What "Targeted Marketing" Really Is...and Is Not

First, it's vitally important to understand the meaning of "targeted marketing".  From my experience, most business owners who have learned about this still don't really understand it well enough.  When I talk about "targeted marketing" I mean marketing with a laser beam rather than a shot gun.  Imagine there is a shooting target with the red rings and the bullseye 50 feet away from you.  Some people would consider it "target marketing" to shoot at that target with a shot gun.  In other words, they understand that their target market is out there, and if they market in enough different places, they'll get in front of them.  But why not shoot at that target with a rifle and a laser focus?  With the shot gun you'll probably hit the bullseye with one or a couple of the shot gun's sprayed BBs.  But with the laser focused rifle you can hit the bullseye with the entire bullet and put a much bigger hole in the target.  By "rifle target marketing" I mean finding your target market in more condenced, smaller groups, and marketing to them again and again.  Here's an example: let's say Mr. Business has $1500 to spend on a marketing campaign.  He's in the Twin Cities which has a total population, with suburbs, of around 1.5 million people.  So Mr. Business has a choice to put out some marketing that will reach many of the 1.5 million people, or he could try to locate his target market in smaller groups and market to them several times.  For $1500 he can probably only market to a larger portion of the 1.5 million people once.  But if he finds his target audience in smaller groups, it's far less expensive to market to them and so he can do so multiple times for the $1500.  Let's say to have a successful campaign he needs 20 new customers from it.  Now, many times business owners look at this and say, "I only need 20, for $1500 I can get XYZ to about a million people.  I should get 20 customers from that many people." Well, let's go back to the gun target.  Imagine that the target represents the entire 1.5 million people.  Let's look at how much money we can spend per person for $1500: the average home has 3 people, so that would be 500,000 homes ($1500 divided by 500,000 homes).  So that would leave us about 3 tenths of one cent per home.  Now, let's imagine that we find our target audience in groupings totaling about 6,000 homes.  Now we can spend about 25 cents per home ($1500 divided by 6,000).  Which do you think will get better results?  The ladder will inevitably get better results almost every single time.  So, why do most business owners not do this?  A) I believe most still really think that "casting a wider net" is always better because they don't want to miss any prospects, and B) I think those that do understand it sometimes just don't go through the work of narrowing down who their target market or audience really is (it's actually usually fairly simple to do this, but that's for a later article).  

So, get out there and find your target audience in small groupings and save a lot of money and frustration by marketing to them with much better results.  During a recessing economy, nobody can afford to spend money on ineffective marketing.  This is THE BEST strategy to use to develop killer marketing campaigns without spending insane amounts of money.  

This brings me to my second principle: Now is not a time to experiment in marketing, unless you've never marketed before.  Businesses need to really focus on the basics right now regarding marketing.  Whatever has worked in the past, do more.  Whatever has performed poorly, dump it now.  Those that you're not sure about: start tracking with extraordinary diligence.  If you're at least breaking even on them, keep them (my opinion is that if you break even attaining a new client, it's a good campaign because of potential repeat business and referrals).  If not, dump them.  It's not a good time to experiment with new marketing ventures.  When cash is tight, you don't want to get burned on a new marketing campaign that fizzled.  Go back to all the marketing ads and basics that have always worked or worked in the past.  Also, review your marketing messages (particularly your headlines) and be sure to adjust them to an audience that is afraid to spend money.  

If you're a business owner and would like to learn more, call or email my office: 651-275-8999/ jonomalley@actioncoach.com

Don't Listen to Advertising Companies on "How to Advertise"

As the owner of several companies, I have noticed in the last couple of months a slew of invitations coming through my mail box and email box for seminars and workshops promising to teach me how to market during a recession.  The odd thing is that most of these are being put on by advertising companies.  It would make sense to me if the advertising companies would bring in a third party to present to us, but they typically aren't.  I just got an invitation from the St. Paul Pioneer Press to attend a workshop on advertising.  What do you think they'll be "promoting" during that seminar?  I doubt it will be on the effectiveness of television advertising.  Or direct mail. Or online.  They're going to preach the gospel of newspaper advertising and be very biased in the information that they offer.  That's a very good reason for me to avoid these seminars.  How about a seminar on marketing that is not offered by a marketing company.  Well, this is what I've been doing for months.  I am a Business Coach and I offer a seminar called "5 Steps to Bigger Profits: How to Leverage Your Marketing Dollars".  I have no tie-ins or kick backs from any marketing groups or companies.  I teach the business owners in the room how to do better marketing from an unbiased standpoint.  I believe in "Education Based Marketing".  If the people in the room get value from what I teach them, they request a meeting with me, and I will end up working with a certain number of them.  I throw that out there for any of you business owners who are receiving a plentitude of invitations from biased sources who are using seminars only as a sales tool rather than as an educational too.  Look for seminars and workshops that will offer unbiased information so that you get real, accurate marketing information and ideas.  

If you're a business owner and would like more information, call my office or email me: 651-275-8999/jonomalley@actioncoach.com

Three Most Important Ingredients to Dominate During a Recession

In this current business climate when our economy is apparently shrinking slightly, there are three things that will help you as a business owner weather this storm.  They are:

1. Keeping a healthy, postive mindset.  

Who is the most important person in any company?  Most people understand that the leader of any group is the most important figure to that organization.  And what is the one thing about that person that will most effect how successful he or she is?  Their mindset.  The most successful western entrepreneurs (Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, etc.) have unbreakable "can-do" mindsets.  They seem to never come up against a problem that can't be solved.  And they never ever fall into the pervasive trap of "going below the line", i.e. blaming others for their mistakes, making excuses for failures, or denying their role in something that was unsuccessful or mistaken.  They maintain positive attitudes even amongst times of challenge.  All of those listed above have endured a great number of trials and tribulations in growing their companies to success.  This is, in my opinion, the #1 and most important requirement of anyone seeking to be more successful than the average person.

2. Determining what the most productive use of their time will be.  

As entrepreneurs, it's very easy to get pulled in a thousand different directions on any given day.  We have all sorts of outside influences that, if allowed, can determine exactly where we spend our time each day if we allow them.  The problem is this: I use an analogy with my clients that every business is like a large sail boat.  The sail boat has a large sail on it.  The business owner is the captain.  The wind is any outside influence on the ship.  Now, if the captain is running around the ship and nobody is steering the ship, it will go wherever the wind blows it.  This is how many business owners operate on a daily/weekly/monthly basis without knowing it.  How they spend their time on a daily basis is often determined by outside forces (the wind), like: telephone calls, emails, employee questions and problems, customers calling, etc.  Obviously these things are all important to be dealt with, but how they are dealt with is often the problem.  How many times have you finished working a full day and thought, "What did I actually accomplish today?"  This question comes as a result of spending time on non-productive or low productive activities.  It's like letting the wind determine where the ship goes.  And when the wind is determining where the ship goes, it's most certainly not going to arrive at the desired location.  As entreprenuers we MUST decide what the most productive use of our time will be today, and then, come hell or high water, get those things done.  

3. Discipline.  

This is, in my opinion, the most common differentiator between successful and unsuccessful businesses and people.  In a study of CEOs who have grown $100 million plus companies, the final conclusion was that DISCIPLINE was the one most common golden thread running between those who were able to achieve the $100 million mark.  And when taking into consideration numbers 1 and 2 above, they both take great discipline to do consistantly.  This is why many companies, when searching for new hires, often seek runners and ex-military as employees.  They know that to be a runner takes a great deal of discipline and that, generally speaking, ex-military personel are more disciplined than the average person.  And discplined people produce greater results than people who lack discipline.  The problem is that discipline is something so fundamental that there is only one way to attain it: through practicing it.  In other words, if you want to get disciplined, be disciplined.  It's a choice more than anything else.  But in business, especially in a shaky econonmy, this will no longer be optional for most business owners.  What entrepreneurs got away with doing or not doing during good economic times, they will not get away with during worsening times.  They'll have to decide to start doing what they know they should be doing (making prospecting calls, learning how to effectively market a company, wake up earlier, plan their schedules, etc.) if they plan to be around when things pick up again.  The good news: those who do will be far better, have more market share, more systematic and efficient companies, and will make a lot more money when the economy picks back up again.  And that should be motivation for any business owner to make the decision to be more disciplined starting today...

If you're a business owner and would like to learn more, call my office or email me today: 651-275-8999/jonomalley@actioncoach.com