Your questions answered (3 of 4)
Over the last few days we’ve been taking our reader Stefan through the process of creating a simple, usable marketing plan. In this installment of our series we’ll take a look at how he can choose the most appropriate marketing methods to promote his ‘lifestyle management business’.
Which Marketing Methods to Use
When most people start to consider their marketing, they jump straight to which marketing methods they should use. Just because that’s what most people do though, it doesn’t make it right. In fact, it’s completely the wrong approach.
The problem is not about thinking up new ideas but rather matching the right methods to the market you want to attract and the message you want to convey.
For example, advertising in a local paper might sound great for a local business but if your customer’s are generally younger then they may not be reading the paper – they could be on Facebook, reading a blog or tweeting away on Twitter. If 70% of the paper’s readership is 30+ then 70% of your budget is wasted if your targets are under 30.
So is online the answer? Not necessarily. It can be, but only if your market is there too – this is where your research and customer personas from the first step (defining your market) come into play. The more you know the better decisions you can make – so do your research and your homework, no assumptions.
A practical tip for finding the best methods
To start selecting the best mix of marketing methods for your business try writing all the possible options down the left hand side of a blank page. This list should certainly include the following; print, TV and radio advertising, public relations, online methods, direct methods, networking, referral programs, content marketing and long term customer contact (think newsletters, blogs and the like).
Moving across the page from left to right, draw four columns titled; market, message, investment and total. In the market column score each of the possible methods on how well it targets your specific market (out of 10 perhaps). In column two, score each option on the basis of how well you can communicate your message and how well it fits in with your image. Column three should be scored on price. Column four totals the other ones up to create a (very) rough aggregate score.
The numbers will mean nothing in themselves, but should be useful for comparing your options. Faced with a choice you can either select the safest bet or think of ways of improving the scores of one particular choice. (Ex. would it score better if you could negotiate the price down or had more room to communicate your message?).
If you’d like to take it a step further, you can break down the general methods (ex. online) into more specific points (i.e. pay-per-click, blogging or social platforms) and go through the same process. You should now be able to come up with a ‘suite’ of methods to test out. Test small, track the results and make changes accordingly.
With that done, you should know who you’re targeting, what you’re going to say to them and the methods you’re going to use to connect the dots.
Congratulations, that’s a marketing plan!
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July 31st, 2008 No comments
Your questions answered (2 of 4)
Yesterday we looked at how reader Stefan should take time in defining the ideal target market for his ‘lifestyle management company’. With customer models in place, we can now look at the how Stefan can create the right marketing message.
The Right Message
Finding the right marketing message allows you to speak directly to your target market and, in effect say: ‘I know what your problems are, and I can solve them better than anyone else.’ Relate to the customer, fix their problems / fill their needs and be unique.
It may sound simplistic but done well, can be very effective. For example, FedEx built its business on the phrase ‘When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight’. This one line clearly addresses all three points above – the sentence states the problem, it speaks to people who send important documents and is unique (i.e. it doesn’t just say ‘we deliver things fast’).
For your lifestyle management company we need to create a similar message that comes across in everything: from the business name, to how you describe it (is ‘lifestyle management’ the best term?), to your taglines, advertisements, customer service and visual appeal.
Everything needs to be consistent and cover those three points above.
Creating the Message
So how do we create that message? Well, as before, we answer those questions. In order to relate to the customer we need to be able to put ourselves in their position and identify with their needs. The customer models (personas) that we created should help us do that. They should include everything from the age of the ideal customer to the details of their daily lives.
Let’s assume that our principle persona is James, a 27-year old banker. James lives in London with his girlfriend. He enjoys travel, nice restaurants and drinks down the pub with his mates. He makes a decent bit of cash but his schedule means that it’s often hard to find the time to enjoy it.
If that was the persona then the last sentence would be a reasonable indication of what we need to be saying. We show we know who the customer is, that they have a disposable income and that their key problem is freeing up time to enjoy the pub and dinner with the other half. This would appeal to a higher-end market but lose you the lower end. All marketing decisions need to involve this kind of choice in order to target your market more precisely.
If that’s the kind of route you’d like to go down, it could lead you to a guideline statement like:
“What’s the point in making a good living if you haven’t got the time to live good.”
Admittedly not the best grammar but as a benchmark it works well.
Is it unique?
The next question is whether or not this message is unique. In other words, if everyone else in the market is saying the same thing, then your business will seem like a ‘me too’ attempt. As a simple acid test, if your marketing statements could be applied to another company in your market then they are too generic. Refine them with a few more questions. What’s your unique angle? Do you have specific services? Will you be targeting a different market than other firms?
With a bit of work, you’ll have a unique statement that speaks directly to your target customer and says how you can fix their problems. You should use that statement to help you create taglines, design advertisements, educate your customer service policies – anything and everything should be based on appealing to your market as best you can.
Then, and only then, should you move onto choosing the best marketing methods to use.
July 30th, 2008 No comments
Your questions answered (1 of 4)
A few weeks ago I asked readers to forward on their marketing questions to be answered free of charge. From the responses I’ve chosen a couple of good general examples and thought I’d share them with you here. Of course, if you have a question you’d like to see answered here, feel free to get in touch.
Stefan writes: “I am looking to create a lifestyle management company that will offer services to those that are time short… So with this type of business (my target market is young professionals) how do you think it is best to appeal to them?
It’s a good question, and one that just about every single business has to go through at some point; how, exactly, will I attract customers? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula, but there are a few basic guidelines that’ll point you in the right direction.
By and large, a simple marketing plan should answer three questions; who is my market and what do they want, what should I say to my market and finally, what methods should I use to get one to the other?
Those three questions form a basic structure of market, message and method – which we can use to look at your business idea.
Identify and Learn About Your Market
In your question you mention that your market is ‘young professionals’ but you also mentioned in your note that you’ll be happy to offer any number of services, “as long as they are legal and moral and can be done remotely”.
Are young professionals the people most likely to benefit from those services? If you’re selling ‘time’ are they the people most in need? This could be a costly assumption so you need to check it first with some research.
Additionally, ‘young professionals’ is far too big and poorly defined a market to go after – you need to get specific. What age? Male or female? What kind of job? What level of income? Kids or no kids?
Create Customer Personas
With those questions in mind, your first task is to create a detailed persona based on your most likely customer.
With a persona, you’re trying to create a model customer, to put a name and character traits to them and make it easier for you to get a feel for and anticipate their needs, wants and reactions. As your services are not yet set in stone you can do this first and then create services for this market. This would be a better bet than assuming ‘young professionals’ or trying to match set services to a market.
Once you’ve created your persona, mentally run through a ‘day in the life’ scenario and find the ‘pain points’ that you can help address. Creating this type of persona can also help answer questions about where you might like to advertise or the tone of voice your marketing should use.
If more than one type of person is likely to use your services, feel free to create multiple personas but ensure that there is a clear hierarchy – your most likely customer comes first and will be the basis of most of your marketing decisions.
With decisions made about the kind of customer that you’ll be targeting – and a decent understanding of the kinds of problems they have (and how you can solve them) the next step is to start crafting a message that speaks to that customer persona, and explains how you can solve their problems better the next guy.
But that’ll have to wait for tomorrow.
July 29th, 2008 No comments
Customer-made advertising
Customer-made adverts have been big for a while now - something ideal for adaptation to the small business market.
John Jantsch points to a neat idea (pictured) on his Duct Tape Marketing blog. It gets people involved, creates relevant messages and is, in itself, a point of interest.
How else could you get your customers involved in advertising your business? If you have any examples, let me know and I’ll stick them up here.