Time Goes By

Marketing is an ever-evolving field. It’s no surprise that marketing trends, techniques and tricks are transforming by the hour in an age of information. How on earth are you supposed to keep up as a business owner?

Don’t worry – I’m not going to tell you to prop your phone up on your desk and start doing TikTok dances. The answer is really much simpler (and less embarrassing!) than that. 

Because the foundations of marketing are, have been and will always be the same. And if you understand what these foundations are, you don’t have to tread water to try and convert your leads anymore. They’ll be drifting in without any need to be ‘trendy’.

Here are the five timeless foundations of marketing to make your life a whole lot simpler.

1. Customer Journey

A customer journey is your lead’s progression from a cold lead to a paying customer. Now, this will look different for every business and every individual – but every existing customer you have will have gone on their own unique journey with you!

By using a funnel tool to map out where your customers tend to come from, you can easily track where your leads either lose interest, make a purchase or even become repeat customers. 

Where once the customer journey might have involved wandering into a high street shop, browsing, buying and giving some word of mouth praise to their friends for a business, the digital age means that this process is constantly changing. 

Do your customers come through social media ads? If you have a shop or showroom, is this where they tend to find your business? How about your website? And at what point does their willingness to engage with you start to wane? Find these bottlenecks – because there will always be some. 

2. Connection

You’re not selling to robots; you’re selling to human beings! And they want to build a relationship with you if they are going to splash the cash. 

In the world of marketing, connection with your clients is more than just being nice to people. It’s finding out where they’re at. What their pain points are. Why they might still object to buying from you, even after visiting your website, downloading a brochure or following you on social media. 

If you can relate to them and make them feel heard, it doesn’t matter the method. The result (a trusting relationship) will be the same.

3. Objections

Always ask the question: why would someone NOT want to buy from you? Is it that your prices are higher than your competitors? Maybe they just don’t see why they would ever need your product? Or perhaps they’ve tried something similar before, and it just didn’t work for them?

While the objections themselves might change over time, the presence of some form of hesitation won’t. 

If you can tap into these objections, you’ve already hacked the system. The easiest way to spot objections is by looking at what questions people tend to ask before buying from you. These questions are often a way of ruling out the possibility of buyer’s remorse – so help them by resolving those objections.

And if you answer their queries in a way that frames the benefits of using your product or service, you’ll have them right where you want them…

4. Trust

No matter the time or industry, your prospects will always want to know that you are someone they can trust. 

So this is where you get to shine! Show your accreditations and accolades. If you’ve won awards, make them public. Add those honours to your website, email signature and social channels with pride. The little details add up to building a solid reputation of excellence in your industry.

If you’re new to all of this and are yet to win awards, don’t worry. Another fantastic way to establish trust is through testimonials. If you do a great job for someone, why not ask them to leave a review for you? The worst they can say is no. The more the evidence points toward the fact that you’re a trustworthy and reliable business, the better.

5. Small Steps

Let’s pretend for a moment that you own a shoe shop in the high street. If a customer came wandering into your store, would you immediately cry: “BUY THIS MOST EXPENSIVE PAIR RIGHT HERE!” at the top of your voice? 

Of course not.

So, why take do the same thing online? If you’re asking the person to reach for their card in the first five seconds of being on your website with a pesky popup, you’ll be faced with a hard no. It’s like trying to get laid on the first date!

Instead, ask them to take a tiny step. Maybe direct them to download a brochure, or book a call with you. You’re likely to come up against much less resistance – and keep people around for long enough to build that relationship up until they feel ready to buy from you.

Build Up From These Foundations

That’s all there is to it. If you can crack these 5 foundational marketing strategies, you’ll be well on the road to attracting a whole host of new clients!

Like the ideas but not got the time to spare? Why not book a FREE Discovery Call with me today – we can help lay the foundations of your marketing.

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