A mistake businesspeople often make is when they try to sell their company directly in every communication they produce. (I’m referring to the idea that they try to sell their company as being merely open for business, also called “institutional advertising,” and not direct marketing, which is different.)

Institutional advertising (or what I call “blind branding”) will draw up immediate clients. When advertising, they spend hoards of cash on repeated, slick and entertaining ads. When marketing to people for the first time, they blab on until the cows come home. When sending out information, they send beautifully designed packages that make shipping crates look like a joke!

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The following is probably the greatest commandment in “Power Positioning.”

Now that we’ve talked about lead generation advertising, the next step is where to advertise. And the trick to having as many pre-qualified prospects come forward is to have your ad noticed and read by such a specific group of people as much, as often, and as effectively as possible. General publications won’t do that and they cost a lot of money… That’s cost-per-lead money.

Specialized publications, on the other hand, have the distinction of appealing to a specific audience and thus increase the chances of it being noticed as well as read. Why? If one newspaper has a readership of 100,000 but only 25,000 fits into your demographics, where another has only 40,000 readers but all of which fits into your demographics (because the publication is specialized), which one do you think will give you the greatest response?

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In the second commandment, you learned that you should be the leader in your category or in your unique area of expertise. Now you need to be known as such. And one of the most effective ways to do this is through publicity.

I met a fellow once while working in New York City who ran his own show on cable television — his very own cable show! Cable and community television stations are wonderful mediums to get the word out effectively. This is an area in which you can get a lot of publicity at little or no cost.

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I know that the yellow pages’ people will hate me for this, but your yellow pages’ ad, although an essential part of your entire marketing machine, doesn’t have to be of a large size, in color, prominently displayed, or tied-in with other gimmicks that the yellow pages salespeople have to offer. While necessary, the yellow pages should only be used as support systems.

The concept of this entire book is to teach you that creating top-of-mind awareness (not “institutional” advertising) should be your main marketing goal. When people have seen your ad, heard about you, or have a need for your services at any particular time, your contact information may or may not be available to them at that particular moment. Therefore, you want the yellow pages to back you up and not use them as a full-blown marketing medium.

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We’ve made it! You’ve now reached the last commandment. And what better way is there to end this book that’s chock-full o’ marketing secrets other than by telling you about something I truly hate. I hate networking. Really, I do!

I hate it because, in my experience, it hasn’t brought me anything substantial in return. You’re probably saying right now, “What? Is he crazy? Has he lost his mind?”

But wait a minute, hear me out. Networking isn’t a bad concept. Far from it. If the previous commandments have been properly followed, networking can be a fantastic marketing tool to leverage them. If you can be at the top of your prospects’ minds, you can also be at the top of your network’s mind, right?

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Here’s a bonus commandment. I thought I’d make it a bonus because 11 would sound a little funny, wouldn’t you think? And it is indeed a bonus since, with all that you have learned, you would never be as effective if I didn’t give this extra piece of advice while implementing the first 10.

I can never stress enough, whether it’s in this book or in my seminars that, in order to create endless streams of new, repeat and referral business, you must turn every single nook-and-cranny of your business into an effective marketing system. Everything you do must become a marketing activity.

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Freelance copywriters are an interesting bunch. They practice the art of salesmanship in print, yet have difficulty selling themselves. They struggle when it comes to self-promotion.

So instead of being well-fed and content, they often go hungry. Why is this?

I believe it comes down to three fundamental deficiencies. I observed these in myself when I was getting started a few years ago. I have continued to observe them in other copywriters who are launching new freelance careers.

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