As I’ve mentioned quite a few times recently, the face of marketing is rapidly changing.  To be more accurate, the face of SUCCESSFUL marketing is changing.

No longer can a business simply blast out their sales message unsolicited to targets that have no interest or desire to receive it and expect to receive positive results. 

Now, it’s still entirely possible to do so, but the effectiveness of this type of marketing is very quickly going the way of the dodo bird.  Fortunately for you, the vast majority of your competitors are totally clueless about these changes.

Also, the ‘branding’ style marketing used by most of your competitors has always been a crap shoot and given these changes that are taking place, it’s even more of a gamble.  Especially if you want to grow your business effectively in the coming months and years.

Let’s talk about your specific business for just a moment.  If you’re sending out sales letters or postcards without spending a fair amount of time carefully targeting the recipients of these, I bet your response rate is pretty poor.

Or, if your ads look or sound pretty similar to what the competition’s ads look or sound like, I imagine your response rates aren’t very good. 

So what can you do to increase the effectiveness of your marketing IN SPITE of this rapidly changing environment?

The first thing that needs to take place in order to make this happen is a shift in mindset of how you view customers and prospects.  Because consumers have so much control over the marketing ‘conversation’, it’s important to become a ‘welcome guest’ instead of an ‘annoying pest’ like the majority of businesses.

The easiest way to do this is start viewing your prospects and customers like friends.  People you genuinely want to help.

Once you change the way you look at them and start thinking about THEIR problems, not the fact you need their business, selling your services to them becomes much easier because now you’re providing solutions to their problems.

Instead of you message coming across as marketing, it now comes across as answers to their problems. 

Instead of your communications being about helping you get more business, they are about helping your prospects lives easier.

And as a result, you’re no longer seen as someone looking to steal their precise time, but rather someone looking to help them better use the time they have.

Now, as I’ve mentioned several times recently I’m working on a project that I hope will help you understand the changing environment and learn how to use these changes to your advantage.

But to ensure I’m providing you with the information, tools, and resources you need, I first need your help.  You see, I’ve already got a lot of information together that I THINK you’ll need based on the comments and questions I’ve received from others.

However, I want to make sure I’m covering everything that YOU need to create a killer marketing system that will run on auto-pilot and allow you to become this trusted ‘friend’.

So, what I need you to do is click on ‘Comment’ below and let me know what challenges you’re currently facing when it comes to marketing your business. 

What are your biggest frustrations?  What are the biggest obstacles you face?  What are your biggest fears heading into these uncertain times?

Take just minute to share with me your responses and I’ll do my best to make sure they get answered.

If you’ve already sent me your biggest questions, concerns, or comments, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d take another few minutes to do it again. 

Here’s why:

I’m working on a coaching program that’s going to be extremely comprehensive.  It’s going to cover EVERYTHING you’ll need to first, understand this new environment, and second, create a killer marketing system that will help you totally dominate your marketplace.  This program will also include ALL the tools and resources you’ll need to make this happen.

So, to ensure I’m not missing anything, please take just a few minutes to let me know what your biggest marketing challenges, fears, headaches, and concerns are.  I want to make sure I’m covering everything you’ll need to make marketing your business a breeze.

So go ahead and click on ‘Comment’ below and take a few minutes to share your questions, concerns, fears, or headaches with respect to marketing your business. 

Please don’t procrastinate.  Do it now.

I wanted to share a quick thought with you before the weekend got underway.

Marketing by itself is difficult enough process. If it weren’t, EVERYONE would have rock solid businesses that throw off tons of cash. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Plus, throw in the economic mayhem taking place these days and sales and marketing is pretty much a nightmare. Big time.

And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like things are going to be getting any better any time soon.

So, as you look for new ways to cost effectively market your business, keep these two thoughts in mind:

1. People do things for their reasons, not yours.
2. Imagine your prospects have a sign permanently tattooed in the forehead that says, ‘So What?”

Think about it, people don’t care one lick about who you are, how long you’ve been in business, what kind of equipment you use, or the fact you desperately need to feed your family.

They have their own problems and concerns they’re trying to deal with so if you really want to sell them your services, your job to translate everything you offer into benefits that answer their question, “So What?”

So as you’re thinking about what you can do to grow your business, figure out what you need to say to answer that question. If you can do this consistently, you’ll find that it doesn’t matter what your competition is saying or how crazy the financial markets are.

If you’re not sure how to create marketing materials that help your prospects answer the question of “So What?”, then I encourage you to check out the Lawn Care Champion’s Circle. It’s a member’s only resource that contains dozens of usable marketing materials that are ready made.

All you need to do is spend 10min or so customizing things for your business and you’ve got in your hands powerful, magnetic marketing materials that convey to your customers the benefits they get from your services and there’s never any question of “So What?”

These materials definitely answer that question for them.

Also included each month is a ready-made customer newsletter template, an invitation to the member’s only tele-seminar as well as a downloadable mp3 of the call, and new templates you can use to prospect for customers, create joint venture relationships with non-competing businesses, and stimulate referrals from your customers.

For only $59.95/mo, it really is a steal of a deal. Especially if you’re struggling to answer your prospect’s and customer’s question of “So What?”

You can get all the details and sign-up for the Champion’s Circle right here:

www.LawnCareChampionsCircle.com

Anyway, I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I’ve got a bunch of great stuff planned for you starting next week so….

Stay tuned!

I wanted to share a quick thought with you before the weekend got underway.

Marketing by itself is difficult enough process. If it weren’t, EVERYONE would have rock solid businesses that throw off tons of cash. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Plus, throw in the economic mayhem taking place these days and sales and marketing is pretty much a nightmare. Big time.

And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like things are going to be getting any better any time soon.

So, as you look for new ways to cost effectively market your business, keep these two thoughts in mind:

1. People do things for their reasons, not yours.
2. Imagine your prospects have a sign permanently tattooed in the forehead that says, ‘So What?”

Think about it, people don’t care one lick about who you are, how long you’ve been in business, what kind of equipment you use, or the fact you desperately need to feed your family.

They have their own problems and concerns they’re trying to deal with so if you really want to sell them your services, your job to translate everything you offer into benefits that answer their question, “So What?”

So as you’re thinking about what you can do to grow your business, figure out what you need to say to answer that question. If you can do this consistently, you’ll find that it doesn’t matter what your competition is saying or how crazy the financial markets are.

If you’re not sure how to create marketing materials that help your prospects answer the question of “So What?”, then I encourage you to check out the Lawn Care Champion’s Circle. It’s a member’s only resource that contains dozens of usable marketing materials that are ready made.

All you need to do is spend 10min or so customizing things for your business and you’ve got in your hands powerful, magnetic marketing materials that convey to your customers the benefits they get from your services and there’s never any question of “So What?”

These materials definitely answer that question for them.

Also included each month is a ready-made customer newsletter template, an invitation to the member’s only tele-seminar as well as a downloadable mp3 of the call, and new templates you can use to prospect for customers, create joint venture relationships with non-competing businesses, and stimulate referrals from your customers.

For only $59.95/mo, it really is a steal of a deal. Especially if you’re struggling to answer your prospect’s and customer’s question of “So What?”

You can get all the details and sign-up for the Champion’s Circle right here:

www.LawnCareChampionsCircle.com

Anyway, I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I’ve got a bunch of great stuff planned for you starting next week so….

Stay tuned!

The other night the WWE had a spoof match between Sentors Clinton and Obama, the two remaining Democratic Presidential hopefuls. In my opinion, this was a BRILLIANT move on the parts of both camps to allow to happen because on the eve of an extremely important primary, it brought them a significant amount of attention from their target prospects.

Here’s a clip of the match:

I guess the Samoan must be a Republican! Sorry I don’t know his name, I don’t watch WWE much.

Anyway, what can you do reach out to your target market in memorably and creative ways?

There’s been a discussion going on over at the GopherForum regarding telephone advertisements.  Jody, one of the members there was mentioning that an ad rep came across their ad in Craig’s List, liked the fact they donate 10% of their revenue to local charities, and called up to say she wanted to put them on the cover of the book.

A discussion ensued regarding what their ad show say and look like.  As is usually the case, most of the suggestions reflected a lot of the ‘me-too’ style marketing that happens in the yellow pages.  As a result, everyone ends up saying the same thing and there’s really nothing that sets one service provider apart from the others.

Ultimately, the customer doesn’t know who to call so they end up playing ‘eenie, meenie, mienie, moe” to decide.

This is a HUGE shame because close to 60% of all visitors to the phone book can be swayed to call one service provider over the next IF given compelling reasons to do so.

Anyway, here’s a sample ad I put together for Jody to show what a killer directory ad should look like.  As you’ll notice, it includes the same elements that ANY good marketing piece should have:

• Attention grabbing headline
• Benefits the customer will receive
• A killer offer to motivate them to act, in this case, there are 2 such offers (free 1st visit, free soil/lawn analysis)
• A strong, direct call to action - Call Today!
• Risk reversal elements, in this case the satisfaction guarantee
• Third party proof, here it’s the testimonial
• Elements of social proof, in this case the credit card logos

Here’s the ad:

 Now, if you were to compare this ad to almost any other ad you’d see in the phone book, it looks considerably different.  But that’s a good thing!

Anyway, feel free to use this as an example of what a good directory ad should look like and let me know how your results are!

This weekend as I was organizing my office, I came across some old Dan Kennedy information I had stashed away.  I’ve got TONS of stuff from this guy and I have a really hard time finding even the smallest bit of fluff in any of it.  He cuts right to the chase and offers an incredible amount of useable information.

Here’s one gem I came across that I think really speaks volumes about many in the green industry and the struggle they go through.  It’s called ‘An Autobiography in 5 Chapters’.

Chapter 1 -  I walk down a street.  There’s a huge hole in the sidewalk.  I fall in.  It’s not my fault.  It takes forever to get out.

Chapter 2 -  I walk down the same street.  There is a huge hole in the sidewalk.  I pretend I don’t see it.  I fall in, again.  I cannot believe I’m in this same hole!  But it’s still not my fault.  It takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3 -  I walk down the same street.  There is a huge hole in the sidewalk.  I see it.  I fall in – it’s a habit – but my eyes are open.  I know where I am.  I admit it’s my fault.  I get out immediately.

Chapter 4 – I walk down the same street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I walk AROUND IT.

Chapter 5 -  I walk down a DIFFERENT STREET.

So, how does this relate to us? 

Well, I can’t answer for you, but this is my take on it. 

Basically, life is full of holes in the sidewalk.  Initially, when we fall in it really isn’t our fault.  It may happen a time or two more and we might be able to pass blame elsewhere, but if it happens continually, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Once we accept responsibility and learn the lessons necessary to avoid the pain, it’s up to us to find a different path to follow.  If we don’t start taking another path, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

I see LCO’s making the mistake of falling into the same hole in sidewalk time after time after time.  Even though they know what they’re doing doesn’t work, they continue to spend money foolishly on ineffective methods.  Or, they continue to copy what everyone else is doing even though they know it won’t work.

Or worse, they don’t know what works so they walk around blindly doing what they see everyone else doing.  Unfortunately, they usually just end up hanging out with everyone else in down in the hole.

Well, given the challenges in the marketplace (a recession, rising gas prices, difficulty finding qualified help, etc.) if you want to do more than just survive, you MUST find another sidewalk to go down.  Otherwise you’ll spend all your time hanging out with your competitors down in the hole. 

Neither of us wants that to happen.

If you’re truly interested in avoiding the hole in the sidewalk, I encourage you to look into my Lawn Care Champion’s Circle.  You’ll learn a style of marketing that you won’t hear anywhere else.

I teach a style of marketing you won’t see any other lawn care or landscaping company use.  But the thing is, IT WORKS.

I’m not interested in marketing that isn’t specific, measurable, and accountable.  I’m only interested in marketing that is highly targeted and completely accountable so you stop wasting money on worthless, ineffective marketing.

Get all the details here:

www.lawncarechampionscircle.com

So, get out of the hole and start walking down a different sidewalk today!