Back to the Basics: Nobody Cares About Your Products (Except You)

The biggest mistake I see with sales and marketing (and I see it all the time) is when companies focus too much on their own products and services.

Many marketers steeped in the tradition of product advertising naturally feel drawn to prattle on and on about their products and services. And many lazy salespeople simply default to hyping their offerings.

But I have news for you. Nobody cares.

Most marketing is nothing more than a channel for the PR department or product marketers to spew their “messages” and “product vision.” Yuck.

Resist the urge to hype products and services

People care about themselves and how you can solve their problems. Create something interesting that will serve to educate, inform, and entertain your audience.

If you understand your?buyer personas?and create content for them, then you’ll get out of the product hype pattern. If you know?the story that customers tell themselves?you can align with their vision.

Instead of product hype, you’ll be ready to create the kind of content people are eager to consume: Blog posts, videos, infographics, photographs, live events, social networking feeds. You’ll have an awesome website that buyers feel was created especially for them.

The good news for smart marketers is that this knowledge has the potential to make you many times more successful with your marketing. It may quite literally transform your business (that’s not just my opinion; many people write me to share with me).

This article first appeared on my blog.