Remember, knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing. (Location 65)
when you’ve taken care of yourself, you have a chance to help others. (Location 89)
You simply need to know what to do. (Location 103)
if we’re being super-optimistic you have a 50 /50 chance of still having your doors open after five years. (Location 106)
It’s very common for small businesses never to grow past the point at which they generate just enough profit for the owner(s) to make a modest living. (Location 112)
after all there are others in that same industry that are doing very well. So, the obvious question is, what are they doing differently? (Location 127)
This is one of THE major mistakes made by most small business owners. They go from working for an idiot boss to becoming an idiot boss! (Location 131)
Professionals never just wing it. • Doctors follow a treatment plan. • Airline pilots follow a flight plan. • Soldiers follow a military operation plan. (Location 151)
While no one can guarantee your success, having a plan dramatically increases your probability of success. (Location 157)
It’s more than just your ego on the line so it’s time to “go pro” and create a plan. (Location 161)
In other words, the Pareto Principle predicts that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes (Location 186)
It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention but I’d argue that laziness is, (Location 188)
lack of information isn’t the issue holding back the bottom 80% of business owners—it’s human behavior and mindset. (Location 202)
Struggling business owners will spend time to save money, whereas successful business owners will spend money to save time. (Location 206)
leverage is the best kept secret of the rich (Location 209)
If you want more success, you need to start paying attention to and expand the things that give you the most leverage. (Location 211)
We want exponential improvement, not incremental. (Location 215)
By far the biggest leverage point in any business is marketing. If you get 10% better at marketing, this can have an exponential or multiplying effect on your bottom line. (Location 215)
When it comes to business the reason we want to focus so heavily on marketing is the same—because that’s where the money is (Location 219)
The marketing plan ended up being the 20% part of the business planning process that produced 80% of the result. (Location 224)
No matter how good the builder and the architect are, the house isn’t going to get built until someone starts laying bricks. (Location 283)
You need both strategy and tactics to be successful but strategy must come first and it dictates the tactics you use. (Location 291)
Good, even great products are simply not enough. Marketing must be one of your major activities if you’re to have business success. (Location 297)
If they don’t buy, they’ll never know how good your products or services are. (Location 299)
If we give our customers a great product or service experience, they’ll buy more from us, they’ll refer other people to us and they’ll build up the brand through positive word of mouth. (Location 302)
The most successful entrepreneurs always start with marketing. (Location 304)
#1 Large Companies Have a Different Agenda (Location 314)
#2 Large Companies Have a VERY Different Budget (Location 326)
Strategy changes with scale. This is very important to understand. (Location 327)
The idea is that the more times you run ads from your brand, the more likely people are to have this brand at the top of their consciousness when they go to make a purchasing decision. (Location 337)
Following the path of other successful businesses is smart, but it’s vital that you understand the full strategy you’re following and that you’re able to execute it. (Location 352)
Usually, the ad makes a specific value-packed offer. (Location 377)
PHASE STATUS GOAL OF THIS PHASE Before Prospect Get them to know you and indicate interest During Lead Get them to like you and buy from you for the first time After Customer Get them to trust you, buy from you regularly and refer new business to you (Location 436)
Being all things to all people leads to marketing failure. (Location 519)
each category of service is a separate campaign. (Location 520)
The type of niches that you want to go after are “an inch wide and a mile deep.” (Location 522)
If you had just suffered a heart attack, would you prefer to be treated by a general doctor or a heart specialist? Of course you’d choose the specialist. (Location 527)
So figure out the one thing your market wants a solution to, something that they’ll pay you handsomely for. (Location 534)
Trying to target everyone really means that you’re targeting no one. (Location 536)
Dominate a niche, then once you own it, do the same with another and then another. But never do so all at once. (Location 540)
A great way of figuring out your ideal target market is to use the PVP index (Personal fulfillment, Value to the marketplace and Profitability) (Location 548)
Do they have their own language or jargon they use? (Location 581)
What is the ONE thing they crave above all else? (Location 586)
To start marketing on purpose, we need to look at two vital elements: 1. What is the purpose of your ad? 2. What does your ad focus on? (Location 684)
My rule of thumb is one ad, one objective. (Location 694)
a marketing database—one of the most valuable assets in your business. (Location 697)
You need a very clear call to action—not something wimpy and vague like “don’t hesitate to call us.” (Location 700)
You need to be clear about what they should do next and what they will get in return. (Location 701)
Give them multiple means of response so they can choose the one they are most comfortable with. (Location 704)
Also, don’t leave anything to chance. Know exactly what you want your ad to achieve and the exact action you want your prospect to take. (Location 714)
If you haven’t first clarified in your mind why your business exists and why people should buy from you rather than your nearest competitor, marketing will be an uphill battle. (Location 738)
The entire goal of your USP is to answer this question: Why should I buy from you rather than from your nearest competitor? (Location 748)
There are two things wrong with that: 1. Quality and great service are expectations; they are just part of good business practice—not something unique. 2. People only find out about your quality and great service after they’ve bought. A good USP is designed to attract prospects before they’ve made a purchasing decision. (Location 752)
Something that positions you differently, so that prospects are forced to make an apples-to-oranges comparison when comparing you with your competitor. (Location 759)
There’s always someone willing to sell cheaper than you. (Location 761)
Understand that your prospect has essentially three options: 1. Buy from you 2. Buy from your competitor 3. Do nothing (Location 792)
Can you explain your product and the unique benefit it offers in a single short sentence? (Location 799)
You must understand a very important concept: confusion leads to lost sales. (Location 800)
People have too many options and too much information coming at them constantly, and they’re rarely motivated enough to wade through a confused message. (Location 803)
we all want to share things and experiences that are remarkable. (Location 850)
By charging higher prices, you attract a better quality client. (Location 859)
A better option than discounting is to increase the value of your offering. (Location 861)
Don’t hate the player; hate the game. (Location 863)
Develop your USP, deliver on it and make those you deal with play your game, on your terms. (Location 864)
As a business owner, being able to succinctly convey what problem you solve is a real art, (Location 866)
Good marketing, especially direct response marketing, is always customer and problem/solution focused, and that’s exactly how we want our elevator pitch to be. (Location 884)
Good marketing takes the prospect through a journey that covers the problem, the solution and, finally, the proof. (Location 886)
It’s your job to create an exciting and radically different offer from that of your competitors. (Location 907)
what problem are you sure that you could solve for a member of your target market? (Location 910)
Of all the products and services you offer, which do you enjoy delivering the most? (Location 912)
Putting the right stuff in front of the wrong people or the wrong stuff in front of the right people is one of the first marketing mistakes made by business owners. (Location 926)
One of the easiest methods of finding out what your prospects want is simply by asking them. (Location 931)
purchasing is done with emotions and justified with logic after the fact. (Location 934)
A quote often attributed to Henry Ford puts it well: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” (Location 937)
One of the ways I recommend doing market research is by analyzing what your target market is actually buying or looking for. (Location 938)
Find out what people are searching for online using a search engine keyword tool. (Location 940)
Lastly, see what topics are trending on social media and industry news sites. What are people commenting on and reacting to? (Location 940)
Reason why: when you have a great offer, you need to justify why you’re doing this. (Location 951)
People respond much more to a fear of loss than the prospect of gain. (Location 975)
You have a limited supply, limited time, limited resources. Use this to your advantage in your marketing. (Location 977)
You have prospects and customers who are in pain. They want pain relief, not features and benefits. (Location 991)
if you package it up in a way that takes away my pain, then you’ve won my business. (Location 999)
Your goal is to be a problem solver and pain reliever and to turn any comparison with your competition into an apples-to-oranges comparison. (Location 1004)
Remember, people are much more willing to pay for a cure than for prevention. (Location 1004)
The fact is, people buy from people, not from corporations. (Location 1029)
You need to write your sales copy as though you were talking directly to a single person. (Location 1031)
People love authenticity, personality and opinion. (Location 1035)
Even if they don’t agree with you, they’ll respect you for being real and open. Being yourself and bringing out your personality will help you stand out in a sea of sameness and monotony. (Location 1036)
People respond to pictures and videos of other people. (Location 1041)
We’re extremely interested in what other people are doing and saying. (Location 1042)
Don’t use your marketing material as a screen to hide behind. Use it to give opinion, insight, advice and commentary, and above all, be yourself and be authentic. (Location 1046)
Testing and measuring response is the only true way of judging the effectiveness of your copy. (Location 1056)
The five major motivators of human behavior, especially buying behavior, are: 1. Fear 2. Love 3. Greed 4. Guilt 5. Pride (Location 1076)
Headlines are one of the most important elements in your sales copy. Their job is to grab the attention of your target market and get them to start reading your body copy. (Location 1082)
The headline is basically the ad for the ad and should encompass the self-serving result your reader will get. (Location 1083)
Fear, especially the fear of loss, is one of the most effective emotional hot buttons you can push in your sales copy. (Location 1102)
You are preventing them from buying someone else’s inferior product or service. (Location 1109)
Before you ever write a single word of copy, you must intimately understand how your target market thinks and talks, the kind of language they use and respond to, what kind of day they have and the conversation that goes on in their minds. (Location 1116)
Emotional direct response copywriting is a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. But understand, it is part of a process. Research, write, then test and measure, and you’ll be far ahead of 99.9% of all your competitors. (Location 1119)
If you’re being followed at night by a suspicious-looking individual and your heart is pounding, that’s your amygdala doing its job. That’s good. (Location 1126)
in our polite society, we say nonsense things like “Let me think about it,” while inside the amygdala is screaming, “Let’s get out of here!” (Location 1134)
Part of the job of good sales copy is to tell potential prospects who your product or service is NOT for. (Location 1135)
Another excellent way to enter the mind of your prospect is to find out what they blame, and to use a device in your copy known as “the enemy in common.” (Location 1143)
How many times have you heard a child say, “It’s not my fault”? As adults, people are much the same. Most of us don’t believe we are in the wrong. (Location 1158)
So, what can you do with this knowledge? First, in your sales copy, never blame your prospects for the position they are in. (Location 1160)
“The enemy in common” is a great way of leveraging the “it’s not my fault” mentality. Take something relevant from your prospect’s blame list, side with them and tie it into a solution you have to offer. (Location 1162)
By using a common enemy, you connect with the prospect, and you’re seen as the savior against a foe (Location 1166)
if you need to explain the name, to me that’s an automatic fail. The title should reflect the content. (Location 1173)
In other words, if the name doesn’t make it automatically obvious what the product, service or business is, then you’re starting from behind. (Location 1174)
Always choose clarity over cleverness. (Location 1189)
famously said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” (Location 1217)
Remember, what gets measured, gets managed. (Location 1222)
media is by far the most expensive component of your marketing spend. It’s the bridge that connects your offer to your target market. (Location 1224)
If it cost you less than the profits you made as a result of the campaign, then it’s a success. (Location 1242)
Remember the entire goal of your ad is for your prospect to say, “Hey that’s for me.” (Location 1273)
very important number used in measuring marketing success—customer lifetime value. (Location 1278)
Internet access and so on. The money we make up front on a campaign is known as the “front end.” The money we make on subsequent purchases is known as the “back end.” Together, these figures make up the lifetime value of a customer. (Location 1283)
You need to send the right message to the right target market, through the right media channel. (Location 1313)
Some people have the perception that social media marketing is “free.” It’s only truly free if your time is worth nothing. (Location 1333)
My preference, as much as possible, is to build and own my own marketing assets, such as websites, podcasts, email lists and so on. I then use social media simply as a way to drive traffic to these marketing assets. (Location 1336)
As always, with any marketing strategy, it’s vitally important to find out where your prospects “hang out” and to use the appropriate media to get your message through to them. (Location 1345)
lead capture and lead nurturing are two critical stages of the marketing process. (Location 1352)
All healthy relationships are based on an exchange of value. (Location 1389)
moving people emotionally towards a desired action is what marketing is all about. (Location 1418)
Imagine a man sending his wife an “I love you” text or email on their anniversary versus the same message communicated on a handwritten card with a bunch of her favorite flowers. There’s a world of difference between the virtual and physical equivalents of the same message. (Location 1419)
If your marketing is working (giving you a positive return on investment), why on earth would you limit it with a budget? (Location 1452)
have an unlimited budget for marketing that works. (Location 1457)
instantly boost your margins and bring you a better quality of client. The only time to set a marketing budget is when you’re in the testing phase. In the testing phase, I advise that you fail often and fail cheap until you have a winner. (Location 1459)
• What if your main advertising strategy (Location 1480)
Additional highlights (merged from duplicate imports)
Do you have a picture of them? If so, cut out or print a picture of them when you think about
