This one will be short and sweet... I'm always amazed how many businesses list great customer service as their unique selling proposition. Customers expect good customer service, and any business that doesn’t provide it will not be in business for much longer. If your business uses customer service as a USP, you need to do some market research to find out why your current customers prefer you over your competitors. The results may surprise you. A case study that has been documented and demonstrates this fact is the story of a small footwear manufacturer in the US called K Shoes. Some market research found that customers liked their product because their shoes don’t creak. Customers saw this as a sign of product quality. K Shoes used this information to develop an advertising campaign to promote this USP. The ad showed a wife sneaking up on her husband when he was out to dinner with another woman. The ad demonstrated the USP beautifully and led to a rapid increase in sales. You can check out the ad below:

This post is one of admiration.... No, I’m not thinking of giving away marketing and getting into real estate sales... But I’ve always admired the real estate industry, its marketing systems, and how it markets properties. I’ve always believed that other businesses can benefit from observing how real estate agents sell a property, and in this post, I’ve listed 7 key marketing lessons any business can learn from real estate marketing. Here they are: 1. To sell something, you need to market it. Imagine if you went to an agent and they said to you, " We’ll list your property, but we won’t do any marketing. “We won’t create a promotional flyer, we won’t take any photos, and we certainly won’t promote it in our shop front. “You would walk out the door. So why do other businesses believe they can sell products and services without marketing? Real estate agents include marketing as a cost of sale. To sell the product, an investment needs to be made. This is a good lesson for any business. 

I heard a great quote the other day. It was “give me the freedom of a tight brief” from David Ogilvy, the man regarded as the “father of advertising”. In my years of marketing, I’ve written hundreds of briefs. Briefs for advertising campaigns, briefs for brand development and briefs for new websites amongst many others. And I’d like to think I do a reasonable job of them. I try to be very clear, provide lots of information and give a clear guide to what I want the brief to achieve. Unfortunately, I don’t often receive detailed briefs from clients, so I’ve come up with five things you must include in your brief to get the outcome you want. 1. Include everything you already know. This might seem obvious, but it’s important to share everything you know about your business, your market and your target market in a brief. Don’t make the recipient go and find this information, as it will cost you time and money. Tell them everything you know, and you will have a good foundation to build your brief. 2. Include things you want to know (but don’t) Nearly every business has knowledge gaps. It may be that you don’t have a clear idea of where your website traffic is coming from, the market perception of your brand, or even how you should price your product. If you can be clear about what you don't know, then we can go about finding the answers for you. 

This week I sat down with Clayton Daniel from Ensombl to discuss all things marketing.

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