It’s no secret most businesses fail.
And fail fast.
It’s usually not from lack of effort, creativity, or even a stupid idea. Most of the time it’s because of marketing.
What’s funny is 99% of the time, the owner, doesn’t even do the marketing. It’s the ad agency’s who suck the life out of small businesses.
They just don’t get direct response. They could careless about your business, but what they do care about is how deep your pockets go, if you catch my drift (cha ching…you’ve been robbed).
For a business to be successful there needs to be a strong foundation. A successful business understands they must build their business on a unique selling proposition.
It’s such an overlooked concept it’s scary.
To understand this concept of a USP let’s dig into some examples. An easy industry to see the power of a USP is the Restaurant industry.
Domino’s Pizza is a perfect example of a business built upon a strong USP. I think it’s pretty clear but Domino’s is a delivery pizza service. You can find them all over the US and their number stored in most college kid’s phones (it was in mine).
If you look for Domino’s online or in the yellow pages you’ll see their ads make an irresistible offer “Oven fresh pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less!”
That right there is what has made Domino’s one of the largest fast food services in the nation. I think right now their yearly figure is around 1.4 billion in sales.
$1.4 Billion In Sales All Because Of A Cleverly Crafted USP
Domino’s has been extremely successful because they know their prospective customer. They understand their markets hot buttons. They know exactly what they value in a delivery service.
This brings us full circle to what Dan Kennedy calls the 3 M’s every business must nail to be successful and in this order.
You Must Match Your Message With The Right Market Through The Right Media
Listen you can have the most irresistible offer in the world but if you target the wrong market you wont make a dime.
If you’re trying to sell an info product for golfers that guarantees to cut 10 strokes of their game in 30 days and will eliminate hooks and slices in 3 hours to a group of male jockeys how many sales you think your gonna get?
Well your probably not going to get one. Ya, I’m sure your saying that’s ridiculous, you made an info product for golfers why the hell would you ever think to sell it to jockeys.
First, I just wanted to hammer this concept into your head with a ridiculous example. But I also wanted to get you thinking. Who are you marketing too?
There’s a lot that goes into finding the perfect market. Ya your targeting golfers but which ones? Male or female? What age group? Can they afford what your selling? Where do they live? What magazines do they read? How often do they play?
These are just a few ideas but brings us to the last piece to the puzzle, choosing the right media
We all love this part of the marketing mix and we usually skip the part of matching are message to our market and jump right into media.
Why?
Because it’s glamorous! It’s the ad’s, the infomercials, the radio talk shows, it is what gets you seen!
You will a ton of your marketing dollars if you focus on the media part of your marketing. It’s a mistake .
Listen, most of us are small business owners or trying to become one. We’re looking for a hungry niche and doing the research to find out what these guys are missing in their market. We are looking to fill the void.
We don’t have millions to throw into are marketing campaigns. We aren’t a goddam corporation. But unfortunately in school we are taught corporate marketing. Everyday we’re exposed to it!
And guess who ends up getting a job with the ads agency’s?
College Students Who Have Been Taught Corporate Marketing Are Running Your Ad Campaigns…This Is Killing Your Business…You Can’t Advertise As A Corporation
Are you beginning to see who should be in charge of your marketing now?
It’s you.
You need to be the brains behind the operation. You need to be an ongoing student of direct response. It’s the most affordable way to market your business and create super targeted customers.
Direct response isn’t rocket science. But it also ain’t no 1,2, 3.
You gotta do the reading. You gotta do the testing. You got to be willing to get your hands dirty and get off your ass.
Sorry, end of rant.
But that’s one of the most influential things I’ve ever heard in my life.
Anyways, to recap, every successful company is built upon a USP. Every successful company also focusing their marketing efforts on
1.The Right Message
2.The Right Market
3.The Right Media
I know I didn’t talk about the different media’s you can use to advertise, but if I did what the hell would I write about on Wednesday…
(Hint: one type of media is yellow)
Out,
Chris
P.S It seriously doesn’t do you any justice to stop here. Easily, the #1 guy in the game when it comes to direct response is Dan Kennedy.
A ton of the material I’ll talk about, in one way or another, comes from what I’ve learned from Dan.
He does a way better job than me explaining it, and personally I’d go to the source.
Check out this link for his No BS Book Series (cheapest way to get a world class education in direct marketing)
www.nobsbooks.com
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Category : Direct Marketing