I woke up to another Monday today. Monday is the day I ask myself the question again, “Are you reaching the right people?” It goes a bit deeper when I start asking “Are you reaching them with the right message?” If I can answer both of these with the affirmative, the next step is to repeat it and try to be sure the message continues to reach the right people, with the right message, and at the right time. Getting the right time means doing it again and again until their time is right. At the top of my list is reaching the right people.
How To Reach the Right People … The Influencers!
I think for a lot of people trying to reach a market, the question of how to reach the right people totally confounds them. It is actually a bit tricky and it takes some serious thought. It gets easier with training, experience, and research, but it is always a challenging part of marketing. Good marketing often means reaching the buyer themselves, but the best marketing often means reaching the people who influence the buyer. It is called influence marketing. Knowing who is an influencer and who is a buyer is an important step to knowing the right message to deliver. Getting it wrong means wasting a lot of time and money.
Car companies learned about this a long time ago. They realized that, statistically, men will be more appreciative of the 7.0L V8 engine and the 505 horsepower, while ladies will care more about the handy button to automatically move the power seat back to where she left it (before her gearhead husband got in and moved it). They segment their market and deliver a different message to reach the right person with the right message. By doing this, they are selling features to each party, but they also know that if I want that 7.0L V8 engine, I will use that silly seat button they told me about to influence my wife. Now that is how to get a car sold! Reaching the right person very often means knowing more than just them, but also who influences them, and how.
If I was selling wedding dresses, I would know that the bride is not always the only participant. There is another important point of influence. I need to reach her father with the message that his little darling will feel like the princess she wanted to be when she was five years old and that this is that moment she had planned for all those years. I need to reach the bridesmaids who will tell the bride how gorgeous that dress makes her look. I need to reach the influencers or the whole thing could be shot down and I have just another expensive dress on the rack.
For me, I consider who reads my work. Exactly who is attracted to a blog about marketing? Probably people who have a product or service to offer, right? The fact is that it is mostly people who would never in a million years consider paying me to help them build their market. This is just fine for me, because it helps me focus on being useful. If I am useful, people will come back. If I am even more useful, they will pass it along to others in their circle of influence. Because I know that most of my readers are not directly in the market to buy my services, the focus is a lot more on being helpful. Reaching the right people means reaching the influencers, and not just the buyers directly. Seriously, most CEOs and VPs are not looking for me. My job is to be sure they find me, but when the message is delivered by somebody influential to them, it is better than if I deliver it right to them. That is crazy back-door thinking, right? Not really. Just imagine the marketing assistant who says “I like this guy, boss. We should talk to him.” That influence will always go a lot further than just reaching the boss and explaining how great my offering is. The right message is that I am not the competition, but rather here to be useful. The right timing means that readers will subscribe to my blog and find me again when their timing is right.
If you want to reach the right people, you often must look far beyond the obvious target. Think about how you can better reach your market influencers. It is Monday, and it is a great way to start your week.
What Can't You Sell Online?Is it true that there are some things you cannot sell online? I was recently visiting with a gentleman who had made some haphazard attempts to sell online. After his short-sighted efforts, he had developed some doubts about marketing his products and services on the Internet. I think this happens to a lot of people who are unfamiliar with online marketing and had a share of online failure. This gave me some interesting thinking points.
I want to help shatter the myth some people hold that their product or service cannot benefit from targeted online exposure and careful branding. I also want to explain how dreadfully wrong it is to assume that your ideal customers cannot be reached here on the Internet.
I should note that even the items which are not ordered by way of ecommerce are still sold online. Sure, there are restrictions for selling some items online. Examples of things you cannot sell online are certain explosives and illegal drugs. Some products are restricted by location, such as alcoholic beverages, ammunition, and encryption software. This does not mean these are things that can’t be sold online, because there really isn’t anything sold that in some fashion or another is influenced by the Internet. In fact, in the real estate industry it is claimed that over 98 percent of home purchases in USA begin online. A much smaller number of sales are completed online, but the sale begins here, so it is an important place to be.
I feel dismay for companies missing so many opportunities because they just don’t know how much they don’t know. I feel ashamed for the ones who know it and do nothing about it.
In the instance of the gentleman who brought this to mind for me, he was convinced that the only people who will encounter his business online are bargain hunters seeking the lowest cost and do not seek value. I tried to explain that if this is the case online, it is also the case offline, and that those are the same people who turned his salesman down during their last sales call. When the salesman left, the prospective customer went to shop online, and where was he? He was nowhere to be found. I tried to explain the importance of brand recognition, improving customer experience, and gaining customer loyalty. It all kind of escaped his grasp like a greased pig when I explained that you can actually target a marketing message to qualified customers of your choice based on demographics and their propensity to buy your product or service.
I tried to help him better understand the value proposition his company offers, and how to make it more obvious to buyers. I explained that providing a value proposition is important, and that it will not make sense to everybody. It will make sense to some, and those are the ones we call customers. You will never reach them all, but the area you concentrate on are the people you can turn into customers. Then you find out how you did that, and you do it more.
Proof About a Product You Cannot Sell Online
A good web statistics system is great. You can pinpoint exactly who is on your website and what they are doing there. I phoned this gentleman today when I noticed somebody interested in his product offering. They searched Google for the term “where to buy airliner slate”, and they found my recent blog article titled “Smart Slate, Smart Airliner, and Other Interactive Slates“. They even read it for three minutes forty seconds. I called my prospective client on the phone and told him the actual name and location of the company who was searching for the product. I had a hot lead for him to follow up with. He told me “They are a customer of ours” and he gave me the impression that the information was not useful to him. It was almost an arrogant tone he gave me. He laughed it off as a fluke that I actually had one of his customers on my site seeking to buy his product offering.
He did not grasp that this is only one of many instances that can help him to know what is happening in his market, and to potentially avoid losing customers to somebody else. He really didn’t understand how valuable information like this can be when it is not just once, but many instances each day, each week, and each month. It blows my mind that he does not see the advantages the Internet can hold for his market. I mean, people are searching for his products … a lot, but they are finding me. I don’t sell that stuff, he does, and I have showed him the competitive advantages that good data, good targeting, good branding, and a good value proposition can provide. I gave him a tiny little example of this, and explained that it is one of many little advantages that add up to a huge advantage. This was a real case of specific information that could help him avoid losing an existing customer.
Pizza, Porsche, and Proctology Each Sell Here!
You can buy anything from a pizza to a Porsche online, and nearly every imaginable product or service is represented. People have sold items including dog poo, prostitutes, televisions, homes, and even whole cities using the Internet. I have not found an industry segment without an Internet success story to tell. Of course, there is the occasional skeptic who gets in his own way and believes he is the unlucky one who cannot sell his products or improve his market share online. Imagine that dreadful industry that is entirely overlooked by Internet users. It is that sort of product or service that the proprietors believe is only harmed by the Internet, and everything would be fine if all those dreaded websites would just go away. Do you know the type I am talking about?
I met another one like this who did not believe the Internet would provide value to their brand or influence their potential customers. Well, they knew it mattered enough to contact me and even sign a contract, but not enough to pay the bill. Somehow that all looked a bit different to them when they found that thousands of people were seeing this article about them when they searched for “Suture Express“. I had previously given them a clear example of Internet marketing with a real life example showing that people were actually searching to buy Ethicon surgical sutures online. They signed a contract for Internet marketing and SEO services with me and never paid for the services. Later, they thought I was a “kook” when I tried to explain the value of reputation management and taking their Internet reputation more seriously. In this case, they just didn’t realize I am a very smart “kook” with a lot of experience at Internet marketing and reaching the right people with whatever message is appropriate.
It seems that my most common encounters with this type of mentality comes from people who have expressed an interest in improving their online market position, but come to me with all of their own answers instead of wanting the right answers. They are the know-it-all about their market, and even people who specialize in marketing cannot tell them anything they don’t know. Other instances occur when people realize that the Internet is important to their business, but not important enough to do things well.
Their real fears seem to come out once they realize they will actually have to make an investment in their business. They want to know what I know, but they also want to have excuses to avoid paying to get what they want. So, they throw up this smokescreen response that they just don’t see how good branding and greater exposure to their market, and exposure to the people who influence their customers, could ever really be valuable.
Can You Name a Product That Cannot be Sold Online?
Is it the termite farmer? No, termite farmers use the Internet to promote their brand, and yes, to sell termites. If you are in the market to buy termites, you may order termites here. Maybe it is the proctologist? No, although they may not perform your surgery online, a proctologist can grow recognition as an authority in the field of butt medicine. I am having a hard time finding what cannot be sold online, so maybe you can help me in this fun and interesting quest.
I have given you just a glimpse of the mentality of those who get in their own way with believing the myth that their product is exempt from the long list of Internet success stories. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Will Your Customers Wait for a Flat Tire?Do your potential customers know that they need your product or service offering? You may be surprised to find that many marketing shortcoming are not only in lack of exposure, but also because potential customers failed to see a need … or enough need to do business with you. Maybe you have addressed this question before, but perhaps I can help you with a different spin.
Imagine First Generation Drivers
Back when cars first gained popularity as a mode of transportation, most people did not know much about them. The first generation drivers were pretty clueless about the new “horseless carriages”, but they sure were eager to learn. They had a lot of crashes back in those days. I can imagine why they crashed. Just picture the kids back then having to actually hand write their text messages on paper!
Try to imagine the days before anybody had a father to nag them about checking their tires. Cars need maintenance, but in the beginning, most people didn’t know anything at all about tire care. Drivers overlooked maintenance and had a lot of breakdowns. My father told of his first car, which was a Ford Model T Roadster. Stop right there, I am not all that old. My dad was about a hundred and twenty something when I was born. Anyway, he said it seemed like he blew a tire every time he turned a corner. This created a need for better tires. Not just a need for better tires, but also used tires, tire repair, tire changing, and of course some good tools for changing the tires. All of the sudden, there was an emerging market. It became a pretty huge market that made many people such as the Firestone family abundantly wealthy. Tires were expensive, and people tried to use them as long as they could. They would drive them until they blew out. It is why the term “tire kicking” is still used today. Back then, people would kick the tires because if the tires had been repaired, kicking them would help them to know if there was a “boot” in the tire. No, not the kind of boot on your foot, but a piece of rubber that was used inside the tire to repair it.
Now, back to the Firestone family, the Firestone’s did not get wealthy only because there was a market need. They helped people to understand their need, and they did this better than the rest of the tire companies who competed with them.
How Would You Market Tires?
When you imagine your market, try to think like the earliest tire companies. Pretend that you are the first company to try and explain to people about tires. What would you do, and what would you say? Would you wait until their tired blew out and they knew they had a need, or would you try to help them to be safer by knowing when their tires were getting too old? Would you teach them about tire pressures and how to make their tires last longer, or would you hope they wore them out sooner so you could sell more? TIP: Even tire companies selling the same tire but who help customers prolong their tire life have “better tires” because they last longer.
Think about how you would reach those early drivers. How would you let them know, not only that you exist, but how you would impress upon them that they need your tire store and not just the closest tire store to where their next tire blows out. How far would you reach to grow that market if the big obstacle was to help people understand that they are safer when you are their tire guy?
Exposure is a huge component of marketing, but never forget that there are already a lot of people who know about you, but do not realize how much they need you, or why you sell “better tires” than the others.
People Don’t Repair Good Tires
People do not repair good tires that hold air. This occurred to me as I consider the Internet marketplace. A lot of people who really need the marketing services which I provide just don’t know how much it can help or how bald their tires are. Do you need a better tire seller?
Propensity marketing is used to reach a target market audience based on their observed propensity for engagement in a particular subject matter. When you market to consumers based on their previous patterns, you have a much greater chance of reaching the right people, and thus, increasing your return on investment (ROI). The most successful marketing campaigns are based on propensity marketing, but marketers too often seek a shotgun approach rather than a sniper approach. This is also known as database marketing, and it is the basis of companies known as database aggregators who offer database reduction services to reach consumers more effectively.
Propensity Marketing Example
A very simple example of propensity marketing is the delivery of Google’s AdSense. AdSense advertisements are either display advertisements or a series of text links that you find on Websites along with a statement “Ads by Google”. When you see an AdSense advertisement delivered by Google, it is not by accident that it is related to what you are already looking at. For example, if you perform a Google search for “racing Webcast”, you will find one of my Websites, CopMagnet.com (actually, you will see this blog first). On CopMagnet.com, I have included Google AdSense ads, which you will see on the right side of the page. Based on the content of the site, AdSense delivers related links based on the propensity of the site’s visitors to be interested in both racing and Webcasts. In my current visit to the site, the ads I was served are titled, in this order:
Webcast
Webcast Hosting Services
Twin Cities Drag Racing
Firestone – Official Site
Tires On Sale Now 60% Off
Based on the content of the site, Google uses propensity marketing tactics to determine that the same user viewing my racing Webcast may also be interested in other Webcasting sites and other racing sites. Not only that, Google also determined that the user may be interested in tires. After all, if it is another racer watching me, he or she also probably buys a lot of tires.
Propensity marketing does not just mean that the ads are related, but that based on statistical data, the user would likely have a propensity to find the ads useful. In this example of Google AdSense, you find a very basic form of propensity marketing, but it really goes much deeper than that. This is why Google also logs much broader data based on many other searches that you and a broad public have made, and uses that database for a more efficient targeted approach.
Implementing Propensity Marketing
In order to implement propensity marketing, you must first have broad data that includes your target audience. Another name for propensity marketing is “database marketing”. Using a database of consumer patterns, propensity marketing uses known facts about a broad group of consumers and reduces the database to include a very specific audience.
In order to narrow the database, you may use factors such as age, gender, income, industry, etcetera. However, proper propensity targeting may go further, by selecting far more specific factors such as what kind of car they drive, whether they smoke, how many children they have, and many more factors.
Database Reduction and Unexpected Propensity
A carefully considered propensity marketing campaign will not only rely on database reduction (excluding irrelevant data), but it will also look at lateral factors of your chosen subgroup. Performed correctly, it will include seeking unexpected patterns that may not appear related on the surface. For example, it may not initially make sense to a marketer to question the propensity of a smoker to also buy running shoes. This is an unlikely example, but it goes to the point of looking at patterns in the data that are unexpected but may yield the desired results.
Database Marketing: Gathering Data vs. Purchasing Data
Database marketing starts with the data, but where do you get the database? There are two viable options for data acquisition and data reduction. You can gather the data and attempt data reduction using your own means, or you can purchase a database from a data aggregator service.
If you choose the long road, and decide to gather and reduce a database using your own means, you must consider every resource. You can aggregate the data in many ways, including your existing customer database, your Website server logs, creating and implementing polls, requesting customer feedback, and others. However, it is generally far more efficient and effective to purchase the data from a data aggregator. A data aggregator will have information that is far beyond your immediate reach. Data acquisition is their business, and they will have information at their fingertips that is often far out of your reach. A data aggregator will not only have the information about your existing market, but will also have information about the market that you have been missing.
Purchase a Database: Selecting a Database Aggregator
So now the “squillion dollar question” is how to select where to purchase your database and which database aggregator and database reduction service will have what you need. Obviously, Google is a great place to start your search for a database aggregator or database reduction provider. There is more information added to Google every day about propensity marketing and databases for sale. Finding the right aggregator should be very carefully considered. I am presently studing the database marketing industry for my own benefit, and I will update this article with my findings when my search for the right data aggregator and reduction service is complete.
