Why I Flew Alan To Switzerland For Direct Marketing Consulting!

I couldn't get to England to Alan's office so I asked Alan if I could fly him to Zürich?

I put him and his partner on to a Swiss Air flight, flew them direct into Zürich, met them both at the Airport and then drove them to a stunning hotel overlooking the Swiss Alps and Lake Zürich.

I want to say now – Of course it cost me money. The whole 4 days was paid by myself, it cost Alan not a single penny.

I paid for flights, hotel, time and other expenses. Some will say that is crazy but I can tell you it was worth every single penny, here's why!

It was truly a great Weekend-Business-Breakthrough-Session for me. 

I am in multiple businesses, my main business being in the hair and beauty business. Also we have training academy's, new hair products we have developed, books I have written and even more.

I was feeling stuck, looking for new direction but more important I needed to fast-track certain areas of my business.

I knew about Alan, had read a lot about him on his websites and had a strong feeling he could help my business grow fast!

At the moment I decided to fly Alan over to Switzerland I was confident to work out some big points for my salon marketing and success 2012. 

I did not get disappointed,  Alan was very direct, straight to the point, brutally frank, with huge business experience and important for me, over 20 years of salon experience.

All I needed from the weekend to pay for itself was just one magical moment that would change things for me.

I had many small moments, tips, advice and directions but two big Aha-effects for sure. 

Alan taught me and opened my eyes to how much PERCEPTION changes the game for my business. This is a very big moment for me.

Also not just how to create new marketing campaigns but also why it is so important to take yourself the TIME to work out marketing campaigns on a daily basis. 

The weekend cost me what some would call a lot of money. Frankly I know the return on investment will be huge for me. I have had changes right away that have more than paid for Alan's advice.

Thank you Alan.

My advice for you is this; If you are stuck, need motivating or really need to know how to get a new business up fast or an older business flying in a new direction fast, you really cannot do any better than meeting Alan for a weekend for what is a truly in-depth direct marketing expert advice.

I did think carefully about this investment but next time I would happily pay ten times more.

Thanks you for an inspiring get together. I'm confident in 2012 we will stay no.1 in Town and make it even better.

If you'd like Alan to work on your business get in touch right now through our contact page.

Alan has consultant with well over 70 types of business, from salons to concrete suppliers to private schools to internet entrepreneurs. 

Here's a little direct marketing project we have been creating and still working on for a client.

Click on the graphics to see the changes.

Find the critique here.

http://www.orangebeetle.info/jontaylor.htm 

Facebook marketing for business?

Have you noticed how almost all adverts on TV now direct their buyers, targets into Facebook?

Facebook it seems has the World in the grip. The large ad agencies are pushing Facebook as the best way to get new customers for their clients. I think they have it wrong.

The NEW gurus that have done or bought Facebook course are selling Facebook as the only way to get business (despite the fact most know nothing about business).

You can sit behind anyone playing with their phone and see them checking in or checking out something, someone, some where on Facebook.

Recently on the Metro line in Paris with my daughter, the conversation in front of us was clearly in French but with one word dominating the conversation… Facebook.

Then of course there was getting back to my Parisienne apartment in the evening the first call to action for my daughter was to get the Mac book out and log into Facebook until every last moment of her awakeness had vanished.

FACEBOOK 'BUSINESS' ADDICTION

So although Facebook appears to have a huge chunk of mankind gripped and almost 'addicted' … the real question for anyone in business is… what effect does it have on your business … OR SALES?

So I thought I would share with you my own experiences so far with Facebook and relate to you what I have and am seeing in my world of direct marketing.

First the new Facebook (fakebook) gurus and REAL web marketing gurus.

My big question is what do these facebook guys know about business? After all most have seen, bought, read or just copied a new fad that has gripped them as well as others. Most have zilch experience with business?

When the web really started to grow in the late 90s early 2000, this was when I first got into the web after 15 years with town centre businesses.

The affiliate game was the BIG talk. Everything and everyone revolved around how easy it would be to get rich, having nothing apart from the link to someone else product.

It took a few years but eventually we all discovered that the reality was far bigger than the story. The reality was that to be a great affiliate, make money doing affiliate links, you first had to be a specialist in web traffic NOT websites! Then it went beyond web traffic, it went into targeted web traffic after all some of us were getting great numbers with NO sales. Some were getting huge numbers and no sales.

Along came the likes of the brilliant Declan Dunn, genius Ken Evoy, science like Patrick Anderson and revealed to us the real secret of traffic and traffic strategies so we could make money as affiliates.

Then eccentric geniuses like Marlon Sanders set the map for success with his incredible, Amazing Formula, the blueprint for making sales after all Marlon had been involved in real business, he got it, he understood what worked and the system for buying.

Then the next problem we faced was conversions, how do we convert, how do we make sales happen from the traffic. Even I had grown a list in the early days from nothing to almost 10,000 selling to those looking for haircuts from my hair tips and secrets website. I had big numbers on the list but couldn't sell a thing.

The gap was quickly filled by the likes of Yanik Silver and his Sales Letter software. Now you could create a letter that would convert the visitors into buyers by simply clicking a mouse and finally copy and pasting into our webpages.

Of course the bottom line was simple. Not many people could make money as affiliates as they could not give the time, effort and energy to making the changes, learning he new things needed to get the sales.

Most of the early affiliates simply left, got a job and re-joined society as a regular human.

That was the early wave of making money online. Later came other smaller waves yet bigger. Smaller as in the substance was low, bigger as in they had the energetic push of the seminar. The early seminars I recall were great.

Filled with real people in business, real people wanting to be successful in business, real people with real intentions to do great things.

Some did, some successes were recorded, it was cool. Then I would say almost 100% of audiences though went, listened, left with big intentions, were hard-sold 'how to' products like crazy, but within 3 months were back to their regular way of creating a living.

Now today we have Facebook.

This time is different, very different.

Before we all used to try and divert traffic into our websites from search engines, now we are trying to tap into existing traffic on Facebook for sales.

Here's what I feel. This doesn't mean I'm right but it's how I feel about what I am seeing.

LIKES on a page doesn't mean sales. It means two things. The owners of the page has a better feeling for himself or herself or ego, that they have a lot of likes.

Lets face it, how often to you go back to a page you like, Ever?

Likes are a measure of approval from the audience and NOT a measure of sales or the success of a business.

Recently I had a skype call with a good online partner of mine. He had just added 42,000 LIKES to one page. I was interested so I called him on skype and asked him for the juice.

• He shared with me that there were no sales or spikes in sales from the 42,000 likes. 
• He shared with me that despite promoting to the 42,000 they were certainly not buyers.
• He shared with me the reason he had done it was very simple… it looked good to those that came, arrived and saw the high number… PERCEPTION!

ARE YOU BORING?

Other things I have seen on Facebook is friends, LIKES get bored easy. They want to be entertained. I have seen more comments on an uploaded photo of a plate of food than I have on the generic copy and paste quotes, pasted daily. I have seen comments and interactions on a photo or video of a skateboard jump than I have on any business link.

Facebook seem to drop in, they search, look for moments to capture their eyes, read comments, reply to comments, post comments and then vanish back into their jobs or whatever they are doing.

Yet the Ad agencies are sending their clients customers into Facebook based on the fact that 750 million people are subscribed and over 70% return daily. Most send them to Facebook for what? Because there is a big crowd hanging out there?

That raises another question of course. It's this. If you sell course on 'Easy to learn English' would you go to a place where it is 100% English to sell. You go there based on one thing, it's busy, it's packed and SOME out of the 100,000 daily footfall will buy?

or

Do you go to the French quarter where the French community is waiting to come to England to work? There might just be 300 people there but is there a chance of more sales if the offer is irresistible?

Just because Facebook gets 750,000,000 members and has a daily return rate (apparently) of 70% does not equate to sales.

FAKEBOOK GURUS

Then of course the Facebook gurus that are selling anything and anything to get your money. They offer 25 facebook accounts, they offer tricks, opt in pages, plugins, apps and more just to try and steal some of facebooks traffic.

They will happily show you how to get more fans, more friends, more exposure but the reality is this… Facebook isn't stupid, they won't allow anyone to abuse their website for long before the block, ban and unfriend you.

These guys make their money selling you how to make money on facebook, MOSTLY NOT by making money on Facebook.

That raises a question if you are in business, how much time and effort should a business plough into Facebook as a marketing medium?

• Do you see Donald Trump posting on Facebook photos of his sandwich daily?
• Do you see Richard Branson getting heavily involved on Facebook chatter?
• Can you imagine Sir Alan Sugar sitting for hour going through Facebook and posting things like "I've just signed a 6 figure deal, This year is going great I have got 3 new clients all worth a million or I am so grateful that I have me and my cat in my life, thank you for allowing me to be Alan Sugar"

Sounds ridiculous in black and white of course.

Lets face it, business is about relationships, building a relationship with or prospect, creating trust that if they deal with us we will look after them.

Creating and build and crafting irresistible offers using the art, the science of mindset marketing that is service based, that is relationship focused, that has the buyers best interests at heart.

Creating a list, building that list, sharing with that list a trusting voice that they want to be part of.

Yes Facebook is there and won't vanish, it should be used but if we as businesses fall into the trap of thinking its a magic bullet we are going to be in trouble.

Those that are building their businesses around facebook marketing are building marketing on sand.

Those that claim and make claims of the almost shamanic business powers of Facebook will vanish at some point like some of the early marketeers in the late 90s.

It'll take time to balance out and for the tiny, tiny few it'll be a good sounding board to write and voice from.

I'd advise you to ask yourselves some questions.

1. Facebook is free but is your time free? How do you value your time per hour, how much time do you invest into facebook? It's never free

2. How much real business have you had via facebook? Can you measure it? If it can't be measured, should you be guessing in business?

3. How many marketing strategies do you use daily? Is Facebook part of the big picture? Do you use any of the 225 ways to take your business to market that I can list? 

4. Do you now send all of your traffic to a facebook forward slash domain rather than to your own domain? If you replied yes, why? Because you were told to or because you are getting a huge benefit from facebook marketing?

5. Look at your own user habits on facebook. Do you spend ages on certain pages? Do you go back to likes? Do you contact products or business through facebook?

Review your own habits and as one of the 750 million on facebook you'll see the habits of most through your own.

Bottom line is this.

Marketing a business is about profit, it's really that simple. Is Facebook making you a profit or is it creating losses for you due to time lost, traffic lost, investment lost and an addictive distraction?

I hope this helps you.

If you need advice, direction from a marketing man with over 26 years in direct marketing… contact me from this site.

Critique taken from one of my Marketing Intensive classes … The Next Level

Taken from Alan Forrest Smith Direct Marketing Intensive … The Next Level DVD Set

‎"OVER £200,000 in Sales… Thank You Alan…" David Lee

Hi Alan,

Just thought We would send you an email to thank you for the very informative and inspiring 3 hours we spent with you on the 16th August, 2011 in Manchester. 

We had a good idea what to expect as regards the content of the meeting as you had kept us continually informed prior to the meeting, of the types of topics we would be covering. However, we never expected the full on enthusiastic care and attention you gave to us regarding our ideas, and the genuine desire  to help us be a success with the online business we want to create. 

You made us focus very strongly towards our target market and product. Some things we maybe would not have wanted to hear about our "baby" but nevertheless were well meant and came from a professional stance, which is why we decided you would be a great choice to guide us through everything. You were very professional but with, we must say, a light hearted fun and entertaining approach.

Having watched you over time on various DVDs, it became quite apparent you stood out from the other entrepreneurs, gurus, whatever they are called, that you are not part of that "Hard Sell" community to which anyone can so easily succumb to. Yes we paid for your time, as you do run a business, but you have kept in contact personally on numerous occasions before and since.

I know for a fact, anyone who is totally bogged down by information overload would benefit from a few hours with you to clear their minds and focus. Hopefully we will have a continued friendship and association with you in the future, and I am sure you will want to with us, and look forward to the launch of your new book. 

 Regards Susan and Myles

 Susan P Blower

Infinity Publishing Ltd

Drastic Actions Ltd

FREE Marketing?

All this rambling and raving of free marketing.

Facebook and its mass traffic of 750 million searchers

Google+ and its newness and simplicity

Email and its no delivery charge

And the list goes on.

But is there such a thing as free marketing?

I have a client that has just under one million names on his email list.

To sell 500 of one of his products he has to email that list daily for 6 weeks. He doesn't really care about the unsubscribes, thinks it worth the effort.

I have another client who also sells something almost the same as the guy above. He used to have an email list but he is smart. His list was around 200,000. Notice how I said 'USED TO'

I called him and we spoke. He's a numbers guy. I said to him it's been a while since I got emails from your business. He told me they had stopped using email and gone back into direct mail.

Interesting so I asked why.

He told me to sell 500 units to his email list of 200,000 was almost impossible on any campaign. To sell 500 units to his direct mail list needs just a list of 5000 names and addresses.

I said to him but doesn't that cost you more?

He replied not at all how can it. I would spend 6 weeks emailing to get less than 500 sales. Now I direct mail and within a few days we have our sales. The reality is with new products we now sell SIX TIMES MORE than previously because we use direct mail only (at the moment)

Interesting right? I did say SIX TIMES MORE!

Back to FREE marketing?

I get clients email and call me asking for direct marketing strategies that cost as little as possible or almost FREE. Let's think about this because if the above is anything to go by the cost is really in lost sales, lost time, lost efforts and frustrations trying to sell to a million people on an email list with little response.

I haven't done the numbers but I wonder how much cash the guy with the list of one million is actually leaving on the table?

So the bottom line for you is this.

Don't be swept up in the hype of free marketing. Yes free marketing can be good for you and your business but it has to be part of a timely, precise, measurable campaign that delivers results.

• Make sure you know what your buyers are actually asking you for.
  
• Forget free unless it's part of a bigger strategy.
  
• Think about real results that can be measured.
  
• Look for conversion ratios.
  
• Can you really define your marketplace?
  
• Can you really refine and refine your target marketing?
  
• Measure time per hour and do comparisons.
  
• If it don;'t work, drop the ego and drop it
  
• If it does work, don't try and fix what's working.
  

Does that help you?

I specialize in consulting, feel free to take advantage of a 15 minute free evaluation. Simply hit reply to see if I can help you grow your business fast.

I'm Looking For New Partners Right Now … Is That YOU?

Maybe you'd love me to work on your marketing, advertising campaigns but feel you can't afford me personally as your direct marketing consultant?

That's fine, I have a perfect, cost-effective solution based on you getting more sales!

I've created this offer around your feedback over the years. If you're the right person, company, team I know it'll be perfect for you.

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