I met with a very frustrated business owner recently. He was
frustrated because the marketing method he had always depended upon was not
producing the leads he once saw. "It’s like we hit some invisible wall,” he said.
His target market just isn’t responding to his marketing efforts any longer.
"What happened?” he asked me.
There are a myriad of things that could have happened. Here
are some common occurrences that could make your marketing ineffective:
- Your target market shifted their attitudes and
your brand is in the crosshairs. A recent example of this is the NFL and the
backlash over player protests during the playing of the National Anthem. The
last thing an entertainment venue like the NFL needs is a political issue that
divides their customers into two camps. Despite which side of the political
equation you draw your loyalties, the uproar over a divisive gesture has hurt
the NFL brand, with major advertisers threatening to pull their support of the
NFL and fans boycotting games.
- There are other reasons your target market has
changed their attitude of you. It could be you are facing more competition than
you once had. Competition is all about customer choices. Choice is a huge
driver in customer expectations. If you are not meeting customer expectations,
you will lose market share quickly.
- Your ineffectiveness at marketing might also be
the medium you are using. There is a shift away from traditional marketing
(print ads, direct mail, multi-media) towards electronic versions of the same
thing (e-mail marketing, texted coupons, social media advertising, etc.) Has
your medium of choice begun to dry up?
These are reasons your target market may not be responding
to you. However, more often than not, I find that the reason marketing is
ineffective has to do with misplacing marketing functions. This happens on two
levels. First, there is often an expectation that the new marketing –
especially that which we have labeled "Content Marketing” – will get the same
action from a customer that advertising does. It will not, at least not right
away. Content marketing, such as blogs, social media posts, case studies, etc.
are designed to show what you can do without the hard sell of advertising. In
the new world of marketing, everyone is looking at your web content before they
contact you. Content marketing allows them to see how your products and
services work to solve problems, what kind of company you are running, if you
value your employees and give back to the community, etc. It helps them answer
a moral question: Do I want to spend my money with this type of company or not?
The second level is a byproduct of the first. Since there is
so much emphasis on good content marketing, many marketers have forgotten how
to get someone beyond a passing glance to being interested in buying whatever
you are selling. It’s great that someone is reading your blog, but you have to
get them past your content to making a decision to make a purchase or not.
There is a tried and true method known as a call to action. It is the next step
in the process of marketing towards a sale. If you don’t transition the
prospect with a call to action, you will never earn their business.
So if you are facing the invisible marketing wall, you might
step back and examine your marketing methods. Especially note at what point you
are asking for a sale. If you are not doing this within your marketing
strategy, you have found your barrier. Fix it and you will scale the wall.