Mar 11 2008
Powerful Marketing Tactic Discovered 100-Years Ago Works Almost Like Magic Today
If you’re looking for a quick, cheap and powerfully effective way to sell your products and services, then here’s how the most brilliant marketers of the past 100 years have done it, and why you can do the same thing today. At very little cost to you, and in less time than it takes to advertise the “traditional” way.
Check this out: Strange as it may sound, you should NOT advertise your business. No, instead you should advertise what’s called a lead-generating tool.
Why?
Why? Because “advertising” by its very nature is negative. Nobody likes a sales pitch. People are actually conditioned to tune them out from childhood. We have to. Otherwise we’d all go crazy from the gazillions of ads we’re bombarded with every single day.
On the other hand, a properly created lead generating tool will, by its very nature, build trust and credibility. Instead of springing a sales pitch on everyone…it gives away real, useful information they need, and therefore opens their minds to what you have to say.
Now, there are a lot of different lead generators you can use. But the one I use almost exclusively is a free report.
Reason why is because they’re perfect for teaching people how to do some aspect of what your business or product does themselves, while, at the same time, showing them how complex the work you do really is. And if you do it right, a lot of the people who read your report will hire you (or get your product) to do it for them.
Here’s a great way to use a free report:
In all your advertising — whether it’s a yellow pages ad, newspaper ad, TV ad, radio ad or even a direct mail ad — offer your free report only, and have the customer call a voicemail (so they know they won’t talk to a live person) and leave their name and address. You can also do this on your website with a simple form that captures their contact information.
Whatever the case, when the customer requests your report, simply send it to her and it’ll do all the “selling” for you.
If you’re a little uneasy about this because you hate writing, don’t worry. Because nobody is going to judge you by your writing skills. It’s the information they want. Simply tell them what to do to solve whatever problem they are having — but not “how” to do it.
That way, it’ll be obvious after reading your report that, sure, they could do it on their own. But if they want a quality job done…they need you to do it for them. Because you’re the expert. You’re the one who obviously knows what you’re doing.
Bottom line: It’s a true “win-win” for everyone. The customer gets good “for real” information she can use (while avoiding a “sales pitch”) and you get to position yourself as an expert. Try it yourself. It’s one of the cheapest, fastest and most profitable marketing techniques you’ll ever see.
Ben Settle is an expert freelance copywriter and
direct marketer. If you liked this article then check out
Ben’s website at http://bensettle.com — where you’ll find
over 500 pages of advertising ideas, strategies and
tactics just like this one — as well as rare swipe file ads
and hot marketing information not easily found
anywhere else.