Magnetic Marketing Series

Dean Mercado's Marketing Minute


Find out 5 steps to positioning yourself as an obvious expert in your field in this week's Marketing Read more

Dean Mercado's Marketing Minute


There is more to your brand than just good looks! Listen to this week's Marketing Minute to hear Read more

Dean Mercado's Marketing Minute


Do you procrastinate with your marketing because of fear of failure? Check out The Marketing Minute for a dose of Read more

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Magnetic Marketing Series: A Surefire Method to Increase Your Top-of-Mind Awareness with Your Target Market

Posted on June 14, 2007 by Dean Mercado in Marketing Strategy, Success Leave a comment

I believe it’s safe to say that we all have our circle of influence — extending from those who know, like, and trust us all the way down to those who although barely know us, can still be influenced.

Now some of our circle of influence may overlap our target market. Our goal in marketing is to continually increase our circle of influence within our target market — to create top-of-mind awareness so to speak. This way when anyone in our target market wants or needs what we do, they think of us first.

So let me ask you 3 very important questions. First… How vast is your circle of influence within your target market? Second… How are you showing up for them? And third… How do you want to show up?

Follow me here for a minute… let’s play a little game. I’m going to name an occupation, a specific skill, or a trait and I want you to name the first 3 people that come to mind for you… here goes.

  • Self Help Authors… name 3 that come to mind… got it? Great!
  • People who are fun to be around
  • Great Thinkers in History
  • Baseball Players
  • Savvy Networkers
  • Captivating Speakers
  • Real Estate Agents

Now I want you to use this same exercise for your industry. Who are the first 3 people that come to mind for you? So in other words if you are an insurance agent, who are the first 3 people that come to mind for you in the insurance business?

Let me show you what I mean by me doing the same for my industry, marketing. Who are the first 3 people that come to mind for me? 1. Jay Abraham, 2. Dan Kennedy, and 3. Alex Mandossian. These names rolled right off my tongue.

So why do you think is this so? Why do you think these people have top-of-mind awareness with us? Well I’ll tell you… I can sum it up in one word… “Marketing”. It is effective marketing that makes these people known and “sticky”.

They’re somehow creating a buzz with their target market, regardless if they’re really worthy or not, by either their actions or their words — in a nutshell, whether by accident or on purpose, that’s great marketing.

Let’s face it, and this may sting a little bit, in business you can be the greatest at what you do, however if no one knows about you, how great are you really… think about that.

So in closing, I have a little homework assignment for you. I’d like you to analyze your answers for the 3 people who had top-of-mind awareness for you in your industry. Why was this so? What were they doing to directly and/or indirectly cause this to happen?

Then I’d like you to reach out to several people in your target market and start asking who has top-of-mind awareness for them when they think about what you do — and then probe to find out why. This is powerful stuff — it can give you real insight and clarity into what’s working for others who do what you do.

On a broader scale, my point is to learn from and capitalize on the actions of those who already have top-of-mind awareness for whatever you want to be known for in your target market.

Copyright 2007 Online Marketing Muscle — All Rights Reserved.


Magnetic Marketing Series: As a Marketer, Our Word Is Our Bond

Posted on June 7, 2007 by Dean Mercado in Marketing Strategy Leave a comment
“Truth is the most valuable thing we have.” – Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer and humoristWhy so? – Because in the long run, as humans, it’s the truth that binds us. It’s what establishes our perpetual credibility. And being the ethical business-people that we are… and we are ethical, right? ;-) – We know that credibility is huge in terms of establishing long-term relationships with, and ultimately sales from our target market.

There’s simply no room in the business-world for unethical business people… period!

Let’s put it this way, unless they don’t have a choice, your Clients, that is if you were fortunate enough to get any in the first place, can and typically will fire you as soon as possible if they sense an integrity issue. As for the rest of your target market, they won’t even give you the time of day, let alone buy from you. With all that being said, worse still is that unless you don’t have a conscience; you’d have to live with yourself.

Now, if you’ve been around me for any length of time, you may have heard my strong opinion that we’re all marketers, all the time – some of us are just better at it than others – hence the differences in results from one person to the next.

And as marketers, our use or misuse of our words reflect our integrity and ultimately our results. Remember, one lie can wipe out a thousand truths – truths that took much of your valuable time and money to deliver. Whether right or wrong, we’re always under the microscope of others; being judged when we show up by how we show up. So ask yourself how are you showing up for your target market? How do you want to show up? Are the answers to those two questions the same? If they are, you’ve got the consistency needed for sustainable marketing success. If not, get to work and do whatever it takes to close that gap.

It’s important to note that for the most part, people buy with emotions first and then justify their purchase with logic later.  And as marketers, we use words, whether spoken or written, to create that emotional bond. A key to remember here is that there needs to be consistency between your words and your actions. Mislead your target market and like a boomerang, it will come back to you in one way, shape, or form – whether it’s through, product returns and refund requests, lack of additional purchases, or worse yet, negative viral marketing about you, your product, and/or your business.

Believe me, with the proliferation of the Internet and the many avenues it brings such as social networking forums, email, and product review web sites, just to name a few, negative PR travels at what seems to be light speed and regardless of whether it was warranted or not, it can be very damaging. Believe me; businesses have gone out of business for less.

The key here is to under-promise with your marketing and over-deliver with everything else; not the other way around. Sure you can promise the moon, just make sure you can deliver it – as well as maybe a few unexpected stars as well. There’s nothing wrong with as the well-renowned management expert and author Tom Peters says, “WOW-ing” your Clients. Unfortunately, too often though we see marketing that promises that “magic pill”, you know, the one that will give us the body of a model or make us a multi-millionaire overnight. No matter how obviously ridiculous the promises are, many of us still allow our emotions to get us sucked into their web only to regret our purchase not too long after – that is, as the emotion fades and logic sets in.

So in closing remember, there is power in the truth of your words and misleading others with your marketing surrenders that power. It’s that power that magnetizes you, drawing your target market in with less effort – And as marketers, isn’t that what we all want?

 

Copyright 2007 Online Marketing Muscle — All Rights Reserved.


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

Posted on February 26, 2007 by Dean Mercado in Success Leave a comment

“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.

Copyright 2007 Online Marketing Muscle — All Rights Reserved.


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