Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

Step 4: Create Marketing Materials that Educate

Step 5:Advertising, Referrals and PR: Your Lead Generation Trio!

We’re coming to the end of this series on “7 Steps to Marketing Success” - powered by the proven principles of Duct Tape Marketing.  As the economy wears on and I hear more stories of hardship in people’s lives and businesses, I am convinced that these principles work.   And if by chance, you’re CONSIDERING starting a business of your own, why not do it NOW!   Your mind will tell you that you should wait for “better economic times” - but when will that be?  Do it now and you’ll be glad to have a say-so in your future!  As a small business owner and one who started in n0t-so-great economic times, I am loving the independence and getting to do it with my brother, Donny!  Sure, there’s uncertainty, but it’s alot of fun, too!  Click here if you want to it change the way you work and live for the rest of your life!

OK - check your website now.  Would you consider your website more “informative” or “interactive”?  The former uses your website to tell everything about you and your store/product/service.  When people come, they have no doubt what you have to offer.  They peruse and they leave.  On the other hand, what about having a site that your visitors interact with?  The key that successful sites have discovered is to convert your site’s visitor to a hot prospect by capturing their email address!

Sites that do not collect this vital link back to their prospects are losing the opportunity for follow-up.  Perhaps someone visits your site because they saw a direct link somewhere.  But, when they arrive, perhaps they are not in the purchasing mindset.  If they leave, you have no way of reaching them again.  But if you draw them into your database, then they have given you permission to send them new updates, information on new products/services, and, voila!, one day when they’re ready, they’ll buy.

Email marketing systems are affordable and pretty easy to manage on your own.  Just put up a sign-up form on your website to collect email addresses.  Most people offer something of value in exchange (recognizing this email address is valuable to you) - perhaps a free report, free e-book, coupons, free sample, something fun or informative, etc…  So create something that your visitors would find interesting and valuable and make it available to them.  Email marketing must be permission based to be effective - no one like spammers.  In this way, your website is working for you 24/7 - this is especially important if you have a storefront where you have limited store hours.  People surf the net at all hours, and alot of your prospects are likely doing it in the evening after their kids are in bed!

Sign up for our FREE MARKETING REPORT just to the right of this post!  Here’s a longer post concerning the power of email marketing - you’ll also find out who we use to handle our email marketing campaigns!

NEXT UP - Step 7 - Live by a calendar - manage your brand!

- Randy Vaughn - Fort Worth’s Only DUCT TAPE MARKETING Authorized Coach

.
 In order now:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

Step 4: Create Marketing Materials that Educate

Step 5: Advertising, Referrals and Public Relations: Your Lead Generation Trio!

Step 6: Website that works 24/7 - Email Marketing

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Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

Step 4: Create Marketing Materials that Educate

Getting back to our series, we’re at Step5.  In order to have a strong marketing foundation, you need to make place for the mighty trio sure to generate leads:

ADVERTISING - REFERRALS - PUBLIC RELATIONS

From John Jantch’s great article on this, where he introduces the 3 C’s - cost, credibility, and control:

• Advertising - potential high cost, often lower credibility, high, in fact ultimate, control - turn the ad on and off when you choose - control is the best part about advertising, you can launch a promotion on the day you want or need more leads and then turn it back down when you don’t
• Public Relations - cost can be low, credibility is high - often a tiny mention in a publication can bring more leads than a full page ad in the same publication - readers love the third party endorsement, control can be low - you can’t really dictate when and if you will get any pub
• Referrals - again, cost can be very low, credibility a little dependent on the source of referral but often high, control also out of your hands and based on your ability to educate sources properly.

In terms of advertising and promotion, there is a place for both traditional offline efforts as well as the contemporary online presence.  Depending on your type of business, your mix may vary in percentages to how much effort you spend in traditional offline vs. online.  I will challenge you to consider an online presence, even if your first thought is “oh, in our industry, we’re still old school.”  If your customers are online looking for your solution, and they don’t find you, then you’ve lost the game.  If you wish to understand how to get online, enroll for our 4-session marketing course for only $99!  We originally were going to start it this month, but because of schedules and upcoming holidays, we decided to launch it the first week in January.  To get online in ‘09, go here!

Public relations encompasses alot of things.  You need to think strategically about how you want your customers to perceive you - what do you want them to know about you.  It’s got to be authentic.  Don’t make a big show about being green, but when people really dig around on you, your trash in in the back is full of paper that could have been recycled.  Authenticity is critical.  Employee creative promotions that highlight, authentically, what you are about, your values, your personality.  Use online news releases to make news of anything and everything!   David Meerman Scott’s an excellent resource for understanding the “new rules of marketing and pr” - click here to download.

When thinking of referrals, think about two groups.  First, there are loyal customers who want to refer you.  Make it easy for them to do so, instructing them even in how you want them to do it.  Consider, too, if you need to reward them for doing so (cash, discounts, unique access to special products and services).  Secondly, think about strategic partners who you can devise a system of give-n-take.  A plumber may want to work up a relationship with other contractors who can become your strongest advocate when they are in the homes of their clients.  An automotive repair shop may wish to cultivate a strong relationship with a local tire dealer.  When people come to the tire store and needing unique car repair that the tire shop is not equipped to handle, the first thing a customer of theirs is likely to ask is, “do you know any good mechanic?”  In return, when someone at a repair shop needs tires (providing you don’t provide them yourself), consistently refer your customers to this tire shop.

NEXT UP - Step 6 - Automate and Dominate: making your website and email marketing work for you 24/7!

- Randy Vaughn - Fort Worth’s Only DUCT TAPE MARKETING Authorized Coach

.
 In order now:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

Step 4: Create Marketing Materials that Educate

Step 5: Advertising, Referrals and Public Relations: Your Lead Generation Trio!

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If you need to get online in ‘09, you’ll want to enroll for a 4-session marketing coaching series on social media - learn how to more effectively connect with your customers and prospects (who are already online wondering where you are!)

* Would you like an early enrollment discount?

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My favorite observation from David is that we should “clearly and simply articulate what you want people to believe.”

From the beginning, Obama was about “change.” The word “change” was everywhere in his campaign, so much that the entire world knew what Obama stood for. I asked a group of 300 people in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia what was the one word they think of when I say Barack Obama and all in the room said “CHANGE”.

If you have any thoughts on what small biz can learn from Obama’s marketing campaign, share them in the comments.

But what about McCain, Huck, Edwards, Hillary, Mitt .  .  . did you notice anything from them that worked?  Obviously they weren’t the winners, but perhaps there are nuggets of brilliance across the board.  What did you notice?

-Randy

Since social media is so critical nowadays, and an obvious tool in O’s strategy, enroll by Friday to get the “early registration discount” for a online social media marketing workshop starting Nov 19!   How much would it cost you if you DON’T get online this coming year?   I think you’ll be surprised at the registration fee for this 4-session online workshop.

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Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

When people come inspecting your product or checking out your service, what do they find?  Is it easy to understand what you do, how you do it, and how you do it differently than everyone else?  I liken it to visiting a foreign land or a favorite national point of interest and having a great tour guide (you know, the REALLY good ones!)  From the minute you sign up, you are captivated by what is shared, you learn some remarkably new things you didn’t know before, and it typically leaves you wanting more (and maybe inspired to leave a good tip!)  So when people read your marketing materials, either in print or online, what is their experience going to be?  Will they be informed and inspired?   Who better to give Step 4 than the man himself, John Jantsch, creator and found of Duct Tape Marketing:

Step 4:  Create Marketing Materials that Educate

Time To Move Up From the Worn-Out Sales Brochure

By John Jantsch (reprinted with permission)

I got another one of those calls the other day…”Can you make me a brochure?” Many business owners have been sold on the notion that they need a tri-fold brochure or they are not in business. Forget it…everybody’s got one and no one uses it.

Your potential clients need an education. They need to know how you are different. (The typical tri-fold brochure simply confirms that you are the same.)

Every small business should create the following pieces of information and format them in a way that allows them be printed inexpensively and updated often. I like to call this approach, the Marketing Kit. Your marketing kit starts with several professionally printed pieces that are the framework for up to 10 or 12 different educational documents. The core components are:

1. A pocket folder - A multi-use workhorse, this piece alone, if designed well, can send the message that you are in business to stay. (This one will cost a little but it has many uses).

2. A marketing kit template page - This should be a professionally printed piece that carries your logo and contact information but is different than your letterhead. This is the base piece for the pages described below that insert into your pocket folder. (Your actual marketing files can be MSWord type documents that are laser printed. This gives you the ability to change and update your content and also allows you to tailor your marketing kit content to specific prospects.)

Some combination of the following pages should be created for your marketing kit.

+ The Difference Page - Hit them with how you are different and shower them with benefits of doing business with you. Don’t tell them what you do. I like to keep this one to the top 3 or 4 things that you do that your target market will value. Think benefits that are unique. Now take each core difference and tell the reader in greater detail why and how that difference is important

+ A list of services/products - Okay, now tell them what you do or what you offer.

+ Case Studies - Pick representative clients or industries and outline how your product or service solved someone else’s challenge. People learn in different ways and case studies allow them to see themselves getting relief. I think this format works well. State the situation, the problem, your solution, the result. Over time you can collect more and more of these and draw upon the ones that fit an industry or problem that in relevant to your prospect.

+ Testimonials - Get quotes from real live clients and create a page titled - “See what others have to say about us.” These quotes can be some of the strongest selling tools you have. New technologies make it easy to create audio and video testimonials too.

+ Client List - In some cases, just simply listing who else you do business with can present a compelling case.

+ Process Description - Show them how you do what you do. Create detailed checklist and flow charts that show them how you keep your promise. In many cases you have these anyway but by making them part of your marketing you can demonstrate how much more professional your organization is. These also help you justify why you charge a premium for your services. Many people underestimate how much really goes into delivering a quality product or service. So show them.

+ Your Story - Many companies have interesting or even gut wrenching histories. Tell them your story in an open, honest, and entertaining way and you will win their hearts as well as their heads.

*RANDY’S NOTE:  I hope you are seeing as well how what John suggests in print form can be easily (and less expensively) uploaded to your website - whether in the form of viewable PDFs (people download and read later if they want), or in specific pages on your website (great for SEO content).  Make sure your wesbite tells more than just what you do, when you are open and a map to your location.  Inspire and inform!

For more on creating marketing materials that educate, go here.

NEXT UP - Step 5:  Advertising, Referrals and Public Relations: Your Lead Generation Trio!

- Randy Vaughn - Fort Worth’s Only DUCT TAPE MARKETING Authorized Coach

.
 In order now:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

Step 4: Create Marketing Materials that Educate

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As mentioned, here’s a couple of resources you might be interested in:

GOOGLE ALERTS:

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, blogs, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

______________

EMAIL MARKETING:



If you’re not getting permission from your customers and prospects to send them information via email, step it up and start collecting email addresses! NOW!

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AUDIO ACROBAT:



This is a cool tool for audio blogging or creating a comment line where customers can tell people what a great job you did or what a great product/service you have - and then you can post it on your website (better than a written testimony).

______________

CREATE YOUR MARKETING PLAN!:



If you need assistance with creating a strong marketing plan, powered by the sound and systematic principles of Duct Tape Marketing, you need to get Marketing Plan Pro! Right now, get $25 off - normally $180! As a Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach in Fort Worth, I am available for coaching your through the implementation of your marketing plan - contact us and let us know how we can alleviate the frustration of marketing - marketing can be really simple, effective, and very affordable!

- Randy & Donny

themarketingtwins@1429creative.com

______________

Are you ready to meet your customers online? (Hint: they are there waiting on you!) GET ONLINE IN ‘09!

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To read the previous post(s) in this series, start here:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

There are two elements to consider when you are dealing with packaging in your marketing system.  The most obvious is whether your bottle of shampoo is white or blue, nor is it about whether you call yourselves Joe’s Plumbing or Joe’s Household Services.

It is important to determine the color, shape, or size of your packaging.  In light of Step 2 on differentiation, if your product is competing on the store shelf, at the trade show display, or competing online just a click away from a competitor, the packaging is critical.  As we know, we often are vying for our customer’s attention on the spot!  Here’s an article that offers 10 ideas for closing the impulse sale.

But another important aspect of packaging that is often overlooked , especially by those of you who don’t offer a widget on a shelf.  Services can be packaged with the same creativity.  John Jantsch, creator of Duct Tape Marketing, says:

The whole idea is to create something much bigger than just, say, providing accounting.

You are really selling more than accounting, plumbing, or dentistry.  You are selling the experience people can have with you.  They are looking to buy conveniences or unique features or premium level services.  Why just offer accounting services when you can offer “premium level” opportunities for those willing and wanting to pay more for it!

You differentiate yourself (step 2) and target your specific segments (step 1) with the kinds of products and services that YOUR ideal customer is looking for … and willing to pay extra to get!

Here’s a good example for those selling tangible products - notice of the 3 packaged offerings, which one is already SOLD OUT (at the time of this writing)!

For those selling services in different packages, here’s a good example for you.

NEXT UP - Step 4:  Create Marketing Materials that Educate

- Randy Vaughn - Fort Worth’s Only DUCT TAPE MARKETING Authorized Coach

.
In order now:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

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Check back Monday for the next in the series on Duct Tape Marketing:  Step 3: Packaging Your Product!

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To read the previous post(s) in this series, start here:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus
In this series, we are exploring essential ways to achieve marketing success.  This series is based on the extremely popular Duct Tape Marketing systematic approach to marketing.

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

One of my favorite exercises I learned from John Jantsch, author of the best marketing blog, was to test your marketing materials for “sameness.”  For example, peruse the local paper or go online to a shoe shop.  What are often the 3 most popular headlines they claim?

We have the best prices in town.

We have the best quality in town.

We offer the friendliest customer service in town.

You see the problem.  If 2 shoe stores in town are offering virtually the same shoes, how’s a customer to choose?  What would it mean if Store #2 decided to change their website or ad next week to read:

We offer FREE polish on any men’s dress shoes ANY time you need it!

We are the only shoe store in town to sell the popular FOOTRITE brand of shoes! 

We offer 10% discounts to all teachers in the Heelwood ISD!

These distinctions are not random.  Go back to Step 1 (Narrow Your Market Focus) and make sure your unique offerings appeal to your target market(s).  Another tool of communicating your uniqueness tailored to your target market is to work on your “talking logo.”  I’ll let fellow Duct Tape Marketing coach Jeff Paro tell you about this! This takes some work but when you have just a few seconds, this helps you articulate your differences right away.

HOMEWORK?  ADVANCED READING ASSIGNMENTS!

For a more thorough discussion of how to beat the competition by differentiating yourself, read what I wrote a few months ago on this very subject.  I also looked at other ways in which you can stand out in a crowd by offering a few distinct differences.

NEXT UP - Step 3: Packaging Your Product for the Most Powerful Punch (ok, enough P’s already!)

- Randy Vaughn - Fort Worth’s Only DUCT TAPE MARKETING Authorized Coach

.
In order now:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

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CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO OPEN AUDIO PLAYER:

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