BUSINESS MONITOR n From previous page.
both could be treated as a resource. Avoid interesting but useless information. That said, I had a contact who knew that Iʼm a cricket and rugby fan and typically used that as a hook on which to hang a selling email. He did it well and it felt personal although he sent the same message to all cricket/rugby fans. Consider all the areas in which you can be helpful to a client. Local information is a case – if your letters and emails feature a potential business opportunity, say the number of students in your city and the enthusiasm of that sector for the product, the rest of what you are saying gains value. Be a sharer. I have been told often enough ʻwe donʼt put information on our website that could benefit our competitorsʼ. OK, I can see the point, but that also means your prospective customers are being denied the information. Find a balance between commercial discretion and blabbermouth. Then share.
Focused
Itʼs all about me. This is perhaps the ultimate marketing sin and you can see it on a daily basis in every form of media; so-called professionals are some of the worst sinners. Any journalist will tell you about the press releases that talk, no, rabbit, about the wonders of company x or product y and completely fail to answer the question ʻwhatʼs in it for me?ʼ Your communication should be focused on your readers, your customers and, indeed, your customersʼ customers. Plenty of businesses copy those sinning professionals who are desperately trying to bang home corporate messages and brand names. Instead you should be stressing the relevance of your message to your reader. Recruiting a new client is an extended process. The huge variety of communication methods available to us need to be knitted together as part of that. As above they should have the same tone of voice but each be different and interesting. Thatʼs a tough ask, but in the digital world constant communication is the name of the game. Therefore spread your story out, telling it bit by bit. The easiest way to switch off a clientʼs initial interest is to repeat yourself constantly. The easiest way to switch off a clientʼs initial interest is to repeat yourself constantly. See? But many businesses deliver the identical content in all their messages. Telling someone the
identical thing ten times does not make them ten times likelier to buy. Please note that a consistent message does not have to mean a repetitive message. You donʼt write it once and say it again endlessly. Freshen it up. This applies especially to a website. I have seen a lot of sites that havenʼt been updated in years. That is unforgiveable. If you donʼt update it, you may as well not have a website, because one of the baseline promises of a site is ʻthis is us, nowʼ. You might say – as many businesses do – ʻwe donʼt have anything new to say, we just go on doing the same thing really wellʼ. Thereʼs certainly some virtue in that, but it weakens the impact of a website and I suggest itʼs lazy marketing.
That applies especially in this sector. If your website canʼt feature pictures and attaching case histories of clients who you have worked with recently, the prospective customer is entitled to ask what you have been doing since you uploaded that pic for a pre-Olympic product.
Whilst in any organisation there will be one person whose responsibility it is to decide what is put in the public domain, the information can and should come from anyone in the business: content is everybodyʼs job. Imagine the delivery driver who experienced a carton of sweatshirts being ripped open the minute he arrived and everyone wearing them before he left. That would be great content, but unless that driver felt involved in this process, it could well never see the light of day. A ʻnews and viewsʼ page is at least easy to implement and, with or without attribution, you can quote the views of clients and their customers.
People love being featured in publicity activity, so give them the chance. This process of updating also helps with rankings on search engines.
If you create your own events or visit shows and local events give that digital camera some hard work. The opportunity to show people on the website, choosing, buying and wearing the product has top-dollar value. People like to be in the public domain.
Biggest audience
The content specialists stress that, any time when you have a new story about the business, you should be greedy with it. Put it on your website, feature it in your blog, email it to contacts. This goes against traditional PR thinking, which says ʻget it out to the biggest audience, ASAPʼ. Thatʼs outdated.
Instead, you want people to find it, which with best use of digital media is straightforward. In the process, they find you and your full story. You can give it to the press and TV afterwards. Too many businesses, especially where the people involved have a technical background and skills, tend to get excited by the technology of our 21st century communication tools. Who can blame them? What used to cost big bucks is now free. But why do you need to be on Facebook or Twitter – as you will see on most websites – if your clients use neither? If they are users, great! Both are ideal ways to talk to them. If theyʼre not, they may regard them as inappropriate in a business context, as I have heard and read. As ever the best marketing advice is ʻknow your customerʼ.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
January 2013 | 21 |
Best advice? Know your customer
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96