Watch out! There is a lot of marketing information you’ll find on the Internet touted by so called experts that isn’t fit to be feed to your dog. Take a look at the following and you be the judge.

Recently I found a post on a prominent marketing site that said “Every business – large or small – should have a “messaging platform” consisting of the following: A. Corporate positioning statement, B. Supporting key messages, C. Supporting proof points, D. Customer value propositions/statements. The author goes on to say that you shouldn’t leave the office without your messaging platform on a laminated cheat sheet.

Yikes! What a bunch of corporate speak and total crXX. My guess is most small business owners have no idea what a messaging platform is, what their supporting key messages or proof points are. Be honest, do you? Do you have it on a laminated cheat sheet?

If the goal is to make the simple complex and impossible to understand the author has succeeded. Imagine how well this process works to communicate with the prospect.

My dog has taught me more about marketing. Here’s the simple marketing lesson my dog teaches every night.

Each night we put out the usual dried dog food pellets with some canned dog food slime for our pet. Routinely our dog will give it a sniff and look at us with disgust and go lie down outside the kitchen door, leaving her meal untouched. I can’t say as I blame her. I wouldn’t eat that stuff either.

Later at the end of our family meal, my wife or myself will take a scrap from one our plates and add it to her meal. Once our pet sees she is getting the dinner she wants, (the one we are eating) she digs in and eats her whole meal.

What’s the simple lesson my dog teaches us every night?

Give a dog or people what they want to get the response you want.

Now I’m not suggesting that your company’s prospects are the same as dogs, though I know a lot of smart prospects. But, dogs and humans behave the same in certain ways.

If your marketing isn’t getting the response you want, forget all the corporate speak – the positioning statements, proof points, value propositions etc. The problem is your prospects don’t understand how you can help them, you haven’t given them the basic information they need to give you the response you want.

Running a business is complex – don’t make it any harder by buying into the nonsense that marketing is complicated. Marketing is simply about helping your prospects get what they want.

Its about action and response. Want more sales? Discover which actions to take to get the response you want. In most cases the solution is a lot simpler than you think.

Charlie Cook
Marketing That Works