Conceptually all marketing can be broken down into a simple formula. Market, Message, Media match.
i.e. You find a market which wants what you provide. You create a congruent marketing message that generates attention, interest and desire encouraging them to buy. And finally a way of getting that enticing message in front of them.
And that last bit is where so many people come a cropper. Choosing the right media combination for initial contact and consistent follow up will determine your success or failure.
I’ll illustrate using practical examples in a minute, but first…
There are three primary ways you can get your message in front of your audience.
Direct Targeting: You identify the prospect and directly send them a message with your offer. Media could be Physical Mail, Email, FAX, SMS, Linkedin or Facebook direct messaging etc.
Search advertising: Your prospect actively searches for a solution. Google Adwords, Yellow Pages (both online and the paper version) or even the trade section of your local newspaper are examples.
Display (Indirect) Advertising: Display ads alert us to a product or service we don’t necessarily know about. Newspapers, magazines and trade journals are full of them. Online display adverts show up when browsing websites. Read any online newspaper or visit YouTube and you can’t escape intrusive banner, video and picture ads.
So what should you choose?
Here are three completely different examples from our client files.
Dragon Fire Services install and service commercial fire systems in shopping centres, hospitals, offices and large strata buildings.
The vast majority of their leads come from Search Advertising – Primarily Google Adwords. i.e. People who need this service and go searching for a provider.
But Dragon also directly targets individual Shopping Centre Managers, Strata Managers etc. who would need these services.
In addition we use “Remarketing” or “Retargeting” (Indirect Advertising) to get their name back in front of prospects who’ve visited their website and not contacted them. “Remarketing” is an incredibly effective way of bringing leads back into the fold in a very cost effective way.
John Corrigan of Group 8 Education improves leadership in Private High Schools. His clients are Principals. It’s a small, defined target audience.
Buying a list we instituted a directly targeted multi-touch approach using a combination of physical mail (including a book, white paper, case studies), email, FAX and phone follow up.
This combined with attending School Leadership conferences proved to be a winning strategy.
Quantum Financial are a multi award winning Financial Planning Firm in Sydney. Theirs is an indirect marketing strategy executed via extensive content marketing and nominating for industry awards.
Prolific writers and networkers, their expertise is recognised by mainstream media where they’re regularly featured on the ABC, Financial Review, David Koch (Channel 7), Alan Kohler and Stephen Long (ABC).
The myriad industry awards add credibility, authority and trust. Clients come across them in the various media and call.
A couple of points to note:
Your choice of media will make or break your campaign. Get it wrong and you’ll burn money and time. Test and measure.
And don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Cheap advertising today could become prohibitively expensive tomorrow – as advertisers on Facebook have found out.
Mix and Match.
It takes multiple exposure to build up familiarity and trust. So mix and match. The more places your prospects see your name the more familiar they’ll get with it and the more likely they’ll be to buy when ready.
Sending direct mail? Advertise online or offline in places they’ll see it as well.
Using Display Advertising? Create a Search Campaign as well. That way people who’ve seen your ad and can’t quite remember your details can still search and find you.
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