Less work. More money
Sounds like an impossible promise doesn't it? Many business owners believe it's only possible to make more money by spending a lot more money or working harder or longer hours.
That's nonsense. In fact, our past clients were always pleasantly amazed at just how easy it can be to generate more customers, more sales and more profit, while investing less time, money and effort. People often make their lives and their businesses much more difficult than they have to be, simply because they aren't aware of the power of systems to help them 'Work smarter, not harder!'
In order to help you to apply this concept to your marketing systems, you need to understand how your 'systems' affect your results.
Simply stated . . .
'A system is a specific sequence of steps designed to achieve a specific result.'
- Everything, and I do mean everything, you do is a system.
- Brushing your teeth is a sequence of steps -- a system.
- Teeing your shoes is a sequence of steps -- a system.
Starting a car, baking a cake, flipping a light switch, etc. Are all systems designed to achieve a specific result? It should be perfectly clear what result each of those systems is meant to achieve. You want clean, white, healthier teeth and fresh breath. That's why you apply your system for brushing your teeth. You want your shoes to stay on your feet and you want to avoid tripping on your loose shoelaces, so you apply your system for teeing your shoes. You may not have realized it before, but you actually have dozens of marketing systems that you use to generate sales each month.
Chances are your current marketing systems are producing some results for you or you wouldn't be in business. Or perhaps you are just starting to plan your new business and haven't yet developed your marketing systems.
The bottom line is, every system, including marketing systems can be 'improved' to generate better and better results. Do yourself and your business a favor and reread that last sentence. Because that sentence holds the key to your financial future. Once you understand and begin to apply the concept of 'continuous improvement of your marketing systems,' there is no limit on how big your business can become or how much money you can make for yourself and your family.
Your marketing results could be increased significantly by simply changing one word in the headline of an ad. John Caples, author of Tested Advertising Methods, relates how the headline 'How to Repair Cars,' for a home study course produced a good number of inquiries. But by changing the headline to read 'How to Fix Cars,' the results increased by 20%. No increase in time, effort or money, just the replacement of one word. That's working smarter.
Here are a few tips to help you improve the marketing systems in your business.
1. Test Your Marketing Systems
In order to improve the results of a particular marketing system you must know how many 'inquiries,' 'clicks,' 'calls,' 'sales,' etc. that system is currently generating. Trying to improve your marketing system results without knowing your scores is like bowling in the dark. You must know your current score in order to beat it in the future.
Bob, a past client, began testing his newspaper ads by keeping track of how many calls and sales he generated from them. Each week he tested different headlines and recorded the results. Within a few months he had found one headline that beat all the others in terms of results. This one system improvement brought him an additional $4,500 in sales each month. That comes to $54,000 in increased sales for 12 months -- without any increase of time, money or effort. Do the math to project how much that little improvement was worth over a period of 10 years and you'll begin to see why our clients were always amazed at the power of an improved marketing system. Begin testing your ads, flyers, sales letters, etc. and record the monthly results. Then try testing different aspects of those marketing systems. The results will tell you which ones are the winners.
Keep the best, and discard the rest.
2. Add another Offer to an Existing Marketing System
Irene, the owner of a small fast food business, asked us if we could help her increase her phone-in orders. She said that phone-in orders helped her business in a number of ways. First they increased her sales because phone-in orders are generally much larger than walk-in orders, and second, they shortened the ordering lines, improving customer service and order delivery times.
She said she didn't have a whole lot of extra money for promotion. After looking at her current marketing systems we were happy to inform her that she could easily increase her phone-in orders -- without any increase in time, money or effort. She looked at us skeptically until we shared our system 'improvement' with her. Irene was already offering a special discount for phone-in orders and she was also handing out a letter-fold menu to promote her products to each customer.
We recommended adding her discount coupon promoting her phone-in orders to the front panel of her handout menu. This way in addition to getting the menu promoting her products, they also received a discount offer for phoning in their order. Within a few weeks Irene was generating over 150 additional Phone-In orders each week. This simple system improvement had an immediate and dramatic impact on her overall sales as well as her customer service.
Remember, this was accomplished with no additional time, money or effort.
