Marketing strategy without a comprehensive plan and measurable tactics is as ineffective as being in a yacht without a rudder. Yes, you might still be afloat and even covering a lot of territory, but without a steering mechanism you’re bound to be off course – which is precisely what a sound strategic marketing plan will avoid.

As challenging as it already is to build a successful business, doing the wrong things well is a waste of time and money. It undermines productivity, decreases morale and creates internal confusion. And, lest we forget, lacking a sense of direction in business costs sales and yields missed growth objectives.

Worse, the alienation of strategy from execution is highly conducive to conflict, where those developing the strategy are increasingly at odds with those executing the tactics. Strategy and execution are symbiotic, much like the rudder and sails of a yacht serve a single goal – to get from point “A” to point “B.” Neither one serves the purpose well without working in concert with the other.

The best method to align these two separate but equivalent functions is to develop a strategic marketing plan that includes a positioning statement to clearly define your unique selling proposition and outlines measurable pathways to achieve concrete outcomes. By tying strategy to execution, uniform and cohesive tactics can be developed that remove uncertainty.

Does your business rely on a time-tested plan that incorporates your value proposition, competitive edge, market position and revenue goals?

It’s not enough to know and present your products. It’s essential to understand and present your products and services so customers identify them as being relevant and beneficial.

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3. Website Marketing Strategy

Email clickthroughs and website visits are no longer the measure of marketing effectiveness. Instead, these firms are intently studying the economics of the sales and marketing funnel and meticulously pinpointing where improvements in conversion rates can reap the greatest payoff in top-line revenue growth.

The focus today is beyond the click, where leads turned over to sales pass through a series of gates on their road to becoming closed business. Optimizing the conversion rates – the rate at which sales leads pass through the gates from one stage to another – can have an enormous impact on the resulting revenue.

Simply increasing the flow of leads into the top of the funnel is not enough – and in fact may be unachievable in a down economy. Improving the rate at which current leads are qualified, correctly routed, accepted by sales, included in forecasts and ultimately closed becomes the new battleground in a business climate that forces organizations to do more with less.

But in an economic environment that has taken many potential buyers out of the market, how can marketers hope to get more responses from their existing database instead of chasing new lists of prospects?

By applying the following 5 strategies that incorporate more advanced marketing techniques. According to a recent report from Jupiter Research, marketers employing these tactics “are almost twice as likely to attain conversion rates of more than three percent, compared with others that do not.”

1. SEGMENTATION

The purpose for segmenting a market is to allow your marketing and sales program to focus on the subset of prospects that are “most likely” to purchase your offering. If done properly, this will help to insure the highest return for your marketing/sales expenditures.

Within your prospect database, determine what the compelling need is and who is most likely to experience that need. Your segmentation will be determined by a match between the need of the segment and your offer. Some “need” categories for segmentation include:

• Reduction in expenses
• Improved cash flow
• Improved productivity
• Improved manufacturing quality
• Improved service delivery
• Improved employee working conditions/benefits
• Improvement in market share/competitive position

2. Personalization

The whole point of marketing is to build a relationship between a customer and a brand through which both derive benefit.  It is a direct, one-on-one and mutual commercial exchange. For the customer, the brand is experienced at a very personal level.

That’s why marketing and sales communications need to involve personalization. To be clear, there are many communications tools that allow for personalization. But the point here is not to simply address segmented prospects by name, but to craft a unique message for the segment that speaks to their unique need and your equally unique offer. Remember these 3 keys to creating personalized messaging:

1.    Know the target of your  communication
2.    Adjust when, where and how you communicate based on that knowledge
3.    Ensure that your message makes it via the right channels to its intended recipient

3. Testing

To some, testing is a process designed to: 1) make marketing more complex, 2) slow down production or 3) prove to that pigheaded boss that, yes, we really do know what already works. But, in fact, the true purpose of testing is to determine effectiveness.

Without testing, it is almost impossible to improve marketing efforts. What we are doing may work, but would something else work better? That is the question that cannot be answered without testing.

Here are five quick tips for testing:

1. Conduct multiple test marketing at the same time
2. Send to different people on the same list
3. Perform a reasonably-sized test to ensure a statistically valid response
4. Be ready to replace it
5. Continue monitoring the results

Remember, it is likely your competition may be testing and learning something that you have not discovered. Your perfectly good marketing program may be beaten by your competitor’s even better one.

4. Multi-Channel Campaigns

Multi-channel marketing has its roots in the age-old “media mix” concept, which reaches buyers at different times in different ways with a consistent message. The theory is that effective use of multiple media helped the brand become top of mind when the buyer was ready to make a purchasing decision.

Today, the number of channels available has blossomed with the growth of electronic and social media and the internet. This has prompted new marketing methods that produce integrated campaigns across multiple media channels sumultaneously.

The most successful campaigns focus on:

1.    Delivering messages over a variety of channels based on customer preference
2.    Establishing and building relationships
3.    Using what is known about the target to create a compelling offer

Customizing the message and delivering it in a format that the recipient is comfortable with is the key.

5. Event-Triggered Marketing

Trigger marketing relies on customer behavior to execute a response to a certain event or action. The method produces campaigns that are more precise, migrating from a product-centered view of the world to one that is more customer-centric.

Triggers generally fall into four categories:

1.    External—something happening in the financial industry, for example
2.    Customer life—job loss, marriage, retirement, or the birth of a child
3.    Behavioral—customer purchase, poor service experience, friend recommendations, and the like
4.    Communication—inquiry about a product upgrade, new service, etc.

Each represents a specific moment when the customer is both interested and engaged.

Today’s most successful campaigns use triggers to automatically initiate communication when customers take certain actions. This is done by establishing a set of business rules that act on pre-assigned criteria. For example, a target clicking on a specific link in an email demonstrates interest and triggers follow on communications to move them further along the buy cycle.

Using dynamic content, companies can deliver individualized, relevant communication to each customer based on their response to triggers. Like any marketing program, timing and relevancy are the keys to driving customer interest. Creating triggered-based marketing programs activated by customer actions adds to their relevancy and, ultimately, increases results.

Related posts:

1. Five Strategies to Emerge Strong After the Recession
2. 10 Strategies To Grow Your Business
3. Recessionary Marketing: How Best-in-Class Companies are Weathering the Storm

A new global understanding that Sustainability—in every conceivable meaning—is critical to our future well-being means that companies will have to do more than just embrace the notion of being a good corporate citizen. To keep customers and win new ones, you must:

• display greater transparency and honesty
• have conversations as opposed to one-way advertising
• champion collaboration instead of an “us versus them” mentality
• demonstrate generosity—not greed
• be edgy and daring as opposed to safe and bland

2. Urbanization

The numbers* speak for themselves:

• By 2008, 50% of the world’s population lived in cities, compared to 5% a century ago.
• In the last twenty years, the urban population of the developing world has grown by an average of 3 million people per week.
• By 2050, 70% or 6.4 billion people will reside in urban areas.
• Most of this growth will take place in Asia with 63% of the global urban population, or 3.3 billion people, living there in 2050.

Where will this lead us? The compact, wired and wealthy urban communities that develop will spawn accelerated innovation in goods, services, and experiences and will influence which ones are quickly adopted. This creates fertile grounds for B2C brands keen on pushing the innovation envelope and, as a result, the B2B businesses that serve the B2C brands.

*Source: the Global Report on Human Settlements 2009, October 2009.

3. Life in Real Time

It’s not news that more people than ever are sharing, in real time, everything they think, do, and experience. The race to further embed online access into devices is driving much of the growth in real-time information.

What IS news for 2010 is the birth of numerous services that will capitalize on this real-time content avalanche. Look for more search engines and tracking services that will make it easy to find and group these live dispatches by theme, topic or brand. If you thought social media was a fad, think again! It’s time you figured out how to make your company the hot topic.

4. Frugality: The New Status Symbol

Luxury brands will struggle over the next few years. In the not too distant past of limitless spending, a shiny SUV complete with V8 engine and whopping 18mpg might have impressed the neighbors. But today it just might be cause for egg throwing.

It’s important to understand that what constitutes luxury is closely related to what constitutes scarcity. Luxury doesn’t necessarily equate to high prices. It’s about understanding the status triggers for your audience. From small electric cars to growing your own food to sewing your own draperies, folks are proud of their new found frugality and flaunt it like they once did their BMW’s.

5. Power to the Masses

In 2010, expect more impromptu, temporary meet-ups of strangers, mobs and crowds with similar interests, hobbies, political preferences, causes and grievances. Many of these will revolve around generating public attention or getting something done. And Twitter will lead the way.

The mobile web has bridged the gap between either being offline in the real world or being online but in one location—mostly living rooms and offices. It will dominate 2010, and will fuel new opportunities to help customers plan and communicate meet-ups. Any company that helps people to get and stay in touch, move from A to Z, or communicate before, during or after meeting up with others is sure to benefit.

6. EcoForce

While the current good intentions of corporations and consumers are helpful, serious impact on our environment will depend on making products and processes more sustainable without consumers even noticing. No longer relying on customer opt-in to environmentally friendly products and services, the brands that will make huge inroads in 2010 are those that don’t leave much room for customers to opt for less sustainable alternatives to begin with.

Whether driven by government intervention, serious corporate mandates, or brilliantly smart design— anything that by default leaves no choice, no room for complacency, and thus makes it easy for customers to do the right and necessary thing, will see growth in the future. One example: Chrysler has announced it will be distributing DVD drivers’ manuals with their 2010 models instead of standard paper-heavy manuals, estimating this one change will save over 20,000 trees per year. Not to mention significantly cut costs to produce them.

7. Track and Field

Once again, technological development has created a monster. Tracking and alerting saves time, makes it impossible to forget or miss out, and ultimately provides yet another level of control. And we’re not just talking UPS here. Count on everything being tracked and alerted on—from friends to fuel prices to flights to authors to pizzas to, of course, any mentions of oneself.

The real opportunity in 2010? Tracking and alerting is something that customers actually need and want (as any online catalog operation knows). They are quite literally asking for relevant information and giving you permission to provide them with more. Isn’t it time you figured out how to start adding to the current information overload?

8. G is For Generosity

There’s nothing like the holidays to bring out the news clips on how one small act of kindness resulted in an avalanche of good. It was big in 2009, and it will be even bigger in 2010—particularly all things that that make giving and donating painless, if not automatic.

With collaboration being such an integral part of the pay it forward movement, expect lots of innovative corporate giving schemes that involve customers by letting them co-donate or codecide on how much and where to give. In case you’ve been living under a rock this year, here’s one great example:

TOMS Shoes donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair they sell online. As of August 2009, TOMS has given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need. TOMS shoes plans to give 1 million shoes by 2012. And you know what that means, right? They plan to sell 1 million shoes by 2012, too.

9. Preservation Nation

Now that hundreds of millions of consumers maintain some kind of online profile or presence, who’s going to protect and serve? Personal profiles, representing an ever-greater emotional and financial value, will produce a burgeoning market for services that protect, store, and—in case of emergencies or even death—arrange the handing over of one’s digital estate to trusted others.

For consumers and businesses eager to keep confidential information out of the wrong hands, secure digital data storage is imperative. And it’s not just about digital afterlife services. How about profile scrubbing? There has to be opportunity for the firm that can offer services to erase every trace of those drunken spring break photos.

Swiss DNA Bank, which launched in August 2009, offers ultra-secure DNA storage that meets Swiss banking regulations. For a one-time fee, customers can store both their self-swabbed DNA and up to 1 GB of digital data, forever. The DNA and the web servers are held in a former Swiss military underground nuclear shelter and customer’s heirs can buy access to their relatives’ shared data. Really.

10. For Mature Audiences Only

As if reality TV hadn’t gone far enough. Audiences who are, by now, thoroughly exposed to anything and everything, can handle much more quirkiness, daring innovation, exotic flavors and shocking communications than traditional marketers could have ever dreamed of. Don’t say you haven’t tasted bacon-infused chocolate!

Closely linked to most, if not all, of the trends highlighted here, mature society will simply not tolerate being treated like uninformed, easily shocked, inexperienced, middle-of-the-roaders. So, in 2010, the challenge your business faces is how to be a tad more daring and diverse in order to keep up with culture—without being rude, nasty or inconsiderate.

The trends in this report all touch on doing things differently, driven by changing consumer preferences and desires that will impact every business in one way or another. And while no one has a crystal ball, we can all rest assured that future developments will occur unevenly and irregularly. Now is the time to study and learn from those brands that are already mirroring today’s more diverse, chaotic, networked society, and then—outdo them!

Related posts:

1. Top Trends for 2010
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3. Don’t Kill Direct Mail in the Name of Social Media

Many businesses have begun to see the greater importance of maintaining their current customer base—especially in a contracting economy. But don’t fall victim to the notion of once a customer, always a customer. Just because a customer used your service or bought your product once, doesn’t mean that they will continue to do so in the future.

It’s important to understand the business logic of executing client retention sales and marketing activities. Key concepts underlying client retention marketing programs include:

Lifetime Value of the Customer

In the past, a transaction model was used to analyze customer purchases. For example: What is the revenue and profit effect of this purchase? The new model calls for viewing customers—both actual and potential—on on the basis of their expected purchases over the course of the expected “lifetime” of your relationship. Taking this long-term perspective can provide justification for marketing expense dedicated to client retention activities.

Share of Customer

In the context of a long-term relationship with a customer, client retention marketing seeks to maximize the share of the customer’s category spending over a lifetime of purchases. Your business might set an overall goal of capturing a 75% share-of-customer. That means that current customers would choose your firm as their vendor 75% of the time, for as long as they continue to buy your industry’s product or service.

“Cost-to-Retain” Versus “Cost-to-Acquire”

Depending on whose estimate you choose to accept, it is 4 to 15 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer. Client retention marketing leverages this disparity by focusing on customer-retention and increasing the likelihood that customers will continue to buy from you.

The 80-20 Rule

In general, the 80-20 rule asserts that 80% of any given effect is likely to be caused by a mere 20% of the relevant variables. In marketing terms, 80-20 says that 80% of a company’s revenues are likely to be generated by 20% of its customers. Client retention marketing allows marketers to identify those top customers and provide them with recognition and benefits commensurate with their revenue contribution.

Here are 9 strategic actions recommended to achieve a strong return on investment for client retention activities.

1. Identify the needs of your existing customers. Where is their pain? How can you help?
2. Develop an action plan that focuses on customer retention. This could include a newsletter, monthly email program, appreciation gifts, personal notecards, tip or trend sheets, etc.
3. Use a customer relationship management system—even one you devise yourself—to help you regularly stay in touch with your customers and achieve Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA). Good intentions can quickly be forgotten when other business matters become pressing.
4. Reach back to clients and customers you have not done business with recently. Contact them to see how they are doing, update them about you and your business, and simply to let them know they are on your mind.
5. Show appreciation to your customers via thank you notes, special gifts, and other means of thanking them for continuing to do business with you.
6. Commit to continuing to gain new knowledge, skills, and experiences that will benefit your customers. The more your business has to offer, the more valuable you are to customers
7. Seek feedback and suggestions from your customers. By asking what they think, you are demonstrating that you value their opinions and ideas.
8. Be a resource for your clients and customers. Share ideas, information and contacts that will provide value to them.
9. Always follow through on the commitments you make to your clients and customers. You will earn their loyalty and trust by doing what you say you will do.

Ideally, your client retention program should begin with the first engagement, building a foundation for future retention marketing activities. Establishing regular communication via newsletters, email, mailings, etc. will foster continued awareness of your goods and services to induce ongoing purchases.

The result of your efforts should succeed in protecting a significant portion of your company’s loyal customer base and, quite possibly, secure a greater share of your customer’s budget. What are you doing to build a committed relationship with your current clients?

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On the other hand, 93% of the consumers recognized Mr. Clean, the genie on the bottle of the Procter & Gamble cleaner of the same name. They recognized Mr. Clean, even though he hadn’t been seen on television in 10 years, which shows you the power of advertising to register a simple message.

Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.

In our extremely over-communicated society, advertising is like a fog that envelops prospects at every turn. The only hope to score big is to be selective and concentrate on narrow targets or, in other words, take up a “position.”

The only defense the prospect’s mind has to cope with over-communication is to oversimplify the way it handles the messages. The mind, in other words, acts as a filter instead of a transmission system, rejecting complicated or conflicting messages and filing simple, repetitive messages.

In creating your position and crafting your message, you must look at it as a job of selecting the best material to break through the “fog.” The solution lies in the perceptions of the prospect’s mind—not necessarily in the reality of your product or service. Only by turning the process around and focusing on the prospect rather than the company or its products and services can a successful position be identified.

Positioning, then, is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. To succeed, the position must take into consideration not only the company’s strengths and weaknesses, but its competitors as well.

To increase your share of business, you will need to either dislodge your competitor (a very difficult task) or relate your position to theirs. This is where you must look for the hole.

Is it your smaller size? Lower prices? Better technology? Faster turnaround? Higher quality? Free . . .?

Here are some of the pitfalls to be wary of in thinking of holes to fill:

1. Do not fill a factory hole. (In other words, good strategy for the company but clients won’t buy it.)
2. Do not attempt to fill a hole that is taken. (You are not the first, largest, etc. nor do you need to take up that position for success.)

Related posts:

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Some years ago, in analyzing customer service provided by 14 major service companies, research performed by the Forum Research Corporation indicated:

• 15% of customers switched to another business because of quality problems.
• 15% left because of price.
• 70% departed because they didn’t like the human side of doing business with the prior provider of the product or service!

So, the reason you are willing to wait in line and pay so much for your brew is that human side that keeps bringing you back. Or is it a caffeine addiction?

We all can learn from Starbucks and others who have modestly duplicated their success. By tending to the human side of business, you retain existing customers and continue to attract new ones. How? Here are some ways your business might “humanize” its practices:

• Thank the customer or prospect within 48 hours of initial contact. (Hey, their time is valuable, isn’t it? And they chose to spend it with you!)
• Remember details about your customer by utilizing database technology. This is called data mining and not enough of it is done, formally or informally. (Remember when the pharmacist used to ask how your mother was?)
• Apply this information to attract similar new customers. If 80% of your customers are florists in Boise, maybe wedding planners would be a good target market, too.
• • Make an unexpected follow up call to check on satisfaction. Who wouldn’t be pleased to get a call or email just to see if you are happy with the product or service? No other agenda, please.
• All these things add up to developing lifelong customer relationships. It now costs six seven eight times more to earn a new customer than to keep an existing one.

Related posts:

1. Top 10 Marketing Mistakes
2. Four Rules to Keeping Customers
3. Nine Client Retention Strategies To Protect Sales
]]> http://strategicguru.com/why-do-customers-patiently-wait-in-line-for-a-3-cup-of-joe/feed/ 0 http://strategicguru.com/generation-x-marketing-understanding-the-next-wave-of-decision-makers/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://strategicguru.com/generation-x-marketing-understanding-the-next-wave-of-decision-makers/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:16:51 +0000 admin http://danforthdesign.net/sg/?p=449 One of the challenges in leading marketing is differentiating between media buzz and real information. We need to react appropriately to each. Increasingly, we’re hearing about GenX, Millenials, GenY and the like. From U.S. News and World Report to MSNBC to the Boston Globe and beyond, news reports and analyses are popping up that focus on Generation X, the next population surge to influence our culture, government and financial outlook.

In marketing, it is time to sit up and take notice. Generational marketing is gaining a foothold with U.S. and global corporations and the trickle down effect for regional and local companies will soon be here. But what, exactly, is generational marketing? To answer that, we must first understand how generations are created.

According to Chuck Underwood, author of The Generational Imperative:
“In the first 18 to 21 years of our lives, while we’re still in the fulltime classroom and not yet into adulthood, we’ll mold most of the core values and core beliefs that we’ll embrace for a lifetime. What we experience during those formative years, and what we are taught by parents and educators, will largely dictate our basic belief system for life. And those people our age, who experience the same times and teachings, will by-and-large share the same core values, and by doing so . . . become a “generation”. Whenever the times or teachings change significantly, as they have done regularly during our nation’s last century, a new generation is borne, with unique core values.”

Generation X is the Baby Boomer generation’s offspring. Typically in their mid-20’s to late-30’s, they are over 50 million strong and gaining momentum in affecting the products and services provided over the next decade and beyond. So what influenced them?

Divorce and working moms created “latchkey” kids out of many in this generation. This led to traits of independence, resilience and adaptability. At the same time, the rapid advance of technology trained Generation X to expect immediate results and receive constant ongoing feedback.

Watching parents get laid off and the public dissection of government and corporate scandals has led this generation to a healthy dose of skepticism of large companies, their employers and authority figures in general. Their commitment is to their work, not the company they work for.

Work-life balance is very important to Generation X after living with burned out workaholic parents. Considering careers as fluid, they are climbing the corporate lattice rather than ladder. They dislike authority and rigid work requirements and put their families first.

You may be thinking this is important only to those involved in consumer marketing. But consider a recent study that found today’s C-Suite is often occupied by those much younger than a generation ago:

“While executives in 1980 looked pretty much like those in previous decades, a dramatic shift in careers, and in executives themselves, began in the years after 1980. Today’s top managers of Fortune 100 companies are fundamentally different: They are younger, more of them are female, and fewer of them were educated at elite institutions.”*

Given what we know about Generation X, combined with the fact that many in our target market fit within this demographic, take into account the following guidelines
in all of your marketing:

DO go overboard to document that you’re giving it to them straight.
DO give it to them fast, using bulletpoints, short call outs, etc.
DO appeal to their desire to seek a reasonable work-life balance.
DO talk family with them—they value their home as a distinct refuge from the outside world.

DON’T use an inflated message or sales hype.
DON’T use the term “Generation X”—they view labels as an insult.
DON’T talk to them in terms of being part of a generation. X’ers don’t feel like a generation

No matter what generation you belong to, the best marketing approach speaks directly to the target market and their needs. You can never go wrong by conducting your marketing from your prospect’s point of view and keeping the focus on benefits.

*From a report by Peter Cappelli and Monika Hamori published in the Harvard Business Review that compared profiles of the top executives of Fortune 100 companies in 1980 with their 2001 counterparts.

Related posts:

1. What’s Working in Lead Generation
2. Lead Generation
3. Educating A New Generation
]]> http://strategicguru.com/generation-x-marketing-understanding-the-next-wave-of-decision-makers/feed/ 0 http://strategicguru.com/getting-a-good-fit/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://strategicguru.com/getting-a-good-fit/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:13:54 +0000 admin http://danforthdesign.net/sg/?p=447 So, I was ranting about the current state of marketing by universities the other day. Since then, we have booked two more tours and the dance continues. We are trying to find a school that is (a) close to home (b) but far enough away from home c) with a really good computer science program and (d) not a computer engineering program that is (e) challenging and (f) reputable and (g) affordable. Tall order, huh?

Trying to find the right college for your child is like trying to find the right business partner for your company. The fit has got to be right for you both to succeed. Here are a few suggestions for doing your homework before beginning a business engagement with Strategic Guru or anyone else:

1. Check their work. You want to “try before you buy” as much as possible.

2. Check their references. Sure, they are only going to give you their best but at least you will be able to speak to someone who is actively engaged with them.

3. Spend time getting to understand their business methodology. This ensures that your expectations can and will be met.

4. Go with your gut instincts. If you have a negative vibe from someone or you just
don’t seem to see eye to eye on key points, walk away.

At Strategic Guru, we offer a one hour complementary consultation. This is as much for us as it is for the prospective client. We want to see if the client is a good fit. Are their needs something we can successfully meet? Are their goals and expectations realistic based on our past experience? Is their budget in line with expected outcomes?

In my experience, when there is a good fit between two companies, you’ve got a win-win situation. Both companies benefit from the association, both companies’ needs are met and both come away satisfied. And these turn into long-term relationships that lead to a network of referrals to grow both businesses.

Related posts:

1. Nine Client Retention Strategies To Protect Sales
2. Another Day, Another Mailer
3. And The Winner Is. . .
]]> http://strategicguru.com/getting-a-good-fit/feed/ 0 http://strategicguru.com/is-direct-mail-dead/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://strategicguru.com/is-direct-mail-dead/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:12:02 +0000 admin http://danforthdesign.net/sg/?p=445 Some say that the advent of the internet combined with broadcast fax and telemarketing is putting an end to the use of direct mail. But consider this:

The enactment of the National Do Not Call list, in combination with screening by Caller I.D., has severely hampered telemarketing efforts. The Federal Communications Commission has all but eliminated the use of advertising faxes. Broadcast emails are often blocked by corporate spam blockers and reported response rates are poor.

In contrast, consider what has happened to direct mail. The advent of variable data printing has made one-to-one marketing possible. Response rates on this type of mailing far exceeds standard direct mail—shooting up from a dismal one or two percent to better than 10 percent response and, in some cases, as much as 30 percent. In addition, the Postal Service has eased regulations for sending irregularly shaped mail, making it more economical to send eye-catching shapes for outstanding returns.

Whether utilizing direct mail or another communication tool, marketing is, in its most simple terms, informing people about your product or service. And people prefer to learn new information in different ways. Some learn in a visual way, some tactilely, some through auditory means and some with a combination of any or all. Do you like to read the instruction manual cover to cover first, or dive right in without a backward glance?

Smart marketing takes these learning preferences into consideration when forming the strategic plan. With an integrated marketing plan, multiple tactics are deployed during a campaign that take into account varied learning preferences, the demographics of your prospects and their specific habits and tastes.

Related posts:

1. Accent direct mail
2. Don’t Kill Direct Mail in the Name of Social Media
3. A Marketing Lesson On Style
]]> http://strategicguru.com/is-direct-mail-dead/feed/ 0 http://strategicguru.com/a-marketing-lesson-on-style/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://strategicguru.com/a-marketing-lesson-on-style/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:05:52 +0000 admin http://danforthdesign.net/sg/?p=441 Direct mail gets tossed in the trash. No one reads the newspaper these days. Email gets caught in spam filters. What’s left to effectively market your business?

The truth is that these tactics and others all work well—and fail miserably—depending upon their execution. The failures have something in common. They didn’t appeal to the target audience. And there is a good reason why.

Marketing is, in essence, teaching prospects and customers about your products and services. To be the best teachers, we must understand that each student has their own learning style.

Three Learning Styles

Let’s visit the kindergarten classroom. Remember the letters of the alphabet, colorfully bordering the top of the room? In one corner are musical instruments, another has art materials, another books and still another building blocks.

WHY?

Because the kindergarten teacher doesn’t know the learning style of each of her students. Some may learn by looking at picture books. That’s a visual learner. Another loves to sing her ABC’s. She’s an auditory learner. Still another prefers drawing. He’s a kinesthetic learner.

Lifelong Learning

The fact is that your learning style stays with you for life.

For example, take me and my brother. We are polar opposites in our learning styles. When I purchase new software, I rip open the package and insert the cd to launch the software. I’m a kinesthetic learner and learn best by action, working with something and learning by trial and error.

But my brother! He’s over in the corner reading the 500 page manual cover to cover. “Wait!” he says.

“There might be a software conflict!” He is a visual learner and learns by reading diagrams, text books, and charts.

There is nothing wrong with either of us. We are just different!

Visual Learners

Learn through seeing…
These learners may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays including diagrams, illustrations, bulleted copy, videos, flipcharts and hand-outs. They tend to prefer sitting at the front of a room to avoid visual obstructions and often prefer to take detailed notes to absorb the information. Give this learner printed communications with plenty of visuals and provide the opportunity for them to obtain more detailed written materials upon request.

Auditory Learners

Learn through listening…
They learn best through verbal presentations, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say. Auditory learners interpret the underlying meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, pitch, speed and other nuances. Written information may have little meaning until it is heard. Consider speaking engagements, podcasts (internet audio files) and in person sales presentations for this learning style.

Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners

Learn through , moving, doing and touching…
Tactile/Kinesthetic persons learn best through a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. They may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration. Supplying this learner with product samples, trial services or otherwise actively engaging them works best.

Marketing Implications

So how do we appeal to these wide ranges of learning styles? By including multiple marketing tactics within one marketing campaign. Visual learners will want to read printed materials, kinesthetic learners will want to sample your product or service and auditory learners will want to meet you or hear you speak.

To obtain broadest appeal and best results, invest in several tactics with the same message, directed to the same target market, and executed during the same time frame. For example, advertise in a publication targeted to your best prospects and, during the same time frame, send the publications’ subscribers a direct mailer. Use these two tactics to drive prospects to visit you online for a sample or trial offer, or to register to hear you speak at an event, listen to a podcast or attend a webinar.

The Learning Cycle

The key to successful execution of these marketing tactics is to ensure that each one conveys the same message, using the same copy points, images, call to action, colors and placement. All of these must also reflect and support the brand identity you have already carefully crafted.

Repetition is the answer to getting results. Like the evenings you spent memorizing your multiplication tables, learning takes time and frequent repetition. So, once you have a tactical plan that uses:

• techniques to appeal to all learning styles
• an engaging message
• an irresistible offer
• the most likely prospects to take advantage of the offer
• you must repeat your marketing tactics to penetrate the consciousness of the potential buyer. It takes time—6 to 12 months—to build a memorable impression AND trust AND desire. Remember, you are the teacher and your students will need the entire school year to learn their lessons!

Related posts:

1. Is Direct Mail Dead?
2. Internet is the New Marketing
3. What’s Working in Lead Generation
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