No, I don’t mean literally.  I mean figuratively. When most marketers join a new program, they follow the instructions of their mentor. Typically, the mentor gives the new recruit a marketing plan based on what the mentor is doing for their own personal marketing.

Sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it?

On the surface, this type of plan makes perfect sense. If the mentor is being successful with their marketing plan, it would be logical to promote that same plan. The mentor would be able to state what aspects of the plan worked very well and what parts of the plan did not work as planned. If there were questions, the mentor would have the information from their personal testing to explain why something did or did not work

Concern enters into the picture when you have a large number of people enter a program in a short period of time. Each of the new people will probably be shown a marketing plan that is quite similar to what each of the other new marketers is being shown. At that point, you potentially have a large number of people placing nearly identical ads in the same marketing venues. If you look at the ads posted every day, you many examples of this situation.

So, you ask, what is the issue?

The issue, in my opinion, is that three things occur. First, the ads slowly lose their effectiveness due to massive over exposure. The same title appears on multiple ads in a single search. After someone clicks an ad, they ignore the remainder of the ads, or worse, make the determination that the ads are all SPAM and ignores them all.

Second, as happens quite often, the ads are copied and posted literally word for word from their mentor. Again the ad becomes very ineffective after the potential customer clicks several ads only to read identical copy. Or, even worse, the search engines determine that the ads are SPAM and deranks everyone’s ads. This affects everyone, even those whom may have been running the ad for a long period of time.

Third, because of the information that the new marketer has received from their mentor, they advertise in the same venues as their mentor. Again, with a large number of new marketers joining in a short period of time, the new marketers are effectively advertising to a crowd of people in the same program. Then they become discouraged because they don’t get the response to their ads that their mentor has told them that the mentor has had.

Hence, they are preaching to the choir.

So, do you recognize yourself in this scenario? If so, there is a solution and it is not complicated. You need to become a responsible marketer and be responsible for your own ads and ad copy. PERIOD.

So, how do you get away from preaching to the choir?

First, you need to advertise in MANY different venues.  Don’t rely completely on the marketing sites that your system recommends. There are many reputable sites online today. If you are not sure where to find these sites, you can ask your contacts on Facebook and Twitter for their recommendations or ask whoever you are comfortable with asking. Then check out the sites and use the sites that fit your advertising strategy.

Second, I believe everyone needs to study copywriting.  The more you understand about copywriting, the more effective you will be with your entire marketing structure. If you have to rely on someone else to do your writing, you “probably” will always be at the mercy of someone else.  Not effective for long term success unless you have deep pockets.

If you follow these ideas, you will improve your marketing effectiveness and this should improve your bottom line.  Here is an excellent program to improve your copywriting To find out more about how my team and I work to use other sites to improve our marketing, go to: http://www.MLMIntegrityMarketing.com/?t=PTC

For years people have direct marketed to potential customers by randomly distributing business cards. Sometimes, they would “drop” the cards so that someone would pick up the card to see what was on it. Usually these cards would have something on them to make the bystander curious about the card so they would pick it up.

Recently, a new version of the dropcard has become famous. The dropcard has been redesigned to look similar to currency but with an advertising message on the back of the card.  The most effective dropcards have been printed to resemble the look of a $100 dollar bill.  These bills have been very effective in many different strategies because they resemble US currency.

To make the dropcards very effective, there must be a compelling message on the card. This will cause enough curiosity so that the person picking up the card will take action on the message. What the message includes seems to be up for discussion on a regular basis but most marketers agree on several items.

First, the message on the dropcard must include a compelling call to action. The message needs to be short and precise so anyone reading the message will know exactly what to do. Typically, the message would be a short statement or question, such as, “You need to check this website NOW” or “Number 1 Home Based Business”.

Second, most messages are better if a phone number is not included on the dropcard. Although this may seem counter productive to many, not having a phone number forces the person with the card to log into the marketer’s system to have their curiosity resolved. This gives the marketer another chance to reinforce his message and to start to build some trust. It also provides more time for the prospect to review the marketer’s information before starting a conversation.

Third, the message on the dropcard must include a website for the prospect to review. Typically, this will be a page that presents an overview of the opportunity and a form to record the prospects contact information.  There is sometimes a phone number for contact since the prospect now has an idea of what product or service is being promoted.

Much has been written and discussed about the most effective marketing strategies for using dropcards but there appears to be a short list of the most effective strategies. These include: gas pump credit card slots, newspapers, tollbooths, clothing stores, and bookstores.  Each of these marketing areas require a specific technique to be effective.  All of these strategies can be implemented most anyplace in the country and are equally effective anyplace.

Now for the disclaimer.

Unfortunately, the dropcard techniques will not get you hundreds on leads everyday.  They will get you a steady, reliable stream of leads, of which most will be highly qualified since they took the time to track you down. These are the type of leads that you are looking for anyway. They will also understand how effective dropcard marketing is since they were discovered using the exact technique.

Unfortunately, most people will start out strong with the dropcards but slowly lose interest. The primary reason is that dropcard marketing is not high glamour.  It’s easy to lose interest since you are not getting the type of leads that you would with pay-per-click, for instance. However, you are also not paying the high cost of pay-per-click with a dropcard marketing strategy. Consistency will make this strategy pay well with time and the cost to get started is quite low.

This is truly a low cost marketing strategy that can be implemented by most everyone.

Order Your DropCards and  learn how to Market Your DropCards Effectively