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5 things you need to know to get noticed
Think you don't need marketing? Think again.
#1 – It’s easy to spot a business that isn’t thinking about the customer. Look for the big banner that boasts, “Under New Management.”
Being committed to your business makes it hard to let go of your own biases. But remember, in the end, advertising is not about your business. It’s about what’s in it for your customers. Understanding who you are as an organization and what unique offering you provide your customers are the focal points of your business. Like taxes, becoming aware of these points is not an amateur undertaking, or something you can afford to neglect until you “find time.”
#2 – The first time many businesses use advertising is when they hang up a sign that says, “Going Out of Business.”
We live in a competitive world. Each day we are all met with thousands of branded messages. Mostly, we do our best to ignore them. And most of us did not wake up this morning with an urge to buy your product or service. That’s why advertising is not an optional expense – it’sa critical investment. This seems obvious, and yet most business owners fail to budget for advertising until they have no other choice.
#3 – You don’t meet new customers at the register.
Most of us are creatures of habit. We buy the same coffee. We drive the same route to work. Marketers try to change that behavior through a simple process of five steps:
- Awareness. Until we become aware of a product or service, it is entirely invisible to us. Opening a storefront can create awareness. What it doesn’t create is a reason to go in.
- Consideration. This is a challenge to the status quo. It is critical to get us to reconsider an established behavior or we won’t break from our pattern.
- Engagement. When we stop what we are doing to walk into a store or visit a website, we’ve passed from passive to active. We are changing our behavior.
- Purchase. This is step four. Most people assume it is the most important step. It’s not.
- Evangelism. It is impossible to survive off of new customers. Creating a consistent experience at every step of the sales cycle turns new customers into old friends. That’s the most important step!
#4 – People buy based on emotions. But they defend purchases rationally.
Many business owners are doubtful when marketers talk about the need to make an “emotional connection” with consumers. You are inclined to believe that it is more persuasive to focus on a good, solid, factual reason to try your product rather than an emotional one. This is why so much advertising focuses on information-based messages like low price.
But if you are honest about your own behavior, you will admit that you have often made decisions based on emotion. If you doubt this, just listen to any middle-aged man explaining why he needs a very expensive convertible. All products have the potential to create an emotional connection. Some just take more insight in your advertising than others. Give your customers more than information. Make your goal persuasion.
#5 – Good enough isn’t.
Average business owners aren’t driven to define their category. They just want to be a little better. If your goal is simply to be better, or cheaper, or available at more locations, or made in America, it is going to be difficult for you to recognize a great marketing idea. It’s not going to “look right,” because it goes against accepted wisdom. But remember this: A marketing effort can be good – or it can be bad. But the one thing you can’t afford is for it to be ignored.
John Bellina is the founder and creative director of Ricochet Ideas, the agency that helped launch the Anythink brand. For more information, visit Ricochet Ideas on Facebook or go to RicochetIdeas.com.