GarthBox

Whether you’re looking to build a successful partnership or a profitable business, you won’t get there unless you understand your target.

It’s a balance of giving and receiving, of asking and answering, of caring and giving a reason for them to care about you. Sometimes you’ve got to be selfless, and sometimes you’ve got to seek what’s in it for you (especially when it comes to asking for feedback).

There are many ways to understand your target. You can guess what they want. You can read their purchase history. You can scan their “liked” pages on Facebook.

Or…or…

You can ask them what they want to be.

Once you know what a person wants to be, you can ruminate what will get them there, then sell (or give?) them that. Nothing strengthens a relationship B2C or B2B more than providing what is already desired rather than attempting to convince people they want something you made.

The other benefit of asking someone face-to-face is you skip all the research that gets you to the same conclusion. I suppose you could do the research of a large group of people, but is the masses what you’re really after?

Just as success happens moment by moment, so does business, only person to person to person.

 

Stay Positive & Treat Different People Differently (And Everyone Is Different)

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You may want the lifestyle the scene above portrays.

If you do, I can tell you how to get there. Interested?

If you don’t, is it poor marketing?

A poor marketer’s instinct might be to wonder how she can advertise this is the lifestyle you want until it’s the lifestyle you want. It’s a great thing this method doesn’t work despite the not-yet-smart marketers of the world insisting it’s an effective strategy.

It’s important (if you care any bit about the marketing world) that you realize the marketer’s job is not to get attention so you can sell what a company has already made, rather the marketer’s job is to think up how to plate something the market is already interested in.

If you think you have a weird product, it’s likely something the market will want. Why? Because people are weird. Now, the best way to market it? Weirdly.

 

Stay Positive & Constant Ads Telling People What They Want Is Not Weird

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How are we measuring success?

What value are we providing?

What emotion does the target want to feel when connecting with our product or service?

Why are we doing it this way?

How can we prove the target will respond how we want?

How will we scale?

It doesn’t really matter how you ask. As long as you are confirming you’re down the right path with every single move you make, you’re bound, destined, guaranteed to arrive at the success you seek.

 

Stay Positive & You Are Asking, Right?

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When using emotional connections to market a product or service, it’s often easy to leverage the inspiring mindset that you want to create more share.

It’s fair as a bow manufacturer brand to want to get more people into archery, and, by extension, buy their product. That would be creating share and there are many inspiring, connective, and legendary ways to create share.

However, it makes no sense for a peep manufacturer or archery bow release brand to worry about marketing in a way that creates share. Leave it up to the bow makers.

Another example? Does it make sense for an instrument mouth piece brand to try to get more people to buy saxophones in hopes they will buy their mouth pieces? No. It’s better for them to steal shares from competitors and to focus on those who already own an instrument.

Another example? What about a vehicle seat brand trying to get more people to buy cars in the hopes they will buy a car with their seats. No. It’s better for them to steal shares and leave the getting more people to buy cars up to the car makers.

Every marketing tactic you come up with files into one of these two categories. If your strategy is to steal shares, you need to stay with the tactics that accomplish it, rather than getting lost in the fun-ness and trap of working to create more shares.

 

Stay Positive & Know What You’re Marketing

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