Tag: target market

Secrets to Share From Lego Campaigns

What is the key for your marketing persuasion?1 We feel emotion is the most critical element for persuasion. That is a hands down fact in our minds. Is it a secret? We hope not, or we have had it wrong for all these years. But it seems like a hidden truth for many businesses. Or camouflaged. Certainly Leo Burnett understands what is needed, though. Certainly something we should learn how to apply well. The Lego marketing campaigns surely have.

It is a simple concept. People don’t read ads, they read what interests them.1 So if you are going to generate marketing campaign designs, you are going to have to create interesting copy. And, oh by the way, it must be more interesting than the millions of other advertisements out there. Now that is a daunting task, isn’t it?

According to Nielsen, there are 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each day.  And Statistic Brain says that our average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds – one second less than a goldfish!

We check our phones 150 times per day. We check our email up to 30 times an hour. And the amount of information in the world continues to double every 18 months.

All this available information and data is creating a battle for customer attention between brands, publishers, and every one of us who creates content. But more importantly, its forcing businesses to think and act like publishers and creative designers.

I have to admit. I am a big fan of the Lego company. We have done several analyses of their marketing and innovation activities.

Related: 12 Best Examples of Successful Advertisement Elements

So it is time to evaluate Lego marketing campaigns. A great competition going on within the creative toy industry. Lots of great products? Yep, no doubt. And some even better marketing and advertising campaigns.

Have you seen the recent Lego TV ad promoting the Lego movie in the UK?

If not, you should invest 3 minute now and check it out. It will prove benefitial in reviewing our ad analysis.

Let’s examine this commercial and what contributes to its strengths and weaknesses as a component of an effective marketing campaign. And its ability to influence or persuade.

Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering. At the end of this article, please comment on whether this advertisement achieves this goal. Let this community know what you think.

Do we believe this is such an effective advertising campaign and if so, why?

Strong value propositions

If you have a product that truly discriminates you from your competition, build your messages on these. Give your customers reasons to select you. This movie ad grabs you with 4-5 short excerpts. Each excerpt having an element of music and great use of visuals. No between your eyes value proposition, but just great examples from the movie. Good strategy.

Consider the end state values 

Customers and particularly the target customers are looking for entertainment using new technology, Lego products, and the application of imagination and emotion. No reason to view  the movie without these and the marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion. The most important value points.

Be relevant to your target market

Keep in mind that one message does not fit all. It starts with knowing your target market. Here the target markets are families and young people and they are featured prominently in all of the movie components. Most of the movie components, and there are many good ones, are written for sharing with young audiences and their family members.

Grabbing attention 

Interesting information, well presented, showing emotion, always holds attention, yes?  Keep in mind that people don’t watch ads … they watch what interests them. Your ad messages must be interesting to your target communities. This message certainly grabs and holds attention based on emotion, superb visuals, cool Lego products, and a great sound track. Letting the visuals totally carry the messages.

Simple  messages 

Superb visuals and visuals so simple that you quickly grasp them and don’t lose interest. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words. And the music has a way to keep you tied in. Creating customer interest does get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think?

Make your ad a component 

Always make your ad part of an integrated marketing campaign. There are a series of similar ads in this campaign … all geared to address the Lego movie in a similar vein to target customers. All follow the same theme … simply shine light on the value of the products and the use of great  imagination. Great visuals. Entertaining music. Little talking. Definitely no selling. Taking a page from the past Lego marketing strategy.

Influence and persuasion

There is no better means of influence or persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. The higher degree of emotion creates the more differentiation and makes it easier for your brand to project uniqueness and its word of mouth messages. Emotion is the secret language of the brain … Lego knows that working on emotion will improve their persuasion or influence.

This commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion, in all components of the movie excerpts. It is the secret of this commercial’s success.

Summary

Lego marketing campaigns aren’t complete without its core message, the religion of “play,” which binds this multifaceted movie together. “Play is an absolutely essential need, not only for children but also for grown-ups,” Mads Nipper, the chief marketing officer of Lego, says. Sounding more like new-age gurus than businesspeople, Nipper and other Lego executives repeat the word “play” over and over, reverently, taking a basic source of human happiness and placing it at the center of their brand.

Remember, it is not what marketing campaigns do with the consumer; it is what the consumer does after viewing the marketing.

We believe the Lego marketing strategy is a winner. Simple, yet interesting. Not selling, but focus on play. What do you think?

Does this commercial persuade you?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and  advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

More reading on marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Guinness Marketing Campaign Shows Their Creativity

Secrets to Share on Lego’s Marketing Campaigns

12 Lessons from Ben and Jerry’s Marketing Strategies

Awesome Value Proposition Examples in This FiOS Commercial

Stop interrupting what people are interested in, and be what people are interested in. FIOS Commercials?? Or other value proposition examples?

Just thinking about what it would take to illustrate your value propositions in a way that captures and holds the attention of your audience is difficult, isn’t it? Almost regardless of whom you are or what you do, you have competitors that seem to do it better. The market leaders. And if you have no competitive advantages, and no understanding of the secrets of unique selling propositions (USPs), you will really have a hard time with great value proposition examples.

Value propositions are of high interest to customers, more than many even realize. We have written a lot about USPs and value propositions. They are really the key to being on top of the competition pile, aren’t they?

We like to examine different advertisements as components of corporate marketing strategy and the use of the power of persuasion.  

See: 9 Keys to Creating Effective Advertisements for more on this subject.

We recently viewed this FiOS advertisement that caught our eye for several reasons we will discuss. An effective TV ad that combined traditional advertising with emphasis on creative employment of value propositions and emotion with a little humor thrown in on the side. Something you don’t see very often.

In marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering. At the end of this article, please comment on whether this advertisement achieves this goal for you. Let this community know what you think.  

Have you seen the FiOS commercial that illustrates their secrets?  If not, check it out here.

They do the best job of illustrating value propositions we have ever seen.

The FiOS difference

Unlike many other similar TV and Internet services, FiOS from Frontier Communications is built on a state-of-the-art, fiber-optic network. This advanced network delivers High-Speed Internet, digital TV, and digital phone straight to your home. Since Frontier provides a direct fiber connection to your home, you will get a sharper HD picture, faster and more reliable Internet, and a clearer phone connection with no dropped calls.

And when you bundle all three services together, you will see firsthand the power, reliability, and speed. But this description is all about technology. That is the means and not what customers are usually interested in. They are much more interested in the ends. It is where the customer can see and feel the capabilities. The capabilities that enable the value propositions that are displayed in the commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSRb1OnsrQ

When you have value propositions as good as those of FiOS, you make a big deal about them, as FiOS has done. There are 5 critical reasons this commercial works so well:

Define your positioning 

The frame of reference of the information in the commercial.  In the case of the FiOS commercial, no one else in the industry has these capabilities Frontier is using for its value propositions. So FiOS subtly makes this point without naming its competitors. A good move we believe.

Grabbing attention 

Interesting information, well presented, showing emotion, always holds attention, yes?  Keep in mind that people don’t watch ads … they watch what interests them. Your ad messages must be interesting to your target communities.

This message certainly grabs and holds attention based on emotion, superb visuals, and great value propositions. Letting the visuals be the best influencer. People will watch, remember and most likely talk about it, won’t they?

Strong value propositions

If you have a product that truly discriminates you from your competition, build your story and messages on these discriminators.  Several of the most effective value propositions we have seen in a while are shared in these 30 seconds.

As the child tries to do things with his TV, his uncle has to tell him that those things don’t exist in their system. But they obviously do in the system the little boy is familiar with at home. It’s just that the uncle is not aware that they exist, since his system doesn’t have them. Don’t need to say much as the visuals do much of the talking. Powerful. 

Relevant to the target market

Keep in mind that one message does not fit all. It starts with knowing your target market. Here the target markets are the young, with a high interest in new technology. The young child in the commercial is a good representative of the target audience. Certainly very relevant and a good strategy for the characters used in the ad. 

Influence and persuasion

There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. This commercial focuses on emotional appeal in a grand fashion with the cool interaction and personalities of the uncle and nephew. It is one secret of this commercial’s success. The focus of the value propositions helps to create emotional support, don’t they?

Both the power of persuasion and excellence is certainly important to making successful advertisements. The FiOS marketing strategy certainly has figured this out.

Remember, stop interrupting what people are interested in, and be what people are interested in.

We believe the FiOS marketing strategy is a big winner. Simple, yet interesting. Not selling. What do you think?

Does this commercial persuade you to try this product?

What are some of your experiences with advertising as a component of an integrated marketing campaign?

It’s up to you to keep improving your advertising designs.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today.

More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library: 

The secret to the iphone5 TV ads …Effective Apple Marketing Strategy?

Another Effective Marketing Strategy for the Samsung Galaxy S4?

Do You Know the 9 Keys to Create Effective Advertisements?

5 Ways to Build Brand Awareness Using Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the most powerful tools in digital marketing that continues to thrive by bringing targeted traffic to your website. Small and multinational brands alike are incorporating content marketing in digital promotion campaigns to make the most out of what social media platforms have to offer.

The best part about content marketing is that it always keeps growing. There are new strategies at play every few weeks, and if you’re slow at keeping up with them, your reach may not be progressing at the rate it could be.

So, as we step into a new year with the latest technologies and marketing techniques making headway, what can you do to build brand awareness using content marketing? Read below to find out.

How Does Content Marketing Influence Brand Awareness?

Brand awareness refers to your target market’s familiarity with the services you’re offering, your products, and your brand itself. There are different degrees of brand awareness. Some people only know about your brand from its name, while some remember it because they have purchased your products.

This is where content plays an integral role; it builds brand awareness. Just go back a little and think about how fidget spinners became popular. Someone posted content on their Instagram while using fidget spinners. Soon rather than later, Google Search Engine was blasted with hundreds of questions regarding the new product on the horizon.

Keeping this in perspective, with the help of a holistic content marketing strategy, you can drive more traffic to your website, generate leads, and have far more potential to convert them into sales. 

Let’s put it this way; the more people are aware of your brand, the more they will search about it on Google. This drives more traffic to your website, Instagram, Facebook, and social media profile.

5 Ways to Build Brand Awareness Using Content Marketing

You can incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) in your marketing campaign and content marketing to influence brand awareness. People may not know about your brand as of yet. But you can conveniently use non-branded search terms to drive more traffic to your website.

Wondering which content marketing strategies will help you out in this regard? Here are a few to begin with:

  1. Always Start by Researching Your Target Market

Before you create a content marketing strategy, the first thing you need to do is figure out who your target market is and what are the demographics of the people you’d like to reach out to your brand.

Most brands make this one common mistake: not researching their target audience. They don’t know their interests, what kind of content they like, and what approach will resonate with them.

So, always do your research before you come up with a content marketing approach.

  1. Define Your Brand’s USP

If you want to impact your target audience, you need to define your brand’s unique selling proposition, i.e., your brand’s USP.

Once you launch a business, you already know plenty of competitors working in the industry, selling the same product, or offering the same services. So, why should the customers choose you?

To sell your brand, tell your target audience how you’re offering them a solution that no other brand has ever done. Portray yourself as the problem solver; only then you will make it far.

  1. Incorporate Data-Driven Content

Source: Pexels

The only way your content marketing campaigns will work is by using data to drive your content. Various tools available on the website and social media platforms will let you interpret user data and then forge content strategies to make the most out of your reach.

Some of these tools include:

Use these tools to monitor your website’s activity every week. It will allow you to determine which content marketing tactics are working and which aren’t. You can tailor your strategies to suit your needs and reach more audiences.

  1. Use a Diverse Approach

It is impossible to know which platforms will resonate more with your target audience. You are also unaware of which kind of content will click more with your market.

Some demographics resonate more with visual content, while others may be okay with reading blogs. A few content marketing tools are as follows:

In this regard, we recommend that you incorporate a diversified approach to reach more audiences. Use blogs, podcasts, videos, and social media posts on different platforms to target a diversified audience across different platforms.

This will drive more audience to your website while building impeccable brand awareness.

  1. Capitalize on Influencer Marketing

Lastly, content marketing is directly linked with influencer marketing. Influencers are creators with their own audience and promote your products or services in return for preset cost.

With the help of influencer marketing, you can reach out to potential target markets and share more user-generated content. Hiring influencers is an incredible way to build brand awareness and increase your business’s recognition.

Common FAQs About Content Marketing

Answering some of the most frequently asked questions about content marketing below.

Content is the core of everything you see on the internet. People go through the website, search for reviews, and get as much information as possible about a brand before making a purchase. Content plays a vital role in every marketing tactic, so it is important to build your brand’s digital presence.

  • Does content marketing work?

It does. Content marketing helps build brand awareness and promotes your business in more ways than one. With the help of content, you can bridge the communication gap with your audience to generate more sales.

Final Thoughts

When business owners think about building brand awareness, the first thought that comes to their minds is publishing content on social media platforms hoping that people will notice. However, you can make your content marketing more bulletproof if you act strategically.

Publish content on third-party websites that are keen on promoting small businesses. Incorporate influencer marketing in your digital marketing campaign to reach more audiences. Content can make or break your campaign, so use it wisely.

12 Ways Innovative People Think Differently Than Everyone Else

I’m going to point out something most individuals often misunderstand. Innovation and creativity are not synonymous. Creativity is definitely a factor, but innovation is a much longer process string. But innovative people do think differently.

innovative people think differently
innovative people think differently

Being innovative rarely is an accident. You can’t just happen to be innovative — it’s a process. A process that takes time and considerable effort.

There are steps and crucial information that must be collected. Being innovative is one of the most difficult things to accomplish.

I spent over  40 years in the business environment working for large businesses. We spend up to 10-15% of discretionary income looking for new business innovation. And quite honestly we never had tremendous success or discovered what began to hold back innovation in a company.

We tend to think of innovation as an individual effort. It’s much easier to visualize someone like Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, or Elon Musk, in a flash of inspiration, coming up with a brilliant idea than it is to imagine a vast, collective effort. Yet make no mistake. Innovation is a team sport and great innovators are great collaborators.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo mission which put a man on the moon, one of the vastest collective efforts in history. It involved 400,000 scientists, engineers, and technicians working across government, academia, and private industry. It was, above all, a public effort that mobilized resources across all facets of society.

Innovation in a company … not letting go of the cash cow

Many people think of innovation as discarding the old to make room for the new, but as Bain & Co.’s Chris Zook points out in Profit From The Core, smart companies realize that the bulk of their profits will come from current lines of business.

Take Smith Corona as an excellent example. Smith Corona was the best typewriter company for … well, a long time leading to the late 1980s and the development of the personal computer.

From then to the mid-1990s, they became a leader in technologies related to typewriters, such as:

Grammar checkers

Built-in dictionaries

Laptop word processor

PDA’s

So they had a strong foothold in personal computer word processing just as personal computers and word processing were in their infancy.

Interesting, no?

They were in a perfect position to transition from the typewriter market (which were soon to be digitally disrupted) to the word processing market.

But they didn’t pull the trigger.  Why may you be thinking?

My view and takeaways:

They viewed the personal computer market as a rival technology and market.

They believed they could win the competition by continued improvements in typewriter technology.

They found it too difficult to give up their ‘cash cow’ market position for a new market (Even if you suspect the long term forecast is pointing to your competition).

They were locked into one frame of reference and refused to consider alternative situational views.

It is all about the timing of decisions, the culture of change, and the ability to take risks. If you want to have any chance of avoiding digital disruption, you need to be able to make changes and do so before you have to.

Check out our thoughts on building innovation.

Innovation is only innovation if it’s useful. Otherwise, it’s just being creative or being unnecessary.

Innovation is what drives progress, what drives the human race one step closer to the impossibility of perfection.

In order to be innovative, you have to think differently. Here are 11 ways innovative people think differently from the rest:

Don’t forget innovation depends on many skills

Let’s go back to the story of Fleming and Penicillin. The reason that Fleming was unable to bring Penicillin to market was that, as a biologist, he lacked many of the requisite skills.  

depends on many skills
depends on many skills

It wasn’t until a decade later that two chemists, Howard Florey, and Ernst Boris Chain, picked up the problem and were able to synthesize penicillin.

Even then, it took people with additional expertise in fermentation and manufacturing to turn it into the miracle cure we know today.

Here is an interesting fact. From Dan Pink’s Blog, we found the following facts on innovation that we would like to share with you:

A study of the top 50 game-changing innovations over a 100 year period showed that nearly 80% of those innovations were sparked by someone whose primary expertise was outside the field in which the innovation breakthrough took place.

Wow!  80% created by someone outside the field where innovation occurred!

This isn’t the exception, but the norm. Darwin’s theory of natural selection borrowed ideas from Thomas Malthus, an economist, and Charles Lyell, a geologist. 

Watson and Crick’s discovery of DNA was not achieved by simply plowing away at the lab, but by incorporating discoveries in biology, chemistry and x-ray diffraction to inform their model building.

They take the time to understand

You can’t innovate unless you understand what already exists. Even if you think you understand the playing field, the fact is that you don’t.

Industries aren’t stagnant — unless they’re dying. And even then, there is so much information one can learn about any particular industry. Knowing everything is basically impossible.

And if the industry is still growing, it isn’t even possible to keep up with all the progress.

Nevertheless, the most innovative people understand unless they know the industry well enough, they will never understand what it’s lacking.

If you don’t know what industry is lacking, then you can’t possibly understand what innovations are needed.

They take the time to understand their target market

No matter what innovation you’re in the process of creating, it will involve people, living things.

You need to understand what it is your users need before you can give it to them.

That’s all that innovation really is: giving people what they need in a better, more efficient, and more pleasing way.

They’re problem solvers

There are plenty of trending businesses that do very well in the beginning, but then die out as soon as the trend shifts.

problems solvers
problems solvers

This is why the tech bubble will inevitably pop — too many “cool” startups are creating products and services that have “fun” as their single utility.

The problem with “fun” is it requires constant novelty and risks becoming boring. Innovation is a necessary part of progress and, therefore, goes beyond “fun.”

To innovate is to create to fill a necessity gap. If you aren’t solving problems, you’re only creating them.

They focus on being the best

You can innovate by creating a poor-quality product or service, but your business is going to eventually get beaten out by competitors; it happens all the time.

If you’re innovating and creating a crappy product and someone comes out with the same solution but better, what do you think is going to happen?

Even if you did come up with the idea, no one will remember because you won’t be around to tell the story.

They understand the critical nature of design

Apple is Apple because of the integration of design and utility.

Design alone won’t get you anywhere, but without a physical, visual appeal, you won’t get anywhere either.

If whatever you’re selling doesn’t look great and isn’t easy to use, it’s lacking. And if it’s lacking, it leaves room for improvement — improvement someone else is likely to act on.

They know the “rules” but know when to ignore them

You can’t innovate if you keep doing the same things everyone else does, the same way everyone else does them.

Rules of any industry are simply guidelines, starting points to build off or to tweak and change.

If you do things the way they have always been done, then you’re going to reach results that are too similar to those who have already been created.

They manage to thrive in the midst of uncertainty

The difficulty with innovating is the uncertainty that always accompanies it.

Innovation and uncertainty necessarily go hand in hand — how could you possibly be certain something is going to work if no one has ever done it before?

If it really is an innovation, whether or not it will take is a complete mystery.

They see efficiency as key

Innovation has always depended on making something better, meaning faster, easier, less costly, more useful.

Efficiency is the driving force behind innovation. Human beings love efficiency because it’s literally ingrained in our biology.

We have egos that are both incredibly lazy and only want the very best.

They get creative

Finally, when you understand what you’re working with, what people need, what they want, what you’re going to have to deal with, and how you’re going to overcome all the hurdles that are likely ahead of you, it’s time to get creative.

No idea is too silly until it’s too silly. Jotting, taking notes, doodling, bouncing ideas off of others — all part of the process.

They believe in themselves

Innovative individuals are only capable of being innovative because they believe they are capable of being innovative.

If you don’t believe you can accomplish something, then you’ll never break past the necessary threshold.

Innovation is difficult. It used to be easier, but even innovation has its limits — everything does.

It only makes sense that, as innovation solves problems, people will inevitably have fewer problems to solve.

If you don’t have the confidence and faith in yourself to push through all the muck, you’re going to end up giving up before you even get started. In fact, that’s what usually happens.

They focus on the vision

Believing in yourself is one thing. And not always an easy thing.

What makes it easier, however, is having a vision you believe in. If you believe in the product, the service, the company/team, then sometimes that’s enough.

Just bear in mind not everyone will believe in your vision. In fact, most probably won’t.

The bottom line

People like to poke at and make fun of others as a means of making themselves feel better for never accomplishing anything in their own lives.

Nevertheless, being the only one who believes something will work while most people disagree makes focusing on the end goal more difficult.

For this reason, you must be absolutely convinced what you’re working on is necessary.

What’s important to consider is that when a task is automated, it is also democratized and value shifts to another place. So, for example, e-commerce devalues the processing of transactions but increases the value of things like customer service, expertise, and resolving problems with orders, which is why we see all those smiling faces when we walk into an Apple Store.

That’s what we often forget about innovation. It’s essentially a very human endeavor and, to measure true progress, humans always need to be at the center.

Otherwise, all those schmucks may convince you

Success is not permament.
Success and failure.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of a business. Find him on  Twitter, and LinkedIn.  

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks

Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking

Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision

Procees is key.
Procees is key.

Proven ways of B2B Revenue Growth for Large Enterprise

In the push for B2B revenue growth, businesses are often caught in between budget restrictions, channel decisions, and creative anxieties, which leaves a lot to juggle when creating a marketing strategy.

However, the critical factor in ensuring revenue growth for your enterprise is your audience. When your B2B strategy fails to address the issues of your target audience adequately, then all your advertisements and promotions are futile. 

The onset of the digital age has brought in dramatic transformation upon the players in the B2B process. Today, most B2B purchase decisions are on the internet, and a significant percentage of those making the decisions are millennials.

In contrast to having one or a few people making purchasing decisions, organizations are now involving more and more people in the decision-making process.

For you to be generating B2B leads from online sources, your business needs to have a substantial digital presence, alongside a value-packed marketing strategy.

Over 90% of business buyers seek content that is educative and informative as opposed to pitchy content. Any large enterprise that aims to boost its B2B revenue growth should consider implementing the following strategies:

Segment your target market

Instead of generalizing your target audience, consider splitting it into small segments for a more personalized approach.

You can segment the target group based on geographical area, industry niche, size of the business, distribution channel, or product application. This way, you can generate more leads and increase your revenue as you can appeal to the specific characteristics of the target group more.

Adopt a highly personalized approach

Thanks to AI-motivated technologies, your business can extract valuable marketing data from various sources to help in developing a highly personalized and relevant B2B marketing strategy.

Such information can be obtained from company websites and social media pages and can be used to identify what your target needs. The report helps you develop relevant and smart content while at the same time, enabling a streamlined buying experience.

Learn to nurture leads

This is a simple case of working with what you have. Once you establish contact with a possible client, find a way to earn their business.

Focus less on the sales and instead emphasize the value you are offering by identifying what their needs could be. You will need to make the prospect aware of what you are offering but in an informational way that can set you apart.

Take note that nurturing leads is a process and may take a while before fully converting a prospect to a customer. Therefore, there is a need to communicate consistently with a potential client up until they become customers. This, however, does not mean that you should bombard clients with emails or calls, only reach out when there is a need.

Optimize your website and update your SEO efforts

If you already have a website, ensure that it is easy to navigate, visually appealing, and is rich in the relevant information. Also remarkable is the adaptability of your website to various devices.

However, a great design is pointless if clients cannot find you, therefore ensure you practice ethical SEO habits to make you visible.

Good SEO habits will drive quality traffic to your site through organic search engine results. You can use target keywords that are relevant to your service or product to make you visible on the search engines or employ the use of links to your site.

When you have highly ranked and relevant sites linking to your website, then the search engines will give more credibility to your site. It then results in higher rankings; hence, equivalent to higher visibility.

The pressure to quickly improve your revenue growth may tempt you to right away action on the above areas.

However, for any good strategy to work, you need to plan how and when to implement it carefully. Consequently, while generating leads online may seem like a promising idea, be sure to the first review and update your business model, to make it attractive to prospects.

The bottom line

The above actions are simply a guide and are not exhaustive of the things you can do to boost your revenues in B2B. Since the market is ever-changing, and so are the clients, it is upon you to stay up to date with the scene of B2B marketing to be able to stay afloat.

Author: Dennis Dubner, CEO of SONDORA MARKETING – a multilingual Digital Marketing Agency with HQ in Switzerland helping medium and large-sized businesses with achieving the accelerated growth through micro-targeted online marketing campaigns.

Market Analysis: The Business Intelligence Process Part 2

Whoever tries the most stuff usually wins. Does your business put a priority on its business market analysis process? Does it monitor your competitive analysis, marketplace trends and its understanding of market change? And most importantly, does it put a priority on making changes as a result of insights from this analysis? This is a four-part series on critical elements of business intelligence. This second part discusses the benefits of a market analysis and how to conduct it most effectively.

market analysis
Conducting a market analysis.

Here are links to all parts of this series:
How Is Your Business Intelligence Process Part 1 Overview
The Business Intelligence Process Part 3 Competitive Analysis
The Business Intelligence Process Part 4 SWOT Analysis
The market analysis is a key element of any business intelligence strategy. Do it right, and you will have a clear idea of the path down which you are headed. A good market analysis will enable you to lure investors, sidestep pitfalls, and most importantly, attract customers.
Bear in mind that all business markets are different, and they may be creating business plans and strategies for different reasons or audiences. If your business is quite small and you know your customers inside and out, this may not be the best use of your time. But that is usually not the case.
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If you are seeking funding, market analysis is going to be key data to convince your audience that your business idea has the facts and hard numbers to back it up. Or if you are seeing new trends in your market, it may be time to conduct an update to your market analysis to determine the best course of business action needed. With that said, let’s explore the details of writing a market analysis.

What is a market analysis?

A market analysis is exactly what it sounds like: determining the characteristics unique to your particular market and analyzing this information, which will help you make decisions for your business.
By conducting a market analysis, you will be able to gather valuable data that will help you get to know your customers, determine appropriate pricing and ways to market to customers and figure out your competitors’ vulnerabilities.

Market analysis and your business plan

It’s smart to write a business plan, especially if you are beginning a new business venture. Even if you’re a sole proprietor or don’t intend to borrow any money to get your business off the ground, it’s important to have a clear plan in place. The market analysis isn’t just one part of a successful business plan—it’s one of the best reasons to write one.
A solid business plan complete with market analysis will be invaluable. You’ll need to identify your potential customers and attract investors, and it will help you to be clear about what you want to do with your business, both now and in the future.
The time you spend doing the research and putting it all together will come back to you many times over in business success and problems avoided.
In addition, a market analysis is a great measuring stick you use over time to see how far you’ve come, and it allows you to make projections based on data rather than guesswork. Because you’ll know the size of the mountain you’re about to climb, you’ll be able to pace yourself and prevent problems in the future.

Importance of a market analysis

Although the terms “marketing” and “marketing analysis” can both be described as games of information, they are not to be confused. Marketing encompasses all of the activities that go into promoting a product or service. A market analysis is the actual assessment of the target population, competition, and needs for marketing that product or service.
The marketing analysis process can be broken down into six steps:
  1. Defining the problem
  2. Analysis of the situation
  3. Obtaining data that is specific to the problem
  4. Analysis and interpreting the data
  5. Fostering ideas and problem-solving
  6. Designing a plan
So, why should you embark on the market analysis process? The primary reasons are:
  • To determine if there is a market for your products or services
  • To establish the need for developing a marketing plan
  • To ascertain market information that will assist in the sale of your product or service

 Market Analysis Process

To begin the market analysis process, answer the following questions. These questions will enhance your understanding and knowledge of your target market and industry, and ultimately determine:
Is there a need for my product or service?
What defined market am I trying to reach?
What specific companies are servicing this market?
Are they successful?
Are there other companies servicing this market with a similar product?
Are they successful?
What is their market share?
Is the market saturated or wide open? If so, why?
What is the size of the market?
Is it a growing market?
Is the industry stable, volatile, growing or trendy?
How can I penetrate this market?
How do my competitors reach the market?
What are the business models of my competitors?
What do customers expect from this type of product or service?
What core competencies must the product or service have?
What are customers willing to pay for this type of product or service?
What is my competitive advantage?
Some direct ways to collect data useful for you answering these questions include:

Mail questionnaire

Is useful when extensive questioning is desired. This type of format allows the respondents to complete the questions at their convenience. They may be more willing to fill out personal or family sensitive issues since the mail questionnaire can be returned anonymously.
The questions must be simple and the directions easy to follow, since no interviewer will be present to assist.
The response rate to consumer survey questionnaires is roughly 25 percent. Response rates less than 25 percent may not be representative of the market. Only the individual interested might respond, skewing the data. Mail surveys are economical if a large number of people respond.
On the other hand, if the response rate is low, this can be a very expensive proposition. This format is slow and requires extensive time to design, disseminate, collect and analyze responses.
 

Telephone surveys 

These are growing in number, and they can be fast and effective. In this format market, researchers can ascertain answers to simple questions quickly. Telephone interviews allow the interviewer to probe and learn what the respondent is thinking.
If the market researcher is attempting to gather personal or family sensitive information, this is a poor tool.
Numerous firms exist for telemarketing surveys. One thousand respondents may be reached in a single evening when 50 interviewers are placing telephone survey calls. With immediate data entry into computers, results can be attained instantaneously. This format has gained popularity due to the speed and high response rates.
 

Personal interview surveys

These surveys can be effective for maintaining a respondent’s attention. In this format, the interviewer is present in order to explain difficult directions hopefully leading to better responses.
This type of interview is common in the retail and industrial setting. To reduce the cost of locating consumers, interviews are sometimes performed on-site. A random selection of consumers is questioned. Having a well-trained interviewer helps to decrease the chance of biasing the response.
There are a number of negatives to the personal interview survey. It is more expensive than a mailing or phone call, and at times the respondents won’t objectively answer all questions, especially ones dealing with sensitive family issues.
 

observation
Lots of observation.

 

Observation

With observation, researchers try to learn what the subject does naturally. Observations should not influence the consumer’s behavior. Observation methods are common in advertising research.

Market analysis requirements

Your market analysis should include an overview of your industry, a look at your target market, your own projections for your business, and any regulations you’ll need to comply with.

Industry description and outlook

This is where you’ll discuss the current state of your industry overall and where it’s headed. Relevant industry metrics like size, trends, life cycle, and projected growth should all be included here.
This will let banks or investors see that you know what you’re doing, and have done your homework and come prepared with the data to back up your business idea.

target market
Establish a target market.

 Target market

In the previous section of your market analysis, you were able to look at the general scope. In this section, you’ve got to be specific. It’s important to establish a clear idea of your target market early on.
A lot of new entrepreneurs make the rookie mistake of thinking that everyone is their potential market.  To put it simply, they’re not.
This is a good thing—by focusing on your real customers, you’ll be able to direct your marketing efforts efficiently while attracting loyal customers who will spread the word about your business. The target market section of your business plan should include the following:
User Persona and Characteristics: You’ll want to include demographics such as age, income, and location here. You’ll also need to dial into your customers’ psychographics as well. You should know what their interests and buying habits are, as well as be able to explain why you’re in the best position to meet their needs.
 
Market size: This is where you want to get real, both with the potential readers of your business plan and with yourself. Do your research and find out who and where your competitors are, and how much your customers spend annually on your product or service. How big is the potential market for your business?
 Keep exploring: 10 Growth Hacking Tactics … What Would Peter Drucker Say?

Projections

Market share: When you know how much money your future customers spend, you’ll know how much of the market you have a chance to grab. Be practical, but don’t sell yourself short. Make sure you are able to explain how you came up with your numbers.
 
Pricing and gross margin: This is where you’ll lay out your pricing structure and discuss any discounts you plan to offer. Your gross margin is the difference between your cost and the sales price. Again, be realistic yet optimistic. Optimistic projections not only serve as a guide, they can be a motivator.

Regulations

Are there any specific governmental regulations or restrictions on your market? If so, you’ll need to bring them up here and discuss how you’re going to comply with them. You will also need to address the cost of compliance. Addressing these issues is essential if you are seeking investment or money from a lender, and everything has to be legally squared away and above board.

 

 

How to do the research

Market analyses vary from industry to industry and company to company. The hard truth is that some of the information you wish to include may not be publicly available. A little estimation is okay, but the bulk of your numbers need to be based on facts. Here are some good places to start your market research:
Your current customers: If your business is already up and running, your current customers are an invaluable resource. They are your existing market. You can use online surveys or social media to gather feedback about buying habits, needs, and other psychographic information.
U.S. Census Bureau: Here’s where you’ll find demographics you can use to figure out your market share. There is plenty of other information you can use in your market analysis here as well.
Business.gov: The go-to place for national industry information, as well as links for state and local resources.
U.S. Small Business Administration: The SBA offers industry guides, development programs, and local resources, as well as loan guarantees when the time comes.
Bureau of Labor Statistics: The BLS is the place to find out where your industry has been and where it is headed.
Commerce.gov: The U.S. Department of Commerce has a lot of good general information that you may be able to use, depending on your industry.

The bottom line

Continually rework elements of your market analysis, particularly your discrimination and value proposition.
The key to success here is realizing that this is a marathon and not a sprint. If you examine the competition in the top areas mentioned above and create a plan to overcome, you will win long term.
Monitoring your competition is a small, but important component of a successful digital marketing plan. No business exists in a vacuum, so you must be aware of your environment.
Will you be the one to stand out?
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Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
 
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
  
More reading on a business process from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Change Management Case Study… 7 Volatile Challenges to Overcome
Business Blog … Learning from the Best Examples
The Business Intelligence Process Part 4 SWOT Analysis
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