Marketing to the Affluent - with Wine

With its association to an affluent, sophisticated lifestyle, wine can make a good accompaniment when marketing to an affluent audience. However, I am not talking here about ordering expensive wine at a client diner. Wine can be used more creatively and productively to connect to this target audience.

For example, wine proved to be a powerful marketing element for a startup magazine targeting an audience that is personally affluent and controls an enormous amount of money.

BuySide magazine is a publication for institutional investors and money managers. When it was first conceived, it had to overcome what seemed to be a big drawback. Its founder, Gordon Holmes, lived in Sonoma, California, and insisted that the magazine be based near his home, far away from both the financial and media centers in New York.

In discussions with Holmes, I discovered that Holmes’ insistence on basing his operations in Sonoma was not just a whim or a wish to have a short commute to work. It turns out that five generations of his family had been involved in California agriculture and he was passionate about California wine and wine-growing.

I made a decision to turn BuySide’s remoteness from financial and media centers of action into a positive. His location in California’s wine country would become part of the magazine’s positioning.

The first step was to create a private label BuySide Wine. In a deal with local wineries, we were able to source a sufficient amount of BuySide Merlot and Chardonnay. A special wine bottle label was designed to reflect the unique story of this boutique wine.

Next, a direct mail campaign was developed using wine as a theme and Buyside wine as a premium. The campaign was aimed at advertisers and companies that wanted to reach the magazine’s audience of institutional investors.

The chief element of the direct mail campaign was a brochure. The reader was immediately confronted with a stark, bold headline on the front of the brochure:

“WHERE DO YOU GO TO TALK TO INVESTORS WITH $TRILLIONS TO INVEST?
When the brochure was opened, the inside headline provided the answer:
“TO THE WINE COUNTRY”

On the left side of the inside page, we developed a fanciful photo that conveyed the message we wanted: In the photo, Holmes was wearing a suit and holding a cellphone, sitting at a desk which had a computer on top of it, in the middle of a winery. Next to the desk was a street sign that said “Wall Street.” The other side of the page told the story of Buyside and how it reached this affluent, influential audience of institutional investors. The copy also directed readers to an offer in the back.

As part of the offer, companies that responded to the mailing would receive a free bottle of BuySide winewhite or red.

The mailing and promotion powered the magazine to success far ahead of schedule. But wine proved to be more than a launching pad in a direct mail campaign. It became part of the magazine’s positioning, separating it from the competition. The wine angle proved powerful for years to come. At money management conferences, where wine was given out at BuySide’s booth, people would come into the conference and ask ‘Where are the wine guys?” Everyone knew what they meant.

While developing a private label wine may not be for everyone, there are other ways to use wine creatively in affluent marketing. Wine tastings, and food and wine get-togethers have been used successfully by professionals seeking to market their services to an affluent audience. But like wine itself, it takes taste and sophistication to make it work.

Leon Altman is the founder of InvestingIN.com (http://www.InvestingIN.com), a website that provides articles and newsletters about opportunities in different areas. To sign up for any of its free newsletters, go to http://www.investingin.com/freenewsletters.htm.

8 Things You Must Do If You Want To Have A Working Ecommerce Web Site

E-commerce is a growing process that more and more businesses are realizing is necessary to have as part of their business model. Unfortunately it can be a complicated solution that requires knowledge of many back-end functional components that most entrepreneurs aren’t familiar with.

This article will discuss the specific components that are required to create an ecommerce web site. It will discuss what the components are, and what they do.

1. Sign up with a quality web hosting provider

Choose a web hosting provider that gives you at least one SQL database, and can do server side scripting, such as SHTML, PHP, and/or CGI scripting. You want a service that will give you at least 300Mb of space, and will give you at least 5 email accounts if possible.

If you can afford it, you should request your own IP address, so you don’t have to share your IP address with lots of other web site owners, some of who could be spammers. It only costs a few dollars extra to obtain your own IP address in most cases anyway.

2. Use a good shopping cart

The shopping cart is used to keep track of your visitors desired purchases. In order to serve a multiple number of visitors, your shopping cart needs to do the following:

1) Allow multiple simultaneous users.
2) Keep a running total of the costs.
3) Finalize the order.

Sometimes a shopping cart is located on the same server as your web site, and sometimes it is located on a different server altogether. There are usually many reasons for doing both.

3. Create a good database

The database is usually kept on the same server as your ecommerce site. This will usually mean that you will need to get a hosting plan that gives you a database. SQL is a typical database that comes with many hosting accounts.

The database is usually used to:

1) Keep customer data 2) Create customer personalization 3) Keep product data 4) Hold shopping cart contents 5) Integrate with other systems

4. Accept credit cards

You will want the ability to accept credit cards. Sure, you can run an ecommerce business by using fax, and/or requiring people to send in your checks, but you will be leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t accept credit cards in one form or another.

5. Use a secure socket layer

A secure socket layer allows encrypts the data between the customer’s computer and your web server. It keeps prying eyes from sneaking a peek at sensitive data, such as credit card info. You can run a business without it, and you may get some sales, but the vast majority of people will not purchase from your web site if they don’t see the secure connection indicator on their web browser. Different browsers indicate the secure connection in different ways.

6. Use a payment gateway

A payment gateway collects the credit card info and sales info (price, customer info, etc.) and does some sort of basic fraud check, to make sure the credit card isn’t stolen, etc. It charges the customer’s credit card and deposits the money into your bank account.

7. Acquire a merchant account

A merchant account allows your business to charge sales to credit cards. It is basically a type of agreement between your business and a bank.

8. Get a separate business bank account

You will need a bank account that will accept the deposits for the credit card charges. As with most everything else, business bank accounts vary in features and costs based upon the servicing bank.

Creating a Web site to sell requires complex technology, but it can be relatively straightforward. There are services that can easily provide the required functionality, and in most cases, the greatest challenge is deciding what kinds of services you need, and then being able to connect the pieces together.

Copyright 2006 B Hopkins

Find out exactly what you need to quickly get your web site ecommerce enabled. Take our free online course called “Sites That Sell”
For the FREE Course send an email to: mailto:psiphon@aweber.com

For more information about ecommerce, go to
http://yourecommercesite.com or http://psiphonconsulting.com
(A http://drivetraffictomywebsite.com creation)

MLM Recruiting- Cold Market Prospecting - 5 HOT SCORCHING Op

There is a phrase in MLM Recruiting that we call the 5 Magic Words of Cold Market Prospecting. These words can open more doors than you ever thought possible. I used them for years, and they opened thousands of doors. They also help recruit a ton of folks.

What would that phrase be?

“Maybe You Can Help me.”

These words can open doors, create curiosity, and open the hearts of many people to give you a helping hand in your Network Marketing Business.

You may be wondering what do you say after those words. After all, what happens if that phrase gets someone’s attention? What do you do? What do you say?

This brings us to the Golden Law of Cold MLM Market Prospecting:

“Recruiting Starts after the initial Contact…”

What does that mean?

We found that if we didn’t try to recruit them right off the bat, but waited till the second meeting or even third, our ratio for success went up. And it went up tremendously. Many people have a tendency to jump into a conversation with a new prospect, without realizing that it may require some time to develop the relationship, and even give it time to BE THE RIGHT TIME to pursue the conversation full force.

INFERNO Secret:

Don’t become an MLM Cold Market “ATTACK RECRUITER.”

Give your cold prospect room to breathe, and let a rapport start to develop a little. If the prospect is cold to the idea, give it some time. Hold more conversations. The desire to help may be there, but give it time to grow and be revealed. A lot of times, it won’t happen immediately, due to the intial lack of any interest on the prospects part, or bad experiences with others.

Wait till the second conversation to bring up your desire to seek them for your business, or who they might know.

This is only professional, and you are giving the relationship time to solidify and then mature into a real possible friendship.

INFERNO Secret:

If you jump the gun too quick in MLM Cold Market recruiting, you will end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Here are the “5 HOT Phrases for Cold market MLM Prospecting” These are mainly for people that you will meet in the business community when Net-Working your business, which you should be doing all the time!

The 5 Hot Phrases for MLM Cold Market Prospecting:

1) “I am a professional in the community like you.”

2) “I am introducing myself to .”

3) “I love networking with other professionals.”

4) “Maybe there is a way we could help each other.”

5) “Would you be open to some coffee sometime?”

Let’s take a look at these powerful opening phrases:

1) “I am a professional in the Community.”

This states an important fact: You are one of them.

And this will create the start of a CONNECTION right off the bat, and also establish who you are to the Cold prospect, from one professional to another. Network Marketing is a profession, and you need to start treating it like one, if you are not.

2) “I am introducing myself.”

This sets up an important paradigm. You are taking the initiative to introduce and meet people in the community, and you are a take charge type of person. And it shows you really want to meet folks, as well it shows Leadership.

3) “I love networking with other professionals.”

This states one thing: You value other professionals as a resource. And you also show that you appreciate the fact that networking does work in the business world And also that as a resource, a professional has value to you and your Network Marketing business, and vice versa.

4) “Maybe there is a way we could help each other.”

This establishes that you are willing to Increase and Improve your prospects business and life. And also you do care about helping people, plus you are showing Potential value right upfront.

5) “Would you be open for coffee sometime?”

This is the proactive part of it, and it simply gives them a chance to engage the budding relationship,or not. Most professionals do have an interest in increasing their business, so you will get some interest, and some time with many of them.

But if they say they are not interested?

Be a professional, and thank them for their time and wish them well. And see if you can get a card for a thank you note to send them.

“May I at least have a card in case I run across someone who would want your services?”

Understand that you as a network marketer should be out weekly meeting folks who may need your products and looking for you. But most don’t do that as they stay tied to one or two ways to prospect.

You need Multiple Lead Vehicles in Network Marketing.

INFERNO Secret:

Millionaires in this business have multiple lead generating vehicles working for them, all the time, everywhere, with anyone who is looking.

In your Cold market Network Marketing Prospecting, make sure of this:

You put yourself on the other side of the table think about how would you like to be approached, and treated. Then do it, with these phrases or variations of them. And turn your Cold prospect into a warming up prospect, then eventually a Scorching HOT MLM Prospect.

It worked for me for years, and I was blessed to build huge organizations with these Cold Market Prospecting Phrases for MLM and Network Marketing Recruiting.

blessings…doug

(c) 2005/ all rights reserved
PassionFire Intl
http://www.passionfire.com

About the Author: Doug Firebaugh is one of the top MLM Network Marketing Trainers in the world. Over a million people a month read his training ezine. He spent the last 7 years traveling the world speaking and training on Success. He lives in Birmingham Michigan, and you can receive a FREE subscription to his training ezine- The MLM Success HEAT- at: http://www.passionfire.com/pf_heat_4.html http://www.passionfire.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Effective Google Ad Writing

Making more money on your Google Adwords campaign isn’t hard as
long as you know the secrets to success! Using these easy
methods, you’ll gain more revenue and have more successful
Adwords Campaigns!

Use keywords in the title - don’t put your business name or
anything obscure in the title, go for the keywords that people
would use to search for your product.

Put keywords in your sub-text too - try to sprinkle in 2-3 more
keywords (without sounding spammy) in your subtext as well.

Make sure to capitalize the first letter of every word in the
title - however don’t use all caps. Using all caps is like
shouting and using lower case letters at the beginning of the
word doesn’t reflect importance.

Use numbers when you can - It’s better to say “Make $1000/week”
than to say “Make lots of money”

Don’t list features, list benefits - People want to know how
this product/service will change their lives. If you just list
the features, they may not draw the conclusion to the benefit
they’ll receive from that feature so outline the benefits for
them.

Be niche-specific for targetted traffic - are you selling
“t-shirts” or “t-shirts featuring Siamese Cats”. If you are too
vague, you’ll get the wrong kind of traffic.

Don’t make wild claims - Don’t go nuts and make crazy promises
or use too much punctuation. You’ll only come off as a used car
salesman and non-trustworthy.

Include the price and weed out the bargain hunters - Including
the price in your ads actually filters out the cheapskates and
attracts the serious buyers.

Run two ads simultaneously - See which one does better in
revenue and try to figure out what makes it different than the
other ad. Then when the worse ad expires, create a new one in
its place and compare it to the winning ad. Always try to “beat”
your previous running ads.

If you just use these simple and proven methods when writing
Google Ad text, you’ll be amazed how instantly your profits will
increase! Also use “call to action” words, create emotion, use
motivational words, and action verbs for outstanding sales copy!

I’m Glad I’m Not in Love in South Korea

I’M GLAD I’M NOT IN LOVE IN SOUTH KOREA

My birthday falls on February 17th so I’ve never been all that
excited about Valentine’s Day, preferring instead a day that’s
all about me! Plus, like many others, I hate the
commercialization of holidays. It could be worse however; I
could be in love in South Korea.

Korean Coupledom

With love celebrations falling on the 14th of every month, plus
anniversaries and important milestones (i.e. 100 days since a
couple has met), South Korea has perfected the commercialized of
romantic relationships in a way that would make even North
American marketers envious. It all starts with Diary Day in
January, where lovers present each other diaries with all the
important aforementioned dates circled in red. With the plethora
of dates to observe throughout the year, it’s probably the most
practical of the love holidays!

February 14th is celebrated in much the same fashion as it is in
North America, except it is the girl that does all the giving.
The guy then has a month to ponder what to get his gal in return
and reciprocates on White Day, usually with elaborately wrapped
candy. Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Photo Day and Hug Day are
all quite self-explanatory.

And don’t worry about singles in Korea. April 15th, Black Day,
is set aside for them to commiserate together and publicly eat
noodles in black bean sauce, in the hopes of meeting their soul
mates. If they are so fortunate, one month later they can
express their newfound love (or infatuation?) by exchanging
yellow roses. The unlucky (some may say lucky), who are still
dateless, meet for curry.

Searching for Love

Companies eying the increasingly wealthy Korean market - in
particular it’s younger generation, are savvy to incorporate
these holidays into their marketing campaigns. The simple image
of the Absolut Vodka bottle has been used for years but evolves
in creative ways to convey different things in different
cultures. Sometimes it is as simple as changing the text of the
advertisement and at other times the image itself changes.
Consider the following ads. The first was used in South Korea in
advance of White Day and is very similar to an ad used in Miami
aimed at the Hispanic population. Vodka as an expression of your
undying love has also been used in Valentine’s Day campaigns in
North American (incidentally the same image was used again with
the captions “Absolut Bravo” and “Absolut Amica”).

The Opportunity

So if vodka spells love, what implications are there for your
product? Koreans trying to woo their lovers are always on the
lookout for something novel or cute (in South Korea cute sells
(think Hello Kitty), not sex).

For Canadian wine producers, what better day to launch a new
product than Wine Day on October 14th? Money Day in December may
seem overtly consumerist but Christmas is not widely celebrated.
I guess South Koreans decided to embrace the excesses of the
season without a religious pretext and it’s a great time to
introduce a new consumer product to South Koreans.

If you would like more information about love holidays, send me
an e-mail and I’ll pass along a news article with more details.

Copyright © International Strategies Ltd. 2005.

10 Tips For Packaging That Sells Products To Boomers

Boomers are a prime and growing target audience. Does your product speak to them? Does your product’s packaging compel them to buy it? If not, you are missing a very important market segment. According to Rick Adler, founder of The Senior Network: “Simply based on population growth trends, if a product is marketed to the 50-plus audience and maintains its market share, it should increase in sales by 35 to 50 percent in the next 20 years. Conversely, a brand targeted at the zero to 50 age groups will be flat in sales.”

These 10 tips are adapted from DESIGN YOUR PACKAGING FOR THE ULTIMATE TARGET AUDIENCE - BOOMERS

1. Don’t associate boomers or over those older than 50 generation with being old.

Boomers view themselves as younger than they are (typically by 20 years).
Whether you use the word, “boomer,” “senior, “over 50,” or “aging,” this group doesn’t want to be referred to as old. Avoid using the “over the hill” context. Use words that are not considered negative. Gone are the days of over 50 being considered close to the end of life. You’re not old. You are in the prime of your life.

In surveying my audience I asked what name they preferred to be used as a reference. The 50+ age range prefers to be called:

mature
boomer
older
senior
golden

2. Make it easy to use.

Emphasize convenience or ease-of-use. Boomers are busy people–making their lives easier or more simplified is important. They like to spend time on activities like cooking. They just don’t want to spend a lot of time getting things together to do it.

3. Make it easy to read.

How important is the label’s readability?

70% Very Important
8% Somewhat important

4% Not at all important

“We are not illiterates. Just make sure we can see what we are buying.”
They size of type and the readability of packaging was the #1 packaging problem issue cited by the over the 50 crowd. Even with glasses many times the product labels are difficult to read. Make no mistake; Boomers will be reading it to make an informed decision

4. Keep the product secure.

By product security I mean that there is no evidence of tampering or indication that the product has been opened in any way. This is going to be a huge issue in the future. With the advent, of 9/11 food security has become paramount.

How important is product security/integrity?

72% Very Important

18% Somewhat important

2% Not at all important

5. Create relevance.

Use role models or visuals that represent the audience. Having a 20 year old touting the latest benefits means nothing. Conversely, having a 50+ year old speaking to her daughter or granddaughter creates relevance.

6. Don’t use celebrity endorsement.

Do celebrity endorsements influence your purchasing decision?
2% Yes 98% No
Wow. Think of all the wasted money.

Do endorsements from a senior organization such as AARP influence your purchasing decision?

14% No 86% Yes

So the bottom line is don’t use celebrities. Think of all the money you will save. Do use AARP and similar organizations to tout the product.

7. Make it easy to open.

Does ease of opening influence your decision?
48% Yes
54% No

Ease of opening was considered a problem after they tried to open the package. Unfortunately, many of the reasons a package is difficult to open is because of external influences, tamper evident, theft, counterfeiting and product integrity.

8. Keep it simple.

The same features that make packages kid-friendly should make it easier for many adults to utilize. What they want you to know about the package:
Make it easy to handle
Use color coding to differentiate products in a family
Need easy opening packages

9. Use language that connects

Use language that connects with boomers. In most cases, they are educated, literate and informed. Communicate with them as such. Hip hop and other “in “style messages create a negative image rather than a positive one.

10. Forget about age

Does age matter? How important is the designation that the product is for those older than 50?

14% Very Important

16% Somewhat important

60% Not at all important

So don’t categorize the product is one created for those over 50.

However you reach out and connect with boomers through product packaging, it’s important to visualize this market as vital, active people. Eliminate the old stereotypes that we grew up with of people over the age of 50. Create significance by using images of people who realize they have the best years of their lives ahead of them.

Got packaging problems? I can help. I teach people how to package products consumers will buy. I make it easy to answer your problems with email and voice consultation. Get advice from the top expert in consumer packaging. To order the full report Design Your Packaging For The Ultimate Target Audience - Boomers email the Packaging Diva @ PackagingDiva@aol.com

How To Create Gold With Email Promotions - Part 1

First make sure that the people you are sending your offer to are actually interested in what you are offering.

Often people contact me and ask me to promote their product to my list. If it isn’t congruent with the products I have then I never cross the line and promote them to my list.

People give you their details trusting you to let them know when something good becomes available.

Don’t blow it by talking about something they’re clearly not interested in.

Personalize every email you send out, especially in the Subject Heading.

If there is something we are attracted to its ourselves. When we hear or see our own name we always give it a higher priority.

In this time of rampant spamming and internet jokes doing the rounds we are now conscious of how much time is wasted with this amazing so called time saving technology.

You want to maximize the chances of your email being read so keep it personal.

Everything you do in marketing has to showcase the benefits to the reader.

Too many times people send out an offer without having the benefits to the customer emphasized in the headline.

People only ever care about how something is going to help them either make their life less painful or make it more pleasurable.

Having a benefit to the customer in the headline can do this for you.

Think about your product or service from your customer’s perspective.

What are the benefits that are going to interest them?

Is your product or service going to save them time and or money?

How is it going to improve their lives?

Write headlines that showcase emphasize these benefits.

Try to use power words in the headline!

One of the most powerful words you can have in the headline is You.

Don’t forget people are so busy now they will only give your email a limited amount of their concentration. Therefore you should summarize your offer in the first paragraph.

If it’s compelling enough it should grab the reader’s attention and make them want to read further.

To Be Continued!

Scott Wilson - Internet Business Opportunity Creator and Internet Business Coach. Owner of http://www.InternetSalesMentors.com and http://www.TheGoldsInHere.com

Feeding the Beast

Revelation 13:1-13:9
Feading the Beast,If any man have an ear, let him hear. Rev 13:1-9 Is the world, feeding the beast, makeing him stronger? What or who is the beast, is he here or is he to come? Are we giveing the right answers to the wrong questions? Lets look at revelations 13: 1-9, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea… The book of revelations refer to the beast as an enemy of God and anything that is rightious.

The Jews today are worried that their government is feeding the beast, by giveing concessions to Syria, returning land that they took from their enemys by war.Egypt, Syria,ect ,are all takeing bites out of Isreal. But a little closer home, are we feeding the beast. Lust, greed, falst doctrine, false preaching, teaching, decieveing one another, while the beast gets stronger from our inconsistancies? Chewing up our churches and christians from within, getting stronger from the flesh and blood of the elect of God. You say, it cant happen here, not in America, we chose our own destiny. Yes, its happening here. Look around at the schools, no prayer, one woman, had the power to remove prayer from our schools,where was thye church while this was going on, the ten commandments are not allowed to be posted in our court houses, homosexuals are allowed to meet in our schools but if you protest, then you are the evil one, not allowing free speach. Christians are the 2nd most hated people in the world, the Jews are the 1st. Look at Revelations 13:9-10, this is very important, look at what Jesus said in Verse 9, If any man have an ear, let him hear. Why was this put here? Jesus was trying to tell us to pay attention. Verse 10, He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity…..Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. We hafe to help one another, guide one another, support one another, we need each other, we are a family, not just in the church building, but outside. remember the Lords prayer, yea thou I walk throu the valley of the shaddow of death, I will fear no evil…? Do you actually know what the valley of the shaddow of death is, its when you walk out of you house, when you leave the church building, when you take your dog for a walk, its the world outside your own frount door.Thats where the valley is and thats the valley where the beast is waiting, and hungry.Rape, murder, prostitution, pornography, homosexuality, alcoholism, drug addication, lies, its all there in the valley and the beast is waiting for you and your children and frends. The world knows the beast and its feeding him ,makeing him stronger, the Jews are trying to fight him but to no avail.Im not a theologian, many might say, that the beast in Revelations has to rise out of the sea, their right, the sea in these verses is a metiphore, look at it this way, the beast is in hideing, untill he gains strength, right now hes growing up and feeding on any thing that he can get his hands on. Some are waiting on the antichrist to arrive, but church, hes allready here, the Bible tells us so, its the spirit of the antichrist and the spirit of the beast that we should have allready started to fight.You say, thats for the ones that arnt raptured, but church, think about the ones that arnt saved, maby your own children, your kneighbours and frends. we dont know when Christ is comming after us, think about the others.Take a quick look at verses 7 and 8 and think on these things.Hear what the spirit sayeth unto the Church, hear, hear and understand, time is short, we cant afford the luxuary of makeing mistakes with our or someones elses soul. The beast is hungry. remember at the begining I asked a few questions, are we, giveing the right answers to the wrong questions, are we confuseing people with doctrine thats not scripture? Think, are we feeding the Beast?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A.R.Smith Sermons International. http://www.ourchurch.com/member/a/arsmithsermons/

Competitor Analysis - How Writing Rubbish Can Give You an Edge

The Gobbledygook Competitor Analysis Tip

When typing cap can tell you a lot about your competition…

One of the great things about Adwords is it allows you to test so many different things ever so quickly. It is a very useful tool but if it were likened to a sword - it would be double-edged.

What do I mean by this?

It’s very simple - your advert - when it is displayed - is in the public domain and can be seen not only by your prospects but also your competitors.

The reverse of course is also true, which means you can perform competitor analysis too. So how can you leverage this to find out who amongst your competitors is doing a great job writing Adwords creative copy?

A quick refresher is in order - Google allows you to match in 4 different ways:

• Broad Match (unadorned keywords and keyword phrases)
• Phrase Match (Enclosing Quotes ” “)
• Exact Match (Enclosing Square Brackets [ ])
• Negative Match (With a preceding minus sign - )

Google also has some inbuilt smarts and will display your advert on occasions when it deems your advert is suitable (even though your keyword list may not match).

This is known as “Expanded Match” and is only employed for your keywords that are Broad Match specified (the least targeted). The idea behind this is to maximise your advert exposure thus driving more targeted traffic to your website.

Natually Google will get more revenue as a result

So how can you benefit from this?

I hope your eyes haven’t glazed over quite yet because here comes the good bit:

Type in a keyword phrase you are interested in - it must be at least a 2 word phrase.

Note the results of adverts - there may be 10, 20, 100 or more depending on how competitive your market is.

The Gobbledygook Competitor Analysis Trick

Now - type in the first word from your keyword phrase, followed by some gobbledygook - e.g. 1kises - and then put in the remaining part of your keyword phrase.

Now you’ll see the amount of adverts displayed will be vastly reduced - only those who have used broad match keywords will be shown BUT…

The adverts shown are shown in order of precedence - the precedence being dictated by the best adverts in terms of Click Through Rates!!!

So you have a sorted list of the best adverts for your target market for that particular keyword (exclusive of phrase and exact match keywords).

With this information to hand you can now construct better adverts faster for your chosen target market all for a little time taken to write rubbish and perform a competitor analysis.

Tom O’Brien turns Adwords PPC management problems into profitable advertising campaigns.
For more free tips on Adwords Campaign Management visit:
http://www.pdqprospects.com/services/GoogleAdwordsCampaignManagement.html

Overcoming Call Reluctance

Everyone in marketing faces it at one time or another - reluctance to pick up the phone and make calls. Logically, it makes no sense to feel that way. We believe in our product or service. We have a script that’s either been given to us or one that we’ve carefully written out. We have a list of prospects that are at least somewhat targeted. We know that when someone says “No”, it’s not directed at us. And still… the phone weighs a ton.

OK. You decide that the pain of being broke is greater than the pain of “cold” calling, so you commit to making calls each and every day. Or at least commit to try. Or try at least some days each week. For a while anyway…

We’ve all been through all of this before, and guess what? IT DOESN’T WORK! We’re still reluctant to make the calls we know we need to. So what’s the deal? Are you just “bad” at calling? Is it that calling only works for some but not most of us?

The answer, of course, is that calling can work for any one of us. It’s a matter of finding the right “key”(s) to open that door of calling success. We need to address why the typical “cold” call isn’t effective. We’ll start with the obvious issue. Calling strangers causes most people some amount of anxiety. Why does it make us feel so anxious and apprehensive? I’ve found that there are four reasons that cause people to feel anxious about calling. If any one of them exists, anyone would feel anxious about making a call. Here they are:

1) We feel that we sound like a telemarketer. Somewhat unprofessional and/or insincere.

2) We aren’t sure how to effectively start the call.

3) We aren’t sure how to effectively steer the conversation.

4) We aren’t sure how to comfortably and professionally end the conversation.

Let’s look at each one of these issues separately and find out how to put them behind us.

1) We feel that we sound like a telemarketer

What makes a telemarketer sound like a telemarketer? Think about it for a moment. You know the drill - we’ve all received telemarketing calls both at home and at work. What is it about that call that marks it as a telemarketing call? There are several factors that make us cringe at these calls. First off, telemarketers are either overly friendly to start with or they sound completely disinterested. Both make the caller sound insincere. Secondly, telemarketers talk and rarely ask. The call is all about their product and service and not about the person who received the call. Thirdly, they usually plow through their script, not allowing us to get a word in edgewise. And fourth, it’s always evident that they’re reading a script to you rather than speaking to you as a person. Those four factors generally mark the call as a telemarketing call.

How do you keep people from viewing you as a telemarketer? Simple. Don’t do those things!

a) When you call, don’t be overly enthusiastic and don’t be disinterested or matter-of-fact in your tone. Speak in an appropriate, natural tone and manner.

b) As you get into your conversation, ask questions. Be consultative. Remember, this is about your prospect, not about you.

c) & d) Practice your script so it is as conversational as possible. I always write out my script so it reads as naturally as possible. It’s usually not perfect writing but it is always natural and easy to say.

2) We aren’t sure how to start the call

The thing that annoys most of us when a telemarketer calls is that they dive right into some sales pitch without even knowing whether we have the time or interest in hearing about what they have to say. The most effective way to be viewed as a professional is to act like one. As an example, here is the way I start my marketing calls:

“Bob? Good Morning. This is Michael Beck. How are you today? (pause) Bob, I’m an executive coach (pause - I want to make sure they understood what I just said) and have worked with insurance managers for a number of years. Do you have a few minutes to chat?”

As simple as the above exchange is, it serves a number of important purposes:

a) In short order, I’ve told him who I am and what I do.

b) I said his name two times. (People love to hear their own name. Read “How to Win Friends and Influence People”)

c) I began to establish credibility. (”I’ve worked with insurance managers for a number of years.”)

d) I asked permission to take some of his time.

3) We aren’t sure how to steer the conversation

We ended the start of our phone call with a question: “Do you have a few minutes to chat?” There can only be three answers to that question - “Yes”, “No”, or “What is this about?”

• If the answer is Yes, you’re off and running.

• If the answer is No, you could say you’ll call back or ask when a good time to call back would be, but why not use the opportunity to get more information? Since you’ve already told him who you are and what you do, why not ask: “Would you like me to call back?” The answer will either be Yes or No! Either way you should be happy. Either you’ll know not to waste your time trying to reach a disinterested prospect or you’ll have a somewhat pre-qualified prospect on your list!

• If the response is, “What is this about?”, have a short explanation of why you’ve called prepared, something like: “I wanted to share some of what I do, find out what your initiatives are, and see whether what I do could help you reach your goals faster and easier.”

Pretty straightforward isn’t it? …

If you approach the meat of your conversation in a way to see if you can help your prospect, rather than sell them something, it’s quite easy to have a stress-free, effective conversation.

No matter what the goal of your call is, at some point the discussion needs to draw to a close with a “trigger” question. “Can we set up an appointment to go over this in more detail?” or “Here’s what we should do next…”

4) We aren’t sure how to end the conversation

How you handle the end of your conversation will determine you well you protect your attitude. We ended the middle of our conversation with a question (see a pattern here?). There can only be three answers to your question - “Yes”, “I need more information”, or “No”

• If the answer is Yes, again you’re off and running.

• If the answer is a request for more information, have a simple process ready to provide prospects with additional information and/or credibility-building materials, get a commitment for a follow-up call, and set it up as an appointment in both your calendar and theirs. Don’t leave the follow-up as a vague process. Inotherwords get a phone appointment and avoid endless voicemails and phone tag.

• If the answer is No, my preference is to thank them for their time and candor, ask them if they’d like me to give them a call back in 6-12 months, and then hang up!

Let me close with a couple of perspectives that have served me and others well over the years.

One perspective is that if you find that any one prospect means a great deal to you, it’s a sure sign that you aren’t finding enough prospects. Put in more effort. Then everything else takes care of itself.

The other perspective that I have found helpful pertains to rejection, and is illustrated in this story:

Imagine you have a recipe for fantastic chocolate chip cookies and bake them to perfection. They’re absolutely delicious! You take a tray of these cookies around to people, asking them whether they would like one. The first person takes one and loves it. The next person you offer the cookies to declines - they are full, don’t like chocolate, or don’t want sweets. Here is the key question: “Does the fact that the second person didn’t want your cookies affect the quality of the cookies or the skill of the baker?” Clearly the answer is no. Their decision doesn’t have anything to do with the cookies or the baker. Their decision was about what’s going on in your their life, not yours.

When you create an effective phone process - knowing how to get into and out of conversations - and understand that a “No” truly is not about you at all, calling becomes more comfortable and it becomes easier to make many more calls. The result? Financial Success!

Copyright 2006 Exceptional Leadership, Inc.

Michael Beck, “The Insurance Coach” is an Executive Coach and Recruiting Activist, and helps insurance professionals succeed faster and easier. He can be reached at 866-385-8751 or mbeck@theinsurancecoach.com
Visit his website to learn more: http://www.TheInsuranceCoach.com
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