5 Secrets to Successful Marketing

Business is about doing the right thing when the clock is ticking, and giving you the freedom to enjoy your downtime any way you choose. It’s that easy. But the problem with today is that every way you turn, there’s a new way of doing things to distract you from your objectives.

So we strip it back and focus on what matters most: Getting customers through your door, virtually or physically.

Here at Word And Mouth we’ve figured out five ways you can stay focused and get the job done with a big smile on your face. That list looks a bit like this:

1. It’s fun if you’re doing it right. Connecting with customers and building relationships is like courtship (love that word!): To make it work, you have to give your best. And when you focus on the very highest levels of service and usefulness, you get a buzz that is energy giving and hugely motivational. Marketing need not be complicated, but it must be based on you being authentic, relevant and determined to add value to every interaction you have with a customer of today or tomorrow
2. 99% of businesses get it wrong. We’ve been conditioned to believe that growing our business is complicated, and so we try our hardest to make it tough on ourselves. But the people we are selling to are just like us – and so, we’re our best focus group! Do you love the products and services you sell? Shouldn’t be a leap to convince your prospective customers of the benefits and convert your site visitors and newsletter subscribers to buyers. Case studies are a great asset to any organisation, as are video and audio (spoken) testimonials. Get stockpiling all those lovely words people have to say about the uniqueness of your business. The path to successful marketing lies in its bare-bones simplicity. Unclog your mind of all the options and challenges put in your way by those gurus pitching $97 products, and focus on where your customers are and how your products and services can add value to their daily lives. Experiment often, and always answer questions publicly to make sure others can find answers when they’re needed. Common sense is an uncommon asset in business today – make it your first priority.
3. Books help, but listening is better. I read a lot, and I enjoy authors’ varying perspectives on succeeding in marketing – but there is no better way of being inspired to take action than being in the same place as someone with knowledge to share. Conferences are all well and good, but the price of attendance is rocketing every year as people fall lemming-like for the promise of big-name speakers. The truth is that the greatest influences, those with the biggest value to you and your business, are those who are actively practising business today. Like the business consultant who has done nothing but preach from their ivory tower for many years, a vast number of these speakers have little first-hand experience of marketing in the modern world. Get out there and create your own mastermind group of people from wildly different backgrounds and propel your business to new levels of success.
4. Newsletters are critical to your success. While everyone else spends too much time on social networks, you can generate huge rewards by being the resident genius in your customers’ inboxes with personality-packed newsletters that demonstrate your expertise and value in their lives. A weekly newsletter – delivered consistently – is a far more valuable use of your time than hawking your products on Twitter or Facebook. Factor a weekly newsletter into your content marketing schedule, promote it wherever and whenever you can (online and offline) and watch your customer count soar. Start working on your list today and get your newsletter rocketing your brand to the heavens of popularity in the weeks and months to come.
5. Schedule, Scribble, Shoot, Share. Effective and simple marketing can be summed up in those four words. Plan and prepare your content, write some articles, repurpose them for video, web radio, Slideshare presentations, white papers and ebooks, then distribute and promote the heck out of them using the dozens of tools and resources at your disposal. Heck, we even put together a post on content marketing 101 to get you started.

And while we’re in the giving mood, here’s a bonus one we just made up because it resonates so deeply with many businesses we work with.

• Those who eat the best, eat the least. Sometimes lasering in just one method of communication can bring you the greatest rewards. For example, you may be a creator of products and decide that YouTube is the very best way to showcase what you do, your glowing charisma and the minutiae of what goes into everything you make. If you work in the visual arts, video can be an unsurpassed media in building awareness of your every piece and extraordinary talent. If you run a restaurant a fortnightly web radio show with your head chef talking about a recipe that’s doing great business at your venue, legumes of the season and menus of the future can do amazing things (theatre of the mind is amazing). If you’re a writer, a newsletter may be the ace in your pack – or you might go totally against form and produce your own webinars to help others learn your art. Or if you’re like me, you’ll be asking your local newspaper for a monthly column to answer questions about doing business online. If you’re relentless on one platform or another, you can develop a frankly incredible presence online.

What are your sizzling steps to marketing success? We’d love to hear about them and learn more about your inner genius!
Source: www.business2community.com