When it comes to marketing, the most obvious thing that you need is a budget. This can come in the form of money, such as paying for advertising. Alternatively, it could be in the form of time, such as going to networking events.
To get the most out of any marketing that you do, there’s something else you need to make sure you have in place too - listening.
Listening is a simple skill. It’s something that we all learn as we grow up, through verbal and non-verbal communication. Fun fact: I like to call myself a professional listener :)
From a business perspective, when we talk about listening we’re referring to listening to your existing customers and also to your potential customers. Collectively, we’ll refer to them as your audience.
You’ve created products or services that help your audience with specific problems that they suffer from. For example, you may offer a landscape design service to affluent home owners who want to create a tranquil or relaxing place to escape.
In order to effectively market your products, you need to listen to the wants and needs of your audience.
You need to understand their problem in detail and how that makes them feel. You also need to understand how they’ll feel after the problem is resolved. What does that look like for them?
The easiest way to listen to your audience is to ask them questions.
If you’re sending out an email newsletter, you can ask questions in the emails that you send. It’s best to limit this to one question per email, as you want to keep people focused when they’re responding.
You could also set up a survey using a simple free platform such as Google Forms. This will allow you to add as many questions as you need, giving your audience the opportunity to share more information with you.
If you have business premises where your customers visit you, such as a retail store or workshop, it’s also very easy to just strike up a conversation with your customers. A simple conversation can go a long way towards providing you with valuable insight that can help to shape your marketing.
Finally, don’t forget that you can use social media platforms or web forums to learn more about your potential customers. You can see how they describe their problems and the things that are important to them.
Listening is more important than money or budgets when it comes to marketing. You can spend as much money as you like, but if you don’t listen to what it is that your customers want, your marketing will always be less effective.
P.S. Let me listen to your business story. Who knows, I can help you optimize it. You can book a call at a time and date that suits you on my calendar here. Book a meeting with me.
