Taking the Personal Approach With Your Marketing

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I logged onto my computer and headed for my Gmail - a personal birthday greeting from Google. My first thought was "wow, Google knows everything about me!" This was followed quickly by a realization that (a) that's because I told them all about myself in sundry ways; and (b) that makes my user experience unique to me. Oh, and (c) - they have some very smart marketers over there at Google.

Any marketer worth her salt knows that mass marketing is, if not dead, then certainly wobbling around on its last legs. Bringing a custom message to your target audiences is not only a more effective approach, it is more cost efficient, too. This blog, for example, is for those who follow me and are interested in what I have to say about marketing. I don't publish it as an ad in the newspaper for the whole world to see because, frankly, most folks don't care about marketing. I would be wasting a ton of money to buy newspaper ads for that purpose.

Likewise, your business' marketing efforts can and should be targeted. That requires some work on the back end - creating segmented marketing lists and custom messages, for example. It can be more time consuming than just developing a TV spot and buying time on the SuperBowl so the whole world can hear what you have to say. But in the end, you will save money and get better results.

Segmenting is more than just dividing up your customers by gender or age. It can include geographic locations, product choice, buying history, brand preference or even birthdays. Wouldn't you rather get an Email telling you when your favorite brand of shoes is on sale than a blast notice that everything in the store is 10% off? How about a notice from the grocery store telling you that your usual brand of laundry soap is on special this week - would that be worth something to you as a customer?

You can take those same ideas and use them in your own business, no matter what kind of business you have. It takes effort to understand your customers first, though, and know a little bit about them and their preferences and buying history. You might have to do a little more record-keeping, but in the end you will be establishing a closer, more personal relationship with your customer.

Interested in knowing more about small business marketing? Visit my website at www.DeppeCommunications.com or call me to discuss your needs at 904.524-0170.

What is a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy is different than a goal, but it’s easy to understand why many business owners get them mixed up. It seems logical that they should both take you to the same end point, so what is the difference? When I meet with a potential client, I like to start the discussion by talking about their goals for their company. Marketing strategy should always be driven by the company’s goals, otherwise you risk ping-ponging your marketing investment all over the place without any real way to measure results. As I like to say, if you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will get you there.

By identifying what your goals are first, finding the right marketing strategies will follow more naturally. Let’s use an example of a small business that has a website but is not getting many visitors. Since the business is in the service industry, the owner relies on the website to drive leads – phone calls and e-mail inquiries. These leads turn into quotes and some of those quotes will turn into new business. If the owner knows that about 1 in 3 leads turns into a new job, then it is easy to figure out how many leads are needed to hit the business goals. For the example, let’s say 50 leads are needed every month to generate the business needed to reach the goal. Now, we have to get people to visit the website and that’s our strategy. Figuring out how to get people to the website – that’s tactics. Once we get people to the website, we need them to take an action – make a phone call or fill out a form. That’s a strategy. Moving things around on the website so that Call To Action (CTA) is more visible – that’s a tactic.

It’s natural for people to start with the tactics first because that is what they are most familiar with and they want to take some action. Unfortunately, not just any action will do – and some actions can cost you plenty without providing any return on investment. By backing up and starting off with your goals, then determining your strategy, the tactics that are necessary will fall into place quickly. And, you are likely to realize that a brochure or a phone book ad is just not going to help you get to your goal. Or maybe it will – but until you have thought it through, you won’t know.

Are you struggling with trying to figure out where to invest your marketing dollars? Give me a call and let Deppe Communications help you build a marketing plan that has its foundation on your unique business goals. 

Figuring Out How to Market Your Small Business

Whether you are a new business or a well-established mom & pop operation, figuring out how to best market your business can be a challenge. Unless you have training, education or a background in marketing, it can be overwhelming to consider the many choices available to you today. Indeed, with the advent of social media, blogs, E-mail, websites and E-newsletters - to name a few - marketing today is vastly different than it was just 10 years ago.

If you are going to go it alone and do your own marketing, I have a few suggestions you can use to get organized and create a strategy that works for you.

1. Figure out what you are trying to accomplish. One of my favorite sayings is "if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Most businesses want to increase sales, but determine exactly how much sales increase you want. In other words, set a goal or two. Try to stay away from vague objectives like "increase awareness of my business."

2. Figure out who you are talking to. In past blog posts, I've talked about figuring out who your target audience is and gave some tips on how to make that determination. Choose your most profitable segments to target at first. Narrow it to just two or three if you can.

3. Figure out how to reach those people. Where do they live, what do they read, what social media do they use? It's easy to go online and search for media habits of a particular demographic. For example, a Google search for "media habits of teen males" yields more than 1.8 million results.

4. Figure out what they need to hear about your business. Depending on the segment you are targeting, your message could be about an upcoming sale, free delivery or your convenient locations and hours. Think through what your target audience cares about and, based on your experience with your customers, what motivates them to take action.

5. Figure out how much you can spend. This means both time and money. Small businesses have a limited amount of both, so whittle down your messaging to the best two or three and focus on one or two ways to get the message out. That may be E-mail and social media, or an ad in the paper and a radio commercial. It all depends on everything you have already learned above, remembering that some things (like social media) can require a larger investment of time while others (TV commercials) cost more. Knowing what your budget is up front can help you decide how best to invest based on what you believe will yield the most payback.

Finally, I suggest that as you go through this exercise, you put it on paper. I created a brief outline you can use as a guide and you can download it for free here. If you want help developing a marketing plan, please E-mail me.

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.