Ryan Renfrew

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Written by Ryan Renfrew | follow me on twitter / facebook

What uuuuup? Hope you are off to a flying start so far in 20eleven.

In this era of the new economy and the power of super small business’ we need to focus on one thing and that one thing is marketing, for me 20eleven is gonna be the year of marketing – I am gonna learn, absorb and implement everything marketing. When I refer to marketing I don’t just mean marketing tactics with its Click Through Rates and Search Engine Optimisation I want to delve further into the deep psychological recesses of our consumer minds.

Marketing has been used to sell products and services since time began, well at least the beginning of consumerism, but I’m not interested in selling products or services (for the time being anyway) what I am interested in is using marketing as a psychological weapon  to ‘sell’ my ideas, opinions and ultimately ‘sell’ myself as a trusted authority within my sphere of influence. It is of utmost importance to sell your self to potential customers BEFORE you try to sell your goods and services.

There are three basic components to market anything, anywhere, at any time, to any one, at any price, under any circumstances. I have spoken with many business owners and many of them insist that their business is different, that their circumstances are somehow unique. This is not the case. Every single business in the world, past or present needs these three things to prosper.

1. MARKET
2. MEDIA
3. MESSAGE

These three elements have no particular order of sequence, they can’t have. No one element is more important than an other. However you do need all three operating at the same time. Think of it as a tripod, you need all three legs intact otherwise the tripod will fall over. The three sides of this marketing triangle all feed into one another to form a super marketing trifecta.

There are quite a few ways to screw up the super marketing trifecta.

Right Message – Wrong Market – Right Media
Right Message – Right Market – Wrong Media
Right Message – Wrong Market – Wrong Media
Wrong Message – Right Market – Right Media
Wrong Message – Wrong Market – Right Media
Wrong Message – Right Market – Wrong Media
Wrong Message – Wrong Market – Wrong Media.

There is only one right way.

Right Message – Right Market – Right Media

THE MARKET

When you choose your media, WHO are you targeting? When you craft your message, WHO is it meant to resonate with? It is true but sadly unfortunate that many business owners don’t know WHO they should be hunting, they don’t’ know WHO their current customers are and they have no idea WHO their ideal customer is.

Do you know WHO your ideal customer is? I mean do you really know them?  Do you know their likes, their interests even their dislikes? The reasons why they buy? If not, you should find out as soon as possible. Its as easy as just asking them, surveys, polls, questionnaires whatever you fancy.

Finding out this WHO is very important, once you know WHO you want to attract then finding them becomes so much easier. Often you will find that the right description of your WHO is already in your business, its just that you haven’t bothered to look or paid any attention to it up until now.

But what if you are just starting a new venture and have no frame of reference? Well, look for similar business’ in your niche and profile their customers. For example when I started this blog I had no readers – and I wanted some – not only that, I knew I wanted readers that would like my blog enough to comment and subscribe. So I read, comment and subscribed to blogs similar to mine. I took this a step further and commented on the blogs that commented on the blogs I read. Which in return yields subscribers WHO fit my WHO.

Start with your preference of WHO you want as a customer or client and whatever you do make damn sure that you stop trying to round up ‘everybody’ and ‘anybody’.

THE MESSAGE

If you want to catch a salmon them don’t tie an old boot to your fishing line

“Match Bait to Critter”
- Dan Kennedy

Once you know WHO you want to attract you need to create the right bait. The ‘bait’ is two things; the message you want to convey and your offer, whether that be a free info product, a free gift, a discount, a free service etc.

Many business yield poor results from their sales and marketing efforts because the have crap, no or the wrong bait for their WHO.

Crap bait is boring and dull. For example a free report  “Lifestyle Design Online” is crap. A free info report “How To Make 6 Figures With a Lifestyle Design Blog In Less Than 12Monthsa” is better.  Now, that same report with an audio download and a transcript of 5 interviews from that niches gurus is much much better. You get my drift?

Now that we have our bait we need to consider the message-to-market match. Most businesses have the one size fits all mentality, one brochure, one catalogue, one website. But this is very ineffective. You want your marketing to be magnetic, don’t ya? Then your gonna have to make it appeal in different ways to different people. Some people are more visual – offer them a report to read, some people are more auditory- offer them an audio download, while others are more tactile – offer them a free gift.

THE MEDIA

Newspaper, fliers, postcards, tv, magazines, billboard, pay per click, catalogue, social media, word of mouth, sky writing and the list goes on and on.

Fist off, channels of media changes business from business. The most important factor to consider is the WHO you are trying to reach. What do they pay attention to and what media do they use? A flier tucked under your window wiper for a 2 for 1 pizza offer might work. But a flier probably wont work for multi-million pound luxury yachts. There is no such thing as bad media, it’s how we use it that makes it bad.

So, it is your mission to find and use as many different media as you can. Many business’ rely on one, two or three forms of media to deliver their message, but this can leave them vulnerable to disruptions and competition.

Obviously my main media channel is my blog, but I also use twitter and facebook. What media works for you and why do you use it? Also, what hasn’t worked for you and why? Please, I would love to hear your responses in the comment section below.

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bLAZE yOUR tRAIL.