Customer: "I need a #Facebook page." Marketing Consultant: "Okay, but why?"

Sometimes I get these requests from customers telling me that they’re in desperate need for a #Facebook page and that they could very well be closing their business if they don’t have a Facebook page immediately!

OK, I understand! You want to be digitally present and you want your potential customers to have some tool to look you up, and you need to promote your business… etc.

But did you stop for a minute to think how this Facebook page will serve your overall marketing strategy? How does it fit in the bigger picture? What about other digital marketing tools? Which other social media platforms best suit your type of business? Do you have a website?

In today’s world when you must be up-to-date on everything happening in your industry, you need to ensure that your digital marketing plan will help you achieve your company goals. In other words, digital marketing is a component of your marketing strategy. So your Facebook page is a piece in your puzzle: your marketing strategy.

According to a study by Smart Insights, 46% of brands don’t have a defined digital marketing strategy, while 16% do have a strategy but haven’t yet integrated it into their marketing activities. So it is key to have a fully integrated marketing plan and strategy to get a real impact on your bottom line.

Need to define your marketing strategy and work on your digital marketing? Let’s talk.

Contact me at sherif@theoneconsultants.net

How do you keep your customers always connected to your company?

Imagine your customers not knowing what to expect from you or your company. Imagine if they really can’t tell the difference between your product and your competitors’ product.

What is your promise to your customers?

What idea or image do people get in their minds when thinking about your product or service?

It’s called #Branding

It is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail, B2B or B2C.

It is not just the physical features of the product that sticks with the customers. It is the feeling that they develop towards the company or its product.

This combination of physical and emotional behaviours is typically triggered when a customer is exposed to the company / product name, logo, the visual identity or the message. Building #brand_identity usually takes companies years to create that bond between the customer and the brand.

The corner stone of the brand is the logo. All vehicles such as your website, social media platforms, brochures, packaging material, promotional items… etc. communicate your brand.

In order to communicate your brand effectively, you need to have a #brand_strategy.

·       What are your brand messages?

·       What are you going to communicate visually and/or verbally to deliver your brand messages?

·       What are the media you’ll use to deliver your messages?

·       To whom are you planning to communicate your brand messages?

Moreover, your distribution channels are part of your brand strategy. How are you going to ensure that your brand promise is achieved?

Once the brand strategy is identified, you need to start delivering it, and delivering on it! Consistent strategic branding leads to a strong #brand_equity. A strong brand equity allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical products of other brands or unbranded would charge. One of the most powerful examples of this is Coca Cola. They built a strong brand equity and therefore can charge more for its product as opposed to competitor generic soda drinks. And yes, Coke customers will pay more for it!

Same with Mercedes Benz, Xerox, Nike, Visa, Lego, Johnson and Johnson… and more.

To add value to brand equity, companies usually focus on perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, “adidas” associates its products with star athletes, hoping that an emotional trigger will happen based on the relationship with this specific athlete and therefore the sale. So, it’s not just the shoe features that sell the shoe!

Now you need to get the word out. Place your logo virtually everywhere! Ensure your employees know your brand message, and that they say it, especially those of them who are customer-facing. Integrate your brand in your email signatures, how the phone is answered, what is worn to customer visits. Make sure your tagline is meaningful, concise and captures the essence of your brand.

Create #brand_standards: logo colour, placement, templates… the complete look-and-feel. You don’t need to be fancy, just be consistent!

Be true to your brand. If you fail to deliver on your brand promise, your customers will go away and will not refer you.

Let’s start building your brand. Reach out to me to schedule a no-obligation branding discussion!

Email: sherif@theoneconsultants.net

The Heart & Soul of Everything Marketing

It is the process of promoting and selling a product to a customer. Also, often defined as being the intermediary function between product development and increasing brand awareness.

In fact, Product Marketing is considered the most important Marketing function since it deals with pretty much most departments in an organization! So, a product marketing manager or specialist is a largely busy person! This person might not carry out all product marketing activities by him or herself, but they need to work with and through all departments to go-to-market with the product.

In most organizations, a product road-map is identified as a general guideline for what products will be introduced to the market and when. The road-map also usually includes promotions, product enhancements, and other activities.

Some research is required to identify the target market, projected price point, market segment that the product addresses, and many more marketing aspects. This could involve qualitative and/or quantitative research, to gather what is often referred to as “Customer Insights”. Who should work with the marketing research department to ensure the right questions are asked? It’s the product marketing person.

How does a price point get identified? It certainly shouldn’t be a guess! Will the product need a launch promotion or activity of some sort? Will it require marcom? How is it going to be communicated? Simple brochure, or advertising required? TV? Radio? PR and media? Was a budget planned for these activities? Who needs to have the answers to all these questions? Exactly, it’s our product marketing specialist!

Some products are too special that a company would be willing to splash the cash to ensure it gets the right publicity. Maybe it’s a breakthrough and the company wants to make it significant, especially against competitors who don’t have a similar offering.

The product marketer also works closely with the technology department where applicable to determine and make sure the product offers the right features for its target customers. Last thing a company will want is a product that is not sold “because it doesn’t solve its customers’ problems!”

OK, so you’ve got a product with the right features, you know which market segment you’re going to offer it to, you know how much you’re going to sell it for, and you know what your target sales are of this product per year from launch through maturity till end-of life.

How are you going to sell it? Does your sales team know about it? Do they know the strength points against competing products? Do they know that you have a launch promo? Who’s going to train them on the different features of the product?

Right again: it’s your product marketing person!

It doesn’t end there by the way, this person also monitors the product’s performance, collects feedback, and continuously works on enhancements and improvements to the quality and value of the product to ensure the best customer experience! Isn’t this our main objective?!

So, in brief, product marketing sits at the intersection of marketing, sales, customer service, finance, product development and any other function in the organization dealing with the product! Essentially, the product marketing person is considered the “God of the product”, in reference to the ultimate importance of this function!

We’d love to continue this conversation. Tell us your thoughts and opinions on twitter or on LinkedIn