Marketing Made Simple
If I gave you a powerful way to get more clients, would you use it?
You are about to learn a proven way to grow your business that is so simple yet so effective that if you put it to work right away you’ll be amazed at the impact it will have on your life.
You already have everything you need to make it work. You don’t have to buy anything; you don’t have to spend hours learning the latest online marketing fad – and you can get started right now.
When I “discovered” this and put it to work, it had a profound impact on my business. It helped me grow my business steadily and with peace of mind.
Then for some silly reason I stopped using it.
I did the same thing when a friend gave me a very simple diet that helped me lose 30 pounds. I followed the rules, lost the weight and then fell back into old habits.
My pants were growing but my business was not.
Thankfully I caught myself – I went back to what worked and got the results I wanted. I lost the weight and the business doubled.
Now, I will give you the big secret – but I guarantee only a few people reading this will give it a try for at least 30 days. Most will just nod and say, “That sounds good,” and take no action. Others will try for a week or two and give up.
To grow your business, do this:
- Set an aggressive but realistic revenue goal for the year.
- Divide it by twelve to get your monthly goal.
- Divide that number by the number of working days in the month. Now you know what you have to hit every day.
- Figure out what actions you need to take to get reach that goal. How many leads? How many phone calls? How many letters do you need to mail? How many sales appointments do you need to schedule?
- Keep your goal and your daily tasks in front of you.
- Review them in the morning – review them every night.
- Plan out your day the night before and stick to that plan.
- Make marketing your top priority. No excuses.
Be honest with yourself and take consistent action. Plan your work, work your plan. Everything else is bullshit.
And the diet?
Don’t eat cheese, bread or butter. Eat less red meat. Take more walks.
That’s it.
Don’t overcomplicate things! Get started.
I'd love to know what you think of this post. Leave a comment or question and I promise to respond.Should You Buy Sales Leads From Decidio and Eventective?
Are you frustrated by low quality sales leads? Tired of chasing leads that never return your calls? Have you bought sales leads from Eventective and Decidio and wondering if they’re scams?
As the world’s leading self-appointed business marketing genius, I get this question a lot from caterers, planners and event vendors. They say “I bought those leads, I followed up and nothing. No sales, no responses. It’s a scam.”
I know it’s frustrating when you feel like you’re wasting time and money chasing down leads.
Here’s what some people are saying about these leads …
“eventective.com is another in a long line of internet scams. They have crawled the internet looking for websites of wedding professionals and listed those sites on their service, in most cases without permission.”
Source: Michiana Weddings
Hello everyone! I have actually had a good experience with Eventective! I listed my business for free on the website. I receive leads maybe 3-4 a month and ignored them for about 6 months. Two weeks ago, I decided to pay the $2.50 for a lead. I met with the bride on the same day and she hired me as her wedding planner. $2.50 for an $1,800 contract. I’m feeling real blessed by eventective!
Source: Henry Shoots comments
“We get leads every other week or so and NEVER have anyone reply back. I am guessing it’s a scam too. Most all the budgets are coming in way too low, not worth the time at all! We are done with them.” Decidio.
Source: FredMiranda.com Forum
“The word SCAM comes to mind when I hear Decidio. They still send me “leads”….to nowhere.”
Source: TexasPhotoForum
“As for Decidio.com being a scam, I beg to differ. I’ve secured 2 lucrative contracts from the service this year.”
Source: OurDJTalk.com
So, what is the truth? Are these scams?
Let me go on the record, I do not have any affiliation with either company. I don’t have a vested interest in Eventective or Decidio. I’m not paid to promote either service.
Are The Leads Are Weak?
I know established, successful event professionals who make money off these leads, and I know lots of struggling business owners who’ve never made a single sale from them. The people who struggle the most are the people who hate to sell. They’re afraid of calling strangers. They’re disorganized and they have horrible websites. They don’t offer a real reason to buy from them and not a cheaper clone.
Before you blame these lead sources, answer these questions …
- Why should customers choose you? Please don’t give “great customer service” and “high quality” as your answers. What makes you different, what makes you better than the competition?
- Do you have an irresistible offer or you pretty much like everyone else?
- Are you effectively communicating what makes you the best choice for that customer?
- Do you make claims or do you provide proof?
- Is my website as effective as it can be?
- Are your email subject lines exciting and interesting?
- Do your emails create urgency and give a real reason to call you right now?
- Are the voicemail messages professional, friendly and compelling?
Once you’ve answered those questions correctly, then you can blame the lead generators.
I’ll let Mr. Baldwin provoke you a bit further, enjoy.
Event People! Show This To Your Price Shoppers
You get what you pay for … and sometimes a little bit more.
What do you tell price shoppers when they tell you they can hire somebody cheaper? Here’s what I’d show them if I were a DJ ( and they had a sense of humor).
While you’re here be sure to download a free copy of “More Clients Now” by putting your email in the box to the right.
Marketing Your Event Planning Business – The Hard Facts
As an Event Planner, you “know,” you don’t guess.
You know the facts. The exact dimensions of the party venue. The precise head count for meals, including the band. The event budget to the dollar. You know when the music will start, where the limos are and how long the speeches will be. You know the purpose and the vision for every successful event you produce.
Smart event planners don’t guess, they make fact-based decisions. Any event professional, from a caterer to a decorator understands the risks of “winging it.” I’m sure you’d agree, the more important an event is, the more you require accurate facts.
So why are you winging it when it comes to planning your future and the success of your business?
Do you schedule time to think and plan your marketing a regular basis? Most event business owners don’t. It’s no wonder so many run themselves ragged.
They stop thinking and planning proactively. Instead of accomplishing important tasks that will create growth, income and stability, they fall into the habit of responding to whatever seems
most urgent.
Your business can consume and control your life, or it can serve you. It’s your choice. If you want to avoid long, stressful work hours, erratic income and uncertainty you must do what most people refuse to do, that is “Think and do things in the order of their importance.”
You can run a prosperous event business and still have time and energy for a fulfilling personal life. You can make a nice steady income, take long vacations and have a wonderful retirement too.
But only if you think and plan methodically and consistently.
“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.”
Just the simple act of gathering objective marketing data and regularly reviewing it can transform your business and lifestyle.
Marketing your event business is simpler when you have a system. Here’s how to grow your business with fact-based marketing.
First, create a Fact Book. It can be a 3-ring loose-leaf binder, a leather bound journal or a word file you keep on your desktop, PDA or online. Just make sure you have easy access to it when
inspiration, curiosity or nuggets of data appear.
Next, schedule one hour a week to review it your Fact Book. Every week works best. Schedule one hour of uninterrupted thinking time on a regular basis. Block off the time in your calendar and keep this appointment at all cost.
“Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character and character fixes our destiny”
Keep your Fact Book accessible and begin to construct by dropping in bits and pieces as you discover them. Online tools, like Google’s Notebook makes it easy to clip websites, articles and
thoughts into an easy to search database you can access from anywhere.
“Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
Keep your Fact Book limited to, well, facts. If you can’t back an entry up with objective data, leave it blank until you can. Compile information on your competition, customers, your market and your own business.
Competition
Continually gather the answers to questions about your competition. You’re not doing this be a cutthroat competitor. You’re doing this to learn how to better serve and attract client.
- Who are my strongest competitors? List local event planners that directly compete with you.
- Who are the industry leaders? List the top dogs in event planning who have accomplished what you aspire to.
- What are their strengths? Well connected? Great advertising?Large sales staff? Low overhead?
- What is their competitive advantage?
- What are their weaknesses? List objective observations, not list of insults.
- How many employees do they have? Are you sure? How many full time?
- How do they price their services? You can find out anything if you really want to.
- How fast are they growing? How do you measure that? Number of events? Number of press mentions? Pick a metric.
- How long have they been in business? Look it up.
- What type of events do they specialize in?
- Who are their top clients? Dig!
- How do they attract new clients? Get on their mailing lists.
- Where do they advertise? Make time to find this.
- What is their promotional budget? Number ads x cost per ad.
- What do their customers think of them? Call around, keep notes.
- How well does their site rank in the search engines? Do they outrank you when you Google “event planner” plus your city name? Why?
- What does their latest marketing campaign include? Gather samplesof all their promotional materials.
Customers
Gather information about your customers. The act of compiling this information on a regular basis will help keep you focused on your clients.Include answers to these questions:
- How large is our customer base?
- Who is our average client?
- What do our best clients have in common?
- How did we acquire our best clients?
- Why did our newest clients choose us?
- Why did we lose the last one?
- What demographics define our best clients?
- What is the average size order?
- What is our profit per order?
- How long do customers stay with us on average?
- What is the Long Term Value of a new client? (LTV = Average revenue per client per year X average client retention years)
“The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.”
Your Business
- How many sales leads did we generate this month compared to last year?
- Is my sales & marketing data accurate?
- How many hours did I spend marketing this week?
- How many sales calls did we make?
- How does that compare to last week, month, year?
- Which one of our ads produced the best returns this quarter?
- Am I sure I’m tracking my results accurately?
- Can we scale up our best campaign?
- How can we systematize our marketing?
- How many appointments canceled?
- How profitable was our average job?
- What went really well this week? Why?
- Where did we make mistakes? How can we remedy that?
The Fact Book will grow and grow. The questions above are only suggestions and are in no way complete. As you answer one question, it will lead you to another. Spend your time filling in the blanks. Have your assistant do a good chunk of the data gathering, but I must emphasize, only include FACTS.
Selling and marketing your event business, like anything else, goes smoother when you have a solid plan. Start scheduling time to think about your event business using the Fact Book system. You’ll grow faster and better than ever before.
“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising, which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”
The Special Event 2011
Get More Done!
Get More Done. Make More Money.
Enjoy, learn and take action.
PS … You may notice I’m not in this video, that’s delegation for you! I wouldn’t change a thing about this …except about the part about not answering your phone. If you are a solo business owner trying to get new clients, always answer the phone – until you can afford to hire someone to do it for you.
Every event business owner from caterers to photographers, wedding planners to entertainment companies can put this information to good use. Start today by adapting one of “Dr. Bob’s” great ideas.
And, if you’re new to my blog … why not download a free copy of “More Clients Now.“ My clients and readers have put the free marketing ideas in this report to quickly generate more event bookings. So, grab your copy today!
Cheap Wedding Photography – You Get What You Pay For
I know weddings are expensive, but cutting corners on your photography is something you’ll regret for years to come.
Long after you’ve forgotten about the late limo, the wilted lettuce and the wrong linens … the pictures will remain.
For many couples the only tangible evidence they have of their wedding day is their photographs. Here’s what happened when one bride picked a cheap wedding photographer.
Event Business Scam
- References. Your clients ask you for your references, why shouldn’t you do the same?
- Invoice. Negotiate for payment on delivery of services … and better yet on performance.
- Credit Cards. You have very little recourse after a check it cleared. Paying your deposit by credit card offers a bit more protection.
- Slow Down. There’s always another opportunity to spend money. Don’t feel pressured into making quick decisions.
Bridal Expos and Trade Shows can be a terrific way to grow your business, but most vendors lack the strategy and skills to make them pay off. Before you sign up for a marketing event, make sure your planning goes beyond sitting in the booth and handing out pens.
The High Cost of Mediocrity
If you really want to build a successful business you just have to one thing.
It’s not building a fancier website or getting on page one of Google. It’s not pimping out your logo. It’s not giving out key chains and pens.
It’s not cold-calling or getting really good at handling objections.
The big secret to creating demand and getting clients to line up to do business with is … being remarkable.
Be the business that creates raving fans. The kind of fans who don’t just join your Facebook fan page, they start one for you.
On the face of it – it seems obvious.
But if it’s so obvious, why aren’t you doing it?
It’s because it’s hard to do … and besides, clients don’t demand it.
So we focus on “customer satisfaction” instead of creating amazing experiences that make customers want to tell the whole world about you.
Do you really think good enough is good enough?
Do you really expect to build a thriving business built on mediocrity?
Mediocre businesses always struggle to find clients. Remarkable ones struggle to keep up with demand.
- A remarkable party DJ gives a client a show that’s worth $2,000 but only charges $800.
- A remarkable caterer helps a bride pick out flowers, even if he doesn’t sell flowers.
- A remarkable event photographer pulls some strings and gets her friend at the New York Times to cover her client’s grand-opening.
- A remarkable A/V company helps the event producer find a keynote speaker at the last minute.
- A remarkable banquet manager picks up the guest of honor’s lost luggage at the airport.
If you consistently “wow” your customers by going above and beyond the call of duty you will have customers for life.
Constantly ask yourself, “How can I amaze my clients today?”
I challenge you to do something jaw-droppingly astounding for 10 of your best customers this week.
Event Business Marketing – Speed Kills
Want to know how to book more events? From caterers to event producers – everyone in the event industry is struggling to get more clients. But while the economy has slowed, your customers are speeding up. They want answers now! They want RFP’s completed now!
And your potential clients demand even more speed. If you can’t respond quickly they’ll find someone else who can.
In today’s video I talk about the need for speed and how you can move your business ahead faster.
Yes, speed kills. It kills the slowest competitor.
