Four valuable marketing lessons | Stuff.co.nz

Graham McGregor is a marketing adviser. You can get his free marketing guide ‘The Plan B Sales Solution’ at simplemarketinganswers.com.

OPINION: I’ve learned a number of valuable marketing lessons over the years and I thought I’d share four of these lessons with you.

Valuable Marketing Lesson 1:

Marketing is easier when you have a “warm audience” that you can connect with. In other words you have a group of people who know you and like the ideas that you share regularly with them.

Here is a good example.

I had the opportunity a few years ago to watch a webinar by James Clear. James is a weightlifter, photographer and entrepreneur.

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People are the key to marketing success and not technology.

In his webinar James explained how he started his website on November 12, 2012 with no subscribers, and then, built it to a worldwide audience of 70,000 subscribers in only 18 months.

He did this by focusing on some simple things that all of us could do if we wanted.

James commented in his webinar that when you build a ‘warm audience’ of people who like what you share it’s so much easier to make sales.

A key message that I got from James is that you need to share quality ideas with your audience and do it on a regular basis. (This builds a positive connection.)

Valuable Marketing Lesson 2:

A small amount of learning in a key area can transform your results once you apply what you learn.

I was reminded of how valuable learning and practice can be when I caught up with a successful entrepreneur called Miles a while ago.

Miles was a client who had purchased a video based sales training programme from me over 25 years ago.

He put his whole sales team through the programme, and he told me they must have watched the videos at least a hundred times.

His sales team became very skilled at sales and a short time later Miles sold his business for a handsome eight-figure sum.

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Graham McGregor says a small amount of learning in a key area can transform your results once you apply what you learn.

Miles reminded me that becoming good at one thing (in this case ‘how to sell’) can make an amazing difference to your results.

Valuable Marketing Lesson 3:

People are the key to marketing success and not technology.

A big key here is how you make people ‘feel’ when you interact with them.

One of my favourite quotes is by Maya Angelou.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

And in marketing that is so true. (In both a positive and negative way.)

Here’s a good example.

I had dinner with Paul, one of my favourite business clients, and we got talking about referrals.

Paul explained that a business friend was unhappy with their bank. So, he referred them to his own bank manager.

His friend then took all his business to Paul’s bank and this included two million dollars of lending. (So it was a good-sized new client for Paul’s bank.)

However, Paul’s bank never thanked him for the introduction. So, Paul felt they didn’t care about him and doesn’t want to give them any more referrals as a result.

The opposite is true as well.

We can have someone do something nice that is unexpected and positive. We often remember this person and want to help them.

A good example is a dentist I used many years ago while on holiday. I had a toothache and the dentist fixed my problem.

He then made a 2-minute phone call to me the next day when I was back in my home town, just to check whether I was okay after the treatment.

I felt valued and special and recommended this dentist to a lot of the people I knew.

The key here is to do things that get you positively remembered and not negatively.

Valuable Marketing Lesson 4:

A personal handwritten note or card is always remembered.

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Personal handwritten messages sent out to customers could always work as a great marketing strategy, Graham McGregor suggests.

I cleared my letter box a few days ago and there was an unusual envelope that caught my attention. The envelope looked like it was hand addressed, and it had a wax seal on the back.

I opened the envelope and discovered a beautiful card with a handwritten message from Greg Smith. He is the owner of Send Handwritten.

The handwritten card Greg sent me had a great message that made me smile. It also made me remember and feel good about Greg and his business.

And as a result, here I am talking about Greg and his business to Stuff readers.

This delightful card from Greg reminded me that a personal handwritten message to people that makes them feel good always works. When you do it consistently you get remembered and referred and make a lot of easy sales.

So that’s four of the many marketing lessons I have learned. I trust you found something of value.