Oh no, not that business stuff again?!
Every person starting in business right now has had a thought of having to know how to market cross their mind. And not only that, but the thought of not being a marketer or not wanting to do marketing.
People who are not familiar with this are often concerned about the meaning of marketing and how it’s done. It almost immediately causes the reaction of “I don’t want to do that”, or “I don’t like that”, as if marketing the worst type of advertising and interrupting other people with not particularly intelligent messages.
Since marketing plays a really important role in your micro business, you need to understand what it is and be able to do it. And it definitely isn’t what most “outsiders” think of it.
For a person who is just starting in business, I would say that marketing are techniques or methods you use to let people willingly learn about your business.
In the digital age, the rules of marketing have changed a lot. Marketers went from spamming to targeting certain groups of people. Yes, there is still spam, but everyone knows none of it brings any value. If you think about this for a second, you even ignore ads on TV. Why is that? Because the old media is dying and it has never been easier to find or write a review of any product on the market or to find a person who has used it. But, you also have to remember that you have too many choices and you’re not willing to change a product you have been using for years unless you have a really good reason for it. That’s why I wouldn’t go out and open a cereal company or start producing new head pain drug.
Big markets are not goldmines any more. That’s good news for you because you don’t have millions to invest in a new business and in TV ads. The more niched and personalized you are, the better your business stands. That is not only happening because people love personal and because all the big markets are already taken. It’s because of the choices we don’t have yet, about the unsolved problems or unfulfilled desires. That’s when people want to learn from people; if you need help with your business, you’ll search for an expert, if you collect jo-jos, you will need someone to feed you the newest information constantly, someone to guide you in your next purchase from Japan or wherever. Whatever you do today, you are in a people business.
Marketing means focusing on people you need for your micro business. If you understand what they need, even better, if you are starting as one of them, you will know what to do. Some people need help; so for example if you want to start a business that helps people get rid of stress by doing yoga, you will know where to find them, you will know their common troubles and pains, so you will need to focus on that when you talk to them and offer a solution that will help them get the result they want.
Others will have a certain passion, like sneakers. Then you will probably want to provide a platform for them to meet, talk and share pictures, give them a regular source of new information and do your best to provide them with the greatest and limited editions models of sneakers.
In both examples you are gathering a community of people who think the same way and who have something in common that is very important to them. We’ve talked about this before, those groups are called Tribes. Gathering a tribe is marketing. And all you need to do here is to understand them and genuinely talk to them.
Marketing is also providing information in an appropriate place which means blogging or writing press releases. Word of mouth is marketing. When people talk about you and bring in new members of the tribe.
The best marketing is having a viral business idea. An idea that spreads like wildfire and continues to do so even after some time. No advertising, no money, no favours can top this one. That’s what your business needs, that’s what everybody’s business needs. A viral business idea isn’t an every day idea, but a successful business idea isn’t just any every day occurance either.
Marketing is engaging with the right audience. That’s why you don’t need a really big one to become successful, just a really committed one. That brings us back to the viral idea. That idea gives you permision to speak, to help, it gives you a different status and then people start turing to you for advice on every related subject, not just the one you’re focused on at the time.
And yes, advertising is partially marketing, but it’s not the same thing. Being a marketer doesn’t mean being obnoxious and pushing your message to the people who don’t want to hear about it.
Sometimes it takes little effort from you because what you create is almost enough in itself to get very far, but other times it takes more effort in sense of helping others, sharing your thought or passions, little gestures, pleasant conversations, stating a clear message or just a really good product or service; because every marketing starts with your product or service, your initial idea.
You can be a marketer without studying economy. You need to understand your market (and they are probably people like you) and if you have come up with a great idea for your business already, then you will know what to do.
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photo courtesy nick.garrod
