There are so many ways to market your products and services: Websites, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, blogging, email blasts, direct mail, presentations, events, workshops, teleclasses, videos, postcards, business cards, brochures, newsletters, seminars, shopping carts, advertisements, meet-and-greet events, and many more.
Each of the items listed above comes with its own set of "rules" on how to use them to best advantage - you know, the stuff you read about in all the marketing newsletters and books, best practices that tell you how to set it up and make it work, what it should looks like, how many and when... Advice everywhere, good advice, time-tested and very helpful.
However, there is one rule that overrides them all and that helps make marketing decisions sooooo much easier. It's a rule that we follow in everything we do for you because it's the very most important one of all: PEOPLE FIRST.
Of course, it's important to know those best practices and to incorporate them into your marketing so that you maximize your return by following time-tested guidelines. But always, always remember this first: It's about real, honest connecting with the person on the other end. What problem do they have that you can fix? Put yourself in their shoes and view all your marketing as if you were them. Then structure your marketing. If connecting with your audience violates one of the marketing "rules" then ignore the rule.
Photo caption: Unamed climbers on a hard-glazed Rulten. Lofoten, Norway. MARKO PREZELJ
Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia built his business by following that one most important rule of putting people first.
Yvon loved climbing, didn't love that all those pitons got left in the rock, so he decided to make reusable climbing hardware. He was 18 years old, he set up a shop in his parent's back yard. By 1970, Chouinard Equipment had become the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the U.S. In his catalogs Chouinard broke just about every direct mail catalog rule because he designed his catalogs to help people become better climbers and not to just sell them merchandise. For example, the well-known rules for success said do this many images to that much text, have an 800 number for orders, and so on. Instead he had oodles of pictures, and a 14-page essay on "clean climbing."
In his book Growing a Business, author Paul Hawken (of Smith & Hawken) profiled Yvon & Patagonia and mentioned how (in the beginning) they had an 800 number, but only for talking about climbing. If you wanted to place an order, you had to pay for the call.
He knew it was the right thing to do, he knew it was more important to connect with his readers than to follow rules.
Now, go out there and break some rules!
