Nigel Wilkinson
Managing Director of Daneswood. Nigel has been in sales and marketing since the 1980's and run digital marketing agencies since 2000.
Marketing folk often talk about getting the “marketing mix” right. That means using more than one marketing method to reach your customers, to ensure your message cuts through.
Typically, its suggested you have at least five different marketing methods in effect at any one time, ideally more. We currently have 12 different marketing activities live, with four more planned to kick off next week, with two others pausing until the New Year.
Now, it might be that one technique is working for you. Great news, push resources into it and mine that seam of gold. But be aware that one method might not work for ever! Remember Yellow Pages anyone? And how many businesses have failed when eBay pulled their online store with no warning?
Your granny might have warned you about putting all your eggs in one basket!
When people talk of marketing campaigns, they mean multiple methods, working together to achieve a single objective, and that’s what you need to think of. Now the methods you choose will vary, depending on your target market, indeed far more than by sector.
For example, you might be a cheesemaker, how you market yourself will depend on whether you sell direct to customers, via farm shops or to the supermarket. Or a mixture of all of them. In which case, you would need three campaigns, with different marketing mixes, (although some methods might cross-over.)
So, what would your mix look like? Well, that’s hard, if not impossible to say. Most businesses would start with a website, but even that isn’t always appropriate.
Download the marketing plan template from our resources page and you’ll find a list of thirty-three of the most common methods, but there are literally hundreds of ways to promote yourself, depending on what you do and who you want to reach.
Of course, as we drift into 2024, digital is the dominant method and has been for some years. It’s certainly where we put much of our effort. But it’s not the only route, and nor should it be.
There are people that a digital approach would never reach, try marketing to my mum via a smartphone or PC, good luck with that! But even when people are super-connected, a purely digital marketing campaign may be less effective than an integrated approach, leaving money on the table.
In the James Bond movie Skyfall, Albert Finney’s character, Kincade the gamekeeper, picks up a knife and says the line “Sometimes the old ways are the best!” In a film full of high-tech weaponry, it is eventually the old-fashioned knife that kills off the baddie.
In marketing terms, the “old ways” doesn’t mean stabbing prospects in the back – although that might grab their attention – but looking at printed materials and other off-line methods of connecting with prospects.
Connecting with prospects and customers via leaflets, brochures, business cards and direct mail has a tangibility to it that doesn’t exist online. If you can hold it, touch it, feel it, it becomes more real. And if it’s sat on my desk I must engage with it physically, even if it’s just to throw it in the bin. It will be noticed! Sending a physical Christmas Card will engage in a way that a virtual one never will.
Integrating printed material into your marketing mix is a great way of adding a physical touch into your prospecting. An example would be to use search engine optimisation and/or paid search to drive visitors to your website, then use an offer to capture the details and then follow up with direct mail, or with a promotional gift, catalogue, or other physical touch point. We got sent doughnuts this week as a response to a LinkedIn post. That was well received in the office!
Alternatively, use direct mail to highlight an offer if people visit your website, then buy or subscribe to a product or email list. Or telemarketing to clean the data, followed by an email, followed by a direct mail, followed by email, then a sales call – a sequence like that means the prospect is much warmer to the call than going in cold. The options are endless once you start to combine methods and it’s about experimenting until you find what works for you.
Of course, if you are networking or running trade stands, printed material is a must, ideally directing prospects to a sign-up option on your website, so you can collect data and begin a conversation.
So, as you plan your marketing for the New Year, remember Kincade’s wise advice, “Sometimes the old ways are the best!”