A Great Marketing Strategy Leads Prospects to Connect the Dots
If there is one thing I’ve seen consistently over the last 4 ½ years of working with small-to-mid sized business owners, it’s the absence of a real marketing strategy. There is often no real plan of attack. From one week to the next, it’s one random activity after another. Small business owners hope this approach will lead to more clients, but end up dissappointed. Sales are up one week and down the next.
Putting a winning marketing strategy together should give the prospect an experience similar to playing Connect the Dots.
What do I mean?
When a child follows the ordered sequence of connecting the dots, they end up looking at a picture that has two characteristics. One, the finished product is usually something they recognize. (I trust that you can see the banana in the current unfinished example to your left). Any school age child who is old enough to follow the numbered dots and complete the drawing would immediately recognize a banana upon completion.
The second thing is…they helped complete the picture. The actual process they went through involved some thinking and active participation. Active participation is important because it increases the learning. The active participation needs to have meaning from the perspective of the prospect. Great marketing speaks to the conversation that’s already going on inside the mind of your prospect.
That’s what good marketing does. It requires the prospect to get involved in the process. A good marketing strategy will often cause the prospect to ask themselves questions and make evaluations that guides their thinking process. One thing I want to make clear. Ethical marketing is about guiding the thinking process – NOT manipulating it. Read More→
