand ecosystem are the...

..connections between the stakeholders.

Your Brand Ecosystem

3. My Potentia l Customers

iStockphoto.com/Andrew Manley

iStockphoto.com/Funkystein

Grow & feed the connections between your Brand Ecosystem.

Step 5 / 4

1. My Brand It self

Influencers 8. My Media rs 9. My Competito

s 2. My Customer

tors (Enhancers) 6. My Complimen

4. My Lead Users

7. My En thusiasts

5. My Partners

step

Being found

If you build it, they will come (Terence Mann, Field of Dreams) Or do they? What does your web site do for your business? Remember the feeling of excitement when your web site went live for the first time? Suddenly, every person around the world could see what you had to offer. Viewers were able to engage your business in seconds, turning your company into the overnight success everyone talks about! We truly hope that your dreams have become reality! Just in case those dreams have not come to fruition and you sit there like the rest of us and scratch your head wondering where you might have dropped the ball, dont worry. Read on.

iStockphoto.com/Nikada

Where are your customers looking for you?

Step 6 / 1

The new rules of the web

Search is now...

..the starting point of..

...most web activities.

Search engines like Google or Yahoo have significantly changed the way we use the web. Ten years ago, users browsed web sites in the hope of finding something interesting, going from link to link and page to page, almost similar to reading a book.

Visits Pre - Search Home page Products About us Company Careers

Fast forward to 2008 and you will notice that web behavior has become more intentional and goal driven. After all, who has the time to literally browse billions of pages? Today, most of us use the web to: Get a job done Answer a question Satisfy a goal, or Learn how to do something Using search engines to find needed information, we glance at a resulting page for a few seconds, grab what seems useful to us, and go away. If you are a site owner this new behavior creates a problem, because most people will never see your home page and learn about all the other nice things you have to offer. Nor will they click on your ads or give you their personal details so that you can make a follow-up call. This leaves you with two challenges: 1. How can you generate enough traffic to your site? 2. How can you turn fly-by-night visitors who just want to grab and go into customers who want to do business with you?

Back then: Visitors enter your site through your home page Unfortunately, most web sites are still built to accommodate the presearch world, hierarchical, with a content rich home page at the top that links to a large number of sub pages.

iStockphoto.com/Nikada

Home pages are not as important as they used to be

Step 6 / 2

Getting search traffic to your web site

Organic optimization...

...saves money...

...in the long run.

Its a fact: More than 70% of all web activities start on a search engine. If potential customers enter search terms related to your products and services, you want to make sure your web site address will be listed among the top five on the results page.

Visits Post - Search Home page Product About us Company Careers

One option to help achieve this goal is to pay a search engine for keywords related to your business. As a result, the engine will display your ad in the paid section of the results display and charge your credit card according to the amount of money you bid for this keyword every time a user clicks on it. Plan on spending between 5 cents and up to $100 per click depending on the competition for your keywords ($100 words are highly competitive and can be profitable, e.g. refinance or insurance.) If you have a large budget and want to see immediate results this is the way to go. Optimizing and making changes to your web pages so that search engines pick them up more easily is another option. This is called organic Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) in which you dont have to pay for clicks at all. Organic listings enjoy a much higher credibility than paid listings, even though some users dont know the difference. It takes time, patience and experimentation to achieve a high ranking organic listing. All it takes is money to get a paid listing. Do both if you can afford it. On the following pages you will first learn a few tricks about how to make your web site findable by search engines in order to get more traffic. Then we will show you how to morph each page of your site into a landing page that converts visitors into customers.

Today: Visitors enter your site sideways, grab what they need and go away Currently, search engines are flattening hierarchical web sites and are allowing more and more visitors to enter a web site sideways through direct and deep links.

Or ga

Pa id

nic

iStockphoto.com/Nikada

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

Step 6 / 3

Should you pay for search or not? Lets look at the downsides of paying for a search listing placement. #1 Fractional customer interest: As many as 96% of all customers ignore sponsored ads. Those who are interested may not be your most valuable future customers. #2 Click fraud: Industry analysts estimate that up to 30% of all clicks on paid links are fraudulent clicks from criminals or competitors who get paid by draining your daily ad budget. #3 Rising Costs: The average cost per click has risen from $0.03 to $0.60 in 5 years, and will continue to rise. At the same time the conversion rates are falling. When should you pay for key words? Because search engines get such a large number of hits, even a small trickle of traffic generated from paid links can funnel a large number of additional customers to you. Pay per click (PPC) advertising provides a quick fix and instant gratification - for a price! Every time a customer clicks on your link you have to pay whether it leads to a sale or not. But if you are in a hurry to get traffic to your site it may be worth the investment.

11 Ways to search optimize your pages for free

Key word picking is...

...half science... half

...half art half

Search engines change their algorithms often, so there is no single best way to optimize your site, but the following hints will get you started: First: Research and create your own special Key word Universe Put yourself into your customers shoes. Brainstorm which key words they would enter into a search box to find a product or service like yours. Use free tools such as Overture or Wordtracker to learn how often these terms are actually searched for every day. Next, pick high scoring terms and enter them into a search engine yourself. Find out who competes for the same key words. Analyze their ads and organic search results. Find 20-30 word variations and combinations that are equally popular but not as often used by your competitors and write them on a sheet of paper for later use in your body copy. Then: Implement 1. The more focused a page is written, the more highly it will be ranked. Pick 1 or 2 key words for each page and repeat each key word 3-5 times per page . Next, create key word rich headlines and sub headlines and tag them as H1 and H2 text in the HTML code. Put your key words into page titles, links, meta tags, image tags, and body copy. 2. Give your pages relevant page title tags and include your key words: 54321-yxqzuaw.html is not nearly as effective as LaserJet-Printers.html. Search engines ignore hyphens and pay special attention to key words in URLs.

iStockphoto.com/Nikada

Create your focused key word universe today!

Step 6 / 4

11 Ways... (continued)
And, the 11th way to get traffic: The Hnsel and Gretel Strategy Be resourceful and leave a trail of bread crumbs (or hooks) leading to your web site around the web and create links back in. Post meaningful comments on heavily frequented web sites like Craigslist, Google Maps, Amazon, Del.icio.us, Digg, and others making sure to include your signature and web address where allowed. Create podcasts and videos of your products and services and post them on music and video sites. Tag them with appropriate key words. Also, submit your site to DMOZ.org and as many specialty directories as you can find. This will help the spiders find you and will create some relevant inbound links. Use these methods to enlarge your messaging footprint!

Search engines will...

...pick up your traces...

...where ever you leave them.

3. Create key word rich and added value documents, like Top 10 Lists or How-to guides and give them away for free on your site. Add an e-book, a Power Point presentation, a PDF or a Word document to your site. This will increase your site ranking because more indexable and searchable content is available. 4. Pay attention to word order. If you want to target the phrase big red widgets, use that exact phrase rather than red widgets that are big. 5. Put special emphasis on the top of your pages, with the understanding that search engine robots or spiders will do the same.

A Yo DD W ur YO 6. Make sure to use flash animations sparingly; stay text based betie iki We UR cause search engines are best at indexing text. Po s Fo s B bsit CO e d 7. Use a relevant domain name that includes your key word if pos- Poi ca rum log Ta NT nts sts s g E sible. La e-b Files s C s Di NT TO 8. Update your pages frequently. Frequently updated pages get visited E- nd o ha omm gg : more often. If thats too complicated, install a Blog system that you can N e in ok ring un s V w g s i update through a regular browser yourself. Bloideo slet PagPowe RSS r9. Develop a text link to a site map from your home page, so that P g - t e r D s s es
search engine spiders can crawl from link to link and discover and Fs index all your pages. Submit your site to search engines directly so they crawl them faster. Make sure not to rely on fancy java buttons for navigation, because search engines cant recognize them as links most times.
iStockphoto.com/Clayton Hansen

iStockphoto.com/Nikada

10. Measure and analyze your traffic frequently and make changes as necessary. Have patience: it can take months for your redesign to take effect.

Increase your messaging footprint!

Step 6 / 5

Converting visitors to customers on your landing page

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

Landing Pages

Bonus: Three more tips to optimize your landing page 1. Look for possible points of customer anxiety and remove them, e.g. long terms and conditions in small print. Add a trust mark or guarantee stamp instead or provide 3rd party credibility through testimonials. 2. Remove unnecessary navigation elements. Dont give visitors an excuse to bail by offering too many choices. If you do, make them simple and keep them in the same category. For example, if you sell information, offer a subscribe for 3-months, 6-months or 12-months button but not a subscribe versus a learn more button, which would interrupt the conversion (and sales!) process. 3. Say Thank you after consumers have completed the conversion and offer additional gifts or product add-ons to deepen the relationship. After they convert, customers are more ready to continue to engage with you.
iStockphoto.com/Nikada

Search engines, ads, links from other web sites, and traditional marketing activities can send visitors to your web site, but how do you get them to convert, and make them do what you want them to do? Typical bounce rates of 80% or more indicates that 80% of unique visitors come and go to and from your home page without ever getting deeper into the site. What to do? 1. Set up dedicated landing pages: The biggest mistake would be to simply send visitors to your home page and let them figure out what they are supposed to do there by themselves. It is likely that they will bail after 8 seconds or less, especially if your page does not look easy or isnt relevant to their search. Instead, create different landing pages for different audiences depending on the context in which they are coming from. If you run a law practice and specialize in car injury cases and you purchase a text ad that says Injured in a car accident? 1-Click, no call thats all! it would be wise to link the text to a landing page that shows a car wreck and a headline that echoes the same search words used during search by your visitor. 2. Define a conversion objective: Define a single action you want your visitors to take when they come to your landing page. Only then can you measure if its successful or not. This action could be making a purchase, downloading a white paper, submitting a sales lead, or subscribing to a newsletter. If you get 1000 visitors to an order page and 5 people buy, you have a conversion rate of 0. 5%. Swap individual page elements such as headlines, images, or buttons around to optimize your site until you achieve the conversion rate you want. Special software can automate and measure different variations for you. 3. Create a single call to action and present it at the start and destination point: Remove links and images that interrupt the forward momentum in the flow of a page. Guide the page towards the conversion goal. Use single column, top to bottom action flows. Provide a short and easy path for the visitor to get the job done. Finally, fulfill your promise: Ask your visitor to click and buy something, then deliver on your promise every time in order to build trust.

Great landing pages sell more!

Step 6 / 6

step

Promoting

How can you create some buzz? Being findable (Step 6) is important, but not always sufficient to drive enough customers to your business. This in turn makes actively promoting your business an important step towards your future success.
iStockphoto.com/Jacob Wackerhausen

iStockphoto.com/Sean Warren

We will first look at some free ways to gain attention and then help you create a direct marketing campaign.

Which tools will create the biggest awareness for you?

Step 7 / 1

Marketing for free

The most effective...

...advertising...

...comes for free.

Even if you have no dedicated marketing budget available, you can still market your business and spread your message in a number of ways. All you need is some time. Here are some examples: 1. Convince a journalist to write about you Being covered in an article or news story in the media gives you more credibility than buying an ad. To arouse media interest your story needs to be newsworthy, locally relevant, and timely. Every day, journalists get hundreds of self-serving press releases they dont care about. What they are really interested in are human interest stories because their audience likes them too. Think like a reporter before you pitch a story idea and learn the journalists style and preferences. Develop a relationship with them. Budget your time wisely here as well: It may take months to get coverage on TV, a daily newspaper or a monthly magazine. Although a TV appearance lasts only for seconds and a newspaper article for a day, a magazine article may be available for months. 2. Write an ebook or create a special report Package your special expertise into an ebook or a special report and give it away for free or in exchange for an e-mail address or a customer visit. Post it on your web site to increase your findability. Create your own conversation pieces. Writing a real book can be fun too if you have the time and dedication it takes to find and work with a publisher. Count on at least one year from start to finish. 3. Start a blog Use free blogging software and write about your special field. Update it frequently, leave comments on other blogs and link your blog to others through track backs. Be as authentic as possible and dont bore your readers to death with sanitized messages.

xxx-xxxx-xxxx

iStockphoto.com/Lisa Thornberg

Cendesic.com/Oliver Fritsch

Example of a low cost promotion activity found on a phone at the Denver airport

Low budget can still be high impact!

Step 7 / 2

Marketing for free (continued)

4. Create a newsworthy event How can you get local television, radio, and press to cover your business for free, especially when your business is not really in a spectacular category that lends itself to be written up all the time?
Market locally or nationally? When choosing your promotional activities, think about where most of your target customers are located. If your business is mostly local, consider; Craigslist, Angies List, local radio, local TV, local newspaper ads, Yellow Page ads, post cards, flyers, billboards, local sponsorships, advertising on cars, local chamber of commerce, local business development clubs and associations, and word of mouth activities. If your business is national or international, consider; Paid ads on search engines, direct mail and e-mail campaigns, and joining national associations and international procurement platforms.

Make...

...yourself...

...newsworthy!

The answer: create a newsworthy event by yourself and invite the media to come. Because most media is highly networked and happens to be owned by a few large companies, there is a good chance that interesting events travel further than you expect. Here are a few ideas to get you started: create an award, start a contest, do a grand opening, create a survey, start a fund raising event, connect with a current event, or offer your product as a prize on the radio. 5. Use big traffic sites to your favor Instead of trying to get people to your web site - which is an increasingly difficult task go where people already are and engage with them there: create and moderate online groups or post your comments. Important: Always include your e-mail signature with your web site information, blog address and slogan where permitted. Dont spam but contribute and add value. For example, a small book review of a book related to your specialty on Amazon can expose thousands of readers to your expertise - and web address! Social networking and business community sites like Facebook, Xing, or others provide plenty of posting opportunities. So do letters to the editor of your local or national newspapers.

iStockphoto.com/Kirsty Pargeter

iStockphoto.com/Sean Warren

Be interesting!
Step 7 / 3

Creating a direct mail campaign

Direct mail...

...still performs...

...well!

Does it still make sense to invest in sending postal mail in the age of email? Many companies think so. In a recent U.S. survey, planned direct mail spending for 2008 was raised sharply, compared to SEO/SEM and email spending. Think about it, most people still like to get and open real mail, especially compared to managing an overflowing email inbox. Nevertheless, a good mailing can cost as much as $1.50 or more per person, so you should make sure to make the most of it. Here are the 7 things you need to get started:
Cross media marketing increases the effectiveness of your campaign Combine your direct marketing campaign with activities in other channels to increase your response rates. Precede your direct mail with a local radio ad, or launch a direct mail campaign after a favorable newspaper coverage to increase the frequency with which your customers are exposed to your name. If you mail out catalogs, e-mailing to the same list one to two weeks ahead of time can increase your response rates by up to 30%. If you have a web-only business and customers register on your site, surprise them by mailing out a nice postcard with a special offer afterwards to prove that you are real.

1. The customer list: This is the most important piece. Customers like to get mail from people they already know. Build your own customer list over time and get permission from your customers to send them mail. Buying highly targeted lists from specialized list brokers is a possibility, but count on a lower conversion rate. Select recipients with a common interest and customize your message just for them. Keep your list updated: people move and interests change. Count on replacing 25% of your list per year. 2. Your offer: Make a clear and compelling offer in your letter one that your customers want to react to. Add a little bonus or something special that they wouldnt get otherwise. Make responding to your offer worth their while. 3. Your letter: Direct mail is the most personal type of copy you can write. Keep your message personal and use first person style; Use I instead of we. Sign your letter personally and in ink. In terms of writing, offer the biggest benefits first so your reader keeps reading.
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iStockphoto.com/Peter Austin

Keep your letter personal!

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Creating a direct mail campaign (continued)

A nice package...

...complements...

...your offer!

The goal of every paragraph is to funnel your customer all the way down to your call to action. Repeat your offer at the top, in the middle and at the bottom of the letter. Also, add a compelling headline on top and a no risk guarantee at the bottom. 4. Your response mechanism: Add a phone number, a web landing page URL and a prepaid reply card or envelope to make it easy for your customers to respond. 5. Your package: The job of the envelope is to get opened. Peak the curiosity of your recipients by adding things that rattle or make it thicker. You can also add a headline or make it look more personal by addressing it by hand and adding a nice, colorful stamp. Add a brochure, a useful mini guide or booklet to explain your offer further. The longer your recipients spend with your mailing, the higher the likelihood that they will respond.
Checklist for the perfect direct mailing Create / buy / clean up your customer list Define your offer Write your letter (include headline, call to action, guarantees) Create a response mechanism Create your package (envelope, brochure, reply form) Test your mailing Ship it

6. Your testing insights: Create at least two to three versions with different offers and headlines of your mailing and send them out to a small subset of your list. Send the one with the most favorable response to the remainder of your list. For example, the following three statements convey the same offer, but which one do you think pulled the biggest response in a test mailing? A) Half price! B) Buy one - get one free! C) 50 percent off! 7. Shipping materials and nice stamps: Ship your mailing and wait for the response.
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iStockphoto.com/jecka

Make your letter easy to respond to.

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(The answer: B) outperformed A) and C) by more than 50%)

step

Connecting

What can a proposal do for you? A proposal summarizes the reasons why your customers should do business with you. It can also serve as a sales tool in your absence or as a reference piece during a follow-up sales call. Use a proposal to suggest a business transaction (e.g. if you work as a consultant) or to introduce a purchase opportunity (e.g. if you work as a real estate agent).

iStockphoto.com/Kris Hanke

How can you create a written proposal that reflects your philosophy?
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Creating a lasting impression

When all is the same...

...be different...

...to stand out!

Components of a good proposal A proposal typically consists of a cover sheet, followed by a collection of bound or stapled pages which describe the products or services you want to offer your client. Content elements most common to proposals are: Headline: Can you get your readers to read the body copy? Description: What is your offering? Price: How much do you intend to charge? Advantage: Why should they buy from you? Experience: Why are you an expert? Background: Why should they trust you? Contact Information: How can they reach you?

Given that most people use the same content elements, the same materials (off-the-shelf folders, office printers etc.), and the same tools to create a proposal, the big question is: What can you do to stand out and create a lasting impression? The answer lies in the human element; the unexpected, the surprising, the enchanting, the whimsical and the spark of imagination that will let your customers make the connection with you. After all, people want to do business with actual people, rather than with a soulless corporation or a static web site.
iStockphoto.com/Angel Manuel Herrero

On the following pages we will show you how you can create that special connection.

iStockphoto.com

Surprise your customers!

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3 Steps to connect with your customers Step 1: Remove communication barriers that artificially separate you from your customers. For example, 1.Iril ullam, quipsustrud mod tionse you can: dolobor erilla adiat augiat. Eliminate answering machines Voloreetue consendreet ulla faccumand redirect your voice mail to san eraestisl del inim ilisis aliqui your cell phone blam, conse facidunt in ulluptat. Pick up the phone instead of Perilismolor sequisi elestrud tat in volore writing an e-mail consequam nullamet lorem of Exchange the stock images volortie dolorpe ratuerillan henisi bla on tat beautiful, nameless models faci verat, qui enit alisi. real pictures of your web site with yourself and your employees 2. Odigniscip et, quam dolorerat laortis 2: Explore and understand the Step amet augiamcon henibh eugait volumsan product con henibh et, story of theulluptatio you plan to sell: velessequis nullaor peraessis nons What thoughts or observations nos niam, quipit lut la accumsan ea went into its creation? faccumm olorpercin endre volenisl How much trial and error did it ut aliquamcon the first perception of take from vero endipissim inciduis nulputatie faciliquisi the creation Em the problem until bla feugiat. of the satisfying solution you offer 3.today? vel ing er ad dolore minisi. venim Gueriustrud erciliquat la faccum duis 3: Explore and understand the Step alisit adiatuer sequi blandreet, quissis how you personally er into story ofeummy nibh erciduisi gotautet, suscillum nos essi the first am, senit your profession inero cons place: wismodo dolorem zzrilluptat. Duisl Was there a milestone event iliquis aliquam ea at ad do odipis that inspired you to pursue your nonsequip eros eugiamcorer ilissi. line of business? Agnim did in hendre magnibh How zzrilituthappen that you beetue exero odolortinciyour field? siscil came an expert in blaore er euguero core do et, buy from you? Why do customersveliscillan ut ipit

Relating the story of your business

Dont hide yourself...

...open the dialogue...

...tell your story!

Owners of small and medium-sized businesses sometimes try to hide behind a nice logo and an impersonal web site in their attempt to appear bigger. However, many times they end up looking anonymous - and who wants to do business with someone they dont know? Dont make that mistake! Given that most customers want to feel good about their engagement with you, they will often buy from the company with the most interesting founders and the best story. But why is a good story important? Like visitors to a museum who develop a better connection to a painting when they know the story behind it, your customers will develop a deeper appreciation for your offering or product when they hear your story. Your ultimate goal is to have a deep conversation with your customers. Dig a little deeper and remember the true, authentic history behind the product you sell. Add even more interest and gain credibility by recounting your personal story and telling how you became the expert you are today.

iStockphoto.com/Daniel Stein

Whats your story?

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Creating a flyer with a special touch

Make your customer...

...want to close the deal...

...with you!

Lets look at a typical real world business proposal example: a property prospectus.
Important elements of a great proposal Leave no questions unanswered Create an emotional connection between your offer and your customer Tell your story and show your company in the best light Make your customer want to close the deal with you. Creating a business proposal is a core sales function for owners of many small and medium-sized businesses Looking for inspiration? Collect samples of proposals you like Look what your competitors write about your subject Read books on good writing, practice and measure what works

If you are a real estate agent and want to create a flyer to sell a house, you know the drill: Collect digital images of the property Scan the floor plan Write a technical description (number of rooms, baths, square footage etc.) Add your advertising copy and contact information Set the price Pull everything together in an office application Print, distribute and then hope for the best! Can you think of a better alternative? How about creating a property prospectus using your office printer thats so unique that the recipient: Falls in love with your proposal and your property Shows it to all her friends Doesnt want to throw it away and keeps it on her desk as an inspiration and a permanent reminder to take action.
iStockphoto.com

iStockphoto.com/Selahattin Bayram

Lets get started!

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Unleashing your creativity

Bring your...

...collage...

...to life!

How to make it unique? To create a unique property prospectus with a personal touch, all you need are a few household items and a little bit of imagination. Colorize the drawings by hand or on your computer to bring them to life Use images of details that spur your imagination Take more pictures of the object and its surroundings than you think you need. Take photos of views, animals, children etc. Create a story that gives an overview and technical details on one hand and then on the other hand, an emotional description of what its like to live there Make it unique by attaching a three-dimensional object like a pebble from the garden

iStockphoto.com/Andrea Gingerich

Think outside the box!

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Building it: Steps 1-8

Collect and...

...assemble all...

...your materials first.

1. Open a new document in your preferred office application (MS PowerPoint, MS Word, Adobe Indesign etc.) 2. Create a grid on the page to lay out the different images. 3. Select a background image with a resolution of 300 dpi from a stock image agency (e.g. istockphoto.com) or use a photo of your own. 4. Scan the architectural drawing and colorize it by hand, or use a photo editing software. Place it on the background image. 5. Take images that reflect the special emotional nature of the object and its surroundings. For example, ask the previous owners which views they particularly enjoyed. 6. Combine the photos in a collage and place them on the background 7. Arrange the images like in a graphic novel to create an emotional connection between your object and your customer.
iStockphoto.com/Andrea Gingerich iStockphoto.com/Valentin Casarsa

8. Create a story that gives an overview and technical details on the one hand and an emotional description of what its like to live there on the other.

Almost done...
Step 8 / 6

Building it: Steps 9-14

Real garden wire and...

...a pebble provide the...

...special touch!

9. Add contact information on the back page. 10. Print the front and back page on your color printer, using either glossy or specially textured heavy stock. 11. Use a ruler and the back of a knife to score the page for a clean fold. Fold the pages over. 12. Turn every prospectus into a unique collectors item and give it some soul. In this example we attached a stone from the garden with a piece of gardening wire. Instead you could also add leaves of silk flowers, a fragrant twig of lavender or rosemary, a piece of bark or any other object that appeals to the senses, reflects the spirit of the place and leaves a lasting impression. 13. You can also perfume your letter with a natural light scent like it was done hundreds of years ago. 14. Place your piece of art in a semi-transparent envelope with a hand-written address, including a nice stamp, and send it to your prospective customer via postal mail. You can trust that the recipient will be thrilled to find your beautiful piece between all the unwanted bills and direct mail. They surely will give it the special attention it deserves.

iStockphoto.com/Valentin Casarsa

Do you feel inspired?

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step

Growing

Do you know the stories your customers are telling about your company? Should you care? No matter how much money you have spent to develop and launch a new product; a single, dissatisfied customer can blast your new product in front of thousands of customers on a popular review site like Amazon.com. As a result your success may stop in its tracks. At the same time a raving customer can lift your product out of obscurity and turn it into a major success overnight. Welcome to the new world, where customers are truly in charge. In this chapter we will show you how you can create goodwill and positive buzz for your company, products, and services from the ground up.

iStockphoto.com/Sebastian Knight

iStockphoto.com/Heiko Potthoff

How can you keep developing your business?

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Understanding Word of Mouth

Thinking beyond your product Did you know that your whole value chain is under scrutiny? Customers nowadays include additional factors in their purchase decision, such as how fair you treat your workers, or how environmentally friendly your production is. Make sure you listen to the undertones of the conversations about you and be proactive in changing that conversation into a positive one. Frequently check reviews about your products and services at places like Amazon.com or Zagat.com to find out how people rate your performance and what they say about you.
1 customer review

People will...

...talk about you..

...anyway anyway

Its a fact: customers talk about your products, your service, and your company all the time. It influences how you are perceived, how often you are recommended to others and ultimately how well you sell. The web has only accelerated and amplified these conversations to a level where everybody involved in a purchase decision will come across reviews and be influenced to choose you or one of your competitors. The nice thing about the web is that you can get some visibility to these conversations and react to them. Knowingly, the online chatter probably reflects only about 10% of the volume of conversations, while 90% are still face-to-face conversations between people. 3 Reasons why people talk about you Word of mouth cant be bought with money quite the opposite is true. You can spend a million dollars on a new advertising campaign and still only get a few press reviews, while your competitor just spends a few thousand dollars and creates 100 times the attention. Why? #1: Cool and exciting products or services: Amateurs and professional talkers (a.k.a. Journalists or talk show hosts) have the same motivation to speak; they want to help others and feel smart and important at the same time. And they cant afford to be boring. Exciting and ground breaking new products and services are just much more interesting to talk about. To develop a feel for what is exciting, check out which stories get forwarded the most on news sites like the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo and other buzz indicators like Alexa.com or Google Trends. How can you make your product exciting? #2: Great personal service experience: Have you ever received a free bottle of premium champagne from a United flight attendant for voluntarily changing your seat so that a mother and her daughter can sit together? Sounds like an amazing $150 thank you for a common courtesy, but it happened to the author and you can be sure that every one of his friends knows about it now including you! Does your company provide such a great service that they have to tell their friends? #3: Bad service experience or bad product: How do you feel about spending a lot of money for a new computer operating system that basically renders all your printers, scanners and graphic cards useless? This is not really a big deal for a software manufacturer if all operating systems out there are equally bad, but this is no longer the case. No PR department in the world can help you overpower the voices of tens of thousands of disgruntled customers. What can you do to fix a bad product?

28 customer reviews

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You!

iStockphoto.com/MJP-Photographs

Give your customers a reason to talk positively about you!

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Getting referrals, buzz, and positive word of mouth

Make it easy...

...for your customers...

...to recommend you

1. Track 2. Listen

How can you get more referrals and accelerate positive word of mouth about your products? Here are the four steps we recommend: 1. Track 2. Listen 3. Respond 4. Enable 1. Track: Monitor what is said about you, and who says it. Action Item: Set an internet alert with a search engine to track quotes of your company or product names, or ask a professional monitoring agency to do the work for you. Start reading what the rest of the consumer world is reading about you. 2. Listen: Look up your name in social book marking sites, blog directories and review sites to find the true heroes of your brand (the talkers). It may be maddening or humbling to listen to what they have to say about you at first, but put yourself into their shoes and ask yourself: Is what they say true or not? Action Item: Analyze customer comments about your products and services and try to understand the root cause. 3. Respond: Join the conversation, and admit to your mistakes. Action Item: Reward talkers with a thank you note but dont try to bribe them. Fix the problem and then communicate to them that you have listened and fixed the problem. 4. Enable: Make it easy for your customers to recommend you and share your brand with their friends - online and offline. Action Item: Add share with a friend links and link your web pages to the top five social book marking sites for easy referral. Provide special offers (buy one, get one free) that customers can pass along to a friend.

Build positive grass roots level support into your product and services strategy from the beginning Expose your ideas to a select group of opinion makers and Bloggers to get early feedback on your concepts. Be humble and listen to what your customers have to say and how they feel about you.
iStockphoto.com/Mikhail Pozhenko

3. Respond

IiStockphoto.com/van Mateev

Make changes and be responsive to your customers suggestions to earn their respect.

4. Enable

Join the conversation with your customers!

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Creating customer loyalty

Reward your...

...loyal...

...customers

I will do whatever it takes to make my customers happy Highest customer satisfaction is my goal Is this a valuable growth goal for your business? Probably not! After all, you could just offer lower prices than everybody else. This would make your customers happy in the short term but unhappy in the long term, because you would not be able to offer great customer service after the initial sale at which point they would leave you and go somewhere else. Thats why part of your growth strategy should be to think about how you can turn your customers into repeat customers and make them loyal to your company in the long term. Loyal customers will: Recommend your products and services to their friends Do business with you more than once Provide you with valuable information about how to improve your products and services 3 Ideas to reward your existing customers Given how difficult and expensive it is to acquire new customers your challenge is to find ways to reward your existing customers. Here are a few ideas: Idea #1: Flatter them Create a regular customer advisory council and invite your best customers to join and listen to their feedback regarding your company, products and services. Idea #2: Reward them Offer long-term customers special loyalty rewards through extended service hours or warranties.
iStockphoto.com/Matej Michelizza

How to measure customer loyalty with just three questions Ask your customers the following three questions: How satisfied are you with our products and services? (Scale of 1-10, 1 being not at all; 10 being very much so) How likely is it that you will purchase from us again? (Scale of 1-10) How likely is it that you will recommend our product or company to your friends? (Scale of 1-10) A total score of 21 or higher will be a good indicator that you have a loyal customer.

iStockphoto.com/Ryerson Clark

Idea #3: Dont fool them Treat them the same way you would treat a new customer. Dont borrow a page from the playbook of credit card companies; if you offer introductory rebates or lower prices to new customers, offer at least the same deals to your current users.

Customer loyalty is more than customer satisfaction!

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Dealing with rejection

A negative...

...online review...

...is not the end of the world

What should you do if you receive a catastrophic review for your products on a widely popular e-commerce or review site? First, ask yourself if it is accurate or if its an ill-fated attempt by a competitor to discredit your products. Could the review be considered slander, uses profanities and other inappropriate wording or infringes on trademark. In this case, the entry may be against the review sites terms and conditions and you have a fair chance of getting the entry removed or corrected. Just ask the operators of the site for removal of the entry. Second, in case the entry is accurate, try to contact the author and offer to remedy the situation. If the site owner will not remove the entry, the only person who can remove the entry is the author them self. Ask for forgiveness and fix the problem or exchange the product. Third, if you receive an overwhelmingly negative response, there may indeed be something wrong with the product or the way you market it. Make changes in how you run your business or to your products or services themselves.

Whats next? Did you find our collection of marketing insights valuable? If so, please recommend our book to your friends. Tell us what else you would like us to write about. Click on the Home button on the bottom of this page and provide us with your feedback. Thanks!

iStockphoto.com/Heiko Potthoff

iStockphoto.com/Curt Pickens

Use rejection as a learning opportunity - and fight back!

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