The toughest job you face as a B2B direct marketer is reaching your prospect with your message. Reaching C-level executives is particularly difficult because they employ mailroom staff and executive secretaries who screen their mail, or your mail, depending on how you look at it. So unless your direct mail lead generation letter or postcard or self-mailer stands out from the rest, it won't reach the desk of your potential client. That's why dimensional mailers are one of the most effective ways to reach elusive prospects with your sales message....

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Relevant, original and impactful: that's what my friend Creative Director Jim Mountjoy says that effective creative must be. With apologies to Jim, I have my own acronym because I think ROI is only 75 percent of the way there. Effective creative is a RIOT: relevant, impactful, original and true. Let's say you are a personal injury attorney who represents the people. Do you think that a blue collar worker cares if you have "protected North Carolinians since 1975," or would a message like "...

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You can make the sale. You know your core message. You know your target market inside out, right? But if you have even one employee than you've got another sales job to do. Everyone in your organization must also be sold on the dream you have. Everyone who answers the phone, walks the sales floor, attends that Chamber event, or follow-up on a sales lead in your company's name must be sold first. Let's start to think of your employees and strategic partners as internal prospects. What have you done to really light their fire about what your company does, about how it is different, about the unique value you can bring to a service relationship?...

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Owning a small business isn't easy, especially if you are running it alone. Between moving products, taking orders, paying bills, and taking care of family, it is easy to lose track of everything you need to do. Using a calendar template to organize and manage your marketing strategy will ensure you don't drop the ball with one of the most important parts of your business. Developing a Marketing Strategy First, research and identify who your target clientele is, and what characteristics they share that make them valuable to you....

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Are you having trouble understanding basic situational marekting concepts? Then this article is for you. Product Situation What is my current product? You may want to break this definition up into parts such as the core product and any secondary or supporting services or products that also make up what you sell. It is important to observe this in terms of its different parts in order to be able to relate this back to core client needs. Feel free to also discuss here which of your client's needs your product is meeting....

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Do you have an elevator speech? Does it get people's attention? Do they ask you lots of questions when you tell them what you do? Every great elevator speech needs to answer these key questions: 1. Who am I? (introduce yourself) 2. What business am I in? 3. What group of people do I service? (be specific - do you have a niche?) 4. What is my USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What makes me different from the competition? 5. What benefits do my customers derive from my services? Instead of saying this: Hi - I'm Jean Hanson and I'm a virtual assistant....

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Two years ago, when I first started selling online, I focused on doing what I did best: generating useful content that people would want to pay for. But I quickly learned that selling a product online required me to have to learn about ... ...my Web statistics. "Yuck! Why should I have to do this?" I thought. "I'm not a numbers person. Such small details! I want to spend time on big ideas." Then after a few months of poor sales, I realized I needed to learn more about my numbers so I could learn how to improve my results....

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We all DO judge a book by its cover, and the same saying goes for Web sites. I've seen many entrepreneurs offer great information on their Web pages, but compromise their image dramatically with a few amateur mistakes that can be VERY unforgiving. If you want to attract high quality clients and customers, and convey that you're a legitimate, credible, and sought-after business, these five points are a great launching pad to give your site that "big company" look and feel. 1. Start with a high-quality LOGO....

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It was a real eye-opener to hear the perceptions people have about what it means to market professional services, as well as the anxiety the "m-word" (marketing) conjures up. It reminded me that, just because professional service providers have a lot of expertise in their chosen field, it doesn't mean they have the same level of understanding about the business of growing a practice. As a matter of fact, expertise can get in the way of being a good marketer. As a highly-trained professional, it's easy and natural to communicate about what you know and how you do it....

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You've probably bought a book or two at one of the major chain bookstores. When you're checking out, you get asked if you have the "discount card." The card is not free. It usually cost 10 bucks or so. But you get a 10% discount on most of your future purchases so it always seem like a good deal to me. If I buy at least a hundred dollars worth of stuff in the next 12 months, I'm at breakeven. If I spend 200, I've saved an extra $10. Unfortunately, I have no idea how the exact numbers work out for the stores, but I absolutely love this concept....

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There isn't a day that goes by that I don't receive some sort of announcement about an awards competition. We get so many, in fact, that I have created a special place on my website where you can learn about what opportunities are awaiting. http://www. womeninpackaging. org/ With all the awards programs out there, how many of you incorporate that into your marketing plan? Yes, I know it's a lot of work but the benefits you reap outweigh the effort invested. What can an award do for you besides making you feel good?...

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We live in an unprecedented era of communication. Because of this, your prospects are literally bombarded from all directions with marketing messages. They've heard so many hyped claims, that they automatically distrust them all. How can you avoid this in your marketing messages? How can you convince them that what you promise is what you will actually deliver? First of all, tell the truth. Don't promise that your widget will do something it won't. You may get sales in the short term, but long term, nothing you say will be believable ever again....

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