Are You Guilty of Shotgun Marketing?
Are You Guilty of Shotgun Marketing?
"Meet me in Vancouver and I will treat you and your family to a spectacular dinner cruise. Be sure to be on time."
Huh?
If I've thrown you off, great. That's what I meant to do. Did I mention anything about:
• What the occasion is?
• Where in Vancouver to meet?
• When to meet?
• Which Vancouver? (For those of you not from the Pacific Northwest, there's a Vancouver, B.C. and a Vancouver, WA within a few hundred miles of each other.)
Without this vital information, you wouldn't stand a fighting chance of getting to the right place at the right time. And, even if you drove past the "dinner cruise" by accident, you'd likely keep on driving because you wouldn't recognize that you had arrived.
Sounds like a silly proposition, doesn't it?
But the not-so-funny thing is that this is the way many small business owners approach their marketing.
GUILTY OF SHOTGUN MARKETING?
Let's look at your own marketing plan: Does your company have specific, measurable marketing goals and outcomes? If you do, great. Now, are they up-to-date and written down?
If you don't have a strategic marketing plan that is current and documented, you are guilty of what I call "shotgun marketing." Shotgun marketing means that you shoot from the hip, spending money on advertising and other promotional campaigns without a particular end-target in mind and not driven by a focused, coordinated strategy. With shotgun marketing, your strategy may be based on the latest revenue crisis or the concerns and whims of your leadership and management team. It may be based on market opportunities defined by market research and analyses, which may or may not be accurate predictors of future consumer demand.
Another problem with shotgun marketing is that if you don't have marketing goals that are specific and measurable, how will you be able to take action on them? Moreover, how will you know when you have "gotten there?"
AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT NOT TO DO:
I once worked at a medical center whose vision was to become the preferred provider of health care in the county. The problem was that no one could ever tell if and when we had ever achieved that goal. The administration never established specific measures of success for this part of their vision. It was just something that sounded good and justified paying a facilitator a lot of money to help create at a weekend leadership retreat.
As a result of this lack of clarity, the medical center could easily have become the preferred provider for patients who did not have the means to pay for health care! Their plan wasn't actually a plan at all. It didn't include specific measures of success or an action strategy for fulfilling on this vision.
In order to be sound and effective, marketing plans must be clearly defined and include specific and measurable results by which you gauge the success of strategies and execution. Without such clarity, it is difficult if not impossible to succeed, much less take any action towards achieving those goals.
THE CURE:
Lifetime laser marketing is based on actual consumer feedback and data that reflects the problems, needs, and desires of members of your target audience, as well as their values, emotions, and expectations.
Obtaining this information is simple. Just ask them.
You'll want to obtain demographic information, such as age, gender, family and marital status, education, and income. And, more importantly, you'll also want to acquire psychographic information that includes descriptions about what your best consumers believe, think, feel, and value—what are their hobbies, what cars do they drive, what do they read and watch?
Whether you use point-of-sale surveys, mail out questionnaires, or use online surveys, the key is to ask your potential and existing consumers about who they are, what they need and want, what they like and dislike. If all you did was ask them: "What would you like to buy from us that we don't already offer?" you'd be way ahead of the game.
SUMMARY AND ACTION PLAN:
1. Define your target audience based on the particular problems and needs they specify you can solve and fulfill through your products and services.
2. Based on this information, develop your marketing plan to include goals that are specific, quantifiable, and attainable.
3. Using your understanding of your target market's values, emotions, expectations, and buying habits, make your product and service offerings irresistibly appealing to them.
To put it simply — Lifetime laser marketing is based on delivering what your consumers say they want. This approach, as opposed to "marketing by shotgun," enables you to enhance your customers' experience, add greater value to your relationship with them, increase their loyalty, and raise their lifetime monetary value.
To your prosperity.
But hey wait…"Where's that dinner cruise?"
Are You Guilty of Shotgun Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit George C. Huang's Website.
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Here's an open invitation to all my newsletter readers:
"Meet me in Vancouver and I will treat you and your family to a spectacular dinner cruise. Be sure to be on time."
Huh?
If I've thrown you off, great. That's what I meant to do. Did I mention anything about:
• What the occasion is?
• Where in Vancouver to meet?
• When to meet?
• Which Vancouver? (For those of you not from the Pacific Northwest, there's a Vancouver, B.C. and a Vancouver, WA within a few hundred miles of each other.)
Without this vital information, you wouldn't stand a fighting chance of getting to the right place at the right time. And, even if you drove past the "dinner cruise" by accident, you'd likely keep on driving because you wouldn't recognize that you had arrived.
Sounds like a silly proposition, doesn't it?
But the not-so-funny thing is that this is the way many small business owners approach their marketing.
GUILTY OF SHOTGUN MARKETING?
Let's look at your own marketing plan: Does your company have specific, measurable marketing goals and outcomes? If you do, great. Now, are they up-to-date and written down?
If you don't have a strategic marketing plan that is current and documented, you are guilty of what I call "shotgun marketing." Shotgun marketing means that you shoot from the hip, spending money on advertising and other promotional campaigns without a particular end-target in mind and not driven by a focused, coordinated strategy. With shotgun marketing, your strategy may be based on the latest revenue crisis or the concerns and whims of your leadership and management team. It may be based on market opportunities defined by market research and analyses, which may or may not be accurate predictors of future consumer demand.
Another problem with shotgun marketing is that if you don't have marketing goals that are specific and measurable, how will you be able to take action on them? Moreover, how will you know when you have "gotten there?"
AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT NOT TO DO:
I once worked at a medical center whose vision was to become the preferred provider of health care in the county. The problem was that no one could ever tell if and when we had ever achieved that goal. The administration never established specific measures of success for this part of their vision. It was just something that sounded good and justified paying a facilitator a lot of money to help create at a weekend leadership retreat.
As a result of this lack of clarity, the medical center could easily have become the preferred provider for patients who did not have the means to pay for health care! Their plan wasn't actually a plan at all. It didn't include specific measures of success or an action strategy for fulfilling on this vision.
In order to be sound and effective, marketing plans must be clearly defined and include specific and measurable results by which you gauge the success of strategies and execution. Without such clarity, it is difficult if not impossible to succeed, much less take any action towards achieving those goals.
THE CURE:
Lifetime laser marketing is based on actual consumer feedback and data that reflects the problems, needs, and desires of members of your target audience, as well as their values, emotions, and expectations.
Obtaining this information is simple. Just ask them.
You'll want to obtain demographic information, such as age, gender, family and marital status, education, and income. And, more importantly, you'll also want to acquire psychographic information that includes descriptions about what your best consumers believe, think, feel, and value—what are their hobbies, what cars do they drive, what do they read and watch?
Whether you use point-of-sale surveys, mail out questionnaires, or use online surveys, the key is to ask your potential and existing consumers about who they are, what they need and want, what they like and dislike. If all you did was ask them: "What would you like to buy from us that we don't already offer?" you'd be way ahead of the game.
SUMMARY AND ACTION PLAN:
1. Define your target audience based on the particular problems and needs they specify you can solve and fulfill through your products and services.
2. Based on this information, develop your marketing plan to include goals that are specific, quantifiable, and attainable.
3. Using your understanding of your target market's values, emotions, expectations, and buying habits, make your product and service offerings irresistibly appealing to them.
To put it simply — Lifetime laser marketing is based on delivering what your consumers say they want. This approach, as opposed to "marketing by shotgun," enables you to enhance your customers' experience, add greater value to your relationship with them, increase their loyalty, and raise their lifetime monetary value.
To your prosperity.
But hey wait…"Where's that dinner cruise?"
Are You Guilty of Shotgun Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit George C. Huang's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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