The old interruptive model doesn't work. Customers are tuning out. They no longer listen to 'in-your-face' messages. What does work, more often than not??
1) Obviously if you go into a store you are more prone to buy brand. Brand still matters in all markets, so building your brand still works. It can lead to more leads and customers.
2) In Canada, going to a website to check a company's offering is the number one way people buy. People spend more time on the internet than watching TV, so make sure your website works. Too many of our businesses have outdated websites that have in your face, push messages. Instead, we must tell the prospective customer how we can change their lives. The website alone should give prospects some value whether or not anyone buys from you. Pretend you are talking to your best customer and you understand their needs and wants, and are always rewarding them for their loyalty. What do they need to know to be better? What answers do you have for their real-world problems? Give them value and provide calls to action that could be of real value if they act on them. Provide call to action deals accordingly.
3) Put a face to the brand. Forge a genuine connection with your market/customers, you have to be one of your biggest fans, and it helps to be vocal about it. Contrary to what we hear from today's gurus, marketers are not staying behind the scene. Customers respond positively to a human to human outreach which adds a face to the brand. By building connections between people and brands, marketing can make a product more interesting and more valuable and be the seed to long term loyalty. Get out there. Write blogs, give speeches, do workshops, write articles.
4) Support a good cause, especially if it fits your brand. Let your market know about it. For years we have supported Athletes Canada. We have trained and coached many of Canada's Olympic athletes. And every year our team coaches and trains young, native Canadian entrepreneurs at Project Bayshick. Give back in a very meaningful way. For us, we love working with these groups.
5) According to a Nielsen report, two thirds of the world's internet population visit social networking or blogging sites. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are used for business and personal use. Happy consumers can create a ground swell of support and free marketing. (think online Zappos - up to one billion in annual sales in just a few years), or how a few mistreated consumers can cause tremendous damage to brands. (think Dell Hell) What consumers think is that companies should ramp up social media usage to identify service/support issues not to promote their products. Consumers want and like to know you are listening, so listen and mean it. Customers can tell if you don't. However you do it, listening is more than a strategy. If you aren't listening and responding to what you hear, you could be in trouble and missing opportunities.
Google is now considered the most valuable brand in the world today, even though it spends almost nothing on advertising. They provide great value and stand for something. Employees want their companies to stand for something and they will give their best effort when they are working toward a cause they believe in. No baloney! When your marketing provides value and allows your people to accomplish their dreams, they will tolerate quite a bit. By creating marketing that people choose to engage with and that improves people's lives, we are reaching the highest level of personal success.
Actions: Questions to answer...
What is your brand about? Does it represent changing customers lives? How?
What can you do to build a brand dialogue in-house?
How does your website give your prospects value other than an 'in-your-face' description of what you do? How could it?
What can you do to build a face to face connection between you and the brand? (speeches, blogs, etc)
How is your social media strategy working for you? Is it about listening and responding to customers?
What good cause are your supporting that fits your brand and could add meaning to your brand?
What is your social media marketing strategy? Are you in the market's face as an unwelcome guest or do you use it to support, listen and respond to your customers? If it isn't the latter, what will you do?
Incidentally I am leading a small group "Wake Up Your Business" coffee strategy huddle at my office on October 28th from 8:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. at 2121 Argentia Road. It is filling so enroll now. It will be done in a workshop fashion, but we will have some dialogue so we will review the most important actions to sell for the rebound and to boost performance...now. No cost.
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