There are a lot of secrets to marketing, and in today’s economy, they are more than vital – they are the lifeblood of survival.
I’ve been through recessions, inflations, stagflations and other crazy gyrations. When these hit, it’s the economic equivalent of a storm. Sometimes mild, sometimes not. If you know people in hurricane alley, some people get hurt, and a few miles away others aren’t. The economy is that way. But this one is beating up on a lot of people already, and it’s far from over.
A knee-jerk reaction of the unseasoned businessperson is to cut out all the marketing as a first defensive action to “save money.” This ostrich-like reaction of sticking your head in the sand unfortunately leaves your rear-end exposed to the storm – not a good idea! In fact, you’re almost sure to lose your feathers and maybe even your posterior.
If you know people doing this, or worse, if you’ve done this, this article is for you. And I highly recommend that you not only read it, but that you start doing some of these things with the vigor you would act with if you were putting up your hurricane shutters in 80 mph winds.
Have You Used 150 Marketing Methods?
I’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have had clients who tried almost every whacky advertising method you can imagine. I’m part of the direct response school of marketing in which we carefully track results of everything we do. Because of this, I’ve pulled together a lot of information that could improve your marketing and lower your costs. I would like to share some of these with you here.
Of course different kinds of businesses have different methods of marketing that work best for them. I’ve seen over 150 different methods tried, of which less than half ever made money for anybody so far as I could determine. And only a handful have good potential for most businesses.
Let me give you some ideas that apply very broadly, some ideas that you cost you almost nothing that you will be able to use to improve your business – even in a lousy economy.
What’s #1- Out of Over 150 Marketing Methods?
The #1 method of getting low-cost, high-quality business is word-of-mouth. I’ve surveyed over 1,000 professionals and owners of small businesses at seminars I’ve conducted in Los Angeles and around the US and I can tell you this is your least expensive way to get business. The problem? How to get enough of it.
This can be turbocharged by launching a referral program.What’s the best way to do that?
It takes some time to explain, which is why I’ve written it all up. I’ve prepared an eBooklet that takes this Power Referral Program chapter from my upcoming marketing book. In that chapter I go into detail on the proven program of exactly how to do this trick. Do you want a referral program that produces between 5% and 10% response rate when done “by the book?” If you know anything about marketing you know that promoting to 10 people and getting one new customer or client or patient is almost unheard of.
