Marketing Basics

One of the challenges of marketing is letting the world know what you do, who you do it for and of course why you do it.

The why can be very important,

because that is how people decide if they want to trust you. Many marketers and networkers say, know, like and trust, but the truth is they just need to know you and trust you. People do business with companies that they don't like all of the time.

I am not saying that you should not be likable.

I am just saying that trust is more important.

People don't like Bill Gates but they still buy Windows, people don't like Jeff Bezos and they still shop at Amazon.

After your why, is who.

Who do you provide your services for?

This can be your ideal client, your avatar. It can just be the people you like working with. For many entrepreneurs this can be challenging. They want to help everyone. The truth is if you set out to help everyone you end up helping no one.

Think about the people that like to hang out with you and the people that you like to hang out with. What characteristics do they have in common? What traits help you identify that they are your people? Who would most benefit from your services? Now what does the overlap look like, the people that would benefit and you enjoy being around?

Then the last piece from a marketing standpoint is your offer.

What is the product or service that you offer to your people?

How does it change their lives? What pain or problem does it solve? In some cases what pleasure or convenience does your solution bring?

When you know who you are, who you like to work with and what you offer you have moved a long ways down the marketing road to communicating well and then attracting the right people to you.

Next week we will talk about the topics that are important to us and how we serve people by being experts in these areas. How we are building our authority as experts and collecting social proof which will help make these topics a part of our brand.