Fifteen Additional Strategies for Increasing Sales with Minimized or No Marketing Costs
1. Search Engines: Get top placement on the top search engines for pennies per prospect. Google and Overture control 95% of all internet directories. By using specific descriptions that qualify prospect, you limit paid searches and maximize the number of truly qualified inquiries.
* How can you write descriptions that limit geographic searches _________
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* How can you limit clicks based on demographics ___________________
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* How can you benefit by landing pages ____________________________
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2. Directories: Free and paid directories are abundant. Have these directories link to your site and raise your site's importance. The two most important directories to list with are The Open Directory Project (dmoz.org), which is FREE, and Yahoo! Directory, which is only $300/year.
3. Affiliate Program: The answer to your desire to have a staff of commission only sales assistants. Amazon was the first to pioneer the Affiliate Program with over 500,000 sites linking to Amazon and getting a commission check for 15% of each order they referred to the site. For information on Affiliate Networks: *http://www.clickXchange.com *http://www.CJ.com - Commission Junction
Some programs are: * Sales Based * Lead Based * Traffic Based
The easiest way to get started is to be a commission affiliate partner on someone else's site in order to gain comfort and understanding with the process.
www.SalesTrainingandDevelopment.com **
[email protected]Mark Anthony *http://www.AAATrainingForSuccess.com * (212) 683-1834
4. Increase Link Popularity with Message Boards: Message boards allow you to easily create inbound links from high ranked sites. To find message boards search for "message boards" or "forum" on search engines.
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5. Blogs: There are blogs for every topic imaginable. Utilize this forum to promote your own opinions or show your views on the current marketplace. You can find blogs on blog vertical portals such as: *http://www.BlogUniverse.com *http://www.BlogHop.com *http://www.BlogCatalog.com
6. Understand your Prospect's True Motivation: People buy the same property for different motivations. People who often have the same motivation define it differently.
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7. Campaign Style Direct Mail: Postcards are a great way to establish an ongoing connection to your best prospects and continually change the message. If they remember you monthly or at least quarterly then sales, repeat business and referrals go up. Some marketing relies on the impact of color and the distinction of high quality printing to achieve the desired effect. Powerful words become even stronger with powerful images, and powerful messages bring with them the added value of visual impact as well as verbal.
People read words, but they remember pictures. High quality 4-color postcards provide a powerful method of presenting your message both ways.
Postcards are a proven effective way to reach out to your hottest prospects with incentives to become clients, and to remind your current clients to become repeat customers. Special deals, seasonal offers and friendly reminders are all calls to action that bring in additional business when presented in a visually stimulating manner.
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www.SalesTrainingandDevelopment.com **
[email protected]Mark Anthony *http://www.AAATrainingForSuccess.com * (212) 683-1834
8. Email Broadcasts: Not every contact with your prospect needs to be in person, by phone or by mail. Electronic flyers, letters and content rich pieces that educate need to be a part of your monthly reminder system.
Ever since the internet became a household word, e-mail marketing has become one of the most effective and cost efficient methods of marketing to generate prospects and easily converting those prospects into sales.
In fact, effective e-mail marketing can virtually double your sales! Automatically!
9. Fax Broadcast: Although many of us hate the junk faxes that hit our machines it is an effective way to reach a large number of people in your "backyard" who could easily have a need for your services.
Your piece must be very benefits focused with a clean message. Prospects become cautions of people always pushing to SELL them something. However, if you continually provide your prospects something of value to them, in the form of free advise, relevant articles, business tips, etc., you and your name become synonymous with benefits. And as they realize the benefits to their business from the free offerings you make (in the form of fax broadcasts newsletters, memos or notes), they will be less threatened and more motivated to consider your services when a fee is involved. You will have already helped them therefore they will already feel they can trust you.
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10. Develop a Marketing Mix: Different prospects respond to different mediums. Everyone does not read The Sunday Times, everyone does not research online, everyone does not toss postcards, etc. A variety of approaches appeals to different individuals and allows you to market with a "net". Remember, just because you love or hate a particular marketing vehicle, it does not mean everyone else does too. __________________________________________________________________
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www.SalesTrainingandDevelopment.com **
[email protected]Mark Anthony *http://www.AAATrainingForSuccess.com * (212) 683-1834
11. Magic 200 or 500: Who are the 200 or 500 best prospects or influencers that could really move your business to the next level? Utilize a series of cards, letters, calls and creative attention grabbers. Send one piece each month and you will penetrate this group of top prospects. A monthly contact averages about 50 cents each for a total of $1200/year ($100/month) you can develop relationships with prospects that can each give you anywhere from a 25 to a 100 fold return on your investment. __________________________________________________________________
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12. Leverage Visibility: Develop relationships with local stores and merchants that have high traffic or are allied to your industry. Request the opportunity to place your promotional material (promo cards, brochures or newsletters) on the counter or other visible locations for members of the community to access it. This strategy reaches prospects in your "backyard", creates association to the neighborhood and builds credibility as the expert professional in the community. When placed in the appropriate stores, it reaches people with specific need for your services.
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13. E = MC2 = 0: A simple but powerful marketing rule is if you try to say everything in your ad and say nothing. Keep your message specific and emphasize one main point rather than a non-compelling list of everything you do. Learn from the Big Boys: Does McDonald's promote a special or the whole menu? Does Toyota promote the entire line or one car? Don't water down your message trying to be all things to all people.
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www.SalesTrainingandDevelopment.com **
[email protected]Mark Anthony *http://www.AAATrainingForSuccess.com * (212) 683-1834
14. Strengthen Ad Headlines: A good headline makes the ad. A bad headline kills the ad. A great headline can increase your response rate by 80%. Work to create great headlines. Push your comfort zone, the headline is the most important part of the ad. Test Your Ad Headlines!
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15. Ask for the Order: If you ask prospects to buy, more will than if you wait for them to say "I want it". Simple but true! You invest time, money and effort into your marketing, leverage it by asking the prospect to take action.
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For free detailed consultation on how some of these strategies and tactics can be tailored to your business call (212) 683-1834 and mention code PDE.
Sincerely,
Mark Anthony President, Training For Success 347 5th Avenue New York, NY 10016 212 683 1834
[email protected]http://aaatrainingforsuccess.com/http://www.salestraininganddevelopment.com/ Articles Source - Free Articles
About the Author
For over 20 years Mark Anthony has helped professionals, institutions, corporate sales and customer service teams break out of the box and find innovative solutions that lead to breakthroughs in sales, productivity and goal achievement.
By blending direct sales with telesales and creative marketing rapid growth was achieved. In only 7 years his publishing firm had clients coast to coast and the growth was financed 100% by advertising sales.
