SALES & MARKETING
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You must define brand values and educate those around you on your mission, your point of difference
Businesses must also have a thorough understanding of their consumer, what motivates them and how they can connect emotionally to your business offering. This way, you can easily establish how your brand can suit the genuine needs of the consumer and market it accordingly. Start with the consumer journey, and monitor it along each and every touch-point, making sure that your business values and language are consistent over each and every consumer-to-brand interaction. If customer service plays a role, ensure it is the very best, make it memorable and, if appropriate, personal. Advocacy aside, there are very practical steps you can take too. If you’re marketing a specific product, try to do this creatively, adding in an element of surprise that will help create memorability or position your product in a new light. Unexpected stunts or guerrilla marketing are effective (although be aware of potential retaliations), as is surprising product placement. The agency BBDO, for instance, had retailers stock Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup among the cold and flu remedies – a simple but extremely effective strategy. Likewise, one of the most effective and costfree marketing tools is social media. Be sure to leverage your engagement and involvement in social media, and don’t underestimate the value of contributing to blogs (your own and commenting on others’) as well as Twitter, Google+, Flickr, YouTube and Pinterest if visual imagery is important. In order that your business appears first in searches, optimise your website for SEO and ensure your location for shops, offices and outlets are all identified by Google Places. Word of mouth is also hugely powerful. If a
customer likes you, they will tell one person; if they don’t like you, they will tell ten, so it can work positively or negatively for your business depending on how much advocacy is heroed and made a key focus of your marketing strategy. Utilising existing client or customer testimonials can lend weight to your marketing, so don’t be shy of asking for introductions. Word of mouth and personal recommendations from existing customers to friends and colleagues can be incredibly effective and is usually free. Taking a risk and challenging the status quo will allow your business to stand out, so in order to approach your market with a strategic and daring eye, brands should adopt a challenger brand mentality. Some of the most successful businesses today were built through following a vision, taking a risk and never giving up. Passion and self-belief are both hugely pervasive and persuasive in getting people to support your business, and without these, marketing your business becomes a sure set-up for failure. Equally, proactivity is key. Explore and engage with local networking events and, if appropriate, look to speak at conferences and seminars. Enter free industry awards and read, respond and raise awareness of your business in good old-fashioned press. Also remember that traditional press should not be ignored. Businesses must remember that marketing does not always have to cost money, but what it will require is creative thinking, energy and of course time. Get into the mind of your consumer, get networking and get building those connections to consumers, clients and the wider industry.
www.elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk |AUG 2012
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