10 reasons you need to take back your marketing
Misconceptions and bad marketing experiences are common. For many businesses marketing is an afterthought. Or they are using the same channels and methods they’ve used for years. Thinking, it worked before; why wouldn’t it work now? Others have been burned in the past by marketers who sold them bogus solutions.
Here are 10 reasons you need to take back your marketing!
3 common reasons people don’t trust marketers
Most of “marketing’s” bad reputation is because some marketers are unethical. Marketing is not lying or manipulation. Not being 100% honest about what the product or service is or what it does is lying. What are three common ways unethical marketers hurt their customers?
1. Inflating expectations
Over promising a product’s effectiveness or making sweeping claims is lying. It’s can also be manipulating to use language or wording that relies on implied meaning and the consumer’s own logic.
For example, selling a cookbook by saying “the food in this cookbook will help you lose weight” is lying. It could be justified by assuming that consumers reading that phrase will understand the implied logic that other changes in their diet or lifestyle will probably be needed to lose weight.
There are always other ways to say things. It’s possible, to be honest and still use hooky and engaging language. Relying on implied meaning is just lazy.
2. Promising results they know they can’t deliver
The key here is promising a result that they know they can’t deliver when they make the promise. There are many variables in marketing and there are circumstances that can’t be accounted for sometimes. However, promising a result that isn’t doable is wrong. It is totally understandable that people who have had this experience with marketers have difficulty trusting any marketer’s promises.
Although it may not feel like lying, not delivering on promises because of a lack of research or inexperience is still wrong. We are accountable for our actions. If we promise a result, we have an obligation to deliver it.
3. Focusing on money instead of service
This isn’t just a problem within the marketing industry. Many businesses ignore the fact that people (and therefore service) is what makes money. How has this attitude made it difficult for people to trust marketers? Not focusing on service shows a lack of concern and empathy for the customer. Customers (all of us) can feel when someone we are working with doesn’t actually care about wellbeing or success. Unfortunately, some marketers are only concerned with their own successes and not their customer’s success. The irony is that marketing in general is about building a client’s business and setting them up for success.
4 common misconceptions people have about marketing
Another reason many people and businesses need to take back their marketing is that misconceptions about what marketing is abound. Many people don’t understand what marketing actually is or why their business needs marketing in general. Here are four common misconceptions.
1. Small businesses don’t need to market
Many people feel like marketing is a waste of time and/or money for small businesses. The reasoning is that many small business owners are extremely busy, and marketing isn’t a necessity. Is that true? Not at all.
For one thing, “marketing” encompasses a lot more than people think it does. Any time or way a customer interacts with your company is marketing. It’s especially important that small businesses think about their marketing. (Their brand strategy specifically.)
Small businesses do need to market differently than larger businesses. To make more effective use of time and budget, smaller businesses need to have a clear and well-thought-out marketing strategy. It’s important to think about what channels are used and how campaigns are executed. campaigns need to be rolled out slowly and methodically. It’s also super important that small businesses collect and use data and analytics from their marketing.
2. Marketing can be done by anyone
For some reason, there is a stereotype that marketing is easy. That misconception is probably why many people try to handle marketing their business themselves. “Try” is the keyword there. And yes, Canva is free. Anyone can throw something together for their business. There’s also always a chance that a haphazardly thrown-together ad or post might work. “Pray and Spray” is a thing for a reason. The question is whether that method of marketing is the most effective or most efficient use of a marketing budget.
Marketing takes a lot of time and effort. It requires skill and dedication. Having a clear strategy and understanding the reasons why something will work takes a level of commitment and research that many don’t have the time to do. Even if someone does have time, it might not be the most efficient use of their time.
In the long run, having a professional do your marketing will give you a stronger foundation for success.
3. Marketing is only to acquire new customers
Simply, if you stop marketing as soon as you get a customer, they aren’t going to be a customer for very long. Marketing is also necessary to build relationships with customers and build loyalty. Returning customers are essential for success and growth.
4. Quality products and services will sell themselves
Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately, having a great product isn’t enough. A product is worthless if no one knows about it. Marketing is necessary to find and retain customers.
3 common mistakes people make with their marketing
People also need to take back their marketing because many people lack the right information to build successful campaigns. Here are three super common marketing mistakes.
1. Starting with the wrong data
Starting with the wrong data might be a little generous. Many people don’t use data in their marketing at all. Marketing data covers a lot of different things but mostly it is about people. Using accurate data helps you know who to market to. Data informs what type of person who should be marketing to. Marketing data also encompasses specific contact information.
Using the wrong data (or no data) is like putting regular gasoline in a diesel truck, you may think you are getting somewhere, but it’s just going to blow up in your face. 💥
2. Focusing on the wrong metrics
It’s easy to get distracted by vanity metrics. Having lots of followers or views on a video is great but are they the numbers that you need to be looking at? Without clearly defined goals or targets you don’t know what matters to you.
3. Quantity over quality
Quantity of marketing efforts will probably show you quick results, but the poor quality will hurt you in the long run. The sheer amount of products, companies, and information available now is staggering. Having your product in your consumer’s face isn’t enough anymore, your brand ideals and personality also need to match with the personality of your consumers.
For example, 56% of Gen Z consumers say that having shared passions and perspectives is a major factor when it comes to their engagement with a brand. Additionally, 72% of consumers want the brands they care about to be positive contributors to society. We’ve seen in recent years that many brands (especially smaller companies) connect their core brand to a charity or cause they care about. Younger consumers are 69% more likely to buy from a brand that contributes to a cause.
If you are focusing and the amount of content you are putting out and not what the content is saying, then you are giving up control of how you are seen. Instead, you are allowing your marketing to imply who you are. Chances are that quantity of marketing over quality is implying that your company does not care about quality. What does that say about your product or service?
This is not to say that quantity of marketing is bad! Quite the contrary. However, you cannot allow your quality to suffer from quantity.
10 reasons is a lot of reasons to take back your marketing. Are you up for the challenge?
What Data Do You Need To Organize Multichannel Campaign?
The key to any marketing campaign is having a well-thought-out strategy. This is especially true when planning a multichannel campaign because there are more moving pieces. What information do you need to build an effective campaign strategy? And what’s the best way to organize a successful campaign?
Why does starting with the right information impact success levels?
The right information is the fuel. There’s always a chance a poorly planned (or spray and pray) campaign may yield results. However, like putting regular gasoline in a diesel truck, you may think you are getting somewhere, but it’s just going to blow up in your face. 💥
Not only does starting with the right data and a plan give you a chance for success, but it also allows you to measure that success. Without a strategy, there’s no way to track or judge something’s effectiveness.
There are questions to ask yourself that give you the right information to build a campaign.
- Who are you targeting?
- How are you targeting them?
- What is your message?
- How are you tying your channels together?
- What data are you gathering?
- When and how are you retargeting?
Breakdown of the steps
Step 1: The Who
How do you figure who to target? The easiest way to decide who to target is to figure out what is your buyer persona. Or if you already have buyer personas, which one to use for this campaign.
Here are the questions to ask yourself to find the fundamentals of your “who.”
- What are their basic demographics?
What gender to they identify as? How old are they? Where do they live? What is their relationship status? Are they educated? - What do they do for work?
What’s their job title and description? But more than that, are they a decision maker? What do they influence at work? - What are their interests?
Do they have hobbies or interests? What do they do in their free time? Are they part of a community? - What do they want and why can’t they have?
This a big thing for figuring out what you can do to help them! What are their goals and dreams? What are their pain points? Like, what keeps them up at night? - Why wouldn’t they buy from you?
What’s stopping them from buying from you? What objections may they have? - What ways would they prefer to interact with you?
Do they use social media? Do like a particular social media? Is a phone call the best way to reach them?
Step 2: The How
Now that you know who, you probably know what marketing channels are most effective for marketing to them. Then you just need to decide what channels to use for the campaign you are planning.
How do you decide what channels to use? The most important thing is that it what’s your target audience responds to.
Other important factors to consider:
- Your budget
- What step in the sales process is this campaign
- How many channels do you want to use
Step 3: The What
What is your message? How will you modify that message for the different channels?
The What needs to be third because Who you are talking to and How you are talking to them informs the decision about messaging. For example, if you are planning on using social media as a channel, then your tone needs to be more informal and your content to be more entertaining.
Step 4: Integration
How are you going to integrate or tie the channels you are using together? Will customers interact with channels in a specific order? What type of interacts do you want your customers to have with these channels? Is there a path you want your customers to follow?
Step 5: Data gathering
Before your campaign starts, it’s important to know what data you want to learn from it. Do you want to learn data about your customers?
Other important data to track is what are the metrics you are going to use the rack the effectiveness of this campaign. Is this a branding play campaign and impressions are most important? Are email opens relevant data?
Step 6: Retargeting
Retargeting should not be an afterthought of your campaign. Any retargeting or (remarketing) should be planned out and integrated into your original campaign strategy.
Having a strategy for marketing campaigns is extremely important. However, actually planning the campaign doesn’t need to be overwhelming or complicated.
What questions have you found to be important to ask yourself when planning a marketing campaign?