The Pareto Principle predicts that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

What Is Marketing?
..marketing is the strategy you use for getting your ideal target market to know you, like and trust you enough to become a customer. All the stuff you usually associate with marketing are tactics.

Chapter 2 – Crafting Your Message
It’s time to start marketing on purpose— treating advertising like a vending machine where the results and value generated are predictable, rather than like a slot machine where the results are random and the odds are stacked against you.

Positioning yourself as a commodity and hence being shopped on price alone is a terrible position for a small business owner to be in. It’s soul crushing and this race to the bottom is bound to end in tears.

So the two questions you must ask and answer are: Why should they buy? Why should they buy from me?

These are questions that should have clear, concise and quantifiable answers. Not wishy-washy nonsense like “we are the best” or “we have the highest quality.”

Website Development: “You know how most company websites are out of date? Well what I do is install software that makes it easy for people to update their own websites, without the need to pay a web designer each time. In fact, I installed the software for one of my clients recently and they saved $ 2,000 a year in web development costs.”

What Does My Target Market Want?

It should also be noted that most people don’t know what they want until they’ve actually been presented with it.

So many times businesses talk about “features and benefits” rather than speaking to the pain that the customer already has.

..we’re all big bags of emotion and our buying decisions are made with emotion and then justified with logic later. “Hey honey, I bought that Porsche 911 because of safety and German cars are really reliable too.” Yeah right.

The fact is people buy from people, not from corporations. Building relationships and rapport is well understood in the world of one- to- one sales; however, for some reason when it comes to the one- to- many position of being a marketer, many business owners think they need to put their personality aside and behave like a faceless corporation. Copywriting is salesmanship in print. You need to write your sales copy as though you were talking directly to a single person.

People respond to pictures and videos of other people. It’s no accident that YouTube and Facebook are two of the biggest online properties in the world. We’re extremely interested in what other people are doing and saying.

The five major motivators of human behavior, especially buying behavior are: Fear Love Greed Guilt Pride If your sales copy isn’t pushing at least one of these emotional hot buttons, then it’s likely too timid and ineffective.

To get a list of hundreds of the most successful headlines in advertising history visit 1pmp.com

Research, write, then test and measure and you’ll be far ahead of 99.9% of all your competitors.

Part of the job of good sales copy is to tell potential prospects who your product or service is NOT for.

Another excellent way to enter the mind of your prospect is to find out what they blame and use a device in your copy known as “the enemy in common.”

Title should equal content.

Chapter 3 – Reaching Prospects With Advertising Media
Not measuring where your leads and sales come from and not tracking ROI on ad spend is the mark of the amateur.
customer acquisition cost.

The money we make upfront on a campaign is known as “the front end.” The money we make on subsequent purchases is known as “the back end.” Together these figures make up the lifetime value of a customer.
Overt selling and constant pitching of offers is generally considered poor behavior on social networks and can result in repelling people from your business rather than attracting them.
Remember people buy from people.

One of the craziest things I see small business owners doing is setting a “marketing budget.” By setting a marketing budget you are implying that either your marketing isn’t working and hence it’s a pure expense (i.e. a waste of money).

The only time to set a marketing budget is when you’re in the testing phase. In the testing phase I advocate that you fail often and fail cheap until you have a winner. Test your headline, your offer, your ad positioning and other variables. Then cut the losers and optimize the winners until you finally have a combination that gives you the best possible return on investment.

Chapter 4 – Capturing Leads
..sift, sort and screen so that you were only dealing with high probability prospects and not wasting valuable time and marketing dollars on uninterested and unmotivated prospects?

Here’s the other big reason you want to avoid selling directly from your ad: at any given time (on average) about 3% of your target market are highly motivated and ready to buy immediately. These are the prospects most mass marketing hopes to convert. However, there’s a further 7% who are very open to buying and another 30% who are interested but not right now. The next 30% are not interested and finally the last 30% wouldn’t even take your product if it was free.

When you educate and teach you are seen as an expert and an authority. You’re no longer questioned, instead you are obeyed and seen to have a personal, genuine, helpful interest in other people.

Chapter 5 – Nurturing Leads
The most important thing you can take away from this message is to become a marketing farmer.

I’m certainly not saying you shouldn’t send immediate responses to information inquiries using the phone, email or web but understand that the first few interactions with a prospect are sacred and should be carefully orchestrated.

In school, you were taught to be independent. You had to pass math, science and English to get to the next level. Imagine you pooled your talents with a couple of friends. One friend who was good at math did all the math tests. Another friend who was good at science did all the science tests. Finally, you did all the English tests, because that’s what you were good at. In school, that type of collaborative work structure would have been called cheating and all three of you might have been disciplined or even expelled. Yet in business, pooling different talents in pursuit of a single goal is exactly the type of structure that results in successful outcomes. Business is a team sport. One where you’re never going to win on your own.

Chapter 6 – Sales Conversion
Another equally bad approach taken in many new businesses is expecting sales to happen by the mere fact that they exist. Some open a physical store, others start a website and expect sales to just start rolling in. Their marketing strategy is hope.

You must stop selling and start educating, consulting and advising prospects about the benefits your products and services deliver as opposed to each and every competitor in your category.

When you can name the fears and guarantee against them in your marketing, you give yourself an overwhelming advantage over your competitors.

Offering too much choice can actually prevent sales.

The “premium” version is priced at about 50% above the “standard” but offers twice or more value than the “standard” variation.

Implement the “everyone’s in sales” mindset in your business and couple it with a “try before you buy” offer and you’ll see dramatically better conversion results.

As mentioned in Chapter 2, another strategy for increasing your conversions is to offer a payment plan or finance for your higher ticket items. This can mean the difference between a sale and no sale. First, people often think of both their income and expenses on a monthly basis. Second, people are far less attached to future money than present money.

Chapter 7 – Delivering A World Class Experience
Sell Them What They Want But Give Them What They Need

Innovation can be applied to how the product is priced, financed, packaged, supported, delivered, managed, marketed or a myriad of other elements related to any part of the customer experience.
You don’t have to invent anything original. Model, borrow or shamelessly steal innovative ideas from other industries or products.

One of the major distinctions between successful entrepreneurs and “wantrepreneurs” is that successful entrepreneurs are predominantly content creators whereas wantrepreneurs are predominantly content consumers.

In an age where everyone is connected and everyone has access to almost all the available information, the most valuable commodity is reputation.

Firstly, it’s about positioning yourself as an authority in your target market. Everyone wants to hear from an authoritative source. By being a content creator, you position yourself as an authority and expert in your niche.

It takes a long time to pour a full glass of Guinness.

The backstory to your product or service is an absolutely essential part of your marketing. Don’t let your efforts and skill go unnoticed. It gives them an assurance that there is substance and quality behind your product.

Systems allow mere mortals to run an extraordinary business.

Marketing system– Generate a consistent flow of leads into the business. Sales system– Lead nurturing, follow- up and conversion. Fulfillment system– The actual thing you do in exchange for the customer’s money. Administration system– Accounts, reception, human resources, etc. Support of all the other business functions.

It builds a valuable asset.

Leverage and scalability.

Your job as an entrepreneur is to be an innovator and a builder of systems.

Chapter 8 – Increasing Customer Lifetime Value
“dig first on your own property when seeking treasure.”

A widely quoted statistic10 is that a person is 21 times more likely to buy from a business whom they’ve bought from in the past compared to one they’ve never purchased from.

Upselling

People want to participate in social norms. By telling them what “normal” buying habits are, you tap into the powerful, deep- seated psychological human desire to fit in.

Ascension

Reminders.

However, if you sell something of value, which benefits your customers, then you do them a great disservice by not selling to them regularly enough.

Give them a reason to come back.

Help them buy repeatedly with subscriptions.

Reactivation

The difference between a customer who is just a transaction and one who is a raving fan is huge, even if the nominal dollar amount of the transaction is the same. This is because not all revenue is good and not all growth is good.

The Tribe.

The Churners.

The Vampires.

The Snow Leopard.

Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS has been created to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Don’t let yourself get fooled into thinking that all revenue is good.

Chapter 9 – Orchestrating And Stimulating Referrals
Setting up a joint venture (JV) arrangement with one or more of these businesses that is not in direct competition with you can be a cheap or free source of leads.

If you’re a lawyer, an accountant might make a great source of new leads. If you’re a car detailer, a mechanic could be your source of leads. If you’re a pet food retailer, a vet might be your ideal source of new customers.

..a brand is the personality of a business.

What’s its name? What does it wear? (i.e. design) How does it communicate? (i.e. positioning) What are its core values and what does it stand for? (i.e. brand promise) Who does it associate with? (i.e. target market)

Is it well-known? (i.e. brand awareness)

The things in your business that cause customers to figuratively or literally “cross the road” to buy from you, is your brand equity.

CONCLUSION

Time Is Not Money

For the entrepreneur time is not money. Value is money. Time is just one of the inputs it takes to deliver value to the market.

What business do I need to be in? What technologies are coming that are going to disrupt my industry? How can I take advantage of the coming changes in technology rather than fight them?
Skunkworks

It’s time to decide to become a great marketer and transform yourself from a business owner to a marketer who owns a business. Once you make this exciting transformation you and your business will never be the same again.