All effective marketing pieces need to follow a common formula, whether the piece is an email, postcard, web page, coupon, radio or TV ad, brochure, flyer, verbal presentation or anything else that is used to promote your business and gain customers. There a four functions to a marketing piece: Grab, Engage, Inform and Offer (GEIO) These functions are performed by the four parts of a marketing piece: Headline, Subheadline, Body, and Call to Action. GRAB – this is what a Headline does, and you’ve got microseconds to accomplish this. Headlines are critical because if you don’t grab them, then the rest of your marketing piece might as well never have been created. And once you’ve grabbed someone’s attention, you’ve got a few more microseconds to get them to the next step, which is: ENGAGE – this is the function of the Subheadline, to move the prospect on a bit further, to pique their curiosity a bit more, and to tell them that you’re about to give them some valuable information that they’ll be vitally interested in. INFORM – this is the message itself, the Body of the marketing piece. It must be concise, interesting and contain useful information that will prepare the prospect for the: OFFER – this function is performed by the Call to Action, where you’re asking the prospect to actually DO something – download a free report, email you, call you, visit your website, make a purchase, etc. A marketing piece that is just informative and doesn’t ask for an action at the end is a wasted effort. So here’s the formula again: Grab = Headline Engage = Subheadline Inform = Body Offer = Call to Action It’s a simple formula, and you can easily apply it to any new marketing efforts you undertake, or use it to evaluate your current efforts.

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Here’s a great post by Theresa over at TMDzyne, another great InSights Enthusiast!

Change Your Environment

• Decorate a wall with old or new designs ripped out from magazines, put up king size posters of your favorite designers or artist, find music that inspires you. Decorate your work environment with flowers.

Other Creative Methods

Have you ever tried practicing any of the methods below? Give it a try, you’ll be surprised.

• Get Relaxed – Take a moment to do something that makes you happy; that brings you joy; that you love; that centers you. Meditate, take a walk, go for a swim, read something that puts you in a good mood, write a diary – writing down your thoughts.
• Give Gratitude - Thinking about all things you are grateful for produces a positive energy flow and vibration. As you feel the love in your heart for all the wonderful blessings and gifts in your life, you will instantly relax and feel all warm-and-fuzzy inside. In that moment of warmth and love, you are open to creative energy.
• Tickle Your Imagination – Imagination is highly visual. Try closing your eyes, and imagine that you are in a scene, any scene. Okay – pick your ideal scene, practice seeing the details of your environment in this scene. See the colours, the textures, touch something. What does it feel like? What do you hear? What do you smell? What is the temperature like? Etc. This makes you more relaxed and gives you gratitude also.
• Be In the Moment - Every outstanding musician or artist will tell you that when they are creating great music or art, there are no thoughts, they are completely in the moment, and experiencing flow. Athletes call this ‘being in the zone‘. You can practice present moment awareness by giving full attention to whatever you are doing: eating, washing dishes, making your bed, etc. Meditation helps tremendously.
• Be Inspired - Practice seeing beautiful things that moves you emotionally. Flip through a book containing thought provoking images, go to an art gallery, read something inspirational, talk to someone who calms you.
• Draw - This may sounds funny, but one of the effective ways to practice getting in touch with your creative side is to start drawing. Drawing forces you to see things differently.
• Be Open - Never shut down any idea that comes your way, do not make judgments about it. Appreciate any idea that comes to you, even ones that seem “stupid” or “obvious”. This way, you encourage more creative ideas to surface from your being.
• Think on Paper - With a bunch of loose paper, start jotting ideas down. Write everything down that comes to your head: random words, phrases, ideas, thoughts: sometimes you might want to circle things and draw lines to connect ideas. When an inspiration hits, follow it. If you suddenly have a different idea, jot it down somewhere on the page or in a new page.

What other methods do you use to get ideas fast?

Hugs to all, T

So here is the rest with our undercover video footage from NYC. We recently travelled there to meet with Gary Vaynerchuk and Seth Godin. As we were ready to leave town, we figured a final stop at the Empire State Building was in order, so we go the car out of the parking garage and tried to venture downtown and find parking…well, here’s what happened:

Laughing so hard that I had tears rolling down my cheeks, Al and I decided that this was by far the best experience of the trip. It was a blissful moment for me in the letting go of all emotion to the event and having as much fun with it as we could!  Our conversation driving back revolved around our fantastic marketing idea. By the time we got the car back, anything was possible, and we think the impound center should try this marketing idea:
Get your car out of NYPD impound, $185, with souvenier T-Shirt, $195. We totally would have bought a dozen.

We have so many life experiences that can be just “normal.” But, why, let’s kick it up a notch and have some FUN!!

Most marketing textbooks are referred to at InSights as historical reference novels, even those written in 2008. Don’t take our word for it, see what Seth Godin has to say about it as well…Textbook Rant.

We’ve shared with people who have been to any of our talks on marketing and methods that information changes, daily. It seems like there is so much to keep up with, where does someone need to start to be able to take it all in?

 Depending on your company, and you industry, you should look, listen, and read, daily. Subscribe to blogs on your product, service or subject. Check in to see what the buzz is about. Pay attention to emerging trends. Things change so quickly, anyone who professes to be an “expert” on marketing or social media probably isn’t. What we have and need are people who pay attention and are continually looking for new information.

Our programs all center around the concept of Organic Marketing (TM). Can you make the connection between the name and the trends?

What are your favorite ways to stay in the game, short of studying textbooks?

Most marketing textbooks are referred to at InSights as historical reference novels, even those written in 2008. Don’t take our word for it, see what Seth Godin has to say about it as well…Textbook Rant.

We’ve shared with people who have been to any of our talks on marketing and methods that information changes, daily. It seems like there is so much to keep up with, where does someone need to start to be able to take it all in?

 Depending on your company, and you industry, you should look, listen, and read, daily. Subscribe to blogs on your product, service or subject. Check in to see what the buzz is about. Pay attention to emerging trends. Things change so quickly, anyone who professes to be an “expert” on marketing or social media probably isn’t. What we have and need are people who pay attention and are continually looking for new information.

Our programs all center around the concept of Organic Marketing (TM). Can you make the connection between the name and the trends?

What are your favorite ways to stay in the game, short of studying textbooks?

This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.

What do we all want for our businesses? More sales! But what do we need to get from people before we can have more sales? We need to get their attention! They’re not going to buy anything from us until we have their undivided attention.

David Meerman Scott, in a recent blog post, noted the four ways that we can get the attention of potential buyers, and I herewith borrow his thoughts for my comments.
The first way (the first B) is to BUY their attention. This is otherwise known as Advertising. We pay money and throw messages out, and occasionally someone notices a message and responds.

The second B is to BEG for attention, also known as Public Relations. We hire someone to write press releases and circulate them to their media connections, asking journalists, reporters, newspaper editors, reviewers, or whoever is interested to please, please, please write about us.

The third B is to BUG people. This is called Sales. We find individuals, wherever we can find them, and try to engage them in conversation (bug them), until they listen, and then maybe they buy something from us.

The common thread of the 3 Bs is that we are INTERRUPTING people to get their attention. Sure, maybe they actually really do want to buy our stuff, but we’re still using variously annoying tactics to attract their attention.

The final item is E. This is where we EARN their attention. The 3 Bs have been around forever, but this one is new. This one is not interruptive. This is the method of social media, where we create connections with people and develop relationships, and don’t try to buy, beg or bug, but rather create environments where people Know, Like and Trust us (KLT). It’s where we continuously publish information that has value to people, and we give that information away for free, and thereby establish ourselves as “obvious experts”. Then we don’t need to go find buyers, because they come to us.

This method may take a little longer to produce results, but the results, I will argue, are more “real” and more solid and potentially longer-lasting than those created by the 3 Bs. And, as a bonus, we might just make some friends in the process.

This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.

What do we all want for our businesses? More sales! But what do we need to get from people before we can have more sales? We need to get their attention! They’re not going to buy anything from us until we have their undivided attention.

David Meerman Scott, in a recent blog post, noted the four ways that we can get the attention of potential buyers, and I herewith borrow his thoughts for my comments.
The first way (the first B) is to BUY their attention. This is otherwise known as Advertising. We pay money and throw messages out, and occasionally someone notices a message and responds.

The second B is to BEG for attention, also known as Public Relations. We hire someone to write press releases and circulate them to their media connections, asking journalists, reporters, newspaper editors, reviewers, or whoever is interested to please, please, please write about us.

The third B is to BUG people. This is called Sales. We find individuals, wherever we can find them, and try to engage them in conversation (bug them), until they listen, and then maybe they buy something from us.

The common thread of the 3 Bs is that we are INTERRUPTING people to get their attention. Sure, maybe they actually really do want to buy our stuff, but we’re still using variously annoying tactics to attract their attention.

The final item is E. This is where we EARN their attention. The 3 Bs have been around forever, but this one is new. This one is not interruptive. This is the method of social media, where we create connections with people and develop relationships, and don’t try to buy, beg or bug, but rather create environments where people Know, Like and Trust us (KLT). It’s where we continuously publish information that has value to people, and we give that information away for free, and thereby establish ourselves as “obvious experts”. Then we don’t need to go find buyers, because they come to us.

This method may take a little longer to produce results, but the results, I will argue, are more “real” and more solid and potentially longer-lasting than those created by the 3 Bs. And, as a bonus, we might just make some friends in the process.

This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.

Do all of your customers and potential customers have exactly the same needs?  David Meerman Scott, in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, talks about “buyer personas”, the various sub-groups contained within your “market”.  He offers the interesting example of a website for a college, which would clearly need to focus on a number of different groups; current students, prospective students, parents of current students, parents of prospective students, alumni, and so on.  So a buyer persona is a description of a group of people who have clearly distinct needs.

Can you segment your overall market into distinct groups?  If you can, do you have a distinct message for each group?  Does your website address the needs of all of these groups, or does it just have a single one-size-fits-all message?  How about your printed materials, business cards, email marketing, etc?  Do you have several variations of your “elevator pitch” that you can select from based on a little knowledge of the person you’re with a the moment?

Probably some of your groups are more important to you than others.  Are you giving the appropriate amount of attention to each group?  Do you have one or more minor groups that maybe you should not be focusing on at all?

The goal of all your marketing efforts must be to focus on the buyers’ needs and goals, not on your products and services.  As David Meerman Scott says in another of his books, World Wide Rave, “nobody cares about your products”.  Buyers care about their own needs, and if your marketing message includes information for both Group A and Group B, that means that no matter which group you’re talking with, at least part of your message is not relevant to them.  Try to identify the various Buyer Personas that you might have, then tailor a custom message for each group.

Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach

In all the years that I have participated in trade shows, I’ve observed the majority of vendors not really understanding why they are there. As much as we all want to or need to sell product to survive, the true purpose of a “Trade  Show” is to showcase your company and build brand awareness. It is the marketing to the public of who you are. It needs to be seen as a part of your marketing budget (not advertising or sales). We must keep this clearly in mind and be sure to keep your message simple. You only have a few moments to present your company to the attendees so make it memorable!

Be sure to engage with the attendees. To expect them to come to you is expecting way to much! People are tired of being sold “at” and will avoid eye contact unless they need you specifically so it is your responsibility to lead them in conversation and educate them. Much like going to a social gathering, you should never start with trying to sell anything. Instead, I would recommend that you help them to identify their own needs and then help fulfill them!

Always gather information on people so that you can follow up with them. Have a free drawing at your space or make them an offer that they can’t refuse.  We all  like free stuff don’t we? Make the offer in exchange for their contact info. Make it a great show season.