Marketing HIS Way!

The 10 Commandments of Marketing Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (dmbirdsong) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:56:00 +0000

This week I'll finish up the 10 Commandments of Marketing. Remember the first four had to do with your product:

1. Setup no other god before the one true God.
2. Know your customers and solve their problems.
3. Have an excellent product or service.
4. Use no hyperbole (hype) in your marketing.

(Click here to read part 1)

Five through eight was how to ethically deal with customers:

5. Keep your promises.
6. Guarantee your work.
7. Don't stretch, color, or repackage the truth. Don't lie.
8. Do not cheat your customers.

(Click here to read part 2)

Now lets talk about using customer's emotions in your marketing.

9. Avoid using Greed, Fear, Lust, Pride, Shame or Guilt.
The world is full of sales people who prey on their customer's negative feelings to sell their products. Greed and Fear are the two most commonly used emotions to write sales material. I was reading a book on writing sales letters written by one of the top copywriters in the industry, and he derided copywriters who used greed and fear to sell products as second rate hacks. I was in full agreement with him until he went on to say that there were much more subtle emotions to exploit, like lust, pride, shame and guilt. Wow. Again I say that if your product or service depends on tactics like these, then find a better product.

Now having said that, I want to distinguish between sounding a warning about a real, provable danger and offering a solution to it, and exploiting a person's unreasonable fears to sell a dubious product.

For instance, if you sell smoke detectors and fire extinguishers I believe it's appropriate to cite national statistics about the number of home fires that occur annually to point out the problem. You would also cite local building codes that require smoke detectors in each bedroom.

On the other hand, citing anecdotal evidence to sell a device that monitors the body temperature of a sleeping person in order to waken them should they spontaneously combust would probably fall into the realm of preying on a person's fears.

These techniques may get you sales, but in the end is your integrity worth it?

10. Inspire positive emotions.
Instead of preying on negative emotions, focus on the good ones. Offer people peace of mind, hope, or the chance to be part of something larger than themselves.

TOMS Shoes is a great example. My teenage daughters love TOMS. Why? Because their shoes are stylish? They think so, and who am I to judge. No, they love them because when they buy a pair, a second pair is donated to a needy child.

Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS was inspired to start the company as a way to do business and bless people at the same time. He taps into the desire people have to help others less fortunate than themselves. As a result, his business is growing by leaps and bounds. Last year TOMS announce that 600,000 shoes have been distributed to poor children around the world in the four years of the company's existence. This also means 600,000 shoes were bought buy customers. The sense of helping others encourages people to buy.

So here's the bottom line: Make people feel afraid or guilty and you have their business. Make them feel good about themselves and you have their loyalty.

There they are. My 10 Commandments Marketing. Please leave your thoughts below in the comment box and subscribe to my blog.

Brett

The 10 Commandments of Marketing Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (dmbirdsong) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Last week I gave you my first four Commandments of Marketing. They pertained to your product or service. Here's a recap of what they were (click here to read the full article):

1. Setup no other god before the one true God.

2. Know your customers and solve their problems.

3. Have an excellent product or service.

4. Use no hyperbole (hype) in your marketing.

This week I want to talk about the ethics of dealing with customers.

5. Keep your promises.
Under promise, and over deliver. This is a tough one. Especially for service providers. I've felt the pressure to promise the customer anything to get the deal and make the sale. I've caved to that pressure plenty of times. The only thing it gets you is late nights, or missed deadlines, and disappointed customers.

6. Guarantee your work.

A guarantee is just a formalized promise that your product or service will perform as advertised. However, with the guarantee comes the risk of return or loss to you the marketer. A guarantee removes the risk from the buyer and places it on the seller. Guarantees are wonderful marketing tools. However, don't offer a guarantee you can't back up.

This concept was brought home to me one morning when my partner and I were presenting our mortgage services to a group of real estate agents. In the heat of the moment I rattled off the words "We guarantee our work." A savvy agent shot back the question "What will you do if the loan does go sideways?" Suddenly I realized that my words were empty. We weren't in the position to make any real refunds. I shot back quickly "We guarantee we'll feel real bad about it!" Everyone laughed, and the moment was glossed over. Everyone knew our guarantee was just words. So if you offer a guarantee, make sure you can fulfill it.

7. Don't stretch, color, or repackage the truth. Don't lie.

If selling your product or service requires a lie, even a little white lie, then you need to get a better product, or develop a better service.

I once sold an advertising product that could only be sold if a certain specific lie was told to create urgency in the mind of the buyer. In fact, during the training program the instructor came to this part of the sales pitch and said "This is the only place in the script where you actually have to lie."

I went through the training program telling myself I could sell the advertising without telling the lie. A week in the field talking to numerous business owners proved that I couldn't sell it without the lie. In fact, the only sales I made that week were made when I included the urgency creating lie. I quit to look for a new job.

8. Do not cheat your customers.

This is related to keeping your promises. Using cheap building materials and charging for premium grade materials, falsifying your hours, using bait and switch tactics all hurt you and your customer. When you are dishonest, you are essentially stealing from your customers. At some point they will discover your dishonesty and you'll pay the price in word of mouth denunciation.

You also step out of God's covering when you cheat your customers, removing his protection over your business and life. Proverbs 11:1 says, "God hates cheating in the marketplace; he loves it when business is aboveboard" (The Message). Your cheating separates you from God and blocks his blessings.

I hope you enjoyed the first eight Commandments of Marketing. Watch for my next post where I'll wrap this series up and talk about how using good emotions in marketing is always better than using bad ones.

Brett

The 10 Commandments of Marketing Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (dmbirdsong) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:00:00 +0000

You remember the story. Moses went up to Mt. Sinai. God gave him the Ten Commandments. The Israelites made a golden calf. Moses saw it and broke the stones that the Ten Commandments were written on. He went back up to get a new copy. God gave it to him. He read it to the Israelites. It became the most famous set of rules the world has ever known.

I was thinking about this story found in Exodus 20 and thought “What if there were a ‘Ten Commandments of Marketing?’”

So here’s what I think are the first four most important things about ethical marketing:

1. Setup no other god before the one true God.

OK, I borrowed that from the original. But I think it's important for business people to remember. As wonderful as your product or service is, it can't really perform miracles, so don't claim that it can. Don't set up your product or service as the savior.

2. Know your customers and solve their problems.

You've got to know your customers, and understand the problems they face. Your product or service must solve their problems to be valuable. Product demonstrations, samples, and testimonials are critical to your success. Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord your God is good." So if your customer can experience firsthand how your product or service solves their problems, they will buy from you.

3. Have an excellent product or service.

An excellent product or service not only solves problems, it provides superior value. It leaves the customer feeling glad they bought it, and ready to buy from you again and again. If you're selling, but not developing a product, choose to sell products that are excellent. If you offer a service, then you are in the driver’s seat. You have the opportunity to define excellence and provide it to your clients.

4. Use no hyperbole (hype) in your marketing.

Excellent products or services need no hype. If your product must be 'built up' with pages and pages of copy to sell, it might not be ready market. Spend some more time in development. Make it excellent, and you won't need the hype.

How do you recognize hype? Hype is short for hyperbole which means to exaggerate. The ancient Greek literally meant to 'overshoot.' So if your marketing materials make any kind of exaggerated or unproven claims, you've got hype. Get rid of it. Look for the real selling points of you product and talk about those.

That’s it for now. I’ll continue this discussion in the next few issues.

Brett

Hope is NOT a Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Brett & Matti Birdsong) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Commit to the Lord everything you do.
Then your plans will succeed.

Proverbs 16:3

I started learning the guitar a year and a half ago. Since then I have incorporated playing into my quiet time with the Lord. I began going to our church early in the morning several times a week to sing and pray. I used the prayer room, which was being refurbished. On the unpainted walls, people had written their favorite bible verses and I often took inspiration from the verses I saw there.

On New Year's Eve 2009 I had returned to the church to pick up my guitar. On my way out I felt like God told me to go into the prayer room and read the verses printed on the wall between the door and the window. I was already running late, and almost ignored the prompting, but I went back inside to look up the verses anyway.

One was Proverbs 16:3 "Commit to the Lord every thing you do, and your plans will succeed." The other was "For you have not received a spirit of fear or of bondage, but a spirit of adoption" Romans 8:15-16.

"Praise the Lord!" I said. I'd take that. Those verses gave me great hope. I set the words to a simple tune, and sang it whenever I felt hopeless. It encouraged me throughout the year. I tried to make sure I was committing whatever I did to him.

After a year had passed, however, our situation hadn't changed much. We were still just treading water, barely keeping afloat. And there were sharks in the water.

Then it hit me. I HAD NO PLAN FOR GOD TO BLESS AND MAKE SUCCEED!!!! I had been going along with no direction, just taking clients and projects as they came my way. I wasn't marketing myself!

As a marketing consultant I've helped many clients plan how to attract customers through various marketing techniques. But I realized I've not done much for my own business.

I even put it in terms of an equation:

M x G = R

Where M = My Plans, G = God's Power, and R = Results.

Notice that it's a multiplication problem, and in multiplication, if any of the factors equal zero, the whole equation equals zero. So if M = 0, then R = 0 too. Without a plan, there's nothing to succeed.

So this is my challenge to you and to me: Get a plan. Develop it right away. Make it specific. Put goals, milestones and dates in it. Estimate what it will cost you, and allocate funds for it. Then, commit it to God and put it to work. Let's see what God will do!

Brett

The Parable of the Direct Marketer

noreply@blogger.com (Brett & Matti Birdsong) — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Mark 4:3-8 relates the parable of the Sower:

"Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times." NIV.

I think this parable can be applied to direct marketing. The farmer is scattering seed all over the place, without concern for where it will fall. That's a very basic mistake a lot of direct marketers make with their marketing campaigns: they don't pay attention to the quality of their lists. Lets review the parable with direct marketing in mind.

Some of the seed falls on the path, where it has no chance of taking root, and the birds come and eat it. That's like direct mail packages sent to the wrong audience. They aren't even in the market, so those seeds are totally wasted.

Some of the seed falls on rocky soil that has no depth. It springs up quickly, but it withers under the noon day sun. Think of this as prospects who have an interest in your product, but don't qualify financially. They want what you're selling, but they have no ability to buy. Again, that seed is largely wasted. I say largely wasted and not totally wasted because that rocky soil may be cultivated to one day produce a crop.

Some of the seed falls among the thorns and it is choked out before it can produce a crop. These are prospects that get your message, are in the market for your product, but your message never rises above the crowd. It gets choked out because of the competition in the marketplace. Notice, you are not only competing with other products or services similar to yours, but you're also competing against everything else the prospect has on their minds.

Finally, the good soil represents a properly cultivated prospect list that is receptive to your marketing message (your seeds). Good soil doesn't just happen. Good soil is cultivated. The farmer plows the land and breaks up the hard earth. Then, he broadcasts his seed over the soil, and the seed takes root. Once it takes root it produces a harvest. And what an ROI! Look at it, 30 to 100 times the investment. That's pretty cool.

So, what's needed to sow a crop?

Properly prepared soil
The right seed
Specific Action

The soil is your prospect list. Make sure it's targeted, clean and segmented. The seed is your direct marketing piece. Make sure it is well crafted and designed specifically for the reader. The specific action is what you do to get the marketing piece to people on your list at the right time.

Too often as small business owners we get caught up in the details of business, and we forget to take time to market ourselves and get more business. This is the root cause of boom and bust cycles in our businesses.

Here's an idea. If you are too busy with the business of your business, and you need help marketing your business, find someone to take the marketing load from you. Either hire a full time marketing person, or establish a relationship with a good freelance marketing consultant.

That's all for now.
Brett

The Power of Personal Testimony

noreply@blogger.com (Brett & Matti Birdsong) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:39:00 +0000

"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;" Revelations 12:11 (NIV)

Your most powerful tool
Today I want to focus on the power of personal testimony as it relates to marketing your business. Not your testimony, but the testimony of your customers. What do your customers say about you? Is it what you want them to say?

We all know that word of mouth advertising is the best kind of advertising. Why? Because prospective clients don't know if they can trust you or not. So providing examples of real customer who have used your service or purchased your product gives new customers a way to gauge your business, and predict the way you will treat them.

Nothing is more powerful than a personal testimony from a satisfied customer, and nothing is quite so damaging as the caustic critique of a dissatisfied customer.

A Real World Example
I recently attended an online seminar series called The White Paper Success Summit. It was relatively expensive, so I thought hard about signing up.

One of the things that convinced me to take the plunge was the testimonies of satisfied attendees listed on their website. Of course they were all glowing, but more importantly, they included the names of the past participants and their cities.

A quick Google search turned up the website of one of those participants. I emailed her and asked for confirmation of her testimony. The next day she assured me that the summit she attended was well worth the money.

Next, I looked at my own experience with the people producing the seminars. I knew two of the authors, in fact I have their books sitting on my desk, Writing White Papers by Michael Stelzner and The White Paper Marketing Handbook by Robert W. Bly. I knew that I'd already found their advice helpful, so after a little more consideration I finally decided to sign up.

I've got to say, it was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned so much, that I've added white papers to my list of services.

How do you get testimonies?
Getting testimonies is pretty simple: Ask for them. Ask your customers for a letter of recommendation, or ask them to leave a message on your voice mail. If your customers are busy people, take the initiative to write a testimonial for them. When you ask for the recommendation, say you've put together a draft to help them get started. Many times, they will simply sign your letter and return it to you.

The main point is: When you need to build credibility a few good testimonies will go a long way.

Can marketing be ethical AND effective?

noreply@blogger.com (Brett & Matti Birdsong) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:12:00 +0000

Most Marketing Stinks...
Let's face it. Marketing as a whole has a bad wrap. If you've ever read any of Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strips, you know marketers are seen as self absorbed dolts who would lie to their grandmothers to generate leads. Of couse, a lot of this bad PR is rightly deserved. The underhanded tactics used by some marketers are legendary and perverse.

Isn't There a Better Way?
There's got to be a better way to market your goods and services. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a "bible" on ethical marketing that explained all the things that really work, but don't damn your soul to hell for using them? Thankfully, there is. I'm going to tell you more about it in a moment.

A Real World Example
First, I'd like to introduce the person behind this book. Starting with just a handfull of sales people, none of which was actually in sales before joining his organization, this man built an organization that litterally turned his market upside down. And while he didn't actually write down any of his marketing principles, those closest to him did, and following those principles, they built an organization that today spans the globe.

What's more, they did it before the internet, before T.V., before magazines, before newspapers. How could they be so effective without modern modes of comunications? Everything was built around word of mouth testimonials, free samples and creating relationships.

I could go on and on with this post dancing around my point like some huckster copywriter trying to build up your curiosity, but I won't. I'll spill the beans: The "bible" of ethical marketing is: Drum roll please....

The Bible.

Yep. That's right. This blog is going to explore the principles found in the Bible that will help you effectively market your company, product or service.

That's all I've got time for now, but check back soon for more.

Brett