Ask 100 marketing professionals “what’s the best way to market my product?”, 99 will answer with the expected:
- “Spend more money on search engine optimization.”
- “Improve your advertising.”
- “Get yourself a good PR agent.”
- “Establish a stronger brand identity.”
- “Spice up the look and feel of your website.”
- “Build and use email lists.”
- “Target through social networking websites.”
- “Focus more on Google AdWords.”
But your question shouldn’t be answered. If the marketing professional you are talking to knows what they are doing, they should be responding with a question.
“What’s your product?”
Everything starts with your product.
Is it truly valuable in the eyes of your prospects? Is your product differentiated so well that you are the only source for someone who wants to buy it?
Those are the questions you should be asking yourself.
This is not to say that ground tactics aren’t important. They are vital. But without a highly differentiated, valuable product, you are going to be fighting on price, and that’s a battle you are almost sure to lose.
After engineering your product for true value and differentiation, you have to be able to articulate the value and differentiation, along with reason to believe you can deliver, to your prospects. If you nail these first two steps, you increase your chances of a sale at each opportunity by up to 1500%. Yes, 1500%. After completing these first two steps – and only then – should you be even considering discussing ground tactics.
And at that time, you cannot just trod the well worn path of the typical marketer. That’s not a wise use of our money. You have to be smart. And most of the usual tactics aren’t. It is extremely unlikely that you will learn about the ground tactics I teach from any other marketing professional.
So, one last question:
Is your product essential in the eyes of those who are in a position to buy it?
Send me an email and tell me about your product or service and we can figure out together if I can help you supercharge your marketing.