So last week I went to the Triangle Internet Marketing Meetup about making your marketing more effective. I had just seen the speaker Ron Rosenberg of QualityTalk at a Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle chapter meeting and he gave a lot of good info on another topic, so I wanted to see what he had to say on this one. And although nothing he covered was new to me, I enjoy seeing things presented in a fresh way–which he certainly did. Highlights include:

The $50 Card. What can you do to get a prospect to stop what they’re doing and call you right away? (Think of sending your fresh-off-to-college child a greeting card saying you’ve enclosed a $50 bill for anything you didn’t manage to get beforehand–and not including the $50 bill. No matter how bad they usually are at calling you, you will hear from them ASAP about the missing money.)

Walk to the edge of the abyss. What are your prospects really thinking (that they normally wouldn’t admit)? Go there in your copy. His example focused on weekend tennis players who wanted to improve their skills so they could beat the pants off the ladies-that-lunch-and-play-tennis-everyday set in the next tournament.

The new internet trend of try-before-you-buy (Give us your credit card but we won’t charge you for 31 days. If you’re not satisfied, you can return it within 30 days and we won’t charge you a dime. Otherwise, we’ll charge you on day 31.) doubles sales for those who have tried it. Returns did increase, but were still less than 10%.

And my favorite quote of the night: “Marketing is NOT an expense. Done right, it’s an investment with an obscenely high return.”*

*Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal invested…..Sorry, a bad habit from many years of writing for mutual funds.