2min
It amazes me how many "businesses consultants" get it wrong themselves when it comes to their own execution of marketing consultant services. Size isn’t everything in this area, as I've seen everything from global brands to local business support services make the same basic errors.
There is of course a lot to think about when it comes to marketing, from the channels you need to use to the creative treatment. And maybe we’ll get onto some of that in the future, but for now, here are three things you absolutely need to get right, or risk failure…
Marketing Consultant Services Epic Fail 1 - No Bulls eye
When marketing consultant services you should speak to one person. OK, one market if you must go for scale, but under no account should you aim to talk to more than one segment per campaign. I have lost count of the times I've heard the client (or agency) answer ‘Everyone’ or even worse, ‘Adults 15 plus’ in radio language, in answer to the question, ‘who are you trying to talk to?’
Recipe for disaster. How hard is it to talk to two of three people at a party? Or how confused do you get when your boss is asking you for something, and wants it right now, while you’re talking to a client on the phone?
Your marketing is the same confusing mess of noise if it tries to capture too many targets at once. If you are aiming at small toy retail business, aim for small toy retail businesses. Don’t aim for small businesses in general, because they all have different needs, pain points and buying search behaviour . Geddit? Good..
Marketing Consultant Services Epic Fail 2 - You didn't ask them to take an action
‘I didn’t get a response’ says the client.
‘What did you ask people to do?’ says I.
‘What do you mean?’ responds the client…
Always ask the receiver of the marketing message to ‘do’ something. Call, or visit your website or buy now, and pay later – whatever, make sure there is a call to action.
The only time you can get away with less explicit requests is when you are brand or awareness marketing. The idea here is to make sure people are aware of your offering, or understand your specific position in the market. But even then you can think in terms of asking people to be aware of you, or asking them to think of you in a certain way.
Marketing Consultant Services Epic Fail 3 - No compelling reason to respond
I’m not sure which of these three points are the biggest sin. But for sure, I see this one A LOT! And as the great copywriter Mike Bersin once told me (Once!? Who am I kidding!) lots of small reasons don’t make one big one.
Why should people respond to your campaign if you don’t give them a good reason to? Why should they rush to your websites, or to visit you, or pick up the phone to talk to you unless there is an absolutely compelling reason for them to do it?
And if you don’t think you have one you’re not alone. Many of the people I’ve worked with have struggled to come up with one big reason, luckily there is a lesson to be learned from big brands.
Big brands know they need to ‘own’ certain attributes in their customers mind's eye. What brands fit these attributes?
Cool…
Sexy…
Reliable…
Timeless…
Fun…
Healthy…
And so on.
So when you're planning to marketing consultant services, if you’re not better, faster, cheaper, more reliable, more trustworthy or whatever, or its difficult to demonstrate that you are any of those things, then it's time to think of ways to inhabit one of those attributes and communicate that attribute to your customers.
But make it one really important attribute to one customer, and tell them why it's important!
What do you guys think? Anything I’ve missed? Or anything you would have put in place of numbers 1,2 or 3? As ever, please leave a comment below.
