Here’s a principle from my upcoming book on “Marketing That Fills the Soul”. This section I’ve cut from the book to only allow for my blog readers:

PUTTING OUT TO THE UNIVERSE: THE CLARITY OF PROMOTION

There is little doubt that by expressing what we need, or putting out our requests to the universe in a clearly defined manner over a regular period of time, that we’ll receive what we ask for. Devout worshippers and business leaders have been utilizing this practice for centuries. Politicians develop slogans to espouse their merits throughout their campaigns. Mohammed and Jesus preached their beliefs to the masses to bring their followers joy, peace and education.

With the same purpose, albeit not as deep in spiritual focus, advertisers create commercials to educate and entertain with the purpose of helping people find what they want or need.

Critics feel ads compel people to be greedy and create desire for unnecessary items. While there are certainly plenty of unneeded items advertised on tv, magazines, newspapers and websites, it is not the advertiser creating greed, but rather the value system of the person watching or reading the ad.

UNDERMINING OURSELVES

Naturally, if we are undermining the ability to receive what we want, get in our own way, or are not qualified to do what we promote,  our requests won’t be met.

But, my experience working with business owners is that they are usually quite realistic in knowing what they want, they just need help defining it in specific terms and they don’t ask for it in their promotion. They don’t “put out to the universe” their true spirit or unique attributes and explain how that will help their prospective market.

Appropriate methods for this practice, such as a series of educational articles, blogs, presentations or similar – when sent to potential clients – can prove exceptionally successful when the message rings true to the reader. More importantly, it allows the business owner to express their own spirit and beliefs, so they will attract like-minded clients who want what they have.

There are as many ways to apply this spiritual practice of ‘putting out there’ or promotion as one can creatively dream up—from postcards to websites, from live events to billboards or sliding down a chimney—to get your point across.

The point is that the marketing tactic cannot be properly selected until the request is defined. Mistakenly, most businesses put the tool before the horse, to horribly mix metaphors, and don’t clearly define their request or their message first. They create materials with vague or nebulous messages that confuse their market and waste thousands of promotional dollars.

Once promotion is clearly defined, it’s relatively easy to select and test the various tools to determine what attracts the kinds of people you want to help. A marketing consultant will know which tool to use to send which message to each market over time for each specific product saving the company expense and time.

YOPLAIT’S EXAMPLE

For example, Yoplait yogurt decided to promote their product to a health market by becoming a prominent sponsor of “The Race For the Cure”, proceeds of which go to find the cure for breast cancer.

They were clear about what female market they targeted with their product and found a visible way to reach them through publicity for the races, signage at events, handing out their product to race runners, and visibility in just about every direction at the race itself.

Additionally, they run broadcast commercial promotion to a wide consumer market. Selecting these two avenues for promotion in tandem has not only given the product exposure but also helped them develop an image of healing women. Most people feel better buying products they know are using proceeds to help support a cause they believe in called “cause marketing”.

When Fedex created its “Absolutely, positively gets there overnight” campaign, don’t you think they were obviously responding to an unfulfilled need in the market? They used this extremely clear message to easily demonstrate exactly how they helped people and businesses? Sure, it was a huge risk to guarantee overnight delivery, and they paid dearly in their learning process. But the company developed such careful management systems for distribution and verification that they set the standard for their industry and have branded their service far faster and more clearly than any of their competitors.

That’s good promotion! How can you apply that to your business?