Looking ahead to the new year, we talked to Ross Quintana, founder of SocialMagnets.net, to gain his perspective on how people can do great marketing in 2018.
Marketing is all about delivering value. Many marketers get hung up on embracing new technologies and the latest trends. But who cares about that except marketers? Your customers certainly don’t, unless whatever you are doing is providing them with value.
That’s what Ross Quintana says will be the most important factor in marketing next year. Providing value should be your number one focus, according to the founder of SocialMagnets.net. Ross Quintana is a thought changer, growth hacker, secret sauce analyst, social media trainer, and futurist, and he even has his own Quintana University!
Quintana joined us during our #TrainingTuesday live stream to talk about the things business owners can do to make 2018 a great year for marketing. Here is what he had to say.
1. Know Your Business
You need to know your business and its core competencies. What is your goal? Whether you choose influencer marketing, use marketing automation and AI, or to create virtual reality content, how is your marketing delivering value to your customer? If it’s not working toward your goals, it’s not worth doing. So axe anything that’s not, and stop trying to be good at the wrong things. You’ll need to do the research and an audit to find out what things are working and what things aren’t.
Sometimes you can adapt your strategies to make them more successful. Maybe you’re in the right area of marketing, but you’re doing it wrong. Many businesses have tried social media and decided it didn’t work after 30 days. But they’re not seeing results because they’re not putting the time in letting it grow. So, adapt and find things you need to do better.
Finally, adopt new strategies. Do some R&D, fund some projects that don’t matter but are focused on being cutting edge. It doesn't always have to work. But you have to try something different, without an expectation of ROI. Otherwise, you’ll be left behind.
they think they know what they are doing but that is never the case after an audit.
2. Know Your People
Culture destroys digital transformation, and culture destroys everything, but it fits in line with content marketing. What happens when there is competition? Average stuff never stands out, it just becomes part of the noise. We have to move to really know our people, to get a familial culture. In a family, everyone has a defined role and they stick around.
But most businesses run with a factory mind-set, where a worker does one job and is easily replaceable.
Mistakes happen. You can’t fire grandma. We need to be more like a family. Find the right people, recognize their individual talents and unique offerings. Every person becomes important, their quality and development really matters. Ultimately, your people will be your brand, so it’s smart to hire for personality over specific skills. You can train someone in skills, you can’t change their personality to match your brand culture.
3. Know The Trends
You have to understand the difference between marketing trends and market trends. Marketing trends tend to skew toward emerging technologies. As marketers, we’re excited about AR, VR, and AI. They are new technologies that could mean so much to our industry. But, these are technologies that haven’t hit the market yet. The majority of people are aware of what’s happening in these spheres. So to build a strategy on these technologies now would be like building a store in the middle of nowhere that doesn’t have a road to access it.
As business owners, we need to take a step back. It’s great to be a leader in the space, and to be knowledgeable on what’s trending for the future. But the money isn’t there until mass adoption hits.
So, be educated about what’s happening, but don’t waste time on a platform or technology that doesn’t have the masses on it yet. You want to hit them in that sweet spot where it’s just about to blow up and become popular. And, take the time to determine, “are my people going to be there?”
4. Know Your Customers
If you don’t know your customers, how can you possibly be in business? It’s like trying to sell lemonade to people who aren’t thirsty. You are not going to make sales this way. You need to find out who the thirstiest people are, learn more about them, and then make sure they like lemonade. Timing is everything. You can’t sell lemonade at 1 a.m., you need to be present in front of people during the lunch hour.
To do this, you have to be holistically intelligent in your business structure and execution. If you fail to do that, you won’t survive.
And, once you determine who your audience is, you need to create an experience for them. Chances are they can find similar products to yours. So what will bring them to you again and again? In-store and online, create something they can’t get elsewhere.
5. Know Your Competition
Pro-tip: anybody can do this. Any small business, anyone can do it. All you have to do is some social listening.
You need to go find a list of your competition or people in your space, and read their reviews. Check out the negative ones. This will tell you what your customer cares about and what the most likely defecting customer from your competition cares about. That should be part of your business intelligence, even at a small level, to own that and know the complaints of all your competitors. Now you’ll be able to fill a void and you’ll know where to position yourself in a busy market.
6. Know Your Market
The market is always shifting and changing. You have to stop thinking that you’ve built the business. A built structure will fall down during an earthquake. Similarly, the business world is always moving, shifting, quaking. You have to be able to move with the times.
Understand the market, the ways in which it’s shifting, and how you can continue to grow your business during shaky times.
7. Know Your Voice
By now you’ve gone through a lot. Let’s say you know your business, what you should be doing, what you shouldn’t, and you know your people, your customers, and your competition. You’ve even started paying attention to trends in the market and in marketing. The last thing you have to know is your own voice.
Knowing your own voice will set you apart in a noisy, competitive world. That’s how you are going to succeed in 2018.
There you have it! The seven ways you can create awesome marketing in the new year and those to come.
Would you like to watch us discuss this topic with our guest Ross Quintana? Replay our #MagnetMarketer live stream, always held on #TrainingTuesday.
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