Marketing observations from Barcelona
Photo by Florencia Potter on Unsplash
As you know I’m finishing up my three week stint teaching a masters’ course in digital marketing at Harbour Space University Barcelona. Gee it’s gone fast.
My international business students are from as far a field as the US, Austria, Russia, Honduras, India, Spain, Germany, China, and Mexico.
The businesses they serve are as diverse as any group of I’ve come across. It goes to support that no matter what country you are from or what business you represent, digital marketing is valuable to invest in. More on that in a sec.
One big thing I notice in Europe, and Spain in particular is that they work to live, not live to work.
They take siestas, they enjoy long leisurely meals with dinner often starting as late as 10pm, they take the time to sit down and enjoy a coffee without racing off to the next meeting.
Yet at the same time, they treat their business seriously. Many of the most world’s successful business people are from Spain!
The balance is achievable.
In our year’s of business experience, Toby and I have seen that digital marketing systems, especially those focussed on lead generation, can make all the difference. It can free up your time, your location, your lifestyle and which clients you decide to work with.
I’ve learnt a lot whilst being here.
The classroom at Harbour Space University from which I’ve been working has views of impressive yachts in the marina, the Columbus statue, the new W Hotel, and famous cathedral Sagrada Familia (Gaudi’s life’s work), as well as many other amazing attractions.
It’s a unique place to teach. I see the old and the new — it’s inspiring.
Interestingly, the Sagrada Familia began construction in 1882 according to the architect Gaudi’s design. It was his life’s work to design the cathedral. It has been under construction for 136 years and is due to finish in 2026. Despite being incomplete, it is breathtaking. It still attracts thousands of visitors every day, which helps fund its completion.
I’ve realised there are a lot of parallels to digital marketing.
Your own body of work (and ours) began years ago — obviously not 100+ years ago — but the knowledge we’ve acquired, the IP, the networks and the value we can deliver to people already exists, usually offline. And thanks to the internet, we can bring it online where everyones attention is. Plus it’s much easier to build than a cathedral.
I believe it is up to each of us as business owners, professionals, marketers and entrepreneurs to share our insights with the world via digital channels. When we publish it online it can fund our growth and fuel our freedom movIng forward — via new leads, clients and revenue.
It’s not “being all about you” — very few people would recognise a picture of Gaudi yet many millions have appreciated his work. Now our body of work doesn’t need to be as grandiose as Gaudi’s but we need to realise that what we create and put into the world can benefit people without us being there in-person because of the web.
Our knowledge and IP can be published online for people (aka future clients) to discover and be referred to. It can be designed to bring in new leads and easily strengthen relationships with existing clients and prospects.
That entire process is what I’ve been teaching my students here in Spain — from buyer personas to lead magnets to landing pages to SEO to social media , digital PR, email marketing and more.
And it’s what I can teach you too, regardless of what high-trust, relationship-based business you are in.
I’m here in Barcelona until my students graduate on 30 June (Australian time). Then I’m on a flight.
So I’ve decided to open up enrolment into my flagship online program, Double My Leads until then.
HARBOUR SPACE DIGITAL MARKETING PROGRAM
MY MARKETING METHODOLOGY
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