The Marketing Multipliers Manifesto

What can 300 dead Spartans teach you about marketing?

Plenty.

In 480 B.C., those 300 Spartans battled more than 150,000 Persians at Thermopylae.

The Spartans held off a force 500 times their number for two days. Only after a traitor revealed a path that let the Persians surround them were the Spartans defeated.

How did they do it?

Thermopylae, where the Spartans set up their defense, was a narrow coastal pass. A bottle neck. Which forced the Persians to squeeze in and fight in small groups. Which made the Persians’ numbers irrelevant.

The Spartans used the land as a force multiplier, defined as anything added to a fighting force that delivers a bigger result from the same effort. Other examples of force multipliers include training, morale, and weapons.

This manifesto is your introduction to Marketing Multipliers, defined as anything added to your marketing that delivers a bigger result from the same effort.

Marketing Multipliers are often small, trivial changes. Yet, they can deliver very big results ... while making your competitors irrelevant.

Since 1998, I've helped clients large and small do more with less in their marketing.

Here are 3 simple, practical lessons I've learned.

[NOTE: Don't forget to grab a free PDF of The Marketing Multipliers Manifesto at the end of this post.]

1) Get Real to Really Sell

Do you sell a service? This is especially important to you.

Because selling a service is tough.

Unlike a product, people have no idea what your service is like until after they give you money. So ... you're selling a promise. You're selling the invisible.

And THAT is a tough sale.

So try this: Get real.

By that I mean put something real and tangible into the hands of your prospects. The sooner you do, the sooner you build trust. And the sooner they buy.

Example: GoToWebinar sells an online service -- webinars. They've got loads of competition. Yet, I've been a loyal customer for nearly 6 years now. One reason? Kristen, my account rep, mailed me this thank-you note after I signed up for a trial account in 2010 ...

Instantly, an intangible service became real to me. I trusted GoToWebinar more. I converted to a paid account. And I've given them hundreds of dollars since.

• Cost: $1 for a thank-you note + stamp
• Revenue for GoToWebinar: $1,500 and counting
• ROI: 149,900%

2) Speak the Language of Your Market

This lets you crawl inside the mind of your prospect and use their thoughts to make them buy.

Don't worry. This is 100% ethical, legal, and simple.

Here's all you do: Pull language from book reviews on Amazon.

You see, no matter what business you're in, there are books about it on Amazon. Find those books, read the reviews, then use the wording in your marketing.

These book reviews are valuable because they are written by people who paid money to learn about what you sell.

Here's an example ...

In your marketing, you can use that language for headlines, desires to emphasize, or objections to overcome (among other things).

I did this for one client who sells a real estate service -- highly intangible and very high trust. We peppered his postcards and sales letters with the words I found in Amazon book reviews ...

... and at last count, he's brought in more than $840,000 while doing transactions entirely by phone and fax.

• Cost: $0 to read Amazon book reviews
• Revenue for my client: $840,000
• ROI: Infinite, but for argument's sake: 84,000,000%

3) Never Send Another Price Quote

If you sell a service, you almost certainly deliver price quotes or proposals to prospects.

Stop doing that. Now.

Here's why: When you submit a "Price Quote," "Proposal," or "Bid," you're using commodity language. Which brands you as ... a commodity. And how do people buy commodities? Based on price.

Instead, stop call your price quotes by that name. Call them something -- anything -- else.

Examples: Game Plan, Profit Blueprint, Project Summary, etc.

Take a look at the first few sentence of the Project Outline I send to prospects ...

Think: If a prospect is holding two price quotes from your competitors, and one "Project Summary" from you, guess who defies comparison and avoids questions of price?

• Cost: $0 to name your price quotes something else
• Revenue for you: How much is one new client worth over their buying lifetime? Fill in the blank: $____________
• ROI: Infinite

Now before you go, do this: Download your free PDF of the Marketing Multipliers Manifesto to print and refer to later.