The rule is: Remember that it isn’t about you.

Your marketing, if it’s to be effective, HAS to be about your prospective customers/clients and what they want or need.

Test each of your marketing messages (including web pages) by checking to see what the first sentence is about. If it says “we” or “I,” rewrite it.

Then count the number of times you say “we” or “I” or any variation thereof. Next, count how many times you use some version of the word “You.”

Unless you’ve used “you” at least 3 or 4 times as often as you’ve used “I,” – rewrite it.

A recent Active Rain post posed the question: “Which words make you disregard a marketing message?”

Here are some of the replies:

Paradigm shift
hard-worker
well-respected
“KILLER”
Progressive
Well-respected
Content-rich
Quality
Urgent
Utilize
Typical
Innovative
leverage
A-list

Two of my own favorite “love to hate” phrases are “drill down” and “Hold his feet to the fire.”

These are quite often used when promoting a teleseminar or some kind of training program. And there’s just something about those phrases that make me think the speaker (or writer) is a phony.

Then there are the sentences that attempt to impress, but simply sound pompous. For instance:

Let’s all partner to leverage our passion and proactively initiate a world-class paradigm shift that will optimize enterprise-level interactions.

If everyone who might possibly use your services or buy your merchandise was aware of you and what you have to offer, your revenues would increase. But, a whole lot of people who might love you don’t even know you exist.

Unfortunately, “same old, same old” ads in the local news won’t get their attention. But if you do something unusual, you’ll turn into news, and becoming news will give your exposure a giant boost.

What does that have to do with Halloween?

One thing you can do that will get you noticed AND create goodwill in the community is hold a pumpkin give-away.

We did that one year when I had a real estate agency, and we got both a story and a photo in the local news – two weeks in a row. On top of that, we attracted the favorable attention of dozens of people who had only been marginally aware that we existed.

I forget the monetary cost, but it was far less than the price of two newspaper stories!

We contracted with a pumpkin grower to deliver two bins of small pumpkins – you know, the big cardboard bins that sit in the grocery store filled with pumpkins, melons, or corn.

Then we offered one free pumpkin per child. All they had to do was come to our office to get them – accompanied by a parent.

Another time I purchased a few hundred American Flags on sticks (that held our business cards) and we handed them out in the parking lot at the post office a couple of days before the 4th of July. That was a LOT of fun.

Both of those events got people talking about us and our agency for days.

Why talk about Halloween right now? Because if you want to try it, you need to get those pumpkins ordered!

It’s finished now, and you can read all about it at www.promotemyrealestatecareer.com.

In it, you’ll find 107 ways to promote your career, and all but about a dozen of those ways are either completely free or cost only the gasoline to get you out and about.

If you have a different kind of business, I also have an e-book for you. In it you’ll find a plan to keep people coming back to your physical store, or to keep ordering your party plan merchandise or “door-to-door” products such as Avon.

Read more about How to Market a Local Business.

The truth is, you can do a great deal to help yourself by spending your time and using your imagination.

Yes, you need a good website, and yes, your website needs good copy. You also need business cards. But beyond that, a whole lot of what you could get talked into will be a waste of dollars.

The catch is, you do have to spend the time.

Just as there’s no magic pill to give you good health, there’s no magic pill to make your business take off.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how that applies to each and every business in the universe. And the fact that there’s more to it than that.

People may know about you, even want to do business with you, but if they can’t find you easily, they’ll go elsewhere.

You have to make yourself “Easy to Get.”

Just the other day I needed to find an acquaintance that has a small side business. I knew the name of the business, but it wasn’t listed in the phone book. I knew her first name… no help there. Finally her last name popped into my head and then I only had to remember her husband’s name to find them in the phone book. I persisted because I knew she was the only person nearby who could provide what I wanted. But if there had been someone else in the Yellow Pages…

You get the idea.

So what can you do? First of all, if you have a local service business, hand out your cards all the time. Never assume that since you gave them out once, people still have them. They probably don’t. Or if they do have one, they won’t remember where they put it when they need you. Give your cards to friends and ask them to pass them along. Give them to every new person you meet. Post them on the bulletin board along with the others at the local cafe’. If you leave a great tip after dinner, leave your card with it. When you pay a bill with a local merchant, include your card.

When you do a mailing to prospective customers, include your card. They might not keep the whole letter, but the business card might go into their card file. At the same time, make darn sure that letter has all your contact information on every page. That includes your phone, fax, e-mail, and mailing address. If you use your cell phone often, include that too.

The same goes for e-mail. Never assume that everyone wants to communicate electronically. Add a signature to all of your email that shows what you do, along with your phone numbers and your postal mailing address, as well as your return email address.

Then there are print ads. Every once in a while I see a newspaper ad that was a complete waste of money. The ad might have gotten my attention, but they forgot the address of the business and/or the contact information.

In short, make it easy for anyone to find you … no matter which method they prefer.

Never hide from people who want to give you money.

Wouldn’t case studies lend more credibility than short testimonials?

We know testimonials work in every service business. But we also know that they are not always believed. It’s too easy to write a testimonial and assign it a fake name – or simply something like “J.W. in Phoenix.” Who is to know, when no address is given?

A case study, on the other hand, tells a story, and clients give their names. They talk about a problem someone had and how you (or your products) solved that problem.

If you think about it, in real estate, most transactions have some kind of story about your service that a buyer or seller would be pleased to tell.

How do you get an interesting case study? By having someone else interview your past clients, then write about it. Why someone else? Because modesty will prevent you from asking enough questions about what you did and how it affected them.

A third party can ask those questions that get people to explain what happened and take pleasure in singing your praises.

Think about it – your clients won’t tell you what you did. You already know that. About all they’ll say to you is that you did a great job, and thanks.

Case studies might be a good marketing tool for you. If you agree, call me!I’d love to help you stand out in your marketplace.

Image courtesy of Dreamstine.

For some reason, that got me thinking about the word “lavish” and the pictures it paints. It’s an intriguing word. It attracts attention – perhaps because it isn’t over-used.

I didn’t read the article yet but I would assume from the tone of the title that “Lavish pay” probably means “too much” or “How much I’d like to have.”

My trusty thesaurus says that when used as an adjective, “lavish” means: generous, liberal, extravagant, profuse, abundant, bountiful, immoderate, excessive, unsparing, lush, or prodigal.

Hmm… prodigal was interesting, so I looked that up in the dictionary. It means “wasteful, lavish, or reckless with money.”

So obviously, the word “lavish” can either convey a positive or a negative impression. It all depends on what you’re describing and why.

But what does the word “lavish” mean when you use it in your advertising? More to the point, since it is an attention-getting word, where and how can you use it to paint a vivid and positive word picture?

My first thought was it it would apply to a bountiful buffet table… but you don’t sell buffet tables with homes. At least not when they’re filled with tempting treats.

How about using it to describe lawns, shrubbery, and gardens?

Perhaps a “lavish master suite – complete with ….”

What else? How would YOU use it?

Share your thoughts!

Now that blogger may or may not care if people respond and post comments. But I see the same thing happening when I try to purchase something on line. And…you guessed it… by the time I get to the 3rd or 4th screen I’ve decided I really didn’t need whatever it was.

Are YOU setting up that kind of roadblocks?

It’s the way some real estate agents – and other business people – hide from those who just might turn into clients, if given the opportunity.

How do they hide? By not including their location in their email signature. They put the name of the business and perhaps even a tag line that shows what they do, but no City and State.

I know, you’re going to remind me that I don’t include my location in my signature. But that’s because my business is not local. It doesn’t matter where I am, and in fact the majority of my clients are in different time zones from me.

But if you have a business that serves a local market, you really should include your city and state in your email signature, especially if you like to send things that will be forwarded on. That could be jokes, stories, pictures, or motivational quotes – but it could also be professional information such as market updates that interest a large number of people.

If it’s interesting, you just don’t know where it will go once it leaves your computer. The last joke you sent could right this minute be circling the earth, landing with someone who is about to move to your city and would love to use your services if he or she knew you lived there.

The thing is, people in your own city will know your location based on your phone number. But people who are thinking of relocating to your city will not – and you just might capture their business based on something as unlikely as a cute picture of a kitten hugging a Great Dane.

That’s a case of “accidental marketing” because it gave a stranger an insight into who you are – and they liked what they saw.

It only takes a minute to add your City and State to your email signature. So why not just do it?

The letter was from AARP, scolding her for not responding to their last letter, instructing her to join. He was shocked and offended by the letter, so had taken their order form and written a response about where they could put their offer… I won’t repeat his words here as this is a family-friendly blog.

He and his wife, both in their 80′s, had once belonged to AARP. They had discontinued a few years back and now wouldn’t think of re-joining, due to AARP’s support for Obamacare.

But even without the political angle, after that letter, they would never re-join.

He was pretty worked up about the whole thing tonight – just the idea that they would try to scold her, or shame her into joining their organization had him livid.

So why do they use such tactics? Probably because some people who are not quite so strong willed do respond – thinking it’s their duty or responsibility, or something.

Still – it’s a bad idea, especially for entrepreneurs trying to build their own business. The word of mouth advertising the “scold technique” generates is all negative. It certainly doesn’t create the kind of relationships you need to help you bring in more customers.

So, as much as you know you offer something of value, and as much as you want more people to join you – don’t scold the folks who ignore your offers.

Instead, keep sending them new and better offers and give them time to get acquainted. Be polite, be helpful, and be respectful.

Remember – you catch more flies with honey…