Success Through Strategy!

Strategy Matters delivers news, tips and strategies for effective communications through traditional and social media. 


How Do You Find and Target the "Right" Customers? 
 
We sponsor, and I present a session on marketing at, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's  Entrepreneurial Training Program. When I first spoke with the program's director about the program he pointed out that one of the major missteps that he saw from participants was that they too broadly defined their target audiences. They generally felt that their products or services appealed to "everyone." 
 
He was right.One of the critical points I make with this group is the importance of narrowly, and specifically, defining the target audience.
 
Effective marketing involves segmenting the broader audience into smaller groups that share similar interests and needs. That sets the stage for being able to effectively select the right media and create the right messages to effectively connect with your audience.
 
For instance, consider a basic product like white rice and the different communication tools/messages you might use to communicate with some very specific audiences: 
  • College athletes
  • Young parents on a tight budget
  • "Foodies"

Many small businesses feel uncomfortable about narrowing their audience focus because they're concerned that they might be "missing opportunities." While counter-intuitive, the opposite is true: the more general your message, the less likely you'll be able to connect and compel audience members to some desired action.

 

What about you? How have you defined your target audience? Could you be  more specific?

 

Common Online Marketing Missteps

In the online world, your image is conveyed through everything from the look of your web site to the typos in your tweets. But businesses sometimes forget this and take a casual or cavalier approach to their online communications. This extends to "doing it themselves" when they really should seek outside assistance (e.g. for developing a web site or designing a template for a Facebook page or eletter).

 

Many online marketers fail to ensure that their online "brand personality" is consistent with the image they convey through their other activities. This means all online activities--social media, responses to blog posts, responses left on other sites, etc. 


If you're hoping to establish or build your online presence, how can you avoid making some common errors? 

 

Here are a few recommended steps: 
  • Spend some time evaluating what your competitors are doing online and the image they're conveying
  • Determine how you would like to position yourself/your business compared to the competition--what are your desired brand attributes?
  • Evaluate your current communication activities (online and off) to determine whether you are supporting your desired brand attributes
  • Make necessary modifications to your communication materials (seeking assistance as necessary from experts in the field)
  • Continue to be vigilant about ensuring your communications support your desired brand, continue to monitor results and competitive activity and modify your actions as appropriate

One final point: be assured that your competitors are also doing online surveillance of you. What are they learning and how are they incorporating what they learn into their communication activities? 

 

The process of evaluating your brand and your competitive position, and making appropriate adjustments, is not a one-time activity. It's an ongoing process that, if done well, will result in measurable outcomes!

 

Suggested reading:

 

Communication Basics

 

Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing

 

For Service Brands It's All About the People

 

The most creative logo in the world won't make up for a crabby front desk employee, a dirty office, or sloppy service. Developing and maintaining a strong brand for a service organization is significantly more challenging than developing and maintaining a strong brand for a product. Why? Because a service is less tangible, more ephemeral--and often involves multiple "touchpoints" that really determine the "brand experience."

 

What makes a strong brand?

 

Recognizability. Performance. Consistency.

 

When we're talking about a product--a carbonated beverage, for example--recognizability can come through a logo and design, performance comes through the taste of the beverage, consistency is an element of the manufacturing process. But, when we're talking about a service, the process of brand management becomes much more complex.

 

Recognizability. While recognizability is impacted by logos and design elements, there are other factors to consider. If you practice out of an office or a clinic, your physical location and how it looks, how it's furnished, etc., will impact your recognizability and your brand.  

 

Performance. How is a health care organization's performance defined? By the physician? The registration clerk? The distance from the parking lot to the front door? The cleanliness of the facility? The magazines in the waiting room? The delivery of care (and how do we, as non-clinical consumers, measure that?)? Yes--all of these things, and more! Performance is a multi-faceted process with multiple touchpoints and multiple opportunities to either strengthen or weaken the brand.

 

And, finally, consistency. The greatest challenge of all. The challenge for service marketers in managing a brand involves managing human inputs and human actions. Developing standards and processes, communicating those standards and processes, ensuring consistency in such things as, for example, as how the phone is answered, "uniforms," service standards, hand-offs between departments, how employees talk about each other, etc.

 

Too often as we focus on other important elements of the brand--like the logo, the name, the "company colors," the design templates, etc., etc., in the service arena we have a tendency to forget about what is most important about the brand--the people. 

 

 

Recommended Reading:

 

 The New Strategic Brand Management

 

 Advanced Brand Management

Volume: 5 - Issue: 7
July, 2013
Strat Comm logo
In This Issue
Finding and Targeting the "Right" Customers
Common Online Marketing Missteps
Building Strong Service Brands
We're In the News! 

Gathering Intelligence: Why Customer Surveys are a Smart Strategy

How to Generate Leads With a Limited Marketing Budget

6 Reasons a PR Pro Needs to Know Social Media

Tips for Strategic Planning
Research Matters

Some recent news and  research you may be interested in--we were!  
 



 
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10 "Must Do's" For an Effective Marketing Plan

Whether you're creating a web site, media campaign or email blast, it pays to plan. Managing the myriad of communication tactics you have to choose from requires sound strategy, clear and compelling messages and proper sequencing. Here's a 10-step process to creating effective plans.

  

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