Cathy, a business writer, emailed me and said, “Boy, do I need to work on my Web site this year!” I gave her a couple of ways to improve her site and had her look at several websites that sell effectively on the Internet. Her response was a common one; she thought those sites were marketing aggressively and she worried about turning her prospects off with a “hard sell”.Are you concerned about being too aggressive in your marketing?

No one in business wants to be seen as the stereotypical used car salesman, who tries to sell you a lemon by claiming the car was owned by a little old lady who never drove it. And are prospects really convinced by promises that are too good to be true? “Start your own business and make $200,000 in just two weeks!” Then there are the salespeople who drive everyone crazy with their annoying cold calls at dinner time…

You could try the “soft sell” approach; in your marketing materials, simply state your company’s name and include a list of the products or services you sell. This is a very common approach. But it doesn’t work. It’s true that if you’re too loud or annoying, you may scare your prospects away, but if you’re too subtle or you sound the same as the competition, no one will ever read your materials.

Let me clear up one misperception right away. Aggressive marketing does not mean deceiving your prospects or deliberately pestering them. Don’t make claims that you can’t back up, and don’t annoy your prospects. You want them to become satisfied clients, after all.

When you think of aggressive marketing you may think of  being aggressive as “showing a readiness or having a  tendency to attack or do harm to others”. Instead, think  of aggressive marketing as “characterized by or exhibiting  determination, energy, and initiative”. (Definitions from  Encarta)

When people read your marketing materials, your sales letters or your web site, you want to grab their attention, to impress them and to prompt them to contact you and buy from you. To get attention and do well, you need an aggressive marketing approach that demonstrates your determination, energy, and initiative.

Remember your school days. If you sat in the back of the class and never raised your hand, never asked a question or participated in discussions, it was tough to get top grades. No matter how smart you are or how good you are at what you do, if you don’t let your prospects know how you can help them and convince them of your credibility, you  won’t get their business.

You want the people reading your sales letters or visiting your web site to contact you, get to know you, see you as the expert to rely on and buy from you. It’s reasonable to expect at least one out of ten web site visitors to contact you.

Some of my clients are getting one out of five site visitors to contact them. If you’re not getting that kind of response, chances are that you’re not being aggressive enough in your marketing.

How aggressive are you in your marketing?

Take the 10  item quiz below to find out. Circle yes or no next to each question.

1. Have you written down your business goals for the next 12 months? Yes  No

2. Is one of your goals to grow your list of qualified prospects by 5% each month? Yes  No

3. Do you have a written marketing plan that guides your daily, weekly and monthly marketing activities? Yes   No

4. Is the first and most prominent element in your marketing materials a one-sentence explanation of how you help your clients? Yes   No

5. Do you feature client testimonials or case studies that provide proof of the results your products and services generate? Yes  No

6. Is the first 50% or more of your marketing copy in your marketing materials focused on your prospectsÕ problems and concerns relative to your products and services? Yes   No

7. In your s.ales letters and on your web site, do you use a free offer to prompt prospects to contact you? Yes Ð No

8.  Does your free offer prompt hundreds of people to contact you each week? Yes   No

9. Do you follow up each prospect inquiry with an immediate response and at least 6 follow up contacts? Yes   No

10. Do you continue to stay in touch with qualified prospects at least once a month, sharing an idea they can use and demonstrating the solutions you provide? Yes   No

Your Marketing Aggressiveness Score and What It Means Count the number of your “Yes” answers and see below.

1 to 3 You’re a marketing wallflower. You may be brilliant, and you may have great products and services, but your prospects have probably never heard of you and aren’t buying from you. Make a marketing plan and discover how to create a steady stream of prospects.

3 to 6 You are on your way to becoming a successful marketer and to growing your business. You just need to discover how to generate more leads and more sales.

7 to 10 You’re an aggressive marketer. You’ve been in business for at least a couple of years and understand the core marketing techniques that provide results. Next discover  how to further increase your conversion rates and sell more  to new and existing clients.

Whether you scored 1 or 10 on the quiz, there are steps you can take to improve your marketing and grow your business. You understand what your prospects want; use your marketing to motivate them to buy from you. Remember that aggressive marketing is about demonstrating your determination, energy, and initiative.

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With quality you get what you focus on. In other words, the standards try to focus your organization on saying what you do and then doing what you say, while at the same time keeping the customer in mind. The idea is to eliminate variation within your organization. Continue reading →

In one word – Yes. Writing an advertisement for a product, creating a sales letter, or drafting promotional e-mails can be quite a tough task indeed. If you were to ask any successful webmaster or advertising guru the secrets of their success, they would attribute it to ‘killer contentE And without a doubt, the most important aspect of creating killer content is – writing an attention grabbing headline. Make It or Break It with Good Headlines The headlines of your ad or sales copy are what people see first and then go on to reading your entire piece. Thus, if your headline is not strong enough to hold the attention of your reader, they would simply skip your piece for another one whose headline catches their eye more than yours. So, if the reader did not even go through your ad, there is no way to entice them with the benefits of your product, which in turn means a serious dent in your sales. Let’s take a look at an example: Suppose you have a new weight loss product and your targeted customers are people who are trying to become thin. Your headlines could be as under: ‘Lose Weight with SlimFastE(the product name) OR ‘Fight Fat with SlimFastElt;/i> These are what would be considered average headlines. Now take a look at this one: ‘Want To Look Like Cindy Crawford??? Try SlimFast!Elt;/font> Which headline would attract people to read the rest of the sales letter and perhaps convert into a sale? You decideE Thus, a good headline can literally make or break your promotional campaign and can be the difference between 100-200 hits to your site or a number in the thousands. Continue reading →

The http://www.websitedesignarticles.net/webdesign article directory can be a great resource for you whether you are an author looking for exposure, a business owner looking for greater profits, or just a curious reader looking for up-to-date, reliable information. Whatever you are looking for, you have found your ultimate web-based tool. Continue reading →

First, the bad news: There are dozens of ways you can go wrong in writing and designing (what you hope will be) an effective sales letter, web sales page, promotional flyer or ad.