Marketing

How To Remove Yourself From The Competition With Blue Ocean Strategy

July 18, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It has become an imperative to make yourself stand out from the competition. Removing yourself from the current competition and tapping into a new market is one of the best ways to stand out and get more attention. However, the idea of finding an entirely new niche sounds daunting. Luckily, I had the privilege of reading Blue Ocean Strategy which has been sold over two million times. Blue Ocean Strategy goes into detail about how different businesses were able to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but all of these businesses differentiated themselves with the same rubric. These are the components of the rubric that will allow you to differentiate yourself from the competition:

Reduction. What are certain aspects of your niche that can be reduced. Do the people in your niche push out too much content? Do they post too much on Facebook? Find something that you can reduce that your competitors overuse.
Elimination. There will be some aspects of your niche that can be completely eliminated. Blue Ocean Strategy goes into detail about Cirque du Soleil eliminating the need for animals and rings in their performances.
Raising. There are some aspects of your niche that can be raised. McDonald’s and most of the other fast food restaurants do not focus on providing healthy food options. Elevation Burger on the other hand, focus on providing healthy food options, and their slogan, “Ingredients Matter” enforces this message.
Creating. There are going to be some things that no one in your niche would think about doing. This is where the creation process comes into play. In order to make the creating process easier, look at what different niches do and see how you can apply concepts from different niches into your niche.

That is the rubric you need to create something that stands out from the competition. This plan will allow you to get out of the red oceans and go into the uncontested blue oceans. If you want to learn more about leaving your competition and creating an uncontested market space, then Blue Ocean Strategy is the right book for you.

The Claw Machine And The Free Prize

July 12, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Claw Machine

To children, the claw machine is the thrill of a lifetime. To adults, the claw machine is another money draining vortex. It’s quite obvious why claw machines lose their popularity as an individual becomes older. While some people happen to be really good with claw machines, most people never get a prize from the claw machine. You only have an 8.33% chance of winning something with a claw machine. In addition, as we get older, the stuffed animals in the claw machine that used to be attractive lose their appeal.

The problem with a claw machine is that it is very difficult to win, and most of the prizes in the claw machine are not even worth the trouble. The only prizes that are worth it tend to be all the way at the very back and bottom of the prizes. It seems as if the only way to get a prize is by smashing the glass (not recommended).

The reason why a claw machine works like this is because the people who offer the claw machines want to make a profit. These people make a profit at the cost of losing customers. In the end, people say that the claw machines are just a scam and then give up on it. For these people, it’s no longer worth continuing.

What the claw machine makers don’t want is a loss in profit. Many businesses will strive to make a profit at the cost of the customer’s satisfaction. If everyone had a 50% chance of winning the claw machine, they’d be in trouble. Customers would actually be getting what they want at the cost of a profit.

The claw machine is an example of a win-lose situation. If customers can’t get the prize, they lose, but the people with the claw machines win. If customers get the prize, they win, but the claw machine people lose. So many people live in a win-lose world in so many different ways of either winning or losing that they forget that a win-win world still exists.

What does a win-win look like? Distributing a free prize at no cost to you (PDF or video) and then sending a series of follow up emails that promote a paid product. You give away valuable information (your customers win), and some of your customers will tell others about you and also buy your paid product (you win). There are plenty of ways to turn a win-lose situation into a win-win solution.

The claw machine is a win-lose situation that gets left behind and becomes a dust collector, just like the prizes inside. The win-win solution shines bright and results in everyone being happy.

5 Ways To Make Your Business Run On Autopilot

July 4, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Autopilot Business

Wouldn’t it be cool for your business to run on autopilot? Imagine being able to take a four week vacation and know that you are still going to make a strong income from your business. Nothing falls apart when you step out of the driver’s seat. Instead, everything keeps on moving forward and moves forward even faster when you go back to the driver’s seat. However, that four week vacation was definitely nice. In order to have more four week vacations by having your business run on autopilot, these are the five things that you need to do.

Make sure you don’t have to ship out anything. If you have to drive to the post office to ship out your product to a customer, then you are never going to have a business that runs on autopilot. You need to have other people take care of the shipping for you. If you have an eBay business, hire someone to look after it while you are gone. If you publish your own book, self-publish it on CreateSpace or get it published by someone who will take care of the shipping for you. If you have a training course, make sure the technology involved with making the sale runs smooth enough that you don’t have to intervene in order to make the sale. You should be able to make the sale, and the customer should be able to get what he wants without you doing anything.
Hire assistants to do the hard work. If you self-publish 1 Kindle eBook every month, hire a ghostwriter for that month. You still get the final say and get to edit the book so it reflects your style. However, hiring the ghostwriter saves you the time of writing the manuscript. How else can you use assistants to save you time?
Schedule content in advance. I schedule my blog posts weeks into advance. The reason I do this is that I have more time to write longer blog posts (like this one). However, I take multiple vacations in the summer (including a two week vacation). It is at these times when having scheduled blog posts is really helpful. Instead of rushing to write a blog post so I can enjoy the vacation, all of my blog posts are already scheduled for that entire week (or two).
Don’t work alone. This is why hiring assistants is very important. If you work alone, then you will never be able to have your business run on autopilot. It’s okay to ask for help. In fact, it’s also okay to ask for a lot of it. I’m sure you would save hours of time every day just by hiring 10 assistants.
Be very effective when you are in the driver’s seat. If you are an effective leader for your business, then your assistants will know exactly what to do when you take the four week vacation. In addition, the more productive you are when you are in the driver’s seat, the less you will have to worry about during that vacation (hopefully nothing at all).

An autopilot business is the entrepreneur’s dream. Hours that could never be opened up before will suddenly become open for you to interact more with the most important people in your life. What would an autopilot business do for you? Do you have any additional tips on turning a business into an autopilot business? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Celebrations Connect People Together

July 4, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

celebration

The 4th of July does a really good job at connecting Americans together. Friends get their friends together, watch fireworks go into the night sky, and talk about America. They talk about where the nation is going as well as what it took to get independence. They also talk about other things that occur in their daily lives and have long conversations with the people who are important to them. Some also have a big feast of potatoes, chicken, hot dogs, and hamburgers.

The 4th of July brings Americans together with the people they care about. The reason this happens is that the 4th of a July is something that Americans celebrate in unison. The celebration reminds us of our values and allows us to strengthen our connections with one another.

Why not make a celebration of your own that connects your tribe together? The 4th of July brings Americans together because they celebrate their own independence. What kind of celebration can you come up with to bring the people in your tribe together? Maybe a free giveaway of your book that is awarded to the 10 person who asks you good questions related to your book’s content. Maybe your celebration can be a teleseminar that your tribe knows about (and causes it to spread) where you offer your expertise.

The 4th of July is one celebration that connects people together. Christmas, Memorial Day, New Year’s Day, and Easter are other celebrations that connect people together. Coming up with a celebration of your own that only matters to your tribe. Some people can’t stand the Indy 500 while others are sitting on the couch watching every minute of it. Your celebration won’t please everyone. It will only please your tribe, but pleasing your tribe is what encourages communication and new members.

Flyers Are Not Outdated

June 25, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

As a person who has only seen marketing in the world of computers, television, and mobile phones, it was hard for me to imagine a world where flyers were the big thing. One day, I happened to see a flyer for mosquito protection on the way home for a run. I thought to myself that I would never buy that person’s product not because I didn’t like the person but because I had no interest in what the product provided.

These kinds of flyers are ineffective. Although thousands of people see these flyers every day, these people are not targeted customers. These people range from toddlers to senior citizens. The only way these people will care about the flyer is if they have a problem and they didn’t already hire someone to fix the problem.

Despite this, flyers are not outdated. The flyers that got mentioned earlier are outdated, but there is a different strategy that makes a flyer very effective. The reason why most flyers do not work is because the people who put up the flyers forget about their target audience. Unless you have a dog missing flyer (hopefully you never have to put that up), every living human on the planet is not your target audience.

In order to make your flyer effective, you need to show that flyer to your target audience. In addition, your flyer needs to be attractive. If you want a chance at getting attention, your flyer needs to have colorful pictures. While the pictures are nice, you need to remember that most of the people who see your flyer will be new connections. Starting a new connection by asking someone to buy your product is a mistake. What you need to do with this flyer is tell people about a free teleseminar or a free prize they get for subscribing to your blog. It’s almost like an oversized business card with an extra promotion that encourages the recipient to take action.

Where you promote your flyer is essential for its success. A kid’s soccer game is not the right place to promote your flyer about your upcoming social media teleseminar. However, a business summit could not be a better place to promote your flyer. While most business cards get forgotten about or lost, it is much harder to forget about and lose a flyer. Since the recipients will not be able to forget about your flyer, they will be more likely to attend your teleseminar and/or subscribe to your blog for the free prize.

Flyers are mistakenly seen as a dead marketing tactic. Promoting yourself using a flyer is a method that requires practice, but once you get in the practice, you will be able to promote yourself with a flyer better than you would be able to with a business card. What are your thoughts on using flyers to promote yourself? Do you have any additional tips on getting better results from your flyers? Please share your thoughts and advice below.