• Lose 20 lbs in 2 weeks – no dieting.
• Double your income in half the time.

However, there are a couple of problems with making outrageous claims.  You may get people’s attention, but they won’t necessarily believe you.  People will be looking for the fine print of your offer.   They know if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

The second problem is that you have to deliver on your promise, right?  Your marketing materials should set the expectation for doing business with you.   Customer satisfaction is all about expectations.  If I tell you I’ll deliver your marketing materials in a month, and I beat that timeframe, you’re happy.  If I miss the deadline, you’ll be understandably upset.  It really is that simple.

So how can you make your marketing materials credible and incredible at the same time?

1. Use strong imagery. A picture is still worth 1,000 words – as long as it’s not a tired stock photo I’ve seen 1,000 times.
2. Evoke emotion. Yes, even business people make emotional decisions!  Get your reader to imagine how much better their life will be once they have purchased your product or service.
3. Be authentic. Copycat marketing doesn’t work.  Call out the things that make your business unique.  Two companies can do the exact same thing in entirely different ways.
4. Quantify benefits.  Use numbers and percentages. People tend to believe facts that are quantified. Also, people tend to respond to specific numbers better than rounded numbers.   “Our customers averaged an 8.64 percent return” on their investments year after year is much stronger than our customers average greater than an 8 percent return on their investments.
5. Reduce feature babble. Sell the benefits, not the features.  Think about how car manufacturers market.  They don’t say, “Our car has 4 wheels, a steering wheel and an engine.” They evoke the image of adventurous 20-year olds scaling mountains, or the safety-conscious mom nimbly swerving around danger.  They make people feel like they want to belong to that group (even if they never actually scale mountains).
6. Include testimonials. Ever wonder why the infomercial is so popular?  It’s because people believe other people more than they believe your marketing message.
7. Include a guarantee. Sometimes people just want assurance that they’re doing the right thing.  Give them a guarantee that boosts their confidence that you’ll deliver.

Remember these 7 tips and you’ll be well on your way to creating incredible credible marketing materials.

The study also reported that when looking for local (yes, local) products or services, buyers go first to internet search engines.

That means if you don’t have an effective internet presence you are, plain and simple, losing sales.

Here are a few more reasons to take your brand online:

1. The internet is big, really big. You might be able to significantly expand your business to other geographies
2. The internet makes it easy to market niche products and services.
3. A website is much less expensive than a physical store front
4. Your sales/prospecting machine can operate 24/7
5. The internet can make your offline marketing more effective (e.g. your direct mail campaign can send prospects to your website where you can guide them through the sales process)
6. Parts of the sales process can be automated

Website Basics

Once you decide to invest more of your marketing dollars into harnessing the internet you’ll need a plan. A good place to begin is to develop an effective website. This means you should learn how to:

1. Attract visitors
2. Keep your visitors and help them accomplish their goals
3. Capture leads or sales

Attracting Visitors

Your website will get visitors from a variety of sources including:

• People you send from your offline marketing such as advertising, direct mail, etc.
• Visitors who arrive by clicking on links to your site found in other places on the internet — e.g. partner websites, directories, articles you have submitted to online libraries, social networking sites, signature link in your emails, etc.
• Search engines as a result of a keyword search
• Search engines as a result of pay-per-click advertising ( “sponsored links” in Google)
• Online advertising

All of the above you can either buy or strongly influence.

For example, you can ask other businesses with whom you network to place a link on their website. Associations you belong to often have a directory with a link.

You can also optimize your website to be ranked more highly in the search engines.

Keep Visitors Sticky

Once a visitor has arrived at your site, your job is to persuade them to stay. Unfortunately you have perhaps 5 seconds to convince them.

Here’s how:

1. Design your site to look “right” e.g. if you are a financial planner then your site should ooze trust!
2. Make sure you have a strong headline that touches on something of importance. So, instead of “Welcome to our site” try “Worried About Growing Your Small Business in 2009?”
3. Provide a site structure and navigation that makes it obvious how visitors can accomplish the tasks they came to your site to do.

Collecting leads

Most likely an important goal for you is to collect qualified leads. Your visitor, however, came to accomplish their own goals so obviously there is a balance needed to achieve both objectives.

On each page suggest the next step.

Make it easy for the visitor to be able to contact you or to sign up for a white paper, podcast or other item of value. That means your phone number should be in an obvious place on each page. Please don’t hide it.

If you have to ask for information keep it short.

When you do collect a lead, make sure that you follow-up promptly. Many hosting services will give you the capability to automatically reply or send requested information.

We’ve just touched on the basics of getting your brand online. It may seem like a big hill to climb but you can do it. And please, don’t be too distracted with the social media buzz. Get the basics done first.

See you online!

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Michael Thompson is an authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach in the Portland, Oregon metro area.  He is a highly regarded professional marketer with over 20 years experience and is known for his immensely practical approach and ideas.

A well-constructed sales letter is considered salesmanship in print, allowing a business owner to make their sales presentation to hundreds or thousands of people at once without ever leaving their office.

In today’s high tech world of e-mail marketing and internet strategies, direct mail sometimes takes a back seat to other marketing strategies.  But, when done properly, direct mail is still one of the most powerful marketing tactics on the planet for the small business owner.

To increase the effectiveness of any direct mail campaign and to get the most “bang” for your marketing dollar, the ad must follow certain rules.

Rule #1 – Only Use 2-Step Direct Response Advertising

Most direct mail ads that clog your mailbox are those “buy now or else we have nothing else to offer you” ads that do very little to educate a customer about what makes a company different or why they should even buy from you in the first place.

So exactly, what is 2-step direct response advertising?

Direct-response advertising is an ad intent on generating a very specific response from the reader.  The two-step approach provides the reader with the ability to take a “baby step’ to find out more information about your company, before you try to sell them.  The goal of the ad is to “warm your prospect up” with educational material, not to make the sale.

Some of the things you can offer your prospects in your two-step ads include: free reports, free samples and free seminars.  This type of ad will almost always generate a higher response from potential customers because the purpose of the ad is to educate your prospect on what makes your company different from your competitors and to get them to take a low-risk next step.

Rule #2 – All ads should have a single purpose

The KISS method applies here . . .  keep it simple Sam.  Your ads should focus on the one thing you want your prospect to know or do and then keep asking them to do this throughout the ad.

Rule #3 – All ads should have a powerful headline

Your ads must get read in order for you to have any chance at getting your prospect to take the desired action.  You get attention for your ad with a benefit-promising headline that entices the reader to keep reading.  Notice how I said benefit-promising headline and not feature-promising headline.  People don’t buy features; they buy great results or benefits.  For example, you’re not buying leather seats for your car; you’re buying comfort, beauty, and prestige.  Great headlines will get your direct mail ads read.

Rule #4 – All ads should clearly state the benefit(s) the reader will get by taking the requested action

Clearly state the most important benefit your reader will receive by taking action.

For example,

If I can show you how you can double your income by giving me just 30 minutes of your time a month, would you like to learn more?

Rule #5 – All ads should provide proof that you will deliver as promised

Testimonial quotes from satisfied clients are an excellent way for you to prove that you have delivered the results you claim for others.  The testimonial should specifically state how your product or service solved the problem or changed the life of your satisfied customers.

Rule #6 – All ads should make an offer with a specific call to action

Always give your readers a specific reason to act with an offer of a free report, free seminar, etc.  Make it easy for your prospects to respond to your ad.  Lead your prospects with a couple of ways to respond to your offer by providing a telephone number, an e-mail address or a web address.

Business owners that follow these six rules combined with multiple touches to their prospects and customers greatly increase their odds for direct mail success.

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Joe Costantino is an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach who specializes in teaching business owners how to implement a step-by-step marketing system for their businesses..