Summary:
If marketing your business has you spooked, discover how a
Halloween strategy can pull in all the clients you want.


MARKETING TRICKS OR TREATS

If you live in the U.S., at the end of October you'll be
preparing for a stream of young children to come to your door on
Halloween. One by one or in groups of friends, they'll ring the
bell and shout, "Trick or Treat".

To avoid having them actually play a trick on us, you bribe
these youngsters with a selection of mini candy bars. You could
offer them healthy treats like apples or small boxes of raisins
or you could try something novel like telling them a favorite
joke, but most y0ung children are on a mission.  They want to
fill their plastic pumpkins and pillowcases with candy as
quickly as possible.

You may not be a fan of sugar-based diets, but if you enjoy
seeing all those undersized fairy godmothers and ghosts and
goblins on Halloween, you'll indulge them and dole out one candy
bar after another. Your costumed customers know what they want.
If they don't get it from you, they'll go next door.

This Halloween strategy can also help you grow your business.
Want to get a steady stream of customers coming to your door?
Want to avoid having potential clients go next door?  Offer them
a f.ree treat! It works to get children ringing doorbells and
talking to adults whom they barely know, and it will work for
your business.

What kind of treats will bring in your prospects? Probably not
Snickers Bars or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, delicious as these
are. The answer depends on what you sell and what your prospects
want. For example, if your prospects want
to:

- Improve their finances - offer them a f.ree guide or a
workshop on ways to make more and save more money.

- Sell their home - give them a guide to maximizing their
profits.

- Increase their physical mobility and avoid pain - give them
tips on ways to improve their posture and strength.

- Get better results with their advertising - give them a guide
to writing ads that get a better response.

If you know what your prospects want, you can pull them in like
kids at Halloween with the right treat, f.ree report or
workshop. Using this strategy on the Internet, you can attract
hundreds of qualified prospects each month to your business.

Over twenty thousand people currently subscribe to my weekly
marketing newsletter. Each of them signed up in response to my
offer of a f.ree marketing guide. And this f.ree marketing guide
continues to attract over a thousand new subscribers each
month.

Marketing Tricks to Avoid
Some companies think that tricking people into trying their
services or products is a clever way to attract customers.
ph0ne companies and c.redit card companies offer low
introductory rates that are subject to steep increases a few
months later. Some small businesses make wild promises that
their services and products don't live up to.

No one likes to have tricks played on him or her at Halloween or
any other time. Strong s.ales depend on trust. Violate trust and
good will with marketing gimmickry, and you've lost your
prospect for good - and probably several of the friends they
tell about you as well.

Marketing Treats to Use
Offer prospects a treat to get them to contact you, to stay in
touch, to visit your showroom and to thank them for making a
purchase. Not sure what to give away to prompt prospects to
contact you and visit your store?

In the 1930s, Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota built a reputation
and their business by giving away a glass of ice water. Before
cars were air-conditioned, the promise of a cold glass of water
was enough to pull a steady stream of hot and thirsty travelers
off the highway and into the store.

Today people are hungry for information and ideas that will
solve their daily problems and simplify their lives. A Stamford,
Connecticut financial firm used a series of f.ree workshops for
wealthy investors to pull in prospects and quickly added
milli0ns under management.

Make your f.ree offer something your prospects won't want to
turn down, whether it's a report, article, workshop, or
educational CD. It doesn't have to be big but it does need to
target the interests of your market and be related to your
products and services.

With the right freebie, the right treat, you'll attract
prospects by the thousands and see your sales skyrocket.

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2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
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The author, Charlie Cook, helps, small business owners and
marketing professionals attract more clients and be more
successful. Sign up to receive the Free Small Business Marketing
Ideas eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your
business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com