Do you have a marketing program in your company? Do you think it’s there to create new customers? If so, you’re sorely mistaken.
Marketing has one and only one purpose. It’s there to create awareness of who you are and what you do. Too often I talk with business owners who believe marketing and sales are the same thing……They’re not and here’s why:
Marketing is about creating awareness
This is a mantra I want you to repeat to yourself. It’s something that you need to say over and over.
Marketing will create awareness about you and your company. If you do it well, the awareness will be warm. If you do marketing poorly you can ruin your reputation before you even get started in helping a potential customer learn who you are and what you stand for.
Marketing allows you to start a conversation
If you are a great marketer you know that your main job in marketing is to start a conversation between you and a potential customer. This might not be a real conversation but it’s one where the person you want to do business with is saying to themselves, “This might be a company I want to do business with.”
I know that when I first run across a potential supplier I want to have a conversation with them. I don’t want them to talk or even worse yell at me. I want to have them hear or at least talk with me about what’s important in my life.
A conversation means that you are talking with a potential customer about what’s important to them. You aren’t speaking about you and you use the word I very rarely.
Remember, the conversation really is all about them….and if it’s not, they’ll just leave.
Marketing is a great way to build trust
When marketing is well executed you are mindfully building trust with those who you meet. At first trust will be something that’s withheld. It’s just the way a potential customer is going to start their relationship with you.
If you prove to a new visitor that you really care about them and their problems, they will want to learn more. If you’ve done this with a very low barrier to entry you’ll get their email address and permission to have a conversation with them.
At first, your conversation will likely be through your website, videos you make, EBooks you give away or podcasts you create. After a potential customer checks these out, they might be willing to give you more information about who they are.
It’s at this junction in the conversation where trust is actually built. If you’re mindful of how valuable this trust is you’ll make sure you take actions to improve and create even more trust which helps you move your potential customers through your sales cycle.
Know who your audience is
Too often I’ve not paid attention to who I want for an audience. I would write and publish interesting material but the information wasn’t targeted at those I really wanted to do business with.
Make sure you don’t make my mistake. Know who your audience is and why they might want to do business with you.
Make sure you provide your target market with valuable information that shows you understand their issues and have solutions that can help your audience get a positive outcome. When you do this you’ll be building trust and an awareness that will have real value for you and your company.
Know what you want your audience to do
Once you have the attention of your potential customer it’s really important to know what you want for a next step. Is it to attend a webinar, do you want to have a phone call or do you just want them to learn more about what you do?
Clarity with what you want for outcomes is key to helping you move forward. When you provide great information, are talking with the right audience and show that you really care you’ve now earned the right to start a sales conversation……
So remember, start with marketing, build trust and then start your sales process. Get it in the right order and your success rate will soar. Isn’t that something you want?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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