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One of the quickest, most effective ways to create major breakthroughs in the success of your business is to steal marketing ideas from outside of your industry.
Jay Abraham — recently named the world’s highest paid marketing consultant — was fond of saying that in every industry, 95% of the companies do the exact same thing as each other, plus or minus 10%. They do the same things as each other in marketing, sales, product development, business practices, innovation… everything!
If one company is doing direct mail, they’re all doing direct mail. If one is going to trade shows, they’re all going to trade shows. There’s very little variation. This gives you a huge competitive advantage — all you have to do is break out and do something different.
If all your competitors are at a trade show, you’ll fight to grab your prospect’s attention at the trade show. You’re a little fish in a big pond.
Wouldn’t you rather be a big fish in a little pond?
If none of your competitors are using lead-generation direct mail letters, then you can easily stand out just by sending lead-generation direct mail letters to your prospects. Taking this novel approach can make the leads come in at an astonishing pace — even if your direct mail piece is mediocre! It’s all because you did something different.
And where do you get these different ideas?
This is where a marketing consultant can bring incredible value.
Also, if you’re willing to work a little harder, this is where you’ll find the most value in ebooks, teleseminars, and other information products.
The world is full of great ideas you can try, experiment with, and see if you can make them profitable in your business.
You may have to try two, three, ten, or even a hundred different approaches before you find a major breakthrough (you’ll find quite a few moderately profitable approaches along the way), but it’s worth it when you find a profit faucet you can turn on and turn up as needed.
Remember — Edison experimented with 10,000 approaches to the light bulb before he found success. But once he did he changed the life of every single person on the planet.
Perseverance toward innovation goes a long way.
Part of what we do at Fresh Look, Inc. is to help you find these innovative, profitable ideas — then apply them in your business to increase profits.
(I say that with a sense of humor, knowing, 1. It’s true, I won’t lie… I love it! And, 2. I look like a jerk if I make too big of a deal out of it. So I digress…)
David Bullock is somebody I respect greatly. He’s an expert when it comes to testing advertising. He taught me almost everything I know about Taguchi multivariate testing. And beyond that, he can innovate and solve business problems like nobody else.
So what he thinks of me matters quite a bit.
Just today he sent me this testimonial through email:
“Roy Furr understands power of words in the sales process. I’ve worked on several projects with Roy. He is an excellent copywriter, and understands HTML, design, and marketing. More importantly, he excels at capturing the voice of his client. I look forward to continuing to work with Roy, as he is responsive to the ever-changing communication demands of business. Working with Roy will improve your bottom line.”
My latest project with David is a coaching group called Testing Tactics — teaching how to quickly increase profits by implementing advanced marketing testing methods. Registrations are currently closed, but if you go to the site at www.TestingTactics.com you can download an interview I did with David about Taguchi testing. All we’ll ask for in exchange is your email address.
If you’ve ever thought about hiring an expert consultant to come in and give you advice about improving your business or solving your business problems, you know their advice doesn’t come cheap.
Even more so, if you wanted to add a new executive to your staff who could help you on an ongoing basis, you’d be looking to shell out a hefty sum as a salary to bring the new team member on.
Here’s an different solution to consider…
Join a MasterMind Group!
What’s a MasterMind Group? Napoleon Hill introduced us to the concept in his book “Think And Grow Rich.” The MasterMind principle is:
“The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.” He continues … “No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”
By gathering with a group of like minded business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, or marketers (or whatever other group you’d like to gather with), you can pull on resources far beyond your own.
It’s like hiring a team of experts to solve your business problems and increase profits!
“I did find that being an entrepreneur was a lonely place so I joined a local “mastermind” group… Best thing I ever did for growing my business because I got to ask other business owners questions and learn from their mistakes. Plus I learned that what worked in their businesses would work in mine.”
In your MasterMind Group, you take turns discussing business problems and strategy. Each person covers their own issues, then all the group members weigh in. You’ll be amazed by what you come up with, and how quickly solutions are created when you get so many experienced people in the same room.
Plus, this group will be a perfect place to look for partnerships and joint ventures that can help you take your business to the next level.
Hill continues…
“Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”
I’m in the process of putting together a MasterMind Group of business owners and executives in the Eugene / Springfield, Oregon area. If you’d like to receive an application when they are available, please call me at 541-543-1438 and tell me you’re interested in the MasterMind Group.
Back once again and it’s to talk for a moment about success.
There’s story after story of entrepreneurs who challenged everyone who suggested they couldn’t do it — and won!
I love these stories.
Stories of people who don’t let things like lack of formal education, age, ethnicity, or any other factor get in their way.
I’m not going to say that factors like that aren’t a disadvantage — because the reality is that our society is full of people who doubt the ability of people who are anything other than caucasian middle-to-upper-class males. But disadvantages are not barriers — and there’s story after story of people proving it.
Check out this video — it’s quite an inspirational 10 minutes:
Enjoy it? Comment below.
By the way — the guy’s name is Jermaine Griggs, and his company is Hear & Play Music, Online! at HearAndPlay.com. I’ve registered because 1) I want to watch how he markets to me, and 2) my wife and I bought a piano about a year ago and still all I can pluck out is “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
Effective marketing and advertising is “Sales in Print” or “Sales Multiplied.”
That’s true to a degree. It’s better to look at marketing as a form of sales that quickly reaches the mass millions, rather than as entertainment or art.
Looking at marketing as sales means you emphasize things like effectively grabbing a prospect’s attention, qualifying them and building their interest, building their desire for benefits on top of that, then closing the sale.
Simply put, it’s selling in print (or on the radio, or on TV, or the Internet, etc.).
Following that formula generates sales. It gets the job done. Your business grows, and you’re happy.
But there’s something missing. Something that could really make you rethink “How high is high?” when it comes to your sales and profits.
That’s education. Educating your prospects and your customers without thought of reimbursement. Helping them improve their lives, before you ask anything of them.
Caring for your customers. Putting their dreams, desires, and destiny first. Helping them break through and overcome their fears, frustrations, and failures. All without expectation of gain.
It may sound strange, but this form of selflessness — or focus on your customer’s needs instead of yours — may be the most selfish thing you could do. They’ll appreciate your actions, and reward you with a loyalty you’ll never get by just focusing on your sales.
So look at how you approach your business, your life. Are you putting others needs before your own? What are you doing right now to help others who may (or may not) eventually be able to help you — but without any expectation that they will?
For me, that’s partly what this blog is. A way to help you. To give you real profitable advice that you can apply. Sure I’ll mention things I’m doing and ways you can get more by doing business with me.
But first and foremost (this is a reminder to myself and a promise to you) this blog is here for me to give to you.
I hold the hard-headed opinion that if advertising doesn’t generate trackable results, then you might as well burn your money.
Okay, that’s harsh. But I really care about advertising that’s measured on results, not creativity. So in that vein, I like it when I get the chance to compare ads and see which worked better.
I got excited when I discovered this Advertising Game…
There’s 12 ads — 6 print and 6 TV ads — where you see two options, select which you think worked better, and find out immediately if the one you picked got more or less response than the other.
It’s pretty cool. I don’t agree 100% with all their analysis, or that the ads they show are the best possible ads for the products they’re selling… but the results let you know which actually worked better — both in sales and consumer recall.
I’ll start the Fresh Look, Inc. blog with a bit of good news.
I’ve been asked by Bob Bly — the author of The Copywriter’s Handbook, who McGraw-Hill calls “America’s top copywriter” — to write an ebook for his publishing company, CTC Publishing.
The book will be about how to run Taguchi multivariate testing on your advertisements. This method is used to quickly determine which of many variables contributes to the response to your advertisements and web sales appeals.
Using Taguchi testing, you can determine which of thousands of possible advertisements is the most effective — reliably increasing response over your control advertisement by 250% to 2500% or more in just a few weeks.
The book I am writing will serve as a how-to manual — taking you from little-to-no knowledge all the way up through running your first Taguchi test.
In addition to running a few of my own Taguchi tests, I’ve helped one of the world’s foremost experts on Taguchi testing in marketing and advertising — David Bullock — teach Taguchi methods and strategies to small business owners and marketers. David worked as a direct student of Dr. James Kowalick, the man who first applied the Taguchi method to advertising optimization (it started as a way to optimize manufacturing).
Through working with David over the past year or so, I’ve been able to learn and apply the easiest, most direct ways of using the Taguchi methods in advertising.
Now with David’s blessing I’ll be passing on that information to you.
The book should be available in early 2008.
Stay tuned for more info.
If you’d like my advice on using Taguchi testing in your marketing efforts — online or offline — contact me. My number is 541-543-1438. I look forward to your call.
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