Archive for August, 2010

Rick Noel 8 | Internet Marketing Consultant | eBiz ROI

The marketing paradigm that can literally make or break your coaching business…

What’s the single most important process determining whether or not your coaching business is successful?

The correct answer to this question can completely change your coaching business forever. It can change your perception of your business. It can change your focus in your business. It can change how you go about operating your business. And most importantly, it can determine the success or otherwise of your business.

We asked dozens of coaches this question and got a broad array of responses. But only 4% of them were even close to the mark! Most coaches answered: quality service; number of clients; pricing; branding; advertising copy.

…And whilst all these issues are critical, the single most important process is your marketing methodology. Whilst you must have all the other elements as well, it’s your marketing methodology that ultimately determines the success or otherwise of your business.

Let us explain…

Nearly all coaches use a marketing methodology that’s a sales-based marketing methodology. This is understandable as most traditional marketing methods teach sales-based marketing methods. We’re all impacted by sales-based marketing at every turn – on TV, newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio – everywhere. And when coaches research marketing methods, they are most likely to learn about traditional sales-based marketing methodologies – print ads (in newspapers, yellow pages, journals, magazines etc), direct telephone calls, radio, flyers, direct mail letters, etc.

But there are several extremely powerful forces at play against coaches employing a sales-based marketing methodology…

Most coaches invariably feel uncomfortable delivering a ’sales pitch.’ Coaches generally have better technical skills than marketing skills. They’re therefore uncomfortable talking about themselves and endorsing the quality of their product. This means they don’t close, and comes across to prospects as a general lack of confidence in themselves, and their product and service.

Sales marketing is extremely expensive – narrowing your net margin on your service. The more you spend to get a client the less net profit you’ll retain at the end.

Generally people are very skeptical and defensive against sales approaches. This exponentially increases the barrier of making a sale. When you employ a sales-based marketing method, most prospects have already closed themselves off to learning about your services due to their natural tendency to put up a defence against sales-based marketing.

There is no trust and rapport built through a sales-based marketing approach. For a prospect to buy from you, there needs to be an element of trust. Your prospect needs to trust that you can deliver on your promises and that they’ll gain a positive return on their investment. This level of trust is extremely difficult to build through a sales-based marketing approach.

You build no reciprocal obligation on the prospect to investigate your offer or purchase from you. It’s a natural human tendency to reciprocate in kind what’s been given to you. You can not build reciprocal obligation through sales-based marketing.

You attract price sensitive shoppers and ‘tyre kickers’ that take up a lot of your time and result in extremely low conversion.

It’s difficult to maintain contact with prospects for long enough to build rapport and trust – it generally takes 4 to 6 contacts before a prospect will buy from you.

So, we can hear you shouting “If sales-based marketing is not going to be effective, what’s my alternative to get clients?”

And the answer is… Education-based Marketing. Education-based marketing is simply the process by which you attract and convert highly-qualified clients by giving them what they want – valuable information and advice that solves their problems – and removing what they don’t want, a sales pitch.

Education-based marketing is generally undertaken by delivering Credibility Marketing techniques such as public speaking, information based teleclasses, publications, networking, hotlines, free educational give aways (such as reports, assessments, tools, ecourses), etc.

As opposed to sales-based marketing, education-based marketing means…

- You give your prospect what they really want – highly valuable information. And you take away what they don’t want – a sales pitch.

- You maintain your dignity and feel good about yourself as you never make an effort to sell.

- Your brand recognition and respect will skyrocket! Education-based marketing is the ultimate brand builder. By positioning yourself as the ‘expert’ or ’specialist’ by solving, through your education products, the most pressing issues your niche confronts. You become the only logical choice in your market.

- You can establish yourself as a credible authority as prospects depend on you as a reliable source of valuable advice.

- You significantly reduce your marketing costs – and can in fact get paid to market yourself. This vastly compounds the net worth of every client you attract – you can actually earn double the net profit with only half the clients!

- You don’t have to seek out new prospects – prospects come to you (to have their problems solved).

- You can maintain (mutually beneficial) contact with your prospects through the sales process because they don’t feel pressured by a sales pitch and value your information and advice.

- You reach prospects early during the first stages of their decision making process.

- You attract ‘moderately interested’ prospects that may otherwise be afraid to call you but are not afraid to request your information.

- Due to the high level of trust and rapport built early on you’ll be perceived as an adviser, not a salesperson, making added-value sales dramatically easier.

- You dramatically increase your referrals from prospects as they feel loyal to you – due to a relationship built on trust and reciprocal obligation and your efforts to help them – even if they don’t hire you! And your referrals will come much earlier in your relationship.

- You gain compounded advantage as your information is passed freely between prospects within your niche.

- You gain a competitive advantage because not many competitors are using education-based marketing.

- You achieve a highly leveraged advantage as you can put forward your marketing even when you are not present.

- You save valuable time as you often are delivering your message directly to your most highly qualified target audience.

As you can see, education-based marketing is the exact opposite to sales-based marketing, and can make an extraordinary difference to your business, and your enjoyment of ‘doing’ business. So, ask yourself, “How much education-based marketing am I currently doing?” and “How can I develop a marketing plan significantly comprised of education-based marketing methodologies?”

Simon Clarke has over 15 years of experience as a writer, entrepreneur and business specialist. He is also the founder and Director of the Life Coaching Institute, Australia’s leading coach training organization.

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Wouldn’t it be great to have a year where your marketing efforts were streamlined and got the results you were after? None of us want to struggle with marketing, and yet this is the one topic that continues to be highest in the minds of small business professionals.

Let’s really consider some of the reasons that can sabotage our marketing efforts, and how we can turn that around.

Lack of a marketing mindset

We don’t see ourselves as in the marketing game. The truth is, if you are out there running a business, thinking like a marketer has to become your priority. It’s no use having a great service if nobody knows about it, or you.

Lack of knowledge is your enemy. Start by reading whatever you can. Speak to successful people in your field and ask them what strategies they use. The information you need is out there for you to take.

Lack of investment

For many small business owners, the focus on cost control prohibits them from ever investing enough money into marketing and promotion. These activities are seen as costs rather than as an investment. So this year I encourage you to reframe your attitude towards marketing. Once you know what marketing activity to do, and have confidence that it will bring results, spend the money enthusiastically.

Lack of focus

Perhaps you do spend time and money on marketing, but you aren’t happy with the results. Or your efforts are ad-hoc rather than carefully planned. Whatever it is, 2005 is the year to take charge. If what you are doing isn’t working – stop doing it! Ask a professional for help (not your friends or associates!). Or put yourself in your customers shoes and work out what’s going to attract them to your business. If an ad-hoc approach is the problem, take the time to complete the marketing plan in the ‘How to…’ section and become ruthlessly systematic this year.

Lack of over-riding marketing strategy

Marketing activity and tactics are all well and good but it is like driving a rudderless ship if there is no grander plan. Part of creating a marketing strategy is to clearly understand exactly where you are right now, and where you want to be. Your goal may be to have sales of $1,$5 or $50 million. Or you may want to revolutionise your industry. Or you may want your company to be acquired within 5 years. What matters most is that you have a clear, precise vision of where you are, where you want to be in 1year, and where you want to be in 5 years.

Not surrounding ourselves with the right people

All of the great books on success advocate spending time with people who are already successful at what you want to do. Why? By surrounding yourself with people several steps ahead of you, you can absorb the attitudes and values that made them successful, as well as picking up new strategies and ideas. So If you are hanging out with people who also lack a marketing mindset then it’s time to think about expanding your professional network to include those who are already down the track to success.

Marketing is more of an art than a science. Often times you learn by systematically trying different activities and approaches. The experts don’t always have all the answers . . . and this is exactly why you need to give plenty of personal attention to make sure your marketing is working as hard as it possibly can. If you want to get serious about success in business, then understanding marketing is an ongoing priority.

Here’s a quick list of 10 ideas to get you into the marketing groove:

1. Commit to reading one new marketing book per month

2. Start learning about how to market online

3. Make a list of people whose businesses inspire you, and carefully study their marketing techniques. How many of these are you using?

4. Make a list of successful people in your industry and check out their marketing strategy. Why not offer to take one of them out for coffee to learn more about how they got where they are (what’s the worst that could happen?)

5. Revise your marketing budget. Look at your previous investment in marketing, and ask yourself if this is the amount a truly successful business would be spending

6. Review all of last year’s marketing activities. Work out which ones brought new business in the door, or were successful in some other way (building credibility for example). If you can’t quantify how successful the outcome was, stop spending the money!

7. Implement an ongoing ‘keep in touch’ program with existing customers

8. Ask 10 or more of your most loyal customers for a referral

9. Stop doing those marketing activities that you know don’t work, but you do them anyway

10. Market research – ask 20 of your customers what value you provide to them. Use what they say in your own marketing materials

Megan Tough – published writer, coach, facilitator and speaker – works with people to create outstandingly satisfying and truly successful professional lives. Make more money – have more fun! To learn more and to sign up for more FREE tips and articles like these, visit http://www.megantough.com

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Today Virtually Every Marketing Expense Should Be Tracked to Generate an ROI

As we approach mid-year and the summer lull, when vacations and good weather slow things down, it is a good time to step back and look at how your marketing plan is doing and make some adjustments. No matter how mature your company is it is likely you need to do this each quarter or at least twice a year.

In decades past companies spent 5% to 10% of revenue on marketing. Today in many industries this is more likely to be 20% to 30% of revenue especially when you include staff time. It used to be that advertising people could sell their wares based on “building image, awareness and brand”, some still try but even in consumer markets this is a disappearing phenomenon. Today each marketing expenditure should be tracked to actual sales as closely as possible. This does not mean that every sale can be traced to a single marketing expense. There are always some untraceable sales that are due to the cumulative effect of many things or because the customer can not remember where they heard about your business.

Here are some rules to live by when making marketing decisions today:

1. If You Can’t Track It Don’t Buy It – If you can’t measure a method then don’t spend money on it. This does not always mean precisely, as few things are 100% trackable but you must be able to see a boost in sales as a direct result. Use different landing pages, 800 numbers and other methods to insure at least relative measurement.

2. Repeat the Message to the Same People – It is almost always better to hit the same people 7 to 10 times than ten times as many people once. Generally exposures, or impressions, must get over five and ideally seven or more before people recognize and respond to your name or brand. This requires some real discipline as many people will quit too early and move on when response is slow at first. This just creates a never-ending cycle of low performance campaigns because none reach enough frequency to be effective.

3. Compare ROI Across Tactics – Look at the cost per thousand (CPM) impressions and cost per sale as comparisons across different tactics and media. Obviously some impressions (video) are worth more than others (small print ad) for many products and you are not comparing apples to apples but this at least gives you a baseline and intuitive sense of relative worth.

4. Target a Narrow Niche – Identify your best customer and be happy to narrow the target market based on the media and strategies you can use to concentrate your marketing spending against this group with a customized message.

5. Be Consistent – Make sure your message, brand and image is consistent to each target market and that whatever uniqueness (or unique selling proposition = USP) you have is a significant advantage for that group.

6. Benchmark and Measure Everything – Always have a benchmark and run this consistently, especially when you are trying new things. This will continue to generate your base level of business and help to compare the results of other trial expenditures. The overall market can have peaks and valleys. If you don’t have a benchmark for the same period you may throw out a good marketing approach just because it was put out there at the wrong time.

7. Leverage Outside Expertise – Always get outside help if you do not have someone with 10 plus years of marketing experience on your team. Even if you do just occasional reviews of your marketing plan this will generate results that exceed the cost. And by this I mean 10 years managing and designing the marketing campaigns, not writing copy or working as an assistant in the marketing department of some large firm.

8. Joint Venture – Look for joint venturing opportunities that are true win-win deals where you serve the same market and are not competitive but complimentary.

I know half of the money we spend on marketing is a total waste.
– I just don’t know which half.

What Does the Plan Look Like?

For very early-stage companies I am not big on long, formal marketing plans. Once your total marketing budget exceeds $250,000 this becomes more compelling but in most companies you can do this more informally before then. Things are too dynamic in the two or three years of a new product launch. You are better off experimenting frugally and using the learning from this to make rapid changes. You may write a paragraph on each marketing strategy and tactic just to force you to think through the ones you want to do and get input from others but don’t write a 50 page plan, as too much effort will go into adjusting in and it will clearly be obsolete quickly.

In a newer business (less than 3 years out there selling) you will likely be trying new things constantly. In fact if you are doing 10 things then most likely five are small experiments and five are your baseline marketing tactics that you know have worked in the past. All of these can work together better though if you know they all have a significant overlap with the same audience. Then each will add more to the others creating better returns. For example if there is an industry trade group that is a customer rich environment for you then you would do better to attend their tradeshow and buy an add in their newsletter or magazine and direct mail to their membership than do these three things to three different groups. The cumulative impact of all three will make your company more credible, memorable and seem like a market leader and each individual tactic will likely have better results.

I like to use a spreadsheet that shows columns for each of the following:

Media/tactic name and description

Total cost planned

Total impressions and/or repeats (placements)

Cost per thousand impressions

Sale revenue generated from this

Cost per sale, or the percentage of sales this media costs
Return on Investment (ROI)
Obviously the creative can have a huge impact on results but in print advertising the headline is 90% of the result. So change this until you get good results and don’t let creative types suck you into spending all your time and effort changing campaigns and looks. You are better to be consistent with an ugly add than constantly changing your look even if they are all “prettier”.

1. Target narrowly

2. Consistent message and look and feel

3. Repeat 5-10 times against the same audience

4. Track results closely

5. Review and repeat or try something else

Are You Shooting At A Moving Target?

In this day and age the cost and results from various marketing expenditures can change rapidly. It is no longer a given that the lifespan of a marketing tactic will be for many years. You now need to measure and look at the results monthly, or at least after each cycle or flight of marketing. This does NOT mean after each ad placement, but more likely after 5-7 repetitions of an ad. Of course direct mail and some things should produce results in the first wave.

With increasing media prices and reduced effectiveness public relations and advertorial are becoming much more important components of any marketing campaign. These too must be narrowly targeted to a niche of customers where you can offer something better than most.

Bob Norton is the author of four books on starting and growing companies and entrepreneurship. He runs the exclusive Advanced Entrepreneurship CEO Boot Camp to help CEOs and senior executives cut years off their learning curve. He also coaches CEOs at growth oriented technology companies up to $150MM in sales on how to get to the next level. He can be contacted at: Bob@CLevelEnterprises.com.

Bob Norton is the author of four books on starting and growing companies and entrepreneurship. He runs the exclusive Advanced Entrepreneurship CEO Boot Camp to help CEOs and senior executives cut years off their learning curve. He also coaches CEOs at growth oriented technology companies up to $150MM in sales on how to get to the next level. He can be contacted at: Bob@CLevelEnterprises.com. See his CEO and entrepreneur products at http://www.StartupPlanet.com and other articles and services offered at http://www.CLevelEnterprises.com.

The Basics Of Internet Marketing For Small Businesses « Exclusive …

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Mobile Web Advertising taking off in Kenya. PostDateIcon November 15th, 2009 | PostAuthorIcon Author: admin

Marketing Wastes – 10 Biggest Marketing Wastes of the 21st Century

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Waste #1: Failure to define marketing correctly and not identifying Marketing assets already in the business.

Waste #2: Failure to execute marketing inside before going outside!

Waste #3: Failure to build a marketing plan around the THREE WAYS TO GROW!

Waste #4: Failure to have a USP – Unique Selling Proposition

Waste #5: Failure to communicate and integrate the USP – on-going sales training

Waste #6: Failure to understand the Lifetime Value of a Customer

Waste #7: Failure to make advertising Direct Response

Waste #8: Failure to leverage relationships: Inside and outside the business

Waste #9 Failure to implement Direct Marketing

Waste #10: Failure to start marketing on the Web

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION:

Lean Marketing Follows the Lean Manufacturing Example

For many years, manufacturing companies have been working to get their employees trained in “lean” manufacturing techniques. These techniques primarily target areas of waste in a manufacturer’s operations, processes, equipment and labor. The objective is to eliminate waste and make the operations, processes, equipment and labor more efficient. By doing so, cash flow can improve because a company will be much better at delivering products to the customer when the customer wants it. No sooner, no later. There is less inventory on hand because the company has learned how to produce the right number of products and do so in a more efficient manner. Many times the cost of production, equipment and labor can be reduced to increase the bottom line for a company. Equipment is more efficient so a company’s return on equipment investment increases. The company wins and customers win with lean manufacturing.

This success in lean manufacturing is now moving into the area of “lean” office and “lean” healthcare. Other industries are adopting many of these “lean” techniques to lower costs and be more competitive in today’s world.

These same “lean” concepts can be applied to marketing. We are unique in introducing these “lean” techniques into the “top” line operations, processes, marketing resources (marketing equipment) and staff of a company. Our system seeks to eliminate waste and inefficiencies in all the marketing and sales or “top” line processes. Instead of “bottom” line cost savings, there are “top” line revenue increases which results in more profit or increased “bottom” line.

In other words – lean marketing and sales.

Business Owner Frustrations

The traditional definition of marketing has been the introduction of your company’s products and services to prospective customers. By reason of this definition, business owners have pursued the “traditional” avenues of marketing. These include: Advertising, hiring more salespeople, prospecting, direct mail, referral programs, web marketing and many more.

All of these traditional marketing methods can work – but many times they don’t (Don’t create a paying customer) and this leaves business owners frustrated. Sometimes they have invested thousands of dollars in these traditional methods only to find out they didn’t work or that in order to really work, they need to invest thousands more.

The business owners then go back to the providers of these traditional marketing methods and ask for accountability. The reply is usually something like this:

“Did the (marketing method) bring in more prospects?” “Yes, but they didn’t buy anything.” says the business owner. “Well, if they don’t become paying customers, we can’t control that – that is your responsibility” is the reply.

In other words traditional marketing method providers are not paid and do not concern themselves with what happens after a prospect is generated. Indeed there may be plenty of new prospects generated, but if they don’t become customers, it hasn’t helped the business owner! And, the frustration only grows.

Waste #1: Failure to define marketing correctly and not identifying Marketing assets already in the business.

The frustration grows partly because the definition of marketing is short-sided and inadequate. It is time for a new one. A new one for the 21st Century!

We have redefined marketing to be:

The introduction AND SELLING of your company’s products and services to PAST, PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE customers by first optimizing and leveraging ALL of your company’s marketing assets.

With this new definition, marketing becomes concerned with what happens after a new prospect is contacted or inquires. If a business owner does not track and understand what is happening to a prospect immediately upon contact or inquiring, waste enters in.

There may be waste in that the right qualifying questions are not being asked, so salespeople spend time with the wrong prospects. Waste. It may be that whoever is answering the phone or greeting the prospect is not saying the right things. Waste. It may be that the prospect isn’t ready to buy right now but might be later. The company is not tracking this relationship and the prospect goes away. Waste.

Then, if a prospect does become a customer and is ignored or not included in the company marketing efforts in an on-going basis, then the customer will not buy as much as they could. Waste. And, if there is not good customer service and the customer leaves the company there is more waste. It is ten times as costly to get a new customer than to keep one.

To eliminate this waste required an acceptance of a new marketing definition.

Too many companies separate sales and marketing. Many times the two departments don’t even talk to each other. Waste. Selling is and always should be under the umbrella of marketing. Don’t separate the two. That creates waste.

IDENTIFYING MARKETING ASSETS

Because of the inadequate definition of marketing that has prevailed, business owners think of marketing assets as only their advertising or the accumulation of new prospects and new customers. This is a very short-sided view of marketing assets – a waste.

You can find a list of marketing assets on our website, blog, and in other articles we have written. These include past customers, current customers, salespeople, the company’s advertising, referral programs, current sales and marketing processes, location, reputation, time in business, relationships with other businesses, etc. It is very important for business owners to “see” all of these as marketing assets. Not just those that create new prospects.

If a business owner will begin “look” at marketing in a different way – accepting the new definition, then they will begin to eliminate the wastes that occur under the traditional definition and find new sales and profits waiting for them.

Waste #2: Failure to execute marketing inside before going outside!

The traditional definition of marketing as discussed has forced business owners to always be looking OUTSIDE their business for growth.

What I mean by “outside” is working with traditional marketing resources for the generation of new prospective customers. This means going outside to find new prospects with advertising, tradeshows, web marketing, direct mail, salespeople prospecting, etc.

Because of this tendency to focus on MORE PROSPECTS with marketing, waste begins to creep “inside” the company.

The minute a prospect is introduced or inquires about a company’s products or services, they become “inside” the company. Now the real marketing should take over. This is where “hidden” new sources of cash, sales and profits can be found.

These prospects are having conversations, sales pitches, etc. directed at them by people, staff inside the company. The prospects have entered the sales process inside the company.

Every business in the world has the same sales process:

Prospect created ——-qualified——-presented——-closed.

There could be tremendous sources of “waste” along this process. It could be that the wrong prospects are being created in the first place. Waste. It could be that the prospect is not being qualified. Waste. It could be that the presentation made (either on-line or off-line, in person, on the phone, in an ad, etc. is not being done well.) Waste. It may mean the prospects are not being closed as well as they could be. Waste. It could mean that after they are closed, there is no on-going process of marketing. Waste.

It is everything that happens to a prospect AFTER being introduced that contains the hidden sources of new sales. It is what’s happening “inside” the company that is as or more important than what is going on “outside” to generate more customers.

This approach to marketing is more “non-traditional.” Most of our clients started out thinking the answers for more sales were in the creation of more prospects. But, soon, the system helped them uncover serious areas of waste and it was discovered that more sales and profits WITHOUT SPENDING MORE MONEY TO CREATE NEW PROSPECTS could be had FIRST by fixing and eliminating areas of waste. (Core Four Steps) Then, more resources could be devoted to generating more prospects because systems were in place to make certain there was no waste in the managing of the new prospect’s experience. So, all resources devoted to the creation of new prospects (Big Four) were maximized, leveraged to their fullest, creating maximum profit opportunities.

Doesn’t that make more sense?

Waste #3: Failure to build a marketing plan around the THREE WAYS TO GROW!

Every time I ask a business owner for a description or written copy of a marketing plan, the plan ALWAYS focuses on getting more prospective customers. This is to be done by advertising, web marketing, tradeshows, direct mail, telemarketing, salespeople, etc.

In other words, all plans are made under the traditional definition of marketing i.e. the introduction of a company’s products and services to prospective customers.

As indicated already, this definition is limited and incorrect.

There are three ways to grow sales and profits for any company. They are:

1. Increase the number of prospective customers contacted or inquiring
2. Increase the conversion rate of prospective customers to buying customers
3. Increase the value of worth of each customer

The marketing plans found at most companies deal only with number one – more prospects.

All marketing plans in the 21st century should revolve around ALL THREE!

If not, there is potential for tremendous waste. And, that is exactly what we find.

All business owners should hold their “marketing”departments and Vice-Presidents to the metrics or measuring of all three ways to grow. This way, assets become optimized. Waste is eliminated. The three ways to grow makes certain that all possible sources of cash and new sales are being considered.
Business owners should receive a weekly report from marketing that gives an accounting of marketing’s performance in all three areas. The conversion rate doesn’t only apply to salespeople closing sales. It applies to web click through and conversion rate, direct mail response rates, telemarketing response rates, etc. In other words, there might be several “conversion” rates in a company’s marketing process.

The “value” or “worth” of each customer is increased by doing more upselling on the front-end and more “back-end” selling after a prospect becomes a customer. Step number three in our system specifically focuses on increasing customer value.

The three numbers of prospect contact rate, conversion rate and value level are the three numbers a business owner should have a daily accounting for and should insist that the marketing department plan around all three ways to grow.

Waste #4: Failure to have a USP – Unique Selling Proposition

Unless any business owner or salesperson can tell a prospect in 90 words or less why they should do business with a company and not the competition, there is waste.

The USP is a selling proposition. Not a mission statement. Prospects and customers don’t care what your mission is. They only care what you can do for them better than anyone else. That is a USP.

Dominos Pizza created a stir with a 30 minute delivery or FREE USP. It took the company to the top of the industry. Now, all Pizza places can get you a pizza in 30 minutes. It is no longer unique. Dominos must now create a new USP if they want to get back to the top.

What is your USP?

A USP is not “good quality” or “good service” It must be more specific and if possible quantitative. If possible, it should be as overt and significant as possible. Not found in the fine print of a warranty statement.

If you’re unclear what your USP might be, listen to the top salesman in the company. They are often selling what it is customers really want.

Most companies think that “branding” is all they need to do. Again, branding is not a USP. It might be a description of your company or a position in the market your company wants to take. Again, these are not USP’s. They can support and help introduce a USP, but they are not selling propositions. A USP must be able to be sold.

If a business owner is not clear what the USP is, certainly prospects and customers won’t be clear. Look closely at the marketing assets of owner expertise, time in business, company credibility, to see if USP can be uncovered.

Talk to customers and ask them why they do business with you. Research and examine the competition to see what they might be selling as a USP.

However, the most important of all these is the competition. A USP is not necessarily what the owner thinks it is and even what customers might say it is. If the competition is doing it, it is not a USP. And, it must matter to the customers. You might have the most unique product available, but if customers don’t want it or don’t care about it, it is not a USP. Step one of our system focuses on helping a company develop a USP.

The USP is the first and most important part of any marketing plan. It must be determined first because it will then often determine which target markets should be pursued. It is the market research that should be done to understand the strengths and opportunities for the company. The USP becomes the “core” or foundation of all marketing and sales efforts.

Waste #5: Failure to communicate and integrate the USP – on-going sales training

Most of the time, a company can uncover and define a USP but then they fail to integrate the USP successfully.

Almost all USP’s fall short because the salespeople aren’t on board. They are not incorporating the USP into their sales presentations. A good USP integrated into a sales presentation can increase conversion rates significantly.

But, usually, salespeople go back to what they are comfortable doing.

A business owner must require the marketing department to see that the USP becomes integrated into all marketing and sales processes. This is from placing ads, business cards, brochures, displays, scripting for those answering the phone, etc. It needs to be incorporated into the sales presentations and any on-going marketing communication with customers.

The USP should be on the home page and incorporated into every other page of the company’s website.

This goal of complete company integration starts with the salespeople. That is why sales-training needs to be an on-going concern with any company. New salespeople need to be trained what it is they really sell! The USP. They need to always be trained in how to qualify, present and close more effectively. The more training done in these areas, the higher the closing rate will be. The margin between the company’s current closing rate and 100% is an area of marketing waste.

This is why sales trainers are paid a lot of money! They increase the closing rate for a company which translates into higher sales and profits! Less waste. When marketing is able to get sales integrating the USP, then implementation of the system is more successful. Salespeople are on the front line. They know what customers are saying and what they like or dislike. This can mean adjustments to the USP can occur regularly and quickly.

A company might have more than one USP depending on different revenue sources. USP’s change. They should be reworked and looked at on at least an annual basis. The key factor in change is what the competition is doing.

Waste #6: Failure to understand the Lifetime Value of a Customer

A big area of waste in a company is when marketing decisions are made on the one-time purchase of a customer, not the life-time value of a customer.

For example. A retail clothing company might do a direct mail piece or have a catalog as a way to attract new customers. Let’s say the mail piece generates 10 new customers that bought an average of $100 in retail clothing. That’s $1000 in sales. In this case, the cost of the mailing, postage, printing, etc cost $1,500.

The company concludes that the mailing didn’t work.

That is a waste. A big mistake. What is being wasted is the future opportunity for more customers! Why?

Let’s say this retail clothing company has a great product, good customers service and on average those 10 customers come back twice a year and spend $100 each time and keep coming back for an average of 10 years! That’s 20 return visits at $100 a piece or $2000. This times 10 customers is a total value of $20,000 generated all from a $1,500 mailing! $20,000 is the lifetime value of these 10 customers. Not to mention the referrals or family members they might motivate to come and start buying.

The waste is $20,000 in new sales opportunity because the company stops doing the mailing! They concluded that they lost money on the mailing because they calculated only from the first, one time purchase, not the lifetime value.

The industry that understands this concept very well is the music and DVD clubs. For $1.00 you can get 5 FREE DVD’s. We all know it cost the company more than $1.00 to ship 5 FREE DVD’s. What we don’t understand but the company does, is the lifetime value of a new customer. They have calculated that over time, or a lifetime of the average customer, there will be additional orders on average that more than make up for a slight loss in the original mailing.

This is how a marketing budget should be determined. As long as the cash flow can handle it, more and more testing should be done and evaluations made on the lifetime value concept. Even if a company needed to borrow money to do marketing, they may find out that marketing brings a better return than any other investment the company could make. This is often the case.

This lifetime value is the same information used by manufacturers in determining to purchase a piece of equipment. Up front, they may not cover costs but over the lifetime of the equipment, the return justifies the investment. Such should be the same thinking about marketing.

Waste #7: Failure to make advertising Direct Response

In the 21st Century, the investment required for successful media advertising can be very significant. Many business owners try to do a little bit of advertising in the paper or radio or billboard, etc. but find out they don’t get back any return. They become frustrated and upset.

There are two reasons for this frustration. First, there probably isn’t enough advertising going on in a synergistic way that creates results. If the company is advertising on radio, they might need to do newspaper and billboard as well. If they start marketing and advertising on the web, they probably need to do off-line marketing to support it. These costs and investments can become very difficult to maintain. A huge waste of money.

The second reason the advertising falls short is most are doing what is called “institutional advertising” rather than Direct Response advertising. They are sold by the advertising agency that “branding” and “positioning” is important. They are told that if they don’t advertise, their competition will and beat them to the customer. These are both possible true statements. But, not necessarily true.

Our recommendation to small business is to make all advertising direct response.

That is, make it create a response of some kind i.e. a lead, purchase or request for more information. That way, the advertising can be measured. It can be held accountable.

Direct Response is covered in step five and seven of our system. Briefly, there are several important elements that should go into every advertisement that makes the ad direct response. These elements include: Headlines, sub-headlines, good copy, offer, urgency, reply mechanisms, bonus, P.S., etc.

If a company will follow these rules, the advertising can be tracked and different testing accomplished. Institutional advertising simply tells people that the company is in business and has great service. There is no USP, offer, urgency, bonus, reply mechanisms, etc. Therefore, the company cannot measure results. A big waste.

By implementing direct response marketing into all advertising, different testing can be used to make the same dollar invested return more in leads, sales or even an opt-in E-mail database. Waste (in the form of non-producing ads) are eliminated.

Even with direct response, there is branding and positioning that can be accomplished. At the same time, if there is room in the marketing budget, branding and institutional advertising in and of themselves can be effective.

It’s simply the case that most small to medium sized companies can’t afford both types of advertising.

Waste #8: Failure to leverage relationships: Inside and outside the business

Whether a business is just getting started or has been in business many years, one of the biggest wastes that occurs is the failure of the business to examine how relationships with other businesses and customers can create a lot more sales.

These are referred to as endorsements and alliances. They are covered in step four of the system.

The most significant marketing asset of any business is the customer base. A business owner should know which customers can lead the business to more customers. An endorsement is secured and an endorsed mailing is sent to the clients and or customers of the company’s customer. This can open the doors to thousands of prospects – WITHOUT SPENDING MORE MONEY ON ADVERTISING.

So, the rule should be to examine the 20% of customers that are generating 80% of the business. Approach them for an endorsement (of the company’s USP) and work out a regular endorsed mailing. This failure to use customers in this way is a big marketing waste.

In looking at the 20% first approach those customers who are already giving the company referrals. This endorsement simply becomes a more formal consistent way to generate more referrals.

Then, look outside the company database. Look to complementary businesses that have customers or clients your company could serve.

Approach these businesses with the same endorsed mailing opportunity. Maybe you can endorse them to your customer base in return!

Don’t let these relationships go underutilized – such a waste.

Waste #9 Failure to implement Direct Marketing

Throughout my consulting experience, I have come close to creating the CORE five. This would include Direct Marketing step #7.

This is because the most underutilized marketing asset in any company is the phone. It is so inexpensive yet can yield so many new profit opportunities. Any use of phone could be classified as direct marketing. It can be used to generate leads, repeat business, upselling, close sales, follow-up on prospects, etc. Yet, many companies don’t use it as they should.

Much of the same could be said now for E-mails. They can do much the same as a phone – contacting prospects, following up on presentations, upselling, creating newsletters, etc.

Direct marketing includes: direct sales by salespeople, E-mail marketing, Web marketing, teleprospecting and telemarketing, direct mail, etc. These are all marketing methods that can be tested on a small scale, without risking a lot of dollars to find out which can work and which won’t work.

One of the biggest marketing wastes is that companies roll out marketing in big numbers before testing on a small scale first. One Artist’s marketing director invested $20,000 to print and mail 20,000 catalogs to museums. Not one sale. He should have tested with 2000 first to see if anyone was interested. This would have cost $2,000 instead of $20,000. He wasted $18,000.

There are probably staff members in every company that could test offers, etc. on the phone. Contact top customers to upsell or invite them in for a special offer. Salespeople can be calling during downtime.

Clearly, one of the biggest wastes today is that companies are not testing direct marketing on the world wide web. Waste #10.

Waste #10: Failure to start marketing on the Web

The technology of the web has evened the playing field between large companies and single owner companies. What a great opportunity for small businesses. Yet, most still don’t even have a web site. What a waste.

Internet penetration is now at 69% for North America. The number of high-speed internet users almost doubles every year.

The first objective of course is to get the company a USP. From there, you can determine if this USP can be sold over the web either by providing more information for prospects to learn about your company or actually creating a sale – E-commerce.

Yet, the purpose of this section in the report is to encourage all companies that have static information websites to begin thinking about how they can make sales from their site. You can test a pay per click campaign for less money that you can do a direct mail campaign to learn the same things.

The international usage of the web is also expanding. Asia has 418 million users, Europe 322 million, North America 233 million and Latin America 110 million. With those numbers growing year by year, there could be an opportunity for any company to sell something to them over the web.

Internet marketing – is your website making enough sales is addressed in the bonus step of our system. It is important to make an evaluation of your website and have the help of others in determining how best to use the web. This is why this bonus step is also considered part of the Big Four. You’ll need the help of designers, programmers, marketers, SEO experts, etc. to succeed, whether you do these tasks yourself or outsource them to others.

As long as you stay away from the web, there is waste. Even if you have a local store that sells only locally, the web resources can be a big help in creating more sales and profits. Learn how to use this technology to your benefit and eliminate that area of waste in your marketing.

CONCLUSION

I hope this free report has been of help to you. Even if you don’t become our customer, you can find new cash and new sales by eliminating these areas of waste in your marketing. And, if you do become a customer, I’m confident you’ll be able to systematically eliminate all of these wastes by implementing our system into your business.

Either way, I hope you’ll find great success in your marketing efforts.

For 15 years we have helped businesses increase their sales and profits 25-100% or more, without spending more money on traditional advertising.

We’ve created a unique, non-traditional marketing system that helps companies uncover, leverage, and optimize their existing marketing assets.

Our system is featured by Dell, IBM, The International Guild of Professional Consultants and the US Department of Commerce’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

You can learn more about 21st Century Marketing Systems at:

http://www.21st-CenturyMarketing.com

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For a marketing plan to be successful, the mix of Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers in the target market. Trying to convince a market segment to buy something they don’t want is extremely expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, to determine what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for. Marketers hope that this process will give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process.

Most companies today have a customer orientation (also called customer focus). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on customer needs. Generally there are two ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach and the product innovation approach.

In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.

The next big thing is a concept in marketing that refers to a product or idea that will allow for a high amount of sales for that product and related products. Marketers believe that by finding or creating the next big thing they will spark a cultural revolution that results in this sales increase.

In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing research is conducted primarily to ensure that a profitable market segment(s) exists for the innovation. The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be available to them in the future so we should not expect them to tell us what they will buy in the future. It is claimed that if Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced larger candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation. Many purists doubt whether this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post status of consumer research. Some even question whether it is marketing.

Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products, services and ideas.

A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, affiliate marketing or online marketing. It typically tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing.

David is the leader of a software development team, who developed many types of automation software. One of them is Article Post Robot, http://www.ArticlePostRobot.com, the software which can post articles to hundreds of article sites and mail lists automatically. Demo is available upon request at help(at)articlepostrobot.com

Internet Marketing

Building Marketing Momentum For Your Small Business

The success of your business depends on your ability to build marketing momentum. Without the ability to generate new sources of leads your capacity to sell will slump and the growth of your business will stagnate or shrink.

Unfortunately, many small business owners are at a loss when tasked with coming up with new ways to market while others are frustrated into stagnation by seeing consistently ineffective results from their marketing efforts. It doesn’t matter if your business is young or established. If your business is young you must market well simply to survive. On the other hand, if you have had marketing success with a method that does not increase your opportunity to generate new business your success will be stunted by your limited ability to find new sources of business.

Building marketing momentum is like kicking a ball down a hill that keeps getting steeper. Each time the hill becomes a little steeper the ball will roll faster and pick up momentum. In marketing, any tactic you add to attract attention to what you do is like making the hill a little steeper.

The other day I was talking to Ed who runs a successful metal shining business. I asked him how he went about generating new sales. He told me that 100% of his marketing effort is networking. I couldn’t help but wonder why. I realize that he is doing well with it but if he simply placed an ad in the yellow pages that generated just one sale a year he would cover the cost of the ad and be profitable!

Even though Ed’s networking efforts are successful he is limiting his ability to grow his business by only implementing one form of marketing. By simply trying something new in addition to networking Ed can benefit from developing a new way to generate leads and build his marketing momentum.

Is your marketing effort one dimensional or stagnant? Here are five tactics you can use to build marketing momentum.

Deliver a Great Marketing Message

A great marketing message will have the effect of generating interest in what you do. It never ceases to amaze me the number of small business owners that fail to use a compelling marketing message. How many times has someone described to you their business or what they do with a label like, “I’m an accountant” or “I’m in Communications”? Such answers are not likely to start interesting conversations and marketing opportunities are missed.

If you answer the “what do you do?” question with a savvy marketing message you will find that more people associate what you do with a need of their own or that of a friend, colleague or relative and you will win more referral business. Develop and use an outstanding, compelling marketing message and you will find that more people show interest in what you do. The result will be more better sales.

Make Cold Calling a Hot Source of Sales

Many small business owners hate to make cold calls. Their derision is understandable. By making cold calls they are setting themselves up for rejection. No one likes being rejected. However, rejection is part of the game when making phone calls. Once you realize that it’s not your fault when someone says no during a cold call you can move passed your barrier and add cold calling to your marketing arsenal.

The fact is that by regularly picking up the phone and reaching out to potential clients small business owners increase their chance of finding new business. A percentage of the people you speak with will become clients when you make cold calls, especially if you are targeting your market well and are offering something they need. What’s more you can work to improve your phone skills to increase your ability to make sales. Add cold calling to your marketing strategy and you will increase your opportunity to generate new business.

Use Your Web Site as An Effective Marketing Tool

Many companies have web sites that fail as effective marketing tools. Does your web site consistently generate leads and sales? It should. And it can. The World Wide Web is a continuously open marketplace that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers every moment of every day and allows you to easily and accurately target those who buy your products or services. A company without a web site as part of its marketing team is missing a fantastic opportunity to increase its revenue stream. Deliver a web site that functions as an effective marketing tool and you will consistently add to your marketing momentum.

Develop Your Network

Another great tool to use to build marketing momentum is networking. Networking is a highly effective means of generating referral business (which is some of the easiest business to get, once you get a referral). A person who is willing to take someone else’s advice to contact you about your product or service will transfer the trust he has in his friend or colleague making the referral to you. Making it easier for clients to trust you removes one of the barriers to making a sale. By developing a robust network you will increase your ability to find new prospects and do more business.

So then, just how should you go about building your network?

Ed, from our previous example, is able to successfully operate his business with networking alone. That’s because Ed networks the right way. Many small business owners and executives don’t realize what networking truly is. Unfortunately, all too often people think they are networking by reaching out only to the people they know when what they should be doing is taking steps to continually expand their network. Ed regularly attends networking events and is involved with multiple networking groups. He ads new people to his network all the time and has a successful business to show for it (though he could be even more successful if he added another tool to his marketing toolbox).

Measure Your Results

No matter what tactics you adapt to market yourself or your business be sure to measure your results. By measuring your marketing results you will be able to move away from or correct what does not work and stick with and reinforce what does. By diligently measuring your results you will improve your ability to ad to your marketing momentum and grow your business and success.

By measuring my results and trying new things I have been able to develop an ad that enjoys a 20% response rate. The ad is so successful I only need to run it occasionally to generate enough calls to keep me very busy. Not only does this great ad do a fantastic job of generating interest in my marketing services it saves me money on my advertising costs because I can meet my goals by running fewer ads.

You too can develop highly effective ads by measuring your results.

Move Your Marketing Forward

If your marketing efforts aren’t helping you reach your goals you can improve your results by implementing any one of the tactics outlined above. Choose the one you feel most comfortable with and take small measured steps toward realistic goals and you will see a beneficial transformation in your marketing results.

Jeremy Cohen helps independent professionals and small business owners increase profits with stronger leads and more lucrative sales. Download his free marketing guide at www.MoreLeadsAndSales.com.

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Is There a Magic Marketing Formula? – Part 1

One of the biggest mistakes that I see small business owners make is to spend their money (or time) on marketing or advertising, not get the results they want and then conclude that marketing doesn’t work. Or they keep on spending their money and time on advertising, despite their lack of results and convince themselves that it’s “raising their profile”. (In reality, it’s probably just money down the drain.)

The main reason that their marketing doesn’t produce the results that they want is because they’ve usually missed out or half done one of the ingredients of their “marketing formula” or are doing things in the wrong order. Getting your marketing right is a bit like baking a cake – you need the right ingredients, in the right proportions, added in the right sequence and baked at the right temperature.

What can a good “marketing formula” do for you?

A good marketing formula can help you to:

* raise response to all of your marketing activities so that you have more leads in your pipeline for the same investment * make your marketing profitable (as it should be!) rather than an expense * secure more sales from the presentations you do and the appointments you attend

Once you’ve worked out your formula, most of your campaigns will be successes and you can use your formula over and over again to continually reproduce outstanding results.

To illustrate the point, one famous marketer claims to have done a direct mail campaign that got a 100% response! In other words, everyone that he sent his letter to bought his product or service. Now, that is unheard of in a world where a 3% response rate is considered to be good. Another marketer claims to turn 98% of all telephone consultations into business (and 40% is generally considered to be doing OK in her field).

These people have got their marketing formulas highly tuned and working very hard for them. Can you achieve the same results? Well, you may not ever achieve a 100% response to a mailshot, (that was probably an exceptional case) but you can certainly improve the performance of your marketing and start making it pay once you know and understand the ingredients of marketing success.

So what are the ingredients and steps of a good “marketing formula”?

Your marketing formula is comprised of two parts:

The ingredients:

This is really the foundation of your marketing – it’s the groundwork that allows whatever marketing activities you undertake to actually work and give you good results. The ingredients are:

* a very clear target market (preferably one that is hungry for what you offer) * a thorough understanding of your target market – what concerns them, why they would buy your services, what motivates them and how you can identify and locate them * a good value proposition (the tangible outcome you deliver) * an irresistible offer * an understanding of the competitive landscape and where your company fits in (or in other words – your differentiation and your positioning) * a strong, client-attracting message

You can have brilliantly executed marketing, but if the ingredients are wrong, then you’re either going to attract all the wrong types of people, or attract multitudes less than you are really capable of. Either way, you would be wasting your marketing effort and budget.

The steps:

These are the steps that you take to implement your marketing, and the sequence you move your potential buyers through en-route to them becoming loyal clients. These include:

* the strategy you use to get your compelling message in front of your target market * where and how you place your message for maximum impact in the budget you’ve allocated (your message can be delivered verbally or in written form) * the timing of your message * the steps your prospects need to be taken through to turn them from strangers into paying clients

A weakness or failure at any of these points will lead to reduced response and lowered conversion rates – and that means weak results and wasted investment. It’s somewhat like a chain – the system fails at the weakest points, so all points have to be as strong as possible.

So if you want your marketing to succeed, you need a good formula – the right ingredients combined in the right steps. Just like baking a cake – if you do things in the wrong order, or miss steps out, you’ll end up with a result you didn’t want – a burnt cake, a cake that’s rock hard or biscuits instead!

In part two of this series of articles I’ll discuss the ingredients in more detail – so look out for it in a couple of weeks.

Copyright 2005 Attractioneering

Jane Hendry helps professionals, consultants and coaches to create marketing systems that easily and consistently attract their ideal clients. To get your f*ree Attraction Marketing Starter Kit please visit http://www.attractioneers.com

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Are you a mastermind marketing genius or are the marketing techniques you use as old as a mummy in a tomb. Do you know what the latest marketing tools are that are helping businesses thrive and building them to last? We are going to test your knowledge and see what you know. Answer these 7 questions and get a pen and paper as you will be grading yourself on your skill level. This will help you identify whether you are a marketing mastermind or whether you are a marketing mummy.

Do you have a marketing plan? My business has a marketing plan that we look at and update yearly. We utilize our resources in marketing strategies that produce low cost and high profits. We are always open to marketing strategies that will produce wealth fast and keep our company growing. Grade yourself 1 to 10 (10 being highest)

Do you employ the marketing strategy that keeps your company safe during all economic conditions? I use joint venture marketing strategies with my company because they keep my risk low, costs low and profits high. I bulletproof my business using this cooperative marketing strategy. I have learned to do a proper joint venture. Grade yourself 1 to 10

Do you no longer use competitive marketing strategies? I no longer use competitive marketing. I understand that everyday entrepreneurs create win/win business deals where everyone gains. I know this is called cooperative marketing. I understand that the dog eat dog marketing tactics is the “old way” of doing business. Grade yourself 1 to 10

Do you use cooperative marketing strategies? I utilize cooperative marketing strategies where I work together with other entrepreneurs who once were considered competition. We only create win/win business deals and use the joint venture structure to conduct our business strategy. Grade yourself 1 to 10

Do you grow both of your networks? I understand in a cooperative marketing model that I must build both of my networks. I understand that my network = my net worth. I belong to a community of entrepreneurs who utilize joint venture marketing strategies to create products, customers and sales with. I have access to this network 24 hours a day. I have global community because my network extends around the world. I also grow my customer network and service them with consistent customer care. I gather testimonials and listen to my customers concerns openly. I look for products that benefit my clients. Grade yourself 1 to 10

Do you have a place you can go to get new clients? When I need new clients I utilize my business community network and am introduced to someone who has a big data base full of thousands of people and is looking for a new product to market to that data base. We create a joint venture and I provide that new product. I receive new clients as well as splitting the profits between myself and my business colleague. I joint venture twice a month so that I build my business quickly. Grade yourself 1 to 10

Do you keep track of when the last joint venture marketing strategy was done with your colleague so you know when to do another Joint Venture? I keep track of when my last joint venture was done with my colleague so that I can schedule the next joint venture and work on creating a new product with them. Grade yourself 1 to 10

Grade yourself 7 to 55 then you are a mummy who may want to learn more about how cooperative marketing strategies can benefit your business. However, 70 is the highest score which means you are a marketing mastermind and know that the cooperative marketing strategies such as joint ventures are what is here now and will be for a long time in the future. You are utilizing powerful connections that can transform your business overnight.

Vickie Jimenez is the author of “Champgane thoughts and Caviar power The Science of Results Oriented Thinking” and has over 20 years in the Personal Development field. She is an expert in personal and business mind set performance as well as work enviornment management. She is a speaker, corporate trainer and the CEO of Success Systems Seminars. She teaches companies and individuals how to raise accountability and performance through self-command. increasing production, revenues, culture, sales and career satifaction. To learn more visit http://privatejvclub.info or http://successsystemsnow.com

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Embracing The Future – Marketing Yourself, Your Business And Your

Introduction

Many businesses and organisations have a perception that marketing means promotions and advertising. They think being good at marketing is producing a glossy brochure and having an ad on the local radio or television. But marketing is much more than slick promotions and expensive pamphlets. It is about a process and having a clear strategy. It is also about structuring every aspect of your business to include a marketing function.

It is also about understanding marketing strategies, the tools of marketing and the language of marketing. Many people are frightened or are put off by the jargon and concepts put forward by so called marketing experts.

This article attempts to simplify the process. To provide a “how to” of what’s required to develop winning marketing ideas.

Many people also believe they are too busy or don’t have enough time or energy to develop marketing ideas. It doesn’t have to be difficult or complex.

Many great marketing strategies are very simple and straightforward.

In fact, I believe everyone has a great marketing idea inside of him or her just waiting to come out! What’s stopping you from taking the next step?

My goal is to help you overcome any procrastination and provide a framework where your ideas can grow and prosper.

How will I know if I’ve been succesful?

Well if I’ve been entertaining and informative – I’m in the “Edutainment” business. And if I’ve delivered what I call the “Three H’s”.

• HEAD – provided information and knowledge that’s tapped into your head. Some useful piece of new knowledge or information that’s got your brain ticking over.
• HEART – Tapped into your emotions. Moved you in some way. Made you smile, laugh or get excited.
• HIP POCKET – I have yet to find anyone not interested in money. My goal is that in this session you will pick up something – a new idea, contact or concept that will help you make more money.

Why marketing ideas are important?

Ideas, creativity and the ability of turning these into practical strategies will become the hallmark of successful businesses in the new millennium.

Leading organisations will tailor all of their activities around these concepts to create a culture where ideas, innovation and a can-do marketing attitude are fostered.

Truly successful companies are now doing this by building brands and customer loyalty around these names and symbols. It is the brand and the marketing processes around the brand that are the assets of new companies in this information age.

With the huge amount of change happening – businesses and groups that are quick, nimble and have an ideas focus will have the potential to carve out new niches.

They will be marketing and media savvy.

In today’s highly dynamic global business environment, truly successful leaders will know how to harness both marketing ideas and the power of the media.

We are living through some of the largest social and economic changes we’ve ever faced.

We’re in the midst of a great gold rush, the likes of which we haven’t witnessed in a hundred years. Marketing ideas are the gold of the 21st century.

What is marketing?

What does marketing mean to you?

How would you define marketing?

If you believe marketing is about selling or promotions, you’re only partly right. Marketing is much more.

Here is my definition I give to clients, customers and people who attend my presentations and workshops.

Marketing is…

• What you do to ultimately get or keep a customer.
• About positioning.
• About process
• Entering a new paradigm. It means structuring every activity within your business to meet the needs of your customer.

Take a moment to compare your views on marketing with the latest thinking on marketing.

Are you prepared to shift? To see how marketing touches on every aspect of how you interact with customers and how you run and operate your business.

If you’ve been able to shift your focus and change your attitude on marketing its now time to move on and develop your BIG MARKETING IDEA.

Top 10 Reasons Stopping People Achieving their BIG MARKETING IDEA

Many people never achieve their true potential in achieving their goals, dreams and aspirations. From my experience as a broadcaster, manager and marketer here are my Top 10 reasons stopping people from achieving their big marketing idea.

1. Not believing it can be done.

The belief system has to be really strong. You really have to believe you can do it to overcome the hurdles. In 1992, the 500 farmers who started this Co-operative with $5000 must have had a really strong belief system they could make it work.

2. Doing Nothing.

Some people just don’t know what it takes. Instead of starting on a path they do nothing for fear of doing the wrong thing.

3. Don’t think they have an idea or solution to a problem.

Some people keep their ideas and solutions locked up inside them and neither see them or acknowledge them. It often takes an outsider to bring them out. Why not get an outsiders view of the challenge and brainstorm some solutions.

4. Not believing you can make money out of it.

You often hear people moaning about being stuck in a job because it pays the bills or doing something because that’s the way it’s always been done. People are motivated by the need for food and shelter and your need to believe you can make money from your idea or solution.

5. Don’t have time?

Many people are caught up in the rush and “busyness” of today’s life. I’m not suggesting you add more to your life by adding an extra action point, job or task to your “To Do List”. I’m recommending you do less and eliminate something! If you watched one hour less of television per week that would give you 52 hours. What would you do with 52 hours of extra time?

6. Don’t have enough resources?

People often say they need resources – money, infrastructure, computers, printers and the like. But how much money does it take to write an idea down and then communicate it to someone else?

7. Persistence!

You’re likely to come up against a 100 barriers before you succeed. Persistence is vital in breaking through the barriers.

8. Is it practical?

Is the idea or solution practical and does it work? Take the example of NASA in the US. They spent a million dollars developing a ballpoint pen that works in zero gravity! The Russians gave their cosmonauts pencils.

9. Are you afraid?

Many people are afraid of many things – success, failure, rejection or just being different. These fears can become barriers.

10. Not being ready

Many people are aware that what they’re doing is not what they really want to do and creating barriers for others. They recognise the need to change and shift their thinking. They’re just not ready at that moment in time to make the change.

So that’s what’s stopping people from putting in practice their BIG MARKETING IDEA.

What are the success factors for Marketing Yourself, Your Business and Your Co-Operative?

10 Tips on Marketing

In summary here are 10 Tips on marketing.

1. Clarify your mission.

2. Have a plan and set some goals and strategies.

3. Know your strengths and build on these.

4. Identify and talk to your customers.

5. Find out who your competitors are?

6. Put a value on your service.

7. Let people know about your service.

8. Add value to existing services.

9. Differentiate your service from others.

10. Evaluate and review on a regular basis.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.

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Which Marketing Solution is Right for You?

If you’re running a small business, then at some point you may be faced with the problem that you want to gear up your marketing in order to grow the business, but at the same time you’re afraid of getting it wrong and losing whatever you invest in it.

Whilst large businesses can afford to throw large amounts of money at campaigns, and absorb the losses if their marketing doesn’t work, small businesses need a return on every pound they spend. They need some level of certainty that the money and effort they invest is going to produce good results. Otherwise, what can happen is that they keep doing what they’re already doing (which probably isn’t working that well), or they blow a load of money on advertising or marketing solutions that don’t work, and then lose faith in outside help or marketing altogether.

If you want to avoid wasting money on marketing and advertising, or getting burnt by marketing consultants then you’ll want to minimise your risks and invest your money in solutions that work for you.

As you read this article you’ll discover 5 options for learning how to do your own marketing or recruiting outside help, and the advantages and disadvantages of each option.

5 Options for Learning Marketing Skills or Getting Help with Marketing

1) Learn how to do it yourself through reading books, attending workshops, using audio programmes etc.

The obvious advantage of this is that it’s the cheapest option, plus as you learn to do things for yourself, you retain control of your marketing programme. However, the major drawbacks are that the learning curve is very steep and it may take a long time to learn what works, plus you may end up learning a lot of generic information that doesn’t directly apply to your business or that doesn’t give you an actual step by step plan. You may learn what to do, but not how to do it or the exact steps you need to take to implement what you’ve learnt.

2) Use a marketing consultant/agency

The advantage of this is that you effectively hand over the problem to someone else who deals with it on your behalf, leaving you to get on with what you do best. The disadvantages of this option are that you don’t learn what works for your business and you are no longer fully in control of your marketing function – so you won’t know why some things work and others don’t.

Also, this is probably the most expensive option, and some marketing consultants have got a tendency to prescribe their pet solution, before even diagnosing the actual problem and the situation. Not only that, but if your problem is, for example, lack of sales, and you decide the solution is PR, and then hire a PR consultant, they will work to your brief. In other words, you’ve diagnosed the problem and precribed the solution. However, PR may not be the best solution to your problem, and a proper analysis of your target market and your current activities, budget and opportunities is required before forming the conclusion that a PR consultant is the answer.

3) Group coaching/training programmes

The advantage of this is the lower cost plus regular classes and fieldwork that keep you on track. Some people will benefit from working in a group, especially as they learn from the experiences of others, and particularly if there is a “buddying” system in place.

The disadvantage is the lack of personal coaching/consulting or significant input from the expert in examining your particular situation. Not only that, but you’ll be going at a pace as dictated by the course outline, when you might want to move considerably faster or even slower. Also, most programmes go through a range of strategies as decided by the programme creator, some (or many) of which are not applicable to your particular situation. This is especially true if the programme is designed for the generic “small business” – what works for a dry cleaning business may not work for a consultant, coach or professional.

The result is that you may be learning 10 or 12 strategies at a rather superficial level, rather than homing in on the 2 or 3 strategies that are really going to deliver results into your business, and which are manageable.

4) One to one business/marketing coaching

The advantage of this is the personal attention, and the ability to address your specific issues. This works out a little more expensive than a group training programme, but less expensive than hiring a consultant.

How this works varies widely and a lot depends on whether the coach is using a coaching model (i.e. they guide you in working out your own solutions) or a marketing model (they take on a role more similar to a consultant than a coach, and tell you what will work for your situation). Most do not seem to offer any structure, specific outcomes, or programme of activities so it can be hard to tell what you’re getting for your money.

5) A Structured Programme of consulting, training and mentoring delivered one to one

In this scenario the consultant uses a structured series of exercises to analyse the client’s situation, help them build their marketing foundation, overcome problems and obstacles standing in their way and works with them to create a series of marketing actions that will work best for them.

This typically costs about the same as marketing coaching, but has more tangible outcomes and the consultant will also be doing things on the client’s behalf in between sessions. The advantages are that the client is fully in control of their own situation and is being guided and taught how to do things for themselves. The consultant will also use their expertise to steer the client towards solutions that will work for their situation, their market and their type of business, and filter out approaches that are irrelevant or less likely to produce good results.

The disadvantages are that you still have to do the work yourself (unless you pay for help with implementation), and if the consultant is helping you to craft your message and build your foundation, then there may be a delay before any strategies get fully implemented. This is really the approach that is analogous to building your house on rock rather than on sand – it takes a little longer to lay the foundations, but it’s a sturdier, stronger solution in the end.

© 2006 Jane Hendry, Attractioneering

Jane Hendry helps professionals, consultants and coaches to create marketing systems that easily and consistently attract their ideal clients. To get your f*ree Attraction Marketing Starter Kit please visit http://www.attractioneers.com . You will also find a F*REE marketing plan template and a F*REE marketing evaluation.

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