Must attend seminar!
On Wednesday 14 March, I am speaking at the Marketing Institute of
Ireland Marketing Breakfast.
I am speaking on the topic “The Future of Marketing? (A lot) More
Different Than You Think!”
It feels like our jobs as marketers are becoming more complex, and
challenging, every day. New channels and platforms are emerging
continuously. Traditional marketing approaches with top-down, one-way
orientation are increasingly seen as dated. All the talk is about
multi-channel marketing, engagement, connections and customisation for
customers. How do we make sense of all this? As the Programme Manager
for the Digital Marketing Executive Programme, I have learned a lot of
‘stuff’ and pulled together a lot of ideas that I think will help
fellow marketers work out what’s next!
This event starts at 7.45am in Fire Restaurant, The Mansion House,
Dublin 2, and will finish by 9am. MII Members €15, Non-Members €25.
If you would like to attend, I would recommend booking straight away
by contacting Cecilia McLernon on +353 1 216 0156 or cecilia@mii.ie
The 4 horsemen of tech/mobile: Apple, Google, Microsoft/Facebook, and Amazon. Again.
Apple, Google, Microsoft/Facebook, and Amazon.
Last year, Techcrunch wrote that the four horsemen of the web were Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Groupon and that they were positioned as the best positioned to capture the estimated $20 billion in pent-up consumer marketing dollars
How things move on. In the new world scenario, there are really 4 horsemen of tech/mobile: Apple, Google, Microsoft/Facebook, and Amazon, but this time, the game is about patents, not pent-up consumer marketing.
Forbes claim Facebook needs patents, as it only has 160. Of course, that is why Google bought Motorola. Even Yahoo has 3300 patents.
Last year, consumer marketing; this year, patents. Investors appear to love patents. They should prefer consumers – they are harder to acquire and keep loyal! Yahoo still has them in drove – in fact, 700m of them per month. Which would you prefer: patents that you can (maybe) earn money in the courts – or real paying customers??
The Best Deal Around – The Internet
I remember reading an article last year by McKinsey Quarterly determined that internet use world-wide can be valued at approximately €150 billion.
If that number shocks you, their next conclusion may be even more surprising – 2/3rds of that represents free value for consumers. That’s €100 billion in free video, social networks, articles, email access… everything.
That value was derived at by asking consumers how much they would pay to do certain things online, and how much they would pay to avoid having their experience interrupted by advertising.
Imagine – Its 2pm and you’re hit with mid-afternoon fatigue. In a bid to stay awake, you open your latest email from your mum and it’s a link to a ferociously cute YouTube video of a kitten wrestling with a paper bag. How much would you pay to watch it? 1p? 20p? 15 seconds of your time watching a tedious advertisement for a product you’re not interested in? What if you had to monetise all your online communications that way?
ISPs, computer vendors, phone dealers, and subscription services like iTunes and World of Warcraft all take a share of this revenue, but the vast majority of it remains unmonetised.
The only proven method to date for monetising the internet has been indirectly through advertising – pay per click and banner ads – the costs of which are passed along to the consumer in the price they pay for the their final product. And yet, despite the €100 billion up for grabs, even now online advertising generally remains polite and unobtrusive. Search for “best price iPhone” in Google and you’ll be presented with a bevy of ads, but the paid ads are simple, easy to read, and only lightly differentiated from natural search results. Pay per click ads still represent a polite sales agent clearing his throat and saying “Pardon me, but perhaps I could interest you in this product?” instead of a guerrilla marketing agent throwing a flyer in your face and screaming “You must buy this product now!”
Somewhere between these two lies a way to monetize the Internet without completely turning off the average consumer. We just need to wait and see who discovers it first.
Advertising is Salesmanship-in-Print. Or maybe ‘Copy’ is salesmanship in print
This concept is so basic and so effective that we don’t even notice it any more.
Copy is what we are looking at with all marketing communications. Copy and the written word form the basis of a brand. Yet, then you think of creating a brand, it’s easy to think about pony-tailed advertising managers sitting around a conference room tossing around ideas with caffeine fueled creativity.
Yet a much simpler way is to go back to the origin – what we are really good at Unique Brand Story
Irish people are great at creating stories. Yet, with the odd brilliant exception, we do not harness the power of storytelling through great copy. Magners/Bulmers, Bushmills, Guinness – all the great booze brands do this. It creates a powerful connection to your customers. They feel as though they know you. This brand story paints a colorful vignette of who you are, what vision you hold, and what experiences made you the company you are today
Marketing Your Business The Right Way
To market your business the right way you need a good marketing strategy. There are dozens of ways to market your business the question is which ways are the most effective for your product or service? You can outline your marketing strategy with this popular saying, “Who, what, where, when, and how?”
Who is your target audience? Two major components of your target audience are what age group and which gender will be most interested in your product. Depending on what product or services you are trying to market you also may be able to target specific groups such as certain professionals or interest groups “hobbies”.
What is it about your product that is better then any of your competitors? Is it of better quality, does it have a longer warranty, does it cost less then the competition? You need to know what it is about your product that is better then the other ones around. These are things you will want to tell your target audience about your product.
I’m sure you have heard the first three rules of business and that is, location, location, location! Product placement is an important aspect of marketing. Make your product accessible to your target audience. If you are a small business you want to place it somewhere that gets high traffic. Depending on what you are trying to sell you want to be where you customers will be. Locate yourself near a shopping centre, hotels, restaurants or a main street that many people use to commute to and from work. This is the “where” marketing question you should ask.
When should you advertise your product?If you are using the media such as television or radio ads, this is a question to ask. When does your target audience generally watch television. If you are targeting men a good time to place your ad is during sports programming. Is it something children will want, then air it during cartoon programming. If you are using radio advertisement and you are targeting any adult. Try during rush hours, times when people are going to and from their jobs. Marketing your product at the right time is highly important.
No matter where you are marketing your product your audience needs to know how to get it. Do they have to go to a location to buy it? Can they order online or over the phone? How easy is it to pay for? Is it an expensive product, but very beneficial? Can it be paid for in instalments? These are also marketing questions you should ask.
If you want to be successful at selling your product you need to know what marketing steps to take.
Branding part 2.
I wrote recently about forgetting about branding. Although it is not strictly true, I do feel that we can get misled.
Actually brand and brand building itself is not the issue. Some people think a brand is a logo. Others that it’s something a marketing consultant or designer creates for you. Others think it’s a glossy brochure or something that’s imposed upon you.
Reality, the brand is simply who you are, sharpened and made visible and audible to the world. Or, as someone else once said, a brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
So, like it or not, we all have a brand and a positioning in people’s minds. The difference for small business are that they their brand through its actions, through its people and, most of all, through their offers made to the market.
Branding? Fugged about it!
The best way to market: ignore what everybody else is doing – especially big companies.
If you talk to brand marketers, they will generally tell to invest in the brand. If you talk to the direct response marketers, they will tell you to only invest in tactics where you can immediately track this metric.
Who is right?
Well, unless you have the money, my view is forget about branding and everything you hear about branding. The direct response guys will win hands down every time. Branding is for very patient people with deep pockets. If brand building occurs, then this is a happy by-product or your marketing actions. Sales and response is all that matters.
Many companies advertise because they think they have to, or to please the Board, the Chairman’s wife, keep investors happy, build brand identity or even to win awards. At the end of all that, they might sell something.
The criticism labelled by one of the speakers at the recent Marketing Institute of Ireland conference is that SME’s only understand a brand in the context of logo, signage, and thats it. Not in the wider context of what the purpose of brand is.
For SME’s – especially in the current climate, selling is all that matters. Worrying about the brand will not help you survive.
How To Market Effectively Even If No One Understands What You Do
So how do you effectively market your product or service when one knows anything about them because you’re in a new and emerging industry? How can you expect to get customers if no one understands what it is that you do?
If this is your situation then a big part of your marketing strategy will need to be educating consumers about what you do. If yours is a field that is relatively new, or perhaps misunderstood, adopting an education strategy can help consumers understand the benefits you provide and feel more comfortable with the idea of purchasing your products or services.
Educational marketing is best done through vehicles where you have space or time to fully explain your product or service and the benefits it provides. Or perhaps even to debunk some common misconceptions.
Publishing a newsletter or Ezine, or writing a regular newspaper or magazine column are great ways to educate and generate positive awareness.
Make sure your web site content clearly explains what you do. Provide free Special Reports so prospects can learn more.
Conduct free seminars or teleseminars, or provide consultations so prospects can meet you and hear more about how your product or service can help them.
Your marketing goal should be to get as much educational information out to your prospects as possible. Once they begin to understand what you do, they will be more open to your product or service.
They’ll also appreciate all the information you’ve provided. And, you will have earned their trust. People tend to do business with those they know and trust, or those who help them. So odds are if they are in the market for a product or service in your category you’ll be the one to get their business.