Why Unique Abilities Require Unique Marketing with Ben Altadonna - I Love Marketing Episode #302

Did you know that unique abilities require unique marketing? In this episode of I Love Marketing, you'll discover how to connect your unique ability with unique marketing to transform your business, the unique marketing triangle and more. Ben Altadana is the top trainer of marketing and strategy for the chiropractic industry. He's the president of Altadana Communications and has helped many great doctors survive and thrive in their practices. Recorded live at the Genius Network annual event. If you'd like access to the full video, the show notes and the special resources for this episode, please visit ilovemarketing.com 302 that's ilovemarketing.com 302.

I'm Dean Jackson, he's Joe Polish and this is the I Love Marketing podcast.

Our next presenter is a really good friend of mine and a really, really bright guy, eccentric and does things much differently than most people. He's the top trainer of marketing and strategy and business building in the world for the chiropractic industry. Marketing legend to that industry. His name is Ben Altadana. He's the president of Altadona Communications. They provide marketing strategy, strategic marketing not just to chiropractors but also to information marketers, seminar promoters, coaches. He has made many, many millions of dollars and he's more importantly, he's helped many very good doctors that had no idea how to market the value that they had to actually survive and thrive in their practices. And so he's going to talk about why unique abilities require unique marketing. Give it up for my good friend Ben Altadana.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thanks brother. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think that talk that Renee just did could be a turning point for all of us. So I hope we all try to take that in. That was so awesome. I don't have a lot of time. I'm going to talk quick. I just want to talk about why unique abilities that we all have require unique marketing. I want to start with a quick little story. Back in 2006 I was sued for 21 1/2 million dollars and I only had 18 at the time, so I was pretty stressed. But as a result of my unique marketing, I weathered the storm. It was a five year battle and happily settled it for 1.2 million. My competitors tried to make hay out of it and they couldn't. My reputation, my relationship with my members and my clients and the relevance I had in the industry stayed strong throughout the whole time that lasted from 2006 till about 2011. As a result, I was on Channel 2 News KTVU Fox affiliate. If any of you that saw it, it went all over the country. My competitors made sure of that. And coincidentally, you might recognize the story on the left. It was the same broadcaster, the same Fox affiliate. And that's awesome, right? So I mean, it was. So there's some false advertising on the left as well. So anyway, just to give you in case you scratch that itch, in case you're curious, what happened is I was selling $100,000 medical device and the manufacturer had a few irrelevant but false claims that the competitors made a big deal out of and really tried to bring them down and me down as a result. It all worked out. But I just thought I'd share that with you. First, I'd like to talk about the dangers of average marketing. I have a lot of slides, but the first one is it attracts knockoffs because your marketing is the front stage of your business. And if that's all, your prospects see that it makes it very easy for a competitor to enter the marketplace and, and virtually copy your bullet points, your price points, your promises, your benefits. And that is not something you want to welcome. Because when your marketing is average and they basically steal the front stage and you know what's going to happen right at the end of the day, their customers are not going to be satisfied or fulfilled. Oh, isn't this nice? Thank you, thank you. This is awesome. Anyway, you can see here is what will happen is those knockoffs are going to contaminate the marketplace. And it could get to a point where the whole industry or your prospects become skeptical. Because if they buy your competitor's products that were a duplication of your average marketing and they experience a product that doesn't fulfill their wants, needs, desires, or even the initial promises, then they're most likely going to make your job a lot more difficult to recruit them into the good stuff that you do. And as a result of that, it actually credentializes your competitors. So if you think about it, if their marketing, your marketing looks the same and is average, then in essence you're credentializing them. You're on the same level as them and it makes them look. Even if you've been in the industry for 10 years and they've been in the industry for 10 months, to the average Joe blow, what's the difference? You're credentializing them with your average marketing. I'll continue. The third reason why there's danger in average marketing is it creates what I call an unrealistic conversion window. Average marketing can only gather low hanging fruit. It forces you to Sell too quickly. What I mean by that is if your marketing is average, you're going to probably ask for the sale within maybe three weeks or so. And I used to do the same thing. I don't ask for the sale during the first three weeks. I do communicate to my marketplace my prospects, my leads daily, seven days a week daily, to my leads online and my prospects every day. And I have staggered campaigns on top of that. Like Brendan discussed, the bottom line is marketing. Nowadays you should write this down. Should be consumed. Marketing should be consumed. So if your marketing provides value, they will consume it. It's not a pitch, it's not pushy. I have a definition, my own definition of unique marketing. You may have your own as well, but this is how I define unique marketing. Unique marketing is what occurs when your unique abilities and your marketing converge. They become one to a point whereby your marketing becomes virtually invisible and your prospects sell themselves. That's the way I define unique marketing. Now Joe talks about, is selling evil? Absolutely not. But average marketing is evil because not only does it not attract as many prospects or clients to your business so you can change their lives, it creates. You're basically like Brendan. You're taking your business from a two million dollar business or $20 million business down to a $2 million business. So average marketing is extremely dangerous. Now you all have unique abilities. We all do. The best thing to do is know your lane, stay in your lane. Like Joe says, I'm a very awkward guy, but I stay in my lane. I built a business out of it. And so unique abilities cannot be taught. But once you become extremely clear as to what your unique abilities are and focus on them, then with much thought, unique marketing can be created and you should underline much thought. Now here are some people that you know that market uniquely because they have their unique abilities embedded in their marketing and how they nurture relationships and how they manage their reputation and how they stay relevant in the marketplace. Joe Polish, this is what I think. I may be wrong, but in my observation, knowing Joe for over 15 years is. Joe's unique ability is bringing industry transformers together to create bigger futures for themselves, their clients, humanity and the world. He's a networker, he's a connector of people and that's his marketing. So his marketing is virtually invisible. Dan Sullivan and Babs both Dan's unique abilities, in my opinion, outside looking in is his ability to pose thought provoking questions and introduce concepts through his drawings that help create clarity, confidence, competence and bigger futures. As you can see here in some of the Material that you were provided. Gary Vaynerchuk. How many people know who Gary is? Great guy, wrote a great book, Crush it and the thank youk Economy. Well, you know, I don't know if you know much about him, but he really started, you know, in a liquor store with his father. Then he wanted to. He had bigger aspirations for himself and the business, so created what I think was the first video blog to market beverages online and offline to promote the brick and mortar as well. And actually, it turned out to be in a $50 million business, all because of his unique marketing, which was a video blog at the time, wine, library, TV. And as a result of that, he now owns VaynerMedia, and I believe there's 250 employees with big corporate clients. What's great about unique marketing is it can actually create new categories. Now, you probably have read the book. If not, I recommend you get the book the 22 Immutable Laws to Marketing, where Al Reese and Jack Trout. This is one of my favorite quotes in the book. Creating a category that you can be first in is easier than trying to convince someone that you are better. Now, it says easier. It's not simple. And I'll get into that in a little bit. Here's a Cirque du Soleil. Let's take them, for example. They have their own category. Are they a circus? Maybe. Are they a strip club? Maybe. But they're basically a circus without animals. They're basically artistic entertainment is what they claim, but they're in their own world. They created their own category. Same with Uber. Coincidentally, I think Tim Ferriss talked about it today. The Uber. He's involved in Uber. I don't know if you don't know what Uber is, but they basically connect passengers to drivers of luxury vehicles. Vehicles through a gps, proprietary GPS map, or a GPS map on your mobile app. So they took the word mobile app, if you think about it, and made it literal. It's like mobile for transportation on an app. So I got here from the airport using them, and I live near San Francisco, and I use them all the time. Another one is, you might not be one of her biggest fans, or you might despise this lady, but she built a huge brand through being unique. She kind of did it accidentally, but I think there's some very instructive lessons to be learned with this. I better hurry up. I have 46 more seconds. I can't believe it. I'd like to talk to you about the unique marketing triangle. Write this down. Your reputation, your relevance, and your relationship reputation. What are you known for? Make your unique abilities apparent, relevant value, usable information, innovative ways relationship Use all means of communication and communicate often, preferably daily. And I love this quote, and I'll end at that is simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. Thank you very much.

Thanks for listening to this episode of I Love Marketing. If you'd like to learn more about the Genius Network Annual event, please visit geniusnetworkevents.com that's geniusnetworkevents dot com if you would like access to the full interview, the show notes, and the special resources for this episode, please visit ilovemarketing.com 302 that's ilovemarketing.com 302.