3-D Marketing
While the best strategy comes from a well thought-through plan, I often am asked about tactics. In other words: “We’re going to a show next week, I need a display.” OR “We need a brochure for our sales folks to hand out.” There are other countless examples.
This kind of issue comes from operating marketing on a day-to-day basis without a plan or calendar.
It happens, so let’s deal with it. There is a call for a tactical element that is not part of a bigger plan. Let’s go with the event example. An event is coming up in a few weeks, the question arises about a display for the booth. What do you do?
Typically, it’s decided what product or service to feature in the display, or perhaps just a logo and tagline. Then the display is made, some pens or other giveaway is packaged up and given to the reps attending the event. The reps attend the event and collect some business cards, trade some information for a pen or 50, and connect with a few contacts they know. After the event, they get back to the business of selling. Maybe follow up with one or two “hot leads”. In a week, the show is forgotten until 50 weeks later when the cycle repeats.
That’s not very effective marketing, and frankly, a waste of money. Instead, I suggest 3-D Marketing. Think of the event as one dimension, and the time before and after as two other dimensions. There is a key question for each dimension:
At the show: What are we going to do at the event to maximize our ROI?
Before the show: What can we do to make our time at the show most productive?
After the show: What can we do to make sure our efforts at the show has the most opportunity to become sales?
I know, they are all the same question. The point is this: what you do at the show matters. What you do before and after matter more. Developing a simple plan to get people attending the show to meet with you (at the booth or otherwise), people that find you at the show the most impact, and converting people after the show from suspects to prospects is what matters.
It’s the same with that sales sheet or brochure I mentioned in the first paragraph. There should be 3-D Marketing thinking around it as well. What comes before? What comes after.
Be Three Dimensional! Yes, it take a little time and thought, but that’s where we can help you. We’ve built a lot of “mini” plans to get the most out of a display, a sales sheet, brochure or other elements. If you’d like to discuss how to get the most out of your marketing, Contact us.
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