Before we get into the “nitty gritty” of the four steps to Embrace Your Market, we need to lay some groundwork so you get the most from this book: Personal Responsibility.
Why talk about “Personal Responsibility” in a post on marketing? Because the vast majority of businesses default this very important area to third party suppliers who have no real incentive on getting you the most longterm value for your marketing efforts and dollars. There are certain components you MUST take Personal Responsibility for BEFORE asking someone else to create your message or salespage or ad or anything else.
No matter the country, I find as I speak a general misunderstanding of what makes marketing work. Sometimes this is simply due to misinformation, either from another source or from using the “monkey see, monkey do” school of gathering “competitive” information by observing and mimicking competitors. Even more often it’s simple ignorance of basic marketing.
Ignorance can be cured (stupid, however, is terminal!).
What do I mean by ignorance?
When business people say to me, “I don’t need a strategist, I just need an email campaign,” or “I just need a marketing plan,” or “We’ve got the strategy, we need more sales!” These all show an ignorance of basic marketing.
One I really cringe at is, “I don’t care if my customers like me or not, as long as they buy!” If you remember nothing else, write this down: The primary goal of all of your efforts is to get and convert Ideal Prospects into long-term clients and customer relationships of mutual value.
As a Master Marketing Strategist and Copywriter with massive results, I can give you first hand examples of programs that in some cases succeeded before falling on their face, and many others that never got off the ground… all because of ignorance of the importance of these concepts and the client taking Personal Responsibility for having a Crystal Clear Strategy first.
Strategy ALWAYS Precedes Tactics!
Too often businesses are in too much of a rush to take the time to really think through their Marketing Strategy — the “Why, Who and What” of your marketing. Once you know your Strategy, the Tactical items – the “Where, When and How” you market – become EASY!
