No matter what new fad or trend appears, the fact remains that marketing basics will never change.
Before I dive in, let’s start with a definition of marketing.
Dictionary.com has these two definitions:
- The act of buying or selling in a market.
- The total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer of buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.
I disagree.
We all know that marketing and sales are tightly coupled.
However, marketing is completely different from sales in that it has a specific function to get the attention of your ideal customers.
Marketing creates an environment that makes sales possible.
Marketing = sales-ready environment.
The basics of marketing are
- Planning
- Products
- Pricing
- Promotion
Inside the planning section, is understanding your customer to such a degree that you actually think as they do. That’s what makes promoting easy.
If you are able to communicate the pain someone has better than they can describe it themselves, they will be immediately drawn to you. They will, in fact, assume you can solve their problem too.
Why? Because you “get” them. If you understand the pain so well, you (obviously) must know how to solve the problem too!
One of my copywriting mentors, Ray Edwards, used to tell me the goal with writing is to join the conversation that’s already going on in their heads. When you can do that, your message will land.
This is key to being successful in your marketing. If you rush into the other three elements before you’ve done proper due diligence in the planning section, you’ll discover your marketing falls flat and doesn’t deliver the results you were hoping for.
How well do you know your ideal customers?
Marketing basics never change. Need help with researching and getting inside your customers’ minds?