How Not to Fail In Marketing

Without focusing on these 3 things, you will fail –

There are only three things that matter in marketing.

You might think there are more — but no, there are not.

Seems odd that there would be so many posts about “how to succeed in marketing” then right? Yeah, I even write quite a bit of them. Those are tactics. Tactics and thought, thought that drives strategy — and that’s all well and good but there are only three things that actually matter in the end.

Without these three things you will never reach home, your tactics won’t connect and your efforts will fail. Seriously, it’s the truth. It’s because of these things that some companies explode with market success, and some fall drastically short.

It’s when companies, brands, and people focus on these three points that they succeed. It connects the dots, brings it all together, and delivers a solidified result. Otherwise shit hits the fan, money is wasted, time is wasted, and no-one benefits.

So what are these three things that are so damn important?

1. The audience

First and foremost. The audience is key, not “an audience” but your audience. Each company, brand or person has their own audience. You need only find and define it.

Apple has their rebels, GoPro has their heroes, Lady Gaga even has her little monsters.

You need to find your “little monsters”

Everyone has it, every business. What is unique to yours? If you haven’t found it yet you haven’t been paying enough attention to your customers.

Engage with them on a deep level — literally talk to them. Wild, I know. Social media is a gem — use it to actually connect with people, monitor their thoughts — god knows they give them freely. You have to understand the grand message you are sending, you have to know what your mob is all about. Then you must define it, polarize it, make people feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves.

The first and foremost focus should always be your audience, because without your audience you have no direction. If you’re pushing messages into the void hoping someone will connect, no one will care. If you push your message to a few who you know will care the impact will be incredible.

2. The story

Every good marketing approach should be fueled by a story. By “a story” I don’t mean a marketing ploy. Stories are what we‘ve had for thousands of years, since the dawn of humanity. Stories are what we told around a camp-fire in caves, long before we had the potential to reach millions of people at the press of a button. Think about a true story, deep and rich.

What is your story? What is your business’s story? What is the story your customers care about? What do they need? Think about these, because otherwise — what the hell are you marketing? Your “features”? That you have a new entree? Who the hell cares?

Unless you can give me an emotional connection — or an inspiration to buy — that does nothing for me. Learn the art of storytelling, every marketer should know it.

It’s a voice, a stance, an opinion, a tale, a quest, a guide, an emotional journey. Steve Jobs (who expected me to say that name?) was such an incredible marketer because he understood his audience so well, and he knew the story that they would resonate. He knew what to say and how to say it. His audience responded. He took us on a journey with stories, and we were enveloped in his product not because we wanted it — but because we had an emotional need for it.

The same goes for Walt Disney. There is a reason he won 22 Oscars — he knew how to tell a story. He knew how to pull our heartstrings — and the emotion that everyone would respond to and could relate with — nostalgia. He told stories that entertained, with smiles, laughs, tears and joy. But he also taught, provided value — through intrinsic feeling that we emotionally connected to. We didn’t realize that we were learning something the entire time. That he was sculpting us as an audience, and that we would crave more once it was gone. That’s why we kept coming back — movie-after-movie, story-after-story — because we craved the feeling that he gave us through his art.

“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.” — Walt Disney

3. The context

Where is your audience? Where do their thoughts live? Where are they engaging? Where is their attention? How can you capture it?

The context is the key. Once you know your audience and have your story, you have to find the medium or the rest won’t connect. You will be throwing your perfect story, to your perfect audience into a void where no-one will ever see it.

1. Define your audience
2. Find where your audience’s attention is
3. Build a story
4. Craft your story to the context of where your audience’s attention is
5. Publish it proudly
6. Watch them connect

Otherwise your customers will not connect, the three points will count for nothing and the efforts will be lost.

It takes every side of the puzzle coming together in absolute harmony to truly win, otherwise everything is for naught.

So there are only three things that actually matter in the end in marketing. It doesn’t matter what “tactics” you’re focusing on, what “strategy” you think you have, if you’re not focusing on connecting these three points — you will fail.

I don’t want you to fail, I want you to find your audience. I want you to understand what they need to hear, how they want to hear it, and design the story to connect. It’s strategy, but strategy for the sake of people. People who are like you — who want to connect to you — but don’t know that you’re out there yet. The story will help them connect to you, the context will give them the pathway. Their connection will be the glue that turns the path to concrete.

“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” — Walt Disney

Find your audience, write your story, connect to people — that’s true marketing.

I’m a content marketer and SEO consultant, having worked with brands like Best Western, Holiday Inn, MFG, Bidsketch & Olo to boost revenue through clever content and organic search. I’m also a consultant for hire.

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