Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams

For those of you who enjoyed my post a few weeks back on Checkmate Selling - Why You’ll Never ‘Close’ A Sale, here’s a video by the man who spawned the theory - Dr. Michael Hewitt-Gleeson.

The video was taken back in 2006 at Simon Chens X10 seminar and Dr. Michael Hewitt-Gleeson, author of the best seller “The X10 Memeplex” talks about multiplying their busineses by 10.

Technorati Tags: Michael, Hewitt-Gleeson, Hewitt, Gleeson, Simon Chen, x10, newsell, memeplex, school of thinking, wombat, selling, pete, williams, pete williams, preneur

On a few different occasions this year, I found myself in lively discussions about the validity of branding… Actually they have been more pistols-at-dawn debates on whether a small business owner should be pro-actively focused on growing their brand, or let their brand develop as a byproduct of their direct-marketing and organic business growth…

It first came up during a Club Nesso session in June(ish), and then again recently in the Infiniti Telecommunications office during a marketing meeting (read: beers @ 6pm), when one of the new team members dropped the need to focus on Michael Porters 4 P’s and work hard to develop a widely recognised brand, when developing a new division.

They way I took the point this university educated (there’s the source of the problem) team member was trying to make was that we should be investing resources and time to develop a brand like Nike, Apple or Adidas… You know, adopting the whole ‘Madison Avenue Marketing’ approach to business.

That is.. spend the equivalent of Lindsay Lohan’s coke habit, on Billboards and TV commercials in hope to capture a small slice of the markets mind-space … so when they need a business phone system for their small business they think Infiniti and call us etc etc etc

As John Moore over at Brand Autopsy says regarding the brand phenomenon known as Starbucks “…(They) never sought to create a brand. The company was too busy being a business than trying to be a brand. Starbucks was too busy building a viable and profitable business to think about something as seemingly trivial as branding… You cannot create a brand before you create a business. Your business creates your brand. Your brand should never create your business.

In ode to my good mate Scott Ginsberg and his love of lists - For those of you who have small businesses the key to building a strong brand are:

• Build your business on direct response marketing… and word of mouth will grow your brand
• Focus on SEO and PPC advertising… and your brand will become associated with keywords you rank for. (…more)
• Donate to charities… helping the world, helps increase your brands exposure
• Speak at local events and chambers of commerce… sharing your experiences will increase you and your businesses credibility
• Join a local BNI Chapter… not only will it generate sales but word of mouth for your branding
• Really focus on getting your business in the media through free publicity… as they say any publicity is good publicity
• Create something that can go viral… Viral marketing is the best way to build a brand in a web 2.0 world.
• Do right by your customers… excellent customer service is the basis of a strong brand
• Force word of mouth… ask for referrals
• Use your logo, tagline and call to action on all marketing material… you’ll never grow a brand if you don’t at least mention it

What ever you do, always remember - You cannot create a brand before you create a business. Your business creates your brand. Your brand should never create your business.

Technorati Tags: Branding, brand, marketing, adverting, direct, response, Starbucks, john moore, JohnMoore, john, moore, autopsy, BrandAutopsy, scott, ginsberg, ScottGinsberg, Scott Ginsberg, Club, Nesso, Club Nesso, Travis Madden, Ross Mitchell, Infiniti Telecommunications, Infiniti, itlecom, Michael Porter, Porter, Pete, Williams, Pete Williams, PeteWilliams, preneur, Prenuer Marketing, publicity, free, BNI,

Ok, so by now you’ve probably heard about the father, who after finding his 15 year old son smoking pot in the family backyard, sold his Christmas present for $72 times it recommended retail value on eBay…

But if not, here’s the 411 - In a four page manifesto on eBay, the Canadian father, tells how he spent two weeks searching for the rare video game for the Nintendo Wii gaming system before buying it for his son. But later, after coming home from work early, he caught his son smoking reefer in the backyard with his “delinquent friends,” he listed it on ebay as a punishment… and the damn thing sold to an Aussie guy for $9,100.01.

Now there are two possible conclusions here…

• 1. Aussies are so dumb that we would consider paying $9,000 (plus shipping) for a game worth $125 or
• 2. Writing good sales copy will always lead to more profit.

For those of you who are playing along at home - The correct answer is 2 - Strong compelling copy is the key to success.

See, it was the story the father wrote in the ebay listing that produced a profit that would make Donald Trump proud… How can I say this ?

Well, besides the ‘drug motivated’ sale, there hasn’t been a single Guitar Hero 3 sold for above $150ish (the RRP) on ebay… and the only difference between these listings is the copy.

p.s. Here is another great item that sold due to good compelling copy: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675

p.p.s. A Very Big Merry Christmas To You All.. From myself (and Fleur), we wish you and your family a very safe, enjoyable and memorable holiday period…

Technorati Tags: ebay, guitar, hero, copy, copywriting, selling, pete, peter, williams, prenuer

This weeks video is taken from the T.E.D. series and features the worlds greatest presenter Tony Robbins - Tony talks about how to unlock your true potential. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA.)

For those of you who don’t know about T.E.D. - TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Technorati Tags: tony, anthony, robbins, ted, speech, video, week, preneur, pete, peter, williams

Rules of the Game, originally uploaded by Preneur Marketing.

Neil Srauss’ latest book has just hit the shelves… Every marketer
should buy the prequal, The Game, then this book AND THEN stay tunned
for June when the next ‘must read’ marketing book is released… If
you loved the thirty day challenge keep your eyes peeled!!

…Please excuse any typos as this is being sent from my iPhone

Uploaded by Preneur Marketing on 14 Dec 07, 2.22AM PST.