If you were asked to analyze your own company’s or someone else’s marketing, there are certainly lots of ways to do it. At Marketing Nice Guys, for example, we provide funnel audits for companies looking at where customers may be dropping off during the buyer journey. We can also go in-depth in terms of analyzing different channels, such as advertising, email, SEO, social media, or content, identifying best practices (or lack thereof) in each. We could take a look at messaging or brand inconsistency, overall strategy, budgeting, or any other aspect that involves analyzing what you are currently doing or what you could do potentially better.    

But to be honest, whether you hire an agency or not, you can also get pretty far on your own if you only look at your messaging, thinking through your answers to these six “simple” questions – what we might call “the who, what, where, when, why and how often” of marketing. Let’s go deeper into each.

No. 1: ‘Who’ Are You Targeting?

Certainly, this is a question, at least on the surface, that all small businesses should absolutely know the answer to. But you’d be surprised by the number of businesses who may not quite have this part down as much as they’d like. (And no, “EVERYONE” is not a good answer for any small business – or any larger business for that matter.)

In fact, this question of “who” is often a bit more complex than it may seem at first. The hard part here is that, indeed, small businesses may have end users of their products/services or even end buyers that are pretty well defined, but those who make decisions about a purchase or influence a purchase may be quite different from those former groups – and they’re often just as important. Also, sometimes, a company’s real audience or maximum potential audience doesn’t fit neatly into straight demographic groups – male/female, old/young, by ethnicity, by race, geographic location – or on the B2B side, by straight industry or job titles.

The reason, of course, to narrow down your audience more exactly is that you want to personalize your marketing as much as possible. Because that makes it more effective. After all, when you personalize something, you’re being more relevant to those potential customers and your marketing collateral will resonate more and, indeed, perform better.

What can you do? We often talk about the creation of personas, literally fictional “characters” that can represent a particular buyer segment. Basically, developing personas helps to create a “picture” a segment that’s important for the company to market to. (And remember, companies can have multiple segments that can either be potential buyers or influencers of those buyers.)  At Marketing Nice Guys, we break down our personas into 4 core areas:

• • Demographic/Geographic: Male/female, age, income, location

• • Psychographics: Career ambition, values, opinions/beliefs

• • Behavior: Where do they go on the Internet, what do they respond to, how do they come become aware you?

• • Challenges/pain points

By defining these upfront, you’ll be able to better answer that question of who your best audiences are and who you’re really targeting. Need help with this exercise? Contact us today for a free consultation.

No. 2: ‘What’ Are You Saying to Audiences? / Putting In Front of Them?

As you can see, the “what” part here involves projecting your brand – both through your messaging and visual assets you create. A few questions to ask yourself:

• • Does the “what” reflect the “who”? In other words, do your messaging and visuals resonate with the target audience or segment of that audience that you’ve identified?
  • Does the “what” also reflect what’s really true about you and your company? We talk a lot in these pages about the importance of authenticity and being true to your core values/who you really are. After all, this is about projecting your brand in a way that’s sustainable but also resonates with your audience in that unique way.
  • Does the “what” sound like your competitors? It can be tempting to copy a successful approach that has been used by, say, your larger competition, but you’ll generally want to stay away from this and come up with both messaging and visuals that are unique to you. That’s really what’s going to help you gain market share.
  • Is the “what” consistent in all the channels? Brand consistency is really about establishing trust. If you’re inconsistent in your messaging or visuals between channels, it can dilute your brand and what it stands for. Want more help? Here’s our recently updated blog on the topic of How to Project a More Consistent Brand in Every Channel.
  • Does the “what” move audiences to take the next step? Finally, this “what” has to do something. And the goal of any messaging or visual collateral you put out is the same – to move customers further down the buyer journey toward purchase. The key here is to say the right message at the right point in the buyer journey.

No. 3: Where Are You Saying It to Them?

Again, on the surface, this can seem like a pretty straightforward question. The “where” just simply means the channels you are using (email, advertising, social media, content, website/search) to say the “what” in this case, right?

Yes, for sure.

But it’s probably a bit more involved than that. If you think about it, each channel probably has its own place in a buyer journey. In this case, “what” you say really depends on “where” the potential customer is in that journey. For example, if someone is searching for a solution for a particular issue or challenge they face right now, they’ll probably use Google to find it. This is where doing an ad with the right language will help you get the right leads or sales at the right time. But the key part here is where you’re saying what you’re saying – in this case, Google search ads.

That’s just one example. Another “where” might be email – a place where customers already know you and have already expressed enough interest in you, your products/services, or your content to have opted into your list. In other words, they’re already in the middle of what you might think of as a buyer journey. Sending these audiences emails specifically aimed at engagement or conversion will often be a best practice, whereas posting in social – a different “where” – it might make more sense to focus on awareness and getting people to your website.

No. 4: When Are You Saying It?

In marketing, we’ve often said that details matter. One of those details involves the time you send out your marketing correspondence or the times that you end up getting impressions on your marketing collateral. And that timing depends strictly on your audience and their place in the buyer journey.

For example, maybe you’re trying to reach a hard-charging entrepreneur. It might be the best time to reach out to that individual is on the weekends, when they are actually working but clear from other meetings. Or, maybe you know that a customer has purchased a particular item from you that runs out on average 2 months later. Wouldn’t it make sense to set up an automated email that goes out two months after any purchase of that product to remind them to buy it?

Read up on all our tips with our recent blog post: Why Your Timing Matters in Marketing.

No. 5: Why Does It Matter to Your Audience?

Sometimes, in the course of working with different businesses, we run across those that are insistent that they want to “tell” the audience something about them or their products/services. And usually, this is perfectly fine. But it’s probably the wrong way to think about approaching messaging. After all, the question isn’t what you want to tell customers, it’s more why it matters to them.

How do you create that kind of relevancy? Here it pays to know your customers inside and out. What drives them? What are their challenges? What moves them emotionally? What are their ambitions? What do they really want out of a product/service you provide? If you understand that you can put together marketing collateral and messaging that really resonates with them, moving them closer to purchase.

No. 6: How Often Are You Saying it to Them?

When we work with clients, we often mention that doing something once – sending an email, posting something on social media, or writing a single blog won’t really do much to move the needle when it comes to marketing. What you really need are multiple touches, preferably in many different channels. In fact, the average number of touchpoints to make sale has long been known to be anywhere from 7 to 14, though in some cases, such buying a car, it’s a lot more than that. The bottom line: Touchpoints matter as do the frequency of those in the lead up to any purchase.

How do you increase the number and frequency of touchpoints? Here are a few quick ways:

• • Send more emails. Many small businesses are too reticent when it comes to sending emails, maybe doing 1 per month maximum. Most companies could stand to send up to 1 email per week if not more.
  • Retarget potential customers in advertising. You know that ad that shows up after you visit a website? That’s called ad retargeting. And it’s a simple way to follow up with either site visitor or those on your email list who you’ve already acquired. If you think about it, it’s a great way to stay top of mind, especially if those audiences are considering a purchase.
  • Post more often on social media. It’s a cliché, but frequency matters on social. The more you post, generally the more the social platform algorithms reward you by prioritizing your content.
  • Write more blogs and do more content. We’re big believers in content development, as it can not only boost your visibility and the number of touchpoints you get, but also can brand you as an authority and improve your SEO.

In sum: we always recommend companies stay aggressive with their marketing.

Conclusion

Messaging is obviously only one part of all your marketing activities. But because it plays such an outsize role, it’s important to analyze and break down what you’re doing right and maybe what you aren’t. This is one easy way to do it. 😊. We hope this has been helpful. As always, if you need additional support, don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.