by Bill Cherry
The yellow pages are the most powerful advertising medium for certain kinds of businesses. Yellow page directories can be found in every home and almost every business. The total reach (the total number of people who have a directory) is almost 100% of the population.

Unlike other media, people use the yellow pages when they are ready to buy. If a buyer needs a lawyer, insurance agent, or a medical specialist he or she will go to the yellow pages to help them decide who they will do business with. In almost every market in the United States, you will find several different yellow page directory publishers.

There will always be the biggest and oldest directory often with the same name as the telephone company such as Bell South, Qwest Dex etc. In addition to the largest and oldest stand-by directory, there will be one or more other yellow page directories competing for your dollars.

So which yellow page directory do you use for advertising? It depends, but in most cases the old stand-by yellow page directory will have the greatest reach and use. There are some exceptions but most of the time it is the case. The competing yellow page directories usually have lower prices for advertising, but also have a smaller circulation and usage.

Which Yellow Page Directory Should You Use to Advertise Your Business?

Every yellow page sales person will tell you that his or her directory is the most used by the most people, and will bring you the most sales. How do you decide which one to use, or should you advertise in more than one?
The best way to learn the most used yellow page directory is to ask 20 people which one they use. Asking customers is another excellent way to get an idea of the most used directory. It doesn’t matter how large a directory’s circulation is. What matters is which one is used the most.

Next, examine which directory carries the most advertising.
Other businesses don’t continue to advertise in a directory if it gives them a poor return on their advertising investment.
What if you want to advertise in both the main directory and a local or regional directory? Go ahead and try it. Just be sure to ask your customers which yellow page directory they used to find your number or information.

I consulted a man who owned a construction related business. He had a yellow page ad in each of seven different directories. He had no idea if they brought him business or not but he thought they didn’t. I told him to cancel six of the seven directories and he saved $3000 a month. He then began advertising with radio and direct mail and increased his business dramatically. Not tracking your yellow page ad results can cost you thousands of dollars.

Display ads vs. In-column ads

Open your main directory and look at the ads. You will see large display ads and smaller alphabetical ads. The display ads have logos, photos, additional colors of ink, and lots of information. These ads are placed in the business heading by size. The smaller alphabetical or “in-column” ads are placed in alphabetical order rather than by size.

Eighty percent of all people who use the yellow pages look at the display ads first, while twenty percent of users look in the in-column ads for a business. You may think if 80% of users look in the display ads first, that is where your ad should be. Not necessarily.

Display ads are much more expensive than in-column ads. If your market has 500,000 users, the 20% who look at the in column ads is still a huge number of potential customers. If you look at the alphabetical listing, you will often see a business has added an “A”, double “A”, or triple “A” before the business name.
For example, a business named Wallace Plumbing will be at the end of the alphabetical listings. Putting an ‘A’ in front of the businesses’ name moves his ad to the top of the alphabetical listings. Choose your business name carefully.

Display ads are much more expensive than in-column ads, but they deliver more users. The display ads are placed at the beginning of a heading such as Attorneys. The largest ads are first in the heading, followed by the next largest size, and then the third largest and so on.

Seniority matters. In most cases, a businesses’ yellow page ad that has been advertising with that size ad for the longest period gets the first position in the heading. If the heading you want to advertise in has many full page ads, your full page ad will be behind all the other full page ads. The same applies for the second and third size ad and so on.

Creating an Effective Yellow Page Ad That Gets Results

Some categories or headings are more competitive and have more ads than other headings. Headings which are usually very competitive are plumbers, air conditioning and heating, attorneys, insurance, and in the last few years, plastic surgery.

There are also headings that have very few ads such as doctors, consultants, and gasoline wholesalers. If your business is in a competitive heading, you need a good attention grabbing ad.

Open your directory and flip through the pages quickly. What ads catch your eye the second you see it? Generally these ads will have large blocks of color, red is the best. Green and blue ink are passive colors and don’t usually help your ad stand out.

If there are several ads in your heading that use reverse format, (black background with white words), then make your ad with lots of white space to stand out from the others. Photographs, line art and logos that have lots of ink help get user’s attention.

Once you get their attention, the customer wants good information. Don’t make your ad pretty. Put lots of information about all the products and services you offer. Business owners often think everyone knows all of the products and services they provide. In reality, they don’t. People usually know only a few of the products or services a business offers.

This being the case put every product or service you offer in your ad. If you have a website, fax, or email, include them in the ad. A photograph of the business owner like you see insurance agents do is not effective use of ad space. Most users don’t care what you look like.

Positioning Your Business

You need to present your business as different in some way from your competitors. This applies to you yellow page ads as well.
For example, if your business is a plastic surgery clinic, how can you make your business appear different from the other plastic surgery physicians?

Do you offer financing? Do you have special services the competition doesn’t? Are your prices lower? Do you have much more pampering of your patents than the competition? We all identify people, products, and services in comparison to others we know about. If your business offers fast service, emphasize that in the headline of your ad.

If you offer 24 hours service, make that feature large with dark ink, and so on. The concept of positioning your business will be covered in more detail in other lessons.

How to Make Your In-column Ad Stand Out

Like display ads, your in column ad must jump out of the page and grab the user’s attention. True these ads are smaller than display ads however you can still create attention getting ads.

In column ad size range from a half inch high, to about a four inch high ad. You can also use colored ink, and you can include a business logo. Use red ink for your logo, or your list of services.
Remember just like anything else, you get what you pay for. Cheap ads in other directories probably will not get the result you desire.

by Bill Cherry
The yellow pages are the most powerful advertising medium for certain kinds of businesses. Yellow page directories can be found in every home and almost every business. The total reach (the total number of people who have a directory) is almost 100% of the population.

Unlike other media, people use the yellow pages when they are ready to buy. If a buyer needs a lawyer, insurance agent, or a medical specialist he or she will go to the yellow pages to help them decide who they will do business with.
In almost every market in the United States, you will find several different yellow page directory publishers.

There will always be the biggest and oldest directory often with the same name as the telephone company such as Bell South, Southwestern Bell etc.
In addition to the largest and oldest stand-by directory, there will be one or more other yellow page companies competing for your dollars.

So which yellow page directory do you use for advertising? It depends, but in most cases the old stand-by yellow page directory, that is the largest will have the greatest circulation. There are some exceptions but most of the time it is the case.
The competing yellow page directories usually have lower prices for advertising, but also have a smaller circulation.Which Yellow Page Directory Should You Use to Advertise Your Business?

Every yellow page sales person will tell you that his or her directory is the most used by the most population, and will bring you the most sales. How do you decide which one to use, or should you advertise in more than one? The best way to learn which yellow page directory is used most, is to ask 20 people which one they use. It is not a scientific method but it usually is accurate.

Asking customers is another excellent way to get an idea of the most used directory. It doesn’t matter how large a directory’s circulation is. What matters is which one is used the most.

Next, examine which directory carries the most advertising.
Other businesses don’t continue to advertise in a directory if it gives them a poor return on their advertising investment.
What if you want to advertise in both the main directory and a local or regional directory? Go ahead and try it. Just be sure to ask your customers which yellow page directory they used to find your business.

Display ads vs. In-column ads

Open your main directory and look at the ads. You will see large display ads and smaller alphabetical ads. The display ads have logos, photos, additional colors of ink, and lots of information. The smaller alphabetical or in-column ads are placed in alphabetical order rather than by size.

Eighty percent of all people who use the yellow pages look at the display ads first, while twenty percent of users look in the in-column ads for a business. You may think if 80% of users look in the display ads first, that is where your ad should be. Not necessarily.

Display ads are much more expensive than in-column ads. If your market has 500,000 users, the 20% who look at the in column ads is still a huge number of potential customers.

If you look at the alphabetical listing, you will often see a business has added an A, double A, or triple A before the business name. They do this to move their alphabetical ad to the front of the listings.

For example, a business named Wallace Plumbing will be at the end of the alphabetical listings. Putting an ‘A’ in front of the businesses’ name moves his ad to the top of the alphabetical listings. Choose your business name carefully.
Display ads are much more expensive than in-column ads, but they deliver more users. The display ads are placed at the beginning of a heading such as Attorneys. The largest ads are first in the heading, followed by the next largest size, and then the third largest and so on.

Seniority matters. In most cases, a businesses’ yellow page ad that has been advertising with that size ad for the longest period gets the first position in the heading.

If the heading you want to advertise in has many full page ads, your full page ad will be behind all the other full page ads. The same applies for the second and third size ad and so on.

Creating an Effective Yellow Page Ad That Gets Results

Some categories or headings are more competitive and have more ads than other headings. Headings which are usually very competitive are plumbers, air conditioning and heating, Attorneys, Insurance, and in the last few years, plastic surgery.
There are also headings that have very few ads such as doctors, consultants, and gasoline wholesalers.If your business is in a competitive heading, you need a good attention grabbing ad.

Open your directory and flip through the pages quickly. What ads catch your eye the second you see it? Generally these ads will have large blocks of color, red is the best. Green and blue ink are passive colors and don’t usually help your ad stand out.

If there are several ads in your heading that use reverse format, (black background with white words), then make your ad with lots of white space to stand out from the others. Photographs, line art and logos that have lots of ink help get user’s attention.

Once you get their attention, they want good information.
Don’t make your ad pretty. Put lots of information about all the products and services you offer.
Business owners often think everyone knows all of the products and services they provide. In reality, they don’t. People usually know only a few of the products or services a business offers.

This being the case, put every product or service you offer in your ad. If you have a website, fax, or email, include them in the ad. A photograph of the business owner like you is not effective use of ad space. Most users don’t care what you look like.

Positioning Your Business

You need to present your business as different in some way from your competitors. This applies to your yellow page ads as well.
For example, if your business is a plastic surgery clinic, how can you make your business appear different from the other plastic surgery physicians?

Do you offer financing? Do you have special services the competition doesn’t? Are your prices lower? Do you have much more pampering of your patents than the competition? We all identify people, products, and services in comparison to others we know about. If your business offers fast service, emphasize that in the headline of your ad.
If you offer 24 hours service, make that feature large with dark ink, and so on. The concept of positioning your business will be covered in more detail in other lessons.

How to Make YourIn-column Ad Stand Out

Like display ads, your in column ad must jump out of the page and grab the user’s attention. True these ads are smaller than display; however you can still create attention getting ads.

In column ad size range from a half inch high, to about a four inch high ad. You can also use colored ink, and you can include a business logo. Use red ink for your logo, or your list of services.

Remember just like anything else, you get what you pay for. Cheap ads in other directories probably will not get the result you desire.

by Bill Cherry

Introduction

What is direct mail and how is it used?
Of all of the major types of advertising that businesses use, direct mail can be the most effective; inexpensive to print, inexpensive to mail, and you can target the small business customer better than any other medium. The goal of direct mail advertising is to get the recipient to read it and act.

Direct mail doesn’t work
“I tried direct mail advertising once and it didn’t work.” I have heard those words hundreds of times from owners and managers of businesses. The fact is, all major advertising media work when used correctly and used at the right time.

Junk mail
Direct mail is often referred to as junk mail because most of it is thrown away by the recipient. In fact, only a small amount of direct mail advertising is read by the consumer. A typical scenario is a consumer gets his mail from the mail box and starts glancing over each piece. The mailers he has no interest in (which is most of them) are immediatly thrown into the trash. The ones of interest are kept and read.

When a direct mail campaign is sent, only ½ to 2% of the mailers are read, the rest are trashed. How can advertising be effective when almost all of the recepitants don’t look it? Simple, mail a large amount to get a large return. I’ll show you how in a minute.

Just like all advertising direct mail has advantages and disadvantages; a right way and a wrong way to use it.

Advantages of direct mail advertising
1.    Targets customers better than any other kind of advertising, period.
2.    Direct mail advertising is the only one of all the major kinds of advertising that its effectiveness can be measured exactly. You know the exact amount of customers a business gets from each mailing.
3.    Direct mail advertising works.
4.    Direct mail is still a growth industry as apposed to traditional broadcast and print advertising. If it did not work, advertisers would not continue to use it.

That may not seem like very many advantages, but when it is as powerful as it is you only need one advantage, it works. All other kinds of advertising cannot reach a specific target customer and only that target customer without “wasted circulation.”

Wasted circulation
Wasted circulation is the amount of people reached with a medium that are not interested in the product or service being sold. For example, let’s say you want to reach members of 5,000 households who own pets. With direct mail you can mail your advertising to each home that has a pet. With TV or any other medium for that matter, a TV spot may reach 20,000 viewers each time it airs. There are 15,000 viewers who are not pet owners and are not part of the target audience. That 15,000 is called wasted circulation. The business that paid for the TV spot paid to reach 15,000 people who were not potential customers, wasted circulation. With direct mail you reach only those target customers you need, no wasted circulation.

Disadvantages of direct mail advertising
1.    The cost per customer reached is very high.
2.    You get a very small reach; typically ½ to 2% of the pieces mailed are read.
3.    People think of it as “junk mail” so they assume it couldn’t possibly be effective advertising.
4.    You usually need to mail large quantities to get much response.
5.    You must obtain a specialized mailing list in order to reach the specialized target customer.

The goal of direct mail advertising
The goal of direct mail advertising is to get the recepiant to read it and Act, meaning go to the phone and call the business, or to the businesses’ website and order the product, or to actually go to the business and buy the product advertised.

The design of the direct mail piece
The design of the mail piece is critical to the success of the mail campaign. The direct mail industry has done more research on what causes people to respond than any other medium. They know which colors work the best. They know whether a post card or letter work the best. They know which kind of headline and copy works best, (in advertising and publications the text is called copy.)

The kind of design used for a direct mail piece depends on who the target customer is and what you want him to do. Do you use post cards or a letter? Will one color of ink or four color process (full color) work best? What kind of paper should it be printed on? What should the headline and copy say? What offer will the mailer give? How do you want the recipient to respond? These are all critical elements that will affect the success of the campaign.

The mailing list is critical
The most critical element of a direct mail campaign is the mailing list. You must have an up to date list of addresses, phone numbers, or e-mail addresses, to which you are mailing. In most cases you can get a good list from either a list broker or a direct mail company. (You can find both in the yellow pages) You don’t buy a mailing list, you rent it. You pay for the list each time you mail to it.

The list must be clean
That means it must be up to date with the most correct addresses and without duplicates or names that are not in your target list. You must depend on where you get the list for its correctness. You can rent lists with names and addresses, with phone numbers, e-mail addresses, or all of them. E-mail lists cost the most.

How many names can you rent for a campaign?
Mailing lists are rented in groups of a thousand. Often there is a minimum amount of 5,000 names. The cost is based on a per thousand amount such as $25 per thousand etc. You can rent any amount of names from 5,000 to millions.

An example of a direct mail campaign
For our purposes here I will not go into all the details of the process but you will get the idea.
1. We are selling men’s high end retail clothes; Cherry’s Hot Digs.
2. We decide we will mail to 25,000 males in a four zip code area.
3. The target customer is men age 25 plus, average income of $70,000 a year plus, middle to upper management, lives in affluent zip code areas of the city, etc.
4. We decided to advertise a special group of expensive fine wool sweaters at a 50% discount.
5. We decide to use post cards rather than letters for a variety of reasons.
6. We write a compelling headline and copy to get the attention of the reader and add attractive photographs.
7. We have the printer print the post cards
8. We rent the mailing list in the target zip code areas. (Cost is $40 per thousand names)
9. We deliver the printed post cards and the list on a CD to a direct mail company.
The direct mail company addresses, applies postage and mails the post cards.
After about three days customers start to respond and we get a response rate of 2%.

Two percent of 25,000 is 500 customers. Of those let’s say three hundred customers buy and are also sold additional items for an average sale of $250.
Total revenue for the campaign is 300 respondents X $250 = $75,000. Subtract the cost of the mailing, approximately $5,000, and you have net revenue for the mailing of $70,000. Not bad for a two percent response rate.

Direct mail can be a very powerful advertising medium when used correctly.

Bill Cherry

Outdoor advertising
Outdoor advertising is often referred to as billboard advertising. Some people think it can be junky also but it can be very effective reaching a target audience with a sales message.

Messages of many kinds of products and services are very effective with outdoor advertising.  Short but powerful messages like “Got Mike” or Nike’s “Do it” work the best.

Advantages of outdoor advertising
1.    Outdoor advertising can reach a larger number of people than TV, radio, newspaper or any other mediums. In fact if you buy enough billboards you can reach 99% of any market.
2.    With outdoor advertising you can target specific geographic areas.
3.    Outdoor advertising reaches people when they are driving.
4.    Outdoor advertising can have dramatic impact with large compelling photographs and short powerful messages.

Disadvantages of outdoor advertising
1.    Outdoor advertising can sometimes be expensive. (the cost per thousand is high)
2.    A billboard has limited space for a message.
3.    The billboard has only a few seconds to get the attention of the driver and communicate the message.

Outdoor advertising cost
Outdoor advertising is purchased in what is called a” showing.” A showing is how many people will see the billboard message in a week’s time. A 20 showing is a certain number of billboards that will reach 20% of the market, a 50 showing reaches 50% of the market, and a 100 showing is a larger number of billboards that reach 100% of the market with the advertising message.

Various kind of billboard advertising
In addition to standard billboards you can advertise on transit such as buses. A billboard on the side of the bus that has no doors is called the King side. The side that has the doors is called the queen side, an of course there is the back side. You can advertise on a group of busses on any of the three sides of a bus. Is it effective? You bet. A moving billboard works.

Design of the billboard message
One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make when designing a billboard is putting too much material on the board. The target customer only has a few seconds to see the message and understand it. Pay attention to the billboards the next time you are driving and you will see plenty that have too much information to read in three seconds.

The next big mistake is not having a large photo to grab the driver’s attention. The photograph should take up at least one third of the billboard space and it should be striking, unusual, or clever.

The words on the billboard should be few. Again, pay attention to the billboards the next time you are driving. Which ones get your attention? What elements get your attention?
The words should be limited, to the point, and large. Don’t pick ugly colors…please. It makes viewers what to poke their eyes out! Even graphic designers don’t always understand how to design billboards. Give photos of billboard examples you like to the graphic designer.

The super large billboards you see on the freeway are very expensive but you get what you pay for…more eye balls to see your message. Buy them if you can afford them.  Outdoor advertising can be fun to create and fun to see. Goggle award winning outdoor advertising for some good ideas.

by Bill Cherry

Learning Objectives:
1.    Is newspaper advertising the best kind of advertising?
2.    Different kinds of newspapers and advertising
3.    What are the advantages of newspaper advertising?
4.    What are the disadvantages of newspaper advertising?
5.    What does “circulation” mean?
6.    What does “readership” mean?
7.    All about newspaper ad production

Newspaper Advertising: The Granddaddy of All Media
Newspapers have been around since before radio, before TV, before direct mail and all the rest. For over one hundred years newspapers were the only media available for advertising. It was the only source of news and information people had available. As radio came along it took a small part on the newspaper’s advertising dollars, and when television came along it changed the whole advertising game.

Today with the development of many competing media, the number of people who get their news, information, and entertainment from newspapers has fallen dramatically. Nevertheless, newspaper continues to be a powerful and effective advertising medium.

Different Kinds of Newspapers
Today there are a number of different kinds of newspapers. Of course there are the morning and evening daily papers, business newspapers, regional newspapers that serve a specific geographical area, local community newspapers, and of course the shopper type of newspaper.

Each of these newspapers delivers a different kind of reader at different prices. The large daily morning and evening newspapers deliver the largest audience and readership. Regional newspapers can be very good advertising mediums.

They often cover a geographical area not covered by the major daily newspapers and thus you reach a different market. Since most people buy 90% of their product within a five mile radius, a regional newspaper can be a very effective way to reach customers.

Some specialty newspapers like a business or sports newspaper can also be good for advertising to reach a specific target group like men age 25 to 55.

Many markets have a local business newspaper that has all the most current happenings in the market. They can be effective advertising tools as well. Even community newspapers can be good advertising for smaller businesses like carpet cleaning, or plumbing, and they are cheap.

Finally local shopper newspapers that carry only classified ads can also generate sales for the right kind of customer.

Advantages of Newspaper Advertising
First, the daily’s and the regional newspapers give credibility and prestige to their advertisers.” If it’s in the newspaper, it must be OK.”

Second, newspaper advertising has a very wide geographical reach covering a broad range of readers. Most larger newspapers only cover up to 50% of the market.

Next, newspapers are mobile. You can buy one at many locations and take it with you to work, traveling, home and any other place a person can go.

Because a newspaper is tangible, advertisements can be referred to over and over again exposing your ad to readers multiple times.

Newspapers have a “pass around” readership. That means one copy will often be seen by more than the person who bought it. You have probably seen the daily newspaper lying around the break room at work, or at the salon where you get your hair cut. Many more people ready those copies and that is pass around readership. Most other printed publications also have pass around readership.

Newspaper ads can adjust their sizes to accommodate the amount of content in the ad.
Large ads can contain many different items and services that make it like a shopping catalog.

Large amounts of information can’t be advertised on radio or television because 30 second spot spots are limited by the time limit of 30 or 60 seconds spots.

While newspapers reach a broad range of different readers, it can still target certain segments. Business men and women can be reached by advertising in the local, political, and business sections. Women can be targeted by advertising in the entertainment or fashion sections.

If you want to reach teens or young adults, don’t advertise in the newspaper. That generation gets all their information from electronic sources such as the Internet, TV, I-pods, cell phones, RSS feeds and radio. They don’t read the paper.

Disadvantages of Newspaper Advertising
Like all advertising media, newspapers have certain disadvantages. First, morning and evening daily’s are extremely expensive for the small advertiser. For decades newspapers were rather arrogant about their advertising rates and keep them high. As readership of newspapers has decreased and more and more businesses are advertising on television, radio, and many of the other mediums newspaper’s inflexible advertising rates have contributed to their demise. The regional and neighborhood newspapers have affordable advertising rates.

Second, newspapers cannot target certain specific demographic segments. You can advertise in the sports section to reach males 30 to 65 years old, but if you want to reach a narrower demographic, other media are better.

The quality of graphics in newspapers is limited resulting in photos and other images not looking crisp, and bright like full color magazines. News print, the kind of paper that is used to print newspapers is a course, cheap paper with which you cannot produce a high quality image.

Newspapers are printed with a 90 line screen as opposed to a magazine with high resolution images printed at 150 to 300 line screens. The higher the number of lines in a screen, the higher quality image you can print.

Another negative that newspaper has is that news print can rub off on a reader’s hands or clothes. This affects businessmen and women adversely.

Circulation vs. Readership
Most newspaper ad sales people like to tell advertising customers the paper’s circulation is, for example, 500,000. They work on commission and sometimes exaggerate. The number of people who actually read the newspaper is always much less than the circulation. It could be as low as half the circulation number.

Circulation and readership are very different and if you don’t know the difference, you could waste a bundle of money thinking your ad is reaching more people than it does.
Circulation is the number of papers that are distributed to subscribers and sold at places like grocery stores. They often give away free copies in order to keep the circulation numbers high.

Readership is the real number you should pay attention to. It doesn’t matter how many papers are distributed. What matters is the number of people who read the paper during a given week. When an ad salesperson tells you the paper’s circulation numbers, be sure to ask for the readership numbers as well.

Big newspapers have lots of research data about newspaper readership, time spent reading the paper, the number of readers that read each day of the week and lots more. Ask to see their data, and use it.

Newspaper Ad Production
Like TV advertising, creating a newspaper ad is an additional cost for you. Paying a graphic designer to create and layout the advertisement will add to the cost. If you do the layout and design, you will save money but it probably won’t look professional. Because each newspaper requires different specifications for its ads, your designer will need to create the ad in the correct size. One size does not fit all. Newspaper advertising is purchased in column inches.

The editorial material is always laid out in two, three, four and up to eight columns. So ads are measured by how many columns wide they are, and the number of inches high. A two column by seven inch ad would be a 14 inch ad. You pay for newspaper advertising by the number of column inches in your ad.

All newspapers have what is called an “open rate” they charge customers who do not want to sign an annual contract committing to run a certain number of ads. The open rate is the highest price of all. Like all other media, the more ads you commit to buy over a year’s period, the lower rate you will pay. Newspaper deadlines are not flexible. If you don’t get your ad to the paper before 5 pm on deadline day, your ad doesn’t run. Newspaper advertising can be a powerful medium when used right. It will continue to be for years to come.

Magazine Advertising
Many of the characteristics of newspaper advertising also apply to magazines. They both have many of the same advantages and disadvantages. The biggest difference with magazine advertising is that magazines are usually printed on high gloss paper allowing beautiful high resolution photographs. For this reason, magazines are best used for building the image of a product or a business. Magazines are generally not designed to get large numbers of customers into a business.

Magazine advertising is similar to radio advertising in that they both target very specific demographic and life style groups such as teenage girls or tennis players. If you want to advertise to a specific group there is a radio station format and a magazine to reach them.

Generally speaking, magazine advertising is usually purchased only after a businesses’ newspaper, radio or TV advertising budget is allocated. This means there are less dollars left to spend on magazine advertising. Bummer for the magazine business.

by Bill Cherry

Every business needs a website:
Now days every business needs a website. That includes small one person businesses like authors, lawyers, insurance agents and freelance professionals.

Customers expect every respectable business to have a website.
If a business doesn’t have a website, potential customers start to wonder, “What’s wrong with this business?” Not having one makes people distrust the business.

Example: I coached a student who told me she wanted to get a certain business franchise and ask me to give her my opinion of it. We went to the Internet to check out the businesses’ website and to our surprise the company had no website. Her response was, “Gee, they must be a scam.” Every business must have a website.

Now I’m going to talk about how you can create a website for your business very inexpensively. I will tell you step by step how easy it is to create the website yourself,
but first I need to provide some basic information about the website building business.

To hire or not to hire a web designer:
The whole issue boils down to do you want to create your website, or do you want a professional web designer to create it. One of the main questions you must ask is, do you want to take the time to learn the programs used to create your website, or do you want to shell out the cash to have it done. Do you have more time than money or more money than time?

You also must consider your level of computer skills and your ability to deal with the frustration of creating a website. Some people enjoy learning and doing new things on the computer and they are good at it. Others are computer challenged and attempting to learn a new computer skill sends them into a comma. These people think every computer should be sold with a gun and two bullets; one for the computer and one for themselves.

Website design costs: the sky’s the limit:
When it comes to the costs of building a website, you can spend as much money as you can get. It is not unusual for a website designer to charge $3,000, $5,000, or more to create a website. The truth is you often don’t get what you pay for.

You can get comparable websites designed for as little as $500 on up to thousands of dollars…for the same website! Why the difference? Designers charge what the market will bear. As in all professions there are the good the bad, and the ugly. The best web designer’s are paid the most and the lesser ones get paid less.

If you are on a tight budget, call a community college or university computer graphics department. Get a junior or senior to create your website for a big discount. He needs it for his portfolio.

How do you know if you are getting a fair price?
It is difficult. There are three basic areas of design, 1.) The visual appearance, 2.) The architecture that makes the website operate and 3.) Special effects.

The visual appearance includes layout, design, colors, photos, text design, and the content of the pages.

The architecture is how the website operates, what it does and how the navigation buttons like “About Us,” operate.

Special effects are features like moving images, music, video etc. Usually the more features a website has the more it will cost. Get several quotes form different website designers.

Now the Low Cost Website:
The first step is to find and choose a web host. Every website is hosted by a “host.” This is a major website where many websites are parked until they are used. It is kind of like a parking lot full of cars. The parking lot is the host, and the individual cars are individual websites.

There are many different web hosts available from which to choose. Three good ones are: www.networksolutions.com, www.web.com, and www.godaddy.com. Every web host has a monthly fee, from $10 to $50. This hosting fee is an every month cost. The low monthly hosting fee can be as little as $10 dollars a month and that can be your only cost.

Be sure to get these web host features:
Web hosts come with various features. Make sure the web host you choose has the following features:

A web builder with a wide selection of pre-designed templates of every business category should be available. If you are a florist there should be 10 or 20 great looking florest templates to choose from.

It should have a price between $15 and $50 a month. Don’t lock into an annual contract until you are sure you will keep the website for a long time.

The web host should have free features such as the ability to download files like e-books, to add audio or video to your website, to accept credit cards, to have moving pictures and to be able to make any changes in your website easily.

If you want to sell products on your website:
The only other cost you may have with your website is if you accept credit cards from people who buy your products. There are two choices here; first to have what is called a merchant account, and the other is to use Paypal for payments.

A merchant account will cost you around $15 a month plus a per transaction fee of around .20 cents, and a 2.4% fee of the purchase amount. You will have to pay the monthly $15 fee whether or not people buy from you.

The other option is to use a Paypal account, www.paypal.com. A Paypal account is free to sign up with and it allows you to accept payments on your website. Paypal is probably the best way to go if you are short on cash.

Total cost for the website:
So you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a professional website. Choose a web host that has a professional looking template and your only cost will be the low monthly hosting fee. That’s all. Add a free Paypal account to accept payments and you are in business.

So any business or individual business person can afford a professional looking website. Now you know how to do it.

by Bill Cherry

Learning Objectives:

1. Using joint ventures for no cost marketing
2. Using a dead list for free marketing
3. Trade for advertising
4. Increase sales skills
5. Use the unique selling position (USP) as the most powerful marketing tool
6. Simple website & free programs: NVU website design, jumla. Myshopify.com
7. Testimonials, referrals, the passive marketing tools
8. Team up with other sellers to reach your target customer

1. Joint ventures: Using other businesses to increase sales:
Joint ventures – One way to increase sales is to team up with other businesses that have the same target customer.

Example: Let’s say you own a tire store. Your target customer is pretty much men age 20 to 60 years old. You look for other businesses that have the same target customers. There is a local health spa in the area, Gold’s Gym. There is also a sporting goods store several blocks away. You contact the owner or manager of Gold’s Gym and propose a joint promotion.

The gym owner has about 900 males who are members that he sends bills to every month. You propose that you will print 3×6” flyers offering a special discount of $200 off certain brands of tires exclusively for Gold’s Gym members. The manager will put the flyers into the monthly bills that are mailed to the 900 members.

You agree to pay the Gym $50 for every set of tires you sell from the flyers. It’s a win-win-win promotion. You get to sell to a list of customers you did not have access to. You will make a considerable amount of sales. The manager of Golds Gym only has to put the flyers into the bills and mail them. He gets $50 per set of tires sold for doing nothing. The gold’s members get a great deal on tires.

You can do this tactic with many different businesses over and over extending your customer reach for almost no cost.

2. Other businesses’ customer dead or inactive lists:
Many businesses have lists of prospects they had contacted to sell their products, but the prospects did not buy. The business usually tries several times to sell to that prospect list. That list of prospects that did not buy is called a dead list.

The business just keeps the inactive names in the data base but has no use for them. If you have the same target customer as the other business, you can ask the business to let you market to the dead list. You will give them $100 for each person on the dead list which you sell.

Example – You are the owner of a holistic college that teaches different kinds of natural healing, spiritual development, and use of herbs to cure different ailments. Your customers are primarily females age 20-45 years old. You contact the local massage therapy college and ask to market to their dead list. You will give them $100 for each person you sign up. The Massage therapy college gets money from a list that was dead, and you get a list of the same target customer to market to. Again, a win –win for both of you.

3. Partner with media for free advertising
If you have a business that provides products or services that other businesses could use, contact a local advertising company. Radio stations do a lot of promotions and give away a lot of merchandise on air. Contact a manager of a radio station. Offer to trade your services for radio spots. Your services could be carpet cleaning, furniture, electronics, etc. Trade your product/service full retail price for the retail price of radio spots. You can do this with some newspapers, TV stations and other media.

4. Create a Unique Selling Position
Make your business different from the competition. You might promote your business to be different from the competition as faster service, lower prices, wider selection, better distribution, or best guarantee and so on. The concept can be the most powerful tactic you can do and it is free. Make your business different.

5. Use free resources for marketing
You can create a free website, and get other useful marketing tools from the Internet. There are places on the Internet where you can create a simple website for your business almost free. A free website, NVU provides free open source website design tools. Other similar tools are www.jumla.com, and www.myshopify.com. If you don’t have MS Office, you can get a similar word processing and spreadsheet program at www.openoffice.org free. Check out www.cnet.com for other free tools.

6. Increase your and your employee’s basic selling skills
Do you know someone who has good selling skills? If so, arrange for him or her to attend your sales meetings and teach improved skills. If you don’t know a good sales person check out some good selling books, CDs, or DVDs from the library. Spend time every week listening and learning the tactics. Sales skills like riding a bike can be learned by anyone. Learn the consultant selling technique, and some closing skills. This is free and can increase sales by 30%.

7. Multiply your ability to contact prospects:
Make arrangements with other service businesses that sell to your same target customer. If you are an electrician, make agreements with businesses like plumbers, lawn care, gutter replacement, etc. to share contacts. Have them leave your brochure with every customer they do work for. Give them a commission for each job you get.

8. Testimonials and endorsements are very powerful marketing tools:
Get as many letters or email from customers who liked your work and recommend you. When you ask friends, or customers to write a recommendation for you, they will often never get around to it.

Here is the secret – type the recommendation as if it were written by your customer. Make it true. Then email it to your contact saying the email is an example of the letter you would like. Tell him to make any changes in the letter and then send it back. In almost every case they will send it back signed and with no changes. You have written your own endorsement.

Summary:
There are many different ways to work with other people and other businesses in order to create low cost or free marketing. These are just a few. Joint venture opportunities are all around. You simply have to see them. Doing joint venture promotions can save thousands of dollars, and increase your businesses’ sales.

By Bill Cherry

Learning Objectives:
What is a USP?
Why is a USP such a powerful marketing tool?
How to create a USP.

What is a USP? Your unique offer to the customer that other businesses can’t.
A USP is what makes you, your business, or your products different and unique from the competition. We all live in an over communicated society bombarded with thousands of messages every day. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, signs, posters, calendars and even the logos on you computers. It’s no wonder we feel overwhelmed or confused.

Our brains are very smart, (ha ha , get it brain…smart…) and have a way to deal with all the over communication we experience every day. It has a part of the brain that filters out most of the messages we receive every day. That’s good for us because it keeps us from going crazy. On the other hand, it becomes a big problem for marketers. When the brain filters out all the messages, it also filters out the messages about our product, business, or service. Marketers want their messages to stay in the memory, not get filtered out. You can see the problem.

Because of the massive amount of stimulus we face, we must make our business stand out from the rest, the competition. The way we do that is to use the USP, Unique Selling Position. The USP will give your business or product a clear advantage over the competition.

Try this experiment: The next time you are watching TV with someone, when a commercial break is finished playing ask the person to name the products in the previous commercial break. In most cases they can only name three. Most commercial breaks run between six and eight spots. That means that five of the companies that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire the best advertising agency, buy the air time, and produce the spot and you and your friend can’t even remember their product.

Sometimes we remember the silver bullet train that blast frosts on everyone when it passes by but we can’t remember the product…which beer was it?

Why is a USP important?
All businesses in any categories do basically the same things. For example, dentists, insurance, retail stores etc. A few do one or two things the others do, but generally the same. An example is dentists. Most dentists do similar things; 24 hour emergency service, cosmetic, teeth whitening, crowns, etc.

So how does a prospective patent determine which dentist to go to? You may think everyone finds their dentist from the referral of a friend, but many don’t. Just look in the main yellow page directory under the dentist heading and see how many dentist ads there are. A ton of them.

Since most of the dentists are the same, how do we choose one? That is where creating a USP pays off.

Some examples of USPs are:
1. Tuff Shed
2. three Day Kitchen and Bath
3. Dominos Pizza
4. The chiropractor
5. Steel hunting knives

Five steps to create a USP:
1. Analyze the competition to see if they have a USP and if so what it is. You don’t want to duplicate theirs. Most small businesses whether brick and mortar or online, don’t have a USP so you may get your choice of all available. That was the case with Tuff Shed.

2. List all the benefits of your products, or business. Include all the features you’re your business has. Perhaps your business has existed for 30 years, competitive prices, the most helpful staff, great reputation, wide selection etc.

3. Compare your features to the competition and eliminate similar features they have. If your business has been in business 30 years, the competition has also. Cancel that feature. Your business has competitive prices, does the competition. Scratch it. Your business has a very helpful staff and service, so do theirs. Cross it out.

4. Determine what features your business has left that the competition
doesn’t have.
Perhaps your staff speaks Spanish. Maybe you offer an unconditional return policy.

5. Identify any problems your business industry has that can be addressed. For example: remodellers have a reputation for not being able to finish a project on time. We’ve all heard those stories. That is a problem the remodeling industry has. You can use that problem to create a USP similar to Three Day Kitchen and Bath. No one else offers a remodel in only three days. It was as revolutionary as Domino’s delivery pizza was.

6. Brain storm possible USPs. Make a list of at least 25. Pick one that will represent your business as very different from the competition.

7. Use your new USP in all advertising, signage, websites, and in other ways.

Let’s do one together- a real case

Chiropractor- he had been in business for 20 years. He offered adjustments, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and massage therapy. Very comprehensive. Another new young chiropractor opened a practice in Dr. Jones’s area. The new doctor provided all the same services as Doctor Jones. The new doctor did a lot of aggressive advertising with billboards, radio, and newspaper. Doctor Jones started to see a decline in his patent visits.

How to Proceed:
1. Analyze the competition for a USP.
The new doctor did a lot of advertising that said his practice was The One Stop Chiropractic practice that provided everything. He advertised all the services he offered. He essentially stole the USP the “One Stop Shop” from Dr. Jones. Dr. Jones had not established a USP so it was open for any doctor to take and the new doctor did. Now Dr. Jones must create a different USP.

2. List all benefits and features doctor Jones’ practice has.
Experience 20 years
Well known
Comprehensive services
Convenient location
Friendly staff
Competitive prices

3. Compare list of benefits Doctor Jones has compared to the benefits the new doctor has.
Jones New Doctor
20 years experience 5 years experience
Well known new, not well known
Comprehensive services has same
Convent location has same
Friendly staff has same
Competitive prices has same

The features Doctor Jones had are:
20 years experience
Somewhat well known, but changing with people moving in and out of the area.

4. Identify problems the industry has:
Waiting to see the doctor; patents hate to wait.
Open only for daily hours; hard for people to take off work to get treatment
Waiting area is plain; uncomfortable chairs, old magazines, TV with bad picture, and children running around and bothering people.

5. Brain storm ideas for a USP
Below are three different USPs that could be used by the doctor.

a. “The doctor when experience counts.” Find a way to say if you want the best with the most experience, Dr. Jones is the guy.

b. “You never wait more than 5 minutes to see the doctor.”
He is the only doctor that is open evenings on Tuesday and Thursday.

c. “A visit to doctor Jones is a luxurious experience.” New decorating, new luscious carpet, very comfortable leather wingback chairs, feet massaging units for each chair, current and well targeted magazines, fresh brewing espresso, soda and play area for children, fresh flowers. The experience for patents is much more than a doctor visit. Everyone will tell their friends.

Any of the three USPs will work very well. In summary, the unique selling proposition is the single most powerful marketing tactic small businesses can use. Used properly it can help a business increase market share and become top-of-mind in that business category.

by Bill Cherry
Getting Appointments: The First Steps to Selling Success

How to qualify a prospect
How to create a target list
Why use a telephone script
Voice mail, screeners, receptionists, never in office,
Approach: letters, cold calls, email, voice mail, referrals,

Nothing happens until you get in front of the prospect. Ever since there have been sales persons there has been the problem of getting in front of the prospect. And ever since there have been salespersons there has been prospects who want to avoid sales persons.

Why is this the case? If you have ever been on the receiving end of sales people hounding you, you understand. Sales people have earned the reputation of being high pressure, fast talking, lying, and rude.

In truth, all sales people are different. There are some that are high pressure, but there are many more that are respectful, knowledgeable, and interested in the welfare of the prospect.

Nevertheless, prospects don’t want to be bothered by the many sales persons that call each day. They need protection from them and have become creative avoiding sales people.

That causes a large problem for sales people like us. So what can we do? How do we get through to the prospect we want to sell? Let’s take one problem at a time.

First create a target list of potential customers. Identify your best customers who buy your kind of products in large amounts? Who else needs your product? What kind of business are they in? What size business is more likely to buy, three million to five million in annual sales? Ten to twenty million?
Qualify the businesses and learn who the buying decision maker is.

Use the telephone to get appointments:
The telephone is the most widely used tool to reach a prospective buyer.  With the telephone a sales person can cover a lot of ground in terms of the number of prospects contacted. But before we move forward with the telephone we need to discuss qualifying the prospect.

Qualify your prospect:
Don’t sell the wrong person. That sounds obvious but it happens thousands of times every day. Who really has the power to buy? Often it is not the person you think. Even if you ask the person you are talking to if they will make the buying decision, they often are out and out lying or perhaps they don’t know they didn’t have the authority to buy.

1. Ask” Who makes the buying decision?” Verify their response if possible. Ask if there are any others who help with buying decisions.
There is a right way and a wrong way to get appointments using the telephone.

Telephone script. Use a script for the first hour of calling for appointments.

1.    Sell the appointment not the product-Don’t get drawn into telling the prospect all about your product or service. Don’t sell, just get the appointment.
2.    Make the script short-No more than a minute or two.
3.    Practice-At lease 30 minute.
4.    List objections you will get and what to say.

Setting goals
1.    Number of calls per hour.
2.    Number of dials vs. contacts with decision makers vs. appointments set.
3.    After about three hours of calling a pattern will appear. You will be able to predict for example: that of every 20 dials you will get 3 decision makers and one appointment. It’s like clock work.
4.    Now you know how many dials must be done to get one appointment.

Example:
“Hello my name is Bill Cherry with ABC Company, who is the person who manages the office equipment?”
Mary
“Thank you, does she also purchase the new equipment?”
Yes.
“Great may I speak to Mary?”

“Mary, this is Bill Cherry with ABC Company and we have a new piece of equipment that has proven to save businesses like yours as much as 25% over your current machine’s cost. Do you have 10 minutes Tuesday or Wednesday where I could show you how much you can save?”

1.    Don’t deceive them or appear to deceive them
2.    Make the script short and to the point don’t chit chat.
3.    Introduce yourself at the beginning. If you don’t they will be distracted from your message trying to figure out who you are.  Also they will wonder what you are hiding.
4.    Be warm and conversational. Practice until you can say the script naturally.
5.    Don’t pause at the expected time; it gives them a chance to interrupt you with a no.
6.    Sell the appointment not the product. Don’t get trapped into discussing your product over the phone. If she asks,” What is the machine you have?” Give just enough answer to satisfy her. “How much does it cost?”  “Mary there is a whole range of prices depending on your business needs. That’s why I need 10 minutes to evaluate your specific needs. Is Thursday a good day or is Friday better.
7.    Alternative close.
Give them a CHOICE, Monday or Wednesday?
“Is Tuesday or Thursday better for you?”
“Will you have 10 minutes Monday or Wednesday?”
When she says Tuesday then offer a choice of time: morning or afternoon? or “Afternoon? Great around 1 or is later around 4 better for you?”

Appointment blockers:
Receptionists- if she won’t let you through, make friends with her. Call every few days and chat a little. “What’s your name? Oh I have a niece named Mary. She’s a great soccer player. Do you like soccer?” (Don’t ever ask if they are married- they may be going through a divorce, don’t ask if she has kids- she may be embarrass she doesn’t.

“Are you from around here?”
Make each little chat short, just a minute or two, don’t be a pest if she is busy. Over a two week period you can become friends and will get in to see the boss.
Drop by to meet her, leave some donuts or goodies for the office.

Voice mail screening:
Some people never answer the phone. They listen to the messages then return the calls they want. Good tool. How do we handle that?

First call: “Hi Mr. Jones, this is Bill Cherry calling with KBYU FM. It looks like you are out of the office. I’ll call back tomorrow. Thanks have a good day.”

Second day: “Hi Mr. Jones, Bill Cherry from KBYU again, looks like I missed you again, I’ll try again tomorrow. Thanks”

Third day: “Hi Mr. Jones… guess who? Laugh ha ha… right Bill Cherry. I was just calling to see if you had five minutes sometime this week I could talk with you about increasing your advertising coverage without increasing your budget. I’ll give a call back tomorrow. Thanks.”

Keep calling each day, and each message state that you will call again tomorrow. After he sees that you are not going to stop calling he will either return your call or answer your call. Most business people respect persistence.

These are some basic selling skills not rocket science, but all your success hinges on getting the appointment. If you don’t do any more than use a script, practice it, and dial the phone you can be successful.