We all know the saying, you can't see the forest for the trees. That adage applies to your marketing strategy. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the micro details, the bigger picture gets lost. Stripping down your marketing plan to its basics can help you see what's working, and where you're going wrong.
WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?
The single biggest mistake made by businesses in regards to their marketing strategy is marketing to themselves. Marketing is all about having a conversation with prospective customers. Look at it like a dinner party—if you're the person who spends the evening talking about what you like, what you're comfortable with, and what appeals to you, you will lose your audience. Who is your customer? Are there new customers out there you're not hitting? What do they want to talk about?
IT TAKES MONEY AND TIME
No matter what you do in regards to marketing, you will be spending money. Often lots of money. A large percentage of what you spend won't have a direct cost-value relationship. Brand building, the type of marketing that gets your name in front of your potential customers without selling a particular product or service, is long-term. You didn't build your reputation with your current customers overnight. You won't do it with new customers in that timeframe, either. This is called "top-of-mind recognition". You need to be the first company your potential customer thinks of. Brand building is measured in months and years. Targeted marketing, things like sales or events or promotions, have a more immediate return. Keep in mind, however, that a sale involves a loss-leader product or service. An event involves expenses you might not foresee. All businesses, markets and strategies are unique—however, a good ratio of branding versus targeted marketing is 5:1. You want to build your reputation at least 5 times more often than you want to have a sale.
WHAT ELSE DOES YOUR CUSTOMER DO?
Knowing your customer, and your prospective customer, allows you to speak to them on their terms, and in the places where they are. Things like social media, television, radio, movie theater advertising, gas station pump advertising, newspaper, magazine, bus sign advertising, etc., all have value only if your customer sees them. What does a typical day look like for your customer? A typical month? What are their habits? We paint with a broad brush in marketing. Each element of your strategy should work together. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, unless your customer dictates that. Follow your customer and you can't go wrong.
HAVE A ROAD MAP
If you don't know where you're going, you can't get there. If your goal is to increase sales of Product X by Y%, simply blasting your message out to the world without a plan and without measurable metrics is a waste of your time and money. Set your goals and build a map to get there.
STAY THE COURSE
When you've developed your plan, stick to it. Review it regularly, make necessary course changes, but don't scrap it without good reason. An effective, well-developed strategic plan will be a combination of quality customer intel and solid market knowledge. Make media buys that work for you and your customer, not what works for the media company. Newspaper advertising is ideal for certain demographics, a waste of money for others. The same goes for television, radio, and all other venues. If you've done your homework, your customer will tell you where to advertise.
Marketing is a marriage between the science nerd and the trendy art student. Understanding the strategy behind it, and building the creative element to support that strategy, will help your company grow.
Marketing your business comes down to a single question - what does your customer need you to do? Award winning marketing and design expert Jeff Rosenplot offers practical, in-the-trenches advice for businesses of any size, and budgets to match.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Get A Second Opinion
When you get a diagnosis from a physician, it's always a good idea to get a second opinion. The same holds true for your business. In the vernacular of marketing, we call this a "marketing assessment".
A marketing assessment is a detailed report from an outside source looking in on your business. Think of it as an impartial opinion on what your business is doing right, doing wrong, and areas where you can improve. This blog's purpose is to help business owners see their business from their customer's perspective. A marketing assessment does the same thing.
Let's face it—you're too close to your business to give it an objective review. You know how things are supposed to work, and, being human, you have a blind spot to failings. Consequently, you can be hyper-critical of things that have little or no bearing on your overall success. You're in business for a reason. Your product or service is unique, desirable and appealing. If not, the free market would have taken care of closing your business already. The fact that you're still in business even after terrific struggles is testament to your success. But you can do better. Billy Joel said that sometimes just surviving is a noble fight, but you're probably not interested in just surviving.
A marketing assessment is akin to planning a trip. You have a destination in mind—perhaps a sales goal, perhaps a new product or service launch—but without a plan to promote it, you're heading out on the road with no direction. A marketing assessment is a little different than a true market assessment, although a complete marketing assessment will include information about the market at large and your place in it. A marketing assessment addresses how your business currently operates and how it's perceived from a customer's point of view. After all, isn't that the most important perspective?
Here are the things to look for in a useful marketing assessment:
1. CURRENT CLIMATE. What is the position of your business in your market? What is your current client base? Who is your competition? What marketing initiatives have you undertaken in the past 6 months? What has been the success of each? Where do you stand in sales volume from comparable months, either the previous year or previous months? What are your best selling products? Lowest selling products? What does your web traffic look like? Do you regularly have repeat customers?
2. LOW-HANGING FRUIT. What are the top ten things your business isn't doing that it should be doing right now? What items have the lowest outlay of funds or time, with the highest potential return? How's your infrastructure? Are there any long-term investments you haven't made that can be made? Are there issues with order placement or fulfillment that need to be addressed? Are there quality control issues? Is your business operating past its capacity? Do you have personnel issues? Are there too many decision makers, or too few?
3. SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS. With infrastructure, personnel, capacity, quality and low-hanging fruit addressed, what are the top ten things your business can do in the short-term to increase traffic? What is a reasonable traffic increase to expect, and how do you measure it? What are the best venues (traditional and non-traditional) to get your message out? Is your business prepared to handle a sudden increase? Does your current brand effectively tell your story? Is your brand too broad or too narrow? Are there any potential customers to whom you're not speaking?
4. LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS. Does your marketing strategy allow for new products or services to be added on a modular basis? Does your brand have staying power or is it transitory? How will you handle new competition, both locally and on the web? How well will your business handle another downturn in the economy? Or an upswing? What is your long-term marketing strategy? How will you continue to build your brand?
Each of these questions are tip-of-the-iceberg things. A marketing assessment will address each of these impartially and with market knowledge. This is certainly not a DIY project. It's important to get an outside opinion, and to listen to it.
A marketing assessment is a detailed report from an outside source looking in on your business. Think of it as an impartial opinion on what your business is doing right, doing wrong, and areas where you can improve. This blog's purpose is to help business owners see their business from their customer's perspective. A marketing assessment does the same thing.
Let's face it—you're too close to your business to give it an objective review. You know how things are supposed to work, and, being human, you have a blind spot to failings. Consequently, you can be hyper-critical of things that have little or no bearing on your overall success. You're in business for a reason. Your product or service is unique, desirable and appealing. If not, the free market would have taken care of closing your business already. The fact that you're still in business even after terrific struggles is testament to your success. But you can do better. Billy Joel said that sometimes just surviving is a noble fight, but you're probably not interested in just surviving.
A marketing assessment is akin to planning a trip. You have a destination in mind—perhaps a sales goal, perhaps a new product or service launch—but without a plan to promote it, you're heading out on the road with no direction. A marketing assessment is a little different than a true market assessment, although a complete marketing assessment will include information about the market at large and your place in it. A marketing assessment addresses how your business currently operates and how it's perceived from a customer's point of view. After all, isn't that the most important perspective?
Here are the things to look for in a useful marketing assessment:
1. CURRENT CLIMATE. What is the position of your business in your market? What is your current client base? Who is your competition? What marketing initiatives have you undertaken in the past 6 months? What has been the success of each? Where do you stand in sales volume from comparable months, either the previous year or previous months? What are your best selling products? Lowest selling products? What does your web traffic look like? Do you regularly have repeat customers?
2. LOW-HANGING FRUIT. What are the top ten things your business isn't doing that it should be doing right now? What items have the lowest outlay of funds or time, with the highest potential return? How's your infrastructure? Are there any long-term investments you haven't made that can be made? Are there issues with order placement or fulfillment that need to be addressed? Are there quality control issues? Is your business operating past its capacity? Do you have personnel issues? Are there too many decision makers, or too few?
3. SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS. With infrastructure, personnel, capacity, quality and low-hanging fruit addressed, what are the top ten things your business can do in the short-term to increase traffic? What is a reasonable traffic increase to expect, and how do you measure it? What are the best venues (traditional and non-traditional) to get your message out? Is your business prepared to handle a sudden increase? Does your current brand effectively tell your story? Is your brand too broad or too narrow? Are there any potential customers to whom you're not speaking?
4. LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS. Does your marketing strategy allow for new products or services to be added on a modular basis? Does your brand have staying power or is it transitory? How will you handle new competition, both locally and on the web? How well will your business handle another downturn in the economy? Or an upswing? What is your long-term marketing strategy? How will you continue to build your brand?
Each of these questions are tip-of-the-iceberg things. A marketing assessment will address each of these impartially and with market knowledge. This is certainly not a DIY project. It's important to get an outside opinion, and to listen to it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)