Can you overthink marketing? Is it complex? Yes. But can it be simplified? Yes.
I’ve spent my career spanning the range of all-things-marketing: marcom, advertising, brand building, product strategy, customer experience, lead generation, content marketing, sales leadership, digital strategy and more.
Yes, it can be (and is) very complex at times. A lot has to go right with marketing to acquire and retain customers, create brand loyalty with them and get them to transact with frequency and a higher spend per sale. But here’s how marketing becomes very simple:
- Know what your customers need.
- Produce a product or service that is relevant, different and better for them.
- Understand where they go to gather information and engage them there.
- Present messages simply and clearly on how your product solves a problem for them.
- Make the buying experience fast, simple and certain.
That’s it. Well, not really. But you get the point.
It’s tough to outspend your competition (see the Barbie movie, for example; they spent $150 million on marketing), so you have to outsmart them. And that means often times using just pure common sense. Start with the basic foundational elements I listed above. Get those right first and you’re on the right path to success.
