Caution: Don't expect unpaid publicity to replace results you get with advertising. Use it to supplement your advertising. You control where and when your advertising appears. You cannot control where or when you get publicity ...or if you get any at all.

Step 3: Improve Your Selling Propositions

Most prospects who take time to consider your product or service would like to buy from you. But they decided that other things they want are either more important or more urgent.

You can capture many of these sales by dramatically improving your offer. Create a "good deal" that's so enticing it becomes their first choice.

You don't have to reduce your price to improve your offer. Instead, simply load your offer with bonuses. Make sure your bonuses have a high perceived value to your customers ...even if they cost you little or nothing.

Always include an expiration date for your offer. Give prospects choice to either accept your proposition within a short time or forfeit it. This will motivate many prospects to delay some other purchase so they can buy your product or service now.

Tip: To create an absolutely irresistible offer - include a special discount price AND a set of valuable bonuses in your offer.

Controlling your advertising expense and getting unpaid publicity will attract potential customers at lowest cost. Improving your selling propositions will convert maximum number of those prospects into paying customers. Together, these 3 steps are what I call "smart marketing".

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information: Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards" or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

Stop being an enemy of our "competition" and become their friend!

If you own an info-product, (as long as you're only one selling it) research your closest possible "competition", and offer them a Joint Venture. You may want to enlighten them to fact that you're not really in any competition since both of your audiences are extremely targeted to each other. Then, simply do a cross-promotion.

I'll give you an example.

Let's say, I just created an eBook on Joint Ventures.

Then, I search for closest competition I can find. Once I've found what I was looking for, I would email them (or phone them) and let them know that I would like to sell their JV eBook as a back-end to my JV eBook.

I could simply place it under a "Highly Recommended Reading" Column, or just send a mailing to my customer list about it.

(notice I'm telling them what I would like to do for THEM before I ever mention what I want them to do for ME...)

I would then continue by telling them that any time someone purchases their eBook from my efforts, THEY would keep 100% of profits.

This would be 100% FREE advertising for them, and that's REALLY hard to say "no" to. ;-)

I would then ask them if they would be willing to do same thing for me, except I would let them use an affiliate link, so they can still profit from MY eBook when they make a sale from their efforts.

This may seem crazy at first, but if you try to see this JV through eyes of your potential partner (or "competition) you'll understand that I'm placing their needs and wants FAR above my own. This shows them that I am willing to lose a little on deal for THEIR benefit. And more often than not, they'll not only accept offer, but they'll insist that I use an affiliate link for their product as well. :-)

There you have it.

I've just eliminated my "competition" by becoming their friend, and in doing so, I'm getting FREE advertising from extremely laser-targeted PAYING customers who are definitely interested in what I have to offer.

Now, go use your imagination and think of some JV's you can do with your "direct competition" to befriend them. You'll soon realize you never had any REAL competitors in first place.