The Profit Tool Belt » advertising http://www.profittoolbelt.com Focused on providing ideas and tools to help entrepreneurs manage their businesses, profits, and personal lives at a higher level. Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:38:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 Put Holes in Your Marketing Plan http://www.profittoolbelt.com/2009/08/holes-in-your-marketing-plan/ http://www.profittoolbelt.com/2009/08/holes-in-your-marketing-plan/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:25:22 +0000 Dan http://www.profittoolbelt.com/?p=108 Most businesses, including all successful businesses, have a marketing plan, but all too often that plan is missing a key ingredient – the holes.  Marketers get too focused on the product or service they are selling and they forget about their customer, and more importantly, exactly what their customer is looking for.  They forget about the holes!

So what’s a hole?  Remember that nobody buys a drill because they want a drill.  They buy a drill because they want holes.  The “hole” is the solution to your customer’s problem.  The “hole” is what you should be addressing in your marketing, not the drill.  The hole is what your customer is really looking for.

So is your marketing plan focused on the drill, or is it focused on the hole?  While it might be possible to get somebody who doesn’t need holes to buy a drill, your job of selling drills will be a whole lot easier if you first find people that need holes.

Would you like to increase your sales?  Take a step back from your business and figure out what problems your customers are trying to solve when they do business with you.  If there’s more than one problem, which is most important?  Which is most urgent?  How does this problem make them feel?  Which one is causing your customer the most pain?  What kind of pain is this problem causing?  What are your customers willing to do to make that pain go away?  When you understand these things, you’re well on your way to understanding your customer.

Now take a look again at your marketing plan and your advertisements.  How do you capture the attention of people with the same problem?  How well do you address the issues that are most important to them?  What kind of offer do you make to solve their problem?  Forget about trying to sell more drills.  Just find people that need holes, and help them out!

]]> http://www.profittoolbelt.com/2009/08/holes-in-your-marketing-plan/feed/ 0 Creating BUZZ with Visual Creativity http://www.profittoolbelt.com/2009/07/creating-buzz-with-visual-creativity/ http://www.profittoolbelt.com/2009/07/creating-buzz-with-visual-creativity/#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:18:52 +0000 Dan http://www.profittoolbelt.com/?p=69 Being creative with your marketing can help attract a lot of attention to your ads, and when done well, can even create a buzz. There’s nothing better than when people like your ad so much, they tell all their friends to look for you ad.  They tell them where to find it in which magazine, TV show, or they post it in facebook and forward it in emails.  They spread the word for you, for free, to people that trust them.  It’s modern day word of mouth advertising, and there’s nothing more effective.

Just one word of warning – don’t get so caught up in the creative side of your advertising that you lose sight of your core message.  After all, if your ads don’t make an effective offer to the consumer, then you’re really paying for brand recognition, and most small businesses can’t afford an effective brand recognition advertising campaign.

For some examples to get your creative juices flowing, check out this video:

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