Tracy,
In reaching out to your target market(private investigators), you have done a lot to draw attention to yourself. That is to say, you have used a lot of push technology. You have sent out lots of postcards, etc. But, how much "pull technology" have you employed? Unless there is both a push and a pull, there is no REAL CONNECTION between the people you want as customers and the services you provide. Simply putting your message in front of the masses does not make them care. Remember, no one reads the newspaper, listens to the radio or watches TV for the advertising. They watch it for the news and entertainment. Why? Because the medium is there to serve its audience - not its advertisers - even though the advertisers pay for the time.
So, what does that mean you need to do? Answer: think like the audience you want to reach and entice them to come to you. All too often, people assume too much. A person assumes that just because he likes the ad he wrote about his business everyone he wants to reach will like it. Well, the person who bases his ad on himself is usually making a big mistake. He should find out what his target market needs and find a clever way to approach meeting that need.
Look what Charmin' Bathroom Tissue did years ago. They had a grocery store character named Mr. Whiffle tell you, "Please don't squeeze the Charmin'." Why? Because they wanted you to squeeze the Charmin'. Nothing entices like prohibition. But, that is not all. They actually wanted you to take the bathroom tissue OFF the shelf and squeeze it. Remember, Mr. Whiffle actually showed you how to do it.
Well, what happens when you give the Charmin' a healthy squeeze? It inflates. And, what does that mean? That means suddenly the tissue is no longer easy to put back on the shelf. So, what do you do? You toss the Charmin' into your grocery basket. You just sold yourself on the tissue. Isn't that clever?
Are you in need of a "clever approach?" Consider using a series of online tools to reach out in a clever way to your target market. For example, get a Skype account and add some extras to it to help PULL your target market to you once you have pushed your message their way. Two tools I highly recommend are Pamela, an automated virtual assistant and Yugma, a desktop sharing program. Both can help entice your audience to want the services you provide.
Think about this. It is one thing to simply call someone on the phone to talk. It is a lot more impressive to call that person and ask him to allow you to share your desktop with him because you want to SHOW him what you are capable of doing for him in REAL TIME on HIS COMPUTER SCREEN with YOUR DESKTOP.
With Pamela hooked to Skype you can do amazing things with regard to having Pamela calling your prospects and answering your phone. In fact, some high-profile marketing gurus recommend changing your answering message frequently. Pamela makes that not only easy but entertaining.
Would you like to do something really "outside the box?" Become a splash page advertiser at a wifi hot spot. Pick a FREE wifi hot spot location with heavy traffic and see if the owner will allow you to place an ad on his sign-in page for a small monthly fee. If he does not have a splash page set-up and would like to have one with you as an advertiser, contact me. Just send me a private message with the person's phone number. I will gladly call him to explain how to get that set up. If you are looking for a cost-effective advertising approach that can utilize the best of newspaper, radio and TV advertising, wifi hot spot splash page advertising is the answer.
Make no mistake, cleverness counts.
Lamar Morgan CDMM 707-709-8605 Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 (new win) |