Let’s face it…
Traditional marketing and advertising methods are dead and ineffective.
In the ‘old days’ of marketing, advertisers could get away with forcing people to watch and listen to mass media commercials. This is because there were few companies competing for attention. Getting noticed by potential buyers was easy.
Times have changed.
Not only are people exposed to more marketing messages than ever before, but modern technologies and fragmented market segments allow people the choice of what they will read, watch, and listen to.
Intrusive marketing no longer works as well as it once did. There was a time that television and radio dominated the the world of marketing and advertising. Not anymore. People tune them out…flip channels…get up and leave a room…or worse…aren’t even there to be exposed to your paid advertising messages in the first place.
Buyers have never had as much control over what they allow themselves to be exposed to as they now have. We have the internet and its myriad of more than six billion pages of data floating around other there. And we have smart phones. Hand held devices that allow users to control what they will allow to dominate their attention. Tv, radio, cell phones, internet. Consider the millions of international competitors vying for attention on these billions of pages of ad impression opportunities and it becomes easy to see why traditional tv and radio just doesn’t cut it anymore. the market just isn’t there.
Most people have become desensitized to intrusive advertising. I like to say, only small minds are glued to tv’s watching ads when they could be up doing something with that 4-8 minutes of wasted ad blocks. Small minds see commercials as extensions to their tv viewing. I see tv commercials as a waste of time sitting through. Time you can never get back. I’m not alone in such ‘extreme’ views. There has been a huge shift in how people spend their time. I believe fewer and fewer spend as much time as couch potatoes as perhaps they may have 10 or 15 years ago.
I was surprised to see a 70-something lady buying groceries at the checkout and what was she doing as the checker was ringing up the lady’s groceries? ‘Updating her Facebook’ on her Smartphone. My goodness. There was a time when only college students were on fb. Not anymore. The internet and smart phones have truly fragmented market segments. Entertainment is no longer restricted to television or radio.
So what are marketers to do? How about stop advertising? Yes, I mean stop paying for ads altogether right now.
Instead of paying for intrusive ads in hopes ‘someone’ might be out there ‘somewhere’ and maybe ‘somehow’ might be interested in what you are trying to force them to notice, make a direct beeline focus to communicate with people who already want what you are selling.
Seems an obvious choice. No?
But here’s the kicker…how do you find people who already want what you are selling?
An often overlooked area of marketing is strengthening and leveraging the relationships you’ve already developed. This includes your current and past clients and customers, vendors, and referral sources. These are people who ideally already know you and trust you. They are more likely to want to hear your message.
A second marketing method for reaching these pre-existing fragmented markets involves making smart use of internet marketing strategies. Primarily the web and SEO, social media marketing, affiliate marketing and other referral systems, online publicity, and so on.
These two steps are the most powerful ways to address the new realities and trends facing businesses today. Of course you can choose to internally do the research and implement lead generation marketing and relationship marketing into your company yourself. Or you can save time by hiring someone to do the work for you. Someone who has already researched and compiled proven marketing methods and campaigns to match opportunities affecting today’s buyers. Either way, do something. Just whatever you do…stop throwing away money into paid ads for now. At least until you can verify you are spending money on ads that actually reach your target market. Few do. Most advertising is a waste. Just guesswork that does not payoff. Stop being an advertising victim. Put new life and new blood into your business by reaching people who are easiest to reach and who already want what you are selling.
From time to time Andre accepts consulting projects in the following areas:
- * B2B Business Development and Strategies
- * B2B Direct Sales Marketing Techniques
- * B2B and Technology Sales Copywriting
- * Business Opportunity Copywriting
- * Social Media Marketing
- * SEO
We do this kind of work for our clients. Can we help you? Maybe. Maybe not.
Every company is different. Any attempt to create ‘standardize’ marketing packages will fall short soemwhere. An element important to you may get overlooked. And something that is a total mismatch may get included.
The internet is littered with an almost enumerable number of templates and checklists of all kinds. Most are junk. That’s why we recommend clients create custom marketing packages. The custom marketing package clients put together to reinforce their other marketing efforts must be as unique to them as they are from their competitors.
What should be included in a custom marketing package? Here’s what we typically offer our clients:
Total Marketing Package
Our Total Marketing Package involves a combination of online and offline marketing approaches. The Total Marketing Package is a performance-based package and is designed to increase both online and offline sales, leads, referrals and redeploy underutilized assets now hidden in your company.
Every business has underutilized marketing assets that can easily be converted to immediate cash — without increasing the company’s advertising budget.
Our Total Marketing Package involves three main steps.
- The first is evaluating and diagnosing your current marketing position, strengths, and opportunities.
- The second is putting marketing ‘systems’ in place that eliminate the guesswork from day to day marketing activities.
- And the third is to track and measure results and make adjustments as needed.
The Proof Is In The Pudding
Because our Total Marketing Package is a performance-based package, our Total Marketing Package clients pay solely for results. Not for effort.
We are primarily paid the bulk of our fee after our clients have earned more profit from their businesses – and after they’ve deposited those extra monies into their bank accounts or online accounts. Our clients get paid first.
So how much does performance cost?
Well, you could do all the work yourself. It is a daunting task. I won’t kid you.
When I take on a client I charge roughly 50 cents on each new $1,000 I help my clients earn – after they’ve earned it. This way my clients are guaranteed a favorable return on their marketing dollars from working with us.
That’s what performance-based fees are about.
Because we have a vested interest in your success, we charge an initial one-time, refundable retainer to get started. The retainer is simply there to guarantee follow through and to protect our interests since our income is based primarily on client success.
If you would like to find if we are currently available for consulting please Contact Us.
Whether you are looking for a freelance copywriter for your next direct response project or a marketing strategist who will increase sales and profits now…let’s talk. Tell us a little about your company and your objectives.
If it sounds like we might be able to help, we will schedule a telephone interview with you to learn more about your company and your objectives. If we feel we can’t help, we will try our best to recommend a resource more suitable for you.
to see if we are currently available for consulting
