Archive for the ‘Marketing Theory’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Stop Wasting Your Marketing Money

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Stop wasting your marketing money on mass-marketing and start using it to find real customers. For small businesses, mass-marketing campaigns like newspaper ads, magazine ads or billboards usually don’t work. That’s because, while you’re paying to reach thousands of people, only a few of those people might be interested in what you are selling.

If you’re small, think small

When you think about your success and plan for your business’s future, think big. But when you plan on how many people your marketing communications should reach, think small. You want to reach only the people who are interested in products or services like yours. Right now, in the Delta Sky magazine, there’s a full-page ad for a synthetic motor oil, whose creator, it is claimed, “Changed lubrication history .” Giggles aside, how many travelers are in need of a synthetic lubricant during their flight?

Don’t waste your money on marketing to people who don’t care. Here are some tips for how small businesses can “think small” about their marketing:

  • Online search advertising and Search Engine Optimization. People are actively searching for your products and services. Be there when they are looking and ready to buy.
  • Stay in touch with your current customers, to encourage them to buy more frequently and refer you. For example, a resort might send a birthday card to past guests with a complimentary service coupon for the guest’s next stay.
  • Ask current customers where and how they first learned about you. If you hear the same answer several times, increase those marketing efforts.
  • Instead of advertising in publications, get mentioned in them. Your customers probably do read newspapers and magazines, but they trust the stories more than the advertisements. Do something news-worthy, and many publications will be glad to cover it (especially if you offer to provide the copy!).
  • If you are a local business, like a restaurant, go out in your neighborhood and meet your customers. One idea is to host an event that showcases your product, offers free samples or includes a contest. It’s inexpensive but effective.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Advertising, Marketing Theory, Pay Per Click Advertising | No Comments »

Why isn’t my marketing working?

Friday, March 25th, 2011

A Facebook follower recently asked, “What can I do when an advertising or marketing campaign isn’t working?” There are several reasons a marketing campaign might fail. Here are several common ones:

  • You aren’t marketing to the right customers. The first step of any successful marketing campaign is to accurately identify the people who will buy your product or service. For instance, a private elementary school may teach children, but it shouldn’t advertise to children. Parents are the decision-makers.
  • Place – You aren’t marketing to customers where they go for information about your product or service. Think like a customer. Where do they go to learn about your product or to buy it? No one is going to buy life insurance from a mall kiosk, no matter how many thousands of people walk past each day. Even if 50% of the passersby are in the market for life insurance, you just don’t buy it at the mall.
  • Timing – You aren’t marketing to customers at the right time. This could be the time of day, day of the week or season of the year. Imagine a florist marketing Valentine’s bouquets in March. It would be ridiculous – no one wants to buy them after Valentine’s Day.
  • Message – Your marketing message isn’t meaningful to your customers. Many marketers make the mistake of developing messages that appeal to their company instead of to the customer. Your message should address what is important to your customer. Why do customers want to buy from you?

Your next question might be, “How do I know which reason to address?” To learn the reason your marketing isn’t working, look at the results of your marketing efforts, such as calls, clicks or impressions. If you don’t have any results at all, you probably have a problem of marketing in the wrong place. If you are getting some results, but not closing sales, you might be marketing to the wrong customers.

To determine if your timing or message is off, you need to think like a customer – when are they looking? what messages are meaningful to them? If you can, ask some existing customers what they think. Most of the time, customers are glad to share their opinions to help you out. Ask them how and when they heard about you and what they like about your products or services. Use this information to craft messages that would appeal to them and potential customers like them.

It can certainly be tricky to determine why your marketing isn’t working and how to fix it. I find these problems very interesting and would be glad to talk to you about your marketing. Just call or email me: Amanda Cullen, 513.833.4203, amanda@zooinajungle.com

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Customer Experience, Customers, Marketing Theory | No Comments »

Sales Promotion FAIL

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Sales promotions are a popular part of the marketing mix. Sales promotions can be a great way to build awareness about your brand, reward loyal customers or just eliminate excess stock.

Except this one. It is a sales promotion fail.

I saw this 5% off book at an otherwise amazing independent bookstore in Columbus, OH. If customers don’t want to read Soul Pancake for $19.99, do you think they would be motivated if the price were $18.99? It would be more than a dollar’s worth of hassle just getting that stubborn sticker off the cover. This paltry sales promotion seems calculated to make customers laugh, not buy the book.

When planning sales promotions, make sure the offer is meaningful to the customer. Consider the customer’s context – in a world where Amazon sells a book for 41% off publisher’s list price, offering a 5% discount simply highlights that this bookstore’s prices are higher. This bookstore should not compete on price – they will lose every time. They need to give customers something that Amazon can’t – an experience, a feeling or a relationship.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Customer Experience, Marketing Theory, Selling | No Comments »

Good Customer Service: How to Tell a Customer “No”

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Good customer service is easy when things are going smoothly, and you can say, “Yes!” to your customers’ requests. But when you have to tell a customer, “No,” it takes more thought and effort to deliver good customer service. Recently, I got to experience amazing customer service and found it a “teachable moment” for all businesses.

For many years, I have subscribed to the Wall Street Journal‘s “Best of the Web Today” emails, but in the last few months they changed the emails to excerpts, requiring subscribers to visit a web page to read the whole digest. Upset about the change, I sent a curt email, writing:

I really don’t like how you no longer include the full article in the email. I subscribe by email because I want to read the whole thing in my email inbox.

James Taranto, the editor for Best of the Web Today, emailed me back:

I’m afraid this was a business decision. There was hardly any demand for ads in the BOTWT email, so we decided to direct readers to the website. However, you can still get the full text–but without formatting and links–if you switch your subscription to the text format. Cheers, James

Four Elements of Good Customer Service

This email response took me aback. It was perfect, even though he was effectively telling me, “No.” Here’s why:

  1. The response came from someone I respect. James Taranto, the editor, wrote this email. Someone with decision-making power thought my complaint important enough to respond to himself.
  2. The explanation was honest. I can’t argue that the Wall Street Journal needs to make a profit. Taranto respected me enough to just tell me the truth.
  3. The email was personalized. Clearly, this email was not a form letter. It was written in direct response to my complaint.
  4. Taranto presented a remedy and specified its drawbacks. To get the full text,  I can subscribe to the plain text version of the mailing. But thanks to his explanation, I won’t be surprised when there aren’t any links in it. Taranto prevented a further customer service problem by telling me the drawbacks up front.

If you incorporate these four elements into your customer service interactions, you will not only satisfy customers, but you will make them more loyal and raving fans of your products and company as well. How’s that for turning a negative into a positive? Take my example. Instead of remaining angry with the Wall Street Journal, I wrote a glowing article about their great customer service.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Customer Experience, Customers, Marketing Theory | No Comments »

Getting Customers to Call: Small Business Marketing Matters

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Getting customers to call is a primary step in many small businesses’ sales processes. Telling them, “Call for information,” “Call Now!” or “Call to order!” are not enough. You need to give customers a reason to call you.

Offering a coupon or a free quote isn’t that reason. Those incentives may offer motivation to buy, but you need to provide a motivation to call. Whether you are selling all-inclusive vacations or car insurance, if you have high success rates on the phone, your best bet of making a sale is getting a customer to call you.

How do you motivate customers to call you?

Customers must perceive some benefit to calling. This benefit could be monetary, entertainment or satisfying curiosity. Here are some ideas for how to motivate customers to call:

  • Offer a gift card or other “free gift” to the first hundred callers.
  • Ask a compelling question to which they can only learn the answer if they call.
  • Make the call fun by promoting a trivia game for callers. Ensure the trivia is relevant to your customer base, such as asking local sports questions.
  • Make the need to call more urgent. Have a deadline for receiving a special offer, or let customers know when you plan on raising your prices.
  • Spread the word. Use your other forms of marketing and advertising to sell the benefits of calling- not necessarily the benefits of buying.

Malcolm Gladwell provides a great example of the last tip in The Tipping Point. He tells of a cheesy ad campaign for the Columbia Record Club that was successful beyond anyone’s dreams, because it made a game out of the most profitable action customers could take. TV ads encouraged customers to find the “gold box” in their TV Guides to win a free record of their choice. Customers felt like they were solving a puzzle, but really, Gladwell writes, “It created a connection between the Columbia message viewers saw on television and the message they read in a magazine.” And this message was a call to action, showing remarkable results: “Every magazine on the schedule made a profit, an unprecedented turnaround.”

(You’ve read The Tipping Point, right? If not, go buy it!)

Today’s article about getting customers to call is fairly general, but every business is unique. Call me at 513.833.4203 with the questions you have about getting your customers to call your business. I’d be glad to brainstorm some ideas with you. It will be fun… and free!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Customer Experience, Customers, Marketing Theory, Selling | 2 Comments »

Marketing Podcast: Farm Marketing & 4-H

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Recently, my colleague David Weatherholt sponsored a young 4-Her raising a pig. He brought her on his radio show, “Getting Down to Business”(in Anchorage on Fox News Talk 1020), to discuss the adventures of young entrepreneurialism.

This topic inspired me to do my Marketing Matters segment on farm marketing. Just like with 4-H, farms need to keep their marketing fun and creative. I’ve had some experience with marketing farms. My brother’s family owns Legacy Farms Boer Goats, my niece and nephew show animals, and several of my acquaintance are farmers. In my podcast, there are many interesting tips that you can start applying today.

You don’t need to own a farm to enjoy this show, though. I’ve included David’s interview with Grace, the 4-Her, and many of my marketing ideas apply to any small business.

Listen or download below:

Farm Marketing and 4-H

Download the Farm Marketing and 4-H MP3 file here. (15.7 MB)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Marketing Podcasts, Marketing Theory | No Comments »

Are you marketing beans or frijoles?

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Maybe there was an upcoming chili cook-off. Maybe there was a corresponding sale on Bean-O. Or perhaps the blizzard warning inspired a desire  for comfort food. Whatever the reason, my Kroger grocery store was out of black beans. But I knew where to look.

“No one ever buys the frijoles negros in the international food aisle!” I exclaimed to my husband as we wheeled the cart around. Sure enough, we found ample quantities of beans for my Black Bean Mushroom Chili recipe – a grocery-shopping happy ending.

Same product. Different marketing. (For those without a smattering of Spanish lingo, frijoles negros means black beans). And a definite marketing lesson for small businesses.

Are your customers trying to buy beans while you sell them frijoles? If so, you are missing a huge opportunity.

It comes down to speaking the language of your customer. How many Kroger shoppers left that night without purchasing the beans they came for? Kroger could complain that customers just don’t understand, or that they don’t read the labels closely enough. They might talk about niche markets and modern grocery trends favoring ethnic foods. But that won’t sell any more beans, will it?

Many specialized businesses have difficulty speaking the imprecise language of their customers and become frustrated. But it’s not your customer’s job to understand you. It’s your job to sell to her in the language she wants to hear.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Branding, Customers, Marketing Theory, Philosophy | No Comments »

Don’t Market to Yourself

Friday, November 12th, 2010

There’s an old marketing rule that states, “Don’t market to yourself.” Like many adages, it has the benefit of being true. Marketing is for your customers, not for you.

Many small business marketers make the mistake of  developing marketing strategies and materials that please the owners of the business instead of its customers. However, customers usually  value very different things from the company’s own management.

Let’s take an optometrist practice as an example. Optometrists are wonderfully skilled at analyzing and treating eyes. Most of them love eyes, and in marketing conversations I’ve had with them, they want to focus on what they do best: eyes. But that usually makes for bad marketing.

Here are two recent optometrist ads I found that embody optometrists’ love for eyes:

These ads are ineffective because optometrists’ patients don’t spend all day looking at or thinking about isolated eyes. Non-optometrists consider eyes in their context – as part of the face. Many people even become uncomfortable or squeamish when viewing a large photo of an isolated eyeball. Those certainly aren’t the feelings optometrists want to encourage when someone thinks about visiting the eye doctor.

For the ad visuals, it would be better to show what patients value, such as living a better life because they can see, or feeling more beautiful because they have contacts instead of glasses. At the very least, optometrists should include whole faces in their advertisements.

Although my optometrist example is very obvious, these lessons apply to all small businesses. What is your business’s “eyeball?” Are there details your marketing strategy focuses on that don’t provide context for your customer? Have you asked your customers what they value? For good marketing, identify who your customers are and what they want before you embark on any marketing ventures.

And don’t market to yourself.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Advertising, Customer Experience, Design Theory, Marketing Theory | No Comments »

5 Reasons Marketing is Everything

Friday, October 29th, 2010

Marketing is everything. And I’m not exaggerating.

If marketing is an expression of your company’s reputation (or brand), then every experience your customers have with your company is a marketing interaction. Your customers don’t stop evaluating your company and forming opinions just because they aren’t interacting with your traditional marketing. Here are five reasons why everything you do is marketing.

  1. Receiving a rude call from your accounting department will override any positive experience a customer has had with a customer service representative.
  2. Having a great experience with her waiter will do more to grow your customer’s relationship with your restaurant than receiving a coupon in the mail.
  3. Getting cut off in traffic by your service technician will shape a potential customer’s opinion of your company more than receiving a sales call.
  4. Not being able to find someone to answer his question is more influential to your customer than the most comprehensive FAQ on your website.
  5. A compassionate employee on the phone can turn a billing error into a positive experience with your customer.

There is a common thread woven through all five examples. It is personal experience and human interaction. People are more important than marketing strategies. Personal experience is more powerful than brand promises. This conclusion shouldn’t be surprising. Your customers are individual people, and people value relationships.

Anytime you treat your customer as an individual instead of as part of a group, they will remember that instance more frequently and place more value on it. But, as you can see above, not every personal interaction with your business creates a good impression.

How well does your business handle personal interactions? Think broadly– anyone who sees a customer face-to-face, talks to a customer on the phone, writes email correspondence or interacts with customers using social media. Even more broadly, think of all the systems that enable these customer interactions such as your company policies, your website design, your phone system and the layout of your stores. Do these systems help facilitate great personal interactions?

As you ponder these questions, remember that your customers believe marketing is everything you do. Every minute they are evaluating you. Make those minutes count.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Customer Experience, Customers, Marketing Theory | 2 Comments »

The Secret to Small Business Advertising

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Small businesses are bombarded with advertising opportunities. These sales pitches often make small business owners feel uneasy and uncertain, thinking, “Shouldn’t I try this out?” or, “What if I’m missing an opportunity?” In small business, the fear of missing out often drives advertising decisions.

The secret is that many advertising companies are successful because of this uncertainty, not because of the success they bring their clients. Much of their money is made from the attitude of, “Maybe we should just test this to see if it works.”

So how can you tell which advertising options are good – and which ones are bad?  Let me make it easier for you and give some insight based on what I’ve learned over the years. I’ve talked with many advertisers and heard almost every advertising pitch.

Some advertising offers are inherently shady, such as emails from companies claiming your website failed “international reports” or from other companies promising to place your ad in the first advertising spot on Google for just a monthly fee. In general, if you receive a bulk email from an advertising company, feel free to discard it (and think of all the time you’ll save not having to read these junk emails!).

Other advertising offers can be confusing. You may receive phone calls from pushy advertising salespeople who assure you they’re offering a great deal. Below are a few instances of those kinds of offers and when it might make sense for you to accept them.

There are many companies offering to promote your business on Google and Bing. Some of them (like mine) manage the advertising in an efficient and effective way.  Others try to obscure how the systems work. Keep in mind that Google and Bing advertising are always pay-per-click. It’s reasonable to hire a web marketing specialist to manage and grow your search engine marketing, but the company should provide transparency. Such a company will help you decide if search engine advertising is even right for your business.

In addition to search engines, there are many individual websites that solicit advertisers. Websites such as TheKnot.com exist solely on advertising revenue and cater to specialized groups of people (in this case, brides). Advertising on these sites are usually paid for monthly instead of pay-per-click, so is it worth the risk? It could be, depending on what you are selling, how many visitors on the site are looking for your product and how many competitors they allow to appear with your ad. Ask the salesperson for this information to determine if you’ll get a return on this investment. If the salesperson can’t provide this information, don’t buy from them.

Coupon publications are another advertising option often promoted to small businesses. Bundled coupons like Val-Pak have a very dedicated following among a small group of coupon users. Generally, everyone else on the mailing list simply throws out the envelope without looking at it. This pattern means every coupon redeemed from a Val-Pak mailing is used by the same group of people. This behavior is fine for companies who don’t mind regularly discounting products or services, but it’s not a good way to gain new customers who will someday pay full price. This same advice also applies to coupon circulars like Redplum or Dollarsaver.

Don’t worry if you can’t determine if an advertising venue is right for your business. It’s the advertiser’s job to prove it to you. Advertisers should provide you with detailed statistics relating to your business. If they can’t provide you with data, then you can’t be sure they are offering a good investment. For reference, Allrecipes.com provides excellent public information that makes it clear which types of products and services should be advertised on their site. Don’t expect anything less from those trying to sell you advertising.

Here’s my advertising advice in a nutshell: Always say, “No!” unless an advertiser can prove his advertising will provide a return on the investment.

If you get an advertising offer, and don’t know what to do with it, feel free to send it to me at amanda@zooinajungle.com. I’ll let you know what I think.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Advertising, Internet, Marketing Theory, Small Business | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »