Scary Marketing BOO!

In the spirit of the season, let’s take a quick look at those pesky little ghouls that forever haunt our marketing success… the marketing BOO!

What is marketing boo, you might ask? Simple. We've chained some marketing concepts to the rack and tortuously stretched them into this acronym… BOO stands for…

Buyer – Unless you are in the low-price-driven sellers’ marketplace, you’ll need to pay careful attention to the buyer’s needs and wants. Here’s a check list of questions to ensure buyer marketing success.

• Who are your buyers? No fair saying “everyone.” There is an ideal buyer type or two for your product or service. Make sure you know who it is. Are they of a specific gender, age, educational background, psychological make-up, or economic level?
• What are their specific problems or luxuries that you can affect? What is your unique selling proposition to those buyers?
• Do they tend to buy at specific times?
• What is your most significant value for your buyers? Quality? Service? Convenience?

Opportunity – There is a specific moment when businesses or customers need you. When is that opportunity? What are the pain points that will drive them to purchase from you? For our industry, technology often drives purchase. When new technologies and/or use arise, it creates the need for updates and changes. Websites have a limited life because of the rapidly changing technology. What are your business or industry opportunity drivers?

Optimize – The old adage that “You can only manage what you can measure” is never truer than in the frightening world of marketing. Budgets will get consumed and severed by overcommitting to diverse channels and too frequent slicing. The wise marketer sets up Key Performance Indicators and Points of Measurement to evaluate the performance of marketing efforts. Digital channels are perhaps the easiest to measure. Implementing analytics and tracking codes can go a long way toward optimizing your efforts. Measure and adjust. Keep what works. Eliminate what doesn't.

Take heart. Give your marketing efforts a hearty BOO and have no fear! It’s time for a treat!