Market Niche
Specialization abounds in technology and…marketing!
I had the opportunity to present the “Seven Steps to Small Business Marketing Success” to the Hinsdale Area Networking Group yesterday! WOW! What a dynamic group! They had over 30 business owners in attendance! Fantastic! A very vibrant, dynamic group with fantastic questions and some great success stories.
As each member introduced his or herself, Thomas Piette, Midco Systems, introduced himself as a TELECOM SPECIALIST with some emphasis on security, and his guest, as a SECURITY SPECIALIST with less emphasis on Telecom…Great intro, Tom…like duct tape, that “stuck” for me and assisted me in clearly differentiating “what you do” and “what he does!”
Tom is pictured with me receiving a copy of the Duct Tape Marketing Book! Congrats, Tom! AND…thanks again to the group for affording me the opportunity to discuss the value of building small business marketing systems for their businesses!
Seth Godin, Specialization, Small Business Marketing
Seth Godin appeared recently on an interview with John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing, and offered, as usual, some very thought provoking ideas and “calls to actions” for Small Business Owners!
At one point he said – “If people aren’t talking about you, there’s a reason. You’re boring – your products are boring, your services are boring, your message is boring, your marketing is boring . . .”
To quote John, “You get the point. And he’s right. There’s no excuse for being unremarkable – the bar is so dang low. Because most of your competition is even more boring.”
Seth, also, recommends HYPERSPECIALIZATION and BEING THE OVERWHELMINGLY OBVIOUS CHOICE!!!
If you’d like to listen to the entire Podcast, the link follows…great stuff by one of the great business minds of our time!
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2009/01/14/seth-godin-thinks-youre-boring/
If you no longer want to be boring, please “chat” with us as we are working with Chicagoland Small Business Owners to build marketing systems that work and that differentiate!
NFL Football Playoffs and Small Business Marketing
Now…how do we tie those together? As I watched with intrigue this past weekend the NFL Playoffs, I thought about how the best teams “stick to their knitting” or put differently, they “do what they do best!” Quite an upset, with the Arizona Cardinals defeating the Carolina Panthers…how and why? To me, one of the simplest of reasons is they threw the football to their major strength–Larry Fitzgerald–who is showing himself to the rest of the NFL fandom as one of the best, if not, THE BEST receiver in the NFL! As a matter of fact, his first “big catch” of the game was almost a duplicate of the previous playoff game…ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE GRAB!!!
What’s the point?
Do what you do best and continue to do what you do best! GOT IT? Don’t veer off course and do something that is “not you or your business!”
This is what “we teach/coach” all of our small business owners in building a marketing system for their Chicagoland business! GO LARRY FITZGERALD!!!
ROTTEN to the CORE…Not really!?! Try these steps to differentiate yourself and your business!
“CORE MESSAGE”
· PURPOSE STATEMENTS…from “the heart”
¶MARKETING Purpose Statement
Why are you in business?
¶PERSONAL Purpose Statement
Why are you here? Who are you?
· TALKING LOGO…
ü What do you do for a living? Use VERBS…
ü For whom? i.e. Target Market
ü What problem/function/want is served?
ü How do you do it in a unique way?
· CORE MESSAGE…
§ What is your “tagline?” e.g. “Just Do It!”