While symbolic more than anything else, the countdown to a new year has begun. For some it's a time to celebrate a new beginning while others are still reeling from the shock. For me, 2020 has certainly changed the way I view marketing forever. What I thought to be true just the other day has revealed itself merely as myths as business evolves into an entirely different beast in the coming decade.

 

Myth #1: Marketing strategy is about getting new clients.
A matter of contention, this one often blurs the lines with both clients and potential partners. Marketing strategy development, which is my primary role, is not about getting new clients. By its very definition, strategy is "a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim," and by this definition, marketing strategy is all about the best way to position yourself in the mind of your potential customer for the long term. It guides all marketing campaigns and provides a clear and solid foundation for the sales strategy, and it is the sales strategy that guides how you close the sale.

In summary, it is the high-level view of your business, offering, and target market aimed at understanding why you're unique and how to communicate this uniquely-you offering to the world. It is the core message that creates the perception of who you are in the mind of your customer and the best way to deliver this message.

An easy way to differentiate marketing from sales: If you don't know the names or contact details of the audience you're trying to reach, it's a marketing strategy. Once you have a name or contact detail, it becomes part of a sales strategy. 

Give it a try: Consider your current marketing campaigns. Which activities are aimed at people of whom you don't know the names and contact details? Place this in the marketing column. Which activities are aimed at people whose name and contact details you already have? Place those activities in the sales column. Can you see a difference? 

 

Myth #2: Marketing is a role designated to the marketing expert.
While this may have been true a decade ago, the pandemic has certainly highlighted how this no longer holds true in modern business. Today, every team member plays a part in the marketing role as lockdown continues to annihilate the line between business and personal. 

Today, with social media and everything online being fair game to all, the result is that every post, like, comment, or online media activity represents you and any business you may be associated with. 

So it's no longer a case of whether or not you're online. Simply put, if you're not online, you're as good as being invisible. From finance to operations, it's a case of whether what you're conveying via online media platforms represent who you are as a person, and if who you are as a person represents your business. It's that initial interaction that resonates with your tribe and your business becomes secondary.

Give it a try: Consider your primary role in your business. Even if it has nothing to do with marketing, how can you position your social media and online activities to represent who you are as a person—be that mother, father, sister, brother, friend, or foe—in a way that represents your business?

 

Myth #3: Entrepreneurs need to know everything about marketing or get left behind.
As an entrepreneur, how much time do you spend trying to keep up with marketing trends, tools, and tricks compared to time spent working on the things you love doing? My guess is that the answer is "way too much!"

If you've ready any of my posts on GeniusU, Facebook, or Instagram, you'll know that I am all about energy and the love-hate relationship between frequency and our emotions. It's this relationship that determines our vibration.

This is where it starts to get interesting. The higher we vibrate, the greater access we have to universal intelligence...and marketing is no different. While before, this may have been the playing field of the "spiritually inclined," research is proving more and more that we cannot solve problems with the same level of thinking that created it. If we're trying to solve our marketing problems with the same thinking that created it, we're going to attract more of the same results. What to do instead is to raise our vibration.

Give it a try: Consider a marketing challenge you're currently trying to solve. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel stressed, overwhelmed, or stuck? Pay attention to the negative emotions.

Now consider it solved and all the benefits of it being solved. For example, does a successful marketing campaign bring you the profits you need to go on holiday or pay off a debt? What emotion is there when your marketing campaigns are successful beyond measure? Tap into the feeling of being successful.

With this exercise, you're instantly raising your vibration and the more you focus on maintaining that feeling, the more you're opening yourself up to people, situations, information, or opportunities for your problem to solve itself. You're raising your Spiritual Quotient (SQ).

 

Does this ring true for you? Please feel free to drop a comment below if you agree or disagree. Please also share what truths are no longer true for you as you wrap up 2020.

 

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