If you work in marketing, you work in sales.
Whether you’re promoting a product or a service, or focused on increasing brand awareness and affinity, the reality is we’re all selling something.
So What Are You Selling?
If you’re not careful, the answer might be the obvious…
Work in higher education? You’re selling programs.
Work in travel? You’re selling trips.
Work in automotive? You’re selling cars.
There’s just one problem with that, that’s not actually what you’re selling at all.
The reality is…
People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Benefits
So when it comes to what you’re selling, what’s the benefit of what you sell?
In the case of higher education, it’s often career advancement and improved economic mobility.
In the case of travel, people don’t just want interesting experiences, they want to be more interesting people when they come home.
And when it comes to automotive, it’s not just the car itself, but where it can take you and who you will be once you’ve arrived.
Welcome To The Belief Business
Every iota of interest we influence, every action we drive, is built on the consumer’s belief that the perceived benefit will come post purchase.
Meaning we don’t just sell the benefit, we sell the belief that the benefit exists at all.
As marketers, we are in the belief business.
Building A Foundation On Belief
So where do we go from here?
For starters, it’s important to audit your offerings and be confident in your own understanding of the underlying benefits that come post purchase.
Then, it’s time to rethink and reimagine the way you communicate those offerings to ensure the ultimate benefit is at a minimum implied.
The thing is, effective marketing comes from a place of shared understanding.
When you truly understand what someone is after, and can connect that aspiration to an action related to your brand, you are well on your way to building something special.
So it’s worth asking one more time, when it comes to what you sell…
What Are You Selling?
Editor’s Note
Kanahoma is an education marketing agency based in San Diego, California. We live, work, and play at the intersection of beautiful brand creative and effective direct response marketing.
You can learn more about what we do and how we do it at Kanahoma.com.
Wishing you all the best,
Seth