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So you’ve tried direct mail, advertising, you’ve got a web site, maybe you’ve even tried networking as a marketing strategy. These and many other marketing strategies are all good and if performed properly will most likely bring you favorable results. A word to the wise here though, some of them can run you a fortune in marketing costs. And in my experience, cost has a lot less bearing on effectiveness than one would like to believe. Now being a fan of Jay Conrad Levinson and his concept of “Guerrilla Marketing”, I am always on the lookout for innovative and inexpensive ways to market. And what I have for you here certainly fits that bill.

I believe Napoleon Hill in his 1930’s classic book “Think and Grow Rich” was the first person to coin the phrase “Master Mind” and he defined it as: “Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”

Hmmm So basically it’s building a team that leverages their collective brains and brawn to help one another get what they want.

So let’s not beat around the bush here. Are you ready for the secret marketing strategy? Well here goes It’s quite simple really there is strength in numbers. Two minds are exponentially more capable than one mind alone. In this equation, one plus one does not equal two, it more closely resembles eleven. We’re talking about leverage here. The secret is simply to gain leverage by creating your own mastermind. Not just any mastermind though; One that specifically focuses on marketing - a “Marketing Mastermind” so to speak.

So my proposal to you is to take that exact concept of a mastermind as Napoleon Hill defined it, and niche it to focus primarily on marketing.

So real quick what should this mastermind look like? My suggestion would be 4 to 8 members from different, non-competing industries, meeting weekly to discuss how they can help each other market their respective businesses - Plain and simple.

Now it’s not my intention here to educate you in any detail on how to set up and effectively participate in a mastermind group, as there are plenty of resources out there already that can do that for you, it is simply to share with you what’s possible by leveraging this concept to support your marketing efforts.

Personally, I see this strategy as a phenomenal way for organizations, especially smaller ones with little spending money for marketing, to use the power of leverage to broaden their capability and effectiveness.

While the benefits of doing this could be endless, let me just share with you five of my favorites:
1. Plain and simple, it keeps you in the conversation of marketing.
2. It can provide you with unbiased feedback, brainstorming, and marketing advice based on experiences of what has worked, or hasn’t worked for your mastermind teammates.
3. You will significantly expand your reach and go beyond who you know and tap into who your teammates know. Now depending on what the group agrees to, you may gain access to the client list and/or mailing list of the other members. Additionally, you can explore the possibilities of joint marketing initiatives and joint venture arrangements where multiple parties share in the results.
4. You’ll be held accountable to get done what you say you will get done. This alone inspires people into action and action ultimately leads to results.
5. The list can go on and on and on however, best of all, masterminding is free!

So need I say more? I sincerely hope you’ll take this strategy on and try it on for a while. What do you got to lose? - It’s free. Remember, there’s power in numbers so build your “Marketing Mastermind” and reap the rewards today!

© 2006 Online Marketing Muscle — All Rights Reserved.

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, “The Motivational Marketer,” is creator of the acclaimed ‘Pumped Up Networking’ system geared to explode your business through professional relationships. To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine the ‘Marketing Minute’ - a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit http://www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.

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Five years ago I started my first business. My background and training were in manufacturing, chemistry and management. The management experience was certainly helpful in launching a new business, but the other areas really didn’t lend much to helping me get done everything I needed to do.

As the owner, I was responsible for hiring, firing, billing, marketing, following up on sales leads, managing & training my employees, scheduling, submitting all of the proper paperwork for payroll, bookkeeping, accounting, etc… This can be very overwhelming for a person who is launching a business for the first time with very few resources. To manage all of these tasks, I immediately outsourced the day-to-day bookkeeping tasks, hired an accountant, and outsourced the payroll administration. These were all things that I was not adequately skilled to do and knew that it would be well worth my time to pay for outsourcing.

I have never had a job in the sales field, so the next BIG hurdle for me was to find a way to generate leads and turn those leads into clients. My company is a small cleaning service that started with me and one employee. My intent was always to be the manager of the company — not the cleaning lady! So, I had to develop skills that did not come naturally to me. I also had to develop a strategy.

My first attempt at developing leads was a total and utter flop. I engaged in a $4000 direct mail campaign. Direct mail can range in price from $1500 to tens of thousands of dollars for a professionally executed campaign. The company that I contacted to help me in this quest developed my logo and created the mail pieces that would go out to specific demographics. My call back rate on this mailer was less than 1% and the number of resulting clients I could count on one hand. Needless to say, I was very disappointed and a little bit desperate, because this was my entire advertising budget.

Since then I have learned a lot. First, to get your business name recognized, you will need to have a presence in the community. It may take a while to brand your product or service, but in the long run it pays off. In the beginning of my first business I did this by joining networking groups. You can check your local papers in the business section to see what is available in your area. Some groups charge annual fees or dues, others charge per the function. What worked for me was the type of networking group in which you developed relationships and those who were in those groups felt comfortable giving you referrals. Please note I did say referrals. Unlike the direct mail piece where the callers were looking for a bargain, the relationship referrals were people who wanted someone they could trust. My closing rate on referrals was about 90%. And the referrals almost always continued using our service on a long-term basis.

As I said, it took me a while to brand my business. I used the logo that was developed for me because it was very well done and memorable. I kept the colors that were used in my original direct mail campaign - black and gold. Down the road, I developed a website and about 6 months ago I hired a firm to redevelop my website that did a fantastic job utilizing my branding strategy. Eventually, I bought uniform shirts, aprons, bags with our name and logo. All of our print material displays our logo. I meet more people at networking meetings that remember meeting me because of my striking business card. So the effect is apparent what a good branding campaign can do for your.

Another wonderful way to create a presence in the community is to promote your business through PR announcements. You can do this yourself by looking at the different announcements you see in your local business news or you can hire a PR firm to do this for you. A lot of professionals in sales and business owners read that information because they like to be informed about what is going on in their business community.

If your business has employees, consider sponsoring an event. Some events want monetary sponsors, but some events need workers which they will consider as an in-kind sponsorship. There are always schools, professional associations, and other non-profit groups looking for this type of relationship with business. A business associate of mine owns a senior care business. Each year she sponsors “Senior Santa” program which provides personal care and non-prescription health products to the Senior Citizens in the area. This is a wonderful way to give to the community plus the local papers pick up the story free of charge to help promote the event.

If print advertising seems to be the best route for you, check out some of the new or smaller local magazines instead of the newspaper. I have placed business card sized ads in a fairly well distributed magazine for just over $100 a month. Always check to see if the publication requires a certain commitment (3 months, 6 months, 1 year) before making a decision. If you’re on a budget, you can get a better price by going for a longer term sometimes, but it may be better for you to go month to month if you are unsure about your available budget. The publication I advertised in had prices ranging from $125 - $95 per month. I got a mid-rate for a 3 month commitment which fit in my budget well.

The last thing I would recommend for new businesses is to get a web presence as soon as possible. My first company is a cleaning company and for about the first year, I kept telling people “I don’t need a website because I don’t sell anything on the web.” That was a true statement, but what I was overlooking was the fact that people like to know something about a company before they use them and just about everyone will go to the computer and punch in your company name to visit your website if they are considering doing business with you. Having a website lends credibility to any business. It shows prospective customers that you want to share your company information with them.

A professionally developed website can be big bucks and well out of budget for the start-up business. There are many services available that offer templates and affordable hosting. Do a web search for website development or internet hosting or websites. My cleaning company has a professionally developed website. My newest venture - well - I did the website - because my budget did not allow for that expense right now. I must say I am very satisfied with my newest site www.welcomecharlotte.info

Denise Cagan is the owner of DiCi Services, Inc. http://www.diciservices.com a residential / commercial cleaning service in Charlotte, NC. She is also starting a second company Welcome Charlotte, Inc. http://www.welcomecharlotte.info which will help emerging businesses market to new homeowners and newcomers to the Charlotte, NC area.
She graduated from James Madison University and worked with Coca-Cola for ten years. Denise has been a board member for National Association of Women Business Owner’s Charlotte Chapter for the past two years and was the recipient of the 2006 Team Builder Award.

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This year, 2005, will see the demise of some well known Network Marketing businesses. Spam laws, spam-traps, filtering and useless leads, will all be a contributing factor. The age of mailing prospects is all but dead and buried.

Now a marketer can’t even translate his own description of a business opening without disguising the words with spaces or characters that have no relevance to the English language.

As an e-mail to a colleague read;

“I could not see my way forward in choosing you as a sponsor, due to the fact that your communication by e-mail to me was full of misquotes, spelling errors and strange characters.”

Of course, this was done on purpose, to avoid the spam traps. However, it does point a heavy finger at what ISP’s are doing and what a marketer has to do in response, to avoid their nonsensical filtering. Perhaps we ought to develop a new language?

The big question here, is what can we do about it?

The answer lies in how you wish to attract people to your business. In my experience, there are many ways but only two main options.

1). You chase or contact them.

2). They chase or contact you.

As option 1 is all but dead and buried, the answer lies in the second option. It is also the easier of the two. You must let people find you, as opposed to you finding them. That means a greater ‘web presence’ of yourself as a professional marketer.

There are web forums, marketing discussion groups, friendship sites, billboards, classified ad sites, etc. Search engine marketing, free give-aways, free advertising, free e-books, are all related to your own ‘web presence.’

There is also an alternative method - Building your own Internet Advertising Solution. Search engines have a ‘pay-per-click‘ model that has resulted in gross incomes for the relevant corporations. Today, that has become so expensive, that the small, start-up business, just can’t afford the high placement fees that the favorite keywords command.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon something that was radically different but achieved the same objective as the ‘pay-per-click’ model. Since it’s implementation, I have observed far better form responses and my hit counter is now turning at a much greater daily rate. If you want the details, mail me or take a look at my signature file.

Now, there are many ways in which you can improve your web presence. Getting involved with networking groups and posting in the forums. Joining relevant groups that have the same interests or hobbies as yourself. Setting up your own website, with your own domain name. Getting people interested in you as a person and as a viable sponsor. More use of Instant Messengers in contacting people, is also a good way forward.

The way business is being done is changing. It is changing because of spam. You have a choice. Either learn how to promote yourself on the Internet, on solid web pages, or sink in the spam traps and filters. You must have something to give, so that people get interested. Nurture that Interest and you will make the sale. Nothing attracts more than free advertising, because that is what everyone wants - more exposure!

Michael A Fowler, M.B.A.
E-Mail: Goldcard43@aol.com

Website: http://www.the-mba-way.com

Internet Advertising Solution: http://tinyurl.com/5s6az

“My only wish is to help others achieve their own financial success, through the right mediums of e-commerce.”
- Michael A Fowler, M.B.A.

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