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Internet marketing is quickly growing in popularity. This is because people are beginning to realize the true potential of the internet for business. Competition is becoming stiffer by the moment. Because of this you need some sort of edge. People make use of internet marketing tools in order to get that edge. They make use of these tools in order to make sure that they remain on top of the competition. Different tools are in use and yet it can be observed that only a few are actually quite effective. So what does make an effective internet marketing tool?

1) Direction – An internet marketing tool should be able to pursue a certain goal. This means that an effective marketing tool needs to be targeted towards a certain direction in order to be truly effective. Let’s take advertisements, for example. The goal of an advertisement is to get people to do something. Now, the goal of this tool should be tied to your goal as a company. Whatever the advertisement is trying to get people to do must bring the company closer to its goals. The direction that the tool has must be united with the goals of the company.

2) Understandability – Potential customers must be able to grasp the message that an internet marketing tool is trying to convey. Although what the company is trying to convey can be hidden subtly within the marketing tool, it must be quite clear to the average observer. Some sites make use of articles as an effective tool. These articles may contain useful information regarding whatever topic that the person chooses but it should also contain subtle promotions of the product that the site is trying to sell. This might not be a blatant sales pitch, but the reader understands that the author also wants to convey the superiority of a certain product.

3) Accessibility – A good internet marketing tool should be located where it can be easily accessed by people. No matter how good an advertisement is, if no one can see it, then it is useless. It should be known that people are the target of these tools and that these people can have various interests. Thus, a company can choose to place its internet marketing tool where it receives the most attention by all people, or it can place the tool where it can attract the attention of the target market.

4) Adaptability – An effective internet marketing tool should be adaptable to the various changes in life. It should take advantage of the various opportunities that can be found everywhere in business. It should be able to change like a chameleon and look natural in every new surroundings. Adaptability will ensure that the tool will remain effective for a long time to come.

As you have seen there are different factors that make an effective internet marketing tool. These factors, when combined can ensure that the business would remain at the top of the game. An effective marketing tool can be used by the business to reach its goals and capture its target market.

That’s not all, though. An effective internet marketing tool will ensure not only the success, but also the survival of a company even after the tool is gone. When you cannot get a company’s name out of your mind that’s when your marketing tool would be called effective.

The WEEE (Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment) directive came into effect on July 1st 2007. Introduced as an effort to stem the flow of the burgeoning amount of electrical waste piling up in landfill, the directive outlines significant implications for what should be standard procedure in the disposal of electronic items used commercially and personally.

While showcasing a number of different aspects, it carries different implications and responsibilities for manufacturers, distributors and consumers of electronic goods. Summarised below are three sections outlining the things you need to know in order to be in compliance with the WEEE Directive.

Consumers/End Users

Increased measures implemented by local governments and councils ensure that businesses and non-residential users are disposing of electronic equipment in legal and environmentally safe methods. They are also now asking that they provide proof of these disposal methods with certified companies.
Professional electrical waste disposal solutions are essential for the WEEE directive. If your waste is found to be to have been improperly disposed of, you may incur a fine or even prosecution.
Household users cannot simply dispose of electronic equipment by putting it in the trash bin either. However, the responsibility falls in part on the retailers and distributors to offer recycling means for the consumer.
Manufactures / Producers
Manufacturers and producers of electrical products are now fully responsible for what happens to the electronic goods they sell when those goods cease functioning.
By definition, a “manufacturer” or “producer” is a company who either makes electrical equipment in the UK or imports electrical equipment into the UK. It is basically the first point of contact for electrical equipment in the UK.
Manufactures have to join a “WEEE Compliance Scheme” thus ensuring all waste put into the UK market is accounted for, right up to the end of its life. Compliance schemes have been established to look after the obligations of the producers. Having to report directly to the Environmental Agency, these Compliance Schemes collect and recycle waste on behalf of the manufacturer and producer.
Distributors / Retailers
Retailers of electrical products also responsible for the recycling of any electronic waste the sell into the UK market. They can provide in-store take-back schemes which allow consumers to return their equipment to the store for recycling, or join a Distributor Take Back Scheme, which allows household users to send the equipment back to the distributor for proper disposal.
Any business wishing to dispose of their electrical waste cannot return the equipment to the retailer they purchased from, or any retailer for that matter. They must approach a certified disposal company which ensures the proper disposal of the electronic waste.
Understandably, all businesses would like to follow the WEEE directive and meet their environmental obligations with as little hassle as possible. echo Ltd. offers certified disposal services that are WEEE compliant and traceable.

You don’t need to buy market share, you need to learn how to earn market share. Market segmentation is one of the functions within the overall marketing plan that will help you earn your share of the market. By segmenting your market into more targeted buyers or groups of buyers you will be able to grow existing sales and build new sales; and grow them without cutting price. The goal for market segmentation is to target the ‘most likely to buy’ and understand your target market enough to focus in on what it needs.

There are a number of different levels of market segmentation: mass marketing, segment marketing, niche marketing, local marketing, one-to-one or direct marketing – each level has different attributes.

In mass marketing, you produce one product that serves all markets and that can be produced in mass and distributed in mass. For example, paper clips, which can be mass produced, mass distributed and can serve all its markets (business, financial, school, etc.).
In segment marketing, your product can appeal to buyers in different groups or segments. These buyer segments have similar needs and wants. Segments are determined by assessing certain criteria. For example, product-usage patterns, demographics, psychographics, and geographics and more. The benefit of segment marketing over mass marketing is that you can narrow the product offering to specifically address the needs of the market segment you have defined as your primary, or secondary, or tertiary market. The other elements of marketing mix; price, promotion and distribution can also be more focused to deliver the needs of the market segment.
In niche marketing, you will narrow the market segments even further to find smaller markets that are less populated by competitors and that are under-served by others. To find your niche market, assess the market segment for similar needs and wants and divide the segment into smaller niches. To do well in niche marketing you must understand your customers extremely well and you must be able to understand their business, or their needs and wants well enough to provide solutions. Specializing in niche markets often results in higher costs (not the economies of scale that you find in mass marketing, and even to some degree, in segment marketing), and also higher profits if customers recognize and accept the value your product brings.
In local marketing, you will focus on a local area or region to market your product. This does not mean that your product is not sold globally, it means that you focus on building marketing programs or tactics that address the local area needs and wants for your product. For example, shopping in Vancouver, British Columbia typically is at street level so storefront displays are large and dramatic; while shopping in Calgary, Alberta often happens inside malls because of weather conditions, resulting in smaller storefronts inside the mall and smaller scale displays.
One-to-one or direct marketing is the latest marketing segmentation strategy and it comes from a segmentation approach called individual marketing. One-to-one marketing is a segment of one, compared to a segment of many. Building your marketing concept is focused on how to identify the needs of one individual and how to target that one in your marketing plans. To be successful in direct marketing you must be able to either collect or acquire data on individual buyer behaviour, habits, and attitudes (many loyalty card programs collect that type of data). Computer technology has enabled this type of market segmentation.
To best identify your market segments you will need to conduct research surveys, perhaps by using focus groups or other exploratory interview techniques; you will need to analyze the data you gather; and then you will need to develop a profile of each segment that you identify. Be aware that consumer and business market segmentations use somewhat different approaches to reflect the differences in consumer and business markets.

Once you have identified your market segments, you must evaluate and select the target marketing segment and approach best suited to your product, and to your business’ objectives, strategies and resources. Your small business growth objectives can be supported by a strong market segmentation approach.

I’ve actually read many articles written on the topic of choosing a network marketing company, however each article seems to have an agenda to coax the reader into joining whatever company the author represents. My goal is to give you a few tips to help you make your decision, not coax you one way or the other.

As of this writing there are 211 companies listed as members of the Direct Sales Association. There are many more companies that are not members of the Direct Sales Association. There are many reasons why companies choose to be a member or not be a member. I am not supporting or endorsing either choice. This article is simply to give you some information how to make the right choice for you.

My very first piece of advice is to choose a company with a product or service you would use whether you represented the company or not. This means if you’ve never taken nutritional supplements and don’t intend you, you’re probably not going to be successful representing a nutritional company. If you don’t wear makeup and you are not into beauty and skin care, you’re probably not going to be successful representing one of the beauty and skin care companies. Find a company with a product line that you like and will be happy offering to others.

You might find it helpful to scan the list of products listed with the companies belonging to the Direct Sales Association. Write a list out for yourself. Which product lines are possibilities that you can see yourself representing? “I am my own best customer” is a phrase I love to hear. It means the representative loves what they are offering and uses what they are offering.

Once you’ve chosen a product line, it’s time to choose the company. While every company must begin at day one, I would never suggest joining a brand new company. The percentage of companies that never see their 2nd anniversary is high. There is no magic number of years to look for. However it is my opinion that you stand a better chance of success if you join an established company with a track record.

While many articles will speak of compensation plans and make claims that one is better than the other, the reality is that they are all very similar. One dollar is one dollar. The variation in compensation plans is how each company splits that one dollar. Some companies put the money into trips and cars. Some companies put the money in a little higher percentage rate on sales. Just remember one dollar is one dollar and while each compensation plan has some uniqueness to it, no company can pay out more than they are bringing in.

Unitrin Auto Insurance Company (or Unitrin Direct as it is sometimes called) is a company that might not be that well known simply because they have not specialized in car insurance as long as some other automobile insurance companies have. Nevertheless, this company is one of the best at what they do and they can be a valuable option for people looking into shopping for the best auto insurance out in the market. The company itself specializes in casualty insurance and has not been in the market for that long. The whole company named Unitrin Incorporated was established in the year 1990 as a subsidiary of Teledyne Incorporated.

Ever since Unitrin’s birth they have been trying to establish their position as one of the best car insurance companies for the average American and nowadays they offer automobile, life, health, casualty and property insurance to individuals and groups. They are rated by A.M. Best in the top 100 largest insurance providers in the United States and have placed as high as number 28 among its competitors. The company continues to grow and many experts predict that the nation will be seeing more of Unitrin as time goes by. The company has achieved many goals that other companies haven’t done in their entire lives and with only 17 years of existence, Unitrin Incorporated has been steadily rising to the top.

Although the company itself was created in 1990, the automobile insurance branch of Unitrin was created only until 2002. This happened when Unitrin Incorporated along with Kempner combined to give birth to Unitrin Direct Auto Insurance Company. They offer their services in 25 states in the United States and they are predicted to expand fully through out the country if they continue to excel in what they are doing. Their website is designed to improve the knowledge of customers for this relatively new company in the automobile insurance field and to enhance their knowledge when it comes to the car insurance business in the United States.

Reasons for the great success of Unitrin Direct Automobile Insurance Company include their very competitive pricing. Their channels of distribution and marketing efforts have come a long way to having potential customers notice their coverage and services. Although pricing for automobile insurance varies by state due to the fact that state minimum requirements are all different and some states have more rural population than others (which minimizes the accident and theft rate), Unitrin’s main goal is to save a potential customer 20% or more of the price they are paying for automobile insurance with any other car insurance provider.

Another reason that Unitrin has been so successful in attracting some of the American automobile insurance customers has been their services. In their main website they let the customer know that price is not everything they need to look at when shopping for car insurance. Before looking at price they need to trust the company that they are willing to do research on and Unitrin prides in the fact that they are a branch of Unitrin Direct, which is rated A by A.M. Best, has an estimated 6 million policyholders and most important have over 9 billion dollars in assets. It is important for a customer to know that their automobile insurance company is well financially, in order for them to feel secure and trust the company protecting their “risk” when out driving. Last but not least it is important to talk about Unitrin’s great customer service, one of the main reasons they have been doing so good up to date. They have great and friendly customer service representatives and they also train their claim representatives to help customers at all times.

So you have decided to take your mlm business to the next level. You have decided if you wait for the usual one-on-one marketing and business meetings you are only to going to get more of what you have always gotten. And if your past efforts have not been spectacular, why should continuing in the same vein be any different? That definition of insanity again, that led us into network marketing in the first place – it being doing the same thing you have always done and expecting a different result!

Where would you start? Well a bit depends on your experience up until now and whether you are wanting to spend any money.

Pay Per Click Marketing
Assuming you have some money to use, one of the easy ways is to do an advertisement in Google’s Pay Per Click marketing. You will need a link to a site to direct traffic to. And you will need to monitor the results regularly. But the beauty of the PPC campaigns is the rapidity with which you get feedback. The next day you will have information you can use.

By having several different advertisement versions you can test the power of variations of words, or completely different ones. You can elect to let Google display your ads according to response – here they will display an ad that gets a higher click-through rate percentage more often than one that does not. So if you are selling something you can have a better rate of response for each time your ad is displayed. Or if you wish to have data to decide on this yourself for later, maybe for other media, you can elect to have your ad versions rotated giving an even exposure. It is interesting to get feedback on this. You can find that one ad wording may appear more popular for a time and then drop back, suggesting a change in the searchers out there, maybe a variation in the economy, or whatever.

Initially you can elect to have your ad displayed simply on the search display. This gives you a quicker response on how your wording is functioning, often in a few days. It also gives you a more targeted audience, dependent on the keywords you elect to have as your search criteria. Once you have determined your best wording you can allow the ad to be displayed on the content pages, that is other web sites out there dealing with similar content to what your ad is about. This gives a somewhat less targeted audience but does allow for a wider exposure.

You can chose the countries or cities you wish you ad to be displayed in. For an initial word testing of your ads you may find it better to have a world-wide, or Europe, North America and Oceania distribution to get a larger audience and therefore more rapid feedback.

You need to decide on your keywords. It is better to have more selective ones to allow better targeting of your audience. Also the more common ones tend to be quite highly priced. These will cause you either to have to set a high cost-per-click which can mean your campaign will be expensive. Or, having elected to have a not so high maximum click through cost, having a lot of keywords that are inactive at any one time. It is also useful to realize that some PPC marketings will elect a high cost-per-click rate for a day or so and then drop their bid once they have achieved a high placements spot for their ad by their initial bid.

If you get creative on keyword selection, though, you can have very targeted enquirers at relatively low cost. The trick is to think like your desired customers are likely to think and decide what sort of search keywords they are likely to use and what their other interests and searches are likely to be and then use these and related words as your keywords.

You can also use tools like Word Tumbler and the AdWords wrapper in Mikes-Marketing-Tools.com. This way you can cover the variations that people are likely to use in the Google search.

You don’t need to confine yourself to Google. Use Yahoo or Microsoft’s service if you prefer. But Google does have the lion’s share of the traffic.

You need to decide what you are wanting to market too. You could ask people to simply join your network marketing group or look at your home business. Or you could offer them a service, whether one on information or another simple product. You will find, as you no doubt are aware yourself, that people are more likely to check out information, and when they know a little bit about you, then ask more about your mlm opportunity, than they are to do it directly. If you are not sure about this you can always test it. In fact in the same campaign you can check it out side by side and compare results over an identical time frame.

Article Marketing
If you are not yet up to spending some money, then a simple way to testing the waters is by article marketing. You can write articles of interest to a particular segment, usually related to your business i.e. home based business or mlm, and submit them to directories. These can be picked up by many different sources and hence you begin to create a wide distribution system out there.

The article needs to be unique. Using copyrighted work and other people’s already existing articles is not recommended or ultimately allowed. Usually you have to tick a box to agree that this is not a copied work. There is provision for you to use a ghost-writer, but usually such people need to be acknowledged. Most of these sites allow people to object if they feel you are using other people’s material and this will be checked out.

You cannot directly market your network marketing opportunity in the text of the article. But you can append a resource box to it – in fact it is recommended. This gives a brief description of you and a link or two back to sites you would like interested people to check out. This will allow a selected group to seek you out. They already have an interest in you and what you are saying. So you have a very warm targeted market.

You can submit to a wide number of article directories out there, sending the same article to different ones to create a greater exposure. And there are some who will distribute your article for you to other directories saving you time on individually submitting each one.

There is much more that can be done, and much more that could be talked about even on these two ideas. But at least this is a start. The main thing in internet network marketing, as with conventional mlm, is to take action. You have to get out there and do it!

Consider Why Podcasting Is The New Form of Target Marketing

Talk Directly To Your Prospect – with the massive amount of advertising noise consumers and businesses contend with the challenge is to stand out from the rest. Traditionally this means spending thousands on well crafted messages to catch people’s attention and many thousands more on print (which is declining in public favor due to environmental considerations). With Podcasting consumers are choosing to tune in to your message. From an advertising standpoint you couldn’t ask for a more targeted way to gain your prospect’s attention.

Lengthen Your Captive Audience’s Attention To Your Message – radio and TV, due to cost and nature of presentation usually communicate their message in up to 30 seconds. With Podcasting, download statistics indicate most people will listen for 1-3 minutes. Print has a matter of seconds to capture attention to gain readership and then pull the prospect into more detail to take action. Podcasting due to it’s highly personal nature generally compels much greater interest in its content and holds the audience throughout the broadcast.

Build True One-on-One Relationships – compared to traditional advertising, which has it’s highly valid place, Podcasting brings a face, voice, and life to the target customer. If a Podcast is crafted even reasonably well, it gives a company true one-on-one face time with new and existing clients with only the initial small outlay of time to create and publish the Podcast. Consumers become familiar with the brand through that person and a higher level of trust can be established.

Create Anticipation For Future Communication – you only have to look at the explosion of YouTube to see the anticipation for more communication from the same author. Average people are generating thousands of views on sequential Podcasts and videos. Messages that are more creative can reach hundreds of thousands of people within days and have a viral impact that traditional media only dreams about.

Measurability – depending on the platform for hosting your Podcasts there ways to measure the consumer behavior in relation to the message. Similar to HTML email where links can be clicked and measured for follow-through to the main offer, Podcasts can be studied statistically to see how many people watched during what times. Unlike TV or Radio that has a passive audience receiving the message, Podcasts have an active audience that have chosen to engage your message and listen with captive attention. Measuring conversion rates is comparatively easy to other mass media.

Immediate Call To Action – statistics case analysis are still building, however, many anecdotal cases show a rise in sales, contact from prospects, people sought out for speaking engagements and increased mass media exposure due to Podcast communication. The rationale for these successes is that for the 1-3 minutes you engage your prospect you have the opportunity to create a compelling message that is not competing with any other advertiser.

What’s Next?

If you look outside of the box, Podcasting gives marketers and sales people the dream media they have always prayed for – that is, to talk directly to an engaged audience with nil competition, for the least amount of cost possible. Our prediction is that the businesses that engage in this form of marketing as a core strategy will have the potential to outstrip competition due to their ability to gain trusted one-on-one relationships. If you consider yourself a visionary and leader in your industry, in sales, in your marketing, this is a media evolution not to be missed.

You Cannot Educate Small Business Owners

In the world of direct response copywriting, there is a well known rule of thumb. The rule states that you cannot educate small business owners…they just don’t get it. While I agree that it is very hard to get small business owners to sit up and pay attention-I believe it is possible to educate them-once they understand their profits can double or triple.

Many small business owners like dentists, chiropractors and acupuncturists-see themselves as doctors only. They are not in the mindset of being a business owner and therefore do not concentrate on their marketing efforts. In order for any small business to grow and prosper, there are a number of factors to take in.

All marketing efforts need to be tracked. A tracking sheet is very easy to develop with Excel. The person responsible for receiving phone calls to the business-records exactly how the caller found the business. Was it phonebook advertising, flyers, word of mouth?

Many business owners utilize phonebook advertising but have no idea how many calls they receive or how many clients are converted from the call. This is a waste of marketing money. Eventually the business owner will come to the realization that they are getting a small number of calls per month-that once converted-do not equal the money they are paying the phone company.

Let’s look at why the ads are not getting calls. When you pick up a phonebook and turn to chiropractors-it’s not unusal to see two or more ads that look the same. One tactic the phone company uses when creating ads for chiropractors…is to put a graphic of a spine in the ad. That’s a waste of space and then when you consider that two chiropractors on the same page-have graphics of spines in their ads! Well you come to the conclusion that the two chiropractors are of equal talent when treating patients.

The phone company does not use any direct response tactics when creating an ad. That is why most ads look the same, kind of like a business card. Very factual-leaving the business owner open to receiving many calls from what are called, “tire kickers”. These people are time wasters, bargain hunters-who are responding to the nice colors or graphics in the ad. What the business owner really needs-is targeted traffic that is responding to a keyword or two in the copy of the ad. it may be a headline or bullet points-that build rapport with the potential client. This brings them to pick up the phone and make an appointment.

Once the business owner gets this targeted traffic into the office or store, it’s time to close them. It’s not over yet though. The business owner need to retain the client and keep bringing them back as happy customers. Happy customers tell friends and co-workers-which in turn adds to the client base. The use of direct response copy in any business will have a viral effect. It brings the client in and keeps them coming in year after year- for as long as they need the service

The strength of your motivation for doing network marketing is what will keep you in the game. Like all of life network marketing poses challenges. There are good days and bad days. And unless you are doing it full time, you have your job to fall back on if it does not work out. Being a home based business mlm tends to be something that is easy to quit when the going gets rough.

And yet we know that if we don’t quit we will win. “Winners never quit and quitters never win”. An there are those statistics that someone like Mark Yarnell will comment on: for those who remain in any network marketing opportunity for ten or more years 95% will become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. The other 5% were in it for the other benefits such as personal development and a bit of extra income and they will reach their goals too. So why quit?

There are probably as many excuses as there are people. But the underlying reasons are few.

1. It Doesn’t Work

Whether it is people saying it to us or our own experience, this would be the commonest one out there. No matter how good any mlm worker is they are going to encounter “Nos”. And it can be those closest to you who will give you your strongest no. The stronger the connection the more someone can hurt you. Some people talk to only a few people – two or three (or even at times ten) and get all “no” replies. If even their own mother or best mate will not join them in the business or become a customer how will anyone else? That might seem reasonable but the reality is not everyone sees it. And their refusal can be based on their past experience either directly personal or of someone else they knew who tried it and failed or never did much with it. Probably most of us know or are related to people like this.

But that good advice of taking care of those you take advice from is worthwhile. Do you listen to those who are broke to learn how to make money? Or a billionaire? Anyone in any business who has got anywhere will tell you it took some work. That is effort, coping with nos and with failures at times. The reason the successful ones in any business, mlm or otherwise, made it was that they never gave up. Ask anyone who has made it to honestly tell you how their time had been on the way up. Every single one will have had some dark, extremely tough time, probably many of them, when it would have seemed so much easier to give up. Most successful entrepreneurs have failed several times before they finally made it.

2. The Failure Of Those Under You

In mlm we build teams. And the teams are made up of all sorts of people. You are told when you come in that you never know who the good ones will be. It takes time, several months, and with some people several years, before you will see who the great ones are, the leaders and so on. In a networking home business you become quite close to your team. You are training them and hearing regularly how they are doing. Many people feel responsible for those on their team. When they fail to achieve great things they can take this personally. To some degree there is a personal responsibility. We should have been trained well by our upline. At times this was not so. They were still learning how to do this business and may have messed it up. We tend to duplicate the actions of our uplines for those in our downlines. What else do we know? This multiplication of less than ideal methods can result in very poor results compared with those doing it well.

There comes a point for every network marketer where they have to assume responsibility for their business. And, as in all life, we can ultimately be responsible for our own actions only. We cannot force people (at least not very successfully) to do those things they are not willing to do. If we wrongly accept responsibility for others in our team, when they fail, we feel like we have failed. The only things that really fail are a poor system (everything duplicates, good or bad) and the individual who makes a decision what is important for them.

It is possible to have whole upline members quit. If you are in mlm long enough this is bound to happen. They will have their own reason for quitting. A main one is that lack of stickability when they feel there is not enough success. They will usually blame the business and head for another one. At times they may be right. It might not be a good business fit for them. But if it is otherwise a successful company that did not conflict with their core values their experience of another company is likely to be the same as the previous one. We take ourselves with us wherever we go.

3. The Pain Of Personal Development

One of the great benefits of mlm business is personal development. There is very little else out there that creates the need for this in the same way. It is simple to understand why. You have your own business which is virtually totally dependent on you (not for the underlying business, but for how it develops – it is a reflection of you) for growth and results.

Each step up the ladder involves more responsibility and expectation from those under you. You grow or perish – or at the least, don’t advance. If you attain a position beyond where your development is you can either lose your team as they find you are not a strong enough rock to relate to, or you can stagnate while your development catches up. And if you are going to become financially independent in this lifestyle living off the huge rewards of ever-growing residual income, then for the sake of the planet, it is vital you have developed far beyond where you were when you first started your mlm business.

4. That Reason Why!

This is it! Most of us were told this when we joined. And most of us were told we needed to commit some years in the business to getting there. But back of it all, to remain in those years, to do what you have been told and not get results, or maybe not do them and then come back, or to be bold to try some new ways, you need a strong reason why. Your motivation. It is everything in the end.

For many this can change as they are in the system. Initially for many it will be about a little bit of extra money to cover rising petrol prices, mortgages etc, or financial independence. But the question at the back of financial independence is what do you want to do when you are financially independent? Apart from having a decent holiday at last, getting the home you always wanted, or the car, or providing for your children’s education, once you have all that covered, then what? It may take some time to see. And it will be an individual idea for each one of us. But think of this: with a huge financial purse to fund it, what could you do in this world? How would the world be different for you being here? What would you like to see happen?

Using Your Unconscious Mind

And for all of us this is the conviction we need to fall back on when all else seems to turn to custard. There will be days everything falls apart and it all looks so black and so hard. But the more you have fed your unconscious mind on that deep overwhelming reason why, the easier and faster it will be for you to drive on forward. We need to regularly feed ourselves on this deep reason. Picture it. Read about it. Dream of it as you go to sleep at night – the time it is most easy to get in contact with your unconscious mind – that part that controls 95% of all you do. Like the crew on the ship, where the captain is our conscious mind, unless the unconscious shares the understanding of where we want to head, it is unlikely to help us get there. Those other unconscious beliefs, values and goals will drag us where they want to go. So feed that unconscious – with dreams, images everywhere, daydreaming and direct suggestions.

If you don’t yet feel you have a strong reason why ask your unconscious mind to work on finding one for you. It will work for you while you sleep in the same way it will wake you before the alarm at some time it has been vital for you to get up early. The easiest way to do this is to address it directly three time in three different ways. Before you go to sleep (or if you wake up in the night not being able to go back to sleep) tell it then: “Unconscious mind I want you to search for a huge reason why I should be doing my network marketing business. As I sleep I want you to search all possibilities and present to me a massive motivation for doing my mlm business. By the time I wake unconscious mind I want you to reveal to me the best reason I should do my home business.” You can instruct it to help you remember it too. It will! It is like an obedient crew. It needs definite and clear instructions for what it is to do, and it will perform. Otherwise, with no clear direction, it will give you that sort of result. You can instruct it in the same way to give you a great night’s sleep as well. Try it. It works!

Once your motivation is sorted and it is locked deep into your unconscious mind there is no way you cannot succeed. When you meet an obstacle it will work out for you, if necessary overnight, how to get around it. It will give you new and creative ideas as to how to grow your business. And it will seem to magnetically draw people and opportunities to you – those who will best help you in the accomplishment of the task. Did you ever read Napoleon Hill’s “Think And Grow Rich” book and wonder at the end what it was all about?

There are many published books, articles and training workshops on the topic of Market Warfare.
This is one of the more popularized and controversial topics in Marketing circles.
It has prevailed and has almost achieved cult classic status.

Back in the early 1980′s, given my ambition, drive and appetite to discover ways of outpointing and outmaneuvering the competition, I began to study and then apply what was available to fundamental business challenges, opportunities and core problems.

This was a lonely road, at the time, as most firms did not understand it nor were they willing to favor Warfare techniques over traditional (safe) Marketing approaches.

This stimulated me to publish a white paper titled “Market Technology: The Missing Link,” which advocated that a company’s market strategy and program mix needed to be approached similarly to how companies engineered and developed their products and services.

Market Technology described a unique methodology / approach and demonstrated how to apply a variety of Warfare techniques to outclass the competition.

It also reinforced how critical this was to business success.

The pioneers of Market Warfare drew a relationship, between historical Military Strategy and Business.

This was an effective approach, however many of the Warfare techniques were applied to PR/Media, Promotions and other “soft” areas, with an emphasis on competitive positioning.
It was not clear to potential users how to apply these techniques to other business areas to generate tangible results.

Over the last two plus decades, we have taken these Market Warfare techniques and integrated them into hard-hitting Campaigns that have focused on Product Launch & Roll-Outs, Competitive Attacks & Product Replacements, Distribution Network & Strategic Alliance Effectiveness, Vertical Industry & New Market Development, Major Account & Opportunity Development, etc. – examples of waging war at the competitors’ expense.

These Programs have generated $500 Million – $750 Million revenue for Client companies and left the competition in the dust.

Is Market Warfare a Myth or Reality?

Here are several practical examples, based on real-life Client experiences:

1) Competitive Replacement – based on solid competitive intelligence, a technology company became aware that its primary competitor was repositioning its business towards a new, growth market. As a by-product, although this was not broadcasted to the Marketplace, the competitor would eventually leave its installed base “high and dry.”

The Client company realized that this transition period represented a “period of vulnerability” for the competitor and if exploited effectively, it could mean capturing the competitor’s installed base, with little investment and effort.

The Client company developed and launched a campaign deemed “Mission Possible,” which was waged worldwide. The program included Account Plans/Strategies, Competitive Analysis, Playbook & Tactical Guide, Contact Data, Direct-Response, Pre-qualified Sales Leads, Sales Aids and Collateral Material.

The Campaign was coordinated with the Client Company’s Direct Sales and 3rd Party Partners for uniformity and consistency. After three business quarters, the Client Company generated $4.6 Million of new sales and acquired a new customer set that was a target for other products and services.

The competitor was caught off-guard and never knew what hit them.

2) Vertical Industry Development – a small manufacturer was extending its core business to focus on segments of the Defense & Military Market.

Although this was not consistent with their traditional business and expertise, their product set was translatable to the Defense & Military Market.

This also represented a Growth Segment in that their traditional core business was declining. Successful entry was a must-do for the Client Company and they did not have any margin for error.

Further, the Client Company’s direct competitor was well-established and entrenched in the Defense & Military Market. This was a considerable challenge and the selected approach and program needed to work right out of the gate.

The Company opted to develop a Program called “Mission-Ready COTS,” as its launch into the selected Vertical.

This high-powered program provided a framework and an implementation guide that brought Government/Military, Defense Contractors and COTS Technology Suppliers together to solve critical Supportability and Life-Cycle challenges for Target Programs and Platforms. This established the Client Company, as an authority/expert and outflanked the established competitor. This program was extended to include Industry Seminars and Problem-solving Workshops, which were not done previously in this Target Market segment.

The Client Company generated 32 new customers, which represented $44.8 Million of new design-wins at full deployment/production value.

3) Strategic Alliance & Major Account Development – a well-recognized consulting firm considered extending its business to include application-based, computing systems based on it core expertise.
This was an emerging trend and other competitors had already made the transition and were building their position and opportunity base.

We could conclude that the Client Company was late-to-market.

After researching the Market and getting a solid sense for the Landscape, the Client Company decided that it could not enter this growing segment & successfully make the transition, without Strategic Alliances and Partnerships.

The Client Company approached a major computer supplier and a key Industry Trade Association, which were well-connected with the Target Prospective Audience.

It successfully sold the opportunity and aligned itself with these key sources.

Given the power of three (the complete solution) and the connections/relationships that the Industry Trade Association maintained, it was easy to gain access to key decision makers.
The Client Company generated several million dollars of new system sales, at initial launch and delivered a knock-out punch to competitors that could not figure out the Client Company’s Gameplan/Strategy.

A case example of outmaneuvering and outinnovating the competition.

These examples are straight-forward, however each has taken a basic Market Warfare technique and put it to practice to achieve results.

There are countless examples that can be shown that impact literally every area of your company’s marketing mix.

With the battle cry of “Market Warfare,” it may be time for your company to master the techniques and redefine the rules of engagement.

Is Market Warfare a Myth or Reality?

Just ask the trail of competitors that have been neutralized and dominated by our Clients and the answer will be self-evident.