Do you have a favorite quotation?

I don’t although I was recently intrigued by this one; "You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library." This is from the movie Good Will Hunting and was said by Will Hunting: played by Matt Damon.

The reason I say that it intrigued me is because many times a good University education is filled with old and tired ideas. I am not saying that all University education is that way, but we need to be aware. What that means to you is that you need to keep both your eyes and your ears open to new ideas.

A couple of years ago I made a speech in Louisiana. After my speech I was approached by a young man who complimented me on the information I had shared. What he told me; shocked me. He said that he had just got a MBA (Master of Business Administration) and he found out more in my speech about marketing than he had got during his four years in University.

What can you do today that will take what you know and improve on it?

Who is your target market?

Or do you believe that everyone is your market?

If you believe that everyone is your market, how is that going? Do you have more business than you know what to do with? If you don’t have more business than you know what to do with, read on.

When you are marketing to everyone, it’s very hard, a near impossibility to succeed to a high level. The reason I say that is because marketing needs to have a focus on a specific type of client. What that means to you is that without a specific focus you attract anyone, and they may not be the one’s you want. Let me explain; many business owners are scared of excluding potential clients. However, the more focused you are the better you are at understanding your target market. Thus the more you will know their challenges and probable solutions for their needs.

What can you do today to define your market clearer?

Is your marketing getting and keeping people’s attention?

Are you sure?

Recently in a Harvard Business Review article it discussed at length digital marketing. One of the problems they identified was that people get bored very quickly. They found that keeping viewers involved depends on two emotions: joy and surprise. They also discovered that in order to maximize the impact of the marketing the marketer had to generate joy or surprise early in the marketing. This is such a big change as to what was done decades ago. This is because years ago marketing built to a spectacular climax.

So my first question for you is; are you using the old type of marketing?

Secondly, are doing all you can to improve your marketing by putting in some surprise or joy?

Are you innovating to penetrate your marketplace?

Even if you are a long-term business you need to read this.

If you think you have your market all wrapped up I would suggest you think about this conclusion again. In my years of business I’ve seen massive changes because one business was innovating more than another.

Take for example Research In Motion (RIM) the business has been going for over 25 years. They created the Blackberry® and were doing a wonderful amount of business. Then all of a sudden they were out-maneuvered by innovation. The same can happen to you.

What do you need to do? I would suggest you ask yourself the following;

• When was the last innovation done in this business?
• What is one unique thing that your customers would like buy from you but can’t now?
• What innovative idea would raise your profile in your potential customer’s eyes?