2010 January | Small Business Marketing Blog | Glazer-Kennedy Insiders Circle

Archive for January, 2010

The Easiest Strategy For Getting Referrals for Your Small Business

By: Dan Kennedy on: January 18th, 2010 18 Comments

I want to talk to you about what is perhaps the most effective, yet underused referral strategy that I know which is to….

…simply ask for them.

Many business owners and executives, professionals and even sales people have all sorts of mental hang-ups about asking for referrals. However, most of those hang-ups are invalid and I find that those who ask get!

Now here’s a secret about customers or clients who refer that can be worth a great deal of money to you. Understand that the person who refers once can and will refer many more people, many more times if motivated to do so. Once a customer or client has referred someone to your business then that source of referral should be worked like the goldmine that it is.

You should know that massive research by major to consumer direct sales companies and organizations indicates that the average person has an immediate circle of influence of fifty-two. Fifty-two other people.
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Who Is The Easiest Customer

By: Dan Kennedy on: January 14th, 2010 19 Comments

In this post we’re going to talk about one of the most exciting marketing strategies of all, stimulating word-of-mouth advertising.

Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful, effective type of advertising there is but it’s the only kind you can’t just buy by the page or by the minute. It has to be created, stimulated and nurtured with truly creative techniques.

Most businesses take whatever word-of-mouth advertising they get but I’m here to tell you that you can exert a considerable degree of control over this type of advertising and marketing.

The reason that word-of-mouth advertising is so valuable is simple. Nothing you could ever say about you, no matter how well you say it, can have as much impact and credibility as something someone else says about you – especially an enthusiastic customer or client.

Also there are some things you simply can’t say graciously about yourself that others can say.
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Leaving Comments Can Make You Famous and Get You More Business

By: Brian Horn on: January 13th, 2010 119 Comments

I know that many of you readers come here, read what you want, make use of the information you want and go about your day without ever leaving a comment.

One of the main benefits of a blog is the ability to start a conversation directly with me, Dan, Bill, Mara, Russell Brunson, Jim Palmer, Mike Capuzzi, Robert Skrob…or any of the other authors…and even the other readers.

So, if you have been a silent reader of this blog and want to know the benefits of leaving comments, let me give you some tips on why you should be doing it.

1. You’re Alerting The Author (and Dan & Bill) to Who You Are.

If you regularly leave comments on this blog, we will start to recognize your name. Don’t forget the hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs who read it daily. They will start to recognize you also.

If you leave some really interesting comments, we may even ask you to “guest blog” some day.

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Monthly Customer Newsletters – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life!

By: jpalmer on: January 11th, 2010 25 Comments

Warning! This post contains phenomenal information on how to grow your business and boost your profits with a monthly customer newsletter. But you should also know that I’m also going to challenge you not to be what I call a newsletter pansy!

It’s a fact that customer newsletters help businesses succeed. And the best and most effective way to grow your business, boost your profits, and get more customers for life is to mail monthly. Anything less frequent than monthly means that you are simply being a newsletter pansy.

Dollar for dollar, newsletters are the most effective marketing tool available. Plus, customers who read your newsletter are usually in a good position to do business with you again and recommend your product or service to others. And that’s where your new business comes from! Let me share with you more of what I call the magic of newsletter marketing.
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Copywriting Design Done Wrong

By: Mike Capuzzi on: January 11th, 2010 14 Comments

Recently, I heard a news report about “Artic goo.” Apparently there is some nasty, algae-type material floating around the North Pole. As the camera panned the ocean, this goo was floating on the water’s surface, leaving a disfiguring wound on an otherwise pristine natural setting.

Being a copy cosmetic geek, I couldn’t help making the mental connection of how many people add a similar type of nasty goo to their copywriting and marketing design, in an effort to grab attention or even worse, make a half-hearted attempt to copy somebody else’s work.

The copywriting “goo” I am talking about is a misuse of the copy cosmetic techniques I teach and similar to the Artic goo, it takes away rather than adds to the effort. Whenever I speak or coach a mastermind member, I always go back to what I call “functional design.”

This means every copy cosmetic technique used has a specific and functional purpose in mind. Everything is done with intention and careful thought. Nothing is done haphazardly. (more…)

How Not to Become a Small Business Marketing Victim

By: Dan Kennedy on: January 8th, 2010 8 Comments

In the previous blog entries I wrote about creating two different types of checklists in order to keep you on track to being an innovative thinker.

There’s also a third type of checklist that I use, which is a collection of what I call ‘Classic Marketing Wisdom.’ This is made up of key quotations from the books, articles and other writings of advertising and marketing experts past and present, grouped by category.

When I sit down to create a direct mail piece for example, I would view my wisdom checklist of all the experts, key quotes about direct mail. To build this list you need to do some serious reading about advertising and marketing. I’d certainly suggest reading the works of David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Claude Hopkins and Bob Stone. Many of their books are available at your public library. You can borrow and review them without spending a penny.

The important message behind the development and use of these checklists is that creativity and innovation can be learned, can be developed, it can be approached in a pragmatic, systematic manner. It is not a product of genius; although I’m willing admit that that helps too.
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Are There Any New Ideas?

By: Dan Kennedy on: January 7th, 2010 9 Comments

In my last post I wrote about creating a fundamental checklist of success by using Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich as a template.

A second type of checklist to construct and use is what I call a ‘Practical Creativity Checklist.’ There are a number of methods for rearranging the existing and old into the different and new that actually account for most innovations in the world. There may not be anything new under the sun.

Now here are some of the things that belong on this practical creativity list.

Number one: we can plus the product, service or business? Plusing is addition, adding to. Several years ago a company rolled out a new product, peanut butter and jelly swirled together in the same jar. Depending on how you want to look at it they plused the peanut butter with jelly or vice versa. The product didn’t do well but it’s a good example of the idea.
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Checklist for Becoming an Innovative Small Business Marketer

By: Dan Kennedy on: January 5th, 2010 7 Comments

When clients retain me as a marketing consultant they’re actually paying for two basic things, experience and innovation. Experience can be gained in only two ways, through your own situations or by reading and hearing about other situations. Innovation though is a method of thinking.

The first thinking that I do when facing most small business marketing situations is to run through the same fundamental principles of success that govern all aspects of business.

One good source of such a checklist is the book ‘Think and Grow Rich,’ by Napoleon Hill and its thirteen principles based on commonalities discovered in over five hundred super successful business people.

Incidentally it’s worth mentioning that this book is a remarkable success story in itself in the publishing industry.

This book was published back in 1937 yet as recently as this year, Think and Grow Rich continues to enjoy healthy sales, the book is periodically re-issued in new editions, and in very recent years it has appeared on national bestseller lists.
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Recycled Traffic

By: Russell Brunson on: January 4th, 2010 10 Comments

I have a close friend who makes over six figures a month online – well, he used to until about a year ago, then it started to drop dramatically. I used to warn him every time I saw him that he needed to change his ways or else some day it would come back to haunt him. He told me not to worry because he knows how to drive a lot of traffic through Google PPC and because of that he’ll always have traffic, visitors and money.

The warning I kept giving him was simply this, “Don’t stop driving new traffic to your site, but you need to focus more time selling to your customers and visitors who have already come to your site and already know who you are.”

His fatal flaw was that he was so good at generating traffic he would never email his subscriber and buyer lists again to sell them more products. His profits came from the quick sale, not the long term.

Now, as Google and the economy keep changing, he’s watching his profits quickly disappear and all he has to show is a list of people who, at one time, came to his site but have forgotten who he is and they aren’t buying from him anymore.
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