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Moving communication campaigns into action |
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Can you take the pressure off your potential customers? 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. Take a look through all the junk mail you receive. Look at what everybody is trying to do: they want to you to buy something. Nothing wrong with that. But it's tempting when we are creating marketing campaign materials to try from the first word to the last to get people to buy what we are selling. Sure, that's partly what marketing materials should be doing. But if it's all they do, isn't there a danger that you are putting people under pressure? And who ever likes to feel they are under pressure? So how can you add into your mix of marketing materials items that help to grow awareness of what you are selling, but that don't pile on the pressure? One way is to focus on your clients and their lives. Presumably you know something about your clients and prospective clients. If you sell plumbing supplies, you should know a lot about what plumbers do, their problems and how they can make more money. If you sell nappies then you probably know a lot about what parents with babies are going through. So can you communicate with them about the issues that affect them, without always obviously promoting your service? Would a plumber be interested in reading about new legislation on hot water tanks? Would parents be interested in a new study that has revealed more about how to prevent nappy rash? There's no harm in writing objective information about issues related to your business. People will probably be more inclined to read them and your credibility and visibility will improve if they do. Another method is to use case studies. If done well, case studies can explain how well you meet clients' needs in a very gentle way. Why? Because you are not just writing about yourself, but instead are writing about one of your clients too. Along similar lines, you could publish an interview with a client about their situation and what you did for them. So think about how you might mix up your marketing messages a bit. What can you add into the campaign to relieve the pressure on people, yet still demonstrate your organisation's knowledge and capability? Copyright 2004 Richard Groom |