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Fatal Marketing Blunders That Drive Owners Out of

Business and The Steps You Must Take to Avoid Them

As business owners, you and I face decisions every day that have the power to sink or sail our ships. These decisions are ours and ours alone to make. There’s no one there to take on the tough choices for us, no one to hold our hands and tell us what to do. The buck stops with us.

Most of the time, we gladly face these decisions.

Why,

Because, well…I’m guessing you’re a lot like me and don’t particularly like being told what to do—unless it's what you wanted to do in the first place😊. But sometimes, having the weight of decisions on your shoulders and yours alone is challenging. And… unfortunately, when faced with difficult decisions, it’s easy to misstep—make the wrong move.

In the world of direct mail copywriting, a few names stand out like beacons in a fog-filled night. Legends, Titans, if you will, who’ve made their clients fortunes that rival the royals with persuasive messages in the form of direct mail delivered to an expertly chosen list of prospects.  

This list of titans has some names you’ll surely recognize, including Dan Kennedy, Russell Martino, and the subject of today’s blog, the “Michelangelo of direct mail copywriting” himself—Gary Bencivenga.

Gary Bencivenga has a long and illustrious career helping American businesses break sales records faster than a bodybuilder can snap a pencil.   This master of persuasion is semi-retired now but frequently shares his wisdom and insight on the secrets of his success.

Today, I’d like to share a few of my favorites of Gary’s ‘magic marketing bullets’ and how I use these time-tested, proven techniques to help my clients reach more ideal prospects and reap more profits than they dreamed possible.

If you want to design a winning marketing strategy, you must understand your customer’s needs, fears, and desires. You must have a strong online presence that entices them to want to do business with you. And you must reach out to them regularly with a tailored message that has them lining up with fists raised full of cash, eager to hand it to you in trade for your goods or services.

That’s what today’s blog is all about. So, buckle up and get ready to connect with your customers on a whole new level!

Your customer is rarely looking for a specific product or service. They are looking to fulfill a desire or meet a need. If a consumer is looking to buy a vacation, they are not necessarily interested in the physical address of the hotel or the color of the bed sheets, they want the promise of a week of fun and adventure in an awe-inspiring place with their friends and loved ones.

I am a marketing and sales strategist so it’s my job to understand and identify opportunities and constraints for the business owners I work with. Recently, I’ve heard many of my clients complain about how hard it is to find and retain excellent employees in their organization. This has come up so many times in the past year I thought I’d address the subject in today’s blog.

Your employees are a living and valuable resource in your business, one that most businesses cannot do without.   Still many employers hire for key roles in their organization after only a single interview, sighting that they had a good feeling about a person, or just felt they’d work out.   To me, this is like going on a blind date with someone and deciding to let them move in with you the next day.