Marketing is a two-way interaction with the public, prospects, and peers to present them with the best face of a business. You do this to inform and persuade them of the benefits of dealing with that business.
marketing
Trip-over Marketing
The lesson I repeat most often to my clients and prospects is this: put your marketing messages somewhere your own prospects will trip over you.
And by that I mean –
- Use educational message media to
- Target your core audience
- In a place they don’t expect to see you, in order to
- Demonstrate the value of your product or service
Here are just a couple examples –
- An article by a plumber, targeted to real estate investors, on how an up-to-date plumbing system increases the value of a house.
- Video by a board game manufacturer on a parenting website, about how playing games as a family builds relationships.
Can you think of an example on how you could use this principle? Place your comment below!
Restrict Access
RecEx Status – Principle #2: Restrict access.
Companies Pay, People Buy
Companies may pay, but it’s individuals who actually buy your products and services.
From my forthcoming book, Profile Your Target Market
SGF Episode Live!
It’s live! Come listen to the woman who literally wrote the book on the gift basket industry. She gives some great advice on how YOU can develop author-ity.Track Your Marketing For $80 a Year – Or Less
Landing pages are great. You can – and should – set one up for each different ad or content marketing effort you put out on the ‘net. Landing (or squeeze) pages are the Holy Grail when it comes to automatically adding contacts to your marketing & sales funnel. But sometimes, the content just doesn’t lend itself to a simple “give me your lead magnet” email exchange. Sometimes, the prospect just has to call you.
But how do you know which ad the prospect is responding to?
Graphic – Price vs Cost
Cost and price are not the same thing.
New Podcast Coming
Big news? Probably not. But I’m pulling the trigger on a new podcast called Up Your Marketing! (UpYourMarketing.net) I’m planning on posting episodes twice a week. Three of those will be “solo” shows. Every 4th show will be an interview with other marketing experts. I’m thinking that the solo shows will be 15 to 20 minutes each, and the interviews will be 30 to 40 minutes each.
Where Do You Get Your Ideas On Sales?
I used to hate it when people gave me explanations like I’m about to give you. I wanted a magic formula – “Do A plus B, and you’ll skip over the following steps and wind up at Q a wealthy person.” Then I began to realize that people weren’t skipping over steps to keep secrets. It’s those in-between steps that are unique to each of us, that we have to go through ourselves, that help us define what “success” is for ourselves, and how we look at the world in general.
I’m pretty good at sales, but I hate it. Absolutely. I’ve never been able to separate a sales rejection from personal rejection. I began to think about it, and look around at the sales process. In our society, people mostly act on recommendations and (bluntly) snob appeal. If someone recommends an expensive wine, that’s the one we’ll order. It tastes like crap, but we convince ourselves it’s great. We’re looking for a dentist, so we ask our friends. Or a plumber. Or a car mechanic. We ask our friends, and in general we do what they tell us, and we stick with the result unless it’s too painful in some way. “The best salesperson is a satisfied customer.”
So. . . where do I get my ideas? I watch, and I think, and I go through pain of some sort, and I try to figure out how to get the results I want with as little pain as possible. If there’s a formula for me, it’s “Time plus Thought minus Pain = Ideas.” I know that’s not what you were looking for, but I hope you can understand me and where I’m coming from a little better.
Repetiton
RecEx Principle #4: Repetition, repetition, repetition.