EVERY Thursday at 1pm Made in Britain hosts #madeinbritainhour on Twitter. During that hour Made in Britain asks questions of its 19,500 followers and the results are fascinating. Previously this information was enjoyed by the audience at the time and then left to drift away in the Twittersphere, rarely read again. So, we have decided to capture some of the best comments and re-present them for a new audience and easy reference. Some of the responses have been edited.
20 August 2020 - marketing
Question one: What actually is marketing? Isn't it just sales and adverts combined?
Response: “Marketing includes sales and advertising but is so much more. It follows a strategy that will put your company and offering in front of your target market. It includes management of your brand, positioning, product/service, pricing, channels and all promotions.”
Response: “Marketing is the 90%: research, analysis and understanding the customer. Advertising/promotion and sales are the outcomes (10%) from the analysis that gives you the intelligence to make informed decisions. Marketing and sales are two different jobs.”
Response: “Ultimately it's a set of processes within your strategy that gets you to your desired target markets or position within your industry. This can be done through creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging knowledge and content.”
Response: “Marketing is the whole business: everything it does and everything it doesn't. Every single member of the team (no matter what their job/dept) is in the business of Marketing the company. Receptionist down to the CEO & if you forget this - give up, save time.”
Response: “I'd say it's predominantly communication to create awareness. You can't get to the selling part if you haven't made people aware of what you offer and why they need it.”
Response: “Marketing... convincing the potential customer you can solve their problem. At the right price. The problem can be how to dress well, how to travel from A to B, or how to get the right titanium alloy."
Question two: We've all heard about the 4Ps of marketing: Price, Product, Place, Promotion. How many businesses actually give their marketing teams control of these?
Response: “The 4 Ps that takes me back to my studies as part of my languages degree. Now I see companies just focussed on getting social media posts out and not as part of a wider marketing strategy, which is why many times they fail in their objectives.”
Question three: What is the best piece of marketing advice you have ever been given?
Response: “Many are thinking it the panacea of new sales. Reading the content of many companies tweets they are talking to the wrong people. Too many are trying to force the sales and not trying to start the conversation.”
Response: “I'd say it's predominantly communication to create awareness. You can't get to the selling part if you haven't made people aware of what you offer and why they need it.”
Response: “Know and understand your market, keep tabs on it to remain relevant and look at the trends in its purchasing behaviours to help you adjust your own programmes.”
Response: “Focus on the benefits, not the features. I've always liked the lesson in the basics of marketing. People don't buy a drill because they want a drill. What they need is a hole. When you frame it like that you realise that your competition is not just drills, but anything else that could be used to bodge a hole in something.”
Response: “Problem, solution, call to action! If you understand the problems your customers are having, you can understand why they need your product/service and solve their issues by tailoring to fit to their needs!”
Response: “Know your customers, what they buy from you and what you sell them. It is not always the same thing. If you do not have customers, you do not have a business.”
Response: “It instantly clicked in my head when someone told me, ‘Marketing isn't about advertising to get an order in, it's about creating your brand’. This really spoken volumes to me and I've kept this in mind when making all marketing decisions.”
Response: “Persistence will get a sale, consistency will keep it.”
Response: “Don't trust anyone saying they have the 'Ultimate Marketing Tip' for you. 1-size does NOT fit all. In fact, 1-size does not even fit 1-company forever ... markets, economies, customers, products evolve all the time.”
Response: “Know your audience and know your company.”
Response: “Marketing and sales needed to be joined up. There’s no point in raising awareness and generating leads in one area of the business if the sales team is focussed elsewhere.”
Question four: Awareness is a big part of this topic. Do you think that the attention, interest, desire and action (AIDA) model is quite a useful tool to consider?
Response: “The AIDA model is still relevant even though the consumer's journey is adapting to more online focus - the time spent researching is getting shorter as they can now look for more online referrals and do faster comparison of offerings but they are in theory still following the model.”
Question five: What are the quick fixes a small manufacturer with a limited marketing budget can implement to help boost sales?
Response: “Sell more to the customers you already have. Arrange to meet with your customers and make it a regular thing. Ask them if they have any contacts they could refer you to. Make it a regular activity.”
Response: “Once again it depends on the market and the specific circles of influence. If the market is not on social media, it is useless pushing all the budget there. Research and understand where it picks up its information. PR is a long-tail activity but still effective in the right spheres.”
Response: “Quick fixes only work in the B2C market places; and here only price in one guise or another works. In the a B2B market place all quick fixes simply steal sales from the future and it will catch up with you. #socialmedia & PR are longer-term strategies for B2B.”
Question six: What is a brand strategy and do I need one?
Response: “Brand strategy is the linchpin underpinning all your activities. It is the entire experience the general public, including your prospects and customers, have with your company and offering. It is in an actual fact, the promise you make as a company.”
Response: “All businesses should have a brand strategy to some degree, even if it isn't written down! Start by looking at your competition and then look into consumer behaviour. You may find a gap that you could fill with some strategic planning.”
Response: “A brand strategy is necessary, even if you only have a website and a brochure. If you don't have one, it is worth speaking to a brand practitioner as it is the best investment you can make - it will last and add ongoing value to your bottom line.”
Response: “Brand is a manifestation of our company values and mission, so of course, a strategy is necessary. Our values colour our content and relationships keeping us accountable to our beliefs.”
Response: “Brand Strategy: the entire experience staff, customers and prospects have with a company, product/service. Defining what you stand for. It includes creative elements such as a logo, colour palette and a tagline. A key part of a company's wider marketing plan.”
Response: “Branding is essential, it's the first thing people see! So, a branding strategy is so important to manage what you do and say, aligning with tone of voice, values and mission in order to understand how your customers feel about your company!”
Response: “Is it the first thing that they are looking for when they come across you, or are they interested in finding out how you can make their lives better, solve a problem, remove pain?”
Response: “More people are unaware of your products and company that are. Branding comes from years of persistence and maintaining loyalty from and with your customers. You can lose it in a single Tweet or policy change.”
Response: “You get bored of your brand/branding long before the customers and the markets get bored of it. Is there a danger of reinventing it when you get bored? Confusing the customers and brand loyalists.”
Response: “Consistency is everything with your brand - making it simple and consistent will make it memorable and understood. A strategy is crucial to make sure everything you do is aligned to the overall message. It should also line up with the overall business strategy.”
Response: “Simple and consistent - do some businesses try to overcomplicate what they do? For sure. It actually takes a lot of effort to be simple and consistent. It's that whole, ‘Apologies for the long letter, I didn't have time to write a short one’ issue.”
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By Made in Britain 3 years ago | By Made in Britain