Is Digital Marketing a load of CRAP?
I’m often asked how to successfully build and market a business online, including using digital marketing for a traditional bricks and mortar business.
If you asked me to sum it as simply as possible, then really it falls down to four things.
When I first started to explain this to a lot of people I was told that I was talking crap…
And so I figured, what the hell. Yes I am talking crap, C-R-A-P.
Content
The C is all about content. As in the content that you create and put out. When it comes to business, people buy from people.
It’s all about the relationship. And how do you create that relationship? Through the content that you put out. It’s the content that you create, the content that you share, and the way you let people into your life and let them see who you are.
Rapport
The second point is all about Rapport. As in, it’s how you deepen that relationship.
Rapport is about building and deepening the connection, with the other person.
And I stress the word, person, not people. You build a connection one to one. You don’t build a connection, one to many, even if you’re talking to a group. Even if you’ve got hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people consuming your content.
Your content is only ever being consumed by one person at a time and so it’s important to bear in mind when you’re sharing content to build rapport, that you are building rapport with an individual, not with a group.
Authenticity
You have to show up as the genuine you. Not some like copy cat of somebody else.
Do not try to be another person. Be who you actually are, warts and all, the good, the bad, the ugly.
Be you, be authentically you, and let people get to know you. The people that are attracted to you, they’re the people who’ll want to work with you. The people who aren’t attracted to you, simple are not your audience.
That doesn’t mean that you’re not good enough or that there is somebody better than you. It just means that there’s someone different than you, and each of us will find the persons right for us.
Perseverance
The final point in the ‘CRAP’ I talk about digital marketing is Perseverance.
For me, perseverance actually breaks down into two things: persistence and patience.
You have to keep doing the next right thing and always remember that done beats perfect.
Even if nobody is paying attention…
Persevere. Persist. Keep putting things out.
And that’s where the patience kicks in…
For example, if you start making videos you might find initially five people watch your video, then ten people watch your video… Over time it becomes like a snowball, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
The more you put out high quality content, the more rapport you build with people.
The more rapport you have, the more they recommend you to other people.
The more you show up as the authentic you, and you let people see who you truly are, the more rapport you get, and that ball just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
Ultimately, if people can get to know like and trust you and will want to work with you.
