1. Every company tries to do too much. Do less. Become more focused. Go deep into one industry or serve a narrow set of consumers or customers. Say no to tangents that distract you and your organization.
2. Dig deeper into understanding what business you are in. Are you in railroads or transportation? Are you in cola beverages or share of thirst? Whether you are in B2B or B2C, customers buy the benefit you offer, the features are secondary. When I needed a new furnace installed in my house, I didn’t care about the tools required to install it, I cared about keeping my family warm.
3. Look for analogs outside of your industry to learn how customers experience your brand. If you want to imagine what it is like to walk in a customer’s shoes when dealing with your company, experience another business with a similar structure but not in your category. A hospital wanted to understand what it was like for patients when they entered the facility. So, they studied how restaurants greet people with hostesses and got insights into how they could make patients feel more welcomed.
4. Small failures mean you are trying and testing. That’s a good thing, don’t see it as a problem but a windy road to achieving your goal. There is more risk in the status quo then failing and trying again. Celebrate and encourage risk-taking so your company or department is empowered to push the limits. Hand out risk cards to colleagues to encourage a culture of risk-taking.
5. Search for the most human way to tell your brand’s story. If you spend all your time with marketing automation tools, staring at screens or learning to code, you are missing out on the opportunity to feel what your customer is feeling. Start with people and then move on to the tactical ways to reach them. Some companies begin by collecting data. I like to start at the human level on a project by finding individuals who have pain and needs relief. When people have problems, they are searching for solutions.
6. Surprise your associates and customers in unexpected ways. Happy employees help make your customer’s happy. Show some love but in an unpredictable way. Thank you are the two most powerful words that don’t get used enough in the workplace. Holding regular birthday celebrations is boring. Randomly bringing food trucks to serve your team lunch is a better way to say thank you when it is not expected.
7. If you manage people, ask them how you can make them successful in their work. See how you can clear a path or get them needed resources. Don’t tell them to do things for you, find ways to help them so they can achieve their goals. In the long run, everyone wins. You hire smart people so you can learn from them and let them do what they do best. Get out of the way, just provide guide rails.
8. Don’t jump to marketing tactics like we need to fix our website. Spend time asking hard questions to understand the problem before you come up with solutions. You can spend resources fixing something that won’t get at the root cause of a problem. Window dressing isn’t a solution; it just masks deeper issues.
9. Work harder at listening than talking. You already know what you think, but meetings and conversations are the chance to hear something new and different. The smartest people I know listen more than they talk. Great CEOs and Presidents understand this and that’s why they don’t talk until the end of a meeting.
10. Keep learning from multiple sources. I find that curious people make the best marketers. I want to keep seeing new ideas and constructs. Whether it’s from podcasts, books, conferences, Ted Talks or volunteering at a soup kitchen, strive to create opportunities to expose yourself to something new outside of your regular habits. Take a class in something foreign like learn to paint or play squash. Join a car repair club. Join a non-profit. Watch a documentary about a subject you don’t know or care about to see the world anew. The results can be staggering when you allow oxygen to enter the bloodstream.
What do you know about marketing?
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
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