A few Definitions:

Many people believe Peter Drucker was the greatest business thinker of the 20th century.  He is known for saying:

“Business, because its function is to create a customer and sustain it, has only two purposes: marketing and innovation.  Marketing and innovation are the only two functions that build business that sustain paying revenue.  Everything else is an expense.”

Dan Kennedy claims “Good marketing makes your time infinitely more valuable because it provides leverage and allows you to better monetize your time and all your other talents, and liberates you from all the drudgery and repetitive labor.  Just the ability to sell one to many versus one to one is a life changer.”  He also states “Getting results does not take time.  It is not getting results that takes all your time.”

Marketing is one of the shortest, quickest, most efficient paths to reaching your goals in a business, to hitting a faster ROI, and getting customers raving about your product.  It is a process of constant innovation.  It is one of the main topics I encourage you to always strive to improve, to better understand, and analyze the whole dynamic. 

Marketing is the difference between mediocrity and millions.  It gives you power and options.  Marketers directed in the right way are saviors.  They identify needs, know who to communicate with, and open doors that cannot be opened any other way.   Marketing is the ultimate financial leverage.  

If you were to study the greatest companies today, and the greatest companies throughout the last 50 years, you would find they are historically the companies who engineered the maximum quantity of consistent, continuous, qualitative breakthroughs in the areas of marketing, innovation, management and strategy.

What you are selling is your business.  This is your career.  If you do not have people buying stuff from you, you do not have a company and you do not have money.  Marketing your business is the most important thing to actually get your product/ service/ cause out in to the world.  What other thing could you possibly be focusing on, other than more conversions, more enrollment, more engagement, more acquisition than marketing?  You want to do everything you can to hone and improve your marketing.  This is how you win the game.

“Marketing isn’t everything… it is the only thing.”  Brian Kurtz  

WHAT IS MARKETING:

Marketing is one thing the South Park gnomes seemed to have overlooked:

While there are an infinite number of definitions for marketing, my favorite is transcribed below.  This was borrowed from the Tony Robbins PowerTalk interview of the legendary business growth expert Jay Abraham.  If you have never heard this recording, stop right now and listen to The Ultimate Entrepreneur with Jay Abraham podcast episodes 23 and 24.

Jay Abraham defines marketing as: 

1. The continual educating of a customer or prospect, for the life of that customer, on the advantages and benefits, and self-serving to them; results your company or your service brings them that no one else does, can or will do.  
2. It is the Intelligently formulated process of increasing their demand or desire for your product or service, and finally;
3. The strategic process of bringing them to closure and completed action.

Marketing versus Selling:

Joe Polish and Dan Sullivan often say “Selling is what you do when you are on the phone or face to face with somebody.  Marketing is what you do to get someone on the phone or face to face with you, properly positioned so by the time they talk to you, they are pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-qualified, pre-disposed to give you money.”

“Selling is when you get someone intellectually engaged with a future result that is good for them, and getting them to emotionally commit to taking action to achieve that result.”

DIRECT MARKETING VERSUS GENERAL ADVERTISING:

Direct marketing is measurable marketing (in any medium).  It is all about measurability and therefore accountability.  This is what makes direct marketing so powerful.  It is the only way to get a specific return on your investment. 

Contrast this with general advertising, which is advertising that builds brand awareness, and maybe evokes an emotional response.  However, it has no way for the potential customer to actually respond to the ad or for the marketer to track its response.  With most general advertising, you cannot measure the ad’s effectiveness because there is no way to measure whether the customer takes an action as a result of the ad.  Direct marketing on the other hand, is all about measurability and therefore accountability. 

WHAT IS INNOVATION:

Innovation is significant positive change.  

Innovation is an improvement in the way you do things.  It is finding a better, more effective way to get your clients the results they want.  

Better yet, let’s distinguish between optimization and innovation.  Optimization is the improvement in things you are already doing, whereas, innovation introduces fresh, new ideas, tactics, etc.  At their core, innovation and optimization rest on fundamentally different principles, but, integrating the two, brings your business to a whole new level…

Optimization is taking an existing process and making it work to its most optimal, where it generates the most income for the least amount of investment, whether you are investing time, risk or capital.

Innovation involves making obsolete that which you did before.  It is finding a better, more effective way to get your clients the results they want.  It is orchestrating greater benefit, enhancement or improvement in your clients’ life or situation that they appreciate and value.

At its most elemental; innovation means is bringing greater benefit, advantage, result to the marketplace that the marketplace respects, appreciates, and desires most specifically from you.  It is about finding a better, more effective way to get your clients the results they want.  

Innovation is bringing greater protection, enhancement, enrichment, entertainment to an audience that they recognize, acknowledge, and value above and beyond the alternatives, enough to take action, and only take action from you.

Remember to optimize first, then innovate.

WHAT IS STRATEGY:

At its core, strategy is a guide to behavior.  Strategy comes to life through its ability to influence thousands of decisions, both big and small, made by employees throughout the organization.  A good strategy drives actions that differentiate the company and produce financial success.  A bad strategy drives actions that lead to less competitive, less differentiated position.  A lot of strategies, though, are simply inert.  Whether they are good or bad is impossible to determine, because they do not drive action.  They may exist in pristine form in a PowerPoint document, or in a “strategic planning” binder, or in speeches made by top executives.  But if they do not manifest themselves in action they are inert, irrelevant.  They are academic. 

Most people do not dig into strategy.  What are you building towards?  What does the completed, optimized picture of your business look like when you have gotten it where it needs to go?  What does the finished product look like? 

Strategy is how you advance, enhance, and integrate a big, long-term game plan.  Strategy allows you to produce a result every single time you do something.  It is a way of consistently getting a result.  Strategy is a carefully defined and detailed plan to achieve a long-term goal.  A strategy is the overall impact, the ultimate position you would like to achieve in the market.  

Strategy is separate and distinct from tactics.  While the two work in tandem, I bring this up because most entrepreneurs are more tactical than strategic.  To think like a brilliant strategist, you will design and combine your tactics with the long-term strategy in mind.  

Tactics are your day to day operations, the small, specific actions and steps you take to achieve your goals and objectives.  Tactics are the means used to achieve your strategy.  Tactics are the techniques, tools or methods you employ to achieve a measurable result.  A tactic is a method or technique used to achieve an immediate or short-term gain. 

Strategy however, is the overall, long-term goal that reflects the core value of your organization.  It describes, generally, how you will allocate your resources.  It is the bridge between your ultimate goal and how you plan to reach it.  It has a single, well-defined focus.  It is the path you follow.

Strategy is what you set out to achieve.  Its focus is the end result; how you are going to compete, how you are going to grow.  It is the general direction you intend to take, in regards to your product, operations, pricing, marketing, and financing.  It is the top most action plan that will make your vision real.

Tactics cannot build a sustaining, ever-growing, rock-solid, meaningful, and enduring business.  Tactics are a form of promotion.  Tactics can produce significant, short-term profit.  But, sooner or later those promotions saturate, dry up, and become marginalized because far too many other entrepreneurs start using them… 

Define your strategy before you set your tactics.  What are you trying to accomplish?  Do you have a systematic master plan that is driving everything you do?  You need a plan that out thinks, out markets and out appeals to the market better than your competitor and that requires deep integrated strategy.  If you have deep integrated strategy everything you do everything you do either advances, enhances or dramatically improves the impact of the relationship with your client.  Random things are a waste.  They do not give you a clear cut positioning and that is what most people do so you have to change that.  Strategy is the biggest advantage you will have competitively.  Strategy incorporates or includes the ability to decide what your ultimate business game plan is.

To illustrate the difference between strategy and tactics, I want to share a story.  In this example, Jay Abraham compares two people, competing in the same industry, selling the same product.  While the tactical thinker earned $3,000, the strategist grossed well over $25 Million.  This story was shared in Jay’s book The Sticking Point Solution.

“A few years ago, I had two friends who each discovered the same business opportunity but approached it in radically different ways—one tactical and shortsighted, the other strategic and focused on the long term.

The first, Tom, was a gifted copywriter who saw potential in the overlooked market of simulated diamonds, or cubic zirconium. For $30,000, he ran a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times announcing his new enterprise, the Beverly Hills Diamond Company, and its key product, a loose, one-karat stone that sold for $39. The wonderfully crafted ad pulled in about $42,000 worth of sales, which amounted to about $3,000 profit after all expenses. Tom, who was used to making massive, front-end profits, didn’t see enough profit in the concept, so he folded his tent and left.

The second friend, Larry, didn’t possess Tom’s copywriting prowess, but he was a world-class strategist—and strategy will always trump copy. Larry soldiered into the very same marketplace, armed with a game plan for an identical product but a very different result. His ad wasn’t as well written, and so Van Pliss and Tissany (his take on Van Cleef & Arpel and Tiffany, which were hot brands at the time) pulled in only $28,000 from his $30,000 ad—meaning he’d lost $2,000 before he’d even counted overhead.

But instead of getting frustrated, Larry continued with the next phase of his strategy. Whereas Tom had mailed his product in a chintzy cardboard box, Larry delivered his in a high-end jeweler’s case, which in turn was placed in a velvet bag—packaging that cost a pretty penny beyond what he’d already spent on the ad. Along with that, Larry included a letter:

Thank you for purchasing your Van Pliss and Tissany one-karat gemstone. When you remove it from its beautiful jeweler’s case, you’ll immediately notice its fiery brilliance, which is even more beautiful than we promised.

You may also notice that the stone is smaller than you expected—but that’s the nature of the Van Pliss diamond. In order to achieve such extraordinary brilliance, our gem is denser, which makes it 25 percent smaller than most people expect. However, the brilliance of the diamond inspires many of our buyers to upgrade to larger five- and ten-karat stones, which they hope to then set. Be cause we’ve experienced this so often, we’ve set some of our most magnificent five- and ten-karat stones in fourteen- and eighteen-k rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, which you can find in the accompanying catalog. And, more important, because we do such volume, we have manufactured these jewelry pieces ourselves, thus slashing the price by 50 percent of what you would pay for the same product from a jewelry store.

We would like to offer you the chance to upgrade: Not only have we included a pre-paid return carton and UPS form, but we are also extending you double credit. In addition, any purchase you make with us will not be considered binding on your part until you’ve had the set jewelry item in your possession for thirty days. If your family and friends don’t remark on how beautiful your new gem is, or if you find that buying the same piece from a jeweler would have saved you money, you may return your gemstone and setting, no questions asked.

What was the end difference between Tom’s tactics and Larry’s strategy? Whereas Tom made $3,000 and promptly quit, Larry’s strategy lost $2,000 up front, then netted him $25 million in his first year of business alone.

That’s the difference.

If you come up with a killer strategy and a dynamite approach, you can make a killing, too.”

Not having a strategy is like building your dream house on a weak foundation – in a swamp land.  It is like trying to build a house, without first deciding how many bathrooms it is going to have or knowing where to put the kitchen.  If strategy is the Guide, tactics are the Actions.  If strategy is the What, tactics are the Who and How.

What is the journey you want your clients to take?  What is the experience you want them to have?  Think this out.  Engage people.  How do you receive feedback?

HOW DO YOU CREATE YOUR FIRST STRATEGY:

Part of strategizing is looking ahead.  What game are you playing long-term?  What is your system?  The hardest part is bringing clients in for the first time.  When it comes to your selling situation, you control it or it controls you. 

Your first question needs to be:  What kind of people or businesses do I want to attract, and why?

Keep this definition of your ideal client where everyone in your organization can see it everyday.  Being strategic involves very deep, integrated thinking.  This deserves more your times, attention and respect than other other activity.

Next you want to do basic market research to define and understand your marketplace.  Survey a cross section of your consumers in a focus group to get their opinions about your product and service.  Conduct a phone or mail survey – these people may not respond, so get creative.  Offer a bonus or coupon to complete the survey, or save the survey for the end of a successful sales call.

Gather enough information to determine:

• Who are your best potential clients?
• What do they need, want and expect?
• Is there a demand for your product or service?
• Who are your competitors, what are they doing, and how well are they doing?

Answer specifically and in detail:

• How many products/services sold each year?
• How much was spent in your area?
• How well are the comparables (alternatives to your product/service) selling?
• Examine the demographics of your target audience then position yourself as the best person to fulfill that need.
• How many units are sold in the industry and how much is spent?  This helps you gauge your performance success against the competition and enables you to set specific goals.
• How have these numbers changed over the last few decades?  Any major trends?  Check trade journals for annual wrap up.

Although market research may appear to be a tedious time consuming process, it is necessary if you want to be successful.  Think of it as simply a method of finding out what catches client’s attention by observing their actions and drawing conclusions form what you see.

After you have identified the people in your target market, it is time to take the next step in your strategy:

Define exactly what problem your product solves for those particular people.  This is where  you turn inward to look for commonalities in your existing client base that represents the most desirable and profitable buyers you have.  Then replicate, perpetuate and multiply a constant flow of this market segment above and beyond other market categories you could attract.

If you are still struggling to determine your strategic advantage, carefully answer the following:

• What initially got you started in this business (specifically)?
• When you started out in your business, how did you attract your first customers?  (If your business is flailing, you did not replicate yourself.)
• Why did your customers originally buy from you?
• Why do new customers buy from you now?
• What is your current, primary mode of marketing?  What is your single most significant and substantial source of business?  What is one new mode you can employ?
• What ongoing sales effort do you personally perform today?
• What is your specific operative customer profile?  Where does your business come from (distinctions, demographics)?  How do you know about them?  How do you treat the 80%?
• What is your single greatest competitive advantage (in the eyes of your customers – that they perceive).  Are there any reconcilable problems because your customer does not appreciate/ understand/ recognize/ perceive?

Because strategy is such an important concept, here are 25 strategies you can use to outmarket your competitors:

• Work your current and past customer lists.  Fully utilize your customer list
• Stop spending so much on ineffective advertising
• Follow up with your prospects
• Keep following up
• Risk reversal
• Bump and upsell.  Use a handy phrase to upsell your customers
• Sell, then sell again
• Host-Beneficiary relationships, joint ventures, strategic partnerships
• Use your competitor’s resources – and profit
• Offer extended guarantees and incentives
• Lock in sales in advance
• License your successful concepts
• Break even on the front-end
• Test your prices
• Reposition yourself as an expert in your industry
• If you know of a company going out of business, buy their customers and the right to fulfill on orders
• Decrease your overhead
• Do not burn your bridges
• Avoid the ostrich theory of marketing (“my customers”)
• Write only direct-response ads or sales letters
• Write headlines that pull
• Analyze your results
• Do not put all your eggs in one basket
• Get your customers to give you referrals
• Recognize and identify your hidden assets
  • Telemarket your customer list
  • Lock in sales in advance
  • Test your sales pitches
  • Understand what your customers are worth to you
• Barter

LAST DEFINITIONS:  

Capitalism:  F. A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom wrote The tragedy of Capitalism is that it was named by its enemies.  Capitalism is not about capital, that is a by-product.  Capitalism is an ever expanding system of increased cooperation among strangers.

Success:  My favorite definition of success is from John Wooden, head coach for the UCLA Bruins:  “Peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

Technology:  A better method of doing something you already do.  Technology determines what a resource is.  

The American Marketing Association’s definition of marketing is “The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

Copywriting (AWAI’s definition):  Copywriting is the process of writing persuasive marketing and promotional materials that motivate people to take some form of action, such as make a purchase, click on a link, donate to a cause, or schedule a consultation. These materials can include written promotions that are published in print or online.