The word is out on the street! The summer issue of Entrepreneur Magazine lists Coffee News as the 16th best low cost franchise on page 37. Check it out!

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Here’s an awesome interview with Bill Buckley, President of Coffee News on La Talk with Vince Iulianetti of Talk Business Startups – http://www.latalkradio.com/images/Vince-052409. Talks about why Coffee News is RECESSION PROOF. Check it out!

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

by Diana Ratliff

So you’ve got a dynamic product. You’ve determined that there’s a definite need (or want) for it. And you know what you want to say in your advertising copy. Congratulations! (You’re way ahead of most of us!) But assuming you DO eventually get to that point … and most of us do, after some trial and error, perhaps … what happens next? Now that you have a product, a need, and a message, how do you get that message out to your potential customers? You have an ever-increasing (and often bewildering) array of options. There are the tried-and-true alternatives such as billboards, classified ads, direct mail, display ads, telemarketing, business cards, bulletin boards, ad specialties and the like. Then there are the newer, “high-tech” methods such as CD-ROM presentations and Internet marketing (Web sites and e-mail). How do your know which method to choose? You may find it useful to keep the following criteria in mind when you’re trying to select the advertising media for your business. This list is by no means all-inclusive, but it does provide a starting point for your decision-making process.

Is the option portABLE? If your product or service is purchased on impulse or when an emergency occurs, it’s important to have your company information immediately available. A good example of a portable ad could be a business card or a magnet on the refrigerator. A poor example would be a billboard (unless the sign promotes a tow service and you happen to break down right in front of it!)

Is the option adaptABLE? If you travel on business, you can carry a telephone script with you and call from any hotel room. You can modify your script as you go along. You can even use selected words or phrases when you meet someone in person. So telephone prospecting could be a very adaptable alternative for you.

Is the option acceptABLE? If your message is to be seen in a positive light, it has to be delivered in a manner that your prospect finds acceptable. Telemarketing is often seen as intrusive. Direct mail may be seen as “junk mail.” On the other hand, an ad in the classified section of your newspaper is accepted readily because your prospect chooses whether or not to read it. It’s also associated with a valuable service (delivery of the news.)

Is it affordABLE? Sometimes your finances are tight. If you’re absolutely certain you’ve found THE best advertising option, then by all means find the money and get started. Borrow. Barter. Beg. Whatever. (So long as it’s legal, of course!) Still, some options are much more cost-effective than others are. You can get 1,000 full-color business cards made for less than $100. E-mail advertising (depending on how you collect your addresses) can be done very inexpensively also.

Is the option capABLE of conveying the information you need? A direct mail letter allows you page-after-page to explain a new concept. A CD-ROM presentation can add an audio or visual element, which may be essential for your customer to fully grasp your offereing. At the opposite extreme, a simple sign tacked to a bulletin board (“FREE adorable puppies! Call 555-5555″) may be all it takes to make the sale. There is, unfortunately, no “one size fits all” advertising approach, simply because so many variables are involved.

Advertising methods or messages that are extremely effective for one company may be a complete flop for another. You need to objectively assess the product or service itself, the industry you’re in, the people you’re trying to reach, and the risk involved with the purchase. Even the time of year and the name of your company can influence whether or not someone chooses to do business with you. You may have to test, test, and test yet again before you find the effective approach (or, more realistically, COMBINATION of approaches) that’s righ for YOUR business. However, when you find the advertising method that works for you, the results can be extraordinarily profitABLE.

And now the Good News . . .
Coffee News is designed to be portable, acceptable, capable and affordable in meeting your advertising needs. Contact us today to discover how they can help your business reach its goals.

5 Minute CoffeeFax re-printed with permission by Coffee News®

by Roy Williams
www.WizardOfAds.com

You’re a wounded soldier in unbearable pain during WWII, so the medics give you a shot of morphine. When your pain returns, they give you another shot. Morphine erases pain, so as long as the medics don’t run out of morphine, that’s the end of your problem, right?

Not quite. You’re still wounded, remember? The morphine is merely masking your symptoms. What you really need is life-saving surgery and a time of rehabilitation.

So what do you want me to pull out of my bag right now, Mr. Wounded-Soldier-in-Pain? Surgical tools, the solution to your problem? Or morphine, that tasty little drug that takes away the pain while you continue to bleed and die? Oh? You say that what you really want is to swallow a pill that will make the pain go away and heal the wound so that it’s like you were never wounded at all? Sorry, that pill doesn’t exist.

So what do you want to see me pull out of the bag?

Pain is your body’s warning that is has a problem that requires your immediate attention. Consequently, every businessperson in financial pain needs to understand the following:

1. Your business is telling you that it has a problem that requires your immediate attention.

2. “Slow traffic” or “a downward sales trend” is not the problem, but merely a symptom of it.

3. At best, every fast-acting Ad Gimmick is a painkiller exactly like morphine.

4. Morphine very quickly becomes addictive, and if used for too long, it will kill you.

5. No one looks forward to the surgeon’s knife, even when it’s what he or she desperately needs.

6. Because of their woefully incomplete training, most advertising people are not equipped to perform life-saving surgery, but are outfitted merely as medics to promote their own proprietary brand of morphine.

7. Recovery from life-saving surgery is painful, slow, and not the least bit fun.

8. Playing with morphine, cocaine, heroin and other painkillers is gigantic fun!

Are you beginning to understand why businesspeople are drawn to fast-acting ad gimmicks whenever they’re in financial pain?

Making morphine is easy, but using it is dangerous, and often deadly.

5 Minute CoffeeFax re-printed with permission by Coffee News

“The most important thing small business owners need to know about marketing is that it’s simply about letting as many people know that you exist as possible. It’s all about just making it easier for people to find you. They won’t come to you unless they know you’re there.”

— Julie Morgenstern, President of Task Masters

*Get your name in front of people as often as possible. Repetition boosts credibility and it makes it easier for people to find you. Postcard mailings, done with frequency, for example, are a good way to reach people.

*Go for consistency. If your material has a consistent look—whether it be your logo, the color you choose, or the paper stock you use, people will be more likely to recognize your material, and your company will start to form an identity in people’s minds.

*Use many media to reach people-fax, mail, email—and don’t be seduced by the ease of email. If you rely exclusively on email, it’s harder to create an identity in people’s minds because you won’t have a “look.” In addition, junk email has become a big problem. If you simply email promotional material to strangers, you’re wasting your time and theirs. Email works best to reach people who already know you.

*Be focused on value. Don’t just focus on getting your name out there, give your potential clients something of value—show them you have something to offer by giving them something.

*Don’t be afraid to be generous. People are afraid they’re giving away all their information. But the more generous you appear—without overwhelming the person—the better. People will decide that, if they’re getting so much for free, you must have even more to offer if they hire you.

*Never lose an opportunity to market yourself. You should be marketing your company all day, every day.

*Think like a consumer. When you are designing your marketing campaign or any piece of writing, think like the consumer who is overwhelmed and over-stimulated with too much information and too many choices. How can you stand out, how can you pack a punch? How can you be really clear about what sets you apart from your competition? When you think like this, you’re most likely to find your market.

Julie Morgenstern is President of Task Masters, a professional organizing service that works with individuals and businesses to help people get better organized. She is also author of the best-selling book, “Organizing From the Inside Out” (Henry Holt/Owl Books, 1998). Check out her new book, “When Organizing Isn’t Enough”, as well (Henry Holt/Owl Books, 2000). Learn more about Julie by visiting http://www.juliemorganstern.com.

How Coffee News can help…

Coffee News helps you fulfill many of points Ms. Morgenstern talked about in her article…from consistency, to getting your name in front of people as often as possible, to media usage. But also, your local Coffee News publisher can help you design an ad that works best in the Coffee News format and helps you stand out from the crowd of ad messages your prospects are bombarded with every day.

By Ernie Nicastro

Whether you’re writing a sales letter, advertisement, billboard or press release, the headline determines whether your prospect will read your material or immediately throw it away.

“The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest . . . . For the entire return from an ad depends on attracting the right sort of readers . . . . The best of salesmanship has no chance whatever unless we get a hearing.” — From the timeless classic, Scientific Advertising, by legendary adman Claude Hopkins

Make no mistake about it, as a business owner or copywriter, you must have the ability to write compelling, attention-grabbing headlines that get prospects to read your ads. It is one of the most valuable skills you can possess. The simple truth of the matter is this: You have absolutely zero chance of closing the sale unless you “get a hearing” with the prospect. So a good headline, an effective headline, should capture and hold the prospect’s attention and give you an opportunity to make your presentation.

How You Can Learn To Write More Effective Headlines

Whatever profession you’re in, no matter how good you are, you can learn to be better by studying the methods and mechanics of people who are the best at what they do in your line of work. This is especially true if your line of work includes writing effective ad copy. There are books and magazine articles aplenty that have word-for-word, picture-for-picture reproductions of highly successful (i.e. profitable) ads and sales letters. In virtually every case, there is also expert commentary about what it was that made the ad or sales letter effective.

Here, I humbly offer my contribution to this body of work.

1. They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano . . . But Then I Started to Play!
The granddaddy of great advertising headlines; often imitated but rarely equaled. Is there anyone among us who has never longed for or relished an opportunity — when people doubt our ability — to prove them wrong? Plus, people love to root for the underdog as the main character of this ad so obviously does. This is an action-oriented headline that promises an uplifting story, and we’re compelled to read further. Also worth remembering: The before-and-after angle can be effective in many headlines.

2. A Little Mistake That Cost A Farmer $3,000 A Year
A highly successful ad that ran in a number of farm magazines. An excellent idea of how sometimes the negative idea of offsetting, reducing or eliminating the risk of loss is even more attractive to the reader than the prospect of gain.

A fellow copywriter and good friend likes to illustrate this point with the following analogy: Imagine it’s 3:00 in the morning and your best friend comes banging on your front door.

“Bill, Bill, wake up! I know how we can both make an extra $500 apiece today — guaranteed!” Chances are, this would be a severe test of your friendship, and there would be little interest on your part.

On the other hand, let’s say that same friend came banging on your door at 3:00 in the morning, except this time he’s saying, “Bill, Bill, wake up! Somebody’s in your driveway stealing the hubcaps off your car!” You wouldn’t mind that interruption at all, would you? In fact, you’d be grateful you had such a thoughtful friend. That’s because human nature is such that people will fight much harder to avoid losing something they already own than to gain something of greater value they do not own.

Another key factor in this ad’s success is the attraction of the specific. Note that it wasn’t just a mistake; it was a little mistake. What farmer could pass up reading the copy under such a headline? What farmer wouldn’t be compelled to find out: “What was the little mistake? Am I making it? If I am making it, how much could it be costing me?”

3. How To Win Friends And Influence People
Yes, the title of the book was also the headline for the ad that sold a million books via mail order in less than three years during the latter part of the Great Depression. The key to this ad’s success is its strong basic appeal. Who doesn’t want to know how to win friends and influence people? The key words are “how to.” Without these two words, the ad lacks power, punch and, most importantly, the promise of a benefit to the reader.

Certain words and phrases are inherently involving and attention grabbing and can be used effectively in just about any headline. Such words and phrases include:

• How To, How, Here’s
• Why, Which, Who Else, Where, When, What
• These, This, Which of These

For better advertising results, look for a way to use these and other effective words in your headlines.

4. “I’m impressed — Shell’s Caprinus R Oil 40 keeps my EMD’s in better condition than any other oil I’ve used in 20 years.”
”They say” advertising copy has substantially greater impact than “we say” advertising. That’s why the above testimonial quote makes a highly effective headline for this business-to-business advertising effort. Above the headline is a four-color photo of the man who provided the quote. He’s standing in the engine room, and he’s identified as A. E. “Bud” Dacus, chief engineer for the company. The first two paragraphs of the ad’s body copy continue in the same vein as the testimonial headline. Do you think we have some believability and credibility working here? You bet we do!

Testimonial headlines can help your ads generate a high response, particularly when they come from recognized experts in well-known companies. Be sure you stay close to your customers and regularly spend time reading the mail they send you. You just might find an excellent headline, a natural and highly believable spokesperson and the basis for a very profitable ad campaign.

5. “If you were given $4,000,000 to spend — isn’t this the kind of Health Club you’d build?”
Interrogative headlines like this help entice readers into the copy, and there are many ways they can be put to effective use. This headline is a self-incriminating and highly adaptable technique to have readers help specify what they would value most in such a product. The copy follows through along these lines: Surely you would put this feature into it. You would be sure that it brought you this advantage — and so on. The payoff to the ad is: “We’ve already done it all for you.”

Below are more interrogative headlines:

6. “Do You Make These Mistakes In English?”
This is a direct challenge made provocative and effective with the inclusion of one vital word: “these.” “What are these particular mistakes? Do I make them? How can I avoid them?” Notice the promise to provide the reader with helpful information.

7. “Do You Do Any of These Ten Embarrassing Things?”
This question is similar to number six as it preys on our insecurities and makes us wonder, “Which ten are they? Do I do any of them?” The bottom line is, “I better read and find out.”

8. “How Much Is “Worker Tension” Costing Your Company?”
This one uses a similar approach to number seven, this time from a business-to-business perspective. Notice the quotation marks around the words “worker tension.” Don’t they add a certain element of intrigue?

9. “Six Types of Investors — Which Group Are You In?”

And finally, this headline appeals to our innate curiosity about ourselves.

These last five headlines all have similar characteristics. And one factor that comes through loud and clear is that they are all written from one primary viewpoint: “The point of you.” Each of them, in fact, contains some version of the word “you.”

Even though millions of words have already been written about the point of you, let me remind you again to always keep your prospects and customers at the front and center of all advertising you do. By doing this, your ad will get the hearing you deserve.

5 minute CoffeeFax re-printed with the permission of Coffee News

Coffee News can be used most effectively as a supplement to other advertising done by your company, effectively increasing the effects of radio, television, major newspaper and even Yellow Pages ads. The following is a good example of what I mean.

If you exercise 10 minutes a day for 90 days, which will give you approximately 30 seconds of fitness residue carrying over to the next session, on the 90th day of exercise, your ten minutes plus residue will give the equivalent fitness value of a 55 minute workout – more than five times what you started with! Advertising residue builds up in the same manner, and like exercise, if stopped suddenly, the residue will remain working, until all its effects have faded. Thus, an advertiser who spends money solely on big seasonal sale ads every three months has no residue at all working to boost his results. The real secret to getting results is building that residue, and Coffee News is designed specifically to accomplish this both effectively and inexpensively. In fact, most businesses that use Coffee News can cut their ad budget by a third, and still get the same or better results.

One last note: the compounding residue value of Coffee News ads are 5% per week. This means the 4th week of advertising is 1.2155 (almost 25%) more effective than the first ad. The 12th week equals 1.7959 – almost 80% more results than the first ad. The longer the ad runs, the more compounded residue, which again ALSO transfers to the other media you may be using.

In an exit-poll survey, 10,000 shoppers in fifty states were asked, “Why did you buy that item here?” Of their responses, “selection” ranked fourth, after third-ranked “service.” Only 14 percent said price was most important; it ranked ninth overall. The second most important answer was “quality.”

At the top of the list, ranked as the most frequently cited reason for buying from a particular store, was “confidence.” They felt confident that their needs would be met and the dealer would stand behind its products. Successful businesspeople do everything they can to communicate their own absolute confidence in their company, their offering, and themselves. That confidence spreads to prospects and customers.

(From the book, Guerrilla Selling, by Levinson, Gallagher and Wilson, 1992)

Some advertisers use coupons almost exclusively as their business promotion which to them allows the counting of coupons for assurance that the money spent came back in sales. In the long term, this unfortunately has a side effect called “couponitis” – the boom or bust inability of a business to attract customers without coupons.

Coupons themselves attract what we at Coffee News call “C” buyers – bargain-hunters who will only buy products or services on “deep discount” and whose loyalty to any store is entirely dependent on what everyone else is offering. Such buyers are good to have to clear out last year’s merchandise, but the more coupons are used, the more such buyers will expect and WAIT for coupons before buying – thus the supposed business boom from coupons, with the dead time in between. Coupons do not appeal to the types of buyers who buy at retail and may actually scare them away thinking the business offers poor quality merchandise that isn’t worth the retail price. As such, the advertiser is little by little forced to cater to the bargain-hunters and keep up his or her sales at give-away prices while making a meager margin on the bulk being sold.

How Coffee News Can Help

Coffee News breaks this cycle by appealing to those who will buy at retail prices and promoting quality, service, etc., as opposed to price, thus establishing customer confidence.

A business affected with “couponitis” which instead begins to advertise quality, service, etc., will slowly but surely see the type of customer he gets begin to change, the boom and bust will even out, and the do-or-die deep discounts he had to offer will be able to slowly return to reason without losing sales volume. After a year or more in Coffee News, he will no longer have all his customers desert the store to take advantage of his competitor’s cut-rate offerings.

Coffee News was created in 1988 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. It was founded by Jean Daum, a prestigious international expert in advertising and marketing techniques. When she designed the publication, she incorporated more than 17 different super-learning and subliminal techniques to encourage people to read it. This system, unique in the world, was spectacularly successful. The business grew so fast that in less than 15 years, it has become the most widely read publication in coffee shops and restaurants; mainly due to the benefits it offers both reader and advertisers. Coffee News readers become faithful and assiduous consumers of the publication because it’s fun and entertaining. While our advertisers find that it is an indispensable marketing and communication tool for their companies.

Coffee News is read in more than 50 countries, with the majority of the businesses in North America, Europe and Australia. The main characteristic that makes it such a highly regarded publication is its positive outlook; it makes people smile! There’s no bad news in here. It is enjoyable it is to read something this nice, especially while waiting for your food!

In addition, since Coffee News readers will frequent the same restaurants, they know they’ll have different content to read each week. They don’t know what it is about the newspaper, but they even read the advertisements. Coffee News inspires their trust. The people who advertise in Coffee News even seem like good people

What Coffee News can really do for your business?

Coffee News isn’t just advertising though, it’s a true communication and marketing plan for small and mid size companies within their area of influence. All our advertisers enjoy exclusivity; no other company in your business category can advertise while your advertisement is running. And, since it’s just one sheet, you’re guaranteed to appear on either the front or the back page; insuring that your advertisement is in full view. Nor, will your advertisement be lost in a sea of news or different formats. In addition, the advertisements are so attractive that they form part of the publication’s appealing and fun contents.

Local Businesses Need Local Advertising

Did you know that the average small to mid-size business is forced to buy at least four times the circulation to reach 80% of their customer base? Coffee News is distributed in the area of activity of your business, your neighborhood, reaching your potential customers with maximum efficiency. The points of distribution where Coffee News is offered, are visited frequently by these customers; coffee shops, restaurants, and a number of hotels.

Advertising in Coffee News is more cost-effective than it is in other media.
Small and mid-size businesses come out ahead. The customers of coffee shops and restaurants can take the copy of Coffee News with them to share with their friends or return it the display. It’s been proven that this way each copy is read by an average of 7 people. The placement of the advertisements rotates each week, so that all the advertisers have the chance to appear at the top of the front page at least once a month.

In addition to the very original concept that the publication represents, there is another very invaluable benefit to advertising in Coffee News: Coffee shops and restaurants love receiving Coffee News. They can offer their customers a high quality, appealing and enjoyable publication which entertains them while they’re waiting.

The November edition of Entrepreneur Magazine identifies 85 Low Cost Businesses to start now for less than 25K! The article appears on page 98 and lists Coffee News as one of those companies. It appears less than ten of the 85 have more franchised units than we do in the World.
Thank you for helping us reach this milestone.