(Source)
Correct marketing shows exactly where your customers can stumble and how to find the key to their loyalty. Wrong marketing would only generate cringe “creative ideas”, and the business will lose a significant share of its audience. Of course, there are some specific tips on how a marketing department can bring maximum benefit to the repair business.
1. Rely on analytics
Marketing is largely a form of art (at least its creative part). But nowadays, marketers are increasingly using a data-driven approach – they focus on numbers to predict the result. This is easier to implement in the digital sphere, especially in e-commerce. For example, you can plan traffic based on the cost of advertising campaigns.
But before you can act on the data, you need to accumulate it. To create a cause-and-effect model, record the results of advertising campaigns. For a small business with a simple product, two weeks are enough to draw the first conclusions (for example, CTR). But for a large company with a complex product, it often takes a year to build reliable predictive models.
But before you can operate with data, you need to accumulate it. To create a cause-and-effect model, record the results of your advertising campaigns. For a small business with a simple product, two weeks are enough to draw the first conclusions (for example, CTR). But for a large company with a complex product, it often takes an annual cycle to build reliable predictive models.
The most affordable online analytics tools are Google Analytics and SimilarWeb: they allow you to track traffic and brand queries (your own and competitors’). Big businesses use more sophisticated mechanisms, such as Nielsen, GFK, and MMI research panels.
It is more difficult to predict the success of a new brand than a mature one because there is not enough data. Yet the novelty can surely help you.
For example, consumers often consider a product that is widely advertised to be of high quality. And if such a product is in a low price category of all advertised, the sales can be very high. The factors of demand for an inexpensive product and trust work together perfectly.
Stable large brands have already accumulated data and have proven market models that take into account dozens of influencing factors. Thus, it’s easier for them to predict the success of their marketing undertakings. The difference between planned and actual figures for companies like Apple can be around 0.1%.
Collecting data can be easier for online business, but it is also possible offline. For example, some retail chain stores have sensors that track traffic (the number of visitors). This helps calculate the conversion of purchases, analyze the impact of various factors on traffic and sales.
In offline stores, previous experience, BTL activities, seasonality, and even weather conditions are more important. For example, in bad weather, customers prefer neighborhood stores, and in good weather, they opt for large shopping malls.
Data collection literally saved many businesses during the quarantine. For example, retail outlets that had a database were able to maintain customer loyalty because they kept in touch with them (sending newsletters, inviting them to openings, etc.).
2. Conduct market research
The tools, parameters, and frequency of research depend on the product. For example, major players in retail and FMCG measure turnover, sales, and market shares (their own and competitors’) on a weekly basis. And they use online panels for research.
The following indicators are often valuable for marketers:
- Consideration set – a set of brands that customers are ready to choose from.
- Top-of-mind – an indicator that determines who’s the market leader in the eyes of the people.
- Brand awareness.
- CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index).
- NPS (Net Promoter Score) – this is the index of brand loyalty.
- BHT (Brand Health Tracking) – analysis of various meaningful indicators (brand popularity in the market, reputation, association, loyalty, etc.).
In addition to conducting classic focus groups and customer interviews, user tests should also be carried out. Just ask people to evaluate a prototype on the product design stage.
And, of course, industry-specific studies may be appropriate depending on the field and product. For example, blind tastings of milk, juices, wine, and similar products allow consumers to compare these items based on various taste parameters.
3. Tie marketing to a specific goal
Chaotic efforts are ineffective. Each marketing activity, whether it’s an event or an SMM campaign, should help achieve a specific business goal.
Say, there’s a bank with a goal to strengthen its market position in terms of loan origination. Then the advertising campaign will be built on raising awareness of the bank’s product: the simplicity of the loan process and the convenience of using credit cards. Online activities have to be set up so that search queries about loans are pointing to the landing page of this product.
Alternatively, the bank’s goal could be to strengthen its position in the deposit niche. Customers’ willingness to place deposits depends on the interest rate, but the reliability of the bank is a big deal too. The point of marketing influence here would be the number of positive mentions of the bank in the media and social networks.
4. Be creative yet focused
Marketing activities should be in line with and constantly correlated to the brand platform. Make sure that it is not only in your head, but also in the minds of all parties involved, including the in-house team and external agencies.
In the brief for developing creative marketing campaigns, you need to answer the following questions:
- What associations should the brand evoke in consumers?
- What message do we want to convey?
- What action do we expect from consumers?
Digitize creative briefs. Record how much you plan to increase product awareness, traffic, reviews, and sales. Ambitious and specific goals create a burning platform effect – they stimulate the search for original solutions.
Analyze your target audience – it’s important for your creatives to take off. Let’s say, one repair company started a creative campaign based on some successful case. They shot cool (and purposefully “cringe”) videos for a young audience. But it turned out that the core target audience for this product was actually people from suburbia aged 40+. Obviously, such a brand would be facing a need to retune many things for a while.
5. Study loyalty factors
Loyalty triggers can be extremely unpredictable. Explore the experience of your current customers to attract new ones. Conduct regular NPS surveys – 3 key questions to ask your customers would be:
- Would you recommend our product to a friend?
- If you would, why?
- If not, what should be done to change your mind about the product?
Anthropological research is an effective tool for studying the target audience. For example, you can literally visit your ex-clients’ homes to get some feedback.
In the alcohol market, for instance, consumers tend to believe that a new product is better than the old one. Therefore, a simple marketing ploy such as redesigning labels often helps to increase sales.
Also, consumers love small signs of attention: branded sticker packs, a free cup of tea, a one-time “welcome bonus” for new customers, etc. A small detail, yet a good opportunity. It’s important that this bonus is a separate gesture of gratitude, not part of a sales system.
6. Experiment with channels
Many people underestimate digital sales channels. For example, the boom in online marketing and e-commerce in many large chain retailers began after the offline networks suffered during quarantine.
Many businesses still underestimate SMM and social media. Private entrepreneurs are mastering it more actively than many well-known brands.
TikTok is also almost a clean slate even in 2024. Even among marketers, there is a misconception that this is a social network for teenagers.
At the same time, traditional channels should not be discounted. BTL activities such as events with balloons and contests are still effective in retail.
CRM systems have been mastered by the sales departments of most modern companies. But not all marketers use them to achieve their goals. For example, to study user behavior, it is useful to record customer sessions: which pages they visited, which products they looked at, what they were interested in.
Conclusion
A marketer should check any postulate. Remember the words of Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
He took the risk to offer a new product – a car. It’s important for business and marketing to follow the same principle: to get regular feedback from the audience on what product they need. But also to experiment, launch new products, features, marketing solutions, and track the results.
