We hope you'll enjoy this edition of Strategy Matters, a newsletter bringing you news, tips and strategies for effective communications from Strategic Communications, LLC, committed to bringing you success through strategy. www.stratcommunications.com |
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Connect - Compel
The goal of any advertisement is to connect with an audience and to compel that audience to do something. Brilliant copywriting makes this connection quickly and provides a strong reason to act through a solid understanding of product/service, the audience, the audience's needs and, ultimately, how to connect what you have to offer with a pitch that will compel the audience to take action.
Recently I heard what I thought was a classicly created radio commercial from OnStar. The attention-getting premise: "Are you counting on your cell phone to be your lifeline in a crash?" Well, yeah. That's why I don't need OnStar, right? Maybe not. According to the commercial, anyway, a crash might cause my cell phone to go flying somewhere (under the seat, outside the car, etc.) where I can't access it. But OnStar is readily available.
Wow. Makes sense. *Almost* makes me want to sign up for OnStar and, maybe, in a better economy I would.
I liked this commercial because it illustrates a couple of points that I believe are very important when creating advertising (or any form of communication intended to impact an audience's behavior:
- You need to understand - really understand - your audience. What they think. What their objections are to your product or service.
- Once you understand their objections - in this case, "I can just use my cell phone - why do I need your service?" - you need to come up with some "compelling reason to believe" that their objection is without merit.
Why might your target audience not want to buy your product or service? Give it some thought. Do some research. Talk (and listen to!) people who don't buy, as well as to those who do.
The "creative" is obviously important. Production values are important. But - more important - is operating from a strategically grounded perspective before you even get to the point of the creative. You need to get in the minds of consumers first to come up with an appeal that will have impact and resonance. *Then* you translate that appeal into tactics. For more information, visit www.stratcommunications.com. |
Your best customers are your best customers! |
We've all heard it before, but somehow in our ongoing quest to add *new* customers, we have a tendency to forgot to focus attention on the ones we already have.
Datran Media, an e-mail services company, recently asked marketers to rank what advertising goals they considered most important for 2009. The results were:
- New customer acquisition - 63.2%
- Increased customer retention - 43.7%
- Increased brand favorability - 14.1%
- Increased brand awareness - 14.0%
In my opinion, the top two items should be switched around - at a minimum. It takes a lot of effort - time and money - to gain a new customer. There are a number of steps that the consumer must go through that take significant effort on the part of a business - generating awareness, achieving preference, first use, satisfaction, reuse.
Unfortunately, once a customer is on board they are all too often overlooked. Successful businesses know that they must continually nurture their existing customers - wooing them in the same manner that they attempt to woo new customers. Phone and cable companies are notorious for offering "special deals" for new customers - hey! what about me? I've been a customer for years?
The value of continuing to nurture existing customers goes beyond their continued purchases (which is certainly a significant value!). Satisfied and loyal customers also generate positive word-of-mouth, which can lead to new customer acquisition. Existing customers also provide a valuable source of feedback - if cultivated - to help businesses stay abreast of changing market preferences, areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, etc.
If you're focusing more on generating new customers than nurturing the ones you have, you may want to take another look at how you're prioritizing your marketing efforts. For more information on customer retention, go to www.stratcommunications.com.
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Social media as a process improvement tool |
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While Facebook can be fun and Twitter seems to have captured the interest of the masses who are all tweeting in 140-character mini-blogs about everything from what they had for breakfast to the emerging news event they just saw outside their window, many still point to these tools as more of a diversion than a legitimate business tool.
Until recently.
A recent article I read about Intuit, indicated that the company has found social media to have a legitimate and profound impact on how users of their software - specifically QuickBooks - seek support. Their experience suggests opportunities for companies ranging from technology to health care to government to education - and everything in between.
The basic premise could be defined as "two heads are better than one" - and thousands of heads are exponentially better! Instead of customers calling the official help desk at Intuit, the company has found that more and more are solving each others' problems and responding to each others' questions via the online social media tools they provide.
This offers some significant possibilities in terms of process and staffing efficiencies. The truth of the matter is, the Internet has significantly challenged the traditional "owned-expertise" model of most businesses, including health care. As the source for a recent article I was writing pointed out, consumers have taken control of their own health care with what might be called "health care advocates" often more knowledgable about the latest medical advances in certain specialty areas than their doctors are.
Think about it - if you're Intuit, for instance, where can users of QuickBooks turn to get the best, most readily accessible information about the product when they run into a "glitch"? To your help desk? Sure. Or, to your users' forum where *thousands* of individuals can share their collective wisdom to come up with a solution?
The possibilities are virtually endless and not just from the standpoint that social media is "cool," but from the standpoint that companies that seek to harness the potential of social media to address business challenges and improve business processes are not only "joining the conversation" but also improving productivity, reducing expenses and improving customer service.
Seems like a win-win-win - and a way to convince many still-to-be-convinced senior executives that social media is not only here to stay, but a tool that can be embraced for more bottom-line driven purposes than simply: "Hey! Here's what I'm doing right now."
Learn more at: www.stratcommunications.com.
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Strategic Communications, LLC, specializes in strategic communication planning and implementation for brand management, community, customers, employees, marketing and media relations.
We work with businesses, large and small, to help them apply strategy to address their communication challenges.
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