It has become blatantly obvious that “Marketing” is extremely important to small business. Marketing is the life blood that creates new business, repeat business, and good business. I talk to countless small business owners about the topic, and I have come to find that most folks (professional marketers not included) have a difficult time with.

Marketing can be an extremely confusing subject because there are so many types, versions, names, and theories. Not only is it confusing but it can be a very expensive undertaking. It is very important that any money a small business spends on marketing it is in the right place. I have come to learn that the best kind of marketing a small business can do is direct response marketing in one form or another.

The main idea behind the Black Box idea I am referring to is creating a marketing plan so perfect that it would be as if there was in fact a box that distributes money. The idea is accomplished by having a structure of marketing sequences that do the following:

• Generate New Leads and Prospects.
• Bring Leads and Prospects into a “funnel”.
• This funnel feeds to a product that provides a solution for a problem, want, need or desire.
• Ideally an upsell, cross sell, or another product would be offered at the same time.
• After this product is purchased the Lead or Prospect becomes a customer, client, or patient.
• This customer is then followed up with to place value on the transaction.
• The customer reenters the “funnel” and becomes prospected for addition products to provide more solutions.

In order to accomplish this type of experience for your customers and prospects there are a number of complications that can get in the way. Extreme organization, constant follow through, undying work ethic, and an ungodly amount of patience are just a few of the traits an individual would need to accomplish this task perfectly every time. In fact I believe it is inhuman unless you have a system in place that helps you do this.

Ideally this system would not only provide a delivery mechanism for all marketing pieces a prospect and or customer would receive, but also provide a means to process a transaction, deliver a product, and trigger a follow up sequence to make sure this customer was happy. I didn’t even mention that you would then need to keep track of where this person is at in your process, the last thing you would want to do is prospect someone that already bought what you are selling.

On a daily basis I help implement these types of systems in numerous small businesses. This can become extremely complex as more products or solutions are added to the equation. I know that if I were a small business owner I would need these systems in place, so that I could run my business and not have my business run me. I would want things to be so simple that I could literally look at my screen and watch money appear.