At what stage of business are you now? Following the food theme: Just planning the menu? All your ingredients and utensils are ready? The oven’s heating up? Your customers are breaking your door down, begging for your first batch?
Or not exactly, but…..
Whether you’re offering products or services, not a lot is going to happen without some kind of marketing plan; the “Family & Friends” plan is a good place to start, but won’t take you very far. Then what?
It’s important to know where you are right now. You might feel you must have everything perfectly set up before making your first sale. When I was starting out, I thought the same thing. What ended up happening? I had a pretty nice website, made by my own hands after months of learning. I studied all kinds of marketing techniques in a ton of different platforms, yada yada. But zero clients.
Let me save you from wasting time and energy. All that learning will come in handy. But where you focus your energy and attention depends on what stage you’re in.
Just starting out (planning the menu and gathering ingredients and utensils)? You should be using 90% of your time marketing. Yep, it sounds crazy, right? The learn-by-doing approach is the most effective. I’ve learned from so many top digital marketers. It might have been about the tenth of fifteenth one I heard say it that I realized I must be the crazy one. Here’s the thing – you think you know what your clients want. What they really want is, well, what they want – not what you want.
Take Cornish Pasties. If you’re not of British heritage as I am, you might not be familiar with them. In Cornwall, England (ever hear of Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan? Oh well, no matter). Where was I? In Cornwall, where Cornish Pasties originated, there are strict guidelines set out by the Cornish Pasty Association on every detail, even down to the crimping method. Now, if you’re from Cornwall, that’s how you know them to be made, and nothing else will do.
But I’m pretty sure your customers are from elsewhere. How do they want their pasties? Who knows? Well, you’re going to find out, by asking!
There are lots of different ways to ask, which I mentioned in a previous post. The important thing is knowing what your customers and potential customers want so you know how to market yourself to them. Whether you’re selling jewelry, music lessons, books, catering, instructional courses, gourmet meals – the first thing you need to do is find out what they want.
You might need a few different versions of the same general product, but throw all your energy into offering what you know will be in demand. Nothing is more discouraging than putting out your OPEN sign and…..crickets. Another benefit of asking is the chance to get people excited!
Then they might just bang your doors down!
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