Presentation Notes & Key Learnings from John Jantsch Author of Duct Tape Marketing

Background

been in marketing for 25 years
Rebranded his business to become Duct Tape Marketing. Started a blog which is currently ranked #27 on The Adage Power 150 Best Marketing Blogs and designed a marketing "system" that small business owners that could be trained to install in their place of work.
John realized that he liked working with small businesses. He also realized that many small business owners faced the same challenges as each other, namely limited budgets and resources. Many of these owners not only wear the Marketing Hat, but also the hats of the Customer Service Department, Accounting, HR, Sales and IT.
10 years since the rebrand John has certified Duct Tape Coaches across 6 countries helping local businesses install his marketing system.
Talk to Cindee Stephen if you're interested

John's Fundamentals

Marketing Definition - getting someone who has a need to ... know, like & Trust you
Tools & technology change but the fundamentals always stay the same
Digital Interactivity should be at the centre of your brand

Duct Tape's 7 Step Marketing System

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu
2 important parts

Narrow your Focus. You cant serve all clients. Be careful of detractors that take more time than their worth to your business. Identify the makeup of your Ideal Clients. What's their behaviour, Demographic, Psychographics, Geography and Biological make up. Your ideal customer values you. They're profitable and they refer you.
Differentiate and Dominate. Visit the website of your top competitors. Cut and paste the first paragraph of their sites along side yours on a document. Eliminate any reference of each individual business and compare what each has to say. Do any stand out? Most probably say the same kind of things. So where do you go to find out what makes you different? Your best clients. Meet with the top 10 of your clients and ask them things like...What did you do to find a company like ours? What made you choose us? What do we do well? What do we do better than others? What can we do better? Would you refer us? Your positioning statement and core message will come from these answers.

the marketing funnel is broken
companies could do better if they spent less time filling the funnel and finding ways to convert more of their existing leads then ways to create remarkable customer experiences

the consumer expectation is that they will find everything on Google (youtube is the second largest search engine). Your content must do 2 separate things. The first is to build trust between you and your ideal customers. Interact with these people on social media platforms, generate reviews and testimonials to help build that brand trust. Secondly, You need to provide educational content about your industry.

Advertising, Public Relations and Referral. Advertising should focus on a narrow target and in all forms point your clients back to your website. Public relations should not be about pitching. With the Internet we are all media publishers now and you can use online press releases and leave comments on related topics. Lastly, by converting to the hourglass marketing model you become more referable.

self evaluate your lead conversion system. This is likely the first spot that you'll be able to make improvements.
develop a customer orientation kit

Use your calendar to help you make time for marketing. It's often the easiest hat to keep on the rack. Schedule marketing appointments with your self. It could be daily, or weekly. Set monthly themes with actionable items for each step. By focusing on an end goal, you'll find that your marketing program takes some direction rather than focusing on the squeaky wheel.

Marketing Advice, Ideas and Strategy - Marc Binkley