How to Get Customers and Where to Find Them

What's the Most Powerful Way to Attract New Clients? by Charlie Cook ©2007 In Mind Communications, LLC, all rights reserved. Do you know what one of the most powerful incentives you can use in your marketing is? One that is guaranteed to capture your prospects' interest and attention? You may be surprised to learn that it's not money or love. Is it making offers of products that are "guaranteed", "limited", "proven", "easy and simple to use", "on sale", "includes a free offer", or "new"? You're getting warmer. Offers like the ones above are helpful in getting a prospect's attention and are some of the most important words you can use in your marketing, but they pale in comparison to the number one motivator that makes your products and services irresistible to your prospects. What is it that makes your target market want to read your marketing materials, email you, call you and buy from you? Before I give you the answer, let me tell you a story. I remember getting up at five on Christmas morning when I was six years old. I tiptoed halfway down the stairs and sat there in my pajamas looking at our Christmas tree and the presents underneath. I stayed there for hours until my parents finally got up sometime after seven. What got me out of bed so early? Yes I was awed by the tall tree draped with lights and dripping with tinsel. But the presents were the key motivator. Not so much because I was dying to possess more toys or eat more fruitcake, but because I wanted to know what was in each one of those colorfully wrapped boxes under the tree. My curiosity was so powerful I couldn't sleep and I was up long before anyone should be on Christmas. Whether you're six or sixty, curiosity is one of the most powerful motivators. What prompted you to read this far? You wanted to know the answer to the question I posed in the article's title.

We're all curious. Dorothy Parker said, "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." Spark a prospect's curiosity about your product or service, and there is no stopping them. They'll want to know if you can help them and how you are going to do it. Get them curious and you'll get their business. How can you use curiosity in your marketing? The headlines you use in your marketing are like the brightly colored wrapping on Christmas presents. With the right words, you'll grab your prospect's interest and it won't let up until they've satisfied their curiosity. Below you'll find two ways you can use headlines to prompt prospects' curiosity. Suggest a New Solution to A Problem. Use a question or a statement such as: "Want to Attract More Clients and Grow Your Business?" "How Much More Could You Be Making With These Ideas?" "Discover How to Attract All The Clients You Want" "Sign Up For Your Financial Analysis To Find Hidden Resources You Can Retire On." Ask a question that is relevant to your prospects, and they will look for the answer to follow. Promise a solution to a problem and its guaranteed to get the curiosity of your prospects and prompt them to contact you. Then deliver on your promise. Use unusual and provocative headlines to engage your prospects. Get their attention with a headline that is thought provoking or incomplete. Create a "cliffhanger" with your headline and prospects will read your marketing copy to satisfy their curiosity.

The tabloid newspapers use this strategy to sell papers every day. Take a look at these three samples: "How to Use Liposuction to Repair Adobe Reader 6? And give it mouth-to-mouth respiration too" - from the Inquirer "Monkeys At My Car!" - from the SUN "February To Be Canceled" - from the World Wide Weekly News Unusual, unexpected or incomplete headlines can generate interest. The problem with many of the tabloid headlines is they aren't always credible or accurate. Instead you can use the cliffhanger idea, but use it ethically and accurately to catch your prospects' attention. For example: "My Prize-Winning Roses Would Wither Up and Die If It Weren't For" "Soup on the rocks." - by Ogilvy for Campbells "Have you ever seen a bald-headed sheep?" - from a 1954 ad for NIL-O-NAL, a lanolin cure for baldness "They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano But When I Started to Play!" - written by John Caples for a mail order course A creative headline will make your audience pause. It will prompt people to read your marketing materials and lead your prospects to buy. Curiosity is a powerful motivator. Put it to work for your business. Create curiosity with your business card, mailings, s.ales letters and website. The more curiosity you create on the part of your prospects the more inquiries and sales you'll generate. 2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved The author, Charlie Cook, helps small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients, whether you are marketing in print, in person or online. Sign up for the Free Marketing eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business', full of practical marketing strategies you can use to increase profits at www.MarketingForSuccess.com

Advertising Campaigns That Get Results by Charlie Cook ©2007 In Mind Communications, LLC, all rights reserved. "Advertising doesn't work." I hear it from my clients all the time. One client was about to file for bankruptcy because she wasn't getting a good response to her radio ads, and the cost was killing her. But she knew her target market was listening; she knew she needed to get her name out there to generate more business. What should she do? Owners of small businesses and professionals like yourself realize that to take your business to the next level, you need to get your products and services in front of a larger audience. You want to generate more leads, get more prospects to contact you and buy from you. Advertising is essential but how do you get more out of your advertising dollars? Have you been disappointed by your advertising campaigns? I felt the same way about my family's VCR. I paid good money for it (though probably not nearly as much as most people pay for advertising) and as far as I was concerned I could never get it to work the way I wanted it to. I spent way too much time fiddling with it and I still couldn't get it to record a TV show or a movie reliably when I was away. After a while I stopped trying to use its record function. Sound familiar? Compared to programming a VCR, creating a successful advertising campaign is simple. Note the operative word here is "successful". It's easy to put together an advertising campaign, but creating one that helps you make more than you spend should be the objective.

The following seven elements are what separate a successful advertising campaign from one that just costs you money. Elements of A Successful Advertising Campaign 1. Choose the media that will reach your target market. It sounds obvious, but make sure your target audience will see and/or hear your ad. Select a publication or radio or cable station that your target audience reads or tunes to. If you're advertising on the web, your keyword selection is critical here. 2. Write ad copy that your prospects will want to read. Your prospects' primary interest is in what your product or service will do for them, not what it actually is. Which would you be more likely to read, a headline that reads, "Accounting Services" or one that reads, "How to Avoid Overpaying Your Taxes"? 3. Have others establish your credibility. If space allows, include testimonials in your ad verifying the outstanding results your products and services generate. 4. Motivate prospects to contact you Include a limited-time offer or something for free ? a report, appraisal or bonus product ? to prompt your prospects to take action. 5. Tell prospects what you want them to do and how to do it. This is your "call to action". Tell them to call you, visit your web site, send you an email, fill in the reply card, etc.

6. Follow up your offer with the information prospects need to make a purchase. Too many people make the mistake at this point in the sales process of launching into a s.ales pitch. Whether your prospect is on the phone with you or is visiting your web site, help them clarify the problem or concern they have and detail the solution you provide. Then remind them what action you want them to take. 7. Continue to educate your prospects and clients. Stay in touch with likely prospects by contacting them at least every month. Get the conversation going by discussing a common problem. Give your prospects a quick tip they can use and, of course, mention the solutions you provide. A successful advertising campaign will include all seven of the above elements, not just one or two. When you put all these elements in place, your advertising will generate more leads and sales and you?ll see a good return on your advertising dollars. By the way, the client who came to me on the verge of bankruptcy is now back on solid financial ground. Once she understood how to write her advertising copy and manage her advertising campaigns, her radio advertising started to bring in a steady stream of new business. ©2005 In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. The author, Charlie Cook, helps small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients, whether you are marketing in print, in person or online. Sign up for the Free Marketing eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business', full of practical marketing strategies you can use to increase profits at www.MarketingForSuccess.com