Bad Marketing Advice Part 2

August 29, 2005

By: Adams Hudson

Lots of “experts” are ready and willing to tell you what you should be doing to promote your business and increase your sales. (Like me.) The trouble is, some of them are flat-out wrong.

Continued from part 1:

Direct response is NOT the only advertising form you should use.
Look, I’m a Direct Response copywriter. We’re paid $1800 per page to write good copy. If I wanted only to line my pocket with your money, I’d be a fool to tell you this wasn’t the answer to every marketing need you ever had.

Call me a fool then – Direct Response as your ONLY FORM of advertising is the fastest way I know to lose your credibility in the market. Good luck building it back among worthy customers. If you don’t, you’ll be the king of dangling, increasingly fantastic bait in front of largely un-financeable dregs. Hard to keep this and a strong, solvent, loyal customer base moving together. Use a balanced mix of Direct Response, Image, TOMA, and Retention marketing to achieve the success and reputation you deserve.

All prospects are NOT alike.
Sure, bigger, older homes with old systems have you salivating about big-ticket replacements. But this gets back to the first point. Don’t go chasing your dream of new customers unless you’re willing to put a little bit of effort into keeping the ones you’ve already got.

The best prospects for new business – through their own service and replacement needs as well as their referrals – are your current customers. The fact is, customers spend 33% more than non customers. And referrals among customers are 107% greater than among non customers.

By providing a superior customer retention program – which includes contact several times a year – you keep those customers.

Two awesome retention programs that are easy to do: Newsletters for every check-writing customer you’ve got. (Let us send you a free sample.) And, a Maintenance Agreement program which is loyalty that a smaller group of your clients pay you for. Now that’s a nice switch! You get reliable, referring, high-value customers pumping predictable profits in your company year after year… automatically.

Use these different marketing tools and tactics to build a better marketing machine in your company. You’ll find your marketing can bring leads, image, and sales almost by “auto-pilot”, so you can run your business instead.


Adams Hudson is president of Hudson, Ink “Creative Marketing that Works.” His company creates a full line of marketing tools for contractors including Customer Retention newsletters, Yellow Page ads, “turn-key” Marketing PowerPacks and custom copywriting. You can get a free subscription to his “Sales & Marketing Insider” by faxing your letterhead to 334-262-1115 with the request. Also check out www.hudsonink.com on the web for free marketing tips or call 1-800-489-9099 for more info.