If you are marketing with features, facts, and figures, you get an “F” and your sales probably reflect that. If you are marketing with benefits, results, and stories, you get a “B” and are probably doing fairly well.

But, if you are marketing with benefits, results, and stories, and you bring your audience to that do anything, pay anything point, you get an “A+” and you’re probably nodding your head because your sales reflect that and you’re kicking butt.

Let’s talk about the marketing debate Features vs. Benefits.

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When you hand a client, prospect, or potential strategic partner your business card, brochure, rack card, or note card, you are putting your brand right in their hands. You have an opportunity to make an impression through touch that is not always possible when connecting online.

You only have one opportunity to make a first impression, and trust me, you don’t want to risk making a bad impression with an unprofessional marketing piece or confusing your audience with items look like they are from completely different companies.

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You started your business because you are really good at what you do. You have a unique passion, gift, and talent that no one else has. And because no one else has your exact gifts and talents and what comes easy to you doesn’t come easy to them, they need you.

• They need you to help them by sharing your expertise,
  knowledge, and skill
• They need your services and products
• They need you to market yourself and to market your business

But here’s the problem. No one can do business with you if they don’t know you exist!

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If you trim out all the fat, filler, and fluff that beef up alot of marketing websites, you’ll see very clearly that there are really only three things that you need to do to make more sales and boost your bottom line.

STEP 1: Capture My Attention
Start with a captivating, powerful, direct headline that draws me in. Don’t beat around the bush or use cute-sy catch-phrases and don’t speak in jargon I don’t understand. Keep the headlines and the sub headlines strong, clear, and helpful. The easiest way to do this is to write one short sentence that communicates the benefits the article, web page, or blog post, etc. I will get out of the content.

Another great way to grab my attention is with a great photo, graphic or image. You have only a couple seconds to entice me to stay on your web page and read your content and sometimes a killer photo can do that even faster and more effectively than a headline.

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Do you want more opportunities, more leads, more customers, more sales, and more attention in 2010? If you answered yes, then you’re in the right place.

Introducing the Ultimate
Brand Building Teleseries
January 5 – January 26, 2010

A ONE TIME ONLY Series of 7 High-Value, High-Content Calls Focused Solely on Helping You Build Your Brand and Market Your Business

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Your budget is a big part of creating a marketing plan and should be decided upon at the start of the marketing plan development. After all, it would make sense to have your marketing consultant include billboard, print media, or television advertising in your marketing plan if you do not have enough budget dollars to ever implement the advertising recommendations or you want to stick to a specific budgetary amount.

By being upfront and completely honest about your budget with your marketing consultant, you will maximize your budget and save time and effort by avoiding research and time spent on pursuing marketing strategies you are never going to use.

A great place to start is to work with a professional marketing consultant to develop a strategic marketing plan for your business.

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I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but I am going to say it again.

It’s not about you. It’s about them.

But what does that mean? It’s simple really. It means that you need to stop talking about yourself and stop writing what you want to hear said about you and your business.

Instead, focus on what your audience wants to hear, what they want to learn, and what information they need. Then you need to focus on getting it to them as quickly as possible.

Think of it this way, when someone is searching for something online, they more than likely aren’t just browsing with endless amounts of time. Usually they are searching for a specific piece of information, answer to their questions, or solution to their problem – and they are turning to the Internet to find what they need fast.

Your job as a website owner is to research your target market, find out that they want, need, and desire, learn how you can help them, and then deliver it.

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Whether you have a product, service, program, or combination of the three, if you’re in business, I can pretty much guarantee that you need to sell something. With budgets tightening and consumers becoming more discerning on what they spend their money on, many entrepreneurs and business owners are finding that they need to try a little harder than they had to before to make a sale.

Here are seven tips to increase online sales and get your prospects and customers to take action:

1. Offer money back guarantee.
Your guarantee can be a 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, year-long, or lifetime guarantee. The longer the guarantee you extend your guarantee, the more successful it will be.

2. Give away bonuses and free stuff.
When your customers purchase something or take a specific action, reward them with a free gift or some extra bonuses of value. Sweeten the deal to catch more conversions.

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Recently I was at an eWomenNetwork event and the chapter director asked the audience, “How many of you have all of the clients and customers you could ever need?”

Let’s just say I wasn’t very surprised when not a single person in the room raised their hand. These eWomenNetwork entrepreneurs understand that you don’t just market your business for the customers you have right now, but for the customers you want to attract in the future.

For example, the signed contracts that are coming in to my office almost daily are results from contacts made and relationships built over the last three to six months. Likewise, the marketing I am doing now will fill my business in the future.

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Imagine running your business by the seat of your pants with no plan in place.

You know where you want to go, and luckily you make the right turns, take the right roads, and hit most of the green lights. You’re coasting along on auto-pilot, knowing that someday your dreams will come true.

But what happens if you get lost along the way?

Your marketing plan is your own personal road map, helping you stay on the right course, making continual progress toward your big vision. Think of it as your very own personal small business success compass. That way, if you do get lost or run into a detour, you can review your marketing plan and correct your course to keep you headed in the right direction.

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Your business plan defines what your business is about, what you do, and what you don’t do. Your marketing plan outlines how you’re going to get your customers to buy your products, invest in your services, and join your programs and the actions needed to achieve your marketing objectives.

Over time, the approach to creating and maintaining a marketing plan has drastically changed:

• The OLD SCHOOL Marketing Plan: A really long (think 30+ pages and more!), incredibly detailed plan that sets in stone all marketing actions big and small for your business for anywhere from one year to five years and limits what new ideas can be implemented. This usually ends up on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere and is only referenced and updated once a year.
• The NEW AGE Marketing Plan: A flexible tool that helps you decide what strategies are the best fit for you and your business, that changes and flexes as your business changes and grows, that defines the reasoning and logic behind the marketing actions. It can be one page to 10 pages and is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

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This month I was the featured speaker at the Sacramento Speakers Network Meetup, speaking on the topic of search engine optimization (SEO. The topic was a huge one to cover in a short amount of time, and challenging because the audience is made up of complete SEO novices and SEO experts alike. So I narrowed it down to the top three things that can make a big difference that most websites completely forget or don’t include in their optimization efforts.

On October 30, 2009 at 12:00 pm PST, I’ll be the featured guest on a teleseminar for The Corporate Fugitive. I’ll be interviewed by Chief Corporate Fugitive, Sherri Garrity about why working with a professional designer is important for your business, how a designer can help you business, and how to find the right designer to help you get the results you want. www.corporatefugitive.com.

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