I was asked by one of the franchisees to create an ending for them. They gave me their logo, contact information and a line of text for a 20% off special.

So I created the ending slide, and took the liberty of making a graphic box highlighting the 20% off special. I put it all together and sent it to the franchisee owner.

Within 5 minutes I received an email telling me that the special graphic was too distracting and took focus away from their logo. He asked me to just make the special a simple line of text in order to prevent it from distracting from the logo. Now, in fact, the logo was the biggest element on the page and took up about 1/4 of the screen. But, do you see anything odd about his request? Think about it for a moment.

What is more important to you: Your logo or an offer to motivate buyers? The offer, of course. The mistake this franchisee made is a common one for small businesses. They are more focused on themselves than on the customer. Many small businesses are so in love with their company and their branding that they think those things are of interest to the customer. Or, they think that their branding elements actually motivate buying activities.

They don’t. Does the logo of a company motivate you to buy? Sure, seeing a Starbucks logo tells you that your favorite coffee is there, so I’m not suggesting to remove your logo. But, understand that your logo is simply an identifier, not a purchasing motivator. Your offers are the most important element of your ads. Offers are what motivate people to call you, go to your web site, or visit your store.

So, when you are creating your next ad or flier, make your offer loud, because that is the element that will motivate the reader, listener or viewer to take action. Remember, fall in love with your customer, not with your logo!

So of course, my email is full of automated well-wishes from vendors, social media sites,  and companies I barely know. The one that caught my attention was from Borders Books.

They sent me an email with a coupon for a free SMALL cup of coffee or tea. Now, I forgive them for not knowing I don’t drink coffee or tea. But com’on. A SMALL cup. I mean, that probably costs them less than a dime, right?

It said to me, “We feel the need to recognize your birthday, but we want to do it in the least expensive way possible.”

So, as I’m prone to do, Iwrote the head of marketing and told him that this birthday email has made me feel less about Borders. And I suggested that, rather than a small cup of coffeee, they should give a 20% discount on anything I buy today (and I can even use my discount card on top of that.) They’ll still make a profit, they’ll increase store traffic, AND i might even go to the cafe and buy some food, even though I WON’T be buying a small cup of coffee!

Here’s the lesson for you: Think of what you can give people that will get them to remember you. In fact, give them something that will change their life! As I’ve talked about many times in this blog, my book andmany marketing videos, it doesn’t need to be a lot. It need cost very little.

Think of the border’s 20% off. How many people will go into Borders on their birthday? So pretty much anyone they can get in there on their birthday is increased business, even if it is somewhat low margin, right?

What 5 page report can you write today that will help people with some aspect of their life that you work with? Then send that out to everyone you know, and ask them to send it out to everyone THEY know, and so on…

Read my previous post, “Free is the new discount”. Start thinking about the value you can spread that will increase your notoriety and brand image.

Oh yea… I’ll give you every Holistic Business Bounty product for free if you use the coupon code “free”. And I hope you share that with everyone you know, and that they share that with everyone they know…

Information is power, right? Well, the Internet has made information available like never before and much of it at the unbelievable price of FREE.

Eban Pagen, a hugely successful internet marketing guru has a concept called “move the free line”. The idea is that as providers of information, we should strive to give away the best possible value that we provide for free. Getting our best stuff into more hands spreads our influence, notoriety and credibility. So where will you move the line between free and stuff for which you charge?

It assumes, however, that your entire commercial value is NOT tied up in just one piece of information. You have coaching opportunities, products, events in which stuff can be sold, and other information that ties in and expands upon what customers already own of yours.

Another information marketing guru, Sean D’Souza, owner of Psychotactics also believes in the concept of free and has recently started given away products that not too long ago were selling on line for thousands of dollars. He is arguably one of the top marketers and teachers of people making millions on-line.

And, I just finished an eye-opening book by Bob Burg and John David Mann called Go-Givers Sell More. Not go-getters, get it? The premise of the book is that the giving mindset will return more to you that the taking mindset.

So the question is: what can you give away for free?  Well, you have tons of information inside your head that can help people. If you’re an energy healer, you could write a PDF on exercises that will relieve stress. If you are an accupuncturist, you could write a PDF on using one’s own pressure points to sleep better or relieve pain. If you are a nutritionist, you could write a PDF on the 10 most health-affirming foods ever and how to easily obtain them.

Notice those were all PDFs? PDFs are easy to distribute on-line. You can email them, put them in autoresponders, print them and hand them out at your trade show table, etc. But you could also record an interview with an expert related to your field and put it on a CD. Or you could sit in front of a video cam and talk.

Seem hard? Use 1-800-conferencecall to record an audio interview, then use iTunes to burn it to a CD. Want something a little more professional? Then go on Craigs list and find someone to make you a great sounding/looking CD for a hundred bucks.

Again, why are you creating these things? So that you have something to send to people as a sample of your expertise, or as a gift in exchange for them giving you their contact info on your web site form (sure better than “get our free newsletter!), or as a handout at a trade show booth, or as something for a strategic partner to give to their clients or prospects (make sure it has your branding on it).

In fact, I’ll put my money where my mouth is. I’ll give you my entire library of products (my book and training videos) all for free. All I’ll ask from you is to at least consider leaving me a comment on this post about what you thought of the product. I’m not even going to hold you to writing one. Just consider it.

Just put in the word FREE into the coupon code field and see the price go to zero. To see all the products of Holistic Business Bounty, just click here.

Start right now and think of what YOU could create and give to people for free. You’ll be delighted at how the Universe will respond!

Yesterday I got another lesson in Excellence, and it’s a lesson all of us can learn from if we are to gain customers and, more importantly, hold on to them.

My beloved Apple TV wasn’t working. Apple TV is that $230 box that allows you to download movies from iTunes and play them on your TV. It’s where I rent all my movies and buy most of them.

Well, it stopped working. That damn yellow light on the box was flashing, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop it. Calling the 800 number for Apple put me in touch with a very nice, professional man who quickly surmised that I needed to bring it in. So I drove an hour to take it into the nearest Apple store.

Another friendly professional man greeted me at the Genius bar (what a great example of branding!), hooked up my machine and within 2 minutes of tapping on his keyboard, told me that it was broken and could not be fixed. (There was a little more to his explanation, but in essence, the box had turned to trash).

The bad news was that it was 55 days out of warranty.

The good news was that he was going to give me a brand new one nonetheless! Hey, it was out of warranty!

While at the mall yesterday after getting my new Apple TV, I picked up a book by the legend, Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence). It’s called “The Little Big Things”. 538 pages about how BIG a difference small things can make in life and business.

Here’s one for you regardless of if you are running a $10 billion technology corporation or your own Reiki practice: Do something small that makes one customer never forget you. EVER.

Mr. Rapaille has made his fame by helping half of the Fortune 100 crack the code on reasons people buy (or don’t buy) their products. This book illustrates how Mr. Rapaille uncovers the subconscious associations for everything from sex to food to wealth to Presidents. The word “Culture” in the title refers to the substantial differences people make of these various aspects of their lives based upon the country in which they live.

Now, there are a lot of marketers who conduct focus groups to determine what people want in, for instance, a car. But what Mr. Rapaille reminds us is that traditional focus groups tend to provide little real insight given that they are usually attended by people giving feedback on what they think the sponsor wants to hear. The questions also tend not to delve too deep into the subconscious. “What color do you like best?”

At the end of a three hour process lead by Mr. Rapaille, he is able to determine what he calls the “code” for a particular product. Effective advertising that is “within code” will resonate with the audience and, therefore, sell product. Marketing that is not “in code” will not sell.

An example is his first client, Jeep. He was called into determine why sales for the Jeep Wrangler were suffering. After his 3-hour process of asking questions and probing into the subconscious of room of people, he determined the reason for slumping sales. He discovered that the Jeep wrangler represented a horse to buyers. It was a symbol of freedom and of riding the range. The spirit of the old west.

But at that time, the headlights of the Wrangler were square. But, after all, the eyes of a horse are round, so he subsequently recommended to the executives of Jeep that they change the shape of their headlights to round. Initially thinking this was crazy, then discovering that round headlights are cheaper to manufacture that square ones, Jeep agreed. The rest is history. Jeep Wrangler sales took off and Mr. Rapaille began a very successful career cracking the code for a long list of popular consumer products.

For any of us crafting marketing messages to sell our products or services, we must be in code. In other words, our message must resonate subconsciously with the beliefs of our audience. Remember, your message can’t be intended to change anyone’s mind. Rather, the message tied to the purchase of your product or service must feel to your viewer, listener or reader like a confirmation of their deeply cherished beliefs.

Once you’ve determined that potential buyers of Jeep want the feeling of the wind in their hair and the freedom of going where they please on their trusted stallion, you create commercials of your car herding cattle and riding up impossible mountain ledges. Your viewer sees the ad and says, “Hey, I want that to be me!”

So, as a holistic healer, your job is to determine your audience’s code for health, and then apply that belief to your product/service and its marketing message. Now, that answer doesn’t come just because you ask a few people to tell you what they think health is for them. It requires a fearless, honest introspection about core beliefs most of us don’t even hold consciously. For Clotaire Rapaille of culture code, it takes a 3 hour process of easing people into an alpha state and then getting them to tell you stories about automobiles, or in your case, health. I wish I could recommend an easier way for you to crack the code!

I am searching for the code that holistic healers hold for marketing, selling and business. To find it, I am creating a session in which I will spend half a day with about 20 practitioners as they tell me stories about money, success, failure, higher purpose, healing and marketing. I’ll let you know the results and how I will use them to determine my own marketing messages.

If you would like to be part of that day, feel free to write me at mlake@redlake.tv.

Anyway, it was a great adventure. We saw amazing temples, breathtaking landscapes, exotic shops filled with great treasures of the far east and Disneyland (Did I mention we were with two young boys!)

Something else that caught my eye was the proliferation of signage. Yes, Japan is very much part of the marketing world. I often talk about how difficult it is to cut through the clutter of the sea of marketing messages with which your potential clients are daily bombarded.

But there’s something more about signage in Japan. It’s blindingly colorful and EVERYWHERE! Imaging walking into a store and seeing ads and promotions on the floor, ceiling, escalator walls and hanging down wherever you look in front of your face. It would probably look something like this:

Yes, marketing is in full gear in the big cities of Japan. But our travels weren’t limited to the big stores. We walked through some great old fish markets seeing some wild snacks like octopus stuffed with Quail egg. Hungry?

And the signage wasn’t limited to stores and their merchandise. How about this for labeling? Hey, is that thing FDA approved?

Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s because I don’t speak the language, or maybe it’s their use of bright primary colors, but the signage just seemed overwhelming. Here’s a shot looking into a convenience store. They all looked like this. My 9 year old and I walked into our first convenience store after waking up jet-lagged with nothing better to do around 3:30am on our first day. It definitely woke me up!

Here’s one of my favorite signs. There’s a lot going on here, isn’t there?

We’ve all seen the fake food displays in oriental restaurants, but in Japan, there’s a display like this in front of EVERY restaurant. And it is sometimes deceiving to small boys who think something looks yummy, only to find out $20 later that it is awful and inedible!

And the holistic healers are promoting themselves. Here’s a simple sign outside of a palm reader’s shop. As you can see, exclamation points are universal!!

It was an enlightening experience for all of us. I must say that I have a new-found respect for the Japanese. I found them to be a wonderfully gracious people who couldn’t do enough for us. They take such pride in everything they do. From the cab drivers who all wore clean crisp suits and drove immaculate cabs to the hotel personnel who made us feel like they were our personal staff to the street cleaners out all night with their simple brooms sweeping and picking up EVERY scrap of litter as their sacred mission in life.

A last quick story:

To survive the 14 hour plane ride, we bought our boys Nintendo DS handheld game machines before leaving. On one of our trips to an Osaka fish market, 10 minutes after being dropped off, my eldest realized he had left his pack containing both units and all the games in the cab. Osaka is Japan’s second largest city and we were somewhere in it’s center. Now what?

So, we asked a shop keeper who directed us to a small police station. The police called the cab company from my receipt and within the hour the bag with its entire $500 worth of equipment was dropped off at our hotel front desk. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether that might have gone down like that in New York.

And even though there are some very distinct cultural differences, the Japanese love many aspects of our America lifestyle. We saw first hand their immense love of a giant smiling mouse and his many wacky friends!

Sayonara,

Mike

This was a very productive workshop. It made my discussion much more practical and gave the participants some real actionable value. They took home something tangible that helps their practice.

The examples shown to me of their marketing work were similar to so many that I’ve seen, not only in my workshops, but in newspapers, bulletin boards and on the web. And I don’t mean to be critical, because I frequently remind my participants that you can’t know what you don’t know.

For most small businesspeople, including holistic healers, putting together an ad, brochure or flier consists of putting their name at the top, writing a paragraph or two about how wonderful they are, followed by a bulleted list of their modalities or service features. Sound familiar?

What if you had some expert guidance on how to create a flier that attracts viewers and excites them about coming to your upcoming workshop? Or, how would you like to be shown exactly what’s been missing from your advertisements, and how you can easily fix them so that they grab people so they call you?

Well, I’ve got it for you. I’ve just released two brand new videos that reveal the secrets of effective fliers and advertisements.

These videos have been crafted to show you step by step the process for creating great ads and fliers including how to find beautiful yet cheap stock photography for your materials. On the video on fliers, I show you exactly how to search for the perfect image and how to best place it in your flier. You won’t believe what a difference the right image will make in attracting attention and adding emotion. If you’ve read HolisticBusinessBounty, you know that emotion is THE critical ingredient in effective marketing materials.

The video on fliers is called: How you can create fliers that will get people sprinting to your events and begging to pay for your services. (Even if you hate computers and have the design sense of a blind gerbil) Get the picture? Click here to watch a short video that will tell you all about it.

The video on advertising is called: How to create great advertising for your practice that grabs the reader and seduces them to buy. (Even if every ad you’ve ever created has seemed to have turned invisible.) There’s your first secret revealed right there – be clear and tangible about your offer. Click here to watch a short video that will tell you all about it.

As always, there is a full no questions asked money back guarantee on all these products. If you didn’t learn anything new or don’t like the sound of my voice, contact me for a full refund.

The people who have had a sneak peek at them have said it forever changed how they look at fliers and ads. Similarly, I think these two videos will give you the power to create marketing that will grab your reader and seduce them to buy and then get people sprinting to your events and begging to pay for your services.

So what’s this got to do with you and your holistic practice? Everything.

Well, I was reading the article on the fact that Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) posted its first full year sales decline in its history.

Is it because of the economy? I doubt it since history has proven that in bad economic times, people actually consume more alcohol. (I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about that!) No, I believe that it’s something else, and something from which all of us can learn and prosper.

Mid-way through the article on Anheuser-Busch, mention is made that there was a major shift in their advertising message since their decline in sales. Ad Age put it this way: Each brand largely abandoned the emotional appeals that had helped them become the two largest beer brands in the U.S. for straightforward pitches about process and product attributes that coincided with worsening sales for both labels.

In other words, the advertising agency shifted from an emotional appeal to the Bud and Bud Light brands, and instead created ads that talked about products attributes or features. They abandoned sizzle and embraced steak. The result was fewer people bought their beer.

What can you learn from this that can be applied to your practice?

No matter whether we’re buying beer, computers, books or wellness, we all buy on emotion. We often try to convince yourselves that we made the logical choice because we frequently justify our purchase with reason. Even in my previous career when I was selling Chief Financial Officers of large corporations multi-million dollar financial deals, they were buying on emotion. They were thinking, “How good will I look to the board if I do this?” “Will putting this deal together make me feel better about my contribution to the company?” “I’m going to look like a hero here if I can pull this off.” and so on. Yes, they were all looking at the bottom line numbers, but the decision to sign the deal had an emotional appeal.

So if these high-level people make decisions on emotion, imagine what is going through your client’s mind as she decides to come to you for a Reiki session! Whether you are selling Reiki, massage, acupunture, or EFT, your clients are chosing you for emotional reasons, then justifying it rationally. Not the other way around.

Think about the last purchase you made. How did you feel that split second you made the decision to buy? Then how did your thinking change as you walked to the car or after you got home and explained to someone afterward why you bought it. “We needed one of these because the old one is run down.” Or, “It’ll save us money in the long run. Really!”

So, your message in your fliers, ads, trade show displays and web site must have an emotional appeal. Talk about how great the person will feel in the end, or how beautiful they will look with this process, or what a good night sleep will finally feel like, and so on. Be specific and concrete in your description of the emotional benefit.

Look at your brochure or web site. Are you describing the emotional benefit of your modality or are you listing a bunch of features and facts?

Learn from Anheuser-Busch’s hundreds of millions of wasted advertising dollars. Sell the emotional benefit of your work. People will come to you because they deeply desire the feeling you’re describing to them.

So are you using the power of free to attract people to your store, practice, trade show booth or web site? Why not?

The main reason is that you may not know what you could give away for free that doesn’t cost you a lot of time and money. You also may be concerned that giving something away free could cannibalize your main good or service, right? It doesn’t need to, and when done correctly, it will enhance the value of your main offerings.

Here’s how…

Think of your free offering as a complement to your main good or service. Think of it also as something that will enhance the value of what you sell. Notice what Holistic Business Bounty offers you for free on the home page? It is a video entitled “How to read your customer’s mind”. It is a great complement to the offerings of Holistic Business Bounty because it prepares the viewer to think in terms of his or her customer. Then, when they watch a video on creating fliers, brochures or ads, they have the insight needed to speak in their customer’s voice. It makes our products more effective. And, even by itself, it provides a unique value.

Say, you’re a nutritionist. Your customers are interested in what they eat and how that effects their health, right. So, create a report entitled, “The three things never… ever to put in your body.” Say you’re a financial planner. Your customers are interested in making the most of their money and reaching financial freedom so that they can retire without working. Create a short report entitled, “The 5 ways to kill your retirement dream… And how you can  stop right NOW.”

One more: Say, you’re a Reiki practitioner. Many of your clients may be looking to relieve stress or overcome a physical ailment. How about a free report entitled: “Gloomy to grateful in just 6 minutes”. This PDF would consist of instructions on taking 6 minutes to find their favorite quiet place, listen to their breathing and some short simple affirmations to repeat in their mind as they breath.

Now, notice this was NOT titled: “How to meditate”. Because some people have a view of meditation that would scare them from wanting your report. Your words are key. Do you see something that each of these freebies them have in common? They each have a title that provokes curiosity. Your title should contain some mystery. Some intrigue. And do some absent of words that might repel. You might think meditation is great, but don’t assume everyone else does. Especially your prospective clients.

Some day, I’ll write an entire post on this, but a great tool for thinking of provocative titles is to glance at this month’s Cosmopolitan. That’s right, the next time your in line at the drug stor or grocery store, look at those article titles they tease you with on the cover. It’s the best lesson you could have.

Regarding length, the reports I mentioned above could be one, two or three pages. Not long. Write them in Word, then convert them into PDFs. Have a stack at your trade show booth as a give-a-way in exchange for business cards. Put a box on your home page offering it to people who submit their name and email address.

And, yes, video is a great give-a-way, but it has a few more steps. Our financial consultant could put a 10 slide PowerPoint presentation together, then, using software like Camtasia, give that presentation on her computer while speaking into a micorphone. Camtasia is recording both the video and audio, and once you’re finished, you have a video. You should upload it to YouTube if nothing else, so that it is compressed for the web. That just means that your video is small enough to send it to people in an email or put it on your site.

You could even put this video on a disk. These days, DVD burners and software comes on your new computer, so use it. Now you have something to give the people at your trade show booth or when they come to your studio or therapy room.

We all want free gifts, so start today to create some that can be showered on the world. They will love you for it, remember you, and consider you above everyone else who did nothing more than take their money after the session.

There was so much great interaction throughout the day that I ran out of time to talk about an important aspect of marketing that many practitioners neglect: Strategic Partnerships. So let me review this marketing strategy that I didn’t have time to cover Saturday.

You probably know at least a dozen organizations that are connected to tons of people needing your product or service, don’t you? Complementary organizations, stores selling products that align with your services, on-line associations, etc. So, how do you tap into these potentially rich sources of new customers? That’s the question I’ll answer for you.

Step one is to create a list of potential partners. Think about on-line resources selling products that complement your services. Or think about stores or recreational facilities whose customers would benefit from what you do. Don’t judge the potential or exactly how you will go about making it work. For now, just brainstorm. Don’t evaluate.

Let me give you some examples:

• How about a massage therapy practice works with a ski resort. The masseuse sets up a chair or table for people who have just skied or are about to.
• A Reiki master works with a natural food store who gives customers a free Reiki session for every $350 in accumulated food purchases.
• A Seimei healer partners with a midwife to provide speedier physical recovery from giving birth.
• From my own partnerships, I created a video helping members of a holistic healer directory create better on-line profiles for their own directory listing.

Next, one of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to forge a strategic relationship is going into it with the “What can I get from you” mentality. Instead, you should reach out to these potential partners with the attitude of “I have an idea of how I could benefit you and your clients.” That will get you much more interest and attention.

So, using the above examples, the masseuse would propose that her service would provide an extra incentive for people to use that particular ski resort. The Reiki master would propose that the free Reiki session could motivate people to buy more from that natural food store and perhaps think twice before buying the same food from a competitor or regular grocery store. And the Seimei practitioner could make the point that she is providing that midwife with an extra benefit that might attract more women to her practice.

In my example with the on-line directory, Wellness Possibilities, I created a video that illustrates how members can create a much better personal profile, The benefit to Wellness Possibilities is that their members will improve their ability to create a profile that will attract more potential clients seeing their profile. The site becomes more valuable to members.

So, before you call or write owners of the stores, on-line resources or other potential partners you came up with, have an idea of what you believe might be their benefit of their partnership with you. Obviously, you need to be clear on your benefit, but remember, that’s secondary to your partner. They care about what’s in it for them, so stay focused on that.

Then call and say something like, “I think you have a great site/store/organization, and I have an idea of how I might be able to increase your business by us partnering together.” Then propose your idea and ask what they think. Now, even though I’ve been stressing the need to be clear on their benefit, don’t neglect to tell them how you believe you can benefit as well. Lead with their benefit, but let them know your expectations for how this can help you.

So start leveraging the clients and customers of others that can complement your practice,, because those people can start to become your customers as well!