What's the most important thing in marketing?

There's an old saying that goes something like this: I know half of my marketing works, I just don't know which half! 

Lots of factors contribute to the marketability of your organization and it's offerings. The problem is that you just don't know which is the most important.

Is it the ratio of members to the number of businesses? Is it a great sales team? Great business advocacy or business climate? Could it be an approachable brand or a hip logo? 

Like many of the businesses you serve, the most important thing in marketing isn't any of these things. The most important thing is not a beautiful burger; it's a hungry market. 

But hungry for what? 

Here are three steps to finding out what your market is hungry for: 

1. Schedule a meeting with a business, member or not. Ask them to tell you about their business and what keeps them up at night.

2. Take good notes one what keeps them up at night. These are the problems they are hungry to solve. 

3. Look at your program of work for the coming year and design your content and programming around these topics. 

When you know what your market is hungry for, marketing gets a lot simpler.