Over the years, I’ve met people trying to flog all sorts of products and services. Some with big dreams of world domination thinking people would beat a path to their door.
I think one of the wackiest was a coaching program, “Healing through sex” – and yes, I’m serious. Mind you this one didn’t really get off the ground… err, bed!
Regardless of what you’re selling, there are three main factors which will determine your success (or lack thereof).
The late, great copywriter Gary Halbert once said the most important factor in marketing anything was to have a “starving crowd”. People who absolutely wanted what you had to offer and who would beat a path to your door.
But in my opinion, this only tells part of the story.
Yes, you need a starving crowd. But equally importantly, they need to know you exist and can feed them! In other words you need to be able to (affordably) get your message into their hands and convince them that you can help.
And this is where a lot of marketing comes unstuck. You could have a wonderful product or service, a great message (features and benefits), but very little ability to cost effectively get in front of people who are in a position to buy.
And if you can’t get in front of them, there’s no way they can buy from you… end of story.
With that in mind let’s look at some ways you could cost effectively get in front of your prospective audience.
One of the best is a referral joint venture.
Essentially you find another business who already has your prospect as a client. This business then endorses you to their clients.
Obvious examples could be financial planners, mortgage brokers working with accountants. Real Estate Property Managers with local trades people etc.
However, just because it’s obvious, doesn’t mean it’s easy to pull off. Both parties have to have an open mindset about what could be achieved – a win-win-win. i.e. A win for you as you get in front of good prospects, a win for the referrer as he looks like he has his client’s best interest at heart by helping them with something you can provide, and a win for the eventual client who gets his problem solved.
Another version of a joint venture is all the Deal Of The Day sites (Living Social, Groupon etc.) that are springing up.
We’ve got a couple of clients using them and they’ve had remarkably good results.
And of course there are a plethora of list brokers out there who promise the earth. However our experience is buying or renting lists in this country (we’re simply not as sophisticated as the USA) hasn’t produced good results. The lists are expensive to rent and you get only one shot at the people. And as you’d know it can take multiple hits to get someone over the line.
The second is online advertising…
This can work very well if people are actively searching for solutions you might offer. For example we set up a campaign for a leading Sydney beauty salon where we got significant enquires from people actively looking to “remove facial hair”.
Online advertising is also wonderful from a direct response viewpoint. You know exactly what’s working and what isn’t. Who’s clicking on what ads and how much it’s costing you to acquire a client.
But as always it still comes down to economics. Some markets are prohibitively competitive (meaning your cost per person clicking on your ad could be high – “insurance” for example runs at $24/click and more) so unless you have very deep pockets AND really know what you’re doing, you could lose your shirt in the blink of an eye.
If you want to look at online advertising hit reply and write ‘ONLINE ADVERTISING’ in the subject line.
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And finally, there’s traditional media.
Newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, billboards etc.
Generally pretty expensive undertakings. A decent sized ad in a major newspaper will set you back at least $5,000. And that’s running it once!
If you’re going down this track it’s critical that you select a medium that your target prospects will read, watch or listen to. And then create an ad which asks them to take action like download a free report so you can capture their details and start the follow up sequence.
Once again, if you’d like help doing this, check out our Copywriting Special Offer.
No matter which route you take, you must have your economics firmly in mind. Knowing what a lead costs you allows you to choose appropriate media to advertise in so that you do make a profit. After all, that’s why you’re in business.
Rashid.
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