What is the name of your business, product and services?

Your business name is usually the first image someone gets of your company and it is often imbedded in his or her mind forever.

People have a hard time separating reality from perception. If you have a bad name, then you won’t attract business; so the best option is to get a new name. A bad name never gets any better and good names are remembered forever.

One of the most important marketing decisions you can ever make is choosing the name of your business, product or service. Your name should explain or “tell a story” of exactly what your business or your product/service does.

“Have regard for your name, since it will remain for you longer than a great store of gold.”
-Ecclesiasticus

Choosing a name isn’t easy. There are so many names already in use for various businesses, products, and services that coming up with a name that is “new” can be very difficult. But remember:  your name will help determine your position in the marketplace.

Choose a name that tells prospects what the major benefits of your business are and how that can help them.
Great examples of “the perfect name” are: “Die Hard Batteries,” “Burger King,” and “Pure and Natural Soap.” These names tell a lot about the products they are selling. Select a name that is generic enough and still describes what you do. Newsweek is a fantastic name for a weekly news pub¬lication. Value City is a great name for a discount store.

It is also important to think about the future when you are deciding on a name. Choose a name that won’t become “out-of-date,” or one that would allow a competitor to come in with a better, more descriptive name and take your marketing position away.

Your name could well be the difference between success and failure in the marketplace. If you are first to the market with an unusual name like Xerox, and you offer a great product/service, then your name can be almost anything. But you can’t get away with an unusual name if you are not the first into the marketplace, and own the top position. It’s hard to build market identity with a non-descriptive name, unless you are the one who creates the market.

What does your  name Do, help or hurt your business?

Three Revealing Tips To Writing A Profitable Ad?

Are you frustrated because your ads are not getting the response you thought they deserved?

Here are three tips that are 100% guaranteed to help you improve any ad.

Tip One:
Write a powerful headline that stops your reader dead in their tracks.
Get them say to themselves. “I’ve gotta know more”

To create great headlines, run to your nearest magazine rack. Swipe and use the tested headlines from the most popular publications. Publications like: The National Enquirer, People, Sports Illustrated and Games. They have spent huge bucks testing and proving that these headline work. Headlines get the publishers magazines flying off the shelves. Use them as models to create your headlines.

Tip 2:
What do you want your future client to do AFTER you’ve convinced them that they need what you are offering?

A powerful technique is to take your reader, viewer or listener by the hand and tell them exactly what to do. Tell them to call your phone number now. Come into your shop today. Go to your website and order right now.

Put simply, people want to be lead.
They need to know exactly what to do… or,
they won’t do anything at all.

Tip 3:
Tell stories in your ad.

People are naturally curious.

Since childhood, we love hearing stories.
We also love picturing ourselves in the story.

When you use stories to tell the real reasons why you are offering what you are offering, people trust and believe you. Why? It’s human nature and you can’t fool with Mother Nature.

“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp.
The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.”
-Ursula K. LeGuin

One of the most important parts of storytelling is being totally honest.
People can smell a fake story a mile away.

Also, when you mention, in your stories a minor problem with what are selling, it keeps you honest and builds trust.

So, there you have it. With a little practice, you’ll use these three tips to improve any ad you are running anywhere. On the web, in the paper, on the radio or TV.

Imagine what would happen if you found more tips like this on this blog.
Some people will find a lot more marketing secrets, strategies and tactics here too.

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

This statement also applies to your business.

What if you have developed a marketing campaign that is working well?

What if your marketing is bringing in all kinds of sales leads and increasing sales and profits for your business?

What if you have tested and proven your list and your headlines?

What if your offers in this campaign are the best that they can be?

What if no other marketing effort that you have tried has beaten its results?

Wouldn’t it be insane to change it?

You would think so.

However, many business owners get bored with using the same marketing message over and over again.

Consequently, they change their campaign midstream.

These owners never get the full benefit of their campaign.

This, folks, is insanity.

Sometimes the reason that these business owners change their approaches is that they listen to their spouse, employees, family members, friends, clients or someone else who has gotten tired of the campaign.

As a result, the business owners changes his marketing before they should.

Whatever the reason, if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
If a marketing campaign is working, then stick with it!

A profitable marketing campaign must be allowed to run its course.

You will know when it is time to change or develop something new when your current campaign stops working.

Again, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

You can see this mistake made over and over in many businesses.

Advertising and direct-marketing efforts that are working are abandoned midstream for the “next big thing.”

Don’t waste the money, time, and effort that you have invested in creating a marketing campaign by making this same mistake in your business.

How sane are your marketing efforts?

Are You Researching Your Prospects To Improve Your Business?

Focus, focus, focus.

First and foremost, focus on the potential clients to whom you want to sell your products/services and not on what you are trying to sell.

If you know who your intended clients are and you can address them directly in the headlines and body copy of your print or broadcast promotions, then this will improve the rate of response to your marketing effort.

For example, the following headlines address a target market by talking to them very specifically: “Attention Homeowners, Do You Need Extra Cash? It May Be In Your Home!” and “The Complete Sales Program for Dentists.”

In order to target your prospects well, you need to do some initial research.

Ask your prospects exactly what they want by using direct questions, client surveys, and informal studies. You could mail a questionnaire or survey to your existing clients that asks them why they do business with you.

Use their answers to direct your marketing messages to the specific wants and needs of your prospects. Target only those prospective buyers that are most qualified to purchase your products or services.

It is important to research the type of clients that make up your market and what it is that they really want. Prospects want to know what added value your company can offer them, so you must be ready to provide the reasons why they should buy from you. Your research should enable you to do this well.

The more that you know about your clients and prospects, the easier that it is to give them more than they expect. You need to gather all of the information that you can about your prospects. In order to be able to sell something to someone, you have to know how they feel, how they think, what they fear, where they live, etc. Most importantly, you need to know WHY they want to buy what you have to offer!

Try to visualize a day in the life of your potential client.
What happens in it?
What does the person worry about?
What does s/he want?
What scares him/her?
What does s/he enjoy doing?

I could go on and on here, but you get the idea. Do your research. Ask a lot of questions. Think about and try to analyze why your clients do what they do. If you do this consistently, eventually you will begin to know why they buy from you, or why they don’t.

Start your research by asking your existing clients why they do business with you.

If you can find a way to do it, ask your former customers why they stopped doing business with you or what you could be doing to get their business back. The answers that you get can teach you an awful lot about how people perceive your business.

Hopefully, you will learn from what you hear.

Another thing that you can do is go to the local library and read the magazines and other publications to which your clients subscribe. Learn about your clients by reading what they read. If you don’t know which publications you should be studying, then ask your customers what they read. Look up articles in back issues that are posted on the Internet. Use all of the information that you can gather to sell your prospects what they already want to buy.

Why is it that your clients buy your products/services?