There are plenty of “hypers” out there selling a “miracle” pill, weight-loss machine, slicer/dicer, you name it.

But just take the time to look closely at the next 20 or so ads, articles and web pages you see and you’ll very likely realize that most companies play it safe in terms of promising vs. over-promising.

Why? Simply because the smart and successful organizations want your business and your repeat business – and they want you to tell your friends to do business with them as well.

Repeat and referral customers form a company’s foundation, while first-time and one-time customers are often acquired at a loss.

Being clear on your target market is crucial to your marketing success. This takes research, of course.

Do you know who your customers are? How can you find out? What do they need? When there’s competition, you need to be even more targeted with your niche and your business branding.

Here are some great ways for small businesses, entrepreneurs, consultants and even the “Big Boys” to know their market:

1. Organize informal discussion or focus groups over coffee or lunch. (Call them brainstorming sessions, focus groups, conferences – whatever you want.)
2. Interact with people and companies in your target market at conferences, trade shows and workshops.
3. Ask questions and encourage discussion on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
4. Keep an eye on the competition and how they do things. What works? What doesn’t? What are they overlooking?
5. Be realistic about your business and researching your target market – you will never be everything to everybody.

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So the Summer Olympics have come and gone for another four years. And if you followed the Olympics at all, you likely heard about Michael Phelps and his record-breaking performances. Without question, he achieved the ultimate success in the sport of swimming.

Throughout the games, we all heard the comments that he was super-human or fish-like, as well as a host of others that insinuated he somehow had an advantage over the other swimmers. In my opinion, he absolutely did have an advantage, and it wasn’t the length of his feet or arms or torso, it was his ability to overcome adversity. He didn’t just show up in Beijing a champion, he showed up with a history of both losses and wins, and clearly he learned from those losses how to be a winner.

Let’s face it: Whether it is the Olympics or a business opportunity, no one wants to show up and lose. We go there (wherever “there” is), for one reason and one reason only: TO SUCCEED.

When Phelps arrived at the 2000 games in Sydney, there is no doubt he wanted to win it all…but he didn’t. Four years later, a stop in Greece and although improved, he still experienced some loss. I imagine that the losses ignited a fire that allowed him to learn from his past mistakes. Whether it was his start, his turn or the number of breaths he took, we will never know, but clearly Michael made the necessary changes to achieve the ultimate success.

The same can be true for all of us with our business and marketing efforts. We have all spent money on ineffective advertising or wasted time on a project that returned little or no result. And truthfully, that is OK, because it is through these mistakes that we improve ourselves and our businesses. As long as you learned from the mistake, recognized what went right, what went wrong and made the necessary corrections moving forward, then actually it was a success.

Without mistakes and losses, I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today. Would you?

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I know….YAWN! Since when is the topic of verbs considered exciting? While it may not be exciting, verbs are key to your marketing success. REALLY!

Action, action, we want action.
Active beats passive – every single time. Always, always, always choose words – especially verbs – that are active, visual and powerful. Your writing will be far more vibrant and convincing if you use active rather than passive verbs and the active voice over the passive voice. Passive verbs tend to be wordy, unnatural and, frankly, downright dull.

Consider these two sentences:
Passive: The book proposal was given to the publisher by Lisa.
Active: Lisa presented her book proposal to the publisher.
Or these:
Passive: The cake was eaten by the boys.
Active: The boys devoured the cake.

What is…isn’t. I once had a client who forbade me from using any form of the verb “to be.” This means I couldn’t use is, are, am, were, etc.

At first I thought he was out of his mind, but you know what? The end product was all the more strong, forceful and effective. The verbs were impactful and had more meaning than those dreaded-but-necessary “to be” verbs.

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