Best practice marketing advice from our customers…

Issue 3 - February 2008

As you can imagine we talk to a lot of marketing and business professionals in our line of work. It is not surprising that with everything that the Marketing Manager has to deal with sometimes some very simple principles are neglected in the course of a year. Issues and problems can build up which can heavily impact the stress levels of even the best manager and can adversely influence the business.

The following advice is a summation of the conversations we have had with successful Marketing Managers over the years. We hope you would be able to use it like a ready reckoner, something to reference with the basics spelt out, its simple but it works!

Marketing is not a department
When you get right down to it, everyone in your company is a marketer. From the receptionist whose voice is the first thing your buyers hear, to the delivery person whose retreating back may be the last thing they see, every one of your employees plays a pivotal role in the orchestration of your marketing efforts. Good companies imbue every employee with healthy reverence for the customer so that the company, from every point of contact it has with its market, knows how to market.

Follow the ninety-day rule
Your customers, prospects and champions (those who refer business your way) should hear from you at a minimum of every 90 days (once a quarter).
People are just too busy to remember you otherwise and your competition is allowed a look in if you are not in regular touch with these people.

Adapt and change
Be flexible and review! Don’t be afraid to keep an eye on competitors, your industry, your product, your staff and yourself. Reviews should not be frightening or labour intensive experiences but embraced in a culture of constant feedback. Listen to your customers and to their feedback and implement what you think is important, valuable and productive.

Keep looking to feed the prospecting funnel
Suspects become prospects, which then become customers. And these customers then generate referrals that create more prospects and the cycle begins anew. For thousands of years, this marketing process (also known as the prospecting funnel) has governed marketing activities for all companies, and we feel safe saying that it will continue this way for another thousand years.

Keep at it
Be consistent… in your messages, your output, your scheduling. As a great man once said, repetition is the mother of all learning! Your customers need to hear from your brand, the messages need to build on each other consistently. This consistency of output could also be adapted on a personal level as well.

Don’t be afraid to cull
Don’t be afraid to walk away from campaigns or projects that don’t work for you. This can apply to tasks that often fall in the Marketing Managers’ laps. If a project, a report, a campaign does not add value to the brand then try to jettison it.

When times are tough, don’t cut spend
During the recession “we had to have”, from 1980 to 1985, research analysed 600 companies and their marketing spending. After 1985, it was concluded that those firms which had maintained or increased their advertising during the recession in ’81-’82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. But those companies who cut their advertising saw paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%. When is the right time to market your business? All the time.

Honour exiting employees
That is not a typo and is not meant to say existing (we know you look after them), this about the people who leave your organization. A US travel industry client ran a report that showed where their new referrals came from. The second highest category was ex-employees. It turns out vacation shoppers were asking these ex-employees where they could book a Vegas package just like the neighbour’s they’d heard about, and the ex-employees were referring them back to their old employer. When you treat your departing employees with a dose of good will, they may just turn into your unpaid sales force and refer business your way.

Say thank you
Sadly, we live in an age of boorishness. But a savvy marketer can do his part to bring civility into an otherwise uncivilized world. Among the countless ways to thank customers are thank you notes, gift certificates and appreciation lunches to name just a few. These thank you’s don’t have to be showy. Just make sure the thank you is classy and considerate, and the kindness will eventually be repaid.

As we said these are pretty simple strategies but it is amazing how we all tend to look for complex responses to issues that may not need them. Perhaps you may need to engage professionals to help keep you on the straight and narrow… I might know someone…

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Issue 29 - 'Retail Renaissance' click here.
Issue 30 - 'Christmas... a time for joyous laughter' click here.
Issue 31 - 'Twelve Crucial Consumer Trends for 2012' click here.
Issue 32 - 'The demise of Australia's great brands' click here.
Issue 33 - 'Cleaning up Digital Publishing - when less means more' click here.
Issue 34 - 'Social Media... all talk no action' click here.
Issue 35 - ''Tis the season to be jolly... yet again!' click here.
Issue 36 - ''First & Ten' click here.
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