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Quality over quantity: Building an audience of fans instead of passive followers
We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as business owners to build a large online and digital following, sometimes resorting to tactics that aren't effective. When you find yourself getting excited because you have 1000 new followers, yet sales are down, it’s easy to become disillusioned with what’s working and what’s not working—but that’s valuable insight you need.
How to nurture interest instead of pushing a hard sell
When it comes to nurturing leads, you want to balance getting your point across and not pushing your prospect into a corner (or to your competitor). To do this successfully, you need to nurture your customer relationships through marketing tailored to what your customers want and need to know.
On ethics and empathy in marketing
I love marketing. Especially content and product marketing, which are the two most essential disciplines on a marketing team. As much as I love marketing, I’m very aware of the sometimes predatory nature of my chosen profession. Not all marketers or businesses do shady things to get ahead. In fact, most don’t. But we also don’t call out the problems enough.
Effective marketing: Why “plan” is not a four-letter word
I’ll admit it: I’m a planner. And I get that not everyone has this mindset. But, when it comes to marketing, taking action without a plan isn’t just a bad idea, not having a plan can backfire on you in unfortunate ways. The thing about marketing is that there will always be those instances when you have to do something that addresses an opportunity that doesn’t fall within the plan. But if that’s the status quo, you’re doing it wrong.
Bad customer experiences are also bad marketing
It goes without saying that the interactions your business has with prospects need to be thoughtful, consistent (not just regular, but fit together well), and engaging. It’s a bit like dating when your goal is to find a long-term relationship. You’re wooing them by showing off the best you’ve got.
Then one day they push the button to buy. Or maybe they book a consult and ask you to send an agreement. And you do a little dance to celebrate that success. Your marketing worked and now they get to be your customer.
One might think the marketing is over for that customer, but it isn’t. Every touchpoint you have in your process with that customer is marketing your business to them. If the experience isn’t good, do you think they’ll stay?
No one cares about your amazing product features
Think about the products you buy, especially the ones that delight you most. Did you buy any of them merely because you read through the features and the product checked all your boxes? I doubt it.
Strategic marketing vs. marketing as a service
Marketing is an interesting discipline in today’s world. In some companies, the team ends up relegated to service status, playing a reactive role in supporting sales. I’ve started referring to it as marketing as a service, or MaaS, since everything as a service is all the rage these days. For larger organizations, I’m not a huge fan of this approach since there’s usually significant investment to salaries of qualified individuals who understand the business strategy and build plans that help move it forward.
Making a plan to get where you want to go faster
Planning starts with establishing your goals so you can break down the steps it takes to accomplish them. But it’s not as straightforward as simply making a list of things you want to do. There are some questions you’ll want to consider so you start with realistic goals:
Marketing requires businesses to be prepared to go the distance
One of the most discouraging things I see happen in my work is organizations that want to use all these shiny “new” tools to grow, thinking the results will be immediate.
That has never been true for any form of marketing, though there are occasional exceptions. Most businesses need to ignore the exceptions. Statistically, they're outliers and the results aren’t likely to be replicated. The stories about them should all include disclaimers that say, "results not typical."
The shoes and handbags theory of building an audience
If a business focuses solely on quantity in building an audience - Twitter followers, Facebook likes, blog subscribers, and others - you end up always wanting more. The ten new followers you just got may not be quite right for your product/services, but seeing that jump in numbers feels so good!
Growing a large audience shouldn't be the primary goal, though growth is certainly important. Growing an audience that fits your target market and is engaging with you is a worthy goal.
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