But so many information products out there are poorly written, hard to understand, data dumps.

How do you make sure your product one your customers will praise (versus bury).

Click here to read the the 4/08 Contagious Marketing ezine.

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I don’t get the preoccupation with luck.

I get doing what I can to increase my probability of success. And i believe things usually work out for the best.

But that’s about it.

What does this have to do with marketing?

Whether or not marketing works often seems up to the whims of fate. It’s not. Marketing success is about doing as much as you reasonably can to make sure that:

- You offer a product or service that has real value for your customers
- Your message gets in front of the people who will buy what you sell
- Your message speaks the language of your customers and tells them what you sell and why it will help them
- You demonstrate how you help clients over and over again until they trust you
- You make it easy to buy and use your product
- You take care of your customers and constantly look for ways to offer more value

That’s it. Not luck. Understanding what your customers want and need and making sure they know you provide it deliver.

Human behavior can seem fickle but it’s not THAT fickle.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: marketing, luck, customer behavior, success factors

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I know, I know, it depends but depends on what exactly?

I’m developing a new program to help small business owners create simple but valuable information products. An associate who is working with me to develop the program presented the concept to a group of small business owners to get their reactions.

In marketing-ese we did a “proof of concept.”

The owners liked the idea of having information products. They love the idea of passive revenue. But they balked at spending the time to actually create the products preferring to hire someone else to do it for them.

Hmmm.

So I’m wondering:

• These business owners want to take their business to the “next level.” They are generating as much business as they can with their current employees, mo
• Information products are a way to take a small business to the “next level” (a term I loathe but have yet to find a better one).
• Getting to the “next level” requires an outlay of time and money. The challenge is that it takes time to make the most of these investments. For example, if you hire a new salesperson, they need training and time to develop business.
• So there will be a lag between the time you invest in the infrastructure and the time you see higher revenues.

Business owners interested in information products need to either

• Invest their own time into creating products, or
• Hire someone to create the products

If they are unwilling to invest the time or money either

1. Time and money is scarce which mean the business itself is in trouble
2. They don’t understand the value an information product offers
3. They understand but prefer to invest in other capacity building options at the present time.

It’s possible re point #2 that we haven’t done a good enough job establishing the value of having an information product (in which value is the perceived net of benefits less time/$$ invested).

We need to find people who are already sold on the value of information benefits but are stuck and a little coaching & structure is all they need or clarify the net value (lower costs; increase benefits; or both).

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I’m drawing on Man with the Paper Clip, Angus MacGyver, for inspiration.

Click here to read it now.

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1. Are inexpensive (easily fit in a small business budget)
2. Will create positive interest
3. Are fun and unexpected

Points one and two are the definition of a good guerrilla marketing tactic. Point three is my own. I believe actions done to delight (rather than impress) gives marketing a special edge that most competitors miss.

Here’s one that showed up in my inbox today that I really liked from DeMarr Zimmerman of Sendoutcards.

“If you are getting this email, I officially give you the “Brownie Challenge”.

Here is what the challenge is

Think of a name. Yes! Right now! Whoever comes to mind, go straight to your Sendoutcards account and send them a box of brownies.

Our # 1 goal is to help you send an unexpected gift TODAY and make someone feel great!”

Sendoutcards is a service that allows subscribers to create and send personalized cards by mail as well as gift products such as the brownies DeMarr mentioned. If you’re not a Sendoutcards member, there are tons of alternatives such as:

• A book or CD from Amazon.com
• Fresh fruit from HarryandDavid.com
• Cookies, brownies, and other treats from the mrsfields.com
• A one of a kind mug or T-shirt from cafepress

One Important Point: you are not trying to sell anything. Try to sell something or get them to do something and it won’t work. The most effective sales and marketing tactics come when you’re giving without the condition that you must get something in return.

Try it!

1. Think of a name. Yes! Right now! Whoever comes to mind,
2. Go to amazon.com or harryanddavid.com or another favorite site, and
3. Send them a small gift along with a “thinking of you” card or note.

Repeat each week or every other week or once a month. Whatever your budget allows.
See what happens.

I think you’ll be amazed by the results.

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I’d also like to use this as a way to invite collaboration although I’m not certain just how much of the project makes sense to publicize. Some of it feels pretty sensitive.

Latest developments today:

Added “Guiding Philosophy” points which will help set some boundaries around the project
Added a “People” section to begin tracking people I’d like to involve in the project
Feeling pretty solid around using the metaphor of a “cookbook” to introduce the idea.

I’ll make a .pdf document of the mindmap available but password protected

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“Do not think a man has done his full duty when he has performed the work assigned him. A man will never rise if he does only this. Promotion comes from exceptional work.”

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
Scottish industrialist & philanthropist
founder, Carnegie Steel Company

This quote landed in my mail box this morning courtesy of the JustSell folks who publish Sales Quote of the Day. If I like the quote I save it to a “Good Quotes” file I keep (as a writer, I find good quotes often come in handy). This particular quote however, almost ended up in Outlook’s Delete file.

Why? I’ve developed an aversion to quotes and sayings that advise “working hard, going the extra 10%, and perseverance.” I’ve been hearing quotes like this since I was in Kindergarten and while they sound good “work really hard; get rewarded” the words now strike me as empty and overly simplistic. Yet so many of us read them and accept the mantra without asking what does this “really mean?”

In this case, it means more when viewed in the context of Carnegie’s life. Although Carnegie is remembered primarily for making a fortune from the new steel industry in the U.S., his real genius was in looking for better ways to accomplish whatever he set his sights on.

At the age of 16, Carnegie began working as a messenger for the Ohio Telegraph Company. He quickly distinguished himself by learning to translate Morse code by ear. This meant he could get messages simply by listening to them which was faster than writing the messages down.

During the Civil War Carnegie was appointed supervisor of military railways.  Building and repairing the rails and trains required large supplies of iron as well as steel which was used for the rail ties. Carnegie quickly grasped the potential of integrating iron works with steel production and set about creating what would later become U.S. Steel.

Carnegie’s philanthropy was also rooted in a desire to find a better way. Growing up poor in Scotland, Carnegie saw the English Monarchy as an impediment to social progress. He became an outspoken advocate of the Republican ideal in which the wealthiest and best educated citizens provided the means for those below to improve their situation through education and jobs which provided fair wages.

Although from today’s perspective, Carnegie’s social intentions seem naive and elitist, this was radical at a time when poverty was viewed as the fault of the individual and the result of laziness, poor discipline and other personal defects of character.

So, put in context, this quote is about pushing past mediocrity and complacently and finding ways to make a real difference. From my own perspective, this means creating a business that stands for what I value regardless of making some folks uncomfortable.

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“Getting new clients always feels like such a struggle. It seems like I’m either trying to get in front of people who are too busy to talk or once I do get them interested, getting them to say ‘yes’ and pay me is another struggle.”

“Is there an easier way?”

Does this sound like something you’ve said?

First of all, I can relate. I’ve done more than my share of chasing after prospects feeling like Elmer Fudd running after Bugs Bunny shouting, “Get back heaw you wascally wabbit!”

It is so not fun.

Second, and more importantly, the answer is YES, there is an easier way. The keys are:

1. Know your customers’ pain really, really well.
2. Talk about their pain and the results your product or service deliver. In that order.
3. Don’t talk about how you do it in the most general terms.
4. Understand how your customers make purchase decisions, especially in terms of what they need to make a decision and how long it takes for them to make a decision.

My experience shows that making prospects aware of the problem and keeping them aware of the cost of the problem helps keep the need for your solution top of mind. It’s human nature to forget pain as quickly as possible or to put up with pain because “it’s not so bad.” In too many cases, it takes a full blown crisis to get people to take any kind of action.

If you get the pain factor down, the next point is to talk about results and stay the heck away from getting into how you get results. It’s so tempting to go on and on about your really cool, proprietary process but the truth is your prospect doesn’t care. They just want to know “do you understand my problem and have you helped people like me solve it.” You will also get the prospect bogged in minutia and give me lots of reasons to nitpick and object.

Finally, and probably most important. It takes time, sometimes a lot of time for people to be ready to buy. It takes repeated demonstrations over a period of time for them to feel confident enough to say “yes” and write the check.

If you work with the way your prospects go through the buying process, it will a lot less like a struggle and more like time and effort well spent.

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Click here to read the latest article on how to create revenue streams that come in even when you’re lying on the beach sipping a cold drink.

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