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The 7 Commandments of Marketing
Marketing is the key to success with any business, online or traditional. You can have a website or business location. You can have a great product. However, if no one has heard about your business or your product, you have NOTHING! Marketing is everything you do to promote yourself and your business. Without an aggressive marketing effort, your website is just one of EIGHT BILLION listed on Google. Without an aggressive marketing effort, your store better have a location next to Walmart and hope for their overflow. How do you stand out from the crowd? There are seven (let's call them) commandments for your marketing efforts. Keep these in mind and you are well on your way to creating an effective marketing machine. Remember, there is only one way to score the effectiveness of your marketing efforts - SALES! Commandment #1. Use a Rifle NOT a Shotgun Rifles leave a neat, clean hole where you point them. Shotguns scatter shot in the general direction you point them. Most failed marketing efforts are born in a scattered marketing message aimed at the world. Let's say you were trying to sell a snowboard. To effectively sell a snowboard to a fifteen year old requires an entirely different conversation than selling the same item to his mother. Therefore, commandment #1 directs us to segment our possible customers into different groups who share common concerns. If your product could be sold to a fifteen year old or a 40 year old, you'd better decide who you are going to focus your marketing efforts upon for the greatest success. Commandment #2. KNOW Thy Customer Like Thyself Following commandment #1, we selected a targeted group of people for our marketing message. Now, we MUST understand that targeted market as well as we know ourselves. We must crawl within their mindset. We must understand what they think about our product, what they want from our product, and the alternatives they have to our product. Customers buy for their reasons, not yours. If you want to sell them your product, you MUST sell to their concerns, not your own. Every piece of marketing copy must FOCUS upon them. If you don't speak their language, you don't get their money. Commandment #3. Be PASSIONATE About Your Company & Your Product Attitude is infectious. If we are around upset people, we begin to take on that attitude ourselves. If we are with positive people, the same phenomenon occurs. Most people like to associate with enthusiastic people. And, most of us like passionate people. If you aren't passionate about your company and your product, why should anyone else be?Commandment #3 means to show passion for your product by speaking and writing about it with enthusiasm. Talk about what your product can help people accomplish in their lives. If you can't work up enthusiasm for your own product or business, find another business or product. Commandment #4. Accept the fact that "NO" won't kill you In the process of running a business and selling a product, you will hear "no" more frequently than you hear "yes" (if you're doing it right). What? By "doing it right", we mean you are TRYING things. Some work. Some don't. Whenever you think of a new marketing approach, remember, the worst that can happen is they say "no". So, try it! This is not a matter of life or death. This is a great experiment! "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin Commandment #5. Wear a CLOWN SUIT! It's hard to ignore! The cheapest and easiest marketing in the world is free advertising. How do you get free advertising? Wear a clown suit! Do something OUTRAGEOUS! Become news worthy. How? When Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream first tried to expand to a nation-wide operation, it had trouble finding distributors. They determined the problem was that Pillsbury put out the word to all distributors not to work with Ben & Jerry's. Pillsbury's edict effectively blocked Ben & Jerry's from the services of the national distributors. What to do? Put on a clown suit! Ben & Jerry's set up a one-man picket line outside Pillsbury headquarters. The picket sign read "Who's the Doughboy afraid of?" The result? National-wide FREE publicity on television and newspapers. Publicity they couldn't afford to buy. In order to differentiate yourself from the crowd of competitors, you MUST be DIFFERENT! Design your own clown suit and wear it proudly! Commandment #6. NEVER Give Up! Albert Einstein said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up". In marketing, everything you do moves you forward. If one campaign fails, you are that much closer to the one destined to succeed. Watch others. Learn from others. Learn from your own mistakes. BUT KEEP GOING! Commandment #7. Always Be Closing "Always be closing" is often referred to as the "ABCs of sales". However, it also applies to marketing. The objective of marketing is to increase sales. Not to "inform", "educate", or "entertain". I repeat: The objective of marketing is to increase sales. Therefore, this last commandment directs us to write all marketing copy with the sale in mind. Only information that moves a potential customer toward a sale is allowed in our marketing copy. How do we know what should stay and what should go in our marketing materials? Read through it asking yourself one question - "So what?" Another way of stating "so what?" is asking "why should the customer care?" You've been in business since 1972. So what? Your product folds flat. So what? You're a family owned business. So what? The alternative? "We have been in business since 1972 so you'll always know where to find us. Since we are a family-owned business, you're always talking to an owner who can answer your questions and solve your problems. Our product folds flat to save you valuable office space when not in use." See the difference? Now you're talking about the customer's issues, not yours. There you have my seven commandments of marketing based upon 33 years of business experience. "Commandment" is defined as "A formal pronouncement or rule". Keep in mind and put into practice these seven commandments of marketing. When you do, your marketing efforts will result in the only true value of marketing - increased sales! Michele Schermerhorn has over 30 years experience in the business world and over 12 years running her own successful online businesses. She is President of Online Business Institute Inc. (http://www.obinstitute.com) and regularly conducts free online seminars. Online Business Institute Inc. exists to "Create Successful Online Business Owners One Person At A Time".
Latest News:Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for news News 8 Red Cross blood drive in Orange News 8 and the Red Cross are teaming up again today for a 'Remembering 9/11 Blood Drive'. News Near You for Sept. 10 NEWS NEAR YOU HanoverThe annual winterization program in Hanover County is accepting applications from low-income, elderly or disabled homeowners and volunteers who want to help them. News by location Get local and national news updates via E-mail. Duke University School of Nursing will offer several graduate courses in Fayetteville in 2011. Participants will meet once a month at the Southern Regional Area Health Education Center at 1601 Owen Drive. Each course will involve online learning. News media giants tap new media to stay alive Traditional news media outlets are staving off their much-reported impending demise by learning to use the very social media tools that are supposedly clobbering them to death. News 8 Follows First-Year Teacher Throughout the school year, News 8 will follow Darryl Wende during his first year of teaching in a series of reports called "Making the Grade." News by location Get local and national news updates via E-mail. A small fire that someone set on a street in west Fayetteville may have been a ploy to get inside homes in the neighborhood, police said. News by location Get local and national news updates via E-mail. An investigator with the Consumer Product Safety Commission was at Fort Bragg on Thursday conducting tests inside a military home where three families were staying at different times before their babies died mysteriously. News Animation Goes Political: Knocks Pres. Obama Speech In New Video The Taiwanese NMA News animation videos are coming out with increasing regularity , and are getting more timely and news-worthy . In the past, they've been fairly fun in their bipartisan ribbing toward both political parties - but their latest Pres. Barack Obama video takes some sharp jabs at the Commander-in-Chief. News by location Get local and national news updates via E-mail. You had to feel good about how the rest of the state of North Carolina felt about Fayetteville and Cumberland County football this week as reflected in the first Associated Press high school polls. News by location Get local and national news updates via E-mail. Two men are accused of robbing a pizza delivery driver at gunpoint Wednesday night, off Rosehill Road. Site: news - Google News Adobe, Google on Apple's App Store Changes: 'great News' - PC World
MORE RESOURCES: Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for marketing Marketing firm starts E mail marketing test in Newark DoKall, an international marketing firm that pays consumers to read emails, answer pitches, and complete surveys will be exhibiting at the University of Delaware?s Trabant Center on September 17, 22, 23 and 24 from 11-7 to answer questions and offer sign ups for the service. Email Marketing 2.0 Revolution Tour Stops Down in Austin on Sept. 17 The 2010 Email Marketing 2.0 Revolution Tour makes another stop on Sept. 17 this time in Austin, Tex., bringing entrepreneurs and small businesses of the community together with local and national marketing experts for education and practical training on new marketing concepts that drive business growth. The free event is part of a year-long national tour of workshops aimed at educating growth ... China Marketing Media Holdings, Inc. to Present at Rodman & Renshaw's Annual Global Investment Conference on September ... BEIJING -- China Marketing Media Holdings, Inc. , an integrated media company focused on sales and marketing fields, today announced that members of its management team will participate at Rodman & Renshaw's Annual Global Investment Conference to be held at the New York Palace Hotel from Sunday, September 12 through Wednesday, September 15, 2010. Marketing software supplier Lytiks takes name, $850,000 and CEO Boston-based marketing software developer Conversion Innovations has renamed itself as Lytiks, while also taking in $850,000 in angel investment and hiring a new chairman and CEO in Peter B. Kroon. Interactive Marketing Software manages website tracking tags. Ensighten Manage helps interactive marketing and web analytics professionals control tracking tag changes across multiple sites, without using IT resources. It includes user interface for tag management, with no coding required, and enables full tag functionality and management in Flash, Flex, and Air without any object-by-object code customization. Once software is in place, only single line of ... The Marketing Directors Awarded Six Condominium Projects by ST Residential ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwire - 09/10/10) - ST Residential has named The Marketing Directors as the exclusive sales and marketing firm for five condominium projects in Atlanta and one in Houston. Comprising the industry's most seasoned real estate professionals, The Marketing Directors provides creative solutions including market analysis, research, onsite sales and marketing, training, leasing and ... Splinternet Marketing's Internet Marketing Services Offers A Guaranteed Positive Return on Investment Watertown, WI, September 3, 2010 - Online marketing is the key to business success in today's technological era. If your online marketing isn't bringing you the results you need, Splinternet Marketing can bring you a positive return on your marketing investment - guaranteed. It's just not enough to throw a few keywords onto your website, or maintain a presence on a few social networking sites.... Network Marketing Entrepreneur Launches Discount Savings Plan With Savings Highway ATHENS, Ga., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Entrepreneur AJ Watson launches Discount Savings Plan to help consumers save money through network marketing company, Savings Highway. With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, network marketing company Savings Highway is offering marketers an opportunity to generate immediate income, while saving money, on a wide array of consumer goods and ... The Insurance Marketing & Advertising Podcast Interviews Jim Fiske, Chubb?s Marketing Manager for Personal Insurance OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The latest episode of the Insurance Marketing & Advertising Podcast features an interview with Jim Fiske, vice president of Chubb & Son and marketing manager for Chubb Personal Insurance. Fiske explains what it?s like to market and communicate on behalf of one of the nation?s largest insurers, including in rapidly developing areas such as social media and ... Marketing Manager Marketing Coordinator, Charity, London, 2 months, 26k - 30k Are you looking for a freelance marketing role within the charity sector? If you have strong branding experience then this job as Marketing Coordinator could be just what you're after! Site: marketing - Google News Revlon creates global chief marketing officer slot - BusinessWeek
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