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Do you do this with your marketing?

Aug 20

Posted by Steve Gray in Growth, The Marketing Dept | No Comments

I’ve seen it done a lot, I’ve seen it done really well and I’ve seen it work exceptionally even in a down market.

I call it Marketing overlap, there is probably a fancy name for it in market speak but for now that covers it.

Many businesses rely on just a few forms of marketing and can measure the results of those, however what most fail to do is overlap the marketing so that as one method of marketing runs out of stem the next one kicks in.

An example of this is when you have a range of great products, and this month you have a special on one of them, the next month another special with a  different item and so on. By focusing on one product special then another people can get excited about coming to check out what you have on offer, often to get the special, but guess what they do, they often buy more than just the special.

If your business is expanding and offering new products you can launch them as the “special” then as you move to the next special the first one has nearly run its course, and so the overlap effect occurs.

This method generally ups your average dollar sale, keeps people interested in what you have to offer and if you can couple it with a range of marketing devices you will probably see great results.

So on, get out your marketing plan and cram a few extra marketing devices into the mix and overlap each campaign to keep the punters interested, if you don’t, your competition just might and take your customers out from under you. Chances are you may not notice until it’s too late.

Good connections

Jun 15

Posted by Steve Gray in Innovation and Creativity, People!, Planning, The Marketing Dept | 1 Comment

One of our guru lads over here is Ross Hill, on his Blog is a great piece of intriguing information I think all businesspeople and educators can learn a lot from.

He starts off talking about games and what makes them addictive… Then he goes on to show the comparison to social media (“aint” that the buzz at the moment) then I figure if you know what makes social media addictive, you could create a business that is addictive for your customers.

Imagine that people addicted to what you have, and they keep coming back to buy more… Yep the old loyal customer routine. Only now (thanks to Ross and others…) we can start to build an understanding of how that happens, so lets do it for business. Oh I mentioned educators as well, in a stale classroom, sit down, shut up, take down these notes… a fresh perspective on what engages people has got to be useful!

I’m going to cut to the chase here… The five central elements of Game Mechanics are: 

  • Collecting things.
  • Earning Points.
  • Getting/giving feedback.
  • Exchanges/Gifting.
  • User Customization.
In looking at the game mechanics and the social media link up to it there are plenty of things that make these points work, If you ever played pinball, getting the high score was way cool, in the latter day digital gamers world collecting things to give you more power, gifts, tokens etc was way cool too. then in a connected world being able to give feedback via facebook, twitter etc became a big buzz. then they allowed “games” of giving flowers, plants (virtual etc…)
Lets go across to:
Business…
  • Collecting things – Tokens in adverts.
  • Earning points – Buy five things get the sixth one free or at a discount (loyalty card ticked off.)
  • Getting/giving feedback – Hello – how are you – query form.
  • Exchanges/gifting – For every $10 you spend we give $1 to charity…
  • Customisation – if you have an online store they can personalise in some way then that’s useful.
Education…
  • Collect and bring things for show and tell.
  • Get points for good behaviour.
  • Discussing progress – giving feedback on what they liked in class.
  • Exchanges of information in group sessions
  • Customising by selecting which type of final assessment device they want to choose.
These are a few examples of possibilities, I’m sure there are plenty more, the thing is making sure you can provide enough to ensure your service is the one they are addicted to.
If you are still not sure about any of this check out Mc Donald’s and think about their happy meals for kids… you get a toy to collect, while the parent is there they probably buy something too, so even just having a single part of the formula in place can be highly valuable. Now put on your thinking caps and come up with a few ways you can use this information to your advantage.
I’m almost excited about the prospect of saying AND… lets add in our target market personality types, motivators and Drivers it would really assist us to be able truly effectively hit them between the eye’s solid targeted information they want to act on… but perhaps I better leave that for another day…

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Getting Marketing to Critical Mass

May 30

Posted by Steve Gray in Planning, Starting out in business, The Marketing Dept | 3 Comments

For businesses starting out, and those who may have just swapped their “marketing person” to someone new, you need to be aware there is a marketing critical mass.

I figure it as the point where the marketing being done has reached a level where a balance has been reached between the income level in the business covers the costs and leaves a profit. It’s the sort of point of satisfaction, knowing your business is getting enough of what it deserves.

To reach this critical mass can be tricky though, at first it’s devices which will probably be around for a long while, like signage on a store, then through to consumables like adverts and business cards. So perhaps you have to look at marketing non consumables (or low consumables) as start up costs, then measure marketing from the consumable start up point.

For the business which has been going a while a swap in marketing people can spell a huge challenge, especially if they are wanting to try new things… what may have been a sensible campaign going along well can be scrapped by the newbie out to impress, oops! For the new business operator sometimes just having enough cash to get to critical mass is a challenge.

Examples, you may have 5000 business cards and y have paid for them, however they are not doing much stuck in your desk drawer, even when you get them out in circulation it does not mean instant cash for your business. The same with adverts, unless there is something to cause the reader to act, then the result can take a while to kick in, in fact many advertisers find it takes 6 or more repeats of an advert to have an effect.

Another factor to marketing effectiveness is a simple one, know that when you advertise a specific product (like car tyres for instance) it requires someone to take note of the advert and then take action, when they require that product, or can see it may be useful to have at some later stage. Therefore if you want people to buy what you have, your advertising needs to be there when they want what you have. In the tyre example people may see an advert for tyres from five different organisations, but none registers until they need or want them.

When your business has it’s marketing sorted out to create a critical mass, you can then “tweak” things to make it perform better. Effective measurement of what’s working is then vital to ensure you know what’s marketing you might want to alter.

Clearly marketing is critical to your businesses success, how you go about getting it to a suitable level should now be easier and not get into a mess.

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Tracking Your Marketing…

May 14

Posted by Emma Rhoades in The Marketing Dept | 1 Comment

I am still completely stunned when I talk to many new clients of mine who don’t track their marketing efforts. I mean -come on… what a waste of money!

How do you know if it works?

Yes it can be a pain.. personally I love it. I love seeing where my website visitors come from, what page they came in on, what they clicked on, and where they went around my site. I love watching my contact forms come back with the box ‘Where did you hear about us” filled out and realising that my marketing is reaching further than I thought!!

So if you don’t track your marketing efforts, at least start with your website. Write this down – - Google Analytics.

Now go and visit their website - http://www.google.com/analytics/ . Go on. I’ll wait.

 

Ok, now that you have had a look  – go and sign up!!! This site is amazing with tools that let you track the sales process and see where your potential customers are falling off the process. Do you get visitors but no-one is buying? Find out what page they leave and fix it!!

You can also test different pages. So if you have a product and want to try different content, you can do a split test of these pages and see which ones convert the highest.

This tool is essential for any business owner with a website, serious about succeeding.

The best thing?

It’s FREE!! Go and start tracking your site now so you can improve the bits that aren’t working! 

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Marketing Mix – How Powerful Is It?

Apr 22

Posted by Emma Rhoades in Starting out in business, The Marketing Dept | No Comments

I’m sure you are wondering “can the marketing mix really be held accountable for my success?” You bet it can. You see, the marketing mix is the foundations of any business promotion. Read on to find how it works…
Not many people know of the Marketing Mix, or if they have heard of it, what it really means. Some think it’s all about the specials that they run in their business, or how many newspaper adverts they put it. Actually, it’s a combination of what is also commonly known as The 4 P’s.
Product, Price, Place and Promotion. In that order. Without one, the others fail. All 4 combined together will be 100% responsible for your promotion success. Let me go over them each and how they tie in together and you’ll start to see what I mean.
Product.
This refers to your physical product, or your service that you offer. Have you really looked at it? Pulled it apart and examined it from all angles? (And I don’t mean physically pull it apart!) What is so special about this product of yours? What are you really selling? For example, a hardware shop doesn’t sell drills; it sells holes in the walls. A hairdresser doesn’t sell haircuts, they sell confidence. Find your benefits and see if your product really delivers what you say it does. Once you know that the market wants your product, you can then go about pricing it.
Pricing
Many people get stuck on pricing of their products. The only time this should stump you is when you are introducing a brand new, individual, never been done before product or service into the market. Otherwise this is where your competition analysis comes into play. Who are your competitors? What products do they have that are similar to yours? Are the same type of people buying their products that you want to buy yours? Where do you fit into the marketplace? Are you going to come in cheaper than your competition?(A strategy that can never be sustained, I might add) or will you come with a different angle. This will help you to complete the pricing component of your marketing mix.
Place
This element refers to how people can buy your product. Do you have a retail shopfront? Can they purchase online? Do you have your own distributers? You will see that this section is critical to your marketing success. If people can only buy from your shopfront – what’s the point of advertising in a city ½ an hour away? Especially when your competitors are closer to them? By analysing this point carefully, you will discover that you can save precious marketing $$.
Promotion
This element is the part that people skip straight to. And funnily enough, if you haven’t done the above 3 points first, it’s useless! You are just throwing away all of your money and profits if you don’t know the answers to the above. Test yourself – get someone to ask you all of the above questions, try to overcome objections about your product. When you can passionately promote your product and overcome customers’ objections without any hesitation then you are ready to move on to the promotion aspect.
As you may already know, there are boundless avenues to promote your business. From mainstream marketing such as newspapers and magazines, to free publicity via press releases, to online marketing and social web, there are plenty of strategies that will fit well with your marketing mix, and save you thousands of dollars on your business promotion.

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Creating Your Own Marketing Action Plan

Mar 5

Posted by Emma Rhoades in The Marketing Dept | No Comments

A marketing action plan is the most vital part of the planning process in your business. It details what strategies you will use, when you will do them, and what you hope to achieve. Setting goals and a timeframe is also crucial. Below are 5 tips to help you create your marketing action plan.

1)      What are you really selling? You need to work out what your benefits are, rather than your features. For example, if you are selling natural baby products, then your feature may be ‘all natural products’. But what does this mean for me? It means that I won’t have a chemical baby or bubs will be less prone to health risks etc.

2)      Define your own uniqueness. What is your USP? And try not to use cop out’s like ‘top service’ or ‘money back guarantee’. Find something that is unique about you and your business, that no-one else can replicate. Then use it. Use it all over your website, your emails, any interaction you have with your clients and prospective clients.

3)      So who might your target market be? Take some time to really think about this. Following on from the baby example above, you may think that your target market is mothers. And in a way, it is. But if you delve deeper into this, and ‘segment’ your market further, you will find that your marketing can be much more targeted. For example, if your products are priced at the higher end of the market, then you need mothers with a certain amount of disposable income. You won’t want to be attracting the bargain hunters, and this means you can cross out coupons as a method of marketing.

4)      Which strategy is for you? This is where many people fail to do some real research. The average business owner believes that the best way to market their business is via advertising. Wrong. Advertising may work for some businesses, but not for others. So how do you know which strategies work best for you?

Think about your target market. Your ideal customer. How are they feeling? What emotions do they go through before purchasing your product? Appeal to these emotions. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself how would they go about purchasing my product. For example, many products needs to be felt and touched before purchasing. Use strategies that incorporate this emotion.

5)      Track and report on how all strategies are doing. Always track your marketing. Ensure you keep an eye on it and take out what isn’t working, and increase those strategies that are working.

 

By now, you will be noticing that creating your own action plan takes time and effort to get it right. If you are unsure of what strategies will work best for your business, contact Emma at Diva Promotions and apply for your very own, personalised marketing action plan – http://www.divapromotions.com.au/actionplan or get your free list building guide – http://www.divapromotions.com.au

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We are dumb… USE IT!

Feb 4

Posted by Steve Gray in Growth, Innovation and Creativity, People!, Starting out in business, The Board Room, The Marketing Dept | 1 Comment

Ok.. some of you are… (not you specifically…)

I wanted to raise your interest in a thought I had this morning watching the news, someone did something dumb and I thought “Derrh! what an idiot”, then I started to mentally add up the dumb stuff…

  • Stop violence against women, great idea, but why not just Stop Violence…
  • War, probably the dumbest concept of all time…
  • Teachers stand and deliver to classes with an attention span of two seconds, heck cut the crap give the kids engaging material which causes them to want to be interested.
  • Cigarettes, no nutritional value, no other value, not even cool anymore… BUT people buy them. I don’t get it, never have, never will, dumb…
  • Barriers on high bridges to stop suiciders jumping, no biggy put them in NOW! Or give them a trampoline to make it a fun exit… (apologies if that offends).
  • Transport ticketing systems that cost millions and don’t work, hmm other countries have systems that work, copy them…
  • Solar panels for power on roofs, umm, hey guys someone start a publicly listed energy Co that wants to put them on the roofs of businesses, let alone houses, the economy of scale makes it useful surely. Could be a way of stimulating the share market again…
  • Cars that burglars can break into easily still. just set a std guideline that says the car Co’s have to fix the problem now… how long has this been an issue… grr DUMB.
  • Paperless offices, great idea, simple answer, stop selling printers… then watch people sort out the issue fast.
  • Empty shops, as long as shops are owned by private enterprise there will be issues. Too many too expensive and in poor order. Too many are running at a loss so they don’t have to pay too much tax, yep that’s why there are so many crap ones about.
  • Too many grumpy old guys, over fifty, out of work, become grumpy and a burden somehow. No one likes a grumpy person, and too many guys over fifty (oops that’s me too!) have to contend with being redundant and replaced (young kids are cheaper, faster and tech savvy…. grr!) run down… I call it “Death of a Salesman syndrome” (after the play and book of the same name.) The wisdom these guys can have collectively should be used (somehow) and not shelved.
  • Councils… (I guess that speaks for itself in some ways.) many people whinge about them…
  • Defence forces (perhaps that should be offence forces) what if they were peace keeping forces that if a hostile situation broke out they could be quickly retrained to shoot etc… a humanitarin force not in combat camoflague.
  • Water, it’s every where, but not a drop to drink (too salty) but hey we have to import the technology and use up precious power to run a desalination plant… (when we get it) and will it be enough? and hey why not put the water in to the top of the river system so the whole state can benefit… dumb, and why not investigate a solar powered one? Anyone go a prototype of a portable model?
  • Too much alcohol is causing major punch ups and violence… so stop serving it in ways where people can consume too much.
  • No power, we are running out of power on hot days to run airconditioners, they still sell heaps of them though… any solar power cells in your area? What about a wind turbine? Heck there are enough power poles, can we have mini turbines to mount atop these?
  • We have water usage issues, yet they still sell inefficient washing machines, dishwashers etc. DUMB, just sell us the best, hey do that for power too.
  • Every year thousands of new businesses start up and lose HEAPS of money when they go belly up in a few months… DUMB! Lets come up with ways to set up these start ups so they have the BEST chance of thriving. lets create “thinkubators” to make it easy for them to learn about business, research, get started and supported in the all too important start up phase. heck a stimulus package for businesses like this could have BRILLIANT flow on effects… I guess this means the government ins DUMB for not thinking of it.
  • $2 shops, heck I can buy all sorts of garbage for next to nothing, do we need it? nope, do we want it? not really does it help the economy? hmm ask people in local manufacturing if it helps them… does it help the businesses in high st anywhere look good? nup… dumb…
  • Op shops that open in main streets next to or near fashion shops… ooh nothing drags down retail areas more than an op shop. OKAY! they have their place BUT can we have some control please… and why so many…(It’s a sign of the times I guess…) DUMB (perhaps it’s the council for not providing guidelines here.)
  • Hand done signs on windows of stores, sure Uncle Harry is a dab hand with a brush, but your specials painted by him on the window look like garbage… you saved how much? and made how much? Nup not bright… in fact DUMB.
  • Bullying… As the economy slips further down the gurgler, Bullies everywhere are able to inflict more pain and hassle on their victims… “they can’t go elsewhere, so they have to put up with me…” (sinister chuckle ensues). Its an OHS ISSUE plan for it, do something and kick their butts.
  • I need a license for a car but not to be a parent, that makes sense… NOT, DUMB… how many dysfunctional families can the world take! Teacher’s everywhere will be able to tell you the hassles they cause. Simple tip folks, a parent’s key role is to build the child’s self esteem… Does it happen enough… nope.
  • Welfare organisations, why so many? Surely five admin departments is better than 25… The cost saving surely is worth it. DUMB! “Oh lets help more people… oops no money left… oh what a pity…”

Go on add to the list (in the comments section please.)

BUT figure out ways to make money out of any of these ideas and you might well be sitting on a goldmine… :)

A thought to finish on… Frank Zappa (musician) in one of his songs loosely said “If we are created in gods image, therefore if we are DUMB then GOD IS DUMB, and maybe even a little ugly on the side…”

 

Silly Season Service…

Dec 27

Posted by Steve Gray in The Customer Service Dept, The Marketing Dept, The Sales Dept | 2 Comments

It’s just afer Chirstmas and all through the land people are buying, while others take orsers, sell etc.

It’s a great time for retailers, it’s all so busy.

Me I’m after an item, and like to compare prices and hunt about for a good deal (so I’m a cheapskate at times, negotiating can be like that.)

I saunter about zipping through lines of shoppers going this way and that, slow fast, turn right, shoot down an aisle negotiate another bunch of people… I get to my destination to be greeted on browsing with a pimply faced kid who asks, “Are you right?” I have a standard response to that, “I’m fine thanks” unless “narky” and I give them a serve of “Great question are you implying I’m otherwise wrong?…”

The other one they serve up is, “Can I help you?” perhaps it’s a better approach but I go for “I only want help if I’m drowning…” This generally stops them in their tracks.

If I was running a retail  type business I would sack INSTANTLY any staff member who said either of these.

For goodness sake, chat to me, get to the point and discover if I have a need or want, but spare me the pathetic lame approaches, say hi, after all I am human and may well spend enough to pay your wages this week, but put me off and your wages will go elsewhere very fast!

Folks if you are in retail teach your people so say hello, how are you, good morning etc… and then follow this with some pleasant banter that engages me more effectively. Then and only then can I let you through to be able to find out what I want.

For those of you who find this pedantic, lots of people are put off subconsciously by these initial approaches and will shop with their feet, going elsewhere in search of their needs. I will be amongst them.

A few good ads… or a few good men?

Nov 18

Posted by Steve Gray in Chill out!, The Marketing Dept | No Comments

In though times the tough get going!

Your business and the flurry of market meltdowns

Oct 4

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, IT Dept, Innovation and Creativity, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, The Marketing Dept, The Operations Dept | No Comments

An interesting article in the Melb Age newspaper on the flow on effect to smaller businesses.

In an interesting basic view, if the big banks can’t get money to lend, or they are pulling their heads in “Just in case” then your chances of getting credit of some kind may well be hampered, in the short term maybe not a big deal, but in the bigger picture the squeeze could be on!

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