How to Build a Marketing Culture

It’s so easy to string together a bunch of remarks and call them a mission statement. But what happens if you actually have a specific mission, a culture in mind, a written document declaring publicly the intentions, and motives for your actions?

The indispensable choice is this: you have to describe (and live) the difficult choices. You have to figure out who you will disappoint or offend. Most of all, you have to be clear about what’s important and what you won’t or can’t do.

Here are some tips to the art of building a marketing culture.

Make Everyone a Marketer

Make the assertion that “Everyone is a Marketer” in your company. The product is the marketing, the service is the marketing, and every human being who touches who interacts with the outside world is doing marketing.

When hiring an employee, don’t just focus on technical skills and experience. Discover if she has a marketing temperament. It’s important that they share the vision and mindset.

The goal is to make each employee a marketer, who is willing to communicate emotion and trust and delight customers with the things that matter.

Get Creative with Low-Cost Marketing Tactics 

Forget traditional marketing known as “advertising” and out-dated marketing literature. If you hit a marketing wall, encourage your employees to solve the problem creatively — and cheaply.

I’ve seen some low-cost marketing tactics being used with a lot of satisfaction. Here’s a list. Notice how more than half of them are free.

Use Selling as a Market Research Method

You don’t need a finished product to start selling. In fact, start marketing, well before you have your product, service, or idea. Have your employees start cold-calling, and creating conversations with potential and current customers and transfer their enthusiasm of the imminent release of your product or service that was far from ready.

The best focus group is when you ask a customer for money. This method allows you to determine very quickly, without much cost or effort, if you have a viable business idea.

Personal Marketing 

Everyday have your employees say, out loud how they will delight one current customer. Eventually, if you follow these tips, you’ll be overwhelmed with business and at that moment your job will change. Your job will no longer be to find more customers for the product, but to find more products for your customers.

Retention is the game once you secured a customer. From my experience most businesses lose customers because they were nurtured and courted away by competitors. Which means: shown more attention too.

About the Author:  Patrick McFadden is a  marketing consultant  that helps SMBs navigate the most effective ways to attract and keep customers. He is also an advisor and featured marketing contributor to  American Express Open Forum  and has been named a marketing thought leader for small businesses.