The Model Info Center

You know you need marketing help. But you are unsure if you need to hire a marketing coach or a marketing consultant. This article is a brief description of what marketing coaches and consultants do and how they help their clients. After reading this article you should be able to decide if coaching or consulting is right for you.

What’s the difference between a Marketing Coach and Marketing Consultant?

A marketing coach will work with you to develop your marketing skills and create a marketing plan. The coach will ask you questions to help you develop a plan for your marketing activities.
You will be left to handle the actual marketing activities for yourself.

A marketing consultant will help you determine what marketing activities are best suited for your type of business. They will help you develop and implement a marketing plan. The consultant will handle all or some of your marketing activities for you.

How do coaches and consultants go about helping their clients?

Coaches will hold sessions with you where you will determine the skills that you currently have or need to develop to execute a successful marketing campaign. The coach will work with you almost like a therapist to help you dig deep to determine what your business is all about. They will help you focus core business values and market. Many will help you to create a marketing plan.

Coaches are great at helping to develop a marketing plan you can implement on your own. You can continue to work with a coach to help you meet your goals and get back on track when you fall off.

Consultants will meet with you to discuss your business and marketing needs. They will help you determine the best marketing activities for you and your business and the best ways to implement the activities. Consultants can also implement the plan that you have created and allow you to spend time focusing on your new and current customers. You can hire a consultant who will create a plan for you, implement the plan and anywhere in-between.

Consultants will also help you to develop a marketing budget. Find ways to penetrate new markets and help you create marketing materials. A consultant can keep track of your activities and determine what is working and what is not. They can also help to redirect your campaign if things are not working as expected.

How do you know if you need a coach or a consultant?

There are some basic questions that you can ask yourself to help determine if you need a coach or consultant.

1. Do you need help creating a marketing plan that you can implement yourself? If yes, then consider hiring a coach.

2. Do you want someone to help you create a marketing plan and then implement the activities for you? If yes, then consider hiring a consultant.

3. Would you like someone who will help you develop a marketing plan and them implement the areas you do not feel comfortable with handling? If yes, then consider hiring a consultant.

4. Do you want someone who will monitor your activities and consult with you when you are off track and need encouragement? If yes, then consider hiring a coach.

Once you have determined whether you want to hire a marketing coach or marketing consultant. Create a list of potential coaches or consultants and give them a call. Ask them how they work, how they will help you and what you should be able to expect.

Happy marketing.

Jennifer Woodard is a freelance Marketing and Sales Copywriter/Marketing Communications Consultant. If you would like more information, she can be reached at msjenniferwoodard@yahoo.com You can also join her monthly marketing newsletter group at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/JustWriteMarketingNewsletter

A good annual direct mail solicitation program can produce unrestrictive operating funds for your nonprofit organization year after year. And such an annual direct mail program, if done right, should produce more funding for your organization each year.

There are very few nonprofit organizations that couldn’t benefit from an effective, and ongoing direct mail solicitation program. If you’re currently using annual direct mail solicitations and would like to use it more effectively, or if you’re not using this form of fundraising but would like to set up such a program. Then here are some steps to help you do this much more successfully:

1. Expand your mailing list or build one if you’re just starting your direct mail program. To do this ask yourself: Who are the most likely people to support your organizations financially? If you are already using direct mail the answer to this questions should be obvious to you, in which case you need to find more of these kinds of people. Some of the many ways to do this are using compiled lists, rented or leased lists of people who support similar causes and etc. If you aren’t using direct mail now then start with users of your services and/or friends and family members of users of your services, then explore complied, and rented or leased lists next.

2. Prepare a powerful direct mail package to solicit your list, which will include an appeal letter, and response form, a reply envelop, and of course an outer envelop to mail your package in that has the full legal name of your organization on it. Too in preparing your appeal letter by sure to make them emotional, interesting, and personal, and keep the focus of this letter on how those you serve will benefits from the gift as well as how the donor will benefit also. And always ask for their gift.

3. Make a test mailing of your direct mail package to your donor prospect list, and keep in mind that in direct mail solicitations all new mailings are a test. So don’t invest large sums of money into this endeavor until you’re relatively sure that you can get a good return on your investment. Whether you are currently using direct mail or not, all your new mailings are for finding what’s called “new acquisitions” which are needed by you to obtain more funds from your direct mail program each year.

4. Evaluate vary carefully the results of each of your test mailings for new donor acquisitions, and if your mailing earns a slight profit, simply breaks even, or perhaps even loses a little money you may be able to still call your test a success. In fact, if you spend $1.25 or a little more for every dollar you raise consider your test a success, because when you renew these donors, that is mail to them again, you can easily get 80-90% of them to make another gift. This is where you’ll really earn your profits from direct mail solicitations.

5. Build upon your direct mail successes by “renewing” your donors each year, that is getting them to make another gift. And continue to seek new donors to keep your direct mail list growing and more profitable each year, because if you don’t continue to build your list it will grow smaller each year since donors move and stop giving for a variety of reasons.

Yes a good annual direct mail program can produce a regular and growing source of revenue for your organization year after when this fundraising methods is effectively used. Now use these steps to help you set up, or expand your annual direct mail solicitation program to raise more of the funds you need to better serve those who need you.

Berwyn J. Kemp is a development consultant who helps nonprofit organizations obtain funding. For free subscription to his newsletter Nonprofit Funding Solutions, or full details on his funding products and services, or to read more of his re-printable articles you can visit: http://www.berwynkempassoc.citymax.com/

When writing a sales copy, all internet marketers know that a
long copy will sell more than a short copy. This does not mean
that the more words the better; it is the quantity and the
quality what will increase its performance.

A very important factor to keep the reader interested through the
whole copy is to keep a right sales structure. These are the
steps to follow to make a successful sales letter.

1. USE A POWERFUL HEADLINE. You must think about the biggest
benefit of your product an try to express it in a short sentence.
The objective is to grab your reader’s attention and raise his
curiosity to continue reading.

2. CREATE EXCITEMENT WITH A SUB-HEADLINE. In no more than two or
three short sentences, you should expand on the benefits of your
product and generate excitement on your reader. If you are
offering a limited promotion, you should specify the limitations
of your offer here.

3. OUTLINE THE BENEFITS OF YOUR PRODUCT. You must tell the reader
the three main benefits that he will get when buying your
product. Attention, this has nothing to do with the features of
your product; you have to think about your customer’s
satisfactions. For example, if you are selling holiday villas,
you could mention something like:
“If you’d like to take advantage of the comfort of a luxury
apartment, enjoy the Mediterranean sun and save money on your
summer vacations, then this might be the most important letter
you’ll ever read”

4. EXPLAIN YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION. This is the specific
benefit that differentiates your product from anyone else. At
this point, you must mention your USP in one or two sentences. It
will be later on in your sales letter where you will explain the
details.

5. PROVE YOUR CREDIBILITY. The most important thing to sell on
the internet is to establish credibility. You need to make your
readers fell comfortable buying from you, so you need to tell
them why they should trust you. Explain the three main reasons
why they should believe you. Try to proof that what you say is
true.

6. EXPLAIN THE FEATURES AND BENEFITS OF YOUR PRODUCT. Explain
which are the characteristics of your product and which are the
benefits associated to them. For each feature, try to explain how
this will help to improve your reader’s life or how this will
offer a solution to a problem. In this section, you can expand
yourself as much as you want. The more features and benefits the
better.

7. PROVIDE MORE DETAIL ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT. Here is where you can
explain all the details about your product. Use as much space as
you need. Write until you get boring.

8. INCLUDE CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS. In order to continue
establishing credibility, you must mention testimonials of other
customers that have already bought from you and have experienced
the benefits of your product. Try to mention the details of their
experiences rather than sentences like “I really loved your
product…” or something similar. Mention at least 5 testimonials
if you can.

9. ELIMINATE THE COMPETITION. You eliminate your competition by
giving your reader the elements they need to judge your product.
Of course, you will mention the elements where your product is
excellent and much better than your competition.

10. BUILD VALUE. To build value in your offer you have to let
your readers know that your offer is so good, that they cannot
refuse to take it. One way of doing this is to compare the value
of your offer with the normal value of your product.

11. PROVIDE A SUMMARY OF EVERYTHING YOUR CUSTOMER WILL RECEIVE.
Make sure your customer understands everything he is going to get
from you.

12. MENTION THE PRICE OF YOUR PRODUCT. Mention the regular price
and the sale price of your product. The regular price must be
crossed out and the offer must follow.

13. LIST YOUR FREE BONUS PRODUCTS. The objective is to prompt
immediate action by offering free bonuses. With this strategy,
you are also adding value to your product. You can also try to
create a sense of urgency by telling that the bonuses will only
be available for a limited period of time.

14. OFFER A STRONG GUARANTEE. The strongest guarantee you can
offer is a “money back” guarantee. The fact of offering to try
your product at no risk will generate a lot of trust and
confidence on your readers. It is very important that you honour
your guarantee for any returns you may get, but you can be sure
that the sales you will generate with this strategy will be by
far more important than the returns you may receive.

15. RE-EMPHASIZE YOUR GUARANTEE. Remove all elements of risk by
closing your sales copy saying something like:
“You don’t have to decide now if this product is for you. Just
get it and try it out. If it doesn’t do everything I say and
more, if you don’t save money, or if your business doesn’t
improve, or if your life isn’t better, or if you don’t absolutely
love it, just let me know and I’ll give you every cent of your
money back! So you have nothing to loose and everything to
gain.”

16. TELL THEM HOW TO ORDER YOUR PRODUCT. Provide detailed
instructions about how to place the order.

17. SIGN THE LETTER. Use your full name and title.

18. CLOSE WITH A “P.S.” Use this part to emphasize the most
relevant points of your letter.

Remember that this will be a long sales copy that will take your
readers some time to read. With this in mind, you must work on
the format and design of the copy trying to make it as friendly
as possible. Highlight the most important statements, so that the
letter can be read also in one or two minutes.

hosting and domain source.

Working online means to meet people and to deal with them.

Especially when you have something to sell, you must setup a meeting place for them. You probably know that the best place on the Internet is your website.

Once you’ve set up your site, it comes the funniest part. You have to build your community of website frequenters. I’m not referring to visitors, they are just like strolling in and out guests. When I speak about a community I’m thinking to those people coming back to your site from time to time.

It’s very important for your business to have people coming back. That means they are interested to visit your site because they need something from you. If you want to succeed in what you do, your highest goal is to keep this interest alive.

1. Update your site frequently.

   Keep your site fresh with new content that will keep users coming back. Forget those free things people can see almost everywhere. I’m talking about writing your own content, or getting other peoples work, if you have their permission of course. May be you should organize a library. From exposure reasons, many writers would love to have their work posted on many websites around the world.

2. Make your site visible in your area.

   Take a look at specialty search engines for your industry/geography. If you are an Australian marketer, you would want your site listed in all of the major Australian search engines. If your site deals with sport products, you would want to be listed on various sport specific directories. By doing a simple search for “Australian Search Engines” or “Sport Search Engines” on Goggle would show you something.

3. Stay in touch with your community.
   One of the best ways to do this, is to set-up your own e-zine. The e-zine helps build your community, by keeping users coming back to your site. Take care to provide content related to your business like new articles, hints, tricks, links, downloads, contacts, how-tos, etc. You must regularly include what’s new within your website and invite people to pay a visit.

Valerian Dinca is a freelance writer specialized in items like
work at home business ideas.