A Business Seminar For the 21st Century

The formula used to be simple. You advertised. People responded. They called. They came. They bought what you sold.

Today fewer are calling. Fewer are buying. And if you're in business for yourself, you're probably asking yourself “What happened?”

I have the privilege of working with an exceptional group of marketers in the Wizard of Ads ^® organization. Nearly five years ago the partners began talking to our clients about social changes that were beginning to effect the business landscape.

Those changes are no longer predictions.

They're upon us. They're a direct result of the Internet – but not for the reasons you may suspect. You see, value is created when there's an information imbalance.

Sometimes the inequity is obvious. If you had a medical doctor's knowledge, for instance, you wouldn't need to consult one.

But sometimes the information spread is not as easily recognized. Successful retail merchants know where to buy at wholesale, how to ship, and how to competitively price in order to keep shoppers buying from them. Yes, their profit comes from buying low and selling higher, but it also comes from the retailer's specialized knowledge – what to buy, how much to buy, how to price it.

But the Internet places massive amounts of information just a few keystrokes away, and for free, which changes your entire relationship with your customers. They now dictate exactly how, and under what circumstances, they're willing to do business with you.

What can that retailer do?

What's the new strategy when the information that always delivered profit no longer provides a competitive advantage? Businesses that services rather than goods face the same issues. The consumer mindset has changed. Advertising which produced results since World War II isn't working as it used to.

Twice a year the Wizard of Ads ® partners from around the world * congregate to bring each other up to speed on our various areas of specialized knowledge.

We've never before offered to share these insights with the general public.

That's about to change.

The Boom Your Business Seminar in Nashville, August 1 & 2 will provide 200 owners access to the most powerful business seminar ever offered to small business.

Want to know How to Fight the Big Boys and Win? Mike Dandridge, author of the One Year Business Turnaround will tell you exactly how it's done. Mike grew a small electrical supply company into a million dollar a month powerhouse in a small town while flanked by Lowe's on one side and Home Depot on the other.

Do you suspect you're not effectively marketing to women? You're probably right. Michelle Miller, author of The Natural Advantages of Women, and co-author of the new The Soccer Mom Myth will tell you exactly what to do, and how in The Motherlode: Hitting the Vein of Gold in Marketing to Women.

If you instinctively know that customers need to discern a difference between your business and your competitors, Scott Fraser will show you how to apply the lessons of one of America's strongest brands to the local level in Commodity Revolution; Differentiate Your Business at the Local Level.

Clay Campbell's Get Big Results From Small Ad Dollars presentation will let you in on simple marketing techniques that are invisible to your competitors. They work especially well when you have more time than money. Clay is the author of How to Get Big Results From Your Small Ad Budget, and Leading the Above Average Life.

Does your company have a web presence? International web expert Dave Young, author of Why We Blog, will show you how to make your site more persuasive, generate more leads, and increase your on-line revenue in Your Website: The Marketing Tool for the 21st Century.

Then web strategist Paul Boomer will teach easily-implemented techniques to improve your customer's on line experience in 10 Things You Can Do TODAY to Improve Your Website.

Finally, web video producer extraordinaire, Rex Williams, will detail the keys to becoming personable, direct, and real to people you've never met in his Building Relationships On-Line presentation.

Many small businesses constantly struggle to create an appropriate marketing budget. How much is enough? How much is too much to spend in advertising your business? In How to Calculate Your Ad Budget, Ray Seggern will not only make the budgeting process simple, he'll share a secret on-line tool which does all of the calculations for you. (Ray will also show you how to buy word-of-mouth, and how to budget for that).

Tom Waynek has spent years studying the signals radiated by both predators and their prey, and has distilled six key business truths in Signaling Theory: What Are You Really Saying to Your Customers? Tom will teach you how to make powerful marketing statements to increase store traffic, sales, and word-of-mouth.

Do you suspect your ads could be better, but you're not sure where to start? Take Ad Writing 101 from one of America's top copywriters and writing teachers, Chris Maddock. You'll be able to apply Chris' techniques to advertising copy and to brochures and web sites.

In Thinking Outside the Box, engineer-turned-poet Peter Nevland looks at those crazy little ideas that most of us dismiss as impossible, and shows how nearly every great businesses success starts as one. When you understand how to recognize and harness those ideas, you'll also see the dangers of not implementing them.

Marketing (and all other social trends) will make more sense after you've seen Michael Keesee's The Pendulum: Marketing in 2008 and Beyond. You'll recognize the driving and predictable forces shaping society and make better decisions on communicating with the public after this multi-media presentation.

As a regular reader of this blog, you've seen my P.A.I.N. series of posts. I'll be explaining which messages work better on TV, which in newspaper, on radio, in outdoor, and in Yellow Pages in my presentation Marketing P.A.I.N. - Explode Your Advertising ROI Through More Effective Messaging.

Sound like information your company could put to good use? Yeah, I think so, too. I hope you'll make plans to join us. There are only 200 seats available, though, and word-of-mouth on this event has already sold roughly half. Don't put off this decision or you'll miss out.

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* Wizard of Ads has offices in Australia, Great Britain, Central America, Canada, and the U.S.

I have an extra pair of tickets to the Boom Your Business Seminar. If you're a business owner ready to take your company to the next level, drop me a note, and briefly tell me the issues you're facing. I'll give the tickets to whomever I think might get the most benefit from attending.

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Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who helps customers discover you, and choose your business. Questions about the Boom Your Business Seminar or about the Wizard of Ads ^® partners may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.