MLM Woman Newsletter Issue 134

Easy Postcard
Marketing Checklist
Copyright 2008 Bob Leduc

Generating website traffic, sales leads and even sales with postcards is easy when you follow a proven system.

This 10 point checklist lays out a simple step by step process you can follow to get your postcard marketing campaign off to a fast start ...and produce highly profitable results.

1. Define the Purpose of Your Postcards

What do you want your postcards to accomplish? Do you want to generate website traffic, new customers, sales leads, repeat sales or something else?

2. Describe Your Audience

Who wants or needs what you will be offering? Make a list of all the characteristics of the perfect prospect you can think of.

3. Find the Best Mailing List

If you're going to mail the postcards to your own customers you already have the list. Otherwise contact a mailing list broker with the description of that perfect prospect you developed in Step 2. Almost any mailing list you can think of is available through most mailing list brokers.

4. Settle on 1 Idea to Promote

You only have enough space on a postcard to promote 1 product, 1 service or 1 idea. If you want to promote more than 1 thing, develop a separate postcard for each.

5. Determine the Best Format to Use

Some advertisers use large oversize postcards (5 1/2 inches x 8 1/2 inches for example). But keep in mind that you can send your postcards by First Class Mail for only 26 cents in the US if you keep them between 3 1/2 x 5 inches and 4 1/4 x 6 inches in size.

6. Compose a Captivating Headline

Postcards get delivered open and ready to read. A captivating 3 to 5 word headline that can be read with just a quick glance at the postcard guarantees almost 100 percent readership ...especially if it promises a major benefit to the reader.

7. Create a Powerful but Easy to Grasp Offer

Try to state your offer in just one sentence. If you use more than one sentence, leave blank lines between them. If you have more than 3 sentences, consolidate several into short bulleted lists to save space and reading time.

8. Provide a Simple and Easy Way to Respond

Briefly tell the reader exactly what you want them to do in response to your postcard. Make it simple and easy. For example, visit your website, call you on the phone or come to your store.

9. Develop a Compelling Incentive to Act Fast

You can boost the number of responses to your postcard by giving readers a compelling reason to take action right NOW. For example, reward them with a discounted price, a special bonus or something else if they respond by a deadline.

10. Print the Postcards

You can have your postcards printed professionally or print them yourself using your own computer. An online search for "postcard printer" will return a huge list of professional
printers you can use. Or, print them yourself on paper suitable for postcards such as 90 pound or 110 pound index paper available in most office supply stores.

This 10 point checklist does not cover everything about postcard marketing. But it provides a proven guideline anyone can follow to create profitable postcards ...fast.

About The Author
Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

Strategies for Releasing Guilt
by Lisa Martin, The Working Mother's Coach

Working moms confide in me that they feel guilty about a number of things – missing their baby’s first stumbling steps, putting their children in child care, having their teens come home to an empty house. And these scenarios relate only to their children, not including the guilt that stacks up for taking time for themselves, work commitments, personal relationships and so much more.

When it comes to balancing kids and career, you name the issue and, in all probability, some career-oriented mom out there will feel some shame or blame about it.

Initially, guilt can be a positive force. It is a warning to us that we need to make some changes. However, if we don’t heed those warning signs, guilt can quickly manifest itself as anxiety, stress, depression and other harmful emotions and conditions.

If you find guilt weighing you down or want to be as guilt-free as possible, here are three strategies to consider.

1. Determine the source of your guilt
Do your best to discover the source of your guilty feelings. Do they come from you, your children or outsiders who criticize your choices? For example, you are feeling badly about turning down a friend’s dinner invitation and discover that the source of that guilt stems from personal programming that you must say yes to each request, otherwise you are a “bad” friend.

Knowing the source of your guilt, now you can release it by acknowledging that saying no does not mean you are not a good friend. Honest communication with your friend about not being up to a party is far better than attending out of obligation and feeling resentful during and afterwards.

2. Adjust your expectations
Guilt can stem from not living your life in accordance with your own personal standards, expectations and values – what you feel is right and important. When there is a gap between our expectation of self (and our role as mothers) and our reality, guilt is often the result. The wider the gap, the more guilt you feel.

Most working mothers I know have very high expectations of themselves. Take a look at the expectations you are placing on yourself. Assess whether they are realistic at this point in your life. Are you expecting to be able to do all the things you could before you became a parent? Have you adjusted your expectations to align with the ages and stages of your children?

For instance, if you feel guilty about not attending all your children’s sporting events, see if your expectation of yourself is to be present at all events. If so, perhaps an adjustment in your expectation is in order. Maybe attending 50 percent of the games is acceptable.

3. Apologize to others and forgive yourself
“Too err is human.” Many women carry a long list of things they haven’t forgiven themselves for. These items range from “stealing my brother’s baseball cards” to “raising my voice at my children,” with many stops along the way. With this lack of self-forgiveness comes its partner in crime – guilt.

If you are beating yourself up over things that happened in the past, now is the time to let them go. Write a list of everything you have not forgiven yourself for. Some of these things you may be able to rectify, and some you may not. If you feel rotten about arguing with your child, for example, make a deliberate attempt to give that child a special hug and apologize. Then put the matter to rest. For more complicated issues, find a way, such as writing a letter, making a phone call or simply “letting it go,” to bring the issue to some level of resolution.

Too much guilt can weigh you down, making it difficult to move on with your life and maintain a positive outlook. The good news is that there are simple ways to put guilt into perspective and, hopefully, leave it behind. Through self-awareness and conscious choices, we can all “release our guilt” and feel a whole lot lighter without it.

About The Author

Lisa Martin is a certified coach who inspires working mothers to achieve success that’s balanced and is the author of Briefcase Moms: 10 Proven Practices to Balance Working Mothers’ Lives, With 20 years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience, Lisa is also the founder and president of Briefcase Moms – a work-life coaching and training company that helps organizations attract, engage and retain working mothers. A mother herself, Lisa’s powerful presentations and programs have helped thousands of women define success and balance on their own terms. http://www.briefcasemoms.com

I'm Not Interested
by Wendy Weiss, "The Queen of Cold Calling"

Whenever I conduct a workshop or teleclass, invariably someone asks the question: "What should I say when the prospect says, 'I'm not interested?'"

My response invariably is: "It's probably too late."

Certainly you can try to recover from that "I'm not interested" response. You can ask, "Why do you say that?" (Say this gently, as though you are confused and really, really want the answer.) You can repeat back: "Not interested?" (Again, say this gently, as though you are confused.) This sometimes gets people to start talking and explain themselves. Bottom line, however, if everyone that you speak with says, "I'm not interested," you're not saying anything interesting.

If you have a compelling script with stellar delivery, you will hardly ever hear the words, "I'm not interested." That's because you will actually be saying something interesting!

On the telephone, you have approximately 10-20 seconds to grab your prospect's attention - and if you do not do that, your call is probably over. 10-20 seconds is not a lot of time. You are not going to convey a lot of information in 10-20 seconds. Instead, what you'll convey is your energy, your confidence and your excitement. Your words must reach out and immediately grab and hook your prospect's attention.

From the moment your prospect says, "Hello," your goal is to gain your prospect's attention so that she is hungry to hear more. If you don't hook your prospects in the beginning of your conversation, they will not want to speak with you. They will say, "I'm not interested," and worse case, they may hang up on you.

In order to hook your prospect, ask yourself: Whom are you calling? Why should they be interested? You're looking for hot buttons, those issues that are so important to your prospect that when they come up, your prospect stops in her tracks to listen. The big point here is that when you are trying to hook someone, you have to have some sense of what's important to them.

Ask yourself: What is the value that I (the company/product/service) bring to customers. How do they benefit? How do I (the company/product/service) make customer's lives easy, stress-free, happy, profitable etc? You may have to do some market research and/or brainstorming here. Once you've determined that value, however, lead with it.

Here's an example:

Last year when I conducted the "Cold Calling College--Live" group coaching program, I received an e-mail from a participant. He said he was calling owners of mid-size companies and not having much success. His e-mail read:

"...I say my name and company and then say 'we specialize in business performance management solutions for budgeting, reporting and analysis.... I hear 'not interested' then they hang up before I can say anything else.

Another thing I have tried is, '...the reason I am calling is to introduce [company name]'s budgeting reporting analysis solutions and to invite you to an Excel seminar....' But after this I hear, 'not interested,' then they hang up before I can say anything else."

It's hardly surprising that these introductions didn't work. They weren't interesting. There was nothing in those first sentences to grab and hook a business owner's attention.

Later on, after going through the "Cold Calling College" process, the person who wrote this e-mail was able to pare his introduction down. His introduction ended up being something like: "We help companies keep the money they make." Short, sweet, to the point and focused on the value to business owners. Prospects stopped hanging up on him. Instead, he was able to start scheduling meetings with those business owners.

Lesson learned: Do your homework. Do what ever is necessary to truly understand your prospects. Before you ever pick up the phone, have the answer to the question: "Why should this prospect be interested?" If you have that answer, you will never again hear: "I'm not interested."