As children, we learn fundamental skills that we took with us into adulthood in more complex forms. Parents and teachers showed us that we need to share, be patient and wait for our turn, among other lessons. Some of the lessons we learned as young children can help us in the world of marketing. Read on for ten skills you picked up in kindergarten that will help you to promote your business now.
Keep Learning New Information
As a child, you were constantly learning new facts and information. As an adult, you should commit yourself to be a lifelong learner. No matter what business you are in, new technology will spring up frequently. You should be informed and understand how each innovation can help you.
Business owners who keep up with trends and use them as keywords and hashtags are simply more relevant to their consumers. While you may not have to explain the water cycle anymore, you do need to know what trends are popping up in your field of expertise.
Develop Empathy
Kindergartners are frequently confronted with people and experiences completely different from their own. After conversation and spending time with them, surprise turns into understanding. As a business owner, you need to show the same understanding to your customers, co-workers and business partners.
Empathy is vital for your team because it promotes camaraderie and shows your employees that you truly care about the concerns they bring to meetings. Likewise, your customers will trust you more if you can prove that you are trying to understand their point of view.
Keep in mind the reasons for the personalities your clients portray. Especially if you are providing a vital service, they may enter your door frustrated because they have been burned by other companies or attempted to solve their problems without outside help. An understanding ear may go much further than a firm hand.
Have Patience
Children have to learn patience quickly, especially in a large group where the teacher must accommodate many students at one time. You may not have to wait for your turn to speak anymore, but you do need to wait before casting judgment and understand that some plans take time.
For example, you cannot expect a new marketing campaign to be immediately effective. You may need to wait several months before seeing the fruits of your labor and careful planning. Although you will be playing the long game, your customer reach will eventually grow exponentially with the right plan in place.
Also, you may need to have patience with specific customers, along with empathy. Some people are so fed up with their past treatment that they will rant, fuss or appear extremely distressed. You need to have the level head in this situation so that you can figure out if your customer will calm down with time or need to be escorted away.
Ask for Help
You don’t have to raise your hand to be called on anymore, but you do need to know when to ask for help. If you are facing issues with marketing even after careful planning and SEO work, do not hesitate to contact a professional.
We all have our own strengths, and some people are more adept at creating graphics, writing copy or generating viral ad campaigns than others. Professional marketers have years of experience that they are more than happy to put to use for you, so consult them in areas where you need a little help.
Learn From Your Mistakes
When you were little, you made small mistakes. Errors made by adults tend to be much bigger. Perhaps you code your website incorrectly, and it crashes on the day of a huge product launch. Maybe your team does not meet the marketing goals you set up for the previous month.
When these errors happen, do not let your frustration overwhelm you. Think about why the mistake occurred, decide how you can avoid the issue in the future and, most importantly, be transparent and own up to the mistake. Customer goodwill can be preserved or regained with honesty and a clear apology containing an actionable plan for future conduct.
Develop Accountability
It was hard to own up when you broke your classmate’s favorite toy as a kid. It is even harder, though, to admit wrongdoing when you are an entrepreneur, small business owner or member of a large company.
Apologies and apologizing correctly are vital for the success of your business, though. “We are sorry that you felt upset” is much different than “we are sorry that our actions made you upset.” Wording and intent are everything, whether yours is a public-facing apology or discussion with a single customer.
It is tough to acknowledge when you have messed up as a business owner, but you must do so. Remember that telling the truth about the incident and providing a genuine apology is incredibly important. Otherwise, your “sorry” will ring hollow, and you will risk losing sales.
Take Part in Show and Tell
Your current product or service is much more interesting than the shiny rock you once found by the lake and brought to class. Share it far and wide! Tell your potential customers why your item is so much better than the items other businesses have on offer. What makes yours unique or of better quality?
Enthusiasm breeds more enthusiasm, so do not be afraid to hype up your hard work. Spotlight the parts that interest you the most, as people can tell when you are genuinely interested in and excited about your creations.
Provide Anecdotes
Providing anecdotes is similar to show and tell, but a little more nuanced. Once school resumed for the year, your teacher used to encourage you to share stories about what happened to you that summer. You should continue sharing stories now in the form of reviews, fascinating copy or anecdotes of your personal experience.
Of these, positive reviews are possibly the most critical to highlight, so readers can hear from someone other than you about the features that make your work exceptional. Still, make sure your product descriptions are compelling and your services are interesting based on the words you choose.
If you have a new idea or perhaps a story from your childhood to share, tie it into information about your business and put it on a blog or other form of social media. Doing so will help boost your product and let your customers get to know you at the same time.
Make a Plan and Improvise
Kindergartners often start projects that do not end up the way they originally envisioned them or are otherwise confusing to their parents and teachers. When faced with this situation, they must explain that the green blob in the sky is, in fact, a cloud, or that the sign they made actually says “Happy Birthday,” but some of the letters wouldn’t fit.
You will still have plans that may not come together with the way you had planned. You need to keep on going instead of giving up. If your marketing gimmick is too confusing, you may have some further explaining to do for your team or clients. Do not let yourself become discouraged, and get ready to improvise so that you can spin the situation into your favor.
Work Together
When you were a child, working together meant sharing and waiting your turn. Now, it means collaborating with other small businesses in your area. This could be co-hosting a fundraiser and boosting sales for both of you. It can also mean delegating duties to employees so that one person does not feel strained past their limits.
Think about how you can work together with your customers. If a person comes in frustrated, remember your skills of patience and empathy and prepare to add one more. Consider the interaction as teamwork. Think about how you can puzzle out a solution that effectively meets your customer’s needs. Avoid thinking of yourself as a business at odds with an angry person and think of yourselves as business partners working to achieve a common goal, and you will be able to better smooth over the situation.
Although you developed these skills as a kindergartner, you must improve on them as a business owner. Remember to be constantly learning, practicing empathy, patience and teamwork and asking for help when you need it.
Plan ahead, but prepare to improvise, acknowledge, own up to and move past the mistakes you make. Finally, show off your product and be as strong of a storyteller as you are a creator. With these skills at your disposal, your marketing strategy will generate incredible results.
For more information about how to apply the skills you learned in kindergarten to your marketing plan, contact Business Marketing Engine today.
