Marketing is really just Business Dating

Dating is like marketing. We have to take a clear approach to the strategy, and align tactics to gain the results that we want. But the recopies that some folks follow are not guarantees. Just like dating, we have to check in at different stages to make sure we’re going down the right path.

Meeting new People

That’s one of the main goals of marketing, as seen by all higher ups. And it is, it’s a major part of what we do. We have to keep getting new people shaking our hands and knocking on our doors. We have a wealth of ways we do that.

First Date

Once we meet them, we find out about them, and prequalify them into different buckets. Yes, no, maybe, and they do the same with us. (Companies, and too many marketers, forget that part, that our customers check us out then as well. It’s not just roses once they meet us!)

Second Date

The follow up. Do you call the next day, wait 3 days? What’s the rule? Do you ever? You have to follow up with new customers, and then set the next “date” or interaction, to see how they respond and to verify if you both want to continue the dance.

Third Date

This is a big one. And it’s almost never followed in businesses, and too often also messed up in real life dating. The third date is the weeder date, when you really decide if the other person or business meets your criteria, and if the customer/company is the right combination to exert more effort and resources on. Are you willing to invest in each other.

What’s your go to tactic? For me, back in the days when I was dating, it was a movie. Not just ANY movie, though. It had to be a weeder movie. One that would allow me to judge the reaction in of the other person in the larger scheme of our relationship. The other person didn’t have to LIKE the movie, but it helped. If he didn’t like it, he at least had to be amused and supportive of me liking it, and laughing at the more insane and inane parts of it. If he liked it, he had the right twisted sense of humor. If he liked that I liked it, he had at least awareness and appreciation of a twisted sense of humor. Either of those two reactions would allow for a fourth date. Anything short of that would not.

So what’s your go to tactic for marketing? Do you have one, or do you just continue the relationship just in case nothing better comes along? Is your time and effort worth that drain of resources?