Marketing | Psychological Marketing Insights

the ‘Marketing’ Category

Target Locked & Acquired

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Do you know who your target market is? If so, what are you doing to acquire them?

It does no good to know that your target is a male executive in his 40s that enjoys playing golf, eating expensive steak dinners, and traveling if you are spending all of your time and energy putting ads in the local Val-Pak. That’s not to say that Val-Pak can’t be a valuable marketing tool…but not for the specific target we mentioned above.

Why? Most male executives in their 40s are not perusing Val-Pak for coupons on their steak dinners.

So what would be a better alternative? Well, honestly it depends on your product or service. If it is business related then perhaps a good medium to use would be publications that target c-level executives such as CFO magazine. If is it not business related then perhaps a more upscale mailing that targets the top 1000 homes in a zip code. Or perhaps you should rent your own list (infousa.com or referenceusa.com) of those who subscribe to both CFO magazine and Golf Digest and mail a postcard or letter to them.

The key here, as always, is creating a match between your message, your market, and your media. All 3 hinge on each other and if one is off, you will not land your sale. As my brilliant husband likes to say, “It doesn’t matter how good your message and your media are, you can’t sell a BMW to a 3 year old!”

Happy Marketing!

Sarah

Tags: market, marketing to executives, media, message, target market
Posted in Marketing | 1393No Comments »Target+Locked+%26+Acquired2010-06-08+18%3A57%3A04Sarah

Challenging your beliefs…

Monday, May 17th, 2010

I work with a lot of different businesses and always provide different ideas on ways for them to improve their businesses. The interesting thing is how many times people say, “that won’t work for my business.” When I probe further as to why the person believes this it normally comes down to a bad experience someone had one time in trying my strategy.

In other words if I recommend implementing direct mail he or she will say that he or she tried that and it didn’t work. When I get more information on the situation it generally comes down to this situation, ”We sent out 50 postcards and got no response.” If only it was that easy.

Think of that strategy in other things in life.

I did 50 pushups and didn’t get in shape.
I ran for 50 minutes and didn’t get in shape.
etc. etc. etc.

This is where context comes into play. Every marketing strategy, technique, and tactic needs to be analyzed in its own situation.

There are some general rules that can be applied, but the techniques and tactics for the strategies often change and the success rests on a very little point that can influence the success greatly.

What biases or beliefs do you have in your business? We all have them. Make a list. Sometimes these relate to the price you can charge, the service you can provide, the requirements for doing business with you, the access that a client has to you, the terms of business, and more and more and more.

Matt

Tags: business improvement, direct mail
Posted in Marketing | 1371No Comments »Challenging+your+beliefs...2010-05-17+15%3A56%3A24Matt

What is “confirmation bias” and why is it important to you?

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

“Confirmation bias” is the tendency to ignore evidence that disagrees with our currently held belief, and to notice evidence that reinforces our belief. That is the rough definition of it. You can read a lot more about it by doing a simple Google search, or you can get more info at Wikipedia.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, for several reasons. First, it is incredibly easy to fall into this trap ourselves. And this can be dangerous because we might miss reality and therefore hurt our businesses and/or our lives.

Second, you need to understand this because your customers, clients, friends, prospects, and well—just about the whole world will fall victim to it. If you bring up an idea that is contradictory to their previous experience they will, at times, discount it without giving it a proper thought or acknowledgment.

Another thing you’ll hear people say is, “we tried that and it didn’t work.” I’ll address that mistake later, which is closely related to “small sample size.”

Anyway, I highly recommend you study and learn about confirmation bias. It really is fascinating and a good conversation starter.

Tags: confirmation bias
Posted in Psychological | 1232No Comments »2010-03-29+16%3A18%3A27Matt

Setting Yourself Apart

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

I just saw a new Burger King commercial that piqued my interest. Now, often times you will notice that companies such as McDonald’s and Burger King or Coke and Pepsi compete on how their products taste. You will hear them quote the most recent survey saying that 9 out of 10 consumers preferred the taste of their product over their competitors. Or you will hear them compete on price and try to win out in the price war (which by the way no one ever really wins).

Well, as a consumer it doesn’t take long to catch on that both of them are making the exact same claims and that oddly enough most of their survey data sounds the same as well. So after years of competing on taste Burger King came up with a clever turn.

They are competing on size.

Now, don’t get me wrong, they are not the first to think of this. Hardee’s has done this on many occasions. What I found clever was the way they did it. They had 2 guys trying to figure out where to go for lunch. One suggests Burger King and the other balks at the idea and suggests McDonald’s instead claiming, “I have these tiny hands.” The implication of manliness being tied to the size of the burger one eats is quite obvious.

Now, the key thing here is what Burger King did, knowing that in reality that the competition on taste is old and most consumers are tired of the claims. Burger King created a new category.

Now, I’m sure most of us don’t have the marketing budget of Burger King or McDonald’s so how does this translate into our businesses? There are “stale mate” competitions in most industries. So, one can either keep attempting to win out in an endless p***ing contest, or one can create an entirely new category to compete in and blow the competition away.

Tags: Burger King, commercials, competition, consumers, McDonald's, survey
Posted in Marketing | 1208No Comments »Setting+Yourself+Apart2010-03-21+22%3A52%3A46Sarah

Who?

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Matt and I have spoken before about the 3 “M’s” of marketing.

Message
Market
Media (delivery method)

As I have mentioned before, you must have each area, much like a 3 legged stool, or else your marketing won’t stand up. So, in other words your marketing needs to say the right thing, to the right person, in the right way.

Today, I would like to delve into the market a bit more as I have had several questions about how to craft an effective message to the right person. So, in honor of the great band about to play the Superbowl half time show, let’s delve into “The Who” of your marketing.

Now, there are a lot of things that go into the make up of your customer database. I can hear some of you out there right now saying, “Sarah, everyone is my potential customer.” To those people I say to read my puddle jumping blog post and then come back. To everyone else that understands the need for marketing to a niche, let’s start by looking at your average customer.

Your average customer is the type of person that has bought from you most. Every business has this in some way shape or form, you just have to look at the commonalities. Maybe all of your customers tend to play golf. Or maybe they all are females. There is something out there that will make your customers into a group and show you more of their mindset. To help clients with this I take them through an exercise called, “Who Are You?”

In this exercise we ask questions about our customers such as:

How old are you?
What gender are you?
What education level do you have?
Are you married?
Do you have children?
Do you have pets? What type of pets and how many?
Do you own your own home?
What income level are you?
What career are you in?
What type of car do you drive?
What is your favorite kind of restaurant?
What are your hobbies?
What side of town do you live on?

This may seem like overkill to some of you, but let’s think through this. Would you rather attempt to craft a marketing message to simply females, or would you like to craft a message to:

a 31 year old female
who is married
with 2 young children
has a golden retriever named Lilly
owns her own home
lives on the north side of town
graduated from IU (go Hoosiers!)
with a degree in accounting
makes greater than $40,000/year
drives a Toyota Rav4
loves eating Italian
enjoys running, hiking, and reading

Do you get the point? It is much easier to write a marketing message when you have more information about the person whom you are writing to. Otherwise, you are merely shooting in the dark as you try to connect with the core beliefs and values of half the population.

For more on this topic, be looking for our audio series on the 3 “M’s” of marketing.

Happy Marketing!

Sarah

Tags: 3 M's of Marketing, customer, customer profile, market, Marketing, media, message, prospects, psychology
Posted in Psychological | 1030No Comments »Who%3F2010-01-28+16%3A15%3A12Sarah

It’s Crunch Time: Marketing for the Holidays on a Tight Budget

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

This is the time of year that I get a lot of panicked phone calls from potential clients about what should be sent out for the holidays. Usually, it is about the time that the first Christmas card hits their mailbox and they realize that they had not even begun to think about what to send out.

If you fall into this category I am here to first of all say, “Don’t panic. Take a deep breath. It will be okay.”

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about what the next step needs to be in order to assure you are touching your clients this month…without having to dip into your kid’s college fund. Here are a few key fundamentals when marketing during the holidays that will make sure you are getting the most from your money and still making a great impact.

1. Santa is checking his list…and so should you. Think back to your wedding or a friend’s wedding. One of the first things most brides do is make a list of every person they have ever come in contact with in their lives. After all, everyone will want to see just how beautiful she is that day and bring her presents, right? Well, that may be true, but usually the next thing to happen is that Daddy gets the list and almost has a heart attack when he thinks about how much it is going to cost to feed the entire nation. So Daddy tells her to cut her list down to maybe a couple hundred people.

Now apply that to your Christmas card or marketing list. We know that you want everyone to know
you are telling them Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, but that is not practical on a tight budget. I normally tell new clients to take their top 10-20% of clients, as these are the clients that they want more of and where money is best spent. Now, keep in mind, I am not saying to throw out the rest of the clients and not send them anything…but we’ll get to that later.

2. Stay within a reasonable budget. Now, I know that this should go without saying, but you would be surprised how many times I have people asking me to send out $100 gifts to $20 clients. I see this most in businesses where the technicians are the owners. (Yes, that is another E-Myth reference.)

Specifically I see this in the businesses that have a creative mind at the wheel. The creative mind says, “Wouldn’t it be neat if we could…(insert expensive idea here).” Now, the creative mind only sees that handmade calendars embossed in gold would be really cool and fun to make. They do not think about the cost of all the supplies, the cost of labor, the cost of postage, oh and wait…the extra cost of postage to ship the calendars since they took so long to make that the only way to get them there in time for Christmas is to overnight them. So, again, stay within a reasonable budget. It is quite possible to make an impact without being extravagant.

3. Use multiple media. Okay, now this is what I meant when I said that you don’t throw out your entire list after deciding on the top 10-20% of clients. Often times I suggest that your top 10-20% of clients receive some sort of direct mail, whether it is a greeting card or holiday letter. Then, send the entire list of clients an email newsletter or e-postcard so that you are at least appearing before them during the holidays. You might even include a coupon gift for your product or services for them or a friend. I have used this technique with several clients this year, even those who are not working with a tight budget. The reason is that email is practically free and it is quick with no waiting on post office delivery times. (Full disclosure: You will generally have fewer open rates with email vs. direct mail.)

4. Be early. Like I mentioned before, if you are sending any sort of packages, be sure to get them to the post office by Dec. 21st to insure that you won’t have to pay express rates to get it there in time.

I hope that this has been helpful as you plan your holiday marketing. For more great holiday marketing tips you can check out our newest free resource at: http://holidaymarketersguide.com/.

Oh, and I would love to hear from you about some of the ways you have saved money on your marketing this holiday season!

Happy Marketing!

Sarah

Tags: Christmas, holiday marketing, Holidays, Marketing, New Year's, Santa, shoestring budget, tight budget
Posted in Marketing | 913No Comments »2009-12-02+17%3A48%3A41Sarah

Here lie your dead leads. May they rest in peace.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Hold the pallbearers! Don’t close that casket just yet!

Did you know that it costs 4x as much to bury someone as it does to resurrect them? How is that you ask? After all, if you bury them they are gone and you never deal with them again, so theoretically it shouldn’t be costing you anymore. Right? Wrong!

In defense of my case I call to the stand…Opportunity Cost.

You know how your Aunt Millie always said that her secrets would die with her? Well think of your dying leads in the same way. If you simply let them die the potential money you could have earned from them will simply die with them.

Let’s look at that in real numbers. Let’s say on average you make 30 sales a month with an average ticket price of $500. That’s $15,000. Not bad.

But now let’s look at all of the leads that did not lead to a sale and were simply left to rot and die.

Let’s say that you are a decent salesperson and you converted 30% of your leads. So with 30 sales that means you would have had 100 leads total and therefore 70 unconverted leads. Now, we will be fair and say that half of those unconverted leads wouldn’t even let you in the door and would go in another category. So that leaves us with 35 unconverted leads with potential to buy in the future.

Most salespeople would simply say, “Well, I tried,” and move onto the next list of leads, leaving those 35 unconverted leads to shrivel up and die.

What they don’t see is that maybe those 35 unconverted leads couldn’t buy this month, but next month is a whole new ballgame. In which case that is $17,500 of untapped potential, not to mention any referrals or repeat business that might occur.

What if I told you that there was a simple yet effective way to keep in touch with those unconverted leads, preventing them from dying. Matt and I like to call it life support. So what’s the secret?

Resurrecting your leads can be as simple as putting them on your monthly communications such as newsletters, blogs, holiday mailers, etc. But much like CPR, the longer your leads go without “life support” the less chance of bringing them back.

Tags: burial, dead leads, life support, resurrecting
Posted in Follow-up | 8341 Comment »2009-10-31+19%3A39%3A32Sarah

My secret’s out…race against the clock

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Okay, who told? I have narrowed it down to 2 suspects. My older brother Adlai and my husband Matt were the only possible culprits…and since Adlai is currently in Uganda working on an adoption, me thinks it was my sneaky husband.

So what big secret did someone let out of the bag? Just my kryptonite, that’s all. No biggie there, right?

Okay, here’s the story. We all know that I am a self confessed competition junkie, right? It doesn’t matter what it is, cards, board games, sports, who can eat/drink the most, or whatever. If you propose a competition I am in. Well, early on in life my sweet, protective brother Adlai learned that he could get me to do whatever he wanted simply by phrasing it as such: “Sarah, can you go get me XYZ?”…pause for dramatic effect…”I’ll time you.”

Now, you may not think that phrase is all that effective, but for someone who loves competition, especially with herself, and especially competition that involves speed, well you’ve got a winning combination.

When I made the mistake of telling my wonderful loving husband Matt my weakness he laughed and laughed. And then he figured out how to use it in our business. (Leave it to Matt to figure out a way to force me to be productive.) He even went so far as to install a timer on my desktop so that I could time myself on projects. Of course, he added the part of, “Now be quick, but don’t hurry.” (Which is a good practice for all of us. When you hurry you make mistakes. When you are quick you are just fast.)

So how do I know that someone told? Well, I had just sat down for my late morning perusal of my emails when the following popped up on my screen.

Now, I love The Limited. I think they have great clothes, but have never really looked at their jewelry. So what do you think I did after receiving this email telling me that I only had 2 hours to shop? I of course dropped everything and found myself looking for a new necklace. I don’t even wear very much jewelry! Fortunately, the timer on my desktop dinged and brought me back to reality, telling me that my email time was over and it was time to move on to the next project. Otherwise who knows what kind of damage to my wallet and my schedule I could have done.

Now, in all seriousness, this was a great tactic by The Limited, not just for speed and competition junkies like myself, but for humans in general. When giving a promotion or sale it is always a good idea to give a deadline, and the shorter the deadline the better. We were all trained at an early age to adhere to time deadlines. (Can you say ISTEP? I know that I wasn’t the only one that started working ahead…) So use deadlines to add a sense of urgency to your offers, and to make it a little more fun for some of us.

Now, I have to go. I’m about to beat my personal best for time spent writing a blog.

-Sarah

Tags: competition, copywriting, deadline, offer, proposal, race against the clock, time limit
Posted in Marketing | 8121 Comment »2009-09-29+16%3A39%3A57Sarah

Niche Science: Let’s Go Puddle Jumping!

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Now, I know that makes everyone want to grab their yellow galoshes, but let’s not jump in quite so fast! First you must know that there is a strategy to making the most of your time puddle jumping.

1) You must know the area around your puddles. Look for any potential obstacles that might cause a problem and any props that could make puddle jumping even better.

2) You must know what is floating in the puddles. Let’s face it, we’ve all seen the neighbor boys taking turns throwing whatever they can get their hands on into puddles or the stray dog from around the way relieving itself in a puddle. You don’t want to be splashing through a puddle that Rover just warmed up, now do you?

3) It’s all about the distance. What do I mean? Well, some of the most experienced puddle jumpers in the world can thoroughly soak all onlookers within a 4 foot radius! Now that is some distance.

4) The deeper the puddle, the more fun! I mean seriously, would you rather jump in a piddly puddle that barely wets the tread of your sneaker or would you rather feel the water sinking up and over and into your socks?

Now what is all of this talk of puddles and what does it have to do with marketing?

Pretend each of your clients is a puddle.

1) Now, tell me about the immediate area around that “puddle.” Are there any obstacles that you can see that may hinder the relationship you have with your client? Maybe they just lost their job and they are going to have to cut back. Will you be the service they cut back on? What about props that may help you with the relationship? Maybe they just had a baby and it just so happens that you have a new product out that is perfect for new parents.

2) Now tell me what could potentially be floating in your puddle. This is all the crap…all the baggage that may make them a bad client to have. Maybe it is that they don’t pay their bills on time. Maybe it is that they can never make a deadline. Or maybe they are like Nelli from Little House on the Prairie and just plain annoying. Whatever it is, be sure to examine your puddle carefully to make sure there aren’t any floaters.

3) What kind of distance can you get from your puddle? Is this client going to be a long term relationship or a one shot wonder? We all know that it is tempting to just go for the quick sale and move on, but wouldn’t you much rather have a client that comes in for all of the accessories? I mean seriously, how many applications can one person have on their iPhone?! But isn’t that what you want from your customer? You want them to not make just one purchase, but to continue to come back to you for all of the upgrades and add-ons that you could possibly dream up, just because they are available.

4) So how deep is that puddle? This is where we get into the psychology behind your client. Why do they buy or not buy? When do they feel like buying more? What do they feel like when they buy? This in and of itself is an entire semester’s worth of courses. But this is where the gold is. If you can really truly fine tune the psyche of your client then you can design your entire business around it and go to the bank all day.

Once you’ve examined all of these areas of your puddle you are ready to go puddle jumping. But don’t forget your galoshes!

Tags: bad client, buy, client, galoshes, ideal client, long term relationship, Marketing, psyche, psychology, puddle jumping
Posted in Psychological | 783No Comments »2009-08-28+03%3A27%3A27Sarah

Self Monitoring Your Behaviour

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received in relationship management was from the mother of a boyfriend in high school. She happened to also be a teacher at the school we attended. After a brief conflict between my boyfriend and his well intentioned mother which ended in my boyfriend storming off, she looked at me with a sparkle in her eye and said, “He’ll be just fine after lunch. I learned early to feed men when they start getting crabby.”

I have now brought that brilliant piece of advice into my marriage and into my business life. However, Matt and I (being the psychological geeks that we are) have noticed that this is not just a male thing, but a human thing and that it encompasses more than just hunger. We have observed that our decisions are impacted most negatively when we are hungry, angry, hot, lonely, or tired. These are the times when we find ourselves wanting to toss in the towel or shut down.

Now granted, we have a bit of an advantage in that we are able to hold each other accountable when we notice the shift from being positive and motivated to being negative and sluggish. (Just as long as it doesn’t happen at the same time.) Often times we will allow each other to vent for a little while, but if it begins to become a “bitch-fest” we try to gently probe into one of these five areas and put some perspective on the problem.

And then of course we try to remedy the problem as quickly as possible so as to help with productivity. Maybe it is taking a 10 minute break for a snack or a quick walk around the block. Maybe a refreshed cup of Jo. But no matter what we try to keep each other from wallowing in the negative state that not only kills productivity but makes you feel like crap. (And let’s face it, when running multiple businesses, who has time to wallow?)

For example, today we were driving from one meeting to another. It was extremely hot and humid and I was mentally exhausted after a great brainstorming session. I started expressing doubts in myself and the entrepreneurial life. Matt was great and listened to me for a bit and then gently (that is the key) reminded me that this was not me talking, but rather it was me being hot and tired.

And you know what? He was right. After a quick stop for some ice cold lemonade and mental rest I was back to my normal even-keeled self.

Are there times when you notice that you struggle most? What are your triggers? What are the triggers of those around you? How can you help yourself and those around you when these moments hit?

Tags: accountability, angry, conflict management, emotions, hot, hungry, lonely, motivation, relationships, tired
Posted in Business, Follow-up | 771No Comments »Self+Monitoring+Your+Behaviour2009-07-29+03%3A26%3A40Sarah

Psychological Marketing Insights

Learn How to Dominate Your Marketplace

the ‘Marketing’ Category

Target Locked & Acquired

Challenging your beliefs…

What is “confirmation bias” and why is it important to you?

Setting Yourself Apart

Who?

It’s Crunch Time: Marketing for the Holidays on a Tight Budget

Here lie your dead leads. May they rest in peace.

Hold the pallbearers! Don’t close that casket just yet!

My secret’s out…race against the clock

Niche Science: Let’s Go Puddle Jumping!

Self Monitoring Your Behaviour

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