How to Deliver an Effective Marketing Message

Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 10:08 pm  
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How to Deliver an Effective Marketing Message

By Abby Johnson – Mon, 07/19/2010 – 8:52am.

Get your message heard

Why is it so difficult for marketers to get their message to stand out? Although the marketplace is already overcrowded and is continuing to grow, it is possible for messages to be heard.

As the above video points out, many marketers are focusing on the wrong thing. They are continuously trying to understand the consumer, which is a hard job. Instead, they should dedicate their time to understanding the consumer’s needs and how they can fulfill the task that the consumer wants completed.

Many marketers segment their target market into customer groups such as small businesses, moms, and homeowners. By doing this, they are taking the focus off of meeting needs, which could lead to failure. As a result, the marketing message blends in with all the other messages and is not heard.

Legendary Harvard Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt once said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”

This same idea is true today. To have effective messaging, marketers need to take a knowledgeable approach. For this, they need to conduct research on sales and behaviors to see what prompts the customer to act. Not only does this information provide insights into the customer’s needs, it also allows marketers to better accommodate them.

An effective message should also build brand equity. Most of the tried and true brands that we all recognize today didn’t rise in popularity because they had fancy marketing messages. On the contrary, their messages simply stated what they could do.

While creativity plays an active role in messaging, marketers need to be careful since the message could be easily drowned out by too much creativity. A message should be simple and give consumers direction. Both these elements in turn build equity in the brand.

If you dwell on the crowded marketplace and all the competition it includes, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. If you instead, think about the specific needs that you are trying to meet and how it will create new opportunities, then you are on the right track for creating an effective marketing message.

Google Wave Now Open To The Public

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 10:41 am  
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Google Wave Now Open To The Public

By John Vinson – Thu, 05/20/2010 – 9:37am.

Decide whether Google Wave is right for your business

Google Wave has been a hot topic among the tech community. It appears that either people understand the functionality which Wave can provide users, while others have met the app with skepticism. Until now, only a select few have been invited to test Google Wave but it is now available to the public. I’ve given the service a once over, have tested many of its functions and have personally begun to understand the various opinions which have run the gamut.

The most important question you probably want answered is – ‘Will Google Wave help my small business?’

If utilized properly, I think Google Wave could be a wonderful boon to many small businesses out there. The trick is knowing what you’re getting into before starting up Wave. First, you should know that I haven’t seen anything completely revolutionary out of Wave thus far. Google Wave isn’t going to balance your budget, bring in new customers/clients, or pay your office lease.

However, Wave does provide some tools to help optimize communication within your small business. The service takes various forms of communication and condenses them into one tool. You have email, instant messaging, document posting, meeting memos, and more. All of which update at a quick, almost real time pace. The amount of tools provided will allow you to scrub other programs which might only provide email, while making you use something else for hosting documents.

Along with the amount of standard tasks available, Wave has the option for downloading extensions. These extensions provide even more function, expanding Wave’s use even farther. Here are some of the useful extensions I found so far:

TimeBridge Conferencing – Allows phone and web conferencing through Google Wave.

Travel WithMe – Provides groups on Wave the ability to plan trips in real time.

Likey – A Wave extension providing a like/dislike feature, to help gauge ratings for topics.

Requesty – Adds security to Wave by requiring permission to join a certain discussion.

Chart Gadget – Allows users to insert charts into Wave.

Those are five extensions, which are part of what is a total of 60 extensions as of now. As with all things Google, Wave’s API is open allowing developers to create extensions which should help to grow Wave’s significance even farther.

If you’re on the fence as to whether or not Wave would be good for your business, answer these questions:

Are you struggling to keep everyone on the same page within your business?

Are the employees who work for you spread out at various locations?

Does your business require quick, and efficient real time communication?

If you answered yes to any of those questions then I’d recommend at least trying Google Wave. If used properly, I could see Wave increasing efficiency for business communication. As with all tools though, its effectiveness is only as strong as those who are using it.

How Can Marketers Be More Effective?

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 9:37 am  
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How Can Marketers Be More Effective?

By Abby Johnson – Tue, 04/27/2010 – 3:13pm.

comScore’s Eli Goodman offers advice

Many marketers are finding themselves in a difficult situation. They are trying to meet the same goals that they were given before the recession hit, but now they have smaller teams and budgets to work with. So, what can marketers do to succeed?

While there is no easy solution to this predicament, there are some strategies marketers can implement that will help them be more effective during these times. As Eli Goodman of comScore says in the above video, marketers have to take a balanced approach to decision-making. In other words, marketers should not base all decisions on data or on their “gut feeling.”

“It’s finding a happy medium between the two and challenging yourself as a marketer,” says Goodman.

He also points out that every company is different. One company might need to pay closer attention to the data, while another company should rely more on the “gut feeling.” A combination of the two, however, is a good rule-of-thumb to follow.

In addition, marketers need to communicate with other departments as well as the other marketing divisions within the business. This lack of communication is a growing trend in businesses and can results in serious harm.

Goodman offers this suggestion: “Put it all together under the same umbrella and then start to figure out maybe where you’re doubling up.”

If marketers apply this advice, they can find areas in which they can be more efficient.

So, in spite of the economic turmoil, it is possible for marketers to be effective, but it does take hard work.

Do you have any tips for being an effective marketer during these times?