We can find possibility anywhere. The world expects less from us than what we truly have to offer. We have the potential for growth once we are dedicated to discovering our contributions.
As businesses and economies reopen, it is crucial to consider how consumer behaviors, attitudes, and preferences have permanently shifted. This timely reminder comes from the well-known Seth Godin, serving as an inspiration.
Yes, the majority of our knowledge concerning our customers has rapidly transformed. Nonetheless, brands still possess a significant significance. The novel task lies in discovering your role and objective within this emerging situation.
The presence of brand, marketing, and customer experience departments play a crucial role in assisting businesses in uncovering the potential that modern marketplaces offer.
Qualtrics research reveals that having a customer and employee first mindset is the most important behavior in building brand trust currently. As a result, businesses utilizing tools such as Qualtrics to listen to, comprehend, and respond to the needs of customers, employees, and the broader market gain a significant competitive edge.
In other places, it has been shown through studies that organizations that chose to increase their marketing budget during previous economic downturns generally saw higher sales, market share, or earnings either during or after the recession. Qualtrics has offered a unique opportunity to gain insights from Seth Godin on the difficulties you may be encountering, in order to help you understand this new situation and discover your competitive edge.
The following are the top lessons that were captured during the engaging and interactive hour-long chat with one of the most intelligent business minds in the world.
In the past, marketing and advertising were considered the same thing, but according to Godin, they have become distinct in today’s digital world. Godin believes that marketing encompasses every experience your business provides, while advertising is a means of earning attention. Although both are significant, advertising may not be suitable for everyone currently.
According to Godin, marketing encompasses various aspects such as answering phone calls, setting prices, taking care of employees, surpassing expectations, and more. In the current era, the role of marketers is to ensure that the organization caters to its customers effectively. This involves having a voice and providing essential input.
Many brands perceive the marketing department as a cost center, but Seth Godin believes this perception needs to be quickly dispelled. According to Godin, marketing involves making bold decisions and is an essential reflection of a business’s values and presence in the market.
Given limited budgets, Godin suggests that businesses should prioritize allocating resources towards engaging their core audience, also known as the smallest viable market. By doing so, they can take advantage of the influential word-of-mouth marketing that this dedicated group of fans will generate.
The future lies in investing your budget to transform your smallest viable market into your marketing department; this is how every successful brand is constructed.
Change is reliant on effective leadership.
Godin consistently addresses the significance of leadership as a recurring theme in all his works. He firmly believes that leadership plays a vital role in navigating and discovering opportunities.
Everyday, you have the power to determine your defining moment and an opportunity to take on a new leadership role.
To become a world class marketer, he states that acquiring the privilege of leadership is necessary.
According to Godin, brands can progress by utilizing data, assertions, and instinct, while remaining incredibly clear and concentrated on the desired change and target audience. The building of future brands will involve making a sequence of assertions about their purpose and what they are offering.
Now is an ideal opportunity to assess and acquire knowledge.
In our new reality, there is no predetermined path to success. Each organization will have a different journey and the factors that contribute to success will also differ. This is why leadership is crucial in moving ahead.
As leaders strive to adapt, Godin urges businesses to experiment with novel approaches and ideas.
If you are able to, interact with customers individually as we have an abundance of data for testing and learning purposes.
Godin also provides essential guidance on how to obtain senior support for the “test and learn” approach.
Begin at a limited level. Afterwards, continue to do it over and over again until you enhance it. Additionally, accept accountability for this method – acknowledge it when it fails and attribute its success to your superiors.
5. Find the smallest viable market—and change them
Marketing does not involve hustling, interrupting, spamming, or creating mediocre products for average consumers with the hope of charging more than the value of the product. Instead, marketing focuses on identifying the smallest and most specific target market and influencing people by…
- Stories: True stories that resonate and hold up over time.
- Connections: Helping people to be part of something bigger than themselves.
- Experiences: Offer experiences with intent, so that these actions help to build their story and their connections.
6. Position yourself through your customer’s story
To win fans and customers effectively, it is essential to delve into their psychology and comprehend that the concept of “better” is subjective and not determined solely by you. It is important to show curiosity towards the needs, wants, and desires of others, and possess the humility to actively seek them out.
When positioning yourself, take into account the variable that holds importance to your customers. Employ storytelling techniques to establish a connection between yourself and your customers. Tap into their aspirations and wishes. When targeting the appropriate audiences, the concept of “us” is crucial; the more precise and cohesive the “us” is, the more effective it becomes.
7. A tale of roots and shoots
In Seth’s view, your work can be compared to a tree. Its roots find their source in the aspirations and wishes of the people you aim to assist. If your work is limited to being just a common item, its roots will not penetrate very deeply. Consequently, even if your tree does grow, it will not reach great heights or possess significance, utility, or dominance.
If your work becomes a guiding light for your community, it would be wise to target the early adopters (also known as neophiliacs). They will actively interact with your tree, ascend it, utilize it as a shelter, and eventually consume its fruits.
If you plan properly, your tree will grow taller without any obstruction from other trees and it will also attract others. Its increasing height will be used as a means to block out the ineffective attempts made by other trees.
8. How to build trust (and tension) to trigger action
A pattern match is a state of comfort. It allows you to align your brand with the narrative that your customers share with one another. On the other hand, a pattern interrupt necessitates a shock. It generates tension and is not as comfortable because it requires others to modify their behaviors.
The only way to grow is by breaking the status quo. Marketers who are brave enough realize this and achieve it by altering the culture through the status.
9. Change their status through affiliation (not dominance)
Our status within a hierarchy is a crucial aspect that safeguards us and grants us advantages. It empowers us to drive actions and shapes the story of our perceived possibilities, influencing our decisions and either weakening or strengthening our future path.
In order to bring about change, you must.
- Consider the people you seek to serve
- Think about their external status (how they’re seen by their chosen community)
- Think about their internal status (how they see themselves)
- Work through how they maintain or seek to change that status. Do they belittle others? Seek approval? Help in selfless ways? Drive themselves to achieve more?
- Use that narrative to bring change to their world
When considering this, it is important to establish a sense of connection with your potential client by creating a community. Aid them in finding individuals who share similar beliefs and values to theirs, thus creating a support system of equals rather than superiors or inferiors.
10. Leading a tribe through storytelling
To effectively organize and lead a tribe, it is crucial to invest in them, develop empathy for them, comprehend their narrative, and once again serve them. Marshall Ganz suggests employing his 3-step narrative as a method to achieve this.
- STORY OF SELF: Your own narrative. Explain why you are just like your tribe. Develop empathy.
- STORY OF US: Describe why you’re similar to your prospects. Why are we alike? Why should we care?
- STORY OF NOW: The pivot where you enlist your tribe in your story. A.k.a. your Call To Action (CTA).
To establish a connection with individuals belonging to a tribe, it is crucial to recognize the common interests, objectives, and communication style. This will enable you to establish a harmonious relationship.
Side notes should not have new information added to them and existing information should not be removed while rephrasing the text step by step, but the meaning should be maintained.
Similar to Seth’s other books, This is Marketing—You Can’t be Seen Until You Learn to See, is characterized by a considerable amount of rhetorical embellishment. It is necessary to allocate some time for thoughtful reflection in order to comprehend Seth’s intended message.
As you reach the end, you are directed to the individual whom you must prioritize in your marketing efforts, which is yourself.
