Purple Cow is a book by bestselling author and public speaker, Seth Godin. It explains how to effectively grow and market your business to become remarkable. The title comes from the fact that if you were driving down the road and saw cows, at first, they would seem interesting. However, after seeing them for an hour, they would become common and boring. However, if you saw a purple cow amongst the other ones, it would be interesting (and remarkable), at least for a short period of time. Your business should aim to be that purple cow, unique, innovative and distinguished from all the other boring businesses. This book was highly recommended by Maggie Bergeron.
Here are some key takeaways from this book that should spark your interest.
1) Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing
When developing your business, marketing should be an integral aspect from the beginning. Too often, individuals will create a product or service and then consider marketing it. However, by this time it’s far too late. Your goal should be to create a service that is amazing enough to generate attention. For example, your physiotherapy clinic can spend thousands of dollars on marketing a year with the goal of reaching as many clients as possible. While this is a viable strategy for a clinic with deep pockets, it’s a scenario that may be elusive for others, especially the clinics that are just starting out. If you focus your efforts on developing a clinic that clients enjoy coming to, then they will be far more likely to discuss their experiences and share with others. This approach has a greater chance of being effective rather than dishing out tons of money for mass advertising.
2) Break through to the mainstream by targeting a niche
If you open a new physiotherapy clinic, how much money can you spend on advertising and marketing in comparison to an established chain of physiotherapy clinics? Probably not as much as they can. Instead of opening a clinic with the goal of reaching the large market, Godin suggests focusing on a niche. Your goal should be to create a clinic that is so remarkable that the clients you treat are stunned by your performance. At first, you may be impressing only 10 or 20 clients and thinking that you are missing out on the larger market. But if you are able to dominate this small market, again, the clients that you impress will be far more likely to share their experiences with others. With a lot of effort (and maybe a little luck), you will be able to spread your success from the original niche and spread your message to the masses.
3) Don’t follow the leader
Birds fly in a formation because as the leader breaks wind resistance, the others have an easier flight. Similarly, many individuals in business who are risk averse tend to wait until an industry leader develops a breakthrough product/service and hurry to copy it. However, if you try to play it safe, Godin advises that safety is risky. He explains that if you do not lead and simply follow market trends set by industry leaders, then you will be in serious trouble when the market changes. After all, you don’t have any experience in being a leader, and you will be reacting to the trends as opposed to being proactive. In terms of physiotherapy, you should have an idea of the practices that your business or clinic uses that follows industry leaders. Then, try to develop a list of strategies you can use to stand out from the pack. You will be prepared when the market change comes and you will be a leader and not a lost follower.
This was a snippet of the three top lessons found in the book Purple Cow. We, at PT Business Corner, highly recommend giving it a read and many thanks to Maggie for suggesting it!
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