MARKETING YOUR MARKETING
By Jay Conrad Levinson
Don't limit your marketing merely to the media you're using. Market it all over the
place. Anything worth promoting is worth cross-promoting.
Guerrillas know that all the media work better if they're supported by the other
media. Put your web site onto your TV commercial. Mention your advertising in
your direct mail. Refer to your direct mail in your telemarketing. Plants the
seeds of your offering with some kinds of marketing and fertilize them with other
kinds.
You're not really promoting unless you're cross-promoting. Your trade show booth
will be far more valuable to you if you promote it in trade magazines and with
fliers put under the doors of hotels near the trade show. Guerrillas try to market
their marketing.
Your prospects, being humans, are eclectic people. They pay attention to a lot of
media so you can't depend on a mere one medium to motivate a purchase. You're got
to introduce a notion, remind people of it, say it again, then repeat it in
different words somewhere else. That share of mind for which guerrilla strive?
They get it with they combine several media. They say in their ads, "Call or write
for our free brochure."
They say in their Yellow Pages ad, "Get even more details at our website." They
enclose a copy of their magazine ad in their mailing. They blow up a copy to use as
a sign. Their website features their print ads.
Guerrillas are quick to mention their use of one medium while using another because
they realize that people equate broadscale marketing with quality and success. They
know that people trust names they've heard of much more than strange and new names;,
and guerrillas are realistic enough to know that people miss most marketing
messages -- often intentionally. The remote control is not only a way to save their
steps but also a method of eliminating marketing messages.
No matter how glorious their newspaper campaign may be, guerrillas realize that not
all of their prospects read the paper so they've got to get to these people in
another way. No matter how dazzling their website, it's like a grain of sand in a
desert if it is not pointed out to an unknowing and basically uncaring public.
Cross-promoting in the media is another way to accomplish the all-important task of
repetition. One way to repeat yourself and implant your message is to say it over
and over again. Another way is to say it in several different places. Guerrillas
try to do both. Nothing is left to chance. If you saw a yellow pages ad that made
you an offer from a company you've never heard of and another with the same offer
except that the ad said, "As advertised on television," you'd probably opt for the
second because of that added smidgen of credibility. I rest my case.
The psychology of marketing requires basic knowledge of human behavior. Human
beings do not like making decisions in a hurry and are not quick to develop
relationships. They certainly do want relationships, but they've been stung in the
past and they don't want to be stung again.
They have learned well to distrust much marketing because of its proclivity to
exaggeration. All too many times they've read of sales at stores and learned that
only a tiny selection of items were on sale. They've been bamboozled more times
than you'd think by the notorious fine print on contracts. And they've been high
pressured by more than one salesperson.
That's why they process your marketing communications in their unconscious minds,
eventually arriving at their decisions because of an emotional reason even though
they may say they are deciding based on logic. They factor a lot about you into
their final decision -- how long they've heard of you, where your marketing appears,
how it looks and feels to them, the quality of your offer, your convenience or lack
of it, what others have said about you, and most of all, how your offering can be of
benefit to their lives.
Although they state that they now want what you're selling, and they do it in a very
conscious manner, you can be sure they were guided by their unconscious minds. The
consistent communicating of your benefits, your message and your name has penetrated
their sacred unconscious mind. They've come to feel that they can trust you and so
they decide to buy.
Any pothole in their road to purchasing at this point might dissuade them. They
call to make an inquiry and they are treated shabbily on the phone? You've lost
them. Do they access your website for more information and either find no website
or find one littered with self-praise You've lost them. They visit you and feel
pressured or misunderstood? They're gone.
You've got to realize that the weakest point in your marketing can derail all the
strong points. Excellence through and through, start to finish, is what people have
come to expect from businesses, and these days, they won't settle for less. The
insight you must have is that marketing is a 360 degree process and you've got to do
it right from all angles at all times. When it comes to marketing, people have
built-in alarm systems, and any shady behavior on your part sets the bells to
clanging, the sirens screaming.
It is very difficult to woo a person from the brand they use right now to your
brand. Although they are loathe to change, they do change. And when they do, they
patronize businesses that understand the psychology of human beings and the true
nature of marketing.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.