Browse > Home / Strategy / Marketing is NOT a Dirty Word

Marketing is NOT a Dirty Word

Some business owners I work with don’t even want to talk about marketing.  The word immediately brings up a bad taste in their mouth.  Who can blame them.  There are a lot of pretty scummy tactics used in the name of marketing, things such as: false deadlines, bait-and-switch, overhyped sales copy, unbelievable promises, and guarantees people don’t honor.

In a recent book by a very well-known marketer, creating fake stories to sell your products was one of the major themes.  That’s right.  Having a good true story wasn’t enough.  They outright endorsed lying about your product or service in the name of marketing to create some fake sales story. 

Is it any wonder people look at the word, “marketing” and associate it was scammers at times?

Let’s get past the way some people use marketing to drive sales.   I know some of them will do whatever it takes to make the sale.  I know that many marketing consultants look at your conversion numbers and profit percentages as the only jude of doing business.  But this doesn’t mean you have to be that way…

Marketing is simply educating your customers to make a proper buying decision.  Your products or services may not be the right choice for all of them.  Let them know who your products are for and who they’re not for.  Let them know what benefits they’ll obtain from buying what you offer.  If your products really do help your customers, then you owe it to them to provide them with the best presentation and information you can.

Marketing is all about providing this information and education on a mass scale.  Let people know how you can improve their lives.  Tell them the benefits of what you offer…and show them a real picture of what those benefits will look like in their life. 

Use a true story that captures people’s interests.  Businesses who resort to making up false stories are simply taking the lazy approach.  They haven’t delved deep enough into their business to find where the real selling story is.  Look at every aspect of your business to find the story.  Who are you?  Who are your employees?  Where have you come from?  What specific results have your clients received?  How are your products made?  What makes your services different than other offers?  How many steps go into the creation of your products.

A good example of an honest education becoming a marketing message is in a story by Claude Hopkins in “Scientific Advertising.”  This is a very good book with a number of good marketing tactics any business can immediately apply and use.  He talks about a beer company who hired him to recreate their advertising campaign.  It was fascinating to him to see all the steps their beer went through in the manufacturing process.

His recommedation was to create their marketing message educating their customers about all the steps in the production of their product.  Their first response was that every competitor also made their products this way.  The lesson Claude taught them was you’re not marketing to your competition.  You’re marketing to your customers…and they don’t always know everything you know about what you’re offering. 

Marketing is simply educating your customers to a proper buying decision.  Although there are dishonest tactics being used in the name of markeitng, they are not what marketing is all about. 

Written by Terry · Filed Under Strategy 

Related Entries:

Comments

2 Responses to “Marketing is NOT a Dirty Word”

  1. » Good Guy Style Marketing Still Lives » Simplenomics » Blog Archive » Sales, Marketing and Customer Service The Simplenomics Way on March 20th, 2007 7:40 pm

    [...] Marketing Is NOT a Dirty Word. [...]

  2. Good Guy Style Marketing Still Lives on January 15th, 2009 10:57 pm

    [...] Marketing Is NOT a Dirty Word. [...]

Got something to say?





Comments will be sent to the moderation queue.