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Article - Professional Business Support - Marketing - What do you think?

By S. O'Brien

Professiona business support marketing to the world Not about a Marketing Department, but what do you think of Marketing in general? Is it important? Do you market at work and in your day-to-day tasks? What about at home, with friends and family or new people you meet? Does your professional business support include marketing?

Recently, I attended two separate seminars where speakers in each singled out members of the audience to ask what they did. After several people answered, we were all chastised for not correctly answering that we are in Marketing. The speakers stressed that whether we want to market or not or whether we like marketing or not, we must constantly sell ourselves and our products through marketing techniques. Therefore, our role is Marketing regardless of what job or service we provide.

Think about it. At home and with friends, you market yourself and what you want to have or to do. At work and with new people, you market yourself, your responsibilities and your skills. With customers, you market products. For an internal customer, you market your work for them. For an external customer, you market your products and services.

Since we cannot avoid it, I actively gathered marketing information and techniques. Within the collection of books, articles and e-zines, some are interesting, and some are as dry as dust. Many of the resources talk about direct marketing and copywriting, but their ideas translate easily to what we do every day.

Dr. Joe Vitale’s book, The Seven Lost Secrets of Success, is one of the better resources. The book is partially a biography of Bruce Barton, a copywriter, author and advertising executive from the early 20th century, and partially an advertising, marketing and success book. Remarkably, in 1925, Barton achieved a greater than 100% success rate using just words and marketing techniques in a direct sales letter.

In summary, Dr. Vitale found Bruce Barton included seven secrets in his successful marketing campaigns and stated them as:

1.	Reveal the business nobody knows	What are you really in the business of delivering? What universal need are you fulfilling?
2.	Use a God to lead them	Can you establish yourself as an expert in your field? Can you write a book about your services?
3.	Speak in parables	What are your stories? Who has bought from you and prospered or changed? Learn to use “story selling” methods.
4.	Dare them to travel the upward path	How can you challenge your customers without insulting them? Think of the Marines.
5.	The one element missing	Do you sincerely believe in what you are doing and selling? If not, why not?
6.	Give yourself away	What are you giving to your clients? To the world?
7.	Sharpen the knife	Are you polishing your writings, your ads, until they are perfect? Go for effectiveness rather than cleverness. Are you polishing yourself?

In addition to the “secrets” above, Bruce Barton established six rules of copywriting for his advertising company:

1.	The theme	Should be based on two principles – people are interested in themselves and they are interested in other people
2.	Interesting headlines	Provocative, challenging – should pull the reader into the copy
3.	The visualization	Illustrations, headline and copy should be both eye-catching and eye-pleasing
4.	The copy	Lengthy introductions are not necessary. Count words - brevity matters
5.	Adjectives	When finished; re-read and cut the adjectives
6.	A purpose	Never write without thinking that something should happen. Polite requests are nice, but direct commands to the reader increase response rates

Though Dr. Vitale’s book focuses more on direct advertising and marketing, the principles apply to our marketing and sales efforts as well. The challenge: try these marketing techniques in your interactions, emails and proposals.

professional business support agreement and shaking hands Solutionability provides Professional Business Support to help you with your marketing tasks.