05 Mar Is Your Marketing in the Fast Lane?
Modern marketing is a rich and varied industry. There are many potential avenues for a business to choose to promote itself to customers, it can seem that only those with the largest marketing departments and budgets (or those that know a great agency) can afford to cover all bases.
The challenges to your marketing being successful are numerous. The fact that there is so much noise for your marketing messages to cut through means that the most valuable attribute that your brand’s marketing is fighting for is attention Audiences is inundated with ads, offers and messaging. According to a Huffington Post report, the average internet user encounters 11,500 ads per month from their browsing, whilst social media users view around 111 adverts per day from their preferred platforms. Being so exposed to marketing, many people have developed a marketing apathy that renders them almost immune to traditional sales messages.
Whether marketing has created a rod for its own back by bombarding our audience with messages to the point that they are numb and looking to (ad)-block our messages is a different, and interesting debate. However, the reality is, a typical marketing message that would have been perfectly fine in the relatively recent past would have been:
‘h2o Butchers, a family-owned business since 1890. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff sell the finest locally reared produce. Come and see us at 1 Market Street.’
This would have been the basis of a campaign that would have included:
- Direct Mail drops around the local area
- Social Media posts with this message and an image of smiling staff outside the shop (in this example, our imaginary butchers have 53 followers on Facebook)
- An advert in the local newspaper
This campaign may have been reasonably successful, as it emphasises the quality of the product and hints at the expertise and friendliness of the staff. However, if this approach was used in modern marketing, even in a small town like our imaginary butcher’s, we doubt there would be a great response or a significant spike in sales.
The messaging may be true, and if we did run a butcher’s shop, the produce would be delightful. However, this messaging is hardly revolutionary or particularly memorable. We’d wager that the majority of butchers believe that their staff are friendly and that the meat they sell is of good quality. It’s doubtful that this marketing campaign would stick in the memory of a person who sees thousands of messages per day. I don’t think I’d stop buying in Tesco based on this campaign.
Nowadays a successful marketing strategy needs to be more nuanced, targeted, personalised and sophisticated. This is partly due to the advance in technology that lets you target specific digital users based on a wide range of characteristics. Additionally, there are new regulations and updates to platforms to consider (GDPR and Facebook’s algorithm change). Finally, there are audience expectations, contemporary ‘marketees’ are used to algorithms ensuring their content is tailored to what they like and what they’re interested in. The ‘you may also be interested in’ effect shows no sign of slowing down. In our butcher’s shop example, if a prominent vegan or vegetarian saw your targeted social media advert, they could potentially create bad PR for your business. Although depending on how cynical you are, that could potentially highlight your business further. if you’re of the opinion that no publicity is bad publicity, check out our blog about it here.
The advances in technology mean that a brand can incorporate a variety of marketing tools for a budget not too dissimilar to the original marketing plan we outlined above. We would outline exactly what that would be, but that would be telling.
Whether you’re a butcher or not, your marketing strategy can be as wide and varied as you’re comfortable with. If you feel like you want to get more out of your budget, or that there’s a marketing avenue you’re missing out on, we’ve got some tips. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and imagine what the barriers, knowledge gaps, or fears that could potentially be stopping them from using your business. In our butcher example, it may be cost or lack of knowledge about what they actually need to ask for accessibility or cooking inexperience. Addressing and overcoming these obstacles can help to form your marketing content. Also, consider (or even better, research) how your target demographics consume media and how they receive their marketing messages. You can then work back to your brand to create your strategy. You may be surprised how, with a little creativity, a marketing method that may initially seem totally unsuitable for your brand can have incredible results.
Alternatively, you can always get in touch with an agency for some friendly advice and inspiration.
