Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Succeed Being Useful

In the continuation of our series on success, we add to structure the importance of being useful.

It has been said that just because one can do something doesn’t necessarily mean one should. In the case of business marketing, this is too often the case. It could be that it is too painful to truly evaluate, or perhaps it seems too obvious to spend any time on. Whatever the reason, it can be a critical oversight.

Even if it feels obvious, take the time to ask what value exists in what you provide.  Does it provide meaning to someone? If so, who is that someone? This is how you identify your target audience. You can waste valuable resources trying to build interest in a general audience. To obtain meaningful response, you must first identify for whom your information has meaning. For example, if I sell pianos, the value I add is to the lives of musicians and those who appreciate music. After all, they are who will benefit from what I can share and thus they will have genuine interest in what I have to say. For me to share a newsletter on pianos to a group of car mechanics would provide less than desirable results. However, if I share that same newsletter with a group of music teachers I’ve drastically increased my potential for success. To come more to the point, I’ve just “tuned in” to my customer.

Find your Ferrari and you're on your way to a finish line of success.
Now, to maximize potential, you can take this exercise one step further. Be a specialist, or at least identify your specialty. This is where true power lies. Too often we are blinded by the size of potential. The wise man knows that more often than not, less is more. Take Gerald Roush; a man with a focused interest in a particular car, the Ferrari to be exact. He didn’t try to make money sharing his passion with all auto lovers. No, he focused his energies and thus his audience. Last year his bi-weekly published compilation of Ferrari information, the Ferrari Market Letter had 5,000 subscribers. Now, that may seem a low number, especially compared to the estimated *10.2 million readers of the leading auto magazine. But at the $130.00 per year subscription, 5,000 becomes a most meaningful number indeed. The reason for success is simple. Roush was sharing useful information to people who shared his passion, the information was relevant and desired; it was useful and therefore generated value.

So the real question to ask is if what you’re sharing is relevant, applicable and useful. Find your Ferrari and you’re on your way to a finish line of success.

*http://www.magsdirect.com/caranddriver-information.html

Other articles in this series:
Structured