5 Actionable takeaways from 5 tips to maximize customer acquisition via Growth Hacking

1) Hustle to grow

Try things

Hustle, do the work ,engage people

Engage in social media and in person

2) Design growth into your sales funnel/process

Dropbox rewarded those who referred with extra space

Jay Abraham, the Billionaire maker, said that the ballsiest referral system out there is to incorporate referral as a way to getting into business with you

a script I know is "We would like to ask to be referred to two people in your network who would benefit from our services because we spend most of our time in serving our customers and thus have very little time to market our business. And the way we grow is through referrals."

Use the tweet/share to download or access. I believe there a free app out there ;)

3) Talk to your customer

Make a survey form

Have a freeform where they can elaborate and write long on their answers

You can never really know what you will learn until you ask
This is working smarter vs harder

4) Make a community

i suggest you take a peek at thecollaborativestartup.com they have a very good course on how to build and engage a community

Talk to them where they're at. Be it in chamber meetings, quora, forums, or facebook groups.

Start a community of your own where they can ask questions and post suggestions. Social media groups - like a faebook group, meetups - use meetup or eventbrite or whatever

5) Test Ideas 

Just like in customer development testing your assumptions, setting criterias, learning what you should continue doing and what you should change

Just because some guru said it means it would work test the riskiest assumptions first, customer development says. So that you could test fast and learn fast

It also make things a lot less daunting and more doable

Testing gives a sense of just do it and let's see what happens vs we'll launch this product and it'll be perfect then perfect never got finished and got pushed aside along the way

Javelin has a very nice actionable canvas for customer development ;)

4 takeaways from The Many Characteristics of a Content Hacker

1) Add images to all that you post online

- Be it be a blog article, a facebook post, a twittr post

- Chances of getting audience attention is increased dramatically

- And your post take more area compared to purely text posts because of the photo

- A good source is google search images > search tools > filter by usage rights 

2) Start your posts with a number

- They stand out in search engines

- Some blogs claims that a large part of their audience comes from people viewing list posts

3) Consider writing longer copy

- google ranks articles with 2,400+ words higher

- but of course make it relevant and helpful to the keyword your targetting ;)

4) Give Value

- by giving value 37signals had a major book deal

- by giving value copyblogger grew their audience and how people approach internet marketing now

- by giving value KISSmetrics gained a lot of audience and backlinks causing them to rank higher in search engines

- what value can you give?

The Best Marketing Advice EVER by Steve Jobs | Apple Motivation Inspiration

In this video Steve Jobs introduces Mac's new add campaign (back then) (I don't know what era this video is).



In the video Jobs stated that, "Marketing is about values"

It is about being really clear on what we want them to know us for.

He identifies Nike as a great brand who have successfully utilized this concept.

That Nike hardly even talks about their product.

What they talk about is how they honor great athletes.



For me this is somewhat similar to what Chet Holmes said.

To get to the much broader scope of your industry.

And to become a market /industry expert and not merely a product expert.

Because market/industry education marketing is much more convincing to the larger part of the market compared to talking about the product.


It also reminds me about the Begin with Why model of Simon Sinek.



I can't directly point it out but I can sense some very well polished used of NLP in his speech. Great use of anchors with change in tonality and gestures.

Then the use of metaphors and story telling to induce states.

And ambiguity not really going into the detail of things.

Glenn Osborn pointed out that Jobs is a great NLP practitioner.

Do you know what NLP is?

Are you curious to know more about Chet Holmes' teachings and strategies?

If so let me know in the comments and I'll make an article for that

16 Amazing USP (Unique Selling Proposition) And Why They're Awesome

We're going to run down some awesome Unique Selling Proposition and tell you why they're great.

1) Avis

"We're number two. We try harder."

Why it's great:

It addresses a common problem of customers dealing with industry number one's in any industry.

And that is: they're so great, big and busy that they don't give that much effort anymore. Some of them have gone comfortable and complacent on they're thrones.

If you head on to their twitter acoount: https://twitter.com/Avis

You'll see that they're doing a lot for their customers: doing contests, giving surprise upgrades, and returning gadgets that we're accidentally left by customers on their rented cars!

Now that's customer service.

2) FedEx Corporation

"When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight."

Why it's great:

This is an absolute game changer in it's industry.

It's speed, continence, and a very strong bold guarantee rolled into one!

3) DeBeers

"A diamond is forever."

Why it's great:

This too is a game changer.

It leveraged their product's inherent quality and aligned it to the all important wedding proposal and created a whole new industry and cultural practice of it's own.

4) Jetblue Airline

"JetBlue offers flights to 80+ destinations with free inflight entertainment, free brand-name snacks and drinks, lots of legroom and award-winning service."

Why it's great:

Many destinations how much? 80+. When it comes to USPs being specific with numbers boost claims and make them more persuasive.

Many? that sounds like 3 or more maybe. Maybe a dozen.

No Ma'am Sir it's 80+ destinations. Now that's really many.

With a lot of freebies and oh did they mention that legroom and that award they've won.

Specific number, freebies (that might also be given free by competitors but not said so, like many guarantees), addressing a common customer pain (a lot of legroom) and authority (award-winning, these guys could be trusted and is topnotch).

5) Domino's Pizza

"You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it's free.."

Why it's great:

No it's not necessarily delicious, no it's not necessarily the best one out there and no it's not necessarily the cheapest.

Can you imagine using this in your business to beat competitors with lower prices!

It focuses on what the market wants and not on what the business owner wants. It focuses on the demand, on the loophole, on the frustration of the market.

What really matters is what really important to them (your customers).

And it's not just fast it's 30 minutes or less and with a very bold "or free" guarantee!

6) Safelite AutoGlass

"If you have a broken windshield you may need a repair or replacement. Trust America's auto glass experts Safelite® - call us 24 hours a day or book an ...."

Why it's great:

Customer Service Customer Service Customer Service

Then add a Quick Response "24 hours a day" call-ability.

Baboom! one bold amazing USP!

7) Mast Brothers Chocolate

"we’re from the 18th century, back when craftspeople were revered and took pride in working with their hands."

Why it's great:

Tradition, heritage and craftsmanship may not be important to the price haggler down the street.

But for the Chocolate Connoisseur in the long black limousine that's of top importance.

So who would you rather serve and please?

8) World’s Strongest Librarian

"

Get Stronger, Get Smarter, Live Better...Every Day

"

Why it's great:

World's strongest librarian? now that's an unusual claim.

Can being a bookish, studious, intelligent person be really that healthy and strong?

9) TOMS Shoes

"...

they give a new pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair you purchase.

"

Why it's great:

Looking to buy a good pair of shoes? Want to part and contributor to a cool social movement at the same time?

Then look no further.

It's like hitting two birds in one stone.

10) IttyBiz

"

Marketing for businesses without marketing departments

"

Why it's great:

So your a small business you say? You know that you really need to get around marketing to be really successful, don't you?

But you don't have the resources to get someone else to do it for you and you don't have much time to study it.

Then here's Ittybiz, for those solopreneurs and small businesses.

11) Tinybuddha

"

simple wisdom for complex lives"

Why it's great:

I would really like to get advice about my life/relationships/career but I'm finding it difficult to find advice that is simple and true. Is that you?

12) Philosopher's notes

"M

ore wisdom in less time

"

Why it's great:

Really want to read that thick spiritual/philosophical book but have little time and energy to do so. Then how about some summaries and did they mention that it also comes in audiobook form so that you can listen while you jog.

13) www.neemantools.com/

"

We are a small crew of skilled craftsmen from Latvia who use our heritage of craftsmanship handed down through many generations to design and create ...

"

Why it's great:

Heritage of craftsmanship handed down through many generations 

=

Quality + Tradition + Heritage + Luxury + Handcrafted + Precision + Mastery + Uniqueness + Scarcity + Uniqueness + Expertise....

Ah you get the point :)

14) 

4 Hour Work Week

"...

teaches you how to escape the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich.

"

Why it's great:


Sick of the rat race? Don't trust Robert Kiyosaki recommending joining that slimy MLMers group? 

Certainly there's something better, much cooler, hipper for the new Millenium!

Then read the book :)

15) 

https://basecamp.com/

"

A track record you can trust. 

On the Mac, PC, iPhone/iPad, Android and via email.

No “IT Guy” required.

"

Why it's great:


Wow! other companies use them and they're the big ones. They must be really good. - Social Proof

And they've been around for quite some time.

Can be access through a variety of devices good! Some of my staff are solid PC users while some are solid Mac users.

No IT Guy required? Awesome I don't want to hire another guy/gal to be on my team. That saving alone makes this all worth it.

16) http://www.fleishers.com/

"Fleisher’s is an old-fashioned butcher shop that carries ONLY pastured meats from animals raised on small, local, sustainable farms. These animals have never been given antibiotics or hormones and have a strictly vegetarian diet. By working in partnership with local farmers we guarantee our rigorous standards are always carefully maintained. This obsession with animal care and quality ....

"

Why it's great:


Old-fashioned - ah! that time when everything was so much better, richer and had a lot more quality.

Well this one really communicates itself. So is quality, no chemicals, animal care and supporting local people sound good to you?

Any addition to the list you can think of? do let me know over the comments below :D

1 Business Power Question by Dan Kennedy that will Open the Treasure Trove

Before I begin I'm enthusiastic to announce that in the days and weeks ahead I'll be sharing from the world's greatest business and marketing experts.

So sign-up to this site to keep yourselves updated and receive exclusive business and marketing strategy worksheets.

One of the things that you will like about this site is that I will distill marketing concepts down to where they are actionable. Where you can take action immediate and test and see for yourselves if it works.

Below is a video of the Great Dan Kennedy explaining the "1 Business Power Question that will Open the Treasure Trove"

Why should I do business with you versus any and every other option out there including doing nothing?

- Dan Kennedy

Click to Tweet

Dan suggests us to:

Actionable > Write it up on a 4 by 6 card and place it in front of your desk so that you can see it everyday

And reminds us that:

It will take some time to sink in and answer it really good

That it is super important because:

It is the golden key to the treasure drove

Unique Selling Proposition it is called by many names:

Unique selling proposition
Unique value proposition
Competitive value proposition
Extra Value Proposition

It's so powerful that in the case of Domino's Pizza it changed:

The owner's life
His business
And his ENTIRE INDUSTRY!!!

Domino's Pizza

You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door 

in 30 minutes or less or it's free.

Other great USP examples:

Gillette 
The Best a Man Can Get


Jet blue airline
JetBlue offers flights to 80+ destinations with free inflight entertainment, free brand-name snacks and drinks, lots of legroom and award-winning service.


Dutch Boy Paints
Fun, inspirational, colorful! Dutch Boy is an industry leader in delivering high-quality paints & innovative paint color solutions. Since 1907, Dutch Boy has ...


Safelite AutoGlass
If you have a broken windshield you may need a repair or replacement. Trust America's auto glass experts Safelite® - call us 24 hours a day or book an ...


Mast Brothers Chocolate
“we’re from the 18th century, back when craftspeople were revered and took pride in working with their hands.”

My usp for my marketing consulting:

Grow Your Business Without Spending More Money In Advertising!

It is so important that in my system I put on the very first place because without it there will be wastage in:

• not delivering a convincing message in your advertising
• your staff and you not being clear on what your customers really want you to sell to them
• waste in your communication
• waste in your business' potential PR value
• waste in convincing potential business partners

It's throwing money in the waste basket if you advertise before you have this nailed down.

In certain case studies of businesses developing a USP and communicating it to their customers the difference is night and day.

Let me help you > Email me with "USP worksheet" at "geromesoriano@gmail.com" and I will send you a copy of my comprehensive USP development worksheet.

How to turn your business features into power punch "Kapow" benefits

In the video below Hidden Marketing Assets Expert Richard Johnson enthusiastically discuss in a clear, power punch, booming excitement way the Hidden Marketing Asset System.

Where he gave two powerful case studies wherein he translated his client's product features (a PHD degree for the first one) into strong irresistable "power punch kapow" benefits that customers just can't help but submit to (happily:).

The PHD degree into a very powerful guarantee unlike anything else in it's category.

I believe that if we masterfully listen and comprehend this wonderfully enlightening concept we will be able to translate any business feature into a power punch benefit in a lightning fast way.

What do you think of the video?

Hit the comments below and give your two cents!
Do it now :)

Can you see how you can do this for your business?

How you can translate business features into customer benefit?

Such as a guarantee.

Again hit the comments below and give your two cents!
Do it now :)

6 Power Guide Questions into Crafting Your USP

1) “Why should I choose to do business with you, over all the other choices I have, which includes the choice of doing nothing at all?”  ~ Dan Kennedy 

It's not an easy question. It's something Dan suggested that you write in a 4 by 6 card and post in your desk to ponder continuously

2) Will this message stand out in the Yellow pages?

What benefits does my product or service offer that my competitors don’t?

Most probably in your industry there are norms and common pratice and also common product/service features

A strategy is to cross out every feature/benefit that you have that is similar to what your competitors have and focus/optimize/highlight what makes your business different from your competitors.

3) Why you got into business in the first place?

What moves me?  What’s my mission?

Chances are there is some deep reason why you got started into business.

And see if some of these reasons could translate nicely to your business message.

These reasons might even be a nice story for your local paper to feature.

4) Do you as a business owner have some expertise you can highlight? Credential?Special awards?

Any staff member that might have unique abilities?

The way to make use of it better than just stating it is to transform these Expertise, Credentials, Awards into benefits that talks right to your customer.

Special Patent does that mean can you guarantee your results?

Awards does that mean that people trust and have gotten results working with you. Perhaps you can get testimonials from past clients.

Credentials does that mean you are better than your competitors. Does that mean you know some things that your competitors don't.

5) Do you have a Bold Claim?

A guarantee?

Can you offer a 100% money back guarantee? Does this make you unique?

6) Are you stating specific number?

"765 happy users" is better and more persuasive and more trustworthy than "Many happy user"

FREE MARKETING COURSE

The Overlooked Marketing Assets Systems Course

How To Grow Your Business Without Spending More Money In Advertising

Before we start I would like to tell you...

Who is this course for?

Business owners – people like yourself who want to help  them  grow their business with marketing.

Business owners who are in one of the following categories:

1) Your okay, but they want to do better.

2) Or your stagnant and there’s no growth at all right now.

3) Or your business is declining.



So that you can see if this course is right for you.

And...

What were going to do?

Were going to take a look  at  all  the marketing assets and find ways to leverage and optimize your success from the assets that you already have in your business.

While others are focused on getting on you try something new and different and uncomfortable to you. Or make you spend more money on advertising. Or make you want to get more customers.

What we''ll do here is we are going to look at all your existing marketing assets and look for ways to leverage and optimize them.

So you'll have an idea if this is something that is right and exciting for you.

Ok now let's get going.

Step 1 Your Unique Selling Proposition

Most businesses don't have a clear and bold Unique Selling Proposition or USP that positions them as an industry expert on their client's mind.

And for most businesses taking the time to polish this Unique Selling Proposition can mean a massive growth in itself by integrating it to all of your existing marketing assets. From you company letterhead to your advertisements.

Get Updates When New Lessons Are Available 

Lesson 1 - 10 Ways Communicate a Benefit not a Feature and Why

Lesson 2 - 10 Case Studies Of USPs growing Businesses Massively

Lesson 3 - Why USP Should Be First In All Marketing Systems

Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread

In this talk Seth Godin tells the history of the Sliced bread and how it remained virtually unknown by the world years after it's invention.


Until Wonder came along to spread the world about it.

That we are in "the century of idea diffusion". Where ideas that spread win.

And where the old world where TV and mass media made it easy to spread the word becomes less and less true.

Because now we have way more choice and way less time.

And for marketer the solution Seth said, "Is be the purple cow in the multitude of black and white cows".

Your marketing should be "REMARKABLE".

Worth making a remark about.
Worth talking about.
Worth noticing.
Even if you love or hate it.


Something different
Something in the fringes


Market to innovators and early adopters because they listen

And that this type of marketing has the potential of changing whole communities just as in the case of Frank Gehry.

How can you make your marketing something worth making a remark about?

What are common, normal practices in your industry, do something different from that! Do something that goes to the opposite of that tide and be the Purple Cow!

Remember only dead fish swims with the water.

Reactivation letter sample 1

Dear Mrs. ______


You are a very special client to us.

And we sincerely apologize for not being able to stay in contact with you.

We are having a special offer this _____. 

This offer is only for previous buyers like you.


We look forward to seeing you again,


Owner

Your thoughts?

Can you see applying this to your business?

What do you think can be improved and added to this?

Do you have other reactivation letters that you have used and have success with or failed and learned from?

To our business success!

Cheers :D

Gerome

Are you tired of spraying and praying your money in advertising?

Advertising is a fun thing to do for the advertising practitioner but not so much for the business owner shelling out their pockets.

I studied advertising in college and I thought that advertising was cool. You could make those wonderful, radical,colorful,creative, emotional commercials and print ads. And win those awards and be recognized by your industry.

But after treating my art practice more as a business and less a something I do for fun only. But something for fun and profit :) I had another perspective of what advertising is.

I remember the great Dan Kennedy noting that, "One should be wary of agencies that win a lot of awards". Because just because the advertisement won a lot of awards and recognition and is very pretty and creative doesn't mean it would convert nicely to profits.

One thing common about award winning commercials that you can see that obviously wasteful for the business owner is the minimized area and sometimes omitted contact information about the business. Most of these award winning ads are focused on the story, on the "brand, on the image on entertaining.

But not so much on entertaining the business owner with tons of cash coming in from that expensive advertisement. And most of us small business owners only have so much money to invest in advertising.

So we need those ads to convert and convert well. And when you begin to study marketing with you you will learn that good profit inducing advertisements are direct-response oriented.

They are focused on the benefits that your customers will get with working with you, on the pains that you will cure for them, your offer and a compelling,irresistible offer for them to give your business a call and for them get money out of their pocket to your pocket.

For them to say, "John, take my cash cure my marketing pains."

Direct response marketing is testable, trackable thus can be tested, optimized and leveraged for better results :D

Your thoughts on wasting money in advertising?

And making advertisements that make you more money?

Gerome

Why few businesses succeed?

Do you know the Pareto Principle? or the 80/20 rule?

I wonder if you've already noticed that there is small portion of the society who has the larger sums of resources/money/cash.

Simply stated the Pareto Principle says that 20% of anything enjoy 80% of the results. While 80% of anything only gets 20% of the results.

• 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of its customers
• 80% of a company's complaints come from 20% of its customers
• 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of the time its staff spend
• 80% of a company's sales come from 20% of its products
• 80% of a company's sales are made by 20% of its sales staff

People can, notice that stastics say that small business have an average lifespan of 5 years.

“20% of management theories are responsible for

 80% of results.” 

― Ryan Lilly

Click to Tweet

So that makes one curious what does the small percentage of businesses that don't contribute to that statistics do?



“Doing less is not being lazy. Don't give in to a culture that 

values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.” 

― Tim Ferriss

You can conclude with your one thinking that these businesses did something different compared to what most businesses do, can you not?

Can you imagine yourself being one of those revolutionary, non-conforming, 20 % of business owners that survive and thrive after the 5 year lifespan forecast,can you not?

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of 

themselves.” 

― Dale Carnegie

Click to Tweet

Your conscious mind might be telling you that, "I'm not really sure", but your uncious know with great certainty that "I know I got the shoots, I know I can be one of that selected few. I know and I am willing to learn and thrive from my successes even more so from my failure."

You can read more about the Pareto Principle here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

Can you feel that?

How can underperforming sales people grow your business without firing them?

An often overlooked hidden asset in every business is the sales process. 

A business owner can be spending a couple of thousands of pesos in advertising but having an underperforming, undertrained sales people not make it easy for those interested prospects to buy and close themselves.

Possible solutions could be:

Developing sales scripts that will clearly communicate the benefits of working with your company.

Developing a rewards program for the top performing sales people.

Outsourcing the answering of the telephone to a dedicated telemaketer instead of you the owner juggling with other tasks and sounding hassled instead of joyful upon answering the phone.

How would this translate to cash:

From: 

100 prospects
X
3% closing rate because of underforming sales people
X
1 sales transaction per year
X
Php100.00 transaction size
=
Php 300.00 gross sales

To:

100 prospects 
X 
10 % closing rate because of an effective sales scripting put into place 
X
1 sale per year
X
Php 100.00 transaction size
= 

Php 1,000.00 10 gross sales

That may not sound big but multiply that by the number of years and months through your business life and it's a massive improvement in cash coming in.

Do you view your sales people as an assets or liability?

Do you need help in coming up with sales scripts for your sales people?

Do have other ideas in leveraging your existing sales people?

Waiting to hear from you :)

Gerome

Growing businesses 4 ways

Most people calling to help you grow your business focus on one way to grow your business. That is by prospecting. Getting more clients into your business. 

These include joining trade shows, networking, and advertising.

Our system works on your business to grow it not only one way but four ways.

These four ways are:

1) Getting you're business more prospects;

2) Turning more of your prospects into buyers;

3) Increasing transaction size of each buyer; and

4) Increasing the frequency your customers' purchase from you

What are some of the ways we can do that for you?

1) Getting you're business more prospects;

- by making your business communications more in line with what your customers are searching for

From:
The owner is a Ph.D. Graduate that created a patented pipe design

To:
Pipe'sthat will last 2 years longer than any other pipe out there in the market. 2-year money back guarantee. 

2) Turning more of your prospects into buyers:

- creating more effective sales scripts

From:
Hello xyz Pipe Manufacturing Company

To:
Hello this is xyz Company. Our pipe's are guaranteed to last 2 years more than any other pipes out there or your money-back.

3) Increasing transaction size of each buyer

- Having upsells. Like Mcdo's, "Large coke and fries?"

From:
Thank you for purchasing xyz. We have a 2-year money back money back guarantee on your pipes do keep your receipt.

To: 
Thank you for purchasing xyz. Would you like our people to deliver it to your site at a discounted rate?

4) Increasing the frequency your customers' purchase from you

- by having a database marketing program. Programs such as these could be automated or batched so that you don't spend too much time on it.

- Joe Girard, the world's number 1 car salesman who sold a car every three years on average on each customer! Had a program of sending postcards to clients for every occasions and more.

From:
Contacting customer list only when you have promos, sales and events.

To:
Greeting customer list with holiday greetings :)
Greeting them at their birthdays :)

Workshop:

Based on the examples above, can you see ways you can work on growing your business not just one way?

List down 5 ideas on the following:

1) How can I get more prospects for my business?

2) How can I increase the chances of turning more of my prospects into buyers?

3) Different ways I can increase the transaction size of each buyer?

4) Different ways I can keep in contact with my customers to increase the frequency my customers coming back to me?

Do that now.

Then single out the ones that will have the biggest impact on your business and set out to test them out and let me know how it works.

Growing your business without spending more money in Advertising

How? 

By Leveraging current and existing marketing assets that are either overlooked, not optimized, not leveraged or have been thought about but have no time to implement.

Examples of growing your business without spending more money on advertising?

1) Reactivate past clients 

Hello Mr. Dela Cruz, 

You're a special customer to us and we apologize for not being to stay in contact with you. 

As a proof of our sincerity. We are having a Special exclusive only to past customers we haven't seen from in a while.

We look forward to seeing you in _______. 

Just say that you are on the preferred customer list to avail of our special ______

Mr. Soriano
Owner of __ Retail Business

2) Make a better advertisement

By having a clear call to action

From:
www.sorianomarketing.com

To:
go to  www.sorianomarketing.com to know more how you can grow your business without spending more money in advertising

By translating features to benefits

From:
Laptop with 8 gb ram



To:
High speed laptop optimal for graphics, videos, games and professional softwares

Workshop:

What are the ways you can think of growing your business without spending more money in your advertising?

Can you see how these strategies can grow your business?


- Gerome

P.S. Schedule your FREE one hour business consultation email me at geromesoriano@gmail.com

P.P.S. We know you are too busy, and don't have time to implement all of your marketing ideas that why we are here to help implement not only consult. We will execute our tried and tested system for generating growth for your business without spending more money in advertising