Making New Year’s Marketing Resolutions…. and keeping them!
December 31, 2007
The changing of the calendar prompts many of us in the Western Hemisphere to take a moment to look both ahead and behind as we make our resolutions of what we’ll do better or differently during the upcoming year. Almost every business owner I know includes "marketing smarter" as part of their New Year’s Resolutions.
I’ve seen a LOT of marketing blogs talking about "marketing calendars" which makes me smile, because of all the resolutions you can make, creating a marketing calendar is probably the easiest one to do AND the most effective! Of course, this is a GREAT time to create a marketing calendar for your business.
Unfortunately, I can’t create one for you… not without sitting down and getting to know your business VERY well. But YOU should definitely create a marketing calendar for your business RIGHT THIS MOMENT! It’s really quite easy to do.
STEP 1: Write down what you know is going to happen throughout the year.
Mark upcoming trade shows and events on your marketing calendar. Your industry’s big trade shows are already scheduled, so put them on your calendar now.
STEP 2: Take a look at the various holidays. Identify PR opportunities.
When you identify which holidays are important to your target audience, then you can begin working "backwards" to ensure enough time to properly promote your product or service for any particular holiday.
For example, I have a client whose target audience are grieving widows. We just began working together in the beginning of December when she announces, "I want to offer a free teleseminar for the holidays!" It was a GREAT idea… and one that we should have been planned way back in July or August. Needless to say she was disappointed by the turnout this year… but for next year’s marketing calendar… she needs to mark AUGUST as the month to begin planning how she’s going to promote December 2008’s free teleclass.
Now, as we look ahead, we’re marking other holidays that are difficult for those who have lost a loved one during the previous year. We’ll be setting up free teleseminars for those holidays but this time, we’ll be planning those events months ahead of the event. That way, we’ll be able to contact the media and possibly get some exposure for her services via newspaper, radio and television.
Taking a few minutes to create your 2008 marketing calendar will pay GREAT dividends during the coming year!
Niche marketing and blogging… to blog or not to blog
December 30, 2007
Blogging experts agree…. blogging isn’t for every business. However, they are a great promotion tool for some businesses. Blogging is an especially attractive marketing tool if your business is one that provides SERVICES to other business owners.
In my book, I reference Neil Rackham’s work on defining the two different types of sales. If you’re in business, your business is either making Minor sales or Major sales.
According to Rackham, your business is making Minor Sales if:
- There is a single decision-maker
- The buyer’s financial or emotional investment is low or insignificant
- The purchase does not warrant the time/energy necessary to research alternatives
- There is little interaction between you and the customer
- The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are inconsequential or insignificant.
On the other hand, your business is making Major Sales if:
- There is more than one decision-maker
- The buyer’s financial and/or emotional investment is significant
- The purchase warrants significant time and research into alternatives
- There is the potential for a long-term relationship between you and/or your business and the customer
- The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are high
If your business is making a major sale, then blogging is probably a GREAT choice for your business because educating your potential customers is an intricate part of the sales process. A blog can be a GREAT choice for niche marketing web site.
When you blog with your target customer in mind, you’ll end up with a blog that acts as a GREAT marketing tool for your business and are a great way to get your message through to your audience.
1 of the 14 things I learned in college that I actually use in real life…
December 18, 2007
Way back in the 80’s, I packed up my bags and headed off to college. At the time, I was very impressed with myself, my professors and the whole "higher education" environment. I was a "scholar"… learning from enlightened mentors the secrets I would need to achieve business success.
Two decades (+ a few year) and a few kids/pounds/gray hairs later… I look back with amusement at those halls of hallowed learning. This morning, I made reference to something that I playfully defined as " 1 of the 14 things I learned in college that actually applies to real life." I’m not sure if the number of "useful" lessons numbers 14… it may be more, it may be less. .. but here is one lesson that I reference frequently in my work: THE PRICING OF YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
Long ago and far away in a marketing management class, I heard a phrase that I would reference repeatedly during my work: It’s easier to lower a price than it is to raise it.
Worried about where to set the price for your newest product? According to my professor’s teaching, it’s better to aim high and then discount than to go low and try to raise your price. I’ve watched this principle in action over and over again. Not only is it easier to put a product on sale than to increase it’s price… but price also affects perception of the product/service in question.
One client of mine wrote a comprehensive book for chiropractic professionals. In it, Dr. Jean Murray literally offers her readers the equivalent of a BS in Business for Independent Chiropractic Professionals. What? There’s no such degree program? Well, there should be and Dr. Jean Murray has written a comprehensive resource providing EXACTLY what every chiropractor needs to know before launching his/her own practice. From fill in the blank spread sheet programs to sound advice on business structure and management, Dr. Jean Murray offers Information, Advice and Encouragement to medical professionals through her book and her blog Professional Practice Success.
Now, the question here is… "What would you pay to acquire a self study program that is CUSTOMIZED to your profession, developed by a doctorate in business with DECADES of experience helping others just like you achieve business success?"
In my best effort to NOT sound like an infomercial, you’d probably expect such a resource to cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. So think what would be your reaction if you discovered her resource was priced at $15.95 on Amazon? (I applaud Dr. Murray for not offering her book for $15.95, because if she did, you’d wonder how good she really is at what she does! )
Yes, it’s true… price does set the perception of the quality of the resource in advance. In the case of Dr. Murray’s resource, I truly and honestly believe that if the resources she offers were based on the VALUE of the resources, she should be charging in the $1500 range for her suite of products. She’s elected a much lower price point…. and I can’t argue with her success! While she’s well below my recommended $1495 price point, she’s still well above the typical $15.95 price point of her "competitors" offerings on Amazon… and with good reason. Not only does Dr. Murray have the credentials, she also has "street cred". She’s held the jittery hands of newly minted chiropractors as they navigate their way to launching their own practice…. and celebrated their successful practices with them. Now, she shares that insight through her resources.
One of the things about marketing is it involves a lot of trial and error. When it comes to pricing, it’s much easier to price a resource high and then put it "on sale" than it is to price it low and the try to raise the price in the future. In either case, you need to "justify" the price difference and it’s a lot easier (and more fun) to come up with reasons for the "sale" than reasons for the price increase.
#1 of the 14 things I learned in college that I actually use in real life: It’s easier to lower a price than it is to raise it.
It’s an over simplification to be sure, but it’s a rule I have referred to often in the course of my business.
Right on Target
December 10, 2007
Within a year of launching my web development business, way back in 1998, I was introduced to a new type of service professional, the Life Coach.
My relationship with this profession began when I developed a web site for a newly minted coach. While I had done other websites before, this was the first time I had thoroughly enjoyed the process. Here was an individual who was bright, intelligent who possessed some serious self awareness. I was engaged and really got into the whole project. My enthusiasm showed in the work I did. My client told her coaching colleagues about me and my enthusiasm. As a result, they came to me and I developed MORE coaching web sites. Before you knew it, I had stumbled into a niche marketĀ
It’s no surprise that advertisers are spending more online than on radio
December 4, 2007
Mashable reports that for the first time in history, online ad buys are surpassing radio buys.
To quote Iago the Parrot in Aladdin, "Oh, there’s a big surprise. That’s an incredible… I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die, from NOT surprise. "
The AQH myth is yet another reason why traditional media will continue to lose media buys to the web
AQH stands for average quarter hour and is used exclusively in traditional electronic media. The AQH estimates the number of people to be listening or watching for at least a 15 minute time period. The number is assumed to represent the number of listeners who will hear/see your commercial in the course of the day’s programming. In theory, the AQH will not include those listeners who tune out as soon as the commercial break begins.
This said, my family was recently chosen to be a Nielsen family. We were sent paper logs for every television we own to fill in our viewing habits. Those logs arrived via priority mail along with 5 one dollar bills.
In theory, you list what you were watching during the pre-determined 15 minute segments of each hour. The logs expectantly allow only one line per 15 minute unit. However, we were instructed to list any show we watched for 5 minutes. In watching with my teen aged and young adult children, I realized we would be watching 3 shows "simultaneously" on one TV. There was no way to account for this in the log and when we were called by Nielsen and I asked, I was greeted with a "here’s what it says".
"Have you looked at the log? There’s only room to write one show per line per 15 minute segment. I understand they’re trying to computer an Average Quarter Hour, but my children’s attention spans don’t allow them to watch anything longer than a YouTube video!"
"Well, maam… you obviously know more about this than I do," was the woman’s response. (I guess using the term "Average Quarter Hour" outed me…) "Here’s what the instructions say to do: list every show you watch for at least 5 minutes…"
In the end, our Nielsen logs turned into a blend of fact and fiction…. like a "based on a true story" made for TV movie.
Arbitron (the ratings police for radio) has tried to address the frailties of the paper logs and moved to People meters… which they hope to more accurately measure listening habits. However, media giant Clear Channel has blasted the devices as inaccurate as have Cox media and Radio One.
Meanwhile, traditional media continues to lament their loss of revenue to online media. Let’s see… online media provides advertisers with hard facts regarding their advertising buys. There are no "paper logs" and "estimating" involved with an online buy. Online media provides real DATA to back up their claims of eyeballs captured.
However, if you as an advertiser take this a "permission" to slash traditional media expenditures and allocate all of your budget to online media buys…. be prepare to suffer the consequences.
According to Media Week: "Marketers that treat tradtional advertising and word of mouth management as two separate animals do so in error, since the two are closely connected. Nielsen’s research - which analyzed factors such as buzz volume in blogs, spending, purchase intent among consumers and actual sales - has found that a big advertising budget is the best predictor of significant blog buzz, rather than tactics that attempt to specifically influence such online world of mouth.
Radio has ALWAYS been the ugly stepsister of media buys… yet it continues to be a powerful influence upon consumer behavior. Clever creative combined with the power of radio and television to "fly under the filter" and infiltrate consumer’s minds and influence their purchasing or even blogging decisions.
Aribtron and Nielsen are necessary evils… ways for radio and television stations to estimate their audience so they can charge for their influence. However, advertising purchasers shouldn’t hold the numbers to be holy and just. In the end, if you’re not buying media on a national scale… trust your gut and ignore the "figures".
One client of mine had a media rep pushing a channel that was an apparent "natural" fit. My client is a health professional and the media rep was pushing Discovery Health as THE channel for his message. The problem?
The channel’s line up for the week in question was focused EXCLUSIVELY upon "birthing of babies" type shows. The young women who would be interested in such programming were DEFINITELY not my client’s target audience. I asked him to conduct a survey of his current patients… what were THEY watching. 8 times out of 10, his patients were watching programming found on the Food Network and The Travel Channel.
Looking at the "figures" was one thing… listening to his current PATIENTS provided an entirely different answer.
As long as advertisers "charge per eyeball/ear"…. and rely upon paper logs submitted by volunteers… their ratings will always be suspect. However, when media reps stop selling by the numbers and instead focus upon getting results for their clients… well, then there will be new day dawning for traditional media.
