This post is a follow-up to my last one. I was not implying that making money is a bad thing, I was implying that GREED is a bad thing that has created the mess our American economy is now in. Read on for my guest post. Larry Winget rants about making money.
I got in a discussion with some friends of mine this week over the topic of money. I commented about the people who write me and others in the “money” business about how we have become way too focused on money. Many write me to say that my books and some of the other books that are also very popular are more about greed than anything else. Can you believe what people will say? I actually do get these kinds of letters. It seems that when you tell people to be as successful as they can be and to earn as much money as they can earn then you are considered greedy and money hungry. Tell people to live up to their potential and then get put down for doing it. Amazing, huh? These folks tell me they are offended by my constant focus on success.
I recently got a letter from a woman who told me it was more important for her to spend time with her kids than to be out “becoming more successful and rich. ”Holy CRAP! I will bet you this woman who “talks” about how important her kids are spends the bulk of her time sitting on her fat ass watching TV (maybe with them) and doesn’t have a dime saved for their college education. Unfair? Maybe. She might be a wonderful mommy who really does spend time with her kids and if she is, I applaud her and apologize for my generalization.
But never shake your finger in my face telling me how altruistic you are and talk about how success is NOT about money. Success is about money. The Peace Corp - Habitat For Humanity - The Red Cross – The Salvation Army – the Susan G. Komen Foundation – and my personal charity of choice, Feed The Children. All of those charities are about money. Money drives every charity. Money builds hospitals and homeless shelters and habitat houses. Money fights cancer. Money feeds those children.
(Warning: these next few paragraphs will possibly offend some of my more sensitive readers! HA!)
Money also builds churches. It even builds the churches for those pious, small-minded people who belittle the rest of the world for focusing too much on money. Ouch! Yep, I slammed the church folks! I did a radio show last week where I was being interviewed about debt. A guy called in and told me that while my ideas were good I had left out Jesus. I said, “What???” He said, “ As long as you keep your hand in the hand of Jesus, you will be fine.” I asked him if he was in debt. ”Yes.” I asked him if he was in trouble financially. ”Yes.” I asked him if he spent more money than he earned. ”Yes.” I asked him if he was behind on his credit card payments. “Yes.” I said, “When you reached for your credit card last time you were at the mall, I guess you had to let go of Jesus’s hand to do it, didn’t you? Let’s not involve Jesus in your stupidity! Jesus didn’t make you spend more money than you earn. Jesus doesn’t get the blame for that one. You did that all on your own!” Let one of these good folks get in trouble financially because they spent more than they should or bought too much house or can’t make their payments and they want Jesus to bail ‘em out. Drop to your knees and beg God to help you out of your financial problems! Oh yeah, that makes sense. I consider that a huge insult to God. I know that God will forgive you for your stupidity and your insult. I won’t, but God will, and that’s the difference between God and me. I think begging God to bail you out of your stupidity when you KNEW you were being stupid is a slap in the face to God! While I have no idea what God would say or even if She would say anything, I would speculate (and hope) that God might say, “You got yourself in this mess and you can get yourself out of this mess.”
So for all the pious who call me and the others who consider it our OBLIGATION to earn as much money as we possibly can, I want to ask you: What paid for that building you call your church? What pays for the missionaries your denomination sends to “save the souls” of the people in foreign countries? What paid for that church pew your big butt sits on? What paid for the Bibles and hymnals and ………okay, I’m tired of this. MONEY paid for all of it. MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!!!!!
Whew! I feel better!
Back to my original question. Why do you work? I know why I work. I work for the money. Period. I recently gave a speech where the president of the company approached me when I was finished and said how lucky I was to be able to experience my passion like that. I asked him what he was talking about. He said, “Your speech. That is your passion, it’s obvious.” I said, “Thanks but that speech is NOT my passion. That speech is my JOB. I am really good at my job and I’m glad you enjoyed me doing my job, but what you just witnessed is anything BUT my passion. I enjoy it but I’m not passionate about giving speeches.” He was incredulous. I told him my passion was my wife, my boys, my bulldogs and my free time. I told him I was passionate about sitting on my back patio with a glass of fine scotch in my left hand, a great cigar in my right hand, my bulldog Ralph on my lap, my wife by my side, watching the sun go down over the mountain while Willie Nelson plays in the background. That is something I can get passionate about. The rest is work. I do what I do for the money. I do what I do to pay for the life I love. I do what I do to finance as many nights sitting on my patio as I can get. That is why I work.
Why do you work? If it isn’t for the money - you are a liar. Yes, you may find what you do extremely satisfying. Yes, you may love it. But if the money wasn’t there, you couldn’t survive on satisfaction and love - you would need to go do something less satisfying that you didn’t love so you could get paid. While I love what I do, if I didn’t get paid well for doing it, I could fall in love with something else that did pay well.
I am tired of people pretending that money doesn’t matter when it comes to work. It is the ONLY thing that matters when it comes to work. And the way to make more money from your work is to be better at what you do. The better you serve others, the better others serve you. . .with their money. It all ties together: Service is tied to money. Charity is tied to money. Excellence is tied to money. Why does bringing money into the equation make it dirty for some people?
Money is the result of serving people well. Serving people is an honorable thing. Money is the result of hard work. Hard work is honorable. Having money is a wonderful thing in your life. It pays for college for your kids. It pays for healthcare when you and the people you love get sick. It takes care of your mom and dad when they get old and need help. It feeds the homeless and helps those who are less fortunate. It pays your taxes to build roads and provide fire and police protection. It is to be appreciated, saved, invested, and ENJOYED.
Yes, it is okay to earn money and then enjoy it! Live up to your means - not beyond your means - but up to them. I read a posting this week on Amazon where a guy who hates me, hates my books and was kicked off my blog here for hating all of you, made fun of me for having so many pairs of cowboy boots and for selling bobbleheads. He said I was sitting a poor example for spending money on things I didn’t need and for selling things that other people don’t need. What a frigging idiot this guy is! I can’t wait for the People Are Idiots book to come out to see what he says about that one. I should have dedicated it to this moron. There is no shame in working hard for your money, investing it, saving it, paying your obligations and then ENJOYING the rest in any way you see fit. You are HELPING the economy by doing so. Besides, it is WHY you WORK HARD! Enjoying your money is your reward. As for selling bobbleheads - I really wanted my own bobblehead. I only wanted one but I had to order a thousand in order for me to get ONE. I got my one, then sent my Mom one and didn’t have room to store the rest so I decided to see if anyone else wanted the rest of them. They did. They are all now sold. If people choose to enjoy their money by having a bobblehead of me on their desk, then it isn’t my fault. And yeah, I made a buck of two doing it! Good for me.
Bottom line. Money is important. If you don’t think it is important, try going without it for a while. You won’t last long. Want more of it? Work harder to serve others! Money is your reward for doing that. (Go buy You’re Broke Because You Want To Be for more ideas!)
Okay, that’s my rant and I’m sticking to it!
Larry Winget - Award Winning Speaker, Best Selling Author & TV Personality. Find him at http://larrywinget.net/blog
Showing posts with label Guest Posts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guest Posts. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Twenty Keys To Success
This guest post is by Jay Conrad Levinson. He speaks about marketing ideas I have been blogging about for years. Somehow when he talks about these ideas folks seem to listen. I'm not saying they don't listen to me, they do. I have the small business market in my area, he on the other hand, has all of the small-business market. Okay, enough chatter, hope you enjoy his marketing wisdom as much as I do.
In some of my past "Guerrilla Marketing" books, I've presented 100 different marketing weapons, and then advised readers to be aware of all 100, try many of them, and eliminate those which did not prove their efficacy on the front lines. In my most recent books, "Guerrilla Marketing Start-up Guide," which I co-authored with my wife, Jeannie, and "Guerrilla Marketing Fourth Edition," I've written about 200 guerrilla marketing weapons. My next book will delve into details of those weapons.
In this article I'm listing the twenty most crucial marketing tactics, urging you to be aware of all of them, then try every single one of them and keep trying them. They're all going to work for you and we don't even have to get into that silly conversation about getting a bang for your buck.
This article is about the bang but not about the buck. These are the twenty tactics, out of a full 120 described in my book, "Guerrilla Marketing for Free," which are the most crucial for you to understand.
1. Marketing Plan
It only has to have six sentences listing your purpose in marketing, prime benefits, target audiences, marketing weapons, niche, and identity.
2. Marketing Calendar
Determine your marketing for the next 12 months. For each month, list your marketing thrust, media, and results. Improve it at the end of the year based on results.
3. Name of Company
Bad names are hard to spell, pronounce, remember, and believe. All the others are good names. Your job: select any one of the good names and none of the bad ones.
4. Niche
The Madison Avenue buzzword for this is "positioning." Your niche is what you stand for, what makes you different; the first thought you want to enter your prospect's mind.
5. Benefits List
This is a simple list of all the benefits that you offer, not only your main benefits. It will serve as ammo for those who will create your marketing. It's no time to be modest.
6. Research Studies
Your best research comes from questionnaires that you prepare, asking lots of questions to your customers. Analyzing it, you'll learn exactly who should be your target market.
7. Quality
Quality is the price of admission for doing business in the 21st Century. Quality is not what you put into your offering, but what customers get out of it. Of course it's job #1.
8. Designated Guerrilla
Someone has to ride herd over your marketing program. If you're too busy, delegate it to another guerrilla, in your company or out. The best designated guerrilla is always you.
9. Competitive Advantages
Here is where you hang your marketing hat. Your competitors may offer the same benefits as you, so differentiate yourself and stress a competitive advantage.
10. Networking
Join a group of prospects, not peers, then ask questions, listen to answers, take notes, contact who you met, and gauge your success by business cards you got, not gave.
11. Elevator Pitch
If you had a mere ten seconds to tell what you do for a living, what would you say to make the asker want to learn more about you? Tha answer is your elevator pitch.
12. "A" List Customers
All customers are not created equal. Some buy more, refer more, are easier to deal with, and keep coming back. Treat your "B" list customers like royalty, your "A" list like family.
13. Past Success Stories
Everything right that you've done in the past is another weapon in your marketing arsenal. Lean upon these tales in your marketing because prospects need signs of your success.
14. Service
The only definition of service that makes sense these days is that it's anything the customer wants it to be and not what you have been doing in the past. Be clear on that.
15. Email
It gets higher response rates than snail mail, is less intrusive, does not destroy rainforests, and doesn't even need a stamp. Truly, it's the brightest star in cyberspace.
16. Guarantee
People expect it but you've still got to stress it. The longer your guarantee, the more enticing it will be and yet the fewer people will ever ask for refunds. Ain't that sweet?
17. Follow-up
Nearly 70 percent of business that is lost is due not to poor service or shabby quality, but because of apathy after the sale. The opposite of apathy is follow-up. Follow-up rocks!
18. Free Consultations
It's hard to say yes to the offer of a free sales presentation, but simple to say yes to the offer of a free one-hour consultation. During that hour, don't sell. Prove your expertise.
19. Speaking at Clubs
Many local clubs will be delighted for you to speak to them for free. Just speak for 30 minutes and don't make a sales presentation. Instead, demonstrate that you're The Man.
20. Customer Mailing List
It's worth more than its weight in platinum, especially if it is bulging with information about each customer. It's free to compile such a list and insane not to. A real duh.
In some of my past "Guerrilla Marketing" books, I've presented 100 different marketing weapons, and then advised readers to be aware of all 100, try many of them, and eliminate those which did not prove their efficacy on the front lines. In my most recent books, "Guerrilla Marketing Start-up Guide," which I co-authored with my wife, Jeannie, and "Guerrilla Marketing Fourth Edition," I've written about 200 guerrilla marketing weapons. My next book will delve into details of those weapons.
In this article I'm listing the twenty most crucial marketing tactics, urging you to be aware of all of them, then try every single one of them and keep trying them. They're all going to work for you and we don't even have to get into that silly conversation about getting a bang for your buck.
This article is about the bang but not about the buck. These are the twenty tactics, out of a full 120 described in my book, "Guerrilla Marketing for Free," which are the most crucial for you to understand.
1. Marketing Plan
It only has to have six sentences listing your purpose in marketing, prime benefits, target audiences, marketing weapons, niche, and identity.
2. Marketing Calendar
Determine your marketing for the next 12 months. For each month, list your marketing thrust, media, and results. Improve it at the end of the year based on results.
3. Name of Company
Bad names are hard to spell, pronounce, remember, and believe. All the others are good names. Your job: select any one of the good names and none of the bad ones.
4. Niche
The Madison Avenue buzzword for this is "positioning." Your niche is what you stand for, what makes you different; the first thought you want to enter your prospect's mind.
5. Benefits List
This is a simple list of all the benefits that you offer, not only your main benefits. It will serve as ammo for those who will create your marketing. It's no time to be modest.
6. Research Studies
Your best research comes from questionnaires that you prepare, asking lots of questions to your customers. Analyzing it, you'll learn exactly who should be your target market.
7. Quality
Quality is the price of admission for doing business in the 21st Century. Quality is not what you put into your offering, but what customers get out of it. Of course it's job #1.
8. Designated Guerrilla
Someone has to ride herd over your marketing program. If you're too busy, delegate it to another guerrilla, in your company or out. The best designated guerrilla is always you.
9. Competitive Advantages
Here is where you hang your marketing hat. Your competitors may offer the same benefits as you, so differentiate yourself and stress a competitive advantage.
10. Networking
Join a group of prospects, not peers, then ask questions, listen to answers, take notes, contact who you met, and gauge your success by business cards you got, not gave.
11. Elevator Pitch
If you had a mere ten seconds to tell what you do for a living, what would you say to make the asker want to learn more about you? Tha answer is your elevator pitch.
12. "A" List Customers
All customers are not created equal. Some buy more, refer more, are easier to deal with, and keep coming back. Treat your "B" list customers like royalty, your "A" list like family.
13. Past Success Stories
Everything right that you've done in the past is another weapon in your marketing arsenal. Lean upon these tales in your marketing because prospects need signs of your success.
14. Service
The only definition of service that makes sense these days is that it's anything the customer wants it to be and not what you have been doing in the past. Be clear on that.
15. Email
It gets higher response rates than snail mail, is less intrusive, does not destroy rainforests, and doesn't even need a stamp. Truly, it's the brightest star in cyberspace.
16. Guarantee
People expect it but you've still got to stress it. The longer your guarantee, the more enticing it will be and yet the fewer people will ever ask for refunds. Ain't that sweet?
17. Follow-up
Nearly 70 percent of business that is lost is due not to poor service or shabby quality, but because of apathy after the sale. The opposite of apathy is follow-up. Follow-up rocks!
18. Free Consultations
It's hard to say yes to the offer of a free sales presentation, but simple to say yes to the offer of a free one-hour consultation. During that hour, don't sell. Prove your expertise.
19. Speaking at Clubs
Many local clubs will be delighted for you to speak to them for free. Just speak for 30 minutes and don't make a sales presentation. Instead, demonstrate that you're The Man.
20. Customer Mailing List
It's worth more than its weight in platinum, especially if it is bulging with information about each customer. It's free to compile such a list and insane not to. A real duh.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Commitment - Guest Post By Jay Conrad Levinson
This guest post brings home the true meaning of what it takes when you engage in marketing your business. Happy Marketing Week!
If you're not committed to a marketing or advertising program, it's probably not going to work for you. I tell clients that the single most important word for them to remember during the time they are engaged in marketing is commitment. It means that they are taking the marketing job seriously. They're not playing around, not expecting miracles. They have scant funds to test their marketing yet they must act. Without commitment marketing becomes practically impotent.
You evolve a marketing plan, revise and re-revise it until it is a powerful plan for your purposes. You put it to work and stay with it no matter what (in most cases). You watch it slowly take effect, rise and falter, take a bit more effect, slide back a bit, start taking hold even more, stumble, then finally grab on and soar, taking you with it. Your plan is working, your cash register is ringing; your bank balance is swelling. And this is because you were committed to your marketing program.
If you're not committed to a marketing or advertising program, it's probably not going to work for you. I tell clients that the single most important word for them to remember during the time they are engaged in marketing is commitment. It means that they are taking the marketing job seriously. They're not playing around, not expecting miracles. They have scant funds to test their marketing yet they must act. Without commitment marketing becomes practically impotent.
You evolve a marketing plan, revise and re-revise it until it is a powerful plan for your purposes. You put it to work and stay with it no matter what (in most cases). You watch it slowly take effect, rise and falter, take a bit more effect, slide back a bit, start taking hold even more, stumble, then finally grab on and soar, taking you with it. Your plan is working, your cash register is ringing; your bank balance is swelling. And this is because you were committed to your marketing program.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Guest Post
By Jay Conrad Levinson
Author, "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books
If your marketing is right, but your timing is wrong, watch out. Even the best-laid plans go awry when the timing is off. Here's how to prevent that. Sometimes a company actively markets the right product or service to the right people in the right media. But the marketing turns out to be a flop all because of poor timing. In order to get the most mileage from your marketing, you've got to be keenly attuned to the right times and the wrong times. To gain a bit of insight, consider these ten examples:
1. You've created the perfect mailing package, but it arrives too early in the week, when your prospect is thinking of the week ahead -- or too late, when your prospect is thinking of the upcoming weekend. Moral: See to it that your mailing arrives on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
2. You've got a fine product but a limited budget and a lot of competition. What to do? Do your marketing when your competitors have eased up and you can gain the largest share of mind with the smallest marketing investment. Maybe that will be during what are deemed the slow months. But it's when you can attract the most attention the fastest.
3. Everybody receives Christmas catalogs in September and October. If you sent yours during July or August, you'd get people thinking of your company then and later on as well. It's may sound a bit crazy, but if you explain why you are mailing at that time, it will make sense to your prospects. Naturally, this applies to times other than Christmas.
4. You keep abreast of current events by watching the tube, reading the paper, accessing online news services, perusing newsweeklies, and subscribing to publications within your industry and community. You should be doing this, and if you do, you can tie in your offerings with what is happening at that moment in history. A recession is ugly except to companies that realize it is an ideal opportunity for them to make sales.
5. Be careful not to launch your marketing too soon. One of the most common errors in marketing is to promote before all the bugs have been worked out, before the salespeople know all the facts, and before you are ready to fill the flood of orders and engage in guerrilla follow-up. Remember that patience is a guerrilla virtue.
6. One of the saddest moments in marketing is the snazzy newspaper story or bigtime TV report about the products or services that are not yet available. The business owner is so enthralled at the thought of free publicity that the news is released before people can buy what he or she offers. They won't come back another time, and the media won't give you another splash. Restraint is necessary even with free news coverage.
7. Savvy retailers wait at least one month before having their grand openings. If they don't wait, customers will come flocking in to become acquainted with untrained salespeople, poorly stocked shelves, slow delivery times, clumsy sales procedures and messy surroundings. Polish these items to perfection before your grand opening or it won't be so grand. Guerrillas are rarely in hurry.
8. Telemarketing calls that don't get through or that reach answering devices are wastes of time and money. Find out when your prospects are most likely to be at the phone, and then do your telemarketing. It may be at 11:00 a.m. to businesses and 6:30 p.m. to homeowners. The first goal of a phone call is to reach the prospect.
9. Use speed in the timing you use to deal with customer requests, orders, questions and complaints. People revere their time these days more than ever. Revere it with them and never waste one minute of theirs.
10. Never be in a rush to create your marketing materials. Keep in mind that to develop them, you are faced with three variables -- speed, quality and economy. You may select any two, but not all three. Guerrillas opt for quality and economy every time. Timing also refers to tying in with the news of the moment, with what's on your prospect's minds, and with what your competitors are doing. Guerrilla timing can make the difference between a campaign fizzling or flourishing.
Author, "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books
If your marketing is right, but your timing is wrong, watch out. Even the best-laid plans go awry when the timing is off. Here's how to prevent that. Sometimes a company actively markets the right product or service to the right people in the right media. But the marketing turns out to be a flop all because of poor timing. In order to get the most mileage from your marketing, you've got to be keenly attuned to the right times and the wrong times. To gain a bit of insight, consider these ten examples:
1. You've created the perfect mailing package, but it arrives too early in the week, when your prospect is thinking of the week ahead -- or too late, when your prospect is thinking of the upcoming weekend. Moral: See to it that your mailing arrives on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
2. You've got a fine product but a limited budget and a lot of competition. What to do? Do your marketing when your competitors have eased up and you can gain the largest share of mind with the smallest marketing investment. Maybe that will be during what are deemed the slow months. But it's when you can attract the most attention the fastest.
3. Everybody receives Christmas catalogs in September and October. If you sent yours during July or August, you'd get people thinking of your company then and later on as well. It's may sound a bit crazy, but if you explain why you are mailing at that time, it will make sense to your prospects. Naturally, this applies to times other than Christmas.
4. You keep abreast of current events by watching the tube, reading the paper, accessing online news services, perusing newsweeklies, and subscribing to publications within your industry and community. You should be doing this, and if you do, you can tie in your offerings with what is happening at that moment in history. A recession is ugly except to companies that realize it is an ideal opportunity for them to make sales.
5. Be careful not to launch your marketing too soon. One of the most common errors in marketing is to promote before all the bugs have been worked out, before the salespeople know all the facts, and before you are ready to fill the flood of orders and engage in guerrilla follow-up. Remember that patience is a guerrilla virtue.
6. One of the saddest moments in marketing is the snazzy newspaper story or bigtime TV report about the products or services that are not yet available. The business owner is so enthralled at the thought of free publicity that the news is released before people can buy what he or she offers. They won't come back another time, and the media won't give you another splash. Restraint is necessary even with free news coverage.
7. Savvy retailers wait at least one month before having their grand openings. If they don't wait, customers will come flocking in to become acquainted with untrained salespeople, poorly stocked shelves, slow delivery times, clumsy sales procedures and messy surroundings. Polish these items to perfection before your grand opening or it won't be so grand. Guerrillas are rarely in hurry.
8. Telemarketing calls that don't get through or that reach answering devices are wastes of time and money. Find out when your prospects are most likely to be at the phone, and then do your telemarketing. It may be at 11:00 a.m. to businesses and 6:30 p.m. to homeowners. The first goal of a phone call is to reach the prospect.
9. Use speed in the timing you use to deal with customer requests, orders, questions and complaints. People revere their time these days more than ever. Revere it with them and never waste one minute of theirs.
10. Never be in a rush to create your marketing materials. Keep in mind that to develop them, you are faced with three variables -- speed, quality and economy. You may select any two, but not all three. Guerrillas opt for quality and economy every time. Timing also refers to tying in with the news of the moment, with what's on your prospect's minds, and with what your competitors are doing. Guerrilla timing can make the difference between a campaign fizzling or flourishing.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Have Patience In Marketing
Take a reality check to determine how clearly you understand what your prospects are thinking each time they look at your advertisement.
You take a leap of faith and contract to run a weekly ad in the local newspaper with a frequency of once a week for a full year. After five weeks, the results displease you so much that you cancel the contract.
Five ads in five weeks seems like a lot of frequency in marketing. Five exposures do, indeed, establish some momentum. But they don't even come close to create enough desire to motivate a sale. To truly comprehend how much frequency is enough to spark that sale, you've got to know just what your prospects think from each exposure. Here is exactly what each one thinks as he or she looks at the ad you've run:
1. The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
2. The second time, he does not notice it.
3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
5. The fifth time, he reads it.
6. The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
7. The seventh time, he reads it through and says, "Oh brother!"
8. The eighth time, he says, "Here's that confounded thing again!"
9. The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
10. The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13. The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
14. The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
17. The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.
The list you've just read was written by Thomas Smith of London in l885.
But here we are beginning a new millennium, so how much of that list is valid right now, today? The answer is all of it.
Savvy business owners know that the single most important element of superb marketing is commitment to a focused plan. Do you think commitment is easy to maintain after an ad has run nineteen times and nobody is buying? It's not easy. But smart marketers have the coolness to hang in there because they know how to get into a prospect's unconsciousness, where most purchase decisions are made. They know it takes repetition. This knowledge fuels their commitment. Anyhow, they never thought it was going to be easy.
You take a leap of faith and contract to run a weekly ad in the local newspaper with a frequency of once a week for a full year. After five weeks, the results displease you so much that you cancel the contract.
Five ads in five weeks seems like a lot of frequency in marketing. Five exposures do, indeed, establish some momentum. But they don't even come close to create enough desire to motivate a sale. To truly comprehend how much frequency is enough to spark that sale, you've got to know just what your prospects think from each exposure. Here is exactly what each one thinks as he or she looks at the ad you've run:
1. The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
2. The second time, he does not notice it.
3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
5. The fifth time, he reads it.
6. The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
7. The seventh time, he reads it through and says, "Oh brother!"
8. The eighth time, he says, "Here's that confounded thing again!"
9. The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
10. The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13. The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
14. The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
17. The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.
The list you've just read was written by Thomas Smith of London in l885.
But here we are beginning a new millennium, so how much of that list is valid right now, today? The answer is all of it.
Savvy business owners know that the single most important element of superb marketing is commitment to a focused plan. Do you think commitment is easy to maintain after an ad has run nineteen times and nobody is buying? It's not easy. But smart marketers have the coolness to hang in there because they know how to get into a prospect's unconsciousness, where most purchase decisions are made. They know it takes repetition. This knowledge fuels their commitment. Anyhow, they never thought it was going to be easy.
Friday, February 09, 2007
How To Be Creative
I should have posted this around the time I put his daily cartoon on this blog, well I'm on it now. His name is Hugh MacLeod, check out his manifesto, How To Be Creative. He's a marketing guy from London who draws cartoons on the back of business cards. I think he's cool, you might too. Here is the web address for the manifesto.
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
"It's just business" by seth godin
Nope, actually...
"It's just life."
Anyone who is willing to lie to you, cheat you or treat you with disrespect because it's just business is doing more damage to herself than to you.
Work takes too much time and too much emotion for it to be just work. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want to spend time or money with anyone who has this particular attitude disfunction.
"It's just life."
Anyone who is willing to lie to you, cheat you or treat you with disrespect because it's just business is doing more damage to herself than to you.
Work takes too much time and too much emotion for it to be just work. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want to spend time or money with anyone who has this particular attitude disfunction.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Reinforcements (part 1) by Seth Godin
• Anticipated, personal, and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
• Share of wallet is easier, more profitable, and ultimately more effective a measure of success than share of market.
• Marketing begins before the product is created.
• Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
• Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
• Conversations among the people in your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
• Products that are remarkable inspire conversation.
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills, and your returns policy.
• You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And once they catch you, peple talk about the experience.
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
• People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
• Share of wallet is easier, more profitable, and ultimately more effective a measure of success than share of market.
• Marketing begins before the product is created.
• Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
• Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
• Conversations among the people in your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
• Products that are remarkable inspire conversation.
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills, and your returns policy.
• You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And once they catch you, peple talk about the experience.
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
• People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
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