What can Marie Kondo and Tidying Up Teach Us About Marketing

If you’re not familiar with Marie Kondo, she is a recently famous organizing consultant, best-selling author and star of the new Netflix series Tidying Up. Each episode of the show, Marie helps families organize and declutter their homes and their lives, leading them to a happier, less overwhelming lifestyle. So why am I telling you about Marie Kondo, and what does her show have to do with marketing? At first glance, it may seem like nothing, but let's take a deeper look.

As we all know, content still remains the reigning champ when it comes down to online success. You can have the most cutting-edge, mind-blowing website known to man, but if it’s not offering your visitors any value, they’ll leave to find another site that does. So what is your website saying? Who is it speaking to? These are a few initial questions that come first regarding website content. I see a common problem in many websites I look through, analyze and audit. It can be summed up in one word: GENERALIZATION.

It’s only natural to try and cast the widest net and try to speak to as many different users as possible. After all, you wouldn’t want to exclude a potential sale or conversion, right? After looking deeper in this philosophy, you may think differently. Every business should have a target market, or ideal set of customers. How many of these customers were lost because your content didn’t speak to them directly? Taking a general route in digital marketing may seem like a safe choice, but the unseen opportunity cost of doing so may be indirectly hurting growth potential.

When Marie Kondo works with people to help them declutter and organize their lives, she has them go through a routine. This routine consists of looking at individual items and asking if those items bring joy to the owner. If yes, the item is kept, and if no, it’s tossed. Again, what can this teach us about marketing?

When we create content, web pages, products, etc., it should be focused on our target market. The longer a website has been in existence, the more the “clutter” accumulates. Using Marie’s methodology (with a few tweaks), you can hone in on your target market, establish your brand’s position in the marketplace, and increase what matters most to your company.

Look at the pages on your website individually and the content on those pages. With your target market in mind (core customers or who you’d ideally like to do business with), ask yourself “Does this page/content bring (or have the potential to bring) value to my target customers?” If it does, great! Even if the content isn’t perfect, it can be edited later. If it doesn’t, it should probably be removed. Continue doing this for all the core pages on your site and see what you’re left with. By doing this, you’re cleansing your website pages and content that offer no value to your target audience. If it’s not going to help convert these types of visitors, why take them off of pages that will? The goal here is to focus on adding value for your target audience throughout your entire website, speaking to them the entire journey.

For example, say you are a freelance digital marketer. You know all aspects of digital marketing like SEO, PPC, social media, content creation, promotion, etc., and have a website with different service pages outlining them. Although you have all of these skills and can do them well, getting a new client solely on social media management or content promotion doesn’t bring much revenue and wouldn’t be worth your time. Why have pages offering these services? Focusing on the ideal services you offer will streamline your leads and fill your time with client work that positively impacts your business. Sure, if one of these clients also needs social media management or content promotion, it’s easy to take on. But these details can be discussed after initial contact is made. Now your not wasting your valuable time responding to, speaking with and doing work for clients that aren’t helping your business grow.

After you’ve tidied up your website, take a closer look at the content on the remaining pages. Revising it can take your focus a step further when speaking with your target audience. Research what types of solutions they’re searching for and what questions they’re asking. Don’t make the mistake of bogging down your revised website with huge blocks of long, detailed content. Stick to the important stuff that will grab the visitors attention and differentiate your company from you competitors. Now you should have a focused, streamlined funnel and lead source for your business.

Content is one of the most important pieces to digital marketing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the more, the better. Content needs to provide value to your visitors, be unique and be relevant in order to do what it’s supposed to. Sticking to this can help make the most out of your digital marketing strategy and success.