Better Business and Marketing

Better Business Tips Jan 2006

Before I launch into some strategies for you
to think about, I just want to mention that I just
HAD to slip in the last couple of letters, that I sent
you recently, as I think that both will REALLY benefit
you tremendously.
The e-bay offer can help you make a packet of
money if you get serious about it, or just a little if
you just want to clear out the garage or have some
fun selling a few items you no longer want. You may
be able to open an e-bay account and have the kids
run the show. They may love it and make some money
for you and them as well. It’s never too soon for them
to start making a buck. (Just make sure they comply
with the rules)
You have nothing to lose.
I will be looking more closely at it myself very shortly,
because I know that the products Derek and the
Internet Marketing Centre offer are First Class:

http://www.auctiontips.com/t.cgi/844156

Then there was the fantastic “My Daily Insights”.
What better way to start your day than with some short
gems, pearls of wisdom like the ones you will be sent
most week-days. Best of all they are completely free to you:

http://www.mydailyinsights.com/default.asp?affID=342624

Now, lets get down to some nitty-gritty.

Marketing. Selling.
Words most people will associate solely with business.
In fact they apply to many facets of our lives -
business or otherwise.
No matter who you are, where you live or what you do –
you WILL be marketing. More often than you realize.

- You may be trying to market (or sell) an idea to your
partner or boss.
- You may be trying to get that girl (or guy) you really
like to take an interest in you
- You may be trying to sell your car
- You may want to convince your boss that you deserve
a raise

There are countless times in our lives where we are
trying to market/sell something.

How do we go about that?

A lot of it is in the presentation. How do you present
the thing you are selling? How do you “package” it?
Firstly, you have to think about whom it is that you
want this thing to be appealing to.
What kind of people (person) are you marketing to?

- Are they affluent and expect it to fit in with
their world of extravagance and flashiness?
- Are they down-to-earth country types
who are more concerned about practicalities?
- Are they lower down on the economic
ladder and have to make the Dollars count

These things are very important in how you construct
or dress up your marketing.

There was a company offering economy travel. As most
companies seem to do, they spent a lot of money making
flashy brochures for display in the travel agents.
Funnily they had a very low response rate with them.
They then printed simple pamphlets on regular cheap
colored paper and guess what: their sales went up
dramatically. The market they were going after were
not high flyers. They were people on a budget.
This is what attracted them.
On the other side, if you are trying to interest people
in the millionaire bracket, you would go the extra mile
to make it look great.

Know who you are after and structure your marketing
accordingly.

And TEST. Test everything. Measure the response.
How else do you know if what you are doing is working?

Again I will come back to Word of mouth advertising.
This is the cheapest and most effective way to grow
your business or your personal reputation. It can
make or break you in a reasonably short time,
although it can break you a lot quicker if you are
giving bad service.

Take for example the Disney Companies:

Word-of-mouth marketing is taught there as 'find ways to do
what you do so well and so uniquely that your customers
cannot resist telling lots of other people about you.' At the
Disney Parks this principle is implemented in the forms of
cleanliness and authenticity.

When first time visitors to Disneyland and Disney World are
surveyed and asked what sticks in their mind most about
their visit, the overwhelming number one answer is the
cleanliness of the parks. The number two answer is the
authenticity of the environments.

Disney marketing pros understand how this translates
into real life. Lisa and Mike go back to Denver and tell
their friends, 'You can't believe how clean the parks were.'
Then four more families from Denver pile money into their
suitcases and bring it to the Park.

Because they understand this, the Disney people think of
park cleanliness as marketing, not just maintenance. They
use this to stimulate referrals. Any business can also find
ways to stimulate referrals, to stimulate word-of-mouth
advertising, often by doing things that should be done anyway.

In a retail type business excellence and creativity in the store
environment and in customer service are most likely to
stimulate referrals.
Look around you. Think about how you address your customers.
How you answer the phone. How can you make your store look
a little better.
Stand out from the crowd.

Give the customers what they want. And then a little extra.
How do you know what they want?

ASK THEM
Observe them
Take an interest

Think about the times you have dealt with someone in
business and were really impressed. You still remember
them and talk about them today. WHY.

Because they gave you something that you don’t always get.

Do you think their business has benefited from the
things they do, that made you talk about them to your
friends? Have you gone back to them again the next
time you needed whatever it was that they were offering?
You bet!

If they had even one quarter of their customers
spreading the word like that, do you think that helped
their business? Too right it would have.
That translates into a LOT of money by the end of the year.
And it has a snow-ball effect. If you tell 4 people, those 4
tell another 4 and they tell another 4…………
You get the idea.

I have mentioned service and referrals a number of times
in previous letters. It is SO important. I have built up a
couple of businesses of my own in the past mostly by
word of mouth. Apart from being cheap, it also makes
business much more enjoyable, because your customers
enjoy dealing with you. What you give out – you get back.

There are a hundred more things I would love to tell you,
different strategies, specific strategies - and I will go into
more diverse ones next month, but I won’t take up too
much of your time right here.

Should you want to go on and learn more, please click
on the following link and find a plethora of info and
strategies available:

www.tkbetterbusiness.com

Also, if you feel that any friends may benefit from
this news letter or any of the programs we have available,
please send them the following link to my free report,
where they can sign up for this monthly newsletter.
Or just forward this letter to them and have them sign
up directly if they like it:

www.tkbetterbusiness.com/FreeMarketingReport.html

It only takes a few seconds – hit the “Forward” button,
put in their email address. Send.
If they don’t like it and don’t subscribe, they won’t hear
from me again.
But they’ll be missing out on some great opportunities.

Wishing you great success and a fantastic day

Kind regards

Tom Kress