The 1-page marketing plan -LESSONS- ACT 1: The Before phase Lesson 1: "Money isn’t everything. But it ranks up there with oxygen" "Nothing kills a business than a lack of -Oxygen-" Lesson 2: when people blame their industry, they’re just playing the blame game (It is too competitive-the margins are too low-Advertising no longer works ….) Lesson 3: The major mistakes made by most small business owner is they go from working for an idiot boss to becoming an idiot boss. Just because you are good at the technical thing you do, doesn’t mean you’re good at the business of what you do. Lesson 4: Professionals have a plan; they never just wing it. Lesson 5: 80/20 rule = 80% effects come from 20% of causes. 80% of the stuff you do is a waste of time (comparatively) Lesson 6: Success= more money with less work Lesson 7: Struggling business owners will spend time to save money, successful business owners will spend money to save time. Lesson 8: Marketing is where the money is. Lesson 9: Marketing= advertising + promotion + publicity + public relations + sales Marketing is the strategy you use for getting your ideal target market to know you, like you, and trust you enough to become a customer. Lesson 10: Strategy vs tactics. Strategy is the big picture planning you do prior to the tactics. Strategy without tactics leads to paralysis by analysis Tactics without strategy lead to "bright shining object syndrome" Lesson 11: Good, even great products are simply not enough. Lesson 12: Nothing will happen until a sale is made. A good product /service is a customer retention tool, before customer retention, we need to think about customer acquisition. Lesson 13: The marketing priorities of a small business owner look like this: 1.Marking a profit Lesson 14: Phase status Goal of this phase Before Prospect To know you and indicate interest During Lead Like you and buy from you for the 1st time After Customer Trust you and buy from you again and again and refer Lesson 15: The goal of your Ad is for your prospect to say "Hey! that s for me". Lesson 16: Trying to target everyone in reality means you re targeting no one. By going too abroad you kill your specialness, by narrowly defining a target market you become a specialist. Lesson 17: PVP index help you figure out who is your ideal target market. Lesson 18: For getting into the mind of your prospect, create an avatar. (Buyer's persona) Lesson 19: Marketing by accident < Marketing on purpose. One Ad=One objective. Lesson 20: A marketing database-one of the most valuable assets in your business-. Lesson 21: Don't leave anything to chance. Know exactly what you want your Ad to achieve and the exact action you want your prospect to take. Lesson 22: you need to develop your unique selling proposition (USP).The entire goal of it to answer: Why should I buy from you rather than your nearest competitor? Lesson 23: positioning yourself differently so that's the prospect is forced to make an apples-to-oranges comparison (not apples-to-apples). Lesson 24: The uniqueness doesn’t have to be in the product itself.it may be in the way it’s packaged, delivered, supported or even sold. Lesson 25 : what do the prospect wants is rarely the thing you are selling, it s usually the result of the thing you are selling. Lesson 26: If you confuse them, you lose them. Lesson 27: Understand that your prospects had essentially 3-options: - Buy from you - Buy from your competitor - Do nothing Lesson 28: Being remarkable change high prices while your customer thank you for it. Lesson 29: Follow up with a confirmation email like this one: Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Friday, June 6th. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! Lesson 30: Don’t play the commodity/price game. You probably don’t want to. Lesson 31: Bad marketing is highly product-focused and self-focused. Good marketing is always customer and problem/solution focused. (You know(problem)? Well, what we do is (solution). In fact (proof)) Lesson 32: If you don’t give your ideal target market a reason why your offer is different, they will by default to price as the main criteria for making their decision. Lesson 33: The easiest method to find out what your prospect wants is simply by asking them. (Feel free to ask us for anything you want) Lesson 34: When it comes to actual purchasing, this is done with emotions and justified with logic after the fact. Lesson 35: Create an Irresistible offer 1. Value: First you need to think, what is the most valuable thing you could do for your customer? What is the result which takes them from point A to point B that you can take them through while making a good profit? This really is the crux of your offer. 2. Language: If you're not a member of your target market, you need to learn the language and jargon used within your target market. If you're selling BMX bikes you need talk about "endos," "sick wheelies" and "bunny hops," not features, benefits and specifications. If you're selling golf clubs you need to talk about "hooks," "slices" and "handicaps." 3. Reason Why: When you have a great offer, you need to justify why you're doing this. People are so used to being short-changed that when someone makes a strong, value-filled offer, they become skeptical and look for the catch. 4. Value Stacking: Packing in many bonuses can make your offer seem like a no-brainer. This is a very smart move and can dramatically increase conversions. In fact I advocate where possible to make the bonuses more valuable than the main offer. Infomercials do this very well. "We'll double your offer," "That's not all.." etc. 5. Upsells: When your prospect is hot and in the buying frame of mind, this is the perfect time to offer them a complimentary product or service. This is where you have the perfect opportunity to tack on a high margin item even if the primary product you are selling is low margin. It's the fries with the burger, the extended warranty, the car rustproofing. It gives the customer added value and gives you more profit per transaction. 6. Payment Plan: This one is absolutely critical for high ticket items and can mean the difference between the customer balking and walking away or making the sale. 7. Guarantee: As discussed previously in this chapter, you need an outrageous guarantee. One that totally reverses the risk of doing business with you. People have been disappointed so many times that they don't trust any of the claims you make. It's nothing personal, just the way it is. You need to make dealing with you a risk-free transaction. In fact one where the risk is on you should you fail to deliver on your promises. "Satisfaction guaranteed" is weak and ineffective. 8. Scarcity: Your offer needs to have an element of scarcity. A reason why people need to respond immediately. People respond much more to a fear of loss than the prospect of gain. However, again you need a good "reason why" the scarcity exists as you don't want to be disingenuous with your scarcity claims. You have a limited supply, limited time, limited resources. Use this to your advantage in your marketing. If you can have a running countdown of time or available stock this can further turn up the heat on the fear of loss emotion. As you've seen there are many components to crafting a compelling offer. Taking the lazy, ill-thought-out road of "10% off or similar crappy offers is akin to throwing your marketing dollars in the trash. Take the time to craft a compelling, well-thought-out offer. Your conversion rate will skyrocket and so will your bottom line. Lesson 36: Target the pain = be a problem solver not a money-taker. Lesson 37: Almost no other skill will reward you more richly than the ability to write compelling words=COPYWRITING. Lesson 38: Title should equal the content. Lesson 39: What gets measured, get managed, and what you don’t know will hurt you. Lesson 40: ROI game= - if it costs you more than it made you= failure - If it made you more than it costs you = success Lesson 41 : Customer lifetime value: The money we make "upfront" on a campaign is known as the "Front-end" or acquisition cost. And the money we make on "subsequent" purchases is knowns as the"back-end". Together make up the lifetime value. Lifetime value and acquisition cost are two of the key numbers you need to know to measure marketing effectiveness. Lesson 42: Email Marketing enables you to maintain a close relationship with your customer base. Building a database of email subscribers plays a central role in your online marketing strategy. (Some details: page 102-104) Lesson 43: Email doesn’t replace postal mail, it complements it. Postal mail is a powerful media channel. Lesson 44: Moving people emotionally towards a desired action is what marketing is all about. Lesson 45: The only time to set a Marketing budget is when you are in the testing phase. Test your headlines, your offer, your ad positioning and other variables. Then cut the losers and optimize the winners until you finally have a combination that gives you the best possible ROI. Lesson 46: I advocate having at least 5 different sources of new leads and new customers." DON’T GET FAKED WHEN THE SKY IS BLUE." ACT 2: The During phase Lesson 47: Be a farmer not a hunter Lesson 48: The purpose pf advertising is to find people out there who are interested in what you do rather than trying to make an immediate sell from the Ad. When you interested leads respond, you put them on your follow-up database so that you can build value for them, position yourself as an authority and create a relationship built on trust. Lesson 49: Here's the other big reason you want to avoid selling directly from your ad: at any given time (on average) about 3% of your target market are highly motivated and ready to buy immediately. These are the prospects most mass marketing hopes to convert. However, there's a further 7% who are very open to buying and another 30% who are interested but not right now. The next 30% are not interested and finally the last 30% wouldn't even take your product if it was free. By going 3% addressable market to 40%, you’re increasing the effectiveness of you advertising by 1.233% . Lesson 50: Build a marketing infrastructure-a system whereby a cold lead enters one end and a raving fan customer comes out of the other. Don’t throw an Ad here and Ad there. Lesson 51: The money is in the follow-up. Lesson 52: The process of being marketer farmer: 1. Advertise with the intention of finding people who are interested in what you do. 2. Add them to your database. 3. Continually nurture them and provide with them value. Lesson 53: The importance of capturing the details of prospects who have indicated interest is to keep in touch with them and nurture them to the point where they are ready to become customers. FOLLOW UP UNTIL THEY BUY OR DIE. Lesson 54: More compelling and more frequent offers= rapid business growth Lesson 55: A marketing Calendar is crucially essential to your business (p:141-142) Lesson 56: Money in a renewable resource-you can always get more money but never get more timeLesson 57: If someone else do it 80% as good as you can, then you should delegate it. Lesson 58: Learn how to separate the majors and the minors. A lot of people don’t do well simply by because they major in minor things. Lesson 59: If you have to convince your customers every time or put on the hard sell you likely need to improve your lead nurturing process. Lesson 60: Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t . Lesson 61: Represent your business in a way that conveys trust and confidence. Lesson 62: On the internet, nobody knows you are a dog. Lesson 63: Use the technology to help you present your business in a larger and more professional manner. (Details: p154-155) Lesson 64: A smart entrepreneur will look at heir business from the eyes of fearful, skeptical prospect and reverse all the perceived risks so that the path to the sale is much smoother. Lesson 65: Your guarantee should be very specific and address the fear or uncertainly that the prospect has about the transaction. Lesson 66: Risk reversal in form of an outrageous guarantee means that if the product/service doesn’t work out for the prospect , you re the one who will have something to lose rather than them -That needs to be more powerful than “ money back guaranteed” or “ satisfaction guaranteed” - Lesson 67: Pricing strategy (p:160-163) ➔ Number of options ➔ Reverse risk with “unlimited” ➔ The ultra-high-ticket items ➔ Resist the urge to discount Lesson 68: Invite them to try before they buy (the puppy dog close). Leeson 69: Close down your sales prevention department ACT 3: The “ After ” phase Lesson 70: Build your tribe of Raving Fans Lesson 71: Sell them what they want but give them what they need. Lesson 72: Helping your customers all the way through to achieving results will have a big payoff for both of yourself and them. Lesson 73: It’s time for you to innovate. Do anything than stay a boring commodity which forces you to compete solely on price. Lesson 74: Transform your marketing from just information and high-pressure sales tactics to education-based marketing. Position yourself as an authority. Everyone wants to hear from an authoritative source. (P:183-184) Lesson 75: Tell all the trouble you go through to serve them. Lesson 76: Products make you money, system make you a fortune. Lesson 77: Business system are so much important (pages:187-190) Lesson 78: If you are the business, and without you there is no real business, then it’s worthless. Lesson 79: Checklist are a great too to follow and track the business system (process= p:193) Lesson 80: “ You only have to solve two problems when going to the moon: first, how to get there, and second, how to get back the key is don’t leave until you have solved both of the problems.” Neil Armstrong Lesson 81: Increasing revenue and more importantly profit from existing and past customers is far easier than getting a new ones. Dig first in your own property when seeking treasure. Lesson 82: Raising prices strategy (inflation…) Lesson 83: Upselling is a great way to increase sales because the prospect is hot and in the buying state of mind (By telling them what -normalbuying habits are.) Lesson 84: People live busy lives; they don’t always remember to do things in a timely manner even when it’s benefit to them. Sending reminders is your job buddy. Lesson 85: Give then a reason to come back: vouchers, discounts, gif cards, subscriptions … Lesson 86: Help them buy repeatedly with subscriptions: because they don’t have to make the buying decision every time. Lesson 87: Reactivate the form of a list of past customers. Lesson 88: Numbers tell u the whole story. Lesson 89: For whatever reason, there is a percentage of people who are never happy, they always dissatisfied and felling like everyone is out to take advantage of them. (Fire them= polluted revenue) Lesson 90: Ask your happy customer/ prospects to refer your business to their family, friends and anyone who can be interested in what you offer. e.g : page 224 Lesson 91: Build your brand Lesson 92: The money we make as an entrepreneurs is an automotive side effect of creating value. If you focus on the money rather than the value, you lose the money. Lesson 93: Marketing isn’t an event. Marketing is a process. It’s something you do daily to build massive value in your business and deliver massive value to your customers. Lesson 94: For the entrepreneurs, time is not money. Value is money. Time is jus one of the inputs it takes to deliver value to the market. Lesson 95: Today almost all the value of a business is in the eyeballs it has access to and the customer base it has acquired. Lesson 96: The best marketer wins every time.
