How can you effectively leverage diverse perspectives for a more effective marketing strategy?

Marketing thrives on genuine connections and diverse perspectives. To leverage this diversity, don't just listen—seek to understand. Embrace the outliers, the disagreements, the 'not normal' because that's where your best work is hiding. Market like a chef, mixing unexpected flavors to create something remarkable, not like a pharmacist, repeating the same formula. Remember, your audience is diverse. Your team should be too. Invite all to the table. Diversity in voices leads to authenticity in marketing strategies and authenticity is the most effective marketing of all.

When you’re dealing with products and brands that deal with the longtail and high volumes of transactions and customers, mapping customer personas to better understand what drives ppl and what their specific needs wants and attributes are is critical. I always say that all decisions should be informed by listening to clients. There have been countless times where I’ve asked “why is this decision being made?” And someone internally who is not a customer thought it was a good idea. Listen to your audience and use that to inform your roadmap.

Always start with the customer or audience. Being customer-centric should be the most important mantra of all, unfortunately we forget about it too many times. Apply DETLE: *Deeply understanding your audience. *Embrace audience diversity. *Talk to as many customers as possible. *Look at your customer behavior data. *Ensure relevance, resonance, and inclusivity. PS.: I just made up DETLE because it sounds fancy. Maybe I deserve a Thumbs-up for my creativity? ;-)

Here are three approaches on how to find inspiration. 1) Same customers, similar/same product. Look at your competitor and how they approach the market and your customers. 2) Same customers, different product. Look at companies, who are not competitors but who also reach out to your customers. 3) Different customers, different products. Look for companies and industries who have nothing to do with yours and get inspiration by their marketing activities. I am not a fan of option number 1, thus avoid to be just a cheap copy cat. Whereas option number 3 is a very fascinating one. Listen to success stories at open events or meetups and apply transfer learning. Look from different angles at their approach and learn from it.

Not everything needs to be branded under your own brand identity. Consider supporting ('powered by') other platforms so a broad range of stakeholders can be part of the same conversation. This can be more authentic and impactful - and still you can put forward your key messages.

Diversity in thought and perspectives always leads to more innovation and uncovering ideas that may not have been realized otherwise or even identifying pitfalls that may not have been seen. Look at any major study - the numbers don’t lie. Diversity in hiring and in thought leads to better business outcomes. It’s easy to gravitate towards thoughts like your own, but surrounding yourself by only those who think like you is a grave mistake.