“Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” – Joe Chernov
You have a well-defined niche, know your audience, and have sold some products to them. But now you want to take your marketing to the next level. To move from being a good marketer to a great marketer requires effort, commitment, marketing knowledge, and the following qualities.
Being Ethical
Ensure that any product, service, or content that you promote is ethical. This goes far beyond legality. Remember, just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical. While most of the time something that is not ethical will also be illegal, the reverse is not true. Ethics for each business person and business entity will vary depending on their values and beliefs. What’s important is that you walk the talk and practice what you preach.
Being Authentic and Real
To be truly authentic you need to know who you are and what you stand for. You’re unique as a person and as a marketer so once you find your voice, don’t change it – just do more of it. Be more authentic more often.
Demonstrating Honesty
Demonstrate your honesty by sticking to what you say you’ll do and delivering what you promise. If you write a review that misrepresents a product, fails to meet your own promised deadlines, or even start a blog post with a headline that is deceiving, word gets around. Social media can spread bad news and views quickly, and it won’t take long for you to be seen as dishonest or untrustworthy. Show how honest you are by not misleading your customers and prospects.
Staying Informed About Your Niche
A great marketer makes sure they stay informed, keeping up-to-date on the news, hot topics, trends, laws and information regarding their industry at all times. The more informed you are, the more you can stay ahead of coming trends and new technologies, creating a situation where you can be a major thought leader within your industry.
Being Empathetic to Your Clients
A great marketer cares about their customers. They have passion about their products and/or services because of what they do for their customer. They strive to understand their audience and to demonstrate the care they have for them in their actions, products and services.
Being a Savvy Business Person
A great marketer is able to look at things from different angles to come up with useful products and services as well as interesting and compelling campaigns. Someone who is savvy knows how to listen to their customers and create a product based on what they learn, as well as turn it on its ear to create something amazing and new.
Always Prepared
A great marketer is always prepared for changes in the industry and knowledgeable about what their customers want and need to solve their problems. On the technical side they are also ready for the traffic from a new campaign or publicity in order to avoid crashes and other technical problems.
Always Pushing for Improvement
Finally, a great marketer is focused on always improving. They check their metrics, study the numbers, and run A/B testing on every new campaign, seeking to always improve and become better.