Yet again one of my favorite forms of assignments is here! Writing on my blog, updating my progress in my quest for my degree and keeping my readers informed of what's going on since I dropped out of my social circles in 2015 to accomplish this task.
This week the assignment is to blog about marketing objectives, what they are, and how to apply them. To break it down very simply marketing objectives are the organized goals for a marketing plan. They define the purpose and goals in clearly stated ways so everyone can get on the same page and they know what they are working towards.
For example if the goal is brand awareness and you lay out a social media strategy then everyone knows what the goal is, they'll know how to measure that goal with the amount of comments, shares, likes, etc. and they'll know where to improve.
That's just a rudimentary example but to more clearly define the goals they should be measured against the acronym, SMART. SMART goals are the measuring stick so the team doesn't get off track.
S - Specific goals must be defined.
M - Measurable so you can quantify the results in such a way that you know where you stand and where you need to be.
A - Achievable means that they must be realistic goals. You can't just say you're overtaking the brand awareness of Coca-Cola with your brand in two weeks. Doesn't work that way, that's not achievable.
R - Relevant means that your marketing goals must align with the brand, the company's objectives, and stakeholders.
T - Time Frame means that there must be a starting point, middle, and end point to the goals. They can be broken down in smaller, more achievable goals but each one must have a time frame in which they are accomplished and measured.
Let me give you an example of what worked on me. I purchased a Yeti colster which holds a 12 ounce can and keeps the liquid either very hot or very cold for hours and hours. Much longer than you'd need to worry about with just 12 ounces. Well I registered this product for the lifetime warranty and enjoyed it so much I'm buying several of them for Christmas presents and having them personalized.
Since registering Yeti has offered me deals on free shipping, I got a pack of free stickers (good and free advertising for them, a t shirt would have done much more in that regard for me) and of course the warrant. The point is they email me about every three or four days with some kind of information about their products so they remain relevant. It just so happens it gave me the idea for Christmas presents as well when I got an email about the customized products.
Their marketing worked on me! Their plan is good, and they have quantified my purchases and measured them to be able to tell if their strategy is working or not. Again if they sent me a free shirt, I'd wear it and then there would be even more marketing and brand awareness. Perhaps they should incorporate that into their next plan.
Monday, November 19, 2018
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Market Segmentation
I had no idea so many blog posts would be necessary for my degree but I'm glad that I'm a veteran blogger as this is a snap to do! In this assignment I'm defining market segmentation. Market segmentation is how groups of people are defined in order to market to them more effectively.
This can be geographically, gender, race, by income, psychographically and more. For instance if you had a fresh out of high school kid with their first job in retail earning maybe ten dollars an hour, chances are they don't own a house yet. Maybe they own a hand me down car but it's on it's last legs and needs costly repairs and it's more cost effective to buy a new used car in which you will have a better asset.
They go to the car lot and see this kid and what they drive and likely will not market a high end vehicle to them that they can't afford, so they'll ask such questions as what's your income. Do you own or rent, How many incomes are in the house. Do they have any down payment money, questions like this to gauge what they should be showing the new client.
They probably can determine pretty quickly what someone can afford by just a few questions, this is segmentation. Essentially they are asking for a verbal survey. A survey is a great tool to determine how your product can be marketed. You can find out who is interested in your product, what do they like or dislike about your product, is the price high or low, and with a survey you can start to gauge which segments your product can appeal to and how to broaden that appeal to a larger audience. A survey can be done pre-purchase or post-purchase making it a very valuable tool!
Another great tool to help is to develop a target consumer profile. This tool goes from the basis that your consumers have things in common. Whether it's geography, income levels, genders, or perhaps belief systems there is something that prompts your consumers to buy your product. When you determine who your average consumer is with a consumer profile you will be able to market your goods or service much more effectively.
Both are very effective when it comes to finding the sweet spot for your marketing campaigns!
This can be geographically, gender, race, by income, psychographically and more. For instance if you had a fresh out of high school kid with their first job in retail earning maybe ten dollars an hour, chances are they don't own a house yet. Maybe they own a hand me down car but it's on it's last legs and needs costly repairs and it's more cost effective to buy a new used car in which you will have a better asset.
They go to the car lot and see this kid and what they drive and likely will not market a high end vehicle to them that they can't afford, so they'll ask such questions as what's your income. Do you own or rent, How many incomes are in the house. Do they have any down payment money, questions like this to gauge what they should be showing the new client.
They probably can determine pretty quickly what someone can afford by just a few questions, this is segmentation. Essentially they are asking for a verbal survey. A survey is a great tool to determine how your product can be marketed. You can find out who is interested in your product, what do they like or dislike about your product, is the price high or low, and with a survey you can start to gauge which segments your product can appeal to and how to broaden that appeal to a larger audience. A survey can be done pre-purchase or post-purchase making it a very valuable tool!
Another great tool to help is to develop a target consumer profile. This tool goes from the basis that your consumers have things in common. Whether it's geography, income levels, genders, or perhaps belief systems there is something that prompts your consumers to buy your product. When you determine who your average consumer is with a consumer profile you will be able to market your goods or service much more effectively.
Both are very effective when it comes to finding the sweet spot for your marketing campaigns!
Wednesday, November 07, 2018
Mobile Marketing
The streak of having a class which requires blog posts continues! As I've said in previous marketing posts, this is a great way to measure where I am in college while accomplishing an assignment! This term I took Mobile Marketing as one of my degree requirements. This seems to be a very practical class that I can apply in future marketing endeavors! I'm excited to be in this class and so far after going over the assignments and final milestone, it meets everything I was hoping for!
This is module two and my assignment is to discuss the advantages of mobile marketing devices such as phones and tablets over traditional marketing channels. Then address how mobile campaigns lead consumers to the point of sale, generate contacts, or enable consumer loyalty programs along with some strategies that fixes the common constraints of mobile marketing.
The advantages of mobile marketing over traditional channels is blindingly bright! Years ago you had to place an ad in the paper to get noticed or buy radio or TV ads, even when the consumer version of the Internet was growing into its own in the mid-90's. Even in the dial-up days the traditional methods were more convenient and garnered much more attention.
When broadband started to roll out, the Internet still wasn't a for sure bet for marketing. You had places where you could place ads but if they had no traffic, well no one would notice. Gradually overtime classified websites popped up like Craigslist. A site dedicated to selling what ever to whom ever. Again after another evolution pop up ads started which annoyed everyone and made the marketers probably among the most hated people on earth.
Thankfully after the development of popup-blockers they caught on and started to embed their ads into the site itself. Ads that seemed to have mystery audio and you had to scroll the page to find the video and turn it off. Then the big evolution, the world shaking evolution began. The invention of smart phones! All of a sudden there was a device that had unlimited potential for marketers! One device that allowed you to browse the Internet, check your email. send text messages, download apps and use them anywhere there was a cell or wi-fi signal and all of that fit in your pocket!
A few generations later the smart phone is probably the most common thing in the world that everyone has! The homeless guy at the quick shop I frequent has a smart phone that he listens to baseball games on in the summer. He has a bike, backpack, and a smart phone. It's a necessity in today's world. I have a co-worker that is very rare in that he does not have wi-fi at home but he's got a 5 thousand dollar smart TV and he watches cable on it but that's another story, anyway he's got a smart phone!
I can't think of anyone I know that doesn't have one in fact. All of that means to a marketer that they are potential eyes to see a marketing campaign. I've gone weeks without turning on my TV where as I use my iphone and ipad each day, many times per day! I've typed out assignments on my ipad at work, that's how much I use these devices and I can imagine many of my fellow students do the same on their devices!
Personally I believe email marketing is the most effective form of mobile marketing. Not unsolicited email spam but email from businesses you are interested in. For example one site I frequently check prices and opted into their email list had a flash sale that was site wide for Election Day yesterday. Whatever you bought you took an additional 5% off with the email code which made for some really good bargains and I took advantage of it! I got a couple of really good deals on some supplies I use a lot of! That one email lead me to the point of sale and I might have even spent a bit more than I had wanted but the prices don't get that low normally, or haven't in the past few months that I follow their prices. So I'd call that very effective and they got me to pull the trigger on some items I've had in my shopping cart for a while, then taken out, then replaced again.
That is something I could never do with a newspaper ad, radio ad, or TV ad. You'd have to make an ad buy and plan out the sale before it happened, record or shoot the commercials, schedule when it'd run, and then direct consumers to your website. With modern turn key shopping sites you can adjust your prices, develop a discount code, and send out an email to everyone on your list in less than five minutes, maybe a bit more with an HTML email with graphics and the cost would be practically free. A marketing agency in town usually starts a campaign around ten thousand dollars and it goes up from there. Mobile Marketing wins easily!
Having a mobile optimized version of your website is essential. No one wants to scroll around on a smart device because you're only seeing 15% of the site on your screen. You want to see everything you need and be able to check out with a minimum of hassle.
Lately another advantage of mobile marketing that I caught onto was fast food places that offer mobile only deals on their app menus. You can usually find QR code coupons that you can't get by walking in but if you have that specific chain app you can find them and get some nice discounts. I've gotten discounted meals or been able to buy one sandwich and get a free side and drink with the mobile QR codes. More businesses can catch onto this and be able to likely expand their clientele.
A common disadvantage of mobile marketing is unwanted messages, robocalls, or thousands of unwanted emails that fill up your inbox. When that happens it is hard to distinguish your product from the scams and fake emails or texts campaigns. When the consumer knows that your business won't sell your email to other companies or require you to opt into their email list, they feel much more secure about the legitimacy of your business. Being up front with their security, to me, is essential. This is also a way to generate a large marketing list which got me to spend more than I had bargained for, darn my impulse buying!
Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2018, from https://www.thebrandonagency.com/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mobile-marketing/
DeMers, J. (2016, May 25). 4 Mobile Marketing Strategies That Will Boost Engagement And Sales. Retrieved November 7, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/05/25/4-mobile-marketing-strategies-that-will-boost-engagement-and-sales/#4c0343be2514
This is module two and my assignment is to discuss the advantages of mobile marketing devices such as phones and tablets over traditional marketing channels. Then address how mobile campaigns lead consumers to the point of sale, generate contacts, or enable consumer loyalty programs along with some strategies that fixes the common constraints of mobile marketing.
The advantages of mobile marketing over traditional channels is blindingly bright! Years ago you had to place an ad in the paper to get noticed or buy radio or TV ads, even when the consumer version of the Internet was growing into its own in the mid-90's. Even in the dial-up days the traditional methods were more convenient and garnered much more attention.
When broadband started to roll out, the Internet still wasn't a for sure bet for marketing. You had places where you could place ads but if they had no traffic, well no one would notice. Gradually overtime classified websites popped up like Craigslist. A site dedicated to selling what ever to whom ever. Again after another evolution pop up ads started which annoyed everyone and made the marketers probably among the most hated people on earth.
Thankfully after the development of popup-blockers they caught on and started to embed their ads into the site itself. Ads that seemed to have mystery audio and you had to scroll the page to find the video and turn it off. Then the big evolution, the world shaking evolution began. The invention of smart phones! All of a sudden there was a device that had unlimited potential for marketers! One device that allowed you to browse the Internet, check your email. send text messages, download apps and use them anywhere there was a cell or wi-fi signal and all of that fit in your pocket!
A few generations later the smart phone is probably the most common thing in the world that everyone has! The homeless guy at the quick shop I frequent has a smart phone that he listens to baseball games on in the summer. He has a bike, backpack, and a smart phone. It's a necessity in today's world. I have a co-worker that is very rare in that he does not have wi-fi at home but he's got a 5 thousand dollar smart TV and he watches cable on it but that's another story, anyway he's got a smart phone!
I can't think of anyone I know that doesn't have one in fact. All of that means to a marketer that they are potential eyes to see a marketing campaign. I've gone weeks without turning on my TV where as I use my iphone and ipad each day, many times per day! I've typed out assignments on my ipad at work, that's how much I use these devices and I can imagine many of my fellow students do the same on their devices!
Personally I believe email marketing is the most effective form of mobile marketing. Not unsolicited email spam but email from businesses you are interested in. For example one site I frequently check prices and opted into their email list had a flash sale that was site wide for Election Day yesterday. Whatever you bought you took an additional 5% off with the email code which made for some really good bargains and I took advantage of it! I got a couple of really good deals on some supplies I use a lot of! That one email lead me to the point of sale and I might have even spent a bit more than I had wanted but the prices don't get that low normally, or haven't in the past few months that I follow their prices. So I'd call that very effective and they got me to pull the trigger on some items I've had in my shopping cart for a while, then taken out, then replaced again.
That is something I could never do with a newspaper ad, radio ad, or TV ad. You'd have to make an ad buy and plan out the sale before it happened, record or shoot the commercials, schedule when it'd run, and then direct consumers to your website. With modern turn key shopping sites you can adjust your prices, develop a discount code, and send out an email to everyone on your list in less than five minutes, maybe a bit more with an HTML email with graphics and the cost would be practically free. A marketing agency in town usually starts a campaign around ten thousand dollars and it goes up from there. Mobile Marketing wins easily!
Having a mobile optimized version of your website is essential. No one wants to scroll around on a smart device because you're only seeing 15% of the site on your screen. You want to see everything you need and be able to check out with a minimum of hassle.
Lately another advantage of mobile marketing that I caught onto was fast food places that offer mobile only deals on their app menus. You can usually find QR code coupons that you can't get by walking in but if you have that specific chain app you can find them and get some nice discounts. I've gotten discounted meals or been able to buy one sandwich and get a free side and drink with the mobile QR codes. More businesses can catch onto this and be able to likely expand their clientele.
A common disadvantage of mobile marketing is unwanted messages, robocalls, or thousands of unwanted emails that fill up your inbox. When that happens it is hard to distinguish your product from the scams and fake emails or texts campaigns. When the consumer knows that your business won't sell your email to other companies or require you to opt into their email list, they feel much more secure about the legitimacy of your business. Being up front with their security, to me, is essential. This is also a way to generate a large marketing list which got me to spend more than I had bargained for, darn my impulse buying!
Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2018, from https://www.thebrandonagency.com/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mobile-marketing/
DeMers, J. (2016, May 25). 4 Mobile Marketing Strategies That Will Boost Engagement And Sales. Retrieved November 7, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/05/25/4-mobile-marketing-strategies-that-will-boost-engagement-and-sales/#4c0343be2514
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)