With existing companies
BRIDGE Marketing
is typically the 3rd program to be considered
because of this observation.
A company with LOW or NO profits at One Million
isn’t guaranteed to be profitable at Two Million.
No doubt it will be busier, but working harder
for the same take-home pay isn’t a good lifestyle choice.
Here is a good Rule of Thumb.
Having said that,
there can be times in a company’s lifecycle
when business growth is essential
to become profitable.
But, don’t forget to
build the strength of your company
as you grow the business.
Marketing is the
fastest-changing area
of business
The snail’s pace
is now supercharged change.
Not that long ago it was
Yellow Pages, Newspapers, Direct Mail, Tradeshows
and perhaps some radio and television.
Compared to what’s happening nowadays
that was fairly easy to manage.
The complexity
is also growing exponentially
There are literally
dozens of learning curves
My Business pages, Websites and the plugins,
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media,
video marketing, Google Adwords, Google Display,
remarketing, Facebook Pages and ads, Instagram,
Linkedin, dozens of other digital marketing options,
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
software plus Amazon, Etsy, and other online stores.
AND the old methods are still there.
The learning curves keep coming
faster and faster.
SERIOUSLY
How does the owner of a company
find the way through all of that and
stay on top of the business?
BRIDGE Marketing is a process
that deals with the growing complexity
and produces great marketing plans.
You can use it
and make it your competitive advantage.
Every Marketing Plan
should start with identifying
the business you want.
It seems simple enough, but
far too often the conversation drifts
to something else.
Be it the latest social media trend or
digital marketing strategy.
ID the business you want
and build a plan to go after it.
ID
is central to
BRIDGE
Marketing
After all,
you’re putting in the time & effort
and investing money to build the company
you should be clear
on who you want it to serve.
BRIDGE Marketing is both a metaphor
(for 2-way traffic between you & your prospects)
and an acronym for an
easy-to-follow process
for building powerful marketing plans.
It breaks the ever-increasing complexity of
marketing down into workable segments.
It’s a 7 step process from B to E in BRIDGE.
It.s repeated in cycles
as your company continues to sharpen the
leading-edge of competitiveness.
There are sections of this that require
specialized digital marketing skills and abilities
that you can hire, sub out, or contract META.
We’ve got the experience to get
it up and running quickly and delivering
the business you really want.
Benefits with buy-in
Also known as
the reason customers write the cheque.
(Or any other form of payment used )
Identify WHY
the customers you want
actually, place their orders.
Most companies only know a fraction of the
reasons people buy from them.
It’s important to know
WHY they buy
and
Why they buy
WHERE they buy
is also very valuable
INFORMATION.
Customers purchase for a wider
set of reasons than you expect.
This is great because it creates opportunities.
It’s now possible to effectively market to
many small segments that
are a great fit for your company
instead of buying expensive ads
which can be like trying
to hit flies with a sledgehammer.
(Pro Tip: things are changing fast and
precision targeting is where the golden opportunity is,)
When you know the full range of reasons
customers buy your products & services you
have a HUGE advantage
over your competitors.
Benefits with buy-in
are the raw material for
great marketing plans.
They are the seeds that are
ready to be planted and grow.
(Yet another metaphor)
If your company needs to improve and
add more engaging benefits with buy-in
to compete and win then
loop back to the Company Accountability Matrix
and get to work there.
Resistance
Don’t believe in objections
Think of cause and effect.
Objections are caused by resistance.
The objections you hear don’t always
match the actual resistance.
The most offensive false objection is
PRICE
Customers use that even when it’s not true
because the price objection is an easy way for them
to brush you off.
Interesting Note
Price shoppers call way more companies
than typical shoppers do.
This makes them appear to be
far greater in numbers than they actually are
and it also makes price sensitivity
appear to be more of a concern than it is.
Interesting Observation
Have you ever seen a customer
go into Starbucks and say
“match McDonald’s price and
you can have my business.”
Why do they think it’s fair game
to grind on you?
The Mother Teresa Effect
Offering lots of value while living in poverty.
It is vitally important to market towards people
who are willing to pay fairly so
you can develop a solid business model.
Sometimes lower resistance means a
different market segment.
Another important puzzle
How to get your Benefits with buy-in up
and the Resistance down.
while maintaining a solid Gross Margin.
META’s marketing consultants based in Vancouver
have solid experience working on this puzzle
and finding great solutions.
Information Exchange
This part of the process is pretty mechanical.
What do they need to know about you?
and
What do you need to know about them?
This seems simple, but
a lot of companies wind up
either not giving or not collecting
information here that is valuable
for growing the business.
Initiate Contact
This is where it gets very interesting.
When you’ve got Benefits with buy-in
you choose to advertise – its important to select
the best channel (or channels) to
use to get the message out.
Initiate Contact
As mentioned earlier there are an
amazing amount of digital marketing options
plus the traditional avenues as well.
Initiate Contact
Let’s start with strategies first
to narrow the choice of tactics down.
Hunting — Fishing — Farming
Hunting is when you can find information
about the individual prospects.
from business associations, business list brokers,
Linkedin and Google searches etcetera.
With hunting you can target the prospect directly.
Customer Relationship Management Software is a good idea.
Likely options to initial contact are telemarketing,
direct mail, email and joining the same associations.
It may take several contacts
before you get a shot at the business.
Fishing is when you throw the net
over the side of the boat into the deep dark sea.
There is skill and ability involved’
It takes the right type of net
test in the right place at the right times.
This is a metaphor for using mass media like
newspapers, radio, television, tradeshows, or
website Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Facebook
Google Adwords, Facebook Ads & a host of other options.
Skill and ability play a huge role here.
There is a remarkable lineup of learning curves
and it is often very competitive with other companies
reacting & improvising to get ‘their‘ share of the business.
Owners can use META’s BRIDGE Marketing
to manage their marketing plan
get good value for the money invested.
With farming you work your
customer database for more business.
Customer Relationship Mgmt (CRM) Software
is a very good idea here as well.
The customers’ likely next purchase
can be logged and reminders & special offers
sent during your slow times. Keep in touch.
Especially if they are likely to repeat.
A good referral program is also a solid idea.
It’s also a good idea to get testimonials.
(In the digital age these are more important than ever)
Other people similar to your existing customers
are also likely to buy the same products & services.
You can mine your customer data for
digital marketing targeting ideas.
Initiate Contact
The BRIDGE Marketing process started with
the Benefits with buy-in and now it’s time to choose
between the hunting, fishing or farming strategies.
Initiate Contact
The next step is selecting the best
tactics & channels from within the
hunting, fishing, farming strategies
and build the content and advertising pieces
that speak directly to the Benefits with buy-in.
Initiate Contact
META has a comprehensive list of
great tactics that are kept up to date with
easy-to-use how-to systems.
This far into the BRIDGE Marketing process
the reasons people buy are identified
resistance is understood & countered
the best strategy to initiate contact is chosen and
attention-grabbing pieces are being produced.
Develop your Plan
The BRIDGE Marketing template is a calendar
divided into hunting, fishing and farming
It’s time to put a timeline to your strategy
by placing your tactics into the calendar.
Develop your Plan
This gets you buying proactively instead of buying
from the next salesperson who contacts you
selling what they want you to buy.
Develop your Plan
This gives you the opportunity to
identify the business you want
and go hard after it.
You can throttle the marketing up & down
to match your company’s strength to
process the business.
Get Feedback
John Wanamaker supposedly said
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted;
the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
This is an important step in the process.
With digital marketing, you can get
better tracking, but quite regularly
you can get buried in data.
Make sure you can see the connection to sales.
Get Feedback
The most important feedback is
Return on Investment
and by investment we specifically mean
Gross Margin
divided by
Money invested in the marketing
Get Feedback
The second most important feedback is what
advertising pieces the customers responded to
and why.
In other words what’s working and what’s not.
Don’t be like John Wannamaker – find out.
The feedback you get from the buyers
are the ‘seeds’ for your next advertising pieces.
Get Feedback
Each ad or initiative is like
investing in stocks.
Get Feedback
Marketing that doesn’t work
is an expense.
Marketing that does work
is an investment.
Marketing nowadays is a team sport.
You have several people working on it.
They should all know that
your goal is to be an investor.
Experiment
We recommend that you spend 5 – 10%
of your budget on new ideas and initiatives.
Marketing is the fastest-changing area of business
and this will keep you on the leading edge.
It’s time to wrap it up
Our goal with this page is
to give you enough information to decide
if you would benefit from a
45-minute Discovery Session.
We also know that entrepreneurs who
understand our process fully before
they sign up get the greatest benefit
from participating.
Call or email for a no-charge Discovery Session
and ask any questions that you still have.
Our Greater Vancouver business consultants
are available to help you.
