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In this issue:
Marketing Article: WARNING: Small Business Owners. Before You Advertise, Read This Simple Checklist
Marketing Article: SELLING INFORMATION PRODUCTS: What Sells, What Doesn't

Directory of Associatoins

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There are some golden rules that you should follow to ensure your small business advertising pieces give you the maximum return for your dollar.

Here are 21 ‘golden rules’ you should consider on every one of your advertisements before you commit your money to publishing them.

1. Have you clearly defined your ideal target market?

2. Have you written your marketing piece with your target market in mind?

3. Is the marketing piece being placed/sent/posted where your ideal target market will see it?

4. How many sales do you need to make to break even on this advertisement?

5. Is there a more economical way of reaching this same group of people?

6. Have you made an offer that’s clear and easily understood by the reader?

7. Is your headline attention grabbing?

8. Does your headline outline a major benefit in reading this advertisement?

9. Is your headline 3 to 6 times bigger than the body copy, or does it take up 25% to 30% of the space in the ad?

10. Does your headline qualify or attract the right reader for your advertisement?

11. Does your body copy follow on from what’s in your headline?

12. Does your body copy expand on the benefits in your headline?

13. Is the word YOU mentioned at least 4 times to every we, I or XYZ Company?

14. Can you use sub-headings to break up the copy and allow someone to get the full story, just by reading the sub-headings?

15. Have you included a picture of a person? Is the person facing into the body of the piece?

16. Have you included a picture that shows the reader what the benefit(s) of buying and using your product/service will be?

17. Have you let people know they’re safe, by either including a guarantee or using testimonials?

18. Have you been specific in your copy, or too general for it to be believable?

19. Have you asked people to call, buy, or in some way act in your advertisement?

20. Is your phone number and address included? (Is it included on both the ad and the coupon, if you’re using a coupon?)

21. Have the people in your business been told of this promotion going out, and how they should handle the response from the promotion?

As you run through this checklist be sure to be objective and as critical as possible.

Key areas that should be in each and every piece:

1. Clearly Defined Target Market
2. Headline that sells the benefit
3. Copy/Story that sells the benefits
4. Offer that compels people to respond
5. Guarantee to take the risk away from the reader
6. And… Call to Action, so that they contact you.

All the points just covered are an excellent way for you to prepare your marketing/advertising pieces based on time tested and proven marketing/advertising principles.

By following them, you can ensure you’ll creating profitable advertisements for your small business growth.

Copyright © 2005 by Casey Gollan. All Rights Reserved

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Casey Gollan, The Business Growth Specialist, the specialist who grows $1 Million p.a. small businesses into $2 to $5 Million p.a. businesses over a 2 to 3 year period. To learn more about Casey's Business Growth Program, visit his site and sign up for 'The 23 Secrets of Business Growth' 2 hour audio program for FREE.

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The internet provides an ideal opportunity to provide our clients and customers with high-value products, at low cost to us. Most products can be delivered over the internet, including ebooks, audio files, and home study courses. The production and delivery cost for these items is low, which allows us to focus on developing superior content, without regard to how much to spend on packaging.

The question you may ask yourself is, “What products should I develop?” But that’s the wrong question. Your goal is to serve, not sell. If your product and information is of sufficiently high quality, and truly serves your target market, the selling will be easier. Why? You can be extraordinarily passionate about a topic, but if there’s no market for it, you’re working in a vacuum.

Why not find out what your market really wants, and then supply it to them?

A hot market is golden. Building a product blindly, with little idea of how it will be received, is unnecessary and silly. But building to your customer’s needs and wants makes sense.

So how do you find out what your target market really wants? Below are two methods to find out what is really selling out there. Rather than assume you know what’s best for your target market, be willing to research what they’re currently buying. The market is the best indicator of what people want.

MAGAZINES

Paper magazines are much more expensive to produce than ezines, and they require a steady readership and usually some advertising. You’re looking for special interest magazines that cater to a very specific crowd. You’ll have trouble finding these at your local newsstand, so search on the internet for “your target” + “magazines.” Enter different variations, and you’ll find a number of possibilities.

For example, I just found 3 Yo-Yo magazines through an internet search. Not my target market, but clearly there is a market.

The next step is to order copies of a few issues. You’re looking for ads and coupons for products. When you find a specialty magazine that’s been around for a while, and that displays similar ads consistently, you’ve narrowed down what your market is buying.

CLICKBANK

A second strategy for finding what’s popular is to search on the internet. Specifically, if you’re interested in developing information products, like ebooks or audios, a great place to look is ClickBank, which sells more ebooks than any other outlet. They identify the hottest categories of ebook sold currently from their site, further identified by title.

A category that sells well on ClickBank should be able to sell well in other markets, and specific key words in the title of popular ebooks should give you an indication of what people are looking for now.

CONCLUSION

Tailor your products to what your target market wants. People buy from those they know, like, and trust, and if you can accurately assess specifically what people want, you’ll establish that trust quickly. Don’t assume you know what’s best—do your research.

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