WHAT'S HAPPENING LATELY AT TRACTOR BEAM?

Lots of great things happening these days! From speaking events, to our newly launched Online Marketing Courses, we've been busy, busy!

Recent Events:

• ONLINE COURSES ARE AVAILABLE! Following the mantra of Low Cost, High Impact marketing education tools, we now have THREE courses available. The big news is, the first TWO are FREE!
  
  Check out the Press Release! | Get More Info at our Website!!
  
  
• LIVE SHOWS! We've just had two excellect Close Encounters Events with some fantastic business-minded folks. First, at the beautiful Marriott River Cree Resort with a group of forward thinking individuals looking for ideas to move their businesses forward. We shared principles from the our marketing playbook and current Social Media strategies.
  
  The second saw Tractor Beam Marketing Director, Jake Bergen, speaking to The Parkland Women in Business, an energetic and proactive group who made the event an awesome experience for us!
  
  
• Our next event will be an event with the Love Story Wedding Expo, coming up in June!
  
  
• Jake Bergen is currently developing a great Social Media E-Book to help educate business owners about the ever growing world of social media marketing. Details will be announced as the book nears completion.
  
  

NOW AVAILABLE!
Low Cost & High Impact Marketing Courses

The First TWO Course Pods are FREE to Try.
Introducing Our Innovative ONLINE MARKETING COURSES!
Visit Our Website for More Information!

Developed in an interactive flash format, we welcome you into the story of Jack Goodlife, the new managing owner of his family's restaurant, The Juke Box. Jack faces the problems any business owner would relate to as he struggles to keep his business profitable. How does he take a struggling, backward business and turn it around?

We use this storyline as a backdrop for introducing you to effective marketing principles that can be applied to any business. We've developed a method called the "Marketing Cycle" and we've broken it down into a series of low cost, high impact marketing courses that will give you immediate tools to plug into your business practices. The first two PODS are FREE of charge to help introduce you to the marketing courses we've developed. The first course available for purchase is Step One of the Marketing Cycle, Knowing Your Market (POD B-1). Our low cost approach means we are offering this POD for a very affordable $10 cost!

The first POD A (The Marketing Story), we aren't really teaching anything, other than to introduce you to our story in an entertaining, fun way. The real material begins with POD B, The Marketing Cycle. Each of these POD are accompanied with downloadable notes and worksheets, which at the conclusion of the series (which will contain 7-9 PODS) will comprise a marketing plan for your business.

FREE! POD A : The Marketing Story Introduction
Get the Tractor Beam backstory and meet Jack as he tries to turn-around his failing business.

FREE! POD B-1 : The Marketing Cycle Explained
The basis of our marketing method. A free introduction to the process we teach for a marketing plan.

$10!! POD B-2 : Knowing Your Market
Start into STEP ONE of the Marketing Cycle. We teach the essentials of identifying your market.

You are invited to experience and learn about the following topics and more! :

The Marketing Cycle Why & how to identify and target your ideal customers. Why & how to build & budget marketing into your business plan Understanding & applying the Power of Branding Strategic marketing & planning

Adapting your marketing to what works TODAY! Why & how to WOW! your customers beyond expectation Why & how to measure your marketing efforts Learning how to adapt and repeat your successes

Jake turned his attention to the sphere hovering before them and Jack followed suit. Words and arrows appeared to spin out of the center of the sphere and then slow, finally taking rest at points around the circle.

At the top were the words ‘Know Your Market’. A series of arrows led clockwise around the chart, leading to the next step, ‘Budget’. After ‘Budget’ came ‘Strategy’, ‘Branding & Promotion’ and ‘Wow Factor’, followed by ‘Track & Measure’ and finally ‘Review & Make Informed Decisions’. After this, another arrow made the connection ack to the first step in the cycle.

“Let’s talk about this for a bit.” Jake started up again. “Step one is called ‘Know Your Market’. This is all about finding out who the most likely candidates are to purchase what you have to offer.

“This is commonly referred to as your ‘target demographic’ or ‘target market’. Demographics refer to the statistics of a population in a given location; particularly in reference to average age, income, gender, education, or any other criteria that can be identified that would be advantageous to know.

“One key to this principle is understanding that you cannot be all things to all people. It is so easy, and so common to find, new business people working their hearts out trying to please the un-pleaseable, or just trying to do way too much. Essentially, budding entrepreneurs spend a lot of time burning themselves out for the wrong customers.

“To bring it down home for you, Jack; I am going to assume your target market is not going to be vegetarians. There is nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, but vegetarians are probably not going to want a juicy beef patty in their burger. You may offer salads and veggie burgers on your menu for variety, and so you won’t have to turn these folks away; but I think it is safe to say that market will never be your primary focus.

“As with everything, it is best to strive to find a balance. If you narrow the criteria for your market, you will have better opportunity within a more narrow market than one that is too broad. But if your market is too narrow, you may not have the customer base to support you. So you must choose wisely the crowd that you want to cater to.”

“Almost always, there is a primary target market, as well as a secondary target market or two. Some you may know of up front, and some you may discover along the way. Stay openminded, and your business will be able to adapt and serve these additionally lucrative revenue streams.”

What Exactly is a Market?
A ‘market’ is made up of people. Real people who have wants and needs, perceptions, fears, and preconceived notions. Notions that are not always logical...and that can be scary. When discovering our market, we need to ask some questions about these people.

1) Who are they?
2) What to they want and how do they think?
3) Where do we find them?

When you rely on your ‘gut’ and ‘intuition’ like most business people do, you are leaving yourself open to get blindsided by all the things your gut didn’t tell you. One of the things we need is accurate information. Information provides knowledge, and as we all know, knowledge is power. But information is just information if it is not interpreted correctly, and if it doesn’t lead us to discovery on a deeper level.

...continued in the FREE COURSE, POD B-1 : The Marketing Cycle Explained
Visit Our TRACTOR BEAM MARKETING for More!