In just a few short weeks, parents will be unleashing the terror that is their children on the rest of the world. No neighborhood is safe from the ghouls and ghosts, patrolling the streets and demanding treats, lest ye be tricked. Here at Caledon, we’re getting into the festivities as well, compiling a list of marketing tips that are SCARY good. And while marketing can be tricky, if you do it correctly, what follows is all treat.
1) Always Segment, Never Mass-Market.
When evaluating who your market is, start by thinking about your product (note – when we say product, we always mean goods and services). Who uses it? Why do they use it? What benefits of your product are the most valuable to your largest segments? Segmenting means you’re not wasting your efforts reaching out to disinterested consumers, and it gives you the ability to craft messages (and products) that resonate with your most interested markets. What’s the best way to do this? Hint: check out tip #2!
2) Create a Buyer Persona
What’s the difference between a target audience and a buyer persona, you ask? A LOT. A target audience typically includes demographic information and limited psychographic information. It encompasses a large group of people that “might” be interested in your product or service.
For Example:
Gender: Female
Age: 25-34
Location: Chicago, IL
Occupation: Social Media Manager
A buyer persona, on the other hand, is a semi-fictional character that represents your company’s ideal customer. While a target audience encompasses a wider range of potential customers, a buyer persona focuses on just one.
For Example:
Name: Social Media Sara
Gender: Female
Age: 25-34
Location: Chicago, ILOccupation: Social Media Manager, typically working in a large agency in the city with 200+ employees in the office
Education: College Grad, she may have her Master’s Degree
Interests: Besides constantly scrolling through Facebook and Instagram, Sara enjoys finding her brunch destinations to enjoy with her coworkers, attending spin classes on the weekends, and is involved in many professional development organizations like PRSA. She is a young mom with either 1 or 2 kids, but still has an active social life.
Pain Points: She spends most of her days in meetings, working on 5 high-profile accounts for her agency. She loves the ideation process of creating social media strategies, but tires of the monotonous work of scheduling campaigns, posts and more. She believes it is tedious and boring. She is looking for a program that will automate her work, so she can focus on getting her clients the results they need.
See the difference? When we identify the person most likely to benefit from our product or service, we can discover why their product would be of use to them and use that to connect with them during the selling process. Using a buyer persona helps identify higher quality leads.
3) A Trio of Needs
Power, social affiliation and personal achievements are some of the most valuable benefits a product can possibly offer. When branding your product, consider how your product can solve these consumer needs. Burger King gives its consumers power by offering a place to “Have it Your Way.” Mountain Dew has carved out a strong niche by building a common ground for risk-taking daredevils. Ever-present at extreme sporting events, Mountain Dew offers the simple but unifying slogan: “Do the Dew.” For decades, Nike has been inspiring professional and amateur athletes by offering products that invoke their need for personal achievement: “Just Do It.” In some way or another, your product can solve one of these needs. Finding out how to harness that will lead to more sales.
4) Finding Your Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)
When marketing a product, the first question you should ask yourself “how will we win?” Your answer is your sustainable competitive advantage. What can you do better than your competitors? A basic start is considering service, innovation, and price. In practice, you will need around twenty hard-nosed facts that tell you and your market that your product has a distinct value. While this may be the most important factor in your marketing mix, in reality, very few brands have actually thought out what might set their product line(s) apart. At Caledon, we define our SCA in a few terms: our people, our culture, and our process. Many times, after an office visit, a client has decided to work with us because they see this advantage in person. For a commodity, having the product with the longest life, or the cheapest price might be key to unlocking higher sales.
One study discovered that the number one reason entrepreneurs start a business is because they were passionate creators. Passion will take you far in business, but having the right marketing mix will take you to the next level. At Caledon, we have a history of asking the right questions and discovering how to bring a product to a larger market. If you think your product is deserving of a larger market, get started today by contacting us!
