Why Most Marketing Fails

It’s a sad fact that four out of five businesses will fold within the first five years of operation. And the number one reason they will do so is because of poor. or non-existent, advertising or promotion. Assuming they have a sensible product or service at a reasonable price, they should be able to survive. Yet, many small. or start-up enterprises, will spend all their investment on the nuts and bolts of the business from furnishings to signage, ignoring the most important way people will eventually find them; marketing.

The majority of businesses fall into two categories: those that rely on word-of-mouth or those that do a minimal amount of local promotions such as direct mail, flyers, small Yellow Page ads. In any regard, they give advertising very little though. For example, when the Yellow Page representative comes around to talk about their program, they have done little or nothing to prepare for the call. At the very least, they should have considered some of the following issues:

Who are your customers? i.e., men, women, young, old
Where are your customers? i.e., from around the block, citywide, statewide
Which ones are most profitable? i.e., what service or product returns the greatest profit?
What is one customer worth? i.e., what is the value of an average sale?
How do you intend to reach your customers? i.e., marketing, promotions.
What makes your business unique or better than your competition?

If you can answer most of these questions in advance, you’re heads and tails above your competition. If you can’t, you’re in big trouble. Realize that the marketing that actually attracts your potential customers is built upon the foundation of understanding what type of customer you are seeking. Once you have formulated a profile of the perfect customer, you can plan a strategy for marketing to them.

The shoot-from-the-hip approach of making it up as you go along will waste time and money. In other words, poor planning will lead to poor results. If you devote as much time in developing an advertising campaign as you might have done picking colors for your office, you would be far better off. You should also be able to figure out your ROI, or return on investment based on that average sale and track the results. The latter is important for future marketing approaches to enable zeroing in on the most effective format or media.

Remember that most media can be worthwhile if the message is designed properly. I should know. I was a YP rep and consultant for nearly 25 years and, prior to that, had my own advertising agency. I also have a degree in marketing. I’ve been designing Yellow Page ads for the past three decades. So I have expertise in YP creation and have advised almost 7000 companies on how to put together the most effective YP ads. If you have a display or in-column ad, regardless of size, color or position, I can tell you it most probably needs improvement in the headline, artwork, body text, placement, book, or heading. You must understand the ROI or return on investment and learn how to track the results as well.

So consider getting some expert advice before you place your next ad. There are many good and inexpensive places to turn, some available on the internet. Make sure the consultant is well qualified with at least 25 years experience. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your own time and money.

Knowing what makes an effective ad is the real secret to success.

Jeffrey Hauser’s latest book is, "Inside the Yellow Pages,” which can be viewed at: www.poweradbook.com

He was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. Currently, he is the Marketing Director for thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information and Doctor Referral site.

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Marketing Yourself

Whether you know it or not you're marketing yourself every day. And to lots of people! You're marketing yourself in a quest to make a sale, warm up a relationship, get a job, get connected, get something you deserve. You're always sending messages about yourself.

Guerrillas control the messages that they send. It's all about intention. Guerrillas live intentionally Non-guerrillas send unintentional messages, even if those messages sabotage their overall goals in life. They want to close a sale for a consulting contract, but their inability to make eye contact or the mumbled message they leave on an answering machine turns off the prospect.

Guerrillas send no unintentional messages

Unintentional messages erect an insurmountable barrier. Your job: be sure there is no barrier. There are really two people within you -- your accidental self and your intentional self. Most people are able to conduct about 95 percent of their lives by intent. But that's not enough.

It's the other 5 percent that can get you in trouble -- or in clover. I'm not talking phoniness here. The idea is for you to be who you are and not who you aren't -- to be aware of what you're doing, aware of whether or not your actions communicate ideas that will help you get what you deserve.

Who do you market to without even realizing it?

Employees. Customers. Prospects. Teachers. Parents. Children. Bosses. Prospective employers. Mates. Prospective mates. Friends. Sellers. Landlords. Neighbors. Professionals. Members of the community. The police. Service people. Family. Bankers. These people can help you or stop you from getting what you deserve. You can influence them with how you market yourself.

The three big questions to answer

To market yourself properly, answer these three questions:

1. Who are you now? If friends described you, what would they say? Be honest rather than complimentary.
2. What do you want out of life? Be specific.
3. How will you know when you've reached your goals?

If you can't answer these questions, you're doomed to accidental marketing, spending your life reacting instead of responding, the odds against you reaching your goals.

How do you send messages and market yourself right now?

With your appearance, to be sure. You also market with your eye contact and body language, your habits, your speech patterns. You market yourself in print with your letters, email, website, notes, faxes, brochures and other printed material. You also market yourself with your attitude -- big time. You market yourself with your ethics.

How people judge you

Again, you may not be aware of it, but people are constantly judging and assessing you by noticing many things about you. You must be sure the messages of your marketing don't fight your dreams. What are people using to base their opinions, to make their decisions about you?

* Clothing * Hair * Weight * Height * Jewelry * Facial hair * Makeup * Business card * Laugh * Glasses * Title * Neatness * Smell * Teeth * Smile * What you carry * Eye contact * Gait * Posture * Tone of voice * Handwriting * Spelling * Hat * Thoughtfulness * Car * Office * Home * Nervous habits * Handshake * Stationery * Availability * Writing ability * Phone use * Enthusiasm * Energy level * Comfort online

You're fully aware of your intentional marketing and possibly even invest time, energy and imagination into it, not to mention money.

But you may be undermining that investment if you're not paying attention to things that matter to others even more than what you say: keeping promises, punctuality, honesty, demeanor, respect, gratitude, sincerity, feedback, initiative, reliability. They also notice passion -- or the absence of it. They notice how well you listen to them.

What to do now

Now that you know these things, what should you do? Although Ben Franklin himself said that three of the hardest things in the world are diamonds, steel and knowing yourself, here's a three-step plan to get you started on the road to self-awareness and self-marketing acumen:

1. Write a positioning statement about yourself. Identify just who you are and the positive things that stand out most about you.

2. Identify your goals. Put into writing the three things you'd most like to achieve during the next three months, three years and then ten years.

3. State your measuring stick. Write the details of how you will know when you've achieved your goals. Be brief and specific.

To guerrilla market yourself, simply be aware of and in control of the messages you send. Do that and your goals will be a lot easier to attain.

Mitch Meyerson is the author of Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars (Dearborn Trade 2005) and three acclaimed psychology books. Get your free marketing jumpstart kit at http://www.gmarketingcoach.com

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Can Make Marketing Simple?

Quite a few clients have told me that marketing is difficult for them. It is difficult to get started with marketing; it is difficult to figure out how to market, and it is difficult to understand how to market effectively. Even if you are already using marketing techniques to promote your business, there is no guarantee that your marketing efforts will bring the results you are looking for.

I have put together a simple plan for you to take charge of your marketing and to simplify at least some of the process. Here are five marketing steps:

- Define What Needs To Be Done. What are you marketing? Is it a product or a service? What are the results you are looking for? Would you like to generate more sales, more leads, more partners? Which online marketing techniques are you planning to use? Search engine optimization, article marketing, newsletter publishing? The better you define these points, the easier it will be for you to put your marketing plan into motion.

- Break Your Plan Into Bite-Size Pieces. Divide-and-conquer is a proven, time-tested technique for managing complicated tasks. If your goal is to optimize your web site for search engines, your bite-size pieces will include learning about search engine optimization, performing keyword research, optimizing your pages, optimizing your copy, etc. It is much easier to follow along when you map out the steps.

- Understand The Marketing Process. It is really difficult to apply a marketing technique if you do not have a good understanding of the process. For example, if you do not know how to use article marketing to promote your business, you will not be able to use it to market. Learning about marketing is essential. It will help you market now, and you can use your newly acquired marketing knowledge to continue marketing your business for years to come.

- Don't Try to Do Everything At Once. Don't start using five marketing techniques at the same time. You will simply end up jumping from one method to another, without spending a proper amount of time on any one of them. If you do not devote sufficient time to applying a marketing technique, you will not get results. Take some time to learn and apply a new marketing technique. Then, once you are seeing results, move on to the next one.

- Track Your Results. Tracking your results (or lack thereof) helps you understand what has produced results and what hasn't. It also helps you compare different marketing methods and to determine which one(s) produce better results for your business.

Use this five point plan to better market your business and get results from marketing your business online.

Learn how to make marketing simple! Biana Babinsky is the online business coach, expert and author who has taught many solopreneurs how to become better known online, get more clients and make more money. Now you can learn all of her online marketing secrets, described in simple steps, in the Complete Step by Step Online Marketing Course at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zcourse

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Promotions Marketing

Introduction If you are a merchant that uses coupons and special promotions such as clearance sales, site wide free shipping or other marketing tool that have a limited life span and also have an affiliate program which you use as sales channel to promote those campaigns, then this article is intended for you.

Avoid mistakes that can cause problems during or after the campaign which are in most of the cases customer service issues that probably harm your image in the minds of your existing or potential customers and will potentially hurt your brand in the long run.

Announce it, but announce it right Before you launch your marketing campaign through your affiliate marketing channel consider the following tips and check if you have everything ready and in place that your affiliates can to their job right. This article is focused on the proper announcement of the launch and discontinuation of your marketing campaigns.

Always provide an expiration date and time. Provide your affiliates with the expiration date and time for any coupon or marketing campaign you want them to promote. If it is an ongoing promotion let them know that.

If you don't know the expiration date of a promotion yet, provide the information how long you expect it to run and the goal you want to accomplish with it, which will have important impact on the expiration because you will probably discontinue the promotion earlier if you don't meet your goals at all and extend it much further than originally planned, if it is exceeding your expectations.

Use your affiliates campaigns to boost yours You can also announce a campaign before it launches, but make sure that you provide the date and time of the launch and make clear what they can and can not do with that information. Specify if you allow or even recommend affiliates to announce an upcoming campaign to their customers.

You don't want then to announce all the details of the campaign, of course not, because that would damper the effectiveness of the campaign in general, but enough to get their customers attention and make them curious about what might be coming.

Provide Teaser material in those cases. Even without having a teaser can it help to increase the effectiveness of a campaign if you announce it to your affiliates, because it gives them more time to plan and make preparations on their end.

Affiliates might be preparing a campaign for their Site at the same time and your campaign would be perfect to launch parallel to increase each others "bang" or may be it could be incorporated into their campaign, mentioned or referred to. This is often the case with campaigns for specific holidays (Christmas, Valentines Day, Thanksgiving, St.Patrick's Day etc.) or national events (Super Ball, Stanley Cup, Olympic Games, Mardi Gras and Spring Break etc.).

Discontinuation of long running promotions There are only a few cases where you would not know at least a few days before the fact when an ongoing promotion will be discontinued for whatever reason.

Send a notification before it expires to give your affiliates some lead time to prepare and ready exactly when you want them to be. Don't do it on the day or worse after it expired, demanding the immediate removal from the affiliate site and a complete stop of any other way of promoting it.

The earlier you can send the notification the better. Don't give the impression to your affiliates that your company decided unexpectedly to discontinue the campaign today and had your own Webmaster jump through hoops to get it of your own website that very same day, if it did not happened that way.

This is still too often done like that by many merchants and very unprofessional. I explain the case where it is appropriate a few chapters later.

Bad timing Most merchants run monthly campaigns. A lot of coupons are valid for one month only and often targeted to aid and improve the effectiveness of that month's campaign.

Sites that are specialized in promoting merchant campaigns, like coupon and other sites that target and attract bargain hunting customers have their busiest days right at the end of the month and the first days of the following month replacing expiring campaigns with the new ones. If possible, announce upcoming or to be discontinued campaigns that used to be ongoing outside this timeframe.

This will increase the chances that your campaign will get more attention and decreases the chances that the announcement of a discontinuation gets unintentionally missed. Affiliates are humans and humans make mistakes especially when they are under stress.

Unplanned discontinuation of any promotion Keep in mind that the chances are good that affiliates promote long running promotions in multiple different ways. To stop all of them might takes more than a few minutes.

Affiliates are busy too and the ones that do it right and successful are doing also resource planning as any other healthy business and are not able to halt their business operation for you, because you want them to do something immediately you knew already earlier.

Only if there is very good reason (Legal Issue, Natural Disaster, End of the World and that sort of things) is it acceptable and also understandable for your affiliate if you demand an immediate stop of a promotional campaign. If you have to demand an immediate stop, explain why.

The promotion and even the release of new action movies that involved terrorists was stopped or delayed immediately after 9/11. TV Stations changed their programming and replaced what was considered inconsiderate with more appropriate programming.

This could not be planned ahead, but the right thing to do and nobody was complaining about the extra time it took to do it or the fact that I had to be done fast. It is not acceptable and bad business practice in any other case.

Announcements via email Regardless what, when and why you announce something important and/or time critical to your affiliates via email, make sure that you state in the subject of the email your intention and content of the email and not just "Affiliate Newsletter" which is fine if you are providing general information and news to your affiliates.

It is the worst subject you can use for emails that do require immediate attention or actions to be taken by the affiliates that have a due date. Your emails are not the only emails an Affiliate receives.

Clear email subjects allow quicker, more efficient and better processing by the affiliate and reduce the chances that critical emails get overlooked.

Final words Affiliate Marketing RRule No.1: Affiliates and merchants are business partners, treat them as such.

Carsten Cumbrowski has over 5 years experience in the Affiliate Marketing Industry and knows both sides of the Business, as Affiliate and Affiliate Manager. He operates an Affiliate Marketing Resources Site at http://www.cumbrowski.com

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Succeeding With a Guerrilla Marketing Attack

Succeeding with a guerrilla marketing attack is a very simple seven-step process. Take all seven steps and watch your profits rise and your competitors cringe. It's not as hard as you may think to succeed at a guerrilla marketing attack. And if you launch one properly, you'll find that succeeding at business is also not as hard as you may have thought. Don't even think of skipping any of the seven steps to success because all seven are necessary. We're not talking about playing with marketing. We're talking about succeeding with marketing.

1. The first step is to research everything you can. That means carefully investigating your market, your product or service, your competition, your industry and your options in media. What media reach your target audience? What media makes them respond and buy? Should you focus on advertising or direct marketing or a combination of the two? There are answers to these questions and guerrillas have the knack for coming up with the right answers. As a person who is already connected to the Internet, you've got a head start in the research department. There is loads of information online that can propel you in the direction of success.

2. The second step is to write a benefits list. Have a meeting. Invite your key personnel and at least one customer -- because customers are tuned in to benefits that you may not even consider to be benefits. Example, my wife patronizes a certain bookstore regularly, not because of their books, but because of the carrot cake they serve in their cafe. Once you have a list of your benefits, select your competitive advantage because that's where you'll hang your marketing hat. If you haven't got a competitive advantage, you'll have to create one because you'll need it. After all, anyone can come up with a benefits list. Figure out why people should patronize your business instead of that of a competitor.

3. Step number three is to select the weapons you'll use. In my third guerrilla marketing online column, I listed an even 100 weapons from which you may make your selection. My recommendation is to use as many weapons as you can. Fifty of the hundred weapons are free. After you've selected the weaponry, put the weapons into priority order. Next to each weapon, write the name of the person who is in charge of masterminding the use of the weapon plus the date it will be launched. Consider each date you write to be a promise you are making to yourself. Guerrillas do not kid themselves or lie to themselves, so be realistic. The idea of a guerrilla marketing attack is to select a lot of weapons, then launch them in slow motion -- at a pace that feels comfortable financially and emotionally. My average client takes 18 months to launch an attack. Don't rush.

4. The fourth step, and this is a toughie, is to maintain the attack. The first three steps are extremely simple compared to this fourth step. Maintaining the attack means sticking with your plan and your weapons even though you don't get the instant gratification you want so much. Everyone wants success to come instantly, but it doesn't happen that way in real life. The Marlboro Man and Marlboro Country helped make Marlboro cigarettes the most successfully marketed brand is history. But after the first year of marketing, they didn't increase sales one bit for Marlboro. Maintaining the attack made it happen.

5. Step five is to keep track. Some of your weapons will hit bulls-eyes. Others will miss the target completely. How will you know which is which? By keeping track. By asking customers where they heard of you. By finding out what made them contact you. Keeping track is not easy, but it is necessary. If you aren't ready to keep track, you aren't ready to launch your attack in the first place.

6. Step six is to make a guerrilla marketing calendar. This should be 52 rows long and five columns wide. The first column is called "Week" -- listing in which week of the 52 weeks you did what you did in marketing. The second column is called "Thrust" -- referring to the thrust of your marketing that week. What were you saying? Offering? The third column is called "Media" and it refers to which media you were using that week. The fourth column is called "Cost" and lets you project how much you'll be spending that week. The fifth column is called "Results" so you can give a letter grade to the week -- you know, an A, B, C, D or F. After one year, you compare your calendar to your sales figures and eliminate all but the A's and B's. It takes about three years to get a calendar loaded with slam dunks. Once you have one you'll feel like the client who said of his, "It's a lot like going to heaven without the inconvenience of dying."

7. The seventh step is to create a guerrilla marketing plan. Seven steps to succeeding with a guerrilla marketing attack. If it sounds easy, reread this column. It works, but it's not easy.

Jay Conrad Levinson in the Father of Guerrilla Marketing. Mitch Meyerson is the author of Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Founder of the Guerrilla Marketing Coaching program and Co-Founder of The Product Factory and Traffic School. He has been featured on Oprah.

To get 7 amazing online marketing audios, visit http://www.easywebautomation.com

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10 Easy Ways

A flyer is an inexpensive and highly effective way to grab attention in a very busy marketplace. How do you make your flyer stand out in the crowd? Here are some techniques that professional designers use to make flyers "pop."

1. Write a snappy headline or title.

Make it memorable, unusual or provocative using a few carefully chosen powerful words. Popular titles contain one or more of these words: Easy, The Secrets to, Unlock, Finally, Insider, Time Sensitive, How to, Free Bonuses, Now You Can, Discover, Proven.

2. Use colorful or striking graphics.

One large image will have more impact than many smaller images. A stunning photo or illustration grabs attention, creates a mood, and supports your story. This image is your "focal point" and will draw your readers in. You can purchase inexpensive but quality stock photos on the Internet. Download individual photos or purchase a CD with hundreds of images.

3. Focus on the benefits of your product or service.

Your prospects will ask the question, "What's in it for me?" Write from the their perspective using the words "you" and "your." Avoid using the following words: we, us, I and our. Be sure to keep your text short and to the point. Some of the most powerful words to use are: free, save, love, new, results, and guarantee. Break up long paragraphs with bullet points and place them in a separate box.

4. Use compelling testimonials and case studies.

Nothing strikes a chord like an endorsement from a happy customer, especially if it demonstrates the results they've had with your product or service. Be sure to include the first and last name, company name and location of the person providing the endorsement.

5. Organize your page with boxes, borders and areas of contrasting colors.

You don't need to fill your flyer with wall-to-wall text and graphics. Incorporate some white space to make certain elements stand out and to make the flyer easy to read.

6. Make your points easily identifiable.

Highlight titles and subtitles in bold, but avoid using ALL CAPS because they are more difficult to read.

7. Don't get too complicated.

Make it simple with two typefaces, and align items to a grid. Your page layout program will provide non-printing guidelines. Use the "snap to guidelines" function to align items easily to the grid. Be aware of printing margins. I suggest you create your layout with 1/2" margins on all sides, or add 1/8" for bleeds on items that print off the edge of the page.

8. Don't forget to proofread.

Have someone else proofread your work. Check your contact information. Dial the phone numbers on the flyer to make sure they are correct, and type in the URL of your website to make sure it is correct, too.

9. If you are on a tight budget, try this.

Select bright-colored or unique paper, and print with black ink. Use shades of grey to provide tones and contrasting background areas.

10. Offer a discount or special limited-time price.

Design a coupon on the bottom quarter of the flyer. Be sure to clearly state the deadlines and limitations of the offer. If it is a mail-in coupon, be sure to include the payment specifications with areas for filling out credit card information, mailing address, etc.

You don't need to re-invent the wheel when creating your flyer. Use these proven techniques and you will see big results in your marketing efforts.

Karen Saunders is the owner of MacGraphics Services, a unique design firm for today’s entrepreneur. Whether you outsource your promotional pieces or are a do-it-yourselfer, Karen takes the mystery out of marketing. Learn the Top 5 Mistakes that can cost you money by signing up for her FREE e-course, available for a limited time. To take advantage of this e-course and find out how easy it can be to attract more clients, http://macgraphics.net/FreeStuff.php .You can also contact her at 888-796-7300, or Karen@macgraphics.net.

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Seminar Marketing

Seminar Marketing is the quickest way to grow your business. It allows you to do a face-to-face, credibility-building meeting with 40, 50, 100 and even 1000 prospective customers at a time.

In fact, in the last 8 years, financial advisors and business owners that were making $50,000 per year saw their incomes soar to over $1 million a year.

But the market has changed drastically.

How the Seminar Marketing Business Has Changed

Five years ago, you could get a 2% response rate for a financial seminar mailing. Today you are lucky to get a quarter of that. Why?

Because the same mailing houses have been sending the same mailer, with the same headlines and the same bullets for years. The people getting these invites are simply throwing them away. That means your profits are going into the dumps!

Now, don't get me wrong.

I highly recommend that you utilize seminars in your marketing mix, regardless of your profession. However, if you want to build a highly profitable 6 or 7 figure income professional practice using seminars, then you must spend some time picking the right mailing house to send out your seminar invitations.

Top 7 Questions You Should Ask Your Seminar Mailing House Before Hiring Them:

1. Are you a seminar marketing company or a postcard printing company?

There is a huge difference between lead generation direct mail and seminar invitations. When you work with a mailing house company that does NOT specialize in seminar invitations you are rolling the dice with your hard earned money.

2. How will you make sure my seminar invitations stand out from my competitions?

This is one of the MOST important questions to ask. You must make sure that your seminar marketing mailing house will help you write successful copy and headlines for your invitation. Make sure NO ONE else is using it in your territory. If they are using the same old copy and headlines they have been using for years RUN away fast. If they cannot help you create something unique to you and your specialty, you are wasting your money.

3. What is Your Guarantee?

Many mailing houses offer response guarantees as a way to get your business. However, most have no intention of ever honoring their guarantee. When the response comes in below the guarantee, (and it invariably does) they will continue to offer you discounts on future mailings instead of giving your money back.

4. What are the niche markets you work in?

In order to succeed in seminar marketing, you need to work within a niche. The more specific your niche is the better. It is extremely helpful to work with a mailing house that specializes in your niche. When they understand and have experience with your niche, you are much more likely to have success using them to fill your seminars.

5. Who Will Be My Seminar Marketing Liaison?

Make sure that you're assigned a professional at the mailing house to walk you through the whole mailing. You need someone to make sure that the mailing is done accurately and on a timely basis. A little mistake on an invitation can send people to the wrong address or at the wrong time, costing you thousands of dollars.

6. What is your turnaround time?

Seminar mailing is very time sensitive. Your mailing needs to hit on a certain date. Most large mailing houses will tell you that they have a 30 day or more turn around time. This will make planning your seminar very difficult. A long turnaround time is an indicator of a large print house vs. a smaller, more service oriented mailing house.

7. What is Your Pricing? What are all the services included in that pricing?

Remember, cheapest is not always best. Best value for your dollar is what you should be shooting for. Do they give you unique and creative invitations? Have they been able to explain to you why they will make you more successful than other mailing companies will? Do you get the feeling that they are truly interested in your success? Or do they just want to mail some junk out for you to make a buck on you?

Seminars can skyrocket your business if you do them right. Hiring good vendors is high on the list of doing things right.

So invest some time in finding the right mailing house. It will save you thousands of dollars in the end.

Once you find a great seminar invitation mailing house, your seminar marketing begins to work just like a big ATM machine. Do a seminar...Grab a bunch of happy new. clients. It's that simple.

Marketing expert, author and coach to over one hundred millionaire financial advisors, Mike Kaselnak is considered the foremost expert in marketing for professional services. You can experience just one of his many unique tools, called the 5Q Process, that has helped professionals create a unique marketing message with just a 10 minutes exercise at http://www.teamingwithclients.com. Get this step-by-step guide now!

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Book Marketing Mix Pay

When you are planning your books marketing mix pay attention and be sure to write down your purpose. Each author's reasons for writing are unique. Please take a moment to be introspective and to list your key motivations, and you can then decide which are the top priorities.

Why write down an honest statement of your purpose? Because knowing 'why' will guide your decisions in the rest of the marketing mix.

Here's an example. In 1994, Fred and Peg Francis wrote Democratic Rules of Order: The Complete Official Parliamentary Authority for Meetings of Any Size [ISBN 096992604] not to make money but to have a beneficial impact on society.

Democratic Rules of Order is the one parliamentary standard that fully protects every member's right to equal participation in orderly meetings. It does this with concise, common sense rules without jargon or unnecessary protocol.

Fred wrote this on their website at www.democratic-rules.com: "This book has been a very satisfying project for Fred and Peg who see the urgent need for more justice and stronger democracies in our world. For a democracy to work successfully the populace itself must understand and want to obey the democratic principles. Citizens need practice in making the individual rights of each member and the rights of the majority work together. People using this book are practicing and learning these laws at the grass-roots level."

This very concise book (27 pages of rules, a 14-page sample meeting plus questions-and-answers) explains meeting rules that are fair and easy for everyone to master - a far cry from the 600-plus pages of Robert's Rules of Order! With Roberts, a knowledgeable chair can manipulate meetings to have his or her own opinions prevail. With Democratic, everyone knows the rules and is on equal footing.

For Fred and Peg, a marketing plan had to reflect their mission, so they hired an editor to polish the text, making the book as understandable and credible as possible. They felt that this was really worthwhile, even though editing cost $30 per hour.

Next, they decided to start a word-of-mouth phenomenon by donating about 2,000 individual promotional copies to leaders of church groups, associations of government agencies, schools and public libraries. This helped them secure free book reviews in religious newsletters and in magazines that go out to politicians and bureaucrats. The front pages of the book explain clearly how to order more copies, and the generous discounts for ordering larger quantities.

Fred was a mathematician who could master their marketing mix puzzle about allocating scarce resources: they refined their product by using a professional editor over many editions, sent out samples (a form of sales promotion) to targeted groups (their public), allowed bulk discounts (pricing), and sought publicity through newsletter and magazine reviews.

Fred and Peg's plan has worked very well - the book is now in its 7th edition and has sold over 14,000 copies, sometimes purchased in batches of over a hundred by a single congregation or agency. Copies are being used in some high schools to teach parliamentary procedures in social studies courses. Buyers often reorder and refer others to this handy book, creating a chain reaction that is steadily spreading to people all around the world who are now able to have more effective meetings.

The preceding marketing advice is an excerpt from Book Marketing DeMystified by Bruce Batchelor [ISBN 978-1-897435-00-7]. It will help any author, whether you have a contract with a mainstream publisher, or are an independent ('indie') author publishing all on your own or with the assistance of a publishing service.

Bruce Batchelor is the inventor of print-on-demand publishing (POD publishing) and author of Book Marketing DeMystified: Enjoy Discovering the Optimal Way to Sell Your Self-Published Book [ISBN 978-1-897435-00-7]. He is the CEO at Agio Publishing House (http://www.agiopublishing.com) and a presenter at writers conferences.

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The Book Marketing for Success

Why did you write your book? The answer is very important - it is your motivation (your purpose or passion) -- and that will influence your marketing mix.

Each author's reasons for writing are unique. Some want to change the behavior of others (possibly by teaching the reader about health or religion or politics). The simple desire to entertain is the motivating force for some writers, while many others feel compelled to record memories of a time and place they cherish. A book can be an essential tool to build a consulting or public speaking career. It could be the proud unveiling of a lifelong compulsion to create poetry or invent a sci-fi series. Some people use the independent (self-) publishing process as a market test, hoping to attract the attention of a film producer or impress the acquisitions editor at a major publishing house. Your motives may have some urgency, or may have the long-term time frame of introducing a romance trilogy or series of thrillers. A few writers blatantly proclaim their quest for fame and fortune, while others value their privacy and time too much to thrust themselves 100% into promotional efforts. All are valid reasons, none better than others.

PLANNING THE MARKETING MIX
At its most basic, if you have a simple marketing plan, you'll be way ahead of most other self-promoting authors and many industry pros because you'll have a clear overview and can focus on those factors you've decided to emphasize. As important, you'll have decided, and are comfortable with the decision, on what not to do.

Here's a delicious story to illustrate how to concoct a great marketing mix.

THE GREAT TASTE OF MARKETING SUCCESS!
Back in 1981, Joan Bidinosti and Marilyn Wearring, two women living in rural Ontario, decided to create and market "the best book we could. We did a lot of research and really thought things out," Joan told me. "We wanted to make a book that we liked. We wanted to be proud of it, then hoped other people would like it. Making money really didn't enter into it." They ignored conventional wisdom in the publishing trade and created a book on a single theme: muffins. Muffins: A Cookbook [ISBN 0969134509] didn't have photographs (another no-no), nor a hard cover. Instead they created a quite small, handy, coil-bound book. They tested every recipe thoroughly, had only one recipe per page and the page number clearly visible in large type. Directions were numbered and simply explained. The oven temperature and baking time were at the top.

Baking tips were printed on a colored sheet of paper inserted at the book's center - this helped cooks navigate by remembering if a favorite recipe was before or after the middle. Joan's daughter, Susan, created whimsical drawings for the cover and insides.

They knew the ideal gift price: $4.95, and found a printer who could work within their budget. One thousand copies were printed, a few letters sent to the local media, and the two authors took the first copies to a gift store and a book store. Marilyn sold copies to her friends at the curling rink and exercise class, who came back to buy more copies for their friends. Within a week, the local TV news program ran a short item, which prompted the newspaper to run a full-page story.

From that point on, the two authors had a tiger by the tail. During the next decade, they sold over 200,000 copies of Muffins: A Cookbook, plus 60,000 copies of a sequel called Salads: A Cookbook.

Looking back, Joan can reminisce about dozens of successful marketing initiatives. The authors made hundreds of personal sales appearances in department stores, bookstores, gift shops, trade shows ... always passing out delicious samples and always selling large quantities of books.

There was a sheet on the last page of the book, providing an address for ordering more copies, with a discount for ordering 5 or more. "It was word-of-mouth through friends who liked everything about it that sold our book," Joan believes. "We'd get lovely letters with the mail orders."

What was Joan and Marilyn's marketing mix? They had a clear purpose which led them to create - often at odds with expert advice - a remarkably useful and likeable product at an ideal price point. With that solid foundation, any and all promotions worked well. "Luck follows hard work," says Joan about the research they did in advance. By careful attention to the purpose, product and price factors in their marketing mix, these authors had a winning recipe, and achieved spectacular results.

The preceding marketing advice is an excerpt from Book Marketing DeMystified by Bruce Batchelor [ISBN 978-1-897435-00-7]. It will help any author, whether you have a contract with a mainstream publisher, or are an independent ('indie') author publishing all on your own or with the assistance of a publishing service.

Bruce Batchelor is the inventor of print-on-demand publishing (POD publishing) and author of Book Marketing DeMystified: Enjoy Discovering the Optimal Way to Sell Your Self-Published Book [ISBN 978-1-897435-00-7]. He is the CEO at Agio Publishing House (http://www.agiopublishing.com) and a presenter at writers conferences.

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Five Easy Marketing Techniques

More and more service professionals are realizing the power of utilizing the internet to build their service based business. Unlike traditional advertising, you can imploy a variety of free methods to bring targeted visitors to your website to increase profits. Five easy marketing methods in particular that have proven to bring success are article marketing, blogging, search engine optimization, networking and press release distribution.

Article Marketing- Writing helpful and informative articles and then submitting them to article directories and niche sites in your target market is just one way to start establishing yourself as an expert online and to get free exposure for your business. Each article you submit should contain your bio and a link back to your website for maximum exposure.

Blogging- Good content is key to getting and keeping visitors coming back to your website. A blog allows a quick and easy way to continually add content to your site. You can blog about new services and products, specials, helpful tips and more. And search engines love fresh content!

Search Engine Optimization- Optimizing your site for the search engines is how people searching the internet for your services can find you. Make sure you do your keyword research and apply it both as you build your website and as you add new content.

Networking Online- Often overlooked by service professionals, networking in forums and social media networks such as Facebook and Myspace are great resources to reach your target market. The key to social networking online is to build relationships with your target market by offering your expertise in a way that is informative and helpful, focused on the individual and not to try to sell them on your service at first contact.

Press Releases- Submitting press releases online is another free advertising technique to get free publicity. Offline papers and magazines look through these for interesting stories so you just may find yourself in a local newspaper article or being interviewed on TV if you hit on the right topic. Prweb, a free press release distribution service, is a great source to submit your press release to.

These five marketing techniques when used consistently will create a steady flow of traffic and exposure for your service based business.

Erica Brooks is the owner of http://www.awomaninbusiness.com where she specializes in helping women to start and build successful businesses online. For more easy marketing techniques for service professionals visit http://www.servicebasedbusinesstips.com

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