How to commit survival marketing without panicking (and ruining your reputation)?
In “Instant gratification and the short term trap” I eluded to why a short term focus and a desire for instant gratification can mess up your business.
Well, you may think this is all very cute, but I am in trouble right now. If I don’t chase leads and make sales right now, there will be no brand left to be worried about by the end of the financial year or by the end of the month or current uncertain and volatile time.
Off course, this is often the case. Downturns in business performance have a way of sneaking up on you and surprising you with your pants down. Not to worry: boosting sales in the short term does not have to be a reputational risk or brand-damaging excursion.
The most important thing to remember when developing and implementing a campaign to boost short term sales is that you must use the opportunity to build your brand and bolster your reputation while you are getting the consumer’s attention. We have many case studies where smart campaigns with the primary goal of creating and converting leads have resulted in significant medium-term growth too.
How to run a lead-generating campaign and build your brand in one go:
Do:
1. Listen to your customers; what do they want?
When you are planning a special offer on tomatoes, but you realise you are receiving more enquiries about onions than anything else, pay attention. Instead, run a campaign on onions to get them in the shop and then upsell the tomatoes. Do you get where I am going with this?
2. Homework on demographic behaviour.
People change. And they don’t. On the one hand, consumers are better informed, have a more extensive choice and are more opinionated than ever before. On the other, they still want value for money, quality, reliability and convenience. Be aware of their preferences, promise them the value and consistent reliability and quality and then make sure you deliver. Do not promise what you cannot deliver.
3. Homework on your competitors.
Research and benchmark: even the most basic Google search on what your competitors are up to is better than blindly advancing up the hill. If you have time limits, choose your three strongest competitors and position yourself against them.
4. Explore collaboration to build your customer base.
Find a business with whom you share a target audience and essential values. Plan a smart campaign to attract business to both, and you could theoretically split the marketing cost in half and get easy access to a part of the audience you never engaged with before.
5. Train and inform ALL staff on your planned campaign.
Few things are as annoying to a customer and as detrimental to your reputation: you specifically drove 50km in peak traffic for the special offer, but the unbothered sales consultant behind the counter doesn’t have a clue what you are talking about. Inform and align the marketing, sales and customer service functions properly with your whole team and teach them the ins and outs of your campaign as well as possible customer FAQ’s.
6. Identify your first Moment of Truth BEFORE you start.
Your customer will form an impression or change their opinion of your brand or product in the first 3-5 seconds s/he interacts with your service. Make that count. Always. This is when a customer decides they will buy from you or not.
7. Plan the building of awareness, creation of interest and conversion of desire.
Plan and document the media-marketing-CRM-sales-process with simple funnel flowcharts or spider diagrams to ensure there are as few as possible gaps to lose leads and disappoint prospective customers. Make sure all touchpoints sing from the same hymn sheet. Make sure you use the platform your customers are on. No use for Facebook if your customers are on Instagram. Make sure you remember to educate customers to gain their interest and that you follow-up when they gear for action.
8. Set SMART goals.
SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-based. No-one reached a goal without planning it, ever. What is an example of a smart goal?
Our business wants to increase our residential home rentals by 5% in the next three months.
9. No substitute for excellent creative artwork and clever copy.
No matter what media you’re using, your ads and content are always going to compete with the extreme noise of other ads. Digital experts estimate that the average person sees 4,000 to 10,000 marketing messages or brand expressions per day. Make yours count. Great creative is also a smart way to differentiate your brand.
10. Spend effort (time and money) on brand building as part of the campaign.
Very importantly, create content that complies with your brand strategy and actively builds positive brand perception and reputation. Even if the person receiving your marketing message is not in the market for your offering right now, you must make enough of an impact to be remembered by them in the future. If you do not have a documented brand strategy, this is as good a time as any to develop or refine yours.
11. Gather smart data.
Make sure you (legally) gather as much information as possible during your campaign. Creating your customer or target audience database is priceless for personalised and engaged future communication to customers that WANT to hear from you. Ask your customers to opt-in on future conversations so that you can share upcoming promotions with them. Never spam your customers. You will damage your brand, and your customers will unfollow you. Respect them and their privacy. When you store customer information, ensure that it is kept safely, POPIA compliant and that you have a privacy policy in place and your customers can access it.
12. Follow-up, connect and engage.
Don’t drop the ball on leads. Manage expectations, keep promises and use the opportunity to connect and have engaging, meaningful conversations with consumers. Make sure you re-connect with customers that permitted you to talk to them after the campaign.
13. Measure everything.
A good thing about smartly planned short-term campaigns is that you can measure results before, during and after a campaign. Measure before and after to establish short and medium-term growth or goals achieved against benchmarks, and measure results during the campaign to tweak and maximise opportunities and streamline tactics.
Digital media has undoubtedly made measurement easier, but be sure to measure the “softer stuff” too. “Marketing works best when it follows a long-term strategy, but the operating model must be based on short feedback loops.” as said by Binet and Field.
Don’t
1. Skimp on service and quality.
A short term lead generation or a sales campaign is a great way to introduce your brand to new audiences. Don’t mess up the opportunity.
2. Cannibalise your other offerings.
Be smart about how you package deals. Alienating existing customers with half-price deals or promoting a product that replaces another money-spinner is just a bad idea in general. Think incentives, bundling, adding value, offering payment plans, competitions, limited-quantity deals, etc.
3. Get schizophrenic about who you are.
Do not compromise on your brand promise and your brand essence. Jumping on a trendy bandwagon that does not align with who you are and why you exist for a quick buck, is not worth it in the long run. Designer shoe stores don’t run promos on tennis racquets, they could, however, do something with socks and belts.
4. Get side-tracked by silver bullets and shiny things.
Don’t be afraid to incorporate new media, tools or smart methods in your campaign. At the same time, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Stick to channels and media that you know your customers use. Uncertain economic circumstances and low budgets are not the right time to experiment too much on brand new platforms and methods.
5. Stop/start campaigns.
Any campaign has a lead time to build traction, depending on your specific offering’s typical sales cycle – this can be from a couple of weeks to a few months. With the sheer amount of marketing and brand messages, people are exposed to daily (as mentioned earlier in this article) causing goldfish-level attention spans, stopping and starting your campaign means a start-over every time. When you push go, GO!
In short, be smart with how you spend money and effort to boost sales and remember never to sell your soul for short term gain. Always put in the effort to build your brand.
Let us help you grow your business in an economically challenging environment.
