Build Your Marketing Plan: Courting Customers

Part 7 of Build Your Marketing Plan Series

July is Build Your Marketing Plan month on The Marketing Spot blog. This is part seven of an eight-part series on how to build an exceptional small business marketing plan. Each “lesson” of the series contains a background article, down loadable worksheets and a slidecast. This information is part of my full-day workshop, DIY Marketing for Small Businesses.

(See Part 1: The Brand Promise)
(See Part 2: Your Signature)
(See Part 3: The Customer Experience Theme)
(See Part 4: The Customer Experience Map)
(See Part 5: Conversation Starters)
(See Part 6: The Conversation Playbook)
*Note: The next live, DIY Marketing workshop is September 24 at the Houston Small Business Development Center.

“Always remember that every element of your company’s advertising and communications, and sometimes the media you choose to run it in, are a reflection of your company’s character.”
-George Parker, MadScam: Kick-Ass Advertising Without the Madison Avenue Price Tag

Most consumers paint a mental picture of your business based on your promotional efforts. That’s both a benefit and a pitfall. If you copy most of today’s advertising and promotional campaigns, you paint a picture of boredom, irrelevance, and self-indulgence. A different approach is too shun contemporary marketing messages and allow consumers to gain intimate insight into your business.

Take a listen to this example radio commercial: Frontier Furniture. (then click the back button your browser) About the only thing this commercial does right is give good directions. But five minutes after this commercial has aired, all memory of it is gone. The commercial gives no insight into the business.

Of course, your promotional efforts also tell your customers what you think about them. The way you talk to people is an indication of how much you value them, and what you perceive to be their maturity level. You will communicate with your spouse, family and business partner differently than you do with a new acquaintance. So in your advertising and promotional message you should always speak to people as if you are trying to form a long-term relationship with them. Essentially you are trying to court them.

Imagine if you framed all your promotional efforts using courtship as a metaphor. What would you say about yourself? How would you speak to people?

In this installment of Build Your Marketing Plan, you are going to re-frame your promotional message into one of courtship. To begin courting new customers, download the two PDF worksheets below and print them off. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Then watch the slidecast below for details on how to use tools.

After you download the worksheets, watch the slidecast below and make sure your audio is turned up. If you cannot see the slidecast in your reader, click here.

If you have questions or comments, click the comment link below.

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