So let me get this straight, you want to be your own boss. You want to voluntarily and willingly throw away your current employment (or maybe the company you previously worked for made that decision for you, but rather than pursue another job, you have decided to launch a new business). And you are convinced this is what you want to do, IN SPITE of (some or all of) the following:
1. The overwhelming majority of new businesses fail within the first few years of opening
2. You will be assuming responsibility for a “spouse” that never sleeps, always puts demands on your time, does not recognize weekends, and never is satisfied
3. You are ready to give birth to a “child” that is always hungry for more time and attention, is ungrateful, rarely if ever does what you expect it to do, and whose maturing is not something that you view as an occasion for celebration
4. Your only experience in running a business enterprise was a newspaper route or a lemonade stand when you were a kid
5. Your skills are highly developed in your area of expertise, but you hate (selling, accounting, information technology, etc.)
6. Your lifestyle is predicated on a steady income based on a twice monthly paid salary
7. You have little (or no) money saved up in the bank to sustain you through the lean weeks/months of your business start up when expenses are high, and income is low
8. You realize you will likely not see friends or family on the same schedule or regularity as you were able to previously. When they are “off work” - you are just kicking into gear or hitting overdrive
9. You have little idea on how expensive it is to rent property, buy technology, acquire insurance, purchase supplies, hire experts (accountants, attorneys, printers, etc.).
If any of the above has made you reconsider your decision, GOOD. Better to think it through now than to begin the long and sometimes painfully arduous process of launching a new business only to recognize it really is not what you want or even are interested in doing. There are a multitude of reasons NOT to go into business for yourself. There is no shame in being part of a large company and plying your craft and skills for that entity and doing all you can to improve their performance. In fact, were it not for that crazy unyielding fire that burns within a select few of us who are dedicated enough to defy the odds and good sense; we would all be in search of a “safe job” that did not come with the hazards of entrepreneurship.
You have now come to that fork in the road - do you travel the path of the tortured soul willing to “bet it all” on a less than certain thing, or do you pick up your chips from the table and decide that prudence is the better strategy. Whichever path you choose, there will always be that moment when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and wonder, “How would it have been different if I would have chosen the other path?” Good Luck in your futurewhichever way it takes you (or you take it!).
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David Zahn is President of StartUpBuilder.Com (http://www.startupbuilder.com), a subscription-based website that addresses the needs of small business owners and entrepreneurs. For a free “business readiness assessment” please click on http://www.startupbuilder.com. |
Tags: Entrepreneur, small business, launching a business
Strategies to help produce your brochure, advertisment or
direct mail. And make it achieve more sales.
1. Attract & keep the customer’s eye
Your customer must be kept glued to your words. They may
leave at any point of your copy so keep it attractive and
relevant to their needs, right through to their decision to
purchase.
Words, pictures and the customer:
Don’t go overboard with pictures, its words that sell.
You’ll need your product photo of course but its the caption
or headline that will make the difference. And the headline
will be a benefit.
People buy products for what it will do for them, not what
it looks like. Quite often, you’ll see products like
printers with features listed below an image. Here the
advertiser has assumed that everyone knows the benefits of
their printer and just need to know the specific features.
However a lot of people don’t respond to pictures and lists
of features, but they may respond to a photo of the product
in use. For example you could show a child sat using a
computer.
But that’s not enough. Add a headline such as…’Now YOUR
child can obtain higher grades’ and that should get parents
interested. You get the idea. The body text would describe
how the computer helps children to learn.
Be very wary about using an agency to produce your copy
writing. They may not know the principles involved in
successful selling. The only way you can be sure is to have
control over the production..usually unlikely when dealing
with agencies… or produce the content yourself.
2. Content strategies
a) Descriptions: A lot of promtional documents leave
the customer to guess at the benefits of the product or
service advertised. They just describe it and their company.
This is not good. Don’t do it this way.
b) Comparisons: Here you could compare your
product/service with your competitor’s and specify how much
better your’s is. You could get in trouble if you name the
other company and/or can’t back up your claims with
evidence. Works best by you having a major provable
advantage over your competitors..and not naming them.
c) Storyline: A favorite with lots of folk. Tell a
story involving the person the customer will relate to in a
situation that shows the benefits your product/service gives
that person.
Use a ‘before using the product’ and ‘after using the
product’ strategy. At the end the person will summarise how
much better their situation is nw after using your product.
And you tell your readers how it will help them as well.
The hard bit is writing a true story. It’s less effective
than a made up one.
d) The most effective strategy is to use the well-known
AIDCA formula..see section 8 further down.
3. Inspiration
My answer is to go for a walk in the countryside. There are
two halves to our brains; the left being for logical
functions and the right half for creative thinking.
Apparently few logical people are able to take advanatage of
the creative side at will. You have to relax and trick the
brain into releasing your ideas.
Walking and daydreaming are a couple of techniques to
employ.
4. Ideas for copy
You need to saturate your brain with all the elements about
your product or service. Study what your product is made of,
how strong it is and how it is put together. Consider the
manufacturing process and the care taken throughout the
production.
Write down all these details with the angle of ‘how much
better than our competitors is our product’ and ‘in what
ways?’ Write down your conclusions.
Do the same for your service. Take your service apart and
study it as individual steps. Do your customers know about
these steps? What benefits do these steps have for your
customers? Maybe your competitors don’t mention theirs and
you could take advantage of this.
Your customer needs to be in the fore-front of your mind.
Particularly your main customer group, the ones who share a
common need. Don’t forget, you’ll want to aim separate
message if you have more than one target customer group.
5. Producing your copy
Don’t overdo it when you first start to put your ideas down
on paper. Go over your notes and details about your product
or service a few times and have a break from that particular
subject for a day or too if necessary. I’m not saying take
it to easy but don’t try to force yourself, it won’t work.
During this initial period you may well be getting flashes
of inspiration and ideas ay odd moments. Write them down. I
would advise always carrying a notebook or maybe a voice
recorder to ensure all your creativity is not lost.
When you have decided to formally put everything down, find
yourself a quiet room and ideally use a large A2 pad (which
can be found in art stores) to record your information.
Remember, you are writing down what it is you want to say to
your customers to make them buy.
Write down the most important ‘buying factor’ on the pad.
Then continue to put down all the others related to customer
needs and buying factors. Forget any logical order, put them
down as they come to you, adding detail as necessary. Keep
relaxed and don’t censor any ideas you have (unless they are
too far removed from your area). You could intoruce others
into this exercise and in effect hold a group brainstorming
session.
You should end up with several pages of ideas.
6. Compiling messages needed to sell
You will see many ideas that you are familiar with but there
may be some that you are not. Do some research on these.
Your competitors may not have bothered and there could be
some gold here.
Next you need to group together related ideas with colored
pens. You’ll find some remaining that don’t fit in a group,
but keep these. They may come to life later.
Now you need to structure your results so that you can
develop your ’story’ to relay to your customer. Put the
group headings around a circle and then like the legs of a
spider put the related ideas along them in order of
sequence, importance or whatever criteria you have decided.
As you do all this your creative side will flag up more
ideas to add to the pool. Now you can get some feedback from
colleagues or even customers on what you have produced. This
will optimise your results even further.
7. Producing your copy framework
You have two choice here. Hand your work over to a
copywriter or carry on yourself. If you are carrying on
yourself you need to decide on the most appropriate approach
as defined in section 2 above; descriptions, comparative,
situation or benefits.
Your message will be built around the AIDCA structure.
Attention: You must get the readers attention within seconds
using your headline.
Interest: Get your prospect interested in your product.
Desire: This is where you detail how their needs can be
fulfilled.
Conviction: Provide proof that this is the product that they
need.
Action: Here you tell them what they must do to get it.
8. Using the AIDCA formula
Attention seeking headlines: Often the headline is left till
last as it is the most difficult part of the message. And
you may find it in the main copy itself. Short headlines
rarely work. Remember, if you are using a picture its the
wqords that will matter. The picture is a supporting
element.
‘Benefit’ type headlines are best (even better if they are
tiny storylines) with ‘News’ type second best. Generally you
should include your product and the main benefit. Length is
less important. Brochures, mailshots and magazine adverts
tend to have longer headlines than straightforward
advertisements.
Interest to be aroused: This is where you tell your main
story using one of the strategies described earlier;
description, comparative, situation or benefits.
Concentrate on how your product or service fulfils primary
and secondary needs. Relate how it satisfies the customers
buying factors and success factors that you have defined in
your marketing assessment.
Desire to be created: You need to be enthusiastic here in
describing what the product or service can do for the
customer. Convince them that they will really benefit from
your product. Expand on the detail. For example if your car
is economical to run then write about how much money they
will save and then buy a holiday with it.
Conviction needed: Here you need to prove to the reader that
your claims about your product are true. Assume that they
will disbelieve your cliams. If you have statistics use
them. Show graphs. Show testimonials or endorsements from
satisfied customers. Don’t make them up. How could you prove
they were real?
Action: It is imperative that you tell your readers what
action you want them to take. And include a benefit along
with it. For example; “Send for our full color catalogue.
Its FREE, there is no obligation to buy.”
There you have it! An 8 part strategy to help compile your
advertising message and get you more sales.
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(c) Paul Curran, CEO of Cuzcom Internet Publishing Group and webmaster at Wealth-Building-Secrets.com, providing strategies and advice for financial success, sales success, and personal development success.
This article may be reproduced in its entirety provided the resource paragraph above is included and all urls kept active. A courtesy copy of your publication or web page URL would be appreciated. 1537 words
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Tags: sales, promotion, customer, advertising, advertisement
The methods you adopt for measuring your incentive programs should satisfy two requirements.
Firstly, the program must be legal and permissible under existing regulations of each State, in which the programs are being operated.
Secondly, your method of measurement must be acceptable to the incentive scheme participants, and be seen by them to be reasonable, appropriate and obtainable.
The appropriateness of the terms and conditions is the key element in the whole planning of the program. Even if they are totally within the legal requirements, you will waste a great deal of time and money unless you review your whole package of activities and rewards through the eyes of the participants. The need for participant co-operation and enthusiasm must also include your desire to award the prizes in the most appealing form. This includes recognising any tax implications under tax law.
Assigning responsibilities:
Your planning will reach a stage where you have identified your objectives, who is going to participate and how you are going to make it all happen. Delegating activities and assigning responsibilities is as important in managing an incentive program as it is in any other management activity.
This scheduling is even more important when engaging the services of outside agencies such as Ken MacKenzie Communications, who may be helping with such things as the production of printed material, trade release functions, travel arrangements and purchase of prizes.
Even when you have allocated tasks and deadlines, you will need to find sufficient time to brief clearly each member of your team. Your cost estimates are often only as accurate as your briefings to suppliers, and if your financial planning is not sound at the outset, costs will run away from you. The use of outside suppliers will depend on the in-house facilities and whether these internal facilities can meet the standard of creativity and production essential to your program.
The quality of the printed material which you release will be the participants’ first object of appraisal. It is false economy to use in-house printing or design services that are not equal to those available from printers or promotional agencies.
Regular Review:
Once you have chosen your team, assigned responsibilities and time and cost deadlines, you must constantly monitor the program and make adjustments as the need arises. During both your planning period and the reviews after the event, you will need to compare the costs of the incentive program with the benefits to be returned to you. Although incentive schemes based on clearly defined statistical criteria are much easier to plan, you must still be sure that your past event measurements are realistically accurate. You should review all components of your program and note the comments from your planning team’s own experiences, the views of any agencies you used during the campaign and, most importantly, your participants.
Ken MacKenzie’s web site “The Marketing Update” is at: http://www.themarketingupdate.com. He has had some 30 years experience in small business marketing and public relations and, prior to establishing Ken MacKenzie Communications in 1993, he was a Senior Consultant for over five years with International Public Relations Pty Ltd. He has also consulted to the United States Foreign Commercial Service, based in Sydney Australia. As a Consultant, Ken has managed many accounts including Monier Roofing Limited, NUS International Pty Ltd, MasterFoods of Australia, the Jakarta Promotion Board, the Australian Made Campaign, Boral Roofing, Boral Bricks, Boral Plasterboard, Frontline Business Services and Sydney Point of Sale. In his consulting to the United States Department of Commerce in Sydney, Ken served as Principal Advisor to the United States Trade Centre Director on major U.S. trade event planning and implementation of numerous U.S. Government sponsored trade shows covering many different industry groups.
Tags: incentive program, incentive, business to business marketing