Who’s listening
I had the fortunate
experience to spend the two weeks before, and including the day of, the
Superbowl in Europe (or unfortunate experience if football is your life). This
means I missed ALL of the pre-game hype.
In Prague there was nary a
mention of the game. In London there were brief mentions and the highlights made
the Monday morning news. Hockey and soccer filled the sports pages.
All the hype, advertising or
money available wouldn’t do any good trying to reach me where I was. Often we
do the same in our businesses. We throw money and effort at the wrong audience.
Doing that is worse than doing nothing as we:
Incur an unnecessary
cost
Waste time
Build expectations that will be unfulfilled
Some
of the basics of any marketing plan include:
Send
it to the right audience
Know
what to expect
Be
able to measure the results
To
be successful with all the above, and more, means do your research
Today it is easier than
ever, thanks to computers, to target your customers and potential customers. For
some businesses, everyone is their customer. This requires a different strategy
compared to the company who knows exactly who their customer is or their
geographic area for “everyone” is tight.
Given the focus of the vast
majority of the readers of this newsletter, let’s concentrate on the scenario
where you know who or where your customer is. Start by taking the time to create
this definition. This will allow you to customize a marketing plan. Then
customize your message to various segments of your customer base. This is
important because it’s from six to ten times more expensive to find a new
customer than to do more business with an existing customer.
With a decent database,
e-mail, websites and the ability to customize, there is no reason not to make
your customers feel special. Here’s an example. Let’s say you sell widgets
(or the servicing of widgets) to 10 different industries.
Use a database to sort
your prospects and customers into 10 groups.
Then design industry
specific messages for each industry (this could mean that 90% of the message
is the same but the other 10% is something specific).
Whether you use the
mail, the telephone, fax, e-mail or your website (or all of these), send
customers a consistent message and emphasize the value you provide to their
set of circumstances.
Do this regularly.
Hone in on their problem
and your solution.
Keep excellent records and
statistics. This will allow you to make your future marketing even more
effective. If you have salespeople who supplement your marketing, make sure they
know what’s going on, what message is being sent and to whom.
Above all, know who’s
listening.
© John Martinka 2002. All rights reserved.