I have a confession to make. I love sleeping on fresh sheets but I don’t relish making the bed. The bottom sheet shape shifts. I put it on two corners and it’s sideways. I reverse it and it STILL seems to be sideways. Finally, after a few tries, I wrestle it into place.
Maybe you can identify. Or, maybe…it’s just me.
As a result, sometimes I do laundry intending to change the sheets but instead they sit in the laundry basket, for a day..or two….or three…
Then I can’t stand it anymore and have to finish the job. As I wrestled that fitted sheet into submission recently, I realized, a marketing strategy isn’t unlike making a bed. After all, there are steps to it right?
Step 1: Strip the bed.
Step 2: Put the clean fitted sheet on.
Step 3: Put on the top sheet and tuck it under the bottom corners of the mattress.
Step 4: Replace the pillow cases
That’s the foundation of making your bed, right?
How does this relate to marketing? I’m glad you asked.
How Bed-Making is Like Your Marketing Strategy
Successful marketing requires an objective. When your objective is to have clean sheets, you know what to do, right?
“Getting more clients” is what most small business owners say when I ask what their marketing goals are. And often, they don’t know what to do next — that’s why we’re talking. While revenue is the end goal, it’s important to map out the steps from here to there.
Step 1: Who’s your target audience?
You may offer cooking classes for gourmet cooks, kids or quick and healthy meals. Each of those appeal to different mindsets.
You can further break them into topics like: “A Taste of Tuscany” Where you’ll learn to create traditional Tuscan specialties like Pappa al Pomodoro and Cacciucco. After preparing our sumptuous meal, we’ll share it paired with Tuscan wines.”
This obviously targets a different group of people than parents looking for a cooking class for kids.
That’s why it’s essential to know your audience.
It affects what you say and where and how you say it. Your ads may be in different publications or on different platforms. Facebook ads are a great way to reach the parents of Millennials, not Millennials themselves.
Step 2: What ONE service or product can you offer them in this message?
You wouldn’t try to put twin-size sheets on your king-size bed. Yet, millions of small businesses attempt to target “everybody” with one message. A good marketing strategy contains a plan of targeted follow ups/cross-sells and multiple touches.
In this noisy world, expecting your audience to respond to one message is a sure path to disappointment.
Step 3: Where Can You Find Them?
Most B2C businesses (and even a lot of B2B) can benefit from Facebook if they’re targeting people over 40.
You can use the ad traffic can be highly targeted, you can use them to drive people to a specific page and you can track it. Yes, you’ll need to tweak your offers and your copy (or outsource it to someone skilled in FB marketing.) But, it can be powerful.
People also hang out in like-minded Groups on social media.
There’s at least one active CMO group on LinkedIn while many of my colleagues share knowledge in a Copywriting group on Facebook. It’s no secret that like-minded people spend time together — online and off.
Targeted marketing means you hang out where your prospects hang out.
Step 4: What Are Your Resources to Connect With Them?
If you’re starting from scratch, your offer requires a different approach than if you have a responsive social media audience and thriving email list. Will you spend a hundred hours (or more) putting the components in place or will you outsource some help?
Online marketing is a complex series of landing pages, persuasive copy, usability and follow up back-end series. At it’s most basic, it’s time spent crafting stellar content and building relationships with the right types of people.
Don’t fall prey to the mistaken notion that it’s all “tech.”
Tech is a component of course but marketing is about much more than knowing what to upload and where to click. If you have the tech piece handled, hire a marketing consultant to guide you through developing your strategy. The money you spend will be well worth it in what you get back.
Step 5: Do They Already Know About Your Product/Service?
In the 1966 marketing classic, Breakthrough Advertising, legendary copywriter Gene Schwarz said there were 5 types of prospects.
1) Aware and Wants It. No educating necessary. Your prospect is aware of what your product does and wants it. Many big-name consumer products can fall under this umbrella. Coke, Snickers, Apple.
2) The Somewhat Aware Prospect — This is a mid-funnel prospect. They know you exist but aren’t convinced you have the right solution for them or their pain isn’t enough to want a solution yet. Lead nurturing through well-crafted email sequences and valuable content can turn them into buyers.
3) The Solution-Unaware Buyer — They have a need — and want a solution — but don’t know there is a solution. With this type of prospect, you want to tease out their desire. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is a classic example of a headline that speaks to the desire of those who want to be greater leaders but don’t know how to go about it.
4) The Need — Aware Buyer — This prospect has a need but doesn’t know your product/service can deliver it. There is a nuanced difference between the “solution-aware” who don’t know there is a solution. In this case, the buyer thinks there is a solution, but they don’t know what it might be. “Do YOU Make these mistakes in English” was a ground-breaking headline in it’s day — early 20th c. It sold language classes to recent immigrants who wanted to be understood better in their new country.
5) The Blissfully Unaware Buyer — The unaware buyer is the toughest to sell to because they don’t know your product exists and they don’t know they have a problem. When a potential client tells me “no one is doing this,” I wonder if there’s a reason. You know all those “million-dollar ideas” you’ve had with friends over beers? Many of those are best left at Happy Hour and the reason is there isn’t a market.
Ideally, your product/service solves a known problem. For example, if you want software to help you manage your small business finances, you don’t have to look far to find Quickbooks.
How to Craft Your Marketing Strategy
What problem(s) do you solve? Write them out.
Next, determine your specific offer. Do you offer a plug-in-play solution for dedicated landing pages? Do you serve a particular industry?
You may solve 5 problems but if you try to sell all 5 solutions in one ad you won’t sell (m)any. This is a case of more is not better.
It’s far simpler to hook your audience with ONE big benefit so choose the one big solution and lead with that.
A Targeted Example From the Car Industry
Ford doesn’t create one ad for all their cars and trucks. It creates multiple ads for individual brands. The Taurus buyer is a different demographic than the Ford Escape buyer.
Likewise, the Chevy buyer is a different demographic than a Mercedes buyer.
Once you have your audience and your offer down, you get to decide how you’ll let them know about it. Will you send post cards in the mail? Advertise on Facebook? Take flyers to an event?
Once you create your tightly targeted offer, you get to let people know about it. It’s also important to let a lot of people know about it.
Sometimes I talk with business owners who’ve sent out 500 postcards and get 10 leads. They think their campaign was a flop when really they got a 10% conversion rate! Or their Adwords campaign shows get 50 people to clicked through and 5 people to sign up. Depending on your industry those may be great numbers!
In order to develop a well-honed marketing strategy, it’s important to test and track.
A lot of businesses don’t realize the success is in the numbers. Test small yes, don’t spend the money on 10,000 postcards before you know if they work. Mail 1000 instead. That’s enough of a sample to know whether it’s worth rolling out a larger mailing. Spend $100 on Facebook ads not $500. Find out what’s working, tweak and track. Repeat.
Where are you in your marketing strategy?
