MARKETING FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
by Susanna K. Hutcheson

Just a couple short years ago marketing was quite predictable. You knew if you sent out so many sales letters, you would get so many responses out of which you would get so many sales.

Of course, if you were doing Internet marketing you couldn't count on knowing what form of marketing would produce what form of results, much less the number of responses from any particular type of marketing. But even with Internet marketing, after a while, you could begin to see what worked and what didn't.

But then more and more people came online. More consumers and more businesses. Many traditional brick and mortar businesses came online. They learned skills from those of us who proceeded them.

Before we knew it, competition was so keen that our once rapidly growing bank accounts began to decrease and we didn't know why. But it was competition that was causing the distress. We had to hurry to find new ways to keep our place. Some of us couldn't keep up and were dropped of the boards. And I'm not talking just about entrepreneurs. I'm talking about major corporations too. There were no rules and, even if there were, no one knew them or lived by them.

Where are we now?

We're at the beginning of a new century in a new medium. Some of us have one foot in the brick and mortar business paradigm. Others are fully entrenched in the Internet lifestyle and yet others have not even thought of moving to the Internet.

The latter will be history before the new millennium is out of it's infancy.

Marketing is the key to success in any business. But keep in mind that what has worked for you for years will not work at all soon if it works at all now! You can no longer depend on the old ways of marketing. You will have to combine interruption marketing with permission marketing.

You will have to have a very good Web site and drive traffic to that site from which you will sell your services or products.

You will have to move at the speed of light and be able to change prices on the fly. In fact, you will have to do everything on the fly.

People want what they buy now. Not later. Quickness is the key to success on the net. That and offering what people want or need or both. But you also have to fight hundreds of competitors who offer the same thing. Perhaps they as good or maybe even better. And even if they're not as good, they can still out-market you. They can still get your customers and clients!

Clients don't necessarily want the best. They don't necessarily want the guy or gal who can handcraft the most beautiful piece of furniture out of the finest wood. What they "do" want is something that will do the job and they want it right now.

Of course there are exceptions to that rule. But don't think that because you have a better mousetrap people will flock to your door. They have to "know" you have a mousetrap first. And if they don't know it, they'll buy from the guy who lets them know about his mousetrap even if it's not as good as yours!

Apple Computer had a better operating system. But Microsoft had the hunger to dominate and the willingness to go for the juggler. They didn't have the best product. But it was good enough. They knew how to market themselves and so they ate up the competition.

Intuit sells more financial software than anyone else. Their products have bugs. They aren't perfect at all. But they're good enough.

I buy a car based on whether it will get me safely and in some manner of comfort from point A to point B. It doesn't have to be the best car made. It simply has to be good enough. I know not everyone is like that. So, as I said, there are exceptions.

This article doesn't have to be the best article in all the Friday newsletters. It doesn't have to be the best written or even have the most exciting topic. While I love great writing and I'd love to write pros that leave people spellbound.

I don't have the time to do that.

What this article "does" have to do, however, is to interest you enough (there's that word again --- enough) to read it from beginning to end. Why? Two reasons.

1) You won't get the entire message and what it means in your business if you don't read it all and

2) If *you* read the entire article, you'll know that if I ever write something for you, your prospective clients will read everything I write on "your" behalf!

Of course, if I have a client who pays me $40,000 to write a sales letter as one client did, they pretty much expect and I certainly give, the very best. Obviously that client will make millions from that single letter.

Then there's the person who thinks that $1000 or $2000 is too much to pay for a letter that will make them many times that much. So that person wants a writer who is "just good enough".

So what does all this mean to you? It means that you need to stop thinking in the old paradigm. Throw away those old dusty books from the previous age. They served you then. They will serve you no longer.

A generation in Internet time is from 18 months to 3 years. Plan your marketing in 18 month chunks. But you are not married to your plan. Be ready to ditch it if it doesn't work quickly. Be prepared to do something else.

Because certain marketing does not work does not mean it's bad marketing. It simply means that it isn't working for you at this time and in this place.

Keep trying different methods. When you find something that works, use it for all it's worth. When it no longer serves you (and that will happen) go to your next plan.

From this point on, marketing will not be a game for the faint of heart or people with weak stomachs. It will take brains and brawn and skills many of us have yet to use. It will take the killer instinct and lots of intelligence on our competitors. We have to constantly watch our back and, at the same time, know what's up ahead!

You need to arm yourself with all the knowledge you can absorb. You need to get the assistance of all the professionals you can afford who can help you achieve your goals. No one person can do it alone in this market. Not a large corporation. Not a small business. No one. We all need alliances. We need to out-source what we can no longer do and do extremely well alone.

The new millennium will be exciting. It will be rewarding to those who succeed. But it will also kill off many businesses. Rapidly and without thought or care.

You needn't be one of them. Begin now to plan to win. Because if you do, the rewards will be greater than those from any other time in history!

Copyright 1999, Susanna K. Hutcheson and Power Communications.

Susanna K. Hutcheson is a professional advertising and direct mail copywriter. She was the first copywriter to utilize the Internet as a place to market this type of service. Susanna has clients all over the world. Some who hire her for one or two yearly projects and others who retain her on a yearly basis. Visit her Web site at http://www.powerwriting.com. Her e-mail address is powerwriter@powerwriting.com. To subscribe to her newsletter, MARKETING INSIDER NEWS, send a blank e-mail to subscribe@powerwriting.com. Telephone: (316) 684-0457.

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