First, there are some basic truths you need to consider.
Social proof: It’s more than likely that your competitors and fellow entrepreneurs don’t understand or use customer-driven marketing. But as we all know, people will buy from people they like, trust or respect.
If you lose any of these then you lose the customer. That means building affinities, and for that, nothing sells like social proof. Show potential customers that other people just like them have already bought from you, and you’ll get customers that start and keep buying from you.
Courting: When someone orders from you, that’s just the start of the relationship. You have to keep providing them with as much useful, educational information as you can through any outbound means that will help them use your products better.
It’s simple: If you want to get to seven figures, you must understand marketing. Period. A poor product that is marketed well always outsells an excellent product that is marketed poorly (or not at all).
If you understand marketing and use it aggressively, you’ll be ahead of 99% of your competitors.
With all that out of the way, here is a Seven-Step Marketing Plan to help you master customer-driven marketing and get your business to the next level:
1. Create your typical customer profile
2. Position your products to appeal to your ideal customer
3. Spread the word to people who fit your typical customer profile
4. Wow them immediately after buying
5. Follow up with lots of free, useful stuff
6. Ask for a (video) testimonial
7. Repeat steps 3-6 infinitely
In the next several pieces, we’ll take a closer look at each of these steps. See you next time.
This article first appeared on StartupSmart.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
