Shelley Mayer
With over 15 years in strategy, planning, marketing and communications, Shelley has worked in corporate and entrepreneurial environments in a range of sectors including automotive, insurance, technology and professional services. Shelley founded Ramp in 2011.
Say cheese! If you use photography to promote your company, (Eg.company website, brochures, monthly newsletter) consider using a professional photographer to maximize your company’s appearance. Often people use photos from their own camera, phone or stock photos to demonstrate their services or products, which typically lacks proper lighting, quality, natural facial expressions and appeal. With professional photography your customers can see the quality of your services and/or product and feel more confident with it.
Print your homepage (or your brochure or your advertisement or anything else that has a lot of words on it). Now get out a highlighter and get to work. Highlight every acronym or industry/company specific word. How did you do? Your communications should speak effectively to somebody who knows nothing about your industry, business or company. Use plain English. Keep initial explanations simple and to the point. Spell out acronyms. Write headings and navigation to orient the reader. Keep a customer perspective. Lose the lingo, win a customer.
Before you jump into printing hundreds of brochures or spending money on advertising, know your goals. First, what business goals do you hope to achieve – are they linked to revenue, profitability, growth, new customers? Next, establish the precise role your marketing activities play in the attainment of these business goals. Drive inbound leads? Raise awareness? Reach the most profitable target? Shorten the sales cycle? Pick numbers. Know where to find these numbers. Make a chart and update it every single month. Over time, look for patterns and focus on the marketing tactics with the most impact.
When planning your website navigation, consider the visitor’s point of entry. While a large number of visitors may land on your homepage, those who find you through a search engine or by clicking through a link have the potential to be dropped deep inside. Make sure they can quickly orient themselves to your navigation approach and that your key messages are visible.
When speaking to your target, try to connect on an emotional level. Rational benefits are easy for your competitors to duplicate. A strong emotionally driven buyer will remain loyal even during difficult times. Connecting on an emotional level means understanding how you make your customers feel. Safe? Confident? Happy? Calm? Joyful? Think feelings not features.
Jot down the top three reasons your customer or prospect visits your website. Now check your homepage. Can they easily find what they are looking for? Does your homepage speak in their language? Is the aesthetic pleasing and welcoming to your visitors? Can they understand how you will fit into their world? If your homepage is cluttered, uses industry jargon or is organized contrary to your customer’s way of thinking then you are missing a big opportunity to connect and provide a great customer experience.
What is this Twitter thing anyway? Does anybody really use it? What on earth would I use it for? The easiest way to get started with Twitter is by listening. Search on Twitter for words and phrases related to your business. Identify who is talking about these topics. Follow them. Search for people on Twitter who have profiles similar to your ideal customer. Follow them too. Then watch and listen. You will be amazed at what you learn.
It is easy to define your target market too broadly. After all, who WOULDN’T want to use your product or service? With a limited marketing budget, your dollars will work a lot harder if you focus your tactics on a very specific type of customer, your ideal customer. This goes beyond age, gender and income level but gets into habits, interests, activities and preferences. Look at past “favourite” customers and try to identify common traits.
