Why We Use Branding To Pull, Instead Of Sales To Push

No matter how wealthy you are, we all have a fine amount of time and resources. Do you use the majority of your time to pull clients to you through branding, or by pushing your message out there through marketing efforts looking for your next sale?

Utilizing pull versus push marketing is the difference between being stuck in an endless cycle of hunting for your next customers, and knowing that you will always have a steady stream of ideal clients at your door. 

And it all comes down to where you focus your efforts.

PUSH MARKETING

You have a business and you need sales, so you make a list of potential clients and go after them. Perhaps you join a networking group where you can interact with other business owners on a regular basis. The hope is that, once they know, like and trust you, they will refer you clients. 

You might also contact people in related industries and educate them about your services in case their clients need your help. Perhaps you buy ads in a trade publication, get a booth at a trade show, or sponsor events. All of these efforts are to get your company in front of the right people.

This takes a lot of effort, and I’ve found that business owners that spend energy in these “pull” marketing strategies do it instead of investing energy building their brand’s reputation and credibility in the market. Which makes sense: when you are either out there making connections and in your office working for clients, it’s hard to find time for anything else.

PULL MARKETING THROUGH BRANDING

This strategy involves focusing your effort predominantly inward. Spend time building your skills, value and brand credibility rather than searching for the next sale. It’s a longer game, it requires discipline and sustained effort. If push marketing is the hare, pull marketing is the turtle. But when you implement this strategy, and you are highly focused on what you do best, you can actually build a reputation that pulls clients to you in a relatively short amount of time. 

That’s why focus is key: when you are laser focused on what you do and for whom, you can build skills, reputation and value at a much faster rate. There are no silver bullets in networking or branding, and they both require some up front time investment. But I’ve found the long lasting ROI from building a brand with the pull strategy is stronger and longer lasting. And the more effort you put into building your value and reputation, the faster and stronger the pull will be forever after. 

Let’s imagine two graphic designers: John and Mike. 

John is a talented, creative guys who does great work. He can design logos, websites, brochures, ads… whatever you’d like. He knows adobe creative suite really well, and he’s nice, and really pleasant to work with! Whe you meet John you think: why wouldn’t you want to hire this guy?

Like most solopreneurs John spends most of his free time networking. Remember, John is honest, likeable and good at what he does, so he gets referrals as people are happy to refer him. But at any given time the people he’s meeting are also meeting other Johns, so though he gets leads, he spends a lot of time pitching, writing proposals and trying to please his case as to why they should hire him. 

Mike is also a graphic designer, and equally talented. But a few years ago, after doing a couple of wine labels and brands, he decided to specialize in wine, and started investing his energy in building his brand. 

He loves wine brands, he loves to drink wine, he lives in wine country, and it was the perfect opportunity immerse himself in his niche. Rather than spend his time hunting for clients, he spends his time building his knowledge and skill set. He does tastings, he even takes a sommelier class. He visits vineyards and talks to wine company owners and investors. And every experience adds both to his ability to help his clients, and creates an opportunity for content. Take a photo of the wine you just tastes, make a comment about the wine label and what it’s communicating. 

Since he only works with wine brands, with each new wine client he learns something new about wine brands and the wine industry in general. 

After a few years he’s seen so many wine brands succeed and fail, he’s studied thousands of wine labels at different price points that he’s not only a great designer, he’s actually built a reputation in the wine industry. He’s not just designing based on what looks nice, he’s bringing years of experience in the business. In many respects he often knows much more about the wine business than the clients themselves.

So while Mike’s core service is in designing the brand and label of wine companies, he brings a breadth of knowledge to every project that is hard to top. His instagram feed is full of beautiful posts of delicious wines, wine labels and vineyards, with useful tips about the photo. His blog touches on all aspects of the wine industry; he shares things he learns as he continues to educate himself. Wine bottlers and wine lovers alike follow him. 

Mike doesn’t have to officially network because he’s meeting people in every activity that he does. And rather than shoving his card in people’s hands and trying to find referrals for others in hopes of reciprocity, he is cheersing fellow wine lovers and connecting on a meaningful level. When you visit his site, the experience is congruent: everything in his brand and marketing supports the fact that he is an expert in wine brands.

This is pull marketing through branding 

Mike spends time building his skills and reputation, and his ideal clients find him. He can charge more for his work because he is worth more to clients. 

If John and Mike were both up for a wine job, who do you think would get it? I bet you Mike is not only more likely to get the job, but he could charge much more and still get the job. Why? Because his brand demonstrates that he is to be trusted, and that he knows what he’s doing. 

Is focus enough to create pull marketing?

Focusing is the first step. If Mike focused his niche on wine brands but didn’t do anything else to build his skills in this niche, he would still be better off than John. When networking, at least he would have something memorable and shareable to say. 

But even so, using your valuable time to meet small groups of people is a short term strategy, one that I recommend you do only when you have clarity in your positioning to educate your network. 

If you want to pull people to you, and not get stuck in the endless cycle of hunting for clients, you need to purposely put aside time to develop a pull brand and marketing strategy. That means investing a significant amount of time into build your skills in your chosen niche, and demonstrating your knowledge to the world in a way that lasts. A meeting is a one time occurrence. An article, a photo or a video? Those last forever.

Push marketing has its place, but it is infinitely more valuable when paired with a firm foundation of pull marketing strategy. The difference between meeting a few people and telling them what you do when you have a John brand or a Mike brand is almost unquantifiable: if John meets 10 people and none of them remember what he does he might as well have stayed home. If Mike meets 10 people, the chances are much more likely that at least one of them will remember him, know someone in the wine space, love wine and follow him on social media (if only to get his wine recommendations), or all of the above.

Which would you rather be: John or Mike? Both require effort, but only one promises future value you can rely on.