“Where To Start With Your
Marketing, And... Where NOT To!”

by Craig Garber

It was the summer of 1978 -- one year after New York City had suffered through its largest blackout ever.

I was almost 15 years old and had my first full-time summer job.  I was a "foot messenger", delivering packages (mostly documents) from either 2 World Trade Center, and later on from midtown Manhattan to a variety of other locations around the city.

This of course, was before fax machines were widely used... overnight delivery service was very costly... and obviously, there was no internet back then.

That's Why This Job
Even Existed In The First Place!

So, the streets of Manhattan were replete with foot messengers, in all shapes and sizes, and in all age groups and demographics, happily scattered throughout midtown and lower Manhattan, scurrying about, delivering packages for minimum wage, and... for some of the die-hards who did this as a career, for a few bits more than that.

Anyway, I remember that summer as if it was yesterday.  Nearly every Saturday, I'd get up nice and early... get showered, grab a friend, and then cross the street from my apartment building to catch a bus -- either the Bronx 15, which would take me up Gun Hill Road to catch the D Train to the west side of the city -- or, the QBX-1, which would take me over to Pelham Parkway, where I'd catch the Number 6 Train down to the east side.

The best thing about these trips was the spontaniety and the excitement -- I literally had no plans about where I was going -- we traveled where ever the moment inspired us to go.

Mostly we ended up at any one of the endless variety of used and new record stores that used to proliferate the city, especially around the east and west Village area.

Stores like Bleeker Bobs... Tower Records on West 4th and Broadway... and Second Coming Records.

I'd spend the day lazing around Washington Square Park, checking out the sights and people-watching... enjoying the warm weather, and needless to say, the "unusual" variety of people, freaks, and whatnot.

If my timing was right, I'd be lucky enough to find an open-air outdoor fleamarket to browse through, where you'd be able to get fresh juicy ripe fruit, grown upstate or in South Jersey, in the fresh country air -- a real treat for us city slickers.

What I loved about working, was finally being able to buy all the music I'd listened to over the years -- it wasn't unusual for me to come home long past midnight, carrying a dozen or more albums -- a carefully chosen selection of imports and bootlegs from concerts played around the world.

Back then, if you were a smart shopper, a full day out like this would cost you less than a hundred bucks, including food and subway tokens!

Anyway, the surprising thing to me all these years later, is how many of my consulting clients give as much consideration and planning to marketing their business, as I did to these music excursions downtown.

Because of this, most entrepreneurs would have as much luck going to the tables in Vegas, as they're going to have with their marketing.

So let's try and remove "luck" from the equation, and start hedging your marketing results on proven "science" instead.

O.K.?

One of the first things I ask all my consulting clients, is this:  "Have you checked out your competition, to see what their marketing looks like, and have you found out what's worked historically in your industry, with the more successful businessess -- either in your town, or preferably, globally."

And oddly enough, every one of them has as much of a "free spirit" about this aspect of their marketing...

As I Did, Hopping On The
D-Train Back In The Summer Of 1978!

They're doing more planning for their weekend trips up to the lodge, than they're doing for marketing their business!

You see, one of the biggest problems people have, is figuring out where, and how, to start marketing in the first place.

They're Winging It, Instead Of Planning It!

So today I'm going to tell you,

Where To Start... And (Maybe
Even More Important) Where Not To!

The very first thing you should do, when it comes to figuring out what's what, with marketing your business... is to start discussing what other businesses, similar and identical to yours, are doing.

I call this, checking out your "parallels", and there are 3 ways of doing this:

1.  Check Out What Identical Businesses Are Doing!

You know, a good friend of mine told me how, when he's on the road, he's gotten into the "habit" (and this is the KEY word here) of always checking out the Yellow Pages to see if there are any good ads in it, from any of the businesses who do what he does, in a different place.

I thought he was full of crap, until we recently went out-of-town to a seminar together, and we shared a room.

Literally the first thing he did after he unpacked, was grab the yellow pages and start rooting through them until he found his "category".

And then the next thing he did, was to...

2.  Check Out What "Similar" Businesses Are Doing!

And what do I mean by this?

Simple:  What you're looking for here, is to check out the marketing materials of businesses who are going after the same "kind" of prospects you are.

For example, if you're an air conditioning repair service, you're going to want to see what the plumber... the electrician... and the refrigerator repair guys are doing in their yellow pages ads... val-pak ads... and in any other marketing and prospect or customer correspondence that's going on.

My friend does this religiously -- he wants to know every single detail about how other successful (and not successful) businesses are reaching out and talking to their customers and prospects.

What kind of offers are they making?

What kind of lead-generation are they doing?

How much are they charging for their services?

You see,

This is critical marketing
research you simply must do!

And the last thing my buddy does, and he does this religiously, is...

3.  He Gets On As Many Of His Competitors And "Similar" Competitors Business Lists, As He Possibly Can!

And you should sign up to get on as many of your parallel business-owner lists as YOU possibly can.

In fact, if you're really smart, you'll even buy from your competitors and parallel customer marketers.

Find out what kinds of ongoing communication these "parallels" are using (most won't do any)... experience what it's like dealing with them first-hand... and see what kind of customer service, and other bells-and-whilstes they're offering.

You might find a good idea, which you can then use direct-response techniques, to turn into an AMAZING idea!

But for the most part, you want to do exactly the opposite to what your competition is doing:  Offer much better experiences... deliver stronger guarantees... and communicate more consistently (and offer a better experience in your communication).

The friend I mentioned before, does all these things, religiously, but there again...

That’s Why He's Consistently Doing Over $2 Million A
Year... That's Why He’s The Largest Competitor In His
Marketplace... And That’s Why He Has Fewer Employees
Than Most People In His Industry Have, Doing
Even Half As Much In Business!

See, it's these little subtle differences in his behavior, and in his routines... that separate the HUGELY successful business-owners, from... well... everyone else!

Change your programming... create healthy and balanced disciplines you can incorporate into your daily lifestyle... and you'll also change your outcome, DRAMATICALLY!

P.S.  Next week, I'm going to reveal some the feedback I got from my subscribers, regarding my "scarcity" tip, last week, called “How To Dramatically Boost The Demand For Your Goods And Services!” (Hint: The Secret's In Your Offer!)

And if you have any comments to add regarding that
tip, make sure you send them to me pronto, at .  Thanks!

Any comments?

Send them to me by scooting over to the contact form on my "Here's How To Contact Craig" page, and maybe I'll publish them -- I appreciate your feedback!

You can reprint, or link to this article, or to any article on this web site, as long as you include the following text-box:

“Craig Garber is America's top direct-response copywriter.  Join the ranks of Garber's swelling list of global VIP's who subscribe to his unconventional weekly marketing moments, and discover how to dramatically boost your sales and improve the response to your sales copy, on his website at http://www.kingofcopy.com. Copyright © Craig Garber.  All rights reserved.”

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