Everything is Marketing, Marketing is Everything!

There’s marketing power in every asset that your company owns. Here’s how to tap into it.

 If you’re running a large company, there’s a way to make your privileged assets work harder for you: recast them through a marketing lens. Virtually every asset that your company owns or manages — including its products, people and properties — can be transformed into a powerful marketing tool. It’s just a matter of thinking creatively, acting unconventionally and adopting some hacker-like moves. If you can learn how to repurpose your assets to serve as marketing levers, they will drive your entire organization forward — opening up opportunities to increase your sales, strengthen your brand, extend your reach or enhance customer loyalty.

 1. Employees as Marketers

 Every employee that you have, regardless of their role, has the potential to serve as a marketer, sales person or brand ambassador for your company. It’s just a matter of giving your employees the knowledge and freedom to step into a role that extends beyond their job description. You want to show them how to “look beyond their noses” and break free from a myopic view of their role. For instance, service personnel who deliver, install or repair products/services in your customers’ homes or businesses can be converted into a powerful sales force by educating them like you would educate a sales team — so they have the capability and confidence to market them to customers. Encourage them to change their frame of mind during service calls, shifting their focus from completing a specific task (e.g., fixing the washing machine) to finding opportunities to cross-sell or up-sell to customers (e.g., by suggesting ways to upgrade the porch or bathroom).

 2. Customers as Marketers

 The value of your customers extends well beyond their purchase power. Like employees, they can serve as advocates, brand ambassadors and, in some cases, sales people for your company. Customer advocacy is becoming an important driver of brand preference and sales in a socially connected world. To harness this power, you need to proactively create an advocacy program. Advocates can arise organically, of course, but it pays to build some structure around them. This involves a few steps: One, identify the influential customers who are early adopters or passionate fans of your products or services. Two, engage these customers by seeking their feedback. Three, enlist them as brand ambassadors in some official or formal way. Fourth, empower them to promote your product. Fifth, recognize them in a public way (i.e., on social media) or reward them using non-monetary means, such as by giving them early access to information.

3. Products as Marketers

 You might think that marketing is something that you do to products after they’ve been launched into the market. In fact, products can be leveraged as marketing tools in and of themselves — especially if they’re digital in nature. If you can find a way to embed your product with subtle marketing messages — and use existing customers to distribute those messages — then your product will promote itself through customer use. Remember how

Hotmail attached the phrase, “Get your free e-mail at Hotmail,” into the bottom of every email sent by its subscribers. Of the email recipients who saw that message, millions responded by signing up for the service. If your company offers a suite of products or services, you can also use one of your offerings to market several others. Microsoft used this strategy to increase the discoverability and traction of OneNote, its digital scrapbook and note-taking app. It started including a compatible digital stylus pen with every Surface laptop or tablet, pre-installed OneNote into every Surface, and launched the OneNote program automatically when customers started the computer. This forced new customers to explore OneNote and the stylus pen and many were converted into regular users of the products.

 4. Facilities as Marketers

 Take a moment to consider all of the facilities that your company owns or manages, including its warehouses, sales offices, corporate offices, delivery trucks and so on.  Now think about what these physical spaces say about your brand. All these facilities, regardless of their original or functional purpose, present a marketing opportunity for your company. The tangibles attached to them — everything from the building’s external signage to the décor in the lobby — communicate something about your company. Use them wisely, and they’ll bolster your brand and showcase your offerings in big and memorable ways.

Your existing sales and marketing channels are not the only ways you can drive sales, build brands and strengthen customer relationships.  If you open your mind and your eyes, you will see that you own a vast array of privileged assets that can do double duty as sales and marketing channels.  For an enlightened business leader, everything is marketing. And marketing is everything.