081 Ann Handley | How to Create Great Marketing Messages that Resonate
b"If you\\u2019re a company with a great product or service, marketing is critical to your business growth \\u2013 both online and off. In fact, creating great marketing can be the difference between booming sales and flailing sales.\\n\\nBut great marketing doesn\\u2019t happen in a vacuum or the confines of a boardroom. Great marketing is created when organizations takes risks. When they\\u2019re creative. When they\\u2019re obsessed with their customers.\\n\\nMy guest on today\\u2019s episode of the Grow My Revenue Business Cast is marketing and branding expert Ann Handley. Ann is the Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs, an online education resource for modern marketers, and the author of the Wall Street Journal best-seller Everybody Writes.\\n\\nToday, we cover the common mistakes businesses make when coming up with their marketing strategies, why \\u2018going viral\\u2019 is not recommended, and how developing a 'pathological empathy' for your customers is the number one thing that will move the needle in your marketing. I know you're going to love this talk, and you're going to learn a ton on today's edition of Grow My Revenue!\\n\\nListen to this episode and discover:\\n\\n\\xb7 The common mistakes companies make when developing marketing content.\\n\\xb7 Why innovation and creativity are the foundation of great marketing.\\n\\xb7 Why \\u2018going viral\\u2019 should never be a company\\u2019s aim.\\n\\xb7 How Ann defines great marketing.\\n\\xb7 Why developing \\u2018pathological empathy\\u2019 for your customer is vital.\\n\\xb7 What companies can do to create rich, meaningful marketing messages that resonate.\\n\\xb7 And so much more!\\n\\nEpisode Overview\\n\\nAs an expert and self-described marketing geek, Ann Handley understands the value of marketing in a way most business leaders don\\u2019t. While most follow cookie-cutter approaches to marketing, Ann champions an approach centered on innovation and creativity. \\n\\n\\u201cThe willingness to take some risks in your marketing I think is also key,\\u201d Ann says. \\u201cAnd inherent in that is really knowing who your audience is, know who you\\u2019re selling to as opposed to selling to everybody.\\u201d\\n\\nThat's why she encourages business owners and marketers to be \\u201cobsessed with their customers,\\u201d or what she calls \\u2018pathological empathy.\\u2019\\n\\n\\u201cIt\\u2019s next-level empathy,\\u201d she says. \\u201cAll the companies I talk to that are actually using marketing to drive business are obsessed with their customers.\\u201d\\n\\nToday you'll learn:\\n\\n\\xb7 What marketing really is.\\n\\xb7 How templates and cookie-cutter approaches fail\\n\\xb7 Why it\\u2019s vital to know your audience.\\n\\xb7 How to create marketing that resonates.\\n\\xb7 The company that wowed Ann with its genius marketing message.\\n\\nOn this edition of Grow My Revenue, you'll hear Ann\\u2019s take on how, in many ways, marketing has changed over the years and how, in many ways, it\\u2019s remained the same.\\n\\nAlso on today's show, Ann shares an embarrassing moment from MarketingProf\\u2019s 2016 B2B Marketing Forum in Boston, now in its 11th year. Tune in for all of that and more on today's Grow My Revenue with Ann Handley.\\n\\nFor full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/ann-handley/"