Magnetic Marketing Series: I’ve Got Something to Say; How About You?

“You can’t be everything to everyone but you certainly can be an awful lot to a select few” –Dean Mercado

Let me guess, I bet that over the years you've probably heard statements like: "To get along, you need to go along" or "Don't rock the boat!" – Am I right or what?

Worse yet, you’ve probably heard them so many times that there’s a good possibility that they’ve been unconsciously programmed into your way of being. Maybe it shows up for you as having a fear of confrontation or simply being uncomfortable with fully expressing yourself or your opinions. Or maybe you’re one of the lucky ones and it hasn’t affected you at all – if so, good for you – consider yourself fortunate!

Now I speak and write a lot on the topic of magnetizing yourself and your business through your marketing to attract the best of everything – the best Clients, the best prospects, the best business partnerships, the best employees, etc., etc., etc.; And believe me, magnetically attracting what you want certainly beats chasing after it all the time – chasing tends to be both time consuming and very expensive.

So to further our conversation today, I’d like to point out one very important quality that commonly shows up with magnetic people or businesses (or as I call them, magnetic marketers) – and that is their willingness to be opinionated and heard.

So with that being said, let’s get something really clear here… Magnetic Marketers have opinions and they’re not afraid to share them!

Case in point, take a look at the politically astute comedian and television personality Bill Maher – Bill Maher hosts a popular talk show on HBO called “Real Time with Bill Maher”. On his show, Bill clearly articulates and expresses his thoughts and opinions on current political events and provides the impetus for his guests and audience to do the same.

Now Bill’s the kind of guy that you either love him or you love to hate him. However, the bottom line is that he is magnetically drawing viewers in droves! And as a very magnetic marketer, Bill Maher invokes passion in his guests and his viewers and invoking passion is a key to getting people to pay attention and take action – isn’t that what we all want from our marketing – to get people to pay attention and passionately take action? I’d certainly say so.

Be mindful though when using this approach. Unless you’re known to be a comedian by trade, getting attention or a laugh at another’s expense is just wrong – don’t do it. That goes for whether the person being bashed is present or not – especially if they’re not! The bottom line here is that it most definitely will backfire on you. Your audience will start thinking things like… “Well, if he says that about him behind his back, I can only imagine what he says about me behind mine”. Do yourself some justice and don’t sacrifice your integrity just to get attention. You most certainly can be opinionated and maintain your integrity at the same time!

Yes, there is one drawback to being opinionated and heard and that is that you might repel some people. My answer to that is so what. As I stated earlier in my opening quote, you can’t be everything to everyone and there’s nothing wrong with that! Ultimately, this will help you narrow your focus and allow you to attract others that like you for you – these are those people in your target market that have a higher potential to be the best Clients, the best prospects, the best business partnerships, the best employees, etc., etc., etc.

So in closing, Remember the 80/20 rule; where 80% of your audience will give you 20% of your business and the other 20% will give you 80% of your business – focus on that 20%!; And whether knowingly or not, by becoming an opinionated and heard magnetic marketer you are leveraging the Law of Attraction to draw those 20% towards you.

© 2007 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 the following 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.

10 Great Marketing Quotes That If Absorbed Into Your Business, Can Skyrocket Your Success

You know there comes a point in time when we realize as human beings that we don’t know it all. More important still, is the point in time following that when we realize that that’s okay, and there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s no way we can know everything. We could spend several lifetimes on this planet and still not know all that can be known.

Now do we need to know everything?... No!

However it is important to grasp the concept that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel – the world already has a wheel, and it works extremely well. Leverage that fact as well as others that are readily available to you and spend your time on the things in your business that really need your attention – like taking action for instance.

This is a very important distinction and was a critical revelation for me personally when I finally really understood it!

So what I’ve done here is assembled 10 great marketing quotes from some of the greatest minds our world has offered up so far and I’d like to share them with you in hopes of inspiring you to lift your marketing game. Here goes:

1. David Ogilvy on Advertising Ethics

"Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine."

2. Albert Einstein on Metrics

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

3. Al Ries and Jack Trout on Marketing Strategy and Timing

"Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills."

4. Peter F. Drucker on the Power of Really Knowing Your Target Market

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."

5. Jay Conrad Levinson on the Never Ending Life Cycle of Marketing

"Marketing is not an event, but a process . . . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely."

6. Philip Kotler on a Key Ingredient to Satisfying Customers

"Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make. It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers and benefits for the stakeholders."

7. Orvel Ray Wilson on Why Customers Buy

"Customers buy for their reasons, not yours."

8. Robert G. Allen on the Importance of Educating Your Target Market

"No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business. Your customers need to be constantly educated about the many advantages of doing business with you, trained to use your products more effectively, and taught how to make never-ending improvement in their lives."

9. Jay Abraham on the Criticality of Self Promotion

"Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income."

10. Jeff Bezos on the Power of Viral Marketing

"If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful."

Great stuff hah?! Did any of these quotes click with you or strike a nerve? Either way GOOD we’re stirring emotions! Emotions are great for your marketing! Emotions can make your marketing message more powerful!

So in closing, I’d like you to do yourself a HUGE favor – Give yourself permission to tap into and take action on the marketing wisdom of others. Remember learners are earners so become a lifelong student of marketing – believe me, you’ll thank yourself later for it.

© 2007 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 the following 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.

A Simple 3 Step System for Sizing-up Your Competition

"An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage." – Jack Welch

The key word that Jack Welch uses in this quote is action. And we’re not talking about undirected or aimless action here; we’re referring to action based upon knowledge. Now in terms of marketing ourselves and our businesses, that’s a core philosophy that we need to adhere to in order to produce better results. Otherwise, you may as well go to Vegas, because your marketing simply becomes gambling. And if you’re a gambler, you know very well that there is no such thing as a sure thing – not if you’re gambling legally and ethically anyway.

So with that being said, what I’d like to do is give you high-level exposure to my simple 3 step system for gaining a competitive advantage with a target market. Here goes:

1. Identify your Competitive Landscape
Before we begin this step, it’s important to note here that competition comes at us in two ways: both directly and indirectly.

Direct competitors are those ‘apples-to-apples’ type competitors. For example:

• Two or more newspapers going after the same subscriber base
• Two or more business coaches serving the same niche
• Two or more books by different authors covering the same topic

Indirect competitors are those ‘apples-to-oranges’ type competitors – they are not the same exact fruit however in some instances they fill the same need. For example:

• Yoga classes versus medication to provide relief for an ailing back
• Fast food versus diet pills to satisfy hunger
• The “do-it-yourselfer” versus a service provider

And we can go on and on and on here however I think you get the point

So go ahead and make a list of who you see as your top 5 to 10 competitors and remember to factor in both the direct and indirect ones.

2. Gather Key Data
Now that you’ve identified your key competitors, it’s time for you to really get to know them – it’s homework time – it’s time to dig in and do some research. At a minimum, I recommend you gather the following key data regarding the competitive business, product, or service – Maybe even make a little table or chart for yourself:

• What are their Strengths?
• What are their Weaknesses?
• What Opportunities do they create for you?
• What Threats do they pose for you?
• What Features do they offer?
• What Benefits do they claim?
• What’s their Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
• What marketing Strategies & Tactics do they employ?

Alright now that you know what you need to collect, here are a few suggestions to help you find what you’re looking for:

• For starters, ‘Google’ them – search for their business, product, or service online and see what you find
• Next, check out their Web site – you may find everything you need right there
• Then, get on their mailing lists – usually you can do this by simply “opting-in” on their Web site
• And lastly, if you haven’t found what you’re looking for using the Internet, as an offline tactic, get to know your local Librarian and ask for their help – I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that many of them are expert researchers

As you can see there are lots of ways to find out what you want to know – and the Internet has certainly made this process much easier.

3. Put That Data to Use
Let me reiterate that Jack Welch quote again. Now I know it’s twice in one article but it’s a really appropriate quote. So here goes: “An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”

Hmmm… So it’s what we do with what we discover in the first two steps of this system that can give us that edge that we’re looking for. Let me explain. You should leverage the information you uncover to determine how to uniquely position and promote yourself to your target market. Use it to differentiate yourself from the competition. Use it as input in creating your brand. Use it to determine what to say in your marketing to you target market. And ultimately, use it to help you determine what marketing strategies & tactics to use.

© 2007 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 the following 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.

Are You Properly Leveraging This Potential Competitive Advantage?

"The Internet is the Viagra of big business." – Jack Welch

How true?! I love it! There’s simply no question about it that the arrival of the Internet has changed the way we do business – forever! For many of us it has provided that booster shot in the arm that allows us to play a much bigger and better game! We can now compete and play on a grander scale – accessing markets that at one time, may not have been readily available to us.

Now while the Internet can open doors for us, the flip side is that it also opens doors for others as well – exposing us to ever-increasing levels of competition.

Essentially, with the full-on arrival of the Internet, we have literally migrated, in what seems to be overnight, from a local to a global economy. It wasn’t that long ago where we used to buy all of our goods and services from local businesses within a 15-minute radius of where we lived and worked.

Nowadays, it no longer makes any difference where our vendors are located – unless it’s our preference of course. Loyalty to our local neighborhood businesses is continually being displaced by newfound competitors vying for a piece of our market share – literally wooing our target market with cheaper, faster, and easier ways to purchase alternatives – those alternatives being their products and services instead of ours. In a way it’s sad, it almost marks the end of an era, regardless though, it’s the cold reality and we as 21st century businesses need to leverage it on our behalf as best as possible.

So when we talk about marketing our businesses in this new millennium, it’s eminent that we factor in, in a big way this exploding marketing medium called the Internet.

Web sites, blogs, podcasts – want to boost your credibility, visibility, and reach with you’re your target market? Well these are the in-demand players on the block these days.

This is not to say that traditional offline marketing no longer works – it certainly does and very effectively I might add. My point is simply that you need to consider you online marketing options as well.

So what are some Internet marketing strategies and tactics that you can consider leveraging in your business?

• Well how about publishing a web site to boost your credibility?
• Or, publishing an eZine to communicate regularly to your target market?
• What about creating and virally circulating an eBook?
• How about connecting more personally with your target market by publishing a blog?
• High-speed Internet connections now afford us the ability to publish audio and video on the Web – so how about publishing a podcast?
• It doesn’t get much cheaper than running email marketing campaigns. How can you use them to add value to your target market?
• How about making it easier to buy from you by selling products and services directly from your web site?
• Ever thought about enrolling others to promote your products and services for you on a pay-for-performance basis with an affiliate program?
• How about establishing your credibility by writing articles and publishing them on numerous high-traffic web sites?
• What about networking yourself with your target market via online networking forums?
• Gain attention from the press by submitting press releases to a number of online public relations service web sites.
• And the list can go on and on and on!

So in closing, as you can probably tell, I love the Internet – in my book it’s pretty much the greatest thing since sliced bread! As much as I love the Internet though, it’s essentially holding our feet to the fire and forcing us to play a better game to survive and thrive in today’s global economy.

© 2007 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 the following 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.

Date Set for "The Secret" on The Oprah Winfrey Show

This just in from Rhonda Byrne, the Executive Producer of "The Secret"...


I am thrilled to announce that The Secret is being featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show broadcasting across the United States this coming Thursday February 8th. This very special show dedicated entirely to The Secret will then reach the rest of the world over the coming weeks!

Appearing with Oprah are Michael Beckwith, Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols, James Ray and Rhonda Byrne.