How Important is Marketing in Your Business?

How important is “marketing”? You’ve seen the letters, the emails, and the products: courses, books, ebooks and teleseminars showing you how important ‘marketing’ is.

You and I have tools through the Internet right now that direct mail marketers just a few years ago would give their eye teeth for. These are incredible time savers and money-makers and they will allow you to generate tons of profits if you see the opportunity in front of you.

The question is, “Is it ‘marketing’ that REALLY makes the difference in your business? Is the hype of ‘marketing’ REAL? How important is marketing to your business REALLY? Is it all a game and hype? Or is there more to it?”

The answer is in your MIND. It’s your MINDSET, once again, that makes all the difference. It’s the way you look at things that will make the biggest difference in your life and your business.

People who run successful cash-cow businesses think different than you do. They look at business opportunities in a different way than you do. They look at risk differently.

They SEE OPPORTUNITY everywhere and take action to go after more business at every turn and every chance they get.

They SEE RISK in every transaction but insure themselves against catastrophic loss by not investing large amounts of capital until they test and tweak their products and offers until the numbers are extremely promising.

You may have learned something about business in the past that was NOT true, but you accepted it because you didn’t know the REAL truth.

The problem is that most people are not open to the truth when they have an existing belief that contradicts what they are hearing.

You need to open you mind here and suspend belief about what ‘business’ all about for the next few minutes.

A lot of online business newbies say “I don’t know what kind of business to start!”

So if you ask them about their hobbies, what interests them, etc. and you’ll ALWAYS find something they could start marketing immediately, but they hesitate because they are not sure they want to be “in” that type of business.

They don’t know if they should open a physical store or a website or whatever…they are uncertain as to what course of action to take.

They are trying to choose a business to be “in”… whether it’s the ‘mortgage reduction’ business or the ‘gift shop’ business or the ‘auto parts’ business and this is the wrong mindset…

…100% wrong, that is, if you want to be successful, as you’ll see.

Back to our question: “How Important Is Marketing…Really?”

First answer this question:

Are you “in” the “information marketing business”? Or the “web business”? How about the “mortgage reduction business”?

Are you really “in” any kind of business at all?

Bear with me here…I have a point that could explode your income to brand new levels.

You’re in not in the “information publishing business”, you are not in the “mortgage reduction business” or the “coaching business” or whatever business you think you’re in.

You’re in the “marketing business”.

Your only business is “marketing _______________”
(fill in the blank withy what YOU think your real “business” is).

THINK about this for a moment. You can start any business you chose, but what is your REAL job in that business?

Here’s a very important point that will become even clearer as we get to the end of this report:

I started to make money consistently when I changed the way I looked at my business and exploded my income when I said to myself:

“I am not in the “website building” business; I’m in the “business of marketing website businesses”.

There is more to this than you think… so please stay with me.

Let me give you some examples of how this mindset can TRANSFORM your business overnight!
If you are an owner of a store that sells auto parts, are you in the “auto parts business”?

No.

You’re in “the business of marketing auto parts”.

See the difference?

The the point I’m making here is that ‘marketing’ is YOUR BUSINESS and your first priority. What you actually sell is secondary. And I don’t want you to think that just because you own a physical store that sells, for example, “gift items” that you are stuck with that method of marketing.

A ‘physical store’ is just one method of marketing ‘gift items’… that’s all it is. Just like a ‘website’- it’s only one form of marketing.

Don’t confuse a ‘method of marketing’ with what your REAL business is.

With a physical store, if you get a good location you are able therefore to get your prospects attention for your products simply because they are riding in their cars past your store and see the sign you’ve placed out front.

Your location and physical storefront is a form of marketing- it is NOT your business. You are not an owner of a ’store’.

But don’t get stuck thinking a ’storefront’ is the only way to market your products (the “sign” and your storefront is a form of marketing – the marketing of your ‘gift items’, and to be honest, not a very good one because it’s passive …

Think in terms of more pro-active forms of marketing like referrals, direct mail, press releases, coupons, display or classified ads and any other method that will bring business to your door…

In other words you are NOT REALLY marketing your “STORE” – because your store makes you no money…!

Right? It’s the SALE of GIFT ITEMS that makes you money.

So you do not want to market your store. Because your store makes you no money. In fact it’s an expense. Your REAL business is the “marketing of gift items” You just use a physical storefront to HELP you market gift items.

It’s a completely different mindset than saying that your in the “gift store business”.
Are you beginning to see this? We’re not done yet…

How many ads have you seen in your local paper that try to market the ’store’ the person owns. I guess it’s pride of ownership that causes these shops to advertise the shop, instead of the gift items and the benefits of the products they carry.

Believe me, very, very, few store owners understand this difference and the mindset I’m sharing with you!

Let me ask you what would happen if you did not put a sign out or any kind of markings to indicate you had anything for sale at all in front of your store if you owned this gift shop?

Nothing would happen, right? People would not stop at your store to buy anything because they didn’t even know you were there or didn’t think you were selling anything at all!

So you see that a “sign” in the front of your store is a form of marketing, right? Is the sign there to advertise your store?

No. It’s job is to DRIVE potential customers into your store TO BUY gift items.

As odd as this sounds, what is the most prevalent form of marketing storeowners participate in?

A sign. And maybe a few local newspaper ‘ads’… that’s it. Is it any wonder then why they can’t make a go of it?

So the marketing for most stores is a simple ’sign’ out in front of your store that gives your name and maybe something that describes your store like “Gift Shop”.

Ok?

Now people at least know what you do and that you’re a business. No sign, no customers.

Are you going to leave your entire businesses future dependent on that one ’sign’ in the front of your business or a few ads in your local paper?

Sadly, most businesses do.

They could be using a hundred different methods to DRIVE potential customers to their front door (direct mail, postcards, events and contests, sponsorships, drawings, JV’s, open houses, etc) but they don’t because they do not understand this important thing:

They are not in the gift shop business they are in the “business of marketing gift items”!

When you realize what your REAL business is you begin to see thousands of possibilities for getting more customers.

You use anything and everything at your disposal, test every method and keep the one’s that work constantly.

That’s how successful business people THINK: They see OPPORTUNITY EVERYWHERE! And it kills them that they will never have the time or money to take advantage of every opportunity they see because there’re are simply too many of them!

Do you think that way? You need to if you want to grow your business.

When you don’t realize what business you’re really in, you get stuck and confused because you think you are in the “Gift Shop Business” – a DEAD END – then you try to figure out how to market your ’shop’. But that is WRONG. That’s the complete opposite of what really, really successful businesses do!

A successful person will turn the phrase “I am in the Gift Shop Business” into “I am in the business of marketing gift items” and suddenly completely turn their business around, overnight!

Once a business owner realizes they are in the business of marketing they can develop a “direct mail” division or a “infomercial” division or an “Internet” division … anything that will drive customers to do business with them. These opportunities become INSTANTLY available because they realize this FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH:

They are in the “business of marketing gift items”… and not the ‘gift shop business’.
See the difference now?

The illustration I gave you above is EXACTLY the same type of thinking that you need to employ and it doesn’t matter what you’re marketing.

You are not in the ‘mortgage reduction business’, you are in the business of ‘marketing business reduction solutions’ …

How about this:

…your website is NOT YOUR BUSINESS. IT ONLY a convenient PLACE to drive your potential customers. Your REAL business is the marketing of ‘digital information products’ or whatever it is you sell on your website.

It’s the same for anyone who has a physical storefront – once you get into this MINDSET, the storefront is JUST and ONLY a convenient PLACE to drive your customers to.

You could also take orders…

· by PHONE through running infomercials or ads, or
· on your website or
· through a direct mail package or
· catalog
· etc, etc, etc…

I have seen businesses literally TRANSFORMED overnight into million dollar businesses when they realized what business they are REALLY in …

…”the business of marketing”.

This has been the catalyst for a transformation in my own business.

In the past I’ve sold various types of internet marketing services and I thought I was in the business of ‘internet marketing’ or the business of I wasn’t. I was in the “business of marketing internet marketing services” and it doesn’t matter HOW – website, infomercial or direct mail, storefront, etc…

I hope this concept helps you too. I hope it helps you to understand that the only thing that matters in business is marketing and sales.

I cannot tell you what you should sell… I don’t think it matters as long as there is a strong market for it. You could be in the business of marketing wiper blades for cars or marketing a diet pill.

As long as you are convinced the product is a good one and it will benefit the person you’re selling it to there is NOTHING stopping you from making a million dollars except YOU.

You are the only thing keeping you back. There isn’t anyone on this planet that can stop you if you follow the laws of your country.

Most businesses fail because the owner has given up too soon, just before striking GOLD. Or more likely it’s because the owner didn’t know what business they were really in– the marketing business. They thought the product was the most important part of their business and if the product was good, it would sell itself.

Don’t let that happen to you. Know what business you’re in (’the marketing business’) and think like a master marketer at all times or at the very least hire a master marketer.