The Wow Factory Blog

Last month’s Kent Business seemed to be full of marketers all extolling the virtues of continuing to invest in your advertising and marketing budget. Now we have all heard this message a thousand times- you know the one, those that continue to spend their advertising pound will be the winners when the bad times turn to good. So I think you are going to be seriously surprised that a bloke who owns and runs an advertising agency says something a bit different, because I don’t always subscribe to that point of view.

Let me articulate clearly; let’s say you are running an estate agency, as a number of my customers do. In our opinion (and theirs) you would be completely barmy to be spending shed loads of your hard earned dosh promoting houses for sale right now. Why? Because even if you found a happy couple who want to buy a house today they probably can’t get the mortgage, so the available pool of customers is small.

When I was a lad the very first thing I was taught, when I began my career at the local newspaper in Yorkshire (on 3 grand a year) was match the budget of the advertiser to the seasonal trends of his customers, ergo for the estate agent, spend money in September because clients are looking to buy then! By and large this theory has stood the test of time, you don’t market houses for sale in December but you do in January, and those that have followed this maxim ain’t done badly.

So how do we get to market and what should we do when according to the media nobody is buying anything at all? The answer, for me, like all good answers is about common sense. Firstly remember the customers you already have, give them special care and attention, what do they need? Are they struggling with cash flow? If so how can you help? How can you add extra value? Is your sales person visiting/communicating regularly? Are you in short marketing to them in the best way there is and ever will be –face to face.

Next, what are you saying to these customers, how are you articulating your message? Are you expressing your unique selling proposition in an innovative and interesting way? Who is responsible for delivering this message? Are the board/senior management involved?
Right now selling more products to existing clients will help enable you to ride out the storm, so generate “cut through”, plan your campaign, think about it, don’t put it to the back of the list of things to do, work at it. Like most things in life the better you plan; the better the result. Think about the routes to market, most of us aren’t national brands, which medium is going to get the most bang for your buck?

Campaigns that always work best are those that incorporate as many opportunities to see/hear/smell/touch as possible. When booking a newspaper campaign, for instance, ask the question how many readers do you have in my catchment area? Marry this to your knowledge of your customers. Are they predominantly female? If so, what is the female readership, are they between the ages 25-34? If so, what is the penetration of the newspaper into this demographic and so on. All local media should have this information at their fingertips, and if they don’t ask yourself why.

When we watch Gordon Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares he constantly encourages his chef/owner to get on the street and promote themselves, and guess what? It works so copy it! Why not? Sampling a product is a sure fire way of creating advocacy and blimey it costs virtually nothing. So engage with your audience locally, be innovative and help yourself through these tricky times.

Good luck.