Over the last two years, I have been in the process of building a new business. Over this time our marketing plan has evolved with the business. We went from need centered, to me centered, to customer centered marketing.
The thought behind need centered marketing is simple. I need money now. Who can I target to give me money now. It works when you are bootstrapping a company start up, but is not a good plan for sustaining growth.
Me centered marketing is what a lot of businesses never grow out of. You get to me centered marketing because you have spent a lot of time creating a product that you believe is the best product ever. You believe it is priced fairly, or as some like to say, " a great value." Just in case you were not paying close attention, I put the word you in bold letters to emphasize who the message became centered around, you, I, or me. The draw back is that that my customers are not as concerned about me as I am.
The next evolution of the marketing plan came when I realized the hard fact that me centered marketing was not the most effective way to grow a business. I went back to the old stand by of looking at my marketing plan from the end users stand point. As one of my old bosses used to say, "Always answer the question your customers are asking themselves. What's in it for me?"
When every part of my marketing plan focused around answering that simple question, more doors began to open. Now the challenge is to turn my customers into marketers. I am calling that passion-centric marketing. To learn what I mean by passion-centric marketing stop back tomorrow for my next post.
