Many business owners shy away from marketing. There are various reasons for this. A common reason is that many feel overwhelmed by all the things they feel they must learn, for example, about different marketing techniques. As a result, many stay away altogether from marketing.
This is a mistake you cannot afford to make. Marketing is the lifeblood of any business. A great product or service, on its own, cannot make sales. There has to be an intelligent and concerted marketing effort behind it.
In this post, I would like to share with you the big idea behind marketing. I will also give you some key insights to keep in mind as you shape your marketing plans.
Here is the big idea.
Marketing is storytelling.
This is the beginning, middle, and end, of marketing.
After all is said and done, when all the fancy technical words are broken down into simple, easy to grasp concepts, this is the one thing that shines through.
This is the first post in a series on marketing as storytelling. This series will help you refine your core marketing message, so that you target precisely those prospects that are right for your business, leading to significant increase in customers, and solid business growth.
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So, marketing is storytelling.
Marketing is the story you tell about yourself to the world.
But not to the whole world – not really. Only to those whom you have carefully selected. Marketing is not about adopting a scattergun approach, blaring out a message to all and sundry. Sure, it might look like that when we see the adverts etc all around us, but that really isn’t how it works. A good marketer will have carefully defined the intended recipient of her message, and is actually targeting that person with her marketing efforts.
There are three elements in every marketing story. Every time you market your business, these elements are there, whether you realise it or not. Therefore if you do not deliberately define what you want them to mean for you, they will define themselves, or someone else (heaven forbid, the competition) will define them for you. So it is important to know that these elements exist, and then set about defining them clearly.
Here are the three elements in every marketing story:
(1) The person telling the story;
(2) The person to whom the story is told; and
(3) The story itself.
1. The person telling the story
This is, of course, you. You are bringing your product or service out into the marketplace, and you are telling a story about what it is that you are offering.
You (as the storyteller) have an important role to play here. It is not just about your product or service. Crucially, it is about you.
So, who are you?
Or, to be more exact, who do your customers think you are?
The truth is, no matter how a business may define itself, what truly matters is how it is defined by its customers. If, for example, you see yourself as a dealer in antique furniture, while everyone sees you instead as a general furniture shop owner, it doesn’t then matter how much money you throw at your marketing. Unless and until you correct that misalignment, nothing will work.
But of course, we should not rely on our customers to tell us who we are. We should be intentional about creating our business identity, and in communicating this identity very clearly to the world. This way, we define ourselves in the way we want our customers to see us, and then they take the lead from us.
So, in putting together your marketing story, be very clear about who you are.
2. The person to whom the story is told
This is, of course, your potential customer. We have to be very clear about the identity of this person. If we are not clear about who we are targeting, we will end up targeting everyone and no-one.
So who is your potential customer?
Many business owners fall into the temptation of casting their nets very wide. They want to target as many potential customers as possible, in order to increase the chances of sales and business growth. While this might seem to make sense, it actually does not work. If you are not precise in targeting your message to a clearly defined recipient, you will achieve very little.
Here is a truth. There are people out there right now, looking to buy from a business exactly like yours. They are primed and ready to spend their money on what you have to offer.
However, if you are not able to identify them, you will walk past them. If you are not focused on finding them, you will saunter past, looking into the distance, while ignoring the ideal customer walking right next to you.
The message here is this: don’t pitch very wide. Instead, look for your ideal customer, and then pitch to him.
If you pitch too wide, you will have to cater also for people who don’t know about your business, don’t care about your business, and will never buy from you, no matter what. Instead, you need to turn your gaze away from them, and instead zero in on those people (wherever they may be) who are ready to spend money on what you have to offer.
So how do you find these people?
First, you have to know who they are.
To do this, take a look at yourself as the story teller (see point 1 above). Who are you? What makes you different from your competition? What sort of prospect is likely to be attracted to you? Those are unique signals that should point you towards the customers with whom you would have the most empathy.
The next step is to begin to narrow down your range of potential customers. This depends on the particular business you are in, but the general principle applies across all fields. The more focused you are in defining your target market, the more successful your marketing efforts will be.
3. The story itself.
When you are clear about your business identity (point 1), and you have pinpointed your target market (point 2), the story you need to tell will start to become clear.
So you know exactly what your business is about, and you know exactly the type of customers you are targeting.
The next step is to build your story.
The story you tell should connect to your customer’s need or desire. It is not about pointing to your product and service, and singing its praises. In fact, it is not at all about your product or service. It is, first and foremost, about your customer. What is his deep need, desire, or longing? Can you fulfill it? If you can connect fully with that place, your story will be both amazing and effective.
Conclusion
The vital point once again – marketing is storytelling.
Marketing is the story you tell about yourself to the world. There are always three elements to this story, and you must define them, or risk having someone else (unhelpfully) define them for you.
Define who you are, as the storyteller.
Define the person to whom you are telling your story.
Define the story you are telling.
Next in this series, we will discuss how to define and create these elements. That is, how to tell your story.