One of the best things you
can do for a kid is to teach them to ride a bike. It helps them learn balance
and coordination, as well as exercise for their cardio system and strength to
their legs. It also gives them something to do that is not in front of a
screen. However, I think the best thing about teaching a child to ride a bike
is helping them discover possibilities beyond what they had previously known.
They will realize the freedom to go any direction they desire and they will
uncover places and things they had never seen before. They will find they can
travel farther and faster on a bike, opening possibilities for other modes of
travel. Without the bicycle, we would never have invented much more advanced
modes of transportation. Did you know that Henry Ford built his first
automobile in a bike shop? Did you also know the Wright Brothers got the idea
for the first airplane by working on bikes? Bicycles are liberating for
kids.
Marketing is like a bike
for your business, helping you discover potential customers. It will help you
make inroads into new lines of business. It will create business muscle for
dealing with your customers as you get to know them better and understand their
needs. All of that is true, but I want to focus on the amazing thing that often
happens when I sit down with clients to start to talk about marketing. They are
able to begin to dream about possibilities in their business beyond what they had thought about before. Marketing is the
vehicle that gets creative thoughts traveling into opportunities that otherwise
would not have been discovered.
Here is my suggestion: on
occasion, plan to sit down with your sales and marketing team and look at ways
to enhance your marketing to get in front of customers. What could you do to increase your sales to them? What could you offer
them that they are not buying from you now? How could you repackage your
current brand to reach them in a fresh way? Don’t stop with just your current
customers. Look beyond them to other consumers you could reach. Are there
groups of people who would be interested in your brand if you effectively
marketed to them? How would you go about catching their attention? How would
you entice them to try your brand? Write down these ideas on a whiteboard.
Don’t allow obstacles to get in your way while you do so. After you have
exhausted your ideas, rank them in terms of feasibility. Take the top ideas and
build a marketing strategy around them.
What I have found is the
methods you have used to reach your current customers may not work with a different
target market. Don’t let that derail your progress. If you allow yourself the
freedom, you will be able to build a strategy that will open new opportunities
for you.
Learn to ride your
marketing like it is a bike. It will help you dream beyond where you are now
and figure out how you can grow.