Chapter 15
Scientific Advertising — Test campaigns

Almost any questions can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort the buyers of your product.

On every new project there comes up the question of selling that article profitably. You and your friends may like it, but the majority may not. Some rival product may be better liked or cheaper. It may be strongly entrenched. The users won away from it may cost too much to get.

People may buy and not repeat. The article may last too long. It may appeal to a small percentage, so most of your advertising goes to waste.

There are many surprises in advertising. A project you will laugh at may make a great success. A project you are sure of may fall down. All because tastes differ so. None of us know enough peoples desires to get an average viewpoint.

In the old days, advertisers ventured on their own opinions. The few guessed right, the many wrong. Those were the times of advertising disaster. Even those who succeeded came close to the verge before the tide is turned. They did not know their cost per customer or their sale per customer. The cost of selling might take a long time to come back. Often it never came back.

Now we let the thousands decide what the millions will do. We make a small venture, and watch cost and result. When we learn what a thousand customers cost, we know almost exactly what a million will cost. When we learn what they buy, we know what a million will buy.

We establish averages on a small scale, and those averages always hold. We know our cost, we know our sale, we know our profit or our loss. We know how soon our cost comes back. Before we spread out, we prove our undertaking absolutely safe. So there are today no advertising disasters piloted by men who know.

Perhaps we try out our project in four or five towns. We may use a sample offer or a free package to get users started quickly. We learn in this way the cost per customer started. Then we wait and see if users buy those samples. If they do, will they continue? How much will they buy? How long does it take for the profit to return our cost of selling?

A test like this may cost $3,000 to $5,000. It is not all lost, even when the product proves unpopular. Some sales are made. Nearly every test will in time bring back the entire cost.

Sometimes we find that the cost of the advertising comes back before the bills are due. That means that the product can be advertised without investment. Many a great advertiser has been built up without any cost whatever beyond immediate receipts. That is an ideal situation.

On another product it may take three months to bring back the cost with a profit. But one is sure of his profit in that time. When he spreads out he must finance accordingly.

Think what this means. A man has what he considers an advertising possibility. But national advertising looks so big and expensive that he dare not undertake it.

Now he presents it in a few average towns, at a very moderate cost. With almost no risk whatever. From the few thousand he learns what the millions will do. Then he acts accordingly. If he then branches he knows to a certainty just what his results will be.

He is playing on the safe side of a hundred to one shot. If the article is successful, it may make him millions. If he is mistaken about it, the loss is a trifle.

These are facts we desire to emphasize and spread. All our largest accounts are now built in this way, from very small beginnings. When businessmen realize that this can be done, hundreds of others will do it. For countless fortune-earners now lie dormant.

The largest advertiser in the world makes a business of starting such projects. One by one he finds out winners. Now he has twenty-six, and together they earn many millions yearly.

These test campaigns have other purposes. They answer countless questions which arise in business.

A large food advertiser felt that his product would be more popular in another form. He and all his advisers were certain about it. They were willing to act on this supposition without consulting the consumers, but wiser advice prevailed.

He inserted an ad in a few towns with a coupon, good at any store for a package of the new-style product. Then he wrote to the users about it. They were almost unanimous in their disapproval.

Later the same product was suggested in still another form. The previous verdict made the change look dubious. The advertiser hardly thought a test to be worthwhile. But he submitted the question to a few thousand women in a similar way and 91 percent voted for it. Now he has a unique product which promises to largely increase his sales.

These tests cost about $1,000 each. The first one saved him a very costly mistake. The second will probably bring him large profits.

Then we try test campaigns to try out new methods on advertising already successful. Thus we constantly seek for better methods, without interrupting plans already proved out.

In five years for one food advertiser we tried out over fifty separate plans. Every little while we found an improvement, so the results of our advertising constantly grew. At the end of five years we found the best plan of all. It reduced our cost of selling by 75 percent. That is, it was four times more effective than the best plan used before.

That is what mail order advertisers do – try out plan after plan to constantly reduce the cost. Why should any general advertiser be less business-like and careful?

Another service of the test campaign is this: An advertiser is doing mediocre advertising. A skilled advertising agent feels that he can greatly increase results. The advertiser is doubtful. He is doing fairly well. He has alliances which he hesitates to break. So he is inclined to let well enough alone.

Now the question can be submitted to the verdict of a test. The new agent may take a few towns, without interfering with the general campaign. Then compare his results with the general results and prove his greater skill.

Plausible arguments are easy in this line. One man after another comes to an advertiser to claim superior knowledge or ability. It is hard to decide, and decisions may be wrong.

Now actual figures gained at a small cost can settle the question definitely. The advertiser makes no commitment. It is like saying to a salesman, “Go out for a week and prove.” A large percentage of all the advertising done would change hands if this method were applied.

Again we come back to scientific advertising. Suppose a chemist would say in an arbitrary way that this compound was best, or that better. You would little respect his opinion. He makes tests – sometimes hundreds of tests – to actually know which is best. He will never state a supposition before he has proved it. How long before advertisers in general will apply that exactness to advertising?

Chapter 16
Scientific Advertising – Leaning on dealers

We cannot depend much in most lines on the active help of jobbers or of dealers. They are busy. They have many lines to consider. The profit on advertised lines is not generally large. And an advertised article is apt to be sold at cut prices.

The average dealer does what you would do. He exerts himself on brands of his own, if at all. Not on another mans brand.

The dealers will often try to make you think otherwise. He will ask some aid or concession on the ground of extra effort. Advertisers often give extra discounts. Or they make loading offers—perhaps one case free in ten—in the belief that loaded dealers will make extra efforts.

This may be so in rare lines, but not generally. And the efforts if made do not usually increase the total sales. They merely swing trade from one store to another.

On most lines, making a sale without making a convert does not count for much. Sales made by conviction by advertising are likely to bring permanent customers. People who buy through casual recommendations do not often stick. Next time someone else gives other advice.

Revenue which belongs to the advertiser is often given away without adequate return. These discounts and gifts could be far better spent in securing new customers.

Free goods must be sold, and by your efforts usually. One extra case with ten means that advertising must sell ten percent more to bring you the same return. The dealer would probably buy just as much if you let him buy as convenient.

Much money is often frittered away on other forms of dealer help. Perhaps on window or store displays. A window display, acting as a reminder, may bring to one dealer a lions share of the trade. Yet it may not increase your total sales at all.

Those are facts to find out. Try one town in one way, one in another. Compare total sales in those towns. In many lines such tests will show that costly displays are worthless. A growing number of experienced advertisers spend no money on displays.

This is all in line of general publicity, so popular long ago. Casting bread upon the waters and hoping for its return. Most advertising was of that sort twenty years ago.

Now we put things to the test. We compare cost and result on every form of expenditure. It is very easily done. Very many costly wastes are eliminated by this modern process.

Scientific advertising has altered many old plans and conceptions. It has proved many long established methods to be folly. And why should we not apply to these things the same criterion we apply to other forms of selling? Or to manufacturing costs?

Your object in all advertising is to buy new customers at a price which pays a profit. You have no interest in centering trade at any particular store. Learn what your consumers cost and what they buy. If they cost you one dollar each, figure that every wasted dollar costs you a possible customer.

Your business will be built in that way, not by dealer help. You must do your own selling, make your own success. Be content if dealers fill the orders that you bring. Eliminate your wastes. Spend all your ammunition where it counts for most.

Chapter 17
Scientific Advertising — Individuality

A person who desires to make an impression must stand out in some way from the masses and in a pleasing way. Being eccentric, being abnormal is not a distinction to covet. But doing admirable things in a different way gives one a great advantage.

So with salesmen, in person or in print. There is uniqueness which belittles and arouses resentment. There is refreshing uniqueness which enhances, which we welcome and remember. Fortunate is the salesman who has it.

We try to give each advertiser a becoming style. We make him distinctive, perhaps not in appearance, but in manner and in tone. He is given an individuality best suited to the people he addresses.

One man appears rugged and honest in a line where rugged honesty counts. One may be a good fellow where choice is a matter of favor. In other lines the man stands out by impressing himself as an authority.

We have already cited a case where a woman made a great success in selling clothing to girls, solely through a created personality which won.

That’s why we have signed ads sometimes – to give them a personal authority. A man is talking—a man who takes pride in his accomplishments—not a “soulless corporation.” Whenever possible we introduce a personality into our ads. By making a man famous we make his product famous. When we claim an improvement, naming the man who made it adds effect.

Then we take care not to change an individuality which has proved appealing. Before a man writes a new ad on that line, he gets into the spirit adopted by the advertiser. He plays a part as an actor plays it.

In successful advertising great pains are taken to never change our tone. That which won so many is probably the best way to win others. Then people come to know us. We build on that acquaintance rather than introduce a stranger in guise. People do not know us by name alone, but by looks and mannerisms. Appearing different every time we meet never builds up confidence.

Then we don’t want people to think that salesmanship is made to order. That our appeals are created, studied, artificial. They must seem to come from the heart, and the same heart always, save where a wrong tack forces a complete change.

There are winning personalities in ads as well as people. To some we are glad to listen, others bore us. Some are refreshing, some commonplace. Some inspire confidence, some caution.

To create the right individuality is a supreme accomplishment. Then an advertisers growing reputation on that line brings him ever-increasing prestige. Never weary of that part. Remember that a change in our characteristics would compel our best friends to get acquainted all over.

Chapter 18
Scientific Advertising – Negative advertising

To attack a rival is never good advertising. Don’t point out others’ faults. It is not permitted in the best mediums. It is never good policy. The selfish purpose is apparent. It looks unfair, not sporty. If you abhor knockers, always appear a good fellow.

Show a bright side, the happy and attractive side, not the dark and uninviting side of things. Show beauty, not homeliness; health, not sickness. Don’t show the wrinkles you propose to remove, but the face as it will appear. Your customers know all about wrinkles.

In advertising a dentifrice, show pretty teeth, not bad teeth. Talk of coming good conditions, not conditions which exist. In advertising clothes, picture well-dressed people, not the shabby. Picture successful men, not failures, when you advertise a business course. Picture what others wish to be, not what they may be now.

We are attracted by sunshine, beauty, happiness, health, success. Then point the way to them, not the way out of the opposite.

Picture envied people, not the envious.

Tell people what to do, not what to avoid.

Make your every ad breath good cheer. We always dodge a Lugubrious Blue. Assume that people will do what you ask. Say, “Send now for this sample.” Don’t say, “Why do you neglect this offer?” That suggests that people are neglecting. Invite them to follow the crowd.

Compare the results of two ads, one negative, one positive. One presenting the dark side, one the bright side. One warning, the other inviting. You will be surprised. You will find that the positive ad out pulls the other four to one, if you have our experience.

The “Before and after taking” ads are follies of the past. They never had a place save with the afflicted. Never let their memory lead you to picture the gloomy side of things.

Chapter 19
Scientific Advertising – Letter writing

This is another phase of advertising which all of us have to consider. It enters, or should enter, into all campaigns. Every businessman receives a large number of circular letters. Most of them go direct to the wastebasket. But he acts on others, and others are filed for reference.

Analyze those letters. The ones you act on or the ones you keep have a headline which attracted your interest. At a glance they offer something that you want, something you may wish to know.

Remember that point in all advertising.

A certain buyer spends $50,000,000 per year. Every letter, every circular which comes to his desk gets its deserved attention. He wants information on the lines he buys.

But we have often watched him. In one minute a score of letters may drop into the wastebasket. Then one is laid aside. That is something to consider at once. Another is filed under the heading “Varnish.” And later when he buys varnish that letter will turn up.

That buyer won several prizes by articles on good buying. His articles were based on information. Yet the great masses of matter which came to him never got more than a glance.

The same principles apply to all advertising. Letter writers overlook them just as advertisers do. They fail to get the right attention. They fail to tell what buyers wish to know.

One magazine sends out millions of letters annually. Some to get subscriptions, some to sell books. Before the publisher sends out five million letters he puts a few thousands to test. He may try twenty-five letters, each with a thousand prospects. He learns what results will cost. Perhaps the plan is abandoned because it appears unprofitable. If not, the letter which pays best is the letter that he uses.

Just as men are doing now in all scientific advertising.

Mail order advertisers do likewise. They test their letters as they test their ads. A general letter is never used until it proves itself best among many actual returns.

Letter writing has much to do with advertising. Letters to inquirers, follow-up letters. Wherever possible they should be tested. Where that is not possible, they should be based on knowledge gained by tests.

We find the same difference in letters as in ads. Some get action, some do not. Some complete a sale, some forfeit the impression gained. These are letters, going usually to half-made converts, that are tremendously important.

Experience generally shows that a two-cent letter gets no more attention than a one-cent letter. Fine stationery no more than poor stationery. The whole appeal lies in the matter.

It has been found that fine stationery and pamphlets lessen the effect. They indicate an effort to sell on other lines than merit. That has the same effect in letters as in ads.

A letter which goes to an inquirer is like a salesman going to an interested prospect. You know what created that interest. Then follow it up along that line, not on some different argument. Complete the impression already created. Don’t undertake another guess.

In a letter as in ads, the great point is to get immediate action. People are naturally dilatory. They postpone, and a postponed action is too often forgotten.

Do something if possible to get immediate action. Offer some inducement for it. Or tell what delay may cost. Note how many successful selling letters place a limit on an offer. It expires on a certain date. That is all done to get prompt decision, to overcome the tendency to delay.

A mail order advertiser offered a catalog. The inquirer might send for three or four similar catalogs. He had that competition in making a sale.
So he wrote a letter when he sent his catalog, and enclosed a personal card. He said, “You are a new customer, and we want to make you welcome. So when you send your order please enclose this card. The writer wants to see that you get a gift with order – something you can keep.”

With an old customer he gave some other reason for the gift. The offer aroused curiosity. It gave preference to his catalog. Without some compelling reason for ordering elsewhere, the woman sent the order to him. The gift paid for itself several times over by bringing larger sales per catalog.

The ways for getting action are many. Rarely can one way be applied to two lines. But the principles are universal. Strike while the iron is hot. Get a decision then. Have it followed by prompt action when you can.

You can afford to pay for prompt action rather than lose by delay. One advertiser induced hundreds of thousands of women to buy six packages of his product and send him the trademarks, to secure a premium offer good only for one week.

There you have it. The secrets to successful marketing and advertising
Check back soon as we reveal chapters 20-21

Chapter 6
Scientific Advertising – Psychology

The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he knows about it the better. He must learn that certain effects lead to certain reactions, and use that knowledge to increase results and avoid mistakes. Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is the same today as in the time of Caesar. So the principles of psychology are fixed and enduring. You will never need to unlearn what you learn about them.

We learn, for instance, that curiosity is one of the strongest human incentives. We employ it whenever we can. Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice were made successful largely through curiosity. “Grains puffed to 8 times the normal size.” “Foods shot from guns.” “125 million steam explosions caused in every kernel.” These foods were failures before that factor was discovered.

We learn that cheapness is not a strong appeal. Americans are extravagant. They want bargains but not cheapness. They want to feel that they can afford to eat and have and wear the best. Treat them as if they could not and they resent your attitude.

We learn that people judge largely by price. They are not experts. In the British National Gallery is a painting, which is announced in a catalog to have cost $750,000. Most people at first pass it by at a glance. Then later they get farther on in the catalog and learn what the painting cost. They return then and surround it.

A department store advertised at one Easter time a $1,000 hat, and the floor could not hold the women who came to see it. We often employ this factor in psychology. Perhaps we are advertising a valuable formula. To merely say that would not be impressive. So we state – as a fact – that we paid $100,000 for that formula. That statement when tried has won a wealth of respect.

Many articles are sold under guarantee – so commonly sold that guarantees have ceased to be impressive. But one concern made a fortune by offering a dealers signed warrant. The dealer to whom one paid his money agreed in writing to pay it back if asked. Instead of a far-away stranger, a neighbor gave the warrant. The results have led many to try that plan, and it has always proved effective.

Many have advertised, “Try it for a week. If you don’t like it we’ll return your money. Then someone conceived the idea of sending goods without any money down, and saying, “Pay in a week if you like them.” That proved many times more impressive.

One great advertising man stated the difference this way: “Two men came to me, each offering me a horse. Both made equal claims. They were good horses, kind and gentle. A child could drive them. One man said, “Try the horse for a week. If my claims are not true, come back for your money.” The other man also said, “Try the horse for a week.” But he added, “Come and pay me then.” I naturally bought the second mans horse.”

Now countless things – cigars, typewriters, washing machines, books, etc. – are sent out in this way on approval. And we find that people are honest. The losses are very small.

An advertiser offered a set of books to business men. The advertising was unprofitable, so he consulted another expert. The ads were impressive. The offer seemed attractive, “But,” said the second man, “let us add one little touch which I have found effective. Let us offer to put the buyers name in gilt lettering on each book.” That was done, and with scarcely another change in the ads they sold some hundreds of thousands of books. Through some peculiar kink in human psychology it was found that names in gilt gave much added value to the books.

Many send out small gifts, like memorandum books, to customers and prospects. They get very small results. One man sent out a letter to the effect that he had a leather-covered book with a mans name on it. It was waiting on him and would be sent on request. The form of request was enclosed, and it also asked for certain information. That information indicated lines on which a man might be sold.

Nearly all men, it was found, filled out that request and supplied the information. When a man knows that something belongs to them – something with his name on – he will make an effort to get it, even though the thing is a trifle.

In the same way it is found that an offer limited to a certain class of people is far more effective than a general offer. For instance, an offer limited to veterans of the war. Or to members of a lodge or sect. Or to executives. Those who are entitled to any seeming advantage will go a long way not to lose that advantage.

An advertiser suffered much from substitution. He said, “Look out for substitutes,” “Be sure you get this brand,” etc., with no effect. Those were selfish appeals. Then he said, “Try our rivals’ too” – said it in his headlines. He invited comparisons and showed that he did not feat them. That corrected the situation. Buyers were careful to get the brand so conspicuously superior that its maker could court a trial of the rest.

Two advertisers offered food products nearly identical. Both offered a full-size package as an introduction. But one gave his package free. The other bought the package. A coupon was good at any store for a package, for which the maker paid retail price.

The first advertiser failed and the second succeeded. The first even lost a large part of the trade he had. He cheapened his product by giving a 15-cent package away. It is hard to pay for an article which has once been free. It is like paying railroad fare after traveling on a pass. The other gained added respect for his article by paying retail price to let the user try it. An article good enough for the maker to buy is good enough for the user to buy. It is vastly different to pay 15 cents to let you try an article than to simply say “It’s free.”

So with sampling. Hand an unwanted product to a housewife and she pays it slight respect. She is no mood to see its virtues. But get her to ask for a sample after reading your story, and she is in a very different position. She knows your claims. She is interested in them, else she would not act. And she expects to find the qualities you told.

There is a great deal in mental impression. Submit five articles exactly alike and five people may choose one of them. But point out in one some qualities to notice and everyone will find them. The five people then will all choose the same article.

If people can be made sick or well by mental impressions, they can be made to favor a certain brand in that way. And that, on some lines, is the only way to win them.

Two concerns, side by side, sold women’s clothing on installments. The appeal, of course, was to poor girls who desire to dress better. One treated them like poor girls and made the bare business offer. The other put a woman in charge – a motherly, dignified, capable woman. They did business in her name. They used her picture. She signed all ads and letters. She wrote to these girls like a friend. She knew herself what it meant to a girl not to be able to dress her best. She had long sought a chance to supply women good clothes and give them all season to pay. Now she was able to do so, with the aid of men behind her. There was no comparison in those two appeals. It was not long before this womans’ long established next door rival had to quit.

The backers of this business sold house furnishings on installments. Sending out catalogs promiscuously did not pay. Offering long-time credit often seems like a reflection.

But when a married woman bought garments from Mrs. __, and paid as agreed, they wrote to her something like this: “Mrs. __, whom we know, tells us that you are one of her good customers. She has dealt with you, she says, and you do just as you agree. So we have opened with you a credit account on our books, good any time you wish. When you want anything in furnishings, just order it. Pay nothing in advance. We are very glad to send it without any investigation to a person recommended as you are.” That was flattering. Naturally those people, when they wanted some furniture, would order from that house.

There are endless phases to psychology. Some people know them by instinct. Many of them are taught by experience. But we learn most of them from others. When we see one winning method we note it down for use when occasion offers.

These things are very important. An identical offer made in a different way may bring multiplied returns. Somewhere in the mines of business experience we must find the best method somehow.
Chapter 7
Scientific Advertising -Being specific

Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, “Best in the world,” “Lowest price in existence,” etc. are at best simply claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements that you make.

People recognize a certain license in selling talk as they do poetry. A man may say, “Supreme in quality” without seeming a liar, though one may know that the other brands are equally as good. One expects a salesman to put his best foot forward and excuses some exaggeration born of enthusiasm. But just for that reason general statements count for little. And a man inclined to superlatives must expect that his every statement will be taken with some caution.

But a man who makes a specific claim is either telling the truth or a lie. People do not expect an advertiser to lie. They know that he can’t lie in the best mediums. The growing respect in advertising has largely come through a growing regard for its truth. So a definite statement is usually accepted. Actual figures are not generally discounted. Specific facts, when stated, have their full weight and effect.

This is very important to consider in written or personal salesmanship. The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific. Say that a tungsten lamp gives more light than a carbon and you leave some doubt. Say it gives three and one-third times the light and people realize that you have made tests and comparisons.

A dealer may say, “Our prices have been reduced” without creating any marked impression. But when he says, “Our prices have been reduced 25 percent” he gets the full value of his announcement.

A mail order advertiser sold women’s clothing to people of the poorer classes. For years he used the slogan, “Lowest prices in America.” His rivals all copied that. Then he guaranteed to undersell any other dealer. His rivals did likewise. Soon those claims became common to every advertiser in his line, and they became commonplace. Then under able advice, he changed his statement to “Our net profit is 3 percent.” That was a definite statement and it proved very impressive. With their volume of business it was evident that their prices must be minimum. No one could be expected to do business on less than 3 percent. The next year their business made a sensational increase.

At one time in the automobile business there was a general impression that profits were excessive. One well-advised advertiser came out with this statement, “Our profit is 9 percent.” Then he cited actual costs on the hidden costs of a $1,500 car. They amounted to $735, without including anything one could easily see. This advertiser made a great success along those lines at that time.

Shaving soaps have long been advertised “Abundant lather,” “Does not dry on the face,” “Acts quickly,” etc. One advertiser had as good a chance as the other to impress those claims. Then a new maker came into the field. It was a tremendously difficult field, for every customer had to taken from someone else. He stated specific facts. He said, “Softens the beard in one minute.” “Maintains its creamy fullness for tens minutes on the face.” “The final result of testing and comparing 130 formulas.” Perhaps never in advertising has there been a quicker and greater success in an equally difficult field.

Makers of safety razors have long advertised quick shaves. One maker advertised a 78-second shave. That was definite. It indicated actual tests. That man at once made a sensational advance in his sales.

In the old days all beers were advertised as “Pure.” The claim made no impression. The bigger the type used, the bigger the folly. After millions had been spent to impress a platitude, one brewer pictured a plate glass where beer was cooled in filtered air. He pictured a filter of white wood pulp through which every drop was cleared. He told how bottles were washed four times by machinery. How he went down 4,000 feet for pure water. How 1,018 experiments had been made to attain years to give beer that matchless flavor. And how all the yeast was forever made from that adopted mother cell.

All claims were such as any brewer might have made. They were mere essentials in ordinary brewing. But he was the first to tell the people about them, while others cried merely “pure beer.” He made the greatest success that was ever made in beer advertising. “Used the world over” is a very elastic claim. Then one advertiser said, “Used by the peoples of 52 nations,” and many others followed.

One statement may take as much room as another, yet a definite statement may be many times as effective. The difference is vast. If a claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way. All these effects must be studied. Salesmanship-in-print is very expensive. A salesman’s loose talk matters little. But when you are talking to millions at enormous cost, the weight of your claims is important.

No generality has any weight whatever. It is like saying “How do you do?” When you have no intention of inquiring about ones health. But specific claims when made in print are taken at their value.

Chapter 8
Scientific Advertising -Tell your full story

Whatever claim you use to gain attention, the advertisement should tell a story reasonably complete. If you watch returns, you will find that certain claims appeal far more than others. But in usual lines a number of claims appeal to a large percentage. Then present those claims in every ad for their effect on that percentage. Some advertisers, for sake of brevity, present one claim at a time. Or they write a serial ad, continued in another issue. There is no greater folly. Those serials almost never connect.

When you once get a persons attention, then is the time to accomplish all you can ever hope with him. Bring all your good arguments to bear. Cover every phase of your subject. One fact appeals to some, one to another. Omit any one and a certain percentage will lose the fact which might convince.

People are not apt to read successive advertisements on any single line. No more than you read a news item twice, or a story. In one reading of an advertisement one decides for or against a proposition. And that operates against a second reading. So present to the reader, when once you get him, every important claim you have. The best advertisers do that. They learn their appealing claims by tests – by comparing results from various headlines. Gradually they accumulate a list of claims important enough to use. All those claims appear in every ad thereafter.

The advertisements seem monotonous to the men who read them all. A complete story is always the same. But one must consider that the average reader is only once a reader, probably. And what you fail to tell him in that ad is something he may never know. Some advertisers go so far as to never change their ads. Single mail order ads often run year after year without diminishing returns. So with some general ads. They are perfected ads, embodying in the best way known all that one has to say. Advertisers do not expect a second reading. Their constant returns come from getting new readers.

In every ad consider only new customers. People using your product are not going to read your ads. They have already read and decided. You might advertise month after month to present users that the product they use is poison, and they would never know it. So never waste one line of your space to say something to present users, unless you can say it in your headlines. Bear in mind always that you can address an unconverted prospect.

Any reader of your ad is interested, else he would not be a reader. You are dealing with someone willing to listen. Then do your level best. That reader, if you lose him now, may never again be a reader.

You are like a salesman in a busy man’s office. He may have tried again and again to get entree. He may never be admitted again. This is his one chance to get action, and he must employ it to the full.

This again brings up the question of brevity. The most common expression you hear about advertising is that people will not read much. Yet a vast amount of the best paying advertising shows that people do read much. Then they write for a book, perhaps – for added information. There is a fixed rule on this subject of brevity. One sentence may tell a complete story on a line like chewing gum. It may on an article like Cream of Wheat. But, whether long or short, an advertising story should be reasonably complete.

A certain man desired a personal car. He cared little about the price. He wanted a car to take pride in, else he felt he would never drive it. But, being a good businessman, he wanted value for his money. His inclination was towards a Rolls Royce. He also considered a Pierce-Arrow, a Locomobile and others. But these famous cars offered no information. Their advertisements were very short. Evidently the makers considered it undignified to argue comparative merits.

The Marmon, on the contrary, told a complete story. He read columns and books about it. So he bought a Marmon, and was never sorry. But he afterwards learned facts about another car at nearly three times the price which would have sold him the car had he known them.

What folly it is to cry a name in a line like that, plus a few brief generalities. A car may be a lifetime investment. It involves an important expenditure. A man interested enough to buy a car will read a volume about it if the volume is interesting.

So with everything. You may be simply trying to change a woman from one breakfast food to another, one toothpaste, or one soap. She is wedded to what she is using. Perhaps she has used it for years.

You have a hard proposition. If you do not believe it, go to her in person and try to make the change. Not to merely buy a first package to please you, but to adopt your brand. A man who once does that at a woman’s door won’t argue for brief advertisements. He will never again say, “A sentence will do,” or a name claim or a boast.

Nor will the man who traces his results. Note that brief ads are never keyed. Note that every traced ad tells a complete story, though it takes columns to tell.

Never be guided in any way by ads which are untraced. Never do anything because some uninformed advertiser considers that something right. Never be led in new paths by the blind. Apply to your advertising ordinary common sense. Take the opinion of nobody, the verdict of nobody, whom knows nothing about his returns.

Chapter 9
Scientific Advertising – Art In Advertising

Pictures in advertising are very expensive. Not in cost of good art work alone, but in the cost of space. From one-third to one-half of an advertising campaign is often staked on the power of the pictures. Anything expensive must be effective, else it involves much waste. So art in advertising is a study of paramount importance.

Pictures should not be used merely because they are interesting. Or to attract attention. Or to decorate an ad. We have covered these points elsewhere. Ads are not written to interest, please or amuse. You are not writing to please the hoi-polloi. You are writing on a serious subject – the subject of money-spending. And you address a restricted minority.

Use pictures only to attract those who may profit you. Use them only when they form a better selling argument than the same amount of space set in type.

Mail order advertisers, as we have said, have pictures down to a science. Some use large pictures, some small, some omit pictures entirely. A noticeable fact is that none of them uses expensive artwork. Be sure that all these things are done for reasons made apparent by results. Any other advertiser should apply the same principles. Or, if none exist to apply to his line, he should work out his own by tests. It is certainly unwise to spend large sums on a dubious adventure.

Pictures in many lines form a major factor. Omitting the lines where the article itself should be pictured. In some lines, like Arrow Collars and most in clothing advertising, pictures have proved most convincing. Not only in picturing the collar or the clothes, but in picturing men whom others envy, in surroundings which others covet. The pictures subtly suggest that these articles of apparel will aid men to those desired positions.

So with correspondence schools. Theirs is traced advertising. Picturing men in high positions of taking upward steps forms a very convincing argument.

So with beauty articles. Picturing beautiful women, admired and attractive, is a supreme inducement. But there is a great advantage in including a fascinated man. Women desire beauty largely because of men. Then show them using their beauty, as women do use it, to gain maximum effect.

Advertising pictures should not be eccentric. Don’t treat your subject lightly. Don’t lessen respect for yourself or your article by any attempt at frivolity. People do not patronize a clown. There are two things about which men should not joke. One is business, one is home. An eccentric picture may do you serious damage. One may gain attention by wearing a fools cap. But he would ruin his selling prospects.

Then a picture which is eccentric or unique takes attention from your subject. You cannot afford to do that. Your main appeal lies in headline. Over-shadow that and you kill it. Don’t, to gain general and useless attention, sacrifice the attention that you want.

Don’t be like a salesman who wears conspicuous clothes. The small percentage he appeals to are not usually good buyers. The great majority of the sane and thrifty heartily despise him. Be normal in everything you do when you are seeking confidence and conviction. Generalities cannot be applied to art. There are seeming exceptions to most statements. Each line must be studied by itself.

But the picture must help sell the goods. It should help more than anything else could do in like space, else use that something else.

Many pictures tell a story better than type can do. In advertising of Puffed Grains the picture of the grains were found to be most effective. They awake curiosity. No figure drawing in that case compare in results with these grains.

Other pictures form a total loss. We have cited cases of that kind. The only way to know, as is with most other questions, is by compared results. There are disputed questions in artwork which we will cite without expressing opinions. They seem to be answered both ways, according to the line which is advertised.

Does it pay better to use fine art work or ordinary? Some advertisers pay up to $2,000 per drawing. They figure that the space is expensive. The art cost is small in comparison. So they consider the best worth its cost. Others argue that few people have art education. They bring out their ideas, and bring them out well, at a fraction of the cost. Mail order advertisers are generally in this class. The question is one of small moment. Certainly good art pays as well as mediocre. And the cost of preparing ads is very small compared with the cost of insertion.

Should every ad have a new picture? Or may a picture be repeated? Both viewpoints have many supporters. The probability is that repetition is an economy. We are after new customers always. It is not probable that they remember a picture we have used before. If they do, repetition does not detract.

Do color pictures pay better than black and white? Not generally, according to the evidence we have gathered to date. Yet there are exceptions. Certain food dishes look far better in colors. Tests on lines like oranges, desserts, etc. show that color pays. Color comes close to placing the products in actual exhibition.

But color used to amuse or to gain attention is like anything else that we use for that purpose. It may attract many times as many people, yet not secure a hearing from as many whom we want. The general rule applies. Do nothing to merely interest, amuse, or attract. That is not your province. Do only that which wins the people you are after in the cheapest possible way. But these are minor questions. They are mere economies, not largely affecting the results of a campaign.

Some things you do may cut all your results in two. Other things can be done which multiply those results. Minor costs are insignificant when compared with basic principles. One man may do business in a shed, another in a palace. That is immaterial. The great question is, ones power to get the maximum results.

Chapter 10
Scientific Advertising – Things too costly

Many things are possible in advertising which are too costly to attempt. That is another reason why every project and method should be weighed and determined by a known scale of cost and result.

Changing people’s habits is very expensive. A project which involves that must be seriously considered. To sell shaving soap to the peasants of Russia one would first need to change their beard wearing habits. The cost would be excessive. Yet countless advertisers try to do things almost as impossible. Just because questions are not ably considered, and results are traced but unknown.

For instance, the advertiser of a dentifrice may spend much space and money to educate people to brush their teeth. Tests which we know of have indicated that the cost of such converts may run from $20 to $25 each. Not only because of the difficulty, but because much of the advertising goes to people already converted.

Such a cost, of course, is unthinkable. One might not in a lifetime get it back in sales. The maker who learned these facts by tests make no attempt to educate people to the tooth brush habit. What cannot be done on a large scale profitably can not be done on a small scale. So not one line in any ad is devoted to this object. This maker, who is constantly guided in everything by keying every ad, has made remarkable success.

Another dentifrice maker spends much money to make converts to the toothbrush. The object is commendable, but altruistic. The new business he creates is shared by his rivals. He is wondering why his sales increase is in no way commensurate with his expenditure.

An advertiser at one time spent much money to educate people to the use of oatmeal. The results were too small to discover. All people know of oatmeal. As a food for children it has age-old fame. Doctors have advised it for many generations. People who don’t serve oatmeal are therefore difficult to start. Perhaps their objections are insurmountable. Anyway, the cost proved to be beyond all possible return.

There are many advertisers who know facts like these and concede them. They would not think of devoting a whole campaign to any such impossible object. Yet they devote a share of their space to that object. That is only the same folly on a smaller scale. It is not good business.

No one orange grower or raisin grower could attempt to increase the consumption of those fruits. The cost might be a thousand times his share of the returns. But thousands of growers combined have done it on those and many other lines. There lies one of the great possibilities of advertising development. The general consumption of scores of foods can be profitably increased. But it must be done on wide co-operation.
No advertiser could afford to educate people on vitamins or germicides. Such things are done by authorities, through countless columns of unpaid-for space. But great successes have been made by going to people already educated and satisfying their created wants.

It is a very shrewd thing to watch the development of a popular trend, the creation of new desires. Then at the right time offer to satisfy those desires. That was done on yeast’s, for instance, and on numerous antiseptics. It can every year be done on new things which some popular fashion or widespread influence is brought into vogue. But it is a very different thing to create that fashion, taste or influence for all in your field to share.

There are some things we know of which might possibly be sold to half the homes in the country. A Dakin-fluid germicide, for instance. But the consumption would be very small. A small bottle might last for years. Customers might cost $1.50 each. And the revenue per customer might not in ten years repay the cost of getting. Mail order sales on single articles, however popular, rarely cost less that $2.50 each. It is reasonable to suppose that sales made through dealers on like articles will cost approximately as much. Those facts must be considered on any one-sale article. Possibly one user will win others. But traced returns as in mail order advertising would prohibit much advertising which is now being done.

Costly mistakes are made by blindly following some ill-conceived idea. An article, for instance, may have many uses, one of which is to prevent disease. Prevention is not a popular subject, however much it should be. People will do much to cure trouble, but people in general will do little to prevent it. This has been proved my many disappointments.

One may spend much money in arguing prevention when the same money spent on another claim would bring many times the sales. A heading which asserts one claim may bring ten times the results of a heading which asserted another. An advertiser may go far astray unless he finds out. A toothpaste may tend to prevent decay. It may also beautify teeth. Tests will probably find that the latter appeal is many times as strong as the former. The most successful toothpaste advertiser never features tooth troubles in his headlines. Tests have proved them unappealing. Other advertisers in this line center on those troubles. That is often because results are not known and compared.

A soap may tend to cure eczema. It may at the same time improve complexion. The eczema claim may appeal to one in a hundred while the beauty claims would appeal to nearly all. To even mention the eczema claims might destroy the beauty claims.

A man has a relief for asthma. It has done so much for him he considers it a great advertising possibility. We have no statistics on this subject. We do not know the percentage of people who suffer from asthma. A canvass might show it to be one in a hundred. If so, he would need to cover a hundred useless readers to reach one he wants. His cost of result might be twenty times as high as on another article which appeals to one in five. That excessive cost would probably mean disaster. For reasons like these every new advertiser should seek for wise advice. No one with the interests of advertising at heart will advise any dubious venture.
Some claims not popular enough to feature in the main are still popular enough to consider. They influence a certain number of people – say one-fourth of your possible customers. Such claims may be featured to advantage in a certain percentage of headlines. It should probably be included in every advertisement. But those are not things to guess at. They should be decided by actual knowledge, usually by traced returns.

This chapter, like every chapter, points out a very important reason for knowing your results. Scientific advertising is impossible without that. So is safe advertising. So is maximum profit. Groping in the dark in this field has probably cost enough money to pay the national debt. That is what has filled the advertising graveyards. That is what has discouraged thousands who could profit in this field. And the dawn of knowledge is what is bringing a new day in the advertising world.

There you have it. The secrets to successful marketing and advertising
Check back soon as we reveal chapters 11-14

The only one who really knows the answer is your former client.

So, why don’t you ask this person why s/he no longer buys from your company? You might get lucky and find a client who is prepared to talk, but keep in mind that s/he has moved on and may not want to talk to you.

Also, your customer probably will give you only one reason, then thank you for your efforts and wish you well.

How much have you learned? Not much at all.

Recently, I lost a client for whom I had created a suc­cessful direct-mail campaign. This marketing effort had produced a nice 1,148.85% Return on Investment (ROI).

Later, I found out from my client she was upset with the slow response that she was getting from me regarding a marketing questionnaire for which she had paid. After answering the questions, my client wanted her market­ing analysis, but we just couldn’t seem to find a mutually convenient time to get together.

Ultimately, I gave her a refund on the questionnaire and we parted friends.

However, to this day I feel that there had to be some­thing more. Maybe there was a hidden “decision-maker,” someone else who had a final say about who my client does business with or who harbored some ill feeling. I felt very bad when I lost my client because I was hoping that there would be a long and profitable relationship for both of us.

Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint the definite reason why someone chooses to stop giving you his/her busi­ness.

It can be hard to determine what complaints s/he had about you that led to the decision. Oftentimes, you are left with very little information. Working backwards to discover what went wrong can be very difficult.

However, if you are prepared to ask a new client for a lit­tle time after the first sale or, even better, after s/he has been buying from you for awhile, then you probably can determine the things that keep him or her coming back and buying from you.

After the relationship with your client gets past the new phase and is “long-term,” ask him/her why you get his/her business. There will be many reasons, not just one or two. You may have to probe a little, so ask some open-ended questions. I’m sure that it will be worth it.

Build a file or a database of the answers that you get—the reasons why your clients came to you, of course, but also (if possible) the reasons that they stopped using your competition.

Learn from their answers and discover what you can do to prevent clients from going somewhere else. You can benefit by using what you have learned with your next prospect. This information will help you to convert him or her into a new client.

What are you willing to ask your clients about?

You lose it.

It’s gone, forgotten!

And all it takes is 21 days.

I heard this long ago.

Since then, I have proven it to myself through personal experience.

It’s easy to for­get what you have just read, listened to, or watched on a DVD or the Internet. There are many distractions in life, and it’s very easy to put things aside.

Last week, I received a quote in an e-mail that said,

“Knowledge that’s not being used is like having no knowledge at all.”

If this is true, then it is important to start using what you are learning from these and other blog posts right away.

Try one idea, and then another.

Take notes as a reminder of the ideas and concepts.

Reread these blog posts and the notes that you’ve taken while reading them until the ideas are fixed permanently in your mem­ory.

Jay Abraham, the author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got (Truman-Tally, 2000), says that he has read Scientific Advertising—a self-published book by Claude Hopkins first issued more than 50 years ago— at least 30-40 times. According to Jay, he pulls out a new nugget or different spin on an idea each time that he reads Hopkins’ book.

How much of what you told yourself you should be trying have you forgotten this week?

Sandy publishes a wide variety of tidbits about marketing and marketing plans on a frequent basis here and at: http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com

An “Entrepreneur’s Toolbox” includes things that must be within the prospective entrepreneur’s very person but also; external tools.

First, let’s cover what you — the prospective entrepreneur — must have within yourself, in order to have a productive future.

First-and-foremost, “vision” is an absolute must.

The most successful visionaries normally have a very big picture of where it is that they want to be. (It is easier to scale back to a more practical  – and smaller — overall vision than it is to open your mind to a larger vision; once you have set your mind to something small and simple).

Secondly, you must possess plenty of “Self-Trust”.

Many speak of “innovation” as part of the ideal entrepreneur’s mind. Well, without belief in your ideas and the inner trust in yourself that what you wish to provide is needed in the world, your ability to innovate means nothing!

And, last (certainly not least) an entrepreneur must have a bit of “Intuition“. And, despite some of the ideas that the term ‘intuition’ may bring to mind, the sort of intuition that I am referring to is simply: “Knowing something without knowing how you know it“.

And, while it seems to be an in-borne quality, intuition can be developed.

The purpose of this article is to show you the external tools that can develop your intuition — as well as your vision and self-trust — to its fullest potential; in order to cut your costs and to increase your overall efficiency!

A proper business and marketing plan, devised by an outside, expert source; can help you to avoid the mistakes that many make. (Passion and drive are great qualities but, sometimes they get in the way of the bottom line!).

When it comes to your marketing, it is important to be aggressive but also, to be sure that you aren’t aggressive to the point that you trap yourself into one course of action.

Also, you don’t want to ‘burn yourself out at both ends’. So, a well-tuned Marketing Plan is absolutely crucial. To go along with that marketing plan, it is positively a must to possess a detailed, easy-to-use Marketing Calendar.

As covered in one of our other informational articles, a marketing calendar can also help you to be sure that personnel staffing, budgeting and foresight are already taken care of; with little work coming from you! Therefore, you save money, can dedicate your time to more constructive things than worrying and, have that overall satisfying feeling of stability.

A Budget Plan is very important, alone. And, while it is fine-tuned and worked-around (as well as made to be flexible) within your marketing plan (and calendar), having a realistic, organized and easy-to-monitor budget plan is an absolute must. And, just like your other external tools, a budget that is designed for your particular business and reviewed by objective experts increases the odds of your business being a success.

Just like your Marketing Plan, your overall Business Plan should contain “what if” strategies.

No matter your foresight or intuition, you can never be completely certain what emergencies may come up; nor, can you always correctly predict what you competition is going to do.

Put simply, our Business and Marketing Plans must be very flexible and objective. Being “fixed” in your planning can lead you to failure; in fact, it normally does, for most!

A Strategic Investment Plan is something that you must have ready when beginning your career as an entrepreneur.

While you may know exactly what you wish to invest in and when, just like the tools covered above, you must have plenty of flexibility in terms of your investment planning.

What your competitors do, things that happen in the economy and possible failures of past marketing are all things that may play into your needing a flexible and objective strategic investment plan. And, a common mistake that many make is grouping their investment plan in with their budget plan. When you put some thought into those two things, it becomes apparent that they need to be separate; or else you wind up with too many important factors compartmentalized into one category!

Also, depending on your business, you may be thinking more locally than Globally. Well, the right Marketing Company takes things like this into account from the very start. If you consider yourself as an aspiring entrepreneur (or if you are already an entrepreneur looking to increase his success) we have plenty of essential and proven tools that can help you along your way!

Are you an engineer, IT consultant or a dentist? How about a business coach, facilities manager, project manager or any of the thousands of professional services wanted by millions of businesses?

Have you recently been downsized or layed off? Or, have you retired and are climbing the walls wanting to get back in the game.

If so, stop and pull out your magic wand, wave it around a few times and imagine creating the perfect professional services business —without fear of failing—what would it look like?

Got it pictured. Now, take your magic wand and break it in half because whatever professional service business you choose to create, you’ll always be in sales and marketing business.

Why, because if you won’t market and close business deals, you’ll have a rough time staying in business.

Of course, one of the keys to your success in a professional service business is knowing, without a doubt, who will want and can afford to buy whatever it is you are offering.

One of the ways to get started is to figure out what and who the perfect client may look like to you:

• What business niche are they in?
• What markets do they serve?
• Who supplies that business niche with goods & services
• Where is that niche located?
• Are there enough businesses in that niche to be profitable?
• Can they afford your services?
• Who would recommend their products or services

Answer these questions and you’ll be well on your way to discovering exactly who’ll want your services.

Next, market to your perfect client using many different marketing approaches. Some will work better than others. Some will start out like gang busters then fad off. Others will crash and burn with no ROI. It’s all good because every success and failure is a lesson and brings you closer to succeeding in your business.

The key here is to create an overall marketing strategy that includes 15 or more marketing tactics. The more marketing tactic you try, the greater your chance of getting in front of the perfect future client.

Keep in mind people absorb information in different modes. Some people like information presented verbally. Talk to them face-to-face; send them a CD/DVD or an Mp3 they can listen to in their car.  Others want info visually; they like to see videos, graphs, charts and pictures to fully understand what you offer.

You should test many different marketing tactics.

• Build an optimized website and use the Internet to describe the benefits of your service using video, audio and the written word.
• Go to networking events.
• Approach your suppliers for referrals.
• Host webinars and pod casts because they are the 21 Century brochure.
• Grow your database
• Email market your growing database
• Create a local Pay-per-click internet marketing campaign
• Develop a social media marketing plan
• Join LinkedIn, Facebook and 3-4 of the other top SMM sites.
• And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Whatever marketing you do, provide a compelling reason to try out your services. If a future client has a choice between many similar services or does not have a compelling need to buy your service, your company will not grow fast.

Targeting big business? Your ideal future client may be hidden deep within the corporate structure. Professional service providers have sometimes found it was easier to sell at a department level rather than target the CFO.

But, it can pay to go to the top first, so you can name drop to the rungs down under. Granted, it’s a lot harder to get to the CXO’s. Is it worth the effort, you’ll have to be the judge. Now, keep in mind that when you do get in front of the CXO, birds of a feather flock together and it could be your ticket into many more C-level opportunities.

Discover what your perfect future client looks like, and how to get in front of him/her and you’ll be well on your way to growing a successful professional service business.

Let’s face it, you can’t go a day without hearing about, seeing the effects of or feeling your gut telling you learn more social media marketing techniques to help your grow your business.

Social media marketing (SMM) is everywhere.

You watch a news report and the newscaster gives you their Twitter name and asks you to Tweet them. Your best friend puts up a Facebook page and asks you why you don’t have one yet? Your boss asks you to create a Linked In page for him and to get him connected with as many of your clients, suppliers and prospects as possible.

And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are a few mind-boggling social media stats to ponder.
•    200,000,000 — active Facebook users
•    10,000,000  — average daily Tweets
•    900,000 — average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period

Nielsen Online shows that: Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email. Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population; time spent is growing at 3 times the overall Internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time. Wow. And to think it’s exponential. Today, this. Tomorrow?

So, how can your use social media marketing to help grow your business?

1. Social media marketing is a great way to generate traffic to your website. Every time you post anything anywhere, complete your post with your contact information, a call to action and a link back to your Website, landing page or your Blog.
2. ost to your blog every 2-3 days. Post tips, tactics and techniques. Reveal secrets, “how-to’s” and ideas. Keep your content fresh and it will be picked up by the searched engines and served up as valuable information when someone hits on one of the keywords in your blog posts. If you don’t have a blog, see tip No. 3 below.
3. Post comments on other people’s blogs, on message boards, on forums and Facebook posts. Answer peoples questions, Help solve their problems and ask for there help solving your problems too. Post book reviews on Amazon and other book seller sites. Every post will help to build your credibility in that community. Let’s face it, he more credibility you build, the more likely people will click on your signature link to see what else you have to say and offer.
4. Create Pod cast and videos of your content and distribute using the many free and paid distribution services on the Internet. One of my favorites Websites for video distribution is Tube Mogul, a free service that sends your videos in the correct format to 26 different website for video distribution, saving you time. Plus they have great tracking tools to see how far and wide your videos are distributed.
5. Use your public profiles as an integral part of your Social Media Marketing plans and search engine marketing strategy. Everyone searches online, including your prospects and customers. Having strong, keyword ladden, public pages helps people find you fast.  Every time you put up a new public page, or update an existing one, it calls the search engines and let’s them know to come and see the new information. As you create your profiles you are actually build up your name recognition, and making it easier for people to find you, and you want to be found, don’t you?

The benefits of Social Media Marketing are hugely important in their role as a search engine marketing strategy.  The more traffic to your website and blogs, the more connections you make, equals more awareness, leading to sales and higher profits for you and your business.

When will you start your social media marketing plan and kick it into high gear?

You lose it. It’s gone, forgotten!
And all it takes is 21 days.

I heard this long ago.

Since then, I have proven it to myself through personal experience.

It’s easy to forget what you have just read, listened to, or watched on a DVD or video.

There are many distractions in life, and it’s very easy to put things aside.

Last week, I received a quote in an e-mail that said, “Knowledge that’s not being used is like having no knowledge at all.”  If this is true, and IMHO it is, then it is important to start, immediately,  using what you are learning from whatever source you learn from, right away.

Try one idea, and then another.

Take notes as a reminder of the ideas and concepts.

Reread these secrets and the notes that you’ve taken while reading them until the ideas are fixed permanently in your memory.

“To make sure this goal was achieved, I created eight laws of learning; namely explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition.”
- John Wooden

One famous marketing Gooroo (I refuse use his name because he doesn’t practice what he preaches) once said that he has read Scientific Advertising—a self-published book by Claude Hopkins first issued more than 50 years ago— at least 30-40 times.

According to this Gooroo, he pulls out a new nugget or different spin on an idea each time that he reads Hopkins’ book.

How much of what you told yourself you should be trying have you forgotten this week?

Simply ask your friends, business associates, clients, members of your family, etc., “Who do you know who could help me with (Fill in the blank here).”

Start thinking about all of the people who could help you to achieve your goals (you do have written goals, don’t you?), realize your dreams, and help you to become more successful.

Ask everyone you know to give you an introduction to someone who might help you to reach your goals.

Twenty percent of the people you know will introduce you to individuals who can help you without even having to ask the person you know for an introduction.

Sixty percent will give introductions to you after you
ask them.

Twenty percent will never help you, no matter how many times that you ask them.

“You can’t help someone uphill without getting closer to the top yourself.”
- Unknown

It’s been said that you are never further then three people away from being introduced to the person who can help you.

Keep this in mind:  NEVER ask for help from someone who doesn’t know more than you do.

About a year ago, I wanted to interview the president of a local fortune 500 company in Detroit. I was looking for help putting together these secrets (he did know more than I did).

I started asking everyone I knew if they could suggest anyone who could introduce me to him. After about two weeks, I got a call from one of my clients, who said that his brother-in-law worked for that company.”

I called the brother-in-law, who turned out to be a vice president of the company. This gentleman said that he would speak with the president about the possibility of  interview with him to talk about his marketing efforts. The following week, I received a call from the president, he inviting me to come in and interview him for this guide.

It doesn’t always work so smoothly, but you never know. You have to keep trying!

What problems do you need solved?

Who will you ask for help?

If YES, then keep reading. These seven plus secret questions must be answered before you create your next marketing campaign.

If you would like a fresh set of eyes to take a look at your past, present or future marketing efforts, call me at 248-335-8080 or go to www.SMART-Marketing-Review.com and sign up to avoid the 7 fatal mistakes that WILL kill your marketing.

A Few More Tips, Tricks, Techniques,
Tidbit And Marketing Secrets That
Promise To Save You Time And Money
The following secrets are not in any order.
Each is valuable on it own or combined with other secrets.
I highly recommend that you combine these ideas in different ways.
Why? Because when combined you multiply their strength.

• Provide high level proof that what you are promising will be delivered. Credible third-party testimony that you deliver on your promises. Free trails, free samples are other forms of proof.
• Ask your future clients for a “Yes” or “No” answer. Either is OK. There is nothing worse then a TIO (Think it over), because you are the only one thinking about it. Your future client has moved on.
• Actions, not just words determine success.
• Admit your shortcomings. Everyone knows that nothing is or can be perfect. You product and services have flaws. you know what they are. If you don’t, ask you customers what they are. Being 100% honest about your defects builds credibility and can also separate you from the competition (I promise your competitors would be to embarrassed to admit they are not perfect).
• Keep learning
• Start each day with the 5 most important marketing things that will help you reach your goals. An do them no matter what.
• Money comes to those who move fast.

Now, which of these secrets ideas rang the bell for you.
Which ones did you write notes “To Do?
Add them to your “Do Next” list.
And do them.
Using these secrets will separate the sheep from the goats.

Now, promise yourself that you will use these marketing secrets.

Scout’s Honor!

Because, you know that if you keep marketing the way you always marketed, you’ll keep getting the results you’ve always gotten.

To Your Success
Sandy Barris
President – Business Marketing Services
248-335-8080

Do you have a written “Mission Statement” that explains what your business is about?

Does this statement represent the vision, purpose, and aspirations that your business communicates to the world?

More importantly, do you tell your customers and prospective clients about your mission statement in every marketing effort that you create?

What should this statement include?
Typically, it will include your USP or SOB (statement of benefit). It also will include what “attitude” your business is trying to communicate.
Is your business and marketing attitude friendly, exclusive, or inviting?
Is It classy, low-priced, or responsive?
The list could be endless.

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you can do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.”
- Lou Holtz

It is important how you integrate your attitude into your marketing.
If the public sees and hears your positive attitude, then they will know and understand that you are proud of what you sell.

They also will know that you are very serious about your business and are willing to go the extra mile to keep them happy.

Your attitude should tell them that your business is ready to be their sole source —their “go-to” solution.

Your attitude should be communicated in everything that you do and say. If each of your marketing efforts is consistent and professional, then prospects will pick up on your attitude.

When the statements that you make in your marketing efforts are positive and consistent, your clients and prospects should understand that you will deliver on them.

This builds their confidence in you and will increase your sales. Consistency and attitude are the keys to getting people to remember your business.
Do you know what your company’s attitude is?

Are you getting this message to your customers and prospects every day?

Do you ask yourself regularly, “Is this information reaching my clients?”

Are you are waiting for everything to be absolutely perfect? The perfect product to sell, the perfect marketing effort to start, the perfect sales staff, or the perfect distribution network—you will wait forever.

Perfection equals paralysis.

You need to be willing to act.

Just realize that you are going to make mistakes: Everyone does.

“Have no fear of perfection — you’ll never reach it .”
- Salvador Dali

You may market to the wrong target or pick the wrong mailing list.
You may make the wrong offer or use the wrong media.
Sometimes, even when you think that you’ve done everything right, things don’t work out the way that you hoped they would.

Mistakes happen.

The key is what you let yourself learn from them.

I once sent out a broadcast fax to 5,000 businesses for a local co-op, business-to-business mailing. The only responses that I received were 83 requests that said “Take me off of your fax list.” I did not get one positive response: nada, zip, and zilch. It happens. Luckily, it was a small test. At least I didn’t fax 50,000 businesses and get the same results. Now, I can change my message, or try a different marketing approach.

The important thing is that I tried something and learned from the experience.

If I had decided to wait until I had perfected everything, I’d still be waiting.
I wouldn’t have learned anything.

Remember: you can’t learn if you don’t act.

If you keep on trying and keep on testing, your efforts will succeed.

What you decide to do doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be done.

Action is the key. Decide to act!

Are you allowing perfection to paralyze your marketing efforts?