Ads or Articles – Which is Better to Market a Small Business?

The Advertorial, The Challenge Of Maximum Readership Reconsidered

The knee-jerk answer is: articles. And the argument for the “advertorial” i.e. an ad made to look like editorial material is that it is obvious; people buy newspapers and magazines for the articles, not the ads. But, like all dogma, ain’t necessarily so. For example, lots of people buy the Wednesday newspaper to get the supermarket coupons, buy the Friday or weekend newspaper to see the movie and nightclub ads. In analogy, people often go to national conventions more interested in the trade show than in the seminars, me included.

MY ADVICE: DON’T STEP IN THE DOGMA

Anybody who has an ironclad rule about the most successful way to do something can be proven wrong. I constantly violate one of the most respected direct response copywriter’s rule about the number of words for a headline. The “A-pile mail” argument makes perfect sense, but I have beaten it in split-tests with teaser copy laden envelopes. Not often. But sometimes. To conclude that the advertorial is the ad format that will always get the highest readership is wrong. On the other hand, a lot of advertisers err in never using it – in space as well as in direct-mail.

I try to be careful about this; I know too much about what doesn’t work. So, I try to be careful not to be dogmatic, or too quickly shut off a client’s idea. I’ll say: I’ve never known ‘x’ to work, and I’ve certainly seen it not work, but let’s explore it from several different directions, including:

1. Can it be easily and cheaply tested?
2. Is there a more reliable approach that will do just as well?
3. Is there enough benefit to balance the cost of experimenting? Etc.

THE CHALLENGE OF READERSHIP

Here’s the key point to keep in mind, whether contemplating different ads or FSI or direct-mail formats, headlines, photos, grabbers, etc.: it can’t sell if it isn’t read. The Big Lesson is – you have to WORK JUST AT GETTING IT READ. Not presume readership, which is what most people do. Way, way, way too much advertising and mail is produced with a presumption of readership. Actually, the opposite is the smarter approach; presuming every recipient will try NOT to read it.

THE BEST WAY TO MAXIMIZE READERSHIP IS targeting. My message to market match’ principle. But when you can’t target, when you must use mass media and fish from a very large lake, then you have to work even harder at getting people to bother reading your message.

---

Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the ‘Millionaire Maker,’ helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan’s “No B.S.” approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

---

Originally Posted Here

While you are here, a reminder that the Special Offer of FREE Dan Kennedy audios “may” be ending soon, and with that said, you’ll want to get them RIGHT AWAY!

If you had rather get the FULL and COMPLETE audios, along with a great deal more from Dan Kennedy, click the image… Get The Entire Lifetime of Secrets package, which includes more than over 30 hours of Dan Kennedy talking about all of his secrets, strategies and how he helped coach people, from all walks of life, to MASSIVE success! Click here –>

Another specific idea or process that you can use to promote, to market yourself, your products, your services or your small business is an ‘organized presentation.’

There are some problems that we have to deal with today in communicating with people.

First is a thing called the attention span. There is NONE. It’s very important for you to know that. Many years ago during a Super Bowl there was a big event that happened in television for those of us in marketing. It was the 15-second commercial instead of the 30-second commercial.

There are several reasons why this was done.

1. They could get more commercials in per hour than they could obviously before.
2. Although the 15-second spot will cost more per second than the 30-second spot does, the 15-second spot in dollars cost less than the 30-second spot so some advertisers who could not before afford television advertising now can afford television advertising, which makes the pool of perspective advertisers bigger.
3. This is really an interesting reason why it was done. It was because of the declining attention span of the American public.

Think about it. How many TV watchers have a remote control for their TV?

Everybody… right!

Okay. How often do you click onto another channel when a commercial comes on?

If you drive through a neighborhood at night now very quietly with your windows down you can hear click, click, click, click, click. Those aren’t crickets folks; those are people clicking from channel to channel to channel trying to find a car crash.

The next key concept is a lost art which is salesmanship. Even sales people today don’t really sell. The great masters of salesmanship generally tend to be older individuals not younger individuals. Every once in a while you’ll run across one.

Unfortunately, most sales people today are order takers and you won’t excel as an order taker. Great salesmanship is what Paul Parker called it in his book, which you can’t find in the bookstores but you can find in the libraries, Tact and Skill in Handling People.

Contrary today, we try and get things done by brute force, partially because we’re in such a hurry. We’re so rushed and you practice salesmanship, the way you get great at salesmanship is you practice it all the time. You don’t just do it in the narrow parameter of selling an item to someone. You do it in every relationship, you do it in every conversation, and you do it in every encounter with people.

Now Napoleon Hill made a recording many years ago called, “Sell Your Way Through Life.” And he said that’s the only way you will get through life and get what you want is if you sell your way through life.

You know that the failure rate in small business in this country is very high. At least 85% and maybe as high as 98% of new small businesses fail before they hit the five year mark and the statisticians and the accountants will tell you that they believe that the reason for that failure is under capitalization and poor fiscal management.

I can point you to businesses that have failed with enough money to do everything they needed to do ten times over. And some management consultant will tell you its poor management ability. I suggest to you what it is in most cases is that the business owner decided that once he or she was in business they didn’t have to sell.

Many people in many types of businesses believe they don’t have to sell. For example, Doctors believe that they don’t have to sell. There are a lot of restaurant owners who believe that. There’s a lot of retail store owners who believe that we open the doors and the customers come to us and we don’t have to sell anyone. That’s why we got business.

You obviously have some method you use to promote what it is that you do or you wouldn’t even be in existence. But you probably only have one method or two methods or three methods that you use. The more methods the more business.

Diversity is the creative opposite of laziness. So you need to think how can I use more methods to attract people to do business with me than any other competitor will use?

The more methods the more business. Hopefully that thinking process has begun to take place for you today.

---

Author Info:  Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the ‘Millionaire Maker,’ helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan’s “No B.S.” approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

---

Originally Posted Here

This brings to mind the fact that the Special Offer of FREE Dan Kennedy audios “may” be ending soon, and with that said, you’ll want to get them RIGHT AWAY!

If you had rather get the FULL and COMPLETE audios, along with a great deal more from Dan Kennedy, click the image… Get The entire Lifetime of Secrets package, which includes more than over 30 hours of Dan Kennedy talking about all of his secrets, strategies and how he helped coach people, from all walks of life, to MASSIVE success!

I’m often asked how do you FEEL about “sneaky marketing”???

Ah, virtually ALL marketing is sneaky, to one degree or another. An extra tall can with 3 ounces less peas than the regular size can. The advertorial, the infomercial, the fake check, a-pile mail, it’s ALL sneaky.

Then I’m asked how do you FEEL about “gimmicks”?

Some shudder. Some insist “their clientele” is “above” gimmicks. And on that subject, I will deliver a lesson from my Renegade Millionaire System, in brief, reinforcing a conversation had with one of the VIP groups:

* Demographics do NOT alter strategy.
* Demographics do NOT alter copy.
* Demographics may alter (only) presentation.

The $1.00 bill letter may become a $100.00 bill letter. The fake Express Mail envelope may become a real Fed Ex. The free report may have a fancy cover.

But do NOT get lazy about testing.We had two big examples at these recent meetings of meticulous test: pure sneak-up, a-pile envelope vs. envelope awash in teaser copy. A-pile version lost by huge margins.

Why gimmicks work at every level.

Because everybody’s bored, at every level. Because everybody’s overwhelmed, at every level. Because people are people, buyers are buyers, at every level. Because people at every level like to have fun. Be amused.

---

Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the ‘Millionaire Maker,’ helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan’s “No B.S.” approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

---

Originally Posted Here

This brings to mind the fact that the Special Offer of FREE Dan Kennedy audios “may” be ending soon, and with that said, you’ll want to get them RIGHT AWAY!

If you had rather get the FULL and COMPLETE audios, along with a great deal more from Dan Kennedy, click the image… Get The entire Lifetime of Secrets package, which includes more than over 30 hours of Dan Kennedy talking about all of his secrets, strategies and how he helped coach people, from all walks of life, to MASSIVE success!

Get Their Attention Or…

“Who and what will customers be talking about this week?”
You may have heard my interview in the past with Tony Rubleski, author of the nifty little book with the powerful title: Mind Capture.

If you watch HBO, you may have seen their self-promotion commercials that feature thanks from the Water Cooler Association of America, for stimulating so much water cooler conversation on Mondays with their Sunday night programming.

If you watch MSNBC, you may be familiar with Keith Oberman’s Countdown news show: which of these ten stories will you be talking about tomorrow?

Well, you can’t go on the Internet, to anybody’s seminar, to any gathering anywhere made up of marketing and direct marketing entrepreneurs where they aren’t talking about me. That ain’t accidental. Or free, either.

So the question is: your customers, your prospects, your marketplace: who and what will they be talking about this week?

It better be you. Because whoever has their attention right now, wins.

I recently heard an info-marketer complaining about my advice regarding extending the sales cycle for seminars; he was having drop-outs late because he’d sold them so far in advance. Well, selling them far in advance isn’t the problem. Not also re-selling them constantly, that’s the problem.

The “ball” is top of consciousness positioning, and if you take your eye off that ball, you lose the whole ballgame. Out of sight, out of mind. This is where frequency/recency applies, so very, very frequent communication is required. This is where promotional merchandise, like imprinted pens, posters, mousepads fit. (Bobbleheads, too.) For speakers, this is why product in their hands is important. Why a customer newsletter is not an option. Etc.

---

Author Info:  Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the ‘Millionaire Maker,’ helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan’s “No B.S.” approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

---

Originally Posted Here

This brings to mind the fact that the Special Offer of FREE Dan Kennedy audios “may” be ending soon, and with that said, you’ll want to get them RIGHT AWAY!

If you had rather get the FULL and COMPLETE audios, along with a great deal more from Dan Kennedy, click the image… Get The entire Lifetime of Secrets package, which includes more than over 30 hours of Dan Kennedy talking about all of his secrets, strategies and how he helped coach people, from all walks of life, to MASSIVE success!

With your order of Lifetime of Secrets, which includes more than over 30 hours of Dan Kennedy talking about all of his secrets, strategies and how he helped coach people, from all walks of life, to MASSIVE success, you’ll get these PRICELESS and VALUABLE Bonuses…

Nine audio CDs of a CLOSED DOOR Mastermind meeting of those who were able to be at Dan’s seminar, discussing the successes they’d engineered using strategies gained at the “Lifetime Of Secrets Seminar.” Their successes being so great that they spent nearly $1,000 just to have this meeting.

WHAT EXACTLY WILL YOU GET IN THIS
UNPRECEDENTED SEMINAR-IN-YOUR-HOME?

1. DAN’S MONEYMAKING MATRIX, UNTIL NOW PROVIDED ONLY TO PRIVATE CLIENTS. Dan lays out before you the most comprehensive integrated marketing System for creating the absolute maximum possible profits and wealth from any business. You will see the complete, complex, sophisticated Moneymaking-Matrix Dan has used personally and for his private clients. You even get the Matrix in diagram form, to use as your master blueprint for re-designing your business for maximum profits.
   
2. SPECIAL STRATEGIES FOR FAST, DRAMATIC INCOME ENLARGEMENT. Dan reveals the inside secrets behind many of his businesses’ and his clients’ most dramatic success stories..… how tiny beginnings have been turned into gigantic incomes, fortunes, even empires with his strategies, time and time again.
   
3. WARNINGS — WHAT NO OTHER SPEAKER DARES DISCUSS. Dan discusses the most dangerous entrepreneurial mistakes and hazards that can destroy everything you work years to build in a matter of days. These include Ten Mega-Mistakes & Grave Dangers stubbornly ignored by most entrepreneurs, until it’s too late. These include his own biggest blunders.
   
4. ALL THE PUZZLE PIECES FOR “TOTAL FINANCIAL LIBERTY”. Dan has identified SIX CORE ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES that must be understood, cultivated, mastered and applied to get total personal and financial liberty. He says: “To live life on your own terms – that is the only legitimate definition of success.” This entire Seminar is about that: succeeding on your terms.
   
5. HOW TO UNCOVER AND UNLEASH THE UNTAPPED FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR BUSINESS. Dan presented FIVE WAYS A BUSINESS’ ORDINARY CASH FLOW CONVERTS TO WEALTH — do you know what all five are? Or is convertible wealth running through your fingers like water streaming through a sieve? He covered the FOUR CORE SOURCES OF PROFITS in any business — and pointed out that, in 20+ years of consulting, he’d only encountered seven entrepreneurs or CEO’s who could demonstrate effective use of all four. Imagine the advantage you’ll possess equipped with all four! He also revealed FOUR WAYS TO MULTIPLY CUSTOMER VALUE.
   
6. WEALTH ACCELERATION SECRETS. Dan insists that individuals and businesses have their own “moneymaking metabolism”, and that it can be turbo-charged, to dramatically speed up the accumulation of wealth….. to reach your own “magic number” guaranteeing financial independence and security.
   
7. RID YOURSELF OF “ENTREPRENEURIAL SELF-SABOTAGE”. Dan talked very frankly about the SEVEN “SUPER SABOTAGE” FACTORS that undermine your ability to achieve your goals. Understanding and being on the alert for these Factors can be a remarkably empowering force.
   
8. SUCCEED WITHOUT SACRIFICING YOURSELF. Dan has been influenced by a book Napoleon Hill wrote late in his life titled, “Grow Rich With Peace Of Mind”. Although Hill is most celebrated for his famous bestseller “Think And Grow Rich”, Dan feels this later, more obscure work is far more significant. There are issues raised in this book Dan was eager to talk about….. how to command respect in a disrespectful world….. how to have influential and powerful and successful people seeking you out and coming to you for your expertise and services….. how to achieve your goals WITHOUT stress, compromise or being consumed by them. This is a kind of wealth even more important than the bank balance kind.
   
9. ELEVEN “SUPER MARKETING STRATEGIES”. These are the Eleven ‘Super Strategies’ that Dan employs for his private clients –individuals and companies each eagerly, happily paying him tens-of-thousands to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars a year. Few businesspeople know, let alone apply all Eleven Strategies. When you re-engineer your marketing with these Eleven Super Strategies, you can quickly create your own Income Explosion. And I can assure you, these Eleven Strategies are NOT available anywhere else!

You might wonder why Dan revealed so much, including so much of what he has previously “kept in his back pocket”, only for his private clients.

Well, Dan is rapidly reaching his pre-determined “retirement date.” He has accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish in his businesses, financially, professionally. He has sharply cut back his speaking. He has a cadre of continuing private clients who wouldn’t leave if you held a gun against their heads. He will soon close the door entirely to any new clients. As a result, he came to the conclusion he no longer had any reason to keep anything to himself, to keep any trick hidden in his bag, to worry about his mystique.

Get this previously recorded (but, oh so still timely) seminar at a SPECIAL DISCOUNT here: Lifetime Of Secrets

Dan Kennedy wrote:

“How I wish I could have been at Napoleon Hill’s last Seminar. How I wish I could have spent a few days in a Seminar room, hearing W. Clement Stone’s last Seminar. Robert Collier’s. Etc. Actually, hardly anybody of ‘legendary status’ in their fields EVER conducts such a lifetime of secrets, everything revealed, nothing held back Seminar. There are a variety of reasons such a thing never happens, but none of those reasons stand in my way. That’s why I decided to do THIS Seminar. I wanted to give EVERYTHING that I’ve got to people who would prize it, value it, appreciate it and use it – before I retire. It’s horribly immodest to say what I am about to say, but here it is – I have achieved what few ever do: living life 100% on my own terms, exactly as I choose, and being totally liberated from any need to ‘make money’, without compromise, before the age of 50 – as a ‘from scratch’ entrepreneur. This has not been accidental. Not ‘lucky’. It is the result of a set of very carefully conceived and adhered to principles of entrepreneurship and unusual marketing strategies that, if understood, can be utilized by anyone to equal or even greater benefit

“I have spoken to audiences over 1,800 times, to audiences as large as 35,000, as small as 35, in every nook and cranny of North America, to well over 3-million people total. People have paid thousands of dollars each to attend my specialized Seminars. But I have always been “speaking to sell”. I have always had multiple purposes. Clients’ interests in mind. I have never actually been free to stand in front of a well-qualified group and speak my mind, hold nothing back, have no concern over offending anyone, and let people have an unvarnished look at my entire lifetime of experience.

“At this Seminar, which I conducted only twice – and will NEVER conduct again – I really laid out EVERYTHING that I know about creating wealth and freedom and ideal lifestyle through marketing and entrepreneurship, as I have never done before and never will again.”

Get this recorded seminar at a SPECIAL DISCOUNT here: Lifetime Of Secrets

Exclusive Special Offer for Lifetime of Secrets by Dan Kennedy

Below is link to 9 short audios you should download and *LISTEN* to.

The problem I have with audio courses is that usually there’s a lot of fluff with just a few gems of content…

These 9 are short soundbite excerpts. These ARE the gems…

Download them here: (free, by the way) Lifetime Of Secrets Audio Gems

Get Over Your Fear of Failing – Fail More!
By Richard S Fenton and Andrea J Waltz

As you already know, I.Q. stands for Intelligence Quotient. Generally speaking, research shows a correlation between a high IQ and doing well in school, obtaining post graduate education, attaining high social status, etc. But it’s no guarantee of success. And it’s no predictor of happiness either! But many people assume that having a high IQ is a great predictor of success.

Then there is E.Q. This is the measurement for determining one’s Emotional Intelligence; that is, the ability to identify and manage the emotions of oneself and of others. Having a high EQ refers to having a well developed Emotional Intelligence. There has been a lot of study about EI as a predictor of success in work and life.

IQ and EQ are both fine but for us the number that really matters in life and in business is your NQ; your NO-QUOTIENT. Or, as we also sometimes refer to it, Failure Quotient (FQ).

Whatever the term, it’s the number of times you are willing to hear no, to fail, before succeeding… the number of times you are willing to get knocked down and then get back up, knowing full well that you are almost certain to get knocked back down again. That’s the number that determines greatness in today’s world… perhaps the most important number.

The reality is that there are lots of very smart people who have done very little in their lives. You probably know someone like that. It’s that person with amazing “book-smarts” but who is not willing to do what it takes and to risk failing even once let alone over and over again. It’s a shame too because you just know that with their brains and the missing element (persistence) they could achieve massive success.

And there are many people regardless of their IQ, stay at something long enough that they finally succeed. You probably know some people like this too. You might feel a bit frustrated to see how they have managed to become so successful despite their limitations. We recall listening to marketing guru Dan Kennedy talk about this phenomenon at a seminar in L.A. He marveled at some of the people he knew who despite their seeming lack of intellect, made millions.

We believe that having a high N.Q. is the singe most determining factor in your level of success.

Even Marilyn Mach vos Savant, the smartest woman in the world with an IQ of 230, has said, “I personally believe hard work and motivation are far more important than IQ.”

Consider the story of a relatively unknown professor of counselor education at St. John’s University in New York. This man had 3,500 copies of his book printed and since the publisher did nothing to promote it, ended up buying 3,200 copies himself and did a city by city promotional tour at his own expense. He would do a local TV or radio interview in the morning then visit all the bookstores in the afternoon. As books began to sell, the publisher printed more copies and he bought more too. Through word of mouth and by one book at a time, Wayne Dyer’s “Your Erroneous Zones” became one of the biggest best sellers of all time having now sold over 30 million copies. Wayne Dyer has a high FQ and so should you!

How about you, what’s your NQ? How many times are you willing to hear “no” or fail and keep going? Imagine trying to break a large rock with a mallet. You hit the rock over and over and over again. Many times, you want to give up feeling that it will never break. Finally, after the 405th time you hit the rock, it splits into pieces. Was it the 405th hit to the rock that did it? Or was it the 404 other times you pounded on the rock?

Richard Fenton is the co-author of “Go for No!” Yes is the Destination but No is How You Get There. This short, powerful book will teach you one simple amazing strategy that can radically change the results you get in your business and in your life! Visit http://www.goforno.com to learn more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_S_Fenton

http://EzineArticles.com/?Get-Over-Your-Fear-of-Failing—Fail-More!&id=1716448

Don’t let a “Fear of Failing”, or a “Fear of SUCCESS”, stop YOU from reaching your fullest potential!