How Small Business Develops Top of Mind Marketing
With so many distractions for our attention, put yourself in the shoes of your customers or prospects – how do you gain and keep their attention with your marketing to stay top of mind? This article shares how small business develops top of mind marketing.
Many of us have experienced the conversation where someone said to you, “Oh, I didn’t know you did that? Or “I forgot you did that and hired someone else.” It has happened to all of us because we simply weren’t on that person’s radar. With that said, we are bombarded by marketing messages more than ever vying for our attention in our email in-boxes, on social media, text messages, banner ads on Google and other search engines – there are marketing messages everywhere!
How Business Has Changed
Times have changed and so has the way we do business. Consumers have access to more digitally driven information that ever before in history, which means people are doing their research online before deciding to work with or buy from you. So how you show up online matters, your marketing messages need to be clear and speaking to that ideal customer.
Inbound Marketing
Remember when marketing was about newspaper ads, postcard mailings, and yes phone books?
That was considered outbound marketing where you would reach out to consumers through these traditional channels.The primary goal of outbound marketing is lead generation, or simply put, businesses looking to attract more customers. For those businesses looking to build awareness, outbound marketing is the often way to reach the widest possible audience in the shortest amount of time.
The last ten plus years brought about the new model of marketing referred to as inbound marketing where we are attracting and pulling consumers toward us digitally.
Searching online can mean doing research, so does your business come up in search results? Knowing how to optimize your website and content to get found in search results is an important investment to consider learning or hiring a professional to help with.
When you are attracting people to your marketing message, providing them useful information, giving them a chance to try you out with a free offer or content you have a higher probability of turning them into a customer.
Typically, the first-place people land online is your website, so the two key elements of your website should be your home page message where if this resonates you have a lead capture box to encourage them to join your email list and second, developing a blog is an ideal way to engage visitors and share your expertise where they can learn for free.
How to Stay Top of Mind
So how do you stay top of mind and not get lost in all that noise and distraction online? Before I share some specific tactics, I want to talk about building trust which is key when you want people to do business with you.
Trust keeps you top of mind. According to John Hall from his book Top of Mind, “Trust is a living, breathing, emotional bond that connects people to one another. It’s intimate, personal and powerful.”
With respect to business, you want to earn trust so when your prospect is ready to make a decision to buy, they think of you. Does someone come to mind now that has earned your trust that is top of mind when you want to buy something?
As an example, when I want to purchase organic food that I trust is labeled legitimately, has my best health in mind, is always consistent with freshness and has knowledgeable help in the store, I immediately go to my nearest Whole Foods store. They earn my trust repeatedly and has become a ‘go to’ store where I am happy to spend my money.
We typically don’t trust those who don’t appear and fee authentic. You can spot inauthenticity a mile away and it immediately smells of mistrust.
Example of a Brand Losing Authenticity & Trust
In August of 2017, Sun Country Airlines new CEO took over and according to an article in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune paper he “outlined his vision for the Eagan-based carrier in a memo to staff. He praised Sun Country’s strong reputation, but he stressed the need to cut costs, increase revenue through fees and expand beyond its hub at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.”
That wasn’t the end of the story, a few months later in October, the airline announced it has a new policy which will go into effect in January of 2018 where passengers will now be paying to put carry-on items in the overhead. They have given this program a clever name called “Store & Go” bundle and now when you book a flight you will pay $30 to be allowed one carry-on bag for the overhead bin and one personal item to be placed under the seat in front of them, as reported in a news release.
What lacks authenticity in this policy is that all the TV and newspapers reported they Sun Country said the decision to make the change was simply to “accelerate the boarding process.” I guess the new CEO thinks the general public forgot that what he said about cutting costs and increasing revenue as his mission when he took over. This move had nothing to do with the boarding process – this they broke trust with the consumers and they took to social media to share their distrust.
How Small Business Develop Top of Mind Marketing
1. Educate prospects – empower people with useful education that helps them understand at a deeper level and helps them make better decisions for themselves. This is very different than a sale pitch, for example Marcus Sheridan the founder of The Sales Lion started his career selling swimming pools. He became the most well-known pool company in the country simply by investing in writing more articles about swimming pools than anyone else. He answered every question anyone ever asked about owning a swimming pool. He educated people, so they could make informed decisions which in-turn grew his business. Executing on a content strategy is key!
2. Share knowledge and resources – start by helping your own clients by sharing your knowledge and resources with them to make their life better. By adopting a generous attitude, your clients will become even more of a cheerleader for you by telling others. Don’t be stingy with your resources, share them. People often ask me about the tools I use in my business and I am happy to tell them.
By saving your customers time, money or giving them more peace of mind – you make a friend for the long-term.
3. Make connections – look for opportunities and ways to make connections to opportunities. For example, I scan my LinkedIn newsfeed a couple of times a day specifically looking for ways to connect and be helpful to others starting with those in my own network. Last week I saw someone asking for a recommendation for a keynote speaker with a specific expertise. I happen to have a colleague I jumped in and referred.
4. Give referrals – what a great way to build relationship by giving unsolicited referrals. I make notes on people I want to share referrals with and I also refer other to resources I use myself. So, when I hear someone talking about needing help with SEO, I often share the contact that has helped me.
5. Get engaged online – Stop lurking around online and actually take time to acknowledge a client, colleague or prospect with a thoughtful comment on something they have posted. By recognizing others, you really are saying “I hear you” and after all, we all want to be heard.
6. Give recommendations – Intentionally write someone a recommendation on LinkedIn, a review on their Facebook business page or their Google + business page. You are acknowledging the good work of someone and why you would recommend them to others. This is a powerful way to serve others and stay top of mind with them.
Now that you’re top of mind – how do you stay there?
Again, according to John Hall, Author of “Top of Mind”, “Understanding what it means to be top of mind is the first step, earning and keeping your place at the top of the audience’s mind is the next step.”
This is where many people lose their focus and they stop being consistent. It does take effort;however, it also becomes part of your process. If you implement a process that you practice daily, it then becomes second nature particularly with engagement and helpfulness. Either you are someone with a servant heart or you aren’t.
Sales Come from Building Trust & Top of Mind Marketing
You’re in business to make money and staying top of mind takes your prospects down a predictable marketing funnel or process – we’re probably familiar with the term funnel. Starting at the top of your funnel you are building awareness through your educational content such as a free ebook. As you build upon staying top of mind, the next goal is to provide your audience with your solutions highlighting your expertise.
This could be in the form of a guide as an example and the bottom of your marketing funnel you want to share content that clearly shows why you are the best solution, this could include case studies, testimonials, trial offers or any other way your audience can experience your solution. At this point you have built trust and your audience is more likely going to follow you through these steps as long as each step continues to deliver value.
Check out the book, “Top of Mind” – I highly recommend.
