The Untold Secret Behind Great Marketing - Adrian Fleming http://AdrianFleming.com There are many people that call themselves marketers and many that sell marketing services, even marketing training, but the reality is that there is something people get wrong more often than not and it’s got nothing to do with what you do, how you do it, how much you spend or anything else that people normally talk about but I’ll share this with you in a moment, but before that I want to just set out a coupe of points. The first point is that marketers and businesses like to try and segment their marketing in to different areas one way they do this is by classifying it, so as print, TV, radio, online and mobile. Another form of segmentation is the terms B2B and B2C, so business-to-business or business to consumer, depending on the type of prospect you are selling to. A third way marketing gets segmented is by splitting advertising, marketing, PR, trade shows and other promotional activities. Then, after all these things you get push and pull marketing – you see the marketing world seems to want to niche down as often as it can, so you end up with something like B2C mobile pull advertising, or B2B PR in the trade press and even from there people segment further. But as an entrepreneur you live in a results based economy and so results are what matter and as such marketing is and should always be any activity that compels a prospect to buy form you. Marketing must have that purpose and as Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan puts it: “Marketing is any activity that gets people intellectually engaged in a future result that's good for them and getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result.” I don’t want you to segment out your marketing at all, I want you to look at the results and there is a secret to getting results that only really comes to light when you’re an entrepreneur – you must operate your marketing across ALL and I mean ALL the influential people that move what you do from you to the end consumer, let me give you a personal example. If you sell a product you need to make sure that everybody, and remember you always market to people not companies, that helps take what you do and offer in to the market is considered and marketed to, for example: You may have designed a new product and that product is sold through specific wholesale distribution groups so that’s where you traditionally focus your sales and marketing efforts but this really limits your impact.

1. the untold secret to
successful marketing

2. My name’s Adrian Fleming and I’ve
been involved in cross-media
marketing for over 22 years and in
that time…

3. …I’ve been introduced to many people that call
themselves marketing experts and many who sell
marketing services, even marketing training…

4. …but the reality is that there is something people,
including most of those people get wrong more
often than not and it’s got nothing to do with…

5. …what you do, how you do it, how much you
spend or anything else that people normally talk
about; I’ll explain more on that with you in a
moment.

6. But before that I want to just set out a couple of
points.

7. The first point is that marketers and businesses
like to try and segment their marketing in to
different areas, one way they do this is…

8. …by classifying it, so as print, TV, radio, online,
mobile and so on.

9. Another form of segmentation is the terms B2B
and B2C, so business-to-business or business to
consumer, depending on the type of prospect you
are selling to.

10. A third way marketing gets segmented is by
splitting advertising, marketing, PR, trade shows
and other promotional activities.

11. Then, after all these things you get push and pull
marketing, or above and below the line, in industry
jargon.

12. You see the marketing world seems to want to
niche down as often as it can, so you end up with
something like B2C mobile pull advertising, or…

13. B2B PR in the trade press and even from there
people segment further.

14. But as an entrepreneur you live in a results based
economy and so results are what matter and as
such marketing is and should always be…

15. …any activity that compels a prospect to buy from
you.

16. Marketing must have that purpose and as
Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan puts it:

17. “Marketing is any activity that gets people
intellectually engaged in a future result that's good
for them and getting them to emotionally commit
to take action to achieve that result.”

18. I don’t want you to segment out your marketing at
all. I want you to look at the results and there is a
secret to getting results that only really comes to
light when you’re an entrepreneur.

19. You must operate your marketing across ALL, and
I mean ALL, the influential people that move what
you do from you to the end consumer, let me give
you a personal example.

20. If you sell a product you need to make sure that
everybody, and remember you always market to
people not companies…

21. … that helps take what you do and offer in to the
market is considered and marketed to, for
example:

22. You may have designed a new product and that
product is sold through specific wholesale
distribution groups…

23. …so that’s where you traditionally focus your sales
and marketing efforts, but this approach really
limits your impact.

24. Some businesses are smarter and do some
consumer advertising too, encouraging end
buyers to look for the product…

25. …and maybe, just maybe, ask in store for it, which
can encourage the store to want to buy it and
request it from the wholesaler…

26. …who in turn has had that product marketed to it,
so this uses what are called push and pull
techniques in the marketing.

27. But this is still very, what I would call, naive when it
comes to marketing.

28. You see when you have something to sell, you
need to look at who buys it from you, maybe it’s
not your product…

29. …so you also need to see who’s selling it to you
and what they do too…

30. …but you need to make sure that everybody, from
the buyer to the warehouse staff, to the shop floor
staff, to the customer support people are all…

31. …“sold” on the product or service you provide.

32. You want each and every person who could come
in to contact with your product or service to know
about it and think to themselves…

33. …that if they were in the market for what you offer
then you would be their supplier.

34. Think about it this way…

35. …if you are two or maybe even more steps away
from the end user of your product or service, this
adds massive risk…

36. …and this sort of risk doesn’t come with the
upside of rewards, it’s all negative.

37. I’ve fallen victim to this myself on more than one
occasion where one particular party in the
process does a poor job even though their
customers want something.

38. In fact in one particular personal example of this
happening it was the advertising agencies that
were doing a poor job for their clients…

39. …one of my businesses spoke to their clients who
wanted something but the agencies didn’t want to
do it for them because…

40. …it made them far more accountable and in this
scenario they didn’t want to take the risk, if I was
being cynical…

41. …being found out, our marketing just didn’t
overcome their reservations and fears.

42. As a positive example tough I remember when we
created a range of boxed Christmas Cards and
not only got the product and price right for the UK
market…

43. …but got the distribution and marketing spot on
too, the result was going from nothing to container
after container load of one boxed Christmas card
product.

44. Demand was unbelievable, I think we ended up
bringing in from China where we had this product
produced more than 40 40ft shipping containers
full.

45. That’s a lot of boxes of Christmas Cards and we
dominated the UK market that year and the next
before the competition could catch up.

46. And by then we had moved on with the next
innovation. It was having everything right that
made it a marketing and sales success, at every
point.

47. But take a look at what you do; maybe it’s a
product you can find in a clothing store, it doesn’t
matter what it is you will get the idea…

48. …but if the end consumer doesn’t know your
product is there they are less likely to buy it.

49. If the person serving on the shop floor is not a fan
of your product they will not sell it as well or at all.

50. If the shop doesn’t sell your product very often
they will not reorder it or buy other products you
have.

51. If the people managing the fulfilment to the store
find your product difficult to handle or…

52. …your systems are not helpful to them they will tell
their buyers that they would rather not handle your
product.

53. If the buyer at a wholesale or retail level is not
seeing sales then no matter how good the pitch is
to them, they just will not place orders.

54. You see marketing is more thorough than most
people think and happens not just before people
buy…

55. …but in the buying and selling process, even after
that time too.

56. Simply put, the secret to marketing is making sure
you are focused on results and the best way to
minimise risk is to…

57. …make sure, as much as possible, that
everybody who handles and can influence the
sale of your product or service is on your side…

58. …making it as easy as possible for people to
spend their money with you – something all
entrepreneurs should be striving for.