A New Marketing Thought Process

Marketing matters, but it’s not everything. 

The old way of doing things is simple: find a target audience, come up with the best bang for your buck strategy to reach that demographic, and go out and get them. It works, but really, it doesn’t. At least not in the long run.

The old marketing thought process doesn’t work.

• Your audience can smell advertisements and bait from a mile away.
• You can’t lead with something that is not you.
• You aren’t all things to all people.

The best way to market is simple: just be yourself. There are some things we’ve learned along that way that help us move forward and guide our clients in making the next right decision in in their marketing strategy.

The new marketing thought process works.

• You market to the people you already have.
• You focus on the people most like you.
• You be yourself and not the person down the street you wish you could be.

Why does the new marketing thought process work? 

• You market to the people you already have, because they’re already your biggest fans and followers. If you can find a way to activate them in alignment to your mission, you’ve already won the game. That’s why we encourage our clients to work off of a word of mouth principle, because money is scarce and should be spent on your missional objective, not trying to get people through the front door.
• You focus on the people most like you, because you’re best equipped to reach people who share your interests and passions and who are in the same stage of life as you. A problem arises when you say you’re something you’re not through marketing, you get someone through your front door, and then everything is completely different than you advertised it. It’s bait and switch, and you just can’t do it.
• You be yourself and not the person down the street you wish you could be, because only you can be you. The dirty trick of the American dream is the lie that you can be John Smith down the street with the fancy cars, nice house, and pretty perfect family. It’s not reality, and it’s not you. You don’t know the garbage the Smith family has, what it took for them to get there, and what their life looks like behind closed doors. All you can do is focus on yourself, upping your game by learning everything you can about your self and others, and doing anything and everything to activate your current audience to reach their audiences. If it helps, remember to stick in your own lane and be your own person.

The new marketing thought process is not rocket science, but it’s also not simple. While it may seem like it is at the surface, it’s going to take time and effort to reorientate yourself around these principles and strike out on a new course. You can right your ship, but you’ve got to steer away from the waves and calm seas. What you’ll find there is a vast ocean of people waiting for you to come pick them up.

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