Marketing Brain Trust

Rest assured that no matter how smart you are, you do not know everything about marketing. You don't even know anything about marketing your product! You can't figure everything out yourself, or see all the angles, or provide every bit of critical thinking.

The solution? Create a marketing brain trust.

Use the mastermind principle which says more brainpower brought to bear on an issue means more ideas and greater insight. Gather together a mixed bag of thoughtful, intelligent people who have an interest in helping you create breakthroughs in your enterprise.

Adding brains to the brain trust produces non-linear results. Breakthrough results. Unreasonable results. Quantum Results. Because of the interactions among several people's ideas bouncing off each other, the increased thinking- effectiveness can be multiplicative or even exponential.

Enroll people into your marketing brain trust. Find people who have a vested interest in your success, or the success of your business. You can't have a great brain trust unless people are truly committed.

Your marketing brain trust can take different forms. If you want it to be official (and tax deductible) call it your Board of Advisors. Make it the board's job to help you pilot your venture. You can even ask each advisor to be accountable for a specific segment of information or knowledge, but their real role and true benefit is to work as a group - to release the mind synergy.

Meet periodically - monthly or quarterly - in person, or by phone, video conference, the Internet, or some combination. Check in with individual brain trust members between meetings. Keep them up to date on your progress; let them know how you are doing. You can pay your advisors and honorarium, or give them options on future ownership.

A different approach is to form a marketing mastermind group. This is less formal and less committed than a Board of Advisors. Gather the mastermind members together periodically and provide refreshments - dinner or perhaps just a case of wine. (I find that red is better than white for masterminding.) Entertain them while they ponder specific issues with you.

The job of the marketing mastermind is to bring alternate perspectives, help you create ideas, and in general, think things through in a way that looks differently than you would yourself.

Let your master-minders know topics in advance, and provide them with appropriate backgrounders to get their creative juices flowing. You may also ask them to suggest topics based on what they already know about you.

Try to make this group diverse. Your mastermind members need not be familiar with your particular business; in fact they need not be business people at all. Get artists, scientists, musicians, technologists, writers, humanitarians, hackers, theologians, philosophers, and psychologists - all sorts of creative thinkers, along with marketers, entrepreneurs and executives, to complement those members familiar with your specific business.

You should limit the size of your mastermind group to no more than ten or twelve people, although you can get started with as few as three or four. Really, any number is going to be an increase over just you.

Lastly, create a simple Roster of Marketing Brains. This is the network of friends, associates and acquaintance you can call on who are expert thinkers in specific areas, and might have some vested interest in seeing you succeed. Some of these people you barter with, some do it because they think what you are up to is cool and going to make a difference in the world, some of them you pay as consultants. You may never gather all these people together at once, but assemble them in ad-hoc groups to tackle whatever issues are at hand.

These three marketing brain trust formats are not mutually exclusive; you might have them all. After all, the when it comes to creative minds, the more the merrier.

---

Special Requirements for Reprint: We ask only that you include Paul's name and resource box, and keep all hyperlinks as live links.

To find out more about kicking your marketing strategies into high gear to increase your sales and profits, get in touch with Paul Lemberg at http://www.marketingsuccessdaily.com

---

Write Effective Fundraising Letters By Being Conversational (Includes Examples & Samples)

I am doing what you do, sitting at my computer,... Read More

Does The Market Really Want It?

At the very heart of any successful marketing strategy is... Read More

Trade Show Events ? Do?s and Don?ts

You can love it or you can hate it but... Read More

8 BIG Benefits To Selling Big Ticket Items

Ok, before we get down to the benefits of... Read More

Growing Your Brand Assets

Okay. Raise your hand if you think brand management is... Read More

How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 1 of 2)

Are you looking for a natural way to market your... Read More

Fern Reisss PublishingGame.com: Achieve Media Attention for Your Business

Do you want to be quoted by the national press... Read More

Top 10 Tips To Market & Build Your Professional Practice

In building and running a professional practice (or any small... Read More

7 Ways to Evaluate Your Marketing Plan

Business owners often find it difficult to know whether their... Read More

Marketing From Both Sides Of The Ball

In the world of business, marketing is often conveyed as... Read More

Bridging the Chasm from Lead to Loyal Customer

Bridging the Chasm from Lead to Loyal Customer: A Step... Read More

Big Ticket Marketing in 28 Minutes

I read an article recently about how many mainstream retail... Read More

Recipe for Success

Special event and a special recipe- hand it out on... Read More

Eliminate Your Competitors With 2 Simple Steps

In business, having competitors goes with the territory. There's almost... Read More

A Questionnaire for Businesses

As best you can, answer the following twenty-five questions. There's... Read More

Eight Steps To A Great Marketing Plan

Step 1: Where Am I Now? Before you decide where... Read More

7 Ways a Copywriter Can Help Your Business Succeed

Think you can't afford to hire a copywriter? Think again.... Read More

Four Keys For Successful Foundation and Corporate Fundraising

Earlier in my career, I worked for a training and... Read More

What Can Star Wars Teach You About Creating a Buzz for Your Business?

Many people think marketing is some type of mystery that... Read More

10 Essential Criteria For Choosing Your Target Market

A specific group of people you will focus on selling... Read More

Peddling Your Own Wagon Through Local Exposure

In my e-book "Articles That Sell", I've shared the secret... Read More

Do You Make These 5 Common Marketing Mistakes?

The famous P.T Barnum once said, "Without promotion, something terrible... Read More

Ten Crucial Questions

Ten Crucial Questions for Your Business Future I'm... Read More

Marketing On The Cheap: Become a Joiner

Recently I wrote an article on the benefits of joining... Read More

SMS for the Estate Agent - Targeted Marketing Tool, or Legal Minefield?

Imagine having at your disposal a means to immediately inform... Read More

What The Heck Is An Eponym, And What Does It Mean For Your Brand?

Today I've decided to share with you a new word... Read More

The Magic of Keep-in-Touch Marketing

Yesterday I received a phone call from an acquaintance that... Read More

Receiving a Brochure Printing Quote

Brochures are a great way to get your message across.... Read More

Cause-Related Marketing

Altruism. Corporate responsibility. Philanthropy. These are often used to describe... Read More

Market Yourself as the Expert

As a small business how do you compete with the... Read More

Massage Therapists Can Now Make More Money

As a massage therapist, your income is usually limited by... Read More

How to Critique Your Own Yellow Page Ad

Forget what you know about your business Your goal is... Read More

30-Minute Marketing

Marketing your small business takes tons of time, years of... Read More