Marketing Ultimatums

Many “influencers” and self-proclaimed gurus on the web would have you believe that marketing is the solution to all or any of your issues in business. Unfortunately, the marketing industry nowadays is filled with under-educated media buyers who are after your money because some “guru” told them they might make $10,000 a month by selling you ads on an open-source platform. 

These platforms are created with the power to hyper-target who sees your ads and when. It allows you to put ads ahead of a demographic of individuals that would be your ideal customer in the platform’s psychographic data, and therefore the hope is that you’ll get leads. 

While this seems like a solution for all of your business problems, it’s almost how the planet of selling works. A majority of the prospects who will buy your product won’t roll in the hay the first time they see it. 

Here are some marketing fundamentals to guide your marketing decisions and make marketing campaigns that convert customers into lifetime fans. 

1. Marketing is about finding and understanding a market in need

Many marketing agencies would have you believe that your ideal customers are always on the platform that they happened to be best at buying ads on. Take Facebook, for example, it has billions of users and ideally your ideal client is certainly there. While it’d be, many of us ignore ads on Facebook and are scared of our data privacy. For many people that could be your possible customer, clicking on Facebook advertisements isn’t even a risk they are willing to take. 

Finding a market involves these things:

• Understanding who the perfect customer is for your product or service.
• Understanding where those people spend time and the way they prefer to spend their money.
• Understanding the way to place informational content in front of these people to assist them to understand why you’re the best option for them.
• Marketing is not advertising. Ensure that you understand the market before you spend your money on advertising with the idea that it’ll be a remedy for your business. Look at where your competitors are advertising and the way they’re doing it, examine where your customers are spending their time and what their spending habits are, and research how they make their buying decisions. Utilize this information to make a real marketing strategy rather than guessing and wasting your valuable capital on guesswork and losing principles.

2. Marketing is about communicating with your potential customers

Marketing is a process of communication. Communication is about understanding each other’s point of view and not telling the opposite party why you’re right. Many companies will assume marketing is about telling their customers exactly why to shop for their product or service. It’s about communicating alongside your customers to ask what they have, and it’s about learning about how you’ll serve them better. 

Find ways to speak to them once you’ve found your market. This is a two-way street; offer a lead magnet, invite direct feedback, and ask them how they might ideally see their problems solved. Utilize both means of communication as a business, tell them about what you offer, and ask for their input. 

The more you show your customers that you care about who they are and the way they might wish to be treated (within reason), the more you’ll earn their trust and word of mouth promotion. Utilize the channels of communication that you simply need to gain valuable inside knowledge about your customers. 

Your customers need empathy. Look at your customers as people with real needs and real struggles, – they are not just potential dollar signs. Understand and implement this and you’ll stand head and shoulders above other businesses who are vying for their attention and money. 

3. Marketing is a process of education

Many marketing agencies would have you believe that you’ll get leads if you can just show your prospects the right offer. This is true but an enormous waste of selling dollars and energy if you are not in the right market. Often as entrepreneurs, we’re not selling a revolutionary product. We’re ready to take an existing product or service and make it better.

Business owners compete for the eye of their customers, it’s once you’ve gained their attention that you simply also can earn their trust. 

Consumers buy from people and corporations that they know, like, and trust. Just like anyone, it’s hard to trust the stranger on the road trying to sell you anything, so why would you expect yourself to be different? Certainly, you’d trust the food truck with excellent branding and a welcoming face if you’re hungry and leaving the bar, right? They’ve done their research and have placed themselves in a hot market with a knowledgeable presence. 

Would you purchase the equivalent food from a stranger on the road with no food truck or professional presence? Not likely. But if they handed you a little flyer about who they are, why they are doing what they are doing, how they source all of their ingredients locally, and how they provide back to the community, would you be intrigued? If you’re the proper prospect, the solution would be yes!

It’s unlikely that your customers will want to shop from you at that very moment if you’re in the wrong market. That said, you’ll still educate them on why you would possibly be a far better choice next time.