One of the biggest challenges, or risks, to your business is not putting yourself in your customers shoes but assuming that your behaviour, likes or dislikes are representative of your customers.
The analogy of “I like blue, so why don’t you” is a simple expression that articulates the difference of opinion that businesses owners and customer might have.
I recently was a part of a conversation with someone about social media and its lack of importance to them and their business. The assumption they had was, because they didn’t use social media, their customers wouldn’t use it either. They had reached this conclusion because their customers were part of the same demographic group that they placed themselves in.
Social media has become a primary communication and networking tool that is available to anyone and everyone and is an available business communication channel.
It’s important in small business to not “assume” and to try and make decisions based on your own personal likes or dislikes. Doing this may result in you directing your marketing energies into the wrong areas, and not achieving the desired results.
I am not saying that, just because you have an opinion, it’s the wrong way. If you are running a local business in a community that you are involved with, there will definitely be affiliations to your personal likes and dislikes, but you certainly need to take a step back and look at things from your business rather than yourself.
Being objective when choosing your marketing plan and spend
I’ve seen a number of local marketing plans which have been developed using personal decisions rather than facts. Areas that I see to be most commonly affected by this include:
- Local radio stations: in any area there will be a number of radio signals that you can select from. All stations are programmed to appeal to a particular audience which may not necessarily include your customer demographic.
- Local sponsorships: this is probably one of the areas where I see the greatest unwarranted spend. Many sponsorships are driven by a personal passion or driver to be involved with that community group or charity. This can certainly help with your exposure, especially if you or your family members are personally involved, but you need to make sure that you have brand alignment before making a commitment. Misalignment can cause a very negative experience for everyone involved and can take some time and re-building to move away from.
- Corporate design including colours and tones: when designing your brand, make sure that you are aware of the religious, cultural and age influences of your primary customer.
- Marketing media selection: just because you want to see your name in lights, its not always the way to go. Always think about what you are trying to achieve (objective) before purchasing any media. The bigger isn’t necessarily the best when it comes to buying media for your business.
The best way to plan any marketing activity or commitments is to use data. I included a quick tip recently on my Facebook post on using local council websites to help build a better understanding of people within your local area. Once you have a clear understanding of your primary audience, you can use this information to analyse against media selection. Many large organisations use media agencies to help support this however, with the amount of information readily available to us on the internet, you have access to endless data to help you in your decision making process.
Make sure you question every channel (and media rep) to get the information that you need. It’s crucial that you don’t make any quick decisions. A marketing plan will certainly help you to allocate your spend, but remember that every “it’s only an additional $50 to help such a great cause” will add up very quickly and you may find that you don’t have enough cash flow left over to support the areas where you will actually get return.
Quick tips
- Remove your personal, your families and your friends influences from your business marketing decisions
- Always review your media channels to ensure that their primary demographic matches yours
- Research, research, research
- Ask questions – never agree on the spot
- Use the facts to drive your decisions
- Don’t agree to test a channel if it doesn’t align to your demographics.
- Say no if its not right
- Always read the fine print – any media agreement is contractual and can be very hard to get out of if you find out its not right.
In summary, you need to ensure that you clearly separate your business decisions on marketing from your personal perceptions, likes and dislikes. Use data, analyse, research and ask questions before making commitments. This will make sure that you maximise your marketing investment and stay focused on driving business growth.
Good Luck!
The Marketing Elf
August 2017
The Marketing Elf 