Welcome back.  If you missed Part I of this article, I highly suggest you go check it out to find
out what Rule #1 is all about.  You can check it out here: READ PART 1 HERE

Today I want to cover Rule #2, which is a very important rule of effective “Next Generation”
email marketing.

Rule #2 RELEVANCE

Let me tell you a quick story about an experience I recently had.  I purchased a service from
someone online.  I was in his follow up sequence which was fine.  The problem was that
the follow up sequence kept promoting me to purchase the service I just purchased.  This was very
annoying because I had already purchased what he was promoting yet the email messages
continued to come.

The dumbest thing you can do (sorry for the harsh language) is send emails to people
that are not relevant to them.  This will certainly not work in your favor.  If you just
purchased a product or service do you want to keep receiving emails promoting that
product or service that you already purchased yesterday?  How about if you are promoting
a gender specific product or service?  Do you want to send it out to the wrong gender?

Make sure that you are sending relevant emails to people, this will certainly increase your
email marketing success.  This is a key component.  You need to realize that in order
to get your email messages across, you need to make sure the emails you send are
relevant to the reader.

How about this example.  Imagine that you just purchased a nice suit or dress either online or in a
store and a day later you get an email telling you that you can save money on that
product.  Would that bother you?  Maybe you would go back the store and demand a refund
of the extra money you spent or maybe you would just be mad about it. Either way, as the
email sender or business, this would not be very beneficial to your business.

Again, this comes back to relevance of emails.  When using your email to communicate with
your prospects or existing customers, make sure that what you send is relevant to them.  This
is a major benefit of “Next Generation” email marketing.

Stay tuned for Rule #3 because this rule is one of the most important aspects to email
marketing success.

If you have any questions, please leave your comments below or if you would like to find out how Automatic Profit Solutions can manage your email marketing campaigns for you using
“Next Generation” email marketing solutions, please call us at 888-931-4609 for more information.

I was working with the sales person recently at a car dealership and he seemed very
professional and knowledgeable at the time.  In fact, I did buy a vehicle from him that
day.  We spoke about lots of things as I was waiting for paperwork and such to be finalized.
It turns out we even knew some people in common.

Well, let me tell you what happened from there. Before I left he said he would call me
in a few days to clear up a few things and check in with me.  I had such a positive
experience so I told him that I was going to write a card to the CEO of the car dealership
about my experience and how he was such an asset to the organization.

So I go home that day and write a card just like I said I was going to.  I also sent him a
thank you card with a $10 dollar gift certificate for Starbucks coffee because in our
conversations he said he liked coffee.

Before I bore you to death, let me just explain what happened in the past few days
and weeks after the sale that will make sure he will never have a repeat customer again.

A few days go by after my car purchase and no call.  A few more weeks go by and
still no call. In fact, he was suppose to call when my new license plates come in.
A month goes by and still no call.  To make things worse, my temporary license
plate tag had expired.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I stopped by the dealership to
ask if my tags were in.  They were of course but I never got a call.  The sales manager
who was at the front who helped me find out if my tags were in said “Didn’t your
salesperson call you about this?”  My response was NO.  Well he was clearly upset
about it and apologized for that.

So lets recap this transaction:

• I sent him a Thank You card with a $10 gift card

• I sent a card to the CEO of the dealership on his behalf, and in return he completely dropped the ball.

• I didn’t even get a thank you card from him.  After all, I bought the car from him, not the other way around.

This sales person sure did promise a lot and then completely deliver not a little,
but NOTHING.  I am sure that the CEO would love to know how many times this
is happening in his organization each day.

Repeat buyers of your products or services is literally the most profitable aspect
of any business.  If you make the sale, you need to cultivate that sale and turn that
sale into repeat business.

**You can check out another blog post that will show you exactly what I am talking about
Click Here to read that article.**

Make sure that if you do anything in your business that you under promise and
OVER DELIVER!  Make sure you value and appreciate your customers, clients,
and patients because without them, you won’t have a business very long! This is
exactly why I created my VAP Factor marketing and business model.

If you want to find out what the VAP Factor is and how it is the
“The Most Effective and Profitable Marketing Secret On The Planet”  you
can get your free copy by going to my website at www.AutomaticProfitSolutions.com

or simply click on the graphic below to take you there right now.

If you are CEO, business owner, or service professional, you have probably been
confronted with the problem of having to choose which types of marketing strategies
to use to generate more visibility, leads and sales for your organization. These
strategies could be either offline or online.  Maybe you are using your website effectively
to do this, or maybe you don’t fully understand how effective and profitable your website
can be to market your products or services.

Perhaps you have been one of those businesses that continuously leap from one
marketing idea to the next in the hope of finding the Holy Grail. But the measure of
real success depends really on the how you have created your marketing tool not
merely on your choice of strategy. Surely, using posters can be better than flyers
depending on your type of business. But your choices of words and content will still
be the determining factor whether your target customers will patronize your products
or services.

Increasing visibility, leads, sales, and new customers from your website can be quite
easy and profitable if you know what to do. There are a few things you need to
consider when driving traffic to your website.

The first one is that the more website visitors you have, the greater the chance that
you can convert those visitors into actual buyers.  (More on conversions in another post)

Hence, to increase traffic to your site, you need the right strategies to get more people
to your website.

One very effective way to do this is by your Blog.  Blogs have been used by many
companies and businesses for the past few years quite extensively. It has been one
of the most loved marketing strategies of people and search engines because they
offer readers new information in an easy-to-read layout and in an entertaining manner.

You can blog about all sorts of things like handy tips, mistakes to avoid, funny stories
about the use of your products or services, and more.  You can even have video and
other great things to enhance your blog post.

Certainly, this is not a “How To Blog” course, but merely a strategy that you can
implement to help you gain more website traffic to your website.

Just having a website alone will do nothing for your company unless you know how to
effectively use it as a marketing and advertising machine that works for you 24 hours
a day 7 days a week!

How would you feel if you could send out all the information that your potential
clients, customers, or patients have requested without lifting a finger?

While this may seem impossible, it is becoming more and more popular among the most
successful businesses and companies in order to create an automated follow up and
marketing system.

So how can you do this? Simple:  It’s called an Autoresponder system!

An autoresponder system is an automatic method of responding to emails
sent by existing or potential customers and is a must for any business or
organization. Time is money and answering e-mails personally takes far too
much of your already valuable time for you and your customers. Auto responders
allow you to spend more time on other important aspects of your business whilst
the customer receives the information required almost immediately and automatically!

Because of the versatility of autoresponders they can be used by practically any type
of business. Answering questions about products and services, creating sales, providing
information on pricing and delivery including being used to welcome new customers to
your website and thanking them for visiting.

So, why use an autoresponder system when you can list the information on your
website?

I was just doing a speaking event last week and someone from the audience asked me the
exact same question.

Here is the answer (or at least a few of them).  For one, you only have about 5 to 7
seconds to catch the attention of your website visitor.  While you many have this
information somewhere on your website, there is a huge chance that no one will ever read it.

Second reason, the correct autoresponder system can capture leads for you.  It can also
follow up with your potential prospects on autopilot.  It can also organize a segmented
database for you…WITHOUT YOU DOING ANYTHING!

There are certainly even more benefits than these but hey, this is just a blog post,
not a book!

It is crucial for you to choose the right one. Buying an autoresponder is the the easy part.
Choosing the right one for you that does everything you want it and need it to do is another,
and knowing how to effectively use it in your marketing is even more important.

Who can tell you which one is best for you? Good question.  The answer is not so simple.

First, you need to determine the purpose of your autoresponder system.  What is it
that you want it to do for your company?  Do you want it to simply emaila list of people
or do you want to create an entire marketing system for your business?

You can find some that are free or low cost and you can find ones that
can do everything except cook you dinner.  Which one is the right one? The
simple answer is it depends on your needs.

Autoresponders are one of the most important marketing tools you can use today
in your business if you know how to use them effectively.

Finally the automatic responses of the autoresponder will give you freedom and
flexibility to save you time while increasing your market reach and follow up.
It can bring you an increase in leads, sales, and repeat buyers on total autopilot.

Can it work for your business?  I’d say it most likely can!

Want to know the fastest way to double your business income?
The proof is in the charts.

But consider what the significance would be if you were to increase each category
by only 10 percent?

The cumulative increase would be 46.4 percent! Not a bad increase in anyone’s book!

Think about your own business. How difficult would it be for you to increase the number
of customers you have by 10 percent? How about getting just 10 percent more from each
purchase?

And, with a little extra effort, do you think it would be difficult to get your customers… people
who are already doing business with you, who know you, like you, and trust you… to buy
more often or stay with you just 10 percent longer?

If you think about it, it probably wouldn’t take much to accomplish any of those goals.
But the resultant increase in income would be incredible.

Now take a look at your own business. In the table below, put in the number of current
customers (clients, patients, etc.) you have, how much they spend with you on average,
how many times they buy from you in a years’ time, and how long they do business with
you before they no longer need the products or services you sell, or they move to another
supplier or vendor.

Then, run some quick calculations on what would happen if you were to increase each of
the categories by whatever percentages you think would be realistic and doable for your
particular business in the current economy.

**Side Note:  If you don’t know all of those four things in your business, that is the first
indication that you are not maximizing your revenue and profit generating potential.
This needs to be fixed IMMEDIATELY.**

So I hope that you can see that if you just strive to increase a little bit each each of
these four areas that your income and revenues will skyrocket just with a few little tweaks.

Don’t make things more difficult than they really are.

If you have watched the news lately you know that this whole “Bubble Boy” hoax is all over the news.  I mean you can’t turn on a channel without seeing or hearing about something related to this story.

Did the father plan this as an elaborate hoax to be on tv?   I don’t know but it sure has gotten a lot of media attention.

Well today I want to expose another hoax.  Most business owners think that by providing quality service that people will recommend their products or services.  This is a huge hoax I tell you and just NOT TRUE.

You see, consumers today expect quality service, that should go without saying.  Consumers today are more sophisticated than ever before and they expect quality service.  Consumers today are also very busy and are not just running around telling people about your business regardless if they are satisfied with what your company offers.

So does this mean that they won’t?  Of course not, but you are going to need to be more proactive.  If you want people promoting your business or sending referrals you need to create system that gets your customers, clients, or patients excited to tell people about what your business offers.

There are two great ways to get people talking about your business.

1.  Referral Rewards Programs- This type of program is one that gives the person referring to your business something in return for their referral or recommendation.  You can do this in a variety of ways.  It could be a gift for anyone that sends you business.  It could also be a discount or savings.  Personally, I always like a gift because a gift feels good to give.  A gift is something special or extra but it can be whatever you want it to be.  The point is you need to have some type of program in place to reward your customers and clients for promoting your business.  If you don’t do this on a regular and proactive basis, you are missing a huge opportunity to get people recommending your business.

2.  Referral Recognition Programs-  This is the second type of referral program you can offer, and it too is also a great  way to thank your customers for their referral. People like to be recognized and appreciated for what they do; it just makes them feel good.  You can have a special board with customers names on it for their referral or you could add their names on your monthly newsletter. There are other things you could also do, but just make it a point to recognize their efforts!

Another great Reward Recognition Program is a friendly office or store contest if you have that type of business. The winner of the contest for the most referrals could win a prize. You could hang up the announcement of the winner at the end. This is a fun way to get your customers involved.  It is like making someone that does business with you a local celebrity.  It is lots of fun for everyone involved and it is great for business too.

On a side note, if you use a recognition program make sure to ask the winner or winners if it is ok to post their name or photo.  Most people are fine with it but you never want to do something without asking permission first.  Also depending on your business or industry there might be privacy rules that have to be followed so always make sure to get permission first.

These are certainly not the only things you can do and you can see how you can tweak these two ideas a thousand different ways.  So how can you apply this in your business?  Can you see how this would benefit your business?  This is a very inexpensive and highly effective way to generate more business and sales.

Time and time again, you always hear terms like “my business is different” or “that won’t work for my business”.  I am talking about marketing your business, products, or services.  When you get right down to it, marketing does work if it is done correctly.

Here is a formula to use when marketing any business, service, or product.  It’s called the 3 P’s of Marketing.

P #1- Passion.  Whatever you are doing, what ever business you are running, whatever product or service you are selling, you better be passionate about it or else you are in big trouble. If you don’t love what you are doing, if you don’t believe in what you are selling it is very difficult to get others to buy into it too.  Whether you are training a staff member or directly selling to potential buyer, if you are not behind what you are doing, the results will be bleak.  Think to yourself why are you doing what you do?  If you are a business owner, go back to why you wanted to be a business owner in the first place?   What was the passion behind you starting your own business.  If you represent a product, you better be passionate about it or maybe you are selling the wrong thing.

P #2- Purpose.  Before you doing anything in your business, whether it be creating an advertisement, website, or marketing materials you first have to answer one major questions…”What is the purpose of ___________?”  If you are building a website for example, what is the purpose of your website?  Is it to give away information?  How about collect leads?  Is it to sell something?  Or is to have them pick up the phone and call you?  If you don’t have a purpose, it is difficult to create something.

It amazes me how often I speak to business owners and sales professionals about various marketing strategies and when I look at their materials, it is not very clear what you want them to do.  Websites are notoriously bad at this.  People say well I have a website.  That is great to have a website but what is your websites purpose?  Many times this question can not be answered.  Make sure that for all your advertising and marketing that you can answer this simple question.  Once you answer it, make sure your marketing piece clearly matches your purpose.

P #3- Profitability.  The reason for being in business is to make a profit.  Even non-profits need to make money (profits) so they can give those profits to their cause. If your company makes 1 million dollars in revenue but your operating costs are 1 million dollars, there is no profit.  Same for if your company makes 100 million dollars and your operating costs are 100 million dollars.

The same holds true for any of your marketing.  The purpose of marketing anything is to get a return on your investment.  If your marketing is not being profitable, it is not being effective.  There are many reasons this can happen that we won’t get into here but the bottom line is whatever you are doing in your marketing efforts it needs to be profitable for you in the long run.

So there is the 3 P marketing formula.  If you have all 3 of these, you will have a business that will be around for a long time.

Marketing your products and services is critical to your business growth and long term success.  Make sure that you are doing the right things in your marketing efforts to make that happen.

Today, I had a dentist appointment and after the dentist appointment (which by the way NO cavities) I stopped off at the local convenience store.  It’s called Wawa and if you aren’t familiar with it, it is a local chain mostly in the northeast and let me tell you, they have the best food and products.

Anyway, when I walked in I was looking for a breakfast sandwich.  I found it and right in front of the sandwiches it said ” 2 Sandwiches For $3″.  Of course, I was hungry so I bought two.  Now here’s the thing, I was only going to buy 1 sandwich but they sweetened the deal and convinced me that it was smarter for me to get two.

This brings me to the point here. There are really only a few ways to increase your sales and profits.  One of the best ways to do this is to increase the value of each sale.

This one strategy has the potential to add more profitability to your bottom line faster, easier and more cost effectively than any other method.

3 Easy Ways To Increase The Value Of Each Sale

Getting more money from each sale, or increasing the average transactional value of each sale – that is, getting more money from every purchase your customers or clients make has the potential to add an immediate 30 to 40 percent in pure profits to your bottom line. It is very easy to offer and I am sure you have seen this done before.  So the question is, can you do something like this for the products or services you offer?

Below are three very simple ways to do this.

• Up-selling – not selling anything additional – just offering a larger size or more of the same item the customer is already purchasing. Super-sizing a drink (McDonalds example) or an order is an example of Up-selling.  This is very effective and simple to do.
• Cross-selling, or suggesting that your customer buys an additional item that they didn’t intend to purchase, is another effective way to increase the size of the order. Asking if a customer wants fries with their hamburger and drink is an example of how a fast food restaurant uses this technique.
• Packaging, bundling, or combining several items together and giving a discounted price is another way to get your customers to spend just a little more and get a better value. Happy meals or Value meals are an example of this technique.

These examples are popular ones you are probably familiar with today.  The key is to think about how you can apply these strategies to your business.  It should be easy for you to come up with some ideas.

Each of these techniques only adds a little more to the total cost of your products or services, and aside from the actual hard costs of the additional products, that “little more” is pure profit since there are no advertising, marketing or acquisition costs involved.  Your customer or clients are already there to buy something and they are ready to give you money so why not try to have them give you a little bit more right on the spot.

In the Wawa example from above, I was ready to spend $1.79 for one breakfast sandwich, but they convinced me to spend $3.00 instead.  They just made an additional $1.29 just from me.  Doesn’t sound like much but factor in that 100′s of people will do it and Wawa  just made a lot more money that day.  And remember, it didn’t cost them any additional amounts in advertising.

If you are not doing something like this, or any of these things, you are missing a huge opportunity to bring in more revenue and more money to the bottom line of your business.

If you are in business today, one of the most powerful things you can do to prove how great your products or services are is to let other people say it.

That’s right, I am talking about testimonials. Testimonials are one of the most powerful tools any business owner, or company can use, but also one of the most under-utilized. Testimonials are not limited to any one type of advertising or promotional media.

Television ads, radio announcements, newspaper layouts and infomercials all make use of testimonials in one form or another.

Often times today, celebrities are used to promote certain products, especially when national or large scale exposure is involved.

That is generally referred to as an “endorsement” rather than a testimonial, but the principle is pretty much the same.

It happens when another person makes a positive statement or recommendation about a certain product or service, business, or company.

In marketing, it’s sometimes known as creating a “Herd Mentality.” Dr. Robert Cialdini calls it the “Principle of Consensus.”

That is, if other people who are like me say this product or service is good, it improves the probability that it will be good for me, too.

Your own clients and customers are some of the best sources of endorsement you could possibly want. Especially if they are known to those you are marketing to or if they have something else in common with them.

You can have all types of testimonials as well. Video is great. You can post video testimonials on your website or have them playing on your tv in your office. You can also do audio testimonials and written. They are all good but the more real the testimonials are the better. Video for example shows a real person recommending your products or services. There is a connection in video that does not happen with written words.

Perhaps they live in the same town, have similar businesses, or belong to the same organization or association, etc. At any rate, when people hear that other people, much like them, who have similar interests, needs, wants, or desires have benefited from a certain product or service, the chances of them wanting to know more are dramatically increased.

In reality, there are really only three reasons people don’t buy from you:

1. They have no use for your product or service.
2. They can’t afford your product or service.
3. You haven’t developed the level of trust, believability, or credibility they need in you to do business with you.

There’s not much you can do if a prospect can’t use or pay for your services. But there is a lot you can do to help wipe away the underlying layers of skepticism they bring to the relationship and establish the trust level they need to say “Okay” to your offer.

People don’t like to be the first to do anything… especially if it involves parting with their hard-earned money.

If they can see that others have done what they are being asked to do, or that others are currently doing it, they tend to feel more safe and will be more likely to participate. You first have to relieve any nervousness they may have of being “taken.”

Testimonials are not difficult to get. If fact all you really need to do is ask for them.  One of the most effective ways is to send users of your products or services a questionnaire  or evaluation form that asks for their feedback on how they’ve benefited from using it.  Even better is to have people fill it out when they are in your office (if you have that type of business).

The questions should be in “open-ended” form, and ask for them to write their feelings… not just for yes or no answers.

Remember, when getting others to say something about you, it’s not enough for them to say something like, “Thank you for all your help. You helped me save a lot of money, and I’ve really enjoyed doing business with you.” These are too vague.

It would be far better to have testimonials that pointed to a specific benefit you’ve helped them achieve. Something along the lines of “I’ve been shopping for [this particular item] for more than 6 weeks. Everywhere I’ve gone, I get the runaround. No one has wanted to be of much help, and the prices seem so out of line. Thanks to you, I found exactly the size and color I’ve been looking for, and you helped me save $132.64. Thank you very much!”

Using testimonials… specific testimonials, is one of the most effective ways you can eliminate fear, increase the believability and credibility of your offer, and add to the number of sales or inquiries to your advertisements or promotions.

Whatever you do, don’t overlook this important and valuable tool. But before you use anyone’s comments, make sure you get their permission. An easy way to do this is by using a simple permission or consent form like the one shown here.

This is one the easiest and cost effective ways to help you market your business and increase your sales.

If you don’t have testimonials or you only have a few, you should make it a priority to get them.  They should be included in all your marketing, advertising, websites, brochures, radio commercials, tv commercials,  and anything else your prospects can see or hear for that matter.

Work on becoming a testimonial collecting machine!

Make sure that you don’t do this in your business!!!