Marketing Strategies to Put Yourself Out of BusinessWritten by Charlie Cook
Want to learn how to lose a billion dollars?Just follow marketing strategies used by GM, Ford and Daimler Chrysler. Yes, some of largest corporations in world are missing some basic tenants of marketing and it's worth taking a look at what they're doing wrong so you don't make same mistakes. You don't want following headline written about your company. "GM Hits Billion Dollar pot hole" - Miami Herald "GM shares fell to a 12 year low." - New York Times What are some of most glaring mistakes a handful of car companies are making? 1. Discount Pricing GM and Ford offer free loans and rebates worth thousands of dollars to prompt people to buy their vehicles. Good idea? When you need to resort to bribing people to buy your products or services, it's a sign that something is terribly wrong. The idea is to provide value, help your prospects understand perceived value and charge enough to make a reasonable profit. When you start discounting your product as a means to get people to buy it you've entered an endless downward cycle. The next time a prospect buys, they'll want an even larger discount and there will always be somebody who will undercut you on price. Eventually you'll end up like GM, losing lots, maybe not billions, but enough to threaten life of your business.
| | Your Platform...and Why it Can Make or Break Your BusinessWritten by Suzanne Falter-Barns
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to take your work into world and share it with others. But unless you can reach those all-important others, your mission is bound to be a dud.But fear not. That’s why I’ve created this website and my Get Known Now Program; because after nearly ten years of building my own platform, I truly see it as one of most critical things anyone who consults, coaches, writes, speaks or runs a small business can do. Simply put, your platform is your reach in world; it’s degree to which your name is known and your work is recognized. It’s your following. It’s your buzz. And it happens to be single most important factor that literary agents, radio bookers, news directors, T.V. producers, publishers, editors, magazine people, and even big-time publicists use when determining whether or not to work with you. More than one literary agent and editor in major publishing has told me they seldom consider proposals for books from writers with no platform. Why? There are several answers, depending on whom you ask. Book industry types need authors with platform because publishing houses no longer have marketing budget to sell books besides those at top of their lists. That means they rely on unpaid publicity to sell books, i.e. airtime on radio and TV, and write ups in newspapers, magazines and websites. Meanwhile, radio and print media folks are simply looking for next big thing – or trying to anticipate trends. So if they run across an expert with a platform that is quickly brewing, they’re interested. Buzz begets buzz. In addition, TV and other major media bookers need to know that guest they trot out in front of millions is a proven entity, so they tend to really check you out in advance. They want you to have a website, media clips, a great press kit, a video reel. Thus your platform works as a kind of public pre-approval which reassures media bookers. And all of these folks have less time to do more, like rest of us, so they need everything they’re offered to be laser-like in it’s intensity and clarity, easy to access, and loaded with reasons why. A big platform certainly helps get point across faster that you’re someone they should feature.
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