Articles by Dan Kennedy on ArticleSnatch.com

The Easiest Plan For Getting Referrals for Your Small Business

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:07:17 -0500

I want to talk to you about what is perhaps the most effective, yet underused referral strategy that I know which is to.... ...simply ask for them. Many business owners and executives, professionals and even sales people have all sorts of mental hang-ups about asking for referrals. However, most of those hang-ups are invalid and I find that those who ask get! Now here's a secret about customers or clients who refer that can be worth a great deal of money to you. Understand that the person who refers once can and will refer many more people, many more times if motivated to do so. Once a customer or client has referred someone to your business then that source of referral should be worked like the goldmine that it is. You should know that massive research by major to consumer direct sales companies and organizations indicates that the average person has an immediate circle of influence of fifty-two. Fifty-two other people. The typical executive, for example, knows about fifty other people at a similar executive level in his own or closely related industries. **End Summary** Topics: Referrals]]> Small Business]]> Business Strategies]]> Small Business Owners]]> Customer referrals]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

Before You Choose Behavior, Choose Its Purpose

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:05:38 -0500

She is a shredder with no receptacle. She is an interesting dog in many respects. Notably her fierce independence. She will play with a crumpled ball of paper thrown for her but she prefers picking one out, standing onhind legs, and taking what she wants. She is a shredder with no receptacle. She is an interesting dog in many respects. Notably her fierce independence. She will play with a crumpled ball of paper thrown for her but she prefers picking one out, standing onhind legs, and taking what she wants. Even after a leg operation, she hates being picked up to a couch, chair or my lap and wants to jump and get up there on her own. Too bad more people don't have such a profound preference for self-reliance. Cleaning up her paper mess, once before a work day here with Sydney Biddle Barrows, and a few days later,before a consulting day with Ron LeGrand and Entourage, made me think about the making of messes and the cleaning up of messes. **End Summary** Topics: Small Business]]> Marketing]]> super-successful entrepreneurs]]> Marketing Behavior]]> Marketing Purpose]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

Who Is The Readily Obtainable Customer

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:27:18 -0500

Word-of-mouth marketing is taught there as "find ways to do what you do so well and so uniquely that your customers cannot resist telling lots of other people about you." At the Disney Parks this principle is implemented in the forms of cleanliness and authenticity. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful, effective type of advertising there is but it's the only kind you can't just buy by the page or by the minute. It has to be created, stimulated and nurtured with truly creative techniques. Most businesses take whatever word-of-mouth advertising they get but I'm here to tell you that you can exert a considerable degree of control over this type of advertising and marketing. The reason that word-of-mouth advertising is so valuable is simple. Nothing you could ever say about you, no matter how well you say it, can have as much impact and credibility as something someone else says about you - especially an enthusiastic customer or client. Also there are some things you simply can't say graciously about yourself that others can say. Artificial word-of-mouth advertising is still the most effective form of TV commercial. It's called 'Slice of Life' and you're very familiar with it. **End Summary** Topics: Word-of-mouth]]> advertising]]> marketing]]> product advertising]]> TV Commercial]]> Slice of life]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

Why are These Companies Admirable?

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:56:20 -0500

I want to talk just a little about the few truly excellent American companies I carefully observe and respect and why they're so successful. First, let's talk a little about the lack of excellence and one great place to find that is the hospitality industry. The hotel and motel industry is, in my opinion, the most screwed up, poorly managed, insensitive, uncaring industry there is. I travel a lot and my company's booked meeting rooms and convention space in hotels all across the country. Almost all of them rate between poor and awful and in terms of valuing the customer...most have no perception of this ideas whatsoever. The exceptions are so notable that I can actually remember the details. Most of the hotel executives and employees dealing with meetings and conventions make the mistake of thinking business is based on the facilities, the brass railings, the marble in the bathrooms, the rates, the financial statements, they forget that their business is customers and customer service. At the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee they give gold guitar shaped lapel pins to the guests who are running meetings. **End Summary** Topics: Small Business]]> Hospitality Industry]]> Entrepreneur]]> American Companies]]> Brillian Marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

Are There Any New View?

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:10:49 -0500

In my last post I wrote about creating a fundamental checklist of success by using Napoleon Hill's book Think and Grow Rich as a template. A second type of checklist to construct and use is what I call a 'Practical Creativity Checklist.' There are a number of methods for rearranging the existing and old into the different and new that actually account for most innovations in the world. There may not be anything new under the sun. Now here are some of the things that belong on this practical creativity list. Number one: we can plus the product, service or business? Plusing is addition, adding to. Several years ago a company rolled out a new product, peanut butter and jelly swirled together in the same jar. Contingent on how you want to look at it they plused the peanut butter with jelly or vice versa. The product didn't do well but it's a good example of the idea. Number two: we can minus the product, service or business? A convertible is a car without a hardtop. Number three: can we do it with size? The entire instant printing industry is a result of a size change. **End Summary** Topics: New Ideas]]> Small Business]]> New Product]]> Business Checklist]]> New Business]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Author Info: Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

A Message in the Assets that Matter to Small Business Selling

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:05:09 -0500

Yes, there still is a Fuller Brush Man - although the company's products are mostly sold today on Home Shopping Network, in catalogs, and by some spare-time reps and home parties ala Tupperware. Art Pearson has been a full-time Fuller Brush Man calling on customers at their homes for 70 years. If you're younger than 40, you've probably never seen a creature like Art. The Fuller Brush Man, the Cook Coffee Man, the Charles Chips man, the Sealtest Milkman. (There used to be jokes about someone's new baby resembling the milkman.) They had routes and regular customers, built by knocking on doors; they came weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, brought pre-ordered products - staples like cleaning soaps or coffee and tea - and carried a big tote of other products to show, demonstrate and sell. When I joined Amway, it was still somewhat like Fuller, with the multi-level recruiting tagged on. Many distributors had white vans or station wagons with big Amway logos. I did not. But I did develop over 100 regular customers at age 16 that monthly bought between $2,500.00 and $4,000. **End Summary** Topics: Small Business Marketing]]> Direct Response Marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

Is Your Small Business Marketing Lame?

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:49:15 -0500

Donald Trump says "e-mail is for wimps." I'll leave that for another time, but I couldn't resist mentioning it. Another type of business wimp seems to be the employer controlled by and fearful of his own employees. I actually hear employers say: "My employees won't let me do that." Incredible. But, by far, the largest population of business wimps is what Zig calls "professional visitors" - salespeople who show up but never ask for the order. Along this same vein is an ad that doesn't sell anything. The ad wimps out. Let's use as an example an ad for an apartment complex. It might give us information about the room sizes, the location in relation to the nearest highway, and the hours of the leasing office. At the bottom , the name of the contact person and a phone number. "For more information, call Suzanne" might work as a call to action scrawled on the bathroom wall in a low-rent bar, but it just isn't a good direct-response instruction. Note that word: instruction. You have to give prospects specific instructions to follow. It has long been my observation that most customers have reasonably good, well-polished skills for following instructions; **End Summary** Topics: small business marketing]]> managing employees]]> business management]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

Stop Moaning About Cheap Price Competitors...and RAISE Yours!

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:20:19 -0500

Right before the Depression, small store owners thought it was impossible to compete against the big chain at the time, so they filed a lawsuit, and finally got The Robinson-Pittman Act Of 1936 passed by the US Congress - and that law still exists today. It says that volume discounts given by manufacturers cannot exceed the cost savings gained by the manufacturer by delivering the large volume order. And now a group of 160 tire store owners have filed an anti-trust complaint in federal court against Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, AutoZone and thirteen manufacturers, based on this law, claiming the manufacturers are selling to these chains too cheaply. See, and you thought if you owned your own business you could sell or not sell to anybody you darn well pleased at whatever prices you chose. Ha! I hear business owners complaining about Wal-Mart specifically, big competitors and price cutters in general, all the time. Their poor little ole me attitude that they can't compete on price. And they're right. So, dunderheads, compete on some basis other than price. **End Summary** Topics: small business marketing]]> small business marketing ideas]]> pricing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes with his unique small business marketing ideas . Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

The Greatest Strategy So Few Small Business Marketers Are Willing To Use

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:31:17 -0500

Never discouraged by futility or resistance, I continue to teach and preach the profound advantage available only through precise message to market match. And I have another instructive example. The big sporting goods, hunting, fishing, camping and apparel company ORVIS offers its customer mailing list with ethnic and religious selects, so you can obtain only the Jewish or Catholic or Muslim or Hindu buyers, or only the Asian or African-American or British or Irish or Italian or Hispanic buyers....and by merging Orvis' list with InfoUSA lifestyle selects, you can get only Democrats or only Republicans...so you could, for example, get only Irish-Catholic Democrats, by age, gender and geography. Why on earth would you want to do such a thing? Why on earth would they let a piece go out like that? You wouldn't, unless you were going to customize your sales letter and enclosures, envelope, offer, everything specifically and precisely for the selected list. As example, let us assume we are going to offer an Alaska cruise with stops for bear hunting and salmon fishing and the like to Orvis' married multi-buyers of hunting and fishing gear and apparel who have bought items priced above $200.00. **End Summary** Topics: small business marketing]]> list segmentation]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people with small business marketing strategies in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.Dan is also the author of seven popular No B.S. books.

Are You Missing This Chance in Your Business

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:58:49 -0500

Small business marketing has used sex for years, for all kinds of stuff, targeting both men and women. It can be subtle " like Cadillac's woman driver: the question slyly asked by the sexy woman: when you turn your car on, does it return the favor? ...overt " think after-shave ads.humorous " people my age remember football star Joe Namath in pantyhose. ...branding " think Playboy, think GoDaddy's Super Bowl commercials...think Hooters. Southwest Airlines original launch was fueled by sexy stewardesses in hot pants in its ads and on its planes. It preceded by the airline slogan said by stews: "Coffee, tea or me?" Racy for its time. Sexy images are often used as attention getting devices, as channel surfer stoppers. The amount of skin shown, the explicitness of the images may seem more libertine now vs. then, but considered in context of everything else in the society of any given time, the images and language in the advertising of the time match it. What does this have to do with you? There is abundant research proving that including photographs of attractive women, in many cases, attractive women somehow attired or posed in sexually suggestive ways; **End Summary** Topics: small business marketing]]> sex in business]]> dan kennedy]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing tips hype and enriches those who act on his advice.

Are Your Being a Stupid Jerk with Your Marketing?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:14:40 -0500

The high level of stupidity, trying to save pennies, or laziness of business owners can be easily seen in their consistently unexplainable behavior regarding how they fail to market to existing customers. They are loathe to spend money and time on the people who have already proven they will patronize them and, in fact, do patronize them. But always willing to pour time and money into chasing the next new customer. They are in ardent, sweaty, drooling lust for the next new conquest, completely uninterested in the already conquered. There are many reasons for this far too numerous to analyze here. They range from perverse human nature to economic ignorance to boredom to foolish belief in customer loyalty and on and on and on. The car dealer spends $50,000.00 a week on newspaper, radio and TV ads to bring in new customers but God forbid he spend a couple hundred bucks on a mailing or a couple thousand bucks on a party for his present car owners. It's hard to find any industry where this combination of idiot, cheapness and being a sloth is as magnified as the auto dealer business. **End Summary** Topics: small business marketing]]> direct mail]]> marketng existing customers]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing ideas and enriches those who act on his advice.

Dominating Page One of Google for Your Name

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:28:58 -0500

Have you ever Google your own name? How many of the listings on page 1 are about you? How many are about some other tool that just happens to be blessed with the exact same name as you? If a potential client or customers is researching you, the first place they will go to (in most cases) is Google. Of course, your website should be there, but what are some other easy ways to own the 1st page with more content about you? It's actually not terribly hard, and it doesn't require a whole lot of work. Just create profiles on these social media sites, and be somewhat active, and you will rocket to the top within weeks or even days if your name isn't too competitive. Amazon.com - since we all know "poor people have big televisions and rich people have big TV's" ...all of us should have a large collection of books. If you read, why aren't you ordering all your books Amazon. Amazon allows you to create a profile with all of your personal and business information...and lets you review books (and anything else they sell...which is just about everything). **End Summary** Topics: social media profiles]]> seo]]> search engine optimization]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Brian Horn , of HornDog Search Marketing, is recognized by many as the "Glazer-Kennedy Secret Weapon" because of his role in helping not only Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer with search engine optimization and social media, but also many of the top Information Marketers in the world. He recently released product that walks you through the process of ranking a website on page 1 of Google .