You’ve heard it many times, you may have even said it.
- “Email doesn’t work for us.”
- “Our audience doesn’t respond to ads.”
- “Our customers aren’t on Social Media.”
- “Direct advertising doesn’t work.”
- “Our customers don’t come through our website.”
- “Referrals are how we do business, so we really don’t need marketing.”
Oh Really?
Just a quick note, referrals are, in fact, marketing. As I mentioned before, after you reach the limit of your family and neighbors, referrals are all about marketing efforts, and encouraging recommendations and return visits. Don’t believe me? Do you really think Tiffany’s needs help with referrals, or branding? Yet, they advertise! And so do your competitors!
But Marketing Hasn’t Worked for Us.
How do you know?
Yes, I understand, you send out several emails, and your business didn’t increase. You don’t get business from your website, and those direct mail pieces didn’t result in the phones ringing off the hook, as you expected. But lets take a look at what might have happened, WHY it seems to not have worked.
- What was your creative?
- Where you site address and phone number clear?
- Did your message tell your customers what you wanted them to do?
- If you didn’t see an increase on your website, did you get more phone calls?
- Who did you send it to or target?
- Is your website friendly and usable for people to buy from?
And of course, the clincher:
- Did you ask your customers what made them respond to you today? Or did you just assume it was spontaneous?
Channel vs. Tactic
Bad marketing pieces, approaches, and strategies do not mean that channel doesn’t work for you. It could have been any number of issues, so it is critical to understand that there is far more to marketing than just throwing something together quickly, or turning over your marketing and brand to a multi-service vendor or office supply store
I had a client proudly delcare that he had almost fully transitioned to digital marketing, only keeping trace print advertising properties out of loyalty to the vendors. The downward trajectory of his profits during that transition was attributed to the economy.
Fair assumptions. But the data showed a different trend, the dip in the profits was not aligned with the timing of the economy, and was, in fact, aligned with the timing of his transition. He also did not account for his audience, who relied heavily on print.
We reintroduced print, but integrated with digital campaigns to track the influence impact of the print with the results seen through digital. Through testing and overlay analysis, we were able to identify the expected lift in business based on each print ad placement, and track it through the digital process.
Influence or Impact
Yes, you know your business, but do you know your customers? Yes, I know you do, of course your do. But do not know the customers you aren’t getting.
By the time a customer comes to you, they know a great deal about you. They’ve been to your website, they may have asked about you, checked our your reviews, and seen your ads. And that’s all before you ever even knew they existed. If you didn’t know they were researching you, how do you know what marketing efforts made them come to you, and what made others turn away?
Marketing Works
All marketing channels work, but not all work for all businesses, and for all audiences. Before dismissing a channel, you have to be sure it was the channel and the audience, and not the effort that didn’t work.
Contact Charter Marketing today to chart the right course for your business growth.