For something that seems pretty straightforward, why is marketing so challenging? How can we do it more effectively? This week we’re learning how to improve on our marketing skills with help from entrepreneur and marketing expert Seth Godin. Listen to hear Seth’s insightful tips on the mentality we should have when it comes to our marketing strategy, finding our audiences, and the common mistakes to avoid when starting to market your business. Seth is the bestselling author of 20 books, including The Dip, Tribes, The Practice, and This Is Marketing. He’s also the host of the Akimbo podcast and author of his popular self-titled blog.
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Highlights from this week’s episode
From the Seth Godin interview:
On the basics of marketing:
[Y]ou need to matter to some people, not be ignored by everyone. And to matter to some people, if you’re an Etsy seller for example, is not to make the same cake toppers as every other Etsy seller and hope that somehow you’ll luck into winning search. It’s to make the thing that only you can make and to make it for the smallest number of people that could sustain you.
On getting started:
[Y]ou need to fail. You need to shift the work. You need to be showing up in front of people with an offer saying here I made this, and then seeing what they say in response. I did one hundred blog posts, two hundred blog posts before I had more than ten readers. And if I had waited until I had the first blog post that worked for me, I’d still be waiting because you only get to the first one after you do the one hundred or two hundred that aren’t quite right. And it is cheaper, much cheaper today to do that than it has ever been before that when Ford made the Edsel, it cost them a billion dollars to be wrong about a new model of car, whereas now you can put up a mockup on a YouTube video and see what the world says.
On planning for when to give up on a strategy:
You should plan before you spend a dollar when you’re going to give up. So if I was building a brand that sold, I don’t know, sweatshirts or microphones, I’d say, all right, I’m going to run these ads for six months and I’m not going to change my plan for six months. I’m going to show up and show up and show up because people need to see a message twenty-seven times before they even begin to register with it on the Internet. It’s even more than that because there’s so much noise. And so if you’re going to spend this money, it’s got to begin with a commitment. You don’t want to spend your money on one ad and then decide.
To hear more of Seth’s sage marketing advice, we recommend listening to the full episode.
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