Growth is what every CEO, Business Owner, Director seeks to achieve when new goals are committed to paper. Hearing with new ears goes beyond the traditional reading of research on what the market wants and needs, it digs deeper to hear how to build trust with your market on a whole new level that is relevant, engaging and delivers more positive responses.

Hearing on a new level can uncover a well of abundance that brings forward insight and ideas that fuel new opportunities to engage with your market in a meaningful way – a way that will lead you to exceed your goals.

Have you experienced the results of hearing with new ears in your organisation or business?

…….. on a consistent basis with your audience engages and delivers their business to you time and time again and if you do it right they tell their friends and so it spreads.

When I work with leaders and business owners this is where we start ‘what is the message and making it relevant to whom we wish to reach and when this happens …

……. you influence,

……. you have value,

………you have pulling power,

……….you become a favourite choice,

………. you foster advocacy and grow your business like never before,

…………you have taken the time to know, like and trust your target audience and you identify with them.

People become central to every message you create to engage with your market.

Your marketing is another VOICE, your voice to reach the wider market. BE RELEVANT.

This, the 3rd of a 10 post series focusses on being relevant and creating value beyond compare for your target market. It’s all about them and how with your service, product or offering you make their lives simple and better.

Have you examples of the power of relevance in your marketing or communications activity?

Renowned marketing author Seth Godin coined the phrase ‘starving crowd’ to help us rethink how we look at the market we serve, engage them with the right message to achieve improved results.

If you begin to think about your market as ‘starving’, you will now think about them in a totally different way. Pause to think about this for a moment or two.

When you uncover your market is starving for something and you can bring this into your offering, plus you learn that your competition are not relating to this need. You have created a winning opportunity for your business or organisation and you will have a powerful message to craft and connect with your market.

Now you can begin to change what you are doing to get new results,
……………………… begin to reframe your thinking,
………………………..refocus how and what you communicate,
…………………………. create compelling relevant messages to turn people towards you to want to contact you, shop with you or use your service.

The next stage is how you convince and convert your market to be with your business or organisation because you believe in what you do or offer or sell, is their answer.

When you take these steps you will grow in confidence on how to create new powerful messages to draw the market to your business, service or organisation.

How have you approached getting the message right for your business or organisation?

‘The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself’ The Go-giver.

Very often we only take the literal meaning of ‘giving’ and think one way. However, there is a lateral way to think that The Go-Giver cleverly and simply explains.

We often think that by continuing to be an endless resouce of help and support that we are doing great good but it can and does eventually drain you of your desire to give. Yet so many fall into this trap and don’t know how to get out of it or how to think about giving in a totally different way.

The majority of us want to give and very often it is naturally part of who we are.

Often the truth is that we need to give. We might think it’s a ‘want’ when in fact it’s a big need for us to do this in our lives – ‘to give to feel good’. People feel esteem, self-confidence sores when someone says the big THANK YOU.

If you don’t manage and become conscious to your thoughts around ‘giving’ it can become like a drug or a fix that leads to exhaustion. You are simply over-feeding the obsession which can be detrimental to the inner you.

Can this happen when you run your own solo business?

Simple answer, yet hard to believe, yes it can. If you have identified that you might be in this trap, review how it’s impacting on your time and ability to earn.

Can you give in a new way and still have the same valuable impact? The challenge is balancing the ‘value you bring to a client-customer’ over giving and giving so much that it hurts your ability to generate the income you need or have the energy to focus on building your business.

When you are conscious about ‘how and why you give’ you can then objectively begin to take steps to correct the balance. I refer to a powerful little book above, ‘The Go Giver’, a simple story about how giving can be so powerful for both the person you give to as well as yourself – how one thinks about ‘giving’ is the secret to success.

Have you a story to share?

This first post is to help re-frame your mindset on why marketing works and why it doesn’t work.

SERIES

When we do anything in an ad-hoc fashion the results are few and far between. The biggest mistake by business owners in their marketing is often the ‘shoot from the hip – let’s do an advert here and there. Or put up a tweet or two, post a competition on facebook….

Creating a series of joined up messages to your market helps you create a presence in their world and they have a better opportunity to take notice of you/your business as opposed to skipping over a one off message or piece of advertising.

Your objective is to GET NOTICED for the right reasons.

CONNECTED

There is nothing more powerful than connecting with the person you desire to be your customer and repeat customer. When you decide to do some marketing re-think your approach to creating a series of activity – FOCUS ON THE PERSON YOU ARE TO CONNECT WITH – and make your message POINTED TO THEM and not about you or your product. Only refer to the product or service when you have connected with their need/desire and then tell them that you have the most relevant product/service for them.

MESSAGES

Your message is the most important part of your marketing activity. Your message is the most important part of your marketing activity – I have purposely repeated this sentance it is that important!

If you don’t have a message that is of interest to your market then you are wasting the money you are investing in whatever method of activity you use to reach that person/market.

It is your message that connects and not any of the following;

1. graphics

2. pictures

3. the local paper, on the local radio station, on an google advert, in a leaflet

Yes, all 3 above are important but if you do not have the ‘power in your words to connect with your market’ none of the above 3 can do what words do on their own.

Your objective is to create a SERIES of MESSAGES that CONNECT with your ideal customer and attract them to your product/service.

The next post in this series takes a more indepth look at the right message.

Did you find this post a help to take you back to basics.

I meet so many people who really desire to market their own business or organisation or service but because they are not satisfied with the results they are getting they come to dislike the very thought of marketing.

You may identify with the above statement and are restless to find the key to unlock the power of marketing to grow your client-customers.

There is no golden key but there are some simple things you need to do first as you search for a marketing solution that will deliver results

1. Marketing is a series of connected messages.

2. Marketing is all about getting the right message to connect with the right target.

3. Marketing is all about being relevant and offering something of value to the person you want to connect with.

4. Marketing is about being authentic.

5. Marketing is about giving the market the most compelling reason to come to you and no one else.

6. Marketing is about being consistent and sticking to the plan religiously.

7. Marketing is about being visible and that does not have to cost the earth.

8. Marketing is about people and connecting with them rather than about your product or service.

9. Marketing is about being single-minded in your message.

10. Marketing is about communicating effectively with the other person.

If you struggle with marketing and communicating to get the results you desire join me in the follow on 10-part series to this post on how to ‘overcome your marketing struggle’.

If I have missed something you would like covered in this series drop me an email or comment below and I’ll include it in the follow up series.

There is no greater way to market yourself, your business or organisation than to communicate with heart-felt meaning. You’ll find out more about this in my series of posts on ‘The Way of the Secret Marketer’.

When you communicate from the heart then it is received in the way you mean to give it – with meaning and with relevance to whom you are connecting with.

When you communicate something about your ‘offering’ think first and foremost about how the person you intend it for will receive it. When you put yourself in their shoes, ask yourself is this what you would want to hear? Is it compelling to make you want to either find out more, go buy, go register, ring to become a member, employees to work more effectively ….. the list is endless on what you might wish the person/s you communicate something to, to do.

Don’t let the word ‘marketing’ get in the way of communicating, engaging and connecting with others for the good of your business/organisation.

I share this thought with you because I see this happening all around me, the big big ’hang up’ when the word marketing is on the table or in your mind – you freeze, you procrastinate around it, avoid it, think you are doing it by advertising, don’t want to think about it, don’t know how to do it……….. and so much more.

When you next think marketing re-frame your thinking like this;

1. Who am I communicating to? Do I know who they are? Have I got what they want or desire?

2. What is it I want to say? What is my message?

3. How do I best reach these people?

When you have answered these questions keep it simple and clear as to what you wish them to do and ASK FOR IT.

The next blog post will help you have the confidence to ask for the sale, membership, sign up, new way of working from your team and more.

These 3 tips on what to ask when you think about marketing are they helpful?

You might find it strange that I have linked this word with marketing.

In the ‘Way of the Secret Marketer Series’ I focus on helping you become a secret marketer if you are a solo business owner, consultant, healer or therapist. 

Chivalry goes back to how I was taught as a child, in growing up I’ve built my life around this principle. I continue to experience ’relevant courteous and considerate connections’ with people positively impacts my business.

I wanted to share with you how you can use chivalry as a secret cornerstone of your marketing. 

But first let’s prepare our mind with a quote from one of the greatest minds, leading American writer of  ‘The Practice of Management’ Peter Drucker;

‘Marketing is not a specialised activity. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view.’

This is as relevant for you running your own business or practice as it is for a big brand company.

The big big difference between YOU and the Big Boys is that you are your business and creating relevant courteous and chivalrous connections with people gives you an incredible advantage to effortlessly put in motion activity to attract business to you. How? because you are the product you are selling and when it’s valued by your client-customer they want to hear from you – they value what you have to say.

There are many ways to extend the relationship you have with a client-customer in a natural and unassuming way that does not compromise your values, it is what you need to do to build a longer term sustainable regular flow of business.

Don’t let the thought of ‘how do I market’, or ‘I don’t know how to market the gift I have’, or ‘marketing isn’t for my business’ paralyse you.

All these thoughts get in the way of creating your business of the future. Stop trying to market and simply extend your verbal communications with your client-customer into materials that allow you to continue the connection with them when they are not in the company of your service.

To start, do two things;

1. Clear your mind of the ‘fear of marketing’, re-open your mind to your business and the value others receive from coming to you.

2. Brain storm how you can leverage this and engage with your client-customers regularly with a message that fits with what you stand for in their minds and what they love about what you do for them. This is what attracts them back time and time again and in time they become advocates of your business.

Could this help you overcome your feelings about marketing your special gift, your service, your consultancy when you re-frame it in your mind as a way to give continuous value to your client-customers in a totally new way?

The one true thing that is different to all the other people that do the same thing you do in the world is YOU.

People come to you for what you are going to do for them, how you are going to enhance their lives with what it is you do.

When you run your own business, practice or consultancy you have it within your control to be who you truly are.  It is this confidence that  attracts people who want you and will pay for your services.

When you step into who you truly are you will be in love with what you do. Inside you have ultra-confidence. It is this confidence and comfort in what you do that makes the difference in how you are perceived by others. This is YOU standing out from the crowd in a way that is easy and comfortable for you. It is this that attracts more people to you and your business or practice.

How do I step into who I truly am?

This is the hard part and I will post further on this in the ‘Sunday Reflections Blog Series’.  From my experience I can guide you towards being true to yourself first, comfortable with what you do and how you do it and never forgetting how you would like to be treated when you go in search of what it is you want to invest in, purchase or become a member of.

Being genuine and knowing the value people receive from you is when you step into who you truly are.

How you communicate this to the market so others migrate towards your service or offering is for another day’s post and part of the ‘Way of the Secret Marketer Series.

What is your take on this?

If you re-frame your thinking in this post it might just give you some inspiration as you think about how to maximise the potential of each and every customer to your business.

Customers are ‘people’. Put yourself in their shoes. Think about your own experiences when you purchase something you want.

How do you want it to feel when you have made the decision to buy?

How do you want to be received by the person at the cash till or during the ‘sales transaction’?

How do you want to feel when you have purchased the item?

Having answered the above questions to yourself you now you know what matters most. Now ask yourself are you delivering this in your business?

Giving the customer what they want in every aspect of your service delivers exceptional rewards to your business. There is no other way to impress a customer than to treat them as you would like to be treated and expect to be treated when you purchase something you desire.

Why treat them any less.

I leave you with this thought to ponder as you remove the label of customer and look at those who buy from you as people;

‘Most customers expect the basics. Alas, it seems they are disappointed remarkably often. The rewards that would arise from businesses simply meeting and exceeding straightforward, reasonable expectations are substantial.’  Simply Better by Barwise and Meehan

What are your thoughts?