By Sweta Patel

Marketing trends are moving faster than ever with the evolution of many different analytic and metric measuring tools. Last weekend I attended Mario Brown’s Mastery Event in San Diego. Mario Brown is San Diego’s best-kept secret when it comes to marketing (and I don’t say that about many people). What made this marketing event better than the others? I would have to say it was the impactful authenticity, the results-driven information, and the connection. My favorite part was about taking imperfect action. There are just too many gurus, experts and trainers out there who stuff us with information, but leave us asking, “great information but where are the results?”

So here are are four things you need to keep in mind when marketing this year:

Customer Avatar and Your Niche

It’s all about picking one problem, one target audience and one promise. When creating a specific avatar for your niche market, you have to keep the following in mind:

• Demographics: Which areas are you targeting? What types of people exist in those areas?
• Fears: What are the current fears of this person? What’s keeping them awake at night? What do they secretly desire most?
• Identity: Who are they? What is their personality? What are their hobbies? What do they stay away from? What’s their age? What’s their gender?
  • Are they the steady type? (nurse, elementary school teacher, manufacturing employee)
  • Are they compliant and skeptical of just about everything? (i.e. doctor, engineer, accountant)
  • Are they the dominant type? (trial attorney, CEO)
  • Are they the influence type? (advertising, public relations, community affairs)
  •  Are they a combination of any of these? (dominant + influence = commission sales, dominant +compliant = surgeons and emergency-room doctors)
• What is the size of your market? Who are your biggest competitors in this market?
• What are their unmet needs?
• What will it take them to go from their sad state right now to a happy state? List the steps.
• Before your product/service came along, how did they feel? How do they feel after using it?
• What are their frustrations?
• What are their biggest aspirations?

Best Practice: Try to list three for each of these and then create a matrix to find out where you are positioned in terms of your market and your competitors. It is best to create a persona or an individual who best relates to your target market. I suggest you take the time to draw out the actual resemblance of the customer.

Informational Products

The latest digital marketing trend is informational products. How many people have created courses this year alone? I’m thinking just a little more than the number of children in London. What’s all the hype about informational products anyway? And why are they so hot right now? Most of us desire to be seen as important people to the people who are close to us. In order to appear that way we have to have “credibility.” This credibility comes in the form of degrees, certificates, membership sites and books. When someone creates a knowledge base of resources for others to use and borrow they reach the “expert” level in their field. Here’s a checklist if you are interested in creating a membership site:

• Create a title for the course
• What are the titles of the six modules in the course?
• What are the six sub-categories of these modules? What does each module include?
• Who is the course for?
• What is the guarantee and what is the promise?
• What is the end-result of taking the course? Where does the person see himself or herself after finishing your course?
• What’s the price of the course?

Best Practice: Courses take a lot of time and tenacity to develop. From experience, I felt my courses sold best when I priced them in a bundle for one small price a month rather than charging separately for them. Use ValueAddon.com to create your membership site at an affordable price.

Authentic Authority

In order to become the expert of your field, people need to know what your knowledge base is made of. A book can easily make you the expert in your industry. The best part of writing a book is that it does not have to be all your own knowledge. You can feature other influencers and encourage them to write small pieces of your book. This will stimulate them to share the book with their network. For example, Think and Grow Rich for Women does a phenomenal job of leveraging other audiences and networks to create one phenomenal book. This will allow you to make more sales, establish respect, and attract more referrals. Here are some tips:

• Include evergreen case studies and focus on specific topics related to your expertise.
• Tie your book to a cause and instantly make it powerful.
• Apply for industry awards that are related to your book.

Best Practice: Find out what your ultimate target audience is looking for and write a book about it. What are their biggest challenges and how can you make their life ten times better with your book in their hands? For example, my book Watch Out Ladies was written for the young woman who was tired of the games, heartbreak and relationship trauma. How many of you know of women who deal with these issues? This is exactly why you want to get to know your market first.

Live Events

Are you tired of events where you meet people and never really have a pertinent reason to follow up with them? Join the club! This year it is all about events where we are able to co-create and really help our audiences find value not only in the event itself but also from others who attend the event. If you decide to create a live event, here is what you should keep in mind:

• Who are you inviting and how will the attendees complement each other?
• Which resources are you providing to the attendees and how will they be able to use them?
• What are the five biggest takeaways from your event?
• What type of swag will they receive from you? How will you make this an unforgettable event?
• How will you connect the attendees with the other attendees to make sure everyone received the most value from their networking?

Best Practice: After you connect all the attendees, then follow up with them. Ask them how you can help them and what their current problems are. Then look through your list and give them the best resources and make the introduction.

Thanks for an unforgettable event, Mario. Did I miss any of the latest digital trends? Please comment below!

Sweta Patel is a San Diego-based marketing entrepreneur whose company is Global Marketing Tactics.

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