When I take my family to the beach every summer, We don’t just wake up one morning and jump in the car and go (although, after another 4 inches of snow last night and another 2 hour school delay it’s very tempting.) It takes some planning to successfully arrive at the beach and return. It is natural that we decide such things as which beach, house or condo, friends or just family, how long will we be there, which car shall we take, and what is our budget?

It surprises me how many people are out there conducting their marketing as if they just woke up and decided to do some marketing. I wonder if they jump in the car intending to go to the beach and wind up running out of gas on their car pointing toward the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota.

A marketing program is different from a marketing strategy or plan. Your marketing strategy is the bigger umbrella, under which may be not just one, but several programs, each one requiring planning, commitment and execution. You need to answer questions such as; Who is your target audience? How do you reach them? What is your message? How will you track results? How do you measure success?

Do you know who your audience is? Some people are better clients than others and obviously you would like to attract more of the better. If you begin to analyze why they are better, you may come across a common thread among them. It could be gender, or age, or lifestyle, or hobby, or some other category. Take the time to find out what that is and where you find more of that type of client. That becomes your target audience. Take me for instance; A northeastern dad with a family, shoveling 4 inches of snow from his driveway every day for a week – there’s a common thread. I’ll bet there are a plethora who fit that description.

Once you know your audience, make sure you get your message in front of them. Their demographic and their social habits will determine where the place the will most likely see your message. Shoveling snow every day for a week could cause me…uhm…people to spend a lot of time at their chiropractor. Could a chiropractor in February be a possible source for resort clients in July? If you’re the chiropractor, a recent study suggests that the most influential media on patient healthcare choices are television as number one and newspaper as a close second. Your challenge is that every chiropractor knows that and is doing that. It may come down to other creative media to place your message as well as what your message is saying. (Those northeastern show-shoveling dads, whose football team failed to make the playoffs and is now turning his attention to hockey – there’s a hint as to where a resort would aslo get his attention.)

The message is crucial in the decision process of the future client. Be sure your message is benefit-focused. I’m pretty sure nobody knows enough about your latest piece of equipment to care that you have it. The message is not YOUR equipment; the message is THEIR benefit the new piece of equipment provides to the client. Maybe the technology lends credibility to your message, but it certainly is not the benefit. Your message should also tell your audience why you are different and better. Other chiropractors and resorts offer the same benefits and are just as credible, but you are different; you are better. Tell them why. (Relax and unwind from a long winter with no playoffs in an oceanfront condo, close to several golf courses, with plenty of free daily activities for kids, indoor and outdoor pools and lazy rivers – there’s a benefit).

Whatever your program is, tracking results from the program is essential, but not necessarily easy. You want to find out if the program worked or came up short. If it worked, you want to do more of it. If it didn’t, you need to figure that out as well? Can the program be tweaked and tried again? Should you try something differently? My point is that you cannot answer these questions unless you can quantify the results. Did this program bring in a better quality and quantity of the ideal client for you? (How many northeastern dads located in or around Pittsburgh brought their family to my oceanfront condo this year? Why? This could be done with a few questions when the reservations were made.)

Finally, and most importantly, did you establish your definition of a successful program?

Were you able to accomplish what you set out as your defined success? This one is easy.(Did we increase our traffic of Pittsburgh dads and their families to our condo this year? If not, maybe we should try again next year at the end of Hockey season!)

Tags: Business, marketing, Plan, solutionist

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Healthcare, advertising, marketing, solutionst. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.