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Ever noticed how some of the richest and most powerful people in the world own some form of media? Behind almost every successful commercial TV station, newspaper, magazine or radio station is an equally successful businessperson who can ‘make or break’ governments through to dodgy plumbers.
So how is this relevant to you? In today’s marketplace, it could not be more relevant. Or exciting.
You see, by using some basic technology and new marketing perspectives, you too can wield considerable power and influence with your target market.
When you put aside the employees, printing presses and TV studios and really boil it down, media moguls own 1 critical thing: an audience. Without an audience, everything else in the media is superfluous.
Marketers need to inform and emotionally engage their target market in order to sell their products/services. Because they don’t have their own audience, they pay hundreds of millions of dollars to piggyback on the TV programs we watch, the magazines we read and the radio we listen to. In effect, the media are middlemen.
In the past, before the internet, email and mobile/wireless technology, it was virtually impossible for marketers to build an audience of sufficient size to market their products/services.
Today, that has all changed
So while I’m not suggesting that you cut out the middleman entirely, you can follow the media’s lead to set-up your own-targeted audience. Ultimately, it’s more cost-effective and flexible for you and more relevant for your target market.
Following are the 4 easy steps to building your own mini media empire:
Every customer phone call, every piece of DM they respond to, every conference they attend, every time you share prawn canapés with them at a networking function gives you the opportunity to build your audience base. Ask for their details on your website and in the advertising you’re already running.
Find out what excites them and what they’re scared of. This is actually easier and more powerful than you may think. If you prove that really care and that there’s a benefit in me telling you things that mean a lot to me, I’ll spill the beans. To gather and order the data, all you need is a PC and a simple spreadsheet.
The harsh reality is that your market does not care about your business, your employee of the month or your new plastic extrusion machine. Your market cares about themselves and, maybe, just maybe, what your business can do to help them.
I realise this sounds like Basic Business 101 but to see my point, all you have to do is go through the next corporate newsletter that lands on your desk. 5 will invariably get you 10 that it’s deathly dull.
Create a newsletter, video, website or whatever is relevant for your market purely with their needs, wants, fears and desires in mind and you’ll be well on the way to ensuring that you keep and even build your audience.
A basic principle to remember is that people live through and are fascinated by other people. That’s why the most popular magazines in Australia profile in gory detail either celebrities – e.g. Who Weekly, New Idea – or everyday people – That’s Life, Take 5. You can never go wrong (with your market at least) cutting through corporate imperatives and asking a customer or an employee what they REALLY think about you, your industry, politics etc. Relevance and interest do not necessarily revolve around what you are trying to sell and vice versa. The products that are advertised during TV ad breaks often have little or no relevance to the show they’re interrupting but there never is a shortage of companies wanting to advertise.
Put it out there. Open regular channels of communication and create a sense of certainty and routine. Every night you turn on the TV at 6pm and there’s the news. It has been there since forever or at least it seems that way. If you do Steps 1 and 2 well, Step 3 will be the cement that binds the bricks you’ve made.
Your market will keep coming back and will read your email newsletter or your streaming monthly video message on your website because it’s engaging, entertaining, informative and effectively, it enhances their lives. If this sounds all a bit high blown, just think about why you keep watching your favourite TV program and replicate that in your marketing activities.
Habit mixed with a fair lashing of apathy is a common element in many successful marketing programs. Give the market what it wants – or thinks it wants – and unless you really stuff it up or they get a better offer, there’s a good chance they’ll stick with you.
Yep, the good old-fashioned sales close. No matter how many times you give them roses, at some stage you still have to ask them to dance. Once you’ve romanced the prospect/audience (surely the subject of another article!!) and given them what they want, now it’s YOU time.
Successful marketing is not something that takes place in a boardroom. You have to leverage your new-found mogul status for the good of you AND your market by selling them your product/service because it satisfies their needs/wants and addresses their fears; which takes us back to Step 1.
It all sounds simple because it is simple. With focus, discipline and dedication, your position of power and influence awaits.