Marketing is critical to the success of any business these days; however, many business owners don’t understand it or give it the focus it deserves. While selling is pretty straightforward, marketing definitely is not. It’s complex which is why it mystifies many. The following four principles are important to the success of your business and dominating your target market.
- Winner Takes All
While markets grow and shrink over time, those near the top reap the benefits of pricing power, higher margins, and more money for future development. Those at the bottom may not be around long if they can’t keep up in a competitive market.
Contrary to popular belief, winning is everything in business. In order to do that, your products and services need to be better than your competitors’ products and services in the eyes of the customer. When you have the best products, your customers win, and your competitors lose. And that should be the goal.
It’s a competitive world, and a good rule of thumb is to aim to be number one in your market. The equation that determines your success has many variables, but as long as your strategies and plans reflect your goal of being number one, you can effectively use and control those variables.
- Innovating Products People Can Use
Innovation isn’t about coming up with a grandiose idea, it’s about coming up with a product or service people can use. First to market is rarely an advantage, as it usually takes time before it takes off. Great marketing would be innovating ideas into products that people want and need. Reusing ideas in new ways is how marketing thrives. If you want to be brand new, keep in mind that once the market matures and the competition heats up, your product development and marketing need to be joined at the hip.
- Differentiate If You Want To Succeed
In business, you have to have a differentiated value proposition. It isn’t just about focusing on what you do best, it’s more about positioning; how do you define and segment the market? “Segmentation let’s Davids slay Goliaths”, says Bill Dadow, author of Marketing High Technology. Positioning and segmentation are some of the most powerful tools for coming up with your differentiated value proposition; setting your business apart from the competition. It’s quite simple: leverage a unique capability and/or innovative positioning to a distinct market segment with specific customer attributes in mind. Once you do that, you can expand from there.
If you can’t distinguish your company from the competition in a way that’s meaningful to customers, it will be harder to increase profits and your market share. Marketing connects products to customers, and just saying you’re different doesn’t make it so if customers don’t agree. A differentiated value proposition is critical in the success of your business.
- You Can’t Afford To Lose A Customer
A lot of business owners think it’s all about them and their employees when in actuality, it isn’t. Investors, employees and customers are the 3 major stakeholders in any company. The investors give employees money to sell their products and services. Without customers, employees lose their jobs, and in turn, investors lose their money and potentially their company.
The sole purpose of any business is winning and keeping customers. It doesn’t mean you have to bow down and do everything the customer asks of you, but it does mean you should have a goal to bring unique value to them. If you can’t create value, you will not succeed.
Many business owners are focused on themselves, and forget about the customer. It’s all about their brand, their blog, their social media platform. “What’s in in for me?”
In today’s world, where so many are focused on themselves, this is great time to set yourself apart by focusing on what really matters; serving the customer.
Understanding and implementing these 4 principles will lead to success, fulfillment and dominating your target market.