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Archive - August 2016

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1
What to do when business isn’t great Part 1
2
The SMART Marketing System
3
Why You Need A Marketing Plan
4
Product Features and Benefits, and Customer Needs
5
Your Copy Writing Formula

What to do when business isn’t great Part 1

I’m always writing and talking about how to grow your business. That’s my focus – to help entrepreneurs and small business owners create effective strategies to lead their business into a long term and sustainable affair so that they can achieve their dream of financial and time independence.

However, there is a reality out there that sometimes business might not be great. It might be a macro-economic effect of the global economy, or it might be micro-economic in that your sector just isn’t doing well. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with how you run your business, and that’s the truth.

So what can you do when business isn’t going great for you at this time?

Rather than do nothing and let it wash over you, look at things you can do proactively. In this talk, and in the next couple of weeks, I’ll give you a few ideas about what you can do.

 

So there’s a couple of ideas – and there’s more over the next couple of weeks. Make sure you review the obvious, as well as the not so obvious.

If you feel able to share, I’d love to hear from you about your ideas – click here to post a comment on this video in the blog.

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The SMART Marketing System

Wow! I’m really excited and I wanted to share my excitement with you – I’m launching my online video training and virtual workshop program on marketing, called SMART Marketing!

I created the easy Marketing Plan system by putting together hundreds of books about marketing along with my 35 years’ experience helping entrepreneurs and small businesses finding out what works and what doesn’t. You don’t need to test these theories for yourself – I’ve done it for you!

It’s a well-proven system. I’ve used it myself to build up (and sell!) three successful businesses, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients implement the system over the years, and watched them grow!

The SMART Marketing system is based on taking 7 easy to follow steps in order to target your ideal customer and create a highly focused marketing campaign. Watch the video to learn more.

Now that you’ve seen what the 7 steps are why not dive in deep?

I have created an online video training and virtual workshop program called SMART Marketing Planning that will help you create your highly targeted Marketing Plan and follow through. It’s more than just a training course. In it I facilitate workshops for you as if we were one on one, taking you through each of the 7 steps and helping you work through them for your own business so that you can implement the system quickly. Click here to find out more – you won’t regret it!

Why You Need A Marketing Plan

I’m really excited about the SMART Marketing Plan program I’m launching here.

In the series of videos I’m releasing over these weeks I’m dealing with different aspects of my SMART Marketing Plan system.

This week I’m going to talk to you about why you need a marketing plan. Without one, all you are doing is stabbing in the dark – you are going tactical firing off wide shotgun blasts and hoping to hit something. A Marketing Plan gives you focus so that you strategically create a campaign to target only your ideal customers, and entice them with messages appropriate to whether they are ready to buy, or just interested.

In this video, learn about focusing on what you sell, focusing on who you want to sell to, and considering the right marketing messages for your marketing activities.

The SMART Marketing online video training and virtual workshop program is based on the SMART Marketing system that I created by synthesising all the learning and practical experience I gained from 35 years of consulting to entrepreneurs and small businesses all over the world. I have used it, hundreds of my clients have used it over the years, to great effect. I have written a book about the system called “SMART Marketing – 7 Easy Steps for More Sales” available from Amazon, and it is based on 7 easy steps that anyone can follow.

The SMART Marketing online video training and virtual workshop program takes it to the next level! I have designed it so that you can work through each of the 7 steps and take immediate action between training modules. It is created as if I were facilitating a workshop for you one on one, going through each step with you in workshops (I call them funshops!) and completing worksheets as we progress. I really urge you to find out more by clicking here, AND getting free bonuses just for registering your interest!

Product Features and Benefits, and Customer Needs

My book “SMART Marketing – 7 Steps To More Sales” has been on sale on Amazon and elsewhere for a year now. I have also created a 5 week online training and virtual workshop program called “SMART Marketing Planning”, and to celebrate I’m going to take the next few weeks to talk about aspects of marketing your products and services.

In this first video, I’m talking about your product’s or service’s features and benefits, and your customer’s needs.

This is the key to marketing and is a cornerstone of my SMART Marketing Plan system. Too often we read or see or hear people talking about the features of their products. Features are what your product or service is made of or the way it is designed, while benefits are the way those features benefit the customer.

Remember people don’t buy features – they are interested by benefits, and they only buy if those benefits meet their needs.

I created the SMART Marketing Plan system by synthesising my 35 years of learning and practical experience spent consulting to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the UK, the US, Asia and Australia. Why read hundreds of books and try hundreds of ideas to see if they work when I have done it for you?

I wrote about the SMART Marketing system in my book “SMART Marketing – 7 Easy Steps to More Sales” that is available from Amazon now. The SMART Marketing system is based on taking 7 easy steps to create a strategic and highly focused marketing campaign to hit your target market – rather than a wild tactical shotgun blast of marketing activity in the hope you might interest someone passing by!

The online program I created is:-

  • an online video training and virtual workshop program, so easy to follow and practical;

  • designed to be taken over 5 weeks during which you learn about each step and take the week to take immediate action;

  • set out like a workshop – I stand in front of you and walk you through the workshops and worksheets to create results as if we were talking one on one;

  • with your individual password, available to you forever so you can go back to it at anytime;

  • and very affordable for the long term value that you will get.

Click here to get more details and register your interest – AND get free mini-training freebies in the meantime while you consider your options!

 

Your Copy Writing Formula

At some stage in your business you will need to write copy, or at least review copy written for you.

You may be starting a blog, or writing an ad for print or online publication. Here I have three copy-writing formulae that I use personally and I’m releasing them to your use and care!

The first formula is what I use to write marketing copy – a brochure or website About Page, or an ad or opt-in page. It’s the “F.A.B” Formula or Features, Advantages, Benefits.

This formula highlights one of the single most useful marketing truths – if you are marketing something, you have to answer the reader’s question “what’s in it for me?” Using this formula, your copy is focused on talking about the benefits, not the features.

Spend no more than 10% of the copy telling them what the features are. Just tell them what they get. For example if you are writing about your coaching for weight loss services, tell them that you meet them for an hour every week and they get an online personal log that they can log on to.

Then spend half the remaining copy talking about the advantages they get from the product – why it is actually useful. In the weight-loss coach’s example, tell them that the hourly meeting gives them discipline and structures their personal choices as well as plenty of information about exercise and healthy eating. Tell them that the log provides them with control over their own lives, but in a way that can be remotely supported by you.

Finally spend the rest of the copy telling them about the benefits, what it means as an outcome for them. In the weight-loss coaching example tell them about the expected weight loss, the health gains they will experience, the control and confidence they will gain.

The second copy-writing formula I use is “Before It, After It, Bridging It”, which I use to write books and blogs.

“Before It” is about how things are now, the world as it stands, and it’s not a pretty place. The problems are numerous, the challenges looming. This should be about 20% of the copy.

“After It” is all about how wonderful the world could be after all the problems are fixed. Describe the ideal that could be had, if only the audience used the “It” to change the Before. This should be about 50% of the copy – you need to make them really want this utopia!

“Bridging It” is about how to get from before to after – the method that you will tell them about. In this section you could (depending on the objective of the copy) use the FAB Formula to show them what they get, what it does, and how they’ll benefit. This should take about 30% of the copy to put the idea to bed.

You can actually use this formula in writing presentations and speeches, especially if the objective is to persuade the audience that there is a better way and you know that better way.

The third copy-writing formula is “Problem-Agitate-Solve”.

This is useful for blogs and presentations, and especially social media updates. It whets people’s appetites to know more. In some ways it’s similar to Before It, After It, Bridging It, except that you don’t spend any time describing the after part, you actually make them feel even worse by describing what would happen if the problem persisted.

So using this formula, you write first about the problem that exists or the world as it stands and the issues they face. Make this bleak and realistic, and it should take about 30% of the copy so that they realise how bad it is. Then you write about how bad the problem could become if you do nothing – agitate! You want to make the audience feel even more worried and make them ready to take action. The agitate part should be about 20% of the copy to emphasise the picture worsening from now on if they do nothing.

Finally you solve the problem by showing them what can be done – it is implicit how their new world would improve. This should take the remaining 50% of the copy because you want them to go away with a sense of hope so the picture needs to be really enticing.

Now while we are into formulae, lets’ talk about a formula to check your copy against.

I check my copy against the 4 U’s:-

  • Useful – is what I have written useful to the audience?
  • Urgent – is what I have written portraying a sense of urgency to take action?
  • Unique – is what I have described unique, especially the benefits, or the after, or the suggested solution?
  • Ultra-specific – have I been ultra-specific about the uniqueness?

So there it is, my proven copy-writing formulae and the formula to check that it grabs attention!

Try it out in your next presentation, blog post, opt-in page, advertisement, FaceBook post, Twitter update.

Indeed, it’s all about finding the right formula – if you have the right step by step formula or system you can cut through the daily fog of tasks you have to do in your business. If you want to join all those who have found the systems and easy to follow models, join us now by clicking here!

You can use your new-found copy writing skills in your marketing, and talking about marketing, I am super-excited to tell you that I have created a new marketing training course that I am launching soon.

It’s based on my book “SMART Marketing – 7 Easy Steps to More Sales” available now from Amazon. I created the SMART Marketing system by synthesising my 35 years’ of learning and day to day experience consulting to entrepreneurs and small businesses across 4 continents into a simple to follow and proven process, used by hundreds of my clients.

The course itself is called SMART Marketing Planning, and is an online video training and workshop program:-

  • designed in a workshop format so that I stand in front of you as if we were one to one;
  • takes you through each of the 7 easy steps;
  • uses your knowledge of your own business to complete the proven workflow worksheets that accompany the video training;
  • available online forever so you can go back to it anytime you want;
  • is taken at your own pace;
  • and is totally affordable!

To find out more about the course click on this link to find out more!

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