I've learned a number of valuable marketing lessons over the last few weeks and I thought I'd share three of these with you.
Valuable Marketing Lesson 1:
Marketing is easier when you have a 'warm audience' that you connect with.
(In other words you have a group of people who know you and like the ideas that you share regularly with them.)
Here is a good example...
I had the opportunity recently to watch a webinar by James Clear.
James is a weightlifter, photographer and entrepreneur.
He writes two high quality articles every week on the subject of habits, health and success. (I love his article and always get something of value from them.)
In his webinar James explained how he started his website in November 12, 2012 with no subscribers.
And then built it to a worldwide audience of 70,000 subscribers in only 18 months.
He did this by focussing on some simple things that all of us could do if we wanted.
James commented in his webinar that when you build a 'warm audience' of people who like what you share it's so much easier to make sales.
A key message that I got from James is that you need to share quality ideas with your audience and do it on a regular basis. (This builds a positive connection.)
Valuable Marketing Lesson 2:
A small amount of learning in a key area can transform your results once you apply what you learn.
I was reminded of how valuable learning and practice can be when I caught up with a successful entrepreneur called Miles last week.
Miles was a client who had purchased a video based sales training programme from me over 20 years ago.
He put his whole sales team through the programme and he told me they must have watched the videos at least a hundred times.
His sales team became very skilled at sales and a short time later Miles sold his business for a handsome eight figure sum.
Miles reminded me that becoming good at one thing (in this case 'how to sell') can make an amazing difference to your results.
Valuable Marketing Lesson 3:
People are the key to marketing success and not technology.
A big key here is how you make people 'feel' when you interact with them.
One of my favourite quotes is by Maya Angelou. (Maya died last week at age 86.)
'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'
And in marketing that is so true. (In both a positive and negative way.)
Here's a good example...
I had dinner recently with Paul, one of my favourite business clients.
And we got talking about referrals.
Paul explained that a business friend was unhappy with their bank. So Paul referred them to his own bank manager.
Paul's friend then took all his business to Paul's bank and this included two million dollars of lending. (So it was a good-sized new client for Paul's bank.)
However Paul's bank never thanked Paul for the introduction. So Paul felt they didn't care about him and doesn't want to give them any more referrals as a result.
And the opposite is true as well.
We can have someone do something nice that is unexpected and positive.
And we often remember this person and want to help them.
A good example is a dentist I used many years ago while on holiday.
I had a toothache and the dentist fixed my problem.
He then made a two- minute phone call to me the next day when I was back in my home town. Just checking up to make sure I was okay after the treatment. I felt valued and special and recommended this dentist to a lot of the people I knew.
The key here is to do things that get you positively remembered and not negatively.
So that's three of the marketing lessons I learned last month.
I trust you found something of value.
"You know what 'FAILING' stands for? It stands for 'Finding An Important Lesson, Inviting Needed Growth.'"
Gary Busey
Action Exercises:
1: What would it be helpful for you to learn this month that could make a dramatic difference to your marketing results?
2: How can you create a 'warm audience' to connect with this month?
3: What can you do to become positively remembered this month?
The Government has committed funding to the sector in an effort to support future plans.