Are You Guilty of One-Dimensional Marketing?
Are You Guilty of One-Dimensional Marketing?
Whenever we start working with clients on building a small business marketing system, we go through a period of discovery. During this phase, one question we like to ask is what the client has done to date in the way of marketing. A common answer goes something like this, “well we tried sending out postcards and that didn’t work. Then we got talked into radio and that didn’t work, then we tried a trade show and that really didn’t work either.”
So if all marketing tools can work, how can this be? Far too often people treat their marketing like a one hit wonder. Someone tells them a certain marketing initiative was highly effective for them and off they go to try the marketing idea of the week. But alas, they don’t get the same result. This is because they are practicing one-dimensional marketing.
By one-dimensional marketing, what I mean is that people often assume that ONE marketing activity will yield results, and of course this is simply not the case. Now you might be thinking, but I did the SAME marketing activity over and over again and still didn’t get a great result. While you are at least on the right path, your marketing is still only one dimensional.
The reason these activities don’t work to plan has to do with the number of times your target audience needs to be exposed to your message and the credibility your message has with them. In today’s age, consumers need to be exposed to your message 7 – 9 times before they will buy from you. This can be fast tracked if the source of your message is considered highly credible by your customer.
In order to be highly effective then, your marketing should:
1. Incorporate a 2 step advertising campaign
2. Include multiple marketing tools
3. Be consistent
2 Step Advertising Campaign
If your business is a low cost item and transactional in nature then you may be able to skip this step. But if you are promoting a service or high ticket item, this can be a much more effective way to generate qualified leads.
In a 2 Step Advertising Campaign your initial marketing promotes a free report, trial offer or some other low risk offering. Once a customer has shown interest in this offering and shares their contact information with you, you can continue to educate them on your products and services through a well though out follow up campaign.
Sadly far too many people spend money on advertising and promotions and have no follow up strategies to stay in touch with the qualified leads that come through the door.
Include Multiple Marketing Tools
There are so many cost effective ways to market your business that go far beyond traditional advertising methods. Networking, for example is a form of promotion. It is cost effective, but not necessarily time effective. Other tools may be time effective, but cost more. Small businesses always need to balance these two valuable resources to determine which promotional tools they should use.
Consider postcards with a free offer, a personalized letter, online advertising via association newsletters, bus stops. The list really is endless. These types of activities give you control over your marketing and can help smooth out peaks and valleys.
However, most people overlook very powerful tools such as building strong strategic alliances and referral strategies, writing and public speaking. These tools add way more credibility to your company at very little cost.
By having multiple strategies your target audience could very well, receive your advertising material, be referred to you by a strategic alliance and also hear you speak. Combined together this becomes a much more powerful marketing tool.
Be Consistent
I often get asked how much money a company should spend on marketing. My answer is always the same (and certainly not found in any marketing textbook). It is the amount you can afford to right a cheque for every month without throwing up. This way you will stay committed to your marketing endeavours. Any large amounts that you can’t afford could end up depleting you before the multiple marketing effect has a chance to REALLY kick in.
You must stay consistent with your marketing and veer away for the marketing idea of the week! Think of your system like a very large boulder that takes great effort to move, but once it is in motion, is a powerful force to reckon with!
Are You Guilty of OneDimensional Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Cidnee Stephen's Website.
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Here’s a bold statement. There is no such thing as a bad marketing tool, just bad planning. You can choose skywriting, bus benches, TV or the web and it CAN work, if you know the buying patterns of your ideal client and you don’t fall victim to what I call one-dimensional marketing.
Whenever we start working with clients on building a small business marketing system, we go through a period of discovery. During this phase, one question we like to ask is what the client has done to date in the way of marketing. A common answer goes something like this, “well we tried sending out postcards and that didn’t work. Then we got talked into radio and that didn’t work, then we tried a trade show and that really didn’t work either.”
So if all marketing tools can work, how can this be? Far too often people treat their marketing like a one hit wonder. Someone tells them a certain marketing initiative was highly effective for them and off they go to try the marketing idea of the week. But alas, they don’t get the same result. This is because they are practicing one-dimensional marketing.
By one-dimensional marketing, what I mean is that people often assume that ONE marketing activity will yield results, and of course this is simply not the case. Now you might be thinking, but I did the SAME marketing activity over and over again and still didn’t get a great result. While you are at least on the right path, your marketing is still only one dimensional.
The reason these activities don’t work to plan has to do with the number of times your target audience needs to be exposed to your message and the credibility your message has with them. In today’s age, consumers need to be exposed to your message 7 – 9 times before they will buy from you. This can be fast tracked if the source of your message is considered highly credible by your customer.
In order to be highly effective then, your marketing should:
1. Incorporate a 2 step advertising campaign
2. Include multiple marketing tools
3. Be consistent
2 Step Advertising Campaign
If your business is a low cost item and transactional in nature then you may be able to skip this step. But if you are promoting a service or high ticket item, this can be a much more effective way to generate qualified leads.
In a 2 Step Advertising Campaign your initial marketing promotes a free report, trial offer or some other low risk offering. Once a customer has shown interest in this offering and shares their contact information with you, you can continue to educate them on your products and services through a well though out follow up campaign.
Sadly far too many people spend money on advertising and promotions and have no follow up strategies to stay in touch with the qualified leads that come through the door.
Include Multiple Marketing Tools
There are so many cost effective ways to market your business that go far beyond traditional advertising methods. Networking, for example is a form of promotion. It is cost effective, but not necessarily time effective. Other tools may be time effective, but cost more. Small businesses always need to balance these two valuable resources to determine which promotional tools they should use.
Consider postcards with a free offer, a personalized letter, online advertising via association newsletters, bus stops. The list really is endless. These types of activities give you control over your marketing and can help smooth out peaks and valleys.
However, most people overlook very powerful tools such as building strong strategic alliances and referral strategies, writing and public speaking. These tools add way more credibility to your company at very little cost.
By having multiple strategies your target audience could very well, receive your advertising material, be referred to you by a strategic alliance and also hear you speak. Combined together this becomes a much more powerful marketing tool.
Be Consistent
I often get asked how much money a company should spend on marketing. My answer is always the same (and certainly not found in any marketing textbook). It is the amount you can afford to right a cheque for every month without throwing up. This way you will stay committed to your marketing endeavours. Any large amounts that you can’t afford could end up depleting you before the multiple marketing effect has a chance to REALLY kick in.
You must stay consistent with your marketing and veer away for the marketing idea of the week! Think of your system like a very large boulder that takes great effort to move, but once it is in motion, is a powerful force to reckon with!
Are You Guilty of OneDimensional Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Cidnee Stephen'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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