Strategic Marketing Consultants Podcast

Well, I hope you enjoyed what you’ve heard in this program.  I know we covered a lot with you.  We talked about the two most common market mistakes that businesses are making.  We talked about eliminating platitudes and implementing a complete marketing system.  We talked about the importance of business innovation and we talked in relative detail about how the Strategic Messaging Formula™ can allow you to craft messages that cut through a cluttered marketplace and cause your prospects and customers to draw the conclusion that they would have to be absolutely CRAZY to work with anybody else but you no matter the price.  We also gave you plenty of examples and case studies along the way.  Here is the shocking part, believe it or not what you learned is literally just the tip of the iceberg.  Implementing the complete Strategic Marketing Program in its entirety covers every facet of a company’s marketing plan. 

So, finally, let me give you a tool you can use to create your own business innovations.  We actually have 12 innovation formulas that we use that allow us to easily and scientifically find needs and desires in any industry or marketplace and then create unique innovations to fill those needs and desires that can easily be implemented by our clients.  Some are more advanced than others, but in every case a true and exclusive business innovation is developed so that our clients distinguish themselves in the marketplace.  For the sake of time, I can only share one of these innovation formulas with you.  This one is called The Ultimate Solution.  It's remarkably simple, yet powerful.  Here's all you need to do.  Write down on a piece of paper a negative situation that your customers could or would have when doing business with someone in your industry.  Let's say you're a doctor.  Write down the negative experiences that people have with doctors.  Now, there are a lot of them.  They can be problems related to fear or pain or cost or problems with insurance payments or the problem with just waiting too long.  Or whatever.  Just write down the potential negative experiences.  Then, ask yourself this killer question.  If your customers had the power to change anything in your business to solve this problem, what would they do to alleviate the problem?  In other words, what would the ultimate business do to ensure that this problem never existed?  What is the Ultimate Solution? 

Component #6 is Business Innovation.  Most companies we work with already have an innovative inside reality. Their primary challenge is in effectively communicating it to the outside world.  However, perhaps one or two percent need our help to innovate their products or services so that they can market their unique identity in their target market.  We help them discover what products or services the market really wants, but nobody else is giving it to them.  It doesn’t matter what industry you are in.  The Strategic Marketing Program™ utilizes innovation formulas that have proven successful over and over again and that are designed in a way that makes them suitable for any type of business.   Some people call this a unique selling proposition or a USP, but we believe it is really your identity.  The idea here is that you need something legitimately unique about your business that make people feel that they should buy from you rather than your competitor.  Something that lets people know that you are not just a commodity and that you're not just like everybody else.  However, we call this a business innovation because the best way to come up with a USP or Identity is to innovate your business, service, or product and to give the marketplace exactly what they want.  Plus, once you come up with something truly innovative, it's incredibly simple to write headlines for that position.   Let me give you a few examples.  Let's say you innovated the car and you created the car that runs on sea water instead of gas or electricity.  Pretty innovative, right?  So, what would you say in your marketing?  What would be your headline?  I've got it, what about this?  Super Efficient and Environmentally Friendly.  No, of course not!  Do you see how utterly ridiculous those platitudes sound?  Well, that basically is the equivalent of what most companies today are doing.  Building great businesses with great products and services and then telling the marketplace that they are efficient and environmentally friendly.  In other words, platitudes.  No, writing a headline for innovative products and services is easy.  You simply make the innovation a Big, Fat Headline.  For example, in the case of a car that runs on sea water, you run a headline that says THIS CAR RUNS ON SEA WATER-exclamation point.  I'd probably add the sub- headline that says SERIOUSLY, so the headline and sub-headline are huge and it would say this:  This Car Runs on Sea Water, Seriously, and of course there would be a picture of the car there. 

The fifth step in the Strategic Marketing Program is having a professionalized image.  Now for the sake of time I am not going to review this step in detail.  The point here is simple and obvious.  If you want to dominate you must always act and look like the consummate professional.  Professionalized image directly impacts the amount of confidence your prospects have in you.  Remember what you learned earlier, the amount of money someone is willing to give you is directly proportional to the amount of confidence they have in your ability to provide them with the goods and services that they want or need. So just remember, in everything you do look like a professional, act like a professional, and be a professional.  The market deserves it.  Consider it your duty. 

Step 4 in the Strategic Marketing Program is to create and implement a systematized sales process.  This is one of the most overlooked aspects of a complete marketing system.  Those who utilize it will increase sales and maximize efficiencies while simultaneously driving revenue and lowering cost.  Sounds good right?  It almost sounds too good to be true but it’s not.  It’s just called the guaranteed results that come from hard work done right. A lot of what we do here comes from Michael Gerber’s book called “The E-Myth.”  If you have never read that book than you need to read it.  It’s one of the bestselling business books ever written and it’s worth its weight in gold.  In short, Michael Gerber describes the reason why most businesses fail and that reason is that most small business owners are experts at their trade or craft but they’re not experts at running a business.  It’s a big difference and it’s the difference that makes the difference.  Michael’s solution to the problem is to create and implement systems in your business to do the heavy lifting for you so that your business is a streamlined and nearly automated machine that makes money for you without your need for constant and perpetual oversight.  That’s the oversimplified explanation of what the book’s about.  But that’s the gist of it.   So in our case we have created this step in the Strategic Marketing Program to ensure the entire sales and marketing process is systematized.  We don’t want to leave anything to chance especially considering how much work is involved in creating our marketing programs for our customers. 

The next step, step 3 is to implement a comprehensive internet marketing suite.   Now I am not going to spend much time on this because the content here is quite voluminous and it doesn’t make for good audio training content because it’s based on techniques and strategies and it involves internet technology, software, special tips, and all sorts of other granular details that become a bit overwhelming to have to listen to.   In short, the purpose of point 3 in the Strategic Marketing Program is to develop and automate an online marketing program that serves as the backbone for your internet marketing system.  This includes building a website that is used as a marketing tool that actually has a sales and marketing function as opposed to just being an online brochure.   We also ensure that for those companies where it’s relevant that you have an effective social media program and an online video presence where your companies' videos are all featured on your own YouTube channel.  We’ll teach you search engine optimization techniques that actually work and that can help you get found on the Internet by your prospects who are searching for you.   We’ll help you develop online omnipresence.  Many companies talk about your online presence, but we encourage you to have online omnipresence. 

The fifth and final component is Automate.  This simply means that now that your prospects are connected with you in the marketing system, you must create content to automate the follow-up process. Companies and individuals are notoriously bad about following up.  Fortunately, software is available today to assist in this process.  Even then the software will not give you the best bang for your buck if you don’t properly craft your message in follow-up sequence. I’m going to show you exactly how to accomplish this in the next few podcasts.  The acronym for this Strategic Messaging Formula™ is CCEIA: Capture, Connect, Educate, Incentivize, and Automate: Remember the acronym and you won’t forget the process. 

The fourth component is Incentivize.  In this step you have to give your prospect an incentive to take the next step in the buying process.  This is often accomplished by giving your prospect an offer to get a free marketing tool of some sort, like a special report, a video, a series of videos, an audio program, or anything like that.  However, you don’t always have to give away a marketing tool.  Often you can give them a coupon, an exclusive discount, a special limited opportunity, or any other low risk or high value offer.  Whatever it is, just remember you are incentivizing your prospect.  You are simply getting them to take the next step in the buying process. 

The third component is Educate.  Now that you connected with your prospect on an emotional level you must give them enough quality information to make them feel like they can make an informed decision about how to solve their problem or gain a needed benefit.  Again, you do this by giving your prospect enough quality information to address their emotional need.  Remember, the component is called educate.  So, you are educating them.  This step is ultra-critical, and it turns the sale from an emotional sale to a logical one. 

The second component is Connect.  This means that once you have captured your prospects attention, you must connect with them on an emotional level.  You have to hold onto their attention by connecting on a hot button that is important or relevant to them.  You have to make them feel like important and relevant information is going to be delivered to them.  Information that will help them make the best decision possible.  In short you will be helping to facilitate the decision-making process. 

The Strategic Messaging Formula™ or SMF for short has five components.  Let me introduce them to you really quick.  First is Capture.  This means that you must first capture your target market’s attention.  It’s pretty obvious I know, but it’s not as easy to pull off as people think.  Furthermore, it’s done wrong more often than it is done right.  You’ll learn how and why in a minute. 

Now let’s move on to Component #2 is the Strategic Messaging Formula™So now that we have created our Identity, I want to show you exactly what your marketing content is supposed to look like.  Believe it or not the process of creating an effective strategic marketing program is actually scientific.  You’ve been taught to believe that marketing is an art and that you need a team of creative people to invent funny, quirky, entertaining, or any other type of creative content to use in your advertising and marketing but this is simply not the case.   Years ago, there was a marketing acronym used called AIDA, A-I-D-A.  It stood for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.  In Rich Harshaw’s book called, “Monopolize Your Marketplace” Rich updated this formula and called it the “Marketing Equation”.  Both of these systems worked well for years and still do.  However, in today’s internet age with so much information being disseminated online and with incredible software tools available to us, along with our own testing in the Strategic Marketing Consultants Network, we have refined this system even further. We call this scientific method for creating comprehensive marketing systems the “Strategic Messaging Formula” and we use it exclusively within the Strategic Marketing Consultants Network to generate industry-leading results for all of our customers, no matter their industry. 

The RULES have changed in marketing. You can’t just put up an ad in the paper or launch a platitude-filled website announcing to the world that you’re open for business anymore. Just being good in sales won’t cut it today. You’ve got to communicate with POWER! Your Identity is REAL. This is “clear cut.” This is “as necessary as having a phone or computer in your business to communicate with other people.” If you don’t have what I’m talking about today – your IDENTITY… you’re not really even in business. Your Identity is the HUB of your business. Identity is defined as “words, phrases, and images – articulated with Power, Passion, and Precision – that instantly and definitively communicates who you are, what you’re all about, and what customers can expect when doing business with you. You’ve got to draw a line in the sand stating what you are – and what you are not.

Okay, so now that we have identified some of the problems with existing advertising and marketing.  Let's talk about the solution.   The solution to these marketing and advertising problems is the Strategic Marketing Program.  Now, the Strategic Marketing Program isn't entirely original.  In short, we've combined the best elements of a variety of the most well-known marketing experts and their systems that have been developed over the last 50 years including: Claude Hopkins (Scientific Advertising), Michael Gerber (The E-Myth Revisited), Richard Harshaw (Monopolize Your Marketplace), Jay Abraham (How to Get Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got), Jack Trout (Differentiate or Die), Frank Kern – Internet Marketing Guru, Dan Kennedy (No B.S. Direct Marketing), Steve Jobs – Apple founder and pioneer, Jim Rohn, America’s Business Philosopher, and others to create the MOST complete and cohesive marketing system that gives your business the leverage to dominate your market.   

Now, before we get too far down the line, I need to bring a very important concept in the light for you.  I want to talk about something we call The Educational Spectrum (or what some people call the Sales Cycle.)  Now, I know you've heard that term before. Don't tune me out here because what the Educational Spectrum means in Strategic Marketing vernacular is different than what you're thinking of.  I want to challenge your definition of this term so it more appropriately lines up with the concept of marketing systems.  Now, I want to go through this quickly, so I want you to go through a mental exercise with me.  I want you to draw a line in your mind with a point on each end.  The point on the far left has a value of one and the point on the far right has a value of 100.  Okay, got it?  So, now, you've got a line representing points 1-100 from left to right.  

Now, after listening to the last few tracks, you might be asking yourself, “Where Did Platitudes Come From?”  “Why are we all using platitudes?  It seems so obvious that it is the wrong way to do it, but everybody is doing it.  Well, I don't want to spend too much time answering that question because I want to get to the solutions quickly for you, but the answer to this question is actually more important than you realize.  Understanding the answer to this question is essential in order for you to be able to fix the problem.  So, have you ever seen the Invisible Gorilla Experiment?  If not, let me explain it to you.  

Throughout this presentation I will demonstrate to you the problems with your existing marketing and advertising, the neural and psychological basis for effective marketing, the only way to achieve what we call “total marketing synergy.” I will provide you with the solutions that you can start implementing tomorrow to set you on course for Total Market Dominance.  In fact, I will guarantee that after listening to this audio program, if you believe you haven't learned anything worthwhile enough to earn back triple what you've invested in this audio program, I'll give you 100% of your money back.  Therefore, there is absolutely no risk on your part in listening.  There is no downside. Now, before we get started in explaining the details of the Strategic Marketing Program, I need to share with you the two most common marketing mistakes that nearly all business make.  If you've done any advertising or marketing for your business ever, at all, I can virtually guarantee you that you have been making at least one of the following two marketing mistakes.  It doesn't matter if you've been doing business for 5, 15, 25, 35 years or more and have been getting what most people would consider pretty good results.  I'm here to tell you that these two mistakes have cost you a lot of money and lost opportunity and lost business.  I'm not just blowing a lot of smoke here to capture your attention.  

The system I'm going to share with you is called the Strategic Marketing Program and it is unique in our industry because it's a comprehensive program.  It's not about one or more clever or unique marketing tactics that will increase your business incrementally.  As a matter of fact, I am absolutely sure that you have never seen or heard anything like this before. In fact, you're going to find that the Strategic Marketing Program™ is so comprehensive in nature that it will ensure that your company becomes number one in your industry in your local market.  When I say number one, I mean you will crush your competition!    During this program, you are going to learn everything that you need to know so that you can rise to a place of Total Market Dominance.  I am going to show you how you can become the 800-pound gorilla in your industry and in your market and acquire all the benefits that come with being the market leader.  

As an entrepreneur for most of his life, Shea has been intimately involved in advertising and marketing since the mid 70’s when he opened his first business.  Since that time he has read hundreds of books, attended dozens of seminars and workshops, and taken classes as well as private courses that all delved into advertising and marketing in one form or another.Since the late 90’s he became involved in Internet Marketing and continued his research, study and application of advertising and marketing gleaned from some of the greatest minds in the marketing world including Claude Hopkins, Jay Abraham, Seth Godin, Michael Gerber, Rich Harshaw, Al Ries, Jack Trout, Harvey McKay, John Caples and many others.What he has come to know is that “Everything you have ever learned about marketing is wrong.”  What???  How can he say that?