'Marketing is all about helping people get what they want.'
It applies to getting a job, or getting a raise or a promotion. If your employer doesn't feel that you can help him or her get what he/she wants from your skills, then you won't get the job, raise or promotion. Your employer is not going to give you what you want, until he or she is convinced that you can give them what they want. It applies to finding your mate. If you aren't providing your prospective partner with what he/she wants in a relationship, then there's a good chance that the relationship isn't going to progress to the next level. Which brings me to the point of logic. Whether you are marketing yourself or your product or service, you can't just walk up to strangers who know nothing about you and think you are going to get an immediate commitment. That just isn't logical.
Imagine walking up to a stranger at a party and saying, 'Excuse me. Will you marry me?'
What kind of response do you imagine you would get if you did such a thing? Would it be logical to expect the answer to be 'Yes!' I hope you agree that is not logical. That isn't the way relationships and commitments progress. They progress one step at a time. If there happens to be a mutual attraction from the start, then each person needs to get to know, like and trust the other person to determine if it makes sense to move on to the next step in the relationship.
Let's apply this concept to marketing your product or service. Imagine walking up to a stranger on the street and saying, 'Excuse me. Would you buy my Widget?' Have you ever tried selling something to a complete stranger? If you have, then you know that it isn't easy. Some would say it's nearly impossible.
First of all, what are the chances that the stranger even has a desire to own what you are selling? Probably pretty low. Even if they did have a desire to own what you were selling, what are the chances that they would actually buy it from you -- a total stranger? Logically speaking -- next to zero.
Can you see that approaching strangers on the street and asking them to buy your product or service is not a logical marketing approach? So, if walking up to strangers and asking them to buy is not logical, then imagine how illogical it would be to send strangers a 'weaker' marketing approach like a flyer asking them to buy your product or service, or putting an ad in a newspaper and asking strangers to buy, or sending strangers an e-mail and expecting them to buy. Now, you may say, but I see big companies marketing their products and services to strangers all the time. They just describe their products and ask people to buy. Ah. But that's an illusion. Those big companies have invested millions, if not, billions of dollars on image advertising in an effort to get their target market to know, like and trust them. It's called branding -- and it is very, very, expensive.
When a family gets a promotional flyer from The Disney Company, they don't feel like they are buying from a stranger. Disney has been a warm and positive part of their childhood, and will probably be the same for their children too. Bill Smith's Chiropractic Center doesn't have that same kind of relationship with his marketplace. To them, he is a stranger. And, no, Bill Smith, as a small business owner, cannot afford to spend millions of dollars on awareness marketing -- like the big companies do -- to ensure that his entire marketplace gets to know, like and trust him. That just isn't logical.
There are hundreds of Prospects searching right now for the type of product or service you provide Right at this very moment there are most likely hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Prospects in your marketplace who are actively searching for the benefits that your company provides.
The problem is 'you don't know who they are, and they don't know who you are. Or they don't know, like and trust you enough to buy from you.' But imagine if you did know who they were. You could pinpoint your marketing efforts directly to just those prospects who want what you are selling. Then every one of them would know that you offer exactly what they are looking for. Isn't that a much more logical marketing approach than just promoting your products and services to thousands of people who have absolutely no interest in what you are offering. That's incredibly expensive, counterproductive and illogical.
So, when you're ready, let's sit down and talk further about how to make people get the most of what you have to offer them.
Marketing Tips posts authored by Leslie Goldstein of the USPS.