When you should market — and when marketing is a waste of time.

Knowing when to market is super simple. Ready?

1. If your company is remarkable, market immediately.
2. If your company is unremarkable, stop all marketing immediately.

Remarkable means being interesting — not to you, but to your prospects. Remarkable means being different from your competition. Remarkable means standing out. If none of these things describes your company, don’t bother wasting your money or time on marketing, because it’s not going to get you anywhere.

Every business owner thinks that his or her business is unique. That’s not always true. But every business does have the ability to do something unique. With the right perspective, some creative brainpower, and a good strategy, finding a cool hook or new way of doing things is within the reach of every company out there.

“So why don’t they all do it?”

Often, it comes down to tradition — especially in family businesses, where the owners say things like, “My father started this company by telemarketing and telemarketing alone, and by God, we’re going to stick with telemarketing!” Many business owners are unwilling to accept that new, modern-day marketing tools can create new opportunities to stand out. Cold calling someone to beg them to buy something is not so interesting. Getting thousands of people following your company online because you offered them something that no one else could is very interesting.

Fear plays a big role, too. When a business owner has always marketed by sending sales flyers in the mail, not doing that — or doing something else entirely — can be terrifying. But again: you’re not going to stand out from the competition by sending a sales flyer. Attracting bigger attention and bigger sales demands more remarkable thinking than that.

Still here? Good. Here’s your reward: a little to-do list before you go and crank up your marketing budget:

1. Get over your tradition.
2. Get over your fear.
3. Create something that people will talk about.
4. Market that thing.

“So…where do I start?”

Try this: stand in the shoes of your prospective client (actual shoes not necessary). Answer these four questions:

1. Who is your ideal customer?
2. What are the “pains” (problems/issues) that make them need your product or service?
3. How do you address those pains?
4. How can you address those pains — in a remarkable way?