3 Success Criteria for Any Business Marketing Platform

Historically, the greatest challenge for marketers was reaching their target audience.

This not only required an understanding of marketing skills, but also relationships with the media and the dollars to engage their capabilities.

Now anyone, and especially any business, can (and should) build a platform for reaching their ideal customers.

The traditional barriers to building a successful marketing machine have been removed. As a result, the challenge is using that freedom to create a successful, customer-centric platform that will sustain your business.

Here are 3 essential components that should be part of your formula for building your marketing platform.

?#1 ? Quality Products and Services

While having a quality product is no guarantee for success, it is nevertheless essential for getting into and staying in the game. Entrepreneurs commonly break into an industry by providing something that is new, better, or different. That?s enough to get you into the game.

To stay in the game it is necessary to constantly innovate, cut costs, and better serve the needs of your customer base.

Little things matter. Learn how to discover and adapt to them.

I have personally developed a habit of making notes of observations that can bring my game to a higher level. It?s a practice that true professionals share. So, whether you use a notepad or a mobile device ? take notes, and more importantly, act on them!

#2 ? Relationships with Influentials

Influentials in the entertainment business are celebrities.

For small business professionals like you and me, the influentials are your customers.

Customer relationships build and sustain businesses. It?s an uncomplicated formula that always works.

You can have the best product in the world, but you are not really in business if you do not have loyal customers. Your customer list is the potential value of your business.

Treat your client list like gold, because it is.

Depending upon your market and business type, you can build and maintain an extremely profitable business by simply nurturing your relationships with the influentials that trust you and your business ? whether they are few or many.

Everyone loses a customer from time to time. However, as long as your core constituency is well-served, you will retain and earn the trust of others just like them.

#3 ? Unique and Specific Positioning

I have a colleague who like me is a professional speaker. His specialty is summarizing meetings and events with humor. He is indeed the original and ONLY Professional Summarizer.

I have another friend who publishes a magazine for a destination that is the ONLY one to reach visitors before they arrive at that destination.

When you can position your business as the ONLY one in a unique category ? you have a marketing platform without rivals.?

How can you change the game you play ? redefining it such that you are ONLY one that can win it.?That is sustainable differentiation.

Whatever it is may only be temporary, as everything these days it easily copied. Nevertheless, that should not stop you from capitalizing on it.

Study the trends, because keeping ahead of them is where the fun and opportunities lie!

Leave a comment below and share this with your community using any of the share buttons below ? or on the little red bar at the bottom of this page.

Until next time, Jeff

Photo Credit: FloatingLemmon

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