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Author: Tom Richard Article source: http://www.keen-intellect.org/. Used with author's permission.
When you put time or money into any marketing plan, your only
objective is to MAKE A SALE. Are you sure your marketing is going to
get your customer from their couch to your cash register?
When somebody hears your message or sees your logo from some
medium you have created, what does the path from that first 'touch' to
your cash register look like?
We call this path the yellow brick road. If your yellow brick road is well
built, then your customer will follow a developed path from a recognition
point to your cash register. If your road is not well built, there is
confusion in your message and because of others' more developed
avenues, this customer will end up at your competitor's cash register.
Therefore, your road must stand out, and it must be designed in a way
that will lead the customer through a predetermined path with a
transaction being the primary goal.
An example of a marketing plan without any such road is one that puts
advertising out into the community and does not have a clear actionable
next step; or one that has the clear and actionable step, but the step is
too big for the customer who is not ready to make an immediate
purchase. A person who has been casually contemplating the purchase
of your product will not react to a "One Day Sale Next Friday"
advertisement. She may consider dropping by your store next Friday
during your advertised sale, but chances are that will be forgotten after
five minutes. This customer has no path to follow because the timing
and the conditions were not yet right for her.
Your advertising in this case, has been somewhat wasted. A woman
who will make a purchase in the next six months received it, but the only
option that you gave her was to buy next Friday. You do not know who
she is and you have no way of following up with her.
Your own aimless advertising cost yourself a warm lead.
The only way to keep in touch with this person is to continue to run
costly advertising, and maybe, just maybe, when she is ready to
purchase, she will receive another one of your mailers or hear your
radio commercial and she will come right in and buy from you. I would
not hold my breath if I were you.
Now we'll run the same example with a message that clearly has a road
for this customer to follow. You run an advertisement in the Sunday
paper. The advertisement is designed in a way that creates a clear
path: a visit to your website. She will visit your website because you
have an offer that both interests and engages her; something that
caught her eye and sparked her interest. This could be anything from a
product recommendation tool your website offers, to a free book about
how to pick the perfect product. You will intrigue her enough that she
will take the first step down this path. This is powerful because when
she goes to the website or calls you on the phone, you will capture her
information.
The minute that you capture her information, you have capitalized on
your marketing investment. Information, when it is in the right hands, is
as good as cash.
Therefore, instead of positioning your advertising, or any other
marketing program, to go right for the sale, you should instead also
create a more comfortable step for people to take that will give them
something of value in exchange for their information.
When you have their information, this puts them on your road. Once
they are on your road, you will have everything choreographed so that
you touch these future customers as often as possible in a systematic
way. With these frequent touches you will be keeping that top-of-mind
awareness and you will be flying a holding pattern until they are ready
to buy.
Each piece that you put out into the community will have a specific
objective about where you want them to go. You will have to choose the
destination (website, phone, or to stop in) based on your chances of
success of actually getting them there. This being said, obviously, you
want them to come into the store, but this is the hardest objective to
achieve.
You must understand the proper objective of marketing. This objective
will be one of three things. It will either lead the future customer to click,
call, or stop in. It is important that you understand your own path as to
deliver a clear message to the customer.
When your path is well structured, it will lead right from the customer's
couch to your cash register. Tom Richard is the author of Smart Sales People Don't Advertise: 10
Was To Outsmart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing To buy this
book or to subscribe to Tom's weekly ezine, visit http://www.tomrichard.com/
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