Get the Marketing Fundamentals Right: Tim Fitzpatrick

Better Marketing Starts with the Fundamentals

Create your marketing plan by asking the right questions

Tim Fitzpatrick is the president of Rialto Marketing. He points out that marketing doesn't need to be difficult when you create the right plan.

Episode 96 (Tim is based in Colorado)

 

In this conversation we explore:

• What are the fundamentals of marketing?
• What else should you know about your customers?
• What descriptors might you use to describe your best customers?
• How many key markets should you have?
• What questions do you need to ask of yourself?
• Why your customer needs to be the hero while you are the guide?

About Tim Fitzpatrick:

Tim has been an entrepreneur for more than 25 years. His first company grew 60% before being acquired in 2005.

Tim has been described as displaying an incredibly dry sense of humor. When you think he's serious, he might be joking.

Learn more about Tim and Rialto Marketing here.

Get your free copy of the 90-day marketing plan here.

www.GrowthMarketingPlan.com

Tim Fitzpatrick is the host of The Rialto Marketing Podcast

 

Excerpts from this conversation with Tim Ftizpatrick

02:00

I would say marketing shouldn't be difficult. All you need is the right plan.

 

02:05

The right plan? And that suggests that a people either don't have a plan yet, or for some reason they they create the wrong plan. Why does that happen?

 

02:20

I think the biggest reason that happens is just information overload.

There's the first business I was involved in you mentioned wholesale distribution company. When I was in that business, it was mid 90s.

When I got into that business, and marketing then was totally different than it is now. You know, websites were informational brochures, there was no social media, there wasn't search engines at that point. It was totally different.

Now, there's all kinds of marketing channels, you know, you you have paid online advertising, you've got email marketing, you have social, you have content, you have your website, right, the list goes on and on and on. And within those channels, there's all kinds of tactics.

And so so many people are just battling information overload. They're like, what do I do? Like, what's the next step that I need to take based on where I am? To get to where I want to go?

And there's too many choices. We're just overloaded. You know, it's like going into the grocery store, and you're at the cereal aisle, it's like, people that aren't from the US to come into the cereal aisle in the US are like, Oh, my God, what the hell? Like you have like four different kinds of Chex. What's going on?

There's too many choices. And people don't know what the next best thing is for them to focus on. That's the biggest problem.

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16:10

Sounds sounds like an ideal working relationship working with people you like to work with, and profitable at the same time, I can't think of a better combination. And and I imagine that those ideal people, we probably are, we probably need to be having more conversations with them to dig deeper into what's motivating them, we probably need to be coming up with more questions. And if there's a question or two that, that you know that we might go out to those ideal customers, if we could have coffee with them or, or lunch with them or breakfast, or just sit down at a and just ask them one or two, three questions, what would be those kinds of questions that would help us better understand them and better serve them?

 

16:57

Yeah. So I love this question. And this leads right into, you have the your intended message podcast here. That's what we're moving into.

As you interview clients, you cannot create messaging that is going to gain your audience's attention and interest until you understand them completely.

You need to be able to enter the conversation they're having in their head as it relates to what you do. And we need to speak in their language, not our own. And the only way we can do that is by doing research.

And the easiest place to start is exactly what you just said, we always recommend people interview their existing and past customers.

Once you know who those ideal clients are, then you can reach out to him. Say, Hey, you know, as a current or past customer, we we value your opinion, you know, we would love to just chat with you and ask you a little bit more about your what your experience has been with us.

Would you be willing to take 10 or 15 minutes? Awesome, great, cool. So when you sit down and have that conversation, there's a lot of different questions you can ask. But they're all they all need to fall in this realm.

One, when when you started looking for companies like ours, what was the problem that you had that you needed to solve? How, how? How had you tried to solve that problem? In the past? And it didn't work? How is it making you feel?

How did you find us? Why did you choose us? What about us? versus our competitors? Made you choose us? In working with us? What's been the biggest benefit or result that you've gained in working with us? You know, why do you love working with us? And in some of these, we need to dig deeper.

Like, you know, somebody says, Well, gosh, you have great customer service. Well, awesome. Anybody can say that. Who cares? Right? So when they say, Well, you have great customer service. Hey, can you? Thank you?

Can you give me a time or two that we were we showed that great customer service? Like what did that? What happened that made you feel that way?

So sometimes we need to dig below the surface, because what we really want to get to is, you know, the results that they're looking for, right? Or the results that we've given them, their surface level results, right? Oh, well, we help them generate more leads. So they grew their business. Why was that important?

We want to get to the stuff that's at the heart of them. Because when we can dig below the surface, it's those things that are really going to hit on, you know, so it's like, do we help them spend be able to spend more time with our family, right?

You know, a lot of people talk about helping people make more money well, great. but it's not it's not about the money. It's about what the money can do for them. So what is it that that money can do for them that they're looking for? We want to understand that. Because when we can talk about those things, that's what's really going to hit them emotionally and get them to entice them to take that next step. So it's questions like that.

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Your Intended Message is the podcast about how you can boost your career and business success by honing your communication skills. We’ll examine the aspects of how we communicate one-to-one, one to few and one to many – plus that important conversation, one to self.

In these interviews we will explore presentation skills, public speaking, conversation, persuasion, negotiation, sales conversations, marketing, team meetings, social media, branding, self talk and more.

 

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