 |
Call us on 01733 891 860 (UK) or use this contact form |
 |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Moving communication campaigns into action |
|
|||
|
|
|
Giving customers the information they need Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. I'm going to tell you a story. Bear with me and in a few paragraphs I'll get to the point. A few weeks ago I bought a bed to go in the flat I've recently moved into. So how did I decide what to buy? First, I looked at some brochures, web sites and local newspaper advertisements. Then I visited three local retailers to see what they had in stock, how much they were charging, whether they could deliver and so on. Everywhere I went, I walked out without buying because I couldn't find all the information I needed. For example they had catalogues with tiny pictures, so I couldn't really tell what the beds looked like. (Most of the web sites I visited had the same problem.) Eventually I did indeed find the bed I wanted, but what should have taken me a couple of hours actually took me a couple of weeks. Let me apply a bit of marketing theory to what happened. * Every shop I went to had succeeded in the first part of their marketing campaigns. They had attracted my attention, and had successfully shown me that they might be able to meet my need for a bed. Let's give them ten out of ten. * But when it came to convincing me that they were the people to buy from, they failed. They didn't give me all the information I needed. So no marks there. So what I want you to do is think about all those people who you are attracting to your business. Are you certain that they will easily get all the information they will be looking for? And will that information answer all their questions and take them pretty close to making a purchase? To help you work out what information your potential customers are looking for, here are three simple exercises. (Simple, but if done right they will take an hour or more of hard thinking and brainstorming to complete.) 1. Create a wish list. Make a list of everything your potential customers could want from your product or service. 2. List their questions. List as many questions as possible that potential customers might ask. Get to 20, take a break, and then try to get to 50 or 100. 3. List their objections. List the reasons they might NOT buy from you. Now here's the important bit: Go back to the marketing materials you potential clients will see when they are gathering information before making a purchase decision. This could be your web site and/or brochures. But it could also be the things your sales people say when talking to customers - something marketers sometimes (often?) overlook. Do your potential customers have easy access to the information they want? Will their questions be answered? Will every one of their objections be dealt with? And here's one more check for you to do: how does the information you provide compare to your competitors? Now you have the great basis for a new and necessary marketing project: plugging the gaps in the information you provide. Of course, you also need to make sure that you write and present the information in a way that is clear and simple, and that appeals to your target audience. Get it right, and you will convert more POTENTIAL purchasers into ACTUAL purchasers. Which I suppose is what marketing is all about. Even the simplest of purchases could involve a stage where potential clients search for information before spending their money. Here are two other examples from my recent shopping experiences: * I was all set to buy a new mobile phone from a web site but their tool for displaying signal strength in my local area was difficult to use and understand. I went elsewhere. * But on the positive side, I recently looked for someone to provide the automated system that maintains the subscription list and distribution for Marketing Booster. I found a company who had extensive information on their web site AND who answered every one of the 20 questions I emailed them within 24 hours. So that's who got my business. Copyright 2003 Richard Groom |