Redesign your life with these 5 marketing rules.
And increase your value.
Marketing is fundamental to what makes us human. It’s beyond the clothes, getaways, and leisure activities we purchase. Everything in life involves the process of marketing to someone or being marketed to by another. We market ourselves when looking for a mate. We market our personas on social and networking platforms. Even at job interviews, we market our abilities.
Since marketing is essentially as much life as life is marketing, it would only make sense that marketing rules can be applied to our everyday lives as a way to self-improve.
Here’s a breakdown of 5 marketing rules that we can apply to our daily lives:
Hubspot —
“How you treat people with your marketing is a reflection of your brand”
Hubspot speaks about the truth behind the cliché “ the customer is always right”. And let’s be honest, in a sensitized society where there’s a thin line between being seen as a Karen versus a customer who actually has a qualm, it’s difficult at times to differentiate. This goes especially for smaller businesses with more on the line.
It is important however to consider the type of press that can emerge from a company’s reaction to unlikely scenarios. To stay at the forefront of any circumstance, companies are encouraged to produce thoughtful content that takes an empathetic stance, instead of hovering like a neutral Switzerland.
Apply to You:
We’ve all had our share of terrible, horrible, no-good days. Similar to marketing, you are a reflection of your brand. In this case, your brand is the person that you display to the public. Not necessarily the you who sings in the bathroom and binge watches videos of tiny birds on YouTube — unless this is also something you share. Your visible reaction to a stressful situation is likely to be remembered far longer than any nice gesture.
Ask yourself — “ How can I become a good reflection of myself ?”
Inc.com
“Do marketing that defines who you are”
It’s a lovely thing when a brand has fine-tuned its voice to deliver authenticity, and empathy in communication to its audience. A good brand experience usually boils down to expectation and is dependent on aligning media on channels where people expect to find it. Try to avoid the mistake of placing the same content on all channels.
Converse on topics that are purposeful, and hold responsibility for contextual social relationships. This gives your audience the opportunity to not also be sold on a product, but appreciate a mild sense of homogeneity in purpose and cultural cause.
Apply to You:
The feeling that we are living our truest self, and being the most authentic version of ourselves is an annually sought-after goal. Our goals and aspirations are all part of the calculus of living a good life and experiencing the trueness that we desire. An important part of defining who we are, and becoming our true selves is to pursue goals that are right for us.
Like marketing, a part of defining ourselves is propelled by the interchange of people who influence our daily lives, and people whose lives we influence. Our friends, family, and neighbors are like media channels with whom we build social relationships. Placing the same content on all channels is synonymous with having the same conversations with every connection, and being so similar to others that your unique perspective is lost in the mud.
Discovering who you truly are involves accepting that the world poses expectations but not necessarily conforming to them. Instead, define your character by investing in the things that make you happy, and causes that you believe in. This sets the precedence for your stance on life and sets the stage to display your true character.
Digital doughnut
“Know what you sell”
Digital doughnut spoke to the common disconnect between marketing and sales. Marketing must work closely with sales in order to be fully aware of the sales proposition. Understanding what a company sells, helps drive the promotion and sets the strategy in place. Without clarity of objectives, there could be no expectation of business growth.
Apply to You:
Marketing when applying to oneself is like sales minus the verbal output. Our words can create the perfect narrative, but our actions solidify its cogency.
Humans are wired with intuition, even in instances when we’re unable to identify it — it still exists. Knowing what you sell speaks to our ability to identify our strongest points and nurturing them.
While it’s quite normal to long for traits that you don’t possess, it’s more profitable to develop what you do. It’s a greater feat to be exceptional at one thing than to be ok at a few and a master of none.
Entrepreneur
“Results rule”
When it comes to advertising and marketing investments, there’s nothing more gratifying than measurable success. Marketing’s foundation is built on tracking and measuring. The instructions are never clear, but no amounts of catchphrases or lengthy storytelling could replace the importance of solid results. “No opinions count — not even yours.”
Just results.
Apply to You:
The same goes for any of your lifestyle or personal goals. The journey is a valuable experience that you can obtain while working towards whatever the goal may be, however, in the end, the results are the proof of achievement. If your goal is to have an insightful or retrospective journey, then you may be lucky to have overlapping success.
Cison
“Be unique”
Creative outlets are everywhere and more accessible than ever, almost to a fault. People are bursting with ideas to rebuild through an economic beating. Many new businesses launched this year are undoubtedly recycled concepts targeting niche communities. These were built with the hope of driving better outcomes. But how do companies differentiate themselves for easy picking?
A unique perspective and brand offering tends to drive it home. However, boundaries need to be pushed in order to become visible. Here are a few examples:
Car delivery services said they’d pick you up and take you to your destination. Uber offered to also pick up your food.
Dating apps offered to find you your next love match or friend. Vina said- let’s avoid the creeps and predatory daters. Meet your next spa buddy or jogging companion.
Instacart offers to shop and deliver your groceries the same day. Delivery.com said they’d also deliver your laundry.
The small differences count.
Apply to You:
Compare being common to being friend-zoned. There’s no commitment, less engagement, less meaningful interactions, no loyalty. Being unique is a level up to where you can embrace the traits that make you different. This authenticity attracts loyalty and other worthwhile characters to your circle. When you strive to be something that you’re not, you’re also striving to be less of the goodness that you are.
To be unique means to see past the skin, into the mind, and dabble into a bit of creativity that helps you express your differences with a sensible appeal.
“The Marketing Rule of 7”
The marketing rule of 7 states that it takes an average of seven interactions with your brand before a purchase will take place. These interactions involve multiple touchpoints during a customer’s lifecycle and expand throughout digital and social media efforts both organic and paid. Throughout this sequence of interactions, a potential customer becomes aware, learns to trust, and eventually commits a brand to memory.
Evolving marketing trends over the years have added digits and body to this basic rule. There’s a lot more crowding on social and digital platforms, so it takes a bit more savvy to engage customers at every level of the buying process.
Despite this being an old school theory, it basically stems from the concept of consistently getting your brand in front of suitable audiences to drive valuable outcomes.
Apply to You:
The rule of seven was designed with the purpose of creating a roadmap to meeting goals. When considering your goals, what are the steps you take to get there?
Psychology today determined that it takes 21 days to develop a secure habit. It however can take 7 predetermined, consecutive steps to get there. Let’s consider our rule of 7 to be the seven steps to get to our designated goals.
Zig Ziglar has mapped a comprehensive way to form great habits that would lead you to success. Here are the steps below:
- Identify your goal
2. List the benefits
3. List the obstacles to overcome
4. List the skills, knowledge, resources required
5. List the people or groups you may need to work with
6. Create an action plan
7. Set the deadline for achievement
Over the years it’s been determined that forming good habits promotes better brain health. Building good habits also have a domino effect. The more you form the easier it becomes to build continuously.
Good health is your greatest asset. Market yourself wisely and you will never regret a decision to take better care of yourself.
