Photo source: Wikipedia, Flickr
Thanks to our friends at ZZYZX Snapjack, a cool startup that designs and sells patented professional instrument cables, we attended a wonderful charity event last night. It was NAMM’s (National Assn. of Music Merchants) 17th annual Muriel Anderson’s All Star Guitar Night. Captivating guitarists entertained us with lovely, innovative music—often sounding like there was an entire band on stage instead of a single player.
Something one of the performers said made me think of how small businesses can think about social media and marketing to their audiences (customers).
Tommy Emmanuel is a gifted performer celebrating the 50th year of doing what he loves. Along with two Grammys, in 1999, Chet Atkins honored Emmanuel with the title of “Certified Guitar Player”. (Source: Wikipedia.) Only three other people in the world share this honor for contributions made to the guitar as an instrument.
Last night Tommy Emmanuel was presented Guitar Player Magazine’s 2009 Legend Award. In his acceptance speech Emmanuel said that he always puts his audience first. That’s what entertainers do. He said when choosing songs for his audience, he has to consider one thing: will the music ‘move’ the audience? He believes, that if the music moves him, it will move the audience.
Put Your Customers First
As a small business you have an audience. Your suspects, prospects, and customers. They’re your future fans. You want every word you write and step you take to market your products to focus on your customer. To put their problems and priorities first. To educate them on how to better solve problems.
- Are you putting your audience first, or are you putting your products and services first?
- Does your web site put your customers first by answering their questions clearly?
- How do you know what’s important to your customers, right now?
- How do you use social media to listen for those (pesky) fast-changing customer needs?
We often fall into the trap of telling customers what we want them to know about our products and our company. Understandably, it’s a tough habit to break. You’ve spent blood, sweat and tears creating your products and offers.
Of course, Tommy Emmanuel has had 40+ years to listen to his audience and learn what moves them. He also says that he feels he’s just at the beginning of his career. (How cool is that?)
What are you doing to find out what moves your audience? How much do you know about your customers? Their children? How many online communities or offline places are you listening to learn about your customers?
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