Final Verdict: Keep It Simple

My tenant trashed my condo.

As my tenant was vacating my home, I inspected the residence. Needless to say, it looked like a college dorm after years of parties, fights and mistreatment.

The tenant refused to pay for any of the damages so I took him to small claims court. It was there that I got an important marketing lesson: keep it simple.

You see, I created a spreadsheet, I photocopied receipts and estimates and I printed a slew of photos. I was extremely prepared with tons of materials.

Big mistake. In the end, I was overly prepared.

The judge did not take the time to look at all of my documents. Instead, he focused on a couple of minor things, stated that the damage I was claiming was covered by the tenant’s security deposit and he ruled in favor of the defendant. Ouch.

Had I understood the target audience better (the judge) I would have focused on just one or two things. Had I known that the judge did not intend to review all of the documentation I provided, I would have kept it extremely simple and to the point.

Same goes for marketing. Less is more.

Marketing, much like the small claims court, is about communicating the important action items concisely and succinctly.

Succeed in marketing with brevity, clarity and simplicity. Move your business to the next level by communicating the core message and nothing more.

I should have taken my marketing expertise to small claims court.

Good thing I am not a lawyer.

Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

Despite Aesop's sage advice, I say you should count your chickens before they hatch.

In The Milkmaid and Her Pail, Aesop tells of a young woman balancing a pail of milk on her head as she walks to market. She dreams of buying a dress with the money she will earn from selling the chickens she will buy from selling the butter she will make with the milk in her pail. Her dreams are ruined when she spills all of her milk as she fantasizes tossing her head at gentlemen suitors while wearing her new dress.

Excellent story and a great moral. But it's the exact opposite advice I give to small businesses. I say count every single one of those chickens before they hatch.

Run your numbers. Run your scenarios.

If you are on your way to market, be sure to calcuate what investment will yield the greatest return.

Some simple math can go a long way. Consider some basic marketing metrics like response rate, conversion rate and traffic. Apply some conservative assumptions and predict your outcomes.

Be sure to account for the pitfalls, hurdles and obstacles that might prevent you from reaching the desired outcomes and adjust your plan accordingly.

Had Aesop's milkmaid really counted her chickens before they hatched, she may have figured out some different options. Maybe she would have decided to make the butter at home instead of transporting the milk. Maybe she would have travelled a faster route to market or maybe she would have created a more focused plan to prevent daydreaming.

For your small business, think with the end in mind and plan accordingly. Move your business to the next level by counting each and every chicken before they hatch.

"Everybody Gets Tired When Nobody Listens"

A direct quote from my daughter: "Everybody gets tired when nobody listens."

My daughter is four. She made this enlightened statement between giggling on the swings and hanging from the monkey bars.

While I am certainly biased in thinking my daughter is brilliant, there is no doubt that she speaks the truth. Listening is perhaps the most important skill in both business and in life.

The application of consistent listening serves tremendous marketing benefit. From customer service to employee interactions, a small business owner must be able to truly open her ears and probe for more information.

I previously recommended that a business owner must continually question their customer comments to dig for more information. In order to extract the most information, it is necessary to put aside egos, open up the ears and let the other party do the talking.

This life skill will move your business to the next level. You will find that customers will give you great information, employees will feel empowered and the competition will struggle to match your level of service.

It is tiring when nobody listens. Think how much energy is sapped with the simple act of seeking attention.

Do yourself, your employees and your customers a favor by energizing them with your listening.

6 Levels of the Sales Funnel

Good marketers know that steering a potential customer towards a purchase takes considerable effort. Few purchase decisions happen after just one contact. In fact, it may take 10-12 marketing touchpoints to convert someone into a customer.

For this reason, it is crucial to understand the Sales Funnel. Perhaps just as important as the Buyer Decision-Making Model, the Sales Funnel demonstrates that a concerted effort is required to create a customer.

Since much has been documented about the Sales Funnel, I don't feel the need to go into great detail. However, it is important to understand Sales Funnel basics. Sales Funnel basics boils down to the six levels of the funnel outlined here:

1) Strangers: these are people that have no idea about your business. They represent the mass of potential Contacts that have no awareness and thus float around your Sales Funnel. The best Strangers are identified as your niche, or your target market.

2) Contacts: once awareness is established, Strangers become Contacts. They dip their toe in the funnel. You may know very little about them and they may know very little about you, but at least there is some awareness.

3) Leads: a Contact becomes a Lead once there is some exchange of contact information. The most successful way to convert a Contact into a Lead is via permission marketing. Permission marketing is when a Contact gives you permission to contact them. This can take many forms like web sign ups, emails or even personal calls or visits. The basic concept is that a Contact gives your their contact information and they seek some type of follow up.

4) Prospects: once a Lead has been contacted, they should be qualified. Qualified essentially means that they are either moving closer to the purchase or moving away from a purchase. Prospects are those that are moving closer to the purchase.

5) Customers: there are many ways to think about Customers. My tried and true definition of a Customer is one that pays for a product or service. Look at your database: the people that are paying you are your Customers. Treat Customers as gold because the ultimate goal of the Sales Funnel is to convert Strangers into Customers.

6) Advocates: Advocates are those that recommend your business to others. They might be the most important component to your Sales Funnel because they will fill your Sales Funnel for you. Most often Advocates are satisified Customers, but Advocates can come from just about any level of your Sales Funnel.

In all, it is important to recognize that your entire Sales Funnel requires investment, attention and much care. Successful businesses will invest in each and every level. Tending to one level at the expense of another is rarely a good idea. I've seen many businesses focus on Prospects or Customers alone and forget to fill the Sales Funnel with Contacts. Or vice versa: a business fills their funnel with Contacts but fails to convert them into Leads, Prospects or Customers. Either approach is a recipe for failure.

Focus on all levels of the Sales Funnel. Fill your funnel AND move people through your funnel at the same time.

I reommend the 80/20 Rule here: spend 80% of your efforts moving your Contacts through the Sales Funnel and spend 20% of your time filling your funnel with new Contacts. This formula should be part of your Marketing DNA and successful implementation will move your business to the next level.

What a Marketer Must Continually Ask

The first activity I generally do when giving a marketing workshop—particularly if the emphasis is on sales—is to review the Buyer Decision-Making Model.

It’s crucial that business owners and salespeople clearly grasp the consumer thought process during purchase decisions. Getting into the brain of the consumer is the key to successful selling.

In order to do that, a marketer or a salesperson must understand the six steps every consumer takes when deciding to buy. Here is a brief summary of the Buyer Decision-Making Model and the six steps:

1) Awareness: the consumer must have some awareness of your product or service. Without awareness, nothing more will happen.
2) Interest: awareness is the first step, but the real push towards a purchase comes when there is interest.
3) Understanding: the consumer must clearly comprehend how the product or service can fulfill needs.
4) Attitude: after understanding the product or service, the consumer will develop a positive or a negative attitude towards the offering.
5) Purchase: purchasing is predicated on the previous four steps. Note that the first four steps may take seconds to complete, but a purchase decision may take more time.
6) Repeat Purchase: create so much satisfaction that the consumer returns to buy again, or they recommend your product or service to others (which in turn creates awareness, interest, etc.)

In which step does a marketer most influence the buyer?

Each and every step.

Thus, the most important question a marketer should continually ask is if their marketing message, copy and collateral drive the target audience towards purchase and repeat purchase.

Strategically, this means that a marketer must understand in which step their target currently resides. Without awareness, a marketer must get the word out. If there is interest, the marketer must create understanding and shape attitudes. Each message must target the audience appropriately to move buyers to the next level.

Understand how to move buyers through their decision-making process and you will understand how to best market your product or service. This understanding alone will move your business to the next level.

3 Currencies of Marketing

"Slash your marketing budget" is one of my favorite recommendations to small business owners.

There are many ways to market your business that don't require significant financial resources. Here are four no cost marketing initiatives.

The key to these initiatives is the understanding that successful marketing is funded by three separate currencies: money, time and energy.

Money is obvious. It takes money to make money. It takes money to hire a marketing consultant, advertise and otherwise get your name out there.

But money alone does not make marketing successful. In fact, some of the most powerful messaging can be created without spending a lot of money.

For this reason, I recommend small business owners consider investing time and energy into their marketing. Allocating time and energy to a marketing challenge often times results in greater return on investment than money.

Take time, for example. I generally recommend that businesses dedicate at least 10% of all revenue to marketing initiatives. What if business owners spent 10% of their time on marketing? That's really only one hour a day for most.

A lot can be accomplished in one hour: post a blog, give a presentation, cold call, network, optimize other marketing communication or strategically plan your Marketing DNA.

But don't look at time as simply punching the marketing clock. Energy is as valuable as time when it comes to marketing investments. So dedicate energy as well as time.

Investing your energy will allow you to think through your marketing challenges and it will ensure that the time you allocate is well spent.

One great way to invest energy is to generate referrals for other businesses. The Golden Chain of Referrals should start with you, and this strategy generally requires much energy to know the businesses and know to whom to refer their services.

In all, marketing doesn't need to cost money. Time and energy are equally valuable currencies to move your business to the next level.

Speak < Sell

In plain English, speak less than you sell. Or conversely, sell more than you speak.

It's a magic formula that will actually force you to speak less and directly sell more.

How does it work? Simply put, say only a few things and ask only the really pertinent questions. This lets your prospect do the talking and--more often than not--the prospect sells your product or service to themselves!

One caveat: this strategy is best used when advancing a prospect through the sales funnel. To move a lead through the sales funnel, its a matter of prospecting, presenting and following up. Prospects generally need more information, so it may be okay to speak more.

However, the best way to convert a prospect into a lead and eventually a customer is to let them do all the talking. They will tell you what they need. You can then decide of your solution meets their needs.

Amazing things happen when salespeople ask the right questions and then keep their mouths shut. The customer really opens up and tells exactly the information that the salesperson needs to close the deal, namely their biggest needs.

Call it the Socratic method of selling, but it really works.

Try it next time you are trying to close a sale. Ask good questions, let the customer do the talking and watch them close the sale for you.

It takes a bit of discipline. We all want to show how good our product or service is and tell how much we can help the prospect.

But I guarantee, speak less and sell more and you will move your business to the next level.

4 Ways to Market Like a 6th Grade Teacher

6th Grade is an important year. Students across the country are expected to understand basic math, language and science concepts by the end of the year.

For many, it’s the final year of elementary school which can signify a new beginning. After 6th grade, the academic stakes are raised with tests, essays, projects, presentations and a more mature learning environment.

In order to prepare students for life after 6th grade, teachers must ensure that their students are prepared to take the next step. Successful teachers use a variety of tactics to move students to the next level.

My 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Gil-Osorio, did just that. In fact, she implemented some extremely smart marketing tactics that your small business can use. Here are four ways to successfully market like Mrs. Gil-Osorio:

1) Consistent Goal; Different Tactics: a 6th grade teacher must prepare students for junior high school and beyond. The goal does not change. However, the tactics vary. Some learners are visual, some kinesthetic, some auditory. A good teacher—and a good marketer—will realize that students--i.e. prospects—will respond to different tactics. For your small business marketing, implement different tactics to communicate your message. The message and the objective should not change, but the tactics should.

2) Give Homework: homework reinforces the message. Same goes for marketing. Encourage your prospects to do their homework. If you are providing a unique and special value—a key component to your Marketing DNA—no one should be able to compete with you. Let your customers ask around and request bids from other providers. Follow up after be prepared to show why your offer is best.

3) Grade Your Students: in other words, grade your customers. Who is an “A” customer? If you understand who your best customers are, it will be easier to attract more “A” customers. Does this mean you ignore the “F” customers? Perhaps, but a 6th grade teacher would not do that. A good teacher would figure out how to turn an “F” customer into an “A” customer.

4) Create a Lasting Impact: decades after my year with Mrs. Gil-Osorio, I can still recall her name and her class. Can you create such a bond and an impact with your customers so that decades down the line they can recall their experience with you? Create a long-term impact and your brand will stick.

6th grade was a long time ago for me. Do I remember all the facts and figures I learned? Definitely not. But I did learn how to be a good marketer and that has moved my business to the next level.

Only the Greatest Ideas Get Implemented

Everybody has a great idea. Everybody.

There is someone with a great idea in every corner of the earth. Or at least they think it is a great idea.

Only the greatest ideas get implemented.

An idea can only become reality upon implementation. A great idea is never about "wouldn't it be great if?" or "I could have done that." Instead, it's about "when can I make this happen?" and "what do I need next?"

If you think you have a great idea, now is the time to implement it. Now is the time to make that idea into a reality. Otherwise, you're just like everyone else in every corner of the earth with an abstraction.

If you really want to move your business to the next level, it's time to test that concept and turn that idea into reality. If anything, your idea will evolve. You will learn what works and what doesn't.

And in the process you can discover how best to add value, differentiate and serve your niche.

Avoid the Mud and Get S.M.A.R.T.

S.M.A.R.T. Marketing is the only way to go when planning your marketing.

Many businesses simply market their products or services by throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. Not only is this approach short-sighted, it’s also very messy.

Instead of simply throwing mud at the wall, think through your marketing. Make it S.M.A.R.T.: Strategic, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

Here is what I mean:

• Strategic: focus on the long-term and the big picture and not the tactics. Strategy drives tactics, not the other way around. We can all get drowned in the tactics of marketing initiatives: e-mail, direct mail, websites, events, etc. But real results occur when a strategy is set in place. Seth Godin’s got a great blog on strategy vs tactics that is worth a quick read. Remember, set and follow a strategy first. Then, worry about the tactics.

• Measureable: be sure you measure your marketing efforts. A little math goes a long way. Response rates, conversion rates, click rates, open rates, hits, calls, subscribers and other metrics will help you understand if you are getting bang for your buck. If you don’t measure, you cannot determine the return on your marketing dollars.

• Achievable: you certainly want to stretch and push your capabilities, but make sure you can accomplish what you set out to do. If your strategy is too lofty, you can beat yourself up and lose focus.

• Realistic: understand your brand and how people are drawn to it. Make sure your marketing efforts complement and grow the ways in which most customers find your brand. This really comes into play when you set up your marketing budget. $10,000 for a new website would be terrific, but will it generate the return?

• Time-bound: the best marketing plans have a time limit. Set up a strategic plan with a number of tactics for 6 months. After that time, evaluate. Keep and expand what is working, discard what is not. I recommend at least 6 months, though I’ve seen plans that work with less or more time. The key is the time boundary. Without it, there is no evaluation period, no measurement and no learnings.

So avoid the mud of messy marketing tactics by uniting them all under one S.M.A.R.T. Marketing Plan. Front loading a little work at the beginning will go a long way to moving you business to the next level.

Long and Short of E-Mail Marketing

So you’ve already signed up for an e-newsletter provider like Aweber, right?

No? What are you waiting for? E-mail marketing is highly affordable and extremely professional. It needs to be part of your marketing arsenal. Stop now, click here and get with the e-newsletter program.

Now that you’ve signed up, consider that there are the two schools of thought when it comes to e-mail marketing: the short school and the long school.

The short school of thought is pretty obvious: e-mails should be quick and to the point. This will ensure that readers peruse the entire message. Provide one call to action (like “Click Here” or “Find Out More”) with one link, button or other call-out. Get in and get out, so to speak.

The long school is just the opposite: e-mails should be full of rich content that engages the readers. Keep the reader focused and committed to your information. Provide a number of links and calls to action that drive readers to your website or blog. The more time the reader spends with you, the more value you provide and the greater the brand awareness. Think of it as a grocery store: the longer you spend in the store, the more you will buy.

So which is best?

Well, that all depends.

If you are prospecting and trying to encourage readers to learn more about you and your company, the short school is best. However, if readers are already engaged and need to be moved through the sales funnel, then the long school is better.

Simply put: acquiring new customers? Use the short school. Retaining existing customers? Use the long school.

Ultimately, your customer base will determine what they like best. When you use Aweber or another e-mail marketing provider, be sure to track open rates, click rates and other metrics to see what is working. Test and learn. Find out if your audience prefers the short school or the long school.

My Tribute to Michael Jackson

I once wanted to be Michael Jackson. It was third grade, Thriller had just been released and I wore penny loafers with white socks to school. It is thus with great sadness that in today's post, I pay tribute to the King of Pop.

While much will be lamented over his music and his art, I hope to laud his marketing (surprised?).

By most accounts, Michael Jackson was either apathetic and aloof with regard to his business matters or he was an exceptionally shrewd businessman. There was little in between. Jackson faced any number of lawsuits for both personal and professional reasons. Most cases boiled down to the debate between ignorance and intellect.

Time will tell in the long run. His legacy will be the ultimate measure of his impact.

However, one point is difficult to debate: Michael Jackson created tremendous value.

The role of a business, as is well-documented, is to get and keep customers. And how do you do that? By creating value. Value is what generates followers, customers and revenue.

Michael Jackson was a value-creating machine. His voice, his music, his moves, his style and his art generated throngs of followers.

If the true measure of a business is how much value is created, MJ was the tops. Sure there was tremendous controversy, but what genius achieves 100% acceptance?

From a very young age--5 if you believe the record-label marketers, 8 if you believe the biographies--Michael has been a very public figure. Michael learned how to manipulate the media, how to draw attention to himself and how to stay top of mind for a very long time.

Michael, your presence will be sorely missed on this planet. But know that we thank you deeply for the value you created and we will do our best to play your music for generations.

How to Connect Locally

Successful businesses invest in their communities. This is true of both big and small businesses. The more a business can give to a community, the more the community will give to the business.
This relationship plays most true with respect to word-of-mouth. Locals can often be the best (or worst!) form of business advertising: it’s both cheap and powerful. Today’s post, therefore, is about leveraging the most you can out of local connections. As you will see, a business can achieve excellent marketing ROI with some inexpensive yet important local initiatives.

Before jumping into how to get the most out of your local community, please note that some small business models do not rely on local contacts, connections and customers. That said, even the most virtual business models can still gain from keeping close ties with the local community. Locals can serve on focus groups, help you advertise, or even become clients in an ideal world. This makes local connections important for any business.

So whether or not your business relies on local traffic, here are three ways to get the most out of your local connections:

1) Dialogue with Your Customers: Simply listening to your customer can go a long way. Many business owners cringe when one of their customers says, “You know what you should do…” Sure, everyone has an opinion and few know exactly how to run your business, but listening is more than just hearing new ideas. Listening allows a business owner to plug into the community. Listening enables a business owner to really tap into needs. Most importantly, listening allows the customer to feel comfortable. A comfortable customer is a happy customer and a happy customer returns with friends.

2) Partner with your customers: Businesses that succeed are able to partner with their customers. Partnerships can take on many forms. A rewards program, for example, is essentially a partnership program. If you can give your best customers something in return, they are more like partners and less like customers. Another successful partnership platform is to let the customers drive more of their experience. At Southwest, customers make their own reservations, check in on their own and manage their own accounts. Southwest saves on labor but more important, the customers are more engaged since they are, in effect, employees or partners.

Another way to make partnerships successful is to simply ask for it. Take your best customers and ask them to partner with you on your marketing. Get them to provide testimonials (very powerful) which you can then use on your marketing collateral. Even better, have them post reviews online on popular sites like Yelp or Citysearch. These online recommendations pop up in search engines and are extremely effective. Or get your best advocates to create a video and post it on You Tube. However, you sould be careful with this approach: choose only the best customers that you know would represent and communicate your brand just as you would wish.

3) Give to Local Associations: Notice I did not say “join” local associations. I frequently hear from clients “I no longer am a member of the local Chamber because I didn’t get any business out of it.” My first response to this statement is always, “Well, what did you give?” They invariable say “not much.” Simply joining a Chamber of Commerce or another local business association will not bring more business to you. To leverage the local contacts, you need to GIVE to those associations. Serve on the membership committee, sign up to host an event, write an article for their publication and generally do more than just attend. Attendance is not even half the battle. For maximum effectiveness, it’s all about participation.

Connect locally, even if your business is not completely reliant on local traffic. Develop local relationships and your marketing will succeed.

What Goes in an E-Newsletter?

So you need an e-newsletter, but what goes in an e-newsletter? I get this question a lot from many clients. The best answer can be summed in one word: value.

An e-newsletter, much like all marketing initiatives, needs to provide value. There needs to be a reason to read the e-newsletter. If there is no value or no benefit to reading it, then all marketing efforts are wasted.

Sure, an e-newsletter needs to sell your services and promote your latest offering. This is a given. But if your e-newsletter is strictly focused on selling something, your unsubscription rate will rise. However, if you can provide valuable content that demonstrates the level of service your business can provide, the sales part will come easily!

Always think about the objective of your e-newsletter. In fact, all marketing initiatives need a specific objective. For example, the aim of a brochure could be to motivate recipients to call to set up an appointment. The intention of a radio ad could be to drive traffic to the website. The goal of a website might be to sell a particular product.

An e-newsletter is no different. Think about what you want to accomplish with an e-newsletter and direct your content in that fashion. If your objective is to drive traffic to the website, be sure you include links in your e-newsletter. If your objective is to demonstrate your credibility, provide links to resources and references that show your area of expertise. If your objective is to sell a product or service, ensure that your copy reflects the benefit of the product or service.

Ultimately it all depends on the objective of the e-newsletter. But one theme should resonate with all your content: value. Give the reader a reason to open the e-newsletter, read it and act upon it.

Marketing Lessons from a Cruise

I just spent a weekend on a cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. What was supposed to be a relaxing weekend away from the world of marketing turned into a mini case study. I know the travel industry—in particular cruise lines—are struggling during these tough times. However, there were a lot of things this particular cruise was doing well: they had a strong upsell and cross sell plan and they had an easy payment system.

Consider that cruises nowadays can run extremely cheap. I heard about a 4-day cruise from San Diego to Mexico for only $224/person. This is an amazing bargain when you understand that this cost covers the room, food and most entertainment for all four days. Perceived value is extremely high.

Once you get to the cruise, and in some cases even before, the real selling takes place. Before we even boarded the boat we had our picture taken which was then available for purchase. Seconds upon boarding the boat we were met with waiters and waitresses suggesting “a bucket of beers.” My room was stocked with sodas and drinks, all for sale (can of Coke: $1.95). Everywhere you turned there was a suggestion to buy something else.

Of course, payment was incredibly easy since passengers were equipped with their personal cruise cards. Passengers used the cards as their room key as well as a means to purchase just about anything the boat offers. Cocktail? Just hand the card over the waiter. Massage? Just give the card to the spa center. Souvenir? You get the picture.

This mini case study confirmed two things for me: 1) every business needs a strong upsell and cross sell program, 2) every business needs to make payment seamless and easy. These strategies worked effectively for a major cruise line and they make perfect sense for small businesses.

Take a look at your business and make sure you have a way to upsell and cross sell. Most products and services have the three-tiered approach which makes upselling very powerful. Or, find a product or service that you can offer in addition to another product or service. You’ll get more out of your existing customers and—assuming you provide value in the added services—your customers will walk away more satisfied.

Also make sure it is easy for your customers to pay you. One simple way to do this is to ensure that you can receive payments a couple of ways. Checks, credit cards and PayPal are just some of the ways you can facilitate payment. Find what is easiest for your customers and make that work for you.

Finally, if you need any more lessons in upselling and payment processing, take a cruise. Just like me, your vacation can as easily become a case study.

What is Your Marketing DNA (Part IV of IV)

The final component of your Marketing DNA is “A” for “add value.” Adding value is the most important piece of your marketing DNA because value is how you monetize the business. If a business cannot add value, the business serves no purpose. So just like the three previous posts, we’ll dig into four areas: what adding value is, why it is important, how to do it and who is doing it well.

1) What is Adding Value?

Value is essentially the relationship between perceived benefit and price. For a business to be able to sell anything, it must use marketing to create a perceived benefit that exceeds the cost. All marketing efforts thus must communicate the added value that a consumer will get by purchasing a product or a service. This is true across industries, products, services and more. True success through adding value is when price becomes insignificant. Let’s dig into this further by seeing why adding value is important.

2) Why Add Value?

As noted above, a business must add value in order to exist. The primary function of a business is to get and keep customers. In order for a business to achieve success, it must genuinely add value for its customer and continue to provide value. Otherwise, customers will go elsewhere. Adding value is the cornerstone of sales. Through its sales and marketing tactics, a business will generate sales only when it can communicate a direct benefit or feeling associated with a product or service. If a business cannot communicate the benefit, there will be no sales. No sales, no business. So adding value is really the lifeblood of a business and its marketing efforts.

3) How to Add Value?

Adding value is subjective and dynamic that continues to evolve, progress and advance. Here are a couple of ways that have proven successful, but new ways are always possible:
• Make it Easy to Do Business With You: consumers are smart and lazy. They will seek out the easiest options, even if it means spending a bit more.
• Eliminate Waste: a business can create value by subtracting wasteful steps and resources. This works for internal business processes as well as customer processes.
• Provide Solutions: name any successful business and I will tell you what solutions they provide. This is a no-brainer.
• Give, Give, Give: wow your customers, exceed their expectations and give them more. The returns will come.
• Sell Feelings: people buy feelings and feelings sell. Piece of mind, exclusivity, wellness and savings are all strong feelings that sell very well.
• Conquer Fear: much like feelings, fear sells. Conquer your customers fear and you’ll have customers and brand advocates for life.

4) Who Adds Value well?

Here are just a few business that add value well:
• Global Powerhouse: Toyota. Toyota’s legendary TPS (Toyota Production System) is legendary for reducing waste. Toyota has created value by reducing and eliminating wasteful operations.
• Regional Superstar: Buy.com. Buy.com first added tremendous value with is price comparison and price matching. It upped the ante by partnering with competitors. Users of buy.com can purchase from a competitor without ever leaving the buy.com site which makes the user experience very seamless.
• Local Hero: Compagno’s. With sandwiches bigger than a football, Compagno’s in Monterey, CA is a local favorite. And if the sandwiches aren’t enough, their home-made cakes take two to three people to finish.

Adding value is the final piece of your Marketing DNA. It may be the last, but it is certainly the most important.

What is Your Marketing DNA? (Part III of IV)

So we’ve tackled the Differentiation component of your Marketing DNA. This post deals with your Niche. Just like the previous post, we’ll look at four areas: what it is, why it is important, how to find a niche and who is doing well with their niche.

1) What is a Niche?

A marketing niche is nothing more than the relationship of a business to its surroundings. If a business is in an environment with many resources and few competitors, the business can find success. Conversely, an environment with few resources and many competitors can make success difficult. Thus, a business must find the right environment.

My recommendation to most businesses is to first identify the niche, then develop the product or service. Start first by figuring out what niches need solutions and how you or your business can provide the needed solutions. This same principle can be used with existing businesses: really dig into the area that needs the solutions the most and design your product or service to meet those needs.

2) Why is a Niche important?

Selecting the right niche is the essence of survival and sustainability. I liken the importance of selecting the right niche to the importance of selecting the right battlefield. Marketing is often compared to a military struggle with words like campaigns, tactics, objectives and initiatives. With this analogy, the niche is the place in which the battle will take place. Bring a knife to a gun fight and you’re in trouble. But bring the right weapon (i.e. product or service) into the right battlefield (i.e. marketplace), and success is imminent.

Another useful analogy to illustrate the importance of finding the right niche is fishing. A fisher will choose the right bait to attract the right fish and he or she wouldn’t bring a fly rod on a deep sea fishing boat. Yet so many businesses do exactly that. They are so convinced their product or service can work for anything, they forget to think about who they need to attract. They then blast their message everywhere and wonder where the fish are. Focus on one niche, do it well, and your business will boom. The riches are in the niches, as they say.

3) How do you Niche?

There are many ways to focus on a niche. Here are just a few:
· Start with the End in Mind: think first about the target and then design a product or service for that target. Many businesses do just the opposite: they have a product or service designed first and they only later think if the market needs it.
· Look Beyond the Mirror: too many business owners think, “we’ll I like this so everyone else must like it.” That is rarely the path to success. Look beyond the mirror to see of others see what you see. Watch and observe over time.
· Specialize: similar to differentiation, specialization makes your business a niche magnet. There are many ways to specialize, but the more a business focuses on one core competitive advantage that is better and different than others, the more the business will grow.

4) Who focuses on a Niche well?

Lots of businesses excel at serving niches. Here are a few:
· Global Powerhouse: Amazon.com. Amazon started with one sole focus: books. This one platform led Amazon into different niches, but don’t forget that Amazon first gained success by focusing strictly on books.
· Regional Superstar: Clif Bar. The entire marketing strategy at Clif Bar is focused on connecting with its outdoorsy, health-conscious and active niche. Clif Bar sponsors events, athletes and other initiatives to allow it to connect to its niche extremely successfully.
· Local Hero: Nuts 4 Nuts. Luis Martinez was just a Chilean immigrant in NYC. He started selling honey-roasted nuts on a street corner and turned his local cart into an international sensation. Now with over 200 carts in NYC, Santiago and plans to go to Italy, Spain and Germany, Nuts 4 Nuts still remains focused on one product and one niche.

Differentiation is the first component of your Marketing DNA. Niche is the second. Tune into the final Marketing DNA post to learn more about Add-value.

Harness the Power of Testimonials

I would argue that the most powerful message a marketer can communicate is a testimonial. Try this on for size:

"When we worked for the first time with 'Move Your Business to the Next Level' it became clear very fast that Brooke knew more than we did about marketing and he helped us identify a direction that created an efficiency in who we would market towards. The process allowed us to achieve our calendar scheduled goals and do it with an understanding that helped us understand more about who we were and where our strengths lay as an organization. Thanks Brooke!"

Or how about this one:

"Brooke Higgins has been a key factor in taking my business to the next level. I can
honestly say that without Brooke’s guidance and support, I would not be where I am today. Brooke has the business skills and vision to see what needs to be done and the communication skills to convey important information to his clients. He has superior knowledge of all business areas, especially the marketing aspects. Most importantly Brooke has a keen insight to help develop the potential in people. He has helped me to focus my efforts where they are most needed, and set me on a course for success. If you are looking to make some real changes and take your business to the next level, then I highly recommend that you work with Brooke Higgins."

I may be tooting my own horn, but these are direct quotes from my clients. Could I have said it any better? Perhaps I could have written more flowery things about myself. But isn't it more powerful when it comes from someone else? Can't you sense something other than "I am the best, hire me!" Of course! The above quotes come from other business owners not different from you. Their experiences directly relate to experiences you could have.

The lesson here: get as many testimonials from satisfied clients as you can. Harness the power of these messages. Testimonials move people to action. Most happy customers are glad to provide glowing praise for you and your business. So don't be afraid to ask for them. They cost little but return much.

And once you get those testimonials, put them up on your website, on your brochure and on your marketing materials. Blast them wherever you can. You will see the influence that testimonials create and you too can harness their power.

The Safest Investment

I am not a financial planner and I know very little about your investment portfolio. Nevertheless, I know the safest place to invest right now: your business. Before I discuss your business as the safest investment, let me clarify what I mean by “investment.”

Most assume that investment means strictly money. This is a myopic view of investing. Any good financial planner will tell you that money is only part of the equation. Time and energy are also critical elements to solid investing. To ensure an investment is worthwhile, the investor must spend much time and energy researching the decision. Only after time and energy are spent can the investor spend the money. So let’s be clear that an investment requires three things: time, energy and money.

With this understanding, let’s tackle why investing in your business is the safest investment you can make. In a word: control. When you invest in your business, you are in the driver’s seat. Few other investments offer the control that your business offers. Buy a home and get pulled up and down by home prices and valuations. Invest in the market and strap yourself to the DJIA roller coaster. A business, on the other hand, puts you in control.

Control allows you to allocate more time, energy and money when needed. Spend more time, energy and money on a property and you might increase the value, but it’s tough to control what your neighbor does. Spend more time, energy and money with your stock portfolio and you could boost the return, but it’s tough to know when the next multinational is going to go under. But spend more time, energy and money on your business and you can usually generate more business.

Is investing in your business foolproof? Absolutely not. You must invest your time, energy and money wisely. Just because it is the safest investment, doesn’t make it guaranteed. But as many business owners are finding out in times like these, a little extra investment can go a long way and probably much longer than other investments. Certainly safer.

Choose Your Own Customers, Part II

For most things, quality is better than quantity.

Brett Sutton lives this mantra. He is a personal coach for triathletes. His athletes have won 15 world championships and 2 Olympic medals. Most recently, Sutton coached Chrissie Wellington to a Hawaii Ironman championship.

He is known for old-school techniques. He pushes his athletes beyond their limits and was once a trainer for horses and greyhounds. As if this is not controversial enough, he was also convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in 1997.

He was quoted in the October 2008 Outside Magazine as saying “If you want to be a civilian, be a civilian. My athletes are soldiers. This is the jungle. The lion gets up every day. If he doesn’t catch the gazelle, he doesn’t eat. If the gazelle doesn’t outrun the gazelle, he’s dead.”

Pretty intense stuff! You might expect that from a sport as demanding as the triathlon. In my athletic career (water polo, swimming) I certainly had some intense coaches, but nothing resembling Brett Sutton. Then again, I never intended on becoming a World Champion. (Beating Harvard was always a stretch goal for our team!)

But let’s not lose the business lesson that Sutton is teaching. Sutton’s program is not for everyone. At the time of the Outside Magazine article, Sutton was coaching 18 triathletes. Sutton admits that he prefers to work with a smaller group. “I know I could have 100 people here and make more money, but that’s not what I’m about. Coaching is sacred to me.”

The point here is that Sutton selectively chooses who to bring into his program. His platform is unique, different and perhaps unorthodox. That said, he attracts a unique, different and perhaps unorthodox clientele. The results speak for themselves, but Sutton’s means to an end are not intended for all triathletes.

Same goes for a successful small business. A successful small business will selectively choose its clients. A successful small business presents an exceptional platform (otherwise it is a commodity) that attracts only a unique client base. Success, for small businesses, is not about quantity. It’s about quality.

Sutton might say the same thing regarding his coaching. He looks for quality, not quantity. He has set up parameters to attract only those willing to work under his conditions. And he probably turns away a lot of potential customers. Imagine that! Turning away customers!

For your business, try an approach in which you truly choose your own customer. I suggest you write down the characteristics of your ideal customer. In other words, describe your target market in terms of their demographics and psychographics. This will really help you understand what marketing messages and channels to use.

Think about choosing quality customers, and not necessarily quantity. You’ll save money and energy and you’ll attract truly qualified leads.