Bruce Smith
Anecdote founder
Anecdote’s `You asked we answered' series
Welcome to another installment of Anecdote’s You asked we answered series in which we tackle the questions you’d like answers to.
This week we will be answering the question ‘What marketing concept is best?’
Knowing your business needs to ‘do’ something to drive awareness and inbound enquires is one thing, working out how on earth to do it, is another.
Making sure you are getting a return on your investment is scary, especially if cash flow is tight and you’re not confident with marketing or understanding how it all works.
Luckily, we’re here to help you.
First off, as always with anything marketing, you need a deep understanding of who you are going to talk too, otherwise, the chances of success are diminished.
Your target audience
Now, don’t assume you know the ins and outs of your audiences. You could be right, but you could also be way off.
To help work it out:-
Focus on the top 2 or 3 audience groups
Define 2-3 audience groups who you believe will want the offer your business is going to make them.
Before you do this, you need to put yourself in their shoes, visualise yourself as them.
How do you want them to know?
What do you want them to know about your business when they see this piece of marketing? Write it down.
How do you want them to feel?
How do you want them to feel when they see this piece of marketing? Write it down.
What do you want them to do?
What do you want them to do when they see this piece of marketing? Write it down.
You don’t need to take all day about this, 15 minutes for each audience group. This exercise provides great insights and gives you confidence when moving on to the following steps.
Great, now you know who you are targeting and what they will be looking for.
What is the purpose of the piece of marketing
As a percentage, how does your business convert customers ?
This could be through your website, it could be over the phone or getting a meeting with a prospect.
You need to understand what the purpose of the piece of marketing is.
If you generally convert customer after having a meeting with them, focus the marketing on ‘getting that meeting’ and nothing else.
Keep the communication laser focussed on getting that meeting.
Which ever way you convert, once you know, laser-focus the marketing on that purpose only.
Define your offer
Offers are important as they spike interest and a desire to find out more. They give you a better chance of getting that meeting or form filled in on your website.
How to define an offer?
Again, step inside the mind of your defined customers. If you were them, what offer would put them in a situation where they couldn’t pass it up? Now, this is hard and will take some thinking about.
It could be offering a welcome gift, free advertising or free brake pads with any 4 new tyres, you’ll know what you can afford and feel will spike interest.
Whatever you can afford (run the numbers) make sure the offer is the most irresistible one you can come up with.
It may be useful to define 2-3 offers and test them, for example on a Facebook ad campaign.
It’s accurate and will help define a great offer and campaign that you know works. Once you know that, you can roll it out across other platforms.
Defining a great marketing concept
This is important, don’t do what everyone else does in your industry, because 80% of them are wrong in the way they market themselves. Don’t fall into that trap.
What you need to do is look at the top 3 in your marketplace, the ones who are smashing it and see how they market themselves.
What are the things they say and do in their marketing? How does it look? How does it feel? Create an inspiration mood board.
The keys to a great marketing concept
‘Wit’ plays an integral role in engaging marketing, no matter which industry your business is in.
Making people smile or laugh will make your marketing memorable. It will cut through the noise and leave a warm feeling.
How do you do that though?
A quick win on this to think about your industry norms, and play against them, or speak to them like they’re your best friend.
Keep it simple and down to earth, with a cheeky joke thrown in, people want that language over corporate drivel any day of the week.
How does the concept come to life?
This is where you need to understand your skillset.
For example, if you are sending out a sales letter, you could do it yourself but if your idea needs more creative exploration then you need to use a graphic designer.
Bedroom designers are ten a penny, providing you with pretty standard but workable solutions for a very attractive price.
Which channels should I promote my marketing concept on?
How your marketing concept comes to life depends on its purpose.
For example, if you wanted to get a meeting, sending a piece of direct mail which is too nice to throw away could be the way to go.
If you are looking for sign-ups on your website, then Google or Facebook ads would be the way to go.
Going live with it
Brilliant, we have defined our audience, check. We understand the purpose of the marketing, check. We have defined our offer, check. We have come up with a witty marketing concept, check, and know where to promote it, check.
Now, don’t fall at the final hurdle! They say, if you can’t measure it, don’t do it.
Only lazy business owners and marketers don’t set ways of measuring marketing effectiveness today.
Here’s a few examples of how to do this.
Tracking numbers
If you’re sending out a direct mail and want people to call, use a tracking number, so when they call you know for certain it came from that piece of marketing.
Facebook Pixel
If you’re running Facebook ads, make sure you have the pixel set up on your website. That way you know when and where leads interact with your website.
CRM systems
A data list is a completely different topic but having a great CRM system is important when people fill in forms on your website. It will notify you and create a listing within your CRM system.
Woo, that’s a lot to take in. How does this feel to you?
Even if you’re a marketing novice, you now have a process to work through!
We hope this article, as with all our articles provides real, practical value for you.
We want your feedback, so please let us know how we can improve the way we communicate to you. And let us know how you get on!
We’ll see you next time for another instalment of Anecdote’s You asked, we answered series.
