Simple and Easy – Are You Driving Buyers Away?

When you begin shopping or pricing out a new product or service how do you go about it?  The first answer is probably going to be online comparisons, right?  We live in  a digital era and expect instant answers.  The Internet gives us those.  At least it should.

But, what if you start your search and find that this new product or service you’re learning about is packaged in many shapes, sizes, options, and descriptions? Your search becomes more in depth now.   You need answers.  Clear answers.

This is where the company with the simple and easy to understand marketing message wins.

Play with me for a minute and ask yourself if your customers experience anything similar.

Marketing Discovery - (How easy are you to find?)

Sam owns a small micro-brewery business.  He has established himself well in the local market with the help of a smaller liquor distributor.  Sam’s Micro Brew is now in several local liquor stores and small grocery stores.  Sam is excited his business is taking off, but realizes that the product is not moving as fast as he had hoped.  With so many selections, how does he get his brand to stand out?

One day Sam is at the shopping mall and sees an LCD monitor displaying digital advertising spots.  He thinks, “Hey that’s what I need!  If I could advertise my micro brew on a LCD display set up in the liquor stores where my bottles are shelved,  I could gain the attention of the buyer and make my brand stand out at the moment of decision.”

This type of advertising is called Digital Signage.

Information Gathering – (How easy is it to get the details about about your product or service?)

Sam sets out on a mission to find the digital signage company that can handle his request.  He Googles “digital signage rates” and up pop the results.

Sam makes the first call & he reaches the operator.  No one is available & leaves a message.  Next.  He calls, gets a voice mail box that has no company name.  He leaves a message, wondering if he just called Aunt Sue, but hoping someone knowing something about digital signage calls him back.  Next call…he gets a live person. Yes!  Only now he finds out that he has reached a hardware distributor, and they don’t actually offer the advertising… they just make the boxes that go with the displays.  Next call he reaches a software maker for the boxes. Does anyone actually handle the advertising on these displays?

For days the search goes on with Sam leaving messages with several well meaning but ignorant switchboard operators.  Several days later the calls start to come in.  Sam finally reaches someone who can tell him the names of several digital signage aggregators.  (Hmm…now there’s a word he didn’t Google) Sam is releived that his search will soon be done.

He calls several aggregators for their digital signage rates to do some comparison shopping.  He has done a bit of web advertising, so he knows to ask about CPM & demographics.  But, he also needs know how many displays in each network, how many times his ad will run, how many people will see it…what is the ROI?

Compare Rates – (How simple is it to find your rates?)

Sam collects rates and proposals from several companies but realizes that each company quotes their rates a little differently than the other,  using their own terminology, method of pricing and how they came up with their demographics.  Sam, not being the most analytical by nature, just expected to be able to pick up the phone or look online and find a simple rate sheet easily comparable to the next.

After several days of mind torture, Sam decides he still has no idea who offers the lowest CPM with the best demographics, or even how demographics were determined.   Sam takes a deep breath picks up all his paperwork and dumps it in the trash.

Why?

Marketing That Doesn’t Work - (Did you answer all your customers questions in easy to understand & simple terminology?)

Because, quite simply, his questions were not answered.  You will not find many customers that will go through a lengthy and confusing process of information gathering and then still buy from you.  My red flags start flying when I don’t get clear answers or when sales mumbo jumbo fogs the perception of ROI. I want SIMPLE and EASY…and so does the buying population.

Put yourself in your customers shoes and look at your website or selling process from the first time buyers point of view.  When you’ve been selling your product or service for a while, you tend to forget that not everyone you come in contact with is on the same page with you.  Just as a blog needs “evergreen content”, a business needs evergreen information about your product or service.

Marketing That Works (Give your customers what they want)

Here’s what would have sold Sam:  A digital signage company that came in and said,

1. You can choose one of three options.  15, 25 or 50 locations with “x” amount of displays per location
2. From your chosen option, your ad will be displayed “x” amount of times to “x” amount of people
3. Depending on your option, the demographics would be “x”, which were derived from using “x” and “x”
4. It will cost you “$ per location” which ends up at “$ per week/month” and a CPM of  “$”

Simple? Easy?  Yes!

Moral of the Story

Don’t confuse the hell out of your buyers.  They will become someone else’s buyers instead.

What other marketing blunders did you catch in Sam’s story?  What would you have done differently in your marketing?  Leave your comments and share your thoughts.  I love hearing from you!

To Your Success,

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