“Strategy before tactics.“

Any marketing effort will certainly fail if the business owner is consumed with figuring out the right tools or obsessing over the latest fads without first identifying the strategy first.

So before you can answer “how can I use Facebook to make money” or “should I use direct mail to reach my audience” – you must identify the strategy.  The 3 key areas of your strategy include:

1. THE WHO – clearly identify your ideal client, drill down until you can detail the purchasing behaviors of this target market and learn everything you can about this “people group” that you can not only know their demographics (income, race, gender, geography, etc.) but understand the psychographics as well (their needs, pains, frustrations and fears; also includes their values, personalities, attitudes and interests).
2. THE DIFFERENCE – simply ask yourself, “how is the product/service that I offer any different than my competitors?”  Forbid yourself from claiming “better customer service” and never, ever claim to have “better prices” unless you intend on getting in a bidding war with $5 off coupons driving from the competitors driving you out of business!  Differentiate by being the ONLY one in town to provide a brand of product or be the ONLY ____(dentist, school, doctor, realtor, etc)______ in town with a service guarantee like that.  Differentiate on values – appealing to your “WHO” (see #1) by performing your services in a way that resonates with the values of your target market.  Different on the customer experience – excite your customer’s senses (sight, sound, etc…) in a way that they will tell others about the experience!
3. THE SYSTEM – now that you know WHO you are reaching and what SETS YOU APART from your competitors, you are ready to start developing a systematic approach to lead generation and converting those leads into loyal ambassadors!  Once your strategy is in place, you can freely explore the possibilities of every marketing tactic and determine whether it is a right fit – this strategy gives you a new lens by which you can make marketing decisions.  The system will also give you the confidence to examine the entire customer experience – determining where the gaps are and exploring creative ways to developing customers who repeat and refer!

Marketing is all about getting people with a specific need to know, like and trust you (that’s a cool marketing definition by John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing!)  When that happens, and as your customers try and buy from you, you are well on your way to creating customers who REPEAT and REFER – these are your very best loyal ambassadors!

- Randy

ACTION STEP: Watch this complimentary video archive of John Jantsch’s webinar on the “7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success.”

High-value, keyword-rich content is king to optimizing your social media presence – follow this 4-step rule:

• Content first needs to be created (can be text, video, audio podcast, etc…all great high-value content – but someone’s got to create it!)
• Launch the content in a highly-social venue (videos go to YouTube or Vimeo, photos and images go to Flickr, text goes on your blog, etc..)
• Share the content all over various social media outlets – manually posting them, auto-syncing them – whatever makes it easiest!
• Repurpose the content later when you need good material on a blog, a tweet, a Facebook status or turn them into an e-book

John Jantsch shares another great post, “5 Types of Content That Every Business Must Employ.”

Image source:  bloggingjunction.com

You’ll learn seven keys to running a successful marketing strategy:

1. Strategy Before Tactics
2. The Marketing Hourglass – producing customers who repeat and refer
3. Publish Educational Content
4. Total Web Presence
5. Inbound Lead Generation Trio – advertising, public relations and referral marketing
6. Selling is a System
7. Marketing by a Calendar

-Randy,

Dallas-Fort Worth’s only Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant

The week of May 16-20 is National Small Business Week!  Let’s hear it for all you entrepreneurs and small business owners who make up the core foundation of our free market system, who create millions of jobs, and labor extensively and patiently to provide for your family and bless your community.  Kudos!

The Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network is proud to celebrate this week – we are committed to installing small business marketing systems that are simple, effective and affordable.  As the only authorized Duct Tape Marketing consultant in the Dallas – Fort Worth area, I’m proud to promote this week!

One of the ways you can participate is to join John’s Wednesday webinar at Noon CST.  The theme of the webinar is “How To Create a Marketing System for Consistent and Predictable Results” – so you’ll surely want to join this one!  To register, click, here.

To engage in the fun, John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, is sponsoring a promotion where he is giving away a FREE IPAD every single day this week!  That’s right, not just one, but one per day!  To learn more, watch the video below:

- Randy, Dallas-Fort Worth’s Only Duct Tape Marketing Consultant

Got 2 minutes? Duct Tape Marketing founder, John Jantsch, shares simple and effective ways for a small business to get PR.

• “Strategic Marketing Plans – More important than ever” – Bill Brelsford lines out 6 essential pieces of your strategic marketing foundation.
• “B2B Networking – Strategy Before Tactics” – Dawn Westerberg shares insights from Cidnee Stephen – enjoy what these master consultants have to say.
• “Treating Marketing Pain with Acupuncture” – how that’s for a title?  I think you’ll enjoy this from Dan Kraus.
• “7 Ways to Acquire the Right Kinds of Links to Your Site” – from the man who started it all (Duct Tape Marketing, that is), John Jantsch keeps it simple!

Love being a member of this prestigious international network of consultants – we share ideas with each other all the time, making us all better.

-Randy

The Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network is offering a promotion to win a Dell laptop computer!

As a member of this prestigious worldwide network, and Dallas-Fort Worth’s only Duct Tape Marketing Consultant, I am excited to share this with you – but I’m a little late because I got slammed last week with several urgent projects . . . so be aware that the contest ends THURSDAY, MARCH 3rd!

See John Jantsch’s blog for details

1. Lack of strategy - yep, this is a biggie.  Most small businesses want to jump into a new campaign, a new tool or copy the competitor down the street.  Duct Tape Marketing is all about “strategy before tactics” and Dawn’s first point is spot on!
2. The one-off – what business owner hasn’t cried, “I tried that once and no results!”  Often the reality is that one time is never enough.  You need a consistent stream of laser focused communication to not only catch your audience’s attention, but you need a repetitive themed message to convert them to hearers to action-taking customers.  Dawn suggests setting up a systematic calendar to keep it flowing.
3. Marketing dollars stretched too thin – another problem for businesses who have an unfocused marketing strategy.  When you are shootin’ in the dark, you’re gonna need alot more bullets to hit the target.  But when you know your target market and speak their language, your messages will resonate and you probably can spend alot less waste doing so.
4. Dull, boring and indistinguishable – remember this: as special as you think you are, your prospects think you are a commodity business and you are no different than your competitor.  You have to differentiate in order to dominate!

Definitely one of the best pieces I’ve read in 2011 on why strategic marketing is critical!  Great job Dawn!

-Randy, Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant

We meet with potential clients on a weekly basis.  And the conversations typically start like this:

• “Tell me about social media.  I think I need to do something on Facebook and Twitter because that’s what everyone’s doing.”
• “We are launching a new print ad in this publication that goes out to 10,000 homes in our area.  What do you think?”
• “We want a new website that looks nice.  We want it to be easy to use.  And oh yeh, we want to be on the first page of Google.”
• “This year, sales have been down so we gotta do something to stop the bleeding.  Should we do a billboard – something BIG?”
• “We gotta get more referrals.  What do you think about paying for referrals?”
• “Our ministry needs more donors who tell other people to give.  We think an appeal via direct mail is good.  Your thoughts?”
• “Our church wants to come into the 21st century, so we gotta know social media.  Should we start with Facebook?”

These questions are typical of every business or ministry organization we often speak with – but the good quesitons are ill-placed in the conversation about marketing.

The #1 mistake organization leaders make each and every year is to think COOL TOOLS before ever having a PLAN to follow.

That’s putting the cart before the horse.

Renew your commitment to smarter marketing by memorizing this:  “STRATEGY BEFORE TACTICS”!

Wouldn’t be nice to have a simple 7-step system in place as your strategic foundation for your marketing? Yes, it would.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing offers a great article called, “Marketing Without Strategy is the Noise Before Failure.”  Worth your time!

As a Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant, I hear the same question over and over:  what is marketing and why isn’t it working for me?

John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, offers the simplest 7 steps to marketing success I’ve ever seen – and yes, I follow these same 7 steps in marketing our own small business.

As we go out for Thanksgiving break, consider these simple 7 steps you can implement to create a sound marketing plan for your small business:

1. Develop strategy before tactics – Base all decisions on an ideal customer and core message of difference
2. Embrace The Marketing Hourglass ™ – Look at every potential prospect and customer touchpoint and design a remarkable experience
3. Adopt the publishing model – Commit to producing content that builds trust and educates
4. Create a total web presence – Develop a plan that takes advantage of the SEO and social media aspects of being found
5. Orchestrate the lead generation trio – Use technology to create multiple ways to generate leads via advertising, public relations, and referrals
6. Drive a lead conversion system – Develop a sales system that everyone in the organization can use from initial contact to results review
7. Live by the marketing calendar – Make marketing a habit by establishing monthly, weekly and daily action steps

Read John’s full article on AMEXOpen Forum.

I can also present these 7 steps in greater detail to your Chamber group, networking meeting, or business - click here to schedule me to speak to your organization.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Randy