Tip for December 1, 2005

Effective Headlines and Titles, Part 6 Use metaphors so readers can visualize the benefits they will enjoy. Metaphors are easily remembered and communicate at a glance. " How to Mine Gold from Your Database * Converft Your Expertise Into a Profit Bonanza * Passive Income Converts Everyday Into Payday! * New tools to add to your Marketing Arsenal" Headlines are the key to the success of everything you write.

Tip for December 2, 2005

Effective Headlines and Titles, Part 7 Include a CALL TO ACTION in your headlines. " Act now and save 20% on next month's seminar! * Register Today and Immediately Get Started * Click to Hear What Clients Have to Say * Attend Tonight's Telecourse and Learn how to Enhance Customer Loyalty Headlines are the key to the success of everything you write.

Tip for December 3, 2005

Effective Headlines and Titles, Part 8 Combine a SHORT HEADLINE with a LONG SUBHEAD. Use the subhead to elaborate on the relevance of the headline. Provoke curiosity in the headline and introduce the solution in the subhead. * Write Once, Sell Twice: Secrets of Making More Money with Info-Products * Make Them Laugh: How to Use Humor to Increase Sales * The Dangers of Safe Marketing: Why Profits Are Greater at the Edge Headlines are the key to the success of everything you write.

Tip for December 4, 2005

Effective Headlines and Titles, Part 9 Stress simplicity and ease of use. MAKE IT EASY. Emphasize how your solution almost "operates itself." * Hands-Off Headline Writing! * Let Your Computer Automatically Respond to E-Mails * Teach Your Mailing List To Update and Maintain Itself! * Write Your Next Speech at the Beach Headlines are the key to the success of everything you write.

Tip for December 5, 2005

Effective Headlines and Titles, Part 10 COMBINE TECHNIQUES. Combine specificity with an imperative voice, or add metaphors to attract your target market's attention. * 6 Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting * Tell Your Boss "I Quit!" in June, and Offer Him a Job in July * Become the "Shakespeare of Direct Response" in 90 Days * Become a Magnet for Highly-Paid Executives Needing Help with Speeches Headlines are the key to the success of everything you write.

Tip for December 6, 2005

From my ex-boss and idol, Leo Burnett: "Any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one." "The secret of all good originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships."

Tip for December 7, 2005

Write for a specific audience When preparing online articles or electronic brochures, tailor them to the audience that is most likely to see them. For example, if you're uploading an article to a forum library on America Online, mention AOL or AOL subscribers in the article. Tailored brochures and articles let specific groups of people know you're talking directly to them, and they appreciate it.

Tip for December 8, 2005

Your best sales assistant. Follow-up to small intermittent users. Where you cannot make consistent call-backs, send post cards or other mailers. Direct mail is still the least expensive and most effective method of staying in front of your prospects and customers. It is the most personal of all advertising mediums. Develop and maintain a consistent direct mail program, at least one mailing piece a quarter. Make your company, "The name to remember" with at least a quarterly mailer. Consistency will bring in unexpected orders for vacations, peak periods and emergencies. In your direct mail piece, always ask for an order!

Tip for December 9, 2005

Expanding overseas: Are you thinking about expanding to other countries? Try the largest cities in the world: Tokyo, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Seoul, New York City, Osaka, Bombay, Calcutta, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro.

Tip for December 10, 2005

Don't steal information Cyberspace is a big place, and it's natural to want to share good information with a group of prospects or friends. But if you publish information that was written by someone else, give the author credit. You never know when a reader will recognize something you've "borrowed" from someplace else, and if you're caught, the damage to your reputation will be irreparable. Besides, citing the original author of information you use shows you're honest and professional.

Tip for December 11, 2005

Your degree of sales success depends on... You only have 4-5 hours a day to sell. Make your first appointment no later than 9:00-9:30 a.m. Subtract the time you spend going from one appointment to another, the time spent waiting in reception areas, lunch hour, etc. and your actual selling have been cut in half. Schedule appointments in the same localities to minimize travel time. Cold call in-between appointments to maximize your sales efforts. How you control your time will determine your degree of success

Tip for December 12, 2005

Billboard tips: Billboards help remind others of what you are doing and can direct people to you. Never take the published rate. You can usually negotiate a lower price. Also negotiate to shorten the term of the contract. If they say 12 months, you can get it for six or less. Buy at the end of the month. Winter is the off season in most states and you can save 50%.

Tip for December 13, 2005

Study your competition's information Before preparing articles or deciding what types of information to offer on your Web site, study what your competition is doing. Prowl web sites and forum libraries to see what articles your competition has already done. By doing this, you'll avoid duplicating what your competitors have done, and you'll get ideas about how you offer better or different information.

Tip for December 14, 2005

The 2-4 hours a week that will increase your sales. Sell by appointment to be most effective and cold call in-between. When phoning for appointments, sell the sales interview - not your services. Studies have shown that a significantly higher number of new accounts are opened when a salesperson sells by appointment rather than cold calling. It's just common sense. When you sell by appointment the prospect has dedicated time to discuss his/her needs and to hear your solutions to problems they are experiencing. Set aside 2-4 hours a week telephoning for appointments and remember, sell the interview appointment you want and not the services you offer.

Tip for December 15, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 1 Guerrilla Marketing Design is PURPOSEFUL Guerrilla Marketers view design not as a matter of subjective likes and dislikes but as a strategic tool intended to achieve specific goals. Guerrillas avoid unnecessary decoration. Every mark on the page must serve a purpose. Guerrillas make design decisions based on how efficiently their designs communicate a desired message to a specific audience. Accordingly, Guerrilla Marketing design begins with a plan, based on a careful analysis of message, audience and competition. .

Tip for December 16, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 2 Guerrillas design for RECOGNITION. Guerrilla Marketers refuse to get lost in a crowd or be confused with their competition. They recognize that their customers and prospects are bombarded with thousands of competing messages each day. Accordingly, Guerrillas choose colors, typefaces, and layouts that project a distinct, easily recognized image that sets their message apart and accurately reflects their values. Their designs project a consistent image throughout all of their marketing. Consistency is achieved by using a unique combination of colors, type, and layout throughout their print and online communications. This consistency multiplies the impact of their marketing dollars.

Tip for December 17, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 3 Guerrillas design for READABILITY Guerrilla Marketing Design is reader-friendly design. Guerrillas recognize that readers are in a hurry and that anything that interferes with easy reading sabotages the delivery of their message. Guerrillas make reading easy by paying close attention to colors, layouts and the way text is placed in columns. This involves making the right typeface, type size, and line spacing decisions, as well as making the right spacing, hyphenation, and punctuation decisions.

Tip for December 18, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 4 Guerrillas design for SIMPLICITY. Guerrillas design for simplicity. Guerrilla Marketing Designers realize that readers quickly can lose interest when reading extended text, like articles, memos or proposals. Accordingly, Guerrillas maintain reader interest by breaking information into manageable, bite-sized chunks using techniques like subheads, lists and sidebars.

Tip for December 19, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 5 Guerrillas design for SELECTIVE EMPHASIS. Guerrillas know when to whisper, when to road. They use design to help readers separate the important from the merely supportive. Changes in typeface, type size, type style, and color are used to highlight important information rather than decorate an otherwise dull page. Guerrilla Marketers recognize that "less is more" when it comes to selective emphasis. They use discretion when choosing a different typeface design, changing a type size, or setting type in bold or italics.

Tip for December 20, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 6 Guerrillas design to be VISUAL. Whenever possible, Guerrilla Marketers replace words in paragraphs with storytelling visuals such as charts, graphs, lists, organization charts, tables, and timelines. Guerrillas use visuals to communicate comparisons, relationships and sequences at a glance.

Tip for December 21, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 7 Guerrillas Design for EFFICIENCY. Guerrilla Marketers are penny-pinchers. They choose formats and designs that are easy to produce, print and mail. They thoroughly master their software and take advantage of timesaving features like text styles and keyboard shortcuts. Their designs communicate the maximum information to the greatest number of customers and prospects at the lowest possible cost. Guerrillas understand that two well-used colors communicate better than four poorly used colors.

Tip for December 22, 2005

Ten Commandmants of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 8 Guerrillas recognize design's LIMITATION. Guerrillas understand the limitations of design. They recognize that design cannot compensate for a lack of planning or message content. Fancy typefaces, bright colors and attractive layouts are worthless in the absence of meaningful messages delivered to the right audience at the right time—at the lowest possible cost.

Tip for December 23, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 9 Guerrillas design freely DELEGATE Guerrilla Marketers recognize their limitations and work around them. They often hire professional designers to create visual elements with long shelf lives—like logos, templates and styles—but prefer to do as much of the day-to-day production themselves as possible. They hire web designers and programmers to set up their web sites, but prefer to do their own daily maintenance.

Tip for December 24, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design, No. 10 Guerrilla designers are CRAFTSMAN Guerrilla marketers are proud parents, and work hard at it. They are passionate about the integrity of their designs. They recognize that the tiniest details can undermine the effectiveness of their message. When they run out of space, they edit to the bone--ruthlessly eliminating unnecessary ideas, sentences and words--rather than reducing type size or line spacing in order to "fit everything in."

Tip for December 25, 2005

Ten Commandments of Guerrilla Marketing Design (Bonus Commandment) Guerrilla designers are PENNY-PINCHERS They choose formats and designs that are easy to produce, print and mail. They thoroughly master their software and take advantage of timesaving features like text styles and keyboard shortcuts. Their designs communicate the maximum information to the greatest number of customers and prospects at the lowest possible cost. Guerrillas understand that two well-used colors communicate better than four poorly used colors.

Tip for December 26, 2005

Reward customers: Salesman to customer who just bought a bed: "Oh, by the way, why don't you go over to our linen display and pick out a set of sheets. They're on us." He could have bundled a sheet set with the package, but that would defeat the objective. For the reward to be effective, it must be something beyond the customer's expectations. Guerrillas send every customer away feeling as though they just hit the jackpot. In the Reward Stage, guerrillas secure their position with customers by always rewarding them for their business.

Tip for December 27, 2005

Five direct mail tips: Spend 50% of your time designing your order form; write that order form first, not last; present one idea in your copy and force a yes or no response; judge your results by cost per order instead of response rate; build your database by asking customers for referrals and trying new mailing lists.

Tip for December 28, 2005

Are you backed up? It would be a real shame if a hard disk crash or other system malfunction made it impossible for you to recover all those carefully-collected e-mail addresses, web browser bookmarks, electronic brochures, web page files, and other resources you've spent months or years creating. Back up your hard disk today to make sure you have a safe copy of these important files.

Tip for December 29, 2005

Guerrilla Ramil Cueto gets through to prospects where others fail because of when he calls and what he says. He is most successful with an approach using emotion and calls on his prospects after 6PM! He says that after work is when they are most relaxed and willing to talk. He asks the prospect "why" they think, feel, or say what they do and shifts his approach to suit. This is no simple "mirror" technique. Ramil says that sometimes it pays to surprise the prospect with your tone and approach.

Tip for December 30, 2005

Six trade show survival items: Visine, Tums and Aspirin; Swiss Army knife; hand wipes; breath mints; calculator; good book or for periods of inactivity.

Tip for December 31, 2005

How are your online tools? Online guerrillas use the best, most effective software tools for marketing in cyberspace because they save time and offer more marketing power. How are your tools? If you're still using the free version of an e-mail program or newsgroup reader that you got when you signed up with your service provider, you're missing out on options like the ability to create and store multiple e-mail or discussion group signatures, for example. And if your Web browser doesn't support Java or other new technologies, you're not seeing all the newest visual marketing aids that are now being used. Don't hamstring your marketing attack by continuing to use outdated online software. The price of the upgrades is well worth it.