I recently created a short YouTube video (48 seconds) that highlights what you can do with the exponential power of the Internet.

In less than 1 minute, I am able to introduce myself as The Exponential Growth Strategist, promote my 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine to help you get more done with less effort, and make sure your business gets noticed by going from Bland To Brand.

And that’s just 20 seconds into the 48 second video!

Then I explain that you can increase conversions and sales with our Killer Kopywriting System as well as get news leads for a fraction of the cost with our brand new Internet Sales Lead Generation Toolkit so you can acquire the Mindset Of A Champion and win in business!

All of that in less than a minute!

The reason this video is on my Business Coaching And Mentoring blog is because all of our Internet Marketing Strategies are geared for REAL businesses who want to sell more of their products and/or services.

The Internet and its multimedia capabilities enable you to do that at a fraction of the cost, with minimum effort.

This entire campaign took me about 1 hour and cost less than $100 in total.

That’s hard to beat with ‘traditional advertising’.

Clients see you in one of two ways, either as a COST or as a BENEFIT.

Examples of companies that are perceived as a ‘cost’

• Lawyers
• Dentists
• Plumbers
• Gym
• Search consultants/headhunters

Examples of companies that are perceived as a ‘benefit’

• Restaurants that you want to eat at (non fast food)
• Jeweller
• Concerts and events
• Zoo and other attractions
• Pubs, bars and other entertainment

Here’s the thing – UNLESS you transform yourself from a cost to a benefit, you’ll remain stuck in the vortex of price matching and discounting – BECAUSE the prospects SEE you as a cost and not as a benefit.

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I was just talking with a print publisher explaining to her that I am a firm believer in the immense value of print media – EVEN if we are in a digital age, we are still not about to forego print anytime soon. Print just has to COMPLEMENT digital capabilities. Both print and digital can and SHOULD co-exist at least for another 5 years (if not a lot longer).

If we look at email versus direct mail, you’d think the physical mailing would be on its way out, but there has been a resurgence of direct mail BECAUSE of the overload of electronic media. Most people sign up for every email subscription and don’t manage their inbox very well.

Recent research estimates the number of emails sent per day to be around 294 billion which means more than 2.8 million emails are sent every second and some 90 trillion emails are sent per year. Even though most are spam and viruses, emails are sent by around 2.5 billion genuine email users.

Regardless of the Internet Statistics, they all point to electronic information overload with the average professional receiving more than 100 e-mails every day. That’s enough to load up your inbox quicker than you can clean it out.

That’s why the physical mailing has not only become an attractive alternative to email and online marketing, but a source of pre-screened and highly qualified visitors.

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA, USA) report that consumers are most motivated to begin an online search after viewing advertisements in magazines followed by ads on television and then newspapers.

Offline Consumers Come Online Via Magazines

What print media publishers need to recognise and appreciate
is the tactile aspect of their product

Nothing beats having a newspaper, magazine or book in hand. I totally understand the sexiness of an iPad, but it’s NOT the same experience. It’s a DIFFERENT ONE.

That’s the point I’m trying to make.

Print is print is print.

When publishers forget that, the game is over.

So what is a print publisher to do?

1. Embrace digital technology to complement, supplement and enhance the print medium with additional features and benefits.
2. Link the print medium to online alternatives with polls, surveys, feedback, audio and video components. A print article can easily be an introduction to a full in-depth interview or book chapter available online as an opt-in download.
3. Print-exclusive promotions such as tear-out coupons (identified as such) can bolster subscriptions and/or increase distribution.
4. Physical distribution costs can be shared with partners who have a vested interest in the publication’s increased reach.
5. Want to know more ideas and suggestions, contact us – it’s what we do for our clients!

A recent study showed that about 8 in 10 Canadians read a newspaper each week with American weekly and British daily readership at 64 and 49% respectively.

Magazines Canada reports that magazines are read by all age groups, and an average of 78 % read a magazine within the last 30 days.

An analysis by the Magazine Media Fact Book reveals American magazine reading habits include 93% of adults reading magazines for an average of 42 minutes per issue.

If you think it’s only the senior demographic that is holding on to physical print media, you’re dead wrong!

A recent study discovered that North American consumers, aged 18-34, prefer direct mail over online media for many types of marketing communications.

Examples of consumer preferences for offline versus online are:

But there’s a condition for the young generation to hold on to traditional print media.it’s vital that there be a cross-channel synergy between digital and direct mail for it to be effective.

So there you have it, if you want to get more sales in 2012, you need to go back to traditional offline marketing and leverage it with online ‘web enabled’ benefits.

As The Exponential Growth Strategist, once of the cornerstone principles of exponential marketing is uncovering hidden assets. This real life example made me take notice because it’s utterly brilliant!

The only improvement I could make to this creative idea is to identify the balls to the matches played and sell those at a premium. (I asked, they don’t do this).

Exponential Marketing has a cornerstone concept: Add value to your clients and they will come back and refer more clients to you. Easier said than done.

That’s why I’ve included a simple example: An Australia Post Postcard Fact Sheet that helps clients prepare their documents for direct mail.

The question for YOU is “What basic information, like this can you make available to your clients?”

The more information you make available, the easier it will be for them to do business with you = you’ll sell more.

When you’re exponential, you create Pathways To Profits™ that guide people through the path of least resistance preemptively, smoothly, creating a memorable and hopefully unique experience they will want to repeat themselves and advocate to others.

This is what we help our clients do – create a Business Building Blueprint™ that summarises these processes so everyone in the business knows what to do and ideally, automate them leveraging the Internet so the business transforms from an effort-based model to a value-based model.

When I came across the article shown below, I just though there was a marketing lesson in there somewhere… Can you find it? Read the article and try to find the lesson, once you think you have it, click on the read more button.

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In a previous blog post, I explained how to use a promotional product to add value to your clients, prospects and suspects. I know this is an example of antimimeticisomorphism that takes a while to get a grasp of, which is why I wanted to show you an alternative, called Permacharts, shown below.

The charts themselves are self-explanatory, but which ones can help your clients?

Read More »»

One of the foundational principles of Exponential Marketing is creating value for your suspects, prospects and clients. Easier said than done. That’s why I wanted to remind you of a short YouTube video I created a few years ago that shows you how it can be done quickly, easily and inexpensively. All you need is to have an open mind to seek out and find ideas like this.

There is a four step process everyone goes through as they make a purchase.

1. Consider – Before anyone makes a decision, they must consider this opportunity. Most salespeople skip this step to their detriment.
2. Decision – This is when the ‘sale’ takes place. However, most ineffective salespeople skip the consideration stage and try to force the decision that was never even considered.
3. Commit – Without a commitment, a sale is not a sale. As many as 20 to 40% of sales are lost due to a lack of commitment requested of the purchaser.
4. Resolve – Making sure the commitment is followed up and followed through to its conclusion to ensure the sales is completed. Up to 10% of sales are left unattended and therefore lost.

Consider – or lack thereof is the number one source of lost sales, by a long shot. Anecdotally, as many as 4 out 5 sales are lost because the prospects never considered the offer being presented in the first place. Without it, there is no decision to be made.

So how does one go about having people consider their offer or proposal? Read More »»

What the heck is antimimeticisomorphism?!?!

Simply stated, it’s the opposite of mimetic isomorphism – an academic term that explains what we all know to be true. “Monkey see, monkey do.”

As industries mature, competitors increasingly use the same strategies and techniques to market, sell and deliver their products – in effect commoditising them.

Antimimeticisomorphism means doing the opposite.

Not just to be different, but to be special, out-of-the-ordinary with a PURPOSE.

Because it’s a mindset, it takes time to adopt the ability to see and create boundless opportunities and uncover hidden assets within your business, career or life.

It’s what makes the super successful and ultra wealthy who they are.

EXTRA-ORDINARY.

Because the alternative is – well ORDINARY.

Want to learn more about antimimeticisomorphism?

You can Google it and you’ll find thousands of listings – all pointing to me.

I have two websites dedicated to antimimeticisomorphism, the first is the site that explains antimimeticisomorphism and the second are examples of antimimeticisomorphism.

On my Personal Coaching Blog, I have a whole category of antimimeticisomorphism examples.

As you can see, this is a foundational element of my Exponential Coaching Philosophy.

Have a look around and enjoy the discovery process – you’ll quickly realise that the more fun you have, the better your results will be!

Everyone involved in direct mail wants to increase response rates. I came across a blog post that explains how you can significantly increase direct mail response rates. I’ve used this strategy countless times. Of course you don’t want to overdo using post it notes as the video below confirms.

I often get asked which of our business coaching systems is appropriate for you. It actually depends on who you are and where you’re at in business. I’ve summarised the various options here for you.

Silver Business Mastery Momentum Membership™

The Silver Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™ combines all the necessary elements you need to get your business going and growing. Delivered electronically, each element has been specifically chosen to get your business on the fast track to profits as economically as possible.

This is for you if you…

• Are relatively new to Exponential Growth Strategies™, this is the ideal introductory overview. It includes all the grounding materials for you to get acquainted with this ‘new way’ of doing business.
• Have not been exposed to Tony Robbins’ Personal Peak Performance Principles, Jay Abraham’s Exponential Marketing Strategies and Brian Tracy’s Sales Mastery techniques. This unique membership will highlight them all, providing you with a simple-to-follow action plan.
• Are just starting in business or have hit a hard patch and money is tight. This membership is economically priced so that you can learn to walk before you run. If you can’t afford this level of membership fee – don’t subscribe because you’re already in too much trouble for me to help you. These strategies are geared for growth – not trying to resuscitate a dying business. When you do recover from your current cash flow issues, you should re-visit this membership.
• Want to be held accountable on a weekly basis. The membership has one touch point +/- every week so that you are never overwhelmed or burdened with the program. It’s an easy-does-it approach to learning.

Gold Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™

The Gold Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™ has been designed and compiled for demanding and ambitious business owners like you who not only want to get on the fast track to profits, but want to take the Next Best Step™ laying the foundation for business growth using exponential strategies that explode your income, increase your pay cheque consistently and turn your hidden assets into cold, hard cash!

This is for you if you…

• Want to be held accountable on a DAILY basis. With the Dr’s Daily Distinctions™ delivered to your inbox every single day, you want to focus on the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine™ that will propel you forward in your business, career or profession.
• Are looking for exponential growth from your business that is already on a good footing. In other words, you’re ready to take it and yourself to the next level, because it’s time. You feel it and know it is. You have no doubts and with exposure to these strategies, you’re confident to be able to deploy these strategies on your own and can’t wait to get to it.
• Have been exposed to Exponential Mindset Thinking™ strategies either through our efforts or over the past few years.

VIP Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™

The VIP Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™ includes most of the components of the results-based Platinum Program™ to accommodate business people who don’t live in or can’t commute to Sydney or Melbourne but want the very best exponential marketing strategies on a high-intensity basis to keep themselves accountable to the highest standards of excellence and performance in their business and career.

This is for you if you…

• Are at the point where you’re totally convinced Exponential Growth Strategies™ are for you and you have the time, effort and ability to play full-on without doubt or reservation. In sport, this means being competitive rather than playing ‘socially’. The level of commitment is much higher, as are the rewards.
• Have dabbled in Exponential Growth Strategies™ before and you know you need a guide, advisor and mentor to show you the way forward. You realise that success is as much about doing the right things as it is avoiding the common mistakes most people make.
• There is nothing holding you back – your business is doing well or is solidly established and you either want more growth OR more time for yourself without compromising results.
• You want to be held accountable at the highest level. You already hold yourself to a high standard, this is just an extension, or next logical step for you to take. You are not intimidated, but excited about the Exponential Potential™ that you can unleash from within your business. You can feel it’s been there for some time and you want the keys to the combination to unlock it.

Business Mastery Platinum Program™

The Business Mastery Platinum Program™ – the Unique 12-Month MasterMind Experience that will Unleash Exponential Growth and Profitability in your Business or Professional Practice, by Leveraging the World’s Best Exponential Marketing, Sales, Lead Generation Systemisation and Peak Performance Strategies, with an Unheard-of Money-Back Result Guarantee of a Minimum 300% Return on your program investment.

This is for you if you…

• Are a leader. Simple as that. This is our most elite, exclusive program for champions of business. You know you’re at the top of your game and want to keep improving.
• Want to spend time with other ‘winners’, like-minded business entrepreneurs and professionals who can share their challenges and triumphs with you.
• You’ve read the program description and downloaded the 26-page brochure and you know this is your Next Best Step™ in your personal and professional development.
• You know that with the MasterMind Mentoring Methodology™, nothing has been left to chance.
  

This is a great idea to raise funds for charity. I share ideas like this with you to show you that when you adopt Exponential Mindset Thinking™ you can and will become more creative and innovative. Exposure to new and different ideas stimulates your Reticular Activation System (RAS) so it gets easier and easier with time. Like a muscle, your brain can be trained to seek out new ideas. Enjoy this video and let me know which one you think won the race.

We’ve all heard of the classic money back guarantee, but where else have you heard of someone guaranteeing results? That’s exactly what we’re doing for our next 2 programs – Etch-A-Sketch Thinking In The iPad Age and Become The Next Corporate Rockstar.

Everyone gets to a point where they run out of fresh new ideas. What if there was a way to always have ideas ready to be deployed? What if these strategies were proven to work? How about is they were GUARANTEED to work?

That’s the premise of this unique event. We’re GUARANTEEING that you will produce at least $5,000 in the next 12 months as a result of attending the program. There is no legal fine print, no strings attached.

We can and are putting our money where our mouth is. No hype. No exaggerations. No smoke and mirrors. A simple iron-clad Results-Based Guarantee.

You can click on the image or this hyperlink > Etch-A-Sketch Thinking In The iPad Age. When all is said and done, if we’re willing to GUARANTEE $5,000 in the next 12 months, you can only imagine how much we expect you to make!

Every year, we stage the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp which is 3 full-on days where entrepreneurs and business people get together to learn the best strategies that are proven and tested to work. Each time it’s staged, there is new content, examples and case studies from real Australian businesses just like yours. Case studies that defy the odds and in some cases are so astonishing that unless you met the business owner face-to-face to ask him or him how she did it, you’d never believe it was possible let alone THAT EASY.

That being said, HUNDREDS of people have attended Bootcamps, but only DOZENS have attended more than once. Most people think once the box is ticked, that’s it. “They know it all.”

That’s like thinking one tennis lesson is enough to make you Roger Federer or Serena Williams.

Today’s post is two examples from multiple Bootcamp attendees…

Business Growth Strategy Case Study #1: Bree Robbins of Paddington Pups

At the Bootcamp, I use antimimeticisomorphism examples that show how thinking differently can trigger innovative and creative ideas. One of the images was appropriate for Bree since she owns a doggy day care in Brisbane. The day after the Bootcamp, I sent her the impossible dog photo along with some links and voila! We both optimised our search engine rankings.

On the last night of every Exponential Business Building Bootcamp there is a session on Internet Strategies where participants can ask any question to increase their online traffic, sales and/or conversions. The Internet Marketing Strategies we teach are proven and tested for real brick and mortar businesses – not the spam0like ‘link building’ and other affiliate marketing strategies associated with get rich quick schemes. The strategies we teach are based on leveraging my 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine.

Business Growth Strategy Case Study #2: Gavin Buckett – The Gourmet Guardian

Another Exponential Growth Strategy, among the HUNDREDS covered at the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp is the strategy of preeminence. We spend all morning of day one covering all the tips and techniques to make sure you become the ultimate source of information, knowledge and expertise in your industry or market. The reasons you want to do this are beyond today’s blog post, but what I wanted to show you is how a multi-award winner takes action.

As part of  the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp there is Pre Program Preparation™ and Post Program Planning™ that ensures participants get the maximum out of the event. Today, Gavin responded to message #9 with the following:

“The statistic I found WHILE AT THE BOOTCAMP is that out of 2070 members of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST), only 25 (1%) have a cooking qualification/ experience. That means that 99% of my professional competitors have not worked in kitchens and food businesses.

Bare that in mind when you next go to the supermarket and try something new – 99% of food technologists have no practical cooking experience.”

Gavin Buckett is The Gourmet Guardian – an Australian Food Safety Specialist. You have to admit that with a quote like this (which he has started to use in his advertising and promotional material), you are positively predisposed to consider him more of an expert. That is one of the many reasons his business is growing by more than 200% per annum. He has attended the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp 4, maybe 5 times and each time gets additional distinctions to take his sales and profitability one level higher.

These two case studies show you first-hand how quick, easy and inexpensive these strategies are – that is the beauty and elegance of Exponential Marketing Strategies. You don’t need a multi-million dollar advertising budget – you just need to THINK and ACT EXPONENTIALLY. Contact us to find out how you can join the Platinum Program – it’s not just a great program, we guarantee that for every $1 you invest, you’ll make $3 – GUARANTEED!

This is a classic advertising story that is worthy of repetition. It’s not just funny, but exceptionally valuable when you extract from it lessons that you can leverage from it. Enjoy!

A barber had been noticing that his clients had been dropping off slowly over the last eighteen months or so. He blamed the economy and people moving on and such things and just kept plodding on as you would expect.

The last straw for him was when,  just two doors down from his barber shop, someone opened up another barber shop! His competitor put up signage all over the front of the store windows announcing “hair cuts $5” .

When they opened, there were people spilling out the door lining up for haircuts. This went on for days and as you can guess his clients dropped off dramatically to the point that he decided that he would rather sit at home watching Oprah than do hair cuts for five dollars. He even decided he would close down his shop at the end of the week.

That afternoon, a gentleman walked in and asked if he could get a hair cut. The barber warned him that he charged fifteen dollars. The gentleman said that’s fine as he did not have time to stand in line and wait two hours for the barber two doors down .

After he finished the gentleman stood up looked and thanked the barber for a really good haircut. He also said he would be back next time he needed a trim because he was very satisfied with his haircut. That’s when the barber advised him that he was going to close his shop because he couldn’t compete with $5 hair cuts.

The gentleman looked at him smiled and asked “If I can increase the number of clients, would you be willing to pay me two hundred dollars?” The barber said he would only have two days to do it since he was going to close the shop on the third day. The gentleman confidently said that would not be as issue. The barber could not help but like this cocky guy in a suit and since it was only two hundred dollars, he thought he really didn’t have much to lose.

The next day, when the barber showed up, there were people waiting for him to open his door! They continued to stream in all day his phone was ring hot taking bookings! He was so busy that by the end of the day, he was exhausted. He could not remember ever being that busy.

The next day the same thing happened and about lunch time the gentleman walked in smiling and asked how things were going. The barber told him about all the clients and bookings and asked him what he did to change things around so quickly -  hoping he hadn’t done anything illegal. The gentleman smiled and assured the barber that everything was OK and that after work there would be something out the front of the store for him.

That night, the barber walked out the front of his shop and saw an A frame – he could not stop laughing when he read what was written:

FIVE DOLLAR HAIRCUTS FIXED HERE

This is a totally exponential strategy – but here are a few questions I have for you.

• How can you use this story to your advantage?
• How can you leverage someone else’s efforts in a legal and morally acceptable way?
• How can you make the most of your marketing budget to get the very best results?

A lot of people have either heard this story or others similar to it. They get a laugh and move on to something else.

Very few learn the lesson. Very few learn HOW to leverage something like this.

That’s what I teach my clients to do, as their business coach, adviser or mentor. I explain to them that this is not just a funny story. It’s a lesson to be learned and applied. I then usually explain via one of my case study examples or one from a client.  In this case, I heard this story and used it to close a $250,000 sale to a top 50 ASX company.

I know you’d love to know how I did that, but sorry – I keep that information for my Platinum Members!

The thing about having an Exponential Mindset is not just thinking differently, but making sure you walk the thought. That only happens when you’re taught how to translate a great story like this one INTO a practical system and process that you can use in your own business.

Otherwise, it’s just another fun story to tell mates over a cold beer at your local.

If you want someone to help you turn things around, like the barber – contact us and we’ll show you how to get people lining up at your shop front door, into your business or if you’re online – visiting your website.

Google “transactional marketing” or “relationship marketing” and you’ll get thousands of hits with titles like “relationship marketing vs transaction marketing”. Basically, transactional marketing is thought of as a thing of the past, while relationship marketing is the bright future that businesses should be striving towards.

Transactional Relationship Marketing: The Cost Effective and Environmentally Friendly Strategy

Transactional Marketing

“Transactional marketing is an approach that focuses upon one-off exchanges with consumers.”

“Transactional marketing: Orientation towards single purchase. Limited direct customer / supplier contact. Focus on product benefits. Emphasis on near-term performance. Limited level of customer service. Goal of customer satisfaction. Quality a manufacturing responsibility.”[ii]

Relationship Marketing

“Relationship marketing is a business philosophy which aims to develop strong relationships with a range of stakeholders, such as suppliers, media, intermediaries and public organisations, as well as with customers.”

“Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that emerged in the 1980s, in which emphasis is placed on building longer term relationships with customers rather than on individual transactions. It involves understanding the customers’ needs as they go through their life cycles. It emphasizes providing a range of products or services to existing customers as they need them.”

The new kid on the block is a strategy called Transactional Relationship Marketing, or TRM. This is a process trademarked by direct mail company, Hermes Precisa (HPA).

Transactional Relationship Marketing Read More »»

I recently spoke at the 2010 Food Services Australia Show. I presented a summary of “How To Market Your Restaurant To Fill Your Empty Tables”. This all came about because of the 2010 Exponential Entrepreneur Of The Year Winner, Gavin Buckett, also known as the Gourmet Guardian, Australia’s premier Food Safety Specialist and HACCP Certification Expert who put me in contact with the show organisor.

One of the things I didn’t have time to cover is why a restaurant needs to be on the Internet – trust me, it’s not what you think!

Watch this 3-minute video to find out what 95% of people on the Internet don’t know… that can make the difference between a restaurant full of paying customers and one filled with empty tables.

Sam Kritsotakis of Eskae Jeweller recently won one of six prestigious Exponential Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards. After-the-fact people often look ‘back’ and realise how obvious it is… Which is why I wanted to share with you one of the many Exponential Marketing Strategies we’ve taught him – leveraging case studies. Click on the hyperlink to read the case study that Sam has created.

You’ll quickly get involved in the situation his clients were faced with, one that is often quite intimidating for people who are focused on getting married or celebrating an anniversary. Making the right decision when it comes to customised jewellery is not easy. Sam, with his private studio makes the process personal, intimate and stress-free.

Leveraging case studies is one of the many exponential strategies I teach my Business Mastery Platinum Program Members to help them grow their businesses leveraging the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine that wins them awards, but more importantly wins their clients hearts.

Today’s post is the second of a two-part list of 20 Tips to Boost Your Direct Mail Response. Direct Mail is still a very effective way to market your products and services. To learn the art and science of Direct Marketing, you should consider our Killer Kopywriting System.

10 More Tips To Boost Your Direct Mail Response Part 2 Of 2

Read More »»