SO HERE WE ARE IN 2011. Never has there been a more competitive time to be in the business of marketing. There have never been more ways of spending budgets. There has never been more pressure on budgets. Or, come to that, more theories about what you should and shouldn’t be doing. What is clear is that whilst many are waffling on about this trend and that development, some are simply getting on with doing things that get results. We are some of those people. And this is some of how we do it.
PART 5: DON'T SPEND ALL YOUR TIME & MONEY TALKING TO FANS OF YOUR BRAND
It’s very tempting in this ‘conversation age’ to spend valuable energy and marketing budget talking to fans or advocates of your brand.
After all, who doesn’t like to have a chat with people who already like you?
However, the single best way to turn users of your brand into advocates and fans is to always provide them with a product and service that continues to meet and exceed their expectations (also, include a little added value fun into the experience for them now and again).
It is important for brands to have fans and advocates.
But the best way of creating them is to get more people using your product or service.
Marketing budget is very precious, and the focus of it should be on adding value to the business.
The fact is, your biggest fans will choose you anyway.
This means that to make the most of your budget, your activity should be communicating with occasional users, lapsed users, or potential new customers.
Oh, and by the way, all of your communication should also make your current users or fans feel good about choosing your brand.
Which means making communication that’s always charming and interesting (for how to do this, see Creativity and Craft).
PART 1: CREATIVITY & CRAFT ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
PART 2: THE BEST COMMUNICATION IS STILL ABOUT PEOPLE
PART 3: FOCUS YOUR COMMUNICATION ON CHANGING BEHAVIOUR, NOT JUST CHANGING ATTITUDE.
PART 4: BE DIFFERENT IN THE CATEGORY
You have been warned before I believe about the blatant use of common sense. Yet you dive in again with both feet. That's red card. Go take an early bath and calm down.
ReplyDeleteMove along now folks, nothing to see here, just people say how it is. Move along now. Keep it moving.