Powerful Headlines – You do include them on every sales-letter, brochure, web page and ad…don’t you? If not, your marketing is weak and ineffective. And worse, you’re only attracting a fraction of the customers you could be. Sorry. But it’s true.

Here’s why: your marketing pieces need to stand out and demand to be read. They need to reach out and zero in on those you’re targeting “Hey Mr Prospect this is specifically aimed at you.”

How do you do this? Good question. There has to be a powerful benefit in your headline. One aimed at your target market. So your reader is irresistibly drawn to your piece like a paperclip to a ten ton magnet.

Lets face it, if you have the name of your company at the top and NO headline why should the reader read it? Sure it’s important to you. But you’re not the person you’re trying to attract.

People are selfish creatures. Your readers are only interested in “What’s in it for them?”

And anyway we’re all overloaded with information everyday. Emails, newspaper, television. Your piece has got to cut through the clutter and be the one thing your prospect reads today.

So how do you write turbo charged headlines? Try adding a “How to” at the beginning of your headline. For instance. “How To Make All Your Ads Attract Customers Like Crazy So You Out Market Your Competitors.” Will this attract business people or marketing managers? You bet!

“How to Make Your Car Do an Extra 15mpg and Save Yourself

There are many excuses not to market a business. Most of those excuses deal with inaccurate interpretations by business owners as to what marketing really is. Lets explode those myths right now.

Myth #1: All of my business comes from referrals. Relying fully on referrals puts control of your business into the hands of others. You have no idea when a customer will give you a referral or even if a customer will give you one. So you are unable to plan with any certainty. You may have work or sell your products this week but not next. Your suppliers and creditors will not wait until you have work to accept your payments. You need a way to consistently bring in business. Relying on others to do it for you is certainly not the best way.

Myth #2: It’s too expensive. When you think of marketing as slick ads in the newspaper or magazines, yes, it’s expensive. But there is much more to marketing than that. There are many no cost as well as low cost methods for marketing your business, such as customer newsletters and mailings or press releases.

Myth #3: I don’t have time. Actually, you can’t afford not to market. If you want to run a viable business that supports you and your family, you must find a way to consistently bring in high quality leads and customers. Otherwise you will have a lot of time on your hands when the sales stop coming in!

Myth #4: I don’t know what to do. Start by doing something small. Send out a postcard to your customers. Or place a small ad in a publication that your ideal customer tends to read. Read about marketing and start developing your own plan.

Marketing your business in a methodical and thoughtful way will bring in more customers.

By: Annette Greco

Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have been engaged in direct competition for over 100 years, which is about 99 years too long. Originally marketed as health tonics, the two products are very similar, cost about the same, cater to the same market, and have never established any meaningful product differentiation. Such protracted, intense competition would be very, very costly to most businesses in most industries. There’s a lesson in it for all of us, though.

Prosper in Peace
Direct competition is an unnecessarily difficult way to do business. The level of difficulty relates to the maturity of the market and the innovative capacity of the competitors. Yet, all markets mature and it’s better to prosper in peace than to fight and starve.

Fill a Niche
To enjoy a more comfortable place in a competitive market, it is wise to identify and satisfy an under-served niche through differentiation from competitors. This way, you strive not to dominate the game but to dominate one particular aspect of the game – your own.

Cheap Like Cott
Even if your product was a knock-off of Coke or Pepsi, you could claim market share by selling it at a lower price. This way, you could attract the most price-conscious segment of the market through price-based positioning and avoid the Coke-Pepsi fight. This is how Cott has prospered in the cola market.

Different Like Jones
An alternative way to create a niche through differentiation is to create a strong brand image that attracts people to your product – even if the product is essentially the same as everybody else’s. The Jones Soda Company does this. Its clear-glass bottles labelled with black-and white photos and overtly modest writing are a hit with the market segment that likes quirky originality.

Position for Profit
The principles of avoiding direct competition extend well beyond the convenient examples of niche marketing in the soft drink business. Every enterprise has its competitors, but intelligent market positioning can make an enormous difference in how fun and how profitable life can be. At Articulate Consultants Inc., we enjoy helping businesses achieve profitable positioning and have helped to create effective brands.

- Glenn Harrington, Articulate Consultants Inc.

By: Glenn Harrington