How to build a stronger brand

Here are my tips for building a better brand:

1. Your message must be very simple. Focus on the number 1 strongest benefit you offer and describe that benefit in ALL of your marketing. A big mistake that is often made in marketing is thinking you should list every single benefit you can think of. The problem with that is your message becomes diluted and nearly impossible to remember. To build a strong brand, you must focus on one core benefit. If you look at all the world's top brands, you will see they all focus on ONE core benefit, not several.

2. Be consistent with your message in all of your marketing. Do not say one thing in one advertisement and something totally different in a different advertisement. For people to remember and trust your brand, you must have a consistent message in all of your marketing communication materials. You build a strong brand by repeating the same message over and over.

To Your Business Success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Company
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

How to raise your prices without irritating customers

As the price of gas continues to rise, many companies are finding they have to raise their prices due to higher shipping/transportation costs. The problem is, how do you raise your prices to compensate for your higher costs without irritating your customers? Here's how...

The best way to inform customers that you are raising your prices is to be brutally honest and justify the price increase. If it is now costing your company X% more to get your supplies shipped to you because of higher gas prices, say so. Customers will understand the situation you are in and they will continue to buy from you.

You also want to remind your customers of the benefits of doing business with you. Do you offer better service than your competitors? If yes, quantify how you provide better service (live people who answer the phone, open on weekends, open earlier and/or later than competitors, etc.). Do you offer a superior product? If yes, explain why it is superior and of higher value than competing products. Focus on the benefits of how your product or service makes your customers' lives easier. Prove to them why it is in their best interest to do business with you instead of your competitors.

To your marketing success!

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

How to succeed with email marketing

My tips for the best way to make email marketing successful are as follows:

1. Provide valuable information to your email list. Give your email recipients something of value so they keep your email and look forward to receiving your next email. I get many of my clients from my email list because I provide "how to" tips to help my subscribers better market their business. This shows them that I am an expert and that I want to help them succeed. Over time this builds trust and the people on my email list become loyal paying clients.

2. At the end of each email, add your sales pitch and a call to action. If you want people to do something, you need to tell them how to do it. "Call us today at 123-456-7890 for a no-obligation telephone consultation on X."

3. Use 1-3 testimonials in your email of satisfied customers saying how your product/service has helped them. Nothing in marketing works as well as heart-felt customer testimonials.

4. Do not overwhelm your email list by emailing them every day or even every week. I have found that sending more than one email per week irritates subscribers and they will unsubscribe.

5. Most important of all is a good subject line. Your subject line is like a headline for an advertisement. You must make your headline interesting so people want to read the email but you do not want it to look like spam. So, there is a fine balance. I find subject lines that say, "How to do X" work well.

Warmest wishes,

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group advertising agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
(920) 471-1638

How to make trade shows more successful

Here is my number one tip for trade show success:

Don't be boring! If you have a boring booth with boring people standing around with their hands in their pockets, you are wasting your time and money going to a trade show.

To be successful, you must make your booth attract attention. You need your booth to be the party booth. Choose a theme - be the beach party booth where people are all wearing matching beach shirts and shorts. Offer a contest for a free beach vacation for every person that completes a quick survey (name, company name, size of company in annual sales, number of employees, address, phone, email, fax, website, etc.). The key is you have to make your booth the party booth where the fun people are. Hiring a couple of attractive female beach models for the day does not hurt either. If you want people to come to your booth so you can collect their information for future marketing, you must make your booth the party booth the draws them in.
If you cannot afford to offer a beach vacation contest, offer non-alcoholic tropical drinks in exchange for the prospect completing a short survey. And make sure to have a large sign that says FREE TROPICAL DRINKS.

To your marketing success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group, Inc.
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

How to market to consumers during an economic slowdown

The way companies can get ahead of the trend of an economic slowdown is to market more and provide more value to customers by combining items to sell multiple items as a discounted package deal. So, instead of buying A or B or C as separate items, get A, B and C for the discounted price of $X. Companies can also empathize with their customers and say, "We know things are hard right now and you need to be careful with how you spend your money. Therefore, we are lowering the price of our product/service to help you during this difficult time."

To your marketing success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
920-471-1638

How to market your company in a down economy

The conventional wisdom among businesses is to slow down their marketing during a recession to save operating capital. The problem is that it is a huge mistake to do so because when you reduce your marketing, your sales drop very quickly, causing even more financial difficulties for your business. But, because it is the norm, it represents a huge opportunity to grab market share by smart companies who are willing to aggressively market during a recession. If your competitors are marketing less and you are marketing more, you take market share away from them.

I am in fact taking my own advice and I have increased my company's marketing because of the economic slowdown and it paying off amazingly well. Our leads have increased and our sales have increased. With the way my business is growing, one would think we were in a strong bull market.

So, the message is, KEEP MARKETING!

To your success,

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
(920) 592-9595