Market Development Strategy – Joe Kashurba
SUMMARY
On today’s episode, we are here with Joe Kashurba who went from building $300 websites to $30,000 websites and managing six-figure digital advertising budgets for some of the largest manufacturing and construction companies.
Joe emphasizes the need for people to realize that they are providing solutions to clients when selling digital marketing services. He encourages people to think outside their industry and start with the problems that your ideal clients have and the solutions or results they want.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Our definition of success is based on what we’ve seen in our culture, media, and people we’ve looked up into.Specialize on a specific field to be able to charge what you’re worth rather than being a generalist that competes on price.
When selling digital marketing services, think that you’re selling results and solutions to clients.
To get a sense of who your ideal client is and what your specialty is, make a list of your top five or ten favorite clients and ask yourself these questions:
- Why did they choose you instead of somebody else?
- What were they trying to accomplish when they bought the website or bought the service from you?
- Why did you like working with them?
Create an offer that’s packaged up to be what people need.
Rather than thinking about yourself as a seller of a product or service, consider what your customers need and how you can provide them that.
When you already have your package in place, focus all your attention on finding one marketing strategy that works and is predictable.
TRANSCRIPTION: MARKETING DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY – JOE KASHURBA
Luis Congdon
Hey, Thriving Launchers, are you tired of not growing your business, and making pennies but doing too much work?
On today’s episode, learn how to create focus with a market development strategy to make more money and grow your business.
Kamala Chambers
We’re sitting down with Joe Kashurba. He went from building $300 websites to $30,000 websites and managing six-figure digital agency budgets.
Luis Congdon
Hey, Thriving Launchers! Let’s bring Joseph into the show.
Joseph, are you ready to launch?
Joe Kashurba
I’m ready to launch! Let’s do it.
Luis Congdon
What do you think are some of the essential elements of your work and what market development strategy you teach people to do?
Market Development Strategy – Specialize in Something
Joe Kashurba
I think one of the biggest things is helping people to specialize and be able to charge what they’re worth, rather than being a generalist that competes on price.
Kamala Chambers
Tell us more about that market development strategy.
What does it take to specialize in something?
Joe Kashurba
I’ve worked with a lot of web designers, agency owners, and people like that. That’s an area perceived to be a lot of competition, and everybody’s selling websites or digital marketing services.
Market Development Strategy – Realize You’re Selling Solutions to Your Market
Joe Kashurba
The first thing people need to realize is that they’re in the business of solving problems and providing results for clients, and not so much in the business of websites and digital marketing.
They have to shift from thinking about themselves as “I’m selling websites” “I’m selling digital marketing” to “I’m selling results and solutions to clients.” I think that’s the first step.
Joe Kashurba
Yeah, it’s important to figure out what is the big problem that you solve. I love doing surveys for that.
I’d like to hear more about what you recommend to discover what the big problem that people need is.
Market Development Strategy – Know Who Your Ideal Market Is and What Your Specialty Is
Joe Kashurba
One of the exercises I always have people go through is to take out a piece of paper and then, make a list of your top five or ten favorite clients ever. Then, ask yourself “Why did they choose you instead of somebody else?” “What were they trying to accomplish when they bought that website, or purchased that service?” And then “Why did you like working for them?”
Just by doing that, you might be able to see some commonalities that all of your favorite clients were in this industry or had this problem or were business owners as opposed to maybe working with a marketing director.
You see the commonalities, and so from there, you can get a sense of who your ideal client is, what your specialty is, and then you can go in that direction.
Luis Congdon
Yeah, that makes sense.
A lot of people don’t have an insight into why people come to them or an idea of some of the most common aspects and elements of their favorite and best-paying clients.
What do you think is next on the market development strategy?
Joe Kashurba
Once you figured that out, you say “My specialty is helping these people with this thing; solving this problem or getting this result.” Then, what you want to do is you want to craft an offer that is exactly what those people need.
Market Development Strategy – Offer Something That’s Packaged Up
Joe Kashurba
If you’re selling websites, rather than just saying “I’m going to sell websites to this people,” think about “How could I package up an offer that’s exactly what they need?” Maybe that’s a website with digital marketing and with search engine optimization, or perhaps you throw in some other piece.
You create an offer that’s packaged up to be exactly what they need rather than just a bunch of random services that you’re offering.
Kamala Chambers
Yeah, it’s great to have something where you can sell something in tiers. That’s an excellent market development strategy.
You can give people a basic package, maybe just the website, or go to the next level where you’re packaging other elements.
Do you have any creative solutions or creative ideas on creating packages as a market development strategy?
Market Development Strategy – Start With The Problem Your Market Has And Solution They Want
Joe Kashurba
I always encourage people to think outside of their industry and start with what’s the problem that the client has, what’s the solution they want, what are the results they want. Then work back from there rather than being stuck in the thought about “I’m a web designer,” “I’m a digital marketer,” or whatever. If you do that, you can come up with some creative things.
I know someone who sells digital marketing services to plumbing companies. He was doing different advertising campaigns for them and generating calls and leads for them. What he found out was that a lot of these plumbing companies weren’t able to close the deals, and turn these leads into customers and jobs, and stuff.
He had this excellent market development strategy. He created this training piece where in addition to getting his digital marketing services; he provides them a sales script and a sales training. Now, he has this hybrid product that’s digital marketing, but then also, it’s training. It’s all rolled up into one, and it’s precisely what they need.
Market Development Strategy – Offer What Your Market Needs
Joe Kashurba
Who would choose some other digital marketing company over a packaged up offer like that that’s precisely what those plumbing companies need?
Luis Congdon
That’s cool, and I think that’s very smart, especially when we’re dealing with specific industries. We can offer different levels of education.
Just like the other day, we had a client who came through and wanted to start a podcast but said he also wanted to create a digital product. When he bought our product, he was amazed because he said, “Wow! You guys are teaching me how to start the podcast, and build that digital product, so it’s an all-in-one package.
What do you think is the most significant hurdle for people when they’re creating these kinds of packages? What do they need to consider?
Joe Kashurba
Honestly, I think where it all starts, and the biggest hurdle is it begins with the customer or the client.
Market Development Strategy – Think About Your Market Rather About Yourself
Joe Kashurba
What do they need and how can I get them that rather than thinking about yourself as a seller of whatever particular service.
So many freelancers and web designers come to me and say, “To whom am I going to sell websites?” or “To whom am I going to sell SEO?”
They’re looking down wrongly in the telescope because they’re thinking about who to sell their stuff to rather than who has a need and how can I meet it. I think the key to doing it, and also the more difficult thing is to stop thinking about yourself. Switch it around and think about the client or the customer.
Kamala Chambers
That’s smart.
I like to fast forward.
Let’s say you already have all your packages in place, you know who your market is, and you have all of that dialed in, what’s the pro level tip or the secret we all need to take it to the next level?
Focus on One Market Development Strategy That Works
Joe Kashurba
Once you have that package in place, what you want to do is you want to focus all of your attention on finding one marketing strategy that works and is predictable.
Rather than doing a zillion different things like tweeting, and Instagram, and every once in awhile, you spend a couple of hundred bucks on Facebook ads, and then you stop doing that, and you’re all over the place.
You focus all of your attention on getting one marketing strategy to work. That might be direct email or a cold email. It might be Facebook ads. It might be content marketing. You focus all of your attention on one thing, keep iterating it until you get that one thing to work, and then you just scale that up.
That I think is the key.
Focus all of your attention on one marketing strategy that works, and scale it up rather than just trying to do a million different things.
Kamala Chambers
Before we go, what’s one tip that you recommend the Thriving Launchers go out and apply today?
Joe Kashurba
I think it would be those three steps.
- Who are your ideal clients?
- Come up with an offer for them.
- What is the one marketing strategy you’re going to focus all of your attention on getting that to work?
Luis Congdon
There you have it, Thriving Launchers.
Market Development Strategy – Avoid Hope Marketing
Luis Congdon
I love that last point because there’s this saying in our world sometimes that people talk about and it’s called hope marketing, where you’re just throwing a bunch of darts at a board and hoping one lands.
The problem with that is you end up doing a lot of things that don’t make sense, and you’re putting together a lot of pieces that don’t tie together. And so, they never fully come together.
Keep Your Market Development Strategy Simple
Luis Congdon
In my experience, I know I’ve been there. I’ve tried using Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, email marketing, landing pages, and podcasting. Eventually, I narrowed it down to do the podcast, send out some emails to potential clients, run some ads, and keep it simple.
Thriving Launchers, find your method or strategy. The best piece of advice I can give you that we can walk away with today is to figure out what’s working the best for you in your business, and just focus on those things. Focus on your 80/20.
Thriving Launchers, until next time, keep thriving.
