How Good Are You at The Great Game of Marketing? Part 1

Power Tips from Give to Get Marketing

1. The Purpose of My Advertising -- Ads, Flyers, Letters, Etc. -- Should Be to Sell My Product or Service

Absolutely not true! Trying to sell your product or service in your advertising is like walking up to a stranger and saying, 'Will you marry me?'

If people don't know, like and trust you, they won't buy from you.

The real purpose of your advertising is to attract prospects -- people who have an interest in what you are selling -- to your business.

Your selling efforts are then directed specifically to those people who have the most interest in buying what you are offering.

2. Everyone is a Prospect for My Product or Service

Not true. If you try to get everyone's attention, you'll get no one's attention. Not everyone is going to be interested in what you are offering.

The more specifically you target your marketing efforts towards people who already have a genuine interest in what you are offering, the more attention and results you will get.

3. Marketing is About Tricking, Convincing, or Manipulating People into Buying My Product or Service

If you believe this, you won't be in business for long.

There's a name for people who do that -- they're called con-artists and snake-oil salesmen.

Marketing is about helping people get what they want. If they don't want what you are offering, move on and find someone who does -- or change what you are offering so that they do want it.

4. The Purpose of My Marketing Efforts Should Be to Create Awareness of My Business in the Marketplace

Big money-wasting myth!

You've probably heard it before from various media reps; 'You need to keep running your ads over and over again to gain marketplace recognition and awareness.'

Don't believe it. While Coca Cola, The Gap, and Disney can afford to spend millions of dollars to create mass market awareness and keep their names uppermost in the minds of the people in their marketplace, a small business can't.

Unless you have at least $100,000 to $200,000 a year to spend on awareness marketing in your local market, forget it. Mass awareness marketing is a game for the big guys, not for a small business.

Remember, the goal of media reps is to have you run your ads over and over and over again -- that's how they make their commissions. The concept of awareness marketing fits in very well with their goal, but not with yours.

You should be using what is called direct response marketing -- marketing that produces an immediate and direct response.


5. I Don't Need a Headline on My Marketing Pieces

False.

You need a headline on every marketing vehicle you use. That includes ads, flyers, letters, post cards, Web pages, e-mails, etc. Your headline for an in-person presentation, a telemarketing call, etc. would be your opening statement.

Your headline should attract your very best prospects and should tell them in an instant what you have for them.

Thank about how you read a newspaper. How do you decide which articles to read? By the headlines, of course.

Your headline will determine if your prospects will stop to read the rest of your message. If it doesn't grab your prospects and promise them something they want, they won't read the rest of your marketing piece. They're just too busy to waste their time trying to figure out if you have something of interest to them.

Eliminate your headlines, or use a bad one, and you have just wasted 90% of your marketing investment.