The article below, written by Troy White over at MakepeaceTotalPackage.com, is one that had me nodding my head the entire time because it is SO dead on with respect to how much money small business owners are sitting on without a clue as to how to access it…or a long list of excuses that’s keeping them from doing so.

The bottom line is this: direct-response marketing, when employed correctly in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, is one of the most cost effective and potent ways to bring tons of new and repeat customers into your business without having to guess as to whether or not you’re spending your advertising dollars wisely.

You’ll KNOW you’re doing the right thing because you’ll have hordes of customers piling in and the trackable data to show you where they’re coming from.

Imagine that…quantifiable ROI from your advertising investment…who woulda thunk?

AND, you can repeat the process and dial up sales and profits anytime you want once you find a winning ad and offer.

If you need help implementing profit-pulling strategies like this in your business, let me know – we can talk about what might be a good angle and approach for you.

In the meantime, read Tony’s article a few times – there ARE millions of dollars of ideas in it for you!

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Fellow Business-Builder,

This week I want to share an article I first sent to my regular newsletter list.  Usually I write a post exclusively for The Total Package, but this article got some great feedback so I am including it here, and expanding on it with further ideas.

First thing that’s important: I am always on the lookout for unusual marketing ideas people are using to promote their business.  Many times I see these wacky marketing ideas offline, and they can easily be applied online.

To me, the opportunity offline is great if done right.

There is very little competition (decent competition) in the physical mail space … now compare that with your prospect’s e-mail inbox!

To you, this means the difference between 230 e-mails to compete with … or one or two other envelopes in the mail box.

Yes, it costs more … but done like this example below … not much more (four cents a household with some companies).

The key is in targeting the right markets, neighborhoods, demographics, etc.

Here’s how the pizza place did it …

Who’d have thought that a pizza take-out joint
would have such savvy marketers?

I received a letter in the mail (not addressed to me personally, they had blanketed neighborhoods near them – hint).

On the front was a letter with a small bag of flour attached to it with a staple.

The letter began … “Dear Neighbor, Why have I attached a little tiny bag of flour to this letter? Here is why:” And the letter then goes on to talk about their ’secret flour’, the chemical structure of their flour, the high protein content, where they get their flour, and why they pay more for their flour than the competition does.

Not hard to figure out where the idea came from!  The old dollar bill mailer rings a bell, no?

They do an excellent job building their pizza dough and ingredients up,and play down the inferior ingredients the competition uses, which explains why they have “limp, often soggy, pizza crust.”

They talk about how theirs is hand-made daily, in-house, while others farm it out to outside companies who mass produce a cheaper, lower-quality dough that shows up ready to bake.

Then they have a 100% guarantee: “if it’s not the best you’ve ever eaten, we’ll refund your purchase price.  In fact, when you stop by in the next two weeks, I’d like you to have our signature Caesar salad with your dinner (my treat).”

Then they have a coupon at the bottom with the free Caesar salad and Focaccia bread.

This is brilliant.

And why can’t YOU use the exact same idea?

You can … excuses will not be tolerated here.

You may not have a pizza business … but your business IS NO DIFFERENT.

The stupidest excuse I hear out there is just that “My business is different.” “That stuff won’t work for me.” “My clients are different.” “My suppliers are different.” “We sell based on price.” Whine. Whine. Whine.

You are completely WRONG if that is coming out of your mouth.

Look at the Million-Dollar Lobster story which I have shared here before … A commodity product … now a multi-million dollar business.

* You have a product or service to sell.

* You need buyers.

* Your buyers need to understand what makes you different.

* You need to prove to them you are a worthy supplier and they should give you at least a try.

Sound familiar?

• You can attach a bag with a component of your product:(Ingredients, sample cloth, electronic component, piece of wood, dirt, sand, shredded money, crumpled up receipts, seashells, piece of metal, small coins, unusual currencies, kids toys, knick-knack stuff from Oriental Trading, and just about any one of a thousand other things you could include)
• You can have a picture of you delivering the service.
• You can have a picture with a happy customer sharing their feedback (and standing next to your product if possible).
• You can include a small bag with a ripped piece of small paper and have it part of the story on how you were passed on this valuable information, and this is just a small piece of what is left.
• You can include pet food.
• One company used small, little chocolate sprinkles and said “rat feces” inside – for an exterminator.  Worked like a charm.
• You can use that brain of yours and find SOMETHING that will make this strategy work for you.

I spoke with the guy who owns this pizza place (we have ordered from them a few times – as have all our friends when I told them about this offer).

He won’t share numbers …
but he said it has done VERY WELL for them.

And it will for you too.

So, no more excuses. This works exceptionally well …

… Especially in a recession when people are looking for good reasons to buy somewhere else (and it is NOT always about price – read the statistics – the affluent market spent 29% more in the last quarter than the previous).

THEY ARE BUYING … are you selling to them?

Use this simple model, and at least give it a try.

I would love to hear your ideas.

Thanks again.

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

PS: Something important I forgot to mention: The letter came BEFORE the brochure. Yes, they had a typical pizza brochure, but the letter was stapled to the front of it.

Instead of “Oh, another pizza brochure”, which is what 99% of people would have done, they said “What is this letter, with this bag attached?  This looks interesting.”

Goal #1 in your marketing is ALWAYS to get them reading or paying attention.

Once you get them reading, your chance of a sale goes up dramatically.  Once you have their attention, it becomes much easier to get them to try you out, especially when you use ideas like this pizza parlor.

So, how ARE you going to use this?  When?

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The following article is a reprint from the MakepeaceTotalPackage.com website.  You can view the original article here.

Do you ever notice how of all your customers, typically you’ve only got a few that cause you problems…but boy do they cause problems!

No doubt you’ve heard of the 80/20 Rule, which is actually another name for what was originally called the Pareto Principle.

The gist of the Rule is that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts, and likewise, 80% of your problems will come from 20% of your customers.

The question I love to pose to business owners is, “How can you use this principle to your advantage in your business?”

There a few major ways you can use this principle to your advantage in your business:

1. Fire the 20% of your customers that give you more problems than profit.
   • Look, the headache you incur just to keep these people happy isn’t worth what little they bring in for you.  It’s in the best interest of your sanity and energy level to just let them go – they can go cause someone else problems.  You won’t even notice the fact they’re gone when you look at your balance sheet.
2. Focus on the 20% of your customers that bring in 80% of your profits
   • These are your good customers that are a joy to work with and that come back to buy from you repeatedly (which is what you ultimately need if you want to make any real money).
   • You’ll have more free time to service them now that you’re not messing around with the lower 20% that was wasting all your time and energy!
3. Realize that the 80/20 Rule applies to your top 20% all over again
   • What this means is that when looking at your top 20% of customers (let’s say there are 20 of them for easy math), 20% of those 20 equals 4 customers.  And if those 4 customers (20% of the top 20%) are responsible for 80% of the profit from the original 80%, that means those 4 customers are responsible for 64% of your total profits! (80% of 80% is 64%)
   • So if your net profits were $100, 4 customers will statistically be responsible for $64 of it!

Once you’ve identified your best customers, be sure to create incentives and preferred customer programs to keep those top 20% and top-top 4% happy, loyal, and evangelistic customers for life and you’ll enjoy higher profits, less stress, and an overall better quality of life.

Many times owners of small businesses have a hard time letting go of that lower 20% of their customer base, thinking that they’ll make more of an impact than they actually will, myself included.

But I speak from experience when I say, “You won’t notice a dime of it!”, and the peace of mind that comes from not having to deal with yet another email or phone call about issue #3,467 is a wonderfully liberating thing!

Try it – I promise you’ll love it.

This is an outstanding and simple article that explains the marketing process you should be going through to attract and convert potential prospects into loyal and evangelistic customers.

The original article can be found at Duct Tape Marketing here.

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Many marketers have been taught the concept of the marketing funnel. The idea being that you bring leads into the top of the large opening in a funnel and push the ones that become customers through the small end. The problem I’ve always had with that is all the focus is on the chase. I happen to think that real payoff in marketing comes from expanding and focusing your thinking on how to turn a lead into an advocate for your business.

Long ago I started using the concept of the marketing hourglass. The top half indeed resembles the funnel concept, but the expanding bottom half, to my way of thinking, adds the necessary focus on the total customer experience that ultimately leads to referrals and marketing momentum.

I use the diagram below in workshops to explain the logical path a lead should follow to participate in your fully developed marketing hourglass. This concept is one of the key elements of the overall Duct Tape Marketing system, but I could conduct entire workshops around this one slide as it seems to be the easiest way to explain the marketing process in simple and practical terms. At a recent workshop an attendee came up to me and said about this diagram, “I’m an engineer by trade and this marketing stuff never made sense to me, now it finally does.” – I guess that’s the ultimate test.

The Marketing Hourglass – (click to enlarge)

When you overlay my definition of marketing – “getting someone who has a need to know, like, and trust you” with the intentional act of turning know, like and trust into try, buy, repeat, and refer you get the entire logical path for moving someone from initial awareness to advocate.

The key is to systematically develop touchpoints, processes and product/service offerings for each of the 7 phases of the hourglass.

1. Know – Your ads, article, and referred leads
2. Like – Your web site, reception, and email newsletter
3. Trust – Your marketing kit, white papers, and sales presentations
4. Try – Webinars, evaluations, and nurturing activities
5. Buy – Fulfillment, new customer kit, delivery, and financial arrangements
6. Repeat – Post customer survey, cross sell presentations, and quarterly events
7. Refer – Results reviews, partner introductions, peer 2 peer webinars, and community building

Far too many businesses attempt to go from Know to Buy and wonder why it’s so hard. By creating ways to gently move someone to trust, and perhaps even creating low cost offerings as trials, the ultimate conversion to buy gets so much easier.

In order to start your thinking about the hourglass concept and gaps you may have ponder these questions:

• What is your free or trial offering?
• What is your starter offering?
• What is your “make it easy to switch” offering?
• What is your core offering?
• What are your add-ons to increase value?
• What is your “members only” offering?
• What are your strategic partner pairings?

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The original article for this post can be found at DuctTapeMarketing.com here.

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I couldn’t have said this better myself.  It’s imperative to create a process whereby your target market comes to know you, like you, and trust you so you can help remove any barriers to them making a purchase with you.

So many businesses lose out on untold sums of money by trying to “go for the kill” right away, especially on their websites.

In today’s competitive environment where you have about 3 seconds to capture and hold someone’s attention, you must be able to cultivate that attention into a relationship that allows your potential customer to become a loyal, paying customer that continues to come back to do business with you, regardless of price, because you offer the best total value of all your competitors.

Here’s an interesting study that shows what people instinctively look for and click on when they do a search on the almighty Google search engine :

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Google Search Results Eye Heat Map

New EyeTracking Study verifies the importance of page position and rank in both Organic and PPC search results for visibility and click through.

A joint eye tracking study conducted by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it and eye tracking firm Eyetools has shown that the vast majority of eye tracking activity during a search happens in a triangle at the top of the search results page indicating that the areas of maximum interest create a “golden triangle.”

The first phase of the study was conducted with 50 people in Eyetools’ eye tracking lab in San Francisco, California and presented panel participants with 5 distinct scenarios that would require the use of a search engine. Google was used as the search engine in all of the instances.

Key Preliminary Findings of the Study

The key location on Google for visibility as determined by the eye activity in the study is a triangle that extends from the top of the results over to the top of the first result, then down to a point on the left side at the bottom of the “above the fold” visible results. This key area was looked at by 100 percent of the participants. In the study, this was referred to as the “Golden Triangle”. Generally, this area appears to include top sponsored, top organic results and Google’s alternative results, including shopping, news or local suggestions.

Visibility dropped quickly with organic rankings, starting at a high of 100% for the top listing, dropping to 85% at the bottom of the “above the fold” listings, and then dropping dramatically below the fold from 50% at the top to 20% at the bottom.

Organic Ranking Visibility

(shown in a percentage of participants looking at a listing in this location)

Rank 1 – 100%
Rank 2 – 100%
Rank 3 – 100%
Rank 4 – 85%
Rank 5 – 60%
Rank 6 – 50%
Rank 7 – 50%
Rank 8 – 30%
Rank 9 – 30%
Rank 10 – 20%

Eye scan and click through behavior changes dramatically as users moved “below the fold” to the section of results that required scrolling down. At the top of the page, the amount of eye movement declined rapidly through the top 4 or 5 results, and then at the bottom of the screen, tends to become more consistent through to the end of the page.

In searches where top sponsored results are returned in addition to right sponsored ads, the top ads received much higher visibility, being seen by 80 to 100% of participants, as opposed to 10 to 50% of participants who looked at the side sponsored ads.

On side sponsored ads, the top ranked results received much more in the way of both eye activity and click through. About 50% of participants looked at the top ad, compared to only 10% who looked at ads in the 6, 7 or 8th location on the page.

Side sponsored ad visibility

(shown in percentage of participants looking at an ad in this location)

1 – 50%
2 – 40%
3 – 30%
4 – 20%
5 – 10%
6 – 10%
7 – 10%
8 – 10%

There seems to be a “F” shaped scan pattern, where the eye tends to travel vertically along the far left side of the results looking for visual cues (relevant words, brands, etc) and then scanning to the right if something caught the participant’s attention.

These results come from an initial analysis of the results and were presented during sessions at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York. While interesting, the study’s main findings are still to come and will required detailed analysis of individual behavior patterns.

Did-It’s Kevin Lee said, “At this point, we weren’t too surprised at what we’ve seen in the study. We suspected much of this to be true prior to conducting it. However, there is tremendous value in confirming these suspicions, especially in a way that’s so visually compelling. It also proves that our methodology will hold up for phase 2 of the research. On the sponsored search side, data indicates that it is the clear branding and visibility advantage offered by gaining top positions, especially Google’s top sponsored links. Unfortunately, these aren’t always presented with a search. Google is a little fickle in this regard.”

Enquiro’s Gord Hotchkiss added, “We see a marked difference in how people say they search and what they actually do. Previous research had indicated that people were considered searchers and spent some time before choosing a link. The past few studies we’ve done, this one included, shows that there’s a huge importance placed on where the eyeballs end up on the page. Clicks happen pretty quickly. It just shows that search marketing is a real estate game. It’s all about location, location, location.”

Eyetools’ CTO Greg Edwards also commented, “Eyetracking is the enabling tool that fills in the gaps to understand why people click or don’t click — by quantifying what people consider before the decision to click or leave is made, companies can start to better anticipate and design to satisfy people’s needs. Applying this in the search results arena enables companies to better plan their marketing communication and increase conversions.”

This research is ongoing and the phase 1 results are highly encouraging. After further analysis is done, the results will be made available to the public through white papers. Further findings will be announced as they become available.

For more information about Eye Tracking or the study, contact Greg Edwards at contact@eyetools.com.

To read the original post of this article or to visit Eyetools, please to go:
http://www.eyetools.com/inpage/research_google_eyetracking_heatmap.htm

This is a re-syndication of valuable content from EyeTools.com

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If you’ve read this far, you can see why it’s so important to have a well-optimized site that ranks well for your “money” keywords.

You stand to capture a ton more traffic if you rank in the top 4 on Google’s search results, and with a properly optimized website that’s designed to engage your target market, capture their contact info, and provide them with valuable content, you’re sure to increase your sales and bottom line in a hurry.

For help with getting better Google rankings through SEO for your small business, drop us a line and we’d be happy to talk about your individual situation and what it’ll take to help you dominate the organic search results in your industry.