All Core Messages are not Created Equal.

I wrote a post recently that All Sales Channels are not Created Equal and talked about the resources that you would have to commit to each one. But today I had an appointment with a new client and was discussing their Core Message and went through an exercise that I thought might prove useful. More importantly, I discovered that you can have more than one sometime and that All Core Messages are not Created Equal.

List your core messages, you can have more than one but keep it short and sweet.

1. Which one differentiates you the most?
2. Which one screams the loudest?
3. Who and what influences whom?
4. Which would could prove the most effective?
5. Which one has the highest risk attached to it?
6. Which one  has the Lowest Risk?
7. Which one is the easiest to support?
8. Which is the easiest to implement?
   1. In the short term?
   2. In the Long Term?
9. Which one is the most affordable?
10. Which of them is most recognizable to your customers?
11. what are the best vehicles to reach your audience or constituents?
12. Can you combine and optimize?
13. If you decide on more than one, what is the best timing to introduce each?

So what is your core message?

Technorati Tags: Core Message,Target Market,Sales Channels,Marketing Channels

Brand Yourself before your Non-Customers do!

I was just reading an article written by John Jantsch that he posted on Could Your Brand Stand a Personality Upgrade? on the HP Small Business Marketing Guide. He discussed Small Business branding and encouraged you to work at it much harder by identifying it more clearly to your customer base.

Don’t be a big fat zero: It is pretty scary to brand yourself. You always feel like your limiting yourself and as a result try to be everything to everyone. And as a result, your are nothing to no-one. A ZERO! Another alternative is to to leave your customers do it. That perception, is of course probably the most correct one. I have recommended before, go call 10 of them and find out what your brand is. A word of caution is that it is very difficult to change this image and if you so choose to try, it is expensive. I have written several posts on this.

But don’t be less then zero: I think the scariest part is leaving the branding to your non-customers. Now, let me do the math. Your customers in your target market is called market share. Your market share, more than likely is something less than 50%. Maybe 5%, if you are extremely successful. So, if you have not developed a strong brand, if my math is right, 95% of your target market is defining it for you. So, go read John’s post, I think you need to take hold of it and brand yourself with everything you got before someone else does

Technorati Tags: SMBmarketing guide ,Duct Tape Marketing ,Branding ,Target Market

This is syndicated from Business901"

New Get Content Get Customers Out Soon

 

Excited to show you the new cover for the revised and updated paperback version of Get Content Get Customers (Turn Prospects Into Buyers with Content Marketing), which will be available in bookstores on May 22nd.

And, by the way, the paperback does include new case studies and has a few expanded pages on social media content marketing.

I really believe that anyone passionate about a topic should write a book. If that's you, check out this post I wrote a while back - "10 Keys to Writing a Book when You Have No Time to Write a Book."

This is from Junta42 blog, and written by Joe Pulizzi.