4 Things to do Before Spending Money on Marketing
Marketing is not as easy as it used to be.
You use to take out an ad in the newspaper or do a leaflet drop in letterboxes in your local area. If you were a really big business, you might do some radio or TV advertising.
Your business was competing with the other local businesses in your area and you had maybe 2 or 3 competitors and if you delivered a good service and kept your customers happy you were in easy street.
Today’s marketing story is very different. You are competing against lots of other business within your area, your state your country and even overseas. Your competitors could number in the hundreds or more.
How do you make your marketing stand out from the rest in such a noisy space where many other people offer similar services to you?
1. Right Message to the Right Audience
Stop trying to be everything to everyone or you will find your message is so watered down that you will serve no one.
We have all seen ads in our Facebook feed that have stopped us.
The offer looks interesting, you click on the link and the text on the landing page seems to be speaking directly to you. Wow are they reading your mind? This is the right message to the right audience.
This is the right language to a defined audience, they are targeting you to the right audience.
When thinking of the right audience for your business, break it down even further and think of one just 1 person.
- Think of this person as your friend.
- Give them a name
- How do they talk, think, act, behave?
- What do they buy?
Get to know your ideal customer as you would if they were your friend in real life. That way you will be able to speak their language, the type of words they use, they will feel “you get them” when they see your message.
You may be thinking if you get that specific you wouldn’t be able to serve other types of customers and you will lose business. In fact, you will find the opposite is true you will gain business because other people who sit just outside your ideal customer range will also be attracted to your message and many others who might not be even close to your target audience will still resonate with your message because you are being specific.
Nike’s target audience is
- An Athlete or Sports Minded Person
- 15- 40 years old
- Traditionally Male
(however recent target switching has seen Nike pick up approx. 20% of the Women’s shoe market.)
Nike is all bout how you “FEEL” in their shoes.
They run ads and events with very emotive wording.
Nike: Run with Me, Sports Improvement Clinic
I am definitely not in Nike’s target audience however that doesn’t stop me buying their shoes and being totally happy with my purchase.
Being very specific about your targe audience allows you to speak their language and is often how tribes are built around brand, it goes back to the old fashion way of servicing your customers.
Take care of your local customs and they will reward you.
2. Stop thinking of Marketing as Selling
Think of marketing as relationship building. Stop thinking of marketing as selling, instead think of it as adding value to your customer.
Gran’s steak story.
You can’t ask for marriage without courting first.
Build a relationship, add value before asking for the sale. No one likes a used car salesman.
What problem does your customer have that you can solve?
Identify the problem.
Notice I said problem not problem”s” plural?
Deal with one problem at a time, just like helping one type of customer at a time.
Nike’s customers problem is sports shoes – beginning and end – sports shoes.
3. Relationship Building
A cakeshop solves its customer birthday cake problem.
50+ Busy Lady who doesn’t have the time, skill or knowledge to make a really special birthday cake that will impress her friends.
A cakeshop could build a relationship with their customers by talking about the 5 top flavours of cakes in the last year, season or month in its marketing. They could share ideas on birthday party decorations. Promote a balloon hire company, feature a downloadable invitation. Then show their latest Chocolate Fudge Sunday Cake which was the top seller for the last month.
They would be adding value and still letting the customer know they had cakes to buy without being pushy or salesy.
Customers – Idea customer will love to buy from you however they don’t want to be sold to. Let them make the choice to by rather than have them feel they have been pushed into a sale that might not be right for them.
Dishwasher story.
4. Marketing Your Story
Story is the latest buzz word. Instagram has storied, now Facebook and YouTube are bringing our “reels” which is its version of stories.
The origin of story is primitive however stories are still just as relevant today as you can see by the uptake on social media because stories help us remember the message.
Stories paint a picture in our minds.
Pictures tell a thousand words.
We remember pictures.
Stories touch our emotions.
Our emotional brain makes the buying decisions.
Stories are emotional and emotions sell products.
In your marketing if you can evoke an emotion then you will captivate your audience and they will remember you and be more likely to buy from you.
Beer ads do this really well.
Corona Beer’s highway billboard that has an image of a beach and a mud 20’s couple
The slogan reads –
“where you’d rather be”
It evokes – holiday, warmth, longing, youth, FOMO.
The ad says nothing about beer and flying past on the highway you probably won’t even see the beer bottles on the sand.
Remember when doing your marketing whether is the messaging on your website, traditional media, flyers, leaflets or social media
- Speak clearly to your target audience in their language
Right message, right audience
- Add Value and Solve their problem
Stop thinking of Marketing as selling
- Entertain them
Tell them a story, your brands story, an emotional story that they can buy into.
When you think of your marketing treat it like you are telling your most trusted friend about this great new product service you have found and what to let them know all about it. Building a story and keeping the interest of your customers is a great way to give information and promote without the pressures of sale pitches, it is a much softer approach and will reward you well.
Content marketing is important for your brand because it is a powerful way to create brand awareness and allow customers to engage with you. Content marketing is a solid marketing strategy that has brought success to many brands and businesses from startup to much larger companies. When done correctly, content marketing creates an ongoing benefit that can be utilised for years to come.
People will often buy products and service by brand recognition, this is why franchises work so well. Even though people may not have done business with a particular brand they will know what to expect ahead of time and that helps to reassure them. When people see that your brand has lots of content and can be found in many places online that will start to create brand awareness for you. Essentially you are letting the world know what your brand is all about and establishing an identity online. Solid brand recognition is a major factor in people’s buying decisions.
Engagement is the name of the game if no one reads or cares about your content you have probably missed the mark with your audience. When you create a successful content marketing campaign that speaks to your audience you will have an excellent engagement rate from your audience and this can then be converted into sales if your offer is what they need.
As you can see content marketing important for your brand and as your brand starts sticking in people’s minds, then it will be easier to gain their trust. You’ll find that when you have captured people’s trust, getting them to follow your content and take action to purchase becomes much easier.
Creating content is a great way to keep your website up to date and a can be a great part of your content marketing strategy. However, creating content for the sake of creating content is a waste of your time.
After you have answered all your FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) then you could do a search and see what other questions please are asking. Go to one of the many questions and answer sites on the Internet like
No one will read a boring wish washy article, you need to be firm and have an opinion. You could start by checking out the latest trends in your industry and discuss how you feel that this trend will affect your industry.
Yes, if you look after it!
Prevent Hacking
Yes.
A website has become a minimum standard for all businesses no matter the size and your customers will expect you to have one. Guess what it is almost certain that your competitors will have one and if by some odd chance that they don’t, what a perfect way to stand out from the crowd.
Let people have a good look at your products so they know that you have to offer. There are so many ways a website can reach customers that you may not normally have the opportunity to service otherwise from your physical location.
Running a successful business is not always as glamourous as we are lead to believe. You have to try and work on the business while working in the business. In the beginning, you are “ the everything” and as time goes on, you need to learn to delegate and let some of these tasks go as other team members and staff are brought into the business.
Things We Know?
Can Google find you?
In business the impression you make is everything. You only get 1 chance to make a first impression. When you get an email from your phone provider, utility providers, car dealers or any other business these emails always come from the company’s domain name, not Gmail or Yahoo.
When I was a kid we moved into a new, old home. New to us, however 50+ years old, at the end of the front verandah was a black rose. Yes black, not dark red, deep purple or any other colour but BLACK.
Are you listening to your customers?
When offering your products and services are you giving enough information so that your customer can make a choice:
What do my customers want to know?
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