SIX SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
TO MAKE MORE MONEY FROM YOUR MARKETING
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Anyone who tells you they're not interested in squeezing
more money from the marketing they buy is crazy and ought to
be put away. But that's not you of course... YOU want to get
all the benefit you can from your investment. Which is why
I'm giving you these ten handy suggestions you can start
implementing TODAY!
#1 Review Your Marketing Program, Scrutinize Results
Too many businesses are sleepwalking their way through
marketing. Why are things done the way they are. Because
they've always been that way! Do they work? Do they produce
results? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? These key
questions are unasked... and as a result hundreds of
millions of dollars are wasted because no one is willing to
act out the role of the small boy in Hans Christian
Anderson's immortal tale and report that the emperor has,
indeed, no clothes. Thus, my first, two-part suggestion.
Sit down at your computer and list every last marketing
thing you do, including:
## yellow pages ads
## flyers, brochures
## business proposals
## newsletters and other publications
## public relations activities, etc.
In short, anything you do that is remotely connected with
getting and keeping clients and customers needs to be on the
list. Next, list precisely what you do, when you do it, and
HOW MUCH IT COSTS.
The next thing you'll need to list is WHAT HAPPENED; that
is, who responded and what happened then. Did you get a
client? What did the client do? How much money did you make?
How much did you lose?
By now you're probably groaning. You're trying to tell me
you don't have all this information; that the details aren't
readily available; that no one kept them in the first place;
that you're not even sure what you did in the first place.
My friend, out of this chaos comes your new, improved,
leaner, meaner, more effective marketing program!
Now it's time to do two things:
## scrutinize the data you've got and make what deductions
you can. Did you, for instance, spend $2,000 producing a
newsletter but cannot track any discernible results? Here's
a candidate for the chopping block. Did you find that your
yellow pages ad in one book brought in clients and income
but that you ran no similar ad in another directory covering
another part of your service area? Again, the scrutiny will
suggest a productive course of action.
## resolve to list all your marketing activities, their
cost, frequency, and results.
As should be patently apparent to you, if you don't have the
hard facts you'll never be able to scrutinize your marketing
effectively and make the appropriate decisions. SO DO IT!
#2 Maximize What's Effective, Cut Out What's Not
Your scrutiny, unless it turns up more holes than Swiss
cheese, and your clear arrangement of the necessary
marketing data will immediately suggest two courses of
action: maximizing what's working and deleting what's not.
Take one of my clients, for instance, a community health
organization. They launched a program to telephone area
physicians' offices to increase their physician referrals.
After calling 100 local physicians and tracking results,
they were able to see that this systematic contact, with
immediate written follow-up, was profitable. Deduction?
Given the fact that this 100 physicians represented less
than 10% of the physicians in their service area, the
obvious deduction was to increase the program and reap
further benefit.
Note: one knucklehead in the organization didn't agree. Even
though she was forced to admit that the program was making
money, she opposed any enhanced version of the program. Why?
"Because we have such a good program, I'm sure that the docs
and their assistants will hear about what we're doing and
find their own way to us. We can save all this money!" If
life were fair, we could boil this nit-wit in her own
limited brain fluids. But it isn't... and so we have to
ridicule her here instead, anonymously!
One sad insight I've come to after many, many years working
with personnel in both the for-profit and not-for-profit
sectors is just how many people are averse to productive
systemizing. This just doesn't make sense. Everyone...
whatever kind of business you're in... has to spend time
discussing the profit-making process. That is, discovering
those processes that predictably return money on a regular
basis. Warning: real marketers are process fanatics. This is
why they are constantly at work tinkering with every
marketing gambit to find out whether it's working, how well
it's working, whether it can be improved... or whether it
should be junked. In the final analysis, marketers firmly
understand that you can only achieve the most exalted
results by adhering to the most rigorously productive
systems... and they're willing to do everything that's
necessary to both gather and analysis the date to ensure
this result.
#3 After You See What's Working, Plot Out Rigorous Means For
Improving It, Enhancing Results
Take the illustration above about the community health
organization wishing to improve referrals from local
physicians offices. Knucklehead aside, most people at that
agency involved in the process of improving its marketing
understood that their telephoning to currently non-referring
physicians made sense and should, therefore, be expanded.
But how?
Once you know what's working, it's not time to hare off
after something entirely new, untried, experimental and, let
it be stressed, risky. It's time to maximize the good
results and make them better. This means brainstorming
productive options.
In the illustration above, the following marketing
extensions make sense:
## expanding the systematic calling program to another
significant segment of local physicians so that they and
their staffs begin referring clients. This expansion could
well be handled in steps so that in, say, one year every
currently non-referring physician could be contacted by
phone;
## following up all physicians and office assistants so
contacted with appropriate (that is "client-centered")
marketing communications, communications rich in client
benefits, not marketer features.
## developing appropriate computer systems so that all
information about the physicians and their office assistants
(including name, address, phone, fax, medical specialties,
special needs, etc.) are systematically logged and
immediately accessible.
## developing appropriate in-house systems for training
those who make the calls to the physicians offices,
including how to open conversations, glean useful
information, record and store it, etc.
In short, once you are aware what works, you should
brainstorm how to make it better. While the brainstorming
itself can and should be wild and far-reaching, the actual
marketing program itself should be cool, logical, systematic
and unrelenting. It should concentrate on micro, not macro,
issues and should proceed with your firm commitment and
utmost determination to do exactly what is necessary to
maximize success. Like the little boy who couldn't look up,
you should concentrate on the unglamorous work of simply
putting one foot in front of the other. In this way you will
make the system work!
#4 Doing What's Necessary When Your Scrutiny Shows You A
Marketing Activity That Doesn't Work
I'm putting this here for the slow of uptake. What do you do
when your scrutiny reveals an unproductive marketing
program, particularly when you have scarce resources and
need to be acute about targeting them effectively? Why,
m'dear, you KILL IT ROOT AND BRANCH! Marketing is not a
sentimental game; that's because markets are rough and
unforgiving. Just because you've put out a newsletter every
quarter since Grandma Moses rocked doesn't mean it should
continue indefinitely. I think, for instance, of one child
welfare organization I'm familiar with which sends me a copy
of their newsletter four or five times a year because I once
gave them $25. The newsletter itself is an embarrassing
piece of work. It's full of fine sentiments but from a
marketing standpoint is a complete wash-out. And as for
sending it to a donor who make a small contribution an eon
ago simply in the hopes that I might do so again an eon from
now, why, THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL.
Although a conservative man myself, I tell you this:
tradition, things done just because "we've always done them
this way", and all the other hollow catch-phrases used by
vacant "marketers" thereby indicating that they don't know
their trade, are entirely inappropriate in a productive
marketing program. That's why you must institute an internal
"sunset review process" for every marketing activity you
engage in... and be rigorous about weeding out what doesn't
work anymore, no matter how long you've done it!
#5 Change The Focus Of All Your Marketing Communications
Bill Clinton could make a real improvement in corporate
America by holding a gigantic bonfire in the Rose Garden
fueled by all the selfish, condescending, pointless
"marketing" communications so expensively and pointlessly
produced by legions of incompetent "marketers". Chances are
your own marketing communications should probably be tossed
into the towering inferno first!
Take a quick look at your standard brochure... or your last
flyer, media release or business proposal. Do you see things
like:
## your organization name first
## your logo on the front cover
## a line telling the reader what you want (instead of what
he gets)
## an opening paragraph about how long you've been in
business followed by some self-serving puffery about your
'quality' services, your 'talented' personnel, or any other
words that are about you... and not about the person who you
want to take action!
I'll make you a bet right now: I'll wager that 100% of the
marketing communications you work so hard to churn out, that
you spend so much time and money on are really about you.
They are, whatever your intentions, self-glorifying,
pompous, packed with pretentious diction and one
unauthenticated assertion after another, laced with jargon
and condemned by "me-centered" myopia. Yet you dare to think
you are a cool hand in the marketing department!
Right now, your entire marketing program could be splendidly
improved by basing everything you produce on these four
magnificent words YOU GET BENEFIT NOW!
The "you" would remind you at all times that the only
important person in the marketing equation is the person
you're talking to, the prospect, the client, the customer,
the patient, however you name this crucial being. You, as
marketer, only count to the extent you do what's necessary
to motivate another human being to take faster action. In
all other ways, you're completely unessential!
The word "get" is there to tell you that people want
something from you. They want to get, have, enjoy, profit
from, experience -- and all the other verbs indicating an
enhanced situation. Your job is to be the agent who
transfers the bettering thing from yourself to the
recipient.
The word "benefit" reminds you that this bettering thing,
this benefit is what marketing is all about. Your prospects,
your clients want to be comparatively better off after being
touched, served, assisted, helped by you. They don't want to
know who you are or how long you've been in business... or
the fact that you can spin out your John Hancock with a
dazzling array of alphabet characters after your name. They
want to know what BENEFIT they'll be getting from you. And
they want to know about it in all the often lurid
description you can manage.
Finally, the word NOW! should remind you of when your
prospect wants the motivating benefit you've fashioned for
him. Americans have always been a restless, pushing, joke-
cracking, ego-busting, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind
of people. We want things and we want them NOW! That's why I
always write the word in capital letters and increase its
force with an insistent exclamation point. In business, you
should be doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to motivate people
today... and you should feel ashamed of yourself if you turn
out ads, flyers, cover letters, brochures, proposals and all
the rest of your marketing communications with doing what
you can to stimulate ACTION NOW.
Is this all you need to know about improving your expensive
marketing communications? Of course not! But just these four
words will help immensely. They'll force you to reorient not
only your marketing communications but entirely rewire your
brain. You'll be forced to be client-centered, you'll be
forced to give up wasteful "me-centered" thinking. You'll be
forced to think about whether the words you're using, the
graphics you've employed, the colors and layout will either
help motivate your clientele... or whether they should be
jettisoned as merely pleasing to you, the person who counts
for the least in the marketing you do!
#6: Get Yourself A Laser Printer, Cut Your Toner Cartridge
Costs -- And Put The Money You Save Into More Client-
Centered Marketing Gambits
One last thing. Take a look at the printer you're using. Are
you still fooling around with a dot matrix printer. That's
so 'eighties! The kind of printer you need should be a high-
quality, fast-printing laser printer. Every reputable laser
printer on the market today enables you to produce both
marketing communications, labels and envelopes with a
quality that you can't come close to with a traditional dot
matrix printer. If you're serious about improving your
marketing, you need to be turning out materials that are
impeccably professional! You just can't do this with a dot
matrix printer.
Personally, I use a Hewlett Packard Laser Jet III -- and
absolutely love it. It has cut down on the amount of time
required to print all my marketing communications... and has
vastly increased the aesthetic quality over the old dot
matrix. However, laser printers, although not expensive, do
cost more than dot matrix printer. Don't be penny wise and
pound foolish here! Laser printers will cost you only a
couple of hundred dollars more and save you lots of time as
well as increase the quality. You can get a Hewlett Packard
Laser Jet like mine for around $800 now. Note: one way you
can save even more money is cutting the cost of your toner
cartridges. You'll want to get yours where I get mine:
Advanced Laser Products, P.O. Box 1534, Brookline, MA 02146
(617) 278-4344. They have the lowest prices I've found (just
$45 per refill, delivery charges included). The quality is
consistently high and the page output superior. Moreover,
because of the extremely high quality of toner in these
cartridges, your printer's drum can last up to twice as long
-- which is a big savings to you! And since you'll be
regularly saving a ton of money on each cartridge you use,
you can invest at least part of the savings in hitting all
your prospects and customers with more client-centered,
motivating marketing communications. Yup, that makes sense:
save money on your toner, and invest at least some of the
difference in hitting those prospects again with the kinds
of motivating communications that get them to act now!
Conclusion
The steps that I've provided for you here don't take a lot
of money. They don't even take a lot of brains. But to make
them work you must...
## determine not to waste another cent of your
organization's limited marketing resources;
## commit to do what's necessary to find out what's working
-- and make it work even better -- and what's not working,
kicking that out altogether;
## do what's necessary to focus on your prospects and
clients and do what's necessary to motivate them to contact
you and benefit from what you've got for them, and
## stay supple, flexible and, at all times, client-centered
-- to challenge the mindless status quo and embrace sensible
reform, and
## use every way you can to reduce office expenses (as with
my suggestion on how to save money every time you purchase a
laser toner cartridge) and reinvest the money you've saved
in more client-centered marketing.
If you can follow these steps, you can play -- and win -- in
the cataclysmic new world in which you and your business
find yourselves. As you do, let me know. I love success
stories -- especially yours!
************************************************
Tens of thousands of both for- and not-for-profit
organizations here and around the world are benefiting from
Dr. Jeffrey Lant and his detailed marketing advice. His many
client-centered resources include THE UNABASHED SELF-
PROMOTER'S GUIDE: WHAT EVERY MAN, WOMAN, CHILD AND
ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT GETTING AHEAD BY
EXPLOITING THE MEDIA ($39.50 postpaid, 365 pages); CASH
COPY: HOW TO OFFER YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SO YOUR
PROSPECTS BUY THEM... NOW! ($38.50 postpaid, 480 pages) and
his latest, NO MORE COLD CALLS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
GENERATING -- AND CLOSING -- ALL THE PROSPECTS YOU NEED TO
BECOME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE BY SELLING YOUR SERVICE ($44.95
postpaid, 670 pages). To get these books and a free year's
subscription to his Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog,
write 50 Follen St., suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138 or call
(617) 547-6372. Don't forget to request free information on
his Sales & Marketing Success Card Deck mailed every 90 days
to 100,000 different business prospects for the lowest cost
in the card-deck industry and is Nationwide Lead-Generator
program going to at least 750,000 people quarterly.