Marketing Doesn’t Work for Me: Two examples of why the status quo isn’t a solution

Many small business owners I’ve consulted with have been frustrated with the poor performance of past marketing efforts. When they invest a lot of money and don’t see the results they expect to see, it can cause them to believe that marketing doesn’t work, so they stop paying attention to it.

Here are two different situations where the business owner didn’t experience marketing results and how an altered approach would have likely produced a better outcome.

Situation 1: Overwhelming Statistics

A radio station was pitching an accounting business on being able to deliver customers with a combination of radio advertising and website display advertising. The pitch included impressive statistics on how many people listened to their stations and how many people visited the radio station websites. (The company owned multiple stations.) The business agreed to hear a proposal.

When the radio station returned with the proposal, it included a mix of radio ads on seven different stations and their respective websites. The proposal showed how the ads could reach thousands of people in multiple communities, providing a huge potential customer influx for the accounting firm.

Another part of the proposal revealed that listeners were people at home during the day: stay-at-home parents, work-from-home employees, and seniors. The radio station pitch said that since everyone needs their taxes done, it was a great fit.

The problem was that the accounting firm contracted out its tax work so it could focus on corporate business, and since the decision-makers for corporations were unlikely to be home during the daytime, the message was unlikely to reach them at all.

The business made the decision not to move forward with the advertising buy.

Situation 2: What Are You Ranking For?

A restoration business hired a digital marketing company to come up with a plan to capitalize on its website (blogs) and social media to drive referrals to the business. The company came up with a strategy of blogs backed by high-ranking search terms people were typing into search engines.

The problem with the search terms was that they didn’t connect with the target audience of the business – homeowners with heritage properties. This was a niche market business in the restoration industry, and the search terms were geared more toward general restoration, which was a different kind of customer.

In meeting with the digital marketing company, it became clear that they had not spent any time researching the client’s target audience, or the niche market in which it was located. Their goal was to get the website to rank high for general search terms, but the goal for the business was to attract a certain type of customer.

The business asked if the company could find search terms more closely related to its target customer, and the company said it could not find anything that would rank as high as the terms they had proposed. Since the company couldn’t connect to the target market, the decision was pretty easy not to move forward with their proposal.

Why Your Marketing Doesn’t Work

When evaluating how to market your business, the most important consideration you have is how the proposed opportunities connect to your best customer. If someone asks to pitch you on marketing services, and they don’t ask you who your best customer is, then tell them, or else you will likely end up with a proposal that just wastes your time.

Let the salesperson know that when they bring you back a proposal you want to know how it specifically targets the type of person you want as a customer. If they can’t do that, then that type of marketing approach is probably offside from your goals.

Chapter 15: Writing for Your Audience Matters

Communicating with your audience is also your responsibility when creating copy for your website or a brochure or in strategizing for a tradeshow. Chapter 15 of Forward Thinking for Your Business talks about this exact topic.

You can order the book today at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, or contact Jennifer directly. If you need to book consulting time with Jennifer, email her at [email protected] or call 613-312-7824.