007: Your Marketing Is Only Part Of Your Marketing
What do you think about when you hear the term “marketing”?
For some, it’s the act of raising awareness of a business or an idea.
For others, it’s the activities used to get people to move from a state of indifference to a state of purchase - which is, of course, a mission critical activity for business success.
For many, it’s the content itself - the ads, the social media posts, the email newsletters, the networking and the in-person events.
The dictionary has the following definition:
“[Marketing is] the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.”
Each of these definitions can really be given the following summary: The point of marketing, essentially, is the act of going out into the world so that we can bring sales back.
Awareness of your business is great, topping up the funnel is useful, but ultimately, if we really drill down to the why behind the why, most people do marketing because they want to make a sale at some point in the conversation.
The negative side of marketing can be manipulative and underhand - prying on people’s fears and insecurities to make a quick sale. On the other hand, it can be immensely positive, helping people to enrich or improve their lives - often through the creation of a solution to a problem that a person is struggling with.
Which side of the coin are you on?
For me, marketing is an infinitely broader set of activities, tools and thinking that is greater than the definition we often give it credit for. I believe that there’s a much bigger picture - a more holistic, life-cycle approach to this topic - where a weak link in the chain has a knock on effect to the success of a business (or idea) as a whole.
And not all of these activities are about going out into the world to get people to act. Much of this thinking is about looking within, taking a microscopic look at the processes and actions that you and your team already have complete control over.
The list below details four stages of what I like to call the Marketing Lifecycle. I’ll be covering each of these in this article:
Lifecycle Stage 1: The development of a truly remarkable product, service or idea,
Lifecycle Stage 2: The creation of beautiful, engaging content that moves and inspires.
Lifecycle Stage 3: Distribution processes that are perfectly tailored for specific individuals.
Lifecycle Stage 4: Consistent, exceptional delivery that goes above and beyond every single time.
We’ll be discussing high-level, broad brushstrokes here. But a consideration, focus and drive towards improving all four of the these areas (rather than just focusing on one or two) could allow you to leverage greater success over a much longer period of time.
So let’s get started with the two stages that you have complete control over.
YOUR (INTERNAL) MARKETING EFFORTS
LIFECYCLE STAGES 1 AND 4
Lifecycle Stage 1: Your product, service or idea.
In his book, ‘Purple Cow’, Seth Godin discusses this part of the process as being the most important aspect of marketing. In fact, he strongly recommends taking money away from content creation and distribution, so that you can invest more in product research and development.
Without a truly exceptional product, service or idea, everything else is likely a waste of time. The content you create will be advertising something that is, essentially, the same as everybody else’s offering. And the distribution activities you undertake will cost more, be less effective and contribute to everyone else’s noise.
In effect, you could be relying on marketing to ineffectively serve as a crutch for an average offering.
If we were to take any product or service, if that product or service is the same as everybody else’s, then you’ve created a commodity. And when commodities are involved - and there are other options available - the lowest price wins and we begin a race to the bottom. And that’s assuming that people are even interested in the first place…
The good news is, you already have complete control over this. You can choose what to do, when to do it, how to do it, who to do it for and for what purpose. You can also decide what is really needed, what is going to be better than everything else on the market, and what will have the greatest impact as a solution to a given problem.
But it needs to be even more than this - this is the bare minimum. The product, service or idea you have needs to be truly special, truly noteworthy or, as Seth likes to call it, truly remarkable.
In other words, if people recommend you to others without you having to do anything else, then you know you have a remarkable product, service or idea. You’ve established a strong foundation for everything else that you do.
So, what could you do to make your business or idea truly remarkable?
As Rob Lawrence said to me the other day: “If you have a good product, it will market itself.”
Lifecycle Stage 4: Your delivery
Next, we will skip to the final stage of my theoretical lifecycle. And that is, how you go about delivering your product or service, or the etiquette you follow when trying to share an idea.
It goes without saying that providing below average service, with poor quality products, at a higher cost for a mediocre experience, is doomed to failure at some point in the future. It’s easy to dismiss this thinking if you have (what you perceive to be) a great product or service. But if the ball drops at any stage of a relationship with a customer, you are strongly harming your chances of that customer recommending you to others.
This is really important. And you must be aware of every customer as an individual with their own, bespoke experience of you. Any gaps you have here will make all of your other efforts a waste of time - and it doesn’t take much to tarnish your reputation.
So, you have to take a close look at all of your processes. You need to ask:
How do I make each stage of my offering the very best it can be?
How can I exceed expectations, every single time?
How can I keep to my promises, every single time?
How can I make what I do more efficient?
How do I design out problems?
How do I ensure consistent quality control, every single time?
How do I ensure consistent, exemplary service, with every single individual?
How do I scale this without causing everything to fall apart?
How do I effectively handle things when something slips through the net?
How do I make each customer feel like they are my only customer?
These questions matter as much to you as they matter to your customers. Because, if for example, your processes are inefficient, you’re overworked and you’re not charging a fair price for your time (or to make your business resilient), then you may not be around long enough for you to deliver that exceptional service. The kind of service that can have an enormous benefit to your customers lives.
You’re creating a masterpiece here. Every colour, shade and tone (that you already have control over) needs to exceed expectations.
I’d strongly recommend reading Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard if you haven’t already (which is another excellent Peter Basford recommendation). The reason I feel this book is so important, is that it shows just how far you need to go with your thinking on this. And that level is probably well above and beyond what you might currently be thinking.
I’m sure we could all find areas to improve if we’re brave enough to look for them.
YOUR (EXTERNAL) MARKETING EFFORTS
LIFECYCLE STAGES 2 and 3
Lifecycle Stage 2: Your Content
The first and last lifecycle stages are well within your control. The purpose of these stages is to build the strongest possible foundations for everything else that you do. With those foundations in place, it makes it possible for you to frequently exceed expectations, regularly test and refine what you do and consistently create happy customers - every single time.
Without establishing these strong foundations, your external efforts are only going to go so far - like a dam with a hole in it.
Lifecycle Stage 2 is the stage most of us think about when we think about marketing. This is the video content, the articles, the podcast series, the website, the testimonials and the content for your ads. These are the messages you use to communicate with your desired customers to get them to move from a state of indifference to a state of purchase.
Most of this content tends to be what is known as Interruption Marketing. In other words, it’s something we post to social media (or perhaps we buy ads on Google or in the paper) with the intention of getting our message in front of people who may be interested in what we have to offer. Essentially, we’re interrupting their day with our message.
The one challenge with this though, is that these people did not ask for our message to be thrust upon them. These people are going about their day with their own wants and desires. They are leading their own story and really, they are only interested in the things that they already care about. So, who’s to say that they want to see our ad whilst scrolling through Instagram? Really, we could just be contributing to the noise.
Truly great content can move people though. Something that’s beautifully and carefully written for a purpose that’s greater than marketing, or something that has been shot to deliver a moving and emotional adventure, or something that’s been sonically crafted for an immersive, engaging experience, can move the needle if given the right positioning, the right audience and the right momentum.
With content, I think it’s about who, why and what for. If you can be really explicit about that, and then design and carefully craft your content to meet those answers, whilst taking an honest appraisal of your expectations (see article: 21 Questions on Distribution), then it becomes about diving in, prototyping, testing and refining. It also means listening to your gut instincts.
But the big thing I want to get across here, is your content doesn’t need to have the single minded goal of getting somebody from a state of indifference to a state of making a purchase. Its purpose could be more generous, more beautiful and more valuable than that.
Lifecycle Stage 3: Distribution
Now this is the dark art of the lifecycle stages. This is the question that’s plagued marketers and business owners for 200 years. How do we get people to engage with us and buy from us?
Well, for starters, this is the stage that you have the least control over. Success and failure is open to the dynamics of chaos theory, the whims of computer algorithms, your position and status in your community, the prevailing wind or even what’s happening in somebody’s day. You’re potentially heading into a forum to share a message with thousands of other people who are only interested in sharing their own message.
For me, distribution covers many discrete activities that need to work well together for the sum of parts to add up to a greater whole. For example, excellent SEO activities are unlikely to succeed without successful PR activities. And building a Youtube channel is unlikely to succeed without the support of social followers who can build your early viewership - driving the algorithms in your favour.
At the point of writing this, I think that distribution has two clear functions. The first, is to bring new people into your world. This is Interruption Marketing at its best, which is about allowing somebody new to gain awareness of you, put their hand up and say:
“This is of interest to me, tell me more”.
These activities could take place on social media, or through PPC ads, but not necessarily so. As the brilliant Catherine Bowyer of Sasa Marketing said to me once: “If your customers are more likely to read the local paper than flick through Tik Tok, then why don’t you focus your efforts in the places where your audience can really be found?”
Similarly, if you’re invited to speak at a local event, your presence and influence at the event could have a much greater impact when compared with something like paid ads - which could cost hundreds or thousands of pounds with limited effect.
Of course, the other option is to do both…
The second function of distribution, I believe, is to nurture the people that are already within your world. To provide something special to them, to provide something valuable to them. To help them in their day to day lives. To help them in their journey.
I always think, why invest more in people you will never meet (who may never be interested in you), when you can invest in the people that are already important to you.
And that goes for all stages of the lifecycle.
James
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