Jay Conrad Levinson in his books Guerrilla Marketing Weapons and Guerrilla Marketing Attack, points out that there are easily hundreds, if not thousands, of tools/methods you can use in your marketing. He points out that your competition is probably only using a few. He also emphasizes that if you just use a few more – effectively – you will dominate your industry.
Jay Abraham gives the diving board versus the Parthenon analogy. In the analogy, each method a business uses to obtain new business is a pillar that business is built on. He points out that most businesses only use one primary method (or pillar) for bringing in customers. If that method collapses or fails, they go out of business. He then teaches businesses to effectively utilize multiple pillars for deriving business.
We all seem to understand what both of these “Jays” teach 🙂 What’s difficult for many of us is applying it. How do you use as many different tools, approaches, and methodologies as you can in your marketing efforts? How do you build a strong, multi-pillar, approach to generating new business?
Perhaps the best place to begin is with what you are already using and what your competitors are already using. Begin by making a list of the methods you currently use to promote your business and a list of tools that you probably could use. This list will likely include things like: ezine ads, writing articles, publishing your own newsletter, postcard mailings, package inserts, banner ads, link exchanges, writing and distributing a low-cost book with the intention of it going viral, creating and distributing low-cost software with the intention of it going viral, an affiliate program, pay-per-click search engine campaigns, listings in specialized search engines, forming strategic alliances with other businesses, etc.
After you have you list, take the methods one at a time and carefully examine them. Ask yourself if you are currently using them with any real success. If you are using them and you are not having any success with them, you need to determine why. It could be that the method is all wrong for your business or situation. If it is then you need to stop wasting time with it.
Look around and see if others use method you are trying with greater success. If they are, or seem to be, try to determine why they are having greater success with it. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to email them or call them and arrange to consult with them or to share insights on ways to improve both of your businesses. If you do this, be prepared to compensate them for their time.
Look at each of the methods on your list and use the same system of honestly asking yourself if this is working for your business. Your goal is to find a few core methods that work best for you. Then you focus on really using these. For example, articles work really well for me. So I focus on getting my articles in as many article directories, ezines, and on as many websites as practical.
After you have one method down to a science and it is working semi-automatically for you, then-and-only-then go on to refining the next method. This is the best way to really focus on implementing methods that do and will work for you. It’s also an excellent way to identify methods that are nothing more than time wasters for you.
To further leverage your effectiveness, don’t overlook automation or hiring other to implement your successful methods. For example, I use an article submission service because they reach some potential customers that I would probably otherwise miss. It only takes a few publishers running my article or one extra sale to cover the investment. To me this makes economic sense.
Begin today, examining the pillars, tools or ” weapons” you have in your marketing arsenal. Keep using those that work, discard those that don’t, and then add new ones from time to time. Soon you will have a core set of methods for deriving business, and surprisingly, it will no longer be a struggle. The business will seem to take on a life of its own. Once a method is fully refined and set into motion, they become semi-automated and you can then look for new methods if appropriate.
Willie Crawford is an expert on internet marketing, joint ventures, buying and selling reprint rights, and building business through networking. His directory of seminars, workshops, conferences, and tele-events is at: http://InternetMarketingSeminarSchedule.Com
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