5 Secrets to Better Marketing

Marketing is something every entrepreneur has to do, yet it can seem daunting or complicated. The great news is that you can immediately make your current and future marketing more effective by following these five short and easy tips.

1. Create strong headlines. What makes for a great headline? It will have one or more of the following: an intriguing and curiosity-inspiring element; it will touch on a common problem people are willing to spend money on; it touches the reader's emotions.

2. Create intriguing email subject lines. If no one opens your emails, your message doesn't even get the chance to connect with anyone. The subject line is the first "door" you need to get through, in order to connect with your reader.

3. Always use testimonials. Your clients can be 10 times more persuasive than you, so let them speak for you. Get in the habit of consistently asking for testimonials, and using them ALL your marketing materials.

Testimonials can appear in everything you write. I have a colleague who includes a short one in her email signature.

4. Always use photos. Yes, pictures do tell a story and they're worth 10,000 words!

Photos (or illustrations) can be more interesting to readers than words, because the reader brings their own interpretation to the image.

5. Add hand-writte
Post-It notes to your printed materials. Research shows that hand-writte
Post-It notes bring about a much higher response rate than cover letters alone or hand-written notes on cover letters (70% or higher compared to 48% for a hand-written note on a cover letter and 36% for a cover letter without a note).

If you want to improve your marketing, and starting a blog or creating a Twitter account feels a bit overwhelming, these 5 quick tips are an easy place to start. When you consistently follow these tips, your existing marketing will be more effective, and you don't even have to learn anything new to get them done! That was easy!

CALL TO ACTION

To improve your headlines (and email subject lines), start noticing which headlines (and subject lines) grab your attention. What can you learn from them? Which email subject lines lead you to delete the email BEFORE you read it? What can you learn from that?

Consistently ask for and receive testimonials.

If you're having trouble moving forward with your marketing, then this is a good time to get outside expert help.

© 2011 Marcy Stahl