In this issue:

1) Tip of the Week

2) FEATURE ARTICLE: How to Generate Better Leads With Less Time, Money, and Effort by Dr. Michel Fortin, Ph.D.

3) CLASSIFIEDS

4) FREE Resources

5) POWERQUOTE

6) MOTIVATIONAL MESSAGE: A Lesson On Time Management by James R. Beach

If you'd like to read previously ran tips and features, go to http://netcheckspayroll.com/newsletter.html

In today's feature article, Dr. Fortin offers us some solid advise for finding buyers for our goods and services, including targeting specific markets. Here are a few ideas for expanding our target markets:

Increase Your Target Markets! by Larry Dotson

Are your products or services geared towards only one target market? You can increase sales and profits by increasing your target markets. Below are some creative ways to increase your target markets by using your existing products and services you're selling right now.

REDESIGN You can increase your target markets by redesigning your products and services. For example: you're selling a book called "Internet Marketing Tips For Accountants" You could rewrite part of your book and call it "Internet Marketing Tips For Lawyers". You've now increased your target markets by redesigning your book.

ADD-ON You can increase your target markets by adding on other product or service with your main one. For example: if you're selling a football magazine you could add a free football when someone buys a subscription. You're now targeting people who want the football magazine and those that want to play football out in the yard. Sometimes they buy stuff just to get the freebies.

TEAM-UP You can increase your target markets by doing a cross promotion with a similar non-competing businesses. For example: your business sells tennis rackets and you find another business to cross promote with that sells tennis balls. You could combine your racket and their balls in one package. You are now targeting people that need tennis rackets and balls. ---- 50 FREE Internet Business E-Books! Visit: http://www.ldpublishing.com

How to Generate Better Leads With Less Time, Money, and Effort By Dr. Michel Fortin, Ph.D.

In today's hyper-competitive marketplace, the most effective marketing tool available is "top-of-mind awareness." Rather than institutional marketing (the kind that says "I'm open for business"), the object of this approach is to create a psychological "anchor" in the minds of prospects so that the name, product, or service of a particular firm comes to their minds instantaneously. However, once top-of-mind awareness has been created, how does one get people to act and buy what one has to offer?

First, let's take a look at a big mistake business people often make when they market themselves. Many try to sell their product or service directly in every communication they produce. And, as a result, they generate huge amounts of "prospects" that lead to little or no business (or what I call "expects"). They think that by selling themselves right in the ad they will get not only an immediate response but also immediate business. This oftentimes backfires and can even take away customers.

Many clients I've dealt with usually get as a result of this type of approach a lot of calls but no clients -- or at least no long term clients. They end up dealing with a lot of people who are merely curious but never serious. Because of hyper competition and the fact that we are constantly bombarded with information, trying to find qualified prospects and get them to buy can sometimes be worse than a needle in the haystack. It's frustrating and often self-effacing.

MULTI-STEP MARKETING A new concept (although it's been around for years but has recently become very popular) is "Multi-Step Marketing." It's a process in which businesses seek an immediate response as a result of their marketing efforts but use this technique to offer a free report, item, sample, or service. Little do people know, however, that the immediate response strategy is usually not the true goal of the advertiser. People who request the freebie are not general, curious, uninterested, and unqualified prospects. They are indirectly being screened since, once they "show up," they are pre-qualified and, after they've been enticed with some free information, product, or service, they are pre-sold and ready to do business.

As a consultant to cosmetic surgeons, this process is obviously essential if not vital. For instance, no one can call a person on the phone and outright ask if that person is bald and wants more hair, especially without knowing if that person is bald in the first place! However, doctors will advertise a free information kit offer whereby people who respond will naturally fit into a specific demographic.

The doctor then sends a brochure explaining the procedure, the possible risks, and the potential results, but without any pricing (it is impossible to determine the cost until the doctor personally sees the patient). The information package, therefore, along with its lack of pricing, causes some prospects to come forward once more to arrange for a personal consultation with the doctor. Those who show up are, by and large, practically ready to have surgery.

You see, people who may need your products or services may fit your demographics. But people who come forward and want what you offer fit your psychographics. As in the previous example, the demographics for a hair transplant surgeon encompass those who have hair loss. But psychographics, though, are comprised of people who have hair loss and want to do something about it (since not all of them do). This is the power of "funneling" fuel into your marketing machine.

LEAD GENERATION In your case, if you offer a specific product or service that caters to a specific target market, find out ways to make your market come forward with minimal effort on your part. The best way to do this is to offer a freebie of some kind. It's like the "try-before-you-buy" approach. Being in the information age, I prefer the "free report" type of giveaway. Your free report doesn't have to be product or service-specific, industry-specific, or benefit-specific. As long as it targets an audience that fits within your demographics (and eventually your psychographics), you're ahead of the game.

Let's say you're in financial planning. Your product involves services such as investments, mutual funds, stocks, retirement savings plans, mortgages, and venture loans. Rather than place an ad that directly markets your services, you could advertise using a small classified ad promoting a free course, seminar, or report on helping people save money. Let's say you're a beautician. You could offer a free kit that may include a free makeover, a free makeup sample kit, a gift certificate, a free initial consultation, or a free report on makeup styles and colors that will match one's unique complexion.

Nevertheless, the idea is to have people come to you rather than you to them, and the incentive you offer doesn't have to relate directly to what you do or sell. In general, the portion of the general public that fits into your product or service's demographics is merely made up of "suspects" (you suspect that they might need what you have to offer). When a portion of them comes forward to get your free report, sample, or service, you've isolated the true "prospects" from your suspects. Then, if they want more information or want more of what you've got, they're now "expects" (people expecting to do business with you).

THE FREE REPORT I used to work as a salesperson for a music store specializing in pianos and keyboards. Older pianos usually require considerable repair since the wood inside holding the strings with which the piano creates its sound may be too old and broken beyond repair. A salesperson at the store had a small classified ad that said: "Beware parents in the market for a piano! (That's the headline.) Many parents usually buy used pianos for their kids because they don't know if they'll love music and therefore want to minimize the risk of losing their investment. However, to the unsuspecting buyer, many used pianos are internally broken beyond repair and temporarily 'doped' in order to sound good and be sold quickly, only to become broken again when it's too late. Before you buy any piano at any price, call for our free report, 'Don't Let Piano Problems Put Your Bank Account Out of Tune: 6 Ways to Find Commonly Hidden Problems with Used Pianos'."

His report not only explained the possible hidden faults commonly found in pianos. But since he was catering to a target market (parents of piano students), his report went on to explain how used pianos fall out of tune quickly causing the child to learn the piano the wrong way and eventually to lose interest -- let alone the parents' money!

Of course, what the salesperson really wanted was to get these parents to buy new or professionally refurbished pianos from his store and especially from him. The resulting effect, though, was that the report not only brought prospects to his door but also instilled in them a greater confidence in the salesperson in addition to the reasons for buying a certified piano rather than a used one. He made a fortune using this technique!

In essence, look at your free report as a résumé. People often send bulky résumés to potential employers in an attempt to sell themselves as much as possible, when very often their attempts get filed away -- into file #13, that is! Successful career consultants stress the importance of summarizing a résumé as much as possible, include one's past accomplishments and bottom-line results (not one's previous duties and responsibilities), and putting it all on one single page. Why? Because, simply put, the résumé is not meant to land a "job" but to land an "interview."

Lead generation should be regarded in the same way. Your free offer must be small, contain a concise message, stress an immediate benefit, and cause the prospect to come forward. What can you offer your prospects to arouse their curiosity and interest? What can you give away for free so to entice them to get more? If you're giving something away, you'll realize that what you're really doing is not giving away free stuff but generating better leads. Nevertheless, realize that the cost of offering freebies is far less than the cost of mass marketing (and much more effective too)!

SPECIALIZED ADVERTISING Now that we've talked about lead generation advertising, the trick to having as many pre-qualified prospects come forward is to have your ad noticed and read by such a specific group of people as much, as often, and as effectively as possible. General publications won't do that and they certainly cost a lot of money. Many people have their ads published in large, high-circulation, general newspapers or magazines. In the end, the cost-per-lead can add up significantly.

Specialized publications, on the other hand, have the distinction of appealing to a specific audience and thus increase the chances of it being noticed as well as read. For example, if one publication has 100,000 readers but only 25,000 of this number fits into your demographics, where another has only 40,000 but all of which fits into your demographics, which one do you think will give you the greatest response? In other words, rather than fishing for small fish in the middle of the ocean, you'll be a catching big fish in a small pond.

Think of the specialized publication as a sonar that will help you to find the kind of fish you really want. This is not only due to the fact that the readership will match your demographics, but also due to the fact that people who buy specialized publications have a tendency to read them from cover to cover. For instance, unlike a mass-published newspaper that will be "sifted" through (i.e., it is bought by many but read in its entirety by few), a specialized publication will be read more intensely and thoroughly than the general one (i.e., it is bought by few but read in its entirety by many).

TARGET YOUR MARKET If you advertise a free offer to a specific target market, your per capita hit-ratio will dramatically increase than if you would have advertised your product or service directly in a major publication that's too general or too vague. Your little ad can easily get "lost" in a sea of ads. These days, specialized publications exist by the truckloads! Occupation-specific, special interest, or industry-specific publications can include newsletters, magazines, e-zines, web sites, trade publications, newsgroups, journals, reports, corporate e-mail, directories, specialty newspapers, catalogues, and communiqués from specific organizations and associations.

Publications for uncommon or highly specialized topics are out there in some form or another. For instance, if you go to a library, you will find that there are Web sites for specific home-based businesses, newsletters exclusively written for corporate executives, e-zines purely about cigars, newspapers strictly published for firemen, and even magazines geared for -- of all things -- gerbil breeders! As long as the readership logically fits into your target market and, if possible, into your psychographic criteria, this is where you will get the greatest bang for your marketing buck.

For example, an advertising agent specializing in computer-based firms can advertise an offer for a free report in computer magazines or, better yet, in e-zines in which firms that cater to a same target market often advertise. A medical consultant should advertise a free consultation in medical journals, medical association newsletters, and medical equipment manufacturer catalogues. You get the drift.

THE NEWSLETTER By the way, having your own newsletter is also a powerful way to attract prospects. Your newsletter may be offered for free or at a nominal cost, but the idea is to have the people who read it want more and come forward to get it. As well, you can sell advertising space in your newsletter to firms also catering to your unique clientele. Newsletters help form strategic alliances since you can buy ads in or even "swap" ads with newsletters written by other firms that cater to your target market.

Your newsletter can be strictly information-oriented and your ads can advertise your newsletter offer. However, don't make your free report or newsletter readily available. Many people who choose to use the multi-step marketing process I described earlier (which I strongly encourage) want the names and addresses of those people coming forward. In this case, they have a special application process (such as a form to fill out) and a contact management program to mass mail their information to eager subscribers.

Remember, you're not trying to advertise with the hope of stumbling onto a trickle of suspects. You want an endless stream of pre-qualified, pre-screened, and pre-sold expects! People who request your report or newsletter will hopefully want more. But even when only a small portion do, you know that they are much more qualified, which saves you a lot of time and effort than trying to fish in a dried up desert of possible suspects.

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Michel Fortin, Ph.D. is THE SUCCESS DOCTOR (tm), an award-winning business development consultant, speaker, copywriter, and marketeer. You may visit his site at http://members.home.net/mfortin. He is the author of many books and articles on sales and marketing. You may obtain a FREE copy of his complete report, "The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning: Magical Marketing Strategies for Creating Endless Streams of New, Repeat, and Referral Business," at mailto:success-doctor@home.com or 613-748-1624.

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"There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go."

- Richard David Bach, American author

Questions to Ponder

Am I learning from all of my mistakes?

Do I take time to reflect on events, to see what I can learn, both from the event itself and its outcome?

Submitted by Kevin Eikenberry from Powerquotes kevin@discian.com to subscribe http://discian.com/pq.htm

A Lesson On Time Management by James R. Beach, SandDollar Marketing Group

Internet Marketing takes a great deal of time, even if you automate as many functions as you can doesn't it? Never seems like there's enough time to do everything.

Well let's take a class in time management. Walk into the classroom, choose a desk near the back (like you did in school), slip into the seat and take your pencil and notepad out of your backpack.

The instructor walks into the room carrying an empty 10-gallon water jug and dragging an obviously heavy bag. He places them on the teacher's desk. Without a word, he begins placing white rocks, just big enough to fit through the mouth of the jug, into the jug until they reach the very top. "Is it full?" he asks. You nod.

"Maybe not," he says. He then stuffs tiny pebbles into the jug and the pebbles find their way through the cracks in the rocks. "Full now?" he asks. The whole class nods.

He then shovels sand into the jug, occasionally shaking the jug and the tiny grains sift through the rocks and pebbles. "OK," he says, "now is it full?" The class nods in unison.

He smiles. He then slowly pours water into the jug until a water glass is finally empty.

"The lesson here," he says, "is that there is always more room in our lives than we think there is. When you think you're out of time, there is still more available if you look for it AND your priorities are right."

Here's the time-saving payoff:

The ROCKS are the important things we have to accomplish regularly to be successful. They go into our "time jug" first, because they are most important. The PEBBLES represent those things we may not like to do, but we must do. They go in next. The SAND represents things that we should do, we may even like to do, but they're not as important. The WATER represents the few remaining things that make a difference. If you reverse the order, putting in the water, then the sand, then the pebbles, there will not be enough room for the rocks. So prioritize your activities and make sure the rocks go on your schedule first.

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Mr. Beach is a corporate marketing veteran, author and netrepreneur who has taught marketing classes at the university level. Jim's company, SandDollar Marketing Group, specializes in identifying scam-free and guaranteed business opportunities on the internet. To see his recommended opportunities and get free marketing resources visit http://www.business-opp.com

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