Nov 16, 2015 | Customers, Governance, Marketing, Small business
Like most interested in this topic, I see a lot of stuff published, and have gone to my share of seminars in an attempt to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Over 40 years marketing experience, and having seen the rise and rise of automation, along with the carpet-baggers flogging get rich quick, and “if I can do it, so can you” schemes that would make a gypsy blush, I am probably just a little sceptical.
Here are the myths I see most often, all flowing from the foundation “it is easy” myth
- Automation solves problems.
Without the basics being right, understanding the markets, your customers and competitors, how your value proposition and service levels resonate, you are still nowhere, automation or not. An early lesson I learnt is that poor problem definition leads to poor decision making and even worse marketing. Crap marketing that is automated just generates a bigger pile of crap, quicker, with a second often larger problem that when it comes from a computer for some reason, it gains credibility, so your pile of marketing crap risks becoming a “truth” that has the potential to send you broke.
2. Automation provides the processes.
Automating anything means that it is done automatically the same way every time. If you have process that deliver rubbish, marketing automation will only enable you to deliver more rubbish, quicker, to more people, Who wants that? Building robust, processes is essential, at every level of the marketing ‘stack’ (sorry about the jargon, the stack is the pile of various digital processes that together make up an automated system). No automation system is “Plug & Play” in isolation.
3. Automation enables a purchase mind-set.
Making a choice is certainly not something that automation can provide. Best it can do is give a rational analysis of the data to hand. The nature of the buying process and associated communication has been transformed in the last decade by digital tools. Buyers now accumulate information independent of sellers, and often make a final choice before a seller knows they are in the market, but the choice is human, subject to all sorts of considerations still way beyond the capability of automation to replicate.
4. Automation cannot respond other than by rote.
Consumers seek all sorts of subjective and referential information when researching even a modest purchase, switching between left and right brain without realising they are doing it. That process cannot be replicated digitally. Best we can do is define the range of personas we see in the market and tailor and continuously improve the communication strings to meet the anticipated and instinctive Q&A sessions happening in purchasers mind as they move through the “funnel” towards a decision.
5. Content is king.
I hear this all the time, “just pump out the content and they will come.” Rubbish. This may have been partially true at the beginning of the digital revolution, but no longer. There is now so much content around that the competition for potential customers attention is now far greater than it has ever been. The challenge is now having the best, most relevant and timely content delivered in a personalised manner, as and when the buyer asks themselves a question. You need to be a marketing mind reader!
6. The number of leads counts.
This is only true when you consider the quality of the leads at the same time. It is easy to generate a lot of response to something, the key is the likelihood of a conversion to a transaction of the initial lead, not the number of leads. Quality wins out over quantity every single time.
7. Automation solves the “don’t know what you do not know” problem.
This goes back too my original point. Experienced, informed and creative marketing thinking cannot be replaced by automation, no matter how much many who call themselves “marketers” would like it to be so.
Automation can be a hugely valuable investment, but it is not easy, not cheap, and does not replace the skills, domain wisdom and experience of those who have been there, done that!
When a dose of ‘fair dinkum’ is required, call me.
Nov 11, 2015 | Marketing, Small business
marketing foundations
Marketing now is as different to marketing just 20 years ago as car manufacturing was before and after Henry.
However, the basics remain unchanged, just as happened with the manufacturing disruption Henry brought to building cars.
I find myself spending lots of time talking to small businesses about the things necessary for success, particularly in digital marketing.
They tend to be different conversations, but always coming down to a small number of common factors. It does not matter much if their focus is on a social platform, email marketing, video, webinars, podcasts, or any of the other techniques that have evolved recently, the 3 foundations remain.
- Positioning.
Positioning is one of the oldest notions in marketing, defining how your customers or prospects see you, what they think you might be able to deliver to them. In other words it is the unique story they recall when they think of you.
In the brand building process, researchers often seek the human characteristics of the brand that are present to be built on, removed or modified, and always seek the favourable characteristics. Reliable, detail driven, fun, creative, and so on.
In digital marketing it is no different, but just needs to be even more focussed. For most small businesses, it is way better to be really, really good at a small number of tings that are of value to your target market, than pretty good at a whole range of things. In the former you are the expert, someone worth considering, in the latter you are just another of the generalists. This is often a challenging choice for small businesses to make as the instinct is never to turn away a potential customer, but the fact is that there is so much competition out there that unless you are distinctive, and deliver some sort of value that cannot be obtained elsewhere, any customer relationship will be tenuous, or price driven.
Positioning can be most easily thought about on two parameters.
First, the niche you occupy
Second the persona of the ideal customer you are seeking. These are mutually reinforcing, and the more focussed on each the better.
One of my mates is a terrific, creative landscape designer. However, she occupies a very specific niche. Do not ask her to design a landscape for a block of units, or a park, both jobs she can do really well, but so can many others. Her expertise is in personal outdoor spaces with a “Japanese garden” flavour. If her particular style is not what you are looking for she will recommend several others in the area who can help, but she will not do it for you. But if the “tranquillity” of her speciality is what you are looking for, there is absolutely no one better.
Her ideal customer is equally specifically drawn. They are successful, middle aged couples with no children at home, working in the relatively small spaces of the near city suburbs, seeking an easily maintained space for quiet times and contemplation. If you have kids, or want a broad entertaining area, your needs will rarely overlap her special design skills, and again, she will recommend someone who will do a great job for you.
2. Communicating.
There are all sorts of ways to communicate, both digitally and offline. The sum of the combination of the options is almost always greater than the sum of the individual pieces of communication by themselves.
The key is to ensure that every piece of communication has a purpose that serves the overall objective, plays a role in the jigsaw of communication.
Having an objective is paramount. For some people that objective will be a personal meeting with a prospect who has been ‘warmed’ by a series of communication pieces that each has an objective and call to action as a part of the communication. It could be an email with a download, video with an invitation to subscribe to the channel, or an ad designed to gain attention and build, awareness of the product.
The key these days is to appropriately mix and sequence the communications in response to the signal coming from the prospect as they move around, and hopefully through the sales funnel.
3. Automating.
The days of one piece broadcast communication, with little hope of identifying the recipient are gone, technology has turned the communication process on its head. It is now the case that a piece of communication has not been of any value unless an intended recipient actually does something with it. In order to know, you need to be able to track the actions, then respond appropriately to the signal the receiver gives you.
Without automation, this is virtually impossible on any commercial scale. You need t build repeatable and predicable processes that respond cross the marketing and sales processes, so you have to also ensure that the right people are in place, and that the product offering is relevant to the target market.
None of this is easy, particularly for small businesses, and the cost can be a barrier, but think of the cost of doing it wrong.
Get the foundations right, and the building will stay up, get them wrong……….
