The 5 Musts of Marketing
By Helaine Iris
For most of the small business owners I work with, marketing
has become the equivalent of a four-letter word. Inevitably, when I
ask the question, "Do
you have a marketing plan?" or "What marketing activities do
you engage in?" I get the full gamut of responses from the proverbial
deer in the headlights stare, to a vociferous, "I hate marketing,
it's the least favorite part of my business!"
After years of witnessing this reaction, and learning a bit about modern
marketing, I'm starting to understand why traditional marketing is perceived
and experienced as a necessary evil and avoided like a root canal.
It's been true since the beginning of commerce that every business needs
to promote itself to stay alive and compete in an ever-changing marketplace.
How great would it be if you, as a savvy business owner, could begin
to make a shift from seeing marketing, and it's associated tasks, as
a necessary evil to a rich and rewarding opportunity to express your
passion about your business. It would be pretty great, wouldn't it?
While I don't mean to reduce a vibrant and ever evolving profession
to any-one-can-do-it status, the mystique around marketing can certainly
use some lightening up. I do believe anyone can become an effective and
enthusiastic marketer.
Let's start to explore by dispelling some of the common mystique
around marketing. I used to believe that marketing was a complex practice
for
which you had to pay a lot of money to a professional to "do it
right". I used to think I had to convince people using tactics that
were high pressure or not in alignment with my values. No wonder marketing
fell to the bottom of my list. Is it at the bottom of yours?
Here's what I've learned, and here's what works for me. In its
simplest form, marketing is about building relationships and networks.
It offers
an opportunity to communicate with people (your customers) what you do
and introduce or expose them to your product again and again. As Michael
Pollock, my marketing guru taught me, "Forget marketing, think conversations".
That's easy, now all I have to do is position myself and create opportunities
to engage people about that which I love. I can do that. Shift accomplished!
Here are The 5 Marketing Musts that transformed me from an Avoider to
an Engager:
1. Define your customers. With whom do you want to build relationships?
Start by specifically identifying who will buy your products and focus
on them. In "marketing speak" this is called your target
market. It is critically important to identify your target market so
you don’t spend time and money haphazardly conveying your message
and building relationships with non-buyers.
Here's some criteria you can use to identify your ideal customers: Age,
profession, gender, level of education, income, ethnicity, location,
psychological needs (feels frustrated, wants security, wants to feel
challenged, etc.) personal interests (committed to personal development,
reads avidly, spiritually inclined, etc.) and what are their psychographics
(how do they think, what is their world view, their values, etc.). Create
a profile of your perfect customer.
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