Masters of Marketing

The single biggest thing business struggle with is marketing. If a business were a plane, then marketing is it’s engines. Without engines, it can’t fly. Without marketing, your business won’t work.

Its Like Getting Married

Imagine, going out and proposing to a random stranger?! That’s the real-life equivalent of cold calling. Getting attention, growing interest, then nurturing that burning desire to spend the rest of their life with you... is very similar to the buying process.

In today’s world, everyones trying to propose marriage. Adverts are everywhere, and you can’t really escape the constant interruption of being told to buy. Suddenly, attention is a scarce resource. That makes attention itself valuable (it adds a new meaning to the phrase “pay attention” doesn’t it?). Experts reckon we’re living in an ‘attention economy’, but I don’t think this is accurate enough.

I can get your attention with a pop-up. But you’ll just click away right? What matters is your fascination. We live in a fascination economy where those who can command peoples real interests and attention, win.

Learn to Fascinate

You have nine seconds to build your first impression. Fascination boils down to 7-separate triggers you need to be aware of. Watch Sally Hogshead’s excellent talk on Fascination, explaining the concepts in her book, Fascinate.

Be Remarkable

Big brands work hard to communicate with you. Billions of dollars on superbowl ads, coupons, billboards and the like. But what happens when other people do the talking for you? Being remarkable is extremely powerful.

You see cows all the time, right? You know what they look like. Cows are average, and average = boring. Not remarkable. So think how remarkable a purple cow might be? Its something different, something that makes you sit up and take notice. Something you want to talk about and share... perfect.

Teach Your Way to Profit

Teach people how to solve their dilemmas; you’ll earn trust and loyalty and permission to talk to them. With the abundance of tools on the web, you can relatively easily engage a large audience of potential buyers just by teaching - blogging, posting videos and writing. Become their go-to guy.

Become the Ace Copywriter

Copywriting is salesmanship in print (not copyrighting - that’s all to do with intellectual property). Its really hard, and few people can master it. Writing itself forces you to think through and articulate your ideas on paper. You can’t write rubbish, ‘cause you’ll look down and read your rubbish and stop. You’ll rethink, and then you’ll try it again.

So now you’re writing for an audience. An audience that might, if you’re successful, part with their hard-earned money for the wares you’re selling. Writing sales copy forces you to think about your offer, your customer and everything that’s important in a deal - its incredibly powerful.

How to start? Go and indulge in CopyBlogger’s Copywriting 101 guide here.

The Follow-Up is Crucial

So your ad has gone out and some people see it. Some of them will just “get it” and order right away - they’re the “hot” customers - the rest will ignore the ad and carry on with their daily lives.

The trouble is, some of those people who’ve gotten away will still be burdened with a problem you can solve. With a bit more effort, they might be convinced to buy afterall. These “lukewarm” prospects are exactly the types you need to be following up with somehow - engage them in conversation, earn their permission to talk to them, and try to sell again.

Infusionsoft publishing an excellent downloadable PDF guide to follow-up marketing for entrepreneurs you should take a look at.

Don’t Sell From Your Heels

Always ask for the sale. Building up to the question, you need to confidently put forward your offer. Your Irresistible Offer.

Don’t be afraid to knock-off fence-sitters either with a killer guarentee offer. Crush those doubts and uncertainties with a risk-free, no brainer.

Marketing is such a monstrous, yet fundamental topic, I’d be doing you a dis-service not to point you towards the folks who have really helped me understand and get to grips with marketing.

They’re my ‘Masters of Marketing’. Use this directory of expertise. Read, download, listen and watch. Devour this stuff. Its so fundamental you and your businesses success. Without further ado...

• Perry Marshall - Direct Marketing Expert
• CopyBlogger - Copywriting Experts
• Seth Godin - Marketing Genius
• SEOmoz - Search Marketing Experts

So you've got these elaborate ideas and strategy, but now you actually need to go and do the work to make your teen business a reality. Discover how to make your teen business happen

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