Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Marketing Genius
in 30 Minutes
The Simple Ideas Experts Use to Get Rich!
A Marketing Shortcut of
Staggering Brevity
Gary Arndts
CONTENTS
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PUT YOUR BUSINESS IN A FRAME .................................................................................. 22
Framing is Darned Important Because…................................................................................... 23
To Frame…Start with These Burning Questions....................................................................... 23
Framing Parameters...................................................................................................................... 24
When Framing Your Business… ................................................................................................ 26
Create a Radio Spot for Your Business… ................................................................................. 26
FINDING PROSPECTS… .......................................................................................................... 29
To Find Prospects, Consider These Tactics… .......................................................................... 30
FUNNELING PROSPECTS ...................................................................................................... 33
Look at Your Market Like a Pyramid .......................................................................................... 34
Marketing with Pyramids ............................................................................................................. 35
Next You Will Do Something Truly Amazing . . . ....................................................................... 36
Funneling Brings It All Together ................................................................................................. 37
Even More Burning Questions .................................................................................................... 38
The Amazing Power of Offers..................................................................................................... 39
What to Know About Underlying Offers….................................................................................. 39
What to Know About Promotional Offers…................................................................................ 40
Promotional Offers that Work….................................................................................................. 40
Promotional Offers that Don’t Work… ........................................................................................ 42
The 40-40-20 Rule ....................................................................................................................... 42
The Drop-Like-a-Rock Funnel..................................................................................................... 43
The Database Way Station ......................................................................................................... 44
Funnels in Action ......................................................................................................................... 46
STRATEGY ACTION STEPS .................................................................................................. 48
Focusing ......................................................................................................................................... 48
Framing ........................................................................................................................................... 48
Finding............................................................................................................................................. 49
Funneling ........................................................................................................................................ 49
MARKETING TOOL KIT ............................................................................................................ 50
To Create Awareness.................................................................................................................. 50
To Follow Up/Communicate Benefits......................................................................................... 50
To Sustain/Enhance Communication......................................................................................... 50
MORE MARKETING RESOURCES! .................................................................................... 50
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You’re Just 30 Minutes from Becoming
a Marketing Genius…
Since you are starting or running a business…
…you must be just dynamite at doing something right. That something, however, may not
be marketing.
When I talk to people who are embarking on a new business venture, and ask them what
their biggest fear is, they often tell me what really makes them sweat is the idea of getting
customers.
And it should! A customer is the one thing every business must have. No exceptions.
You could have a business without employees. You could farm out everything. You could
operate without equipment or even a physical location.
But you must have customers - at least one. Any business must have an income, and
customers are those delightful people who are the…
No matter what your expertise, without a way to get customers, you will not succeed.
The most effective way to get customers is to have a strategy.
Strategy is one of those words that is thrown around a lot. So about this time, you may
be asking yourself…
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So, What’s a Strategy……Anyway?
…recipe.
Just like cooking, if you do the same thing more than once and get the same result, you
have created a strategy.
You figure out the ingredients. You set up a simple procedure, you end up with a certain
result. You do it again, using the same stuff and the same procedure and guess what?
You get that same result.
Excellent question! You can create a strategy on your own by experimenting. You can
watch someone else. You can get instructions from a chef.
One thing is certain, over the years you will need to create new strategies from time to
time if you are to maintain your success.
Many businesses succeed, not because they are good at marketing, but in spite of the
fact that they are awful at marketing.
As years pass, a business tends to hit critical mass, a time when they have been around
long enough, and enough people know about them, that they can maintain a steady
supply of customers. They are living on this momentum, and they will until somebody
comes along and eats their lunch…
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Maybe you.
However, you cannot afford to wait for critical mass, or to hope that success will come to
you without a marketing strategy. It’s far too risky.
Anyone can create a marketing strategy. So you ask . . . if it’s so dadburn easy, why
doesn’t everyone do it?
Actually, it’s not hard. So that brings up the really big question…
What keeps people from being better marketers? It’s frankly odd that just as we’re
becoming increasingly sharp buyers, as marketers most of us are still pretty primitive.
Here’s why…
Folklore
We suppose there are rules and secrets to marketing, but that they’re almost mystical
things, unknowable or known only by experts or gurus…
Not true. If fact, you’re the best person to create your marketing strategy. You might
need a little help…but no one knows what you want, where you are going, and what you
can offer as well as you do.
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It’s really true. You can do it. As long as you use…
This may work out, but these salespeople have different goals than you do...
…remember, they succeed when you spend money, whether you get results or not.
Take control yourself, but don’t…
Being unsure of ourselves, we fall back on clichés. We overuse words that have all but
lost their meaning, and certainly have lost their energy.
Empty words like quality, service, price and so on…….used to mean something,
not now.
We are almost paralyzed by what is really just stage fright. This is another reason why we
resort to safe messages filled with clichés. We think marketing…….especially advertising
……is about exposing ourselves to the world.
This is scary. Rather than look stupid, face ridicule, lose face, we play it safe. We also…
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…act like apes, and…
Try to Cheat…
Surely, you remember that urge back in high school to take just a little peek over there
at the next guy’s test paper. I certainly do.
Monkey see……monkey……
And guess what? You’re still not over it! And I’m not either!
Shame on us both. We copy our competitors, thinking they must know something we
don’t. We think that’s safe. Odds are they are also copying us.
We increase the size of our yellow page ad. Next year our competitor increases the size
of his. Then we increase our ad size again, since we think our competitor must know
something we don’t…..and on and on…
Avoid Thinking!
Did you ever feel that just by possessing a book you possessed its knowledge?
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……just because you have a chocolate chip does not mean you’re baking cookies. Just
because you build a web site does not mean you have a marketing strategy.
Sadly, most web sites I see are pretty much just chocolate chips…
(I’ve had mine this month.) This won’t hurt a bit. There, now…….
Now you’ll be able to create a strategy to accomplish your goals. You’re about to get a
recipe for creating strategies. And it’s really easy to use.
So powerful and easy to use, in fact, we must cross our fingers and hope your
competitors don’t get a hold of this. Wait a minute……I feel another good question
coming……
You’re about to ask, “Are there companies who have never heard of this recipe and are
really successful anyway?”
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That’s where this recipe came from……watching them! Some cooks produce great
results without being conscious of how they do it. I’ve spent 25 years (really about 30
years, but I’m in denial) in the kitchen watching the cooks and trying out the recipes
whether they were written down or not. That’s why I can now tell you that…...
Here, at last is the genuine EZ Bake Way to cook up enough profits to feed a family of
up to…
If you trek up that winding trail to the hall of the mountain king…
….and ask that wise old glassy-eyed marketing guru……he’ll grant you a few basic truths
about marketing that you must know. I certainly have no intention of arguing with him.
They have worked for me often enough to accept them.
There is no correlation…
…between the amount of money you spend and the effectiveness of your
marketing.
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Wow! Did he really say that?
It’s the truth. The strategy, not money, makes a marketing program work. Think about it
like this…
If success was just a result of the money spent, then any marketing program costing over
a certain amount, let’s say $10,000, would be a success! And programs costing less
would not. Pretty stupid notion, isn’t it?
But as you know, if you do the same thing more than once and get the same result
you have created a successful strategy.
A strategy is a recipe.
Remember?......you use the same ingredients in the same way and you get the same
results.
If you hit a sale and save money on an ingredient, does the recipe still work? If you
borrow an ingredient from a neighbor, does the recipe still work? Course it does!
Money is just another ingredient. For some strategies, you don’t need it at all.
While we are talking strategies……the guru will also tell you that….
A more profitable strategy is often free, requiring only testing to confirm it.
In fact…
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……one big, big, big time business guru tells us that marketing and innovation are the
only two ways to create money out of thin air. You simply find a way to do something that
delivers greater results for the same or a lesser investment.
No one (not even a genuine guru) can outguess their customers – at least, not
consistently.
Although you can use your experience and other peoples experience to guide you, the
big problem is that most people let their experience (or their perception of their
experience) limit what they try.
The great marketing geniuses of the world are only geniuses because they take the time
to learn their customers’ secrets by testing ideas and learning from these experiments.
Oh, sure. They know some cool tricks. But they still test. Believe it……
Me…me…me…me…me…
It’s just our nature, the guru tells us. Human beings always act in what they perceive to
be their own self-interest - at least, at the moment.
We maximize our pleasure, and avoid pain or discomfort to the extent that we think we
understand how to do it. You must appeal to those self interests in your marketing.
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No option. You must. Forget being clever. Forget being creative. Forget bragging about
your business…….because……
Marketing is never about you – it is always about your customer or prospect. It has
nothing to do with you. Sorry, but they (your prospects) don’t really care about you.
(Now you are thinking…..how about that time my aunt bought those sugar cookies so I
could go to band camp……and she’s was a diabetic……allergic to flour and sugar and
butter……and……WAIT A MINUTE! Didn’t it make her feel good just to help you? Was
she really paying for cookies……or that good feeling?)
Don’t focus on yourself. Focus on your prospects. This is good news! This little axiom
alone should eliminate any stage fright you have about marketing yourself. Because you
are not really marketing yourself after all……you’re marketing benefits for your
customers……and nothing else.
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How Strategies Are Born
A powerful method for creating strategies is called the F-4 System. It stands for…..
This recipe works. It’s simple. It makes it easy to cook up a workable formula to gain new
customers. And…….it works well for any type business.
Framing – Create your message, your image. Who are you? Why should your
prospects come to you? What makes you different? What exclusive advantage do you
offer them? Some call this creating your Unique Selling Proposition.
“These customers want me to serve them because only I can offer them…”
Finding – Where are your prospects? How do you make contact with them?
“I will identify and communicate with prospects in the following ways…”
Funneling – Lead prospects to you and what you can offer. Encourage them to take
steps immediately or eventually resulting in them becoming your customer.
“I will use the following process (strategy) to turn prospects into customers…”
Get Focused…
There are four parts to the F-4 System
It is no accident that the first is Focusing. It’s often overlooked and underestimated in
importance . . . as is Framing.
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MAJOR SECRET FROM THE BIG VAULT #2
…I’ve seen businesses do such a good job with these first two that they virtually skipped
the last two Fs and still succeeded spectacularly. This is good because the last two Fs
are where a lot of money ends up being spent.
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Start with These Key Questions…
You may need to describe your customers in terms of their industry, size, location,
demographics, psychographics, benefits sought, volumes purchased, marketing factors…
and so on.
Pretty simple...
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Focusing Questions…
Decision Makers – What person, (name, title, function or demographic) selects your
products or service? Who influences this decision?
Distribution – Do you sell to customers directly? If not, describe the process you use to
get your products or services to your ultimate customers. (Identify all middlemen and
purchasing influences.)
Targeting – What characteristics make your customers YOUR customers (what are
they seeking and why?)
Lost Customers – What customers have you lost? Why did you lose them? What would
it take to get them back?
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Business-to-Business Targeting Parameters
Geographic
Country State
County City
Areas By Size
Rural Regional
Territory SMSA
Classification (demographic)
Electronics Instruments
Furniture Plastics
Computers Medical
Machinery Paper
Electrical Services
Aerospace Food
Chemicals Leather
Processes Metalworking
Textile Petroleum
Building Products Metals
Transportation Lumber
Rubber Communications
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Buying Decision Makers & Influences (demographic)
President Sales
R&D Engs. Controller
Mfg. Mgrs. Information Systems
Marketing Mgrs. Plant Managers
Distribution Accounting
Production Engs. Advertising
Buyers Maintenance
Legal Shipping
Volume (demographic)
Heavy Medium
Light Non-users
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Consumer Targeting Parameters
Geographic
Country State
County City
Areas Regional
Rural DMA
Territory (Designated Market Area)
Demographic
Age Education
Sex Life Cycle
Family Religion
Size Social Class
Income Nationality
Occupation Own/Rent
Psychographic
Compulsive Achiever
Gregarious Liberal
Autonomy Ambitious
Conservative Leadership
Authoritative
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Volume
Heavy Medium
Light Non-users
Marketing Factor
You can even focus on those who tend to respond to a certain type appeal.
Price Message
Price Deals Image
Retail Ads Indifference
Distribution Habit
Brand Loyalty Product Quality
Benefit
These are universal wants that are the basis for many appeals
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Put Your Business in a Frame
Other experts call this a Unique Customer Advantage. I like to think of it as Framing a
business. Framing is the process of creating a picture that you display to the world.
It is your message, your image, and your unique position in the universe. But…
Not at all! It is a picture of your customer enjoying some benefit only you can deliver.
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People always act in what they perceive to be their own self-interest. No one is interested
in seeing a picture of you…
They want to see a picture of themselves and how they will look and feel after you
have served them. That’s all Framing is - and it’s a real key to the success for….any
business.
If this picture is attractive enough, you have truly created a better mousetrap and people
will begin to beat that path to your door.
In fact . . .
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Framing Parameters
Advantages – What are the top five strengths of your products or services?\
Disadvantages – What are the top five weaknesses of your products or services?
Alternatives – If your customers would not buy YOUR products or services, what would
they buy or do instead?
Threats – What are the greatest threats to your ability to sell your products or services?
Product Evolution – Are you selling the same products and services that were
available five years ago? How have they changed?
Competitive Pricing – What does competitive pricing actually mean to your customers?
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Clear Focus – How tightly is your product aimed at a particular group?
High Level of Service – How would your customers define your service?
Name Recognition – Are most customers/prospects aware of you? How does your
name recognition compare to your competitions’?
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When Framing Your Business…
Decide what you would like to be known for, and ask yourself if this is also something that
your prospects will highly value.
What are you better at than anyone else? What are your areas of specialization? What
niche could you dominate? What results can you promise?
Are you comfortable in this niche? Do you deliver on your promises consistently?
When someone asks you what business you’re in, (and think how many times that
happens every week) you have a unique opportunity to create a very special image in the
mind of that person.
This is important because the image you create will enable that person to become a
salesperson for your business by recommending you to others.
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Create a radio spot for your business!
This is really easy, but it takes practice (in the bathroom, in front of the mirror…….when
no one else is home.) Try this little formula when you are asked what business you are in.
Say:
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(then say ) “Well, I specialize in…
You know that you are “well framed” when someone comes up to you and says,
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Finding Prospects…
…hunting them down and…
and advertising in particular, what enters our brain is prospecting, “How are we going
to reach prospects?”
And naturally, you want to pursue the hottest prospects as inexpensively as possible.
If…you’ve focused and framed your business properly you’ll be successful. Your
communication will be both directed and persuasive. So your job in Finding is mainly to
be efficient.
You wish to contact the best prospects in the lowest cost way that will still accomplish
your objectives.
Identify prospects
Determine prospects’ value
Refresh your customer base
Develop the lowest cost methods of communication
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MAJOR SECRET FROM THE BIG VAULT #4
Say to yourself, “Self, I know that some of my prospects read this publication and the cost
of advertising here is not prohibitive. So I will run an ad and ask readers to tell me if they
are prospects.” Even better, of course, in this age of search engine marketing, an ad on
Google or Yahoo lets prospects show their interest simply by choosing to click to your
website.
After all, no one really can identify a prospect, except prospects themselves! A person
may fit all the criteria to be a perfect customer, but have his or her own reasons to never
use your product or service.
History – List five ways you have obtained new customers in the past – in descending
order of effectiveness:
Spy – Discover what your competitors are doing to communicate with prospects?
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Co-beneficiaries – Who else benefits when you sell something? Can you ask them to
join forces?
Trade publications – Are there publications reaching both the industry and the person
inside the company who you need to reach?
Mailing lists – Are there mailing lists available that reach your target market? Do trade
publications make their subscription lists available?
Directories – Are there trade directories, including on-line directories, that reach your
market? Would general industrial directories such as Thomas Register contribute to your
marketing effort?
Newsletters – Are industry newsletters available? Would creating your own newsletter
make sense?
Trade shows – Are there shows or conventions that your prospects attend?
Yellow Pages – Would your prospects seek new sources by exploring the Yellow
Pages?
Publicity – Are you sending news releases on new products, services, personnel
changes and other newsworthy information to trade publications and other media?
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Internet – Do you have a web site? How does it fit into your marketing strategy? How do
you attract visitors and get them to respond?
Referrals – How are you cultivating word-of-mouth advertising for your business? Are
you asking for testimonials from satisfied customers? How do you reward those who
recommend you to others?
Contact – How do you maintain communication with customers and prospects? This
may be the least costly, but most important of all your marketing activities.
Marketing Tools – What communication tools do you have and how do they fit into
your overall strategy?
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Funneling Prospects
Very Impressive.
It’s based on a very simple notion: some prospects are more valuable to you than
others. You have more confidence that some are better prospects. .
As this confidence increases so does a prospect’s value to you - and the amount of
money, time and effort you are willing to spend on them should also increase.
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Look at Your Market Like a Pyramid
Customers
Do business with now
Past Customers
Have done business with
Qualified Prospects
Meet your qualification standards
Unqualified Prospects
Identified or expressed an interest
Suspects
Suspect they have a need
Never
Will never become customers
(for whatever reason)
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Marketing with Pyramids
of your market that makes sense in terms of what separates some people
from other people.
Flexibility – The pyramid is a flexible way of viewing your market. You can define each
level anyway that is useful for you.
Value – Notice that as you rise on the pyramid above, these individuals’ suspected
worth increases.
Customers’ Value – You might even create a pyramid of customers, from most
valuable to least valuable.
Pareto’s Principle – 20% of your customer base is worth more than the other 80%
Action – Your big question – how do you treat each segment differently?
My own rule – The more confident you are that someone is a good prospect the more
you should be willing to spend on them.
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Next You Will Do Something Truly Amazing . . .
Qualify them
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Funneling Brings It All Together
Customer Focus – You’re reviewing your prospects in terms of who are the
best bets to slide on down the funnel. (Demo-, Psycho- & Geo-graphically)
Framing – You’re getting clear about what specific needs you’re really
meeting. Results can you promise. Stoppers that keep prospects from becoming
customers…
Finding – You’re discovering how to fill that funnel. The tightest group of
prospects you can identify…how to reach them…make them aware of you…
Funneling – And so, in the end funneling once again leads us to even more
burning questions…
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Even More Burning Questions
How can you assure that prospects are aware of you …and see you in the way you
want to frame your business?
What can you offer to keep customers from becoming past customers?
What can you offer to get lost customers to become new customers?
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The Amazing Power of Offers
sift a suspect through your marketing funnel until the suspect becomes qualified and
ultimately becomes a customer. You can think of offers as being of two types…
Underlying Offers – Your business, your products and services and your
prospects’ perception of those things. It’s what you’re really selling!
Credibility is a major issue. An old saying is, “You can’t get fired for buying IBM.” This
was a way of saying that if something goes wrong (and with technology that can happen),
at least, you bought from the largest computer company in the world. IBM used this as
leverage for many years, even though their products weren’t always the best.
Purchasers are looking for reasons not to buy. Lack of familiarity or poor perception can
be reason enough.
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What to Know About Promotional Offers…
If you’re…
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Seeking Then, offer…
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Promotional Offers that Don’t Work…
The non-offer offer – Build it and they will come. For example, free information without
description of what it contains or why they should care.
Too cute offer – Gimmick not related to your underlying offer. May generate false
positives. However, may be useful to eliminate possibilities or create an unqualified
prospecting list.
Certain restrictions apply offer – Offers with too many strings attached. Too
complicated. Too convoluted. Instead make it very, very, easy, easy, to take advantage
of your offer.
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What your ad looks like…what color your mailer is…and so on…may be only a fraction
as influential as targeting the right people with the right offer. Time and time again,
I’ve seen really ugly mailers out pull beautifully designed brochures.
Word of mouth…
When someone recommends you to a friend, that friend often drops through your funnel
like a rock.
In additional, there’s evidence that customers who come from referrals are more
profitable, more reliable, easier to work with and stay on longer as customers.
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The Database Way Station
If someone doesn’t…
…perceive an immediate need or desire for your product or service, there is almost
nothing you can do to get their attention.
If someone has just bought new tires, there is nothing you can say in a tire ad that will
get their attention……at least not in the way you want their attention.
On the other hand…if they just experienced a bare tread blowout, just about any tire ad
will interest them.
In this situation, how can you identify people who aren’t ready now, but will be tire buyers
someday?
[SIDE NOTE: You might say, well, if he isn’t ready to buy a tire right now, I don’t care if I
communicate with that guy or not? “Big mistake”, as Arnold might say.
If you wait until he’s ready, it may be too late! He may quickly buy from a competitor he is
already aware of . . . and you’re toast. “Hasta la vista baby!”]
So what to do?
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Think like the marketing genius you now are!
What if you created a list of extremely valuable customers……say, people who own
several vehicles. These people just by virtue of real world odds, will have need for your
services more frequently. They’ll be good prospects and warrant some communication
every few months.
You want to collect these valuable prospects in your funnel…..and then guide them on
their way to……YOU!
A funnel is really just a database……a place to store prospects until they are ready to
become customers.
…so can fish later with a good chance of catching something……without spending a
fortune on bait or waiting hours for a bite.
It’s usually not wise or necessary to spend a fortune to find valuable prospects to create
your database.
Instead use relatively low cost techniques, such as running an ad that reaches
thousands of people for pennies each, or offering prospects something inexpensive in
return for filling out a questionnaire and identifying themselves. As your database grows
you can use more costly, but very effective, approaches like direct mail, telephone calls,
or even personal visits.
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Most important, gather contact information on all the prospects who didn’t buy from you
this time. They will buy again…and you’ll have a second shot at them…if you know who
they are.
Funnels in Action
BOOK CLUB
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ELECTRONIC COMPONENT MANUFACTURER
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Strategy Action Steps
Focusing
Are there more customers or prospects like them like that out there?
If you were focusing more on them, how would that affect your marketing?
Your profitability? Your competitive power?
Framing
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Finding
Examine how you have been finding prospects, or they have been finding you.
Funneling
What steps can you take to get them from unknown to a suspect, to a
prospect, to a customer, to a repeat customer, to a customer who buys more,
to a customer who refers other customers?
Test ideas repeatedly and fail often. But do it in a small way that won’t cost
much or injure existing business. Keep trying till you discover recipes that
works.
Start cooking...
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Marketing Tool Kit
To Create Awareness...
Newspapers Consumer Magazines
Trade Publications Independent Newsletters
Radio Television
Director Listings Directory Advertisements
Yellow Pages Outdoor (billboards, signs)
Events Seminars
Demonstrations Trade Shows
Mailings Articles
Books Publicity
Telephone Speeches/Presentations
Volunteering Partnering
To Sustain/Enhance Communication...
Newsletter E-mail
Articles/Columns Books (your own)
Samples Giveaways
Faxes Ad Specialties
Speeches Presentations
Coupons Telephone
Displays Volunteering
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MORE MARKETING RESOURCES!
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