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Nutritionalmarketing.com Weekly Newsletter Update
- Marketing Ideas, Information and Tips Nutritional Retailers Want
and Need!!
Volume 4, Issue #8 - February 20, 2003
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In this issue:
When do you know if it’s working?
Use your best stuff
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When do you know
if it’s working?
I was recently asked
a question about marketing that is more important today than ever. "When
do you know if it’s working?" In other words, how do you know if your
marketing is effective and generating the desired results? This is
a wonderful question! During tough economic times, it’s harder than
ever to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
When the economy
is strong and business is good, it’s much easier to see the cause-and-effect
relationship of marketing. You run an ad and the phone rings. You
send a mailer and guess what, the phone rings! You’re interviewed on
the radio and everyone you meet for a week says they heard you and thought
you were great.
That’s the way cause
and effect works during good times but you can’t expect that during
challenging times. Today, you could send the mailer that was a proven
winner in the past and not get a single call. Does that mean the mailer
is no longer effective? Don’t jump to the conclusion that the answer
is yes and that you need to develop a new mailer or maybe even stop
doing direct mail altogether.
Times like these
test our marketing faith. When you don’t get amazing results, it takes
faith to hang in there and continue doing what you know is the best
thing for growing your business and helping more people. Believe me,
it tests all of us. I have days when I wonder. The good news for me
is that because of the amount of marketing I’m involved in, I can see
what’s happening in a variety of areas. For example, I can get a call
from a retailer who just did a mailer that failed miserably and moments
later get a call from a person who had their best response ever from
their marketing.
That’s a luxury
most of you don’t have, so when you think you’ve done everything right
but still don’t get any response, it’s only natural to assume your marketing
just doesn’t work.
When do you know
if your marketing is working? Some of you won’t like the answer to
this question. You will know if it worked after all the marketing activity
is over. The length of time it may take to get feedback varies and
these days it can be a long time.
For example, if
you did a marketing effort today, many people might not react because
of the blizzard that hit the east coast, the threat of war, the increased
risk of terrorism or just the slow economy! These factors could all
influence potential customers and cause them to hold back on immediately
reacting to your message. It doesn’t mean that your message didn’t
work! It may have worked very well but factors out of your direct control
are holding down the response.
It doesn’t mean
the marketing effort failed. Your perfect customers may have seen your
message and been moved by it and when the time is right for them, they
will respond. The frustrating part of this is their timing, which may
not be in sync with your timing.
The only real way
to get more measurable data is to do direct-response marketing. That
involves creating an offer or some other reason for people to bring
themselves to your attention. Direct-response marketing usually involves
a coupon, time-sensitive offer or even a giveaway. By getting your
perfect customer to call you to take advantage of your offer, you can
quantifiably track your results.
My final thought
on this subject is that most people pull the plug on effective marketing
campaigns because they didn’t see the results quickly enough. When
I first started my company, I was asked to submit marketing ideas to
a business magazine on a weekly basis. I was convinced that after one
week of appearing in this publication, I would have a line of people
wanting my services. Well, that didn’t happen. As a matter of fact,
I was in the publication almost 40 out of 52 weeks. It wasn’t until
November that I received my first call. It would have been very easy
to stop after one week, one month or even six months.
That one call generated
about 20% of my billings for the year in a 45-day period!
Good things come
from consistent, ongoing, never-wavering marketing!
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Use your best stuff
As spring training
gears up here in Arizona, I’m reminded that when a baseball team is
in an important game with a close score, an "ace reliever" is brought
in to throw a few pitches and clinch the victory.
As I think about
where many businesses are today, it looks like a very close game in
the bottom of the ninth! Now is the time to use your best marketing
ideas and efforts, your ace reliever. They won’t do you any good if
you save them for later. Now is the time to make it happen.
I know some of you
are wondering why you should use your best ideas in tough times. Shouldn’t
you roll them out when people are more likely to respond? I understand
your point of view, but that’s not the most effective way to market.
Now is when you
want to make a big splash. Pull out all the stops and use the marketing
programs that have worked well for you in the past. They offer the
highest probability of getting new customer or olds ones to purchase
more. After all, that’s what it’s all about!
Marketing’s only
mission is to help you help more people! Many people need your help
now more than ever.
As always, have
fun with marketing.
Marty
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Quote
"Creativity involves
taking what you have, where you are, and getting the most out of it."
Carl Mays
This is a good time
to leverage your creativity. Use what you know and get the most out
of it.
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Please note that
all of the marketing ideas that are mentioned in our enewsletter or
on our web site are designed to help you grow your business. As you
know one size does not fit all and some of the ideas may work better
for specific applications.
