Good marketing is probably more art than science.\u00a0 It\u2019s the art of building relationships.\u00a0 It\u2019s moving prospects along a continuum that begins at \u201cNever heard of ya,\u201d and ends at \u201cWhere do I sign?\u201d\u00a0 The trick is, knowing where along that line a prospect is so that our marketing communication is both appropriate and effective.\u00a0 In other words, a prospect who has \u201cnever heard of ya\u201d will likely be put off by a communication that makes it sound like we\u2019re old friends.\u00a0 Likewise, an introductory communication may be insulting if it lands on the desk of an old customer.\u00a0 Most marketing gurus will say that there are specific mile markers along this continuum from \u201cNever heard of ya\u201d to \u201cWhere do I sign?,\u201d but there are many different views on the number and nature of those mile markers.\u00a0 For one marketer\u2019s view, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarketing is a contest for people\u2019s attention.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 – Seth Godin<\/em><\/p>\n Jeff McKay is the founder and CEO of Prudent Pedal Marketing, a marketing consultancy in La Grange.\u00a0 Jeff recently gave a marketing presentation to a group of which we are both members, and a portion of his presentation was devoted to relationship-building mile markers . . . the steps we must go through to move a prospect from \u201cNever heard of ya\u201d to \u201cWhere do I sign?\u201d\u00a0 In his scheme of things, there are five such steps:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0Awareness.<\/strong>\u00a0 Clearly, nobody is going to do business with us if they don\u2019t even know we exist.\u00a0 So the first step is to develop a bit of name recognition.\u00a0 Our prospect may not know much about us, but at least they need to have heard our name before. Viewed this way, Jeff McKay\u2019s five steps make a good road map for moving the relationship from \u201cawareness\u201d to \u201cloyalty.\u201d\u00a0 And it provides a framework for planning our next moves . . . for recognizing what step the prospect is on, and for devising ways to move that prospect to the next step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good marketing is probably more art than science.\u00a0 It\u2019s the art of building relationships.\u00a0 It\u2019s moving prospects along a continuum that begins at \u201cNever heard of ya,\u201d and ends at \u201cWhere do I sign?\u201d\u00a0 The trick is, knowing where along that line a prospect is so that our marketing communication is both appropriate and effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n2.\u00a0Familiarity.<\/strong>\u00a0 Just because someone has heard our name before doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re ready to buy from us.\u00a0 They need to learn what we do and how our business can help theirs.\u00a0 They need to know that our business practices are compatible with theirs.\u00a0 And they need to connect with us on a personal level so that we\u2019re not just some faceless organization.\u00a0 As the saying goes, people do business with people, not companies.
\n3.\u00a0Consideration.<\/strong>\u00a0 Now that our prospect knows a little about us, we need to move the relationship along to a point where our prospect is willing to consider doing business with us.\u00a0 To do that, we\u2019ll need to demonstrate that we are qualified to deliver what we\u2019ve promised, and that we can be trusted to consistently honor our commitments.\u00a0 Here the prospect may require that we submit to a trial of some kind, or provide testimonials from existing customers.
\n4.\u00a0Choice.\u00a0<\/strong> We don\u2019t want to be just one of many on an \u201capproved vendor\u201d list.\u00a0 We want to be at the top of a \u201cpreferred vendor\u201d list.\u00a0 When our prospect is willing to consider us and actually gives us our shot, we need to perform so well that we will be their first choice for any future opportunities.
\n5.\u00a0Loyalty.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is always where we want our train to stop.\u00a0 At this point, we have earned our customer\u2019s trust by faithfully delivering on our commitments, again and again.\u00a0 We are firmly entrenched, and as long as we protect the relationship we\u2019ve built, we\u2019ll probably stay that way.\u00a0 In most cases, customers don\u2019t last forever, but if we\u2019ve reached this point, we\u2019ll be in for a good, long run.<\/p>\n