Our job as marketers is to

1. Find media that calls to our target market and place our ad there – i.e. advertising and media placement

2. Create content that calls to our target market and promote self serving content as you would if you were producing media and in either case, to use that opportunity to drive people to act.

Consider media from the advertisers perspective. Radio Segments, strategically highlight a “commercial free hour”, in hopes that after that hour you are more likely to stay for the commercials waiting for the next commercial free hour to begin. TV shows cut away with teasers to keep you from changing the channel so you will watch their ads and see the promised content when they return. Newspapers inform you about what is happening in your community, your city, or world while placing related ads that benefit the lives of their readers beside the content. Movie theaters showcase sponsorships, ads, and movie trailers prior to the featured movie to capitalize on their captured audience. Even informercials, which are just very long ads, entertain and engage their audience while showcasing product benefits in unique ways from a kitchen knife cutting through a steel pipe to a vacuum picking up a bowling ball. It’s unlikely most viewers will test their products at these levels, but seeing that its possible engages audiences while reinforcing a benefits of their product and ultimately sells.

When you create content, do you give your audience the value they are looking for? Are you engaging, captivating, entertaining, informing, and showing your product benefits or are you simply saying “Look at me! Buy this!“

When you buy an ad, are you checking to make sure you are publishing your ad, whether it is print or digital, in a place that provides valuable content to the people you are trying to reach?

Finally, are you creating content and ads that inspires action? Have you created the infrastructure to make action easy for your potential clients and customers?

Yes, there are more complexities to marketing when you dig deeper into strategies and tactics, but at the most simplistic level, marketing is about building positive connections, relationships, passion, trust, and sharing experiences. How do you do that in real life? You learn about the person you’re meeting, you talk to them about their interests, you identify their needs, you share stories, and offer your assistance. Sure, you share things about yourself, but in successful relationships its not all about you all the time. There is a give and take. You add value to their lives and you receive value in return. Much is the same in sales and marketing.

It would be my pleasure to help you create these connections and continue this conversation. I’m happy to share the strategies and tactics I use to identify the why, who, where, how to connect as well as evaluate if it works if you are interested. Please let me know if I may help, after all, creating relationships and helping others is the reason I do what I do. You can reach me directly on my cell phone at 612.501.6748, via email info@sksmarketingconsultants.com or learn more about my company and read success stories at sksmarketingconsultants.com. I look forward to hearing from you.