Why your company doesn't exist- well maybe

If you can’t describe your product in eight words or less … it doesn’t exist.
Customers crave simplicity. Could you explain your idea to your mother?

If you can’t define your product … it doesn’t exist.
Because a confused mind never buys.

If you don’t have a unique product … it doesn’t exist.
Because a choice-saturated mind never buys.

If it doesn’t exist on the Internet … it doesn’t exist.
Not just a web-SITE; a web-PRESENCE. Octopus, not earthworm.

If you can’t Google it … it doesn’t exist.
What happens when someone googles your name?

If people aren’t talking about your product … it doesn’t exist.
It’s simple: get noticed = get remembered = get business. Who’s blogging about you?

If you’re not marketing your company DAILY … it doesn’t exist.
People who “do a little marketing here and there” will “get new customers … here and there.”

If you don’t write it down … it doesn’t exist.
And if you don’t write it down, it never happened. That’s why writing is the basis of all wealth.

If people aren’t retelling your story … it doesn’t exist.
The only true reason your business will grow is if your existing customers are telling your potential customers about you. Word of mouth is the most honest, most sincere and most authentic form of marketing.

If it can’t be found … it doesn’t exist.
Even without Google, people still need to be able to contact you. So, if your phone numbers, addresses and emails are out of date, disconnected or no longer in service, you’ve got a problem. Because if they can’t get you, they’ll just pick the next guy on the list.

Space gardeners

‘ Some Martian dirt has the same basic chemistry as garden soil, a new analysis from the Phoenix lander suggests. The find widens the range of organisms that might be able to live on Mars'.. today - New Scientist

Now this tickles me on several layers. Could this be a place we could send all those TV gardeners who drive you nuts, gleefully describing the zillions ways you can take a plant out of one pot and then put it in another. Or how to best make a hole in the ground and then… well maybe put a plant in it?

Maybe we can grow oilseed rape and turn it form the red planet to the yellow planet like our countryside.

Or maybe, if the gravity is less - and I really don ‘t know if it is so go with me on this one - we could grew increasingly ludicrously sized vegetables. Now wouldn’t that be an allotment show?

To boldy plant lobelia where no man has planted lobelia before.

Stop me now.

Any suggestions to this string welcome

Marketing Mistakes your Company is probably making

Scott has (once again) come up with  an embarrassing list to check yourself against. I cringed at most of the responses for me; like most of us I guess but I learned more about my business in the five minutes  it took to read than any amount of consultancy and therapy  I've ever had. 

Have fun and go to a quiet place to read this, where no one can hear you sob gently.

1. You’re not That Guy.
2. You’re not remarkable.
3. You’re not blogging yet.
4. You’re not marketing daily.
5. You’re not focused at ALL.
6. You’re not using Google Alerts.
7. You’re not word of mouth worthy.
8. You’re not building a permission asset.
9. You’re not reading Seth Godin’s books.
10. You’re not giving enough away for free.
11. You’re not building a timeline of credibility.
12. You’re not the origin; you’re just the echo of someone else’s idea.
13. You’re not leveraging your media appearances in every possible way.

14. You ARE getting talked about, but you don’t know who’s doing the talking.
15. You ARE remarkable, but you’re not relevant. Or worthwhile. Or marketable.
16. You ARE blogging, but you’re not disciplining yourself blog every single day.
17. You ARE blogging every day, but your posts are too long, too safe, uninteresting, unfocused and written with poor architecture and ZERO Call to Action.

18. You’re saying WAY too much.
19. You’re creating noise, not music.
20. You’re trying to force word of mouth.
21. You’re the observer, not the observed.
22. You’re trying to hard to convince people.
23. You’re trying to be the arrow instead of the target.
24. You’re worried about marketshare, not mindshare.
25. You’re interrupting people, not interacting with them.
26. You’re relying on your customers to connect the dots.
27. You’re marketing efforts cause customers to hear FROM you, not ABOUT you.
28. You’re trying too hard to be authentic, which results in you NOT being authentic.
29. You’re sitting around waiting for your annoying, low-rent YouTube video to “go viral.”
30. You’re using WAY too much text on EVERYTHING. (Come on. Nobody’s gonna read all that crap.)

31. You’re (still) calling it “marketing.”
32. You’re (still) calling them “customers.”
33. You’re (still) wasting your money on advertising.
34. You’re (still) using Papyrus as your company’s primary font.

35. You think people care.
36. You think people have time.
37. You think customers aren’t smart.
38. You think putting up a MySpace page is (actually) going to help grow your business.

39. You don’t know who you are.
40. You don’t have enough samples out there.

41. You take too long to return calls and emails.
42. You stop marketing when you become successful.
43. You have a strong web-SITE, but a weak web-PRESENCE.

44. Your marketing looks like marketing.
45. Your goal is to make money, not create positive change.
46. Your company name includes words like “Associates,” “Communications,” “Creative,” “Kwik,” “Premiere,” “Solutions,” “Deluxe” and “Ultimate.”