You are busy, and it's all too easy to make the big mistake of choosing a person from convenience, without them being the right person for the job. I know. I did it.

Carried away by enthusiasm and potential, we can see what someone might be capable of, but not what they necessarily what they are able to.

Sometimes, we may be at fault for trying to do the impossible, by not having the right pieces in place, but this is irrelevant if we still have the wrong person.

What is this article about?

Firstly, and most importantly, this post is about recognising which companies to reject, and is categorically not about recommending any marketing company. There are so many considerations when choosing anyone to work with your business, and perhaps the most easy to make a mistake with, is in choosing who will have the huge responsibility to define how, where, and when to market your products and services, often making the differene between success and failure of an organisation.

 

Marketing Companies are mostly a reflection of their success to date

Many marketing companies tend to be very good at marketing themselves face to face, with a lot of experience refining their pitch, with lots of competitors to learn tricks from, but their expertise may not extend well at market anyone elses industry.

Sometimes the best marketeers may not spend any effort on marketing themselves, as their reputation may keep them so busy that creating a self-presence is far from priority.

Reputation and proven experience is often the only confident way to judge capability, and it goes far above and beyond simply which brands they have interacted with.

 

What is Marketing

The term marketing has gained an increasingly broader meaning. It is now used for anything related to promotion.

Historically, it referred to a way to get a product in the mind of consumers, through various ways to expose a product, but now it means so much more.

Blanket-wide advertising used to be affordable. Now, businesses have to carefully choose their battles.

Marketing covers identifying a niche where the product can demonstrate a clear unwavering benefit.

It covers capturing feedback from the niche audience to refine the product, and creating engagement.

It covers getting a product correctly designed and packaged to attract the right audience, and perhaps most importantly, it covers how to get the product to be noticed by those of us not looking to change or habits, or not expecting to find an answer to a question we haven't even asked ourselves. It means painting a picture to the buyer for how it can help make some remarkable difference to that person, worthy of the person parting with money, and perhaps time, in order to jump onboard your customer train.

As marketing needs grew, so did the number of people within marketing. Sadly, for businesses, this hasn't really been a good thing.

 

Size vs results

Remember that big name brands are big because they have already invested in their presence. If you want a suitable marketing representative, don't you want to find someone with a recent proven track record of taking companies of the size, and status of your own, rather than those who only know how to deal with something that is already big?

Perhaps this question will show just how easy it is to get sold on the wrong people, because we look in the wrong direction.

 

The Two Types of Marketeers

Just like in the world of economics, where there are 2 types of economists, within marketing there are 2 types of marketeers.

The first group, an estimated 95% of marketeers, based on extensive personal experience, are those who have studied marketing, and have become 'experts' through some understanding of the past. They have learned about how companies of old have succeeded in transforming themselves into successful money makers, or into market leaders. Many of these students of marketing understand the principles, can talk the talk, and have an grasp of how products have been successfully brought to market, including no doubt, some great stories associated with how these successes were made possible.

There may tell stories of successes of famed individuals from Henry Ford to Elon Musk. They understand some of the exceptions of what worked in a word that was, but sadly have little understanding of the world that is, or of intuitive ideas that may work in a world that soon will be.

The second group, instead of focusing on the past, consist of a bold few percentages marketeers, focus on the 'loopholes' of the future, to take a product or service and accelerate it ahead of any competition, make it be more seen for a fraction of the budget of inferior alternatives, or to really.

They are the ones who are the doers, and not the sayers. They are the ones that understand the past, but project it to the future in new an revolutionary ways. They are the ones who take ownership for success, and do not blame the ‘environment we live in’ for not supplying the issuing ingredients. They are the ones who don’t think outside the box, but instead throw the box away, and consider no boundaries.

These 5% (and in my humble opinion, probably somewhat less), are the ones that hear of a product, and instantly their minds race, not the 95% waiting to be spoon fed all of the answers, to simply churn out a bland and 'safe' marketing offering, proposing to only move you at best at the speed of the competition.

These 5% live in the world of the bold, creative and innovative. And these 5% refuse to be held back by the constraints of past limitations, always looking for ways to stretch to new boundaries in ways yielding bigger and brighter results.

Aurora doesn’t ‘do’ marketing. But we know a lot of people that do. Many of the ones we are working with and recommend are within the 5%.But remember this 5% is only as good as their imagination, and should be judged by their results, and their ability to find loopholes for you.

Knowing who to choose can be difficult, and is always changing. Aurora works closely with various businesses and charities, and understands the importance of finding the right people for your business. Remember that success can be judged on results, and we recommend to always learn enough to set realistic goals from all those who work for you.

 

Remember that success means to put yourself ahead of the competition, and not simply to try to keep up with it. True marketing is what separates their successes.

 

For more tips and tricks, contact us, visit our social media, and join in the debate.