Archive for the ‘marketing services’ Category

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The Changing Role of Scarcity

Thursday, November 10th, 2011


I’m fascinated with the choices that are available to us about virtually everything.

When I was growing up there was NBC, CBS, ABC, plus 2 UHF channels, and a really grainy channel that, if the wind was blowing right, we could pick it up from New Hampshire.

I looked at my AT&T U-Verse choices yesterday, and discovered that not only do I have access to over 500 channels, I can now choose among 57 channels that exclusively program in Spanish and 13 in Japanese.

As a kid I loved to visit the Concord Bookshop. They carried a choice of maybe 2000 books. If I wanted an out-of-print book, I was out of luck.

Today, virtually any book ever printed is available through some bookseller via Amazon. And never mind that it used to be that if you wanted a book published you had to get accepted by one of 12 publishers. Now anyone can get published through resources such as Lightning Source. With e-books now having reached the tipping point, and all books accepted on Amazon, the shear volume of books available is almost beyond comprehension.

If I want a time management program for home-based entrepreneurs, I can choose among several.

If I want sales training for nutritional MLM entrepreneurs, there are multiple choices.

If I want to learn how to more effectively interview pharmaceutical reps, there are multiple vendors vying for my business.

In other words…scarcity doesn’t exist anymore.

Except for one thing.

As Seth Godin recently pointed out, the only thing that’s scarce is attention.

When there are numerous choices for virtually any need, how do we get people to choose us?

Two thoughts.

The days of mass marketing are over. Even my former employers in the consumer goods industry (Pepsi & Kraft Foods) largely recognize this, and are increasingly targeting their messages to the young, the old, different ethnic groups, specific types of activities…the segmentation goes on and on.

Micro-niche marketing is everything. Unfortunately this message is often lost of new entrepreneurs and small business owners for the obvious reason. “But, I might miss someone if I niche market.”

The reality is that when your message attempts to appeal to everyone, it appeals to no-one. This is a hard learned lesson for many (myself included).

Second thought. Your message needs to stand out. It needs to fall into the sweet space between boring blather and “sky is falling” hyperbole. This is where mental heavy lifting comes to play.

What’s deceiving is that the end result-the ultimate marketing message-often seems so simple. Perhaps it’s just a few words such as “How to get consistent streams of brand new clients with no cold calling or hard selling.” Yet when you examine this in more detail, you notice that the word “consistent” is crucial, since avoiding feast-or-famine business cycles is a main concern for this particular audience. “Cold calling” also is carefully selected, since that’s the default method by which this niche trolls for new business. Although they may profess otherwise, in reality most everyone hates “smiling & dialing”.

The words “Hard selling” are also carefully selected. This niche views themselves as professionals and experts, and recoils from anything that is overtly salesy.

Thus the simple phrase, “How to get consistent streams of brand new clients with no cold calling or hard selling.”, is actually the result of many hours of thinking about a particular niche; their needs, hopes, wants and desires.

Why is this important?

Because the only thing that’s scarce in this day and age, is getting (and keeping) attention.

Food for thought
Mark
Want some assistance in developing your message? Information is HERE

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A Quick Story

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011


Let me tell you a quick story. Maybe it will help you persuade more people to do business with you.

The story is about a guy named Mort. You probably know someone like him. Mid 50’s. Always has that slightly disheveled look. Slouched over bloke-hasn’t stood up completely straight since Clinton was in office. You know the guy. He happens to be in finance, but that’s not important.

Despite all of his best efforts, Mort just couldn’t tell an interesting story to save his life. Sometimes the stories rambled. Sometimes they made no sense what-so-ever. Sometimes-and this was the key culprit-the stories were as boring as a zealot proselytizing about global warming.

The biggest problem with Mort’s stories was that we just weren’t interested.

*He’d talk about a client who was worried that retirement meant a lower standard of living…So what?

*He’d go on about a couple who were scared to death about outliving their retirement…Big deal.

*He’d blather on about some poor schnook who was afraid he wouldn’t be able to afford medical care…b-o-r-i-in-g.

Now here’s the thing…the problem with Mort’s stories are not the issues these people face. Those are real, and lots of people are worried about them.

The problem is, we don’t care about the people in Mort’s stories.

And that’s an important point if you want to tell good stories. Your audience needs to be a bit emotionally invested in what happens to the characters.

So how do we create good characters? One of the easiest ways is by fleshing them out before starting to talk about the problems they face.

Here’s how.

When I told you the story about Mort, wasn’t it easy for you to picture him in your mind? Why was that?

First, I gave him an interesting name. Sometimes a name-like Mort-conjures up an image of a certain type of person. (Which is why you don’t run across too many suave debonair super-spies named Tristen.)

Second, I gave you some quick physical characteristics about Mort. I only used 20 words to describe him, but those were 20 important words.

If you’re going to care about my story, you first have to care about my characters. That’s why before you tell your story, think about how you’re going to describe the characters to your audience. Unfortunately we often don’t pay attention to that, and as a result, tell stories like Mort.

Good food for thought
Mark
Learn more about how to engage your audience by telling great stories in my latest book, Unique Sales Stories. Now available on Kindle and in traditional old-school paperback. Get it at Amazon HERE

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The Illusion of Expertise

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011


Many successful consultants, advisors and small business owners are in enamored with the concept that they will achieve success merely by being good at what they do.

However, outside of academia, and for a few elite others who fate has shined a kind eye on, expecting the world to beat a path to your door is a losing proposition.

I recognize that in an ideal world, you’d just like clients to magically appear so that you could focus on the work you most enjoy. Which is why the marketing siren’s call of “we’ll do it all for you” is so alluring.

But here’s the reality.

As the CEO you also bought (perhaps unwittingly) the role of CMO (Chief Marketing Officer).

And the sad but true reality is that you can only delegate those responsibilities after you’ve mastered them.

So the question becomes…how are you going to get up to speed?

Here’s one option

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What Do You Read?

Monday, October 31st, 2011


OK…you’ve promoted your free offer and now have a list of subscribers. The question now becomes, “How do I come up with topics to write about?”

That’s an important question since “staying in touch with your subscribers” is arguably the most important part of the whole marketing strategy. Somewhat ironically, it’s also the part that people tend to give the least amount of attention to.

If the swing-thought is to simply send people “stuff”, it’s not terribly surprising if no-one actually reads it. And if no one reads your stuff, it’s sort of difficult to develop a relationship with your subscribers.

So back to the original question, “What to write about?”

My personal belief is that the more your reading tastes are eclectic in nature, the easier you’ll find topics to write about.

So let’s start with the newspapers you read. I’m sure there’s the local daily. But what about the Wall Street Journal? You don’t have to be a financial type to get a lot of value from it. In fact, I’d argue that if you’re serious about business, the WSJ ought to be on your reading list every morning.

But let’s not stop there. How about USA Today? For my money, it’s hands-down the best daily newspaper if you want to get up to speed quickly on what’s going on. In fact I only get the Atlanta Constitution on the weekends, since USA Today does a much better job of giving me the overview I need about the worlds of Sports, Culture, Current Events and Business. Plus, it’s got the coolest weather map!

But wait…there’s more. Since I do most of my writing in the mornings, this next daily read has probably given me more great ideas to write about than any other newspaper I get. I’m talking about the Financial Times. I don’t know how much time you’ve spent outside of the USA, but the rest of the world does think differently than we do. Sometimes the differences are subtle, sometimes they’re rather substantial. What’s great about FT is that it makes you think about things differently–and that’s what causes the neurons in the brain to start to fire–which in turn gets your creative juices flowing.

Having an eclectic reading list makes us interesting people. And if we’re interesting people, it’s likely that we’ll write interesting stuff.

Moving on to magazines. Let’s take a look at what’s on the night stand. Egads, the pile is huge! We’ve got Monocle, Financial Advisor, B2B, The Hollywood Reporter, Fortune, Business Week, Steve Harrison’s Reporter Connection, Fast Times, Rolling Stone, INC, The New Yorker…

Now do I actually read all these? Candidly, the answer is, not really. But I do thumb through all of them, and I’d guess I read at least a couple of articles from each.

For those of you who like formulas here’s a great one to jump start your thinking when you find you’ve run out of ideas for what to write about.

I was reading an article in (Name of publication) which got me thinking about how (the topic) relates to (your area of expertise).

I was reading an article in Monocle which got me thinking about how an eclectic reading list can help us come up with ideas for what to write about to stay in touch with our readers.

What’s interesting about this exercise is that it will stretch you creatively, which will make your writing more interesting. Since there’s certainly no shortage of boring-same-old stuff being dumped into our in-boxes, it’s bound to help you break out of the pack.

Try subscribing to one new publication and see what effect it has.

It certainly can’t hurt.

Food for thought
Mark
Thanks for all the support for Unique Sales Stories :-)

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Making Boring Stuff Interesting

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011


Nothing glazes over the eyeballs quite like reading an article about Emergency Preparedness, but the folks at the CDC (Center for Disease Control) have figured out a way to turn oh-so-boring into I-want-to-read-that with over 1 million (and counting) page views already.

The secret? Link the boring “Here’s what you need to pack into a preparedness kit”, into a story about how to brace for disaster when the zombies attack. (And you know that’s going to happen any day now-so I’m packing my kit as soon as I’m done here.)

You hear me talk a lot about “mental heavy lifting” and how it’s the most important part of any marketing campaign. Well the CDC’s, Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic is a great example of some mental heaving lifting that results in a cool story around a dull topic.

Want to know what to pack to avoid zombies (as well as prepare for other natural disasters)? The article’s HERE.

Unfortunately most of us are in rather dry businesses. But as Zombie Pandemic illustrates, that doesn’t mean we have to be boring when it comes time to promote our message.

Food for thought
Mark
PS: Unique Sales Stories is now available on Kindle. (Currently at #1!) Get your copy HERE

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Marketing With Information

Friday, October 14th, 2011


Suppose with just a one hour-long effort you could…

*Create a kick-ass free offer that would get prospective clients interested in what you do. And…

*Provide the content for the squeeze page that promotes it. And…

*Create a great video that you could sell for $595? And…

*Create a MP3 audio you could add to the video package and raise the price to $695? And…

*Create a content-rich booklet, you could add to the video and audio package and now price your information product at $795.

Or…you could just give everything away for free and have a monstrously effective lead generation machine.

All with about an hour’s worth of work.

Here’s how.

Rent a room somewhere. Might be at a hotel, or even better, at one of those office suites that are in virtually every city.

Invite some clients or prospective clients to come to hear you speak about your topic. (Maybe you charge/Maybe you don’t.) Try to get at least a dozen people.

Video tape the presentation. (Personally, I’d spend a few bucks to get it done professionally. It doesn’t cost a lot of money.)

Edit down the raw footage. If you use a Mac you can do it yourself using iMovie. I’m sure there’s a comparable program for those still using PCs. This becomes the video component of your information product.

When you do your presentation start off with an overview of what you’re going to be covering. This is the segment that you use on your squeeze page to promote the program.

Pay some kid a few bucks to strip out the audio portion of the video which you can then offer as a separate bonus. A lot of people like to listen to content rather than watch video, so it’s nice option to offer.

Pay a few more bucks to get the audio transcribed and now you’ve got a nice content-rich booklet to offer along with the video and audio.

If you don’t want to create an information product to sell, then just use the video of you doing the introduction as a hook to a free mini-course that offers segments from the rest of the video you shot.

If you line your ducks up in a row, this can basically be done over a weekend. I did a version of this when I created my Gentle Rain Blueprint program. You can see the final result here.

Food for thought
Mark
This free mini-course teaches you how to write a great sales letter.

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Are you Interested or Interesting?

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011


Although they’re not my favorite thing to do, I just returned from a networking event.

Have you ever noticed that you run into two types of people?

The majority are those who work very hard at attempting to be interesting.

The others are those who are sincerely interested in you and what you do.

If you’re like me, people who try oh-so-very-hard to impress me with how interesting they are, achieve the exact opposite result. Not surprisingly those who show a sincere interest, are the ones that I’m ultimately the most impressed with.

Goodness knows, I’ve fallen into the trap of trying to be interesting. It’s usually because I’m feeling insecure and unfortunately, it never seems to work. Whereas, when I relax, and really focus on the the person I’m speaking with, that’s when relationships starts to take flight.

On the one hand, this seems kind of obvious. But, if that’s the case, why do we run into so many people working hard at being interesting, and so few who really show that they’re interested in us?

Food for thought.

Talk soon
Mark
Part of what keeps our interest in a well told story.

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The Legacy of Steve Jobs

Friday, October 7th, 2011


With the recent passing of Steve Jobs, much has been written about the role he played as a technology visionary. While there is no denying that innovation and design elegance will forever be associated with him, for myself, his most enduring legacy are the stories he told.

His gift for storytelling was legendary. If you’ve not had the opportunity to watch his 2005 Stanford University commencement address, it’s an excellent example about how to convey a message, simply and elegantly, through the power of stories.

Jobs, and by extension Apple, also often told wonderful stories in their advertisements. You’re probably familiar with the “1984” commercial that introduced the Macintosh computer, and famously, only aired once:

However, the Steve Jobs/Apple Computer storytelling connection runs deeper for me. In 1983, Apple produced this commercial (featuring the yet-famous Kevin Costner). At the time I was working at Kraft Foods, and was beginning to feel the frustrations that would eventually culminate in my decision to start my own business. This ad, through it’s use of a simple story, conveyed an idealized vision of the type of life I wanted to have.

And eventually did.

Steve Jobs was truly a business pioneer, and his products and innovations will go down in the history books. However, I know for myself, it was the stories he told, that will be his most enduring legacy.

Unique Sales Stories: How To Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From The Competition & Close More Sales Through The Power of Stories

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Why Isn’t He Remembered?

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011


October 5th marks the birth anniversary of the 21st President of the United States.

If you’re struggling to remember who that was (Chester Alan Arthur, of course) and even after having acquired the knowledge, it still means little, you’re not alone.

But why is former President Arthur relegated those who held the office, but are largely forgotten?

My theory is that it’s because there are no great stories associated with him. And without stories, we just don’t remember Presidents, people or businesses.

Which brings up an interesting question. How memorable are you? What are the stories you tell (and that others repeat) that enables you to break out of the pack?

Stories are powerful, but ironically they’re one of those things we don’t do a good job of creating and communicating.

Which is why…(Blatant plug coming)…if you haven’t already, you should read my book on using stories to persuade others. You can grab a copy here.

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Facebook For The Affluent?

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011


Social media has found a new resource for those targeting the ultra-affluent, and ten nationally ranked firms, catering to the wealthy, have jumped on board.

Equilar Atlas contains profiles of about 250,000 chief executive officers, board members and executive directors at almost 5,000 public companies and 5,000 nonprofits.

Similar to LinkedIn, once your contact information is loaded into the system, you’re provided with an extended graph that illustrates how you’re connected to this very exclusive network of individuals.

But, it’s not an inexpensive network to join. The cost is $10,000 annually for unlimited access to the database for the first three users and $2,400 for each additional person.

Is it worth the investment?

Since people marketing services to the affluent already know who the wealthiest CEOs are, the database may be most helpful in revealing names and compensation for CEOs of smaller public companies that may be below the radar.

What has been your experience with using social networks for developing relationships with the affluent? Tangible results or is it just more hype than substance?

Private Consultations For Those Seeking To Implement A Client Attraction System

What’s really working for marketing to the affluent? Invite author and marketing strategist Mark Satterfield to speak at your next conference. Email Barb@GentleRainMarketing.com for details.

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