New Arrows in the Quiver: New Marketing Tools and Ideas
After a couple of decades in the business, I continue to be amazed at the opportunities to learn even more about the dynamic world of marketing. In this world it’s all about choosing the right target, the right message, the right media and the right time. And the internet is changing the game so rapidly.
BTW, I’m looking forward to PodCamp Pittsburgh 3 tomorrow. I’ve got all kinds of questions to ask about blogging, SEO, etc. It’s an exciting environment, with the high energy of the newest generation of communicators and marketers.
New Marketing Tools
This year we’ve developed some new tools and resources to benefit clients. They’re about marketing research and involve some new partnerships:
- Geocoding — mapping a client’s primary trade area
- Brand Auditing — assessing a brand and where it needs to go
- Website Auditing — assessing a website’s online visibility
Geocoding: Customers, not measles!
Taking on a new client this summer it was really important to define his Primary Trade Area—where 75% or more of his customers are located. A local community planning firm had the capability to map addresses for his most recent 300+ customers for his home remodeling business and plot them on a Pittsburgh region map. The results were quite informative, the way visualizing data often is.
Now the geographic target is at least clear. And we have a much better idea of where his brand equity is strongest and where his greatest success has been—his “warm” market.
Brand Auditing: Who do you think you are?
A second critical marketing insight is knowing is how a brand is currently perceived by customers. What you think your brand is and what they think it is can be two different things.
After doing a little internet research, we came up with a simple, low cost model to quickly assess a client’s brand. It was adapted from an insightful article that came via MarketingProfs.com called “Keeping the Brand Healthy: The Annual Brand Checkup.”
Applying this streamlined model to the same client, the whole process took less than two weeks and gave us some confidence and clarity about their brand. The image here shows part of the summary of the audit, reflecting the key brand messages conveyed from 13 interviews.
Website Auditing: You built it, but why didn’t they come?
Especially with websites that were built several years ago, there can be major problems with online visibility today. Especially if they’re not updated regularly for Web 2.0. (some basic research PDF)
One client’s website was not only scheduled for rebranding and redesign, but also was not attracting a high volume of visitors. Two detailed audit reports of the site pointed to significant and very specific problems to address for Search Engine Optimization. The SBDC at the University of Pittsburgh performed one and Clio Communications out of Denver the other; both were excellent and offered slightly different strategy insights.
As the website rebuild progresses, the information from these two audits will help to guide development of a more productive website for the Pittsburgh market. So will the ongoing oversight of the project by the SBDC and Clio. (BTW, the Pitt SBDC services are provided for free to businesses in Western Pennsylvania)
Thanks for posting the article, was certainly a great read!
Jim, sorry it took me a while to respond–you got caught in my spam web and I only discovered it today.
Glad you liked the brand audit article. I too found it very useful in shaping a cost effective strategy for a client. And now a second client, ironically a friend’s marketing and branding firm, wants one done for them.
In doing the online research I discovered a variety of approaches, some taking up to a year to execute… and probably tens of thousands of dollars. This approach seemed very streamlined and took less than a week and cost less than $1,000 for the client.
BTW, I’ve found a lot of good information through the basic membership in MarketingProf.com. Once I even stumbled across an older online discussion about taglines for a company amzaingly similar to one of my marketing clients. Of course, I “borrowed” a few of the best free ideas… although we ended up using one of our own invention: “Advancing the art and science of living.”
If you’d like I can share more about the strategy we adapted from the article. That’s what this website is about: sharing marketing ideas and solutions.