Marketing isn't about WHAT you DO...
Ever get the feeling you're hearing a bunch of "me, me, me, me" when you listen to marketing? Yeah, me too.
Somewhere along the line, people (and companies) decided that marketing was about telling people what it is we do.
The activities. The features. Like that's what they're buying.
And in this day and age where most software providers are telling us all we need is a specific feature and we'll be all good, it seems to make sense.
But marketing was NEVER about telling people WHAT you do.
It's about telling a STORY.
And in that story, WHAT you do is mostly irrelevant.
Well, at least until you've built enough of a relationship for it to become relevant.
WHAT is earned.
And it's earned through building a relationship.
So, how can you use your marketing efforts to build a relationship with people?
Let's explore.
Visibility
This is where most companies spend the majority of their efforts when it comes to marketing. And of course, without people seeing that you exist, there's not really a place to start.
But it's not just about people SEEING you.
It's about people FEELING you.
It's about your ad, or your tradeshow booth, or your podcast, or your social media creating a feeling for you. A REASON to connect with you.
But most businesses spend these critical "glimpses" on sharing information that doesn't make them memorable.
WHAT you do, no matter how niche, is generic.
There is always someone else doing what you do. On LinkedIn alone, there are:
2,930,000 management consultants
2,330,000 web developers
1,680,000 safety trainers
1,550,000 brand coaches
747,000 community builders
345,000 personal branding experts
258,000 life coaches
144,000 digital transformation consultants
Try typing in what you do. You'll likely find a LOT of other people and companies doing what you're doing.
But no one DOES it like you do it. And no one else does it WHY you do it.
Assuming you're doing it because you WANT to; not because the internet told you it was a good idea 😉
Are your visibility efforts showing people THAT?
Connection
Once we have our visibility efforts showing people the important relationship building things, we create opportunities for connection. Historically, this is the point where people get transferred over to a sales person.
This isn't necessarily bad, but when we say, "marketing is done" with visibility, we create an opportunity for the funnel to break.
If the marketing team is also responsible for CONNECTING with prospects, through the marketing efforts, we create a different kind of funnel. A funnel that the marketing team is actually committed to.
NOTE: this is why I always train entrepreneurs to do their OWN marketing. So this funnel break doesn't occur.
So, how do we connect with people?
Our people talk to our prospects.
Not in a sales capacity.
But in a relationship building capacity.
In a, "I see you" kind of capacity.
Which does what, you may ask?
It creates an actual CONNECTION between two people. And a connection between your prospect and your business.
Dare I say...now THAT's starting to sound like a community 💖 (as opposed to just an "audience" you're entertaining).
Community
One of my favorite definitions of community, from Oxford Languages, is, "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals".
As a company, you have specific interests and goals when it comes to marketing, but if these goals are all about you, you WON'T be able to create a community.
So what interests and goals do you have that INCLUDE your people? And not just your ideal customers, but your current customers, your partners, vendors, employees, investors, the whole she-bang?
Be honest...you haven't even thought about it, have you?
That's OK. That's why I write articles like this 🎉
Making your interests and goals about ALL of you, is what creates a common attitude (or value if you will) with which people can bond. It gives people the feeling you are going somewhere together, instead of selling them something.
Now, wouldn't that be a more productive "lead" to hand off to sales?
Or, what if sales was in the community too? And we we're all just "in it together"?
Hey! That could work 💖
In Summary
Have you heard of the HAVE-DO-BE principle? It's a popular leadership approach based on:
HAVING authority, goals, or resources, which allow you to
DO actions to get the team to where it wants to
BE.
Most current marketing strategies are based on this same model.
HAVE a marketing KPI (views, let's say).
DO actions that garner views
BE successful?
Except the problem is we DON'T get to stage 3. We just celebrate hitting our KPI's but we don't actually build up a funnel.
So let's flip the script. Let's look at a BE-DO-HAVE model instead (which can be found in Steven Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People):
BE someone people can remember and connect with,
Which influences people around you to want to DO things together,
Which allows your business to HAVE more pathways to meet your goals.
It all starts with BEING YOURSELF.
Standing out in a crowd.
And if you're saying all the same things as everyone else who does what you DO, you're unlikely to have what you desire.
Revenue.
NOTE: notice how in either model, DO is in the middle? It's NEVER the first step 💡
If you're interested in exploring how to flip your marketing on it's head to actually GET the things you want to HAVE, let's chat.
