Launching a new business, product, or service is both easier today and harder today for the same reason. In our tribe driven, niche oriented, internet flattened marketplace you can literally sell your product globally in a matter of hours. At the same time, the number of products and services taking advantage of this opportunity has made competition for consumer awareness incredibly complicated. Getting eyeballs to notice your product in not a matter of just building a better product or even have a better message. Today the need for a comprehensive market communication strategy is greater than ever before.
I met with a firm to go over their proposal to develop a comprehensive strategy for our business support center. Our primary products include individual business counselling, workshops, and events to address current business challenges.
I knew I needed this plan when the issue of comprehensive internet strategy was covered in an SEO workshop we sponsored. The reason I knew this? Only four people attended the workshop:)
A comprehensive marketing communication plan for any organization should address the following questions:
1) Does your communications strategy clearly tie to your current business objectives? Could your customers explain it back to you?
2) Does your website design and content feature have the proper search engine keywords in the right places on the right pages? Google your product or service and see where you come up, if at all!
3) Do your products and services fit with your website in a way your target customer would see and get? Would a teenage look at your site and your product and say, “That fits!”
4) Do you a strategy for linking the most popular social media communities including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Flickr, Twitter, Pinterest? Can you post only once to reach them all?
5) Do you have a blogging strategy and calendar of topics to manage your message with your product marketing strategy? A blogging calendar is a real asset!
6) Do you have a strategy for easily changing your website content as your circumstances change? Waiting for a webmaster can destroy a chance to go viral
7) Do you have a strategy for working with the print media that is consistent and in synch with your social media strategy? Linking online articles and TV videos can truly accelerate SEO recognition.
8) Do you have or need an E-letter for your clients and potential clients? Addressing topics of interest to your customers builds community and may set you apart.
9) Do you have a communication analytics plan to learn about your visitors to your various sites and platforms? Who are these clicks and what do they do once they find us?
10) What will you do in your marketing communications that will exceed expectations and add a little “purpleness” to your message? Failure to go for excellence always leads to average.
All of these questions were reinforced directly after the meeting? I hurried back to our office to set up for a Time Management and Goal Setting workshop I had advertised in the paper, our website, and both local chambers’ websites. No one had time for the workshop.
Sitting by the sign up table, I realized a truth. If a new product launches and fails in the forest of competing medias, and no knows it, the silence is deafening. I instead used my workshop time to answer the above questions and now know what we will do to make sure the next workshop will be heard. In fact, the next workshop will be entitled, Developing Your Comprehensive Market Communication Strategy in a Media Drenched World.
Don’t worry, I will shorten it to Twitter length!
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