New businesses often get their marketing wrong. They spend too much, too soon – and on the wrong things. Then, when they have their act together, there is no money left to invest in promotional activities which will drive business growth. The net result is inconsistent promotion of the wrong message to the wrong people. You need to avoid this, rather expensive, trap.

Two recent examples struck me. One, a classic car restoration business, emailed the area organisers of the national club which was holding its AGM within three miles of their premises inviting everybody for coffee and doughnuts and a look round to see the quality of their work. The other, a hair and beauty salon, spent a fortune on printing and entertainment for a celebrity hosted launch event but ran out of marketing funds immediately the event was over and were unable to afford low key advertising and promotions to keep new people coming through their doors. The hair salon went out of business within six months of launch.

Be Precise

The ideal marketing activity creates awareness of your product or service in the mind of a person who is about to spend on a product you can supply. Spending a large proportion of your scarce budget on generic promotions that are read by a large population of whom a very tiny proportion are likely to be in the market for a product like yours is just plain wasteful. Equally, expensive launch events with a large entertainment budget are wasteful for locally based operations targeting a small geographic area.

Audience

Start by working out, precisely, who is in the market for your offer. At this stage, you should be able to write down:

  • Who they are – be specific and realistic – it will inform your campaigns.

    • If your target is 30 something coffee fanatics who work and shop in a particular town, then a leaflet hand-out outside a well known coffee shop could be just the thing.

    • If you are targeting people with a passion for walking, then finding local clubs and emailing a discount offer to area organisers is likely to be effective – if your campaign is carefully designed and well worded.

    • Some professions are easier to target than others – buying good quality data for Accountants in a specific area can give good results for a telephone campaign – I am not particularly good at outbound calling, but I got 4 appointments from 12 calls to Accountants – great odds.

    • Managing Directors, Marketing Managers, Purchasing Managers and Finance Directors are on a lot of lists – if you really need to target these job roles, your proposition had better be good.

  • What problem they are solving with your offer.

  • How much they are likely to want to spend.

  • What it is about your offer that sets it apart from your competition – your USP in this application.

  • Where do they go for information on products and services like yours.

    • Web – is your site easy to find through the search engines using search terms that real customers use – not your internal techno-babble.

    • Product Reviews – where.

    • Magazines – write down titles.

    • Journals – which professional bodies? Is there a Continuous Professional Development programme?

Offer / USP

What differentiates your offer from competitors? Write it down. Think in terms of benefits rather than features.

Again, you need to be using the real insight you have gained from speaking to customers and prospects – otherwise you will end up promoting things that people either take for granted or do not care about.

Media

Now, and only now, can you start to consider the media you might use to communicate your message. Make sure that you select communication methods that are right for your audience. Check the audience figures – if you are considering advertising, make sure you know what the circulation figures are. ABC figures are a good start for print media. Online resources will be able to provide detailed numbers (including conversion rates) – or do not spend with them.

Measure – Everything

Every advert, every PR piece, every web-lead – keep records and use them to refine your plan. It is possible to measure everything. Discount vouchers in adverts should have a promotion code unique to each publication. Online campaigns are easier to measure – if you are not comfortable with the different tools, get help from someone who is.

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of Results-Zone. Results-Zone bring extensive knowledge and experience gained in Blue Chip organisations to businesses like yours. They ensure that your business is fully exploiting a well thought through operating plan. They work alongside you and your team – as business results managers. They ensure that your team and your business are elevated to the results-zone. They bring you “hands-on” experience – similar to employing high quality management skills without the risk or costs in recruiting full time employees.

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