Ack's Blog

What is a Coach?

2009-04-23T13:09:00.002-06:00

Being a Marketing Coach, I like this quote from the immortal VInce Lombardi.

"A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, and has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you’ve always known you can be."

I've always said that a Coach is both your best friend and your worst nightmare. Your best friend because a Coach shows you the things you MUST do to be successful. Your worst nightmare because once you know what you must do, a Coach MAKES you do it.

Success,
Jim

Randy A Testimonial

2008-03-12T15:39:00.001-06:00

If you wonder whether the Principle-Centered Marketing™ Coaching Program is for you, check out what Randy Anderson of Advance Fiber Optics, Inc. has to say.

It WILL Hit the Fan

2008-03-03T21:21:00.003-07:00

I’m not an economist. But I am one who does have an incredibly keen sense of the obvious. And it’s obvious to me that IT is about to hit the fan. In fact, IT appears so eminent that this is the second time I’ve addressed this topic today. (See previous post entitled Crahin’ With the Wave.)

In the United States we have enjoyed more than a 25-year period of incredible prosperity. It now looks like that may be coming to an abrupt and possibly a disastrous end.

Oh, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. The seeds of IT were sown decades ago, well in advance of this latest round of rousing success. But it appears the piper is a callin’; the cock is coming home to roost; the bill is coming due. (Maybe it’s long overdue.)

Heard news last week that over 100 banks in the country are in danger of failing, and that is just the beginning. You already know the situation in housing, mortgages, energy and durable goods. You know that food prices are inflating rapidly.

What I’m saying is, we could be in for some very bad years and I want to know what you’re going to do about it. Because you’re only going to have a couple of choices. Fold your tent and go home – if you’ve still got one – or cowboy up and figure out how to survive and thrive anyway.

I’m not inherently a doom and gloomer. I’m not here to assign blame… although if we don’t want IT to hit the fan again in the future, figuring out what went wrong, who is to blame, and what to do about it in advance would be a good idea.

No, my purpose is to help you look at your own situation and help you figure out how to get through it in one piece. Maybe even come out stronger than you were when you went in.

You see, success in the last 25 years has been a relative cake walk. (You may be saying, “what planet did you wake up on, Ackerman?”) But it’s true. If you’ve succeeded, odds are it was far easier than it would have been at almost any other time in our history, whether you believe it or not.

Now I know this may be a jolt to you. You may be sitting there thinking you’re the master of your empire; Mr. or Ms. Hotshot Businessperson. You may believe you built what you’ve got with incredible ingenuity, insight, hard work and brilliance. Well that is undoubtedly partially true. Goodness knows despite the “good times” the vast majority of businesses fail anyway. But the truth is, you’re successful at least in good measure because the whole economy has been successful for an inordinately long time. Not just in the U.S., but globally. You’ve been riding a wave.

Odds are, you’ve been able to get by with less than perfect planning, less than the most effective management, and in particular, less effective, and in some cases completely ineffective, inefficient, misguided or even totally absent, marketing.

Those days are about to come to an end. (Dare I say a CRASHING end?)

Here is my point…

You can never save or conserve your way to prosperity.

You can only innovate and then SELL your way there. Or better said, MARKET your way there.

As bad things happen in the economy, money will tighten. People will have less to spend and they’ll be far more careful about how they spend it. You know it’s true. It’s already happening. You may already be tightening your belt and being more discerning in your buying, both individually and as a business.

When that happens competition will heat up – it must, as your competitors and you desperately try to survive. Because strategic thinking has not been part of the equation in the past, everybody will turn to short-sighted, quick fixes. That usually comes in the form of discounting and price-cutting to maintain market share. Of course, margins go down when that happens, further stressing the structure of everything. You may very well get caught up in this whether you like it or not, because when everybody else is lowering their prices, it’s very difficult to maintain yours. Many in your industry will go belly-up.

Again, to belabor the obvious, when everyone’s in trouble, everyone’s in trouble.

So, what are you doing today, to make sure you’re not one of the statistics? How are you preparing yourself to MARKET your way through the treacherous shoals of the coming recession – or even depression?

My suggestions…

1. Don’t wait till tomorrow. Clear an hour TODAY to begin looking realistically at your situation from a worst-case scenario point of view.

2. Take a look at the current state of your marketing plan. If you don’t have one, you’re in trouble. If you don’t use the one you’ve got, you’re in trouble. If it is based on false assumptions, you’re in trouble. If your plan doesn’t have aggressive strategies to differentiate yourself from the competition you’re in trouble. (I’m just getting warmed up here. I could go on but for the limitation of the word count.)

3. Take a look at your internal marketing resources, talent and education. I’m not talking about MBAs, I’m talking about practical application. I’m talking about real experience with getting people to buy. I’m serious. If all of your marketing people are highly educated brand builders, you’re in a world of serious hurt. You’d better find some people who know how to SELL! And that goes for your ad agency relationships, if you have them, as well.

4. Initiate an aggressive program of marketing preparation. Begin putting marketing contingency plans in place and give yourself a deadline for their completion of no more than six months to a year. If you wait until after the election in November to get these plans in place, it may be too late.

5. Get yourself educated in the areas of customer/client relationship building and retention, up-selling and add-on selling, referral systems, and direct response marketing, among others.

6. If you don’t have the kind of expertise to do these things, go out and find it.

By all means, don’t delay. There is a tipping point and it seems to me it’s approaching quickly. If you’re not prepared ahead of time, you may not have the ability to adjust fast enough to save yourself.

On the up side, preparation – even anticipation – is likely to bring you to the mountaintop. Historically, those who are prepared, and who aggressively “market on”
when IT hits the fan, come out the other side sucking up abandoned market share like crazy and prosper at levels they never dreamed possible. And that’s a place you do want to be.

And one super-colosal last thing. The place to go for the help you need is Ascend Marketing. In particular, take a good look at the Principle-Centered Marketing™ Coaching Program. Yes, we give you a 400% ROI GUARANTEE… Better than any guarantee you'll find anywhere. But what we really give you is CRASH INSURANCE.

THE END

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Salt Lake City-based Marketing Coach, Writer and Speaker, and developer of the Principle-Centered Marketing™ Coaching Program. Jim will be presenting a series of FREE marketing seminars for local businesses in the coming year. Contact Jim at 800.584.7585 or email him at mail@ascendmarketing.com for times and locations.

Crashin’ With the Wave!

2008-03-03T20:54:00.004-07:00

Do you hear that rumble? Can you hear that crash? It’s the sound of the mighty economic tsunami come a-crashing to shore.

And with it the sound of panic-stricken business people afraid their enterprises are going to crash right along with it.

And you know what? In many cases, that’s exactly what is going to happen. And when it does, there are going to be hordes of stunned business owners looking around and saying, what do I do now, how could this happen, it’s the economy’s fault, it’s the President’s fault, it’s Congresses fault!

No it isn’t you whining snits. It’s your own darn fault.

You got all caught up in your own arrogance. You thought your prosperity was your own doing when all along you were only riding a wave.

You got in when things were good. You got in when you could make a killing in your sleep. You didn’t learn business and you didn’t learn marketing. It was all on auto pilot and now that – as they all do – the wave has crashed, you want to blame somebody else.

I’ve seen this in several business cycles. Nowhere is it more evident than in the mortgage lending business, although I must confess that this time it’s worse than I’ve ever seen it before.

Here’s the drill…

1. Interest rates go down. Everybody wants a loan and people flood into the mortgage business to make a killing.
2. Mortgage rates go up. Borrowing slows. The mortgage brokers and loan officers fold like a tent.

Only this time it’s worse. This time, the banks are folding their tents too, and that is killing the whole economy. Everybody loses.

Now the good news. There is still time for you to move to higher ground and save your business.

But if you think you’re going to sit on your duff and do nothing, and survive the coming torrent, there is no hope for you.

Back to the mortgage situation. There are still banks, mortgage brokers and loan officers who are staying in the game. There will be many who not only survive, but thrive through all of this.

And who are they? The ones who are built on a solid foundation and who have learned to consistently and wisely market their businesses.

Same is true for your business. If you’re founded on sound marketing principles, strategies and tactics, and if you’re committed to testing and tracking your marketing efforts to genetically engineer them for ever increasing success. If that’s the case, the coming crash will be a great opportunity for you to ride the next wave here in Utah.

But if you see it coming and you’re not prepared, it’s time to get humble in a hurry. It’s time to change your tactics. It’s time to figure out what you need to do and do it.

Here are some things to consider…

1. What are you doing to fully and consistently educate your EXISTING customers, clients or patients as to the full breadth of the products and services you offer and all the problems you can solve for them? If you have no such effort in place, you’d better get one going while there is still time.

2. As you sell to your current customers, clients or patients, what are you doing to ask them to buy more – in THEIR best interest – at the point of the original sale? Do you have a system in place for doing this? If you don’t you are disserving your clients and it’s going to cost you sooner than you think.

3. How are you cultivating your relationship with your current customers, clients or patients? If you’re not doing anything, again, you are disserving them and you’re going to lose them. When you do you’ll blame it on a lack of customer loyalty, but it will really be due to a lack of CUSTOMER LOYALTY on your part and you will have reaped what you have sown. You must have a systematic program in place to consistently educate and re-sell your clients, in THEIR best interest.

4. If you’re doing all the things above and doing them well, you’re probably on solid ground over all, and you probably have happy clients. That means you’re probably doing a good deal of referral business. Great. You won’t find any better insulation against tough economic times. But have you maximized your referrals by putting in place multiple referral-generating systems, designed to make referrals predictable, instead of incidental. If not, you should. And the sooner the better.

5. Is your product or service so pervasively distributed that you don’t care who buys your product or service, or where, or when? In other words, can your product be bought on virtually any street corner in any store, by any body? If not, stop worrying about “branding” and start focusing on generating a direct response from your marketing efforts. If you don’t know how to do that, find out. I can point you in the right direction, but whether you come to me or go elsewhere, you must find out. (And don’t come crying about needing to build brand. The best way to do that is by having tons of happy, satisfied, consistently-buying customers. Besides, anyone who says you can’t build brand while building a direct response is an idiot.)

What are you doing to advance your marketing education? I find many business people are so terrified by marketing they functionally put their head in the sand and hope it goes away. You may have been able to get away with that while the wave was building. But when it crashes, those who don’t know how to market will find themselves working for those who do.

When the wave is first swelling, you can come a little late to the party and still do very well. When the wave is about to crash, you have no such luxury. When the crest is upon you, you must recognize the situation and act quickly to avoid the wipeout.

The good news is, for those who see what’s coming, you’ll be able to surf the swell ahead of the crash and ride the prosperity you’ve earned to even greater heights in the future, while your less insightful competitors drown in the foaming aftermath of the economic deluge. But you’ll have to be swift and decisive. You’ll have to act to bolster your marketing system now!

THE END

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Salt Lake City-based Marketing Coach, Writer and Speaker, and is President of Ascend Marketing, Inc. Jim will be presenting a series of FREE marketing seminars for local businesses in the coming year. Contact Jim at 800.584.7585 or email him at mail@ascendmarketing.com for times and locations.

Research That Means a Hill of Beans

2008-02-20T22:58:00.001-07:00

Subscribe to this blog for regular, 30-second to 2-minute video marketing tips. This one is on the simple kind of market research that really means a hill of beans.

4 Jobs of Advertising

2008-02-19T20:18:00.001-07:00

Subscribe to my blog for regular 30-second to 2-minute video tips on marketing, advertising and sales. Or go to youtube.com and subscribe to the pcmcoach channel.

There are four jobs any marketing effort must successfully complete of that effort is to be successful. Here they are…

Never Send A General Agency

2008-02-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

If you don't want to watch the 2-minute video below, here is the transcript you can read…

NEVER SEND A GENERAL AGENCY TO DO A DIRECT RESPONSE JOB

I’m sorry folks. That almost never works. I mean, once in a while a traditional agency will luck out. They’ll stumble across a slam dunk easy situation where the product and the offer are perfectly positioned at just the right time, and they hit a home run. But it’s all a matter of luck and the agency is incapable of repeating that kind of success on a regular basis.

(Incidentally, the opposite may also be true. You generally don’t want to send a direct response agency to do a strictly institutional or image-oriented ad campaign. I believe strong direct response campaigns do positively impact company, brand or product image, but if that’s all you’re looking for, there may be better ways to do it. On the other hand, the best image campaigns seldom carry any direct response message with them at all, so they can’t do a thing for generating immediate sales.) And general agencies just don’t understand direct response, so don’t ask them to do it.

Never Send A General Agency to do a Direct Response Job

2008-02-18T22:38:00.001-07:00

Subscribe to this blog for regular 30-second to 2-minute video marketing tips. Today's tip is a key secret to avoiding mistakes in direct response marketing.

9 Rules of Direct Response Marketing

2008-02-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

If you don't want to take the time to watch the video below, here is what it says…

The first nine rules of direct response marketing are…

1. TEST 2. TEST
3. TEST 4. TEST
5. TEST 6. TEST
7. TEST 8. TEST
9. TEST

Rule number 10 is… track everything you test.

And rule number 11 is… once you’ve tracked, look at those results and use them to make better marketing decisions.

The First 9 Rules of Direct Response Marketing

2008-02-14T07:58:00.001-07:00

Check this blog for regular video marketing tips. This one is on 11 critical rules for successful marketing for small businesses.

30 sec 1

2008-02-11T21:42:00.001-07:00

Check this blog daily for a 30-second to 2-minute video marketing tip. Today's tip is on how to "genetically engineer" your marketing for ever-increasing success -- making you the "Sherlock Holmes" of success

AD WRITING RECIPE

2007-03-16T11:42:00.001-06:00

Remember the recipe for writing good ads. Start with a strong Unique Purchase Appeal (UPA). Then make a comprehensive feature list of what you're selling and a comprehensive benefit list of what's in it for your customer. Then put together an offer sheet, complete with the most compelling pot sweeteners or bonus incentives you can think of. That would be a pretty good start on a checklist, don't you think?

The Success Gift

2007-03-14T11:07:00.000-06:00

Success has a lot more to do with hard work than it does with gifts. If you’re seeking after a gift, maybe the gift to seek is simply the willingness to work hard at marketing… to pay the price for perfection… to keep at it until you get it so it will work!

Getting Things Done The Mastermind Way

2007-03-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today we’re going to talk about “masterminding” as a method to accelerate the pace of your implementation and improvement in marketing, or any other aspect of your enterprise.
There are five “u-needs” if you are to get things done. Especially if you are to get them done rapidly and effectively. They are…

1. Knowing what to do
2. Knowing how to do it
3. Resources for help
4. Feedback to make sure you do it right
5. Accountability to make sure you actually do it and do it when you say you will.

You can get the what-to-dos from books. You can also get them from meetings, seminars, workshops, classes and bootcamps – and audio, video, and on-line training programs.
The how-to-do-its – now that’s a little tougher. To some degree you can still get them from the same sources, but so often the how-tos are at least somewhat dependent on too many variables to be able to “cookie-cutter” onto the printed page or onto some other medium. Live events can be useful if there is a high level of U-need number four – feedback – available on the spot.
Usually, what passes for the how-tos in all of the educational systems we’ve mentioned so far, is really a collection of step-by-step what-tos, broken down from the larger, overriding what-to.
Regardless of whether you’re dealing with what-tos or how-tos, it’s a good bet you’re not going to be able to do it all yourself and expect an excellent outcome. That’s not to say you’re not reasonably capable person. It is to say that you’re an outright fool if you think you can do everything in your business as well or better than anybody else. And you’re a bigger fool if you want to.
Resources include books, tapes, classes, equipment and supplies. But your most important resources are vendors. The people you turn to for help in accomplishing your goals. In the marketing world they include ad agencies, printers, photographers, illustrators, media buyers, consultants, sales trainers, etc.
But now we move to feedback and accountability. And this is where the rubber really meets the road, especially in the small to mid-size business world.
Feedback is what you need to make sure your execution of the what-to-dos and how-to-do its is as good as it can get. And accountability is whoever is going to hold your feet to the fire and make sure you actually do what needs to be done.
The point is, you can’t do this alone. When you are in business for yourself; when you are the boss, nobody holds you accountable. You hold everybody else accountable, but the whole point of being the boss is that nobody has their thumb on you.
“Wait a minute, Jim. I am too accountable. I’m accountable to my spouse. I’m accountable to my customers.”
Yes, you are. But only in a general sense. You aren’t accountable to either for the accomplishment of specific business-building assignments, by specific dates. Don’t believe me? Okay, then why don’t you have a written marketing plan in your business? Why don’t you have a formal referral system, or a program designed to get your existing customers to come back on a regular basis? You know you’ve needed all of these things for a long time. Why haven’t you made a commitment to your customers or your wife for completion of these projects by a specific date? And if you have, why haven’t you lived up to those commitments?
Admit it. Nobody is holding you specifically accountable. So you have to be humble enough to delegate that responsibility to someone or some entity.
I am a marketing coach and I do that for my clients. They designate me as the guy who will hold their feet to the fire. They pay me well to do it and I do a good job.
But there is another way. You can assemble a “mastermind group” of like-minded entrepreneurs and you can hold each other accountable. It matters not whether you’re all in the same industry or in different businesses. The key is that each be committed to improving his or her business and be willing to submit to the scrutiny of the group.
I am currently a member of four mastermind groups. One is a collection of people from diverse walks of life. Two are groups of individuals within my industry, and one is a group of my own licensed and certified coaches. Two of my groups meet monthly in a live get-together. One meets bi-monthly by telephone conference. One meets weekly by phone. I find my productivity is increasing and my business is along with it.
Here are the keys I believe you must follow if a mastermind group is to work for you…

1. Begin with a group of at least four and any additions must be by unanimous consent of the group.
2. Limit the size of the group to no more than eight or 10, unless you are all in exactly the same business – like my group of licensed, certified coaches.
3. Clearly identify the purposes of your mastermind group.
4. There must be strict standards of participation. (The organizer of one of my groups kicked out her own brother because he was wishy washy about showing up. Had excuses for not being there the first two sessions, so she axed him on the spot.)
5. Everybody sets specific goals and there are consequences for failing to meet them. That usually means money. You pay a fine for failure to perform.

That last one is where the magic happens. One of my groups started out with no fine structure. Doesn’t work. Simple as that. We piddled around for six months and nothing really got accomplished. Everyone finally gave in to the fine concept and the impact on each one of the participants exploded!
There’s got to be teeth in the program if it’s going to work. We’re fined if we don’t show up without being excused. We’re fined if we’re late. We’re fined for every goal we fail to accomplish, and we’re obligated to define both the goals and the criteria by which our accomplishments will be judged by the other members of the group. We’re obligated to submit our goals to the group within 24 hours of completion of our previous meeting, and if we don’t… you guessed it… we get fined.
If you’re not happy with the speed with which your business is moving forward, either get a coach or get a mastermind group. Have somebody holding your feet to the fire and make sure it hurts if you come up short. You’ll watch the excuses melt away and your business take off, the way you have always dreamed it could.

THE END

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Salt Lake City-based Marketing Consultant, Writer and Speaker, and is President of Ascend Marketing, Inc. He is President Elect of the National Speakers Association Utah Chapter. For the next 2 weeks Jim will offer a no-cost, no-obligation, 30-minute consultation on how to set up your own mastermind group or coaching program. Send an email request to mail@AscendMarketing.com, or call 800.584.7585 to set an appointment.

Yellow Pages: Over used, under used... and ABUSED!

2007-03-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yellow Page Advertising. One of the most over used, under used, and certainly one of the most abused tools of marketing in business today… A key weakness in almost everybody's marketing arsenal… a weapon virtually everybody believes is crucial to their success -- one almost everybody pays for -- but one that almost nobody understands and even fewer use effectively. You must treat your yellow page advertising like any other ad. It’s got to have a strong headline and you’ve got to make a specific offer. Nobody does these two things in the yellow pages. If you do, you’ll have a tremendous competitive edge.

Best Offer/Worst Offer

2007-02-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

WORST OFFER -- Have a sales person call.

Are you kidding? Who is excited about having to talk to yet another sales person?

BEST OFFER -- Have a sales person call!

Because nobody wants a sales person to call unless they're super interested in buying. If you want a few leads but excellent leads, this is it. You eliminate the tire-kickers and only the serious prospects will respond.

MY OFFER -- Call me at 800.584.7585 for a FREE 30-minute marketing consultation. That's a $150.00 value! You can also email your FREE consultation request to mail@ascendmarketing.com.

A Cheap, Yet Useful Market Research Technique

2007-02-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

Paul Martin, one of the country's finest direct response specialists reports he makes just a half dozen to a dozen phone calls to potential customers of his offers. He says this primitive, yet highly effective "market research" technique yields invaluable dividends. Information about whether you're going after the right prospects; what their hot buttons are; what they're looking for in an offer.

He just calls like a person from an "independent" survey company and asks a few questions.

"It's better than focus groups," Paul says.

So that's a great little trick anybody can use to help them determine the right offer for the audience you're after.

A Cheap, Yet Useful Market Research Technique

2007-02-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

How Would You Like a 20% Response Rate

2007-02-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

On Your Advertising

Let’s face it. Most businesses don’t even know what a response rate is, let alone what theirs is. Most don’t actually expect a response rate. Most throw out their advertising, at great expense, and hope enough people show up over time to make them money. They have no control and they take no measurement.
Smart businesses don’t do that. Smart businesses make offers in their advertising and carefully track the responses they get, so they know what advertising is working for them and what advertising is a waste of money.
And smart advertisers who know their response rates would generally give their right arm for a 20% response rate.
But how do you get that kind of a rate, when traditional rates for direct mail, for example, are broadly reported to be one to two percent, and are headed down?
You use “integrated marketing,” that’s how.
Bill sent 500 direct mail solicitations to a select list of his best customers, inviting them to a 2-hour, private, pre-Valentine’s sale. He sent them out six days before the sale. But he wasn’t satisfied to just send the invitations by mail. Four days prior, he also sent about 250 of those same people an email invitation. (He’d have sent them all the email but he only has 250 of their email addresses – so far.) Still not satisfied, he made a telephone call to all 500, just to remind them, the day before the sale.
As a result, Bill had 100 people show up for his sale – a 20% response rate. His total investment in the marketing effort was about $900.00, which covered the costs of printing and mailing, emails and the recorded telemarketing calls.
During the 2-hour event, Bill sold $10,000.00 worth of merchandise. That’s about an 11 to 1 return on investment. But he wasn’t through yet. The next day he moved roughly $4,000.00 additional dollars from people who couldn’t make the private sale but came in afterward and bought something.
There are actually three keys to Bill’s success with this promotion…

1. Bill didn’t worry about marketing to the masses. He carefully selected his potential attendees from this list of his top customers. I’m talking about the people he already has a good relationship with. These were not folks that needed to be convinced he is a great guy to do business with. These folks already know and trust him.

There’s a big lesson in that for everybody. Cultivate your clients by taking good care of them, giving them an enjoyable buying experience and making them feel welcome and important to your company.
Once you have that kind of relationship, ethically exploit it. Ask these “super-customers” to come back and buy, over and over again.

2. Bill compressed the timing for the promotion. You can do this far more easily when you’re talking to your trusted clients, as opposed to goingto the public at large. The soonest anyone found out about Bill’s Private Sale was about 5 days in advance. They hardly had time to forget. By comparison, my client, Dennis mailed his Valentine’s day promotion three weeks early. His response, while still profitable, was more like the traditional 2% response. Bill recognized the nature of the public and the holiday to be procrastination oriented, so he used that to his advantage in his “blitz.”

3. Finally, Bill utilized the idea of “INTEGRATED MARKETING.” In other words, he didn’t leave it to one medium to reach his audience. He took advantage of three.

There is nothing new about the concept of integrated marketing. Radio has made a living preaching this sermon to advertisers for decades. “We don’t want all of your ad budget. We want to complement what you are doing in the newspapers. We find that when you add radio to your newspaper or direct mail efforts, your results will improve.”
Indeed this has been my experience. Radio will boost response to print advertising, particularly when your radio ads reference your print or direct mail ads.
Bill’s effort proves that you can combine less traditional media very effectively in the integrated mix. Direct mail remained his cornerstone effort, but augmentation with email, which was free in this case, and the pre-recorded telephone calls, which cost just pennies a call to execute, proved a very formidable combination indeed.
It’s important to note that there is a difference between multi-media marketing and an integrated marketing approach
In the multi-media model, you are recognizing that there is surprisingly little cross-over between individual media. The people who are watching TV aren’t necessarily reading the paper. The people reading the paper may not be paying much attention to their mail. The message may be fundamentally the same in each medium, but the messages are designed to stand alone. You’re not using one medium to drive response to another.
Integrated marketing acknowledges that people may not be naturally crossing over from one medium to another, but also asserts that the multiple media can be used to directly reinforce each other for a specific, direct response result. If your radio ads drive people to your newspaper ads, you’ll get higher readership and therefore a greater response to your newspaper ads.
For small business, direct mail is the best launching pad for an integrated approach. You not only know exactly how many people you are reaching, but you know exactly who they are. And that means your follow-up is easy. Email makes a lot of sense – and if you’re not collecting the email addresses of your clients yet, you need to begin yesterday. And the targeted telemarketing is another economical natural. You can do it with live people, but Bill’s pre-recorded, automated system approach featuring his own voice on the recording proved to be a very effective alternative.
One more nice thing. You can play small ball. You don’t have to do a promotion like Bill’s to thousands. He went to 500. Another client of mine went to just 75 clients with a letter and follow-up live phone call. The result was eight sales worth over $14,400.00 in revenue, on a $50.00 ad investment. Not bad.

NOTE: For an 8-page newsletter on INTEGRATED MARKETNG send an email request to mail@AscendMarketing.com.

CREATE VALUE FIRST

2007-02-07T10:54:00.001-07:00

Creating value is first done in the headline and body copy of your ad, in your sales presentation, in your letter or your e-mail. You've got to identify for the prospect the WHAT'S IN IT FOR HIM stuff. You've got to articulate all of those benefits for the prospect, because you don't know which ones are really going to turn his crank.
Finding the right hot buttons isn't the only reason to spell out all the benefits in your selling message. Another big reason is that by piling them up, you'll be demonstrating massive value.

Your prospect will buy because you hit the key hot buttons that touched his key human needs and buying motivations… and because he'll be able to justify the purchase with all the other bennies your offering gives him.

So make sure your sales message delivers all the benefits. Remember, the more you tell… the more you sell.

ANOTHER TIP FOR CREATING GREAT OFFERS

2007-02-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ask with congruent belief. It's where you bring all of the factors to bear, and some others as well. If you have done your part in providing exceptional value and have asked specifically, congruent belief will be relatively easy. You'll know this offer is the right thing for your prospects to do. Add to that the principles of persuasion, and you'll have a compelling offer customers will find impossible to resist.

TIPS FOR CREATING GREAT OFFERS

2007-02-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Ask consistently. Sometimes your timing just isn't right for some customers. Does that mean you should stop asking? No. Remember, stop asking and customers stop buying.

2007-02-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

"Hey...you'd better believe I can help you change your business and your life for the better."
Jim Ackerman

Reasons To Succeed

2007-02-02T11:51:00.001-07:00

Here's your Marketing Tip o' the Day for Tuesday, January 30, 2007:
From: Jim Ackerman of Ascend Marketing™ and the Success Alliances

Imagine what it’ll be like to achieve each of your goals. Take the time to picture yourself having succeeded. What will you do? How will you celebrate? What will you say, to whom, and why? What will you hear? What will you feel? As you develop this, “scene of success” in you mind, return to it again and again. Let it move you toward the success you seek.

Many people fail to acheive the goals they've created, even if the goals are written. You need more than goals. You need specific, emotional reasons why you MUST succeed.

Laser Focus On Your Goals

2007-02-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here's your Marketing Tip o' the Day for Wednesday, January 31, 2007:
From: Jim Ackerman of Ascend Marketing™ and the Success Alliances

It’s one thing to choose a specific goal and write it down. But if you don’t revisit it again and again -- at least once a day -- you limit your chances for achieving your goal, and the speed with which it might be achieved. Focus on your goals continually. Put them in the forefront of your mind and keep them there. You’ll achieve more, faster, than you ever thought possible.

I have 3 Mastermind Groups holding me accountable to this focus. If I fall short I pay... in CASH!

Commit to Change in '07

2006-12-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

Below is a column I wrote for the Salt Lake Enterprise Business Newspaper. In all humility, I think it's pretty good and a great message for this time of year.

INSANITY DEFINED…
Doing the Same Old Things & Expecting Different Results

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

So what are you going to change about next year, and why wait clear ‘till then?

Look, I’m not going to lie. This is yet another of those get ready for the new year advice pieces, and you may have already seen more than your share of them. And if you haven’t yet, don’t worry. You’ll get a belly full of them before we’re too far into the New Year, guaranteed.

But that’s no reason to stop reading… unless you’ve given up on life and business and you simply don’t even want to try anymore.

On the contrary, there is a reason that all this stuff comes flooding your way. This year, with all of its shortcomings, is drawing to a close. And a new year, with all of its promise, is on the horizon. This is an opportunity for a new beginning and a recommitment. But if you think you’re going to re-commit – knuckle down, raise the bar, lengthen your stride – whatever you want to call it, and if you think the results you’re looking for are simply a matter of commitment and hard work, you are sadly mistaken.

You can’t make significant changes just working harder. You’ve got to work smarter. Maybe just different. But you can’t keep doing the same things and expect to get different results. That is, by definition, INSANE!

(I should modify that. Actually, by working harder, but doing things the same way, you’ll hasten the result. If you’re going broke and you work harder, but keep doing the same old stuff, you’ll go broke faster, that’s all. If you’re mediocre, working harder at the same things will make you more mediocre, faster. And if you’re doing well… well then doing the same things harder will help you do well, faster. But it could be even better, and probably a lot easier.)

Another dynamic comes into play. What if you’re doing well, but it has nothing to do with the work you’re doing. Maybe you’re working hard, but your success isn’t related to your hard work. What if you’re just in a great market? What if the economy is simply working in your favor? The problem is, you think it’s your hard work that is yielding the result and when conditions change and things start going in the wrong direction, you begin to think you can fix it by just doing what you’ve always done, but harder, longer and faster.

But it doesn’t work, because in reality, it never did, and now you’re in a world of hurt because you’re both physically and emotionally – not to mention financially -- “wrung out.”

Let me recommend a far more productive alternative. And this works for any aspect of your life, but let’s stay laser-focused on marketing for the time being. I suggest that you do things differently.

No, I don’t mean randomly differently; I don’t mean differently for the sake of being different; I don’t mean entirely differently. But I do mean eternally differently.

You see you must know three things…

1. Is what you’re doing working?
2. Can you find something better?
3. How to tell what is working best?

The answers to all three questions are the same. Test and track. I’m referring to actual tracking, not the seat-of-the-pants guesswork that most businesses engage in. You’ve got to run the numbers. You’ve got to specifically watch the impact of your advertising, marketing and sales initiatives on the sales curve. And don’t let anybody tell you it can’t be done.
By tracking the results of what you’re currently doing, you’ll find out how well it is or isn’t working. The next step is to try and find something better.

So you try something new – but only on a small scale. You absolutely DO NOT stop doing your old standby stuff and chuck it all for a new-fangled roll-of-the-dice effort. You test small. You take your new initiative to a portion of the marketplace and you measure the results, while you keep the old standby stuff rolling, still doing the stuff it’s always done at whatever level it does it.

And that’s is how you find something better and find what is working best. You actually measure it and compare it. You measure it all!

Remember, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Tracking is essential to answering the three questions above and improving your results SAFELY. And once you’ve found something that consistently out-performs those old standbys, then you can retire the old and your new, profit-proven program can become the “new standby.”

Of course, as soon as that happens you embark on the process of finding something even better, using the same process of MEASURED CHANGE.

Here’s the point. Don’t commit to working harder or more next year. Commit to working different. Don’t commit to changing something. Commit to changing everything… to change itself. Don’t commit to a result, but commit to the process of ever-improving results.

Now here’s the kicker. If you’re trying to lose weight or stop smoking, change can be hard. In marketing, it’s easy. Because unlike weight loss or smoking, where you can fail, that can’t happen in the world of marketing. When you test something in the marketing world, the result is what it is. If you’ve tested small and safe, and the outcome is unfavorable, you have still learned something useful for the future. And if it is successful, you have learned something for the future and achieved a profitable result today. And unlike weight loss and smoking, where, when you’ve won, you’ve won and there is no further need for change, or the satisfaction that comes with it, marketing will always provide you with a fresh challenge and the opportunity to win again.

Remember the only insane thing is to keep doing things the same old way and expecting different results. But when you no longer do what you’ve always done, you can no longer get what you’ve always got. And that’s a good thing.
Finally, if this is all so good, why wait ‘till the new year? Why not get started today?

THE END

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Salt Lake City-based Marketing Consultant, Writer and Speaker, and is President of Ascend Marketing, Inc. For his book THE DELTA INITIATIVE How to Easily, Permanently Change Whatever Sucks in Your Business or Your Life, in 30 Minutes a Day, in 120 Days or Less, visit www.thedeltainitiative.com, or call 800.584.7585.

Merry Christmas to all

2006-12-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I just want wish you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. More and better stuff to come.

Consistency is the key

2006-12-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, here we go.

You want to make more money and so do I.

Is it going to happen?

Only if we're consistent in the effort.

I recommend setting a daily goal for your marketing time and limiting the time you spend on it.

For example, if you determine that you are going to spend 30 minutes a day working on the marketing systems of your business, set a goal at the beginning of the 30 minute period, for what you are going to accomplish in that time frame.

Don't be anal about the 30 minutes. If you complete your goal in less time you can quit. If you don't complete your goal in 30 minutes you can keep going for a few minutes more.

But don't be anal about the goal either. If you've spent an hour and still aren't complete, stop and pick it up tomorrow.

Consistency is a major key to consistency. In other words, consistent effort will yield consistent results.