My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘networking’

How much time to you waste posting ads in groups and message boards that never get you anything? You know what I am talking about. All of those free classifieds, networking groups, spam groups & message boards. How much time do you spend a week? I’m sure there are some great groups that you are in where you get some good networking, help, advice and tips; as well as good advertising opportunities. But how many of them are just a dumping ground for ads that never get seen and are just piled in to all of the other members quick ad drops. Sometimes more is not better. Many people join these groups NOT to see your ad. The could care less about what you are offering. They just want you to buy what they are selling. There isn’t much you can do about it, but you can stop posting and visiting these groups/sites. If you are not getting useful information and sales from some of these groups, delete them. Why waste your time posting all over the place? Spend your time in less groups. Stay a part of the groups that are more rewarding. Get to know the group members better where you get the most help and support.

How much junk email are you getting from these groups? Probably a lot more from the useless groups than the groups that you actually benefit from. I’ll bet that you get a ton of emails, even if you are only signed up for daily digests. How much time do you spend just deleting the emails from the groups that you really don’t use anymore or rarely go to? Take the time to delete your memberships from these groups that are filling up your valuable time and email spots. If you are in some opt in mailing list groups that you are not getting anything out of, opt out. Those emails will have a opt out option at the bottom of the email.

So, go spring clean your memberships! Keep the good ones, and chunk out the useless ones! Get the most out of the memberships you keep. If you don’t use it, lose it!

So you’ve tried direct mail, advertising, you’ve got a web site, maybe you’ve even tried networking as a marketing strategy. These and many other marketing strategies are all good and if performed properly will most likely bring you favorable results. A word to the wise here though, some of them can run you a fortune in marketing costs. And in my experience, cost has a lot less bearing on effectiveness than one would like to believe. Now being a fan of Jay Conrad Levinson and his concept of “Guerrilla Marketing”, I am always on the lookout for innovative and inexpensive ways to market. And what I have for you here certainly fits that bill.

I believe Napoleon Hill in his 1930’s classic book “Think and Grow Rich” was the first person to coin the phrase “Master Mind” and he defined it as: “Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”

Hmmm… So basically it’s building a team that leverages their collective brains and brawn to help one another get what they want.

So let’s not beat around the bush here. Are you ready for the secret marketing strategy? Well here goes… It’s quite simple really… there is strength in numbers. Two minds are exponentially more capable than one mind alone. In this equation, one plus one does not equal two, it more closely resembles eleven. We’re talking about leverage here. The secret is simply to gain leverage by creating your own mastermind. Not just any mastermind though; One that specifically focuses on marketing &ndash a “Marketing Mastermind” so to speak.

So my proposal to you is to take that exact concept of a mastermind as Napoleon Hill defined it, and niche it to focus primarily on marketing.

So real quick what should this mastermind look like? My suggestion would be 4 to 8 members from different, non-competing industries, meeting weekly to discuss how they can help each other market their respective businesses &ndash Plain and simple.

Now it’s not my intention here to educate you in any detail on how to set up and effectively participate in a mastermind group, as there are plenty of resources out there already that can do that for you, it is simply to share with you what’s possible by leveraging this concept to support your marketing efforts.

Personally, I see this strategy as a phenomenal way for organizations, especially smaller ones with little spending money for marketing, to use the power of leverage to broaden their capability and effectiveness.

While the benefits of doing this could be endless, let me just share with you five of my favorites:

1. Plain and simple, it keeps you in the conversation of marketing.
2. It can provide you with unbiased feedback, brainstorming, and marketing advice based on experiences of what has worked, or hasn’t worked for your mastermind teammates.
3. You will significantly expand your reach and go beyond who you know and tap into who your teammates know. Now depending on what the group agrees to, you may gain access to the client list and/or mailing list of the other members. Additionally, you can explore the possibilities of joint marketing initiatives and joint venture arrangements where multiple parties share in the results.
4. You’ll be held accountable to get done what you say you will get done. This alone inspires people into action and action ultimately leads to results.
   
5. The list can go on and on and on however, best of all, masterminding is free!

So need I say more? I sincerely hope you’ll take this strategy on and try it on for a while. What do you got to lose? &ndash It’s free. Remember, there’s power in numbers so build your “Marketing Mastermind” and reap the rewards today!