And we’re back. A few weeks ago I spoke to you about Social Media and the role it plays within the Consumer Journey. This week, I want to discuss the creation of an online marketing strategy that’ll get you the results you are looking for.
Because this is a large and important topic, I’ve decided to split the process into a four part series that’ll last for the next eight weeks. So be sure to check back in for the full story. Here’s what we’ll cover:
I. Identifying your Business Goals
a. Business Problems
b. Goals
c. Budget
d. Timing
II. Insight Mining
a. Strategy Informing Insights
b. Idea Informing Insights
c. Creating Insightful Questions
III. Strategy a. Defining a Plan of Action
IV. Communication Frameworks & Execution
a. Defining Channel Distribution
b. Creating Messaging
c. Defining Different Media Platforms
d. Creative Execution
Now that you know what this series will consist of, let’s get started.
I. Identifying your Business Goals
To ensure you have a good strategy in place you first have to identity where your business problems lie. Ask yourself these questions:
- What is your biggest barrier to success?
- What is stopping you from being more successful?
To help you define your problem, use the consumer journey marketing funnel I presented to you in the article "Why Social Media Fails".
Is your major barrier building awareness of your product? Are people having a hard time finding your brand? Do enough people know about the brand? If this is the case, you’ll have to focus on the Search and Discovery stage of the consumer journey.
Is the problem in the consideration stage? Do you have many visitors land on your site, but do not contact you? Then your business problem might be in the Assess stage; there simply might not be enough of the necessary information to help visitors make the decision to buy your product.
What about the post purchase phase? Do you have buyers but never hear from them past purchasing your product? Then your business problem lies within the Connect and Consume stages. If a number of people are buying your product but are not advocating it, you are missing out on a substantial advantage for your product. Likewise, if you lose contact with your consumers it becomes much harder to make them aware of other products you may be bringing to market.
Based on questions such as these you can determine what your personal barrier to success is.
Determine your type of product.
Now that you have identified where your barrier to success is, you’ll have to identity where your product falls within the FCB Grid. The FCB Grid was developed by Richard Vaughn to clarify how consumers approach the buying process for different products.
The FCB Grid will help in establishing how you should position your product in their specific market.
Answer these questions:
- How involved will the user be with your product/service?
- Based on the type of product, will the user base their buying decision on rational considerations or emotional impulses?
Use the image above to help you in answering these questions. Knowing where your product/service falls within the FCB Grid will give you insight into how you should market your product effectively.
Thinking/High Involvement
Product and services that fall under this quadrant are usually cars, homes and furnishings. P&S that the buyer will use for an extensive amount of time and require a large investment.
To market these products and services effectively, take on an informative approach. Use heavy copy which provides detailed information on the product. Use two-sided arguments, present the strongest argument last.
Feeling/High Involvement
P&S that fall under this quadrant tend to be jewelry, cosmetics, and fashion goods and appearance products - products that one might buy to feel good or portray a certain image.
To market these types of products, use psychological appeal: heavy imagery, little copy, vicarious emotional experiences. In short, sell them the desired image and position the product or service as a way of achieving this status.
Thinking/Low Involvement
These usually consist of P&S that don’t require must involvement on the part of the user. These include everyday products such as household cleaning items or toiletries. Because they are low involvement but still require rational thinking, provide primary reasons why this product is better than the rest.
Here, you’ll want to use one-sided arguments, present the strongest argument first, and provide a conclusion for the consumer. Using frequent reminders can keep the product fresh in the mind of customers. This is also a great way to create brand loyalty as the consumer may end up identifying with a frequent purchase that is positioned as the “best” among many ordinary competitors.
Feeling/Low Involvement
Quadrant four contains products that are low involvement and based on emotional decisions. These are often inexpensive items that make the consumer feel good or provide self-satisfaction. Here, we would find products such as fast food, candy, and cigarettes.
These purchases tend to be driven by impulse or convenience.
These products are closely tied to “feel good”-type ads and are also connected to lifestyle ad associations.
Now let’s tie all this back into the consumer journey to see how you can use both pieces of information to begin to formulate insight.
Let’s use real examples.
Brands like Chase Bank concentrate on Search/Assess (Information). Since Chase Bank falls under the High Involvement & Thinking sector, their marketing strategy should focus on the Search & Assess sections. Users will search for banking options and they must have sufficient information to assess whether this banking solution meets their personal needs, etc.
Marketing Ex: Good user reviews, sufficient information about product/service, informational blog articles, FAQs, etc.
Brands like BMW concentrate on Assess (Confer/Psychological). Since BMW falls under the High Involvement & Feeling sector, their marketing strategy should focus on the Assess & Confer sections. Users will base their buying decision on the brand because of the psychological meaning it holds with society. In essence, the luxury they sell is not only a product but a positioned image to the client.
Marketing Ex: Having other people say this is a great product, the opinions of others often influences prestige purchases, the look and feel, rich emotion, beautiful artwork & experience.
Brands like Coca-Cola concentrate on Connect/Consume. Since Coca-Cola falls under the Low Involvement & Feeling sector, their marketing strategy focuses on the Connect & Consume sections. Users will base their buying decision on impulse and it is important for the brand to be able to engage with the consumer. Up-selling is also very successful with these products as they are easily paired with other similar products a customer might be willing to purchase.
Marketing Ex: Creating brand love, connecting with audience, using memory anchoring.
Lastly, new brands are all about Discovery and getting people to know them.
Set your Goal.
Now that you have determined what your greatest barrier to success is you can plan accordingly and set appropriate goals. If, for example, your biggest barrier to success is that your new products are not getting enough exposure to your loyal customers, then your goal will be to create an online marketing strategy to build awareness.
The last two things you’ll need to outline are:
Budget: How much money are you willing to invest? & Timing: How much time do you have to execute this strategy?
Outlining this information will give you an accurate picture of how much money and time you’ll have to invest to execute your new strategy. This, of course, is essential to evaluating if your plans are working effectively or if they need to be revamped.
Download this PDF to help you outline everything and check back with me again next week where we’ll cover tools for insight mining that’ll give us consumer insight into how to best market your product or service.
Also, if you’d like to be notified directly when our next blog post is posted, please sign up for our newsletter and you’ll know exactly when it’s up.
