I often get asked to solve marketing challenges by business owners, marketing directors, CEO's and even sales managers because they either have never really attempted it before or have been doing it the 20th Century way and foolishly believe it burns revenue.
The reason they all want to market better is because they want their business to grow. On the other hand, there is normally an indoctrined belief marketing is a necessary loss of revenue; a sort of fiscal sacrifice that everyone has to make in order to make it tangible.
Well forget that nonsense and consider the new reality.
- Large newspapers, radio and TV don't control the industry anymore
- you control your own publicity because it's your own budget
- you can be as local or as global as you desire
- You must now think like a publishing company
One of the reasons for our own growth is we 'preach what we practice'. And what we always tell every client - current and prospective - is to think of itself as a publishing company.
Having developed my own skills as a journalist and content specialist, it is plain as day to me just how straightforward it is to be able to take your business message to the entire world.
And the traditionally big players in publishing and broadcasting can only step back and watch (or better still read it online!) and wonder.
Seth Godin pointed out just a few days ago how potential candidates in the US federal election were needlessly worried they wont make the final cut of '10 most popular candidates' to face off in a national debate.
They obviously don't know the world has changed and large broadcasters don't' have that sort of grip anymore. Now for those that aren't aware, Seth Godin is a marketing genius and founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, an interactive direct marketing company so successful Yahoo! acquired it in late 1998. So Mr Godin was well ahead of the game.
And he is totally on the money. Why even think about calling and advertising agency only to hear about all the billboards, TV channels and newspapers they can make designs for and then book you into them - effectively double dipping into your company revenue.'The magic is the open nature of a billion-channel universe', that is how Seth Godin describes the nature of today's powerful marketing streams. He did this in the specific of the US election trail and how any candidate, major or minor, can simply set up his or her own online debating platform and challenge opponents with total control of air space.
The power today is in your own words; crafted intelligently with an experienced content specialist from an editorial media background, distributed skillfully by a technical expert whose skills set extends beyond mere SEO and you are no different to a publishing company.
Self marketing works for individuals and companies. Even if you don't know how to craft them, you probably understand the power of words, so if you click below and weed out the mystery of the online side of the equation, you'll be well on the way to thinking like a publisher.