What I learnt From Working With Global Giants That Will Help With Your Marketing

Over the last few years I have truly been humbled and honoured to work with brands that I would have years ago only dreamt of working with. In various capacities I have worked with Canva, Stanford University, The European Commission, The European Central Bank, Alibaba and DHGate just to name a few.

Here is a picture of me around about this time last year at the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt delivering a training session for one of their teams. It was a real honour for me.

Big Lesson Number 1

1) Never lose sight of your target customer

My job as a marketing trainer and consultant is literally to advocate for the target customer. The biggest lesson I have learned is that even some of the biggest brands can lose sight of their target audience.

Every brand I work with has a different set of goals. Some focus on brand recognition, while others aim to hit their next million-pound sales mark. Regardless of the goal, my job remains the same: to ensure the target customer stays top of mind.

I say this all the time in my content and will never stop preaching it because it’s so true.

The better you know your target customer, the easier it is to sell to them!

Most of my time as a marketer is spent studying my clients’ audiences, figuring out answers to questions such as:

• What platforms do they spend most of their time on?
• Which influencers do they follow?
• What products do they currently buy?
• What questions do they ask Google or ChatGPT?

The needs of your target audience should come first, and your business goals should come second.

Big Lesson Number 2

2) The importance of Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is one of the most important metrics in marketing. How much is it costing you to get a new customer through the door?

It’s essential to remember that gaining a customer is not the same as making a sale. A sale can be expensive! It may cost a lot to get someone to buy from you the first time, and sometimes you might even make a loss in doing so.

Many big brands incur huge losses to acquire new customers initially. Their job after that is to ensure those same people come back! Your customer base consists of people who buy from or interact with your business regularly.

Amazon is my favorite example of this. I’ve purchased from Amazon multiple times, and I probably will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As big as Amazon is, they rely heavily on repeat customers.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is—if your marketing doesn’t bring people back in some way, shape, or form, it’s only a matter of time before your business struggles.

One thing I often hear is, “What if I sell a product or service that people typically buy only once?”

Examples might include houses or cars. People may only purchase these once or very infrequently.

This is where referrals come into play. If I have a great experience with your brand, even if I don’t buy again, I might still recommend you to someone else. That referral could significantly increase your profits and propel your business.

Getting people to buy from you again or to refer your business isn’t just about marketing methods like retargeting and email marketing. It’s also about the experience you give customers. Your customer service and the quality of your product or service can dramatically influence whether someone decides to do business with you again.

Big Lesson Number 3

3) Stop trying to do it all!

Even the biggest brands have limitations. It’s impossible to create the best SEO strategy to rank on Google, optimize your business for large language models like ChatGPT, grow a YouTube channel to a million followers, and dominate TikTok, Meta, and Google Ads all at the same time.

Focus on the marketing activities that will help your business achieve short-term goals. This short-term success can provide the leverage you need to eventually hire a team to specialize in other areas of marketing.

The best marketing strategies can fail miserably if you don’t take things one step at a time.

For example, if you’re a new business, 9 times out of 10, your main focus should be on getting new customers through the door as quickly and profitably as possible. The easiest way to do this is often through a combination of paid marketing and retargeting.

However, if you’re a self-starter with limited cash to invest, it might be more realistic to focus on free methods like starting a YouTube channel or going live on TikTok to build a loyal customer base.

As we start to wrap up 2024 and plan our marketing strategies for 2025, it’s essential to create a plan tailored to our specific business needs and goals. I designed my free eBook, The Formula, a few years ago for business owners wanting a better understanding of the fundamentals of online marketing, and the information is still relevant today! Make sure to grab your free copy and remember to keep these three principles in mind as you plan your next marketing strategy!