If you disagree, I put forth the question: who would you be more likely to lend money to, the dude on the street corner with scraggly hair, bottle, and wearing a ragged jacket & pants, or the guy dressed in a suit & tie? Point made.

The Law of First Impressions

Potential customers will judge your business based upon their first impression. They will decide if they like you and want to do business with you.

When a potential client calls your place of business, how is he greeted on the phone? If a new customer walks into your store for the first time, what will he see? What subliminal messages is your marketing saying about your company? Is your business putting it’s best foot forward?

“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression…”

How does your web presence look and what is it saying to first time visitors?

If a potential customer searches Google for a product or service that you offer, is your business showing up at the top of the results? If it is, what information is being displayed or listed?

Are reviews for your business shown, and if so, are they positive and helpful?

What Impression Are You Leaving?

If an online directory with outdated information is listing incorrect information about your business, that’s a bad first impression.

If your site ranks first, but the description of who you are and what you do is outdated and doesn’t match your current offerings, that’s a bad first impression.

If negative reviews for your business are the first thing a potential customer sees, that’s a REALLY bad impression.

If your digital and print materials are not consistant in design and quality, that’s a bad first impression.

So. It’s time to take inventory of your business. Not as you see it. But as your customers and potential customers see it. Do they like what they see, hear, smell? If not, it’s time to change the impression your business is making!

Well, I just ran across the photo today, so I took the time to type up the items for you. It’s a pretty salient list, one that every business owner should read and heed.

So, here you go. Warren Buffett’s Ten Rules to run your business by:

1. Reinvest Your Profits

When you first make money, you may be tempted to spend it. Don’t. Instead, reinvest the profits.
Buffett learned this early on. In high school, he and a pal bought a pinball machine to put in a barbershop. With the money they earned, they bought more machines until they had eight in different shops. When the friends sold the venture, Buffett used the proceeds to buy stocks and to start another small business.

2. Be Willing to Be Different

Don’t base your decisions upon what everyone is saying or doing. When Buffett began managing money in 1956 with $100,000 cobbled together from a handful of investors, he was dubbed an oddball. He worked in Omaha, not on Wall Street, and he refused to tell his partners where he was putting their money. People predicted that he’d fail, but when he closed his partnership 14 years later, it was worth more than $100 million.

3. Never Suck Your Thumb

Gather in advance any information you need to make a decision, and ask a friend or relative to make sure that you stick to a deadline. Buffett prides himself on swiftly making up his mind and acting on it. He calls any unnecessary sitting and thinking “thumb-sucking.”

4. Spell Out the Deal Before You Start

Your bargaining leverage is always greatest before you begin a job – that’s when you have something to offer that the other party wants. Buffett learned this lesson the hard way as a kid, when his grandfather Ernest hired him and a friend to dig out the family grocery store after a blizzard. The boys spent five hours shoveling until they could barely straighten their frozen hands. Afterward, his grandfather gave the pair less than 90 cents to split.

5. Watch Small Expenses

Buffett invests in businesses run by managers who obsess over the tiniest costs. He once acquired a company whose owner counted the sheets in rolls of 500-sheet toilet paper to see if he was being cheated (he was). He also admired a friend who painted only the side of his office building that faced the road.

6. Limit What You Borrow

Buffett has never borrowed a significant amount — not to invest, not for a mortgage. He has gotten many heart-rending letters from people who thought their borrowing was manageable but became overwhelmed by debt. His advice: Negotiate with creditors to pay what you can. Then, when you’re debt-free, work on saving some money that you can use to invest.

7. Be Persistent

With tenacity and ingenuity, you can win against a more established competitor. Buffett acquired the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983 because he liked the way its founder, Rose Blumkin, did business. A Russian immigrant, she built the mart from a pawnshop into the largest furniture store in North America. Her strategy was to undersell the big shots, and she was a merciless negotiator.

8. Know When to Quit

Once, when Buffett was a teen, he went to the racetrack. He bet on a race and lost. To recoup his funds, he bet on another race. He lost again, leaving him with close to nothing. He felt sick — he had squandered nearly a week’s earnings. Buffett never repeated that mistake.

9. Assess the Risks

In 1995, the employer of Buffett’s son, Howie, was accused by the FBI of price-fixing. Buffett advised Howie to imagine the worst- and best-case scenarios if he stayed with the company. His son quickly realized that the risks of staying far outweighed any potential gains, and he quit the next day.

10. Know What Success Really Means

Despite his wealth, Buffett does not measure success by dollars. In 2006, he pledged to give away almost his entire fortune to charities, primarily the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He’s adamant about not funding monuments to himself-no Warren Buffett buildings or halls. “When you get to my age, you’ll measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. That’s the ultimate test of how you’ve lived your life.”

The following list are 12 of the best business and marketing books out there that will help you be more productive, get more organized, gain new, consistant customers, and increase your business revenue like never before.

As the saying goes, “leaders are readers.” So are you ready to make 2012 the best year in business ever? Then start reading and begin putting these strategies into practice!

January:

Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide

By: John Jantsch

Duct Tape Marketing is the small business marketing road map – A collection of proven tools and tactics woven together in a step-by-step marketing system that shows small business owners exactly what to do to market and grow their businesses. The book combines insights gained from over twenty years of successfully working in the field with real-life small business owners. There are no theoretical complexities presented in Duct Tape Marketing, just simple, effective and affordable marketing strategies that work.

February:

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
By: Seth Godin

In 2002, Seth Godin asked a simple question that turned the business world upside down: What do Starbucks and JetBlue and Apple and Dutch Boy and Hard Candy have that other companies don’t? How did they confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind formerly tried-and-true brands?
Godin showed that the traditional Ps that marketers had used for decades to get their products noticed- pricing, promotion, publicity, packaging, etc.-weren’t working anymore. Marketers were ignoring the most important P of all: the Purple Cow.

Cows, after you’ve seen one or two or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though . . . now that would be something. Godin defines a Purple Cow as anything phenomenal, counterintuitive, exciting . . . remarkable. Every day, consumers ignore a lot of brown cows, but you can bet they won’t ignore a Purple Cow.
You can’t paint your product or service purple after the fact. You have to be inherently purple or no one will talk about you. Godin urges you to emulate companies that are consistently remarkable in everything they do, which drives explosive word of mouth and business growth.

March:

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
By: David Allen

In today’s world, yesterday’s methods just don’t work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen’s premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential.

In Getting Things Done Allen shows how to:

* Apply the “do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it” rule to get your in-box to empty
* Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations
* Plan projects as well as get them unstuck
* Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed
* Feel fine about what you’re not doing

From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done can transform the way you work, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

April:

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
By: Keith Ferrazzi

Do you want to get ahead in life? Climb the ladder to personal success? The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships—so that everyone wins.

In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps—and inner mindset—he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates on his Rolodex, people he has helped and who have helped him.

Ferrazzi’s form of connecting to the world around him is based on generosity, helping friends connect with other friends. Ferrazzi distinguishes genuine relationship-building from the crude, desperate glad-handling usually associated with “networking.” He then distills his system of reaching out to people into practical, proven principles.

May:

The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
By: Michael Gerber

Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed. He then shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business whether or not it is a franchise. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.

June:

Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
By: Seth Godin

Whether it is the TV commercial that breaks into our favorite program, or the telemarketing phone call that disrupts a family dinner, traditional advertising is based on the hope of snatching our attention away from whatever we are doing. Seth Godin calls this Interruption Marketing, and, as companies are discovering, it no longer works.

Instead of annoying potential customers by interrupting their most coveted commodity -time- Permission Marketing offers consumers incentives to accept advertising voluntarily. Now this Internet pioneer introduces a fundamentally different way of thinking about advertising products and services. By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness – and greatly improve the chances of making a sale.

July:

The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself
By: John Jantsch

The power of glitzy advertising and elaborate marketing campaigns is on the wane; word-of-mouth referrals are what drive business today. People trust the recommendation of a friend, family member, colleague, or even stranger with similar tastes over anything thrust at them by a faceless company.

Most business owners believe that whether customers refer them is entirely out of their hands. But science shows that people can’t help recommending products and services to their friends-it’s an instinct wired deep in the brain. And smart businesses can tap into that hardwired desire.

Marketing expert John Jantsch offers practical techniques for harnessing the power of referrals to ensure a steady flow of new customers. Keep those customers happy, and they will refer your business to even more customers.

August:

The Thank You Economy
By: Gary Vaynerchuk

The Thank You Economy is about something big, something greater than any single revolutionary platform. It isn’t some abstract concept or wacky business strategy—it’s real, and every one of us is doing business in it every day, whether we choose to recognize it or not. It’s the way we communicate, the way we buy and sell, the way businesses and consumers interact online and offline. The Internet, where The Thank You Economy was born, has given consumers back their voice, and the tremendous power of their opinions via social media means that companies and brands have to compete on a whole different level than they used to.

Gone are the days when a blizzard of marketing dollars could be used to overwhelm the airwaves, shut out the competition, and grab customer awareness. Now customers’ demands for authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty, and good intent have made it necessary for companies and brands to revert to a level of customer service rarely seen since our great-grandparents’ day, when business owners often knew their customers personally, and gave them individual attention.

Renowned entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk reveals how companies big and small can scale that kind of personal, one-on-one attention to their entire customer base, no matter how large, using the same social media platforms that carry consumer word of mouth. The Thank You Economy offers compelling, data-driven evidence that we have entered into an entirely new business era, one in which the companies that see the biggest returns won’t be the ones that can throw the most money at an advertising campaign, but will be those that can prove they care about their customers more than anyone else. The businesses and brands that harness the word-of-mouth power from social media, those that can shift their culture to be more customer-aware and fan-friendly, will pull away from the pack and profit in today’s markets.

September:

Influence: Science and Practice
By: Robert B. Cialdini

Markting psychologist Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesman, fundraiser, advertiser, and in other positions inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say “yes.”

Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into six categories based on psychological principles that direct human behavior: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.

October:

Advertising Secrets of the Written Word
By: Joseph Sugarman

Every trade has its role models. When it comes to copywriting, Joe Sugarman is one of the best. He knows how to build a story, and get readers to take action.

Sugarman has been highly recognized for his effective advertising copy and the innovations he’s brought to the direct marketing field. He won many awards to include Direct Marketing Man of the Year and the distinguished Maxwell Sackheim Award for his career contributions to direct marketing. He’s become a role model for many in sales, marketing and direct marketing. In Advertising Secrets of the Written Word, Sugarman lays out the secrets to his craft, how effective copywriting can bring in new customers and increase conversion rates.

November:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR
By: David Meerman Scott

For marketers, The New Rules of Marketing and PR shows you how to leverage the potential that web-based communication offers your business. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with the people who make your business work. This one-of-a-kind guide includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet to create compelling messages, get them in front of customers, and lead those customers into the buying process.

December:

The Ultimate Marketing Plan: Target Your Audience! Get Out Your Message! Build Your Brand!
By: Dan Kennedy

Let’s face it–the business world today is nothing like it was ten years ago. Marketing budgets are tighter, consumers are more skeptical, and social media has changed forever the way we talk to our customers.

In this new edition of his bestselling The Ultimate Marketing Plan, industry expert Dan Kennedy integrates such tools as social media marketing, networking, and strategic memberships into a complete plan that will strengthen your customer base without breaking your budget.

Bonus 1:

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
By Tim Ferriss

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan – there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in today’s unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.

The 4-Hour Work Week is a step-by step guide to how Tim went from $40,000 dollars per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per MONTH and 4 hours per week; how to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want; how blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs; how to eliminate 50 per cent of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist; and, how to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent ‘mini-retirements’.

Bonus 2:

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got
By: Jay Abraham

A trusted advisor to America’s top corporations and recognized as one of today’s preeminent marketing experts, Jay Abraham has created a program of proven strategies to help you realize undreamed-of success. Unseen opportunities face each of us every day. Using clear examples from his own experience, Jay explains just how easy it can be to find and/or create new opportunities for wealth-building in any existing business, enterprise, or venture.

Just how easy can it be? One entrepreneur took the concept of the ballpoint pen and refined it into a mulimillion-dollar idea: roll-on deodorant. Fred Smith of Federal Express took the methods that banks use for clearing checks to develop an overnight delivery company that has revolutionized the way we do business. Now, what have you seen– or are going to see– that you could take and turn to your advantage?

This program focuses on helping you spot the hidden assets, overlooked opportunities, and untapped resources around you, and gives you fresh eyes with which to see and capitalize on them. You’ll also learn how to adapt and apply these tools to your unique circumstances to maximize your income, influence, power, and success.

There’s the list. How many of these have you read already? Reading and applying the principles covered in these books will help your business grow faster, increase customers, profit, and be more efficient.

Merry Christmas to all from Spears Marketing. At this most joyous time of year spent with family and friends, take a moment to stop and reflect on the true meaning of the season. Thanks for making this a great year for us here at Spears Marketing. It’s been a great one for us and hope to make the next even better. Hope you’re enjoying the holidays with great food, drink, and many friends & family members by your side.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Spears Marketing!

Since you probably don’t want the cost and hassle of owning & managing your very own web server, you’re going to need to purchase reliable hosting from a reputable company.

A reliable web host is extremely important for your business website. If their servers go down, so does your site, causing you a loss of traffic, communication with customers, and credibility.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of hosting providers to choose from, but not all are created equal. They will vary in service, features, and price.

Although we have experience working with many of the largest and most popular hosting providers on the market, there is one who we keep going back to for small business clients. That company is Host Gator. They consistently provide the best customer service (24 hours a day, 7 days a week!), are a fantastic value, and their backend cpanel software is top of the line and easy to work with.

There are many types of hosting accounts, from shared hosting (the least expensive), virtual private servers (VPS) hosting, dedicated servers (the most expensive), and cloud-based hosting. The type of hosting you’ll need will depend on the size of your website, the amount of traffic it receives, and the amount of bandwidth consumed.

If you’re just starting out shared hosting is probably fine. But if you’ve got a site with lots of traffic or are consuming lots of bandwidth, you may need one of the more robust options.

So, if you’re looking to get your first website online, or are looking to switch from your current provider, check out Host Gator. To get you started, use the discount code “spearsmarketing” for 25% off your service!

• Consumers no longer use the yellow pages for anything more than a door stop. Spending $1000′s of dollars in the phone book is a huge waste of money for most businesses.
• TV viewership is at an all time low. Those ads that used to bring in traffic don’t work anymore because of Tivo, Netflix, and Youtube.
• Radio stations are fighting to stay on air. Listeners have switched from local FM stations to satellite and internet radio, as well as their own created stations through iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify.
• Billboards are extremely expensive and at a premium due to city regulations and competition. (Plus, everyone’s so busy texting that they’re not paying attention to billboards anyway!)
• Even the more recent online avenues such as pay-per-click and search engine marketing has gotten more competitive and expensive.
• The internet is changing quicker than ever. No longer is it located just on your desktop computer. With laptops, the ipad, tablets, mobile web, and smart phones, it’s changing faster than anyone ever thought possible.

So where does that leave you, the small business owner, trying to grow a business, attract new customers, keep down costs, and increase profits? Mobile, that’s where. Everything is shifting to the mobile space; internet use, social media, advertising, your customers.

Mobile Applications, or just “apps”, for short, are the way of the future. Take a walk down the street or through the local mall. See how many people are staring down at their phones? Guess what…if they have any type of smart phone, they’re undoubtably using a mobile app.

Whether it’s for social media, games, performing a web search, or checking out the daily specials at a favorite restaurant, apps extend the basic cell phone functionality to that of a full computer.

Does Your Business Need an App?

How can a mobile app help your business? Especially if you already have a website…or maybe even a mobile site?

The answer is a resounding “YES!” and here’s how:

A mobile app gives you the ability to:

• Send push notifications to user phones. This is 10 times more effective than email and is instantaneous!
• Give your app users step by step directions to your location through their phone’s GPS.
• Allow users the ability to access a list of information, menu, employees, and more, directly though their phone.
• More exposure for your business in the app stores. Ten’s of thousands of app searches are performed each day.
• Allows users to connect with your business in both a social, and mobile way.
• Distribute coupons directly to your loyal customers who have download your app.
• Set your business apart from your competitors who don’t have an app!

So how does that sound… intriguing? To wet your appetite even more, Spears Marketing is getting ready to roll out a VERY affordable option for small businesses to get their very own iPhone, Android, and HTML5 mobile app. More details to follow soon.

Can’t wait? Contact us to learn how we can help you out with a mobile app even sooner!

Guess what, real marketing isn’t gambling. It’s not a slot machine. It’s a direct investment. It’s like a vending machine. Put money in, you know what you’ll get out.

When you stick a dollar in a vending machine, you know you’ll get a soda back in return (with the rare exception of a broken machine, of course). It’s not a guessing game, it’s a sure thing.

In a slot machine, you put money in with the hope that you’ll get something back in return (but seldom do).

Which one of these examples is your marketing most like? Are you simply hoping the money you spend will bring in results? Or do you have it down to such a system that you know for every $1.00 you spend marketing your business, you’ll get $5.00 back in return?

If your advertising is only a slot machine, you’re wasting money. Stop spending and go to Vegas instead. You’ll have more fun, and won’t have to worry if the money spent is going to bring in more, ’cause you’re only there to have a good time. Not to make money.

If on the other hand you know that when you spend X amount of dollars marketing/promoting/advertising your business you’ll get Y dollars in return, spend as much money as you possibly can! And next month, spend more!

Too many business owners look at marketing as a necessary evil, or a sunk cost, something that money must be spent on, but they do so begrudgingly. It’s time to take control of your marketing! Start tracking. Learn what’s working and what’s not.

Quite spending on select media just because your competitors are. Find out what works and stick with it. Marketing isn’t about awareness, it’s about response.

Test, track, measure. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is the secret to effective vending machine marketing.

Today, a legend has died. Steve Jobs, one of, if not THE most innovative genius of the 21st century has passed away. Under his leadership and creative vision, Apple has become one of the most loved companies in the world.

My love affair with all things Apple began in 2004. In need of a laptop, I decided upon an ibook G4 after learning about the lack of viruses, clean interface, and visual appeal that was the Mac. I have never looked back. Three laptops, two desk tops, three ipods, and an iphone later, I’m still a raving fan.

Steve was a visionary. A creative mercenary who’s attention to detail and love of simple design changed the way we looked at computers, not simply as a productive device, but as an art form. Simple. Clean.

The Macintosh forever changed personal computing.

The ipod & itunes forever changed the way we listen to music.

The iphone forever changed the way we communicate.

The ipad forever changed the way we look at the internet.

Apple’s marketing under Jobs has been a wonder to behold. The buildup to each new product launch is textbook. Scarcity. Social proof. Competing on value. Never on price. Every business could do well to emulate their strategy.

I don’t know what will happen at Apple post Steve Jobs, but I do know that my life has been forever altered for the better by the products he envisioned, as evidenced by the fact I’m typing this on a 27 inch iMac.

The commencement speech which Steve gave at Stanford in 2005 is both incredibly inspirational and sums up his business philosophy nicely: Stay hungry, stay foolish. Always innovate. If you don’t love what you’re doing, why are you doing it?

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” -Steve Jobs, 2005

Rest in peace, Steve. The world is a better place because of you.

How many of these have you perfected?

1: How You Think is Everything:

Always be positive. Think success, not failure. Beware of a negative environment. Surround yourself with other positive, motivated thinkers.

2: Decide Upon Your True Dreams & Goals:

Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them. Look at them every day. This is your road map. Stay on course.

3: Take Action:

Goals are nothing without action. Don’t be afraid to get started. Just do it. Now.

4: Never Stop Learning:

Leaders are Readers. Read as much as possible. Get more training and acquire new skills.

5: Be Persistent & Work Hard:

Success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never give up. Persistence is the secret sauce to success.

6: Analyze the Details:

Get all the facts, all the input. Learn from your mistakes. It’s the little things that make the difference.

7: Focus Your Time & Money:

Don’t let other people or things distract you. Stay focused on the goal at hand. Don’t waste time. It’s more valuable than money.

8: Don’t Be Afraid to Innovate:

Be different. Following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity. Be unique. Lead the field.

9: Deal & Communicate With People Effectively:

No person is an island. Learn to understand & motivate others, even those hard to deal with.

10: Be Honest & Dependable:

Always take responsibility for your actions, no matter the cost. Otherwise, Nos. 1-9 won’t matter.

Any others you think should be on this list but aren’t? Drop a comment below with your own.

The traditional textbook answer to the question usually mentions the “4 p’s of marketing,” Product, Price, Place, & Promotion. However, this is NOT an adequate definition.

To the most successful marketers, (those who accomplish their desired task, namely, a drastic increase in revenue for their clients) the following definition is the only one that matters, the marketing “M’s”:

“Marketing is delivering a product or service to the right market, using the right message, and through the right medium.”

In order for this definition to be effective (or any type of marketing, for that matter!), a business owner has to reflect deeply on each of the “M’s” and act upon them.

Market

Who or what is the ‘right market’? If you haven’t defined your target market, your ideal customer, then you’re asking for failure. What are the specific demographics of this market? Male, female, young, old, wealthy, poor, etc. It’s not possible to be all things to all people, therefore, your market isn’t “everybody”. Narrow down who is the ‘right market’ for your product or service, focus solely on this group, and your marketing will be vastly more effective.

Message

What is the ‘right message’? The message that your business conveys to your target audience is of utmost importance. What are the features and benefits you have to offer, and how can (will) they be of service to your target market? You message can’t simply be about you, but instead must focus on the needs and wants of those you are marketing to. As the cliche goes, ‘you never get a second chance to make a good first impression,’ so make sure what you say is leaving a good tase in the mouth of your market. If you truly know who your ideal market is, it will be much easier to craft a message that resonates with them.

Medium

What is the ‘right medium’ to use in order to best reach your ideal market with your message? Good question, and one more reason why knowing your ideal market is so crucial. Every industry and niche is different. One form of media may work in one industry, but won’t be as effective in another. The better you know your ideal customer, the more you’ll know what types of media they read, watch, listen to, and engage with. Once you know what medium your market prefers, drop the ineffective ones. They’re a waste of time, and money.

The 3 M’s of marketing seems pretty simple and intuitive, so then why do so many business owners get it wrong? Probably because they’ve never been taught it like this. The 4 marketing P’s and other textbook type definitions neglect to break it down in a usable manner, which is probably why most students forget what they are upon graduation!

For an updated and much improved version of the marketing P’s, check out what John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has to say on the subject.

Now it’s your turn. What’s your definition of marketing, and does this one make you look at it any differently now? Leave a comment below, and share your thoughts on any of the social networks below.