Yesterday morning I was doing my best to hold an intelligent conversation while being ever so slightly terrified.

I was on a paddle board in Falmouth harbour - only the third time I’d been on one. 

“What’s the secret to great marketing do you reckon?” Asked Craig McLean - a client and friend of mine for the past 5 years.

“Ermmmm,” I uttered, while trying not to fall in.

Thankfully, a seal came to my rescue (an actual real life seal), distracted Craig from his line of questioning, and gave me the chance to focus my energies on staying upright.

This conversation was our prep for a podcast we recorded which you can listen to here.  

I answer the question in it, but, in case you don’t have an hour to spare, here’s my marketing ‘secrets’ …

1. It doesn’t matter what you do, what you sell, or what service you offer, marketing is about two things: getting new customers and keeping existing ones. There’s hundreds of ways you can do this (and what works for one business might not work for the next) but it really isn’t any more complicated than this.

2. It’s much easier to keep hold of existing customers by building brilliant relationships with them. The starting point for this is having a brilliant product or service. Consistently make people happy and they will keep coming back to you for more. You can have the best marketing in the world but if you can’t walk the walk you’ll go nowhere fast.

3. When you make people happy, they’ll tell their friends about you. And there's nothing stronger than word of mouth marketing and referrals. Keep the consistency of the experience you give people and the quality of your offering high and, all of a sudden, your referral network becomes a circle that keeps growing and growing.

4. There is no shortcut for being a decent human being. Do the right things, for the right reasons. Be patient. Have empathy. Trust the process. Don’t compromise on what you believe in. A smile goes a long way. Listening to what your customers need and want goes further. The brands and businesses we have the strongest affinity to (the ones we buy from time and again, and tell our friends to check out) are those who we form an emotional bond with. They spark feelings of joy and happiness inside of us. From a marketing standpoint, the simplest way of inspiring those feelings in your customers is by being a good person.

5. Give more than people expect. Marketing folk talk a lot about the ‘value add’ and for good reasons. Ask yourself - what can I do that makes me different to my competitors? What can I do that makes me different and makes me stand out? How can I give without expecting anything back? (The last point is one of the reasons I do this weekly email and encourage others to do the same)

That’s it. No magic wand. No silver bullet. No shortcuts. 

Hard work. Dedication. A great product you believe in. Being a good human. Going above and beyond.

Get these right and the rest will take care of itself.

And, as an aside, because it’s a gorgeous summer day as I’m writing this, here’s a frozen mango daiquiri recipe to see you through the weekend:

Serves 1

50ml golden run (Havanna Especial is excellent)
Handful of frozen mango
Juice of one lime
Two teaspoons of brown sugar (Demerara is the best)

Optional:

3 x dashes of bitters (Angostura works well as do orange or peach bitters)
1 x dash of Absinthe (trust me!)

Add all the ingredients to a blender or Nutri-Bullet. Fill in with ice. Whizz it up. Serve (preferably in a jam jar with a bamboo straw for true hipster vibes)

Enjoy and see you next time,

TT x