A little over 5 years ago, on the back side of a failed business, I decided to start a new podcast that initially was called “Marketing In Your Car.” Looking back now, that was probably the worst time in my life to start a podcast. I had just fired almost 100 employees, I downsized my office from over 22,000 square feet, to a little over 1,000, and was fighting daily to not fall into bankruptcy, and yet that was the point in my life when I decided to start a marketing podcast ? It made no sense at the time, but I’m SO grateful now that I did it. On this podcast, over the past 5 years I have documented my journey from the brinks of bankruptcy, to building a software company that will do over $100,000,000 in sales this year alone! Those who listen get to hear the ups, the downs and everything in between. A few years ago I decided to rebrand the podcast the “Marketing Se- crets” show, as that title fits better with the brand of my two best selling books “DotCom Secrets” and “Expert Secrets.”
Earlier this year, I asked one of the great marketers in our communi- ty, Julie Stoian if she’d go back and re-listen to over 500+ episodes, comb through it all, find the BEST stories, examples and strategies that she felt had the greatest impact for business owners from the podcast, and put them into this “blackbook.” She spent countless hours listening, then or- ganizing, writing and rewriting to give you this Blackbook. I am so grate- ful for the time and energy she put in to make this available for you.
I look at this manual almost like the “cliff notes” where you can jump in, read a few “secrets” and then dig deeper on those that intrigue you, by listening to the actual episodes. I hope that this Blackbook inspires you to create amazing companies and change people’s lives. I hope that it will get you to binge listen to all past episodes of the podcast, and I hope that will keep you entertained The Marketing Secrets Blackbook vi while you are waiting for the next episode of the Marketing Secrets pod- cast to go live. Thanks again for subscribing and don’t forget… you’re just one funnel away.
Marketing is the sex of business. It’s the most pleasurable, most fun part of running your own business. In marriage, you have sex and the by-product is babies. In business, mar- keting brings new customers. Once you have babies, you have to go to soccer games, help with homework, watch painful band concerts and plays, and change so many diapers you can’t even see straight. Your kids are amazing and of course you love them, but really… what’s the best part of it all? You get to still have sex with your spouse. Once you have a steady stream of customers, there will be lots to do.
And some business owners will think, Well, I should do this in-house stuff and hire a marketing agency because now I’m too busy with my customers. And it’s such a bad idea. You are the face of the business, you know it better than anyone, and people came to the business because of you. Outsourcing marketing is not going to go well for you in the long run.
Your focus always needs to remain on marketing. On the cool and awesome ways to “make” new customers everyday. (And to think, you don’t ever have to feed or bathe them!) Every entrepreneur in our Inner Circle is a business owner OBSESSED with the marketing. And they all have one thing in common: they are cra- zy successful! If you’re not obsessed yet, that’s okay. Keep reading. Keep learning and focus your energy on the lovemaking in business, and you’ll become obsessed too.
If you’re reading this book from start to finish, you might think I’m beat- ing a dead horse because this chapter is eerily similar to the previous one, but it’s that way for a reason. If I can’t get you to see that marketing is the lifeblood of your business— of every business—then you will waste a lot of time and money throughout your entrepreneurial journey. In fact, your journey will likely end because your business won’t survive. The other night, I went to wrestling practice with my boys and ran into a dad who is in real estate. We got to talking, and he admitted he’d seen the ClickFunnels ads on Facebook but hadn’t taken the plunge yet with sales funnels for his business. When I told him that one of the biggest agents in our area was using ClickFunnels, he replied with the classic chicken/egg marketing comment: “Well, yeah, he’s selling a thousand houses a year, so he can afford to do all that online marketing.”
The truth is, they are selling a thousand houses a year BECAUSE they are doing that “online marketing” stuff. It’s not really a chicken and egg sce- nario at all. Yes, you have to spend money to get the machine going. And it’s nerve-wracking to spend money on marketing at first, but if you 1,000% believe that marketing and selling is the LIFEBLOOD of your business, you’ll see that you have no other choice. This is step one in entrepreneurship. Learn about marketing and the art of selling. There is nothing else you need to do. This is a classic example of how someone starts a business.
A guy works at a cake factory and says, “My boss is a moron. I could make cakes better than him!” So he quits his job and opens up a shop. But since he hasn’t fallen in love with marketing, he thinks that his skill of making awesome cakes is The Marketing Secrets Blackbook 9 the thing that will keep him in business. From the get-go, he sees his business as the act of making cakes rather than SELLING them. In 2008 when the economy crashed, a whole slew of companies decided to lower costs by cutting their sales and marketing budget. It’s like cutting off oxygen to your brain.
What they should have done instead is triple down on marketing and advertising. The businesses that allow their marketing departments to become the kings and rulers win. Imagine your marketing department were a person— make her the CEO. Give him the freedom to come in and boss everyone and everything around because it is the source of your success. You are not in the business of the thing. You are in the business of selling that thing.