Top 3 Marketing bravery: Wisdom from Seth Godin's "This is Marketing"
Not everyone reads as many marketing books as I do; not only do I love the topic, but need to stay on top of things for those who follow and look for guidance here.
I’m committing to reading books on marketing, business, influence psychology, sales, advertising, branding, what have you, and giving a review of the top 3 lessons I take from the book. While there is likely infinitely more wisdom in the pages I read, summarizing to the top 3 points is a good strategy for an audience new to marketing, to prevent from overwhelm. My hope is to give my readers some actionable tidbits. I encourage you to pick up and read any of the books I review/ recommend if you hear nuggets of wisdom. Investing in our education is crucial to stay on top of the game, and while many of us are justifiably absorbed in our passion for photography, we can’t forget that the marketing/ business layer of our business is absolutely crucial in order to get our art to be seen by the eyes of the people we want to work with in the future.
Seth Godin’s “This is Marketing”
“Everything we purchase is a bargain. Because it was worth more than we paid for it.”
This is a telling sentence that I want to open with. Nowhere does it say what we paid for it, but that whatever the price tag, the client received something of enough value that they parted with their hard-earned money in order to have it. This is our mission with our photography - to provide service and product where people came away with more value than the money they exchanged. This concept isn’t new, even Wallace Wattles in his century-old book “The Science of Getting Rich” speaks this truth. This simple concept can help us frame every decision we make to further our business. In this spirit, here are the top 3 takeaways from Seth’s latest book:
You don’t need everyone to buy your product or service. You don’t want that either. Instead of looking for mass appeal, find the smallest VIABLE audience for your unique work. The key word is viable. This means you search for those who really resonate with your message and want what you’re selling. A small but loyal clientele is usually a lot more fruitful that a large, semi or not loyal-at-all clientele. If you’ve hit on the right ears, those people will love what you do for them, pay you happily for the exchange, and sing your praises to others like them. So many photographers start by casting a huge net, afraid of excluding potential clients, but don’t realize that any Joe off the street could be totally off of your target and a nightmare to work with. Cast a small net and catch the people who want to be in your tribe., right from the start. The repeat and referral business from here will keep you going in a much more successful manner. Have you identified your tribe?
“Find your position on the map where you alone are the perfect answer. Overwhelm your group’s wants and dreams and desires with your care, your attention and your focus.” This builds on the previous point. Find the people you want to work with and who are interested in what you are selling. Be their solution. And when you find them, take amazing care of them from the first touchpoint until…..forever, really.
Imagine you and your partner take a stroll in your new neighbourhood, looking for a place to eat. You pass by a chain restaurant, but that’s not your tribe; you move on. You come across a quaint, eclectic spot that serves tapas. You love tapas! You walk in and the staff are incredibly warm, the food is delicious, and the owner or chef comes out for a chat and it turns out they live down the street. You’ll go back right? This might very well become your ‘spot’ and the feeling of every need being met brings you into the fold the way the chain restaurant could never do. This is how you can approach your business. Some will walk by, but the right ones will come in. And when they do, hold on to them with all you’ve got!
“The fact that you bought an ad doesn’t earn you something that’s priceless.” The priceless bit is someone’s attention. I see this a lot with photographers. They hang out their shingle that they’re in business, run a few ads on FB and wonder why people aren’t flocking to their door. Your urgency to find clients is not the client’s problem but we usually approach in that way - if I throw myself in their path, they need to look. And to be brutally honest, most photographers - who aren’t experienced marketers - usually don’t put together the strongest of ads that are super-effective either. The better way is to put yourself out there in many ways and more importantly, in an authentic way. You are not just an ad. You are a person with talent, creativity and the capacity to create art for others. Live this reality every day, with everyone you meet. Ads are part of any set of marketing strategies, but you still need to earn the attention by giving everything of yourself to the clientele you want to serve. Go deeper into your craft and get multiple sign posts out into the world and the right ones will start to notice. Then go back to point number 2 - once you’ve earned their attention, you start on the path of being the only answer they ever need.
This book has a ton of valuable and easy to digest information. If this summary resonates with you, go and grab your own copy!
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