Have you noticed that every new networking site almost immediately has a handful of “experts” and every new marketing idea comes complete with someone offering a free teleseminar or webinar that primarily offers just enough information to make you want to sign up for a costly series of seminars?

I got three of them this morning in my email, and I just have to rant this off my chest.

Marketing isn’t just marketing anymore. Now, instead of merely promoting  product or a service, today’s “thought leaders” market expensive programs on how to market your product or service. And oy, is it easy to get caught up in all the hype and start believing you really need all this information!

So, as a public service and for no money down or due, here’s what I’ve gleaned about modern marketing–and I’ve done it without spending any thousands of dollars:

1. If you’ve got a product or service, you’ve got to get the word out about it to as many people as possible. Hmm — not exactly a new concept, is it?
2. Spending time on  social network sites is a fun way to blow a couple hours,  but it does not necessarily translate into customers or clients any more than the old method of sending out direct mail flyers to everyone in your geographical region. And if you compare cost of paper and stamps to cost of computer and Internet service, I’m not sure we’re coming out ahead. (I suppose online networking is more “green,” but only if you don’t think about all the components that go into a computer.) Bottom line: it still all comes down to the personal. To make real, personal contacts online or put out an advertorial every day requires a major investment of time and effort.
3. All marketing programs come down to essentially the same set of parameters that, gee, have been around for decades:

• Know your target audience. Today we say, “Create your Ideal Customer profile,” but it comes to the same thing. Know who you want to sell to.
• Know what you’re selling, and how it’s different, or better, or more useful, or less expensive than your competitor’s product or service. Basic marketing, 101.
• Incorporate the four “U” messages (unique, useful, urgent, ultra-specific) in all your advertorial content; i.e., web sites, blogs, articles, tweets, announcements, promotions, postings, etc., etc., etc.
• Include as many of the who, what, why, when, how, and where information as appropriate. Make sure it’s easy to contact you. I tend to be suspicious of sites and promotions where my only avenue of contact is an anonymous form, don’t you? “Organizations” may be the buzz word of the day, but I like to deal with people.
• Talk more about the benefits for the customer, less about how great you are. Everybody wants their proverbial 15 minutes of fame, but today’s celebrity is tomorrow’s joke, and you want your business to continue for awhile, right?
• Offer real value for reasonable prices. This is so basic, and so often ignored these days. I cannot help but wonder who is filling the coffers of all the “thought leaders” who demand thousands of dollars to show their customers how to demand thousands of dollars to show their customers how to demand thousands of dollars … Whoever is getting rich in these pyramid schemes, you just have to know it’s not the guys coming in past level two.

I still pass out business cards and brochures, send out personally written mailers, and, when a new book comes out, pop for oversized postcards and stamps to get the news out to the specific people I want to inform. It’s easy to expend a lot of time and money on marketing and end up with nothing more than a tax write-off.

Okay, end of rant. Back to work.