“Keep your eye on the target and your marketing plan simple and focused”
Keep it Simple with a Marketing Triangle
Let’s face it, you are the busiest you have ever been. You are trying to keep up with all your learning, staying active in the community, marketing and implementing (or keeping up with) technology, and of course making money! There is a lot of “noise” out there and it is easy to get distracted and thrown off course from your main goal of building your business and adding clients.
It is time to simplify things and when it comes to your marketing, it doesn’t have to be difficult. You have heard me say before that marketing is simply telling people what you are doing in your business. It’s that simple. But the problems happen when we get stretched too thin and get off course from our strategic approach or message. We get involved in too many different “shiny sparkly objects” or marketing programs, and become exhausted. We wind up doing nothing!
Here is a simple principle I learned that will help you get your marketing in line, it is called the marketing triangle and it is an easy to remember strategy for building your marketing plan – Market – Message – Media.
MARKET: you need to choose a target market. Wean out the wrong people to get to the right people.
• Is it large enough?
• Is it easy to reach?
• Do they have money to spend?
• Do you have a natural affinity with it?
• Do they need your product or service
• Do you know their pain and how to solve it?
MESSAGE: you need to speak to your market in THEIR language, in a way that they will respond. Talk like they do, get on their level so to speak. RELATE to them. You would need to market differently to a group of senior citizens as opposed to a group of seniors graduating from high school, wouldn’t you?
• Be bold in your message
• Be clear in your information
• Be consistent
• Tell your compelling story with passion
• Be authentic, let your message reflect who YOU are
MEDIA: Don’t limit yourself to online only – there are thousands of possibilities here!
• Diversify your marketing
• The Internet is a media all it’s own
• Consider speaking and hosting workshops
• Direct mail
• What is the best way to reach my target, my list, my prospect?
• How does my target customer preferred to be contacted?
• Create online or print white paper on your industry/market
• Create online or print newsletter to your SOI
• PUSH your content to the social networks in a systemized program
• Consider a blog to share your message and educational posts
BE CREATIVE – DO YOUR RESEARCH
What would catch your attention? How would you pay attention?
MARKET – MESSAGE – MEDIA
To be successful in your business you need to have your target market, your message and your media all line up:
• Pick a plan and stick to it
• Choose a marketing method that is tried and proven that will leverage your content on the web
• Work your plan
• Get rid of fear you might miss out on something and stay focused on the plan you choose – STOP BUYING marketing programs and WORK the method you have!
• Use my TIME-IMAGINATION-BUDGET practice to guide you in building your plan
Times may change but marketing 101 does not change. “Master the marketing basics and your business will grow”. Just like any world-class musician or athlete – they practice, practice, practice AND PRACTICE to bring perfection to their craft. Mastering your marketing through repetition of a proven, strategic plan, will bring you success.
There is a great zen proverb that says it all: “Point your face in the right direction and walk forward”. Simple.
Sandy Hibbard is CEO and Creative Director for Lyric Marketing & Design and offers a unique perspective on digital and content marketing from 20+ years of corporate and private business communications. Sandy serves Lyric’s clients with a passion for results through focused content marketing – she believes that a compelling story is what must come first in great marketing. Sandy writes for Lyric Marketing’s blog and Lyric’s Marketing Tips, other blogs she writes are:
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