From: CEObrief eLetter (Lawton_Howell@mail.vresp.comIn this issue: 1. The 4 Levels of Marketing Competence 2. Insights on Advertising from the legendary Bernbach 3. 38 Great Ideas for Your Next Headline Build Your Business with Marketing Competence! Marketing is everything that you do that can be seen, heard or smelled by your patients or the people in your marketplace. Lawton W. Howell, Sr. Your success as a chiropractic entrepreneur is heavily impacted by the level of your marketing. Regardless of your attitude toward marketing, each and everyone who has a chiropractic business is marketing at some level of competence. You may never run a single advertisements, but, you still are marketing your brand of chiropractic on both a stated and unstated level. Marketing is everything that you do that can be seen, heard or smelled by your patients and the people in your marketplace.... ...which includes: * Your location * Your building * Your signage * Your parking lot * The stripes in your parking lot * Your windows * Your door * Your reception area * Your T.E.A.M. * Your patient forms * Your patient educational material * Your exam room * Your treatment room * Your equipment * Your uniforms or lack of them * Your menu of services * Your carpet * Your paint * Your posters * Your appearance * Your scripting, protocol, procedures and systems! All of these and MORE contribute to your marketing competence! And, each of these carries a STATED, obvious message and an UNSTATED, hidden message. Both will impact the degree of success you attain for your brand of chiropractic. I have spent the greater part of my last 35 years as a marketing specialist and have observed business entrepreneurs fall into four categories as far as their competence and skill in marketing are concerned. Which category are you in? By recognizing which category you are in and taking the action steps suggested below, you can rise to the next level and increase the return on investment from your marketing dollars. A realistic assessment of your level of marketing competency also can guide you as to when to listen to a consultant or adviser....and when to ignore his or her advice because your instincts tell you it is wrong. The 4 Levels of Marketing Competence are: * Unconscious Incompetence * Conscious Incompetence * Conscious Competence ...and the highest level: * Unconscious Competence The lowest level of marketing competence is "Unconscious Incompetence." You don't know what you are doing, and worse, you don't know that you don't know. You may even think you are a sharp marketer, though to others that is clearly not the case. Egotistical entrepreneurs who appear in their own television commercials and self-anointed marketing gurus fall into this category. If you think you are an OK marketer and always blame the lack of results generated by your marketing on external factors, such as bad timing, bad lists or bad luck, then you are probably in the "Unconscious Incompetence" stage. Recognize that you don't know what you're doing and that it is hurting your brand of chiropractic. Get help. Hire a marketing manager who knows more than you do. Or take a marketing course or workshop. Read and study books on marketing. The next stage up the ladder is "Conscious Incompetence." You have recognized that the reason your marketing isn't working is that you don't know what you're doing. Again, take the steps listed above. When I was at this stage as a marketing manager recently graduated from college and with no work experience under my belt (instead of the considerable paunch that resides there now), I hired an experienced ad agency and leaned on them for guidance. This strategy worked for my employer and me. The company got better marketing than I could have produced on my own. And working with the agency accelerated my marketing education, making me a more valuable employee. Conscious Incompetence is better than Unconscious Incompetence because people in the former stage are amendable to guidance and coaching, while those in the latter are not. Climbing higher up the ladder, you reach the state of "Conscious Competence." You have read the books, taken the courses and understand what works and why. But your experience at putting it into practice is limited. This means that when you want to create a promotion, you have to slow down and think about what you are doing. It doesn't come naturally. In this stage, you should keep checklists, formulas and swipe files (examples of successful promotions you admire). Model your efforts after the winners of others. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Observe what works and adapt it to your brand of chiropractic. Do this enough times, and you will begin to become a true master of marketing. You will reach the highest level of marketing competence, "Unconscious Competence." At this stage, devising great offers, promotional ideas, headlines and copy is second nature. You do it naturally, without consulting your checklists or reference files. The quality of your work is better, and it comes faster and easier. However, you still should keep an extensive swipe file of promotions. Borrowing ideas and inspiration from direct mail packages that work is a time-honored tradition in the marketing profession, as long as it does not step over into plagiarism or copyright infringement. It has been stated that is takes 1,000 hours of practice to become a really competent marketing professional, playing the flute or anything else for that matter. If you have expert guidance, you may be able to cut that to 500 hours. But ultimately, you learn by doing - and doing a lot! If you are at this stage, keep doing more marketing. When you put in 5,000 hours, you will become great, not just good, and your results will be even better. Practice the trade of marketing 10 hours per week and in about 10 years you will transform yourself from a chiropractor to a marketer! Or, if you can't wait to build your business, then recruit the best marketing talent available and you stick to your knitting and let others ply their chosen profession for your benefit! Action Step: Rank yourself using the four levels of marketing competence as described here, and follow the recommendations for whatever stage you are in. Lawton W. Howell, Sr. ceo@wellnessone.net Call me toll free: 877 WELNES1 By the way....you can schedule a private retreat workshop for your business and $AVE $500 when you click the link below: Private Retreat: Click Here http://r.vresp.com/?CEObriefeLetter/bb989151fe/216738/27aa916 ca0/6e232cf ****************************************************** ********************* Some Insights on Advertising ****************************************************** ********************* William Bernbach is credited, along with fellow giants Leo Burnett and David Ogilvy, for ushering in the "creative revolution" in advertising during the 1950s and 1960s. And though that revolution has helped create a culture of self-indulgence in the industry, it also has been responsible for generating greater respect for the work of writers and artists and advancing the idea that advertising is as much art as it is science. Bernbach didn't rely on research. he preferred to listen to his gut and speak to people's emotions rather than to their brains. And it worked. Doyle Dane Bernbach created some of the most successful mass marketing advertising in history including the Avis 'We try harder" campaign, the Volkswagen 'Lemon" ad and the Life cereal television spots with Mikey. For me, though, Bernbach was a great mind who thought a lot about advertising and what makes it work. So I would like to share some of his wisdom with you. * Advertising is fundamentally persuasion, and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art. * You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You've got to say it in such a way that people will it in their gut. Because if they don't feel it, nothing will happen. * The most powerful element in advertising is the truth. * The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying, and they can't know what you're saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly. * Properly practiced creativity MUST result in greater sales more economically achieved. Properly practiced creativity can lift your claims out of the swamp of sameness and make them accepted, believed, persuasive, urgent. * Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of 10. * Our job is to bring the dead facts to life. * Our job is to sell our clients' merchandise...not ourselves. Our job is to kill the cleverness that makes us shine instead of the product. Our job is to simplify, to tear away the unrelated, to pluck out the weeds that are smothering the product message. * It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator's skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his wrings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen. * Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at. How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed...but dull? * No matter how skillful you are, you can't invent a product advantage that doesn't exist. And if you do, and it's just a gimmick, it's going to fall apart anyway. * Fort words like "hard sell" and "soft sell." That will only confuse you. Just be sure your advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you're saying it like it's never been said before. * However much we would like advertising to be a science - because life would be simpler that way - the fact is that it is not. It is a subtle, ever-changing art, defying formularization, flowering on freshness and withering on imitation; where what was effective one day, for that very reason, will not be effective the next, because it has lost the maximum impact of originality. * If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic. * In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive. * There is no such thing as a good or bad ad in isolation. What is good at one moment is bad at another. Research can trap you into the past. * There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules... but there's one little rub. They forget that advertising is persuasion, and persuasion is not a science, but an art. Advertising is the art of persuasion. Those last six words deserve emphasis. "Advertising is the art of persuasion." Despite all the research, numbers, focus groups, formulas and science, in the end, marketing is a gut-level, personal skill. Never forget that. Jon Poulson poulson@wellnessone.net Call me toll free: 877 WELNES1 By the way...one of the most effective forms of marketing your brand of chiropractic is referrals. If you do not have an effective referral marketing system working for you, then click the link below to order the ultimate chiropractic referral marketing system. Oh, how do you know if you have an effective referral marketing system? EZ, audit your patient records and see if you are getting an AVERAGE of 3 referrals from each patient, each year! If not, hen click and order your CEO Word-of- Mouth Marketing System today! The CEO Word-of-Mouth Marketing System: Click Here http://r.vresp.com/?CEObriefeLetter/07d6825915/216738/27aa916 ca0/6e232cf ****************************************************** ********************* 38 Great Ideas from My Swipe File! ****************************************************** ********************* As mentioned earlier, having a "swipe" file is crucial for developing great marketing promotions. My swipe file fills a storage unit! And, yet, I will go and take a day to plow through my swipe files about one a quarter. The best way to get ideas for headlines when you are stuck is to keep a swipe file of successful ones and consult it when you write a new ad or mailing. Here's a partial collection from my swipe file, organized by category: 1. Ask a question. "What do Japanese Managers Have That American Managers Sometimes Lack?" 2. Tie to current events. "Stay One Step Ahead of the Stock Market Just Like Martha Steward - But Without Her Legal Liability!" 3. Create new terminology. "New 'Polarized Oil' Magnetically Adheres to Wear Parts in Machine Tools, Making Them Last Up to 6 Times Longer." 4. Give news using the words "new," "introduction" or "announcing." "Announcing a Painless Cut in Defense Spending." 5. Give the reader a command - tell him to do something. "Try Burning This Coupon." 6. Use numbers and statistics. "Who Ever Heard of 17,000 Blooms from a Single Plant?" 7. Promise the reader useful information. "How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake You Can Make in Building or Buying a Home." 8. Highlight your offer. "You Can Now Subscribe to the Best New Books - Just as You Do to a Magazine." 9. Tell a story. "They laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano...But When I started to Play." 10. Make a recommendation. "The 5 Tech Stocks You Must Own NOW." 11. State a benefit. "Managing UNIX Data Centers - Once Difficult, Now Easy." 12. Make a comparison. "How to Solve Your Emissions Problems - at Half the Energy Cost of Conventional Venturi Scrubbers." 13. Use words that help the reader visualize. "Why Some Foods 'Explode' in Your Stomach." 14. Use a testimonial. "After Over Half a Million Miles in the Air Using AVBLEND, We've Had No Premature Camshaft Failures." 15. Offer a free report or booklet. "New FREE Special Report Reveals Little-Known Strategy Millionaires Use to Keep Wealth in Their Hands - and Out of Uncle Sam's." 16. State the selling proposition directly and plainly. "Surgical Tables Rebuilt - Free Loaners Available." 17. Arouse reader curiosity. "The One Internet Stock You MUST Own Now. Hint: It's NOT What you Think!" 18. Promise to reveal a secret. "Unlock Wall Street's Secret Logic." 19. Be specific. "At 60 Miles an Hour, the Loudest Noise in This New Rolls Royce Comes from the Electric Clock." 20. Target a particular type of reader. "We're Looking for People to Write Children's Books." 21. Add a time element. "Instant Incorporation While U-Wait." 22. Stress cost savings, discounts or value. "Now You Can Get $2,177 Worth of Expensive Stock Market Newsletters for the Incredibly Low Price of Just $69!" 23. Give the reader good news. "You're Never Too Old to Hear Better." 24. Offer an alternative to other products and services. "No Time for Yale - Took College at Home." 25. Issue a challenge. "Will Your Scalp Stand the Fingernail Test?" 26. Stress your guarantee. "Develop Software Application Up to 6 Times Faster or Your Money Back." 27. State the price. "Link 8 PCs to Your Mainframe - Only $2,395." 28. Set up a seeming contradiction. "Profit from 'Insider Trading' - 100% Legal!" 29. Offer an exclusive the reader can't get elsewhere. "Earn 500+% Gains With Little-Known 'Trader's Secret Weapon.'" 30. Address the reader's concern. "Why Most Small Businesses Fail - and What You Can Do About It." 31. As crazy as it sounds. "Crazy as it Sounds, Shares of This Tiny R&D Company, Selling for $2 Today, Could be Worth as Much as $100 in the Not-Too-Distant Future." 32. Make a big promise. "Slice 20 years Off Your Age!" 33. Show ROI for purchase of your product. "Hiring the Wrong Person Costs You Three Times Their Annual Salary." 34. Use a "reasons-why" headline. "7 Reasons Why Production Houses Nationwide Prefer Unilux Strobe Lighting When Shooting Important TV Commercials." 35. Answer important questions about your product or service. "7 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Collection Agency...And One Good Answer to Each." 36. Stress the value of your premiums. "Your Free - Order Now and Receive $280 in Free Gifts With Your Paid subscription." 37. Help the reader achieve a goal. "Now You Can Create a Breakthrough Marketing Plan Within the Next 30 Days...for FREE!" 38. Make a seemingly contradictory statement or promise. "Cool Any Room in Your house Fast - Without Air Conditioning!" Each of these concepts could lead you into an absolutely AWESOME headline to promote your brand of chiropractic. Here's some examples: Number 38: Stop back pain - without taking another aspirin or pain pill! Number 1: What do chiropractors have that your doctor sometimes lack? Get the idea? Start your own SWIPE file today! You next great marketing idea could be in the mailbox right now! Lawton W. Howell, Sr. ceo@wellnessone.net Call me toll free: 877 WELNES1 P.S. Get your FREE, no-cost, no obligation, CEO Custom Marketing Report when you click the link below. Answer just 7 questions and in minutes you will receive a 32-page customized marketing report via email! Just click here now! FREE! 32 Page Marketing Report: Click Here http://r.vresp.com/?CEObriefeLetter/5476ffcc0e/216738/27aa916c a0/6e232cf ****************************************************** ********************* Business Building Resources Online! ****************************************************** ********************* The ULTIMATE chiropractic business building resources are available exclusively online at the ChiroMarketing eStor! Click the link below and browse the store that is dedicated to chiropractic business bulding. Most items can be instantly downloaded! Visit often, as we are adding new resources all of the time. The Build Your Business Online Store: Click Here http://r.vresp.com/?CEObriefeLetter/39bfb507a5/216738/27aa916 ca0/6e232cf ****************************************************** ********************* Less than 2% of all chiropractic businesses in the U.S. collect more than one million. This is a sad commentary on the state of the profession. When you think and treat your business like a practice, then you cannot collect one million or more. You must think on a different level...a business level. When you move from a the practice mentality to the business mind- set, you can build a business and not just grow a practice. A million dollar plus business is not only possible, but, can be done when you create a new vision for your business and then execute your vision. The CEObrief eLetter is dedicated to those chiropractic entrepreneurs who desire to build a business that can serve more patients than is possible in a practice model. If you know anyone who has a larger vision than the traditional chiropractor, share the CEObrief eLetter! Your CEObrief T.E.A.M. ****************************************************** ********************* You are receiving this message because you have requested information and updates sent via email. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with "Take me off this list" in the subject line or simply click on the following link: http://unsub.vresp.com/u.html?616aed4e05/27aa916ca0/6e232cf ______________________________________________________ _______________ Click below to Forward this message to a Friend: http://oi.vresp.com/f2af/v4/send_to_friend.html?ch=616aed4e05&l dh=27aa916ca0 ______________________________________________________ _______________ This message was sent by Lawton Howell using VerticalResponse's iBuilder (R) Lawton W. Howell, Sr. Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer WellnessOne Corporation 3960 Howard Hughes Parkway, 5th Floor Las Vegas, NV 89109-5988 Toll Free Voice & Fax: 877 WELNES1 ceo@wellnessone.net www.chiroelite.com www.wellnessone.net www.ceotrax.net www.ceopracticetrax.com www.milliondollarpractices.com www.chiromarketing.net Effective & Lasting Ideas Toward Excellence for building a business, not just growing a practice. Copyright WellnessOne Corporation 2004 ALL CONTENTS OF THIS E-MAIL ARE COPYRIGHT 2004 BY WELLNESSONE CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: REPRODUCING ANY PART OF THIS DOCUMENT IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF CEObrief eLtter. Protected by U.S. Copyright Law {Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319}: Infringements can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. WellnessOne and CEObrief are trademarks of WellnessOne Corporation. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. 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