(By James Bahm) When creating advertising solutions for your clients, it’s essential to keep your clients’ customers in mind because everything in the creative must be from the target consumer’s perspective. Here are three things to keep in mind if you are to provide a solution that not only meets current expectations but will continue to surpass them as you grow revenues by keeping consumers engaged.
Consumer Spending Preference Differs With Each Purchase
While it’s true that many consumers will leverage technology to research options and increase product knowledge, most consumers are not looking for the ease of one-stop solutions because human interaction and professional experience still matter most.
In light of these facts, all businesses need to have the right mix of marketing and advertising in place to capture and maintain consumer interest – not just as early in the process as possible, but throughout the buying cycle.
The more you can research industry trends and ask if and how these trends are affecting your client’s business, the more you will open the dialogue up to collaborating on an effective strategy.
Marketing And Advertising Are Not Identical
Advertising is one of the many components of marketing. Any business must first know the consumer audience they want to reach, then they need to understand how to grow and develop that audience, while also continuing to serve them and meet their ever-changing needs and demands.
Every part of marketing, including advertising, must be conducted from the target customer’s perspective. (Are you tired of me saying that? Too bad, because I’m nowhere close to letting that statement go.) Every company solves problems and fills needs for consumers. Therefore, when it comes to working with your clientele, it is essential that you understand that all the features you have to offer are meaningless unless your target consumer audience can identify them as a benefit to help solve their problem. And they need a solution to the problem(s) they’re experiencing.
Price Is NOT The Same As Cost
Only when your customers cannot differentiate between your product/service offerings and those of your competitors will they look to price when making their final decision.
“Value is not what a company puts into their product or service. It’s what the consumer gets out of it.” – Peter Drucker
These proven guidelines will maximize your clients’ marketing efforts and also show your clients, and their customers, how much you value what matters most to them.
As you put together marketing plans – including advertising – think long-term accomplishments while also incorporating ways to achieve short-term successes – which can also lead to your clients signing long-term agreements with you.
Bottom Line: Every purchase is temporary, consumer spending is perpetual.
I’d love to hear from you:
— How are you planning on helping your clients maintain top-of-mind to keep and grow market share?
— How are you able to work with your clients/customers to continually improve their marketing message?
James Bahm is a 25-year broadcast and marketing professional and owner of the Bahm Consulting.
If it were that easy, Andy, AND if appropriate messaging was being prepared…..
Personally, I prefer the following edict: Our prospective customers/listeners are required to have a pulse – and a pay check!
If that can be demonstrated, then we might have a shot. 🙂
There’s a systematic, assumption-mitigating approach that enables the client to identify, quantify, and market to, their customers’ highest ranking hot buttons.
When you do that with your clients, it’s easier to measure results and command more dollars per contract.
James and many others speak of the “consumers’ perspective” as something that is already or can be known.
This is territory where there definitely be dragons – big, scaly, smelly and serious dragons with bad attitudes.
Assuming that the proprietors of Joe’s Schmobile Sales & Service or the AE approaching Joe has even the beginning of a rat’s-butt clue of the state of mind, perspective, ongoing personal experience or to what messaging the unknown potential customers will respond is playing a mug’s game.
At the very best, making these assumptions is akin to shooting fish in an underground drainage pipe.
Don’t know where these (only alleged) fish are. Don’t know if these fish are worthy of targeting. Don’t know when they’ll be coming through. Don’t know about the state of the school or any individuals in the group. And nobody has prepared the proper ammo.
This part of the exercise is an example of the owner and the AE agreeing to play “Let’s Pretend”.