3 is Key
You’ve planned the budget, outlined the goals, examined the medias and committed to a long term plan. Will it work? How do you ensure results?
Well, there is no exact formula to guarantee the exact results you’re seeking. With more current choices such as social media there are more and more ways to track and calculate ROI. Good news. But developing a name and brand awareness still requires some mass placement. Marketing lines are becoming blurry but for general marketing there are 3 aspects that, when in place, put your advertising in the right position to have the best results! This is regardless of which mainstream medium you utilize. The Power of Three includes: placement, frequency and creative! Placement basically means who are you trying to talk to. Now I’ve heard the statement “I want to talk to everyone” more times than I can count. And although that’s true for many businesses, you need to examine the “who” which brings the largest amount of potential revenue. As a business owner you have to stop thinking about what your habits are and make decisions based on the habits of the consumers you wish to walk through your door! I worked with a tattoo parlor owner a few years back that loved news/talk radio. That’s where he wanted to put his message. I ask you, with a target demographic of men 50 years or older, does that make sense for placement? Frequency deals with memory! With the overwhelming number of messages we are inundated with everyday…how am I to remember who you are and what you offer? At any given moment approximately 2% of consumers will be in the market to buy your product or service today. The other 98% will not need you for days or months down the road. What will build equity in their brain to think of you when the need arises? Rehearsal and repetition! It is THE only way we take something from our short term memory and turn it into long term memory. How often are you getting your message out? Sensory storage in the brain retains the sensory image for just moments, long enough to develop a perception. This is where creative has an impact! Creative is “what are you saying to me?” What you say in your marketing message is the most important of the 3 keys. It can affect placement and have a larger impact on lower frequency. When approaching the creative it is important to talk to me about how to solve my problem….what’s in it for me? I don’t really care how long you’ve been in business, that you provide great customer service and that you have a convenient location. ”One of the biggest mistakes made is assuming people care how something works before they care what it does for them.” Strategic Media Inc. Keeping in mind that an individual is exposed to over 5000 messages a day you also have to utilize the creativity in your creative message. Humor, sincerity, conversation, story lines, strong emotional pull, and even fear can utilize that sensory storage to impress a perception. Even if I am in the need for your product you need to capture my attention! The creative message is most often the last element of importance yet has the greatest impact! So, what about your business marketing? Are you talking to the right person? How often are you talking to them? What are you saying? All 3 keys will give your marketing plan a larger chance of success after the development of the goals and strategies are secured. If one of these 3 keys are not in alignment the song will not sound as sweet!
