How Do You Build A System For Marketing, Not Just A Strategy?
So many folks we talk to want to talk about Marketing strategies, but not build a marketing system. So how do you do that? Well, let’s talk about it. Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose.
I spent countless hours at Clemson University studying marketing. It was my major and something that actually made sense to me. Accounting, not for me, but Marketing... I loved it!
I had a professor that spent months every semester drilling into the 4 P’s of marketing. Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion. He drilled that marketing mix into our heads every minute we were listening to him... and it worked. For years!
However, I was shocked the other day, when a local business owner puts words to something that we have felt for a while.
“The 4 P’s are out... it’s the 4 E’s now!” he said. Now this man has started and built more businesses than I can shake a stick at, so when he speaks, I listen.
But everything he said, made sense as he put words to things we at BOP had been feeling for a while now.
In this new model of marketing, the consumer has grabbed hold of the power. They are more informed, less patient, and more demanding than ever. Gone are the days of being able to maintain your advantage over a competitor for months or years.
No, sometimes now your advantage can be only for a few minutes before someone knocks you off and offers a similar product at a similar price.
So, where does that leave us? Well, with the 4 E’s of marketing.
The first E goes from the product to the “Experience.”
The challenge becomes not just focusing on the product's deliverables, as your advantage may only last a short while, but focuses more on the customer experience and workflow you provide. How can you deliver the best product, WITH THE BEST EXPERIENCE, in a way that creates long term customers?
The second E goes from place, to “Everyplace.” Typical marketing was an on/off switch that interrupted people during their normal day. Think billboard advertising that grabbed a customer's attention away from their morning commute or a commercial in the middle of a football game that interrupts your experience.
When we shift the mindset to “Everyplace,” we’re trying to intercept the customer in a way that is convenient for them, and at the time they are most receptive to our marketing efforts. Think about apps that walk you through the sales the moment you step in a grocery store or an interactive video series that helps give you the pros and cons of a specific decision. We must begin to, as Brian Fetherstonaugh said, “Today we have to intersect consumers on their turf and on their terms. And that could be anyplace or every place.
The third E goes from Price to “Exchange.” Everything we do has a value attached to it and it’s not always monetarily. Think about Toms Shoes for example. They weren’t amazing shoes, but they were attached to a cause that made people want to jump in and engage. There was value passed along that wasn’t just about the money but was about the fulfillment to the customer.
So do you even know what is being exchanged to a customer when they buy your product? You must master explaining that in a meaningful way, especially in a climate where the price is no longer the only means of decision making.
Lastly, the final E goes from promotion to “Evangelism.” Marketers used to find one benefit add of their particular product and stick to that time and time again to sell. Today, that’s simply not enough.
Today, customers want to be tied into a mission and customer experience that makes them raving fans and more likely to rave about you to their peers. That’s the ideal sell, right? Create customers that sell for you. This may be a new term for many of you, but it’s creating a replicating marketing program that, like the energizer bunny, keeps going and going and going.
It’s social marketing because it appeals to all of our sense and need for belonging.
So take those 4 E’s. Don’t just think through a strategy, but build a system to engage all of them in the marketing of your business. When it comes to the experience, build out your ideal customer experience, write down the processes that need to happen and then build out holes in your workflow to accomplish it.
For everyplace, find creative ways to intersect your ideal customer and build repeatable actions that come alongside them. Don’t just waste money throwing it out the window, but build a marketing system you can track and analyze to make sure it’s worth it.
For exchange and Evangelism, build a powerful mission to go with your business that is the thread that ties it all together. Make sure your widget is not just a widget, but something that truly changes the client’s life for the better.
When you do all of these things, you bring marketing to a place that it will radically transform your business and the lives of those you sell to.
Thanks so much for listening, make sure you check us out on YouTube and subscribe to our podcast!
Have a great week!
