Lesson 11: Sticky marketing campaigns

Transcription

1 Lesson 11: Sticky marketing campaigns Welcome to Lesson 11 in the Marketing for Makers e-course. Over the last several weeks, weʼve talked about a lot of the nuts and bolts of advertising. Iʼve shared strategies for identifying your ideal customer, for improving your conversion rates, for blogging and social media, and for contacting the press. And while I think itʼs important to have a thorough understanding of these marketing strategies, itʼs also not enough just to go through the motions. Youʼve got to make your marketing memorable. Youʼve go to make it stick. So in todayʼs lesson, weʼll be talking about designing a marketing campaign, and weʼll go through the principles for making that campaign sticky. So letʼs get started. Developing a marketing campaign One of the biggest myths I see when it comes to marketing your products is the idea that you can only make a big marketing push with a new line of products. But in actuality, most makers have plenty of products in their current line that are still ripe for press and promotion. Even though youʼve been looking at your products for the last year or two, there are a lot of people who have never seen them before. Which means thereʼs still plenty of opportunities to promote those products. The best way to promote a group of products is through a marketing campaign. A marketing campaign is simply a focused effort aimed at promoting a particular product or collection.

2 Every good marketing campaign starts by identifying four key elements: 1. The products 2. The objective 3. The promotion methods 4. The idea behind the campaign Iʼve created a worksheet for this lesson that helps you develop your marketing campaign, but letʼs talk about each of these elements in a little more detail. The products Sometimes it can feel overwhelming to try to promote your entire brand or line all at once. Just like we talked about in the lessons on pitching the press, it can actually be to your benefit to focus your marketing efforts on one or two products (or a very cohesive collection). Creating a marketing campaign for a collection or small group of products also makes it easier to plan your marketing throughout the year. You might spend a few months promoting one particular design, and then switch gears and repeat the process with something different. Or, you might focus on a seasonal promotion. So how do you choose which products to start building a marketing campaign around? There are a few obvious choices. The first is seasonal products. If youʼve got a line of holiday decorations, and that holiday is coming up, itʼs a smart bet to focus on marketing those products. The other obvious choice is to focus on marketing new products or a new line. But as I mentioned before, having new products is not a precursor to building a compelling marketing campaign. One of the best strategies for developing a marketing campaign is to focus on your best sellers. This may seem counter-intuitive. After all, if certain products already sell well, why should you spend more time marketing them? Because if they sell this well without focused marketing, think about how well they could sell with a more focused marketing effort. Obviously, thereʼs something about this particular product that people respond to, because they keep buying it. If you can tap into whatever that is, youʼve got the makings of a really strong marketing campaign. Use the worksheet thatʼs included with this lesson to help you choose the products youʼd like to focus on for your marketing campaign.

3 The objective Youʼll have an easier time creating a marketing campaign if you start out with a clear objective in mind. And the key here is a single objective. I think as makers we tend to get overwhelmed when it comes to marketing because we think we have to do it all. By narrowing your marketing efforts to a single objective that youʼll focus on at this moment youʼll feel much less overwhelmed and probably accomplish more than if you tried to stretch your marketing efforts across a broad range of objectives. The objective for your marketing campaign will vary, but here are some of the most common objectives: Improve your sales. This is probably the biggest reason someone undertakes a marketing campaign. But it doesnʼt have to be the only reason. To increase brand awareness. Building brand awareness may not necessarily lead to short-term sales. But it can have a big impact down the line. Gaining press coverage. You may decide to launch a marketing campaign focused solely on getting your products featured in various media. Itʼs important that you take some time to think about your objective for your marketing campaign, because having a clear objective will help you choose the appropriate promotion methods for your products. You can use the worksheet that accompanies this lesson to help you determine your main objective for your marketing campaign. The promotion methods Once youʼve chosen your products and your objective, itʼs time to think about which promotion methods are the best fit for your campaign. Itʼs unlikely that youʼll be able to manage a marketing campaign that utilizes every technique weʼve talked about in this course. Instead, youʼll focus on the ones that make the most sense for your objectives and your products. For instance, if your goal is to increase sales, you might devise a marketing plan that focuses heavily on your list, because thatʼs an area where people are often persuaded to buy. If your goal is to build brand awareness, you might focus on blogging and Facebook.

4 And obviously, if your goal is media coverage, youʼll focus on pitching the press. Use the worksheet from this lesson to help you choose the right promotion methods for your marketing campaign. The idea This is where it all comes together. A true marketing campaign is about more than just what the products are. There needs to be a bigger idea behind it. The idea behind your marketing campaign is where youʼll focus on stickiness - creating a memorable and spreadable campaign. But before we dive into the principles of creating a sticky marketing idea, letʼs start with one youʼve already developed - your tag line. For your first foray into creating a marketing campaign, the best place to start is with an idea youʼve been working with since Lesson 2. Because youʼve developed a tag line thatʼs both customer-focused and actionable, it can be a starting point for a marketing campaign. (Or lots of marketing campaigns, as in our example from Lesson 2 of the classic Nike tag line - Just Do It. ) If youʼre still having trouble picking the products you want to focus on for your campaign, starting with your tag line means you can focus on the products that best represent your brand. But itʼs likely that youʼll want to promote a product or collection for an attribute thatʼs different from your tag line. Perhaps you want to promote a product in a way thatʼs more specific than your tag line. Or perhaps youʼre promoting a holiday line. This is where youʼll want to focus on creating a sticky marketing idea. When you anchor your marketing campaign with a sticky idea, it will spread much more easily, with less effort on your part. The concept of creating sticky ideas comes from the book Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Throughout the book, the Heath brothers share lots of naturally sticky ideas - such as urban legends and proverbs. These naturally sticky ideas share the same basic principles. What makes Made to Stick such a useful resource for marketing is that not only do the Heath brothers talk about naturally sticky ideas, they actually guide you through the process of making your own ideas more sticky.

5 So letʼs take a look at how you can make the idea behind your marketing campaign sticky. Developing sticky marketing ideas In Made to Stick, the Heath brothers outline six principles that serve as a kind of checklist to help you make your ideas stickier. The six principles of stickiness are simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotion, and story. Weʼll talk about each of these principles in more detail throughout this lesson. Iʼve also provided a worksheet you can use to maximize the stickiness of your marketing campaign idea. Principle #1: Simple - The foundation for any marketing campaign idea should be simple. Not simple like dumbed down but simple as in one core idea. Your marketing campaign should focus on one core idea behind your products. Itʼs not uncommon to think about all the various attributes of your products, and try to sell your customers on every single one of them. But when you do this, itʼs unlikely that any one of these ideas will catch on. Instead, you should focus on one core idea to promote for your marketing campaign. (This doesnʼt mean that you canʼt focus on another aspect in a different campaign.) For example, letʼs say that you make purses aimed at helping busy mothers stay organized that are also eco-friendly and that you donate $1 from the sale of each purse to charity. Thatʼs a lot of ideas, and too many to make a memorable marketing campaign. Instead, you need to focus on the most important idea. A good test to figure out if your idea really is simple is to ask, If someone only remembers one thing about my product, what should it be? Once you have a core concept for your marketing campaign, all the other decisions you make should be in service to this idea. This means that you may not actually be able to hit all of the other five principles of stickiness, but the idea is to get as many as possible that support your core concept. The stronger your core concept, the easier it will be to make decisions as youʼre developing your marketing campaign. Principle #2: Unexpected - Good marketing campaigns play on the idea of surprise. Presenting people with something unexpected is what gets them to pay attention. A good place to start when trying to make your marketing campaign more unexpected is with your USP. If youʼve really discovered what makes your products unique, youʼll have an easier time developing an unexpected marketing idea.

6 Unexpected marketing ideas also tend to be the most newsworthy because they grab peopleʼs attention. As your planning your market campaign, ask yourself if the idea behind it has an element of surprise or is unexpected. If not, how can you reframe it in a different way to utilize the element of surprise? Principle #3: Concrete - Most people donʼt deal well with abstractions, and so a good way to make your marketing ideas stickier is to make them more concrete. One of the best ways to make your marketing ideas more concrete is with your product and campaign names. Now, by making your names more concrete, I donʼt mean more descriptive. In fact, descriptive names (just like descriptive tag lines) usually arenʼt very memorable. Instead, you should think of a name thatʼs catchy, interesting, and that paints a picture in the mind of your customer. A compelling, concrete name will clue customers in to the aesthetic or idea behind your product, giving them something to latch on to. Principle #4: Credible - Credible marketing campaigns are believable. They come from a credible source. No one is more of an authority on your business than you are, so make sure your marketing campaigns feel like they come from you and not from a giant marketing department. The other way to add a touch of credibility to your marketing is to get previous customers involved. Testimonials and fan photos are a great way to add social proof and credibility to your marketing campaigns. Principle #5: Emotional - The best marketing campaigns donʼt try to sell on features or benefits - they sell on emotion. Most buying decisions, even the seemingly rational ones, are actually made with our emotions. When it comes to creating your marketing campaigns, you should appeal to the emotions of your buyers. Trying to appeal to the rational or logical side of your buyer will only fall flat. The key when trying to appeal to your customersʼ emotional side is to keep in mind that there are plenty of emotions to choose from. Donʼt just stick to the basic emotions like happiness, sadness, or fear. (Though fear can be a pretty powerful sales motivator.) Emotions can tap into the need for your customers to feel cool, to belong, to be more confident, to relax. On the worksheet, Iʼve created a list of emotions. Which ones can be used to sell your products? Principle #6: Stories - Story is one of the key elements when it comes to building your marketing campaign because stories are the way people transmit information.

7 Building your marketing ideas into stories help make them more memorable and more spreadable. The best way to incorporate story into your marketing is to look for stories that your customers are already telling. Poll your existing customers to find out just how theyʼre using your products. Did your necklace give them confidence for that big presentation? Did your wedding invitations make their big day more special? Get them to tell and share their stories about your products, and your marketing efforts will be much easier. Even if you canʼt get your customers to tell stories, you can still generate stories about your products and they way they fit into your ideal customerʼs life. As you think about the main idea that drives your marketing campaign, you should be constantly refining it to make it more sticky. While you may not hit on all the principles of stickiness every time, incorporating even one or two will make your job as a marketer that much easier. So that about wraps things up for this lesson. Your homework for this week is to start developing your first marketing campaign. Use the worksheets to help you determine the best products to promote, your objectives for the campaign, your promotion methods, and the idea behind the campaign. As always, you can head over to the forums to ask questions or get feedback on anything youʼre working on. Iʼll see you back here for Lesson 12, where weʼll talk about creating your marketing plan and tracking your progress.