There is an old saying that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. Lots of features which individually make good sense, offering additional benefits, but when you put it all together, it just doesn’t look great!
When I meet a new small or medium sized business, and start to examine their marketing I often find myself thinking about this saying. Typically, what I find is a collection of marketing activities all or most of which made perfect sense as individual decisions when they were made, but don’t work together to deliver the number of high quality, warm leads that the sales team need to hit their revenue and profit targets. A good marketing programme consists of activities which work together and deliver big results and a positive bottom-line return on the time and money invested in them.
The reason the camel-style marketing doesn’t work is that customers spot the inconsistencies, consciously or sub-consciously and instinctively react. When the individual pieces don’t really fit together well it causes doubts in our mind. We might not be able to explain our reaction, but deep down it just doesn’t feel right and we’re inclined to look for a better option, whether that’s visiting a different stand at the trade show or hitting the ‘back’ button on the browser. In a crowded and competitive market, our ‘camel’ is losing us good prospects all the time.
What’s the solution? Almost always it’s about creating a robust marketing strategy, specific to your business. This will be built on a clear understanding of who your target customers are, who your competitors are and what your products and services offer. The strategy will define the direction marketing needs to take to deliver the results (marketing objectives) that will help the business achieve its growth targets. You can read more about this in my recent blogs “What’s your ‘more’?” and “Getting to your ‘more’”
If you think you might have a marketing camel and would like to get an independent, no-obligation point of view, please give us a call on 01905 885 285 or complete the enquiry form on our website.
Chris