However, I thought that a recent radio interview that I had may help, and so do have a listen to this (by clicking on the button below) and feel free to leave any questions or thoughts below.

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Why? Because a creative advertisement or direct mailing has the ability to cut through the clutter of the hundreds of messages that we receive (directly or indirectly) each day.

So, how can you apply a degree of creative advertising to help your business become more visible and in turn, improve your ROI (Return On Investment)?

Be Different

Well the first thing you should be doing is be different. Here’s an experiment that you can do right now which will prove my point. If you look in our Yellow Pages under the section where your business is listed, you’ll see advertisements galore.

And if you do not advertise in the Yellow Pages, still have a look and see what I am talking about, as this is a critical issue for being found amongst the crowd.

Now can you see any that really stand out, other than the fact that they are a bigger advertisement than all the rest?

I’ll bet there aren’t many, if any.

Granted there are different sizes, some are colour and some are black and white, some are square, or rectangular or circle shaped.

But do any really have a compelling message, or catch your eye because they are really different?

This is one way in which you can instantly stand out amongst your competitors.

Now I am not talking about doing anything crazy, but I do think that you should put away any preconceptions that you may have about doing something a bit different, even a touch unconventional in many people’s eyes.

The fact is, this works and works extremely well. Its gets you noticed and gets people contacting you.

We have so much boredom in our lives these days, that being and looking and appearing to be different really do work.

Do you know who Churchill is, or the Compare The Marketing Meerkat, or the annoying Go Compare tennor singer.

I’m sure you do. Memorable aren’t they? Different aren’t they?

This works.

This is the third part of what I termed as ‘business marketing basics’ but in fact for many businesses, it is something that unfortunately they never seemed to have even considered. Well, not correctly anyway.

So I have explained about how targeting the correct market is vital and that it is impossible to market yourself to everyone.

And I have also blogged about how having the right message is crucial for the success of your business, so what now? …

HOW do you get that message to your market?

Well, there are of course numerous ways that this can be done and once again if you read enough of my work wither on this blog or in my book you will know that one of the keys to this is …. testing.

Whether you’re just starting out with a new business or not tracking your marketing results, you need to start testing (and tracking). It is relatively simple to do and can save you potentially thousands of pounds in advertising costs.

You may have a business that runs one (or more) Yellow Pages adverts each year. Do you have any idea how successful they are? You may do leaflet drops, or direct mail marketing… does that work well for your business?

Perhaps you have a weekly/fortnightly/monthly advert in the local newspaper, or on local radio. Have you any idea whether this is really working or not?

Well, if you’ve answered “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” or words to that effect then you’re potentially hemorrhaging money that could be resolved simply by testing your marketing strategies.

So the upshot of this post? Well, if you were expecting something magical and mystical you’re possibly disappointed. The fact is, there is nothing magical and unknown about marketing your business. Everything (to a degree) is under your control as long as your processes are implemented correctly.

Testing is all important, because what you measure, you can improve. If you are not measuring your marketing efforts then you have no way of being certain what is working and what is not.

The right message is vitally important for your business. This may sound a little obvious but why do I see so many businesses not doing it?

Also, there is something altogether more profound to consider, and again something that I see rarely, if at all.

Let me give you an example of why being and looking different is of absolute importance to the success of your business…

Grab a copy of your local Yellow Pages and have a look at your advert (assuming that you are in there), but also look at the adverts around yours. now look closer … they all look pretty much the same don’t they?

Of course, there will be different logos, different contact details, different names, but I’ll bet that the overall message is the same. What do I mean by that?

Well, I’ll hazard a guess that the adverts (including yours) will all say the name of your business, telephone number, website (if applicable), perhaps an address, and then a list of services that you offer. You’ll sometime see things like “established over 25 years” or some tacky slogan like “your local handy man” – but what do any of these mean to your prospective customer?

Why should they buy from you rather than any of the other businesses that are advertising. The adverts all essentially carry the same message. More often than not they list features but not benefits, and this is a massive error.

Benefits tell a prospective customer why they should use your services. A well written advert can have your prospect visualising using your services, or at the very least wanting to call you first before anyone else.

So to sum up this post, you can do a lot worse by making your adverts stand out and look different to the rest, even if it is a little whacky, creative or even controversial, different gets noticed, and this is exactly what you want.

In my next post I’ll talk about using the Right Media.

If you answered ‘everybody’ then I am afraid you are making a massive mistake. The fact is it is impossible for any company to market themselves to everyone, and so if you are doing this right now you need to stop immediately.

Even large companies, FTSE 100 companies that have multiple products and/or services will segment their marketing. Sure, overall you could be marketing your range of products or services to a large percentage of the population, but you simply cannot market everything to everybody.

So, how to you select who your target market is?

Well, a good place to start could be to look at your existing customer base. What similarities do they have? Age? Sex? Income? Location? You see, this is what you need to be thinking about, as it will enable you to become smarter and more effective in your marketing, and ultimately your profitability, as trying to market to all and sundry is like throwing mud at a wall!

Once you have established who your market is, you then need to target them. You need to advertise in places where your market will see you; so this could be newspapers, magazines, trade publications, billboards, the internet, the Yellow Pages – the possibilities are endless.

You could even use direct mail and target a list of prospects. You can buy lists of target prospects that fit a number of criteria that you want to focus on and this is still a great and effective way to develop business if done correctly.

So, we’ve discussed the importance of targeting the right market. In my next post, we’ll look at using the Right Message.

Very often business owners are so keen to get their business noticed that they just launch themselves into what they believe is the right way to do this. The fact of the matter is that unfortunately they often do it incorrectly, and the results can be catastrophic.

I was taught by the great Dan Kennedy (amongst others) that there are three (3) key things that you need to consider when marketing your business, and they are:

• Right Market
• Right Message
• Right Media

These are the cornerstones of any good marketing strategy and are essential in order to ensure that you have the necessary foundations in place.

In my next post, I will cover the first of the items listed above; Right Market.

You need what I call a ‘direct response’ website.

This is a website that actually does what it is supposed to do, and that is to convert visitors into paying customers.

Below are some of the key elements that I feel are essential aspects in the success of not only your website, but your business, as without utilising the tactics below you could be leaving thousands of pounds on the table.

Here are the key items your web site must have :

• A compelling headline
• A call to action
• Contact details on every page
• A system that makes it easy for people to buy from you
• Details of what payment methods you accept
• Information regarding your hours of business
• Photos of you and your team
• Testimonials from current customers – social proof is hugely effective
• Details of any awards you’ve won
• Information pertaining to qualifications or accreditations that you have.
• Video showing how your products or services work

This would be a great start for you. Simply by using the above could drastically improve the amount of business that you are currently doing.

So if you are one of these people, you may find the following advice will help you with getting started with your business.

One of the most important things to try and do is to do the things that you love doing and get someone else (outsource) to do the things that you’re not so keen on.

As you will be spending lots of time and energy on your business, it has to be something you are really interested in doing. Now, I realize that in the beginning, it is not always easy to be able to outsource, and naturally you do end up doing a lot of the work yourself.

If this is the case, then you need to try and get to a point, as quickly as possible, where you can concentrate on the areas of your business that you enjoy, and have someone else do the rest.

Another piece of advice is that if you can, you may want to start a business while you are still earning from your ‘day job’. This is because you never know when your business will be earning money for you and it takes a little financial pressure of you.

If you are employed while getting started on your business, you are sure of having money in your pocket when you are in the start-up stage of your business.

Have a support system when you start a business

Though you may venture into starting a business on your own, it is always advised to start a business with a support system, and not to do it alone. Have a family member or friend as a partner for getting ideas and for listening to your ideas and views on the business.

Alternatively, a better option is to find someone who can be your mentor, as experienced, impartial guidance is always better for a business.

Before you actually start up a business, it may also be an idea to create a network. You will need clients and customers for your business to flourish; and it is through networking that you manage to make contacts to sell or give away your products and services.

These contacts may be through friends and family, as this a powerful way to get trusted clients, as they will have been recommended by people. This always carries more weight than someone off the street who does not know you.

Writing a business plan can also help to ensure that your business heads in the right direction. Without a business plan, you may end up spending your time and money on starting a business that will in no way at all end up as a success.

The first thing you have to do is to see that some trends or patterns tend to emerge through them. When you see this trend, you will be able to create the outline for the information product.

Usually, there will be some elements that are common for all written formats. This means that if you want to have an introduction page, it is mandatory that you have a copyright page to ensure that you are the owner of the product. You also need a disclaimer page to work as a protection for you from potential liability. Remember, it is very possible for a business to get sued.

Divide the body into chapters and sectors

Once these pages are done with, you work on the body of the product, which is usually divided into chapters and sectors, based on the nature of the product. The last thing you have to work on are the conclusion and Appendix or resource list.

Once you have the basic outline of the product, you have to work on filling up the outline with relevant content. This is best done by taking each section or chapter in mind, and then filling in all sub sections that follow your idea.

So if you are writing about weight loss, the first thing you have to write about is the difficulties a person faces when trying to lose weight. Then you have to work into topics related to thinking to lose weight, your decision for loosing weight, the importance of exercise for losing weight, support and secrets to ensure that the lost weight remains lost.

Now that you have covered the sections and sub sections of your information product, you have to wait for my next blog post to learn more about the writing phase of the information product…..

Today I’ll be explaining in a bit more detail as to how Keyword Elite works and why it is such a useful piece of software to have in your internet marketing tool box.

The starting point with Keyword Elite, is to identify a keyword that is relevant to the niche, product, service etc, that you intend to drive traffic to. So for example, you may want to sell widgets, so you would type “widgets” into the software and watch it go to work.

It will produce a keyword list of related terms and keywords enabling you to decide which you think are relevant and which are not. So for example, Keyword Elite may come up with “useful widgets” as a key phrase which you may decide is worth looking at. On the other hand, it may also come up with “free widgets” which you may decide is not right as you don’t want to target the word free.

The next section allows you to analyse not only the keywords that you’ve identified and assess which may provide you with more traffic, which that may be very competitive keywords and therefore to be avoided … But it also enables you to analyse your competition too!… it really is versatile, even allowing you to create and export adwords ads into your Google account… direct from Keyword Elite.

I thoroughly recommend you look at the tutorials, which you can find by clicking this link. I could go on and on but the tutorials are so good and explain everything that clearly, that this would be the best way to see the power of this software.