In our next installment of the 90-day Marketing Plan we’ll look at the different ways to send out your marketing message. If you missed the last posting here it is: Turning Marketing Goals into Measurable Metrics.
Not everyone reads newsletters or does social media. How are your target audiences staying informed? It won’t do any good to design and write a powerful newsletter if the people you send it to dispose of it before reading your brilliance. Here’s your next assignment. Do some digging to find out what types of marketing collateral your target candidates follow. What types of messages make them take action?
Do they watch webinars, subscribe to email blasts or newsletters? Are they on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube? You’ll need to know where they hang out before developing and launching your first marketing volley.
You’ll need a variety of marketing methods as well as a series of campaign tactics to be successful. We’ve all read the marketing books that tell us prospects need multiple touches before they respond to an offer. How many touches? That’s the age-old question. A question only you can find the answer to. It might be seven touches for one company while another has to touch its prospects eleven times. There’s no hard and fast number for all businesses.
I can’t tell you the number of companies we deal with that tell us, “Oh yeah, we did a direct mail campaign last year. It didn’t work.”
There are probably two glaring reasons their approach failed and their money was wasted. First, they did one direct mail campaign and that was all. Second, the people they sent the mailing to probably don’t respond well to junk mail in the first place. No research was done ahead of time.
There are two parts to choosing the right marketing materials for you and for your prospects.
- What marketing tactics are you most familiar and comfortable with using? For instance, if you love writing then publishing a newsletter or blogging might be in your wheelhouse. Perhaps in your personal life you’re a social animal and love connecting with people. Then doing social media in your business would become second nature. Let’s assume you have a passion for video and do it well. If that’s the case then doing brief videos and posting them on YouTube or Vimeo might be a fit.
- What types of marketing materials do your targets read? You have to do some serious investigation. Of course, the competition will not tell you how successful their marketing campaigns are so you’ll have to do some educated guessing. If the competition can be found all over the social media channels then it’s a good bet your target prospects are there. If they are offering newsletters or doing email campaigns then let’s assume they work, at least at first. Here’s where prototyping comes in. The best way to spend your marketing dollars is by prototyping small campaigns to measure the response. Try launching a newsletter and measure if people take action based on your calls to action. Just because people open and read your newsletter—that’s not the end game. We want people to take some action. Buy something. Call us. Subscribe.
How do you come to a decision on what to use? Strike a balance between:
- What you’re comfortable using
- What you do best
- What you can afford
- What you have time for
- What methods produce the best results
There’s loads of research out there on the Internet that will tell you email campaigns work great for some audiences. Social media is a marketing monster for certain groups as well. You’ll have to figure out what works best for you and your target prospects.
Of course, if a particular marketing tactic is not something you do well and you know it will produce the desired results then you’ll have to hire the job out.
Do your research. Try things. Go get ‘um.
