On the day I launched my first book, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, no one bought it. Not even my own mother. Feeling defeated, I had two choices: learn how to market effectively, or abandon my dream.

I knew it was a good book. I knew in my heart it would help other entrepreneurs succeed. This led me to an epiphany that that has resonated with me every day for my entire career: I have a responsibility to market.

The lack of good, effective marketing is the reason for small business mediocrity and stunted growth. It cannot be overstated enough: You have a responsibility to market effectively. It’s that simple. You became a business owner because you saw the impact you could have on the world with your offering, and you thought it could serve better than the rest. With the numerous responsibilities that come with business ownership, your main focus should land on marketing your offering in a way that makes you shine among your competition and serve your community of customers.

It’s natural for fear and adversity to arise when running a business. It’s a strange time, to say the least. The idea of getting back to “normal” is obscure for some. Others may realize that “normal” wasn’t that great. Add to that, many of us are wondering what’s going to happen next in the current economy, which leads to trepidation when developing your business strategies. The one strategy that is paramount to the survival of your business is in marketing.

There will always be a reason (I like to call these excuses) not to market. You may think now isn’t the time. Perhaps you’re revamping your product. Maybe you’re an introvert. Maybe a health crisis, politics or social justice issues are creating it’s a sensitive time in the world (in which case, yes, time your messaging accordingly). Whatever the reason, you must find a way to get over the fear of failure and market your offering so it cuts through the static and gets noticed. Your business, your livelihood, and that of your family and employees, depends on it.

So what are you going to do? I assume you didn’t get this far because you give up easily. Here are the three main steps from Get Different to ensure your marketing is engaging – and effective. For good.

Differentiate – Let’s Get Uncomfortable – because very little is created via comfort zones. Let’s cut to the chase. Do not rely on word of mouth for marketing. That’s just lazy. By doing that, you are forgoing your marketing methods and leaving it in the hands of people who have no skin in your game. Don’t cross your fingers and hope people hear about you. Marketing is one of the things in your business that you can control.

If you want to get noticed and get results in a crowded market, follow the DAD methodology in Get Different. Based on years of marketing research and experiments, Get Different contains a blueprint for engaging and converting your prospects into leads. DAD stands for Differentiate, Attract, and Direct. The first step, differentiate, in the framework is quite literal. To get attention, to stand out in the constant hum of marketing, you must, must get different. You must identify a marketing approach intrinsic to you that stands out in a sea of sameness.

What will make your prospect’s minds stop and pay attention? How can you engage them during the marketing milliseconds? What is your “est”? Are you the smartest or the funniest? How is your business the best? Use that quality in your marketing to stand out among the others. Now, I’m not saying dress up in tight, shiny clothes and create a book release video (like we did), but you can use your unique qualities, the ones authentic to who you are and what your service offers to market the heck out of your product. And get creative, or no one is going to see you.

Don’t be afraid to stand out. It’s not natural for everyone, and you may have to leave your ego at the door and take a risk. One that will be worth it.

“Different isn’t doing more of what everyone else does, it’s doing more of what you do.”

Attract for Engagement – You have their attention. Now what? Next, ensure that your approach will appeal to the people you want to serve, not turn them off. How will you establish your marketing as an opportunity they will consider, instead of a threat they will avoid? Make how you are attracting works for who your community is.

Attraction is what holds that attention you garnered from being different. You can show a shiny object and get attention, but that’s not the same as attracting. At least not successfully. Successful attraction engages your prospects for the long term.

After years of research, I can say that gimmicks and talking without doing the walk only work for the short term. How will you keep customers engaged in your marketing? The biggest component of attracting your customers is to establish attraction influencers (no, not social media influencers though there’s a similar idea here). Attraction influencers are the key attributes your business needs to attract and influence your audience for the long term.

Authority – First, you want to be sure that your customers see you as the authority in your niche. This increases their trust in you, because they see you as the expert that can serve them best. And, it’s human nature that people want to be associated with the top dog.
Trust – Speaking of trust, if you are already a trusted source in your field, people will already have established confidence in you.

Repetition – Here is an interesting fact: The more something is repeated, the more likely it will ring true for people. So if you know your offering is life changing, yell it from the rooftops. Over and over.

Social significance – Even the most humble of people want to feel they’re doing something important to serve their community (business or otherwise). Some prospects will be attracted to the idea of being elevated through association with you and/or your service.

Alignment – Alignment validates us. When we relate to something, we are more likely to want to stay connected in that space. Letting your customers know your priorities are aligned with theirs creates familiarity and comfort.

Direct – What is your call to arms? Your strategy must compel your ideal prospects to take a specific action you desire.

Now that you have the prospect’s attention and they are engaged, you need to tell them what the heck to do. Marketing guru Jeff Walker says that marketing is every step you take to get the customer to the buying decision, and the sale is the final action on their decision to buy. So your clear, singular directive should get them to the next step. With every marketing offer, provide very clear, concise, and short directions. If the directions are too wordy or involved, you’re going to lose that prospective client. The easier the better – it ensures you will get more responses.

Be someone your prospects aspire to. If they see you as an authority in your field, the more likely they are to take your directive. Similarly, if you’re seen as an equal, or a peer, they will trust you. But, if they see you or your product as inferior, well, go back to step 1.

Wishing you different and even better in your business.

-Mike