Learn about our Marketing Strategy Package…

Awareness

Definition: knowledge
Antonyms: ignorance, insensitivity, obliviousness, unawareness, unconsciousness
(Answers.com)

A marketing strategy is designed to outline a strategic process that allows businesses to concentrate their limited resources on the best opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. From the numerous potential opportunities that exist, a marketing plan can then be developed to provide a roadmap for the tactical initiatives that will be implemented.

At a high level, marketing opportunities can be compiled into three main categories:

• Awareness activities
• Offline marketing and advertising campaigns
• Online marketing activities

Today, we cover the first of the three:
Awareness activities

Awareness activities are just that – activities that build awareness of your product or service. They are most effective when targeted at a vertical market, an industry segment, or with advocates and influencers. The key here is exhibiting specialized or subject matter expertise within a defined area.

White papers: White papers are a powerful tool in establishing brand recognition and marketplace credibility. The most successful white papers are not sales brochures and do not mention the writer’s specific product or solution – they inform the reader of a specific trend or issue and identify potential new innovations or alternative ways to solve the problem.

Trade publications: Trade publications catering to identified verticals can be a great prospect for interviews and article submissions. This works especially well if used in conjunction with trade support – purchasing an ad for the purpose of building name awareness, while also requesting to be introduced to a writer to pitch the article idea.

Speaking engagements: Similar to trade publications, speaking engagements are a good opportunity to establish a presence within a vertical market. A call for speakers is normally listed on a conference website by the promoter about 9 months prior to the conference. Information is generally listed on desired presentation length, types of opportunities preferred, etc.

Press releases: Well-written press releases are a great marketing and search engine optimization/link building opportunity. Once the release is written, edited and ready to be published, it should be distributed to maximize awareness and create inbound links to the website, which should include social media sites like docstoc, posting to web sites, and using a PR distribution service such as PRWeb.

Advocates & influencers: As key industry contacts are established, utilization of these resources as influencers can provide one of the fastest ways to achieve recognition and credibility in the marketplace. Build a contact database , even if it is a spreadsheet, an regularly contact these important influencers.  Networking opportunities and speaking engagements at conferences and trade shows provide a great opportunity to meet and establish relationships.

Customer testimonials: Authentic customer testimonials that have specific and quantifiable information and data points can be one of the most effective marketing methods available. Don’t wait for your customers to volunteer their testimonial – most don’t. Ask them for it or, even better, write it for them and have them approve it.

Bloggers: Bloggers are industry experts (well, sometimes) with an easy method of access – their blog. Find bloggers in your industry or market, then subscribe and read the blog consistently before jumping in with comments. Once you have an idea of the types of discussions that occur, begin providing meaningful, relevant comments on posts. Be authentic and don’t add comments filled with links to your website or promoting your product.

Next-> Opportunities: Offline Marketing

In a similar manner, marketing positioning is the point guard of your marketing communications. Positioning defines and controls the overall identity of your product or service and involves the art of ensuring the unique benefits of your offering are effectively communicated and matched with the prospective customer’s needs and desires.

Time and thought should be devoted to crafting an optimized marketing positioning statement.

• What position do you want to occupy in the customer’s mind?
• What are the truly unique product attributes and benefits of your offering?
• Are these benefits already considered relevant and perceived as valuable by the potential customer?
• What else is perceived by the customer as a similar, better or worse offering?
• Why?

Market Messaging

Good market messaging clearly communicates the key ideas of the positioning statement to the customer in a straightforward, consistent manner that leads them to action.  Great market messaging makes it a memorable experience.

Is Your Positioning an All Star or a Bench Sitter?

Positioning and messaging are topics that many small businesses consider too difficult to tackle and/or are simply stuff that corporate marketing teams, agencies and consultants like to discuss to make them sound important. While the latter part of the statement may be partially true, any business can and should seek to have an All Star positioning statement and marketing messaging.

Customers have a perception of your offering with or without your input. Isn’t it time to run some offense, control the message and ensure clear communication occurs at all points of customer contact?

Please contact us with your marketing service, website design,

social media marketing, search engine optimization
and new product consulting needs.

Next-> Opportunities: Awareness Activities

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Sun-tzu, The Art of War, 722-481 BCE or 403-221 BCE

Anyone that has spent much time in the corporate world has heard this quote more than a few times, but in the real world of small business, can it still be applied to knowing your competition?

Absolutely. It takes time, and the ability to leave your prejudice at the door, but every business regardless of size should know and learn from their competitors by gaining an understanding of the marketplace from the eyes of the customer.

To begin, bias for one’s own product or service has to be set on the side. You must assume the role of the customer and view the offering choices as they do. See what they see. Think what they think. Question what they would doubt. Pace the buying process as they would. Fear what they would fear.

Start with the search. People looking to fulfill a need or want seek out a solution. Who and what (ads) do they find and where do they find them?

Offline marketing and advertising

• Gather all relevant information – yours and the competitors. Potential sources include: Yellow page ads, Direct mail pieces, Trade journal and industry magazine ads, Trade shows (look up the registration list online), etc.
• Track your advertising activity and the competitors’ in a spreadsheet (Ad type, placement, size, date, frequency, etc.)
• Compare your ads and their ads with a critical eye. Are you getting out- advertised? Which creative is the most effective? Take note of the headlines, the copy, the branding. Is there a call to action? Is there a consistent look, feel and messaging across delivery channels?

Online marketing and advertising

Organic or Free Search. Most product searches start with an online search, so begin there. Start with Google, but don’t forget Yahoo and MSN.

Now, what search terms do new product or service seekers use to conduct a search? The search term it is not, is your business name. Most small businesses are not known by prospects and must be found by the key words and key phrases entered into the search engine. Google has a free tool to discover/refine keywords and there are numerous others (free and not free) available.

Once you determine the key words and key phrases, work must begin to assess the SEO strengths and weaknesses of your competitors to gain a competitive advantage in search engine rankings. This process is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, and is an entire topic on its own. If you are unfamiliar with SEO, you need to get familiar, and quickly. Google has a beginner’s SEO guide available or check out DIY Website Success.

Paid Search or Pay Per Click (PPC). PPC ads are the paid ads that appear on the right and top of search results pages and say “Sponsored Search” above the ads. Here is a simple method to gain a quick understanding of your ads versus your competitors:

• Determine your top key words from your keywords list
• Open a Word document and create a table, 4 columns wide with 14 rows
• Label the top row of each column with a key word or phrase
• Label each row of the left column Top 1, Top 2, Top 3, Right 1, Right 2, etc.
• Now search the first phrase and cut and paste the ad results into the table, one result per cell

When you finish, you should have all the page one PPC results for your top 3 key words or phrases. Repeat for as many keywords as needed.

Google also has quite a few free tools available for AdWords advertisers. Simply create/login to your Adwords account, go to Tools and begin exploring.

Next, for the top ads (the biggest competition because customers see them first), examine their landing pages, or the place where the person is taken if that ad is selected. Does the thought path flow well or does the landing page have nothing to do with the ad? Remember, the closer the landing page is to the ad creative and messaging, the more likely the success.

Competitors’ Web Sites

If you aren’t already visiting your competitor’s web sites at least a couple of times a month, again, you need to be. Simply create a folder in your toolbar, bookmark their sites and then choose a day of the week to visit them.

Next-> Marketing Insanity

Considering the significant cost associated with marketing and advertising efforts, when was the last time your company spent some quality time ensuring the correct features and benefits were being utilized across all marketing efforts?

Features

Every marketable product or service has features, but what makes a feature unique?
Take the apple.

Features
Common: Round, comes in multiple colors
Unique: Contains soluble and insoluble fiber
Obscure:   Contains quercetin

Developing a robust feature list

♦ Compile a full feature list for each product or service offered, from common features to the obscure.

♦ Brainstorm with the entire organization (development, sales, customer service, implementation, etc.) to uncover all product features and customer uses.

♦ Document alternate terms or names used for features by customers and competitors. (Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples ~ pun intended).

♦ All features should be fully documented and clearly described to provide customers a clear understanding of the attributes of the product or service.

The “So What?” Test

Now, take the list and feature by feature, ask “So what?”

♦ Some features are merely features.

An apple is round, but aside from the fact that the human eye finds round objects more pleasing than square objects, it is not really a marketable benefit.

♦ The middle ground will most likely yield benefits for the most wide segment of customers.

Apples contain pectin, a soluble fiber that can lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of stroke, and insoluble fiber, which provides a filling effect that helps suppress appetite and improve digestion.

♦ The obscure facts will appeal to niche segments and those with more educated needs.

Fresh apples have a high level of quercetin, an antioxidant that researchers believe may help fight the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

So What Marketing

The list of significant “So Whats” should serve as a foundation for developing or uncovering any required updates to the marketing positioning and marketing messaging.

♦ All marketing collateral, such as product brochures, web design copy, PPC ads, etc. should be created using the most relevant features and terms, while highlighting the product’s unique benefits.

♦ The more unique or niche features and benefits may be good for developing long tail search terms.

♦ Conduct an annual or semi-annual check-up to ensure features and benefits remain up-to-date.

Next-> The Buying Process

Think of the discovery process method much like a brainstorming session ~ the goal is to obtain a large amount of information & criticism is not allowed (there will be plenty of time for that in the next phases). For items that require self, and/or competitor assessment, honesty is the best policy.

So, let’s get started gathering…

Marketing

• Create a list of previous & current marketing tactics (online & offline)
• Gather previous market research obtained in the last 12 months
• Compile examples of marketing collateral, presentations, etc.
• Create a library of press releases, newsletters, etc
• Pull together website and/or blog information & statistics for the last 12 months
• List trade shows & industry events
• Do you participate in any co-op, partner or affiliate marketing programs?
• Assemble ROI information.

Products or Services

• Outline the products/services offered in 1 page or less
• Describe the key product benefits and competitive differentiators
• Accumulate relevant product documentation (descriptions, feature lists, etc)
• What are the top 5 most profitable products offered?

Sales

• Identify lead sources and, if possible, lead generation ROI
• Document the sales process on one page with approximate timeframes for each phase of the sale process
• Describe pricing rationale, previous use of incentives, discounts, etc.
• Assemble previous sales statistics for the last 2-3 years (separate new & existing customers)

Existing Customers

• Examine your customer database – what information is being collected & is it accurate?  If available, analyze industry information by SIC or NAICs code, geography, etc.
• Brainstorm with the sales team (if applicable) to create a profile of your current customer – who is the hunter, the buyer, the influencer?
• What are their likes, dislikes, buyer motivations, etc.?

Competitors

• Identify your top 3-5 competitors
• Summarize each competitors’ strengths & weaknesses, customer base, marketing tactics, online presence, etc.
• Create a competitor comparison grid. Across the left, list your company & the competitors identified above. Across the top, list the key elements of why prospects purchase from you – product, price, availability, customer service, etc,)
• Assign a competency ranking of 1-10 (10 is best:think bowling, not golf) for each company & element.

And last….

What is a (reasonable) definition of marketing success?

Next -> Defining Features and Maximizing Benefits

Over the next series of posts, we will cover the various aspects of developing a marketing strategy and then creating a tactical marketing plan.

• The Discovery process
• Defining benefits & features
• The Buying process & the participants
• Who are your customers?
• Markets – SMBs, verticals, specialties
• Competitors – learn from them
• Marketing insanity
• Positioning & messaging
• Opportunities: Awareness, Offline & Online
• Developing a marketing budget & a tactical marketing plan

The Novice: A newcomer, they apprehensively sit down.  They probably have a cheat sheet with them and perhaps a drink that they nervously sip a bit too often.   Interactions are brief, requiring much concentration and great care not to commit an error.

The Lucky One:  Always in the right place at the right time, the sun just seems to shine on them.  They have a little skill but only adhere to strategy hit and miss at best.   No matter – lady luck is on their side and things just seem to turn out right.

The Old Timer: They have been around the block a few times and will gladly tell you so.  They learned what they needed to know decades ago.
New-fangled techniques and strategy, smategy – they have all the skill they need, learned at the school of hard knocks.

The Aggressor:  With an unstoppable determination to burn through the budget in record time, they want to attack each opportunity with every available resource, regardless of the current situation.  Rash, un-informed decision-making based on gut-feel lands them in trouble more often than not.

The Expert:  Usually the quiet one at the table.  They have a strategy and know it, are constantly aware of the ever-changing environment around them, and make their spending decisions with precision, based on skill, and then hope to also have some luck.  They regularly evaluate their return and continually educate themselves to improve their skill level.

So, as you look around the marketing team’s staff meeting and get past the desire for a cocktail waitress to bring you a free drink, how is your marketing chip count?

Are you ready to move from basic to advanced strategy?
Does your strategy card have a copyright from the 1980′s?
Would a marketing audit reveal opportunities for improving the odds a bit?

Then, get into the game.   Buy a book, read a blog, hire a consultant.
Dallas was built by entrepreneurs beating the odds with hard work, good strategy and a bit of luck.

And remember…

• Develop a strategy before you begin
• Gain the skills, knowledge and experience to improve your chance for success
• Know the rules, the cost and your budget
• Don’t expect to win every time
• Comps are nice, but a great ROI is the goal
• Recognize that if you get caught cheating, you may get kicked out
• And… you can’t win if you don’t play.