Daily Lab: What value, what distance?

Marketing is the art and science of demonstrating value at a distance.

So before we get to the art or the science, we have to ask ourselves: What’s the value, and what’s the distance?

What is the unique resource, capability, or utility (or combination thereof) we provide to our ideal customers that they truly can’t get anywhere else? “Best” isn’t unique—everyone makes that claim. What can we do that no one else can?

And what’s the greatest distance (in time or space) we can demonstrate that value to them? If we need a meeting to make a sale, we’re doing sales, not marketing. How can we demonstrate to our ideal customers the value they’ll receive in a way they can understand and appreciate without them ever talking to us?

Once we know those things, the art and science gets easy.

But if we don’t know those things, all the art and science in the world won’t help.

Read more about the most wasteful thing in marketing.