Tweet

Is your marketing focused?

Written by: Joe Dager

Article Overview: How is your marketing doing in 2009? Have you increased it? We have just about completed the first 30 days and are you cutting back or moving forward? I am still talking to perspective clients that seem to lack direction.

Is your marketing focused?

How is your marketing doing in 2009? Have you increased it? We have just about completed the first 30 days and are you cutting back or moving forward? I am still talking to perspective clients that seem to lack direction. How can you not be focused by now?

Case in point, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! She was running away from home for a better life. They did not understand her. I have 2 teenage boys, can I run? No, I understand that this is a part in their life that they need to find themselves. They need to find their own identity.

I have always thought many companies struggle with that. I talk to businesses everyday that define their target market as small business. I want for someone to take note here, SMALL BUSINESS IS NOT A TARGET MARKET.

So how do you define your niche? For starters, it is what you do well. Now, think about this - what do you do better, really better, than anyone else. What individualizes you more than any one single point. What would your customers say? What would your strategic partner say? What would a referral partner say?

I was taught the "Five Why" method. Keep asking why to each answer 5 times. At the end, you probably have the answer that you are looking for.

1. Who(Why) is your target Market? Small Business
2. Why? I work with companies that do not have an in-house marketing department.
3. Why? Our system is set up to handle that function.
4. Why? Because it is a systems.
5. Why? Because systems work.

So now, who is my target market from just that short exercise, I can tell you right now. If you don't believe a system works, you are not my target market.

How about Dorothy? Remember the words of the lion to the wizard. Yeah, and the wizard took off without her. Linda, the good looking witch came back and told Dorothy what? "You have had the power all along, you just had to find it." I encourage you as a business to find your niche and identify with it. If you want your marketing to work, don't try to be everything to everyone. Find the power within your organization and tap those shoes together. It's about the shoes!

Related Articles
  Go ahead, dream small
  Make More Sales By Avoiding The Product Trap
  Why You Need a Marketing Plan
  What Does It Take To Succeed in Internet Marketing?
  The 3-Most Powerful Words in Sales

Article Tags: marketing, perspective clients



Related Forum Posts
Re: Is being too connected pushing your business forward or back - Hi Kevin, You have a good point. In internet marketing it can be harder to stay focused. You are surfing the net all the time, you see and find different opportunities, new methods, another way to get targeted traffic, all need to be tested and accomplished in no time. Add to this all the social networks, a person can get lost. One must stay focused, I do it by creating a list every week, and I follow this list. After i do all things on my list I can "play".
Re: What Do You Outsource Mostly? - When building a New Product, I do find it helpful to outsource marketing (articles - blogging - major social network site etc) Otherwise, you may feel bogged down when you should be focused on the overall BIG PICTURE.
If I could change one thing - Hi Chris, Great question. If I had the opportunity to change one thing about my business I would have started out by being more focused. As an entrepreneur we are always being distracted by new ideas, opportunities, and "shiny diamonds". I would have sat down at the beginning and really figured out what my end objectives were and set up a game plan to achieve those goals. I would have then only focused on the tasks that would get me to the goals I had set out. I say that now, but unfortunately a lot of the time I am still attracted to those "shiny diamonds" so it is a constant effort to stay focused. At least I am aware of it and spend more time working on the initial strategy. Maja
Re: Are Business Owners too Old School to be Sold by a blog - Not sure about business owners being to old school. Personally I am far too busy to read a bunch of blogs so I limit my reading to relevant, quality blogs. If the content started becoming to sales and marketing focused I would most likely unsubscribe.
Re: Search Engine Optimization - Another thing to add, regarding focusing on one method, is not to put all your eggs in one basket. For example, hubpages.com recently disallowed MLM or network marketing content. If you were focused on these two sites for link building, and suddenly they pulled all your content, where would that leave you?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Effective Leadership

Providing Feedback

How To Be A Management Legend

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.