There’s so much confusion and just bad, self-serving, misinformation out there about marketing.
We’re not living in the Information Age… we’re smack in the middle of the Information “Overload” Age.
With that in mind, you must develop a fierce focus and the only way to do that is to start out with the end in mind.
When your mind is clear, you focus on the key impact areas with great intensity.
The idea, concept, and practice of the Ideal Client develops a laser sharp focus of exactly who your prospect is … and eliminates those that aren’t.
But identifying your Ideal Client is only one component part of your marketing picture.
Consider these two brilliant simplified views from two of today’s top marketing minds… and marketing “doers”.
Dan Kennedy, legendary small-business direct response marketing guru, explains marketing as:
“There are three components to marketing-for anything, anywhere, at any time, at any price, to anyone, under any conditions. Every individual loves to insist his business circumstances are somehow different. Not so. Every business on Earth, past or present, requires three things to prosper. They are not in sequential order, because they can’t be. One is no more important than the other. One does not necessarily precede the other, but you need all three in place simultaneously. Think of it as a three-legged stool. It can’t stand with any leg broken or missing. It needs all three. It’s a closed triangle. Each of the three components feeds the other two. If you will “marketing energy” flows laterally to and from each component, to and from the other two.
There’s only one way to get it right: Right Message–Right Market–Right Media.”
Mark Joyner, author of two best-selling marketing books, The Great Formula and The Irresistible Offer, shares these three- part concepts:
The Great Formula:
• Create an Irresistible Offer.
• Present it to a Thirsty Crowd.
• Sell them a Second Glass.
Again, the focus here is to focus on who exactly, and where exactly, is your Thirsty Crowd-that Ideal Client prospect.
Also Joyner offers and states another three-step concept, brilliant in its simplicity:
There are three— and only three— ways to increase the revenue of any business endeavor:
1.-Get your message in front of more eyeballs.
2.- Get more money per eyeball
3.- Sell more products to your existing clients on the back-end.
The Secret.
“The secret of golf is to turn three shots into two.” -Bobby Jones
As a passionate golfer and marketer, I say:
“The secret of marketing is to turn two… clients, dollars,sales… into three.”
In both… your golf game, or your marketing game…
The secret is leverage.
Getting the most out of everything you do.
In golf, getting the most out of your game is less. Less strokes and lower scores. Scratch.
In marketing, getting the most out of your game is more. More clients, more dollars, more sales. Geometric growth.
Yet, many business owners focus 95% of their time and energy on the things that don’t fall into these basic Business-Building efforts.
Like the hack golfer,they’re busy pounding away with the driver on the range, rather than practicing chipping, pitching, bunker shots and putting… the place where you turn three shots into two in golf.
Focus your efforts on what works.
It forces everything else to fall away.
You see, it doesn’t matter how great your product or service is if you pitch it to the wrong market.
Imagine having a whole crowd of people thirsty… hungry for what you have, what you do.
Thirsty crowds are everywhere.
The first place to look is right inside your own business.
The first place to look and examine… and completely understand… is to analyze the work you’ve already done. This will give you the clues, the road-map to finding a Thirsty Crowd of prospects who want what you offer.
As Dan Kennedy states, the components feed each other. When you take time and effort to discover your Ideal Clients, suddenly you’ll understand how to get your message in front of more of the “right” eyeballs, and an added bonus… in many cases the result is more sales of products and services to your existing clients, and referrals from them too.
Finally, one more observation from a marketing expert to drive home exactly the importance of the Ideal Client idea:
The late Gary Halbert, a true modern-day marketing genius, poses this question:
“If you’re going to open a new hamburger stand in town, what is the one thing you would want most? Many people say the best burgers in town, a secret sauce, or great cook, or commanding name, logo, or character like Ronald McDonald.
Nope, the one thing I want is this: a Starving Crowd.”
Your first step in creating effective marketing is to find or develop a Starving Crowd, a Thirsty Crowd… to discover your “Right Market”… your Ideal Client prospect.
Who are YOUR Ideal Client prospects?
What is their hunger, their thirst?
Where can you find them?
Flickr Photo Credit: mikebaird
Related Marketing articles:
- What Makes You Different? (myventurepad.com)
- Internet Marketing Secrets That Stop Small Business Owners in Their Tracks (lazerpromotions.com)
- Final Lessons Learned from One of the World’s Highest-Paid Copywriters (copyblogger.com)
- What Small Business can Learn from Domino’s Pizza (myventurepad.com)
- Innovation and Leadership in Small Business (wordsellinc.com)
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Great tips!! Thanks for reminding me over. This is indeed true. Knowing and your prospective costumers and getting focus to your market can make your business more effective. It will lead to driving website’s traffic higher than others. Did you know that one of the most overlooked ways to drive traffic to your website is offline advertising.Just like I’ve had great luck with postcards, display ads, classified ads and recently radio advertising, which I am finding very interesting for driving qualified leads to my business.
Thanks Peter,
You’re right… if your hungry crowd is offline (and many of them are) meet them where they are. Postcards, display ads, classified ads, and yes, even radio ads to drive traffic to your website opt-in or offer works… when you do it right. There is no one media to use in your marketing.