A winning poker hand.

I don’t play often, but I appreciate a good game of poker. Poker makes a pretty good analogy for marketing, and for business.

Poker players know what they hold in their hands, they carefully watch what everyone else appears to be doing. They make educated guesses as to the cards the other players hold.

Poker players hoard their resources until they know they hold a winner, then they confidently apply all of their resources to winning that particular hand.

At the end of the game the winner takes the whole pot. The loser loses everything.

The other players pick up a few bucks now and then and manage to stay in the game.

In real life marketing the winning hand is held by the company with the greatest share of mind. Let me give you an example.

Name the First Brand of Coffee You Think of

Now name another.

Can you name a third?

Chances are that you named your first coffee brand rather quickly.  The second came almost as quickly.

Most people take slightly longer to name the third brand.

Most People Purchase the First Brand that Comes to Mind.

Would you like to see how 3,000 other people* answered that question?

Share of Mind for Coffee

People remembered these brands in roughly the same proportion they buy them.

Conclusion #1: Share of mind predicts share of market.
Conclusion #2: The first name that shoppers think of is the one they buy.

How does a company become the first name on the customer’s mental list, and thus hold the face cards in the marketing poker game?

The Easiest Way is to Actually be First.

Who was the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic? The second? How about the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic?** Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart won those hands. You can’t even name the losers.

You might remember the second man to set foot on the surface of the moon, but can you name the third?

Can you name the third expedition to the North Pole? The third Pope? The third signature on the US Declaration of Independence? (How about the third amendment to the Constitution)?

In share of mind, share of market, and poker, third position is a loser. Winners come in first. Second place sometimes makes a few bucks. Beyond that, money gets very tight.

“But wait a minute, Chuck” (I can hear you saying), “I have a small business in a small town. I’m not the first at anything.”

This is Where Marketing Makes a Difference.

Charles and Frank Duryea built the first gasoline-powered automobile in 1893 – a full ten years before Henry Ford got into the business.*** Henry made the automobile affordable to every household, creating phenomenal word of mouth on the Model T. Henry held the winning poker hand, and became the most famous automobile manufacturer of all time. How many of the losing hands can you even remember?

The best selling MP3 player of all time is the iPod, but Apple didn’t invent the device. Rio did, in 1998, nearly three years before the iPod hit the market. Rio built an expensive toy for people who loved technology. Apple created a toy for people who love music. Apple wins that poker hand. (And, tell the truth, until I mentioned the name, you didn’t even remember the Rio player, did you)?

Your objective is to make your company the one that people automatically think of when they need what you sell. When you’re first on that list, they don’t even think about buying elsewhere.

You see, the first company to make a claim has an 85% chance of being remembered for that claim. The second company has about a 15% chance. The third company less than 5%.

Ford and Apple simply out promoted Duryea and Rio, respectively. Neither was first in the market. Each became first in the minds of their prospective customers.

Can You be First at Something?

Absolutely. In fact, its essential.

To be remembered, to hold top position in share of mind, to hold the winning hand in marketing your business, you must be first at something.

I’d suggest that you choose to be first in the reason your existing customers do business with you now.

Find out what your current customers believe you provide that they can’t get anywhere else. Then, start promoting that. Promote it to the point that you’re now playing in a whole new game, and in this game you hold the winning cards.

Your Guide,
Chuck McKay

Your Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay, gets people to buy more of what you sell.

Have questions about finding a niche and being first in it? Drop Chuck a note at ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com. Or call him at 304-208-7654.

* BRANDPOLL survey of coffee brands, January-March 2001.

** Charles Lindberg, May 20, 1927; Amelia Earhart, May 20, 1932 on the fifth anniversary of Lindberg’s crossing.

*** Nicholas Joseph Cugnot designed the first steam powered self-propelled vehicle in 1769. The device was so heavy that it had to run on roadways of steel, and evolved into the modern locomotive. Etienne Lenoir patented the first practical gas engine (coal gas) and drove a car powered with one from Paris to Joinville in 1862.

 

Related posts:

1. Free Coffee and the Incremental Discount Coupon Tactic

Greg Satell

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3. Not All Content is Created Equal

Tire Sale Sign

There tend to be two schools of marketing. The creative and the scientific.

Imagination and mathematics.

Right brain, left brain.

At least, it looks that way on the surface.

Marketing Yin & Yang

Some highly effective marketing uses evocative imagery.

“Melts in your mouth,”
“Cleans like a white tornado,”
or “Where’s the beef?”

Some is a bit less exciting.

“click here to learn more,”
“save 13 cents on your next purchase,”
“Dear Fellow nature lover.”

But truly effective marketing uses both. First the math. Then the imagination. First the who, and what. Then the how and why. And that makes sense, doesn’t it?

A marketer identifies the target market, measures responses, and calculates ROI. Then he provides the creative team with very specific direction: “Here’s what we know about the prospect, what we believe to be her motivation, and the offer we’re going to present.

The creative folks, the copywriters and art directors, focus on that customer profile. They detail our prospect’s life. They account for her time, her activities, and her choices. They find correlations in her other purchases.

And then they create “We are Farmers, dum te dum dum dum dum dum,” or “What it feels like to chew 5 gum.”

But it always starts with detailing, and measuring the buying process.

Tread Wears, “Blowout Worry” Accumulates

Eventually, the tread wears down on every tire, and every automobile requires replacement tires.

In most cases the wear happens gradually.

An early stage buyer notes that wear is accumulating on her tires. She’ll file that observation away into her subconscious as something that will need attention sometime in the future.

Her subconscious will, through reticular activation, allow tire ads to pass the mental filter which helps her to tune out the thousands of advertising impressions she’s subjected to each day.

What Runs Through The Shopper’s Mind?

At minimum (“Humm. Tires are showing slight signs of wear.”) she knows she can put off the purchase decision. Not feeling any pressure to buy, but aware that it will eventually become necessary, those lower price offerings from Mr. Tire Store Owner will appear more attractive and better hold her attention.

As the tread continues wearing, she’ll think less about price, and worry more about safety. As you might expect, the closer she gets to “OK… I’m scared to drive any farther on these tires,” the less price acts as the primary motivator.

Then there are those cases in which the tire catastrophically fails. When that happens, she will make a purchase. Probably today.

Purchase Trigger

It may be growing worry. It may be performance failure. It may be because she’s leaving in a week to drive across three states on her family’s vacation. It may be that she came across an unexpected tire sale. It may be an unexpected salary bonus. But something will happen that causes the owner of that car to decide it’s time for new tires.

We call that event a purchase trigger.

A trigger is a change in perception on the part of the shopper.  Its the realization that the actual discomfort of NOT owning has become greater than the perceived discomfort in making the purchase.

Triggers happen to different shoppers at different times, but all shoppers experience similar triggers.

That’s the fact which allows us to design customer acquisition programs.

Once we determine a strong appeal to an early stage shopper (say… reduced price), that appeal will be equally attractive to a different early stage shopper next month. Yet another completely different early stage shoper will be attracted with that same appeal the month after that.

Likewise, the appeal which works to attract this month’s late stage shoppers (perhaps safety, or guilt about safety) will work with other late stage shoppers later this year.

And when our primary appeal meets with a prospect’s strongly felt need, it acts as a trigger, moving that prospect to the next step, perhaps all the way to completing the purchase.

What Steps does the Shopper Take?

The specific shopping steps will be slightly different for every business. Some purchases are made on a whim. Others require research and the approval of a committee. Some buyers initiate purchase orders. Others simply pay cash.

Our tire shopping prospect likely goes through nine separate steps to buy tires.

Tire Customer Buying Steps

The Sales Process is Always Similar, but Never the Same

So far, we’ve described the buying process, which begins with the shopper feeling a need.  Is the selling process the same?

Usually, its not.

The selling process begins when the seller identifies the buyer as a new prospect, and attempts to get her to engage.

And other than advertising, the seller has no control over communication with the prospect until she identifies herself.

In our tire purchase example the buyer has already taken five independent steps before the  seller knows she exists.

But detailing the customer’s steps between the first interaction with the seller, and the completion of the purchase, are what allow us to standardize the process.  It’s what allows us to set our marketing on  ”Cruise Control,” when we’re fishing for customers.

Your Guide,
Chuck McKay

Your Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay, gets people to buy more of what you sell.

Got questions about detailing your customer’s shopping process? Drop Chuck a note at ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com. Or call him at 304-208-7654.

Related posts:

1. Reach vs Frequency – Systemic Marketing™ Part II
2. How to Steal Your Competitor’s Customers. Part 2 of 3
3. Marketing P.A.I.N. – Part 2, What Do People Want?

Curb Number

A young man shows up at your door.  For only ten dollars he’ll paint your house number in florescent paint on the curb in front of your house. Feeling no need for glow in the dark numbers on your curb, you pass on the offer.

The next day a different young man makes a similar offer. Again, you refuse.

He’s followed that afternoon by a young woman with virtually the same offer. Will you buy from her?

Believe it or not, you’ve just determined whether frequency or reach is of greater importance as a driver of sales.

Reach Trumps Frequency

In Systemic Marketing™ – Customer Acquisition on Cruise Control, we discussed the advantages of creating a a Marketing Cruise Control, a system to increase your marketing efforts in slack times and keep your company operating at capacity.

But the first decision is how to increase those efforts.

For decades media planners, buyers, and salespeople have argued whether it was more important to reach more people with your message (offer), or to deliver that message with greater repetition to the same people.

There are good arguments for both, but common sense will guide us to the following conclusions:

1. The more relevant the message, the more likely people are to notice it.
2. The simpler the message, the less repetition necessary for a prospective customer to “get it.”
3. Once a prospect has decided to purchase (or not), additional exposure to the message (during this purchase cycle) is pointless.

What should our original young man do to sell more fluorescent numbers? Go door to door on your block again? Obviously he should choose another neighborhood and make his offer to new potential customers.

And likewise, if you’re going to set up a Cruise Control system for customer acquisition, you won’t prompt additional sales by again offering the same people what you sell.* You’ll need to boost the number of people who receive your offer.

How to do the Boost

Don’t increase the number of ads in the same section of the newpaper you’re currently using. Put your new ads in a different section.

Don’t run additional ads in the local TV six o’clock news. Run new ads in the 10 o’clock news. Run new ads on another TV station’s six o’clock news.

1. Add a schedule on another radio station, or another TV station.
2. Add another section of the newspaper. Or another paper.
3. Post a billboard in a new neighborhood.
4. Send postcards to a fresh list.
5. Telemarket to a fresh list.
6. Expand the radius around your business and distribute more door hangers or flyers or yard signs in neighborhoods you haven’t been “working.”
7. Increase your pay per click budget.

You may be tempted to pull ad dollars from the media outlets you’ve been using, but if you unhook the engine, how long can we expect that train to keep rolling? And substituting an unknown return from a new media outlet in the place of the known ROI of a tested outlet only increases risk.

Systemic Marketing™ maximizes cash flow by eliminating speculation.

Everyone Has Opinions

Media people, printers, and your brother-in-law may feel qualified to opine about your marketing. Especially when you’re adding media to expose your message to additional prospects.

Your new media representative will want to make a strong positive impression in hopes of keeping more of your business. The printer will assess your need for additional flyers, or direct response packages as an opportunity. They will offer to produce new and/or different ads. Don’t let them do that.

By the time you’ve implemented a Marketing Cruise Control, your message will have been tested, refined, and polished. Everything from the offer to the choice of words to the colors, fonts, and images will be selected because they work better than those you tested them against.

And testing always works better than opinions when you’re fishing for customers.

Your Guide,
Chuck McKay

* OK. This is not completely true. But increasing the frequency of the message costs much more than it generates in additional sales for reason number three above. Most of the people exposed to your message will be those who’ve already decided whether or not to buy.

Your Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay, gets people to buy more of what you sell.

Got questions boosting the number of people exposed to your message? Drop Chuck a note at ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com. Or call him at 304-208-7654.

Related posts:

1. Marketing P.A.I.N. – Part 8, Message Frequency, Media Choices, and Tracking
2. Marketing P.A.I.N. – Part 2, What Do People Want?
3. Marketing P.A.I.N. – Part 7, Tie It All Together.

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2. How to Make Money by Losing Money – Part 1 of 2

Virtual Business

And then you wait.

And wait.

And wait some more!

Unless someone can find your site, you will have a very long wait! That is where the value and benefit of advertising comes in.

Advertise Your Business

Advertising is what brings potential customers into your “virtual business door”. As a business owner, every dollar you spend is a dollar right out of your pocket. This affects your profit margin and revenues. This can be especially difficult if it comes at a time when you’re trying to grow your business.

If you’re going to succeed, you have to pay close attention to your bottom line and look for creative, innovative ways to cut costs while still getting what you need.

That old saying that it “takes money to make money” has never been truer than when it comes to promoting your business. And when it comes to spending money on advertising, how do you make sure that your advertising is working hard enough, without spending a fortune that consumes all your profits or even worse money that far exceeds your business revenues?

Thanks to the Internet, you’ve got lots of options for finding cost-effective advertising that does what it’s supposed to — bring targeted customers who are hungry for what you’re selling, right to your door.

But don’t forget about cost-effective offline methods as well. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Target Your Market

Always make sure you focus your advertising dollars on your target market. The tighter your niche, the better your chances of finding the customers who are looking for exactly what you’ve got to sell! So rather than going wide, and trying to sell to everyone, narrow your focus, and then, if possible, narrow it some more!

Figure out who your “ideal” customer is, and then create an advertising campaign for them. Once you know who you’re selling to, look for media that targets that demographic. Depending on your product or service, think community and neighborhood newspapers, high school sponsor advertising, chamber of commerce directories, etc.

If your ideal customers aren’t defined by a specific geographic location, look at regional or specific demographic publications. Perhaps a regional paper runs an annual issue that focuses on an issue or activity that reaches your target market. Use local cable television to broadcast your ads only in certain markets. You’ll get cheaper rates and a more focused demographic.

Always ask for a discounted rate

Many publications offer an “agency” discount of up to 15 percent. If you are acting as your own in-house advertising agency, you might qualify for the special rate. Sure, you might be turned down more often than not, but make it a habit to ask. It will be worth it every time it works for you.

Some monthly magazines offer discounts for multi-ads placed over a 3, 6 or 12 month time period. Most publications have a different rate schedule for different types of advertisers — so depending on your product or service, you could qualify. And if not, sometimes just asking for the discount will give it to you.

Buy leftover space or airtime

This is advertising that the publication, radio or television station hasn’t filled by their usual deadline. Of course you’ll have to take the spots that are available, but again, depending on your business and the product or service you’re selling, that inconvenience could still be worth the discount and the exposure you’ll receive.

Use classified ads

They’re not just for employment offers any more. You’ll find classified ads in magazines and newspapers. Before writing your ad, go to your local library, and look through the back issues of the magazine or newspaper that you’re considering.

Look at the ads that catch your eye, or that are repeated month after month. Those ads wouldn’t be in there each month, if they weren’t making the advertiser money. Use those ads as springboards for ideas when you’re ready to start writing your own classifieds.

Test your ads

Start out with the cheaper publications, so you can find out what’s working and what’s not. Play with them, and tweak them. Once you’ve got an ad that works, keep using it. You can run it more than once, or in more than one publication at a time. When it quits bringing in customers, or you start noticing a drop in effectiveness, then it’s time to change it.

Investigate Co-Op

Do you own a retail business? If so, check into co-op advertising funds that may be offered by your vendors. Co-op programs provide joint advertising for your and your vendor, and you’ll get a portion of the cost of the ad reimbursed because the ad mentions the vendor. (Note: most Co-op programs have strict guidelines, so check with your vendors and make sure you’re following the rules).

Barter for goods and services

This can be especially effective with radio stations and local papers. See if you can provide your products or services in trade for the cost of advertising. (Also called “trade” or “In-kind” ads, the radio station or publication gives you the ad in exchange for products or services of equal value, and then uses those products or services as part of a promotion or contest for their listeners or readers). This can also be a great way to get additional free publicity, so if you decide to try this method, get creative and think outside the box!

Don’t forget or be afraid to recycle the good ads in other advertising medium. If you’ve got an ad that’s especially effective, looks great (or more importantly that is profitable), by all means reuse it in a circular, brochure, handout, flyer or direct mail piece. Use the graphics on your Webpages if available.

In summary, your goal should be to find a balanced mix of online and offline advertising. This will go a long way towards getting the greatest bang for your advertising buck! With a little creativity you will be maximizing your profits while minimizing your expenses.

Stephen Wright is President & CEO of InternetMarketing.com

Get everything you need to make money online in “Dotcomology: The Science of Making Money Online” at:http://www.InternetMarketingUSA.com/dotcomology.html

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Roger Dooley

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Fishing 101

Today we’re going to look an another George Cullinan creation: the “circle layout.” This concept is an idea of value to everyone who uses words and images to promote business.
 

Artists Don’t Think Like You Do

Cullinan believed that the art department should never be trusted to correctly lay out the advertising, that instead those decisions should always come from the merchandising department.

Since Cullinan didn’t expect his merchandise buyers to become skilled artists, he suggested that they use a simple set of circles of various sizes to communicate with the art department what to include, and the relative placement and space of each element.

In a circle layout, the number of circles is equal to the number of illustrations, headlines, and story elements to be included. Of course, one need not be limited to oval shapes. Rectangles have their uses, too. The key is to use the relative sizes of the shapes to quickly convey the approximate importance of each design element.

Example 1: Newspaper Ad

Let’s assume that my local newspaper has offered to build my new ad. I’ve told the newspaper account executive about my business. He should be able to take this sketch and his notes to his advertising department and bring back an ad proof with no surprises.

Example 2: Catalog Page

Were I working with an advertising agency, I’d be providing the agency raw information and this sketch. I’d expect their artists and copywriters to be able to build my catalog page pretty much as I’d imagined it.

Example 3: Flyer

If I needed a local printer to make up some flyers for my business, I would provide the photo or line drawing, my logo, and the selling verbiage to be included in the copy. Any local printer should be able to follow this concept and deliver the flyer I’m expecting.

It’s Communication

Why should you provide the circle layout to your commercial artwork provider? Simple. She isn’t you.

You’re the person responsible for moving product. You probably already know which advertising elements will capture attention and motivate a purchaser to buy. Who knows better than you do exactly what must be emphasized? Or what could be left out? Whether the photo or the body copy needed more emphasis? Whether or not to include a coupon?

How (and What) to Lay Out

Before starting your circle layout, make a checklist for yourself, and include such items as:

• Headlines
• Photos / illustrations
• Body copy
• Prices
• Special offers
• Coupons
• Logos or other company identification
• Legal disclaimers

Modify your checklist so that nothing gets overlooked during the planning stages.

It Even Works for Non-Visual Media

Cullinan developed the circle layout for catalog pages and flyers, but I’m sure you can see that this simple communication method can work equally well for other media.

Not only will you find it useful for magazines, newspapers, and billboards, but you’ll find that it helps the copywriter of your television ads or radio ads to better understand the message you need her to deliver. I wouldn’t hesitate to give a copy to a direct response writer who was composing a solicitation letter.

Try it on your next advertising project and see if you don’t agree. I’d love to hear how you implement the circle layout in fishing for customers.

Your Guide,
Chuck McKay

Your Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay, gets people to buy more of what you sell.

Have questions about communicating your vision to your service providers? Drop Chuck a note at ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com. Or call him at 304-208-7654.

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Enrico Fermi

Don’t expect most scientists to admit it, but a physics technique called the Fermi Question provides a quick and simple way for business people to determine whether a new market is large enough to be profitable.

Enrico Fermi was one of most well-rounded physicists of the last century, a Nobel Prize winner who was able to switch from practical to theoretical and back to practical, and make it look easy.

Until his death in 1954, Enrico taught the estimating technique that now bears his name. In the absence of definite knowledge or an exact answer, a Fermi Question’s goal is to obtain an informed estimate by making reasonable assumptions.

Fermi Used Common Sense in Science

Fermi would demand that his students at the University of Chicago explain to him how many grains of sand are on the world’s beaches. How far can a crow fly without stopping? How many atoms of Caesar’s last breath do you inhale with each lungful of air? How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?

Fermi Questions required students to use their understanding of the world, and their everyday experience, to make rough approximations in areas of which they had no knowledge.

But as I said, you and I will find the Fermi Question quite valuable as a business tool.

Fermi’s Classic Piano Tuner Question

Assume that you’re a young piano tuner. You’re about to set off into the world to seek your fortune.

Your favorite uncle lives in Chicago. He says you’re welcome to come stay with him while you get your piano tuning business off the ground. Shall we analyze the market potential before you accept his offer and open a piano tuning business in Chicago?

Start with the population of Chicago: according to estimates from the most recent U.S. Census, roughly 9,400,000 people live in the greater Chicago metro area.

The Census Bureau also helps us estimate that there are two and a half people per average household. Therefore Chicago is home to 3,760,000 families.

Fifty years ago one home in four had a piano, but since the Beatles burst on the music scene, people don’t gather ‘round the piano to sing, anymore. Shall we assume that only one household in 30 owns a piano today? That would lead us to conclude that there are 125,333 pianos in Chicago.

Some performers with critical ears may demand tuning at each changing of the seasons. Those owners are likely offset by others who own a piano, but never tune it. On the average, a fair assumption might be that each of those 125,333 pianos in Chicago are tuned once per year – 125,333 piano tunings per year.

Allowing for commute time across the greater Chicago metro area, perhaps a fair estimate is that a technician can tune three pianos each day. If he works a five-day, fifty-week year, each tuner could service 750 pianos each year.

Divide 125,333 pianos by 750 tunings, and there appears to be enough work to employ 167 piano tuners.

How Close Did We Come?

A quick look at switchboard.com under “piano servicing and tuning” tells us that 126 businesses in the greater Chicago area offer piano tuning.

How many tuners operate out of each business?

We should perhaps gather some hard data on this one with a few phone calls, but if one third employed two tuners, and the other two thirds employed only one, the average would be one and a third tuners per piano servicing business: 164 piano tuners competing in a market which appears to have enough work to employ 167.

Not bad.

Maybe our next step should be to ask for price quotes from future competitors. Then we could determine whether one could make a living performing 750 piano tunings per year. But regardless of the conclusion, we were able to make an informed decision with a couple of quick Google searches and about ten minutes of “think time.”

Our Goal Isn’t Accuracy

The Fermi Question won’t tell you with absolute accuracy whether a business proposition is feasible, but it can quickly provide a ballpark figure to eliminate those which can’t work.

Using this technique, could you quickly estimate the number of life insurance salespeople that could make a living in Phoenix? The number of profitable convenience stores in Pensacola? The number of brew pubs in Raleigh?

Would application of the Fermi Question help you to determine whether your bedding store should expand into sofas and loveseats?

Could you make a better decision about whether an additional salesperson could generate enough sales to cover his salary?

Might you use estimates like these to help you decide whether it makes sense to approach your primary competitor with a buyout offer?

I’m not suggesting that you don’t need hard data. I’m a major proponent of acquiring as much market data as is available, or that you can afford. You’d agree, though, wouldn’t you, that when the data’s not available, an informed estimate beats an uninformed guess every time?

Tell the physicists to move over. We’re co-opting one of their tools, and using it to fish for customers.

Your Guide,
Chuck McKay

Your Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay, gets people to buy more of what you sell.

Got questions about estimating your chances of success in a new market? Drop Chuck a note at ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com. Or call him at 304-208-7654.

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Sir Isaac Newton

Do you remember learning Sir Isaac Newton’s “laws of motion” in school? I wonder, were you like most of your classmates, questioning whether knowing this stuff would do you any good in the real world?

Today I want to apply Newton’s thinking to something other than physical science. You know me: I always have to look at things differently.

Newton’s 1st Law of Business?

Newton’s first law of motion states that objects tend to remain in the state of motion that they’re in. We use the term inertia to describe this phenomenon. Moving objects want to keep moving. Stationary objects like to stay still,

You can probably already see where I’m going with this.

If you’ve ever been in business, or seriously considered launching a one, you have almost certainly experienced what I’m talking about. Getting started is hard, isn’t it?

Changing your state of motion from stationary to forward motion takes a lot of energy. Not to mention if you have to get others to move with you! No part of the process requires more hard work than the initial phases. Think of the space shuttle. It takes two rocket boosters and a fuel tank bigger than the shuttle itself just for lift off. The rockets and fuel tank are unnecessary after the astronauts are several miles from the ground. I’m only guessing here, but I imagine that 95% of the fuel burned during the entire voyage is consumed in the first few minutes. Defeating inertia is not easy.

Once you’ve got things started and moving along, you’ve put the Newton’s law to work on the other side of the coin. Inertia in motion is also called momentum. Everything happens more quickly and with much less effort. It becomes difficult for any external force to stop you from getting where you’re headed in the same way it’s difficult when you first get started. Like trying to stop a freight train gliding down the track.

These principles work for your business as well.

Let me state my point explicitly. If you’re going to accomplish anything in business (or life in general) you have to overcome your natural state of non-motion. This is the hardest part. As people in the society most of my readers live in, it is a rare occurrence to find truly action-oriented adults. (My contention is that they beat this characteristic out of students around the same time they’re teaching them about Newton’s laws of motion. But that’s another topic entirely.)

Success Is a Choice

Inertia is the reason that success is never accidental. It may, however, be coincidental. For example, if a microbiologist stumbled across the cure for AIDS, you couldn’t call it a total accident. He or she was messing around in the lab, and happened to make a great discovery. It’s more of co-incidence, An unexpected result came from action already being taken. See what I mean?

The Dip

Seth Godin wrote a best-selling book called The Dip. The book (which I haven’t actually read) describes periods of struggle during any venture that really separate the “boys from the men,” as it were. If you push through the dip, you’ll find greater success than ever before. But most people can’t summon the willpower to continue working through such a trying time. According to this law of motion, the biggest dip can be found at the very beginning of any project. I’m willing to bet that Seth would agree. (If you read this, Mr. Godin, feel free to chime in.)Although creating a roadmap is essential to any endeavor, thinking about doing something doesn’t count as getting started. It’s the easiest thing in the world to get excited about a new idea or vision. Moving past that stage is harder. The emotion has to be translated into motion.

The Happily Mediocre

It wasn’t intentional, but there are no concrete business building lessons in this article, just one overriding concept. Do something! Fear, discomfort, looking crazy, the desire to conform (and the desire of the happily mediocre keep you from shining too brightly) and plenty of other reasons stand opposed to you. You’ll have to really dig in and push forward. Once you get the ball rolling a little, you will not regret the effort. Victory is waiting on you. But you won’t win by accident.

Donnie Bryant

Marketing that works. Copy that converts. Results that matter.

Direct response copywriter, Donnie Bryant, welcomes questions about overcoming marketing inertia. Get in touch with him through email (db@donnie-bryant.com), by phone at 312-450-9291, or follow him on Twitter: @donniebryant.

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