C for Customer: You're Laser-Focused on Their Needs, Right? Right!?!?!?

No customers, no business.

Obvious, right?

But think about it?is your business aligned to focus on and meet the needs of your customers (including your marketing)?

Here’s a quick way to tell. Look at your website and ask yourself this question, “Is my website designed to answer customer questions or does it represent how I sell my products/services?”

It’s easy to say you focus on your customers.

Do you?

Really? Do you?

Marketing is something you do FOR your customers, not TO them.

I believe that.

That’s a culture shift every business should be making with their marketing (many won’t).

Too many marketing efforts continue to be geared toward “buy something.”

You need to be helping your customers.

I love this quote from Seth Godin in This Is Marketing:

Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.

The opposite of that is talking about yourself (Is Your Sales Team Louder Than Your Customers?).

It really is as simple (and as hard) as focusing entirely on your customer. ?

But I Just Sell a Commodity

“There is no such thing as a commodity. All goods and services differentiate.” Theodore Levitt (the Father of Modern Marketing)

Some customers are simple bottom-line buyers who will go for the cheapest option. But competing on price is a race to the bottom and razor-thin margins.

If you’re a commodity product, maybe content marketing isn’t the best investment for you to make – direct mail and ads that call for direct purchase could be a better marketing spend. That said, you never know unless you try.

Regardless, you can still compete on excellent service and delivery. Every customer touch point is a marketing opportunity.

Use those touch points to move “customer focus” from goal to reality.

Keep reading about C for Customers, click here.