I heard a quote today that I’d heard many times before, but for some reason it really stuck with me today.  It was by one of my favorite marketing/business building mentors or all time, Dan Kennedy.

As a business owner, if you’ll keep these powerful words in mind as you start each and every day, you shouldn’t have any trouble building a highly recognized business that provides a comfortable living for you and your family.  Here’s the quote:

“This is NOT a society that rewards subtlety, civility, or shyness.  The self-promoters are winning ALL the games.”

That means get out there and sell yourself and the services you offer.  Don’t be satisfied with doing ‘what everyone else is doing’.  Be a relentless promoter of your business, through every means available, and soon you’ll have a solid business that is widely recognized as the industry leader in your marketplace.

If you’re looking to really grow your business in a short amount of time, here’s a key:

Don’t just rely on one method of marketing to make it happen.

That’s right. If you really want to take your business to the next level in a short amount of time, you need to utilize many different methods for attracting new customers.

Here’s a short list of different things you could be doing to grow your business in record time:

• Multi-step direct mail campaigns (sales letters or postcards work well)
• Flyers, door hangers, or other leave behinds
• Creating referral campaigns with your existing customers
• Partnering with non-competing businesses to share customer lists, insert offers into mailings, create offers together, etc.
• Press releases to attract media attention
• Write articles for local papers, clubs, or home owners associations to generate interest

Again, this is just a quick list of things you could be doing simultaneously to grow your business. If you really want to make 2007 a banner year for your business, then don’t just rely on one method of marketing.

Select as many methods as you can afford and go after it. If you’ll do this, you’ll look back at the end of the year and be amazed and the results you’ve achieved.

If you’re looking for some help in creating these campaigns, my program ‘28 Days to Defining and Dominating Your Market’ will give you a number of copyright free samples you can use immediately. All you have to do is ‘cut and paste’ and away you go.

Check it out here:

http://www.lawncaremarketingmagic.com/28days.htm

Happy Friday the 13^th! Are you a superstitious kind that believes its bad luck to walk under ladders, open umbrellas in your house, breaking mirrors, or have black cats cross your path?

If so, not really much I can do to help you there. Just make sure to watch where you’re walking, don’t turn on the sprinkler inside the house, try to avoid any mirrors, and run fast if you see a black cat.

Now, even though I’m not superstitious about any of those things, there are quite a few things that have a similar effect on me. In other words, they keep me up at night worrying about whether or not the sun will rise, and if it does, what color will the sky be.

And yes, believe it or not, they have to do with marketing. You see, so much of marketing is about finding what works and what doesn’t. There’s no holy grail of marketing because what works for one business could be a complete flop for another. Even inside the same industry.

So, what this requires is being in a constant state of learning, testing, and tracking. Learning what makes good marketing and how to setup systems that can make your life easier. Testing different media, offers, headlines, etc. to see what works and what doesn’t. And finally, tracking your efforts to know which ones are working and which ones aren’t.

Now, if marketing is a foreign language to you then my program, ‘7 Steps to Putting An End To All The Marketing Miscues, Mayhem, and Madness’ is for you. It contains a thorough brain dump on what it takes to create powerfully effective marketing systems for your business.

If you feel like you’ve got a good handle on what it takes to market your business, but are coming up short on how to actually put it all in place, then perhaps my step-by-step program called ’28 Days To Defining and Dominating Your Target Market’ is for you. It contains a very detailed, day-by-day program that will help you put together a customer converting marketing system.

At the end of the 28 days you’ll have a multi-step marketing system in place that I guarantee will help you grow your business by 50-100% within this next year alone.

Plus, to help take some of the ‘eerieness’ out of this frightening Friday the 13^th, I’ll give you a 13% discount if you order either of these programs before the witching tomorrow night, 12 midnight EST.

In fact, I’ll give you a 13% discount on ALL of the products or services I offer. To grab your copy and claim you discount, just follow the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/ynss7t

Now, to claim the special superstitious discount you MUST use the link above. The 13% will be taken off during the check out process. If you DON’T use the link, you won’t get the discount.

So, best of luck to you today as you avoid all ladders, mirrors, umbrellas, and black cats!

So many times I speak with hard working business owners that complain about how difficult it is for them to work on their business instead of in it, but at the same time they refuse to take the time necessary to learn HOW to work on their business.

Allow me to explain.  For examples sake, let’s say you’re in the business of chopping wood.  When you first started out, you used an ax because it was cheap and easy to learn how to use.  As a result, each day you head out and chop wood all day long with your ax.

Sure, you know it was much more efficient to chop wood with a chainsaw, but you don’t have the first clue about how to use a chain saw.  Yes, there’s an owner’s manual that tells you everything you need to know to use it, but you’re so busy chopping wood all day you don’t have time to learn how to use the chainsaw. So, you end up spending each and every day chopping wood the old fashioned way instead of doing it the quick and easy way.

I know that example’s a bit oversimplified, but it’s the same thing with many businesses.  How many things are you doing the old-fashioned way (translated: HARD and SLOW) simply because you don’t think you have the time to learn anything else?

There are so many ways you can dramatically improve the EFFICIENCY of your business simply by investing the time to learn how to do things better.  Look for these opportunities.  Seek out ways to improve the efficiency of your business and watch your business grow like never before.

As the great Dan Kennedy has said on multiple occasions, “For every month you’re not contacting your existing client base, you’re losing 10% of the value of that relationship.” That means if you go 10 months without so much as saying “BOO”, you’ve lost all inherent value in that relationship.

Ouch.

Think about it for just a moment.  If you’re not contacting them and they have no idea you even know who they are, what reasons have you given them for continuing to be loyal?  When the neighborhood low-ball scrub comes along and offers to provide the same services for significantly less than what you’re charging, what incentives or motivation have you given them to resist the temptation?

If you haven’t at least touched base to let them know you still appreciate their business, chances are they don’t have a very good reason to stay loyal.

However, if you’ve taken the time to periodically drop a quick note in the mail, or shoot them a quick email with some suggestions for sprucing up the outside of their property, or heaven forbid, you pick up the phone and give them a quick call just to check in, your chances of retaining that customers AND selling them additional services goes up amazingly high.

All it takes is a teeny, tiny bit of effort and you can create a relationship and loyalty that will firmly establish your business for years to come.  People want to do business with people they like.  They want to feel needed and appreciated, even if they’re the ones paying for the service.

Don’t take these relationships for granted.  Figure out a way to reach out every once in a while, at the very least once a month, to let them know you’re still there and that they’re still a big reason why you’re in business.

I know the subject line probably looks like an odd question.  I mean, how is it possible to do TOO much selling?  Isn’t selling a good thing?

Actually, it depends.

To understand what I mean it’s important to understand the definitions of each, sales and marketing.  Sales is the one-on-one meetings you have with a client trying to get them to pull out their checkbook.  Marketing is the process you go through to put yourself in selling situations.

Now, when I pose the question of doing too much selling and not enough marketing, it’s because a lot of the selling business owners do is explaining their services, educating customers on the services they provide, and why they’re the best choice of all the available options.  Basically, instead of actually getting them to sign on the dotted line, they’re doing WAY too much sifting and sorting.  In fact, a lot of this ‘selling’ consists of repetitive tasks that could easily be automated or systematized.

If this is the case, it means you need to reconstruct your marketing to do a lot of this pre-sales work for your.  Your marketing should be telling customers about your business, the processes you use, the ways they can expect to receive service, why you’re the best choice, and ultimately resolve any concerns they might have that stand between you and their checkbook.

At the end of the day, if your marketing process is designed properly you should be in selling situations with only those prospects that meet the following criteria:

1. Pre-interested in what you’re selling
2. Pre-motivated to buy what you’re selling
3. Pre-qualified to buy what you’re selling
4. Pre-disposed to give you money

So, if you’re spending more time than you should with prospects that don’t meet these criteria, take a look at your marketing to see what things need to be added to the mix. 

Do this and I promise you’ll find yourself with a whole lot more time to work on building the kind of business your after instead of having to constantly sell your services.