Archive for January, 2009

By Seth Godin

Shared by Steve
John Assaraf’s blog is pretty nifty stuff. Here’s a post I came across of his that’s very timely.

There’s just a never ending blitz of data coming at business owners daily about ONLINE MARKETING – especially about SEO [Search Engine Optimization] tactics.

This was just a refreshing piece that I enjoyed, and illustrates one of the benefits of using a tool like the Ultimate Referral Marketing System.  Online technology for Offline Relationship marketing.

The Business Insights Blog from OneCoach – 14th Edition

The world of the Web is truly amazing, but let’s not forget about the offline world.

It’s easy to get sucked into Web traffic solutions and search engine optimization, but there’s still a massive audience, if not bigger, who’s not on the Web, with deep pockets, who might want your product. Don’t cut yourself off from that offline world, because it holds opportunities to enlarge your power and extend your reach.

Direct mail is still possibly the most powerful and persuasive way of doing business no matter who you are. The most obvious obstacle with direct mail is the cost. But if you implement a piece that really penetrates your market, then the results can be very lucrative. In order to create that stellar piece, you’ve got to conduct testing to find out which one of your sales letters is actually going to work. Because of the potential high cost for such a campaign, you must test before you dive in.

In addition, your direct mail piece doesn’t need to be a postal-size Rembrandt – you don’t need stunning imagery or a big sales letter or brochure. A simple postcard can be very effective; it gets read by everyone including the mail person delivering it. A specific type of postcard marketing involves a two-step approach by putting a teaser on the card which is answered on your Web site (getting your message out there and increasing site traffic).

With this two-step approach, you can ask a question that the recipient can only answer by visiting your Web site or going to your directed resource. This is an example of hypnotic marketing. It’s also the perfect situation for presenting a hook to get them to visit and read your longer sales copy.

You may want to do a little market research to find out the average number of direct mail pieces that people receive in your target area. Some regions are so flooded with direct mail that people aren’t even scanning or glancing at these piles but sending them directly to the trash. When you really need to stretch your marketing bucks, it’s smart to look at areas of low competition first. This is also an opportunity to take on college marketing interns to personally deliver your direct mail pieces right into the hands of your ideal clients, such as managers versus administrative assistants.

All in all, you can look at your marketing campaign as a fishing boat. Each marketing element – newsletters, news releases, radio spots – can be considered a line in the water. And with every additional line in the water, you increase your chances of catching a big one.
Next in this series: How much time to spend on marketing.

This post is the sixth in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with copywriter Joe Vitale, author of The Attractor Factor and Life Missing Instruction Manual, The Guidebook You Didn’t Get at Birth. For more information about Joe Vitale, visit his site atwww.mrfire.com.

Shared by Steve
Hi everyone … another interesting FEED post by Seth Godin. I wanted to share this short note with you because – like he points out, I’ve lost a favorite little store or vendor I really liked.

Now I miss them a great deal. What did I do to spread the word about them? Rarely anything. Shame on me.

Imagine if ALL you clients somehow got the point that “My Agent – who has been there for me since I was on my parent auto policy, or since I was the beneficiary of my Father’s Will etc … and they might not be there next year.”

So as creative Referral Marketers, how do we utilize what we’re going to read below to gently inform our clientele of this, and spin a marketing opportunity out of the concept?

What if we were to more frequently add P.S. messages or closing sentences to correspondence with something like … “It is through your generous referrals and trust that our business thrives through the most challenging of times.

Please don’t keep Us/Me a Secret …

We appreciate the trust, confidence and loyalty you’ve shown our firm over the years. We will strive to continually earn and keep it, and that of the friends, family and associates your refer to us!”

A little wordy … and a bit over the top – but it was for emphasis and idea. You get the point.

I like to put a little something heart felt and impactful from time to into to some of the drip campaigns I’m using with the Ultimate Referral System.

Enjoy …

IWantSandyis folding, as are a number of web companies. So is that restaurant you loved down the street. Users are outraged. Outraged!

When you find a service or establishment or product that gives you joy, it’s tempting to keep it to yourself. Perhaps it’s uncomfortable to recommend it to a friend (after all, you might seem silly) and even more uncomfortable to recommend it to a stranger (after all, you might seem like a shill).

Plenty of people hesitate before spreading the word about a political candidate or a business or amedical device. We’re worried that we’ll look silly, or that the place will end up being too crowded and now we won’t be able to get in. Or perhaps we’re concerned about losing our uniqueness…

Anyway, the outcry that accompanies the closing of one of these businesses should be enough to remind you that your hesitation has a cost.

It’s simple, I think. In a world where consumers have so much power, we now have two responsibilities:

• If you don’t like what an organization stands for, work actively to spread the word and force them to change

and

• If you will miss a product, a service, a book, a site or a professional when they close up shop, stand up, speak up and bring them masses of new business.

We get what we promote.

Venture Beat:

Everyone loves talking about Twitter’s business model — because there isn’t one yet, and they’ll keep talking about it until there is one.

But it’s becoming more clear that while a business model is of course important, Twitter is perhaps the perfect example of a company that can afford to take its time in finding the one that is perfect for it.

That’s because other businesses are building so much on top of the micro-messaging service and using it for their own services.

Less altruistically, some businesses have discovered that Twitter is an effective way of communicating with consumers.

Dell says Twitter has produced $1 million in revenue over the past year and a half through sale alerts. People who sign up to follow Dell on Twitter receive messages when discounted products are available the company’s Home Outlet Store. They can click over to purchase the product or forward the information to others.

Photo byTwitter.

One of the tools that took Facebook into the stratosphere … virology, appears to be at play here for Twitter, users, followers, tweets .. whatever

Word of Mouth Viral marketing circa 2008 … Tweet Tweet!

Check out the last sentence of this interesting blog post. Then, checkout how you can use it similar web 2.0 technology on your site[s] …

Go Viral Young Broker, Go Viral <– click and check out how these guys create a Viral Tidal Wave …

Enjoy,

Yes, I know I’m way late to the blog party that is 2008 – LOL … but I’m trying to get up to speed here.  I’ve burned my first feed over at Feedburner  DOT com for The Insurance Referral Marketing blog and subscribed myself via email.  You might try it out as well, upper right hand corner of the Home Page of this site.

Apparently what this technology [Feedburner] does, is allow you blog posts to be rapidly syndicated through a fantastic sounding system – via email or through various FREE readers like Google Reader.  It gets pumped out all over the globe as a FEED people can subscribe to.

This TECH sounds like a great way to get clients and prospects on a “list”,  not to bury them with marketing junk per se, but to be able to easily, and cost effectively blast out a message of value … like say an update to the CA Ins Commissioners WC Rate filing approvals?  Or some tips on safeguarding your home for the rainy season – Drains and Raingutters – and a local cleaning service providers link   News about a new Identity Theft Scam that’s going around – or similar value added message.

Looking forward to see how this feed comes through the system.

To a successful 2009,

Steve