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The old economy is shattered and gone forever … and it is never coming back as it was. While some time-honored, reliable business strategies and skills continue to have their places … and are even more important than ever … they must be combined with new, more creative and agile thinking along with more tough-minded and disciplined methods that are in synch with realities of the New Economy and the demands of its consumers and clients … in order to profit from New Economy customers. As a result, the entrepreneur’s responsibility, and opportunity, is to create breakthrough ideas that foster exciting and positive relationships between the business owner and its customers. This post contains several ideas to create these types of exciting and positive breakthrough strategies as the worst marketing sin you can commit is to be boring. . 1. Find a Market Niche and Exploit It. The riches are in the niches. A market niche is a crack, a crevice, an opportunity gap of a market that is being overlooked, ignored, abused, or very poorly serviced. For example, Subway cleverly reinvented itself as a weight-loss program with “Jared’s diet” giving the company great differentiation from all other fast food restaurant chains. It is important to understand that the world divides into niches, and sub-cultures, and just about everybody belongs to a least one, and frequently to several, of the niches; and they closely identify with them. Everyday people spend more for products and services that they believe have been created or designed specifically for their particular need or situation. The further you drill down, and make whatever you offer feel customized to a niche, the better your results may be and the better you will be able to command premium prices or fees, and of course above-par profits. 2. Find a New Sales Media and Let It Make You Rich. The Internet has come into its own as a provider of media and many find ways to use it profitably. Social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and the countless niche and subculture versions are being used by everyone from comedians on the rise to entrepreneurs promoting their products. Youtube is being used by companies, as a means of reaching a new and different audience, for its product demonstrations. Google AdWords is a means of purchasing “eyeballs” of website visitors who are actually searching for the exact expertise, information, products, or services a particular company provides. Other uses of the Internet and Websites include catalog-type sites, sales letters, video-assisted sales letters, and customer service and support. One big caution is that over-reliance on any one media can be a huge, costly, and dangerous mistake so be sure to consider multi-channel marketing. Besides the Internet and Websites, other channels include radio, TV, print advertising, newsletters, and direct mail. 3. Create a New Type of Guarantee and Confound Your Competition. There is nothing better than finding a way to offer the very best guarantee in a field, a sector, or a niche. Lee Iacocca used this idea to save Chrysler many years back with its 7 year / 70,000 Mile Warranty; competition was left gasping and galloping backwards. Recently, Hyundai provided the most unusual auto warranty ever; if you lost your job, they would make three consecutive months of car loan payments for you. If you were still in trouble, you could return the car, have your loan voided, owe nothing, and your credit would not be negatively affected. This approach is frequently called “risk reversal selling” and companies that use this approach frequently find the increased sales have far exceeded the cost of honoring the guarantee. 4. Deliver Exceptional Service and Earn Word-of-Mouth Advertising. In the New Economy, unsatisfactory service is deadly. All the power is in the hands of the consumers and their spending has become more thoughtful and deliberate. No business can afford to disappoint. Exceptional service means different things to different people in different businesses at different times. The key is to study examples and derive ways for your business to stand out. Walt Disney preached that customers should be viewed and treated like guests. That is why at Disney World and Disneyland, all the employees, from the broom pushers to the managers, learn how to direct guests to any attraction and how to answer the most common questions. They are taught that they are important to the success of each guest’s visit. The next time you are at a Disney Park, watch how people go up to a broom pusher and ask questions. You will witness exceptional customer service in action. The key marketing principle from Disney is “to do what you do so well that people can’t resist telling others about you.” Following this principle gives you marketing leverage. For example, if you get one customer from an advertisement, that is one thing. If you get that customer plus three referrals, who in turn each refer two people, that is nine new customers from leverage rather than a direct monetary investment in an advertisement. 5. Get Professional Prowess on a Percentage. There are a lot of “experts” out there very eager to get their hands into your entrepreneurial pockets. Most could not run your business, or any other business, for a week. You will be hard-pressed to find a Madison Avenue ad agency that will be willing to be paid based on performance not just on task completion because if they did, they would starve. Never let yourself be intimidated. Ask a lot of questions. Check references. And ultimately trust your judgment and retain control. Keep in mind that the best marketing experts do not tell you what to do. They create a partnership with you to combine your unique understanding of the business with their special expertise and then they do all the mechanics. A good marketing professional can save you a lot of time and trial-and-error experimentation, bring you already-proven ideas from their broader experience, and help you clarify your own thinking. 6. Reasonable Investment. While throwing money at marketing will never assure success, the opposite extreme about it is just as destructive as is wholesale waste. The customer is an asset into which you will invest capital from which you expect to extract a reasonable return. The question you need to answer is, “what would be a reasonable investment to acquire a client?” There is a “dirty little secret” about marketing that can grow a business substantially and rapidly while successfully targeting and attracting ideal customers and clients. The more you can and will invest to acquire each customer, the more likely you are to succeed. The bigger and more crushing is your competitive advantage, the faster you can get from point A to point B. Again, the money itself isn’t magic however it can not be wasted or carelessly thrown about. To think you can compete in the Indy 500 with a soapbox-derby car you cobbled together with spare parts and items from the bargain bin at Home Depot is downright foolish. The big money in the world is made in marketing and sales. You need to think bigger and bolder. Usually the only indispensably valuable people in an organization are the ones who know how to create marketing and sales breakthroughs. I Hope You Enjoy the Article and I Trust You Found It Insightful! Let me Know What You Think. Be sure to share this post with anyone that you think would benefit from this message... thanks!
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