Scott McKain: How to Create Distinction in Your Marketing

Do you want your business to stand out from the competition? According to Scott McKain, best-selling author and keynote speaker, the best way to attract and retain customers is to differentiate yourself from your competitors in a meaningful way. In today’s episode, Scott sits down with host Mari-Liis Vaher to discuss what it means to create distinction in your marketing.

Scott believes that marketing is all about making your business more attractive, so that your target customer chooses you over your competitors. Many business owners make the mistake of trying to be like everybody else in their field; however, what ultimately attracts customers are the things that make you unique. Scott explains that it is crucial to first cultivate your differences and then use them to your advantage in your marketing efforts. He discusses the four cornerstones of marketing and how to utilize them to grow your business.

Tune into this week’s episode of Powerful Marketing Tips to hear more about the four cornerstones of marketing. Listen to learn about the importance of standing out from the crowd and leaning into your differences.

Quotes:

“One of the worst things that we could do is to market performance that the people on the frontline can’t execute. And all of that is part of the customer experience. So we all have to work together to create this extraordinary experience that gets customers repeating and referring.” (25:15-25:38)
“One of the most important qualities is resilience. The ability that after you’ve been knocked down by whether it’s a challenge in your small business or a dwindling customer base because of a pandemic or whatever it might be. The ability and the resilience to take it to the limit one more time is a message that I still find inspiring even though it’s an old song and that still continues to encourage me every time I hear it.” (31:15-31:40)
“The success of business is based on customer choice. The customer chooses us instead of the competition. So the way that we are chosen is because of our differences, not because of our similarities. But yet, most of us in business have not really thought of that, not really analyzed that. And I realize that because I have a small business and that was my biggest mistake, my biggest problem in the early days of my small business. I thought, “If I want to be successful I have to be exactly like everybody else in my field,” which made me nothing more than at best average.” (4:53-5:34)
“I want to keep looking forward, not back. There’s a reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror in a car. You need to be looking forward, not back.” (9:59-10:07)
“Marketing to me is about how we become more attractive so that we get chosen.” (14:05-14:10)
“We always hear: “think outside the box,” but what I’ve found in my research is that a lot of that is because we haven’t really defined our box to begin with. We think we always have to think outside of it because we don’t really know what it is. And if we always have to think outside of it, shouldn't we, as my friend Steve Shapiro says, shouldn’t we get a better box?” (14:21-14:44)