When people use the word “turnkey” as it applies to marketing, they often mean one of two things. The first is marketing that covers everything from soup to nuts. People want to know if you can be their one-stop shop for all the marketing they need without them being involved. Can we be a one-stop shop? Often. Can you be uninvolved in the process? Absolutely not.
But it’s the second kind that’s more problematic: when customers want a solution that’s pre-fabricated to be fast to deploy, cost-effective and oh yeah, generate huge results and monetary gain. Often these customers are looking for some sort of plug-and-chug package where they can insert their company name here, plop into motion and go. They don’t want to have to deal with answering pesky questions about goals or objectives. They just want the marketing now, please and thank you.
That is incredibly dangerous thinking. It assumes there’s one message out there that’s effective for all customers. If the words and pictures are arranged in the right order, any company anywhere in the country can splurt it out and have people fawning over them, begging to buy.
Reality check: There is no magic bullet. There is no spell you can cast which will turn everyone into a ravenous customer. Turnkey marketing often leads to homogenized marketing that’s vague to the point of uselessness. For instance, let’s say you’re looking to purchase a turnkey package to sell landscaping services. Whoever is writing and designing that information is trying to create material that’s interesting and informative to people living everywhere from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon and all points in between. Is the climate in Arizona like the climate in Indiana? Of course not. Can you plant the same plants in Alabama as you can in Alaska? Probably not. But because that campaign is trying to serve so many masters as a way of keeping costs low, you lose out on the chance to get real, specific information that’s useful to your customers.
Good marketing answers your customers’ specific questions. It demonstrates your unique expertise. By trying to save a few bucks and a bit of time with a turnkey program, you’re sacrificing all of that. And sometimes, it’s better to remain silent than to regurgitate what everyone else is saying.
If you’re worried about money, consider producing more marketing content in-house. Fewer high-quality pieces are preferable over a plethora of vague garbage. One great blog post can put you on the map and be a resource for years to come.
Marketing’s hard. If there was an easy, painless way to do it, someone would have found it. Stop looking for easy outs and get to work.