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In this issue:
Marketing Article: 12 Reasons to Market With Postcards
Marketing Article: Things You Already Know - But Aren't Doing

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If your marketing activity doesn't include postcards, you're overlooking a highly effective and very low-cost sales tool. Here are 12 of the many reasons postcards should be part of your marketing program...

1. Postcards Work for Any Business

Postcards can produce all kinds of sales activity for all types of businesses. For example, they can produce web site traffic for online marketers, floor traffic for retail stores, sales leads for direct marketers ...and just about any other type of sales activity a business wants.

2. Designing Postcards is Simple and Uncomplicated

Designing an effective postcard is not complicated. It can be as simple as printing your best small ad on a 4 x 6 card and sending it to a list of potential prospects. Postcards usually work best when the message is brief and the postcard looks at first glance like a message from friend.

3. Printing Postcards is Easy and Inexpensive

You can print postcards with your own computer for about 1 or 2 cents each ...or have them printed professionally for about 4 to 8 cents each.

4. There's a Special Low Postage Rate for Postcards

You can send any quantity of postcards by First Class Mail in the US for only 23 cents each. The only requirement is that your postcards must be at least 3 1/2 x 5 inches but no larger than 4 1/4 x 6 inches.

5. Postcards Nearly Always Get Read

Because postcards are delivered "ready to read", almost everybody will read it - even people who usually throw out other types of direct mail without opening it.

6. Postcards Produce Fast Results

Because postcards are simple and easy to use - they produce results fast. You can mail postcards within a few days of deciding to use them ...and you'll start getting sales activity 2 or 3 days later.

7. Postcards are effective for Generating Web site Traffic

One of the most effective postcard formats simply lists a few benefits of a product or service on the card and tells the reader to where they can get more information. This makes them ideal for generating traffic to a web site.

8. Postcard Multiply Themselves

Postcards are like small billboards - and they are easy to handle. They often get saved by recipients or passed on to others ...providing additional exposure of your advertising message.

9. Markets Can Be Precisely Targeted With Postcards

You can accurately target your best markets by sending postcards only to mailing lists of prospects likely to be interested in what you're offering ...and who also have a history of acting on offers that interest them.

10. Postcard Marketing Results Are Easy To Measure

Postcards normally generate over 90 percent of their total response within 7 to 10 days. This enables you to quickly and accurately evaluate the results of a postcard campaign.

11. Postcards Put You in Control of Your Sales Activity

You can quickly boost (or reduce) your sales activity anytime you want by simply regulating the number of postcards you mail and how often you mail them.

12. Postcards Conceal Your Marketing from Competitors

Most advertising uses mass media where your competitors hear or see what you are doing - and copy it. Postcard marketing is personal. Only you and your prospects are aware of what you are doing.

Postcards may be one of the best kept secrets of modern marketing. They're highly effective, very low-cost, simple to use ...and they work for any business. You're overlooking a profitable marketing tool if don't use them.

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Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com

People Read Postards! Increase your exposure and bring in new customers with postcard marketing!

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At a recent seminar, one of the attendees reminded me of why most seasoned Internet marketers are not more successful. This seminar attendee and I were sitting at a table in the hotel's lounge with several other guests and speakers. He began to enumerate all of the things that he had done the first NIGHT of the seminar. He'd gone back to his room, and, in the middle of the night, implemented three proven techniques that speakers had shared on the first day.

I wanted to yell "YES!" He'd discovered the golden "keys to the kingdom." He understood that nothing happens until you take massive action. He was one of those rare individuals that doesn't over-analyze but just DOES the things he understands he needs to do.

As I sat there at the table, I wanted to grab the others, shake them, and ask, "Why didn't you guys do the same thing last night?"

By the time you've been in Internet marketing for a year or so, if you've studied everything you could get your hands on, you "know" all that you need to know to be successful online. Then it's just a matter of DOING it.

Here's a list of thing you probably already know but aren't acting upon:

1) Follow-up Is The Key. We all know that most customers won't buy on the first contact. You need to capture their contact information and follow-up. Many Internet marketers have this part down, BUT they stop after only 5-7 follow-ups. You need to follow-up FOREVER. Make sure that you have at-least 15-20 follow-up messages in your autoresponder sequence. You need to be there when your prospect is ready to buy. If they are no longer interested, they will unsubscribe.

2) Procrastination Kills Most Projects. You don't have to do things perfectly the first time, you just need to get started. You can always refine and revise things later. Your perspective customers/subscribers/clients can't buy from you until you present your offerings to them. Get over the perfectionism, and get it "out there!" Get over your fear of making mistakes by MAKING a few and seeing that it won't kill you. In-fact, there's a very good chance that your mistakes won't even be noticed :-)

3) Test And Track Everything. If you are not constantly trying to improve your results, they won't improve. If you're not tracking the results of what you're "testing" then you don't know what's working. Don't just talk about testing and tracking - do it. Then, stop doing the things that don't produce results and keep doing those that do.

Amazingly, most people know that many things they're doing are not producing the desired results, yet they keep doing them!

4) Practice Your Copywriting. It's the words on your webpages, in your ezines, and in your emails, that sell. The only way to get better at writing more convincing copy is to study what others have written and practice. Over time, if you really practice, you get better. Your nervous system becomes conditioned to write better copy with much less effort.

Build a swipe file of proven, effective copy. Model and "rip-off" elements from stuff in your swipe files. Get a huge head-start in this area by grabbing Yanik Silver's complete copywriting course at:
http://www.ultimateonlinecopymanual.com

It's what I use - EVERYDAY!

5) FOCUS For Greater Results. Decide on an objective, lay out the steps to reach that objective, and then force yourself to ignore most other things. Learn to shut out distractions and take projects through to completion. Stop worrying that you may miss something. You're not likely to miss anything REALLY important.

If necessary, set aside specific times to read email, answer the phones, even to walk the dog. During the times you've set aside to get a given project done, just focus on that project, and you'll get it done.

Also, force yourself to spend less time doing non-productive things such as watching television, or reading questionable opinions on discussion forums. When you do watch television, study how they use marketing. When you do visit discussion forums, look for commonly discussed problems that might suggest a new product to you.

Repeatedly ask yourself during the day, "Am I just procrastinating?" This will bring you back into focus.

Force yourself to do just the five things above (that you already KNOW that you should be doing) and your results will shock you. After you've actually made these five things HABITS then you can focus on implementing other, new, more-productive habits. Form the new habits one at a time, but start today. NO, start now!

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Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs since late-1996. Grab a free copy of his comprehensive, 20-Lesson Internet Marketing Success Course now at: http://WillieCrawford.com