The second leg of any marketing strategy should be an action plan that maps out how to actually get your specific offer (solution) in front of the correct audience.
In order to do that, we have to reverse-engineer the process to find out what kind of communication is going to work best.
With online marketing, a whole world has opened up that allows us to target the most narrowly defined market with almost no effort. Working with online audiences really raises the awareness of how detailed one can be in defining a target demographic and I would recommend doing it even as just an exercise.
Showing your ad to a mother with a newborn who lives within 12 miles of your facility, is between 25 and 45 years old, is Hispanic, and has a college degree is absolutely possible.
But of course, that might not be the best way and not the only way. While that demographic might spend a lot of time on social media, if the target is the executive with family who needs to be able to make an appointment outside of normal business hours, it may be better to have a postcard in the mail, an ad in the local Rotary Club newsletter or a Billboard at the Freeway exit to the local technology park.
The question is where does your constituency get the kind of information you are offering from? Where do they hang out? What publications do they read? Where do they meet?
The most successful businesses solve a persisting problem for a particular constituency (better than the competition) and know how to get their information in front of their ideal audience.
Again, you don’t need to guess. Sometimes it’s obvious where people congregate to get their information. Sometimes not. When in doubt, ask. It is fairly simple to go to your perfect clients and ask them how they a. found you and b. how they generally would find out about the service you provide. You might be surprised.
So far you should (including from answers in PART 1 of this series):
◆ know exactly who your target market is
◆ know what problem(s) you solve for them
◆ know how they get information that is relevant to them
Now I hear many saying – I get most of my business through referrals. Even if so, this information is critical because it allows you to radically improve your referrals. If you help your clients formulate what you do and who you do it for you can make it much easier for them to actively reach out to people like them (which is great because most people like to be around people like themselves ) And if you top it off by giving them a way to pass on that information (a card, a link, a phone number, a brochure, a sample etc.), you are winning the game.
So once you have identified how your constituents consume information you can put it all together. This is what the scenario could look like.
You are the only a chiropractor in an urban environment. You consistently help construction workers with neck and shoulder injuries and they consistently get back on the job 2 weeks sooner than if they don’t come to you. Most of the construction workers you see work for 4 large companies in the area. You speak to the HR department and explain to them the savings they can expect if everyone is injured comes to you. You offer them a special corporate rate.
You have a spa next to a hotel that specializes on conventions. You know in advance about the events that are scheduled. You create a social media ad that targets people who search for each specific event with an incentive to pre-purchase. You offer them a convention package that tailored to their schedule and their needs.
And so the last part of the formula is to figure out what triggers your market to take action. More often than not they have dealt with the problem at length. Often they are chronic. Most often the people you address have tried different solutions.
Knowing precisely why those solutions failed is very important because it gives you the trigger information – that statement that will stop the client in their tracks to hear more. To stick with the example, if your market are people with high stress, long work hours in an executive position who deal with chronic pain but are afraid to become addicted to pain meds, your point of entry into the conversation might be “drug-free pain management” or if their problem is time it could be “after hours, rapid pain management”.
Now that we have thought about these things, we
◆ know exactly who your target market is
◆ know what problem(s) you solve for them
◆ know how they get information that is relevant to them
◆ know the triggers that would motivate them to be your customer/client.
That is really all you need to start getting your message across to your constituency with a compelling message a high level of accuracy = efficiency.
With a marketing action plan, you can schedule your marketing efforts out over a year to give you a better sense of how and when to spend your budget to accommodate peak months, cash flow and aim for the highest possible impact.
Your intention is always to generate a sufficient flow of new clients to meet your business goals at the possible lowest cost to keep the cost of client acquisition within budget.
Even though we schedule far in advance, in the end, the feedback we receive on effectivity is what we use to continually adjust our actions. The third post will deal with measuring our marketing efforts.
Your thoughts?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicolay H. Kreidler is an entrepreneur and strategic consultant in the health and wellness space who focuses on turning around distressed businesses and re-positioning them for success.