Ben McConnel shared the story of the computer company who hired Blogger Robert Scoble as their spokesperson, and then were disappointed when the sales didn’t follow.
The reality is in their rush to hire a spokesperson, any spokesperson, they lost sight of the 3M’s (no, I don’t mean they forgot their post it notes) but the 3M’s which may very well be replacing the 4P’s
- Market
- Message
- Media
For any campaign, now more then ever these three elements must be in alignment. You can’t be successful trying to sell to everyone, you don’t have the budget – so begin by focusing on a slice of the pie. Select a profitable niche to be your market.
Next, ask yourself, what is important to your customer, what keeps them up at night. Craft a message which addresses their concerns, not what you want to sell. I once had a finanial planner tell me what his customer wanted was choices. I had a hard time imaging many consumers laying awake at nigth worry about not having enough choices. … This was an important element to him, but not his clients. What keeps them awake?
And finally, where are your customers going for information. Select your media, based on the ability to reach a large concentration of your target. To do this, you have to really understand your target.
Where did the computer firm go wrong? Not all IT people are bloggers, and not all bloggers are hardware junkies.. Robert Scobel was the perfect fit for a campaign to promote blogging software, but not the hardware that runs it.
So what about your marketing? Do you have your 3M’s in alignment?
And for other opinions on this topic go to: Marketing Ninja