Helping Small Businesses Owners Use Marketing Leverage to Boost Revenue and Profits

One of the most amazing things to me is how few companies attempt to get other companies to endorse their products or services to clients.

You’d think they’d be all over that…

It’s not as hard as it sounds. CEOs answer phone calls from other CEOs… especially, when they are doing it for the purpose of making each other more money. (Call me crazy but I think CEOs like making money.)

How do you discover companies who already have
the ear of people who need your solution?

Here’s how I do it…

1. List the customer segments you are going after.

2. For each segment ask yourself:

• What do they buy BEFORE they buy software in my category?
• What do they buy about the same time?
• What do they buy immediately AFTER?

It doesn’t have to be software, it can be anything. Another approach is to ask, “What life/professional event (or change in the status quo or decision) would make someone aware of the need for my solution?”

3. This should give you a fairly large list of products/services. I’d list them as general categories and then list the top 3-5 companies in each category.

After a few days of this you should have a ton of companies who you could approach about a possible recommendation of your solution to their house list.

4. Next, I’d have someone create a one-page synopsis on each company listing it’s history, the current CEO, a rundown of its product(s), etc.

5. Then, I’d write a one-page proposal detailing how you think introducing your company to their current house list could benefit them. I have a standard one-page proposal outline I use based on the format found in the EXCELLENT book, “The One-Page Proposal: How to Get Your Business Pitch onto One Persuasive Page” by Patrick Riley.

If they have snail mail addresses offer to pay for the costs of a small test to their list to see what kind of responses and results they receive.

6. Send each proposal via FedEx.

7. Follow up a few days later with a phone call.

8 . If you strike a deal and it proves profitable for both of you, then encourage them to make the recommendation of your solution part of their automatic processes. This will ensure a steady stream of sales for both of you after the initial windfall of rolling out to their entire list.

The new customer acquisition cost for these sales will be EXTREMELY low… probably much less than a tenth of your current costs. But, this strategy yields MORE than a flood of instant and easy sales… it has the added benefits of creating a lot of buzz and adding credibility to your brand in the market place.

Get as many up and running as possible.

It’ll be worth it!

Jason Bedunah

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The answer is yes… BUT, not in the way most people think it can.

If you do it the wrong way, you risk getting branded a slimy spammer.

Twitter is about conversations and people don’t want to have conversations about giving you money. Certainly not when they hardly know you…  If/when they DO want to have that conversation THEY want to be the ones to initiate it.

Instead, they want to have conversations about things that interest them… or, problems they are trying to solve… or, goals they are striving towards.

One of the best things you can do is get REAL clear on how your company makes a person’s life better, what area(s) it helps them improve.

I mentioned in an earlier post “7 Ways to Sell More Software (or anything else) Using Web2.0, Social Media and Direct Response Principles” the importance of developing your Positioning statement.

Does it help them save time?

Do better work?

Play harder?

Save money?

Make them a lot more money?

Smarter?

Getting clear on this will help you, and others in your company, start and participate in VALUABLE and meaningful conversations with your followers, many of whom are also prospects.

If your product helps people create better logos then tweet:

• links to the creation of logos
• interviews with top designers
• case studies of how your software has helped designers produce better logos, and
• valuable videos that show logo design techniques (using your software of course BUT applicable to logo design in general).

Give. Give. Give.

They’ll love you for it. They’ll follow your tweets more closely. They’ll click those links. They’ll read those resources.

Then, when they realize all the good you’ve done them, they’ll feel great about giving you money.

They’ll also feel great about recommending you to others. Retweeting you. Talking about your blog posts. Talking about your brand.

The result: More sales. Good karma.

Jason

P.S. Here are some excellent blog posts on this very subject.

One is by a software company owner who started off direct messaging others to buy his software but then learned to use Twitter as a tool for conversations and has profited in more ways than one: 999 Followers, or How my Twittering Has Changed. A very honest and candid post by someone who now “gets it” and is doing very well.

The other is by Chris Brogan, a Social Media Expert… “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business”

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Your prospects are busy. They don’t care a bit about your software. Their bills are due, the kids need to be picked up from day care, they aren’t getting enough sleep and they don’t trust advertising.

How are you going to break through? How are you going to catch their attention long enough to let them know you have something that could really, really help them?

Robert Collier, a famous adman from the early 1900s said it best… “Start with the conversation already running in the prospect’s head.”

1. Make it All About Them

You need to develop a Position. This ‘position’ clearly and succinctly communicates what your solution does for them. It also presents a point of differentiation from your competitors.

Your Position allows you to get into and STICK in the prospect’s mind.

Whole books have been written on Positioning (see authors Al Ries and Jack Trout) but here it is in a nutshell. You need to decide WHO you are talking to… what their NAGGING problem is… how your product solves it… and how your product is different from the alternatives.

When you answer those questions you are ready to develop the Positioning statement.

For Tax Prep Software it might be… “Shaves 137 minutes off the average tax prep time, and finds an extra $527 in deductions.”

2. Discover Patches of Organic Fans and Develop the Business.

When I used to write advertising for all small businesses (not just Software companies and ISVs), I noticed quite a few Dentists contacting me “out of the blue.” I decided to investigate and discovered that a dentist I had previously written an ad for was referring me to his colleagues at dental conventions.

Apparently, dentists had a hard time finding an agency that understood how to really bring in the business. Over the next few years I honed a special pitch and developed targeted marketing for that niche. It created a nice income for me by really speeding up the sales process.

Put in a system to discover this… If you have customers select their profession or industry when they purchase, you can create a simple system for noticing surges (up or down) and look into it further. Your software may be getting used for reasons you may have never thought of… Then, you could create an entirely new website for this group with specific testimonials, case studies, tutorial videos, etc.

3. Get Aggressive About Video!

The benefits of video can’t be overstated… particularly for software services. Showing your software in action helps melt resistance to purchase (or even trial) away and makes the user feel like she has a better shot at getting the full benefits. Most people won’t sit down and read 8 minutes of text BUT many will watch an 8 minutes of video (if it’s done right).

For an example of video to sell software, done right, go to Jason Demos Basecamp’s Dashboard. Notice the video is a bite-sized 49 seconds long and focuses on one main area without going TOO in-depth and getting mired in details.

All sites selling software should have these types of short, demo videos.

No exceptions.

4. Use Case Studies and Testimonials.

It’s surprising how many companies STILL don’t do this… In every split test I’ve ever seen, testimonials boost the conversion rate. Case studies have even more impact. It’s even better if they are VIDEO case studies or testimonials.

5. Follow Direct Response Advertising Principles… and DON’T rule out advertising in traditional mediums (print, radio, direct mail)

Forget about touchy-feely ads that don’t educate AND describe the benefits of your solution to the prospect in plain english. Every communication needs to serve, educate, inform and sell. This doesn’t mean acting like a snake oil salesman or a late night ginsu knife hawker. It means you develop the compelling business case for your software, give clear instructions on how to order and ask for the sale (or some other conversion on the way to a sale).

Anything less and you are leaving money on the table… and WILL get passed up by a competitor who follows direct response principles.

AFTER you have your online strategies humming along, including utilizing Web2.0 and Social Media strategies, I suggest testing some direct mail and/or print advertising. It is important to narrow your focus and go after the prospects who are ALREADY buying or naturally inclined to buy your software. While there is TONS of money to be made online, if you want to hit the BIG LEAGUES, there is still much, much more money to be made by marketing off line. (I know I will catch flack for the last sentence… but, it’s a simple matter of mathematics which I’ll flesh out fully in another post.)

6. Use the power of Joint Ventures!

Make a list of who is ALREADY talking to your prospects… Then, reach out to them and set up a business relationship for them to promote your products to their customers. If you can prove that many of their customers are already using your products and love them, you will have a much easier time convincing them. Likewise, the prospects, who already trust your new JV partner, will be more likely to trust you.

You will have to share some of the revenue… but you will have almost NO acquisition cost. Win-win!

(For more on this strategy, including an 8 step process to use read “Discover Rich New Oceans of Prospects for Your Software.”)

7. Use Social Media to Connect, Support and Improve.

There are already many, many savvy software companies using Twitter to make customers aware of outages, blips in service, updates and to ask questions. This is a FABULOUS use of Twitter to connect, support and improve.

Look at the Tweet below:

This Tweet provides BlinkSale with an opportunity. Do they have a process in place to take advantage of it?

If BlinkSale was my product I’d have a process in place to see just how big an issue this is… I’d contact @overmortal to see EXACTLY what the issue was… I’d do some searches to discover if other people are also having it and make sure that we have the solution handy in our FAQs and other documentation. If it were big/important enough, we’d add it to future features roadmap (or bug fixes) of the software.

What if this message got Re-tweeted thousands of times? Both users and non-users (but, prospects) could assume it has NO Excel support. One (or more) of them could then post this in a forum or blog which is indexed by the search engines… something that may have been really “nothing” pops up in all future searches for BlinkSale, whether it is true or not.

Scary.

But, by having a process in place to handle such possibilities Social Media can help you Connect, Support and Improve.

Jason

P.S. Can you think of other ways to increase software sales? If so, share them in the comments!

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If you aren’t the leader in your category… OR, you are currently the leader but there is a rival gaining ground quickly and stealing minds from you, then here is a strategy that will put a damper on them.

The strongest competitor has picked out a particular strength or clear benefit and used advertising to dramatize it in the minds of consumers. The problem is you cannot be all things to all people. By picking a strength or clear benefit you’ve also left a weakness.

There is no way around this because of the way the human mind works. Everyone realizes there are trade-offs and in order to be really good at something it is assumed you aren’t as good at some other things.

Your competitor has a strength or a clear benefit. If they are successful then enough people already believe it. You want to leave that alone.

Instead think about their weaknesses. Make a list of them. Find the one that is most scary to consumers and dramatize it.

Here is one of the most brilliant attack ads ever written. Very simple. Extremely effective.

For The Millions Who Should Not Take Aspirin

If your stomach is easily upset… or you have an ulcer… or you suffer from asthma, allergies or iron-deficiency anemia, it would make good sense to check with your doctor before you take aspirin.

Aspirin can irritate the stomach lining, trigger asthmatic or allergic reactions, cause small amounts of hidden gastrointestinal bleeding.

Fortunately, there is Tylenol…

Killer copy. Sales took off immediately and vaulted Tylenol to #1 in short order.

Notice how long they took before even mentioning their brand name. This is important. If you do it too early then people will categorize the communication as mud-slinging. You want the information to go into the mind BEFORE they have a chance to categorize it as an attack. Get them worked up emotionally first.

Dramatize the competitor’s weakness FIRST and then hit the prospect with your strength.

An attack ad is MUCH different than a comparison of benefits and features. It is not an ad that says, “Our product is better than y product because we have more xyz, are cheaper, etc.”

No.

It must exploit a weakness that logically FOLLOWS from the competitor’s strength. Then, your STRENGTH must compensate for the competitor’s weakness.

Jason

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Hey,

Someone I know is creating an extremely fascinating, fast-reading special report on all the new brain research that has been done in the last few years. This research is yielding all kinds of facts and tidbits sure to boost the quality of one’s life.

In thinking about marketing this product, he felt somewhat discouraged. Why? Well, brain science seems a pretty dry subject, doesn’t it? As soon as someone says “Neurons” or “Synapses” don’t you start to tune out?

Probably.

But, it’s like that with every subject. There’s an adage that advertiser’s follow… or should follow… “What’s in it for me?” Or, WIIFM for short.

I take it a step further.

Everyone is looking for Sex, Money and Eternal Life.

Tie your product into at least one or, hopefully, all three and you have a great shot at interesting as many people as possible.

So, we’re dutifully tying the research into those three areas… The report looks killer.

One researcher hooked women up to some devices and had them smell a bunch of scents. Do you know what scent was most likely to turn a woman on?

It wasn’t any fragrance of men’s cologne. (Most cologne’s actually caused ‘negative’ reactions.)

It wasn’t pheremones.

It wasn’t money (haa).

Surprisingly, it wasn’t chocolate either!

You’ll never guess (and this is NOT a joke)… It was…

Baby Powder!

The focus of this report is to teach people to become healthier, more active, more successful and happier by taking care of the brain. But, we’re not going to mention much about the brain in the sales copy… Not until they are hooked by Sex, Money and Eternal Life… Then, we’re going to use all that brain mumbo-jumbo and explain it in common everyday language as PROOF that we can deliver on what we’re promising.

You can tie ANYTHING to those three major wants.

When you do you’ll find YOURSELF with more of all 3 as well.

Jason

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How to Resurrect “Dead” Customers…

One of the easiest (and most economical) ways to get a boost in cash flow is to reactivate customers who haven’t ordered in a while. But, you can’t just send them a new pitch and hope they’ll buy. You need to tell them you’ve noticed they haven’t ordered in a while, ask them if there is something you can fix and THEN make a special offer.

Here’s an email I recently sent out to customers in one of my niche markets.

Hi [firstname],

I want to thank you for being a Member of “The xxxxx Mastermind.”

However, I noticed that you haven’t purchased in quite a while. I was hoping I could find out why.

Perhaps, I did something wrong. If so, I’d like to know so I can try to fix it. Or, at the very least, make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else in the future.

If you’ve just been too busy or you’re not in the market for this type of training anymore, I’d like to know that, too.

Will you let me know what’s going on?

Jason

P.S. In case everything is cool and you are still interested in doing business, I’ve arranged a special offer for you here [hyperlink].

Simple. You are showing real concern. You DO want to know if you’ve messed up somehow because if you did it to them, you’ve probably done it to tons of others and not even known it. This way you can put a process in place to fix it and you’ll come away with a stronger company.

Most of the time, people simply forget to do business with you. Might be because you didn’t follow-up enough… or, they tried someone else… or, whatever. BUT, I can almost guarantee they never received an email or letter like that one in their lives. No companies do it. Strange to me because it is basically free money!

Will you do this exercise? Then, email me or post a comment and let me know how much you made?

Jason

P.S. If you know other business owners could you let them know about this blog?

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Here’s a two-page advertorial I wrote for a Dentist. I wrote it in May of 2007. It cost him $840 per insertion and yielded an increase of $32,000 the first month, $41,000 the second month and $34,000 the third month, which is when I received the email quoted below.

That means it brought back $42 in gross for every $1 spent!

Ridiculous.

Not only that, it made him semi-famous in his community.

Here’s what this dentist said about the ad…

Sorry I’ve been so slow to respond. Before running the ad we were averaging $45,000 to $55,000 per month. The initial insert, one time in our local paper, resulted in over $20,000 of new mini implant and denture business. Since then we have run the piece as a two page ad in a magazine called “Today’s Senior” in black and white. This costs us only $840 per month. In the next three months after this ad appeared our monthly income was $82,000, $91,000, and $84,000.

Anyway Jason, the results have been beyond my expectations. Everyone on my staff says I’ve never run a more effective ad at any time. People tell me all the time they “read that article about me” in the magazine. Fantastic results. If I change anything for the next run I would try to put at least a hint about the price so I don’t get so many calls from people who absolutely can’t afford it.

– Ken Clifford,  DDS, CA

You can view the front here: Copywriter Writes Dentist an Ad That Yields $42 for every $1 spent! (page 1)

And, the back here: Copywriter Writes Dentist an Ad That Yields $42 for every $1 spent! (page 2)

That’s not too shabby a bit of writing for a guy who doesn’t know squat about dentistry, eh?

I believe he paid me around $4,000 to write that ad and it took me about 2 weeks of brainstorming and about 2-3 days of actual writing.

Would you like to make a ton of money? Probably not.

But, just in the off chance there is someone out there who likes lots of money, maybe we should chat.

Jason

P.S. You don’t have to be a dentist. I’ve written for Martial Artists, Real Estate Agents, Guys who go around picking up women, a guy who fixes air conditioners, etc, etc.

P.P.S. You can call me at 817-734-6609 between 9 am and 8 pm CST (leave a message, I never answer the phone while writing.)

P. S. #3 Maybe you are crazy and have a thing against money and aren’t in the market for such a thing… BUT, I’m sure you know someone who is… Could you let them know about this? Thanks.

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Every now and then I like to take a shower, put on some of my best clothes, do up my hair and drive to Best Buy for my quarterly “Electronics Dream Fest!”

That’s where I go and make a gigantic list of all the electronic stuff I wish to acquire.

This last time I was salivating over one of those new Rectangular TVs (I still have a square one).

As I salivated, an ingenuous bit of advertising by the Geek Squad caught my eye. (They offer an add-on service to come out to your house and set up the rectangular tv and fancy sound boxes.)

They were using what I have now officially dubbed, “The Terrify Them Into Submission Tactic.”

Exhibit A: The headline says, “Would you know what to do with this?” Hmm… Actually, no! I haven’t a clue! What I normally do is just start plugging stuff in where it fits while peering around the edge of the TV until a picture comes on.

But, I HAVE set up a TV with VCRs and dvd players and a blu-ray PlayStation3 so MAYBE, given enough TIME, beer and patience I could have it set up in a week.

Just as I’m thinking I might be able to pull it off…

They hit me with THIS!

Exhibit B: The headline says, “Tools Needed for an Installation.” (Shit.)

Ain’t no way. I have a hammer and a few screw drivers.

Exhibit C: Ok, Ok… You’re right. I don’t want the pain… I want those guys to do it.

What do you suppose their response rate is when they ask someone, “Would you like us to come out to your house and get this all set up?”

I’d bet it’s pretty high.

Jason

P.S. I’ll have the Rectangular TV in just another week or so… and, THEY’LL be installing it.

P.P.S. Showing someone how much work it is to NOT do business with you could help boost your response.

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Yo,

I’m at Kevin Wilke’s Nitro Seminar and it’s really, really cool. Much different than I expected.  I first thought that it would be a lot of the same stuff I already know and have known for years.

After all, I’ve written copy for some of the “Internet Greats.” I’ve written sales letters that have DOUBLED Dr. Tom Orent’s normal seminar attendance. I wrote a 1 page ad that launched a Martial Arts video company that is STILL going strong 5 years later (past the 80% of businesses failed mark).

(And, so on.)

So, what new, cool, awesome, innovative marketing ideas did we learn?

None.

That’s right. None at all.

Wordpress was mentioned once or twice. I think someone yelled “affiliate” once in answer to a question.

But, this is the genius about the whole thing.

The first day they talked about nothing but…

The Mind!

See, almost everyone in the class already has a shitload of marketing materials. Hard drives crammed full of eBooks, we just HAD to HAVE NOW!

What most of us don’t have is the life we really want… The place to begin is naturally in the mind, what is stopping us, how to look at things differently, how to properly mix mindset, action, accountability and masterminding into a framework that encourages RIGHT KNOWLEDGE, right action and right mindset.

As I reflect, I kinda knew this already. (You probably realize it, too… Is more knowledge going to all the sudden crush the limitations for you?)

The last few months for me have been pretty darn awesome. But, it’s not because of any knew knowledge I’ve learned. It’s come as a result of rearranging the contents of my own mind and multiplying the ‘bigness’ of my action by 10 or 20 times.

The Release Technique has been absolutely critical to crushing the mental barriers holding me back. I recommend it everywhere I go… I’ve brought 3 friends to workshops with me. My mom, dad and sister have each received books about it. For me, it has been the ONLY thing that’s worked.

NLP didn’t.

Hypnosis didn’t.

Affirmations REALLY didn’t.

The ‘Secret’ didn’t.

It helped me dissolve fear. I feel good all day long. I’m more positive.

I think it’s GREAT that they’ve spent the whole first day working on nothing but the Mind and Mental Aspects of this thing. Absolutely brilliant! And, I applaud Kevin because I think most guys would’ve been too scared that people would complain they’re not learning tactics, etc.

Jason

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