One of the foundational cornerstones to any successful business is how effectively they can market their vision. As a wise person once said, “sooner or later, everyone understands the importance of selling”. This universal truth especially applies in marketing.

It is imperative that you understand sales if you want to be exceptional at marketing. Since your marketing is the sales presentation of your business to the world, then true marketing requires a tangible paradigm shift in order to truly stand out from the rest of the typical all-too-prevalent marketing.

“There is no such thing as a bad market; only bad marketing.” -Lee Arnold

1. There are Riches When you Market Your Niches

For many entrepreneurs and businesses, a primary strategy to success is to find a niche that is under-served and to exploit it. However, the error too many businesses commit is when that rationale doesn’t translate to their marketing efforts. In fact, if you haven’t identified what niche you are selling, you shouldn’t even be marketing until that is established. A clear understanding of your niche helps create alignment between you and your audience.

In marketing terms, a niche is referred to as a company’s USP. USP stands for unique selling proposition. Your unique selling proposition is your calling card. Your ace up your sleeve. What can you offer than no other competitor can offer, match or beat? What makes you uniquely above those competitors? Ultimately, it answers the client’s question of, “Why should I work with YOU?” Additionally, your USP should also be specifically positioned to appeal to your customer avatar that you are trying to capture. So, figure out your USP.

Once that is established, there are riches when you market your niches.

If everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction” – Sam Walton

2. Utilize Free Marketing as if You are Paying for it

In today’s day and age of social media, over-stimulation, and over-saturation, you are fighting a different battle when it comes to marketing than the one from 20 years ago. Experts have famously said that a typical American sees around 10,000 ads in a day. That is why many claim that today’s most precious commodity is one’s attention. Due to this suffocating amount of white noise all around us on a daily basis, it can literally be a matter of life-or-death that your marketing stand out.

So, how do you capture someone’s attention? Well, the first step is that you go to where the fish are already biting! Do not market your website as your primary focus. Do not market through other channels where you are starting from scratch to get traffic to. Instead, market yourself on the channels everyone is already on. And your only trick is to do it more consistently and better than your competitors. Remember, the rule isn’t to make sure someone remembers you; rather, it is to make sure they never forget you. So, whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or any other form of free social media platform where the majority consensus congregates at by the million and millions, start your marketing there and then explore outwards. Maximize these free opportunities! The amount of free marketing opportunity presented in the digital universe is almost over-whelming, and only few companies truly exploit that opportunity.

Utilize free marketing like you are paying for it.

The attention economy is not growing, which means that we have to grab the attention that someone else has today” – Brent Leary

3. Market Your Relationships – Not Your Features

As alluded to earlier, marketing and sales go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, that also means that the majority of typical marketing is like the majority of typical selling. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth and makes you want to turn the other way. Why? It is because businesses are marketing themselves, their features, and their service without ever considering who the client is or why they should buy.

On the other hand, great marketing comes from marketing your relationships. What that means is you talk about your client’s wins, not your own. You talk about your partnerships and affiliations that have given you credibility and additional authority, rather than standing on your own resume or experience. This type of social proof goes a lot farther than you can imagine. Let the people around your business, and those who have benefited from it, be the spokespeople of your business, rather than you bloviate about yourself.

Market the relationships and the success your business has created, rather than your features and benefits.

“Content marketing is like a first date. If you only talk about yourself, there won’t be a second one” – David Beebe

4. Market your WHY – Not Your WHAT

This is probably the most common one that all marketing has a tough time avoiding. Most of the marketing out there is simply a menu of a company’s features and benefits. It blandly lists their products and services. It gives you the WHAT of the business, rather than the WHY of the business. Marketing should always focus on the WHY.

The WHY is the vision of a business. Furthermore, a vision should always revolve around the client. While undoubtedly the vision can and should involve your business, it should have the client as the focal point. Many companies do not understand the difference between their goals and their vision, and market the former. Goals do not include the client. On the other hand, your vision incorporates the client into the equation, making feel a valued part of the company. The only time a client will buy your marketing is when they see how doing business with you will benefit their own goals, rather than the goals of the company.

Market your company’s vision for the client, rather than the internal goals of the company.

Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart” – Joe Chernov

5. Market as if You Are Selling Door-to-Door

Ultimately, all marketing boils down to one thing: that it grabs someone’s attention, by whatever means necessary. The tricky part is that you must do it as if you only have 10 seconds or less to intrigue, because you do! You must possess urgency. Back in my teenage years, in the early 2000’s, I would sell newspaper subscriptions going door-to-door. With a hint of sarcasm, it was exhilarating to say the least! I would knock on someone’s door, and if that door opened (which it usually didn’t) I would now have roughly a 30-second window to persuade the person whose dinner I was interrupting why they shouldn’t promptly slam the door back in my face. If I was successful, those conversations lasted for 30 minutes or more and resulted in us doing business.

So, treat your marketing with the exact same urgency. Market with the client’s attention span in mind. Your marketing shouldn’t be elaborate or complex. It shouldn’t be a slow play with you holding that ace up your sleeve for later. It should be your best shot right out the gate, and it should be overwhelming enough to make the client curious enough to stop, and engage.

Market as if you are selling door-to-door.

“Try to say everything in an ad and you end up saying nothing” – Jeff Mamula

The Formula for Success

So, the next time someone comes up to you and asks you what business you are in, there should really only be one universal answer. Don’t tell them what product or service you offer. Don’t tell them your company name, or even your role within the company. Your answer should simply be, “I am in the marketing business.”  You need to develop this type of mindset! If you don’t view the success or failure of your business through the lens of marketing, that needs to change today. Your marketing is everything to your business, and then some. Prioritizing the mastery of marketing will give your business the lifeblood it needs to experience continual growth.

At the end of the day, the beautiful irony is that there is no perfect formula to marketing. These five innovative concepts are simply designed to get you to start thinking outside the box when it comes to your marketing. Just make certain that your marketing is different. That it is authentic. That people can stop and resonate with it. Then, once you have someone’s attention, marketing has done its job, and it’s up to you to take it from there.

But whatever you do, never stop marketing! Why? Because…

“Stopping your marketing to save money is like stopping your watch to save time” – Henry Ford