* There are more than one keys to successful marketing.
I was on the phone earlier with an associate and friend of mine. It was a lengthy conversation, which for me equates to about 30 minutes since I like to get right to the point during conversations and don’t like “fluff” time. This particular person was talking to me about his struggles in marketing his online subscription service (the details of what the service is are irrelevant for this post). I asked him a few questions like “do your competitors offer a better service?”, “is your service a good value for the money?” and “is the marketing message on point with what the service is?” My last question was the one that was most telling, though:
I asked him “do you believe in the service you provide to your customers?’
Long pause, followed by “I guess so.”
This is most telling for two reasons. Successful marketers fall into two camps: they either believe in and are passionate about what they are marketing, or they aren’t. You can be a good marketer without believing in what you are selling or communicating. People market and sell all the time like this. But, it is infinitely more difficult.
It is far easier when you are marketing something that deep down you believe is the best. The best in value, the best in service, the best product in its genre, and something ultimately you can stake your name and reputation to. In short, marketing is easier – or, let’s say comes more naturally – when the subject or topic is something engrained in your psyche and personality.
Let’s use myself as an example. My first job after playing professional tennis on the ATP Tour was working for one of the largest direct marketing companies in the US. Specifically, my role was to manage and market collectibles in the porcelain collector plate division. I was given the task of marketing farming-themed porcelain collector plates to consumers. Something along the lines of this, only in the farming genre.
It was hard! I knew nothing about plates, and nothing about farming at least to speak of. So, I did what any marketer would do and I learned. I made the best of the situation, and was ultimately successful in that role by doing some serious market research. Yet, I don’t believe I was a “great” marketer of porcelain plates. I was good, but the reason I wasn’t great was because plates and farming were never a part of my most deep-rooted emotions. It wasn’t a part of me, it was just my job to be quite frank. Sure, you can work hard, educate yourself, and get yourself to a point where you are good at what you do. But to take that last leap to great or even “stand-out”, it helps to be working on a subject that is really connected to you in a way that it isn’t just a “job”.
Compare this with my experiences from that point forward:
1) Founding and building the first e-commerce solution at that very same collectibles company. (Technology and the internet were passions of mine and always have been; I was always an “early adopter”).
2) Working for Playboy and helping to lead that company’s money-losing businesses into profitability and hyper-growth. (At a young age, I had always been passionate about that brand and company, even proclaiming at a young age while in NYC and walking by their office building that I would one day work for them).
3) At Epic, leading the two-time winner of Marketing Team of the Year. (I always felt strongly that creativity, flair and in-person events and experiences could go hand-in-hand with metrics and numbers-driven business, and we were able to bring exactly those things to the table which were largely reasons why we won such an award).
In my first example, I didn’t really believe in the product I was trying to market. I educated myself and got things to a point where I could believe that someone (the constituency I was marketing to) could believe the product was good and important. But I, personally, was not invested in those products.
In the latter three examples, I was much more personally invested in the brands, products or services. I actually felt as if the things we were pitching had value, were the best in class, and stood out; but more importantly, I believed in them. You could make the analogy by answering a hypothetical question. When someone asks you about what you’re marketing or selling, if you feel as if you’re speaking from a memorized script or using talking points, you might fit into my first example. If your reply flows naturally and energetically, you likely fit into my latter three.
Like I said, there are a lot of variables when it comes to successful marketing. I do believe that one very important factor, though, is really and truly how much you believe in what you are marketing, whether that is a company, brand, product or service.
