Day three of ECL and these attendees are full of information that will revolutionize their businesses; and we still have today to go! Today I am going to cover:
- Contract Negotiations
- Personal Selling
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Making the Call
This is a great day that focuses mainly on getting the word out. Both the micro and macro of marketing. You have to have a plan for both the hand to hand combat, as well as the marketing to the masses; hence the macro marketing. As my former marketing director says, “Nobody notices Superman way up in the sky…until somebody points at him.” What are you doing to get people to point at you? HAHAHA…uhhhh, your business. I really don’t need to know what you’re doing to get people to point at you. Anyway, the important thing is to make sure that somebody notices you.
A specific example of this is when someone is a really great cook at home, and those around them convince that person to open a restaurant. They then spend a lot of time and money to open Hannah’s Slice of Heaven, but when they open their doors, ten people show up. “Surely we will be flooded with people when the word gets out!” Well, if those ten people start campaigning 24/7, then you have a chance. But that’s not going to happen. A few months later, they close their doors. The problem is not the food, or the service, or the location. Well, actually it could be all of those. But what I see more than anything, is the absolute lack of marketing.
I was constantly telling the Live Events team that if people don’t know we’re coming to do an event in their city, they can’t buy our tickets! Seems basic, right? But WAY too many entrepreneurs and business leaders don’t focus enough attention on getting the word out. I spend over two hours teaching on marketing and advertising alone in ECL, so obviously I can t cover all of that in this post. I will say that some key steps are:
- Discover who your core audience is. If you sell high-end fountain pens, don’t waste your money advertising in Gamer magazine. Probably not your clientele.
- Find out the best medium for reaching this group. What do they read? What do they watch on TV? What web pages do they live on?
- Try to use marketing vehicles that will allow you to only market to this demographic. It doesn’t have to be expensive; Guerrilla Marketing.
- Use the power of the people! In Tribes, Seth Godin talks about building a tribe of people who are in love with your product, then focus them on getting the word out.
- Discover your funnel. What are the free to cheap things that you can do to get people into your business? (YouTube videos, interviews on your website from an expert in your field, etc.) All the way down to your most expensive item.
Those are just a few examples to get you going. Hope it helps.
