Blog

Dear Reader,

It hurts to lose customers. You work hard to attract them, invest time and money in your marketing, deliver a great product or service—and yet, they disappear. It’s frustrating, it’s disheartening, and it can feel like you’re constantly chasing your tail just to stay afloat. But here’s the truth: most customer losses don’t happen because of the competition. They happen because of failure points in your business.

Common Failure Points That Drive Customers Away

To solve the problem, you need to understand where things are going wrong. Too often, businesses focus all their energy on getting new customers in the door and neglect what happens after. And that’s where you’re likely to find failure points:

When it comes to sales and marketing, a timeless principle that transcends industries and decades is “Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak.” This phrase was famously coined by Elmer Wheeler, a pioneer in persuasive selling. In today’s blog, we’ll talk about his core beliefs in marketing and advertising and how these beliefs can be applied to your business and sales efforts.

Elmer Wheeler was born in Missouri in 1903. Despite popular belief, he was not born a salesman but quickly developed into one. He started his career in sales at a young age, working in various industries, from retail to advertising. His keen observation of consumer behavior led him to develop powerful selling techniques focused on appealing to customers' emotions and desires.

Have you ever heard that Bill Cosby bit about raising a son?

Let’s face it – who wants to see the dentist? For most people, dental visits conjure up both physical and financial pain.  Early childhood memories stick. My earliest recollections of our family dentist were of a tall, austere looking man in a white dental coat, who had little to no personality and could never pronounce my name even after 15 years of visits.  I lived in a small town with a total of two dentists, and he was the more personable. His receptionist, however, was a sweetheart, she always remembered our conversations and took a genuine interest in me.

I might be dating myself here, but remember the early days of getting directions online? You'd go to a site like MapQuest, put in your start and end points, and print out 10 pages of turn-by-turn directions. It worked great... until you missed a turn. If you got off the route, you were doomed.

Compare that early technology to the current, GPS-based options, such as Google Maps or Waze. These new tools give you dynamic directions in real-time. It knows where you are, how fast you're going, and where you're headed. It can even warn you of road hazards and find new routes on the fly.

Which type of navigation tool are you using to track your customers' journeys? Are you spitting out a set of directions for them to follow, hoping they won't deviate from the route? Or are you using accurate data to map where they are, where they're headed, and what hazards they need to avoid?

Call it whatever you want; 3D Mail, Direct Mail, Stand-Out Mail, tactile mail, whatever.  Mail that stands out in the mailbox and triggers an immediate response to pay attention to it is still king of delivery in my mind.

Who Says Direct Mail is Dead

That’s an easy one.  Those who say direct mail is dead is anyone that has never used it. Or, only used it once and failed.  Or, those who are under 35 years old would be my guess.

Well, direct mail is at a place in time where it is the ONLY way to make sure your message gets to the intended target.  With a 95% plus open rate, direct mail is a solid winner for getting your message to your audience.

I have been reading lately about the upcoming Web 3.0, "the semantic web" and I’m excited to see what’s in store for us.  Remember the days of dial up connections?

Then we went from just text to graphics, video, streaming communications, media sharing, and so much more. The internet is continuing to grow up right before our eyes.

Evolution is a beautiful thing, no matter how small It may be. It could be as little as watching your house plant grow or witnessing the transformation of a city you once called home.

Why 2019 Is eLaunchers’ Year Of

Independence and Freedom

This July 4th is the celebration of my 20th anniversary of making a life here in this land of the free, home of the brave.  I came to the realization this holiday weekend that I am significantly fortunate to live in the United States, and I am proud to be an American.

Trust Trumps

All Part Two

(even when second thoughts arise)

Last time we spoke of the value of trust in both personal and business relationships. How the love of a mother-in-law can prevail.  How we touched on having trust and faith in your family physician and deciding whether she had the skill to perform brain surgery on your child.  Or not.

We also spoke on how we typically look at trust, what we do trust, and what we don’t.  Human nature types of stuff. 

Today we’ll discuss how trust can be tested, even betrayed and still win the day.  This time we’ll take a deeper look into trust as it pertains to business; the path to purchase.