All I wanted to do was send out some postcards for my business.
What happened next changed my life and has put money in my pocket ever since.
I watched a video from a guy named Gary Halbert. I laughed. I cried. And I was introduced to a new world in business advertising.
I’d like to teach you.. but
Everything you’ve been taught about advertising must be put on hold.
Paused.
Suspended for the sake of this EXTREMELY valuable lesson in advertising and marketing.
A lesson that could change your life forever like it has changed mine.
I’ll show you exactly how to use this tremendous lesson later.
But first we must agree you’ll forget about the old way that you have learned to advertise. Ok?
Great.
I’m sure you know the standard type of advertising I’m talking about. The kind of ads you see every day on T.V., in the newspaper and in magazines.
Ads from the big companies like McDonalds, Nike, Pepsi and the other giant companies like them.
This is mostly what you have been exposed to.
At some point in your life you have been taught or have formed an opinion on how to advertise for your business.
Usually as a result of seeing these ads from these giant companies.
Whether right or wrong you have come accept these ads as the proper way to succeed in business advertising.
In order to embrace what I’m going to teach you, you have to start with a blank page. Open your mind to a new world. A new strategy.
A strategy that many happy small business owners have used successfully for decades.
Whatever you been doing hasn’t been really working so why not open your mind and turn to a blank white page?
I’m going to explain first what was the previous page.
“If you want to know what NOT to do in business look around and see what everyone else is doing and do the complete opposite.”
As for how to advertise for your company previous page contains a shotgun.
When the bullet of a shotgun is fired the pellets spray all around wildly in all directions with no direct target.
This is similar to sending out postcards to a particular zip code or putting a flyers on everyone’s windshield in the neighborhood.
This is expensive and is all waste circulation and your paying for it. That is your old page of understanding for advertising.
The understanding and philosophy taught and universities about branding.
That traditional style marketing you will find in a marketing textbook or taught in all the major universities.
The idea is to get your name “out there”
That’s a great strategy and has worked successfully for many companies.
But these are big companies that generate well over $1 million revenue and usually have hundreds of thousands for their advertising budget.
In order to practice this type of marketing you must have time and money both of which the small business owner does not have.
I’m sure you have seen direct response marketing.
And quite possibly you have participated in direct response marketing without understanding the secrets of how it works.
I’ll show you.
Now turning to your new blank page you begin to open the door to a new understanding.
The understanding of direct response marketing.
Businesses under $1 million use this secret form of marketing because it’s measurable down to the penny.
Once you learn this new way of marketing you’ll be amazed at the amount of money big companies are flushing down the toilet.
What you’ll also learn is that unlike you, the small business owner, their ads have a different purpose.
Those big companies are trying to please their board of directors, their shareholders and the ad agency running their ad.
Most of the time the agency is trying to win awards and get people to laugh.
One of the last purposes of the ad is to actually sell products and services.
You as a small business owner need to make as much profit from your ad as possible. This is the secret of direct response marketing.
You begin to see where your money is going and how to analyze it and measure it down to the penny.
This takes you to the new page.
The new understanding where you go from being a hillbilly shooting a shotgun In the woods at a squirrel to being a world class US Marine Corps sniper shooting with the Barrett M 82 rifle.
This strategy works amazingly well on social media where you can go on Facebook or Instagram and get prospects to respond to your business ads.
You can actually see where you money is going and I’ll explain how to make money on Facebook in another article.
“But I have more than one target , I sell to everyone” you might say. True but for now we need to focus on one target at a time.
Speaking to everyone at once causes your ad to be way too weak for a small business. You must be specific and focused on one target at a time.
Like a sniper.
When someone reads your ad it must be personal. A Personal message from you to them. You can’t do this if your message is general.
It will be way too weak and not directly focus that one person or group. Each message different for different parts of your client base.
“The most expensive thing to do in business is to get new clients through the door. The most expensive thing in advertisement is waste circulation and you’re paying for all of it. Better learn how to do it right”
By doing this you will see that you get a much higher response and as I said it’s measurable to the penny.
As you implement this strategy over time you will get much better understanding of that particular segment of your market.
After you are successful with this segment you can go on to other segments of your market.
You do the same testing process as a first segment. You speak directly to the needs, problems and worries of this particular segment of your market and you solve it individually for them.
When you do this you don’t stop advertising and marketing to the first segment that you were successful with.
What you do is add this new segment in addition to the first one.
This takes you from the old way of shotgun marketing to rifle sniper marketing.
The more you practice this type of direct response marketing and the fact that you can measure it is precious to you.
You’re running your business on a tight budget and the traditional way isn’t an option for you.
But you have been taught in marketing that in order to be successful in your business you have to get your name “out there” right?
But in reality you need a customers. You need new clients “in here”…Right?
This is the strategy of direct response marketing. To get quality prospects names in your pipeline that you can form a relationship with.
Of course why didn’t you think of that?
Well believe me when you focus more on the pains problems and worries of your market you’ll have a flood of new prospects and names to choose from because they will come to you like magnets.
How do you attract clients to you like magnets in direct response marketing?
I’m glad you asked.
I’ll tell you more about it in my next article.