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.

Read More »»

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.

I’ve had a supplier for several years (identity hidden because I didn’t like them and this is not about bashing someone’s product or reputation) and recently needed a new service. We went out looking for the new service, selected it and a week AFTER the purchase was made, my existing supplier (of another service) sent me an email and BURIED in it was the mention that they offered the service I just bought and I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that they offered it. Not only was I not a happy client, I wasn’t even a suspect or prospect for their other service. I never even considered it!

The moral of the story is self-evident – if you don’t tell your clients what you have to sell, they won’t buy.

It just amazes me how much effort people put into finding NEW LEADS when all the sales they ever wanted could be right there with their existing clients…

Something to think about!

Today’s short YouTube Video shows you what an antimimeticisomorphic marketing person can come up with to promote women’s bras and undergarments. It’s tasteful, different and gets people’s attention by INVOLVING them in the process.

This 4 minute YouTube video takes a fun approach to resolving the challenge of breaking the language barrier in selling to non-English speaking prospects… Sometimes the obvious is well… obvious!

Recently, I attended the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games and I came across this story about one of Canada’s top franchises that banned a disruptive client from its stores.

I don’t know the details of the story, but I like the fact that the retailer made the decision it wanted to make – to get rid of a disruptive client.

Read More »»

I often talk about Risk Reversal as an Exponential Marketing Strategy. This YouTube video is something US Corporate America had never seen before. I guess you have to wonder if it’s too little too late or the real question might be “if they had this risk reversal guarantee years ago, would they be in the situation they are in now??!?!?”

Hmmm…. Something to think about.

This Business Mastery Blog is all about putting Exponential Marketing strategies, tips and ideas in front of you so you can assess, evaluate and consider them for your business or career.

When you think you’re ready to step on to the fast track of exponential results and success, come on board and join one of our programs.

You know how to reach us: www.ExponentialPrograms.com.

In one simple sentence, we teach our clients to use strategies like risk reversals, not out of desperation and despair, but within a proactive strategic approach that enables and empowers them to out-perform their competitors on an on-going basis with a lot less effort and with a lower cost base.

If you’re looking for advertising ideas, check out this website that has a growing collection of great advertising concepts. I promise you they are way out there – totally original and yes, absolutely positively EXPONENTIAL! Just click on the hyperlink and be amazed!

A good sense of humour never hurts, unless of course if you’re INsignificant!

Exponential Marketing Strategies include the use of humour as long as it is tasteful, relevant and ADDS to the customer experience as this one plain does with a tongue-in-cheek approach. Think of ways you can re-phrase want you do using puns and other linguistic skills – we teach them at Unleash The Speaker Within as well as in our Killer Kopywriting and Konversation Workshops… Contact us if you want to take laughs and giggles and turn them into sales!

Big Mens Clothing For The Significant Man

WARNING!   WARNING!   WARNING!

The YouTube videos in this blog post necessarily include profanity. Please do NOT view them if you have an aversion to the F-word or S-Word. I consider it necessary for the profanity to remain for the FULL IMPACT AND LESSONS to be experienced.

These videos are part of the Business Mastery Platinum Program Curriculum as we teach exponential self-selection and call to action sales techniques to convert 200%, 300% and sometimes even 500% more sales WITH the SAME CLIENTS they’ve been dealing with all along.

DISCLAIMER – - – DISCLAIMER – - – DISCLAIMER – - – DISCLAIMER

These videos are excerpts from Major Hollywood Block Buster Movies – I am NOT endorsing the companies or the sales people and their ethics – I think it’s blatantly obvious that these are EXTREMES that are created to tantalise and sensationalise movie goers.

The LESSONS HOWEVER, when used in ethically and morally correct ways are PRICELESS. Read More »»

Every once in a while I get carried away with ideas, thoughts and what I call distinctions (key tips and techniques that make all the difference in producing results)… Today is one of those days. This post covers what I call the basics of Exponential Marketing for both the NOVICE as well as the VETERAN of Exponential MasterMind Thinking.

Exponential Marketing 101: Mindset

It all started for me with Albert Einstein’s quote “The thinking that got us to where we are is not the thinking that will get us to where we want to be.” That hit me like a two-by-four across the head when I first hear that in my mid twenties…

If you are in your twenties or can remember what you were thinking back then, chances are you were like me – thinking you ‘knew it all’ or at least knew enough…

Boy were we wrong!

So if we have to change our thinking – HOW exactly do we do that? That’s a dilemma and conundrum wrapped up in a paradox!

I was able to make my first quantum leaps (to use some of Einstein’s terminology) listening to Anthony Robbins for Personal Peak Performance Development. It’s important to note that he is a PEAK PERFORMANCE coach, not just a ‘positive mental attitude’ motivator – in fact he hates being called a motivational guru – for a reason.

Motivation is empty – it just gets you fired up with nowhere to go.

Personal Peak Performance is all about knowing who you are and using THAT knowledge to propel you to an outcome, goal or even a life-long dream. In as much as Tony Robbins is great, don’t get me wrong – he is the world’s best at what he does – his teachings, programs, events and products are not enough.

That’s when I learned I needed to triangulate multiple frameworks from other world-leading minds such as marketing genius Jay Abraham, sales master Brian Tracy and spiritual and philosophical mentor Deepak Chopra.

Triangulation in simple terms is like what a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) does to locate you on the earth – it takes each dimension (x, y and z) and determines where you are along the axis to pin point your exact location.

What I do for myself (and now my clients) is create a continuum of strategies, tactics and techniques along the 4 axes (peak performance, marketing, sales and philosophy) whereby the INTERSECTION of these 4 dimensions is the point where your Exponential Potential is released to give you a quantum breakthrough.

I know it sounds surreal and I guess it is for the uninitiated.

Once you adopt an Exponential  Mindset, it’s like learning a new language – you stop translating and start thinking in the new language – only then can you consider yourself fluent… In linguistics, fluency means you can communicate with a whole new group of people who speak that language. In business, that fluency means abundant wealth and success – because you now possess the language of profitable thinking.

I call this antimimeticisomorphism. I even have a website dedicated to having fun doing out-of-the-ordinary things that create extra-ordinary results with the least amount of effort at the lowest cost.

I have a series of fun videos on the concept on my Personal Mastery Blog under the category antimimeticisomorphism.

I am about to publish a bestseller of the same name – via an interactive publishing model involving a small group of contributors that has already spawned a secret website.

As you can see for yourself – this is a VERY different way of doing things… That’s the whole point!

But you know what? It’s also great fun – producing new, exciting products like the Marc-Ka-Ching Kube™ and concepts like the 1 percent improvement doctrine outlined in the following two short YouTube videos.

The 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine 1/2

Read More »»

This is the first of a series of posts on sales strategies to get you to SELL MORE with LESS EFFORT. Disarmingly simple and straight to the point, each one is designed to help you get your 1 percent improvement from your sales activities and conversations. Let’s get started shall we?

Transformational Vocabulary Sales Tip #1

Don’t replay bad sales calls in your mind or repeat them to others other than when you are analysing them for improvement. Too often, salespeople – especially telemarketers will get off a call than went wrong (the sale did not get made) and repeat it to their colleagues – this is disastrous for morale as well as a time killer that serves NO purpose other than to suck you deeper into the Vortex Of Mediocrity.

Once a call is over, make the mental and physical notes of what went wrong and what was done right and MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE.

Any dilly-dallying is an indulgence that you can’t afford to do.

Even if you are not repeating this verbally – STOP your negative self-talk immediately and see what happens.

This is MUCH harder than it first appears.

Sales is all about attitude – you cannot afford to indulge in this ‘popular’ habit – it’s a profit killer – like second-hand smoke – it kills the smoker as much as it does innocent by-standers.

Sticking with the smoking analogy, whenever someone around you starts blowing ‘smoke’ your way – stop them immediately – nicely letting them know you’re not interested.

If you’re a service business that is mandated to ‘do stuff’ for clients on an out-sourced basis and you get paid on an on-going retainer basis, you need to know the #1 reason people STOP buying from you or cancel their contracts…

Chances are it’s because you keep them in the dark – I’ve talked about this before when I posted “How you can stop losing sales in 5 minutes“.

But what I didn’t explain is that if you take this concept to the next ‘exponential’ level, you not only keep them informed, but you INVEST the time and EDUCATE them about what you’ve done.

For example:

• If you optimise Google Adwords, you can let them know the words that have become more profitable, that convert more and or produce more back-end sales. This helps the client create SEO optimised blog posts, sales page content and/or other more effective advertising.
• If you are a solicitor, lawyer or other legal professional and have come up with a solution to a problem that has been either overlooked or otherwise neglected by others, as part of your research or discovery process, when you explain it to your client, he/she will have a greater appreciation for your expertise and know-how and you will end up with a smarter client.

But most importantly, the EDUCATION is valued by the client and THAT is where the payoff is.

I was speaking with a colleague yesterday and she pointed to a pile of documents on her desk and said “I’ve wasted the past year taking care of refunds, claims and complaints… I hate that work, what a waste…” I then explained that what she LEARNT over the past 12 months was to do the triage of the cases that were worthy of attention and those that are not. By learning this craft, she can now use that in future roles with other clients she consults to – BUT it is a WASTE if she doesn’t use it and it is SUB-OPTIMISED if her clients don’t know she has this skill.

She could quickly and easily create a 1 to 2 page document that explains “How to quickly identify frivolous law suits” that she can then follow-up with “How to get rid of frivolous law suits quickly and effectively”.

So there you have it, a few ideas to think about…

Educate and inform your clients as much as you can and you will reap the rewards.

Whatever you do, don’t keep them in the dark.

If they are kept in the dark, you’ll be out of sight and out of mind PLUS if someone else comes around and turns the lights on, it’s ‘lights out’ for you!

I know some of this stuff is seemingly obvious, but in a recession, EVERYONE is keeping tabs on their expenses and SERVICES are the FIRST to be cut.

They are the first to be cut BECAUSE unless you QUANTIFY the value for your clients, they will never fully value what you are doing for them.

What would happen if your marketing worked? Answer the questions in the Business Marketing Autopsy and you’ll discover the profit cancers that may be killing your sales… Click on the banner below to access it for FREE.

Usually $297, it’s yours for FREE, until I change my mind… Which could happen at any time. Don’t wait, it’s not worth the risk to your business’ health.

Even though I’ve written the book on how to Get The Best Results With The Least Amount Of Effort, today’s post is about going one step beyond the book the #1 reason people under-perform and don’t realise their full potential.

If you haven’t yet bought my book Get The Best Results With The Least Amount Of Effort you really should click on the hyperlink and get your copy now. At $27, it’s one of the most inexpensive, cost-effective products I sell. In fact you get 2 books for the price of one AND you also get my Speed Learning Video, worth $47 INCLUDED FOR FREE as a bonus!

Get The Best Business Results With The Least Amount Of Effort

Now that I got that out of the way, what I want to talk to you about is…

The #1 reason over-achievers under-perform

Read More »»

Want FREE Marketing? Try one of one of these 46 ‘Guerrilla Marketing’ tactics…

1. They post signs in places where there is high visibility and no cost:
2. In front of their own business
3. In front of neighboring businesses
4. Train and Bus stations
5. School offices
6. Senior recreational facilities and retirement homes
7. College dormitories — in the community area, hallways and bathrooms
8. School Clubs
9. Churches
10. Other local community clubs and organizations
11. Apartment buildings — in laundry rooms and bulletin boards
12. Community activity centers
13. Grocery stores – local corner stores are the best
14. Shopping malls – Local strip malls are ideal for the niche marketer
15. Car washes
16. Laundromats
17. Condominium complex party centers
18. Hotel and motel lobbies
19. Utility poles – check council ordinance to make sure you’re ‘allowed’ to do this one
20. Counters of public places
21. Meeting convention centers and rooms
22. Construction walls
23. Libraries
24. Union halls
25. Chambers of commerce
26. Medical or professional offices
27. Roller rinks and bowling alleys
28. Waiting rooms at auto repair and tire shops
29. Liquor and convenience stores
30. Company bulletin boards of friends and family
31. Tourist information centers
32. Highway rest stops
33. Factories
34. Their cars — featuring a compelling sign, parked in a conspicuous place
35. On the fences outside a construction site
36. College and high school newspapers and yearbooks (might not be free, but are ‘almost free’)
37. Classified services on the World Wide Web — many are free
38. Classified services on commercial online services — many are free
39. Local entertainment and tourist magazines
40. Community group and association newsletters
41. Small, local newspapers
42. Chamber of Commerce publications
43. Radio talk shows — by appearing as a guest or calling in (I did this, and created a product with the recording = $$$!)
44. A lingerie store owner stenciled small messages onto the sidewalks of New York, with provocative sayings like, “From here it looks like you could use some new underwear.”
45. Project your brand or USP at night onto the side of a building.
46. On your voice-mail message, but please keep it brief!

There you go – FREE Marketing Tips to get your business going and growing — Exponentially!

Onward and upward!
Marc

P.S.

Other FREE Marketing Strategies and Tactics include:

1. Send me a case study example and I’ll publish a blog post and put you and your business in front of thousands for FREE
2. Ask for referrals from your existing clients
3. Go to my Internet Mastery Blog to see FREE Internet strategies!
4. Add your ideas as a comment on this blog!

This list was compiled from an e-mail I received from the original Guerrilla Marketer – Jay Conrad Levinson. If you haven’t read any of his books – get your hands on at least one of them over the holidays… They are a MUST read!