11 Powerful Marketing Tips

Each of these 11 marketing tips is based on a marketing strategy or tactic proven to boost sales. How many are you using?

Tip 1: Your customers buy your product or service to feel a certain way after their purchase. Keep this in mind as you develop your ads, web pages and other sales tools. Use vivid word pictures to dramatize the pleasant feelings your customers experience when they use what you are selling. It intensifies their desire to have it and motivates them to buy now.

Tip 2: Continually test new advertising and marketing methods ...and old methods you never tried before. A good guideline to follow is to allocate 80 percent of your budget to proven promotions and 20 percent to testing new things. Most businesses using this formula keep growing regardless of changing market conditions and intense competition.

Tip 3: Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. Don't be surprised if your short ads generate a higher response than long ads - giving you a bigger return for your expense. One of the most effective ads I ever used was only 11 words.

Tip 4: Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. People read postcards when the message is brief. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your web site and generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

Tip 5: Active, stimulating words and phrases keep prospects interested in reading your sales copy. Look for dull passive words and phrases and replace them with active ones. For example, change a phrase like "...it's practical and inexpensive" to "...it's fast, easy and you save $99".

Tip 6: After telling prospects what they gain when they buy your product or service, tell them what they lose if they do not buy it. Most people fear loss more than they desire gain. Customers want your product or service so they can enjoy the benefits it provides. But they will want it even more if you remind them of what they lose by not buying it.

Tip 7: You can eliminate any last minute hesitation prospective customers may have by announcing a pleasant surprise near the end of every selling procedure. For example, add an unexpected bonus to each transaction immediately before the final action that completes the sale.

Tip 8: You can boost your total sales volume and your average size sale at the same time by combining 2 or more related products or services into a Special Combination Package. Set the price lower than the cost of buying each item separately. This "special deal" will motivate both procrastinators and bargain hunters to buy now.

Tip 9: You always need to find new customers. But don't overlook the sales you can easily get from your existing customers. It's easier to get more business from them than it is to get any business from new prospects. Follow up with your existing customers to get more sales of the same product or to offer them additional products and services.

Tip 10: How would you react if you got a personal "thank you" from a business several days after you spent money with them? You'd feel good and probably want to do more business with them. Give that same feeling to your customers. They will reward you with more business - and a flood of referrals.

Tip 11: Convert your customers into publicity agents. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them can produce sales you would never get with any amount of advertising.

How many of these 11 marketing tactics are you using? How many have you overlooked? You are losing sales if you don't use all of them.

Copyright 2004 Bob Leduc

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV


Adapting Blog Technologies To Corporate E-Newsletters

Every January, trade publications put out a list... Read More

Flesh Eating Spiders And Other Marketing Horrors

After a friend was bitten by a spider, I decided... Read More

10 Awesome Ways To Attract More Orders

1. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic... Read More

10 Beer Budget Event Marketing Tips

Are you planning an event or participating in a trade... Read More

10 Effective Ice Breaking Questions

Whether you go to a Chamber of Commerce event, a... Read More

10 Elements Every Direct Mail Piece Should Have

Don't want your direct mail to end up in the... Read More

10 Essential Criteria For Choosing Your Target Market

A specific group of people you will focus on selling... Read More

10 Important Marketing Tips

Each of the following Ten Marketing Tips is based on... Read More

10 Important Steps to Mail Order Success

There are a number of difficulties a beginning entrepreneur may... Read More

10 Packaging Tips That Will Make Consumers Buy Your Product

The customer is king/queen. We have all heard this mantra.... Read More

10 Powerful Marketing Tips

1. Print your best small ad on a postcard and... Read More

10 Proven Ways To Accelerate Your Profits

1. Make copies of your web site in many different... Read More

10 Reasons Why Businesses Fail at Marketing.

1) They don't fully understand it.Perception: Marketing is advertising. Reality:... Read More

10 Simple Ways to Boost Your Sales IMMIDIATELY!

Alright you've got yourself a nice website with a great... Read More

10 Start Up Marketing Tips

This list has been compiled as a result of years... Read More

10 Steps to a Great Newsletter

A newsletter can be a wonderful, economical way to communicate... Read More

10 Steps To Getting Paid For Your Marketing Materials

How many times have you heard the same sound bites... Read More

10 steps to promote your business

1) Word of mouth is the most cost-effective, powerful form... Read More

10 Surefire Ways to Add Sizzle to Your Brochures

Businesses rely on brochures as their front line in communicating... Read More

10 Tips For Packaging That Sells Products To Boomers

Boomers are a prime and growing target audience. Does your... Read More

10 Tips to Grow Your Business Plain & Simple

"Try not to become a man of success but rather... Read More

10 Ways to Get Your Flyers Noticed

An inexpensive way to promote your services is to createvarious... Read More

11 Powerful Marketing Tips

Each of these 11 marketing tips is based on a... Read More

11 Rock Solid Techniques For Generating Product Ideas Anytime Anywhere!

Whatever business you are in, either online or offline, you've... Read More

11 Ways to Turnaround a Cash-Strapped Business or Practice

This past weekend I received a disturbing message from a... Read More

12 Lessons I Picked Up from Attending Seminars

So you just dropped a tidy sum to attend a... Read More

13 Lessons in Marketing, Super Bowl Style

Each year, the Super Bowl provides marketers opportunity to study... Read More

15 Commandments Of Creating A Wealth Pulling Niche

Niches are like bathrooms; you never notice them until you... Read More

15 Ways to Promote eLearning Programs

Pre-note: In this article, teleclass is an example used to... Read More

15-Minute Marketing: Lots of Results in Little Time

Do you think you don't have enough time to market?... Read More

19 Ways To Attract Higher Paying Clients

Some people have little difficulty attracting and maintaining clients who... Read More

2 Great, Free Techniques to Get Customers to Come to You, Not the Other Way Around

Here is a powerful tip on how to substantially increase... Read More

2 Little Words That Work Marketing Magic

In his classic best-seller, "How To Win Friends And Influence... Read More