Does Your Marketing Stand Up To This Simple Yet Effective Marketing Methodology?

I want you to think about this for a minute. In today’s oversaturated marketing world, you only have a few seconds to grab your prospect’s attention – let alone convince them to stick around for a minute and listen to the rest of what you’d like to say. So essentially, your marketing better be good or else you may be just throwing money into the wind. I hate to put it so harshly, but that’s the cold reality. And if you’re a small business, you probably can’t afford to waste any resources let alone money on ineffective marketing. So essentially whatever marketing you do do, has to bring results – it has to have an edge. For starters, you may want to get a clear understanding of both the demographics and psychographics of your target market. Demographic data such as income, age, and gender as well as psychographic data like values, attitudes, and lifestyles provide clarity and empower you to make better marketing decisions. These also play a very vital role in this simple yet effective marketing methodology that I’m going to share with you right now. Here goes, it’s simply: Deliver the 'Right Message', at the 'Right Time', to the 'Right Audience', using the 'Right Medium'. Let’s go ahead and break it down.

'Right Message'
Constructing effective marketing copy is a science among itself and too lengthy a discussion to have here in this conversation so I won’t go there right now. Just know that it’s a critical element to getting your message right and unless you have some education and experience in this area, it’s probably in your best interest to bring in an expert to help you. Regardless though, whether you are outsourcing your marketing or doing it yourself, make sure all your marketing materials can stand up to the ‘WIIFM’ or ‘What’s In It For Me’ test – where ‘Me’ stands for your ideal prospect in your target market. Now this test or rule of thumb goes for all of your marketing materials, whether online or offline, from your web site all the way to your business card, it must be all about ‘Me’, your ideal prospect, not you. I hate to be the one to tell you this but frankly, your prospect doesn’t care that much about you. They only care about what you can do for them. That’s harsh, I know, but once again that’s the cold reality.

'Right Time'
Now unless your product or service is seasonal, such as landscaping or holiday decorations, getting the timing right may be quite challenging. People tend to buy when the timing is right for them, not necessarily when we want them to buy. And sometimes there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to why they buy when the do.

So getting to know our ideal target market’s buying patterns as best as possible can be very helpful – hence psychographics and demographics. The easiest way to do this is probably just to ask a cross section of your target market until some buying patterns start to emerge. Find out what they want and when they want it. And yes we as marketers can attempt to persuade our target market that now is that right time to buy, however we can’t physically make them do anything they don’t want to do. So giving them what they want, when and how they want it as opposed to manipulating and forcing it upon them is marketing at its best, with integrity.

'Right Audience'
Can you clearly see a model of your ideal prospect in your mind’s eye? What do they look like? Where do they hang out? Are they hungry for and can afford what you’re offering? What problems does your product or service solve for them? Ask yourself these questions and more until you have clearly defined your ideal prospect from your target market.

'Right Medium'
Know enough about your target market to clearly understand how they want to be both marketed to and communicated with. Do they prefer email? Direct mail? Phone calls? Or any combination of those and/or other marketing mediums? If you’re not sure which medium to use, you can always ask your target market. Additionally, you can research what others who also market to your target market find as the most effective mediums for them. Just remember that whatever mediums you choose, make sure you measure and track the results for yourself – this way you really know what works based on your own experience.


So once again and in closing, remember, regardless of who is responsible for your marketing, make sure it delivers the 'Right Message', at the 'Right Time', to the 'Right Audience', using the 'Right Medium'. Apply this marketing methodology to all your marketing efforts and watch your results soar.


© 2006 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Liked this article? Want to use it in your eZine, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include this complete blurb with it (including links).

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, "The Motivational Marketer", is creator of the acclaimed 'Pumped Up Networking' system geared to explode your business through professional relationships.  To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.

Marketing Lessons Are Everywhere, So Will My Real Target Market Please Stand Up?!

You know what never ceases to amaze me? The fact that there are lessons to be learned from every experience we have in life. No matter how bad or abstract the experience may seem, I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason.

Some experiences may not directly be marketing lessons however the ripple effect that those initial experiences cause may be delivering them to you – you just have to train your eye to notice them.

Case in point: my recent car accident

Recently I was in a car accident and my doctor just as a precaution recommended that I get some x-rays taken – now don’t worry, I’m okay. Anyway, since x-rays aren’t something that I typically get or think about every day, I didn’t know of anyone who provided that service; so my doctor kindly recommended an x-ray provider to me. Now of course I gladly followed his referral and gave my business to the provider he recommended. Why? Because the referral came from a trusted advisor, my doctor. Over the years of serving me, he has clearly positioned himself to me as an expert and an authority figure on health. Additionally, he has established a lot of credibility with me.

Without his referral, I would have basically selected a provider based on my own preferences, prejudices, and filters – things such as their location, the fact that they take my insurance, they could give me an appointment when I wanted it, and even down to the what may seem more to some as silly, but very real criteria of liking the location, a cool business name, I’ve heard of them somewhere before, a cool website, intuition, etc. Now take note here that the referral superseded most of my very important conscious and subconscious criteria.

Are you beginning to see the power of all the different marketing lessons at work here? In this case study alone, we’ve got lessons on positioning, credibility, referrals and more – All of which are critical keys to effective marketing.

However there’s one key lesson that I’d like to drill down on a bit further here and that’s understanding and marketing yourself to your real target market. Let’s explore this further continuing with the x-ray provider as our model. Now if most people are like me, and I’m guessing they probably are, x-rays aren’t something that most people get or think about every day and so we typically would go wherever our doctor recommended to get them done. So if that’s the case and I’m an x-ray provider, wouldn’t it make sense to market to and align myself with other medical practices whose clients need my services? In essence, the x-ray provider’s target market is really other medical practices that could refer them not the actual patients they serve. However, they do need to make sure they deliver on the customer service side of the equation because believe me, if they don’t, there’s a good chance the referring doctor will hear about it. Negative feedback tends to travel much faster than positive feedback and negative feedback could stop those referrals in a hurry.


So in closing, valuable marketing lessons are everywhere – potentially saving us tons of wasted time, money, and anguish. We just need to tune in to and leverage those marketing lessons when available – no matter how subtle the lesson.

And let me leave you with one critical question – “Who is your real target market?” You may want to spend some time with that one as the success and health of your business highly depends on it.


© 2006 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Liked this article? Want to use it in your eZine, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include this complete blurb with it (including links):

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, "The Motivational Marketer", is creator of the acclaimed 'Pumped Up Networking' system geared to explode your business through professional relationships.  To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.

The 9 Simple Truths to Building an Unbreakable Relationship with Your Business Contacts

1. Do your homework
   With the arrival of the Internet in full force, it has never been easier to find out something about anyone. Just “Google” them, go ahead, type their name into Google and run a search. You’re bound to find out something you can use to help you bond with them. There’s nothing more flattering than when someone you meet with has obviously taken the time to learn a bit about you in advance.


2. Keep stellar records of interactions
   As business people we may make hundreds maybe even thousands of contacts each year making it all the more critical to keep good records. Today’s customer relationship management (CRM) software such as ACT! makes it real easy to effectively track interactions whether they are by email, meetings, or phone conversations. Now when we are about to resume conversations with someone we haven’t spoken to in a while, we can go back and see exactly where we left off.


3. Stay in touch
   There’s nothing worse than not following up with a new contact. You’ve gone through the process of meeting them, now what? Have a system for staying connected. Email marketing systems make this easier than ever. Although consistency is key here, be sure to make each contact purposeful and valuable to your contact.


4. Learn to listen
   We have the ability to hear but do we always listen intently when our contacts speak? If so, we probably wouldn’t forget their name within seconds after they tell us. Pay attention! Seek first to understand and then to be understood – not the other way around. Most of us are so busy trying to figure what to say next, that we don’t really listen to what the other person is saying.


5. Your word is gospel
   As a matter of fact, your word is all you have. It is gold, treat it as such. How? Be honest, it’s as simple as that. Abuse it with your contact, and you can damage your integrity and credibility with them, possibly forever.


6. Show respect
   Respect for your contact, their actions, beliefs and their time. This doesn’t mean you have to like it; you just need to respect it because it’s important to them. Nothing damages a relationship more than utter disrespect. This is even more reason to research your contact and find out what makes them tick. Hey, if you can avoid offending someone, why not do it.


7. Exercise Patience
   We live in a world of instant gratification. We want everything yesterday. While this can appeal to some, it wreaks havoc on our ability to be patient. Keep your cool. And most certainly don’t come off as desperate. And remember it’s okay to be persistent, just not pushy.


8. Be genuine
   Don’t be afraid to share something about yourself. People do business with people, not companies. Let your contact get to know you, the real you, and you’ll see some of your relationships grow to a deeper, more fruitful level.


9. Be a giver not a taker
   Let your generosity flow and if there’s any credence to the law of reciprocation, it will all and more come back to you in one way, shape or form. But give for the right reasons, without expectation of anything in return and allow yourself to experience the true gift of giving.

© 2006 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Liked this article? Want to use it in your eZine, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include this complete blurb with it (including links):

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, "The Motivational Marketer", is creator of the acclaimed 'Pumped Up Networking' system geared to explode your business through professional relationships.  To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.

7 Keys to Getting Your Marketing Messages Noticed and Acted Upon

Is your marketing falling on deaf ears? Did you know that the average person is bombarded with about 2400 marketing messages every day – and you can probably double or even triple that number if that same person walks into a supermarket. Why that constant bombardment should be enough to drive each of us insane. So how do we combat that? Well basically over time we’ve learned to tune it out – we simply have conditioned ourselves to ignore the marketing messages. Now does this complicate our jobs as marketers? You bet it does! Some would think you need to be a creative genius to get your marketing message noticed let alone acted upon. Now I don’t believe the life of a marketer is that difficult yet, however I do believe that it’s now more important than ever to take your marketing more seriously.

So as marketers, and yes I do believe that we’re all marketers, what are we to do? Well here are 7 keys to getting your marketing messages noticed and acted upon:

1. Streamline Your Marketing
   Don’t aimlessly contribute to the chaotic marketing attack – 2400 hundred marketing messages in a day is insane. Don’t throw your marketing message into the abyss while you cross your fingers hoping that someone is sitting idly by anxiously awaiting your marketing message. It just doesn’t work like that. So how do you streamline your marketing you ask? Well for starters, carefully plan your marketing. Make sure that your target market is clearly defined and communicate to them in a manner and frequency that they will appreciate. In the long run you’ll not only save a fortune in misspent marketing dollars but you’ll gain far more credibility with your target market.


2. Establish Market Relevance
   What real problems does your product or service solve for your target market? Can this be tied into any current events? What makes your product or service any better, cheaper or faster than that of your competition? Why should your target market buy from you? Command attention from your target market by answering these questions and sharing those answers as part of your marketing message.


3. Shut Up and Listen
   Stephen Covey says it best, “Seek first to understand and then to be understood”.
   Stop doing all he talking and start listening for a change – at least long enough to understand your target market; especially in terms of what they want and how do they want to be communicated to.


4. Build Lasting Relationships
   It takes two to tango. Keep in mind here though that you don’t just want one dance with your clients, you’re in this for the long haul. You want to dance over and over and over again until one of you can’t dance no more. So remember, good relationships are not built on one-way streets – it’s the genuine interaction between two parties that makes them good.


5. Create a Buzz
   The formula here is simple. Be unique and noteworthy and people will gladly share your story for you.


6. Dare to be Different
   Creating and delivering effective marketing is not for the meek – you need to continually find ways to stand out from the daily gluttony of marketing messages clouding your target market’s minds. If you haven’t yet read “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin, now would probably be a good time to do so. Seth Godin does a fine job on showing you how you can make your business not only different but, remarkable.


7. Don’t Be So Stingy
   Everyone loves free stuff! Don’t be afraid to give free taste tests. Let your target market try a sample of what you offer. And remember the Law of Reciprocation, when you give freely to others, they feel inclined to give back one way or another.

So in closing, I highly encourage you to take these 7 keys and find ways to employ them in your business today.


© 2006 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Liked this article? Want to use it in your eZine, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include this complete blurb with it (including links):

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, "The Motivational Marketer", is creator of the acclaimed 'Pumped Up Networking' system geared to explode your business through professional relationships.  To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.