Successful marketing is not necessarily what it seems. When you hear the word marketing, it may conjure up images of how to tell the world about your business, product or service. That’s the way we have traditionally done it; but just because that’s the way we have always done it doesn’t mean it’s the best way.
Granted, there are a lot of good ways to market your business, product or service in today’s economy—but you don’t want a good way; you want the best way.
Look at it like this: Good is the enemy of best.
If you are going to market with relevancy, you have to realize that your products or services are not your real products. Contrary to public perception, your products and services are not what are most important.
Traditionally, people have marketed their businesses, products or services along these or similar lines:
My product is cheaper than …
My product has the highest quality of workmanship …
My product is better than …
My service is less expensive than …
My service is more professional than …
My service is better than their service …
Now, these are all good thoughts. But in reality all that matters is whether or not your product or service holds real value to someone and provides a solution to the people to whom you are marketing. Remember, beauty—and usefulness—are in the eye of the beholder.
Marketing with relevancy requires that you don’t get caught in the “competitor marketing” mindset. Your product or service is what matters, not what your competitor might be doing.
You cannot afford to worry about your competitor’s features and price points and allow that to drive your marketing campaign. In fact, you cannot afford to worry about your competition at all—because there isn’t any!
Competition can be a fantastic thing. What does it mean if someone is selling something similar to your product? It means there is a demand for your product or service.
Remember our thesis: Your success—regardless of your industry—has very little to do with your business as you currently define it or with your products. Your success is directly tied to your marketing relevancy.
Now pay attention to this, because what you are about to read will surprise you: Your business really isn’t your product or services. Your business, believe it or not, is marketing.
You don’t believe me? Well, let’s look at how this works. Suppose I were to give you a million books. I just dropped them off in your driveway. Now, how much money would you make? The truth is, you wouldn’t make one dime unless you knew how to market those books to the right people. Your success would not be in the books. Your success would be in knowing how to market them.
In other words, your product is nothing more than a marketing system utilized to gain customers. Your focus should not be solely on your product or services; it should be on creating a marketing system or platform that sells your company’s products.
What is a system? A system is simply a vehicle that takes your customers from one point to the next. A good system does this the same way every time while producing the same, consistent result every time. We’ll get into that more in the next chapter.
For now, let’s take a look ahead. What are you getting into as you read this book? I have three goals in writing it:
1. To educate you about the benefits of using a marketing system that sells your products versus the traditional approach of marketing your products.
2. To teach you the marketing skills that will properly position you for success.
3. To provide you with a turnkey solution utilizing the principles you’ll learn that you can begin to implement as soon as you finish reading this book.
Now, let’s get started.