The Twin Pillars of Emotional Marketing


Did you know that all marketing is emotionally driven? When you watch an advert on TV, such as a fast food advert, pay attention to when they advertised this product to you. I guarantee it was at breakfast time, lunch time or just before dinner time. Why do they do that? People make decisions based on emotions. If they are hungry, they will make a decision to swerve off their road home to pick up a burger if the advert entices them enough (makes them hungry enough).

How can we use this in our marketing efforts?

Key 1: Know the Emotions

Know what emotions your clients need to be in when they want your product. This sounds very complicated, but let's take a closer look by asking a few key questions.

• What pain do my clients experience by not using my product?

• What pleasure will my clients get from using my product?

Example: if a client is going to buy running shoes, chances are they are fed up with being overweight. They have perhaps just experienced a break-up or worse, somebody made them feel ugly. They have decided to take action and? They want to feel good about themselves again, look good and be in control of their lives again.

So your running shoes campaign need to reflect those emotions. You need to clearly depict that when people buy your running shoes, they are going to feel a certain way. They are going to take control of their lives when they buy your shoes - and they are going to feel attractive again.

Key 2: Get them at their Weakest

It's terrible, but this is what all the big agencies do. They get you when you are at your weakest, when you are at your most vulnerable and when you are most likely to make a decision without too much thought about price or necessity is in sight.

Here's a questions: When do you normally buy perfume / or try new perfumes?

The answer is simple: when you want a change or something new. Perhaps somebody special has caught your eye, and now you want to catch their attention with a new fragrance.

How fascinating it is that the perfume bottles depict beautiful, confident, hot and attractive women or men on the packaging? Why? Because you want to feel that way too! By using beautiful imagery mixed with all sorts of fragrances from the perfume shop, your brain is ready to commit to spending over a thousand rand on the hope that this product will make them feel this way too. It’s a scent people, let's not get too carried away here. But the truth is: people are willing to pay thousands for a perception.

What have we learnt:

• Find out WHAT pain your target market experience by not using your product? What are they going through currently?

• Find out WHEN your target market are most likely at this point in their lives, in the month or on the day.

• Find out WHERE your target market are reminded of this pain they are experiencing - this is where you need to deploy your Target Marketing (see our previous article)

• Clearly indicate HOW your product will fix this problem - associate perceived pleasure to your product in all your marketing. (Use music, models, colors and fonts to depict this emotion)

And that's all you need to do!

Until next time, Happy Marketing!

Understanding SEO

Search Engine Optimization: the FREE Basics
Last week we had a quick look at some tips and tricks you can use to build your brand, and we touched on a few topics involving looking at your brand from your customers perspective. What did you find? Did you Google your company name or service?

If you didn't, then let's do a quick case study. In Google, type a few keywords your customers would most likely use to find your services or product. What did you find? At the top of the results page you might have seen a 'Sponsored Links' section, which you can purchase direct from Google Adwords.

Then you found a couple of websites which either had the name of the service in their url for example: www.your-service.co.za or a page named in their service. Finally, you saw a couple of image thumbnails suggested by Google and possibly you also saw some YouTube videos.
Now you don't have to be an SEO-guru to use this information to your advantage. In fact, you don't even have to be a web developer! Firstly; identify what your customers are looking for. In other words, list the keywords you think they would most likely use to look for your product.
List as many as you can, but be as concise as possible. For example; Mobile Bar hire Randburg, Catering Sandton etc. It is good to list the area, because I am sure when you look for a service, you are most likely interested in the companies who are close by.

Then! Log onto www.gumtree.co.za, create an account and then post a free advert - but the key here is to use the keyword string as the heading for the advert. So our advert would be: Mobile bar hire Randburg. In the body you are welcome to write as much or as little as needed, but be sure to repeat the keywords you used in the heading in the body as well. Don't forget to include a link back to your website, your e-mail and most importantly; your telephone number. Don't expect your customers to want to click on the link to find your contact details. They need your service quickly and are most likely interested in either sending you an e-mail or calling you directly.

Finally, go into your pictures on your computer, select an image that you would like to use for your advert. And here's the key; rename the image: Mobile Bar hire Randburg. Upload it to your advert on gumtree and Voila! You have done your first official free search engine optimization for beginners.

Although extremely basic, the fundamentals of this process are as simple and almost as effective. You can also use Gumtree to post jobs which (did you know?) filter through Linked In search results? In other words, if you post a vacancy or opportunity, it also appears in job searches in Linked in!

Your hotfrog account is also highly effective and free. Once you have created your page (remember - try name the pages and product listings utilizing the keywords we mentioned earlier. The company name can be included in the body of the advert, but please keep your posts as 'keyword specific' as possible, and remember to repeat those keywords in the body of your text as well to increase its optimization.

In closing, all you need to do now is spend 5 minutes a day posting adverts on Gumtree or listing services on hotfrog - repeating your keywords as often as possible. Next month we are going to look at images and YouTube video's - so be sure to visit my page again. May your business succeed beyond your wildest dreams!

Target Marketing

Have you heard the term; Target Marketing? And have you actually explored its awesome potential to increase your profits and exposure? Perhaps we should start at the very beginning and explore exactly what Target Marketing really is.

Definition:
Target Marketing involves breaking a market into segments and then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments. Target marketing can be the key to a small business’s success.
Supplied by About.com

We've sent out mass mails to poor innocent potential clients hoping they have enough time to read our literature, and then the patience to actually explore the links you provided that (hopefully) would take them back to your website. We've done some basic SEO (as described in one of my previous articles) and we've also spent time working on our website (also in one of my previous articles) to ensure that clients are able to understand what you are offering and then purchase it when they want it.

But we have to get smarter, the days of the aforementioned being the only means of marketing have come to an abrupt halt. Everyone is doing it, so we have to be faster, better and more interesting that our competition.

But HOW? Let's take a closer look. Who are we marketing to? Have you honestly sat down and studied your client? Where do they shop? What are they interested in? What makes them consider a product or service? Are there any groups or networking associations that they might be part of? Do they enjoy a certain type of book? Or certain type of food?

Let's say your company specialize in selling running shoes. You might have a website where they can purchase the shoes online and have them delivered to their door. You might also have a retail outlet in a certain area but people are still unaware of your where your store is (even though most of your clients live in the same area). Perhaps you've even tried handing out fliers at the robot intersection by your store but still, not enough clients are purchasing from you.
Here's the key: we have to get them at their weakest point. At the point where they long for a good pair of running shoes. Where would this be? At gym right? Or perhaps at a charity race in your neighborhood. Now marketing a product at a gym might be very difficult and expensive, but approaching the gym management and telling them you are willing to sponsor a pair of running shoes as a prize in their next newsletter to all their clients wouldn't hurt your profits one bit, now would it?

And perhaps for the charity race you could sponsor a runner (or runner's) by kitting them out with a branded T-shirt, shorts and running shoes. You could also contact the organizer's and sponsor a gift voucher to the race winner as part of their prize for coming first! All you ask in return is that the organizers of the race include your logo in their newsletters, banners and marketing material.

Here's another idea! People who long for a good pair of running shoes are perhaps reading a book on losing weight, or better yet; are shopping for foods that are healthier and have reduced fat. How can we market in this arena without blowing the budget out of the water? Why not contact a local publisher and find out if they are going to be releasing a book in the next month on (Tada!) losing weight. Then offer the publisher a wonderful bonus that they can use to sell their book: you include a bookmark which also happens to be a 25% discount voucher that the readers can claim when they are all fired up about being healthy and carrying out their goals. Trust me, there is no better time to sell running shoes when the client has made a decision to read a book on losing weight.

And that's the key: to get to the clients when they really want your product. It is the fundamental law in target marketing and is certainly the difference between a successful company and one that is not.

Remember, marketing is not only about selling product. It is about building a relationship. And if your target audience sees your involvement in charity drives as well as giving discounts to people who want to loose weight, you are going to be perceived as a caring, reputable and friendly company; all of which are keywords that massive organizations spend millions on trying to portray via traditional marketing methods such as TV, radio and newsletters.
Final note; if you are going to market to niche groups, you must maintain a spotless reputation with sparkling service so that when someone from the charity race buys from you; he is sure to recommend you to all his friends and family as well. Spruce up your store, dust off those name-tags, play some inspiring and motivational music and have your staff trained up to give outstanding service!

Until next time: Happy Marketing!

Websites - make it work for your business

So, how is your website doing?

So you spent some money on a great looking website, and you've sent out some e-mails about your new website to clients, and perhaps a few people even clicked on the link and visited your website. But then what happened? Where did they go? Why didn't their visit turn into a sale?
This is often the fundamental link that many people overlook. You can spend hundreds, nay thousands on search engine optimization, but if you don't effectively communicate and grab your audience's attention when on your website - they're going to go somewhere else and all that money has gone to waste.

Picture this, a new B&B opens up on a very busy highway. The location is superb, so the owners of the B&B spend thousands on a big colorful advertisement board and pitch it alongside the highway. People driving past see it, and some decide to stop over for the night but when they enter - they see that although the rooms have lovely curtains - there are no beds to sleep in.
This is just a silly metaphorical example of what I am talking about when it comes to a website that does not get the job done, and results in them turning around and never coming back. You can make your website look as pretty as you like (the curtains) but if people can't take action on your website (by way of purchasing, enquiring, setting up appointments and so on) - they are going to leave as quickly as they came in.

So what are we going to do about it? As I always say, we need to start asking ourselves some very important questions starting with: What are my visitors going to achieve by visiting my site? What do I want them to do? How are they going to do it? Do I offer a value add? Why should visitors buy from me instead of the person across the street? And ultimately; how much is it going to cost them? No matter how much spice you add to your deal, if the price is not listed or visitors have to enquire on pricing - they're going to go somewhere else. You do it - so why should your visitors be any different?

How?
The best place to start is to map out the entire online experience. I've worked with many companies developing their website of well over 200 pages, but when I ask them what they want their visitors to do once they have read all 200 pages - I often get a dazed and confused expression followed by a head tilt. What do I mean? When a customer finds the product that they have been looking for, what then? Do they download a price-list or an electronic brochure? Do they set up an appointment with one of your reps to come show them the product? Do they purchase the item online?

Let's say we are evaluating an online fast-food franchise website, and we want our visitors to order their food online. First step is to create a menu, an electronic one that they can (quickly) view online and download and save if they wish. Secondly, we need a great 'combo deal' - order today and we'll throw in a FREE 2 liter coke! Finally, we deliver to your door in under 30 minutes!

The visitor is happy, he found the food he wanted, got a free coke and had his meal delivered to his door in under 30 minutes. Don't forget to throw a fridge magnet into the bag so he can call you again when he's hungry!

That's an online success story. On the other hand, fast-food franchise number 2 listed all sorts of meals, going into the detail of preparation, the history of the farm that the beef came from and even the history about Mrs. Jones who perfected a recipe handed down to her from her great great great grandmother. And although your visitor might be extremely interested in all that, the bottom line is that he's hungry and - yes - wants value and a great product, but that can be said in a sentence or two on the home page or running as the footer on each page. Franchise 2 did not include any prices, or any ordering infrastructure so our hungry visitor when to franchise 1 and placed his order.

You've got to remember that although a superior product might be on offer at the same time, the company who has listed its price, payment options and delivery normally takes home the bacon.

So let's recap
Define your user's online experience, ask yourself;
1. What my visitors going to do on the website? Order product? Order a Service? Set up an appointment?
2. How much does it cost? Is the price easy to find?
3. Additional information - is this easy to source and download?
4. How do they order?
5. Why should they order from you? (what is your value -add?)
6. Do you offer additional benefits such as free delivery - is this clear to the visitor?
7. How do you get them to come back (can they sign up for a newsletter? Write a testimonial?)
Additional elements you need to consider are:
1. Are your visitors hungry?
2. Are your visitors in a rush?
3. Who are your visitors?
4. Where are they coming from?

Finally, become aware of what motivates you to buy a product online - because those are the same or similar factors that will motivate a customer to buy from you.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter of more topics similar to this: @_Jadeye_ or be sure to look up Jadeye Designs on Linked in or Facebook.
Until next time: Happy Marketing!