Have you ever spent days putting together a complicated puzzle, only to discover in frustration upon nearing completion that you are missing a vital piece?  To be successful in today’s speed of light information age, your business needs to provide the visible “missing piece” for your customers. 

That missing piece is whatever your company can provide to those who need your product and/or service. And at a price they are willing to pay. Getting in front of your potential customers and attracting their attention while in front is the key.

Creating and maintaining a strong connection with your potential customers is a starting point to allow others to see how your business can fit their needs. In order to form these connections, your business should employ a variety of methods to communicate using strategies and tactics across all mediums – Web site, direct mail, public relations, and advertising. In the industry, we marketing folks call this integrated marketing communications.

An effective marketing communications program will connect you with your potential customers through a variety of ways (multiple channels), but first you need to figure out which contact method is the best to get the most results for the least cost. Some questions to consider prior to launching a marketing campaign:

• Do you know who constitutes your best target market? (i.e., those most likely to buy)
• Do you understand your target market’s information habits so you can determine the best way to connect?

  • Do they use computers and are comfortable with technology?
  • Are they more dependent upon newspapers, magazines, radio or television for news and entertainment?
  • Do they attend events where visibility is guaranteed?

Some common ways of connecting with target markets: direct mail, educational seminars or presentations, targeted email campaigns, public relations, sponsorships and advertising.

Tip #1: Connecting with Direct Mail

If the list is correctly targeted to your potential customer, direct mail is an accurate, testable, flexible and highly personal way to make a connection. It also allows you to measure the response to your campaign if planned correctly. And if you have the correct data, with new printing capabilities, direct mail can even be personalized to your target, not only with their name, but with their preferences or interests as well.

Direct mail has many advantages. It puts your business information into the hands of your target market on a personal level without actually meeting them. It also precisely targets those individuals who need to know about your business.

Content Tips:

• Be certain to include your contact information
• Be precise and clear on what you want
• Direct the recipient to the required action

Analyze the results of your direct mail campaign by seeing who you connect with:

• Phone inquiries
• Web site visits
• Increase in referrals
• Increase in new business

Determine the effectiveness of the campaign by dividing cost of the campaign by the amount of new business generated. Although direct mail is considered successful if 1%-3% of the contacts respond, using personalization increases that response rate upwards of 15%.

Tip #2: Connect with Email

Targeted email campaigns are a powerful and economic way to connect regularly with your target market.

• Craft short, informative emails messages around topical issues
• Crosslink to your Web site to provide additional resources and information
• Develop incentive programs or giveaway programs via email to encourage the purchase of your product or service
• Make certain you are using only opt-in lists, or sending to those you know would likely want to hear from you

Tip #3: Connect with Educational Seminars or Presentations

Hosting or participating in industry or community presentations or seminars is a wonderful and effective way of connecting with your target market. This is not a “sales” presentation; rather these opportunities should be used to create a connection based on educating or helping to solve a problem.

Be certain to list your seminar or presentation in the relevant section of your local newspaper or community magazines. Use your Web site to take reservations, give directions or provide additional information as downloads.

Tip #4: Connect with Media Relations

Media relations is a way to connect with your target market through the endorsement of an independent third party (the media). When someone writes about your product or service, it lends credibility that paid advertising simply cannot.

Goals for media relations:

• Highlight your business accomplishments
• Educate as to how your product or service solves a problem or meets a need
• Project a favorable image of your business in a respected vehicle
• Earn public confidence for your business from a 3rd party credibility factor
• Position you and/or your business as a leader within its industry

Tip #5: Connect with Advertising

Advertising is a paid endorsement of a product or service, and as such has use when media relations and other forms of marketing have done the job of achieving some visibility. Advertising connects a business with its target market by using images and words to motivate and inspire by tapping into dreams, desires and/or fears.

Advertisements should generate attention and ideally generate a response, translating into increased sales for your product or service. Knowing where to advertise to get the attention of the target market is the trick. AND, using design to marry the message and carry it to the intended recipient is paramount.

Content Tips

• Use powerful, motivating language suited for your intended target
• Clearly convey your message verbally and visually
• Include contact information for your business and a call to action
• Use advertising that also drives to a Web site for more information to give “legs” to a medium that used to be static and can be dynamic, given the power of the Internet

The Golden Rule:

The most effective marketing program employs the same consistent messages using numerous techniques over time to connect with the target market. 

Most Importantly:

No single outreach effort will bring significant results. To be successful, marketing communications requires a continuous dialogue with your target market.

A good example of an industry-specific integrated marketing communications campaign is corecubed’s new Marketing Opportunities and Sales Training (MOST) program, designed specifically for home care and home health care agencies.  To see this program in action or for more information, please see the sidebar of this newsletter or visit www.markethomecare.com/MOST.  Whether your business is in home care or something completely different, trust in corecubed to help you connect with your customers and be there to provide the final piece to their puzzles. You can contact us at 1-800-370-6580, x5 or email us at info@corecubed.com.

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800-370-6580 ext.#1
info@corecubed.com

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