When you think about marketing communications what springs to mind? Slogans, a bit of PR, your website, possibly your blog and your customer facing materials?
When I think about marketing I think process, test and measure.
I love it when people tell that marketing doesn’t work. When you drill deeper, the what that doesn’t work is the inconsistent approach to it. I know I have been that inconsistent person and I should know better. Naughty Dale.
I can preach about marketing with the best of them. I know a lot about marketing and I should do, I have been doing IT for over 25 years, but I think that when you come out of corporate life and set up on your own, it’s one of those things that along with finance, filing and making the boss tea, it all just becomes too much. And the reason is that you don’t follow the process. And of course you are working on your clients marketing and yours gets waylaid.
As solopreneurs your time is consumed by so many things, that you begin to lose sight of what you are in business for, you reach overwhelm. There is the social media plan, the blog, networking and and and. One answer of course is to outsource what you can, but for some this isn’t possible.
The other thing I notice and this isn’t just small businesses or authors, it is everyone. At the start of your business or your book you put masses of effort in, you have a point to prove and a Chablis habit to maintain (or whatever your guilty pleasure is) and then when your funnel is full you stop marketing.
Then, shock horror as the business dries up, you start to panic and take your eye off who your ideal customer is and what you are in business for, you flounder and lose focus.
What about those businesses then, who keep on stuffing it in the top end without thinking about the backend. What happens when all of your fancy marketing and focused sales activity brings home the bacon, but the pig squeals that you aren’t delivering on your promise because you didn’t think about how you were going to service your clients. What then?
Marketing isn’t just about filling the funnel, it is a process that goes across the business. Everyone is involved – even if that everyone is you, your VA and dog.
A wise man said ‘marketing is a process, it has a beginning and a middle, but never an end, because it is a process’ or something along those lines.
It’s a process where I cannot possibly guarantee you returns in the way that you might demand, because the process that is right for you needs setting up and testing. When you have tested something, look at it and ask what could I do better and just keep doing it, until you get it as right as you can.
Market conditions change and you have to keep your eye on what’s going on out there. What works today may not suit the market tomorrow. Legislation may change and you may find yourself without a business. Yes it does happen. I once found myself on the receiving end of the government pulling the plug on the home computing initiative – with just six weeks notice.
I am going to suggest that right here, right now, you stop. Draw a line in the sand and take stock. That’s right just stop and reflect. That’s what I am doing right now. I have made me my client – yeah I know weird. I am re branding and refocusing, I am auditing myself and if truth be known I feel a little foolish for letting things slip, but that’s ok because I am on top of it – I am a hard task master.
So – line in the sand time.
Your marketing communications plan is one of the most important function of a business alongside making sure the cash flows effectively.
Your marcoms plan will:-
- Ensure your business and brand speaks with one voice (even if that is just you – think partners, book collaborators or joint venturists)
- Enables diverse or even globally spread teams to communicate in an integrated manner
- Makes sure your message is heard above the noise in the marketplace
- Help you to connect and resonate with your target audience
- Give you a better return on your marketing spend
- Ensures that marketing is integrated with your overall business objectives
- Target your efforts more effectively
Yep, you need a process.
Steps to ensure your plan is properly thought out
New business opportunity profile
What makes a perfect (or near perfect) customer? Describe or draw one. What do they need or want from you?
Your objectives
- Know your customers better and use that knowledge to enhance profitability
- Grow the number of customers, the amount of sales per customer, and the lifetime value of the customer
- Highly profitable customers: What can we do to keep these customers and keep them spending? How can we attract more like them?
- Profitable customers: How do we get more of these customers to adapt the habits (spend) like our highly profitable ones?
- Unprofitable customers: How can we phase out these customers and, in the meantime, serve them economically?
- Serve each segment more effectively and at a lower cost
- How do your customers prefer to receive information about your offerings?
- How do your customers use this communications during the buying process?
Can I throw a spanner in the works? You have your NBO, but what about your blockers? You know the ones who could stand in your way. Find them and think about what benefits they get from you. How will you win them over. I know life is tough.
The process
I told you that it was about the process.
How are you set up to sell? What are the steps you take, are they effective? What communications work best where? What is your customers buying process?
Different customers have different buying processes, and your sales process should vary depending on what you are selling to whom. To move a prospect from identifying a need to making a purchase, you must first make them aware of what you are offering, understand how it fits their needs, build credibility, forge a trusting relationship, etc . By identifying and understanding the different stages of sales and buying process it will make it easier for you to tailor your messages and the pathways you use.
People buy (and you are a people) because of what they get from you, not what you want to sell them. I know, that’s a bit of a shock to learn that your people don’t want change management or to step into their golden goddess light, they just want focus, to be stress free, cut costs and have more profit.
Objectives
What do you want to happen as a result of your marketing communications activities? Remember SMART.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Timebound
Set objectives that you can really do something with.
- Market share objectives: Obtain 3% market share of the [your industry] by 2028.
- Profit objectives: To increase sales margins by 10% from 2025 – 2028.
- Growth objectives: To grow by 15% year on year for the next five years.
- Brand awareness objectives: To increase brand awareness over a specified period of time
Messages
What do you stand for? What will people get as a result of buying from you? What do you want your customers to know about you? What words resonate with your audiences?
Pathways
What ways do you communicate your message? Which works best? How integrated are they?
Budget
How and when do you set it? What are your campaign/promotion etc costs and what your ROI (return on investment). You could develop a simple spreadsheet, if you don’t use a CRM system, which enables you to cost out each campaign or activity. You can then measure the returns you get against each one. Do not expect miracles, its takes time for your marketing messages to get through.
Remember testing, tweaking and testing.
Timeline & resources
When will all of this take place? Who will manage it all?
Feedback & Measurement
There is no such thing as failure only feedback. This is your opportunity to perfect what you do. Plan, test, measure!
Some tips
- Use, share, and update your marketing communications plans regularly. It should be a living plan. As your understanding of your markets and customers develops and changes, you should consider adapting your strategies and policies in response.
- Don’t rush the marketing communications process. The secret is in the research and planning and is the foundation for many significant decisions.
- Don’t assume you already has a thorough understanding of your customers, what they value, how they like to be communicated with, very few people actually know their customers well.
- Talk to your customers. Build a relationship based on trust. You are aiming to become an extension of their business, so act like it. Ask them what they like and value. It will be worth it.
Today is a good as any day to draw that line in the sand, audit, reflect, consider and then tweak. You will be glad that you took the time to refocus.
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