What type of direct mail gets a 99.9% open rate? Christmas / Holiday cards do.  The fact is that 99.9% of Holiday Cards get opened and looked at. These cards present a tremendous opportunty for you to influence your businesses sales. Especially with the twist to it that I am proposing to you.

 

What is "Sexy" Marketing?

The term sex appeal has been used in marketing since the mid 1960's. Typically it means using a scantily dressed model to sell some product. Marketers found out that using these models attracted attention. Early on it worked. Then over the years the art of using sex appeal has degraded to the point that most of the ads you see today are only selling sex and fall far short of getting a product sold.

The 3 things all advertising has to accomplish are: 1) attract attention, 2) impinge a message on the viewer and 3) get someone to buy something. (You can do that without using a half naked body)

How can you use sex appeal to create more business? It is probably not how you think!

To understand exactly what your ad needs to do to have "sex appeal" and be effective, we need start by defining some terms.

 

I recently read a quote from Sam Walton the founder of Walmart. “ There is only one Boss. The customer. And he can fire anyone in the company from the Chairman down simply by spending his money elsewhere.”

If you will please excuse me for a moment, I am going to get on my soapbox about something that might not seem to be a problem to you. But this problem could be costing you and your company business and you probably are not even aware of it.

During the course of a week doing business our Marketing Department makes hundreds of phone calls to customers and prospective customers. One thing struck me the other day - how impersonal business is today. A full 80% to 90% of businesses now use some sort of auto-attendants or voicemail to handle incoming phone calls. You may say “well OK Mark, ain’t technology great! So what’s your point?”

Saving money by couponing is all the rage! They have even made a reality TV show about couponing. If your business is looking for a creative new promotional idea, consider offering envelopes designed to hold coupons that also offer printed space on the front for a shopping list.

The envelopes are printed in one, two or full four color. This is one of those marketing ideas that will have shelf life and impact for your business.

Could "Shopping List Envelopes" be a good idea for your company? I don't know but one thing is for sure it is out side of what is considered the "Normal Marketing" box. The following are a few tips for using this creative marketing idea:

In our work, helping business owners market their businesses, we have found one common thread - business owners and managers tend to focus on symptoms instead of problems. When one focuses their attention on the symptom, the problem becomes obscure and it becomes difficult to find a solution and revert the situation. So we are on the same page lets look at the meanings of the words “symptom” and “problem”.

Symptom – “a sign or indication of something”.

Problem – “a situation, person or thing that needs attention and needs to be dealt with or solved”.

What is a symptom? See if this sounds familiar . . .

• I have no cash..
• I have no time..
• My sales are off...
• Business is slow..
• Did I mention I have no cash?
• My customers are not buying like they used to..

Each of the above statements are symptoms and a business owner or manager can spend their whole life focused on the symptom and never do anything to handle the real PROBLEM. The rest of this article deals with how to use the symptoms to uncover the real problems that are holding you back. Once found these problems can handled and solved. Use this information to  soar your business to new levels.

Are you looking for a very low-cost, yet highly effective way to generate sales and promote your company? Try including statement stuffers in with your billing statements.

A statement stuffer can be a coupon or special offer for another product or service. By using a stuffer you are putting directly in their hands a “reason” for the customer to do more business with you. This easy to apply marketing concept will generate thousands of dollars in sales for your business as well as increasing customer loyality.

You want to take your practice to the next level of growth there, is one thing you need to implement - if you have not done so already - a patient referral program.

One of the most fertile grounds for increasing your practice’s business is through patient referrals. The theory is that you provide excellent care for your patients and they are very likely to refer you to a friend or family member. There are some things you can do to speed up the patient referrals for you practice.

Many businesses use trade shows to market their businesses. Trade shows are a great way to generate interest and sales. There are some things you can do to maximize your trade show investment in time and money. Below is strategy with ideas to help you get the most out of a Trade Show.