Putting the HUMAN Back in Marketing w/ Jurgen Strauss
“Marketing is the art and science of creating and sustaining exceptional customer experiences and relationships. “
Since we had George Bryant in episode 226 (and in our milestone episode 300) of the InnovaBuzz Podcast, I’ve been inspired by his philosophy of human-centered marketing. I’ve been in his programs and have taken on board a lot of what he teaches, and that’s just elevated what I do too.
That’s why it’s a great privilege to be a guest on his show, the Mind of George Podcast, where we talked about what human-centered marketing really means as well as how it can invigorate your business relationships with your customers, and ultimately, your own happiness and fulfillment in life.
Here are some of the takeaways from our conversation.
- Fear and insecurities are not mistakes but lessons and growth points.
- You are either at cause or at effect. You can either take control of the things you can control or make excuses and look for somebody to blame, which is not a good thing.
- You are who you are, not who you think you are.
- Get into awareness so you can have the opportunity to win the game.
- Be a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all.
- The dead on nailed target of success when it comes to business and understanding your customers is not focusing on your customers first – it is focusing on yourself first, being deeper in your relationship with yourself, and understanding your triggers, thoughts and processes, that will enable you to better empathise and understand what is happening for your customers.
- Nobody has a marketing problem. Everybody has a relationship problem with themselves, their team, and their customers.
- Get real clarity on your own values. Look at how those values serve you.
- Make it as easy as possible for somebody to interact with you.
- Give away something that people are interested in and then start to build the relationship on top of that.
- Give without expecting anything in return. Just do your best and follow up with a whole lot of value without any expectations.
- People sense that you are only giving them something because you are expecting something from them. If they realise that you are there to help them and they need more help at some point in your area of expertise, they would know that there’s a threshold they have to cross or pay some money to cross that threshold, but before then, they have already got heaps of value from you.
- Customer experience dictates everything. Test everything that you do from a customer experience and perspective. Go through it and ask yourself how you can make it easier.
- There are 2 things that you have in a customer journey – container and content. Content is hand walking people and making it easy. Your container is how people feel and what their experience is like.
- There’s a whole lot of subconscious actions that your customers take in their customer journey. You want them not to dwell on those. It’s up to you to make their journey feel natural and easy.
- A lot of companies think about customer experience only in the frame of where they see and touch the customer. However, the things that are happening outside of that container is what dictates how well that experience is inside that container.
- A customer journey isn’t where you want it to happen. A customer journey is wherever it happens, and wherever your customers interact with you.
- Marketing is the art and science of creating and sustaining exceptional customer experiences and relationships.
- Marketing is not just about making a sale or getting attention and getting people into a funnel.
- Value-based marketing eliminates the thought process of how to deliver and position your marketing. When you play the value and reciprocity game, it documents your authentic voice and delivery which magnetises and attracts the right customers.
- When you create a container or bucket for your customers where they feel safe, it doesn’t matter how long the journey takes. What matters is that they are already on the journey, and whenever they’re ready, they will cross that threshold.
- Marketing funnels are outdated and broken. They’re very transactional and robotic.
- A funnel is like a cone of light. The further away you are, the wider it is to catch you, and as you get closer and closer, the more you get aligned.
- It’s really important to understand your dream customer at a deeper level – where you can find them and how you can connect with them.
- The game of marketing is an infinite game. Marketing is a relationship. Relationships don’t grow in one hour. You grow every day and take a step forward.
- One of the biggest pieces that are missing in the game of entrepreneurship is patience.
- Acknowledge your customers for making the purchase. Let them know that they are still in your world. Let them know that you are there for them and that you’ll help them achieve their goal.
- Make it easy for your customers to tell other people how wonderful you are.
- As a business, whether you have a product or a service, your job is not done when the product or the services are bought. That is when your job starts. Your job is complete when you have fulfilled what you promised and not when they’ve bought the product. If your customers don’t achieve what you promised, then, it is your fault, not theirs.
- Always make it about your customers. Congratulate them. Let them know that they took the hardest step and the work is easy now because they have your support and then start walking them through the process.
- Automations are good. There are things you can automate but you have to earn the right to automate. Go through it and tighten up your customer journey, and earn the right to automate.
- When thinking about automation, it’s important to infuse your personality into the tool that you are using. Utilise things that give context and personality that can help you personalise things for your customers, which then helps you get better information to better serve them with what they would be looking for and what they need.
- Map your automation out from the end. Think about the outcome that you want, how you can get it, and where you are now. Map out each step and all the different decision points.
- Think through your customer journey not just in terms of what’s going to happen today but as well, in the future. You might not have it all planned but you have to account for it. You have to know what’s coming because the biggest mistake in business and marketing is to have somebody come in and trust you, and then, go radio silent on them.
- Go talk to your customers. Have a meaningful conversation. You will learn so much.
- People don’t buy products. They buy relationships. They buy from the best relationship and being human is what creates the best relationship.
- When you approach your customers as a human and you share, your thoughts, your struggles, and they share theirs, that creates an authentic human connection that is greater than any funnel or any marketing strategy.
- You can only ever innovate on product experience or customer experience.
- Feedback is a gift. The more that we get feedback as business owners, the more that we post into the world and get slapped in the face, get no responses or lots of responses, the more we edit our craft, the more we grow and learn, and we iterate so that we can continue to grow on this journey for ourselves and for our customers.
Listen to the podcast to get the full scoop
The Transformational Marketing Blueprint
Give without expecting anything in return. Just do your best and follow up with a whole lot of value without any expectations. @Innovabiz on #MindofGeorge Podcast Click To Tweet
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