Marketing Systems

At the recent Gathering of Duct Tape Marketing Consultants in Kansas City, Duct Tape Marketing Founder John Jantsch shared an updated version of his highly popular “Seven Steps To Marketing Success” process.  A significant addition is the emphasis on the Marketing Hourglass (TM) and the role it plays in the marketing lifecycle of your business.  John developed the hourglass concept a few years ago, but it is even more relevant now because the traditional marketing funnel is broken. Thanks to the explosive growth of social media, our customers and clients play a larger role in the marketing process – they find, review and refer us – completely out of our control.  Take a look at John’s blog post on the American Express Open Forum for a “New and Improved” look at the Seven Steps to Creating a Sure-Fire Marketing System.

Used by permission.  Duct Tape Marketing.

I often write about Duct Tape Marketing here. Moxie Marketing has been affiliated with John Jantsch and the Duct Tape Marketing network of coaches around the world for some time now. At the Duct Tape Marketing Network Annual Gathering last week in Kansas City, John announced a new brand name for that network – we are now collectively known as Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Consultants.

It’s a timely and significant change. Most of the marketing pros who are licensed to install the Duct Tape Marketing System in small businesses work with their clients as a hybrid consultant/coach. But my work is better described as a collaborative consultant rather than a coach. The re-branding will better reflect what we do.

Why do I like the Duct Tape System and what does Moxie Marketing get out of it?

Simplicity

The step-by-step approach we use to build a marketing plan just makes sense. My clients “get” marketing for the first time when they begin implementing the Duct Tape Ultimate Marketing System in their business. It breaks down a challenging process into a series of steps. It’s still a lot of work, but it illuminates the “black hole” of marketing in a way that helps business owners see it as a system.

Depth

My clients benefit from the wealth of knowledge the network provides. Consultants share knowledge and ideas with one another and we transfer that knowledge to our engagements with clients.

Customization

The universal principles we use to implement a marketing system does not mean we take a cookie cutter approach. Every engagement is different. I never work the same way with one client as I do the next. The process itself discovers unique and highly targeted ways to grow a business – from identifying its ideal customers, to developing content that sets a business apart from its competitors.

Authenticity

You’ll find lots of aggressive marketing methods in cyberspace that claim to unlock marketing in a way that will make your business grow like it’s on steroids. Don’t buy it. There is no magic pill or potion. The Duct Tape System is the real deal, but frankly, it takes a lot of work to do it right. John Jantsch and his leadership team of Joe Costantino and Cidnee Stephen are extremely talented and experienced marketers who have a passion to help small businesses succeed unlike any other organization. And I’m proud to announce that at The Gathering last week, I was honored to receive the designation of a “Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant.”

“All Duct Tape Marketing Consultants receive rigorous training just to be a part of the network, but certified consultants have also demonstrated a mastery of the principles contained in the Duct Tape Marketing System by successfully creating positive marketing results for their clients,” said John Jantsch, founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network. “I am proud to announce that Rick has achieved this advanced level of success.”

Thanks, John, and kudos to my fellow consultants!

In my last post, I talked about the elusive definition of marketing and how most small business owners feel about marketing. They know they need marketing. They might even be doing it, but they're not sure where to begin or if it even works. The business owner who stood up to announce, "I hate marketing," identified his pain. But what is pain, really? Pain is a symptom.  It means something else is going on.  So what's really happening? Why is marketing such a pain for small business owners and entrepreneurs? Because they focus on tactics before developing a strategy. They don't have a systematic marketing plan. They throw money away on an ad campaign, a fancy website or some shiny new online gadget with out first understanding their customer's wants and needs. They don't know to get those customers to know, like and trust them.  But why do they do that? One reason is obsession over the product or service.

Keith J. Cunningham, the author of Keys to the Vault and a noted teacher on business mastery said in a seminar I attended recently in Austin that a key mistake business owners and entrepreneurs make is obsessing over their product. They focus on making it perfect or developing technical skills and ignore many of the building blocks of businesses, like identifying what pain their product will solve and understanding who their ideal customer is. They don't work to create a unique difference that makes them stand out in the marketplace or develop core messages to communicate that difference consistently.

Those steps are the keys to develop a marketing strategy. Sure, it all starts with a great product or service but that's not what people buy. They are looking for things that make you referable, like your incredible guarantee, your unique process, exciting packaging or great people. Those things make a buzz in the market place. If you've flown on Southwest Airlines you know what I mean. Getting from Point A to Point B is their product, just like American Airlines. Yes, Southwest did obsess over their product by buying only one type of airplane (the Boeing 737) and developing fast boarding systems to keep those planes flying, but everything was developed with the customer in mind and they infused their business with a corporate culture that emphasizes fun and rewards employees for delighting customers. Have you ever heard anyone go off about the crazy-fun flight attendant on American Airlines?

So, what's your business worth to you? Are you willing to slow down long enough to find a cure for your marketing pain? Or, do you think you don't have time for the "fluff" of creating a marketing plan? It takes time to get it right, and you might need a little rehabilitative therapy along the way. But if you develop a systematic, step-by-step marketing plan to grow your business and use it to fuel the right tactics, your business will be healthier and so will you. Done right, it will help you realize your business and professional goals.  And you'll know that when you see it.

I'm reading John Jantsch's new book, The Referral Engine, and once again, as he did with his first book Duct Tape Marketing,  John makes something as complex as marketing very simple to understand.

In the first chapter of the book, which hits bookstore shelves on May 13, John talks about how a tiny part of our brain, the hypothalamus, triggers a need for us to make referrals.  John writes,

The hypothalamus likes validation — it registers pleasure in doing good and being recognized for it, and it's the home to the need to belong to something greater than ourselves.

John says there are five realities of referral marketing:

1. People make referrals because they need to
2. All business involves risk
3. Nobody talks about boring businesses
4. Consistency builds trust
5. Marketing is a system

Want to learn more about these five realities? Download a sneak preview of Chapter One of The Referral Engine.  Your hypothalamus will be glad you did.

Want to stimulate your brain with more great referral marketing ideas?  John will be at St. Edward's Professional Education Center in Austin on May 5 to talk about his new book.  Visit smallbizmarketingpro.com to learn more and register.  We're giving away John's new book free to the first 100 people to register online.

Enter the discount code "getmoxie" to save $5 on your ticket.

I like duct tape.  Don't you?  It's just one of those essentials that everyone agrees should be in your toolbox.  It's a band aid for stuffed animals, fixes a broken tool handle, makes a swell wallet or purse and can even save lives. Like it did for the Apollo 13 astronauts who used it to build a temporary carbon dioxide filter to return to earth from the dark side of the moon.  It has been around since WWII where soldiers used it to fix jeeps, patch up weapons and seal ammo boxes.  Why does duct tape work so well? It's sticky. And it lasts.

It's also the namesake for one of the world's best marketing systems.  Duct Tape Marketing, invented by small business marketing guru John Jantsch of Kansas City.  I'm attending a training intensive in Kansas City to become an authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach.  As John said to me in an email before coming, "I think you'll find that this is one of the best business decisions you've made."

I'm certain John is right.  My copy of his book is dog-eared, coffee-stained and full of exclamatory notes in the margins and yellow highlighter marks. It's chock-full of affordable and effective marketing advice that just makes sense.  I'm excited about helping my clients and you dear reader by becoming an authorized coach.

Watch this space in the days ahead.  We're sure to discover some great ways to apply sticky marketing ideas to your business.