Do you feel overwhelmed with information? Paralyzed by inaction?

Maybe your trying too hard.

You heard me correctly...trying too hard to market your business.

Why?

There are several reasons you might be trying too hard:

* Lack of focus and determination on the one or two techniques that are actually working and developing those campaigns until you have tested them to maximum results. This lack of focus, usually due to being exposed to the "next big thing" in marketing, is a killer for businesses everywhere.

* You feel that you must market on some sort of "advanced level" to be competitive. You don't, the basics always work, and work well. Most of my coaching clients have businesses that have increased profits drastically just by "going back to the basics" in their marketing approach.

* There is simply too much information out there. Let's face it, you are exposed to thousands of different messages, bits of information, and the like everyday. We go back to focus here, but from a different perspective...filter your daily intake of information to no more than three to five primary sources per day, period. Use this information to it's best...and if it seems to fail you, simply replace ONE information source at a time that needs replacing. Maintain your three to five primary sources and let the rest be secondary (each magazine counts as one source of information). I use three magazines and two main internet resources as my primary resources.

Now on to today's marketing secret.

Keeping with the "trying too hard" theme here...many of my clients started out asking me:

"Joe, how do I know what marketing technique to use for my market/business/website/etc...?"

To which I reply:

"Ask your market."

To which I usually get the response:

"Huh?"

There are a number of ways to do this. Each one of these techniques is a lesson in and of itself, so I cannot give every little detail here in this post...but this will get the "idea mill" churning.

1. Polls and surveys. After you have established your general target, set up a poll or survey and ask them how they would like to receive information in the order of importance. For example, do they surf the internet first...then read their mail etc...? Then, send your marketing accordingly.

2. Ask them face to face. This is how I got started in copywriting. I went face to face to business owners with my sales letter and asked some questions to find the problems that my market was having in the local area. BOOM! Now I know what services to market to them, and how my service will benefit their business right?

3. Telemarketing. I know this is a dreaded word for most people. But the telephone is an excellent tool, and low cost, to get the word out. Your product or service is worth it right? Develop a script beforehand...and pound those phones!

Well, that wraps it up for this lesson.