Daily Lab: Start your marketing HERE

When it comes to forming a marketing habit, “Just start” can feel like awfully unhelpful advice.

Starting isn’t the solution—it’s the problem. What are we supposed to start on?

When we want to do more marketing, we often assume the place to start is with new customers. You know, the people who don’t know about us yet.

And that can paralyze us, because where are they? And what are we supposed to say to them?

But that’s actually the last place to go. You have so much marketing to do—so many sales to make—before you ever worry about people that far away from you.

No, if you’re going to start, start Here. That is, start with the customers who are right here, right now, with you. Your existing or regular clients or customers.

And start by doing this: Getting extremely, obsessively curious about the value they experience.

Because marketing is only this: Demonstrating your value at a distance.

So if you want to get really good at that, really consistently, you need to start by identifying what that value is.

And guess who knows that better than you do? Your current customers and clients.

So ask them, follow up with them, pay attention to them—and figure out where they experienced your truest, deepest value.

And then figure out how they describe that value to others.

Because that’s how you’re going to describe it, too.

So, spend a few minutes today learning what your existing customers value about you and your work.

Because that’s the first step in demonstrating your value at greater and greater distances.