The best marketing strategy
Life, and therefore business, is a gamble. Getting it right, developing the right product, coming up with the perfect solution, that’s what many of us in business try to achieve.
Often, when we come up with a new idea for a product or service, we think we’ve got it right and the market will love our solution.
Strip it all back though: at every stage of perfecting your solution, in research, or production, the mindset of being helpful is the best marketing strategy.
I was trying to get my daughter to see the error of her ways. She was on holiday from college and spent the day hanging around the house sleeping.
To make her realise the futility of her current existence (as I saw it at the time), I asked her the question, “What are you for?” Harsh, maybe, but parents have their limits, don’t they?
The question, “What are you for?” didn’t make sense to her. She thought I was on some kind of ‘old person’ diatribe trip and wasn’t going to be making sense any time soon. I thought it was a valid question.
Later on, we had a talk and I re-phrased the question, “What are you on this earth for?” And then I gave her what I thought was the logical answer, “You’re here to help people.”
I don’t know where that answer came from, it was instinctive. I thought about it for a few seconds and then started to explain it.
“Helping each other is the reason humans are the great success that they are on this earth.”
The way I see it, people who fight each other are never the ultimate winners. It’s those that help each other that win out in the end. The fighters, the aggressors, well they win a few battles, maybe they even rise to the top for a while. But ultimately, it’s those who compromise, the collaborators, the ones who help each other, they win in the end.
To me, it doesn’t matter what level you use this philosophy. You can apply it to your family, you can apply it to your friends, or you can apply it to your business.
If you go out into the world every day with the intention of helping people, then you will be a winner, your life will be a success. Your family will love you, your friends will look out for you and want to be with you, and your customers will want to buy more from you.
If we apply this theory to marketing, first ask people what they need. Marketing is a two-way thing and establishing if there is a market for something is done by asking what people need. Ask people what is troubling them, what is getting in their way and giving them pain.
That last point is crucial. It’s the one I’ve often missed out when developing new services. You get an idea that you’ve got something great and start to develop it. It’s pointless thinking you know what people need and going ahead to design a solution because so often you will get it wrong.
“I’ve realised that this little analogy could be used in marketing. Those that listen to the problems of others and spend their time finding solutions build the best businesses.”
Go out and take the time to make sure you know what people need. This way you can be certain you have a genuine market for what you intend to sell. It’s called Market Research, but that is a term that leaves most of us cold.
When you find out what people’s problems are, where their pain is, then you carry on to find a solution. This is the development part of launching your product or service. Obviously, in a personal context, this could be, “Hey Mum, what could I do to help?,” or, “What’s the thing that is bothering you most in life?”
In the digital marketing world, the solution might be devising a lead magnet from posting questions on Facebook, then writing a landing page that converts better.
Seeking to get to the heart of your clients’ problems, then delivering the perfect solution, this is the best marketing strategy you can have.
If you want to have a better business and you want to be a better human being with a fulfilled and happy life, just go out there and help people.
So, I’m here to find out what your marketing problems are and solve them. Ask me a question or give me a call.
