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.

More Sales From More Trust: 3 Direct-Mail Shortcuts

As a business owner or sales pro, you may think you don't need direct mail in your business.

Think again.

If you're selling a service or product that costs more than $100, you will struggle mightily to sell it entirely online.

Why?

The higher your price, the more your prospects must trust you before opening their wallet. And it's very hard to trust a business that's 100% intangible -- all website, emails, social media, webinars, and phone calls.

What's the answer?

Make your intangible relationship tangible. The faster you can do this -- by meeting your prospects in person, giving them something they can hold in their hands, or both -- the faster you can make more sales.

And while it's impossible to meet every prospect in person, it's fairly easy and cost effective to meet them by mail.

Bonus: When you combine good direct mail with good online marketing, you get great synergy. The sum of your integrated marketing results will be much greater than what you could have achieved if you marketing only online or offline. It's like 1+1=3.

Let me show you three ways to make more sales by making your relationships more tangible.

1) Postcard after an email
After you send an email to a prospect you can also send them a postcard. Nobody does that right? That's the point. I can write and mail 5 postcards in less than 20 minutes over lunch. So can you.

2) Thank-you note after a webinar or teleseminar
When was the last time you got a thank-you note after a webinar or teleseminar? Never, right? See the opportunity here?

Do NOT complain about not having access to your prospects' U.S. Mailing address either. It's simple to find their mailing address by looking up the website from the email address they used to register for your webinar or teleseminar.

Example: The email joe@SuperDeluxeWidgets.com will lead you to the SuperDeluxeWidgets.com website, where you can find their mailing address. IF their website has no mailing address, or if the email they used to register was joestonerdude@aol.com ... they have self-identified as a prospect not worth sending mail to.

3) Article after a phone call
After a phone call with a prospect, print and mail them a helpful article they would enjoy reading. Include a Post-it Note that says, "I thought you might find this useful."

Nobody does that right? Again, that's my point.

None of these methods costs you more than 50 cents each. But each has about a 100% open rate, when mailed to your prospects by direct mail (compare that to your typical 30% open rate for email).

And each of these can make an intangible relationship into a tangible one, which makes you more trustworthy, which improves everything else you're doing in your sales and marketing.

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.

How to Say Interesting Things in Interesting Ways

As an entrepreneur or business owner, you need attention.

Because, before you can build a relationship or make a sale, you have to have a conversation with a client or prospect. To do that, you must first get their attention.

And a proven way to do it is to say interesting things in interesting ways.

Here's how you can get the attention of your prospects and clients by saying interesting things in interesting ways ...

Deliver your message in an interesting video. If I had just written a blog post about this idea, it would not have been interesting. But delivering the message on video, while standing next to a highway with a jet taking off in the background? A bit more interesting.

Deliver your message via "paper email." When's the last time you got a paper email? Probably never. But all you have to do is write a good email, print, and mail it to prospects. I've done it for years. I showed Dennis Neitz, a sales trainer from Cottage Grove, MN, how to do it. Here's what happened next, according to him: "I sent out 6 paper emails and received 2 full price paying customers. Net revenue on those was very nice."

Deliver your message via "lumpy mail." What's lumpy mail? An envelope that's NOT flat. It's got lumps, bumps, heft. I've mailed envelopes with quarters inside, magnifying glasses, mini voodoo dolls, etc. These were interesting and got way better results than a message in a flat, #10 business envelope.

Deliver your message via FedEx Letter. A FedEx Letter is, by definition, interesting -- it demands attention and readership. Unlike an email or direct-mail letter, it's impossible to delete or throw out a FedEx Letter without opening it.

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.