Strapline

Copy - Content - Marketing Communications Planning

Thursday 19 February 2015

Customers hate to be sold but love to buy - which is great news!

The age of the dinosaur selling is almost over. Even double glazing companies have embraced cross media integrated marketing communications to guide individuals to the point they wish to buy and then have skilled communicators who vacilitate the sales converstaion.

If you're still expected to make 2 hours of calls a day to build  the business you work for then panic.

There are 3 well defined stages that new and existing customers go through - in very simple terms they are:

  1. Awareness - here you peek interest and intrigue
  2. Consideration - here you capture that interest and raise levels of knowledge and appreciation
  3. Decision - In your favour, resulting in an order or a contact to take the relationship to the next stage
Which is why cold or warm calls don't work - unless you are lucky enough to hit a decision maker when they have been through the other stages or are just desperate you are wasting time and money.


The good news there are lots of options you can create for each of the stages. In many cases the information will be the same, but the way the information is delivered is different. Here's a basic list of different media, which I'm sure you will be able to adapt to your business or organisation.

Awareness Media:
  • Blog Posts - like this one
  • Info Graphics
  • Animations
  • Press Releases
  • Articles and Editorial
  • Long Tail Direct Mail
  • Surveys
  • Competitions
Consideration Media
  • White Papers
  • E Books and Guides
  • Youtube Info and User Guides
  • Downloadable How To Guides
  • Independent Research and Comparison Guides
Decision Media
  • Case Studies
  • Product and Service Brochures with Offers
  • Flashes on POS and Packaging
  • Service Offers
  • Free Demos
  • Webinars
  • Loyalty Schemes
  • Direct Mail
  • Trade and Consumer Advertising
The above list is not exhaustive  - but it does indicate that certain media can help at different stages of the customers journey from not knowing to having the confidence to buy.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net



No comments:

Post a Comment