Do you know what happens if you don’t use what you learn?

You lose it.

It’s gone, forgotten!

And all it takes is 21 days.

I heard this long ago.

Since then, I have proven it to myself through personal experience.

It’s easy to for­get what you have just read, listened to, or watched on a DVD or the Internet. There are many distractions in life, and it’s very easy to put things aside.

Last week, I received a quote in an e-mail that said,

“Knowledge that’s not being used is like having no knowledge at all.”

If this is true, then it is important to start using what you are learning from these and other blog posts right away.

Try one idea, and then another.

Take notes as a reminder of the ideas and concepts.

Reread these blog posts and the notes that you’ve taken while reading them until the ideas are fixed permanently in your mem­ory.

Jay Abraham, the author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got (Truman-Tally, 2000), says that he has read Scientific Advertising—a self-published book by Claude Hopkins first issued more than 50 years ago— at least 30-40 times. According to Jay, he pulls out a new nugget or different spin on an idea each time that he reads Hopkins’ book.

How much of what you told yourself you should be trying have you forgotten this week?

Sandy publishes a wide variety of tidbits about marketing and marketing plans on a frequent basis here and at: http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com

Do you re-use your print advertising and positive publicity?

Have you run newspapers and magazines ads? How about blog posts? Are there any articles that have been written about you, about your business, or about your products and services? People may be impressed when these articles and ads run the first time, but how many of them are ever seen again by the public?

Running an ad can be very expensive, so you may not be able to run an ad for an extended period of time. Articles written about your business that get printed in the media have a short shelf life. When the current issue of a publication that contains the article about you or your business is taken off the shelf, people won’t be reading your positive press anymore.  But you can re-use these items in other marketing efforts of your own.

When ads for your business (or positive articles about your business) are printed in a newspaper, Website, blog or magazine, have them copied or reprinted at a local “quick print” shop. You now have the ability to use these reprints in a lot of marketing projects.  Here are some inexpensive ways to distribute your reprints:

• Scan or save as a pdf and e-mail your ads to clients and prospects.
• Post your ads on your web site and blog or Facebook
• Mail reprinted materials along with statements and invoices.
• Include reprints with your next direct mail effort.
• Have some high school students put reprints on parked cars or on the “community posting boards” at the local library or college.

As you are making your reprints, be sure to add the caption, “as seen in (Publication Name),” under the actual ad or article. This caption will give your new marketing effort added credibility.

I ran a small ad for my book “97 Marketing Secrets to Make More Money” in the Wall Street Journal and you can bet I captioned all of my reprints and other marketing efforts with the phrase “as seen in the Wall Street Journal.”

Your advertisements can also be enlarged and displayed at your place of business. This will remind patrons about the offers in your print ads. Your advertisements may only run once in print, but they can live forever. You can reuse them for years.

The same technique can be used to extend the life of any positive articles that are written about your business in newspapers, journals, and magazines. Another great idea is to take these reprinted articles and distribute them to any of your clients and/or prospects who you feel might have missed seeing them in the original publication.

If you want to re-use or re-print an article, you may have to get permission from the author or original publisher and pay a small fee. Remember that it’s priceless when someone who isn’t connected with your business, writes positive comments about you or your business in the media. You can use these comments forever.

“This is like deja vu all over again.”
- Yogi Berra

It is wise to collect and save all the advertisements that you run, all the positive articles that are written, and all the testimonials that you receive from satisfied customers. Put these materials into a binder, and use it as a brag book. Use the material regularly in your marketing efforts, to build credibility and help people feel more confident about making a decision to do business with you.

How many old advertisements or positive press articles do you have lying around that could be reprinted and used in your future marketing efforts?

Can you name anything in life that has no limits?

I didn’t think so.

That’s exactly why all your marketing efforts should have some type of expiration date.

A limited offer will “out-pull” and “out-sell” an open-ended offer almost every time.

When you do test  a “limited offer,” you will need to explain to your client/prospect why you are making your offer “limited.” For example: “Quantities are limited. We only have 132 units in stock and the man¬ufacture is back ordered.” Or “Call today. We have sold 3 in the last two days, and we only have 7 units left.” Or “We made a special purchase and can’t offer this price again.”

People will want to know why what you are offering is limited, or they will not believe that there truly is a limitation. You need to give them this information.

“Givers have to set limits because takers rarely do.”
- Irma Kurtz

It is also very important to keep in mind that if you are mailing a limited offer you have to allow time for it to arrive. Bulk rate mailings can be delayed by bad weather. They also travel primarily by railroad and there are many factors that can cause a delay in delivery.

Sometimes it just makes more sense to mail an offer via First Class Mail – especially if the offer is time sensitive.

Keep in mind that nothing is forever, everything has a limit and you can use those limits to your selling advantage.

When your offer is known to be limited, it will force people to respond or lose the opportunity. Limits force a decision and that is the ultimate goal of any marketing effort.
What kind of limit will you set for your next offer?

How happy are you with the quantity and quality of the contacts you receive from your Web site?

Many businesses complain that their Web sites do not generate enough contacts and sales leads to justify the cost. They want a better ROI for their Web sites.

We were also getting very frustrated because our Web site was generating very little e-mail and/or phone contact information. After testing a few different web design ideas, and finally decided to insert a bright, attractive, attention getting box on each web page.

This box contained our phone number and e-mail contact information.

As a result of this change, we started to receive many more calls and e-mail leads. This simple change made it very easy for anyone to contact us, and made those who did contact us feel more secure and willing to give us their business.

How can you make your business more accessible and available to new prospects and clients to generated many new sales.

As you know form experience, people will leave your Web site if they have to put too much effort into navigating it, or if they run into trouble trying to figure out how to contact you.

When a future client needs more information from you and your contact page is buried somewhere deep in your site, then it may never be found. If this happens – and it does at many sites we all have visited – then the customer is gone, maybe forever.  The sale is essentially lost. Don’t let this happen on your Web site.

What can you do to make it very simple for visitors to your Web site to find your contact information?

7 Questions To Ask Before Writing Your Marketing Plan

Have you ever wondered how to streamline creating a marketing plan?

Can I show you 7 simple things to ask to help speed up creating your next marketing plan?

The first question to ask is, “Do I really need a marketing plan.”
You may not. If everything you are doing to bring in all the business you want, don’t change a thing. Even if you or your staff are bored with it. Let it keep profiting until it stops profiting.

Next ask, “What do I want a marketing plan to do for me and my business.”
Many marketing plans are written as part of a business plan. Also, marketing plans are written when looking for new or more funding. Most marketing plans are created as a road map, a guide to the next 12-18 months of marketing campaigns

Now, “What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?” Answer in a compelling way, why anyone would choose your products, services or ideas over all the other choices they have, including doing nothing.

Of course, you are making and “Irresistible Offer” every time you are in front of someone. Business and marketing are all about offers.  You give me this and I’ll give you that. Keep in mind that without an offer, no business transpires. Think of the many times you have seen an advertisment or marketing message and couldn’t figure out what was being offered. Don’t make this critical mistake. State exactly what you will be offering in your marketing plan.

OK, “Where is your ideal future client or customer?” Not just anyone, but who is the ideal fit for your products, services or ideas. Where can you find enough of your ideal future clients to be profitable? When you do find them, how much do you know about their hopes, aspirations, desires, fears, problems, etc? Take off your shoes and walk in your future clients shoes for a week and see, hear and feel what they see hear and feel. Then and only then, will you know their real problems.

I’m sure you’ve decided on which, if any, of the many of the different “marketing media options you’ll want to test.” Options like direct respons mailing campaigns, yellow page ads or email marketing. How about tele-marketing, newspaper display ads or Webinars? Networking, Social media marketing or pay-per-click marketing? We could go on and on and on, but you get the idea. Where are you going to spend your marketing budget?

Finally, as long as you are going after new clients, “How are you capturing their personal information?” I don’t mean their shoe size, waist size or height (but you may need them depending on what you are selling). Are you asking for their name, email address and snail mail address? If not, how will you communicate with them in the future?

Now grab a piece of paper and start answering these questions. Doing so will focus your marketing plan and anyone reading it will know exactly the what, where, when, who and how you are planning to market your business.

Ok, I admit it; there are more then 7 questions to answer.
You should have seen the ones I edited out.
I’ve saved them for another article in the near future, so keep checking back.

What to speed up the creation of your advertsing and marketing plan?

Coming in August http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com

Do you know what happens if you don’t use what you learn?

You lose it. It’s gone, forgotten!
And all it takes is 21 days.

I heard this long ago.

Since then, I have proven it to myself through personal experience.

It’s easy to forget what you have just read, listened to, or watched on a DVD or video.

There are many distractions in life, and it’s very easy to put things aside.

Last week, I received a quote in an e-mail that said, “Knowledge that’s not being used is like having no knowledge at all.”  If this is true, and IMHO it is, then it is important to start, immediately,  using what you are learning from whatever source you learn from, right away.

Try one idea, and then another.

Take notes as a reminder of the ideas and concepts.

Reread these secrets and the notes that you’ve taken while reading them until the ideas are fixed permanently in your memory.

“To make sure this goal was achieved, I created eight laws of learning; namely explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition.”
- John Wooden

One famous marketing Gooroo (I refuse use his name because he doesn’t practice what he preaches) once said that he has read Scientific Advertising—a self-published book by Claude Hopkins first issued more than 50 years ago— at least 30-40 times.

According to this Gooroo, he pulls out a new nugget or different spin on an idea each time that he reads Hopkins’ book.

How much of what you told yourself you should be trying have you forgotten this week?

Proof Will Help You Sell More Products, Services and Ideas:

Go ahead, take a few minutes today and look at every marketing message you are putting out…

Ask yourself:
Am I providing my reader, viewer and listener the proof and credibility that what I’m saying is indeed true?

How many times have you seen an ad on TV and said to yourself “Yea. Right. Sure it is?”

Let’s face it… we are all slammed with so many marketing messages a day, that we stop believing most of them.

So how do make your marketing messages more believable?

Start by take a closer look at the benefits of what you are selling.

Think about all the ways you can prove your benefits actually exist.
Ask yourself:
•    What are the strongest “Reasons Why” anyone should believe they’ll get what I promise?
•    How much more specific can I be?
•    What solid proof have I offered showing what I claim it true?
•    Have I begun to think about how I can strengthen my guarantees?
•    Is there a way to demonstrate your product/service in action?
•    Can you get a celebrity endorsement?

Answer these questions and apply these ideas to what you are selling and you are well on your way to providing the proof people need to believe your benefits will deliver.

“No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.”
-Henry David Thoreau

Quick Bonus Marketing Tip:

Thousands of marketing experts say that it costs 5 to 6 times more to win a new client than it does to retain an existing one.  What about your company? Is it true for you too?

Yet, most companies spend a small portion of their sales and marketing budget on client relationship management.

Take a moment and think about how much more profit you could generate by deepening your existing client relationships?

Rather than finding ways to get your sales people to “make 20 unqualified appointments this week,” instead, think about the easiest way to building stronger relationships.

Think about all the way you can say “Thank You.” All the ways you can show that you appreciate their business and enjoy the relationship you have.

Here are a few simple ways to get you started.
1. Send a hand written thank you card or note.
2. Drop off a small gift.
3. Bring a flower to the gatekeeper you’re trying to get past.
4. Take your client to breakfast or lunch to talk about ways to improve profits in the coming year.
5. Hold a customer appreciation party.
6. Have your CEO write a personal letter of thanks.

Now go out and give thanks. Show your appreciation.
It feels great and is sure reduces your client attrition rate.

Did you learn something today that you can use in your business or in your life?

Wherever you go and whatever you do, try to focus on learning something.

Useful information is everywhere—for example, you can find it in meetings with prospects; in attending seminars; and in reading books, magazines, and newspapers.

The information you learn can be applied in many ways.

There is something useful to be learned in every situation, even when you see or hear something with which you don’t agree.

It does you no good to be critical or angry.

These attitudes usually prevent you from learning something.

For example: A former business partner of mine complained a lot. He would go to various seminars and would get upset if the speaker didn’t cover every single item on the syllabus or covered them in a different order. I would tell him, “So what?”

“When you’re through learning, you’re through.”
- Vernon Law

To me, it was far more important to take away something useful from these seminars.

In every situation into which you are thrown, it’s important to learn all of the useful information possible.

Ask yourself constantly, “How can I use this idea or that concept to help to my clients or myself grow our businesses bigger and stronger?”

Every piece of information has the ability to lead you closer to your goal, but you have to recognize the opportunity.

Remember to write down everything that you can while you are learning. If you don’t, you risk losing the idea, and it may be gone forever.

What useful information did you learn today?

Can you ever say “Thank You” too much?

Everyone loves to know they are appreciated.

The right gift lets your clients know that their friendship and business is important to you and helps cement your relationship.

The best client gift takes your client’s personal interests into account and impresses him with your thoughtfulness and sincerity.

While giving client gifts during the holidays is popular, you’ll find that clients appreciate them any time of year.

Give your clients gifts any chance you can get. Birthdays. Holidays. Important events in their lives. They will be remembered for a long, long, long, long, long time.

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.
G.B. Stern

Be creative, A box of chocolates, a magazine subscription, Tickets to the movies.

How about a gift certificate to Starbucks, Home Depot or Office Max
But, here’s my rub about giving gift certificates to specific businesses…
why aim your client to spend their money at a business of your choice? Let them choose.

Here are a few Gift Ideas:
•    Custom made gifts
•    Gift certificates to events or services you know for sure that  they would enjoy
•    Send edible enjoyment: cookies, cakes, cheeses presented with class
•    Flowers, on Monday so they last all week or living plants that sometimes last for years
•    Books or magazine subscriptions relating to interests or hobbies

Warning: Be sure to look into the gift-giving policies of your clients’ companies before sending along your present.

Sadly, some companies have a “no gift” policy for their employees, and it could lead to an embarrassing situation if they must refuse your gift for this reason.

Now, how will you thanks your clients for their friendship and business?

What marketing efforts are your competitors using?

• Call your competitor on the telephone and pose as a prospective client.
• Talk to their sales staff
• Ask the right questions and most salespeople will tell you exactly what you want to know about their business. Many salespeople love to talk about themselves and their business. This can help you with your research.
• Collect your competitors’ brochures, ads, and sales letters.
• Record their voice messages and their radio and TV commercials.
• Visit their booths at trade shows and go to their showrooms.
• Also, check out their Web site(s).
  Most Web sites will give you a lot of information about how the company does business with its clients. The site may even provide a list of clients, which can become a great “target list” for your own sales efforts.
  While visiting the Web sites of your competitors, request more information regarding their companies and their products/services. Then, keep an accurate record about how quickly they respond.