In my quest for the best marketing advice, I ran across a short article by a friend of mine – Eric Mulford, who for over 30 years has been a very successful Sales Trainer for many different companies.
Although there are times when I wax eloquent and witty, yet I pale in comparison of the following:
A Primer on Marketing
Having a marketing plan is a key to the success of your business. Failing to plan can lead to the rapid failure. I’m going to share with you four secrets to highly effective marketing. But first we need to understand that…
Marketing is building a path to your business so that your potential buyers can find what they need and get it from you.
Small businesses with a highly effective marketing plan are consistently being found by those who want to do business with them.
They have learned these four secrets. They…
Understand the difference between marketing and advertising
Advertising focuses on the law of large numbers. Marketing focuses on helping those who are in the market for your goods or services find you so that they can do business with you. Advertising assumes that everyone is your potential customer. Marketing seeks out only those who are in the market for your goods and services.
Advertising takes a “shotgun” approach. If a newspaper has a circulation of 50,000 yet only 10 of those are in the market for your goods or services what did it cost you to tell 49,990 uninterested individuals?
Advertising is only one type of marketing. There are more than 200 different marketing approaches – advertising is only one of them. If you are putting all of your marketing efforts in advertising you are missing 99.5% of all you can do. Yet you are probably spending more than half your marketing budget on advertising. Spending marketing dollars to reach people who will never be in the market for your product is a waste of your money.
Understand the difference between marketing and sales.
The goal of marketing is selling. But there is a difference between marketing and selling. Marketing is everything that you do that brings a potential buyer into contact with what you have to offer. Selling is actually closing the deal. When you market you don’t start by making the sale. You start by building a relationship.
In my sales career my ultimate goal has always been not just make the sale, but to make the sale in such a way that the customer will then happily recommend me to other people in the market for my goods and services.
The idea behind high-pressure selling is that everybody is in the market for what you have you just have to convince them. This leads to regrets, dissatisfied customers, and customer service issues. Marketing realizes that people buy when they’re ready not when you are. Marketing is about building relationships so that when the potential buyer is ready to purchase they wouldn’t even consider buying anywhere else.
Understand the difference between marketing and hype.
Marketing is the truth made fascinating. Hype is the truth proclaimed falsely. Marketing is presenting the appropriateness of your goods and services to the needs of the client. Hype is twisting the capabilities of your goods or services so that the potential buyer will feel an obligation to purchase. An effective marketing message is targeted at compelling people who are in the market for your goods and services to get that from you. Marketing never needs to depend on hype.
Understand the difference between marketing and manipulation.
Manipulation is all about closing techniques. It focuses on what do you have to do to make this sale. Marketing is all about helping the potential buyer get to know you, trust you, want to do business with you, and willingly recommend you to others who are in the market for your goods and services. That will never be gained by getting someone to buy something they didn’t need in the first place.
The goal of marketing is getting your business found by those who want to do business with you at the lowest cost to you. Marketing is the best investment you will make in your business if you do it right. Understanding these secrets will help you do it right! (Eric Mulford)
I hope this may help you as you build your online business as much as it has helped me!
Happy Selling and may we never forget the difference between marketing, advertising, sales, hype, and manipulation!
All for now . . .
