65. How To Make Customers Aware That You Exist

Having a great product or service isn't enough if nobody knows about it. Attracting customers is crucial for the success of your business. So how do you make customers aware that you exist?

It starts with a powerful marketing message and great strategy that captures attention of the right people and showcases what sets you apart from the crowd. And customers are more likely to choose your business if they know, like, and trust you.

On this episode of The High Performance Marketing Podcast, I'll share three reasons why your marketing might not be connecting with your target audience and what you can do about it.

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Transcript

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing Podcast, a show committed to helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Host, Ali Garbero.

In the years that I’ve been providing marketing services for various kinds of businesses, of different sizes, from the solopreneur to the mid level business owner - is this phrase or mindset that in tough times or when you’re just starting out, budgets are tight and marketing is perceived as “an extra.”

I know you’re going to think I sound biased when I say what I’ll say next - your business will not survive to the level you want it to without a marketing strategy and quality consistent content, I’m not saying that because I want to sell you my services. I say it because marketing is not an extra, it's fundamental to business. Period. Without marketing, those sales you keep hoping will happen, won’t and I’m going to tell you why before the end of this show.

On today’s episode of the podcast, we’ll dive into why your marketing maybe isn’t working the way you want it to and what you can do about it. But most importantly why marketing should always be your right hand for creating consistent sales.

So let’s get started.

First, what is Marketing?

Marketing is more than branding or advertising, which are tactics of Marketing. True marketing is the big picture plan you put in place on HOW you will acquire customers.

Remember how I’ve shared my story with you before. How a decade ago I left my corporate gig, got my real estate license and literally showed up to my brokerage ready to get to work. What I learned immediately was that I had been very naive. I knew I was open for business, but nobody else did. Who was going to teach me how to get clients? I was told to start door knocking and cold calling. This was the advice one of the best real estate training programs at a top tier brokerage told me was a viable customer acquisition strategy. And you know why? Because that’s what almost every single small business struggles with. They have zero idea about “how to get customers” and naively believe if “we build the product, if we create the service, the customers will come.” I have zero doubts that you have learned for yourself, that is not the case - ever.

If you don’t attract people to the thing you’ve built, they won’t come.

Our business will never grow simply because we have a great product or service. Why? Because there are just way too many great products out there. Companies that thrive are companies that master the art of telling customers about their products. If our marketing message is confusing, doesn’t make sense, doesn’t help customers understand what’s in it for them, they simply don’t pay attention.

Donald Miller released a new book recently called How To Grow Your Small Business: A 6-step plan to help your business take off. In the book, he compares running a business to the key elements of an airplane. He shares that testing your marketing language is like testing an engine before you connect it to the body of the plane.

Most businesses will wait until the last minute to prepare their marketing ideas because most often your energy is used on cre