by admin | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
If you’ve realised you can’t do all your marketing and advertising in-house, take action now.
It’s quarter 4 already and your plans for 2012 should be signed off and ready to implement. Most budgeting and marketing plan development for 2012 normally happens around September. But, it’s not too late.
The key to getting your marketing sorted is being a priority to the marketing agency and advertising agency that you plan to use. Before selecting an agency, consider this…
Are you going to be a big or small client to the agency? The truth is, if you are just a small account, you might not be a priority.
Choose an agency that is of a comparable size to your business. This way you will get the service you deserve, the attention you need and the outcomes you expect. At qubePartners, a marketing consultancy and advertising agency, all in one, we work with many small to medium size businesses that need a partner in marketing and advertising. Our business is an extension of yours and functions as your marketing department.
It’s about resourcing and experience, we have both! So, don’t think that using a big agency is the answer; firstly, they will charge you like a large corporate but will put your account down the priority list, because your business is small. It just doesn’t make any sense.
When you are too small to matter to the big boys, you’ll matter at our agency and we’ll make a big difference to your marketing results.
by admin | Dec 9, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
Is your brief, too brief?
We are not talking about showing too much skin, but we are talking about improving your bottom line.
When you measure the success of your marketing project it is dependent on how well your marketing agency met your expectations. But, how do they know what you are expecting? It’s all in the brief!
Consider a dating site, you fill in the questionnaire and it doesn’t ask you some critical questions…what’s the likelihood that on your first date you’ll end up with Mr/Mrs. Right? Highly unlikely! Asking the right questions, leads to the right outcomes.
So, it makes sense that if you only tell your marketing agency half of what you really want them to do, they will never be able to fully meet your expectations. You don’t set out to withhold information from your marketing agency, but if they don’t ask all the right questions…. it’s not surprising that they won’t know your full expectations.
Take the situation of a B2B company, perhaps one with a smaller budget, chances are they have only ever completed a handful of briefs to agencies. Brief writing is hard to do and takes experience to master. At qubePartners, a marketing agency and advertising agency, all in one, we assume that our clients need guidance with completing their briefs. Our briefs are specific and detailed; they are simple, yet comprehensive and all online.
In many cases, the first step with our clients is not receiving a brief; we undertake a marketing audit or brand health check, a review of all existing communication and how effective it’s been or ineffective. Then we work on their advertising or creative brief collaboratively to reach a better return on investment.
Make sure that when using a marketing agency, they know you and your brand inside and out, and if the brief seems too brief, then it probably is!
See qubePartners resources for all briefing needs…
by admin | Oct 16, 2011 | Blog
It’s easy to feel that we are all at the mercy of market forces. They affect individual consumers and enterprises. Daily we are bombarded with statistics, most of which are useless to us as consumers and entrepreneurs. Why? Because we as individuals cannot control the market, so rather than feel helpless, I say why even worry about them?
People sell shares and companies lay off staff, all based on their perceptions of what will happen, while our governments attempt to “talk up” the economy!
This article is not about all of the empirical data that shows companies who continue marketing during a downturn, increase sales and come out with greater market share and improved brand loyalty when the good times return. No, enough has been already been written about that, although the majority of manufacturers have not heeded the advice. So, I’ll try to simplify it:
“When everybody goes one way, you should go in the opposite direction.” Words to that effect have been attributed to some pretty successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson. So why do we as a business community react so emotionally and irrationally? Because humans are emotional beings and because emotions are much more powerful than logic. If you are smart then you can use this knowledge to your advantage and connect your products or services to the emotional needs of your customers! It’s called branding!
I say ‘who cares’ to the “SAGE SME Business Sentiment Index 2011” quoted in Manufacturer’s Monthly:
- 4 in 10 feel business is performing better than in 2010.
- 1 in 10 feel it’s performing worse
- 5 in 10 feel there is no difference
How does this information help the individual enterprises? It doesn’t.
The conclusion is that manufacturers are realistic about their situation, but really who cares that rising costs and cash flow have become less important while sales and efficiency are now at the top of the priority list. I would have thought that they should always be at the top of the list.
As a marketing consultancy we ask our clients to be ‘unrealistic’. If you do what you have always done, that is be a follower of the market, then you will get what you always got!
According to “SAGE SME Business Sentiment Index 2011” twice as many manufacturers want to invest more money into sales than other types of businesses, if only they had the budget!
So what does this mean to you?
- Manufacturers tend to invest less into Marketing and Sales activities in the first place
- Not having the budget just means the manufacturer’s objective is actually not that important to them.
- Manufacturers that do invest into Marketing and Sales activities wisely will be going ‘against the market’ and should prosper.
Australian manufacturers need to start taking marketing seriously, to remain competitive and relevant. They need to become educated about marketing disciplines, at least to a level where they can effectively engage with marketing professionals. Manufacturers need to adopt an attitude that has long been adopted by smart job seekers looking for a position in a tough employment market – what matters is not the % unemployment but whether you can land that one perfect job.
So stop looking at ‘the market’, stop following others, stay positive, and develop strategies to create positive perceptions in the mind of your customers and prospects so as to find, attract and retain customers and then continuously test, increase and improve them.
Manufacture your future; whether it’s a failure or a fortune, it’s up to you!
by admin | Oct 13, 2011 | Blog, Content, Strategy
You are not reading the review about the latest marvel of German engineering as it glides through some secret track testing location in Stuttgart! I’m talking about utilising points of view to propel your business into top gear with better content strategy online and more results driven copywriting for your marketing collateral, blog, website, social media, etc.
1st Person Narrative:
The story is relayed by a narrator who is also a character within the story, so that the narrator reveals the plot by referring to this viewpoint character as “I” (or, when plural, “we”).
This point of view needs to be used very sparingly in marketing, as it takes the reader or the message recipient’s focus away from themselves and we all know that station “W.I.F.M – What’s In It For Me” is the only one that the audience listens to.
2nd Person Narrative:
Probably the rarest mode in literature (though quite common in song lyrics) is the second-person narrative mode, in which the narrator refers to one of the characters as “you”, therefore making the audience member feel as if he or she is a character within the story. Every good advertisement, PR story, blog entry, sales letter, email, etc takes us on a journey, it tells a story, no matter how short it is, it is interesting enough to engage us.
Second person narrative is the most useful and proven method of engaging with your audience and influencing them through the written word positively to: buy your product, perceive you differently, take action, vote, etc
Unfortunately most authors of SME marketing materials, do not utilise copywriting in a scientific manner and do not treat it as multiplied salesmanship!
The “we’s” on the average website outnumber the “you’s” at a ratio of at least 2 : 1, and show, in a subconscious way, that an internal focus, rather than being customer focused.
On the other hand if you look at work by customer focused marketers, you will find their copywriting utilising “you v we” ratios of closer to 3 : 1 in favour of “you”.
3rd Person Narrative:
Third-person narration provides the greatest flexibility to the author and thus is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature. In the third-person narrative mode, each and every character is referred to by the narrator as “he”, “she”, “it”, or “they”, but never as “I” or “we” (first-person), or “you” (second-person). In third-person narrative, it is necessary that the narrator be merely an unspecified entity or uninvolved person that conveys the story, but not a character of any kind within the story being told.
This is the preferred point of view of the bigger ‘corporate’ organisations. Unfortunately, in many cases, the customer or prospect walks away from the experience with this big brand feeling as if they are a “number and not a member!”
Third person is however useful when you need to:
– convey a more authoritative tone
– sound more objective than first or second person writing.
Although third person is the language we’re used to reading in our daily media, third person writing is also more distant, which is a disadvantage if you want to engage your reader.
Reminder:
As we all know, marketing success comes from adopting a customer centric point of view; what we all sometimes forget is that it is important to communicate this point of view, after all if you don’t illustrate this to your customers, they simply won’t know. Perception is Reality.
Are you connecting with your customers? Call the Marketing Network and see how we can improve the perceptions your customers and prospects have about your business.
by admin | Mar 22, 2011 | Blog, Promotion
The “pitch” – Large integrated advertising agencies (those that do everything under one roof) as well as small specialist types that focus on one or a combination of; strategy, creative, sales promotions, or media, compete for the client – usually a company that has a decent marketing budget – for arguments sake $3m+.
The competition is a call from the client to what is essentially a beauty pageant, where the contesting agencies spend hours and thousands of dollars preparing and rehearsing what they are going to say on pitch day.
You can do the same without taxing yourself or the candidates much more than what is already a stressful process of job hunting. In fact the outcome is much fairer for the applicant and more indicative of who can actually do the job!
As much as I cringe at the Donald Trump’s “Apprentice”, in every country, one thing is certain, the job interview process is extensive and based on doing and achieving, not answering template questions from the “Good Interview Guide” circa 1967.
Personally, I don’t give a flying fox about your biggest challenge; I care about how you will overcome my business challenges! And for those reading this and thinking of asking questions most consultants wish they could get a dollar for every time they hear them “have you worked on insert business of choice here, before, please refer to “Point 5: Outsourcing” of this series and remember 2 things:
- A marketer who has worked on your “type” of business will at best bring about some efficiency
- A marketer who has not worked on your type of business is more likely to examine the problem with a more “curious mind” and with some luck will break the cycle of “we’ve always done it that way” – some call it innovation.
Finally, yes this is a shameless promotion for those of us rare creatures with a decade or more of experience across many product and service categories, you are very lucky to have our services!
So how do you put it out to pitch? Simple, firstly by writing a realistic and task based job description, selecting a short list and informing them that the interview will be testing their skills in the “selected areas” and then actually testing some of those skills (that will be required) in the 60 minutes that most interviews go for!
If you want to make it really interesting get all of the shortlisted candidates into one room to sit a 40 minute test (no not the Meyer Briggs or any other personality or aptitude psycho babble test that supposedly tests creativity and lateral thinking!) and then give them each 15 minutes to prove that they can do the job. After all, pressure and deadlines are very real!
How do you formulate such a test? Some specialist recruiters may be able to help, but we certainly haven’t seen much “work” done in this area. If anyone reading this knows of such testing please inform the rest of us. In the meantime, you can just call us and for a small fee we’ll develop a test for your specific company needs. Alternatively, and only at your request, we can provide you with our “15 minute, stress lowering, gentle and non-manipulative spiel, on why you should to hire us – and that “persuasion without invasion” is delivered free of charge or obligation and is guaranteed to provide you with at least one cost saving or revenue generating idea for your business; we call it the Reality Check.
PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) partner Greg Will says the growth of consulting in a tight market made sense.
“For IT, HR, strategy operations and marketing, it’s not a full-time role that they need, so when you haven’t got a full- time role or even a significant part-time role – it might only be a day a month – it’s just not worth the administration to try to employ someone and in any case, no one would really take a job for a day a month so they need someone on an ad hoc basis and someone who can charge an hourly rate.”
“Particularly in a downturn, they can manage not only the expectation of how often or how long they’ll use them but also they don’t have this permanent employee on their books that they have to deal with if things didn’t turn out right.”
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