Warning! The Person Doing
Your Marketing May Not Even
Know How to Market
Themselves!
By Kathleen Gage
As a business advisor I work
with clients helping them
gain
visibility within their
market. Without sounding too
arrogant or bold I can
safely say I have earned the
right to do this. The
primary reason is because
the very strategies I teach
my clients are the same
tactics that have afforded
me a great deal of
visibility within my market.
It is this visibility that
sets me apart from my
competition.
There is incredible power
and profit that comes from
visibility. The more visible
you are to your market the
more you will be the person
a client calls when the need
for your product or service
arises. Hands down -
visibility is a primary
aspect of one's marketing.
Unfortunately, many people
either don't know how to
gain the
visibility that sets them
apart from their competition
or they
aren't willing to put the
time into creating it. Worse
yet, they
may have someone who is
doing their marketing that
really doesn't know how to
position the client for
maximum exposure.
So how do you go about
gaining massive visibility
within your market?
Actually, it is very simple.
Not necessarily easy, but it
is a simple formula. It is
all about developing systems
and being very strategic in
your approach to
implementation of the
system.
Gaining recognition is about
becoming "famous" to a
targeted
group of people. By famous,
I am not referring to world
renowned. Fame in the
context I am using simply
means being visible to those
people who make the decision
to utilize and purchase your
products or services. It is
in this fame, or name
recognition, the process of
selling becomes one of being
a problem solver rather than
an order taker.
Gaining visibility within
your market does not have to
be an
expensive proposition. On
the other hand there will be
occasions you will need to
make strategically planned
financial investments.
Many uninformed individuals
assume advertising is all
that's
necessary to market their
business and gain name
recognition.
Advertising is only a part
of your marketing, not
marketing in and of
itself. Unfortunately, many
people waste countless
dollars on
ineffective ad campaigns
because they were led to
believe an ad was all it
took for them. This happens
both offline and online.
Prior to the use of the
Internet in marketing
campaigns, I saw person
after person taken advantage
of by a slick account
executive who offered some
amazing ad campaign. A
campaign that was just too
tempting for the uninformed
client to resist.
Often, the campaigns were so
cheap that the client simply
signed on without any
research. Unfortunately,
many of the campaigns were
very ineffective. The
primary reason was because
there were so many missing
elements including who the
target market was.
Now that the Internet has
become an integral part of
many marketing campaigns,
the same thing is happening
online as has been happening
for decades offline. People
are buying into campaigns
without doing the necessary
research.
To succeed, you must take a
holistic approach to
positioning you and your
company. Again, one way to
enjoy success is to gain
visibility within your
market.
However, before you will
obtain the name recognition
you desire you have to lay a
solid foundation. The place
to begin is to know your
market. A few things to
consider are.
Who do you want to sell to
and who would buy your
product or
service?
Gender
Age
Income level
Industries or professions
Education
Interests and hobbies
Geographic region
Association involvement
Lifestyle
From there you have a number
of avenues you can take to
gain
visibility. One of the most
effective is to host a
complimentary
informational event, seminar
or workshop. It positions
you as an
expert and you are a
resource before you are a
vendor.
Events can have as few as 6
people in a workshop on up
to a 500 person event. Many
people miss this incredible
opportunity because they
don't think they can
present. My response is you
are presenting all the time.
It's just a matter of what
you are
presenting.
With the power of the
Internet you can set up a
system that allows you to
continually host information
seminars and costs very
little to market. All your
marketing efforts should
lead people back to your
website.
A website is really intended
to be more than just an
electronic
brochure. It should be
something that gets people
to take action,
provides great information,
is updated on a regular
basis and is
something people can use as
a resource.
Set up you web site so that
people can leave their
contact
information. Offer something
of value to your market such
as a free report, an Ezine,
an Ebook or anything that
creates a compelling enough
reason for viewers to give
you their information.
This can be done with an
autoresponder. The purpose
of the
autoresponder is to automate
the process and develop a
database for future
marketing efforts. Many
people do nothing at all to
get
contact information from the
dozens, hundreds or
thousands of
visitors to their sites.
This is simply missed
opportunity.
Develop a list of local
media contacts you can send
a press release to if the
event is open to the public.
Find out what their criteria
for sending in a release via
email is. Many will not open
any attachments. So if you
are sending an attached
document to the media there
is a good chance they won't
read it.
Make sure the release is
short and to the point.
Simply put, the Who, What,
When, Where and Why. Many
releases do not get read or
published due to being
poorly written or too
lengthy.
Write articles with a topic
that is connected to the
information
seminar you are offering.
Send these out to various
locations online such as
Yahoo Groups. Add a
compelling byline that
encourages people to visit
your website.
You can also send the
article out in an Ezine
format to those people who
are in your database. This
is the very reason you want
to be able to collect
people's contact information
from your website. If they
leave you their contact
information chances are very
good they are interested in
you and your products,
services and various
offerings.
So as not to miss those
folks who are not in your
online database you will be
well served to also send out
a direct mail piece. This
piece is used to announce
the event and should
encourage people to visit
your website to sign up for
the event.
If you are strategic
marketing the event you will
most like gain some free
publicity for yourself and
your company.
The day of the presentation
you absolutely must make
sure people have a stellar
experience. This would
include the actual
presentation being one that
is so content filled that
even if people never buy a
thing from you they feel
they have received
incredible value.
Within 24 hours of the
session send out a thank you
letter
highlighting key points you
made during your
presentation. Depending on
your market the letter can
be sent out via email.
Mention in the letter that
you would enjoy speaking at
either their company or an
association meeting. You
will be amazed at how many
opportunities this can
generate if your initial
presentation exceeded
expectations.
Your success with this
process will be determined
by how consistent you are in
keeping your name if front
of your market. I have
witnessed time and again
people who will try this
method once, get busy with
other things and then let
the system drop. What an
absolute waste.
With the system outlined I
have successfully promoted
events in my market that
have cost me less than $50
in marketing costs and
realized a return of tens of
thousands of dollars in
revenue from
subsequent sales. However, I
have been using this system
for years and am very
consistent in my process.
As you consider the things
you can do to increase your
visibility and who you may
choose to work with on your
marketing, a couple of
questions you need to ask
are, "Am I willing to put
the right systems in place
to gain the result I want?"
and "Does the
person I am considering to
help me market my business
know how to market their own
business?" The answers will
help to determine your level
of success.
Do you want to gain massive
visibility within your
market? Kathleen Gage can
help you do just that. As a
published author, keynote
speaker and top rated
business advisor, Kathleen
Gage teaches strategies that
give high impact and high
return. Sign up for Gage's
FR*EE Report "Learn How a
Salt Lake City base
consultant made over
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