Super Bowl In July?

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The recent heat wave certainly doesn’t have anyone in Chicagoland thinking about pro football.

But dozens of big, dumb companies paid millions and millions of dollars to run ads on the most recent Super Bowl just a few months ago. Do you think they want people to still be thinking about their company because of those ads?

So tell me…

What were your five favorite ads from Super Bowl XLVI “way” back on February 5, 2012?

What’s that, you say? You can’t even remember five of them?

Don’t worry – it’s not your fault.

When I speak at or host events even just a few weeks after every year’s parade of Super-dumb ads, I ask the audience that question, and I get the same blank looks on everyone’s faces – even when the game was played that recently.

The problem is that all of those are “image” ads instead of direct response ads.

Big, dumb companies love image advertising, and they think the point of their television ads is to entertain us, then hopefully stay on our minds in case we ever feel a need for their type of product or service later on.

That might be okay for a company with “deep pockets” that can afford to wait a long time for their advertising and marketing to pay off, and can even afford to lose a few million dollars here or there on some failed marketing.

But we small business owners can’t afford to waste our time and money on image advertising — merely entertaining people, “getting our name out there” or “building a brand.” We need our marketing to get results – to bring in a measurable Return On Investment. And to do it quickly.

That’s why smart small business owners and entrepreneurs (and some mid-size and big companies) use direct response marketing.

Direct response marketing is marketing that demands a direct response from your potential customers. Any name-recognition or brand-building is a happy by-product – we’re happy to get it, but we never pay for it.

Direct response marketing is used to answer questions, present our products or services and the tell people our story – why we do what we do, and why they should do business with us. Customers love this, because they get the opportunity to respond, whether by signing up for a newsletter or report, posting a comment on a website or blog, or purchasing a product or service from us.

So, what does direct response marketing look like? Actually, you can use it in any form of media you choose, including:

• Direct mail
• E-mail
• Print ads
• Websites
• Flyers
• Brochures
• Radio and TV ads
• Social Media
• Coupons and other incentives
• Business Cards
• Text messages
• Telemarketing
• And more

Some of the advantages of direct response marketing are:

• Great way to use free time during lulls in your business
• Productive way to communicate and empower you to create more relationships
• Great way to up-sell and cross-sell to your current customers
• Low-cost way to attract new business
• Used as leverage to turn small sales into large sales
• Supplement your current marketing program
• Cost-effective way to reach target markets
• Offers measurable results
• Reach outside your local area for new business
• Increase the effectiveness of your sales force

These are all great things that can come from just taking a few simple steps to putting together a direct response marketing plan and executing it.

As Jay Abraham said:

“I honestly don’t think you’ll ever find a safer, lower-risk, higher-profit method of increasing your business or profession than direct-response marketing.”

Direct response marketing is the best way to launch your business on a large scale and reach out to everyone in your target market, whether they are in your local area or not.

It’s for small business owners who want their marketing and advertising to make them money – not to just momentarily entertain people watching a major sporting event, and then quickly disappear from memory…

Want to see for yourself how direct response marketing can explode your business? Take advantage of our FREE 30-day test drive of SSSMarketingUniversity.com. Click on the image below: