Marketing is All About Empathy

Everyone is a marketer.  Regardless if you want to be one, we are all marketers.  Think about it.  When you were dating your spouse, you were marketing yourself so he would choose you.  When you apply for a job, you were marketing yourself so they would choose you.  We are all marketers in life.  Only some of us love to do it so much, we decide to make a career of it.

When you got hired for that job, you were hired to solve one of their problems.  They didn't hire you to solve your problem of needing a job.

I really never thought of myself as a marketer until several years ago.  I had been running and starting companies for 15 years and then one day it struck me, I am really in the marketing business.  My job in running these companies is to ensure we are solving peoples problems and we need to tell that story in a way that is relevant to them.

That was the light bulb moment for me.  When I realized that I am infact a marketer, we all are, and I went to work every day with that mindset, and I performed through that lens.  When I did my companies started to grow at a much faster rate.  Clients were happier and we had a better message.

The reason is this, marketers have to have one skill that enables them to be effective.  And that skill is empathy.  You have to learn how to market your products in a way that benefits other people.  You can't simply create a website that list the features of your products and tell me that your car goes faster than all the other cars in its class.  That doesn't matter to most people.  They are trying to solve a problem of getting from point A to B.

You can't create a law firm website and think your practice will grow simply because you do all the services dozens of other firm in your zip code do.  That isn't enough.  You aren't growing, you are just getting your percentage of the demand for your services in that market.  You look and sound like all the rest.

You can't sell me on the benefits of buying your running shoes by telling me they perform the same as all these other brands.  If that is the case I don't need yours, I already have a pair.

Marketing is empathy. Empathy is required n marketing because it allows us to see it through someone else's eyes.  To solve a problem that someone else has.  It is arrogant to try and sell your products to people who don't have a problem that needs fixed, you will only annoy them.

It is arrogant to try and market your products as "me Too" products, if yours does everything the competition does, then one of you is not needed.  You are wasting my time.

But if you create a company that bases everything on solving other peoples needs and solves their problems, then you will succeed.  The two together work.

As you go to work today, don't assume you know what your client needs.  Listen to what they want and what problems they want to solve.  It will be a true differentiator in your company and in your spirit.

I can't wait to see what problems you help people with.  Take a look at this video from the Cleveland Clinic on empathy.  Everyone is in a different season of life and we all have unique challenges.  They do a great job of reminding us of that.