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01/08/2011
Marketing Myths & Realities
Business basics tell us that effective marketing is essential to customer enquiries and sales. Sales drive turnover and profits. Small & Medium Businesses (SME’s) generally cannot afford an in house marketing team and do not have a designated annual marketing budget aligned to a strategic marketing plan.
The result is often a scatter gun approach to promotional activities that are not strategic and more importantly not monitored.
Survey Results re SME’s Marketing
The result of a 2010 survey conducted jointly by the Business Enterprise Centre – St George & Sutherland Shire & Blue Frog Marketing found that while 44% of business surveyed have a marketing plan ( Aus average of 52%) only 39% of surveyed business measure the results of their marketing plan which compares with the Australian average of 33%.
Marketing drives sales and sales drive profits and business growth. So why don’t businesses’ measure and monitor the various marketing strategies to determine those that result in sales and therefore profits?
Often I think the answer to this is that most business owners think that measuring marketing strategies is complex and therefore expensive. This is far from the truth. Measuring and monitoring can be very simple and must be an integral part of any business operation and systems.
Designer Fashion Markets Case Study
To illustrate this I would like to use the Designer Fashion Markets (DFM) as a real business case study. DFM is run by the BEC to provide a local market and sales opportunity for local fashion designers. The BEC like most SME’s has limited funds and is run by a small generalist team. In launching DFM we engaged an external marketer to create the look, feel and key messages as well as graphics and a basic strategy.
The promotional strategies we decided on were a mix of traditional print, electronic messaging and social media. The traditional strategies included Posters, Flyers, Banners located in key positions within the area, Local newspaper advertisements & articles as well as inclusions in the "What’s On" section of the local paper & radio.
The electronic strategies included, emails to the BEC’s business database, emails to members of the registered club where the markets are held, notices on BEC’s website, Plasma screen notices within the registered club, as well as a DFM Facebook page and DFM YouTube channel as well as listing on various Sydney Markets websites.
Simple Marketing Monitoring Strategies
Once the DFM was launched in March 2011 we instigated the following simple procedures to monitor the effectiveness of these various marketing strategies:-
-Created a simple excel spreadsheet and invited everyone who attended the markets to join our customer database and enter the draw to win a $50 spending voucher from the registered club.
-Customer database form asked customers how they found out about the markets
-Those customers who did not want to sign up to the customer database were simply asked to tell us how they found out about the markets and this information was noted manually
-Following each market we enter names onto the customer database and tally up in an excel spreadsheet the feedback on what drove customers to the markets.
As you can see no rocket science here - just simple consistent procedures and operations. So now let’s look at the myths & realities.
Results of Marketing Mix
Since our launch in March 2011 we have collected over 500 customers on our customer database, we have 2,320 Facebook Fans and our targeted email reminders go to 35,000 registered club members each market. Our YouTube Channel has had over 1100 views with 55% from Australia, 24% from USA and 15% from Europe. So how do these promotional strategies collate to the desired customers through the doors?
If we had not implemented the simple procedures describes above we would have no idea.
The assumption given the community interaction via the Facebook site and the significant investment and targeted nature of the electronic campaign would have been that the drivers were from our social media and email campaigns.
The evidence however shows a different reality. Traditional forms of marketing resulted in 28% of customers compared with 17% from electronic & social media drivers.
Of the traditional marketing strategies the highest percentage at 24.8% was from the local newspaper.
A further 27% were the result of word of mouth and therefore a second hand awareness which could have come from either traditional or electronic strategies as well as 25% from registered club which was a result of electronic emails as well as those at the club on Market day.
Overall there were 2 strong traditional drivers the members of the registered club where DFM is held and our exposure within the local newspaper resulting in 25% and 24% respectively.
The strongest electronic driver was the targeted DFM customer list accounting for 7% of customers followed by Facebook with 5%.
So what have we learnt from this exercise?
We know now that we must run an advertisement in our local paper before every market, we must make sure all team members of the registered club continue to make customers aware of the markets before the event as well as during market day.
Does this mean that we abandon social media as it does not convert to foot traffic? A closer look at our long term goals for DFM is to create an on line shopping facility and the only hope of success for this goal is a strong on line presence.
Given this long term strategic goal our investment in social media and electronic marketing will be retained and ramped up once we open an online store.
Summary
In summary if you don’t ask you don’t know and that same principal can be simply applied to any SME’S marketing strategy.
The answers to the question of what are the drivers for customers to your business should form the basis of your marketing investment and strategies.
You cannot afford not to monitor. Keep it simple & consistent when devising monitoring strategies.
Monitoring will deliver a higher return on investment and hopefully more customers to your door.
Maria Cook is the Executive Officer of the Business Enterprise Centre – St George & Sutherland Shire awarded 2010 Best Metropolitan BEC in Australia. Maria has had a very extensive career in a wide range of positions and industries including Local Government, TAFE lecturer, CEO of charities and corporate experience as Executive Director at Ronald McDonald House Charities. Maria was a finalist in the 2000 Telstra Business Woman of The Year.
Part of Maria’s role as Executive Officer is that of Business Advisor, as she coaches business from start ups to established businesses with large turnovers and high number of employees.
Her experience in business development includes:
General Management; Government Funding & Contract Negotiation, Implementation and Monitoring; Fundraising via Philanthropic Trusts; Operations Management; Implementation of Policies & Procedures across all aspects of business; Quality Change Management; Marketing & Public Relations; Financial Management & Reporting and Networking .
As Executive Officer of the BEC Maria oversees the creation, development, delivery and monitoring of service and its programs as well as providing direct Business Advise and specialists workshops.
Important Note: These articles have been prepared for general circulation and are circulated for general informational purposes only; these articles should not be regarded as business or investment advice. The articles represent the views of the writers and are subject to change without notice. Additionally, while every care has been taken in the preparation of the articles no representation or warranty as to accuracy or completeness of any statement is given. An individual or organisation should, before any business or investment decision is made, consider the appropriateness of the information in this document, and seek professional advice, having regard to objectives, situation and needs. This document is solely for the use of the party to whom it is provided