Two Step Marketing
How to Get MORE Business from your Advertising WITHOUT Spending any more Money
PROBLEM
You are spending money on advertising but you're NOT getting the results you want in terms of SALES.
How can you get MORE SALES from the same advertising spend?
SOLUTION
Change the KIND of advertising you do from 'one step' marketing to 'two step' marketing.
You want to spend MOST of your time and money with the people who are most likely to buy from you, don't you?
If you change the kind of marketing you do, then you can easily IDENTIFY those people.
These are the people who you 'expect' to buy. And you have A GOOD REASON to expect them to buy from you -- you have already been in contact with them.
Usually, the people who know you and trust you and are happy to buy from you are:
- Present customers
- Former customers
- People who have called in and expressed an interest in buying
Now, you need to add a new group of people .....
- People who have responded to something you sent them
Explanation of Terms Used
In this report, you'll see that we often use the terms 'Suspect' 'Prospect' and 'Expect'. For our purposes:
You target a group of "SUSPECTS" to approach with your offer (because you suspect that they might need what you sell). You offer everyone in that target group an incentive to come forward - to identify themselves as interested in your product or service.
For example, you might offer them a free consultation, or a free sample.
Those who take you up on your offer and request a sample are your "PROSPECTS". They're interested. They've responded to you.
Once you have sent your "Prospects" their freebie ...... you contact them again .... and ask permission to keep in touch.
That's the end of the 'Finding' process.
The next process is the Sales Conversion Process where you contact your Prospects again and again -- with offers, news, samples ..... so they become familiar with you.
You also QUALIFY these prospects during this Sales Conversion Process -- to see if they are TRULY interested in doing business with you, and if they have any MONEY to spend with you.
Anyone who passes your qualification -- they have money and they need your product -- is an "EXPECT". You can expect to do business with them.
You give your "expects" a sales talk.
Two step marketing: first you find the people to sell, then you sell the people you find.
The TWO-STEP marketing approach
The true purpose of your advertising is simple -- it's to generate prospects.
That statement often comes as a shock to people who have been committed to the ONE-STEP myth.
"Prospects are a waste of my time. I don't want prospects. I just want customers!"
If you understand that people buy things they want from people they know, like and trust, it should become clear why the ONE-STEP approach can't work for purchases costing over $50.
Would you buy anything substantial from a company you didn't know, like or trust? Of course not. It's difficult to sell complex products or services using traditional advertising methods.
So you use "two-step" marketing to both educate your target audience and establish yourself as a trusted advisor. Result: more sales.
It's getting more difficult and expensive to sell products and services, (especially complex ones) using traditional advertising approaches.
Even if you're only asking prospects to visit your showroom or contact you for a free consultation, it's getting harder and harder to get results, because people are wary of being subjected to a sales pitch.
But what if you could find a way to have interested prospects come to YOU, rather than the other way around? To do that, you need to break down your sales process into baby-steps.
You create a Sales Ladder or a Sales Funnel.
Rather then ask prospects to buy or visit you immediately, you want them to put up their hand as people who have needs that you can fulfil.
You can do this by offering suspects free information connected with your product or service.
For example:
"How to save thousands (and avoid these 7 common mistakes) when buying a mortgage for your dream house".
"Revealed: What most car dealers don't want you to know about buying a second hand car".
The information you provide MUST NOT BE a sales pitch. Its purpose is to:
- Educate suspects about common problems to avoid
- Help suspects make an informed purchasing decision
- Establish yourself as an expert in your field
- Position yourself as a "trusted advisor" who can assist with making the right purchase decision.
Now you've moved beyond simple prospecting to actually nurturing prospects through your sales process.
Why multi-step marketing works
- You get MANY more leads, because it's so much easier to call for a free report than to visit a shop or showroom.
- You get a much higher conversion rate of leads to sales, because you've broken the sales process down into smaller chunks, and supplied the prospect with enough information at each stage to make it easy for them to proceed further.
- You've converted a high hurdle into a series of smaller steps.
Multi-step selling involves more preparatory work than standard one-step advertising, but when you consider that it can become your entire lead-nurturing process, it's worth the effort.
Step One: Lead generation
You get people to RESPOND to you by giving away 'free stuff' - particularly free special reports. This is your single BIGGEST marketing asset you have at your disposal.
NOTHING works better for service businesses, or 'biggish' ticket items (anything which costs $200) or over.
You have two choices...
1. Get people to respond to you by phone, fax, email, mail and send your report the conventional way i.e. by mail.
OR...
2. Get people to visit your web site and opt-in to receive your report.
Write your lead generation tool to get people to request your report. That's all you have to do. It can be an advert, a flyer, a fax or a sales letter. (We think ads work best and can show you figures to prove it).
Step Two: Sales Conversion
As soon as someone asks for a report, deliver them high quality information that shows a SOLUTION to their problem (like this report shows the solution to the problem of 'ineffective' advertising).
This is the 'credibility builder.' The key is to demonstrate to the suspect that YOU are the expert in your field. You have the answers to their problems. You are the LEADER.
Don't worry about giving too much info away at this stage.
Here's an idea. Write your Special Report (or get someone to write it for you) as if you were going to sell it for $97. Then just give it to your suspects for free!
Isn't that over-delivering? Make sure you're giving original content and you'll turn your suspects into your prospects ..... in hordes.
Step Three: Getting the first sale
Once people believe you have the solutions to their problems and the credibility to go with it (achieved primarily by your free report) the likelihood of them buying from you is increased many times (by as much as 500%).
There is one proviso to this though...
You must keep following up. That's why the web is so good because you can deliver further reports as a timed series over days, weeks, or even months -- all with no delivery costs to you.
Your free report will lead to sales as long as you give valuable information no-one else is giving (and believe me 99% of your competitors don't understand the power of information).
Here's how to convert these 'good quality' leads into sales...
- When writing your report never lose focus of its objective - to 'move' your prospect to the next stage of your sales funnel. You've moved them from 'suspect to prospect'. Now move them from 'prospect' to 'expect'.
That could be to request a free appointment, estimate, quote, or even the sale. You know what the next step is - just focus on that and you'll be fine.
- The key at this stage though is ensuring your information is VALUABLE to your prospect. Do this and you'll be very surprised at the results.
- Don't give up. Keep following up with timely and useful information.
Step Four: The Back-End (re-sell)
Okay you've now got your customer. Great you've made some money. Now's the time to capitalise on the relationship and maximise your profits.
This is simple. All you do is educate your customers on each additional service you provide. Explain the value of what you offer and make sure you communicate all the benefits.
Remember, once a customer has bought from you, they are much more likely to buy from you again -- as long as you deliver on all your promises.
Ad spend tracking
Giving free samples, consultations or reports allows you to TRACK the effectiveness of your advertising.
If you spend $100 on an advert which offers a free sample, and you get 10 replies, you know that each respondent cost you $10.
If you get 1000 respondents you know that each one cost you 10 cents.
You can now run the same ad in different media and see how many replies you get, or you can use a different advert making a different offer and run it in the same media.
If you divide the cost of the ad by the number of requests for a free sample, you know which offer and which media works best for you.
But the 'how much to spend?' and 'where to spend it?' questions have no easy answers.
Depending on your type of business, many people suggest that the 'how much' should be equal to anywhere from 4% to 10% of your gross receipts.
The quandary is that a business cannot survive without a fresh flow of incoming customers. But, a business can seldom generate a fresh stream of customers without spending money to get the word out about their business.
ADVERTISING STRATEGY
It is important to understand what you expect to gain from your advertising.
Do you simply wish to get your name known so that when your customer will need you, they will think of you first? Or, do you wish to get your customers in your front door on Saturday?
Do you want your customers to come in and take a look around to discover the next object that they cannot live without? Or, do you want them to come in and buy a specific widget?
Do you hope that enough people will come in to buy enough products or services to pay for your single ad? Or, do you expect to gain a lifelong customer who will help pay for your advertising over the course of several years?
When you know what you want, then you will better understand just how to do it.
If you use the strategy suggested here, then you only want one thing from your advertising: to generate prospects
When you have a simple strategy, you can keep your costs waaay down.
The simple strategy we suggest is:
CONCENTRATE ON LEAD GENERATION STRATEGY
Use advertising to get people to request free reports. Use those reports to make your sales.
Quick Action List
1. Create Your Sales Funnel
2. Lead Generation - offer free reports
3. Sales Conversion - build credibility with your free information
4. Getting the first sale - make this step a small sale. Very few people buy your most expensive item first. They buy a small item and see how you treat them.
5. Back -End (re-sell) - move the customer onward and upward to buy your higher priced goods and services.
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