Your Marketing
Message: Be Clear,
Consistent, Constant, and Relentless
Your
marketing message communicates who you are, what value you offer, and
why they should trust you
Does you marketing strategy
contain a
marketing message that communicates clearly?
Your
marketing success is forever linked directly to your marketing message
and your commitment to being repetitive.
Does
your small business marketing message convey a clear, consistent,
constant, and relentless message to everyone who sees it? Or, is your
marketing made up of sporadic hit-or-miss post cards and ads that say
different things each time? Your answer reveals a great deal about your
future success. 
Jay
Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing &
62
Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits,
says it takes over nine clear exposures to your marketing message for a
prospect to move from apathy to purchasing. The problem lies in the
fact that they
pay attention to only every third market message they see.
Therefore, it requires 27 exposures for your marketing message to get
through to each and every person in your target
market!
Every
experienced marketer knows that you can’t give up on a
prospect just because they did not respond to your first marketing
attempt. Prospects are very busy with their personal
challenges and other pressing life issues. Your message is
just another ad that flashes in front of them without so much as a
second glance.
Don't Let Your Marketing Message Become
Clutter
It
is difficult to get their attention and delivery your message. It is
estimated that the
average person is bombarded by over 3,000 to 4,000 marketing messages
everyday. Now that’s clutter!
Try
this exercise to understand the extent of the clutter
problem. Take one hour out of your typical day and count how
many marketing images you are exposed to. This could be
anything from a logo on a pair of shoes to the auto company nameplate
on your car. Any image that any business enterprise has
printed to remind you of them is eligible. Also include any
other entities as well such as churches, groups, schools, and other
organizations. Tally your count up after an hour and see where
you stand; the results will stagger you.
The
problem with all this clutter is that your message you spent
a lot of time and money on can get lost in the
market. So how do you cut threw this mess to reach the buyer
and affect their decision making process?
The
answer is that your small business marketing message must be clear,
consistent, constant, and relentless. This all begins with the quality
of your marketing message. Is it crystal clear to your target
market exactly what you do, what you offer, and how it will benefit
their lives? You
may know what you're talking about, but does your target?
Test Your Marketing Message
Carefully
craft your message over time through a process of testing,
measurement, and evaluation. Try several different
approaches to your message and test them against each other
to see which performs better. Then, duplicate the results across the
rest of your marketing.
Your
marketing message is too important to be left to intuition or the
opinion of a few employees, close family members, or
friends. Your prospects and customers have the ultimate say on
what they want to hear. So, let them tell you what will cut through the
clutter to get their attention.
What approach should you take when creating your
message? Read these two articles to learn more: "Your
Marketing Message: It Ain't About You" and
"Be Careful
Not To We All Over Yourself".
Commit to Consistency
What
can you do to improve your marketing? Committing to consistency
and repetition is the best way. Failing to be consistent with
the message quality and frequency can put all of your marketing efforts
at risk. Inconsistencies can confuse prospects and clients to the point
where they don’t fell comfortable with your company.
It
is very common that business owners
will fall into a trap of believing that they can run marketing offers
once in awhile. They run ads one week and
don’t run them again because the ads didn’t meet
their expectations. They forget or are ignorant to the fact that
frequency is a major factor in marketing success.
Sometimes they get lucky and find a message that works and draws in a
little new business. With this success in hand, they often become
complacent and pull back their marketing because they believe the
success will continue from this one victory. They forgot that
the only constant in business is change and, without marketing,
eventually business will slow down.
They will become their own worst enemy by not continuing to
consistently capitalize on the message that worked. They have
the best intentions to market on a regular basis; however, because of a
lack
of planning they throw an advertisement here or there. This
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strategy
only lead to minimal results and
wasted dollars invested. Only a consistent deliver can create
outstanding marketing results.
Constantly and Relentlessly Market Your Business
Being
constant is another key component of this principle. As
we touched on earlier, repetition brings marketing success.
Creating an impression takes many, many exposures to your
message. That’s exactly why you will see or hear
the same annoying commercial over and over. Even though it
may annoy you, it’s doing its job by leaving a significant
impression on you.
Adopting
a constant posture in your marketing doesn’t
mean sticking with one tactic using a single delivery method.
It is important to take your clear and consistent message and spread it
through other forms of delivery to the same target,
intelligently. A prime example of this is the discount
department stores. You see their ads on TV, hear their radio
spots, receive their direct mail coupons, and find their inserts in
your newspaper. They make themselves ubiquitous in your life
through a constant barrage of marketing
messages aimed only at you to take action. You
may not always give them your full attention, but they leave an
impression that is part of your decision making process.
Being
constant is the twin sister of being relentless. Never
giving up is a virtue of successful small business marketing
strategy. Those who get discouraged and fall into
the incompetence trap don’t become successful.
It’s that simple. What only pays is a dogged determination
that moves a business forward and marketing is no exception.
To
be relentless doesn’t mean being rude or
overbearing. It is simply keeping your product and service
offering tastefully in front of the prospects and clients without
intruding. This can be a delicate balancing act for any
marketer. You want to be familiar without being obnoxious.
These four
qualities of clear, consistent, constant and relentless each
interconnect to give you a solid principle that will allow you to spread
your benefits to those who matter most…your clients and
prospects. All it takes is saying the
same thing, say it the same way, say it often, and don’t give
up saying it.
| Developing a Marketing
Strategy |
|
1. Strategic Thinking
Many small businesses take on any type of customer
just to make a sale and lose sight of the prospects that have the
greatest potential. They approach everyone equally and hope for the
best. What’s wrong with this? It's a poor tactical approach,
not a sustainable growth marketing strategy.
(more)
2. Established Marketing Goals
If
you believe you can succeed, you will eventually succeed. When you have
a marketing strategy and clear set of marketing goals there
will be little to stop you. (more)
3.
Differentiating
Factors
Being unique
in the marketplace is an imperative small business marketing strategy.
Uniqueness can be a make-or-break virtue in today’s
hyperactive business world. How do you set your small business apart?
(more)
4.
A Clear Target
Creating
a small business marketing strategy requires you to become and expert
at
target marketing.
The two things you are always short on are time and money. When you
miss your target market you are wasting both.
(more)
5. A
Strong Message
Marketing is all about communication. When you communicate well, you
make sales; if you cause confusion, you fail. It's that simple.
Creating a strategy for your marketing message is critical to your
success.
(more)
6.
A Brand Identity
You
may think that as a small business you are not big enough to need a
branding strategy.
Nothing can be further from the truth! Every business needs an identity
that is part of a focused marketing strategy. (more)
7.
A Positioning Plan
All
business battles, large and small, are won and lost in the minds of
your clients and prospects. They decide what is in their best interest
and if your product will benefit them. The best you can do is to
position yourself with your marketing strategy to be the best choice,
lowest risk they have in their buying process. (more)
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