Marketing is War
At 6:30am on the 6th of June 1944 the allied army focused its armies and landed on the Axis controlled European mainland for what would become the turning point of World War 2. Your marketing war will intensify when the customers dry up and your targets remain. Michael Kiely always said, “Marketing is War” and your battle is going to intensify.
How to fight in a downturned market
Focus
When the allied army landed they didn’t just send troops to all different parts of Europe, they focused their armies and boarded one spot. They did this because they needed to create one location which they definitively owned and controlled. A disparate attack would have resulted in scattered results. Just like the allies, focus your marketing efforts on a tighter group of prospects and refrain from combat in marginal areas.
Top 3 areas to focus your marketing
- Current customers – Upsell, Resell and Service your customers.
- Prospects who have contacted you – Remarket to existing prospects and convert them.
- 80 / 20 rule – Focus on the responsive markets and ease up on trying to conquer new difficult markets. Give yourself a reality check on who your core customers are and focus on these. The easy way to figure this out is to: Profile your customers to determine their lifetime value and figure out which group you have the most of. Usually 20% of your customers will be making you 80% of your profit. Focus on attracting more of these with your limited campaigns.
Top 7 online marketing tactics that are performing in this current market
I can appreciate having a positioning is important although when it comes to marketing it and gaining customers we can’t just muck around with branding campaigns in this market. Performance marketing is required – Reallocate budget to activities which deliver results.
- Search engine marketing – Quality customers searching for things you have.
- Reuse templates – Reuse campaign creative which has already performed well. Just change the images and text slightly to save costs on production. The creative will be refreshed in this process and will probably continue to perform.
- Distressed inventory – Why pay rack rate? Negotiate for performance buys as most media publishers will start to flounder in meeting their targets. They will start offering very cheap rates in a response. Hold off on your schedules and wait for the pressure to be applied, resist the lie that you will miss bookings as there will be less competition for the spots you wish to buy.
- Existing customer databases – Continue and engage in meaningful conversations with your prospects. Since you do not need to spend huge amounts of time planning and managing extra campaigns, make the communications you are doing better quality by investing more time in them.
- Affiliate marketing – Pay only when someone sends you a customer. Share the risk of your marketing challenge with the publisher. The affiliate marketing industry is one of the most underutilised resource in a marketers toolbox. Call up an expert and ask for a consultation about this marketing channel and get involved.
The ultimate question is would the price of media be the same price if you didn’t put your logo on it? I wouldn’t be paying for branding in this market, I would just be paying to acquire a select focused set of customers.
How to win the war?
If you are cashed up you can try to win the war by buying your competitors out if they are struggling. The other alternative is to snatch market share from competitors with aggressive marketing in their niches. Buying them out is faster, marketing in their niches is cheaper.
