Marketing Tips video: Be Hungry and Follow Systems

Remind yourself that your competition is hungry. Are you hungry enough? If so, design and follow marketing systems to gain your unfair advantage. If someone must starve - let it be your competition.

Watch this video report from the streets of the Big City. Hear the brutal reality about your marketing.



George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Marketing Tips video: Forget about Branding and Focus on Real Marketing

It's easy to get fooled by the hype about branding. That is a good hole to throw a lot of money into. Instead go back to basics. What is the real purpose of marketing? Not to build a brand. It's to build a business with sales.

Listen to George Torok offering marketing insights from the streets of the Big City.




George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

TV Interview: George Torok on Power Marketing on People in Connection

Enjoy this TV interview with George Torok talking about Power Marketing on the People in Connection TV show with host Marie Mushing.




George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing

Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Grand Opening PostCard Design gone wrong

Perhaps it's not fair to criticize others but I accept the gifts that I receive. Sometimes those gifts are examples of smart marketing and somethings those gifts are examples that we can learn from.

This postcard from Walkers Medical Pharmacy about their Grand Opening is a gift. It is a good example of a bad example of postcard marketing design.

First - what they did well. Postcard marketing is smart marketing. It's an inexpensive form of direct offline marketing. The postcard is attractive with the white on bright red.

The first question you need to address before creating any marketing piece is "Who are you trying to reach?" What is their pain or need that you promise to satisfy? This postcard doesn't target an audience. The words "Grand Opening" don't trigger an emotional need in your audience. It only pleases the business owner.

The bright red background is attention grabbing, but the text is hard to read. Your eyes search for a scan pattern on this post card and might end on the heart in the bottom right corner that promises "Free Giveaways". You might wonder, "Of what?"

The timing, red background, the scroll and the hearts in the background suggested that this might have something to do with Valentines Day. My first thought was "spa".

The second question for your marketing piece is "What do you want people to do?" The next challenge for you is, "How will you move their eyes through this to get them to act the way you want?"

So look at the postcard again. Where do your eyes go? They might first land on the words "Grand Opening" then they might jump to the scroll at the right, then down to the scroll at the bottom left and perhaps to the heart at the bottom right. That heart says, "Free Giveaways". You might think "So what?" or "What giveaways?"

If you are still there, you might move your eyes to the left of the heart and read the words, "Your satisfaction is our philosophy". What the heck does that mean? Philosophy? Who cares about your philosophy? If you cared about my satisfaction, why did you send me this confusing postcard?

My blind guess is that they wanted people to attend the Grand Opening. But it's not clear why anyone would or should. The other thing that you might notice is that there is no built in measurement of the success of this postcard. (Bring this postcard for your free gift.) Perhaps the designers intended it that way so they couldn't be held responsible.

Let's look at the back side of the postcard.

I don't know what is on the left side. It looks like a spine. The map is a good idea but poor execution. I can't read it. The map needs to be zoomed in. They might as well have stated, "Third rock from the sun." I still don't know where Walkers Pharmacy is. Do you?

I used Google maps to search the address. I think it is "on Walkers Line just x feet south of Upper Middle Road". But it doesn't say that. It is probably in a new plaza - but which? What is the most noticeable shop in that plaza? Do they want to make it easy to find?

The postcard is completely impersonal because I still don't know any body's name. Who's the boss? Who can I talk to if I have any questions?

The postcard seems to have a Valentine's theme. But what is the connection? Your opening is Feb 11 not Feb 14. How do you relate to Valentine's Day?

I know that it's just not fair for me to critique this marketing design. I think it's not fair for good business to waste their money on poor marketing. That's why I help business owners gain an unfair marketing advantage over the competition.

It might not be fair - but it's winning the marketing battle that counts.

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Shopping for a Fireplace Insert: Cold Customer Service

While shopping for a fireplace insert we visited a store that we had noticed because they advertised a lot on the radio and in the paper. It was a family run store so naturally I expected warm and friendly service.

Instead they greatly disappointed me.

We weren’t tire kicking. We had already decided that we would buy a fireplace gas insert. We had a beautiful fireplace and enjoyed sitting in front of a roaring fire. But we preferred the convenience of gas instead of logs.

We were willing to spend between $2500 - $3500. All we needed to decide is where would we buy and which model.

So how was our shopping experience at this particular store?

In short – horrible.

First, we were kept waiting about 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us. One sales rep even pushed by us (without apologizing) without offering to help.

The sales person who eventually talked to us - yapped and yapped.

I showed my displeasure with her approach and tried to ask her some questions. This is how she responded.

She defended - "No one told me about the special"
She made excuses, "I know my product - but I forgot that information"
She lied "everyone does it this way" when we had learned differently the previous day from a major competitor.
She interrupted me a few times while I was asking a question.

And the big trust stealer was - they wanted full payment before the work is completed. Their competitor only required a 50%`deposit.

I finally muttered "Never mind - we are leaving."

That sales person didn’t know what she did wrong. And that business owner didn’t know what they were doing wrong. They’ll probably blame somebody or something for their lack of business.

Curious that we next stopped at a Dollar store and spent $4. The cashier (who I assumed was the owner) was pleasant to both of us - even though I impatiently hovered while my wife bought. He spoke and looked friendly at each of us in turn and asked us both to come back.

I wanted to ask him if he had any fireplace inserts.

We eventually found a store where we bought our fireplace insert.

All the expensive radio and newspaper ads in the world will be defeated by poor customer service. Where should you invest your time and money first?

George Torok
Marketing Speaker

Strategic Positioning: What is it?

My new presentation on Strategic Positioning went very well. It was a workshop format for about 20 owners of medium sized businesses.


This was less about me speaking and teaching then it was about asking probing and disturbing questions. That type of presentation is always a little scary for me because I don't have the answers - only the questions.


The business owners realized that they must find the answers. That was an "ah-ha" moment.

Some of the issues and questions that we explored:

How to recognize the difference between acute and chronic problems and the connection to changing strategy or tactics.

Where are you now in terms of current strategy whether on purpose or by circumstance?

Five competitive forces that play with your strategy.

Identify your resources and how to leverage them.

How can you quickly generate a lot of creative ideas on demand?

What can you do in each of the four quadrants to develop new markets and products?

Some marketing strategies and tactics to consider.

This was a serious group of business owners yet we still had some laughs. I was impressed at the depth of discussion and exploration that we accomplished in this session. Of course no one-day workshop fixes anything, especially on the topic of Strategic Positioning - so everyone left with plenty of take-aways and homework for their business.

-----------------------------------

Comments from the business owners about this program on Strategic Positioning

"George takes complex business challenges and provides simple actionable tips to tackle them."

Kevin Hiebert, President, Cell-A-Net Printer Services

----------

"Invaluable perspective on leveraging business through effective marketing."

Bob Alsip, President, Convenience Group Inc.

----------

"Clear route map to establish a realistic strategy."

Paul Herman, President, Firwin

----------

"I enjoyed the presentation because it forced me to think of my business from a 10,000 foot view. I will use this opportunity to build a stronger company."

Chris Giles, President, Dyamic Connections

----------------------------

George Torok

Strategic Positioning

Executive Briefing for Business Owners

BRANDING : 7 Important Questions and the Straight Answers

Consider these important questions about branding and the brutally honest answers that could help you sell more and save you lots of money that is typically wasted on branding. If you sell yourself as a branding expert – you might not like these answers. These are frank answers that demystify branding.

1. What is branding?
Branding is the ongoing process of creating and enhancing the brand. The brand is the emotional connection that encourages your clients to cling to the organization, product or person. It is important for you to understand that branding is an emotional connection. And emotion is devoid of logic.

2. Why is branding important to business?
Effective branding builds that emotional connection. The more emotional that your clients are about you, your company and your product – the easier it will be for you to sell to those clients. You can appeal to emotions instead of logic. Emotions, although more complicated, are easier to influence than logic.

3. What mistakes do companies make with branding?
Many entrepreneurs get confused about branding. They believe that branding is about logos, fonts and pantone colors. That happens because graphic designers and advertising agencies, masquerading as marketing experts, claim that branding is about image.

Often bad marketing decisions and wasted money are justified with the phrase, “It’s good for branding.” Branding is not the goal – it is a tool. The goal is to sell more.

Many corporations fall into this trap. The corporate branding police insist that every PowerPoint slide be a particular color, including the company logo and in the company fonts. Readability and purpose are thrown out the window by the branding police because they lose sight of the purpose and focus on the tool. Maybe they should be fired.

4. How can business build a strong brand?
A strong brand is about feelings. First you need to decide the feelings that you want to evoke from your customers. You need to be clear on your intended message and the mindset of your best customers.

You can build feelings by the way you treat your customers. You need to treat them in a manner that stands out from the competition. Southwest and WestJet airlines demonstrate this well.

5. Give an example of successful brands.
Nike and Coke are companies that built strong brands because of huge marketing budgets and mass marketing over time. That’s the most common way that most well-known brands were built. Unfortunately it’s too often emulated by small business as the only way.Harley Davidson and Buckley’s cough medicine are examples of branding built on creative positioning. That method is the smarter choice for businesses without multimillion dollar advertising budgets.

6. Is branding the best marketing approach?
No. Branding is only one approach to marketing. Marketing is about making customers want your product. Branding is about building an emotional bond with your customers. It takes time to build that bond. And branding requires one of two things in abundance – money or creativity.


7. What is the alternative to branding for small business?
Small business can do something that’s better than branding. They can build real relationships with their clients. Big corporations can’t do that. That’s why big corporations spend millions of dollars on branding. Small business has a better tool. They can build real relationships.


When you are building your brand ask the important questions and get the straight answers about branding.


© George Torok is the coauthor of Secrets of Power Marketing – the first guide to personal marketing for the non-marketer. Claim your free copy of “50 Power Marketing Ideas” at http://www.PowerMarketing.ca Arrange for George Torok to speak to your people or work with your team at http://www.Torok.com or call 905-335-1887.


Branding: 7 Important Questions and Answers

Secrets of Power Marketing - Book Review

Secrets of Power Marketing

Peter Urs Bender and George Torok

Reviewed by Kirsten Cowan

Another installment from public speaking whiz Peter Urs Bender, this time with the adept co-operation of speaker and educator George Torok. Expanding on the themes of Secrets of Power Presentations and Leadership From Within, this new release focuses on marketing your business. Secrets of Power Marketing seeks to apply the techniques and methods of the first two books in a practical way to the project of marketing ones business. The result is a lively book, with a streak of practicality that reveals itself in an impatience with hoity-toity notions of marketing that have little impact on the bottom line.

Of particular interest to HotLink readers is the comprehensive "Strategy Three" dealing with media relations. Included in this category is self-published media such as newsletters, and timely insights on getting the most out of the "New Media". Torok and Bender have a clear understanding of the effect a media spot, especially a media interview or article, can have on your marketing plan. As with all their strategies, advice is clear, no-nonsense and effective.

A great feature of Secrets of Power Marketing, which it shares with Bender's previous works, is the plethora of ideas it provides, lists of them, which can be tailored to your specific needs. Appendix A; "101 Power Marketing Ideas," is an army of catch-phrases, concepts, tags, lead-ins and inspirations, ready to leap into action at the reader's behest.

The characteristic charm and accessibility readers expect from Peter Urs Bender is here in droves, with pithy quotes, anecdotes illustrating key ideas and charts and tables depicting multi- layered concepts.

Secrets of Power Marketing is not for everyone. Its brashness may not suit the more cultivated type of business, and the forthrightness of its marketing style is definitely tailored to small or individually owned businesses. The graphics, always somewhat enigmatic in Bender's books, are truly mysterious in this attempt. Nonetheless, the boundless enthusiasm and obviously field-tested wisdom of Bender and Torok make Secrets of Power Marketing a worthwhile investment for any organization.

Reprinted from The Sources HotLink

http://www.hotlink.ca/

Order the book, Secrets of Power Marketing

Read an excerpt from the book, Secrets of Power Marketing

Read more book reviews of Secrets of Power Marketing

Build business relationships

Build profitable relationships in your business




View videos from George Torok on YouTube

Forget branding, invest in relations

Forget branding, invest in relations

George Torok, Financial Post Published: Monday, May 12, 2008


The majority of business owners could be headed for disaster this year. Small business does best when it acts like small business. It does poorly when it blindly attempts to copy big business.

The results of an Ipsos-Reid poll in March, 2008, should scare you. It found "a majority (59%) of small to medium-sized business owners have identified branding as a top priority."

If that poll found 59% of large businesses were making branding their priority I would rest easier. Because that is the only way big business can strengthen their market position.
Branding is too costly for small businesses. Small businesses have a far better business building tool; relationships. That's the chemistry that makes them attractive to customers.

Read the rest of this article in the Financial Post.

--------------------

Enjoy this article that published in the Small Business section of the Financial Post this week. If you are a small business owner you might want to know why branding is a poor investment for you.


George Torok
Marketing Speaker - for conventions and conferences
Executive Briefing - for corporate retreats and meetings

Funerals learn from Weddings

What can funerals learn from weddings?

The funeral business has faced massive changes and pressures from within and without over the past few decades.

This article which appeared in the March issue of the Globe & Mail's Small Business magazine describes those threats and more importantly features the strategies of the winners. A good case study for every small business owner.

The traditionally family run funeral homes were challenged by the corporate ogres at the same time as changing values and expectations from customers. Add to that the price squeeze from new competitors like Costco. Inside all that crisis lies real opportunity for the new market leaders who are willing to innovate. If you face some of those challenges in your business devour this article.


Enjoy this excerpt from that article - Grim Reaping

-----------------
In trying to personalize the services to each family, the Creans are embracing a trend that many other independents have adopted to counter the cookie-cutter offerings of the chains. The path was blazed by one Brian Parent, a funeral director in Windsor, Ontario, who, 12 years ago, decided to offer people an entirely different way to die.

When Parent opened his funeral home, he turned to the wedding industry for inspiration. Wedding spending in this country has been rising every year (today, the average wedding costs around $20,000, roughly four times the cost of a funeral). He concluded that Canadians were willing to splurge on traditional ceremonies as long as they maintained control over the details. Paul Seyler, a New Orleans marketing consultant, has been preaching just that on the funeral convention circuit for years. His renowned session, "A $30,000 Opportunity in a $5,500 World: What Weddings Should Be Teaching Funerals," has convinced numerous funeral directors to rethink their business. Traditionally, funeral homes have derived the majority of their profits from caskets, which can run to $20,000 and more, and accompanied that big-ticket purchase with a few, inflexible package options. "Wedding planners allow people to pick and choose things and decide exactly how they want to celebrate," says Parent. "They let the customer customize."

With the Families First Funeral Home & Tribute Centre, Parent turned the industry's sombre image on its head. He invested heavily in high tech: a splashy website, big-screen projectors, even a full-time graphic designer to create custom guest books and thank-you notes. When it came to planning funerals, he scrapped all the customs. For a diehard hockey fan, Parent's staff decorated a room like a hockey rink, complete with fake ice, goalie nets and skates. For a dead movie buff, they installed a popcorn maker and lined the walls with film reels.

--------------

Read the rest of this article at the Globe and Mail - Grim Reaping

Lots of valuable business lessons in this article including that you often need to look outside your industry to find innovation and inspiration if you want to be a market leader.


PS: Brian Parent is a client. He is innovative and bold. He presents each of his staff with a copy of the book, "Raving Fans".


George Torok

Marketing Speaker for corporate meetings and assocation conferences

Marketing Briefing for business owners and industry panels

Marketing Coach for business owners and business professionals

Website Marketing - Directories

Website Directories

Of course you want the search engines to find your website. You can submit your website to the search engines which simply invites the search bots to visit and crawl your site. Search engines are automated with little human interface. Theoretically the bots are constantly crawling the Internet and will eventually find every website. But who can wait? So submit your "invitation to crawl" to search engines.

Web directories are a different animal. They will never find you because they will never look for you. You need find them, knock on their door and sign their guest book. They will eventually read your entry in their guest book and might list you in their directory. There are both paid and free directories and many do both. You pay to get listed faster and more prominently. In most cases a real live human will review your entry before they list it. It is not near as automated as the search engines. Some say that the human element ensures that the listings are more relevant.

A directory listing does something important that the search engines do not - the directory listing is a permanent (subject to delisting) link to your site. And remember the search engines like your site if there are a lot of incoming links.

So for that reason you should submit your site to the search engines and list it in the directories.

Where can you find directories?

DMOZ
The Open Directory Project seems to be the best directory in which to list and it is free so that is the first directory in which to list. Plus many other directories use the results from DMOZ - including the Google Directory. You just need to look through the directory to find the best category for your site. Invest a little time to get this one right. It is worth the effort.

Yahoo Directory
Yahoo was originally a directory before Google convinced them to get in the search engine business. Then Yahoo bought Overture to have a search engine. The Yahoo directory costs $299 a year to be listed. Perhaps at one time it was worth it - today I don't think so. I'm sure that more people search on the Yahoo search engine than the Yahoo Directory.

There seem to be thousands of directories. I believe it that is worth while being listed in some of them. I suggest that getting your website listed in the first half dozen directories is a primary priority. After that - add your website to directory listings over time when you have the time.

Here is a helpful resource to find more directories:

SEO Company
This company is in the business of SEO and they have compiled a comprehensive list of hundreds of directories including helpful information such as directory page rank.

George Torok

Power Marketing

Marketing Speaker

National Post: Small Business Launch

The National Post launched it's new Small Business section on Monday, October 15, 2007. This is Small Business Week. This is a weekly feature that will run every Monday for Small Business. This is a significant recognition of small business. Canada's other national business newspaper (Globe and Mail) only talks about small business every three months.

Watch for my marketing tips every week in the National Post Small Business section.

George Torok
Marketing Expert
Small Business Consultant
National Post contributor

Visa Small Business Conference in Montreal

Visa Small Business Conference

Did you attend the “Visa Small Business Big Thinking Conference”? It took place in Montreal on Monday June 4, 2007. If you missed it then read some of the key points from my presentation. If you attended the conference then you might check your notes to ensure that you captured these critical points.

I was delighted to be speaking to the eager entrepreneurs at the Visa Small Business conference on how to get more from budget-effective marketing.

Here are some of the learning points from my marketing presentation: It was a packed room and an explosive session. The presentation was both entertaining and enlightening.

You cannot - not market. Everything you do is marketing.
Being good is not enough. You must actively sell and market yourself.
Success is the result of doing little things consistently well over time.
Observe successful people and ask yourself, “Why do they do things that way?”
Success in business comes from following systems.
A system is a process to get to your goal.
A system is built on a key principle.
Systems beat talent.
You are responsible to manage the perceptions of your prospects.
The image of success is a perception determined by your display of confidence.
Focus on your strengths.
Build relationships by saying “thank you”.
Get the media to call you the expert.
Print media exposure has more credibly and is easier to leverage.
Sell to people’s wants – not their needs.


That’s it for now. Of course there was more. The attendees at the Visa Small Business Big Thinking conference received the full presentation. You only get the bullet points here. Perhaps you might attend the next Visa Small Business conference next year.

If you attended the Visa Small Business conference then feel free to comment on this blog post. I welcome your comments and questions.

Visa will be posting more notes, photos and comments on their website in July. Visit the Visa Small Business Conference site to see more.

Rick Spence was the content provider for this Visa Small Business conference. He arranged for all the speakers. The program especially featured Quebec entrepreneurs. He is former editor of Profit Magazine so he knows a lot about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. Learn more about the Visa Small Business conference by reading his Canadian Entrepreneur blog.


George Torok
Marketing Specialist
Presenter at the Visa Small Business Conference
Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing

Visa Small Business Big Thinking

Visa Small Business Big Thinking Conference

Perhaps you might think that the words "Visa" and "small business" don’t belong in the same phrase. You might be wrong.

If you are in Montreal on Monday June 4, 2007 stop by the “Small Business Big Thinking” conference organized by Visa. And if you are not planning to be in Montreal maybe you go so you can attend this one-day conference organized by Visa for small business.

You might ask, “What does Visa know about small business?” And that would be a good question. That might be why they have partnered with large and small business to produce this one day conference.

Most prominent on the side of small business experts is Rick Spence, former editor and publisher of Profit magazine. Spence’s presence, savvy and contacts is enough to inject a practical amount of business street-smarts into this conference.

And then there are many other entrepreneurs who just made a pile of money. Maybe you never heard of them. They don’t care; they are still raking in money. And they are willing to tell you some of their secrets – but of course not all. Maybe you should listen up.

My dear friend and mentor, Peter Urs Bender said, “A fool can learn from no one and a wise man can learn from anyone.”

And yes I will be making a special appearance at this Visa Small Business Big Thinking conference. I will be speaking in the Buzz Marketing session at 11:00 am. And I will host a table for the ‘Meet the Pros” luncheon. Call me a fool if you want – but you can learn a lot about marketing from me.

Rick Spence is a valued friend and he invited me at the last minute so I checked my calendar and agreed to be there. Besides, Montreal is a beautiful city and entrepreneurs need all the help they can get.

See you in Montreal at the Visa “Small Business Big Thinking” conference on Monday June 4, 2007.

George Torok
Marketing Specialist
Motivational Speaker
Publisher of over 300 business articles

Learn more about the Small Busines Big Thinking conference in Montreal