Last month I started my Life Lesson series on how to correlate doing what I have learned in life and where I can see it being applied in my own business as well as in others. So, lesson #1 was Be True to Yourself and to Your Business. In other words, when you created your business you had a plan for it, a look, a feel, etc. Don’t compromise that, unless you want to and for the reasons you want to change.
When you are growing up through life, or at least for me it was this way, I never thought people thought that much differently than me. I know that sounds kind of naive and stupid, but I don’t mean literally thinking like me. I mean when you see something that you know what it is, and someone standing right next to you, a relative, a good friend, a stranger and they will see something completely different. You both think how two people looking at the same thing can see something different. Well, I had never noticed that going through life, until I became an adult and got into the working world.
It’s kind of scary when you really discover we are all different, but then you go through life and you start finding people who are similar to you. I don’t mean in a very minute sense (i.e. race, or religion, or even political) but in a broad sense (i.e. Americans, Arizonan’s, Phoenicians, etc). When you come to this realization, you understand yourself better and others better. You know where you need to draw the line with things.
With business it is the same way. Like people, all businesses are different. Sure, you can go to any coffee shop and they all serve coffee, but they serve more than just coffee. They serve an experience, a feeling, an image, and a particular look. Some will love that place, others will be indifferent about it and love a different place, and yet others will hate both places and love their coffee shop. That doesn’t make anyone write or wrong, it is just everyone has different taste.
It’s the same way in Marketing. Everyone has different tastes. It is okay not to like the marketing plan someone just pitched to you. It just wasn’t a good fit. Interview several marketers and find one that will take the time to get to know your business then build an affordable marketing strategy encompassing the businesses personality. That is what will make a successful marketing plan; and they don’t have to be so expensive it’s out of your budget. Just remember, when looking for marketing professions realize marketing a business is much different from a commodities business. When you hire a marketer you are hiring their creativity, their time and their efforts to create a marketing campaign. It’s harder to quantify someone’s time for something some might think is easy, then when you are used to receiving something tangible for your money.
So like people, every business is different. One needs to understand the business “personality” and then create a successful marketing plan that will attract its personality.
Tell me what you think?
Geoff Cummings is President | Founder of On the Level Marketing & Consulting, LLC. Successfully helping businesses with all their marketing needs by branding their businesses and keeping marketing simple and straightforward.
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