The world is a marketplace.
Have you mastered how to market your business (and yourself)?
No?
You need to, period.
It’s either you’re selling, helping someone or an organization sell, or you become irrelevant.
The earlier you realized this, the better for you.
If you’re working 9-5, you’re simply helping someone do his business…
Which, at the end of the day, must be marketed to someone to generate revenue and then, profits.
If you’re an entrepreneur, your survival hinges on your ability to effectively market whatever you’re selling.
Be it goods or services.
When I was a kid, I hated my second mother who brought me up for one reason…
She always wanted me to be at her store.
I used to cry when alone in the store thinking of the cartoons, football, and all the fun I missed.
I didn’t have much of a choice, and since it wasn’t like she’d ever consider my crocodile tears…
I simply got used to staying in the store.
However, that’s where my marketing foundation was laid.
I was smallish, maybe smart, and remember several customers saying…
“this smally, you even sell better than your aunty.”
It got to a point when I even had to change my school clothes in the store.
Looking at my marketing skills now, and the ease with which I always find a way to help a business grow, I’m thankful for my upbringing.
In other words, I sincerely apologize for hating you back then mum, you made me into this…
And I’m grateful to be a Digital (Growth) Marketer – even though I have a degree in engineering.
You see, marketing is a must-have skill.
It doesn’t matter what you do, or where you work, you must learn how to market yourself and your business.
Marketing is the door and window for growing your business and yourself.
Lucky for me, I learned against my will.
Even though I’ve now deliberately developed it and chosen a career in marketing…
3 Steps on How to Market Your Business (and Yourself)
Here are simple ways you too can market and grow your business and yourself.
THOROUGHLY KNOW YOUR OFFER
Against popular beliefs, every great marketing attempt starts with you and your offer.
If you’re offering something wacky, you may find some glimpses of success, but rest assured that you’d hit a ceiling wall.
One legendary marketer once said, “giving a bad product (or offer) great marketing is the fastest way to kill it.”
And I absolutely agree.
Would you buy a bad product or pay for a bad offer the second time?
No!
Would you recommend it to a loved one?
No!
Put simply, great businesses are built with great marketing…
And great marketing is only feasible if the product or offer is dope.
Two ways great marketing makes a business grow and go viral are…
- People who buy come back again and again to buy.
- People who buy recommend it for their loved ones again and again.
So if you’re working for a firm that produces wacky goods or services, talk to your boss because your job is already on the line.
Once customers stop patronizing, of course, they will, there’d be no more sales and business would shut down.
If you’re an entrepreneur and your offer isn’t dope, you’re already on a free fall to the ground.
Having a good product or offer, and thoroughly knowing it is the genesis of marketing yourself and your business for growth.
On personal terms, if you’re a wacky individual, or you don’t know yourself, you won’t have friends and you’d hardly grow.
Would you even connect with such a person?
I doubt!
KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
No matter what you produce or sell, everyone will never be your customer.
Even if you were the only one selling oxygen, some would rather die than buy it from you.
Have you ever passed on the road and heard someone call your name?
Irrespective of what haste you were dashing for, there’s always a reaction when you hear your name in public.
In marketing, we call this personification.
People respond better when they think you are talking directly to them.
People love preference.
If you knew someone, you’d call them by their names.
In the same vein, if you know who your customers are, you’d make your offer tailored to their needs.
You’d personalize it for them.
To know your customers, you need to have what we as marketers call ‘customer personas.’
A customer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customers.
As a person or business owner who craves for growth, you must identify a fraction of your customers that love your product or offer the most.
These are the ones who’d come back to buy and recommend you and your business again and again.
They could be boys, girls, women, or men, and may have some characteristics worth taking note of.
It’s not easy to identify your core customers, that’s why those who take the time to always outgrow other businesses.
This is because they can personalize their offer to suit their needs.
This, in turn, would make your customers feel special, just like you’re calling them by their names, and they’d patronize you more.
For example, multinational companies don’t use the same advertisements everywhere.
The one used during a football match is different from that used during a concert.
In simple terms, they know those who love football have different interests to those partaking in music concerts.
If you really want to effectively market and grow your business and yourself, invest in knowing who your core customers are.
BE CONSISTENT
Consistency is the nut that ties everything together.
To effectively market and grow your business and yourself, you must be consistent.
We know of countless businesses that failed simply because they altered their quality.
See, sometimes it’s easier to ascend the height of success than it is to remain there.
The moment you have a good offer, thoroughly know it and can identify your core customers, you’d be headed for the top.
But to remain there at the top and keep growing and getting better, you must be consistent.
Life, especially business is too competitive to think customers would come dragging you to remain awesome.
The moment you stop being consistent, a competitor is always there to outrun you.
If for any reason you must do something to your consistency, let it be that you’re getting better.
Businesses and people that grow continuously never take a foot off the pedal.
So you shouldn’t either!
Goodluck.
I first published this article on Medium.
