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Do You Really Need Marketing, or Can You Go Viral in a Day?
Imagine you have built the most amazing technology tool that has the ability to fix all of the world hunger problems.
It figures out shipping logistics for food before it spoils, it determines the ratio of food/person. It works out all of the left overs of all of the restaurants and transports them safely to food banks to serve those in need. You have spent countless hours and your life savings. You figured once I build this amazing system everyone will want it! And it’s true everyone will want it. If they knew about it.
You Need Marketing.
I have spent countless hours with incredible developers that have blown my mind with their problem-solving technology. I admire that they saw a problem, thought of a solutions and that built it.
That, to me, is amazing.
The part that baffles me is that they have spent endless amounts of money developing their product without thinking of a plan of how they are going to tell the market about it. They feel that their idea is it will be so innovative that the world will recognize that and reward them with clients.
This may have happened for a few people in their life— but this is the exception, not the rule.
This is the equivalent of watching that YouTube video that went viral and has 2 million hits in less than 24 hours, and saying, yep, my video is going to be just like that cat-rescues-a-dog-out-of-a-tree video that everyone loves.
Sure it could happen. It happened to the person who got the cat rescuing the dog out of tree on tape. (Not really. I made that up, but you get my point.)
Banking on “VIRAL” is leaving your marketing up to chance.
Think of marketing as your megaphone.
It is there to help you tell your story. It’s there to educate the world on why your widget is needed, what problem it is solving. Helping the audience understand why they should trust you, what makes you and your product unique.
Marketing is helping your customer on a journey to purchase your zigglinger or services. Marketing supports your sales process to help with lead flow. It creates your customer-facing brand whether you want that to be funny, thoughtful, serious, educational.
You name it, marketing is there to make that happen.
The part that most people don’t realize is that the story—your story—is being told, with or without you.
When you let “word-of-mouth” be the only voice telling your story, you’re putting that awesome widgetzomatic you made in someone’s else hands. You are letting the people talking about you do all the talking.
But…but…that sounds great! (Yes, I hear you.) I want people to talk about my gadgetmagoo! I want them to rave and share and tell the world how wonderful I am. That’s the definition of viral.
Letting your clients do the talking sounds like what the world wants, right? We want word of mouth – it’s the buzz that moves mountains. And yes, it can. Word of mouth marketing can be powerful.
But it also can’t be controlled.
When you imagine “word of mouth” controlling your brand, you picture happy customers, giddy clients and people gushing about how your whosawhatzis made their life better.
You probably don’t picture that person who may or may not like you today, or the one over there who may or may not decide to tell their BFF about what they think you’re all about.
Even if they are wrong.
But if you don’t put your own messaging out into the world, if you don’t tell your story… someone else will. And it won’t be better.
No one knows your story better than you. No one knows why you started your business. And while loyal advocates are amazing and we all want them, we also need to be sure we are framing the message those advocates —or the ones who aren’t your fans —are putting out there.
I know I hear you saying, but I spent all my money on my gigamazoo!!!
When I had very little money to market my business is when I came up with the most creative things to bring people in my door. I had a video game store in my past life and didn’t have hand over fist to bring people in the door.
So I used my connections.
I found a TShirt company that did gamer shirts. I then identified incredible clients and asked them to be models. I contacted my theatre friends and asked to borrow lighting and platforms to build a runway. One of my employees was an aspiring DJ. I went to the hair salon around the corner from me that was new and I had them do everyone’s hair and makeup completely avant garde and told them to make fliers.
Every one of the participants invited everyone they knew. My store was packed for a fashion show that launched the clothing line. It was out of the box fun and was the buzz for weeks. Not something you typically see in a video game store. But it was marketing with sweat equity instead of financial.
Perhaps you don’t have a physical location, but maybe you know someone that does. Don’t be afraid to network and do something that benefits each company. When you work with others there are so many things you can do to help market your wizzamachuck. And they might revel in the fact that this will be a new marketing venture for them too. There is so much power in building a community of companies that can help each others business grow.
Think big and then think of who you know that can help you create creative buzz and as your dollars grow continue to invest in marketing to continue to build your brand outside of your circle of influence.
Think outside the box and use your resources to put your own message out in the world. Either way you look at your marketing, doing it right means spending — whether you are spending money or your time (which is also money), you need to invest. You need to find the best way to get your message out into the world. You may not go viral but you will build a strong community that will benefit you in ways you can physically measure.
That way, no matter who is talking about you, your next potential customer can easily head to your website or your social media pages and see for themselves who you really are.
So the long answer. Yes you need to invest in marketing and one day we hope you do go viral. We believe your world hunger solution is ready for its debut!
Hi, I'm Misty Megia!
I’m a Creative Director for high-achieving leaders who want to unmute themselves to give presentations that move people profoundly through my Corporate Speaking Program and my Theatre of Public Speaking Program.
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