Marketing Mojo

If you have a product or service that is worth selling, it’s already assumed that it can in some way benefit the target public you have selected to market it to.  It’s not enough to simply be better than your competitors – the annals are filled with the stories of superior products that were completely shut out by inferior or mediocre products that were marketed better (does the name BetaMAX ring a bell?).  You must also attract the attention of the market segment you believe can benefit from what you have to offer. You won’t get a chance to demonstrate your superiority if you can’t get their attention.  In today’s fast-paced, TV-oriented, Internet-wired and wireless world, this can be quite a trick. This is the true test, not only of your base talent and core competence in creating a great product or service, but also of what I call your Marketing Mojo: (my Jewish ex-wife would refer to it as chutzpah) – think of it as your “audacity index” – how willing are you to put yourself out there and really make yourself and your product and business KNOWN? This clutches at the heart of your self-confidence as a professional – your personal willingness to claim and hold a position. Easier said than done, I know, so...HOW exactly do we cut through the clutter, the noise and the nonsense to capture the attention of our elusive prospect, especially in today’s instant-gratification, attention-starved world? An Upbeat Approach How many times have we heard the old saying “Attitude is Everything”?  Sometimes the old wisdoms serve us well.  The best and most reliable way you can inspire the confidence you want your marketplace to have in you is to display that same confidence in your approach and communications with them.  If your approach is downbeat, quiet or apologetic in any way, that confidence goes out the window.  Be the happy guy or girl, keep a “sunny side up” demeanor and don’t just educate, entertain.  This both attracts and keeps attention focused on you, your business and the positive thing(s) your product or service can do for people.  Sure, there are exceptions to this (if you are selling funeral services, hiring clowns and jugglers to attract attention for you might not be in the best taste) but for the most part, people appreciate and gravitate toward the upbeat, the happy and the enthusiastic.  Uniqueness. Find a unique value or benefit for your product and emphasize it.  Use it to set you and your product or service apart from the crowd.  Even if it seems minor to you, it makes a difference to prospects to know that yours isn’t just a “Me Too” product.  Even if your product seems to be the most mundane of commodities, you can provide a service level or an ease of use or acquisition (home delivery, free shipping, whatever works with your business model) that will make people want to buy from you instead of someone else.  This special-ness can help embolden you to get out there and get into people’s faces (politely of course).  It works like a champ.    Feet of Clay “A cheerful vibe?  In this economy?  How?”  There are two answers to this question.  The first revolves around your own integrity as a marketer and as a businessperson.  If you don’t honestly swell with pride thinking about how many people will live better lives because of your product – if you don’t believe in your product and know in your whole heart that it’s really the best choice for your public’s own true benefit, it’s going to be difficult if not impossible to convince others of this.  Knowing in your own mind that your product is second-rate will undermine your personal confidence and rob you of your Marketing Mojo. If you can’t be honest about what you are selling; if you feel you are hiding its flaws or secretly hoping they don’t ask that one burning question that will embarrass or expose you, you must either do everything possible to fix the product so that this isn’t the case or you must find another product.  It really is that simple.  It might not be a complete fraud or deliberately dishonest, but if you can’t frankly look at your product and your intended public and know that yours is indeed their very best option, you are, to that degree, conning people.  The second answer is tied into the other side of that coin – if you CAN look at your product honestly and have confidence that it delivers benefit and is your prospect’s realistic best choice…yet you still fail to get inspired about it, there is only one solution: FAKE IT.  It won’t take long to banish your blues if you change your mind about having them.  Take charge of and responsibility for how you feel and put your attention on making other people happy – there is nothing more therapeutic for one’s own outlook than taking on the responsibility for cheering someone else up.  You CAN actively create your own emotions, you know…but it takes practice.  Try it. Knowledge is Power It helps pump up your Marketing Mojo to know more about your subject than your public and be prepared to back up that communicated knowledge with facts.  Quote the experts, chapter and verse - have your references not only straight but close to hand.  Demonstrate depth in the subject and cultivate the ability not only to parrot the pundits but to think with and draw fresh conclusions from the mastered information.  Understand not only the product or service but what problem in your industry it addresses and how it can benefit each segment of your market. In short, it’s not enough to just tell them that they need it, you must quickly and simply explain WHY they need it. Then explain why they need it NOW. Professional Presentation Look sharp, clean and fashionable in a way that is consistent with YOUR public’s cultural context.  Our definition of looking professional requires that your look communicate that you are VERY well-versed in your field, your product’s use and that you are successful in that field.  If you want to sell surfboards, a Brooks Bros. business suit is probably NOT the correct cultural context to design your wardrobe around.  The feeling that you LOOK professional can contribute to your Marketing Mojo and embolden you to do things you might not otherwise attempt.  Draw Them Out – Learn to LISTEN Legendary sales trainer David Howson preaches this successful formula: “Salesman talking = salesman losing.  Customer talking = salesman winning.” I have never heard a more succinct way to put it in all the years since I produced a promotional video for David and his class back in the early 1990s. People love and need to talk about themselves.  Marketing in essence is all about communication and communication is not just a one-way channel. If you limit your communication to solely outbound communication, you have immediately cancelled 50% of the potential benefit of communicating with someone.   It is a cycle of give and take, inbound and outbound.  If you walk up to someone you don’t know and immediately start talking about yourself and don't let them speak in response, their immediate reaction will be to clam up and walk off.  If you had walked up to the same person and asked them a question that made them think about something important to them in a new way, addressed a point of pain or distress for them or requested their opinion about something, you could have made an instant friend.  This principle is the essence both of market research and the social media revolution - there is no greater level of Marketing Mojo than that inspired by knowing that you are providing EXACTLY what people want. People will eventually teach you EXACTLY how to market to them if you give them the opportunity and then LISTEN while they do so.  It’s the easy, the professional and the honest way to market virtually anything.  Don’t try to con them…listen to what they ask for and have both the humility and the courage to present THAT and you’ll win. In marketing, there are pros and there are cons.  Be a pro. 2009-10-14T20:38:43Z

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marketing-mojo

2009-10-15T10:09:18Z

2009-10-15T17:09:31Z

Dare to attract positive attention...money will follow.

Marketing Mojo

2009-10-27T16:02:23Z