Gentle Rain Marketing » sales prospecting

Avoid Becoming Overwhelmed With Marketing

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:21:41 +0000

I think the biggest problem many of us face when it comes to marketing, is that we simply get overwhelmed. There just seems to be so many moving parts that it’s easy to throw up one’s hands and say, “I give up.”

While that’s understandable, the reality is that you’re probably never going to get out of the feast-or-famine business cycles, or take your business to the level you desire, without some sort of marketing system in place.

And that word “system” is key.

The beauty of having a system is that once you set it up, then you can largely let it run on autopilot. But, (you knew there was a “but” coming) that doesn’t completely address the issue of how to set up your system without getting overwhelmed. Let me try to help-and keep in mind I’m a passionate believer in “simple” vs “complex”.

The Don’t-Get-Overwhelmed-With-Marketing approach starts with a simple philosophy; “Never sell to strangers.” What I mean by this is to focus on building relationships first, and only sell to people with whom you already have a relationship. Fortunately, setting up a system to do precisely just that is straight-forward.

There are 3 components, and you need to do these in order. (Please resist the temptation to worry/focus on step 3 before you do steps 1 & 2.)

Step 1: Go to your website. Is there a great “hooky” offer of free information that is prominently advertised on the page? (And no, I’m not talking about a “sign up for our newsletter” box.) This is the crucial step #1. According to those who track such things, up to 96% of visitors who come to your site, aren’t ready to buy or contact you for more information. That means that if you don’t offer this great “hooky’ free offer, you don’t have a chance of building a relationship with people who have a small amount of interest in you. (And if you do step #2 right, you’ll convert a whole lot of these idle prospects into paying clients.)

So the first thing you need to do is create that great free offer. (Remember “HOOKY” topics-not “Here’s what we do”. There’s a big difference.)

Step 2: Create great messages that you send after people request the free offer. Nope, this isn’t a newsletter (although you can certainly supplement the personal messages with a newsletter). You want to have your drip messages have a tone of intimacy as if they are being written to a single individual (even though they may be sent out to dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people over time). This is crucial regardless of whether you’re selling b2b or b2c. Building the emotional connection is key and it’s these messages that will do just that for you.

Step 3: Now (and only after steps 1&2 are done-to beat a dead horse) focus on driving traffic to the page. There are lots and lots of options: SEO, paid advertising on google, facebook, linked in, article marketing, videos, slideshare, direct mail, speaking…the list goes on and on.

Although people tend to focus and obsess on traffic, it’s really steps 1 & 2 that are the most crucial.

Once you have this system in place (the hooky free offer and the drip marketing sequence) now you are in a position where you can put as much-or little-marketing muscle into getting people to the site. What you finally have is a SYSTEM. And guess what…?

That feeling of being overwhelmed just goes away.

Now, if you’d like some personal guidance on how to do this I’d recommend my coaching program.

Alternatively, if you’d like for us to create your hooky free offer, write all your emails, send them out, create the “eye-catching” ad for your website, well no big surprise, I can do that for you as well. Information about that is HERE.

Thanks and talk soon,
Mark

The easy way to get a waiting list of clients

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:58:01 +0000

After 20 years of advising individuals and organizations on how to attract brand new clients, I’ve become a firm believer that most people make client attraction far too difficult.

If you focus on just 2 things you can have as many new clients as your business can handle. Remember the over-arching philosophy of Gentle Rain: “Build relationships first. Sell stuff second.” Or as my Dad would say, “Never try to sell to strangers.”

OK, so here’s how you do that.

First, take a look at your website. Is there a great free offer that would motivated visitors to opt-in and get it? Here’s why you need that. According to Direct Marketing News, between 95%-98% of visitors are not ready to make a decision to buy when they come to your site. Even if you offer a “free consultation”, the number of visitors who will take you up on that is still only 3-5%.

What this means is that most people are simply bouncing off your website without leaving any record of who they are. As one might guess, it’s a bit difficult to develop a relationship with people if we can’t follow up with them.

That’s why making the offer of some sort of “hooky” free report is crucial. However, the trick is determining what’s a great “hook”, one that will get people to request it. If you get that right, then the fist part of the equation is done. (You still have to put an eye-catching opt-in box on your website, but I’ll share a link that will show you how to do that.)

This leads to the second step of the process…convert these prospects into paying clients. We do that through the automated messages that go out after the visitor has requested your free report. But, here’s the speed bump people run into.

The messages need to have a tone of intimacy to them. They need to be written so that it sounds like you’re speaking personally to the reader. This is why traditional newsletters don’t produce the conversion results you want. They’re impersonal in tone, and what we want to do is build a relationship.

Secondly, people tend to send out messages too infrequently. Once a month just isn’t enough. Think once a week. And to answer the question that pops in your mind, “If the messages have the right tone & content, you’ll engage people, not turn them off.”

Nothing I’m discussing here is complicated. If you have both the time and the writing skills, anyone can do this. However…if you would like for someone to do all this for you, the information HERE is going to be of great interest.

Talk soon
Mark
PS: Remember if you’d like for us to set up and run a totally kick-ass lead capture and drip marketing system for you, GO HERE>

How stories get you on the first page of google

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:48:09 +0000

I was talking with my friend Jeff Hopeck of Killer Shark Marketing about Google and it’s ever changing algorithm that determines which websites get on the first page.

The two main variables have historically been links and content. They’re both still important, but the emphasis is now heavily tilting towards content.

And not just any content.

Nope, unfortunately taking one article, blog post or twitter feed and just reposting it over and over again won’t get you high in the rankings. In fact it may hurt you.

If you want to get highly ranked, the focus today is on Original Content. That’s great news for those of you who are creating sales stories about the success of your clients, stories that address concerns and objections, and stories that communicate the values of your brand.

However, simply creating original content is only half the battle. I’d estimate that most everyone can write words that communicate a message. That’s not difficult. But, the reality is that it’s also not enough.

If you’re in this game to win, you need stories that persuade and engage. That’s the key to not only getting your site on the first page of Google, but also how to motivate people to take action. When you accomplish that, then you’ve got a stealth marketing system that gets you both visibility and high conversion percentages.

Content is King.

Speaking of which, I’m opening the doors for an intimate seminar I’ll be conducting here in Atlanta in May. The goal of it is to work with a small number of you on crafting your “Million Dollar Stories”. If that sounds like something that might be of interest there’s some information HERE.

Maybe I’ll see you in Atlanta next month. That would be fun.

Talk soon
Mark

Differentiating yourself

admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:54:54 +0000

You can play it “too safe” when developing your marketing story. Here’s what I mean. Instead of looking at the competition and then doing something different, what is the typical reaction? They look at the competition’s site and largely copy the message. In marketing circles this is what is often referred to as “the mad rush to the middle.” It’s one of the prime reasons businesses have difficulty differentiating themselves from the competition.

Learning vs Doing

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:54:47 +0000

For those who pay attention to such things, the season is upon us when selling coaching and mastermind programs is in full swing. There’s certainly no shortage of choices. In fact I’m wrapping up the program I joined last year, and it’s been a great investment of money and time. I attribute getting my book to #1 on Amazon in its category directly to what I learned.

However, I noticed that less than half of the participants from the first meeting, attended the second one. I’m sure there will be still fewer at the final session. I also notice that on the monthly conference calls, the comments are more about enthusiastic plans for the future, rather than what anyone has actually accomplished.

Which brings me to my point. I call it the “bright shiny object” syndrome.

Hey, it’s fun to learn new stuff-I’ll be the first to admit that. Especially when the “stuff” may contain the secret sauce that once we learn it all our problems will go away.

But, at some point in time we need to shift our focus from Learning stuff to Doing stuff. And that’s hard, for a lot of reasons.

*It requires that we actually do some work, rather than passively digesting information.

*In means engaging in that annoying mental heavy lifting, to determine how to actually implement the plan.

*It requires a willingness to take a certain amount of risk.

Yes, it’s far easier just to be a student. But, as my Dad used to say, “If you want to get hit by cars, you need to go play in traffic.”

Perhaps we need to spend less time learning new stuff and spend more time implementing what we’ve already learned.

Food for thought.
Mark
A Different Type of Coaching For Those Who Play In Traffic

Ripped From Today’s Headlines

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:18:21 +0000

Did you hear the news?

How do we get the people…the ones we desperately yearn to do business with… to STOP for a second and pay attention to us? Here’s an idea.

Piggyback on what’s in the news for your own attention-getting purposes. Like this…

If you’ve picked up a copy of USA Today anytime in the last couple of years, you’ve undoubtedly seen ads run by Bill Bartmann for his free books on the Debt-Collection business. Bartmann’s a, shall we say, colorful character, but you can’t fault his marketing prowess. In fact his approach is applicable for anyone who wants to attract a large congregation of followers. There are a lot of steps to what he’s doing, but today, let’s take a closer look at how he’s getting attention.

Now, keep in mind that he’s been pitching this business opportunity for a number of years. You’d think his market would be getting pretty fatigued with his message, and you’d be right, IF Bartmann didn’t do such a good job of changing it up.

The strategy he’s currently using is to take a headline from the news and aligning it with his message. For example, “Bullying” has been getting a lot of press lately. Petitions are being signed, celebrities recruited, numerous articles written to eradicate bullies from existence.

Do you know who one of the biggest bullies is? Why, it’s the debt collection business.

I can see you nodding your head.

And Bill Bartmann knows your nodding your head. So he’s written a book you can get for free about the Bullying Tactics of the Debt Collection Industry. Not surprisingly, that will put you into his automated drip-marketing system, and eventually some of you may decide to sign up for his program.

That’s the key for effective lead-generation marketing. Get them to nod their heads in agreement by linking your message to what’s appearing in the news.

So let’s look at what’s in USA Today and how you might link it.

***“Facebook is tracking you.” Is there a privacy issue you can link to around your product or service?

***“Congress filled with the wealthy 1%.” Good jumping off point about people not being in touch with real problems. Conversely could be a lead-in to a pitch about how by using such-and-such financial system, people have the financial capability to devote themselves to public service.

***”Economy tanks so fewer people moving.” Leads to any of a number of pitches for “buy local’ businesses, or…invest in sunbelt property in anticipation of pent up demand once the economy does rebound.

What news story can you piggyback on?

Food for thought.

One-Day. That’s all it takes. Have Mark facilitate a Marketing Development & Implementation Day at your location. Email barb@gentlerainmarketing.com or call 770-643-8566 to discuss specifics.

A Quick Story

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:26:15 +0000

Let me tell you a quick story. Maybe it will help you persuade more people to do business with you.

The story is about a guy named Mort. You probably know someone like him. Mid 50’s. Always has that slightly disheveled look. Slouched over bloke-hasn’t stood up completely straight since Clinton was in office. You know the guy. He happens to be in finance, but that’s not important.

Despite all of his best efforts, Mort just couldn’t tell an interesting story to save his life. Sometimes the stories rambled. Sometimes they made no sense what-so-ever. Sometimes-and this was the key culprit-the stories were as boring as a zealot proselytizing about global warming.

The biggest problem with Mort’s stories was that we just weren’t interested.

*He’d talk about a client who was worried that retirement meant a lower standard of living…So what?

*He’d go on about a couple who were scared to death about outliving their retirement…Big deal.

*He’d blather on about some poor schnook who was afraid he wouldn’t be able to afford medical care…b-o-r-i-in-g.

Now here’s the thing…the problem with Mort’s stories are not the issues these people face. Those are real, and lots of people are worried about them.

The problem is, we don’t care about the people in Mort’s stories.

And that’s an important point if you want to tell good stories. Your audience needs to be a bit emotionally invested in what happens to the characters.

So how do we create good characters? One of the easiest ways is by fleshing them out before starting to talk about the problems they face.

Here’s how.

When I told you the story about Mort, wasn’t it easy for you to picture him in your mind? Why was that?

First, I gave him an interesting name. Sometimes a name-like Mort-conjures up an image of a certain type of person. (Which is why you don’t run across too many suave debonair super-spies named Tristen.)

Second, I gave you some quick physical characteristics about Mort. I only used 20 words to describe him, but those were 20 important words.

If you’re going to care about my story, you first have to care about my characters. That’s why before you tell your story, think about how you’re going to describe the characters to your audience. Unfortunately we often don’t pay attention to that, and as a result, tell stories like Mort.

Good food for thought
Mark
Learn more about how to engage your audience by telling great stories in my latest book, Unique Sales Stories. Now available on Kindle and in traditional old-school paperback. Get it at Amazon HERE

How To Get Your Messages Heard

admin — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:07:04 +0000

Let’s face it, the world is noisy. Lots of people trying to get the attention of the prospects that you want. Lots of noise.

So why does one message get heard and others ignored? Here’s a thought that I think will be helpful.

There’s an old saying in marketing that you want to enter the conversation that’s already going on in your prospect’s head.

The trick to doing this is that we really have to know our prospect-what their hopes, fears, dreams and ambitions are. Even though we may be sending our message out to hundreds or even thousands, we want the tone and content to be the same as if we were intimately writing to a single individual.

Thus, the more we can put ourselves in the proverbial shoes of our prospect, the more effective we’ll be at writing these types of messages. Here’s an exercise that I found helpful and I thought I’d pass along to you.

Take the time to give the following question some good thinking…from the perspective of your ideal client.

• John (or Jane) is my ideal prospect. He/She is __years old. His/Her three biggest frustrations are ___, ___ and ___. He/She is afraid of ___. Sometimes he/she even wakes up in the middle of the night worrying about___.

• If he/she could snap his fingers and make three specific outcomes happen immediately, he/she would want the following three things to happen:

• His/Her biggest concern about hiring an advisor to solve this problem is ___.

• When he goes to the Internet to find a solution to this problem, he’ll usually enter keywords into Google such as ___, ___, and ___.

• If he is going to do business with me, he needs to believe 1___, 2___, and 3___.

• The myth he believes (which I will shatter) is ___.

• The biggest reasons he would not buy from me would probably be 1___, 2___, and 3___.

• Right now he gets most of information about my topic from centers of influence such as 1___, 2___, and 3___.

• In trying to solve his problem, he’s not able to___.

• The perfect way to help him overcome his biggest frustration would be to ______.

Taking the time to answer these questions will enable you to write your messages with an intimate voice that will greatly increase the likelihood that they’ll be read.

Good food for thought

Need a guest for your next webinar, teleconference or event? My presentations are always content rich and tailored to your particular niche. Learn more HERE

Marketing With Information

admin — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:30:12 +0000

Suppose with just a one hour-long effort you could…

*Create a kick-ass free offer that would get prospective clients interested in what you do. And…

*Provide the content for the squeeze page that promotes it. And…

*Create a great video that you could sell for $595? And…

*Create a MP3 audio you could add to the video package and raise the price to $695? And…

*Create a content-rich booklet, you could add to the video and audio package and now price your information product at $795.

Or…you could just give everything away for free and have a monstrously effective lead generation machine.

All with about an hour’s worth of work.

Here’s how.

Rent a room somewhere. Might be at a hotel, or even better, at one of those office suites that are in virtually every city.

Invite some clients or prospective clients to come to hear you speak about your topic. (Maybe you charge/Maybe you don’t.) Try to get at least a dozen people.

Video tape the presentation. (Personally, I’d spend a few bucks to get it done professionally. It doesn’t cost a lot of money.)

Edit down the raw footage. If you use a Mac you can do it yourself using iMovie. I’m sure there’s a comparable program for those still using PCs. This becomes the video component of your information product.

When you do your presentation start off with an overview of what you’re going to be covering. This is the segment that you use on your squeeze page to promote the program.

Pay some kid a few bucks to strip out the audio portion of the video which you can then offer as a separate bonus. A lot of people like to listen to content rather than watch video, so it’s nice option to offer.

Pay a few more bucks to get the audio transcribed and now you’ve got a nice content-rich booklet to offer along with the video and audio.

If you don’t want to create an information product to sell, then just use the video of you doing the introduction as a hook to a free mini-course that offers segments from the rest of the video you shot.

If you line your ducks up in a row, this can basically be done over a weekend. I did a version of this when I created my Gentle Rain Blueprint program. You can see the final result here.

Food for thought
Mark
This free mini-course teaches you how to write a great sales letter.

Facebook For The Affluent?

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:32:10 +0000

Social media has found a new resource for those targeting the ultra-affluent, and ten nationally ranked firms, catering to the wealthy, have jumped on board.

Equilar Atlas contains profiles of about 250,000 chief executive officers, board members and executive directors at almost 5,000 public companies and 5,000 nonprofits.

Similar to LinkedIn, once your contact information is loaded into the system, you’re provided with an extended graph that illustrates how you’re connected to this very exclusive network of individuals.

But, it’s not an inexpensive network to join. The cost is $10,000 annually for unlimited access to the database for the first three users and $2,400 for each additional person.

Is it worth the investment?

Since people marketing services to the affluent already know who the wealthiest CEOs are, the database may be most helpful in revealing names and compensation for CEOs of smaller public companies that may be below the radar.

What has been your experience with using social networks for developing relationships with the affluent? Tangible results or is it just more hype than substance?

Private Consultations For Those Seeking To Implement A Client Attraction System

What’s really working for marketing to the affluent? Invite author and marketing strategist Mark Satterfield to speak at your next conference. Email Barb@GentleRainMarketing.com for details.