A recent blog post of mine created a flurry of connections and conversations with many entrepreneurs, which I am most grateful for. I am always stunned at how many creative products and services are out there, and the drive and determination that lay in the individuals behind them.
As young entrepreneurs, marketing and selling is perennially the most significant challenge you have and will continue to have. But contrary to popular belief – marketing is not just about getting the message out there. Everyone has a different narrative, a different world view, it’s arrogant of us to believe that everyone will believe in what you believe, know, and understand what you understand. Therefore, you need to find a tribe you want to serve, a tribe you understand, and a tribe that you can serve well with a product or service that is going to make that group of people become better versions of themselves, working with their narrative.
Marketing has changed, but the world hasn’t caught up yet.
Many moons ago, before the t'internet, before the competing world of high consumerism, the world of marketing was a lot simpler: mostly, revenue spent on marketing, equaled revenue received.
Marketing was often a career of charlatans, a world of coercive tricksters, begging the public to buy their products, that are better, faster, and more improved than others!! Hustling hype shows creating a fear of missing out, often leaving consumers with an uncomfortable feeling of ‘have I just been conned?’, rather than the satisfaction of acquiring something that is going to make a positive change to their lives.
Although that behaviour is still too often apparent, things have changed, things have changed dramatically, and the world is still trying to catch up. In 2023, successful marketing lies in the quality, culture, and experience of the brand, and the core product or service. In this new marketing world, your product/service development, and the culture you create around it, are critical to your marketing planning process.
This means ensuring your product/service is rooted clearly, and deeply in the desires of those you care about. It should focus on a change you would like to see in the world, and therefore, be making things better for your target market, which is a market you should care deeply about. Seth Godin refers to this as the ‘smallest viable market.’
And to care about your target market, you need to understand them, align with them, engage and contribute to their community, resonate, and be memorable. Dance with them, don’t distract them, attention is a precious resource – why should they give you any?
What does this mean in practice?
1. Go back to your product, what problem is it solving, and for whom? How does it make your target market (your tribe) lives better? Is it worthwhile? Do you care about the change it makes? Do you care enough about your tribe to make their lives better?
2. Further define your tribe, who are they? What makes them unique? How does your product/service uniquely improve their lives? Where are they? Is your product designed and built so it uniquely chimes with them?
3. Dance with them, create stories about them, with them, making connections through those stories and experiences. What is their narrative, and what are their stories? Tell those stories, align, and see things through their eyes. Match their dreams and further define your ‘smallest most viable market’. You can’t change everyone, not everyone will appreciate, want or like your product or service, that’s fine, just concentrate on the tribe that it is for, the tribe YOU care about.
4. Spread the word. Concentrate on the emotive, tap into how your product makes your tribe feel; it is the feeling that your product/service gives them that will make them buy it. Make sure your website, your social pages, and your brand, is representational of your tribe, and their stories so they can see quickly and clearly themselves mirrored in your brand. What you say isn’t nearly as important as what others say about you, capture those testimonials, tell those stories and spread them wide.
5. The best ideas require significant change and take time to grow, this is often why so many small businesses fail within the first three years……so you need to be prepared to show up, regularly, consistently, passionately, and confidently – again and again and again.
As a small business, you can often feel that money will solve your
marketing problem. Obviously, it would help, but no amount of money will solve the problem if you are not serving the tribe you created your product/service for, you haven’t defined who your tribe are, you don’t understand your tribe, your product is not solving a defined problem, your service is poor, or your culture is not aligned with that of your tribe.
I strongly recommend that you read This is Marketing by Seth Godin and work at creating those positive experiences with your tribe!
Go change the world entrepreneurs!!
