We’ve all heard of heirloom tomatoes and other such fruits and vegetables. You’ve probably seen them at your local grocery store. If you haven’t tried them yet, you are missing the great taste you might remember from your childhood. Heirloom means that the plant was produced from original seed from older plants (before genetic modification or hybridization techniques were used). So, it’s wonderful that we can bring back those great flavors of yesteryear.
But have you ever thought about heirloom marketing? That is, marketing how we used to market? Have we gotten so far away from good old-fashioned marketing techniques from the “mad men” era of marketing and advertising? Don’t forget that social media, content marketing and all of the new fancy terminology and technology that we use today should still have good solid marketing principles at their core. So, let’s get back to the basics of marketing, shall we?
Principle No. 1: Fund your marketing strategies adequately.
I find that most marketeers tend to focus strictly on tactics. Their entire marketing plan is based on how many ads they plan to run, how many newsletters they will have time to write, or how many trade shows they will attend. And then to add insult to injury they usually do not budget enough to accomplish those tasks effectively. Generally, I find that budgets are arbitrarily set by dividing up some pot of gold into various smaller pots without any rhyme or reason. And then management wonders why there weren’t enough leads generated, sales made, or revenue increased. So better to do less well than to do a lot of tasks poorly.
Principle No. 2: Keep innovating.
This comes more under the heading of product development rather than marketing. That is, your company needs to keep the product development in motion. However, even with older, reliable products, the marketing department can innovate by marketing the technology to new market segments, developing new applications, or updating the branding and messaging.
Principle No. 3: Target and segment your market.
I find that most companies I work with have a tendency to blast out their message to anyone who will listen. Now that we do have all of these new technologies like sales automation we can better target and segment our market. But, you do need to define that market first. Start with a few demographics like age group, job function, geographic location, etc. Then customize your message to your target audience. For example, if someone attended a trade show and requested some information, don’t send them information on an unrelated topic. Focus on what they are interested in now. It shows that you are listening to their needs.
Principle No. 4: Stay in touch with customers and prospects on a regular schedule.
There is nothing worse than getting too much information from a company. We are all bombarded with emails on a daily basis. But, only communicating with your target market once in a blue moon will not keep your name or product top of mind when that prospect is in the market for your product at some time in the future. I once had a prospect of mine say that “I bugged him just enough.” I took that as a compliment since that prospect turned into a client about 6 months down the road when they were looking for a new marketing agency.
Principle No. 5: Use the new technology that is available.
I’m certainly not against using social media, content marketing, sales automation or any of the other technologies available today. They make marketing that much easier. So embrace the new technology and use it to help you strategize, gather data about the market and your prospects, or learn more about the buying behaviors of your target market. However, please don’t put your marketing program on auto pilot and assume that your Twitter account will make the sales for you. There needs to be a person behind the account with an engagement strategy in place. Engagement is key to success these days. But also providing value to your customers and prospects is also key. People are hungry for knowledge and information. So, provide your customers what they seek. But, please refer to Principle No. 4 and provide them the information they need and don’t bombard them with other extraneous information.
So think about heirloom marketing next time you are posting to your Facebook or Twitter account.
