Not Everyone is the Same in Marketing
Have you ever heard a business owner talk about a marketing activity they’ve been doing and thought ‘if I try that it will work for me too’? Perhaps someone has tried cold calling or sending out sales letters and has found it has worked particularly well for their business – maybe you’re thinking about doing the same to see how well it works for you.
I think in marketing generally, there is a lot of pressure to follow the crowd. We’re all educated to think that cold calling, direct mail, advertising and networking will work really well for our businesses – after all, if it works for someone else, there must be a chance it will work for us too right?
The thing with marketing though is that every business is different. What works well for one business is not guaranteed to work well for another. And this is even true in the same industry.
Why is that?
Well, for a start we’ve all got different customers. They’ll congregate in different locations. So, if your potential customers are likely to go to networking events, networking as a marketing strategy is probably going to work for you. If they don’t go to networking events, even though this strategy may work for other businesses, it’s not going to work particularly well for you.
Also, we’re all different people and we have different ways of doing things. I like speaking at groups, for instance. But I know that this strategy for some people would absolutely fill them with dread.
A third reason is that often business owners are stuck for marketing ideas. They may have tried quite a few activities, but if nothing has really worked, they may be stuck as to what to do next. Therefore, if another business has tried something that has worked really well, it’s only natural that you’re likely to want to give it a go too.
The trick is with marketing to be an individual. Going where YOUR customers go is by far the easiest way of attracting new business.
By all means have a go at different marketing activities and try different things. Eventually you’ll hit on the ones that work well for you. But try not to follow the crowd too much. Otherwise it’s likely that you’ll end up wasting your time, energy and money trying to copy something that may not work for your business.
Go on, dare to be different.
