Whether you’re doing guerrilla marketing or advertising on the radio or television, the more accurately you target your ideal customer, the better your success will be. There are two habits most business people tend to fall into.

1.         Grab all the sales you can get.

This is completely understandable and only natural for an aggressive sales person or business owner. But, what it does is distract your targeting efforts away from the customers who will ultimately be most profitable. In order to make your marketing efforts as efficient as possible, take the time to really identify your “platinum customer”. How much do they spend? What is their life-time value as a customer? What do they buy? What common thing causes them to buy? How easy are they to deal with?

Sure, grab all the sales you can get. But, if you concentrate on grabbing all the sales you can get FROM YOUR PLATINUM CUSTOMER, you will pick up sales from the rest. And, your marketing dollars will give you a better return over time.

2.         Target your primary demographic.

This is a good start, but not good enough. Demographic refers to age and gender. Consider the following audiences based upon age and gender: a 35-year old female.

1. She’s in a business suit with a briefcase and occupies a downtown office making 6-figures a year.
2. She’s single, on a bus with two kids and food stamps.
3. She’s married with three kids and she’s in a minivan full of little soccer players.
4. She has orange spiked hair, a nose ring and works at an art studio.

As you can see, all of these women are the same demographic. But, they are vastly different audiences. In order to target your customer in a meaningful way, you must know more about them than age and gender. You need to know their education level and income range. You need to know what their values are. Do they value function over form like an engineer, or form over function like an artist? How do they spend their discretionary income? What are their leisure time activities?

The more you know about your best customers, the more efficiently you will be able to find them. The more accurately you will be able to deliver a meaningful message to them. And, the more valuable you will become to them because you are providing exactly what they need.

Rob Charlton

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The Dot Study is a simple and inexpensive marketing research tool you can use to gather this information.

Go to your nearest map store and buy two fairly good sized maps of the area around your store. The maps should be big enough so they include the areas around your store outside of where you think your customers are coming from.

Mount each map on a piece of foam core or some other rigid backing. Mark one AM and one PM and then switch from the AM to the PM map at the same time (of your choosing) every day. The reason for this is to distinguish your source of sales during the day from those during the evening. Often, people will shop from work or some other place during the day. But, will shop from home in the evening. This is important to know, especially if you have a business such as a restaurant where you need to target lunch versus dinner messages. 

Instruct your sales staff to ask each person they wait on where their shopping trip originated from. In the evening it is a little more important to establish that the originating point is their home. They don’t have to give you an address or anything specific. All they have to do is point to an area on the map. Your staff will then place a colored dot on the map with a felt pen where the customer has indicated.

It is important to do this consistently and long enough to get a distinct visual representation of where the dots begin forming clusters. After a week or two, you will begin to see patterns emerging that will provide a great tool for future marketing.

How would you change your marketing if you could see on a map exactly where your customers were coming from?

Rob Charlton

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The Aberdeen Group recently concluded a study that shows seven specific reasons why companies choose to use a social media strategy. They separated their respondents into three categories, based upon four key performance criteria. The categories were Best-In-Class (top 20%), Industry Average (middle 50%) and Laggards (bottom 30%).  Of all companies questioned, the top reasons for implementing a social media initiative, in order of their reported importance are:

• Increase customer advocacy / word of mouth        37%
• Protect brand reputation                                                35%
• Improve customer research capabilities                   33%
• Increase product / brand awareness                          32%
• Increase customer loyalty                                               31%
• Increase customer acquisition                                      23%
• Increase customer retention                                          21%

What is interesting to note is that these results were taken from all respondents. However, when looking at Best-In-Class respondents, the number one reason, at 47%, was increasing customer loyalty. The argument might be made that increasing customer loyalty can be seen as an umbrella that includes most of the other categories, so it was just a matter of wording. Or, it might speak to a more refined understanding of Best-In-Class companies that in today’s economy, customer retention is a much more important strategy than in normal times. And, that customer loyalty is a deeper level of customer retention.

Regardless of the relative importance of reasons to engage in a social media strategy, it shows a growing realization among companies that a significant part of their effort to connect with their customers must now take place on this new two-way communication platform. And, it provides the beginning point for quantifying  those efforts.

Best-In-Class companies showed an average of 11% increase in their ability to generate consumer insights that drive new product/service developments. Laggards decreased 10%. Best-Of-Class companies showed an average decrease in customer service costs of 7%. Laggards showed an average increase of 5%.

When companies have to struggle for every sale it’s hard to justify the time and expense for a new, unproven marketing strategy. But, evidence is beginning to grow in support of what many marketing professionals instinctively saw as an important new tool.

Not every company is a candidate for social media. But, if you are wondering what a social media campaign might do for you, a good place to start is the above list. And, if you interview a social media professional, be sure to ask questions that are wrapped around the appropriate reasons that drove you to consider it in the first place.

Rob Charlton

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After more than 20 years of creating and managing advertising campaigns for businesses, I can say that customer service is one of the most important elements of any marketing effort. You may have the best product at the best time and the best price. But, if you’re sales staff isn’t up to making the customer feel genuinely valued it’s all for nothing.

I worked with a retail chain that was having problems with sales in a couple of their stores. We tried everything. Some efforts provided some anemic results and others created a short sales spike that quickly disappeared. One day we found a scathing review on one of the review sites on the web. It detailed the quintessential bad service experience that we all love to pass on to others. A follow-up mystery shopping exercise quickly revealed a sales person who should have never been a sales person.

The problem was fixed, but the damage lingered for some time. This kind of problem can be hard to find quickly if there are just one or two people in a branch store or office most of the time. So, it is valuable to have an on-going service evaluation program such as a mystery shopper in place along with on-going training and coaching for your employees.

You can lose a sale because of price. You can lose a sale because a customer returns an item. But, you will lose a customer if your pre sale or more importantly, your post sale service is bad.

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OK, go ahead and roll your eyes at the corn-ball notion that some argument could be made for such a preposterous statement. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that a telemarketing campaign is better than an e-mail campaign. What I’m suggesting is that the telephone be used more often to connect with clients, important customers and others who are important to you.

Consider for a moment just how much e-mail has replaced talking on the phone over the last 10 years. Sure, e-mail is faster, easier and more convenient. No argument there. But, we also use e-mail to avoid even the most minor fear of rejection or having to deliver bad news. It’s much easier to craft an e-mail than it is to face a challenging conversation.

the last time I advertised for a position in the agency, I narrowed my final choices down to four people and called each one. I got voice-mail on every call, so I asked them to call me on the phone to make an appointment for a final interview. Two called and two e-mailed me. I replied to the two e-mails, again asking them to call (making sure they had my phone number). One called and the other wrote another e-mail wanting to set a time. Guess who got eliminated from the final round first?

It made me realize that we are so used to communicating by e-mail that we’ve lost a degree of our connection with some who are very important to us. If you replace just 20% of your e-mail conversations with phone calls to your important contacts, you will be making yourself different while making a difference.

Keeping good customers is more important today than ever before. And these days, your competitors are trying harder than ever to get your customers. The telephone is a great tool for maintaining that connection. Because, tagging your e-mail with “LOL” will never create the same bond as sharing a genuine laugh.

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In reflecting upon why such negative feelings are held by some, I recounted some of the things I’ve seen over the years. Following is a list of five things that can turn a viable client into an anti-ad agency evangelist.

1. SURPRISE BILLS
Nothing will lead to a lack of trust faster than a bill that is not expected. Reasonable clients will expect a bill for work done. But, I have seen bills from some ad agencies that are completely out of line with the work that was performed. Once a business owner feels burned by an ad agency, it is almost impossible to gain their trust again.

2. UNDER SERVICE THE ACCOUNT
This takes a little longer for the client to recognize. But eventually, if they aren’t given enough attention, they will believe that no matter how little they are charged, it is money wasted. Ironically, this problem usually comes from the agency charging too little so it has to take on more clients than it can effectively handle just to make a profit.

3. GET CAUGHT UP IN THEIR OWN CREATIVE IDEAS
I’ve seen wonderful work for a client, expertly executed and complete. And, completely off the mark. I worked with a pizza company whose previous agency’s branding efforts were so completely off the mark that people came in thinking it was a slot car store. Small wonder they’re still gun-shy.

4. OVER PROMISE IN THE BEGINNING
In this highly competitive business, many agencies resort to unrealistic promises of success in order to land the account. Then, of course, the results are never even close. Sometimes, if the agency can create a personal bond fast enough, they can modify client expectations back to something reasonable. But, often they can’t, and the business owner feels burned by the whole experience.

5. CREATIVE ARROGANCE
It isn’t as prevalent as the movies would have us believe. But, it still happens too much. Some young creative guy teams up with some young AE, and suddenly they think they are the only ones with answers that matter. The truth is, business owners often have much to offer and create a much better team when included. Not much will turn off a business owner who has worked his or her tail off to get where they are faster than some arrogant outsider who gets a boost from trying to make his client look inferior.

Thankfully, most agencies are not like this. They are hard working, insightful, talented groups of people who can add lots of horsepower to a businesses success. And, sadly, many who got burned once continue to get burned because they lose a competitive edge by doing it themselves.

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Not too many years ago, a business needed to spend $200,000 or more annually in a small to medium market just to have a minimal presence. That left most businesses out of the hunt for any kind of top of mind awareness in their market. Businesses with smaller budgets were limited to a selection of marketing alternatives that might include guerrilla marketing, community newspapers, local store marketing or maybe a modest presence in the local daily newspaper.

Today, if a business owner figures out how to harness the power of the Internet, a world of potential customers, literally, opens up. That’s the good news. the bad news is that it isn’t quite as easy as it might first appear.

In my experience, most people who run a business find that it’s a full time job. Business people tend to be consumed with all that needs tending, from personnel issues to accounting. From dealing with vendors to keeping customers happy. And, there are dozens of other tasks, each screaming for the entrepreneur’s attention.

This business of web marketing takes precious time that most business people simply don’t have. And, it isn’t just the time to execute the e-marketing plan. It also involves creating the plan. How, as an entry level player, do you know where you should have a presence, and what you should do once you are there?

How much effort should you put against search engine optimization? Should you be on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter or Facebook? Should you have an e-mail program or a paid search campaign? Does a blog make sense for you? Then there are the hundreds of add-on applications that extend the effectiveness of all these platforms. And, how do you connect your choices so they all coordinate to deliver a cohesive message to the same target audience? Finally, how do you measure results?

It is the rare business owner who can figure all this out and still run his business. Take advantage of the opportunities the web offers and start today by hiring someone who already knows this stuff. They’ll do a much better job, and do it quicker than you could ever hope to. The money you save by trying to figure it out yourself will be a trifle compared to what you will gain by ramping up now and staying ahead of your competition.

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In this case, we are about to launch a store closing campaign for four of the six A Boy Plumbing and Electrical Supply stores in the Portland / Vancouver area. The unfortunate part is that the stores were doing fine, given the bad economy. It was the parent company that relied entirely upon contractor building activity that was really hit hard. And, as much as A Boy provided revenue, it couldn’t provide enough to fill the huge, growing vacuum created by the much larger parent company.

With only about five weeks to close, we were given the task to unload more than $1 million worth of inventory. Our plan involves three phases. The first phase announces the existence of the sale and will last for about two weeks. The second phase will call out inventory categories that need more attention and apply deep discounts to the message. The third phase will begin a countdown to closing in order to create urgency. The final phase will also feature drastically discounted examples.

The media will go for tonnage. This is a fairly simple message that people will understand quickly. So, we’re buying :15 and :10 second radio and TV spots, supplemented with 4 – 5 second TV, and getting as many messages as possible out there.

The good news is that this isn’t one of those phony sale schemes where prices are raised so they can be lowered, and the net result is no savings. This is the real deal. There’s no time or interest in playing those unethical games. So, you might say that this is a guy’s dream come true: a store filled with all kinds of tools, hardware, fixtures and other man toys on sale.

On the other hand, I’m going to miss my favorite store. The A Boy on Foster. It’s the closest thing to an old fashioned hardware store I know, where the guys there really know their stuff and there’s none of that “big operation” slickness that stocks only those things that deliver the highest annual turns.

More good news! Two of the stores: Hollywood and Barbur Blvd. are being purchased by the original owner and will remain open under his exclusive ownership.

I think this little gem of a chain will once again grow into various Portland area neighborhoods to serve as a great alternative to the big, impersonal box stores.

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I have witnessed businesses cutting overhead, cutting jobs and salaries, closing branches, cutting marginal lines and doing all the things necessary to survive. Most have already done just about everything they can do, and are managing to struggle through.

Finally, Saturday’s Oregonian reported: “Battered economy looking a bit better”. By the way, while some of the indicators they reported were recent, I think evidence existed three or four weeks ago, and the newspaper is woefully behind in its reporting. Current unemployment figures are better than expected, the bank stress test showed that banks are in better shape than experts were expecting, the Dow has been up 8 weeks out of the past 9, and the NASDAQ has been up 9 straight weeks.

So, with these positive signs, it becomes clear that sharp marketers who recognize the importance of staying in front of trends must be planning how to address the change now.

Here are seven recommendations for marketers looking to plan ahead, made in a recent article by John Quelch, a professor at Harvard Business School.

1. FOCUS ON HIGH POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
Identify those who may have been putting off the buying decision and speak to them first.

2. DON’T ASSUME A RETURN TO NORMAL
This long, deep recession is more likely to permanently change consumer attitudes and behaviors. Be sure to listen and watch carefully the signals they are sending you.

3. ASSESS TARGET CUSTOMER TRUST
Companies, especially financial companies, have taken a beating in the past several months. Add services and support to boost your trust with customers.

4. STAY FOCUSED ON COST
This long recession has created a downward pressure on prices that will not go away with the recovery.

5. KNOW YOUR LEAD INDICATORS
What do you notice that precedes or validates your customer behaviors? Identify those and pay attention to them.

6. DEVELOP SCENARIOS
Since there is no way for you to know exactly what will happen or when, you must be prepared to adjust your marketing to fluctuations of surprisingly robust sales and short periods of reversal.

7. DON’T WAIT FOR PERMISSION
Start planning now. Don’t wait for an official announcement that the recession is over. By that time, you will be behind your competitors.

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The first study conducted to measure the effectiveness of marketing during a recession was conducted by Rolland Vaile during the recession of 1923. He later published his report in the Harvard Business Review. It showed the biggest sales increases throughout the period during and following the recession were rung up by the companies that advertised the most.

The next studies were done during the recessions of 1949 and 1954. Again, results showed that companies that advertised had the most sales. But more importantly, it showed the companies that did not advertise not only lost sales during the recession, but continued to lag behind after the recession.

More studies were done during the recessions of 1958 and 1961 with the same results. But, this time they also measured profits. In every case, companies who quit or cut back advertising lost market share and lagged behind those who maintained their budgets.

Another study was done during the recession of 1970 with the same result. Then McGraw Hill conducted a study during the recession of 1981 and 1982 with the same result. Then David Ogilvy’s agency Group Center for R&D did one during the 1990 recession. You guessed it: the same result.

That’s ten separate studies over an eighty year period and every one of them returned the same result.

This is the time to be aggressive with your marketing. This is not to say you should be foolish with your budget and spend more than you can afford. But, don’t do what so many business people do, which is to take the fastest and easiest route to cutting overhead by slashing their marketing budget while hanging onto other expenses that could be trimmed.

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