Advertising Secrets Show You How To Grow Your Profits

Advertising is a key factor in any businesses success or failure. Done correctly it can really aid in your businesses growth - in terms of profits and market share. Unfortunately over 90% of small and medium sized businesses just do not understand how and where to advertise correctly for maximum results from minimum time and effort.

Let's take a look at some points and mindsets you need to adopt in order to make your advertising pay big.

We are going to start of with some basic stuff, so apologies to those who already know (or think they know) this - but keep with us!

1. Focus on buyer benefits, not features.

2. Know thy prospect and how to reach them.

3. Recognise your competition.

4. Understand the frustrations and problems of your prospects and how you can solve them.

5. Don't use expensive advertising, use less expensive alternatives.

6. Create client centred marketing communications.

7. Always ask for the sale or action.

8. Persistence pays.

9. Focus on buyer benefits, not on seller features.

Focus on Buyer Benefits, Not Product Features

Let's drill this point down. You may well be very excited about your product or service. In fact, you may be so excited that you could talk about it for hours on end, but your prospect will only response with an ever-echoing "so what!" - what does that mean to them?

The features that you are so excited about are actually meaningless to your prospect unless you turn them into believable, powerfully, compelling benefits. Benefits that will motivate your prospect to take action and buy from you.

You must take each feature that you offer and turn it into a benefit that is meaningful and essential for your prospect. If a feature that you offer has no benefit, then this is a feature you don't need to waste your breath on.

The real essence of successful marketing is to discern and then disseminate precise, compelling benefits to your prospects, benefits which will let then know in crisp, energetic, exact detail exactly what is in it for them when they buy from you.

So, for each market you are pursing, you need to determine what the benefits are that come from your many features. The easiest way to do this is to take a good look at the features from your prospects point of view. Think to yourself, "If I were the prospect, then what's in it for me?" Then answer that same question in reference to every feature that you have to offer.

It is always about this - What is in it for me? What problems or fears do you solve? How is this going to enrich and make their life easier? This is all people are interested in, the perceived benefits that your product or service is going to offer them.

When you are trying to compel someone to buy from you, you need to let them know what their benefits are, but also you must tell them the benefits first, then tell them what feature offers them this benefit.

In focusing on the buyer benefits, you will always be head and shoulders above your competitors.

Know Thy Prospect And How to Reach Them

If you are really going to succeed in your business, then you have to know who can and who will buy from you, how many of these prospects there are and how you can reach them in a cost effective manner.

So, firstly, you must understand the type of product you have, also, who would be willing to buy this product. You must realise that if you don't know what you are all about, what your own personal goals are, then you fill find it hard in finding your prospects, knowing how many there are and how to reach them.

As an example, we will assume that you are a children's entertainer and you are going to pursue scheduling educational shows at elementary schools. Ask yourself the first question that is logical in determining where your prospects are and how many of them are out there:

• How far am I willing to travel to the venue?

Determine your market area. Are you only interested in working within your local boundaries or are you willing to drive for a couple of hours to get to an elementary show gig? This is what you need to decide.

Once your decision is made regarding how far you are willing to travel, then the next question is:

• How many prospects are there and how do I go about finding them?

This question could be slightly tougher to answer. Depending on which market you are after, it could be fairly easy to find you prospects, but at the same time, fairly hard. For example, let's take a minute to think logically.

Schools almost always belong to a County. The County Council has a list of the schools available for parents that reside within that area. Would it be possible to contact the County Council and get a copy of the list? Of course it is; now you only need to find out what schools are within the County that you would be willing to travel to, contact the County Council and ask for a list of schools within your workable area and call the school to arrange.

But, if you would prefer to work a much larger geographical area, perhaps branch out to surrounding Counties then the same applies, you would need to call the County Council Offices to obtain lists of their schools. I know this to be achievable, I have done it myself - the internet is a fantastic source of information!

But lets say you are happy to work across the entire United Kingdom, could it be possible for you to obtain numbers for every school across the UK, I am sure it is.

This example is for a very, very niche market. It should open your mind to understand that it is fairly simple to find the information you need to determine how many prospects there are in the area that you are happy to work within.

All you have to do is keep asking the questions that will lead you to the answers.

Now, let's think about how to reach you prospects.

There are a number of potential ways to reach your market. Research the following possibilities for any given market you are thinking of:

• Write an article for a publication that will reach all of the prospects you are aiming at.
• Trade the article for advertising space in the same publication.
• Mail direct mail sales letter to each prospect.
• Make a phone call to each prospect.
• Make a personal visit to each prospect to sell them.
• Send out media releases to anyone that reaches your target market.

I believe in spending as little as possible to reach as many prospects as possible. I endeavour to spend as little money as possible. I would advise you to do the same as you are testing the response that is possible with each of your considered markets.

Especially when you are new to advertising and marketing, you should never put all of your money into one large advertisement - never, ever.

There are always other, cheaper ways to reach any given market. You can run classified ads, offering a free, valuable report to test your idea. You can send out press release making your prospects aware of the valuable, free report. You can write articles to test your idea. Spending some time a the library, asking current clients, and questioning prospects, you will be able to find more of these and other ways forward. The key is to always ask if:

• They have a newsletter they subscribe to?
• They have an association they belong to?
• They have study groups they meet with?
• They know anyone that would be interested in your product?

If you don't ask the questions, then you will never know the answers!

One last note on this Success Step is that it helps to know how many prospects you have and how to reach them so that you can set your income goals based on these numbers. It will also help you work out potential expense costs in doing a direct mail piece, phoning etc.

Once you are aware of how many prospects there are and your cost effective ways of reaching them, you will be able to determine if you are even going to sell to the, eg, is it worth your time and expense?

Knowing and Understand Your Competition

Once you have works out your marketing area, you will need to know who else is after your market. Your marketing efforts will never take place in a vacuum, there will always be other things competing for your prospects money and attention. Even if it's not an actual competitor - there are plenty of other things you prospect could spend his money on!

Your competition and dozens of other businesses and salespeople are approaching your same prospect time and time again. That is why an essential part of successful marketing involves keeping a very close eye on your competitors, in an attempt to understand what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how well they are doing it.

To keep ahead of your competition you need to know:

• Who else is offering a product or service like yours?
• What are the precise features of their products?
• What benefits emanate from these features?
• What is unique about doing business with them?
• What is unique about doing business with you?
• The territory in which they are selling to.
• Why are your prospects buying from your competition?
• Why would someone want to buy from them instead of you?
• Whey someone should buy what you are selling instead of what your competition is selling?

Unless you can answer the above and use the answers to formulate your marketing strategy, can you really believe that your marketing efforts will pay off?

Always remember - a competitor is someone who is getting your prospects to buy what he is selling, thus lowering your potential profits.

Is this something you are happy with and you want to keep happening - no, of course not!

For this reason you have to know all about your competition, who they are and just how they work - you need to do your homework on them.

You have to gather the key facts on your competition in order to answer the questions above. Here are some possible ways on how to go about this:

• Get yourself on relevant mailing lists (including your competition's)
• Subscribe to, or purchase, magazines that they are running ads in.
• Joint trade associations where your competitor may make a presentation.
• Ask they current clients questions about your competition.
• Ask a friend to call and request information about your competitors.

The trick to all of this is:

1. Knowing where to find the information you require.

2. Ensuring you have done all it takes to obtain the information.

3. Sensibly evaluating it when you have the information.

Remember this - being anxious and worried about your competition will not do you any good at all, learn from them, understand what they do, what works for them and how the same can work for you too.

A final note on this subject - remember there is far more work out in the big wide world than any of us could feasibly do, so don't get too caught up in worrying about your competitors - you will have plenty of work if you learn how to market yourself in the correct manner.

Understand the Frustrations and Problems of your Prospects, and How You Can Solve Them

If you are to succeed in marketing your business, you have to understand that you are not selling anything. You are actually solving a problem for a prospect.

However, you will only be able to solve a prospect's problem if you understand the problems they actually have. No one is really interested in buying a product or service, they are only interested in getting a solution to a particular problem that they have.

So if you are able to solve your prospect's problems then you will be able to make the pounds grow.

Ask yourself these questions everyday and keep them forever in the forefront of your mind for each and every market you approach:

1. Do I understand what is bothering my prospect?

2. Do I understand either what hurts and/or what he wants to achieve?

3. How do I know?

You must put yourself in you prospects shoes to really understand the answers to these questions. To be a marketing success, you will do it, you have to.

You can only succeed to the extent that you understand precisely what is bothering you r prospect and exactly what that prospect wants to achieve.

Don't get caught up in what you think your prospects need. No one buys things because they need them; they only buy because they want something.

You need to understand that your success is based on your ability to solve the problems of your prospects in any market you go after. You need to be able to understand their innermost dreams, desires, problems, anxieties and passions.

You have to care about these people, you must sincerely want to help make their lives better, one at a time.

When it comes down to it, the attitude you need to create successful ads and sales letters is that of a salesman who has a long term commitment to keeping his clients happy. It he doesn't keep them happy, then he won't make a decent income.

And it that income equals out to be over £80,000, you can rest assured he will do all in his power to make sure those customers remain happy and will buy from him over and over again.!

Think about it, if you're really hoping to make serious money (like the salesman just mentioned) you're going to do everything you can to ensure they buy your product or service.

But, even a step before that is, you're going to make sure your product or service is the absolute very best it can be, it delivers an answer or even answers to your prospects problem or problems.

If you are really concerned for this prospect, and you honestly have a solution that will solve their problem, surely you would try really hard to focus on what they want, how they want it and how you can prove it to them that you are the one who has everything to offer?

Of course it does!

If you don't get your prospect to buy from you, then you have done them a disservice.

You have to do everything within your possibilities to get those prospects to take action - it's for their own good!!

If you can get yourself to think in this way, then you will have come to know the attitude it takes to create winning sales letters and ads of every kind - so get on with it!

In order to write a copy that sells, you have to adapt this empathetic attitude. Reach for your dictionary and look up the word empathy.

The dictionary says:

"The ability to understand another person's feelings, experience, etc"

In plain English, that is what good salesmanship and ad designing is all about - read the definition again - do you see the power and truth revealed within that definition?

That is exactly what writing winning ads is all about - being empathetic.

So, if you identify with and understand the feelings, hopes and worries of your target market, you are going to be able to deliver to them a brilliant product that helps them and a brilliant ad or letter that sells them!

But, first of all, you have to understand them, their thoughts and feelings, their hopes and desires and anything else you need to find out what will help you create ads that sell.

Again, you need to put yourself in their shoes to be able to understand how to write to them and to create products that will solve their problems.

You will learn more about this once we get into the section on research.

Essentially, what I am saying is that you need to be sensitive and understanding about what your prospect wants, fears and hopes in order to write great ads and letters.

When I think about this, it is probably not going to be an easy task for some readers of this course.

Really and truly, this entire nation is full of people who are self-centred, selfish and only think of themselves.

Don't you agree?

We are all so wrapped up in ourselves. People are usually worried about "I'm OK Jack, pull up the ladder" They only care for themselves. There is not a lot of empathy to go around.

Perhaps that is why so many ads, brochures, sales letters, etc are all centred on the company that is distributing them; they are all "me" focused. They never tell you what is in it for you. They almost always focus on themselves - a "me" focus.

The majority of youngsters these days are only worried about themselves.

Look at the "hoodie" violence going on today. Do you think these adolescents are thinking of you when they destroy your property? Of course they're not!

They are only thinking of themselves, what would be good fun to destroy and how much stronger it makes them feel.

They are thinking only of themselves - no empathy at all!

A suggestion to you on this is:

If you are serious about wanting to succeed in making a load of money in your lifetime and becoming a true success, you have to get serious about serving people, caring about people, getting to know people and caring about them and their concerns. Empathise with people.

Go out of your way to show your concern and care for people. Create products that help people, solve their problems and stay focused on them. Once you have done all that that you will surely succeed - big time!

To find out what your prospects anxieties are, their aspirations are, read the following:

• Join the professional associations that your prospects are also involved in.
• Research publications that your prospects read.
• Question and survey prospects to find out exactly what they want.

Your prospects will take delight in being able to talk about themselves because everybody just loves to have the chance to talk about themselves, they like to tell their problems, their fears, their aspirations, their hopes and their dreams. All you have to do is ask!

So don't be passive about this. This information you need to gain will not fall into your lap. You have to be active in your hope to find out what bothers your prospect.

This will be a life long process and it starts today.

Open a ‘prospect file' and fill it with every bit of information you can possible gather about that prospect that gives you an insight as to how they think, what motivates them and what scares them. You must constantly update this information as long as your prospect is still your prospect:

• Who is my prospect?
• What is their goal?
• What specific objectives do they need to achieve?
• When do they need to achieve this by?
• What can I do for them to help solve their problem and reach their objectives?

It is absolutely imperative that you know your prospect thoroughly. The ability to know one's prospect better than they know themselves is to guarantee advertising success.

Avoid Using Expensive Advertising - Always Use Less Expensive Options

If you decide to run newspaper advertising, daily or weekly freebies, and a multitude of other places, you are destined to lose money - unless you have proved these media to be profitable.

You must always test small then grow bigger. Sometimes your small test ads will be profitable enough so you will never have to pay out big money on major ads!

Anyway, inexperienced advertisers will always go for what seems to be the easy way to success, but be aware, if you go ahead without testing first, then advertising in the most certain way to lose your money - and fast!

I like to counsel my clients to find the least expensive way of reaching their buyers - find the lease expensive way to reach your prospects that will bring the greatest amount of revenue.

For example:

• Instead of buying a radio ad, see if you are able to gain public exposure through an available talk programme. The same with the TV.
• Instead of sending a direct mail run, see if you can get your flyer to your prospect as an envelope insert or a freebie newspaper insert.
• Instead of paying full cost for the price of an ad, explore the possibility of getting remnant space in the same publication for a fraction of the cost.
• Instead of running a full page ad in your target magazine, try submitting an article that will help your prospects, and get you the attention you need (read: orders!).
• Instead of running a costly ad in your target markets magazines or newsletters, try placing a less expensive classified ad to the test.

These simple money-saving ideas (if you are prepared to use them) will save you hundreds and hundreds of pounds spent on worthless advertising. But you have to be pro-active about all this; you have to think long and hard about your objective. And that is to spend the least amount of money possible for the greatest possible return!

You must always explore the possibilities of reaching your market for the least possible expenditure.

Create "Client Centred" Advertising

Too much money is wasted each year by businesses trying to further their cause with useless marketing communications. All too many of these documents forget to:

• Focus on the prospect.
• Show the prospect that the advertiser understands the anxieties and aspirations of the prospect.
• Offer a compelling incentive to induce the prospect.
• To buy now, call now or otherwise respond.
• Talk to the prospect as an individual.
• Remind the prospect of their anxiety in dramatic detail, and directly so.
• Let the prospect know that you have a solution to their problem.
• Give your prospect the reason why acting now to solve his problem is the best way forward.
• Provide complete details about what the prospect has to do to get the benefit now and how he can take action.
• Remind the prospect what will happen to them if they don't take action now.
• Remind the prospect that his problem will continue and even worsen if they don't respond.
• Provide complete details about what your product or service will do for the prospect (benefits) and only then do you tell the features.

These are things that you cannot afford to forget in your advertising! These are the basics that must be in your ads. When you have done the basics, then consider putting in graphics, picture and all the ‘fancy' bits.

Always Ask for the sale, or for the next step

More times than I care to remember have I been in a sales situation where the salesman doesn't even bother to ask me if I'd like to purchase his problem solving product or service.

This is a mad situation!

Why bother to put so much hard work into following the Success Steps outline in this manual if you are not even going to ask your prospect to buy? If you really want to succeed in your business then this cannot be you!

If you are certain you have a good product or service that will benefit your selected market and that you can solve his problems, it is your responsibility to ask him to buy from you.

Even if they don't buy today then you must take the initiative to keep asking him as long as he has the problem that your service or product can solve. Thinking about this, it really is your duty to get them to take action - if you're honestly empathetic like I talked about earlier. You are a problem solver, not a salesman.

Moving on, if they don't tell you why they won't buy at this point in time, you need to ask why and when they will. You need to know this.

Marketing is the art of finding out where the prospect's problem is and letting him know how you can remove this problem for him, and then ask him to buy from you so that he is then problem free.

Never think that a meeting or phone call between you and your prospect is over until you have explicitly asked him to buy from you in order to improve his life.

Here are a few ways you can ask for the sale. I personally believe that you need to ask in plain English, a straightforward and honest manner as is possible. Barring that, her are some closing techniques that are by no means original, but I have found they can work:-

The Order Form Close - Simply pull out your contract, begin to fill it in and start asking for the details, ie, what size, how many, delivery dates etc.

The Give It A Try Close - Ask your prospect "Why don't you just give it a try?" In saying this it suggests to them that they aren't committing themselves to anything, they are simply "giving it a try", though in actual fact, they are buying from you!

Sailing Past The Close, Close - Instead of asking for a cheque or a signature on the contract, you sail beyond the closing question and ask a secondary question. The type of question you would normally ask after the closing question, eg "Which colour would you like, would you like that in standard or elite?

All of these closures are excellent and I will use each one of them during the course of a presentation or an ad (if applicable). You should try using them too - they work!

The Secret of Success is Persistence

This is the Success Step that you have to engrave in your brain! You must digest this and live by it if you really want to succeed on a large scale with your advertising.

"Marketing is a daily activity - it is not something you do once and then make your fortune"

Always keep this in mind.

Persistence is the real key to marketing success, as well as advertising success.

Once you have identified your target market, you have to proceed to connect with them time and time again, letting them know that you are the one that holds the solution to their problem.

You are the only person they need to solve their anxieties.

You cannot just market when you feel like it, certainly not if you want to succeed. You need to market on a daily basis.

The prospects that you approach will not always or even perhaps usually take action the first time you approach them. They must be exposed to your problem solving abilities over and over and over.

There is a general rule for how many times you should contact your prospects, that is:

At least seven times within 18 months

And during those seven times you will use various marketing means:

• Direct mail
• Telesales
• Free publicity
• Paid ads at lower prices
• Presentations and/or speeches
• Articles
• Workshops
• And any and all other alternatives.

Only after you have managed to make a connection seven times in 18 months, can you drop them (unless they give you some other reason to believe that they are not a qualified prospect), and be assured that your prospects know about you and how you can help them. By this time, a significant proportion of your market will have taken some kind of action, and your successes will then breed success.

News will spread within that market and you will become know as The One And Only, The Best To Deal With. And you will be able to do this, won't you?

This "Rule of Seven" is a rule you have to live by.

You must take this into consideration when you are developing your marketing plant. Successful marketers understand and are able to profit from the rule of seven. Those who are unsuccessful in the market place expect outstanding results from a single mail drop, a single ad or a single talk show appearance.

Stop and think about this - it's totally ridiculous to expect that a one off mail drop is all it takes to build any kind of business.

Never forget - none of your prospects is as excited about your business as you are. Keep this in mind. You cannot expect even a minor fraction of your prospects to be as enthusiastic about your product as you are.

Success in marketing is day in, day out work - persistent and tireless. Those who succeed in marketing do this work. They remain focused about who they are selling to, focused about their prospect's problems and aspirations and they are focused about the time and expense it takes to reach their prospects on a continuing basis, in a way that will get them to take action and acquire your problem solving service.