This weekend I am busy doing a “marketing check-up” for a new client and part of that requires looking at their website, testing their performance in on-line searches, reviewing their effectiveness using on-line social networking sites and reviewing all the marketing collateral to see if they are enhancing the brand of the business and offering me a compelling reason to want to be a client of this business. In simple terms, does the marketing material work?
A simple answer to that question is if sales are strong, then the company’s marketing material is working. However, with the latest recession and the shift in how technology has changed how people find your business, you still might not be getting the results you would have gotten a few years ago with the exact same marketing material. So, that means you must continue to evolve in how you do things and be willing to consider adapting your material to get the best results right now. The days of designing one marketing piece and having it work for all people are gone. If you want to sell me…..then sell ME! Connect with who I am and what about me needs YOU! Don’t make a list of all the services you provide and tell me you are excellent at what you do….that might have worked 10 years ago to get you clients, but today you have to do more. Your marketing needs to catch my eye quickly and make a connection with who I am and why I need you. This means you need your marketing to be visually exciting and draw me in. The audience you are trying to reach has grown up with “fast food”, “color” TV, “fast” video games [“first person shooters games /FPS”]and technology that offers instant gratification so if your marketing material is outdated it most likely will not reach its target.
Much like when you do a spring cleaning or you organize your office space, consider tossing outdated websites, brochures and other marketing collateral and develop material that works for today’s market. Don’t get hung-up on holding so tight to the past if you are losing your market share today. The companies who are doing well today have learned to adapt their marketing material to meet the changing audience and they are developing services that are reaching the individual and meeting their needs.
All my best to your success!
~Charlene
