bloglovinBloglovin iconCombined ShapeCreated with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. rssRSS iconsoundcloudSoundCloud iconFill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch.

Tag: marketing

The secret to getting better at anything

Become an observer.

Notice what draws you in, where your attention holds, and what keeps you engaged.

Want to become a better marketer? Take note of the ads that call to you. What makes them meaningful?

Want to become a better writer? Think about the pieces you take time to read. Why are they magnetic?

Want to become a better listener? Consider how others respond in conversations. Notice how you feel when someone listens to you. What are they doing? What are they not doing?

Want to become a better speaker? Analyze the lectures that made an impact on you. What do you remember and why?

Want to build a better brand? Pay attention to brands that have committed followings. How do they communicate to their audiences?

Of course, practice helps. But without awareness, actions can easily and quickly become unfocused. You need awareness — of both self and of the world around you — to become better.

Start noticing. Make a plan. Then align your actions accordingly.

Know your audience

Your customers may not believe what you do. They may not see the world the way you see it.

Where do your clients come from? What influences their likes and dislikes? Where do they spend their time online? What do they do in their free time? What do they wish for? What will they never admit out loud?

Understanding your audience is key to writing well, selling better, and creating more effective products.

How do you know what your audience wants? Listen. Observe. Research. Repeat.

Baseline for success

The course you’re planning to launch, the community you’re trying to engage, the interview you hope to conduct, the podcast you want to record, the book you’re hoping to write — yes, you could fail. The project might end up in disaster, and nobody likes it.

But what if one person does? What if your work helps one person feel inspired, find strength, start something new, or keep going?

Before stressing about the outcome of your work, take time to define what success looks like for you. What is the minimum you need to see to know that your efforts are worthwhile?

Anything above and beyond that is gravy.

crop man getting dollars from wallet

When your product is “FREE,” is it worth it?

Price isn’t simply an amount, it’s a representation. This is how good we are, this is why you should trust us, this is the commitment, this is the value you’ll receive.

Yes, FREE can help solidify a brand and attract customers. Maybe it can make selling easier. But unless you’re using “free” to establish consistent revenue, is it worth it?

When you circumnavigate hassle with a free label, you might sacrifice perception in return.

Free could just be an easy way out.

What is marketing?

When I changed industries — from social work to advertising — I was skeptical. Why would an international branding agency want to hire me, a M.S.W. (social work) graduate from Columbia?

They did, and here’s why:

Empathy.

They knew I could question: How to analyze behavior and communities, how to look for factors that contribute to the way in which someone sees the world; how to start conversations to learn how people see themselves.

This is marketing.

As part of my social work degree, I had two clinical internships. For the second, I was placed in the counseling clinic of an all-girls college. My experiences prior to this was with drug and alcohol addicts, youth on probation, middle school students. Yet now I was playing the role of therapist in a clean office, listening to educated young women talk about their anxieties and frustrations.

These women had resources. They had money and options and opportunities. Yet their worries were the same as those kids on probation and the middle schoolers who walked up flights of dark stairs in Section 8 housing to go home.

Will he/she love me?
Will my family be proud of me?
What should I do for work?

Since then I’ve worked with Buddhist monks and young leaders in Nepal. Our yearnings are largely the same, but our resources are not.

If we fail to recognize these differences as marketers, we have no chance of winning.

I believe we can use this same awareness to create incredible marketing campaigns — and a better world.

Which audience will I care about?
Who do I want to impact?
Which traits do I want to develop?

Who are you making this for?

It’s fun to think about what you’re creating. Sometimes it can be difficult to pause and consider who you’re really designing for.

Before you get too involved, too excited, too invested in your project, take time to think about your intended audience:

What do they want?

What do they need?

Where do they go?

You’ll save yourself a lot of headache by planning accordingly.

(What’s important to you might not be important to them.)