Over the years I have collected a variety of marketing formulas. I am giving you the formulas without any explaination. I know that won't be helpful and informative if you are new to marketing. This article is directed more to those of you who have read and studied everything there is to know about marketing to expand your thinking on what and how to share your message and hopefully in the comments you will share your secrets.
I start with what you learned in college - the 4P's of marketing. Here's the summary from Wikipedia:
Four P's
In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, also at the Harvard Business School in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements:
1) product
2) price
3) place
4) promotion
Seven P's
As well as the standard four P's (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Placement), services marketing calls upon an extra three, totaling seven and known together as the extended marketing mix.[citation needed] These are:
5) People
6) Process
7) Physical evidence
The 4 and the 7 P's of marketing were not that inspiring to me. They were descriptive but I couldn't create much of a marketing campaign or much of a marketing plan from them. It kept me looking for more answers.
Web 2.0 New Marketing Four P's:
1) Personalization
2) Participation
3) Peer-to-Peer
4) Predictive modeling
I liked this one! Good take on what is important in web marketing.
AIDA (S)
AIDA is an acronym used in marketing that describes a common list of events that are very often undergone when a person is designing a marketing peice:
A - Attention
I - Interest
D - Desire
A - Action
(S) - Satisfaction
When I learned this one years ago, I thought there was something missing from the formula and I couldn't figure out what it was. That is what kept me searching for other marketing formulas.
Buying Process
1) Awareness
2) Consideration
3) Purchase
4) Loyalty
Isn't that simple? I like looking at everything from the buyer's point of view.
WIIFM
What's In It For Me?
For years I studied psychology, influence, and persuasion to figure out how to motivate people to take action. Once I became aware of this formula I stopped studying all of that stuff and just studied what people want. This leads to a discussion of Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.
From Joe Vitale
Aristotle Formula:
1) Problem
2) Promise
3) Proof
4) Price
Joe Vitale is great! He pulls abstract stuff from Aristotle and translates it into a formula. For years I went on this model even before I learned it from Joe.
The Updated Joe Vitale Formula
1) Promise
2) Proof
3) Price
In his book "Hypnotic Selling" Joe explains how you don't have to rub the client's nose in the problem, they live with the problem. What they want to hear is the promise. They will get it if they are feeling the pain. I use this formula a lot.
From the Book "No More Bullet Points" by Cliff Atkinson
Setting
Dilemma
Solution
Close
I had to extract this formula from the book. He didn't present it as a formula. He was sharing in the book that this is how Hollywood creates previews that pull us into the movie theatre. He says that all good stories center around a dilemma. That was enlightening to me.
From Sergio Zyman
This is one of my favorite marketing mantra's
The purpose of marketing is simply to “sell more stuff to more people more often for more money more efficiently.™”
- More Stuff
- More People
- More Often
- More Money
- More Efficiently
This one is a powerful formula! I use it to teach my clients how to think about marketing. Not only is it the purpose of marketing, this is a sophisticated marketing strategy. Create marketing that will get one more customer to buy one more thing, come back and buy one more time, and spend one more dollar with ou while you spend one less dollar on your advertising budget. Mathematically speaking this adds a lot more revenue from the same number of customers.
NLP Selling Formula
1) Establish Rapport
2) Identify Values
3) Create Value
4) Solve Buying Problems
5) Close the Sale
I was in professional sales for years and studied everything I could get my hands on. This NLP formula for sale really resonated with me and I still use it today.
Double A Double M - Back of the Napkin Marketing Strategy
1) Audience
2) Advantage
3) Media
4) Math
I was looking for a way to simplify a marketing plan. I found that if I can identify these four elements (on the back of napkin), I have a marketing plan.
Y.U.M. Principle of Marketing
You Understand Me
This has been very helpful to my marketing way of thinking. When a person sees our marketing and says, "you're talking to me." That person will likely become a customer.
"Made to Stick" Formula
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories
This is from the book "Made to Stick." I highly recommend it. The idea is to create a message that will change the thinking and the behavior of those who experience it.
I teach hours of courses on these topics. We have a lot of fun with it. When I am helping a client put their marketing together I usually rely on the "Updated Joe Vitale Formula" (Promise, Proof, & Price). In his book "Hypnotic Writing" he shares some ways to be flexible with the formula and how to adapt it to the customer.
I highly recommend using sales scripts for training purposes. Usually the owner is the best salesperson in the business. Depending on the product/service or situation I have the business owner video his/her sales presentation and put it on their website. Nobody sells better than you. This creates consistency with every prospective customer and they get to hear it from the top.
I have seen a dramatic increase in sales conversions when the owner writes down the sequence of their own presentation and writes out the main concepts in a story board fashion. It helps you to get an objective point of view on what you are saying and how it is being recieved.
What marketing formulas do you use? What has worked for you or your clients?
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