The M Word
Marketing can conjure up images of insincere, smooth talking salesmen trying to get you to buy something that you don’t necessarily want to. The M word is a dirty word to many.
As a business owner you need to put this image out of your head and concentrate on the marketing that can help your business. There are many types of marketing and as a small business the one you need to think about and take ownership of is Direct Response Marketing (DRM).
Simply, this is the kind of marketing where you release your message at the beginning of the week and by close of business on Friday you are seeing the benefits in your profits. By doing this you are asking the person seeing your message to act right now.
In order for this to happen you need to include a number of key elements in your DRM campaign.
You need to include a
special offer. If you want to get someone to act straight away, then you need to give them a good incentive to do so. The offer needs to be attractive and available for a very short period of time so that they feel they will miss out if they don’t act now.
You need to include a
list of benefits. You have to remember that people are not interested in you or your company generally. They only become interested if there is something that is of benefit to them and something that is going to enrich their life by having it.
Once you have hooked them in with a special offer and a list of attractive benefits that will change their lives, you need to give them a
call to action. I see things that I think are a great idea all the time but life and work is hectic, and left to my own devices I will ‘file’ the information and find it again after the offer has ended and think, I should’ve taken advantage of that!
So you need to tell us what we need to do and when we need to do it by, clearly and simply.
It all sounds quite simple and it is, if you follow these rules then you should see an increase in sales which is what any business wants.
