Companies do not seem to understand what marketing is really about. They think it is about brochures, advertising, PR, social media, web sites etc. Actually, unless a company has the true elements of marketing in place, these activities will bring minimal rewards and be pretty much a total waste of time and money.
On the other hand, take Slingshot. A superb example of a 1%, fast growth company. Over the past 3 years this SEO agency has grown the business at more than 3,500%! [1] Impressive.
They understand what marketing really is about.
Understanding what your customer really wants
They started by understanding what their customers really wanted- leads and success! They worked out where they excelled- Search engine optimisation- and ditched the other services where they did not shine as much. With this strategic marketing focus, they then focused on working out how to become experts in delivering exactly what their customers wanted.
Turn your customers into your best sales force
They did such a good job of making their customers successful that they were able to make a deal with them. Once they were successful- they would tell 3 other companies about what Slingshot had done for them.
As a result, they got marketing to work at its very best. Their clients became their sales force. Their growth has literally been exponential.
Learning from other expert “marketing” companies
Intuit, providers of accounting software for small businesses, drove sales up to $billions the same way- with just 2 sales people.
Star-Tex Power, an electricity company, has achieved incredible results in exactly the same way[2]. Being a small company they looked at their competition and quaked. They realized their budget was so small any “normal” marketing they did would not stand a chance. So instead they worked out that their customers:
- Were confused by the pricing structure in the utilities industry
- Found the customer experience painful
So they went out of their way to create a pricing structure that was really transparent and to treat their customers really well. As a result, the customers started to spread the word. As a result, with no marketing budget, they grew from $4.8m to $400m in under 5 years!
Now that is impressive marketing.
How can you do marketing properly?
I am not suggesting that a company should not actively drive to increase market awareness and market pull. Ensuring that your customers know you are there and why you are better than your competitors is good business sense. Yet customers are fed up with “normal” marketing that makes all sorts of empty claims.
Proper marketing comes from the very heart of a company. It is about working out how you can deliver powerful value in the eyes of your customers…that truly is far better than anything else.
Are you delivering that powerful value or is your business throwing money away?
References
[1] http://www.inc.com/kevin-bailey/build-a-fast-growing-company-on-a-bootstrap-budget.html
[2] http://www.getamericagrowing.com/library/inc-5000-ceo-interviews/bob-zlotnik-of-star-tex-power
