Marketing Myopia: Do You Make This Mistake?

Here's a question I get asked a lot: "What common mistakes do you see business owners make in their marketing?"

Well, look. I don't know everything about marketing, or even most things.

But I can see things differently by looking at someone's business from the outside.

And the #1 marketing mistake I see is this: Taking short-term, tactical actions without a long-term, strategic plan.

It's a fact: Most business owners don't plan their marketing more than a day or two in advance. They have no weekly, monthly, or annual plans -- nothing.

Of course, no marketing plan ever survives first contact with the customer. The landscape changes every day and your plan should be flexible and allow for changes.

But the act of planning your marketing gives you clarity and power. And unless you base your plan on answers to questions like these:

• Who are my ideal clients? 
• Where are they?
• How can I reach them cost-effectively?
• How much money can I invest in tactics to "buy" them?
• When will I deploy those tactics? 

... you're at the mercy of anyone who tries to sell you a bright, shiny marketing object.

Example: I was talking to a very smart guy last week. He's in charge of marketing for a $10-million business. He asked me, "A magazine called me up and wants me to be in their next issue, about the 10 most influential marketing officers in America. It costs $5,000 for a feature article."

I asked, "Did you plan on spending five grand for print publicity?"

"No," he said. "But it sounded like a good idea when they called me."

It was not a good idea, by the way. We talked it over. I raised several red flags and saved him $5,000.

But that kind of thing happens every day. You might call it marketing myopia. Or simply a failure to plan.

Whatever you call it, know this: If you don't have a plan for your marketing, someone else does.

You might as well plan strategically, which simply means writing down your marketing calendar and budgets in advance. Otherwise, you are easy prey for someone else's plan. And you may be parted from your money, with little or nothing to show for it.

One more thing: If you own a business in the U.S., there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now.

Marketing Multipliers Success Story: Vance Morris

Vance Morris is a smart guy.

A former executive and trainer at Walt Disney World, he owns three businesses in Maryland and has clients around the world.

Vance also speaks at trade shows, conventions, and events around America.

Last year, he was awarded Marketer of The Year by Glazer Kennedy Insider Circle (GKIC), whose members are some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs (I'm member #750, dating back 18 years).

So I was pleasantly blown away when Vance sent me this video explaining how just one of the tools in my Marketing Multipliers program put an extra $5,000 in his bank account.

Take a look ...

 ... then, if you own a business and you want to grow faster, try Marketing Multipliers FREE.

Money Back Guarantees: How to Grow Your Business Faster

Want to grow your business?

Guarantee your work ...




Money-back guarantees are not new or high tech. Maybe that’s why they’re over-looked or under-used by most entrepreneurs.

But they’ve made millions for successful mail-order companies, like L.L. Bean and Land’s End.

And guarantees were key to the early success of FedEx, Amazon, and Zappos, to name a few.

If your clients are mostly satisfied now, there’s nothing to worry about. By offering a risk-free guarantee, you’ll simply call more attention to the quality you already have. Make the strongest promise you can comfortably live up to, and feature it prominently in all your marketing materials -- your Web site, advertisements, letterhead, business cards, on your telephone hold message, etc.

Of course, if you offer a guarantee, some people will take advantage of you. But if you double your sales with a guarantee, will you really care?

Besides ... you already have a guarantee. Here's why: If an unhappy client calls with a problem, you will fix it, replace it or refund part (or all) of their purchase. Otherwise, they will tell the world, starting with their friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter ... not to mention Yelp and GooglePlus reviews.

In short, you can NOT afford even one unhappy client if you want to stay in business. Refunding a disgruntled client today is a bargain in the long run.

So, here's what I suggest: Make your guarantee a focal point in your marketing efforts.

Boldly spread the word that you have no unhappy clients. Because unhappy clients get their money back. To the extent that you do this, you’ll enjoy a competitive edge. Your courage will pay you back with more new clients, sales, and profits.


Now get a box of 11 tools to build your business, delivered FREE by U.S. Mail. Try Marketing Multipliers Here

How to Finish 2015 Strong and Leap Into 2016

Today is the first day of December.

It's a perfect time to look back on 2015 ... and forward to 2016.

As a reader of mine, I'd like to help you do that -- with 3 questions I ask when analyzing the past and planning the future.

Here they are:

1) What's working?
Do more of that.

2) What's not working?
Fix or stop doing that.

3) What's next?
Invest more time and money in what's working, and less in what's not.

If you want to finish 2015 strong and get a jump start on 2016, let these 3 questions be your guide.

And the best time to start is NOW.

One more thing: I just created a new Cheat Sheet that reveals 4 ways to "force" Amazon to build your business, at no cost. Click To Download Now

Your Marketing: Sad Charade or Moving Parade?

Want more clients?

Here's an idea: Do more marketing that works.

And avoid the sad charade of flitting from one tactic to another.

You can do it in 5 simple steps:

1) Look through your database -- Infusionsoft, Salesforce, Excel spreadsheet, whatever -- and find the names of your last 10 clients.

2) Now, ask yourself: "What worked in my marketing? What did I say or do that caused them to buy?"

3) Write down the answer for all 10 clients. Examples: Called after I got their name by referral ... mailed them a Client Reactivation Letter ... sent them Email #3 in my series of 10 ... etc.

4) Then, ask yourself: "In my marketing today, am I doing what works?"

5) Oooops. In almost every case, you're NOT doing something today that brought new clients before. You simply forgot or got bored with it.

Example: You mailed an article to a prospect 3 months ago that caused them to call and buy ... but you haven't mailed that article since.

Let me repeat: In almost EVERY case, you've stopped doing marketing that works. Because you forgot or got bored with it.

Solution: Pick one marketing tactic that worked before but you haven't done since and do it TODAY, or at least schedule it. Then add it to your processes so you don't forget it again.

What's the moral of the story?

As advertising demi-god David Ogilvy wrote, "You aren't advertising to a standing army, you are advertising to a moving parade."

What's old to you is new to prospects who are parading past your business. If something works in your marketing, keep doing it until your prospects tell you otherwise.

When you understand this, you realize that you're probably sitting on a pile of latent revenue in your business. To tap that revenue, all you have to do today is more of the marketing that worked before.

One more thing: If you found this idea helpful, I've got a box of 11 marketing tools I'd like to ship you. You can try them free, but only if you hurry -- learn more at www.MarketingMultipliers.com

The Flexible Flyer: Advertising Staple for Any Business

Every member in my Marketing Multipliers program gets a monthly critique from me of any one piece of advertising they've created.

Because having another set of expert eyes on your marketing projects can only help you do better.

The flyer below was submitted by one member.

How would you improve it?

Here's what I suggested to him ...

The main area to improve here is this: CLARITY.

Example: the headline is a bit hard to read because it's printed on that curvy ribbon.

Dump the opening doggerel about "Halloween is past," etc. That's just clearing your throat and it gets in the way of the sales message.

If this is a sale, what are the savings? That's nowhere to be found. If the $2.70 price is less than usual, do the math and tell me how much I'm saving by ordering 200 cards.

Very important: there is no clear call to action. Do you want me to call you or visit a website? Both? That should be down below right above the deadline. Make it clear and bold it.

There's a good offer in there somewhere. With a bit of refinement and a lot more clarity, you can unlock the selling power of this flyer.

Once improved, I would use this promotion in all possible media: email, direct mail, web site, Facebook, taped in the windows of neighboring businesses ... and inserted into ALL mail and orders leaving your shop. You can even add it to the hold message on your phone ("Ask about our annual Christmas card special, going on now.")


Bottom line: A flyer, done right, is an advertising staple for any business. It's a little thing that can deliver big profits for you. That makes it a Marketing Multplier.

If you're an entrepreneur and you want to grow, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting for you now. You can try them Free -- click here.

My Free Delta Upgrade

I got a free upgrade today on Delta flight 2009 from Minneapolis to Denver.

Now, when you think "Delta" you don't normally think "free upgrade" in the same sentence ... or even the same day.

But I did indeed receive a free upgrade today, courtesy of the captain.

Can you guess what it was?

First, here's what the captain did after the doors closed. He walked out of the cockpit, took the microphone from the flight attendant, and said the following:

• "Hello, I'm Captain David Rausch. I don't want to bug you later so here are all the announcements now. Do I have your attention? (Us: Silence.) Do I have your attention?? (Us: "Yes, captain!") Good ...
• "First of all, thank you for joining us this evening and putting up with the TSA monkey business to get here
• "I love to fly, and I'll get you there safely because I never text and fly
• "We'll hit a few bumps over the Rockies. Nothing dangerous, just a little annoying. I'll do my best to keep it smooth
• "Finally, there are a couple military members on board so let's thank them for their service."

At that point, the whole plane broke into applause (for the military members) and smiles (for the captain).

It wasn't Tonight Show-level material, but Captain Rausch's monologue was still remarkable (at least for Delta). Simply by showing a little personality, he transformed the dull, robotic announcements that every passenger instinctively ignores into an experience. At no cost to Delta.

That's the free upgrade I received -- an experience. It made me sit down and write this out as soon as I got to my hotel room.

Here's Captain Rausch. He kindly agreed to let me snap his picture, after I first shook his hand.

Maybe pilots with personality who stand up and introduce themselves before a flight are common on Southwest, or Virgin, but this is a first for me in 30 years of flying Northwest/Delta. Bravo.

By the way, service is a little thing that can lead to big profits for your business. That makes it a Marketing Multiplier.

There's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting for you now. And you can try them Free -- click here.

Paper Email, Image Suicide, and a 28,400% ROI

I created Marketing Multipliers to share some of the tools I use to grow revenues for my clients and myself.

Example: The Paper Email.

It's something I print and mail to clients and prospects when I want to make absolutely, positively sure they get my email messages.

Because, even on a good day, your email stands less than a 1 in 4 chance of being delivered, opened, and read, according to MailChimp.

I don't know about you, but I think those odds suck. If a <25% open-and-read rate is standard, then even the Pony Express in 1860 could do better than email in 2015.

So I don't play the email game. And neither should you. At least, not exclusively.

Instead, if a message is really important, I not only send it by email, I also mail it and/or call the recipient.

Case in point: The Paper Email below. It's a printed version of an email, spiced up with my weird picture. I mailed it -- in an envelope, with a stamp -- to a highly targeted list of prospects last week ...

... and in response, I got this email from a new client who had been trying to reach me:

Look at the subject of the email above that he forwarded to me: Did you get this email from Friday? When I picked up the phone and called him, he told me the problem wasn't my email not reaching him, but his email not reaching me.

BUT ... because I mailed him the paper email, he was motivated to email me back. And buy.

No paper email = no sale.

And I didn't mind committing what Bill Glazer calls, "image suicide" in my Paper Email by including a goofy picture of myself. Hey, if that's what it takes to get attention, no problem. Because, as David Ogilvy said, "You can't bore people into buying."

Okay, now let's run the numbers:

• Cost: $7 to mail 10 Paper Emails to a targeted list, including postage
• Revenue: $1,994 from a mini consulting project that will deliver $10,000 to $20,000 or more to my client -- or he won't pay
• ROI from this simplest of direct mail pieces: 28,400%, or $285 for every $1 invested

Not bad. That's the power of a simple Paper Email, one of 11 Marketing Multipliers tools you can try Free -- click here to learn how.

Person-to-Person Marketing in a Box

This is a very special unboxing of a very special something -- a CARE package I got from Brian Kurtz.

Back story: I attended Brian's Titans of Marketing event in 2014 and exchanged emails with him after. He included one of my productivity tips in his blog. I mailed him a thank-you note and he emailed me back, offering to send me a thank-you gift by mail.

What I got was ... huge. Awesome. Incredible. Watch the video to see me unbox it all.

To a copywriter like me, this stuff is priceless.

Here's the thing: Brian is teaching a super valuable lesson here on the art of P2P -- person-to-person -- marketing. 

Forget B2B or B2C marketing. In the end all marketing is really P2P -- person to person.

Brian Kurtz, a person, has just delivered an outrageous and totally unexpected amount of value to me, a person. And I want the whole world to know about it. That’s why I did this impromptu video and I'm even paying to drive traffic to it. This is what raving fans do.

Key: Brian invested time and attention to assemble all the parts of this package, hand-write the note to me, and put it in the mail. He could have outsourced it to a fulfillment house, but that would have been a package from a business, not a person. And I wouldn't be making this video.

You cannot buy the kind of raving fandom that I'm showing here. You cannot outsource it, either. 

But you can make an impact on others -- and spread your influence far and wide -- simply by making a direct, valuable, personal connection to another person today.

This is simple, but not easy. Yet Brian did it. Big time.

By the way ...

... I've created a club for entrepreneurs who want to grow. Every member gets a box of marketing tools delivered by mail every month. And you can try them free. Click here.

Big Profits From A Slight Edge

Did you know?

You don't have to be 3 times better to earn 3 times more money in your business.

Just ask Kentucky Derby winner, American Pharoah.

American Pharoah: Slight edge, big winner

If he could talk, he'd tell you that he won by just a slight edge over the #2 horse. But he took home a LOT more money.

Three times more, as a matter of fact. Check it out ...

1. American Pharoah - $1,240,000 payoff

2. Firing Line - $400,000 payoff

Was American Pharoah three times faster than Firing Line? No. He was just a little bit better. He had a slight edge.

Is that fair? No.

Is that life? Yes.

All you need is just a slight edge over the other guy ... and you can take home a paycheck that’s so much bigger, it’s almost unfair.

Here's another example from the human world, my client, Joe X. (He advertises every day on national TV and his competitors steal his ideas, so his name must be kept confidential for now.)

Joe is on track to add $462,363 EXTRA to his business this year, from the same ad spend.

He did it, with my help, using the same principle of the slight edge. Take a look at the graphic below to see the "before and after" results of a test I did for him ...

How did I cause a 43% surge in his sales, almost overnight?

I made a slight change to his web site -- just the headline. That's it.

The new version took me less than 5 minutes to create ... but it was based on 20 years(!) of writing web page copy. Yes, I've been at this since 1995.

We sent more than 1,880 visitors to two versions of his web site to see which was more profitable.

And ... we got 43% more sales. That's an extra $8,891 every week my client will likely make, from the same amount of web traffic, thanks to one slight change I made for him.

Takeaway: If you're not optimizing your marketing -- testing changes big and small to your headlines, email subject lines, phone scripts, sales letters, etc. -- you are absolutely, positively throwing money away.

Best part: You don't have to change the world to change your world. Just a small, slight edge can slice open huge new sales and profits.

One more thing: I just created a new Cheat Sheet that reveals 4 ways to "force" Amazon to build your business, at NO cost. Click To Download Now

36 F- Words You Can’t Say in Business

(See the key below for what each F-word really means.)

Did you know?

Your business strategy is f---¹ important!

Unfortunately, it’s easy to be distracted by f---² tactics.

That’s why you need a strategic plan of action to stay on track. Otherwise ...

You’ll Be Seriously F---³!

But let’s f---⁴ recap shall we?

A tactical business owner works to make more sales today.

If you tell him (or her, I’m not a f---⁵ sexist) that it’s twice as hard to get an appointment with a prospect as it was 5 years ago, he’ll say, “F---⁶! I’m going to work twice as hard.”

By contrast, a strategic business owner works to make more sales today and tomorrow.

If you tell him it’s twice as hard to get an appointment with a prospect, he’ll say, “F---⁷! I’m going to make selling twice as easy.” In other words ...

The Tactical Business Owner
Chases Profits By Working F---⁸ Harder.

The Strategic Business Owner
Creates Profits By Working F---⁹ Smarter.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: How can I f---¹⁰ work smarter and make selling twice as easy?

Well, you should f---¹¹ realize that only about 3% of your prospects are actively looking to make a purchase right now, according to my f---¹² research. Out of every 100 phone calls or emails you get, only about 3 of them will say, “I want to f---¹³ buy today!”

The rest of your prospects (as many as 97% of those f--¹⁴ people) are not buying today. They’re only thinking about it. They might be interested or think they have a problem ... but they’re not sure how you can f---¹⁵ help.

So, what can you say to the 97% of your market to get their f---¹⁶ attention and start a f---¹⁷ conversation that leads to a f---¹⁸ sale, even if they’re NOT ready to buy?

Try this: Offer to educate them. Because everyone wants to make things better, but only 3% want to buy today. It’s just common f---¹⁹ sense.

Want proof?

Try this thought experiment ...

You walk into a car dealer. A tactical sales rep pounces and says, “Hi! Can I help you find a f---²⁰ car? We’ve got some f---²¹ beauties this week!”

What’s your reaction?

“No, I’m just f---²² looking.” You may want to buy a car, but instincts take over and your shields go up when you think you’re being sold something.

At another car dealer, a strategic sales rep greets you and says: “Hi! Have you seen our f---²³ car guide? It shows you how to avoid the 7 mistakes most people make when buying a car. It’ll save you money even if you don’t f---²⁴ buy from us. Here’s a free copy.”

What’s your reaction to that?

“Thank you! This is f---²⁵ great.” You’re now indebted to that sales rep for giving you real value before he asked for money. You may buy today. Or not. But you’ll certainly be more open to a f---²⁶ conversation with that sales rep. Which makes a sale today more likely.

And you’ll take his f---²⁷ car guide home and either buy from him in the future or use the guide to evaluate other sales reps, who will likely pale in comparison to the guy who tried to f---²⁸ educate you. 

So ...

That’s The F---²⁹ Power Of
Strategic Educational Marketing

By playing the long game and taking time to help buyers today, you can make more sales, more easily. Today and tomorrow. F---³⁰!

This is what I help my f---³¹ clients do to earn their prospects’ trust and respect ... generate more referrals ... preempt low-priced competition ... and position themselves as f---³² experts.

Now. If you’d like to enjoy those f---³³ advantages in your business, please visit my f---34 web site.

One more thing. I follow my own advice ...

Should you call me at 612-567-6642, I won’t try to f---³⁵ sell you something, okay? 

We’ll just have a conversation about your business and how it can grow bigger, faster with strategic educational marketing like this.

Thanks for reading!

F---³⁶ you,

Kevin Donlin

Copywriter+ Marketing Optimizer

P.S. Here’s the key to all those f-words:

1. forceful   
2. fanciful   
3. Flummoxed    
4. first       
5. fiendish    
6. Fiddlesticks    
7. Fine       
8. Foolishly   
9. Facilely   
10. finally   
11. first       
12. faithful   
13. Fearlessly
14. Fickle   
15. fairly       
16. fleeting   
17. feel-good   
18. fabulous   
19. Fiscal   
20. foreign    
21. fast       
22. fitfully   
23. free       
24. finally   
25. factually   
26. Facile   
27. fantastic    
28. faithfully   
29. Fiery    
30. Finally   
31. fearless   
32. faultless    
33. favorable   
34. Friendly   
35. foolishly    
36. Favoring

One more thing: I just created a new Cheat Sheet that reveals 4 ways to "force" Amazon to build your business, at NO cost. Click To Download Now

Touch Deeper, Sell More

The other day, I was in Whole Foods shopping for toothpaste. I was looking for Tom's or another brand.

But then I found -- and bought -- this. Check it out ...

You've never seen a box of toothpaste like Dr. Bronner's.

I haven't counted, but there must be at least 2,000 words of philosophical and advertising copy wrapped around that little box -- 8 typewritten pages. Maybe more.

You'll find such unique insights as:

• “All freedom loving children hate the word Discipline! Yet, self-discipline is the key to freedom!”
• “Absolute cleanliness is Godliness! Balanced food for body-mind-soul-spirit is our medicine!”
• “Beavers, by family teamwork, stay alive! Building dams, surviving the toughest winters without any welfare help to enjoy life!”

Lots of companies talk about vision or mission, but Dr. Bronner's lays it all out for you, right there on the box. Once you start reading, it's hard to put the thing down. So I bought it.

But this is not about philosophy. This is about building your business.

So, think like Dr. Bronner and do this: Take a look at everything of yours that clients and prospects touch. Your business card, envelopes, invoices, stationery, etc.

Then ask yourself: Are you using every available bit of "real estate" to build your business?

Examples ...

1) Advertise on the back of your envelopes, like my client Bill Gough does (see below)

2) Put testimonials, an offer (or both!) on the back of your business card (see below)

3) Turn an ordinary letter into an experience by mailing it in a box, or a tube (see below)

You get the idea.

No matter how you're "touching" people in your business, you could do it more deeply and effectively, simply by adding more to it or changing the packaging.
Best part: This need not cost an arm and a leg. Not at all. All you need is a little creative thinking.

One more thing: I just created a new Cheat Sheet that reveals 4 ways to "force" Amazon to build your business, at NO cost. Click To Download Now

Now, Discover The Most Valuable Thing You Can Do To Build Your Business

Want to know the most valuable thing you can do to grow your business?

You can find it in 6 simple steps ...


Step 1: How many hours you work each week -- 40 hours? 55? 70? Add them up.


Step 2: Choose your #1 goal for the next 30 days -- a sales figure? Number of new clients? Project completed? Whatever.


Step 3: Divide your weekly working hours by 2.


Step 4: What will you do to reach your #1 goal in half the time? Write your answers down.

Example: If you work 60 hours a week and your #1 goal is $20,000 in sales this month, what will you do to reach that goal in half the time -- 30 hours a week?

Possible tactics:

• Direct mail to 300 prospects within 5 miles
• Joint venture with 5 non-competitors
• Double your ad budget on Google and Facebook

Step 5: Divide your weekly working hours by 2 again.


Step 6: What will you do to reach your #1 goal NOW, in 25% of the time each week? Do your answers to question #4 change? They should. Write them down.

Example revised tactics:

• Direct mail your 30 best clients; ask to meet by phone or in person to discuss their goals -- and how you might help achieve them
• Joint venture with your 2 best vendors and 3 best clients
• Double your direct mail budget for letters sent to clients and vendors

See the difference in tactics between Steps 6 and 4?

Key: What you wrote in Step 6 are your most-valuable marketing tactics. Because they are what you would do if you could work only 25% of the time. You've just proven their value with this thought experiment.

Next Step: Do more of those most-valuable tactics for the next 30 days -- and see what happens.

One more thing: I just created a new Cheat Sheet that reveals 4 ways to "force" Amazon to build your business, at NO cost. Click To Download Now

The $10,000 Rice Krispies Treat

That's not a misprint.

It is possible to create a Rice Krispies Treat worth $10,000 to your business -- or more.

In fact, I'll show you a picture of one such incredibly valuable confection. 

Here it is:

The $10,000 Rice Krispies Treat

Now, let me explain ...

Last week, I was in Austin, TX at the brand-new Westin Austin Downtown hotel. My client, Bill Gough (president of BGI Systems) was hosting a meeting for some of his clients.

Bill told me that, frankly, he was leery of holding a high-priced event at a hotel just 3 days after it opened, as was the case at this Westin. But the hotel manager assured him that our stay would be PERFECT.

Well, that turned out to be wrong. Our stay was not perfect.

It was, in fact, BEYOND perfect.

I won't go into details about the quality of the food, the rooftop pool, or the service -- those were all pretty much perfect.

But hotel employees are like baseball umpires. If you do your job perfectly, nobody notices. To stand out, you either have to piss people off or blow them away.

The staff at the Westin Austin Downtown blew us away. And they did it, not with whiz-bang technology or a 9-course meal, but with ... a Rice Krispies treat.

Here's the story: The hotel served Rice Krispies treats at lunch. One of Bill Gough's employees mentioned that the hotel treats were good, but that he missed his wife's, because she bakes them with Fruity Pebbles.

That night, after our meeting, he returned to his room. About 5 minutes later, there was a knock at the door. A bellman delivered what you see pictured above. Someone in the kitchen had created a special Rice Krispies treat covered in Fruit Loops and frosting.

Here's what the note says:

"We hope you are enjoying your stay at the Westin Austin Downtown. We remember you saying that you liked rice crispy treats with Fruity Pebbles, and wanted to give you a sense of home while you were away.

"Although it does not have Fruity Pebbles, we still want you to enjoy this variety. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you during your stay."

I wish I could read the name of whoever wrote that note! Instead, I'll just have to credit the entire staff at the Westin Austin Downtown with being customer service geniuses. And it could only have sprung from a culture that encouraged its employees to delight the customer first and worry about rules later.

(Quick: Imagine the IRS or Social Security Administration doing anything like this. Impossible. Finding delightful service in a bureaucratic culture is like finding roses growing on Uranus.)

Anyway, this incident is worth at least $10,000 to the Westin Austin Downtown.

Think about it.

Ten grand might buy a full page ad in the Austin Daily Herald. But could $10,000 buy 25 raving fans who tell everyone how great you are? No, not without drugs or prostitutes. But that's what this treat did among our group -- we spent 20 minutes talking about it the next day and I haven't shut up since I got home.

And that's not counting the future stays the 25 of us will make at other Westins ... or the seminars my client Bill Gough will hold at other Westins ... or the viral marketing this happy little incident will likely set off.

No. If you add up the potential revenue that will roll into the Westin Austin Downtown and other Westin properties, it's actually far beyond $10,000.

Your Takeaway as a Business Owner: Incredible service that delights your clients and turns them into referral-generating fans need NOT cost a bundle. No expensive technology, big ad budget, or patents are needed.

Delivering incredible service only requires ... attention. Just pay attention to what your clients and prospects are saying. Whether it's on the phone, by email, or in person, WATCH and LISTEN. Look for an opportunity to delight people by doing the unexpected.

Key: Nobody ever booked a hotel room for the Rice Krispies treats. But a Rice Krispies treat that's customized for one customer ... because of an offhand remark ... then delivered to their room with a long, personal note ... well, that's a BIG DEAL, as you have seen.

Cost to the Westin in labor and supplies: About $10.

Value to the Westin in advertising, good will, and future stays: About $10,000. (That's a return on investment of 99,900%.)

You might want to go and do likewise.

Service that surprises and delights your clients is what I call a Marketing Multiplier -- a small action that can deliver big profits.

Marketing Multipliers are simple. They cost little or nothing. And you can implement them today.

If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now.

Can A Plumber's Butt Crack Build Your Business?

The following marketing idea is either crazy insane or crazy good.

Watch and decide for yourself ...

You see, design and delivery are effective ways to build your business, without breaking the bank.

For example, the solution to Buck Crack comes in a bucket from Duluth Trading Company.

In reality, it's just a men's shirt. You can buy one anywhere. It's a commodity.

But ... when it's billed as "Crack Spackle," a way to fix "plumber's butt" -- with printed instructions for doing so -- that t-shirt is no longer a commodity. It's an experience.

And people will pay good money for an experience. Just ask Disney, Ritz-Carlton, or Starbucks.

The design and delivery of a bucket of "Crack Spackle" set Duluth Trading Company apart.

You can do this, too. No million-dollar ad budget or world-changing patents needed.

Just ask yourself these two questions:

1. How can you design your product or service differently?

Can you make it funny? Serious? Beautiful? Ugly? Bigger? Smaller? More expensive? Less expensive?

2. How can you deliver your product or service differently?

Can you send it in a bucket? Box? Tube? By FedEx? In person? By phone?

Great design and great delivery are what's called Marketing Multipliers -- small changes that can deliver big profits.

They are simple. They cost little or nothing. And you can implement them today.

If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now

Great Design + Great Delivery = Great Marketing

How can your business stand out in a crowded marketplace?

You could invest in more technology, more advertising, more product R&D ...

... or you could invest in design or delivery -- or both.

Here are two examples -- one worth about $60 million, the other not (yet) -- of how great design and great delivery can be game-changers for your business ...


1) Dollar Shave Club

Great Design : Take a look at this hero shot of the product and packaging. Razors NEVER looked so good ...

Great Delivery: New razor blades by mail every month means I never have to worry about running out. Score!

Great Marketing: I just signed up. It was too much to resist. Apparently, millions of other guys feel the same way -- annual revenues for DSC last year were a reported $60 million.


2) Shatter Buggy

Great Design: I saw this smart car prowling Uptown Minneapolis on Sunday and had to take a picture ...

Great Delivery: According to their website, Shatter Buggy lets you schedule precise appointments rather than "windows" of time to come replace the cracked screen on your iPhone or iPad.

Great Marketing: My teenager broke her iPhone screen last week and we've been too busy to bring it to the Apple Store for repairs. So we're calling Shatter Buggy to bring the repairs to us.

Bonus: Shatter Buggy arrives by smart car, which is an affinity-marketing bulls eye for their Millennial customers.

Bottom Line: While your competition is making logical claims of better service or products (or both) you can bypass customers' brains with emotional appeals to their sense of beauty ("What a cool design! What a quirky car!") or curiosity ("Razors delivered by mail? iPhone repairs by car?").

Changing your design or your delivery (or both) doesn't have to break the bank. No world-changing patents are needed. But it could change the game for you.

By the way, I don't just write about this stuff. I live it. I created a Client Cloning Kit and ship it by mail to stand out from the bazillion other marketing advisors who flog digital downloads.

Take a look:

Great design and great delivery are what I call Marketing Multipliers -- small changes that can deliver big profits. They are simple. They cost little or nothing. And you can implement them today.

If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now.

Online Marketing + Offline Marketing = More Sales

Want more prospects to return your phone calls ... and buy?

Here's an idea: Give them a "While you were out" message.

By mail.

This is how I do it, with a postcard I created for that purpose:

In case you can't see clearly, the message on the pink postcard reads:

You'll get an email from me on July 7 that explains this postcard, but here's a hint: Synergy.

Okay, one more hint: Following up with your prospects can be fun for you and them!

Watch your email ...

Key: I don't want to bug people into calling me back. I want to intrigue them into doing so.

And even if they don't call back, by tying this postcard into an email I'll send a few days later (as promised, without fail!) I increase the impact of both this postcard and that email.

By combining your online and offline marketing touches this way, you get synergy. You get more bang for your buck. More sales, too.

You can achieve online + offline marketing synergy any number of ways:

• phone call + email
• postcard + email
• letter + email + phone call
• email + phone call + thank you note

Get the idea? When it comes to combining your online and offline marketing, you're limited only by your imagination.

Now, you don't have to create customized postcards as I've done; marketing is my business, so this is the kind of thing I do every day.

But you do have to think creatively if you want to stand out and get noticed by your prospects in a world of ephemeral tweets, posts, blurbs, and blogs.

How do you know if your prospects are noticing you? If your sales go up. That's the only metric that really matters in marketing. And, yes, postcards like this hot pink "While You Were Out" message can make your sales go up. I've used them to close deals north of $7,500.

So, think synergy: Online Marketing + Offline Marketing = More Sales.

One more thing: I just created a new Cheat Sheet that reveals 4 ways to "force" Amazon to build your business, at NO cost. Click To Download Now

How To Win Clients With Speed, Shock, And Service

Every so often, a big company does something smart with their marketing that any entrepreneurial business owner can learn from.

It happened to Linda James Bennett, a Marketing Copywriter from Orlando, FL.

She got surprisingly great service, along with a "shocking" box by FedEx, both of which helped win her as a client for Quicken Loans.

And her story offers 4 powerful lessons you can use to build your business.

Here's the story ...

"I saw a TV ad for Quicken Loans on a Saturday and went to their website. I entered my phone number and within 5 minutes they called me to do an initial interview to see if they could help me," said Bennett.

Lesson #1: Speed sells. A callback within 5 minutes from any business -- of any size -- is shocking. Speed conveys two big positives about your business: You care enough to call back quickly, and you're competent enough to do so.

"After I gave them my details, they gave me a quote. On Monday I called them back and gave them the ok to get started," she said.

The process went smoothly, with many of the forms delivered online and electronically signed by Bennett. She received updates by text, email, and phone.

Lesson #2: Communicate early and often. By keeping your clients updated on what's happening and what's next, you can keep them happy and more likely to refer others, at very little cost to you.

"Once they were done, Quicken Loans called to schedule the closing for the next day. I was expecting the usual; a drive to the other side of town in rush hour traffic to close the loan, said Bennett.

“Instead, they asked what would be a convenient time for the notary come to our house to sign the documents. The notary called immediately to confirm our date and time, and arrived as promised. She was friendly, courteous, and very efficient."

Lesson #3: Deliver happiness. How you deliver the thing you sell can generate as much (or more!) word of mouth as the thing itself. By letting her choose a time and place to sign the documents, Quicken Loans exceeded expectations for Bennett. She'll probably tell others more about the service she got than her interest rate.

What happened next may shock you ...

"Ten days after closing, we received an email telling us the documents were coming. This super clever box arrived by FedEx with the closing documents inside, bound and tabbed."

Photos of that "super clever" box, also known as a "shock and awe" box, are below.

Lesson #4: Touch people memorably. In world of tweets, posts, and emails -- all of which are intangible -- it pays to show up in your prospects' mailbox or on their doorstep.

Quicken Loans took it a step further by FedExing the documents to Bennett in a fun way. By sending a "shock and awe" BOX, Quicken Loans sets the stage for doing business with them so that nobody else can stack up better.

To summarize, here are all 4 marketing lessons for you:

#1: Speed sells. Respond to qualified inquiries as fast as possible.

#2: Communicate often. Keep prospects and clients updated at every turn.

#3: Deliver happiness. How you deliver is as important as what you sell.

#4: Touch people. Find a way to make direct mail or FedEx work in your business.

These lessons are examples of what I call Marketing Multipliers -- small actions that deliver big profits. They are simple. They cost little. And you can implement them today.

If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now.

 

Little Big Things That Can Wreck Your Business

Seth Godin, in his book Free Prize Inside, writes about a nasty experience he had with hernia surgery. It's a lesson in word-of-mouth advertising that could boost your business -- or wreck it, if you choose to ignore it.

Here's Godin's story ...

I had hernia surgery. It costs a lot, it hurts and the hospital makes a fortune.

The places it hurts might surprise you. The surgery gives you a very sore throat, because they clamp your mouth open while you're asleep. It also hurts a lot when you pee, because they use a catheter.

The surgeon doesn't care one bit about how much it hurts. He's a superhero, he cuts and sews and moves on. But the hospital cares. The hospital cares because they know that most patients have a choice when it comes to ambulatory surgery, and that choice is dictated in large measure by how positive the word of mouth from other patients is.

The traditional way for a hospital to improve its services is with technological innovation. Buying million-dollar MRI machines or investing in a huge new facility. But that ignores free prize thinking.

As I lay in the recovery room for two hours, all I could think about was how much my throat hurt and how difficult it was to pee. The surgeon told me later that this happens to everyone. He told me that if I had gulped down some cranberry juice and sucked on a throat lozenge when I got home, I would have had a much easier time.

So here's the question: Why didn't someone offer me a throat lozenge and a glass of cranberry juice at the hospital?

The return on investment is huge. Charging $5,000 a patient for half a day, all the hospital needs to do is get one or two new surgeries a year as a result of word of mouth to pay for a lifetime supply of Sucrets.

Now, here's the irony that can wreck any business, including yours: The hospital delivered on the Big Thing Seth paid for. They fixed his hernia. It was a Little Thing -- post-operative service -- where they dropped the ball and left Seth unhappy. Worse, Seth has since told anyone who will listen about the rotten service at this hospital. Which sucks for them (and rightly so).

All too often, we business owners work like the surgeon who operated on Godin. We are "superheroes" who deliver Big Things. That's our sole responsibility. The Little Things like post-operative care are for others to worry about.

But we need to worry about Little Things. Because those are what our clients tell others about.

So, here's the question for you: What's low-cost or no-cost Little Thing is missing from your business? Something which, if you added it to the Big Things that clients pay you to deliver, would make your business remarkable?

Examples:

1) Box of chocolate or other food item as a gift with purchase. If you deliver a high-priced product or service, sending a $25 gift basket is truly a Little Thing, but clients will appreciate you -- and tell others.

2) Phone call after delivery of the product or service, to express genuine concern for how the client is doing and answer any questions.

3) Thank-you note after the sale, after any service failure -- or both.

4) User guide or instructions downloaded from your web site, mailed -- or both -- to help clients get the most from their purchase.

5) Mailed receipt with a personal thank-you message and signature added.

The Little Things above are what I call Marketing Multipliers -- small actions that lead to big profits. They are simple. They cost little or nothing. And you can implement them today.

If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now.

What’s In A Name? More Money For Your Business

 

What’s in a name?

Money.

Especially if you sell a service.

Here’s the story ...

If you sell a service or a customized product, you almost certainly deliver proposals, bids, or price quotes to prospects before they make a buying decision.

And this is hurting you. Because everybody does that.

Think: When you’re choosing a consultant, insurance agent, attorney, painter, whatever, what do you? You do two things: get 3 price quotes, and choose the best one.

Guess what? If every vendor submits a price quote, the prospect will compare and choose based on ... price. And that’s not a game you want to play. Because there is always someone cheaper than you. Why race to the bottom for prices?

Instead, you can do two things to set your business apart and avoid questions of price:

1.    Never send another price quote
2.    Name your proposal after the prospect

Let me explain.


1) Never send another price quote

By this I mean, stop submitting price quotes to prospects and start submitting sales letters.

Begin with the name. NEVER call your submission a “Price Quote,” “Project Bid,” or anything like that. It’s commodity language, like everyone uses. Instead, speak your own language. Examples:

• Game Plan
• Project Blueprint
• Outline
• Project Summary
• Vision
• Roadmap to Results

Get the idea? If a prospective client is holding two price quotes from competitors, and one “Project Summary” from you, guess who stands out and defies comparison? You, that’s who.

But don’t stop there. Do some actual selling in your price quote/sales letter. To that end, be sure to include:

• Clear, exciting benefits (instead of dull, dry features)
• Testimonials from happy clients and vendors (to offer social proof)
• A clear, call to action (instead of a wimpy “I hope to hear from you soon”)
• Your signature at the end, which makes it an actual letter (and creates a personal bond with the reader)

Now let's take it one simple, incredibly effective step further ...


2) Name your proposal after the prospect

This is a cool trick that could change everything for you. At no cost.

You see, substantial research has shown that we’re most likely to relate to others with whom we share personal characteristics, according to the book Yes! by Robert Cialdini. And psychologists have found that we tend to feel especially positive toward things we associate with ourselves, such as our names.

Here's the application for you: If you name your proposal after your prospect, they will associate themselves with your proposal, feel more positive about it, and be more likely to buy it.

Examples:

• “The Smith Project”
• “The Jeff and Sally Game Plan”
• “The Johnson Blueprint”

Best part: Naming your project after the prospect costs you NOTHING. Yet, in my experience, the proposals I submit to prospects that are named after them (“The Smith Project”) are 25-50% more likely to result in a sale. Boom.

This is so sneaky and works so well that I’ve been keeping it a secret for years. But here you go.

Now. These two ideas:

1. Never send another price quote
2. Name your proposal after the prospect

... are perfect examples of what I call Marketing Multipliers -- small actions that lead to big profits. They are simple. They cost nothing. And you can implement them today.



If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now.

Charlie Munger's Problem-Solving Tip: Invert The Question

You know Warren Buffett, but do you know his right-hand man, Charlie Munger?

You should.

The vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway is so respected by investors and business leaders that they get on planes and fly to see him speak on those rare occasions when he does.

In a now-legendary commencement address to the University of Southern California Law School, Munger dropped a lifetime's worth of wisdom into the laps of graduates. (One of them took notes, here.)

Here's one nugget from that speech for today, to help you solve problems in your business faster. It's Munger's idea of inversion. Quoting him:

"... problems frequently get easier, I'd even say usually are easier to solve if you turn them around in reverse. In other words, if you want to help India, the question you should ask is not 'how can I help India', it's 'what is doing the worst damage in India? What will automatically do the worst damage and how do I avoid it?' 

"Let me use a little inversion now. What will really fail in life? What do you want to avoid?"

That's it. Pithy, but POWERFUL. Let's try it now.

Here's a question you've probably asked yourself dozens of times: What's the best thing I could do to grow my business? It's a good question. Answered correctly, it will yield good answers. But familiarity breeds contempt, and if you've been asking yourself variations of that question for any length of time, you're probably too familiar with it and a little contemptuous of the answers.

So let's invert the question, as Charlie Munger might. Try this: What's doing the worst damage to my business? Answering that question will likely deliver new insights, which you are likely to fix because it's human nature to avoid pain faster than to seek growth (at least in my experience). By fixing the pain, you'll plug the leaks that are keeping your business poor right now, which makes you richer tomorrow.

That inverted question could lead you to such painful insights as these:

• my website is horribly outdated and not converting traffic into leads
• nobody has sent me a referral in months
• my marketing is totally reactive and not proactive or strategic

You get the idea. The answers to Munger's inverted question are painful. Brutal, even. But all fixable.

And as they say in any good 12-step program, recognizing that you have a problem is the first and most important step toward fixing it.

So, ask yourself Charlie Munger's simple, brilliant question at least once a week: What's doing the worst damage to my business?

Now. If your business is doing at least $100,000 in revenue, my Free Client Cloning Kit can give you a slight edge -- and then some. It's NOT another download. This is a real business-building kit you can hold in your hands. Grab yours now, while you can.

American Pharoah: The Big Payoff of the Slight Edge

Did you see the Kentucky Derby?

American Pharoah won by less than a length.

Take a look at the photo below ...

That picture is incredibly important for you and your business because it illustrates the principle of the Slight Edge.

You see, American Pharoah won by just a slight edge over the #2 horse. But he took home a LOT more money.

How much more? Check it out ...

1. American Pharoah - $1,240,000 payoff

2. Firing Line - $400,000 payoff

That's a difference of $840,000 -- more than three times as much.

Is American Pharoah three times faster or better than Firing Line? Of course not. He was just a little bit better. He had a slight edge.

Is that fair? No.

Is that life? Yes.

All you need is just a slight edge over the other guy ... and you can take home a paycheck that’s so much bigger, it’s almost unfair.

Tip: Always be looking for tools, ideas, and strategies that can give you a slight edge in your business.

Because you don't have to be three times better to take home a three times bigger paycheck. You just have to be better, period.

One more thing: If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now. 

Marketing Optimization: Who Else Wants a $462,363 Windfall?

Marketing Optimization.

It's the process of getting more revenue from the time and money you invest in your marketing.

Everything you do to optimize and wring more dollars out of every visit to your web site, every transaction, every customer -- that's marketing optimization.

Lots of people talk about it. Few do it.

But I do it ...

... and by optimizing a web site for one of my clients, I just added $8,891 a week to his business.

Sales rate before Kevin: $18,899 a week.

Sales rate after Kevin: $27,790 a week.

Now my client, who we'll call Mr. X, is on track to add $462,363 a year EXTRA to his business from the same ad spend.

That's called a windfall.

Take a look at the graphic below to see the results of our optimization test ...

How did I cause a 43% surge in sales overnight?

I made a small change to the headline at the top of his web site. The version with banners was what he had been using for months. The new version, with no banners, was my suggestion.

We sent more than 1,880 visitors to each version of his web site to let the market decide which version was more profitable. This is called split testing.

The new version I tested took me less than 5 minutes to create ... but it was based on 20 years(!) of writing web page copy and building marketing funnels. Yes, I've been at this since 1995.

And the results speak for themselves -- 43% more sales from almost the same number of visitors. Without optimizing, that extra $8,891 a week my client will likely make, from the same amount of web traffic, would have never materialized.

(In a perfect world, I'd let that test run until reaching a 90-95% chance of beating the original. But other factors behind the scenes gave us overwhelming confidence above the 86.2% probability shown.)

Here's the thing: My client is an outstanding marketer. He advertises nationally and his ads are very good.

But his team wasn't testing systematically ... and they needed an extra pair of expert eyes. So he put me on retainer to optimize for him. Now there's no limit to how far he can go. If I don't add an extra $2 million to his business this year, I'll be sorely disappointed.

Takeaway: If you're not continually optimizing your marketing -- testing new headlines, new email subject lines, new scripts on the phone, new sales letters, etc. -- you are absolutely, positively throwing money away.

Just like a surgeon who can fix a broken hip with one well-placed screw, you can unlock big profits with the right tweaks to almost any website (along with the upsells, re-marketing, follow-up, etc.).

One more thing. IF your sales are between $500,000 and $20 million annually ... and you have a good website you know could be doing better ...

... we should talk about how I can optimize and supercharge your profits.  To schedule your Free Discovery Session, click here.

How to Beat Low-Price Competitors: A Tale of Two Pizzas

You're looking at an A+ example of how to sew seeds of doubt in the minds of prospects about low-priced competition.

This example is so powerful, it merits careful study.

Here's the story ...

I just got back from spending 5 nights at a very nice hotel in Orlando, with guests from all over the world. Fantastic place.

The color flyer in the bottom of the picture was shoved under our door almost every night. It offered two pizzas at roughly half the price of room service pizzas. Losing those sales must have annoyed the hotel.

So they did something to totally undercut the cheaper competition.

See that headline, "Not all pizzas are created equal"? That's from a sign posted on the inside of the door in our room. You can't miss the sign. I didn't.

And when I read the part that many local pizza joints are "fraudulent and engage in the criminal practice of identity and credit card theft" ... I suddenly had ZERO interest in saving a few bucks by calling out for pizza. We dined at the hotel. Every night.

Moral: Low price ain't everything.

If you face cheap competitors who are "eating your lunch," fight back. Sow seeds of doubt in the mind of your prospects. Use this headline as a template: "Not all ____ are created equal."

If you can educate buyers and tell them about potential fraud, poor quality, or other negatives -- and help them make a smart buying decision that features your business -- you can turn the tables and win more sales. Price won't matter.

Now. If your business is doing at least $100,000 in revenue, my Free Client Cloning Kit can give you a slight edge -- and then some. It's NOT another download. This is a real business-building kit you can hold in your hands. Grab yours now, while you can.

The Marketing Checklist: New Profits from a Paper and Pencil?

Here's a simple way to improve your marketing and grow your business.

It is NOT sexy. It is so low-tech that it’s actually no tech. All you need is a pencil and paper.

It’s a productivity tool used by highly trained heart surgeons, airline pilots, even architects of multi-million dollar buildings ...

It’s a checklist.

You see, when it comes to growing your business, you probably know what to do already. You're just not doing it. The Jesuits have a term for this; it’s called a sin of omission.

Why are you not doing everything necessary to market your business?

Not because you’re a bad or sinful person. It's because as soon as you turn on your computer in the morning, your memory and judgment become unreliable. There are 1,001 distractions that steal your attention from the marketing tasks you need to do.

Signs of this are confusion, frustration, and an unpredictable cash flow in your business.

By contrast, when you have a checklist of things to do, you've got clarity, you’ve got focus, you've got confidence -- all of which give you more energy to get things done. And when you’ve checked off all your tasks, that feels good. So you do it again tomorrow, setting off a virtuous circle of improvement.

It's simple. There are 3 steps:

Step 1) Write down all the things you need to do every day to grow your business. It's probably going be a list of 5 to 10 things. Examples of what tasks could go on your list:

• Email qualified new leads and thank them for requesting info
• Call new clients and welcome them
• Write 250 words of next blog post/article

Step 2) Pick a time at least twice today to follow your checklist. For me, that's 7:30 AM and 4:00 PM for about 30 minutes each.

Step 3) Follow the damn checklist.

Checklists are not brain surgery, but they are used by every brain surgeon.

More importantly, I use a checklist to pull more prospects and clients out of my existing database than I ever could if I tried to make it up as a went along.

Also, none of the tactics on any checklist are set in stone. Just like a recipe, they can and should be modified any time you find a better way.

Give this a try for just one week and you will be astonished at how much you get done and, more importantly, at the results you see in your marketing -- and in your bank account.

The idea above is what I call a Marketing Multiplier -- a small action that delivers big profits. It is simple. It costs little or nothing. And you can implement it today.

If you own a business in the U.S, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now.