“In the end you get what you deserve, the amount of effort you put in determines the amount of joy that you receive.”
~ Leon Brown
What Do You Want, Anyway?
If you don’t know what you want, then really, any outcome will do. On the other hand, when you have clear goals they will direct your activity and provide motivation.
In a marketing strategy session I held last week, Jerry, a client, expressed frustration about the quality of enquiries his existing marketing efforts were producing and his need to talk to higher quality prospects which had motivated him to schedule the session with me.
It was easy to see what his problem was and why he had it: all his marketing was being carried out by his receptionist and admin team ‘when they had time’. Mostly, that meant that it didn’t get done at all.
As we drilled down through some numbers and qualifications, it became quite clear that he knew exactly what he wanted and who he wanted to attract, but his hunt and peck strategy was not what ‘his kind of people’ were looking for.
Who Are You Trying to Attract?
Even (perhaps especially) if you are looking for customers who are attracted to novelty, adrenaline hits, and random excitement, it’s important to provide that consistently so they don’t tune out.
However, if you are offering a professional service or a trade, consistency must be the hallmark of your marketing. Jerry provides financial services to affluent clients who are highly selective and want to see professionalism at every level. His random communications and cookie-cutter articles were actually eroding his credibility not bolstering it.
As we talked about this problem, he slapped his hand to his forehead and said, “That’s what Alan meant when he said, ‘The results you deliver belie your behaviour;’ when we were talking about potential referrals.” It turned out that he had been focusing on the stellar results he delivered, but Alan was looking at it from an outsider’s view… And he realised that if you took your impression from the marketing you would never expect such quality service.
What Are You Doing to Attract Them?
Lazy marketing – which includes irregularity, stock articles, transactional interactions – may not drive your existing clients away, but it won’t attract quality ones either. Like Jerry, you may find yourself keeping clients in spite of your communications rather than because of them.
By contrast, another client in the financial services realm has been steadily expanding since they chose to invest in marketing that reflects their character. Consistency, uncompromising professionalism in content and design, personal touches, and an engaging personality has multiplied their referral rates (formerly irregular, they are now averaging 8 quality referrals per month). They’re not doing anything fancy, just consistent and full of character – clients even talk about their content and stories during meetings.
Are You Actually Getting What You Deserve?
Random Acts of Marketing (RAM) usually attract clients who value (or at least don’t mind) randomness over consistency. There are a lot of great people like this, but are they the people you really want to work with?
They certainly weren’t Jerry’s ideal clients, but they were the people who were responding to his marketing. Once he realised this connection it was clear why they always walked away when he started to talk about his prices. Neither the quality nor the consistency of his marketing communicated the value he offered and people who wanted that level of service simply didn’t believe it on the basis of his marketing.
What Does it Take to Improve Your Results?
Dan Kennedy talks about the market, media, message triangle in his Magnetic Marketing materials.
A substantial part of the message you communicate to your market is unspoken. It is carried by the:
- Quality;
- Frequency; and
- Personality;
of your communications. Sort out that problem, and you’ll find that you are spending more time talking to people who are ready to buy from you, and less time with people who are not.
