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Gisel Martin l April 6, 2018 l Blog Post 5
Listen to Your Customers
“Great marketing is driven by understanding people. The key to understanding is listening.” -unknown
Are you listening to your customers? They will tell you what they need. Your customers are the most important component of your business, focus on their needs. There are many reasons to communicate with your customers. All of those reasons have one thing in common: you are asking your customers (or motivating them or convincing them) to take action. For example, a taco truck promoting an event is ultimately asking you to attend that event and buy some tacos. A musician’s flyer that announces a new gig is asking you to attend and listen to her music. A tv commercial with cartoon characters telling kids to eat a specific type of cereal is asking the kids to tell their parents about the new cereal the want to try.
Key things to know about marketing:
Marketing is about communication
Listen to your customers
Focus on your customer’s needs
You are asking your customers to take action
Tips for Effective Communication
Communication can be difficult, yet it is one of the things that can make our lives easier/less difficult. Here are some tips for you to put into practice that will improve your communications with others:
Active listening
Repeat
Ask questions
Active listening will help you focus on the person speaking instead of focusing your attention on your response. Repeating the main points is a great way for you to show that you are listening and gives the other person an opportunity to hear what they are saying. Asking questions is important for clarification. The purpose of communicating effectively is for all parties to leave the conversation with comprehension, clarification, and validation.
Creating a Marketing Strategy
Here are some tips for creating a marketing strategy for a specific project, event, product, or service:
State your goal(s) [what] It’s important to be clear on your goal. Your goal should be based on what you want the outcome to be. For example, if you are launching a new product your goal might be to sell 50 items in one week.
What is your motivation for your goal(s)? [why] Basically, why do you want to accomplish your goal(s)? If your goal is to sell 50 items in one week, here you would state why. An answer might be that you want to decrease your inventory or if 50 items give you $300 in profit, then your why might be to reach at least $1200 in profit every month.
List specific tasks [how] Be specific and break the tasks down into as many small tasks as possible, they will be easier to execute.
Create a timeline [when] Set dates for each task so you can complete them in a timely manner.
Identify person/team [who] It’s important to choose people who have the skills to execute the items in the [how] section. If you are a sole proprietor, consider outsourcing some items if you do not have the skills or knowledge. Or, you may be able to watch a YouTube video or take a quick course (if you have the time) to learn some new skills, especially if you will continuously be the one doing them.
The last three parts will guide you to create action items that can be easily organized into a task list to reach your goal. Happy marketing!
Which part of a marketing strategy do you enjoy doing? Which part is a bit more challenging? Leave me a comment below, I’d love to know your thoughts.
Next Blog Post
The next blog post will be about the business planning stickers that Leticia Torres from Aicitelt Designs and I have created to help you business owners get organized, we're very excited!
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