How to provide value to your customers with marketing
In recent years, the concept of value-based marketing became a practice only within young entrepreneurs - but the rest of the industry forgot about it. Why? Because of two things - first, customers attended too many 'free webinars' and other bullshit solutions masked as sales calls. Everyone became more paranoid and cynical. Second, giving value is hard - you have to understand your customers' problem, create a solution to solve it and provide value around it. Most businesses fail even with the first step.
To understand value-based marketing, you must understand the principle behind it: you provide value for your customers without asking anything from them in return.
You can't pull them into a webinar on whatever topic, which is essentially a sales call. You 'just' provide a webinar with an insane amount of value in it; that's it.
We don't waste time with story-mode, but there's a great story that helps everyone understand how value-based marketing works. Bruce Henderson founded Boston Consulting Group in 1963 - at a time when other companies like McKinsey dominated management consulting. Despite the fierce competition, he managed to grow the company so big that it is now part of the Big Three, the world's three biggest consulting companies. How he did it? With a simple marketing technique: value-based marketing. He published his ideas in short stories called Perspectives and sent it to potential clients. He provided value for free and showed a genuine understanding of his clients' problems, and with his insights, he actively helped them succeed. Within years, the company grew above the sky because of value-based marketing that served BCG an influx of leads.
Today, it might not be the best option to write short stories and mail them to senior executives. But though formats change, tactics stay the same. Content that adds value still acts as a powerful magnet for leads. Frankly, you are reading a piece like that now.
Value is useful. Value is entertaining. People are more likely to buy if they are learning something useful in a simple, digestible format.
The most useful tactical advice we can give you when it comes to value is a simple one. Provide value all the time. Don't waste anyone's time - value should present itself even with a simple headline.
Lastly, the value should be actionable for both sides. Your customer should find it useful for consideration, even for implementation. But it should be actionable for your business as well. The value should drive your customer further into their buying cycle. Make sure you include a call to action at each lead magnet content piece you create. Call to action shouldn't be a sales offer - just a drive for further action.
After all, though value can be free, your help is not.
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