Digital or traditional, the basics of marketing changed since Oog and Ogg crawled out of their cave and began dickering over a stone ax-head. Here are some of the rules for marketing success in any age.
WII-FM
That’s everybody’s favorite radio station – What’s In It for Me. Benefits (that’s what is in it for me) are the basis of all marketing. Benefits are why people buy. They’re the difference in their life that buying from you will make.
Benefits are not features. Those are characteristics of your product, service or company.
Benefits are not applications. That’s how people use whatever you sell them.
Benefits are the difference in their life that happens because they purchase something from you. Tell people how they will benefit and they will from you. It’s that simple.
The Law of Horn Tooting
No matter how much you wish it were so, people do not just automatically wake up one morning and decide to purchase from you. They have to hear about you first. They have to know what you do and how buying from you will benefit them.
No matter how much you wish it were so, the only person you can count on to tell your story is you. Sure, your customers might good things about you, but you cannot count on that.
No if your horn is going to get tooted, it’s ideal to figure that you will be doing the tooting. That’s the Law of Horn Tooting: Toot thine own horn for thou canst not count on another to toot thy horn for thee.
The Magic Stone of Marketing
There may be magic in a young girl’s heart, but there is very magic in marketing. Despite how consultants and motivational speakers may make it seem, just going to have to work at it. There’s no one, or even two, things that will suddenly, completely, and permanently make your marketing effective.
No, if there is a magic stone of marketing it is this: do the basics with unremitting diligence. And what are those basics, I hear you cry.
You must get your message out so that people recognize your name and associate it with what you do and with what makes you different.
You must identify prospects and convert a goodly number of them into buyers.
You must tell folks about the benefits of buying from you. This is all folks, customers and prospects alike. Remember the Law of Horn Tooting. Don’t figure that just because you have given folks good service, they will remember the next time they are ready to buy.
You must deliver on your promises. If you don’t do this, nothing else really matters much.
You must stay in touch. If not to your best customers and prospects you will not know what their issues really are. You won’t know when they have a problem with your products or company. And you will not be able to tell them about the neat new product or service that’s perfect for them.
There are other things you should do, like having special programs to get that critical second order, making things increasingly simple for customers and prospects, and paying attention to your most valuable customers. None of these things, alas, is magic.
Riley’s Rule
When he was a National Basketball Association coach, Pat Riley used to have a saying: “No rebounds, no rings.” In other words, if you don’t do the important work, you won’t be a winner. We can translate that into business terms.
No marketing, no money. Marketing is not a campaign, initiative or program that you get done with. It’s the way you do business. Every day. Every week. Every month. Forever.
KISS Principle I
You know this one. It’s been a staple of motivational speakers and sales trainers for years. Keep It Simple, Silly. You may the S word of your choice for the final word in that sentence.
Keep it simple because complexity makes you work harder for the same results. When I was starting out in business, the company I was with made us chant 8-4-2 until it bubbled up from our subconscious unbidden.
The chant meant this. Make eight sales calls every business day. A call was where you actually talked to the customer, not just left your card. Demonstrate the product four times a day. Close two sales a day.
Simple, eh? It is. But it kept us focused on the basics. And people who followed the rule tended to be successful.
KISS Principle II
This one is Keep It Smart, Silly. Play the odds.
Pay attention to the best customers and the best prospects. Pareto is still right; going to eighty percent or so of your results from around twenty percent of your customers and prospects.
If you done it already, make up an A-B-C list of customers and prospects. Then work that list, paying attention to the customers and prospects with the most potential.
And do it right. Make sure you call on your best prospects and customers enough to get the business you need from them.
In the early Twentieth Century, writer Ring Lardner put it this way: “The race may not always be to the swift, nor victory to the strong. But that is the way to bet.”
Kiss Principle III
This principle is a tiny different. This principle is not an acronym. This principle is about real kisses.
Answer this question. Where are you most likely to get your next kiss? Will it be from a random sample of people you meet on the street? Or will it be where you got your last kiss?
Odds are that your next kiss will come from the place you got your last kiss. Now replace the word “kiss” with the word “sale.”
People who’ve from you before are the most likely to buy from you again. Even more, selling to them is more efficient. It costs five times less in terms of money, time and effort to get a sale from an existing customer than it does to create a new customer.
And it gets better. Existing customers are likely to buy more and more profitable items the longer they remain customers.
So romance those current customers. Show them how much you love them.
The Iron Law of Responsibility
It’s up to you. You’re responsible. If your customer makes a bad decision and purchases from the competition, it’s your fault.
It’s not your customer’s fault. They made the best decision they could in their situation with they knowledge they had available. If they have the right information, you should have told them. If they needed to decide right away, you should have been available to help.
It’s not the world’s fault, or the market’s fault, or your competitor’s fault. You are the only one responsible for the results of your marketing.
It’s up to you to share the benefits, toot your horn, and keep after the basics of marketing day after day. It’s up to you to keep it and smart. It’s up to you to romance your customers. It’s simple, really, but it’s not easy, and it hasn’t changed for centuries.
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How Much Memory Does Your Foam Have We spend around one-third of our life sleeping or at least lying down. How much is making that experience the best part of your day each day worth to you? Is it worth as much per day as, say, what you spend to watch television while youre waiting to get that sleep?
Having troubles sleeping?
The truth about Insomnia Cures. Although a simple insomnia “cure” is what most people are looking for, insomnia can be very complicated and the causes can vary widely for different people. It would be misleading in most cases for anyone to say they actually have a cure for insomnia.
One type of product that has become very popular in the last few years to help you sleep better is Memory Foam.
Memory Foam is a foam made from polyurethane with additional chemicals that add to its viscosity level, thereby increasing the density of the foam.
Fagerdala World Foams of Gustavsberg, Sweden, spent almost ten years perfecting the material for mass production. It was first introduced in Sweden and became known around the world as the Swedish Sleep System. Tempur-Pedic licensed the material and became the US manufacturer.
Fagerdala manufactures foams for insulation, sealing, shock absorption, protection, cushioning, comfort, floatation, filtration, and rigidity.
Fagerdala World Foams is the parent company of an international group specializing in the development, manufacture and marketing of polymer foams.
The group employs approximately 1.500 people and operates 30 factories in 14 countries, with a total building area of 265.000 m². The head office is located at Gustavsberg Harbour on the island of Värmdö, 20 km east of Stockholm, Sweden, to where it was moved in 1999 from the original nearby location at Fagerdala.
It was initially developed for NASA because of its ability to distribute pressure across the entire surface, because it could ease the pressure of extreme G-forces.
Because it eases pressure on the body it is now widely used in medical applications for patients suffering from pressure sores or bed-bound patients.
Previously too expensive for general use it has now become cheaper to produce.
You can now buy memory foam mattresses and mattress toppers.
As a matter of fact memory foam mattresses have become the fastest growing segment in the mattress industry.
There is a true proliferation of companies producing memory foam products and it is difficult to distinguish quality.
The first generation of material just wasn’t very durable, and would often compress or crack over time until a Swedish company called Tempurpedic developed a Class product called the Tempurpedic Mattress.
Tempurpedic is still very expensive but worth it.
Not all memory foams are equal. They differ a great deal in quality – density, hardness or softness, response to temperature, and also in their durability.
In looking for the right memory foam there are really a lot of different types and qualities out there.
And while this has also meant that a good number of quality memory foams have come onto the market, it has also meant that a greater number of low quality, cut rate foams have also appeared.
Try to avoid the really inexpensive pads or pillows you will find on the market.
Density seems to be the key factor for Memory Foam.
4 lbs seems to be the perfect density for comfort and quality and a mattress of that kind should last 5 years or so.
Stick with a memory foam that has a proven history of real world durability.
Really look closely at not only the density of the memory foam you are buying, but the source as well. You can trust Tempurpedic because they have a vested interest in assuring that their customers get only the highest quality products.
Tempurpedic, however, is four times as expensive as its competitors.
But there are alternatives.
You do not have to buy a Memory Foam Mattress, you can just buy a Topper made from Memory Foam.
Can I Get By with Just a Topper, or Do I Need a Whole New Mattress? It depends on the shape and the age of your existing mattress.
If your mattress is lumpy, feels uncomfortable and has hollows, forget it.
Here is a tip:
Buy the best bed you can find, then add your own memory foam topper.
About best beds, buy a latex or good foam bed, they just don’t wear out.
After 5 years or so, when the top starts to sag a bit, just replace the top.
If you ever buy your mattress or foam over the Internet make sure you can return them because you should try the merchandise at any cost.