Demonstrate a low cost for your product or service by breaking down price to its lowest time increment. "$325 per year" frightens many customers away. "Enjoy all of this for less than 90 cents a day" attracts them to low cost.

5. STRESS BENEFITS BEFORE FEATURES

A feature is what something is. A benefit is what it does. For example, my favorite donuts are now delivered in a re- sealable box. That's a feature. The donuts stay fresh for a week after I first open box. That's benefit. Promote benefits of your product or service before you promote features of it. People never buy something to get a feature. They always buy to get benefit produced by feature.

6. FOCUS ON THE HEADLINE

Always include a headline with your ad, sales letter or webpage. Include your biggest benefit in headline to grab your prospect's attention. Otherwise, many prospective customers won't read your promotional material. When you develop a new promotion, test different headlines to find most effective one BEFORE you test anything else. After you find headline that attracts most readers you can test to find most motivating copy for them to read.

7. MAKE AN OFFER

Never advertise without including an offer. An irresistible offer is number one reason why people buy something. To substantially increase response to your advertising, substantially improve your offer. Many small businesses advertise without including an offer. This is a costly mistake because it doesn't provide a reason for prospective customers to respond. The best way to get a big response from your advertising is to make an offer your prospects can't refuse.

Are you using all 7 of these tactics in your promotions? If not, revise your marketing program to include those you've overlooked. You'll immediately enjoy a big increase in your sales and profits without increasing your expenses.

OPPORTUNITY TO LAUNCH A NEW BUSINESS

You can launch a new business based on a hot market and use profits from it to finance your entry into other markets. When profit potential of hot market starts to fade it will only be a portion of your total income.

For example, I recently read about a new company launched in 1998. The business started by selling a software product owners developed to find and correct Y2K problems. Sales were brisk and they used profits to develop other new software products NOT related to Y2K. By time Y2K market vanished they were getting most of their sales from other products.

A NEW PROFIT CENTER FOR AN EXISTING BUSINESS

You can also diversify an existing business into a hot market to take advantage of its profit potential. When profit potential declines you can decide whether to abandon market or continue to operate it as a "normal" profit center.

I know several marketers on Internet who regularly do this with new affiliate programs. They get in early and vigorously promote program to quickly sign up a lot of new affiliates. They stop special promotions when competition gets heavy but continue to offer program as one of many services they provide.

Try to spot emerging hot markets. They offer a profitable business opportunity with minimum risk -- especially if you can get in early. When you find one, use it to launch a new business or add it as a new profit center to your existing business.