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Throw a pebble into the ocean
and what do you get? It produces ripples, correct? Would you expect those
ripples to continue to grow until they became larger and larger waves,
eventually becoming a tidal wave that toppled boats and smashed into shores
with destructive force? That would be an absurd expectation from one small
pebble tossed into the deep blue sea. Yet that is the kind of expectation that
many have of a single marketing tactic. Throw it in the marketplace and it will
produce a tidal wave of sales.
Marketing doesn’t work like
that. For marketing to be successful, it has to be consistent and persistent.
Consistency comes in the form of a well thought out and cleverly crafted plan
that includes items like a good brand, a catchy positioning statement, and a
call to action in the form of an enticing hook. Persistency is all about
frequency and using multiple mediums. When marketing is working well, the
consistent message is delivered by means of different tactical mediums. We live
in a world of new technology and it is enticing to think you can just use one
medium, like social media, and it will take care of all your marketing needs.
But the reality is, we are all surrounded by advertising all the time. You will
be buried if you just use one medium. Part of being persistent is delivering
your marketing message in many different forms.
For instance, let’s say you
were selling spicy salsa and chips. You have come up with a creative logo and
have branded your products the "Chips O’ Fire.” You have a slogan: "Are you
brave enough for this spicy salsa?” You
might have a tasting event at a local market. How would you get customers to
come to this market to try your chips and salsa? You could send out a tweet on
Twitter "Free chips & salsa at ABC Market today@areyoubraveenuf
#chipsofire.” Would that be enough to get people to your tasting event? What
other mediums might you need? Signage at the event? Definitely. What about
printed flyers and coupons, email marketing, ads in the market’s newspaper
insert? Don’t forget about a web site. That tweet needs a place to link. You
might even venture to do your own video to promote your event. To be effective
in marketing, you need multiple mediums promoting your product, all with the
same message.
Does that sound like a big
money pit to you? You are not alone. For many, they don’t look at marketing as
throwing pebbles in the ocean, it's more like hundred dollar bills! Marketing
comes with a price tag, no doubt. But you should consider two things: marketing
is an investment in your business and nothing gets sold without it. You might
want to take me to task on these statements. Let's take a look at both of them
in reverse order. First, nothing is sold without marketing. You might have
built your business on your network of customers and knocking on a lot of
doors. You may have a posse of sales reps that sell, sell, sell. You may tell
me you have never spent one dime on marketing to grow your business. I would tell you that you are marketing
whether you know it or not. Before someone ever tries your products or
services, they have to become aware of what you are selling. That awareness is
a component of marketing. After they
tried your product or service for the first time, they had to be convinced that
you were good enough to use again. That retention process is also part of
marketing. You may not have used the traditional advertising mediums, but you
have marketed your wares if you have made any sales. Take a client to lunch,
play a round of golf, talk about their needs and how your product can solve
their problems, hand them a business card, ask them to give you a try and you
are marketing. Using broader marketing mediums just allows you to reach more of
your target audience than you will be able to do one-on-one as a sales rep.
So what about the investment
part of marketing. How can you tell if you are getting any ROI for your
marketing dollars? If you are planning well, you are measuring the success of
your marketing tactics. Back to our salsa and chips event, did anyone retweet
our message? Did anyone look at our e-blast? Did anyone come to the event? How
did they hear about it? Did they recognize the brand when they got there? And
the most important question of all, did they buy our chips and salsa after they
tried it? All of those items are a measurement of how your investment is
working for you. Much like a ticker on the stock exchange will let you know how
your financial portfolio is doing, there are tools to find out just how much of
an impact your marketing is having on your customers and prospects.
Not all mediums will return the same results. Test
this out and find out what is working with your customers. Don’t be afraid to
look at mediums that are very different from each other to carry your marketing message. The
best campaigns come at their target from different angles to ensure the message
is seen often and in different ways – consistent and persistent.