How to think like a marketer
Many people say they hate marketing. Usually that’s because they think marketing is about advertising and sales.
Marketing is a process, not an event. It involves research, promotion, and distribution along with advertising and sales.
Perhaps the most important and most overlooked aspect of marketing is having the right marketing attitude or marketing mindset. Think like a marketer.
When you have a marketing mindset, you ask how you can build brand awareness to help your target audience become familiar with your products and services – and with you too. Developing that factor of knowledge, like and trust with your audience is key.
As you develop a marketing mindset, ideas on how to achieve your marketing goals on a daily basis will come easily, but here are some ways to get started:
- Know your product and service from the inside out: This may seem obvious, but think about how many times as customers we have stopped buying something because the person who helped us couldn’t answer some basic questions about their product or service.
- Find ways to take advantage of competitors’ mistakes: It’s easy to see what your competition is doing well, but you can learn so much (and sometimes even more) by looking at what your competition is not doing so well. The Internet is saturated with professional service companies, but what makes your professional service better than your competitors? Do your homework. Where are they weak? What customer needs are not being met, and what can you do to step in and meet those needs?
- Tell customers at your address: Solve customer problems. Show them one of your services or products and emphasize the benefits, value, and results they can get from being a solution to their problem.
- The “bottom line” is not just about money coming in: Finding ways to save is just as important as finding new sources of income. Instead of just recording where the money goes, find places to save. Looking at those numbers, is there a way that sales can be made more efficiently?
- Every customer interaction is an opportunity to network: The word “networking” makes some people uncomfortable. But it doesn’t have to be about chatting or closing a sale. It is simply having a conversation in an effort to build new relationships or strengthen current ones.
“The goal of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”-Peter F. Drucker
In business, everything is related to marketing in one way or form: what you use, how you communicate (verbally and non-verbally), and what you do to attract, retain, and maintain customer relationships. All of this affects or contributes to the profitability and success of your business.
Thinking like a marketer is one way to ensure the longevity of your business.