Here’s one of my worries as we continue to trudge through the murky waters of the recession. Business owners have always been an impatient lot, when it comes to marketing efforts. They plant the seed and then two days later, when nothing has sprouted, they dig up the seeds before they’ve had a chance to take root. Tactics that would have worked, given enough time, are aborted before they’ve had a chance. Lots of wasted time. Lots of wasted money.
But with the pressures of tougher times, I worry that the impatience factor will get even worse. And there are a lot of businesses who can’t afford too many missteps.
So before you invest in a marketing effort, be sure you are willing to hang in there and take into account these factors:
How often do people need/want it? If you run a restaurant or sell ice cream …. you’re in luck. Mail a coupon on Tuesday and you might see the family, coupon in hand, by Saturday. But on average, someone buys a car every 3-5 years. Own a car dealership and you might wait 18+ months after your first ad to see that person in your door.
Who the heck are you? Does the prospect recognize your brand? Do they know what you are all about? What makes you different from your competitors?
Who else is talking? Just like at a party, if you are the only voice talking, it’s a lot easier to be heard. But, if you are one of many and others are talking louder and faster …. you can easily get lost in the din.
Where are you talking? What would happen if you stood up right in the middle of a church service and started talking? You’d get noticed, wouldn’t you? That’s because you are doing something unexpected in an unexpected place.
What are you saying? The most important factor of all. Are you talking about what the consumer cares about or are you talking about you?
If you’re on the agency side, how do you help clients have the patience to let a campaign take root? If you’re a business owner/marketer — how do manage expectations within your organization so that your efforts are given enough time to have impact?
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Drew, you make a good point on patience. It’s one of the most common mistakes to look at leads based on who they are (right company, right exec, etc), and then conclude that they must be ready for a sales call. Looking at whether they are ready to buy *now* is much more critical, and you capture that well with your post.
Excellent post!
I’ve always found this a challenge and so I often take the time to point out that marketing is a “Managed Investment” it’s a savings account and helps ensure that sales will still have leads next quarter…
Great post. To help manage expectations within an organization, we need to make sure we clearly communicate what the expectation is and how long it will take. It’s also important to let your organization know that a situation may get worse before it gets better. That’s a tough sell.
Drew,
The biggest challenge we consultants have is overcoming clients’ impatience. In fact, if we are completely honest with clients about the time required for our solutions to work, at least some will not hire us.
For me, I believe in complete honesty so when a client hires our firm, it often is on retainer because they understand results take time.
Drew,
You have hit on one of the key success factors to be considered by business.
One of my personal passions, and a tactic that is very important during a recession, is customer marketing. It’s a hard sell. It’s not glamorous, no TV spots, and requires patience, lots of patience, to be successful. But, if you stick to it, it can build your business with unmatched efficiency. I’ve seen 20% revenue growth from customer marketing in the face of withering competition and negligible share growth.
Have patience, keep at it, and you will be an overnight success in a year or two.
Drew,
Good points on both the demand generation/pipeline side, and the awareness/reputation side. In my experience the (im)patience problem is more acute on the demand gen side, since these efforts are easier to measure and translate more directly into revenue. As you point out, this is likely to get worse as B2B and B2C customers stretch out their buying cycles, spend more time analyzing options, etc.
Great post, Drew! We run into this problem with web marketing things that aren’t paid search. It takes 30-90 days to see the ranking improvement and effects from changing the site up. When you stick to it and let the results build, great things happen.
It’s sad (but not very surprising) to speak with people who have gone from company to company starting a program, getting to the point just before the results show, then they panic and pull out and go to find another company. Of course you’ve been through five agencies and not seen results. An imperfect(but stuck to) strategy would give much better results than a half dozen brilliant, abandoned ones.
Steven,
I don’t know about you…but unless the prospect comes to us, waving buying signals, I assume they’re not ready to buy right now.
After a conversation or two, I might alter that opinion but I try never to walk into a situation assuming there’s an immediate sale to be made.
Even worse is when a company chases a prospect for a bit and then, due to impatience, pulls the plug right before the prospect was ready to bite.
Drew
Giles,
We tell clients that unless they’re ready to invest in something for a minimum of 6 months (in general), they shouldn’t bother starting.
It’s simply a waste of their money if they aren’t going to invest as you say, as opposed to buy for the short term.
Drew
Scott,
Very true — it can be a tough sell to management. I think that’s one of the reasons why there are so many bad or abandoned blogs out there.
In this example, it’s not so much the money being spent, it is the staff time. When it doesn’t become an overnight sensation, many companies walk away from their newly hatched blogs and just call it a mistake.
I think it is even a tougher sell when you’re on the inside. You don’t have the “consultant” or “agency” outside authority to lean on.
Drew
Lewis,
Odds are, those aren’t clients we should take on, anyway. And I know that’s what you are saying, in your case.
You’d rather warn them about the slow drip nature of marketing and lose a prospect or two, as opposed to having a very unhappy client fire you 6 months later.
If everyone behaved that way, our industry wouldn’t have the reputation it sometimes does.
Drew
Hey James,
When you say customer marketing, are you talking about marketing to your existing client base?
If so, I wholeheartedly agree with you. It’s mission critical during a recession but I think it should be a staple of any marketing plan for all companies.
But you are right — it’s not sexy or new. So lots of people bypass the solid strategy for the shiny new object.
What is your favorite current client marketing strategy?
Drew
David,
You bring up a good distinction. When someone thinks of a marketing effort as awareness or branding…they seem to have more patience.
But in today’s economy, I suspect there are few companies who can afford to market simply for image. Just about everyone is trying to create some sort of action/reaction. That’s when the impatience really threatens marketing efforts that would have worked, if given enough time and resource.
Drew
Sara,
Ahhh, that’s something I should have mentioned. Sadly…mediocre creative — delivered on a consistent enough basis, will work far better than brilliant creative pulled after it has run a few times.
Your point is right on the money. Better to land on a solid idea and let it really run its course than either wait for brilliance or pull the plug every month.
Drew
Happy New Year, Drew! Your point is an excellent one, as usual.
I don’t think this impatience, however, is strictly a marketing issue. I believe it’s part of our society as a whole. People, in general, expect instant everything. I call it the “Sesame Street Generation.” Something needs to change or happen every 30 seconds. Marketing results are just one example.
Drew,
In my lexicon, Customer Marketing is marketing to your existing customers. Prospect Marketing is, well, marketing to prospects
I have five principles for Customer Relationship Marketing that I work with. They are built around the idea that a relationship is earned and not the automatic result of a purchase. They are:
1. Attract the right customers for the right reasons
2. The most crucial time in is the beginning
3. In established relationships continually reinforce the decision to buy
4. Good customers expect to be rewarded
5. The second most crucial time is when the relationship is at risk
Definitely not sexy but if you build your customer marketing strategy around these principles and stick to it you will have success.
You need directions, too bad there are so many ways one could go wrong.
worry is impatience, just a different suit, so of course you sees that stuff
You’re absolutely right. Attracting the right customers for the right reasons is the foundation of successful business. That, and as you allude, doing more than what is expected of you.
Elaine,
And if our generation is all about instant gratification, what do you suppose text messages, cell phones at the age of 10 and Tivo is going to create in the upcoming generations?
Drew
James,
Thanks for the additional information and process.
I have often written about the dangers in being enamored with chasing the new and ignoring the old.
As you say, dancing with the one that brought you is probably not as sexy, but in the end it’s a lot smarter.
Drew
Gregory,
“Worry is impatience, just in a different coat.”
Wow…is that true. And when someone is scared or worried, they flit around, can’t hold still etc.
So, to help clients do the right thing and be patient with it, we need to remove their worries.
Maybe that felt obvious to you…but great insight for me. Thank you!
Drew
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Fantastic post. Needs be read most by those who don’t read MP – you’re preaching to the converts, here! – so this is a great pass-along piece.
Expectation management is absolutely critical, as is education often. That breakthrough awareness only comes from repeated exposure, and that takes time. From the agency side, you need a marketing champion on the inside who gets that.
As mentioned by some of the others, better to pass on prospective clients who expect significant results in a “month” (or three or six, depending on the nature of the product or service, its baseline awareness and the type of campaign). They’ll likely come back later (and thank you for the honesty).
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