As I watch and listen to the debate over health care, I find it interesting, and somewhat frustrating, that there are so many complaints by each party that the other party is ignoring ideas they feel strong about. I believe the general public sincerely recognizes that reform must occur, but, in a responsible way. Yet, now that the Obama administration has to basically start over, I do not hear anything fundamentally different. This tells me one of two things: 1) the goal of getting any reform is better than no reform, or, 2) someone is not listening. And so the debate, the Tea parties et al go on.
Thinking about this in marketing terms is easy. It’s like a company that shouts louder to get you to pay attention rather than changing what they are saying. I’m curious how the debate would unfold if politics were removed. My guess is that the best ideas that are heard would prevail. Now, when I think about listening in my world, I reflect on the customers I work with and companies I worked for. Same situation. Of all the companies I’ve worked with as a Marketing Consultant, none of them actually ever asked their customers for their opinion. Some did quality surveys, but, none actually did surveys to understand why customers do business with them, why they chose them in the first place, what was their criteria, what problems did they help solve or what they could do going forward to offer more value. Seems amazing to me so few seek customers input. Yet, I’m asked all the time “how can I get my message to resonate?”, “where should I invest my marketing dollars?” The answer is in your customers head. So, if you’re frustrated with new business revenue, I suggest you ask your customers several thoughtful questions to gain the insight you need to understand why they do business with you and how better serve them. Otherwise, you’re guessing and speculating - very expensive.
I’m curious what others think. How do you listen to your marketplace? How do you know where to invest? You’re comments and thoughts are welcome!
At a recent Interactive Marketing Summit conference held in St. Louis, I attended a session on SEO. Of the many topics discussed, one of the basics is the Page Title of any web page. The presenters stressed the importance of having unique Page Titles for each page on the site and that the title contain key words - not the company name - although the company name could be included at the end of the Page Title. This is important because search engine robots read and index, at least in part, web pages starting with the Page Title and they look for key words or relevant terms. Company names are not generally searched by people. So, if the Page Title begins with the company name, it will not index well. Again, this is basic but, it triggered a thought.
If you pick up any paper or directory (Yellow Pages) you’ll find that most ads will have the company name in a prominent position at the top of the ad. In fact, many ads devote 20% to 30% of the space of the ad to the company name. This is a mistake, just like having the company name dominate the Page Title of a web page. People searching for anything generally will search based on specific context, such as “interactive marketing” or, “Plumbers” (just for fun, look up “Plumbers” in the Yellow Pages - you’ll see mean about company name dominating).
The lesson here is whether you’re promoting your business online or offline, or both, begin the ad (or web page) with something relevant to the reader. And, the more relevance to the emotions of the reader, the more likely you’ll grab their attention. After all, if you don’t grab their attention at the beginning, you’ll likely never get them to read the rest of the ad. This could waste a lot of money. This concept applies to most all marketing material -not just ads.
Then, once you get their attention, then…well… maybe that’s a subject of another article.
Life used to be so easy. But, as they say, change is the one constant. The marketing world, too, continues to evolve. It use to be easy to promote your business. You basically had radio, TV and print options. Even the web has changed… Web 2.0 is creating a completely new culture - world wide! Folks no longer rely on (much less trust) traditional news sources; they are making a major shift to get information of all types on their computers and on their smart phones. Just as I’m writing on this blog, millions of people are doing the same or engaging in some form of online activity. I know in my circles (middle-age) many are scratching their heads about social media - they are, I’ll say, intimidated. Some feel it’s a fad, some are diving in and others are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what develops. Well, in my opinion, it aint goin’ away - it’s not a fad. The technology today will, of course, evolve, but, the new culture of how people communicate and the new online communities that are being created will continue to grow and mature.
What’s most interesting tot me is how marketing now has to be interactive. It can no longer be an “outbound” set of tactics. It’s now a mix of outbound and inbound marketing tactics. In fact, I believe inbound marketing is where businesses must focus serious attention. Hubspot is an excellent source for information and on inbound marketing - in fact, they have an Inbound Marketing University!
If a business does not get “in the path” of the communications, doesn’t participate online, they will be invisible. Best practices today involve putting information online, driving people to it using traditional (outbound) tactics, attracting people already online, creating interest and dialogue. When this occurs, and assuming the information is valuable or interesting, the business will be sought after - creating an inbound flow of traffic. This is why Google places so much emphasis on the value of external links - the more referring links a site has, the more implication the site truly is a credible resource. Once a business gets inbound, then the follow up and ongoing engagement becomes key. But, this is a subject for another post (and prior posts). I’ll end this with a question: what is your inbound marketing strategy?
Over the last few years, technology has brought us new tools to use for improving sales & marketing activities. One in particular is Marketing Automation (MA for short). MA helps companies implement repeatable processes associated with nurturing leads of prospective and existing customers. This new technology has given birth to a new process termed “Demand Generation”. A recent white paper I read defined Demand Generation as: ‘The process of creating and nurturing interest (generating demand) in the products and services that your company offers”. A simple Google search for the term Demand Generation yields over 25 million hits! I’d say this is getting some press. What’s intriguing is how radical technology has changed the way people behave. The online world has nearly removed the sales person from much of the sales cycle - information that was obtained in the past can be found online in excess. This reality is forcing businesses to relook at their business development processes and the role of their sales people. Best in Class companies have adapted Demand Generation as a key part of their go-to-market strategy. The are using interactive websites, content specific landing pages, auto-responders, social media, sophisticated databases and educational content to attract, nurture and stay in front of prospects and customers. Marketing is no longer an outbound activity (sending stuff out - email, direct mail, advertising, etc.), it is moving to an inbound model (people searching for information and finding resources). In order to manage interest and the flow of information efficiently, a company will need to have consistent, repeatable processes. The challenge with implementing demand generation processes is creating the infrastructure, work flow and content. New tools, skills and resources will be needed.
How is your company adapting to the “new buyer” paradigm? What changes are you making to ensure you gain the most from your opportunities? I’ve developed an audit to help companies determine how well they are using their sales & marketing resources. You can access this audit by following this link. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The economy has a grip on everyone and every business. There’s no place to hide. As 2009 approaches, many businesses are forced to revisit their plans. It’s likely not a matter of gaining more market share, it’s more likely of holding on to what market share they had in 2008. I would guess that just remaining flat in 2009 would be considered success by many.
There’s two obvious behaviors in dynamic and constricted times like we now face. One is to cut back, batten down the hatches, lay-off staff, etc. The other behavior is to position for growth, invest or seize what appears to be opportunities that will gain market share. Rarely are there other decisions that are so critical and difficult for business owners. So, how do you decide which path to take? The pressing issues are cash flow, cash reserves and time. Assuming these can be managed, it seems the long view would dictate investment - reposition the business for growth. Now may be a great time to re-evaluate your new business processes, look at what you’ve always done and brainstorm with your staff - and customers - ways you can innovate your business. All too often, businesses do not include their customers in their strategic planning. In fact, for the clients I’ve consulted with, few, if any, have actually survey their customers. And, I’m not talking about quality surveys. I’m talking about seeking feedback as to how your product or service benefits their business in real terms and soliciting feedback as to how enhancements to your product or service can add more value to them. This can be accomplished easily and quickly and may shed light on excellent opportunities. At a minimum, it would be flattering to your customers to ask their opinion and it would show how much you care. You might even get some opportunities in the process.
Now is a time to be creative, not negative. As Peter Drucker says, businesses have only two functions - marketing and innovation. I suggest both should be embraced and leveraged to get through this economy. What are your thoughts? What ideas can you share - after all, it is the giving season!
The recent political debates and on-going campaign speeches have similar themes; and each party has taken similar positions. Yet, both parties stress how different they each are. Obviously, there are some clear differences, yet, many are subtle - at least as far as what can be understood from the media. Perhaps that’s why the polls are fairly even (depending on your source). But, one thing I notice is that all the rhetoric boils down to “sound bites”.
This causes me to think about communications, in general, and about message retention levels. I’m sure everyone reading this understands that only a fraction of what we read, watch or listen to is retained (and the older I get, the lower the fraction!). In business, marketing and advertising messages face the same challenge as the candidates face getting their message across.
The latest research claims that we are exposed to between 3000 and 3500 marketing or advertising messages a day! Currently, many of these messages can be attributed to the current political environment - we can’t get away from them. Campaigns are spending tens of millions trying to get their message across. This is an excessive demand for our attention. Just as with marketing and advertising, we’ll likely respond only to those messages that reach an emotional cord within us.
What can we learn from this? At a minimum, unless we have a lot of money for advertising our message repeatedly, which is unaffordable for the majority of businesses, it is extremely difficult to get your message to stick. We can also learn that our communications must resonate with our audience emotionally and be different than our competitors. This isn’t easy to do. I believe it’s why most advertising under performs. Not enough time is devoted to truly developing compelling content for marketing. Many that advertise are looking for immediate results and do not systematically test their messages like a political campaign would.
I welcome comments or examples of successful attempts at developing compelling, unique messages - and, I’d be just as interested in what other marketing lessons we can learn from the political campaigns.
