Are you the kind of person who would walk up to a stranger and ask them for $100?
When marketing your business you are ultimately asking them to do business with you. You are virtually approaching strangers and asking them for their money.
With this in mind, you cannot assume that because people see an advertisement for your business that they are going to part with their money and give it to you.
Let’s take a walk along the journey that a potential customer might take with your marketing to get to a purchase decision.
The first time they see your advertisement, they don’t give a thought. By the third or fourth time they might automatically recognise or register the advertisement in their brain. It still might take a few more times before they actually pay attention to the ad.
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At this point they are not going to give you their money just because they have seen your business in an advertisement.
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Don’t give up yet though. This is just the beginning of their journey towards being your customer.
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Remember, people must either switch brands or purchase something for the first time if they are to do business with you. They are also required to commit time, money, effort and consideration to do so.
Except in rare circumstances, it takes multiple marketing tactics to convince people that your business is worth parting with their money for.
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OK, back to the journey. As a result of some effective public relations, you are written about in a magazine, adding credibility through another person’s opinion and reminding people about what you do.At this point they now have some awareness of your business and might even trust or show interest in it.
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This is not always enough to cause someone to do business with you. It could take a recommendation from a friend (as a result of referral marketing), a special offer in the mail, a blog, another advertisement and a fantastic buyer experience to have them do business with you.
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They key is to get to know your ideal customers and work out how to best reach them in many different ways.
How? I’ll show you how to do this on Wednesday in Part Two of this post.
Very true points Phoebe! I’ve found this to be spot on when working with clients on their direct mail marketing / letterbox drops.
In fact, I recently made a blog post covering similar points, but with more of a focus on direct mail. If your readers are interested, you can find it here http://www.emroy.com.au/how-to-achieve-higher-response-rates-with-your-direct-mail-marketing
– Jake @ Emroy Print