Tradesmen, are you frustrated, fed up, even downright angry because you are still barely making ends meet while other businesses who started when you did are wildly successful? You had the same hopes and dreams, the same education, yet other businesses seem to be banking money, while you work gruelling 14-16 hour days and spend most of your time just putting out fires, and all this just to hang on and barely survive.
Being angry is understandable, and I certainly empathize, because that was me up until 6 years ago. The 12 years before that I worked for myself as an electrician in my own contractor business. The brutal hours I kept for an average salary of only $27,000 just barely enabled me to live, if you could call that living. Then, one day, I met a man who showed me the astounding power of marketing. I was fascinated and immediately became an avid student of marketing my business.
$37,million dollars in sales and three companies later, I think I can say I have cracked the secret.
My definition of business is an enterprise that provides income without your direct involvement in the day to day running of things. If you implement his 11 secrets you are well on the way to escaping the rat race. What I am about to reveal over the next 11 issues are the marketing strategies that have blown away my competition and allowed me to make millions in sales.
So hang on, here we go.
Truth Number 1: Marketing Is Everything? Here's Why!
From the first day you went into business, you were taught that knowledge about your trade was what you needed to become successful, that your "professionalism" would be the key to your success. That people would come to you once they heard about how "good" you were. You were probably given the age old wisdom that says if you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door!
"Yeah right!" Let's speak honestly to each other.
Let me tell you my most important piece of advice: knowing how to get customers, or clients, is definitely more important than any other knowledge you may attain! I've never known any way to make my business (and thus, my personal life) better unless I've had a constant, never-ending flow of prospects and customers calling me wanting to do business!
I know that this statement gets some people upset (especially lawyers and accountants). That is not my intention. My point is that if you own a business, you are not just a professional in your trade; you are the sales and marketing manager of your trade business. Let me give you an example: if you are an electrician and you have your own business, you are really the sales and marketing manager of an electrical contracting business. If you are a builder, you are not just a builder, but you are the sales and marketing manager of a building company. Your main focus must be the MARKETING OF YOUR BUSINESS!
That's the bottom line. In fact, whether you realize it or not, no matter what business you own, the principal is the same. You are always first and foremost in the marketing of that business! Until you change your psychology to accept the fact that you are a marketer first, and a provider of whatever you sell second, you'll never make the kind of money you deserve and need! This acceptance of your role as a marketer is paramount to changing the size of your bankbook and gaining a measure of success otherwise unattainable. Let's face it, in any business? The best marketer wins! Period. End of story.
Of course, I am not implying that you should just market better and deliver substandard products or services. No way. Not only must you be the best marketer, but you must also be the best at what you do. People deserve the best. But, and this is the big but? it doesn't matter if you're the best at what you do if no one knows you do it, except your co-workers and your family! They're nice enough, I'm sure? but they aren't a substitute for customers who want to buy whatever you sell! Getting customers, clients or patients is the key to your success, and marketing is the mechanism that gets them! As you read through these future lessons and learn the marketing techniques we'll be discussing, you'll find there are two ways to market:
A. Incredibly wasteful and pushy ways.
B. Inexpensive and response-oriented ways.
We'll focus on type B if that's okay.
Truth Number 2: If You Want Your Phone To Ring, Your Advertising Must Get People's Attention And Arouse Emotions!
If you remember just one secret from this lesson, remember to follow this proven five-step formula in every bit of marketing and advertising you do:
1. Get attention!
2. Arouse interest and emotion.
3. Tell an interesting story in a believable way
4. Offer an incentive to take action? NOW!
5. Ask for action and make it easy for people to do it.
Getting Attention
For this article, we will just be focusing on the first, and most important, step: to get attention. Your advertising will not stimulate responses unless it gets read. It will not be read if it is not noticed. And, it will not be noticed unless it: Gets People's Attention! In fact, 80 to 90 percent of the success of any ad is the direct result of how well the headline gets ? attention!!
If you don't believe me, look at People magazine, Cleo, Woman's Day etc. I even remember a headline On Woman's Day saying "Oprah only has five years to live." Now do you think I bought that magazine? Darn right I did! Even though I knew it was just a sensationalist headline I had to know whether there was any truth to it.
Now I have to tell you, even though I am an expert in marketing, I still felt I'd been deceived after reading the article and realising that it had been misrepresented. I do not subscribe to this technique, and certainly don't recommend it, but I have to admit, it gets results for the publishers.
The reason I don't recommend deception in writing headlines is that you are not only trying to get the attention of your customer, but you are also building a trusting relationship. I will tell you more about this in later articles, but as you probably know from everyday life, deception is not a good foundation for building a long term association.
Whether or not you read, like, or even approve of the publications we discussed, you'd have to be blind to get past a magazine rack or grocery checkout line without at least noticing these covers and attention-getting headlines. Every month, the editors of all these magazines and newspapers do everything they can To Grab Your Attention! While you may not agree with the pictures or underlying messages, millions of these magazines are sold each week because? Emotions stir up more sales than logic ever will!
Here is an example of a sensational headline.
Warning What You're About To Read May Shock You!
Now stop for a moment and think. Think about your advertising. Think about your company's advertising. Think about the brochures you give to people, in fact, get all your marketing materials out and place them in front of you on a table. Are people beating down your doors and ringing your phone off the hook because of your great ads, business cards and brochures? Do they have emotional impact and are they inspiring, or, are you committing the biggest mistake you can make in marketing? Over 95% of all businesses actually make this mistake, so if you are doing it, you are in good company. This mistake is using a straightforward, "professional" approach to advertising which appeals to people's sensibilities. It is assuming that people will find your name and a laundry list of your services emotionally appealing.
Well, if you think about it, unless your name is the same as a famous movie star or other celebrity, it is not likely to have emotional appeal. The same goes for a list of services.
Surprisingly, businesses use this typical "business card style" advertising again and again to get their name and phone number in front of the public. They even cleverly include their ho-hum grocery list of services that anyone in their industry or profession could provide. There is absolutely nothing in most of these ads that gets attention or arouses emotions about why someone should choose them over every other firm listed in the telephone directory. They do not generate any curiosity or emotions which enable them to stand out from the crowd. This is called "logical advertising". Logical advertising is dead advertising. Emotions are what motivate people to take notice and respond. If Your Advertising Is Logical and Boring? It Won't Make Money!
So, if you want to get people's attention, you have to be saying things that will actually get their attention! Put yourself in your customer's shoes and come up with something that would be sure to get your attention. Check out the headlines next time you are passing a magazine rack and try to emulate the concepts. Be creative and original, and you will reap the benefits!
Next month I will be talking about Yellow Pages advertising and how to dramatically improve the results you are getting.