Marketing your art or music

Filed Under (Small Business Marketing) by Gogo on 18-07-2009

“Marketing your art or music” wouldn’t seem to be a title that fits within the usual fare on this blog.
idea-age-audio-mic I’ve never offered my consulting services to an art or music oriented business, or to artists, but the most powerful rules of marketing are intuitive because they are actually universal success principles.

For instance:
Rule #1: Be remarkable
To be remarkable, you must standout from the crowd. Not every crowd, just the usual crowd to which people might categorize you. One way to be remarkable is to possess a competency that surprises…
I have a Nigerian friend who once wowed a group of Korean shoppers in a Walmart because he overheard their conversation and spoke fluent Korean to them. They could barely let him go for the next 15 minutes!

Turns out that as a boy, he’d spent a lot of time in South Korea with his uncle who traded Korean manufactured wares in Nigeria.

Another example is seen in the video below. The 9-year old boy in this video first shocks you with his sensibilities. His influences included old icons like Jimi Hendrix. Then when he began to play…

Rule #2: Be Remarkable And Have A Marketing Hook
In the example above, the guitarist is very good at his craft. However, everything gets more exciting by the mere fact that he’s 9 years old!. The marketing hook is “9 year old guitar whizkid!”.

In the video below, this group of singers sing so melodiously well that it can almost bring tears to your eyes. They range in age from 21 to 76 years old, and “they all met when they worked at the post office”. Their hook could be “Going postal has a melodious new meaning”…or something similar.
For your enjoyment, i’ve included this video:

Rule #3: Get Out There
You might be the most talented artist in the world, but if you don’t get your work out there, nobody will ever know you, talk about you, recommend you.

Rule #4: Get Out There ONLINE!
A full year before he wowed the audience on “America’s Got Talent” (when he was 8), a video featuring him was uploaded to YouTube and has gotten over 2 million views so far. This among other things may have helped him get on that Nationally featured TV show.
Get your talent out online, and let the viral word-of-mouth marketing do it’s work for you. Here’s the YouTube video:

If you’re an artist, the most important thing you need to reconcile is that marketing your art or your talent isn’t by itself a violation of ‘artistic principle’, and is not “selling out”. Just like sliced bread (Wonder Bread in the early 1900s) you need marketing for to get the world aware of your existence, your work and how important it is.

You may contact me, If you’d like to get advice on using the internet for marketing your art or music, (or even your art business).

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Rich Schefren unlocks Small Business Success Heaven

Filed Under (Small Business Management) by Gogo on 17-07-2009

Rich Schefren is without a doubt one of my favorite marketers and business coaches.

Small Business Success

Small Business Success

Branding himself as the “guru’s guru”, he’s left a Tsunami-sized wake in the internet marketing world by helping many high profile internet business coaches increase their profits through streamlined business processes.

It was through Rich Schefren that I first heard of Eli Goldratt and his Theory of Constraints management philosophy that has forever changed how I look at business productivity.

In my tribute to Billy Mays King of The Sales Pitch, I mentioned Rich Schefren’s own tribute, which I consider one of the most important marketing case studies I’ve ever read on a blog.

Well, in his continuing tribute to Billy Mays, Rich Schefren has released a Billy Mays-style video that really falls flat (in my opinion) from a likeability standpoint, but contains one of the most powerful lessons for experiencing small business success.

The lesson is not explicitly stated in the video as I’m going to state it here, but watch the video, and you’ll get the combined benefit of this mini-lesson and the wisdom of a marketing maven.

Lesson #1
The single most important marketing question your business must answer from the prospective customer is:
Why should I do business with you?
In my consulting practice I call the answer to this question your “Differentiating Value Proposition” (D.V.P.) or Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.)

Lesson #2
The contribution I’m now attributing to Rich Schefren is the need to consciously expand the concept of a USP to apply not just to prospects and customers, but to every other stake holder in your business success.
Stakeholders such as:
Prospects, Clients, Employees, Freelance workers, Affiliates and JV partners.
In other words, these groups are also asking, “Why should I do business with you?”
Your business must define a “Superior Engagement Value Proposition” in answer to their query.

So check out the video, and comment below to let me know your thoughts.

P.s. Are you interested in our Rich Schefren-style small business growth services at a fraction of the cost? My consulting packages are now available to businesses in every part of the country through the wonders of the internet!

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404 Error Page redirect hijacking by Comcast

Filed Under (internet marketing) by Gogo on 16-07-2009

Why did Comcast think they could just hijack my 404 Error Pages without my permission and then MAKE ME opt-out if I didn’t want their substitute listing page?

On the good side (for you), the whole episode brought my attention to an oft-overlooked piece of valuable real estate you might be wasting on your website… your 404 Error Page.

Just in case you don’t know what that is, it’s the page that displays whenever a visitor to your website requests a page that either no longer exists (most commonly) or never existed.

For example, typing in www.yourwebsitename.com/yarmulke-boy-example3 will probably bring up a 404 Error page that draws a blank like this one from Lee McIntyre, (a favorite internet business coach).

404-error-page-lee-mcintyre


Lee’s 404 error page is typical of most blogs and websites (including mine) because it leaves all that valuable real estate blank. Now don’t get me wrong Lee is one of the most brilliantly effective entrepreneurs out there, but by ignoring the opportunity to customize his 404 Error page, he’s not really strongly leveraging this particular resource.

I decided to check out another favorite mentor of mine, Business Coach Terry Dean, to see what his 404 Error page looked like. Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like (as of today anyway):

404-error-page-terrydean



Terry Dean’s page above is a better use of the 404 Error page because a whole list of options to connect to Terry are made available to the web visitor. Some of his most important pages such as his “About”, “Products” pages and others are made available right there.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be working on ideas to customize my 404 Error pages profitably. If you have any ideas for me, you can leave a comment below. This whole idea is not new, but I was reminded of the concept after Comcast (my internet cable provider) tried to hijack my default “Page Not Found” browser display with a page for their own purposes.

Usually, when you type in a nonsensical url website address like www.marsh3reaf.com , you’ll get a “Page Not Found” like the one I get (see picture below):

404-error-page-default

Instead, almost 2 weeks ago, I found that Comcast had hijacked my 404 error page and replaced my normal “Page Not Found” Page with their own customized page with this one below:

comcast-404-error-page-hijacking



I had a few problems with this:

First, I tend to use the browser search as my own domain name availability pre-test before I check out any other services such as Godaddy.com.
Second, it really smacked of “BIG BROTHER” as I really don’t want Comcast to know anything I’m up to when I’m online! It’s bad enough they know my home address, home phone number and can tell that it’s me whenever I call…

Third, when on earth did I opt-in to their service?

This last part really bugged me the most when I found out just how difficult it became to OPT-OUT! Apparently hijacking my “Page Not Found” was part of a service they’re calling Domain Helper Service:

Which I never asked for, and had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get taken off from.

Why is my internet pipeline provider concerned with “helping” me find my domains anyway?
2 days after I first tried to opt-out I was getting a call at my house (albeit from a very courteous rep) re-’re-verifying’ my decision to opt out of the silly Domain Helper Service.

Anyway, I’m not a conspiracy theorist (usually), and I’m a fairly normal guy (I think)… this just bugged me. What else does comcast know or want to know about me? Is there a reverse webcam staring at me through comcast’s internet service?

Don’t laugh, you never know… Anyway my own rant is starting to remind of the old quote, “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me”!

Subscribe for other marketing strategy tips and tricks.

Till next time.

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Marketing experts mourn the king of pitch

Filed Under (Small Business Marketing) by Gogo on 16-07-2009

Marketing experts the world over are mourning the death of Billy Mays, venture pitchman extraordinaire. The co-host of the hit show “Pitchmen” was a master of direct response marketing.

It was from marketing guru Dan Kennedy, that I first learned the importance of purposefully studying the longest running (and therefore presumably successful) ads and infomercials. Billy Mays, was the co-star of the infomercials in which the products were the true stars and that’s what made him the ultimate co-star to everything from OxiClean, ImpactGel, from Kaboom! to Mighty Putty, and more.

Here are a collection of videos from people who, like me, are mourning (and paying tribute) to the life of a master pitchman. I have also taken the liberty to add a link to a masterful marketing case study tribute to Billy Mays by the Maven at Strategic Profits, Rich Scheffren. (See Marketing Case Study)

In the next video, Billy Mays Faces Off Against Andrew Sullivan his “Pitchmen” TV show co-host
This here is just another entry into the evidence basket that Billy Mays is the KING OF PITCH!
billy-mays-pitchmen

The rest of the videos are from fans who enjoyed, studied, bought from, and learnt from Billy Mays, The King of The Pitch!
From his Blue shirt to his weirdly tanned (stained) jet black hair and beard, Billy Mays created a personal brand that continuously boosted response rates for the products he sold.
Enjoy these humorous but deeply felt videos

This video is from a true marketing fan

This video has already enjoyed over 47, 000 views

Vince Offer Of Shamwow Vs. THE MASTER OF PITCH – Billy Mays (Over 500, 000 views)

At a time when millions throughout the world are mourning the master marketer who became known as the KING OF POP, marketing experts and students the world over pay tribute to BILLY MAYS, THE KING OF ‘PITCH’!

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Startup Business Marketing mistakes can be killer!

Filed Under (Uncategorized) by Gogo on 13-07-2009

Natural Market or Ideal Target Market?

Natural Market or Ideal Target Market?

Startup business marketing mistakes are easy to make and not necessarily world ending. However, some of them are so potentially catastrophic that they can result in a still-born business and destroy your entrepreneurial dream before it starts.

This weekend I consulted with an entrepreneur whose company creates floral arrangements for weddings. In our conversation, I discovered that this relatively sophisticated entrepreneur was making a seemingly small but potentially devastating startup business marketing mistake.

One of the most important strategic marketing decisions you make as an entrepreneur in the business start up stage is deciding your ideal target client.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is that when you’re just starting out, there’s often a huge difference between your target market (the group of clients you want to serve and do business with), and your natural market (the group of potential clients who are most accessible to you).

Depending on your background you may approach this disparity in radically different ways…some of which may be quite harmful to your business in the long run.
Some people decide that they’re going to just take whatever business they can get, disregarding the danger that they may get locked in to a market they would rather not be dealing with. Others decide right from the start, that they will only work with prospects that are close to the range of their target client profile.

There’s no right or wrong answer that works for everyone all the time. Depending on your personality, you may not want to “compromise” by taking just any client. On the other hand, if you’re an easy going natural bootstrapper, you think it’s a no-brainer to just deal with any business you can get.

The entrepreneur I consulted for was actually overlooking tremendous lead generation opportunities because she didn’t want to deal with the some of the negatives of the people closest to her. She and her business partner also had not narrowly defined a target client profile, and as such they had no foundation for a client or customer conversion process that could qualify prospects, screen out the “dont wanters”, and magnetize the “must haves”.

Here’s how I helped her and her partner define a “middle ground” approach – Leveraging what they have (natural market/client) while moving steadily and strategically toward what they want (ideal target client/market). I shared 6 rules of engagement for marketing-centered business acceleration below:

6 rules of engagement:

  1. Don’t Fence Out Prospects
  2. Do Screen In Prospects
  3. Find Your Uniqueness, Communicate it, Deliver it
  4. Offer Clients Many Profitable Ways To Buy From You
  5. Offer Clients Many Mutually Exciting Ways To Refer Others To You
  6. Offer Clients Many Reasons To Keep Buying From You

If you think creatively about the rules above, you’ll discover that it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum proposition choosing between business in close proximity or business from the clients you most want to deal with.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments below. If you’d like to accelerate the growth of your business in a unique and measurable way, you may contact me today to inquire about my marketing consulting services.

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African dreams

Filed Under (Africa and African entrepreneurship) by Gogo on 01-07-2009

Some of you are aware of my efforts in support of African entrepreneurship and innovation. I will be posting those thoughts to this section of the blog as well.

Enjoy the video below

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