You can easily save money on advertising and marketing.

One example I can give you is when I used to get calls from magazines and newspapers asking me to place an advert. The first question I always asked the salesperson is “what’s the demographic and psychographic your publication aims at?”

Know what they don't know before you hand over your money.

You’d be amazed how few have an answer to this question, and if they don’t, then pause before you pay.

I say this because because unless you know what they don’t know, you may be handing over your hard earned money for nothing.

When you know your niche, you know where to market yourself. It will become obvious. Because what you do is you match the profile of your niche as closely as you can to the relevant magazines or newspapers.

For example, anyone looking at the holistic or green markets in the South west of the UK know the Spark, The Source, South West Connections and the Oracle are 4 main potential places to advertise. The Spark in particular breaks down their readership a little more for you and this helps you know if they are a good place for you to place your marketing.

I was working with a salon owner recently and she told me she’d got a bargain on her advertising. She said the rep had also given her 50% off an advert in a sister paper. I asked about the sister paper and found it was distributed 30 miles away. I asked the salon owner where her clients came from. She said most came within a 5 mile radius and most clients walked in off the street or came by referral. So it became immediately apparent through knowing where her clients were based that the second advert was useless to her and had actually cost her the extra 50% rather than saved her 50%. She simply got no value from the extra 50% and that money would have been better off in her pocket than in the newspaper’s bank.

So niching is really going to help you be clear on who you work with and where you market yourself and it’s going to help you save money too.

If you haven’t yet worked out your niche, I recommend you do so now.

So basics are: is your client is male or female, where do they live and work, what do they do, what is their income? You also need to know how they think… what they say to themselves first thing in the morning about life…

Best Wishes
Neil
http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

Find out more about managing your niche in our Insiders Secrets Programme

What I’m going to take you through in this article is a technique I use to constantly close the gap between where I am and where I want to get to. I’m sharing this so you can use it too.

When I sit down to write an article or I’m mapping out one of the Insiders Secrets webinars or training session I always start with a visualisation.

I imagine that I am looking beyond the page and seeing everyone taking notes, and magical golden fairy dust passing down the phone lines, enveloping you – and as a result of what I share, you become more prosperous.

And I appreciate that might all sound a bit fanciful, but it’s a technique that I know inspires me to create information that helps people and gets great feedback.

In the grand scheme of things this might seem small, but if something you take notes from becomes a way you do business, or helps you create something that changes lives or leads to your prosperity or the prosperity of one of your clients, then that’s a very cool ripple.

A vision I hold for CommunitySoul is that whoever walks with us becomes increasingly prosperous as a result of the association. Our aim is to help 12,000 business reach more than a million people and change their lives by the end of this year.

Part of the vision for these newsletters is that it’s fluff free, so let me ground what I’m saying here, before you accuse me of going off with the fairies!

Knowing the vision allows me to sit back after our events and evaluate. I’m looking at the details. What will help us to achieve our vision faster? Where don’t we match up to the vision? Are the presentations right? Did people learn all they could in the time we had? Who else can benefit from hearing this speaker? Could people listen in comfort? Is everyone moving forward? Timings? Overall message? The marketing? What needs to improve? Who will do it?

So, when you have a clear vision, you can see how easily you can begin to constantly close the gap between where you are now and where you want to get too.

It’s simple. Know your vision. Know your starting point. Close the gap.

Best wishes

Neil

www.communitysoul.co.uk

What are the 3 MUST-KNOWS of writing Compelling Marketing Copy?

First, there’s a saying, that to become a good copywriter, you have to become a good copy reader… that means reading good marketing copy and learning.    This is one of my habits.

Because I have developed good copy habits and a process for writing, I never have to scratch my head and wonder where to start.

In fact in my newsletter to my Insiders Secrets group recently, I mentioned to them that I spent 15 minutes writing copy that sold 3 products in 90 minutes while I prepared a presentation and gave it.

The people on that call know something, though – my marketing copy is never just thrown together. I was able to create that copy so quickly because of the habits I have developed.

The second must know is: know your customer.

And I know that you know this, but I’m mentioning it here, because even though I know that you know, that you need to know your customer, so many people forget this or resist clearly defining who the customer is.

And if you never define who your customer really is how will you ever know the third must know of good copywriting…

The third must know of good copywriting is to be clear on what your customer REALLY wants – which isn’t always what you offer, or at least not the way people often offer it.

And unless you have these 3 Must-Knows clearly in your cells, you shouldn’t even start a website or a brochure, because you don’t know who you are offering to, or why or how to write the copy.

Interestingly enough, I was talking to Alan Forrest Smith a few weeks ago, and Alan is one of the world’s most sought after copywriters, charging thousands to write your marketing campaigns and the the first thing he asked me was “Who is your customer?”

Now if that’s one of the world leaders in marketing and copywriting asking that question, we all need to pay attention.

Best wishes
Neil

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website and register for his free newsletter at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

I know the title might sound odd – to aim beyond what you want, but I would prefer you to aim higher, rather than lower, and this article is about that.

Accepting lower than we aimed for is about an attitude of taking second best -  lowering standards, but I want to inspire you by talking about the amazing things that happen when you have a vision, take action that backs up the vision and then capitalise on the additional opportunities that come your way when you are in the dynamic flow of momentum.

Setting a vision is vital. Holding the vision is no less important. If you left the corporate world and set up on your own with just the skills, knowledge and qualifications earned, and a deep desire to do things your way and began your business with no more of a vision than that, you probably wouldn’t be the first.

I was 21 when I did that. After a faltering start – or more “stop” than “start” I did manage to get it to pay off.

The problem I had then was I had very little direction.

I like to look at direction as being intention – what we want to create. And I like to break the word in-tension down into two words and change a letter the “t” for and “s”– and create “in” and “tension”. And the kind of tension I’m talking about is the kind of tension an archer has when he’s aiming for the bullseye, rather than the kind of tension lots of people have when running a small business – which can often be caused by running around like a headless chicken because there was no real intention and therefore no idea of how to get from A to Z.

Let me start by giving you an example. Nicky Marshall, runs HolisticInsights.co.uk. Nicky had an idea of running events to help people with their well-being. Originally it was therapies and readings that might help people feel better and find some direction. That was her moon. But when she started taking action, she began to bump into opportunities that enhanced her intention and she moved beyond her original aims…

But let me give you another example. I used to be a business mentor passing on my knowledge. Then I started to dream beyond that.

I began by thinking I would pass on all my knowledge, then I thought, what’s better than that? Then I thought wouldn’t it be great to let other people hear what I’m learning about right now and what we are trying at the cutting edge of our business. Wouldn’t it also be great to be able to give people mentoring in a more cost effective way and wouldn’t it be great to create a community around it all? Here is what I created – http://www.insiderssecrets.co.uk/

So think about your business… what do you need to do to get the expertise in place that helps you aim higher? What can you offer your clients that meets their needs?

Best
Neil

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit our website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

I see so many people marketing themselves. They spent £500 upwards on a website and spend a lot of time fiddling to make sure they come up high in google. They get the business cards and brochure or flyer done. Advertise and network, all of which brings a trickle of enquiries. But what happens to those enquiries?

Usually  they go cold and you end up losing possible business.

So let’s take a brief look at the 6 typical issues people have gaining and keeping clients:

1. One of the issues is “prospects” who might buy but who are not sure. Most people will call them once, maybe twice and then give up.

2. The longer you’re in business the harder it become to stay in touch with everyone who shows and interest but who isn’t ready to buy.

3. The challenge you have is to keep the possible people interested and warm them up to you

4. Then when all your hard work pays off and someone becomes a client, how do you encourage them to hang around and see the value more and more often, so when they think of the problem they only think of you?

5. Then there’s the time it takes to implement the following up and this is where the busy people need to focus on the system that builds the  relationship for you

6. And finally there’s the cost to do all this

The Golden Rule…

A golden rule of enlightened entrepreneurship is to have more people coming back to you and increasing their spend with you, and  recommending you to friends and colleagues.

Imagine 77% of your customers returning, and then finding a steady increase of 23%, with this, your business grows. And if you’re happy customers recommend you and you make it easy for them to do that, you can spend less on your marketing.

Imagine that happening to your business!

So let’s look at what to do.

Well, you need a strategy that encourages new clients and you want a strategy that encourages repeat buying. Now that may sound like two different projects, but actually it’s not. It’s one.

What you need is a scalable strategy that does both jobs. When I say scalable this is what I mean: What’s needed is a system that takes a short period of time each week or month – and a system that works, whether you have 100 or 100,000 customers.

So, every successful business venture, no matter how big or small, must have this strategy.

So you need this strategy to welcome in new customers and to encourage repeat buying; and the way you do this is through finding a method of how to stay in touch.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. If you need help developing a system, read about our Insiders Secrets programme and Mastermind group: http://www.communitysoulhbg.co.uk/insiderssecrets.htm