Category Archives for "Marketing"

0 The Difference Between Outputs and Outcomes Features and Benefits

This post is a response to a comment concerning outputs and outcomes features and benefits.  In Monday’s post, How Do I Demonstrate Benefits? Mark Woodhead wrote:

“It seems to me that there are some interesting parallels between demonstrating benefits and demonstrating outcomes and impacts. Not quite the same, but it might be instructive to compare the two.”

This was my reply:

“Thanks Mark, there probably is a close parallel between outputs and features; outcomes and benefits. It is easy to focus solely on features or outputs; usually these are not terribly interesting. You might offer support to several hundred job seekers a year but the interest is in how their lives have changed as a result of your intervention.”

So, let’s compare these four terms:

Outputs and Outcomes

These terms are usually applied to grant applications and so they are familiar in voluntary and community organisations.  Sometimes it feels as if a grant is actually purchasing outputs.  So, the deal may be to help 100 people over a given period with job opportunities.  Of these the expectation might be 20 to training courses, 20 to job interviews and 5 into jobs.  (I’ve made up these figures, to illustrate the principle.)

The outcomes will be the stories of people who actually benefitted from the service.  The incentive to go to an interview might be the need to earn more money to support their family or to have a good time.  Does it matter which?

Outcomes are important because people who successfully experienced the service may have other reasons for their appreciation.  Increased income is not the only motivation to work. Have people’s lives been enhanced by the work itself, apart from the money they earn?  It is the study of outcomes that enables an organisation to understand what works for its customers.  An over-reliance on measuring outputs will mean this valuable information is not collected or overlooked.

There is an expectation that good outputs will lead to positive outcomes although sometimes the focus is so much on achieving outputs that outcomes are forgotten.  If good output records are leading to poor outcomes, the chances are you’re doing the wrong thing!

Features and Benefits

These words are usually used in a business context.  Again features are usually quantifiable and there is a temptation to focus on them at the expense of benefits.  However, most business people are aware of the need to focus on benefits because benefits sell.

Businesses operate in the market place and so they need real benefits.  Customer satisfaction is central to a successful business.  Whilst it is not hard to find businesses who promote on features, successful businesses always promote benefits.

It often feels like outputs sell grant applications and so it is interesting to see there is a different feel to these pairs.

Outputs and Features

So, what do these have in common?

They are quantifiable and so measurable.  They are evidence based.  If you claim an output or a feature it is not unreasonable to expect evidence for their existence.

The reason outputs are so important in grant related cultures is because very often outputs are pushed down the chain.  Some government department has to meet a target of so many people on training courses and so pays a voluntary organisation to supply said training courses.

Whilst anyone would see the virtue in looking closely at outcomes, the reality is it is not necessary.  Courses held and the people who participated is often all the evidence a funding body requires.  Outcomes may be more important to the supplier, based in a community where the courses are happening but they still must collect outputs if they wish to maintain their funding.

Features are important once a potential customer understands benefits.  The customer has already decided when they look at the features.  They want the benefits and they look at features to establish whether the benefits offered are credible.

Outcomes and Benefits

These are usually qualitative measures, often best conveyed through stories.  They are not so easy to measure and evidence will be anecdotal.

So, expect testimonials in the place of hard evidence.  Perhaps we’re less inclined to accept this type of evidence but the reality is we do need to know whether an offer is worth it.

A problem with many offers is they do not gather the soft evidence of benefits or outcomes over a long enough period.  It is not unreasonable to ask about the benefits of a training course 1 year or even 5 years after the end.  How many courses do you remember 5 years or more after they took place?  It is not impossible to remember courses many years after they’re completed and still draw on insights from them.

The business person cannot afford to forget about benefits.  They need to gather evidence of benefits.  They depend upon changes in the market.  An offer that worked well six months ago may be less effective as the market moves on.  Good businesses are able to manage these subtle changes.  Features are easy in comparison – they’re always there and mostly unchanging.  The contrast with the voluntary sector fixation on outputs could not be more stark.

Have I captured the contrasting contexts of these two sets of attributes?  Please share your experiences, especially if they don’t agree with what I’ve written here.

4 How Do I Demonstrate Benefits?

I have written about benefits before.  They are important because you sell benefits, not products, services or causes.  Through your offer you demonstrate your offer’s benefits.  The problem is many people are not clear about their offer’s benefits.  How do you demonstrate benefits?

Identify Benefits

One big advantage to identifying benefits is it goes some way to proving them.  Digging deep into the benefits of a particular offer is likely to result in something that rings true.

The circuit questionnaire suggest using the words “which means that” to dig deeper into your benefits.  Here is my attempt from some time ago:

A web presence that works for your organisation

Which means that:

Your organisation will be more effective at getting its message across

Which means that:

It will raise more funds, increase membership, build partnerships

Which means that:

New opportunities will open up for it through multiple feedback options

Which means that:

Its understanding of its own purpose will deepen

When I wrote this, my offer emphasised assisting clients with developing their web presence.  My current offer focuses on local marketing, integrating in-person and online marketing approaches.

These days I would start with local marketing instead of web presence.  I suspect, after the first two or so iterations, I would find much the same benefits.

On first reading, more funds, members and partners might seem the most attractive line.  Indeed, it is a benefit I might feature on a website.  Potential clients may be seeking one or more of these and seeing them listed as a benefit might encourage them to read on.

In contrast, the last line offering a deeper understanding of their own purpose might lack any kind of draw in the cold light of a monitor screen.

However, during a marketing conversation, it could be compelling.  If the client is thinking through their own marketing approach, and realises they don’t really understand their own purpose, such a benefit might seem beneficial.

So, take note this approach can result in a range of answers to the question, what are your benefits?  These answers may all be helpful if deployed at the right time or in the right place.  (If you don’t know the right time or place, you’re in great company.  The only way I know is trial and error, occasionally assisted by split testing – a massive and important topic.)

Look at it this way: I could show someone a few techniques that might help them attract more members.  All they would need to do is apply them and the chances are they would work.  However, if I can help them understand their purpose, deepen their understanding, perhaps they would find their own methods for increasing membership.  They would no longer rely on me to suggest approaches.

Many businesses sell products but market a lifestyle:

“When you buy our beer, you’re supporting people who take great pride in crafting beers using traditional methods.  Furthermore, they work collaboratively, according to co-operative principles so that many people work together to bring a whole way of life to your table.”

I’m not claiming this copy is brilliant but note, what is objectively a bottle of beer can be sold as a work of art or a way of life!

Demonstrate Benefits

If you’re selling beer, your customer gets a bottle of beer.  So long as it tastes good, the customer is happy and may come back for more. The offer is cheap enough to allow the customer to risk not liking it.  If they find a dead spider in the bottle, they may complain but in general the beer proves itself.  If they don’t like it they’re more likely to try another type and unlikely to complain.

As the customer invests more money or time in the offer, they are more likely to seek proof your offer can actually deliver the promised benefits.

If the offer is a service delivered in different ways to each client, it can be difficult to show how the benefits can be delivered.  The vendor may be confident their approach is effective but how do they convey this confidence to their customer?

There are several options and they all depend on the offer being sound in the first place.  I’ll cover these in future posts but today I’ll show how it works.

The vendor needs a specific approach, a formula if you like, which can be applied to any problem to produce the desired approach.  This way the vendor can show how their approach can solve the customer’s problem.

I use the circuit questionnaire to help the client uncover the deeper dynamic of their offers, use the information to design a marketing strategy and then we may work together to deliver the strategy, making adjustments as we go.

You will note this explanation moves from benefits to features.  Benefits sell but features prove it is possible to achieve the benefits.  The discerning customer will seek the features so they can assess whether the promised benefits are credible.  This is not simply listing features but showing how the features work together to deliver the benefits.

How do you prove your offer results in the benefits you claim for it?

0 Keeping Your Promise

Every exchange in the marketplace involves at least one promise.  “In exchange for the price of this product or service I shall do this …” The promise is the product or service shall deliver the stated benefits.  The potential customer needs to know not only what the promise is but also that the vendor can meet the promise.

This second is a significant challenge.  How do you prove you capacity to meet your promise?

As usual, I shall use my business to show how to answer the questions in the circuit questionnaire.

How does my promise uniquely solve the customer’s problem?

Organisations with marketing problems are all different.  The organisation may not be aware of their problem  and so choose the wrong solution.  They need to know what the problem is and so it is worth spending time identifying and clarifying it. I take a systemic view of website design because online problems are often a symptom of deeper organisational problems.

People aware their website is a liability can find their problem is one or more of their capacity, vision, management structures or who-knows-what.  They need to address these problems and not prematurely opt for the first solution that comes along.  There’s no point in approaching a website designer if the problem is in your organisation.  Website developers often find their clients difficult because the client does not understand the problems their organisation faces.

It’s better to think strategically from the beginning but wherever you’ve got to, it’s never too late to start over and get the website working for your organisation.

Some people may say, isn’t this an example of the tail wagging the dog?  Do we really have to change so much because we have a website?  This is the wrong question.  You need to look at why you need a website and make the organisational changes you need to meet that benefit.  Get that right and the website will slot into its rightful place.

The Promised Outcome

I take a systemic approach, working with clients to look at their organisation’s objectives and what it needs to change to meet them.  The website is one tool among many that can support overall objectives.

Nobody wants a website.  They are a lot of work.  Many organisations need a website because it is an essential part of their marketing strategy.  So it is important to understand their marketing strategy and where their website fits in.

For local markets, a website can be immensely helpful in support of in-person marketing.  This is what makes local marketing so exciting, it is essentially getting out there and meeting people.  So, your website needs to be fully integrated into your real life marketing strategy.  If your website is a liability either you don’t need one or its role has not been thought through.

So, my promised outcome is to help an organisation understand their marketing strategy and then plan an integrated online and in-person approach.  This includes strategy implementation, including building online presence if required.

Why the Customer will get the Promised Outcome

Whilst the Internet opens up new opportunities for organisations with something to promote, its power often uncovers their underlying weaknesses.  Holistic web design helps you design your organisation so that it takes advantage of marketing opportunities on and offline.

Your Internet presence can increase your organisation’s capacity.  This means with a similar but better targeted contribution of time and resources, your organisation will do more.  I use a non-directive consultancy approach, which means

The right solutions can take time to emerge.  Part of my role is to support the client during the usual period of being stuck (and help them get stuck in the first place – organisations are brilliant at finding reasons not to stare into the abyss!)

The goal is to help the client understand their organisation and what might work.  I challenge the hidden assumptions people make that limit their capacity to respond to their market.

Automate, Simplify and Scale

With an online presence, organisations can find support for their marketing strategy in three ways:

I’m not sure either title fully conveys the promise but perhaps this shows how difficult it is to express complex ideas.  The pages on my website aim to support my in-person marketing approach.  They help me explain the difference between the two approaches and show how they might benefit the client’s organisation or business.

Maybe I will come up with better titles as my work progresses.  However, this is not essential because I have other opportunities to promote my offers before a potential client sees the title.

Do you know of other ways to prove capacity to fulfil your promise through online and in-person marketing?

0 What Makes an Offer Unique?

It is an advantage if you can show how your unique offer differs from everything else out there. This may be easy if you are piloting a new idea, less so if it is a market with lots of competition.

Hairdressers, for example, probably find little potential for differentiating their offer. Even so, some may develop a reputation for some style or service and so they can promote that as their unique feature. Also for something like hairdressing, it will suffice if it is unique locally! There is a limit to how far customers are likely to travel.

To distinguish your offer from your competitors is not necessarily a claim to be better than they are. Making the distinction between what you offer and what others offer can help potential customers decide which they prefer.

A unique offer does not necessarily sell! You might come up with an offer that is brilliant on paper but no-one wants it. If your unique offer does not sell, the chances are your marketing strategy is at fault, perhaps the design of your offer, pricing, the way you present its benefits and features.

What make an offer unique ?

Sometimes it is possible to come up with a brand new idea. But even so you may need to distinguish your offer from competitors addressing the same problem with different offers. So, let’s review possible ways in which an offer might be unique.

Organisation or Website?

Understanding organisations is far more important than understanding the Internet. For a client seeking help with the Internet, their success depends on their whole organisation. Change is much more than moving from being without a website to being with one. It has implications for all aspects of how they work.

Creation of a website is not a big job and increasingly clients are able to do this for themselves. What they need is guidance through the early months and help with learning to live with a demanding website.

People may need help to build their website and this will remain so as new possibilities are discovered almost daily. But ongoing support is of greater value. You don’t know on day 1 what particular problems your business is going to face. Whilst websites are fairly similar, organisations are all different and one organisation may have completely different issues to another with a similar website.

Leave a comment, especially if you can think of other ways in which an offer can be unique.

0 Resources for the Local Economy: Gift Vouchers

Resources for the Local Economy is a new occasional series where I shall introduce websites about interesting schemes in support of the local economy.  The first in this series is gift vouchers.

The website is Goodmoney and you will find the home page if you click on the link.  (Note: websites change from time to time and so if you read this post in the distant future, the site will not necessarily match what I write!)

The first big positive is the home page explains the gift voucher scheme and nothing else.  At the top of the page there is a brief introductory text explanation and a video.  Beneath the video there are three buttons, to press, depending on how you wish to respond to the message.  Best proactive suggests it is usually best to have a single call to action.  However, the three possibilities are logical and clear.  Is it confusing to have three to choose from?  It would be interesting to look at conversion rates for this page.

The Turquoise box below the buttons seems a bit superfluous and would benefit from having links to the ethical supermarket and online store.

The next three sections correspond to the highlighted words in the introductory text.  Links from the introductory text to these sections would be helpful.  Five benefits for local businesses follow these sections.

Next are three buttons and one of these is different from the first three.  Usually when links repeat down the page, they are the same.  This allows people already decided to follow the link at the top and the undecided can read more and then encounter the same buttons again afterwards.

Overall this is a good home page and clearly conveys the gift voucher scheme and its benefits.  There may be a few navigation issues but if the page converts, they may not be too serious.  I would certainly recommend this as a site to visit not only for its core idea but the simple, clear way they conveyed it on the site.

What we don’t see on the website is the complementary in-person marketing that will be going on in Brighton and Hove.  My guess is the website supports a primary in-person marketing strategy.  Judging by the number of participants in the gift voucher scheme, it is building support.  It would be interesting to see some statistics on the site.  I gather it is early days and so these may follow at some point.

If you read the About page, you will find the gift voucher scheme has two purposes.  First, it directly supports the flow of money in the local economy.  Also Goodmoney are using the scheme to build their local business membership.  It sounds as if they have plans to launch other forms of support as their membership grows.

This type of scheme will work when people visit businesses and explain the advantages of joining the scheme.  As the number of participant businesses grow, this will make the scheme more attractive and evidence of income from the scheme will also be helpful.  Another advantage personal contact has over depending solely on online registration is opportunities to identify barriers to joining the scheme.  The reasons why potential customers might not invest in it can be varied and not necessarily what the developers of the scheme expect.

Research into the barriers to the scheme can result in changes to the marketing and perhaps to the scheme itself.

This is a brilliant idea, that could be extended to other areas.  It is clearly described on the website and it seems it is being effectively marketed locally.

If you are aware of other resources supporting the local economy, please share them in the comments.  My aim is to encourage the sharing of ideas and so I plan to review the idea itself as well as how it is conveyed online.

0 What Does Your Proposition Offer?

A proposition is a project proposal. It implies some exchange. The proposition may be made by a coach, who will help their customer achieve something in exchange for a fee. The customer must decide whether the proposition is worth the fee.

The coach does not sell coaching. They sell the outcome; a new skill or something the customer will achieve.

This closely parallels the difference between outputs and outcomes. So, a coach might offer 10 sessions. The customer would have reason to complain if the coach delivered only 8 sessions. However, the important thing is not the number of sessions delivered (output) but the result of the sessions for the customer (outcome). If the customer achieves their desired outcome after 5 sessions, they can call a halt but they will still have received what they paid for.

So, if you sell anything, your proposition must address the likely outcome of purchasing whatever it is you’re selling.

This post is the first in a sequence about propositions. It addresses the third element of the circuit questionnaire. My niche statement, which is my proposition, has changed since then. So, in this sequence I shall focus on my latest proposition.

In the same post, I considered marketing causes. I suggested causes can be either a proposition or a commodity. My niche statement specifically positions me as someone who assists with marketing causes and so I will keep this in sight.

My current niche statement is:

I help local business owners and organisation leaders who are overwhelmed by how to consistently find new customers or members. I show them how to use community-based marketing methods both online and in-person to promote their business or cause and create a devoted following who keep coming for more.

Propositions can offer three outcome types:

Fix a Problem

The big advantage of fixing problems is people with the problem are likely to be aware of it and seeking a solution.

The big problem is people who are aware of their problem often have a hazy understanding of it. Consequently they often seek a particular solution and do not look closely at their problem. This can mean the solution they seek does not adequately address the problem.

You will note how my niche statement does not suggest one particular solution. The problem is finding new customers or members. Often someone with this problem wants a website. This is a solution and it may or may not be the right one. Even if it is the right one, there are many types of website and the even best websites won’t work if the owners are unable to manage it.

If the aim is to fix a problem, the essential first step is to understand it. The problem is not lack of a website or any other marketing approach, so much as failure to engage with the potential market. You cannot fix a problem if you do not know what it is.

The customer knows they have a problem but will not necessarily understand it. To explain it to a coach or non-directive consultant, might help them understand the problem at a depth they have not previously reached. At this point the customer may see new solutions.

Whilst products or services are usually designed by an organisation, causes are outside the control of the organisation.  The organisation can attempt to fix this external problem, ignoring internal issues that prevent them from being effective.

So, the problem may not be climate change so much as, how do we promote our particular solution to climate change?

Prevent a Problem

Here potential customers may not be aware of their problem. A healthy diet is beneficial throughout life but typically becomes an issue in later life when the ill-effects of a poor diet become clear.

So, here the chances are potential customers are unlikely to come forward with a problem or a solution. Indeed they may resist thinking about the problem, however real it may be. Climate change is like that. It still seems relatively easy to ignore the evidence and carry on as if it is not happening.

A client just starting out may want to promote a new idea. Certainly a marketing strategy at this early stage may prevent problems down the road. A good idea under these circumstances is to start small. A pilot programme can identify problems before an offer is rolled out to everyone.

Opportunity to Gain

This is strongly implied in my niche statement. I aim to help people find support for their business or cause. Note the outcome is not always financial. A cause may seek supporters. In practice, most causes need financial support but usually value non-financial support just as much.

Even entrepreneurs need reassurance it is OK to seek financial gain. The reality is if you have a good offer, you need income from the offer if you are to keep going.

Most people recognise this as legitimate. However, they still need persuading the fees charged are value for money. The value of the offer is  its benefits or outcomes, whether they are for customers or the beneficiaries of a cause.

With causes, effectiveness is sometimes expressed as the percentage of the income devoted to administration. The fact this so often hits the headlines is evidence of how important it is to get it right. It can be legitimate to devote 100% to salaries so long as this is clear and the benefits are transparent. After all, many freelance businesses offer great value and their income devoted solely to personal income.

Can you think of other examples of outcomes from propositions?

0 What You Don’t Do

When is it a good idea to explain what you don’t do? Usually it is not a good idea to dwell on what you don’t do. After all you are marketing a positive and going on at great length about your lack of capacity may leave the impression that your services are inadequate.

However, there are times when some awareness of your limitations can be beneficial. If you are aware of them, they can inform your copy in positive ways.

Beneficial Limitations

Sometimes limitations can be beneficial to the client. Indeed, it may be you will choose limitations to attract a type of client. You may be capable of doing X but it is better for your client that you don’t.

For example, Done With You (DWY) website design and construction aims to teach the client the basics so they can grow and develop their site on their own.

You may be capable of a Done For You (DFY) approach but it is an approach that has its own limitations. It is the right solution for some clients. DFY can save time and heartache but for the client who has limited resources, they need to know when it is the best approach for them.

Offer DFY when:

And so on …

You will see this list manages expectations in a positive way. Anyone seeking a DFY approach will know your service is not for them.

However, some may want to combine the advantages of a DFY and a DWY service. This is possible and so you might have a second package that combines these approaches and introduces a different set of limitations.

You will note that what you don’t offer may vary from package to package. Your limitations are not always deficiencies in your skill set so much as strategic decisions necessary for the packages you offer.

Working in Partnership

A third area where limitations are important is where you are working in partnership. Here the issue will be delineating the boundaries between each partner’s role. If there are grey areas, where it isn’t clear whose role applies, we need to discuss where the boundaries lie.

It may be easier where partners have very distinct areas of work. So, a health package might include an expert in nutrition and an expert in physical exercise. Whilst there may be some overlap, it will normally be obvious when one encroaches on the other’s work. Of course they will need to discuss a client’s needs and agree a plan but once agreed they will work in their own domain.

It may be less clear with, say, a partnership between a web consultant and a web developer. There may be many details where they must agree about issues on the boundaries. Their skill in this case may be to say to the client, “look, we’ve shown you 2 ways to do this, it’s your decision which you follow”. This may turn the overlap to advantage but it is important to beware of confusing the client.

This post concludes the sequence about the second element of the circuit questionnaire, products services and causes.

0 Your Online Marketing Hub

Last Friday I discussed your local marketing hub and today it is the turn of your online marketing hub.  Local marketing offers a choice of hub, although circumstances are likely to limit the choice.  However, for online marketing there is no choice, only one online marketing hub.

If you are marketing locally, your online marketing can be your marketing hub.  However, it is more likely that it will support an in-person hub.  Why?  Because being able to market in-person is a big advantage and so most businesses will support their marketing using online methods but not wish to make them their main approach.

So, what is your online marketing hub?  It is, of course, your website.  Whether it is a massive online shop, with loads of details about your products or services or a single landing page (not an approach I would always recommend) it is your marketing hub.  Why?  Because things feed into it and it has outputs.

Inputs

You want to drive the right visitors to your site.  The right visitors are people who are interested in your business or cause.  The website will then convert them into supporters (of various kinds) or customers.  So, here are a few ways of getting traffic (visitors) to your website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

This is the first thing people think about when planning how to get traffic to their website.  It is really important if you are marketing nationally or globally.  For local marketing it is less important because there are other methods that are equally if not more effective.

I keep seo ticking over but do not put a great deal of effort into it.  I want to be able to use seo in the future if I need to and so I pay some attention to it now with expecting it to make any significant difference to my business.

Social Media

I include under this heading the major social media platforms, eg Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Google, YouTube as well as any side effects where a contact online might recommend my site or one of my blog posts to friends.  It’s all social and all media.

The main thing to remember here is with the platforms, use them to drive visitors to your website.  Do not rely solely on your followers, friends, etc.  There are lots of reasons for this.  The main one is that people who sign up on your site are likely to do so because they are interested in your offer.  On social media there are often other factors at play.

In the early days people started to build business empires on social media and then there would be a rule change and they lost everything.  This is perhaps less likely to happen these days but it is still the case that these platforms don’t belong to you and so a rule change could jeopardise your business or cause.  This does not prevent you from using things like Facebook Ads to promote your offers, but use them to get people to visit your site.

Direct Entry

This is where someone copies your url into their browser.  They will have your url from your in-person marketing.  This may seem somewhat old-school but it can be the most effective way to grow your lists online.

These days this approach can be surprisingly high-tech!  Now it is possible for people to reach your website and join your list from their mobile.  So, you can stand over them while they do it, although it may be best to give them some space.

Outputs

When visitors arrive on your site you want them to effect a conversion.  Broadly there are two main outputs.

Email Lists

If someone signs up to your email list, they can receive reminders to return to your site.  So, you could add email lists to the “Inputs” list, I suppose.  They are the most effective way to keep in touch with your supporters.

Some people think email lists are out of date and prefer to use social media.  Don’t.  Email is far from out of date and is the most effective way of maintaining contact with hopefully large numbers of contacts.

There are loads to say on this topic because it is really important not to be too irritating but this is enough for now.

Sales

Yes you can actually sell things through your website!  If you do make sure you add the customer to your email list.

Don’t forget sales do not always imply exchange of cash.  A sale may be a signature on a petition, an email to their MP or a commitment to attend a meeting or demonstration.  Whatever it is be sure to offer clear instructions about how to do it!

This is a brief overview to show how your online marketing hub can work.  I’m always happy to write at greater length.  Ask if there is anything.  Or comment on your favourite input or output approach, especially if I’ve missed anything!

0 Quiet Times for Your Business

Here are two ways to approach quiet times and both view them as opportunities.

Special Promotions

For some businesses, quiet times are opportunities for special promotions. My business goes quieter over Christmas and the summer. It may be worth considering some sort of special offer for those times.

However, there are two reasons why I most likely won’t.

• Most of my packages run over 3 – 6 months and so the chances are they will run across these quiet periods. I may not take on new clients over these times but I may still be working with existing clients.
• I am likely to want to take the second approach to quiet times.

Take a Break!

Quiet times are an opportunity to take a break. Breaks are important, especially for the self-employed who are always in danger of working continuously over very long periods.

A break is also an opportunity to review your business, write, revise your website and carry out other administration to which you never get around when you’re busy.

Use the first approach if you are a larger business with plenty of staff and especially if cash flow is critical. Use the second if you are smaller and need a break!

Watch Your Cash Flow

However, it is important to be aware of cash flow cycles, particularly if you offer a service.  What happens is you put effort into finding customers when things are slow.  As you find customers your income increases and so does the work.  So, you stop looking for customers while you work with the ones you have.  Then you find cash flow declines because you have not been marketing your business.  This is the reason many small service businesses fail.

So, whilst there may be quiet times and they may be welcome breaks, you must have a marketing strategy that is effective during the more active times of the year!  If you can organise things so that you market during the busy times and provide your service during the quieter times, so much the better.

How do you use quiet times to support and refresh your business or enterprise?

This is part of a post sequence about the second element of the circuit questionnaire, products services and causes.

0 Your Local Marketing Hub

Your local marketing hub, is the core activity around which your marketing activities circulate.  It is the main thing you do well that other marketing activities feed into.

It is true national or global marketers can make choices about their marketing strategies.  However, alternatives to using the Internet, such as advertising through television or hoardings, conferences, etc can be very expensive.  So, in practice the small non-local marketer has online approaches available and little else.  Online marketing’s dynamic is different and so I will cover online marketing hubs in a future post.

There are many approaches available to local marketers and they can easily fall into two mistakes.  One is to take on too much, to attempt several approaches to marketing and not specialise in one.  The other is to be unaware of the possibilities and so overlook the best focus for their marketing strategy.

Choosing Your Hub

Usually organisations choose one main marketing activity as their hub.  They are likely to have secondary activities that feeds into the hub.  For local marketing, online activities usually take on this secondary role.

It is worth being aware of these possibilities because marketing strategies evolve.  Some activities naturally grow out of other activities and so awareness of the possibilities allows movement to new strategies as the older ones open new possibilities.

The first step is to name your local marketing hub. Below I list some possibilities, which will help identifying existing methods and possibilities.  It is likely I’ve missed some.  People have been marketing locally from long before the Internet.  Most traditional methods still work, when applied appropriately.  Some benefit from online support.

Sometimes local businesses and organisations make the mistake of dashing for a website as a fix for their marketing issues.  They do not look at their marketing hub and ask whether there is any value in

Identifying your hub does not commit you to it forever.  It tells you what your present primary focus is and from there you can develop a marketing strategy.  Your strategy may include improving your performance using your current hub or it may include development into a new hub.

Shops and Market Stalls

For traders one of these is likely to be your marketing hub.  Traditional approaches such as window dressing, special offers, etc, to draw people into your shop may be all you need.  I know one shop in the city centre that employs a barker, an activity usually associated with market stalls!

Online support for a shop might build an email list for customers.  Occasional emails detailing special offers or new lines may be beneficial.

Community Buildings

It depends on their use.  Some community buildings simply hire out rooms.  They will advertise locally but perhaps mainly promote their offers through people who use the building.

Some community projects put on events and these can be a sound basis for marketing.  There may be plenty of opportunities to promote other events when someone books or attends an event.

Another use, which can work in shops, is an unstructured meeting place.  A coffee shop, for example, could publicise other activities or products through notice boards or table-top leaflets.  In less formal environments, make announcements or use stalls to promote offers.

Local Media

This is unlikely to be the hub of your marketing campaign because getting into local media at all, let alone regularly, is not easy.  Local media may in its search for copy, approach a business.  The problem is a good article will appear in one edition and then it needs to be read, remembered and stored for reference if someone is likely to use it.

Some businesses such as restaurants display reviews in their windows and so can benefit from a positive review for some time.  Some papers put articles on their website and you can link to them from your website.  But these are minor ways to gain some extra support from a fortuitous piece of good publicity.

Advertising is another possibility but it is likely to be expensive.

Flyers, Business Cards, Etc

These may be effective and certainly many organisations use them.  They can be left on your premises, so that people take them as an aide memoire or to give to friends.  They can be handed out on the street or put through letter boxes.  You may be able to enhance their effectiveness with a link to a good website and so they can be used to grow your email list.

Referral Marketing

Informally, this is sometimes called networking.  It is particularly effective for business to business (B2B) marketing.  Networking is only one part of the approach.  To do it properly you need to bring together several techniques, eg an elevator pitch and one-to-one meetings.  The idea is businesses agree to refer potential customers to one another.

Look at it this way.  You enter a room where there are 10 business people.  Whilst none of them may be interested in your offer, they will each know perhaps 300 people.  This means there are potentially 3000 people in the room!

Also, if you can meet regularly with those 10 people, they will understand your business and so act as unpaid marketers for you.  In your elevator pitch you need to be clear about who your market is and what you offer them.

Presentations

Here you present an interesting topic to a group of people who are likely to be in your market and encourage them to talk with you if they are interested.  You must not use the presentation to directly promote your business.  It is an opportunity to prove your command of your subject and enthuse your audience.

The hardest part of this approach is finding audiences prepared to hear your talk.    So, this may be an approach to combine with referral marketing.  It might start as a secondary marketing activity and as your reputation grows and you find more opportunities, it could become your main activity.

Other Local Approaches

There are other specialist approaches suited to some businesses.  Many can grow out of building alliances with other businesses and then working together to promote offers.

Online Approaches

I shall consider these in a future post.

Are you aware of any local marketing approaches I’ve missed?  If so, leave them in a comment.  I’d be happy to research any approach and write a post about it – just let me know what interests you.