The title speaks for itself.
Here goes it…
1. Marketing is about making people want you before they need you.Less than 1% of the population is in the market for what you sell right now (or at any given moment). With the exception of paid search, reaching people who want what you sell right now is like playing whack-a-mole. You’re just trying to get lucky. The correct strategy is to start influencing people’s decisions long before they need to make them.
2. The best way to tell a great story is to be a great story. Creating a place for people to play horseshoes and bocce is a more effective way to make people believe you’re a fun-loving restaurant than merely telling people you’re fun-loving through advertising. Truth told isn’t as powerful as truth realized. When you get this you’ll appreciate just how much marketing “clout” you actually posses.
3. You’re probably talking people out of doing business with you. Most marketing efforts are designed to get you in front of new people, and for good reason. But we can assume everyone that calls you, emails you or walks in your door is looking for a reason to do business with you. What is your closing rate? How can you improve it? This opportunity is neglected far too often.
4. Win the heart and the mind will follow. Decisions aren’t made in the left brain. Logic and reason is primarily used to justify the things we already want. You have to establish an emotional connection. This is why we do business with people we like.
5. Recall mediums (anything without sound) like print ads and billboards work significantly better when they’re paired with an implant medium (anything withsound) like radio and television.
6. Don’t stop “marketing” once your agenda is satisfied. After someone makes a decision (either to buy from you or not) your agenda with them, technically, is stripped. What you do in these moments speaks significantly louder to people than what you do while trying to get a piece of their wallet. How about going above and beyond after the factand creating an experience they can’t help but tell people about? “Hey, you’ll never believe what happened when __________.”
7. You should be blogging. It’s one of the easiest ways to be seen as an expert in a particular subject matter. Creating your own content – whether it’s videos, podcasts or traditional blog posts – allows you to control the conversation and free up new marketing channels. It’s like pineapple pizza. You won’t understand it unless you try it.
8. Help people without asking for anything in return. Most people need to see you as a resource – someone who has something valuable to them – before they choose to buy anything. You need to be the one who initiates this.
9. You don’t need to be everywhere. There are more types of media out there than ever before and it’s only going to get worse. But just because a tool exists doesn’t mean you need it. It’s better to dig one, giant reservoir than 27 hapless holes in the ground. The best ideas are the ones you can commit to.
10. If it’s easy to do, it’s less likely to work. There are no shortcuts in life. There are no shortcuts in marketing. The less time, money and personalization you invest into your outreach, the more likely it’s been done before, the more likely it’ll feel lazy and contrived and the more likely it’ll be ignored. Creating things that gain and hold attention is difficult. It’s the rare things that captivate us. The things that most people don’t have the fortitude (or guts) to see through.
