Business Tips Guides

If you want people to buy, you gotta ask for the sale.

Truly, it is that simple. Yet I can’t tell you how many ads, Web sites, brochures, sales letters, etc. are floating around out there that aren’t asking.

So, what is a call to action? It’s telling people what action you want them to take. Typical calls to action include:

Hurry in today.
Buy now.
Call now.
Visit now.
Click here now.

Nothing terribly sexy, I agree. However, if you want to see an increase in your customers, leads, income, etc., this is an essential component.

But, you might be thinking, isn’t it obvious? Why else would you be running an ad if you didn’t want people to buy what you’re selling?

Good question. And it’s true, people do know (if they stop to think about it) that you would probably like them to buy from you.

However, the unfortunate truth is your potential customers aren’t going to spend that much time thinking about it. People have too much going on in their lives to spend very much time and energy on your business. If they do read your ad or promotional material and it doesn’t contain a call to action, they’ll likely say, “Oh, that’s nice” and go on to the next thing.

And even if they were interested in purchasing your offerings, they may not know what their next step should be. Do they pick up the phone? Go to a specific Web page? Visit a store? And if they don’t know what they should be doing, chances are they won’t do anything at all.

So you need to tell your potential customers what you want them to do. (Remember, people are busy, and if you don’t make doing business with you easy, they probably won’t do business with you at all.)

So, back to the above call to actions. Did you notice they all had something in common? The word “now” (or, in the case of the first one, “today”).

If people think they can buy from you anytime, they’ll say “oh, I can do this later.” And later rarely comes. You need to give them a reason to buy from you right now, while they’re interested. Adding the “now” or some other urgency or scarcity technique (maybe a limited time offer or few copies left statement) is a great way to push people into doing what you want them to do right now and not later.

While we’re on the topic of calls to action, I want to talk about one other type of advertising campaign where you rarely see calls to action. These are called branding campaigns. Typically they’re shown on national television by big corporations (MacDonald’s, Nike, Starbucks, Target). In those instances, the businesses are building a brand that will cause you think of that business first when you’re interested in purchasing their products. For instance, when you’re hungry, you think MacDonald’s. You need new athletic shoes, you think Nike. You’re dying for that cup of joe, so you think Starbucks, etc.

While there’s nothing wrong with branding campaigns, they are tougher to track than campaigns with a specific call to action (Sale ends Saturday, call before Friday to receive your free gift, etc.) Those campaigns are also called direct response because you’re asking the customer to respond directly. Direct response campaigns can be tested, so you have a good idea what’s working and what’s not (and can tweak the campaign accordingly). And, if the campaign doesn’t require getting a salesperson involved (i.e. if the call to action is for the customer to whip out his wallet right there) the campaign will just run itself (and make money all by itself).

(One note: You do need to do more than add a call to action to have a strong direct response campaign, but that doesn’t negate the power a call to action can bring to your campaigns.)

Branding campaigns are nearly impossible to test, track and tweak. They either appear to work or don’t appear to work. And if they don’t appear to work, it’s very difficult to start tweaking to improve the response rate.

However, branding is still very, very important. As a business owner, you need a good brand and you need to communicate that brand effectively. And sometimes it makes sense to run a branding campaign.

However, my advice for most situations is to combine branding and direct response. Your brand is clearly communicated in your ads and promotional materials, but you also take advantage of some direct response techniques at the same time.

If nothing else, make sure you don’t forget the call to action.

Creativity Resources — Write Your Call to Action

Want to include a call to action in your promotional materials but don’t know where to start? Here’s an easy step-by-step formula:

1. Figure out your purpose for the ad or promotional material. Why are you running this ad, creating this Web site, printing this brochure? (And no, an acceptable answer is NOT because everyone else has one.) Is it to generate leads? Get your name out there? Get people to buy? Or what?

2. Now write it down.

3. That’s it. That’s your call to action. Whatever the end result you want for the campaign is what you should be asking people to do.

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) helps people become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her at MichelePW.com.

Did you know that more and more business opportunity seekers worldwide are discovering the powerful profit potential of Foreign Exchange trading?

In this business, there are no employees to hire, no advertising, no products to stock, no downlines to fill — just you, an Internet connection and a computer. That’s all you need to make money on the worlds largest market.

If you are searching for an alternative to more traditional home-based business opportunities, then Forex trading may be for you.

This article will explain what Forex is, the benefits of Forex trading and how easy it is to get started.

There are many benefits and advantages to trading Forex.

Here are just a few reasons why so many people are choosing this market as a business opportunity:

1. LEVERAGE: In Forex trading, a small margin deposit can control a much larger total contract value. Leverage gives the trader the ability to make extraordinary profits and at the same time keep risk capital to a minimum. Some Forex firms offer 200 to 1 leverage, which means that a $50 dollar margin deposit would enable a trader to buy or sell $10,000 worth of currencies.

2. LIQUIDITY: Because the Forex Market is so large, it is also extremely liquid. This means that with a click of a mouse you can instantaneously buy and sell at will. You are never ’stuck’ in a trade. You can even set the online trading platform to automatically close your position at your desired profit level (limit order), and/or close a trade if a trade is going against you (stop order).

3. PROFIT IN BOTH ‘RISING’ AND ‘FALLING’ MARKETS: One of the most exciting advantages of FX trading is the ability to generate profits whether a currency pair is ‘up’ or ‘down’. A trader can profit by taking a ‘long’ position, (buying the currency pair at one price and selling it later at a higher price), or a ’short’ position, (selling the currency pair and buying it back at a lower price). As long as the trader picks the right direction, a potential for profit always exists.

4. 24 HRS: From Sunday evening to Friday Afternoon EST the Forex market never sleeps. This is very desirable for those who want to trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you want to trade — morning, noon or night.

5. FREE ‘DEMO’ ACCOUNTS, NEWS, CHARTS AND ANALYSIS: Most online Forex firms offer free ‘Demo’ accounts to practice trading, along with breaking
Forex news and charting services. These are very valuable resources for traders who would like to hone their trading skills with ‘virtual’ money before opening a live trading account.

6. ‘MINI’ TRADING: One might think that getting started as a currency trader would cost a lot of money. The fact is, it doesn’t. Online Forex Firms now offer ‘mini’ trading accounts with a minimum account deposit of only $200-$500 with no commission trading. This makes Forex much more accessible to the average individual, without large, start-up capital.

Foreign Exchange trading (forex) is easier to learn than stock trading or any other type of trading. No need to spend years attending expensive seminars or purchase expensive trading tools.

Cynthia Macy has been trading many markets for over 14 years and has co-authored 3 popular forex training ebooks.
Trade Of The Week
1000 Trading Words

When people get into multilevel marketing (MLM) they are thinking about one question: How do I make more money without having to work for it? Fortunately, MLM has the ability to do this, but only if you use it in the right way.

Imagine this…You wake up in the morning and throw on your bathrobe. You walk down the tile hall of your enormous house but your feet are not cold because you had one of those expensive heated tile systems installed. You sit down at your computer with your favorite morning beverage and login to your MLM site. You discover that you made another $5,000.00 yesterday without doing a bit of work. Five minutes later, you walk over to your ocean front deck, and decide what to do with the rest of your day, now that your work is done.

That type of lifestyle can be yours IF you do MLM the right way. If you have previously been given advice about how to be successful with MLM, you’ve probably heard tips about how to pick the right program, choosing a product to sell, etc. These things are all important, but there is one idea that is of primary importance and I will describe it below.

Here is the NUMBER ONE secret to MLM success: Don’t sell the PRODUCT or the PROGRAM, sell the DREAM. That’s it. It is very simple. Look at the second paragraph of this article. What I am doing is describing a dream lifestyle. THAT is what you are selling. Don’t try to convince people that your program has all the right features or your product is a guaranteed winner. Nobody cares about that. People want to make money and improve their lives. So tell them how they can do that by joining your program.

Again, it is very simple, SELL THE DREAM. When you have a new prospect/lead or you are designing a website to attract new signups, describe the lifestyle that they can have if they succeed with your program. It is instant motivation.

All you have to do is describe the life that people want to live. Look at my second paragraph. Basically, I’m talking about a guy who doesn’t have to work to make tons of money and spends the rest of his time relaxing. In your description, use the words “you” and “your.” This will make people internalize the description. You can start out your description with phrases like “imagine this” or “before we get started, I’d like you to picture this…” Describe a life of luxury. Usually this involves waking up whenever you want, doing whatever you want, buying the things you want, having tons of time, and not having to work. This is a powerful technique that copywriters have been using for years.

Here is another lifestyle description. I will describe the DREAM again. Notice how you feel when you read it. This is what you want your prospects to feel:

“Before we get started, I’d like you to picture this: You just woke-up after a very restful sleep. You decide to take a swim in your pool before going to work. You dive into the pool and are instantly refreshed. When you get out, you throw on your robe and walk 3 feet to your office. You sit down to your computer, send a few emails, and check your MLM account balance. Yesterday, you made $7,000. Not bad for 5 minutes of work. You decide to get back into the pool and plan what to buy with your $7,000.”

See, it is exciting. So that’s it, the number one MLM tip. Now go out, join an MLM program,…and start selling the DREAM!

Scott Fromherz is a successful internet marketer who has a special interest in MLM. Check out his website at http://www.downlineautopilot.ws