Top Marketing Gurus and Marketing Resources

Who are the best marketers and who offers the best marketing courses?

Back in mid 2007, I decided that it was time to revamp my marketing tool kit. This led to a two year review of educational materials for both online and offline marketing.  I ended up spending just under $21,000. ($20,945 to be exact.) Was it worth it? I would say yes in an overall sense. Sales for all of my businesses have increased anywhere from 15% up to 60% annually since 2007. Before that I was used to far more modest sales growth.

So without further ado, here are the ones I recommend the following.

Offline Marketing:

These are in no particular order.

Dan Kennedy
Sean D' Souza

Both of these gentlemen are superb at teaching you how to engage with your customer in such a way that they will actually hear you through all the noise and understand what it is that you are offering them. In today's marketplace where people are bombarded with marketing messages, this is paramount.

Jay Abraham

Jay's key strength is in helping those with huge customer lists organize joint venture type deals.

Both Dan and Jay have books you can start with before graduating to their big ticket courses. Sean has some economical under $100 products which deliver great value.

Designing and Implementing a Company Marketing Strategy

Chet Holmes is the king in this area. He also has books which you can begin with for a minimal investment.

Paul Lemberg is another highly recommended marketing guru who can teach you how to turbo charge your sales and marketing.

Online Information Marketing:

Once again, these are in no particular order.

Frank Kern
Eben Pagan (aka David D'Angelo)

Both of these marketing gurus teach you how to market information products. They're exact opposites in personality. Frank comes across as the guy you would meet if you called central casting and asked for a blonde-haired surfer dude type. Eben, on the other hand, is a very polished suit & tie type.

StomperNet also offers some very in depth courses on online marketing.

Product Marketing Resources:

If you sell tangible products either B2C or B2B, I can't recommend these two resources strongly enough.  Both sell top rate marketing reports, which although pricey at first blush, offer tremendous value. If you prefer an academic approach over the guru one for learning marketing, check out these resources.

Marketing Sherpa
Marketing Profs

I bought a few popular marketing courses which turned out to be duds but won't name them here.

Just focus on the good stuff.

Comments

[Don Juan]

Good to see this. I have Eben's dating materials but only discovered recently that he's a marketing guru too.

[IM2008]

Do you have any opinion of Yanik Silver's courses?

[Cal Wilson]

It might be a good idea to listen to a variety of sales trainers and see who works best for you.

Dale Carnegie's stuff is great and probably a must for anyone selling or dealing with people.

Napoleon Hill has a great sales training course too

I've been self employed most of my life and I deal with my customers face to face.

I don't know if I can be called a professional sales person, but I do do-it everyday.

Some of my friend who are professional sales people (that's all they do), like Zig or Tom Hopkins.

I'm an information junkie so I listen to just about anything I can get my hands on. If I pick up just one new idea, it's worth it.

[BRB]

i go with tom hopkins

[Vince]

What would you recommend for someone wanting to become a marketing consultant?

[Mark]

Vince,

Let me share what's made me money. For over eight years now I’ve been a marketing consultant. Before that, I spent five years as a salesman with P&G.

OK, now on to the good stuff.

First, if I could do the last eight years over again, I would buy a business consulting franchise. I spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY trying to figure things out for myself. Trial and error takes time and money. Both of which you’ll never have enough of.

If I had the money and could do it over again, I would just buy a system and get rolling. Then I would create my own stuff later. I spent too much time writing, and testing what worked and what didn’t. I don’t see anything wrong with getting some help to get going and then branch off and build your own business based on theirs.

Here is a list of franchise type systems. Some do not make you pay a royalty and some do. There are some benefits besides a proven system, like being able to chat with other licensees, referrals from their site and using the brand name.

Here's the list in random order:

http://www.onecoach.com/franchising
http://www.actioncoach.com/coaching-franchise.php
http://www.sandlerfranchising.com/
http://www.focalpointcoaching.com/franchise opportunity.php
http://www.wsicorporate.com/franchise-opportunity.aspx
http://www.thegrowthcoach.com/Franchising/tabid/1175/Default...
http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/HMA_Details.htm
http://www.21st-centurymarketing.com/ccc.php
http://betterbusinessgroup.biz/business-opportunity.php
http://www.bbi-northamerica.com/process.htm
http://www.betterbusinessinstitute.com.au/opportunity.htm

[FS]

Mark, thanks for your advice. I have been working with travel agents for the past couple of years, teaching them basic offline and online marketing skills via articles and videos authored by me. Getting travel agents to pony up cash has been a challenge. Most of them are older and set in their ways, and just don't seem to understand the need for good marketing.

I have also been a college prof. for 14 years and I feel like I need to get out of the classroom and into the real world.

Can I ask more questions?

How much of your own stuff are you using in your consulting and how much are you borrowing from others? Are you encountering any hesitancy from clients because of the economy?