NetworkedBlogs
Archive for September, 2010
Music Industry Shows Us The Way!
Music industry shows us how to discover more value in our products -
My close friends will tell you that I’ve a rather eclectic (or perhaps that should be eccentric!) taste in music. I grew up as a young teenager on a diet of hard rock and heavy metal. Then I discovered the beauty and complexity of classical music and fell in love with composers like Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Rachmaninov, etc.
Broadening my tastes even further as young adult I went all retro and spent my time soaking up the likes of the ‘Stones, the Doors, Clapton, etc. Now my tastes have changed even more and my iPod carries a complete mix of everything from indie, pop, dance, house, trance, blues and some very obscure ‘world-music’ but my real passion lies with ambient trance and in particular any of the amazing work by Simon Posford, a genius of acoustic/electro ‘ambient psy-trance’… no seriously!
So why am I telling you all this? Well, here’s an interesting lesson in marketing that I’ve just been massively impressed by.
Younger Brother, a music project by Mr Posford and Co, are about to cut a new CD but have taken a very different route to market; you might have even become aware of it before. It’s called Pledge Music and this is how it works; before the CD is actually recorded the artist asks their followers and fans (their community or ‘tribe’ in marketing terms) to pledge what they will commit to buying when the new CD is released. It’s a form of pre-selling, if you like.
By asking for fans to pledge their support in advance the artist knows if the new production is going to be a success before they’ve even created the actual product. Clever, eh?! If the volume of support just isn’t there, then they won’t go ahead with the recording and it’s back to the drawing board (or should that be rehearsal studio?), I guess.
I hope you’re really getting the point here; this is how a business – perhaps your own – can test market a product before it is even created, avoiding the risk of stacking the shelves with something that people perhaps won’t want to buy.
Even more than this though, it completely changes the dynamics of how the consumer relates to the vendor. And it’s this element that I’m really very excited about; it’s a perfect example of a shift in strategy that I’m trying to make business owners more aware of.
I’ve pledged my support for the new Younger Brother project and pre-ordered my signed copy of the new CD. So I’ve played my bit in helping this creative work to actually take place, I feel far more attached to the product, even part of the whole process, one of the team. Now we’re on the same side.
You should know by now that marketing has changed massively over the past few years and this approach of community marketing, attraction marketing, whatever you decide to call it, has and will continue to change the dynamics of how we engage with our customers and clients and them with us; it also builds far stronger bonds and real customer loyalty and attachment.
Now here’s the icing on the cake and the real reason that has inspired me to share this with you; Younger Brother are not only asking for pledges for enough CDs, they have come up with a whole list of other exclusive offers that will raise enough finance to make the project fly.
Here’s a list of just some of the additional extras that I can pledge on:
- Handwritten Lyric Sheet
- Handwritten Thank You Note
- Come to a Rehearsal
- A signed drum skin
- Be in one of our videos
- Signwriting Sketchbook
- A personal track mix
And my all-time favourite…
- An acoustic gig by the band at my own house!
Here’s the link if you want to see the whole list (and prices) and you might even want to become part of the project and pledge your support too – http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/youngerbrother
Oh, of course you get to sample their previous work on the site as well! Personally, I’d recommend anything from ‘A Flock of Bleeps’, which sits firmly in my top ten CDs.
I hope you can really see why this is such an inspirational way of looking at how you can create multiple products and from the example of something as humble and ubiquitous as a music CD.
So, how could you look at your own sales/marketing proposition differently and how many new products are there for you to create from the resource you already have?!?
Now go and get your magic monkey juices flowing… and get creative with your marketing!
Nial
NEWS: the PUSH Marketing Academy has the new Autumn Term starting on the 11th October and you’re invited to find out more. The Academy Open Event takes place in Norwich on the 28th September. For more information and your free ticket (worth £97) please visit www.PushYourMarketing.co.uk
Common Marketing Mistakes
Ten Common Mistakes that Business Owners Make with Their Marketing
I’ve written the ten most common marketing mistakes that I’ve come across over the years. Small business owners everywhere are looking for better results from their online and offline marketing strategies. It’s not all about government grants, business loans or having a budget the size of a Formula 1 racing team like Ferrari. You just need the know-how and someone to show you the ropes.
Ask yourself if you are making any of these and then make a plan to learn how to get it right:
- Gambling with resources rather than using proven strategies to make marketing produce a profit – understand the concept of Cost of Acquisition and apply some logic. Learn how marketing works, get help to apply it, then build your business.
- Becoming obsessed with the look and feel of the brand at the expense of expressing what you are really offering – sell the benefits, not the packaging. Remember to see your offering from the (potential) customer’s perspective, not your own.
- Having no marketing plan at all – even a basic plan, which is easier than you’d think, is better than nothing; come on, this is your business we’re talking about!
- Not testing results – the absolutely fundamental rule of marketing; test and measure everything you can. It’s the only way to know if you’re succeeding or just wasting money.
- Trying to be too clever – don’t make your audience work for it; keep it simple and spell out your offering in a way that’s easy for people to understand. There are no prizes for making your customers think you’re clever!
- Sloppy brand identity – there’s no excuse these days, everyone in business should have some pride about the way they present their business; make sure you look the business and you’ll gain the respect you’re seeking.
- Ignoring the power of new strategies and tactics like Social Media – remember the .com gold rush a few years back? It’s here again; harness Social Media now and you’ll see rewards for years to come.
- Confusing Price with Value – price is nothing more than a concept; value is what people are looking for; stop trying to price your services and create a value proposition instead.
- Ignoring the value in referrals; about 80% of the businesses I meet tell me that about 80% of their business comes from referrals and about 80% of business owners have no strategy for getting more referrals… spot the pattern?!
- Over estimating the short term and underestimating the long-term – smart business owners recognise that good marketing strategy is a longer-term plan. Do the right things today and build on them month after month. Don’t scramble about looking for a short-term fix and expect to create effective results.
If you really want to change things, if you want to stop gambling, scrambling and spinning your wheels on marketing that’s not producing, STOP, take some time to learn how to do it properly and then you can start to enjoy it…
Learn effective marketing for small business
Marketing Inside-Out!
Ready to move up a gear with your marketing? This simple shift in mind-set will increase your marketing ROI, guaranteed!
People often ask me “what’s the one thing that I can do quickly and easily to get a better result from my marketing”.
Not surprisingly, everyone’s looking for that elusive silver bullet to transform their marketing output. Well the good news guys, is that there IS a fundamental principle that will transform your marketing results, and what’s most surprising is that so few business people are aware of it.
I believe that business should be like any other professional vocation; you need to know your subject and continually update and expand your knowledge; and you probably feel the same – that’s why you’re reading this blog! Also see the PUSH Marketing Academy if you’re serious about getting better results.
So what’s this amazing principle and how does it work?
Let me describe a scenario that many business owners and managers would recognise. The vast majority of people I meet in business have a view of marketing that looks not too dissimilar to gambling. They expect to pay a price for the risk they take in trying to marketing their offering, be it products or services. They accept, without question, that they’re going to throw money at marketing and hope that they get a result that makes a profit. This is known as ‘spray and pray’. I’ve even met people who tell me that as long as they don’t lose money on their marketing spend they’ll be happy… that’s just crazy, marketing is all about creating a profit!
Marketing is actually very simple; it’s not an exact science and you’ll need to accept that some guesswork is required. However, there’s a fundamental principle you need to know before you commit to spending anything on your marketing plan and this is it:
Learn how to BUY more customers at a PROFIT
Most people spend their budget and hope that they’ll get enough back to make it worthwhile. This is a totally flawed approach and if it’s one you’re using now, I implore you to seriously consider what I’m about to tell you next.
Take a long hard look at your figures and understand the relationship between the Average Lifetime Customer Value in your business and your accepted/defined Cost of Acquisition. The relationship between these two will tell you how much you are able to spend to BUY each new customer at a profit. So start with what your figures tell you and they will guide your marketing strategy.
Understanding how Average Lifetime Customer value is calculated is essential to every business – Here’s a tool produced by Harvard Business School to explain it.
I’ve described this as a form of Inside-Out thinking for marketing. Many business owners/managers are looking outside for the answer, they want to use resources to go out and hunt down enough customers to keep the business alive. Instead, they should understand what their business is able and willing to spend to buy each new customer. This can be applied to any business, it’s not industry specific and a completely scaleable concept.
When you know the relationship between the real value of each customer (by looking at your costs and margins) and have decided what you feel is worth paying to buy them (known as the Cost of Acquisition) you will have a defined budget that you can work within and always ensure your marketing is profitable. And here’s your starter clue… aim for a CoA of 10-15%.
Applying this sort of mind-set to the way you view your marketing will transform your overall strategy. You’ll understand what you need to do to acquire more sales and build customer relationships that support and grow your business. You’ll feel in more control and above all you will feel far more confident in your marketing.
If you want to know more about this principle read more on my blog at www.nialadams.com and look out for the next edition of The Marketing Index about to be released later this month.
Nial Adams
PUSH Marketing Seminar with Nial Adams