And while this type of research is certainly a great time and money saver, it’s kind of like a restaurant making only one particular dish for the day, and then going around asking hungry customers who’d like it.

Let me explain . . .

Marketing has to do with providing products people want, right?

So then, what’s more important to your bottom line, the products or the people?

If a restaurant decided to make just one item, and tried to get everyone coming in to accept it, they’d have hundreds of customers walking out hungry and perhaps angry. So, in their case, they give options via a menu and let the people decide what they want.

In our case, it takes a long time to accumulate a variety of products to offer, so giving options may not be so easy to do. However, the same principle that tells the restaurant not everyone will want the same meal still holds true.

And it all has to do with giving the people what they want.

Thus it stands to reason then, the best way of targeting a market is to find out what that market is looking for before you make the product you want to present to them.

And this goes way beyond statistics, because our restaurant could look at past receipts to find out which meals they’ve served on average got the most takers. But even if they picked the most ordered meal in the bunch, that would still leave a lot of people wanting something different on the one day they decided to serve only that one meal.

Likewise, your standard market research will also only give you averages. So no matter how small a niche you’re working in, you’ll still have people walking away empty handed.

However, averages aren’t enough for our restaurant to go by, so they give menu options to make everybody coming in happy.

But what exactly is a menu?

It’s a means of asking people what they want, isn’t it?

The people mean more than product, and so your market research should be more than merely finding out how many people might want your product after the fact. Targeting a market through market research then, has to include asking people what they want before you make something to sell them.

After all, who wants to be stuck with a whole slew of chopped liver with carrots and mashed potato plates, when more people might opt for the chopped liver if it had peas and a baked potato, simply because you didn’t ask before you made them all?

So take your product idea to the people, and let them offer their preferences. Maybe you’ll find you’ll end up with something they actually want rather than something you want them to accept.

Targeting a market just to shove a product down people’s throats is just silly when you put it in this perspective, isn’t it?

Because really, all you have to do is ask and you could end up with far better results!

Related Reading:

Knowing Markets Are People

It’s how we connect to one another, how we come to appreciate the amazing intellect of perfect strangers, and how we prove our worth to the world.

I’d never discredit or diminish the dynamic power of fresh, streaming content in any way. Without it, the Internet would be useless.

The problem that creates the great content challenge however, is time.

It takes time to think. It takes time to formulate thought, and put it on “paper” in a communicable way.

It takes a particular time when you’re in the right frame of mind to be enlightening, inspiring, and considerate enough not to waste other people’s time with blather and gibberish just because you need something to post for traffic sake.

Which I suppose is all well and good if thinking of content ideas for a single blog is all one has to occupy their time with.

However, this is rarely the case.

Most of us have multiple platforms we work in. Many niches, several ways to deliver our content, various groups of subscribers all waiting for our next piece of information to learn from, and a plethora of conversations we’re already involved in.

Add to all of this, the real burning, deep seated passion we might want to share that’s far off the beaten trail of marketing, sales, or anything to do with money, and the great content challenge becomes a tug of war, clamoring for our attention and demanding all our inspiration to feed it.

Yet none of us are content machines. You, me, and everyone between us need inspiration to produce great content, which can seldom be forced.

So what do you do?

Should you push aside your passions, the real source of inspiration, just to keep up with the demand for a constant flow of fresh, less inspiring content?

Can you?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m passionate about marketing and I enjoy sharing what I know through this blog. But I also have the inspiration to write fiction, and in particular horror and sci-fi stories among other things.

Do I push that all aside just to, as a friend of mine calls it, “keep shipping” here?

Or would it be better to post content here only when I’m inspired to do so, and let what I’m actually inspired to write about at any particular moment take me?

I think we’ve all got so caught up in income production that we may have sacrificed our real worth to it. We’re better than content for the sake of content, aren’t we?

Your real worth is in the value of your contribution to the global community. So whether you’re selling something or just sharing a new perspective as a tool of enlightenment, your impact on the conversation will have the full value of what drives you behind it if you let inspiration guide you.

Perhaps if we stop thinking as though we’re content machines, and use our inspiration to write whatever and wherever it draws us to, we won’t have the great content challenge anymore, and we’ll no longer be slaves to the SEO mechanisms that try to steer how we communicate.

What do you think about this?

We see it happening all the time too. Hopeful marketers cozy up to better known ones at seminars and other marketing events, buy them a few beers so they can pitch ideas or new products, and perhaps even hit it off as friends.

In fact, some big names in marketing will tell you that’s the best way to become a household name in marketing. Get yourself exposed to those who can promote your stuff to huge lists.

And that may be all well and good, but a marketer doesn’t become successful by being stupid or gullible either.

Somewhere along the line you’re going to have to bring something to the table. Which means, if you’re going to maintain the sensational image they helped you achieve, you’re going to have to continue to be sensational.

In other words, the power of who you know will only last as long as what you know continues to impress.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen the reverse happen where a well known marketer over extends himself to someone who’s relying solely on his promotional clout to gain the trust of others. And so by not offering anything substantial, or worse, using his assisted fame to scam people, he takes both himself and the well respected marketer down.

This doesn’t happen often, because like I said, success isn’t bred through stupidity. A smart promoter rarely offers his or her support to someone who isn’t obviously in their own league.

So in effect, trying to succeed through who you know never lasts if applying what you know isn’t already an integral part of your goal planning. Because, nobody in their right mind is going to continue to promote you just because you bought them a few beers and impressed them at some seminar once upon a time.

You have to deliver then, and keep delivering to maintain the relationship.

Thus, getting into a strong marketing circle may very well be contingent on the generosity of those in it. But staying in it depends entirely on you, what you know, and how you apply what you know to being sensational in your own right.

If you’re not prepared to do that, then it won’t matter who you know. And you might as well save that beer money for the weekend with your neighbors, and let the successful support those who are willing to work for it.

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On Being Remarkable

The problem is it’s not always easy to tell the difference.

Working in an environment where sincerity can have about as much truth behind it as a paid copy writer can generate, it’s sometimes hard to tell if a sales pitch is designed for a product that’ll actually benefit you, or just something to take your money.

Without having a healthy amount of skepticism as your starting point then, the odds of getting duped could be largely stacked against you.

On the other hand, too much skepticism could paralyze you, leaving you abandoned in a very lonely world where you’re the only source of advice you can trust.

So yes, marketing is filled with scam artists and charlatans. Some of them are originals, devious in their own right, and others may be just their duped students believing this is only way it’s done.

And it’ll probably always be that way.

But if you have a healthy amount of skepticism to begin with, so what?

Skepticism gives you the power to decide, regardless of what any pitch is telling you. It makes you look for what’s wrong before you buy into what might look right.

So naturally, it should be your first line of defense, and how you should approach anything.

Doubts force proof. Proof brings the benefits, if they exist, to the surface. And so by employing a healthy amount of skepticism, you can get to the bottom of things and make a rational decision.

Thus, if you’re a rational person with the power of deduction, there’s nothing wrong with being a skeptic sometimes.

However, it’s possible to take it too far, and bring your skepticism into the unhealthy range.

While we’ve already established how online marketing has its share of scammers, it’s just as true there are many, many legitimate marketers working to make the community a better and more profitable place to work in for everyone.

Getting yourself to the point where you’re assuming everyone is out to get you then, will not only cause you to miss out on a lot of good information, it’s also unfair.

Unfortunately, I hear both extremes all the time.

Some people wouldn’t trust another marketer if their life depended on it. Others think every sales pitch is solely designed to make them wealthy beyond imagination.

The truth however, is somewhere in between. And the only way to discern which is which is to approach it from the start, with a healthy amount of skepticism that will give you “the wisdom to know the difference.”

The truth IS out there! It’s just not everywhere.

Related Reading:

Extreme Marketing In A Skeptical World

One, just looking at how so many businesses, especially those functioning online, all seem to follow the same models, and change models almost in unison, tells us circular referencing does happen in business all the time.

And two, judging by the number of failed or frustrated businesses around, there are certainly drawbacks if circular referencing is the culprit.

OK, it’s hard to think otherwise. We all know how we’re supposed to “think outside the box,” yet the pull of the so called successful crowd is just so darned easy to be drawn in by, especially when it seems “new,” appears to be following technological advances, or there’s money to be made with it.

However, the Law of Averages is obvious here. If everyone does the same thing, or follows the same trend, only a fraction of them could possibly ever be successful.

And it’s just common sense.

Take for example the latest trend in mobile app creation:

On the surface it would appear a limitless opportunity, right?

However, for every new app created, regardless of how unique it is, it’s still just another app showing up at the App Store, adding to the already countless number of apps already there.

This suggests if an app is going to be successful, it had better be outstanding in some way, whether by being absolutely unique, extremely useful or entertaining, or of utmost quality.

But you see, the problem with circular referencing is, influence doesn’t always equate to ability. So the Law of Averages tells us, most new apps will just end up lost in the stack, because average abilities just won’t cut it in a highly competitive market.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting you give up on the idea of creating mobile apps, or anything else for that matter, if you’re so inclined. I’m simply suggesting you calculate the cost before you let circular referencing influence your business moves.

It’s really hard to ignore the influential pull of like minded people. And that influence only grows stronger with every new trend that comes along.

But before you go into an all out “feeding frenzy,” take a step back and consider your own ability to engage whatever it is they’re pulling you toward, as well as what the Law of Averages tells you your chances are based on your own personal reality.

Because if you don’t take all that into consideration, too much circular referencing could have your next endeavor ending up in the circular file!

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Building A Business Based On Your Natural Talents

When a competitor gets an upper hand, it usually means you have to increase the all around quality you provide to consumers, in order to win back the coveted top spot.

Anyway, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

A healthy marketing competition pushes the limits in the right evolutionary direction, bringing about better products and services, more technologically advanced trends, and an over all increase in customer satisfaction.

Of course, everyone knows this. So why am I bringing it up?

Well, it seems some have recently decided that marketing competition means, “if you can’t beat them, destroy them.”

I’m specifically talking about how some have started using Google’s recent devaluation of inorganic back linking to ruin the site rank of their competitors.

Apparently the concept is, if buying ill gotten back links will hurt your own site’s ranking, it’ll certainly hurt your competitors’ as well.

So rather than not buying into automated back linking systems, if you buy into them for your competitors’ sites, you’ll destroy their page rank and get the upper hand that way.

And, according to the plan, because there’s no way to track who bought the back links, and the site owners (victims) have no idea it’s happening in the background, they end up getting penalized with absolutely no recourse or way to fix it other then to abandon the domain.

Hopefully I don’t have to tell you how dishonest and unscrupulous this sounds.

This is not marketing competition!

It’s deliberately trying to do harm.

If you can’t beat your competition because you’re incapable of making a better system of products and services, and have to stoop to dishonestly destroying a competitor behind their back, you have no business calling yourself a marketer.

In all actuality though, Google has merely stopped counting inorganic back links as valid.

Any penalization comes from losing the value of the ones you already have, not from adding more. So likewise, spending your money to buy bad links for your competitors will do nothing except, well, waste your money on nothing.

But just the thought that there are marketers in the world who would even consider doing something like this, and call it marketing competition, makes my skin crawl.

How do you feel about it?

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Link Building Just Got Real

Or at least we should.

It’s far too expensive not to.

Any market training worth its weight will tell you, do the research and then test, test, and test some more.

So if you’re a smart marketer, you look for available related keywords and phrases, you check the search/competition ratios, the buyer levels in comparison to the information only searches, and so on.

You evaluate the quality of the competition’s reach, how long they’ve been doing it, and how much money they’re putting into advertising.

There’s a lot of criteria that needs to be met before you should be willing to focus your investment of time, money and brains into a specific niche.

It’s basically a process of elimination until you find one with all the right elements.

However, that’s just what it takes to find a niche.

What you do as far as engaging your market once you find it, isn’t something you can put your finger on until you get there. Yet it’s fundamentally the most important aspect of marketing.

So let’s say you’ve done all the proper research, because after all, you’re a smart marketer. You’ve found a great niche with a lot of potential buyers in it. And so you set up your site with plenty of content.

Because you’re site is new and fresh and you did all that research, its content quickly rises in the search listings, sending you a plethora of visitors.

It seems you’re well on your way to success, until you realize your sales aren’t coming in quite as you’d expect. People are popping in, but they’re just not buying.

What happened?

Well for one thing, your visitors may have been in the market for quite some time, and they may be eager to buy things in it, but . . .

Who the heck are you?

Dealing with a market is like moving into a new neighborhood. People live there, they know each other, and they interact.

Then here you come moving all your stuff into their familiar space.

They don’t know you from Adam, but generally they’re willing to give you a chance. They may even pop by to say hello, giving them the opportunity to give you the once over, and giving you the chance to put your best foot forward.

Likewise, when you set up shop in a niche, you’re basically “the new kid on the block,” and how you go about engaging your market from day one will decide how your new neighbors will react to you.

So sure, market research is important, and so is having great content.

But in essence, these things equate to just moving in.

Engaging your market means being neighborly once you’re there. Getting involved in or contributing to their conversations, “physically” showing you care about the market’s best interest, and taking the initiative to offer your services if the need arises.

In other words, engaging your market is actively mingling with people on a daily basis, being present so people can get to know you and hopefully like you enough to accept you as a regular member of the community.

Because, like the saying goes, “membership has its rewards!”

This post should be read in relation to:

Knowing Markets Are People

But the fact remains, they are all just like you and me.

So what does this mean?

It means whatever we think the people we promote to are, they probably don’t see themselves that way.

It’s doubtful you think of yourself as someone’s market, right?

So, if you approach people as markets instead of understanding that markets are people, with all their trust issues, suspicions, and uncertainties, you’ll have an immediate connection problem.

For example, one of my pet peeves is when a marketer sends me and email with “Personal” in the subject line, but at the bottom of the email there’s a link to unsubscribe from the list.

How personal can it be if hundreds or even thousands of other people get the same “personal” message?

Guess we’re not supposed to notice that, eh?

But the fact is, people do notice, and they’re instantly made to feel like a market.

If your marketing technique is primarily playing the odds, either by assuming the vast majority of your audience will fit the bill of your assertions, i.e. “This is why you’re failing,” or you simply expect the majority won’t notice the generic nature of your “personal” message, then you’re probably treating people like a market.

However, you can’t do anything about the fact that you have something to sell. So naturally you’re looking for a market to sell it to, which automatically tends to make you forget markets are people.

So here you are at a real Catch 22.

Technology makes it easy to communicate with thousands of people at the same time, instantly turning any group of people into a market. Yet inside those markets are people, all expecting to be treated as special individuals.

So what do you do?

Well for one thing, you could stop playing the odds.

Rather than assuming people won’t notice you’ve made a generic message sound personal, let it be known at the outset that you’re addressing a large audience, and you’re sending it to them in case it applies.

Instead of assuming your audience all fall into the 95% failure rate, talk about the struggles people have in your message without coming off like you know specifically they are failing. If it applies, it’ll have the same effect on those people without alienating everyone else.

Finally, pay attention to the messages you get. How do they make you feel? When you find those that give you the impression the marketer is talking directly to you without any assumptions, then emulate those techniques in yours.

You might find you won’t have to change your marketing techniques all that much. It’s the little nuances in how you address people that matter most, not so much what you’re trying to sell them or the platform you use.

But if you really want to assume, then assume people will notice if you treat them like a market, and don’t do it.

Knowing your markets are people just like you, is a great first step to making your connections with them more effective, constructive, and meaningful.

It’s all in how you say it!

Related Reading:

Extreme Marketing In A Skeptical World

And not so much about offending someone’s better judgment with hype, but actually upsetting a customer with the way you’ve handled them.

Get a person frustrated with a blatant lack of service, act condescending because you believe yourself to be too important and successful to deal with the “little people,” or just give someone the impression their right to be treated fairly is questionable, and you’ll have yourself a full fledged back turner.

No doubt we’re all pretty good at making presentations.

It’s a big focus in marketing, so anyone who’s learned the ropes of how to make sales will have spent most of their time becoming proficient at it.

And we all know how customer emotion plays into making our presentations convincing, right?

You paint a rosy picture of how your products will bring solution and relief to their frustrating problems, and you top it off with some sort of guarantee.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell anyway.

The idea is to alleviate the customer’s stress caused from not having a product such as yours. You’re here to save the day, and you have just the thing to make their life easier!

Blah, blah, blah.

But then what?

Do you use customer emotion to make the sale, then just let them drop off a cliff?

To give you a case in point . . .

Several years ago, I bought into a service oriented product created by a well known marketer. It sounded good, and for the most part it worked rather well for what I needed it for.

However, during the process of using this fairly well put together product, I ran into a glitch, so I wrote to the marketer to find a solution.

I didn’t do so critically. I politely asked for some recourse to getting by the problem.

Well, there’s no other way to put this other than to say, what I encountered was sheer arrogance from him. He was just way too busy and important to have to deal with me, and how dare I suggest his product had a glitch.

Yep, it was that bad!

As it turned out, there really was a glitch, and I got a wholehearted apology.

But not from the marketer.

His hired programmer understood customer emotion, and it was he who did the apologizing, and thanked me for pointing out the problem for him.

Now I’m not what you’d call “thin skinned” by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve never been back to buy another product from that marketer.

You see, customer emotion doesn’t end at the sale. Many people take great pains in making product choices to begin with, and their concerns carry on for some time afterward.

So while you may be proficient at presentation, your relations with a customer doesn’t end there. And no matter how successful you may become, how big or important you might think you are in your own mind, people are still going to need service.

Thus be happy and proud of your success, but remember where it came from, OK?

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Customer Satisfaction

Recently, I was able to generate a nearly half million dollar software company from the purchase of a nine dollar domain.

People create sustainable businesses out of virtually nothing all the time.

In fact, in this digital age, it doesn’t take an awful lot of up front money at all to start a business.

The key is in the planning.

However, what the readers of my rantings seem to mean when they point to cash flow being the problem isn’t so much the cost of start up, but the sustainable revenues of a business.

In other words, according to this logic, businesses fail when the money dries up.

And that’s certainly true. If there’s no revenue coming in, a business is unsustainable.

But why does cash flow dry up?

It doesn’t just happen out of the blue for no reason.

Again it goes back to planning, because if sustainability isn’t planned for, eventually one of three things will happen. Either the products being sold by the company will have been bought by every conceivable customer, the products become outdated, or a competitor comes out with better products.

Thus a company with a cash flow problem actually has a planning problem, with a lack of revenue being just the end result.

To assure this doesn’t happen, a business has to keep their finger on the pulse of their markets, stay ahead of competitors, and move forward with as much clarity and vigor as when they began, taking all contingencies into consideration.

So if your business has a lack of cash flow, see it as a symptom and not the problem. Manage it with a little ingenuity, better planning, and perhaps some redirection. Because it’s not the money or lack thereof that’s killing your business, it’s the way you plan to get the money that really matters, after all.

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Anticipatory Business Planning