Category Archives: Marketing

My hair and your marketing

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My hair and your marketingLast week a friend dropped by unexpectedly after work.  The first thing she said was, “I really like your hair that way.  It’s smoother.  It looks good.” 

Seriously?  I laughed and said, “You’re kidding.  This is ‘bed hair!’  I went to the gym early, then went directly to my desk, where I’ve spent the entire day.” 

“No, really,” she said.  “I really like it that way.”

Well, of course, being a pushover for compliments, I deliberately blew my hair straight and smooth. 

Two days later I attended an open house at her business.  Her assistant, whom I hadn’t seen in a few months, waved hello, then walked over to chat.

“Something’s different,” she said.  “I think it’s your hair.  I really just want to mess it up, make it look windblown.”  She actually reached toward me, like it was all she could do to keep her hands off my hair!

Really?  One person likes my hair flat and smooth; the other likes it spiky and tussled.  Which just goes to show you:  you can’t please everyone.

My hair and your marketing 

What does my hair have to do with your marketing?  You can’t please everyone either. (I don’t know about you, but I hate that.)

That’s why it’s so seriously, definitely, unbelievably important that you know clearly who your target market is. 

You have to know your market inside out.  You have to know both what they want and what they need (which may not be the same thing!).

  • Know how they think
  • Know what they feel
  • Know their values
  • Know where they shop
  • Know what they read
  • Know where they hang out
  • Know how they spend their time
  • Know what keeps them awake at night and
  • Know what brings them joy.

Because knowing all this will guide everything in your business.  First and foremost, it will guide what products and services you offer.  Then it guides your pricing.  After that, it will guide your marketing strategy, marketing energy and marketing dollars.

Your marketing success depends on it

Nothing is more important to the success of your business than knowing who your target market is.  It’s the only way you can differentiate yourself and get any marketing traction.

Here’s an example:  let’s say you’re a financial planner.  You sell a huge variety of financial products, anything from mutual funds, stocks and bonds, retirement investments, annuities, life insurance and more.  Most everyone over the age of 22 needs something in that list.

If I ask, “Who is your target market?” and you tell me, “Everyone needs financial planning,” you are going to run yourself ragged trying to meet both men and women from age 22 to 95 and still only be marginally successful. 

  • Your marketing pieces will be watered down and generic.
  • Your educational events will lack focus and guidance.
  • You’ll be attending a gazillion networking events – everything from “Meet Ups for Young Professionals” to “Silver Seniors Breakfast Club.”

And more than that, the people you meet won’t know for sure that you truly understand their priorities and the challenges they face.

But if you tell me your target marketing is “Baby boomers who are getting serious about retirement plans” that paints a whole different picture.

  • Your email marketing can contain articles with specific advice for someone in that age range.
  • You will use images that baby boomers relate to.
  • The background music at your educational events will be Creedence Clearwater and Van Morrison.
  • Your prospects will know you understand their needs and priorities.

I have a client who owns a retail store selling environmentally friendly baby products, everything from diapers to soaps, to toys, to strollers.  She knows her customers inside out.  Though they come from hugely diverse socio-economic backgrounds, they have one common value:  green!  They believe their children are safer with environmentally friendly products.

  • The store owner knows their values, knows what they think, and what they believe.
  • She knows what they read and where they show up.
  • She’s built a huge following on social media and has a loyal and growing customer base.

Close your eyes and open your mind

Right now, close your eyes and envision your three most profitable customers.  These three people will typify the three IDEAL market segments you want to attract.    Create a Persona (like a caricature) for each one – yes, give them a name.  Create a background story for each of them.

If you don’t already know this information, then find out more about who your customers are, beyond their relationship to you.  Then use this information to clearly define your target market.  And use THAT information to make your marketing decisions.

Because…just like me and my hair, you just can’t please everyone.

P.S.  So, I’m not really obsessed with my hair, I promise, but…I’d really like your opinion.  Not that I do polling to make sure I please people or anything like that.  I mean, I’m my own person.  I have to please myself first, right?  But still, if you’d like to vote on which hair style you like best, just leave a comment :)!

Spiky

Spiky

Smooth

Smooth

Be a connector! Learn to love networking

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Despite the fact that I’m an introvert (kind of weird for speaker and trainer, isn’t it?), I’m a darn good networker.

But I didn’t start out that way…I had to learn.

In those early years, networking events seemed like a bunch of sales people trying to sell each other stuff.  It felt like some people showed up as birds of prey, waiting to swoop down on a vulnerable target. 

I didn’t want to be one of those! 

So I learned to shift my approach to networking, and now it’s enjoyable.

Now, people call me a “Connector.”  I know a lot of people and have a knack for spotting opportunities and seeing synergies.

So when I was asked to speak about Networking to the Business School students at a local university, I happily said yes.

As I gathered my thoughts about what to share with them, I figured I might as well make a short video and share that with you.

Learn what networking is really about (hint:  it’s not about selling) and how to make it more comfortable and effective for YOU.

Take care,

Darcie

 

 

P.S.  I love to remember the words of Maya Angelou when I think about networking!  “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

“Half my marketing dollars are wasted – I just don’t know which half”

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220px-John_WanamakerThis handsome gentleman is John Wanamaker, the man often cited as the source of that famous quote above.

Did you know he was an incredibly successful Philadelphia merchant in the late 1800’s? 

I take strange comfort in knowing that marketing strategies have stumped business owners for hundreds of years. 

John Wanamaker was known as modest, honest and the innovator of the “money back guarantee.”  He was also known as a merchandising and advertising genius. 

So if John Wanamaker was confused – before the options of television, the internet, mobile devices and social media were thrown into the mix — it’s no surprise that business owners today are seriously confounded!

Do you know which half of your marketing dollars are wasted?

The massive amount of choices you have about how to spend your marketing money and time mean one thing:  you absolutely need a marketing plan.

You have to be relentlessly strategic, or you’ll go broke just throwing money at marketing.

Creating a well-defined marketing plan will help you generate more leads and increase your sales.  You’ll accomplish these three critical benefits:

1)      Make better decisions about where to spend marketing time and money

2)      Save marketing dollars by spending them on what works

3)      Keep you focused and consistent, instead of “hit and miss”

Now is the perfect time to create your marketing plan for 2014. 

We’ve made it easy for you.  Our e-course “Become a Marketing Superstar:  How to Create a Marketing Plan Guaranteed to Increase Sales” comes complete with a 12-page customizable marketing plan template!

So don’t wait!  Be strategic and prepared to make 2014 your best year ever.

get the details here

 

Take care,

Darcie

 

P.S.  And…like John Wanamaker, we’ll offer you a money-back guarantee!

What can Boardwalk Empire teach you about marketing?

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I confess.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit this but I’m addicted to a television show.  To Boardwalk Empire.  (Which is sort of creepy, but that’s another story…)

lips-that-touch-liquorThe series is set during Prohibition years.  For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, the government actually outlawed alcohol during the years between 1920 and 1933. 

Yup, Prohibition made it against the law to manufacture, transport and sell alcoholic beverages.  

Which, of course, led to rampant black market sales of beer, wine and liquor. 

Nukky Thompson, the central character in Boardwalk Empire, is one of the key players in that black market world of buying and selling liquor.  What makes Nukky’s life difficult is not selling liquor– it’s finding enough of it to sell!

In other words, the demand for his product exceeded the supply.  Marketing was a breeze.

That’s a nice problem to have.  Wouldn’t you like to have that problem?

So here’s my question:  what needs to happen in your business to make marketing a breeze?

Marketing isn’t just about advertising or promoting your product or service.  Marketing is about knowing your target market so well, so thoroughly, so deeply, so completely, that customers or clients are drawn to what you have. 

It wasn’t cheap prices driving the demand for the liquor Nukky Thompson could supply.  Prices were higher! 

Scarcity creates attraction.  The demand was created by lack of availability. 

Think about the hordes of people who lined up to buy iPhones.  Yes, grownups standing in line at the mall, holding a ticket with a number for the privilege of buying a phone!  iPhones were cool. 

People stood in line to see the premier of the latest Star Wars or Harry Potter movie.  Why?  Because there are a limited number of seats in the theater.    But couldn’t they just wait till the crowds died down?  Sure, but some people want to be first.

What would make people stand in line to buy what you have to offer? 

The desire to be cool…the desire to be first.  Those desires are called psychographics.  Psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. 

What are the values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles, driving the people who want or need your product or service? 

Think about your top customers and ask yourself these questions:

  • What do they really love about your product?
  • What made them decide to buy your product instead of your competitors’?
  • What are their hobbies?
  • What are their emotional triggers?
  • What values and attitudes affect their buying decision?
  • Who influences their purchasing decisions?

These are just a few of the questions you’ll need to be able to answer to really understand your customers. 

Marketing isn’t about meeting a need – that’s selling, and there’s nothing wrong with that either.  But marketing is about creating a need – creating demand. 

Even better, marketing is about anticipating the need.  That’s what Steven Jobs did with the iPhone.  We didn’t know we couldn’t live without that beautiful, sleek screen and those colorful icons.  Jobs anticipated that we wouldn’t be able to live without them once we’d seen them.

Spend a little time analyzing your most likely customers.  Then ask yourself these three questions:   

1)      What can you learn about your customers that will enable you to anticipate what your customers will want or need?

2)      What three small changes can you make that will create more of a demand for what you have so you don’t have to work so hard at selling?

3)      What one or two big changes can you make to anticipate or create the need or demand?

Nukky Thompson also treated his customers very well, which is part of marketing as well.  For those of you who watch the show, I’m not recommending his customer appreciation methods!  For those of you who don’t, I’ll just leave that to your imaginations.

You’ll have to call or email me to let me know what changes you make to create wild demand for what you are marketing. 

But please don’t disturb me on Sunday nights, because I’ll be watching the latest episode of Boardwalk Empire!

 

Wisdom From A Friend…Tell Me What You Need

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Some lessons are so simple, so obvious, yet so overlooked.  I learned one of those lessons from a friend of mine last week. 

We both volunteer with a program that educates women entrepreneurs in developing countries.  We love that work! 

As we talked about what we can do to provide really meaningful help, she said, “I’m glad that so many people are offering education and mentoring.  But sometimes they forget to ask the women they want to help, ‘What do you really need?  What would be most helpful to YOU?'”

Well then.  She’s right.  We’re smart.  We have lots of ideas.

We think we know what’s best for others. 

And we forget to ask what others really need.

So…because I offer online courses, training and keynotes for women entrepreneurs (and because I want to be as smart as my friend!), I’m asking YOU:

What do you really need?  What would be most helpful to you?

Think about the challenges you face as we come into the last half of 2013.  What could you learn that would be the most helpful for you?

Just scroll back up to the top and post a reply…I can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

Oh, and the more women you share this with, the more I will learn about what women need.  Thanks!