## Advanced Presentation Skills Training Perth

# Most People Still Get Marketing Wrong (And l'm Getting Tired of Watching It Happen)

Had lunch with this business owner yesterday. Nice bloke. Runs a decent company. But then he starts going on about his new marketing person who's got them doing "customer journey optimization" and something about "multi-touch attribution models."

l asked him what his business actually does.

Twenty minutes later, l still didn't know.

This is the problem right there. We've made marketing so complicated that people forget the point. Which is pretty mental when you think about it.

Actually, no, that's not quite right. The problem is everyone thinks they need to sound clever.

## Why Everyone's Getting It Wrong

Here's what happens every time. Someone reads a blog post about "leveraging synergistic touchpoints" or watches a YouTube video about "conversion rate optimization best practices" and suddenly they think they need a degree in data science to tell people about their plumbing business.

Last month l sat in on this webinar. Ninety minutes. Ninety. About why you need to "segment your audience based on psychographic profiling and behavioral triggers."

You know what that actually means? Talk to different people differently.

Which is just... normal human behaviour, isn't it? But that doesn't sound fancy enough to charge £500 for a workshop. So we get all this jargon instead.

The real issue isn't that marketing is rocket science. It's that most of the training assumes you've got unlimited time and money to test seventeen different email subject lines while your rent cheque bounces.

## What Marketing Really Is

Marketing is finding people who need your thing, then explaining it without making their head hurt. End of story.

All the rest: the social media calendars that take four hours to plan, the email sequences that need a computer science degree to set up, the advertising campaigns that need you to understand pixel tracking. Those are just different ways of doing the same two things.

Somehow we convinced ourselves you can't mention your business until you master lookalike audiences and retargeting funnels. Absolute madness.

Here's what matters:
- Work out who has the problem you fix
- Explain your solution like you're talking to a human
- Do this enough that people remember you exist

Everything else is just picking which tools to use. Most of which you probably don't need anyway.

## Stop Making Simple Things Hard

You want to know something mad? The most successful small businesses l know barely do "proper" marketing. They talk to people. They show up places. They help first, sell later. Basic stuff that actually works.

Then someone tells them they need a digital strategy and suddenly they're paralysed because they don't understand conversion funnels.

Or they get convinced they need to crack Facebook ads before they're allowed to tell anyone about their business. Which is backwards, obviously. Maybe figure out what you're selling before you worry about advanced targeting options?

l know that sounds obvious. You'd be shocked how many businesses can't explain what they do without using words that make customers want a cup of tea and a nap.

## The One Question That Breaks Everything

"Why should l bother changing anything?"

Not why should l choose you over someone else. Why should l disrupt my perfectly comfortable routine to deal with you at all?

Most marketing focuses on being better than competitors. But your biggest competitor usually isn't another business. It's people being quite happy with how things are right now, thanks.

Makes sense when you think about it. Change is hassle. If you can't explain why someone should mess up their nice comfortable day to buy from you, all the marketing automation in the world won't help.

This is where it falls apart for most people actually.

## What You Really Need to Know

Forget advanced tactics for a second. This stuff will make more difference than any course:

**Know your customers like actual people.** Not buyer personas or demographic data. Real humans with real problems who make decisions for real reasons. Mad concept, l know.

**Get your message straight.** If you can't explain what you do in one sentence without buzzwords, your customers definitely can't either. They won't try.

**Pick one or two ways to reach people.** Get good at those first. l see businesses trying to be everywhere and doing nothing well. Exhausting just watching it.

**Track stuff that matters.** Not vanity numbers. How many enquiries? How many bought? What did it cost? Start there.

Though tracking is where people lose their minds again. Keep it simple first, add complexity when you're ready.

## Training That Actually Helps

Real marketing training should teach you to think, not copy templates.

Your business is different. Your customers are different. What worked for that productivity guru on Instagram probably won't work for your accounting practice.

You need to understand why marketing works, then make it fit your situation. Not steal someone else's LinkedIn strategy from a completely different industry and wonder why nothing's happening.

Good training shows you how to research your market without spending thousands on focus groups. How to test messages before you spend money on campaigns. How to tell what's working so you can do more of it.

The rest is just distraction.

## Why Most People Never Get Started

They're waiting until they understand everything. Until they've read every blog and taken every course and worked out the perfect approach.

Meanwhile their competitors are talking to customers and making money.

Marketing isn't about getting it perfect. It's about connecting with people. Can't connect if you never start the conversation.

The businesses that win with marketing aren't the ones with the cleverest strategies. They're the ones that show up, help people, and make it easy to buy what they're selling.

Start there. Work out the details as you go along.

Decent training should give you confidence to start, not more reasons to wait until you're "ready."

Works in Brisbane, works anywhere people have problems that need fixing.

Available for businesses tired of making simple things complicated.