The digital world is phenomenal - it opens up huge opportunities for personal and professional endeavors. We have access to information in almost any language at our finger tips. We can contract services from providers in distant countries. And we can shop online 24-7.
The Internet has also opened us up to competitors world wide. Our choices are endless and product and service differences, for the most part, seem to be about semantics and clever marketing speak. Higher quality, faster, bigger, better service . . . Well folks, consumers are smarter and well informed! They're digging deeper, having online and offline conversations with other consumers about YOUR products and services before they buy. So, why do you deserve their business and not your competitor? What makes you unique, remarkable (in Seth Godin's words) or different from everyone else out there offering the same things?
The prescription for marketing success is fundamental to your business. You MUST be different, be remarkable, be unique! And its not just about saying you're different because the new consumers will figure it out pretty quickly if you don't deliver. It's about REALLY being different. And truth be told, it's not an easy thing to do. In fact it can be a real challenge.
In some cases it may be a matter of going back down the production line and re-engineering your product so it is in fact different, remarkable or unique. In some cases you may truly be or offer something remarkable but you haven't clearly identified or communicated it.
Once you create or discover that different, remarkable or unique 'thing," the marketing becomes a cinch. Use both inbound and outbound marketing techniques to let the world know about it and if consumers agree, they'll start a buzz and THAT my dear friends is the best and cheapest kind of marketing there is.
Don't be afraid to take a stand or to stand out. Take a risk. It may be risk worth taking. Look different, be different, embrace different because different gets noticed. Write yourself a prescription to be remarkable and the marketing ALMOST takes care of itself. ;-)