One of the things just about all of at who write for the Quad State Business Journal have noticed is that how owners are reluctant to try something new.
This is true whether the business has been around for 20 or more years and is dying or brand new.
Recently we compiled seven marketing insights that are actually quotes from other marketers–some names you will be familiar with. Frankly, this is an open attempt to inspire you as we seek to inspire our own clients. Let us know if we got the point across!
“Get closer than ever to your customers; so close that you can tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves!” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple, Inc.
It was 2004 or 05 that the president of A T & T, when hearing that Apple was developing a personal portable computer called the I-Phone, said something to the effect that it would never work because the customers just were not ready.
You know marketing is about relationships. What are you doing to grow your ties stronger to them?
“Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you have. Marketing is the art of creating genuine customer value.” –Philip Kotler, Northwestern University
This is one of our favorite quotes. So many times all of us miss the point of marketing. It’s not to unload a warehouse of products (yet that is the end result), but it is to use our products and services to build value into our customer and clients.
Steve Lanning tells of several consulting clients who told him, “I like to hire as many good consultants as I can because of their ideas that I can steal or use. I always make five to ten times what I paid them.” It’s probably a little different way than Dr. Kotler intended, but it still works.
“Nobody cares about your products (except you).” –David Meerman Scott, Sales & Marketing Expert
This is extremely insightful to the wise marketer to start out with a paradigm like this in regards to your own business.
Of the literally hundreds of clients that our marketing group has between us, we can count only a handful (less than two hands’ worth) of clients who did NOT think that the world was going to beat a path to their door because of the products or services they offered.
Having this kind of paradigm ensures that you will be thinking, “…therefore, I will do all I can so that people can see how my products and/or services add value to their lives and/or business–and start to care about them!”
“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” -Seth Godin, Founder, Squidoo.com
Seth Godin is an extremely wise marketer. If you are not receiving his daily blog (very short and very inspiriting and pithy) in your inbox, get it!
This quote fits hand in glove with the above Steve Jobs quote. Obviously, if you are a fast-food type business, you might not think that there is only so much you can do to get closer to your customers.
This is also a quote that has many affiliate marketers to fatten their bank accounts by literally finding products for unknown customers by being the middle man in the transaction with such firms as Amazon and many more.
The smaller marketer will often ride a successful product to the point of death for that product. They fail to notice that their customers are deserting them and without continuous customer information they think, “This puppy has been worth a great bottom line to me in the past and I’ve just got to ride through this market rough spot.
They fail to make an analysis–or get a hired gun to do likewise–in something akin to a SWOT analysis that their market may have moved on. Think 8-track and cassette tape distributors!
Remember, depending which type of market you are in, that knowledge will double in your industry every 10 to 36 months.
In today’s information age of marketing and Web 2.0, a company’s website is the key to their entire business.” –Marcus Sheridan, President, The Sales Lion.com
If you don’t know Marcus Sheridan yet, just stay tuned…you will. He is one of Steve’s heroes–starting out as a swimming pool contractor, learning to create leads for his own business and then branching out to other businesses.
In fact, when Steve wanted to create his contractor marketing organization, he contacted Marcus who then turned him over to his Executive Vice President. While the EVP just fell in love with Steve’s idea of supplying contractors with exclusive (non-Home Adviser type) leads, The Sales Lion was expanding way beyond the 45 niches of contractors.
Your website must be more than just SEO and Google Adwords of course, but that’s a great start. As The Sales Lion’s Marcus Sheridan discovered, quality blogging content is the key to Google-love these days.
“Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.” –Dan Zarrella, HubSpot.com
If you are not receiving HubSpot’s daily inbox feed, you are missing out on some fantastic FREE content that you can use to build your own business.
The data is vital. If you or your consultant are not analyzing the data REGULARLY, you are indeed speeding down the road with your eyes closed.
“If people like you, they’ll listen to you. But if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” –Zig Ziglar, Former Speaker & Author
If you have been asleep in a cave somewhere and do not yet know the wit and wisdom of the late Zig, you need to do a Zig Ziglar look up.
There have been thousands of business owners inspired on to greatness because of this man’s wit and wisdom (even including many right here in the Quad State region.
You’ve heard it before and it is true even more in 2014-15…people do business with people they like–and trust. The entire suite of quotes on customer relations, getting close to the customer, customer enrichment and so on simply means you are building trust. Simple as that.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration!
###
Article first appeared: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com
No comments:
Post a Comment