Actually, it’s the most important rule for ANY kind of marketing (not just website marketing), but it’s also the most under estimated, ignored, and trivialized marketing activity you can think of. If you get this one rule wrong, 95% of your marketing efforts will be wasted. It’s not glamorous, it’s not trendy, and it’s not easy. BUT, get this right and you’ll be head and shoulders above your competitors.
We live in a YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, MySpace, Squidoo, blog, SEO, viral marketing, and RSS feed kind of world. With so many marketing channels at your disposal, it just makes sense to figure out how to make the most noise on all of them and wait for the money to come rolling in… WRONG! So what is the #1 rule in marketing, and how can you utilize it to market your website? It’s advice that has been given by wise men and sages countless times in history: from the ancient Greeks to the Chinese General Sun Tzu. If you’re looking for a marketing consultant, this rule is equally important.
This powerful marketing advice can be summed up in two simple words:
Know thyself…
The #1 rule in marketing is to know who you are. Know your strengths, know your weaknesses, know what your customers love (and hate) about you, know what people think of you, know what kind of organization you want to be. Sounds simple (because it is), but here’s 5 reasons why it’s so important:
1). Attracts Opportunities: People sense when you know what you’re about. They sense your confidence and are drawn to you because of it. A perfect example is Aaron Wall and his SEOBook membership. He’s not the flashiest of SEO’s out there, and he doesn’t blatantly list his Fortune 500 clients on his site, but he’s solid (Seth Godin endorses him) and is probably the sharpest SEO mind in the industry. His advice is timeless and doesn’t rely on tricks or flashy gimmicks to get his sites ranked. His no-nonsense style attracts opportunities and clients.
2). Filters Out Bad Customers: You don’t go to McDonald’s expecting filet mignon, and you don’t go to Morton’s Steakhouse expecting a Happy Meal. Decide whether you’re going to sell steak to high rolling execs or burgers to little kids, and build a business around them.
3). Eliminates Competitors: Perry Marshall, the guy who literally wrote the book on Google Pay Per Click marketing said the best way to eliminate your competitors is to nominate yourself the king of a small hill:
For most businesses, the failure rate is 90%. For “anybody can do it” businesses, the failure rate is 99.9%.
Ah, the irony.
The lack of a USP for the individual business owner is why.
Here’s the cure to that:
-Adding a unique twist… something special of your own that nobody else adds. You didn’t have a USP, now you do.
-You niche that uniqueness to a very specific “nano-niche”.
If you’re selling soap, you recognize that being the king of “soap” on the Internet is a nearly impossible task. At least in the short term.
So you appoint yourself the king of “Lemon Scented Hand Soap” instead.
Nobody else has really claimed that hill as their own. It’s poorly guarded. You can storm the barricades and win.
And you build out your empire from there.
4). Establishes Credibility: Customers trust you when you define who you are (and who you aren’t). If you’re the king of lemon scented soap, then you’re the King of Lemon Scented Soap. Now you build a public platform around it by advertising, blogging, and writing articles about the benefits of lemon scented soap. It’s a small niche, but you’re the king, and people looking for lemon scented soap will take notice. Which leads me to my next point…
5). Dictates Marketing Tactics: About the YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, MySpace, Squidoo, blog, SEO, viral marketing, and RSS feed world that we live in… knowing yourself and your target market dictates how you reach out to them. Say your company fixes septic tanks. Do you really think people are looking for Tweets and viral YouTube vids about cleaning up sewage in a backyard? Now, if my septic tank explodes and I have a huge mess in my backyard I’m going straight to Google. Your reputation, speediness, and quality are more important to me than cost at this point (especially if I have a wedding planned in my back yard a la “Meet the Fockers”) In this case you’d be wise to invest time and money in search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) advertising so you catch me when I’m looking for a solution… FAST.
Now if you have a company that sells a product that prevents my septic tank from exploding, you’d invest less in SEO and PPC and focus more on educating me. You could set up a blog with articles and videos about common home care tips, or send Tweets with links to articles about ways to improve the value of your home. This way you become a trusted source of information, making it easier to introduce your septic tank maintenance system. I’m not searching about septic tank maintenance unless it blows up, but I am looking at quick tips to make my house nicer. Give me enough of this info and I’ll be sure to buy your septic tank maintenance system. Afterall, it’ll save me time and money… won’t it?
The point is that you have no shortage ways to market yourself online. Whether you’re working with external marketing consultants, or markeing on your own, your most important job is to define who you are and let the tactics sort themselves out.
Related posts:
Raza,
like the next website.
adam
I mean, I like this new website. opps
Fantastic article Raza! I agree with each and every point – especially the “Attracts Opportunities” point. So many unsuccessful business owners (online and offline) fail in their endeavors because they sit and wait for opportunities to come to them. As a business owner, your entire career must be based on you reaching out to and attracting your own opportunities. Don’t rely on others – make it happen! If you work hard on that, opportunities will begin to find you.
Really interesting post and very well written.
As you will see from some of my blog posts I completely concur. On any activity you do, especially on the web you need to know what you want to achieve and the KPIs that will stretch personal and organisational achievement.