Don’t Just Say It, Explain It: Education is Key to Marketing Success

We all have someone in our lives who talks a lot without really saying anything. It may be your poodle-obsessed mother-in-law, the neighbor who loves to yap endlessly about fertilizer, or the co-worker who drops by your desk several times a day just to say “hi.”

An attack by one of these Chatty Cathys can leave you distracted, exhausted, and annoyed.

Unfortunately, customers can view companies in exactly the same light. Many businesses have a lot to say to their customers, but they don’t take the time to consider whether the message they’re relaying is one their clients need to hear. In a world of nonstop marketing ploys, what your customers really want is some insight.

Making Assumptions

There’s a big difference between marketing to your customers and educating them. A lot of companies believe they’re educating their consumers because they’re elaborating upon the features, advantages, and benefits of their products. What’s relevant to consumers, however, isn’t what the company values about its own product, but what the product can do to solve a problem for them. By using its marketing to do a lot of self-analysis, a business shortchanges its customers by only providing them with the information it deems important.

Customers, of course, see through this. When businesses blindly assume that their prospects already have the information they need and are simply making a choice between brands, they shift from a learning-focused mindset to a competitive one. Smart consumers opt to buy from the company that’s educated them on the issue and presented them with multiple solutions. That company’s selflessness has built trust — and its ability to teach the consumer has bought their loyalty in the future.

The Silent Giant Killer

What a brand doesn’t say is just as important as what it does say. The business graveyard is littered with companies that failed because they forgot that their prospects had to believe they needed the product before they’d ever buy it. They simply forgot to educate their customers.

Even big business has hurt itself with its silence. Take Google Plus.  It was launched as part of Google’s effort to enter the social realm. The behemoth search engine hoped to loosen Facebook’s vice grip on social media, but it went about it the wrong way. Their announcement of Google Plus implied that Google was inventing the concept of social sharing, as if Facebook didn’t already exist. This was confusing to consumers — did Google think they hadn’t heard of Facebook? Worse, it failed to address the real selling point: A company can’t demonstrate how its product will solve customers’ problems more easily if it’s implying that an already-established solution doesn’t exist.

TiVo, another technological juggernaut, failed to reach its full sales potential by forgetting to teach its own industry customers. TiVo was a godsend to TV viewers who wanted to skip ahead and avoid watching commercials. That same functionality, however, scared TV executives into thinking the TV commercial was an endangered species. The company was left to fight a court battle against providers whose technology did not allow viewers to fast-forward.

Leading by Teaching

Other companies have made their mark by teaching their target audience what it needed to know. Apple’s iPad, for example, was immediately successful upon its release. It wasn’t because the market had been clamoring for tablet technology — instead, Apple triumphed because it had invested a decade into educating its customer base. By introducing its features and ideas one by one, the company enabled its customers to not only understand the iPad, but to see a need for it.

When you’re marketing to people, you’re trying to sell them on your products. When you’re educating people, you’re helping them understand the benefit of your solution. Consumers can find information anywhere these days, but when it comes from you, the benefit is twofold: you establish a more knowledgeable customer base while you develop loyalty.

Take the time to consider whether the message you’re communicating is one your customers want to hear. Don’t just talk to talk.  Talk to teach. Your customers will walk away with knowledge and, most important, your product or service.

For more information on how your messaging impacts your bottom line, contact us today!

Quit Monkeying Around: Guerrilla Marketing Works!

The competition in the business world is fierce, and it’s hard to come by the profits you aim for. This is especially true for small businesses which don’t have huge resources to invest in marketing at their disposal. That’s why you need to get creative.

When the classic strategies aren’t delivering, you send in the guerrillas. They’re the extra-special forces – the ones that implement killer strategies to turn the tide and defeat the enemy.

Guerrilla marketing techniques involve low cost campaigns that aim at promoting products or services to a smaller demographic. But the novelty lies in the approach – they use unconventional and surprise methods to do this.

What good can it do for your business?

Enhance customer base. Guerrilla marketing aims at three things – attracting new customers, urging old customers to buy again, and making them pay money for more. But they do it in a way that surprises and delights them.

Suppose you own a café. A good strategy to attain profits will be to offer free cookies with coffee for a customer who comes in with two friends. You will earn three customers at one go, and will benefit from the deal.

Or, suppose you have a salon. To attract people, offer a free pedicure with a beauty treatment package. It will lure them in, enhance your customer base and add to the profits too. And the cost of the free item service won’t matter when you get more customers.

Create collaborations. Guerrilla marketing doesn’t always involve freebies. You can think up as many ways as you can to achieve your goals. Try to have collaboration with another business that attracts the same customers as your business does.

Suppose a florist shop is just around the corner on the same street of that of your café. Why not try to collaborate with them? Offer a discount coupon for your treats for people who buy flowers from them. And in turn, attract their customers to your café.

Competition exists. And it will always do. But if you can come up with advantageous collaborations and manage to implement your guerrilla marketing tactics to them, every participant can profit from it. Just give free reign to your creativity.

Save money! Traditional methods of marketing require a lot of money, be it a print ad or an online one. The greatest advantage of guerrilla marketing is that the methods are almost always low or even no cost. That means a serious saving.

Any business should create a Facebook page and promote products or services on it. And circulate your innovative ideas on it. It will be much easier to spread the word about your latest offer and at no additional cost.

Also, most guerrilla marketing tactic isn’t dependent on much for success. Do you really need to have huge money or resources to announce a promotion that anyone wearing pink on a particular day of the week will get a free dessert? No, you don’t!

So, where do you start? Well, do it whenever and wherever you want.

The basic idea of guerrilla marketing is to surprise the customers. And whether you dress up or ask them to dress up, whether you arrange a raffle or organize a tasting session, it won’t have too much effect on your monetary resources.

Just ask your employees to come up with marketing ideas that don’t need to spend much. Engage in brainstorming sessions. You will be surprised at the suggestions you may get. Also, take a cue from businesses that have done it with success.

Guerrilla marketing isn’t just for small businesses. Any business can use unconventional means to attract customers, new and old. If you would like to find out how guerrilla marketing can and should fit into your overall, plan contact us today!  www.stonekingconsulting.com