Many marketing tools are available, but which one will do the job you need it to do?
Breaking Doors
You know those up and over sliding garage doors? Big sheets of metal on runners with cables holding them in place? A couple of weeks ago I managed to flip mine off one of its runners and ping the cable out of the drum it was attached to. Apparently, this happens if you don’t push the door down from the middle!
After releasing a few expletives and having failed to straighten the door with the obligatory yank, kick and a thump I took a closer look and discovered what had gone wrong.
“I can fix that” – I thought. A quick web search and 2 YouTube films later I was ready to give it a go…it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a pre-tensioner widget and cable thingy… a pair of pliers will do. Hmmmmm… maybe not.
The Marketing Parallel
This scenario is similar to many conversations I’ve had with business leaders running their marketing (not the breaking doors bit – the trying to do the repair with the wrong tools bit). They have the best of intentions, can see what they think the problem is and have some tools / ideas available…sadly many people are doing what they think is right but are missing the mark.
In previous articles I have mentioned that marketing is more than social media and blog posts…dependent on what a business is trying to achieve, the right marketing channels need to be selected, the right techniques deployed and the timing well managed.
In this piece I’m going to share a few thoughts about selecting the right tool for the job.
There are many things to think about but three key elements to consider when deciding what to do are:
- Your objective for the activity
- The best channel to achieve the goal
- The best technique / approach to achieve the goal
Marketing Objectives
These are not your business objectives and, in this instance, I’m not worried about your objectives being SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound). This is about the area of success you’re hoping to achieve from the activity.
If you’ve heard of the sales and marketing funnel, you’ll be aware of the different stages leading someone to buy a product or service. Broadly speaking it looks like this:
The role of Sales and Marketing is to create sufficient volume at each stage of the funnel by generating awareness and leads, engaging prospects so that they want to buy and then keeping them on as customers after the first purchase. You want to get as many people as possible, who are aware of you, to convert at the bottom of the funnel. Simple!
All of these objectives need to be achieved at one time or another, but you shouldn’t expect to achieve every goal with one piece of activity, hence why it’s important to decide what you’re trying to achieve.
The Channels and Techniques
The channels are the marketing tools you use; the different ways of reaching your audience. Some tools help achieve some objectives and not others, so it’s important to consider this carefully and not jump straight to the easiest one or the one you know most about.
The techniques are different ways of achieving your goals through the channel you select.
Confused? Here’s an example.
Goal: Convert (sell to) people who already know about your company
Channel: Email
Technique: A special price for the next 24 hours
You could use that same technique on social media or your web site too. You could use email to reach people who don’t know you and educate them with a great piece of content. There are many options and you need to select the right combination.
This is only meant to be a short piece (I do have a garage door to mend) so I will just summarise the main channels and what objectives they are good at helping to achieve.
Channel |
What it helps achieve |
| Advertising (broadcast, print, digital, targeted, mass outreach) | Great for awareness, brand re-enforcement and sometimes generating leads. Many ways of advertising – it’s not just TV and radio now-a-days |
| Ideal for targeting specific messages at people to remind them that you exist, educate and nurture them or encourage them to buy. A direct approach allowing you to be relevant | |
| Direct mail (post) | Similar to email but creates a different impact and may be harder to ignore as it’s physical. You can also be very creative |
| Events and exhibitions | Ok for awareness but best for lead generation and nurturing. You can have quality conversations with people, educate them and build relationships |
| Public Relations (PR) | A tricky channel to get right but, if done well, can be very powerful at raising awareness and building brand reputations. It can also destroy reputations and is not always in your control |
| Social media | A multifaceted tool that, when used with the appropriate techniques and audiences, can help with awareness, lead generation and nurturing. Hard to get right but important, as audiences also respond to each other. Again – you don’t have total control |
| Word of Mouth | Without a doubt every business owner’s favourite channel. It’s free and it’s powerful. Do a good job and customers will refer you! |
| Web site |
Web sites are the shopfronts for many businesses, so are vital tools in an organisation’s box. Search engine optimisation (SEO) helps raise awareness, whilst the web site itself is pivotal in generating leads, nurturing your audience, building brand reputations and converting. It depends on your business but, in the 21st century, you’ve got to get this right |
The truth is that you usually need to use a combination of these marketing tools and there are variations on each of them. They all have pros and cons (and are very budget dependent) and that’s where experience comes in. It’s also key to use the right techniques alongside the channels.
I’ll happily chat these through in more detail with you to ensure you’re getting the right tools out to do the job.
It’ll be far more efficient than waving a pair of pliers in the air, grunting and pretending you know what you’re doing!
I mean, who’d do that?
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Photo by Maxim Selyuk on Unsplash