MARKETING ADVICE AND ARTICLES BY NICOLE HAYMAN-SHERMAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
RETENTION MARKETING-BUILDING LOYALTY
MAKING THE MOST OF MARKETING IN THE FIRST QUARTER
MARKETING
IS STRATEGY
By Nicole Hayman-Sherman, Senior
Consultant/Owner of THE CREATIVE CONSULTANT
There is a need to clear up the
confusion that exists regarding marketing and advertising. Most people believe
them to be interchangeable. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As a
marketing person, I spend a great deal of time attempting to help people try and
differentiate between the two which isn’t always a simple task. In order to
understand the difference one must know what they are exactly.
First, let’s look at the definition of each. MARKETING, as defined by
Webster’s Dictionary “is the act or process of selling or purchasing in a
market. It’s an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer
to consumer”. An aggregate of functions….meaning there’s more than one
function involved here. This is a key point to remember as we continue our
analysis. Webster’s defines ADVERTISING as “the action of calling
something to the attention of the public, especially by paid advertisements.”
Remembering that marketing is more than one function at work, we can see by
looking at the definitions that advertising is only ONE part of
marketing…one of the functions of it! And to go one further, marketing is also
not the selling of advertising either but rather the determination of which
advertising source to utilize for a particular message one is looking to portray
to the public.
It’s the advertising side of marketing which the consumer is most familiar
with because it is the advertising messages which they see the most. Which
explains the simple response one gets when you mention marketing to
someone…the typical response is something similar to ‘Oh! You mean
advertising.’ My response is usually yes but it’s much more than that. One
can understand the typical response because it is what they see most frequently,
especially in today’s market where we seem to be bombarded by all types of
advertising. From the subtle product placement in a movie or TV show to the
constant commercial advertisements that seem to be everywhere now. TV, radio,
newspapers, magazines, billboards etc etc etc. There’s no way to escape it! We
get them on-line off line wherever anyone can think of it. As a marketing person
myself, it amazes even me how much advertising has multiplied over the years and
in the different places you can now find ads. It’s not so simple anymore,
which is why any good marketing person would tell you a plan is so important.
Because there is so many factors to take into consideration when determining
what will work best for a business.
I like to think of us marketing people as generals. There is a LOT of
similarities in the job. Generals make plans on attacking their enemy or what is
the best strategic move for troops in a particular situation. And if you think
about it they usually involve more than one aspect as well. When a country goes
to war with another one…they never typically attack just from land or air or
sea…but usually all three. Now Marketing managers & the like don’t make
life or death type decisions but they make decisions that affect people. Our
battle ground is the competitive market place. We have to decide which are the
best strategic plans to follow given the particular time of year, the economy
and funds available amongst other things. Our “war room” if you will is the
marketing department of a business or as in my case being an independent
marketing consultant, my own office. It’s in these places where we analyze
information available and determine what the best plan to follow given all
circumstances. Generals drop bombs and other weapons to get the attention of
whomever they’re attacking. Marketing people find ways to make impressions on
the consumer. The more impressions the more likely the consumer will use that
business’ product service etc. Our “enemy” is our competitors who are
trying to do the same thing we are. Generals determine after their analysis
which is the best sources to use to plan their attack. Marketing people
determine which is the best methods to use to get the public’s attention so
that those oh so important impressions can be made on them, which will affect
the way they interact and purchase in the marketplace. Usually when I describe
this similarity, people look at marketing with a different set of eyes. Once
people see all the “pieces-parts” that make up marketing and understand
it’s more than just advertising they are better able to grasp what’s
involved in marketing their business and can further understand that sometimes
plans don’t always work and as business owners and marketers we need to
constantly be thinking of something new to try. We need to think in a strategic
way in order to achieve our goals of growing our businesses.
[TOP]
By Nicole Hayman-Sherman, Senior Consultant/Owner of THE CREATIVE CONSULTANT
Image for a business is everything. It’s that certain something that sticks with a customer after their interaction with you is done. When it comes to marketing one needs to think about the overall image that your business is putting out to your customers, be they other businesses or the public sector. And it’s more than making sure that your logo is a reflection of your business and that all the correspondence going out on your business matches. If you have employees, they’re part of your image as well. Sometimes we forget that it’s the first person one encounters is the first image or impression of a business. Be sure your first contact with a customer portrays the image you want going out to potential and current customers.
Sometimes that isn’t a physical image; sometimes it’s a verbal image. Be sure that the person answering your phones is pleasant and outgoing. If the voice on the other end of the phone is less than desirable I would suggest you make some changes. For businesses where you are the only employee, it’s worth the investment to have voice mail of some sort. Make sure your message is positive and pleasant. In service businesses, such as my own, potential customers don’t necessarily expect you to be in your office all the time. They want to know you’re out meeting with people and taking care of your current customer base. They want to know that they can leave a message and someone will return their call. And be sure to return that call as promptly as you can. And don’t do it when you are not in the right frame of mind either, if you’re having a bad day it is better to return the call at a later time than to call back in a bad mood. That mood will reflect over the phone. If you have a cell phone I recommend waiting until you’ve contacted them or created a customer out of them to give it out.
When going out and about whether for business or not, remember YOU are your business. Something I remind myself each time I go to run out the door. What if I run into a client or a potential customer, do I look like someone they might want to do business with? Obviously, this also depends on the day, time and where you are going also. If you were going to a home improvement store on a Saturday to pick up the paint or whatever you need for the project you are working on no one would expect you to be in a 3-piece suit. However, I always have my business cards with me…just in case. You never know who you’ll run into and where. What is MOST important is when you are calling on a potential customer or client that you look the part. Look professional for YOUR business. If your service business is a dirty one again, the 3-piece suit would be out of place but a clean shirt; pants etc would be for that first meeting.
My best advice to EVERY business owner, be it a big or small business is to periodically take inventory of your business image and all aspects involved in it. As Spring approaches and our thoughts turn to cleaning up from a long winter, now would be an excellent time to do this evaluation and make plans on any changes that need to be done.
[TOP]
RETENTION MARKETING-BUILDING LOYALTY
By
Nicole Hayman-Sherman, Senior Consultant/Owner THE
CREATIVE CONSULtant
First quarter is an excellent time to concentrate on retention marketing. New business is grand, and most businesses have felt that boost in 4th quarter with the Christmas/Holiday rush, however, if you can’t keep your customers coming back you are just treading water and a revolving door might as well have been installed as your businesses’ front door. WHY? Because as fast as you can get customers in—they’ll be leaving. You’ve given them no reason to continue to come back to you. And without that reason they’ll go somewhere else for what they need. Oh, they may return from time to time but you have not turned them into a regular customer. And a regular customer is what you want to keep your business going.
But HOW do we achieve this?--Keep customers returning time & time again. I wish I could tell you there’s a “cure-all” solution to this dilemma, but there’s no such miracle out there. If there was, businesses wouldn’t be going “out of business” every day. There are just too many unknown factors. One must then look at your business from the consumer’s point of view. This tends to be a difficult task for many. As a marketing consultant it’s my job to do just that and to work on improving upon what you’ve been doing based on that knowledge. Oftentimes business owners don’t always agree with what I tell them needs attention. They KNOW their business…and they DO. No denying it!! However, they don’t always realize that the average person doesn’t. We’re all guilty of this. We think because what we do in business comes so easily to us we assume everyone understands it just as well. WRONG! Big time! “Talk shop” with someone using all the lingo and whatnot that you use in your day to day life, as part of your business and I can guarantee you’ll lose them at some point. THIS is a key hurdle we all must overcome when we market our businesses. We need to step back a moment and think what is it about the product or service that makes it stand out over the competitors? This isn’t as easy as you think and sometimes as a consultant I even struggle with this challenge for myself AND my clients. This is because it’s not always as cut and dry or black and white as one would think. In general, it’s the quality of the product or service we provide that we all need to make the most of. There are other factors as well…with some businesses it’s quantity and convenience that set them apart from others.
This tells you WHAT you need to focus on for your retention marketing…but it still doesn’t tell you HOW. Again, I wish there was a cookie cutter way to say THIS will always work. I can, however, point out one method of retention marketing that has grown tremendously over the years -- loyalty programs. If used correctly they can build your regular customer base greatly. Don’t believe me? I could quote you some statistical information showing that it works but I’d rather have you go look through your wallet or purse and see what I mean. We ALL have at least one card for a grocery store or the like. You need it to write a check or to receive their special pricing on items. The BIG companies have been making use of these for years now. With the boom of discount retailers getting into all sorts of stuff many of the specialty retailers are also getting into the loyalty program market. They need it to keep up with the discount retail competition. The basis behind all this is that the consumer is getting something extra for being a regular customer. This can take many forms. Consumers are offered special pricing each time they shop using the program or they’ll get something extra each visit or over time. It all depends on the company. Grocery stores use specialty pricing, whereas some stores have “club” cards that after so many purchases of a particular item (i.e. milk) they’ll give you a freebie or discount. Why do they do this? Because it works! And it can work for small businesses as well. It’s fairly simple to put together all you need is a card and an offer and a little creativity. There are even some companies out there which offer a package deal for the cards along with a tracking system. These CAN be expensive and I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re working with a limited marketing budget. I do, however, highly recommend looking into them when you’re putting yours together. There may be the perfect package out there for you but if not you’ll have a good idea how to put one together yourself.
But what about a service business that has no way to utilize the ‘card” type program? This is where you need to rely on your current customers/clients “word of mouth” advertising. How often do you hear an offer that if you ‘refer a friend” you’ll receive a discount or money back? LOTS, I’m certain as this is the service industry’s version of a loyalty program. Retail type businesses sometimes use this as well; however, they generally get more out of the “card” programs described earlier. Remember…a happy customer/client is your best advertising. This type of program is even simpler to get started. You merely need to decide what your offer is and inform you current customer/client base, which if you are billing each month is a matter of putting something IN with their invoices. Let them know how they can SAVE on their next one if they successfully refer someone to you. They get a reward for their “good deed’ and you get another customer/client, everyone wins. And you can continue to grow from there.
Building upon a current and regular customer base is one of the BEST ways to utilize retention marketing in whatever your business. It builds that strong foundation for your business to stand on and to grow out of. There are other ways to retention market in addition to what I have described briefly here and I encourage all business owners to look at each one to determine what will work for them. Keeping in mind that the earlier in the year you can start this type of marketing the better your overall year will be.
[TOP]
MAKING
THE MOST OF MARKETING IN THE FIRST QUARTER
By
Nicole Hayman-Sherman, Senior Consultant/Owner of THE
CREATIVE CONSULTANT
So
much time and effort is put into marketing and advertising for the Christmas and
Holiday season. It sometimes seems
to be a season without end. This is
partially because the season seems to be starting earlier and earlier each year.
It’s no surprise then when New Year’s is finally over, everyone seems
to resemble zombies—walking around in almost a trance-like state.
Business owners are no exception. We
spend so much energy, both physically and financially, as well as time, during
the 4th quarter of any given year that by the time January comes,
most business owners just don’t want to be bothered thinking about marketing
or advertising for their business.
Truth
is—it’s then that they should
be thinking about it the most. Thinking
about and planning out the upcoming year. Learning
from the mistakes from the previous year and figuring out how to improve upon
those things that worked etc. Keep
in mind that some ideas and plans didn’t work due to other factors beyond your
control. Like
the BIG event planned around the holidays that ended up being on the day of the
BIG snow storm. It may have
been a very profitable one if Mother Nature had worked in your favor, so don’t
rule out trying it again. Early
January is typically a slow time in general so why not take advantage of it and
create a timeline for yourself of what tactics and other marketing ideas you
want to use in the coming year? Believe
me; it makes budgeting monies for your marketing & advertising so much
easier and tracking the results as well. This
is typically something I attempt to get each of my clients to do at the start of
each year. If you are not a
marketing person at heart that is where persons with a strong marketing
background, consultants can be beneficial.
Those which are not affiliated with any one particular genre of
advertising can give you the most objective view of your marketing/advertising
plans. Please keep in mind, if you ask the advice of some one who represents a
TV, Radio or other media form they are going to steer you in THAT direction and
depending on the product/service or time of year it may NOT be the best choice
for your marketing dollars.
As
you plan, be sure to not forget to include January and early first quarter in
your plans. This is a mistake
I have seen many times. Many
businesses spend LOTS of money marketing & advertising their business in 4th
qtr and then forget first quarter entirely.
Americans typically have a short attention span; you need to remind them
periodically that you’re around. IF
you don’t, you have an uphill battle the rest of the year reintroducing
yourself. Another thing to keep in
mind for your January and early first quarter marketing plans is it’s an
excellent time to promote your businesses strengths or to work on branding (i.e.
your one stop for XYZ product/service).
A special reminder though-- when you DO have this type of campaign you
may not necessarily see an immediate return on your investment (ROI).
Remember, you are planting the seeds for the future.
Another thing is that advertising costs are typically less during the
first quarter PLUS since fewer businesses DO advertise there is less competition
for prime commercial times. You
could very easily find in smaller markets that you are the only one of your type
of business advertising in a particular genre, which will create more
impressions in the minds of the consumers.
This is the ultimate goal in marketing-- to make the most and greatest
impressions on consumers as it will give you the greatest ROI.
This will also be VERY beneficial as the year progresses, you won’t
have to introduce or re-introduce yourself to the consumers each time you want
to promote your business or product. It’s
easier to build on top of a strong foundation then have to rebuild the entire
structure each and every time; you’ll reach your goals easier and quicker with
it. So as the New Year begins
don’t neglect the marketing needs of your business, the plans you make in
January could lead to your most profitable year YET!
[TOP]