Before we dive into specific black belt marketing strategies, we need to verify you’ve got the goods. The starting point of all successful marketing programs is a tested, robust, and proven product or service—something that can enhance the lives of your customers.
The first questions people ask when they see a new product or service are, “Will it work for me?” “Will it really do what they say?” “Will it solve my problems?” “Will it make my life better?” “Is this just another gimmick, fad, or marketing hype?” This is why you must have the goods before starting any marketing campaign. No marketing can help you unless you have a product or service that can truly enhance the lives of others.
Have you done the research? Tested the product? Shown it to as many people as possible? Have you improved your product or service based on feedback, and now feel it’s “on the mark” of what the market wants? Are you ready to market? Do you have a marketing plan? In this plan, you should have formal feedback from the market. Some organizations call this a marketing requirements document, or MRD. It can simply be a one-page summary that validates your idea.
You must be convinced that what you offer will give immense benefit, value, and performance to your customer. Before you start marketing, you need a remarkable product, which means people will make a positive remark about it. Will they say, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention”? Don’t go out to market with just another product. You must have a clearly differentiated product or service (see move 9).
More than ever, people are skeptical. Many before you have over-promised and under-delivered. There are not many marketers who truly care about making a positive impact on the world.
Your marketing is like a courtroom battle. You have to prove to the world that your product or service is “innocent” and can make a difference in peoples’ lives. As a black belt marketer, you must defend your product for the betterment of humankind. Remember, in the court of marketing, you are guilty until you can prove the value of your product to others!
You are going to have to fight to get through the clutter and noise and to prove you have something the market needs and values. Yes, marketing can help you succeed, but it can just as easily destroy you. If you promote a product or a service that does not deliver, it will destroy your reputation and your credibility.
Marketing does not make something right or wrong, it simply reveals it in the shortest possible time. At the end of the day, it is the product or service that sells the product or service. It has to stand on its own if it is to survive in the competitive marketplace.
Your competition thinks that a product and marketing are one, but they are two different things. The product or service is often tangible and visible. The marketing is intangible. It is the invisible force that takes the product or service into the hands of your customers.
Black belt marketers recognize marketing as a true force. Marketing, when done correctly, will make the process of obtaining a sale very easy.
You must under-promise and over-deliver. Surprise your customers as much as possible. Always exceed expectations by providing more value items, gifts, bonuses, and additional services than your customer expects. This will build trust, loyalty and separate you from the competition. Statistics clearly show one satisfied customer refers, on average, three new ones, and one dissatisfied customer tells eleven others. This is why you must never get seduced into making claims you cannot support.