What if you built a railroad, and no one wanted to ride. You bought the land. You laid the track. You constructed the stations. And you went out and designed the very best passenger cars that money could buy. Everything was perfect, except for one thing. Nobody wanted to ride.

So what went wrong? How could this have been avoided? Simple, you started with the thing – a railroad – rather than the idea behind the thing -transportation. Everyone wants transportation, but maybe they don’t want a train. Could be that your train is too expensive. Maybe they would rather drive. How about a hovercraft?

So, if you started out with nothing, just an idea, just marketing, and you built your business from there, you would know that the railroad wouldn’t work before you bought your first parcel of land. Perhaps your prospects would prefer buses. Maybe you could go ahead and build those perfect train cars, you just need to sell them to other railroads that are already successful. But you won’t know anything until you figure out your core marketing message and determine if it resonates with your target prospects.

Marketing is everything… and nothing. What is your core marketing message?

In the developed world we have reached a point of near market saturation. Almost everyone has almost everything that they need. Food and water, check. Shelter, check. A serviceable vehicle, check. A smart phone, check.

In order to differentiate your product or service, you have to appeal to their desires, their wants. So, how do we differentiate? How do we appeal to those desires?

We start with nothing. We start with marketing. Huh? Marketing is an idea. It’s a set of strategies and best practices and tactics. You don’t make it. You can’t hold it in your hands. But if you want to be successful, you had better have a core marketing message influencing every decision you make and each path you go down.

Planning

Before you start designing your next product or planing your next service, start thinking about how you will market it. How can you make it different than what is already out there? How can you make it better, or smaller, or cheaper, or more expensive? How will your service disrupt an existing market? What is it about your product that will make the big boys shake in their Italian loafers?

Next you need to do some testing. A little market research. Put up a simple web page and drive some traffic to it using Google Adwords. If your product or service is local, target local prospects only. If location doesn’t matter, open it up wide. Will people give you their email address for more information about this proposed product? How much would they pay for that service? You are looking for proof of concept, and it has never been easier to get. Use this research to determine what your prospects care about, and what they don’t. Refine your message down to the essential elements.

Once you have your core marketing message figured out, everything else gets a lot easier. You will know how to position your product – luxury, efficiency, simplicity, performance. You will know how your website should feel and what your ads should look like. You will be able to give that 30 second elevator pitch and have it sound like you know what you’re talking about.

Production

As you move into the production phase of the process, concentrate on those differentiating factors. If a feature doesn’t serve them, it can be eliminated. It’s just a distraction from your core marketing message.

As you build your service, keep things as lean as possible while still living up to your message. It is the one area where you can’t cut corners. Other features and benefits can be added later, but if you miss the mark with your differentiating factors your business will be adrift.

Execution

As you move through the production phase of your business and into the execution phase, you must keep your eye on the ball. All aspects of your business should fulfill your core marketing message.

If you are all about luxury, then your customer service must go above and beyond what is normally expected. If efficiency is your thing, then your e-commerce platform better be flawless and user friendly. If your products are based around clean minimalist design, then everything from your website, to your Facebook page, to your storefront will have to live up to those expectations.

You can not afford to have a disconnect between your core marketing message and your product or service.

Marketing your core message

So, your differentiating factors were built right into your planning process. You stuck like glue to your core message through the production process. And now your execution is on point – customer service, e-commerce platform, store design are all a perfect match for that core marketing message. Now what?

Now you get out your bull horn. You start broadcasting that message through every channel available to you. But don’t go about it all willy-nilly. You still have to stick to the principles that have gotten you this far. If your message is about quality, don’t run an ad about rock bottom prices. And if your are trying to differentiate yourself through your down home atmosphere, don’t put a bunch of stark, edgy images on Instagram.

Build yourself a solid base of good quality content on the platform or platforms of your choice. The content should echo the main concepts of your core marketing message. Write articles about how your luxury service is far above the bargain priced alternatives. Record YouTube videos that show how much more efficient your prospect will be once they start using your product. publish a podcast introducing customers to the homespun wit and wisdom they can expect when they visit your boutique.

Once you have established your core principles on your platform of choice, use creative marketing and advertising techniques to drive prospects back there. A clean, minimalist print ad can be used to drive customer back to you clean and efficient website. A wine tasting event can be used to draw people in to your luxury housewares storefront. And a silly infographic can go viral and lead people right back to your world class collection of cat videos.

Just keep pounding away at that core marketing message and your targeted prospects will start to take notice.

Wrapping up

I realize that this article was a little more esoteric and less tactical than my previous posts. Hopefully you found it interesting and informative. Let me know what concepts in the article you would like me to expand upon. I’m here to help.

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Photo courtesy Samuel Zeller / Unsplash