How To Boost Your Bottom Line Fast!
In this issue:
- How to create numerous highly targeted product or service offerings with a simple realtor example
- Small Business Mastery readers speak out!
- Boosting the bottom line fast
- Making more money with fewer clients
- And Much More!
Fellow business builder,
We definitely hit a hot spot! Thank you for your excellent response to the last two weeks articles “How To Write Lead Generation Display Ads” and the "Turning Your Leads Into Buyer" article.
I wanted to address a few of the comments that were left by you, because the readers of this newsletter are what make it tick!
Helen wrote: “Great information. How do you feel about realtors' personal branding in the same context? The herd mentality demands a headshot and blah, blah, blah about service or "free home evaluation."
Hi Helen! If you are a realtor, please don't hold what I am about to say against me :o) Realtors make me laugh. Most – not all. There is a definite ‘can it and clone it' approach to getting your realtors license.
They all do the same kind of websites… the same kind of business cards… the same kind of note pads… the same postcards… the same newsletters… the same kind of this… the same kind of that… and so on.
I have spoken with many realtors over the years about this – and they seem to just glaze over and completely ignore anyone else's advice.
Why? I have no idea.
But there are a few that I have worked with that actually listened and tried something new (a novel concept actually trying to be different).
One lady advertises herself as "The Pet Lovers' Realtor"
In a city of well over a million people she is the ONLY one doing this. Hmmmmm… ya think there might be a few pet lovers looking to move homes? Of course there are.
And she can target them like a LASER with this kind of niche marketing.
Which she does.
She puts photos of her with her own pets in the newspapers, on bus stops, PET MAGAZINES! and classifieds for pets. She “gets it” – the other 4,000 realtors in my city don't. They come up with these lame excuses – “well I don't want to just focus in on pet owners – maybe my next million dollar commission deal will come from someone who hates animals (that kind of silly excuse).
I repeat: she is the ONLY ONE in a city of a million people and 4,000 competitors that does this! Enough said. No wonder she's been running ads with the same title for many years now. No wonder she is still in business as a realtor when 80% of them flop big time every year. No wonder that the realtors whining about not niching themselves are always whining about something to do with “not enough quality leads”.
This applies to every single kind of service business, too.
How can YOU niche your marketing and advertising efforts? All it takes is a little time… a pad of paper and a pen. There are lots of different niches you can target – they all have their own magazines, their own newspapers, their own trade rags, their own websites, their own language for the search engines – do you see how deceptively simple this really is?
So – will YOU try it? I just did with a report I am selling. Someone representing a very specific niche emailed me asking if it would work for their industry. I gladly wrote back that not only would it work – but I would be willing to create a customized product specifically for their industry if they help me understand what exactly they need. They happily agreed – and this is a product/service that is in every single major city across the planet. On some version or another. A simple way to create multiple products or services just by niching what you already have.
Chuck wrote: “Excellent article. Very informative with outstanding examples. Great ad for the house painting service. I'm wondering how that ad itself was created. Was it done in Quark Express? IT has two columns and it looks like a drop cap at the beginning. Did you lay it out or have an artist do it? Thanks again. (I printed out the whole article to keep as a handy reference.) Keep up the great work!
Great to hear from you Chuck! I have a graphic artist design most of my web and graphic ads (aka – my wife, Kari… Clayton has Wendy, the Redhead… I have Kari, the brunette).
The type of stuff I prefer to do is quite simple – so you can probably have this type of ad done very easily through someone at elance.com. Or you can even do it yourself in Word, if you need a quick and dirty method, then pdf it from there. Many of the offline media will use your pdf file as the ad to run.
One of the best things you can do is to test the quick and dirty ads like this – then as they are proven to work – use them as your control piece and try and improve upon it with nicer graphics, different colors, different layouts, etc. As long as you are always testing results – you will ultimately end up with an ad that continues to crank out leads one after another like clock work.
Brian wrote in: “Troy, Nice article. I was wondering WHERE you run your example lead generation ad (NOT the painter ad). Do you run in the business section of a local paper?… trade magazine?… etc? Thanks.
Hey Brian. Great question – probably one of the most important questions there is in advertising and marketing your business…
…which media is right to get to your target market?
There is no solid answer for everyone – as each business has an ideal client (or should). First, you must understand who your target buyer is. Male or female? Married or single. Income? Employed or self-employed? What do they read? Where do they surf the web? And so on.
You truly need to understand the most intimate details of your target buyers before you can target them.
Once you do – the targeting is much easier.
With the ad I showed previously – I found a highly targeted business publication that a large percentage of my perfect clients read. I ran a few tests – saw that the quality of leads was exceptionally high – and continued to run ads every edition. I have a yearly contract with them and have at least one ad running in every new edition. I will test new ideas every once in a while to see if I can beat the results from previous editions.
HINT: when you know your target audience… and you have some ideas of where to advertise to get them… notice if there are others in your industry running ads there. Notice if the ads run week after week. Notice if they have direct response type elements built in (even better if they don't).
If it all looks good – PHONE THE ADVERTISERS.
Be honest with them – ask for the marketing person. Tell them you are considering advertising in that publication and are researching the results that they get from their own ads.
They will be surprisingly honest with you.
I've used this for many different industries. Last summer I did this for a high-end home builder. I noticed a certain publication had lots of small and large display ads for home builders, developers, and land investment opportunities. So I phoned them. And found out that they all told me how valuable that publication was to them. Many of them even told me it was their most prized source of quality leads (told you they were honest). So… guess where we ran our ads? Not hard to guess.
When you know your target market intimately… and you do your due diligence and find out where they visit, or what they read… THEN you have what could be a goldmine for your lead generation.
This is key to do before you start throwing up ads in the strangest of places (which is what most businesses do). When you find the perfect match – you will be very happy with what you get in return.
Ok… I had better get to my article!
The BIG Kahuna - The Bump and Upsell
One of the most powerful ways to improve your profits is to increase the average sale price at point of purchase. It doesn't matter if it is a retail store, a web store, or a direct mail piece… they ALL can use the upsell.
Take this example:
$1,000 sale price
50% profit = $500 profit
Imagine you find a way to up the average sale price to $1,200 – nothing more is done at time of sale other than asking for the higher price (typically 30 – 40% of people will take you up on a higher priced item – and a VERY large percentage of them will keep buying from you even if you raise your standard prices by 20% or more for the same product or service).
You make another $100 profit on each sale by just ASKING them to buy more.
A 20% boost to the bottom line by asking a simple question!
Now consider this:
Imagine you get 1,000 new clients a year for your $1,000 item = $1,000,000 per year in sales.
Now imagine you raise your prices by 50%. You will get fewer people buying – BUT the numbers are much lower than you would expect. Typically with a 50% boost in selling price (assuming you keep service higher than average and much higher quality than your competitors) will cost you 20% of your clients.
Now you make $1,500 per sale (50% increase in sale price) but only sell 800 people (20% loss in clients).
$1,500 x 800 = $1,200,000 - a 20% boost to your sales by charging a lot more money. Now factor in profits!
Imagine the product you sold has a cost of $500 to make.
Originally you were making $500,000 profit (1,000 x $500 profit/unit)
Now you make $800,000 profit with fewer buyers! (800 sales x $1,000 profit per sale – the cost of sale does not increase – just the selling price)
A 60% BOOST IN PROFITS! All with a boost in price and fewer sales.
Now, wouldn't you like to make 60% more
cash-in-your-pocket for less work?
Think very seriously about this.
How can you charge more?
What can you charge more for?
People WILL pay more if you position it right. There is ALWAYS a high-priced alternative in the marketplace. And they make profits. Trying to be the low-priced option is a never ending battle. Someone will always try and charge less than you.
OTHER THINGS TO TEST IN YOUR UPSELL
Try extending payment options. As you charge higher and higher prices – offer more payment options. Monthly, bi-monthly, every quarter – whatever makes sense for your product.
The best position to be in is a continuity type program where you automatically charge them every month (preferably on a credit card automatic charge). Rather than one-time payments, you automatically get more and more payments from them until they ask you to stop.
How can you offer them a service or update program that gives you that option to charge more – and more often.
It may not seem obvious right now, but with a pen and paper in hand, you will find a way to make it work with your business.
Not sure if you quite realize it yet – but what you have done so far is more than 99% of businesses do!
Most people have no clue if their marketing is working… they just throw more money at ineffective advertising and marketing and hope it is bringing them in new business.
Don't believe me?
Ask them.
Go out and actually ask 5 entrepreneurs you know.
Ask them what marketing they do.
How much they invest in each marketing campaign.
How much it costs them to get a new client.
Where their best leads come from.
What their most effective marketing technique is.
What their best ad is, and where it runs.
Ask them how many times a year they follow up with their existing clients.
Ask them what the lifetime value of a client is to them.
They have NO CLUE.
It was never taught to them like you just learned. They typically copy their competitors, just hoping and assuming that their competitors know what they are doing (meanwhile the competitors have no clue either).
So keep that in mind as you move forward here. You know more than 99% of all business owners out there when it comes to your marketing. It is now up to you to do something BIG with that knowledge.
You know exactly what campaigns worked – and which didn't. You know which copy appeals work best for your clients, and which bomb badly.
You now have a blueprint that you can run again, and again, and again.
As long as you are testing and measuring, you will know how long these approaches work for you – and when it is time to test out some new approaches.
If I were you, I would take this very seriously. Implement one sales technique every 2 weeks – and at least one newsletter a month. Post to your blog at least twice a week – and make sure every time you have a chance, you ask for referrals.
It is not that difficult to grow your business at 25 – 50% per year using these techniques… chances are you will see much higher growth rates that this.
The danger though is that you get lazy.
You forget to send out more campaigns… or you get too busy because of the past ones.
Outsource any work you can – to make sure that they continue to happen on a regular basis.
Multi-Millionaire business owners
are no different than you…
…they just know the importance
of
implementation, systems, and consistency.
Those 3 things are much of what you need.
To your success,
Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE
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Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.
A Final Note:
If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.
"Now is the time to fix the next 10 years"
– Jim Rohn
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Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Glen Kohlenberg — May 22, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
Great articles Troy,I like the display ads,I am tied to the new home building bust in florida.Our business is off by 60%,but why? Rates are low,cost are down,existing home prices are at lowest prices ever.What kind of advertising or outside the box ads can we do to stir things up and get things moving again.Keep up the good work! Glen
Comment by Caleb Osborne — May 23, 2007 @ 10:28 am
Troy!
I loved this article, especially the part:
\”Multi-Millionaire business owners
are no different than you…
…they just know the importance of
implementation, systems, and consistency.\”
Yep – that\’s pretty much it!
LAter!
Caleb
Comment by Tracey "Word Doctor' Dooley — May 24, 2007 @ 2:09 am
Hi Troy
Thanks for another great article!
You said: \”As long as you are testing and measuring, you will know how long these approaches work for you – and when it is time to test out some new approaches.\”
What do you use or how do you track, test and measure?
Cheers!
Comment by Don O — May 25, 2007 @ 7:31 am
Troy,
I ran the following ads in a pub that always generates business for a home heating oil/burner service company.
My intent was to create some name recognition and then splice in some sales props.
The pub. loved the ad copy but my client thought they were a bit ridiculous and asked that the old style be done instead.
My question is, do you agree that this type of name recognition campaign is a step in the right direction? and Do you think it should be abandoned.
I really want to differentiate this company from the competition.
The Ads:
\\\”Be nice to your boiler, it\\\’s the only one you have - Spring tune-up please! company name and number
\\\”Top Techs Tune Up Your Boiler\\\” N & N
\\\”Boiler broke or making smoke? There is hope!\\\” N&N
\\\”Happy Mother\\\’s Day from your furnace - kept you warm all winter, tune me up please!\\\” N&N
\\\”Company Name finishes first in 24 hour service (we run every day)\\\” N&N
\\\”Holy smoke? DOn\\\’t wait, get a tune up.\\\” N&N
Don