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G E T P R O F I T A B L E U P D A T E!
June 4, 2001
The "Get Profitable Update" is an
Internationally published
e-newsletter delivering original, valuable and usable
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information, success tips, and business strategies that
you can
use immediately to increase your revenues and profits.
A FREE,
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... Make More Profit!
Published by Clark Marketing Group, Inc. (c)2001 Issue
No.0106-A
Email: info@getprofitable.com Web: http://www.getprofitable.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1) MARKETING: For Mens Eyes Only.
2) BRANDING: The Key Secrets of e-Branding, Part 2 of 2
3) INTERNET: Repeat After Me: A Website Should be
Profitable.
4) WEBSITE PICKS: InternetNews.com: Daily Internet
Specific News
(Do you have a great web site to recommend to our
readers?
If so,
please email mailto:kevin@getprofitable.com )
================================================================
1) MARKETING: For Mens Eyes Only.
================================================================
Last issue I told you about a "Sure Fire Promotional
Technique"
that can't fail. I appreciate those of you who wrote and
thanked
me for the tip and I hope you keep using that valuable
strategy
over and over to grow your sales and your profits.
If you missed it or want to review it, you can check it
out at:
http://www.GetProfitable.com/newsletter/05012001.html
(If this is not a hot link for you, cut and paste into
your browser)
In this issue, I want to to share with you a classic
marketing
strategy for retail businesses that can have application
to your
online business as well. Let's call it "For Men's Eyes Only."
I once heard this story about a hardware-store owner
located in
a busy shopping center. The owner painted his entire front
window white except for a small circle that passers-by could
look through.
Above the small circle, he posted a big sign reading,
"FOR MENS
EYES ONLY."
Inside the store owner had constructed a great
display of power tools along with signs that featured
really
great sales prices.
As you can imagine, people lined up to peer through the
circle.
Very few people passed without looking including just as
many
women.
People who would have otherwise passed an ordinary win-
dow display without giving it even a second glance were
drawn
to this display. A simple but dynamic marketing tip that
worked.
How can you adapt this idea to your offline or online
business?
For more great marketing tips and articles like the one I
recently wrote, titled: "Writing Powerful Ads,
Letters, etc.
That Sell!", go to:
http://www.getprofitable.com/SpecialReports.html
and go to the March and April issues of the Get
Profitable
Update to get the full articles.
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Or, for a mere $297 USD you can get a 16 tape cassette
album and
workbook that will teach you dozens of my proven,
"Guaranteed to
Work" marketing strategies that will explode your
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profits no matter what business or professional practice
you
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guarantee it or you get you money back no questions,
no hassles, no kidding! For more information go to:
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2) BRANDING: A Totally Different View of Branding Part 2
of 2
The Key Secrets to e-Branding Success
================================================================
From Branding to e-Branding: The Reshaping of Marketing
101
Basically in part 1 we talked about the growth curve of
the
Internet, the fall-out of the dot.com failures and even
pointed
out the "Internet Graveyard" for you to look
at. We also talked
about the bad news and the good news and how we have
already
entered Phase 2 of the growth curve on the Internet and
the
power of e-Branding.
If you missed Part 1, go to:
http://www.GetProfitable.com/SpecialReports.05012001.html
In this article lets look at exactly what is e-Branding
and what
are the key secrets to e-Branding Success.
WHAT IS E-BRANDING?
e-Branding is a white-hot topic these days, especially
with the
explosion of companies getting onto the Internet who are
desperate to draw attention and traffic to their business
and
their website.
It seems like everyone, both online and offline, is
talking
about branding their business to increase sales and
rocket past
competitors.
Some say branding is a great logo or catchy advertising
but it
is much more.
Simply put, branding:
* Is an integrated strategy of individual marketing
techniques
that you
use to communicate to your targeted market about what
result your
product or service will deliver to them.
* Tells your prospective customers why they should do
business
with you
instead of your competition.
* Offers them a promise for a solution to their
needs,wants,
or desires.
* Creates an image of value in their minds that creates
customer
loyalty and
keeps them coming back to you over and over.
* Builds a loyal consumer base that becomes a referral
network
for your
product or service and that acts like a powerful out-
side sales
force.
* Is the value and goodwill that you build in your name
and the
awareness
that your brand has with your customers and pros-
pective
customers.
So armed with this information, you need to approach your
e-business with a different attitude - a progressive
attitude.
What has come to be called an outside-of-the box
attitude. This
attitude says there is no top of the mountain here.
You must simply keep climbing, stop and survey the
landscape,
get a feel for the territory, make adjustments, then keep
on
climbing to the next checkpoint.
KEY SECRETS TO A SUCCESSFUL E-BRANDING STRATEGY
Set an objective for your site that reflects its business
aim.
Believe it or not there are plenty of Web site owners who
have
never really thought through that question. Let's examine what
a few of your key objectives could be:
* Is it to sell your product or service?
* Is it to generate leads?
* Is it to build an email-marketing database?
* Is it to establish credibility with your offline
customers?
* Is it to assist you in processing your business for customers
more
efficiently or effectively?
* Is it to use your Internet site to provide better and
quicker
information
to your customers or clients?
* Is it to advertise for prospective employees?
I would say that this is good starter list of key objectives
that any business could use to help determine your
on-line bus-
iness objective.
You may have one specific goal or it may be a combination
of
objectives.
Either way it should be something you have thought
through thoroughly before you launch your site. If you haven't,
I would urge you to go back to the drawing board.
Dr. Ken Evoy, the author of "Make Your Site
Sell" (sitesell.com),
has written a great book that walks you through the
prior-
itized steps of building a Web site designed around a model
that
helps lead your prospective customer to your objective.
He calls it your "most wanted response." So I ask you, what is
the principal objective of your Web site? What is your most
wanted response?
Have you built your site around it with every-
thing focused on this one aim?
Determine who your core visitors actually are. You've got to
know down to the gnat's eyelash exactly who your ideal
customer
is. It is
essential to understand the specific profile of your
targeted market, including who is the most likely
prospect to
buy your product or service and/or influence the purchase
of it.
Amazon.com is quickly becoming an online department store
that
will sell many things to everybody. But for almost anyone else,
you will far more likely benefit from narrowing down your
niche
profile until you know the precise perfect customer who
will
benefit from your product or service and then zero in on
them.
You will not want to waste even one dollar of your
advertising
or marketing dollars on anyone else except your ideal
target
profile prospective customer.
Build the site around the needs of your customers. The key here
is to build your strategy completely around your
customer.
* What do they want from your site?
* What will benefit them?
* What do they care about?
* What would hold their interest?
* What is going on in their head as they visit and click
their
way through
your site?
Can you put yourself in your customer's shoes? Many try. Even
more think they do but don't really succeed. This is not
because
they don't want to, but because this is not a job for
lightweight entrepreneurs.
It is for the most serious Internet entrepreneur who is
seeking
a profitable Web site. This objective must be the overriding
factor in your strategy.
Put yourself in your customer's shoes when you are
designing or
re-designing your site and ask, "What's in it for
me?" and "Why
do I care?"
Next, do plenty of research and discovery on a variety of
Web
sites, whether they are related to your industry or
not. Pick
up good ideas, strategies, and concepts for how others
are
developing customer-centered sites that draw you in, make
you
want to know more, and then lead you to their most wanted
response.
It all sounds harder than it really is, but this is
essentially
how you build a pathway to walk your prospective customer
through your site to your objective.
If your site is up and running, you can get Web site
visitor
tracking logs from your Web hosting service that will
tell you
at what point people are dropping off from your
site. This will
allow you to do pinpoint analysis and discover where you
can
improve pages, links, content, etc., to keep your visitor
longer
while leading them to your objective.
You need to do this now.
Any serious e-business entrepreneur will realize that you
need
to develop a sense of urgency about his endeavor. In the past,
many Internet businesses were willing to set up shop and
wait
for visitors to come. That won't fly now in Phase 2.
================================================================
3) Internet: Repeat After Me: A Website Should be
Profitable
================================================================
A recent article in the Miami Herald states that 14% of
Internet
companies are profitable --
<http://www.morevisibility.com/news/herald010801.htm>.
There's a
quote in there that I particularly like:
--- Begin Quote ---
"The real story, and one that's remained
traditionally un-
covered" says Peter D. Henig, a senior editor at Red
Herring,
a tech investment publication, "are the private
companies that
were smart enough to be profitable early on. They are niche
market players, often mom and pop shops."
"These companies basically did it on their own. They
avoided the
traditional path of taking huge sums from venture
capitalists,
then spending it quickly on staff and marketing, aiming
toward a
lucrative initial public offering of stock without
reaching
profitability.
Whether public or private, the key for successful
Internet companies
was not gaudy publicity but a solid concept."
"Those that . . .
offer value to buyers and sellers can make it," says
Tim Byrne of
Mercer Management Consulting, which did the survey of
Internet
profitability.
--- End Quote ---
Forgive me for preaching, but I have been saying this for
quite
some time (hence my website: GetProfitable.com) and it is
real
nice to hear it from the mainstream media. In fact, I dedicated
a section of my new book, "How To e-Brand Your
Dot.Com Business"
to exactly that as well as strumming the same song in numerous
past articles.
But this is not about looking back its about looking
forward.
If you do not have a website for your offline business,
DO NOT
walk; run.
If you already do have an e-business and it is not
as profitable as you expect it to be, then perhaps it is
time
to re-evaluate it and determine if it is really built on
a real
marketing strategy and a fundamental online profitability
model.
If not, now is the time to act. Because the longer you wait,
the harder it will be to attract customers and the more
expen-
sive it will be to lure them away from the online branded
bus-
inesses that they are loyal to already.
There really is "gold in them there hills" to
use the web as a
valid sales and marketing channel, but it takes real
business
strategies to rake it in.
Remember you never have to do it alone there is a lot of
good
information out there to help you. And of course, feel free to
call me if I can assist you in developing your profitable
Internet Strategy.
================================================================
4) WEBSITE PICKS: InternetNews.com Daily Internet
Specific News
================================================================
Daily Internet-specific news and analysis, as well as
Internet
industry resports from Reuters. Categories cover Business,
E-Commerce, Finance, International, Intranet, ISP,
Product, Web
Developer, Streaming Media, and Internet stocks.
http://www.InternetNews.com Worth checking out.
================================================================
Pick up a Copy of Kevin's HOT New Book
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================================================================
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Kevin
M. Clark, www.GetProfitable.com
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Kevin M. Clark is an Entrepreneur Of The Year Award
Recipient
and small business marketing consultant, branding
specialist,
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Written by Kevin M. Clark,
"Entrepreneur of The Year Award Recipient,"
(Regional
Winner) and President of Clark Marketing Group, Inc.
(c) Copyright 2000, 2001 Clark Marketing Group, Inc.
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