Does your marketing promote your brand’s speed? There is a new paradigm in marketing that has made its way to the front of the line in terms of its importance to consumers. That new paradigm is the speed at which you deliver your products and services, and the expectation is you will deliver it immediately.

The expectations of consumers have been shaped by Amazon and DoorDash – you should expect anything you want to be delivered to your door right now. That’s great if you are selling the same item that has no variations. All you have to do is build up a large, pre-made inventory, take an order, pick the item off of a shelf and deliver it in a box to the buyer’s front door. But what if you are in an industry that makes customized products to order? What if it takes some time to manufacture a quality product – does this mean that consumers will give you a pass on the speed of your delivery? No, it does not. Why? Because the speed at which you can deliver a product or service after a sale is made has become more important than any other aspect of the value proposition in the mind of the consumer. We often talk about the four reasons your customers will buy from you. These four are quality, price, a great customer service experience and the speed of your delivery. The new expectation is that immediate delivery is more important than quality, price and relationships. It’s not that those three are still not important – they are very important to make a sale and retain your customers. However, where a customer would have been happy to wait for delivery to stretch to weeks on certain items they ordered a decade ago, the new yardstick measures delivery in hours and days, not weeks and months.

How do you market your brand to this new standard of speed? First, understand what the competition is doing in terms of delivery. Fast is defined industry by industry. If you can find ways to streamline your production and beat your competition’s best delivery times, promote it. Speed is very marketable.

Second, put the time responsibility back on the consumer. Marketing expedited delivery as a limited-time offer is a great way to get potential customers to commit to buying from you sooner than they might have normally done so. If speed is important to consumers, put the onus back on them. Obligate them to sign a contract by a deadline in order to ensure delivery when they want it.

Finally, exceed the expectations of your customers by delivering earlier than they anticipated. How would you do this? First, get a firm handle on what is a reasonable time for you to generate your products or services. Next, set the expectation at the time of the sale that the time of delivery will be beyond this timeframe. This gives you wiggle room for delivery, but it also sets up a scenario where you will have a marketing win when you are able to manufacture and deliver before this stated delivery time. You will be a hero in the mind of the consumer. Happy customers are great for marketing.

When you are marketing your brand, don’t forget to market speed. It is the most valuable aspect of the buying and selling proposition in our current marketplace.