Today I read that Priceline.com is killing off the William Shatner "Negotiator" character. My feeling on this from an advertising point of view is that this is going to be a huge and very costly advertising mistake for Priceline.com.
Priceline has spent millions of dollars branding the negotiator character and getting him into the minds of their target market. It is a great character and people generally like him. Now, Priceline is apparently going to go in a new direction. Yes, the "going in a new direction" mistake. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in advertising is killing off a character that is loved by your target market, especially after you have spent millions of dollars branding that character. Depending on what direction Priceline decides to go with their new advertising campaign and positioning, they are essentially going to be starting a new branding campaign from scratch and losing all the momentum and brand power they created with William Shatner and his negotiator character.
Keep a watch on the growth rate of Priceline.com to see if killing off the negotiator character and going in a new direction kills sales or actually increases them. My money is on seeing them take a sales dive by killing off William Shatner as their spokesman.
Please share your opinions on this with me.
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Advertising Agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Small business financing
I recently discovered an outstanding FREE service that connects entrepreneurs with investors. The service is called CapLinked.
If you need help creating business plans and/or marketing plans to present to potential investors, contact my marketing firm at (920) 471-1638 or email us. We have helped companies attract investors and we know how to write business and marketing plans that get investors excited.
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
If you need help creating business plans and/or marketing plans to present to potential investors, contact my marketing firm at (920) 471-1638 or email us. We have helped companies attract investors and we know how to write business and marketing plans that get investors excited.
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Saturday, November 26, 2011
change marketing plan or change sales message
The thing with marketing is you should always be testing your sales message against a control to see if you can beat it. Marketing is more about testing copy than changing your entire marketing plan. The marketing plan may be sound but if your sales copy sucks, your marketing plan is worthless. It all comes down to the salesmanship of your advertising.
Here is how to test copy. Let's say you tested 3 different sales letters (or print advertisements, or website sales pages, or Google AdWords text ads, etc). Out of the 3, you will find that one of them will most likely have a higher response rate than the other two. That best response sales letter becomes your control. You then use that control letter as your main sales letter while on a smaller scale you continue testing new sales letters to see if you can create one that generates a higher response rate than your control letter. Once you create a new letter that beats your control, that new letter then becomes your control and you create new sales letters that you test on a smaller scale to again see if you can beat the new control. When you do beat it, the new letter becomes your control. You just keep repeating the process to continuously improve your control to generate maximum results. This is how the best marketers create powerful campaigns--testing, testing, testing!
Another way to think of a marketing plan and testing copy is to compare it to a race car. If you lose a race, you don't build a new race car from scratch. You continuously fine tune the car to make it faster. It is the same with a marketing plan and sales copy. A marketing plan tells you who your market is and the unique benefit(s) your product or service offers them. Your marketing plan is the race car. But, to compete in the race (the market), you must continuously fine tune your race car (sales message/copy) to pull the maximum results out of it. This is done by testing different sales copy against a control to always try to squeeze a higher response rate from it. For example, just changing the headline in an advertisement can increase the response rate by 100%. Marketing is the art and science of testing copy. Almost never does an advertisement produce great results on the first try. Great advertisements are the result of testing many slightly different messages to continuously see if you can produce higher response rates.
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Here is how to test copy. Let's say you tested 3 different sales letters (or print advertisements, or website sales pages, or Google AdWords text ads, etc). Out of the 3, you will find that one of them will most likely have a higher response rate than the other two. That best response sales letter becomes your control. You then use that control letter as your main sales letter while on a smaller scale you continue testing new sales letters to see if you can create one that generates a higher response rate than your control letter. Once you create a new letter that beats your control, that new letter then becomes your control and you create new sales letters that you test on a smaller scale to again see if you can beat the new control. When you do beat it, the new letter becomes your control. You just keep repeating the process to continuously improve your control to generate maximum results. This is how the best marketers create powerful campaigns--testing, testing, testing!
Another way to think of a marketing plan and testing copy is to compare it to a race car. If you lose a race, you don't build a new race car from scratch. You continuously fine tune the car to make it faster. It is the same with a marketing plan and sales copy. A marketing plan tells you who your market is and the unique benefit(s) your product or service offers them. Your marketing plan is the race car. But, to compete in the race (the market), you must continuously fine tune your race car (sales message/copy) to pull the maximum results out of it. This is done by testing different sales copy against a control to always try to squeeze a higher response rate from it. For example, just changing the headline in an advertisement can increase the response rate by 100%. Marketing is the art and science of testing copy. Almost never does an advertisement produce great results on the first try. Great advertisements are the result of testing many slightly different messages to continuously see if you can produce higher response rates.
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Marketing Strategy - stop trying to reinvent the wheel
"I wish I could afford marketing like that!"
Ever find yourself thinking that? When you watch something big on television, such as the Super Bowl, you see companies pulling out all the stops to air what they feel are the best commercials for their products. The commercials wind up being more talked about than the game much of the time, because businesses pack millions of dollars into these 30-second spots designed to be funny, or edgy, or whatever will get them noticed. As a business owner, you may be a little envious of the marketing abilities of these companies.
But should you be?
I'm not going to bash every commercial on television, because there are certainly some that are brilliant, and effective. But the point of advertising and marketing is to bring in more sales. That's it. There is no other reason to advertise or market your product or service. While people are talking about the commercials after the Super Bowl, how many of them are buying?
Do you buy a particular brand of beer because a bunch of frogs keep saying it on TV in a funny way?
Does a guy in a goofy costume get you out the door to go get a burger?
When a talking dog tells you to go get a taco, are you going to do it because he says so?
Some commercials are wildly entertaining, I'll admit that. But how many of them are doing what commercials are designed to do, which is increase sales? As a marketer, it drives me nuts to sit through millions of dollars worth of wasted money while watching the big game.
It can be disheartening to think that you'll never be able to compete with the "big boys". Well maybe you can't in terms of production value, but you can certainly put together effective marketing campaigns that can rival what they do in terms of return on investment.
The key is doing the basics of marketing:
1. Know your audience. Understand what they want, what they need, what they're thinking, and how they talk. Speak to them on their level, and you will see how effective you can be.
2. Solve their problems. The reason somebody purchases something is because it is useful to them. Your marketing campaigns need to show how your product or service solves a problem that they are currently suffering from. It creates worth.
3. Make it urgent. Get them to buy now! It does you no good to show them there's a problem and then not motivate them to solve it now with a good call to action. Demonstrate to them that this can't wait any longer – they need to buy from you now before the problem gets worse!
4. Make it user-friendly. It makes no sense to drive people to a website, and then they have no clue how to buy from you. Make everything you do clear, concise, and to the point. Don't cram in more information than what is necessary. If it's too difficult, they will lose interest, and you will lose a sale.
The next time you watch television, pay attention to the commercials. See how many of them actually motivate you to buy their product. You'll be surprised how many do not make you want to buy. It will also comfort you and give you the confidence to go out there and put together a marketing campaign that will blow the big companies out of the water at a fraction of what they are paying – just by sticking to the basics of marketing!
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Ever find yourself thinking that? When you watch something big on television, such as the Super Bowl, you see companies pulling out all the stops to air what they feel are the best commercials for their products. The commercials wind up being more talked about than the game much of the time, because businesses pack millions of dollars into these 30-second spots designed to be funny, or edgy, or whatever will get them noticed. As a business owner, you may be a little envious of the marketing abilities of these companies.
But should you be?
I'm not going to bash every commercial on television, because there are certainly some that are brilliant, and effective. But the point of advertising and marketing is to bring in more sales. That's it. There is no other reason to advertise or market your product or service. While people are talking about the commercials after the Super Bowl, how many of them are buying?
Do you buy a particular brand of beer because a bunch of frogs keep saying it on TV in a funny way?
Does a guy in a goofy costume get you out the door to go get a burger?
When a talking dog tells you to go get a taco, are you going to do it because he says so?
Some commercials are wildly entertaining, I'll admit that. But how many of them are doing what commercials are designed to do, which is increase sales? As a marketer, it drives me nuts to sit through millions of dollars worth of wasted money while watching the big game.
It can be disheartening to think that you'll never be able to compete with the "big boys". Well maybe you can't in terms of production value, but you can certainly put together effective marketing campaigns that can rival what they do in terms of return on investment.
The key is doing the basics of marketing:
1. Know your audience. Understand what they want, what they need, what they're thinking, and how they talk. Speak to them on their level, and you will see how effective you can be.
2. Solve their problems. The reason somebody purchases something is because it is useful to them. Your marketing campaigns need to show how your product or service solves a problem that they are currently suffering from. It creates worth.
3. Make it urgent. Get them to buy now! It does you no good to show them there's a problem and then not motivate them to solve it now with a good call to action. Demonstrate to them that this can't wait any longer – they need to buy from you now before the problem gets worse!
4. Make it user-friendly. It makes no sense to drive people to a website, and then they have no clue how to buy from you. Make everything you do clear, concise, and to the point. Don't cram in more information than what is necessary. If it's too difficult, they will lose interest, and you will lose a sale.
The next time you watch television, pay attention to the commercials. See how many of them actually motivate you to buy their product. You'll be surprised how many do not make you want to buy. It will also comfort you and give you the confidence to go out there and put together a marketing campaign that will blow the big companies out of the water at a fraction of what they are paying – just by sticking to the basics of marketing!
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
How I would change Dell Computer Marketing
The business I would give a tune up to is Dell. Their brand used to be huge and then they just kind of disappeared from the spotlight over the past couple of years. They have switched their positioning a bit and I no longer know what the company stands for. What I would do is make a focused USP ad campaign and stick with it instead of jumping around so much. My positioning would focus on reliability – When you want a PC you can rely on, choose Dell. And I would stick to that core positioning. People want a computer they can rely on—not something that is going to break down or crash every other day. Keep the message simple and focus on the core benefit of reliability as the USP.
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Monday, November 07, 2011
How to market your business with direct mail
I was recently asked by a major business publication, my advice for how to market a SaaS (software as a service) company using direct mail. Although my answers below are focused on the SaaS company, these direct mail marketing strategies can be used by all businesses.
Question: "We are a SaaS company that delivers a fully integrated business and practice management system for chiropractors. However we are struggling with our marketing and sales as we are on a very tight budget. Can you give me any insight in how to create a direct campaign that will get the doctors attention, on a budget?"
To produce the best results for a direct mail program for marketing SaaS, there are several very powerful direct mail strategies you will need to follow to increase your response rate. These strategies will produce great results for all sales letters, not just SaaS.
1. At the top of your sales letter, use a strong headline that states the most important benefit your software provides to Chiropractors. This headline should be bold and a larger font size than the font size you use for the body text in your sales letter. A great headline promises a specific result. For example, “How to increase the productivity and profitability of your Chiropractic office by 37% in 60-days or less”.
2. Your sales letters must be personalized on both the envelope and within the sales letter. Do NOT say, “Dear Doctor” as it screams junk mail. You must address the Chiropractor by their actual name -- Dear Dr. Smith…
3. When writing your sales letter, always use a friendly conversational style. Do not try to write “cold and corporate" by using large words and showing off your vocabulary. All that does is turn people off. Instead, write your sales letter using friendly simply language as if you were talking to your best friend. I find the more friendly and conversational that I make a sales letter, the better the response I get.
4. Your sales letter needs to explain the benefits Chiropractors will receive. Understand that everybody cares about one thing - "What’s in it for me?" Put yourself in the Chiropractor’s shoes and ask yourself, "If I was receiving this letter, why would I want to buy the product being sold? What’s in it for me?" “How is it going to improve my life?”
5. Offer quantitative proof of how your software will benefit Chiropractors. This can be done by including several testimonials from Chiropractors where the testimonials state exactly how your software helped them. “I love this software. I have been using it for 7-months and it has made my office run like a fine oiled machine. Because of my huge gain in productivity, I can now see twice as many patients and my office’s income has more than doubled. I highly recommend it to all Chiropractors.”
6. Offer a 100% money-back guarantee. “Try our software for 60 days and if it does not increase your office’s productivity by at least 30%, we’ll give you a full refund.” Understand that the biggest hurdle in a sale is the perceived risk on the part of the customer. In their mind they are thinking, “What if this software is junk? What if I spend time and money implementing it and it does not work? Will other Chiropractors think I am an idiot for buying this software?” You must remove this risk by taking the risk on your shoulders and offering a powerful money-back guarantee so Chiropractors know they are protected financially if they try your software and it does not perform as promised.
7. To get your prospects to take action, your sales letter must ask Chiropractors to purchase by a specific date and give them a bonus for ordering by a specific date. For example, “Sign up for our business and practice management system for Chiropractors by July 29 and we’ll give you the first 2-months of service for FREE.”
8. Use a P.S. in your letter and restate your most power benefit and sales offer in it. Most people will read a P.S. first before reading the sales letter, so it is important that your P.S. has a very strong sales message and a call to action.
9. To get your sales letter opened handwrite the recipient’s name and address. Do NOT use mailing labels! Yes, this takes a lot more time than using mailing labels, but mailing labels scream junk mail and get your letter thrown in the garbage unopened. The first key in a successful sales letter campaign is to get your envelope opened, and by handwriting the recipient’s name and address, you can almost guarantee that your envelope will be opened. Admit it—when you get a letter where your name and address are handwritten, you open it.
10. Make your envelope "lumpy" by enclosing a small, inexpensive free gift. Make sure the gift has your company name and contact information on it and that the gift is something a person would want to keep - such as a nice pen, a good highlighter, post-it notes with your company information printed on them, etc.
11. TEST your sales letter on a small scale to measure if your sales message will generate a response. You will never know what sales message is going to generate the best response rate, so you need to constantly test, and you should always test on a small scale. The biggest mistake you can make is to do a large direct mail campaign without knowing beforehand what the response rate is going to be. That is how you lose your shirt in marketing. A good way to perform a test is to create a list of 600 prospects. Then, write three different sales letters. Send letter “A” to 200 prospects, letter “B” to 200 prospects and letter “C” to 200 prospects. Then, measure the results to see which sales letter performed the best (produced the most leads). Just by changing the headline of a sales letter, you can double or even triple the response rate. Then, use the best performing sales letter and send it to 500 new prospects to see if it will again produce a strong response. Continue testing like this until you have a sales letter that is a clear and profitable winner.
12. Use repetition. You will have far more success from direct mail marketing if you send it to the same group of Chiropractors at least six times per year. Monthly is better. Understand that many Chiropractors (like all types of customers) need to think about a product several times before they will buy it. Therefore, you need to keep your message in front of them, constantly reinforcing how your service will help them. Then, when they are ready to buy, they will contact you.
13. If your budget is small, consider using postcards with a 60-Day FREE TRIAL message to get Chiropractors to go to your website and try your service before they buy. Remember that the word “FREE” is the most powerful word in marketing, so use it. Again, remember to test different sales messages to see which generates the best response.
14. And last, the most important thing you can do is to follow up your sales letters with telephone calls. A week after sending your sales letters call the Chiropractors on your list and pitch them over the phone. See if you can get them to try a no-obligation free 60-day trial. Do whatever you can to get them using your service so they can experience the benefits for themselves and become a loyal, long-term client. With SaaS, you earn your profits over time, so do whatever it takes to get client to try your service and experience the benefits. This is how you will build a successful business with constant and predictable growth over time.
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Question: "We are a SaaS company that delivers a fully integrated business and practice management system for chiropractors. However we are struggling with our marketing and sales as we are on a very tight budget. Can you give me any insight in how to create a direct campaign that will get the doctors attention, on a budget?"
To produce the best results for a direct mail program for marketing SaaS, there are several very powerful direct mail strategies you will need to follow to increase your response rate. These strategies will produce great results for all sales letters, not just SaaS.
1. At the top of your sales letter, use a strong headline that states the most important benefit your software provides to Chiropractors. This headline should be bold and a larger font size than the font size you use for the body text in your sales letter. A great headline promises a specific result. For example, “How to increase the productivity and profitability of your Chiropractic office by 37% in 60-days or less”.
2. Your sales letters must be personalized on both the envelope and within the sales letter. Do NOT say, “Dear Doctor” as it screams junk mail. You must address the Chiropractor by their actual name -- Dear Dr. Smith…
3. When writing your sales letter, always use a friendly conversational style. Do not try to write “cold and corporate" by using large words and showing off your vocabulary. All that does is turn people off. Instead, write your sales letter using friendly simply language as if you were talking to your best friend. I find the more friendly and conversational that I make a sales letter, the better the response I get.
4. Your sales letter needs to explain the benefits Chiropractors will receive. Understand that everybody cares about one thing - "What’s in it for me?" Put yourself in the Chiropractor’s shoes and ask yourself, "If I was receiving this letter, why would I want to buy the product being sold? What’s in it for me?" “How is it going to improve my life?”
5. Offer quantitative proof of how your software will benefit Chiropractors. This can be done by including several testimonials from Chiropractors where the testimonials state exactly how your software helped them. “I love this software. I have been using it for 7-months and it has made my office run like a fine oiled machine. Because of my huge gain in productivity, I can now see twice as many patients and my office’s income has more than doubled. I highly recommend it to all Chiropractors.”
6. Offer a 100% money-back guarantee. “Try our software for 60 days and if it does not increase your office’s productivity by at least 30%, we’ll give you a full refund.” Understand that the biggest hurdle in a sale is the perceived risk on the part of the customer. In their mind they are thinking, “What if this software is junk? What if I spend time and money implementing it and it does not work? Will other Chiropractors think I am an idiot for buying this software?” You must remove this risk by taking the risk on your shoulders and offering a powerful money-back guarantee so Chiropractors know they are protected financially if they try your software and it does not perform as promised.
7. To get your prospects to take action, your sales letter must ask Chiropractors to purchase by a specific date and give them a bonus for ordering by a specific date. For example, “Sign up for our business and practice management system for Chiropractors by July 29 and we’ll give you the first 2-months of service for FREE.”
8. Use a P.S. in your letter and restate your most power benefit and sales offer in it. Most people will read a P.S. first before reading the sales letter, so it is important that your P.S. has a very strong sales message and a call to action.
9. To get your sales letter opened handwrite the recipient’s name and address. Do NOT use mailing labels! Yes, this takes a lot more time than using mailing labels, but mailing labels scream junk mail and get your letter thrown in the garbage unopened. The first key in a successful sales letter campaign is to get your envelope opened, and by handwriting the recipient’s name and address, you can almost guarantee that your envelope will be opened. Admit it—when you get a letter where your name and address are handwritten, you open it.
10. Make your envelope "lumpy" by enclosing a small, inexpensive free gift. Make sure the gift has your company name and contact information on it and that the gift is something a person would want to keep - such as a nice pen, a good highlighter, post-it notes with your company information printed on them, etc.
11. TEST your sales letter on a small scale to measure if your sales message will generate a response. You will never know what sales message is going to generate the best response rate, so you need to constantly test, and you should always test on a small scale. The biggest mistake you can make is to do a large direct mail campaign without knowing beforehand what the response rate is going to be. That is how you lose your shirt in marketing. A good way to perform a test is to create a list of 600 prospects. Then, write three different sales letters. Send letter “A” to 200 prospects, letter “B” to 200 prospects and letter “C” to 200 prospects. Then, measure the results to see which sales letter performed the best (produced the most leads). Just by changing the headline of a sales letter, you can double or even triple the response rate. Then, use the best performing sales letter and send it to 500 new prospects to see if it will again produce a strong response. Continue testing like this until you have a sales letter that is a clear and profitable winner.
12. Use repetition. You will have far more success from direct mail marketing if you send it to the same group of Chiropractors at least six times per year. Monthly is better. Understand that many Chiropractors (like all types of customers) need to think about a product several times before they will buy it. Therefore, you need to keep your message in front of them, constantly reinforcing how your service will help them. Then, when they are ready to buy, they will contact you.
13. If your budget is small, consider using postcards with a 60-Day FREE TRIAL message to get Chiropractors to go to your website and try your service before they buy. Remember that the word “FREE” is the most powerful word in marketing, so use it. Again, remember to test different sales messages to see which generates the best response.
14. And last, the most important thing you can do is to follow up your sales letters with telephone calls. A week after sending your sales letters call the Chiropractors on your list and pitch them over the phone. See if you can get them to try a no-obligation free 60-day trial. Do whatever you can to get them using your service so they can experience the benefits for themselves and become a loyal, long-term client. With SaaS, you earn your profits over time, so do whatever it takes to get client to try your service and experience the benefits. This is how you will build a successful business with constant and predictable growth over time.
To your marketing success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Local internet marketing strategies
There are a couple of great tactics you can use to perform local Internet marketing to attract web traffic from a specific city. In this example, Green Bay, WI will be used as the city and the business will be for an accountant.
The first Internet marketing tactic to implement is to perform search engine optimization on your website so when a person goes to Google, Yahoo!, or Bing and searches for a “Green Bay accountant”, your website is displayed on page 1 of the natural results, and hopefully at the top of those results.
The natural results are free, so by getting your website a page 1 ranking for specific search terms people will use to find the product or service you sell, you are getting these customers for free. Free is good!
The best way to perform search engine optimization on your website is to update your HTML title tag and meta-description tags by putting in your city and main search term(s) you wish to rank for. In this example for an accountant in Green Bay, WI, you would want to use something similar to the following HTML title and meta-tags:
The second great local Internet marketing tactic is to advertise on Google AdWords. Google AdWords is the world’s largest Internet advertising platform and it will soon become the world’s largest advertising channel surpassing TV, radio, and print publications. Google AdWords allows businesses to bid on specific keywords that people search for on Google and Google’s partner websites (there are millions of Google partner websites).
As an example of Google AdWords advertising, if you go to Google.com and search for “Green Bay accountant”, you will see 2-3 text ads at the top of the results page that have a light yellow background behind them and you will see one or more text ads placed in the right hand column where it says “Sponsored Links”. These ads are placed by accountants (or their advertising agencies) who are bidding on the search term “Green Bay accountant”, so when a person searches for “Green Bay accountant”, their text ad is displayed. If you are an accountant in Green Bay that wants to attract new clients, you would also want to bid on that search term and have your text ad displayed. The business that has the top position has paid the highest bid for the search term “Green Bay accountant”. The business with their ad in the second position has paid the second highest bid amount for that search term, etc.
Google AdWords also allows you to advertise by city and/or zip code. When you setup your ad campaign, you choose the city name and/or zip codes where you only want your text ads to appear. This way, if a person in Green Bay searches on the word “dentist”, and you are bidding on that search term for local searches, your text ad would be displayed.
Google AdWords is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform which means you ONLY pay when a person clicks on your text ad to go to your website. You are not charged for your ad being displayed, which is called an impression. You only pay when a person clicks on your text ad to go to your website.
The amount you bid per search term depends entirely on the amount of competition and financial value for that keyword search term, with competition being the number of businesses that are bidding on that search term. For a very popular high value national or global ad campaign search term like “mutual funds” the mutual fund advertiser may be paying $5 - $25+ for a single click. On the other hand, if you sell very niche product or service in a specific city, such as “Green Bay accountant”, and you have little competition, you may pay as little as 10 cents per click. The more competition, the more you pay per click. The less competition, the less you pay per click.
For more information on Google AdWords and to start advertising to your niche market, call us today at (920) 471-1638 or click here to email us.
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Blog: http://blog,geisheker.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
The first Internet marketing tactic to implement is to perform search engine optimization on your website so when a person goes to Google, Yahoo!, or Bing and searches for a “Green Bay accountant”, your website is displayed on page 1 of the natural results, and hopefully at the top of those results.
The natural results are free, so by getting your website a page 1 ranking for specific search terms people will use to find the product or service you sell, you are getting these customers for free. Free is good!
The best way to perform search engine optimization on your website is to update your HTML title tag and meta-description tags by putting in your city and main search term(s) you wish to rank for. In this example for an accountant in Green Bay, WI, you would want to use something similar to the following HTML title and meta-tags:
The second great local Internet marketing tactic is to advertise on Google AdWords. Google AdWords is the world’s largest Internet advertising platform and it will soon become the world’s largest advertising channel surpassing TV, radio, and print publications. Google AdWords allows businesses to bid on specific keywords that people search for on Google and Google’s partner websites (there are millions of Google partner websites).
As an example of Google AdWords advertising, if you go to Google.com and search for “Green Bay accountant”, you will see 2-3 text ads at the top of the results page that have a light yellow background behind them and you will see one or more text ads placed in the right hand column where it says “Sponsored Links”. These ads are placed by accountants (or their advertising agencies) who are bidding on the search term “Green Bay accountant”, so when a person searches for “Green Bay accountant”, their text ad is displayed. If you are an accountant in Green Bay that wants to attract new clients, you would also want to bid on that search term and have your text ad displayed. The business that has the top position has paid the highest bid for the search term “Green Bay accountant”. The business with their ad in the second position has paid the second highest bid amount for that search term, etc.
Google AdWords also allows you to advertise by city and/or zip code. When you setup your ad campaign, you choose the city name and/or zip codes where you only want your text ads to appear. This way, if a person in Green Bay searches on the word “dentist”, and you are bidding on that search term for local searches, your text ad would be displayed.
Google AdWords is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform which means you ONLY pay when a person clicks on your text ad to go to your website. You are not charged for your ad being displayed, which is called an impression. You only pay when a person clicks on your text ad to go to your website.
The amount you bid per search term depends entirely on the amount of competition and financial value for that keyword search term, with competition being the number of businesses that are bidding on that search term. For a very popular high value national or global ad campaign search term like “mutual funds” the mutual fund advertiser may be paying $5 - $25+ for a single click. On the other hand, if you sell very niche product or service in a specific city, such as “Green Bay accountant”, and you have little competition, you may pay as little as 10 cents per click. The more competition, the more you pay per click. The less competition, the less you pay per click.
For more information on Google AdWords and to start advertising to your niche market, call us today at (920) 471-1638 or click here to email us.
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
Main: (920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 227-2261
Blog: http://blog,geisheker.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geisheker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geisheker
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Marketing Strategy - Choosing the Right Bait
Marketing is a lot like fishing in that to be successful at it, you need to choose the right bait to catch the type of fish (customer) you want to catch (get to buy your product/service).
When fishing for bluegills, you want to use a bait they want to eat. One of the best baits for bluegills is using night crawlers. That is a bait they love. However, bluegills do not bite at great big muskie lures that may be bigger than the bluegills are. It's the wrong bait and no matter how many times you use a big muskie lure, you are almost guaranteed to not catch any bluegills.
Using the right bait is also critical for success in marketing and getting customers to buy what you sell.
When I refer to using bait in marketing, what I am referring to is focusing on a benefit your target market wants the most for the particular product or service you sell. By benefit, I am referring to the end result your product or service delivers.
To make this easier to understand I will give you an example. Let's say you sell athletic shoes for serious runners. These are the people who run 3+ miles a day every day and they live to run. They are your target market. Now the marketing question is, what bait (benefit) do serious runners desire most in a running shoe? Determining the right bait means the success or failure of your business. You may decide the bait you want to use is that your running shoes look super cool and high-tech. You look at them and they just look awesome. However, is having a super cool looking running shoe the bait (benefit) a serious running is going to desire most when choosing to buy their next pair of running shoes? Or, do you think a better bait might be to market your shoe as being super comfortable and the runner won't get sore feet and blisters? Maybe, maybe not. It could be the best bait is your running shoes are very durable and the runner can wear them for a year without wearing them out, thus saving them money in having to buy a new pair of shoes every 3 months. That may be the magic bait benefit that gets serious runners to buy your shoes. But at this point, you just do not know.
I know, you are thinking that you should just list every benefit your product or service offers and you will get customers by the zillions. Wrong. It has been proven over and over in marketing that customers will remember only one major benefit your product or service offers. One. That is why you must focus on the benefit (bait) your target market of customers desires the most.
So how do you know the #1 benefit (bait) they care about the most? You absolutely must talk to your potential customers in your target market (the more the better) and ask them what is the number 1 benefit they want that determines what product/service they will buy in your niche market. You have to ask them to tell you what is the bait that makes them bite. You will probably find that there are breakdowns of what they want such as 62% want benefit A, 23% want benefit B, 10% want benefit C, and 5% want benefit D. Now if you are a fisherman, you want to use the bait that has the greatest opportunity to catch the type of fish you want to catch. In the example above, if 62% of your target market says they will buy if they can get benefit A, benefit A would be the benefit you want to really focus on in your marketing because that benefit is going to be the bait that catches the most customers.
I hope this helps you focus your marketing message on the #1 benefit your target market cares about most. By doing this you WILL see an increase in sales and it will help you dominate your niche market.
To your success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing firm
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-163
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate!"
When fishing for bluegills, you want to use a bait they want to eat. One of the best baits for bluegills is using night crawlers. That is a bait they love. However, bluegills do not bite at great big muskie lures that may be bigger than the bluegills are. It's the wrong bait and no matter how many times you use a big muskie lure, you are almost guaranteed to not catch any bluegills.
Using the right bait is also critical for success in marketing and getting customers to buy what you sell.
When I refer to using bait in marketing, what I am referring to is focusing on a benefit your target market wants the most for the particular product or service you sell. By benefit, I am referring to the end result your product or service delivers.
To make this easier to understand I will give you an example. Let's say you sell athletic shoes for serious runners. These are the people who run 3+ miles a day every day and they live to run. They are your target market. Now the marketing question is, what bait (benefit) do serious runners desire most in a running shoe? Determining the right bait means the success or failure of your business. You may decide the bait you want to use is that your running shoes look super cool and high-tech. You look at them and they just look awesome. However, is having a super cool looking running shoe the bait (benefit) a serious running is going to desire most when choosing to buy their next pair of running shoes? Or, do you think a better bait might be to market your shoe as being super comfortable and the runner won't get sore feet and blisters? Maybe, maybe not. It could be the best bait is your running shoes are very durable and the runner can wear them for a year without wearing them out, thus saving them money in having to buy a new pair of shoes every 3 months. That may be the magic bait benefit that gets serious runners to buy your shoes. But at this point, you just do not know.
I know, you are thinking that you should just list every benefit your product or service offers and you will get customers by the zillions. Wrong. It has been proven over and over in marketing that customers will remember only one major benefit your product or service offers. One. That is why you must focus on the benefit (bait) your target market of customers desires the most.
So how do you know the #1 benefit (bait) they care about the most? You absolutely must talk to your potential customers in your target market (the more the better) and ask them what is the number 1 benefit they want that determines what product/service they will buy in your niche market. You have to ask them to tell you what is the bait that makes them bite. You will probably find that there are breakdowns of what they want such as 62% want benefit A, 23% want benefit B, 10% want benefit C, and 5% want benefit D. Now if you are a fisherman, you want to use the bait that has the greatest opportunity to catch the type of fish you want to catch. In the example above, if 62% of your target market says they will buy if they can get benefit A, benefit A would be the benefit you want to really focus on in your marketing because that benefit is going to be the bait that catches the most customers.
I hope this helps you focus your marketing message on the #1 benefit your target market cares about most. By doing this you WILL see an increase in sales and it will help you dominate your niche market.
To your success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing firm
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-163
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate!"
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
social media marketing services
The Geisheker Group marketing firm is now offering social media marketing services. For more information on our services and how we can help you, please visit the following link:
http://www.geisheker.com/social-media-marketing.htm
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing firm
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-163
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate!"
http://www.geisheker.com/social-media-marketing.htm
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing firm
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-163
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate!"
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Free negotiation training audio book
I found a great resource for you to learn how to become a killer negotiator. Jim Camp, the world's leading expert on negotiation strategies and negotiation training has a free audio book version of his best selling book, "Start With No" at http://www.startwithno.com.
To your success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing firm
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-163
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate!"
To your success!
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing firm
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-163
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate!"
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