In the previous installment, we discussed some basic business principles that should guide your Internet marketing campaign. They will help you to know what you should do, when you do it, and how you bring together these various elements or activities to accomplish some solid and powerful small business marketing.
The first two "Rs" were recognition and recount. Here's the third . . .
3. Reinforce. Each segment of your marketing should reinforce every other segment and work together to explain your message. Here's an example: you do a direct mail campaign or an email campaign to offer a new product to your best customers. You then reinforce that marketing strategy with a follow-up telephone call.
Both activities could be considered marketing elements that could stand alone; however, if they're planned in advance to feed off each other, they become much more powerful and unified.
It is always helpful to try to get your marketing message in front of your customers in a number of different channels (or media types). Why?Each form of marketing media (TV, radio, direct mail, newsletter, brochures, the Internet, etc) has its own strengths. If you only employ one method or media channel, you will only reap the benefits that one method has to offer, but you'll be missing out on the strengths of the other segments.
Optimally, you want your message to be seen, heard, read, felt, etc by the same customer. You want as many of the human senses as possible to be brought into play when experiencing your message and brand.
4. Reach. Reach is the breadth of your marketing. It is the horizontal spreading of your message as far as possible to encompass as many new prospects as you can. After you have introduced your brand and integrated your marketing segments or channels to work seamlessly together and play off each other, you then extend your reach to encompass greater and greater pools of potential customers.
Instead of advertising in 3 newsletters, you advertise in 10. Of course, extending your reach only makes sense if you're having success in your marketing.
You will first have to define what that success is and you will have to put some kind of a performance testing and measuring system in place. There's no sense in expanding your marketing reach if you're losing money or not getting the results you expect - that's a good way to go bankrupt quickly!
5. Repetition. Marketing your brand is all about repetition. You most likely won't be recognized in the mind of your prospect after the first impression, or the second, or third.
Effective marketing campaigns include repeated contact with your prospects over a period of time. Repeated messages that hit the prospect via different media are especially effective because they will make impressions on the customer in different ways. Here's an example:
If you can get your product in front of the customer in a brochure or online, he will be able to see it and experience it with his visual senses. You may follow up with an email about the product that exposes the customer to reading about it. Next you may market your product via a sound file or a phone call so he also hears about it.
In each case, you are exposing the customer to experiencing your product with a different sense. In addition, you are accomplishing repetition or repeated messages about the same product to one customer.
It's impossible to say how many times a prospect needs to hear the same message before he takes some action (or makes a purchase.) That will depend upon how effective your message is and how anxious or ready the customer is to buy what you're offering.
But it's a safe bet that a unified and well planned marketing strategy will accomplish the desired action in your customer (a purchase) much sooner than it would otherwise come if no strategy was involved.
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