These days, almost every week a new social media enters the market and becomes popular to solve all your marketing needs, and along with it, many consultants appear to tell you why you need these media. Rick Hart, from MacLaren McCann advertising consulting agency, has presented approaches on this issue and many other related issues in an interview.
Hart is a veteran with 20 years of experience in marketing and advertising. In this interview, Hart helps us navigate a complex marketing landscape.
What should any business do before spending money on marketing?
To find out what made it different. Despite the explanation you give to others about your business and the tools you use, you yourself need to know what makes you stand out; This is the first step. We usually advise clients who seek our advice to think about intangibles that they can use to differentiate themselves. A good example that I can provide in this regard is the First Calgary financial institution, which is considered the largest member of the credit union of the city of Calgary, Canada. We helped them find a place to replace the banking activity of this city. Calgary has a more traditional market than Vancouver and its credit unions are not as well known, but everyone welcomes the fact that there is an alternative to the big banks. So we used this space and helped FirstCalgary Institute in product production, naming, advertising campaigns, brand recognition and everything from start to finish and we did these things by differentiating the position of this institute.
Is there anything else a business owner should do before starting marketing?
Another issue that every entrepreneur should pay attention to is: What is the first impression you want others to have of your company in the market space? What is your identity? Is this identity consistent with the company’s activities? Is it consistent with the image you prefer customers have of you?
These days, a new internet marketing channel appears almost every week: Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Pinterest, MySpace, Etsy, etc. How do you filter out strategies that can generate reliable ROI from these trends? The best thing I can say about this is this: Never bet when you can’t afford to lose, but you should definitely try, whether you’re a small business owner or a big one.
If we want to consider the return on investment, I think it is still too early to judge these new media. There are more tools to help you determine that ROI, but many people still shy away from setting consistent metrics unless you’re selling something directly on Facebook or similar.
People need to work with new media to learn new things, create new communities, and so on. But what about when it comes to ROI? Here it becomes difficult. In order to distinguish the useful social bases from the useless ones, we try to conduct the experiment on a smaller scale. To that end, we’ve encouraged brands to compete on Facebook and created apps that people can use to do different things. But again, the goal is to stay up-to-date with these mediums to ensure we use them and learn new things from them.
Of course, we should not put all our hope in these media. Who knows how people will look at social media in five years? It doesn’t sound very nice now, but I remember a company that spent its entire marketing budget on a 3D technology, and that technology soon gave way to the next technology. This is a very big mistake. You can bet, but if you bet and you can’t afford to lose, you’ll end up in situations like this.
• Do you have examples of tangible gains your clients have made through social media?
We have been able to prove that the number of “likes” and fans of a page on Facebook has increased, but the tricky part is proving whether this move has resulted in increased revenue or not. I think people are paying more attention to this these days. Just like 5 or 10 years ago, most of the business conversation was about internet advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Now, the conversation about these issues is well established.
• There have never been more channels through which to advertise; How do you choose these channels for your customers and what is the process like?
Most advertising agencies say they try to be skeptical of their approach so it starts with the audience. That is, who do we intend to access and what do we know about them.
When you get into social media, you’ve reached a point where you have to do a lot of exploring. When we are active in social media, our assessment should be more qualitative and more slow and exploratory. We try to understand what people
Internet habits, what kind of concepts are more interesting to them, what they care about and where they search for these interests.
It is almost like a pyramid. We ask: What is the purpose of business? What kind of concept do we have? And what is the best basis for that concept? For example, if you have a car company, you need to cover all kinds of concepts: video images of products that have been tested, large and attractive photos of new products, buyers who are interested in your work process, etc. Now imagine that print ads are more important for another company or you want to use YouTube channel, then you should focus on the best aspect of your work. This applies to small businesses as well. What do you want to achieve? What content do you have and what is the best website where you can provide this content? I think anyone can use this approach.
What do you think is the biggest marketing mistake businesses make?
Moving forward without having a strategy; Starting out without knowing where they want to go. Some studies show that society has become more reactive and focused on the short term. Because we have such a short-term view these days, we rush to get something faster without really defining what we want. Is such a path correct? And if it is the right path, how are we supposed to determine it? When it comes to smaller businesses, there’s a tendency to know what the business is trying to say, but we don’t want to know what customers really want to hear. This is somewhat of a dichotomy. A business may know what its purpose is and want to convey it to the customer.
In the car business after the recent economic crisis, the most important factor in buying a new car was its resale value. But when the economy is good, who cares about resale value? In this situation, people say: “Quality and efficiency are still important to me.” So not only do we need to know what the customer wants to hear, but also how their preferences change over time.
What are the main components of a marketing strategy?
You should simplify it as much as possible. To create a strategy, just ask: Who? what? When? Where? and why Most companies know what they are doing. Most of them know how to do it. But how many of them know why they do it? Good companies are those that have thought about and defined the “why” of their work. Companies like Apple and Starbucks are among this group.
• Is there a market strategy that has been overlooked?
When you think about high-level marketing strategy, there aren’t many different models. Have you chosen a lower price strategy? Do you prefer to prioritize good customer relations? If you look at the list that traditional marketing consultants offer, perhaps the most overlooked option is innovation.
In each listing, there may be only one item that follows the strategy of offering a lower price; Like Walmart. In the case of a good customer relationship—that is, knowing the customer well—there are many companies that use this strategy, but less on the innovation list. Because of this, there is opportunity on this list. As a customer, when you come across a different product or service, that product will stick in your mind.
For example, M&A has trucks that collect oil used by Jiffy Lube oil service stores and turn it into refined oil after refining. The company also collects filters and coolant from various sources such as car dealerships, oil changes, and the like and turns them into a usable product. This type of innovation in many industries is an empty space that is less noticed.
• As a result of this conversation, I can say that your job is to tell the story of your experiences. Is this the nature of marketing? Telling your story?
The slogan of the McLaren advertising company since the beginning of the new century has been: “The good definition of truth.” This slogan is much more applicable today than 100 years ago; That is to determine what is the truth of the consumer (that is, what the consumer is looking for) and what is the truth of the brand (that is, what we offer). Then you need to figure out how we’re going to take that truth and turn it into something that’s easy for people to understand and memorable.
Is there a specific marketing activity that today’s businesses can use to attract more customers?
For small businesses that need more activity and don’t have enough budget, my suggestion is to focus on Twitter. There are so many activities that can be done through Twitter that can easily draw a large crowd to a specific physical location. The question is, how should we drive people to stores? I know some amphibious aircraft companies use Twitter very effectively.
For example, if these planes want to fly to Bowen Island and have an empty seat, they will announce a very low price of $30 on Twitter. This is better than flying empty. I think Twitter is the easiest possible place for many businesses to advertise because of its accessibility.
A very exciting time for anyone
Small business has arrived. Not only do you have all the new social media tools to connect with your customers, but there are also analytical tools like Google Analytics that you can use for free. Therefore, there is a possibility of marketing and measuring analysis at a very low price.
Your company does not need to be among the Fortune 500 companies to use these tools. In fact, in this case, large companies have no advantage over smaller companies.
Translator: Maryam Rezaei
Source: MakeitBusiness
