How To Double Your Local Business Sales Without Cold Calling by Farhad Khurshed. Published in 2011 by the author, website: www.copywriting-results.com. Pp: 178. Price: Not mentioned.
"As much as I’d love to think that everyone who follows the advice in How To Double Your Local Business Sales Without Cold Calling will become fabulously wealthy, I can’t promise that will happen,” writes Farhad Khurshed, a copywriter and marketing consultant, based in Sydney, Australia in his book.
Khurshed differentiates between marketing and advertising stating that marketing is "the process or technique of promoting, selling and distributing a product or service.” He then goes on to define advertising as "the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcement.” Marketing is much broader than advertising, he avers.
He talks about how to build your brand and give an "elevator speech” which is a short talk on your business — as short as it would take an elevator to reach your stor(e)y in 30 seconds or 10-15 words! Basically it has to be short and lucid and seen through the eyes of others.
Farhad Khurshed: marketing mantras
Details of "Marketing Methods and Techniques” form the backbone of the book. Khurshed talks of advantages/disadvantages of advertising; during which time of year the best impact is created and zeroes in to assessing the impact as per the day of the week. The writer then questions what the impact of "killer headlines” is: "an effective headline also has to be written directly to the intended audience.” For this, he recommends the ‘4U’s formula — Unique, Useful, Ultra-Specific and Urgent. He also warns how your advertisement needs protection from competitors stealing your idea by making a similar one. To stop this piracy he recommends copyrighting the advertisement. He cautions against advertisers trying to get you to change advertisements as they are used to seeing those that have a uniform look. Direct mailing, telemarketing, networking, internet and web marketing, and event based marketing are all part of this chapter.
Khurshed then details how to target businesses and homeowners. He delineates two specific strategies to target each category. A more formal approach for the former — "… doing the job well and getting the job done on time — are given, but other criteria depend on the type of business and the people who run the business,” he cautions. To access the homeowner, Khurshed recommends networking, being warm, well-heeled and in the social circuit — whether engaged in charitable work, golf club or church activities.
Referrals and newsletters are invaluable tools to "polish your marketing,” according to him. The fifth and last chapter aids in furthering the marketing plan and strategy by talking about press releases — when, where and why. For further effectiveness, staying in touch either by newsletter or active feedback is a sine qua non.
Born and educated in India, the author worked in Oman and then immigrated to Australia. A ‘Neuro Linguistic Process’ (NLP) practitioner, he believes in emotional direct response marketing. He has set up Copywriting-Results in 2008 as a consultant and assists businesses to help them generate leads and improve their sales through offline and online direct response marketing. The book is worth reading for start-ups but may not be very revealing for the initiated.
MEHROO KOTVAL