Graham McGregor: What are great marketing ideas really worth?

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. Photo / 123RF

I was reading a wonderful post by entrepreneur Derek Sivers recently and it reminded me that good marketing ideas by themselves have very little value unless you put them into action.

Derek explained it like this...

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed.

Ideas are just a multiplier.

Execution is worth millions.

Explanation:

Awful idea = -1
Weak idea = 1
So-so idea = 5
Good idea = 10
Great idea = 15
Brilliant idea = 20
-----------------
No execution = $1
Weak execution = $1000
So-so execution = $10,000
Good execution = $100,000
Great execution = $1,000,000
Brilliant execution = $10,000,000

To make a business, you need to multiply the two.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.

The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.

The same principle applies to great marketing ideas and strategies.

By themselves they are worth very little.

But if you execute them and put them into action in your business they can be worth a fortune.

Here's a good example of the value of taking action on a good marketing idea. (The marketing idea this business offered was the potential to get something valuable for free. In this case it was $50 of free hardware goods of your choice.)

Here are the details...

A fun competition for a hardware store:

A hardware shop increased the number of people coming into their store with a creative strategy that they took action on.

They put up a big sign in their window that said:

"We guarantee that if you come into our store one of our people will professionally greet and welcome you within 20 seconds. If they don't we will give you $50.00 of hardware of your choice completely free"

People would walk down the street and read this sign. They would then mentally say to themselves "That sounds interesting; I think I will check it out."

So they would walk inside the hardware store. The store had a bell and buzzer on their door that sounded as soon as you went in.

One of their salespeople would excuse themselves if they were dealing with a customer by saying something like "Can you just excuse me for 10 seconds" and then walk over to the person and welcome them to the store. "Thank you for coming in today, I'm just with someone else so please free to look around. I'll be with you in a moment"

This way the customer was always greeted professionally within 20 seconds of walking in to the shop.

Now once the people were in the shop guess what many did?

That's right they said to themselves, "Well now that I'm here what can I buy that I might need?"

Sales increased dramatically.

The good news is that there are thousands of great marketing ideas and strategies that you can use in your business to quickly boost sales. And many of these ideas are simple to use and either low cost or free to put into action.

The bad news is that these marketing ideas are worth very little if you don't action on them.

So take time this week to put some good marketing ideas into action. You could be pleasantly surprised at how well some of these ideas actually work for you.

"The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Action exercise:

What great marketing ideas could you put into action this week?

- Graham McGregor is a Marketing Advisor and helps businesses who offer an expensive service to quickly attract ideal new clients. You can download his brand new 106 page marketing guide 'The Expensive Service Marketing Solution' at no charge from www.TheExpensiveServiceMarketingSolution.com