Top 5 Fatal Flaws of A Marketing Campaign

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top5There are 5 Fatal Flaws that can cripple any marketing campaign; social media, advertising, email campaign it doesn’t matter. No matter how good your strategy or your plan – if you do these things – your campaign will not perform. Period. Here they are:

  1. Lack of a specific target audience – you can’t effectively target everyone. so don’t even try.  Pick one target and get the message and delivery right. Remember the saying “it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond…” and so it is with marketing.  Better to have the right people actually hear your message than to have a lot of random people maybe hearing it.  You’re conversion rates will increase.  Which means you will be more successful overall.
  2. Using a “one-size-fits-all” message – people buy for different reasons, they have different problems they are trying to solve. One generic message won’t get the response rates you’re hoping for. In fact, it can often lead to higher than average bounce rates, abandonment rates or unsubscribes. Not good.
  3. Assuming that you know which vehicles work for your target audience – you can’t assume that just because you like YouTube, your target audience does to. Or, just because you don’t like to read blogs don’t assume your audience doesn’t like to read blogs. Ask them and find out.
  4. Not listening – This is probably the single biggest benefit of social media for business – it gives you a direct channel to your customers. For example, let’s say you are chatting in a forum about something and they say “Hey, why did you stop doing X?” You should ask others if they also miss “X” and think about maybe reintroducing it. Someone had provided you valuable insight…the least you can do is listen and think about it.
  5. Continuing to do the same thing time and time again –  it’s easy to find something that works and stick with it. But the world is dynamic, things change and your marketing must change too. Not every day or every week – but often enough to keep folks interested, to leverage new vehicles, new media and new ideas.

Case Study: BLO – Blow Dry Bar

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Picture 2Blo is a Blow Dry Bar.  Scissors are verboten.  Dye, ditto.  In about 30 minutes, get a wash and blow out style.  No cuts, no colour: Just WASH BLOW GO.  Blo is also the brainchild of Judy Brooks and her daughter Devon.  The two hatched the idea in 2006 when Devon posed a vital question to her Mom, who is a serial entrepreneur of sorts… “why isn’t there a place for quick, great hair, like there is for nails?” And there you have it.

Devon developed the concept with her mom and wrote the Blo – Blow Dry Bar business plan while at the London College of Fashion as a class project (she got 98%, by the way!)  The two took the idea step further — Blo opened its first location in Vancouver, Canada Spring 2007. Being first to market in the category of Blow Dry Bar with a cheeky brand has had its advantages. Blo has a big vision and Judy is working with the young team to capitalize on the success with a well-developed growth strategy.

Starting a business from scratch, in a brand new category isn’t easy.  The two had their work cut out for them.  But they did what so many entrepreneurs fail to do – they stuck to their guns.  They had an idea and they didn’t stray – they offer blow drys.  No cuts, colors, nails, whatever.  Just a great style at an affordable price in less time than it takes to grab lunch.  They offered women an affordable luxury, a way to cram a bit of pampering into their day without feeling guilty about it.  As the ‘lipstick index’ has predicted women are spending more on their appearance during times of recession – and Blo was right there with online reservations, membership cards and hip, cool styles for everyone.

As a result of sticking to their strategy and “owning their niche” – Blo has grown like crazy.  Their first blow dry bar opened in June 2007, and by the end of 2010 they will have upwards of 10 in Canada and the US.  They have over 49,000+ hair cadets in blo’s database (a hair cadet is how they refer to clients. Their media coverage has been amazing with more than 230 national and international media hits. Plus that have received over 200 requests to franchise their business.   All of this because they found a niche and owned it.  You go BLO!

You should write a book

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driving_success_3d1The following is an excerpt from 42 Rules for Driving Success with Books, by Mitchell Levy.

As a business person in today’s turbulent times, you must be wondering what you can do to demonstrate your effectiveness. The key question you must be asking yourself when you wake up each morning is, “What am I going to do today to bring in more business?” What if prospects came to you asking:

  • How do I buy your product?
  • Can you please speak in front of my group (e.g. your prospects)?
  • Can I please get some of your brochures to share with decision makers at my company?
  • I love the brochure you sent in the mail, can I please get some more?
  • In a book I picked up at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, I read about your product/service. Can you tell me more?

A dream? Science fiction? No! You get all this and more with a book. You’re reading this and you’re excited until you think about what it takes to write a book. Then you ignore the idea because you’re thinking you don’t have 1,000 hours and can’t wait 1–2 years to create a book.  Myth!

Yes, a book published by a traditional publisher will take 1,000 hours to write and 12–18 months to publish (once you secure the publisher).  But, a book published by Super Star Press or Happy About will take 60–150 hours to write and 2–4 months to publish. For a 42 Rules book
(see Your Rules at the back of the book), you can have folks collaborate to help you create a book in as little as 60 hours. So the question arises, “Is a 100-page book that took 60–150 hours to create going to be effective?” The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Please read on, as many of the authors featured in this book created books that achieved amazing results. Those results are within your reach too, with a 42 Rules title to your credit!

Let me talk about the benefits of writing this book. From the time the concept was originated to the day when the book came back from content layout was 3 months. During that time, I spent 50 hours of time. Yes, just 50 hours. With the writing and other odds and ends before having a book in my hand 3 weeks from now, I would expect to have spent 60 hours. Even before publishing (see Rule 17) the benefits are amazing.

  • 4 new authors (contracts signed) and 18 others that have expressed interest.
  • 1 new executive editor (contract signed) who is searching for authors to write books in his series and 8 others that have expressed interest.
  • 8 marketing firms that have put us on their radar and we’ve hired one of them for 2 of our authors.

Let me repeat, amazing results for 50 hours of work. Absolutely the best bizdev tool I’ve ever deployed!

A “call to action” that actually drives ACTION

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aware-demand-covert-graphicYou have seen them time and time again.  You have probably clicked on a few of them.  Maybe downloaded a white paper or two.  I’m referring to a “call to action” – what we marketers use to make our audience do something.  Any call to action needs to be considered in the context of your marketing strategy and objectives.  What are you trying to accomplish?  Are you trying to establish awareness?  Generate demand?  Convert leads?  See my post on this topic. In this context there are three basic types of “calls to action” (CTA).

  1. Asking Permission:  getting the customer to give us permission to communicate with them.
  2. Addressing Objections:  helping the customer overcome their immediate objections to your solution.
  3. Building Relationships:  supporting the customer’s decision making process until the sale is made.

These three CTAs correspond to the different phases of marketing:  During the awareness phase, you ask for permission to communicate with your prospective customer;  When trying to generate demand you need to overcome the objections your audience has – address what is keeping them from doing business with you at this time;  Once you are trying to convert a lead to a sale, the key is the relationship you have built with your prospective customer, do they trust you.   At each stage of the process it is critical to keep in mind what our customer is looking for.

Asking Permission: At the permission stage, the customer has just learned that you exist.  You need to be focused on awareness and making a good first impression.  You only have 1 chance to get their permission to communicate with them again.  That permission can come in the form of an opt-in email subscription, newsletter, blog or whatever you have going on.  The point is…you need their permission.  Otherwise, you’re spamming them and that is bad (enough said about that.)  Why should they opt-in to your newsletter or email list?  What’s in it for them?  It is up to you to build the case for yourself.  You could offer a trial subscription, provide samples of your newsletters on your website so they can see what type of information to expect, include testimonials from happy subscribers.  Make it easy for them, and put as few barriers to registration as possible.  Don’t ask for more information that you need.  For an opt-in email list (newsletter or the like) all you really need is a name and email address, that’s it.  You can get more info later on when you have built some level of rapport.

CTA = Register for our newsletter.  Opt-In to our email list.  Subscribe to our blog (Twitter, Fan Page, etc.)

Addressing Objections: Someone will always have a reason for not subscribing to your newsletter, or not purchasing your e-book, or not hiring you at all for that matter.  Your job at this phase is to address the most common objections you hear from prospective customers.  Is it budget?  Do they think they can do it themselves?  Did they have a bad experience previously that has colored their perspective?   Take these issues head on.  Write a “position paper” explaining why they can’t do it themselves.  Create a video of previous clients who wish they had done it sooner.  You will never move a prospect forward in the sales cycle without addressing their objections honestly and directly.  Use this opportunity to reinforce your messages and benefits.  What can they expect from you?  Offer opportunities to learn more, read more, to download relevant information. Make sure the information you provide is not only about you and your company.  It needs to help them get to know you, and the best way to do that is give them valuable information that will help them solve a problem.

CTA = Read our White Paper. Download our video.  Visit our discussion forum.

Building Relationships: Making decisions can be scary.  You’re always thinking…did I make the right one?  It is so easy to second guess.  It’s up to you to help your prospective customers through this process in such a way that the only logical conclusino is to do business with you.  The best way to do that is to not “sell” them on you or your stuff. Rather build a relationship based on trust and value.  Then when they are ready to make their decision you are top of mind because you have always been there with valuable information when they needed it. You have addressed all their objections in a way that helped them understand their options better.  You acknowledged their needs and provided information accordingly.  Now you need to give them the tools to make their decision.  Case studies, testimonials or success stories from other clients reinforce that other peole have made the same decision and that it worked out well for them.  Make these visible.  Also, make yourself available for discussions, consultations, one-on-one time.  People feel better about saying “yes” to someone they have at least spoken to.  Make it easy for them to say yes!

CTA:  Case studies.  Testimonials.  Success Stories.

Publicity

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Publicity-InsiderPR doesn’t mean press releases.  This is actually Rule # 27 in my book “42 Rules of Marketing”.   PR usually stands for “public relations” or “press relations.” And it is an unfortunate coincidence that it also stands for one of the more visible elements of many marketing campaigns—a press release.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who instinctively think that PR means “press release.” They couldn’t be more wrong.  Press releases are great but they aren’t the only kind of publicity you can get.  Publicity means getting public visibility for your name, company or cause.

Here are three ways to get publicity:

1.  Get quoted in the media: The media – journalists, bloggers – are constantly looking for experts to comment on their stories.  It can hard for them to find sources.  Enter a few entrepreneurs who have stepped in to help them out.  There are two publicity tools I recommend for getting quoted:  First, is HARO, which stands for Help A Report Out. This is a free service run by a guy named Peter Shankman – really smart guy.  He compiles media inquiries and sends them out to his opt-in email list of people who want to respond to media requests.  It is a direct connection between the media and the source.  And it’s free.  Second, is PRLeads – this one isn’t free, but is a great option similar to HARO, but with more filtering capabilities so you can have emails that fit your interests sent directly to you each day.  Guess what, I’ll send you these links as well.

2.  Pitch ideas to the media: If you have a unique story idea, let the media know about it.  Identify your Top 10 media outlets (magazines, newspapers, blogs, whatever) and research to find a journalist or editor.  Write up your story idea and send it to them.  You will have to do this several times, but if the idea is creative and timely you are very likely to get a positive response.

3. Last, but not least, you can issue a press release. PR has not been left out of the Internet revolution. In fact, the number of press releases has increased exponentially with the advent of online news distribution services like PRWeb. The combination of online news distribution and search engine optimization has expanded the role of traditional PR.  Press releases used to be the way to get your news to journalists.  Today, press releases are delivered via RSS feeds to your customers’ desktops.   If you want to get a message out to customers and the market – press releases are a great tool.  However, be aware…they are general purpose tools that work well if you’re trying to make people aware that you exist. Press releases aren’t particularly helpful if you need to generate leads.  They can drive some traffic, and they will definitely increase awareness of who you are. But by themselves, they are not the most effective marketing tools. As I’ve said over and over – the most effective approach is a combination of a variety of marketing activities to deliver your message to your target audience.