Get a Job

The most important marketing that most people will ever do is to get their next job. Your next job can be crucial to your financial and emotional stability - and your family. Not having a job can be very destructive to your family.

Many things have changed over the past several years (and decades) – yet so many people still try to get a job the same way as their parents or grandparents.

Enjoy and listen to the lines from this 1958 song, “Get a Job.”

Especially the line, “When I get the paper, I read it through and through.”

How’s that any different from reading the job adds on Monster or any of the other online job boards. Are you still modeling your job search on the way they did things in the 50’s?

If so – break out the Brylcreem.




George Torok

Personal Marketing

8 Marketing Truths that Will Make You More Profitable

Beware of the dangerous marketing myths that can destroy your business. You’ve probably heard most of them. Many are spread by the marketing mystics who don’t understand or don’t want you to understand the simple realities of marketing. The challenge for you is to sort the truths from the myths and the mystics from the masters.

Read this article and study each of these marketing truths to increase your profits and reduce your losses. Think about how you will apply these marketing lessons to improve the profitability of your business.


1. Marketing is about sending messages
Everything you do or don’t do sends a message. Marketing is much more than advertising. Marketing includes your customer service, company policies, telephone manner, community presence and supplier relationships.

2. Marketing is about building relationships
We would rather buy from those we know and like. Marketing is how you help prospects know and like you. Marketing builds and maintains the relationship that keeps them coming back for more.

3. Marketing is long term
The payback on your marketing of today might happen next week, next month or next year. In some businesses the cycle could be even longer. Learn what your cycles are and stick with it throughout the cycle.

4. Marketing is part art and part science
Effective marketing is built on systematic principles and based on the science of persuasion. The delivery of your marketing is differentiated by your personal flair and flavored by the art of creativity.

5. Marketing is always happening – whether you intend it or not
Some business owners claim they don’t market. Nonsense! You cannot – not market. Everything you do is marketing. Some of it is intended and much of it is unintended. But you are always marketing. The question is “Are you aware of the messages you are sending?”

6. Marketing is everyone’s role and responsibility
It’s easy to identify your sales staff as the ones who close the deals. “Who’s marketing?” is a more difficult question. You are missing the point if you think marketing is the sole responsibility of your “marketing department”. Everyone in your company is marketing, from the delivery-van driver to the accounts payable clerk, to the production foreman.

7. Marketing is everything you do that makes it easier to sell
Good marketing helps you close deals. Bad marketing wastes money and kills deals. Evaluate all your marketing actives and rate them on how well they help the sales process. Stop or improve any marketing that you rate as possibly negative.

8. Marketing occurs on both a direct and indirect level
The Facts and the Feeling.The Intellect and the Emotion.The Look and the Smell.The Realities and the Perceptions.It is the second part of each of these comparisons that moves people to buy or decide not to buy. Facts don’t matter much when it comes to the buying decisions of your clients. The indirect level of marketing often overwhelms the direct marketing. Are you aware of the indirect messages that you might be sending?

Conclusion
It’s not your fault if you have heard marketing myths from the mystics. But it will be your loss if you believe them. Now that you know these eight fundamental marketing truths you have the knowledge to re-evaluate your marketing and enjoy greater profits.


© George Torok helps business owners gain an Unfair Advantage over the competition. He is the co-author of the bestselling, Secrets of Power Marketing. Claim your free copy of “50 Power Marketing Ideas” at http://www.powermarketing.ca/ Arrange for a marketing presentation or personalized marketing coaching by calling 905-335-1997

8 Marketing Truths Yhat Make You More Profitable

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

Power Marketing Tip 37: Become Number One

What is the easiest way to become number one in your market?

Create the niche.

Be the first in the market.

Most of the market leaders today are the ones who entered that particular market first. By doing that they defined the market and set the rules.

If you want to be number one - don't waste your time fighting the market leader. That could require a lot of time, money and luck because the market leader set the rules and they need to make a big mistake.

Toyota has been chasing GM for about 100 years. They finally overtook GM because of persistence, major mistakes on the part of GM and huge investments by Toyota.

Can you afford to do that?

Instead of fighting the market leader - create your own niche.

That instantly makes you number one. Naturally go after a market that can sustain your business.

Domino's Pizza did not compete directly with the other pizza places. Instead they created a new niche - fast pizza delivery. They promised that you get your hot pizza in 30 minutes or free. They were number one in that market. They are not the tastiest or lowest price.

Coke was the leader in the soft drink business. Pepsi changed the rules and created their own niche - winners of the taste test. Pepsi was number one in that market. They did such a good job that they made Coke blink.

An accountant created a new market by transforming his van into a mobile office. He became the mobile accountant on wheels for small business. Another accountant became a specialist in working with nonprofit associations.

Mike Holmes created a new niche - a housing contractor with high quality and outspoken brashness. That led to a TV show for him - Holmes on Homes.

Are you ready to create your niche?

Examine the market. Instead of competing directly with the crowd look for what is missing. Where is there a vacuum? You can't compete well on price, quality, time, innovation, customer service and longevity. So pick one that you will excel in and blow the competition away. There are many ways that you can define your niche. You could select from geography, time, industry, style, technology, experience, cul ture, complexity and process.

The more generic your product or service appears to be the more important it is for you to stake out your claim as number one in a narrowly defined and nonexistent niche.

There's an empty island out there waiting for you to claim it.

George Torok
Power Marketing

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What is strategic positioning?

I'm researching this topic so I welcome your insights.

What is strategic positioning?

How can it drive the business?

How does it make other business decisions easier?

How can it help your marketing and selling?

Offer an example.

Power Marketing Tip 36: Encourage other people to talk about you

The best marketing is when other people talk about you

It used to be called word of mouth marketing. Today it is often labeled buzz or viral marketing. This just demonstrates that the principles of marketing don't change - only the tools and labels.

I believe there is no more powerful force in marketing than other people talking about you. People talking to people can build or destroy your business. Look at the companies and celebrities in the news. It's word of mouth that is canonizing or demonizing them.

So how can you encourage more people to talk more about you? (In a positive way)

Use these five buzz-generating ideas:

Excite people

Excite people by conveying passion in what you do. Passion is contagious. Passion doesn't need to be loud and gregarious. You can also convey quiet and warm passion.

Be controversial

Break some rule or rules of the industry. These are usually the unwritten rules that evolved and everyone follows them without question. It could be your packaging, service standards or uniform. It might be your unusual positioning in the market.

Be outstanding

Be exceptional at some part of the business - so exceptional that you become the standard for that aspect. People might even call you obsessed.

Conquer big challenges

Go after big challenges - not every day but from time to time. This might be business goals such as number of customers, sales volume or product innovation (like Apple). This might also be personal goals like climbing a mountain, running a marathon or completing special education. It could also be community goals such as fund-raising for a charity.

Help others

You can help your clients by delivering outstanding customer service. You might also help your staff by offering advice, a rewarding work environment or growth opportunities. You might offer to mentor junior associates, participate on a community board or coach a little league team.

You don't need to use all of the above ideas. Choose the one or few ideas that work best for you and reap the rewards of other people talking about you.

George Torok
Power Marketing

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Power Marketing Tip 35: Database - Review, Renew & Recharge

Database - Review, Renew & Recharge

Knowing your clients is at least as important as knowing your product.
Managing your database is usually boring. However, if you don't manage your database how will you manage the relationships with your clients? Nothing could be more valuable to your business than those relationships. It's those relationships that will help you grow your business.

Happy New Year!
It's time to review, renew and recharge your database.The start of the New Year is an opportune time to apply these three R's to your database. Why? Because you probably examined your results from last year and set your goals for the new year. Likely some things will need to be changed or refined.

Review
Review your database. Naturally not all your contacts are equal. Some clients are better than others. Some prospects are better than others. Ensure that the categories or labels that you had set for each contact are still relevant. Are the "A clients" still A clients? Remove the duds from your database. You could store these deleted records in an archive file.

As you review your database take note of the missed opportunities. Decide how you might still pick up that ball or avoid that mistake again.

Renew
Renew the relationships. Keep them warm. Make a point of contacting everyone soon. Call your best clients to reconnect. Ask abut their past year results. Learn their goals, obstacles and hopes for the New Year. Confirm their contact information. Explore the opportunities for helping them this year. Be sure to add this new information to your database.

Email other contacts to touch base. Send snail mail to others. The other benefit for you is to learn about changes in personnel, titles and contact information. Update your database with this new intelligence.

Recharge
Set your contact and follow-up schedules for the year. Plan and set the database reminders for your meetings, phone calls, direct mail and marketing campaigns. Support your goals with your database. Remind yourself how important the database is to your success. Recommit to reviewing and updating your database everyday. Treat your database as your best friend. Talk to it often.

George Torok
Power Marketing

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