If you were asking what people really want from a marketing campaign, most people would say generating high quality leads. 2-step marketing is designed purely to generate high quality leads.

2-step marketing is a good way of establishing your authority. I’m a marketing consultant like 1,001 other marketing consultants that are around, but say, because I’ve written a special report on how to double the sales of photocopiers, if someone in the photocopy industry is particularly interested in that report, I come across as having some authority within that area. I am not just “another consultant” but a consultant who’s written something that is very specific and of interest to that particular business. It is a very good way of quickly, easily and inexpensively establishing authority by producing a reasonably authoritative work which will be of interest to people.

You must remember that this is not about selling straightaway, but about getting a foot in the door. It’s about people raising their hand and gathering the names of people who have said that they are potentially interested in finding out more about what it is you’re talking about. They are not ready to buy but, they are interested.

We offer a 1 hour FREE consultation, if you would like to see what we can do for your business contact us 01858 445 543 or email alastair@idealmarketingcompany.com

2-Step marketing is designed purely to generate high quality leads. By that, I mean people who are in the market for buying the product or service that you have to offer. That is what two step marketing is all about. Even better than that, the leads tend to be quite warm.

Why does two step marketing work so well?

For those of you who haven’t read it, there is a fantastic book I would recommend called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.  It talks about lots of different factors that influence people and help them make buying decisions. One of the key things that he talks about is something called the law of reciprocity.

An example that he gives is this: there is a temporary member of staff that goes into an office. He works quite hard, goes out to lunch, comes back from lunch, and says to the people who work in office “By the way, I’m running a marathon for charity, would you sponsor me?” He gets some interest from some of the people in the office, but not very much. Another temporary member of staff goes and works in the morning, goes out to lunch, and when he comes back from lunch he buys a bottle of Coke for everybody in the office. He says “It’s very hot outside so I just thought everyone would enjoy a Coke.”  Then an hour later he asks people if they would mind sponsoring him. The results are incredible.

If you give somebody something for nothing, they feel a moral obligation to return the favour in some ways. So it works on the basis of that. If you give somebody something for nothing that is of value and helps them, they feel obliged to return the favour in some way. That might be by passing on a lead to someone else, by writing a testimonial, or it might be by buying something extra from you.

 To find out more about the ideal marketing company, and what we can do for your business contact us on 01858 445 543 or email alastair@idealmarketingcompnay.com

And that’s not all. In 2005, Google estimated that people would tolerate 15 seconds for a page to open.  In 2009 it was down to three seconds. If your website is badly optimised with heavy load of graphics and takes more than 15 to 20 seconds for just the first page to open, you won’t even have a chance to make the first impression. The potential customers would have gone faster than they came.

This is one of the ideas covered in the book – “the Marketing Launchpad” by Alastair Campbell available now from Amazon – order your copy today.

This is one of the ideas covered in the book – “the Marketing Launchpad” by Alastair Campbell available now from Amazon – order your copy today.

If you think back to Britain in the 1970s, you had essentially one commercial television channel. In America in the 1970s, you had three networks: all advertising on television was through those networks. Radio stations were also limited to one regional station covering different regions of the UK with London being allowed two – Capital and LBC.

Over time, with the relaxation of government controls on broadcasting, this increased as regional radio station came on-stream and, most recently, community radio stations appeared, serving towns often located in gaps in the coverage of larger city stations.

This is one of the ideas covered in the book – “the Marketing Launchpad” by Alastair Campbell available now from Amazon – order your copy today.

As a regular listener both live and it’s many pod casts when I go out running,  it’s good to see that intelligent quality programmes are so popular.

The re-branding of ‘Radio 7′ to ’4 Extra’ must be one of the smartest and logical PR and marketing ideas that the BBC has has for several years.  It has helped with cross promotion of both stations and this seems to have helped listening figures.

In a world where so many radio stations seem to be sounding ever more alike, it’s a good example of how to be distinctive and to stand out from the crowd.

It’s always good when you can help a client to gain media coverage that makes a dramatic difference to their number of inquiries and sales.  It’s also nice when you generate some great PR coverage for them.  In our case Metisee Motorbikes have achieved both with significant stories about the company on BBC Radio & TV, The Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday, Top Gear Magazine and most recently the cover of the current edition of Classic Bike Guide.

We only do 1 day a month for them, but over a 5 day period we have generated media coverage worth over £150,000 for them.  Importantly, this has translated into real sales for the company.  We were helped by it being a very media friendly product, but have helped them achive some significant and worthwhile coverage.

Thanks to all the people who were able to attend the lunchtime seminar I spoke at today at The Angel Hotel in Market Harborough.  It was organised to promote a local networking group and about 10 people from the group were present including Mark Spikings from www.stillmagic.co.uk who took some great pictures of the event.

I covered the 9 level for marketing Success and the topic seemed to go down well and provoked some interesting debates.  It’s pretty clear to me that whilst the ecconomy is not looking too rosy (!) small business owners are fairly confident that they have a lot of control over how well their businesses will do over the coming months.

I have decided that my next seminar is going to be on the subject of marketing during difficult times and will follow the theme of my new tips booklet ’12 proven marketing idea to help your business weather the ecconomic storm’ See www.themarketingmentor.co.uk to claim a free tips booklet on this subject.

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By having articles published in trade magazines, being regularly quoted in articles or interviewed on radio, you can be quickly seen as a leading figure in your area or industry. This is almost impossible to achieve in any way other than by spending time on PR. Handled correctly you can quickly become an ‘expert’ in your own specialist area.

Be remembered for the right reasons

By planning a careful PR campaign, you can make sure that your company is seen to be innovative, thoughtful, caring or whatever else you want it to be. This long term, big picture PR must be based on truth otherwise it will almost certainly backfire, so be careful what claims you make for your business.

Make people ‘seek you out’ rather than feel sold to

In an age when we feel sold to all the time, people like to receive expert opinion. If you are some kind of expert in your specialist area, you can make regular and legitimate comments on ongoing issues. Contributing articles, creating surveys or even producing your own tips booklets or CDs all help to position you as a go-to expert within your field.

Any company can use PR, but realistically, some companies are more likely to gain regular, positive PR than other companies at any given time. However, by keeping an eye on industry news, local news or by looking at the best way to develop products or position your business, it is always possible to have some form of ongoing media coverage.