Five Marketing Communications You Can Use Right Now To Get Fast New Business

They understand neither the purpose of such communications, the document formats available to them to achieve this purpose, or what should go into each format so that the purpose is achieved as fast as possible. As a result, most people creating the vast majority of marketing communications are simply throwing their money away. To help solve this ridiculously expensive and entirely avoidable problem, here are five marketing communications you should use right now. When properly created and used, you'll notice an immediate increase in the number of leads and sales you generate.

#1 The Reason Why Communication Approaching a prospect (whether that person has done business with you before or not) means mounting an argument

## brainstorming all the reasons you can think of why the prospect should take immediate action;

## then review these reasons. Are they entirely convincing? Unless you've done this before, they're probably not. You've probably written a lot of "fluff", words without teeth or substance. Maybe you've written that your product is "state- of-the-art". However, without the facts, there's no reason to believe you... and thus no reason for the prospect to take fast action.

## Thus, rewrite. Provide reason that are really convincing... that will get the prospect to sit up and salivate about what you're offering. By the time you've finished with this crucial work, your designated prospect should be unable to help himself from taking action! That's how good your reasons must be!

As you create your reasons for immediate action, see yourself engaging and connecting with a real prospect. Don't write in the abstract. See yourself trying to convince a real person. And remember, if what you're writing doesn't seem so hot to you, it's a cinch it's not going to seem very motivational to your prospects, either. I know I'm on the right track, when I'm excited by the reasons I've fashioned.

Once you've got the reasons (five or six good ones are usually quite adequate), put them in a letter or standard three-fold brochure. Start this communication by telling the prospect what you're going to do ("I'm writing to provide the five reasons that will motivate you to acquire our product/service right now.") Don't be sheepish. If the reasons you provide are truly motivating, that's precisely what the prospect will want to do!

Once you've opened this way, get right into the reasons. Lay them out in rat-rat-rat fashion. Once you've given them, tell the prospect clearly what you want him to do next ("Call right this minute!")... or what you'll be doing next ("You'll hear from me within 72 hours!") The "reason why" document is a powerful marketing communication because it breathes confidence, rests upon your thoughtful consideration about what's meaningful to the prospect, and tells the prospect in no uncertain terms that what you've got is really the best.

#2 The Comparison Document

These may include:

## location

## size

## frequency

## unique aspects

## speed

## convenience,
and of course

## price. Do an apples-to-apples comparison (no cheating please, for both ethical and legal reasons) with your competitors, focusing on those who are most well-known and/or industry leaders.

What you'll find will either

1. clearly establish the case for why your prospects should buy what you're selling as opposed to what others are offering, or
2. indicate that you've got work to do to improve and different-iate your offer. Either way, the exercise is worth doing.

#3 Selling The Offer

## special price if you act before a certain date;

## more of the product/service if you take faster action;

## two for the price of one, etc.

The important thing is that the prospect clearly understand that by acting quickly he gets more value than if he procrastinates.

Obviously offers should be used in conjunction with other marketing communications. An offer, for instance, will improve the respon-siveness of both the "reason why" and "comparison" communications. Less obviously, you can create marketing communications that focus on selling the offer.

These communications need not be long -- a standard business letter or even fax are suitable. What you need to do is:

## create a sizzling offer, the kind of proposition that is really to the benefit of the prospect;

## be clear about what the prospect gets, why the prospect is better off using this offer;

## make the offer severely limited in terms of the number who can benefit from it and also limited in time, and

## (whenever possible) provide an accompanying testimonial about someone who used the offer... and the kinds of valuable results he achieved.

Now hit your designated prospect with a short, punchy communication highlighting this offer. I do this quite a lot with my Sales &

Marketing Success Card Deck, where one of our offers is providing advertisers who pay 60 days prior to publication with a Top 20 position in the deck. These spots not only provide a benefit to the prospect... but they are strictly limited. As the supply dwindles, the offer becomes more urgent, meaningful. Note: a fax is very valuable here. When we're down to, say, a half dozen available spaces, I need fax out no more than about 10 brief letters focusing on the importance of this offer -- and its diminishing availability -- and the spaces will be promptly filled. Selling the offer -- and its attendant benefits -- works!

#4 The Quick Follow-Up

Take the illustration I provided above, selling the strictly limited Top 20 positions in my quarterly card-deck mailings. Dumb marketers might know that they have a dwindling supply of these motivating offers; a smart marketer understands that he must keep thrusting home the fact that the supply is not only valuable... but continually diminishing. Hence, the quick follow-up. Here, you not only expect to tell the prospect what you've got... but are committed to telling him again and again and again... until such time as your supply is gone.

Say, for instance, that in the morning you notify a prospect you've got a certain availability of your product/service and make him a sizzling offer. Now, you can either wait for him to act... or you can, by the apt use of quick follow-up, motivate his faster action.

Thus, you could either:

## fax him in the afternoon, indicating that you had even less of the special offer available than you had when you last wrote -- only hours before, or

## send him a second letter in a day or two with the same message.

Either way, you are using fast follow-up as a motivator. You are saying, in effect, "This goody train is moving; lots of others are jumping on; if you don't jump on now, too, you're going to be OUT OF LUCK!" This is a very powerful message. Note: some pompous business people will find this motivational element distasteful. If this is you, GET OVER IT! Marketing is by definition motivational. It is about motivating a designated prospect to take the fastest possible action in pursuit of clearly defined benefits. Merely bringing value to a prospect's attention is not enough; doing what it takes to let him know that that value is getting away from him is very much a part of what makes marketing successful. The sooner pompous and egotistical business people understand this, the better -- for them and their prospects.

#5 The "We Thought You Were Dead" Communication

The longer you live, the longer you work, the more mundane and entirely forgettable marketing communications you will receive and, sadly, send. I am unconcerned about the former and most concerned that you avoid the latter. For marketing to work it must break through the prospect's Boredom Barrier. It must capture his attention... make him smile, laugh aloud, ponder, even get him angry... anything so that he ACTS. This is why this particular communication is so useful.

This rather irreverent communication starts something like this: "I've been notifying you about all the value I have for you... including (again list benefits you've previously brought to his attention, hammering home just how beneficial they are)." "BUT UNBELIEVABLY YOU HAVEN'T RESPONDED. I therefore figure you must have been

## kidnapped by aliens;

## put into a deep sleep by Morgan la Fay, or

## died.

IF YOU ARE ABLE TO ANSWER THIS COMMUNICATION, PLEASE DO -- IF ONLY TO SET MY MIND AT REST. The most astounding rumors are being reported about it.

I know, you see, that if you were with it, you would have responded to my offer... and that you'd be enjoying today all the benefits I've been bringing to your attention. After all, you're noted for spotting a good deal when you see it... and taking prompt action."

Get the drift of this letter? Its purpose is to break through the barrier that divides most marketers from most of their prospects. These benighted folk are merely sending out information on their products or services. You, on the other hand, are insistent upon both making the immediate sale... and establishing a valuable long-term relationship.

To establish this relationship, you must act like a friend... not like a marketer. You must presume. You must touch the prospect and make him pay attention to your communication. Only by doing so will you be able to break through the many barriers he has erected to protect himself from most marketers. Will everybody like this communication. No! Some will find it intrusive, even in bad taste. But I tell you this: don't let the prospect of any such picayune response deter you from using such a powerful means of bringing your message to a prospect.. and motivating his response. Your objective, you see, is not to please all the people all the time; it's to generate maximum response in the shortest period of time. This communication helps achieve this objective.

Conclusion

These two facts are not unconnected. When you start using these formats, your response will rise -- often dramatically. What's more, when you start using these formats in tandem, your response will improve still more, for you see there is absolutely no reason why you should one of these formats in isolation from the rest. Use them together and you'll get better results. It's as simple as that.

Don't fall into the trap of so many would-be "marketers" simply using certain marketing communications because everybody else does. This is a mistake. The job of marketing is not to mimic others. It's to think through who you're trying to motivate, what you've got that will motivate them, how to motivate them as quickly as possible... and to use -- even invent -- the marketing communication that ensures fastest possible meaningful action by the prospect.