Marketing Communications

The only thing you really need to know about marketing communications is this:  it is simply the message and media you use to communicate with your market . . . period.  Do you need to study up on the Four P’s, or even the Seven P’s (good lord, there are seven?!), and how to properly convey them to a market?  Not really.  What you DO need to figure out is who your market is and what they want.  Then you communicate with them in a consistent manner so they understand and recognize who you are, what you’re about, and how you can help them.

Business Relationships

I’ve said it for years . . . business is all about building relationships.  You can study marketing and all of its intricacies, and drive yourself nuts trying to figure it all out.  But your time will be better spent building relationships with your customers.  You don’t always buy the product with the best price.  For that matter, you don’t always buy the best product.  You buy the product you want at a price you can afford from someone you trust.

Communications

Marketing communications strategies go into great detail about how to talk to your customers.  But didn’t we learn in school that communication is a two-way street?  If you don’t actively listen to your customer, are you REALLY communicating with them . . . or are you just talking TO them?  I contend that the marketing communications you learned about in your college marketing class mostly revolves around advertising and/or is outbound in nature.

To truly communicate with your customers, you MUST listen to them.  They know what they want and they want someone to listen to them.  Your customers are looking for what you have right now.  Will they find you?  If they do, will you listen to them?  Worry less about the Four P’s and use your Two E’s instead – your Two Ears.

Listen to your customers with an Inbound Marketing strategy and you will be engaged in TRUE marketing communications!

What is Love?

One of my favorite movie quotes comes from the 1994 movie, “Don Juan DeMarco.”  Johnny Depp as Don Juan says:  “There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio.  What is sacred?  Of what is the spirit made?  What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for?  The answer to each is the same:  only love.”  For me, that about sums it up.  Love one another . . . not just on this annual holiday, but all the days of the year.

Love in Business

I talk a lot about how business is all about building relationships.  Let this day remind you of that.  Infuse your business with love and everything will take care of itself.  I’ll leave you with another quote:  “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none” William Shakespeare.

Many people confuse “marketing” with “advertising.” I’ve written this article as a guide to help put both of these very different activities into perspective.

Definition of Marketing

The American Marketing Association says “marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Basically, marketing is focused on your customer. The key word in this definition is “value.”

Definition of Advertising

Wikipedia says “advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience (viewers, readers, or listeners) to continue or take some new action. Basically, advertising is focused on your business – not your customer. The key word in this definition is “persuade.”

What Does All This Mean?

In advertising, you come up with something you want your customer to do, then you pay to go out and try to persuade them to do it – in other words, Outbound. In marketing, you listen to your customers and give them what they want – in other words, Inbound.

Ask yourself these things: Do you want to talk your customers into doing business with you, or would you rather do all you can to ensure your customers find you when they want you, then satisfy their needs? How do you feel when someone tries to persuade you do to something? Would you rather the salesperson come to you trying to talk you into a sale (persuade), or would you rather go to the salesperson when you are ready to make a purchase and have them help and advise you in a sale you’re ready to make (value)?

Treat your customers like people instead of commodities and your business will prosper!  This is the most important part of your Inbound Marketing strategy.

I’m asked this question more than any other, and the answer is simple. Most people are familiar with Outbound Marketing, though they aren’t familiar with it by that title – they just think of it as Marketing.

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is a little like a child jumping up and down in front of you saying “look at me, look at me, look at me!” It revolves around going out, finding out who your customers are, where they are, getting in front of them, and talking, and talking, and talking until some of them pay attention to you. An over-exaggeration? Perhaps, but the theory is the same – and it’s expensive.

Inbound Marketing

Where outbound marketing is “outbound” in nature – you go out to talk to your customers – inbound marketing is “inbound” in nature – you talk to the customers that come in to talk to you. It employs a whole toolbox full of goodies to ensure your customers find you – because they’re looking. Think of the things you do when you’re looking for a product or service. The first thing you’ll probably do is search for it in Google. What else will you do? Just because you’re looking doesn’t necessarily mean you are ready to buy. Inbound marketing will ensure your customers find you, come to trust you, look to you for advice, and stay in their minds until they’re ready to buy.

Would you like to know more? Contact us and we’ll chat with you about our passion – Inbound Marketing.

Inbound marketing is a different way to approach your marketing strategy than you learned in Marketing 101 several years ago.  The “rules” of marketing are continuously changing, but this sort of strategy has staying power.

The old marketing rules give you all sorts of methods to get out there and find those customers and cause them to pay attention to you and your message.  Inbound marketing is a less expensive and more efficient way to gain new customers.  The basic idea is this:  people are looking for your products and services right now, so you need to make sure they find you!  It really is that simple.  If you can make sure the right people find you instead of you finding them, you’ve already saved a ton of cash – but it doesn’t end there.

Once your potential customers have found you, what comes next?  The key is to capture information from your newly-acquired potential customers, and hopefully gain permission to open a dialogue with them.  We’ll discuss this in future blog posts.

Why does an inbound marketing strategy have staying power?  Because the strategy stays the same regardless of changing technologies.  New technologies come and go – some of them sooner or later than others – but the strategy remains the same.  Think about your experience as a consumer.  How do you feel about interruption marketing/advertising?  It’s annoying isn’t it?  You know what you need and when you need it – you don’t need somebody to tell you.  You know how to get on the Internet and look for it.  When you find what you’re looking for, you’ve just become a potential customer (at some level) of inbound marketing.  Now think about how your customers will find you.

Let us help you get started with an inbound marketing strategy tailored to your needs and goals.