Posts Tagged ‘fast implementation bootcamp’

The Most Important Question You Should Ask When Advertising

By: Dan Kennedy on: February 26th, 2013 5 Comments

Over the weekend advertisers spent between $1.65 and $1.8 million for a 30-second commercial during the Oscars.

That’s a lot to spend, however if the economics are right spending that much can really pay off for a business. Especially if their competitors aren’t willing or able to do the same.

Years ago, I thought about building a multi-million dollar company like Nightingale-Conant.

However, I learned through painful experience the impracticality of building a mail-order business without the ability to “go negative” on the front end. The simple truth was I didn’t have the financial resources to do so which meant I had to abandon that idea and go in a different direction.

I often teach that even great marketing can’t make up for bad economics. It is equally true that neither the greatest product or the greatest marketing can make up for insufficient capital.

Smart marketers at the Oscars, the ones who had the right message, the right audience and choose the right media, could pull ahead of a competitor that wasn’t willing or able to spend that much.

You might remember when Pepsi dropped out of some major advertising for a few years while Coke stayed their course and continued spending. As a result Coke overtook Pepsi as the leader.

The business truth many people insist on ignoring is that most businesses are built by “buying customers.” That means that if you are restricted to only acquiring new customers through means that deliver a first sale, front end profit, you cannot grow a business quickly. In fact, you probably cannot grow a business at all.

Conversely, the marketer with the willingness and ability to invest in acquiring customers, even losing money on the first sale AND with an effective strategy for maximizing customer value has an enormous competitive advantage.

Business owners have difficulty accepting this message. In fact, when determining budgets, marketing is often one of the first areas that businesses believe they can reduce their spending.

The rationale is that the business can maintain the customers they currently have or that their competitors may be facing the same economic challenges and therefore do the same.  What really happens is that you open up the market and make room for your competitor willing to advertise to move in and take over some of your market share.

Really the question should NOT be, “What’s the least amount you can spend to acquire a customer?”

The most important question you should ask is, “What’s the most that you can/will spend to acquire a new customer?”

(Dan Kennedy Talk About This At Length In His Newly Released “Marketing To The Affluent” Course…Available For 33% Off Now.)

That number determines what can and cannot be done, which media and marketing tools can and cannot be used, and virtually dictates your marketing plan.

Ultimately, the business that can spend the most to acquire a customer wins. In the U.S. recessions from 1980-1985, McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies. The businesses who continued advertising and outspent their competition during the 1981-1982 recession hit a 256 percent growth by 1985.

There is more evidence to support the same.  If you expect to make a profit on the initial sale only, you will grow slowly, if you grow at all. You must make sure you can afford to buy customers, outspend your competitors and have an effective strategy for maximizing your customer’s value on the back-end.

NOTE: This is just one of the money-making rules you’ll learn how to apply at the GKIC Fast Implementation Bootcamp. If you’ve been flailing around, growing slowly or not growing at all, take advantage of our Free FAST Implementation Bootcamp. It’ll get you out of the gate and running FAST.

Note, this is NOT about getting more information. It’s about showing you how to use GKIC marketing and helping you develop an actual marketing campaign. You’ll actually leave bootcamp with a complete campaign ready to send to your customers the minute you get home.

Register for our next Free Fast Implementation Bootcamp here now.  Or go to www.dankennedy.com/bootcamp

 Or hear what one of our recent Bootcamp attendees has to say here.

“Fall Forward Faster” A Tip To Make Your Business the Most Successful It Can Be!

By: Dave Dee on: November 13th, 2012 3 Comments

I just got back from Opryland Hotel in Nashville where we held INFO-Summit 2012 …

There was so much great information flying around that it would be easy for attendees to go home and put their info in a drawer…and wait until they have some free time to put the new ideas they’ve learned into action …especially with the holidays just around the corner.

It’s a common occurrence. You mean to do something with the ideas you get, but after sitting the materials on your desk a while, you move them to a drawer to get them out of the way telling yourself that you’ll get to them ASAP.

I’ve seen members do this with their newsletters and other materials too—the information is great, but you feel overwhelmed—and unsure what to do first.

So you put it aside intending to get to it “some day.”

But here’s the thing…it truly only takes one idea…one strategy to change your business and your life.

Just one.

That means you don’t need to do ALL the ideas that come your way. You just need to pick one and get started.

During a Q & A with a panel of Dan Kennedy’s Platinum Mastermind members, Dr. Tom Orent gave a great piece of advice. In fact, it was his answer when Dan asked, “What is your best piece of advice?” Dr. Orent said, “Fall forward faster. Because the people who have failed the most are the most successful.”

Then he gave a great way to deal with overwhelm that I want to share with you today—so that you can make sure you get some stuff done before the end of the year!

Dr. Orent suggested that you take out a piece of paper and write down all the ideas you want to try.

Next he said to narrow your list down to the top ten ideas on your list and set the other ideas aside in a tickler file to review at a later date.

From your top ten list, pick just two ideas that you will implement in November and two ideas from the list you will implement in December.

Focus on only the two ideas you’ve chosen for the month.

Not sure what ideas you should do first? Here are some tips:

 

1)     Pick the ideas which are the best speed marketing strategies. In the Phenomenon Dan teaches you how to get more done in the next 12 months than you did in the previous 12 years.

One of his strategies is to focus on speed marketing strategies that will multiply and expand your business. For example, you could focus on a key area of your business where you haven’t yet converted to GKIC marketing. This might be something such as not having a lead magnet in place to attract new prospects to your business.

 

2)     Circle the desk before you sit down. During John Carlton’s conversation with Dan about copywriting at INFO-Summit, John talked about how he had observed how a dog turns in circles before it lays down. He said that in order to avoid wasting time, before he writes a single word of copy, he circles his desk and doesn’t sit down until he is ready to write.

Similarly, to get things done, you need to be “ready” to go when you implement a new process, strategy or idea. If an idea on your list leaves you feeling unsure of where to start or what to do, that might be a sign to leave that one for a later date.

Instead pick an idea that you feel more confident about starting on immediately.  (If you are looking for how you can find the time to implement new ideas, Dan shows you how to “find” that extra hour to work on the “thing” you’ve been meaning to get to in No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs.)

 

3)      Evaluate what is easiest to do based on what you already have.  One thing to consider is what can you do with the tools you already have in place.

While this isn’t always the best criteria, some action is better than no action. This means that sometimes to get started, this is excellent criteria and will make it easier to get going.

If you have an email system already in place, it might be easier to set up a follow-up email sequence for new prospects than it would be to send out a postcard when you have no list with physical addresses and have never dealt with a list broker before.

 

4)     Do what are you most excited about. Call it your gut instinct or intuition…but what do you feel the most excited about on your list? The things you are most excited about will be the easiest to get done versus the things you are apprehensive about. Trusting your enthusiasm about an idea or project can be a key to helping put your idea into motion.

 

I don’t want you to wait until next year to start seeing a shift in your success.

Do you?

So right now, take a few minutes to write down the top ideas and strategies you want to implement in your business. Use the four tips I’ve given you to pick your top two and get started today. If you do, you’ll be celebrating at the end of the year and will have started a new tradition of getting things done to move your business forward.

NOTE: If you’re still not sure what to do or how to do it, then check out our FAST Implementation Bootcamp—open to all GKIC members for FREE. We’ll take you through all the steps and show you the best strategies to start with to get your business in high gear now. In fact, our 2012 GKIC Marketer of the Year, Walter Bergeron completely transformed his business in just 90 days by going to Fast Implementation Bootcamp—and just one year later, he just signed a deal that will take his company to the 8-Figure level!  Find out when our next bootcamp is here.