Are your marketing initiatives falling apart? Are you “building it” – but no one comes? It could be that your marketing is missing its foundation.
It is said that a house built on shifting sand cannot stand, and the same is said of marketing and business in general. I would hope that when you built your business, you invested some time into market research.
You knew who your competitors were, you clarified who you were going to sell your product or service to, how much they were willing to pay, and so much more. Of course, you did, that is the foundation on which you built your business.
A marketing initiative like a product launch or the addition of a new revenue stream is really a micro new business and needs to be researched before it is set free.
I was chatting with someone yesterday, trying to help them figure out why their last product launch was not as successful as their previous one. They felt they had a good copy on their autoresponders, clear calls to action, they were sent out in a timely fashion, they did a good pre-call… Why didn’t buyers flock to them? Was the marketing copy wrong? Was the price point too high or too low? Was it released at the wrong time of the year? What was the problem!?!
I asked the obvious question, “Well, who were you marketing to?”, and their answer was simply “their list”.
It makes perfect sense right, their list was built from opt-ins, so of course, they would be interested in whatever product these people put out. But wait – who was on the list?
When I take a client through the branding exercise, I help them find out EVERYTHING about their target. Their needs, wants, desires, circumstances, pains, goals… All of these pieces of information are essential to choosing the right language to communicate to their potential customers.
But, when you simply ‘build a list’ – all you really know is that they wanted your free offer. You assume that the people on your list are all your target audience – but do you know? Did you ask? Did you do any research? Do they want this new product? Is the price point right? You cannot answer these questions because you did not qualify these people at all.
Research is ALWAYS the first step in any successful marketing initiative and is always the step most people skip.
Ok, so I have identified the problem – next post we will start fixing it!
